Arrogant fighters

Originally Posted by oli

"The Hatton brothers are quite arrogant. Ricky has been known to charge £50 for an autograph. Tosser."



Thats a gram of coke for Ricky!

 

Carmen Basilio once said he was walking with his wife and he saw Sugar Ray Robinson. He went up to introduce himself and Ray blew him off.

Many years later, Carmen said "when he died, I won't lie, I didn't give a ****. He was the most arrogant man you'll ever meet". He complemented Ray's fighting ability and heart though.

 

i also heard there's a story about where ali was an amateur and was having a tournament in ny and walked all the way to his gym to meet robinson and robinson also blew him off.

 

damn that vargas story sounds like he made himself look like a clown, was he drunk?

 

Considering the fact that Robinson was also a wife-beater, I'm guessing the only person in this world that actually liked Robinson was Joe Louis?

 

Heard that Sweet Pea is a bit of a dick and rude to fans
Holmes I think we all know about
Butterbean from what I've seen and read does remain a cool and friendly type of guy
Froch always comes across as confident but a real fight fan and someone who releates well to the fans because at heart he's one of them

If you want arrogant Paul Smith. Absolute toss pot. His opinions are always right, he's never wrong and if you say anything even slightly against his view he becomes an abusive arse. Complete dick which is surprising considering the best he'll ever be a whooping boy for the new emerging British talent like Groves, and Saunders. A guy who really does think he's gods gift to boxing though completely lacks the talent to back up his own high view of himself.

 

And kicked your dog ?

 

he wasn't drunk at all. very coherent he was at the bar for about 15 minutes and was still nursing his first drink. maybe the tough guy can't handle alcohol. whatever the case sf is a very racially diverse city and people just had that look like "oh no he didn't". i know fighters are not the most educated but i never got that from any other fighter. i mean i've met jermain taylor who comes from arkansas where there's a very small chinese population and he was very nice. vargas is from socal where it's also very diverese.

 

wonder why louis never said anything to him about his behavior. louis always came across as a classy individual.

 

I think I remember a story in the ESPN Sportscentury episode on SRR where Louis stopped Ray from smacking some woman.

Louis had his own issues too though.

 

i heard there was story about louis where his wife wanted him to get some groceries and he came back a few days later smelling like perfume but then he went out and got his wife some jewlry and all was forgotten.

 

Louis said in his autobiography that he choked his mistress, I think Lena Horne, in an argument.

He also had his demons with booze and drugs, but by most accounts he was a much more decent person that Robinson.

 

didn't know lena horne was his mistress. she's always falling in love with the wrong man. she's been in many abusive relationships. typical pretty girl loving the bad boys. :-(

 

Met David Haye at Gamerbase doing some promo for Fight Night Champion. I was there about 3 hours late after he signed autographs. There were a bunch of us waiting, and he came over to sign stuff and take pics, his advisor kept trying to get him to leave (apparently he was late for another appointment), but he wouldn't be rushed. Was really cool.

 

I never thought my first post would be to recount this story, but here goes.

I met Juan Diaz after his title unification match with Julio Diaz in my neck of the woods.

It was my first big date with the girl I am still with, I got ringside (is four rows back still ringside?) tickets and we dressed up and got a limo. I missed the era when it was still expected to dress up and be classy at boxing events but I had always wanted to take a girl on a date to a boxing event and make a nice night of it, so I did.

We ended up siting just behind a nice couple who were there early just like us (I hate to miss the prelim fights). We had a good amount of time to talk about the fighters and I told him I expected Juan Diaz to win without much trouble, as I saw him as the best out of the Diaz's (remember this was the time Julio, David, and Juan were big in the division). It turned out he was an old family friend of Juan Diaz's and after the fight they invited us to dinner to meet the now unified (WBO IBF WBA) champ with a good claim on being the top of the division.

At dinner Juan was very respectful and instead of steering the conversation to himself, as he rightly could after all it being his big night, he instead asked all kinds of questions about us and wanted to get to know who we were. He was understanding and considerate with my girlfriend who is deaf and I was not the best translator because I was still learning sign myself, but he never lost patience or treated her like she was inferior. After dinner he refused to let me pay for my meal and I thought it would be rude to argue with him over him wanting to pay the bill, he also had me teach him the signs to tell my girl she was beautiful. All in all I was thoroughly impressed with this kid!

I am a boxing fan and not usually a fan of a particular fighter, I don't feel any vicarious sense of accomplishment or disappointment other than if I was able to predict the winner correctly. I guess this is why I am not into team sports and only like to watch boxing and MMA because I can enjoy seeing what someone is trying to do and how they overcome the puzzle presented to them with the opponents style. I have to admit though that after this meeting I was so impressed with him I became more invested emotionally than with any other fighter. So when he lost his next fight to Nate Campbell, it was the first time I felt a fighter's loss like it was a personal loss.

His last slew of performances have shown he probably achieved all he will be able to in the sport. Regardless of how high he ranks as a boxer I will always rank him highly as an individual and I hope he goes on to great things. I always thought the political arena would be a good fit for him, but him being from Texas and me living in Chicago means my vote doesn't count for much. Anyone know what he is doing now?