The purveyors of pugilism never sleep, well hardly ever. Too busy putting together insulting PPV fiascos littered with yesterday names that are no more than a shell of their former selves.
They stuff a card with a past champion, a couple of assorted familiar names, and as quick as you can shout Geronimo, the today suckas come running with the plastic at the ready.
Has always been that way … was during the 1800s that circus showman Phineas Taylor Barnum shouted the news about a sucker born every minute and two others to take him – and didn’t that one hold up to the test of time.
Today it’s business as usual … a century 21 version of them 1900s closed circuit take downs – my problem is over the merchandise – yesterday it was a Patterson-Liston. The coin counting had only just begun when Floyd is down and out seconds after the opening bell had sounded. Still, Floyd-Sonny on paper looked good, and the prize up for grabs was the one and only heavyweight bauble out there.
The good pairings balanced out the bad, and that is what drew the paying clientele – but padded cards with overcooked past good ones that we see today is a whole different sell.
Mercer-Briggs anyone? Tyson-Meehan? Brock and McCline? And this upcoming HBO heist with Marco Antonio Barrera and Robbie Peden in the catbird seat – and supported by a tarnished saccharin Shane Mosley in with some undefeated faceless welter Jose Luis Cruz – and Leavander Johnson meeting blown up Jesus Chavez.
Best I got, is lots of luck suckas … count me out. Worse yet, is the quickly announced return meeting of Erik Morales and Manny Pacquiao – quick as during the post fite media interview of Morales tutored by light punching Zahir Raheem and Pac-Man looking less than stellar with a faded Velasquez.
Good old “Rabid-Robert” tossed that one at the assemblage … an HBO PPV up comer for those fans that get all warm when being had – clearly no biting the bullet with the rabid one.
From what we witnessed during the earlier ring action Morales was pretty much taken prisoner by a surprisingly superb bit of sniping by the Philadelphia sharpshooter – one would think before granting Erik, wuz I terrible, a fat PPV stipend for some 36 minutes of humiliation, is to first get a Raheem permission slip.
And Pacquiao you ask? On paper the 2:59 of stanza six will surely catch the eyes of those who missed it – but it wasn’t exactly what most were looking for to get the adrenalin flowing for a return with Erik Terrible.
So much for the bait – the big return should have gone the commode route once Morales bombed like an off-B’way lemon. Talk about a proverbial laugher … Zahir could have aborted the post fight ring interview with Larry Merchant with a “He never laid a glove on me” – it was that one sided.
Final thoughts on Pac-Man is he’s clearly having problems solving the new Freddie Roach change of style and technique puzzle – looked more relaxed than when seen in them earlier firestorms with Barrera, Marquez, Morales – helped that Hector’s offense was a looping right hand that only arrived by invitation.
Much more fan friendly would be another HBO twin-bill, with Raheem in with a Leavander Johnson, Acelino Freitas, Joel Casamayor type, and Pacquiao with Jorge Barrios or a featherweight affair with In Jin Chi, Scott Harrison.
PPV? Don’t even dream it.
