Muhammad Ali and Freddie Starr Share A Wonderfully Campy Moment: GIF Spotlight

In the most GIFable interview ever, Freddie Starr talked Muhammad Ali's ear off on Parkinson after a comedic singing performance. With a snowy-looking energy, he tells Muhammad Ali if he weren't a man he'd kiss him. Ali's reaction is aflame. I don't know if he had any idea what to make of this man.


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Muhammad Ali has a tense moment with George Chuvalo

Muhammad Ali surprises Sylvester Stallone

Liston menacingly wags his finger at the police

Ricardo Lopez's uppercut KO of Ala Villamor

An animated Lomachenko and Guillermo Rigondeaux star in The Matrix

Faux Dempsey Beats The Snot Out Of Faux Willard! (GIF Spotlight)

In 1983, there was a Jack Dempsey biopic, made for TV, simply entitled Dempsey. With Sam Waterston as Doc Kearns, Sally Kellerman as Maxine Cates, Peter Mark Richman as Tex Rickard and Treat Williams as Dempsey, it had a lot of character. It was understated throughout and rarely ham-handed, which is a pleasant surprise for a sports movie about an iconic figure like Dempsey. Even the music lacked the overbearing "treatment" we'd normally get, fully recognized from half a dozen other treatments. Waterston's infectious joyfulness as Kearns is a perfect counter to Treat's fittingly stern demeanor. These GIF's are from Dempsey:

Side note: Peter Mark Richman, a man you'd probably recognize, even if you didn't know from where, is now 91-years-old. He will not be limited to twelve rounds. And why should he be?

Side side note: This is Clay Hodges as Faux Willard.



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Jack Dempsey and Jess Willard dance together as older gents

Frazier licks his chops

Marvin Hagler Combs His Bald Head

As Tommy Hearns talks about fighting Ray Leonard again, Ray Leonard rests his head gently on Tommy's shoulder

Conan O'Brien Could Get Mike & Don To Bury The Hatchet: GIF Spotlight

Dark lord of the comic underworld, Robert Smigel, often showed up as a moving mouth on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, the moving mouth belonging to him and the rest of the head belonging to Don King, Arnold Schwarzenegger and whoever else. I find it mesmerizing. I believe Conan could bring the real men together with the power of his comedy. But maybe not. It's just a random thought.


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Kenny Norton knocks out Gary Coleman

Paul Williams and Kermit Cintron have one of boxing's weirdest moments

Deontay makes a Godzilla effigy

Andre Ward batters Edwin Rodriguez with a power jab  

Tyson Fury Randomly Kisses Opponent - Opponent Kisses Back (GIF Spotlight)

Tyson Fury is rusty. He telegraphed his kiss. Sefer Seferi countered. This is not the sport I grew up watching. It's much, much sexier. Incidentally, I feel like we just did a Tyson Fury GIF.


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Tex Cobb licking a poor bride on TV series Highlander
 
Muhammad Ali and Liston try to psych each other out at weigh-in

Referee Marcus McConnell shh's Tyson Fury

Wladimir Klitschko smashes Tyson Fury's eye with headbutt foul

What Was The Single Greatest Event In Boxing History? It's In This GIF, In Its Totality

At the grand 2018 IBHOF event, Don King ballsily moves to give Tyson a pat on the shoulder and Mike Tyson goes Mike Tyson on him in the finest way he could have done. He throws water on him and tells him something that probably isn't loving. I doubt it bothers Don. He's already got the money. Mr. Tyson, I salute you. Lovely young woman pointing, I salute you. Person taking the footage, I salute you. I can't peg who you are, but if anyone knows the source of this, please let me know, to give credit. I don't have it. Also, pardon the hyperbole of the title but I love what I love.


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Evander Holyfield KO's Don King on Conan O'Brien

Mike Tyson Bullies Norm Macdonald

Mike Tyson fights Jean-Claude Van Damme

Mike Tyson impersonated on In Living Color by Keenen Ivory WayansAlex Wallau On Young Mike Tyson & His Era: Quote Spotlight

Tyson Fury & Sefer Seferi Lift Each Other's Souls & Things Up: GIF Spotlight

I can honestly say, Tyson Fury and Billy Joe Saunders are directly or indirectly responsible for more presser and weigh-in firsts for me than any two other men, off the top of my head. It must be a cultural creativity unknown to the laws of science. These men are blessed with intangibles of the mind and spirit which the likes of me are destined never to quite grasp.


