tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31964974.post698029014887349024..comments2023-09-10T03:33:19.319-04:00Comments on RANDOM THOUGHTS: Rest in Peace ChampMycue23http://www.blogger.com/profile/07474424588090159340noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31964974.post-74960502423293566792011-11-10T04:53:23.045-05:002011-11-10T04:53:23.045-05:00Hi, guys, good to see y'all are still punching...Hi, guys, good to see y'all are still punching.<br /><br />I also wrote a postmortem on Joe, a shorter one, briefly accounting one of the strategies he and and his corner used to beat Ali the first time. Something a lot of people don't realize is how much boxing takes place behind the forehead. "Chess with muscles," is how one person phrased it.<br /><br />Sadly, the 1970s was perhaps the last great era of that sport, or at least now it so seems. It's been going downhill ever since. And, it seems to have been supplanted by this UFC stuff. These are alley fights, and it makes me rather sick to my stomach to try to watch them. Traditional boxing always had the rap of being a very brutal and corrupt sport, and unfortunately it was often dominated by gangland interests.<br /><br />But, this UFC stuff actually seems to be worse for the fighters now. The old guys quite regularly were diseased and brain-injured in their later years. I hate to think about what will be happening to these UFC fighters when they grow older.Manifesto Joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06521151220297061304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31964974.post-9361267587047686082011-11-08T14:23:29.751-05:002011-11-08T14:23:29.751-05:00Great piece. They didn't call him Smokin' ...Great piece. They didn't call him Smokin' Joe for nothing. <br />In my opinion, Joe Frazier was a refinement of what Rocky Marciano was supposed to have been (although Marciano was the only undefeated Heavyweight champ and certainly nothing to fuck with in any estimation, Marciano never had to fight a George Foreman, -Frazier was in a far tougher era by my judgment, and his hand speed, something that is never clocked in boxing with hard numbers like let's say a baseball pitchers throws, was just blinding for a heavyweight.) These were two "complimentary" fighters, whose 'styles' should have cancelled the other out in the favor of one or the other decisively, but the psychological component of their fights, the fire that Ali set off in Frazier's mind, ultimately burned Ali himself.<br />I know Joe never saw it this way, but it really is your opponents who help build your legacy in sports. Frazier was a king in a era of indefatigable warriors. He didn't rule in an era of bums. For that, his crown was perhaps less glamourous, as it was earned with a crazy kind of focused grit.<br />It's a crown, and Joe Frazier was an undisputed king for a time just the same.<br />-SJSJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17181694732531476160noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31964974.post-343565453075109222011-11-08T12:41:11.568-05:002011-11-08T12:41:11.568-05:00I apologize for the lack of formatting. And for th...I apologize for the lack of formatting. And for the line stating that Joe Frazier never spoke to Eddie Futch again. The two did indeed reconcile in later years.Mycue23https://www.blogger.com/profile/07474424588090159340noreply@blogger.com