What is your own history with boxing: what shaped your views

[Sugar Adam Ali]

I was just wondering how everyone on history section came to know and learn about boxing, and what events shaped your views of the sport..
Basically whats your life story with boxing...

Mine: I first discovered boxing at a very young age in the early 80s.. It wasnt a fight or fighter, but a movie,, Rocky 1,2,3 to be exact,, they always played rocky movies in the early and mid 80s and that got me hooked,,, Then at wrestlmania 2, mr. T boxed roddy piper and i thought it was awesom, I was about 5 years old,,,
Then as i watched more legit boxing on TV, i became a huge fan of all these fighters with great nicknames: Sugar, hitman, marvelous, hands of stone, iron, real deal, etc...... If you didnt have a nickname, i could careless about you, but i was also only about 6 or 8 years old... Tyson was an absolute monster to me and i remember how epic the spinks fight was
Then into the 90s i really enjoyed the sport much more as i got older, and really like james toney, roy jones, chavez, whittaker, and all the classic heavyweight fights with foreman, evander, bowe, tyson, razor, lennox, morrison.. Holyfield, chavez, and toney were my absolute favorites so 1994 was a very rough year for me as i had to watch the moorer, randall, and jones fight and see my guys get beat...
By the late 90s i was in high school and didnt like the match making in boxing and how all the good fights were not on free tv anymore,, i think that really hurt the sport,,,
After High school, i joined the army and boxed during my enlistment and remember getting all hyped for the morales, barrera, floyd, oscar, shane fights, and a young manny exploding onto the scene. Once i got out of the army and went to college, i continued to box as an amateur for close to 10 years and helped coach novice fighters and mma fighters...
Recently i feel i dont get so hyped up for fights because, i have seen it all before and its hard for me to get excited over canelo, when 15 years ago fernando vargas was much better at 20 years old. Plus none of my friends are really into it except for my cousin, but he isnt as hardcore as i am.. thats why over the past year i found boxingscene..
My favorite moments was tyson's early years, bowe-holyfield fights, pernell-chavez, bowe-golata, holyfield-tyson, oscar-vargas, hatton, calzaghe, manny, morales, mayorga

What about you guys????

[Weltschmerz]

I watched Tyson-Bruno a few days before my 7th bday in '89. Been a fan ever since. Been boxing amateur for the past 10 years, won some local tournaments in my native Denmark as a cruiser weight.

[Zarco]

Well I cant even remember when I first learned about boxing, just came to me at an early age just like other major sports that are all around us(basketball, baseball, soccer, football, etc.) My uncle was a boxer and he would take me to the gym with him to watch when I was around 6 years old. I remember going to one of his amateur fights when I was very young. I never really had much interest for it until I was 17, a friend of mine said he was going to sign up for the local city boxing gym. I signed up and went with him on our first day and I began to love the training and learning of the sport. I never really kept up with the professional boxing world until a year after I began training. Thats when I really began to follow pro boxing hardcore. I also used it as a studying tool and I feel like watching all those rounds of pro boxing really helped me.

[U_TALKING_2_ME?]

I watched Tyson-Bruno a few days before my 7th bday in '89. Been a fan ever since. Been boxing amateur for the past 10 years, won some local tournaments in my native Denmark as a cruiser weight.

Cruisers are only in the pros my man.

You would of been in the same weight class as I was and that is Heavyweight.

Just saying.

[Weltschmerz]

Cruisers are only in the pros my man.

You would of been in the same weight class as I was and that is Heavyweight.

Just saying.

I think they said I was LHW as I was around 180 aged 22. But I fought most my fights around 200 pounds. Now I'm around 230 pounds.

[U_TALKING_2_ME?]

I think they said I was LHW as I was around 180 aged 22. But I fought most my fights around 200 pounds. Now I'm around 230 pounds.

I am not saying that your making up a storied amateur career but anyone who supposedly won tournaments at 200lbs you would know the weight class is called Heavyweight.

