There's Hope For Me Yet!

If this woman can get a job then surely even I can too!!




What a gaffe. God bless Youtube!

Yours,
Gavin Grace....your potential employee!

Time To 'Execute' Racism in Boxing

You have to learn one thing. You have to learn that slickness that black fighters have and then you'll really be a great champion.

Bernard Hopkins, speaking to Kelly Pavlik after winning their non-title 170 pound fight on Saturday.

What can you say about Bernard Hopkins? From the moment he entered the ring in Atlantic City on Saturday night, wearing (for the first time in many a year) his trademark Executioner mask, we should have known something was up.


What a performance.


For those of you who didn't see it, B-Hop dominated Pavlik from start to finish with a comfortable unanimous decision. I had it 118-107 but in truth it didn't matter - this was a (surprising) whitewash.


However, his comments after the fight (shown above, taken from Dan Rafael's account of the fight on espn.com) are sickening. Coming from the man who said he would 'never lose to a white boy' before he fought Joe Calzaghe, this is another racist statement which should not be tolerated.


I have no problem with Bernard as a fighter. Sure, he's not the most exciting to watch, but to see him mentally as well as physically deconstruct an opponent is a great sight. It is art. Yet for this statement to go virtually unnoticed is a disgrace.


Bernard - you are a first ballot Hall of Famer. In a time when boxing shoots itself in the foot with alphabet soup organisations and too many champions, you were for many years an undisputed champion in one of it's key divisions. In terms of dominance and superiority, you were a throwback to halycon fighters such as Sugar Ray Robinson and Carlos Monzon. Yet statements such as this, as well as your chequered history, make you unlikeable as a human being.


Now, more then ever, boxing needs strong leaders in the ilk of Ali, Louis and Marciano. MMA, though I don't rate it myself, has become a threat. It is taking money and attention out of boxing. Yet it is struggling as well, and in the fight of the pugilistic disciplines, 'faces' would go a long way. These men need to be likable, these men need to be exciting and, Bernard, it makes no difference if they're black or white.

Baseball = Politics?

Saw this picture just now, over here.

Is it a case of the second one will be right?

Or, one down one to go?

I know which one I want... but I won't say. Sport and politics should never mix... ;)

Agony and Ecstacy

So why do we like sport? That's a question I'm often asked. I'm passionate about my sport, just ask anyone who knows me, including Ash who's on the couch beside me watching the Gilmore Girls... and she says I'm sad.

This weekend I experienced the highs and the lows of sport, the reason that I follow teams, sportsmen, my country, my province.

On Saturday night the Chicago Cubs were dumped out of the MLB Playoffs by the Dodgers. Another sweep. Christ.. Now I'm not the biggest Cubbie in the world. I'm only a recent convert. Nonetheless, I really wanted them to win this year. It would have been great symmetry, 100 years after their last World Series win, five years after Steve Bartman. However, it was not to be.

By the way, Ozzie... Fuck you too.

Then, less than 24 hours later, Connacht took on Leinster in the Magners League in rugby. Oh Connacht... being a fan of the worst province in is the definition of a labour of love. We are given less money then every other team, and are less successful then the others also. Yet sometimes...sometimes the underdog wins. That was last night. Connacht beat Leinster 19-18. It was amazing. I cried. Genuinely, I cried. It was beautiful.

That's why I love sport. Joy, despair.. I laughed, I cried. It was everything that sport should be about. It was life at it's purest. Sport gives us moments we yearn for, ranges of emotion that re only otherwise hit in times such as family deaths, births and weddings. My life is sport. Sport is my life.