Ricky Hatton Knocked Out in Nine, Issues Tearful Message to Fans: "I'm so Sorry." - Yahoo! News

 Ricky Hatton looked in shape with toned physique at the weigh in.....

   

Photo By DARREN STAPLES/REUTERS Fri, Nov 23, 2012

 British boxer Ricky Hatton stands on the scales during a weigh-in, ahead of his comeback fight against Vyacheslav Senchenko of Ukraine, at the Town Hall in Manchester, northern England, November 23, 2012.

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British boxer Ricky Hatton leaves a weigh-in, ahead of his comeback fight against Vyacheslav Senchenko of Ukraine, at the Town Hall in Manchester, northern England, November 23, 2012. Hatton and Senchenko will fight on Saturday at the Manchester Arena. REUTERS/Darren Staples
 
(Photo by Scott Heavey/Getty Images)

 MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 24: Ricky Hatton of Great Britain (L) is caught by Vyacheslav Senchenko of Ukraine during their Welterweight bout at the MEN Arena on November 24, 2012 in Manchester, ...

 

 

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  Britain's Ricky Hatton reacts after losing to the Ukraine's Vyacheslav Senchenko in their boxing match at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, northern England November 24, 2012. REUTERS/Phil Noble

 ............................................

Ricky Hatton’s Comeback Bid Thwarted -How many times have former champions tried a comeback only to find out they are rusty and that their skills have declined badly?
....................................... 

 The dream is over before it really began. 

Ricky Hatton's comeback bid after more than three years of troubled retirement was foiled by the Ukraine's Vyacheslav Senchenko (33-1, 22 KOs) with a crushing liver shot in the ninth round. 

After the bout, a dejected, emotional Hatton gave a heart-breaking post-fight interview, stating, 
I'm absolutely heartbroken,I can't keep picking my ass up off the floor.

It was truly a sad moment in the career of a man who has given so much of himself to the sport and its fans.

And, given his well-documented issues with drugs, alcohol, and suicide attempts, the first thought after the loss had to be concerning Hatton's psychological well-being. 

 

Hatton is still a promoter, a gym owner, and would be an entertaining and insightful TV commentator if given the chance.

There's plenty of future for Ricky Hatton and plenty of boxing left in his life. 

******************

Paul Magno was a licensed official in the state of Michoacan, Mexico and a close follower of the sport for more than thirty years. His work can also be found on Fox Sports and The Boxing Tribune. In the past, Paul has done work for Inside Fights, The Queensberry Rules and Eastside Boxing.

Source:

Showtime Championship Boxing

 Source:
Ricky Hatton Knocked Out in Nine, Issues Tearful Message to Fans: "I'm so Sorry." - Yahoo! News

 http://news.yahoo.com/ricky-hatton-knocked-nine-issues-tearful-message-fans-011700419--box.html

Hector Camacho, boxing legend, dies at age 50 - NYPOST.com

Posted: 12:24 AM, November 25, 2012
George Willis
Blog: By George


Boxing broadcaster and journalist Steve Farhood was at the Felt Forum on Sept. 12, 1980, when Hector Camacho made his professional debut against David Brown from Elizabeth, N.J. Camacho won the four-round bout on points, but Farhood had seen enough from Camacho to form an opinion of the brash boxer from Spanish Harlem.

“There wasn’t a doubt that he was going to be somebody special,” Farhood said.

 “He didn’t look like the other prospects. He was special and he knew it.”

Camacho would fight 88 times as a pro, a career that spanned 30 years and likely land him in the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

A three-division world champion, Camacho died yesterday after being shot in the head four days earlier in his hometown of Bayamon, Puerto Rico. He was 50 years old.





FAREWELL TO A LEGEND: Hector “Macho” Camacho, pictured wearing his signature flashy jewelry, died yesterday at the age of 50 after being shot days earlier in his hometown of Bayamon, Puerto Rico.



TRIUMPHANT: Hector Camacho celebrates his victory over Sugar Ray Leonard on March 1, 1997, for the IBC middleweight title.
“He was one of the few boxers I ever met that was larger than life,” Farhood said.

“When he walked into a room, all eyes went on the Macho Man. He was a handsome guy. He was an electric guy and he always had a mischievous smile on his face.”

Camacho, born May 24, 1962, will be forever remembered for wild wardrobes, trucks and other antics that went along with his Macho Man persona. He was cocky and brash, earning as many haters as fans, who tuned in to watch him fight. It worked because of his skill. He beat Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard, Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, Howard Davis Jr.; and lost decisions to Julio Cesar Chavez, Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya.
“He was a showman,” boxing commentator Teddy Atlas said. “A guy that understood he had to put fannies in the seat. He did it with his dress and appearances. But he understood that the more he entertained, the better the chances of getting people’s attention, and if you got people’s attention the better your chances of making money. He was smart enough to understand that.”

