Gennady Golovkin is a big puncher

Nothing is more appealing than a fighter with exceptional punching power and good boxing ability...just think back to the excitement Mike Tyson generated in his early fights.......

 

 

Gennady Golovkin shows off his vicious power while on the mitts with Abel Sanchez

Published on Nov 27, 2012

Chris Robinson was on hand inside of Abel Sanchez's Summit Gym in Big Bear, CA as Sanchez put in work with his fighter, WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (24-0, 21 KO's) ahead of his January 19th HBO date.

Photo credits: Chris Robinson

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

Power play: Undefeated Gennady Golovkin has the punching ability to become boxing's next big thing

When former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson was in his power-punching prime, it sounded as if gunfire were erupting in the gym as he hit the heavy bag during drills. 

There hasn't been a fighter since with anywhere near that kind of power.

Until now, that is. 

Middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin has the kind of pop that helped make Tyson a Hall of Famer and iconic figure in the sport. 

In his successful Jan. 19 title defense at Madison Square Garden in New York, Golovkin continually hurt challenger Gabe Rosado with his jab. 

Golovkin punches with a free and easy motion and doesn't seem to be exerting himself greatly. But when his shots land cleanly, the impact is usually huge. 

"I call him the middleweight Mike Tyson," said trainer Abel Sanchez, whose job it is to help Golovkin channel his power properly. "He hits so, so, so hard, it's incredible. 

A coach dreams about having a guy like this once in a lifetime."


  
Gennady Golovkin (left) punished Gabe Rosado for seven rounds in January. (USA Today)


Golovkin isn't likely to get near either of the two big names in the division – Sergio Martinez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. – so he'll have to feast on secondary, lesser-known opposition.
 

It's going to make it harder for Golovkin, a native of Kazakhstan who lives in Germany, to become a star, but Golovkin is one of those rare fighters who make it without a career-defining opponent. 

Golovkin, along with Chavez, Canelo Alvarez and Adrien Broner are the guys who are most likely to succeed Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao as the sport's biggest attractions.

Boxing fans historically have favored heavyweights whenever the division had anything remotely resembling any depth. In large part, that's because heavyweights – theoretically, anyway – have the most power and produce the biggest knockouts.

When the public gets to know him, they'll find a friendly, engaging sort who smiles and laughs easily, loves to chat boxing and desperately wants to connect with the American public.
He's taking great pains to learn English and, in just six months, his language skills have improved dramatically.

"America is where most of the stars are," he said. "I know this is where I need to be."
But Golovkin is also a realist. He knows that he has to produce.

"The thing about boxing is, you have to have respect for every opponent, because all it takes is one [punch] to change everything," Golovkin said.
 

Golovkin, who is 25-0 with 22 knockouts. He's as nice of a guy as one could ever hope to meet, except in the center of a ring with boxing gloves on his hands. 

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

Gennady "GGG" Golovkin сareer Highlights

Published on Mar 18, 2013 by http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfQqJdiYFb0






Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/boxing--power-play--undefeated-gennady-golovkin-has-the-punching-ability-to-become-a-star-190655110.html

Head injuries are killing the NFL.

Every time a middle-aged former NFL player takes his own life — with the subsequent autopsy showing a brain scan that looks like something from a nursing home’s palliative-care wing — football comes one step closer to extinction.


After legendary Philadelphia Eagles defensive back Andre Waters, 44, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 2007, forensic pathologist Bennet Omalu reported that brain tissue from Waters (who literally lost count of the number of concussions he got during his playing days) resembled that of an 85-year-old man with Alzheimer’s. 

Various other former NFL players have followed Waters to the grave under roughly similar circumstances.  
 
What modern forensic science and epidemiology have taught us is that the medical ravages of football are far, far greater than we ever imagined — so great that it is hard for any thinking person to watch the game without feeling a pang of horror and guilt every time two heads smash together: Every “big hit” increases the likelihood that either hitter or hittee will shoot himself in front of wife and children a few decades hence.



The removal of football as a mass-market sport would be especially traumatic to the country, for it is difficult to overstate how existentially important the game is to Americans, especially in the South and Midwest. A United States without high-school football on Friday night, college gridiron on Saturday and NFL on Sunday will be like Canada without any level of hockey — virtually unimaginable.

And yet it will happen. That’s because, however invincible football may be as a cultural force in America, it is smashing up against the immovable object of childhood safety. 

Back in October, NPR’s Tom Goldman took in a pee-wee football game in the all-American town of Angleton, Tex. (pop. 18,000), a place where parents tell reporters things like this: “[My 8-year-old son] plays football on Saturday. Sunday morning we’re in church because I told him he needs to be able to give thanks. And we make sure we read the scripture. We pray over him, so that God protects him. You just have to go with God and let him play.”

But even in Texas, Goldman found parents who are increasingly concerned about the dangers that the game presents.


One dad told Goldman that he’s yanking his kid out of tackle football the first time he gets a concussion. Other parents might not wait even till then: A prominent neurosurgeon, Robert Cantu, has published a book urging parents not to let their children play tackle football until they are 14 — by which time, almost all of them will be invested in other, less violent sports.

