#except it was the 00s he was a lot more successful at a younger age and didn't have the fall from grace arc that Jamie did | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

stoplookingatmeblog · 3 years

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twenty-one

It was around that time that all my friends went to work in different chapters of what you can call ‘the filming industry’. P-G shot beer adverts which used some kinds of robotics to get the right shot, flip the bottle right, and then slept with this girl who offered him a paid internship in managing pretty much everything on sets of a bunch of movies, ads and whatnot. My own mother, finally getting out of the convenient but unemancipated housewife life, got a job in supervising the shoot - making sure the costumes were right, the scenography, all that stuff. It was pretty much, you could call it, the time of Life On Set Then - everywhere you went, ads, movies, Netflix series, all of it wrapped up in fake police ‘do not cross’ kind of tape, horses and knights from our beer-bottles riding the streets, and the catering busses with food that was (mother told me) ‘absolute horeshit’. Whatever. The time was of living in a reality created for money, by money, with money, because of money, giant heaps of money, distributed unequally (of course) to all my student friends who didn’t even need the money except for that feel of ‘life on their own’.

I didn’t have a job. Before not working, I worked a couple of cafes, restaurants and the like. That was the vibe. I hated it. Each time I began working in one of these places, I ended up sleeping with someone (first time a guy, and then a girl or woman that was honestly too old for me) and that I hoped marked the end of relationship with gastronomy for me. So I didn’t work, deciding not to decide what to do next, not putting myself on the road to one kind of future or another. I didn’t want life to go anywhere directed. I thought about writing but then I thought about the seriousness and stiffness of writing, whether or not it’s a purely natural act, all that, and decided on trying to squeeze the last drops of childhood (it was adolescence, but adolescence is really a final sigh of childhood) and live what was left of the kid-life to the fullest.

I was twenty-one years old.

A group of friends convinced me to go with them surfing (on my parents’ money), to Victoria, a place which location doesn’t really matter, except that I thought, and still do, that the spot is an actual a piece of heaven on earth. A nearly imaginary point on the increasingly smaller map of this melting planet. My age, too, was melting away like icecream - not having a job and surfing in Victoria, like a teenage pimple, some place that popped up and presented itself in its complete and vulgar form and purpose that you initially didn’t believe and then wept after at that airport because you could never come back. It was an actual speck of heaven on the map.

Even though everyone was younger than us - four of us, me, P-G, J, and Stone (the last one, a tired intellectual I could never get tired of, except you could see he was really both bored and exhausted by being born and living as himself. And his nickname surprisingly not derived from the astronomical amounts of weed he smoked but his actual god-given surname (which he thought of changing, because of his father) - even though everyone who came to Victoria was younger than us by something like three or four years, we surprisingly didn’t have trouble at least getting along, and at most sleeping with girls there. It was even more grand in that way, even if absolutely not true, when you saw yourself in their eyes as someone older and somehow experienced, who somehow kept going on, and somehow knew what was going on. The same lie made most of us, (excluding me, as I mentioned) get a job around that time. In movies and advertisements, with no creative input or control, but like actors that nobody knew about, playing their own invented parts backstage.

I was twenty-one years old and completely aware of both how small and how big that was. I knew about the kinds of things I probably should be doing and that’s why I sometimes did them, for a minute putting my feet into that creek too, but most of the time staying at the bank and just watching. I knew what being twenty-one meant, so I decided to sit back and watch it.

My friends all surfed a lot, which would normally bother me because I did it only for the first week of our month-long stay, but quickly dropped it and decided to stay at the beach and read, and drink and look at some really beautiful girls who passed me by, and for once enjoy that stranger-life. By the second week, after seeing in a restaurant a shirt with a ‘SeXsurfing ‘00’ inscription on it (‘00 being the year we were born, which made us inspect our parents’ lifelines to check for the possibility that at that time some of them were in Victoria), and in the twenty-one-year-old drunk epiphanius inspiration, all four of us decided that we would lead the ‘SeXsurfing ‘21’ lifestyle, not thinking about the ‘42 and the ‘63 and all that shit.

I wasn’t the most successful one when it came to girls, but I can say that the stories I had with them were the most absurd and worthy of telling. Even though it was J who (and he too asked himself why in the world that was) was able to talk with someone new every evening, somehow perhaps betraying my unwanted by nonetheless existing monogamous attachment, I slept with only one girl over the course of the last week, picking her up (or perhaps her picking me up) through a conversation about our shared borderline-sociopathic or rebellious outlook on reality. That was very twenty-one.

Our first meeting (like every meeting since) was going to one of the three tourist shops on the beach and stealing something. And that too was very twenty-one. We were rich enough (our parents were) and far away from home enough to do all that. And we were both young and beautiful enough to want a mugshot we could keep from an arrest by a Victoria Police County Jail or whatever it might have been called. We were never caught but we did steal something every day, and then get drunk in the evening, and then fuck in the night. While my friends had these singular, although beautiful, encounters I would drunkenly burst into the closed restaurant with my temporary girl-friend, steal absolutely vile icecream from the fridge, and then play chess with her on the hotel rooftop at four AM.

The four of us were twenty-one years old and born in the year 2000 which in the same way made sense - our lives were easy to calculate, clearly-definededly started, and even if they had to end with no thing coming back or being repeated, the twenty-one points we scored didn’t mean anything except the joyride and experiment, and meaningless game that it was. We were taking our shot at living, taking our shot at playing, and even when we didn’t win, it still didn’t mean anything. We lived on our parents’ money, or on advertisement money, or cafe-sleep-with-someone-there-and-then-leave-because-you-don’t-need-money money, all of it a mystification, but that those twenty-one years led to nothing we suddenly did not care.

Well, and then being woken up by the police, although surprisingly not because of the icecream dream but for the crime of sleeping in a hammock on the dunes which (I learned) was territory of both the military and part of some natural park.

What made me go home with something in the end were the conversations we had at that time, and in particular the conversations with Stone. Like me, Stone had a feeling of injustice done to him by his family, not having a real father and hanging down on the tired gray hair of our housewife mothers and all, and it made us connect on a level we didn’t with either P-G or J, who were most often busy surfing or thinking about the jobs they had or would one day have, and the girls they met that weren’t my girls so I didn’t care that much.

Stone kept affirming that both of us (although him in particular) were in possession of superior intelligence, which I instinctively tried to discourage him from saying (because I didn’t like sucking my own dick like that), but nonetheless accepted as at least potentially or partially true. In my case, it was not intelligence that me connect with Stone but some kind of a shared understanding of what was going on, that we were twenty-one and what that meant, like a filthy two-pigeon flock of pigeons flying above the waves, knowing the fact of the creature swimming underneath the surface. I thought, and still do, it had to do largely with coming from an unhappy or non-existent family, which really makes you understand that all you do, with even the most meaningful and beautiful things, is just this game that you play but holds no particular meaning beyond it. That and that love, no matter how beautiful or true, can slip away from you like shit.

‘It is completely lonely’, he said one night as we chugged down the bottles of beer drunk rich kids left behind running away from the police - bottles half-empty to me and I think half-full for him, but I still haven’t quite figured that one out, ‘Because you never really see things the way the rest of them do, and each conversation almost the same, you begin to think the only way to be is to be alone’

I agreed. I usually did, being aware that he was slightly more intelligent than me.

‘Back when I was in the Institute, they told me I would have problems with getting out of relationships with people what other people get from other people because what I want is to be understood and that is problematic when you think you want it but also think it’s impossible to ever understand anything’

I too thought you could never understand anything, but had a sense he perhaps only said it to keep me on the same page. Stone chugged down another half-full beer and kept talking. I stayed silent, in part because I would probably say the same things he did.

‘When I was seventeen and worked in a factory, I gained a sort of awareness of how my life would look like’

‘What kind of a factory?’, I asked

‘A cake factory, I would work in the hot section and pull out cakes out of the oven and then fill some of them with cherry, and some of them with apple-cinnamon. And then, because I was seventeen and my work was fundamentally illegal you could say, they’d let me work in the cold section in the night, and I applied sugar coating on these doughnuts, you know’

‘Yeah’

‘And then wrap them up in plastic covering, you know’

‘Yeah, yeah’

‘when the coating was dry, and send them to another section of the factory. And so over and over.’

‘So, what does your life look like because of that, do you think?’

‘I don’t know…’, he took a puff from one of the cigarette butts we found that night in the ashtray, ‘... I guess working in the factory was a kind of almost psychedelic experience that really made me aware what my attitude towards suicide is. You’re young, and you step into that thing, and you do those things because you want to, you don’t need to. Well, you might need to but the need is still your choice, it isn’t honed into your life like… Like I recognised at some point that each cake I filled with the stuffing or coated was an expression of the same kind of thing I did when I smoked weed (a lot), or drunk (a lot) or had sex. That, ultimately, I would never be able to not think about it.’

‘I mean, I think the position we are in - if I understand you correctly - of being relatively well-off - I mean our parents - would make you unable to really plunge into anything that you’re doing, right? Because you ultimately don’t have to do anything, like, really, like here, you always sort of treat it as a game’

‘Not even a game’, he said, and the sun was already slowly creeping up the mountain in front of the shop where we were sitting, ‘But just not a challenge. Because of our intellect, both yours and mine, the only challenge you really face is whether to continue being or not, and the rest is just, you know, stuffing these cakes. But that decision, you know The Myth of The Sisyphus?’

I did.

‘Yeah, so that decision you have to and always will have to make fundamentally alone. And so either go and work - work in any kind of way and do those things and hand them over to others to complete them and you don’t really ask questions (but we can’t do that, neither you nor I) or you step out of the factory and face the living sun, like you’re definitely going to feel after we leave this place, and decide whether you’re more happy alone or with others, or whether you want to keep on handing things to others or not, and all that.’

‘I mean this is the reason I think people shouldn’t have children - I’ve written a piece about it, you should definitely read it - because it’s kind of like juggling with a hot potato and handing it to someone else, so that they have to confront these questions, instead of you, but what you really do is give up.’

At that point I don’t think I understood his cake factory metaphor or didn’t want to believe that I did in the fear that it wasn’t very profound.

‘So what do you think you’d like to actually do?, if you could pick anything at all?’

‘I don’t know’, again inhaling another cigarette butt and handing one to me. And the sun almost rolled its own boulderous weight to the top of the mountain. ‘I think I would like to have a family, especially since meeting May (he was the only one of out SeXsurfing quartet with a girlfriend), I started thinking that maybe I can, and I’m recognising this, give someone something that my father never gave me, hoping to do it right this time’

‘Yeah, I mean that’s literally the ending of my book - have I told you already I’ve written a book? - that the main character thinks he can do it right this time and he of course fucks it up, but I don’t know if I still think that. You know, life is sometimes surprising.’

‘Exactly’, he exalted the smoke, and the sun, previously rolling up the mountain to sunrise, seemed to have fallen back again to the bottom of the mountain, and began its journey anew.

‘I mean, when I was seventeen I worked in a factory…’

‘What kind of a factory?’

‘A psychedelic cake factory’

‘What does that mean?’

‘I worked in this factory and I worked in the hot section and my job was to take the cakes out of the oven and then pump them full of acid, or pot, or sex, or anything you could get your hands on. I guess it was illegal, but then again I was seventeen so my work was all fundamentally illegal.’

