Monday, February 18, 2008

Kings of the Ring

When I was younger I loved boxing. I would watch every HBO fight. Papa Poop and I saw Buster Douglas beat Mike Tyson live. I remember loving Mike Tyson and his 90 second knockouts. But then Tyson went to jail and there were so many horrible decisions that it was pointless to even pay attention anymore. After a while I completely gave up on the sport and it's probably been a couple years since I've actually watched a fight live.

But boxing is great because the best fights you can watch over and over again and enjoy, even if you know the eventual outcome. Plus, boxing is very compatible with youtube because the best fights and the best rounds can be posted in one short clip.

Earlier this week, I DVRed the Contender Season 3 finale to watch (for the third time), the main event fight between Jaidon Codrington and Sakio Bika. Enjoy round 1 and pay attention to the commentary of Teddy Atlas who sounds gruff but is actually very intelligent and one of the most insightful announcers in any sport.



Bika won by TKO in the 8th.

Watching that fight got me thinking about the best rounds in boxing history and of course I immediately thought of Diego "Chico" Corrales - Jose Luis Castillo, Round 10.



Corrales died in a motorcycle accident exactly 2 years later, to the day.

But perhaps the coup de grace as far as youtube boxing is concerned is the full 8 minutes of the war between Thomas "The Hitman" Hearns and "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, this is good stuff...but on average, I'll take MMA any day of the week over boxing.