BoxRec

ANIMALS IN THE MIRROR

My father got out of the War in '47. He was with the 5th Marines helping disarm the Japanese Army in Peking,China. When he got back to Chicago the Outfit had him run an "errand' in New York City. His Uncle Chaz had a place in the Bronx so it was normal that he holed up with him.

Uncle Chaz had a wooden leg and was running numbers(hobbling along I guess)for the Syndicate in Pelham. That's's where he introduced my dad to the Bull.

My dad was a big Jake LaMotta fan. To hear my father talk about LaMotta,it was like he never lost a fight to Sugar Ray Robinson.My father always talked about Jake's unrelentless style and how he'd play "possum' in the ring and then pour it on.

Whenever my father talked about LaMotta though,I always thought he was describing himself. The point is that LaMotta and my father seemed to have no regrets. Unless it was a disappointment about something they couldn't get away with probably along the lines of something south of the law.

I read LaMotta's ghost written autobiography. When Marty Scorcese read it he was amazed that Jake never showed remorse for nothin'. He had to make the movie. What Scorsese saw in LaMotte was exactly like the story in the book. The word"sorry"was no where in Jake's vocabulary.

Same with my dad. He'd walk right through the freshly planted flowers stomping them all over like nothing happened. It was never his fault. It was the other guy's. I could see how Jake and my dad must have hit it off. When in "grease ball mode" they must have made quite a duo. Something out of Goodfellas. I always thought my dad would have fitted perfectly in one of those Mafie movies,but everytime my dad watched one of those pictures he'd say it was all wrong.
"They would have never said that." Or,"That would have never happened."
My dad would then go on to tell what really would have happened. My dad's story was always better. Maybe because he lived it. LaMotta lived it too. Animals who couldn't recognize their images in the mirror. Must be nice to be that way. You don't have to say you're sorry.

kikibalt wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKljPyIRTNc
"Camino De Guanajuato"

Jose Alfredo Jimenez

That song always gets me. Thanks.

dagosd2000 wrote:

kikibalt wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKljPyIRTNc
"Camino De Guanajuato"

Jose Alfredo Jimenez

That song always gets me. Thanks.

My dad was born in the state of Guanajuato, don't know what town.... on me.

kikibalt wrote:Rog, here is an oldie, way older then you and me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z0iHQvHSeA
"Maria Bonita"

Agustin Lara

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96NzAzGIWoI
"Solamente Una Vez"

Frank
That was Lara's wife Maria Felix in the video. He wrote that song for her.

I remember my parents taking me to see her perform at the Rosarito Beach Hotel in the late 50's. I couldn't take my eyes off of her. She was tall and dark , and had every male in the audience wanting her and every woman hating her guts

dagosd2000 wrote:

kikibalt wrote:Rog, here is an oldie, way older then you and me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z0iHQvHSeA
"Maria Bonita"

Agustin Lara

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96NzAzGIWoI
"Solamente Una Vez"

Frank
That was Lara's wife Maria Felix in the video. He wrote that song for her.

I remember my parents taking me to see her perform at the Rosarito Beach Hotel in the late 50's. I couldn't take my eyes off of her. She was tall and dark , and had every male in the audience wanting her and every woman hating her guts

Yeah! my dad used to tell me about Lara and Felix when I was young. My dad loved to listen to Lara, nobody could talk to my dad when he was listening to Lara....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o87hRVOqdw

The beauty of Maria Felix

kikibalt wrote:

dagosd2000 wrote:

kikibalt wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKljPyIRTNc
"Camino De Guanajuato"

Jose Alfredo Jimenez

That song always gets me. Thanks.

My dad was born in the state of Guanajuato, don't know what town.... on me.

Frank
Guanajuato,Michoacan,and Jalisco is the real core of Mexico. It doesn't get any more down home than there.

"Cantinflas" Mario Moreno

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPRUPBMtqPQ

Frank
I bet your dad liked this guy.

dagosd2000 wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPRUPBMtqPQ

Frank
I bet your dad liked this guy.