‘Where did the cakes later go?’

‘Later? Well in the factory I sent them to another section that I never really saw, but later later to homes, parties, rich people who really wanted to try the kind of stuff their kids were taking, I guess’, he chuckled, ‘It’s interesting, I wonder if my father ever tried one. Maybe in some alternative universe or something. Maybe he ate it and became like me, and dropped everything and went to work in a factory and in that reality they stuffed the cakes with shit like cherry and coated them with sugar, you know, maybe that was the right reality, and later he dropped that job, and went outside of the factory, and made the choice and threw himself under a bus or something.’

‘The right reality.

Maybe.’

Lou from the restaurant (the SeXsufring tshirt we found was in that restaurant) was the kind of man you’d always want to be. We travelled to him for dinner hitchhiking from the beach, in twos, usually P-G and J, and then me and Stone, around seven, or all together if we could sit in the trunk of the car when we travelled in one of the rich-kid rented cabrios, and you would feel the day (same day, every day) a winding road under our feet (like gods, treading on forever) cutting through the mountains and the sunset rolling his boulder somewhere and when you finished eating you’d lie down on the warm good night asphalt with a can and listen to music on one of our phones and wait for someone to take you back to the beach.

But gods that we were, Lou from the restaurant was the kind of man you’d always want to be. It was always a show, too. He would come by people’s tables (our table in particular, because he knew and we knew), this enormous older man dressed in a white sweaty shirt with eyes that looked blind but saw everything, and told us stories about all that he knew, which was pretty much the town, and the town hall, and the restaurant, and everything. And the girls also came there to eat, and everyone too. And everyone knew Lou from the restaurant.

I always ordered things I could not afford because P-G and J were always happy to lend me money, so I ate octopuses and steaks, and everything was everything you’d ever want to eat. There were half-blind, strangely-speckled cats that roamed under the tables, not even expecting guests’ dinner cat-food enjoying the company, like we did, and there were kid cats and mother cats and they would fight on the backdrop of the white-painted summer trees, and some girls would say the cats’ were really poor and imply their lives were wretched and miserable to which I would reply with something like natural selection and they would say that’s a horrible thing to say and then all of us would bite into the steaks that Lou brought us.

After P-G asked him to tell us his version of the legends we heard of from the girls, about his old restaurant, and how someone ruined it and how the paradise moved from Victoria to this new town (I don’t know the name, but it was simply Lou’s town), and it seemed like god himself was telling us the story, dusting it off, driving away the spiders and the snakes, an old book or a chapter in a book that everyone on the beach talked about but it seemed nobody actually heard. Except the four of us.

‘Well so you know I’m really electrician’, he began, ‘but at one moment I tell my wife - let’s build restaurant. So I go to the town hall, here’, and he pointed to a building not ten meters away, ‘and the auction close at 12, I go in at 11:56 and the price is 12000 and I go in and say 60000. So I get the restaurant and everyone crazy and angry at me but I have it.’, I cut out the portion of the steak and chewed on it orgasmically. Everything Lou cooked was good as hell. ‘So I build restaurant…’

‘But not here, right, on the beach?’, P-G, who heard most versions of the story interrupted

‘Yes, the beach. So I build restaurant and first year I make so much money I put it in…’, his broken eyes and mad half-blind english were both looking for the word, ‘like bags, plastic bags, trash bags, and it is so much I count it then in winter, because I have no time in summer. So it is good, so much money, going great. And then in year two thousand and… two thousand just, maybe, I go away for holiday and they call me “your restaurant is destroyed”, I say “no you’re kidding me”, and they say “no, no, they burn restaurant down, come back”. So I come back, and true, the restaurant is destroyed, and you cannot build it again because the law that was there changed so you cannot build now.’, as he was telling the story, Lou’s eyes stayed monotonously bland, bright and staring somewhere beyond. A true restaurateur, he never stopped looking at what was going on at the other tables so at that point he stood up, saying ‘I finish the story in moment’, and went to take care of something in the kitchen.

Then when he finally came back, he said:

‘So where was I now tell me.’

‘Your restaurant was burned down when you were out of the country’, I reminded him

‘Yes. So I move here and build new restaurant, and it is small but people come like before and they even fight for to eat, and they ask “you finished already, let us eat”, and my restaurant again now is doing well, very well, and people come, and still I don’t have space, but people come’

‘And is it going better or worse than in the previous location?’, P-G asked

‘No, there there was more money but here is good. Very good.’, he waved his grubby big hand at all the tables packed with people, girls, others like us. And he laughed with his tongue flying up and down in his mouth in a way some people find repulsive, but to us it was Lou from the restaurant, and Lou from the restaurant could honestly laugh in whichever goddamn way he pleased.

‘Ok, I’m sorry but I have to go again, the people’, he pointed to the kitchen, ‘don’t know what they do’

Our twenty-one year old quartet replied ‘of course, of course’, in unison and for a while we sat there chewing our steaks, and fish and octopus, and another steak, silently, only saying a couple of words of admiration for Lou from the restaurant, the man you’d always want to be.

‘There are snakes and scorpions here’, P-G told me one time we went to the more rocky part of the dunes near where our tent was pitched. ‘So we have to be super careful, especially during the day. In the night they sleep in their wretched little caves or among the rocks, they won’t bother us in our sleep.’

But they will bother us when we’re awake, or when we think we are, but are someplace else, like Lou from the restaurant who went for holidays. You stop paying attention to what is slithering or crawling in the sand and one time as you are looking for a nice and fresh cigarette butt lost in the sand, BAM, and you are dead, like that (Lou’s grubby old hand falling down on the wooden table with a thud).

We were twenty-one years young and on holidays from either a job in advertising or not yet having a job in advertising, and there were girls and waves, and sand, and scorpions, and it was all a joyride so we didn’t really think about that. Well, to be honest, not much could go wrong - another day, like groundhog day, would be more or less the same, always better and better and better. And the shrinking, melting map - warmer and warmer and warmer.

The worst that could happen, we knew, was the police coming in and chasing us away from the dunes (because it was both military grounds and a national park at the same time). But that wasn’t that bad, after all, it was police in paradise, and we felt so much love for them as we did for the scorpios and the snakes and it was just impossible for them to not love us back.

Well, hen one day it happened. It was after I woke up with her, for the first time in two weeks sleeping in an actual bed, but more importantly for the first time in perhaps a year sleeping with a warm body next to my heart, next to me, in my hands, falling asleep with my lip still in her teeth. I woke up in the morning and having the bare level of awareness of my state, that I must stink and will not be fun to be around in the morning (although the fresh air made hangovers impossible - what can I say, it was paradise), I decided to go back to the our camp on the dunes and sleep off the night in a hammock I usually inhabited.

There were usually some locals (working in restaurants and the shops I stole flip-flops from) who like devils crawled out in the night and tried to party with the twenty-one year old us, drinking our booze and smoking our smokes, so when the white-poloed guy woke me up like bad sunrise saying ‘Police, wake up, police’, in sly english and a broken smile, my instinctive reaction was to reply with a classic ‘Shut the fuck up, you’re not police’, but after seeing one of them who definitely was police, with a uniform and gun and all, I complied with their request for my ID and let them write me a pink slip of paper demanding a fine so astronomic that none of them could not possibly believe I’d actually pay it. A younger policeman (also not uniformed) asked me what happened to my neck and, explaining a bruise that could only look like a love bite (and indeed it was), I replied that I was bitten by a wild animal (and indeed I was). He said that with that bruise-like love bite and a half-unbuttoned shirt I looked like a ‘star, rock star, you know’, and we both laughed, and I decided none of it was that bad after all. He looked like a ‘star, rock star, you know’, as well, slightly unfashionable but at the same time completely incredible in bluish sunglasses, a pink polo shirt and slightly silver but naturally black hair. In Victoria, the snake, too, was quite handsome, and what he ruined, at the end of the day, was only an hour of my sleep.

I met Lou from the restaurant - he saw some creature, and its wretched work, destroying his restaurant, but his bright, half-blind, all-seeing eyes burned with nothing but love. And mine, slowly but surely, started to shimmer with it too. The days, or the same day, grew brighter and brighter, and the nights drunker and drunker and the driving drunk on the beach got faster and faster, and more and more people fitting into one car, with no winding-road end in sight.

There was no hangover in Victoria, but going anywhere in the morning was especially difficult, as if the gravitational force doubled, or thriced, or quadrupled.

Stone, who had an admirable ability to make contact with any kind of an alien species of a person (that I really envied), found himself one night in a conversation with a russian maths student (the Russian started university well before the usual age, he was like 17), and when the next day we asked what the two talked about Stone only said ‘I think we are a week away from merging the theory of relativity with quantum mechanics. But give me another bottle and it will be one day.’

The Russian, Stone told us, was one of the ‘exceptionally intelligent’ ones (which Stone, had the habit of identifying and cataloguing into his set of people ‘worth talking to’). The Russian was younger than us - perhaps sixteen or seventeen, as I mentioned which really gave everything he said an additional benefit of seemingly prodigy-like, but also made Stone wonder whether he was a kind of a father-figure to the exceptionally intelligent maths student, that considering leading Stone to the two days later declaration that it was undoable, stemming from Stone’s own desire to redeem his father’s abusive absence et cetera et cetera.

The Russian was so socially inept, that even I was doing quite well (it was not superior intelligence, that barred me from connecting with others, as Stone asserted). A prodigy, the Russian spoke not just maths and Einstein, but quite good english, french (from my limited knowledge I could confirm also quite good), spanish and bulgarian (which I had absolutely no idea about but he sounded possessed and speaking in tongues when he presented his abilities to us). He could play giftedly most instruments you could think of, but playing, he said, never really excited him. He was one of those kids who know and can do so much they would really rather not do it at all.

Because of our groups’ incidental and unexpected but intense interactions with girls, the Russian treated us with an unjustified reverence, but it was not any kind of envy, with a mind like that you don’t really envy anything except being able to rest from what’s in your head and for once have a good night’s sleep. There is a scene in the movie Beautiful Mind where the main character, a schizophrenic, lays out to a girl he likes, very systematically, astrophysically like, why she should sleep with him. I bet that’s what the Russian would do too in the future.

There is another scene in a movie - Interstellar where a group of astronauts looking for humanity’s potential new home (the map contracting, the world getting small since the year ‘00, now twenty-one, then ‘42 then ‘63, warmer and warmer and warmer), the group of astronauts lands on a planet, of constant, unending sea, sees in the distance what they think is the great mountains of a new found land. After a couple of minutes of advancing towards the mountains, Matthew Mcconaughey says in hollywood style ‘these are not mountains. These are waves’ and the four astronauts have to flee the slowly approaching catastrophic demise of the wave, which, due to a fucked-up gravity on the planet, rose to that catastrophic height.

At six AM, after one of the exceptionally drunk nights, with the sun already in full swing, and the alcoholic gravity fucked-up in their heads, Stone and J went to catch a wave bigger than at any time of the day.

