| “Miss Pac Man”: What We’ll All Be Doing On May 5 |
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| Written by Eric Raskin | |||
| Thursday, 02 February 2012 15:54 | |||
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Nevertheless, this Twitpic-free tweet from Floyd Mayweather on Wednesday is certainly worth a thousand words of reaction: “I’m fighting Miguel Cotto on May 5th because Miss Pac Man is ducking me.” The tweet was just 14 little words long, but its emotional impact on this longtime boxing fan and writer is not so succinctly summed up. A list of some of the feelings stirred by “Money’s” loaded declaration: anticipation, excitement, depression, frustration, anger, bewilderment, revulsion, confusion, and maybe even a little guilt and self-loathing. Allow me to lie down on Dr. Melfi’s couch and explain. On the one hand, Mayweather vs. Cotto is a decent fight, the most marketable and second most competitive (behind only Mayweather vs. Sergio Martinez) fight Floyd could have considered if we take Manny Pacquiao out of the equation. It’s a big event. On certain levels, I’m looking forward to it. However, I’d still need about 8-1 odds to even think about betting on Cotto. That’s not a good sign. Mayweather-Cotto is to Mayweather-Pacquiao as The Departed is to Goodfellas. It’s the difference between having Andy Reid reliably guide you to 10 wins a season and an early playoff exit and Bill Belichick take you to 13 wins and a Super Bowl title. It’s serviceable vs. spectacular. And of course, relativity works both ways. This ain’t Mayweather-Pacquiao, but at least it isn’t Mayweather-Robert Guerrero, right? In a year in which nothing has gone right so far for fight fans, Mayweather-Cotto is both a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and a slap in the face. Then there’s the “Miss Pac Man is ducking me” part of the tweet. Never mind the misogynistic derision from a man who recently pled guilty to beating a woman. I’d rather focus on the word “ducking.” Is that what we call it when a man expresses an interest in fighting you and suddenly you find a new way to sabotage negotiations by insisting a 50-50 purse split is unacceptable? Just when public sentiment had turned in favor of Mayweather and against Bob Arum, Floyd found a way to turn it back against himself. You get the feeling that if Manny said he’d let Mayweather keep 100 percent of the money, Mayweather would say there’s no deal unless the fight takes place in his Las Vegas mansion with both fighters riding Segways for 90 seconds of every round. If Mayweather doesn’t want to fight Pacquiao, for whatever reason (and there aren’t many that make sense after how human Pac-Man looked against Juan Manuel Marquez in November), then so be it. But, please Floyd, at least have the self-awareness not to accuse the guy of ducking you five minutes after you publicly ducked him! I guess I should appreciate Mayweather vs. Cotto for what it is: two of the three most bankable fighters in the sport facing each other, neither of whom is totally shot (even if Cotto is significantly less potent than he was five years ago), with a chance for entertainment value because Mayweather picked an opponent who’s never been in a bad fight. But I can’t commit to that positive spin. I just can’t. And that makes me feel a few pangs of guilt, like there’s something wrong with me. The sad reality is that, even with the signing of the somewhat appealing Mayweather-Cotto fight, 2012 has a chance to be the worst year for boxing since World War II. Granted, we have a tendency to exaggerate everything in the moment; if you believe what you read on Twitter, Blake Griffin’s dunk on Kendrick Perkins was, for a few hours, the greatest play in the history of sports. So I’m probably guilty of some hyperbole here if I call this boxing’s lowest point in 70 years. But look at what fight fans have been subjected to so far in 2012: the latest month-long BS Mayweather-Pacquiao tease; the postponement of January’s only big fight, Erik Morales vs. Danny Garcia; the postponement of February’s biggest and best fight, Victor Ortiz vs. Andre Berto; and rather than a can’t-miss fourth fight between Pacquiao and Marquez in June, probably Pacquiao-Tim Bradley, which could be a stylistic nightmare and rates to be far less competitive than Pac-JMM IV. There’s so little going on that some folks have gotten excited about Epix airing three heavyweight “title” fights in three weeks, even though those fights are Vitali Klitschko-Dereck Chisora, Alexander Povetkin-Marco Huck, and, God help us, Wladimir Klitschko-Jean-Marc Mormeck. 