Gapitan World: boxing

Showing posts with label boxing. Show all posts

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Teaser- Here Come the Olympics

The Olympics get underway in just a few days with opening ceremonies getting under way on Friday night from London. The home team the United Kingdom will actually have the largest delegation with 542, which is just slightly more than the United States, which has the second highest delegation, with 530 athletes.Russia will have the third highest number of athletes with 436 Olympic participants.

Ana Sofia Gomez, 16, (pictured above) will be the first gymnast to represent Guatemala at the summer games. Gomez has finished in the top five at various international competitions.

Yasser Hefny, 23, (pictured middle) an Egyptian pentathlete, was among the Muslim athletes interviewed by the Associated Press regarding Ramadan, a Muslim holiday which requires the faithful to fast until sundown, and preparation for the Olympics. Many Muslim athletes, many of whom are actually competing for western countries, will make compromise by fasting after the completion of the games.

These summer games will also mark the debut of women's boxing, which will include Lucy O'Connor, 31, the top-ranked British boxer who is also a naval officer, who will represent the home country. This means that the only three sports with only one gender, are Greece-roman wrestling (men's), synchronized swimming (women's) and rhythmic gymnastics (women's).

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Olympic Cities Distance Quiz (2 of 6)_ Mexico City to Rome

Well, we couldn't find a mascot for the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, but Pique the chilli pepper was the mascot for the 1986 World Cup held in Mexico 18 years later (Argentina won that cup).

Since 1968 was a year of political turmoil in the United States, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, China, Argentina....ok, you get the idea, there were two major political protests at the Olympics in Mexico City. In America, the most-known protest involved two African-American athletes Tommie Smith, now 68, who won gold in the 200 meter relay, and John Carlos, now 67, who gave the black power salute during the playing of the American national anthem at their medal ceremony. Interestingly enough, the silver medal winner in that race the late Australian runner Peter Norman (1942-2006) politically supported the protests.

The Mexico City Olympics, which featured athletes from 112 countries, also featured a protest from Czechoslavakian gymnast Vera Caslavska (who would now compete for the Czech Republic), now age 70, a winner of four gold medals at the games who bowed her head in protest when the Soviet Union's national anthem was played after the balance beam final.

The 1960 Rome Olympics were also quite eventful as two African-American athletes came home with gold medals including the late Wilma Rudolph (1940-1994) who won three gold medals in track, and Muhammad Ali who won gold in the light heavyweight boxing class.

So how far in Mexico City from Rome?

Is the answer:

A) 6,273 miles

B) 6,373 miles

C) 6,473 miles

D) 6,573 miles

The answer to yesterday's quiz is that "Hogan's Heroes" ran for 166 episodes.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Bonus Quote of the Week- Sugar Ray Leonard

Today, we conclude our month-long series of quotes from American athlete who won medals at the Summer Olympics with quote from boxing great Sugar Ray Leonard, 55, who won gold at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Earlier this month, we quoted Bruce Jenner, the decathlete who also won gold in Canada.

Leonard was born in Rocky Mount, NC, but he spent most of his growing years in Palmer Park, Maryland, in the DC-Metro area. Leonard defeated the Cuban boxer Andrew Aldama on his way to gold in the light welterweight division.

Ironically, Montreal was also the site of his first famous bout with Panamanian boxer Roberto Duran in 1980. Leonard lost that initial fight, but he defeated Duran later that year in New Orleans.

Leonard also won a much-anticipated bout against a then-undefeated Thomas Hearns in Las Vegas in 1981.

Here is Leonard's quote:

"Before I fight, I always pray no one gets hurt."

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Quote of the Day/Week- Muhammad Ali

Even though it has been a good 30 years since Muhammad Ali was a pro boxer, he still remains an iconic figure today. Ali turned 70 in January; today we quote him in honor of Black History Month.

Ali originally became famous in 1964 when he upset Sonny Liston. Ali was a 7-1 underdog for that fight; Liston, whom Ali later defeated a second time, died at age 38 in 1970.

Recently, Ali was in the news for his eulogy of his rival Joe Frazier, who died at age 67 in November of last year. Though there was bitter animosity between the two when they fought 'the fight of the century' in 1971, the two not only reconciled but became very good friends. Ali ended up winning two rematches against Frazier.

