You’ve probably seen black and white photos of the old Yankee Stadium, frozen moments of sports history that speak of another time. Spectators in suits. Lit cigars. A haze of romance under the bright lights. And in some photographs, a boxing ring replaces the infield, two men replace nine. Benny Leonard. Jack Dempsey. Henry Armstrong. Willy Pep. Joe Louis. Sugar Ray Robinson. Rocky Marciano. Muhammad Ali. These boxing icons all showcased their talent at the house that Ruth built. And on these long-ago fight nights, polite pinstripes were absent. Present were two men, torsos exposed, fighting for their reputations and their lives.
On September 10th at the new Yankee Stadium, a fight wasn’t held, but a press conference was. Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao were in New York City hyping their November 14th showdown, which will happen in Las Vegas at the house that MGM built. This mega-fight, between the current pound-for-pound best against one of the toughest, smartest and most resilient fighters in the sport, promises to be a classic. Pacquiao is brutal aggression. Cotto is brutal counter-aggression. It’s a styles-make-fights formula that has fans looking past Marquez/Mayweather.
The usual press conference table, dais in the center, name cards blowing in the Bronx breeze, was set up on the first base side of the field. On the mega-screen in centerfield, clips of past Cotto and Pacquiao fights felt like background noise while the press talked and waited. A whole seating section of fans had come out too, Puerto Rican flags and Yankee caps shouting out allegiances.
Bob Arum entered first, followed by an assortment of suit-and-ties who postured tough despite smooth faces. Then came Freddy Roach and the crowd erupted for one of the premier trainers in the game. Roach was dressed casually, jeans and a green polo shirt, just another press conference to get through before the real work begins.
The Yankees rep stepped up to the dais first and welcomed everyone to the new stadium, read off a list of boxing greats who’d fought in the old stadium, and ran down the numbers. Twenty-nine fight cards. Eight Joe Louis fights, including the second Louis/Schemling bout. When Pacquiao was mentioned, the crowd booed, but this harsh reception was laced with good humor, the press conference too far from fight time to produce real malice. When Cotto was mentioned, the crowd cheered.
Bob Arum spoke next and called out the fighters one at a time. The visiting Pacquiao entered first, also in jeans, also wearing a green shirt, the same color as his WBC belts. Green is the color of youth and Pacquiao is actually the older fighter by two years, but his ring wear, despite a face that is more scarred than Cotto’s, is not so great. In his last fights, Pacquiao steamrolled De La Hoya and Hatton. In Cotto’s last fights, he sustained Margarito’s plaster-enforced damage and Clottey’s often vicious attack. Pac Man seemed genuinely happy to be here and when someone from the crowd yelled, “Cotto’s gonna fuck him up” in fine Yankee-fan form, Pacquiao laughed a wide-open, genuine laugh, an unconcerned man on a late summer’s day. Cotto entered the field next and, as always, he was dressed for business, a tie around his neck. Each fighter was given a personalized Yankee jersey to wear and Arum’s short speech was done.
Melvina Lathan, New York’s new boxing commissioner, spoke briefly. Ross Greenburg, president of HBO Sports, spoke next and dubbed the new Yankee Stadium the house that Jeter built. Then a bigwig from the MGM Casino. Then a woman representing Tecate beer, the chief sponsor. And then Freddy Roach stepped up to the mike. Finally, the empty welcomes were done and the corporate nods nodded.
“This will be a great fight,” Roach said. “I’m getting Manny ready for the toughest fight of his life. On the 14th Manny will be ready.”
Cotto and Pacquiao were equally brief.
“I’m happy to be here,” Manny Pacquiao said. “This is my first time in Yankee Stadium. This fight is going to be a great, great fight. I’m excited and happy. I know Miguel Cotto is bigger than me and stronger, but I will do my best. He is a nice boxer and a good man. Don’t worry. I will train hard for this fight.”
Cotto, always soft spoken and quietly eloquent, finished his quick remarks with, “I heard what Bob Arum said before presenting Manny Pacquiao. The guy who stopped Oscar De La Hoya. The guy who stopped Ricky Hatton. I’m not Oscar De la Hoya. I’m not Ricky Hatton. I’m going to do my best.”
