Saturday night, Manny Pacquiao faces the most difficult opponent any boxer can confront: the memory of himself face down on the floor.
It has been 11 months since Juan Manuel Marquez face-planted Pac Man with one perfectly timed counter right hand, knocking him out cold before he hit the canvas and severely damaging whatever fistic mystique he once had. Many fighters have had to face the same demon Pacquiao will confront when he fights former lightweight champion Brandon Rios on the HBO pay-per-view bout in Macau, and none knew for sure how their mind would react when the fog descends and someone is trying to take them into the dark room only boxers know.
Last week, Pacquiao?s trainer, Freddie Roach, discussed that grim reality from the Philippines, where he has been preparing Pacquiao not only to solve Rios but also himself. His belief is his fighter is unchanged, yet Roach has been around long enough to know a boxer who enters the ring on a two-fight losing streak ? even if in Pacquiao?s case the first was a hotly disputed and highly questionable points loss to Tim Bradley ? has little margin for error any more.
?He has definitely put the knockout behind him,? Roach said. ?Manny Pacquiao knows that the knockout is part of the sport. He realizes that if you aren?t able to handle the knockout, you picked the wrong sport. He is totally recovered and is brave as ever in the ring.
?Manny was fighting one of the best fights he has fought in a long time at the time he fell into the punch. Those things happen. If Manny had waited one second more he was going to win that fight by knockout.
?Nothing carried over. Manny has looked great in training. I know people are skeptical about him, but knockouts are what they are. Manny Pacquiao is a realist. He understands its part of the sport. . . .
?I know everybody doesn?t think the same way but since he accepts it, it doesn?t bother him. But we probably won?t know (for sure) until the fight.?
That, of course is the great intrigue. There is little question Pacquiao, at his best, is a superior class of fighter than the brawling Rios. But is he still in that class? And if not, can he psychologically withstand the pressure Rios hopes to apply?
Despite his celebrity and Hall of Fame resume, Pacquiao, 34, stands at a crossroads. While it is true he was dominating Marquez last December, he was also down twice in that fight and struggled mightily to catch Bradley in his previous outing, even though he appeared to win handily because Bradley spent so much time running, you needed a stopwatch to score the bout.
After two such performances not even Pacquiao can afford anything but a dominating night against Rios, who is a heavy underdog. Just as Roach is secure in Pacquiao?s acceptance of his knockout, he fully understands what has to happen next.
?I think it is a situation where he has to look impressive in this fight and we are doing everything possible to do that,? Roach said. ?We have Manny?s mind on the right path, I believe. He knows he has to look impressive in the fight and he knows Brandon Rios is coming off a loss also. We can?t give into him at all in this fight.?
That is the situation in which Pacquiao finds himself. He cannot give in to Brandon Rios, but just as importantly he can?t give in to a dark memory of what happened the last time he stood inside the ropes.
Tyson captivating
HBO last night debuted the video version of Mike Tyson?s one-man show, ?Undisputed Truth,? which was a Broadway success and also toured nationally and overseas. If you were a Tyson fan or merely an interested spectator in what became a train wreck of a career, it?s worth watching.
The show airs again tonight at 7:25 p.m., Tuesday night at 8 p.m. and frequently thereafter.
Equally fascinating is his recently released autobiography of the same name. Some of the undisputed truth in both is being disputed by people such as Don King and Robin Givens and, truth be told, Tyson had to write an epilogue before the book was released because he?d claimed in it he was sober after years of alcohol and cocaine abuse. In August, Tyson went public that he?d fallen off the wagon and had contemplated suicide or worse, leading to an added chapter.
?Sometimes I just fantasize about blowing somebody?s brains out so I can go to prison for the rest of my life,? he wrote. ?Working on this book makes me think that my whole life has been a joke.?
What remains no joke to him is his conviction of raping a beauty pageant contestant in Indianapolis, a crime for which he served three years in prison but still claims he didn?t commit. In an amusingly odd sidelight, Tyson says he regularly had sex in prison with a number of women, including not only visitors but a prison drug counselor who suddenly became available after he sent her $10,000 to fix her roof.
?I was having so much sex that I was too tired to even go to the gym and work out,? Tyson wrote. ?I?d just stay in my cell all day.?
It seems a toss-up whether he is more cavalier about sex in and outside of his marriages or money in and out of his pockets. In one of the funnier moments in the book, Tyson tells of misplacing a bag with $1 million inside, claiming he?d had a rough night.
No wonder he claims to still owe the IRS so much he?ll never pay them off.