His influence still is seen today on boxers like welterweight champion Paulie “Magic Man” Malignaggi of Brooklyn, who patterned his own flamboyant style after Camacho.

“Camacho was one my inspirations, one of the guys I copied a lot of the flashy stuff from,” Malignaggi said. “The skirt and stuff I wear are things I took from Camacho. Him and Naseem Hamed are two guys I copied my showmanship from.”

Camacho’s career record is 79-6-3 with 38 knockouts. His last fight was in May 2010 when he lost a 12-round decision to Saul Duran. Camacho had not officially retired, but he was never the same fighter after retaining the WBC lightweight title in a brutal 12-round bout against Edwin Rosario in June 1986.

“He seemed to lose his nerve after that right,” Farhood said. “He was never the same.  What he became was something we never thought he’d be in his prime. He became a survivor in the ring. When he fought Chavez and Oscar, he was a survivor. He really lost his nerve. He didn’t trust his own talent anymore and fought so defensive.”

Atlas agreed.

“Rosario hurt him in that fight,” he said. “From that point on I think that he changed his approach to how he fought in the ring. He was Hector Camacho the very defensive minded fighter who wasn’t as quite appealing as he was before that. But give him credit. He had an awfully long career.”

The circumstances leading to his death didn’t surprise those who knew Camacho. Another man in Camacho’s car who was shot and declared dead at the scene had nine bags of cocaine in his possession, according to reports.
Camacho’s problems with drug and alcohol abuse were well-chronicled, as were his frequent encounters with the judicial system.

“The fact is, he was a screw-up,” Farhood said. “He was very self-destructive. He never lost the street side of himself. His rap sheet was rather long and he couldn’t seem to stay out of trouble. That became as much a part of his reputation as his skill.”



Hector “macho” Camacho | 1962— 2012









 
 De La Hoya vs Camacho
 
 Sugar Ray vs Hector


 
 Leonard vs Camacho


 
 Duran vs Camach

 

ctor "Macho" Camacho celebrates after his 1996 victory over Robert Duran in Atlantic City, N.J.

Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/mma/boxing/11/24/hector-camacho-obit.ap/index.html#ixzz2DEoyJEbn

Camacho dances during the grand finale of Univision's "Mira Quien Baila" in Miami on November 21, 2010.

 

Source:
Hector Camacho, boxing legend, dies at age 50 - NYPOST.com

Link: http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/boxing/curtains_close_on_showman_camacho_VMBUQcUjM5WZY7QYJRNRvI

Live Chat: Sports-Related Head Injuries - ScienceNOW

 Recent reports of early dementia and other neurological problems in professional football and hockey players have raised concerns about the long-term impact of head injuries suffered in the course of play. Are college and high school athletes also at risk? What does the latest research tell us about how sports concussions affect the brain? And what if anything can be done to make contact sports safer?






 Source:
Live Chat: Sports-Related Head Injuries - ScienceNOW

Link:  http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/09/live-chat-sports-related-head-in.html

Frazier, Ali and Foreman On British TV Show Very Funny - YouTube

Uploaded by alanmeires on Nov 22, 2011

Frazier, Ali and Foreman On British TV Show Very Funny

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Frazier, Ali and Foreman On British TV Show Very Funny - YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlB-NRQv3OY&feature=related

Ali's Dozen (Documentary about Ali's 12 greatest rounds) - YouTube

Ali's Dozen (Documentary about Ali's 12 greatest rounds) - YouTube

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TATzqIB2cu4&feature=fvsr

"Pound for Pound - Sugar Ray Robinson" Documentary - YouTube

"Pound for Pound - Sugar Ray Robinson" Documentary - YouTube

Sugar Ray Robinson-Carmen Basilio I Highlight [HD] - YouTube

Sugar Ray Robinson-Carmen Basilio I Highlight [HD] - YouTube

Carmen Basilio, Boxer Who Beat Sugar Ray Robinson for Title, Dies at 85 - NYTimes.com

Carmen Basilio was one of many champions who were trained 

by Angelo Dundee.

 

Carmen Basilio in the arms of his trainer Angelo Dundee, left, and co-manager John DeJohn after winning the middleweight title from Sugar Ray Robinson in 1957.

