NO LIMITATIONS: Mayweather Exposed

By Ted Laguatan ESQ

If Floyd Mayweather were not a boxer, he might have been a magician or politician or con man. Well, he tried a con on Pacquiao – so he’s both boxer and con man. Many ask: “Why doesn’t Pacquiao just accede to Mayweather’s demands for blood tests?”; “Is he hiding something?”; “ Why did he refuse these demands?”

Without any proof whatsoever, Mayweather and his co-conspirators have accused Manny of using performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). He also insists on specific blood tests which no boxer has ever imposed on another boxer. State boxing commissions are there to regulate testing protocols.

In previous fights after stringent tests, Manny emerged squeaky clean. Mayweather knows that Pacquiao’s skills, speed, power and stamina stem from continuous improvement, discipline, rigorous training and excellent physical and intelligence genetics – not PEDs.
So what’s Mayweather’s gimmick?

Here’s my take on this:
Mayweather remains undefeated not only because of his boxing skills but also because of his ability to psyche out opponents. His hero is Muhammad Ali who taunted opponents before and during a fight – a strategy meant to screw up their minds and foul up their training regimen and mindset in the ring. Among other tactics, Ali riled opponents with insulting monickers: Sonny Liston (“Big Black Bear”); Joe Frazier (“Gorilla”); Leon Spinks (“Blacula”); Floyd Patterson (“Rabbit”). Notably, after his fights, Ali maintained good relations with opponents.

Following Ali’s lead, the cunning Mayweather brewed a devious covert stratagem to beat Pacquiao: Beat this dude by messing up his mind. Accuse him of using roids and other PEDs and insist on blood tests. He’ll absolutely be resentful because he knows he’s clean. Questions will be raised about his character. These will unbalance him mentally and emotionally - constantly agitating him and keeping him mad as hell. He can’t sleep, eat, or make love. Repeatedly insult and call him a ‘punk ass’. His training regimen will crumble. When he climbs into the ring weakened, angry, rushing and raging to tear my head off - he’ll be ripe for the taking. I’ll run circles around him, make him look like a fool - frustrate him into making disastrous errors. I’ll own him.

Misdirection. Magicians and smart lawyers well understand this principle. To illustrate, a magician directs the audience’s attention to his right hand while his unnoticed left hand surreptitiously reaches for the hidden card or rabbit. Discretion prevents me from revealing how super lawyers use the same principle in winning cases.

Mayweather’s sneaky misdirection involves directing the attention of the boxing public to accusations of PED use and to blood testing demands with staged pronouncements of concerns for the boxers’ safety – smokescreening his true intention which is to mess up Pacquiao’s mind and emotions.

If detecting PEDs was really his honest intention, this objective can easily be accomplished: Just do the blood test right after the fight. Pacquiao had readily agreed to this fool-proof protocol. The fighter found PED positive will immediately be disqualified. If victorious, his victory is instantly nullified and the innocent fighter declared winner. Mayweather did not limit his demands to this reasonable reliable protocol because he has a different agenda. When he fought Arturo Gatti, he repeatedly called him: “a C+ fighter”, “a fake”, “ a blown up club fighter”. See?

The defamation lawsuit against Mayweather and co-conspirators is perfectly justified. Playing mind games, they have crossed ethical lines by resorting to baseless malicious defamatory accusations – ruining Manny’s good name and reputation. With good lawyering this case can be won. I would certainly throw in a demand for punitive damages which should kick in the big bucks – millions more. Punitive damages are proper and justifiable because malice is involved. I’ll even volunteer to prepare the pleadings and arguments pro bono re punitive damages. Hey, you can’t play dirty tricks with a national treasure – a good genuinely humble man … takes Filipinos’ minds off government corruption.

Team Pacquiao did right slamming the door on Mayweather’s face. That’s smart. Had they accepted Mayweather’s terms - the bogus PED accusations and the forced acceptance of unreasonable unjustifiable blood testing demands would have left a bad taste in Pacquiao’s mouth - affecting his emotions and mindset. The team did well in following WBC President Jose Sulaiman’s admonition: “He (Pacquiao) has always been clean… Let him (Mayweather) go to hell.”

