Month: March 2018

THE HEAVYWEIGHTS ARE BACK AND THEY CAN NEVER BE WHACK!

Heavyweight Boxers

The Heavyweight Division is back and they’re planning on making this era one of the most intriguing era’s in boxing. They’re doing it the old fashioned way, they’re fighting each other. Guts and glory is what it is in a guts and glory sport. Klitschko did it but his opposition wasn’t as good or as closely matched as today’s heavyweights. A lot of people are watching closely the titans of today’s sport and they want to know if the big men of the sport can deliver.

Deontay Wilder and Luis Ortiz were the first to set it off and they did it in spectacular fashion. A see saw battle that had Ortiz winning early and saw Wilder come back from the brink of defeat to KO his opponent. The fight was reminiscent of the Ali days, still the greatest heavyweight to lace up the gloves, when opponents like Frazier, Norton, Foreman, still the best puncher of the division, Lyle, Quarry, Ellis and a few others that would have been champion if Ali had taken up badminton instead of boxing were around. Thank god for the kid that stole his bike.

Tomorrow, on 3/31/2018, the next part of the saga will take place. Joshua vs Parker. The fight will be telecasted on Showtime, maybe the new leader in boxing as they seem to have these heavyweights tied up in contracts. It’s a highly anticipated unification bout that is a must watch. The best part of it is it isn’t PPV, it’s regular cable. I expect the two combatants to leave it all in the ring and to try to honor the sport that many hold dear with their best effort.

Like every other fight, the media leading up to the fight had its share of trash talk. Parker trying to get in his opponents head by saying that he was a juicer and Joshua firing back saying that parker can’t hit or that he lacks power. The trash talk wasn’t at the level of Wilder and Ortiz but it was enough to make people think that their some animosity, creating hype for the bout. Trash talk has always been part of the sport from Johnson to Tyson, everyone does it and it makes the fight more intriguing but it’s only trash talk. Wilder and Ortiz hugged it out at the end and showed a tremendous amount of respect after the fight but before the bout it was about knocking each other into the third row. Does this mean they were actually going to, no, was Tyson actually going to eat someone’s kids after a fight, no, does Wilder really want to have a body on his record, no. These remarks sell seats and they are meant to captivate the audience prior to a match so the fighters can make a really good living so when their time is up, it can happen at anytime, and they must retire, they will be comfortable.

All these fighters are clean fighters and they don’t hit late or hit you when you are down or try to kill you. What they do is entertain you. And, as the fat boys once said, paraphrasing of course, the Heavyweights are back and they can never be whack!

My prediction for the fight, the guy with the J in his name will get the W. Actually, boxing and the boxing fans will get the W, those guys are going to put on a feat of will and determination, that’s what you do in sports, one of the few places it can happen.

Saul Alvarez vs Gennady Golovkin vs NSAC vs common sense

boxing gloves

Let me start off by saying that I love boxing. Loved it since Hearns KO’ed the great Roberto Duran in the 80’s. It was my introduction to the fight game and it couldn’t have been a better one.Ā  Every era of boxing has had “the” fighters that people loved to watch, oddly enough, Oscar De La Hoya was one of those fighters. With a resume of fights that would rival the fighters of the 40’s and 50’s, when the best fought the best, Oscar kept the sport at its peak. I don’t remember Quartey fighting Trinidad at 147 or Miguel Angel Gonzalez fighting Chavez at 140. Oscar fought 22 previous world champs, not fringe belt holders and not counting IBO holders, even though the belt still meant something back then, and won a majority of those fights. Oscar has 45 total fights, half against named opposition, real opposition, current and former champion opposition, very few people can say that nowadays and he did it cleanly, meaning no steroids. So, when one of his fighters comes up dirty, twice, I’m scratching my head on how Golden Boy can let this happen. Alvarez was never one of my favorite fighters but after he destroyed Kirkland in 3 rounds he became a must watch fighter. Now I’m starting to think back on his career with this controversy and oddly enough, nothing stands out as when he had that moment where his KO’s started to come in bunches.

Kirkland was already a shot fighter and had been exposed by Ishida prior as well as being on rubber legs with Angulo before Angulo ran out of steam and got steam rolled. No, there is nothing in Alvarez’s background that suggests he was a cheater. He doesn’t seem like a dirty fighter but by testing twice for clenbuterol, according to VADA, who I believe are telling the truth, it makes someone wonder how, what, how??? Know what I mean.

