Milk Carton All-Star of the Week....11/6/2009

With the new NBA season starting up last week, it would have been easy to use some washed up NBA bum for the Milk Carton All-Star of the Week as a dedication of Tip Off '09. We here at Boom Roasted Sports, don't like doing things the easy way. We DO, however, like making history, which is why we decided to give every has-been's favorite weekly honor to our first boxer.

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The man seen here, in one of his few big moments, is former super featherweight contender Angel "El Diablo" Manfredy. Manfredy, to put it plainly, was the equivalent of the Buffalo Bills of boxing. In four attempts at a major title, Manfredy went 0-4. His most notable win came when he battered Jersey legend Arturo Gatti in front of Gatti's home crowd in Atlantic City to the tune of an 8th round K.O. That win catapulted Manfredy to boxing relevance. He opted for the moniker "El Diablo" because of his wild lifestyle, but then went the religious route and started campaigning as a born again Christian and allegedly using the nickname "Got Jesus?", which along with heavyweight contender Lance Whitaker changing his name to Goofi to have a more child-friendly appeal, has to be one of the dumbest career decisions the sweet science has seen in a long, long time.

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As for the rest of Manfredy's career, he used the momentum from the Gatti victory to earn a shot at pound-for-pound legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. Mayweather, as expected, beat the living shit out of "Got Jesus?", pulling a Canibus and knocking Manfredy out in the 2nd round. Manfredy bounced back with a win over Gatti rival Ivan Robinson but then was stopped in his tracks in his next bout, a title match against Stevie Johnston. After snacking on bums in his next few fights, Manfredy was steam-rolled by the late Diego Corrales by way of a 3rd round TKO. Like any resilient Bible-thumper though, Manfredy bounced back with a debatable split decision win over previously-unbeaten hot prospect Julio Diaz. That set up a fight with model citizen Paul Spadafora, who beat Manfredy by a 12-round unanimous decision which got Mr. Jesus Freak so riled up, he whined and cried like a girl scout on national television in front of HBO audiences(or at least the 15 or 16 people who would tune in for a Manfredy-Spadafora fight).

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In a interesting side note, this would essentially be the last we see of Spadafora as well. Less than a year after making Manfredy pull an Adam Morrison, Spadafora would be arrested for allegedly shooting his girlfriend at a gas station. Not too long after that, Spadafora would be arrested again for drunkenly driving his car through a park. Shortly after THAT, a urine test of Spadafora found traces of cocaine. Inevitably, Spaddy would be sentenced to 21-60 months in jail for the aforementioned gas station shooting.

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With all that said, Spadafora seems like a perfect candidate for this spot instead of Manfredy, except for the fact that Spaddy doesn't have Manfredy's two sweet-ass tattoos: A Puerto Rican flag(which would get Gabe all excited) and a naked lady on a cross(which would get me excited....if I can look past the cross).

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So let's give it up for tantrum-throwing, psalm-quoting, light-punching boxing bridesmaid Angel Manfredy, everybody!