WBC Hublot interviews - YouTube
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqydOIBtSTY&feature=player_embedded#!
WBC Hublot interviews - YouTube
Sunday, September 30, 2012
WBC Hublot interviews - Fund for Boxer Retirement Fund
WBC Hublot interviews - YouTube
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqydOIBtSTY&feature=player_embedded#!
WBC Hublot interviews - YouTube
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Former Soccer Player Joins Lawsuit Against N.C.A.A. - NYTimes.com
2 Comments
It was during a practice drill for her team at Ouachita Baptist University. Having suffered a couple of concussions since she started playing the sport when she was 4 years old, she played in headgear as a protective measure. But she said even that didn’t provide much reprieve when she was injured last year.
“It was hard for me to quit because it’s something I have done for 15 years,” she said. “But did I want to play soccer or get an education?”
Palacios has joined the high-profile head injury lawsuit against the N.C.A.A., widening the group of plaintiffs beyond male football players to include collegiate athletes in just about any sport – hockey, lacrosse and soccer players are among those now included in the class. While head injuries in football have gained attention in recent years, the toll has been less clear in other collegiate and elite sports like women’s soccer.
The suit argues that the N.C.A.A. “has engaged in a long-established pattern of negligence and inaction with respect to concussions and concussion-related maladies sustained by its student-athletes, all while profiting immensely from those same student-athletes.”
The complaint also claims that the N.C.A.A. has failed to implement “return to play” guidelines for athletes with concussions, and screening and detection guidelines for head injuries.
The allegations against the N.C.A.A. are “misguided and off-base,” a spokeswoman, Stacey Osburn, said in a statement.
“These claims demonstrate a clear lack of understanding of our long history of action on this matter,” Osburn said. “The N.C.A.A. has been at the forefront of safety issues throughout its existence, and the Association has specifically addressed the issue of head injuries through a combination of playing rules, equipment requirements and medical best practices.
“The N.C.A.A. has great compassion for student-athletes who are injured as a result of training, practice or competition, which fuels our desire to make student-athlete safety our top priority.”
A spokesman for Ouachita Baptist did not respond to a request for comment.
Palacios grew up in Mansfield, Tex., and started playing soccer after watching her brothers play. She played on top teams as a child and into high school, then landed a spot on the Ouachita Baptist team.
“It wasn’t just a hobby,” she said. “It was my life. It was something I knew I could count on. It was my time to get away and enjoy myself.”
For about three years before joining her college team, Palacios wore headgear while she played as a protective measure after having suffered earlier injuries.
During a practice drill in her sophomore year, Palacios said, she was hit right under her headgear by another player’s head while she was in a group of girls going for a header.
“It hit me in the eyebrow,” she said. “I turned and it was already swollen. There was a knot in my eyebrow.”
Her coach checked her injury and she was pulled off the field. Palacios said she felt dizzy and nauseated. The incident happened on a Tuesday and she didn’t play for the rest of the day. But Palacios said she was made to run the next Saturday and felt pressure from her coach to get back into the game, even though she didn’t feel well. “I didn’t want to cause any problems,” she said.
Today, she said, her eyesight in one eye is less than what it used to be, but she said she was lucky she was not hurt further.
“I don’t want anyone to go through anything like I did,” she said. Her headaches lasted for about a month and a half and her eye was black for three months, she said. But more alarming to Palacios was the toll the injuries took on her memory.
“I got frustrated easily because I couldn’t remember a lot of things,” she said. “Having to concentrate was just impossible.”
Palacios, 20, transferred to the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, where she is a junior. She no longer plays soccer.
“To play the sport at a competitive level, you have to be willing to head the ball and do whatever it takes,” she said. “I know some teams make their players wear headgear for this reason because it is so easy to get a concussion.”
Former Soccer Player Joins Lawsuit Against N.C.A.A. - NYTimes.com
Link: http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/former-soccer-player-joins-lawsuit-against-the-n-c-a-a/?src=recg
Former Soccer Player Joins Lawsuit Against N.C.A.A.
By MARY PILONAngelica Palacios can still remember the concussion that ended her collegiate soccer career.It was during a practice drill for her team at Ouachita Baptist University. Having suffered a couple of concussions since she started playing the sport when she was 4 years old, she played in headgear as a protective measure. But she said even that didn’t provide much reprieve when she was injured last year.
“It was hard for me to quit because it’s something I have done for 15 years,” she said. “But did I want to play soccer or get an education?”
Palacios has joined the high-profile head injury lawsuit against the N.C.A.A., widening the group of plaintiffs beyond male football players to include collegiate athletes in just about any sport – hockey, lacrosse and soccer players are among those now included in the class. While head injuries in football have gained attention in recent years, the toll has been less clear in other collegiate and elite sports like women’s soccer.
The suit argues that the N.C.A.A. “has engaged in a long-established pattern of negligence and inaction with respect to concussions and concussion-related maladies sustained by its student-athletes, all while profiting immensely from those same student-athletes.”
The complaint also claims that the N.C.A.A. has failed to implement “return to play” guidelines for athletes with concussions, and screening and detection guidelines for head injuries.
The allegations against the N.C.A.A. are “misguided and off-base,” a spokeswoman, Stacey Osburn, said in a statement.
“These claims demonstrate a clear lack of understanding of our long history of action on this matter,” Osburn said. “The N.C.A.A. has been at the forefront of safety issues throughout its existence, and the Association has specifically addressed the issue of head injuries through a combination of playing rules, equipment requirements and medical best practices.
“The N.C.A.A. has great compassion for student-athletes who are injured as a result of training, practice or competition, which fuels our desire to make student-athlete safety our top priority.”
A spokesman for Ouachita Baptist did not respond to a request for comment.
Palacios grew up in Mansfield, Tex., and started playing soccer after watching her brothers play. She played on top teams as a child and into high school, then landed a spot on the Ouachita Baptist team.
“It wasn’t just a hobby,” she said. “It was my life. It was something I knew I could count on. It was my time to get away and enjoy myself.”
For about three years before joining her college team, Palacios wore headgear while she played as a protective measure after having suffered earlier injuries.
During a practice drill in her sophomore year, Palacios said, she was hit right under her headgear by another player’s head while she was in a group of girls going for a header.
“It hit me in the eyebrow,” she said. “I turned and it was already swollen. There was a knot in my eyebrow.”
Her coach checked her injury and she was pulled off the field. Palacios said she felt dizzy and nauseated. The incident happened on a Tuesday and she didn’t play for the rest of the day. But Palacios said she was made to run the next Saturday and felt pressure from her coach to get back into the game, even though she didn’t feel well. “I didn’t want to cause any problems,” she said.
Today, she said, her eyesight in one eye is less than what it used to be, but she said she was lucky she was not hurt further.
“I don’t want anyone to go through anything like I did,” she said. Her headaches lasted for about a month and a half and her eye was black for three months, she said. But more alarming to Palacios was the toll the injuries took on her memory.
“I got frustrated easily because I couldn’t remember a lot of things,” she said. “Having to concentrate was just impossible.”
Palacios, 20, transferred to the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, where she is a junior. She no longer plays soccer.
“To play the sport at a competitive level, you have to be willing to head the ball and do whatever it takes,” she said. “I know some teams make their players wear headgear for this reason because it is so easy to get a concussion.”
Former Soccer Player Joins Lawsuit Against N.C.A.A. - NYTimes.com
Link: http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/former-soccer-player-joins-lawsuit-against-the-n-c-a-a/?src=recg
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
What will the Animal Conservationists have to say about this new television series?
Jane Goodall has been doing her best to remove monkeys and apes from acting roles where they are portrayed as cute little humanoids. It looks like "Animal Practice" is likely to setback her efforts another 50 years. This monkey is going to gain a huge fan base and has already been posted in this blog, there are already 17,000 of this type of monkey being kept as pets in America...
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Justin Kirk on the Monkey Business Behind "Animal Practice"
'Weeds' supporting player scrubs up for sitcom stardom.
Justin Kirk and Crystal the monkey star in NBC's "Animal Practice."
