By Dave Lahr: I can just picture how bad the upcoming four episodes of Fight Camp 360 Pacquiao/Mosley will be when they’re finally rolled out to hype the upcoming Manny Pacquiao vs. Shane Mosley May 7th fight on CBS/Showtime. Three of the episodes are going to be shown on CBS, a non-premium channel and the 4th will air on Showtime.
But since both Mosley and Pacquiao are relatively quiet, shy and mostly reserved in their personalities, how are the Fight Camp 360 Pacquiao/Mosley episodes going to get people interested in this pay-per-view fight? I would suggest having a lot of interviews and film footage of Roger Mayweather and Floyd if possible. The Mayweather’s have charisma and have a way of drumming interest with their comments. They’re like the complete opposite of Pacquiao and Mosley. Those guys have acting and stage presence. I just don’t see it with the wooden way that Pacquiao and Mosley carry themselves on screen.
They need to get the rivalry going and try and focus as much on this hoped for fight and less on the apparent mismatch between Pacquiao and Mosley. Beyond that, I would try to limit as much as possible video of Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, gloating and/or bragging about how Pacquiao is going to beat this or that fighter. I’m usually bored to tears every time Roach is flapping his gums before the camera. That’s not interesting. And they can only show so much of Alex Ariza and Pacquiao’s team members before it gets really old and redundant.
It’s probably going to be a lot of stuff in the episode with Ariza worrying about Pacquiao not focusing enough on his training and other such dull routines. That’s dead. I want to see Pacquiao beating up on one of his over-matched sparring partners. I want to see the blood. I’m hoping to see some real moments where Pacquiao is going off on someone around the Wildcard gym. All this nice stuff is really dull.
If I’m the editor of the Pascquiao-Mosley Fight Camp 360 episodes, I’m going to be leaving a lot of wasted footage on the floor. I’ll cut out pretty much all of Roach’s jabbering, Ariza’s complaints about training and Pacquiao’s entourage. That’s all been seen before in HBO’s 24/7 series and we need some new blood. I’d leave out family members, Pacquiao’s singing and guitar playing. I think the focus should be on creating some bad blood between Pacquiao and Mosley, if only to make this fight seem slightly interesting.
As it is now, the fight looks like a big mismatch. Mosley, 39, is looking shot and seems to have gotten the gig just because of his past fame rather than what’s been doing lately. So you have to bring some mean in Mosley and Pacquiao to get around the obvious. Right now I just don’t see much animosity between them. It’s like they’re friends with each other, and that’s not conducive for getting the kind of PPV numbers these guys are hoping to get with this fight.
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