You snooze, you lose: Miguel Cotto wears Snuggie sleepwear

November 3, 2:07 PMNY Boxing ExaminerMichael Marley

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Snuggie type blanket keeps Cotto warm as a bug in a rug in Las Vegas (Top Rank/Chris Farina)

MICHAEL MARLEY’S SOCAL COTTO VS. PACQUIAO NOTEBOOK:

LOS ANGELES--Is Miguel I’m No Angel Cotto making a fashion statement or is he getting ready to snooze and lose against Manny Pacquiao on Nov. 14?

I mean, I have to ask after seeing this photo of him walking around the Top Rank Gym in as Vegas wearing one of those advertised on TV Snuggie deals…

I haven’t seen a boxing guy wearing such nightwear since I once had the misfortune to see the late, great Unswering But Deserving Top Rank “press agent” Irving Rudd clad in his Dr. Denton pajamas and his matching sleepcap in Boston before the Marvelous Marvin  Hagler-Fully Obel middleweight title bout…

At last check, 452 websites carried “exclusive” Coach Freddie Roach interviews Monday. Expect more and more phony “exclusives” as this promotion continues to simmer…

Not only is their old newspaper, the feisty LA Herald Examiner, greatly missed in SoCal but so is the boxing beat presence of John “Downtown” Beyrooty and columnist Doug Krikorian on the area fight beat. Beyrooty is still around as the Brener-Zweikel pr agency go to guy on boxing and Kirikorian’s acerbic wit can still be found at the Long Beach newspaper. It was guys like them along with Alan Malamud, Jack Disney and Mel Durlslag who chronicled the glory years of boxeo in LA…

And a special mention to colorful scribe, radio blabber Bud "Steamer" Furillo who once asked a drug plagued Tony "TNT" Tucker if he was still messing around with "crack hoes" at a Fabulous Forum press conference. I was there, I witnessed the probing query. You don't hear those kind of inquiries from the milkshake drinking scribes of today, son, I can tell you that...

Rest in peace, judge and referee Lou Filippo, dead at 83. The ex-fighter was a mainstay of the California commission and he scored the controversial Marvin Hagler-Ray Leonard fight of 1987 in Las Vegas correctly, tabbing southpaw MMH by a 115-113.

SEE HEADLINE EXAMINER CINDY ADAMS ON LOU FILIPPO.

I still say that was probably the worst big fight verdict I ever saw up close and personal because Hagler won the fight and was robbed!...

Speaking of Old School boxing, veteran sports agent Greg Marotta, nephew of the late and superb cut man Ace Marotta, likens Manny Pacquiao Coach Freddie Roach to great Angelo Dundee in lighting up the prefight scene with heavy hype. Getting a bit poetic, Marotta says the Bostonian who is Pacman’s guru “hands out potions and notions.”

Trustpony.com

Getting a bit poetic, Marotta says the Bostonian who is Pacman’s guru “mixes potions and notions.”

“ Freddie Roach is the most riveting quote in boxing since Muhammad Ali. He is a throwback to the old time boxing people who knew how to talk up a fight and pump up interest.

Sports agent Greg "Jerry Maguire" Marotta

“All business in the ring and in training camp he is also pure "oldtime boxing business" outside the ring as well. Boxing can never, ever have enough Freddie Roach!

“This is my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

"He has been a guest on my radio show numerous times and never shucks or dodges a question. He announced "Manny will definitely knock out Ricky Hatton" on my show FIRST and before anywhere else. He called Mayweather the trainer a disgrace ("too much Mountain Dew" ) for making Hatton wait at the gym. He called Oscar a joke for denying credentials to legtimate boxing scribes.

 “You ask Freddie a question and you get an honest answer. That's what makes him so riveting. Boxing may be the Sweet Science and no one knows it better than him but Freddie also masters the chemistry to sell that science to the public. The Louisville Lip floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee. Freddie mixes his potions and hands out notions.” 

(mlcmarley@aol.com)

   GREG MAROTTA: REAL JERRY MAGUIRE

        Greg Marotta started Select Sports, a professional athlete representation firm in 1980. In 1982 Marotta was among the first group of agents to be certified by the National Football League Players Association. In 1983 Select Sports served as a remote-site host for ESPN’s NFL Draft Day Coverage, a distinction repeated in 1984 making it the first sports agency ever covered on draft day by any television network. By 1990 Marotta had negotiated over one hundred NFL and NBA contracts, in addition to numerous endorsement agreements for Select Sports’ clients. Among the contract innovations he instituted was the “Grandmother Clause” that rewarded professional players with cash compensation for returning to college to attain their degree. Marotta also optioned a screenplay based on a client’s life story as well as serving as a sounding board for the creators of the movie “Jerry Maguire.”

       In 1990 Marotta merged Select Sports with Main Events, the boxing promotional company owned by Dan Duva, forming a separate division, Main Events Teams, of which he served as Vice President and COO. Main Events Teams quickly became a force in the representation of professional athletes from the team sports of football, baseball and basketball. In addition to managing the careers of players from the world of team sports MET also managed the endorsement/marketing business of undisputed heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield. This guidance produced a revolutionary alliance between Holyfield and NFL Properties similar to the one NFLP had created with golfer Payne Stewart.

      In 1992 Marotta left MET to join NFL licensee Apex One as its Director of Football Operations. In this capacity Marotta negotiated the groundbreaking partnership between Apex One and the Dallas Cowboys for officially licensed apparel that re-wrote the way NFL licensing business was done. In addition, under his guidance, Apex One became the official, licensed footwear of the NFL. Marotta negotiated dozens of contracts with NFL and NCAA teams as well as hundreds of individual player and coach endorsement agreements with the likes of Bill Parcells, Buddy Ryan, Rodney Hampton, Jim McMahon, George Seifert, Tom Osborne, Jim Kelly, John Elway and Rick Pitino.

     Marotta left Apex One in 1995 to start his own consulting practice that specialized in advising successful companies that wanted to expand their core business into sports. Among his clients were Score Media, which is now a leader in arena signage sub-letting, Fan Guide Publications and Viisage Technology, which brought its biometric, face recognition technology to stadiums and arenas post 9/11.

      Early in 1999, Marotta furthered a relationship with Don King Productions that resulted in him being appointed as special adviser to the CEO, Don King. In this capacity Marotta was responsible for all marketing and sponsorship business for DKP, reporting directly to the CEO. Among the partnerships developed by Marotta was the groundbreaking sponsorship agreement between NBC-Universal and DKP to promote the movie “Cinderella Man,” the first time a Hollywood studio used boxing events as a promotional vehicle.  

      In 2008 Marotta formed TKOB, Inc. a multi-level, integrated sports marketing company. Among the projects undertaken by TKOB (Take Kare of Business) is the production of the feature length motion picture “All Ivy” a coming of age story about a blue chip high school quarterback from a small coal mining town in West Virginia who spurns all the major football factories to attend Harvard.

         Marotta, 51, started his college education at Memphis State University and later graduated from Villanova University in 1977 with a B.A. in English. After graduating from Villanova, where he started at tailback for the Wildcats, who at the time played a Division One schedule as a Major Eastern Independent, Marotta received a tryout with the Montreal Alouettes of the CFL.