November 7, 2012

Carmen Basilio Dies at 85; Took Title From Robinson

By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN

Carmen Basilio, the welterweight and middleweight boxing champion of the 1950s who fought two brutal bouts with Sugar Ray Robinson, winning his middleweight title and then losing it to him, died on Wednesday in Rochester. Basilio, who lived in Irondequoit, a suburb of Rochester, was 85. 

His death was announced by the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, N.Y., where Basilio was born. He was among its first class of inductees in 1990.

They called him the Upstate Onion Farmer — his Italian immigrant father worked the onion fields near Syracuse — but from the time he was a youngster, Basilio wanted nothing more than to be a pro boxer. He became a champion with an unrelenting style of attack, willing to take punishment as well as dish it out. 

“There was no one with more determination than Carmen,” his trainer Angelo Dundee, one of boxing’s most renowned cornermen, was once quoted by The Boston Globe as saying.

In September 1957, Basilio, who held the welterweight championship, stepped up a weight class when he challenged Robinson for his middleweight title before a crowd of 38,000 at Yankee Stadium. 

Basilio had resented Robinson ever since their brief encounter four years earlier in Midtown Manhattan. 

“He pulled up with his entourage with his big Cadillac,” Basilio recalled in an interview with the Cyber Boxing Zone Web site. 

“I was walking past, so I decided to go over and introduce myself. I said: ‘Hi, Ray, I just fought Billy Graham the week before, the No. 1 welterweight. I’m Carmen Basilio.’ He gave me the brushoff, and I felt about an inch high.” 

Basilio won the middleweight title in a split decision over Robinson, who, pound for pound, was widely considered the best boxer in history. Robinson almost floored Basilio with a left hook near the end of the 13th round, and he delivered a right hand to the body near the close of the 14th round that left Basilio reeling. But Basilio, displaying his customary grit, pressed forward in the 15th round, punching away steadily. 

Basilio’s craggy face was a mess when he met with reporters in the locker room. He had a heavy gauze bandage protecting a cut along the outer edge of his left eyebrow, and his eyes were slits from large welts on his cheek bones. He was rubbing a chunk of ice in a towel across his bruised lips. 

“I figured my aggressiveness gave me the edge,” he said. 

Basilio was required to give up his welterweight title when he won the middleweight crown, but he was awarded the Hickok Belt as the top professional athlete of 1957. 

He lost the middleweight title to Robinson at Chicago Stadium in March 1958 in another split decision after fighting with his left eye virtually closed from the seventh round on, a victim of Robinson’s right hook. Basilio rallied with left hooks to the body in the 9th and 10th rounds, but it was not enough to keep Robinson from winning the middleweight championship for a fifth time. 

Carmen Basilio was born on April 2, 1927, in Canastota, about 25 miles east of Syracuse, and was one of 10 children. His father was “a fight nut,” he recalled, who bought his sons boxing gloves. Basilio boxed in the Marine Corps during World War II, then made his pro debut in 1948. 

His first title fight came in 1953, when he scored a second-round knockdown of the welterweight champion Kid Gavilan but lost a 15-round decision. 

He won the welterweight championship in June 1955 with a 12th-round knockout of Tony DeMarco, then stopped DeMarco again in Round 12 of a rematch. He lost the crown on a decision to Johnny Saxton in March 1956, then regained it and defended it against Saxton, knocking him out each time.

After his second match with Robinson, he fought only occasionally and made three unsuccessful bids to win a middleweight title again, losing twice on knockouts to Gene Fullmer and on a decision to Paul Pender in 1961, his last fight.

He had a career record of 56 wins (27 by knockout), 16 losses and 7 draws.

The International Boxing Hall of Fame was built in part as a tribute to Basilio and his nephew Billy Backus, who held the welterweight title in the early 1970s. The Hall contains bronze busts of Basilio and of Backus, who is not an inductee.

After retiring from boxing, Basilio, a high-school dropout, taught physical education at Le Moyne College in Syracuse. He also worked in public relations for the Genesee Brewing Company. Basilio’s wife, Josie, traced his decline in health to heart bypass surgery in 1992, 

The Associated Press reported. A magnetic resonance imaging scan revealed no brain damage from his prizefighting days, she said.

In May 2009, Canastota High School, where Basilio was once a member of the boxing team, presented him with a diploma in recognition of his achievements.

Basilio is survived by his wife, four children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle said.

Basilio said he had no regrets, despite all the tattooing his face and body took.

“I don’t enjoy getting hurt, waking up with a puffed eye and pain, stiff all over,” he told Sports Illustrated as he neared the end of his career. “But you have to take the bitter with the sweet. 