While I was sleeping off the night in the hammock, with God knows what dreams, or maybe even no dreams at all, and P-G tossing and turning in the tent, and Stone and J surfing the morning wave, the Russian sat solemnly and alone on the sunrise beach and looked up at the starless sky, wiped clean by one gigantic white star which at that point (he knew, we didn’t know) was so big and close to the contracting map that it sucked out some of the time and some of the space from the air, making the tide rise more than at any time of the day. He knew why that was and we didn’t know but we were looking at the same thing, the earth getting warmer and warmer and warmer, and the wave growing higher and higher and

And we would sometimes go away from Victoria, to a nearby town where the waves were always bigger and we marvelled at how they whip-cracked, splash-fell and rocked against the concrete-lined shore and drowned the air underneath with all their might, worked it into white foam. He knew and we didn’t, and while we lay down with girls looking into the stars and talking about constellations (only to then laugh about how drunk and absurd it is to think three stars can possibly represent the shape of a great bear or big dipper or any kind of stupid shit like that), The Russian tried to crack the code written in the stars. Looking for a new home for us. The four of us walked the shore and wondered about the origin of colorful pebbles spat out by the lapping magnificent waves, and he could probably tell us everything about each of them, trace lines from each falling star to each stone we cast mindlessly into the sea.

He could explain the shifting realities when the morning came, and why, at seventeen, you have to do certain things and not the others, and now, too, why we did all those things, why we worked in psychedelic factories and sung our hearts out to the bass of the speaker. Why we ran after girls beach-length and back, why we hitchhiked to Lou’s restaurant, why we came to Victoria in the first place, why we had jobs in advertising, why we were twenty-one, but Stone was right about one thing - the Russian was ‘fundamentally alone’

There is another scene in Interstellar, the next one after the giant wave, where Matthew Mcconaughey comes back to the spaceship waiting in the orbit of a water-mountain-these-are-not-mountains planet, discovers that time, tied with an invisible string to the fucked-up gravity) passes differently on the surface of the planet, in its orbit, and in general completely differently back on the contracting earth’s map where he left his children. How old were at the time he left in that movie - I can’t remember, let’s say twenty-one. Having spent only half an hour on the surface, he now plays the received messages from back home and sees his children’s lifetimes growing older and older and older and finally sees them surpassing them in age. He breaks down in tears and I suppose you could say he, too, was ‘fundamentally alone’

The Russian, Stone told us, was taught privately by a tutor who’s line of mathematical origin could be traced all the way to Gauss or someone. He could speak Einstein, french and spanish, and although his tongue got tied in human conversations, one day, as we drank beer on a small patch of grass in front of the local hotel, he proclaimed there was something very important we wanted to tell us. Concluding that the Russian was most definitely possessed by something (you could tell when he spoke bulgarian), we all decided listening would do no harm but at worst would be so incredible that we would not believe it.

‘You guys are now young and strong and you surf and all, but seriously, you have to do sports’, he began, ‘I don’t mean just any sport but something that really puts weight on your muscles. Like rowing or pumping on the bench, you have to train and now prepare for the rest of your life. And cardio, too, it will save you from heart disease and such.’ - and you can imagine mine, our surprise and feeling of absurdity that a being like that was uttering sentences such as these at that moment.

And that was it, the only normal set of words he ever uttered in front of us, which in his mouth was not normal at all - this man, trained by Gauss himself, had one recommendation to us and it was to do sports because it will help us to stay healthy in the future.

In space, the state of weightlessness makes the unused muscles grow weak, and the astronauts have to use the special gym machines installed on their spaceship so that their bodies don’t entropy, and heart is a muscle, too, I think, and I wondered, briefly, after what the Russian told us, if it too can die with no gravity. And it seems that time is a muscle too. It contracts and then it unfolds, it squeezes and releases and lets you breathe and suffocates, and ultimately things seem neither good nor bad but just what they ended up being. Time can definitely die away and fall from you like a dead leaf. Or it can end up a pretty stone under the feet of a giant wave. You don’t feel how it squeezes and unfolds, how it lays you down in a warm bed in the arms of someone you didn’t ever know but who reminds you of everything.

Matthew Mcconaughey - seeing messages from the future, past, present, now, never, always, and breaking down into tears, his heart breaking from weightlessness.

I was twenty one and I knew what it meant.

And in a year I would be twenty two, and in another year twenty three, and in three years twenty four. And the astrology girls, going with us skinny dipping in the midnight water, they will disappear somewhere under the waves and start slowly fading away from our lives like an unused muscle.

J loved quoting this one scene from Matthew Mcconaughey's first movie:

‘You know what I love most about college girls? I get older - they stay the sameeeee age’

And each time he said it, he laughed with the greatest, purest laughter you could find on this now planet.

‘And I got caught one time’

‘For what?’

‘Well, maybe two, but only one time involved the police. Second time. And that was me trying to steal an album, well, it was called Steal This Album’ - I was lying, although I did also steal that album, but having trouble with the police was for an attempted theft of headphones though that didn’t sound as sexy. And for some reason which made me feel real good I was flirting with the most beautiful girl under the good sun by us recounting our thefts both real or invented.

We both quickly settled that we had some borderline immoral thread running through our veins but drew the line at actually killing someone. We were rich and young enough to say those things and be all sexy about it. We knew we didn’t have to steal but arranged we should do it together and some point (‘ok, why not tomorrow?’) and it was beer first, and then flip flops the next and then another day a pink swimming mattress from the backseat of some rich and young and abandoned rented cabrio. And we took it swimming, drunkenly in the night. Rich and young, and full of stars.

We stepped into the calm sea, small waves, shallow, and took off our clothes, most of them, and took our pink stolen mattress against the waves, her covering small breasts with only her hands, our sociopathic personalities meeting somewhere under ridiculous notions of astrology. We kissed, and that was that.

The mattress lay once again abandoned (has someone left the rented cabrio just as we left the shore?) where our friends would say it was ridiculous to steal it. We only stopped kissing when she said we have to look for the damn pink abandoned thing (apparently it was rented by one of her friends) after which we dived deep into the shallow sea.

I remembered all those things other than sex best. The kiss in the sea. The conversation about stealing shit, the hand covering breasts. And after sex, the interruptions of it by my taking sips from a big bottle of booze, and playing chess on the rooftop of the place we stole from.

‘And I got caught one time’

‘For what?’

‘Stealing mattresses, and flip flops, and beer, but it was good, the time I did treated me well’

‘How long were you in for?’

‘Hmm I don’t know, around eight decades’

‘Woah, how old were you when you got caught?’

‘Like, twenty-one’

‘Shit, but you say it was good?’

‘Yeah. It was good life’

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glorifiedsnickersbar · 4 years

Text

Farthest North

Chapter 9 - Desperate

Word count: 1068

America sighed.

49 unsent Christmas cards. One unsent Christmas gift.

49 unsent New Years invitations. One unsent New Years gift.

49 unsent Birthday cards. One unsent Birthday gift.

The lack of interest from his States angered him. Not even little Hawaii, who had looked up to her older sister, seemed to care, her cards having spilled juice all over them, yet she still intended to give them to Alaska. America read all of them, each having the same exact message as if they were mass produced a million times.

An impersonal Happy Birthday, Happy New Years and Merry Christmas. Nothing more, nothing less. And he was no better.

Three gifts sat in his closet. An Eskimo teddy bear, blue fuzzy slippers, and a brand new military grade hunting knife. He put a lot of thought in his gifts for her, and knew they were perfect... but he forgot. Even with a constant leering pain like a blade tip pressing at the back of his head, he forgot. He would wake up every morning thinking his 50 had turned to 49. The irony in that itself was painful.

"I've never lost anyone," the half crazed man muttered to himself, "in all my years, I've been the most successful, in war, economics. Name it, I've been number one!"

He looked up at his closed door, Alaska's flag draped over it, mirroring his own flag that brightened the hallway. But hers was crumpled, needing ironed. Neglected.

"I've survived World War 1, my own Civil War, World War 2... I've fought against my own father and won!"

America removed his sunglasses, the tears having made them impossible to see through.

"Yet here I am, losing to my own State."

He needed to win her back.

~.~

"Thank you, U.N." Alaska gave the shorter man a sweet smile, though her inner thoughts were far from sweet currently.

"You're welcome, Alaska," he nodded, "The second meeting will be held tomorrow. Forgive me for the delay, I fail to understand how I didn't make a date already."

"You forgot," Alaska shrugged, "Everyone does it."

That was true in every sense.

"Perhaps, but it doesn't make it right."

No, it doesn't.

"Would you like to stay for dinner?" he then asked, "I'm having other guests over, and they've mentioned wanting to meet you."

Alaska kindly declined, claiming that she had a few other business matters to attend to. Indeed, she wasn't lying, but it wasn't exactly a priority either. She had received a letter, for the first time in ages, from America, saying that she was invited to a party. She wasn't sure if she wanted to attend, but if she was invited, he must be doing better. It didn't start for another two hours, but she wanted to be presentable, and a shower can take up much of one's time. U.N. allowed her to leave via his own ring, and she stepped into the cold snow, the sky already dark while most other States were still quite bright out. It was only 3 P.M.

Looking at her letter, Alaska noted the time again, making sure she was going to be there at least a little early to help with set up. It started at 5:00. Trudging up to her front door, the State was glad the wind had died down enough to stop the snow from piling up on her walls. She still had to clear some snow to get in through her door, but that was no big deal. It was a simple task compared to her other winter chores like splitting firewood, shoveling snow or hunting. She enjoyed them all though, never being bored, and always having something to do if she wasn't handling the politics of her land. Of course, it didn't take up all of her time. She'd be able to read, spend time with her people, sew and other hobbies she accumulated through the years.

Finished with her shower, Alaska checked the time.

3:30

She was moving faster than she thought. Finding what she needed, the woman then picked up her phone, and called a now very dear friend.

"Yes I'm going... but I need some help."

~.~

America had spoken to Canada several times that day... all day in fact.

"How do I make her like me again?"

"America, it's not like she doesn't like you anymore-"

"I just don't want to lose her forever..."

Canada sighed, but gave his big brother an amused smile.

"Try making her feel valued. Like she belongs. You'll have her on your side for sure."

This is what the entire day long conversation boils down to. The rest was drilling the younger Country with questions about how he should plan, as well as Canada convincing him it didn't have to be Eskimo themed to make the State happy. The two settled for a formal party, Countries only, Alaska being the exception. U.K. was quite proud of his son as he came in, his usual tuxedo a constant. The mansion had been cleaned up, and the largest room dusted. The chandelier was aglow with tiny lights that made the crystal glitter. America remembered when he actually used this room for more than just storage.

"What's the occasion?" his father inspected his monocle, "you failed to mention it in the invitation."

"To make Alaska feel at home here," he smiled, "Canada suggested it. It's all for her."

U.K. smiled softly at his son, proud that he was willing to let his daughter go so willingly. He had certainly learned from his father's mistakes.

It was nearing 4:50, and the State was nervous as she stepped onto the concrete drive. There were already so many Countries here, and getting ready took longer than expected... Did she get the time wrong? Was she late? Oh what an impression that would be. The blue and gold State took a deep breath after looking at her invitation again, assuming that was her ticket in... it did say formal. She exhaled...

Nope, still nervous.

"You'll be fine," the Chinese citizen told the woman, "Here's China's ring," the circular object was pressed firmly into Alaska's grasp.

"Thank you," Alaska bowed, and the woman did the same before fading back to her country, not belonging in this world.

Taking one last deep breath, Alaska made the few steps to enter the mansion she knew so well.

