If you could ask one question about boxing for which you don't have an answer, what would it be?

He was my Dad’s favorite fighter. Because of the way he moved in the ring. I’ve never seen him fight.

I looked him up on boxrec and noticed that he did fight many fights in Providence.

I’m guessing it may be a promotional deal that tied him to RI. Maybe there was more money or a better deal that made fighting there better as opposed to Boston. Providence also has a large italian population, which may have also played some role.

Nice bit of trivia.

the italians and irish didn’t get along too well back then is part of the reason rocky didn’t fight often in the boston area.

I don’t like Zito.

Brockton is closer to Boston (about 25 miles) than Providence (45 miles). Are you sure Marciano walked all that way? Didn’t he have anything better to do with his time?

Chuck Zito also appeared as a token tough on the later epsiodes of the Sopranos.

That last part reminds me a bit of a man they call “Money”. :)

I read an excellent piece on Dempsey in Boxing News last week by Gavin Evans and he (Dempsey) was quoted as admitting that he avoided Langford as he knew he would have took a beating (that’s more or less what he said).

Yeah, Dempsey wanted nothing to do with Langford by all accounts. Then again not many people really did. Langford took a lot of fights where he had to agree to “take it easy” just so he could get some money.

If we are going down this road….

I can’t say i agree that he was “a great character” (for the reasons i listed above) and i have my doubts that he should be as high up as many ATG lists have him.

no doubt about that.
And i know what you mean….Some of his characteristics were impressive and he was a courageous(in an sense),tough guy who came to fight.
But some of that “coloured” s**t was both cowardly and shameful.
He basically admitted that he wasn’t good enough to beat them so he avoided them.

boxing is always at it’s best when it is booming in America,and that mainly comes from the amateurs.

The American government must have pulled the pin on funding amateur boxing . That combined with the rise in other sports and the gradual decline in the amount of boxing gyms seems to have hastened the decline American boxing . Ali , Leonard , Frazier , Foreman , Holmes etc etc etc . All great amateurs . Look at how Brit boxing has rised with increased government funding . Cheers Welshy.

Is it technically possible, though, for two men to duck each other at the same time?

Teo was a better fighter than Savon but would have fought much much better competition if he would have defected. i think he was good enough to become heavyweight champion.

No doubt in my mind Savon would have become an alphabet champion.

it is a funny movie.

go to a bar and pay 5 bucks, thats what i do at all ppv’s

Are you feeling me on this?

Nowadays, every Tom, Dick & Harry gets a PPV slot to appear on… Its outrageous……

I’m going to avoid making a joke about you paying cold hard cash for Holyfield-Botha. :)

While I do agree and wish like hell we still had boxing on ABC/NBC/CBS/anything that isn’t PPV, most of those shows are targeted toward the niche hardcore audience of boxing fans, and they’re on PPV because people don’t really watch boxing much anymore. If there was REAL demand — not just from the marginalized and overall fairly small boxing audience that remains — for networks to air boxing again, they would find a way to make it happen.

Most of the PPV fights now are simply fights that no TV network cares to pick up. Chavez-Duddy might have been a Friday Night Fights in a better world, but their budget is really limited. It’s not good enough for HBO or Showtime, and doesn’t fit Showtime’s model for ShoBox either. I mean it’s really that level of fight — FNF or ShoBox — but it just doesn’t fit with what they do, or what they can do.

So that fight goes to PPV, because there’s obviously an audience out there buying the Chavez shows enough that Top Rank must be making a decent profit on the cards. It sucks in a way, but on the other hand, if it weren’t on PPV, you’d have no option to see it at all.

As a kid in Oz we got to watch all Alis fights , all Larry Holmes’ fights , Leonard v Hearns , Leonard v Duran and all of Tysons early title fights up to Spinks . Hagler v Hearns was the first big fight that wasnt televised in Oz . Nowadays you have to pay 50 bucks to watch Mundine beat up a cabbie or Green knock out a near corpse. No wonder the sports in a hole .

God knows I’ve paid for worse fights than Holyfield-Botha.

I paid for tonight’s card. The under card is especally good.

retire and work on his law degree over the next 3 years. Torts, Civil Law, Crminal Law, Cases, Mock Court, a-holes who smoke pipes while they study, and mean spirited profs. Just as punishing as bxing.

He has a long way to go, but I think he just might make it. He seems to have a lot of sincere concerns about the state of legal immigration/illegal immigration and those socio-economic concerns may drive him to the degree. On balnace, I’d say he has a good shot at it. The morons on HBO would lead you to belive it is a fait accompli. But far from it, it is a tough grind that requires instensive study and diligence—not to mention intelligence.

