As you might have read, Sikahema felled Canseco early in the first round of their Saturday Atlantic City fight which was dubbed The War at the Shore. Canseco looked out of place and clearly didn’t expect his opponent to be an iron-fisted whirling dervish.

Vai now works as a sportscaster for Philadelphia’s NBC affiliate WCAU and this morning he gave his fight analysis and engaged in some post-fight trashtalking on the 10! Show. Below are those clips:

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Post from: EveryJoe

Vai Sikahema Talks About Beating Up Jose Canseco

When the day’s boxing news consists of Jose Canseco and Mike Tyson it only confirms that the sensational matters more than the substantial. At least there is a Wednesday Night Fights on tonight. What’s that you say? There are no fights tonight? They’re being pre-empted by baseball and the NBA playoffs? Ughh.

Nonetheless, since Jodie at b5’s Gossip on Sports mentioned Iron Mike we are b5’s official boxing blog must say something as well despite the fact that Mike’s more gossip than boxing at this point anyhow.

I’ve always loved Mike Tyson. When his name comes up in a bar conversation I’m one of his legions of blind supporters. In fact I passionately defended Iron Mike last Wednesday to no avail.

Here’s a little secret: at this point we Tyson backers don’t even believe what we say. We’ve been repeated the same excuses and the same plaudits for so long that even we understand their (and our own) ridiculousness. We defend out of habit and out of unerring dedication.

But just as we don’t believe ourselves we also don’t believe our hero. We’ve taken his “I’m going to eat his children” and “I’m gonna stomp on your testicles” comments with a wink and a nod for a long time now. We know they’re just (poor and desperate) showmanship and not the Mike Tyson we knew as the greatest heavyweight we’d ever seen.

As a pro wrestling fan his post-championship career arc is familiar. For the last ten years he’s been an R-Rated heel and now he’s making his play for redemption. Who knows if what he has said in the Tyson documentary is true. Does it even matter? We fans never know when Mike’s being truthful about his past but, really, we don’t care. We’ve never believed his versions of history anyway. How could we? They’ve been clouded by so many things.

For more about the lying allegations check Ron Borges’ article in the Sweet Science and
for an empathetic middle-of-the-road perspective check out SC on BadLeftHook.com.

Photo Source: Newscom.com

Post from: EveryJoe

The Truth and Mike Tyson

Last week the deeply in debt and still 6′4″ 245lb. Jose Canseco issued a $5K boxing challenge to the general public. Headline the July 12 Atlantic City card presumably stocked with duking-it-out D-listers and the moolah is yours. Thankfully, a former athlete stepped up the the plate and we won’t have to see Jose pummeled by Vinnie from south Philly.

That athlete is none other than former Eagle punt return and special teams wizard Vai Sikahema. Sikahema is currently employed at sports director at Philadelphia’s NBC affiliate WCAU. Vai is no stranger to the celebrity boxing circuit. In January of this year he knocked out a local radio host. To catch some of Vai’s pugilistic skills click here. It’s hard to hate on Sikahema for taking the fight as he will be donating his $5K from the Canseco fight to the widow of slain Philadelphia police Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski.

Nevertheless, fight fans might be asking, “Why would you even post stuff like that on your blog? It’s not real boxing. It’s more like pro wrestling.” Alas, this is a pro wrestling blog too, but that’s beside the point. Last week in our really long Why Do We Think Boxing Is Dirtier Than Tennis Despite the Facts? post we pondered (A) boxing’s incorrect reputation for dirty fixed fights and (B) its subsequent marginalization by the public. Is this fight an example of both?

(A) We’re not alleging the Canseco-Sikahema fight is fixed – it doesn’t matter enough for that – but the only fights we remember being dirty in the last 20 odd years involved celebrity fighters padding win stats in a P.T. Barnum-esque look-at-the-freaks atmosphere: Butterbean, Mark Gastineau, and even the 50+ year-old George Foreman and Larry Holmes.

The problem with (B), boxing’s marginalization, comes because the public at large has more exposure to these farces then it does good fights.

For example, one of the world’s best fighters, middleweight Kelly Pavlik, is fighting in Atlantic City in two Saturdays from now on June 7 but Canseco’s AC fight is the one garnering attention from the Philly Daily News boxing writer.

We can’t blame him, www.jabandgrapple.com is also guilty as charged. We didn’t have to post about The Badboy of Baseball but we did. It gives us an excuse to post a picture of Vida Guerra with said Badboy.

Photo Source: Newscom.com

Post from: EveryJoe

Jose Canseco to Fight Former NFL All-Pro; Cooler Heads Avert Eyes