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mylesudland · 5 years

Text

Some thoughts on youth sports

Baxter Holmes at ESPN has a fascinating story out about the NBA’s concern over injuries in its young players. For anyone who has spent time training — at any level — the concerns outlined will be ones you’ve heard before: a lack of mobility in explosive athletes and a lack of flexibility in strong athletes create ticking time bombs that go off in the form of broken legs, broken ankles, and warped backs.

The concerns voiced by executives and doctors at the NBA level are also familiar in the modern world of youth sports — by specializing in one sport at a young age, these athletes are set up for disappointment. They will be disappointed by their health and disappointed by their in-competition performance. In 2019, the issues surrounding the culture of youth sports are not new. The parents, the kids, the coaches, the administrators in every part of the country at every level in every sport have heard this story a thousand times.

And the “answers” end up sounding a lot like what AAU board member Rod Seaford told ESPN.

“The NCAA and the NBA loves to lay fault for their ills at the feet of youth sports or AAU,” Seaford told ESPN. “That's a pretty common thing. We've approached the NCAA and NBA with various proposals [only] to get lip service. We don't get much serious conversation. I don't doubt that it's a legitimate concern. But it's really easy to lay all those faults of the youth coach.”

The only answer is that there is no answer. Except that as I see it, the current youth-sports-industrial complex has a pretty straightforward incentive structure that perpetuates and accentuates that unathletic athletes that are filtering into the highest levels of American sports. It’s called the NCAA.

---

For a brief time, I ran cross country in college. My results are not inspiring. But my path to college athletics began during a heated dinner conversation in the winter of 2006 when I told my parents I was going to give up baseball. It was a decision my father didn’t really understand: why did I need to run all year round?

The previous fall I’d had a decent cross country season for a sophomore. Especially with the limited training I’d done the previous summer. After a string of races that showed promise, I ended up with a hairline fracture in my leg that resulted from running a race on an already stress-fractured leg. I ended up in a hard cast for a month. For me, the injury did not prompt questions about whether running was a viable long-term pursuit — was there, for instance, something anatomically that would disadvantage me as a long distance runner? — but instead convinced me that a tighter focus on running is what would stave off these injuries in the future.

In the spring of 2006, the first during which I gave up baseball to pursue distance running as a singular pursuit, I ended up with a lingering shin injury and eventually my season ended with torn ankle ligaments after hitting a rock the wrong way on a run. For the second time in six months, I was in a hard cast.

The next summer’s training led to a fall with a nagging hip injury. My results did not improve from the prior year. I survived the season, however, without a cast. Then the winter and spring of 2007 proved relatively injury free. And the results were just good enough that the opportunity to run in college was realistic. This, of course, had been the point all along.

---

In March, the public was made aware of something we all sort of knew was happening, we just didn’t know how. Rich parents were buying their way into college.

And while the FBI explicitly outlined that putting your name on a building and getting your descendants admission to an elite university as a result is not illegal, paying someone to take the SATs for your kid is. So is sending money to a fixer who sends some money to a college coach who then makes a spot for your kid on a team. Even if they’ve never played the sport. But the system that I think was laid most bare in Operation Varsity Blues is found in the name: it’s about the sports.

If you watch any college sports, you’ve see a version of this commercial before: “There are over 400,000 NCAA student athletes,” we’re told, “and most of them will be going pro in something other than sports.

And so while the NBA is worried about the load borne by kids playing over 100 games a year between AAU and their school-sponsored team, for those kids the NCAA is the finish line.

And as the FBI’s investigation into college admissions bribery outlined, one of the surest ways to overachieve your academic limitations is to be a good athlete.

---

My modest success running long distances encouraged both of my brothers — always superior athletes to me — to pursue running both at a younger age and more seriously than myself. Both of them had considerable success. Both of them attended elite universities they would never have been accepted to based on their academic achievements as a result of this athletic success. The specialization that came to the Udland family ultimately worked out.

Most weekends in the summer now we play golf together. None of us are particularly great. But the thing with golf is that everyone always thinks that if they could just spend more time practicing... So when we get together, the conversation sometimes leads to “what could have beens” about how things might be if we’d focused on, say, the three sports we all played as young kids (football, basketball, baseball) once we got to high school. Or what kind of golfers we could be if we’d played in high school, and so on.

It’s the idle talk of former athletes re-living a not-lived version of their glory days. But what these conversations usually ignore is that the specialization we might now dream away was the right decision. It opened to each of us a college experience that would have otherwise been impossible.

And so when we speak of the ills of youth sports, we must remember that the parents are not motivated because of professional sports, but about college sports. And while playing a sport in college is not realistic for most youth athletes, it is way more realistic than playing a professional sport. And the benefits — namely, an education at a university you might otherwise not be qualified to attend — are worth the risks of having more fun as a kid. Or, at least, that’s how many parents see it.

---

When I sat down to write this piece, I don’t think I meant to apologize for youth sports culture. And I’m not sure I really did. But re-reading this piece it seems that I have a lot of sympathy for a culture that directs money away from families who don’t have a lot to spare and takes time away from kids who won’t ever get their youth back.

The youth sports industry is fueled by bitter parents who think things should’ve gone a different way and put that anxiety on a child who is not equipped to know they’re but a pawn in an insecure adult’s do-over. Youth sports should be fun. And for many kids, they are not.

But the incentives that underwrite the youth sports industry are also not hard to decipher. Athletic achievement for many kids unlocks academic — and in turn, professional — doors that otherwise don’t exist. You can be a national level concert pianist and make your pitch to Harvard on that basis, but if you’re a high school boy that breaks 9:00 for the 2 mile, you’re pretty much in.

This argument is also the one used by NCAA executives who believe that paying college athletes is not justified. “They get an education,” you hear the amateurism defender saying. “That’s the payment.” And for an Olympic sport athlete, this may well be true. For the members of a major football program where television rights and ticket sales bring in tens of millions of dollars a year, this argument is obfuscating bullshit.

This argument also leaves out the kids who end up at schools they aren’t really qualified to attend. But the lack of investment in public schools in America is beyond the scope of this post. (The demonization of public schools is one of our nation’s most shameful public policy stances.)

Holmes’ article simply struck a chord for me because the NBA viewing itself as a relevant stakeholder in the culture of youth sports seems to me like an odd position for the league to take.

The league is defined by a dozen or so stars and their backgrounds are highly varied. LeBron James was The Chosen One at age 16 and has, improbably, exceeded that hype. Kevin Durant went to a major university to play college ball, was a star from the beginning of his freshman season, then entered the league and was one of its best players within three years. Kawhi Leonard and Paul George were overlooked high school players, mid-first round picks, and have grown into themselves. Giannis Antetokounmpo’s journey to the NBA from Greece earned the 60 Minutes treatment.

All of which is to say that the NBA’s worry about youth sports matters little to the league’s players that actually define for the public what the sport really is about. Which is about stars.

Certainly, some NBA general managers would like the deeper parts of the league’s pool to be more mobile and less injury prone. The freak leg fracture suffered by Julius Randle — a product of the AAU system and the University of Kentucky’s NBA farm system — was certainly a blow to Randle, his family, and the Los Angeles Lakers.

But the lesser versions of Julius Randle, the kid from Dayton he played in a summer league tournament back in 2011 that ended up getting a scholarship to Kent State, probably doesn’t regret his choice to overextend himself during high school summers. Because while that kid might’ve had his eye on Ohio State, a scholarship came through. The gamble paid off.

And when you’re at a desk making calls to sell P&C insurance in suburban Cleveland, you don’t worry about your chronically stiff ankle in the morning.

Instead you wonder what could’ve been with your buddies, knowing it worked out just fine.

#youthsports #basketball #ESPN #NBA #NCAA #college sports

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alexdrawsagain · 7 years

Text

was supposed to upload this ages ago......

92 Truths

Tagged by @willhernandezdraws

I am not as open about my life as some would like. However, I feel sorta comfortable with these since you have no idea if i’m telling the truth or not.

I love that ambiguity.....

Rules: Write 92 truths about yourself then tag other people

LAST…

[1] Drink: Great Value Apple Juice

[2] Phone call: People call me.

[3] Text message: The phone company texted me that i paid my phone bill

[4] Song you listened to: Long hot summer night: Jimi Hendrix

[5] Time you cried: N/A

HAVE YOU EVER…

[6] Dated someone twice: No

[7] Been cheated on: No

[8] Kissed someone and regretted it: No.

[9] Lost someone special: Yes.

[10] Been depressed: Yes. However, I can’t spend my time feeling sorry for myself and often have to push through it to get $#!t done. It feels like running a marathon but you’re exhausted at the beginning. Or piloting a jalopy of a spaceship that sputters and throws sparks throughout the journey.

Sometimes it gets better. And there are many days where i’m fine and then it hits me like a sack of bricks.

[11] Gotten drunk and thrown up: Never gotten drunk.

LIST THREE FAVOURITE COLORS…

[12] Green

[13] Neon Blue

[14] Dark Red

IN THE LAST YEAR…

[15] made new friends: @willhernandezdraws @therandomninjakitty @the-solar-surfer.

[16] fallen out of love: No.

[17] laughed until you cried: More like until I started coughing.

[18] found out someone was talking about you: Fight me in the streets you wuss.

[19] met someone who changed you: Yes.

[20] found out who your true friends are: All the time

[21] kissed someone on your Facebook list: No

GENERAL…

[22] how many of your facebook friends do you know in real life: All of them except for Will and Dre. I now use a backup facebook account to talk to them.

[23] do you have any pets: No.

[24] do you want to change your name: No. But I do like it when people use my full name for a change.

[25] what did you do for your last birthday: Ate some cake and went back to work on chores.

[26] what time did you wake up: 9:00 a.m.

[27] what were you doing at midnight last night: Passing out while reflecting upon the changes my life is going through.

[28] name something you cannot wait for: This list could be a mile long. But the biggest thing on the list is getting started on the drawing for the third issue. Laying out all the groundwork is taking longer than I thought.

[29] when was the last time you saw your mother: Today.

[30] what is one thing you wish you could change about your life: That I could have my own place that I own.

[31] what are you listening to right now: The Dance of Hours from Fantasia

[32] have you ever talked to a person named tom: I don’t think so.

[33] something that is getting on your nerves: Another mile long list. Loud drunk people who party until 2a.m. blaring their music next door is a good start.

[34] most visited website: Tumblr. Or Amazon to do a lot of virtual window shopping

[35] elementary: Got in trouble a lot for daydreaming and being called an underachiever.

[36] high school: Got way better and way worse at the same time.

[37] college: I have no idea how to describe this. A rollercoaster? A non stop exhaustion iron man race? A bunch of new experiences. Severe disappointment. Leveling up art skills. Discovering new art? Sadness. Just a lot of stuff.

[38] hair color: Black.

[39] long or short hair: Long enough to put my fingers through.

[40] do you have a crush on someone: No.

[41] what do you like about yourself: My hair now that i finally grew it out to a length i always wanted.

[42] piercings: None

[43] blood type: Red

[44] nickname: Everybody calls me Alex

[45] relationship status: single.

[46] zodiac sign: keep your witchcraft.

[47] pronouns: He/him

[48] fav tv show: Pushing Daisies

[49] tattoos: Hell no.

