Arum smiling from Koncz’ twin toinks!

So, when is Manny Pacquiao going to fight again? I ask this in the wake of two Pacquiao fights that went pffft just very recently. Well, there were no fights to begin with. Pacquiao supposedly fighting Jeff Horn on April 23 was simply that—a supposed fight. All talk. No truth. All shell. No meat. The only fact to it, it seems, is Horn is a former Aussie schoolteacher.

Whether his teaching job wasn't paying him good money that's why he decided to become a boxer remains unconfirmed.

Had Horn hopped into the ring to bang it up with Pacquiao, he would have earned $5 million— as reported in the, umm, yarn?

As things stand now, the Horn fight was a hoax.

And I'm not surprised one teeny-weeny bit. Boxing's been the customary breeding ground of everything baloney, mostly, since time immemorial.

Next was the news that Pacquiao would instead fight Amir Khan.

Calendared for May 20, Pacquiao's purse would be upped from $5 million to $38 million.

It'd be staged in Dubai—with Pacquiao, as in the hitched Horn fluke, similarly staking his WBO welterweight crown against Khan.

Hardly had the news died down when the Pacquiao-Khan clash itself got torpedoed. It went the way of the Pacquiao-Horn heist. Just hot air. No truth. All myth. No meat. All shell. The only fact that mattered in the Pacquiao-Khan menu is that Khan was a long-time sparring mate of the eight-time world division champion.

And who is the author of these twin tricks of the most ridiculous kind?

Mike Koncz, Pacquiao's Canadian adviser for the longest time. Since when can an adviser double as a matchmaker?

In boxing, anything is possible, including putting up a fight between 5'6” Pacquiao and 6'10” June Mar Fajardo.

All this time that Koncz was dangling both fights to us—only the incurably gullible from among my colleagues could buy such tall story— Bob Arum was cemetery-silent. Heck, Arum knew, as always, that nothing would come up wines and roses from Koncz' crazy posturing.

For, isn't Arum Pacquiao's promoter 11 straight years now? And, as their contract goes [recently renewed], only Arum is the official source on all of Pacquiao's fights from A to Z?

In short, Arum rules.

The only fact that mattered is that Khan was a long-time sparring mate of Pacquiao. And the author of these twin tricks of the most ridiculous kind? Pacquiao’s longtime Canadian adviser Mike Koncz.