To The Rack With Mac

In wake of tomorrows highly anticipated rematch between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury, I thought I would release my first Top 5 list. I will release a Top 5 list every Friday from here on out. First up to pay homage to the great match we are in store for tomorrow, I rank my Top 5 heavyweight fighters of all time. My criteria for this list is as follows: overall record, quality of opponents, ability to rise to the occasion in the big spots, and body of work. So without any further delay , let’s get into it!

5. “Smokin” Joe Frazier- Frazier was atop his game during the “Golden Age of Heavyweight Boxing”. He beat everyone that came at him including Muhammad Ali in their first meeting (Ali won the next 2 meetings). Known for his absolutely devastating left hook, Frazier took on all challengers on his way to a world title in 1970. He defeated Ali in “The Fight Of The Century” in 1971. It wouldnt be until 2 years later that Frazier would drop the title to George Foreman in 1973. He would never reclaim it, falling twice against Ali and once more to Foreman. He retired for good in 1981 with a career record of 32-4-1.

4. George Foreman- Foreman was an accomplished amateur boxer, winning an Olympic gold medal in 1968, before going on to take over the professional Heavyweight division. 5 uears later he won the heavyweight crown with a second round knockout of Joe Frazier who was undefeated at the time. He lost his title at the “Rumble In The Jungle” in 1974 to Muhammad Ali. Foreman would retire and take an entire decade away from boxing. In 1994, Foreman made a comeback and reclaimed the heavyweight title knocking out Michael Moorer, becoming the oldest champion in boxing history at age 45. He is still the oldest heavyweight champion of all time but his record for oldest in any weight class was broken by Bernard Hopkins. Foreman would retire in 1997 with an astonishing career record of 76 wins and 5 losses, 68 wins coming by way of knockout.

3. Joe Louis- “The Brown Bomber” reigned supreme in the heavyweight division as champion from 1937 to 1949. During that span, Louis successfully defended his title 25 times, never waivering as the top dog. He retired with an amazing record of 66 wins and 3 losses. It is worth noting that Louis served his country with honor from 1942-1945 as a member of the US Army, no doubt skewing his final career record from having a few more tally’s in the win column and extending his record of successful title defenses.

2. Rocky Marciano- Marciano is the only heavyweight champion to ever retire undefeated. He amassed a record of 49-0 with 43 knockouts over his career. He had big wins over Joe Walcott and Joe Louis during this time. Known for his “inside” fighter mentality using body and yes, arm shots, he wore every fighter down he faced usually ending the fight in the later rounds by way of knockout. Roxky Marciano is still only 1 of 2 fighters with a minimum of 40 fights to retire undefeated (the other being Floyd Mayweather).

1. Muhammad Ali- Is there really any surprise here? Ali is widely regarded as the greatest of all time, most notably by himself as he made well known throughout his career. He is the only 3 time lineal champion ever as a heavyweight. He scored big wins in some of the most iconic fights of all time including “The Thrilla In Manila” over Joe Frazier and “The Rumble In The Jungle” over George Foreman. Ali still in my opinion the greatest of all time finishing his career with a record of 56 wins and 5 losses.

So there it is. My first ever top 5. Of course this list is subject to change over time. Starting tomorrow night, I believe whoever is victorious is well on their way to cracking this list before it is all said and done!! Stay tuned for my recap of the action and.much more from MacDaddySports!!

Finally! The rematch fight fans have been waiting to see! This Saturday Night Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury meet up in their long awaited, highly anticipated rematch and it is shaping up to be a fight for the ages! This fight is a huge stepping stone in cementing their legacies as top heavyweights of all time. Before we get into this Saturday though, using a brief look back at the 2018 match between these 2 top heavyweights that ended in a split-decision draw, I’ll tell you what I expect to see go down in what is in my opinion the biggest heavyweight showdown in quite some time.

There is no denying how much this fight means to both men. Both fighters feel as though they were robbed in the first fight. But, no one has a better case than Tyson Fury. He boxed masterfully in his laat fight. He picked out his jabs beautifully. He moved in and out, bobbing and weaving with much success in the early rounds. Using that elusiveness and jab he was able to set up his combinations and in my opinion go up on the scorecards even though he ate a couple of huge shots. As a matter of fact, besides the rounds he took knockdowns, I scored all but 1 in favor of Fury. Now don’t get me wrong, Wilder continues to show he has the best one punch power we have seen since Mike Tyson. If Tyson Fury didnt rise up like The Undertaker, we would be having a totally different conversation.

I bring up Fury’s technically sound performance for a very good reason. In interviews lately, Fury has been loud and boisterous as usual but, it is his bold prediction of an early knockout that has me concerned. This leads me to believe that his anger over the outcome of last fight is going to spill over into this one and anger can be very dangerous to the one bearing it. If Fury gets away from everything that has got him here and goes for the knockout right away, we could see quick work made of Fury and Wilder having his hand raised. This can also be a ploy as well. He could be baiting all of us and Wìlder into thinking we are going to see him swing for the fences early yet, he goes back to the fight 1 game plan of picking his spots and making Wilder miss. It would not surprise me coming from the mind of “The Gypsy King”. Also worth noting is how the cut Fury sustained above his eye at the hands of Otto Wallin mere months ago holds up. He needs to make sure he protects that at all costs, and an overly aggressive approach opens up way too many opportunities for Wilder to land big shots potentially opening up that cut.

As for Wilder, he seems to be out for blood even moreso than his usual thirst for it. Wilder believes he did enough in that first fight to have warranted being claimed the victor. He makes a good case as well. He landed big bombs that put Fury down twice, including the 12th round where he landed that signature big right hand down the middle followed by a flushly landed left hook that seemed to put Fury out for good. Fury rose just seconds before “The Bronze Bomber” was claimed victorious yet again by way of knockout. Wilder’s down points were his lack of head movement and ability to avoid Fury’s jab this avoiding the subsequent combinations that followed. Wilder’s unorthodox style however makes it unlikely that any of that will change in the rematch. Wilder is going to be looking for that knockout early and often and if Tyson doesnt avoid that right hand, it will not end well for him.

Prediction- As I stated before, Fury’s emotion and talk of knocking out Wilder early is quite alarming. He seems hellbent on getting his revenge and that’s what makes me lean toward Deontay Wilder on this one. However, I do also think that Fury can make the adjustments necessary along the way if he is getting tagged while throwing his haymakers. I do not think it comes to that though. I truly believe Wilder will put together his best performance and once again knockout the one they put before him. My final verdict is Deontay Wilder by 6th round KO.

However this one plays out and whoever’s hand is raised in the end on Saturday Night, it is sure to be a treat to fight fans around the world. The heavyweight division is making a big comeback and just as interesting and exciting as this fight is, so is the domino effect it has on the rest of the division. Do we see a fight between Anthony Joshua and the winner? Does Andy Ruiz work himself back into the picture? Do Daniel Dubois or Jerell Miller get their shot? Either way we wont have to wait long for those answers as we are only days away from settiling boxing’s biggest case of “Unfinished Business”

Phew. In part one I thought I had covered everything. The last month has been a whirlwind of new information and exclusives when it comes to The Astros and Red Sox Sign Stealing Scandal. Aj Hinch broke his silence. The Astros reported to spring training and issued half-assed apologies and in my opinion, further incriminated themselves even moreso than what was found in Rob Manfred’s report. Speaking of Manfred, he defended his non-punishment of players citing the worst excuse I have ever heard embodying the times we live in more than ever. Dusty Baker took the helm of the team and has publicly stated to MLB that he is in fear for his teams safety, ultimately putting an even larger target on their back. My stance along with my anger has reached a boiling point and fortunate enough for you reading this, it is spilling over onto the pages before you.

