ND3_1221-Modifier: These Steps
These steps separate believers from the faithless.
To climb these steps into a boxing ring, is to accept a close examination of one’s gladiatorial range and also the unforgiving and public verification of the attributes that distinguish champions from also-rans.
These steps offer the final ‘heartcheck’ before the first bell sounds and retreat is impossible.
Nur Ali Erdogan’s ring entrance (pictured) pleases the traditionalists and fits his man of the people appeal. His name is announced. He walks towards the ring. He raises his arms to acknowledge his supporters and then business begins.
Higher up the boxing food chain and the picture is much different (www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL9wfUYpDcs).
Canelo's seven minute prelude to his fight against no-hoper Avni Yildirim (www.youtube.com/watch?v=eByxkesA6lY) was delightfully absurd.
It has come to something when the ringwalk has more action and fireworks than the main event.
‘Dynamite’ Daniel Dubois looked ready for war as he entered the ring for his match-up against the unfancied heavyweight Joe Joyce late last year.
‘Triple D” was the bookmaker’s clear favourite and the contest was expected to be nothing more than a routine victory and a milestone in the Londoner’s irresistible march to the division’s highest peak.
Dubois left the ring with a smashed eye-socket, his boxing reputation in tatters and disgracefully, the derision of certain onlookers who, from the comfort of their armchairs, accused the young Londoner of being a ‘quitter,’ possibly the worst of insults for a ring professional.
Yet, look again at his ring walk (www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRVPM-hCAo8) and it is possible to see why some could argue that it is stage-fright rather than dignified confidence that Dubois demonstrates on his way to the fight.
Dubois bows his head. His eyes dart left and right, as if Triple D was struck by the weight of the occasion. By contrast, Joyce was the picture of calm.
My personal ring walk favourites belong to my boxing heroes. White-robed Muhammad Ali looks impossibly relaxed as if emerging from an agreeable hotel spa and massage, as he saunters to the ring for his seminal 1974 contest against George Foreman.
Ali smiles to his Zairean hosts, as if it were just another day at the office, rather than a titanic duel against a devastating opponent, who had reduced Ali’s nemesis, Joe Frazier, to rubble in a title fight in Jamaica (www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4-WjL8jIyQ)
Whilst Ali was all playful delight, Mike Tyson was nothing but seething menace when he approached his defining title bout against Mike Spinks.
Tyson gave the impression that the heavyweight title fight was the irritating conclusion to a eight-hour shift at his local blast furnace, as black shorts, boots, no socks and no cape, he marched purposefully to the ring, flanked by police officers.
Spinks had earlier heard his opponent punching holes in the dressing room walls, so fired-up was he for the fight and Tyson’s ring walk simply underlined the impending doom. Spinks was counted out 90 seconds after the first round bell sounded!
Mike Tyson’s spell-binding ring walk, backed by a pell-mell sound track, was unforgettable and was captured memorably by commentator Bob Sheridan (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmvfb8al0QE).
Taking their cues from vintage Tyson, British boxing promoters have become renowned for turning ring walks into theatrical presentations.
Anthony Joshua approaches his ring appointments against some of the planet’s most fearsome executioners in front of 80,000 cheering spectators with Ali-esque detachment,even stopping to bump fists with fans (www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9WNqh6B4JM)
Nineties shooting star ‘Prince’ Nazeem Hamed, once journeyed to the ring on a flying carpet (www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aroMPczxYs). He then vaulted the top rope with the ease of an Olympic gymnast, to the delight of onlookers near and far.
Showman Hamed was a real ring walk trail-blazer, once entering the ring to Michael Jackson’s Thriller (www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZvBDYS6hsY) at the start of his Halloween fight against Wayne McCullough.
Fellow Brit and middleweight superstar Chris Eubank, favoured a Harley Davidson motorbike as his preferred transport against Irish bruiser Steve Collins (www.youtube.com/watch?v=uea19Fc53IQ).
Fortunately, spectators were denied an answer to the question: could a man in 10oz boxing gloves really manoeuvre a speed machine through a packed crowd, without causing mayhem?
Ricky ‘the Hitman’ Hatton showed comedic wit when entering the ring in a fat-suit (www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSW7HGhSvQM) , a sure nod to his reputation among critics for legendary fastfood and drink and drugs benders in-between fights.
Television demands that the lines between this most brutal of sports and entertainment are blurred sufficiently, so that concussive violence can be packaged as a spectacle. As such, pro fights are prefaced by royal processions, pyrotechnics and top hats and tunics, all to the strains of rap and grime beats and Sweet Caroline.
However, this desire to entertain can lead to catastrophe. Just ask Usman Ahmed, victim of the mother of all disastrous pre-fight showboats (www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nhsuypE7DQ) when challenging for the vacant English flyweight title in 2009.
Ahmed’s Bhangra-boogie ring entrance and facial gurning was the stuff of instant legend and became a viral sensation when his opponent Ashley Sexton ended the contest with a first round knock-out.
A faked YouTube video edit (youtu.be/CZ6O6YKe6qI) has now immortalised Ahmed’s showmanship but this chuckle-fest should not b e allowed to define a fighter with eight victories, nine defeats and two draws to his professional record.
Ahmed had the courage to climb the steps into a boxing ring. He buried his demons and his self doubt to face 19 adversaries. Ahmed probably knows more about his own strengths and weaknesses than you or I.
Sexton may have dented his pride but no one should question Ahmed’s guts, his strength, nor his determination.
That’s why there are no fools, bums or charlatans in this most demanding of sports.
