I found this interesting. Manny Pacquiao has become very religious recently, and has been reading the Bible and sharing passages. Regarding his arch-nemesis Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao cited a verse in the Bible from Matthew 12:36-37?
?But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.? (Matthew 12:36-37).
As Pacquiao becomes more religious, and Mayweather continues his criminal behavior, gambling, vices, burning money, making controversial, racist comments, you can see that the good vs. evil angle of the biggest fight in boxing history is clearly evolving and taking shape. Maybe there really are divine powers involved in this long delayed, volcanic, final showdown super fight.
I still strongly sense the plan is for Al Haymon, Richard Schaefer and Mayweather to duck Pacquiao by any means and they have no desire to ever see this super fight happen because they think they can make enough money through Floyd with easy set ups that HBO is going to fund and support. The ONLY hope to see Pacquiao vs. Mayweather a reality is if there is a massive fan boycott of Mayweather and the May 5 event fails miserably. Then Haymon, Schaefer and HBO will be forced to cash out Mayweather and sacrifice him to Pacquiao. Boxing fans know what must be done, will they do it? Will they tell the promoters on May 5, NO MORE SET UPS, NO MORE MEANINGLESS B FIGHTS, GIVE US THE FIGHT WE WANT NOW! That is the multi-million dollar question.
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Here?s another interesting tidbit. The popular blog ?Sports By Brooks? found this news from ?multiple sources? that, if true, shows that boxing is becoming a controlled sport in more ways than you realize.
Sports By Brooks wrote this week: ?While in negotiations for the May 5 Mayweather fight, Mayweather instructed his representative Al Haymon to inform HBO?s Hershman that if the boxer was to fight on HBO in the future, Lampley and Merchant must surrender the right to discuss any and all of Mayweather?s affairs outside the ring on the HBO telecast. The ban would include any discussion of Mayweather?s management team (Haymon).?
?Mayweather previously demanded the same ban during past fight negotiations with former longtime HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg but Greenburg never ceded any measure of editorial control of HBO?s own broadcasts to the boxer.?
Whoa! This could be smoking gun evidence of Haymon trying to control the image of Mayweather that gets out to the public via HBO, while also keeping his own presence in the shadows. If this is true, it?s an unbelievable example of censorship and control which should outrage American citizens who believe in free speech. I thought Mayweather was happy to play the bad guy villain, because it helped sell his brand? What are they going to do, try and turn Mayweather into some kind of ?hero? through manipulations, smokescreens, deceptions and HBO scripts? Xavier James, the former HBO and Golden Boy executive, told the New York Times last year that Al Haymon told him several years ago, ?I could run boxing if I wanted to.? Who knows, maybe they will turn pro boxing into pro wrestling after all.
Don?t forget that chillingly cryptic Floyd comment at Fight Hype earlier this year: ?I don?t love boxing anymore because it?s not real.?
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One fight that doesn?t need any choreography or control, is the Bobby Gunn vs. James Toney IBA Heavyweight title fight coming in April. Gunn and Toney have a history together. ?Believe it or not when I was 17 years old I sparred him (Toney) for about 20 rounds in one week in Las Vegas Nevada,? says Gunn. ?Yes he is crazy he is a circus act but he?s also a Hall of Famer and to have my name with him, it makes me kind of feel good you know? Plus I?m going to go in there and fight my heart out and give it my best, I know I?m not all-time great but this is boxing, on any given night anything can happen.?
Gunn tell the story of how he ended up in the ring with Toney as a teenager. ?I was working with Mike McCallum, I actually was sparring with Mike I was 17 years old at the time. And then I got a call from Miguel Diaz a famous cutman and he told me James Toney is in town training, I can get you some work with him. And I did, I guess over one week, I got 20 rounds with him. He was very nice at that time, he was a lot more humbler than later on in years, he started becoming more of a flamboyant character but I have sparred over 24 world champions. I got to share the ring with a lot of top fighters and I learned so much experience by doing this. Before I was 21 years old I was a sparring partner for over 20 world champions.
Gunn doesn?t hesitate when asked who was the hardest hitter he shared a ring with. ?The hardest puncher that I ever worked with in my life was Julian Jackson. He was the WBC middleweight champion at the time. And probably the best technician fighter was Mike McCallum, he truly was great, nobody could work the body like Mike McCallum, that?s why they call them The Body Snatcher. He was something else.?
Toney wasn?t the craziest character Gunn has encountered in boxing though. ?I will tell you the most crazy, most memorable sparring session I ever had was with Smokin? Bert Cooper at Johnny Tacos Gym when I was 20 years old, I was only 168 pounds and he was a full-fledged heavyweight and he tried to really kill me in the gym. I did three rounds with him and then afterwords we got into a street fight in the parking lot! That was a crazy scenario, we threw punches at one other and a big heavyweight fighter called Elijah Tillery, who was famous for fighting Big Daddy Bowe, he (Tillery) broke the fight up, thank God he did, because Cooper might?ve killed me [laughter].?
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Chad Dawson has voiced his concerns that he suspects Bernard Hopkins is going to fake his way out of the April date of their rematch which will, er, is supposed to be staged in Atlantic City. Dawson vehemently believes Hopkins faked his way out of their first fight with the phony shoulder injury. Dawson insists he knows he would have clearly defeated Hopkins in the first fight, and is even more absolutely sure he will dominate him in the rematch. Dawson insists Hopkins knows this too. Hopkins behavior at the recent New York press conference was suspicious, in that he barely spoke any words during his brief stint at the podium and he refused to engage in a photo staredown with Dawson.
This is inconsistent behavior form Hopkins, who usually enjoys to talk for sometimes over ten minutes straight when it?s his turn to take the microphone. It?s also strange that Hopkins declined to do the staredown with Dawson. Could it be that Hopkins is completely psyched out by Dawson?s height, reach, lefty stance and most of all ? devastatingly effective jab? It could be so. I remember Aaron Superman Davis told me years ago that the key to beating Hopkins was a good jab. Dawson certainly has that.
Could Hopkins be up to another con job to sneak his way out of losing to Dawson again? Let?s hope not, let?s hope these are just silly, baseless suspicions and that Hopkins, at age 46, still has at least one more great effort left. But Chad Dawson has his doubts. Extreme doubts.
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Question: Didn?t you find it curious and telling that Manny Pacquiao was invited by President Obama to the White House and by Muhammad Ali to his giant birthday bash in Las Vegas, while Floyd Mayweather was not? Manny Pacquiao is friends with American royalty while Floyd Mayweather is going to jail in June. I think we know who the more popular and beloved champion is in America, don?t we?
