Has anybody read " a bloody canvas" ?

[stephenmc]

Wondering if anyone has read "A bloody canvas" ?
If not i suggest it if your into your boxing history..
Its the story of mike McTigue..
An Irish boxer who beat battling siki (after he beat carpenter) to win a title in Ireland during the civil war..
Its a great read, an in depth look at boxing in the 20s and great insight to fighters such as battling siki, carpenter, gene tunney, jack Delaney, jack dempsey and a whole host of boxers from " back In the day"

Also shows the transition of boxing through those years, such as the way their was no judges and it was journalist decisions either way just said id drop the name if anyone was interested

[ShoulderRoll]

It sounds interesting. I'll keep an eye out for it next time I go to the bookstore.

[Anthony342]

No, but I've had a bloody anus.

And you'd think MMA would've learned from the mistakes of boxing's early days, yet they still elected to go bare knuckled and have no judges in the beginning. Luckily, enough complaints happened with nobody wanting to see fights potentially last hours and they finally added the use of gloves, wraps and time limits. You'd think they would've thought of that from the beginning.

[The Old LefHook]

No, but I've had a bloody anus.

And you'd think MMA would've learned from the mistakes of boxing's early days, yet they still elected to go bare knuckled and have no judges in the beginning. Luckily, enough complaints happened with nobody wanting to see fights potentially last hours and they finally added the use of gloves, wraps and time limits. You'd think they would've thought of that from the beginning.

All those standardizations you mentioned hurt MMA IMO. The matchups were much more intriguing when it was actually one isolated art vs another. Now everyone cross trains and they are all better fighters, of course, but the age old fantasy of watching art against art is no more and the format has lost its intrigue.

[Anthony342]

Not IMO, it hasn't. Fighters are just more well rounded now and the age old question has been answered by now anyway. Grapplers usually beat strikers, unless the striker can keep it on the feet and land a hard enough shot, which didn't happen often. And it has made it safer for the fighters. Punches to the back of the head and headbutts should have never been allowed anyway, too dangerous. Gloves protected the hands to avoid those gnarly breaks. Fans were sick of seeing someone win, but not able to advance because of a hand injury or fatigue and see some other fighter come in and take a tournament. UFC 3 was the first illustration of that. And nobody wants to see guys laying on the ground for over half an hour, like the UFC 5 super fight.

So the fighters not only became more well rounded, but the owners learned from boxing how to increase the safety of fighting.

If you want to see a fight that last several hours with no breaks, be my guest. I'd rather not and it's not going to sell pay per views or be sanctioned in most states.