Professional boxing is all about the knockout. Any fan who denies that is a liar. In the amateur ranks its more about points. Each punch-connect, no matter how soft or ineffective, is considered a point so long as its flush. Get more points and you get the win--even if you never hurt your opponent.
That’s all well and good at the Olympics; but to be a professional fighter you have to sell tickets. Have to get people to actually part with their money. And the best way to generate interest in a fight is to market the blood-lust and excitement of a potential KO.
Because of the brutal realities of professional prize-fighting, a lot of casual observers equate boxing as little more than thuggery or street-fighting. All they can think of is Duk Koo Kim or the Parkinsonian shake of Muhammad Ali. They don’t see the sport behind boxing: the hand speed, balance, footwork, movement , stamina, intelligence. All they see is the violence and its results.
In fairness, its an open debate how well boxing skills translate to other sports. Boxing’s one of the rare, land-based sports in which running speed and jumping ability aren’t all that important; and boxers rarely (if ever) transition to another sport the way Michael Jordan dabbled in baseball. So how much success someone like Muhammad Ali would have had in another sport is an open question.
But fact is, Jordan didn’t exactly light it up in baseball. Not in the same way Bo Jackson or Deion Sanders dominated in both baseball and football. Yet no one doubts the incredible athleticism of Jordan. And only an idiot would doubt the pure athleticism of a cut-up, 220 pound Muhammad Ali. Boxers are definitely world-class athletes of the highest order.
Tonight we’ll see a match-up between (2) of the (3) best athletes in boxing--Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Sugar Shane Mosely. Biggest fight of the last (5) years.
Floyd Mayweather’s definitely the best athlete in the sport. Better than anyone--Shane Mosely or Manny Pacquiao and I’ll put in it in writing. Perfect fluidity to his movement. Fastest of all hands. Specific accuracy to every punch, and impregnable defense. Floyd’s got the whole package; so unlike a lot of fight fans, I don’t hate him.
But Floyd doesn't often get the knockout--that's why he needs to run his mouth. He generates interest by making fans hate him. So much so that you'll pay to see someone clean his clock.
On the other hand, Sugar Shane almost always wins by KO. And not just by being a bruiser. That's why I like and support him. Sure he’s lost a few fights and is a bit of a dud in the personality department; but no one’s been more consistent, for a longer period of time, against such a high level of opposition. Oscar De La Hoya was probably better in his prime, but he’s long since faded. So (sadly) has Miguel Cotto, and now even the legendary Bernard Hopkins. But Mosely’s still pretty-much where he’s always been, even at 39 years old.
Blazing speed.
Great motor.
More experience.
Excellent trainer.
And you know he’ll go for the knockout.
Go Shane!
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