I am positive that Mayweather’s camp will soon initiate new discussions to actualize the dream rumble. The enticement of boxing’s biggest purse ever is too irresistable for the tax-challenged Mayweather. Besides, his sneaky machinations which caused Manny to walk will forever haunt him if this fight goes nada. “Coward!” - Bob Arum alleges. Maybe not. Scheming? Definitely.When the fight is on, expect Mayweather to continue trying to mess Pacquiao’s mind. Hopefully, Pacquiao gets to read this article. Some good science here.

Now that Pretty Boy’s insidious tactics are bared – he won’t come out looking so pretty when the dust settles and the smoke clears. Expose the crime they look like slime.

Ted Laguatan is officially certified as an expert/specialist lawyer by the California State Bar. He does immigration law, personal injury, complex litigation, medical malpractice and other cases. He is rated as being among the top 5 percent best lawyers in America by a magazine for lawyers. For communications: 455 Hickey Blvd.,Ste.516,Daly City, CA 94015, Tel. (650) 991-1154, Fax (650)991-1186, E-mail: laguatanlaw@gmail.com

FROM THE CAPITOL: Being the support for one another

By Senator Leland Yee

The word family, or pamilya, is a word that I have learned from my involvement in the Filipino-American community. Being the in community I see the different meanings of the word family, in the labor of love of putting various community events together, in the gathering of seniors to get together and move their feet to music, and to dinners that celebrate an anniversary, an opening, a graduation, the list goes on.

Over the past few months, I have been joined by many friends in the community—friends that I see around often, and some that I haven’t had the chance to see in a while. I am always enamored with how time is not a matter of importance. I say this in the sense that despite not having seen one another in a while, it seems as if it was just yesterday we saw each other and we can easily pick up from where we left off. This has been apparent to me in many of these gatherings.

I recall the efforts last fall to declare the month of October as Filipino-American History Month. In working with the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS), language was developed together for Senate Concurrent Resolution 48, which recounts the recorded history of Filipino Americans in the United States and in the State of California in particular. Once word spread about this effort, so did the quick outpour of support for the legislation. With the backing of Filipino-Americans all throughout the state and in other parts of the nation, as well as my colleagues in Sacramento, we were able to provide the Filipino-American community the recognition that was overdue and well-deserved.

I have great admiration for the dynamic of the Filipino and Filipino-American pamilya. It is what truly makes your community unique. The words unity, camaraderie, and friendship also ring true to your people.

I encourage you to keep the same commitment to helping one another and our community. At a time when many people are losing their jobs, their homes, their confidence, it is important that we remain and continue to be backbones for one another.

We must also not forget our brothers and sisters in countries like Haiti who are recovering from a major earthquake two weeks ago, and those in the Philippines, who are still recuperating from the aftermaths of Typhoon Ondoy which struck three months ago, that we remember them and provide them with our continued support and love. As such, it is fitting and proper that I thank you all for your many contributions to our society. And let us keep the positive momentum going in 2010.

STREET TALK: President Villarroyo?

WRITTEN BY: GREG MACABENTA

Manny Villar is lucky, he is running for president of the Philippines. If this were an election campaign in the US, he would be shamed into withdrawing because of the censure threatened by at least 12 of his colleagues in the Senate.

He is also lucky because a censure might be the worst thing the Senate will do to him. In fact, if the erstwhile champion of good government, Alan Peter Cayetano, were to have his way, there won’t even be a censure and the damning findings of the Senate President himself, Juan Ponce Enrile, would be treated like a worthless piece of paper.

Cayetano, who would have us believe he was a crusader against the corrupt Arroyo government, apparently hasn’t heard about what Manuel Luis Quezon had to say about loyalty to his party ending where loyalty to the country begins. Cayetano sees things in reverse.

If Villar were a US senator and were to be accused and “found guilty” by his Senate colleagues, the way Ponce Enrile’s findings indicate, a mere censure would cause an uproar across America. That would be like a mere slap on the knuckles and Capitol Hill would not hear the end of it from the media and from the citizenry.

