Diogenes, he and his crusty, flickering lamp, trudged from street to street, from byway to back alley to broad avenues in ancient Athens in his perpetual search for the truly honest man.
I don’t know, frankly, that Diogenes ever met a truthteller in his quest but my own personal search as to the Sugar Shane Mosley-Manny Pacquiao welterweight title bout May 7 at the MGM Grand Hotel ended on 8 East at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan late Friday afternoon.
There, recovering from a serious pair of spinal and back surgeries but with an unflagging spirit, I encountered the solitary man of boxing, the only fistic figure I know of who actually picks 39 year old underdog Mosley to shock Pacquiao and the world.
His name is Cedric Kushner and, as a former promoter of Mosley’s, he has great intimacy with his subject.
“I could say that, yes absolutely, Shane has a chance to win,” the head of Gotham Boxing said as he pounded down a Diet Coke sans his usual Rose’s Lime Juice.
(Kushner’s medical rehab is moving ahead with vigor and he’s sniffing the flowers thoughtful old pal and fight promoter Kathy Duva sent up.)
“But I will go further than that. I’m picking Shane to win this fight. He’s been one of the great fighters of his generation and he retains his power. I also think that this might be the time, might be the fight where as great as Manny is and has been, he’s going to impacted negatively from fighting a bigger man,” the mustachioed South African native said.
