Language skills of Pacquiao, Cotto worry Richie Rich

You’ve got to be ribbing me. I just read where famed TV producer Richie Rich Schaefer said that HBO will have “difficulty” producing a good 24/7 program for the Miguel Cotto-Manny Pacquiao fight because the principals speak limited English. I am sure HBO Sports bossman Ross Greenburg appreciates this language caution from the Golden Boy honcho but it is totally absurd. A week before he fought Joshua Clottey at Madison Square Garden, I spoke with the Puerto Rican star before a public workout in The Bronx. There were about four or five of us including Mitch Abramson, fight scribe for New York Daily News. All questions and answers were in ingles, not en espanol and Cotto handled himself adroitly including some questions as to his fist fight with the brick tossing through his car window by his uncle Evangelista Cotto. Those incidents caused Miguel to give Uncle Nutty the heave ho. Not once did the champion from Caguas request that a question be reasked. Cotto understood the questions and we understood his replies. It went down smooth like mantequilla. As for Pacquiao, I am not ready to compare him with Winston Churchill or Barack Obama when it comes to oratory in the English language but he handled himself nicely in accepting the Fighter of the Year Award from the Boxing Writers Association of America. http://image.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/123-a(5).jpg If I was Boxing Banker RR, I would not worry about Manny's English comprehension. As a politician, Pacman will soon be speaking out of both sides of his mouth in a variety of languages. I think the real concern is how many many breadsticks Manny can fit into his special hat in this photo from Sarangani. As I wrote Wednesday, Bob Arum claims that Pacquiao is using such terms as “anxiety” and “delusional.” And, if there was one true thing we know about Uncle Bob, is that he never tells lies and does not indulge in even the smallest of fibs or exagerrations. In fact, many have compared him to Honest Abe Lincoln but without the stovepipe hat. I always wondered if Lincoln used the stovepipe hat as bread din when it was not on his humungous head. You can bet that HBO does not share Schaefer’s “concern” about producing an entertaining 24/7 episode(s) for Pacman-Cotto. Besides, if HBO viewers can decipher whatever language Floyd Mayweather Sr. speaks (maybe it’s called Mayglish), then they can understand Cotto and Megamanny. Which reminds me to note that no one ever compared L’il Floyd’s microphone rants to the fiery oratory of Malcolm X or the uplifting tone of Robert F. Kennedy. RFK used to say, “Some people see things as they are and say why. I see things as they could be and say why not.” Richie Rich sees things no one else sees and says let me criticize a rival’s promotion for no apparent reason. Just because Schaefer speaks with the same accent as Gov. Schwarznegger doesn’t mean that Cotto and Pacquiao have to. Oh, I guess RR forgot that Juan Manuel Marquez speaks no English at least in public. Is he concerned about Juan Ma regarding a 24/7 show? Relax, Richie Rich, the shows are just harmless hype anyway. They’re not supposed to be “60 Minutes” or “Nightline,” nothing serious like that. No need to worry about the language skills of Cotto and Pacman. They have other skills that pay the bills. As Pacquiao might put it, Herr Schaefer, your anxiety is delusional. Have another breadstick and chill. Finally, getting back to the Governator, his English used to be choppy as can be heard in the video below. It's just too bad that I did not review this highly educational essay before my recent holiday jaunt to Rio. I always wanted to know what Arnie's favorite body part is, didn't you?