By Cliff Rold
Last week on 24/7, Manny Pacquiao’s team continued to bicker, Cotto worked out, Manny’s puppy got left at the airport…and Amanda returns to Melrose Place this week. Heather Locklear isn’t what she was, but she still ain’t bad.
Cue the music, even if narrator Liev Schreiber doesn’t remind us that “this is…24/7.”
No great surprise as the show opens with Team Pacquiao’s training sessions at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles. Jeremy Piven pops in to talk shop with Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach, and the fact that he is the star of one HBO’s biggest hits, Entourage, is certainly coincidental.
No. Really.
Roach explains the long road traveled to get Pacquiao to the point he’s reached. Piven says “Manny will be ready,” but doesn’t have Lloyd there to validate him. A group of fans enters the gym to meet the reigning World Jr. Welterweight champ before the scene shifts to, well, a scene.
In a movie.
A Manny Pacquiao movie. Wapakman is flying soon. Pacquiao stars as a superhero who looks a lot like DC Comics Forager. Roach says “he does it amuse himself,” which is cool and makes for an amusing enough segment. Team Pacquiao heads out for Thai food and the cameras head to Tampa and WBO Welterweight titlist Miguel Cotto.
Like Pacquiao, Cotto is making time for the fans as well as taking part in media day and celebrating his 29th birthday. Cotto shows again why he won’t win any Mr. Personality contests as a reporter asks what his advantages are besides strength. Cotto reiterates what he said to the camera crew last week, “…fights are won here in the gym, here in camp. We’ve trained very well, we’re prepared for whatever he can bring us.”
Cotto doesn’t do trash talk but he’s got stoic down to a science.
Cotto’s mother is back at the Tampa residence cooking up some awesome looking birthday dinner. Brian Perez, Cotto’s best friend according to the show, gets a brief spotlight as a sort of business/PR coordinator.
The Black Eyed Peas play as Pacquiao’s dog shows up at training camp and promptly finds Timmy trapped in a well. Highlights of Pacquiao’s recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel get some air before viewers get a look at Roach in tape review. “I’m looking for habits. I’m not looking for mistakes because everyone can make mistakes in a fight. It’s the habits that he does in every fight. He does the exact same thing in every fight.”
Roach also discusses his feeling that Cotto’s corner is inexperienced, noting Cotto’s habits are unlikely to break before the Pacquiao fight.
The episode reaching the halfway point, the discord between basically everyone in camp and advisor Michael Koncz gets its weekly airing. Roach introduced the two and Koncz over the last five years has, according to Schreiber, “developed his own opinions.”
“There’s no doubt that Freddie has brought Manny along.” Koncz begins. “He’s taught him things that made him a full fighter. On the other hand too, I have to be honest, I think that Freddie’s gotten to where he is because of his pupil Manny. Now would they have both got to the same level if they never saw each other? It’s a hard question for me to answer. Freddie still would have been a great trainer, but would he have been the greatest famous trainer? Maybe not. Would Pacquiao have been the best fighter in the world? I think probably.”
Roach states that he doesn’t know what Koncz’s job is, boiling it down to kissing “Manny’s ass as much as he can to keep Manny happy.” If the show could actually illustrate what impact this is having on Manny, outside of his reluctance to break camp in episode one, it might be interesting. It hasn’t so far and it remains with the feel of melodramatic whatever.
Cotto takes a morning run and some evil soul has remixed Nina Simone’s “Sinnerman,” for background. It is one of the most perfect pieces of music ever recorded. Seriously, no one should tamper with this song. Ever.
In the gym, sparring partner Fred Tukes talks up Cotto’s conditioning as he spends his last day with the team. Tukes leads a team prayer and those making the trek to Las Vegas head to the Tampa mansion to pack. Cotto points out the difference in underwear size between he and his large best friend, revealing that both wear tighty whities.
Back in Los Angeles, Buboy Fernandez, who seemingly serves a function along the lines of Brian Perez, walks into the closet which is also his room in camp. Pacquiao recalls finding childhood his friend on the outs years back and bringing him in to camp. “Buboy is very important to my team, to the corner, and I’m the one who teach him in boxing.” Roach discusses the relationship. “Buboy, he has a tough job. He’s the closest to Manny. Usually the closest one to a person gets yelled at a lot if things go wrong.” Schreiber narrates that Fernandez brings needed “unequivocal loyalty” and Roach notes he couldn’t get through a fight without him.
Roach’s mother swings by the gym, adding a personal touch which reminds of where this show can hit high points. On Pacquiao, Momma Roach adds, “I know a great boxer when I see one,” and it would be hard to argue. She’s seen her share.
Team Cotto heads to the airport, making the cross country flight to Las Vegas. A thong of fans greeting Cotto at the airport reminds that the fight is getting close. An appearance at the gym by promoter Bob Arum adds to the momentum. Arum adds some commentary on how good Cotto is right now and how Roach is playing mind games with Cotto trainer Joe Santiago.
Along with adding to the momentum, Arum’s spin reminds that this is not really a documentary. It is a commercial and the promoter of note for the fight just got his sell time in.
Schreiber takes the show out with some meta-babble as Cotto rolls through the streets of Vegas.
Final Thoughts:
Last week, and the week before, in the final thoughts, the following was offered: If this show failed, and it has three episodes to correct it, it was in the lack of perspective given to Pacquiao’s career. It was a similar problem in the 24/7’s for his bouts with Oscar De La Hoya and Hatton. The full scope of what Pacquiao has done, and is attempting to do, is not being fully conveyed…Not once in the show was it noted that Pacquiao is challenging Cotto for a title in a seventh weight class, a feat never seen even in this watered down era of ‘belts for all.’
The same problem was on hand. Again. Given reports that this edition of 24/7 isn’t setting the world on fire in terms of audience, maybe trying to explain why the fight matters would help.
The stuff with Koncz is already played out and there’s no one left to call him a pool boy or gopher that hasn’t already had their turn. Roach said no one knows what he does. Neither do the viewers. Maybe if anyone did, this would be compelling. Instead it’s just lame and most of Team Pacquiao wears an expression which agrees with the sentiment.
This is a sport. Part of sports is noting stakes. There is no stake in Pacquiao’s admittedly smarmy advisor. There is a stake in a former Flyweight champion taking on no less than 1A in the Welterweight division for a piece of that crown.
It’s never happened before.
Three weeks in, no one watching this show would know that. Instead, we know about dogs and friends, and underwear. I don’t know who gets excited to see two guys hit each other because of that. Thankfully, boxing fans know this fight is exciting without it.
This has been a painfully dull version of 24/7 so far and about the only thing which can save it is an appearance from Floyd Mayweather. The winner of this bout is likely to face him sometime next year and he would add to the impression of athletic stakes. This show needs that. It needed it two weeks ago. Grade: B-
Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
