MY CONTACT at the Los Angeles Times, sports columnist Bill Dwyre, wrote about a boxing novelty in Las Vegas recently.
No, it wasn’t about a contract signing, finally, between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.
Not by a long shot, because Dwyre has told me he will stick to his guns and not touch Mayweather vs Pacquiao until both had signed on the dotted line for the most awaited fight in boxing history.
Dwyre, instead, reported with gusto on what he calls “a small step back into the limelight for Americans in boxing’s heavyweight division.”
Dwyre’s piece focused on Deontay Wilder, who wrested the WBC heavyweight championship from Haiti’s Bermade (Be Ware) Siverne last Saturday at the MGM Grand Arena.
Wilder, 29, thus became the first heavyweight titlist from the United States since Shannon Briggs in 2006.
“I am a heavyweight and I’m exciting,” Wilder boasted after the fight before 8,643 fans, sparse by Garden Arena standards.
Dwyre worries that Wilder “could be a one-shot wonder.” But the veteran scribe said the American “fought a smart fight, handled a tough customer and … with a 33-0 record (this was his first non-knockout victory), there is promise.”
It was obvious Dwyre had fun covering a fight in the heavyweight division for a change. He said “Wladimir Klitschko eventually taking on Wilder in an attempt to have all the heavyweight titles in the Klitschko family” would not shock him.
Dwyre said “there is suddenly some spice for US fight fans. Many lived through the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier-George Foreman era and may have despaired that they’d ever see a champion in a large body from this country again.”
The MGM Grand is the supposed venue for Mayweather vs Pacquiao should the ghost fight of the century materializes, finally.
The last heavyweight title fight there occurred in 1997 between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield in which Tyson “bit off a portion of Holyfield’s ear and turned off a generation of fans,” said Dwyer.
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They’d prefer golf anytime these days because the fleet feet have slowed down. The barreling drives are gone. The twisting layups are history.
But memories of their glory days on the basketball court are meant to be shared over and over again, so they have banded together to evoke some more.
“We have a ball recalling the past,” said Rene Canent, who is sort of the unofficial skipper of a group of US-based Filipino hardcourt heartthrobs of yore in the college, commercial and pro circuits.
“We call ourselves the lost and found boys of Philippine basketball,” said Canent, a speedy, sharpshooting point guard in the PBA and its predecessor, the Micaa.
Canent is now based in Chino, California. He informed me that the last reunion held this month in the Riverside County city of Eastvale, CA, drew players who likely belong to your own mental database of Pinoy basketball heroes.
Those who showed up included Canent, Danny Florencio, Bernie Fabiosa, Estoy Estrada, Cris Calilan, Gerry Borromeo, Cado Rivera, Bert Flores, Jun Achacoso, Ding Lipata, Joel Gomez, John Bradd, Norman de Vera, Eddie Cuevas, Ben Brillantes, Beto Santiago, Bhot Salas, Totoy Gagan and Jhett Dungo.