No, my dad didn't like that kind of music, he liked Lara's and Pedro vargas's kind of music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3stBSndDGs
"Aquel Amor"

Pedro Vargas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqLUgNkhvsU
"Sin_Ti"

Los Ponchos

Frank
When I first started to work in the school district 20 years ago,the Mexican kids knew of their heritage. At Juvenile Hall,the easiest unit to work was the illegals that had broken the law and were waiting to be deported. These kids had 3 squares ,hot showers,a flush toilet,and clean clothes. They made sure they always swept up the dorm and never caused trouble. During free time I'd bring movies of Cantinflas,Pedro Infante,and Maria Felix. They loved those movies. Today,the Mexican kids don't even know who Pancho Villa was.

Same with the songs. Mexican kids loved the traditional songs. Along the border and in Southern California,the culture has diminished. That's why I like going to Michoacan,especially the pueblos and the ranchos. The culture is still strong and rich. By the time it's gone,I'l be gone too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtJg5wkqMDw

My niece Fabiola sings this song with the passion of the great Lola Beltran.

PALOMA

dagosd2000 wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o87hRVOqdw

The beauty of Maria Felix

That dude is Pedro Armendariz, who I used to see at the Olympic when Enrique Bolanos or Art Aragon were fighting. alway had a nice looking lady on his arm.

dagosd2000 wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtJg5wkqMDw

My niece Fabiola sings this song with the passion of the great Lola Beltran.

PALOMA

Same song, when she was younger, I think sang it better then.

kikibalt wrote:

dagosd2000 wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o87hRVOqdw

The beauty of Maria Felix

That dude is Pedro Armendariz, who I used to see at the Olympic when Enrique Bolanos or Art Aragon were fighting. alway had a nice looking lady on his arm.

Pedro Armedariz was my favorite Mexican actor. Played a great Pancho Villa.

Spoke fluent English. Drinking pal of John Wayne.

Margarito-Mosley is a hit show

There are expected to be 20,000 for the fight at Staples Center, where boxing hasn't found much of a home recently.

By Bill Dwyre
LATimes

In a time of national gloom and doom, boxing is having one of its happier moments.

Tonight's Antonio Margarito-Shane Mosley fight at Staples Center is just the centerpiece, the reason to show up for dinner. The good stuff is the appetizers and dessert.

Margarito is the World Boxing Assn. welterweight champion, which means nothing except to the people who collect sanctioning fees at the WBA. Some flunkie will follow Margarito around the ring before the fight, holding his WBA belt high. But other than that, and the announcement of the winner as "still" or "the new" WBA champion, sanctions and organizations will have no part in this.

It's all about matchup and box-office appeal, and the first thing that has made for great joy for the boxing gods, a.k.a. promoters Bob Arum and Richard Schaefer, is that this Staples fight has become a hit show. As of Thursday afternoon, all seats, including the 5,500 around the top rung that are so far away the fighters will look like ants, are sold.

That means the attendance for a boxing match that (a) does not involve Oscar De La Hoya (b) is not a heavyweight match and (c) has no slot machines or blackjack tables adding to the allure, will draw 20,000 people.

That's no small thing these days for the people who run Staples. As one executive of the Staples operation noted recently, there are now long stretches between rock concerts and other shows that used to be a staple of Staples, because none of the promoters want to charge lower ticket prices or play to empty seats.

And so, at a place where it used to be an afterthought or an add-on if the schedule permitted, boxing is bringing a welcome ringing of cash registers to Staples. With talk of more to come.

Margarito-Mosley is a nice fight, but it's not Ali-Frazier, as the rush for tickets would indicate.

Margarito is the current heir apparent to a perceived need of Mexican boxing fans to have a new Julio Cesar Chavez. He was a warrior and so is Margarito, who generally wins fights with destruction, rather than deception or defense. He is 30 years old, was born in Torrance but has lived most of his life in Tijuana, and speaks mostly Spanish in public. Margarito seemed to take over the Mexican Warrior Crown with his recent defeat of Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico, who was thought to be indestructible. That made Margarito's record 37-5, with all but 10 of the victories knockouts.

Mosley is 37, has a record of 45-5, with 38 knockouts, and has won four of those sanctioning group titles along the way. He, too, is a nice fighter who, in his prime, had the hand and foot speed, plus the punch, to mess with Margarito. The question is whether Mosley is still in his prime.

Mosley, who learned his trade under his father, Jack, in Pomona, hit the bright lights with two victories over De La Hoya, and the second one now is the focus of additional buzz, which boxing loves.

