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Posts Tagged ‘boxing’

The haunting opening credits to the Jimmy Greaves chat show (1988)

In 1988, Central TV hired former England footballer Jimmy Greaves to front a chatshow. The intro was interesting:

Jimmy featured “surprise guests” and a weekly progress report from Frank Bruno’s training camp. In February 1989, Bruno challenged Mike Tyson for the undisputed world heavyweight title. Bruno lost in three rounds. Jimmy lasted not much longer.

Posted: 6th, February 2020 | In: Celebrities, Sports, TV & Radio | Comment


Conor McGregor’s going to lose – even Rocky lost

You watching the big fight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather? You’d best not miss the beginning because it could be quick. Boxing is a sport. And Mayweather’s a lot better at it than MacGregor.

Or as the Guardian puts it:

Conor McGregor’s biggest weapon? His lack of boxing experience

No. It isn’t. As anyone who has ever stepped into a ring with a professional boxer will confirm, not being a boxer with a track record is a big disadvantage. Even Rocky lost.

The allure of Saturday’s much-hyped fight in Las Vegas is that no one knows what will happen in the ring – not least the overwhelming favorite, Floyd Mayweather

Nah. I think he’s got a pretty good idea what will happen.

Spotter: Guardian

Posted: 25th, August 2017 | In: Back pages, Broadsheets | Comment


Conor McGregor wears the jersey of the NBA player who slept with Mayweather’s wife

Conor McGregor v Floyd Mayweather is worth the admission fee. My money’s on the American. But in the build up McGregor is putting in the big hits:

 

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It reminds me of the when Muhammad Ali took on Sonny Liston. McGregor is cast in the role of Ali:

David Remnick explains:

Fury and confusion. Sonny Liston was a very simple man, intellectually limited, and this drove him crazy. He was a great and powerful fighter. He thought he would have no trouble with this guy who fought like Sugar Ray Robinson. He danced around the ring, which, you know, was a bit fey for a heavyweight, after all. And Cassius Clay, who was fearful of Sonny Liston in his heart because he knew how powerful he was – he had seen what he had done to Floyd Patterson – wanted to find a way to get to his mind, to unnerve him. To scare him. To make him second-guess. To think really, that he was crazy because the one thing that Sonny Liston couldn’t deal with was somebody who was nuts. Always in prison – where Sonny Liston had spent some time – the person you never dealt with, the person you always avoided was the crazy man. That’s what you avoided.

And so – and Cassius Clay knew that. I’m calling him Clay now, because that’s who he was at the time. And Clay did things like, you know, drive his bus to Sonny Liston’s house in the middle of the night, at 3 o’clock in the morning, run up to the door, and start pounding on the door screaming and yelling and acting like an insane person. And Sonny Liston would come out on the lawn in his shorty bathrobe not knowing what to make of this guy. And it really unnerved him. And Clay and then Ali did it over and over and over again. And the one thing Sonny Liston couldn’t deal with was a madman. But for Clay, of course, it was all by design.

And the most famous instance of it was the weigh-in before the first fight. The weigh-in, Cassius Clay comes in and starts screaming and yelling. Usually these are routine performances in which you really don’t do anything other than get weighed and flex your muscles and get the hell out of there. He’s screaming and yelling – I’m going to destroy him – and he’s jumping at Liston. It was the most amazing performance, and Sonny Liston went into that ring thinking he was dealing with a nut.

After reading that I’m less sure about Mayweather walking it. McGregor’s got chutzpah. It might just carry him through.