The sweet is when guys recognize you on the street, say, ‘Hello, champ,’ know who you are. It will always be sweet for me.”

Source:
Carmen Basilio, Boxer Who Beat Sugar Ray Robinson for Title, Dies at 85 - NYTimes.com

 Link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/sports/carmen-basilio-boxer-who-beat-sugar-ray-robinson-for-title-dies-at-85.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y&_r=0

The Mike Wallace Interview

 

Harry Ransom Center

The Mike Wallace Interview
Carmen Basilio
10/26/57

Carmen Basilio, middle weight boxing champion of the world, had recently won his crown after a savage fight with Sugar Ray Robinson. Basilio talks to Wallace about Robinson, whether boxing should be outlawed due to its brutality, and organized crime's influence on boxing.

Thanks to the New Media Department at Universidad Francisco Marroquín: Transcription & Sync: Maria Lucia Aldana, Regina de De la Vega, Claudia Leiva, Jennifer Mills, Evelyn Orantes, Katty Schellenger; Index: Lucía Bahr, Christiaan Ketelaar, Daphne Ortiz; Text Revisers: Barbara de Koose, Michiel Glaudemans; GML/Tech Support: Pedro David España, Mario Pivaral; Content Analysis coordinator: Rebeca Zuñiga; Cataloguing: Nora Domínguez; Glifos: Rodrigo Arias, Niky Arroyave, Matthías Reichenbach.

The Mike Wallace Interview

Carmen Basilio, tough boxing champ of 1950s, dies at 85 - The Washington Post

By Ben Dobbin, Published: November 8

Carmen Basilio, a genial onion farmer’s son who wrested the world middleweight boxing crown from Sugar Ray Robinson in 1957 and lost an equally epic, razor-edge rematch six months later, died Nov. 7 at age 85.

Edward Brophy, executive director of the Boxing Hall of Fame in upstate New York, said Mr. Basilio died at a Rochester hospital where he was being treated for pneumonia.

Mr. Basilio lived in the Rochester suburb of Irondequoit and was among the first class of hall of fame inductees in 1990, a group that includes Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Rocky Marciano, Joe Louis and Jake LaMotta.

Mr. Basilio’s ferocious battles with the likes of Billy Graham and Kid Gavilan riveted a nation during the age of black-and-white television. Hindered on his ascent by a reluctance to deal with mobsters, he took the welterweight title from Tony DeMarco in 1955 and added the middleweight belt near the close of a 13-year career.

With his crouching style, the 5-foot-6½ slugger relentlessly wore down his opponents with body blows. He had a straight-up, knuckle-rimmed uppercut all his own, a vicious hook and an ability to withstand terrible punishment. He rarely stepped backward.

“I gave them action; they loved to see action,” he told the Associated Press in 2007, still filled with delight at earning The Ring magazine’s “Fight of the Year” designations five years in a row, from 1955 to 1959.

Mr. Basilio’s storybook journey began April 2, 1927, on an onion farm in Canastota in central New York as one of 10 children of Italian immigrants. From age 5, he worked the rich black soil in all weathers, and the constant bending developed powerful thigh and stomach muscles.

After a stint in the Marines, Mr. Basilio turned pro in 1948. His early career was littered with setbacks.

He drew his first title shot in 1953 against Gavilan. He floored the Cuban great for the first time in his career, only to lose on a split decision. A rematch never came.

The ’50s were a golden age for boxing when thrice-weekly “fight nights” helped sell TV sets.

But it also was a dark diversion directed by mob bosses. Mr. Basilio said he refused to cooperate with them and was repeatedly passed over for title bouts.

His second chance finally arrived against the newly enthroned DeMarco in 1955. When he stopped DeMarco in the 12th round, Mr. Basilio knelt in his corner, repeating “I did it! I did it! I did it!”

In their next duel, a left hook from DeMarco almost lifted Mr. Basilio off his feet. He pirouetted, his legs buckled but somehow he stayed up. He KO’d DeMarco in the 12th.

Mr. Basilio stepped up to the 160-pound middleweight class against Robinson on Sept. 23, 1957. Four years earlier, Mr. Basilio was walking down Broadway in New York when he spotted Robinson with his entourage and introduced himself.

“He gave me a brushoff, and I lost my respect for him right then and there,” he recalled. “He was an arrogant guy.”

Mr. Basilio carried that grudge into their encounter in Yankee Stadium.

In the 11th round, he clobbered Robinson with 34 straight punches, pinning him against the ropes. Robinson rallied in the 12th but was hanging on at the end, and Mr. Basilio won on a 2-1 vote by the judges.

