Mad.aboutboxing

Mad.aboutboxing Boxing Historian

đŸ„Š “If your good,that’s good. But if your good and mean,that’s better. In the ring, you need cruelty to be great.” aka ‘...
08/09/2026

đŸ„Š “If your good,that’s good. But if your good and mean,that’s better. In the ring, you need cruelty to be great.”

aka ‘Manos di piedra’ (hands of stone)

đŸ„Š On this day September 5th 1960 a relatively unknown 18 year old Cassius Clay wins gold in the light heavyweight caterg...
05/09/2026

đŸ„Š On this day September 5th 1960 a relatively unknown 18 year old Cassius Clay wins gold in the light heavyweight catergory for the USA boxing team at the 1960 olympics in Rome. Ali himself almost didn’t make the Olympic Games due to travelling via plane and horrendous turbulence which he encountered for the trials in California for said games. He did board the plane to travel but only after taking a parachute with him in case of an accident. Never a fan of flying Ali did travel to Rome and did win the Gold medal, In his first bout against Belgian Yvon Becaus, the referee had to stop the contest in the second round, fearing a brutal knockout. His quarter final opponent was Russia's Gennady Shatkov, a man who had won Olympic gold in the middleweight division four years earlier. Despite his impressive pedigree, he was no match for the American - who swept to a 5-0 triumph on points. That scoreline was replicated in his next bout against Australia’s star pugilist Tony Madigan. Although Ali had to dig deep at times, he had made it through to the light heavweight Olympic final. Standing in the opposite corner to Ali in Rome’s Palazzo dello Sport stadium on September 5th 1960 was the imposing frame of Poland's Zbigniew Pietrzykowski. Pietrzykowski was stronger and vastly more experienced than his rival, and Ali initially struggled to adapt to his rival's southpaw style. The 25-year-old Pole edged the first two rounds, but in the final round Ali came to the fore. With his superior stamina and quick combinations, the American left his rival in a battered - but still upright - state by the final bell. The judges were unanimous once again. Olympic gold was his. Quoted afterwards as saying “I didn’t take that medal off for 48 hours. I even wore it to bed. I didn’t sleep too good because I had to sleep on my back so that the medal wouldn’t cut me. But I didn’t care, I was Olympic champion.”

đŸ„Š The paragraphs below tell of who speaking in 2018 while reflecting on his hugely unexpected February 11th,1990 upset ...
30/08/2026

đŸ„Š The paragraphs below tell of who speaking in 2018 while reflecting on his hugely unexpected February 11th,1990 upset loss to James ‘Buster’ Douglas.
The first loss of Tysons professional career shocked the world to its core as he was also dethroned as the worlds heavyweight champion.
Prior to the loss,Tyson held an unblemished perfect record of 37 straight wins.
His 38th contest saw him as an overwhelming favourite by all, the bookies were offering odds of up to 44/1 for a Douglas upset.

Read below for Tysons reflections while looking back with a hint of hindsight upon what is now considered one of if not the single most biggest upset in boxing.

đŸ—Łïž “Fighting Buster was one of the best things that ever happened to me”
“I was so stressed out being the champ. My hair was falling out. I was stressed out, but I was playing it out like I was a hard guy. Scared to death little kid and you’ve got the whole sport on your back. Everyone is trying to get your money and they’re trying to sue you.”

“You know what Buster did for me and to the world?. He made me human. I wasn’t an animal savage. It made me human and it made me a better fighter. Now, I’ll do things that I’d never do before, take chances.”

#1990

đŸ„Š ‘While Im in the dressing room five minutes before I come out, Im breaking my gloves down, Im pushing the leather to t...
30/08/2026

đŸ„Š ‘While Im in the dressing room five minutes before I come out, Im breaking my gloves down, Im pushing the leather to the back of my gloves, so my knuckle could pierce through. When I come out I have supreme confidence. Im scared to death. Im afraid. Im afraid of everything. Im afraid of losing. Im afraid of being humiliated. But Im confident. The closer I get to the ring the more confident I get. The closer, the more confident. The closer the more confident I get. All during training I ve been afraid of this man. I think this man might be capable of beating me. Iv dreamed of him beating me. For that Iv always stayed afraid of him. The closer I get to the ring the more confident I get. Once Im in the ring Im a god. No one could beat me. I walk around the ring but I never take my eyes off my opponent. Even if hes ready and pumping, and cant wait to get his hands on me. I keep my eyes on him. I keep my eyes on him. Then once I see a c***k in his armor, boom, one of his eyes may move, and then I know I have him. Then once he comes to the center of the ring he looks at me with his piercing look as if hes not afraid. But he already made that mistake when he looked down for that one tenth of a second. I know I have him. He ll fight hard for the first two or three rounds, but I know I broke his spirit. During the fight Im supremely confident. Im making him miss and Im countering. Im hitting him to the body. Im punching him real hard. And Im punching him, and Im punching him, and I know hes gonna take my punches. He goes down, hes out. I m victorious. Mike Tyson, greatest fighter that ever lived.’

