OT: Boxing/MMA Discussion

[Johnnyduke]

A lot of the experts i heard were saying McGregor wouldn't last x rounds. And that x was usually as high as five or so. I think he definitely proved a lot of people wrong. The age of mayweather is cancelled out by the inexperience of mcgregor. I didn't even see the fight but by all accounts it was better than pacquiao/mayweather. Sad for boxing.

 

[hoss75]

A lot of the experts i heard were saying McGregor wouldn't last x rounds. And that x was usually as high as five or so. I think he definitely proved a lot of people wrong. The age of mayweather is cancelled out by the inexperience of mcgregor. I didn't even see the fight but by all accounts it was better than pacquiao/mayweather. Sad for boxing.

What 'experts' were you listening to? I never heard one boxing expert or, fan for that matter, say it would go less than 8. The fight pretty much played out exactly as most boxing aficionados were calling it.

 

[SanDogBrewin]

Early stoppage. Connor's right. He was wobbly, but still in it. For as much money on the line, someone's got to go down.

Great fight and despite the ending, this was a win for McGregor. He lasted much longer than a lot of the fight pundits gave him and looked great doing it.

Part of a boxing referee's job is to protect a fighter from getting hurt. McGregor was about to get sent into next month. Hands were down and stopped throwing punches. Last nights ref did the right thing.

McGregor works on his foot work to maximize punching power and endurance, he would become a belt holder in the cruiserweight or light-heavyweight divisions of boxing. Conor's counter punching was awesome.

 

[Johnnyduke]

What 'experts' were you listening to? I never heard one boxing expert or, fan for that matter, say it would go less than 8. The fight pretty much played out exactly as most boxing aficionados were calling it.

I'm gonna ask the same question of you. I heard very little talk of this fight going 8 rounds.

 

[Johnnyduke]

I even remember something about how doctors were fearing for mcgregor's health...before the fight

 

[Fenway]

Outstanding post. I trained for years in and around Lowell and appreciate the historical pageantry of boxing. It's truly a shame what the sweet science has become

I remember when the Golden Gloves in Lowell was a big deal and the Boston media covered it.....not anymore.

They definitely didn't help, but it's been a perfect storm of circumstances that have helped kill interest in the sport.

1) Promoters like King and Arum

2) Too many weight classes (it's hurt UFC as well IMO)

3) Too many governing bodies and too many "World" champions

4) Lack of faith among the public in judging and the credibility of judges

5) The rise of UFC as a viable alternative

6) Lack of exciting, captivating personalitities, in particular at the heavyweight division

7) Lack of a truly dominate and marketable heavyweight world champion.

Sadly I don't see many of these problems being corrected any time soon.

That being said, I enjoyed last nights event. Hats off to both guys.

You can trace some of the decline in boxing to this fight in 1982 when Howard Cosell walked away from the sport he loved.

"They asked me if--in the wake of that terrible, terrible scene in Houston--I wanted to do these fights coming up," Cosell said from his New York office the other day. "I told them no."

He won't work another professional fight.

"I'm not doing any more boxing," he said. "Let me qualify that only a little. I love amateur boxing, and if the company wants me to, I would do Olympics boxing. But professional, no. I have walked away from it. I am past the point where I want to be part of it. I don't want to be party to the hypocrisy, the sleaziness . . . I'm worn out by it."

The blame for boxing's sickness today falls on three groups, Cosell said.

"First, the networks who make possible the continued existence of organizations such as the WBA and WBC, which exist only for the purpose of creating championships that in turn create fights that the networks, including ABC-TV, can sell for top dollar.

"Second to blame are the ruthless, sleazy promoters. And third is the vast majority of the print-media members who are apologists for boxing."

Cosell's break with boxing is not unexpected. He hadn't worked a fight since Holmes-Gerry Cooney last summer. His dissatisfaction with, even contempt for, boxing promoters and other parasites is so profound that, in his words, "I went to Larry Holmes' room for a set of gin rummy so I could avoid the sleaze in the hotel lobby."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...7bd-bba4-7757e98d7d82/?utm_term=.e00ea68e5270


The 2016 Olympics boxing was a farce of epic proportions. The Olympics introduced us to so many fighters (Ali, Forman) but now it is ignored by NBC.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/olympics/la-sp-sn-aiba-investigate-20161006-snap-story.html

A little factoid about Don King. To this day if you buy NHL Center Ice or any other sports package he gets a cut. The reason is he bankrolled the PPV system still used today. Arum isn't much better and between the 2 of them HBO walked away from boxing and allowed Showtime to take over.

Can the sport be rebooted? I seriously doubt it.