[50] right or left hand: Right.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FIRST…

[51] surgery: Some stitches.

[52] piercing: None.

[53] best friend: I have no idea.

[54] sport: frisbee.

[55] vacation: Mexico

[56] pair of trainers: Something that had lights in them.

RIGHT NOW…

[57] eating: finished eating breakfast.

[58] drinking: apple juice

[59] I’m about to: go outside

[60] listening to: the dance of hours again

[61] waiting for: My motivation to kick in.

=--------------------------------

[62] want:

[63] get married: First I have to find the lady, dude.

[64] career: Comic book artist and writer.

WHICH IS BETTER…

[65] hugs or kisses: I’ll take both but i’ll be honest, i don’t really hug anyone outside of requisite times of the year and family gatherings.

[66] lips or eyes: Eyes.

[67] shorter or taller: I’d love a lady to be shorter than me since most of the ladies around me seem to wanna date sequoia trees. But Jack Kirby’s stories of a shorter superhero being in a loving relationship with an amazon of a woman have warmed me up to the idea of a taller woman considerably. Also Greg and Rose.

[68] older or younger: Either but within reason.

[69] romantic or spontaneous: Both.

[70] nice arms or nice stomach: Both.

[71] sensitive or loud: I honestly do not know the answer to this one.

[72] hook up or relationship: I’m a relationship man. People are not paper plates you use once and toss out the next morning.

[73] troublemaker or hesitant: I’d like someone who is restrained in polite company but when it’s the two of us we’ll be two hell raisers blasting AC/DC and freaking out the norms at 2a.m.

HAVE YOU EVER…

[74] kissed a stranger: No

[75] drank hard liquor: No

[76] lost glasses/contact lenses: Yes. I thought someone stole my glasses but they were actually wedged inside my locker.

[77] turned someone down: No.

[78] sex on first date?: No thanks.

[79] broken someone’s heart?: No....? I mean if it was someone who liked me but never said anything and I never knew about it I guess that’s a possibility.

[80] had your own heart broken?: Let’s not get into that right now......

[81] been arrested?: I’ve been in the back of a squad car once. But that was for my own protection rather than because I was being arrested.

[82] cried when someone died?: Yes.

[83] fallen for a friend?: I don’t want to answer this......

DO YOU BELIEVE IN…

[84] yourself?: My personal creed is that nobody is going to do my work for me. Whether that be chasing dreams or doing things that are difficult for me. Meaning I have nobody but myself to blame for my success or failures.

[85] miracles?: I believe in luck and coincidence.

[86] love at first sight?: No.

[87] Santa Claus?: No. Even as a kid no matter how much I wanted to believe in it. I knew for a fact my parents got me my stuff. They didn’t lie to me. They just asked what I wanted and often bought it in front of me so the belief system wasn’t there at the beginning. I do like the idea of Santa as a mythological figure though..

[88] kiss on the first date?: I would totally be down for that but the problem is getting the first date. And i think that both parties need to be on the same page for that.

[89] angels?: Like Q.84, there is no higher power watching out for me. The only one who’s going to get me out of a jam is me.

OTHER…

[90] current best friend’s name: I actually do not know off the top of my head. There are people in the running but I barely see them. Ask me this like 7+ years ago and this would have been easy.

[91] eye color: Dark Brown

[92] favorite movie: Raiders of the Lost Ark.

#being tagged #tag #92 truths #truth #questionairre #belated #late as hell

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future-rp · 6 years

Photo

5ync’s main vocal & leader sian

2u’s lead vocal & sub rap trainee, killjoy creative; music, acting 08 vocal / 00 rap / 02 dance

They were never supposed to mix, never to be attracted to one another, or ever cross paths; at least, that’s what ever seemed to think when it came to Bae Kyuhan and Ji Gain. Kyuhan was a student in Government and Gain was a student in fashion. Even though they both went to the same school, Seoul National University, they both seemed to not meant to cross paths; at least, that’s what the friends around them were saying. But, they had decided that the fact the two of them had run into one another, knocking each other’s books all over the place, it was some kind of fate towards them. Though, they merely seemed to just shrug such a thing off and go on their way; seemingly to forget about the pretty face that had consumed both of their brains. Except, that wasn’t the end for Kyuhan and Gain; considering the fact that they had both seemed to take each other’s books; an honest mistake fallen upon the both of them. It was time to return the books to each other and when they did, they couldn’t seem to let each other go. Especially after their hands on grazed each other; they barely even knew each other, but they began dating either way. Simply, they would just get to know each other while dating.

All it took was graduating university, three years of dating, and one night, standing on a rooftop overlooking Seoul, South Korea. Kyuhan had asked Gain to marry him, to become his wife, start a family together, and be together no matter what. Gain had accepted his proposal; something that her family had accepted because he was a good man with a stable job, as well as a bright future. Kyuhan’s family was a little hesitant due to Gain owning a boutique, but had accepted that it was a successful business. They soon would marry in the spring, with cherry blossoms falling down; a wedding that people became rather envious of. Some even found themselves being a little jealous of how nice it was; but that was normal, right? But nonetheless, they married in spring of 1995, spending a whole year without children. It was just the easiest to make themselves advance in their own careers.

First would come a beautiful baby boy on January 1st, 1997; he would be named Bae Sian. He had the expectations of being “good, the best, the first.” Who knew if he was going to be the best or good; but damn, did he try his best to be the best in whatever it was that he would do. In 1999, a second child would come; she would be a girl. She would bear the name of “Siyoung.” There was no special reason for her name; really, none of the Bae children had names that were picked for a particular reason. They were just names that Gain had simply liked. There were only going to be two Bae children, no more than that. Gain often saying that “the shop is closed” with the mention of having a third child.

He grew up without a father; something that ended up being okay, even if it was sad that he had to basically grow up without one. It’s not like his parents were divorced or anything of that matter, actually. No, they were still married; he simply was just gone all the time. You see, Bae Kyuhan is a diplomat and his job calls for him to travel. So, simply, Sian would never see his father. He’d come back every few years, where he would pretend to have some sort of relationship with him; it was almost painfully obvious that they didn’t have one what so ever. Half the time, he would feel like he couldn’t even remember who his father was. Sian never communicated with him, not even via telephone. His friends constantly ask who Kyuhan was, where he would just simply respond that he was his father, leaving some wave of shock among Sian’s friends. All he needed was his mother and his younger sister; that was his family… Kyuhan was too, but it was almost in a different way, a way that Sian could never actually explain. Nor did he actually plan on putting the words together to explain what their relationship was, simply his father had his career and that’s what seemed most important to him. At least he was paying the bills and making sure they had money. He just always hoped her mother wasn’t lonely. That had always sat in the back of Sian’s mind.

He was a good kid; one that you could almost aspire to have. He wasn’t a troublemaker, actually not all the time. He defended herself from a bully in the best way that he possibly could and would later defend his youngest sister from someone picking on her. Truly, he got in trouble for doing it; but, his mother wasn’t mad because his family was always taught to stick up for themselves in any way that they possibly could. That just seemed to be how it happened and once it did, no one talked about it once again. He was a hurricane from the beginning. Maybe these incidents were made Sian him, his attitude, his personality, and so many other things in between.

He had always been ambitious in what he did, constantly getting straight As, and changing his dreams constantly. But, that seemed normal for a child to do, never knowing what exactly they had wanted. Even at a young age, he was determined to learn English due to the many tourists that he could upon, asking him questions that he didn’t understand. After a while, he became fluent, which gave him the ability to help foreigners every time they came around Sinsa-dong. Though, soon enough he would find this interest in music, learning the guitar, seeing what his voice could do, and even learning some dances. He wasn’t a professional of sorts or anything, he was just having fun. Sian wasn’t going to work in his mother’s boutique forever, it just wasn’t him. But, that was until he began saying that he was going to be an idol one day; even if people around him didn’t believe him They just thought Sian was being silly and funny. There was no way he would become one, right?

Wrong.

It was a warmer day; he had gotten off the bus with a guitar upon his back, almost like he was ready to take on the world. The year was 2012 and Sian was about fifteen years of age; the prime age of a teenager. He was about to take on the auditions for Killjoy Creative; they seemed like the closest choice to go for, they were the first one’s looking for new trainees, as well as a company with a lot of popularity. He thought, as a young teenager, it was going to be his best choice (was him going to be wrong in the future? Maybe.) He went inside to the building where auditions were being held, an air full of anxious feelings; something that he wasn’t trying to feel himself. After getting his number, he sat in a row of six, everyone around him practicing, which he had quietly done himself. It felt like time had gone on forever by the time his line was called into the room. They all lined up by the wall, in a row. Nervous eyes watching as people went before him, the words “stop. Next,” being said to those before him.

It was him next, feeling nervous about the fact that everyone before him was stopped and quickly onto the next. He held his guitar, moving to the spot that he needed to stand. There, he would strum the chords of his guitar and sing; it almost felt surprising that the man behind the table let him sing to the entity. Once done, he was asked if he could dance, so he gave a nod, the assistant taking his guitar for him and a beat would be played; which he would dance to. It wasn’t the best dancing; but it was enough to put Sian into the next round. It was him and another kid that were given a paper, where they would be taken to another room for the second part, involving their expressions, walking, and a few other visual tactics. He was good at this part as well, thanks to his mother. Sian completely passed the audition as a whole; getting one step closer to what he said he was going to become.

Trainee years weren’t the greatest; it felt like an overworking of training and studying, something he had to learn to juggle. Especially since there was the brutality of weekly evaluations, something he’d pass almost weekly. Many seemed envious, something that he would just shrug off. The constant hours of training, somedays going without sleep because he was just too busy making sure he was going to pass all these evaluations, it would drive him crazy. He would have his few bad ones, but he would just scoff them off when other trainees would talk behind his back, but were fake to him in front. It was obvious that this was a dog eat dog world, so he was going to be the king of jungle. He was sure to have a bit of an attitude to those that looked down upon him, but nice to those that actually treated him with respect. It was something that he did through his life. Sure, it was probably seen almost as two faced, but that’s just how someone had to be in this industry behind closed doors. It was his survival and to hell with anyone that would mess with that or treat him like he was nothing. It’s something that anyone would do.

There was one other issue with Sian; which seemingly is his own sexuality. Every time he’d be asked what is ideal type of a female was by his company for upcoming profiles, he could feel himself cringing internally at that fact; but his facial expression would tell otherwise and he’d just answer the question, like he was taught to. Over the years, he seemingly come to know his sexuality and accepted it. There was a certain way he felt about guys, the way they look, the way they make his heart skip his beat; he didn’t feel that way about girls, he never even has. But, he pretended that they did, just to hide the fact that he’s homosexual; he’s played with a lot of girls’ hearts, leaving them in the dust if they wanted anything more than hand holding. He made himself like a player as a teenager and in the secret world of trainee/idol dating; something they wouldn’t be allowed to do like a normal person. There’s so many reasons that he’s hiding his own sexuality; it just felt like he couldn’t come out because of the stigma.

Even though he faces so many issues, he’s finally getting his chance to debut. It’s so close that he can almost taste it and he was ready to taste his little bit of fame, his career finally shaping up. To be quite honest, Sian is really happy with where he’s going, even though he essentially sat in a basement for almost seven years. He’s happy because it’s something that’s finally coming to him, even if some people may believe he doesn’t deserve it. But, it had always been clear that this was Sian’s destiny and it was clear that he’s main vocalist material. Even leader material with the way he can keep people in line, the way that he could get people’s attention; in both a leader type of way and in a breathtaking way due to his own visuals – but, he’s clear he fits the leader position to a t. This was it, this was where Bae Sian belongs.

