Sakio Bombs

Hello to all of you out there. Serving you is your boy Nickas. My goal here is to follow big time sporting events and blog them live. Some will be generic, others will be in rhyme. My book is soon to be done, just three and half games to go. Earlier today before work I spoke with a UT professor and he really lit a fire under my ass and has me extremely motivated to finish this project. So, without further ado, lets with a visit to last night's "Contender" finale on ESPN.

I'm a big fan of boxing and have been watching big fights "since a young Marvin in his hay," but somehow the second tier fighters on the Contender don't do it for me. However, last night Brady and I decided to watch the finale between Jaidon "the Don" Codrington vs. Sakio Bika. Other than the sappy music (and ugly wife of Sakio - think female Greg Popovich) this fight was a classic. It reminded me of the Hagler/Hearns fight in the mid 80s (youtube) in where both fighters came out wanting to drop BOMBS. Think Rocky vs. Drago, Gatti vs. Ward, Judah vs. Cotto.

In the first round Sakio throws haymakers ala Carlos Mayorga, wild swinging hooks that landed on Jaidon's guard. One eventually knocks him down in the first bit it appears like a slip. Later, with Bika pressing, the Don counters with a sharp left hook that drops Sakio like a sack of mierda. A boxing fan's dream is to see the agressor get dropped as he thinks he's close to ending the fight. This rarity happened (think Vargas/Trinidad, youtube this too). His knees buckled and his charging flurries had turned into wobbly legs. Brady and I hopped around the room like little school girls as Savvy rose to excitement. Sakio somehow got up (my buddy Kirk notably said that this kind of shot would knock out 99% of boxers but Sakio was in incredible shape) and made it through the round by tying up. Each insuing round was followed up by MORE BOMBS.

One sportscenter anchor, halfway through the fight, claimed "this is one of the best action fights of all-time." ALL TIME. And his assessment seemed accurate as I watched. In one round, as it closed, each fighter threw looping hooks at one another and kept connecting. Styles make fights, and with Sakio's unorthadox technique combined with Jaidon's heart, you had a war. It's too bad the ref stopped it when he did, an 8th round TKO of Jaidon as he kept trying to stay up but was obviously out on his feet. If the man could've swallowed his pride and taken a knee and got a 9 second breather he might be Contender champ.

Please go to espn.com/boxing and see this fight for yourself. I will chronicle other big sporting events to come.

- the Sports Poet

ps. with each post I'll post a piece of poetry. This is a favorite of mine.

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

- Rudyard Kipling