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Eddie Chambers and Tyson Fury fist bump 

Tyson and David Haye laugh together. Well, sort of together.

Tyson and Hughie Fury play Batman and the Joker for Wladimir Klitschko

Referee Marcus McConnell shh's Tyson Fury

Wladimir Klitschko smashes Tyson Fury's eye with headbutt foul

Freddie Starr Tells Muhammad Ali A Joke: GIF Spotlight

In the legendary Parkinson interview where Freddie Starr out-talked The Louisville Lip himself, Michael Parkinson and Muhammad Ali laugh at a Starr punchline. He says everyone in his family is a boxer except for his father. "What was he?" asks Parkinson. "A Cocker Spaniel." replied Starr.


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A very young Muhammad Ali points with a false caption to call BS  

Muhammad gets the phone hung up on him in promo with Joe Frazier

Muhammad pats his hair and thanks you with a real caption

Muhammad Ali kisses Olympic medals

Evander Holyfield's Incredible Combination Against Michael Dokes: GIF Spotlight

It was the eleventh of March, 1989. Evander Holyfield had unified the cruiserweight division and moved up to heavyweight, to prove his case as a challenger to the division's king. He was matched against Michael Dokes, following his win over Pinklon Thomas. The fight was an action-packed Las Vegas night displaying the skills and guts of both fighters. But whoever started it, it got dirty, and Evander Holyfield knew how to win when things got dirty.

Here we have a beautiful, ugly, completely illegal, very damaging combination. It's the dirty 1-2 (headbutt, low blow). Holyfield, later on, with a much more legal maneuver, would score a TKO over Dokes. He'd splatter Buster Douglas for the heavyweight title the following calendar year. Unlike a typical fighter today, he didn't go from Dokes to a title shot. In the brief time between Dokes and Douglas, he'd knockout all three of Adilson Rodrigues, Alex Stewart and Seamus McDonagh. You don't see schedules like this for heavyweight contenders anymore. That was a risky, grueling trip to the top for Evander Holyfield, especially considering most champions from lower divisions can piggyback on their lower division accomplishments when they move up in weight.


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Evander Holyfield KO's Don King on Conan O'Brien

Evander Holyfield's Terry Mims KO GIF

Wladimir Klitschko Smashes Tyson Fury's Eye with Headbutt

Ezzard Charles eats a nice headbutt by Rocky Marciano

What Does Valium Do For You? (GIF Spotlight)

In an incredible meeting of the minds, Freddie Starr and Muhammad Ali met each other on Parkinson. English comic Freddie Starr actually out-talked Muhammad Ali. Oh, the moxie, I tell ya! With Michael Parkinson barely getting a word in, and Muhammad Ali barely getting a sentence in, Freddie Starr went bananas and monopolized the conversation, though what he said was all about The Greatest. On this GIF, Muhammad is asking Freddie about Valium:

Freddie said he gets so nervous before he watches Ali fight that he eats a Valium sandwich. If you've seen the interview, you're left with the impression that this man has ingested something very different from Valium.


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Muhammad Ali thinks you're crazy, reaction GIF's.

Muhammad Ali Mocks & Destroys Jimmy Savile

Muhammad mock fights with Sylvester Stallone

Muhammad Ali surprises Sylvester Stallone

Muhammad Ali Kayos Alien

Muhammad Ali Grabs A Word While George Chuvalo Punches Away: GIF Spotlight

I am reflecting on one of the toughest fighters to ever lace 'em up in Canadian heavyweight contender George Chuvalo. There are murmurs about him being essentially abducted at the age of 80 recently, in what is just one more very sad tale of George's complex family life. He has been a truly wonderful ambassador for the sport, in addition to one of the roughest contenders of the division's history. Here in March of 1966, Muhammad Ali shares a very intense moment with George in their first fight, with Ali defending his title on the road in Chuvalo's backyard.

