@yo Pac… / You shoulda neva came back / You just the past, ie., you ass, just face facts!/ Or just tha mirror- but you don’t hear her, you gettin napped/ I got cho strap bitch its mine Pac can’t get it back
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It’s a really good thing Manny Pacquiao doesn’t listen to crap, because a lot of “it” has flowed from the mouth of WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas ahead of their upcoming November 5th showdown at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
Watching the two of them together during last week’s press conference removed any need for corny ass sound bites captured by mics at the podium at all.
Here’s the deal: Pacquiao and Vargas don’t like each other and you should love it. Allow me to explain…
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‘NO FEAR’ And Loathing In Las Vegas
Pac’s had an interesting 2016 to say the least. First, he went ‘animals’ on gays before going Tasmanian Devil on Timothy Bradley in Vegas on April 9th.
He retired; got more involved with politics, then flirted with the idea of realizing an Olympic dream in Rio– before a few irritated constituents started looking at him like he was Juan Manuel Marquez walking through their halls.
I picture it going like this…Pac backs off, while waiting for the wizened dealmaker Bob Arum to fly into the Philippines with an offer to face Terence Crawford for the same money he made in 2006. (OK, I wasn’t a fly on the wall for that meeting, but indulge me lol).
Pac loses his mind and demands Mayweather, but is willing to beat up Adrien Broner instead. Somehow, Arum swims back to America to chat with Broner.
Broner asks for a piece of the Vatican and goes to jail. HBO sends Pac a copy of Patti Labelle and Michael MacDonald’s “On My Own” while singing karaoke with Canelo Alvarez.
Insulted, Pac goes back to his early 2000’s “No Fear” look, as both he and Arum are pissed at HBO for giving them the middle fingers.
Arum, rejuvenated and feisty as a half his age, decides to put on an all Top Rank affair with the in-house Vargas, a former TMT fighter who’s cool with the notorious Angel “Memo” Heredia and feeling some kinda way about not being taken seriously.
All of this suggests that Pacquiao will enter the ring for Vargas with the same mindset he had on December 8, 2012 while focused on a reverse result. He’ll be facing a younger, Antonio Margarito-like champion in Vargas looking to start his future legend against an all-time great in a time machine. Or at least, he thinks he is.
Shit happens.
—John Gatling (aka Taz) is a southpaw from Plainfield, NJ and the boxing opinionator lives in the Boston area. He was inspired by hometown heroes Harold “The Shadow” Knight and Glenwood “The Real Beast” Brown to get deeper into the fight game. Follow John on Twitter (@johngatling_) and Facebook (facebook.com/taznj)
