Why Do We Think Boxing Is Dirtier Than Tennis Despite the Facts?
May 21, 2008 by Michael Sedor
Filed under MMA-UFC
Sport #1 and Sport #2 both take wagers. They both feature one athlete vs. one athlete making it very easy to fix matches.
One of Sport #1’s most successful athletes, a champion, is under serious investigation for match fixing. He has inextricable ties to the mob and many shady match results. An investigation is launched in that sport which reveals 45 possible fixed matches in the last five years, matches involving some of its biggest stars.
A google search for [Sport #2, Gambling, Scandal] brings up nothing for 10 google pages except mentions of Sport #1. There has been only slight whiffs of match fixing in decades and none involving Sport #2’s superstars.
Nevertheless the conventional wisdom still prevails that Sport #1 is clean and Sport #2 is dirty. Even people who love the sport, myself included, engage in the stereotyping (see this post) and the assumptions. Of course as Tim from Ring Report - perhaps the Internet’s best boxing analysis site - revealed in his comment to my post, Sport #1 is tennis and Sport #2 is boxing.
Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini Stars in New David Mamet Film
May 1, 2008 by Michael Sedor
Filed under MMA-UFC
Image details: Premiere Of "Redbelt" At The 2008 Tribeca Film Festival served by picapp.com
David Mamet’s movies and plays come as close to a boxing match as written words can. His actors dance around each other, they throw verbal jabs, they’re constantly testing each other’s will, they slyly move in for the kill, they plot their actions well in advance, and eventually try for the win. His movies always have a winner and a loser. There is hard-hearted competition, there are feints, there is macho posturing, there is constant deception, and there is a concrete decision and result which itself somehow borders on ambiguity.
So it’s only natural that Mamet’s next movie Redbelt, which opens today, revolves around fighting, specifically mixed martial arts. It’s cast fittingly includes one of the 80’s most beloved and tortured boxers: Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini. There’s aways the sense that Boom Boom could have been a storied lightweight but his fateful 1982 match against Duk Koo Kim changed that. Read Ron Borges terrific ESPN retrospective if you were too young to remember what happened that night at Caesars Palace.
