I just realized that this is The G Manifesto’s 1000th post.
Decent.
And what better way to celebrate that milestone than with a classic fight between two G Manifesto Hall of Fame Members Arturo Gatti and Angel Manfredy?
If you have never seen this fight, watch it. You can learn a ton about boxing and heart.
I had the pleasure of meeting both these cats. Both of the were total class acts. (I also met Ivan Robinson around the same time, who waged two epic wars with Arturo Gatti and lost to Angel Manfredy. Also cool as f*ck.)
Make sure you watch Angel Manfredy’s post fight interview (starts about 2:40 of the last video posted).
For all the people that doubted me in my life, and tried to stop me, all I have to say to you is what Angel Manfredy had to say to all those that bet against him:
Alright. Stop what your doing, because I’m about to ruin the image and style that your used to.
It is time again for The G Manifesto “Best of 2011” Awards.
Once again, these Awards are places or things that I have been to or experienced in 2011. So don’t get itchy if your local dive bar in Denver or favorite P.F. Wang’s in Poughkeepsie didn’t make the list.
Here are the rest of the Best of 2011, G Manifesto Awards:
Best International Nightlife City: Montreal, Canada. I am in love with this city. I am not sure of too many things, but this I am sure of: I will spend at least two months this summer in Montreal. Honestly, I think I can swoop a fly girl 8 out of 10 nights I go out there. It is probably closer to 10 out of 10, but I don’t want to sound like I am bragging. I almost slit my wrists for not coming sooner.
Honorable Mentions:New York City. I had too much success there in 2011 to leave it out.
Most Overrated US Nightlife City:Los Angeles. California has become a Police State, and Wessyde nightlife has gone down the tubes with it. California nightlife needs a whole new start like a person with a severed arm needs a tourniquet and a shot of tequila.
Best US Nightlife District: Brickell, Miami. Quality of girl is off the charts.
Best US Restaurant for Fly Girls:Cipriani’s. No single restaurant in America holds as many stunners.
Best International Nightclub:Andre Carne de Res, Bogota. I don’t get impressed by nightclubs any more. Well, that’s until I stepped into Andre Carne de Res in Bogota. Place is sicker than a cancer victim.
Best High-Action City:Abidjan , Ivory Coast. It went off the rope earlier this year. I hit a decent Cocoa trade playing the political takeover as well. To be frank though, the time I spent on the horn and researching that trade, it wasn’t that great.
Best Day Game City: Miami Beach. Lincoln road. No question.
Best Beach: El Sardinero, Santander, Spain is more breathtaking than northern California’s coastline. And more striking than La Jolla, California.
Best International Restaurant:La Taberna del Gourmet, Alicante, Spain. The food is so good it made old E-tab and Cocaine buzzes hit me. Seriously, my nose got sweaty while dining here. Ate here three nights straight at one point.
Honorable Mention: Toque and Au Pied Du Cuchon, Montreal. Both these restaurants are straight crack.
Best Trade: The Silver trade. I rode the silver miners up and sold out earlier in the year. And unbelieveably sold out of my paper silver near the top. Super lucky. Now I buy physical on the dips.
Best US Restaurant: Joe’s Stone Crab. Miami Beach’s answer to former G Manifesto “Best of” winner, Galitories. Illmatic. I even got a table on the last day of Stone Crab season with two fly Latinas.
Best International Hotel: Hotel Maria Cristina, San Sebastián, Spain.
Best US Hotel: The Plaza Hotel, NYC.
Worst US Hotel: Shore Club, Miami Beach. Place has slipped. The service is a joke compared to Las Vegas. Place kind of made me edgy. And that is not easy to do.
Quote of The Year:“It’s so crazy. I am in America. The country that I represent, the Red, White and Blue. I make money in America. I feed the American citizens, I feed the people that are less fortunate in America. Even when I make it rain, I am still throwing money to Americans!.”By Floyd Mayweather Jr. at the post Victor Ortiz Fight presser.
That quote would have been hilarious alone as a joke. But the fact that Floyd was dead serious when he said it not only makes it the “quote of the year” it makes it the funniest thing said all year as well.
Best Movie:The Business. Finally a real International Playboy in a movie. Of course, it wasn’t a Hollywood movie, but that is to be expected.
Best Actress: Don’t know. Probably some P0rn girl.
Best Hip-Hop Album: Oneirology by CunninLynguists
Best Hip-Hop Track: Pusha T- Don’t Fuck With Me (Drake Diss) Someone had to destroy Drake. And who better to do it than Pusha T?
