Heart Breaking Fights

That fight did and still makes me angry. How a 15 year veteran Title holder could perform like that was a disgrace.

Bruno was petrified of a 1996 version of Tyson, who he could of beat. And I am not using hindsight, sure I fell hook, line and sinker for the 80s Tyson, but I saw though Tyson post 1995 and got rewarded at 24/1 on HolyfieldI.

 

Sanchez/Lopez was frustrating for me as well. I really wanted to see Danny knock off Gomez. But his superclassy guesture of crowning Sal with his feathered headress after their rematch made it easier to adopt him as the new champion.

Concerning Arguello, I too wanted desperately to have him prevail against Pryor at the time. But in hindsight, Alexis did make history in repelling Mancini's challenge. When Boom-Boom crashed to the deck, Arguello became the first champion in boxing history to successfully defend titles in three different weight divisions. (Others had either been dethroned of at least one chompionship in the ring, or had vacated without ever defending at least one of those titles.) He was the first to retire without ever losing a title defense in three different classes. The significance of winning championships in multiple weight divisions has since been greatly diluted. I think it may be a long time before another achieves HOF induction who defended in more than three divisions without ever losing as a defending champion.

Retroactively, I'm kind of glad Pryor won against Arguello. Otherwise, he would have been the answer to the trivia question of who Alexis beat to become a four time titleholder. The Hawk attained a place in boxing lore because of those wins.

Watching Fullmer/Paret, and the middle Griffith/Paret confrontation is also nasty, in light of the eventual tragedy. If Griff had taken care of business in that second match with Benny, he probably would have knocked the Kid out for the second consecutive time, propelling Paret into a life-saving retirement. Instead, Emile pissed away the WW Title back to Benny, laying the groundwork for Paret's disastrous challenge of Fullmer, and their own tragic rubber match. To the extent that Griff could have prevented Benny's final two fights from taking place to begin with, by stopping him efficiently in that second bout, may be the degree to which he is indeed culpable for that fatal encounter. I realize that this may come across as a hard assessment, but there is a saying which states that there is no such thing as brutal honesty. There's brutality, and then there's honesty. Is it true?

 

The saddest fight I ever watched was Ali v Holmes,on closed circuit,it seemed like the death of my youth,the Ali v Berbick fight wasnt far behind it. Obviously fights that had tragic endings like the Benn v McCllelan fight and the Owen v Pintor one ,and to a lesser extent the Eubanks v Watson fight are heart breaking,but that is with hindsight.
Watching one of your heroes being punched around without reply is pretty sad ,it must have been like that for the Louis fans when Marciano put him, through the ropes,I was too young to appreciate that one,but thats the nature of the sport ,age must inevitably give way to youth,I remember reading about JimDriscolls fight with Charles ledoux,driscoll was ill andold but early on outclassed Ledoux ,then age caught up with him,same thing with Wilde against Herman.The whole thing has been encapsuled rather well by old fighters from champions like Holmes after getting beat by Tyson,"as we all go along ,sooner or later someone gets to us ,it was my turn tonight,one day it will be Mikes turn".and an unlikely philosophical reply from Brian London ,after being beaten by a young Jerry Quarry,"hes good ,but I wonder how good he will be ,when he is 33 fighting some one who is 22?If he was that good he should have destrroyed me,10 years ago,I would have destroyed him".I liked Holmes comment after losing to Holyfield ,when asked if he had done any one thing wrong ,he said"yeah I should have fought him in 1982 ,instead of 1992".

 

Even if Emile took that middle bout less seriously, I don't think we can pin Paret's death on him. He couldn't know that would happen, and who's to say Paret -- who obviously had little understanding of his body's finite ability to take punishment -- would have stopped anyway. He was a young man with a family, and he seemed to be guided by a totally amoral manager.

Did you watch Ring of Fire? The meeting between Emile and Paret's son is some pretty intense ****, especially in light of how diminished Griffith himself has become.

 

Hearns vs. Leonard.

Future:

England will be in a massive depression after Hatton vs. PBF

 

McClellan vs Benn & Taylor/Chavez, and anyone else who losses their health or their lives for our entertainment.

A fights a fight, so if Ali looses, or Louis looses or whomever, that's sad but it not tragic. But when a child looses a father, or the father becomes an invalid. That's a whole other level, and that's truly tragic.

In fact I personally think it's a disservice to compare the two they are so different. Loosing a fight isn't anywhere near as tragic as the loss of life or permanent loss of health.

 

Taylor may have never been the same after Chavez, but it didn't alone ruin him. He was just too brawl happy and took too much punishment in general. He probably had a lot of Philly gym wars too.