ND3_1221-Modifier: These Steps
These steps separate believers from the faithless.
To climb these steps into a boxing ring, is to accept a close examination of one’s gladiatorial range and also the unforgiving and public verification of the attributes that distinguish champions from also-rans.
These steps offer the final ‘heartcheck’ before the first bell sounds and retreat is impossible.
Nur Ali Erdogan’s ring entrance (pictured) pleases the traditionalists and fits his man of the people appeal. His name is announced. He walks towards the ring. He raises his arms to acknowledge his supporters and then business begins.
Higher up the boxing food chain and the picture is much different (www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL9wfUYpDcs).
Canelo's seven minute prelude to his fight against no-hoper Avni Yildirim (www.youtube.com/watch?v=eByxkesA6lY) was delightfully absurd.
It has come to something when the ringwalk has more action and fireworks than the main event.
‘Dynamite’ Daniel Dubois looked ready for war as he entered the ring for his match-up against the unfancied heavyweight Joe Joyce late last year.
‘Triple D” was the bookmaker’s clear favourite and the contest was expected to be nothing more than a routine victory and a milestone in the Londoner’s irresistible march to the division’s highest peak.
Dubois left the ring with a smashed eye-socket, his boxing reputation in tatters and disgracefully, the derision of certain onlookers who, from the comfort of their armchairs, accused the young Londoner of being a ‘quitter,’ possibly the worst of insults for a ring professional.
Yet, look again at his ring walk (www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRVPM-hCAo8) and it is possible to see why some could argue that it is stage-fright rather than dignified confidence that Dubois demonstrates on his way to the fight.
Dubois bows his head. His eyes dart left and right, as if Triple D was struck by the weight of the occasion. By contrast, Joyce was the picture of calm.
My personal ring walk favourites belong to my boxing heroes. White-robed Muhammad Ali looks impossibly relaxed as if emerging from an agreeable hotel spa and massage, as he saunters to the ring for his seminal 1974 contest against George Foreman.
Ali smiles to his Zairean hosts, as if it were just another day at the office, rather than a titanic duel against a devastating opponent, who had reduced Ali’s nemesis, Joe Frazier, to rubble in a title fight in Jamaica (www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4-WjL8jIyQ)
Whilst Ali was all playful delight, Mike Tyson was nothing but seething menace when he approached his defining title bout against Mike Spinks.
Tyson gave the impression that the heavyweight title fight was the irritating conclusion to a eight-hour shift at his local blast furnace, as black shorts, boots, no socks and no cape, he marched purposefully to the ring, flanked by police officers.
Spinks had earlier heard his opponent punching holes in the dressing room walls, so fired-up was he for the fight and Tyson’s ring walk simply underlined the impending doom. Spinks was counted out 90 seconds after the first round bell sounded!
Mike Tyson’s spell-binding ring walk, backed by a pell-mell sound track, was unforgettable and was captured memorably by commentator Bob Sheridan (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmvfb8al0QE).
Taking their cues from vintage Tyson, British boxing promoters have become renowned for turning ring walks into theatrical presentations.
Anthony Joshua approaches his ring appointments against some of the planet’s most fearsome executioners in front of 80,000 cheering spectators with Ali-esque detachment,even stopping to bump fists with fans (www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9WNqh6B4JM)
Nineties shooting star ‘Prince’ Nazeem Hamed, once journeyed to the ring on a flying carpet (www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aroMPczxYs). He then vaulted the top rope with the ease of an Olympic gymnast, to the delight of onlookers near and far.
Showman Hamed was a real ring walk trail-blazer, once entering the ring to Michael Jackson’s Thriller (www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZvBDYS6hsY) at the start of his Halloween fight against Wayne McCullough.
Fellow Brit and middleweight superstar Chris Eubank, favoured a Harley Davidson motorbike as his preferred transport against Irish bruiser Steve Collins (www.youtube.com/watch?v=uea19Fc53IQ).
Fortunately, spectators were denied an answer to the question: could a man in 10oz boxing gloves really manoeuvre a speed machine through a packed crowd, without causing mayhem?
Ricky ‘the Hitman’ Hatton showed comedic wit when entering the ring in a fat-suit (www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSW7HGhSvQM) , a sure nod to his reputation among critics for legendary fastfood and drink and drugs benders in-between fights.
Television demands that the lines between this most brutal of sports and entertainment are blurred sufficiently, so that concussive violence can be packaged as a spectacle. As such, pro fights are prefaced by royal processions, pyrotechnics and top hats and tunics, all to the strains of rap and grime beats and Sweet Caroline.
However, this desire to entertain can lead to catastrophe. Just ask Usman Ahmed, victim of the mother of all disastrous pre-fight showboats (www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nhsuypE7DQ) when challenging for the vacant English flyweight title in 2009.
Ahmed’s Bhangra-boogie ring entrance and facial gurning was the stuff of instant legend and became a viral sensation when his opponent Ashley Sexton ended the contest with a first round knock-out.
A faked YouTube video edit (youtu.be/CZ6O6YKe6qI) has now immortalised Ahmed’s showmanship but this chuckle-fest should not b e allowed to define a fighter with eight victories, nine defeats and two draws to his professional record.
Ahmed had the courage to climb the steps into a boxing ring. He buried his demons and his self doubt to face 19 adversaries. Ahmed probably knows more about his own strengths and weaknesses than you or I.
Sexton may have dented his pride but no one should question Ahmed’s guts, his strength, nor his determination.
That’s why there are no fools, bums or charlatans in this most demanding of sports.