Boxing: Antonio’s Reliable Source on Mackenzie Phillips, Mayweather Jr, Adam Lambert, Khloe Kardashian and yes... Boxing!

Boxing: Antonio’s Reliable Source on Mackenzie Phillips, Mayweather Jr, Adam Lambert, Khloe Kardashian and yes... Boxing!

By Antonio Santiago, Doghouse Boxing (Oct 2, 2009)

Well, the week that has passed since I wrote my last installment of Reliable Source has been a long week in which many things have happened which the word excitement is not enough to describe them. I attended a WNBA basketball game between the Phoenix Mercury and the Los Angeles Sparks and was, along with my brother Jose, within a couple of seconds of landing in the hospital but because of one of those being-in-the-right-place-at-the-right-time type of things, we did not. Then, last night as I was to begin writing my column, my neighbor’s house caught fire. I had to leave to make sure my immediate neighbors, who are my sister and her husband, my brother and his wife and all their children and dogs, were safe and out of their house, just in case.

My neighbor Hussein’s house caught fire when someone or something made their trash can burn. Luckily, Hussein and his family were not hurt. At 3AM, I had three fire trucks next to my house, and two police cars blocking our street.

Hussein and his family are Iraqi. They came here fledging the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. They have plans to return to their country when everything is settled there, and I have plans to visit them and see by myself what was once, and will be again, a glorious, glamour country. But back in the days of Saddam when the American media to much extent propagandized the image of the Iraqi that hated America, no one could have told me one of my best friends was going to be somebody from there! Life sure surprises you!

One thing I did do a lot during this period was watch a lot of movies, like “Wanted” and “Jump”. “Jump” has one of my favorite actresses, Dakota Fanning. That girl, every movie in which she is at is guaranteed to be great, and “Jump” was no exception. I hate it when movies get too complicated, when the characters try to explain to you, how “100 years ago, a wolf bit your great grandfather, and ever since, you have been wolves but you must stay away from the sun because if not, it will melt you because you have type A-25 wolf-human blood” or something like that. “Jump” was complicated, what with the story line of how a “division’ of secret killers is behind disappearances of children around the world in order to control the planet. But I still loved it because it was that great. And it had a great message in it: Everything we do now, will in fact affect our future. Every move, every sweat, every word you say or perform, will change tomorrow and beyond.

And that, my friends and readers, is my message to you this week.

Wedding Bells

In boxing, the perfect match up gets us a great fight that will be remembered for all times. Pretty much the same can be said about life. And love. In love, the perfect match up will give you a great hook-up that will last for all times. Maybe.

And so, on September 27th, the hot as hell Khloe Kardashian got married to NBA star Lamar Odom of the champion Los Angeles Lakers, at Los Angeles. The pair got married at the home of music producer Irving Azzoff, according to usmagazine.com. Dude, Lamar, you got an NBA ring and you left the Losers-I mean, Clippers to get it. I thought it could not get any better for you! I guess I was wrong!

But wait! That’s not it! Adding spice to the soup, People.com had Odom answer questions to whether the marriage to Kim’s sister was real or not! Odom told the magazine on Lakers media day on Wednesday, that “It’s crazy how perception works in America when you’re looking at things from the outside”, according to thehuffingtonpost.com.

Looks like this is just beginning to heat up! And if I was that music producer dude who lent his house for the marriage ceremony, that aforementioned Irving Azzoff, I’d change my last name. Doesn’t Azzoff sound like A**hole???

In more wedding news, the controversial pairing of American actress Claire Danes, she from “Romeo And Juliet” and “Brokedown Palace”, among many others, and Hugh Dancy, who co-starred with Danes in “Evening”, has ended in marriage as well. According to usmagazine.com, a representant of the actress that once called the city of Manila “ghastly and weird” and the actor got married earlier this month.

I bet the wedding was not in the city where Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier held their “Thrilla!”

Lamania?

Adam Lambert will release his debut album ten days after our Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto mega fight is due to take place. Lambert’s album will be released on November 24th. So, of course, it already occupies Amazon.com’s list of bestsellers.

The power packing album is beating The Beatles’ and Madonna’s albums on the list and is behind only Barbra Streisand’s album, according to Popeater.com.

I love The Beatles and Madonna, but Lambert’s album’s early success reminds me of when Larry Holmes beat a comebacking Muhammad Ali and when Mike Tyson beat a comebacking Holmes. Why do old geezers keep thinking they can compete with the young ones? For every Streisand and George Foreman, there are thousand others like Ali and Madonna, who keep trying to comeback only to have some upstart kick their butt!

Ahh, if only some learned by other’s experience!

Mackenzie Needs Some Fatherly Love

I’ve done some crazy and wild things in my life. Things so wild, I’d rather leave them for my biography, to be published some day in about ten years. Or, when I join the old geezers mentioned above in trying to make a comeback, whichever comes first. But compared to Mackenzie Phillips, the actress and singer and daughter of The Mammas’ and The Pappas’ John Phillips, I guess I am far from being the wildest kid out there.

Mackenzie Phillips, my friends, turns out to be a kid who loved her dad. Only a bit too much for even my own taste. And a bit too disgusting.

Turns out that the “Boeing!” inducing “daddy’s little girl” was giving “daddy” a “Boeing!”, and she went to Oprah Winfrey’s show to talk about it all, according to lemondrop.com. Phillips is about to release a book where she details her rendezvous with her father.

Hey, since John Phillips died in 2001, why not coming to me, Mackenzie? I know I ain’t daddy, but I got much “love” to give to you too!!

