Smokin Joe!

We’ve all seen, and heard just about all of the various college football jokes. They make a joke book for just about any team with a rival. Each year, we have to hear the same jokes over, and over when it gets to be time for the biggest game in sports. OSU vs. Michigan. I do like to see them, year after year they make me laugh. I did see a new one finally. Michigan may not be able to make it to columbus to the game this year. They can’t get past Toledo. Gay, but hillarious.

Sunday night I was finally able to watch something I have been waiting for for months. The Fight between one of the all time greatest pound for pound boxer’s, Roy Jones Jr., and my personal all-time favorite, the Pride of Wales, Joe Calzaghe. If you were like me, and was hesitant to drop 50 bucks for a pay per view boxing match, good news. HBO has it on the precast to the Lacey/Taylor fight. Now as I said, I’ve been wanting to watch this one for a long time. Calzaghe is a greater fighter, no doubt, but Jones actually was rested for this fight, and appeared to be training hard, and not filming shitty matrix movies. The problem was, 50 bucks is a big risk for a boxing match. 10 years ago, no problem. Get a group of people to throw in a few bucks, and it’s all good. Boxing has just tossed away any consumer trust. I’m one of the bigger boxing fans I know, but I’ve been burnt on too many jack-asses landing their fan/parachute in the ring. Too many fights ending on too many nut-shots, or dudes biting off ears, or crappy over the hill hollyfields, somehow coming out on top of the scorecards in fights they got destroyed in, every single round. I’ve just lost my faith in boxing. Put it on HBO, I’m there. UFC is blowing boxing away, and it’s their own fault. They just cn’t get out of their own way. This had the promise to be one of the greatest fights of the last 20 years. What did they do? They put it on pay per view, for 50 bucks, with no watchable undercard. Then, the replay, was on the same time as one of the biggest UFC fights in years. I don’t know what the ratings were for Calzaghe/Jones, but boxing missed a huge chance. I watched it again today, and it was one of the best fights I have seen, in a long, long time. Calzaghe destroyed Jones, in every way possible. Had it not been for the fact that Jones was a legend, and Calzaghe could have been fighting his last fight, the match would have ben stopped about rd. 8. Smokin Joe was toying with him the whole fight. He walked into a jab in rd one, and that was as close as it got. Joe was teasing, and taunting, and outpunching him 3-1. By the 9th, Calzaghe had landed more blows than any fighter had ever landed on Roy Jones Jr. he just kept coming, and he went out on top, undefeated for his career, and most people have no idea who he is. Boxing blew it. Boxing, has a lot of flaws, and none of them appear to be getting resolved. In fact, they may be getting worse. Every time Boxing has a guy that may be able to transcend into big ratings, he fights a fight he has no business in, and the downward spiral begins. Since there are 38 different current heavyweight champs, and Calzaghe is retiring, boxing has to put all their chips into badmouthing MMA, and showing over the hill fighters. If boxing had a clue, they would convince these over the hill fighters, Hopkins, Jones, De la Hoya, Lacey, and Taylor to sit back and be on the undercard. Calzaghe had one of the best careers ever, and is still in the end of his prime. Instead of setting up Kelly Pavlik vs. Calzaghe in a super fight, with an undercard of former champs, boxing throws in Pavlik vs. Hopkins. Hopkins won, and then what? He got crushed by Calzaghe already. They had a chance to develop two new stars to market, both white dudes. Instead of trying to set up a super fight, one not seen since Holyfield/Lewis. What do we have on slate now? De la Hoya vs whichever mexican dude can get a passport.