THE STORY IS STILL BEING WRITTEN…

#ft. accepted #ft. 5ync bio #ft. 2u bio

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idolizerp · 6 years

Photo

[ LOADING INFORMATION ON OLYMPUS’ SUB VOCAL, LEAD DANCE CHA SIWOO…. ]

DETAILS

CURRENT AGE: 26 DEBUT AGE: 18 SKILL POINTS: 07 VOCAL | 14 DANCE | 00 RAP | 18 PERFORMANCE SECONDARY SKILLS: Acting

INTERVIEW

siwoo has two faces: one prettier than the other.

seven years in this industry has taught him a lot of things, and one of them is that you have to constantly stay afloat no matter what because otherwise, you’ll get swallowed alive. every second is a game of survival, and he’s determined to emerge the winner.

subpar vocals and mediocre dance doesn’t drag him down, however. he makes up for that with well-practiced smiles and saccharine words, charms his way out of everything. he has a way with words and he doesn’t hesitate to use it to his advantage most of the time.

there’s no room for sacrifices or selflessness in this industry. it’s every man for himself, and siwoo’s long learnt to protect himself as an instinct.

that’s what makes him so good on screen, though. cha siwoo of olympus is known to be good on variety shows and great at fanservice. charisma and stage presence are the two things that are linked to his name, playing the perfect role of an oppa-dol where he’s marketed as a boyfriend to every single fucking idiotic fan they have.

because truth is: cha siwoo of busan, is a self-centered, conceited asshole. he just lies his way through it with smiles and carefully selected words.

things like:

“would you like to send a video message to your family? you must miss them a lot.”

i don’t have one?

instead, he lies through his teeth, bright grin hanging from his lips: “my olympus members are my family. they’re all i’ll ever need.”

fact: the olympus members are nothing but strangers to him, as much as his fans are just the ones who bring in the money.

he’s despicable, maybe: but there’s only space in his heart for one, and that’s, well, himself.

after all, there is no room for friendship in here. there’s no room for the risk of becoming anything but first.

BIOGRAPHY

tw homophobia

SCENE I.

growing up, siwoo is nothing but a shadow.

jiwon is so handsome. i’m so proud of you, jiwon! why can’t you be more like jiwon, siwoo?

growing up, cha siwoo is nothing compared to cha jiwon. no matter how hard he tries, he’s just a speck to a shining star.

SCENE II.

no one takes a glance at him, and that’s a fact. being second in everything doesn’t warrant attention when everyone’s focused on the first.

and this is how the title of second takes its hold on him, and makes its mark.

younger, vice captain, second lead, salutatorian. no matter how hard he tries, he always falls—

second.

what’s he lacking in? looks or talent or brains or personality or—

siwoo’s trying his best in every aspect, but he is not his brother and he never will be.

(“what’s your name?”

“cha siwoo!”

“ah, jiwon’s brother!”)

siwoo? nonexistent. he is always reduced to just jiwon’s brother.

SCENE III.

jealousy makes a home out of him and learns to fester. it’s a kind of weight that sits heavy in his stomach and grows everyday. he’s sick of it.

(sick. of. it!)

dinner time at six, and the family’s gathered around the table. siwoo watches as their mother reaches for the biggest piece of chicken with her chopsticks and sets it atop jiwon’s rice.

and it’s always the little things—

they play their role of a loving family, starring cha jiwon (understudy: cha siwoo).

BROTHER: thank you!

MOTHER: eat up, son.

FATHER: you deserve it.

SIWOO: (ignored!)

this is where he attempts to deviate from the script, eyes finally looking up from his bowl, and he starts out, “hey, i have something to tell you—”

“here, jiwon, have more vegetables.”

“i got my results back and—”

“how was school, honey?”

he clutches at his spoon a little tighter, but he presses on.

“apparently i ranked—”

“oh my god, i can’t believe we forgot about your swim meet, jiwon! tell us all about it. your brother could learn a thing or two.”

siwoo looks back down at his food.

(“…first in the level.”)

he’s invisible. he’s used to it.

and he promises himself that he won’t be for much longer.

SCENE IV.

jiwon is perfect, and siwoo is fighting to be like him. or some semblance of him, anyway. he’ll never compare.

well, the truth is: jiwon is not perfect, and siwoo relishes in it.

his brother is seventeen as he is sixteen, with a sort of unspoken rivalry between them (or is it just him?) and that’s when he sees.

siwoo’s walking back from school when he sees jiwon with his hand in another, watches as two pairs of feet stop in front of their door and slowly drags his gaze up until— oh.

he sees two equally bright smiles and his brother’s visible excitement before leaning in for a peck. truthfully, aside from that, he doesn’t see much else. if he wasn’t so blinded by his own hatred, he wouldn’t have said anything.

however, siwoo is the living embodiment of loathing, something that he’s been cultivating all these few years, and so when he sees jiwon with his boyfriend—

a split second, before jiwon looks past his shoulder and meets siwoo’s eyes.

it is a rollercoaster of shock and horrification and fear and at last, sadness, because both he and siwoo know that siwoo will not let this go.

jiwon still tries, though, and siwoo has to give him credit for that. jiwon bids a hurried goodbye, and rushes over to him with all the desperation of the world on his shoulders and says, “please, siwoo.”

and siwoo actually contemplates it for a second. there’s a part of him that feels pity for his brother, of a forbidden relationship that he’s tried so hard to hide when all he was searching for was just happiness. siwoo sees it in his eyes, how truly content jiwon is and happier than he’s ever seen in his lifetime.

and so he thinks about it.

but.

jiwon and siwoo are not friends, much less brothers, and he’s long learnt to only think of himself. jiwon is nothing to him except the catalyst to his envy and hatred, and when he finally, finally has something against him, he feels a sickening sense of satisfaction.

“please don’t tell them.”

(ha!)

and so he does.

(who has the last laugh now, jiwon?)

SCENE V.

two months later he finds himself in a practice room full of hopefuls. siwoo is not one of them.

he leaves home with a heavy backpack but a lighter heart than he’s ever carried, because it’s always too late to make amends and his part in his family has long been worn out. instead, he’s determined to find somewhere else to prove that he’ll be more successful than any of them will ever be.

in any case, also a big fuck you to them.

he watches the other trainees, sizes them up with calculating eyes. he knows he’ll be better than all of them, and is determined to be. he’s a fast learner, and someday he’ll be capturing the attention of everyone in the room.

where he’s concerned, he’ll never be second ever again. and he’ll make sure of that.

(is he just like jiwon now…?)

SCENE VI.

olympus, is in a sense, is nothing more than a business contract, or at least to him.

it’s not quite what he’s expected, but with the competitiveness that each member possesses, it’s not surprising for siwoo to find himself on the giving and receiving end of sharp glares when they each try to get more screentime over the rest.

in other words, their all for one one for all image as a group is a bunch of bullshit.

especially since siwoo earns his title as a lead dancer instead of the main, sub vocal instead of whatever else he expects.

is doing whatever it takes to be at the top not quite enough?

his envy and frustration increases tenfold, and more often than not, he finds it directed at the members. maybe if he repeats it enough, like a mantra, it’ll come true: i’m going to be the best i’m going to be the best i’m going to be the best

(i’m not going to be forgotten).

and yet, he watches as the other members get more attention for their skills, and so he resorts to other ways to shine. he refuses to be put on the backburner, because that’s not what he’s here for.

it’s selfish, to other people. but to siwoo, all he’s ever known is this, that he has to fight to be the best because otherwise he’ll be overshadowed and everyone will forget his name.

for the first few years as an idol, he’s resentful. he’s resentful that he hasn’t gotten what he wants and that other members are considered to be better than him and he’s determined to prove them all wrong. it’s his ambition that drives him forward, after all.

along the way, he learns to find alternatives. he practices his expressions in the mirror each day, shapes himself to be a product of perfection. he discovers a new skin in acting because the world is already his stage - his life is a whole show of pretence. what’s so different about it?

people tell him that he’s manufactured, and that he’s an attention-seeker. they aren’t wrong, and siwoo doesn't care. all that matters to him is that sometime, someday, he reaches the very top, and anyone that stands in his way is just looking to be run over.

well, or that’s what he thinks. to him, he’s undefeatable. someday, the whole world will see that.

#id.bio #id.olympus #id.midas #id.lee minhyuk

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junker-town · 7 years

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Why Giancarlo Stanton would choose to play for the Giants

The Giants lost more games than the Marlins last year. Why would he choose to go there?

My job today is to explain how the 2018 Giants won’t be nearly as awful as they were in 2017. You might think that my reputation as a Giants fan with a history of explicit bias would hurt my ability to be impartial, and you’d be right. Just not in the way that you think.

See, I had to watch 162 Giants games last year. Every night, every day, I would watch this horrible team, and then I would have to spend hours writing or talking about them, unless I was writing and talking about them. I’m angrier at the current roster than you will ever be at a sports team. They played like they were trying to lower the price of the franchise on purpose, and it’s hard for me not to write a screed about how they’ll be even worse, out of spite.

Except the current roster does allow for some hope. And it’s not just me who needs to convince you; the Giants need to convince Giancarlo Stanton if they’re hoping the National League MVP will waive his no-trade clause. Let’s figure out what the Giants’ pitch might be.

You don’t necessarily want to start a pitch to Stanton with detailed quibbles about the Pythagorean Theorem and Base Runs. He doesn’t care. You don’t care. It doesn’t matter if the Giants were a true 98-loss team or a true 95-loss team. They were bad, and there’s no washing that stink away.

No, what you start with is that the Giants were supposed to be good last year. More than half of the FanGraphs staff had them in the postseason. More than two-thirds of the ESPN staff had them in the postseason. These were not soccer writers who were filling in because everyone else was on vacation. These were people who looked at a collection of 25 players and thought, yes, there is enough talent here for the Giants to be one of the six-best teams in the National League.

Those 25 players are back, mostly. They’re not going to be 35 or 40 years old. And with a couple of exceptions, it’s reasonable to expect better things from them. Madison Bumgarner missed more time with injury than he had in his previous eight seasons combined. Johnny Cueto had a seven-season streak of above-average pitching snapped, having his worst season since 2009. Jeff Samardzija had a remarkable season in some respects, striking out 205 and walking just 32, but his ERA was nearly a full run higher than his FIP.

There are reasons to be high on all three pitchers for next season, and they aren’t complicated reasons. The pitchers who were recently good are expected to be good again.

The lineup is a little trickier. Brandon Belt missed the end of the season because he was hit in the helmet with a pitch, and while it’s fair to be worried about his history of concussions, it’s also fair to assume that he’ll stop getting hit in the head because nobody is really Sideshow Bob in a field of rakes, dammit. Joe Panik might have leveled off, or he might be entering his prime. Brandon Crawford was a better hitter in the three previous seasons, so it’s reasonable to expect a return to form, and Buster Posey is solid when when he isn’t hitting home runs. They were all part of one of the best lineups in the NL just two years ago, and all of them are 31 or younger.

