Search results

A few days ago, I happened to catch ESPN Classic's Sportcentury episode on Steve Carlton, who started his career with the Cardinals. Tim McCarver said that Carlton "learned a lot from Bob Gibson about how to act and how to pitch." Indeed, there is probably something to this, but Gibson always...

Thanks for the comments. Wladimir Klitschko will be one of the great champions if he continues for 2-3 more years at his current form.

A question if I may, has Klitschko ever been knocked down and rose to KO the man who decked him? Two or three more years at the current level would indeed make Klitschko a great champion.

Does this mean Wladimir Klitschko did not "really suck in some fights?" Klitschko has been stopped 3 times. From a historical standpoint, it is hard for a heavyweight champion to be seen as an all-time great if he was kayoed that many times when fairly young.

It occured to me that the most "popular" athletes have their popularity imposed from above. Jordan and Woods really are great at what they do, but we are always told that we must regard them as God-like figures rather than deciding to do it on our own.

They are showing an Ali-Tyson marathon called "Ali or Tyson?" It continues tomorrrow.

That's what I meant when I wrote that ESPN Classic was showing the Ali fights (again). Ali is on ESPN Classic more often than anyone else. Speaking of Wepner, he became the symbol of the white heavyweight loser. The press would ridicule a white heavyweight with, "His style is pure Chuck Wepner."...

Tomorrow and Wednesday, ESPN Classic is showing a bunch of Ali fights.

I just looked at a site called eastsideboxing.com. There it is said that Wladimir Klitschko is destined to remain an under-appreciated champion like Larry Holmes. Funny thing, I mentioned in another thread recently that every story written about Holmes when he was champion had this theme. The...

As I wrote in another thread, media types can't get over the fact that blacks weren't allowed in professional baseball until after WWII. The more distant in the past that period becomes, the more they dwell on it.

Most sportswriters are liberals of one kind or another. I know this from reading them for 50 years (since I was 8 years old). They deal with black athletes all the time and are expected to praise them even if they don't like them individually. Sportswriters have never gotten over the fact that...

I looked at an ESPN schedule yesterday and it indicated that it will be on ESPN Classic at 4 PM ET. Is this the accurate time?

Traditionally, to be recognized as such by Ring magazine, meant that a fighter was the true heavyweight champion. Ring still had Ali as champion after the WBA stripped him in 1967 for refusing to be drafted. Ring recognized Joe Frazier when he KO'd WBA champion Jimmy Ellis in February 1970...

The New York Times writers were unimpressed by Gerry Cooney. Columnist Dave Anderson wrote: "Gerry Cooney had shown that he could take a punch and that he could endure beyond the early rounds. But he has yet to show he can truly fight." "His mother probably has a better right hand. His...

According to the New York Times account, the temperature was nearly 100 degrees because of the warm desert night and hot TV cameras. It was hotter when Jack Dempsey beat Jess Willard under the Fourth of July sun in 1919.

During the 1980's, the first of every month I would go by a bookstore that had a magazine stand. I would buy 2-3 boxing magazines. One day I bought a magazine that had Gerry Cooney's picture on the cover. The young woman at the counter said, "I sure hope he wins." I ran into that almost...

To say that many people said this would never happen again is an understatement. I haven't read Ring magazine in many years. How long has it been since they recognized a heavyweight champion?

A few months back, I wrote on another thread that white football players seem oblivious to the situation. Drew Bennett insisted on signing with the Rams, rather than trying to find a team that would use him to the utmost. Matt Jones may have thought he would be indulged like others once his...

It has to be said that Holmes fought and defeated anybody put in front of him for years. During his younger days, boxing people weren't that high on Larry Holmes. Duane Bobick had beaten him in the Olympic trials in 1972, You can find the Bobick-Holmes fight on you tube. Holmes looked timid...

Between the late 70's and mid 80's, I would go to a book store that had a magazine stand and buy 2-3 boxing magazines at the first of every month. I still have many of them and was looking through them the last few days. Every time that then-Heavyweight Champion Larry Holmes was quoted in...

I will restate what Mark Kram said upon the publication of his book in 2001. Kram didn't write criticially of Ali because his bosses at Sports Illustrated wouldn't allow it. Ali was supposedly too important to SI's bottom line. Kram was fired by SI early in 1977. He wrote an article about...

According to Kram, Sports Illustrated considered Ali important to their bottom line.

Today, I was looking through my collection of sports magazines and found one I had forgotten about. It is the July 5 1976 issue of Sports Illustrated. There is an article by the above mentioned Mark Kram about the "fight" beyween Ali and the Japanese wrestler, Kanji Inoki. A lot of suckers...

The June 1 issue of Sports Illustrated has a cover story about Tom Brady titled, "Tom Brady Is Back."