Pub trivia: Boxing
Boxing
If footie's the beautiful game, then boxing's the downright ugly one: two beefcakes in silky shorts bashing each other's faces into spam. Here's a bunch of slightly interesting facts about the sport.
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Fact
Some boxing nicknames are perfect. Think "Iron" Mike Tyson and Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins. But what about Jerry "Wimpy" Halstead, Eric "Butterbean" Esch and Manny "PacMan" Pacquaio? But at least these nicknames are pretty snappy – unlike Juan "The Hispanic Causing Panic" Lazcano.
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Fact
Joe Louis wasn't just one of the most iconic heavyweight champions of all time - he was also in Liverpool FC. It was during a promotional tour of Britain in the 1940s when Louis, as a publicity stunt, signed up with Liverpool. He remains on the books today, which means he's officially counted as a Liverpool player.
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Fact
World heavyweight boxing champ George Foreman has made millions from his low fat grill, but wrestler Hulk Hogan was actually the first choice to endorse the product. Hulk, apparently, missed the phone call.
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Fact
The famous Queensberry rules gave us things like three-minute rounds and 10 second counts and basically invented the sport of boxing as we know it. The 9th Marquess of Queensberry (John Sholto Douglas) got all the glory, but the rules were actually invented by chap called John Graham Chambers and the Marquess simply endorsed them.
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Fact
Boxing first emerged as a competitive sport in Ancient Greece and the often brutal matches were fought with bare knuckles. Things got even gorier with the Romans, who came up with a wonderful tie-break round which involved the fighters standing still and taking turns smashing each other in the face until one crumpled.
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Fact
Arguably the best boxer of all time was Sugar Ray Robinson, who dominated the sport in the 40s and 50s. Fast, flamboyant and technically brilliant - pundits, boxing scholars and the likes of Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali have called him the greatest who ever was.
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Fact
The phrase "great white hope" was invented for US boxer James J Jeffries, who came out of retirement in 1910 to take on Jack Johnson, the first ever black heavyweight champion. Jeffries was the "great white hope" who'd supposedly put the "black upstart" back in his place. Instead, Johnson pummelled him into the ground.
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Fact
Only one boxing champion has ever retired without losing a single fight in his entire professional career - heavyweight star Rocky Marciano.
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