Well, except for Lennox, and Muhammad who is the closest thing to a Saint the US has at the moment (whatever he did to Foreman).
But the current crop don’t make for much. Okay, Fraudley’s worthy of praise for earning millions without ever getting into a fight.
But female boxers? Well, they come in four types–daughters of famous male boxers (Laila Ali), ex-Z list celebrities (Tonya Harding), corner-street bruisers (no names mentioned) or glamour girls.
For female boxing still hasn’t quite rid itself of the foxy boxing tag, at least in the UK. And it’s hard to take seriously as a boxer someone who makes most of their money from associated merchandising featuring them standing in very little clothing and pouting (and we wouldn’t want Danny Williams to be doing that, would we?).
And, if they are both good looking and excellent technical boxers, it’s even harder to take them seriously politically (I know, that’s my preconception, but I bet you shared it).
So step forward Mia St John. Excellent boxer, world champion, rather tough, stunningly beautiful, playboy centrefold, and…explicitly discussing the war in Iraq.
Her blog features latest reading; beauty mags? boxing biogs? Nah, Kennie Andersons’ ‘Land of Hypocrisy’ and Steven Vincent’s ‘In the Red Zone’. Short thoughts on Palestine too. In recent entries, you get the feeling her PRs are trying to keep her off the politics though…
She quotes MacArthur–
“Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear - kept us in a
continuous stampede of patriotic fervor - with the cry of grave
national emergency.
Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous
foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly
rally behind it.”
Respect is due…
A mightily impressive woman. If life was a novel, it’d be hard to write her convincingly (he said, trying desperately to hide his use of a tired old cliche).
The MacArthur quotation is top notch. Mentioning Orwell’s perpetual war seems to have become a cliche these days too. Still, Orwell, 1984, McCarthyism, pertetual war, “war” on terror… Bah! Down with manipulative scaremongering bastards.
Comment by Garry — December 19, 2005 @ 12:34 pm
Mia St. John has a following of “Mia Haters” (mostly sports writers) who have criticized her for her choice of opponents.
The real reason she is hated is due to jealousy. She is handsome, intelligent, successful, and in control of her own destiny. She is living the American dream and many are envious of her accomplishments.
Comment by James — February 1, 2006 @ 9:38 pm