By Cliff Rold

Saturday on 24/7, Freddie Roach watched TV, some trainer smack went down, there was more senseless attention on kvetching inside Team Manny Pacquiao, and Bob Arum said the underdog he promotes, in a fight where promotes both guys, looks better than ever…’cause a promoter has ever said, “One of these dudes looks awful but buy my pay per view anyways.”

Cue the music and real timish review, even if, again, narrator Liev Schreiber does not remind that “this is 24/7.”

The show open at Hollywood’s Khan Noonien Singh Theatre where Manny Pacquiao attends a question and answer session after live entertainment.  Asked what it means to be number one, the World Jr. Welterweight champion Pacquiao responds, “People recognize me as number one and I always thank God for everything and to all of those people who always support me.” 

Back at the Wild Card, Sylvester Stallone stops by…and is it really a good idea to have a guy busted with HGH at the gym?  We digress.  Stallone says he’s scared for Cotto.  The rest of the world is scared that, with Rambo and Rocky both back in action, the sequel to Cobra II is on the way.

With Brigitte Nielsen. 

Mickey Rourke, a former boxing protégé of Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach swings by with a copy of the international edition of Time Magazine with Pacquiao on the cover before Pacquiao gets in an early morning workout prior to the bus ride to Vegas.  A quick sparring session plays out as Roach speaks to the truth of the fight ahead on background: “People around Manny Pacquiao tell him this is an easy fight.  They’re idiots.  This is the toughest fight of his life.  (Cotto’s) just a true 147 pounder.  Very strong guy.  Very resilient.  A lot of people think just because he’s bigger and stronger he’s gonna’ come right after Manny.  I think he’s gonna’ box Manny and be smart.”

Pacquiao takes pictures in the gym and the scene switches to Las Vegas where a soft medley of Citizen Cope (and underrated musical bad ass too few have heard of) plays in the background.  Wayne Newton talks about the vibe of Las Vegas and…

…who gives a damn what Wayne Newton says.  Seriously.  Next.

Now it’s Carrot Top.  Lance Burton? 

Sheesh.

Finally, we here Schreiber say, “There is virtually no great boxer of the last three decades who hasn’t headlined on the strip.”  The show provides quick peeks of Larry Holmes, Sugar Ray Leonard (and who doesn’t hear Chuck Hull every time that name is uttered), Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Mike Tyson, Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather. 

And then more Wayne. 

And then, sports books.  24/7 takes a pick behind the scenes of the gambling angle always close to the heart of pugilism, explaining where the odds lie and how much certain bets can attain. 

Some third of the way through the episode, the producers remembered Pacquiao’s opponent and it’s off to the gym with WBO Welterweight titlist Miguel Cotto.  Speaking to his role as the underdog, Cotto states, “I don’t need nobody to trust in me, to believe in me.  I have the correct people beside me. (the camera pans to his father)  People who stay with me, but they stay more on the bad days.”  Cotto methodically works the mitts, making everything count the way he’ll have to on Saturday night.

Cotto cut man Joe Chavez’s experience working previously with Team Pacquiao is highlighted and Poppa Cotto likes having him there.  “There is always an advantage because he has seen (Pacquiao) work hard, he has seen him in camps.  He knows what punches he throws, the movements he makes.  He’s given us information little by little and (Chavez has) been a great help for the Pacquiao fight.”  

Chavez provides that, while still close friends with Roach, boxing is a business.  The business of Cotto clearly paid a little better.

Team Cotto loads up the bus to head to the MGM Grand, the location of this weekend’s fight.  Cotto’s suite is, well, sweet.  One day later, Pacquiao arrives at the hotel and Arum chimes in.  “People want to be entertained.  People want to see two guys go at it.  You look at Mann’s fights, you look at Miguel’s fights, and that’s what they do.  It’s gonna’ be a war.”  Hard to argue with him whether Arum is selling or not.

Some fights just sell themselves.

The cameras take a trip to Arum’s “Top Rank” offices as he discusses some of the legends he’s worked with.  A glance at the daily grind of making a promotion come together behind the scenes and Arum talks about the mixed emotions of two fighters he promotes fighting each other.

On a sad note, the show also explores the recent death of Roach’s brother, a Las Vegas resident, and Roach reflects on the loss in his first trip to town since his brother passed.  Roach struggles to hold back tears.  It was yet one more blow in a training camp which had its share.

Roach sums it up.  “Typhoons.  Weather.  (Pacquiao advisor) Michael Koncz.  All the BS of this training camp, (Pacquiao) separates it.  He knows the game plan.”

Working out across town, Cotto does his stoic thing.  “He has two hands like me, two fists like me.  The only things going to make the difference in the fight is the way to train for the fight, the skills you have, and the techniques you use…the fight going to be over.  I am going to be the winner.  I am going to retain my title.”

A brief shot of Cotto in the shower bare assed is there because…moving on to his team, Cotto and his people are trying to kill time.  Cotto teases about the junk food around him in camp while he sweats to make the bouts 145 lb. catchweight.  Young trainer Joe Santiago, according to Schreiber, sees this weekend “as a test of his skills as well as the fighter.”  Santiago states, “Joe Santiago continued learning each day that passes.  That’s what life is about, continued learning.  The day you stop learning is the day you’re dead.”

The fighters families are show arriving and have their quick say before the show catches us up to the moment with the weigh-in for the fight.  Pacquiao weighs 144, Cotto 145, and Roach and Santiago exchange barbs. 

It’s on.

The fight is only hours away.

Schreiber adds meta-narrative and this edition of 24/7 comes to a close.

Final Thoughts:

Last week, and the week before, and the week before that 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 show never made that case an aspect of the build.  For at least one week, the producers made up for it with an episode which made the fight, rather than silly camp squabbles on Team Pacquiao, the centerpiece.  It wasn’t hard to pull off.  The fight is here, the fighters are in Vegas, and that story told itself.

Overall, it was the best episode of the four by a lot even if it still failed to define the stakes of the contest.  Ratings for this version of 24/7 haven’t been blockbuster but the fight should be, mostly because it doesn’t NEED the show.

Floyd Mayweather rocks 24/7 because he uses personality to overcome an occasional entertainment deficit in the ring.  This time?  This time we have Pacquiao and Cotto.  Like last summer’s Cotto-Antonio Margarito bout, the names define in-ring thrills.  Cotto-Margarito did a surprisingly strong buy rate on pay per view almost on word of mouth alone.  An HBO countdown show may have aided, but without the 24/7 vehicle provided later in the year to Roy Jones-Joe Calzaghe, the fight doubled that one up.

This fight should be bigger.  Even folks who don’t follow boxing have heard from someone that a potential classic is on tap.  That’s what matters.   For one week, this show made it feel that way.  Grade: A-

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