Poking Holes in the 5 Biggest Myths About Boxing
Everybody Has a Puncher's chance
A related myth to the lucky punch is the idea that "everybody has a puncher's chance."
No. They don't.
This usually comes up in conversations where sports fans are speculating about how some big, monster football player might fair against a boxing champion. The uninformed mook will inevitably say, "Well, everybody has a puncher's chance."
In the late 1980s, Tony Mandarich of Michigan State was being hyped on the cover of Sports Illustrated as the greatest offensive tackle prospect of all time, a snarling, super-intimidating man-beast.
At the time Mike Tyson was at the height of his dominant first run as heavyweight champion. Somehow a rumor started up that Mandarich was going to take an offseason detour before entering the NFL draft to challenge Iron Mike.
Some of the stupidest sports arguments I had in high school involved trying to explain that the big football meathead would get eaten alive against Tyson. The predictable retort from my football teammates was, "Yeah, but do you know how much Mandarich squats?"
The best story, by far, about this sort of hypothetical match up involves Jim Brown and Muhammad Ali. Jim Brown isn't just arguably the best running back of all time, he's arguably the best lacrosse player, too. Everybody considers him among the 10 greatest athletes of the 20th century.
In the early 1960s, as he was preparing to leave football, Brown got the idea he might take up boxing as a sideline. He even talked to Bob Arum about setting up a fight for him with Ali.
As related by SI's Chris Mannix, Ali invited Brown to meet him one morning while he was doing his morning running. After finishing his workout, he invited Brown to do his best to hit him. The great Jim Brown failed miserably for about 30 seconds, and then Ali concluded the exercise by unloading with a lightning-quick one-two combo.
That was the end of Jim Brown's boxing aspirations. Instead, he went into acting, realizing that as a boxer, he didn't have a puncher's chance in hell.
Everybody Has a Puncher's chance
A related myth to the lucky punch is the idea that "everybody has a puncher's chance."
No. They don't.
This usually comes up in conversations where sports fans are speculating about how some big, monster football player might fair against a boxing champion. The uninformed mook will inevitably say, "Well, everybody has a puncher's chance."
In the late 1980s, Tony Mandarich of Michigan State was being hyped on the cover of Sports Illustrated as the greatest offensive tackle prospect of all time, a snarling, super-intimidating man-beast.
At the time Mike Tyson was at the height of his dominant first run as heavyweight champion. Somehow a rumor started up that Mandarich was going to take an offseason detour before entering the NFL draft to challenge Iron Mike.
Some of the stupidest sports arguments I had in high school involved trying to explain that the big football meathead would get eaten alive against Tyson. The predictable retort from my football teammates was, "Yeah, but do you know how much Mandarich squats?"
The best story, by far, about this sort of hypothetical match up involves Jim Brown and Muhammad Ali. Jim Brown isn't just arguably the best running back of all time, he's arguably the best lacrosse player, too. Everybody considers him among the 10 greatest athletes of the 20th century.
In the early 1960s, as he was preparing to leave football, Brown got the idea he might take up boxing as a sideline. He even talked to Bob Arum about setting up a fight for him with Ali.
As related by SI's Chris Mannix, Ali invited Brown to meet him one morning while he was doing his morning running. After finishing his workout, he invited Brown to do his best to hit him. The great Jim Brown failed miserably for about 30 seconds, and then Ali concluded the exercise by unloading with a lightning-quick one-two combo.
That was the end of Jim Brown's boxing aspirations. Instead, he went into acting, realizing that as a boxer, he didn't have a puncher's chance in hell.
Props:
2-0-Sixx and Count_Slapula