With an apparent shotgun blast to the chest, boxing has lost one of its most intriguing and brilliant fighters, as the AP has reported that three-time world champion Alexis Arguellowas found dead at his home in Managua, Nicaragua on Wednesday morning. Arguello was probably best known for losing two epic battles with Aaron Pryor in the 1980s, but he also lived one of the most colorful and fascinating lives of any fighter in recent memory.
As highlighted in an incredible SPORTS ILLUSTRATED profile from 1985, Arguello suffered from crippling poverty as an Indian living in war-torn Nicaragua, and watched as his father tried to commit suicide by jumping down a well, and then wrapped the rope thrown down to haul him up around his neck. As a champion fighter, he veered from incredible self-discipline to drug use and adultry. Later, he was elected mayor of Managua - running on the ticket of the same Sandanista party that he took arms against after becoming a boxing star.
Somehow LeBron James ended another game against the Orlando Magic in their Eastern Conference Finals with the ball in his hand and a chance to win the game. But unlike Game 2, he couldn’t find the miracle the Cavaliers needed, as his desperation heave from 35 feet was off the mark, wrapping up the Magic’s 116-114 OT victory. Orlando now holds a commanding 3-1 series lead, as the Cavaliers are threatening to take a page from the Ohio State football team and choke at the worst possible moment.
And perhaps it was fitting, since the game only went to overtime on two James free throws on a questionable foul committed by Mickael Pietrus with six seconds left - with James needing a friendly roll to get the second. (And honestly, how can the best player on the planet be so average and unreliable from the free throw line? Do you ever remember feeling nervous when Michael Jordan stepped to the line at the end of a game?)
It’s hard to blame James for Game 4: after all, he did have 44 points and 12 rebounds. Even the eight turnovers in the box score are more a reflection of him trying to do everything because he had to than any faults. No, the big problem for Cleveland is that they’ve pretty much turned back into King James and His Inept Court of Jokers this series, with his supporting cast basically providing nothing (Delonte West and Mo Williams combined to go 12-for-30 in Game 4, including 0-for-6 from behind the arc.)
Meanwhile, the Magic were unconscious from three-point range, going 17-for-38, with Rafer Alston leading the way with six threes on the way to a 26 point night. And Dwight Howard played angry in overtime - perhaps over picking up his sixth technical foul of the season, or because he thought he was fouled at the end of regulation. No matter what the reason, he took it out on the Cavaliers, scored on three straight dunks en route to 10 points in the extra session. So a dominant big man plus great outside shooting is a good thing, I guess.
Also a good thing: having your league’s best player and leading scorer on the same team. That’s exactly what the Pittsburgh Penguins have, and why they are heading back to the Stanley Cup after a 4-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes to sweep the Eastern Conference Finals. And even though they didn’t score in the series-clincher, Penguins stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin had done more than enough, proving to be way too much for a game but overmatched Carolina side. So while the NBA is wincing at losing their dream match-up, the NHL has to be thrilled with a likely Penguins vs. Red Wings rematch.
Finally, to update a tragic story we told you about earlier today, KPHO-TV in Phoenix reports that Mike Tyson’s daughter Exodus, 4, has died from injuries she sustained in a freak accident at her family home in Arizona. No matter what you think about Mike Tyson as a person, monster or character in a classic Greek tragedy, your heart has to go out to him and his family. For anyone with a child, reading about this gets your stomach all tied up in knots.
So after what PRO FOOTBALL TALK had reported was a tug-of-war to sign John Lynch as an NFL analyst, NEWSDAY says that the winner is Fox, snatching the former Buccaneers and Broncos standout from ESPN. Lynch will likely be replacing Brian Baldinger, which means that he’ll need to have his finger run over with a steamroller to match the “analyst with the gross digit” quota at the network.
Is this a sign that the Anquan Boldin contract mess is about to come to an end?: ESPN.COM says that the disgruntled Cardinals wide receiver has fired Drew Rosenhaus as his agent. Stepping in? This guy.
Ready for a career switch to the exciting and fast-paced world of sports business? Fat chance, says the NEW YORK TIMES, as tough economic times have made jobs in the industry tougher to get than ever. In fact, it’s so bad that people actually want to work for the Cincinnati Bengals.