After eight seasons as the freewheeling, slacker brother-in-law Andy on “Weeds,” Kirk takes center stage in his own NBC sitcom “Animal Practice,” playing the flashy, arrogant but secretly soft-hearted veterinarian Dr. George Goodwin.
On getting competitive with scene-stealing co-star Crystal the monkey (“The Hangover 2”):
On getting competitive with scene-stealing co-star Crystal the monkey (“The Hangover 2”):
Believe me, in the beginning, I won't
lie, there was some jealousy, a little competitiveness – and that was
just from her. I think we both think we're the star of the show, but I
had a breakthrough recently, and this is quite honest: she's my best
friend and I think she only serves me and I her. That's this job. That's
part of something that I'm looking forward to: actually acting with
her.
On animal ownership:
I don't have any animals at home
because if you're doing a TV show or if you're doing movies or plays,
you've got to leave for long periods of time and I don't want to stick
my dog in the kennel. I grew up with dogs, a big dog that looked like
Old Yeller, and I had a three-legged dog. I grew up in a very rural area
when I was a kid, so we found her after having her leg caught in a
trap. Not “rescue”-rescue – we lived in the middle of nowhere, so that
was a real rescue.
On shadowing a real vet:
On shadowing a real vet:
One of my closest friends in New York
is an exclusive cat veterinarian, and so I've spent some time with him,
and I'm going to continue to do the same while I'm in L.A., yes. I
think that's probably important.
Read more:
Sonny Liston vs Cleveland Williams II - YouTube
by sweetfights on May 21, 2008
A great battle between two of the top sluggers of the era. The greatly feared Sonny Liston faces Cleveland Big Cat Williams for the second time.
Short, conclusive and powerfull.
Short, conclusive and powerfull.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO6gqaQ5uC4&feature=related
Sonny Liston the Night Train - YouTube
George Foreman modeled his tough guy act on Liston, that was during George's first career on the way to the title. His second career George came on as Mr. Nice Guy.
by Gaur1983 on Apr 4, 2008
Sonny's greatest hits set to the beat of James Brown.
Sonny Liston the Night Train - YouTube
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXSJIxIe_AE&feature=related
The lost tape of Muhammad Ali
Ali was always trying to have some fun with his celebrity status...
Muhammad Ali, former heavyweight champ, at Miami Beach Convention Center where he beat Sonny Liston.(Photo: H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY)
8:28PM EST September 18. 2012 - It is the ultimate lesson on the payoff of persistence, no matter who you are, and it's a story that took place 46 years ago.
Michael Aisner was a 17-year-old high school student In suburban Chicago in 1966, when he and a buddy set out to score the near impossible -- an interview with his idol and then-heavyweight champion of the world Muhammad Ali. He made several phone calls to the gym where Ali trained, and when Aisner said he was with a high school radio station he was told the champ didn't have time.
Finally, after a number of calls, a man Aisner believes was Ali aide Jeremiah Shabazz gave in and said the champ would talk to him.
Aisner and his friend drove from Winnetka, north of Chicago, to the tough south side of town, where the Muhammad Ali Fan Club was located.
Aisner says he and his friend watched as Ali screeched up in front of the building in a red Cadillac and jumped out. For 20 minutes, Aisner interviewed one of the planet's most well-known people, who launched into an unprompted diatribe about traveling to Mars and fighting for the intergalactic boxing championship.
Great interview, except for one minor detail: Aisner, now 63, said he forgot to turn his tape recorder on. ....
Listen at USA Today
The lost tape of Muhammad Ali
Link: http://beta.usatoday.com/story/gameon/2012/09/18/the-lost-tape-of-muhammad-ali/1579353/
Or:
Muhammad Ali, former heavyweight champ, at Miami Beach Convention Center where he beat Sonny Liston.(Photo: H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY)
Lost 'Martian' interview with Muhammad Ali resurfaces
0 Comments
Michael Aisner was a 17-year-old high school student In suburban Chicago in 1966, when he and a buddy set out to score the near impossible -- an interview with his idol and then-heavyweight champion of the world Muhammad Ali. He made several phone calls to the gym where Ali trained, and when Aisner said he was with a high school radio station he was told the champ didn't have time.
Finally, after a number of calls, a man Aisner believes was Ali aide Jeremiah Shabazz gave in and said the champ would talk to him.
Aisner and his friend drove from Winnetka, north of Chicago, to the tough south side of town, where the Muhammad Ali Fan Club was located.
Aisner says he and his friend watched as Ali screeched up in front of the building in a red Cadillac and jumped out. For 20 minutes, Aisner interviewed one of the planet's most well-known people, who launched into an unprompted diatribe about traveling to Mars and fighting for the intergalactic boxing championship.
Great interview, except for one minor detail: Aisner, now 63, said he forgot to turn his tape recorder on. ....
Listen at USA Today
The lost tape of Muhammad Ali
Link: http://beta.usatoday.com/story/gameon/2012/09/18/the-lost-tape-of-muhammad-ali/1579353/
Or:
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Former heavyweight champ Corrie Sanders, 46, shot dead
Corrie Sanders was a flash sensation knocking out Klitschko in the 2nd round.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) -- Corrie Sanders, the South African southpaw who knocked out Wladimir Klitschko in one of the great upsets in heavyweight boxing, has died after being shot by robbers at a restaurant during a family celebration.
The former WBO and WBU champion was 46.
Sanders was shot in the hand and stomach at a family member's 21st birthday party at the restaurant in Brits, in South Africa's North West province, on Saturday night, police said. He died in a hospital in the capital city of Pretoria in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Police Brigadier Thulani Ngubane said three armed men entered the restaurant with the apparent intention to rob it and shot randomly, hitting Sanders. No other injuries were reported. The robbers took a cellphone and a bag from customers, Ngubane said.
No arrests had been made but a murder investigation has been opened.
Renowned for his hand speed, the 6-4 Sanders was one of South Africa's most successful and popular fighters after a nearly 20-year professional career.
He retired in 2008 with a 42-4 record, with 31 knockouts. But he was most remembered for the shocking second-round knockout of Klitschko in Germany in 2003 that earned him the WBO title and respect across the world as a wily, fast and clever fighter and powerful puncher.
It is one of only three losses for the Ukrainian and current WBO champion. Sanders agreed to the fight on short notice and was a 40-1 underdog. The result was voted as the upset of the year by Ring Magazine.
He then lost to Wladimir's older brother Vitali for the vacant WBC title the following year, Vitali's first fight for the title he still holds. Sanders had earlier relinquished his WBU crown in a seventh-round stoppage by Hasim Rahman after being ahead in their fight in 2000.
Born in Pretoria, Sanders began his professional boxing career in 1989 with a first-round TKO of King Kong Dyubele. Eighteen of the fast-starting Sanders' 31 career knockouts came in the first round.
Sanders hung up his gloves in 2008 after being knocked out by Osborne Machimana for the South African heavyweight title — in the first round.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Former heavyweight champ Corrie Sanders, 46, shot dead
Link: http://beta.usatoday.com/story/sports/boxing/results/2012/09/23/former-heavyweight-champ-corrie-sanders-shot-dead/1587809/
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) -- Corrie Sanders, the South African southpaw who knocked out Wladimir Klitschko in one of the great upsets in heavyweight boxing, has died after being shot by robbers at a restaurant during a family celebration.
The former WBO and WBU champion was 46.
Sanders was shot in the hand and stomach at a family member's 21st birthday party at the restaurant in Brits, in South Africa's North West province, on Saturday night, police said. He died in a hospital in the capital city of Pretoria in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Police Brigadier Thulani Ngubane said three armed men entered the restaurant with the apparent intention to rob it and shot randomly, hitting Sanders. No other injuries were reported. The robbers took a cellphone and a bag from customers, Ngubane said.
No arrests had been made but a murder investigation has been opened.
Renowned for his hand speed, the 6-4 Sanders was one of South Africa's most successful and popular fighters after a nearly 20-year professional career.
He retired in 2008 with a 42-4 record, with 31 knockouts. But he was most remembered for the shocking second-round knockout of Klitschko in Germany in 2003 that earned him the WBO title and respect across the world as a wily, fast and clever fighter and powerful puncher.
