MetaFilter posts tagged with boxing

You Win Fights By Being More Willing to Permanently F-Up The Other Guy*

Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 09:44:20 -0800

"I would advise you when You do fight Not to act like Tygers and Bears as these Virginians do - Biting one anothers Lips and Noses off, and gowging one another - that is, thrusting out one anothers Eyes, and kicking one another on the Cods, to the Great damage of many a Poor Woman." Thus, Charles Woodmason, an itinerant Anglican minister born of English gentry stock, described the brutal form of combat he found in the Virginia backcountry shortly before the American Revolution. Although historians are more likely to study people thinking, governing, worshiping, or working, how men fight -- who participates, who observes, which rules are followed, what is at stake, what tactics are allowed - reveals much about past cultures and societies.

"Gouge and Bite, Pull Hair and Scratch" The Social Significance of Fighting in the Southern Backcountry Cultured Easterners like Phillip Vickers Fithian and Europeans like Charles William Janson and Thomas Ashe often made note of what they considered shocking levels of brutal violence and disfigurement they encountered in brawls and public fights during their respective travels in the American South of the 18th and 19th C. In particular, the densely forested and mountainous backcountry, whose population drew heavily from the Northern border region between England and Scotland, and who maintained the requirements of Honor Culture: violence as response to perceived challenge to personal honor (no matter how petty or ridiculous the cause seemed to outsiders), risk-taking for its own sake, and emphasis on etiquette and propriety in social interactions. Where a gentleman’s duel was cool, civilized, structured, private, and reserved for the upper class, backwoods rough-&-tumble fights were boisterous (often drunken) affairs with howling boasts and an avowed lack of structure or rules, in the presence of a boisterous, howling (often drunken) audience. They existed in an alternate system of honor for those without wealth or property, but who were still white men in cultures that held black slaves. By the 1840s, the Bowie Knife became the popular option for ending rough-&-tumble fights, to be supplanted a little later by the revolver. In “On the Obsolescence of the Concept of Honor” sociologist Peter Berger contrasts the demise of pre-modern honor with the rise of modern concepts of inherent dignity. Honor has no standing in most modern legal systems, and the ones that do are generally viewed as quaint medieval holdovers. As Gorn notes:

Honor is an intensely social concept, resting on reputation, community standing, and the esteem of kin and compatriots. To possess honor requires acknowledgment from others; it cannot exist in solitary conscience. Modern man, Berger has argued, is more responsive to dignity - the belief that personal worth inheres equally in each individual, regardless of his status in society... Naked and alone man has dignity; extolled by peers and covered with ribbons, he has honor.

___ *Warren Ellis (GRAPHIC comic book violence as demonstration of title quote)

Jonathan Rendall, 1964-2013

hydatius — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 15:02:23 -0800

Late last month, the writer Jonathan Rendall was found dead at his home in Ipswich. He was 48. He was the greatest gonzo writer you've never heard of. The epitome of the 'troubled writer', Rendall was given up for adoption by his birth mother. He spent part of his early life in Greece, before going up to Magdalene College, Oxford, where he boxed for the university. He wrote three books: This Bloody Mary is the Last Thing I Own, a memoir about time spent writing about, and promoting, boxing (and which won the Somerset Maugham Prize in 1998); Twelve Grand: the Gambler As Hero, for which he was given £12k to gamble away and then wrote about the experience (later adapted for television); and Garden Hopping, an account of his search for his birth mother. For a time he wrote a monthly column in 'The Observer Food Magazine' entitled 'Last Chance Saloon', which focussed mainly on his relationship with alcohol. His writing on sport (mainly boxing) appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines. He could really, really write.

Bob and Weave.

lazaruslong — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 23:31:41 -0800

Five-year-old boxing practice.

At home, there's no line for the bathroom, either

Chrysostom — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 08:41:16 -0800

Some sports are better seen in person. Some are better seen on TV.

Adios, Macho.

MissySedai — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 09:37:11 -0800

Boxer Héctor "Macho" Camacho has died, four days after being shot in the face while sitting in a parked car. Popular for his flamboyant and reckless style both in the ring and out, Camacho racked up an astounding career record of 79-6-3. In a famous 1997 bout, he knocked out Sugar Ray Leonard, scotching Leonard's final attempt at a comeback.

Punching Down The Closet Door

hippybear — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 08:58:50 -0800

World Boxing Organization featherweight title winner and former Olympic boxer Orlando Cruz has come out as boxing's first openly gay athlete.