If you didnt read part one, let me summarize quickly. I blasted the entire organizations of both the Red Sox and Astros. I blasted all previous players, including from my favorite team the Yankees, who have ever been caught cheating or using steroids. I ripped into the potential use of buzzers. I blasted Rob Manfred’s decision to not punish the players. I also had said that the Astros SHOULD NOT vacate the title.  Well today, given the things we have seen from the players, coaches and Manfred himself, I have had a complete change of heart and believe that this entire charade should have ended with players being punished severely along with the vacation of the 2017 World Series title.

Lets start with Aj Hinch and his interview. Now im not going to sit here and dissect every last bit of this 25 minute long facade disguised as a humble acceptance of responsibility. No, there is one HUGE, glaring piece of evidence in this interview that made me think “Wow, these guys definitely used buzzers” . When asked about the potential use of buzzers, Hinch replies “The report said what it said and we will stick to its findings”. Are you kidding me? This man has a huge 25 minute platform to flat out deny or admit any wrong doing and he says this? I mean, putting myself in his shoes, if I were accused of such an act, I guarantee Tom Verducci wouldn’t have even been able to finish the question before I was loudly and vehemently denying it. Even if they did use them, it’s not like he was under oath, he could and should have denied all things buzzers. But he did not. This one little bit of the interview was the most telling part and it told me that he and the Astros players were guilty. Period.

Speaking of the players, they arrived at Spring Training this week. Owner Jim Crane was there as well. He doesnt get a pass in any of this either. You could see Jim stumbling over his own words quite a few times when asked about the World Series title they won. In one breath, he says ” it did not provide us a significant advantage”. 45 seconds later “Ive never said that it didnt provide us an advantage”. Well Jim, which is it there buddy? The players also were in front of the cameras this week with their half assed apologies and lets move on attitude. Of course they want to move on. Who wants to talk about being a cheater constantly? But the audacity of some of these guys to sit there and try to tell us they’re sorry and they knew what they were doing was wrong is laughable. If you knew what you were doing was wrong, and felt any sort of remorse about it, you wouldn’t have participated in the act to begin with. The smug look on Jose Altuve’s and Alex Bregman’s face tells the whole story. They got away with cheating and are forever known as WS champions because of it. Well only in their eyes at this point because fans and players and coaches alike all pretty much agree the title needs to be vacated. I am now on that bandwagon as well. The overwhelming evidence that buzzers were used, including Altuve’s ridiculous claim that he didnt want his shirt ripped off after he just hit the biggest homerun of his lif9e, concludes that these players need to be banned and that title needs to be vacated but not awarded to anybody. By the way Jose, if I just hit that big of a homerun, I would have ripped my shirt my damn self coming around 3rd, unless you know, I had something to hide. With all due respect to my wife, she would get over it or she would understand the magnitude of the situation.

The players. Well, pretty much every player admitted they did something wrong. They admitted guilt. They get a pass on cheating but the manager and GM get the axe? What a crock! You got a guy banned for life for betting his own money on games but hey, cheating is fine! This brings me to the spineless coward known as the Commissioner of baseball, Rob Manfred. This guy just makes himself look worse and worse by the day. In an interview just yesterday, Manfred tried to justify not punishing the players because they cut a deal to all rat out Hinch, Cora and Beltran. He also says that the public shame is enough punishment. Hate to break it to you Rob, it isnt enough!! You suspend steroid users, you ban gamblers but cheating the game this way is just fine? What a joke. Rspecially since they were warned more than once about this very thing!This strategy was player driven and everyone knows it. Manfred is just worried about ratings more than the integrity of baseball. He knows that these players are the villains and with everything that has come to light, most likely more people will tune in to see what happens next and ratings will skyrocket. Then, in an absolutely ridiculous statement, he calls the WS trophy “just a piece of metal”. Wow bud, way to downplay the championship of your sport while simultaneously trashing every current and former player who worked their whole lives for that “piece of metal”. Justin Turner of the Dodgers said it best “the only blemish on the WS trophy is that it’s called the Commissioners Trophy”. Damn straight. Oh and in another blatant display of favoritism, he has now said that retaliation against these players will be met with swifter and harsher punishment. Rob, who is paying you or doing other favors for you that you have to protect these sissies? I’m no Arod fan but at least when he came back from his steroid suspension he stood in the box and took his lumps like a man. He didn’t cry that he was scared and run to the commissioner for help like some child. These players can’t even face the music for their own actions, then they certainly shouldn’t even be there at all! Personally, I would be happy to see that smug look wiped right off Alex Bregman’s face with a high and tight fastball right under the chin first pitch of the season. You want to cheat the game? The pitchers you’ve been cheating should be able to throw at you. End of story.

This whole sign stealing operation costs many people their jobs. Joe Girardi was fired. Countless pitchers released or sent down. Aaron Judge was robbed of an MVP. The Yankees and Dodgers were robbed of a FAIR chance at a World Series title. The fans were robbed of seeing teams actually earn championships. I understand, sign stealing is a part of the game. Not to this extent it isn’t. Get a guy on 2nd, thats fair game, but a camera in center field focused on the pitchers grips and catchers signs? I don’t f*****g think so! By the way Manfred and Houston, great role model job! You just let every kid out there know that cheating is ok and if you win by cheating you wont lose anything. I’ll leave this with one final thought until we see what spineless Manfred has to say about the Red Sox: Can you really sit there and be ok with calling yourself a champion without really earning it? Can Manfred really be ok that an entire championship is tainted and probably even 2 championships considering the Sox did the same thing? Right now, that seems to be the case and its a damn shame for someone like me who has loved baseball for the last 25 years.

In a day and age where we can get caught up in the glitz and glam of celebrity, our generation as a whole tends to forget to honor and acknowledge the ones that came before them. It is no different with professional sports. Sports is a huge industry in today’s society with athletes seemingly larger than life considering social media, TV, and other large scale platforms make that an easily obtainable image. What is sad today, is that we very seldom honor those whose blood, sweat and tears made the organizations the powerhouses they are . Today, I begin to attempt to bring light to one of those men whose years of service to the NFL should never be forgotten. Also lost in today’s media and journalism world is a respect and sense of boundary when it comes to realizing that these men and women are more than just the uniform they wore or the league they were a part of. We have lost sight of the human end of the spectrum when it comes to what we report and how we report it. Today, that changes too. Follow me as I attempt to honor a legend and the path he took to go from being born in the South during the peak of the Civil Rights Movement to Starting Defensive Back for the New York Jets as a part of one of the most legendary defenses in NFL history.

