From Rumors and Rants comes this video of six-year old boxing phenom Pretty Boy Bam Bam. There is no truth to the rumor that Mike Tyson said that he would eat Bam Bam’s children, or to the rumor that Don King saw pictures of this kid training and got an erection that made his hair look flat; that last rumor; however, is believed to be true:
Bernard Hopkins is fighting Joe Calzaghe on Saturday, April 19th on HBO. Hopkins is right behind Mayweather as far as entertaining interviews go. I don’t pay as much attention to boxing as I used to, but I do know that Hopkins and Mayweather are the only two fighters that I would even think about putting money down to see fight.
I do find it entertaining that Hopkins’ opponent said that he’s not even watching film of Hopkins, and that all that he needs to know is whether Hopkins is right-handed or left-handed, and even better, “his dad said he could beat Hopkins”. Very good training ideas. And by very good, I mean the worst ever. To read the whole, hilarious interview click here.
Another year, another Wrestlemania. And with the hype of the Mayweather-Big Show fight, this year’s sports entertainment spectacular gave those who paid for it something to talk about today.
Ric Flair’s last match. Which in the wrestling world equates to the same as a character death on a soap opera. See you in a few months Ric.
But on to the Mayweather-Big Show fight. I’ve got to admit, in my humble opinion, Mayweather pulled off his role just fine, and when he hit the big guy with brass knuckles, I was laughing my ass off. Mayweather got his payday and Vince McMahon got his payday, and the millions of people who will not admit to buying this on PPV got something to remember. Funny how no one likes wrestling, but Orlando was a near-sellout and it will draw massive PPV numbers. Watching wrestling is still sorta like having herpes. Lots of people have them but they’re not really in a hurry to tell you about it.
But it was enjoyable. But not as enjoyable as it was in past years, when we were graced with the lovely Trish Stratus, greatest boobie…beauty that the WWE and this poor mark have ever seen in the fictional world of wrestling.
Sweet Mary, Mother of God.
Here’s some Floyd Mayweather, for the rest of you:
Sunday is this year’s Wrestlemania, and of course like Vince McMahon does every year, he has given mainstream media something to grab hold of in the Floyd Mayweather-Big Show match. Like usual, the pundits have ridiculed wrestling, Vince, and Mayweather, without once realizing that, as much as they like to make fun of the non-sport, that they are merely being hustled to provide a bigger buy-rate for P.T. Barnum’s bastard son’s new age circus. McMahon could give a rat’s ass about what ESPN or the newspapers think about him or “sports entertainment” (funny aren’t those the first two words of ESPN, just flipped? Interesting), but he’ll ride their opinions all the way to the bank. Just like he does every year about this time. This year it’s Mayweather and Big Show in an “anything goes” match that’s gotten the media’s attention. Well, that and Kim Kardashian’s ass, but that’s another story.
Mayweather has done his job pimping Wrestlemania, and he stands to get a strong payday from the event (not quite 20 mil, but that sure got people talking didn’t it?). It’ll probably lead Sportscenter after it happens and while the announcers laugh and make fun of the spectacle, the loudest laugh will be coming from the devil himself, as Vince watches the money roll in after another year of hustling everyone. Interviews from Mayweather and Big Show after the jump. (more…)
No he’s not dead.
But the Mike Tyson that I remember has been dead for quite some time. I had forgotten how impressive Tyson used to be until this clip on ESPN of Tyson at the beginning of his career, made me remember what it was like to watch Tyson fight when I was growing up. I was still in single digits age-wise when Tyson was beginning his tear through the heavyweight ranks, and I witnessed many of his fights as they happened; including his defeat of Larry Holmes, and especially, his total destruction of Michael Spinks in 91 seconds.
Along with many of my generation, I cut my teeth on Nintendo’s Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out, and when playfighting in the schoolyard everyone knew who Tyson was and that’s who they wanted to pretend to be. Find me a boxer now that 10-year-old kid’s know who he is. Tyson was important to boxing. And whether purists want to admit it or not, Tyson is still the name most easily identified with the sport, by the common fan.
I remember vaguely the moment when Tyson’s career and his personal life jumped the shark; that moment being the 20/20 interview with Tyson and then wife Robin Givens. I was only a kid at the time, but I remember thinking that Tyson came off as anything but a tough guy, during the course of that interview, Givens managed to emasculate Iron Mike on TV, and I have my doubts as to whether or not Tyson ever really recovered from that show, or from the Givens relationship.
Today Tyson is what he is, an afterthought, a circus freak in the public consciousness. His out-of-ring issues have given his critics a chance to go off on Tyson and criticize his in-ring performance. He has been written off as a media creation, someone who was more of a promotional act than a boxing great.
But I remember what I saw. I saw a man with the fastest hands that I had ever seen in a boxing ring. I saw a man who beat opponents before he they even got in the ring with him. And I saw a fighter who dominated, like no one that I have seen fight since.
It’s hard to separate Tyson the fighter from Tyson the character, and when the book on Tyson is written, he’ll probably be remembered for the sideshow and not for the show, and that is a shame. Tyson was on his way back, before his personal faults caught up to him and he was jailed for rape, and to my mind, that is really when Iron Mike disappeared forever, as the man who came out of prison didn’t have the same focus, and seemed more content with just trying to be in the press, than in being in the ring.
It’s sad to say but after watching this clip, the thing that I came away with was how much better Tyson’s command of the English language was when he was younger, how respectful Tyson seemed, and how he let his fists do his talking for him. I’m not sure how much the death of trainer Cus D’Amato in 1985 had on Tyson psychologically, but there is no doubt that it left Tyson without the steadying influence that he needed and left him vulnerable to the exploitations of promoters like Don King.
Mike Tyson will always on my list of top fighters that I have seen. But only because of the way that I choose to remember his career, only in part. I choose to forget about the Holyfield debacles, and the threats of eating Lennox Lewis’ children, because to me, that was not Tyson who was fighting those fights. Watching that Tyson fight was like the way that my dad talked about watching Willie Mays play for the Mets in the twilight of his career. It was Tyson in name only, and he was only there because of reputation and ratings and for no other reason. When Tyson next fights it could very well be in a circus against a bear, or in a carnival against a kangaroo. It may even be in the Orient against a woman, as Planet Tyson continues to spiral farther and farther away from Earth and reality.
Tyson is a polarizing figure in boxing, if you’ll look, you will find many different opinions on Iron Mike. Many people will swear that he’s the greatest that they ever saw; while many will argue that he’s the most overrated fighter of all time, and was fed fighters to make him look undefeatable. Both of those arguments can be made validly, and there is information to support both arguments.
There are also those who do not dispute how great Tyson was as a fighter, but who argue that Tyson’s demons are largely of his own making, and that they should not be used to excuse Tyson’s career short-comings, and I respect that opinion. But for me, there was only one Tyson, he was the baddest man on the planet, the man that no one wanted to meet in a dark alley, and the man who fought with the tenacity of a pit bulldog. That Tyson, to my way of thinking, never got out of prison, never came back to the ring, and never ever got the chance to show how truly great he could have been. To my way of thinking, Mike Tyson got out of prison, but Iron Mike stayed behind, and is serving a life sentence somewhere that he’ll never be heard from again.
Sir Charles
