This week’s quote (taken from the book Floyd Patterson: The Fighting Life of Boxing’s Invisible Champion, by W.K. Stratton), comes to us courtesy of International Boxing Hall of Fame journalist Jimmy Cannon, as he attempted to make light of the inordinate number of times (9) that Patterson went down in his three fights with Ingemar Johansson.
“At first, I thought he (Patterson) would be the first heavyweight champion with a cauliflower tail.”
In a recent Showtime telecast featuring Art Hovhannisyan and Miguel Acosta, commentator Barry Tompkins, speaking on the tendency of fighters to tire more quickly as a result of missing punches versus landing them, said “It’s not the punches landed that wear you out, it’s the misses.” To which Steve Farhood, (seizing the opportunity to exploit the double meaning present between misses and missus) replied, “I know mine does.”
In light of the excessive amount of political commentary making headlines these days, this week’s quote was chosen for its apt relevance with regards to the state of contemporary political discourse.
Responding to allegations that he was a Nazi sympathizer after having dined with Adolph Hitler, former German heavyweight champion Max Schmeling replied,
“I once went to dinner with Franklin Roosevelt; that did not make me a Democrat.”
This week’s quote comes to us courtesy of the incomparable (incorrigible?) heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, after he accepted an honorary doctorate degree from Ohio’s Central State University in 1989, and the quote itself was recently featured in the February 2012 edition of Ring Magazine in an article entitled The Good Fight, written by the esteemed Thomas Hauser. The guest commencement speaker, and then heavyweight champion, was reported to have remarked,
“I don’t know what kind of doctor I am; but watching all these beautiful sisters here, I’m debating whether I should be a gynecologist.”
A lot has been made about Antonio Margarito’s recent statement regarding his willingness to “die in the ring” if need be against Miguel Cotto, as well as Miguel Cotto’s rebuttal, in which he expressly made no such declarations. On the subject of making the ultimate sacrifice in the ring, this week’s quote comes from the always colorful former heavyweight champion Max Baer, and it concerns his sensible reasoning for yielding to Joe Louis in the 4th round of their 1935 bout.
“When I get executed, people are going to have to pay more than twenty-five dollars to watch it.”
Speaking on the subject of why he gave all five of his sons the same unimaginative “George” moniker, the two time heavyweight champion George Foreman replied,
“You let Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Kenny Norton, and Ron Lyle, hit you on the head, and see how many names your gonna remember.”
During a recent Friday Night Fight telecast featuring junior middleweights Yudel Jhonson and Jose Miguel Torres, Joe Tesitore, commenting on Torres’ decision to don a celebratory sombrero despite a rather apathetic performance, stated,
“Jose Miguel Torres just did not put forth enough here tonight. Completely outclassed. Wearing that hat was perhaps the most aggressive decision he made all night.”
In response to the recent circulation of a viral video involving two drunken idiots, some boxing equipment, and a dose of poor decision making brought on by liquid courage, Comedy Central’s Daniel Tosh, the host and namesake of the show Tosh.O, was prompted to remark,
“The first rule of Fight Club is – please don’t die in my mom’s basement.”
Gene Fullmer and his “brother by another mother,” Carmen Basilio, were mistaken for one another on so many occasions that it became almost futile for the two to repudiate claims made by clueless fans about the nature of their true identity.
Our Fightin’ Words: Quote of the Week is a result of one such encounter, as Gene Fullmer, having been approached by a fan who failed to identify him correctly, agreed to the autograph seekers request only after asking, “How do you spell Basilio?”
This week’s quote comes to us courtesy of Darlene Stander, the wife of former heavyweight contender Ron Stander, who, when asked to comment about her husband’s “not-so surprising” loss to champion Joe Frazier in 1972, made light of the inevitability of the outcome by saying:
“You don’t enter a Volkswagon at Indy unless you know a helluva shortcut.”
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