For the first time in Olympic history all the participating teams will have female athletes

MuffinMan — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 06:30:57 -0800

The London Olympics has been billed as a notable step forward in gender equality. It is the first Olympics with female representation from all countries despite the many and several barriers to female sport participation that still exist in some countries (including developed ones). These Olympics have female boxers, female athletes from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Brunei and male medal bearers But despite Jacques Rogge's declaration in his opening ceremony speech, some are more equal than others. Australia and Japan are reviewing their athletes' travel arrangements after women were given second class tickets and there is a small, but growing campaign to see male synchronised swimming form part of the program (one of two sports, the other being rhythmic gymnastics, with no male competition). The challenge after the games will be maintaining the momentum for female sports once the cameras switch off, the media coverage moves on and the sponsors renew deals. The discrepancy is arguably most stark in earnings: precisely 2 of the top 100 highest earning sports stars are women - Maria Sharapova and Li Na. Previously, and previously and previously.

Humans: Be Interested

Diablevert — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 21:27:24 -0800

There's been a lot of talk about the snarls and snafus preceding this year's games. But even as the training is winding down and the athletes are pouring into the Village, there's still plenty of interesting stuff going at this year's Olympics. Like, have you heard about the Olympian without a country? (He's not the first independent athlete to compete.) Or that almost all the US swim team gets themselves ritually tattooed with the Olympic rings? Or that a California girl is one of Saudi Arabia's two female competitors? Or that Caster Semenya (previously 1,2) will be South Africa's flag bearer? Or that Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi may be the first Olympic athlete to have to worry that a kick from her unborn child may put her out of the medal running?
The Christian Science Monitor has been highlighting athletes who's struggled to get to the games, including Behdad Salimi, who'll have to prove he's the strongest man in the world to bear Iran's lone medal hopes, Hiroshi Hoketsu, who's competing in his third Olympics this go round --- second since he retired from his desk job, and Gladys Tejeda, who grew up in a family of subsistence farmers in an Andean village so remote she hadn't even heard of the Olympics until her family got a TV --- in 2007. London will be her third marathon. Of course, there's another class of competitors whose fight to get to the games was a little more literal: This is the first year for women's boxing.... There will be 36 female competitors from 24 nations competing in boxing for the first time at this year's games, in three weight classes: Great Britain's Nicola Adams, Savannah Marshall, and Natasha Jonas; the United States' Marlen Esparza*, Queen Underwood****, and Claressa Shields; Australia's Naomi-Lee Fischer-Rasmussen, Tunisia's Rim Jouini and Maroua Rahli, Romania's Mihaela Lacatus; Nigeria's Edith Ogoke-Agu*, Venezuala's Karlha Magliocco; Kazakhstan's Saida Khassenova and Marina Volnova; Sweden's Anna Laurell*; China's Ren CanCan, Dong Cheng, and Jinzi Li; Azerbaijan's Yelena Vystropova; Brazil's Adriana Araujo, Roseli Feitosa, and Erica Matos; India's Mary Kom*; Canada's Mary Spencer; Tajikistan's Mavzuna Choriyeva; New Zealand's Alexis Pritchard and Sonia Hernandez; Morocco's Mahjouba Oubtil; Russia's Sofya Ochigava and Nadezda Torlopova; Poland's Karolina Michalczuk and Lidia Fidura; Bulgaria's Stoyka Petrova ; North Korea's Kim Hye-Song, Kenya's Elizabeth Andiego; and last but not least, Ireland's Katie Taylor Though sadly not everybody's Olympic dreams can come true: ‪Sadaf Rahim‬i*, who had hoped to be Afghanistan's only female Olympic athlete, will have to hang on for 2016. * are for especially awesome articles, though I tried to find a little something for everybody (And finally, I'm just going to completely succumb to homerism and note that NYC is representing' hard this year, with the second African-American female swimmer to compete, Lia Neal, hailing from Brooklyn, while one of America's best of hopes for an all-round gymnastics gold is none other than a 5'4'' fireplug from the boogie-down Bronx, John Orozco.) But if none of that grabs you, how about a little history? Did you know that the guy who came in second to Jesse Owens back in 1936 was none other than Jackie Robinson's older brother? Or how about how a barefoot Ethiopean single-handedly, and shoeless-ly, humiliated his former colonizers at the 1960 Rome games? Or if you're more mathematically inclined, you could let Nate Silver teach you how to play Fantasy National Olympic Commission Director. That ought to be enough to give everybody something to chew on. So come Friday, you can sit back, relax, and pretend you're Harry Nelson, because, as your man said: "It’s a good way to see the world. I’m nosy. It’s a large world. There’s a lot of people to see. That’s how I got on this track.” Nelson will be attending his 18th Summer Games in a row in London this year. (You do the math.)