Bobby Jackson was born in Albany, Georgia in the 1950’s. What part of Georgia, you ask? Bobby’s neighborhood growing up was called CME which stood for “Crime Murder Execution” or “Criminally Minded Element” whichever you prefer. A place where according to Bobby ” no matter what walk of life you came from and no matter what you looked like, if you were not from there, you did NOT go there.” He grew up in a time where the Civil Rights movement was at it’s peak and it affected him personally. “My mother had a scar on her forehead from participating in a rally on a street corner speaking up on what was happening to people of color and a police officer beat her with a billy club. A lot of people were injured and arrested that day, my mother included”. Among all of this, Bobby Jackson is proud to be where he is from and he knows it molded him into the man he is today. ” I was raised by my grandmother and we grew up in a time where central air and heat didn’t exist so I was outside every day chopping wood for our wood burning stove. A sense of hard work and character has been with me forever”.

“Playing with my friends for me was not sitting in front of a computer or TV. We were outside all day playing football”. It was those pickup games that caught the attention of a friend and starting linebacker for the football team. He asked him to join. Bobby joined the team and thrived. He went on to go to Florida State to play football, but entered the NFL draft before academically graduating. “I played 4 years there, leaving after my senior year. I started all 4 years, beginning as a true freshman at age 17, only missing one game. Set the school interception record which has since been broken. After my senior year I was drafted by Jets in 6th round. I had not graduated yet, but did graduate 42 years later”. He added,”I was at a time where I felt I had no choice but to enter the NFL and move my grandmother out of the hood”. Bobby did just that. He got his grandmother a house that she lived in until the day she passed a little over a decade ago.

Bobby arrived in New York and it was a bit of a culture shock in a sense. “My first and only visual imagery of New York was a show called “Kojak” and when I got to New York I had to see if those parts of the city were in fact real and they were. Man, I have never seen so many people in my life. It was both overwhelming and exciting at the same time”. It was 1978 and Bobby was a rookie DB for the New York Jets, a member of the historic “New York Sack Exchange” defense. He started all 16 games as a rookie and led the NFL with 5 interceptions. He credits alot of it to his front four linemen. “Anyone who knows football knows that when you have 4 guys rushing the passer, it makes him get rid of the ball quicker. If we do our job and have tight coverage on the receiver then we are either going to bat it down or take the ball”. Well Bobby certainly made the most of his opportunities. He amassed 21 interceptions in his career, leading the NFL twice. When asked about his “ballhawk” mentality, he accredited it to both coaching and his roots. “Coaching had alot to do with it, but also my upbringing and the way we played in the neighborhood, I loved to hit hard and be the first to the ball, so it took alot of hard work but it also came natural to me”.

Football in those days was built on hard hitting, beat down defenses and when asked about football today, Bobby let that be known. ” I can hardly watch today’s games to be honest. It is way too watered down. I was in the league with helmet slaps from Jack Lambert and dominating defenses like the Doomsday Defense in Dallas and the Purple People Eaters in Minnesota. Roughing the passer didnt exist. Fines werent levied for big hits. It was a part of the game. It was built on violence just like the gladiator games in the days of old”. Bobby continued ” Nowadays, high scoring games and commercials dominate the TV screen so it’s a hard product to watch when I played in a completely  different era”. I agree fully with him here, especially since this is coming from a man who has levied and taken huge hits with minor cognitive implications.

Fast Forward to today. Bobby has accomplished alot since walking away from playing football. He had a book recently published written by a friend on his high school team called “Straight Outta CME: Bobby Jackson’s Journey To The NFL”. It is available on Amazon so if you would like to go more in depth on what you’re reading here today, then definitely go buy a copy. I know I will. Bobby also had what he called “the greatest year of his life” in 2019. Bobby returned to Florida State after 42 years and completed the remaining amount of college necessary in order to graduate and get his diploma he walked away from so long ago. He had to fight through several hardships to make this a reality. ” I am old school. I had to learn how to use a computer. There were cognitive issues I had to overcome in order to focus and get my work done. Thank god I had an amazing support system around me to get me through”. He didnt just slide by. “In the 3 years that it took to finish I only ever recieved 1 grade lower than a B. I was on the Deans List.” When I asked what made him to decide to finish school so much later in life, he humbly replied “I always tell my kids that no matter what the circumstances, you have to finish what you start. I did. I fought through all of those circumstances and I graduated and it was the greatest achievement in my whole life, even moreso than playing in the NFL”. Wow. What a human being.

I hope the dynamic changes in sports media and journalism. Look at the things some of these men and women went through to get where they got. We need to find a better way to honor and celebrate these accomplishments for the sake of our history. When I say it was an honor to speak with Mr. Jackson, I whole heartedly mean it. It makes one appreciate the life they have and feel pride for someone you barely know but talked to for an hour on the phone. He asked about my dreams and when I told him about these endeavors with my writing and sports journalism he told me something that I will end with here ” Anyone can achieve whatever the put their mind too. Anyone can be who I was and who I am with hard work and discipline, period”. Thank you Mr. Jackson, today was truly an honor and I hope this reaches who it needs to reach in order to change the way we approach our jobs as sports journalists.

Deeply embedded in the depths of the city known as the “concrete jungle”, are the roots of the Bronx’s own Sam Garnes. New York is where Garnes has called home his entire life, besides when he played his college ball at Cincinnati. It is where he played his entire professional football career with both the Giants and Jets. It is also where to this day, Garnes continues to work with and help mold both the youth and community as a whole. Garnes says ” Ive traveled all over around the league while I was with the Giants and Jets and coaching, but no where compared or gave me chills in the tunnel when waiting for my name to be announced than back home in New York”. I’ll tell you right now while he was speaking about this, I could almost hear the roar of the crowd myself and every single hair on my body stood straight up!

Garnes, a 5th round pick to the New York Giants in 1997, felt a little dissappointed during that draft at first. “Tampa originally called me and told me they were going to take me in the 2nd round. The pick came and went and I was still waiting for the call. Finally either Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon, I got the call from the New York Giants and I couldnt have been happier”.

When Sam got to the Giants, they were not a winning team. They had struggled for a few years, but coupled with Ike Hilliard and Tiki Barber and some solid additions on defense, that changed rapidly. There were times when the players needed to call themselves together and regroup as a unit during the 1997 and 1998 campaign. Garnes recalls ” There was one particular practice where I was awful. I was trying to do too much. I was trying to be someone I wasn’t out there”. Solace came from a close friend ” My best friend on the team Jessie Armstead pulled me to the side and told me to stop doing too much, stay true to who you are and what got you here”. The rest is history. Speaking on the bond like in which he shared with Armstead, Garnes says ” I’ve never felt a sense of comraderie and brotherhood than I did when I was the part of a football team. Whether NFL or the kids I coach now, we develop a bond that can never be broken. We are family”.

Garnes was also a coach in the NFL, acting as an assistant secondary coach for both the Denver Broncos and the Chicago Bears. He followed the trail of his good friend and former coach with the Giants, John Fox. Fox always admired Garnes’s approach and how he was “a true student of the game”. Garnes aided in the development of future standout defensive backs like Chris Harris Jr and Duke Ihenacho. Their ability to step up their play under the tootiledge of the staff Garnes was a part of, propelled Denver to a Super Bowl berth. Speaking on the relationships he developed as a coach of that team Garnes says ” I remain in contact with all of those guys from Denver, they’re my guys, my brothers”.

