Hatton vs Castillo

[Good Intentions]

There was just one man in the ring. Castillo was not looking his best, quite worn out and slow, and Hatton was razor sharp. What I really liked about the performance was that it wasn't enough for Hatton to bully his opponent around, but that he stepped up and delivered a fantastic knockout blow to sink a good opponent, something I haven't seen, say, Joe Calzaghe, do. And really, knockout punches don't come much better than that. In the spirit of silly hyperbole Hatton had renamed himself 'the Manchester Mexican' for the fight, but he has some right to that claim following that great perfmormance of bodypunching, traditionally the strength of the Mexican fighters. He had turned Castillo's shortrib into a bellows and pumped all the air out of his lungs. A great shot.

Also, the people calling the HBO show were terrible, only the token old boxers occasionally allowed a word were talking any sense.

[RavingLunatic]

I still have no idea why anyone would enjoy a sport where 2 people enter a ring and try to inflict brain damage on one another. Whatevs.

[Good Intentions]

You don't specifically try to inflict brain damage. Boxers are more succesful when they diversify the ways of breaking down their opponent's body.

[Good Intentions]

If you don't get why it's great when two men standing toe-to-toe, shaking hands, facing off against each other, and one walking away victor, decided not by the bounce of the ball but only, God willing, by who was the best man, then I won't be able to explain it to you. Boxing is everything that is good about sport cast in the simplest, starkest terms.

[cool banana]

DON'T SAY WHATEVS OH MY GOD

[RavingLunatic]

I think distance running epitomizes everything great about sports. The fact that the immense pain involved is purely self-inflicted is a merit that gives it a distinct advantage over boxing and other violent sports.

[cool banana]

Except it's boring.

[RavingLunatic]

DON'T SAY WHATEVS OH MY GOD

OMG, you totes need to get down with teh intertron lingo.

[RavingLunatic]

WARNING: I totally edited this after GI replied.

I guess my main objection to boxing is that it is by and large a sports where poor kids beat the shit out of each other for the enjoyment of rich people. I realize this isn't true at the highest levels, but I think it is for the most part.

[Good Intentions]

Listen, I've realised some time ago that I'd be wasting my breath to make you see the obvious and persistent virtue of boxing if your mind is made up against it.

banana, stop being a twit.

[cool banana]

Some fagnuts on "I'm from Rolling Stone" keeps saying whatevs and I want to destroy him.

I'm not a huge fan of boxing. I prefer team sports. Table tennis for playing though.

[cool banana]

I appreciate boxing as a sport, and enjoy it, but it does not hold my interest. Distance running might be virtuous, but it rarely excites.

[girl]

I'm not a great boxing fan either, but I don't see how it's possible to dismiss it as boring or as less than a sport.  Particularly when you look at boxing in terms of the history of the sport, which is completely fascinating.  I mean, think what you want, but I don't see how it's constructive to read a post about boxing and then respond I don't like boxing, thereby closing off all further communication about it.  Maybe that's just me. 


(Also, it's very hard to get tone in internet writing, so for the record, I'm not chastising anyone here, just stating my own opinion.)

[cool banana]

Yeah, plus it's entirely subjective. I was just saying I'm not a huge fan - and so, really I shouldn't have even posted in the thread, which is ostensibly for boxing fans (although GI loves to argue.. ).

[jebreject]

Some fagnuts on "I'm from Rolling Stone" keeps saying whatevs and I want to destroy him.

I'm not a huge fan of boxing. I prefer team sports. Table tennis for playing though.

could we please not use terms like "fagnuts"?  hopefully that's not too much to ask

[Good Intentions]

Distance running might be virtuous, but it rarely excites.

What's this, a not-getting-it competition?

Some time last year I was making myself breakfast and watching the highlights of the Winter Olympics, and they showed the 50km cross country ski. For the duration of the race Eugeni Dementiev and Mikhail Botwinov swapped the lead with each other while trying to seperate themselves from the leading pack, who finally caught up about 500 meters from the finishing line. The last kilometer was a mad sprint between about a dozen athletes, until fifty meters from the line Giorgi di Centa, for the first time in the race, took the lead and kept it. After more than two hours, all three medal winners crossed the line within a second, and the top ten finished within five seconds. That is the type of display the Olympics were created for.