[Suckmedry]

My grandpa and uncles boxed, when I was young I got taught how to fight and then as a 12-13 yr old I began boxing as an amateur, stopped just before I turned 17. Had about 25 fights. I'm still only just turned 20 now so before it's all over I'll get back in the ring again.

I really can't remember who got me into boxing but the guys who inspired me the most were the ones who walked to the ring with 0 fear and a swagger and a look in there eyes that told you that they didn't give a fcuk who u were, they were gonna beat you. Toney and Duran are my two fav examples. Holyfield as well but he was a lot nicer lol.

- I'll never forget the look in Durans eyes when he stared off with Barkley, a guy twice his size and younger than him, absolutely zero fear, zero retreat when other men would buckle at the knees. That's boxing for me

[Anthony342]

Seeing Tyson and Holyfield fights on HBO made me a fan for life. Then later, by the early '90s, started to really enjoy fights by Whitaker, De La Hoya and Chavez. I just wish it was as highly anticipated by the general public as it used to be in the '80s and '90s, don't know why it isn't.

[mickey malone]

Born and raised by Anglo-Irish parents in the east end of London..
Was an area well known for it's fighting with boxing gyms in every hamlet
As a youngster, John H Stracey and Charlie Magri were the local heros, and most boys wanted to either play football or box
I was crap at football, but fast on my feet, and strong... We had this mate (Andy) He couldn't fight, or play football to save his life.. But he was, and still is, the strongest bastard I ever met in my life.. Andy was into lifting weights, and as a party trick, he'd stand there, tense up and allow everyone in sundry to punch him in the guts as hard as they could.. But it was only when he came up to me and said, 'yours was the only punch that hurt me'.. off I went to the gym, perfected my technique and started beating grown men on the fairground punch ball.... As a 13yr old, I thought, this is great!.. But after getting sucker punched by the odd school bully, decided to concentrate on my boxing a lot more...
Went on to have a brief 9-1-3 amateur spell, before discovering beer and girls...But continued to train, and follow the sport worldwide... Always have done, and always will
Inspirations I grew up watching include... Ali, Foreman, Cooper, Frazier, Monzon, Sanchez, Mancini, Rosario and ofcourse, John Moody and Ian Strudwick- two local pros who both fought for domestic titles

[BennyST]

My dad was a one time Australian amateur champ. He learned it early on to curb his craziness, went into the navy, became the army and navy champ, took it the national amateurs from there, but then stopped to go into university etc.

He taught me when I was young, we would spar and we would watch a lot of course, back when Leonard was huge, and then with the huge popularity, like the second golden era, of Australian boxing in the 80s with Jeff Fenech, Jeff Harding (my dad's favourite fighter because of his real life Rocky war with Andries as an unknown last minute fill in for the first fight), Lester Ellis, Barry Michaels etc and with him growing up on TV ringside in the great Johnny Famo, Lionel Rose, jimmy Carruthers era. He was a big Holyfield fan too, and that was the Tyson era of course.

But then I started to get more serious, and went to two local gyms, the second with my buddy, who later became an excellent national amateur, representing aus at the Olympics as a reserve fighter, and we had one other aus am champ at the gym, so it was good. I had my own share of amateur fights in my early teens, with 12 official amateur fights. I had a few more, about 8 or 9 from memory, that we're kind of initial exhibition amateur fights that were little contests between gyms for young fighters just starting in the amateurs...just between us, I usually count those to my am record, because it makes it sound better and I won most of those so it looks like I won more than I really did....

I wasn't bad, but wasn't very good either. I was good in the gym, better than a lot of guys, but I didn't really do enough to translate that into the ring properly and so didn't end up doing as well as I should have. I was also a young teenager, with interest in music just starting and skateboarding too.

After that, I went into martial arts. Then later came back to boxing again, training in Melbourne City area mainly at two different gyms, but I haven't trained in a while again now.....apart from training for Alexkids bedroom air jab contest. Been considering getting back into it very recently in fact. Go to Barry Michaels gym here in Nth Melbourne maybe...