If I recall correctly, Ali said Chuvalo was the toughest man he ever faced, and Chuvalo said the same about Muhammad. Here, you see George's tough inside body mauling and Ali's habit of holding the neck and back of the head as part of his attempt to assert his physical dominance over his opponent. That glove would work its way around, to the chagrin of a few referees as much as the opponents, whenever his opponent was pressing inside where Ali was less effective. He tried to pull down and tire them out, rough them up, stop them from continuing to work. Chuvalo kept working though, and Ali went to the hospital after winning, due to blood in the urine. They would fight again, still in Canada, still with Ali taking a hard-fought decision, and they'd be friends until Muhammad's passing in 2016. Well wishes to Mr. Chuvalo.



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George Chuvalo is smacked right across the face. And he takes it.

Tex Cobb with amazing rabbit punch combination, referee doesn't care

Sonny Liston VS Davy Jones: Sonny in choreographed fight with Davy Jones  

Muhammad Ali Meets The Beatles

Andrew Golota Gets To Feelin' Peckish At Work: GIF Spotlight

Tongan heavyweight prospect Samson Po'uha was 15-1 when he took on another prospect in 23-0 Polish gentleman, Andrew (Andrzej) Golota. "Gentleman" may be something of a misnomer. He was unofficially nicknamed "The Foul Pole." It was May of 1995, in Atlantic City, and a wild affair that Michael Buffer rallied the crowd for at the official finishing announcement. Golota was in pretty serious trouble as Po'uha, who'd recently rallied back from nearly being stopped himself, turned the tide and was laying down a whooping. Golota knew he had to do something to get through the round. But apparently it wasn't using his gloved fists first.

In his defense, it's not like you get to have a snack time at work when you're boxing on TV. If he was hungry, what's he going to do? Eat his gloves? He's not some glove-eating barbarian! His blood sugar was low! He's only human!  


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Conan O'Brien really tempts fate as he throws his crotch around at Andrew Golota

Heavyweight contender Mariusz Wach gets a mythical intro

Billy Joe decides to flash the weigh-in audience for his Lemieux fight

Golovkin dances "Mexican Style" 

Evander Holyfield Lives The Dreams Of A Thousand Fighters: GIF Spotlight

Conan O'Brien hosted Late Night from 1993-2009 and there was a running pugilistic gag. There was also a dark genius who lived in the shadows of Late Night and SNL named Robert Smigel (Triumph the Insult Comic Dog). Conan would often have a wide assortment of faked celebrity guests appear on his screen where only the mouths would move in real time on a still photo of the person's face and one of his actors would play their lips. Faux Don King would show up regularly to inflict ebullient verbal torture on Conan, his "potato-eatin', leprechaunical [sic], young friend." One night, he showed up for an interview with Evander Holyfield.

This was after the first Holyfield/Lewis match took place, in the wake of the controversial scoring. Holyfield pretended to do what perhaps every fighter Don King's ever represented has wanted to do. Perhaps they can all watch this GIF as a form of therapy. On Late Night, Robert Smigel also played the lips of Donald Trump and Bill Clinton. If you squint, you may see a pattern in it.


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Evander Holyfield, for when you're so into Christmas: Reaction GIF Spotlight

Don King gets stared down by Bernard Hopkins

David Letterman Zings Don King With No Effs Given 

Conan O'Brien really tempts fate as he throws his crotch around at Andrew Golota

Wladimir Klitschko Shows His Wizardry For David Haye: GIF Spotlight

On Sky Sports, they gave Wladimir Klitschko VS David Haye all the press it demanded, from the first time Haye started to press the issue of potentially moving up to heavyweight and beating both Klitschko brothers and cleaning out the division. He succeeded in cleaning out Nikolay Valuev and John Ruiz, but the rest was much more complicated. There were multiple failed attempts for the parties to come together to make those matches. Promotional disagreements, injuries, mandatories, but they had a very long time to drum up interest in the threat of the cruiserweight destroyer.

As the match neared, there came a silly element of promotion in David Haye's shirt, and David Haye refusing to shake Wladimir's hand, as well as David Haye finally refusing to even meet face to face with the champion at Sky Sports' studio, even though he was at the building somewhere. Sky had to go to the trouble of split-screening them from their regular studio and wherever Haye was in the building. Days or weeks before, when the handshake issue came up during a presser, Wladimir, not seemingly amused, said "You don't want to shake the champ's hand?"

