Farewell, Golden Bear

Shudder. I have obviously fallen among heathens!

Think of Sobers as a combination of Babe Ruth and the best pitcher and the best outfielder you've ever seen, all in one package and you might just get close to understanding his genius.

Angela -- half way through a long hot summer of cricket watching.

 

Bruce:
"I never liked Ali's "big mouth" style, "

Nor did I although Ali seemed to do it tongue in cheek.

 

agilham:
"Babe Ruth and the best pitcher and the best outfielder you've ever seen"

For a while that was Ruth! I think about everyone though has heard of Ali.

 

Boxing definitely needs reforming, no question about that.

As for as it goes however, at least when one watches boxing one knows a fight will break out, unlike most other sports where people pay to see a good game and end up seeing a boxing match (or vicious fight, whatever the case may be).

 

I used to work for a guy who'd played semi-pro hockey. A couple times our business discussions got heated, I told him: "I wouldn't want to fight somebody like you, when I went to fight in my sport (boxing), we'd put the gloves on; when you went to fight in your sport, you'd take the gloves off." Who wants to brawl with someone like that? BTW: Haven't been in a fight in 20 years since I stepped between those ropes for the last time.

I think boxing's a sport and a great one. Ali's addled state is the exception, not the rule. He should've retired after the Foreman fight. Would likely still have his facilities and would've gone out on top as an immortal rather than fighting multiple matches with the likes of Leon Spinks and getting pummeled by Larry Holmes--a guy who wasn't fit to carry the jock of Ali in his prime.

 

l fauss:

Maybe at one time.Maybe never. Few sports have had as shady a rep as pro boxing.Recall Ken Norton said something to effect that he wouldn't let son come matches due to nature of sport in both violence and characters that run it.

I really wonder if any pro sport can be called great anymore. They are businesses nothing more.

 

I'll agree that boxing has become a sideshow, with so many different champions that any two bit bum who doesn't wear a champion's belt is laughed at by the pugs in the gym, but it's still a great sport, as sports go.

Someone mentioned extreme fighting earlier: that extreme fighting nonsense is not a sport at all, it's a bunch of has-beens and never-could've-beens who'd get knocked out in about 30 seconds by any top-flight boxer, and in about 1 round by the average fighter on my old college boxing team. Those guys don't even know how to throw a punch; when they do, they paw at each other like guys who've never set foot in a ring. It's a joke--just my opinion.

 

My apologies to Bruce. I didn't intend for this thread to be about boxing when I commented about Muhammad Ali.

It was about Jack Nicklaus. I am going to begin a new thread dedicated to the pros and cons of boxing, etc., and maybe he can move all the boxing posts there.

Again, my apologies.

 

Thanks, Angela.

 

At least you weren't asking something difficult like explaining the LBW law or how you can play for 5 days and not get a result ;-)

Angela

 

I was hoping that this thread was about saying good riddance to Oski the Golden Bear.

But no such luck.

 

Adios to the Golden Bears???

This thread threw a real scare into me as well. I thought that the PC police at UCal-Berkley had convinced the school administration that their school mascot was a slight to other members of the ursus family and should be changed to something more inclusive.

 

ROFLM(unpc)AO!

 

Yeah, I had to look it up. Mea culpa.

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/1999/1110/oski.html