The positive test dates were the 17th and 20th of February. I don’t know if VADA informs the fighters right away, meaning the same day of a positive test date, or if they have to analyze the blood and the test results come at a later date. If Canelo is telling the truth and VADA doesn’t inform you right away, then, yeah, tainted meat could definitely be the problem. I mean, when you go to the butcher, you just don’t buy one steak, you buy common senseenough for a week, at least a couple of days, and obviously the tainted meat would come from the same source or same batch so the fact that Saul tested minimally within a couple of days makes sense. It still taints the fight a little and you still wonder, that annoying itch in the back of your head, if he cheated. My personal opinion is, I don’t have the slightest idea. GGG thinks that he did it deliberately but that is mind games and the fact that his hardest fight to date was Canelo, so of course, Gennady looks over the first fight and sees how he was semi-exposed by a younger fighter and he immediately comes to the conclusion that, with the latest allegations, Canelo was doping. If he was or if he wasn’t, we’ll probably never know. What we have to do is let the NSAC do its job and come to a conclusion.

I hope it was just an accident, I have no clue. The reason laid out by Golden Boy seems reasonable. I’m sure the investigators will come to a proper conclusion and the NSAC will give a fair trial and have just decision. I know that GGG feels a little bit like that the NSAC is playing favorites, after all Golden Boy is a big Promoter and Tom Loeffler, K2 Promotions, can’t really match their weight. Gennady’s concerns are justified but he has to trust in the decision the NSAC comes up with. I thought Golovkin won the first fight and I think he will win the second fight, as my son would say, Canelo “doesn’t know the way”, at least not with GGG anyway.

THE MARCH FOR OUR YOUTH BUT NOT THE TRUTH

machine gun

There’s a march going on in Washington today. The march is being held by our future leaders and voters. They say that their lives are more important than your machine gun. Are they right? Is it true that their lives are more important than your machine gun? I mean, yeah, duh, any life is more important than any materialistic object. What they are really saying is that their lives are more important than the ability for you to own a machine gun, as a private citizen, I’m sure they don’t mean the military. But, are they eyeright?Ā  Are their lives more important than your constitutional right? No, of course not. Many, many years ago our fore fathers brought forth on this continent, eh, that was Lincoln, I mean the revolutionary war. We fought and died many times over for the right to own a weapon and now, with the latest rationale, we are suppose to give up that right all because of someone’s bemused control over a deadly situation that they would never admit to.

I don’t disagree with the young men and women marching, I just disagree with their premise as to why this has happened. No gun killed those young people, everybody knows that, the young man that did this horrendous crime is responsible, but is he the hypnosis 2only one responsible? Murderous dreams, deadly whispers, rage and violence. His world was not his own and only he gets punished. When the devil whispers in your ears and he/she goes after your young ones, will this be how it comes to an end, our second amendment? So while you shave your heads and eyebrows, cover that eye, put those thumbs under your armpits, try to protect your genitalia, wrap the bottoms of your feet, swim through those waves that seem to drown your ears and noses…. just remember that only the truth will….. stop the killing…. and set you free.

So once again, the appropriately named “murder gods” will keep producing their bodies, unfortunately, and we, wreaking of fear and despair, choose to let it happen instead of voicing the truth, I guess we can count on more to come.

How to Survive Amazon, maybe.

 

 

Amazon, “The Blob” conglomerate. Does anyone remember that movie or did I just show my age? The Blob was a gelatinous being that engulfed everything that it touched. Amazon, much like the blob, engulfs and sells everything that it touches. This is not a knock on Amazon, of which I am a Prime member, it’s worth the money, but it shows how fast you now have to move not to be shelved by Amazon.

Amazon started as an online book store and has developed into the most recognizable store on earth. I’ll bet you a million dollars that when Space X reaches Mars, there will be an Amazon box there, with newest retro spacesuit. I love their ingenuity and willingness not to be satisfied with the status quo. I’m a fan of this company. So how do you keep up with such a fast moving, ever engulfing blob conglomerate? How do I know, I write blogs, I don’t destroy blobs. But if I had to guess, the first thing I would do is make sure that I can’t become obsolete.

Let’s take Toy’s R Us for instance. I’m almost certain that part of the reason that Mr. Us, the sweet lovable giraffe that owned Toy’s R Us (not really, they were owned by

amazon

two capital venture companies and real estate venture company) is now living back in the Amazon, ironic, and looking out for tigers and such is that because they didn’t have anything that was theirs except those stores. If the giraffe had decided to venture out past its comfort zone and decided to stick its neck out and actually produced some high quality toys, like an xbox or whatever is “the toy” today, with their recognizable name, they would have survived, probably selling it on amazon, but still around to make a comeback. Instead, it decided, like everyone else that didn’t embrace innovation, to wait out the fad of home delivery by a giant forest in South America and then reign supreme again as king of the toy industry.