And that was that. The fighters posed for the cameras, did their face-to-face stare down and, when it was done, Cotto shook Pacquiao’s hand, always polite, always “nice” and “good” outside the ring, and the official press conference ended. Perhaps this really was the house that Jeter built. Everyone’s comments were as homogenized as a Derek Jeter interview. But like Jeter, these two men come to play and play hard. The fighters were asked to move on to their respective dugouts. In the home team dugout, the camera crews waited for their television interviews. The writers were assigned the visitor’s dugout. Very symbolic.
I joined the circle of reporters around Freddy Roach who stayed on the open field. Like all great teachers, Freddy Roach always has a lesson plan ready and as he fielded questions it was evident he’d already prepared his next training-camp term. Roach is clearly impressed by Pacquiao’s speed and strength and heart and work ethic. He is also clearly impressed by how tough this test will be. On the subject of Cotto, Roach said, “This is one hundred percent Manny’s toughest fight. He (Cotto) is strong. He is physical. He’s not old like Oscar De La Hoya. He’s in his prime.” But Manny is a special breed of fighter and despite his celebrity status in the Philippines where he’s a literal movie star, Roach was certain that his charge would take nothing for granted. “He is never over confident. He respects everyone. He trains his ass off. He’s the greatest workhorse I’ve ever seen. Once he gets to camp, he’s a machine.”
Press conferences can’t tell you much. You can watch the fighters as they pose in their stare down and assess how they match up in size. Toe to toe and eyes to eyes, Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao look like equals. Experts keep talking about Cotto’s size advantage, and he’s certainly the more natural welterweight, but with their clothes on two months before the fight, there’s no apparent advantage for the champion from Puerto Rico. The big visual differences are Manny’s block-shaped head designed to absorb punishment without effect and Cotto’s sloping shoulders, suggesting the kind of deceptive power reminiscent of slope-shouldered Yankee great Don Mattingly. I suppose you can rate the fighters on eloquence at a press conference, but in the ring words mean squat. Perhaps that’s why these two veterans kept their official remarks short and relatively sweet. The odds for the fight are -250 for Pacquiao and for this fight I agree with the oddsmakers, who are rarely wrong. Asked about the bout’s final outcome, each fighter refused to make a specific prediction. Freddy Roach picked his man by decision. “We don’t think we’ll knock Cotto out,” Freddy said. “But we think we’ll win every round.” Bold words from a man who has consistently backed up his words.
Perhaps I’m being overly bold, but I see the fight ending inside the distance. Cotto is a great fighter and I’m a fan, but I saw vulnerability in Cotto’s physical and mental strength when he fought Clottey and I keep picturing Manny, the machine from the Philippines, ripping Hatton’s head off. True, Cotto is no Hatton. True, Cotto is no De La Hoya. But when the pound-for-pound best, with no indication that his crescendo has peaked, fights a man on his way down, if only slightly, the results can be brutal. I see Pacquiao out boxing Cotto, out punching Cotto and busting Cotto up. By round nine, the ref will wave it off.
They don’t fight at Yankee Stadium any more. Yankee Stadium isn’t even Yankee Stadium. The new version is more Hard Rock Cafe capitalism than baseball anyway—when bleacher seats cost forty bucks, when a blue-collar family of four hoping to watch their yuppie team play ball can’t afford a hot dog, something is very wrong. Perhaps the good old days were not so good, but the new days are greedy. Ticket prices will be astronomical for the Cotto/Pacquiao fight in Vegas, but at least there will be no distractions. No Seventh Inning stretches. No bombardments of advertising on a mammoth centerfield screen. No blaring music. No blimps for hire circling the sky. There are rumors that one day soon there will be another mega-fight held at Yankee Stadium, but like a cynical New Yorker, I’ll believe it when I see it. In the meantime, two great fighters, Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao, did speak at Yankee Stadium, albeit briefly. These two men, throwbacks in that they are fighters with true boxing skill, will fight in living color on November 14th. And at some time during that Las Vegas night, I hope at least one photographer will take a black and white shot of these two pugilists who, had they lived in another generation, would have been worthy of an old Yankee Stadium war.
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