LAS VEGAS ? Six and one-half hours before the Ladies Delight, the 2 pm weigh-in open to the public in the MGM Grand Garden Arena. That?s when Floyd and Oscar strip down to their skivvies and possibly less. What better time for me to present my Top Ten reasons why De La Hoya can win this fight?
1. 1. Ka-ching! Golden Boy looks to gross $30 million or roughly 70 percent of the action while Pretty Boy is in for about one-third of those megabucks.
2. Freddie Roach came up with a magic, age-erasing elixir taking from the legs of those ubiquitous coquis in Puerto Rico.
3. By fight time Saturday night, every male in the Mayweather family will be in jail except for Little Floyd. Rafael Garcia, the master handwrapper, becomes head trainer, gets overly excited at crucial moment and starts yelling at PBF in Spanish.
4. Did I mention that $30 million minimum Oscar is reaping? Not to mention that he and Boxing Banker Richie Schaefer spent $47.00 on the measly undercard.
5. No matter which way he loses, Oscar is buying HBO from Time Warner after the fight. I wondered why I keep seeing TW CEO Dick Parsons in the MGM lobby. It?s a takeover and I?m sorry that NY Timesman Richard Sandomir missed this huge scoop but he did. Eric Gomez becomes new head of boxing at HBO Sports and continues as GBP matchmaker. Schaefer announces ?there is no conflict of interest, it?s just Swiss precision business practice.?
6. The three excellent judges?Jerry Roth, Chuck Giampa and Tom Kaczmarek?have a simultaneous brain freeze for 12 full rounds and mistakenly mark their cards 117-112 in the wrong column. Nevada commission chief Keith Kizer has no white out handy at ringside and decides to just go along with the little clerical error. Besides, Kizer figures, they can always have a rematch and then a threematch.
7. Mayweather spanks that butt but, in losing, Oscar gains a new equity partner as Floyd gets a corner office at the Golden Boy building in LA adjacent to the offices of Bernard Hopkins and Sugar Free Shane Mosley. Apparently to become an equity partner at GBP, there is no application form or resume check. You just to have slap the boss all over a boxing ring and, voila, you?re in.
8. Oscar goes into the ring exhausted after playing 18 holes in the burning Vegas sun with WBO president and pal Paco Valcarcel. ?I told Oscar we should?ve used a cart but he insisted on carrying his own clubs and bag for the whole 18 holes. Butch Harmon couldn?t believe it.? Mayweather offers no mulligans when the fight starts and his left jab is clocking Oscar?s face the way Tiger slams his driver.?
9. Two days after purchasing HBO, De La Hoya buys Showtime. Don King, Bob Arum and Lou DiBella quickly announce that they?ve dropped promoting boxing in favor of promoting MMA.
10. Never forget the bottom line: 30 mill gives Oscar quite a thrill!
11. None of the above will really happen as Mayweather dodges and dazzles to take a clearcut, unanimous decision. (I said Top Ten reasons, not Top 12.)
12. You never lose when you leave the arena inside a Brinks truck.
