Boxing questions in search of answers…
Can’t someone be a fan of both Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquaio, just like someone can like pistachio ice cream and rocky road as well? Or do you have to adore one and abhor the other? I always favored Ali but I always admired Smokin’ Joe but I guess that goes back to a more civilized time.
Will it be midway through 2012 or even later before Canelo Alvarez, Mexican wunderkind, fights someone who can possibly beat him? Or will see Ricardo Mayorga and three other such foes in with Carrot Top as Golden Boy “babies” its bonus baby fighter?
Did you love the chip on the shoulder reaction of former heavyweight champ Larry Holmes, age 61, who is being given a honorary high school diploma in Easton, Pa., a long time after Holmes, one of 11 children raised by a strong mother named Flossie, dropped out? Instead of waxing grateful, Holmes barked, ‘Bout time!” That’s Larry, take him or leave him. Holmes always had a refreshing habit of saying what he thinks rather than what people want to hear.
Wouldn’t it be a heckuva lot easier to root, root, root for British gumflapper David “Hayemaker” Haye to dethrone Wladimir Klitschko in Hamburg July 2 if Haye dropped the phoney baloney story about how he will shock WKlit and then retire without cashing on his newly-won belt? Haye backers must feel like they’ve chosen a worthy candidate for high office who vows to resign the minute he’s sworn in? I mean, what’s the point, really, if Haye isn’t keen on hearing himself introduced as “the reigning and defending”…? Advertisement
Guess Oscar De La Hoya missed the office memo about JC Chavez Jr. entering the ring against Sebastian Zbik at a colossal weigh of 180 pounds. Otherwise, Oskie would not be barking about having Carrot Top fight Chavez in an all-Mexican Lollapalooza at 154 pounds, would he? I know, details, details.
Has it been forgotten that the former guiding light of Carrot Top was the legendary Mexican boxing agent Rafael “Godfather” Mendoza? When Mendoza criticized some of the precocious fighter’s nocturnal habits, they split the sheets and there was no lawsuit. Why, you ask, isn’t that customary action in such boxing breakups? Not with Mendoza, an honorable and sagacious man, who always worked on a handshake. If a boxer did not want his services or vice versa, the two would just go their separate ways and that was that. Mendoza remains a pugilistic prophet with honor.
Did you ever hear the Don Elbaum classic tale? I know, which one. Elbaum was running shows in Warren, Ohio, and he had a local yokel who was 0-11. The fighter begged the promoter to get him one pro victory and said he would then hang up the gloves. Elbaum found a foe who was 0-12 and had a trophy made, suitably inscribed to “World’s Worst Fighter.” The two fought and, you guessed it, it was a draw. Elbaum remains a classic in his own right.
