This really can, as the great Emmylou Harris likes to sing, be a sweet old world.
Which got me to thinking about how much sweeter boxing could be if?.
Fans stopped using the dreadful expression, ?Pactard? to describe some or all of the over the top members of the Pacquiao Worldwide Army (PWA)?
If?and I take the blame for apparently coining the term?Pacman followers stopped ripping Floyd Mayweather fans as ?Flomos.? I?m not saying we need a Mayweather Pride Day or a parade or both, I?m just saying that ?Flomos? is as abhorrent as ?Pactards? and that the speaker or writer of either demeans himself?
We started accepting fighters for their limitations. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is not Carlos Monzon but, then again, neither is Sergio Martinez. And Saul Canelo Alvarez or ?Carrot Top? as I prefer to call him, is not an Azucar Ray Leonard?I mean, so what? Can?t we all appreciate each and every fighter who gives 100 percent of their skills in the ring? I guess not?
We could get past the ?Floyd is afraid of Manny? and ?Manny is drug dirty? allegations. The common fear of Pacquiao and Mayweather is one shared by all fighters at the top of the food chain, not getting paid enough money by sticky-fingered promoters?
We could eliminate the dark shadow some have cast over Pacman. Chavez Jr., and Amir Khan conditioning guru Alex Ariza. If you believe, despite the absence of a shred of evidence, that Ariza is a co-conspirator in Manny?s cheating with drugs, then wouldn?t it follow logically that, if this was the Colombian trainer?s m.o. that young Khan and young Chavez would be doing the same thing. Could it be possible that other ring stars hire Ariza just because he is effective and he has strong ties to Coach Freddie Roach? I?m just saying?
Certain writers would ask themselves if Sugar Ray Leonard is really so desperate to peddle a few books that he would invent allegations of sexual abuse when he was a teenaged amateur boxer? I could be wrong but how then does that explain Leonard not naming the person who is clearly identified in everything but name, the late Washington, DC, area Coach Pappy Gault? You cannot defame the dead. I believe Leonard is telling the whole truth on this and, sometime soon, I will reveal why. Victims of sexual abuse often carry that ?shameful? secret to their graves. Leonard unburdened himself and that?s a good thing? Advertisement
Fans stopped being so na?ve about promoters protecting their fighters the way Bob Arum is shielding Chavez Jr. Arum is handling Chavez in the same prudent manner that Golden Boy moves the charismatic Carrot Top. Had to laugh, with all the palaver about fighters ducking Sergio Martinez, with promoter Artie Pelullo politely blasting his bosom buddy Lou DiBella and saying that DiBella and Martinez are ducking Dmitry Pirog. This was followed, naturally, by DiBella henchman Sampson Lewkowicz blasting Pelullo for not promoting Pirog properly?
More love, less hate, more understanding.
Happy birthday wishes to Cabeza De Piedra ?Head Of Stone??the great Roberto Duran?who used to be two days older than me. Suddenly, I notice the slim, trim Panamanian great is one or two years younger than me.
With that in mind, I close with another great song.
Hit it, Willie Nelson. Do ?Ain?t It Funny (How Time Slips Away).?
May I remind you that, when told to curtail his drinking, Nelson?s reply was ?there?s a lot more old drunks than old doctors?so I believe I?ll have another round.?
Here?s to a ?Sweet Old World? even in the fractious business of boxing.
