THERE'S JUST SOMETHING ABOUT

There's just something about...

...an old champion whose body deserts him in mid-fight and who desperately hangs in there and tried to find a new way to win. It usually doesn't work out, but it is a display of heart and character that inspires.

...the way a well placed hook to the body thumps audibly if you're at ringside that makes one grimace.

...George Foreman's immediate reaction when Michael Moorer was counted out that screamed authenticity. He looked to the heavens and then fell to his knees.

...the inevitability of the fights of Julio Cesar Chavez at his peak. Lose the first round, close distance in the second, pound the body in the third and by the end of the fourth the other guy was stationary and it was only a matter of time. Like the tide coming in.

...the way Joe Frazier recognized the issue fifteen seconds into watching the Thrilla for the first time, 30 years after the fight, that made me realize how ring-smart he really was.

...Rocky Marciano. The more I study him, the more formidable he becomes. He really personifies Mickey's Goldmill's "No he AIN'T just another fighter. This guy is a wrecking machine."

...The fight crowds in Montreal. Damn near joyous in their attitude.

...the way Arthur Mercante used to break fighters tied up along the ropes and guide them back to ring center to restart the action. Graceful and effortless.

...Aaron Pryor's extended arm pointing across the ring when he was introduced that made me think "doooooom"

...the level of commitment Marvin Hagler and Tommy Hearns both showed in The War. It came pretty close to that.

...the way Manny Pacquiao, Wladimir Klitschko and Yoriorkis Gamboa have improved at very late ages that speaks incredibly well of their character and level of devotion to their sport.

...the attitude of too many younguns who profess to love the sport and won't study the past that saddens me. To deny themselves the pleasures of discovering Joe Louis hooking, or Willie Pep spinning a guy or Saad Muhammad coming back from the dead or Jack Dempsey's sheer savagery seems crazy to me.

...the way Carmen Basilio talks even now in his 80's that leaves me no doubt that he'd slap you if you sassed him.

...the way Ray Robinson understood that his legs going backwards would last longer than Jak LaMotta's going forwards and that he would literally walk the Bull out of the middleweight championship on Valentine's Day that screams genius.

...the singing and carrying on of the British fans that makes me want to sing along with them.

...the way Danny Little Red Lopez won the featherweight title that makes me want to slap today's squabbling fighters silly. Offered a shot at the title in David Kotey's hometown of Acra, Ghana, Lopez traveled alone from Sothern California to Africa. His 72 year old trainer was too old to make the trip. Then he beat Kotey in front of 100,000 Ghan-ians.

...the in-ring arrogance of the recent Cuban defectors Gamboa, Lara and Rigondeaux that screams CHAMPION. There is something about Odlanier Solis that shouts future contestant World's Biggest Loser.

...the weigh-in before the Carlos Zarate-Bazooka Gomez fight in Puerto Rico that makes me wonder. Zarate is moving up from 118 to 122, he has to weigh-in four times to make 122 and he then looks like a Bergen-Belsen survivor in the ring. In his next fight he makes 118 comfortably.

...the idea that Joe Gans and Battling Nelson fought 42 rounds, that's almost three hours, in the mid-day sun in August in Goldfield, Nevada that makes me think those two just weren't human.

...Joe Calzaghe that makes me believe he really could have been something absolutely extraordinary had he started fighting top guys a decade before he did. An astonishing athlete and I am persuaded a truly tough guy.

...the way Freddie Roach handles a corner and then the way 95% of the other trainers I now see handle theirs that makes me think we've lost something important.

...the left hook to the body left hook to the head combination that brings me out of my seat.

...championship fights that means cuts and stoppages should be handled differently. These are men who have paid the price and who have the toolboxes to deal with adversity and who have made a choice to risk everything. Most recently, Chad Dawson should have been given a chance to fight through that cut.

...that pause after a tight championship fight when the scores have been announced but the annoucner has not yet said STILL or NEW that gives me goosebumps

Waddya got?

I love these type of rambling thought threads.

I wonder if Carmen still bbq's for the crowd at HOF induction weekend. I know he had done it for years.