It is one of only three losses for the Ukrainian and current WBO champion. Sanders agreed to the fight on short notice and was a 40-1 underdog. The result was voted as the upset of the year by Ring Magazine.
He then lost to Wladimir's older brother Vitali for the vacant WBC title the following year, Vitali's first fight for the title he still holds. Sanders had earlier relinquished his WBU crown in a seventh-round stoppage by Hasim Rahman after being ahead in their fight in 2000.
Born in Pretoria, Sanders began his professional boxing career in 1989 with a first-round TKO of King Kong Dyubele. Eighteen of the fast-starting Sanders' 31 career knockouts came in the first round.
Sanders hung up his gloves in 2008 after being knocked out by Osborne Machimana for the South African heavyweight title — in the first round.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Former heavyweight champ Corrie Sanders, 46, shot dead
Link: http://beta.usatoday.com/story/sports/boxing/results/2012/09/23/former-heavyweight-champ-corrie-sanders-shot-dead/1587809/
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Jack Dempsey vs. Luis Firpo - YouTube
by elgrandecaudillo on Jan 17, 2007
This legendary fight took place on September 14 1923, at the Polo Grounds in New York. After being knocked out the ring, Jack Dempsey struck back and dropped Firpo numerous times until the referee stopped the fight.
Jack Dempsey vs. Luis Firpo - YouTube
Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini vs Art Frias (Part 1)-Round 1 - YouTube
This fight shows why Ray was considered a very exciting fighter.
Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini vs Art Frias (Part 1)-Round 1 - YouTube
Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini vs Art Frias (Part 1)-Round 1 - YouTube
Filmmakers: Why arent more people freaking out about head injuries in sports?
The Cycle | Aired on September 21, 2012
Filmmakers: 'Why aren't more people freaking out' about head injuries in sports?
"Head Games" director Steve James and Chris Nowinski, author of the original book by the same name, join the cycle to talk about their documentary that raises awareness about head injuries in sports. The Cycle gets into the ramifications of this information on kids, and professionals, in sports.
Link: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/the-cycle/49123661/#49123661 NBCNews.com video: Filmmakers: Why arent more people freaking out about head injuries in sports?
Exciting Canelo Alvarez is ready for boxing's Elite fighters
LAS VEGAS (AP) — When Saul "Canelo" Alvarez was asked at his post-fight news conference whether he's ready to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr., the young champion showed off both his growing grasp of English and his flair for the dramatic.
"I was born ready," he said to laughter and cheers.
Even at this early stage of his pro career, Alvarez is confident his moment for global stardom is rapidly arriving. After all, he sold out the MGM Grand Garden for his first major event as a headliner in the U.S. on Saturday night, even for a fight against an overmatched opponent — and even while another beloved Mexican boxer fought just a few blocks down Tropicana Avenue.
Promoter Richard Schaefer says the weekend's show, culminating in Alvarez's beatdown of 12-to-1 underdog Josesito Lopez, only proves his 22-year-old redhead is a superstar who's ready to take on the biggest names between 147 and 160 pounds: Mayweather, Miguel Cotto, Sergio Martinez or anybody else willing to tangle with Canelo.
The Golden Boy Promotions CEO thinks the bout and the crowd's reaction to it was "the coming-out party for Canelo Alvarez."
"You saw the quality. You saw the reactions from fans, the electricity in the air," Schaefer added. "It was maybe one of the best nights of boxing Golden Boy has ever put on."
Alvarez (41-0-1, 30 KOs) has won 37 consecutive fights, and he defended his WBC 154-pound belt with brute efficiency, battering the undersized Lopez until referee Joe Cortez stopped it with 5 seconds left in the fifth round.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Canelo-Alvarez-is-ready-for-boxing-s-biggest-foes-3869863.php#ixzz27ByTeJaL
Canelo Alvarez is ready for boxing's biggest foes - SFGate
Friday, September 21, 2012
Doctors Clear Jets Cornerback Darrelle Revis for Contact - NYTimes.com
Indespensible players get hurt but there is little time given for recovery when he is so important to the team. Of course, he is going to say he feels good. Football is a macho sport. What's he supposed to do? Burst into tears and complain about a headache?
If you ask a boxer how he feels just after he gets his bell rung, he is going to say he is fine. It is seen over and over again, the ref wipes the fighters gloves and calls for the action to resume and POW! the fight is over when the hurt fighter takes one more big shot to the head.
...............................................................
September 20, 2012
Doctors Clear Jets Cornerback for Contact
By DAVE CALDWELL
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis was cleared for contact Thursday, and his coaches and teammates all but had a party. He participated full-speed at practice, jamming receivers for the first time in 11 days — and enjoying it.
“I can bang my head on a wall if I want to,” he joked, referring to a concussion that kept him out of a dismal 27-10 loss to Pittsburgh.
The Jets will probably not ask him to try that just for fun, but they will be delighted if he can play Sunday against the Miami Dolphins. Rex Ryan said he would defer to doctors and trainers for the final say, but he said he expected Revis to play.
“I think you feel good when you have the best player on the field,” Ryan said before practice.
“That can’t hurt you, no matter how you look at it. There’s only one Darrelle Revis. I know I feel good about it. It’s hard not to smile if he’s out there. You feel great as a playcaller. You feel good having the best player.”
Revis sustained a concussion while making a tackle — then being inadvertently kicked in the head by Jets linebacker Bart Scott — in the fourth quarter of the season opener against Buffalo. He did not make the trip to Pittsburgh.
Revis sounded as if he would be ready for anything. After good-naturedly discussing the specifics of a concussion test for nearly two weeks, he was talking about playing a game, fitting into a defensive scheme again.
“I’m just one guy,” he said.
“We have 10 other guys out there on defense. I’m excited to be back. I’m ready to do my job. And the job I always do is to compete and play.”
Doctors Clear Jets Cornerback Darrelle Revis for Contact - NYTimes.com
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/sports/football/doctors-clear-jets-cornerback-darrelle-revis-for-contact.html?src=recg
If you ask a boxer how he feels just after he gets his bell rung, he is going to say he is fine. It is seen over and over again, the ref wipes the fighters gloves and calls for the action to resume and POW! the fight is over when the hurt fighter takes one more big shot to the head.
...............................................................
September 20, 2012
Doctors Clear Jets Cornerback for Contact
By DAVE CALDWELL
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis was cleared for contact Thursday, and his coaches and teammates all but had a party. He participated full-speed at practice, jamming receivers for the first time in 11 days — and enjoying it.
“I can bang my head on a wall if I want to,” he joked, referring to a concussion that kept him out of a dismal 27-10 loss to Pittsburgh.
The Jets will probably not ask him to try that just for fun, but they will be delighted if he can play Sunday against the Miami Dolphins. Rex Ryan said he would defer to doctors and trainers for the final say, but he said he expected Revis to play.
“I think you feel good when you have the best player on the field,” Ryan said before practice.
“That can’t hurt you, no matter how you look at it. There’s only one Darrelle Revis. I know I feel good about it. It’s hard not to smile if he’s out there. You feel great as a playcaller. You feel good having the best player.”
Revis sustained a concussion while making a tackle — then being inadvertently kicked in the head by Jets linebacker Bart Scott — in the fourth quarter of the season opener against Buffalo. He did not make the trip to Pittsburgh.
Revis sounded as if he would be ready for anything. After good-naturedly discussing the specifics of a concussion test for nearly two weeks, he was talking about playing a game, fitting into a defensive scheme again.
“I’m just one guy,” he said.
“We have 10 other guys out there on defense. I’m excited to be back. I’m ready to do my job. And the job I always do is to compete and play.”
Doctors Clear Jets Cornerback Darrelle Revis for Contact - NYTimes.com
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/sports/football/doctors-clear-jets-cornerback-darrelle-revis-for-contact.html?src=recg
NFL brain injuries nearing crisis level - SFGate
The National Football League is facing a crisis that could forever change, if not end, the sport.
