Categories
General Sport & Adventure Martial Arts WMMA Women Boxing

Battle of the Sexes II: Tennis & MMA

Battle of the Sexes – Tennis

“No woman ever lived who could compete with a man on an equal basis – even a 55-year-old man… they can’t play a lick if they can’t beat a 55-year-old guy.” These are the infamous words of Bobby Riggs in 1973 before he went on to defeat his first women challenger Margaret Court. The better-known battle, however, was fought between Riggs and Billie Jean King that same year. The match had an estimated audience of 50 million in the USA and 90 million worldwide. It remains as one of the largest audiences to see a tennis match in the United States.

King’s physical win over her opposite sex did not convince men of her superior athleticism over Riggs. Speculations of Riggs deliberately losing the match to win a financially lucrative bet threw a dark cloud over the glory of her victory. Fortunately, for a man who once declared his desire to be the number one “chauvinist pig”, Riggs eventually acknowledged the legitimacy of his defeat as he said, “People said I was tanking, but Billie Jean beat me fair and square.”

Battle of the Sexes – MMA Take I

“99% of woman are too weak and lack the reflexes to do enough damage to stop 99% of men”, said the previously unknown Kristopher Zylinski. He was more commonly referred to as the Sexist Internet troll that eventually signed up to fight a female professional MMA fighter in early 2018.

 

45 years after King defeated Riggs, many men still see women as an inferior counterpart in sport. What has changed, however, is the willingness of women to step up to defend themselves. A number of women MMA fighters put their names down to go against the Zylinski, including the terrifying 6 ft. 2 tall, 236 lbs. Brazilian Fighter Gabi Garcia. Zylinski then clarified that he would only fight someone his weight class – at 160 lbs., but he would gladly take on a pro female fighter. Eventually, Tara LaRosa, an MMA veteran of 27 pro fights stepped in as the female representative of the battle.

The fight was scheduled to be live-streamed on the 6th Jan 2018, but at the 11th hour, the State Athletic Commission shut down the fight.

Battle of the Sexes – MMA Take II

Undeterred, LaRosa and Zyllinski rescheduled the match in an unknown time and location for the match. Their fight was recorded and broadcasted on 22nd Jan 2018. In contrast to King vs. Riggs, the MMA Battle of the Sexes had a live audience of one man – the videographer.

 

Zylinski – a fit, muscular young man was worn down by his female opponent. He surrendered twice, first time due to exhaustion and later due to an arm bar. He claimed that LaRosa won because she was better conditioned to fight training. He considered the experience ‘eye-opening’ and did not expect for someone with his sound fitness level he would be gassed out within 4 minutes.

Any viewers who had expected Zylinski to win probably imagined a victorious knock out. Even LaRosa admitted as much, “Yeah I was nervous as hell… I thought to God … he was going to start like, swing on me and knock me out.” The reality, however, was that Zylinski had little grasp of striking distance and struggled to even get close enough to attempt a punch. “The distance was very tough,” he explains. “You expose yourself a lot”. In his second effort to defeat her, he tried to wrestle her to the ground.

Unfortunately for Zylinski, grappling was where LaRosa was most advantageous. “My game plan… was to go to the ground immediately”. Nonetheless, she still needed to utilise her years of muscle memory, manoeuvring her opponent using her body weight instead of brute force. “Even on the ground he was stronger than me,” LaRosa conceded.

Mind, Muscle, Memory

Aside from luck and other external factors, Mind, Muscle and Memory are three main aspect of an athlete that can influence the outcome of a match. Men usually focus solely on ‘Muscle’. Undoubtedly, pound for pound, men are generally stronger and thus they decide that women will always lose.

In the battles of the sexes, from King vs. Riggs to LaRosa vs. Zylinski, the women won their tournaments via a superior mind game that drew on the wisdom of their memories. King changed her aggressive style and adopted a baseline game to counter Riggs’ defensive methods. She gained insight from the loss of Margaret Court earlier that year. Eventually, King wore Riggs down after forcing him to run far more than he was accustomed to. LaRosa observed that Zylinski “was not conditioned mentally. I know the drill, to relax, to breath regularly.”

“Sorry I could not do better,” Zylinski apologised sheepishly as he collapsed onto the mat at the end of his fight. When asked if he felt humbled by this, ‘Sexist Internet Troll’ followed the lead of his ancestor ‘Number One Chauvinist Pig’ and agreed readily.