“Rappers on their sophomores, actin’ like they boss lords Fame such a funny thing for sure
When n*ggas start believing all them encores I’m just the one to send you off, bonjour“
Best Break out Hip-Hop Artist: Action Bronson. Bringing back those hard New York Street bangers for your ear drums.
Best Soul Track and Album: Raphael Saadiq, Stone Rollin
G’s of The Year: Miguel Cotto and Nicolas Berggruen. Cotto is an obvious choice. If you are not familiar with Berggruen, you should be. This guy is the ultimate International Playboy/ Perpetual Traveler. Peep the Data Sheet on the cat:
Long before dabbling with blank-check companies, Berggruen had already made enough money to buy all of the trappings of the ultrarich: a Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan, a mansion on a private island near Miami, the Gulfstream IV and artworks by Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and Andy Warhol. Berggruen says that living amid all of that luxury turned into a burden and didn’t make him happy.
Buffett Pledge
“I understand the human instinct to want to create a nest and possess things, to show them off,” he says. “But for me personally, it became less and less interesting.”
So in 2000, Berggruen sold his houses, put his art collection in storage and gave away or sold most of his possessions, including his car. He says his decision to live a rootless existence wasn’t a means of dodging taxes; he says he pays them in the U.S.
The investor, who signed a pledge promoted by fellow billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates to donate at least half of their wealth, says he’ll give away all of it eventually. “Everything I do now is about growing the pot to have more to give away,” he says.
He has never married and says he is not interested in having children. Berggruen has been photographed at charity and fashion events arm in arm with a series of actresses and models, including Gabriella Wright, a British actress.
It looks like his Wessyde Base of Operations is The Peninsula hotel in Beverly Hills. A place I am not all that unfamiliar with for knocking back some early night cocktails.
He still should bust a pocket square, but no one did it bigger and better than Berggruen and Cotto in 2011.
Already making heavy, and I mean heavy moves in 2012. Should be an even better year.
However, upon watching the fight a second time, it only strengthens my views.
1. Floyd was completely controlling the fight. He was doting up Ortiz with almost every punch. Ortiz was only going to last 3 more rounds tops.
2. Ortiz was butting Mayweather constantly in the fight. He did it in the first. He did it in the second. The third and at least three times in the fourth before the “final headbutt”. Floyd didn’t complain the entire time. Now that’s G.
3. The Referee gave at least two verbal warnings for head butts prior to the “final headbutt”. There might have been three warnings.
4. Floyd’s Knockout punch was completely legit and shouldn’t have even been questioned by anyone. Especially when you consider what happened previous. Payback is a b*tch. I think James Brown said that.
It is amazing and a travesty that Floyd was thought of as the villian in this fight.
There was only one fighter who did anything wrong, and his name was Victor Ortiz.
Just kind of shows you where the world is at these days; backwards.
But then again, you got guys in America where skinny jeans and shirts with glitter in modern society.
McP’s Irish Pub, Coronado: Navy SEAL Sniper Chris Kyle Knocks Out Jesse Ventura?
Believe it or not, I was watching Fox News the other night (I sometimes do for a few minutes just to see how idiot Americans think) and caught a clip of chickenhawk coward Bill O’Reilly interviewing Navy Seal Chris Kyle, who has something like 200 sniper kills. Great.
However, right at the beginning of the interview, O’Reilly starts talking about a section of the book that Chris Kyle is peddling where Kyle supossedly punched and dropped Former Governor, former Navy Seal and former Mongol, Jesse Ventura.
He also goes on to slander Ventura pretty bad when he says Ventura told him, “You deserved to lose a few (Navy Seals), over there.”
Keep in mind that O’Reilly has beef with Ventura and starts spazzing like a little girl with a brand new Barbie doll when Kyle recounts the story. Peep it:
Right off the bat, this story seems a little shaky.
Now, I know Coronado, I have been going there since I was a young pup. I know the place like the back of my hand.
My Godfather is a main gun there on the “in the shadows” tip. He once came out of the shadows for a brief period, and that is all I will say on the matter, as it would be easy to figure out his identity.
My 2nd best running partners grandfather is a Coronado legend. And worldwide legend. And that is all I will say on that as well.
Suffice to say, I know Coronado, California and some of my earliest memories as a child were visiting my Godfather, The Hotel Del and the beach there.
Initially, I wouldn’t deny that this happened, but in Coronado, if there is a fight (or any type of crime) trust me on this one, police will be involved. (California is a Police State now after all.)