Mike Tyson

đŸ„Š If I lose, I'll walk away and never feel bad because I did all I could. There was nothing more to do.‘Smokin’ Joe Fraz...
28/08/2026

đŸ„Š If I lose, I'll walk away and never feel bad because I did all I could. There was nothing more to do.

‘Smokin’ Joe Frazier.

Eddie Futch is holding the pads

đŸ„Š There is no such thing as a natural boxer. A natural dancer has to practice hard. A natural painter has to paint all t...
28/08/2026

đŸ„Š There is no such thing as a natural boxer. A natural dancer has to practice hard. A natural painter has to paint all the time. Even a natural fool has to work at it.

Joe Louis aka The Brown Bomber

đŸ„Š “Ray Robinson was the best fighter that ever stepped in the ring,because he could punch,when he backed away from you h...
28/08/2026

đŸ„Š “Ray Robinson was the best fighter that ever stepped in the ring,because he could punch,when he backed away from you he could knock you out with a left hook. Usually when a guy backs away he can’t hurt you but Robinson could hurt you backing away aswell as coming into you. Boy I saw him at his best and he was the best fighter that ever stepped in the ring pound for pound.”

Words from the great Joe Louis aka ‘the brown bomber’ speaking of Walker Smith Jr aka ‘Sugar Ray Robinson’ who as a youngster would carry Louis’ gym bag and was a hero to the young Robinson as both men grew up in blackbottom Detroit and used the same gym.
Robinson who back then wasn’t known as Sugar Ray Robinson but in fact Walker Smith or ‘Smitty’ to those that knew him
.Louis said of a young ‘Smitty’
.”there was this one kid always hanging around the gym named Walker Smith who could never keep still
..they later changed his name to Sugar Ray Robinson.”
It was while hanging around the gym trying to copy the moves of one of his idols in Louis that Robinson would meet Harry Wiley who was good friends with George Gainsford,both Gainsford and Wiley would play huge roles in the career of Robinson (a notable mention also for Charles Beale) with Robinson following Wiley around everywhere, the two would share many rounds sparring until in the words of Wiley ‘He just hit too damn hard later on for this sh*t.” Wiley in fact worked under the trainer of Louis in Jack ‘chappie’ Blackburn. Both Louis and Robinson are bonifide legends,they both grew up in the same area,fought for the equal rights of black servicemen in the war,both held world titles and dominated their divisions
and both died on the same day of April 12th only years apart.

đŸ„Š “Greatness is not a measure of how great you are but how great others came to be because of you”“I never teach until I...
28/08/2026

đŸ„Š “Greatness is not a measure of how great you are but how great others came to be because of you”

“I never teach until I’ve spoken to the fighter. I have to first determine his emotional state, get his background, to find out what I have to do, how many layers I have to keep peeling off so that I get to the core of the person so that he can recognize, as well as I, what is there.”

“Boxing is a contest of character and ingenuity. The boxer with more will, determination, desire, and intelligence is always the one who comes out the victor.”

“The next thing I do, I get them in excellent condition
.Knowing how the mind is and the tricks it plays on a person and how an individual will always look to avoid a confrontation with something that is intimidating, I remove all possible excuses they’re going to have before they get in there. By getting them in excellent condition, they can’t say when they get tired that they’re not in shape.”

“When they’re in excellent shape I put them into the ring to box for the first time, usually with an experienced fighter who won’t take advantage of them. When the novice throws punches and nothing happens, and his opponent keeps coming at him
the new fighter becomes panicky. When he gets panicky he wants to quit, but he can’t quit because his whole psychology from the time he’s first been in the streets is to condemn a person who’s yellow.”

“Believe in yourself. A guy can feel it if you don’t believe in yourself. Set your mind to make yourself do it.”

“Losers are winners who quit
even if you lose
you still win
if you don’t quit.”

Constantine D’Amato pictured with his three world champions.

’Amato

đŸ„Š “Work is the only meanin’ I’ve ever known. Like the man in the song says, I just gotta keep on keepin on.” “I don’t th...
28/08/2026

đŸ„Š “Work is the only meanin’ I’ve ever known. Like the man in the song says, I just gotta keep on keepin on.”

“I don’t think a man has to go around shouting and play-acting to prove he is something. And a real man don’t go around putting other guys down, trampling their feelings in the dirt, making out they’re nothing.”

SMOKIN Joe Frazier.......

đŸ„Š “You can’t be disturbed by anything. There’s no emotion involved. You can’t feel sorrow, you can’t feel pity, there’s ...
28/08/2026

đŸ„Š “You can’t be disturbed by anything. There’s no emotion involved. You can’t feel sorrow, you can’t feel pity, there’s nothing you feel. The job has to be done.”

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