Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2011 18:24:25 GMT 10
Sweet science down for the count
From: Daily Mail March 27, 2011 11:26AM
IT WAS once the most revered prize in sport, but last weeks heavyweight title farce has many wondering if boxing can survive.
A little over 40 years ago in New York, two great men began a violent relationship which pushed prize-fighting so close to the limits of raw courage and endurance that the American love affair with the noble art was fanned into a raging passion.
Not every big fight lives up to its extravagant sales hype, but the one they called the Fight of the Century exceeded even that grandiose billing and is still recalled with awe.
On March 8, 1971 the bitter feud between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier came to blows for the first time. So electrifying was the sense of anticipation that the ringside at Madison Square Garden was thronged with the most famous celebrities of the day.
Frank Sinatra, who had neglected to secure a ticket, persuaded Life magazine to provide him with a camera and assign him as their photographer.
Woody Allen and Norman Mailer rubbed shoulders as fabled artist LeRoy Neiman painted Frazier and Ali while they did battle. Burt Lancaster, the actor who had never reported on a fight, was given a microphone to act as colour commentator for the closed circuit TV broadcast.
Ali and Frazier were guaranteed then-record purses of $2.5 million. It was boxing’s golden age and the first fight in the most celebrated trilogy in the history of sport.
Fast forward to March 19, 2011 and boxing was teetering on the ropes. There were jeers of derision from the sell-out crowd in Cologne as the challenger Odlanier Solis collapsed at the end of the first round of his WBC heavyweight title fight against Vitali Klitschko. The travesty was they were fighting for the very same belt as Frazier and Ali 40 years before them.
Britain’s WBA world heavyweight champion David Haye labelled Solis “a fat bum’’. Vitali himself gestured angrily at Solis to get up and fight, not realising that the Brazilian had ruptured a cruciate knee ligament as he was floored by a glancing blow to the temple.
The older of the Klitschko brothers was “embarrassed’’ that viewers around the world – from the well-heeled at ringside in Germany to those gathered in New York’s Times Square for the first big screen transmission there of a live fight – had been short-changed.
Klitschko denied Solis went down to a phantom punch but admitted to being surprised by his opponent’s surrender. “It was a hard blow, but I did not think hard enough to cause a black out. My first reaction was that the fans had been deprived of seeing a long, hard battle against a good fighter, but one who did not seem to want to stand up.’’
Emanuel Steward, one of boxing’s great trainers, expressed reservations over the future of the sport in a recent interview with the UK’s Daily Telegraph.
This latest offering has done little to ease those fears.
“The public wants to see two fights in boxing right now, one between the big men and one between the little guys. They want to see Manny Pacquiao against Floyd Mayweather, and they want to see Wladimir Klitschko against David Haye. Simple as that, and it is the public who decides these things,’’ Steward said.
“It took 15 minutes to make the Tommy Hearns-Ray Leonard fight. I flew into an airport, we did the deal over a coffee in the airport, and I went back on the same plane. The public had made the fight.
“The bottom line is that it has come down to egos, and money, this TV deal and that TV deal, and it is totally ridiculous.
“These are two fights that would break all records given the global interest in them.
“Pacquiao has fought very well and has earned his greatness, but his natural weight is around 137lbs [62kg]. They are now cherry-picking his opponents.
“When you had eight weight divisions, those who moved up the divisions really were special fighters. I’m not saying there are not great fighters around today, but it is manipulated, and the best fighters are often protected.
“On the other side of the Pacquiao-Mayweather situation, Mayweather is scared to death of losing his unbeaten record, totally petrified. I never thought he would do that. I really only see a 50/50 chance of these guys stepping into a ring to fight each other.’’
So boxing struggles along with fights like Klitschko and Solis. Vitali said he had to watch 10 replays of the knock down “to confirm to myself I had landed a genuine blow’’.
Haye’s post-fight jab was the best punch of the night.
“A lean, healthy athlete does not have joints and ligaments popping for no reason. That’s why you should not be carrying excess body fat into the ring,” Haye said.
“Technically, Solis knew how to beat Klitschko, but years of obesity stopped him being able to execute. So, unfortunately, he will go down as another fat bum.’’
Yet none of that prevented Germany from being joined by Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, South Africa, Monaco and the US as potential bidders for Haye’s mid-year fight with the younger Klitschko, Wladimir. It just might restore some credibility to the heavyweight division.
So as the boos were raining down on Solis, they were being drowned out by the clatter of the cash registers.