This might sound fantastical. After all, there is no sport and no spectacle bigger than the NFL.
The league takes in more than $9 billion in revenue each year.
NBC's "Sunday Night Football" was the No. 1 show on television last season.
The Super Bowl was the most watched show in the history of this country.
The second most watched show? That would be last year's Super Bowl.
Given the hype that surrounds the league, it speaks volumes that the start of the 2012 season was marked not with fireworks or military planes screeching across the sky but a somber, one-page press release.
The notice was from the office of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, and it announced that the NFL would donate $30 million to the National Institute of Health to study the effects of traumatic brain injuries.
The very same day, in news that didn't make an NFL press release,
the journal Neurology released an exhaustive study showing that former NFL players are three to four times more likely to suffer brain diseases than the rest of the population.
It's not surprising that the NFL wants to focus on how it is helping the study of brain injury instead of
being a remorseless profit machine that causes brain injuries.
The biggest story of the off-season wasn't the NFL draft or the possible destination of free-agent quarterback Peyton Manning.
It was the suicide of future Hall of Fame linebacker Junior Seau in May.
Seau shot himself in the chest, the same very rare manner of suicide undertaken last year by former Chicago Bears player Dave Duerson.
Suicide:
Duerson said he was choosing this method so his brain could be studied to see if it was head injuries that made him so unbearably despondent.
(Studies after his death did reveal that Duerson suffered from CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a post-concussive syndrome.)
The league is being sued by 2,000 former players, including Hall of Famers Bruce Smith and Art Monk, who contend that the league doctors and officials knew the risks of traumatic brain injury and did nothing.
This lawsuit leads back to Seau, because one thing we know for sure is that not once in his 20-year career was Seau ever diagnosed with a concussion on an injury report. This is either a miracle on par with turning water into wine, or doctors just didn't report concussions when they occurred.
Seau's friend and teammate in San Diego, Gary Plummer, said, "Junior played for 20 seasons. That's five concussions a game, easily. How many in his career then? That's over 1,500 concussions."
Plummer is not talking about concussions like the kind of "lights-out hit" that the sports highlight shows giddily replay on a loop with a graphic describing how a player was "jacked up."
He is talking about the daily wear-and-tear of playing in the NFL, about the contact you see on every play.
These are called sub-concussive hits, and when experienced in constant repetition, they have been conclusively linked to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
(Mr. Turley provides a graphic description of the daily wear-and -tear of playing football for those of us who missed out on the fun of this sport. Boxing was my full contact sport and the seeing of spots and regular headaches occur in boxing, as well. But football sounds even rougher because so many hits come out of left field, out of your field of vision not allowing you to brace for the hit. In boxing it is the punch the guy doesn't see that knocks him out.)
Kyle Turley, a former Pro Bowl offensive lineman, described the process of receiving sub-concussive hits on the field of play: "You start on your own 5-yard line and drive all the way down the field - 15, 18 plays in a row sometimes.
Every play: collision, collision, collision.
By the time you get to the other end of the field, you're seeing spots. You feel like you are going to black out. Literally, these white explosions - boom, boom, boom - lights getting dimmer and brighter, dimmer and brighter."
The implications of CTE coming from normal, regular contact on the field of play are huge, from the leagues populated by 7- and 8-year-olds to the pros.
It tells us that despite all we read about rule changes, high-tech helmets and educating players about health and safety, you can make the game safer, but only so much.
Tackle football is like a cigarette:
You can have one with a bigger filter or less tar.
It can even be an all-natural American Spirit brand, but no matter how much we lie to ourselves, the stubborn truth is that there is no such thing as a safe cigarette, just as there is no such thing as a safe football game.
In the past year, 1 million fewer children signed up for youth tackle football in the United States.
There will always be people willing to play in the National Football League.
If fans start to see an ordinary tackle football game as a breeding ground for brain diseases, - like Alzheimer's, ALS and dementia, - the public could turn away in enough numbers that being a fan will carry a stigma.
All of a sudden, loving "the greatest show on turf" would be akin to being seen as being a Sunday sadist.
Dave Zirin writes about the intersection of sports and politics. He is the author of the forthcoming "Game Over: How Politics Have Turned the Sports World Upside Down" (The New Press).
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/NFL-brain-injuries-nearing-crisis-level-3884267.php#ixzz27AdZr9qe
Link: http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/NFL-brain-injuries-nearing-crisis-level-3884267.php
NFL brain injuries nearing crisis level - SFGate
Despite Risks, N.F.L. Leaves Helmet Choices in Players’ Hands - NYTimes.com
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
With few league safety standards, Giants players may wear a helmet based on looks or comfort.
September 20, 2012
Despite Risks, N.F.L. Leaves Helmet Choices in Players’ Hands
By SAM BORDEN
In the National Football League, there are rules and restrictions on everything from how much white can show on a player’s socks to what sort of sweatbands can be worn on the wrists. Yet when it comes to the most critical piece of equipment — the helmet — the league provides little guidance and essentially leaves the decision up to each player.
Even as head injuries have become a major concern, the N.F.L. has neither mandated nor officially recommended the helmet models that have tested as the top performers in protecting against collisions believed to be linked to concussions. Some players choose a helmet based on how it looks on television, or they simply wear the brand they have been using their whole career, even if its technology is antiquated. As a consequence, despite lawsuits related to head injuries and the sport’s ever-increasing speed and violence, some players are using helmets that appear to place them at greater risk.
“Frankly, the league has been far more aggressive about thigh and hip pads than they have about ensuring that every player has access and information regarding helmets,” said DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the N.F.L. Players Association.
The rules governing helmets are not complex. The league stipulates only that any helmet certified by the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment, or Nocsae, may be worn. That broad standard allows players to use models that may be archaic or did not score well on specific impact tests.
Perhaps most important, while Nocsae’s standards are based on preventing so-called catastrophic injuries like skull fractures, those standards do not necessarily align with testing designed to simulate the collisions associated with concussions. This discrepancy, some observers say, could be likened to someone judging a modern car’s safety based only on its seat belts, with no extra credit given for models that also have air bags.
Two years ago, as public awareness grew along with the number of concussion-related lawsuits involving former players, the N.F.L. and the players union commissioned an independent study that identified three helmet models — the Revolution and the Revolution Speed, both manufactured by Riddell, and the DNA Pro, made by Schutt — as the top performers in protecting against collisions believed to be linked to concussions. But the league did not require nor officially recommend those helmets, opting only to send a memo to teams explaining the results. The reason, a league spokesman said, was that the study was not definitive with regard to actual on-field performance.
Additionally, while the N.F.L. holds twice-yearly seminars for team equipment managers, there is no formal oversight of team operations with regard to helmets, leaving the process in the hands of each player and his team.
For some players, the choice is easy: the helmet that looks best on TV is the one they want. Giants linebacker Keith Rivers, a five-year professional, said there was no doubt that “a lot of guys go looks first,” preferring more classic models. Modern helmets like the Schutt DNA Pro look “a little Darth Vaderish,” Rivers said, and are turnoffs to some even if they rate higher in safety tests.
Other players, particularly veterans, simply wear the helmet models they have always worn, some of which can be outdated. Tony Boselli, an offensive lineman who played in the N.F.L. from 1995 to 2002, said players “just wore what the teams gave us.”
“I didn’t even think about asking for something else,” he said.
Giants center David Baas, who is in his eighth N.F.L. season, said veterans can be hesitant to change anything related to their equipment. “Some guys don’t want to switch because they’re comfortable in the same one they’ve had since college or whatever,” he said. “I change almost every year to get what’s new, but lots of guys don’t. It’s just not on their radar.”
The Giants’ equipment director, Joe Skiba, fills out a profile sheet for each new player, complete with physical attributes, personality traits and equipment preferences, including what type of helmet the player wore previously. Any player who is interested can follow Skiba down a short hallway from the team’s main equipment workshop into a cinderblock-walled room with fluorescent lighting. Inside is a row of tall gray metal racks that slide open electronically, as if in a warehouse.