I find Taylor's fights with Espana and Norris, and especially the Chavez rematch, harder to watch than Taylor-Chavez I.

 

I watched "Ring of Fire" three times. As far as I'm concerned, his manager was as much of a criminal as Panama Lewis.

Viewing that documentary brought into sharp focus that the most compassionate thing a boxer can do for an overmatched opponent is take him out as swiftly as possible. This is the principle that Dempsey applied to Miske. ("I got him out of there as fast as I could because I loved the guy!) It was also the attitude Louis carried into battle with John Henry Lewis.

Maybe if Paret had been "less" of a "man," not taking two punches to deliver one, he might have survived his career, but that's probably a manifestation of questionable training as much as a faulty attitude on Benny's part.

Something else "Ring of Fire" made apparent to me is that Paret's death may not have had as much of an impact on Griff's remaining career as is commonly supposed.

Emile was certainly not as aggressive as he should have been in his first two matches with Paret, and Benny floored him, and nearly knocked him out in that fateful final encounter. Until that last abrupt assault, Griff definitely wasn't fighting like an angered individual. When his right hand sent Benny reeling into the corner, I saw Emile's attack as one borne of desperation, not rage, as a result of having been so seriously stunned earlier himself, not with a pre-fight insult ringing in his ears. Through the middle rounds, that had actually been the Kid's best showing in their trilogy.

"Ring of Fire" showed Paret to be perfectly sportsmanlike and cordial in his conduct following their first contest. Acrimony carried from outside the ring to in between the ring ropes is generally detrimental to the bearer, and not the hallmark of most true professionals. Dino Dennis subjected Cooney to the same insults Paret tried on Griffith, but the resulting antagonsim adversely affected Dino's performance more than it altered Gerry's typical competitive behavior. ("Maybe I would have done better if I loved the guy."- John Dennis, after Cooney's third round win.)

The media sensationalized the notion of some sort of revenge factor behind Paret's death, but there was no such thing behind Ramos/Moore, Scypion/Classen or Gaeton Hart/Cleveland Denny.

It can never be ascertained in this lifetime, but here's what I believe. Paret was on borrowed time after the loss to Fullmer. If Griff had not gotten up from Benny's devastating knockdown, then the Kid would have collapsed and died sometime after their bout, and very possibly the next time he defended the WW Title.

Furthermore, it's my supposition that the very first right hand Emile stunned Paret with cemented his fate. Even if Griff had instantly stepped back, and Ruby Goldstein had stopped the bout after that single blow, the Kid was already doomed.

 

And the impact of sparring on boxing related brain trauma is perhaps the most overlooked part of the sport's detrimental influence on neurological well-being, especially in underaged boxers with still developing brains. Boxers like Wilfredo Benitez and the Quarry boys began taking punches at far too early an age to sustain good health for any extended period of time beyond retirement.

 

Well Meldrick Taylor won his gold medal at the age of 17, so its likely to assume that he'd been taking punches since early childhood.

 

Argüello's losses to Pryor break my heart because he so wanted to do it with honor, for the right reasons and the right way. He seemed to feel so humbled, as if he had let his country and loved ones down.

Yet his quiet grace in defeat makes him as great as a four-time champion in my eyes.

Tyson's destruction of Larry Holmes broke my heart as well. I still hate seeing how hard the old fighter tries to survive, only to be banged around without mercy while nothing he did worked to stop his tormentor. And that final wicked right, just seconds from a reprieve, oh, how hard, cruel and final. I'm glad Larry gave us a lot to cheer about later on.

 

morales losses from raheem onward.

Its always sad to see a great warrior lose to guys your sure he would have beaten in his prime.

 

To be fair the psychological problems that eventualy overwhelmed Bruno were manifesting themselves even then.

You should not be too judgmental of a man having to fight a ranked oponent and a nervous breakdown at the same time if he falls short. This is why I tend to take a more comasionate view towards McCall in the second Lewis fight for example.

 

Well he was 37 and the fight was scheduled for 45 rds in the tropical heat of Havana,I think you can infer that the powers that be wanted Johnson to get licked ,and after years of dissipating his talent ,[which is of course his own fault] ,he duly was ,but over 20rds he wins it ,so not a bad effort from where Im sitting.

 

I have to make PBF favourite here but as Im English ,it would be great if he could pull off an upset,Im not really jingoistic,I rooted forMAB to beat Hamed,even had a bet on him ,but Hatton is a nice guy and PBF tough the p4p man isnt very classy outside the ring,imo.