The pitch would go like this, then: We still have faith in our pitching. We still have faith in a chunk of our lineup. These are the reasons why we made the postseason in 2016 and felt like we had a chance in 2017, and those reasons haven’t changed. Also, we know what needs to be fixed around them.

Put another way, Jeff Sullivan has the Giants as second wild card contenders just by replacing Hunter Pence with Stanton. While “second wild card contenders” is damning with faint praise, that’s assuming a roster without any other changes. That’s assuming Pablo Sandoval starting at third, which he won’t be. That assumes Denard Span will get 150 games as the league’s worst defensive center fielder again, which he won’t.

The best part about a season as terrible as the Giants’ 2017 is that the biggest problems are easy to spot. They know they need a third baseman. They know they need a center fielder. They know they need help for their bullpen. But the rest of the roster is mostly set with the same people that made everyone optimistic about last season.

That is their pitch to Stanton about why they won’t be terrible in 2018. I think it’s a strong pitch, personally, even though I hate myself for believing it.

But the larger, broader pitch is that the Giants have plans for world domination. The Giants used to pay tens of millions every year for AT&T Park. They paid that debt off, and they’ve sunk that money into a huge, sprawling real estate project across from McCovey Cove. There will be about 1.5 million square feet of commercial real estate, about a million square feet of residential real estate, and about 200,000 square feet of retail stores. And it turns out that real estate in San Francisco is a fine way to print money.

The success of this project, though, is loosely tethered to the success of the Giants. The hotter the baseball team is, the more desirable it will be to live near the ballpark.

Or, to dumb it down: Every organization has an investment in their team’s on-field success, and the Giants will, too. Just more so. They’ll need a spend-money-to-make-money mindset to maximize just how chic and trendy all of these shops, offices, and condos can be.

That’s the other side of the pitch, then. The financial future of the organization is healthy. As healthy as any other in baseball. Perhaps not quite the Yankees and Dodgers, but close enough to strut in a presentation. The Giants will be unlikely to trade an MVP away at the height of his powers because he makes too much money, for example.

The Giants have hope for next year.

The Giants have a lot of hope after that, even if the farm system is down and the core is aging.

Our televised basketball games are over by 10:00 p.m., usually.

Now waive the no-trade clause.

Will it be enough? The Cardinals’ pitch is also compelling: “We’ve been excellent for, like, two decades, and we’re not going to stop anytime soon.” Sure, it’s a place where an outfielder can get a moth stuck in his ear, but who even remembers that horrible, scarring incident besides Matt Holliday when he closes his eyes every night? The Cardinals have a track record of recent success and a developmental pipeline that’s the envy of the league.

So just because the Giants play in California, it doesn’t mean that the Giants’ pitch has to sell Stanton. The Cardinals are a model franchise with plenty to offer. But I’ve read comments and tweets from disgruntled fans who assume the Giants are a 98-loss team without a future, and they can’t imagine why Stanton would choose them.

The rebuttal is that they should be better next year, and they’re planning on spending to fortify the team every year after that. They would like to have an MVP setting career milestones to help keep the team watchable and relevant, and they’ll spend to build a team around him. They’re not the Yankees or the Dodgers, but they’re not not the Yankees or the Dodgers, either.

“I would say this is less about getting the resources to compete with the New York Yankees or the Los Angeles Dodgers and more about us being prudent business people,’’ Baer said, “to be able to grow the Giants.’’

What’s implied is that they’ll get the resources to compete with the Yankees or Dodgers anyway. Maybe not quite that much, but they’ll at least get invited to the same parties.

I’m not saying it’s the winning pitch. But it sounds better than “You can help us lose 90 games instead of 98!”, which seems to be a common assumption. The Giants can offer a little bit. It’s up to Stanton to accept it, but he wasn’t promised magic beans.

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mikepepi · 7 years

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Staff Predictions | Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin

New Post has been published on https://bestboxingshoes.net/staff-predictions-canelo-alvarez-vs-gennady-golovkin/

Staff Predictions | Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin

Photo by Hogan Photos/Golden Boy Promotions

On Saturday, September 16, 2017, Canelo Alvarez takes on Gennady Golovkin in a scheduled 12-round fight for the Middleweight championship of the world.

The long-awaited bout will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada and will air live on HBO Pay-Per-View starting 8:00 pm, EST.

Read on for Round By Round Boxing‘s staff predictions for Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin and let us know you think will win.

Round By Round Boxing Staff Predictions – 2017

Name Win Loss Total Fights Win Percentage Alan Garcia 9 4 13 0.69230769230769 Alex Burgos 23 8 31 0.74193548387097 Amber Williams 18 5 23 0.78260869565217 Andrew Kang 8 0 8 1 Brandon Glass 15 2 17 0.88235294117647 Chris Nicastro 10 3 13 0.76923076923077 CJ Halloran 10 3 13 1.6666666666667 Eric Ramos 2 0 2 1 Joseph Rodriguez 11 3 14 14 Julio Sanchez 5 1 6 0.83333333333333 Liam Brady 24 6 30 0.8 Michael Burnell 18 8 26 0.69230769230769 Milo Taibi 0 1 1 0 Robert Contreras 2 0 2 1 Sarah Gruber 9 4 13 0.69230769230769 Shelbi Keyes 2 0 2 1 Ty Paul 23 3 26 0.88461538461538 Vince Minnick 4 0 4 1 R.L. Woodson 2 0 2 1

Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin

Photo by Marilyn Paulino/RBRBoxing

Liam Brady, Graphic Designer/Staff Writer

While the fight may not captivate as many viewers as Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor, several weeks ago, Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin is undoubtedly the flagship matchup in boxing.

After several months of deliberation, and finding it hard to pick a winner, I have eventually come to the conclusion that Golovkin will win this fight. As with previous superfights, there are so many variables that make Canelo-GGG compelling, which will no doubt result in conflicting opinions on who will succeed.

As for the narrative, I do not see an opening like Marvin Hagler vs. Thomas Hearns, which has been mentioned in the same breath as this fight. Instead, the fight will probably start from long range, with both fighters regularly throwing the jab and partaking in the customary “feeling out” process.

Canelo will most likely take the early rounds and land a lot more than Golovkin will, due to his speed and reflexes. Though it’s worth noting that Canelo’s power, in my opinion, can be overestimated at times. Therefore, I can’t see whatever he lands being effective in terms of pushing Golovkin back, or discouraging him from coming forward.

As a consequence, I think Golovkin will be patient and will stalk his opponent constantly while keeping a high guard, in tandem with throwing his solid jab. He may have to lose a few rounds in the process, but I feel he will wait for Canelo to expend a lot of energy in the early rounds, which usually results in him taking a breather against the ropes.

As evidenced in previous fights, such as Canelo vs. James Kirkland and Canelo vs. Liam Smith, Canelo has shown a tendency to throw an abundance of punches, only to dwindle and seek some respite against the ropes. This is where Golovkin will have most of his success, in my opinion, with his opponent against the ropes and open to sickening body shots and uppercuts.

Granted, Canelo will succeed in landing shots, but the inability to hurt his opponent will be exhausting, both mentally and physically. Much harder punchers have hit Golovkin clean, and not once did he seem unsettled. And with the constant pressure of Golovkin, combined with his ability to cut off the ring, it will be a taxing experience that could force Canelo to eventually retreat towards the ropes, which is a situation that Golovkin loves to place his opponent in.

Pushing Canelo towards the ropes will be crucial for Golovkin in winning the fight, as it will allow him to negate Canelo’s strengths, while using his size advantage to maraud and overwhelm his opponent with damaging shots to the body and head.

Golovkin’s recent fights may have made him look more human, which dilutes his fearsome aura in the ring, but I still believe he has enough in the tank, physically and technically, to pin Canelo down and make him wilt in the middle rounds. I’m picking Golovkin by TKO in the sixth or seventh round.

Prediction: Golovkin

R.L. Woodson, Staff Writer

There’s isn’t a comparable mega-matchup in boxing to be made over the next two-three years–maybe even five-plus years. Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin pits a pair of great fighters together for which I have no, or very little, reason to doubt or dislike.

Alvarez is a beautiful boxer who possesses prodigious combination punching ability. He exemplifies a fighter that loves boxing, and his skills are indicative of a boxer who dedicated himself to the profession around 15 years old. However, Alvarez’s tale-of-the-tape details just aren’t suited for dominance at Middleweight and above.

In order to feel better about his chances I would’ve had to have seen Canelo fight at least two of the longer, younger lions at 154-pounds. Whether it was a sanctioning body/premium network issue, or the standard “he doesn’t bring any money to the table” defense, I needed to see Canelo against two of Demetrius Andrade, either Charlo brother, and while he’s newer to the champion ranks Jarrett Hurd.

Golovkin’s chosen to operate in the same often depleted middleweight waters that Hall of Famer Bernard Hopkins reigned over for 10-plus years, 20 consecutive title defenses. Shout to Antwun Echols, no shade to Robert Allen. Golovkin’s criminal offense: Why didn’t he make the fight happen with Andre Ward?

All that aside, while middleweight contenders Daniel Jacobs (a former world champion), David Lemieux, Martin Murray and Curtis Stevens don’t all possess Alvarez’s complete skill set; each fighter possessed at least one equivalent or better skill, attribute and/or ability than Alvarez.

One narrative that developed during fight week is that Golovkin held back in some recent fights to secure this dream fight with Alvarez. No time to fully delve into the plausibility of such a long game.

I like Golovkin to use his excellent jab to probe Alvarez’s counter punching, and attempt to maintain a range that stifles Alvarez’s body work for as long as possible. Alvarez always looks to give the fans the action they want, so Rounds 2-5 will feature some great exchanges, but in Rounds 6 and 7 I expect Golovkin’s power and pressure to start degrading Alvarez’s effectiveness.

A bulked up Alvarez, who’ll need to avoid any stretches on the ropes, will be dealing with the extra mass while also being hit by the most lethal puncher he’s faced. The final 1/3 of the fight the question becomes: Does Golovkin author his greatest ‘drama show’ in his career’s biggest, and possibly final, HBO Pay-Per-View moment? Putting away Alvarez could be the most career-defining achievement for Golovkin. But, would a KO kill a lucrative rematch?

Give me Golovkin by late stoppage or a decision–which could likely get intriguing. This is boxing!

Prediction: Golovkin

CJ Halloran, Staff Writer

Ah, the big fight. We’ve been waiting for this for nearly two years and it looks like it will be worth the wait. That being said, both fighters bring such different skill sets to the game that it’s hard to think what will happen.

The matchup reminds me of the Canelo Alvarez vs. Amir Khan fight, except Canelo is the faster fighter now. That being said, Gennady Golovkin can lock down the ring like I’ve only seen Mike Tyson do, and there’s only so many ways to avoid body punches, so, if he can start strong to the body and head, I have Golovkin by the seventh or eighth.

Prediction: Golovkin

Amber Williams, Photographer

Prediction: Canelo

Andrew Kang, Staff Writer

The biggest and best superfight that can be made is finally here! This has the makings of a true classic and their styles almost guarantee an exciting match.

Two years ago, I would say the fight is a bit of a mismatch with Gennady Golovkin being too strong for Canelo Alvarez. But Canelo is a better boxer now and at his peak, while Gennady is slower and older. GGG’s best chance is to jump on Canelo early, smoother him and bombard him with vicious body shots, throwing caution to the wind.