In America, the Justice Department would step into the picture or an independent counsel would be appointed. The FBI would quarantine Villar’s financial records, go over his transactions with a fine tooth comb, interview dozens of potential witnesses and make a viable presidential campaign impossible to run. And fat chance the voters will even entertain the idea of Villar becoming president.

Consider what Bill and Hillary Clinton, as president and first lady of the United States, had to go through as a result of allegations of unethical conduct in connection with their real estate investments while Bill Clinton was governor of Arkansas. The Clintons were subsequently cleared in the Whitewater scandal but not their associates Jim and Susan McDougal who were both convicted, along with Clinton’s successor, Governor Jim Tucker. If enough evidence had been built against the Clintons, they would have been ejected from the White House.

And yet, what the Clintons were accused of could pass for a small case of official misbehavior compared to what Villar has been accused of by his colleagues in the Senate.

Consider what Gary Hart and John Edwards, both US presidential hopeless had to suffer when the former was shown with a “bimbo” on his lap in a yatch and the latter was exposed concerning his extramarital affair. Hart had to forget about his presidential ambitions and Edwards had to end his promising presidential campaign.

Would Villar entertain such a thought? Not on anyone's life. He has invested so much in his campaign, he won't withdraw even if every member of Congress were to turn blue in the face censuring him.

Indeed, the findings of the Senate Committee should be enough to kick off the kind of exhaustive investigation that will get to the bottom of this scandal and either exonerate Villar or get him indicted and jailed. But don't count on the Senate demanding that Villar should withdraw. The Senate is still an Old Boys’ Club and, at most, will rap Villar on the knuckles and leave him free to run for the highest office in the land.

Villar has been accused of having “made the Filipino suffer the total amount of P6.22 billion” because of the alleged realignment of the C5 highway through subdivisions in which he has substantial holdings. On top of that, he has been accused of directly benefiting from the realignment because of the increased value of his property and allegations of overpricing in the right-of-way payments, on top of which he reportedly was first in line to collect payments from the government.

Twelve senators have already signed the draft report and are endorsing it to a plenary session of the Senate. That very act would mean the end of Villar's presidency aspirations, if this scandal had exploded in America or Korea or Japan or Europe. In such a case,Villar would have to put up a determined defense to defend his honor and uphold his reputation.

But this is happening in the Philippines. Therefore, Villar may not even feel constrained to speak out in his defense but will simply leave it to his spokesmen, apologists and publicists to cry “political vendetta” and claim martyrdom.

And don’t be surprised if this furor will not even affect his standing in the surveys. In this country of bleeding hearts, blind loyalties, votes for sale and media practitioners moonlighting as apologists, Villar is not likely to lose any support. Dolphy will continue to extol him as an outstanding Son of Tondo. Willie Revillame will continue to sing praises to him in his TV show. Loren Legarda will hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil and, at most, will find a proper euphemism to justify her continuing support for her presidential teammate.

This is truly sad. This presidential election is supposed to offer a ray of hope to the long suffering people of the Philippines. After over a decade of Arroyo misrule, this is supposed to be the chance to turn things around, to field candidates who are the opposite of the present Malacanang occupant.

But what do we have? Erap Estrada, after having been ejected from the presidency and convicted of plunder, is running again for president and is ranking third in the surveys. Gilbert Teodoro, who believes that loyalty to his patron, Arroyo, is more importnt than loyalty to the country (another individual who hasn’t heard of Manuel Quezon) is the official candidate of the administration. And Manny Villar, accused of using his Senate position to benefit his business empire and threatened with a censure by his Senate peers, is still gaining on Noynoy Aquino and leaving Dick Gordon far behind in the polls.

I mention Aquino and Gordon because of the irony that these two candidates present. One is accused of having “done nothing” to deserve the presidency except to be the son of his father and mother, while the other has an impressive public service record that fails to impress the masses.

One will likely lose, despite being qualified to be president. The other one brings real hope for a new era of honesty and integrity in public service but has to confront the harsh prospect of a tight race against someone who could bring a repeat of the very plague of corruption that this election seeks to erase.
Can you imagine a President Manny VILLARROYO????!!!
(gregmacabenta@hotmail.com)