2012 has not been kind to boxing fans so far, that isn’t likely to change over the next few weeks, and there’s nothing coming up that convinces me it’s going to change in the spring, summer, or fall. Ending where we began, with Twitter: My follow boxing scribe David Greisman tweeted on Wednesday, “I can’t get excited about Mayweather-Cotto. I don’t know if this makes me jaded or realistic.” I know what it makes you, David: both. Everything is relative. Relative to the fight we all want to see and probably never will, Mayweather-Cotto is a miserable excuse for a superfight. Relative to the rest of the 2012 calendar, Mayweather-Cotto is a true superfight. Because it’s the only superfight we’ve got. And if you think your emotions are conflicted now, wait until mid-April when an injury postpones the fight. Eric Raskin can be contacted at RaskinBoxing@yahoo.com. You can follow him on Twitter @EricRaskin and listen to new episodes of his podcast, Ring Theory, at http://ringtheory.podbean.com. DaveB says:
There is always a moment when these fights are made that I groan. So as the fights get closer and the supporting arguments ensue about what could happen and how this opponent has gotten better or has a good chance and maybe I start to think - Yeah, that's right this could be an upset, but then I have to go with the gut feeling I had at the time when I heard of the fight's announcement. And I think - Yeah it's possible just like it is possible I could hit the lottery but it's not likely. Very few of these fights excite me anymore and especially the fights of the two guys that long ago should have fought each other. Really excellent writing by the way. amayseng says: yes radam i touched on that as well , floyds rhetoric is exhausting, stating pac fights his leftovers and now here he is fighting cotto as a leftover, after jmm as a leftover, a bad version of cotto at that. dont get me wrong i am a cotto fan, but he is a shell of himself. i went back and watched the rematch with margacheato and although cotto did well he looked slow, has lost agility and does not have that sharpness on his punches like he used to. margacheato was a walking zombie, straight lines, stood and took punches nothing threatening. amayseng says: in fact, at this point i kinda feel like that fan in major league, totally defeated and when things even got exciting again he was in a slump and couldnt pull himself out of it, remember? hahah ali says: @amayseng Martinez has a fight in March I believe so he couldn't fight him may 5. Money Jay says: Miss Pac man did duck him...manny has fought almost double the fights Floyd has in the last 6 six yrs and has made half the money Floyd has. Ya'll ever ask yoself why Manny needs a promoter anyway?? Cotto is his own boss now..manny has to get his business right, but he still had to answer to another man, Mr. Arum. Floyd offer $40mill, and he averages $7.4mill a fight. Now he gotta fight a Bradley, or get his a$$ kick by JMM again, Lmao! It sounds like he was ducking him too me... amayseng says: moneyjay i respect your opinion but dont believe everything you read. pac may not clear more per fight but he brings in more revenue. in the united states where floyd is from and pac is not, pac brings in more and also world wide. and floyd does have a promoter, it is golden boy, he is not his own promoter. OneTonMan says: Yes, definitely, Mayweather will surely MISS Pacman, of his own doing. amayseng says: @ali, yes i heard some things from sergios camp, prob rumors that he would drop out of it and take the financial hit for a floyd fight,, Shoulder Roll Defense says: Arum f**ked up the Juan Manuel Lopez vs Yurkois Gamboa mega fight by not making the fight when it was ripe and Lopez was later knocked out by Orlando Salido. Do you see a pattern here? Manny will probably fight Timothy Bradley next, a fighter that has a better than average chance of beating him. If this happens the world will be cheated out of the fight of the century because Arum has an ax to grind with Mayweather. There are always exceptions, but the best fought the best during the golden years of boxing. Bob Arum is killing boxing, just like Al Davis methodically killed the Oakland Raiders franchise, holla! cokierebz says: I am just concerned that this will ask Pac Man to fight him at 154lbs comes negotiation time, the mega fight will never happens if that is the case. You need to feed the Pac Man like a horse to be able to attain such weight. Looks like the bird has concocted another excuse not to