The Square Ring

Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto was the elephant in the room of boxing. 1.2 million PPV buys for a gross of about $65 million USD’s dictated that. TSR will now engage in a useless discussion of the new Pachyderm holding boxing’s attention. The fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather jr. which will take place next year. The key is money. There’s a shocker. Lot’s of “filthy lucre” for promoters, manager’s, trainer’s, sparring partners, TV Executives, advisor’s, gopher’s (as in “go for coffee”) and assorted “atta boy’s.’ At this juncture the amount of money involved is rumor but every rumor, like humor, has to have some semblance of truth. Let’s toss out $150 million USD’s.

And Then He Said
“I’m not going to negotiate in the press”, opined Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum. “Bologna”, replied TSR because that is exactly what Buffalo Bob will do. Good for him. The best guess is that it will end up a 50-50 split with the fighting being over who counts first. Old axiom in boxing “always count first”. Forget the percentage but just count first. There are no new axiom’s. Ocsar DeLaHoya’s Golden Boy will be doing the negotiating for Mayweather jr. which means that Arum will have to be on the top of his toes. But then he always is. He’s smoother than a Thai Lady when she says “I have to go. Love you too much.”. “Mayweather wants a 65%-35% split”. As the late Howard “Chick” Reed use to quote when his son embarked on a ‘I wanna’ , “So ? People in hell want ice water.” Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach shot back, “No problem we’ll be glad to give him 35%.”

It’s been reported that the fight will take place either in Las Vegas or at the Dallas Cowboy’s 2.1 billion dollar new house. The latter could pack in 120,000 screaming beer guzzling paying fans. In Vegas the options are limited to Sam Boyd Stadium which Bob Arum calls “too far from the strip so casino’s won’t bankroll” or The Thomas & Mack which seats upwards of 20,00. Another option has a very prominent mover and shaker on the Nevada political scene negotiating for a temporary 40,000 seat outdoor stadium on the Las Vegas Strip. The site would be on land where the Frontier Hotel/Casino once stood. The Frontier opened in October of 1942 and went boom on November 13, 2007. Texas and Nevada are favorites as there is no income tax although Louisiana’s Super Dopme would be in the running if Governor Bobby Jindal will sign a bill eliminatingthe tax for the fight. Yea Right.

Resultls and Other Stuff
Ending the first round of the super middleweight tournament Andre Ward pulled a surprise when he completely befuddled Mikkel Kessler wining a technical decision over 10 ½ rounds. Kessler suffered a nasty gash on his right eye lid from an “unintentional ” head butt that caused the stoppage. Even without the TD Ward (21-0) was on his way to a win. Sir Frog, croaking from the lily pad, questions whether the head butt was unintentional. “What can I say about Kessler-Ward ? No much only that Ward is a sneaky dirty fighter. Kessler does a move, Ward hangs on and answer’s with a head butt. Strange fight a little boring.” TSR agrees an a “win is a win”. That’s all the counts so until a referee show’s some guts and start calling an “intentional head butt” the practice will continue. Ward-Abraham will be a barn burner when the meet next. The always classy Kessel (42-2) admitted “It was not my day. I will beat Carl Froch (who he fights next) and become champion again.” The “Punching Padre” was asked to explain how Ward could call himself Son of God while butting like billy goat. “I’m sure the butt was a mistake.” Yea right !!!!

Local lads in action
While the Yanks were celebrating Thanksgiving on November 26th Thai bantam Tantong Kiattaweesuk (14-0) was suppose to be fighting Rivo Rengkung (29-8-5) on channel 7. That would have been a nice step up for the busy Thai who had 6 fights this year. Problem was there was no Rivo Rengkung. Instead Anthony Esmedia of Manila was the opponent. The resulting blow out 120-108 on all cards was to be expected as the invader had lost 5 of his last 6. For non-Yanks Thanksgiving is the day set aside each year to celebrate stealing the land fair and square from the Indians. Got to watch those dodgy Yanks.

If there were a poster boy for building records on friendly turf it would be Wethya Sakmuangklang. Most of his 78 came at home but the road was a different story. In ’04 he lost to Manny Pacquiao then righting the career and reeling off 32 wins in a row. Then he went back on the road losing his last 2 in Japan. The latest was the 27th when he was Ko’d by Yuta Nagai (23-4) in 7. “Stay home young man.”

