Showing posts with label Boxing History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boxing History. Show all posts

Saturday, June 18, 2011

It's Complicated!

I decided to join the new era and got a smart phone today. I went with the Droid Revolution by LG. It is pretty amazing and I think it is more powerful than my desktop computer! Thing is, it's complicated with all the stuff it can do! I am overwhelmed actually. First thing I did was turn off the annoying auto-complete function because that pissed me off. I am still working with it but it is a bit intimidating. You people can use these things? Wow.

Saturday Night Fights
A few boxing clips for your entertainment.

Marvin Hagler KO3 Mustafa Hamsho
A rematch after a bloody brawl won by Hagler (TKO11) saw "The Syrian Buzzsaw" get knocked out for the only time in his career. Catch the vicious combo at the 7:45 mark and then the lightning fast combination that floors Hamsho at the 8:20 mark:

Had Sugar Ray Leonard fought Hagler at this point he would not have made it to round 5.

Muhammad Ali KO3 Cleveland Williams
Cleveland "Big Cat" Williams was a feared heavyweight contender all through the 1960's. In perhaps his finest display of boxing, Muhammad Ali makes it look easy as he destroys Williams near the end of round 2 (5:20 mark on) and the fight is topped in round 3:

Yes, I think the Ali before his years away from boxing due to legal issues was the greatest heavyweight of all time.

Aaron Davis KO9 Mark Breland
Back when good fights could be seen on free TV, this war between mark Breland and Aaron Davis was a wild treat. Davis, with a broken right hand and closed eyes, delivers the BOOM at the 4:48 mark of the 9th round:

WOW.

Jeff Harding KO12 Dennis Andries
In a fight he could not win on points, Harding hammers the gas pedal in the last round to stop Andries and win the Light Heavyweight title. Last round starts at the 2:45 mark:

Saw this one live, very exciting!

Have a good night.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Sunday Boxing Clips

I am doing my market homework tonight and running screens but with all the headline risk out there I am not buying anything right now.

I have some free time and seeing that there seems to be a a ton of boxing fans out there, here are some clips for review.

Boxing Clips
Enjoy!

There was a rule enacted after Arturo Gatti stopped Joey Gamache in this fight that barred a fighter from pigging out after the weigh in and gaining over 10 pounds! Go to the 0:50 second mark for a brutal KO, so don't watch is you are squeamish:

Lights out.

Over at iBankCoin there was a thread that got all into boxing and some punk said that Roberto Duran had a glass jaw! Not wanting to start trouble, I let it go. Duran was KO'd one time (By Thomas Hearns) and it was a fight he was not prepared for. Hands of Stone was one of the best fighters of all time. Go to the 2:16 mark of this clip and ask Davey Moore:

A great book I read was "Hands of Stone" by Christian Giudice. Grab it!

When Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini got his first shot at the lightweight title, he ran into my hero, Alexis Arguello. After a valiant effort Mancini gets beaten by one of the greatest fighters of all time. Scroll to 1:05 mark:

Master defeats the apprentice.

The 1984 fight between Juan Meza and Jaime Garza featured two fighters with the highest knockout percentages in history. So what happens? A first round knockout of course! But not without drama. Round 1 starts at the 2:00 minute mark:

WOW!

One of the sickest punchers of all time was Julian Jackson. Spool up most any win of his and it was a crazy knockout (Terry Norris comes to mind). It is lights out time for Herol Graham in 1990 here:

Ouch.

In one of the more brutal fights in living memory, Chris Eubanks and Michael Watson put on a show in their second fight (in 1991) that was amazing yet terrible. Watson has the fight in hand and almost stops Eubanks in the 11th round, but walks into a shot so severe it had terrible consequences (go to 1:00 mark):

Watson suffered a brain blood clot and brain damage after this fight. Very sad, and shame on his corner for letting him come out for the 12th round.

While a quick knockout is fine, there is no more fierce a display in boxing as total domination. Julio Cesar Chavez finished the careers of quite a few fighters during his unbeaten streak and some (Meldrick Taylor, Roger Mayweather, Greg Haugen, Sammy Fuentes) were effectively finished as top flight fighter after Chavez drained them. Edwin Rosario never was the same after his loss to Chavez, watch the whole clip to the end of round 11 when Rosario's corner thankfully throws in the towel:

Brutal.

Ok, last clip!

In 1988 Thomas "The Hit Man" Hearns had a mandatory title defense against Iran "The Blade" Barkley. It was a total mismatch but I got it on Pay-Per-View anyway. Hearns was killing Barkley and the fight was sure to end in the 3rd round, but a wild right hand out of no where wins the fight for The Blade in a shocking ending (watch from 6:00 min mark on):

Shocker!

I hope you liked the clips and feel free to suggest fight clips or ask boxing history questions!

Have a good night.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Saturday Night Fights

A few round selections for the boxing history inclined.

Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Donny Lalonde Round 9 (1988)
Scroll to the 4:00 minute mark, sound is a bit off.


Tommy Morrison vs. Razor Ruddock Round 6 (1995)
Wild, insane round.