The result will be a whole generation of children growing up with the knowledge that football is not an ordinary sport like basketball or soccer. Simply put, it exceeds the engineering design limits of the human body. And the carnage comes, not just in the form of broken bones, but also broken brains. 

There are ways to make hockey and soccer safer. But there is no helmet technology in the world that can get us around the fact that a human skull decelerating from full sprint to dead stop in a tiny fraction of a second — an event that comprises the very essence of “good,” “hard-hitting” football; and not just a penalized aberration, as in other sports — cannot protect the mushy contents therein.

Read More:
National Post

jkay@nationalpost.com



 Source: Head injuries are killing the NFL. Part of America will die with it | Full Comment | National Post

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/12/12/jonathan-kay-head-injuries-are-killing-football-and-a-big-piece-of-america-will-die-with-it/

George Foreman weighs in on troubled soles in the Boxing business.

This article on the ESPN blog caught my attention.  George Foreman always has something good to say about people.  No wonder he is such a popular figure who sold millions of dollars worth of grilling machines.  Who could resist his amiable sales pitch?  In this article, he delivers some kind words of wisdom, like only he can.


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

Foreman's take on boxers in trouble

 By Michael Woods | ESPNNewYork.com


Not long after I chatted with George Foreman about the new boxing promotion he is forming with his sons, and we touched on how Big George might handle a fighter under the Foreman umbrella who shows troublemaker tendencies outside the ring

Foreman touched on how he'd handle a fighter who seems to be going off the rails, or dealing with self-imposed drama, in his personal life. The ex-fighter is an ordained minister who has been giving sermons in churches for decades. 

"That (background) will get me an edge with fighters," he said. "I've got all the stories you can tell them. But I will not preach too much, I'll save the preaching for Sunday morning. You've got to let them be an American, let the guys get the foolishness out of their system."

"If boxing can't knock the foolishness out of their system, I sure can't."

He pointed to the stunning turnaround enjoyed by Mike Tyson, the former Baddest Man on the Planet who did time for rape and has since seemed to reform himself to be a gentle soul who adheres to a vegan diet.


 The message is clear: never give up hope that anyone, even someone who seems to be lost in a fog of self-destruction, will see the light, and find the narrower path of rightness.




Source:  http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/boxing/post/_/id/3498/foremans-take-on-boxers-in-trouble

New Worries About Heading the Soccer Ball

Phys Ed Mar 20, 12:01 am 97

New Worries About Heading the Soccer Ball

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

Heading a soccer ball can score goals and impress fans, but it may also adversely affect a player’s ability to think, a small new study of high school soccer players suggests. Read more…





Source:  http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/

Stories about head injuries spur a reconsideration of youth football - Health & wellness - The Boston Globe

MD MAMA

Reconsidering youth football due to head injury risk

By Dr. Claire McCarthy

 |  Globe Correspondent     December 10, 2012

Excerpted from the MD Mama blog on Boston.com.






Kids should not participate in an activity that has a high risk of bumps to the head. Nobody should.

That’s what I immediately thought when I saw the Globe’s front page story about contact sports and brain injury. In a study of autopsies of deceased athletes’ brains, researchers at Boston University School of Medicine found that most of them had signs of brain damage after suffering repeated head injuries.

It’s also what I thought after reading that in one recent Pop Warner football game, five 12-year-olds got concussions.

Have you ever heard the Bob Newhart baseball sketch, the one where he plays a game marketer on the phone with the guy who invented baseball? It’s really funny — and a bit of an eye-opener as to just how absurd some of the rules of baseball are. I was thinking about that sketch this morning, and how football might look to us if we stepped back from it for a moment.

Imagine that your child came home with a permission slip to play a new sport. Let’s call it . . . Bonk. The game of Bonk, the slip says, involves speed and agility and is great for cardiovascular conditioning. However (this is where the permission part comes in), one of the requirements of the game is collisions between players. These collisions obviously carry a risk of injury, especially to the head — and they want to be sure that parents are aware that these head injuries could lead to brain damage, particularly when they happen more than once (which is entirely possible, given the collision requirement of the game). Not to worry, though, there will be helmets and they’ll watch the kids closely and if they get a concussion they will have them stop playing for a while. Which should help, but doesn’t guarantee that they won’t get brain damage.

Would you sign that slip? I don’t think you would. But we let our kids take these risks all the time in football.

This is not about putting kids in bubbles. As I’ve said in blogs before, I think we go overboard sometimes when it comes to worrying about injuries and kids. Which makes the whole football thing puzzle me even more — we want to wrap our kids in bubble wrap when they go to the playground, but we knowingly put them at risk of brain damage when we send them out to play Pop Warner.

Players in the NFL, even college players, are old enough to make decisions about what risks they are willing to take for their sport. But kids rely on us to make those decisions for them. We didn’t know before just how dangerous football and other contact sports were. We do now.

It’s time to rethink contact sports — and keep our kids safe.

Get two weeks of FREE unlimited access to BostonGlobe.com. No credit card required. Claire McCarthy, MD, is a pediatrician and medical communications editor at Boston Children’s Hospital. Read her blog at Boston.com/MdMama.