Top Orioles prospect Matt Wieters is getting his call-up to the big leagues, and is expected to make his big-league debut as a catcher on Friday against the Tigers. CAN’T STOP THE BLEEDING wonders if the Baltimore sports media is making too big of a deal about this. (i.e. could Peter Schmuck please remove his tongue from Wieters’ mouth?)
The NEW YORK TIMES has the latest from Roland Garros (English translation: Ron Garrett) Stadium and the French Open: Serena Williams serves a “horrendous” performance, while James Blake is bounced yet again.
Just how dominant has Zack Greinke been this season for the Royals? As the KANSAS CITY STAR reports, he gave up one earned run in his fifth complete game of the season, a 6-1 win over the Tigers…and his ERA actually went up slightly, “ballooning” to 0.84.
Probably not what Marshall wanted to hear about their prized football recruit A.J. Graham: the TALLAHASSE DEMOCRAT says that Florida’s “Mr. Football” was arrested on robbery charges - just hours before his scheduled high school graduation.
And now more tragedy has struck the families of pro athletes living in the Phoenix area. Mike Tyson’s 4-year-old daughter is on life support after almost strangling herself with a treadmill cord.
Why do we continue to give college basketball a pass on “March Madness” when the Final Four takes place during April? Sure, you’re sitting there and thinking, “So only 61 of the 64 games happen in the right month? So?” It’s the principle of it all, damn it! I can’t make a PG movie that turns R-rated in the last 5 minutes. It’d be like that one Mandy Moore movie A Walk to Remember, where (SPOILER ALERT!) she dies at the end, except in this version it’s by getting her head ripped off by naked zombies. Actually, get Hollywood on the phone; that idea sounds like a winner.
But we digress. Even people in the deepest of comas know that today is just the first day of a week in which worker productivity plummets and everyone, for at least a couple days, is a college basketball fan. Today is reserved for staring at a bracket, cursing the fact that the talking heads on ESPN like the same upsets you do (making them both popular and wrong, which completely disqualifies them as keys to winning your pool). Lots of office printers being tied up today. UPSET PROTIP: Think about American in the Elite 8. You’ll be happy you did. High fives all around!
Technically, yes, the rest of the sports world doesn’t stand still, and there’s plenty of things to talk about away from the parquet. We’re happy to report that your national pride has been granted an extension of legitimacy, as the USA defeated the Nether Region Netherlands, 9-3. Up next is either Venezuela or Puerto Rico, depending on who loses between the two teams tonight.
On the other side of the WBC bracket or however they set this thing up, Japan and Korea have jumped out to strong positions, while Mexico and Cuba fight to avoid elimination tonight. Quick question: why is the Mexico-Cuba game being played, essentially, in the middle of the night? And we get that this is a “world” classic and this time makes it possible for the rest of the world to watch, but 95-99% of the people who actually give a single crap about this game live in Mexico and Cuba (not a slight at those two countries, by the way; you could substitute any two teams in there, and the fact remains the same), and you’re essentially playing the game while they sleep. Wouldn’t almost anything be better than a start time that’s still late (8 pm) in San Diego, where the game is being held.
And speaking of situations in need of repair, can we talk about Jay Cutler and Denver? Talks have gone swimmingly after that trade kerfuffle from earlier, and Cutler is eager to get started on the 2009 season and develop a positive relationship with his new coach. LOL JUST KIDDING I AM LYING BADLY. Cutler has now left the city of Denver and demanded a trade, according to the DENVER POST.
(In this case, “thumbs up” means “I hate you.”)
And perhaps it’s just us, but like the Denver Post’s Mike Klis, we get the notion that Bill Belichick is probably a bigger factor in this mess than it would initially appear. Here’s how Klis’ version of the situation basically went down.
Josh McDaniels: I’m the coach at Denver now! Isn’t this great, Bill?
Belicheck: Call me Mr. Belichick, you little sh*t. How are you doing at quarterback? You want Cassel?
JM: Not particularly. We have Cutler.
BB: Cassel’s better. We can get a 3-way trade done. You want Cassel.
JM: Um, that’d be kinda cool, but we have Cutler.
