Field Theory: Like a punch in the face
73 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 2 3 Newer→ Last
-
You have expressed perfectly my own view on the "bore of the century". I don't care who wins. I just don't care about professional boxing anymore. It is a joke and has been for the last 10-15 years.
If people want to pay good money to watch two average fighters slugging each other then let them. But kudos to the promoters for getting people to hand over big money for this. They clearly have skill.
-
You'd have to be pretty talented to sell tickets to the weigh in.
At $145/seat, you'd be a fucking genius to sell them. And no doubt they have.
The programme for the event is great:
PROGRAMME
[various pre-fights etc]
10:15 FIGHT OF THE CENTURY
* Heavyweight 12 x 3 minute rounds
* David "Tuaminator" Tua V Shane "Mountain Warrior" Cameron
* Winners Belt Presentation
* Tea and Coffee
11:30 EVENING CONCLUDESTea and Coffee? Are we doing boxing or cricket? Cucumber sandwiches?
I'm not really a fan of sports which are solely about violence, but if I did, I'd want them to have one world champion per weight grade, not... I lose track. At least three from what I heard on TV. Get a proper international body and run your sport with at least 10% integrity (90% money)!
-
The end of communism, not PPV, killed boxing. Before the Wall came down Americans were the best boxers in the world, but now the competition is between the Ukraine and Russia. Americans only watch stuff they win at, they don't watch boxing and prefer Nascar, NFL, Baseball and WWE.
-
Before the Wall came down Americans were the best boxers in the world
And the occasional Brit, the Germans, and a few boxers from Central America.
-
The promoter was on radio yesterday saying they said "NZ Fight of the Century" but the media dropped the "NZ" part off it right from the get go.
I'm keen to see who wins. I'm not going to pay to see it on TV at home but may go off to the pub with some mates to check it out.
Whether it's a flop or not it's sport so that's whats good about it. It's unpredicatble just like a 40-0 thrashing in an NRL grand final or a Superbowl that's decided at half time or a 4-0 World Series win in baseball.
Cameron is a good boxer and Tua was and maybe still is.
-
just two old guys circling each other taking weak jabs
I have been bitter about David Tua since that crappy, crappy fight against Lennox Lewis in 2000. I was at a sports bar with friends in Texas, and naturally got hassled for 'our' indifferent boxing performance. (The tequila sunrises helped a bit, though.)
-
I'm not surprised MMA trumps boxing. It's much better viewing. Boxing is more refined, but in being so it also misses a great deal of the point of a bloodsport. In MMA you really get the impression of people actually fighting, and trying to win.
Interestingly, despite the apparent savagery of it, MMA leads to much lesser injuries. Boxing has pretty much decided that the only humane injury a human can receive in a fight is thousands of blows to the head from someone with hands of stone covered in thick gloves. Any time a fighter receives any telling blow they are allowed to fall to a knee and recover, making for long fights in which the loser basically hugs the winner to kill the fight. The usual outcome of boxing over time is to rapidly become brain dead.
MMA certainly allows for knockout wins, but they are very, very seldom the same as a boxing knockout, where one of the contestants receives an almighty undefended blow from a standing opponent and falls headlong to the floor. MMA knockouts are far more likely to be of the 'ground and pound' variety, where a fighter is trapped underneath, and can't defend against a torrent of blows, and taps out, receiving probably a number of cuts and contusions but far less brain damage. Also, of course, there are all the other finishing moves which don't involve knocking the opponents brains about at all, such as armbars and chokelocks, in which injuries are quite unlikely.
-
In 1975 the teachers brought a B&W TV to school so we could watch the Thriller in Manila. Muhammed Ali will probably never be replaced - especially with 3 organisations competing to run the sport. It was an awesome spectacle - especially for a 6 year-old. They'd probably call in CYPS if the local school tried it on today. It was great!
Tua and Cameron are the best heavyweight boxers in New Zealand currently. One of them will hang up his gloves at the end of this fight so there is something more important than a belt on the line tomorrow. It will be an interesting competition between two guys who don't back down. I originally thought Tua might have been paid in the Lennox Lewis fight but then figured I just wasn't giving Lennox his due. Tua fought him at Lennox's best - and Tua just couldn't get inside him without being hurt.
We've bought the fight and have a dozen or so spectators coming over - but it won't beat Joe Frazier fighting until his eyes closed so much that he couldn't enter the ring for the 15th round against Ali.
Did you know that Burt Lancaster called the original "Fight of the Century" in 1971... maybe they can get Russell Crowe over to call tomorrow's fight - he seems to like scrapping. -
From todays news:
"Tonight's fight has out-sold the 2002 Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson fight as New Zealand's biggest pay-per-view event.Sky TV spokesman Tony O'Brien would not reveal the number who have paid $39.95 to see the fight at home, or the number of new subscribers who have bought decoders.
But he said the number of subscribers paying to watch the fight had, by Thursday, exceeded the 18,000 pay-per-view customers who bought the Lewis and Tyson fight seven years ago.
