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TALE OF THE TAPE AND OTHER MISDEMEANORS By George Elsasser |
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TALE OF THE TAPE AND OTHER MISDEMEANORS By George Elsasser |
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3-24-2004
Gotta love it ... main event ... HBO, Showtime, ESPN ...
pre-fite tale of the tape - only missing is a Jim Lamphead, Brian Kenny type
waving a pointer to them "advantages" of height & reach.
Latest edge
to hear them experts ... is emphasis on "reach" when measured from armpit to
fingertips ... cloaked frustration for them stat gurus is inability to explore
the heart factor - a first cousin to the chin construction.
They never
learn ... so much more to this special sport of professional boxing than X &
O's on a chalk board - sweet science ... the jab and feint ... the eye-catching
combinations ... setting the pace or interrupting it.
Some can relax ...
and still catch the eye ... a flashing closing round flurry that steals a candle
... Toney-Jirov ... the Kazakhstan clouter the busier ... Toney cool and
collected - at the end it's Jirov finishing on rubber legs.
Nothing to do
with height and reach ... nor a sterner heart ... more a matter of special one
versus one lesser skilled ... and Toney displaying boxing at its best in a style
different from most.
A seminar in the truest sense ... but not all can do
it the Toney way ... others opt for the Winky over Mosley or Garcia over Burton
methods ... solid stuff in its own right.
And when the special ones get
it done it is pugilistic poetry ... and them tales of the tape quickly vanish
... sentenced to the recycle bin - and put on hold until the next televised
event.
And this this misdemeanor ~ the self anointed fite hysterian of
past ESPN2 studio infamy ... the one that teamed with no clue Brian ... and
shouted, "These ain't your daddy's heavyweights."
And then, as in the
domino theory, the large ones began falling ... Grant, Jefferson, Goofi, Jameel
... the giants that the "experts" shouted would be too big a mouthful for the
Louis, Marciano, Fraziers were they around today.
Laughable.
GEL