After Mosley beat De La Hoya in 2003, he was called to testify before a grand jury in the ongoing BALCO drug scandal that had already swirled around various track stars such as Marion Jones and baseball's Barry Bonds. Mosley's testimony was released recently, and contrary to his sincere-sounding statements in public that he had gone to BALCO but didn't know what he had taken, the transcripts indicate he knew.

Interestingly, that means that, unlike several other sports stars, Mosley apparently told the truth when it counted most, to the grand jury, and has only strayed from that to the public. Unlike others, he likely faces no further legal problems nor jail time. But he seems unable or unwilling -- assuming the grand jury transcripts are as straightforward as they seem -- to fess up to the fans.

Thursday, after a news conference, Mosley was asked how sick he was of all the drug talk and how he might get rid of that. Mosley mumbled something, then turned to his right, where his lawyer, Judd Burstein, waved the question away.

It won't go away, of course. HBO, which will carry the fight live, starting at 7 p.m., has already made it clear that its announcers will not be avoiding the Mosley drug question, as they did during September's Mosley-Ricardo Mayorga telecast.

" . . . We have a responsibility, journalistically, to the viewer," said Ross Greenburg, head of HBO sports, as quoted by the New York Daily News.

If that wasn't enough for the Sport of Chaos, there was the weeklong, on-again off-again Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton fight. It was perfect because boxing, once it gets to the week of the big fight it has been selling, quickly turns to the next big one. Both sides in that one squabbled about money and respect and the greed of the other guy. Arum and Schaefer, promoters for Pacquiao and Hatton, respectively, grumbled and harrumphed. All of it made is way into papers and onto websites.

Golly. It turns out the Pacquiao-Hatton fight, originally scheduled for May 2 in Las Vegas before all the fussing and fighting, will be May 2 in Las Vegas.

Then there was Friday's weigh-in, featuring more noise and activity, leading nowhere. Margarito weighed 145.5 pounds. Mosley hit the scales first at 147.2, two-tenths too high to allow this to be a title fight. Five minutes later, he returned, hit 147 on the nose and all was well again. There's a Jenny Craig endorsement there somewhere.

This morning, at a hotel near Staples, boxing will have a news conference to further hype the Feb. 7 match at the Honda Center in Anaheim between Jorge Arce and Vic Darchinyan. They are super-flyweights whose mouths are larger than their bodies and who have already hurled various verbal bombs at each other. More will come.

For boxing, this is heaven.

[email protected].

Tony in 7 or 8 rounds.

kikibalt wrote:Margarito-Mosley is a hit show

There are expected to be 20,000 for the fight at Staples Center, where boxing hasn't found much of a home recently.

By Bill Dwyre
LATimes

In a time of national gloom and doom, boxing is having one of its happier moments.

Tonight's Antonio Margarito-Shane Mosley fight at Staples Center is just the centerpiece, the reason to show up for dinner. The good stuff is the appetizers and dessert.

Margarito is the World Boxing Assn. welterweight champion, which means nothing except to the people who collect sanctioning fees at the WBA. Some flunkie will follow Margarito around the ring before the fight, holding his WBA belt high. But other than that, and the announcement of the winner as "still" or "the new" WBA champion, sanctions and organizations will have no part in this.

It's all about matchup and box-office appeal, and the first thing that has made for great joy for the boxing gods, a.k.a. promoters Bob Arum and Richard Schaefer, is that this Staples fight has become a hit show. As of Thursday afternoon, all seats, including the 5,500 around the top rung that are so far away the fighters will look like ants, are sold.

That means the attendance for a boxing match that (a) does not involve Oscar De La Hoya (b) is not a heavyweight match and (c) has no slot machines or blackjack tables adding to the allure, will draw 20,000 people.

That's no small thing these days for the people who run Staples. As one executive of the Staples operation noted recently, there are now long stretches between rock concerts and other shows that used to be a staple of Staples, because none of the promoters want to charge lower ticket prices or play to empty seats.

And so, at a place where it used to be an afterthought or an add-on if the schedule permitted, boxing is bringing a welcome ringing of cash registers to Staples. With talk of more to come.

Margarito-Mosley is a nice fight, but it's not Ali-Frazier, as the rush for tickets would indicate.

