Howard Cossell vs Tex Cobb. Boxing disgrace vs boxing legend

Amen to that.

Cosell was a grandstanding arrogant ***** who dcided to appoint himself as the concience of boxing based on whatever he happened to think.Arrogance personified.

The noble warrior who's bowed but not beaten is one of the greatest feature's of boxing and for them to be belittled by some arsehole with a microphone ****'s me to tears.

I include Larry Merchant in this as well.The disrespect this old **** shows fighters sickens me.A perfect example is Byrd-Ibeabuchi where the much smaller Byrd is using his slickness and boxing skills to keep out of harms way only to have this curmudgeon call Byrd's display "garbage".And then when Byrd was knocked senseless by a monster shot by Ike,Larry takes umbrage with Chris arguing with the Ref even though it's clear to anyone with half a brain that Chris didn't know where he was.

I watch boxing to see fighters fight not to hear some arrogant **** who's never fought,critisize those who have the courage to put their body on the line.

 

You'd figure someone who was involved with the sport for such a long time, as Merchant, wouldn't be such a depreciating ****.

Anyway, on Cossell...

Supposedly he actually quit because the fight going 15 rounds made him miss a flight to go on vacation with his wife. I guess he was expecting a few round thrashing but it turned into a 45 minute match, at which point Cossell had the hissy fit of hissy fits and quit the sport trying to glamorize himself as some martyr to the brutality of boxing.

Sorry *******, you made your living off that sport for years.

 

I strongly dislike Cossell.


I very much like how he probably contributed to boxing's popularity, but in the end he was a boxer's fan, not a boxing fan. And when his favorite, Ali, was gone, he pissed on sport that made him who he was. Classless.

His terribly boring style of using formal, law-language to commentate puts me to sleep and his extreme bias for certain fighters makes him one of the most annoying commentators that i know. Only Kellerman is worse.

 

Wonderful post Jersey Joe.

I think you hit the nail on the head with Cobb knowing he could never beat Holmes in that fight, but still showing Holmes he could win a moral victory of sorts.

 

Howard Cosmell

 

where was the distain and ill will for the sport a few years ago when his home boy was getting beat around the ring corner to corner by holmes... no he watched that entire fight ..cheerleadin the whole way

 

it's a fact cosell was in boxing because of muhammad ali but i enjoyed it through the 60's and into the 70's,wide world of sports back then carried all of ali's fights it was a fun time.

 

Huh. I never heard that before. Even funnier if true!

It's harsh but, really, I can't disagree with what Jersey Joe wrote. Cosell was always a bit pious but he seemed to turn incredibly sanctimonious, as if he'd never been aware of the brutality that exists in boxing. Either he was incredibly deluded for years or, much more likely, just got in a strop about this particular fight and took the faintly ludicrous stance of trying to appear above it all. He'd seen brutal bouts before without this kind of disgusted grumbling.

Cobb's guts and sheer humour in the face of a better figher was arguably the definition of heroic.

Of course, Howard's there next year doing the commentary for the '84 Olympics boxing, so I guess his morals had a kind of delayed reaction.

 

In Cosell's defense, his immediate disapproval of Ali's taunting of Terrell during his calling of their fight was to me quite typical of him.

He was biased, yes. I think he only begrudgingly admitted Holmes' greatness. But when push came to shove, I happen to think his decent side emerged and he had no trouble expressing genuine concern and even affection for fighters.

 

One of our best posters, Duodenum, posted that story. So I take it as fact.

 

Cossell was a bit of a negative characters in varying ways, but the major boxing bouts wouldn't be the same without him annoucing, that and that toupee'

 

This Tex Cobb episode clearly depletes whatever good memories I have of Cosell in his heyday in the 60's and 70's..apparently none of the other ass whippings he called during his career were important or appalling enough to move the guy to renounce the sport even earlier. what a grandstanding hypocrite he was.