By JEFF POWELL, Daily Mail
The most fascinating postscript to boxing's hi-tech night in the stupendous Cowboys Stadium came from a legendary Dallas football star.
Michael Irvin, the record-breaking wide receiver who helped the Cowboys win two Super Bowls in the 90s, stepped back awestruck from watching Manny Pacquiao throw more than 1,200 punches in 12 rounds to overwhelm the bigger and seemingly stronger Joshua Clottey in their world welterweight title fight.
'Wow,' said Irvin. 'Wow. This stadium takes your breath away but Manny just blows you over. He's incredible.
'NFL players think we train hard and some of the big guys who tackled me were the hardest men I would ever want to run into. But you wouldn't catch me in the ring with Mr Pacquiao.'
That provoked speculation that if only those giants of the gridiron were not so richly rewarded for playing their version of football, America would boast more than enough heavyweights to break Europe's stranglehold on boxing's flagship division.
'You know,' said Irvin, 'I've never thought about that before now, but it’s true.'
So how would Irvin himself have fared in the ring, since he stands well over 6ft and is still in impressively muscular physical condition?
'Oh, no,' he said. 'Not me. There is no hiding place in there. In a football game I can take a rest when our defence are on the field, when the special teams come on, when I need treatment, when they want my back-up to have a run.
'But in the ring you're on your own for every second of every three-minute round. There's no hiding place. There's no team around you to give you a breather if you're struggling. Manny must train like crazy.'
So he does. Work-outs open to the public and media usually see boxers going through the motions and then signing autographs and giving interviews. In Dallas, just three days before the fight, Pacquiao put in a ferociously intense session which lasted more than two hours. After that, he went off to rehearse with his band in readiness for the concert at which he sang for late into the nigh following his defeat of Clottey.
Irvin declared that he had found a ring idol to succeed the iconic Mexican he admired for many years, saying: 'Millions of people adored Muhammad Ali. Me too. But for me, Julio Cesar Chavez was the greatest of all. It just seemed that he never stopped fighting.'
Indeed it didn't.
Chavez won 107 of his 115 professional bouts. The winning start to his career, 87 before his controversial draw with Pernell Whitaker, is an all-time record.
'I see so much of Chavez in Pacquiao,' said Irvin. 'Until now I would have assumed that Floyd Mayweather Jnr would beat him on size alone if they ever fight. Now I'm leaning the other way.
'It’s not only that Manny throws so much leather. I suspect there is also a matter of confidence. Whatever the rights and wrongs of their dispute over drugs testing, it was Mayweather who brought up the whole issue and blocked their fight. That tells me he may be anxious about the fight.
'So much depends on confidence. We had players in our great Dallas team who became different men once they found true belief in their own ability. Others fell away when the doubts set in.
'If you're faced with a huge challenge the only chance is to walk towards it, not run away.'
For the Pacman and the entire Filipino nation, there are no doubts.
Irvin understands why: 'If you're looking for greatness it is to be found in the athlete who is not only massively talented but works phenomenally hard. That's Manny Pacquiao. That's the wow-factor.'
Tommy Farr
For anyone born into a fight loving family in the early 1940s , it seemed like a miracle when one of the ancient heroes of British boxing came back after no less than 10 years in retirement.
Tommy Farr was a name to conjure with for boys of our generation. We grew up being told of how the great Welshman had not only taken the legendary Joe Louis the full 15-rounds in their world heavyweight title fight before 50,000 fans in New York, but that many Americans in attendance on the night believed he had been robbed of what would have been an astonishing victory.
Although he described his face as 'looking like a dug up road map' at the end of the fight, Farr shared the suspicion he had been cheated by the narrow decision in favour of the Brown Bomber..
After he hung up his gloves in 1940, they made a musical about him based on the widely held belief that he had been robbed against Louis because of his refusal to co-operate with the mobsters who controlled much of US boxing in that era.
A hero indeed.
As youngsters, we were too young to realise that not even fame of that order insured boxers against poverty in later years and that Farr's return to the ring was prompted by financial difficulties.
