Tweet
BY MICHAEL KATZ - “Down the stretch they come….” Dave Johnson’s signature horse racing call does not usually apply to boxing, where the final stages are more painful than thrilling. Archie Moore, Jersey Joe Walcott, George Foreman and Bernard Hopkins are exceptions to the rule that fighters have, as the Racing Form would say, “no late foot.”
It’s not only age. Getting hit in the head, in combat and during long hours in the gym, is not conducive to longevity. Even the best – as my updated pound-for-pound list will show later this opus – sooner or later show wear and tear of a hazardous profession. Goodbye Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales. It happens in horse racing, too.
That doesn’t stop them, of course, and if matched against similar old nags, might even supply some entertainment for the blood-thirsty among us. See Ricardo Mayorga-Fernando Vargas, the upcoming match between Roy Jones Jr. and Felix Trinidad Jr., which demonstrates how even Juniors can be seniors, and the preposterous talk of Mike Tyson facing Evander Holyfield again, perhaps on a Florida shuffleboard court. The withering of reflexes and hand speed could have disastrous effects, but if the erosion of skills is the same on both sides, what remains are the competitive hearts, the reason these guys were champions in the first place. [details]
It’s not only age. Getting hit in the head, in combat and during long hours in the gym, is not conducive to longevity. Even the best – as my updated pound-for-pound list will show later this opus – sooner or later show wear and tear of a hazardous profession. Goodbye Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales. It happens in horse racing, too.
That doesn’t stop them, of course, and if matched against similar old nags, might even supply some entertainment for the blood-thirsty among us. See Ricardo Mayorga-Fernando Vargas, the upcoming match between Roy Jones Jr. and Felix Trinidad Jr., which demonstrates how even Juniors can be seniors, and the preposterous talk of Mike Tyson facing Evander Holyfield again, perhaps on a Florida shuffleboard court. The withering of reflexes and hand speed could have disastrous effects, but if the erosion of skills is the same on both sides, what remains are the competitive hearts, the reason these guys were champions in the first place. [details]
Comment