"If he dies, he dies." (the anti-McGregor blog)
Morning.
It’s been a tough couple of weeks for boxing. In the span of the last 8 or 9 days, we saw Teddy Atlas make an asshole out of himself on Joe Rogan’s podcast, got news that HBO was pulling out of boxing coverage altogether, and the Fury/Wilder press conference this weekend turned into a “LET ME AT HIM, but HOLD ME BACK!”-type interpretive dance routine.
I gave up on the sideshow Teddy Atlas has become, but I will mourn for the HBO coverage I grew up with, and pray for Lampley’s swift return to the apron. I think Lampley is a terrible boyfriend* but the best boxing announcer in the biz. Conversely, Max Kellerman can fall in the ocean, for all I care… Take Stephen A Smith with him.
As far as Deontay v Tyson… I am still on board for the fight, and I am excited about the winner’s showdown next April with Anthony Joshua in England, but the coverage leading up to it has been uncomfortable to watch. These 2 gents could take some tips from McGregor in that respect.
Speaking of “The Notorious”… Robbie Fox has been TIRELESS in his coverage of McGregor/Khabib which is coming up Saturday night, and Robbie has been extremely vocal with his love for Conor… It sometimes borders on the “gay,” but I do not judge, and I appreciate the young man’s passion.
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I am the proud son of Irish immigrants (legal), but I go the other way for this fight. I am rooting for McGregor to get his ass handed to him for a second time in row (the first being Mayweather, obviously), and I am betting with my head AND my heart.
Rob’s love for McGregor runs deep and he is an MMA enthusiast, while my distaste for McGregor runs more shallow because I never paid attention to him when he was in the octagon, and he never impressed me throughout the Mayweather fiasco… Taking an uninspired Floyd 10 rounds at that point in Mayweather’s career was not impressive, and the fight wasn’t close.
Conor is a great showman and quite possibly a stone cold killer, but he is also a punk who threw a gate through a bus window a couple of months after he was beaten soundly buy a boxer who was clearly over the hill. For some reason, people found that endearing, but I thought it was disgraceful.
I don’t think Khabib can simply eat a couple left crosses and wrestle Conor into submission, but I do think they will tie up at some point and that will be the beginning of the end for McGregor.
Khabib doesn’t want to go toe-to-toe, and Conor doesn’t want to hit the ground… I think the former can be avoided, but the latter is inevitable.
I respect Conor’s power (even though he was not able to put away a 55 year old Mayweather), but I respect Khabib’s ground game even more. And after an almost 2 year absence from MMA competition, I think it is admirable for the fans, but stupid for Conor that McGregor didn’t schedule a tune-up match before taking this one.
Fight fans can argue this either way, but McGregor has more to lose, more distractions, and I have yet to meet a true Irishman who got BETTER at his job after he started peddling whiskey.
Never get high on your own supply, you filthy Mick.
So I like the odds-on favorite Russian on Saturday. If they can rig a presidential election, they can win a prize fight.
Robbie is set to call in to Barstool Breakfast tomorrow morning where he can try to convince me otherwise. In the meantime, I need to come up with a bet between Rob and I.
Take a report.
-Large
* “Lampley is a terrible boyfriend”… In 2007, Jim pleaded no contest to the charge of assault after he threw his ex-girlfriend (former Miss California , Candice Sanders) into two walls and a door while he was drunk AND high. Sanders sustained injuries to her head, neck and back during the incident.
That was the bad, but to be fair, as bad a boyfriend he was, Lampley was actually a pretty good husband. His first wife, Bree Walker suffered from two rare genetic conditions: ectrodactyly (a rare deformity, resulting in missing fingers and toes) and syndactyly (which caused some of those remaining digits to be fused together)… So she essentially had lobster claws instead of hands and feet.
Bree was an attractive young newscaster when they married, but I am not sure her good looks were enough to make me look past the fact that a birthday handjob for Jim must’ve looked like he was being beat off by an oven mitt, AND she must’ve been terrible at Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Would you?
Last tidbit- I shit on Max Kellerman a little bit above, and I meant it. But did you know he had a younger brother, Sam Kellerman, who was murdered by a professional boxer/bi-polar roommate named James Butler?
Well, now you do.
Butler bludgeoned Kellerman to death with a hammer and then set their apartment on fire after a rent dispute in 2004.
Enjoy the fights!
I’ll be home that night roasting sexy lobster claws and then cracking them open with a hammer because I am a sick fuck.
TAR.
-L