Tweet
Hodge pisses me off so much. If anyone who thinks boxing is a dying sport needs to get their head checked. The Mayweather Marquez TUNE UP FIGHT got 1 million buys, have you ever seen a UFC event thats is basically a tune up for the main event make 1 million buys? As far as im concerned boxing is going to be just as big as it once was guarentee it
Each week, the Reporters put their thumbs out to the good and the bad in the world of sports.
This week, Dave Hodge and the Reporters put out their thumbs to the Bengals' Cedric Benson, Manny Pacquiao, LeBron James, and Winnipeg's Doug Brown.
David Naylor, Globe and Mail: My thumb is up to Cincinnati Bengals running back Cedric Benson. As the NFL kicks off the second half of its season, Benson is the second-leading rusher in the NFL. Now this is the same guy who was the fourth-overall pick in the 2005 draft with Chicago - was a total washout - and was released in June 2008. He was out of football until September of last year when he signed with the Bengals, which seemed at the time like a terrible idea. A part of that is because first-round draft picks in the NFL who wash out almost never resurface once they're written off - they're gone forever. And yet Benson has proved to be the exception to the rule, as all of the Bengals' opponents are finding out this season - and none more than the Bears, against whom Benson rushed for 189 yards three weeks ago.
Steve Simmons, Toronto Sun: My thumb is up to Manny Pacquiao, the best big-time fighter left in the dwindling world of professional boxing, who breathed life into his dying sport on Saturday night. Pacquiao, a fighter for this and any age, put on a stunning performance in Las Vegas, knocking down Miguel Cotto twice and dominating his way to a 12th round TKO win, the record-breaking seventh title of his career in seven different weight classes. The 144-pound Pacquiao was too quick, too dominant for the normally great Cotto to have any answer at all. Not only did Pacquiao dance his way to another title but he had enough left after 12 rounds to actually put on a concert at another Vegas hotel. The guy, apparently, can do everything.
Michael Farber, Sports Illustrated: My thumb is down to LeBron James, who wants to change his number 23 to number 6 next season, and also change the logo of the NBA. More on that in a second. He wore 23 in tribute to Michael Jordan, and now James says that everyone should take off 23 and it should be retired league-wide. James isn't the Wayne Gretzky of his sport - Gretzky wore 99, a vanity licence plate, and he's not Jackie Robinson, who wore 42, which is retired in baseball. And as far as the logo, which is to change it from Jerry West's likeness to the likeness of Jordan, well, LeBron is "The King", not the commissioner.
Dave Hodge, TSN: My thumb is up to Doug Brown of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, for delivering the most thoughtful and biting quote you'll ever see, one that should be absorbed by anyone and everyone in the CFL who thinks it might be okay for David Braley to be the sole owner of the Toronto Argonauts - and - the B.C. Lions.
After Winnipeg lost last week to pave the way for B.C to back into a cross-over playoff spot, Brown said of his Blue Bombers' performance against Hamilton: "We were so bad you'd have thought David Braley was part-owner of our team, not just of Toronto."
Yes, Brown was joking, but when he said it, it might have looked as though the Bombers were deliberately doing Braley's B.C. Lions a favour, he was also ridiculing the idea that two teams in the same league could have the same owner. And so am I.
This week, Dave Hodge and the Reporters put out their thumbs to the Bengals' Cedric Benson, Manny Pacquiao, LeBron James, and Winnipeg's Doug Brown.
David Naylor, Globe and Mail: My thumb is up to Cincinnati Bengals running back Cedric Benson. As the NFL kicks off the second half of its season, Benson is the second-leading rusher in the NFL. Now this is the same guy who was the fourth-overall pick in the 2005 draft with Chicago - was a total washout - and was released in June 2008. He was out of football until September of last year when he signed with the Bengals, which seemed at the time like a terrible idea. A part of that is because first-round draft picks in the NFL who wash out almost never resurface once they're written off - they're gone forever. And yet Benson has proved to be the exception to the rule, as all of the Bengals' opponents are finding out this season - and none more than the Bears, against whom Benson rushed for 189 yards three weeks ago.
Steve Simmons, Toronto Sun: My thumb is up to Manny Pacquiao, the best big-time fighter left in the dwindling world of professional boxing, who breathed life into his dying sport on Saturday night. Pacquiao, a fighter for this and any age, put on a stunning performance in Las Vegas, knocking down Miguel Cotto twice and dominating his way to a 12th round TKO win, the record-breaking seventh title of his career in seven different weight classes. The 144-pound Pacquiao was too quick, too dominant for the normally great Cotto to have any answer at all. Not only did Pacquiao dance his way to another title but he had enough left after 12 rounds to actually put on a concert at another Vegas hotel. The guy, apparently, can do everything.
Michael Farber, Sports Illustrated: My thumb is down to LeBron James, who wants to change his number 23 to number 6 next season, and also change the logo of the NBA. More on that in a second. He wore 23 in tribute to Michael Jordan, and now James says that everyone should take off 23 and it should be retired league-wide. James isn't the Wayne Gretzky of his sport - Gretzky wore 99, a vanity licence plate, and he's not Jackie Robinson, who wore 42, which is retired in baseball. And as far as the logo, which is to change it from Jerry West's likeness to the likeness of Jordan, well, LeBron is "The King", not the commissioner.
Dave Hodge, TSN: My thumb is up to Doug Brown of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, for delivering the most thoughtful and biting quote you'll ever see, one that should be absorbed by anyone and everyone in the CFL who thinks it might be okay for David Braley to be the sole owner of the Toronto Argonauts - and - the B.C. Lions.
After Winnipeg lost last week to pave the way for B.C to back into a cross-over playoff spot, Brown said of his Blue Bombers' performance against Hamilton: "We were so bad you'd have thought David Braley was part-owner of our team, not just of Toronto."
Yes, Brown was joking, but when he said it, it might have looked as though the Bombers were deliberately doing Braley's B.C. Lions a favour, he was also ridiculing the idea that two teams in the same league could have the same owner. And so am I.
Comment