Bob Dylan Meets Manny Pacquiao
Manny Pacquiao, the first-term senator from the Philippines and legendary eight-division boxing champion, has not yet won a Nobel Prize.
And Bob Dylan, the legendary songwriter and newest winner of the Nobel Prize, has never knocked anybody out in the ring as far as we know.
Nonetheless, the two men are fans of each other, and Dylan apparently is a big fan of the sport that made Pacquiao famous. In fact, Dylan showed up at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, Calif., a few years ago as Pacquiao trained for his second fight against Timothy Bradley.
Dylan sat on a weight bench for nearly an hour and watched Pacquiao spar.
According to Pacquiao’s publicist and spokesman Fred Sternburg, who witnessed the meeting of the fighter and songwriter, Dylan has been boxing as a form of exercise for many years.
“I was told that he used to work with Bruce ‘The Mouse’* Strauss,” Sternburg told Rolling Stone magazine at the time. “He’s a huge boxing fan from what I hear.”
Sternburg said it was like “seeing one of the apostles” when he was introduced to Dylan and a friend, who showed up after calling ahead first.
“I’ve never seen the place take an aura like this, and I’ve been going to that gym for a long time,” Sternburg recalled by phone Friday. “It’s not that I’m a huge fan but just the influence he’s had on generations — forget my generation, many generations. This guy speaks for a lot of people, and for an era. I was in awe. he’s an icon, obviously.”
When Pacquiao came in to the gym, Sternburg told him Bob Dylan was there to watch him and they were introduced. Later as Pacquiao was in the dressing room getting his hands wrapped, he told Sternburg, “I can’t believe Bob Dylan is here!
“So we go out and take some photos, and there’s just this aura about the guy, without him even doing anything. We couldn’t hear everything he said because he speaks so low, but you could tell he’s just a boxing fan.”
Sternburg said that Dylan, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature this week, 31 months after the meeting, was very accommodating that day.
“Before and after the sparring, Dylan posed for pictures with anyone that asked and signed autographs,” Sternburg said. “Some of the other fighters took selfies with him. He accommodated everybody and smiled the whole time.
“I think he just liked being in the element of the gym with these guys who were happy to be with him but were not slobbering all over him.”
Pacquiao later tweeted, “After Bob Dylan watched me train today, Freddie Roach said, ‘I think a hard rain’s a-gonna fall on Timothy Bradley.’ ”
Which, of course, happened in a pugilistic sense when Pacquiao defeated Bradley by unanimous decision on April 12, 2014 at the MGM Grand to avenge his controversial loss two years earlier.
Dylan has written at least two songs about boxing. In 1963 he penned Who Killed Davey Moore?, a song about a boxer (there were two fighters named Davey Moore in the 20th century, both of whom died young) who lost his featherweight title when he was brutally knocked out by Sugar Ramos in 1963. Moore died four days later from whiplash after hitting the bottom rope of the ring as he went down.
In 1975, Dylan wrote Hurricane, one of his biggest hits, about the plight of boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, who Dylan believed was wrongly imprisoned for a triple murder in New Jersey and spent 19 years behind bars.
Rolling Stone writer Andy Greene wrote that during a 2008 tour stop in Mexico City, Dylan stopped by a boxing gym there and impressed trainer Rodolfo Rodriguez, who didn’t recognize Dylan, then around 67. But Rodriguez told the newspaper El Universal that “Dylan boxed with all his friends and he did well; you can tell he’s practiced for awhile because he landed some good shots and brought his own professional (equipment). He knows what pugilism is and enjoys it.”
So maybe Dylan has knocked somebody out in the ring after all during his spectacular music career, which has spanned more than 50 years.
Apparently Dylan himself got knocked down at least once — by a woman.
In his 2014 article, Greene revealed a 2000 conversation with Interview magazine in which actress Gina Gershon said she sparred with Dylan during the filming of her 1996 movie Bound.
“One time he gave me a little jab in the face, and since
I’d told him not to do that, of course I went insane and hit him really
hard,” Gershon said. “He did go down, and I almost started to cry,
thinking, ‘Oh my God, I’m the jerk who broke Bob Dylan’s jaw.’ “
Dylan, however, assured her that he was uninjured and told her, “I need a good woman to kick my ass every now and then.”
“He’s a real boxer,” Gershon said. “We have the same trainer in Los Angeles.”
Pacquiao, 37, the first-term senator in the Philippines
who returns to the ring in a pay-per-view battle on Nov. 5 at the Thomas
& Mack Center in Las Vegas against WBO welterweight champion Jessie
Vargas, is currently training with Roach in his home country.
Dylan is scheduled to perform in Roanoke, Va., that night
on his current U.S. tour, so he obviously won’t be attending the fight.
But the Nobel Prize winner and the noble prize fighter will be doing their thing nearly 3,000 miles apart. And somewhere, a hard rain’s-a gonna fall. (Photo of Dylan and Pacquiao by Chris Farina)
Link: http://boxingjunkie.usatoday.com/2016/10/14/dylan-and-pacquiao-the-day-the-nobel-prize-winner-met-the-noble-prize-fighter/
*Bruce ‘The Mouse’ Strauss, was Boxing';s greatest Canvas Back... he even took a dive on the under card to a Gord Racette fight....in Nanaimo, B.C.
Bruce 'The Mouse' Strauss is an actor, known for The Mouse (1996), Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993) and Late Night with David Letterman (1982).
last 6 L by KO
Bruce 'The Mouse' Strauss is an actor, known for The Mouse (1996), Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993) and Late Night with David Letterman (1982).
Bruce Strauss is a retired boxer who is more known for his losses than for his wins. His nickname is The Mouse or simply Mouse. Wikipedia
*Bruce Strauss
| W | L | D | ||
| 77 | 53 | 6 | ||
| 55 KOs | 28 KOs |
Bruce "the Mouse" Strauss is proud to hold the
unofficial record for getting knocked out in boxing rings on every
continent except Antarctica. He is a lousy boxer; but he knows it, and
is happy to amuse audiences.
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