Hook, Line, & Sinker

Admittedly, I am a sucker for documentaries. The past year alone, I’ve watched documentaries on crossword puzzles, mayoral elections, and the corruption that exists in America’s beer industry. In truth, there aren’t many documentaries I pass up on.

And so — predictably — on Saturday night I found myself racing home from Newark, New Jersey’s Prudential Center, where I had witnessed the Buffalo Sabres romp the New Jersey Devils, to arrive just in time to plop myself in front of my 52” Samsung TV and enjoy the first installment of “HBO’s 24/7 — Pacquiao-Margarito.”

This particular installment of the award winning series opened up with a storyline that boxing fans have become very familiar with: How will Team Pacquiao overcome all the distractions that distractions in the Pacquiao camp?

At times — such as in the “24/7” series leading up to the Miguel Cotto fight, the distractions in the Pacquiao camp centered around internal conflict (Michael Koncz vs. Alex Ariza) or the fact that Manny shares a house in L.A. with ten-plus friends.

While there still may be an internal conflict on the brink, or a distraction with regards to Pacman’s posse, so far this installment focused on Manny’s new job as a Filipino congressman. Further, Freddie Roach expressed his desire to head back to the Wildcard Gym and leave the Philippines where he feels there are too many distractions.

Fool me once, shame on you…fool me twice…well, you know the rest.

There will always be “distractions” in the Pacquiao camp; it comes with the territory. I’m not buying into the “distraction” storyline this time — no matter the origin. Pacquiao always has something going on — whether it is politics, music, basketball, or boxing.

He likes to keep himself busy, it’s as simple as that. If you’ll allow me to steal a line from modern-day baseball vocabulary, it’s just “Manny being Manny.”

On the flip side, after detailing the handwrap incident with Margarito, the glimpse into the Tijuana Tornado’s camp leads viewers to believe that everything is on-point. With the likable Robert Garcia running the show in Oxnard, Margarito looks to be in great shape, and is on pace to make weight with ease.

But no matter what storyline HBO throws at me, I won’t be had again. Pacquiao is the superior fighter and for good reason, is a 5:1 favorite. I embarrassingly allowed myself to believe Cotto would give Manny all he could handle, and I’m pretty sure “24/7” played an important role in shaping my thoughts. Never again.

I’m not going along for the ride this time and no storyline can convince me that Margarito will be victorious on the Nov. 13.

But as Bart Barry pointed out in his Monday column, “24/7” isn’t for me, it’s for the casual fans.

So with that said, it doesn’t matter if this “24/7” seems like a rerun to me, it was meant for someone else. Plus, I’m a sucker for anything documentary-esque, so I’ll be watching anyway.

What’s most important is that the casual fans buy into this installment of “24/7” hook, line, and sinker. “24/7” continually sparks an audible fistic dialogue amongst casual boxing fans — a dialogue that has been reduced to a whisper in recent years.

Perhaps this is the perfect time for casual fans to get their boxing fix. Just maybe the boxing ball will still roll beyond Nov. 13 and even pick up steam when Sergio Martinez takes on Paul Williams the following Saturday and Juan Manuel Marquez squares off with Michael Katsidis the Saturday after that.

I expect the casual fans to buy into this installment of “24/7” and hope the PPV numbers reflect their excitement. As for hoping that their excitement stretches beyond Nov. 13., well, that’s just wishful thinking.