Here you are Tommy!
:-)

Now it's alive again let's not forget the mis-match of the century..........


August 6, 1966


Muhammad Ali v Brian London

Indeed it was. Foreman looked a monster at the time.
How shocked were we all when an ageing Ali pulled off his 'rope-a-dope' on him soon after!

Anyone interested in this fight, (Ali V Foreman), please try to read a passage from 'The Fight' by Norman Mailer, (1975).
Mailer was lucky enough to spend time at Ali's training camp, when he was preparing for the fight.
Although I have never read the whole book myself, I have read an extract from it in Mailer's; 'Time of our Time.'
A quick quote from Mailer, at ringside for the fight, says, before the final round;

"Dundee was talking to him and Ali was shaking his head in disagreement. In contrast to Foreman's, his expression was keen.........

.........And still Ali taunted him, still the dialogue went on."Fight hard,"said Ali, "I thought you had some punches. You're a weak man. You're all used up."..........................

........Then a big projectile exactly the size of a man's fist in a glove drove into the middle of Foreman's mind, the best punch of the startled night, the blow Ali saved for a career. Foreman's arms flew out to the side. In a doubled-over position he tried to wander out of the centre of the ring. All the while his eyes were on Ali and he looked up with no anger, as if Ali, indeed, were the man he knew best in the world and would see him on his dying day................."

singo 29 Jun 17:01


campo, could be. Are you saying it was all an act to sell tickets? If so, I could put up with that, but just seems odd that he managed to be able to put on that act everytime he was on camera.


"I said a lot of things in the heat of the moment that I shouldn't have said. Called him names I shouldn't have called him. I apologize for that. I'm sorry. It was all meant to promote the fight."


from an interview in the New York Times (March 2001), apologizing to former opponent Joe Frazier, who he called an "Uncle Tom" and "a gorilla" while promoting the first of their three legendary fights in 1971

uncanny

Sabrehill.
In passing, I was looking up old stuff last night about La Motta and Sugar Ray.
The fight, having taken place on the14th September 1951, at the Chicago Stadium was dubbed the infamous 'St. Valentine's Day Massacre'.
Although in 'The Raging Bull', La Motta is shown to be saying, after the bloodbath, "You couldn't put me down Ray". He actually went to Ray's corner and said to him; "You couldn't drop me ! You never dropped me !".

I think the look of incredulity on Ray's face, seen in the film, summed up Scorcese's depiction of La Motta's complex persona.
When the film had it's premier, legend has it, Jake leaned over to his ex-wife Vicky and said, "Was I that bad ?" To which Vicky replied - "Honey, you were worse !"

By the way, Ray was Jake's best man at his wedding in 1986.
Years later, la Motta joked in an interview, "He was looking for lucky no. 7 maybe !"

Terrific film, just wish I could see the fight on some old boxing programme.

Carl Thompson -- Chris Eubank

Sabre.
I try to catch KOTV whenever I can, but I missed that one.
The trouble is, the days/times it is on, seem to be all over the place. The same goes for the show on Ch. 5 too.
I think the progamme schedulers would have a big surprise at how many viewers they would get if the shows were on at a regular and pre-11pm time.Especially if people knew what was on the bill.

Totally agree Tommy. Boxing is one of the few sports that even when a result is known,plenty will still watch and gasp in awe at the great fights! I think there must be more revenue in selling the videos than putting them on t.v. even after 40 years+.Bloody reality t.v.Whats more real than 2 fighters having a go?

Have you fixed up that fight with Coger yet Campo?

Coger was probably banned a few days ago......he put up some very offensive thread titles. Someone was sure to be upset by one or two of them.

I think what happens with certain individuals is that after so many posts they just sort of, well... 'implode'
They realise they're addicted to the forum and the only way out is to be banned.
Afterwards they regret it and re-invent themselves as a new forumite.
Strange really. I do empathise though.

Sabre - the aforementioned poster, if he was banned, was probably banned on Saturday, as I never saw anything offensive when I got on here at about midnight Saturday.

Mind you the whole forum was full up with Live8 posts, boring but not offensive, like everybody thought they had something original to say.

If you've ever seen the football forum when a big match has just finished you will know what I mean.

150 THREADS !!

Average number of replies - 5

All these fora have the right to have morons to keep the rest entertained, but the football forum abuse it...........imo

He and a few others were dismissed as superfluous to requrements by me last week and any further contact is not going to happen.

When the last football season finished quite a few of them turned up here to illuminate us with their intellect, grammar, spelling, drunken rants, etc etc.

We have our own people on chit chat for that..LOL

When the new season starts, with any luck these bright sparks will all go back.

Of course, the most stupid idea is to have multiple accounts and move between them all, and if one got banned, just shift to another one, but we know who they are.......

in my opinion the best fight ever is benn mclellan. an excellent fight which had everything. unfortunately with a tragic ending. i have also read war baby, a good book.the author speaks to dozens of journos regarding the fight and the general consensus was there was never such an aggressive, up for it crowd as there was that night. even more so than in mexico apparently.
eubank benn, thompson, watson all get honourable mentions. hearns hagler, a fewq of gattis.

I made a mistake when talking about boxing knockouts last week.

It wasn't Archie Moore v Ezzard Charles, it was Jersey Joe Walcott v Ezzard Charles.

Same result for Ezzard though - sparko...

Or was it Dempsey who took the title from Walcott ?

Campo, see what I mean ?
Remember now you've said.
Wish they would put these old fights on a continual wheel on something terrestial.

Rocky Marciano v Jersey Joe Walcott, 1952

One of the less gifted champions of heavyweight history, Marciano won his crown in a fashion which became synonymous with his career - he battled for it.

Although in the twilight of his career, Walcott still took a big lead against his challenger, registering a heavy knockdown in the second round.

For much of what followed, it was Walcott who dominated, forcing Marciano to follow him around the ring and accept numerous jabs for his trouble.

Yet Marciano, nicknamed the "Brockton Blockbuster" was impossible to discourage.

By the 13th, he was starting to force the champion into uncomfortable situations, before making the decisive move.

Walcott moved straight back to the ropes to avoid a Marciano charge and, with the two fighters barely 12 inches apart, the challenger landed a right hand.

It was the kind of punch which is done justice by slow motion replay - it travelled less than a foot, landed flush on Walcott's chin and rendered him unconscious from the moment of impact.

Muhammad Ali v Joe Frazier, 1975

The "Thriller in Manila" was perhaps the most gruelling fight in heavyweight history.

It featured two men slightly past their prime, engulfed by their mutual dislike.

Ali now claims that he never held ill feeling towards Frazier, but Smokin' Joe has never made such a confession.

Enraged by Ali's description of him as an "Uncle Tom", Frazier chased Ali around the ring for three intoxicating battles, with this last one certainly the most damaging.

For the first six rounds, Ali coped with relative ease against the on-rushing Frazier.

But Frazier came back into the fight during the next five rounds, setting up a brutal finale.

His eyes closing, the challenger became a pedestrian target for Ali's right hand and rounds 13 and 14 were obscenely one-sided.

As the forlorn figure of Frazier walked back to his corner at the end of the penultimate round, his legendary trainer Eddie Futch told him: "Sit down son, it's all over. Nobody will ever forget what you did here today."