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Posts Tagged ‘boxing’

Age sneaks up on professional prizefighters, at least in terms of their competitive abilities. There are exceptions–Archie Moore, George Foreman, James Toney–but they are rare. Typically, a high level boxer can go from legitimacy to retirement in a matter of minutes. The most recent victim of ‘Father Time’ was Mexican Superstar Oscar De La Hoya, who looked completely outclassed in what would be his last bout–an 8th round TKO loss to Panamanian sensation Manny Pacquiao.

There was much concern prior to the fight about Pacquiaos ability to handle the naturally larger De La Hoyas strength and power. That concern was completely ill founded, and the reigning pound for pound king began to overwhelm De La Hoya from the opening round. Pacquiaos seemingly nonstop flurries of strikes began to show their effect on De La Hoyas face as his elusiveness made it impossible for his opponent to retaliate with any offense of his own.

As the fight progressed, it became nothing less than a one sided beating. His only effective flurry came in the 5th round, when he scored with a few solid body punches. It did little more than prolong the inevitable finish. Between the 7th and 8th round, trainer Nacho Berenstein told his fighter that he wasn’t going to let him stay out there and take a beating if he wasnt throwing punches. After the 8th round, Berenstein stopped the fight and Oscar smartly didn’t object to what was clearly the right decision.

The judges scorecards at the time of the stoppage vividly reflect the one-sidedness of the contest: two of the three judges scored the fight 80-71, with Pacquaio winning all eight rounds (with a 10-8 margin in the 7th). One judge charitably gave De La Hoya the fifth round, which was certainly a stretch resulting in a 79-72 margin. De La Hoya displayed the class of a champion following the fight, as he deflected Larry Merchants pointed questions about his relatively low weight to keep the focus on Pacquiaos masterful performance. He stopped short of retiring in the ring, but certainly sounded as if he were leaning in that direction as he observed:

“At this stage when you face someone like Pacquiao, it’s going to be a hard fight. I worked hard and trained really hard to get ready for this fight, but it’s a lot different story when you’re training than when you are actually in the ring. I just felt flat, like I didn’t have it. My heart still wants to fight, but when you physically don’t respond, you have to be smart.”

De La Hoyas post fight behavior should be required viewing for all aspiring prizefighters to learn how a champion carries himself with class, dignity and respect for the sport even in defeat. De La Hoya is an international superstar with a nine figure ATM balance; if he can be humble and gracious in this setting other fighters have no excuse for not being able to emulate his gentlemanly manners.

The most touching moment came as De La Hoya prepared to leave the ring to allow Pacquiao to enjoy the glory he had earned. As De La Hoya gave a congratulatory hug, Pacquiao assured him that “You’re still my hero”.

To which the defeated De La Hoya responded: “No, now you’re my hero.

Ross Everett is a freelance writer and noted authority on World Cup betting. His writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sportsbooks and sportsbook directory sites. He lives in Southern Nevada with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.

The Internet is filled with information about boxing punch bags, and all of it is at your fingertips if you perform a simple search on Google. The most popular question is unquestionably how to fill a boxing punch bag.

There are several ways of thinking on this topic. Sand — arguably the most common filler — and water are the most popular, and some even claim to use grass.

The first two work decently, though the quality varies depending on what you’re using your bag for and what materials make up your shell. Filling a standard size boxing punch bag with water, for example, is a mistake unless you feel like mopping.

Grass is the one choice here we can rule out entirely. It doesn’t matter what kind of bag you’re filling — using grass will create an overly soft bag that won’t build strength or endurance at all, but will start to smell shortly.

The first thing to remember when it comes to filling boxing punch bags is that there is no replacement for a good, store bought empty shell.

Even if you’re trying to be budget savvy, the consistency of your bag will be wrong and it simply won’t last long enough to warrant spending any money at all — unless you don’t mind throwing away your money.

So what’s the alternative? Well, you can’t just buy a sack and call it a day. A sack is not designed to take a brutal beating, day in and day out. This kind of pressure is going to wear on it very quickly, so again buying a sack is going to drain your time and wallet.