(Haye held one major title claim, Vitali another, Wlad two others, if that's not too absurd to comprehend-But Wladimir was clearly top dog)

Here, at the split-screen interview for Sky, it got even goofier, as Wladimir began to ask Haye to come and see him and shake his hand. "Shake the hand, dude...Come on." Then, starting to wave his hand up and down across the screen, he began to refer to his hand as the magic hand as he watched himself and Haye in the monitor. "Shake the magic hand." Listen, we all want to believe we have a magic hand, I like to think. But Klitschko's hand was more magic and he eventually won their bout by UD, with no rematch ever seemingly necessary, in 2011.


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Wladimir Klitschko opens Derrick Jefferson up with a slap down for a huge right hand KD

Klitschko sends Ray Austin out of the match with four quick left hooks to the head.

Tyson and Hughie Fury play Batman and the Joker for Wladimir Klitschko

Sergey Kovalev's crude and rude gesture to the Welsh people

Deontay Wilder's Unstoppable Funk Returns For Johann Duhaupas: GIF Spotlight

I think we've covered how unstoppable the funk of Deontay Wilder really is, and it did not stop when he faced European heavyweight champion Johann Duhaupas, of France in September 2015. Wilder was defending his major world heavyweight title against the large Frenchman. A wild fest of sluggery aired on the PBC broadcast that night. Wilder was lifting himself up off the ground with his own final punches to force referee Jack Reiss to stop the fight.

Duhaupas took a terrible beating but landed a surprising amount of leather himself. He went on to beat Robert Helenius and seems to be scheduled to fight three times this year against unannounced opponents. Wilder is still defending his claim and recently annihilated Bermane Stiverne into a meme, and is about a month away from facing arguably his best opponent yet in Luis Ortiz. I've wanted that fight for some time and am glad it looks to be happening now.


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Deontay is taught how to jab like Lennox Lewis, by Lennox Lewis

Deontay makes a Godzilla effigy

Kevin Johnson Gives Respect To Deontay Wilder's Work Ethic

In Living Color Plays With Mike Tyson & Fire: GIF Spotlight

The brilliant sketch comedy show In Living Color featured impressions of Rocky Balboa, Muhammad Ali, Ray Leonard, and, of course, Mike Tyson during its run from 1990-1994. They weren't what you would call kind impressions, but anyone familiar with the long-running Love Connection show or the Mike Tyson/Robin Givens drama of the time period probably laughed mightily if they saw the episode these GIFs are from. With Jim Carrey as Chuck Woolery hosting Love Connection, Kim Coles as Robin Givens and Keenen Ivory Wayans as Mike Tyson, we have:


1:

2:

3:

Robin is being told how the audience votes for picking her beau between Mike Tyson, John F. Kennedy Junior or Donald Trump, in the third GIF. 34% for Donald Trump is almost prophetic, looking at the numbers today.

PS: This has nothing to do with boxing, but I see no reason to rate a prime Robin Givens over a prime Kim Coles, now that I've thought about it. Someone, back me up on this. Coles TKO8 Givens.


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Mike Tyson Punches Bonecrusher After The Bell: GIF Spotlight

Mike Tyson makes Trevor Berbick stumble all over the place in left hook knockout

Mike Tyson Bullies Norm Macdonald

Mike Tyson fights Jean-Claude Van Damme

Muhammad Ali Meets The Beatles Before Either Were Really Themselves: GIF Spotlight

The first Ali/Liston match was coming up at the end of February, 1964, when the meeting took place. We are a few weeks shy of the 54th anniversary of the first "shock the world" moment for The Greatest. The Beatles were in America, making the rounds, generating attention. Beatlemania was still young in the U.S of A. They reportedly tried to meet with the heavyweight champion of the world, Sonny Liston, and Liston refused to pose for a photo op with those "sissies," as he'd allegedly called the fellas.

So, their next stop was to instead go pose with the loudmouthed and undefeated challenger who would try to take Liston's title, in the very unlikely event he survived long enough to do it. There are several stories about this meeting. Some say Ali had no idea who The Beatles even were. But in the special from PBS that this GIF comes from, American Experience, it seems Ali was still perfectly happy for the opportunity to ham it up with some British rock band if it made them both more press and, hence, more money. So it went:

Ali would go on to defeat Liston twice in a row in that year and the next, and he'd remain an undefeated champion until 1971. Liston would be, for all intents and purposes, blackballed from big fights after the rematch with The Greatest. That's what happens when a fighter takes advantage of Beatlemania and his opponent does not.


