August 15, 2011

Terrible But Memorable Boxer Of The Day: Peter McNeeley

By mceezy

I’m usually the last one you’d expect to get a boxing post from, but I got home from work this afternoon expecting to turn on an A’s – Orioles game in progress from Baltimore. Unfortunately, I was confused – they’re playing out here in California. But FORTUNATELY, the station that airs the game was showing some ten year old boxing. Well wait, that’s not the good part. Usually I’d change it right away, but immediately I recognized Peter McNeeley. Of course I remember him from his infamous fight with Mike Tyson back in 1995, but I was too young to care enough for a pay-per-view fight. I was old enough, though, to know that the fight wasn’t going to end well, and that we’d probably never hear from McNeeley again (if we were lucky). So when I saw him being introduced, I decided to leave the remote where it was. And when I saw his opponent, Henry Akinwande, I turned up the sound and scooted closer to the TV. I could tell McNeeley was in the twilight of his career, but the broadcast looked straight out of the early 90s. Amazingly enough it was 2001, which was probably better for me in the long run, since it meant that he truly was on the decline. Besides the obvious intimidation edge Akinwande had, he had a pretty significant reach advantage as well.

McNeeley came out guns blazing – not necessarily hitting anything – prompting the announcers to pull out the “that’s why they call him Hurricane” line early. I actually thought he was going to stand a chance. But about 30 seconds in, McNeeley was tired, and Akinwande started landing jabs as if they were mere bites of a hamburger. You could actually hear fans laughing in the background as McNeeley took jab after jab to the face. He went to the mat twice in the first round. Neither time the result of a devastating blow, rather a flurry of combos that pretty much scared him into the ground. In the second round, I’m almost positive he was out on his feet until he actually was knocked to the ground. This time, it was a bonafied knockout blow, as Akinwande could tell he was pretty much defenseless. Amazingly, this was one of only six times McNeeley was knocked out. On the other hand, he’s now 0-3 in fights I’ve actually heard of. If you like one-sided fights that people post on youtube where you’re sort of cringing the whole time because you know one person has ZERO chance, enjoy this bad boy…. Or, skip to part 2 for the downward spiral….

About mceezy

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