Do yourself a favor and purchase a boxing punch bag with no fill and avoid a load of problems down the road. The good part to buying an empty shell is that boxing punch bags with no fill are quite cheap, since it’s the insides that make the difference between a TKO or Aries and an Everlast.

There are numerous ingredients you can use to fill your boxing punch bag. Your best bet is to pick a few of these and use them to create a mixture that will perform for you year after year despite daily punishment.

Materials with which you can fill your boxing punch bag include:

* Cotton, or anything made from cotton

* Yarn or cloth made from wool

* Regular air

* The foam of an old mattress

* Liquid — most often, water

* Unwanted or used clothing

* Saw dust or shreddings

* Pillow or any other type of feathers

* Rice that is dry

* Any kind of sand

* Material used for packing, such as styrofoam

* Tightly packed and rolled garbage bags

* Rubber of any type including shredded tires

So what is your boxing club really using? Well, it’s something of a secret, so don’t tell anyone I told you. The following is the formula.

Pack your boxing punch bag as tightly with cloth as possible, attentively removing any looseness to keep the boxing punch bag of good form and thickness to prevent deforming.

But how do you keep the right hardness and the correct shape?

Simply pour fine sand into the bottom of your bag to keep your boxing punch bag weighted and of the proper shape. Line the outer wall of your bag with cloth, sleeping bags or even army sacks if you have them.

Next, pack the core with feathers and any rubber you have at your disposal, like shredded tires.

Discipline and endurance is easy to achieve with a boxing punch bag. Purchase one today and enhance your training while getting rid of work stress! You can find any number of bargains online, but buy from a trusted seller for the best prices and the highest quality boxing punch bags and other boxing gear.

While mixed martial arts fighting has only recently become popular in the United States, contests between fighters of different martial arts disciplines have taken place in Japan for many years. They weren’t called “mixed martial arts” until recently, but they were definitely an embryonic form of the now booming sport. Many of the most famous events of this type took place in Japan during the 1970′s involving pro wrestling legend Antonio Inoki.

Inoki would often face other martial artists in fights that are widely accepted to have been “worked” (having a predetermined outcome) in the same manner as professional wrestling matches. While Inoki faced a number of karate, judo and boxing champions his most famous match was certainly his fight against world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali.

There are differing accounts of how the best heavyweight boxer in history found himself in a ring in Tokyo’s Budokan Arena against a pro wrestler. One thing is certain–it was viewed as an easy payday for Ali, who’d lost a good chunk of his prime earning years to his controversial stance over the Vietnam war. That’s what got him there in the first place, and that’s what kept him there after the two sides began squabbling over the rules and the outcome of the fight. Some suggest that it was supposed to be a “fair fight” going in and once Ali saw Inoki spar he insisted on rules changes to tilt the fight in his favor. Another more likely version of the story suggests that Ali’s handlers knew that the fight was supposed to be a “work” all along. They made the deal with Inoki’s people based on this fact, and were all on board as to the outcome of the match and how it would “finish”. The “original” plan was to have Inoki win in a controversial manner that would keep his undefeated streak in “MMA” matches intact while allowing Ali to “save face. The only person who wasn’t aware of the game plan, however, was Ali himself. When informed that he was supposed to “take a dive”, even in a convoluted fashion, Ali refused. No agreement was reached between the two camps and at the last minute a legit fight transpired. The promoters were left with a sold out Budokan, a worldwide PPV audience and two fighters who despite every effort to the contrary would actually have to fight each other.

The rules that were in place on fight night were so ridiculously one sided in favor of Ali that it almost defies belief. Inoki wasn’t allowed to hit Ali with a closed fist, nor strike him in the head at all. He was also prohibited from using any sort of choke or submission maneuver. Most problematically, he was prohibited from trying to take Ali to the ground. In other words, Inoki was basically not permitted to do anything that would threaten Ali with any sort of physical harm.

The result was an absolutely horrible fight. Neither man showed much interest in engaging the other, with Inoki spending most of the time on the ground doing what he could under the one sided rules. Inoki threw kicks at Ali’s legs, Ali threw an occasional jab and tried to protect himself from his opponent’s leg strikes. The fight ended a 74-74 draw, with the real losers being the fans.

