Not if you are HBO! (Is boxing worth the risk?)

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Product:	Is boxing worth the risk?
Date:	24/01/02 (101 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great visual sport

Disadvantages: Its on the down slope

Two most pathetic things for me this week have been the 2m pound lottery winner who did on his sofa surrounded by two crates of beer and a bottle of whisky. The other was that pre fight hype press face off where Tyson laid into Lennox Lewis crew.
It certainly makes you smile when you see those Lennox Lewis commercials about keeping his cool if he was a copper near a women beater
They say that most people in boxing are either moneymen or hangers on who are really no good at all to be around fighters before a big fight. And there are none bigger than this one.

Tyson and the lottery guy had it all considering the background they were dragged up in and now stuffed full of medication the precipice is gaping. Where’s as the carpenter snuffed it with the world at his feet, the butcher is heading for a career saving rumble that he can not afford to miss.
Theres reports that the once legendary fighter has asked for a gigantic sub from his purse to pay off creditors and subsidize his now legendary partying.

But the lawyers will have to be paid to, as yet another rape indictment seems to be on its way. The police have filed for a penal arrest warrant that is basically the equivalent of a crown prosecution charge and a court date.
The big hotel’s and Vegas need this fight and the high rollers that flood into town for big fights. Post September 11 has been bad business and just about everyone in Nevada will pray this scrap in the arena will go ahead.
But the word is that this is one Tyson too far and along with his previous arrest record he could be going away for along time.

So is boxing worth the risk. Well looking at Mohammed Ali after reading his biog to I would say yes. A lot of old fighters have had health problems after the gloves had long since been proudly packed away. But in the days when Rigsby boxed with those enormous cowhide gloves, their futures were the last thing on their pounded minds.
Michael Wats
on had the guts to admit he was just as much to blame for those terrible injuries as Eubank was after finally offering a shaking hand to Chris.It so easily could have been the other way around in this cruel but macho so called sport. When warriors fight they demand respect not pity.

Let’s face it, most of these guys would have amounted to nothing without the noble art and a life of crime or worse beckoning. It could even have been manual labor and not Manuel Stewart his wise old glove man for Ali if fate hadn’t come his way.
Reading his biography, one is struck with just how different and bold pugilism was in those days. It was certainly away a blackman could get respect and pride from just about every white man on the planet. There weren’t many careers that can do that then.

I was on duty when Tyson did his famous walkabout in Brixton, which bought so much joy to the black community. Not because he was a rapist or a thug but a blackman who had made it to the top with mutual respect from everyone in his prime.
There is a culture of getting it anyway you can in Lambeth with in some groups but that day showed the power of the boxing game can have for one man.
I got with twelve feet of him buried beneath a melee of bouncers and more hangers on. The glint of 18 carrot gold in his remaining teeth spoke volumes of this untamed wildman.

Boxing is definitely worth the financial risk if you make the top. But even then you can blow it all like Tyson seems to have done with his reported 200 million bucks. For the guys who don’t quite make it the punishment is still severe.
Spare a thought for the semi pro fighter who has never had a brain scan or proper medical who will fight underground just to make the rest. Some guys may do fifty plus bouts a year as a jobbing fighter alone in illegal clubs and venues.

Unless admirers and lawyer’s flash bulbs and girls surround you, life can be very hard and o
bscure for the fighter who never was. With ten different boxing boards and ten times that officials and businesses looking to get paid, its no wonder these guys are pot under so much pressure to make everyone’s pay day.

As just as many doctors who say it’s barbaric, there will be equal that at boxing dinner and dance nights. As a copper I have been to a few of these on stag nights and the like and I can tell you will find just about everyone at these gigs.
Women get very wet over these warriors and chaps long to be real men like these gladiators of new. If you think it’s dangerous or bold, it’s very exciting when they enter the ring and offer their soles for your pleasure.

The best days are over now with most champions being protected from competition and over the boxing hill. Half of the champs are over thirty which was unheard of in Alis day when Harry Carpenter screemed”Oh my God he’s won it back at 32!”.
Everyone wants a cut now from these often-gullible guys as the TV networks now own the contracts and often dictates the business.
We have reached a sad stage in the heavy weight decision with possibly the most lethargic dull fighter ever to hold the belts.

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