With the end of the last gasp mediation and ultimate collapse of “The Fight,” I found myself with some free time on my hands so I went to bed for a couple of hours to catch up on some sleep and quickly was in dream land.
In my dream I saw Bob Arum dramatically storm out of a posh meeting room and violently throw his cellphone against a wall in the corridor. He then grabbed Richard Schaefer’s cellphone and pulled out a number from his jacket he had saved on a beer-soaked napkin from three weeks ago.
“Congrats on winning three straight and your divisional title,” said Arum. “Thank you,” said Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on the other end. “You know good buddy, I still have a hole in my calender for March 13 and even March 20! I never heard back from you. I had to figure it out from Internet reports and someone called the Dallas Boxing Examiner.”
“Jerry, believe it or not but Team Mayweather screwed this thing up so badly that I’d be willing to come back to Texas, to JerryWorld, and put Pacquiao in a fight there for the great fans in Texas, especially your 80,000 season ticket holders. But without Mayweather. If you would still have us.”
“Bob, let’s get’er done!” howled Jerry.
So I’m envisioning Pacman may end up after all this foolishness, fighting at JerryWorld in Arlington, Texas after all. It’s not against Floyd Mayweather, Jr., but it’s not chopped liver either.
My mind is slowly starting to register this as the daydream has lost focus.
Pacquiao, 50-3 (38 KO’s), may face New Yorker Yuri Foreman 28-0 (8 KO’s)as early as on the originally planned date of Saturday, March 13. Foreman holds the WBA Junior Middleweight (154 lbs.) Championship. The title would be at stake.
Forget the $25 million though! They may scale the house for a more reasonable 30,000 – 40,000, down from 100,000.
Forget the $2,500 ringside beautiful people. More like a fraction of that for the ringside / dry-cleaned blue jeans and pick up truck Dallas Mavericks NBA basketball crowd. Could that mean Mark Cuban is involved?
I’m now awake and researching “The Dream.” That was a lot of information for a five-minute daydream.
The hook (or gimmick) for Arum and Jones would still be the new 100,000 seat stadium with its two massive 60 -yard long HD screens and Pacquiao attempting to break his own incredible record of an eighth world title in as many weight divisions.
The new stadium is still worth $1.15 billion. Just three weeks older than when we last visited. And it still has its new car smell.
Pacquiao will appear to be over 70 feet tall on those giant screens! What an inspiration for his fans and what a spectacle!
Foreman, a Jewish rabbi in training, earned the title via a dominating unanimous decision over defending champion Daniel Santos on the televised pay-per-view under card of Pacquiao’s thrilling victory over Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas November 14, 2009.
This would be Pacquiao’s third fight in Texas. In November of 2003 he dramatically catapulted his career toward the big time with an 11th round knockout of Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera in San Antonio’s Alamodome at 126 lbs.
In April of 2007, Pacquiao added to his ‘Mexican Assassin’ legend by stopping Jorge Solis, also in the San Antonio Alamodome at 130 lbs.
Suddenly, I’m back inside this daydream. The eight knockouts on Foreman’s record is a misprint. Isn’t it? No, it’s the truth. In fact the champion hasn’t scored a knockout in his last nine fights.
However, Foreman towers over Pacquiao physically like Godzilla over Tokyo, Japan. He carries the 154 lbs. well. He has fought at this weight his entire 28 – fight career.
Pacquiao has never come close to 154 lbs other than the 144 lbs. in his last fight against Miguel Cotto. Pacquiao has only weighed over 140 twice in his 55 – fight career.
Foreman is a lanky 5’11 to Pacquiao’s 5’6. His reach is 72 to Pacquiao’s 67. Foreman’s age is only 29 to Pacquiao’s 31.
Pacquiao is left handed. Foreman is orthodox (right handed). And I mean both his stance and his religion.
Foreman lives in Brooklyn. He was born in Belarus, which is part of the old Soviet Union. He immigrated with his family to Israel at 7. And later to America. He trained at an Arab boxing gym. This is one tough hombre. He has a reported amateur record of 75-5 and three Israeli national amateur titles.
I’m now in full throttle rapid eye movement of this dream (REM). Manny Pacquiao and Yuri Foreman are each over 70 – feet tall on the Jerrytron HD screens hanging over the boxing ring. It’s an amazing sight to see.
Is it possible popular Mexican but controversial former World Boxing Council welterweight champion Antonio Margarito will be on the card?
Hopefully Jerry will prove he’s a great promoter by having the world famous Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders double as round card girls and work the fighter ring entrances during the night.
Tonight I hope to dream of the under card. I’m also going try to to work Jerry Jones pal and mega-famous country-western singer Willie Nelson into tonight’s dream. Maybe Jones could get old Willie to sing The Philipines national anthem, Lupang Hinirang!
