In this week’s installment of “Ochocinco, as The World Turns,” Chad challenges Shawne Merriman to a boxing match.

Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco and Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman are known for their talk on the field, but it’s their online chatter that’s becoming good offseason entertainment.

Ochocinco said this week on the social networking site Twitter that he was confident the Bengals would win the Week 15 matchup between the two teams and challenged Merriman and the San Diego defense.

Merriman’s reply of “Are you serious?” prompted Ochocinco to challenge the Chargers OL to a boxing match. The receiver, who is sparring this offseason, also posted: “Shawne Merriman tryin to stop Ocho Cinco, CHILD PLEASE, better chance at finding Osama!”

In response, the Chargers linebacker, who’s working his way back from knee surgery last season, posted a video of himself sparring, looking ready to shut up the Bengals receiver Ochocinco.

A brief tale of the tape gives the advantage to Merriman, who’s 6-foot-4 and 272 pounds compared to Ochocinco, who’s 6-1, 192.

As usual, Ocho is just goofing around trying to get a rise out of people. Two weeks ago he put fake tattoos on his face, last week he said he as staying at Carson Palmer’s house for the summer and this week he’s challenging Merriman to a fight. It’s all an act.

Glad to see he’s having fun again, although I’ll reserve laughing until he actually puts up good numbers this season.

Earlier this week, Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco said he was going to be staying with quarterback Carson Palmer in July in order to make up for lost time after the wideout skipped most of the team’s OTA sessions.

But apparently Mrs. Palmer has nixed that idea:

Carson said Shaelyn got either a text message or e-mail from a friend, saying Ochocinco planned to stay with the Palmers in the days leading up to training camp. Shaelyn gave birth to twins — a boy and a girl — on Jan. 20.

“As soon as I walked in the door from work the other day, she just gave me that look,” Palmer said. “I’m like, ‘Whoa, calm down. It’s media stuff. It’s Chad being Chad.’

“I told her, ‘Don’t worry. I haven’t made any commitments to having to clear out the boxes in the (spare) room to make a bed for him. Don’t worry about that. It’s not going to happen.’ ”
Undeterred, Ochocinco keeps insisting he’s staying with the Palmers.

“No,” Carson said. “I just told him that unless he’s picking up my mortgage for the month of July and August, he can’t stay. He’s not living for free. I don’t need another kid around the house.”

I’ve been critical of Ochocinco this past offseason, stating that he’s been more of a distraction than a funnyman like most perceive him to be. And his face tattoo joke was flat out stupid.

But I’ve got to admit, him telling the media that he’s staying over at the Palmer house is pretty damn funny. I can’t get the image of Chad showing up at Carson’s front door with an overnight bag and a big ass smile on his face out of my head. Or him knocking on the door of the master bedroom and asking to borrow a toothbrush because he forgot his.

Hilarious.

Attention everyone: Chad Ochocinco “punked” us. Yeah, he got us real good.

Late Wednesday, the flamboyant wide receiver had three tattoos implanted on his face. On his right cheekbone are two crosses. Ochocinco then had a miniature map of the state of Florida, his home state, inked into his left cheekbone.

On the bridge of his nose, Ochocinco now has the letters OC, presumably to tout his name, which was legally changed in a Florida court in 2008.

The wide receiver declined comment, saying he would speak with the media in the Bengals locker room on Thursday.

But on his Twitter feed Thursday, Ochocinco said they were fake.

“The entire twitt (sp) world and media outlets got punked, that was my twitt joke from yesterday, they follow I’ll have fun with it,” he wrote.

“My grandma would kill me if I had damn facial tatts!!! Fun while it lasted, back to normal, I felt different to,” he said.

Boy, that was a good one, Chad – you really had us there. Outside of the Cincinnati TV station that reported this story, nobody cares. This isn’t news and the only reason why I’m posting something on it is so that I do my part to criticize the antics of Chad Ochocinco Johnson Phillip McGillacutty Wilson 8-Ball Perez (or whatever he’s calling himself these days). This is a man so desperate for attention that it’s beyond the point of sad.

Word of advice, Chad: Cut the crap and just play ball. Show up, work hard and go home. Nobody cares anymore about what you do or say because your act is tired and old. Punk that…