Risk V Reward

[Boxing Prospect]

Go youtube and listen to Meldrick Taylor talking. Then talk about risk V reward. If you can think of a great fighter the likelehood is that they died of or have some form of brain injury.

When top fighters go at it they take it out of each other big style. It would be interesting to see how long someone can remain fighting in the WSB for example where generally the best will always be fighting the best.

With all respect to Andy Murray this aint knocking a tennis ball to each other.....

On the flipside of that some low level guys have died and others have taken serious injuries by fighting low level guys. Who'd have though Yo Sam Choi (former world champion) would have died from fighting Heri Amol (Indonesian journeyman), Afrizal Cotto's death at the hands of Irvan Barita Marbun, Tesshin Okada against Masafumi Kamiyama or Muhammad Alfaridzi (for what it's worth Boxrec doesn't have his complete record). You don't need to be at a high level to be damaged.

In fact in many ways fighters fighting scrubs for too long could do more damage than stepping up your game earlier. All those years of taking fights at a low level might not end your career but they won't have been well paid and will have added years, you might as well skip those mismatches and have an actual pay day come along a year or too earlier. Crolla and Coyle are having wars at their current level and being paid a slice of what they would be if they were taking on better foes at a world or fringe world level.

[Datsue]

Go youtube and listen to Meldrick Taylor talking. Then talk about risk V reward. If you can think of a great fighter the likelehood is that they died of or have some form of brain injury.

When top fighters go at it they take it out of each other big style. It would be interesting to see how long someone can remain fighting in the WSB for example where generally the best will always be fighting the best.

With all respect to Andy Murray this aint knocking a tennis ball to each other.....

Okay, I'll talk about risk vs reward.

You're basically saying you're okay with the mismatches & bullshit, because otherwise a prospect might end up like Meldrick Taylor?

So boxing matchmaking is fine as it is now then?

& the guys getting done over month in month out, much much smaller, less-gifted, less-fit men in most cases, they're not worthy of protection? Not worthy of your sympathy?

I really don't get your post at all on any level other than the knee-jerk.

Either you accept boxing, risks & all, or you don't. I can accept either position & would not really cavil. What I'd like is those risks--which are the same for everyone, in the end--to be equally shared. D'you get that? I cannot accept taxing matches not being made in the name of "safety" (which seems to be your position), because that's an attempt at having your fvcking cake & fvcking eating it.

Some poor pudendum is still getting the shite kicked out of his brain, no matter if the anointed ones you see on TV don't get fvcked up, because boxing is fvcking brain damage.

No-one has said "Yeah, everyone needs a career like Meldrick Taylor, the gym wars, the list of ATG opponents every time out, fighting on for about ten years too long, a sadist like Duva in the corner sending them out with busted ribs & broken eye sockets against great pressure fighters, yeah that's what's needed".

You're setting up a straw man argument.

No-one could argue against the fact that no-one ever looked after Taylor, really, & he was hideously exploited & fought on with actual brain injuries because commissions are so bent & fans so cvntingly credulous & promoters so inherently evil that they thought they could still make money out of him.

But there's a fvcking yawning great enormous fvcking giant mile-wide chasm between Meldrick's situation & the fvcking farce we have now in this country & the US.

No, no-one needs Meldrick's career. But I cannot accept being okay with boxing--a sport that kills, remember, in every single way--where only those who can make some other pudendum money are worthy of your tears & your time.

I find that position actually despicable. Sorry.

Your post does touch on some things: fans need to shut the fvck up about self-determination & accept that whilst boxing involves personal responsibility on the level of inherent risk, getting in the ring with long-term permanent damage above a certain level (as Taylor did for about ten years, I believe, between the point where he was told to retire 'cos he was already fvcked & when he actually did) & saying "Oh it's his decision" when dudes have like medical brain injuries, those people need to fvck right off, because there's gotta be a cut-off point.

Jermain Taylor's relicensing & upcoming fight, case in point.

I'm sorry if I seem like I'm getting emotive, but you've basically pulled the same stroke here & I'd like you to apply your reaction to your own opinion, basically.

PS: I am going to add this, 'cos I know people are desperate to insert the chisel of contention on the Innernetz & I rant a lot & this leaves gaps, but: I am not saying "Boxing is perfect". I am not advocating nothing but fvcking wars. I want better medicals, I want stricter controls, & I want dudes having their licence taken away to mean something.

I'd just like all that blood that gets spilled, all those lives changed, all those brain cells smooshed, to fvcking mean something, rather than being a fvcking dance in chains, a simulacrum of actual meaning, with exactly the same inherent risks & terrible tragic results.

Get me?

[Datsue]

Go youtube and listen to Meldrick Taylor talking. Then talk about risk V reward. If you can think of a great fighter the likelehood is that they died of or have some form of brain injury.

When top fighters go at it they take it out of each other big style. It would be interesting to see how long someone can remain fighting in the WSB for example where generally the best will always be fighting the best.

With all respect to Andy Murray this aint knocking a tennis ball to each other.....

One last bit, & I'll go do some work. But it's topical, & it's relevant, so.

Juan Manuel Lopez got the treatment modern boxing gives prospects on the way up, the treatment you're basically advocating (as did, in fact, Jermain Taylor, though he went from being babied & fighting smaller dudes who had no hope of beating him to B-Hop & beyond, without any real building or seasoning).

Lopez never fought someone against whom he was not favoured, between coming from nowhere to KO Ponce De Leon until he lost to Salido. No fifty-fifty fights in title defences for him, no talked-up mega-match between JML & the Cuban, Yuri Gamboa.

Older men. Shot men. Smaller men. Men who never were but had a shiny record. In many cases, out & out fvcknig journeymen.

You could even argue the bad habits that he picked up knocking over hordes of shiter, smaller, shotter dudes led to Lopez fighting the way he does, the complete lack of head movement, the utter disdain for incoming punches, the utter disregard for defence, the lack of self-preservation shown when hurt.

As his star faded, he's fought nothing but a murderer's row, including showing signs of brain damage/concussion after the second Salido fight. He gets thrown in again & again to dudes expected to beat him, who are on their way up, much bigger.

Basically, fights taht you are saying you're okay with.

Watch him getting knocked so silly his legs were twitching against the Mexican Olympian last time out, where he could barely make it back to the corner after the third round.

He was out again last night, against another unbeaten prospect. Got mashed in a couple of rounds.

There's your safe fvcking matchmaking. The dudes who pay tend to be the ones--just like Meldrick, don't forget--who were once protected; once they can't make money no more, into the sausage grinder.

Not the fvcking way I want it, ta.