"I'll make a lot of money off the rematch, but this was outrageous."

BobbyVan — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 08:19:34 -0800

On Saturday night in Las Vegas, Manny Pacquiao, widely acknowledged as one of the top two pound-for-pound fighters in professional boxing, was defeated by Timothy Bradley in a controversial split-decision. HBO's long-time unofficial ringside scorer, Harold Lederman, called the outcome "a crime." Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, who represents both Pacquaio and Bradley, was the immediate target of suspicion by some boxing observers, who noted that he would benefit financially from a rematch. A photograph of a poster promoting for Pacquaio-Bradley II was tweeted by Bradley eleven days prior to Saturday's fight. For his part, Arum has claimed outrage at the decision, and called for an independent investigation of the judging process. The announcement of the Pacquaio-Bradley matchup failed to electrify boxing fans, who still pine for a superfight between Pacquiao and the undefeated Floyd Mayweather, Jr. (who is currently serving a three-month jail sentence for beating his ex-girlfriend). Arum is blamed by many for preventing the fight in order to keep from sharing revenues with Mayweather, who controls his own promotions employing a unique business model.

Everything ain't for everybody

reformedjerk — Fri, 18 May 2012 07:22:42 -0800

Weak men pay this boxing coach to tell them they are terrible. Eric Kelly was a 2 time New York Golden Gloves Champion, 4 time National Champion, 2000 Olympic alternate, and 3 time Milwaukee Golden Gloves before an eye injury prevented him from competing. Today, he's a trainer at Church Street Boxing Gym in New York, coaching Wall Street bankers how to box.

Dewey Bozella

Trurl — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 18:36:17 -0800

Dewey Bozella landed a hard right cross on his opponent's jaw at the final bell, and the 52-year-old boxer raised his arms in victory. After 26 years behind bars for a murder he didn't commit, Bozella triumphantly realized a dream deferred in his first and only professional fight. "I'm going to concentrate on the Dewey Bozella Foundation, which really means opening a gym in my town," Bozella said. "Because there are no gyms, and I'd like to see kids who are on the street have something productive to do. No more fighting for me."

Claressa Shields - Radio Diary Made of Awesome

insectosaurus — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 14:54:23 -0800

Claressa Shields, a 16 year old boxer preparing for the Olympic trials, records a radio diary. It's about 16 minutes long.

The Boxing Girls of Kabul

aught — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:54:48 -0800

A documentary by Ariel Nasr, "The Boxing Girls of Kabul" (National Film Board of Canada trailer), profiles a group of young Afghan women training to compete in women's boxing in the 2012 Olympics (which will feature boxing for the first time as a women's event). Radio Netherlands interviews 18 year old Shabnam Rahimi, and the Toronto Star has a photo album on the athletes. If all that inspires you, petition President Hamid Karzai's government to support the team, via this petition page. (Nasr is also known for his documentary, "Good Morning Kandahar".)

Day at Night, half-hour New York public television interviews from the 70s

Kattullus — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:34:43 -0800

Day at Night was an interview series on the public television station of the City University of New York that aired from 1973-4. CUNY TV is in the process of digitizing and uploading the 130 episodes that were produced, with 46 done so far. The episodes are just under half an hour in length. Among the people interviewed by host James Day are author Ray Bradbury, actress Myrna Loy, medical researcher Jonas Salk, singer Cab Calloway, writer Christopher Isherwood, nuclear scientist Edward Teller, comedian Victor Borge, tennis player Billie Jean King, linguist and activist Noam Chomsky, composer Aaron Copland, actor Vincent Price and boxer Muhammad Ali.

He doesn't know real suffering, because he has not dated as much as I have.

timshel — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 10:04:12 -0800

The Comedian's Comedian's Comedian: Garry Shandling on boxing, basketball, buddhism and being.

"I noticed something on a lampshade. It was writing in Korean and when I asked the interpreter what it meant, he said it meant roughly, 'Live or Die.'"

ocherdraco — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:14:15 -0800

On November 13, 1982, in an outdoor arena next to Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini beat Duk Koo Kim to retain his World Boxing Association lightweight championship title. It was a thrilling match, but its aftermath quickly turned into a nightmare, as Kim fell into a coma, and, a few days later, died. The bout's effects have rippled outward ever since. Mancini himself kept fighting for a few more years, but he "was never Boom Boom again. Maybe one small boom but seldom boom boom and never, ever Boom Boom." The WBA's rules changed to prevent such a thing from happening again. And the bout may be the only fight memorialized in songs named after each of the combatants: Warren Zevon capturing the excitement around the fight favorite, both before and after the match, in "Boom Boom Mancini", and Sun Kil Moon in "Duk Koo Kim", a 14-minute-long immersion in sound.