Margarito is the current heir apparent to a perceived need of Mexican boxing fans to have a new Julio Cesar Chavez. He was a warrior and so is Margarito, who generally wins fights with destruction, rather than deception or defense. He is 30 years old, was born in Torrance but has lived most of his life in Tijuana, and speaks mostly Spanish in public. Margarito seemed to take over the Mexican Warrior Crown with his recent defeat of Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico, who was thought to be indestructible. That made Margarito's record 37-5, with all but 10 of the victories knockouts.

Mosley is 37, has a record of 45-5, with 38 knockouts, and has won four of those sanctioning group titles along the way. He, too, is a nice fighter who, in his prime, had the hand and foot speed, plus the punch, to mess with Margarito. The question is whether Mosley is still in his prime.

Mosley, who learned his trade under his father, Jack, in Pomona, hit the bright lights with two victories over De La Hoya, and the second one now is the focus of additional buzz, which boxing loves.

After Mosley beat De La Hoya in 2003, he was called to testify before a grand jury in the ongoing BALCO drug scandal that had already swirled around various track stars such as Marion Jones and baseball's Barry Bonds. Mosley's testimony was released recently, and contrary to his sincere-sounding statements in public that he had gone to BALCO but didn't know what he had taken, the transcripts indicate he knew.

Interestingly, that means that, unlike several other sports stars, Mosley apparently told the truth when it counted most, to the grand jury, and has only strayed from that to the public. Unlike others, he likely faces no further legal problems nor jail time. But he seems unable or unwilling -- assuming the grand jury transcripts are as straightforward as they seem -- to fess up to the fans.

Thursday, after a news conference, Mosley was asked how sick he was of all the drug talk and how he might get rid of that. Mosley mumbled something, then turned to his right, where his lawyer, Judd Burstein, waved the question away.

It won't go away, of course. HBO, which will carry the fight live, starting at 7 p.m., has already made it clear that its announcers will not be avoiding the Mosley drug question, as they did during September's Mosley-Ricardo Mayorga telecast.

" . . . We have a responsibility, journalistically, to the viewer," said Ross Greenburg, head of HBO sports, as quoted by the New York Daily News.

If that wasn't enough for the Sport of Chaos, there was the weeklong, on-again off-again Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton fight. It was perfect because boxing, once it gets to the week of the big fight it has been selling, quickly turns to the next big one. Both sides in that one squabbled about money and respect and the greed of the other guy. Arum and Schaefer, promoters for Pacquiao and Hatton, respectively, grumbled and harrumphed. All of it made is way into papers and onto websites.

Golly. It turns out the Pacquiao-Hatton fight, originally scheduled for May 2 in Las Vegas before all the fussing and fighting, will be May 2 in Las Vegas.

Then there was Friday's weigh-in, featuring more noise and activity, leading nowhere. Margarito weighed 145.5 pounds. Mosley hit the scales first at 147.2, two-tenths too high to allow this to be a title fight. Five minutes later, he returned, hit 147 on the nose and all was well again. There's a Jenny Craig endorsement there somewhere.

This morning, at a hotel near Staples, boxing will have a news conference to further hype the Feb. 7 match at the Honda Center in Anaheim between Jorge Arce and Vic Darchinyan. They are super-flyweights whose mouths are larger than their bodies and who have already hurled various verbal bombs at each other. More will come.

For boxing, this is heaven.

[email protected].

I'm going tomorrow with some friends. Haven't been to a big local fight in a long time. They just don't feel the way the used to, however, I'm looking forward to a good time. A cameraman friend of mine and his brother have some sort of box at the Staples Center. They have it for any event and they wanted me to join them for this fight. From what I'm told, the private room is high, behind a picture window with a big screen TV, sofa, a bar. Sounds like fun, but I hope I can see the fight. When I get home, I'll let you know how it went.

-Rick Farris

dagosd2000 wrote:Tony in 7 or 8 rounds.

I pick Margarito, by decision. I believe Shane will stay on his feet? Regardless of the result, this one is going to hurt Mosely.

Rick Farris wrote:

bennie wrote:

kikibalt wrote:Ricardo "Guapo" Varela


You guys remember Ricardo?, he fought at the
Olympic a few times in the 1970s, maybe into
the early 1980s

He was a tough fighter, fringe world class.

I'm amazed that I draw a blank when trying to place this guy. There was a period in the late 70's, after I'd stopped boxing, when I didn't attend fights or the gym. I needed to focus on other things, and eventually I started to follow boxing again in my 30's. He must of come up during that period.