Since stepping away from coaching in 2015, Garnes has worked tirelessly to aid in the development of football with the youth and coaches in the Tri-State area. He founded the Sam Garnes Football Academy, which in Sam’s words, he doesnt like to “use promotion as a tactic, but would rather the results speak for themselves”. It provides an opportunity for the focus to be on the young men who excel in the sport to gain more notoriety in the recruitment process for colleges. ” States like Ohio and Texas are well known when it comes to high school football and with this program, the young men in our area are provided more of an opportunity to make it outside of our area and further their potential”. This academy is not what one would think of upon hearing that word. It is not some sports camp. “What we do is we go in there and work with the coaches first. We help them reform their program and become the best coach that they can be. By the time we do bring the kids in on it, they dont look to me, the ex NFL star, but rather they look at their coach for guidance and answers” Garnes says, epitomizing humility in every sense of the word. He has also founded the Sam Garnes Foundation, which provides the opportunity for contributors to be a part of providing camps, workshops and even career opportunities outside of football for the young men and women of the community. Garnes also has had a major hand in developing “SportsHi”, an app that aids high school student athletes to be able to get their game footage to coaches across the country and vice versa. It gives them an opportunity to get their name out there and provide themselves the chance to show what they got, which can be the hardest part of the recruitment process.

As a fan, talking with Sam today was nerve wracking at first. I’m a diehard Giants fan. Ive watched him compete on TV and in person. Pure joy was coarsing through my veins with every story of a teammate or game day memory he shared. It took all of 30 seconds to calm down and realize, im just a fan talking with a player about things we happen to both be passionate about. The best part of the entire phone call was not those things though , but it was getting to know Sam Garnes the human being rather than just the player. His passion, his knowledge, and his effortless ability to willingly share those things with others is what makes the human being far more impressive.

So whats next for Garnes? Well, he is currently a sports analyst for nationally syndicated radio show, The Ryan Show Fm (which I also happen to be affiliated with). But in typical Sam Garnes fashion, hes “ready to take it to the next level”. He is anxiously anticipating the NFL draft in April, saying “with football being over, this is the stage where we can really get things moving and be able to launch ourselves into another realm covering sports”. With that tenacious attitude and ability to articulate into words that passion and knowledge he carries, there is no doubt in my mind that it will be a successful endeavor. After all, that is what makes Sam Garnes, as he says, “New York Through And Through”.

He is baseballs All Time hits leader. He is 1 of only 2 players ever with 4000 career hits. He is Charlie freaking Hustle for crying out loud. He has also been blacklisted. Blacklisted from baseball. Blacklisted from being immortalized in his rightful place, The Baseball Hall Of Fame. His only crime? Betting on baseball games while both a player and manager. Well, now more than ever, Pete Rose has his best case for reinstatement and I will present nothing but facts to prove that Pete Rose needs to be back in baseball among the rest of the greats.

Pete Rose did something that was against the rules. He bet on baseball. That we can all agree on. As a player and manager it was proven, and ultimately admitted by Rose himself, that he did in fact bet on baseball games, including games played by the team he played for and then managed, The Cincinnati Reds. In 2002, lead investigator on the case, John Dowd said in an interview that he “thought” it was likely Rose bet against his own team. There has never been any evidence of this, including when they released the pages of Pete’s betting history to the public. A lot of people have the opinion that he did in fact bet on his own team. However, that is not proven to be fact and I am only making my points here using proven facts.

At the time of the investigation and still to this day, many people want to argue that if Rose were to be reinstated, then the members of the 1918 “Black Sox” team and scandal would have to be reinstated as well. Well, that idea is completely asinine. Joe Jackson and his teammates were proven to bet on their own games, for and against, and play according to the bets they made. This completely compromises the integrity of the game. Almost an entire team conspired to change the outcome of games. Hmm, sounds pretty familiar if you ask me.

The 2017 Astros, the 2018 Red Sox and 2019 Astros all were proven to have devised an electronic sign stealing scheme to gain a significant advantage over the competition. They had a camera directly pointed at the catchers hand which was relayed to a monitor in the dugout tunnel and then using either whistles or the banging on a trash can, relayed exactly what pitch was coming to the hitter in the batters box. Not only was this found to be true in Commisioner Rob Manfreds investigation report, but there is also a exuberant amount of video evidence to support the findings. No players were punished. 1 GM and 3 managers lost their jobs due to the scandal. Can anyone really tell me with a straight face That what Pete Rose did by betting on baseball games was worse than this?! To be fair, these teams and players that stole signs are no different than the Black Sox team in the way that THEY BOTH CONSPIRED TO CHANGE THE OUTCOME OF BASEBALL GAMES. So, Let me get this straight. Apparently betting on your own team to win games is worse than literally taking away half of the art of hitting and throwing games like the Black Sox did? These players knew exactly what pitch was coming and could sit on a breaking ball ahead of time and smack it all over the field but for the love of god ban a man for life for wagering money on games he thought his team was going to win and games he had no part of. Give me a break. Either reinstate Pete or you must ban all players and organizational leaders involved in Houston and Boston to the same extent and they must never even appear on the Hall Of Fame ballot. I mean you can almost go as far as saying that what the Astros and Red Sox did was more of a black eye on the sport than steroids….almost.

The Steroid era in baseball is one that was both exciting and downright sad by the time it came to an end. Anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing drugs ran rampant throughout the sport in the 90’s and early 2000’s. Guys like Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGwire were all have found to have been using these substances to gain an advantage throughout their playing career and gain a significant advantage. We all know about the homeruns but it comes down to more than that. These guys became so feared at the plate, I’ve seen them intentionnaly walked with the bases loaded meaning that pitchers would rather voluntarily give up a run than throw the ball anywhere near the plate. Wow. A long lost fact in this argument goes further than just baseball when it comes to steroid use. Steroids are not just illegal within the realm of baseball, but they are illegal within the realm of the law! Some of these players were called to Congress to testify on the use of steroids in baseball. I watched the proceedings multiple times. I watched these players lie through their teeth. I watched them lie under oath, which again is a crime! That’s not even the most appalling aspect of this entire thing. Barry Bonds is still considered baseball’s all time home runs leader, McGwire is still considered baseball’s single season homerun record holder and most alarmingly, these men and others who have been proven to cheat and use steroids, are still able to have their names appear on The Hall Of Fame ballot! Writers are still given a choice whether these players transgressions were miniscule enough to still be elected. What a joke! You mean to tell me that players who have broken the law repeatedly and cheated the game repeatedly are given a fair shake but not Pete Rose for betting on baseball?!?! GIVE ME A BREAK! If these guys get a chance and receive no ban from the game, then at the very least, give Charlie Hustle his shot, lift his ban and let the writers vote accordingly.

