Fair Play: Keeping the weight secret

OSCAR dela Hoya, for all the questions regarding his fading skills in his last years as an active boxer, is one astute promoter.

While everyone thinks that everything that can be done to promote a card—staged press con brawls to short reality TVish shows—has been done, dela Hoya, the owner of Golden Boy Promotions, has discovered a novelty.

He’s keeping the weight secret.

As of the latest news, Manny Pacquiao’s fight against Miguel Cotto is stalled in this one. But it is no secret. Pacquiao wants it at 143, while Cotto wants it at 145. Along the way the two will meet somewhere on a catch weight.

In their last fights, some 15 pounds separated welterweight king Floyd Mayweather Jr. and lightweight Juan Manuel Marquez.

The two are meeting again.

At what weight, dela Hoya isn’t telling.
Why? Your guess, is as good as mine.

But according to the Associated Press, “Mayweather, Marquez and their promoters curiously won’t reveal the exact weight limit for the fight, saying only it’s a welterweight bout—which could mean anything from 141 pounds to the 147-pound class limit. Dela Hoya claimed the mystery is designed to get people to watch the weigh-in on Sept. 18.”

I think this is the first time that stuff like this has been kept a secret.

Weigh-ins are not very interesting events, and that’s why news agencies only offer perfunctory coverage during these events.

They only get a few paragraphs more if a fighter fails to make the weight.

Somehow, dela Hoya is hoping to change all that.

And Mayweather, Marquez and their promoters need all the interest they can drum up for their fight—which Top Rank said was postponed because nobody was interested to buy the tickets—because also on the same day, boxing’s biggest rival, UFC, will be staging an event.

ESPN announced that UFC 103 will be staged on the same night in Dallas, going head to head with a major boxing card, for the first time.

A couple of years ago, Mayweather once said of UFC “It ain’t but a fad,” and of UFC stars. “Anyone can put a tattoo on their head and get in a street fight…These are guys who couldn’t make it in boxing. So they do (MMA).”

I guess, UFC remembered what Pretty Boy Floyd, who goes by the name Money, t said and are not putting their money on Money.

OUT-DATED UPDATES. It’s a good thing that this early, Balls TV, Philippine TV’s official broadcaster for the 2010 World Cup, is starting to promote the event.

Just recently, they also started a few “getting to know football” snippets. Offering a few infomercials of the game.

However, whoever is in charge of these infomercials didn’t do his or her research well.

A few days back, I saw Balls TV feature “the golden goal” rule.

Well, Fifa dropped this rule a few years back and this wasn’t even used during the 2006 World Cup.

Solar played spoilsport during the last World Cup by offering it on pay per view. I hope Balls TV, who brags about “having it,” won’t do the same.

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