All types of gear fill the shelves, and two of the racks are dedicated solely to helmets. Skiba, a member of the league’s subcommittee on safety equipment and playing rules, said he spent so much time around helmets that he could tell a player’s model simply by looking at the marks the pads left on the player’s forehead. He talks passionately about the intricacies of helmet technology.
“If you’re excited about your job and show it, and make it clear that it’s important to you, the players will take that cue,” Skiba said.
With 32 N.F.L. teams, however, each with different budgets and equipment staffs, there appear to be variations in how helmet distributions are handled. While some teams, like the Giants, the Atlanta Falcons and the Miami Dolphins, are known as fastidious and well-stocked, the players union has received complaints in recent seasons, according to an official with knowledge of the criticisms, about teams’ having few models available for players to test. This is an important factor, players say, because they are reluctant to ask for a helmet they have not tried in practice.
There have also been accusations that teams have failed to obtain requested models in a timely manner, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly.
The Cincinnati Bengals and the Kansas City Chiefs were two of the teams cited, the official said. Rivers, who spent four seasons with the Bengals before joining the Giants, said that in Cincinnati “our team had used a lot of Riddells, and I wanted a Schutt, so I had to complain for a while.”
“I finally got one like weeks and weeks later,” he said. “Here, you say what you want and you get it.”
The Bengals disputed Rivers’s account and said the team was not aware of any complaints about his helmet procedure. “The Bengals will provide players with any Nocsae-approved helmet they request, and the club handles all expenses,” the team said in a statement. A spokesman for the Chiefs declined to comment.
Smith, the head of the players union, declined to identify or address specific complaints but said: “We are aware of disparities, and we have raised it with the N.F.L., not only this year but for the past several years. The fact that there continues to be disparities is unacceptable.”
Some observers question whether the league’s 23-year partnership with Riddell sends the wrong message. Because Riddell is the official helmet manufacturer of the N.F.L., it is the only brand name allowed to appear on helmets in use. For the roughly 30 percent of players who use a different brand, the rubberized plate where the brand name would appear contains a team logo.
The agreement with Riddell does not include specific provisions for preferred pricing or free items for N.F.L. teams, but as a general league policy, all equipment companies are allowed to provide favorable pricing. This can create perception issues: for example, Riddell offers a program in which a team that outfits a high percentage of its players in Riddell helmets — believed to be roughly 90 percent to 95 percent — is eligible to receive free helmets from the company, perhaps an incentive for budget-minded franchises.
Then there is the issue of consistency. When it comes to potentially mandating certain types of helmets beyond the Nocsae standard — based on a yearly study similar to the one the league and the union already commissioned, for example — the league says it believes such a measure would stifle innovation among the manufacturers. Some helmet manufacturers say the opposite would be true.
Kevin Guskiewicz, a professor at the University of North Carolina and a member of the N.F.L.’s head, neck and spine committee, said that permitting Riddell to be the only brand identified on the field could also be misleading to fans or to parents considering buying helmets for their children.
“I think we need to get away from ‘the’ helmet of the N.F.L.,” Guskiewicz said. “The fact that only one helmet can be advertised, the perception is there that they don’t have a choice. I think we need to educate them about that choice.”
A league spokesman said that when the N.F.L.’s agreement with Riddell ends in 2014, the situation will be re-evaluated. Until then, the circumstances surrounding helmet selection seem unlikely to change.
Ultimately, it is up to each player to make what is almost certainly the most important health-related equipment choice of his career — even if there is no guarantee that each player will be presented with similar information or options.
“This is our livelihood,” Giants quarterback Eli Manning said. “It’s one of the biggest decisions we make.”
Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/sports/football/despite-risks-nfl-leaves-helmet-choices-in-players-hands.html?src=recg
Despite Risks, N.F.L. Leaves Helmet Choices in Players’ Hands - NYTimes.com
The Hockey Song by Warren Zevon - YouTube
Warren sings about Hockey fighting and the
GOON system of protecting the STARS...
The Hockey Song by Warren Zevon - YouTube
GOON system of protecting the STARS...
The Hockey Song by Warren Zevon - YouTube
Warren Zevon - Boom Boom Mancini - YouTube
by BlancotronCC on Jun 25, 2007
From 1987: Another great Zevon live performance.
Warren Zevon - Boom Boom Mancini - YouTube
Mancini-Kim 25 Years Later.MPG - YouTube
by boxinginfo on Dec 23, 2009
Very nice revisit to what changed boxing back in November 1982.
Mancini-Kim 25 Years Later.MPG - YouTube
Ray Mancini and Duk-koo Kim - NYTimes.com
Scott Henry/Associated Press
Ray Mancini, the W.B.A. lightweight champion, and the Korean challenger Duk-koo Kim. Proud and determined, Kim had declared ominously before their fight,
"Either he dies, or I die."
September 16, 2012
A Step Back
By MARK KRIEGEL
As a boy, Ray Mancini would pore over his father’s scrapbook, a collection of brittle-brown newspaper clippings and sepia-toned glossies, inevitably pausing to study the photograph of his father as a young fighter, his features bloodied and swollen, the right eye clenched shut like the seam of a mussel shell.
“I didn’t win ’em all,” Lenny Mancini would tell his son. “But I never took a step back.”
The elder Mancini had been a No. 1 contender in the abundantly talented lightweight division. But his dream of a title shot ended Nov. 10, 1944, near the French town of Metz, when he was hit with shrapnel from a German mortar shell.
Four decades later, his son entered the national consciousness. Ray called himself Boom Boom, too, just like the old man. But coming out of Youngstown, Ohio, at the cusp of the 1980s, Ray also represented those felled when the steel belt turned to rust. As refracted through the lens of television, he became The Last White Ethnic, a redemptive fable produced by CBS Sports.
Mancini won the lightweight title with a first-round knockout live from Vegas, the broadcast sponsored by Michelin (“the company that pioneered the radial”), Michelob (“smooth and mellow”) and the Norelco Rototract rechargeable. That was 1982. He was only 21, but already a modern allegory, as bankable as he was adored.
Then he fought Duk-koo Kim.
Kim had hit the Korean exacta at birth: dirt-poor and dark-skinned. But the prospect of a title shot seemed to ennoble him. He became fierce for the sake of his family. At the time of the Mancini fight, his fiancée was pregnant with their son.
If only Kim had taken a step back, he might have lived to see that boy.
These days, Ray is likely to be found at a trattoria in a Santa Monica strip mall. He’ll likely be joined by one of the regulars — the playwright David Mamet; the actor Ed O’Neill, an old friend from Youngstown; or maybe Ray-Ray, now 15, the youngest of Mancini’s three children.
Occasionally, patrons pull the waiter aside and point at Ray.
“What was he in?” they ask.
“That’s Ray ‘Boom Boom’ Mancini,” the waiter says. “Lightweight champion of the world.”
“He’s the guy who killed the guy, right? The Korean?”
DUK-KOO KIM was born July 29, 1955. At age 2, he survived the virus that killed his biological father. When he was not yet 5, his mother — Sun-nyo Yang, whom he’d remember as “a woman of great misfortune” — left his stepfather, a bean curd peddler whose oldest son had become violently abusive.
On the morning Sun-nyo fled with Duk-koo, she carried all their possessions on her head. Finally, at sundown, they stopped in a town 18 kilometers from the demilitarized zone that separated North and South Korea. Banam was a poor fishing village. But to Sun-nyo and her children, the townsfolk must have seemed well off. “I was not embarrassed when I saw my mother begging for food because I was so hungry,” Duk-koo wrote.
It was in Banam that Sun-nyo met her last husband. His name was Kim, the most common of Korean surnames. He was a farmer and a fisherman, with a small patch for rice and an old boat he would take out into the East Sea for mackerel, cuttlefish and octopus. Home was a block from the shore — a ramshackle house with a thatched roof and walls fashioned of mud and plywood. A partitioned cinderblock structure in the yard served as both an outhouse and a shelter for the family’s most valued possession, a cow.
Duk-koo became the youngest son in the new family. In the summer, he would swim out under a blazing red sun to catch fish and scallops. In the autumn, he’d fry locusts to eat as a snack. In the winter, with snow covering the mountain that rose behind Road No. 7, he and his brothers would corral rabbits and bludgeon them with sticks.