[girl]

Not to further derail your boxing thread, but I obsessively love The Olympics.  Winter and summer.  Every sport.  Just wanted to get that out there.

[RavingLunatic]

I'm not a great boxing fan either, but I don't see how it's possible to dismiss it as boring or as less than a sport.

Oh, it's definitely a sport, and if you get really into any sport it ceases to be boring. If I didn't have qualms about the whole idea of two people beating each other up, I could probably really enjoy boxing, but I just can't get past that. I shouldn't've said anything to begin with though, and I apologize for the derail.

[Good Intentions]

That's fine, thanks RL.

[Killdozersnakeboy]

Anything has to better than the fucking yachting. I'm so sick of hearing about the americas cup, I can't even watch the news. Let's spend 10-odd million dollers on a boat that seems to go the speed of a brisk jog. - Wankers.

[cool banana]

Distance running might be virtuous, but it rarely excites.

What's this, a not-getting-it competition?

Some time last year I was making myself breakfast and watching the highlights of the Winter Olympics, and they showed the 50km cross country ski. For the duration of the race Eugeni Dementiev and Mikhail Botwinov swapped the lead with each other while trying to seperate themselves from the leading pack, who finally caught up about 500 meters from the finishing line. The last kilometer was a mad sprint between about a dozen athletes, until fifty meters from the line Giorgi di Centa, for the first time in the race, took the lead and kept it. After more than two hours, all three medal winners crossed the line within a second, and the top ten finished within five seconds. That is the type of display the Olympics were created for.

I watch a lot of sport and that does sound exciting, but it also seems to me the exception to the rule. I also have trouble with the concept of one-off races, even if people have qualified and have heats etc. I am uncomfortable with a gold medal being decided once every four years by one race. I also have this problem with team sport grand finals and title fights etc. If in that skiing example, the race was decided by an inch, then surely there is some element of luck involved (weather, terrain, other competitors, an unfortunate lump in the snow, whatever) which is acceptable, and exists in all sports, but becomes statistically significant in a one-off race. If the gold medal was decided over say, five races, then the person who was most consistent over that time would be, in my eyes, more deserving of victory. However, this might not be commercially sustainable in a one-off tournament like a world cup, or games meet.

I have no problem with calling athletics sport and I can't question the commitment, training, hard work and athleticism involved, but as much as I try (and believe me, I've tried. Cycling, triathlon, the 50km walk for fuck's sake. Hell, I once watched three hours of Snooker, such is my love of sport.) um... as much as I try, I still find them, if not boring, then lacking in some sort of dynamic - whether that's because they are not so much battling their opponents as themselves, or that their opponents are more abstract, or that they are racing a clock, which is one of the easier to read opponents in sport, I don't know.

So maybe I'll rephrase. I find distance running boring.

Agree entirely on the America's Cup.

[Good Intentions]

I don't know why you just told me all that.

[Doctor Bob]

If you don't get why it's great when two men standing toe-to-toe, shaking hands, facing off against each other, and one walking away victor, decided not by the bounce of the ball but only, God willing, by who was the best man, then I won't be able to explain it to you.

Did you watch Bernard Dunne, GI?  I wouldn't be a big follower of boxing, but it stirs the patriotic feelings to hear such news.

[Good Intentions]

That's rather too local and too far away for me to have shown up on my radar, Dr Bob. But I'm glad that someone at least is understanding what I'm talking about.

[Greg Nog]

I still have no idea why anyone would enjoy a sport where 2 people enter a ring and try to inflict brain damage on one another. Whatevs.

I know this is gonna sound like I'm being facetious, but in all honesty, I have no idea why anyone would enjoy watching sports that DON'T involve two people entering a ring and trying to inflict brain damage on each other.

I don't really follow any sports, but boxing's the only one that, when I see it in passing on a TV somewhere, I actually stop and get a bit drawn into.