In the middle wearing a black shirt is Dino Newville, 4 time world kick boxing champion.
In the Blue's Gym shirt is some old fat bald guy.
Posted on 08/26/2017 6:13:53 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
Little by little, Americans began to understand that when it came to street fighting, the multidimensionality of mixed martial artists rendered them more pernicious than pure pugilists. Maybe 8 out of 10 times, take it out back, and the boxer ends up on the ground. In 2010, James “Lights Out” Toney, one of the toughest and most technical boxers of our era, ventured into the octagon (the mixed martial arts equivalent of the boxing ring) against an older Randy Couture. Couture, a former wrestler, easily dispatched Toney with a submission hold in the first round. Boxers are not competitive in the octagon.
But now, the tables have been turned: A top-notch M.M.A. fighter is entering the boxing ring. Conor McGregor, the reigning lightweight and former featherweight champion of the Ultimate Fighting Championship organization, who has never boxed professionally, is poised to challenge the greatest boxer of our time, Floyd Mayweather Jr., in Nevada on Saturday night. What an insult! What a head butt to boxing!
As a longtime boxing trainer and writer, my initial reaction to this event, for which each fighter could earn more than $100 million, was a wince and a moan. What won’t “Money” Mayweather do for more money?
To be fair, there is a history of such spectacles. For example, in 1976, Muhammad Ali fought a bizarre contest against the Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki. In a similar fight the day before, the heavyweight boxer Chuck Wepner was picked up and flung out of the ring in a free-for-all match with the wrestler Andre the Giant. But the difference between those sideshows and the bout on Saturday is that McGregor is a world-class athlete who is deadly serious about beating Mayweather at his own game.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Apparently, they fought some of the big names as the “professionals” made the rounds to the various cities.
Fighters and names like Primo Carnera, Buddy Baer, George Manley were mentioned and apparently my great uncles faired well against them. We have newspaper articles. That was around 100 years ago.
Interesting too that my grandfather always directed us away from “fighting” and towards education. He felt (probably from personal experience) that the life of a fighter was not a good one.
The bottom dwellng NYT writes of honor?
Bwahahahahaha.
I have always loved boxing. When I was very young I trained for a very brief time with a friend of my father who had been a drill instructor in the build-up to WWII.
Unfortunately, I had no one to spar with so that was the end of that.
I remember Floyd's daddy getting worked over by Sugar Ray Leonard in the 80's. Sugar's flurry of punches and lightning speed where all the difference. I suspect Jr. hits harder than his father.
I don’t understand the backlash around this fight. I love boxing and MMA. This thing is an absurd spectacle to be sure, but it’s one you must voluntarily decide to watch. I don’t see it being worth $100 to watch so I won’t watch. But I get that tons of people feel differently. I hope Connor wins, but his chances are slim. I’ll watch the highlights later.
Meet the boxing philosopher of Northfield’s St. Olaf College
The NYT is backwards as always. This fight has no honor to it, it’s a ridiculous scam. And boxing in the last few years has become thoroughly corrupt.
And what does the NYT know about honor, lol.
To me, boxing lost its honor when Tyson went cannibal on Holyfield and didn’t get banned for life.
Ridiculous fight. Get Mayweather in the octagon, and I’d be interested. But McGregor and Mayweather in the ring, bound by the Marquess of Queensberry rules of boxing, and the greatest runner... er, I mean, boxer... ever in the history of the game is going to make McGregor look like an oaf. That’s just the way it is. McGregor will never touch him. I wish it weren’t so. I wish something could be done with the rules of boxing so that runners couldn’t win, but I don’t see how.
Best line in the article, IMO.
Truth is McGregor has nothing to lose, and Mayweather has nothing to gain (except another boatload of money of course).
McGregor’s share of the purse is estimated at $100 million. Not a bad payday for him. So I see exactly why he’s doing it!
My father told me professional boxing matches were rigged.
Well, there’s that too. And if McGregor loses it’s no big deal, nobody expects him to win anyway. If Mayweather should somehow lose it makes a joke of Mayweather’s career and boxing in general.
What honor? Boxing has been the most rigged sport for over 100 years. Whatever honor it had was gone long before the author was born, the fact that this “fight” is even happening shows the honor is gone.
“McGregor’s share of the purse is estimated at $100 million.”
Nope, his purse is $30 million, motor mouth gets $100 mil.
How many rounds you give Connor tonight? I think he gets frustrated bc it's not MMA and loses his focus. Jr picks him apart.
McGregor fighting with MMA rules versus Mayweather fighting with WBA rules.
Now that’s a match I would watch.
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