Boxing Examiner | Michael Marley
Things I Learned This Boxing Weekend:
1. Who knew that Joshua Clottey of Ghana and The Bronx is so immensely popular in the Dallas-Ft. Worth-Arlington Metroplex area that he could singlehandedly move 20,000 tickets in a single day for his March 13 bout at Cowboys Stadium against that Filipino guy? Wait until Clottey’s massive group of Mexican fans can get their hands on ducats! Maybe Clottey and the opponent will pack 60,000 into Jerry Jones’ football playpen, it could happen.
2. It’s kind of a career achievement to have my name defamed on Rapmusic.com’s chat room pages but I have to sign off when one poster starts his comments off by referring to someone he vehemently disagrees with as “nuthugger clown.” Such lofty discourse cheapens us all.
3. I’m not saying bullnecked, 73 year old former middleweight contender Florentino Fernandez can beat world champ Kelly “Ghost” Pavlik but, judging by the Cuban Clouter’s physique, I would not make him an “out bet” either. Meeting and greeting FF brought back fond memories of the salad days of the old Fifth Street Gym, of Chris and Angelo Dundee, of Gomeo Brennan, Yama Bahama and all the rest. There was a kid named Cassius Clay who toiled there also, starting in a time when blacks had to be off Miami Beach by sundown. Clay turned the bitter segregation into a positive, turning it into extra roadwork with his heavy sweats and combat boots.
4. Jones and promotional partner Bob Arum will bring Pacman and Clottey to the Chicago of Mexico, industrial city Monterrey for a press conference. This is where the Cowboys are the most popular gringo team. Hordes of Mexican fans fly, drive or take buses to Cowboys home games and, given that they are Mexican, how many do you think are not boxing aficionados? It's also worth noting that in an "American Bowl" NFL game between Houston and Dallas on Aug. 15, 1994, 112,376 fans bought tickets in Mexico City. The 'Boys may be America's Team but they are also Mexico's Team.
5. Mad Max Kellerman did not mince any words when I asked the HBO voice Saturday night what his thoughts are on the March 13 ring return of Antonio Margocheato? “He should not have a license,” Kellerman said. I don’t think he was referring to a driver’s license, either.
6. Don’t be unfair and say that Floyd Mayweather has never sold 20,000 tickets for any of his fights. He surely has if you add the paid attendance of two or three bouts together. He sells live gate tickets cumulatively, not rapidly.
7. If they fought next week, I think flashy Yuriorkis Gamboa wins going away against Juanma Lopez despite Gamboa’s sketchy chin. Which is yet another reason for Uncle Bob to dangle but not deliver Lopez-Gamboa until well into 2011.
8. Fight cards in New York aren’t the same without Johnny Bos in the house, right or wrong? And Don Majeski and Flash Gordon make three.
Source: Examiner.com
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