This is going to be painful to write.
When I was four years old, I watched Larry Holmes beat down Muhammad Ali on national TV. I didn’t know why at the time, but it made me really sad, sort of like watching someone kick your favorite old dog.
Four years later I read my first “adult” book, “The Greatest: My Own Story”, Muhammad Ali’s autobiography. I was instantly hooked, not just by the sport, but by this man who took on racism, war, religious intolerance and pretty much the entire South.
Again, I didn’t know why at the time, but I knew Muhammad Ali was someone to look up to. I still do.
I can’t say the same for boxing. What was once one of my favorite sports has turned into a hot mess that is on the verge of extinction. I grew up in one of boxing’s Golden Eras watching Sugar Ray, Hagler, Hearns, Duran, a young Mike Tyson, Riddick Bowe and Evander Holyfield.
It was all going great until Don King came along and ruined the whole thing. Now I feel like boxing itself is the old dog and I am the one kicking it.
It might have taken years, but I will finally admit that MMA is far superior to boxing and here is why.