Posted: 25th, July 2017 | In: Key Posts, Sports | Comment


When UKIP’s Would-be London Mayor Frank Maloney ‘Hated’ Bitching Gays

Olympic and Commonwealth Heavyweight Gold Medalist Lennox Lewis (right) with his promoter Frank Maloney at a press conference at Scribes wine bar in London, to announce Lewis' upcoming fight with Andy Gerrard. * 7/11/01: Former World Heavyweight Champion Lennox Lewis (right) with his promoter Frank Maloney at a press conference at Scribes wine bar in London. Lennox Lewis has parted company with his long term manager Frank Maloney. Lewis is currently in training for his re-match against Hasim Rahman.  Ref #: PA.1363045  Date: 07/09/1989

Olympic and Commonwealth Heavyweight Gold Medalist Lennox Lewis (right) with his promoter Frank Maloney at a press conference at Scribes wine bar in London, to announce Lewis’ upcoming fight with Andy Gerrard. Date: 07/09/1989

 

FRANK Maloney, 61, the boxing promoter who worked to make Lennox Lewis Britain’s first undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, is now Kellie. Says Ms Maloney:

“I was born in the wrong body and I have always known I was a woman. I can’t keep living in the shadows. That is why I am doing what I am. Living with the burden any longer would have killed me. What was wrong at birth is now being medically corrected.”

She’s been supported by many:

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Posted: 11th, August 2014 | In: Politicians, Sports | Comment


Gay J. Edgar Hoover, Bad Sonny Liston And The Fixed Fight That Made Cassius Clay A Star

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WAS Cassius’s Clay shock victory over Sonny Liston in the heavyweight championship of the world a fix? Clays had been 7-1 to defeat the reigning champion, who was backed by the mob.Ali won by  technical knock-out when Liston remained in his corner at the start of the seventh round.

Now we get to read the FBI’s nots on the bout. A 1966 memo written to J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI at the time, mentions one Ash Resnick as the organiser of many fixes.

 

 

J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), is honored at ceremony when he received an award on Oct. 3, 1966 in Boston

J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), is honored at ceremony when he received an award on Oct. 3, 1966 in Boston

 

The note alleges that a Barnett Magids believed Resnick and Liston each made $1 million by betting on Clay to win.

 

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“At about noon on the day of the fight, [Magids] reached Resnick again by phone, and at this time, Resnick said for him to not make any bets, but just go watch the fight on pay TV and he would know why and that he could not talk further at that time. Magids did go see the fight on TV and immediately realised that Resnick knew that Liston was going to lose. A week later, there was an article in Sports Illustrated writing up Resnick as a big loser because of his backing of Liston. Later, people ‘in the know’ in Las Vegas told Magids that Resnick and Liston both reportedly made over $1 million betting against Liston on the fight and that the magazine article was a cover for this.”

Resnick and Liston are both dead. Hoover is dead. This site alleges a link between the gamblers and the FBI:

Other information suggests Meyer Lansky obtained hard proof of Edgar’s homosexuality and used it to neutralize the FBI as a threat to his own operations.  The first hint came from Irving “Ash” Resnick, the Nevada representative of the Patriarcha family for New England, and an original owner-builder of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.  As a high-level mob courier, he traveled extensively.  In Miami Beach, his Christmas destination in the fifties, he stayed at the Gulfstream, in a bungalow next to the one used by Edgar and Clyde.  “I’d sit with him on the beach ever day,” Resnick remembered.  “We were family.”

Another source claims:

Meyer Lansky, a Polish immigrant, was considered the head of the Mafia.

But really, what happened?

Florida State Attorney Richard Gerstein initiated an investigation of the fight to focus on Liston’s shoulder injury, for which he enlisted the services of his office’s medical/legal adviser and the Dade County Medical Examiner. A Florida state law provided for a prison term of up to ten years for anyone found to have fixed or thrown a boxing match.

The boxing commission in Sonny’s home state of Colorado suspended him immediately after the bout. “I’m not gonna look at any medical examination and let that guide me wrongly on account of his being injured,” said one commission member. Some people suggested that Sonny should be barred from the ring for life.

Four weeks after the bout, the results of Gerstein’s investigation confirmed the findings of the eight doctors who had examined Sonny after the fight. “While Liston’s injury is beyond doubt, there is also little doubt that he went into this fight with a sore or lame arm,” stated the report. It also noted that none of the pre-fight information was imparted to the Miami Beach Boxing Commission. That means the commission chose not to mention the fact that they had turned down Sonny’s request for an injury-related postponement. The investigation revealed no evidence that the fight had been fixed, and Gerstein’s office found no fluctuation in the betting odds anywhere in the country.