Video footage of the match can be seen:

https://www.facebook.com/McDojoLife/videos/1532446250202313/

Battle of the Sexes discusses two types of tournament between 2 men & 2 women – Tennis, Riggs & Court and MMA, LaRosa vs Zylinski.

Categories
Boxing MMA UFC WMMA Women Boxing

BATTLE OF THE UNDEFEATED: 3 Reasons to Watch Claressa “T-Rex” Shields Take on Tori “Sho-Nuff” Nelson Tonight

BATTLE OF THE UNDEFEATED: 3 Reasons to Watch Claressa “T-Rex” Shields Take on Tori “Sho-Nuff” Nelson Tonight

First published on allsportseverything.com as a guest blogger

Women have been traditionally discouraged from professional sports for a variety of reasons – from the severe pay discrimination, the constant mockery of a female athlete’s physique and the endless taunts of ‘you are never going to be as good as a man in the same sport’. Women in combat sport have been fighting back hard for years. The year 2012 became a landmark year for boxing and mixed martial arts. Olympic female boxing was inaugurated when Claressa Shields claimed her first gold medal and in that same year Ronda Rousey became the first UFC female titleholder. From thereon, women fighters continue punching hard at this impossible opponent called misogyny.

Last year proved to be another fruitful year for female combatants. Shields became the first women to headline a USA premium pay TV boxing event on March 10th when she won her first professional title. She proceeded that same year to win a world title by the WBC in the middle weight division. In April 2017, Amanda Serrano became the first women to win world titles in five weight divisions. Her stupendous achievement was matched by Naoko Fujioka in December 2017 when the 42-year-old Japanese fighter won the WBO light flyweight title. That same year, UFC saw two new female divisions – featherweight and flyweight. The year finished off with a bang when Cris Cyborg, the dominant featherweight won via unanimous decision in the title fight with Holly Holm, former title holder of world championships in boxing and mixed martial arts.

This year kicks off with a clash between two prominent figures in women’s boxing. Claressa Shields meets Tori Nelson, the undefeated 41-year-old veteran for her first defense of the WBC and IBF female super middleweight titles. If you remain undecided about becoming a fan of women in combat sport, here are three reasons to consider tuning into the fight.

1.        Young vs Old

With better health care and improvements in medical science, athletes are constantly re-defining a respectable retirement age. A 19-year age gap between two opponents in a championship fight is still rare. Shields made a dig at Nelson’s age in a recent interview, “Tori Nelson is an older woman. … She reminds me of my grandma a little bit. … I’ll give her to the seventh [round] to be respectful.” A comment like that would surely incite women athletes in their twilight years to tune in and watch Nelson teach her ‘grandchild’ a lesson. Regardless, a match between a 12-time world championship old timer versus the hot new gun will certainly be an interesting contrast in style, speed and resilience.

2.         Cracking the Zero

Both fighters are currently undefeated. Nelson, like most athletes, is probably aiming to retire with no loss to her record. Shields, on the other hand, is clearly in the early days of blazing through what is likely to be a world class boxing career, and a loss so early will no doubt be demoralizing.  There is the off chance the match will finish in a draw. However, given the aggressive style of Shields, it is likely the match will run full length.

3.         The New Face of Women’s Boxing

Shields is considered to possess the inexplicable star quality, both inside and outside the ring. Aside from her impressive performance in combat sport, she is also a source of national pride for being the first (and so far only) American boxer to win an Olympic medal twice in a row. This is a time when MMA is seducing many boxers with its sizable purses, including the recent migration of Amanda Serrano who’s MMA debut is scheduled for March 2018. Shields remains staunchly loyal to the sport and for now she still presents herself in the world of boxing with infinite enthusiasm, vigor and drive.

Hosted at Turning Stone Casino in Verona, New York, tonight’s main event will air on the SHObox series of fights aired by Showtime at 10PM/ET.

All Sports Everything guest contributor Cyan is a former amateur boxer and the author of the novel ‘Girl Fighter’. You may find more information about her at www.girlfighterbook.com/about.

image via fightnewsasia.com

Categories
Book Reviews Boxing

Review of book “The Murder of Sonny Liston”

The Murder of Sonny Liston: Las Vegas, Heroin, and HeavyweightsThe Murder of Sonny Liston: Las Vegas, Heroin, and Heavyweights by Shaun Assael
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sonny Liston is a fascinating character. He was born and raised in very difficult circumstances – abused, neglected and was almost invisible to the world – an irony for a child who grew up so large. He somehow managed to become one of the best fighter not simply for his generation but also regarded often as top boxer of all times. As a man he was full of flaws, but not without virtue. Yet most people only saw him as a junkie, womaniser and an illiterate angry black criminal. And so his death was duly ignored and dismissed by the public. His talent for boxing was just astonishing I often wondered what great heights he might have attained if things hadn’t been this rough for him at the start.

