On the 41st anniversary Thursday of the first Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier fight, random reflections and recollections while wondering if there will be ever be a Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao anniversary:
· Sorry for wondering at all, but at least I didn’t have to wonder for long. Chances aren’t good that history will repeat itself with a fight remembered in the next century.
· Thursday’s anniversary of Frazier’s epic decision over Ali in 1971 at Madison Square Garden is the first since Frazier died in November. On the 25th anniversary, I sat with Frazier in Indianapolis at a luncheon sponsored by the U.S. Olympic Committee during 1996 swimming trials. Film of the bout played on screens in every corner of the room. I asked Frazier about Ali’s terrible fight with Parkinson’s. “You see that right hand, you see that left,’’ Frazier, a 1964 gold medallist, said as he pointed at the screen with the right he had landed that night. “That’s why he has problems.’’ Frazier never forgot. Rest in peace, Joe.
· Some Puerto Rican history is at stake Saturday night at Roberto Clemente Stadium in San Juan. For two decades, Puerto Rico’s proud boxing heritage has been sustained, first by Felix Trinidad and then by Miguel Cotto. Juan Manuel Lopez has been the designated successor. But that uninterrupted line of succession is in danger in a Showtime-televised rematch with Mexican Orlando Salido, who in April knocked out Lopez. Lopez has talked about distractions – marital strife and weight problems – before the loss. Safe to say, Puerto Ricans don’t want hear about any more distractions. At home, all of the pressure is on Lopez. The pick here: Lopez, in a late-round stoppage.
· Pacquiao is suing an Asian journalist for libel in a story that linked him to a carjacker, is thinking about running for the Filipino presidency and is facing a complaint from Filipino tax authorities, who have questions about his documentation. Those are the headlines, all within a couple of days and each with only passing reference to the Congressman’s June 9 fight against dangerous Timothy Bradley. Distractions have always followed Pacquiao. But these aren’t about singing, or basketball, or movie-making. They are the kind that dog and define prominent politicians. Fulltime ones, too.
· Just when I thought Missing was a new ABC series starring Ashley Judd as a mom searching for her son, Yuriokis Gamboa doesn’t show up. Gamboa went missing, not one but twice, first in Miami and then in Los Angeles for news conferences scheduled to hype what now appears to be a tentative – very tentative – bout with Brandon Rios on April 14. Rumor is that Gamboa is unhappy with Bob Arum’s Top Rank and wants to jump to Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s promotional company. If true, that will be another reason for Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter, to detest Mayweather and just another reason to think that Pacquiao-Mayweather won’t happen.
AZ NOTES
Another chapter in Arizona’s comeback from the immigration controversy, SB 1070, will happen this spring, first on March 23 at Tucson’s Casino del Sol with a ShoBox-televised card featuring Las Vegas super-featherweight Diego Magdaleno.
It’s intriguing, in part because Antonio Margarito’s brother-in-law, bantamweight Hanzel Martinez, is scheduled for the undercard. Martinez got interested in boxing when he used to run with Margarito. The March 23 card might set the stage in May for a Margarito fight in Arizona, his first since his loss in a December rematch to Miguel Cotto.
On April 21, Iron Boy Promotions plans to be back in Phoenix for an encore of its Feb .17 debut in front of near capacity crowd at Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix. On May 4, Michelle Rosado, who took the lead in re-opening the Phoenix boxing market, will promote in southern Arizona for the first time on May 4 with a card at Desert Diamond Casino, where Golden Boy Promotions had a good run before leaving because of the cost and license restrictions brought on by SB1070.
