'Sworn Enemies'
By Salven L. Lagumbay
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 09 Apr 2006
OPENING ROUND. Wakee Salud, Pacman's business associate, called up yesterday to inform it would be almost impossible to bring in the people that Eric Pineda had mentioned for the July 2 bout. Pineda, top guy at MP Promotions, said Oscar De la Hoya, Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera, Joe Frazier, Mike Tyson, and Muhammad Ali might be in town for the fight. Well, if there's a will, there's always a way. But I'm sure Wakee was just being pragmatic...Jimrex Jaca, and not Randy Suico, might end up fighting Hector Velazquez on July 2 underneath the Pac-Larios bout. Suico, now a legit lightweight, had balked at the idea of fighting the Mexican at a catchweight of 132 lbs. Jaca, for his part, is very comfortable with that. The Negros-born Jaca, meanwhile, is set to visit the Japan embassy after the Holy Week to secure his visa for his OPBF bout on May 20 against WBC no. 6 Nobuhito Honmo...
PACQUIAO VIES FOR POUND-FOR-POUND TITLE TODAY. There might be no hype at all in Manny Pacquiao's battle today for ring greatness, and this one will surely be waged right at his living room and not inside the ring. But still, fight fans will get to see whether Filipino icon Pacquiao will be crowned today as the world's best pound-for-pound fighter.
Floyd Mayweather Jr., the undefeated fighter considered by most boxing experts as the finest fighter pound-for-pound on the planet, goes up against IBF/IBO welter champ Zab Judah today in a mammoth 12-round confrontation dubbed 'Sworn Enemies' at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.
Pacquiao, meanwhile, will be an interested observer in front of his television set, as a loss by Mayweather today will catapult him into becoming the legitimate pound-for-pound best boxer bar none.
However, the way the odds have been set, and the fashion by which Mayweather dismantles his foes with the clinical ferocity of a genius, it seems as in most of his past mega-fights, Pacquiao will be a heavy underdog today.
Mayweather, even labeled as "the greatest after Muhammad Ali" by promoter Don King, has yet to lose after 35 bouts in a career that started in 1996. Now Top Rank's no. 1 money-maker, Mayweather has been the WBC super-featherweight champ, WBC lightweight king, and WBC light-welterweight title-holder. In all his previous fights, he has never been convincingly beaten in any single round, and chances are, Judah will be facing tremendous odds today.
The Brooklyn-raised Judah (34-3, 25 KO's) may have been a fellow pound-for-pound resident if not for losses that were blamed more on his lack of preparation than on skills. He had been the IBF light-welterweight champ for a long time, before running into the iron-fisted Kostya Tszyu.
In his last fight against Carlos Baldomir, a foe who was given no chance to beat Judah, the latter looked past on his foe, as the Mayweather bout had already been arranged, and ended up losing on a unanimous decision.
Experts, however, still consider Judah a major threat for Mayweather today, and he cosiders himself more dangerous when playing the role of an underdog.
This underdog, however, has Pacquiao in his corner.
Prediction: Mayweather by unanimous decision.
ARCE VS. ALVAREZ. If there's one fight in the card that truly lives up to this billing, it's between Jorge "Travieso" Arce and Nicaragua's Rosendo Alvarez, the only man to have taken a draw with the legendary Ricardo Lopez.
This fight was originally for Arce's interim WBC flyweight title, but because Alvarez did not make weight yesterday, organizers were forced to make it a 12-round non-title affair.
Things got to a head when Alvarez slapped Arce during the Night of Champions in Cancun, Mexico, and soon after, the Nicaraguan has called the Mexican names such as 'gay' and 'clown.'
"Nothing against gay people but that insults me as a man; he was already going to get an absolute whooping, Rosendo has no clue how bad I am going to beat him up on Saturday. I'm going to embarrass him and make him wish he would have never taken this fight. He slapped me like a girl in Cancun, I will show him how a man hits, and he's going to get an ass-kicking," Arce told Fightnews.
Prediction: Arce by decision.
In the other world title bout featuring WBA lightweight champ Juan Diaz against challenger Jose Cotto, expect the latter to be crowned the new champ also by decision.
PERSONAL NOTES: Birthday greetings to two of my closest friends in highschool and college, board topnotcher Guilry Cabatuan and businessman John Pages respectively, who are celebrating their birthdays today. Here's wishing you the best always...
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Salven L. Lagumbay.
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