 Source: 
Stories about head injuries spur a reconsideration of youth football - Health & wellness - The Boston Globe

 http://bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/2012/12/10/stories-about-head-injuries-spur-reconsideration-youth-football/sYlTx6ZH8LlI6cDjEZscRP/story.html

Marion Jones gets 6 months in doping case - The New York Times

*Catch a steroid user with bank fraud charges....








WHITE PLAINS, New York — Marion Jones, the track and field star who pleaded guilty in October to lying to federal agents about her use of performance-enhancing drugs and her connection to a check-fraud case, was sentenced to six months in prison at the United States District Court here on Friday, according to wire reports.

The federal sentencing guidelines recommended Jones face anywhere from zero to six months in prison for her offenses. The maximum she could have faced was five years.


In court filings leading up to the sentencing, prosecutors asked Judge Kenneth Karras of U.S. District Court to give Jones six months in prison; Jones's lawyers said probation was enough.


At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Jones won three gold and two bronze medals, and until her admission about her drug use in October, had publicly insisted she never used performance-enhancing drugs.


It was not Jones lying about drug use that forced her to accept plea deals from the government.

*Jones's pleas were triggered by her involvement in the bank-fraud scheme.  

Prosecutors for the U.S. attorneys office in the Southern District of New York have said they had ample evidence, including Jones's signature on the $25,000 check and the testimony of other defendants in the case, many of whom have already pleaded guilty.

The strength of the government's evidence in that case was used to persuade Jones to plead guilty to the false statements to federal prosecutors in the Northern District of California, which has been leading the investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative for the past five years.

Jones admitted in court that from September 2000 until July 2001, her former trainer, Trevor Graham, gave her a substance he told her was flaxseed oil.

When she stopped training with him in 2001, she said she realized it had been a performance-enhancing drug. By the time she was interviewed in the Balco investigation in November 2003, Jones said, she knew it was the designer steroid THG, known as the clear. But she had denied recognizing the substance and denied taking it in that Balco interview.


After admitting to lying about her use of steroids, Jones relinquished the three gold and two bronze medals to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

The International Olympic Committee is examining how to adjust the medal standings for more than 40 athletes who competed with and against Marion Jones at the 2000 Games.

The reallocation of medals is likely to be one of the largest that the IOC has conducted because of the breadth of Jones's accomplishments. She became the first woman to win five medals in track and field at the same Olympics.

Perhaps the biggest consequence of Jones's pleas was the damage it did for Graham, who has repeatedly denied providing his athletes with performance-enhancing drugs.

If Jones is called to testify at Graham's trial, she can no longer invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination because she waived that with her guilty plea.

When Jones pleaded in October, she stood on the steps of the courthouse weeping while apologizing for lying and said she was retiring from track and field.

Source:

Marion Jones gets 6 months in doping case - The New York Times

Head injuries a rising danger for snowboarders, skiers

(Photo: Brennan Linsley AP)

Head injuries a rising danger for snowboarders, skiers
Rachel George, USA TODAY  Sports
February 26, 2013




Story Highlights

Pearce suffered a concussion less than three weeks before career-ending accident

He says he came back too soon, calling decision 'dumbest thing I've ever done'

White said he'd suffered nine concussions in his career in documentary

ASPEN, Colo. -- The dumbest ride Kevin Pearce ever took down the halfpipe wasn't the one that ended his snowboarding career. 

That run on Dec. 31, 2009, the one that resulted in a traumatic brain injury less than two months before the Vancouver Olympics, came less than three weeks after the run Pearce says he should have never taken.

Earlier that month, Pearce, who was 22 at the time, was pushing to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team and emerging as a challenger to Shaun White. Trying to land a cab 1080, a trick that Pearce had "on lock," he fell and hit his head. Hard.

"I was so sick and so dizzy and so gone after that," he recalled this month.

But Pearce's handling of less severe concussions and his life-changing brain injury highlight the extremes of what can go wrong when athletes hurtle themselves three stories in the air to perform tricks on a hard-packed halfpipe.

In The Crash Reel, a documentary chronicling Pearce's accident and recovery, Shaun White said he's suffered nine concussions in his career.   
 
Like any sport, snowboarding and free skiing come with risks and to the extent that is possible, athletes do their best to mitigate them.


But with elite athletes suffering multiple concussions at a young age, more questions than answers remain about a culture perhaps nonchalant in its attitude toward concussions and the effects on their long-term health.

Concussions, especially for snowboarders, are increasingly just part of getting to the top. 

While concussion research has focused on the impact in sports like football , there is less known or studied about the rates of concussions in snowboarding and skiing.

A study by researchers at the University of New Mexico published last month in The American Journal of Sports Medicine found the rate of closed head injuries more than doubled at one resort, Taos Ski Valley, after it allowed snowboarders on the slope starting in March 2008.

David Rust, the study's lead author, said the large majority of head injuries involved concussion-type symptoms, with only a small proportion requiring an advanced imaging test.

  

While the sport has progressed in its understanding and treatment of concussions, athletes and doctors spoke of an attitude of nonchalance toward the brain injury. ...a sense of invincibility is common.