fight "Miss Pac Man." What an intelligent bird and what a coward, tweet for tweet bird of the decade Tweety Boy Floyd. jae.anthony29 says: I respect mayweather as a skilled and gifted boxer of his generation. But how can you respect this guy with his excuses to fight manny? With regards of the 50/50 purse, it fair enough for both fighters. I intend to agree right now that he clearly avoided manny for the past 3 years. He has the edge to beat manny, but he's too scared to fight manny and risk his 0 record. What if manny agreed with this purse? Then drop the defamation case? and if manny does, then fight him @ 154 lbs? and calling MISS pac-man really priced himself out of the fight. Psychologically wise, Floyd ducked Manny. These 2 great fighters deserved a big purse at the end of the day and the 50/50 is the best thing in here. Don't mention about who's the promoter or the boss in here and even the fight per year. It doesn't make any sense anyway at the end of the day. The important here is that Boxing is all about money nowadays... Cabby says: The last sentence of this article is kind of omenous. If Cotto gets hurt, he can wait and heal. If FMJ gets hurt, he will heal inside prison. isulanboy says: This will be a good test for Mayweather and I think Cotto will win. Though i have a doubt this fight will go thru. Floyd evaded Cotto for a long time and why will he challenge Cotto now after some stellar performance. I think Floyd will do a "berto" a week or two before May 5. Radam G says: Pay that small-money dude, outside the bank staring, no attention. He knows what time it is, and just want to be blinded to the fantasies of HOW BIG THE BANK ROLLS are of BLACK athletes, in particularly Money May. Money Jay says: @amayseng, Floyd is his own boss...Cotto is now his own boss...and Arum is Mannys boss. I hear the point you tried to make, but you still danced around the real issue....Manny is not his own boss. Mannys biggest payday in vegas was $7.4mill, this is public record. He's getting pimped bro..Floyd just made $25mill agaisnt ortiz, also public record. Manny needs to take 55/45, and be happy he's getting that, because he's obviously not getting paid like all the Da Manny fans think he is.. Radam G says: Wow! Somebody is trying to live in an imaginary world of utopia after he started the nonsense about what he called "black athletes' dominance." Now da muthasucka is suffering from some type of distorted illusion that your's truly is "a straight up [sic] racist too." WhattttEVVEEER! Call a spade a spade and quit hiding in the dark spots, shadows and shade. Radam G says: Hehehehehe! JUST wait and WATCH! Once again, the PPV sellouts and the live gate of Da Manny are going to be more than Money May. But, like always, Money May will fib, play his pied-piper flute and send his _____ going ape syet off the cliff like always. blue4cor says: Clottey, De la hoya and Margarito have wider frames and taller and bigger than Floyd. Pacquiao faced all these guys in the ring not in Twitter, unmindful of all the risks of the weight and power of just a single punch that could drop him in the canvass unconscious. Manny Pacquiao DOES THE FIGHTING WITH HIS FIST not WITH HIS MOUTH. nashingun says: Floyd is his own boss? no wonder he just keep using pacquiao's name to sell a fight. first he presents something against pac to stir the public, then he drops them pretending manny is ducking him then in the middle of negotiation he picks another opponent calling pac a ducker? come on! the scheme is obvious! floyd didnt even tried to open up negotiation. he is fixed with CINCO DE MAYO (non negotiable), then MGM venue (non negotiable), 60-40 purse split (non negotiable)... what else is there to negotiate? floyd dont even have proper people to negotiate in his behalf cos he is his own boss! this is clearly a scheme to pretend floyd wants pacquiao but in reality he is only playing the situation to sell another fight. there's still time to make this fight in may but floyd already set or has made done deal with cotto, what the hell happened with pac when floyd is in negotiation with cotto???? arum wants a bigger stadium of 40K seats, thats not even a hurdle on making this MEGA FIGHT, but why is floyd not willing to give up his CINCO DE MAYO MGM date when they could earn more in a bigger arena? and also 50/50 cut is the usual deal between two big names! but floyd pretends he's the cashcow (pretending). im not surprise if floyd decides to call manny "MISS" on his twitter, floyd needs to do this to get his balls up and feel better from