Elementary school was a shameful experience; his tuition was usually in arrears. “I would ask my mother for some money, and each time, she would say she didn’t have it,” Duk-koo recalled. “She would hit me every time I asked.”
He didn’t fare much better with his fellow students. Duk-koo fought often but not well. These fits of ill-temperedness would often conclude with a teacher pinning a letter to his shirt and parading him around the school.
Duk-koo later recalled in his journal: “One new brother used to drag me around forcing me to fight with other village kids. The older kids enjoyed watching our fights, and I despise them even today for it.”
He left Banam as a teenager and found his way to Seoul, where he lived under a bridge for a time and subsisted on crackers. Eventually, he held jobs as a welder and a peddler of chestnuts, pogo sticks, palm-reading manuals and ballpoint pens.
But it wasn’t until he wandered into the Dong-ah boxing gym that he found a place where he could exploit his rage and ambition. The country’s premier gym, it was run, in an iron-fisted way, by a former fighter named Hyun-chi Kim.
“I noticed he was worse off than the others,” Hyun-chi says of Duk-koo. “I didn’t think he was fighter material.”
Duk-koo’s aptitude for pugilism was not immediately apparent. He didn’t have heavy hands. He wasn’t fast, or possessed of great stamina. But Yoon-gu Kim, a welterweight, vividly recalls the first time he really hit Duk-koo. Duk-koo just smiled.
“He was more strong-willed and ruthless than others,” Yoon-gu says.
Duk-koo didn’t train so much as endure. As he wrote in his journal, “Poverty is my teacher.”
ONE FLIGHT ABOVE the Dong-ah gym was a tea company, which employed a bookkeeper named Young-mi Lee. She was pale and proper, very pretty, and very Christian. For Duk-koo, gaining her favor seemed slightly less probable than winning the championship of the world.
They bumped into each other on the stairway. Young-mi could feel his eyes on her, but she was not the least bit interested.
“My parents weren’t so ambitious as to wish to have a doctor or a lawyer as a son-in-law,” she says. “But they wanted me to marry a regular salaryman.”
Definitely not a fighter.
“I refused to see him,” Young-mi says. “I avoided him.”
But Duk-koo remained undeterred, if slightly deluded, with a talkative arrogance that belied his station in life. He spoke as if he were destined for fame and fortune, in love and boxing. He responded to Young-mi’s reticence with love letters. Good ones, too.
“They opened my heart,” she says, recalling a line from the first one she received:
...When a man cries because his heart aches, the whole world, heaven and earth, cries with him ....
Before agreeing to a date, Young-mi issued a test: “I made him pledge then and there he wouldn’t box again,” she says.
He swore he would not.
Young-mi had no intention of actually making him quit. “I could see how much he loved boxing,” she says. “It was the thought and the commitment that counted — that he could even think about quitting.”
Still, the testing wasn’t done. Young-mi’s disapproving father invited Duk-koo to the family’s home to make his case. Duk-koo told his story, as he’d written it in his journal. Young-mi’s father found Duk-koo, an avid reader of novels and histories like the Samgukji, the history of China’s three ancient kingdoms, to be surprisingly articulate.
“He was quite persuasive,” Young-mi recalls. “My father had fled from the north during the Korean War and experienced much hardship. So after hearing about the life that Kim had, he gave in.”
Korean fighters were not supposed to have girlfriends. It was considered bad form, as romance was thought to corrupt the fighting spirit. Hyun-chi Kim, the gym’s owner, considered disciplining Duk-koo when he found out about Young-mi. Just the same, neither he nor anyone else at Dong-ah could deny the strangely salutary effect the relationship had on Duk-koo.
“He was even more diligent once he got a girlfriend,” recalls Yoon-gu.
He would talk for hours with Sang-bong Lee, a featherweight whom he had befriended, arriving at a pugilistic philosophy not unlike the ancient Hwarang warriors, who eschewed the idea of retreat in battle.
“Stepping back was shameful,” Sang-bong says.
By now, several years into Duk-koo’s tenure at Dong-ah, his stablemates were having trouble reconciling the itinerant hillbilly who arrived in 1977 with the fighter now challenging for the Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation title. Duk-koo was not a great fighter, but after meeting Young-mi, he became a brave one, and his unanimous decision over Kwang-min Kim on Feb. 28, 1982, made him the World Boxing Association’s No. 1 contender.
Duk-koo used the proceeds of the Kwang-min Kim fight to buy a real suit and rent a two-bedroom apartment for him and Young-mi. By the spring of 1982, the couple was discussing marriage. They had engagement parties for her family in Seoul and for his in Banam. But Duk-koo was never happier than the day he hosted a barbecue at the apartment he now shared with his fiancée.
“He was full of confidence, and so much pride,” says Seo-in Seong, another Dong-ah fighter. “He believed that the whole world was his.”
In early November, Young-mi found herself on a second-floor balcony at Kimpo International Airport. In observing that ancient Asian prohibition against fighters taking lovers, she could not be seen with Duk-koo’s modest entourage, or by the gaggle of reporters following them as they boarded their flight to the United States for the Mancini fight. Her fiancé had made news with intemperate remarks that he would beat Mancini, that only one of them would return home alive.
“Either he dies,” Duk-koo said, “or I die.”
And now Young-mi was forced to watch without saying goodbye. She could not so much as wave. Even as tears streamed down her face, the dance had begun, the ballet of blood and light in her tummy. She was pregnant with Duk-koo’s son.
ON THE NIGHT of Sunday, Nov. 6, 1982, the challenger and his handlers landed in Las Vegas. They were in awe of the wide roads and the immensity of the blinking neon Strip. Caesars casino was so bright it felt like broad daylight, its shimmer accentuated by big breasted cocktail waitresses in Roman tunics and high-piled ponytails of fake blond hair. Sudden converts to kismet, the religion of all gamblers, they went straight to the slot machines.
“This is like heaven,” Duk-koo Kim said.
Later that week, Ralph Wiley of Sports Illustrated met Kim in his darkened suite, the air heavy with incense. Wiley asked about the fighter’s chin, grabbing his own chin and moving his jaw from side to side.
“Kim’s expression changed,” Wiley wrote. “I would like to say he smiled, but it was something else. Scorn. He gently touched his jaw with two fingers of his right hand, then without averting his gaze, he reached over and touched the marble window sill with the same two fingers, just as gently. He turned to face the desert. The interview was over.”
In another interview, Royce Feour of The Las Vegas Review-Journal noticed the neatly lettered Korean characters on the lampshade by the fighter’s bed.
“Live or die,” he was told. Or, in the American colloquialism, “Kill or be killed.”
By midweek, the cornerman Tank DiCioccio was scouting one of Duk-koo’s workouts.
“What’s he look like?” Ray asked.
“Guy’s doing nothing but bodywork,” Tank said.
“Yeah, and ...?”
“Guy keeps coming forward.”
Mancini nodded knowingly. He’d been trying to tell the sportswriters, “We’re going to have a war, no doubt about it.” Let the rest of the world be surprised by this Kim. Mancini had refused to be. The stakes were too high now. Caesars had just constructed a 10,000-seat outdoor arena in anticipation of the event. The house of Mancini had grown in stature since the time his father was fighting at Broadway Arena. Now Boom Boom was right under Sinatra on the marquee outside Caesars.
“How you feeling, champ?” asked Sinatra, who invited Ray to his set after the fight.
Thank you, said Ray, feel good.
“I’ve been following you,” said Frank. “You’re making us real proud.”
AT THE OPENING BELL, Duk-koo came across the ring and hit Ray flush on the chin with a straight left. Then, some seconds later, another left to the heart.
The template was established in that first round. The fighters would stand toe to toe, their heads perilously close. It was southpaw against converted southpaw. Each man was listed at 5 feet 6 inches with a reach of 65 inches. Kim weighed in at 134 1/4, a half-pound lighter than Ray. But more than that, the fighters seemed united in their willingness to give and receive pain.
