“It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing.” –GERTRUDE STEIN, legendary artist and gal pal of hashish brownie baker ALICE B. TOKLAS.
Never a dull moment in the confused Manny Pacquaio camp. First, he?s looking at Juan Manuel Marquez as his next opponent because JMM is ?a name? and because he wants to cop the WBC 130-pound title from the Mexican.
Then you hear that promoter Bob Arum, being the selfish shellfish that he and all other promoters are, has Megamanny talked into making Top Rank?s non-threatening WBC lightweight beltholder David Diaz his foe for a first foray into the 135 pound division. Trainer Freddie Roach is said to have co-signed on this important career decision.
So, just when you think it will MP-DD on March 15, comes a news report from RPI that says Pacman wants to invade the lightweight division and go after triple-belted champ (WBA, WBO, IBF) Juan ?Baby Bull? Diaz.
That?s where the red danger ahead light starts flashing in my mind. On one hand I applaud Manny for having such big ?eggs? as our Mexican brothers would put it and wanting to face the most talented guy in the 130-135 pound spectrum.
On the other hand, in the sensible part of my alleged brain, my reaction is WTF and that is not the initials of a new boxing world sanctioning body. Rather, it?s like why, Manny, why, and especially why now?
Sure, Pacman-Baby Bull is a big fight. Sure, it would fare well on PPV. But Diaz could use some more HBO and/or PPV exposure to get the promotional kettle boiling. If you want to make this an en fuego PPV attraction, a lot of time and work must be done.
One sure way to spark the marketing/publicity fire would be the old doubleheader trick employed so often by Brothers King and Arum. You know, have Manny fight Kenny Breathe while you put Juan in with K.O. Pectate. You do that on March 15 and then come back in June with the, ahem, winners against each other.
Still, in the back of my alleged mind, I?m wondering where this sudden desire to test the multiplicity of Diaz?s skills came from? Was Pacquaio hit by a lightning bolt? Or is it simply, knowing he is in his prime time, that he wants to mess only with the best?
I went over to Starbucks and made a down payment on one of those $20 crapacinnos, with pumpkin and unidentified flecks of who knows what in it. The caffeine jolt did not give me the answer to this question. Maybe it’s me but the 75-cent straight java at the Americana Deli at Broadway and 101 is more conducive to clear cogitation but I was nowhere near the bodega.
In desperation, I used a neat trick I learned from colleague John Chavez, the Burlingame Boxing Bookie who just ended a four-day Big Apple drinking and boxing binge. I tossed down two Red Bulls without Vitamin V (vodka).
Bells began ringing in the cobwebs of the Marley cranium.
Yikes! Eureka!
It suddenly dawned on me. Megamanny, who is smarter about boxing than any other fighter alive, had an ulterior motive that makes complete sense.
Pacman wants to fight Juan now when he is shy of his 25th birthday. He wants to meet and beat this amazing kid while he is still a kid and not a full-grown man.
In Pacman?s fertile mind, he asked himself, ?Self, why wait until three years later when you will be 31-32 and Diaz will be 27-28??
In other words, MP?s bottom line is this: it?s going to be a helluva lot easier for him to whip Juan now than it would be when Juan hits the prime of his own career and Manny might be at the point where is starting on the downward slope.
That?s one part of Manny?s Everlast Einstein thinking. He keeps his wise head when, all about him, others are losing theirs.
So Megammany, you ring genius, I defer to your superior knowledge. And I lovingly give you the old Muhammad Ali ?compliment.?
Manny, you?re not as dumb as you look.
