This isn’t about Mayweather Jr’s package, but rather a list of a few small moments that cause me to *heart* boxing so very much.
Often times, I show up here as the cranky guy, airing my grievances about all that’s wrong with a particular fighter, or boxing as a whole. Today, I’m being more positive. I don’t want to be known as 411mania’s cranky old fart- our own Andy Rooney.
In this column, I’m writing about the things I love about boxing. Not just loving the overall type issues, that I’ve touched on many times in my “Fight Night” columns. This week, I’m sharing my love for the “little things”.
These are little idiosyncrasies of certain boxing related figures or special moments that I love so very much. They make my love for our sport that much more complete. The list is endless, but I’ll share a few here. Excuse the randomness, but that’s how my mind is working today.
I love the interplay of the HBO World Championship Boxing announcers.
I’ve written at length about this before, but I never stressed how much I love it when they needle each other or disagree. Check out the clip below where Roy Jones and Larry Merchant got into it during a Pacquiao v. Morales bout, and Roy tried to pull rank:
Listen here as Foreman gets after Jim Lampley for his transparent rooting for Barrera over Hamed:
Some may call this immature or unprofessional, but I enjoy it as real human emotion, in the most emotional of sports.
I get a kick out of Teddy Atlas.
Atlas is nuts. This is the guy that came close to shooting Donny Lalonde after Lalonde fired him as his manager, and subsequently got a major payday. That’s not defamation. Atlas wrote about this in his autobiography!!!
Every week on Friday Night Fights, Atlas says something outlandish. Sometimes I see his point clearly: like when he called out Cintron for diving out of the ring versus Williams or questioned whether Mosley lost to Mayweather due to not being able to juice up in preparation.
Other times, Atlas is just plain irresponsible and crazy: like when he cited his unnamed source as stating Team Pacquiao inquired via email of Team Mayweather what the punishment of testing positive for PEDs would be. Any sensible fan knew the story was BS, or otherwise Golden Boy would have leaked it. But of course, Teddy?and Floyd’s groupies?gave it credence. I could only roll my eyes.
I enjoy how Atlas gets a kick out of hearing the sound of his own voice. His endless breaking down of a fighters psych can be aggravating, but I secretly enjoy it. It’s Teddy being Teddy. It would be like getting tired of Ric Flair overselling, or giving a forearm smash to his opponents nuts in every single match. Whenever Atlas is one my TV, I react like Michael Moorer used to when Teddy would try his loony motivational tactics during their fights: I smile and shake my head ruefully. Don’t even get me started on his physical appearance. I wish Teddy Atlas had his own reality show.
Floyd impressed me against Mosley, a lot.
I’ve already written at length about this, and despite the continuous shots I take at my LEAST FAVORITE ATHLETE, he did his thing versus Mosley. I loved the delayed heelish entrance, and use of the live O’Jays, singing their most famous and fight appropriate hit. I love how he quickly recovered in round 2, and then stalked Mosley?atypical to his norm–, and beat his ass the rest of the fight. I particularly enjoyed the way he grew tired of Shane’s touching of gloves, and cracked him in the mouth when Shane bitched to the referee about some infraction. Then Floyd just smiled, shit-talked him, and smacked him around some more. As I’ve written before, Shane fought like a bitch, and Floyd treated him like a bitch. It was an awesome performance. Either Shane showed up old, or Floyd just made him look old. If Floyd hadn’t already burned so many bridges with me for my fandom, I’d love the guy. Granted, not as much as his countless groupies.
I loved so much about Larry Holmes.
I got a kick out of his pear-shaped body and egg shaped head. Larry had the perfect look for the days when boxing was broadcast on the radio airwaves. But I was tickled by him. His entrance to the tune of the Philadelphia sounds of “Ain’t No Stoppin Us Now” was just classic. I’ve never seen an elite fighter, before or since, pick such a generic, mid-tempo, R&B number as his entrance music. Yet, it fit Larry perfectly. And he kept using it so long after the song was a minor hit.
I love Larry’s comeback, where his even odder looking and aged appearance, schooled a whole new generation on the art of the ole 1-2. Lastly, I love modern Larry where his appearance on the brilliant ESPN 30 for 30 documentary, Muhammad and Larry, showed Holmes in all of his goofy looking, egotistical, and legendary glory. I love the little things about Larry Holmes.
Rocky- Round 14
Lastly, no factor has had more of an impact on my love for boxing than the original Rocky. It’s the best boxing film ever made, and one of the best films ever, period.
I love the shot towards the end when Apollo dropped Rocky in round 14, Mickey begged Rocky to stay down, and despite being completely spent, Rocky struggled to get up. Then he gestures Apollo to bring it on, and Apollo just slumps his shoulders and shakes his head in disbelief.
Typing that gave me chills. It’s an indelible image for me. It may be a small thing in the movie, but it used to bring tears to my eyes every time. It’s a small moment, a little thing, but without it, I may not have become the boxing fanatic I am today. It’s beautiful. Enjoy.
