F--- boxing

And...

In his second to last fight Muhammed Ali challenges Larry Holmes for the WBC heavyweight title. Ali had annouced his retirement in 1979 and had given up his WBA heavyweight title. This was his comeback.

Muhammed Ali Vs Larry Holmes (c) (October 2, 1980) (Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States)(WBC heavyweight title)

Part 1:

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

 

In the same vein, I saw a women's fight on TV in which one fighter had very long hair tied back into a long pigtail.

The hair on her head that was pulled back kept coming loose into her face. Every time she tried to push her hair back, the other woman would just slug her. The ref kept warning the long-haired woman and her corner that he was close to stopping the fight because she was having as much problems with her hair as the other fighter. Her corner finally used a whole bottle of water to somewhat slick her hair back.

Same fighter also would swing wildly from time-to-time against the other woman. Her punches would miss, but her pigtail would connect. Needless to say, she didn't get any points for pigtail punches and ended up losing the fight on a decision.

One of the funniest things I've ever seen in boxing.

 

Kelly Pavlik's middleweight championship bout set for Saturday in his hometown of Youngstown only saw about 1,500 tickets sold for a 7,000 seat venue (cheapest tickets were $50 BTW). What does Top Rank promoter Bob Arum do in response?

Bans all local bars from showing it. Nevermind that many of these places advertised and paid up front for the right to show it.

What a clusterfuck.

 

Weird, seemed like there were alot of fans for Pavlik in his fights with Taylor. The commentators made it seemed like the entire city of Youngstown packed up and came to AC. Too bad JT has flamed out so bad, he sold tons of tickets for his fights in Little Rock.

 

Didn't see a Running Boxing thread in the archives, so I just dug up the first boxing thread I found...

Anyone else interested in the Mayweather-Mosley fight tomorrow night? For the first time in a long time, I'm kinda pumped for a boxing match. Even buying it. First time I've done that since Tyson-Holyfield.

Mayweather will prolly win, but I hope Mosley knocks his teeth out.

The promoter is saying 4 million buys. Doubt that, but could it get to 2 or 3 million?

 

I usually buy the big fights but I am leaning against this one. Maybe 1.5 million buys.

 

I had planned on going to the bar to watch the fight, but I figure buying it at home might actually save me money.

 

I'm having a hard time finding a bar that will carry this fight.

 

I'm having a hard time finding a bar that isn't carrying the fight.

You must have some shitty sports bars in your area. Sorry.

 

Think back to 1982.

People filled arenas to watch tennis, paid attention to horse racing's Triple Crown, put up great TV ratings for the World Series and spent weeks in anticipation of heavyweight fights.

And the NFL was on strike and struggling mightily as the USFL showed up to compete in the spring.

Boxing killed itself through greed, all of the (WBA, IBL, etc) pay-per-view disappointments. George Foreman also played a death. His comeback in 1985 in Sacramento was curious but when he won the heavyweight belt, it made the entire business look untalented and less than "above board". Add in all of the weight classes and, for people like me who like sports but don't have the interest in spending a ton of time on it... see ya.

Life evolves. Sports evolve.

 

That's cool. I'm still pumped for this fight. Haven't been this pumped to watch a boxing match in a long time. I like it.

 

The four part 24/7 series building up to this fight was excellent. If you're able to catch it I would urge you to do so. I think HBO are repeating in its entirety today.