Where's Manny?

Where's Manny?
By Steve Kim (May 7, 2008) Photo © German Villasenor

It's now officially less than eight weeks before Manny Pacquiao faces WBC lightweight champion David Diaz on June 28th at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. But he's nowhere to be found inside Freddie Roach's Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, California.

So just where is the ‘Pac Man'?

"Pacquiao is running and playing basketball right now and he will be here on Sunday," said his trainer, as he fidgeted with a speed bag from behind the front desk of his gym. "We talked about (being here) eight weeks before the fight but it turned out to be seven."

Welcome to the world of Manny Pacquiao, where plans can be changed on the fly and itineraries should be written down in chalk. Seriously, did everybody involved really expect him to come to two consecutive training camps on time?

"It's OK, I would like to get him here eight weeks before but he better be ready from the first day because we're going to go right into it," Roach would say. For his March rematch versus Juan Manuel Marquez, Pacquiao would actually arrive early, perhaps sensing the challenge that was in front of him. Maybe now he's suffering a mental letdown in facing Diaz, who is regarded as a limited foe.

"He has too many people in his ear telling him it's an easy fight, which I don't believe it is," said Roach, who believes the native of Chicago brings a whole new set of problems for his boxer. "Obviously, style-wise, it's a better fight for Manny's style because we're facing a puncher. Marquez is clearly a great counterpuncher, and with Manny’s aggressiveness, the best way to beat Manny, if he can, is to counterpunch him. Not everybody can do that though."

As the first weekend of May approached, both Roach and promoter Bob Arum started to get a bit antsy over his arrival to the States. They would openly admit to the Filipino media that they were not pleased by his delayed departure from the Philippines.

"Well, I would rather have him be in camp, but what can you do?" Arum would ask rhetorically on Tuesday afternoon. "He's been working out lightly but he'll have plenty of time. He'll be arriving in Los Angeles this weekend."

Top Rank had hoped to have staged a press conference for the Pacquiao-Diaz fight this past weekend in Los Angeles while a large throng of boxing press were in town for the Oscar De La Hoya-Steve Forbes fight.

"I was hoping he'd come in on May 1st, but once he told me he wasn't coming in until May 10th, we scratched the press conference to the 13th," said Arum.

The veteran promoter had pleaded with the often flighty Pacquiao to come and train in Hollywood with Roach, to not just focus in on his fights, but to give him an opportunity to fully promote him - something he feels he was not able to do last year as he spent a good deal of time training in his homeland. Arum still believes that they have plenty of time to push this event.

"We're not going to lose anything. I mean, for example, in addition to the press conference in L.A., we're flying him on his day off to Chicago to do a workout and press conference, and the same thing on his day off in San Francisco. We also have him doing a media day in San Diego, then doing this public workout in the Filipino area of Los Angeles."

To say that Pacquiao is stretched in a million different directions in his country would be a vast understatement. You google some of the news results regarding him and you find out that he was involved in the release of turtle hatchlings in the celebration of Ocean Month and would then meet with President Arroyo and the Philippine Tuna Council and he was also featured on a postage stamp.

And this is a relatively slow period for him.

"One of the things that delayed his departure is he's finishing up his classes, he's going for a degree at some university in General Santos and he finishes the classes this week," Arum pointed out.

But is Pacquiao just showing up when he wants to?

"If he showed up whenever he wanted to, he'd be in China right now," Roach would say. "So I did tell him, 'Manny, you told me you were going to dedicate this year to boxing, 100-percent. I want you to live up to that.' So that's why he said, 'I'll be here next week. I'm not going to China.' They want him to go light the Olympic Torch in China because he's so big in Asia, but he's going to come here instead."

Arum insists that this is a more disciplined version of Pacquiao than before.

"One thing I know, that of all the reports, that he's staying close to home, he's working out, he goes to class. There's no more late night drinking, playing pool, gambling, none of that stuff. He cut that out completely. That's a pretty good thing," stated Arum.