"It's been an excellent response both from residential customers and commercial customers," said Mr O'Brien.
"In fact, there have been more pre-buys than the entire pay-per-view for the biggest fight we ever had going back some time."
The Lewis-Tyson fight netted the pay-TV operator about $720,000, but profits would have been much higher as the figures did not include earnings from screenings in bars and clubs."
-
Boxing is a dead sport. ... Right now boxing is ... mimicking other, similar sports ... trying remember what it was like to be alive.
I'm not a big boxing fan, but I do like that there's a sport you turn up to watch live wearing black tie. And with the breaks between rounds, it does seem like a good sport to have a bunch of people 'round to watch at a BBQ etc.
Perhaps I like the idea of boxing more than boxing itself?
-
Another reason the WWE has become the "king of the PPV" is that when you spend your money you know you're going to get entertainment.
Similarly, with MMA events, while it's more legimate*, each match is short enough that if one is a let down the next should still be enjoyable watching.
Boxing, though, the events are too long, the undercard to uninteresting, there is no guarentee of entertainment or money's worth. The PPV model has changed that boxing, the sport that began the concept, has been superseeded by the expectations of a public that wants to be sure it's getting value for money.
*(as in it still purports to be a sport... but wait until they decide to capitalise on the big money with a Brock Lesnar vs Bobby Lashley best of three competition... want to bet it won't end after two bouts?) -
Well Hadyn, it didn't go how you thought ...
And it didn't take long.
-
3410,
-
The video's pulled already. Those copyright lawyers must never sleep.
Didn't watch the fight. Not surprised Tua won, but I did think Cameron would stretch it longer than 2 rounds. This was Cameron's second fight against world-class opposition* and he's now 0-2. End of his career?
And after this, whither David Tua? 37's not over-the-hill in boxing terms (Foreman won the title at 45!), can he use this as a ticket back to the top table or is it just a sideshow?
*Ok I know Tua's not exactly Klitschko, but he's still a step up in class from the truck drivers and bouncers Cameron's fought up until now.
-
Well Hadyn, it didn't go how you thought ...
No and colour me shocked! I really was picking Cameron by decision. I bet the PPV customers were a little pissed off though.
And now that I've seen the fight (gosh that didn't take long), WTF was Cameron doing?! The only weapon of Tua's that you really do not want him to be able to use is that left hook and Cameron had his right hand dropped most of the time which was just invited Tua to hit him!
The best thing for Cameron is that he won't remember any of it (Hi referee, you might've wanted to stop that a tad earlier)
-
And here's a new video let's time how long before it's taken down:
-
Oh man. That was a...
-
Nice Danielle. I'm gonna have to use that one sometime.
-
I'll give you guys a first hand account of what this fight meant.
For weeks and weeks my students were asking me who I thought was going to win the fight and they all reckoned Tua would in a knockout.
Then last night while I was watching TV (some crappy soccer) I heard screaming and yelling outside about ten past ten and thought, hell that can't be what I think it is. Sure enough, I went outside and the cul de sac that is through a reserve from my house went absolutely apeshit with everybody outside screaming and yelling celebrating what I knew must be a Tua knockout.
And now I read that hundreds of people were swarming outside his house in Mangere.
That's what the fight meant to a good chunk of our community and probably perfect timing as well.
I guess that's modern Auckland(/NZ). There are huge parts of the city that people can be completely disconnected from, having no idea whats pushing their buttons.
-
I guess that's modern Auckland(/NZ)
Bit like South Africa. Soccer's the biggest sport there, but you wouldn't know it, because it's mostly followed by black people.
-
Exactly.
-
Cricket is a dead sport. It doesn't know it though. Right now cricket is a shambling corpse, mimicking other, similar sports like some decaying zombie that's trying remember what it was like to be alive.
Ahh, that's better.
The best thing the Spar of the Century has done for Boxing in NZ is the same thing that the Mahe Drysdale v Rod Waddell row-off last year did for rowing last year - it's peaked interest in the sport.
But Shane Cameron has learnt the thing that most of us knew all through High School - You don't taunt the big Polynesian boys! -
Yamis, our neighbours were having a 'fight party', and there was a huge outburst of screaming and shouting at about the same time. This is in genteel Devonport.
There was also a lot of interest where I work - some guys clubbed together to take a minivan down to the fight.
My impression is that the interest in the fight cut across the social spectrum, but was probably more concentrated in certain parts of it.
-
No and colour me shocked! I really was picking Cameron by decision. I bet the PPV customers were a little pissed off though.
I doubt it...this is what boxing fans live for. I was woken up during the fight by what sounded like a riot down my street, and I pitched my ear in, realized it was excited hoots of laughter that I can only describe as
"definitely Pacific Island in origin", and concluded that Tua must have KOed Cameron. Ironically, the only person at Sunday Lunch who could actually tell me what happened was my Grandma. -
Those copyright lawyers must never sleep.
Only during the day, in our coffins.
We come out at night to suck the creative juices from the necks of starving artists.
Post your response…
This topic is closed.