-Rick

I was like that in the 1990s, Rick. The whole decade is a bit of a blur to me, boxing-wise. I used to follow the little guys in the 1980s and Varela's name immediately rang a bell. He fought everyone, really, and quit as soon as someone stopped him (Marcos Villasana).

kikibalt wrote:Bernard Docusen

Hi Everyone,


Here are a few pictures from my dad's funeral. The first picture is of the pallbearers: His sons,
Joseph Bernard Jr., David, Danny and his grandsons.






He was given honors from the military because he served in the army for one year.

Patricia

A sad day but a proud day. There are not many who receive a send-off such as this. RIP, the late, great Bernard Docusen.

For Shane Mosley, it's a weighty issue

Boxing is just over the limit initially, but he makes it soon after. Antonio Margarito endured no
such problem.

By Lance Pugmire

Shane Mosley stepped off the scale when it hit the welterweight limit of 147 pounds Friday, but then a state athletic commissioner ordered him back on. It then read 147.2 pounds.

"The scale only stopped at 147 just briefly and it ticked upward . . . so he's got to lose two-tenths of a pound," commissioner Timothy Noonan announced to a weigh-in crowd assembled at L.A. Live.

Tijuana's Antonio Margarito, the World Boxing Assn. welterweight champion who'll defend his belt for the first time Saturday night against Mosley in front of an expected crowd of 20,000 at Staples Center, weighed in without drama at 145.8 pounds. He was unsympathetic to Mosley's plight.

"I don't ever have that problem. I always make weight way before," Margarito said. "He has to make that weight. That's his problem."

Less than 10 minutes later, after Mosley's business partner and fellow boxer Bernard Hopkins of Golden Boy Promotions cracked, "You can talk and lose two-tenths of a pound," Mosley weighed in at 147 even.

Asked how he shed the weight that quickly, Mosley shrugged, "Used the restroom."

Packing them in

Fight promoters are predicting a Staples Center record crowd tonight as Pomona's Mosley returns for the first time to the scene of his greatest triumph, the action-packed 2000 decision over Oscar De La Hoya.

Staples sold thousands of $25 upper-deck tickets for the Margarito-Mosley bout. With his training center based in the San Gabriel Valley, Margarito (37-5, 27 knockouts) was clearly the crowd favorite at the weigh-in and said he expected similar treatment at the fight.

"This will be my house and I will make them proud," Margarito said.

The 37-year-old Mosley (45-5, 38 KOs) admitted he expected raucous support for the champion, but let it be known who has won four world titles in three different divisions.

"I respect [the fans]," he said, "As long as they know 'Sugar' Shane Mosley is here. Antonio Margarito's a great warrior. This is going to be a real rumble."

Fight strategy

Margarito has made it no secret that his willingness to bring pressure and withstand any Mosley shots with his strong chin is the game plan.

"I've faced stronger punchers than Mosley, and they haven't knocked me out," Margarito said. "The key for me is to pressure him and see if he can stand up to my punches."

Mosley says he possesses the experience and still-sharp reflexes to counter the Margarito power. He replaced his father Jack Mosley as his trainer with Nazim Richardson, who trained the 43-year-old Hopkins to his stunning victory over the younger, stronger Kelly Pavlik in October.

"We plan to make Margarito fight a Shane Mosley fight," Richardson said. "We'll be maneuvering. I do feel just as confident here with Shane as I did with Bernard before Pavlik, more so. I understood the questions about Bernard's age. He was way past 40. I don't understand it with Shane. He's not past his prime. I see his tenaciousness, and the truth will reveal itself [Saturday].

"All I ask is for all of you not to de-fang, or de-claw this guy [Margarito] after we beat him. You're saying he's a monster now. Call him a monster afterward. And call Shane the monster killer."

Mosley said the Margarito style is nothing new to him, given his fights with numerous aggressive Latino fighters.

"Of course, I grew up in California fighting these kinds of fights," Mosley said. "Most Mexicans are strong and come right at you. I know how to handle it. I can be around the war, but not in the war."

Speaking of the past

Margarito's rise to a $2.3-million purse in this fight is remarkable not only for the fact that he has lost five fights in his career, but for just how humble his professional career used to be.