Short jabs
Tyson is not the only fighter coming up short. Word out of Atlanta last week is that his old nemesis, Evander Holyfield, saw his 109-room mansion on 105 acres auctioned off by JPMorgan Chase & Co., with the opening bid at $2.5 million. The bank paid $7.5 million for it after Holyfield was foreclosed on and forced to move last year. The four-time heavyweight champion, whose fights grossed more than $600 million, claims he is not broke, but with IRS problems and staggering alimony and child support payments for his 12 children, he can see bankruptcy from where he now stands. . . .
Pity poor Raymundo Beltran. Last week, he lost to Ricky Burns for the second time without ever losing to him once. In one of the worst decisions of the year ? which is saying something ? the WBO lightweight champion got the ultimate hometown nod in Scotland Sept. 7, when he was awarded a split draw over Beltran in a fight so one-sided the Scots were throwing their tams in the ring in protest. Beltran broke Burns? jaw in the second round, dropped him in the eighth and so bullied him it seemed obvious Beltran should be awarded an immediate rematch. Not to the WBO. It recently ordered Burns? promoter to commence negotiating a deal for a mandatory defense with challenger Terence Crawford. If that is unsuccessful a purse bid will be ordered. Where that leaves Beltran is cheated again. It also puts promoter Bob Arum in a difficult spot because he promotes Crawford and Beltran. . . .
Smart move by Showtime to forego a talked about Dec. 14 PPV show in favor of back-to-back shows on its ?Championship Boxing? series instead. The first headlines Paulie Malignaggi vs. Zab Judah Dec. 7. The second features Adrien Broner in what could be a dangerous fight vs. power-punching Marcos Maidana. If Broner is going to become a PPV draw he?ll have to shine, not just merely survive. . . .
Undefeated Mikey Garcia staked his claim to a shot at the great Cuban lightweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa next year by easily grinding down junior lightweight champion Rocky Martinez last weekend despite a flash knockdown in the second round when Martinez landed a perfectly timed counter right hand flush to the face. That only seemed to irk Garcia, who got up and pounded Martinez until the normally aggressive champion began to fight only for survival until Garcia (33-0, 28 KOs) landed a crushing left hook to the liver that left the champion unable to get up in the eighth round, making clear that he?s earned a showdown with Gamboa, the WBA interim lightweight champion. Gamboa (23-0, 16 KOs) is a more skillful boxer, thus creating the classic boxer vs. puncher dynamic.
Around and around
Martin Murray vehemently and quickly denied via Twitter recent reports he would be fighting unbeaten WBO middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin in Monte Carlo Feb. 1. Golovkin (28-0, 25 KOs) is quickly becoming the most feared puncher in boxing, having the highest knockout ratio (89 percent) among reigning champions. The always breathless and sometimes less than reliable British press last Sunday asserted Murray, who lost to WBC champion Sergio Martinez in his last outing, was set to face Golovkin, but it turns out they will only fight on the same Monte Carlo card. Murray is Golovkin?s WBA mandatory challenger, but Golovkin?s manager, Oleg Hermann, insists Murray wants no part of Golovkin. Who could blame him? . . .
Arum is planning a Feb. 22 return to Macau for a golden night of boxing. He will put on a card headlined by three former Olympic gold medalists: China?s popular two-time Olympic gold medalist Zou Shiming; Japanese gold medalist Ryota Murata and Russian light heavyweight gold medalist Egor Mekhontsev. . . .
Arum is hoping a super middleweight rematch between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Bryan Vera can be arranged for Feb. 8. Neither the fight nor date are yet set and the start of the Winter Olympics may be a problem, but Arum continues to try and get the bout made as promised after Chavez was awarded a highly controversial decision over Vera Sept. 28. The card of judge Gwen Adair had Chavez winning 98-92, a ruling so ridiculous it overshadowed the nearly equally ones of her colleagues. If the fight is not made in February, Arum said it would be in March. . . .
Old friend Peter Manfredo is getting back into the ring Nov. 22 at Twin Rivers Casino. The Pride of Providence and the former star of the first ?Contender? reality show squares off against young Rich Gingras (13-3-1, 8 KOs) of Attleboro in a classic case of the old warhorse taking on a untested young fighter trying to make a name for himself. Gingras admits to once idolizing the 32-year-old Manfredo (39-7, 20 KOs), who at the height of his career had two unsuccessfully shots at world titles vs. Joe Calzaghe and Chavez. Now, Gingras will try to enhance his reputation at Manfredo?s expense. I wouldn?t bet against Manfredo, who still has plenty of pride left.
