David

55 minutes ago, neil said:

One of the first things you notice in Tyson Fury fights is that he fights to the level of his opponents. This is when Tyson Fury fights up to the level of his opponents. Quite an obvious thing to notice when you first start watching Tyson Fury.

Hey, if you guys aren't receptive to a little bit of the (H)ebb repetition paradigm, then that's on you. 

Repetition fosters learning, and so on. Just doing my bit to ensure everyone goes to bed a little smarter than they were when they woke up.

You're welcome, by the way. 

Was Lesnar removed from WWE's roster on their website after all the accusations? Because if so, he's been added back.

Vera was 4-1 coming into the fight last night, with those victories coming against a retiring Frankie Edgar, Rob Font, Dominick Cruz and Pedro Munhoz. He lost to the only real top contender he faced in that timeframe in Cory Sandhagen. 

Basically, Vera is ranked 5th in the division for a reason. It was a showcase fight for O'Malley, nothing more.

Got to love O'Malley. When Rogan asked him what he wants next he'd have been as well saying "Anyone except Merab, basically."

O'Malley will obviously benefit from that seven month period between fights. Unlike certain other champions who effectively get hounded into defending their strap. 

Amazing post! Love it! I actually LOL'ed out loud.

One thing to always remember is that the pads don't hit back. 

12 hours ago, JakeRobertsParoleOfficer said:

So who u got now,  Usyk or Fury?

Me? My opinion hasn't changed. If Fury comes in focused and in shape, he can probably beat any heavyweight in the game right now and most heavyweights of the past twenty or thirty years. I only really place Lennox Lewis above him. 

When you strip away all the daft comments and rantings, he's a rare fighter in that he has size, speed, incredible footwork, the recovery powers of Hogan in the late 80's, and a rainman-esque approach to boxing mentality. 

The problem is, a lot of what gives him that rainman-like boxing acumen is what also affects him negatively in other ways. He's clearly someone with some mental issues. He has the attention span of a gnat, and if something doesn't draw his focus 100%, he tends to not focus on it at all.  

He fights to the level of his opponent. That's his downfall. It was blatantly obvious that he came into that Ngannou fight treating it the way Apollo Creed treated the "exhibition fight" against Drago in Rocky IV.

From what I've seen of him in the lead up to the Usyk fight he seems in incredible physical shape, and he seems focused and calmer in interviews. That spells trouble for Usyk. He has that look about him that he had when he went in and absolutely smashed through Wilder, and completely ended the mans career as a competitive top level heavyweight.

I know everyone thinks he's "running scared" because the fight took an age to put together (that was down to Usyk's ability to fight in Saudi promotion-wise, apparently) and his cut in the training for the scheduled fight, but I honestly see him stopping Usyk within 6-8 rounds. 

Usyk is a very good boxer, and his ability can make up for his lack of size, but he's going up against someone who not only has a 6-inch height advantage and a 7-inch reach advantage but someone who is just as good at the fundamentals at the professional level as he is. The main difference is that Fury is a big man who knows how to use his size to his advantage. He did it with Wilder. 

I can see Fury doing a lot of leaning, a lot of tiring work making Usyk move, and then eventually putting him away through a mixture of exhaustion and damage between the 6th to the 8th round. 

The only real wildcard for someone like Fury is his lifestyle and weight issues. Doing what he's done to his body over the years eventually catches up with you, and there's every chance it could do that over the next few years, which is why I think he'll call it a day relatively soon. 

But outside of Fury not being focused, I don't see any way Usyk can really win. I don't think he has the power to do what no one else has been able to and stop Fury. And I don't see him getting through the entire fight without Fury's pressure and power eventually catching up with him.

What is it they say? A good big man beats a good smaller man most of the time? Well, a very fucking good big man likely beats a very good smaller man this time. 

25 minutes ago, JakeRobertsParoleOfficer said:

Does make me think of Furys headspace.

The guy who knocked me down and arguably beat me. Just got iced in 2 by AJ whom my next opponent Usyk whom toyed with him!!!

I think Fury knows himself that he took that Ngannou fight way too lightly. If anything it's sparked a fire under him for the Usyk fight if his conditioning and physical shape is anything to go by.

One of the cooler things I've learned about the series is that apparently, in the episode where they have a bunch of people applying for the job of manager, Jim Carrey showed up to film his scenes that day and spent the entire time in the character of the Finger Lakes guy. 

He just acted odd on set all day, and whenever anyone spoke to him, he kept insisting that he had to make this quick as his family is in the Finger Lakes, and he's supposed to be on vacation. 

Some proper surreal stuff.

13 minutes ago, Kfogg1991 said:

We have established this guy's I'm always being serious and legit for whatever reason still on here because it's pretty much the only platform I can talk and get my thoughts about wrestling and MMA out of my head

Yes I didn't expect it at all not Francis and not getting knocked out like that not at all and many others felt and thought the same so it's not exactly outrageous but I get anything I say is ridiculous most the time but I really still feel so shocked and devastated seeing that 

I'll agree that the actual manner of the knock out was pretty spectacular, even if Joshua winning via KO wasn't all that shocking.

