Rematch in February 2016?

“In boxing, you never know who you’re going to face in the ring.” Manny Pacquiao

By Alex P. Vidal

LOS ANGELES, California — What Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. haven’t signed yet is the contract for a rematch in February 2016, not the contract for the May 2 welterweight unification fight in Las Vegas, Nevada as reported on the internet recently.

Sources said part of the pre-contract signing agreement for the May 2 Fight of the Century is for Mayweather Jr. to announce the rematch in the event both parties have already signed the rematch contract’s dotted lines.

Thus no report came out since January this year about the possible rematch.

Both Pacquiao and Mayweather Jr. have denied they will face each other in a rematch probably to avoid confusion and to bring focus only on the May 2 event.

Even Top Rank CEO Bob Arum’s mouth is sealed.

No one from the camp of Team Mayweather will confirm the February 2016 rematch pending the result of the first fight to be jointly telecast by HBO and Showtime on a pay-per-view.

LOPSIDED

There can only be no rematch, our sources said, if Mayweather Jr. will trounce Pacquiao in a lopsided contest.

But if Mayweather Jr. will nip the Filipino congressman in a close decision, “a rematch will make sense,” asserted Kevin Lolo of Yahoo Sports.

A rematch maybe possible if Pacquiao will destroy the undefeated reigning WBA/WBC 147-lb titleholder, who hails from Las Vegas.

A week before the titanic tussle in the gambling capital of the world, fightnews.com released a full list of things fans didn’t know about Mayweather Jr. and Pacquiao.

Mayweather, 38, averages over 1,000 sit-ups while Pacquiao, 36, averages 2.500 sit-ups a day during their training camps.

Pacquiao starts his day reading the Bible, while Mayweather Jr.’s morning routine includes brushing his teeth for straight 10 minutes.

HOME

Mayweather Jr. gets a manicure and pedicure at home once a week during training camp, while Pacquiao is followed by some 500 fans on his morning runs in Los Angeles.

Pacquiao eats five meals and consumes 8,000 calories daily to keep his weight and energy up, while Mayweather Jr. eats food cooked and heated up on a stove and in an oven, not in a microwave.

Pacquiao doesn’t drink cold water because he believes it is not healthy. He drinks only hot or room temperature water.

Mayweather orders a glass of hot water when he is out to eat, to let his silverware soak in the glass before using them.

Two heavyweight superstars have picked Pacquiao to win: Mike Tyson and George Foreman, both former world champions and among the most feared KO artists in the world during their prime.

Heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko, 43, has predicted a victory for Mayweather Jr., who is trained by his father. Floyd Sr.

Former Barcelona Olympics gold medalist and welterweight king Oscar De La Hoya, a victim of both Pacquiao and Mayweather Jr., described Pacquiao as a “difficult fighter” who jumps from one side to another.

ATTACK

He said Mayweather Jr. might allow Pacquiao to attack him from pillar the post and cover his chin and breadbasket with his signature defense.

“Once Pacquiao tires out, Mayweather will launch his counter attack and pocket the round on the way to winning all the rounds,” stressed the Golden Boy, who lost by 8^th round TKO to Pacquiao in December 2008.

Miguel Angel Cotto, who lost a decision to Mayweather Jr. and lost by 12^th round TKO to Pacquiao, said the Filipino southpaw’s biggest weapon will be Freddie Roach.

Team Pacquiao heads for Las Vegas April 27 (April 28 in the Philippines) from the Hollywood accompanied by a horde of fans, family members, politicians, Philippine entertainers, and journalists on board a caravan that will pass the Mojave Desert in the Nevada.

 

Only Michael Buffer is like Caesar’s wife on fight night

Yesterday I was lying. Today, I’m telling the truth,” BOB ARUM

By Alex P. Vidal

NOW that the names of ring officials in the Fight of the Century in Las Vegas on May 2 have been revealed, the Doubting Thomases among Filipino fight fans are getting restless and paranoid.

Some have even cast doubts on the officials’ neutrality.

Others have lent credence on the vitriol of Oscar De La Hoya (39-6, 30 KOs) that third man in the ring, Kenny Bayless, may be a pro-Floyd Mayweather Jr. (47-0, 26 KOs).

De La Hoya could be speaking from a personal experience or out of disgust after failing to obtain favors from the popular referee in the past; his opinion, nevertheless, does not transform Bayless into a hooligan.