Champ Hangs On
Oleydong Sithsamerchai (33-0) opened an early lead when he defended his WBC straw title for the fourth time. He then had to hung on to win a majority decision over Juan Palacios (26-3). WBC title fight’s, sometimes, have scores announced after 4 and 8 rounds. The champ thought he was ahead by comparatively safe margins. In one of the “those so fast “ moments Nicaraguan Palacios rallied to draw even on one card at 114 . Sithsamerchai kept his title by scores of 116-114 and 115-114. Palacios lost a point for an “unintentional head butt” when he wasn’t cut but Sithsamerchai was. Still the draw would have kept the title with the champ. The fight was held at the Tesco-Lotus Supersport in Rungsit. “Yes I’ll have a six pack of beer and bag of chips and a WBC Title fight.” Now that’s a Super Store.

On Deck
Missed the deadline on the Roy Jones jr.(54-5)- Danny Greene (27- 3) tussle. Pre fight hype had it the biggest fight in Aussie history as this fight caught fire where Mundine- Green failed to. The fight at Homebush, Acer Arena Sydney, was a guaranteed 18,000 sell out with TV in 15 countries including Canada, USA and England. Each boxer should earn more than $3,000,000 million Aussie or 92,034,734.54 Baht. Sounds better that way. The same day another “retread” Bernard Hopkins (49-5-1) faced off against Enrique Ornelas (29-5) in Philly, PA as in USA.

December 5
A trio of interesting bouts on the 5th. “The Punisher” Paul Williams (37-1) gets a tune up for the maybe dream match between he and Kelly Pavlik. Sergio Martinez who has a great 44-1-2 record except he lacks quality opponents and a great KO punch. Williams will add a “w”. On he undercard in Atlantic City Chris Areolla (27-1) gets back in against record builder Brian Minto (34-2). Minto so far has missed the usual suspects fighting those a step below. Still he could cause the suspended bythe WBC Areolla a problem.

Amir Khan (21-1) continues his march to the top. Since Freddy Roachstarted doing the training Khan is amuch better boxer. His opponent at the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle is Dmitriy Salita who’s 30-0-1 record is mostly a smokescreen. TSR saw him last out against a 20-11-1 Raul Munoz. He struggled against a below average opponent. Khan gets the win.

December 12
Two fight cards on December 12 from different parts of the globe. In Bern, Switzerland WBC Heavyweight Champ Vitali Klitschko (38-2) faces an undefeated but probably over matched Kevin Johnson (22-0- 1). Saying Johnson is over matched is probably a bit cruel but as is often said, “it is what it be.” Johnson has built his record not by fighting the “usual heavyweight suspects” but by avoiding them which we can now label the “Minto Factor”. . Klitschko gets to 39 wins.

A far more interesting card will take place at a Injun Casino , Auga Caliente which means ‘hot water’, in California. Timothy Bradley is 24-0 and the current WBO jr. welter champ. He won the WBC title from Junior Witter when he traveled to Nottingham eking out a 1 point split decision. He added the WBO title with a UD over Kendall Holt last April. Now he’s just the WBO champ ? why ? NO EYE DEAR. Lamont Peterson is also undefeated at 27-0 but you would be hard pressed to recognize any of his victims. Nether has a lot of power with only 24KO’s from 51 bouts.

On the same card Vic “The Wild Man” Darchinyan (32-2-1) defends his WBC/WBA jr. bantam titles against Tomas Rojas (32-11-1). Both these guys can and will bang claiming 48 KO’s from 64 bouts. Rojas is probably better than his 11 loses would indicate. He’s loses have come against good boxers where he always gave a good account of himself. This fight won’t lack for action. If an upset alert were to be posted this would be it.

Jeeves Time
Your Lordship the Midnight Eye’s web guy Mor has a take on the Pacquiao-Cotto that’s different. He emails, “I agree on Pacquiao (how could anyone disagree ?) You will laugh, but I said before the fight when I saw the pre-fights photo’s in the press-‘look at Cotto’s hands’- they’re small. Now look at Pacquiao’s. They are half again bigger. Everyone gave Pacquiao speed. In that he can punch so well, it was just a matter of time until he would land on Cotto. But if I am so smart, where was my bet on the fight ?” Your take My Lordshipness ?

Explains a lot of things including why Pacquiao is more of a lady’s man than Cotto. In fact I’ll drink to that. So serve up the lager, a fine 300 Baht cigar and please the CD player with the new Michael Buble’ cd Crazy Love. Because Cheewit dee khrup”