BB: Oh. Huh. Weird.
NFL: Cassel has been traded to Kansas City for basically nothing.
BOSTON GLOBE: Denver was talking about trading Cutler for Cassel.
Jay Cutler: What the hell. Screw you. I’m leaving.
JM: Say, Mr. Belichick? Now I have neither Cassel nor Cutler.
BB: NYEAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I always liked Pioli better!
JM: I hate you, Mr. Belichick. Some more links to peruse while you’re still thinking, “American? They face Villanova in Philly in Round 1! That’s stupid!” Stupid like a fox!
Manny Ramirez is already on the shelf with a bum hamstring. Good thing those injuries don’t linger.
And speaking of WBC injuries, Chipper Jones, Dustin Pedroia, and Ryan Braunare all out. Why do we get the feeling George Steinbrenner would never stand for this?
You young folks with your rap and video games may not know it, but these videos that HOME RUN DERBY found show that Pete Rose was one damned fine aftershave salesman back in the day. Observe:
If you heard that your favorite NBA team scored 130 points in a blowout, odds are pretty good that you’d be thrilled. Except, of course, if you live in the Bay Area; that optimism would be replaced by fear and dread. Yes, today’s hilarious lack of NBA defense comes from… the same team it always comes from, the Golden State Warriors. Yes, they dropped 130, but they gave up 154 points to Phoenix, and that’s with most of the Suns’ starters on the bench for the vast majority of the 4th quarter. Jason Richardson dropped 31 points on only 15 shots.
There are plenty of good reasons for a boxer to be banned from the ring. Maybe you have AIDS like Tommy Morrison, and you are therefore a risk of infecting other boxers. Maybe you’re Mike Tyson and since you’ve already tried to bite somebody’s ear off, have that whole rape conviction, and are generally starting to suck anyway, various boxing federations just don’t want you. One reason you should never be barred from boxing, though, is because you have breast implants.
That’s exactly what’s happening to Sarah Blewden, who has been told by the Amateur Boxing Association of England that she will not be allowed to compete for the country’s 2016 Olympic team because of her fake breasts. Not because they put other boxers at risk, but because international rules bar anyone with them from competing because repeated punches to the body could deform the implants and breast tissue surrounding them. All of which Blewden thinks is bollocks.
Spike TV broadcast their 2008 Video Game Awards on Sunday night, and the big surprise wasn’t any of the winners. (Your Game of the Year? “Grand Theft Auto IV”. Yawn.) It was an appearance by Mike Tyson, there to promote the upcoming release of “Fight Night Round 4.” Not that he did anything particularly exciting: no trying to bite off show host Jack Black’s ears, no threatening to “eat Luigi’s children.” No, the shock was, quite simply, his appearance:
One of the people above is King Hippo from “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out” and the other is Tyson himself, sporting a physique more along the lines of Buster Douglas than the Baddest Man on the Planet. Can you spot which is which? (Hint: Tyson is the one whose wardrobe is sponsored by Dockers.)
Mitch “Blood” Green, the former boxer best known for being beaten by Mike Tyson both in and out of the ring in the late 80s, spoke with THE SWEET SCIENCE for a phone interview this week; proving that Green is not only still alive but he also owns a telephone.
The guy pictured above falling victim to Tyson’s fist, from their 1986 bout in Madison Square Garden, is now 51 years old. But his age is getting in the way of his desire to…wait for it…get back in the ring.
The former gang leader turned boxer doesn’t even care what shape the ring is either. He’s willing to step in to an octagon, although I’m sure he really knew there was a difference. When asked about his future plans, He tells TSS, “Ultimate fighting, wrestling, whatever.”
If there is one rule all athletes should live by, it’s not “avoid cameras when you go out to the bar” (though that is a pretty solid rule). It’s this: Whatever you do, however frustrated or angry you become in the athletic competition in which you are competing, do not, under any circumstances, bite an opponent.
No one told that Olympic boxer from Tajikistan the rule, and you saw what happened. Someone should have told Welsh rugby player Gareth Jones the same “No Biting Whatsoever” rule. But he didn’t know, and now he’s gone and taken his opponent’s ear off. Read more…
