I'm listening to the boxing on the radio. Not something I've ever done before - officially I disapprove of boxing, but I like to watch it on TV from time to time - and it seems a strange thing to do, seeing as boxing is such a very visual thing. You'd think that boxing on the radio would be the equivalent of memory competitions on the telly - nobody can see what's happening. But old cartoons, comics etc are absolutely full of scenes of people crowding around a radio to listen to the big fight, so this is my sort of tribute to that, and also to the fact that there's nothing good on TV. I hope Valuev wins - I hate it when a plucky underdog beats the hot favourite.
See - or, more precisely, hear - boxing is better on the radio than it is on TV. Even a mediocre bout can excite on the radio (at least, if you like imagining brutal combat) in a way that it doesn't when you can see how disappointing it is. The old adage is that "styles make fights", and a fight with such a height disparity is always going to be badly affected by it.
ReplyDeleteI don't feel like it's a massive spoiler if I mention the result, but it really was the favourite who won rather than the plucky underdog in this instance. Now to some extent the British boxer will always be the favourite with British bookmakers, but quite a few pundits from around the world were picking Haye to win, simply because he really has wild skills and Valuev showed his obvious limitations very clearly.
Have you ever asked bookies to quote on the World Memory Championship?