1) Floyd Mayweather: can't pronounce Cas-ti-llo, prefers to call him costilio. 2) when Norman stone called Johnny "Roy" in the Ruiz Jones fight. Alongside, Jim Lampley chirps "as Norman stone calls his own fighter Roy" lol. Go to 0:30- This content is protected And 3) DeMarcus Corley when he lost to Miguel cotto: This content is protected Keeps saying thanks to "tar" maybe meaning top rank but perhaps not. Just a sign of respect for DeMarcus chop chop Corley, there was a ton of casuals claiming "who the heck is he?" Whilst talking about Manny and Floyd. He's paid his dues, sadly most fans won't privileged to have watched him , he was great: fought Zab, money, and Miguel. Skip to 43:43 for the post fight interview.
Of course there was Mike Tyson’s “Bolivian”. In the early 60s, Ali, then Cassius Clay, ironically made reference to his “New Years “Revolution”.< specifically, to become the youngest HW Champ I think it was>. Ali was also prone to referring to the Fighting Marine as Gene “Tooney” rather than Tun-ee. What was the story with Joe Louis’ name? - they seemed to sometimes alternate between the pronunciations: Loo-is and Loo-ie (as in St Louis).
Pretty sure Mr. Barrow’s middle name was properly pronounced Loo-is (at least that was what he was popularly called and I’m unaware of him ever correcting it if that was wrong) but I know in the UK he was often referred to as “Joe Loo-ey” but they speak English there instead of American.
I’ve been known to misrenounce a few words myself from time to time, but I my memory is spot-on. I forgot something one time, but it was so long ago I don’t even remember what it was.
Yeah, I go with Loo-is. So, we have The Oxford Dictionary vs The Webster Dictionary Superfight. Who’ve you got? The Redcoats or The Patriots? But then you have the city St Louis named after the French King - but it seems that the city is also pronounced St Loo-is. Sacre Bleu! Anyway,….. “Show me the way to Joe Louis..show me the way….” This content is protected
Not surprised, possibly the nicest thing Ali called Joe..something that approximated to Joe’s actual name.
I remember Ferdie Pacheco constantly calling Pernell Whitaker “Pee-wee” instead of “Sweet Pea” in one fight. He also called Jeff Fenech “Jeff Fenitch. As an aside Livingstone Bramble had a pet dog called “Snake” and a pet snake called “Dog”. Not a mispronunciation as such but pretty strange lol
How are we all with Manny PAC’s surname? I’ve been guilty of lazily starting the surname off with “Pac”though I knew better. The rest I was okay with. Mind Your Language, lesson 1 of 1, how to pronounce Pacquiao, that’s if anyone gives two pucks, lol: - This content is protected
Not the fighter himself, but in the early days, a lot of announcers pronounced "Muhammad Ali" strangely...more like "Moe Hammid Alley."
A hell of a lot of British pundits and even co-fighters can't pronounce Dillian Whyte's first name for love nor money. Either that or they just refuse to. Also get annoyed by a lot of Brits referring back to Nigel Benn's legendary war with the fearsome-punching American Gerald McCallum / McClelland / McKellen.