If you can look through this article, go over the facts in these cases and still think that what Pete Rose did was worse and he still doesn’t deserve a chance, then I don’t know what to tell you. I’d say you’re better off maybe taking up watching cricket or soccer because there’s no scandal there…oh wait. It is absolutely blasphemous that players and organizations who deliberately cheated this game AND broke the law are allowed to still be a part of it, yet we blackball a man who’s only transgression on the game was betting on it. Rob Manfred, MLB, Cooperstown writers and commission, it’s time to end this foolishness. It’s time to step up, take action, lift the ban, and give Pete Rose his rightful place among baseball’s immortals!

I’d like to start this article off by saying what’s on all of our minds,. Whether you think Jones won the fight, or you had it scored for Reyes, I think we can all agree 49-46 is absolutely disgusting. “The fifth round won me that fight.” Bones exclaimed after being declared the victor. So how in the hell did anyone have it 49-46?! I’m not on this corrupt bandwagon, but something has to change.
Dom Reyes, through the weeks leading up to the fight told Jones he was different than any other fighter he faced, he was a true athlete, and I can’t lie; I scoffed at this notion. Thinking to my self, “What the hell is this guy talking about?”
Every fighter in the UFC is an athlete, they all run, lift, hit pads, do agility training. Maybe some highlight more aspects than others but all in all they’re athletes right?… WRONG! Most fighters seem big until they face off with Jones. Friday when they faced off you could see while Jones was the more toned fighter, Dominick was the larger opponent. Shoulders, traps, and back larger than Jon, legs thicker than Jon. Ok this guy passes the eye test, but does that mean he’s more of an athlete?

Flash forward to Saturday night, with just 12 fights in his professional MMA career and only 6 in the UFC, this “kid” as Dana white referred to him as, came out SO HYPED UP, jumping around the ring like it was his time. Does this guy know he’s facing a monster on a 12 year undefeated tare (cue the idiots bringing up Matt Hamil)? Jones enters the Ring with the same confidence and swagger he always does. Starting out on all fours, ready for that methodical approach. “The Devastator” never took his eyes off of “bones” with a Tyson like stare.

The bell rings, and I quickly understood what this kid meant by being a true athlete. He came sprinting out the blocks, met Jon in the middle of the ring and launched a left hand. As Jones shoots in, Reyes lifts Jon up with underhooks, lands a knee and let’s him know I’m not worried about your reach or what you’ve done in your past fights. Everytime Jon goes to kick, Dom kicks low as well clashing shins and it’s close(ish) through the opening minutes up until Jon goes for a leg kick and Reyes and launches a left hand at Jon’s body setting him down on his ass. The crowd goes wild. Jones gets to his feet immediately, and goes for another takedown, half way committed, Reyes easily stuffs this, and lands 3 straight lefts on the break. Even the punches touching Jon’s gloves look like they would put a lesser man down. Jon ever the consummate professional that he is, continues to pressure Reyes. It seems as though his game plan is to force him to sprint and drag him into deep water, approaching the fight with a “how long can you keep this up” mindset. Reyes, while on his heels a bit, is doing phenomenal bouncing side to side cutting a angle making Jon step then launching his combination. End of 1 I had it 10-9 Reyes.

Round 2, Jon is applying more pressure forward and keeping Reyes on his heels. Pop shotting and continuing to poke and prod at Dominick’s legs. Switching his stance and landing straight lefts, Dom answers back in combination. What I feel Reyes did better than most in his position is chase Jon down when he does the turn his back and jog off thing that he does quite often. You can see Reyes has watched a lot of film on Jon and thought why does nobody chase him down when he turns his back? He gets Jon running a couple minutes into round two but Jones stops, back on the cage and weaves damn near all of Dominicks shots! Quite impressive. At this time you can Hear Rogan and Cruz discussing that Reyes has put out over 80 shots to Jon’s 37. This is significant. I will touch base on why at the end of this article. Round 2 very close but I gave Dom the nod 10-9, entering round 3 up 20-18.

By round 3, I was convinced the tide would turn significantly. You can now see Reyes sprinting for 10 minutes is starting to catch up with him, but boy did he ware it well while still maintaining the same bounce in his legs. The opening of the round is kick for kick both of them mixing it up well to the legs, body, and head. As they begin to mix the hands into their kicking onslaught, Reyes gets Jones to turn and run again, chasing him down and landing a head kick. Jones eats it and gets right back to controlling the center of the octagon. Midway through the third Jones goes in on a shot attempt and Reyes stuffs it and jacks Jon up with a over and underhook which he frames off and throws a elbow to break the clinch. Reyes is on his heels and throwing a significantly less amount of punches than his opening two rounds. Jones continues marching forwards, methodically sticking the occasional shot and bouncing out of range when Dom advances.
3rd round to close for me to call 10-10 I had them entering round 4 at 30-28 Reyes.

Start of round 4, Reyes opens up with a great combination of punches and switches stances as he advances landing two right hooks followed by his signature left hand. Jones shakes it off and enters for a inside trip attempt, chain wrestling to a duck under. Dominick drops to all fours but bounces right back up to his feet. Jon maintains the body lock as Reyes gets his back against the fence. Jones looks for the body lock lift and appears that Dom gets away with holding the top of the fence. Jones transitions to a double leg and secures the take down. Reyes fights back up to his feet quickly. Back still against the fence, Jones drops in on another double that is fought off by Reyes. They exchange knees from the clinch before breaking apart. Jon, back to controlling the center of the octagon, lands a few pop shots, a leg kick and elbow from a distance before entering for another double leg attempt driving Dominick across the mat to the cage. He fights this attempt off as well but eats a knee and elbow for his efforts. Jones applying heavier pressure, is landing everything he throws and mixing it up very well as we have grown accustomed to seeing from him. The fatigue is showing on Dominicks face as Jon continues to march forward. Jones ends the round with a right hand to the body, left hook to the head, and a straight right to the nose of Dominick. Easily 10-9 Jones entering 5 at 39-38 Reyes.

Round 5, within the first 30 seconds Jones enters for the double leg. He locks it up and drags Dominick down to the mat. Dominick, giving up his back and going on all fours, allows Jon to underhook both arms and throw in his left leg. Dominick, too strong, stands and puts his back right back up against the cage. Jones drops in for another double leg attempt. Reyes yanking him up with over hooks, Jon transitions to a high crotch to lift but The Devastator is too strong for that. Breaking from the clinch Jones continues his terminator like walk forward landing straights to Dominicks body and landing another elbow on the top of Dominicks guard. He is beginning to really close the gap of total strikes landed throughout the course of the fight. The final 3 minutes of this bout is Jones putting on a clinic and showing the heart of a champion, chopping away at Domicks legs and body. Dominick spends this round in survival mode, moving his feet until he hears the bell sound. Another 10-9 round for Jon.
48-48 for a draw in my opinion. A instant classic that would shortly leave me puzzled when the judges score cards came in.