And the distant echo of two proud men who fought for what was once the most prestigious title in the history of sport
From: Daily Mail March 27, 2011 11:26AM
IT WAS once the most revered prize in sport, but last weeks heavyweight title farce has many wondering if boxing can survive.
A little over 40 years ago in New York, two great men began a violent relationship which pushed prize-fighting so close to the limits of raw courage and endurance that the American love affair with the noble art was fanned into a raging passion.
Not every big fight lives up to its extravagant sales hype, but the one they called the Fight of the Century exceeded even that grandiose billing and is still recalled with awe.
On March 8, 1971 the bitter feud between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier came to blows for the first time. So electrifying was the sense of anticipation that the ringside at Madison Square Garden was thronged with the most famous celebrities of the day.
Frank Sinatra, who had neglected to secure a ticket, persuaded Life magazine to provide him with a camera and assign him as their photographer.
Woody Allen and Norman Mailer rubbed shoulders as fabled artist LeRoy Neiman painted Frazier and Ali while they did battle. Burt Lancaster, the actor who had never reported on a fight, was given a microphone to act as colour commentator for the closed circuit TV broadcast.
Ali and Frazier were guaranteed then-record purses of $2.5 million. It was boxing’s golden age and the first fight in the most celebrated trilogy in the history of sport.
Fast forward to March 19, 2011 and boxing was teetering on the ropes. There were jeers of derision from the sell-out crowd in Cologne as the challenger Odlanier Solis collapsed at the end of the first round of his WBC heavyweight title fight against Vitali Klitschko. The travesty was they were fighting for the very same belt as Frazier and Ali 40 years before them.
Britain’s WBA world heavyweight champion David Haye labelled Solis “a fat bum’’. Vitali himself gestured angrily at Solis to get up and fight, not realising that the Brazilian had ruptured a cruciate knee ligament as he was floored by a glancing blow to the temple.
The older of the Klitschko brothers was “embarrassed’’ that viewers around the world – from the well-heeled at ringside in Germany to those gathered in New York’s Times Square for the first big screen transmission there of a live fight – had been short-changed.
Klitschko denied Solis went down to a phantom punch but admitted to being surprised by his opponent’s surrender. “It was a hard blow, but I did not think hard enough to cause a black out. My first reaction was that the fans had been deprived of seeing a long, hard battle against a good fighter, but one who did not seem to want to stand up.’’
Emanuel Steward, one of boxing’s great trainers, expressed reservations over the future of the sport in a recent interview with the UK’s Daily Telegraph.
This latest offering has done little to ease those fears.
“The public wants to see two fights in boxing right now, one between the big men and one between the little guys. They want to see Manny Pacquiao against Floyd Mayweather, and they want to see Wladimir Klitschko against David Haye. Simple as that, and it is the public who decides these things,’’ Steward said.
“It took 15 minutes to make the Tommy Hearns-Ray Leonard fight. I flew into an airport, we did the deal over a coffee in the airport, and I went back on the same plane. The public had made the fight.
“The bottom line is that it has come down to egos, and money, this TV deal and that TV deal, and it is totally ridiculous.
“These are two fights that would break all records given the global interest in them.
“Pacquiao has fought very well and has earned his greatness, but his natural weight is around 137lbs [62kg]. They are now cherry-picking his opponents.
“When you had eight weight divisions, those who moved up the divisions really were special fighters. I’m not saying there are not great fighters around today, but it is manipulated, and the best fighters are often protected.
“On the other side of the Pacquiao-Mayweather situation, Mayweather is scared to death of losing his unbeaten record, totally petrified. I never thought he would do that. I really only see a 50/50 chance of these guys stepping into a ring to fight each other.’’
So boxing struggles along with fights like Klitschko and Solis. Vitali said he had to watch 10 replays of the knock down “to confirm to myself I had landed a genuine blow’’.
Haye’s post-fight jab was the best punch of the night.
“A lean, healthy athlete does not have joints and ligaments popping for no reason. That’s why you should not be carrying excess body fat into the ring,” Haye said.
“Technically, Solis knew how to beat Klitschko, but years of obesity stopped him being able to execute. So, unfortunately, he will go down as another fat bum.’’
Yet none of that prevented Germany from being joined by Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, South Africa, Monaco and the US as potential bidders for Haye’s mid-year fight with the younger Klitschko, Wladimir. It just might restore some credibility to the heavyweight division.
So as the boos were raining down on Solis, they were being drowned out by the clatter of the cash registers.
And the distant echo of two proud men who fought for what was once the most prestigious title in the history of sport
Jesus, could you imagine what Tyson in his prime would have done to those two, 15-20 seconds at the most and they would have gone sleepy bye byes.