“You’re talking about the finest boxer of all time,” trainer Angelo Dundee told the AP before his death earlier this year, “and Carmen outboxed the guy. He beat him soundly.”

In the rematch in March 1958, Robinson regained the title in another close decision. A rupture above Mr. Basilio’s eye swelled to the size of a baking potato.

“I had to change my stance a little bit so I could see him,” he insisted, “but I thought I won the fight that night.”

Robinson’s refusal to fight a third time undermined Mr. Basilio’s drive, and his career (56-16-7 with 27 knockouts) ended in 1961 after three unsuccessful title shots against Gene Fullmer and Paul Pender.

He moved on to teach physical education at Syracuse’s Le Moyne College for 21 years and marketed beer for the Genesee Brewing Co. His gift as a raconteur won him legions of new fans at charity banquets, and even old foes came to revere him.

When DeMarco’s son died in a car crash in 1975, Mr. Basili  Basilio showed up for the funeral in Boston. “You don’t forget things like that,” DeMarco said in 2007.

“He belongs in any era, any time,” Dundee said of Mr. Basilio. “I would have to put him as one of the best.”
 

—Associated Press


 Source:
Carmen Basilio, tough boxing champ of 1950s, dies at 85 - The Washington Post

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/carmen-basilio-tough-boxing-champ-of-1950s-dies-at-85/2012/11/08/53e261e0-28fd-11e2-b4e0-346287b7e56c_story.html

'Gamebreaker' helmet aims to prevent concussions, head injuries on playing field

The Gamebreaker is a new type of protective headgear designed to reduce the threat of concussions and other head injuries for participants in what are considered "non-contact" sports.
Manufactured and distributed by Newbury Park-based Gamebreaker Helmets, the protective cap is fast becoming required equipment in flag football and at high school seven-on-seven passing tournaments across the country.



The helmet is also much more forgiving than the hard shell design used in tackle football.

"They are really well made and they attenuate force. And they can't be used as a weapon,"

The helmet is essentially a protective cap that can also be used in sports like soccer, lacrosse, field hockey and water polo.


Gamebreaker was founded by Mike Juels, owner of Corporate Images, a promotional products company, and former NFL player Joey LaRocque, an Agoura Hills High School product.

Juels said they began marketing the helmets last summer after the research and development phase.

Concussions have become an increasing concern over the past several years for athletes competing in a variety of sports at the professional and amateur levels.
For example, the UCLA Brain Injury Research Center is part of a university consortium that has received a $400,000 grant from the National Collegiate Athletic Association to examine the effects of head injuries on student-athletes over the course of their college careers and beyond.

"There is growing concern about the cumulative effect of concussions on long-term cognitive health, and yet our current understanding of what factors contribute to later problems is inadequate," said Dr. Christopher Giza, the study's principal investigator at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA, said in a statement.
"One major goal of this research is to identify these factors so that the risks for chronic problems can be minimized."





By Gregory J. Wilcox, Staff Writer
Created: 11/05/2012  

Source:
'Gamebreaker' helmet aims to prevent concussions, head injuries on playing field - Daily Democrat Online

 Link: http://www.dailydemocrat.com/sports/ci_21934982/gamebreaker-helmet-aims-prevent-concussions-head-injuries-playing

‘Head Games’ delivers hard blow to contact sports

 

Right from the first bone crushing video of a football player splayed out midfield after a helmet to helmet hit you know that “Head Games” is not going to pull any punches when it comes to shedding light on head trauma in sports and the consequences of sports related head injuries later in an athlete’s life.

Director Steve James (who is no stranger to the sports world after directing the award winning documentary “Hoop Dreams”) trains his camera on Chris Nowinski, a former college football player at Harvard who traded in his pads and helmet for a professional wrestling career getting his head repeatedly slammed against the corner cushion of a WWE wrestling ring.

After being diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome Nowinski left the WWE circuit on a quest to research and bring to light the trauma and life altering damage that is being done to athletes all across the country. 

He turned his research and analysis into “Head Games: Football’s Concussion Crisis,” a book he published in 2006 that subsequently started a fierce debate, not to mention some sweeping rule changes in the National Football League, about the roles that concussions play at all level of sports.



But in “Head Games” no contact sport is spared. From football and hockey to basketball and soccer the reports of serious injuries and resulting consequences cut across all sports.








By: Michael Nank

Read More:
Review: ‘Head Games’ delivers hard blow to contact sports - Seattle Art Industry | Examiner.com

Link: http://www.examiner.com/article/review-head-games-delivers-hard-blow-to-contact-sports

One hell of a punch

 

 

One hell of a punch