Now I have no problem with this fight playing out in one of these three ways, 48-47 for Reyes, 48-47 for Jones or a draw as I had seen it, but a 49-46 round? How the hell? Which Judge scored it this way? Was it the same judge Rogan and Cruz had called out during the Murphy V Lee fight for not even watching during the final round (yes that actually happened on live TV)?
What are these judges scoring based on, really? To those of you yelling corruption and robbery, relax, this fight was very close, especially if you consider percentages; which I’ll provide at the end of the the article. I hear some of my closest friends and people I respect in the fight industry claiming Jon’s takedowns shouldn’t have counted for much as Reyes fought back to his feet quickly. He only landed “2” of 9 attempts, to which I respond, well Dominick attempted damn near 100 more strikes then jones did through the fight and Jon made him miss over 50% of them.

So do we discredit the strikes Dominick landed? Do we give Jon the nod for being more efficient and landing at a higher percentage rate? In collegiate wrestling when your opponents knees touch that mat it’s a two point takedown No matter how fast he gets back to his feet that takedown still counts. Question, if two fighters spend the fight on the ground and the fighter on top lands zero ground and pound but the fighter on his back throws up 6 submission attempts, who do you award the points to?
What are we considering significant strikes? Is it Reyes landing that straight left down the pipe, or is it the sidekicks and oblique kicks Jones landed that had Reyes hobbling out of the building? We need a clear cut scoring system. I feel like a retired veteran fighter, hell even active fighters should be put on the payroll to judge. (Never a fight in your weight class, or for your teammate) In sports jiujitsu fighting competitions, there are 4 judges. They watch attentively with a clicker in each hand, one red and one white, and at the end of each round they hold up the color of who they have in the lead or hold up an X to signify it is tied. This gives the fighters incentive to turn it up, or hang back depending on their comfort level, in no other sport are the players and fans informed after the game is over who is in the lead or won. Only in boxing and UFC do we have this issue. Could you imagine watching a full basketball game with no score and at the end of it a referee just points to one team like yeah based off my eyes I think this squad wins… hell no! We are in the year 2020 how can you present us with the compubox scores on the television at home, tell us the amount of strikes landed and output, but you can’t give us the direct score card information? Put it up on the big screen during the live event and let the fans know who is winning which rounds and back it with the reason why.
I don’t want to rant and take away from this classic bout but it’s seriously unfair to the fighters.
Dominick Reyes was explosive and so agile. His ability to cut angles while moving off the back foot was amazing. His cardio held up and his take down defense and ability to get back to his feet was shocking. If this IS what he meant by being a true athlete, I see it and I am I believer. He put the world on notice when Jones decides to ride off into the sunset the LHW division will be in fantastic hands.
Jon Jones is exactly who we know he is, one the GOATs all time record setting performance of title matches and defenses surpassing my favorite fighter ever Georges St. Pierre. His legacy was already golden but this solidified his position as number 1 and I don’t see anyone touching that for quite sometime. He’s only 32 people, no spring chicken but with fighters like Stipe Miocic 37 and Daniel Cormier 40 still hanging around, we got a lot more of Jon to see.
Here’s the percentage round by round. You be the judge of what this information means to you.
R1 JJ 17-27 62%
R1 DR 23-59 38%
R2 JJ 22-37 59%
R2 DR 33-68 48%
R3 JJ 19-34 55%
R3 DR 26-45 57%
R4 JJ 20-34 58%
R4 DR 13-41 31%
R5 JJ 26-34 76%
R5 DR 21-46 45%

JJ total significant strike total was 104-166 62%
DR total significant strike total was
116-259 44%

JJ landed 2 of 9 take down 22%
DR landed 0-0 takedowns 0%

I’ve been an avid boxing fan since I was in diapers. I used to tag along with my dad when him and a few buddies would convene around the old school giant box tv’s, before there were flatscreens, in one of their respective living rooms. It seemed like every Thursday or Saturday night I’d be with my dad and his friends watching 2 of the top boxers in the sport going toe to toe. Tyson-Holyfield 1 and 2, Lewis-Holyfield, Lewis-Rahman 1 and 2, Prince Naseem Hamed, Roy Jones Jr, Felix Trinidad, Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosely. All of these guys and many more were fighting all of the time and when they were fighting, they were fighting another top guy in their weight class. At this point in time, Boxing was booming. That is not the case anymore. The big fights that the fans want to see either arent happening or by the time they happen they don’t live up to the hype. I’m going to talk about why that is, why Youtubers settling their beefs is the main attraction these days, and how there seems to be no hope to save the sport from its impending doom.

Boxing has been dying out slowly for quite some time now. Mostly due to the dominant and rapid rise of the UFC, Boxings top fights these days don’t hold a candle to the headline matchups of the UFC. A great example of this is the night Masvidal fought Nate Diaz. The same night, Canelo was set to take on Sergey Kovalev. DAZN and the promoters decided to make these guys wait almost 2 hours while the Diaz and Masvidal went to war. They even showed the UFC fight on the big screen above the ring! What a joke!Don’t get me wrong, there are still top fighters and fights that as a fight fan, I’d love to see. Promoters like Eddie Hearn and Bob Arum and Frank Warren are way too into lining their pockets and their own egos to give the fans That product though. Other than GGG-Canelo and Wilder vs Fury, the mega fights that true boxing fans want to see just seem out of reach or they will be made 5 years down the road when the fans don’t really want to see them anymore. Give us Teofimo Lopez vs Vasyl Lomachenko, give us Anthony Joshua Vs Wilder or Fury. For the love of god, please give us Terrance Crawford vs Errol Spence!!! That’s what a true boxing fan wants to sit down and watch. Instead of catering to what the boxing fans have been clamoring for, Boxing is going in a new direction and catering to what the younger generations want to see. They’ve decided to have YouTubers like the Paul brothers and KSI settle there beef inside the ring, mostly being the main attraction.

Props to any of these YouTube guys stepping in the ring. It is not an easy thing to jump into a boxing ring with someone standing across from you wanting to kill you. Props to boxing too because these guys have sold out shows in the Staples Center and in Miami on Super Bowl weekend. A lot of fans will say that its hard to watch because they don’t know what they are doing. I actually see some potential in Logan Paul’s fight game. If he went with full training camps and stuck with it, there’s definitely a potential future for bigger fights. Yes, I said it, out of every YouTube fight that’s happened, Logan Paul has the best technically sound style and potential to actually make a career out of it. In his own words though, he has to get out of his own way and find that killer instinct to be able to finish a fight. My biggest fear for the sport though is that these YouTube guys bring in so much money, that they become the main event rather than an undercard fight. It would not surprise me. Boxing has been known to money grab at every twist and turn. It has ruined the sport. I have a solution.

Why not combine what the old heads and new generation want? Let’s see a card of Logan Paul vs. Antonio Brown and the main event could be Spence-Crawford. Why not Jake Paul vs KSI under the likes of Joshua Vs Wilder? This way, both old and new alike get what they want. The stars would be out in full force. The pay per view buys would be historic! It seems unlikely to happen though because promoters and managers these days are all about spreading out their income. Thanks Don King. I’m a student of the sport. I’ve boxed over half my life and I’ve coached the same. The beauty of boxing is gone. The sweet science of it has been put on the backburner for a money grabbing sideshow. Again that is not a shot at the fighters themselves but rather the ones booking the fights and promoting them.