George Foreman vs. Jerry Cooney Round 2 (1990)
Dubbed "The Geezers at Ceasers", Foreman blows Cooney away in round 2. Scroll to 5:45 mark.


Joe Louis vs Billy Conn Round 13 (1941)
Light heavyweight champ Billy Conn was way ahead on all scorecards but went after Heavyweight champ Joe Louis anyway. Not a great idea. Crappy recap video below.


Gene Tunney vs. Jack Dempsey Round 7 (1927)
The famous "Battle of the Long Count". Dempsey was not aware of the new rule requiring fighters to go to a neutral corner! No matter, Tunney was ok and goes on to win the fight.


Sugar Ray Robinson vs. Gene Fullmer Round 5 (1957)
This may be the greatest left hook ever thrown. Many new age folks have no idea why anyone that knows anything about boxing always says the original Sugar Ray was the best ever. He was the best fighter I have ever seen. Scroll to the 7:38 mark.


Mickey Ward vs. Arturo Gotti Round 9 (2002)
I use to make sandwiches for Mickey Ward at a store I worked at in college, and he regularly sparred with fighters at my gym. I had no idea he would go on to such heights and a film about his life! Round 9 here is just brutal.


End the show with the single greatest round of all time.

Marvin Hagler vs. Thomas Hearns Round 1 (1985)
Just epic.

Wow.

Have a good night.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

From 1971: The Fight of the Century

Maybe it was the Rocky music from last night, but I am on a boxing history kick!

EconomicDisconnect used to box (when I was young!) and when I work out I still prefer boxing training in my basement gym to any other type of work out. I hate MMA fighting, there is no real art to it. Before I get angry comments, I know there is and many people love it and I know how hard it is but it's nothing like the art and beauty of boxing.

From 1971: The Fight of the Century
Wikipedia usually has a great write up for most things but I found the entry for the first fight between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali a little weak. Here it is:
Fight of the Century

A better write up from East Side Boxing:
Fight of The Century: Still Nothing Close To It 33 (40 now) Years Later

Short version:
Muhammad Ali was controversial with his stance against the Vietnam War. He even refused military service. Ali had converted to the Muslim faith and changed his name from Cassius Clay. Ali had been stripped of his title over the long delay and his military service issues. Joe Frazier won a long tournament to win the title. Frazier was respected and admired for his quite workman-like style.

After a long layoff, Ali was set to fight Frazier. The whole world was watching. The immortal Don Dunphy has the call and here is the fight in 4 parts by the wonder that is YouTube.

Rounds 1-3

Ali started fast and won all 3 rounds on my card.

Rounds 4-7

Frazier comes alive a bit and the fight heats up. A left hook from Frazier with 37 seconds left in the 4th round would foreshadow later events.

Rounds 8-11

The meat of the fight. The pace picks up and it is clear Frazier is wearing Ali down. Ali had just won a gruelling fight against a very good fighter, Oscar Bonavena (KO 15) and it becomes clear Ali is running out of gas. Still, in round 9 Ali almost ended the fight. The last 30 seconds of round 9 would have stopped any other fighter, just unreal how Frazier stayed upright! Flip the table and Frazier was so close to stopping Ali in the 11th round, so close. Watch the last 1:08 of round 11 to see. Ali was out on his feet.

Rounds 12-15

Ali composes himself and wins round 14 big. But then the 15th starts and what a finish! While leading on all cards, Frazier summons a gargantuan left hook to begin round 15 and puts Ali flat! What a shot. This round cements the win for Frazier. I had it scored 9 rounds to 6, but one judge gave Frazier 11 of 15 rounds which was a bit much.

A few pictures of the fight:





What an amazing contest. 40 years later and I still spool these clips up late night and watch the fight.

Have a good night.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Double Layered Tin Foil Hat

Some extra time so I thought I would do a quick post on some interesting developments in the metals world. Also, a little boxing history stroll!

Double Layered Tin Foil Hat
I am well aware that gold and silver are useless investments that hold no value over what anyone is willing to pay for them. Not like stocks or real estate which are priced 100% correctly at all times based upon set parameters known to all. Only fools buy the metals and most metal heads are crazy conspiracy nuts anyway.

Some other conspiracies that have yet to be proven true, oh wait, they have:
-The Market Protection Team that guns stock futures in times of need
-The Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) backdoor bailout
-Threats of street violence to extort TARP money
-FED breaking own charter to exchange treasuries for toxic paper
-The FED coordinating to drop gold price with England in the early 2000's
There are more but I just wanted a sampler.

Sometimes my double layered tin foil hat sits heavy on my brow as a firm believer in the future of the last real money. Sometimes I find it hard to not go all conspiracy crazy though, and here is a case in point:
Whistleblower Exposes JP Morgan's Silver Manipulation Scheme
Now JP Morgan's silver manipulation from a massive short position in silver is well known to hard core metal watchers. Catching them o a paper trail is a bit new though. From the piece:
On March 23, 2010, GATA Director Adrian Douglas was contacted by a whistleblower by the name of Andrew Maguire. Maguire is a metals trader in London. He has been told first-hand by traders working for JPMorganChase that JPMorganChase manipulates the precious metals markets, and they have bragged to how they make money doing so.
There is much more and I would suggest you check it out. Also required is this piece form Jesse's Cafe Americain:
JP Morgan Manipulation Whistleblower

So what's the big deal? Nothing except this (via Jesse):
Whistleblower to CFTC in JP Morgan Silver Struck by Hit and Run Car
I am glad that although Mr. Maguire and his wife are shaken they will apparently be all right.

