I've decided that I'd better actually update my blog if I'm going to have one at all, so I thought I'd use it in the manner most people on the internet do: as a soapbox to broadcast my own half-baked opinions. Some will be controversial, some will make me sound like a dickhead, but I've got to get this stuff off my chest, and I'm sure you'd rather I did it this way than by cornering you at a civilised dinner party or formal function when I've had a few drinks. Wine then whine is my usual modus operandi.


On Muhammad Ali, "The Greatest"

I'm not sure where to start with this one, so I'll simply begin with this: boxing is shit. Sorry to anyone who likes nothing better than to stay up until 4.30am on a Tuesday morning to watch Sugar Daddy Killer King fight some other ludicrously named multi-millionaire street brawler, but it's a load of bollocks.
And the best person ever at said load of bollocks is Muhammad Ali. This, it must be noted, is not a point that is in dispute; I'm perfectly able to accept that he's the greatest fighter of all time and yada yada yada, it's just that it's like being the greatest at doing that trick where you flick a beer mat off the table and catch it. So you can beat people up better than anyone else? Well whoopee shit. Being the best at a 'sport' where the participants sling punches at each other and get so tired they end up in each others arms is hardly something to go down in history for. The whole reason they're in the ring anyway is because they have to fight for their living as they are unable to earn money by conventional means owing to all that fresh air wafting around between the ears. Which leads me on to my second point..

I'm a bit tired of hearing that Ali was "smart". No doubt most people are aware of the famous interview on Parkinson where Ali claimed he was smarter than the host and read lots of books etc. Presumably he was talking about the Noddy series of books. Any man who is as smart as he claimed to be really would be writing books, doing research or designing grand concepts instead of climbing into a ring and brawling with another "genius". And besides, if he was that smart he'd have realised boxing does some serious lasting damage to the brain. But he wasn't, so he didn't.

No offence.

I've decided that I'd better actually update my blog if I'm going to have one at all, so I thought I'd use it in the manner most people on the internet do: as a soapbox to broadcast my own half-baked opinions. Some will be controversial, some will make me sound like a dickhead, but I've got to get this stuff off my chest, and I'm sure you'd rather I did it this way than by cornering you at a civilised dinner party or formal function when I've had a few drinks. Wine then whine is my usual modus operandi.


On Muhammad Ali, "The Greatest"

I'm not sure where to start with this one, so I'll simply begin with this: boxing is shit. Sorry to anyone who likes nothing better than to stay up until 4.30am on a Tuesday morning to watch Sugar Daddy Killer King fight some other ludicrously named multi-millionaire street brawler, but it's a load of bollocks.
And the best person ever at said load of bollocks is Muhammad Ali. This, it must be noted, is not a point that is in dispute; I'm perfectly able to accept that he's the greatest fighter of all time and yada yada yada, it's just that it's like being the greatest at doing that trick where you flick a beer mat off the table and catch it. So you can beat people up better than anyone else? Well whoopee shit. Being the best at a 'sport' where the participants sling punches at each other and get so tired they end up in each others arms is hardly something to go down in history for. The whole reason they're in the ring anyway is because they have to fight for their living as they are unable to earn money by conventional means owing to all that fresh air wafting around between the ears. Which leads me on to my second point..

I'm a bit tired of hearing that Ali was "smart". No doubt most people are aware of the famous interview on Parkinson where Ali claimed he was smarter than the host and read lots of books etc. Presumably he was talking about the Noddy series of books. Any man who is as smart as he claimed to be really would be writing books, doing research or designing grand concepts instead of climbing into a ring and brawling with another "genius". And besides, if he was that smart he'd have realised boxing does some serious lasting damage to the brain. But he wasn't, so he didn't.

No offence.