Talking Of New Books

One talks about secrets with her father, and the other one talks about her father: Victoria Gotti also has a new book out, titled “This Family of Mine: What it Was Like Growing up Gotti”. If you are interested in games like “Grand Theft Auto” and movies like “Goodfellas”, “The Godfather” and “Scarface”, then you know who her daddy was. Victoria Gotti is none other than the daughter of John Gotti, “Dapper Don” and famous for his alleged mafia connections. Arturo Gatti loved action fights. John Gotti apparently loved action outside the ring.

Victoria Gotti seems like a very interesting woman and a very smart person. It would be very interesting to read about the Gotti family from her point of view. As many of you might know, Teddy Atlas famously spoke in his book, “Atlas”, about how John Gotti once supposedly tried to get into boxing.

Bara bim, bara bam!

Surprise, Surprise!!

This shall not sound as surprising to you as when James “Buster” Douglas beat up Mike Tyson or when Leon Spinks surprised Muhammad Ali: Kate Gosselin’s name will be the only one appearing on the title of her reality television show.

According to the network that shows her show, “Jon & Kate Plus Eight”, the show will now be named “Kate Plus Eight”. TLC announced that recently. It also announced plans for the production to focus on Kate’s role as a mother, according to us magazine.com.

Gosselin has been around lately. She recently co-hosted “The View” and she is in the plans to host a talk show alongside Paula Deen.

Not to be outdone, her former husband, Jon Gosselin, is rumored to be trying to land another reality television show, which might be named “The Divorced Dads Club”, with Michael Lohan, famous for being father to hotness and God’s gift to men, Lindsay Lohan. Now, that’s a match up made in hell!

Hey, lovely Kate, I got a better idea: how about making your show be named “Antonio & Kate Plus Eight”? With a babe like you, I’m a willing partner!!

Child Rape Victim Now a Brave Woman

When we talk about events that changed boxing, we generally speak about a fight where both combatants took blows for a determined amount of time, usually 36 minutes of fighting or less. But when we talk about moments in life that changed that life, we may be talking about contant blows for the rest of that person’s life. Such is the case of Texan Jennifer Schuett.

Schuett was raped when she was 8 years old, in 1990. Now, at age 27, she has gone public in her battle to find the man who victimized her.

The woman, whose dark eyes and winning smile are enough to capture any man’s heart, is hunting for the man that took away her innocence on that horrible night, according to CNN.

She has said that “It’s not about me anymore, it’s about all the little girls that go to sleep at night. I know so many girls out there who have been raped and hurt. You have to fight back”.

Spoken like a true champion that she is!

Saved By The Dr. Pepper!

You know when people talk about those moments in life when they have a premonition or a dream or something and later it turns out that it prevented them from fate? Like Dewon Sawa in “Final Destination”? Well, the same happened to me and my brother Jose!

On Saturday night, we were headed to the WNBA’s Western Conference Finals Game Two between the Los Angeles Sparks and the Phoenix Mercury. We had to get a bus to get to the coliseum, and so we went to a bus stop.

There, we saw two buses coming. I decided since I was thirsty, I’d go to a convenience store across the street and get a Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper and we’d take the second bus. After I got the soda, I walked back to find the first bus had just left about five seconds before.

Five minutes later, we looked on from the bus right behind it, as that bus, the first one, crashed onto an incoming truck. Sadly, on the accident, one passenger died. My condolences to that person’s family.

As for me and my brother, well, what can I say but that we were saved by God and by the Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper!

Seen and On The Sceen

Muhammad Ali has been around this week. First, on Monday, September 21st, the IFC channel showcased a documentary about him filmed in 1974 as he strolled around the streets of the Democratic Republic of Congo, what was then called Zaire, before his fight with George Foreman. Ali and Foreman were seen, among other things, joining the then President of the Zaire for a tour of the Presidential Palace.

Ali attended the same game that me and my brother attended. He left halfway through the 4th quarter, as the Sparks were on their way to a 76-67 victory over the Mercury. The Phoenix Mercury, it should be said, went on to win the series the next day and are, as we speak, leading the WNBA Finals 1-0 over the Indiana Fever.

Pete Rose, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Magic Johnson were among the many stars to attend Saturday, September 26th’s fight between Vitaly Klitschko and Chris Arreola for Klitschko’s WBC world Heavyweight title, which the Ukrainian won handidly with a tenth round knockout over the Mexican-American, who was attempting to become, after Puerto Rican John Ruiz, only the second Latin boxer in history to be world Heavyweight Champion.

Floyd Mayweather Jr., frsh off his win over Juan Manuel Marquez, appears on the cover of Men’s Fitness Magazine this month.

El Vocero newspaper in Puerto Rico has announced that Miguel Cotto decided on Puerto Rican singing legend Ednita Nazario to sing the small but bug hearted nation’s national hymn before his November 14th fight with Manny Pacquiao.

Ebay had one of their sellers sell a DVD with classic fights of legendary Jose “Pipino” Cuevas. On the DVD’s cover, Cuevas was wearing a WBC world Championship belt. Only problem with that is, Cuevas was the WBA’s world Welterweight Champion, not the WBC one! And he never won a WBC world title anyways! Next time, the DVD producer better check it out before fixing the cover photos!

Our Hearts Are With

Tori Spelling. The actress, remembered for her long tenure in the teenage mega hit television series “Beverly Hills 90210”, has been admitted at a hospital with stomach pains, according to USWeekly. Her husband, Dean McDermott, is by her side. Doctors still have not figured out what is wrong, if anything is, with her stomach.

Please send all Questions and comments to Antonio at TJ69662094@aol.com.