More power to him if no one can stop him.

Very much so. It had so much class. Sometimes I watch the Ali-Liston I tape on ESPN on Demand just for that part of it. I suppose it would cut into advertising time or something, but I think they should take it back up, even though the attire would likely be less formal. Still be great to see that come back.

I don’t want no has-been messin up my corner!!

You wanna take that bad look off your face before I knock it off….

C’MON CREED!!

Frustrates me so that Netflix doesn’t have that movie. Been wanting to watch it again for some time.

Saw the Harder They Fall for the first time just the other night Bill. Jersey Joe and Max Baer swapping lines with Bogie ! Brilliant stuff.

2. (a) Evander = money,
     (b) Roy = a genuine love for being in there in front of a crowd. I have this theory that everything Roy does is a cry for attention in one way or another: Boxing, basketball, rap-music… he showboats and really want people’s attention. Now he is fading, he is clinging on to that bit of fandom, that nostagic feeling of fans screaming his name.

I loved the fight with Jeff Lacy: as much as it wasn’t a great fight I loved watching Roy showboat and re-enact some great Roy stuff. I don’t quite agree with SC about it being a love of boxing he realised too late that he possessed, I just think Roy Jones wants to be Peter Pan, and have people yelling his name for ever. It’s quite sad, really, that fighters like Roy have to get old, but he’s never going to get that kind of appreciation again either, not from basketball, not from the music, there is very little he can now do to get that adulation he craves, and I think he misses it already. Beating up an old Jeff Lacy wasn’t a great achievement, but as an exhibition where Roy could show off and have fun in there it was great.

Maybe there is a niche there for Jones to really have another go, but this time in exhibition matches. I know I’d pay to see an exhibition between Jones and another faded great, or upcoming speedster, with 12 ounce gloves and emphasis on flair and showmanship rather than knocking the other guy out. I know it would take away from the tension a bit, since Lacy was still trying to knock Roy out and Roy was still showboating which makes it more impressive than it would be ina pure exhibition, but for the sake of Roy’s fame craving I’d like to see him go in and do an exo with someone. Maybe even someone like Tyson, or maybe even hopkins of they could get past the beef between them. Hopkins showed against Pavlike he still has the ability to showboat when he feels like it. :) (Maybe even Naseem Hamed, if he can still shift those hands a bit?)

Because his momma told him he wasn’t fat, he was just big boned… Delusion breeds delusion…..

He’ll be over the moon with your comments and the fact you took time out to watch him fight I’m sure – I’ll pass your regards on 2mrw morning ( I shall not wake him he needs his sleep and his foot is f**k’d , lol !)
ps he’s my stepson but looking like a chip off the old (step) block .
Thanks my friend .

You beat me to it.

probably something like “oh fuck, i better throw rabbit punches and headbutts the rest of the fight to stay alive”

Personally, in a way I have a hard time categorizing it simply as “a boxing movie.” It’s a lot, lot more than that. It’s an intense character study of an incredibly vile human being, and is, simply put, one of the greatest films ever made. In my view, if you do put it in the category of boxing movies (and understandably, since it’s about a boxer), nothing else is even close to it as far as being a great film. Not even close.

yea and he used a ton or rabbit punches and headbutts in the gman fight.

even dumber and blind response.

Yes, rabbit punching, headbutting, breaking (not bending) the rules, and getting some help from an incompetent referee who allowed all that crap to go on. I don’t think that referee was anti-McClellan, I think he was anti-knowing what the hell he was doing in there. One way of putting it is that he “did what he had to do,” and it’s the nice way of putting it, and God knows a ton of fighters have broken those same rules countless times. Evander Holyfield keeps getting Taco Bell commercials and stuff like that and I think if you happen to be in an elevator with him he’ll headbutt you out of habit.

agreed. on been too. i was a big benn and eubank mark.

i think it clearly was the headbutt that did Gerald in. the footage shows it and his immediate reaction to it. he very clearly wasn’t the same after it.

 Sid Haig aka Cap’n Spaulding

That’s supposed to be what the alphabet orgs accomplish, but they fail so badly you can’t even tell they are “trying.” At least that’s been my understanding.

I think one way boxing is showing some creativity is by haveing the tourneys and prizefighter stuff. Of course greed and quasi-corruption play a big role in boxing.

Viva Bute!

How is your dad’s health? 69 is righteous. I am doing a round of golf every day. Trying to keep Dr Doom away as long as I can. Yeah, boxing, golf, writing, reading, and family compose my formula for life. Used to be cigars also, but that scare in January ended that, though scotch is still enjoyed (as well as beer, wine, vodka, and brandy).