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Boxing

June 27 in Sports History: Spinks gets $10M for 91 seconds



91 seconds of work

In 1988: Mike Tyson knocked out previously undefeated Michael Spinks in 91 seconds at the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City. The fight, which was hyped for months as the true test to Tyson’s dominance, was over before many people even got to their $1,500 ringside seats. It was the fourth shortest heavyweight fight in history and was believed to be the climax of Tyson’s career as the undisputed heavyweight champion. The fight was so short, HBO was able to show a slow motion replay of the entire bout. Spinks collected about ten million dollars for his troubles.

In 1999 The Seattle Mariners played their final game in the Seattle Kingdome in front of 56,000 fans. Ken Griffey Jr. homered for the Mariners in the 5-2 win over the Texas Rangers. The Mariners played over 1,700 games in 22 seasons at the Kingdome. A few memorable moments include Griffey Jr. and his father, Ken Sr. both playing in the same game together, the Mariners one-game playoff win over the Angels to clinch the AL West in 1995, and Junior scoring the winning run of the first ALDS in the bottom of the 10th inning in Game 5 against the Yankees. Fans and city officials celebrated the final game at the Kingdome with banners and ceremonies, prompting sportscaster Keith Olbermann to wonder: “Why? It was a dump.

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Boxing

Ali got sold but he’s not a soldier



Dammit, now we owe
CKX money

(Look, give us a break, it’s a catchy song, OK?)

Your image is worth about $2.99 and a box of ho-hos. Muhammad Ali’s is worth about $63 million. A company called CKX paid $50 million for an 80% stake in all Ali images. CKX is a UK company that owns American Idol, produces television and movies, and owns 85% of Elvis Pressley. The company is worth $1.2 Billion.

In the AP story announcing it, Tim Dahlberg writes about all the possibilities in using the Ali image.


But no family room would be complete without the Ali bobblehead showing the former heavyweight champion climbing the stairs and lighting the Olympic torch in 1996 in Atlanta.

Flip on a switch and Ali even trembles while he does it.

Tiger gets criticized for using the term spaz but this guy can make fun of Ali and his Parkinsons? This is a line even we won’t cross.

Links:
[AP]: What’s in a name? In this case, $50 million for Muhammad Ali

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Boxing

Trash talk that matters



Lost in translation:
Oscar, you have pretty eyes

How many times did Joey Porter tackle Jerramy Stevens in the Super Bowl? Yeah, I couldn’t find any either. All that trash talking was so ridiculous and manufactured that it would have been the biggest farce of the Super Bowl if the officials hadn’t stepped in and made sure they were the jokes. (Well, let’s not go down that road again before Seahawks fans get angry.)

The reason I bring it up is that boxing is about the only sport where you can actually back up your trash talking with meaningful hits. Ricardo Mayorga and Oscar De La Hoya got into it during a press conference.

Mayorga fired the first salvo:

This clown sitting here to my right has disrespected me. He keeps saying that he’s going to be fighting in September or October, like he’s fighting a nobody in May.

I’m the champion. You’ve got to recognize that. My strongest hand is my right hand. You see his eye? I’m going to detach his retina.

De La Hoya responded by calling him an old woman and telling Mayorga multiple times that he was going to knick him out.

I really wish this had happened during the Shani Davis – Chad Hedrick news conference. Or perhaps Johnny Weir and any other ice skater.

[AP]: De La Hoya, Mayorga trade verbal shots

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Boxing

His name is Hitman, what did you expect?

Thomas Hearns has been accused of hitting his 13 year old son during an argument and was arrested. Look, we’re all for against hitting kids but cut the guy some slack. If a father can’t take a kid behind the woodshed, then the liberals (or is it the conservatives? or maybe the terrorists?) have already won. My dad used to beat me every day of the week and look where I ended up. That’s right. Folsom County Prison. So there you go.