ducking. nashingun says: @MONEY JAY Money Jay says: @nashingun...STFU!! you dont know shyt!! If yo dumb *** think Manny will make $28 mill against Bradley, you dumber than that post you just posted...BTW, i didn't make these numbers up....its public record byoootch! Even Manny suspected he wasn't getting a fair share, which is why he hired an outside accounting company to check his financial affairs...but Arum convinced him to fire that company...again, this is all public information..Do yo homework before you jump on Mannys nut sack sucka. Hes getting pimped...billion my ***..you stupid as hell..STFU Radam G says: Like I told you guys, pay that small Money J-J outside the bank shinning shoes and singing songs no attention. Some people just don't know syet, so they think that everybody else -- except their bragging zeroes, I mean Heroes, -- don't know syet either. Radam G says: @blue4cor, fakers and faders roll that way -- STRAIGHT UP on Twitter. They feel great pride being champions in rhetoric and taking much smack, but never will step up to the actuality and reality of dat squared jungle to take their fistic arsh thrashing like a REAL MAN [men]. Muthabytches are just straw men. Holla! undisputed34 says: i wish we could set up something where the brass at the sweet science would set up some exhibition matches for guys here on the forum. now THAT might get some of my PPV $ lol. Radam G in the main event against TBD LMAO.. Radam G says: I'm double da fudge dangerous, und34. I will pass your wish. Holla! dino da vinci says: i wish we could set up something where the brass at the sweet science would set up some exhibition matches for guys here on the forum. now THAT might get some of my PPV $ lol. Radam G in the main event against TBD LMAO.. As luck would have it, the brass at TSS also promotes boxing. Based on his writing style, I picture Radam as being reed thin with a monster jab. No other punches really. Oh, he can throw them all, be it on the bag or hitting the mitts, but simply doesn't use them when engaging opponents. I picture this borderline insane jabbing machine throwing 200+ jabs (piston-like) per round versus an ordindinary opponent, and up to 400 jabs a round in survival mode against world class guys. Never gets hit. Never! undisputed34 says: LOL @ dino, well sign me up. i dont mind fighting on the undercard. built like a linebacker, good at cutting the ring off and likes to hit anything from the chest to the hips... Radam G says: Yup! I'm one razor-thin cat, but my jab cuts like a 1,000 razor blades. My left cross is Da Manny to the max. It will make a sucka canvas kiss and stick. My hooks and uppercuts are like Texas chainsaws. My writin' ain't nuffin' on my fightin.' But I'm down with hiding in plain sight. Holla! Radam G says: Time for me to shut da double fudge with a cherry on top UP! Good try, DDV. You are trying to draw me out to see I be. Hehehe! Danggit! That manly ego of mine almost turned me into a showing-my-arse ___ ___! Holla! dino da vinci says: I'll finja in time Radam, I'm gonna. Question: Tell the truth. Crazy thin with long arms? Radam G says:
Hehehehe! It's all so hazy! Some of us are a little dazy! Holla!
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If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a tweet is worth … well, at 140 characters max, certainly a whole lot less than a thousand words. Maybe 32 or so, I’d guesstimate. Unless there’s a Twitpic attached, in which case it’s worth about 1,032 words.
With this being "Black History Month," George Washington Carver said watch what you say, because someday you may or will be in the same spot that you are criticizing. How right he was!
Money May was always jivin' and convivin' and gettin' his groupies, fanboys, fanfaronades, flunkies and fools all hyped-up about Da Manny "fighting his [so-called] leftovers." Now bytchy Lil' Floyd is in the same spot throwing with a PacMan's so-called leftover, who has a very good chance to kick Money May's arse.
Okay, muthasuckas, don't start on me! I know about George Washington Carver -- the inventor of a whole lot of stuff, including peanut butter -- because my Pinay cousin, straight from da P-Islands, is teaching "Black History" in the Washington D.C. school system.
Wow! Just imagine that, you haters! The U.S. school teachers are so terrible in the capital city of the USA, that you have to recruit my relatives from 10,000 miles away to teach the future -- whatever they will become -- leaders, followers and ?s of America. I just got to get my laugh on. Hehehehehehe! Holla!