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Is The Stadium Half
Empty Or Half Full?
Maybe Someone Is Full
Of....um......It
By William Trillo
Right before the HBO broadcast was set
to kick off at The Home Depot Center on Saturday night I
took a quick glance at the fans in attendance and I
saw...well I saw darn near no one. I popped a quick snapshot
(see blurry photo above) just in case, and boy am I glad I
did.
When the sparse crowd had left the arena
and while the press was sitting outside waiting for the
nights combatants to appear someone announced the attendance
for the evening was 5,900 and change.
If it was above the 5,000 then someone
was counting concession stand workers, parking lot
attendants, the local Sheriffs patrolling the grounds, all
the fighters and their respective posse's, the Hispanic band
playing at the adjoining soccer field and all the cerveza
filled fans that were rocking out to the tunes of "Jose" &
The Pacemakers.
The place was pretty gutted, even the
luxury suites that have become a staple in So Cal were only
about half full and it was lights out in most of the rooms.
Unless that Tennis Court holds over
10,000 fans, and it doesn't, there is no way there was 5,000
adoring fans in the house.
Speaking of the post fight press
conference....
The after glow at the proceedings was
only a glimmer and you had to pay attention, but if you did
you got a few bright highlights.
First off there was Andre Berto who took
the stage to the tunes of the Luis Collazo team asking when
their man, the number one mandatory for Berto's belt was
going to get his shot and why they, Bert & Lou Dibella, were
ducking him. DiBella promptly took the mic and said they
would be taking questions from media members only. Behind
Lou, Andre said audibly if you were close enough, (and I
was), "You ain't ever getting a shot!"
Why?
Not wanting to speculate I went over to
Collazo, who also fought on the evenings card and spoke to
him about their question. You can see that video interview
by
clicking here.
Then off course there was the man of the
hour, Shane Mosley who spoke about his spectacular finish in
tonight's fight and where he is going to go from here. And
no Bret, he is not going to Disneyland.
Mosley said that since Margarito is
talking about fighting Cotto again that he is out. Whether
we believe that is why Tony is out is irrelevant here, the
fact is Margarito would most likely put some serious hurt on
Shane and I think we (well most of us, I will get to that
later) would all prefer to see Sugar go out without being
put through that kind of test.
Shane also spoke about some blisters on
his feet that miraculously appeared after his big 6th round
and said that is why he slowed down in the next few rounds,
which allowed Mayorga to get back into the fight. One
reporter suggested that he had never heard of anyone but
runners getting blisters that impeded their performance, to
which Shane replied it was from digging in so hard to land
those huge hooks and right hands......okay?
Last but not least was a little visit
paid to media row by none other than the Golden CEO himself
Richard Schaefer. Apparently Richard was buying some time
for Shane while he was having Dr. Scholl attend to that
blister problem.
As Schaefer arrived at media row
he stated that he will be chatting with with Al Haymon and
Leonard Ellerbe, the manager and (what the heck is Ellerbe?)
other guy, respectively.
"We're going to make them an indecent proposal for Mayweather," Schaefer said. "I'll be with Bob Arum on the promotional tour (The Dream Match) all next week and we'll have some discussions about Margarito and Cotto.
"Margarito has been talking about De La
Hoya, but he needs to take care of some business with Shane
and with Paul Williams before he can think about Oscar. Just
because you have one good night doesn't mean you deserve an
Oscar. Shane has never been the type of guy to turn down a
challenge."
Most of the guys who heard Schaefer's
pun gave a courtesy chuckle but I wasn't near as amused.
There seemed to be a movie theme to
Schaefer's comments, lets review:
"Indecent Proposal" centered around some
guy offering a dude one million dollars to spend the night
with his wife to which the guy and the wife takes the bait
and no one lives happily ever after.
Right now would be the perfect time to
offer Floyd a boat load of money for one nights work since
he got 7 million worth of "bling" ripped from his pad, but
the question is, does Richard really think the Shane he saw
Saturday night can handle a well rested Mayweather, or does
he just want to add to the piles of cash he is accumulating,
even at the chance of having the story end on a sour note
for Shane?
He then made the same suggestion about
Top Rank, and discussions about Cotto and Margarito for
Shane.
Again I have to ask, why is Richard so
Hell bent on throwing Shane into the fire with guys in their
prime when it was pretty apparent Saturday night that Shane
may be past his.
If the answer is once again for the
almighty dollar then I have a real problem with that.
And lastly as to Margarito and the fact
that one good performance doesn't get you an Oscar,
all I can say is PLEEEASE!!
As I recall, after losing a very close
and hotly contested battle to Paul Williams, (a
fight Margarito didn't have to take by the way), Tony
promptly KO'd Golden Johnson in one round, then destroyed
Kermit Cintron for the second time and followed that by
dismantling and destroying the undefeated Champion Miguel
Cotto.
In the meantime Oscar has lost to Floyd
Mayweather and then beat little Stevie Forbes in a bout that
Oscar looked less than stellar in even though he was
fighting a guy smaller than himself. Top that off with the
fact that Oscar is now fighting a guy smaller than Forbes in
a bout that is getting scoffed at by every boxing expert and
fan on the planet, and suddenly that "one good
performance doesn't get you an Oscar" crack rings very
very hollow.
P. S. Did I already mention that Manny
Pacquiao is going to beat Oscar De La Hoya on December
6th..right?
Just Checking.
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