http://bleacherreport.com/articles/575189-50-greatest-boxing-quotes-of-all-time

Aright guys, this is a must see for any and all boxing heads out there who haven’t already seen it in 2011.  Bleacher Report has kindly put together a fantastic compilation of (In their opinion) the 50 greatest boxing quotes of all time.  Now yea sure you can google boxing quotes and find all sorts of classics, BUT, Bleacher Report was kind enough to add with each quote a video either of the quote being spoken, or a video directly relating to the quote.  Not to mention a nice description explaining the context and the story behind it.

I’ve looked at this whole compilation many many times; I think it’s beautifully done, and give tremendous thanks and gratitude to Justin Tate, the columnist who did the compilation.

Of course one of my favorites came from Mike Tyson in an interview with Charlie Rose:

“I fight for perfection,” Mike Tyson

“Do you achieve it?” Charlie Rose

“Nah! No one does, but we aim for it,” Mike Tyson

Enjoy Guys!

Cus D’Amato On Fear

“Cus D’Amato was a world famous boxing trainer and manager.  Among other fighters in his career, Cus most notably handled the career of Mike Tyson who became the heavyweight champion of the world at the age of 20.  Mentoring Mike at an extremely early age, the two became incredibly close, and Mike later said Cus would talk to him for hours every-night about the psychological and spiritual aspects of being a fighter.

This is one of my favorite Cus D’Amato quotes, he once said this to a 13 year old Mike Tyson, “Boxing is a sport of self control.  You must understand fear so you can manipulate it.  Fear is like fire.  You can make it work for you: it can warm you in the winter, cook your food when you’re hungry, give you light when you are in the dark, and produce energy.  Let it go out of control and it can hurt you, even kill you….Fear is a friend of exceptional people.” (Fire 50)

Inspirational Man

Man with no arms or legs talks about life

What The Fight?

For those of you who didn’t catch the boxing match last night between the former Philippine champion and icon Manny Pacquiao and Tim Bradley, it was a controversial decision to say the least.  Bradley was named the victor, winning by a split decision.  The rounds were scored, 115-113 Pacquiao, 115-113 Bradley, and 115-113 Bradley again.  Even though Bradley won, there is an almost unanimous feeling shared by boxing fans that Pacquiao clearly won the fight and was cheated out.

Prior to this fight Pacquiao was coming off a majority decision against Juan Marquez; there was talk afterwards of Pac Vs. Mayweather but the negotiations ended without terms.  Tim Bradley won his last fight in a 10^th round technical decision against the junior welterweight champ Devon Alexander, and rejected an offer to fight Amir Khan to further unify the titles just so he could move up in weight to challenge Manny.  Interestingly enough, Bradley had rematch posters made before the fight even took place to show how confident he was that he would win, even though he was a 7-2 underdog in Vegas.

I unofficially had the fight 117-111 Pacquiao.  He came out and was clearly out boxing Bradley, who was noticeably fatigued going into the later rounds.  Pacquiao was composed the entire bout, landing a considerable more amount of punches and power shots than Bradley.  His straight left was on point, and he established it early on, he was noticeably in control of the fight.  I was very surprised as to the punching power of Bradley, it really did not seem to match his physique, I thought he would come out and hit harder than he did.

Now I’m not trying to knock Bradley completely here, he displayed a great chin, and to his credit he showed heart in going the distance.  That being said I in no way see how he won 7 out of 12 rounds in that match.  I think it’s generous to say he won 5 rounds to be quite honest.

Twitter was going nuts once this decision was announced, trends like #boxingisdead and #pacisthebest quickly came up, it was clear that Pac fans and boxing fans alike thought he was robbed; I saw the word “corruption” quite a few times as well.  Teddy Atlas, an ESPN Boxing analyst and long time trainer immediately stated that Pacquiao won the fight, and that this decision was a result of either incompetence or corruption.   Even the former champion Oscar De La Hoya said that Pac won the fight, and even went as far as to say that Bradley should not have accepted the championship belt.

When the decision was announced Manny Pacquiao simply looked stunned; when commenting on the judges’ decision he said, “He didn’t hurt me with his punches, most of them landed on my arms.”

