The Silver Fern

@MN5 yeah see it now

This popped up on my you tube feed ,george hitting the heavy bag at 74

Be great for nz to have another great middle distance runner , been a while between drinks

Aussies seem to have a serious young sprinter on their hands with gout gout

Big George Foreman passes away at 76

Not only a great fighter but a great character of the sport

RIP Champ

@African-Monkey said in Boxing Thread:

@kiwiinmelb said in Boxing Thread:

Back to the present , it’s looking like the wbo will hold firm and strip usyk of his title if he doesn’t fighter parker next .

Then we could have parker v ? For the title.

No doubt Hearn will,use AJs commercial value as a selling point , Frank may push for Moses itauma the promising 19 year old . ( that fight scares me ,that kid looks destined for greatness )

Or interestingly on the wbo rankings , parker is the interim champion , and justis Huni is the number 1 contender . A trans Ta$man world title fight would be massive in this part of the world .

But I suspect usyk may opt for parker and then Dubois should he win , and retire with all the belts as his plan .

Yeah Huni would be set up for Parker if it went vacant. An easy night for Parker if it happened. Huni's chin is suspect, and lacks pop for a HW.

It doesn't really matter what Usyk does from now on in honesty. He's conquered boxing.

For sure, agree with both points .

There was talk if Joe fights usyk we could see huni v Moses on the same card. Huni gets destroyed there .

End of the day it might depend on what turki wants , so far his influence on matching up fighters has been on point.

Back to the present , it’s looking like the wbo will hold firm and strip usyk of his title if he doesn’t fighter parker next .

Then we could have parker v ? For the title.

No doubt Hearn will,use AJs commercial value as a selling point , Frank may push for Moses itauma the promising 19 year old . ( that fight scares me ,that kid looks destined for greatness )

Or interestingly on the wbo rankings , parker is the interim champion , and justis Huni is the number 1 contender . A trans Ta$man world title fight would be massive in this part of the world .

But I suspect usyk may opt for parker and then Dubois should he win , and retire with all the belts as his plan .

@MN5 said in Boxing Thread:

@kiwiinmelb said in Boxing Thread:

@MN5 yeah watched them all live as a kid , my old man was a massive boxing nut and in those days the big fights were night midweek in the us .
Midday nz Time, and I was allowed a day off school to watch .

Tyson beating an ageing Holmes is my first memory of watching.

Again, with the old man who informed me that Holmes used to be great. I think he was genuinely upset that he lost like he did.

He then went through a phase of having lots of videos so I watched those. I mainly remember the heavyweights but that Hagler/Hearns fight was fucken awesome. Would be a toss up between that and Foreman/Lyle as to my to my all time favourite.

First big fight I remember is Ali v Frazier 1 on black and white tv after he came out of jail , I was in primary school . Rumble in the jungle I was form 1 intermediate form 2 for the thriller in Manila.around the time colour tv came out 😂

@MN5 yeah watched them all live as a kid , my old man was a massive boxing nut and in those days the big fights were night midweek in the us .
Midday nz Time, and I was allowed a day off school to watch .

The two greatest boxers in my time of watching, although different weight divisions Ali and sugar ray leonard .
Both trained by Angelo Dundee which might have something to do with it.
But both exceptionally skilled with hand speed and footwork and tough but what I liked most was their ability to change tactics to suit an opponent.

When Ali decided trying to outbox Frazier wasn’t going to work and he decided he had to trade with him , took flush left hook after left hook but was determined to be the last man standing, was so brutal to watch Frazier couldn’t get off his stool for the last round, ,ironically that determination was probably the downfall to his health .

He said in his book he thought he was going to die . I don’t think he was ever the same after that . I think that fight played a big part in reducing fights to 12 rounds.

@MN5 said in Boxing Thread:

@kiwiinmelb said in Boxing Thread:

@nostrildamus said in Boxing Thread:

I would have thought Fury could be a polarising figure in the UK or do people now love him over

The support is tribal , he is generally loved or hated , not much in between. But having people that hate you can be just as valuable , they generally still tune in to see you beat .
That was Ali’s blueprint.

But the leftie woke crowd generally don’t like him

Yeah was it what ?

Draft dodging, changing his name, being a muslim.......not to mention an incredible ability to get under the skin of every man he ever fought.

But undeniably the greatest to ever lace up a pair of gloves.

Yeah I’ve got him as my greatest not just for his skills but his sheer will to find a way to win .
Out of the ring as a marketing tool
He was the first to really show a really colourful personality, that you would either warm to, or let it antagonise you .
It’s interesting now he is this loved figure when at the time he was considered really divisive. His haters really hated him with a passion.

@African-Monkey said in Boxing Thread:

@kidcalder said in Boxing Thread:

Yip Usyk is a generational great and only likely to lose if he carries on too long past his prime..
The winnable title fight for Parker is DD....but DD not keen

I wouldn't say Dubois isn't keen, he would fight anyone anytime as his record has shown.