Shaun Assael painted a complete picture of his life through the eyes of everyone – those who used him, despised him, those who loved him and believed him, and those who simply understood him and put up with his terrible habits. The book was written in a true journalistic observational style, with little interceding personal opinions. He covered all grounds and explored as much as he could, exhausting every avenue of the mystery surrounding Liston’s death. Every concerns, no matter how sensitive or unsavoury was discussed. Tragically, there was little that can be done today with such an enormous time lapse.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It was an easy read for a non-fiction with such a large cast of colourful characters, each playing a complicated role in that complex world where law enforcement and criminals were divided by a blurred line. It also shed some light on the beginnings of Las Vegas, with a few unexpected personalities such as Frank Sinatra – rather informative.

View all my reviews

Categories
Boxing Martial Arts Mental Health MMA

Death and Martial Arts

 

MMA Legend Randy Couture on Instagram

Death is concept that is never far from the mind of a martial artist. In the case of Robert Follis, it may have been a thought that sat for too long in his consciousness since he lost one of his brothers via suicide.

It is no news that many successful combat sport athletes came a difficult background. Death within the family, or the stark absence of loved ones that is a akin to a metaphoric version of death feeds into a deep dark void of anguish that is often inextinguishable. It is a common misconception that athletes sought violence as a remedy to relieve their need to punch out at the world. In fact, there is a kind of peace in devoting body and mind to an heightened focus that can only be achieved when in intense combat.

Unfortunately, the biggest battle of all lies not within the competitive arena, but within the confines of one’s skull. The most difficult every fighter faces is usually himself. It is sadly through suicide when that war is finally lost.

The sudden death of Robert Follis, a young, healthy and successful MMA coach, well regarded within his community sent shock waves within industry. One of his most well know student Miesha Tate became a UFC Women’s Bantamweight title holder under his guidance – that is a testament to his outstanding work as a trainer. The Follis’ family have asked for privacy, and the entire MMA community, trainers, fighters, writers and viewers alike held their tongues dutifully. None had dared to discuss the D word and the S word.

Tragically, Robert Follis is not the first to stun the pugilistic world with such an abrupt departure. But one can hope the community can learn to be watchful of each other, to be open and accepting to those who are brave enough to discuss their inner demons, perhapshe will be the last.

Categories
Boxing Women Boxing

Taylor vs McCaskill- andstill

Gone are the days where female prize fights are the warm-up rounds. Thanks to the likes of Claressa Shields for boxing and Ronda Rousey for MMA, women are starting to lead the way in headline acts for professional bouts.

Ward vs Giner

On the evening of Wed 13th Dec 2017 in London, Katie Taylor meets Jessica McCaskill for the first defence of the WBA lightweight title. They met shortly after the European super-featherweight title between Martin J Ward v Juli Giner, where Martin became the new title holder after his left hook brought Giner to a halt at the 6th round. A clean finish that fired up the crowd in keener anticipation for their main event.

Taylor vs McCaskill

It is no secret that McCaskill chased Taylor unrelentingly for months before the fight was arranged. Considering the mighty legendary status that Taylor holds on the opposite of the Atlantic, McCaskill appears to hold little or no apprehension when the fight was set up in London, an almost home ground for Taylor.

McCaskill’s relentless chasing went all the way into the ring. In the first few rounds, Taylor stayed calm, compose while McCaskill pushes forward with a fierce determination. It was as though she had no intention to run all 10 rounds and is willing to risk her stamina for an early termination.

The main difference between the two fighters, for me anyway, is that Taylor is still playing a sport whereas McCaskill has no interest in scoring, all her strikes are intend for a knock out. At some point it appears to me, Katie Taylor realised just how intense McCaskill’s attacks were. By that stage the cheers of the crowd, instead of fueling her confidence seem to make her more stressed.

It was a spectacular fight for me, neither girls fray at any point, both maintaining a strong will. Taylor seems to gain more control at the end, grasping McCaskill’s technique when both became fatigued. The crowd roars toward the last minute. Everyone held their breathe till the end.

Unanimous decision for Katie Taylor. And still.

No worries Jessica McCaskil you’ll sure gain yourself a few new fans. One of them is me 👍😃