"There is the illusion of greatness. There is the illusion of invincibility because you are out there performing things that have never been done," said U.S. freeskier David Wise, 21. A back-to-back gold medalist at the X Games in the superpipe, Wise said he has suffered four or five concussions.

Older athletes speak of a learning curve. If young skiers and snowboarders start out with that sense of invincibility, they'll learn.

Asked about their worst injuries, almost all the athletes interviewed for this story pointed to a broken bone or torn ligament. Head injuries were characterized by many as minor.

Part of that is the nature of the injury, one that isn't visible with a cast or crutches. Speaking about athletes generally, Mark Lovell – the creator of the ImPACT computerized concussion evaluation system – said most would opt for a concussion over an ACL tear.

"If you tear an ACL playing in the NFL, you know you're out for the season," said Lovell. "If you have a concussion, they see that as being – even though the consequences could be much more severe – they see that as not as challenging."

The athletes all said that while they're aware of the risks, they don't think about them on the course. Performing extremely technical tricks high above a jump or halfpipe requires focus on the moment and not on the worst-case scenarios.

Tragically, the sport has seen those. Freeskier Sarah Burke died in January 2012 after hitting her heard during a training accident in Park City, Utah.
 
It will likely take decades for researchers to understand what these types of brain injuries, and their frequency, mean for these athletes. Some of the first generation of these athletes – those like Clark, White and Bleiler – are still competing.

"We certainly don't know (the long-term consequences) in skiing and snowboarding because we just haven't had the research," said Melinda Roalstad. former medical director with the USSA who now runs a program that helps educate athletes about concussions.

 "What we're learning from is football."

Some former NFL players have offered a glimpse, with their brains showing signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The degenerative disease has been found in those with repeated concussions and head trauma. Symptoms can include dementia, depression and memory loss.

Doctors and researchers agree that athletes competing now often don't consider the long-term effects of repeated concussions, an attitude certainly not unique to these sports. There is no clear line of demarcation signaling that exceeding 'X' number of concussions portends permanent damage.

"In terms of the concussions, everybody has had them," said Tom Hackett, an orthopedic surgeon and team physician for the U.S. Snowboard team. "We've all become much more aware of them and much more sensitive to the importance of them. And how important they are to the future life of these guys too, but that's not something that they always see."

Three years after his accident, Pearce is still dealing with the consequences. He still loves snowboarding and were he capable, he'd still be competing.

But he hopes people can learn from his experience, something that might affect the culture toward concussions. 

Pearce is part of the #loveyourbrain education campaign.









Source:
Head injuries a rising danger for snowboarders, skiers  

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2013/02/25/snowboarders-skiers-kevin-pearce-concern-concussions/1947593/

Should science on brain injury inspire a ban on boxing?

Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent Reuters

March 21, 2013

LONDON (Reuters) - When Ireland's Katie Taylor was taking hits and striking blows for boxing's Olympic debut in an east London ring last year, John Hardy did not want to look.

To this leading neuroscientist and molecular biologist,

a boxing bout is little more than a session of mutual brain injury. 

He was horrified to see women boxing at Olympic level for the first time at the London 2012 Games.
"We shouldn't get our fun out of watching people inflict brain damage on each other," said Hardy, who is chair of Molecular Biology of Neurological Disease at University College London's Institute of Neurology. "To me as a neuroscientist it's almost surreal."

Hardy, whose research work focuses on Alzheimer's and other types of dementia, said having women in an Olympic boxing ring was "a terrible thing" - not because he thinks women should not compete alongside men in sport, but because women boxing simply meant more people inflicting more damage on more brains.

That, in turn, was highly likely to mean more people suffering the devastating, incurable symptoms of brain diseases such as Alzheimer's.

Advances in modern neuroscience mean scientists know more than ever about chronic brain damage and the long-term trauma that can result from frequent knocks to the head.

"You get tiny lesions along the blood vessels where they have torn the nerve cells around them. This damages those nerve cells, and those cells start to develop the tangles that you see in Alzheimer's disease," Hardy said.

"And what we now understand is that this process spreads."
Partly due to this new understanding, now is a time of intense sensitivity about and scrutiny of brain damage in sport - particularly among North America's National Football League (NFL) players.
Former San Diego Chargers player Junior Seau committed suicide last year after what some believe were years of depression stemming from multiple concussions he suffered as a player.

Last week, the NFL and General Electric Co announced a $60-million effort with leading neurologists to speed up research on brain injury to improve diagnosis and treatment amid growing concern about sports-related concussion.

RULE CHANGES

A study published last year found that even minor repeated head blows during sports such as hockey and American football may damage the learning ability of sports men and women after just one season.
The brain debate has even reached the White House, where President Barack Obama suggested in January that changes be made to NFL rules to reduce the level of violent impact.