1 minute ago, Kfogg1991 said:

Oh my fucking god that was firstly the most unbelievable and shocking result I ever considered so the respect I now have for Anthony Joshua is sky high.

You think a former 2-time world champion and Olympic gold medal winner knocking out a guy who's 0-1 is the most unbelievable and shocking result? Really?

I personally think Ngannou had started to buy into his own hype. His chat this past week, and how he approached this fight stank of someone who thought they were going to land a big shot and put AJ away. 

He got quite lucky against Fury, who is notorious for fighting to the level of his opponent. He wasn't in shape for Ngannou, and comparing the photo below of him on the left ahead of Ngannou and on the right how he is now for Usyk, speaks volumes. 

If Ngannou fought the Fury we'll very likely see against Usyk I don't think the fight would be anywhere near as competitive.

10 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

I dont think they give toss to be honest. That said any good will he may have generated has evaporated with that Tyson announcement.

Well, the comments on any social media posts talking about him would suggest differently. It's gotten to the point where many boxing sites are posting reports if Paul farts during his sleep because they know it draws more engagement than most other boxing-related content. 

I personally hope he doesn't give a shit what the boxing fans say or think. The truth is, there's no boxer alive who isn't in the professional game to get rich and famous. They can pretend it's all about winning titles and being seen as the best, but none of that pays the bills on the mansion.

The Tyson fight will earn both men a lot of money, and if we're honest, it's nothing more than a glorified sparring session. I don't think the 38-year-old Tyson who lost to Kevin McBride would beat Jake Paul today, so the 57 year old Mike who we see today has next to no chance.

Sadly, it really depends how seriously Paul takes it. I honestly think if he went in there with intent to hurt it could end really badly for Tyson, but I think there will be an unspoken agreement between them that this is a show and nothing else.

16 hours ago, The Gaffer said:

Bam Margera's been sober for months by all accounts and is back on the board.

Obviously glad, more for his family and child, that he's sober, but he's always been an insufferable, spoiled little shit of a boy who's turned into an insufferable, spoiled man-child. 

Hopefully, he's putting as much effort into mending the relationships he's wrecked over the past few years with people who were only trying to help him as he is in "alley-ooping" for his pals with the cameras.

On 3/3/2024 at 1:23 PM, Egg Shen said:

First off Jake Paul got another first round stoppage, he looked ok but this was standard prospect vs. journeyman fair, he'll probably fight a couple more before the end of the year.

I'm guessing boxing fans finally got what they wanted from him then? When he was fighting "names" from MMA and so on, all I saw on social media was boxing fans saying he should be doing things the right way, fighting actual boxers and so on.

So Paul, at 1-1 in "proper boxing," going against a relative journeyman who had a 17-2 record seems about right. It should be said that in his last two fights, he stopped a fighter with a 10-1 record and the aforementioned 17-2 record in the first round. 

Funnily enough, the response from those same boxing fans on Twitter hasn't been to acknowledge that he's going down the proper route.

I posted this in the fight announcement thread, but it probably really belongs here...

I'm going to take a drive down to Miami tomorrow and see if I can nab a ticket from somewhere. If not, I'll just watch it at a bar or something. Would be a good card to be in attendance at.

6 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

I don't know as well as someone living in the US, but I get the impression from political commentators that the Republicans enjoy a lot of support from the Latino communities; they seem to take it as a given that there is a heavy conservative presence, possibly connected to modern Catholicism.

I'm in the US right now, and the number of minorities rocking the Trump hat was quite a shock to me. It's a totally different situation here to the UK I think, where a fair amount of minorities are big on embracing the flag and US culture. As if actually being here is a privilege of sorts and they really do buy into the ideals that we hear from the likes of Trump.

O'Malley just looks like trailer trash who's won the lottery.

The point I was making originally has gotten rather lost I think. What I'm pointing out is how well Joshua's team do at marketing him, and making his fights all seem like a really big deal and something worth watching. Joshua plays a huge part in that process as well.

While I feel that Fury isn't seen the same. I don't think his team is anywhere near as professional, or as good at marketing him or his fights. He doesn't help matters either.

It would have been interesting to see what Fury's career would have been like had he gone down the route of working with Hearn instead of Warren. 

Ngannou always had a punchers chance really, that was known before the Fury fight. 

It's funny how having the right promotional team and backing can change public perception of a fight, isn't it? When Fury was facing Ngannou it was widely derided and treated as a total joke. Fury himself got panned for taking the fight. 

Now Joshua is fighting him and it's seen as a legit bout worth seeing and looked at completely differently.

I'd also say that while Ngannou looked great against Fury, I don't think that's as much a reflection on him being a really good boxer as it is of Fury being unprofessional. He's notorious for that shit. Look at the shape he was in for Ngannou, then look at him before the Usyk fight was postponed. Night and day. He fights to the level of his opponent, which is frustrating. 

His fights with Pianeta (I know he claimed afterwards that he didn't want the finish, but still) and Wallin are examples of him fighting to the level of his opponent and to the level of the event. 

I fully expect Joshua to win unless Ngannou lands big.