I appreciate the well-considered thoughts about the beauty, etc. of the sport, but man this ranks slightly above professional wrestling as sports that I would subject myself to. I just don't get it.

CRAP.

BUMP.

Any of you Americanos catch the Brits fight over the weekend?

Crap and not crap in equal measures.

Jim Watt vs Sean O'Grady was a good contest though.

Muhammad Ali refused to fight in Vietnam but had no problem stepping into a ring to beat another man unconscious. Whatever. I remember watching Ali as a kid on regular network TV. He and Cosell were must see TV back in the day.

Rimbaud III wrote:BUMP.

Any of you Americanos catch the Brits fight over the weekend?

I've heard great things about Calzaghe, and to a lesser extent Ricky Hatton, but have yet to see either of them fight. The Calzaghe-Manfredo fight was on HBO but I don't subscribe... and now I'm really disappointed for having missed it.

I followed boxing closely for a time when I was a kid. Boxing is really violent I guess...but it's generally not crude, you know? A bad fight is ugly, but a great fight is a wonder to watch.

I love that Buster Douglas/Mike Tyson bout. It's so incredible since Buster was supposed to get floored in one round like everybody else Tyson had fought in the previous couple years.

I love when the scummy people in the crowd realize that Tyson is getting a real fight. They start yelling...calling like animals...barking like dogs...it was like a fight from boxing's golden age or something (whenever that was exactly).

Also, boxing movies rule (except any boxing movie with Meg Ryan).

The sweet science...NOT CRAP.

rocker654 wrote:Boxing: Not Crap.

Ultimate Fighting Championship: Crap

I was introduced to UFC because the patrons at a bar insisted on all the TVs tuned to it, which they glued their eyes to the screen like it was the World Series or something. It seemed vaguely homoerotic, and was extremely boring. I was amazed at how seriously these people took it.

I love boxing and, when it really is being done proficiently and is truly the sweet science, there's no way it can be crap.

But the drastic slide in quality fighters, which is only the past couple of years beginning to reverse, caused my interest to wane. And because of my own experience in martial arts, I began to follow mixed martial arts more and more.

MMA is boring only to those who aren't educated in what they're watching. This is the same thing that's occurring when people say boxing is no different than watching two drunk idiots fight on a sidewalk. If you know a damn thing about boxing, you know that's not true.

And if you know anything about MMA, you know that the grappling and ground fighting are much more tactically complex and physically dynamic than they seem at first glance.

But now UFC is doing to MMA what happened to boxing during Tyson's reign. Everyone just wants to see the big punch, the explosive knockout, the blood, rather than watch these unbelievably fit and skilled athletes pit all of their training and knowledge against one another in a technically complicated bout.

Your Cap'n Speakin' wrote:Muhammad Ali refused to fight in Vietnam but had no problem stepping into a ring to beat another man unconscious. Whatever.

Your Cap'n Speakin' wrote:I remember watching Ali as a kid on regular network TV.

If you're old enough to have seen Ali fight on TV, it seems like you should have a better grasp of basic logic than you show in your first sentence.

If you are a boxer yourself, and have sustained many blows to the head, then it makes sense and I apologize.

Ishmael wrote:

Your Cap'n Speakin' wrote:Muhammad Ali refused to fight in Vietnam but had no problem stepping into a ring to beat another man unconscious. Whatever.

Your Cap'n Speakin' wrote:I remember watching Ali as a kid on regular network TV.

If you're old enough to have seen Ali fight on TV, it seems like you should have a better grasp of basic logic than you show in your first sentence.

If you are a boxer yourself, and have sustained many blows to the head, then it makes sense and I apologize.

Hmmmm......

A man declares his pacifist ideals and opposition to a war. Fair enough.
http://www.kentuckytourism.com/NR/rdonl ... hammed.pdf

pacifist

Inclined or disposed to peace; not quarrelsome or unruly: irenic, pacific, pacifical, pacifistic, peaceable, peaceful. See peace/conflict.

Same man engages in an activity where a potential outcome is the maiming or death of an opponent.

Sorry it eludes you. In the future I'll make it all a coloring book and give you a big box of Crayolas to color it whatever shade of syllogism you like. Your favorite color is blushing red?

Your Cap'n Speakin' wrote:Your favorite color is blushing red?

And yours is bullshit brown?

Your argument is weak. Regardless of your viewpoint, equivocating boxing (a voluntary sport, one-on-one, with a referee) with war is petty and doe-eyed. I'm sure the few survivors of the Mai Lai massacre would agree.