“I knew I’d have to eat a few,” Ray says.
A furious exchange near the end of the third round — Kim connecting with looping right hooks, then Mancini inflicting a series of body shots — concluded with the Korean pushing Ray back, as if the champion were a little kid. Kim raised his arms and pumped his fists. He had taken Mancini’s best shots.
A lesser fighter, a bully, would have folded right then. Instead, Mancini trudged back to his corner, clearly the more wounded man. The cut man, Paul Percifield, went to work on the left ear, which was split open and spouting blood. Less easily treated was Ray’s left hand. After throwing a left hook that bounced off the top of Duk-koo’s head, it was swollen and throbbing with pain.
The longer it went, this accrual of stubborn brutalities, the more it seemed a homage to Mancini’s father, the original Boom Boom. Waiting on the bell for the sixth, Gil Clancy felt uneasy. Clancy, one of two CBS analysts, had been in the corner March 24, 1962, at Madison Square Garden, when his fighter, the welterweight Emile Griffith, beat Benny “Kid” Paret into a fatal coma. Now the former trainer spoke in an ominous aside to his fellow broadcasters, Tim Ryan and Ray Leonard. “Something’s going to happen in this fight,” Clancy said quietly. “Either one guy’s gonna get busted up, or nail the other guy very badly.”
The fight settled into a rhythm. Ray would win the first part of a round, then, when it seemed against all probability, Duk-koo would answer with shots to the belly and straight lefts, one of which, at the end of the eighth, snapped back Ray’s head. They would breathe and bleed and lean on each other, achieving a state of violent intimacy that, looking back, seems almost fraternal.
“I knew him better than his mother,” Ray says.
By the 11th, it seemed as if each fighter was wearing a sickly bluish mask. Finally, in the 12th, Ray shot an uppercut to the heart that caused Duk-koo’s left knee to touch the canvas. It might have been ruled a knockdown if Duk-koo had not regained his footing so quickly. By now, he was clearly the more fatigued fighter, as tired as he was suddenly admired. Fans rose in appreciation after the 12th.
The next round began with Ray delivering 44 consecutive punches, an onslaught that slowed only when Duk-koo found enough of his opponent to grab. Then, after breaking free of that grasp, Ray got off 17 more, most of them hooks to the body. Seventy-nine seconds of the 13th round would elapse before Duk-koo threw his first punch.
There was a left, followed by a series of belly shots.
“Look at him punch back!” Ryan exclaimed.
The pummeling, with Mancini on the receiving end of most of it, continued until the bell.
Between rounds, as the fighters accepted their mouthpieces, Ryan reminded his audience whom they were watching. “This is the challenger, Duk-koo Kim,” he said. “You may not have heard of him before. You will remember him today.”
Again, Ray ran across the ring. But this time, he stepped right and stunned Duk-koo with a left hook. Then: a clear shot, a straight right into Duk-koo’s face. The challenger fell as if blown back by an explosion — head, torso, hips, then finally the limbs. The back of his head came to rest briefly on the ring apron. Then Duk-koo managed to turn himself over and grab the ropes, scaling the lower rungs as if they were a mast of a ship, finally pulling himself up.
“One of the greatest physical feats I had ever witnessed,” Wiley would recall.
Once upright, Duk-koo fell back against the ropes. The referee, Richard Green, wasted no time taking him into his arms. Nineteen seconds into the 14th round, the fight was over.
Ray Mancini dropped Duk-koo Kim with a vicious left-right combination seconds into the 14th round. Kim, nearly unconscious, struggled to his feet before the referee, Richard Green, stopped the fight.
Six thousand miles away, on the outskirts of Seoul, Young-mi was at a friend’s house. Finally, when the suspense became unbearable, she asked her to turn on the television.
No, the friend told Young-mi, the television isn’t working.
RAY’S CONVALESCENCE began back at his suite. His sister held ice bags to his left hand, his left ear and his left eye, now closed. His still weeping mother tended to the right hand and right eye.
“Don’t cry, Ma,” Ray said. “We won.”
Considering what he had just endured, Ray was feeling pretty good, even elated. It had been the most hard-fought and dramatic victory of his career. But as the euphoria dissipated, his body became a feverish mass of hurt, with bruises of every shade from mauve to lilac to violet to plum. He slept briefly before the strangely somber visitors began arriving in his suite.
“Look at me,” he told Father Tim O’Neill, who had taught him at Cardinal Mooney High School in Youngstown. “I don’t think it’s worth it.”
“Ray,” Father O’Neill said, “the kid’s in bad shape.”
Upon his arrival at Desert Springs Hospital, Duk-koo was given a CT scan revealing a subdural hematoma — a blood clot — on the right side of the brain. Dr. Lonnie Hammargren, the neurosurgeon who reported to the ER, saw from the scan that most of the blood had settled in the parietal lobe. He estimated its volume to be 100cc.
“Enough to fill between three and four one-ounce shot glasses,” he says.
Later that night, Sinatra introduced Ray to the audience at the Circus Maximus Showroom.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Frank began, “this afternoon I saw the greatest fight I’ve ever seen. ... And here he is with us, my friend, the lightweight champeen of the world, Ray ‘Boom Boom’ Mancini.”
That’s how Ray would recall it, word for word. But as the spotlight found him in the audience, he felt like a perpetrator. As he stood to wave, Ray could feel the weight of his own counterfeit smile.
Two and a half hours on the operating table would not save Duk-koo Kim. Death was inevitable; the body would go the way of his brain.
The next morning, in an interview with The New York Times, Ray said: “It was a terrific fight and I saved my title, but what am I, a hero? Who’s to say it couldn’t be me? And yet, how can I say, ‘It was better him than me?’ ”
Father O’Neill presided over a 10 a.m. Mass at a ballroom in the Tropicana hotel. Ray, his left hand bandaged, bowed his head as Father O’Neill asked everyone to pray for Duk-koo Kim.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name ....
By now, it was Monday in Seoul, and Young-mi had been apprised of her fiancé’s condition. “I thought the sky fell down on me,” she says.
ON JAN. 13, 1983, exactly two months after the Kim fight, at a news conference announcing his return to the ring, Ray proclaimed himself healed: “I have no mental blocks ... I have buried the memory of all that.”
As concerned as he was with Ray’s psychiatric state, his manager, Dave Wolf, and the promoter Bob Arum had to restore his commercial appeal, too. By now, CBS was out. Kim’s death had incited a national debate on the abolition of boxing, and the Tiffany network had been stung by the criticism. “The perception was that they had put on a mismatch and gotten a guy killed,” Arum says. “They were out of the Ray Mancini business.”
Hence, Mancini’s next bout, against an obscure English fighter, went to NBC, which would televise it live from the Palazzo Dello Sport in St. Vincent, Italy.
A week before the fight, Duk-koo’s mother, Sun-nyo Yang, took her life. She drank a bottle of pesticide. The real cause of death, however, unmentioned in any autopsy, was insurmountable grief and shame.
Within hours, reporters descended on the Grand Hotel Billia. Though Ray declined to speak about the suicide, the press agent Irving Rudd issued a brief statement expressing his “deepest sympathies and profound sorrow.”
Italy’s national sports papers, La Gazzetta dello Sport and Corriere dello Sport, claimed Ray was too grief-stricken to eat. They said he cloistered himself in his hotel room and prayed. They invented quotes from him, saying he would travel to Korea as soon as possible and pray at the graves of Duk-koo and Sun-nyo.
“One paper said I was so distraught I went to a local cemetery and prayed over a grave because I was thinking of Kim,” Ray says. “Absolute lie. They didn’t care. They just made it up.”
Finally, Ray confronted a reporter who had been friendly upon his arrival. “Giovanni,” he asked, “why did you do this?” “Ray, you must understand,” he said. “We are journalists. It makes a good story.”
Chuck Fagan, who was part of Mancini’s team, says: “That’s all they wanted to talk about. Kim, Kim, Kim.”
“It wouldn’t go away,” says Tank DiCioccio, the cornerman.
And Ray was just beginning to understand that it probably never would.
TWENTY YEARS LATER, they were still asking him.
