When Hagler Speaks We Listen
Dubai is perfectly situated to host Mayweather vs. Pacquiao. Its location is ideal, being only 100 miles from Iran…
We have a policy not to report every rumor and scrap of gossip that cuts through the credibility of websites like a hot knife cuts through butter. Don’t get us wrong. We’re all for wishful thinking. In fact, we’re so for wishful thinking that when our Board of Directors gathers each month to discuss our finances over gruel and Red Bull, we begin each meeting by forming a circle, dropping to our knees, where we join hands, look to the heavens, and repeat “Mayweather-Pacquiao, Mayweather-Pacquiao, Mayweather-Pacquiao” no less than a dozen times.
Admittedly, we sometimes get carried away. The chanting often seems to last hours. Some of us grow dizzy and red in the face as we intone our favorite mantra. Our pulses race, our blood pressures rise, our eyes lose focus, become watery, and look glassy. If it weren’t for our company secretary, the levelheaded Miss Cavendish, who is the embodiment of pulchritude and common sense, we might never shut our mouths, regain our wits, climb to our feet, and take our seats at the conference table to attend to the business at hand.
The sole reason I’m sharing this secret of Boxing.com’s innermost workings is because one of our heroes, former middleweight champion Marvelous Marvin Hagler, has broken his silence on that which matters more to us than anything in the world. Unless one has been on a desert island or their head is where the sun don’t shine, I’m referring of course of the proposed fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. Although Hagler is in Italy, when he speaks we listen, with awe, with reverence, with rapt attention, and enjoy nothing better than burying our skepticism beneath shovelfuls of blind faith.
Speaking from his home in Milan, Hagler has joined forces with former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield in support of Dubai’s bid to host the “once-in-a-lifetime,” assuming there is life after death, fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao.
“Boxing has been around for many years and has an established audience,” Hagler told Gulf News, “but it’s always good to seek a new audience. This could help to reawaken the sport if it were hosted in new markets like Dubai.”
Dubai is perfectly situated to host the fight. Its location is ideal, being only 100 miles from Iran. Not only that. The once-oil rich kingdom has had its own crash of sorts, making it not unlike Las Vegas in that regard, and its stock market is down 75 percent from its pre-2008 high. But black gold still flows in Dubai, if not like water, as was once the case, at least like quicksand.
“Boxing fans from all over the world remember the ‘Thrilla in Manila’ and the ‘Rumble in The Jungle,’” continued the Marvelous One, “because those fights shocked the world and gave boxing its place at the number one spot in sport at that moment in time.”
There’s a seven-hour time difference between Dubai and, say, New York, so a 9:00 pm fight in Dubai would be broadcast live on PPV at four in the morning. That’s a bit past our bedtime. But we’re more than willing to wake up earlier than usual, feed the hogs and chickens, and still have time to catch the fight.
And as luck would have it, Hagler, like us, albeit for different reasons, believes time is relative and need not be an obstacle to a fight for which obstacles have become the norm.
“A fight of this nature would be a great deal because the world would be watching no matter what time it is.
“I can’t say if money or the time-zone factor will count Dubai out of the equation, but regardless I would have thought Dubai has a good chance. You know the name of the game. Whoever has the money can host the fight. So ultimately it depends on who can financially host it.”
Hearing those words is music to our ears. Not that Dubai is around the corner exactly. But at least someone whose credibility is beyond reproach is seeking the answer to our wildest dreams.
While those of us sitting around the conference table are wreathed in beatific halos of hopefulness, the lovely Miss Cavendish, who has the temperament of the Rock of Gibraltar to go along with her hourglass figure, is smirking in the background.
