Willie Monroe Junior gave Gennady Golovkin a good workout on Saturday night, getting into an awful lot more trading than most have been able to survive lately. While he did get stopped after multiple knockdowns, he is another Golovkin opponent who didn't seem particularly awestruck by Golovkin's power, but instead pointed to the way it was delivered. From his post-fight interview with TstreeT Controversy LIVE:
"He's definitely powerful. Not THE hardest I've been hit, but he
hits pretty hard. He's accurate. That's the difference. I don't care how
hard you hit."
I personally expect Monroe Junior to maintain relevance in the division on the back of what he showed with Golovkin and his outings on ESPN2's Friday Night Fights. We will see.
Work that bag,
Basement Gym Boxing
Full interview here:
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It's more of a dance rematch that neither of them win. Posted on Adrien's Instagram page, and a nice reminder that warriors can leave it in the ring and be friends out of the ring. This is from a short video clip posted two weeks ago, with the comment "Business is business but a friendship last forever".
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In January of 1990, George Foreman, trying to score a match with the heavyweight champion of the world (Mike Tyson), fought a name, Gerry Cooney. Gerry hadn't fought in about two and a half years, after getting obliterated by Michael Spinks. In essence, he was just a name. But Cooney was trying to pull his career back together for one last try, with Hall of Fame trainer Gil Clancy in his corner. Mike Tyson was geared for a fight the following month with Buster Douglas, so Foreman's apparent certainty on beating Tyson for the title got completely turned on its ear, even when he was still on his own winning streak. It would be Cooney's last match. But for George, he was in the middle of his legendary second career, and they were building up his record much like in his first career.
The opponents were fairly careful at this point. Cooney was likely to get knocked out, but because of his size and power, the danger was palpable from the opening bell of a rowdy 2-rounder that left Gerry in a heap. Not before he made an impression on Big George as a puncher, however. The following quote exchange happened between George and David Letterman, when he took his fresh shiner to Late Night. These days, George Foreman's son (Monk) is the boxer in the family and David Letterman is about to end his own historic run, as a talk show icon.
Here are the power quotes:
Foreman: "This is the hardest hitter I've ever been in the ring with. You fight-say, I've had about sixty or more boxing matches, and you only meet three genuine punchers throughout your career. Gerry Cooney, Ronnie Lyle, and a kid I worked with, by the name of Cleveland Williams. And, they hit so hard that it vibrates your body, even if you block it, it just goes right to you."
Letterman: "So, you would say Gerry Cooney was one of the hardest punchers you've ever met in the ring?"
Foreman: "No doubt. He's been-of the three. He hit harder than Joe Frazier with his left hook."
Letterman: "Harder than Joe Frazier?"
Foreman: "Harder."
Letterman: "What about Earnie Shavers?"
Foreman: "I never fought Earnie Shavers. . .Thank goodness."
Everyone knows about Earnie Shavers. But what's interesting is that he mentioned Cleveland Williams in sparring, but not Sonny Liston here, who he also sparred. Also, he doesn't consider Frazier in this instance as one of the three "genuine" punchers he's met in the ring? Then again, maybe he was still suffering from Cooney's left hook! It's always interesting to hear these guys rate their opponents, even if you take some things with a grain of salt.
Full interview currently on Youtube:
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These come from Jim'll Fix It, in 1976, and he is looking at Jimmy Savile, the now legendary sex criminal. But you absolutely do not need to be speaking with a sex criminal on a forum to use these as reaction GIF's. But that would be a perfectly suitable use, technically.
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I wonder if word ever got back to Muhammad about Savile's monstrous exploits and he got a major case of the creeps. He actually touched him. This is from 1976's Jim'll Fix It, with Jimmy Savile definitely unlikely to be fixing anything. Ali went to the UK for a promotional book tour. I really don't know if he'd any idea who Savile was before that trip.
Kablam! Right on the ear? Referee Tony Chiarantano seems in good position to catch this blatant elbow strike of Cletus "Hebrew Hammer" Seldin on ESPN2'S Friday Night Fights. The victim was Johnny Garcia, and this is back in February. The ref also gets some other elbow action he isn't particularly on the ball for. ESPN's commentator Teddy Atlas was surprised about this too. Seldin, a strong, undefeated light welterweight prospect, is certainly not a newcomer to working a guy with his elbows but here we can see a blatant, loaded-up strike. That is, opposed to very common elbow activity people complain about, incidental to head control, space-making, jockeying for positions, or incidentally touching your man up while blocking and deflecting with your elbows (Seldin does use a cross-arm defense, so that is bound to happen also).
This is just flatly, gratuitously dirty and should've had a point deduction, I would think. I might be wrong, but I don't even think Seldin was warned here, as though it were missed completely. It's a nice catch from the FNF crew on slow motion, regardless. I seem to recall in Seldin's first match with Bayan Jargal, Seldin looked to me, in the first round, to use his opponent's clinching as an opportunity to try a few such elbow strikes with his free arm. Seldin's a solid fighter, but you've got to watch him closely. His head and elbows are all prone to strike. This guy is a rough customer, for whatever mix of the incidental, accidental and intentional we might be seeing. I chalk this one up as clearly intentional. But things happen in fights. I buy that many fighters will blatantly (yes, even blatantly) foul on nothing more than instinct, instead of with the thought to gain unfair advantage. Sometimes, your natural reaction in a combat sport is to do any physical thing that you would do without rules and it's done without any decision-making whatsoever. Seldin might be particularly predisposed to that. I couldn't say. But it is up to the referee to force them into forethought if a pattern emerges with things like this and I did find it very odd that nothing came of this particular elbow, seemingly in plain view and blatant.
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