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Boxing is currently caught up in a frenzy of frustration and fans are in a mutinous mood. Attractive matches are sinking in a morass of greed and incompetence, while pretenders looking for an easy buck seem to have overrun a world once populated by hard men itching for a fight.Welcome to boxing, 2016 style.Amid all the cancellations, postponements and alphabet idiocy comes the return of Manny Pacquiao, an event that was virtually guaranteed the moment Manny said he was retiring following his April 9 victory over Timothy Bradley.Pacquiao is no Tyson Fury when it comes to such matters, but by normal standards a seven-month hiatus can hardly be considered a retirement. Not a serious one, anyway, so when Pacquiao signed to fight Jessie Vargas it seemed more an inevitability than a betrayal.Manny talked about missing boxing and maybe he did. But thats secondary. Its all about the money. It always is. And when it comes to Pacquiao, were talking megabucks. Not quite Floyd Mayweather money, but close enough.Pacquiaos fights have sold approximately 18.4 million pay-per-views, generating roughly $1.2 billion in revenue. According to Kurt Badenhausen, who covers sports business for Forbes, Mannys share, combined with endorsements and other ancillary earnings, totals about $500 million.Even after taxes, thats a staggering amount of money. Whats even more mind-blowing is the rapidity with which Manny spends it. Pacquiaos lifestyle is unsustainable without massive infusions of cash that only boxing can provide. He has to keep fighting and he knows it.Boxing is my main source of income, Pacquiao told reporters in the Philippines when he announced he would return to the ring. I cant rely on my salary as public official.One can only imagine what will happen when Pacquiao can no longer demand eight-figure paydays, and those days might be coming sooner than later. His third PPV fight with Bradley performed poorly and the announcement of Pacquiao-Vargas was not greeted with anything approaching universal approval.Social media was inundated with negative feedback, most of it of the no way Im buying the pay-per-view variety. Its a perfectly valid point of view, but as many abstainers would agree, the Vargas match -- set for Saturday in Las Vegas -- is not a bad one in itself. It could very well be a fun fight. Its just not what most consumers consider PPV-worthy.When HBO passed on the match, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum bristled but soon switched to boasting about all the money he would save by cutting out the middleman.From here, however, it looks like Arum is gambling on the future, confident he can maneuver Manny into another massive payday -- or at the very least make sure that if Arums meal ticket loses, is to one of his own guys.Not even Arum is audacious enough to peddle Pacquiao-Vargas as super fight, but maybe we should be grateful for small favors. At least Pacquiao-Vargas is happening and has a reasonably good chance of being an entertaining bout.That is more than you can say for Anthony Joshua-Wladimir Klitschko (or Fury-Klitschko, for that matter), Daniel Jacobs-Gennady Golovkin or even Orlando Salido-Takashi Miura, all of which have vanished from the boxing calendar like spit on a hot stove.Sure, better fights have been promised farther on down the road, but weve heard that before and know how quickly things can fall apart. Thats just the way it is in boxing. The only thing you can count on is inconsistency, and things have been so drab of late any dash of color is welcome, even if its overpriced.Pacquiao is still one of the most recognizable names in boxing, and if the Vargas bout turns out to be a good one, the fighters will not be the only beneficiaries. An exciting contest will also help hoist the sports sagging image while we wait for Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev to finally get down to business.There is no doubt Pacquiao chose the easiest option among the opponents Arum offered. Terence Crawford would have pacified the cognoscenti, but he was little more than click bait and never really part of the equation.Crawford is only marginally better known to the casuals than Vargas. The money simply wasnt there to make the risk-reward factor worthwhile. But its not all bad news.Vargas is better equipped to give Pacquiao a tough fight than recent opponents such as Brandon Rios and Chris Algieri. Rios was outclassed and overwhelmed by the occasion, while Algieris chin turned out to be as soft as his punch, resulting in six trips to the canvas and an easy win for Manny.Vargas is tougher both mentally and physically and comes armed with the hungry determination of a man who always thought he would make it to the top and cant quite understand why he hasnt gotten there yet.That Vargas has only 10 knockouts to his credit in an overall record of 27-1 is misleading. His latent power surged to the forefront in his two most recent fights in the form of a concussive right hand.It