YOU really can’t call a guy in his late 30s or early 40s, old, but in sports, especially boxing, they’re senior citizens.
Some, for sure, should have been long retired, out to collect their monthly pensions, while others, surprisingly, are still as good as new.
There’s Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr., who started their careers at about the same time, and 20 years later, are still fighting.
Hopkins, at 44, showed he still got it by beating Enrique Ornelas last Dec. 2, while the once-feared Jones Jr. suffered an embarrassing first-round loss to Danny Green.
At 40, Jones has clearly lost the edge and it’s quite sad that his once great career will not only end in a first-round loss, but also with allegations that he took a dive.
Jones once played in a professional basketball game on the same day that he defended his title.
(Manny Pacquiao upped the ante by holding a concert after a world title fight.)
That was when nobody could touch him on the ring.
Now he’s becoming one of the sad stories in the sport.
Then there’s Evander Holyfield.
He wants to show he’s still the Real Deal despite being really old at 48.
The Real Deal first fought when Ferdinand Marcos and Ronald Reagan were still heads of states. Pacquiao, the current pound-for-pound King was only five years old then.
Holyfield will still be fighting in 2010, against Francois Botha, another old-timer.
The former undisputed champ will be gunning for the nondescript World Boxing Federation heavyweight title almost 20 years after beating Buster Douglas for the WBC, WBA and IBF belts.
In his last fight, Mike Tyson, another boxer who fought until he was 39, quit in his stool saying he’s “disgracing to the sport.”
I hope the Holyfield experiment won’t end up in something like that.
At 34, Allen Iverson is quite young, but in the fast-paced world of basketball, he’s an old guy trying hard to catch up with the young guns.
The former MVP and No. 1 pick inexplicably threw a tantrum after his first few games with the Memphis Grizzlies last month, then took a leave of absence.
He said he wasn’t satisfied with his playing time with the Grizzlies and he didn’t like to sit on the bench.
Before moving to Memphis, Iverson played for Detroit but when he heard of plans to move him to the bench, he said he’d rather retire than be a bench player.
But when he showed up for the Philadelphia 76ers, he said he’d accept whatever playing time he would be given.
He’s even willing to ride the bench.
And then there’s my favorite “old guy”—39-year-old Michael Schumacher.
Schumi, the seven-time F1 champion, teased us a few months ago when news of his comeback hit.
Now, F1 fans are drooling over his imminent comeback to the sport, this time as a Mercedes driver.
His aborted comeback this year was derailed by a neck injury but according to Ferrari president Lucca di Montezemo, Schumacher reportedly told him that a comeback to the sport is a “very, very, very strong possibility.”
And that is very, very, very tantalizing.
Here’s to you, old-timer!
