Oct 5th, 2014: Boxing
 

Boxing has always been sort of brutal. The Romans/Greeks boxed with bare knuckles or leather straps, then the Gladiators, or should I say their handlers... you know, the ones not actually in the ring, added metal pieces to the leather. Gotta have blood to please an increasingly demanding crowd. Then Flavius Arcadius Augustus, who was a wus, banned boxing completely around 400, but of course in Italy it was still done in the back room with the girly shows and cock fights.

In the 17th Century the Brits revived it as bareknuckle prizefighting. Talk about brutal, no real rules, last man standing, would sometimes go on for hours. Then in 1867, the Marquess of Queensberry rules were drafted by John Chambers. Now why did a Welshman put a Scots' name on them? Supposedly because they were published under the patronage of the Marquess. I don't believe that because I heard the Marquess, who's name was Willie, had to take a job as groundskeeper at Springfield Elementary School.

Anyway, these rules and the continuing development of the glove were supposed to make boxing more civilized, so when I saw this colorized picture, which has been floating around the net lately, I assumed it was an early, dozens of rounds, knock down brawl.

http://cellar.org/2014/fighters.jpg
When men were men and blood was brownish.

But the size of the gloves confused me so I went digging and discovered it was 1913, they are Lightweights, and it was a 15 round decision. Also, the bigger gloves protected the hands so they could hit harder and more often... as well as hiding bigger horseshoes.

http://cellar.org/2014/baxing.jpg

Hmm, Campbell and Hyland... damn Scots ruin it for everyone.

If you do that sort of thing behind a pub on a Saturday night it's called Grievous Bodily Harm and a lengthy enforced stay in one of Her Majesty's 'hotels' is on the cards.

Do it in a stadium in front of a baying crowd for money and it's called sport.

It's a funny old world.

I grew up during what may have been the greatest boxing period. Ali, Foreman, Frazier, Leonard, Duran, and Hagler put on some terrific shows but watching Ali deteriorate has ruined the sport for me. Ali studied fencing footwork so I'm putting my energies into a sport that builds the brain rather than breaking it down.

Frazier is the only one I remember beating the shit out of Ali. Not many people knew Frazier went to the hospital after that slugfest. But before that Ali took more hits in training than in the ring, and after that he took hits but nothing like that first Frazier fight.

Is that what caused is health to decline? Plenty of other fighters took similar beatings without Parkinson's. You know, I wonder if all that chuckin' and jivin' early in his career didn't rattle his brain? I've seen the clips of him in the corner ducking twenty punches in a row. The stops, starts, and ridiculous acceleration he was capable of, had to put tremendous strain on the brain.

Not to mention ducking the ladies being so damn pretty and all.

A lot of guys I was going to school with, grumbled when he converted to Islam. So much so they didn't want to hear anything he had to say after that. I thought that was ironic because he was saying, Hey blackman, get off your ass, stop sticking your hand out, get educated, get working, and taking care of your family, which is exactly what they had been saying in private. :rolleyes:

WHS^

I just read that Woody Guthrie was sent to Greystone Psychiatric Hospital in NJ for five years because he was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia; he actually had Huntington’s disease.

Ali's Parkinson's and Woody's Huntington's have similar symptoms, although Huntingtons is supposedly inherited. I understand Woody got more than his share of lumps from the Bulls and strike breakers.

Hows that for building a gossamer connection where neither medicine, logic, nor good sense, has gone before. :vikingsmi

I had money on the "Fighting Dick". :D

That is the work we do here!

Inch and I were listening to "Iron Mike's Main Man's Last Request" the other day and I was telling him who Iron Mike was and the "fight of the century" in 1986 with Marvis Frazier that lasted only 30 seconds. And then we talked about his brief earlobe diet.