Normally they bestow nicknames on a big fight before it happens.
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But nothing about the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao train wreck has been normal. So I’m giving the failed fight, the non event, a nickname anyway.
Bungle In The Jungle seems fitting given the allegations thrown around clumsily by both sides and the dirty pool which continues unabated.
Sure, a spark could relight the flame and the fight could be resuscitated instantly. And, noting that today is his 75th birthday Elvis Presley could be throwing a party but in reality The King and Floyd-Manny have all left the building.
When Pacman promoter Bob Arum looks into the mirror, he sees one of the bunglers.
Uncle Bob is not often given to reflection, let along self criticism. But he told me Thursday that he fumbled the ball big time in how he handled the Mayweather camp’s persistent demand for random blood testing.
“I made the biggest mistake on this,” Arum said. “I tried to appease a guy and a camp that cannot be appeased. It was like when (British Prime Minister) Neville Chamberlain (no relation to Wilt The Stilt, albeit a better foul shooter) tried to appease Adolph Hitler. You give something, they ask for more.”
Arum said the opposition knew that would no further than offering a 24 day before blood test of Megamanny along with the previously agreed to postfight locker room blood drawing.
So, in Arum’s admittedly jaundiced view, the leaking by Golden Boy that it finally asked for only a 14 day before preflight test is a convenient canard.
“I tried to appease this little egomaniac and it was a mistake. I should not have done that from the beginning. I should have said you take your list of demands on testing, you go before the Nevada commission and see what they say. I should’ve told them go to Nevada and make these requests on your own.”
Arum said that, if the Big Bout talks resume “in the second half” of 2010, that is how he will handle Mayweather testing demands. He will only agree to follow Nevada rules and regulations, nothing more.
Arum does not deny that Richie Rich Schaefer of Golden Boy, the appointed Maywerather rep along with close to the best adviser Al Haymon, did end up with a two weeks out preflight test demand.
“It’s true, it’s true,” Arum said. “But they knew full well that we would not go for that. I think the real mistake was mine in not saying, “Sign the bout contract, then take your test requirements to the athletic commission.’ I should have said that and, if he signed the contract, I could’ve said go the commission and don’t bother me with this bullspit.”
Meanwhile, Arum is now working to make a Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey bout for March 13 , possibly in Dallas.
Doesn’t have the same magnetic appeal as Floyd-Manny, does it pardner?
But we all know what great drawing power boxers from Ghana have in the Dallas-Ft. Worth-Arlington-Mineral Wells Metrpolex area, don’t we?
I hope Arum goes for a Western theme, a Dallas Cowboys hook for that one.
How about “Fair Catch?” Or “Clottey Sure To Be A Real Ghana.”
Me, I much preferred “Bungle In The Jungle” but then I’ve always favored filet mignon and ribeyes over ground chuck.
We thought we would get a five course, gourmet meal and now Tio Bobby wants to serve us leftovers.