It seems as though in his heart Bradley did not think he won the fight, immediately after the final bell he said to the fight promoter Bob Arum, “I tried hard but I couldn’t beat the guy.”

Out of a total of 55 sports writers, who were scoring the fight unofficially, 52 of them had Pacquio as the victor. Of course there is no real way to know for sure what was going on in the minds of the judges.  All we can be sure of is that there are definitely some upset fans in the boxing world, propelled by anger and confusion around this decision.

Sunday Inspiration From Bruce Lee

From a close friend of Bruce Lee’s:

Bruce had me up to three miles a day, really at a good pace. We’d run the three miles in twenty-one or twenty-tow minutes. Just under eight minutes a mile [Note: when running on his own in 1968, Lee would get his time down to six-and-a-half minutes per mile].

So this morning he said to me “We’re going to go five.”

I said, “Bruce, I can’t go five. I’m a helluva lot older than you are, and I can’t do five.”

He said, “When we get to three, we’ll shift gears and it’s only two more and you’ll do it.”

I said “Okay, hell, I’ll go for it.”

So we get to three, we go into the fourth mile and I’m okay for three or four minutes, and then I really begin to give out.

I’m tired, my heart’s pounding, I can’t go any more and so I say to him, “Bruce if I run any more,” — and we’re still running — “if I run any more I’m liable to have a heart attack and die.” He said, “Then die.” It made me so mad that I went the full five miles.

Afterward I went to the shower and then I wanted to talk to him about it. I said, you know, “Why did you say that?” He said, “Because you might as well be dead. Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”

Wisdom From A Fifth Grader

For those of you who don’t know, i work as a substitute paraprofessional in elementary schools in my old school district. I love working with the kids and have made a lot of friends over the past three years doing so. However, something about this years closing has been dragging, and i’ve been counting down the days to the end, and apparently i wasn’t the only one.

In class today the boys were talking about how many days of school they have left, arguing amongst themselves if it was 20 or 21, and as i was about to say, “It’s 21” a girl determinedly said, “You guys are rushing your lives.”

I was so taken back. This little girl was so correct in saying that! We all had a countdown to the last day of the school year instead of just appreciating the end of the year and taking each day at a time. After that inspiring line from the girl I stood up and thought to myself, “She’s right, today isn’t the 21st day till the end of school, it’s not the day before the start of the weekend, today is thursday and it’s beautiful out.”

I think we all make our own countdowns to things. Countdowns till the end of the school year, end of classes, end of a bad time, etc. We all need to take a step back and just be grateful for the day that’s presented to us, instead of setting a countdown to when we think the days will get better. If we’re not living in the present moment, we’re not truly living life.

I wish i could go back and thank that girl from the 5th grade class today, today in that classroom she was the teacher.

Do Justice To Memorial Day

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day filled with family and barbecuing and some cold ones. (I was actually in Montauk with the family for the weekend and we all had a great time). Memorial Day is a great holiday to start off the summer the right way with friends and family,however, I often feel we as a society, including myself, do not do it true justice.

Memorial Day is a day for remembering and recognizing all the incredible men and women who provide us with the protection and freedom to live our daily lives.  I understand how it’s easy to get lost in the beaches and the beer and the grill, but it’s crucial that we do Memorial Day justice and recognize and remember these men and women who deserve all the credit in the world.

Without the brave people who protect our freedoms and our way of life there would be no small paradise on the beach with our grills and family.  Anything that you can do to do justice to Memorial Day is worth it, weather it’s leaving flowers on the grave of a fallen solider, or seeing a man or women in their uniformed gear and simply saying, “Thank you,” the little things make all the difference.

We can never forget those who serve for us, and protect our freedom.

Special thanks to my best mates brother Zach Haxton from the United States Army.

Always remembering my Grandfather: February 5th 1923 –  April 12th 2011 (WWII)

Fitness Corner: The magic of the Push Up

I get a lot of fitness questions from people asking me what they can do to tone themselves up a bit and add some muscle.  In most cases whether you’re a student or an adult with kids, time is always a factor that hinders you from getting in and out of the gym regularly. My answer to all those looking to get a good workout without having to leave your room: pushups.