Oh, and I miss Tito Trinidad.

KrazyHorseBennett wrote:

Oh, and I miss Tito Trinidad.

Damn. Me too.

...the way Harold Lederman reads the unified rules of the association of boxing commissions and then gives his scorecard every 3 rounds. Jim!

bobbitt15 wrote:

...the way Harold Lederman reads the unified rules of the association of boxing commissions and then gives his scorecard every 3 rounds. Jim!

PERFECTLY DONE! Bwahahahahaha

marbleheadmaui wrote:

KrazyHorseBennett wrote:

Oh, and I miss Tito Trinidad.

Damn. Me too.

Did you know ANYTHING of him before the Blocker fight? I knew nothing.

WHile still a huge fan at the time, I was in the party-time period of my life and didn't know all the ins and outs at that time. So I see this skinny little 12-year old looking PR kid get a shot at Maurice Blocker. Not a legend, of course, but a good fighter and guy that had a habit of just making things overly difficult. Tito went in there and just decimates the shit out of Blocker. It was easily the most eye-opening first-time-seeings I have ever experienced.

And he never disappointed after that. Even the hardcore Mexican fight fan friends of mine liked Tito, because they knew he was gonna bring it.

KrazyHorseBennett wrote:

marbleheadmaui wrote:

KrazyHorseBennett wrote:

Oh, and I miss Tito Trinidad.

Damn. Me too.

Did you know ANYTHING of him before the Blocker fight? I knew nothing.

WHile still a huge fan at the time, I was in the party-time period of my life and didn't know all the ins and outs at that time. So I see this skinny little 12-year old looking PR kid get a shot at Maurice Blocker. Not a legend, of course, but a good fighter and guy that had a habit of just making things overly difficult. Tito went in there and just decimates the shit out of Blocker. It was easily the most eye-opening first-time-seeings I have ever experienced.

And he never disappointed after that. Even the hardcore Mexican fight fan friends of mine liked Tito, because they knew he was gonna bring it.

I'd seen him fight Jake Roberts a couple of years before but he didn't make an impression. I thought very highly of Blocker too. So long and awkward and hard to deal with. It was one thing to get stopped by Terry Norris when he tried to move up and a whole nother thing to see this man-child just obliterate him.

I never saw it coming.

Tito was like the old Packers running their sweep. You knew what he and they were going to do. Didn't matter. They were so good at it you couldn't stop them.

marbleheadmaui wrote:

KrazyHorseBennett wrote:

marbleheadmaui wrote:

KrazyHorseBennett wrote:

Oh, and I miss Tito Trinidad.

Damn. Me too.

Did you know ANYTHING of him before the Blocker fight? I knew nothing.

WHile still a huge fan at the time, I was in the party-time period of my life and didn't know all the ins and outs at that time. So I see this skinny little 12-year old looking PR kid get a shot at Maurice Blocker. Not a legend, of course, but a good fighter and guy that had a habit of just making things overly difficult. Tito went in there and just decimates the shit out of Blocker. It was easily the most eye-opening first-time-seeings I have ever experienced.

And he never disappointed after that. Even the hardcore Mexican fight fan friends of mine liked Tito, because they knew he was gonna bring it.

I'd seen him fight Jake Roberts a couple of years before but he didn't make an impression. I thought very highly of Blocker too. So long and awkward and hard to deal with. It was one thing to get stopped by Terry Norris when he tried to move up and a whole nother thing to see this man-child just obliterate him.

I never saw it coming.

Tito was like the old Packers running their sweep. You knew what he and they were going to do. Didn't matter. They were so good at it you couldn't stop them.

I always likened Arguello to Creeping Death, but Tito had that sort of vibe to him too. You may feel real good about your early success, but you know the black shadow is coming and there's not a fucking thing you could do about it.

Wait, Jake Roberts, Marble?



LMAO.

KrazyHorseBennett wrote:

marbleheadmaui wrote:

KrazyHorseBennett wrote:

marbleheadmaui wrote:

KrazyHorseBennett wrote:

Oh, and I miss Tito Trinidad.

