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Manny Pacquiao returned home on Friday. PICTURE: AP
Many readers have questioned my decision to include Floyd Mayweather inside my list of top-10 boxers of all time.
Others have queried my omissions of Oscar De La Hoya and Mike Tyson.
Thanks for all your comments. I’d like to explain myself, and while I don’t expect you to agree with me, hopefully you can understand my thinking. Read More…
Pacman (left) is the favourite, but should he be such an overwhelming favourite?
Miguel Cotto has been slapped with the tag of underdog for his bout against Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
A poll on this blog shows that 85% of fans are tipping Pacman to win by stoppage, while a further 7% reckon the Filipino superstar will win on points. By contrast, just 7% are tipping Cotto to win – points or stoppage – and 1% think it will be a draw.
The bookmakers agree that Pacquiao is the favourite, but not to the same degree. Ladbrokes have Pacquiao the favourite at 4/11 while Cotto is an ungenerous 2/1 (not exactly odds that are associated with the world’s biggest underdog). Read More…
David Haye (Right) throws a right hand at Nikolay Valuev. PHOTO: Chris Royle - Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions
When I was a kid growing up in the 1970s, only one Briton had won the world heavyweight championship, and that was Bob Fitzsimmons in the previous century.
Things have changed since then – we’ve seen Lennox Lewis, Herbie Hide, Frank Bruno, and the forgettable Henry Akinwande. Read More…
Mike Tyson blew millions of dollars
According to reports on the internet, Hollywood actor Nicolas Cage is broke.
It seems quite a shock when it happens to a high-flying celebrity like that, because sportsmen are the most common victims – especially boxers, although not exclusively.
Mike Tyson is probably the most famous case, but there have been many others.
In South Africa there are several boxers who earned good money during their careers but now they are broke. It’s sad that they could not invest their money wisely (it’s amazing how many of them decided to open businesses, which almost always went under).
The thing about these sportsmen is that they have until their 30s to make their money before their earning potential is over.
Cage, on the other hand, is 45 and still making movies. Mind you, I remember reading somewhere that Elvis Presley was less than a year away from going bankrupt when he died.
If you believe in coincidence, how about this – Elvis’s birthday is January 8 and Cage’s is January 7! Also born on January 7 is Corrie Sanders, South Africa’s former heavyweight star who is now also broke.
The formidable pairing of Pacquiao and Roach - master boxer and master tactician
Manny Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, has expressed concern over possible low blows from Miguel Cotto on November 14, saying he wants automatic disqualification for any deliberate shots below the belt (click here to read the story).
Of course, it can be difficult to distinguish between deliberate and accidental shots – especially if the offending boxer knows how to disguise an intentional low blow.
It's likely that Valuev has never had to fight a taller opponent (well, not since he stopped growing)
Talk about David against Goliath – in terms of size, that is.
But when it comes to attitude, English fighter David Haye is the one picking on Russian Nikolay Valuev, who stands 7’2″, for the WBA heavyweight crown in Germany on November 7 (click here to read here).
Valuev is one of three “recognised” heavyweight world champions at the moment, along with the Klitschko brothers, Vitali and Wladimir.
Valuev briefly trained with Brian Mitchell – South Africa’s former junior-lightweight star – in Johannesburg in the mid-1990s, and while there he apparently sparred with Corrie Sanders. The word is that he was taken to school by Sanders.
Corrie, of course, shot to fame when he blew Wladimir away in two rounds in 2003, although he himself was beaten by Vitali a year later.
I say this with the greatest respect to Sanders, but the fact that two-thirds of the reigning world heavyweight crown is shared by two men he previously mastered shows how the standard of that division has dropped (there can simply be no comparisons to the eras of Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Larry Holmes, Mike Tyson and even Evander Holyfield).
Of course this serves the smaller pugilists, like Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, who are the focus of world boxing at the moment.
Hey there, Mr Governator ... you want a piece of me?
According to Peter McAllister in his book “Manthropolgy”, any Neanderthal woman would have beaten Arnold Schwarzenegger at arm-wrestling. Click here to read the full story.
Fascinating stuff. Imagine seeing boxers, at their peaks, like George Foreman, Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Jack Dempsey and Rocky Marciano – let alone Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather – getting blown away by your average caveman!!!
Presumably our physical decline has coincided with an intellectual growth, although I know some people, especially politicians and sports administrators, who make me think otherwise.