In soccer too, concerns are growing about the damage players might be doing to their brains when they head the ball.
A small study of female soccer players published last month found evidence of mental impairment caused by repeatedly bouncing a football off the head. The U.S. researchers who conducted that study said the effects suggested headers caused "mild traumatic brain injury of the frontal lobes".
When it comes to boxing, health experts and scientists - and even some competitors themselves - have been worried about brains for decades.
The Irish former featherweight world champion Barry McGuigan, perhaps fearful of what damage might already have been done, said in 1988: 

"Boxing damages your brain; don't let anyone tell you any different".

Around the same time, fellow lightweight fighter Terry Marsh, who was later diagnosed with epilepsy, said: "I don't need the British Medical Association to tell me getting hit on the head can't do me any good."

 As far back as 1928, the American pathologist Harrison Stanford Martland wrote a paper entitled "Punch drunk" in which he showed that prize fighters were suffering from brain injury caused by the rupture of blood vessels.

The "punch drunk" condition, known more formally as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) or as its variants, dementia pugilistica or boxer's dementia, is a neurodegenerative disease that can affect boxers and others who suffer knocks to the head.

It can cause depression, aggression, impulsivity and memory loss and has been linked to suicide.

"A lot of boxers, and indeed American footballers too, have a period in their 30s and 40s where they are depressed, they drink, they show explosive tempers, and have basically pretty messed up lives," said Hardy.

BAD JUDGEMENT

It is not hard to find examples of boxers whose brains have begun to fail them.
American heavyweight champion and boxing idol Muhammad Ali began struggling with a stutter and trembling hands even before he came to the end of his fighting career. His subsequent decline with the neurodegenerative disorder Parkinson's syndrome has been painful for fans to witness.

Mike Tyson, a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, was convicted and imprisoned for rape, had multiple marriages and break ups, was declared bankrupt and was eventually diagnosed with the brain condition bipolar disorder.

British former heavyweight world champion Frank Bruno was diagnosed with the same condition while his compatriot Michael Watson needed six brain operations and suffered lasting damage after being knocked down in a 1991 bout.

Hardy argues that there is a tendency to think of these problematic lives as par for the course for boxers - who were more likely than non-boxers to come from disadvantaged backgrounds and mix in unstable circles.

"But the truth is they have bad judgment because of the injuries to their brain," he said. In the language of brain science this was called "loss of executive control", he explained, "and this in itself is part of the disease process".
"It's not inherent in their personalities as boxers, it's damage to the frontal cortex. They are already experiencing brain injury."

In an article posted on the World Boxing Association's (WBA) website, Calvin Inalsingh, head of the association's medical advisory committee, admits that "boxing is the only sport in which the objective is to render blows to the head and body of the opponent so as the cause the opponent to be incapacitated".
It is this, according to Hardy, that means when it comes to arguing for a ban on sports that cause brain injury, boxing is in a class of its own.

In other sports, such as American football, soccer or rugby, where the objective is to score touchdowns or goals or tries, and where head injury may be a by-product of that aim, authorities can and do change the rules or adjust the advice on protective clothing to make the game safer.
"But the whole point of boxing is to inflict brain damage," said Hardy. "That's why I think it's really a hopeless case in terms of a sport."

He has little doubt that in time, as medical knowledge expands, boxing will be banned, although he accepts there may be many more years of argument between brain scientists and sports authorities first.

"In science we have become very good at identifying causes and mechanisms of disease but unfortunately we understand things for a long time before we get better at solving them."

Source:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/sns-rt-us-boxing-brainbre92k037-20130320,0,1910794.story?page=2
(Editing by Clare Fallon)

According to this article he was already BROKE back in 2009;old Boxers keep gambling their health for few bucks... Riddick Bowe to make Muay Thai debut in May

According to this article he was already BROKE back in 2009;old Boxers keep gambling their health for few bucks...and now Riddick is looking to fight in Muay Thai

................ 

  

Rid­dick Bowe vs Evan­der Holyfield

Riddick Bowe to make Muay Thai debut in May

Thursday, March 21, 2013  Boxing, Muay Thai, Riddick Bowe  No comments

 

Total Muay Thai are reporting that 45 year old heavy­weight box­ing leg­end Riddick Bowe is set to make his Muay Thai debut in Thailand this May. According to Total Muay Thai, Bowe signed a contract with Thai Pro­mo­tions Kok­iet and Golden Glove.

Bowe has not fought in boxing since 2008 and will be training for his upcoming debut in Las Vegas, NV with Kru Airr Phan­thip and Kru Chan. 

 

A press con­fer­ence is expected to be held on March 30th, 2013 at the Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

 

This wouldn't be the first time rumors about a boxer making his Muay Thai debut surface. Last year rumors of a bout between Manny Pacquiao and Buakaw ran rampant, but in the end nothing happened. Only time will tell us if Bowe is really attempting to fight Muay Thai. 

 

Bowe left boxing with an excel­lent record of 43 wins and 1 loss with 33 wins com­ing by the way of knockout. 

Bowe is 6 Foot 5 with an 81 inch reach. 

 

Source:

http://www.muaythaiauthority.com/2013/03/riddick-bowe-to-make-muay-thai-debut-in.html

http://totalmuaythai.com/heavyweight-boxing-champion-riddick-bowe-going-into-muay-thai-at-forty-five/

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

 

Aaron Houston for The New York Times

 

Riddick Bowe signed autographs at a flea market in New Jersey. The former heavyweight champion said he had $15 million when he retired in 1996.

