Whatever happened to boxing? Remember when it used to be a great sport? When being heavyweight champion really meant something? Back in the day, guys like Jack Dempsey and Rocky Marciano were more famous than the president, and made a lot more money, too. And people make a
b id deal that baseball was integrated in 1947. Well, boxing was integrated way back in 1910, when Jack Johnson became heavyweight champ.
So, whatever happened to it? I couldn’t tll you who
today’s heavyweight champ is, if there even is one. The sport has just gone to pieces, replaced by something called “Ultimate fighting”, whatever that is. I don’t know any of these guys, either, and I don’t really care.
So, let’s bring back boxing. Clean it up and get rid of the corruption. Make it great again. It always was a great way for minorites to rise to the top. Tough young Irishmen and Italians and later, blacks and Mexicans could come out of places like the Bronx, Pittsburgh, Chicago, whatever, and become hometown heroes. It’s an honest sport, and tough. You have to train like a mother to get in shape, and have the heart of a lion to stay in the ring for 15 rounds with a guy who wants to knock your block off. I’ve tried it myself, and it IS hard. The pros make it look easy, but after just one 3 minute round I was totally wiped out. It’s great cardio and strength training. Teaches hand-eye coordination. Teaches kids self defense and self confidence.
So, yeah, let’s bring back boxing!
Don’t you know it’s been replaced with fake TLC wrestling. TLC = Tables, Ladders and Chairs
Skip space to avoid the annoying CATEGORIES box. Of course I assume others find it intrusive. Likely our Editor would fix the problem if he could manage it himself.
Eric, honesty in boxing is like beauty in the eye of the beholder. Anyone who saw the judges give Timothy Bradley the split decision victory over Manny Pacquiao in June 2010 in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand would have a difficult time agreeing it was even close to an honest verdict. I’ll offer two other recent examples: Rios v Abril and Cloud v Campillo to show that blatant dishonesty in boxing is anything but rare.
And, it isn’t only at professional level boxing that dishonesty can be found. Watch the Olympics, the decisions in boxing rival those in Ice Skating for inexplicable outcomes.
Next, there are no sanctioned 15 round fights anymore, they were banned almost 25 years ago. Championship fights go 12 rounds now.
You underestimate mixed fighting, professional boxer James Toney (31-2 as an amateur and 72-6-3 as a Pro) signed to fight Ultimate Fighter Randy Couture in August of 2010. Both were a little past their best but still formidable fighters, Toney was 42 and Couture was 46. Toney didn’t last the first 5 minute round, he tapped out at 3 minutes and 19 seconds.
Arggg! But there’s always lemonade. Here’s another example of a bad decision. Evander Holyfield fighting in the ’84 Olympics was robbed of a gold medal opportunity when the referee (from the home country of the guy who would have had to face Holyfield) disqualified Evander for a late hit that was so close to the bell no one, (except the self-serving ref) not even Holyfield’s opponent, (the one that got hit) thought it was intentionally late.
There have been a number of great fights, and not all of them last very long. The Hearns-Hagler fight where Tommy decided to go toe to toe is one that people will appreciate for a long time to come despite its brevity, and perhaps the foolhardiness of the attempt.
Mixed martial arts have had, in my opinion, a pretty good history and I’ve been following them off and on since my college days.
You can go all the way back to Jean-Yves Thériault, who I at first thought was called Johnny Terrio. LOL
Speaking of which (Thériault and his famous peers) recall this justly famous, within a small circle anyway, movie scene from my hometown (not quite, not really).
I couldn’t figure out how this was so well done. Turns out they both know exactly what they were doing. Trainer, and student.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0ScNLt2zNc
Ropelight wrote:
I couldn’t find a way to edit it, so I moved it to the right-hand side bar, where it will not intrude on the text.
Many thanks Mr Editor. You did find a way to manage the problem. Moving the offending intrusion to the right side never occurred to me or I would have suggested it. Nevertheless, I’m glad you came up with a quick fix. Thanks again.
The Friday Night Fights on TV in the 50′s and early 60′s heavily promoted Beer, and Smoking. The Friday Night Fights were oriented to the Blue Collar audience. That audience is all but gone, cigarettes for all intents are banned, and there is too damn much light beer.
What is the point of “Light beer”? If you’re trying to lose weight, why drink beer in the first place?
I think the NFL’s rise in the late 1960s and the 1970s may have contributed to the decline of boxing, too. Another sport that was popular back then (when my parents were kids) was bowling, but it really isn’t anymore.
I think it might have been the rise of Muhammed Ali. Yeah, he was great, but did he have to brag about it so much? Joe Louis was greeat, and he never bragged about it. You want a champion to have at least a bit of modesty. Instead it was me, me, me.
Also, Mike Tyson could have been great if he hadn’t been a total psycho. I watched his first few fights, and he was unstoppable. But then he went nuts, went to jail, and basically fell apart.
Or maybe it was Rocky. Turned out the movie fights were a lot better than the real ones.
I think bowling is still popular. At least the lanes always seem busy the few times I go. But it ain’t the social event it used to be. Mostly, it’s just families and kids. You don’t hear much about bowling leagues any more. I think most guys who used to bowl have taken up golf instead. Which is another game I can’t stand because I can’t play it worth shit. Indeed, every time I try, I get worse. Practice definitle does not make perfect in my case! It drives me nuts that my brother, who hardly plays at all, can routinely kick my ass. Yeah, it’s scenic, I guess. But once the balls start going in the water or off in the woods, I just wanna say fuck it! Stay home and play video games instead.
Yeah, but has a mixed fighter ever gone up against a really good boxer? I mean, like Olympic class good?
I just can’t get into this so-called “Ultimate fighting”. It has none of the glamour that prizefighting once had back in the day. Who are these guys, anyway? They just look like tattooed idiots beating the crap out of each other in a cage. Maybe they really are good, I don’t know. I can’t be bothered to watch. None of them are household names, the “Sport” seems to have an air of disreputables about it. No one takes it seriously. It’s right up there with professional wrestling.
Eric, mixed martial arts fighting has as much do do with professional wrestling as Perry has do with bridging the gap.
James Toney was a really good boxer, his record proves it, and he lost to a really good mixed martial arts fighter in the first round.
Which indicates that an attempt at a comparison of boxing matches with MMA fights is apples and oranges: they’re two different sports with different rules and with inadequate overlap to make comparison meaningful.
OK, got it.