Posted on 09/18/2013 5:15:51 PM PDT by Paisan
RIP Kenny.
There have been lots of players who were on three straight NFL championship teams, i.e., the players who were on the 1965, 1966, and 1967 Green Bay Packers. They just didn't call the NFL championship game the "Super Bowl" yet. And those last two Packers teams did then go on to win the first two NFL vs. AFL "Super Bowls."
You could even include the players on the three-peat championship teams of the 1929, 1930, and 1931 Packers, as well.
George/Ron Lyle fight of January, 1976 was one of the best HW fights of all time.
The Ali/Norton Trilogy was a classic, with the last fight broadcast live on ABC, also in 1976 — a great year for HW boxing.
Many observers believe the 2nd fight between Norton/Ali should have been a Draw, but Ali won by Split Decision.
Others think Norton should have won that decision.
The 70’s was the decade of the HW’s, the 80’s the decade of the great welterweight/middle weights - Hearns, Hagler, Duran, Leonard, Arguello, Pryor, etc...so many talented fighters in the 80’s and so many epic fights.
But it seemed that during the start of the 90’s and even before, there were a lot of fishy decisions and they were becoming more and more obvious and prevalent and it almost killed the sport, and PPV became the norm.
The days of watching a big title fight on broadcast TV or even live on cable are long gone.
Nowadays, PPV is $60.00 and no title fights on the undercard like in the old days when you had to go to an arena or a movie theater to watch PPV with 1,000 other people on a huge screen and perhaps 2 title fights on the undercard or at least some top ranked fighters.
PPV at a large venue with thousands of other people was almost as good as being at the fight live.
I saw the Hearns/Hagler fight at a large PPV venue in April of 1985, and the crowd was on their feet from the time the fighters made their way into the ring until the fight ending in the 3rd round, with a Hagler TKO of Hearns’ who had actually broken his hand in the 1st round that wobbled Hagler.
Nowadays, I have very little interest in Boxing especially since Pacquiao has seemingly retired and Mayweather has dodged him for years, waiting for him to get older and worn out from fighting in numerous brawls, depriving fight fans of the fight everyone wanted. Except perhaps for Mayweather.
Leonard did the same with Hearns and didn’t give him a rematch until 9 years after their epic first fight which Hearns lost by TKO with Hearns seemingly winning the 2nd fight, but it was called a Draw. A terrible decision.
Leonard also won a questionable decision over Hagler in April of 1976
Leonard also refused Hagler a rematch, and Hagler retired out of disgust for the poor decision and for Leonard dictating the terms of the fight to his advantage; 24’ ring, 12 oz. gloves and 12 rounds instead of 15, and for the fact that Leonard would not agree to a rematch until 1990 when Hagler was in his late 30’s and hadn’t boxed in 4 years. Hagler was also showing “ring wear and tear” in several fights preceding the Leonard fight.
Sadly, there were many great fights and fighters in the 1980’s, but no Trilogies, and rematches were few which made many fans like myself lose interest, along with Leonard getting two controversial decisions - The Hagler fight and the 2nd Hearns fight.
Today, Mayweather considers himself the best fighter, but he dodged Pacquiao for his entire career and deprived fight fans of what could have been an epic along with a rematch and perhaps a Trilogy.
It’s all politics, BS and about money these days, but as long as people are willing to pay $60.00 for a PPV fight, the fans will get what they deserve which isn’t much these days.
George = George Foreman/Ron Lyle in the above post.
In the clearing stands a boxer, and a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down or cut him
‘Til he cried out in his anger and his shame
I am leaving, I am leaving, but the fighter still remains
Paul Simon...
Nothing speaks to the Greatest of the Heavyweights more than this.
There comes a time in every man’s life, when he considers ‘what he does’, and he is forced to admit, this is who I am. I must continue, because this is all I know.
And so, I carry on.
This is what I do...
This is who I am.
There is no shame in this.
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