Nigel Benn "I smoked 20 a day from the age of 8 to 41"

[magwitch]

I think our friend Johan who’s just passed away liked a tab or 20 and I think he was at it during his career, which might explain his death.
Then there was that Brazilian player from the 70s...thought it was Zico or Jairzinho....just realised the Socrates above must be who it was. I thought they were on about actual Socrates. I think that footballer was a doctor in his day job too. Unimaginable today frankly...

[Stuarty]

Ricardo Mayorga is a mad chain smoker. A lot of footballers have been collared at it too which surprises me.

I suspect Mayorga picked up that habit on the street at a young age. Must be very hard to pack in fags if you start in single digit numbers. I know as my uncle started at about 7 or 8.
Also I wonder if these smoker/ athlete’s bodies are less affected in training as they have just gotten used to it?

Personally I take this claim with a huge pinch of salt. No way would Benn have been the same fighter. He was explosive and very ambitious and monsterously strong. I don’t think he’d have been willing to concede any edge for a smoker’s lifestyle. No way. Then there’s the weight....which would have been harder to achieve I reckon.

What he probably means is he smoked in spells....sometimes a good few, sometimes none.

Yeah you're probably right. Can't imagine him finishing a right heavy, punishing session then smoking ten fags. I've never smoked though so feck knows how it works. Maybe if he was making weight and he was choking for a kebab he just had a fag instead

[magwitch]

Tony tuckers trainer was smoking in the changies the night tucker boxed hide.

A true professional

It’s boxing tho isn’t it, not synchronised swimming. They wouldn’t have had those helpful horrible fotos on the boxes back then either...

I watched a show once where before the boxing Brendon Ingle spoke for 45 minutes too long. Some sketchy tale about a certain boxer having stiffed him over some cash. Meanwhile fat suited men were smoking all about. About two and a half hours after the doors opened into this low-ceilinged hotel venue, two lads got in and went hell for leather for 8.... maybe ten rounds in thick cigar fog. I was disgusted tbh.

[Rexob]

Tony tuckers trainer was smoking in the changies the night tucker boxed hide.

A true professional

It’s boxing tho isn’t it, not synchronised swimming. They wouldn’t have had those helpful horrible fotos on the boxes back then either...

I watched a show once where before the boxing Brendon Ingle spoke for 45 minutes too long. Some sketchy tale about a certain boxer having stiffed him over some cash. Meanwhile fat suited men were smoking all about. About two and a half hours after the doors opened into this low-ceilinged hotel venue, two lads got in and went hell for leather for 8.... maybe ten rounds in thick cigar fog. I was disgusted tbh.

Reminds me of my amature days, smoke filled rooms stinking of drink and young kids battling it out with the crowd roaring, fooking brillant

[magwitch]

A true professional

It’s boxing tho isn’t it, not synchronised swimming. They wouldn’t have had those helpful horrible fotos on the boxes back then either...

I watched a show once where before the boxing Brendon Ingle spoke for 45 minutes too long. Some sketchy tale about a certain boxer having stiffed him over some cash. Meanwhile fat suited men were smoking all about. About two and a half hours after the doors opened into this low-ceilinged hotel venue, two lads got in and went hell for leather for 8.... maybe ten rounds in thick cigar fog. I was disgusted tbh.

Reminds me of my amature days, smoke filled rooms stinking of drink and young kids battling it out with the crowd roaring, fooking brillant

I agree it would be fantastic mate if it weren’t for breathing in big lungfuls of carginogenic air that might catch up with you down the line. Most young lads would never see that tho...
This night was a joke tho. An elevated ring meant the ceiling was about a metre above the boxers’ heads and there was dinner plus Brendon getting his maths mixed up for what seemed like eternity. Nobody seemed to give a fck about the clouds that were forming. Tommy Gilmour promoted it I think.

[Loftgroov]

Back in his playing days with Hampshire I remember Shane Warne was always on the fags on a night out.

Apparently he was paid a prior bonus for quitting too, but from what I could see he pulled their pants down over that