 

[PB37]

What 'experts' were you listening to? I never heard one boxing expert or, fan for that matter, say it would go less than 8. The fight pretty much played out exactly as most boxing aficionados were calling it.

Max Kellerman didn't think McGregor would land one punch against Mayweather. Lots of the pundits I've read before the fight thought it would end anywhere from 1 -5 round tko for Mayweather.

 

[Over the volcano]

I remember when the Golden Gloves in Lowell was a big deal and the Boston media covered it.....not anymore.



You can trace some of the decline in boxing to this fight in 1982 when Howard Cosell walked away from the sport he loved.





https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...7bd-bba4-7757e98d7d82/?utm_term=.e00ea68e5270


The 2016 Olympics boxing was a farce of epic proportions. The Olympics introduced us to so many fighters (Ali, Forman) but now it is ignored by NBC.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/olympics/la-sp-sn-aiba-investigate-20161006-snap-story.html

A little factoid about Don King. To this day if you buy NHL Center Ice or any other sports package he gets a cut. The reason is he bankrolled the PPV system still used today. Arum isn't much better and between the 2 of them HBO walked away from boxing and allowed Showtime to take over.

Can the sport be rebooted? I seriously doubt it.

Doesn't need a reboot- they just had the biggest grossing fight in history and have another mega fight in two weeks.

The olympics are a farce almost across the board and the reason boxing has declined in the US is because, for the most part, conditions in our cities and poor neighborhoods have improved. Kids don't get into boxing if there are alternatives. Its no surprize that the boxing ranks have been increasingly filled with fighters from poor countries.

One thing boxing has going for it is that it has ALWAYS been sleazy and exploitive - the "golden age" was easily just as bad if not worse than today.

 

[LSCII]

Max Kellerman didn't think McGregor would land one punch against Mayweather. Lots of the pundits I've read before the fight thought it would end anywhere from 1 -5 round tko for Mayweather.

Kellerman is a putz.

 

[Say Hey Kid]

King has been charged with killing two people in incidents 13 years apart. In 1954, King shot a man in the back after spotting him trying to rob one of King's gambling houses; this incident was ruled a justifiable homicide. In 1967, King was convicted of nonnegligent manslaughter for stomping one of his employees to death. For this he served three years and eleven months in prison.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_King_(boxing_promoter)

...A little factoid about Don King...

A little factoid about Don King posted above.

 

[SPV]

I used to be a big boxing fan. But the sport really has dropped off due to talent level.

I've never enjoyed MMA, I appreciate the skill level, but it's always looked more brutal to me. Part of the draw of boxing to me was watching guys that could move & not get hit. Your Sugar Ray Leonard, or Pernell Whitaker type.

McGregor looked okay last night, but it was against a fighter in his 40s, with 2 years rust. No matter how good Floyd is, guys is his situation used to get knocked out themselves. I think that speaks volumes about the state of boxing by itself.

I expected that Floyd would wear him down and maybe catch him late; but really expected it would go the distance. Put him in the ring with Mayweather ten years ago, and he looks a lot worse.

No offense intended for McGregor of course, put Mayweather in the octagon at any point, and it doesn't last very long at all.

 

[Fenway]

One thing boxing has going for it is that it has ALWAYS been sleazy and exploitive - the "golden age" was easily just as bad if not worse than today.

Boxing and hockey were joined at the hop in the golden age of boxing.

The average sports fan never has known or cared much about the corporate structure of the Garden or the backgrounds of the men who have run it. Most of its 15 directors had names found more readily on the financial than the sports pages. Yet last week their names leaped onto the front page: six of the 15 resigned.

Ordinarily, the business activities of these six men fail to attract Page One headlines. What made the news bannerworthy this time was the added element of James D. Norris, whose name has become increasingly important in sports and, in recent years, in Garden affairs. The Norris family has owned Garden stock for more than 15 years, but recently Jim Norris has been picking it up in ever larger amounts. With Arthur M. Wirtz, his Chicago partner, he now controls some 60%.

Although the Garden is revered by millions, to Jim Norris it is only a part of his boxing-hockey octopus centering around the International Boxing Club, of which he is president, and the three National Hockey League teams owned by Norris interests. In such an organization the Garden is becoming a tarnished link in a long chain. It has assumed the aspect of a mere part of the Norris family empire, which includes such sports arenas as the Detroit Olympia and the Chicago Stadium.

Norris, though a multimillionaire and equipped by money standards to fit into the Garden's corporate structure, is a strange departure from the old Garden ruling class. His interest in sport was nurtured by his father, a passionate hockey fan, then roiled by association with thugs to whom sport is a commodity to be adulterated for profit. From the days of his youth 48-year-old Jim Norris has been the buddy pal of thieves and killers, gamblers and fixers. He began this association with the scum of the Chicago underworld and extended his range to the garbage of New York and Miami.

