LAS VEGAS ? Never let it be said that the swamp of boxing is no longer a place where you cannot be as politically incorrect as you want to be.
Everyone in the sport already knew that Nicaragua’s insufferable loudmouth Ricardo Mayorga is insane or at least pretends to be so to spur live gate ticket sales and pay per view TV buys.
But Mayorga, who turns age 38 Thursday and is a 6-1 or 8-1 betting underdog depending on who your bookie is, went into Charlie Sheen’s Warlock World at Wednesday’s wild and wooly press conference at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino.
It didn’t matter that Mayorga had his redhaired mother sitting by his side on the dais right in front of his promoter, the voluble Don King.
It didn’t matter that Boricua Banger Cotto’s mother was in the audience. In fact, Cotto said something nice, something respectful from the podium about her.
None of that stopped the mercurial Mayorga from making three references to now openly gay Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin and hinting that there is some kind of relationship or similarity between Martin and and Cotto other than being proud Boricuas of different sexual persuasions.
(Martin opened up to Oprah Winfrey about his sexuality).
Yes, it was a homphobic slam against the happily married, father of several children and it detracted from Mayorga’s otherwise bravura performance which included stripping off his shirt and standing on a chair to show off his six pack abdominals.
?After I knock you out, you can go back to Ricky Martin and finish the job,? Mayorga said.
Away from the podium, I asked a cooled off Mayorga why he references Cotto and the ?Living La Vida Loco? crooner.
?Why?? Mayorga said. ?Because they are the same.?
It turns out that when the two fighters were supposed to take a head to head photo, it was Cotto who spurned Mayorga.
?Hey, your Mom is here, it is your birthday…so go take a picture with your Mom!?
If you’ll excuse me now, I have to slip back into the primordial ooze of my chosen swamp.
Mother ranking, racism, sexism, homophobic slurs….there really are no holds barred in boxing.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that if you like being among the guttermost.
