By now, we’ve all heard that Manny Pacquiao has accepted Floyd Mayweather’s terms for random, extensive, drug-screening, prior to a potential bout. The issue, repeated ad nauseam for nearly two years, has long been represented as the lone hurdle to clear in bringing the mega-fight to fruition. The news leaves boxing one step closer to, if nothing else, Cal Ripken Jr. That’s right boxing heads. Press rooms, barbershops, arenas, cafeterias, and internet boxing forums are beginning to rival the baseball legend’s milestone of 2,632 consecutive games played, having now talked about a Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight every day for nearly as long.
(BLOOD) SPINNING IN CIRCLES
Citing concerns over the credibility of United States Anti-Doping Agency, particularly CEO Travis Tygart, Top Rank boss Bob Arum believes the “Olympic Organization” may be a more neutral practitioner for his foreign-born fighter. Arum, on behalf of his leading charge, has agreed to more rigorous testing as long as that testing is not conducted by USADA. According to Arum, “why should (testing) be done by the United States Anti-Doping Agency when you have a Philippine fighter and an American fighter?”
While the statement has merit, one need look no further than that Philippine fighter’s last bout to question the legitimacy of Arum’s fears.
Kenny Bayless. Dave Moretti. Duane Ford. Glen Trowbridge. These are the American-born officials, referee and judges respectively, assigned to Pacquiao’s last fight in the U.S. against American-born Shane Mosley. So neutral and unbiased against the Filipino icon they were, that Moretti and Ford scored the 10th round 10-9 in Pacquiao’s favor, though Mosley was credited with an official knockdown. Upon review, the scoring may be attributed to common sense, but by the letter of the law, it constitutes unprecedented generosity.
Ramped up damage control, or authentic trepidation? American fight fans, media, sponsors, sanctioning bodies and athletic commissions all exorbitantly fond of Manny, what realistic agenda would the country’s Anti-Doping Agency have against him?
As it pertains to the news of Pacquiao’s (conditional) acceptance, timing is everything. Whether Arum was lying yesterday, but telling the truth today, lying now, but telling the truth last year, or just lying in bed, two things are certain. First and foremost, Bob Arum is a shrewd businessman and arguably the very best promoter in boxing. Second, he forgot to fill in Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz on Team Manny’s new party line.
A mere two days before Bob Arum’s statements appeared in the press, Koncz revealed, exclusively to FightHype, that Manny had not ‘agreed to everything’ as fans were led to believe. The issue is, indeed, still the cut-off date- Pac Man wanted testing to cease 14-days ahead of a fight, but would possibly consider seven.
Arum’s announcement, coming immediately on the heels of Koncz’s revelation, is probably as coincidental as Casey Anthony partying for 31 days and getting the now infamous “Bella Vita” tattoo in the process before reporting her child “missing.”
To draw a conclusion, informed and rational preferably, one need only reference the timeline of events. Irrespective of which fighter you prefer, one side has stood steadfast on random drug testing. The other, though they’d “agreed to everything” more than a year ago, has claimed a fear of drawing blood, a fear of needles, asked for cutoffs of 30, 24, 14 and 7 days, and most recently, requested a different agency to conduct testing.
If this latest move doesn’t work, maybe Arum can propose testing be performed by a trained monkey on random, alternating Tuesdays, at a point geographically between Nevada and the Sarangani Province. Or perhaps both fighters can wait in line for tests on Fridays at their local LabCorps, alongside ecstatic new-hires positive they’ve flushed all traces of marijuana from their systems.
Posturing and more politics it may be, but for glass-half-full boxing fans, the news is more encouraging than Arum’s familiar practice of taking his ball and going home when things don’t all fall his way. Then again, it may actually just be posturing and more politics. Regardless, granted both men are victorious in their next fights, something will have to give. Hopefully, that give is a fight as opposed to giving Ripken’s record a run for its money.
ONE, TWO’S
Boxing fans last memory of Kermit Cintron was of him flying out of the ring after stunning Paul Williams at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California. Fourteen months later and ironically, from the same place, Cintron may have flown out of boxing after a stunning upset loss to Carlos Molina.
Brandon Rios vs. Manny Pacquiao? No thank you. After a stirring 3rd round KO win over rugged Urbano Antillon, however, Bob Arum suggested just that. Rios, a fun to watch, but relatively inexperienced and defensively challenged fighter, would be better served to forge his own chops at Lightweight. He and, another potential Pacquiao foe, Mike Jones, have COMBINED to win as many fights as Manny (53) and, together, have only two more KO’s (40 to Pacquiao’s 38.)
Call the cops! Cuban sensation Erislandy Lara was outright robbed in AC last weekend, punishing Paul Williams at least 8 of the 12 rounds, only to drop a majority-decision. In recent memory, only the Ponzi scheme could be viewed as a bigger rip-off. In fairness to Paul, he didn’t score the fight himself. Either way, Williams paid a heavy price for the gift and should seriously consider accelerating plans for retirement.
How about prospect Rico Ramos pulling one out of the fire? For a little more than six rounds, Ramos looked like he was lost, trailing by a wide margin on all three judges’ scorecards, against awkward WBA Bantamweight titleholder Akifumi Shimoda before landing a short left-hook that knocked the champion on his back. Shimoda made it to his feet as referee Benji Esteves reached the count of nine, but stumbled back down to the canvas prompting Esteves to wave the fight off at 2:46 of Round 7. The clutch KO once again proves the old adage: when in doubt, PUNCH! Certain Heavyweights should take notice.