The Bruins while never directly controlled by the Norris family played along with them. In return Boston got a decent share of bouts that were seen on national TV.

https://www.si.com/vault/1955/06/20/604829/jim-norris-garden-party

The Norris family also had close ties to the Canadiens as James E. Norris was born and raised there and Montreal was and still is a big boxing city. In 1966 Toronto was the only city that would allow Ali to fight.

http://www.cbc.ca/sportslongform/entry/ali-vs-chuvalo-brutality-beauty-mingled-in-truly-epic-brawl

 

[Say Hey Kid]

I underestimated Conor's athletic ability and confidence. I'm not discounting skill at all. My best friend in high school was very athletic and he won 2 NCAA wrestling championships. I only had one occasion in my life where I looked at the basketball player who would be guarding me and said "He can't stop me". I went 20/20 with no layups, all my shots were off the dribble, and half of them were a running one handed bank shot that I'd never tried in practice before. Confidence is huge. You don't think Orr KNEW he was gonna score and be great. Of course he did. It makes great players (and bonafide scrubs like me) even better than they already are.

 

[KrejciMVP]

This fight reminds me of Rocky 3. Mayweather afraid to fight a top ranked boxer like Clubber Lang (actually it was Micky who was afraid) and instead chooses the easy side show who has never boxed before and gets hero worshipped for that. I dont think 41 year old Mayweather would be able to come close to one of the top ranked young fighters in a bout right now.

 

[hoss75]

I'm gonna ask the same question of you. I heard very little talk of this fight going 8 rounds.

Plenty of people were talking about it going to decision... with an easy Mayweather win.

 

[Fenway]

Dan Barry writes about the event in the NY Times

Fleece of the Century

Paul Rouse, a professor at University College Dublin who specializes in sport, said: “It’s a big ball of candy floss being confected by a small group of men who are making themselves extremely rich by packaging up something that people have always done and selling it through modern telecommunications.â€

Do some more math. With the fight’s purse, plus merchandise sales, plus pay-per-views at $100 apiece, it is estimated that Mayweather — whose nickname is, in fact, “Money†— will earn more than $200 million. McGregor, it is thought, will earn a paltry $100 million. Fitting, then, that the event took place in Las Vegas; staging it anywhere else would have been an affront to the mercenary gods. The match belonged here — deserved quarantining here — along the Strip, where any authenticity is often just another act of illusion that leaves you double-checking your wallet’s whereabouts.

 

[smithformeragent]

Jake LaMotta died.

http://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_/...tta-boxer-was-subject-raging-bull-dies-age-95

 

[LSCII]

Jake LaMotta died.

http://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_/...tta-boxer-was-subject-raging-bull-dies-age-95

Yeah, sad news. 95 though, so no change back and what a great run/legacy he left behind. I never went down, Ray. You never got me down, Ray. You never got me down.

 

[JRull86]

I legit never put two and two together, and realized Raging Bull was a biopic...man do I feel dumb.

 

[hoss75]

Jake LaMotta died.

http://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_/...tta-boxer-was-subject-raging-bull-dies-age-95

That guy was shear toughness.

 

[LSCII]

I legit never put two and two together, and realized Raging Bull was a biopic...man do I feel dumb.

This post literally made my day. I'm dying over here.

In all fairness, I only knew who LaMotta was because my dad was a huge boxing fan, and he showed me classic fights all the time. Otherwise, I'd have thought that Raging Bull was just a movie as well.

 

[GloryDaze4877]

I legit never put two and two together, and realized Raging Bull was a biopic...man do I feel dumb.

I knew who LaMotta was because I was a big DeNiro fan and a film major back in the day, so I always knew the background stuff about the movies.

A little OT, but not knowing Raging Bull was a bio is not nearly as bad as the time that me and several friends went to a showing of "This is Spinal Tap", which we thought was hilarious. The three or four "headbangers" sitting behind us who thought that the film was an actual rockumentary (and sucked) didn't share our opinion of the film

 

[smithformeragent]

With desire to fight gone, Andre Ward retires from boxing

http://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_/...ld-titleholder-andre-ward-says-leaving-boxing

 

[LSCII]

Big night for Mighty Mouse as he breaks Anderson Silva's record for consecutive title defenses. Like usual, it was a one sided fight where he dominated. Great win!!

 

[Mpasta]

If people want to root for somebody for the fight tonight in Boston, my buddy Calvin Kattar will be fighting out of Methuen/Boston.

He has his hands full but I said that last time and he destroyed Fili.