This series of 24/7 may be HBO’s best yet. It is delving much deeper into the lives of the fighters away from the ring.
Best Spoken Line: From Ricky Hatton: “If someone asked me to write down on a piece of paper how I would like my son to be, I think it would be everything that my son is.”
Best Spoken Line part 2: From Mark Wahlberg, speaking about the Wild Card Gym: “Anyone can come in here and everyone gets treated the same.”
Best Written Line: At the close, “The best teachers have often absorbed the most punishment themselves.”
Best Written Line, part 2: “But among the city’s 600,000 residents Floyd Mayweather Sr. is a character who would be hard to make up.”
Best Supporting Cast: Normally, it would have been the candid Mickey Rourke, but how could it not be Shane Langford, who works and sleeps at the Wild Card Gym and takes notes on how to become a trainer by studying Roach. His notebook? A post-it pad.
Training Days: Best workout sequence is Mayweather-Hatton on the hand pads.
Freddie sez: About Manny: “He’s more of a complete fighter now than I ever expected him to be.”
I loved that … it’s still — two bedrooms, three bathrooms, 10 men — for Manny’s entourage. You get the idea that Turtle, E. and Drama would live under the same conditions if they had to.
I loved that … Freddie Roach’s trophy from the Boxing Writers Association of America for “Trainer of the Year,” is used for holding apples in his kitchen. At least it’s not collecting dust.
Celebrity: You have a gym in Hollywood, celebs will come. Christian Bale, who was born in Wales, showed up in Pacquiao’s camp. Wonder if he’s a Hatton fan? Or a Joe Calzaghe fan? And from what we can see, he didn’t scream at anyone. But then again, there wasn’t a director of photography around. Just fighters.
The next episode airs this Saturday, April 25.
The Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton junior welterweight title fight will be televised live on HBO PPV on May 2.
