Mayweather vs Ortiz Preview and Prediction!

[Mugwump]

Should history take away from Duran for hitting Buchanan low and thumbing Davey Moore?

Throughout his career and beyond Duran attracted plenty of criticism for some of his antics. But you'd have to be pretty biased to concentrate solely upon them and forget his achievements.

Low blows and thumbings (unless they are patently obvious) are always difficult to discuss because fighters retain plausible deniability.

Boxing is a tough game and we wouldn't want it to be anything less. But I do think there is a place for sportsmanship.

Floyd's problems are kind of cumulative. I mean, if we considered his actions last night purely outside of historical context they are little more than foolish. But over the years he has subjected fans to a Chinese water torture of minor dishonours (whether they be childishly demanding the sacking of journalists purely because they ask tough questions or waving brick-sized wads of cash under the noses of fans struggling to make their mortgage payments) which when added together amount to an increasingly exasperating character.

Had he a canon of staggering ring achievements (such as Ali or SRR) to point to I'm sure people would be willing to cut him slack. Which I guess is why fight fans tend to overlook Duran's misdemeanours. But the truth is that whilst he is an unquestionably gifted fighter who has won titles at several weights he has yet to define himself against the kind of talent Ali, Sugar Ray and Hagler did. Perhaps things will change if he and Pac ever manage to squeeze their egos into the same room. Who knows?

[Mugwump]

Larry Merchant is the most disrespectful commentator I have ever seen. Floyd, Hamed, Tyson and many others have had problems with Larry Merchant for his constant tirade of hate and disrespect he shows to fighters who pay his salary.

I really do think you should open up a dictionary and check the meaning of the word "hate". I'll think you'll find it bears no resemblance to your understanding of the term.

Irrespective of whether you like Merchant or not - his interview began with "Congratulations Floyd". Throughout the fight he referred to Floyd as an outstanding fighter. If that amounts to "hate" we might as well give up on the English language and speak Chinese.

And a journalist's job is to favour no-one and ask tough questions - period. Anything else leads to FOX News.

Merchant is paid in part to communicate the opinions of the fans to the fighters (not ********** their king-sized egos). Perhaps you didn't notice but there was a chorus of boos ringing throughout the auditorium when Larry interviewed Floyd. He had every right to broach the subject. Floyd's reaction was both ugly and childish and nothing Merchant has ever said about Floyd warranted such a disrespectful response. To be frank, I'm surprised Larry stayed as cool as he did.

[fitefanSHO]

Exactly. [IMG]http://www.packing4life.com/images/smilies/cong****.gif[/IMG]

[lightsout_finit]

Mayweather does come across as a ****he*d at times..............
BUT he won that fight fair and square.
I appreciate what people are sayin about sportsmanship, but this is proffesional boxing so if you see your chance you take it. No rules were broken.

[Mugwump]

BUT he won that fight fair and square.
I appreciate what people are sayin about sportsmanship, but this is proffesional boxing so if you see your chance you take it. No rules were broken.

This is kind of a false dichotomy as few if any people are claiming he did break the rules. I hesitate to say he won "fair and square" as the term "fair" is pretty subjective in sport. Some might say a fair victory is one where no written rules are broken whilst others might demand the observance of unwritten or implied codes of ethical conduct.

A good example is soccer where for years there was an unwritten rule which said in case of injury to one of your players you could kick the ball out of play so the physio could enter the field knowing your opponents would, upon resumption of play, kick the ball back to you so no advantage was lost. In the past some teams have ignored this "rule" and in some cases scored a goal from the throw in. Now, you could argue that no rule has been broken and the goal is perfectly fair. But such events have consistently attracted overwhelming criticism (even from fans of the profiting club!). Call it gamesmanship, professionalism - perhaps even outright cheating - these acts happen in all sports and are always divisive.

I'm sure many will say there is no place for sportsmanship in professional sport. If you get a chance you take it and screw the consequences. But years of watching all manner of sport has taught me that most athletes do prefer to observe unwritten codes. If this weren't the case you'd never see any fighter apologise for a stray low blow because he'd know he'd draw an immediate king hit. Indeed, the reason Floyd is attracting so much criticism right now is precisely because his actions which people are attempting to rationalise within a framework of legitimacy are so incredibly rare. Floyd is intelligent enough to know this and I suspect part of the reason he chose to abruptly terminate the Merchant interview was tied up with an uncomfortable inner exchange between his ego and his conscience.

[Scott9945]

Larry Merchant is the most disrespectful commentator I have ever seen.

I don't have to go down memory lane to top that one. Jim Gray is much worse.

[lightsout_finit]

This is kind of a false dichotomy as few if any people are claiming he did break the rules. I hesitate to say he won "fair and square" as the term "fair" is pretty subjective in sport. Some might say a fair victory is one where no written rules are broken whilst others might demand the observance of unwritten or implied codes of ethical conduct.

A good example is soccer where for years there was an unwritten rule which said in case of injury to one of your players you could kick the ball out of play so the physio could enter the field knowing your opponents would, upon resumption of play, kick the ball back to you so no advantage was lost. In the past some teams have ignored this "rule" and in some cases scored a goal from the throw in. Now, you could argue that no rule has been broken and the goal is perfectly fair. But such events have consistently attracted overwhelming criticism (even from fans of the profiting club!). Call it gamesmanship, professionalism - perhaps even outright cheating - these acts happen in all sports and are always divisive.

I'm sure many will say there is no place for sportsmanship in professional sport. If you get a chance you take it and screw the consequences. But years of watching all manner of sport has taught me that most athletes do prefer to observe unwritten codes. If this weren't the case you'd never see any fighter apologise for a stray low blow because he'd know he'd draw an immediate king hit. Indeed, the reason Floyd is attracting so much criticism right now is precisely because his actions which people are attempting to rationalise within a framework of legitimacy are so incredibly rare. Floyd is intelligent enough to know this and I suspect part of the reason he chose to abruptly terminate the Merchant interview was tied up with an uncomfortable inner exchange between his ego and his conscience.

As I said no rules were broken.

I'm sure you are an expert at other sports but boxing ain't another sport...
you don't play you fight. I'm not a fan of Mayweathers antics but he did nothing wrong.

Also I find it very funny your talking about sportsmanship when you have Eubank as your pic.
You do realise one of Eubanks strategies if a fight went long distance would be to pretend he's going to touch gloves with an opponent then suckerpunch them when they are not expecting it. He has done this many times.
What do you think of Eubank?? Is Eubank a lowlife??

[gatorDelux]

wastn sportsman like but it wa legal

and the whole card was entertaianing

people should be happy they got there moneys worth

[jabsRstiff]

What about Jim Lampley? I think he's the real problem on that HBO team. He's a complete and total fraud, over-hyping everything going on in the ring, including enthusiastically calling punches that never landed.

I think he has always been a complete fraud....and I started feeling that way when, in 1992, he picked Rid**** Bowe and Lennox Lewis as the #1 and #2 lb4lb in the world.....over Whitaker and Chavez.

[fitefanSHO]

With his ugly verbal assault against HBO's Larry Merchant, Floyd Mayweather effectively closed whatever remained of the gap between boxing's historic civil discourse and the kind of gutter level trash talk that permeates most boxing message boards these days. All that was left for Floyd Jr. to do was call Merchant a Victor Ortiz "nuthugger" and a "*******."