first emerged in June 2015 when he had Bradley out on his feet with just 15 seconds to go in the final round. Vargas ran out of time and lost the decision, but his newfound power was confirmed when he pancaked highly touted Sadam Ali eight months ago. The vacant welterweight title Jessie won that night will be on the line against Pacquiao.This is not to say that Vargas has morphed into Tommy Hearns. Nonetheless, knowing Vargas has the power to turn a fight around with one or two punches should give him added confidence going into the biggest fight of his career. And a confident Vargas means a better fight.Pacquiao did the bulk of his training in the Philippines, splitting his time between the gym and his job as a first-term senator. Such a crazy schedule could prove disastrous for most fighters, but Mannys multitasking skills have never let him down before and are unlikely to do so now.Conditioning has never been a problem and Pacquiao looked sharp in training videos, ripping into the heavy bag with rapid-fire combinations. But the bag doesnt punch back. Vargas does.Pacquiao, 37, remains an aggressive fighter, but hes nowhere near as reckless as he was in his prime. Now he prefers to use his legs to get in, unload and get out. Hell occasionally revert to his whirlwind style of old but its just a flashback, not a renaissance.Vargas is 10 years younger than Pacquiao, 5 inches taller and has a 4-inch reach advantage. That alone will not be enough, but no fighter, not even George Foreman or Bernard Hopkins, can go on forever. If Saturday is the day the weight of 66 professional fights against the best of his era comes crashing down on Manny, an upset is within Vargas reach.Not even Pacquiao knows how long hell be able to keep competing at the highest level. Money is his chief motivation but boxing is still what he does best, his first love, the one that made everything else possible. Voluntary retirement is not an option. Never was.Its like Louis Armstrong once said, Musicians dont retire; they stop when theres no more music in them. Its the same for boxers; they stop when they have no fight left in them. Judging by the way he handled Bradley earlier this year, Pacquiao still has quite a lot left, enough to defeat Vargas at any rate.Cheap Buccaneers Jerseys Authentic .com) - Richie Incognito has reportedly been admitted to a psychiatric care unit in Arizona. Cheap Buccaneers Jerseys China .J. -- New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz will miss the rest of the season after having surgery on his left knee. http://www.cheapbuccaneersjerseysauthentic.com/?tag=authentic-lee-roy-selmon-jersey . Brazilian national coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has confirmed that the veteran goalkeeper is set to join Toronto on loan, saying it will help him be ready for the World Cup. Buccaneers Jerseys China Cheap . Ferrer, trying to win his fourth title on Mexican soil, will next play South Africas Kevin Anderson, who eliminated American Sam Querrey,7-6 (2), 6-4. Also Wednesday, Gilles Simon (6) of France beat Donald Young of the United States 6-4, 6-3, Ukraines Alexandr Dolgopolov downed Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 6-4 and Croatias Ivo Karlovic defeated Dudi Sela of Israel 7-6 (4), 6-2. Wholesale Buccaneers Jerseys . As the crowd erupted, Davis knocked the ball off the glass and back into his hands. With 1:14 to go in overtime, Davis sixth block also became his 17th rebound. That, along with his 32 points -- which tied a career high -- proved too much for Denver to overcome, and the Pelicans held on for their third straight victory, 111-107 on Sunday night.SAN ANTONIO -- If only for a couple of minutes, Tony Parker started thinking about life as a member of the Boston Celtics. Sitting inside Madison Square Garden and waiting for his name to be called late in the first round of the 2001 NBA draft, Parker had been handed a Celtics cap, an indication that the team planned to select him with the No. 21 pick that was approaching.But before Bostons selection even went on the clock, former NBA vice president of player development Chrysa Chin, lovingly nicknamed Hat Lady by those who received draft-night caps from her through the years, swooped in to retrieve the lid. The Celtics, she apologized, were going in a different direction.For the better part of the past two decades, fans of the Celtics have lamented how Boston missed out on the opportunity to draft Tim Duncan. The truth is that, once the pingpong balls defied them, the Celtics never truly had a chance to nab Duncan.Now that Duncan has retired, its time to shift the spotlight to another future Spurs Hall of Famer, one whom the Celtics whiffed three times on picking, none more noticeable than with their final pick in the 2001 draft, when Boston instead selected guard Joe Forte.I dont remember what happened [with Parker], but normally what happens when a player doesnt get the hat that hes supposed to is theres been a change in the pick or theres been a trade, or a trade is