But the story rumbles on… You can see the fight and the photos from the build up to it here.

 

Posted: 26th, February 2014 | In: Flashback, Sports | Comment (1)


Top 10 Mike Tyson KOs (Possibly Done On Drugs)

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IRON Mike Tyson has admitted in his autobiography that he was on all manner of drugs during some of his fights and even used a fake penis to fool dope testers.

Tyson spoke about all this in his book, Undisputed Truth, which stated that he’d taken ‘blow’ and ‘pot’ before fight. Imagine how good he would’ve been if he wasn’t stoned.

He then revealed how he managed to avoid detection: ‘I had to use my whizzer, which was a fake penis where you put in someone’s clean urine to pass your drug test,’ he said.

Mike also took cocaine and blames that for his press conference brawl with Lennox Lewis, where Tyson bit Lennox’s leg!

Either way, with all that in mind, let us look back at some of Mike Tyson’s finest knock-outs and, in amongst them, you’ll find a little treat, different from the rest.

Spinks KO

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Posted: 13th, November 2013 | In: Key Posts, Sports | Comment


‘I’m Bernard Hopkins And I’m A Fighter’ – Oldest Ever Boxing World Champion Won’t Quit

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THE 48-year-old Bernard Hopkins is the oldest fighter in boxing history to win a world title:

He also [broke that record] in 2011, at age 46, when he traveled to then-light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal’s turf in Montreal for a rematch of a controversial draw and outpointed him to break heavyweight legend George Foreman’s record. In beating [Karo] Murat [on October 26, in a fight promoted in the above video], Hopkins added to his historic legacy by becoming the oldest fighter to defend a world title, winning easily on the scorecards, 119-108, 119-108 and 117-110.

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“I wanted to use my skills and reflexes that I still have at 48,” Hopkins said. “I want to tell all the kids out there and everybody out there in sports that you can do it clean and still be good, like myself, and never take drugs.
“I said I was going to throw combinations, and it’s hard to get adjusted to it when I have been used to throwing one or two punches like I have most of my career. When I found the rhythm things became easy.”

 

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In March 2013, The Executioner’ claimed IBF light-heavyweight crown with victory over Tavoris Cloud, 17 years his junior

“I have a history of destroying young champions and then we don’t see them again. Not sure if you’ll see Cloud again.”

 

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Should he retire? Kelefa Sanneh:

When fans try to shame veterans like [James] Toney and [Shane] Mosley into retirement, they often speak the language of concern: they don’t want to see a boxer get injured or worse; they don’t want to hear people saying, after a catastrophic fight, that the tragedy was predictable. But boxing is predictably tragic; if we truly didn’t want to see fighters get injured, we wouldn’t watch them fight. When fans cheer Hopkins, hitting and getting hit in the twelfth round, even when he probably knows he has already won, they say they admire his bravery. … Some fans play doctor, scrutinizing interviews for signs of altered speech, and yet there’s something perverse about urging a man to fight until he’s damaged, then urging him to stop.


Why stop?

Posted: 5th, November 2013 | In: Sports | Comment


All Hail President Klitschko! And First Lady Hayden Panettiere!

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BOXERS usually don’t quite know what to do with themselves after the hang their gloves up, and usually end up back in the ring too old, too hittable, and get battered by some upstart for a big purse.

However, Ukraine boxer and former world heavyweight boxing champ Vitali Klitschko has confirmed he will run in the country’s 2015 presidential election.

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Posted: 24th, October 2013 | In: Politicians, Sports | Comment


Tyson Fury punches himself in the face (video)

A VIDEO of boxer Tyson Fury punching himself the face:

Posted: 13th, July 2013 | In: Sports | Comment


Floyd Mayweather Jr. posing with his money – photos

FLOYD Mayweather Jr. enjoys spending quality time with his money. Having earned a fortune from boxing, Mayweather enjoys tasteless displays of wealth. There’s the $100,000 jacket, the big gambling chips and the bottles of Cristal champagne – but just four of them. Mayweather should try harder. He’s soooo high street. As the sticking rich man said to the merely rich man, “I see you have a new Rolls Royce. Pity you’re so poor that you feel a need for one.”