RATINGS GAME

The buzz throughout the industry is that the HBO telecast for this past weekend’s bout between De La Hoya and Forbes - which served as an infomercial for the rematch between 'the Golden Boy' and Floyd Mayweather- did a rating of 3.9. (Kevin Iole of
Yahoo!Sports is reporting 4.7)

On the surface, that doesn't seem that bad; after all, it's about the same rating that Calzaghe-Hopkins generated a few weeks earlier that was one of their higher ratings in the past year or so. But here's the rub - the network, in putting this fight on 'free' HBO spent around $9 million (I'm told around $7 million for the show and $2 million in marketing). If you divide the money spent by HBO by the rating they procured, it may be among the worst values they have ever gotten dollar-for-dollar.

Basically, HBO, in spending in upwards of $15 million in the past month, has gotten less-than-blockbuster numbers, while fights such as Shane Mosley-Zab Judah, which seem to be perfect fits for HBO, are pay-per-view instead.

I've said in the past that HBO's boxing franchise has been about as badly run as another organization based out of the Big Apple - the New York Knicks. Well, this here was their version of the Zach Randolph acquisition, leading one boxing insider to joke, "Did you hear the rumor? Isiah Thomas is taking over for Ross Greenburg at HBO Sports."

But seriously, what does this say about the public’s appetite for De La Hoya-Mayweather II? And while HBO keeps holding onto their old stars like a crippled man leans on a crutch, hasn't the time been long overdue for them to start looking ahead and start developing and showcasing young, fresh talent?

They can only go to the 'Oscar save us!!!' well so often. And in this instance, this well wasn't nearly as deep as they hoped.

PROSPECTUS

De La Hoya-Forbes wasn't the only fight this past weekend. Andre Dirrell was anything but 'dirreadful' in dismantling Anthony Hanshaw in five rounds on the latest edition of Shobox this Friday night. He's the most effective switch-hitter since Eddie Murray, and he possesses an unusual combination of size, speed and power.

If his chin holds up (remember Alfonso Rocha decking him and buzzing him badly?) then he's a tough matchup for any super middleweight in the world. This last performance was light years from his stinkfest against Curtis Stevens, which was so rancid that Lou DiBella, who had options on him, declined them.

He also had a Benoit Benjamin moment (where the perennially underachieving center would react to boos from the Clipper crowd by stating, "I don't give a s**t about the fans.") when he blurted out that he didn't care about the audience reaction to his performance versus Stevens. Well, he has admitted the error of his ways and most importantly, seems to developing into a crowd-pleasing and dangerous fighter.

Also on that same night, jr. lightweight prospect Vicente Escobedo would decision Roberto Arrieta over ten rounds to move his mark to 17-1. But truth be told, he hasn't looked the same since his loss to Daniel Jimenez a few years back. And it looks like his union with trainer Nacho Beristain is an example of a square peg to a round hole. Sometimes, a fighter and trainer just aren't meant to be, whether it has to do with personalities or philosophy.

It just seems as though Escobedo is much more effective being an offensive initiator than a guy who counterpunches and reacts.

But, that's just my opinion (which admittedly, doesn't mean much).

FINAL FLURRIES

The June 26th show on Versus will feature jr. middleweight prospect Vanes Martirosyan facing veteran Angel Hernandez, with Anthony Peterson opening the telecast....Peterson's brother Lamont will be taking on Henry Bruseles on July 5th on Showtime.....Congrats to Kobe Bean Bryant on winning the MVP. And can we finally put to rest the whole, 'Kobe can't make his teammates better' rhetoric? The bottom line is this, it's much easier to make guys like Pau Gasol and Derek Fisher 'better' than Kwame Scissorhands and Smush Parker. Folks, the Lakers absolutely made the right choice between Kobe and Shaq - which of course I said from the very beginning (and yes, I'm positively patting myself - and Dr. Jerry Buss - on the back).....Did you know it was 41 minutes into the HBO broadcast before De La Hoya and Forbes touched gloves? Oh, yeah, there's a reason why folks were calling this an infomercial....This Friday night, welterweight prospect Demetrio Soto gets back into action in Albuquerque, New Mexico on a Telefutura show co-headlined by Mike Alvarado and Ray Sanchez....Is it just me, or does Nate Campbell really need to loosen up and express himself?

For Questions or Comments
E-Mail Steve Kim at k9kim@maxboxing.com

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