De La Hoya cited one instance in Mayweather Jr’s fight against Marcos Rene Maidana (35-5, 31 KOs), where Bayless allegedly “had the bad habit of prematurely” separating the fighters even if they weren’t clinching.

This was when Maidana was about to deliver a coup de grace to Mayweather Jr., De La Hoya pointed out, thus instead of hurting the unbeaten WBA/WBC welterweight champion, Mayweather Jr. managed to survive and beat the Argentine customer on points after 12 rounds.

RESIDENTS

Both Mayweather Jr., 38, and Bayless, 63, are residents of Nevada. And both are black (but we don’t believe Bayless will mediate the bout base on race).

Two of the three judges also hail from Nevada:  Burt Clements and Dave Moretti.  Third judge Glenn Feldman is from Connecticut.

All ring officials are Americans like Mayweather Jr. No Filipino or Asian, for that matter, has been assigned as official.

They were all appointed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, where Bayless had served as inspector for six years before he became a referee.

Bayless is a former Physical Education (P.E) teacher and considers boxing officiating as a serious job.  He cited Pacquiao’s brutal two-round KO of Ricky Hatton (45-3, 32 KOs) as the worst beating in boxing that he has officiated.

As Hatton laid flat on the canvas, his eyes were still open but were rolling and glassy, Bayless recalled. He called it a night.

Bayless, a father of three, considers the Bernard Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOs) versus De La Hoya duel on September 18, 2004 as the biggest fight that he has officiated.

It was witnessed by about 200 million people worldwide, he recalled.

CRY 

He cried and considered quitting as ring arbiter more than 10 years ago when one of the fighters in the bout he had officiated in Las Vegas died of head injury, Bayless confessed in an HBO Sports interview last year.

Bayless was not yet involved in big time fights when Filipino referee, Carlos “Sonny” Padilla Jr., 80, was active in Las Vegas in the 70’s and 80’s.

As the ring officials undergo microscopic scrutiny, only Michael “Let’s-Get-Ready-To-Rumble” Buffer is free from doubts and reproach.

Like Caesar’s wife, only Buffer is considered by fans as above suspicion.

After all, he won’t hold any pen to decide the fates of Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs).

Buffer is “off limits” in as far as officiating is concerned. His role is only to introduce the protagonists and announce the winner.

But he is also a big Pacman fan. We once asked him who’s the greatest fighter in his opinion after Pacquiao stopped Miguel Angel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) in the 12th.

“Manny Pacquiao,” he remarked without any hesitation.

All officials, including, perhaps, Bob Arum, will be under intense scrutiny by fans, except Buffer.

 

Pacquiao doesn’t need a KO to defeat Floyd Jr.

“In boxing you create a strategy to beat each new opponent, it’s just like chess.” LENNOX LEWIS

By Alex P. Vidal

THE trick is to win every round.  

Or majority of the 12 rounds.

There should be no room for error; a ring warrior mustn’t lower his guard during a fierce exchange or he’ll end up crossed-eyed and kissing the canvas.

If the triple (WBA/WBC/WBO) 147-pound championship setto goes the distance without any knockout, Manny Pacquiao will need to score at least 115 in the scorecards of two of the three judges to whip Floyd Mayweather Jr.

A fighter who loses 10-9 each in seven rounds and secures 10-9 win in five rounds accumulates 113. 

If the third judge goes against Pacquiao, the Filipino lefty can still escape with a victory via split decision.

If the same judge agrees with his two colleagues and they all award the fight to Pacquiao, the congressman from Saranggani wins by unanimous decision.

If two of the three judges score draw apiece while the third one favors either Mayweather or Pacquiao, the bout will end up as majority draw.

If one judge sees Pacquiao the winner and the other sides with Mayweather, but the third judge submits a draw, the bout will be declared split draw.

SEVEN

Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs) has to win 10-9 in at least seven rounds even if he will yield the five to Mayweather Jr. (47-0, 26 KOs)–assuming there will be no knockdowns (a knockdown is automatically equivalent to 10-8).

Winning on points is Team Pacquiao’s plan B.

If Mayweather proves to be a hard nut to crack and won’t hit the canvas, he, too, is probably looking to wrap up the victory on points.

This must be Team Mayweather’s plan A.

Mayweather will endeavor to also win every round and halt Pacquiao, if possible.

Each fighter will hanker to score a KO or TKO victory. It’s a prizefighter’s natural instinct.

He smells blood and is always ready to annihilate his rival at all costs.

