Major Strasser?s fatal mistake was picking up the phone at the foggy airport in ?Casablanca.?
Victor Laszlo, the fugitive Nazi fighter, was about to board a plane to escape Strasser and his storm trooper underlings courtesy of Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart). So Blaine plugged the Third Reich villain.
This shocked eyewitness to murder and Vichy official Captain Renault. He then issued his famous order: ?Round up the usual suspects.?
So it was and so it may be with Manny Pacquaio if he and his camp are not huffing, puffing and bluffing about a 50-50 revenue split with Ricky Hatton.
What?s Pacman?s alternative for a May fight, a blockbuster May fight if he rejects the cheeky lad from Manchester?
(Please note this discourse presumes that shy, retiring guy Floyd Mayweather is not immediately waiting in the wings to engage in a Super Fight with Da Pacman.)
If Megamanny confines himself to the 140-pounders, it?s a case of round up the unusual suspects or, more accurately, the anonymous suspects. While there is some talent in the division, it?s hardly stacked up the lightweights where ?name? fighters (Edwin Valero, Joan Guzman, Juan Ma, Juan Diaz, Joel Casamayor and others) abound.
For example, Willy Who, I mean Willy Blain, is the #1 WBO contender.
A quickie list of junior welterweights:
Tim Bradley?Big talent but hasn?t been on big stage yet.
Kendall Holt?Another lower-case name.
Andres Kotelnik?Unknown in America.
Juan Urango?Tested, found lacking.
Marcos Meidana?Quien es?
Paulie Malignaggi?Hatton victim so scratch him.
Ricardo Torres?Brings nothing to the table except toughness.
Junior Witter?A regional UK attraction, good hitting and cute lefty, but flattened by Bradley.
Demetrius Hopkins?Recycled favorite nephew of BHop.
Herman Ngoudjo?Beaten by Yo Paulie.
Lovemore N?dou?Another also ran. Also beaten by Yo Paulie.
Dimitry Salita?Hebrew without a hammer, Pacman has never lost to a Jewish fighter because, as far as I know, he?s never fought one.
Randall Bailey?Dangerous for 2 ? rounds but creaking ex-champ.
One name on the various rankings and lists of 140-pounders does jump out at your roving reporter.
That?s the name of Golden Boy?s golden boy, Vicious Victor Ortiz.
I think the Goldens would take the fight if Hatton was dumped. They wouldn?t miss a payday and it would be a no lose situation for the still green prospect.
But Uncle Bob wouldn?t go there and neither would HBO, I fear, because the sparring batterer of Oscar De La Hoya is about a year away from fighting anyone on the planet.
Be careful what you wish for, Pacman.
It?s slim pickings in your chosen weight class.