Amazon rents and sells movies, decided that selling wasn’t enough and started making them as well. Amazon sells food online (stuff that doesn’t have to be refrigerated), decided that selling it online wasn’t enough and made super- supermarkets (with refrigerated stuff). Why can Amazon do this, what are they exploiting? The other guys greed and lack of ease, that’s what. Amazon takes less of a profit but sells tons more, compensating for the other guys greed and making a profit by bulk, like Costco paper towels, in bulk, except they sell it for the same price or cheaper and go to your house and give it to you.. Amazing, or Amazon. So here comes the other way you can compete, stop wanting your own private jets, probably made by Amazon, and be satisfied with flying commercial first class. Pay your workers more and take less of the share. If Amazon can’t undercut you they can’t eliminate you. And if you are well liked by the public, not the greedy businessman that threatens to take his manufacturing business overseas if we get lippy, then we will buy your product, just let us know that’s what you are doing.

Amazon must have watched Scarface, the line where Frank advises Tony about rule number 1, “Never underestimate the other guys greed” rule number 2 was “never get high on your own supply” but that doesn’t go with this story, either way, knowing how greedy people are was the perfect way to take it all away from them, as long as you are willing to not be.

When did it become Normal to shoot Schools?

It’s to the point where we are becoming numb to the fact that kids are dying in schools. The media report it the same way they would report the Olympics. They cover it, call it sad, like our showing in the Olympics, say we must do better. They refuse to make the memorial wallproper people accountable. They no longer want to go out on a limb and ask the real question. Why is this really happening? Who is really behind it? Are these shooters having the worst nightmares of their lives? Is someone talking these shooters into these nightmare scenarios? Are we holding everyone that are really responsible, RESPONSIBLE?

18 USC 373- Solicitation to commit a crime of violence

(a)

Whoever, with intent that anotherĀ personĀ engage in conduct constituting a felony that has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against property or against theĀ personĀ of another in violation of the laws of theĀ United States, and under circumstances strongly corroborative of that intent, solicits, commands, induces, or otherwise endeavors to persuade such other person to engage in such conduct, shall be imprisoned not more than one-half the maximum term of imprisonment or (notwithstanding section 3571) fined not more than one-half of the maximum fine prescribed for the punishment of the crime solicited, or both; or if the crime solicited is punishable by life imprisonment or death, shall be imprisoned for not more than twenty years.

(b)

It is an affirmative defense to a prosecution under this section that, under circumstances manifesting a voluntary and complete renunciation of his criminal intent, the defendant prevented the commission of the crime solicited. A renunciation is not ā€œvoluntary and completeā€ if it is motivated in whole or in part by a decision to postpone the commission of the crime until another time or to substitute another victim or another but similar objective. If the defendant raises the affirmative defense at trial, the defendant has the burden of proving the defense by a preponderance of the evidence.

(c)

It is not a defense to a prosecution under this section that theĀ personĀ solicited could not be convicted of the crime because he lacked the state of mind required for its commission, because he was incompetent or irresponsible, or because he is immune from prosecution or is not subject to prosecution.

I made a recommendation in a previous article about how we may be able to rectify these situations. First, you can’t choose which laws to obey and which laws not to. They’re all their to be followed for everyone’s protection. Secondly, if you were to make the parent of that household the guardian of these weapons, locked away, safe from a person that is in despair because his/her significant other left them or is dating someone else than this latest numbness would have not happened. I’m writing this because I have a son that is in elementary school who is a great kid and has yet to face this type of outrageous behavior. I don’t want anyone to ever say I didn’t try something prior to anything bad happening to anyone else.

For now, we chalk up another one to the murder god, for he/she should have no shame or ever be responsible for anything. I’m being facetious.

CANELO v. GGG, the fight for middleweight dominance.

CG

And here we go……. the fight that will determine the best middleweight, one of the best weight classes in boxing history along with heavyweight and welterweight. This fight is probably the most anticipated fight along with AJ or Parker v. Wilder. These two superstars are ready to make history and history is where this person will end up. The person that wins this fight will be mentioned along the likes of Hagler, Monzon, Hopkins, Jones Jr. and of course, the greatest of all time, The great Sugar Ray Robinson. The best fighter in boxing history to date.

The date of this incredible event is Cinco de Mayo, as it is known for the fake Mexican independence day (actually Sept. 16) as well as for the biggest fights in recent times. ThisCanelo date is always reserved for what is to be anticipated as the fight of the year. We will have to wait and see if they actually provide the fireworks needed to live up to the hype, it’s going to hard to top Wilder v Ortiz. I think it should be mandatory that the 5th of May always fall on a Saturday.