While researching this piece, we learned that the original "Rocky" film was in part inspired by boxer Chuck Wepner's, now 32, huge upset over Ali in 1975.

Here is the quote from 'the champ,' made shortly before his first bout with Liston:

"I'm a Baaad Man."

SIDEBAR ONE: We noticed that someone from Mount Jackson, Va., a nice, quaint town that has Meems Bottom Covered Bridge, in the Shenandoah Valley of northern Virginia, was visiting us today.

Today, it is 37 degrees with a light drizzle in Mount Jackson.

SIDEBAR TWO: Wow! We somehow missed the whole Jeremy Lin media sweep, which has been dubbed 'linsanity.' We are particularly miffed with ourselves because we have been covering the great season that Harvard, Lin's alma mater, is having in college basketball. The son of Taiwanese immigrants who plays guard for the New York Knicks made a name for himself by scoring 38 points in a 92-85 home win over Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers last week.

On Tuesday night, Lin delivered a valentine for Knicks' fans by scoring a game-winning shot in a 90-87 road win against the Toronto Raptors.

Last night, Lin scored 10 points and had a career-high 13 assists in the team's 100-85 home win over the Sacramento Kings.

Like most Ivy Leaguers who come into the NBA, with the exception of Bill Bradley (later a Democratic U.S. Senator) from Princeton who was also a Knicks player (Bradley played in 1970s), Lin was considered a low prospect.

SIDEBAR THREE: Since we made an effort to cover Ivy League sports, we thought we'd do the same for the Patriot League, which includes the likes of Army and Navy as well as distinguished academic institutions such as Colgate and Lehigh.

Last night, two Patriot League schools American University and Navy faced each other on AU's home court in Washigton, DC. And, the AU Eagles (17-9) came away with a 69-47 over a struggling Navy team.

Charles Hinkle lead the Eagles with 18 points. American University is second in league play behind Bucknell (20-6).

The Eagles are coached by former University of Virginia star Jeff Jones, who later coached the Cavaliers from 1990-98. He has coached the Eagles since 2000.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Mike Tyson Retired American Boxer

Malik Abdul Aziz (born and famously known as Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson) (born June 30, 1966) is a retired American boxer. Tyson is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF heavyweight titles, he was 20 years, 4 months and 22 days old.

Tyson won his first 19 professional bouts by knockout, with 12 of them occurring in the first round. He won the WBC title in 1986 after defeating Trevor Berbick by a TKO in the second round. In 1987, Tyson added the WBA and IBF titles after defeating James Smith and Tony Tucker. He was the first heavyweight boxer to simultaneously hold and only Heavyweight to individually unify the WBA, WBC and IBF titles.

In 1988, Tyson became the lineal champion when he knocked out Michael Spinks in the first 91 seconds of the fight. Tyson successfully defended the world heavyweight championship nine times, including victories over Larry Holmes and Frank Bruno. Tyson lost his titles to 42-to-1 underdog James "Buster" Douglas on February 11, 1990, in Tokyo, Japan, by a knockout in round 10. Tyson continued in his quest to regain the titles, defeating Donovan Ruddock twice in 1991. Tyson was then scheduled to take on the undisputed heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield but pulled out due to injury.

In 1992, Tyson was convicted of raping Desiree Washington, for which he was sentenced to six years in prison but was released after serving three years. After being released from prison in 1995, he engaged in a series of comeback fights. In 1996, Tyson won the WBC and WBA titles after defeating Frank Bruno and Bruce Seldon by knockout. After being stripped of the WBC title, Tyson lost his WBA crown to Evander Holyfield in November, 1996 by an 11th round TKO. Their 1997 rematch ended when Tyson was disqualified for biting off part of Holyfield's ear.

In 2002, he fought for the world heavyweight title at the age of 35, losing by knockout to Lennox Lewis. Tyson retired from professional boxing in 2006 after he was knocked out in consecutive matches against Danny Williams and Kevin McBride. Tyson declared bankruptcy in 2003, despite receiving over US$30 million for several of his fights and $300 million during his career.

Throughout his career, Tyson became well known for his ferocious and intimidating boxing style as well as his controversial behavior both inside and outside the ring. Tyson is considered to have been one of the best heavyweight boxers of all time. He is ranked No. 16 on The Ring's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time.