Even so, the man from the Rhonda Valley won 11 of 15 fights in two years, regaining his old Welsh heavyweight title along the way. His second and last swansong came in 1953 when he was stopped in the seventh round of a final eliminator for the British title by Don Cockell who, equally famously and almost as controversially, was beaten by Rocky Marciano in his bid for the world crown.
It was a long time before they made British heavyweights like that again.
Come on Klitschkos, make the Haye fight happen
David Haye will be undeterred in his pursuit of the Klitschkos, even though the young Ukrainian brother Wladimir kept his share of the world heavyweight titles by knocking out American challenger Eddie Chambers five seconds before the final bell of their Saturday night fight in Dusseldorf.
While Chambers brought to the argument one of Haye's assets into the ring - speed - he was possessed of nothing like the same power.
So Wladimir was able to walk and jab his way into a commanding lead before landing the KO left hook.
The biggest problem for Haye is that both Wladimir and Vitali may be as slow coming to the negotiating table as they are becoming in the ring.
Iron Mike Tyson's other dream takes flight
Far from coming back to complete his dark trilogy with Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson is taking up the gentler pursuit of pigeon racing.
His pigeon lofts in the Catskills were Iron Mike's escape from the mean streets of Brooklyn when he was young. He still owns dozens of the birds and now he plans to race them.
Of the fanciful speculation about a return to the ring, Tyson says: 'I'm never going to fight again. I'm going to fly my pigeons in competition.'
Testing times for Pacquiao-Mayweather
In the wake of the Pacman's latest spectacular, hi bitter rival for the mythical title of best pound-for-pound fighter in the world begins trying to claw back some of the high ground.
Floyd Mayweather Jnr - along with next opponent Sugar Shane Mosley - submitted himself yesterday to the Olympic standard drugs testing upon which he is insisting as a pre-requisite for entering the ring with Manny Pacquiao for what would be the richest fight in boxing history.
Mayweather and Mosley - who has one failed drugs test on his record - have agreed to the United States Anti-Doping Association 'Gold Standard' random blood testing regimen prior to and after their Las Vegas clash on May 1.
Pacquiao, who is volunteering for constant urine testing, insists he will not subject himself to blood sampling demanded independently by Mayweather.
Half the world believes this dispute is a gambit to raise expectations for a November Pacquiao-Mayweather grudge match even higher, the other half that it will prevent that showdown ever happening.
Let us hope the first half are right.
James De Gale ready to go the dozen
James De Gale arrives on the undercard of Kevin Mitchell's WBO interim world lightweight title fight at West Ham's Upton Park on May 15 as a young man in hurry.
After only six professional fights Britain's Beijing Olympic gold medallist is to contest his first championship, for the WBA international super-middleweight title.
Says De Gale: 'I've been sparring 10 rounds and I feel I'm ready to make the step up to the 12-round championship distance.'
Promoter Frank Warren says: 'Very few fighters get to box for a belt so early in their career but James is a special talent.'
So is Mitchell, who is overjoyed at getting his shot at the highly-rated Australian Michael Katsidis in the football ground where he grew up idolising Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst.
'For me,' says Mitchell, 'this is a dream come true.'
THE OCTAGON
Art graduate Dan Hardy's brush with glory
No prizes for guessing the unofficial nickname by which many British fans are calling Dan Hardy as he heads for his date this Saturday night with the best pound-for-pound mixed martial arts fighter in the world.
As a graduate in fine arts from Nottingham Trent University, he is their Picasso of Pain.
No British fighter has ever challenged for a UFC world title before. So Hardy will make history win or lose in Newark, New Jersey. But he also believes he can upset the heavy odds quoted by the bookmakers and become the first British champion by defeating the immaculate Georges St-Pierre
'Georges is a true great,' says Hardy, 'but he has been knocked out once before and I hit harder than anyone he's ever fought.'
The danger is that Canadian stylist St Pierre will keep taking him to ground.
British audiences can see it for themselves, with ESPN transmitting via satellite from UFC 111 from 2 am BST this Sunday morning.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
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