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Posted: 21st, June 2013 | In: Money, Sports | Comment


Chuck Giampa takes us inside the mind of a boxing judge (video)

CHUCK Giampa will now take us inside the mind of a boxing judge:

Posted: 4th, January 2013 | In: Sports, TV & Radio | Comment


Africa thinks Mike Tyson has had a sex-change (extreme female rape empathy)

FOREIGN press outlets are getting confused with Western satire. The Onion’s obvious spoof piece which said that Kim Jong Un had been voted sexiest man of 2012 was reported as fact in China.

And now, online outlets in Africa have falsely reported that Mike Tyson has had a sex change after they read and believed a daft piece by NewsBiscuit.

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Posted: 20th, December 2012 | In: Sports | Comment


Andy Flintoff fights Richard Dawson: the big cricket box in photos

THE International Heavyweight Contest between Andrew Flintoff v Richard Dawson is on. Flintoff is seeking to stretch the envelope of things retired sporting heroes do in search of adrenaline. In Freddie Flintoff v The World, the viewer of ITV4 saw Flintoff takes on other retired sporting legends in a series of unusual sports. In one episode he jumped off a cliff in Mexico with Darren Gough (Strictly Come Dancing). Flintoff has also taken to darts, entering the commentary booth in Alexandra Palace and adding his his views to those of Sid Waddell and John Gwynne. The former England all-rounder will now do a bit of boxing – one of the leading -ing sports.

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Posted: 29th, November 2012 | In: Sports | Comment


Boxing Brawls: A history of the most famous and infamous

BAD blood, insults, pre-match scraps and warnings of crowd trouble have all helped stoke the flames and shift tickets for Saturday’s showdown between David Haye and Dereck Chisora at Upton Park.

They have already had run-ins outside the ring…

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Posted: 10th, July 2012 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Sports | Comment


Boxing Lessons with Eric Kelly – Wall Street traders get slaughtered

WALL Street traders and City types go to Eric Kelly to learn how to box. In so doing they alleviate their white man’s burden as Eric belittles them. Language is fruity and NSFW. We present Boxing Lessons WIth Eric Kelly:

Spotter:Animal New York,

Posted: 19th, May 2012 | In: Sports | Comment


Chisora slaps Klitschko at the weigh-in and runs off

HAS Dereck Chisora put a few more bums on seats for tonight’s WBC heavyweight title challenge by slapping champion Vitali Klitschko at the weigh-in? Chisoa was, reportedly, wearing a ring. That slap must have hurt.

Will it be the only contact of note Chisora makes when the two meet again at the Olympiahalle?

Said Chisora’s trainer: “It was completely unacceptable.”

Klitschko’s team preferred the multilingual: “You’re f***ed now, Dereck.

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Posted: 17th, February 2012 | In: Sports | Comment


Iron Mike Tyson Sings The Girl From Ipanema While Dressed In A Bad White Suit

That’s right! Iron Mike has been on TV singing The Girl From Ipanema. You know the song don’t you? It goes like this:

Tall and tan and young and lovely, the girl from Ipanema goeth walking, and when thee passes each one thee patheth goeth “aaaaaaah!” When thee walkth thee’s like a thamba that, thwingth tho cool and thwayth tho gentle, that when thee patheth each one thee patheth goeth “aaaaah!

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Posted: 29th, November 2011 | In: Sports | Comment


Super Flyweight Prizefighter At Liverpool Olympia: Boxing Photos

NO one said it would be easy: the Super Flyweight Prizefighter at Liverpool Olympia was brutal. Ryan Farrag’s face tells a story:

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EDITORS PLEASE NOTE GRAPHIC CONTENT Ryan Farrag during the Super Flyweight Prizefighter at the Liverpool Olympia, Liverpool.