So where is boxing headed? Well they seem to be onto something going into business with DAZN and YouTube, but how long can that really last? How much longer will the younger generations want to see these guys fight? The top names in the sport aren’t getting any younger and the window of opportunity to do something to get the fans excited is closing. Make the aforementioned fights happen! Take a page out of UFC’s book. They have taken over your audience and put out a product that every fight fan is on the edge of their seat for. Oh and another thing, stop with the damn crossover fights. I don’t want to see McGregor in a boxing ring and I definitely don’t want to see Mayweather in an octagon. I’d actually rather watch a UFC fight night in Kazakhstan at 3 am than either of those. Stop money grabbing and get back to what made you successful in the golden years. Instead of Gatti-Ward, we’ve gotten Ruiz-Joshua. Instead of Leonard-Duran, we get Paul vs KSI. Not exactly equivalent.

Growing up in New York was a sports lovers dream. The Yankees had a dynasty. The Giants won a couple of Super Bowls. The Mets won 2 pennants, one of which set up an all New York World Series. The Jets were always competitive and made back to back AFC championships. The Knicks were perennial contenders and were actually watchable and playoff contenders every year including a trip to the finals. Oh my how the times have changed. It has been a decade since the last major sports title came to New York and fans are growing more impatient by the day. In this piece I will go team by team and explain which team has the best chance to end that drought and also the teams that are still light years away. Note that I am a diehard fan of 2 of these teams but that will not cloud my judgement of reality or bias. Shall we begin?

New York Knicks- Lets just get this one out of the way now. The Knicks are hands down the furthest away from any kind of hope for the New York Faithful. Yesterday, they fired Team President Steve Mills in the latest drama of the soap opera that is this team. This off-season, with hopes of signing some of the biggest names on the market like Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and Kawhi Leonard, the Knicks failed to sell any kind of hope to them and were instead spurned for contenders like the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Clippers. They then tried to sell the fans the idea that a team of Julius Randle, Marcus Morris, and rookie RJ Barrett was ready to contend. As the season comes to it’s halfway point, we all can see that it is not even close to being the truth. The Knicks sit at 15-36 and toward the very bottom of the league. There is only one man in my eyes who is to blame for all of this, Team owner James Dolan. Time and time again, Dolan has failed this team, the fans, and the city. Chants of “sell the team” rained down in the Garden the last Knicks home game and yet again Dolan had to flex his metaphorical muscles and have people removed. What a joke. This coming a couple of years after banning a legend in Charles Oakley. Charles Oakley knows more about winning than James Dolan by a mile and could probably run this team having no experience and with way more success. Dolan, swallow your pride, shut the heck up and sell this team before we have a riot at MSG. This is a joke of a basketball franchise at the moment and even paper bags can’t hide the shame in all of the fans eyes. It will be a long time before this team is contending for even an 8 seed, let alone a championship run.

New York Mets- I will mirror what Met fans hear every season and are probably pretty sick of hearing at this point, The Mets actually have a decent chance at contending for a playoff run this coming season. They come in with arguably the best rotation in the National League with Degrom, Syndergaard, and Stroman leading the way. They have young talent with Jeff McNeil coming off a great 2019 campaign and Pete Alonso coming off a historic and memorable rookie season. There’s a lot of promise in the Mets this year. The key for the Mets is very simple here. Stay healthy and stay consistent. The health of this team has been their Achilles heel the past few years and consistency has been non existent. The Mets are known to get off to very good starts in April and May then nose dive and tumble down the standings by August. With the Nationals coming off a championship and the Braves the favorite to win the division yet again, they will have their work cut out for them but in my eyes the Mets, on the backs of their pitching staff, have a legitimate chance to at least make it close.

New York Giants– Woof. It’s tough being a Giants fan lately. Eli manning has rode off into the sunset and called it a career. They have hired their 3rd head coach in 5 years. They traded away a generational talent in OBJ. They finished 4-12 this past season and are picking in the top 5 of the NFL draft yet again. The Giants do have a few things going for them however. They certainly have one of the NFL’s top running backs in Saquon Barkley. They seemed to have found Eli’s replacement as franchise quarterback in Daniel Jones, if he can work on his ball security this off-season. They also hit the nail on the head with rookie WR Darius Slayton, who was one of the lone bright spots this year and made life after Beckham a little bit easier. The Giants also have a bunch of money to spend and again, hold a high draft position. There are 2 things GM Dave Gettleman and New head coach Joe Judge need to invest in with that money and those picks, offensive line and any semblance of a pass rush and secondary help. The Giants were near dead last in the league in all defensive categories last year and need to shore that up and get back to Giants football. The offensive line is paramount to continuing the development of Jones in a positive direction and given time to throw the ball and to go through his reads, Jones has shown he can be a star. Still, the Giants seem a few years away from championship contention.

Brooklyn Nets- The Brooklyn Nets are certainly the more successful of the 2 New York basketball franchises at this point. They sit as the 7 seed in the Eastern Conference with a record of 22-27. However, it turns out that Kyrie Irving may have been right when he said that the team needs to make some changes and get him, Spencer Dinwiddie, and Caris Lavert some help. Another thing is health. Their biggest off-season acquisition, Kevin Durant will miss this entire season due to suffering a torn Achilles in last year’s finals . Kyrie Irving has been on and off the court with different ailments, the latest being a knee injury that will sideline him for an extended period of time. The Nets have been doing quite well when he isn’t on the court anyway and they will need to continue to do so to hang onto that playoff spot. The outlook for the Nets is spotty at best for the rest of this season but the future looks bright. It all depends on the health of KD and Kyrie as well as how they draft and build around them. To compete with Milwaukee and Boston, they will need to make some changes but things are looking up in Brooklyn.

New York Jets- Ahh the Jets. Idont know about this team. I don’t know their identity. Head Coach Adam Gase was supposed to be this guru who was going to turn this franchise around and get back to winning. Sam Darnold has shown flashes of being great and at other times he’s “seeing ghosts”. Reportedly, they have no idea what they are going to do with Le’veon Bell, even though the RB says he wants to be there. The defense has also been up and down besides the consistent stellar play of Jamal Adams and the acquired CJ Mosely. The Jets record showed just how average they are finishing at 7-9 and 3rd place in the AFC East. The Jets go into their second year under Gase and we shall see what the adjustments and improvements are. Darnold and Bell’s health are imperative to any kind of success. With the Patriots and Bills ahead of them, the Jets will have to do something very special to launch themselves into contention.

Buffalo Bills- Out of all 3 NY football teams, the Buffalo Bills had the most recent success. They’ve made the playoffs 2 out of the last 3 years and laatcyear finished 2nd in the AFC East with a record of 10-6 securing a Wild Card berth. Led by Josh Allen and Devin Singletary, the Buffalo Bills offense finally found its idenity and sustained great success this past season. That young core on offense plus an equally successful defense led by Lorenzo Alexander and Tre’Davious White in my eyes can sustain a level of success and take the reigns from the Patriots for control of the division. Sean McDermott has the respect of his players and management and has created a level of consistency that shows the bills trending in a positive direction for years to come. Right Now, the Bills are on the cusp of consistent contention as long as Josh Allen keeps up his high level of leadership and play!

