DALLAS, TX – Dallas – Fort Worth hasn’t had a live fighter or fight to be excited about in many years.
OK, August 18, 2006, as an aging Evander Holyfield packed the lower bowl and then some at the downtown American Airlines Center against hapless Jeremy Bates for what turned out to be a two – round sparring session.
My point is the media here follows football and spring football and off – season training camps of the Dallas Cowboys. Most wouldn’t know a left hook from a fish hook as National Examiner Michael Marley is known to say.
However, this is the seventh – largest population center in the country and the fifth – largest media market in the country. Don’t ask me how to explain what those statistics mean but I understand they are important.
What I’m trying to say is that these are for the most part very experienced, competent, and well-trained professional journalists that can read and do research on the Internet.
While Dallas was somewhat in play for the aborted Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao fight, which seems like a lifetime ago, the media got a full dose of the seedy side of the sport with the name calling between Bob Arum’s Top Rank and Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions.
But the really nasty stuff was the unsubstantiated talk of Pacquiao at the least taking performance enhancing drugs to generate his record seven world titles in seven weight classes.
That angle wasn’t played up yesterday at the Dallas presser, certainly not by Arum or the two fighters. And only token questioning by the media. The press conference was more of a feel good, family-friendly, warm and fuzzy feeling – type of event.
But the questions are going to start coming and neither Arum, Pacquiao, nor trainer Freddie Roach will be able to laugh them off or otherwise avoid them forever.
Golden Boy Promotions and Team Mayweather, in my opinion, put unsubstantiated illegal drug charges on the table to a sport already fighting for its life and the world sports media took note.
So the learning curve on the illegal drugs will bring the DFW sports media up to speed (no pun intended) with the slickest and slyest Internet boxing pundits by the time the two fight camps land back in Big D for fight week in March.
After overhearing some of the one – on – one questions and answers yesterday, I believe the local DFW sports media is glad the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight didn’t come here after all and are very happy with Pacquiao vs. Clottey.
This fight seems somewhat civil, refined and dignified. Not a bit of trash-talking yesterday.
Can you imagine if the fight were to be successful March 13, and if Pacquiao were to win, that Mayweather would then say the reason he doesn’t want the fight with Pacquiao in Texas now is not because of illegal drugs, but because Pacquiao would have the home field advantage?
It could happen.
