Jack and Joe Mesi frown and blow off Cape Town

He smelled it in one nostril, then another. Then he felt it in his gut, and finally, the truth of the matter came crashing down on Jack Mesi. The former cop had an inkling that things in South Africa weren’t kosher about two weeks ago when travel arrangements promised by promoter Joe Manyathi weren’t panning out.

His son Joe Mesi was supposed to fight on the same card as Laila Ali on Aug. 5 in Cape Town, South Africa, but it was not to be. The plug was pulled yesterday on the whole card, and the elder Mesi feels for Ali.

“She went there, and has to come back empty-handed,” he said. “It’s nineteen or twenty hours in the air.”

The Mesis never got on a plane, and the father/manager chalks up the experience to another lesson learned.

“We weren’t burned that bad, mostly time and sweat,” he said.

Mesi dealt with not Manyathi but a US-based emissary who he doesn’t want to name because the US partner, he feels, cannot be lumped in with the South African dealmaker/breaker.

The father looks to get his son another fight in August, but doesn’t have a specific date yet.