By JOHN BRANCH

Published: June 13, 2009

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Amid all the items to be discovered at the Meadowlands Flea Market on Saturday, past the kettle corn and between the $2 leather belts and the $1 bottles of shampoo, was a two-time heavyweight boxing champion of the world.

Aaron Houston for The New York Times

Riddick Bowe at a New Jersey flea market. He last boxed in December in Germany, but he has no bouts planned.

Riddick Bowe sat on a folding chair behind a card table that straddled two parking spaces, labeled in chalk as Nos. 264 and 265. Most people sauntered past, holding bargains in a bag or grilled meat on a stick, not recognizing the large man who waited for someone to come see him.

“The champ is here!” Darren Antola, who set up the autograph session, called out, like a carnival barker. “He beat Evander Holyfield two out of three times!”

Two women approached. Bowe always was boxing’s approachable heavyweight, the anti-Mike Tyson, witty and disarming. He called each of the women “sweetheart.”

One asked if he was still fighting. Bowe said he was, a reply based more in hope than reality. He beat a “crash dummy” named Gene Pukall in Germany last December, and has no other fights planned. He weighs about 300 pounds.
“Guess who I’m going to fight next?” he asked, excitedly. “You’ll never believe it.”

“Who?” the woman asked in return.

“Somebody I can whoop,” Bowe said. He smiled. She laughed. Then she bought an autographed picture for $35 that she intended to frame for someone named Pete. And Bowe, who said he had $15 million when he retired in 1996, thanked her.
A man working a stall behind Bowe watched.

“All those millions of dollars, and they’re gone,” the man said, and it was not in the form of a question, but a fact, readily apparent. “It’s a sad story.”

Bowe does not argue that. He is 41 (according to public records and news reports, although he insisted Saturday that he was born on Aug. 10, 1968, not 1967) and signed autographs because he has little money. He wants to fight again because he knows little else.

“What would I do without boxing? That’s the question, isn’t it?” he asked during a quiet moment under the canopy where he sat. He searched for the answer inside his head, which his own lawyers once argued(his brain) was damaged from all the blows it absorbed.

“Boxing’s all I know,” he said finally. “At 40, what else am I going to do?”

Bowe’s version of the now-clichéd story of a heavyweight champion going from riches to rags — count Holyfield and Tyson among contemporaries with similar tales — is layered with bizarre episodes.

Bowe beat Holyfield twice, the loss in the middle of their trilogy coming after a parachutist landed beside the ring at Caesar’s Palace in 1993. Bowe had two strange 1996 victories over Andrew Golota, who was disqualified both times for low blows. The first, at Madison Square Garden, set off a riot in the ring.

Bowe retired. Things got stranger.

He joined the Marine Corps Reserves and quit a few days into basic training. He spent 18 months in prison for interstate domestic violence after going to North Carolina to haul his now-former wife and their five children back home with him to Maryland. He filed for bankruptcy.

But Bowe was relentlessly optimistic as afternoon rain washed out the flea market and ended the signing early. His cellphone displayed a photo of his wife, Terri (they married in 2000) and their daughter, Morgan, who will be 4 in August. And his mind saw a rainbow with more paydays at the end.

Some people called out “Champ!” as they walked past Bowe on Saturday, and Bowe greeted them as if they were old friends passing on the street. Others stared from a distance, as if at the zoo. Some shook his hand but did not buy an autographed photo or boxing glove ($65), which Bowe signed, “Riddick ‘Big Daddy’ Bowe.” Twice someone said something about Muhammad Ali, and Bowe said that Ali was the greatest, “but I am the latest.”

Most of the time, there was no one talking to Bowe. But whenever a few people gathered, they multiplied in a hurry. Bowe, the magnet in the middle, charmed them all, and a man collected their cash.

A signing in Manhattan last week earned Bowe “$2,000 or $3,000,” he said. The take on Saturday was far less.

“Now you see why I’ve got to fight,” Bowe said. “Put the word out that Big Daddy’s got to do what he do.”

Bowe said he made $30,000 for December’s fight, when he weighed 271 pounds. A few offers followed, all for less money. Bowe found them insulting. Calls stopped coming, and Bowe stopped training.

Now he dreams of a string of 10 fights, in quick succession, against more crash dummies to bolster his record (43-1, with 33 knockouts) and rebuild his reputation. Then he envisions a title bout. George Foreman, after all, was 45 when he won a heavyweight championship, and Bowe considers himself both “younger” and “prettier.”

The more Bowe thought about it, the more he decided that the best approach may be to get in shape now so that people see that he is serious. He said he might start training Monday.

A man told Bowe that he felt sorry for Tyson, having had so much potential, so much money, only to piddle it away. It was an awkward few moments. The man did not realize he was describing the person in front of him. Bowe did.

“No matter what, God is on my side,” Bowe said later. “I’m not perfect, but I’m not the worst, either. God brought me this far. He’s not done with me yet.”

