Monday, January 30, 2006 - Blood and guts

For the boxing fans among us I just watched a re-run of last weeks PPV Pacquiao V Morales followed by Gatti V Damgaard, two of the most entertaining fights I've seen in a long time, if you get the chance to see them check them out on HBO which should be re-running them this week. Don't want to spoil it by giving away the result however Gatti is one of my favorite fighters at the moment, he looks like a throwback to depression era fighters in his look and brawling style.

 Reminds me of when yours truly used to box, I thought I was pretty good and sparred with guys 5 years older than me with huge sparring gloves. My debut bout literally brought me crashing back to reality.  At 15 I was unevenly matched against a 19 year old soldier with a 14 - 0 record who was about 6inches taller than me, just before the fight I got to see the first pair of real gloves, all my cover was gone as they were like skiing gloves compared to the huge sparring gloves I was used to. The fight took place in a smokey working man's club before the days of pretective headgear in amateur bouts.

I did okay in the first round however I think my bigger, older and more experienced opponent turned it up a few notches and stopped me in the second. I've had a few bar/street fights in my time however that was the only time I literally saw stars when he hit me, losing focus and becoming disorientated before the ref stepped in. My hat is off to the guys that choose to do that for a living, it's a tough old game and all that..............