Time to lance this boil

I think I'm starting to despise the man:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/the-turnstile/lance-armstrong-just-happens-pose-next-tour-france-190124213.html

If he's not careful he's going to end up on my 'sporting figures hate list' alongside Alan 'world class' Shearer, Joe 'calslappy' Calzaghe and Co.

Sweet Memory

I haven't posted for quite some time, but couldn't let 6 April pass with mentioning such a significant anniversary. 25 years ago Sugar Ray Leonard defeated Marvellous Marvin Hagler in 'The Superfight'. It was probably the greatest comeback in boxing history - Leonard had only fought once in the preceding five years, whilst Hagler had not lost in eleven years. By winning the fight, Leonard secured his legacy as one of the greatest boxers of all time. Sweet indeed.

Happy New Year?

RIP Darlo...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/16493533.stm

And the winner is...

My 'alternative' fighter of the year award (aka The Fran) for 2011 goes to Juan Manuel Márquez. Three times he’s fought Pacquiao (deemed by so many to be the pound for pound king). On at least one, if not two, and possibly even all three occasions, he’s won the fight. But the judges keep on letting him down. The fight this year saw possibly the worst decision of them all (Tim Smith of New York's Daily News wrote that Márquez "was robbed by judges who were either blind or corrupt"). He may not be a winner according to the record books, but Marquez is definitely deserving of The Fran.

Don't believe what the Scousers say

Evra has never played the race card:

http://therepublikofmancunia.com/how-patrice-evra-has-never-played-the-race-card-and-why-assumptions-are-dangerous/

Where have all the good kings gone?

Boxing has become a complete joke - too many titles, top fighters ducking each other, Don King...

It used to be my favourite sport, but now there are perhaps two or three fights a year in which I have much interest - hence the paucity of recent posts on this blog. I am intrigued by Pacquiao v Marquez III later this month, and would relish a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight (if it ever happens), but there is little else to get excited about.

My interest in boxing has become comparable to my interest in music - I pine for the glory days of my youth: the 1980s! I've just read Four Kings: Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Duran and the Last Great Era of Boxing by George Kimball which is excellent. I hadn't realised that Hearns had broken his right hand during that phenomenal first round against Hagler, so basically fought the rest of the fight on guts. Them were the days.

A bloody joke

This extract from Dan Rafael's report on the Hopkins v Dawson fight basically says it all about why professional boxing has become such a shambles:

If you're a big boxing fan and support pay-per-views you have now been conned out of roughly $130 in the past month. You got ripped off with the crappy way the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Victor Ortiz fight ended Sept. 17 and now this monstrosity. And people wonder why boxing is so troubled? It's because the fans -- those of us who pour our hard-earned cash into the sport and allow it to exist -- are taken for granted by promoters, fighters, managers and networks.

http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/7114210/fans-bernard-hopkins-left-crying-debacle

More of my thoughts on this to follow...