To win on points, both Mayweather and Pacquiao must focus on the following: 1. Defense 2. Effective hits 3. Ring generalship.

They may need a “blistering start” and “strong finish” but must not suffer serious cuts in the last four stanzas.

FULL

In high level battles, the protagonists need a full tank and second wind to survive 12 rounds.

With the quality of their training and preparations, Pacquiao and Mayweather appear to be ready to chase each other even for 15 rounds, the original distance of world championship bouts, which was reduced to 12 after the 1982 death of Deuk-koo Kim who suffered a brutal 14^th-round TKO from Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini for the WBA lightweight title in Las Vegas.

Not known as a risky fighter, Mayweather must have devised a different strategy that will confuse Pacquiao, who expects the black American to fight defensively and stay away from the booby traps they invented in the Wild Card gym.   

A better way to out-shuttle and outmaneuver Mayweather is for Pacquiao to follow him inch by inch so he can’t reload and maneuver a counter punch where Mayweather is more dangerous.

 

 

 

Beware of heat stroke

“The stroke of death is as a lover’s pinch, which hurts and is desired.” William Shakespeare

By Alex P. Vidal

FEUDING Bacolod politicians, Mayor Monico “Nyok” Puentevella and Rep. Evelio “Bing” Leonardia, are expected to meet again in Las Vegas, Nevada during the Fight of the Century between Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao and Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. on May 2.

Both Negros leaders are actually close buddies of the eight-time world titlist who speaks fluent Hiligaynon like them.

Sometime in August 2005, Puentevella visited Pacquiao in his training camp in the house of our friend, international promoter Rex “Wakee” Salud, in Cebu City.

Pacquiao stopped training when he noticed that his friend, who was then “Congressman Puentevella”, was present.  

Pacquiao was then revving up for his September bout against Hector Velasquez in Los Angeles.  

Leonardia has been holding Pacquiao’s WBC belt during introduction since 2008 when Pacquiao eked out a 12-round split decision in a rematch against Juan Manuel Marquez.

When other interested characters (not Puentevella) tried to grab the belt from Leonardia during the Ricky Hatton fight in 2009, the traditional holding of belt has been stopped.

Leonardia was still there in the ring during introduction in Pacquiao’s succeeding fights, but he was already holding the Philippine flag.

Both Leonardia and Puentevella have not displayed any rancor and hostility while they were beside Pacquiao.

-o0o-

Warning to would-be politicians who are now starting to make rounds in the villages amid the searing summer heat in preparations for the 2016 elections: beware of heat stroke.

A 53-year-old tour guide from Guimaras Province, who spent many years in Canada after his retirement as sailor in the 90s, recently died of heat stroke in Iloilo City.

The tour guide, who once dabbled as bodyguard of Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago when the later was campaigning for president in 1992, wanted to run for a public office in his province next year, thus he frequented various villages to shake the hands of constituents even if humidity was on its alarming heat these past months.

In one of his sorties, he collapsed and didn’t make it to the Western Visayas Medical Center in Mandurriao district, Iloilo City recently.

Who are prone to heat stroke?

According to health experts, they are those who have chronic illnesses like heart disease, obesity, alcoholism, old age, Parkinson’s disease, uncontrolled diabetes, those who use certain medications such as diuretics and antihistamines, and those who use some psychoactive drugs as alcohol and cocaine.

SUNSTROKE

Also known as sunstroke, thermic fever or siriasis, heat stroke occurs when our body’s mechanisms for controlling temperature fail, according to C.Health.

In other words, it’s a life-threatening emergency needing immediate treatment.

“While many people feel sick and faint during heat waves,” it explains, “most of these people are suffering from heat exhaustion, a related condition usually less serious than heat stroke.”

C.Health stresses that the causes of heat stroke is working or exercising in hot conditions or weather without drinking enough fluids.

“You can get heat stroke by not replacing lost fluids over days or weeks, or you can bring it on in a few hours by exercising strenuously on a hot day without drinking plenty of liquids first,” warns C.Health.

Why we need more liquids in the body, especially this summer?

C.Health says liquids help to cool us down by allowing the body to produce sweat.

“However,” it stresses, “liquids are also necessary for bodily functions, such as keeping up blood pressure. You can lose large amounts of body fluid in the form of sweat without noticing any effects, but at a certain point the body will reserve the remaining fluid for vital functions and stop sweating.