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Muhammad Ali Kayos Alien

Muhammad Ali's Subtle Toupee Feint On Howard Cosell

Muhammad Ali is dropped hard by Henry Cooper

Mike Tyson fights Jean-Claude Van Damme

Frank Bruno's Boxing Is Related To Mike Tyson's Boxing, In A Way: GIF Spotlight

Today, I ran across a play-through video on Youtube of a video game starring Mister Frank Bruno. I had to GIF this blessed gem with an interesting rendering of Frank Bruno fighting both "Tribal Trouble" and "Frenchie France," two of the most revered heavyweights of someone's mind.

Yes, that man had a bone in his nose, and, yes, Bruno's hair looks like it could be He-Man's hair. The only thing I could find about this game was that it might be "unofficial" and possibly used the arcade game precursor to Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, called Super Punch-Out!!, as the template for a Commodore 64 game system. It's all Greek to me though. It was either officially or unofficially entitled "Frank Bruno's Boxing" in 1985. . .I think. If you need more than a GIF, like a score, here is the video I found:

There is also an attempt to give the history of it on this Wikipedia page. It should be enough just for you to know that it existed. Things like this do not need explained. They're gifts.


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Holyfield video game intro

The Three Stooges Video Game Clip

Jimmy Savile drops pants on This Is Your Life for Frank Bruno, who feels his legs

Tim Witherspoon hams it up at the weigh-in for his match with Frank Bruno

Mike Tyson fights Jean-Claude Van Damme

Tony Thompson Decides To Strip After Kubrat Pulev Match: GIF Spotlight

Tony Thompson, a consistent source of humor in the heavyweight division, gave Kubrat Pulev a rather good test on fairly short notice back in 2013, coming off his upset win over David Price. After the match, Thompson needed relief from his boxing trunks, apparently, to the amusement of the crowd and his opponent, and possibly the bemusement of referee and former heavyweight fighter Randy Neumann. 

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Klitschko knocks Tony Thompson out twice, putting him into the same position

Jersey Joe Walcott Shuffles for Joe Louis

Klitschko gets picked up and bum-slapped by an Eli Dixon early in his career

A Polish Viking Approaches: GIF Spotlight

One thing you cannot fault the Klitschko brothers/Bernd Boente matches for is a lack of pre-fight production values. Even the lesser name opponents like Mariusz Wach, the first ever Wladimir Klitschko challenger to have all of weight, height and reach over him, to my knowledge, received a very melodramatic intro, pertaining to his nickname, The Viking.

 
Just before this introduction, from the 2012 match in Berlin, the fans got another production from the nightmares and dreamscapes of modern man in Rocky The Musical. Which, again, really did happen.


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Jimmy Savile drops pants on This Is Your Life for Frank Bruno, who feels his legs

George Chuvalo is smacked right across the face. And he takes it.

Hector in headdress boogies before the Pazienza match begins

Rocky The Musical @ Klitschko VS Wach 

Klitschko VS Wach, Prefaced By Madness: GIF Spotlight

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was November of 2012, in Berlin, Germany's O2 Arena. Not only did they host the literally, physically huge heavyweight title fight between Wladimir Klitschko and Mariusz Wach, but German theatricality, if nothing else, prevailed when they also hosted Sylvester Stallone and Rocky The Musical. I may be mistaken, but, let's say the actors are Drew Sarich as Rocky, Wietske van Tongeren as Adrian and Terence Archie as Apollo.

This really happened, just before Klitschko turned Mariusz Wach into Tex Cobb from the Holmes fight. I did not hallucinate this. The heavyweight championship of the world was contested following a brief musical play about fictional boxers. This really happened. I am not crazy. 


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Tyson and Hughie Fury play Batman and the Joker for Wladimir Klitschko

Wladimir Klitschko shakes his head in disgust during a Chris Cornell music video

Wladimir dances in a sea of school children

Klitschko dances from a commercial with a false caption that haters gonna hate