Sometimes the reporter is more fascinating than the report.
In this particular case, let me just say, good golly, Miss Molly.
I read a dispatch from a Rick Chandler on NBCSports.com in which he cited a breathless sounding tweet about the date and site of November’s Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather super fight.
Chandler passed on the news (?) that TV sports “hottie” and Vegas veteran Molly E. Sullivan had tweeted that Floyd-Manny will go late in the month and that casino mogul Steve Wynn, who has dabbled in boxing before with mixed results, was building a huge outdoor venue to host the big bout.
There’s nothing I hate more than discrediting another journalist’s reportage, especially when that colleague is a well-endowed blonde, brunette or redhead.
(Evidently, the versatile and flexibile woman who has been labeled “a sideline hottie” for her college football reports has been all three. Guess she’s a suicide blonde, dyed by her own hands or her hairdresser’s.)
But, pulchritude can’t always outpoint accuracy and, while I’m sure Miss Molly means well as she guns for a gig at KYW-TV in big market Philadelphia, but the former University of North Carolina swimmer is all wet.
Sultry sportscaster Molly Sullivan, in a blonde phase, tweeted that she had the “scoop” on Mayweather-Pacquiao fight date, venue, but she went 0-for-2
Uncle Bob Arum just told me so.
“First of all, the date remains Nov. 13,” Arum said by phone from Las Vegas Monday night.
“We’re not going on Nov. 27 because nobody wants to go on Thanksgiving weekend. The prior Saturday, Nov. 20, is on hold for a UFC pay per view event here.
“As far as the venue goes, if Wynn winds up with it, we’ll go at the Thomas & Mack Center (indoors, 20,000 capacity) at UNLV. The alternative to that is the MGM Grand and their Grand Garden (about 18,000 maximum),” Arum said.
“What you’re reporting to me is just not true.”
Arum said “everyone (involved) is optimistic” about getting to contracts which can then be signed off on by Mayweather and Pacquiao.
Last week, Arum said this week could be a decisive time for the making of or the unraveling of the fight fans worldwide are clamoring to see.
But then Arum told Nick Giongco (Manila Bulletin) that this week is not that crucial time.
Vegas magazine took a second look at Miss Molly, would you prefer two big photos of Uncle Bob Arum? I didn’t think so!
“Nothing new on that,” Arum told me, “but it’s going to be a short week this week and it’s hard to get everyone involved together with the July 4 holiday coming up.”
In other words, the LeBron James saga may be concluded before Mayweather-Pacquiao is signed off on by the combatants.
Arum was still crowing about his Numero Uno client’s Congressional swearing in and said he could not recall any active or retired boxer who had a similar accomplishment.
“Except maybe Alexis Arguello, before they murdered him in Nicragua, he was the mayor of Managua,” Arum said. “(Heavyweight) Joe Mesi ran for office in Buffalo and Wladimir Klitschko failed twice in runs to become mayor of Kiev, Ukraine.”
(Former middleweight contender Joe DeNucci was the longtime state auditor in Massachusetts, a post he achieved after retiring from the ring.)
(Note that Arguello’s death was officially reported as a suicide although close family members believe the great fighter died at the hands of a killer).
“What Manny’s done is a great accomplishment. I was proud to see how looked very Congressional and how he gave his speech.”
I hope I’m not upsetting Miss Molly if I repeat Philly.com’s note that, while interviewing for the KYW gig, she misidentified Mark McGwire as playing for the “Louisville Cardinals.”
When you’ve got assets like Ms. Sullivan, I say Louisville, St. Louis or even Cardinals in Rome, what’s the big deal?
Over you to, Molly.
(Michael Marley admits to having a face made for radio.)
