Page 6 February 26, 2015 TORRANCE TRIBUNE Round 1: Fight By Adam Serrao Truth be told, the fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd “Money” Mayweather should have been garnishing funds about five years ago. Despite all of the resistance and hesitancy to actually fight though, neither the fighters nor the bout itself will struggle one bit to earn their fair share of money from the contest. After it was announced last Friday night that Mayweather and Pacquiao would “Many are already calling the weekend of May 2nd the greatest sports weekend of 2015.” finally go head-to-head in what is sure to be an epic boxing match scheduled to take place at the MGM Grand on the Las Vegas strip this May 2nd, rooms at the hotel were said to have sold out in just 15 minutes. While that wound up being nothing more than a computer glitch, it is safe to say that the hype surrounding this much-anticipated fight is not part of any malfunction at all. Mayweather vs. Pacquiao, for the first time ever. Let’s get it on! Many are already calling the weekend of May 2nd the greatest sports weekend of 2015. Not only will we all finally get the chance to see Floyd and Manny battle it out, but the Kentucky Derby is that day, basketball and hockey playoffs will be in full effect and for you baseball lovers, the Yanks will play the Sox. Can’t get any better than that if you’re a sports freak. If you’re thinking about heading down to Vegas, yes, there are still rooms available for the big fight. Be warned, though. Prices for one night and one room at the MGM that weekend have soared to as high as $615 and that’s with more than two months remaining until fight day. This fight may be one of the most anticipated boxing matches in the history of the sport, but nothing about it will come cheap. Boxing has lost a lot of steam in recent years because of a supposed lack of competition that has been prevalent throughout the sport. Now that this fight has finally come to fruition, the sports best boxer and king of an era will be decided at long last. Mayweather announced the news that an agreement to fight had finally been reached on a social media website called “Shots” which he invests in. Accompanying a picture of Mayweather holding the signed contract, he added, “Mayweather vs. Pacquiao, on May 2, 2015, is a done deal. I promised my fans we would get this done and we did.” The deal is as much for the fans as it is for the boxers, though. The fight will be the richest fight in boxing history (said to possibly gross around $400 million), with both participants taking in well over 100 million dollars. Imagine all of that money for just one fight. Hopefully they actually make it an interesting one. SENIOR DAYS FOR THE ENTIRE MONTH OF FEBRUARY 2015 $.99 cent games $.99 cent shoe rental $2.99 lunch specials MONDAY – FRIDAY 9:00 AM THROUGH 5:00 PM For more information please call Charlotte at charlotte@pvbowl.com; or 310.326.5120 The contract that the two fighters signed is said to have allowed Mayweather to be the one to announce the fight. Floyd will also walk away with the majority of the money in what will be a 60-40 split of the purse favoring “Money” Mayweather. If you were to ask him, he’d say that’s the way it should be. “Boxing fans and sports fans around the world will witness greatness on May 2,” he explained. “I am the best ever, TBE, and this fight will be another opportunity for me to showcase my skills and do what I do best, which is win. Manny is going to try to do what 47 before him failed to do, but he won’t be successful. He will be number 48.” Fans wouldn’t expect anything less from Mayweather who has been quite cocky throughout his career, but his 47-0-0 record certainly backs up his words. While Mayweather remains cocky and maybe even overly excited about the fight, Pacquiao, who is 57-5-2 throughout his career, seems quite reserved. “I am very happy that Floyd Mayweather and I can give the fans the fight that they have wanted for so many years,” he said. “They have waited long enough and they deserve it. It is an honor to be a part of this historic event.” Pacquiao’s right, the fans have waited long enough for a fight that should have taken place years ago. The fact that it has taken so long to actually happen though will undoubtedly add more intrigue to it. A 38 year-old Mayweather and a 36 year-old Pacquiao may simply seem like a money-grabbing event for two aging boxers, but like Brady vs. Manning has been in the past, this will still be a legitimate matchup between the undisputed top two pound-forpound best boxers and athletes in their sport. More than five years after this fight was first clamored for, it is finally taking place and for some reason, means just as much now as it would have then. Boxing fans everywhere are grateful that they will at last learn who the best boxer of this era is. Both fighters, respectively, are grateful that they will be $100 million richer. This fight isn’t just any other old boxing match. It’s not just a welterweight unification bout between two of the sport’s biggest faces. This fight, if even for a moment, will bring the sport of boxing back to the spotlight of America. Everyone will be watching. All eyes will be on the MGM, boxing, and that ring where the two fighters will stand and dance around each other. This fight will seemingly never live up to the five years of hype that have preceded it, but on May 2 it will finally be up to the fans to decide if it does or not. • Turnovers Spell the Night, Season For South By Adam Serrao It wasn’t a very pretty week in Torrance for boys basketball last week. Three teams made it to this year’s CIF Southern Section playoffs and not one of them advanced to the second round. The South High Spartans came into the playoffs on a roll and feeling good. Three straight wins, including two over their rivals from West High