New York Yankees- I saved the team with the best chance to win now for last. 2 out of the last 3 years, the Yankees were on the cusp of a World Series berth, but timely hitting and late pitching meltdowns hindered this possibilities. This off-season, they pulled out all the stops to acquire baseball’s top pitcher Gerrit Cole. They added a superstar to an already solid rotation of James Paxton, Luis Severino who seems to be fully healthy coming of Tommy John, and Masahiro Tanaka. The rotation and bullpen are among tops in the league for the Yanks. The main concern I have is the lack of left handed hitters in this lineup. But, still even with that outlier, the Yankees lineup is among the most feared in baseball. Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres, DJ Lemahieu and a hopefully healthy Giancarlo Stanton seem destined to mash their way into the record books once again. The main thing is to cut down on strikeouts and get those timely hits with runners in scoring position! Right now they stand as the favorites to win the World Series and I see no reason to think otherwise. Hopefully I’m right and come October they make that a reality and hoist championship #28.

So that’s the outlook New York fans! Some look fantastic, some not so much. This past decade has been a nightmare for us filled with disappointment and heartbreak. We deserve a title back here and are in desperate need of another ticker tape parade. How did I do? Comment your thoughts and tell me which team you think I’m sleeping on or which one I’m overrating. Until next time.

Yes, I know, I stole that title tagline from Bret Hart. But, if you’re as big of a Tyson enthusiast as I am, then you know that title has never been more true about anyone. Now, I wasn’t even a thought in my parents minds when Tyson became the youngest Heavyweight Champion of the world in 1986. How could I be such a Tyson fan when I wasn’t even born during his torrid run to the top of the heavyweight mountain? Well, I have an awesome dad and older brother, that’s how!

From a young age, I was in love with the sport of boxing. I grew up with the likes of Roy Jones Jr, Felix Trinidad, Oscar de La Hoya, Sugar Shane Mosely. I was also schooled on the greats. Rocky Marciano, Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Jack Dempsey, Muhammad Ali, Sonny Liston, Gerry Cooney, Joe Frazier, the list goes on and on and on. Boxing was still a sport then and not the sideshow WWE-like spectacle it’s become. Let me be clear, I KNOW it’s not anything like WWE inside the ring. I’ve been in the ring, there’s nothing orchestrated or fake about it. The sideshow lies in the promoters and behind the scenes clowns who want to come up with every excuse why the top fighters can’t fight each other. I’m talking to you Eddie Hearn and Bob Arum. Wake the hell up! Money this and sponsors that. That to me is one of the many things that separated Tyson among many others from today’s fighters. Tyson would fight anyone, anywhere and I guarantee he’d beat their ass for 5 bucks and a bag of chips. If Mike Tyson wanted to fight you, he was going to fight you one way or another. If he wanted a fight, the fight was made. If someone called him out, the fight was made. He never backed down. He never ducked anyone. That was the appeal of Tyson as a fighter. You want some? Come get you some!

Watching tapes of every single professional Tyson fight there was before I was born, I was instantly enamored by his boxing style. Significantly shorter than most if not all of his opponents, Tyson had to develop and master what’s called an “inside” fighter style. He had to work his jab and right cross in order to get inside of his opponent’s own striking range. Once able to get inside that range, it was poetry in motion. There is actually a video of Mike working the pads with trainer Kevin Rooney that I would make all my fighters watch when I coached. I told them watch the hips and watch the feet, forget about the arms, the hips and legs are where your power comes from. Tyson would chop down his opponents with his ferocious body hooks and in one fluid motion with the same hand, strike the opponents skull with another hook. He dropped the top fighters in the sport repeatedly. He recorded 17 straight knockouts to start his career! It was unheard of, the display of power seen when watching Tyson fight. He ended up with 44 knockouts by the time he called it quits. It was like watching a violent ballet recital. I had and still have never seen someone that was able to put together the combination of power, speed, footwork, agility and accuracy as well as Mike Tyson did in his prime.

Now I know everyone would like me to touch on “what went wrong ” in Mike Tyson’s career and life. Just as I have with other athletes I’ve spoke about, I cannot touch on those subjects. I’m not going to speculate. I’m not going to put words into anyone’s mouth. What happened, happened and not one of us fans can say what was going on in his mind. What I do know is that he dealt with some things that would have made normal men and women walk away and never look back. He lost his longtime trainer, friend and father figure, Cus D’Amato, the year before he won the title for the first time. When you win the title and don’t have the right people in your corner, things can go away in the blink of an eye. Just look at what happened recently with former champion Andy Ruiz. You have it all. It’s easy for us to say “Oh man if I were champion I wouldn’t be like that”. Well you don’t know that at all because there’s only very few men who have donned the title around their waist. Everyone grieves in different ways and when Cus died, Mike didn’t handle it right away and it spiraled for a long time. It led to long layoffs and when he finally did come back, he didn’t look like the same Tyson. That fire I saw in his eyes was no longer there. That look of disdain for his opponent that said he was going to knock your jaw off your head no longer was there. Nonetheless I was his biggest fan rooting for him no matter how hard the people around me were rooting against him. I’ve gotten in many many fights over my support of Mike Tyson. It’s because I love sports. I love the athletic ability and what they do for their profession. I do not care for all of the other stuff because I feel that what we hear in the media is never true. They analyze and critique without even talking to the person. When that person doesn’t want to talk, they bash them even more. When reporters would pressure Tyson he’d call them an asshole and I thought it was great. Athletes don’t have to be nice to you because you write about them or are giving an interview especially if you’re bashing them and talking about personal stuff. That is all I will say about that.

Mike Tyson is not everyone’s cup of tea, but in the ring there is no denying his greatness. He is ranked among the greatest fighters of all time for a reason. He accomplished things not many if any have since. My brother used to train with me and what we would do was spar, lift, run, watch Tyson. I had the honor of meeting Mike Tyson one summer while he was on his boat in Sag Harbor. I was so damn nervous man. This was a hero of mine. But when I walked up, he wasn’t what I was expected. He was courteous and interested in what I wanted to accomplish as a boxer. He talked to me like he was training me. He gave me advice and pointers. He was everything the press said he wasn’t. He signed a pair of gloves for me and I went on my way, the happiest I had been in years. I tell you this because I want you to know that you can’t believe all the crap you read in the media or see on TV. Years later when I was down and out and living with people who had zero morality, those gloves were stolen and I’m still pissed about it a decade later. I’ll get them back one day.

Mike Tyson even after boxing has had a lasting impact on the sport and the people who know his story. If you haven’t checked it out, I HIGHLY recommend watching his Broadway one man dialogue show. It was fantastic and shone a light on things that might open your mind a bit about Iron Mike. He has been through nightmarish tragedy losing a child, he has defeated the substance demons that plagued him for a long time. He is truly an inspiration. Watch the play and hear it for yourself from the man himself. It is sure to blow you away. Mike’s run as a powerhouse in the sport of boxing has also left a lasti g impression on the sport. Whether a grizzled vet or a kid wrapping his hands for the first time, we can all learn from Mike’s regimen, focus and in ring ability. Who better to learn from and model after than the Baddest Man On The Planet?