Here is Venturas response to the accusations:
Exclusive: Jesse Ventura Demands Fox Retraction for Sniper’s Lies 1/3
Here are a few more of my thoughts after listening to Ventura’s side of the story:
1. Basically, what the guy describes is sucker punching an older guy and running. Not really brag worthy.
2. He slanders Ventura pretty bad. I know Ventura is anti-war (like pretty much everyone I know who served in a war), but it seems completely out of character that he would say that “you deserve to lose a few men”.
3. In the age of cell phone cameras and TMZ, and everything else weesh that our modern day society has cooked up, it is hard to think this wasn’t captured by someone. Or in the news. Especially in Coronado.
4. I am pretty good at reading people, I have had to be in my line of work, and from Ventura’s voice, it doesn’t sound like he is lying. The younger cat gives off strange energy and body language. Maybe he just got back from Iraq, so maybe that is why. I would have to know more details, but if I had to bet money, the younger cat seems a little more shaky.
So I decided to step into McP’s Irish Pub (the site of the alleged incident) and get a Guinness and one of their Reubens that I like (I have probably been here 10-15 times before in my life).
After asking around a little about this story, and talking with people I know (I keep friends in high and low places and have eyes and ears everywhere), I can say with 99.9% accuracy (I wasn’t there after all) that Chris Kyle’s story is completely false.
Side note:
I have the utmost respect for those who have served in the military. Almost all my family has. My Father has. My Godfather has. I support the troops 110%.
And trust me, Navy SEAL are cats that you don’t want to mess with.
I have some Navy SEAL brawl stories, some hilarious, that I might share down the road.
Cotto VS Margarito II. I might not have technically been the “best fight” of 2011, but Cotto’s revenge stood out a the greatest win in Boxing for 2011. Hell, it was the greatest win in all of sport for 2011.
And if you think about it, this win erases the Margarito “loss” and only leaves the Pac-Man loss on Cotto’s ledger. Cotto is back in biz in a big way.
Best Fights:
These fights were all tops in my book.
Alfredo Angulo vs James Kirkland. Unbelievable come from behind win for Kirkland.
Andre Berto vs Victor Ortiz. This fight was pure amazing. I am a big fan of trading knockdowns so Round 6 was a modern day classic in my eyes.
This fight even had Emanuel Stewart saying “Oh my God!” And you don’t hear that very often.
Akira Yaegashi vs. Pornsawan Porpramook. Almost everyone slept on this thrilling beauty. Who says “Minimum Weight” fighters can’t throw it down?
Erik Morales vs Marcos Maidana. Two of the toughest guys in boxing show you how its done. Pure heart and soul.
Bernard Hopkins Vs Jean Pascal II. My main man Bernard (remember I used to roll in his entourage back when I was a young proto-type G. Watch the old fights, I was the handsome, dashing kid in the Custom Suit. Or just look for the only non-African American cat) does it again. Masterful performance in becoming the oldest man in the history of the sport to win a major world title, supplanting George Foreman.
Fighter of the Year:
Miguel Cotto. Thought it wasn’t? When was the last time you came back from a soul sapping, crushing defeat with loaded gloves to put on a performance of a lifetime? Honestly, I can’t believe the mainstream media didn’t give Cotto more credit.
Let’s get a little Latin flavor on this:
Future World-Wide Superstar:
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. The kid is Mexican, and looks Irish. And fights like both. Great extension on his punches. Real power. Loves to fight. Dates a former Miss Mexico Universe, so his “International Playboy” street cred is in order. What is not to like about this kid? Four big wins in 2011. Canelo is the future of boxing.
Knockouts of The year:
Floyd Mayweather’s KO of Victor Ortiz. I am sure I will get a lot of flack for chosing this one, but I loved it. Protect yourself at all times.
Fernando Montiel vs. Nonito Donaire. Now this was nice.
Zab Judah KO’s Kaizer Mabuza. Brooklyn’s own Zab Judah has still got it. Very Mayweatheresque move.
Gary Russell Jr. vs. Heriberto Ruiz. Washington, DC’s own Gary Russell Jr. is one to watch. Beautiful. Speed = Power.
Best Handspeed:
Gary Russell Jr. Keep your eye on this cat. Literally and figuratively.
Yuriorkis Gamboa. The Cuban kid brings the Meth.
Upset of the Year:
Lamont Peterson over Amir Khan. Sure it was a hometown decision. But what do you expect? It’s Boxing.
Robbery of The Year:
Manny Pacquiao VS Juan Manuel Marquez III. Marquez won this one. Everyone I respect in the boxing world that I have spoke with agrees.
Paul Williams vs Erislandy Lara. The Cuban one this one too.
Prospect of The Year:
Jose Benavidez, Jr. I have seen this kid at The Wildcard, and he is the Holyfield.