Before leaving, Bowe wanted something else to be known. He loves his wife and their little girl more than anything, he said. And he said thank you.

Thirty minutes later, Bowe was on the phone. One more thing.

“Any promoter who wants to put me on their card, I’m willing to fight,” Bowe said.

He said thank you. And he was gone, again. 

 

A version of this article appeared in print on June 14, 2009, on page SP1 of the New York edition.

 

 

 

 

Boxing champions are getting older and older ....Bernard Hopkins

This article makes some interesting points about how science is aiding athletes to train harder and avoid injuries late into their lives.  Not so long ago few people past 30 years old won Boxing titles.  Most of the older fighters were in the heavyweight division because the last thing you lose is your punch.  Shannon Briggs is dangerous,  in spite of breathing problems, because he possesses a paralyzing punch... he is not great on defense and has little foot movement yet he has won fights against fighters who looked far superior on paper... Let's hope extending sporting careers doesn't add up to more accumulated brain damage from recurring trauma....

 

Bernard Hopkins, right, lands a left on Tavoris Cloud during their IBF light-heavyweight title fight in New York. Hopkins, 48, won on points. Photograph: Frank Franklin Ii/AP


 

 Athletes are lingering for longer at elite levels in boxing.  

 

Throughout the 1980s only one fighter – Larry Holmes in 1985 – made Ring magazine's annual top 10 pound-for-pound rankings when he was past the age of 35. In 2012, four of the top 10 were over 35. In 1986, the average age of the Ring's pound-for-pound fighters was 26.2.  Last year it was 32.1.
 

Hopkins'  achievements take him into a different sphere. 

 

There are obvious parallels with Archie Moore, the greatest light-heavyweight of them all. 

 

Both found boxing in the penitentiary; both had careers spanning four decades; both kept being asked for the "secret of their success".
For Hopkins it is down to genetics, hard work and abstinence. 

 

Moore's tastes were more exotic – he took "kraut juice", four ounces of sauerkraut juice with a teaspoon of lemon juice every morning as well as a "jigger of blackberry wine for energy" – and carried a .45 revolver in his pocket on his morning runs "in case I see a snake".

Much of Moore's thinking was decades ahead of his time. The recent interest in raw food and Vitamin D – Moore was there 50 years ago. 

 

"Often vitamins are lost through cooking and it's a rare man who obtains all the sunshine he needs," he wrote in his autobiography.

"My old friends, the aborigines, wear little or no clothing and sleep outdoors. The amount of vitamin D they soak up greatly contributes to their resistance, ruggedness and overall good health."

That said, we are all fighting a losing battle with biology. 

 

One of the key aerobic performance indicators, VO2 max, peaks in the early 20s and then starts to decline, as does anaerobic power. 

 

And while muscle strength peaks in the late 20s, that too declines in your 30s and 40s.

As Dr James Carter, the head of the Gatorade Sports Science Institute at Loughborough University, points out:

 

"As you enter your 30s you're in decline from your physical peak. The only way to reverse that is to train more. But when you do, you take longer to recover and the likelihood of injuries increases."
Still, advances in sports science and nutrition are helping alter the odds. 

 

Post-match refuelling used to consist of pints and peanuts – now it is a 

recovery drinks with a ratio of 4:1 carbohydrates to protein.

The ciggy in the communal bath is long gone; increasingly cryotherapy chambers, which flush out lactic acid, and speed recovery are used.

 

Recent scientific discoveries – beetroot juice aids stamina, cherry juice prevents muscle soreness and colostrum bolsters the immune system – have become part of the elite sports star's toolkit.
 

Hopkins, for one, is living testament to what can be achieved long after most of us have hung up our boots.





 Source:
 Bernard Hopkins' tale of the tape offers backing to long players | Sean Ingle | Sport | The Guardian 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2013/mar/10/bernard-hopkins-ryan-giggs-science

Hopkins beats Cloud to become boxing's oldest champion

 
Just when he has been written off as TOO OLD Bernard wins another Boxing title!!!


PROFESSOR HOPKINS



(Photo: Ed Mulholland, USA TODAY Sports)




Bernard Hopkins and Tavoris Cloud fight during the fourth round of an IBF Light Heavyweight championship. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) Source: AP

Story Highlights

• Bernard Hopkins won the light heavyweight title at age 48
• Hopkins broken his own record as the oldest world champion in boxing history
• Cloud lost for the first time in his career

Bernard Hopkins continues to thumb his nose at Father Time, outsmarting and outpunching Tavoris Cloud Saturday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. to win a unanimous decision and Cloud's IBF light-heavyweight title.

With the win against a fighter 17 years his junior, Hopkins became boxing's oldest champion at age 48. The loss was the first for Cloud, who is promoted by 81-year-old Don King.

Hopkins broke his own longevity record, which he set at age 46 with a victory against Canadian Jean Pascal for the WBC light heavyweight title in Montreal on May 21, 2011.

Hopkins lost that title last April to Chad Dawson, but came back for another shot.

"I'm fighting old school in a new world," Hopkins said. "I had to learn to adapt if I wanted to stay in the game and win.


