Monday 14 February 2011

Underdog Boxing: Pumped up for the Pacquiao-Mosley undercard fights

Posted by chardyboy on Monday, February 14, 2011 0 comments

source: By CARLO L. PAMINTUAN (GMANews.TV)


For Pacquiao Sunday, my cousins and I usually pool money together to purchase the pay-per-view and we’d take turns hosting Pacquiao Sunday. When it’s my turn to host Pacquiao Sunday, I’d turn on the TV really early to watch the Filipino fighters on the undercard. After they’re done, I jump between watching the other undercards and NBA basketball.


I love boxing and basketball but if you made me choose between watching a compelling boxing match and a game between, say, the Miami Heat and the LA Lakers, I’d choose the boxing match. No doubt about it.

The fact that I jump from Pacquiao’s undercard and NBA basketball says a lot. It means that I really don’t find the fights all that interesting. Look, I’m a big fan of boxing. I’d watch it whenever I can but it’s just different when Pacquiao fights. AS we all know, Pacman fights twice a year; I spend the other 363 days of the year thinking and re-thinking everything there is to think about regarding Pacquiao. Adrenalin is flowing through my veins and I’m super amped on the day of the fight but then I’d have to watch Julio Caesar Chavez Jr. beat up another tomato can or see or a fighter like Alfonso Gomez, who was never that good to begin with, beat up an extremely faded Jose Luis Castillo.

To put things into perspective, the best undercard match on Pacquiao’s past five fights was the one between Mike Jones and Jesus Soto Karass. It wasn’t that good; the others were just really bad.

Again, don’t get me wrong. I’d gladly watch any boxing match on a quiet Tuesday evening but not on Pacquiao Sunday. Not when I’m basically high on Pacman fever.

However, it seems that we are nearing the light in the proverbial tunnel. Bob Arum is planning a packed undercard for Pacquiao’s fight against Mosley.

Arum didn’t do this for the past Pacquiao fights for one simple reason. He didn’t have to.

But now, Arum has a different agenda. Because he plucked Pacquiao from HBO to Showtime, Arum is hell-bent on selling more Pacquiao PPVs than ever before to prove that HBO needs him more than he needs them.


His first order of business is landing the rematch of last year’s Fight of the Year candidate. Arum wants Humberto Soto to defend his title against Urbano Antillon.

Next is a Puerto Rico versus Mexico match-up featuring WBO super bantamweight champion Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. against Jorge Arce. We all know that Arce is worth the price of admission.

Those are two world title fights on a Pacquiao undercard which, as far as I can remember, has never happened before.

Arum is also holding a slot open for the return of Kelly Pavlik. The former middleweight champion had a battle with alcoholism but is now back in training for another shot at boxing glory.

If Arum gets all these three fights, the writers who called for a boycott of the Pacquiao-Mosley fight may end up buying the pay-per-view themselves.



About Underdog Boxing

As the legendary Joe Frazier said, “boxing is the only sport you can get your brain shook, your money took, and your name in the undertaker book" yet a few brave men choose to fight for a living. Fighting, in their minds, is the best way to live a better life.


From the moment they throw their first punch, Filipino boxers are already heavy underdogs. They have to make do with rice sacks filled with sand for a punching bags and shirts wrapped around their hands for gloves. They fight for meager pay and, after they fight, they’d have to run back to their jobs in the construction site because they need to feed their families.

This column is for underdogs, boxing and beyond, who work every day to win even if the world tells them that they can’t.

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