coming, or there was discussion of a trade and maybe it was unsettled, said Chin, who now serves as the executive vice president of strategy and development for the National Basketball Players Association.It happens quite a bit where, at that time, I would give a player a hat, then youd have to go back and get the hat back. Sometimes families want to keep it to sort of document the history and all of that, but its normally not anything sort of catastrophic. Its sort of an operations issue.Yes, the perils of live TV. Fortunately, in the days before Twitter and cellphone cameras, no one noticed the switcheroo. Still, poor Parker, who sat in the stands despite not being one of the invited draftees, then had to wait until San Antonio finally selected him with the 28th pick. This time, Chin greeted Parker on the arena floor with a Spurs cap and directed him to the stage. During TNTs broadcast, former Celtics coach Rick Pitino detailed why Parker might have been on Bostons radar.The Boston coaching staff, they thought this was the premier point guard in the draft, Pitino said. They loved him. If Forte was not available, they probably would have gone with Tony Parker. This is someone who is very, very highly valued in the league and can really shoot it and play the point position.With three picks, including two in the lottery, the Celtics essentially emerged with 48 games of Joe Johnson at No. 10; Kedrick Brown, a freak junior college athlete who was heavily rumored to be heading to Portland but never did at No. 11; and one forgettable season with Forte.Six All-Star appearances and four NBA titles later, its fair to say things worked out just fine for Parker. But that night has certainly stuck with him.[The Celtics] made my eyes water on draft night, Parker recalled during Grantlands BS Report podcast at All-Star weekend in 2013. Im going to telll you a true story.dddddddddddd True story. True story. The draft, you have that NBA lady, Chrysa -- she comes to me, and it was the 19th pick, she gives me a Celtics cap and says, They are going to pick you. And it was like three minutes left on the clock, and you have five minutes to pick. Then at one minute she comes back and takes the cap, [and says,] Oh no, they changed their mind. They took my cap. I was like, What?And so then they drafted Joe Forte. I was always curious what happened. One day I asked the GM, Chris Wallace, I was like, What happened in the draft, like when you changed your mind? Because the day before, I had practiced for Boston. So I did two workouts -- I did the normal workout, then the day before the draft they did a workout. It was Jim OBrien at the time, the coach, and he was like, We want to draft you, but the Spurs are going to try to make a trade at 20, but if youre available at 21, for sure well take you. The coach and the GM, they wanted me, but the president, big boss, he changed his mind.That big boss, of course, was Red Auerbach, who lit two cigars in celebration of the Forte pick. And while its now well-documented that Forte was the last hand-picked selection for Auerbach, who had watched Forte play in high school in Maryland and likely trumped those who might have preferred Parker. Remember, too, the pick was widely praised at the time.In the aftermath of the draft, Auerbach proclaimed that Forte was an, ideal 2-guard; he can flat-out shoot the ball. Alas, Forte could not flat-out shoot the ball. He made only one field goal in 12 career attempts with Boston. He played a mere 39 minutes in eight games. Thirteen months after drafting Forte, the Celtics traded him to Seattle as part of the package that returned Vin Baker (and somehow that might have been an even worse personnel decision).Forte is otherwise remembered in Boston only for his curious fashion choices. He once reportedly wore a Magic Johnson jersey to a team meeting, seemingly oblivious at the time to the history between the franchises. He atoned by wearing a Bill Russell throwback jersey on the bench during one of the games he was inactive for, though hes better remembered for donning a Scooby-Doo sweater in the days before a more stringent NBA dress code.Forte appeared in just 17 games for Seattle and had an even rougher go there (the Washington Post detailed how he wore a Michael Jordan jersey the night of a Wizards game that ended with him getting in a fight in the team showers). Fortes final NBA career averages: 1.2 points, 0.7 rebounds, 0.7 assists over 5 minutes per game. He briefly latched on with the Asheville Attitude of the NBA D-League, playing close to his college roots in North Carolina, before embarking on a decade-long overseas career that included stops in Greece, Italy, Russia, Iran and Israel.Now in his 16th NBA season, Parker isnt quite the force he once was. But he can still turn back the clock, as he did in Saturdays win over the Nets when he put up 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting over 20 minutes.Thats twice as many points more than Forte ever scored for Boston.[url=https[/url] ' ' '