Oh man, I DEFINITELY know someone who's all talk. My best friend is a little wiley guy and as long as I'm around he'll talk smack on anyone. Don't get me wrong, I couldn't fight my way out of a paper bag but I guess I'm intimidating to people. I'm 6'3 and about 220 and I lift weights but by all means don't consider myself a fighter. That doesn't mean I won't back down, I stand up for myself if s%^& goes south but I try to avoid it. And hanging out with my buddy doesn't help. He cracks up alot of people but has had the crap beat out of him more times than I can count.

BTW- Saturday night's UFC fight was garbage. WTH is wrong with Belfort!!! I have to say though, seeing Baroni get his @$$ handed to him was nice. You know it's a good fight when you can't understand the losing opponent in an interview cuz his marbles were shook so loose.

 

My dad has always told me it's the quiet people you have to watch out for, and I've found this to be pretty true. The people that like to run their mouths are the ones that usually get their butts kicked the worst because they can't back it up. I've been in a few fights and done pretty well but I don't go out looking for them. I know there are a lot of people that could kick my butt but I always tell myself that if it happens, it will only hurt for a couple days, lol.

Some of my buddies and I like to box for fun, especially when we've had a few beers. One night we were boxing and my best friend was back in town for the weekend. He's a quiet, average sized guy that never starts anything, but he's a heck of a fighter. This one guy who's a pretty good boxer kept trying to get him to box him because he thought he'd murder him. Well he finally did and my buddy literally knocked him out. I thought it was pretty funny.

 

I started boxing in the local amature club at age 10 . I also became involved in La Savatte , better known now as kick boxing at age 16 . Boxed in the middle weight class then though I would undoubtedly be in the heavy weight class for the last 20 years .

Boxed as a sport for fun and excersise and when young there was not a lot of emphesis placed on winning or knocking the snot out of the other guys in the club . I continued to box untill I was old enough for a few semi pro matches where the idea was definately to win and one made more money if he did which was not a large pile of sheckels any way .


The Kick Boxing was just an added activity to stay in shape and hone the defensive skills a bit more for the boxing as it made it necessary to develop
a wider range of reflexes than boxing did .

I quit both at about 20 the same year I finished Junior Hockey and found other activities to occupy my time . One must remember that this was in the days before the X Box and Internet and Video Games etc. that keep a large percentage of our children in the house and fat now .

I was never one to take my sports to the street or the bar once old enough
and was a fairly laid back mellow sort of guy in those days but when you are
growing up in any small town and involved in these sports there is always some loudmouthed geek wanting to put a notch on his gun to impress his girl or buddies and it becomes hard to do much without being called out more than a few times . If these guys could not be convinced to back away and stay out of the combat zone or listen to others around telling them they may
have made a bad choice the time for talk of how good they were was over and the time for product had arrived .

Someone has already mentioned the lack of ability that those that harp the loudest or the longest usually possesed and that has not changed and they were the ones that always went down the fastest and the easiest .

There is always someone better which has also been mentioned and I lost a good many of my matches in the ring before becoming talented enough to win most but never ever did I encounter a bully or blowheart that was worth the effort it took to change their attitude .

Fighting outside any controlled environment as a sport is not only a waste of time but a very dangerous practice as one wrong connection without gloves can kill another just as quick as it knocks them out it the ring .

The inner city kids do not have to deal with this much these days from what I see on the tube because half of them are carrying guns to make their point .

It was probably the boxing and la savatte that kept us busy and out of trouble in my younger days .

One match I must mention is one that remains the foremost in my recollection of amature boxing which like most places are 3 round cards . I was 17 and carded against the closest opponent from a neighbouring club to my size who had about 3 " of reach and 20 lb. on me . i danced my way around him for the first round to try and get the feel for him but he was pretty good and obviously better than me . In the second round I dropped my guard enough to let him in with a left hook that caught me square between the eyes .

The last thing I remembered was his glove coming in and everything was black till I woke up looking at the lights and the refs face . My trainer told me he lifted me right off my feet and I landed flat out on my back on the mat .

I had no recollection of these events as I was out when he hit me . This kid was 17 same as me and cold cocked me like I had never put on a set of gloves before . He never lost and did box a bit of Semi Pro but also quit when he was about 20 . Killed by a drunk driver when he was 25 .

I still follow boxing to some degree but do not watch any of the Extreme Sports where blood is the goal . I stopped following NHL Hockey for the same reason as it is no longer the game I played .

Sports are sports and supposed to be for fun and to stay in shape and instill some morel fiber in those involved in my poinion and few of them have this format anymore now that Corporate America has taken over . It's all about the gold now and I don't mean medals .