Courtesy of the good folks at Top Rank and promoter Bob Arum in Las Vegas boxing came back with a bang on ESPN.
At long last.
ESPN’s new ESPN plus app continues to go from strength to strength according to sources.
The cream always rises to the top in the end in fairness to the good people and top level operators in America.
All be it under totally different circumstances than the sport had seen before.
Nonetheless the guys pulled it off by all accounts:
The card was lead by standout American prospect and Olympian Shakur Stevenson who put in a solid performance to get the sport’s transition back under way.
A beautiful body shot that closed the show:
Great stuff all in all.
Thank God boxing is now back in some shape or form.
For those that love the sport some bit of normality can now return.
As for the huge fights, we’ll have to sit tight for a while yet.
But having regular boxing action back on ESPN and online like this is excellent.
All in all, a very dark few months but light is now here at the end of the tunnel.
Thank you to my readers for sticking with me on here at Boxing News and Views this year.
I’m very thankful and grateful to each and every one of you.
Somehow in the last couple of weeks I’ve done bigger numbers and traffic then I’ve ever done in over eight years.
Someone must want me to win I get the feeling. Thanks to God.
These numbers have been insane recently. Once again I have one of the biggest boxing platforms in America.
Thanks folks.
Its been a tough last three or four weeks in particular after giving up all my many, many addictions all at once for the first time in life.
Tough going at the moment but era we battle on.
No more hurting myself or self sabotaging on purpose. The demons run from me now.
Addiction was my main weakness and demon in life and now that I’m not in active addiction for the first time at 32, considering, with humility, what I achieved up until then in active addiction, the sky is the limit.
Feels like my brain is totally re-wiring and resetting at the moment.
Painful in the heat of Italy but will be worth it. Feels like the focus, clear thinking and strength I have now is like nothing I ever had in my twenties.
In some ways its like starting totally over again and learning many things from scratch.
Recently I learned to tie a tie for the first time! 🙂
My memory and cognitive functions are getting sharper by the day too.
These huge numbers have been a big help with my articles and now with boxing back we move forward and try to be positive again.
Thanks for everything folks, genuinely.
We go again. Fight to the death and keep on trucking until we can’t truck no more.
God is good.
In conclusion on this trip to Italy and then getting stuck here without my passport for months during the pandemic, what I’ll say is this.
Beautiful country but too difficult to be in this long without speaking the language, away from my people and where my work is.
With respect, this place Italy is just a little too all over the shop/disorganized for me to be stuck here this long in.
Beautiful country to go on a brief vacation though but alas, I understand the American system, Americans and American entrepreneurial way of life on the West coast way easier.
MORE BOXING NEWS: Foreman sums up Frazier in 10 words
While most Irish tend to go for the East coast perhaps I’m just too independent and entrepreneurial for that mentality.
Much rather the weather on West coast and in places like Texas too but heck, we’re all different in our own ways.
That’s the great thing about humans. An interesting bunch in fairness.
As a very independent, entrepreneurial, fighting spirit person, will just save my best work for America, turn on all the good stuff and my ability then and help myself, my future family, Ireland and humanity from there down the road when this mess of a year is over.
I’m already looking at new ventures but this boxing technology stuff has been a great vehicle over the years to start out.
The tech market is only going to grow in the years ahead.
Boxing will always be number one for me though.
Still the best sport in the world.
For any of my readers interested in entrepreneurship, philanthropy or just all round good human beings, this story I’ve been researching over the past months on a chap from New Jersey Chuck Feeney is certainly worth a watch.
This is quite brilliant:
A serious behind the scenes operator not to be messed with but what a story to make that amount of money and give over eight billion away.
Essentially bringing together all the creative and engineering genius aspects of the human mind to bust up the capitalism system, toy with it and then re-engineer it to his own liking.
Ah yeah, good ole Chuck. Good Irish American fella for sure.
A pure genius.
A man that not many know either who Warren Buffett and Bill Gates credit behind the scenes as their inspiration for giving away half of their wealth.
Chuck Feeney from New Jersey is one of my inspirations in terms of quiet guys who just get on with the job and help humanity (Vietnam and many other countries) and his country, Ireland in this case, from America.
While people complain about America and Americans it seems like I’ve been sticking up for Americans for years on end now.
I always route for the underdog. That’s just me I suppose. People around the world have thanked me for helping many times when no one else would help them but I don’t do it for that.
It’s just good to do the right thing.
But there’s a balance to everything, which I now have, and you have to use discernment and take no s*** frequently to ignore, be a bit selfish and ruthless if the situation calls for it and avoid the bums, only dealing with the very best that nations have to offer.
Protect yourself at all times but employ wisdom appropriately as I like to say.
Gets me in trouble but f*** it, I just love a bloody good underdog or comeback story.
America will come back stronger from the dark times it is experiencing at the moment. We always do.
I’ve met some amazing people in the course of my life from many different parts of the world but the best ones I ever met were Americans.
Some things are worth fighting for, as they say.
Feeney is not alone.
Isn’t it funny when I think about it, actually, over the years I’ve come across some very powerful but good people behind the scenes who you’d never even know of.
Folks that don’t shout, boast, brag or make a big a song and a dance about anything.
Era, I suppose that’s just how the best people roll in life.
Working with men and women on the A-level over the years in different nations on Earth, although briefly, reminds one how bleeding easy and simple business can be.
How it should be damn it.
Quiet geniuses but certainly not to be messed with unless you want rather extreme consequences.
Business is business at the end of the day.
Moving forward, since getting here to Rome recently it is certainly a cool city but its economy is in bits.
They need more entrepreneurship and innovation and not to be so reliant on tourist income to support the Italian people.
I saw the Colosseum the other day and reminded the good old Italian army jokingly that those fellas didn’t use weapons back in the day when they fought to the death in there.
A chap from the army with a gun in his hand agreed with me.
I think these bloody Italians are starting to finally get my unique, odd sense of humor 🙂
Finally got back to the gym this week too after three months of this Italian Covid-19 nightmare in isolation with no woman no gym and not without speaking the language.
Way, way too much strength, energy and testosterone in me but my faith in God and the gym are the two things that keep me sane as per the current human perception and understanding of the term at least.
Era, these Italians are okay overall. In fairness to them.
The thing is though, to get the the best Italian women over here Italian girls want you to actually live and stay here in Italy.
In terms of getting the really top notch, creme de la creme, ten out of f****** ten, best in the world Italian women.
America is where my heart is so I’m just not ready for that commitment yet to settle down, get married and have kids, until I get there, get established first.
Not until I get back to America first — likely next year — will just get a good Italian girl or black American woman over there then — if I get lucky that is — until then the single lonely entrepreneurial journey rolls on.
Addiction free for the first time though, free of all my addictions for the first time ever. New territory now.
Next stop Ukraine I think. Maybe Germany and Switzerland on route too.
Other than America and England, Ukraine is the world’s new capital for boxing and sport in some ways.
I need to understand some of these genius Ukrainians more.
In terms of how they are producing the best boxers and sports people in the world the last decade or so:
Stay tuned folks.
Hopefully some interesting and useful boxing stories from the Ukraine to come soon on here for you.
Once again, thanks for the support and the huge numbers of you reading my articles, intellectual property and content the last couple of weeks.
Extremely grateful and thankful. Keep the faith.
Thanks for everything.
We go again.
Boxing without doubt is back.
