Boxing

I have been watching boxing from a pretty young age. For some reason, boxing fights really stand out in my mind. I remember watching Muhammed Ali. It was probably his last real fight, which was in 1981. I would have been seven years old. I remember watching the Ray Mancini - Duk Koo Kim fight in 1982. Mancini killed Kim in that fight. Literally. Kim died later in the hospital after the fight. I remember watching Mike Tyson fight for the first time at my Aunt Joanie's house. My cousins were saying, "You have to see this kid fight!" Then I remember watching Tyson lose to Buster Douglas. I was watching it with my brothers in the family room of the Stone House. We had started out just watching the 1990 NBA All-Star Game, and I turned it over at the ads. You had to keep getting up on a bench by the television to spin the dial on the cable box. We were amazed that Douglas lasted more than a round or two with Iron Mike. Then we saw him go down. Crazy. I remember watching Hagler-Hearns. That was 1985 and the greatest three rounds of boxing I think there has ever been. Growing up in Michigan, I was, of course, a Hearns fan.

I began listing my other favorite fighters, and there are just too many to really list them all.

I love "the sweet science". It really is a sort of science. You have to double up on your jab. You have to go to your opponent's body. You need to keep your chin tucked. Most of all, you have to have balance. "Must have balance!" It's just such a better sport than MMA. I make no apologies for this. Boxing organization is just so screwed up and corrupt. That is the thing that Dana White, the CEO of the UFC, really got right. MMA and the UFC are ten times as popular, at least, than boxing is, and that is a terrible shame.