Boxing writer Norm Frauenheim remembers covering a Margarito fight for the Arizona Republic in 2000 at Phoenix's El Gran Mercado. Margarito won by first-round TKO over Jose Luis Benitez, but it was his ring entry outfit that still draws laughter.

Margarito wore a plastic shower curtain for a robe and a paper Burger King crown atop his head, Frauenheim recalled, and when he reminded Margarito of that Thursday, the welterweight king flashed a smile of satisfaction.

Ortiz's future in limbo

The promotional future of talented Oxnard junior-welterweight Victor Ortiz (23-1-1, 18 KOs) is in limbo after a court ruling this week, said Golden Boy Promotions chief executive Richard Schaefer.

Ortiz left former promoter Bob Arum's Top Rank company after bankruptcy following a November 2007 fight. Arum railed last month about Ortiz's bankruptcy claim being nothing more than a ploy by the fighter's managers to escape the Top Rank contract.

The court ruling gives Arum greater leverage to pursue more litigation forcing Ortiz to return, but Golden Boy has already invested a signing bonus in Ortiz.

So, Friday, Schaefer said, "We're trying to structure something with Bob . . . the best thing is for us to work something out. We're discussing that now."

[email protected]

Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton fight is on, promoter Bob Arum says

A signed contract is in hand, ending a turbulent negotiation to get the fighters to the ring for a junior-welterweight bout in Las Vegas on May 2.

By Lance Pugmire
January 24, 2009

Manny Pacquiao's signed contract to fight England's Ricky Hatton on May 2 in Las Vegas reached his promoter Bob Arum's hands this morning.

Arriving nearly a month later than expected, the document with Pacquiao's signature allowed Arum to close a turbulent negotiation and say with finality, "The fight is on, everything's fine."

Arum revealed that Pacquiao received a bump in pay, to 52% of the purse to Hatton's 48%. The Filipino star, considered the world's top pound-for-pound boxer, is guaranteed a personal-best purse of $12 million that would escalate based on pay-per-view sales.

The pay-per-view distributor remains unsettled, but the junior-welterweight bout will be staged at MGM Grand Garden Arena, where Pacquiao (48-3-2, 36 knockouts) battered Oscar De La Hoya last month and where Hatton (45-1, 32 KOs) scored a technical knockout over Paulie Malignaggi in November.

Hatton brought a larger throng of Britons to Las Vegas in December 2007, when he was knocked out by Floyd Mayweather Jr. while the city hosted a festive week of singing, cheering and drinking by the international visitors.


Another large Hatton crowd is expected for the May 2 fight, which will be boxing's most lucrative in the first half of 2009.

For lightweight champion Pacquiao, the bout will be his fourth consecutive in a different weight class after he beat WBC super featherweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez by decision in March, knocked out lightweight champ David Diaz during the summer and then dominated De La Hoya in a welterweight meeting.

Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, recently assessed the Hatton bout in an attached video, saying, "Hatton's a guy that comes to you. . . . He's a very good style for us." Hatton has never lost at 140 pounds.

Hatton on Wednesday instructed his promoter, Richard Schaefer, to back out of the Pacquiao negotiations after tiring of waiting for the Filipino boxer to deliver his signed contract to Arum. Schaefer called Pacquiao a "spoiled young kid." Pacquiao declared talk of a cancellation a "bluff" in a prepared statement in which he urged Hatton to cut out the "middlemen" and "get it on."

Arum on Thursday announced he would board a flight to Manila to secure Pacquiao's signature. Then, hours later, Arum learned from Pacquiao's people that the contract was signed and would be in his Las Vegas office by this morning. All along, Arum and Roach had bemoaned their inability to get Pacquiao on the phone from the Philippines. He finally picked up late Thursday night.

"He started laughing," Arum said. "I told him, 'I can't believe I found a fighter I can really speak to.'

"This whole thing was very difficult because of the time difference and the cultural difference."

Asked what ultimately persuaded Pacquiao to sign the contract, Arum said, "I'm not a psychiatrist, I don't know. We did a tweak here [increasing his purse percentage, for one] and a tweak there." Urged to elaborate, Arum said, "That's none of your business."

The promoter was to meet with Schaefer early this afternoon to plan a new press tour that earlier this week was scrapped in Britain because of Pacquiao's delays.

[email protected]