THREE mega sporting events are colliding today. One is in Kuala Lumpur, the other in London, and the World Cup final in Moscow.
Can Lucas Matthysse defeat our Philippine senator and force him into retirement? In boxing, all it takes is one crushing punch to end a bout... and a career. It can happen today. But the odds highly favor our Pinoy legend: he's minus-190. This means that a P190 bet on MP will net you P100.
Both fighters are old. Manny turns 40 this December while Lucas will be 36 two months from now. What makes this bout exciting is the aggressive style of the Argentinian. His 36 KOs (out of 39 wins) record is outstanding. That's a 92 percent knockout rate.
WIMBLEDON. No tennis tournament on this planet is more revered than the one at the All-England Club. It's 141 years old and is considered the world's oldest tennis event. It's also one of a handful that's played not on manmade hard courts (U.S. Open and the Australian Open) or the one extracted from land (red clay in Paris) but on a living and growing surface called grass.
The deadline my editor Mike T. Limpag gave me last night did not allow me to finish the Serena Williams vs. Angelique Kerber women's final. Or for me to comment on the Rafael Nadal vs. Novak Djokovic semi-final. But this has been a surprising two weeks. From the shock defeat of Roger Federer to the loss of all Top 10 women's seeds to the resurgence of Djokovic to the non-surprising dominance of Mrs. Williams.
Wimbledon is predictably unpredictable. It's like grass. Anything can happen. A bad bounce can twist a ball's trajectory. A slippery patch can cause an embarrassing fall. And Wimbledon's rule of disallowing a tiebreak in the final set has resulted in a 26-24 final set victory for Kevin Anderson.
The men's final is at 9 tonight. Whether it's Rafa or Novak, either will have a huge advantage over the fatigued 6-foot-8 South African.
WORLD CUP. I'm not as huge a football fan as Mr. Limpag or my fellow columnist Noel Villaflor but, in the several times that I watched the games, they've been thrilling. And kudos to the coverage of SkyCable. In the Liga (757) HD channel, it's nonstop live and replay games. Same for Wimbledon, two channels show the tennis action.
With the 11 p.m. World Cup final later in Moscow, let's remember that when the tournament began a month ago, France carried a 10-1 chance to win while Croatia stood at 60-1. But kick those odds out of the stadium. They're irrelevant. Who would have expected that the powerhouse nations would fall one by one? And while plenty expected (and hoped for) a France vs. England ending, it was tiny Croatia (population: 4.3 million, of which 86% are Catholics) who might emerge as the 2018 champions.
But France is France. They're a powerhouse. And how about 19-year-old Kylian Mbappe — what a star. And that victory over Argentina in the Round of 16 that we all watched (when Messi & Co. led 2-1 only for Les Blues to score thrice in an 11-minute span), that was the tournament's best game.
My choice? I'll follow what many non-partisan watchers are saying: My head chooses France but my heart goes for Croatia.