and North High, had head coach Leo Klemm’s team riding high. That was, unfortunately, before Compton came to South. A mixture of poor defense and inefficient offense had the Spartans reeling from almost the start. Ultimately, the Spartans ended the night with a 75-43 loss last Friday night in their home gym, drawing their season this year to its conclusion. When you’re careless with the basketball it’s hard to win a game in the regular season, let alone the playoffs. Unfortunately for South High, that was the story of the night for the team. With 14 turnovers in the first half and a total of 21 on the night, you can probably imagine how it was hard to keep up the pace with a Compton team that never really turned the switch off. The Spartans began the opening minutes of the game keeping pace with Compton, but it wasn’t long before their opponents’ speed and athleticism forced South into making mistakes. A 16-8 deficit after the first quarter grew into a 41-19 lead for Compton at the half, all but deflating South High and their home fans cheering on from the stands. “Our game plan was simple,” coach Klemm explained. “We wanted to go possession by possession and sustain our offense. We did it for a while and then we weren’t real poised.” The Spartans didn’t have many possessions coming out of halftime as Compton went on a 13-0 run down the stretch and outscored South 21-6 in the period. “If you don’t have the ball, you can’t score,” said Jordan Tang, South’s leading scorer on the night with 11 points. “Trying to get the ball back is just hard.” The Spartans did a better job of things in the fourth quarter, keeping pace with Compton’s up-tempo style of play, but unfortunately by that time it was too little too late. The rout had already begun and gotten too far out of hand as the Spartans fell by a final score of 75-43. All in all it was a successful season outside of the playoffs for South (15-11, 7-3). The team enjoyed sweeping their season series against both of their rivals from West High and North High and split their series with Torrance. Their second place finish in the Pioneer League standings beat out all of their rivals from around the city. North High Before the Spartans began their journey in the playoffs, the North High Saxons got started on their own in the Division 3AA brackets. Last Wednesday night, the Saxons (12-14, 5-5) took to the hardwood with hopes of attaining a win as they took on the Buena Park Coyotes (21-7, 6-4) in Buena Park. It would prove to be a tough challenge, as the Coyotes have lost only 11 games all season long. The Saxons stuck in there and gave their opposition a good challenge, but ultimately Buena Park proved to be too much for North as our team from Torrance went down with a 89-82 loss. The Saxons started the game off strong and kept pace with Buena Park throughout what proved to a high scoring first quarter. It was in the second that North actually began to pull away from the Coyotes. At halftime, the score was 42-37 in favor of Luke Dupperon and his Saxons and things were looking up for North. While their offense and tempo was on point, if you asked coach Dupperon at the half what the team could improve on, he would tell you defense. That’s exactly what came back to bit the Saxons in the third quarter. Buena Park scored 29 points in what was a pivotal and game-changing third quarter that saw the Coyotes storm back from five down to taking a seven point lead going into the fourth quarter at 66-59 in favor of Buena Park. Just one quarter can change the complexion of an entire game. North learned that the hard way. After a fourth quarter where each team scored 23 points, the Saxons, after leading for the majority of the game, found themselves on the losing side of things. A three-headed monster came alive, specifically in the third quarter for the Coyotes. Cedric Dashiell II came out of the game with 26 points, seven rebounds, 12 assists and 10 steals while his teammate Deonte Beckham had 23 points, 14 rebounds and four blocks. Rocky Watkins also put up 26 points for the Coyotes. North’s season ends on a low note as the team lost their two last games of the regular season before falling to Buena Park in the first round of the playoffs. With a squad full of young talent, however, Dupperon should have his team back at it and competing in no time. Torrance High The Torrance Tartars followed in the footsteps of their rivals from South and North when they took on the Hart Indians in the first round of the Southern Section Division 2A playoffs last Friday night at Hart High School. Hart was the better team on paper coming in to the game and average more points per quarter throughout the season. The Indians lived up to their hype as they put it on the Tartars from the beginning. Devin Kalthoff and Kousha Modanlou tried to keep their team in, each contributing a team-high 10 points to the effort. Needless to say though, it was too little too late for the Tartars as they took a discouraging 23-point (69-46) loss to exit the playoffs in the first round of play. The Tartars wound up losing four of their last five games of the season, with a sole two-point win against their rivals from West High standing out as a bright spot. Torrance also attained victories over both South and North High this year in key rivalry games. With a fifth place finish in the Pioneer League standings this season, head coach Paul Nitake will have some work to do this offseason to get his Tartars (11-16, 4-6) back to being a premier team in their division. • Douglass M O R T U A R Y “Our Family Serving Yours Since 1954” B U R I A L - C R E M A T I O N - W O R L D W I D E T R A N S F E R P E T M E M O R I A L P R O D U C T S 500 EAST IMPERIAL AVENUE EL SEGUNDO, CALIFORNIA 90245 Telephone (310) 640-9325 • Fax (310) 640-0778 • FD658
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