Hopkins said afterwards, "I might go till 50," then said he was only kidding. "I'm here to stay but I won't be in the ring at 50 years old," he said. "I just think there's an opportunity for me to prove I'm different."

Nobody can argue that after his sterling performance against Cloud.

Hopkins (53-6-2, 38 KOs), whose nickname is "The Executioner," executed this fight to perfection. He never let Cloud get his feet set, and used his ring skills and amazing boxing acumen to keep Cloud at a distance, often off-balance and unable to do what he does best, which is come forward throwing a lot of punches.

Hopkins outlanded Cloud 169-139 in overall punches, and landed 110 of 227 power punches, an astounding 48%, according to CompuBox statistics.

"I stuck to the plan. Just took a little time to get warmed up," Hopkins said. "I was trying to throw four or five punches that I normally don't throw and it seemd to throw him off. "

Cloud suffered a bad cut over his left eye early in the fight -- it was ruled by referee Earl Brown to be from an accidental headbutt, but an HBO replay showed it was from a punch. Hopkins zeroed in on the cut throughout the 12-round affair with precision punching. By the end of the fight, Cloud was cut over both eyes.

Hopkins said he hopes his historic win is a lesson that everyone in sports can learn: "You can do it clean."

He joked that he told Cloud, "I won't be here for too much longer, only about five more years," he said, then added: "I have a history of destroying young champions."
Cloud, 31, fell to 24-1 with 19 KOs, and told Hopkins after the fight, "I do not idolize you.
You're a good fighter, and I respect you."

"I was only average tonight," Cloud said. "He hit me with an elbow, but I'm not complaining.

The good thing about boxing is that you do it inside of the ring without guns, and everybody lives to fight another day."

On the undercard, Keith Thurman shut out Jan Zaveck to win his 20th fight without a loss. It was the first time Thurman has gone more than eight rounds in his career, and just the second in which he did not knock his opponent out.

Thurman outlanded Zaveck 217-110 overall and 150-77 in power punches.

"I have more experience but it didn't show tonight. It went the distance but I couldn't do it," Zaveck after his loss.

 

VIDEO: Bernard Hopkins' greatest hits


 Source:
Hopkins beats Cloud to become boxing's oldest champion

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/boxing/2013/03/10/bernard-hopkins-tavoris-cloud-ibf-light-heavyweight-title-48-years-old/1976289/#.UTw2Ajw6PaQ.gmail

Manny Pacquiao focused on political career; Not thinking about Marquez fight

Strange Hangers On



Glamor Photos



Fiercely Determined Opponent






















 

k






 

Defeat


Victory at last



Will they fight again?

While a good portion of the Boxing world is talking about a 5th bout between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, the Filipino legend appears to be less interested in the fight right now and more interested in his political career.

 According to a March 8 report by Tempo.com.ph, Pacquiao made the following comments about the fight and his current plans:

“September is the right date to fight again but there’s been no talks regarding the fight. Nothing’s been finalized. My concentration is on the May elections.”

However, just because Manny is concentrating on the May elections, doesn't mean he's let himself "go" physically. Manny remains in good shape due to his love for basketball. 

There are many pundits who believe that his political career has hurt his boxing career. 

In his last two fights, Pacquiao wasn't the same fighter we've grown accustomed to seeing; he looked a step slower and less aggressive.

After he got knocked out so viciously in his December fight against Marquez. , many boxing fans and pundits were calling for Manny's retirement. 

The Pacquiao faithful want revenge against Marquez. 

Source:
Manny Pacquiao focused on political career; Not thinking about Marquez fight - National Fight Sports | Examiner.com

Tex Ricard, Jack Kearns and Jack Dempsey

 
Tex Rickard

"Tex was the kind of fellow who was worthwhile knowing. When he found out I was a fight-fan, he always gave me $40.00 ringside seats. Like Gibson and some other artists, I was attracted to prize-fights because of their colour, dramatic lighting and action."

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Tex Rickard.

George Lewis "Tex" Rickard (January 2, 1870 – January 6, 1929) was an American boxing promoter, founder of the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (NHL), and builder of the third incarnation of Madison Square Garden in New York City.

During the 1920s, Tex Rickard was the leading promoter of the day, and he has been compared to P. T. Barnum and Don King.

 Sports journalist Frank Deford has written that Rickard "first recognized the potential of the star system."

Jack Dempsey holding his wife, Estelle Taylor, on his shoulder

 

 Jack Dempsey, Harry Houdini and Benny Leonard

 
 
Jack Dempsey v Georges Carpentier

 
In the 1920s, the best boxing promoters and managers were instrumental in bringing boxing to new audiences and provoking media and public interest. Arguably the most famous of all three-way partnerships (fighter-manager-promoter) was that of Jack Dempsey (Heavyweight Champion, 1919–1926), his manager Jack Kearns, and Rickard as promoter.

 Together they grossed US$ 8.4 million in only five fights between 1921 and 1927 and ushered in a "golden age" of popularity for professional boxing in the 1920s.

They were also responsible for the first live radio broadcast of a title-fight and the first million-dollar fight (Dempsey v. Georges Carpentier in 1921).




 Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tex_Rickard

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Dempsey