Calzaghe or Pac?

Thanks.

lol

 

You're right though. I do overuse the 'lol' too much. Sometimes I use it to soften my posts and to try and give them a less sarcastic more friendly tone (as I was doing here), whereas other times I use them for the complete opposite, to be really sarcastic and come across as a bit of a ****.

Speaking of ****s.

Nice ALT by the way. Very creative moniker. Unless that is you are actually called Barry Smith? If so, my sincerest condolences. lol

 

He really was. I think a lot of people fail to realize just how much natural talent he had and how many physical gifts the boxing gods had bestowed upon him.

The Lemonade line was quality lol

I really don't get the extreme levels of hate from some quarters though to be honest. It's totally irrational IMO. I know there's a lot of people with nationalistic/racial agendas out there (trust me I've uploaded tons of his fights onto Youtube in the past and there were an AWFUL lot of people with those very agendas leaving comments on them). Obviously there's a **** load of butt-hurt Jones and B-hop fanboys out there with an axe to grind as well.

Joe's a nice fella by all accounts too and still to this day very down to Earth and approachable (everyone's a bit of a **** when they're coked-up so no photos, footage of him on that **** please). I know he used to come out with the odd annoying line now and then but I think that's partially due to him being a pretty shy and introverted type of character (although I'm sure many will disagree with that) and one who always seemed a bit uncomfortable and awkward in front of the cameras (when being interviewed). I'm pretty shy myself at times and I know from personal experience that it can manifest itself in strange ways and that you can end up saying something stupid or annoying from time to time just out of sheer nervousness.

He was bullied pretty badly in school too, which I think had a big effect on shaping his personality. It wasn't physical in nature but he was picked on and ostracized by other pupils for two or three years. I remember seeing a documentary where one of his sisters or his mother said he literally didn't have any friends in school during that time and that it wasn't until a couple of years later that he finally hooked up with one *insert a ''ah, poor Joe!'' comment before one of the haters gets in with it*

Yes they did. Manny (RIP still can't get over the fact he's gone) was waxing lyrical over him in the Kessler fight. The little subtleties Joe was doing in there didn't pass him by. I remember Lampey coming out with a stupid comment though. He said something along the lines of that many people had been wondering for years whether Joe could take a shot or not and that he was finally proving to them in this fight that he could. lol. Had he done his homework and actually watched some of Joe's earlier fights: Eubank, Reid, Brewer etc. to name but a few he would've already known that Joe had put a resounding tick in that box many moons ago. Hagler and Leonard spoke glowingly of him too.

:good

 

That's what I found so surprising about the parts of this text I've highlighted. His stamina and his footwork were two of his best attributes.


''Nobody would ever have confused it with Emanuel Steward's Kronk Gym in Detroit or the Fifth Street Gym in Miami, where Muhammad Ali trained. Newbridge Amateur Boxing Club was unique and fighters everywhere should thank god for that.

''My old gym was a shack, there is just no other way to describe it. People used to come inside and ask, ''how the hell can a world champion train in a place like this?' Honestly, it was the mangiest little building you could possibly imagine. The ring wasn't even a proper ring, just a carpeted area on the floor, and it was tiny. You could nearly stand in the center of it and and touch all four corners. It wasn't even put up in a safe place. The river ran underneath the floor and the building, which went up in the 1920s and was made from wood and tin, was falling down. The rugby club wanted us out for years but we had nowhere else to train, so we stayed put. Four years ago we were able to buy a new building on a site a mile or two away. The council gave us a grant to renovate the building, which again was situated in an old rugby ground, and we were able to buy all the equipment and a proper boxing ring. Until then, I'd always trained on that carpeted floor, with ropes around it that were held up by broom handles. The ropes were only there for effect. If you fell into them, you almost landed on the floor, which was slippery and dangerous because of all the condensation and moisture. There was no heating, the toilets were bad and there was no showers. Dad had to put down several rolls of square carpet and nail it to the floor to stop us from sliding all about the ring. It must have been terrible for my lungs, training there from the age of nine. Coming out of the gym, I used to cough up all the dust I'd inhaled. The building was so old and the smell inside was something else. It was the pungent smell of leather from the battered old gloves that you get in all boxing gyms and you could also smell, but mixed in with that was an aroma from all the dampness and the wet and the place was so small and run-down that the stench of all those years could not escape. I'm hardly a prima donna but that was no place for anyone to have to spend a lot of time in. When they finally demolished it we were told that we were lucky the floorboards hadn't given way a long time before. They just had to hit it once and the whole place fell, like a pack of cards.

''I was never able to move around the heavy bag, so my footwork had to evolve naturally. It wasn't something I was able to develop in training. I'd clatter into the wall and it's no wonder I picked up elbow injuries and all sorts from tripping over the buckets that had been left to catch the rain that leaked in. The gym I'm in now feels like a palace because I have a proper ring and I'm able to move inside it. I can even move around the bags. But I won a world title training out of that old gym and, for all its faults, there was definitely something about the place.''