“What’s it like?”
Every once in a while, they’d sidle up to him: at a bar, a country club, an autograph show. Ray never could decide what was worse: the question itself, or the smiling presumption with which it was asked.
“I mean, with your hands?”
Ray would break out the old ring stare. But that didn’t always work. The drunks especially, they had a hard time taking a hint.
“What’s it like to kill a guy?”
At that point, Ray usually chuckled in disbelief. “You’re kidding me, right?”
“No.”
“Yes. You are.”
The questions that strangers would ask were not asked at home. The subject was not brought up.
“We really didn’t talk much about it,” says Carmen, then Ray’s wife. “It was something that was there. We knew it, and we knew we’d have to find a way to explain it to the kids.”
Nina was at a third-grade basketball practice when a boy told her that her father had killed a man.
“That’s not true,” Nina said. “You should watch your mouth.”
Carmen and Ray hadn’t planned on explaining it this soon. Nina was 8 that day, when she came home crying. Ray calmed her down, and told her to have a seat on the couch. Then, not knowing what else to do, he put a tape of the Kim fight into the VCR.
She was brave to watch as she did, without tears.
“You see?” Carmen said. “It was an accident.”
“You didn’t mean to do that, Popi,” Nina said. “It was just something that happened.”
Something that happened.
“There have been times that Kim came to me in my dreams,” Ray says. “I can’t always remember what was said or what was done ... I don’t know if I apologize to him or we just kind of looked at each other ... In one of the dreams, I remember, we shook hands, embraced and he left. It was like, no words ... I don’t know if it was me doing it for myself, thinking about him so much that he finally came to me ... or if in actuality he somehow did come to me and put it to rest.”
Psychology or theology? Did it matter? As Father O’Neill once said, just be.
JUNE 23, 2011. Oblivious to the suburban serenade — chirping birds, a gentle wind rustling through the azaleas, the sound of children playing — Ray sits grim-faced and nervous on his stoop. Finally, he snaps to attention as the white Escalade comes into view.
The young man who emerges from the Cadillac is nattily attired: light blue sports jacket, silk pocket square, button-down shirt and khakis. At 29, Jiwan remains slender, his face still smooth and boyish. Those same features had troubled him as a child. Jiwan would turn to his mother and ask, “Why is my nose flat and not as high as yours?”
Because you’re Duk-koo Kim’s son, she would think.
Now the ex-fighter and the fighter’s son exchange bows and a careful hug. “I wanted to meet you, and I’m very happy that you wanted to meet me,” says Ray, then, pausing, concedes, “I don’t know exactly what to say.”
“O.K.,” says Jiwan. “I introduce my mother?”
“Yes, please.”
Young-mi is flattered by the passing years. With her hair up, a black cardigan with a print blouse, she’s still dark-haired and glowing even after the 12-hour flight.
Ray bows again. “I hope this does for you what it does for me,” he says, formally. “I can finally rest easy.”
“You’re happy?” Jiwan asks. “You can be.”
Born seven months after his father’s death, Jiwan always knew he was the son of a fighter. His grandfather had shown him a couple of newspaper clippings. But that didn’t ease the boy’s envy or his pain. Jiwan’s friends all had fathers. What about him?
“Where is my father?” he would ask, usually before falling asleep next to his mother.
“He is in America,” she would say. “Making money.”
“When is he coming home to bring me toys and gifts?”
“Next year.”
Jiwan was 9 when he overheard a friend’s mother saying that he had no father. That night, Young-mi told him the truth, which he kept to himself. “I did not think that I should talk about it so lightly,” Jiwan explains.
It hurt enough to have only a mother. But there was also the shame that followed Duk-koo’s death: his grandmother’s suicide and the portrayal of Young-mi as hoarding the insurance money. Besides, soon enough, the boy would have a stepfather with a factory job who took him to amusement parks.
“He treated me extremely well,” Jiwan says.
As a teenager, Jiwan would pore over his father’s journal. “I almost thought that I had written it myself,” he says. “It reflects almost the same thoughts that I had, and it made me believe that if I were in his place, fighting that fight, I, too, would not have stepped back.”
That’s not to say Jiwan was without regret. The warrior’s code — that admonition never to retreat — was something he regarded with ambivalence. Truth was, he wished his father had been less valorous.
“I wish he stepped back,” Jiwan says. “I know how difficult it was for my mother.”
When he was 24, a junior in college and already finished with his compulsory military service, Jiwan was given a DVD of his father’s fight with Mancini. He had no intention of watching it. He’d seen enough fragments of the fight (though not the final, fatal ones) on YouTube. Watching his father die wasn’t his idea of closure.
Finally, in July 2010, Jiwan and Young-mi consented to be interviewed for Mancini’s biography. It was difficult to reconcile the son of a dirt-poor fighter with the man Jiwan had become: studious, bespectacled, a second-year dental student in a polo shirt. Toward the end of the second session, Jiwan expressed interest in meeting Ray. “If he still happens to feel guilty about the fight of the past, if it still upsets him and makes him feel insecure, he no longer has to think that way,” Jiwan said. “To his sons and daughter, I would say ... I am sorry that you had to suffer. Your father is a good man and you do not need to feel pain because of the hurtful things that people say.”
The following June, mother and son arrived in Los Angeles with a camera crew filming a documentary based on the biography.
The visit begins with Mancini showing the photographs on his mantel: Ray with his kids, Ray with Ronald Reagan, Ray with Joe DiMaggio, and of course, the picture of his father — eye swollen shut, dried blood on his lips — after defeating Billy Marquart in 1941.
“To me,” Ray explains, “he’s beautiful.”
“Looks like you,” Jiwan says.
“After the fight with your father, yes.”
Now Young-mi produces a sheaf of snapshots from her purse, moving back in time: Jiwan in his army uniform, smiling in his school blazer, a boy and his mother at a picnic, Jiwan as a plump baby, then the engagement ceremony that preceded his birth. The beaming groom and his resplendent bride sit before a great banquet table. Young-mi wears a spray of flowers in her hair, her mother-in-law, in a white silk robe, at her side.
“Your father’s a good dresser,” Ray says.
“How do you feel?” Jiwan asks, haltingly.
Ray looks him up and down, this young man with the silk pocket square. His own boys are in shorts and T-shirts. “You did well for yourself,” he says.
The Mancini children join them for dinner. Nina is considering a career in restaurant management. The coming school year will see Leonardo enroll at Santa Barbara Community College and Ray-Ray make varsity basketball as a high school sophomore. They dine al fresco, the table set with bottles of Southpaw.
“That’s my wine,” Ray says proudly, recommending the linguine mare e monti with baby lobster.
“I love pasta,” Jiwan says.
Soon, Ray raises his glass. “I felt guilty about what happened for a long time,” he says. “I felt guilty because of your mother. I felt guilty that you never met your father.”
Young-mi dabs at her tears, but the confession continues even after the food arrives. “I didn’t know they carried him out on a stretcher,” Ray says. “It was a great fight, but after that there was nothing good about it. ... I had no love for it anymore. I was already looking for a way out.”
“It was better,” Jiwan says. “For your health.”
Jiwan has come with a confession of his own: before arriving in Los Angeles, he had finally watched the DVD. “Now I can tell you that when I saw the fight the first time I felt some hatred to you.”
But that, too, has passed.
“I think it was not your fault,” he says. “You deserve. Maybe now your family will be more happy.”
Next year, that long-awaited time for gifts, has finally arrived. And it’s the children who bear them.
Ray lifts his glass a final time.
“Thank you,” he says. “Thank you for coming to America.”
Mark Kriegel is the author of “The Good Son,” from which this article is adapted. It will be published by Free Press on Tuesday.
Other article:
Sports Books Keep an Eye on Replacement Officials
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/sports/families-continue-to-heal-30-years-after-title-bout-between-ray-mancini-and-duk-koo-kim.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120917&pagewanted=all
Families Continue to Heal 30 Years After Title Fight Between Ray Mancini and Duk-koo Kim - NYTimes.com
Ray Mancini vs Duk-Koo-Kim
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