#boxing

Boxing’s not that straightforward,” said Eldric. “You can practice and practice, but the real experience will always be different. Lots of things are like that, actually. ↗

— Franny Billingsley

#experiences #practice #experience

Only boxers can understand the loneliness of tennis players - and yet boxers have their corner men and managers. Even a boxer's opponent provides a kind of companionship, someone he can grapple with and grunt at. In tennis you stand face-to-face with the enemy, trade blows with him, but never touch him or talk to him, or anyone else. The rules forbid a tennis player from even talking to his coach while on the court. People sometimes mention the track-and-field runner as a comparably lonely figure, but I have to laugh. At least the runner can feel and smell his opponents. They're inches away. In tennis you're on an island. Of all the games men and women play, tennis is the closest to solitary confinement.... ↗

— Andre Agassi

#loneliness #opponents #solitary-confinement #tennis #men

One way, he thought, the whole thing of ring fighting was hurting somebody else, deliberately, and particularly when it was not necessary. Two men who have nothing against each other get in a ring and try to hurt each other, to provide vicarious fear for people with less guts than themselves. And to cover it up they called it sports and gambled on it. He had never looked at that way before, and if there was any single thing he could not endure it was to be a dupe. ↗

— James Jones

#gambling #masculinity #men #sports #violence

If they can make penicillin out of moldy bread, then they can sure make something out of you. ↗

— Muhammad Ali

#insult #insult

I'm a satirist, so I've got boxing gloves on if the person is worthy of satire. But I'm not an assassin. ↗

— Stephen Colbert

#boxing #gloves #got #i #person

Muhammad Ali was the kind of guy you either loved or hated, but you wanted to see him. I happen to really love him. He brought boxing to another level and always made you laugh. ↗

— Gerry Cooney

#always #another #boxing #brought #either

Oh, there's nothing more dangerous in life at getting hurt at than love itself. People are hurt in love affairs and never recover, more than a boxing match. ↗

— George Foreman

#boxing #boxing match #dangerous #getting #hurt

As a West Side kid fooling around with boxing gloves, I had been, for some reason of temperament, more interested in dodging a blow than in striking one. ↗

— Gene Tunney

#been #blow #boxing #dodging #fooling

Handball, swimming, running, jumping, basketball, and boxing were as much a part of me as breathing. ↗

— Gene Tunney

#boxing #breathing #jumping #me #much

Boxing is smoky halls and kidneys battered until they bleed. ↗

— Roger Kahn

#bleed #boxing #halls #kidneys #smoky