Posted: 13th, October 2011 | In: Sports | Comment


Matthew Malkin Is Robbed In Germany: David Haye Should Worry (Photos)

DAVID Haye would have found watching Birmingham man Matthew Malkin’s defeat to local boy Felix Sturm in Germany. The German won the fight on points. He retained his WBA middleweight belt because the judges sat in a German arena in front of thousands of German fans went with the German lad who took a punding until very late in the last round when he rocked Malkin.

Haye is the British WBA heavyweight champion fighting Wladimir Klitschko, the WBO, IBF and IBO title holder, in Germany next weekend. The bout will unify the the world heavyweight title. Klitschko is the Ukrainian based in… Germany.

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Posted: 27th, June 2011 | In: Sports | Comment


David Haye Joins The Boxing Taliban: Wladimir Klitschko Will Be Decapitated (If He Can Reach His Head)

DAVID Haye was one of the main attractions at an open training session at the Hayemaker Boxing Gym, London. He shared centre stage with another David Haye – the one who stars in an app. It’s a game in which boxing technicians are invited to decapitate their opponent. You can now knock someone’s block off, literally. It mighty be the head of Haye’s next opponent, one Wladimir Klitschko. It might be anyone’s head. Haye just says it’s “a big anonymous Eastern European who’s going to get his head punched off… It takes skill and a lot of dedication to take a head off. But it can be done.”

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Posted: 15th, June 2011 | In: Sports | Comment


RIP Henry Cooper: A Life In Brilliant Photos

RIP Sir Henry Cooper. He once put Cassius Clay on the seat of this pants. It was Brut strength and no little skill. This was your life – in photos:

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File photo dated 18/6/1963 of Cassius Clay, now Muhammad Ali, and Henry Cooper during their fight at Wembley London.

Posted: 1st, May 2011 | In: Key Posts, Sports | Comment (1)


The Most Brutal Boxing Fight Ever (Not Haye V Harrison): Video

WHILE David Haye and Audley Harrison failed to out on a fight for the 700,000-plus mug punters who’d coughed up £14.95 to see the WBA heavyweight bout on the telly, we were watching the Thai boxing.

This is the rumble you wanted to see… (stick with it – its get nuttier and nuttier)…

Posted: 15th, November 2010 | In: Key Posts | Comments (2)


In Photos: Amir Khan Beats Paulie Malignaggi

AMIR Khan did what was expected at Madison Square Garden, New York. Khan defended his WBA Light-Welterweight Title successfully, winning on a technical knockout against local boy Paulie Malignaggi in the 1th round. Before the fight, the talk was of the weigh–in being a new sport. And Handbags might yet debut on Sky sports 3. The real fight was in the ring, with Khan excusing poise and power. The boys gonna be huge…

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Amir Khan (right) in action with Paulie Malignaggi during the WBA light-welterweight title bout at Madison Square Garden, New York.

Posted: 16th, May 2010 | In: Sports | Comment


Amir Kahn Grapples With Paulie Malignaggi’s Apple Catchers: Pictures

IN the Hugo Boss tight briefs, Amir Khan. In the massive, oversized apple catchers and headband, Mr Paulie Malignaggi. Anorak once had a friend called Paul whose mum called him Pauli Wallie. Understandably, tensions were running high as Khan and Pauli Wallie weighed in at Essex House, New York, in readiness for the WBA Light-welterweight championship. Amir Khan will be defending his title. Pauli’s best chance of winning is if Kahn gets entangled in his shorts. It can happen…

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Posted: 14th, May 2010 | In: Sports | Comment


World Champion Amir Khan Beats Dmitriy Salita, In Pictures

AMIR Khan took just 76 seconds to defeat New York challenger Dmitriy Salita. Not a single tabloid’s back page features the event. Is Britain so blessed with world champions that Khan can be so ignored as he retains his WBA Light-Welterweight Title bout at the Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle? Two footballers swing handbags and it’s all over the papers. A boxer uses skill to fight and he’s buried towards the middle of the newssheets, or ignored as the nation’s biggest selling Sunday, the NoTW, sees fit. We’ve got the pictures of the fight:

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Amir Khan in action with Dmitriy Salita during the WBA Light-Welterweight Title bout at the Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle.

Posted: 6th, December 2009 | In: Sports | Comments (3)