What did boxing look like when you first got into it? (nostalgia thread)

brought up watching saturday fight night live on itv, days of Watson Benn and Eubank, good times

 

It looked like Alan Minter's bloodstained face on the front of my Dad's Boxing News...after that I was hooked, been in the game (watching/reading/writing not fighting) ever since. I'm a freak. Just been in a bar here in The Hague with a random English fella who was sat at the side of me who was an ex-amateur boxer...the conversation just flowed.

 

I really got into boxing just prior to Lewis-Grant, and being a young kid at the time I didn't understand some fighters were hyped to death and I remember they did this special on Michael Grant and I thought he was unbeatable and Lewis was in big trouble.

And well, you know the rest.

I'll never forget Darkey's words at the end of the fight

"KNOCKED OUT, ROUND 2. THE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP STAYS IN BRITAIN, WITH LENNOX LEWIS!!!"

Epic.

 

:good Really good build up to that one.

Grant really was thought to be the next big thing, and the consensus was that it was a real danger fight for Lennox.

I'll always remember the footage of Grant training in the swimming pool.

Bloody hell Lennox destroyed him though

 

You know what? I was gonna mention the swimming pool footage too, that sticks in my mind as well for some reason?

As well as them saying he could throw a 90mph fastball.

Made no difference when our Lennox stuck one on him though

 

The Guvnor (ask Vitali)

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I think one of Benn's fights around 93/94 (forgot against who) was the first full live fight I watched on telly when I was staying at my grandma and grandad's one weekend. My grandad was a big boxing fan going right back to the late 20's circa the early 30's and was a proper fountain of knowledge.

He'd let me stay up reading Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator while he was watching the fight but I can remember putting it down and just sitting staring gormlessly at the telly while Benn was rabbit/kidney punching away. My mum was well pissed off when she found out but my dad was a bit more pleasantly surprised, seeing how I was a quiet and introverted kid, so he overruled my mum and said it was ok.

My dad used to work away from home a lot too when I was little, and my mum was usually busy looking after my younger brother - who was a right little twat - so I used to spend hours with my grandad reading books and watching Boris Karloff or Laurel & Hardy films. So after I told him how brill I thought boxing was, we sat down and watched some tapes of Joe Louis, who was his favourite and is still my favourite today for that reason alone. He got me into the likes of Buchanan, Winstone, Lynch and Conteh too. Any past British fighters really, especially if they were taffs (as he was by birth).

Whitaker, Chavez, Benn and Eubank were coming to the end of the line, Tyson was battering Big ***** before Holyfield came along and upset everything. Naz was getting yo-yoed by Kelley. I can remember my grandad complaining about SKY and all the daft belts and weight classes, saying how the number of great fighters and trainers had been dropping off for years and would continue to do so etc. I thought at the time he was just being a miserable old sod when actually it turned out he was hitting the nail on the head.

We'd sit for hours watching Louis, Ali (who he didn't like but made we watch anyway), Robinson, Duran, Marciano and loads of the old timers, and he'd leave me to own my devices watching Barrera, Jones Jr, Stevie Johnston, ODLH, Trinidad, Calzaghe, Too Sharp etc. Barrera was my favourite at the time and one of the few active fighters who my grandad had any time for, so it was a glorious day when he swung Naz about like a broken washing line.

The last fight we ever watched together, after him not watching any live boxing for years, was Khan getting bazeemed by Prescott . He was quite ill at the time, pushing 90, and it got a massive laugh out of him, so he thought it would be a fitting last fight to watch.

Good times they were. Makes me feel old as **** despite not even being 30 yet.....

 

My true fascination for this sport began with Oscar De La Hoya stopping the rot on Julio Cesar Chavez, i was most content as a boxing fan from 2000-2006, De La Hoya, Mosley, Vargas, Forrest, Trinidad, Wright to name a few captured my imagination more than anyone has today

Then along came Ricky Hatton!, who rekindled that love, fighters i have become very fond of along the way are (aside from the above mentioned) Barrera, Marquez, Cotto, Jose Luis Castillo, Sergio Martinez

Modern day there's not that much that really makes my hairs on the back of my neck stand up on end, Gamboa, Santa Cruz, Donaire, Martinez is about all that im getting very excited over right now!

 

I can remember Holmes being the best heavy but he can't have been far away from the loss to Spinks.
Hagler was number 1 at middle,but I don't remember him winning the title
I remember things like Curry looking great then losing to Honeyghan,maguigan winning the title,Bruno beating Eklund for the European. Id say about 84/85 was when I really started to follow boxing as best I could. Would watch whatever was on tv and read the results on teletext.

 

My first boxing memory was a news report: Reporting on Chris Eubank beating Nigel Benn.

I can also remember the build up to Frank Bruno vs Lennox Lewis, my mum was not allowing me to watch it..? Because i was a aggressive child in school, and also aggressive towards my older brother...

I can remember getting excited, by the Frank Bruno vs Lennox Lewis advert! where they where stepping out of the smoke etc...

On the night of the fight, i can remember going mental in the sweet shop. Just kind of running around, and throwing punches! and asking my mum whether i can watch the fight.

I was also banned from watching Rocky 4, around about this time aswell.

So taking all of this into account.

Chris Eubank's fights where the fights i can vividly remember watching.

 

good Miss him!

:good Lovely post mate.

 

:happy What a great thread! :happy

 

It is isn't it?

 

No silly name calling, no keyboard warrior posts, just memories of boxing; your comments about your Grandad really resonated with me.

I really miss mine, lost him too young nearly twenty years a go, I used to watch Laurel and Hardy with him.

Still watch them now, actually bought a big boxset of their films just the other day

 

My first boxing memory is Bruno Tyson 1. But it was the Benn/Eubank/Naz fights that got me into the sport.