The weeping is starting to get to me.
The gnashing of teeth is a grating sound.
We’re not hearing or reading any kind words.
People who reside in all glass houses are casting defamatory aspersions.
Where the holiday spirit(s), the Christmas, Kwanza and Fesitivus for the rest of us cheer go to?
Any minute now I’m Santa and Rudolph to Bob Arum, Sugar Shane Mosley and Manny Pacquiao on blast and then fill up their Xmas stockings with lumps of coal.
I was among those who found handwrap cheater Antonio Margarito being rewarded for his morally repugnant act, one he undoubtedly committed in cahoots with trainer Javier Capetillo.
I ranted. I raved. I foamed at the mouth and was downright indignant.
Arum may have noticed but, the record shows, he got “Margacheato” licensed in friendly Texas and the (alleged?) cheater fought Pacman anyway.
With all the doom amd gloom hovering over the no surprise announcement that 39 year old Mosley, a first ballot Hall Of Fame five years after he puts his work gloves away, is fighthing 32 year old Manny on May 7–the “traditional” African American versus a Filipino on Cinco de Mayo weekend main event in Vegas–I was surprised to learn that promoter Lou DiBella did not just cancel his company party Wednesday at Donburi-ya in midtown Manhattan.
Maybe Uncle Lou, who knew his low priced entry in the Pacman Sweepstakes (Andre Berto) was not really in the multimillion dollar bout derby, will just drown his sorry in a mixture of udon, negamaki, Sapporo and some hot or cold sake. DiBella knows, just like you and I do, that Arum was riding a one track railroad.
Like I said, Manny’s “choice” was Mosley or Mosley or Mosley.
One of public weepers is the normally stolid pharmacist-fight judge Harold Lederman who said something about Pacquiao killing Mosley.
Maybe Pal Hal took some purple acid or something.
I don’t he meant to predict a ring homicide.
Is the fight a mismatch?
Yes, yes and hell, yeah.
But what was Pacquiao-Clottey?
What did Margarito-Pacman turn out to be?
What was the thrashing of Ricky Hatton and the forcing him to quit on his stool humiliation of Oscar de la Hoya?
(True confession: I made a last minute legal bet on the Oskie-Manny fight. I sure do miss that $4,000, but hey, I learned a valuable lesson.
I see a double standard at work here.
When Floyd Mayweather fought the apprreciably smaller Juan Manuel Marquez, I didn’t hear any of those worrywart critics labeling it the mismatch it turned out to be.
And, on May 1, 2010, history tells us Mosley against Mayweather was hyped by some as a real test of Floyd’s unique skills. I don’t recall Mosley doing anything of note over 36 minutes except for that second round, momentary wobbling of L’il Floyd, do you?
Some will say, yes, White Gorilla, but how about how dismal Mosley performed against not bound for the Hall Of Fame unless he buys an admission ticket Sergio Mora?
Ninety percent of the wider audience that will purchase a ticket to see the May 7 bout at the MGM Grand or fork over 50 clams to watch it on PPV TV don’t know who Mora is or that he and Mosley even fought a boring fight.
The most irritating thing about Mosley-Mora was laid back Socal boy Shane acting as if he did not care about getting his hand raised in that inartful draw. But it’s not Shane’s nature to be a nasty or angry fellow, I suppose.
But, like I said, the vast majority of the May 7 audience did not notice that blip on the boxing radar screen.
Getting back to the legally unvailable or just plain disinterested Mayweather, who can he fight in what will not shape up as a mismatch, either?
You might say maybe Sergio Martinez and it would be a brilliant gambit for Mayweather to restore some of his lost luster by fighting and beating the Argentinean Flavor of the Month, the mvoie star looking slasher who almost decpitated Paul Williams with one mighty, awesome blow.
Sau what you will about Arum but he wastes little of his time, more precious than ever considering he turns 80 a year from now, on trying to make fights that cannot be made.
Mosley-Pacman was easy to make and it appeals to Bob’s greedy side, with all the revenue staying in the Top Rank house except for that percentage Golden Boy gets out any Manny fight from the legal settlement between the two companies. I will watch on May 7.
So will you and your Uncle Charley and Aunt Mabel.
And so will the critics.
Merry Mosley Christmas to one.
Merry Manny Christmas to all.
Happy Mismatch New Year and thanks to the millions of loyal readers, the few admirers and the legion of haters, who click on to my page so regularly.
Your WG appreciates it and says have a Happy Mismatch New Year.
The crybabies?
Let them cry it out, have a group hug and move on.
It’s not the criticism I mind, it’s the boredom of it.
And if you want to see a horrific mismatch, go to Youtube and click on the Muhammad Ali-Larry Holmes sorry spectacle. Like any Pacquiao fight, that was a huge event.
Ali fought once more, when the world said he was finished, in a cow pasture on a crisp December night in the Bahamas. The “washed up” Ali sucked it up and won four of six rounds against the much younger but not too clever Trevor Berbick.
Speaking of decapitations, poor Berbick did get his cranium removed from his torso by an angry relative in Jamaica.
Now former heavyweight champion Berbick against Iron Mike Tyson, that was a mismatch but an entertaining one.
But Berbick’s neck against the blade of that shaprened axe?
That’s what I call a real mismatch.
They say the first cut was the deepest but all this handwringing about Mosley-Pacquiao is a temporary nick.
Which reminds me to put something in St. Nick’s eggnog in case all this negativity is contagious.