Damn. Me too.

Did you know ANYTHING of him before the Blocker fight? I knew nothing.

WHile still a huge fan at the time, I was in the party-time period of my life and didn't know all the ins and outs at that time. So I see this skinny little 12-year old looking PR kid get a shot at Maurice Blocker. Not a legend, of course, but a good fighter and guy that had a habit of just making things overly difficult. Tito went in there and just decimates the shit out of Blocker. It was easily the most eye-opening first-time-seeings I have ever experienced.

And he never disappointed after that. Even the hardcore Mexican fight fan friends of mine liked Tito, because they knew he was gonna bring it.

I'd seen him fight Jake Roberts a couple of years before but he didn't make an impression. I thought very highly of Blocker too. So long and awkward and hard to deal with. It was one thing to get stopped by Terry Norris when he tried to move up and a whole nother thing to see this man-child just obliterate him.

I never saw it coming.

Tito was like the old Packers running their sweep. You knew what he and they were going to do. Didn't matter. They were so good at it you couldn't stop them.

I always likened Arguello to Creeping Death, but Tito had that sort of vibe to him too. You may feel real good about your early success, but you know the black shadow is coming and there's not a fucking thing you could do about it.

Pretty darn good comparison I think. Khoasai Galaxy was kind of like that too. They all had a little Anton Chigur in them.

KrazyHorseBennett wrote:

Wait, Jake Roberts, Marble?



LMAO.

LOL, nah the little southpaw from Long Island. He fought Sweet Pea too. Maybe it's not Roberts. Rodriguez maybe?

Had no DDT technique at all.

Oh my God...Galaxy.

For years I read about this monster from Thailand in KO Magazine, Ring, and all the popular mags back then. I finally got my hands on a bunch of Galaxy fights about 6 years ago. I waited like a billion years to finally see him fight. Another guy that didn't disappoint.

And yeah, it's Jake Rodriguez.

don't know the name of his trainer, but Sergio Martinez's corner was great for the PW fight. Gave only one simple instruction at a time to follow and Martinez listened.

At one point he was told give me a right to the body. What do we start seeing but a nice right to the body. A few rounds later he was told, don't forget the straight left, especially as a lead. So he landed some precision straight left hands, often as a sneaky lead. Funny thing, PW is wide open to the lead left hand. Throw it straight and accurate. Don't worry about putting too much on it. Martinez and Quintana were able to land that shot.

great thread..nothing to add but agreement..a few years back basilios newphew one of them contacted me because he knew i had some hard to get basilio items which i sold to him very very reasonable..he said carmen in his late 70s then was still a tough SOB.. the cut stopage i agree a ton on..and lettermans excitement..classic and great....forget mike buffer i miss johnnie addie the best of them all..

too far away smoke

captainanddew wrote:

don't know the name of his trainer, but Sergio Martinez's corner was great for the PW fight. Gave only one simple instruction at a time to follow and Martinez listened.

At one point he was told give me a right to the body. What do we start seeing but a nice right to the body. A few rounds later he was told, don't forget the straight left, especially as a lead. So he landed some precision straight left hands, often as a sneaky lead. Funny thing, PW is wide open to the lead left hand. Throw it straight and accurate. Don't worry about putting too much on it. Martinez and Quintana were able to land that shot.

Yup. THAT fight is what really brought home to me how bad cornermen have become. That should be the norm shouldn't it? Instead we were all wetting our pants at it.

Birdofthad wrote:

too far away smoke

That's it.

dmar5143 wrote:

great thread..nothing to add but agreement..a few years back basilios newphew one of them contacted me because he knew i had some hard to get basilio items which i sold to him very very reasonable..he said carmen in his late 70s then was still a tough SOB.. the cut stopage i agree a ton on..and lettermans excitement..classic and great....forget mike buffer i miss johnnie addie the best of them all..

Watching him on the Ringside shows Brian Kenny does on Sundays is really eye opening. He says what he thinks and doesn't give two craps whether anybody likes it.