The Bitch, The Stud and The Prawn

prolific — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:51:38 -0800

"...the ghost of George Walker, his family, and his business practices have continued to haunt Britain in all sorts of odd ways." Filmmaker Adam Curtis blogs about the Walker brothers (Billy and George) on the BBC website. A story of boxers, gangsters, the British film industry, Dodi Fayed, Guy Hands and... hardcore mutant prawn. "Although Billy Walker was a good fighter - he never actually won a professional title. In reality he was an early modern celebrity - famous as much for who he was as for what he achieved."

Non Uncaged

Artw — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:01:44 -0800

Last month How Did This Get Made (previously) held a live panel discussion of Superman III, a movie that started as a bizarre pitch involving everyone from Brainiac to Supergirl and Mr. Mxyzptlk, and ended up as a Richard Pryor vehicle. However for some truly crazy stories you may want to skip ahead to part II, where they are joined by Jack O'Halloran - Non from Superman I and II, boxer and son of the head of Murder, Inc. - who talks at length about his life, the movies, and choking Christopher Reeve.

Reader, have you ever seen a fight?

mattn — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 05:16:49 -0800

On 10 December 1821 the radical essayist and journalist William Hazlitt set out on a journey from London to Hungerford where, the next day, he witnessed a bare-knuckle boxing match between Bill Neate, a butcher from Bristol, and Tom 'The Gas-man' Hickman. Hazlitt's account of the event – 'The Fight' – was published in 1822, and is regarded as a pioneering work of sports journalism and an insightful study of popular culture.

RIP Joe Frazier

joannemullen — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 05:52:29 -0800

We Love You Joe. Smokin' Joe Frazier has lost his last fight, against liver cancer, at the age of 67. He was the first man to beat Muhammad Ali, in 1971, and held the World Heavyweight Title between 1970 and 1973. He won 32 of his 37 professional fights, his only defeats coming against Ali and Foreman. He was one of the greats.

America's Tragic Theater

zarq — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 18:44:04 -0800

'Few Americans today can name more than one or two current boxers, but boxing once stood at the center of American life. It has become a ghost sport, long discredited but still hovering in the nation’s consciousness, refusing to go away and be silent entirely. But there was a time when things were very different. Boxing's history winds a thread through the broader history of the nation.'

Bill Gallo joins General Von Steingrabber in the bleachers

tommasz — Wed, 11 May 2011 10:06:46 -0800

Bill Gallo, longtime NY Daily News Sports Cartoonist, is dead at age 88. If you grew up in the NYC area anytime from the the 50s until this April, you've probably seen one of Gallo's cartoons in the Daily News. Although he covered all sports and their fans, blue collar sports like boxing and baseball were his real love. Gallo was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, NY as part of the Class of 2001 and some of his work hangs in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Syracuse University has a collection of his papers. Some of his best work is available in DRAWING A CROWD: Bill Gallo's Greatest Sports Moments.

RIP you Diamond Geezer

adamvasco — Mon, 02 May 2011 10:59:01 -0800

It was Enery's Ammer wot put a young Cassius Clay on the floor (3.02) in 1963. Sir Henry Cooper, British Boxing legend has died aged 76.
The splitting glove controvery was a a mischievous manipulation of the truth (scroll down previous link)
He is still the only boxer to have won three Londsdale belts. Cooper and Muhammed Ali remained friends throughout his life.
In later years he came to despise what he saw as tawdry dealings and gave up commentating on BBC radio dedicating his life to golf and charity.

Juxtaposition

Arquimedez Pozo — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 11:28:45 -0800

Virginia Woolf and Arturo Gatti have never met. If they had met, likelihood would have made their meeting brief and prosaic. This Triple Canopy piece unites their motivation, if only briefly, and makes for one hell of an interesting article. And yes, I came to it via Deadspin. And yes, this is my first post. The page may ask for donations, but no NYT stylings.

Great Sports Calls, chosen by Posnanski

LobsterMitten — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 10:48:41 -0800

Greatest calls in sports is a selection of 32 great calls in broadcast sports, chosen by Joe Posnanski, obviously US-centric but featuring some good choices. Want some elation this Friday? Some nice discussion at Baseball Think Factory. Does it have to be a great moment, or could a routine moment be elevated to the list by a great call? I would be interested if anyone has examples of this; I had a hard time coming up with examples.