Pushups are probably the best all around exercise you can do.  They’re relatively simply and can be done anywhere in your home at anytime.  The pushup most resembles the exercise of the bench press so it mainly targets the chest and the upper body, however, when you do pushups your also forced to stabilize yourself which in turn hits the core muscles as well, so it’s really an all-encompassing workout.

If you are really looking for a solid pushup routine but don’t know how many sets/reps to do heres the solution, in one sitting do as many pushups as you possibly can without compromising your form.  Do them until you psychically cannot do another then take the final number of pushups and divide that number by 3, and do 3 or 4 sets of that number.  So let’s say you maxed out at 60, you would want to do 3 or 4 sets of 20 pushups with about a minute or 30 seconds of rest in between.

When you do pushups your hands should be even with each other at about should width apart.  Widening the position of your hands would target the chest more allowing your chest to look more full, while putting your hands closer together now focuses on the triceps and other arm muscles more.  You should lower your body all the way down and elevate it all the way up at a steady 1-2 pace.  While doing your pushups your neck and head should be up, and eyes looking straight ahead, this constricts the neck muscles and forces your back to stay straight, giving you perfect posture and in turn giving you a better workout.  While your doing your workout don’t forget why, remind yourself that you’re doing it for you, to get healthier and build confidence.

Well now that we’ve discussed the magic of the pushup and how easy it is to do their are no excuses and no reasons to not push yourself to get in better shape.  For all you fighting fans and other great articles on fitness and nutrition check out my boy Mike Caulo’s (twitter- @mikecaulo) site http://mikecaulo.com/blog/ and MSC-Fitness.com

Will Smith Speech To Kids

Will Smith Speech To Kids

This was a speech given by Will Smith when he won a nickelodeon teen choice award in 2005.  He talks about the keys to live  …this speaks volumes of Will Smiths character, he is awesome.

Will Smith says the keys to live are: Running and Reading…

“The keys to life are running and reading. When you’re running, there’s a little person that talks to you and says, ‘Oh I’m tired. My lung’s about to pop. I’m so hurt. There’s no way I can possibly continue.’ You want to quit. If you learn how to defeat that person when you’re running. You will how to not quit when things get hard in your life. For reading: there have been gazillions of people that have lived before all of us. There’s no new problem you could have–with your parents, with school, with a bully. There’s no new problem that someone hasn’t already had and written about it in a book.”
― Will Smith

I remember i saw this speech live in 2005 and i just thought it was a clever pep talk, but it stuck with me.  I look back at this now and see how genius and true this really is.  Running and Reading . . .Will Smith nailed it.

Some Of My Philosophies

 

I consider myself to be a man of strict moral code, and i hardly ever rarely never, ever ever ever compromise myself.  If i compromise myself, than what wont i compromise?

The first thing, and most important thing, is family.  I’m the oldest of 3, we’re all very close, and i am blessed with the best parents in the world.  I believe that family is everything, i would do anything and everything for my family. (If your reading this i’ll call you later ma)

Im also a huge believer in strength.  And i chose to put strength in-between family, and Self-knowledge, because i believe strength feeds into family and self knowledge, and it’s a continuous evolving pattern.  I say the word ‘strength’ knowing that some people see that word and give it no credit; I’m not talking about lifting weights.  Real strength is mental, real strength isn’t benching 250lbs, it’s holding your best friends hand while he’s screaming in agony on the way to the hospital, listening to his pain but knowing you gotta be strong for them…that’s true strength.

And lastly I’m a very big believer in self-knowledge.  To quote Bruce Lee, who was perhaps one of the greatest philosophical minds of the 1900?s, in addition to the worlds greatest martial artist: “To me all knowledge, ultimately means, self-knowledge.” I believe that as well, whenever i learn something, i find i learn more about myself.  Self-knowledge and striving to be a better person are things i try to always keep in mind.  You have to be able to look yourself in the mirror before you go to sleep and after you wake up.  You have to be able to live with yourself.