Tyson competed at the 1981 and 1982 Junior Olympic Games, and won the gold medal twice: in 1981 against Joe Cortez and in 1982 against Kelton Brown, whose corner threw in the towel within the first round. He holds the Junior Olympic quickest knockout record with 8 seconds. In addition he won every bout at the Junior Olympic Games by knockout. He fought Henry Tillman twice as an amateur losing both bouts by close decision. Tillman went on to win heavyweight Gold at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Tyson did not fight again until later in 1995 after he was paroled from prison. He had two comeback bouts against Peter McNeeley and Buster Mathis Jr., which he won easily. Interest in Tyson's first comeback fight since his incarceration was high enough that it grossed more than US$96 million worldwide, including a United States record $63 million for PPV television.

The fight was purchased by 1.52 million homes, setting both PPV viewership and revenue records for that time. The brief, 89-second fight wherein McNeeley swiftly crumpled on facing Tyson, elicited criticism that Tyson's management lined up "Tomato Cans", easily defeatable and unworthy boxers for his return. TV Guide included the Tyson-McNeeley fight in their list of the 50 Greatest TV Sports Moments of All Time in 1998.

Tyson has been legally married three times and he had eight children with several different women. His first marriage was to actress Robin Givens from February 7, 1988 to February 14, 1989. Givens was known for her work on the sitcom Head of the Class. Tyson's marriage to Givens was especially tumultuous with allegations of violence, spousal abuse and mental instability on Tyson's part. Matters came to a head when Tyson and Givens gave a joint interview with Barbara Walters on the ABC TV newsmagazine show 20/20 in September 1988, in which Givens described life with Tyson as "torture, pure hell, worse than anything I could possibly imagine."

Mike Tyson's Family

Givens also described Tyson as "manic depressive" on national television while Tyson looked on with an intent and calm expression. A month later, Givens announced that she was seeking a divorce from the allegedly abusive Tyson. They had no children but she claims to have had a miscarriage while Tyson claims she was never pregnant and only used that to get him to marry her. During their marriage, the couple lived in a mansion in Bernardsville, New Jersey.

In May 2011, Tyson sent an autographed boxing gloves to soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo. 'To Cristiano' is what written on the gloves, along with Tyson's signature. Also, in May 2011, Tyson was a contestant in the Argentinian dance contest Bailando 2011, and he was paired with his wife, Lahika Spicer. The couple withdrew from the competition after the second round.

In September 2011, Tyson gave an interview in which he made comments about former Alaska governor Sarah Palin that included crude and violent descriptions of interracial sex. These comments were then reprinted on the Daily Caller website. Journalist Greta van Susteren criticized Tyson and the Daily Caller over the comments, which she described as "smut" and "violence against women".

Mike Tyson

Mike Tyson Fight Night Champion

Mike Tyson

Mike Tyson OLD & NEW

Friday, December 23, 2011

Amir Khan British Professional Boxer

Amir Iqbal Khan (born 8 December 1986), is a British professional boxer who is the former unified WBA (Super) & IBF light welterweight champion. He previously boxed in the lightweight division, where he held the Commonwealth, WBO Inter-Continental, and WBA International titles

Khan is the youngest British Olympic boxing medalist, winning silver at the 2004 Athens Olympics at the age of 17. He is also one of the youngest British world champions ever, winning the WBA light welterweight title at age 22.

Khan was born and raised in Bolton, England, in a British Pakistani family. His family originated from Matore, Kahuta in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He belongs to the Janjua Rajput clan, a royal martial and warrior tribe of northern Punjab.

Besides English, Khan also speaks Punjabi and Urdu. He was educated at Smithills School in Bolton, and Bolton Community College. Khan has two sisters and one brother, Haroon Khan, who is an amateur boxer and has represented Pakistan at an international level.

His first cousin is the English cricketer Sajid Mahmood. Khan is a practicing Muslim. As well as boxing, Khan enjoys playing sports such as cricket, football and basketball. He is an avid supporter of his local football club, Bolton Wanderers, and uses the club's training facilities.

Khan began to box competitively at the age of 11, with early honours including three English school titles, three junior ABA titles, and gold at the 2003 Junior Olympics. In early 2004 he won a gold medal at the European Student Championships in Lithuania, and in South Korea several months later he won world junior lightweight title after fighting five times in seven days. One of his notable early amateur fights was against Victor Ortíz, whom he defeated in a second round stoppage.

Amir Khan