F--- boxing

Sirs, Madames,

I'm so old that the first closed circuit fight I saw was in black and white. Sonny Liston taking out Roger Rischer in Pittsburgh. It was the bonus on a card headlined by George Chuvalo sending Italian-Canadians home in tears with deflating of Dante Cane.

o-<

 

Look for boxing to show up on ESPN. Telltale sign is boxing stuff starting to appear in ESPN The Mag.

 

My old man was a big boxing fan and we'd go to a lot of Toronto cards back in the 70s. Saw a lot of closed-circuit fights at Maple Leaf Gardens, Massey Hall and the Queen Elizabeth Building at the Ex.

Boxing was great in the 70s and 80s because so much of it was available on free Tv and later stuff like ESPN's Top Rank Boxing.

My old man was a huge Duran fan and the house was always full of his buddies whenever he fought on TV, which seemed like all the time. I remember the place being packed for big heavyweight fights too. There were so many great rumbles in those days featuring Hagler, Hearns, Leonard, Cuevas, Matthew Saad Muhammad, Cornelius Boza-Edwards, Aaron Pryor, Arguello, Wilfredo Gomez, Mancini, Rosario and on and on.

 

As long as man can see another man get the shit kicked out of him, UFC is going to be around. It won't be long before man goes completely old school with gladiators and fights till death. Just a matter of time.

 

I could go to a UFC bout to enjoy the fights ... but God, these events bring out the Douche Patrol like a streetlight draws moths.

 

I would pay to watch a good boxing match before I would ever pay to watch UFC.

 

Affliction and/or Ed Hardy shirts for all.

I have paid for boxing and UFC. Unfortunately boxing has lost the plot after too many duds on PPV and nothing decent on free TV.

Besides being available free, UFC has done a decent job of trying to get good matches on their PPV. In terms of value they come out ahead of most boxing PPV.

Say want you want about UFC but the evolution of it away from the gladiator mentality and the sport mentality is one of the things that has let it gain popularity.

 

Of course, boxing is the sport that tosses a couple fresh carcasses onto the pile every year, and MMA is the one that has had one death in its entire existence, but hey ...

 

I still don't get the reasoning behind paying to watch any sporting event on TV.

 

It's the thrill of being there.

 

Perhaps I'm alone but I quite enjoyed the Mayweather fight. Yeah, it was one side but JMM (while small) is a good fighter and I thought Floyd did a good job on him.

As much as I want to see Mayweather/ Pacquiao it did make sense for Floyd to come back with a warm up fight first.

If Pacquiao gets past Cotto then I think they’re going to have to make the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight. It is the fight after all. As disorganised as boxing can be I think there is too much money and interest in the fight for it not to happen.

 

Most MMA fights I've seen are homoerotic hugfests that usually end up looking like Antonio Inoki vs. Ali, when Inoki spent most of the event on his back kicking up at Ali.