Livingstone Cole wrote:You've been sadly missed, Eric. How's things?
Not to pollute the RIP JF thread, but thanks for the thought, LC. I expect it's a familiar tale - Life, work and the alas-sorry state of boxing have ended my days as a regular here. Plus it's painful to see my boy Roy still trying to pull a last bit of magic out of the old hat, and the inevitable "Pleaes retire, RJJ. Now."threads that follow. Quite a comedown from the glory days. Interesting to see Roy's old nemesis B-Hop achieving Archie-Moore-like freakish-longevity-at-the-top status, though.
Anyhoo, rarely get over here anymore unless some old great dies (this thread) or something genuinely odd or interesting happens. Today I just came over because I caught a smidge of Solo Boxeo on TV last night, and they ended by saying next week would feature Pastrana vs Escalante, which had me thinking "What, they're gonna have a rematch?" and "Mauricio P's still fighting at his age?" According to the BoxRec schedule, looks like it's a re-air of their several-years-old fight, mercifully. That was a really entertaining bout, so I'll probably watch it, even in rerun mode. Oh, almost forgot: "Please retire, Mauricio. Now".
Note that I don't consider whatever the latest excuse is for Pacquiao and Mayweather to not fight each other as being in the category of "interesting". Both those guys are fighting weeks apart this coming summer, both vs "TBA" (whatever the hell that means), but of course not against each other. That captures the state of the sport as well as anything, alas.
And now, let's return to the Smokin' Joe tributes. :)
