What got you into this GREAT sport of BOXING

My Dad was a big Eubank fan, and he and I watched some Roy Jones fights together. I was hooked, and needed no more encouragement. I was about 9, and it's been my main passion ever since.

Sometimes I think I'm a bit sad, but then I think this ain't ****in' World of Warcraft, this is the sweet science! Then I realise that I enjoy life most when I'm watching/participating in/discussing boxing.

Weird ain't it? My Ma' probably thinks I'm sort of sadist.

 

:thumbsup

 

Ali. When I was a young'in, ALI was a God and a Superhero, so BAD that he got the cover of a DC Comic fighting Superman in the ring, and had his own movie starring Ali as Ali, and he stated that not even he could play himself as Great as he truly was!!! and his own action figure. He was on all the cool shows, Flip Wilson, and Dean Martin's "Man of the Hour" ect.

 

I've been watching boxing since early Mike Tyson but Gatti vs Ward 1 got me hooked.

 

I got hooked after I saw those yummy ring card girls. I like the in-between round better than the actual round..,

 

Roy Jones

 

Larry Holmes... watching him beat his younger gallent challengers even in his latter years, he looked like an old school master disciplining his pupils..

84 Olympics too...... Meldrick, Breland, swee'pea, Biggs, Tillman, Page, great team.....

 

I've posted this before, but since the thread's come up again:

Growing up when the few blocks around the Brooklyn Navy Yard was the entire universe and sports heroes rose above sky scrappers, Sugar Ray Robinson was the supernova that fired my imagination and life-long love for boxing.

All New York was a hotbed of boxing. Robinson’s name was magic. His picture with gloves held low was on fight posters all over the neighborhood. Grainy shots of him in dinner clothes, hob-knobbing with celebrities, graced the tabloids daily.

We elbowed for a glimpse of his fuchsia Cadillac and crowded around the radio for his fights.

When we play-fought, we all wanted to be him. He was movie-star handsome, gracious to opponents, soft-spoken, feted by kings, always with beautiful women...and the best fighter on the planet.

The first time I saw him in the ring, my dad took me to the old Garden in ‘46 to see him against Tommy Bell for the vacant welter title.

Bell was no slouch -- not the least cowed by Robinson's reputation.

Sugar glistened in his corner waiting for the bell. He was sleek, with a dancer’s legs and long supple arms that looked even longer because of his sloping shoulders. While the introductions were given, he windmilled his right arm like David readying to smite Goliath.

Robinson and Bell were mirror images -- both standup boxer-punchers, though Sugar enjoyed a few inches in height.

Bell fought with hands high and a tighter stance. Robinson's guard was lower. He was turned slightly to the side, in concession to defense, but his stance gave him more leverage.

They dueled evenly for 15 rounds, but to me, Robinson's punches had more authority; his combinations were the repeated crack of a bullwhip.

Some thought Robinson lost... it was that close. Bell dropped him in the 2nd round with left hooks, but Tommy hit the canvas in the 11th, and was almost stopped in the 12th.

It was near impossible not to watch Robinson exclusively – every move as elegant as Fred Astaire. Even in the bitterest exchanges, he had the baring of royalty. His fusillades were flashes of fire.

The die was cast: I couldn't wait to get to the gym the next day.

After the Bell fight, we went to all Robinson's bouts in New York, Philly, New Jersey, Wilkes Barre, Scranton and Connecticut, as well as watching any on TV we couldn't get to.

There were no end-zone dances when he KO'd some one. Usually, he was almost turned away headed for a neutral corner while they were falling…like a hit man that knew his job.

Whether it was third-tier guys like Floyd Sebastian and Gene Buffalo, or the very best around, like Georgie Abrams, Kid Gavilan, Steve Belloise, "Sugar" Costner, Charley Fusari and Bo Bo Olson, Sugar struck with the same lightening suddenness, electrifying.

We'd have paid to see him hit the heavy bag.

But what defines Robinson for me is something very accessible: He was able to rage back through blood and adversity to win …A parable not lost in the cheap seats.