His dodgy promoter Frank Warren however......

What I find interesting in all this , Dubois who comes across as not the sharpest tool in the shed ( no disrespect intended) has gone missing, not being seen since the pre fight stuff in Saudi , has been kept away from the media with Frank and don Charles doing all his talking .

Are they worried he may slip up and say the wrong thing ?

@nostrildamus said in Boxing Thread:

I would have thought Fury could be a polarising figure in the UK or do people now love him over

The support is tribal , he is generally loved or hated , not much in between. But having people that hate you can be just as valuable , they generally still tune in to see you beat .
That was Ali’s blueprint.

But the leftie woke crowd generally don’t like him

@MN5 said in Boxing Thread:

@kiwiinmelb said in Boxing Thread:

@MN5 said in Boxing Thread:

@kidcalder said in Boxing Thread:

Yip Usyk is a generational great and only likely to lose if he carries on too long past his prime..
The winnable title fight for Parker is DD....but DD not keen

Yep. Styles make fights, Parker definitely way more chance to beat DD than Usyk.

Usyk has that sheer awkwardness that would make him a handful for anyone of any era.

But then DD is in his prime whereas Wilder ( especially ) and Zhang were not so would be VERY dangerous for JP.....but I have no doubt he'd rise to the challenge.

The fact Parker is even spoken of in a serious way as an adversary to these guys is a MASSIVE testimony to how well he has improved in the last 2-3 years. He's made a lot of us eat our words.

Not only has he improved, he is also become very popular and is a lot more marketable, if he fought Dubois in England right now , kiwis might be surprised how many uk boxing fans would be supporting joe , referred to in some boxing boxing circles as the peoples champ, through taking difficult opponents and being a genuine nice humble guy .

Not me, I've seen the bromance with Tyson Fury which would help his support over there to no end.

Aj fans are not too happy with what Dubois did to their hero either , they will be pleased to see him beat

@MN5 said in Boxing Thread:

@kidcalder said in Boxing Thread:

Yip Usyk is a generational great and only likely to lose if he carries on too long past his prime..
The winnable title fight for Parker is DD....but DD not keen

Yep. Styles make fights, Parker definitely way more chance to beat DD than Usyk.

Usyk has that sheer awkwardness that would make him a handful for anyone of any era.

But then DD is in his prime whereas Wilder ( especially ) and Zhang were not so would be VERY dangerous for JP.....but I have no doubt he'd rise to the challenge.

The fact Parker is even spoken of in a serious way as an adversary to these guys is a MASSIVE testimony to how well he has improved in the last 2-3 years. He's made a lot of us eat our words.

Not only has he improved, he is also become very popular and is a lot more marketable, if he fought Dubois in England right now , kiwis might be surprised how many uk boxing fans would be supporting joe , referred to in some boxing boxing circles as the peoples champ, through taking difficult opponents and being a genuine nice humble guy .

Only chance is a stoppage imo which is narrow, just very difficult to win rounds against usyk . Dubois probably a better fight for him in hindsight

In a styles make fights context , kabayal might be the best equipped to trouble usyk with his relentless body shots .

@kidcalder said in Boxing Thread:

Yes but its Boxing so until fight signed nothing is certain
If the big $ is still with a rematch of Uysk v DD then that will happen fair or not
Joe may be offered step aside money and a promise of the winner

Either way he is in a stronger position than before the news broke ,

usyk and parker have 30 days to reach an agreement or the wbo will order purse bid proceedings ,

usyk hinted a little while back he has only 2 fights left but also wants to be undisputed again , going to be interesting

Big news in the heavyweight division, just reward for Joe

Boxing being turned on its head , for the better hopefully

@Bovidae said in All Blacks 2025:

47,000 tickets were sold for the NZ-Ireland test in Chicago in 3 days when they went on sale recently.

im assuming the crowd will be pro Ireland , Irish sports fans like to travel

@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:

@nostrildamus said in All Blacks 2025:

@taniwharugby said in All Blacks 2025:

Well they changed it up when they reinstated Ted and co, then the success with Hansen made it look like Fozzie was the best and only choice, without looking closer at it, if they did they would have realised it wasn't the right move.

My memory might mislead me but were the Hansen years as successful as the 3 wise men years? I had the impression performances were tapering off (or maybe the other teams were getting stronger, or maybe it was a time many AB legends retired).

IIRC the early years were outstanding. We were untouchable from 2012 to 2015. That continued on until the Lions deal gone wrong in 2017 and we went into slow decline in terms of selection and tactics which culminated in getting knocked out by England in Yokohama in RWC 2019

Yeah Went downhill slowly after the 2015 wc , Hansen’s first wc cycle was excellent,
I remember carter being missing for quite a period , kaino also , cruden and messam filling in and we didn’t miss a beat .