An interesting postscript to the fight is that the referee was former pro wrestler “Judo” Gene Labell, a legit tough guy whom some have suggested could have beaten up both Ali and Inoki at the same time despite his advanced age. Had he chosen to do so, it would certainly have been welcomed by those watching the fight live and on closed circuit.

In the aftermath of the fight, Inoki’s popularity was greater than ever–in a perverse way he was something of a hero due to his trying to fight despite the rules being stacked so soundly against him. He remained one of the country’s most popular professional wrestlers and even enjoyed a career in Japan’s parliament. Without missing a beat, he quickly resumed his series of fights against other martial artists who were apparently all more comfortable with the “worked” environment of pro wrestling. Among his “victims” was none other than Leon Spinks, presumably serving as some sort of vindication for his draw with Ali. The popularity of these matches led to a number of promotions that were essentially hybrids of martial arts and pro wrestling, and these led to the big Japanese MMA promotions of today.

Ross Everett is a noted writer who has written on sports gambling and how to successfully bet on NFL football. He has appeared on TV and radio talking about boxing, cricket and NFL pointspreads. He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with three Jack Russell Terriers and a wombat.

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighting has just about finished boxing. With MMA groups like Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Pride and WEC the level of skill and excitement has risen way above anything boxing can produce.

Boxing was once upon a time, a multi-million dollar business with the best boxers in the world providing excitement ring. People all over the world would sit around there TV watching the fight of the year. Then a decade or so later we had heavy weights like Iron Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield. They were big exciting boxers that pounded each other. They usually provided good action and knockouts. After these boxers retired or faded out we lost boxers with size and moved to boxers with skill like Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather etc. This era of boxing was great but it always ended in a decision. It started to take the fun out of watching boxing and people were getting tired of paying good money for a non entertaining fight and no ending with a KO.

Then in 90s along comes this Ultimate Fighting Championship tournament where eight men are pitted against each other in a caged octagon ring, with a winner at the end of the night winning the tournament. There were only two rules, no eye gouging and no biting. You could do anything else to win. To get the win you either knocked your opponent out or submitted him. There were many different styles of fighting, anywhere from Kung Fu, to Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, to Muay Thai and Bar Room Brawling. Thats why its so entertaining because anybody who had fighting experience had a chance. When it first started there were a lot of mismatched though! At the end of the day though, this was great entertainment to audiences. People started paying to watch these fights and with the media putting a negative spin on it, UFC blew up. In 2001 the UFC was sold to new owners and Dana White was named president.

Dana White is responsible for making UFC and other MMA events so popular today. He changed the fighting rules, so it would be less barbaric and also so that there were two fighters competing for the win, instead of a tournament style fight. Also there would be 6-7 fights on a pay-per-view event. So that means on a pay-per-view event you have the chance to see 6-7 people get knocked out or submitted. Unlike boxing where you watch 12 rounds of boxing to get a bad decision.

Dana White decided to increase the popularity of UFC even more by introducing The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) reality show in which the winner gets a contract to fight in the UFC and a shot at stardom. This show has a firm grip on guys in the age range of 18-34. It has been recorded that, in this age range, the shows ratings have surpassed NBA and MLB playoffs. As for the pay-per-view money, in 2006 the UFC made $223M, HBO made $177M and WWE made $200M. Dana Whites definitely doing something right. Fighters are getting more popular than ever as their fan base increases. With popular fighters like Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz and Lyota Machida

So why is UFC more popular than Boxing? Its simple. The UFC offer fast paced action which usually ends in a submission or Knockout. Instead of watching 12 long rounds of Boxing just to end in a decision. One of the great things in MMA is you just never know whos going to win. All it takes is someone to get a lucky shot in and his opponent drops like a sack of potatoes. Boxing hasnt produced that in a long time. Thats not to say UFC doesnt have its faults.

At the end of the day, UFC is offering viewers what they want. I think boxing will be around for a few more years but MMA will beat boxing out of business sooner rather than later.

If you are a fan of the UFC Ultimate Fighter TUF then check out ufcultimatefighter.com. There is also MMA Videos for your viewing pleasure.