Mayweather defeats Pacquiao but the fight falls falt

It’s always deflating when a massively hyped event fails to live up to expectations. Strangely, however, for true boxing fans, not much was surprising about the Floyd Mayweather – Manny Pacquiao fight. Floyd did what Floyd always does – he plays defense, runs away from most confrontations, and uses his jab and counter punches to score. He’s a great boxer, but frankly not much of a fighter, and that leads to boring wins like we saw this weekend.

There was no way for this fight to live up to the hype. Las Vegas was flooded with celebrities for the event, as Vegas is always starving for huge happenings like this one. It’s what the town thrives on, and the rest of the country loves the spectacle as well. You have A-List celebrities like Tom Brady catching the Kentucky Derby during the day and then taking his private jet to Vegas to take in the fight.

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Saturday offers so many options for sports fanatics

May is here, finally, and the sports calendar is starting to really get packed with plenty of options for the die-hard sports fan. But for you couch potatoes out there, today offers so many options you could spend the whole day lounging around with your beer and Fritos as you enjoy some of your favorite sports and sporting events. We have THE classic horse race, day 3 of the NFL draft, a potentially epic game 7 in the NBA playoffs and the rare occurrence of a boxing fight that everyone is talking about.

Horse racing may be dying a slow death, but the Kentucky Derby always gets everyone excited again, even if it’s just for a few minutes. If you ever get the opportunity to go the Churchill Downs, make sure you take advantage of it. You love the race and all the southern belles all deck out in their sundresses and pretty hats. But naturally you can enjoy this on your couch as well. You can even mix yourself a special drink like The Grandstand Julip featured this week by Bob Westal.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, as the race doesn’t go off until 6:24 PM EST and most of us won’t be wasting our time with the hours of pre-race hype.

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Rumble in the Jungle – 40 years ago today

It’s been forty years since Muhammad Ali stunned George Forman in Zaire, as he tricked Forman into punching himself to exhaustion with the now famous rope-a-dope strategy. 25-year-old Forman had recently destroyed Joe Frazier and was a huge 4-1 favorite heading into the fight against the 32-year-old former champ, but he was no match for Ali’s mind games and craftiness.

Here’s a great write-up of the anniversary from Bill Dwyre and the video above has clips from the fight and from a documentary as well.

I miss the days when boxing had so many characters and so much drama. Nothing today can match it.

  

Product Review: Roots of Fight Tyson ’88 Hoodie

Roots-Of-Fight-Mike-Tyson

In the last 30 years, there hasn’t been a heavyweight boxer as good as Mike Tyson. Arguably the greatest heavyweight of all-time, the 5-10 Tyson, with just a 71-inch reach, routinely knocked out opponents that were five inches taller and a quarter of his own bodyweight heavier.

After his 38-second knockout win over Lou Savarese in 2000, Tyson uttered potentially the greatest quote in boxing history. “My style is impetuous, my defense is impregnable, and I’m just ferocious.”

And it wasn’t just about his success in the ring. The brand of Mike Tyson has experienced the crossover appeal that no other boxer, outside of Muhammad Ali, can lay claim to.

If you grew up in the ’80s or early ’90s, you spent hours engaging the likes of Soda Popinski and Mr. Sandman in the Nintendo tour de force “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out.” At his peak, “Kid Dynamite” was one of the most popular athletes in the world and still is to this day, thanks to his one-man show, “The Undisputed Truth.”

Even eight years after his final bout, Tyson’s legacy as a fighter and as a brand are both as impregnable as ever.

Roots of Fight pays tribute to the rich history of martial arts, boxing and MMA, and connects the history with images of iconic fighters like Mike Tyson, Muhammad Ali, Helio Gracie and Bruce Lee in its clothing collection.

And we aren’t talking Affliction, Silver Star or any other weird fighting apparel that gives a nod to the strip mall jiu-jitsu black belt ethos that permeates the modern fight landscape.

Roots of Fight is all substance, no flash and dash. If Affliction is for the twenty-somethings who still haven’t learned humility is where it’s at, Roots of Fight is the quiet man whose presence alone controls the room.

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Down goes Frazier!!!

Today is the 40th anniversary of this epic call from Howard Cosell as George Forman knocked down and then knocked out Joe Frazier. It’s one of the greatest sports call of all time.

It’s amazing watching this now. In today’s world there’s no way the ref lets Frazier keep fight after that second knockdown.