It’s very Manny Pacquiao-ish around here these days, and it probably won’t change for a couple weeks given his upcoming fight, but that picture of Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach mocking Antonio Margarito’s handwrap controversy was too funny not to run. Nothing else to add. On the picture, anyway.
In this shortish Quick Jabs, the stuff in the headlines plus a sneak peak at this week’s Fight Camp 360 and a dab of history and HBO future.
Quick Jabs
Really, Fight Camp 360 rules. Some of it is helped by the format of Showtime’s super middleweight tournament and its capacity to create drama, sure. I got a sneak peak of the episode that airs Saturday, and despite what you might have read elsewhere, it will NOT air at the same time as HBO 24/7 — that show starts at 10 p.m., and Fight Camp 360 starts at 10:45. The new episode might not be the most dramatic of the series, but it is the most tense. Carl Froch has cross words with promoter Kalle Sauerland; Andre Dirrell and his team nearly pull out of the “exclusive interview” Showtime promised; and the whole premise of the tournament continuing on under difficult circumstances is examined. Only the addition of Glen Johnson gives the episode a dose of lovability (although if you’re a Dirrell conspiracy theorist, you’ll get a huge symbolic kick out of his promoter Gary Shaw telling a pet bird to “play dead,” which it dutifully does). If you don’t love Johnson, you probably are a Satanist…
Johnson, by the way, is at 171 pounds as of today, per a news release that points out a number of super middleweights would weigh more one week before a fight. That’s true. But it’s also true that for a boxer who ha