“The body’s core temperature then shoots up, and cells start dying. Sweat evaporates more rapidly in dry weather, cooling the body more efficiently than in humid weather.

“When working in humid conditions, the core temperature rises more rapidly. This is why forecasts add a humidity factor or heat index to represent how you will actually feels outdoors.”

HEAVY

Health experts also warn that heavy clothing and some skin conditions can also contribute to the occurrence of heat stroke.

The symptoms of heat stroke are quite different from those of heat exhaustion, C.Health warns further.

A person suffering from heat exhaustion will usually be sweating profusely in an attempt to get rid of excess heat, it explains.

“Someone with heat stroke has stopped sweating, due to a failure in his or her heat control system. High core temperatures damage the internal organs, especially the brain. The fluid loss can also produce dangerously low blood pressure,” C.Health points out.

“Most people who are killed by heat stroke die when their heart stops pumping effectively (circulatory failure). Even people who survive are likely to have permanent brain damage if their core temperature has been over 40.6C (105F) for more than an hour or two.”

 

Mayweather’s formula of success: Grace under pressure

“If I’m scared and I’m a coward, why do you guys want to see me fight?” Floyd Mayweather Jr.

By Alex P. Vidal

IT’S not a walk in the park for any prizefighter to accumulate an intimidating 47-0 ring ledger. Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s record is two wins shy of equaling heavyweight phenom Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 world record, or three wins away from eclipsing it.

Never mind the “low” 55.32 KO percentage.

He is undefeated, period. And Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. is the richest professional athlete in the world.

Mayweather, 38, goes to war, the most important and the biggest in his fistic career that began on October 11, 1996 with a two-round disposal over Roberto Apodaca, against the only man in the planet to win eight world crowns in eight divisions, Manny Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs), on May 2 in the gambling capital of the world.

Known for his scientific stance and style, Mayweather is considered by ring experts as “unhittable” or difficult to hit. Most of his KO victims capitulated in later rounds after wasting away so much energy and efforts trying to at least remove a speck of dust on his noggin.

HELL

Only Shane Mosley, Oscar De La Hoya, Saul Alvarez and Marcus Rene Maidana were able to give him hellish moments in the ring. A bronze medalist in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Mayweather Jr. has destroyed all the marquee names in the sport on his way to be billed as the best boxer pound-for-pound.

Probably the best defensive fighter in the world today, Mayweather is also known as a “relaxed and calm” gladiator. “Floyd Jr. doesn’t panic. I have trained him to focus on his every fight, to have grace under pressure and solve one problem after another in every round. I think that is his formula of success,” Floyd Sr. told this writer during a one-on-one conversation at the MGM Grand’s media center three years ago.

Floyd Sr., 63, himself a former world title contender, invented Mayweather’s much-vaunted shoulder rolling defense, which has become his performance trademark. “I haven’t seen a fighter in this generation who can outwit Floyd Jr. My son fights clean and finishes off his opponents with clean shots. His timing is always perfect,” added Floyd Sr., who retired on November 3, 1990 after absorbing a 10-round decision loss to Robert Turner where he was deducted with two points for excessive holding a rabbit-punching.

FATHER

The father Mayweather had a 28-6-1 (17 KOs) record. His greatness as a potential world champion was blasted into smithereens when he was TKO’d in the 10th by Sugar Ray Leonard on September 9, 1978 in Rhode Island, USA.

He is the only Mayweather who hasn’t pocketed a world crown.

His younger brother, Roger, 53, once held the WBA super featherweight and WBC super lightweight titles and retired on May 8, 1999 by trouncing on points Javier Francisco Mendez.

Roger, who nearly risked his crown against Rolando “The Bad Boy from Dadiangas” Navarette in late 80’s (if Navarette did not lose by KO to Ramon Marchena in Mexico), had a record of 59-13 (35 KOs). Team Mayweather doesn’t consider Pacquiao, 36, as a threat to Floyd Jr.’s unbeaten record.

Mocking the Filipino congressman’s “recklessness” as the reason for his KO loss to Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012, Floyd Jr. foresees his “sure” victory in the colossal joint HBO and Showtime pay-per-view promotion that is expected to shatter all records in combat sports and the potential to earn $400 million.

Retirement may be far from the radar of both titans. Mayweather, who will go home with $120 million, is gunning to equal if not eclipse Marciano’s record, while Pacquiao, who will get at least $80 million, has contractual obligations to Bob Arum’s Top Rank until 2016.