The related story on his allegations regarding manipulation in the silver market is here.

I hesitate to say anything more at this point, except curiouser and curiouser.

As reported by Adrian Douglas, the Director of GATA who has been the contact for Mr. Andrew T. Maguire
"On March 25th at the CFTC Public Hearing on Precious Metals GATA made a dramatic revelation of a whistleblower source, Andrew Maguire, who has first hand evidence of gold and silver market manipulation by JPMorganChase, and who had tipped off the CFTC in advance of manipulation in gold and silver some months ago.

On March 26th while out shopping with his wife, Mr. Maguire's car was hit by a car careening out of a side road. The driver of the vehicle then tried to escape.

When a pedestrian eye-witness attempted to block the driver's escape he accelerated at him and would have hit him had the pedestrian not jumped out of the way. The car then hit two other cars in escaping. The driver was apprehended by the police after police helicopters were called in and following a high speed chase.

Andrew and his wife were hospitalized with minor injuries. They were discharged from hospital today and should make a full recovery."

Now in a statistical run down:
-Your odds of being hit by a crazy driver are pretty low
-The odds of being hit as said on any specific day are very low
-The odds of being hit as said and on a day not 4 days removed from the manipulation story being out are almost impossibly long

Now I am sure this is all pure coincidence, but my head is itchy from keeping my tin foil hat on all day. Strange indeed.

For more metal mania:
IMF Is Now Rejecting Prospective Buyers For Its Gold Stash
In an exclusive report, Kitco has just released yet another stunner in the world of precious metals. It turns out that Eric Sprott has attempted to purchase gold from the IMF, according to information provided to Kitco by Frank Holmes, CEO of US Global Investors. "I just spoke with Eric Sprott, who bid to buy [the IMF's remaining gold on the block] and they refuse to sell it." As Kitco points out, "the IMF might be holding out for a bigger buyer or a central bank or for higher prices. But Holmes argues the IMF's rejection of Sprott's bid means markets are being manipulated." Back to Holmes: "I think there is a lot of manipulation done by governments around the world in the currency markets which affect the bond markets so to me it's just normal course." Holmes concludes "with an election year there may be a gold rally that could be two standard deviations, or $300 dollars, to the upside. So you could see gold run to $1300 to $1500 quite easily." This all is occurring as ever more pundits finally realize that as fiats are discredited across the world, the only safe, non-dilutable resource is gold.
I would think the IMF would want to get rid of something as useless as gold when paper money is the better option. Weird.

Boxing History
I have re-fallen in love with boxing and through the miracle of YouTube almost any fight I can think of is available for viewing!

Hector "Macho" Camacho was one of the best fighters I had ever seen. A super fast southpaw (left handers are hard to fight) with almost uncanny defensive skills, Camacho was well on his way to becoming an all time great. Can one punch change an entire career? It can, and a left hook from Edwin "Chapo" Rosario in round 5 of their fight sent Camacho on a career path of more running around the ring than fighting. I wonder how he might have turned out otherwise (punch comes after the 45 second mark):

He was never the same fighter after this one and I also scored the fight for Rosario but Camacho got the decision.

The greatest fight I have ever seen was my hero Alexis Arguello and Aaron Pryor in 1982. Two great fighters at the top of their game. It was troubling that Pryor likely used illegal substances during the fight, and to this day I think he was on something. Nobody can take the right hand that Arguello lands at the 4:38 mark and stand up unless on some thing:

I still get upset at the end of the fight.

Sugar Ray Leonard is a smart guy. He waited until Marvelous Marvin Hagler got old to fight him. A Hagler in his prime was a top 5 all time fighter and would have killed Leonard. As it was, when they met the fight was exciting and sad. Hagler is a Massachusetts native and very beloved yet he fought the dumbest fight ever against Leonard. At the time I thought Hagler was robbed in the fight, but now when I score the fight I have Leonard winning by 2 points. Most exciting part? Between rounds 11 and the final round 12 Sugar Ray's trainer Angelo Dundee scream "We got 3 minutes!", the referee comes over rand says "one more round and the fight is over" and Dundee yells "You bet NEW CHAMPION, NEW CHAMPION!" and Leonard gets up off the stool ready to go (watch from 3:10 mark on):

An amazing comeback for Sugar Ray.

One punch knockout? How about Michael Nunn's KO of Sumbu Kalambay? What was funny is that Nunn could not knock out a child usually so this was weird:

Nighty night!

Last one!

Julio Cesar Chavez find a way to put Meldrick Taylor away with 2 seconds to go in a fight he could not have won on points. Watch the last minute of round 12 starting at the 6:12 mark:

GOOSEBUMPS!

Have a good night.