As we approach this holiest of boxing days, praise be onto the Ali, we are already filled with controversy. Canelo tested positive for Clenbuterol, holy Hagler! Several questions pop up when you think about how this could have happened, while I do not doubt Canelo’s version, why is he eating meat in the first place? Meat isn’t exactly the prototype cutting weight food. Since he is coming up from light middleweight, eating meat might be a perk he can afford and since the trace amounts that were found were so negligible to make a real difference and since he has never before tested positive, for anything, I’m going to pass GGGthis one off as one of those shit happens moments. But for the love of pugilism, be careful. Were these cows imported from Russia by any chance, GGG meat factories? LOL, joking, GGG wouldn’t sabotage this fight even if almighty Robinson himself came down from boxing heaven and told him to do it. A big deal will be made of it but as the boxing pope, Mills Lane, says, let’s get it on.

I’m hoping this controversy can be put aside and we can focus on the real question, who is on the undercard? It makes a difference.

I like both of these fighters. I think that they’re good for the sport. As who I think is going to win, I have no idea. It’s a 50/50, coin toss, blindfold pick. Canelo has quicker hands and a better defense and GGG can hurt you by missing, the whiff can knock you down. OMG, (oh my Greb), could this end in a draw again? Have to wait and see. Good luck to both of you and may the spirit of LaMotta be with you.

STOP THE NRA….. Why do we want to stop the NRA?

NRA

With all these school shootings and people killing their family and then themselves, the NRA has come under increased scrutiny. They represent a faction of people that believe in something that is ingrained in our constitution, the right to bear arms. The second amendment reads as follows:Ā A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. The question is should the NRA be made the scapegoat for what our founding fathers found important enough to make it the second amendment. By that I mean, there is only one before it and eight after it. Most people think the NRA is a bunch of lunatics that would love nothing more than to wage war on the streets, I think just the opposite. I think that their whole premise is that an armed society would prevent war on the streets. While I, personally, think that’s what they are saying, I don’t necessarily agree with either position. I don’t think guns make a difference as to how people behave or choose to express their frustrations. While, yes, guns in the hands of a immature, frustrated and angry person can cause some serious damage, so can many other things. The unabomber didn’t use a gun, should we ban firecrackers; Jeffrey Dahmer preyed on weaker people, should we ban gyms; Charles Manson used mind control on weak minded individuals, should we ban psychology; Marshall Applewhite talked 39 people into killing themselves so they could get on a UFO after a comet went overhead, in the name of some wacky religion, should we ban religion? The murder god collects his bodies either way. Guns or no guns.

The only thing that the NRA is really known for is supporting the Republican party. I don’t even know if any of the people were NRA members. No one has actually said that. Were these people NRA members; the schools shooters, gang members, organized crime syndicates? I know we have to let out our frustrations on someone or something but I think some people erroneously believe that getting rid of the NRA will get rid of guns, it won’t. It also won’t improve gun control. That’s what politicians are for. I personally believe that guns should not be allowed to anyone that can’t drink legally, I mean what fun is it to shoot soberly, right. That was a joke.

Guns should be allowed only to people that have a residence. If you have property to protect then you have a reason, according to the second amendment, to own a gun. If you don’t, then why do you need a gun, what are you protecting, your sneakers? If you made the owner (that includes those that rent) responsible for the guns that enter their homes then I am betting a lot less shootings would happen. If you read the second amendment, that is exactly what it states. Homeowners, as well as renters, are responsible for the freedom of their state, not their kids, not someone without an address, not someone that can up and move at a drop of a hat. This doesn’t mean you can’t buy your family members weapons, it just means that you are in a position to know whether or not that family member should be entrusted with a weapon and if you do get that person a weapon, then you might get held responsible for any actions that person does. Doesn’t that seem fair? And it’s exactly what the founding fathers had in mind when they wrote that amendment. You would need to show a mortgage or renter’s agreement as well as a license and only the person’s name on those documents would be able to buy a gun.

My problem is with attacking organizations because they represent something you don’t particularly agree with, even though it’s legal. The Repubs attack abortion clinics, notorious Demo supporters, but some have had their girlfriends get an abortion so their wives don’t find out. Why we do we attack these institutions, because of money? If the NRA were staunch Demo contributors and Planned Parenthood was a staunch Repub supporter, things would be reversed. The only organization that has, so far, given to both sides is the Marijuana companies and we have had both sides change their minds to support their lobbying efforts, right Colorado.

The only thing I really believe is in the freedom of choice as long as that choice doesn’t harm anyone else. Get an abortion if you like, buy a gun if you choose, I’m actually against legalizing Marijuana, but when and if it becomes the law of the land, then light up that doobie if you gotta have it, but just remember… puff, puff, pass. Don’t get greedy. And homeowners should be the only ones that can use a marijuana clinic. If their kids want some green tobacco, before they go out and drive to a party, then their dad or mom should get it for them so they can be responsible for the accident that might happen. Freedom of choice, ehh, responsible choice.

And let’s be honest, the most dangerous weapon against bad deeds is an education. I don’t own a gun but I do read, I write (some people might not agree) and I have a punching bag. The latter is for my back problems the first two are my self-defense measures.