Certainly, he was head and shoulders above the competition, but it still made you wanna root for him: Nobility’s always been in short supply...and he was thrilling.

When Ray dramatically ended a fight... as he usually did, I couldn't wait to get home and relive the moment in front of the mirror, supplying the roar of the crowd myself.

At the Uptown Gym and Stillman's -- the General Motors of fight factories -- where legends, amateurs and journeyman went about the daily grind in a democracy of sweat, everybody stopped what they were doing to watch Sugar spar and do floor exercises.

He was always cordial, calling me by name, showing me how to extend my jab by dipping a knee, how to draw a right hand and counter over it...and countless other tips and encouragement.

At best, Sugar was a friendly acquaintance; I wasn't part of his clique. I was a kid; he was a man -- a giant figure on a world stage. I could only fantasize about the richness of his life.

I tried to emulate everything about him, from what he wore in the gym to his stance in the ring. But, it did me no more good than copying Ted Williams’ stance trying to hit home runs. And, no matter how I pulled and tugged, Sugar’s gym gear never looked quite the same on me.

Once, after sparring a round, I looked down and saw Ray ringside. He gave me an approving nod. I couldn't have been prouder if I'd won a title.

I saw the arc of his career, from welter to middle -- all of his title victories and losses, the ticker tape parade after regaining his middleweight crown from Turpin, and every other glorious moment...until time and too many fights reduced him to a mortal and he was only a look-alike in his final days in the ring, eking out a payday for the use of his name on a marquee.

Even in his last fight in ‘65 against Joey Archer, he showed flashes of the old Sugar...and I was on my feet hoping for a miracle, but it was not to be; he couldn't pull the trigger often enough.

True, he was far less heroic as a human being than as a fighter...but, I still get chills thinking of ring announcer Harry Balough, with his shellacked hair and shiny tuxedo, grabbing the mic center ring in the old Garden, trying to raise his voice over the 17000 fans straining on the edge of their seats to hear him say:

"IN THIS CORNER...SUGAR...RAY...ROBINSONNNNN!!"

 

Tito Trinidad visited my school and i got to meet him, 1st i started following his fights and then just started watching other fights.

 

holmes/ali..........sadly
leonard/lalonde
tyson/bruno 1
tyson/douglas
ruddock/dokes

..........when ruddock beat dokes i was hooked...............

 

strangely enough, even though I was always a fan of boxing, I recall Kevin Kelly vs Derrick Gainer as my proper introduction.

Then I saw Roy Jones decimate Vinny Paz, and the floodgates opened.

 

the klitschko brothers when I was around 12. they're Ukrainian so I became a fan right away and then discovered the rest of it and fell in love with it

 

Mid-late 90s... I remember a lot of guys that I hung out with at school talked about boxing... and I never really watched much, but I remember this big debate about heavyweights... half of them of course thought Tyson was the greatest, and was still the champ (hah!), a few were Holyfield fans, a few were into Bowe, or Foreman, or Moorer... but they all agreed that Lennox Lewis was "A British *****!"

Me wanting to be different, I borrowed some fight tapes from a friend, and hating that I didn't understand the sport, I began to learn how to analyze fights. Of course I quickly learned that Lewis in fact at the time, and in the years following, better than the rest. I became a fan just mostly at the time because folks at school hated him so much... but after betting on him against Holyfield in their first and second fights... and making a lot of money off the guys at school, I really found I loved the sport. Getting into the details of the sweet science was and is still so fascinating to me.

It still amazes me how many people (some of them on this forum!) are real big fans, but don't actually know anything about the science of fighting. I think I'm one of the few that started as fan watching on TV, and went in with a few friends to a gym to try it out... and got hit in the nose for the first time.. and actually kept boxing!

All my friends got the **** out of there and never came back, until it was time to see me kick a little ass.

 

I spent all of my birthday money to order Mike Tyson-Frank Bruno 2, only because everyone I knew described Mike Tyson as a real life action hero and as some sort of unholy phenomenon.

Sure enough after watching his brutal decimation of Frank Bruno in 3 rounds, I was a witness.