If he gives Alvarez too much room and respect as he did with Daniel Jacobs, he will fall right into Canelo’s strength and get peppered with quick and powerful counter shots.

If the usually durable Canelo can weather the early storm, I think he will outwork Gennady and avoid trouble in the late rounds after building a sizable lead, utilizing a surprisingly scientific game plan to outland GGG without getting hit as much in return.

I like the younger, fresher Canelo to win by late-round stoppage or close decision and pull off a mild upset.

Prediction: Canelo

Julio Sanchez, Photographer

Prediction: Canelo

Ty Paul, Staff Writer

Finally. After a long summer in which we had to endure preposterous hoopla for a clown show, we get what we’ve been waiting for. A true mega-fight, in this day in age. Gennady Golovkin vs. Canelo Alvarez, this Saturday from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Some big news was just announced as Kenny Bayless will host as referee. Something to keep a eye on.

A legacy fight for which Gennady Golovkin has been fighting for his entire career. While, Canelo makes his long-waiting debut in the Middleweight division. Las Vegas, Nevada, in which as much as GGG has accomplished in his career, this will be his first bout in the place labeled Sin City. As for Canelo, he’s absolutely no stranger to the bright lights on the Las Vegas strip.

Early on, I see the bout taking place with much eager intensity as a feeling out period can be. I believe the first 3-4 rounds will be at a steady, pick your spots pace. It will be a mistake in my opinion if Canelo goes toe-to-toe with Golovkin, at least early. Much pride is on the line here, but he must be careful. GGG might have the best jab in boxing. How Canelo will try to keep Golovkin at bay with jab will be telling. It would be a mistake for Canelo to invite GGG into the ropes. This isn’t Liam Smith, obviously.

Gameplans and adjustments are made on the fly in every sport. Something’s got to give here. If Golovkin can cut off the ring, as he does masterfully, and take it to Canelo, watch out. Canelo here has the quicker hands, but isn’t the most light on his feet. Can Canelo go at it with GGG inside? Will Bayless let GGG mug Canelo?

I want to say this goes the distance, but GGG knows that might not be the best opportunity for a win in Las Vegas against the Mexican superstar. I think GGG wears down Canelo in the late rounds. Canelo has had stamina issues in the past. I also think Canelo has over trained for this fight. Gennady Golovkin will get his signature win on Saturday night with a late round stoppage. The one win he has been waiting for his entire life.

Prediction: Golovkin

Alex Burgos, Editor-in-Chief

I’m a notorious homebody and only fight out there could have gotten me off my ass, on to a plane and into the T-Mobile Arena–Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin.

Arriving at the Las Vegas airport on Thursday was really impressive as everywhere I turned there was some sort of Canelo or GGG advertisement.

This is the big fight I, and the rest of the world, have been salivating and waiting for for two years.

There are tons of different variables going into this fight–will Canelo’s new Hulk frame help or hinder his performance, is GGG truly on the decline and can Canelo take the Kazakh crushers punch?

The answer to all those questions, today, is we don’t know. But, let’s imagine that both fighters are at their best and come out working their optimal game plan. Who will win?

I think that if GGG is intelligent on the defensive side and works behind his jab–the same one he relied on against David Lemieux–he will break Canelo down (mentally and physically) to earn a mid-to-late-rounds stoppage.

Canelo takes some early rounds, but GGG ends things late.

Prediction: Golovkin

The post Staff Predictions | Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin appeared first on Round By Round Boxing.

Source: Neroundbyroundboxing

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indierecords · 7 years

Text

Staff Predictions | Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin

New Post has been published on https://bestboxingshoes.net/staff-predictions-canelo-alvarez-vs-gennady-golovkin/

Staff Predictions | Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin

Photo by Hogan Photos/Golden Boy Promotions

On Saturday, September 16, 2017, Canelo Alvarez takes on Gennady Golovkin in a scheduled 12-round fight for the Middleweight championship of the world.

The long-awaited bout will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada and will air live on HBO Pay-Per-View starting 8:00 pm, EST.

Read on for Round By Round Boxing‘s staff predictions for Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin and let us know you think will win.

Round By Round Boxing Staff Predictions – 2017

Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin

Photo by Marilyn Paulino/RBRBoxing

Liam Brady, Graphic Designer/Staff Writer

While the fight may not captivate as many viewers as Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor, several weeks ago, Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin is undoubtedly the flagship matchup in boxing.

Prediction: Golovkin

R.L. Woodson, Staff Writer

Give me Golovkin by late stoppage or a decision–which could likely get intriguing. This is boxing!

Prediction: Golovkin

CJ Halloran, Staff Writer

Prediction: Golovkin

Amber Williams, Photographer

Prediction: Canelo

Andrew Kang, Staff Writer

The biggest and best superfight that can be made is finally here! This has the makings of a true classic and their styles almost guarantee an exciting match.

If he gives Alvarez too much room and respect as he did with Daniel Jacobs, he will fall right into Canelo’s strength and get peppered with quick and powerful counter shots.

I like the younger, fresher Canelo to win by late-round stoppage or close decision and pull off a mild upset.

Prediction: Canelo

Julio Sanchez, Photographer

Prediction: Canelo

Ty Paul, Staff Writer

Prediction: Golovkin

Alex Burgos, Editor-in-Chief

I’m a notorious homebody and only fight out there could have gotten me off my ass, on to a plane and into the T-Mobile Arena–Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin.

Arriving at the Las Vegas airport on Thursday was really impressive as everywhere I turned there was some sort of Canelo or GGG advertisement.

This is the big fight I, and the rest of the world, have been salivating and waiting for for two years.

There are tons of different variables going into this fight–will Canelo’s new Hulk frame help or hinder his performance, is GGG truly on the decline and can Canelo take the Kazakh crushers punch?

The answer to all those questions, today, is we don’t know. But, let’s imagine that both fighters are at their best and come out working their optimal game plan. Who will win?

Canelo takes some early rounds, but GGG ends things late.

Prediction: Golovkin

The post Staff Predictions | Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin appeared first on Round By Round Boxing.

Source: Neroundbyroundboxing

#Adidas Boxing Shoes

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axolotlottie · 7 years

Text

Staff Predictions | Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin

New Post has been published on https://bestboxingshoes.net/staff-predictions-canelo-alvarez-vs-gennady-golovkin/

Staff Predictions | Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin

Photo by Hogan Photos/Golden Boy Promotions

On Saturday, September 16, 2017, Canelo Alvarez takes on Gennady Golovkin in a scheduled 12-round fight for the Middleweight championship of the world.

The long-awaited bout will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada and will air live on HBO Pay-Per-View starting 8:00 pm, EST.

Read on for Round By Round Boxing‘s staff predictions for Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin and let us know you think will win.

Round By Round Boxing Staff Predictions – 2017

Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin

Photo by Marilyn Paulino/RBRBoxing

Liam Brady, Graphic Designer/Staff Writer

While the fight may not captivate as many viewers as Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor, several weeks ago, Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin is undoubtedly the flagship matchup in boxing.

Prediction: Golovkin

R.L. Woodson, Staff Writer

Give me Golovkin by late stoppage or a decision–which could likely get intriguing. This is boxing!

Prediction: Golovkin

CJ Halloran, Staff Writer

Prediction: Golovkin

Amber Williams, Photographer

Prediction: Canelo

Andrew Kang, Staff Writer

The biggest and best superfight that can be made is finally here! This has the makings of a true classic and their styles almost guarantee an exciting match.

If he gives Alvarez too much room and respect as he did with Daniel Jacobs, he will fall right into Canelo’s strength and get peppered with quick and powerful counter shots.

I like the younger, fresher Canelo to win by late-round stoppage or close decision and pull off a mild upset.

Prediction: Canelo

Julio Sanchez, Photographer

Prediction: Canelo

Ty Paul, Staff Writer

Prediction: Golovkin

Alex Burgos, Editor-in-Chief

I’m a notorious homebody and only fight out there could have gotten me off my ass, on to a plane and into the T-Mobile Arena–Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin.

Arriving at the Las Vegas airport on Thursday was really impressive as everywhere I turned there was some sort of Canelo or GGG advertisement.

This is the big fight I, and the rest of the world, have been salivating and waiting for for two years.

There are tons of different variables going into this fight–will Canelo’s new Hulk frame help or hinder his performance, is GGG truly on the decline and can Canelo take the Kazakh crushers punch?

The answer to all those questions, today, is we don’t know. But, let’s imagine that both fighters are at their best and come out working their optimal game plan. Who will win?

Canelo takes some early rounds, but GGG ends things late.

Prediction: Golovkin

The post Staff Predictions | Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin appeared first on Round By Round Boxing.

Source: Neroundbyroundboxing

#Adidas Boxing Shoes

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l4na-banana · 7 years

Text

Staff Predictions | Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin

New Post has been published on https://bestboxingshoes.net/staff-predictions-canelo-alvarez-vs-gennady-golovkin/

Staff Predictions | Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin

Photo by Hogan Photos/Golden Boy Promotions

On Saturday, September 16, 2017, Canelo Alvarez takes on Gennady Golovkin in a scheduled 12-round fight for the Middleweight championship of the world.

The long-awaited bout will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada and will air live on HBO Pay-Per-View starting 8:00 pm, EST.

Read on for Round By Round Boxing‘s staff predictions for Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin and let us know you think will win.

Round By Round Boxing Staff Predictions – 2017

Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin

Photo by Marilyn Paulino/RBRBoxing

Liam Brady, Graphic Designer/Staff Writer

While the fight may not captivate as many viewers as Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor, several weeks ago, Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin is undoubtedly the flagship matchup in boxing.

Prediction: Golovkin

R.L. Woodson, Staff Writer

Give me Golovkin by late stoppage or a decision–which could likely get intriguing. This is boxing!

Prediction: Golovkin

CJ Halloran, Staff Writer

Prediction: Golovkin

Amber Williams, Photographer

Prediction: Canelo

Andrew Kang, Staff Writer

The biggest and best superfight that can be made is finally here! This has the makings of a true classic and their styles almost guarantee an exciting match.

If he gives Alvarez too much room and respect as he did with Daniel Jacobs, he will fall right into Canelo’s strength and get peppered with quick and powerful counter shots.

I like the younger, fresher Canelo to win by late-round stoppage or close decision and pull off a mild upset.

Prediction: Canelo

Julio Sanchez, Photographer

Prediction: Canelo

Ty Paul, Staff Writer

Prediction: Golovkin

Alex Burgos, Editor-in-Chief

I’m a notorious homebody and only fight out there could have gotten me off my ass, on to a plane and into the T-Mobile Arena–Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin.

Arriving at the Las Vegas airport on Thursday was really impressive as everywhere I turned there was some sort of Canelo or GGG advertisement.

This is the big fight I, and the rest of the world, have been salivating and waiting for for two years.

There are tons of different variables going into this fight–will Canelo’s new Hulk frame help or hinder his performance, is GGG truly on the decline and can Canelo take the Kazakh crushers punch?

The answer to all those questions, today, is we don’t know. But, let’s imagine that both fighters are at their best and come out working their optimal game plan. Who will win?

Canelo takes some early rounds, but GGG ends things late.

Prediction: Golovkin

The post Staff Predictions | Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin appeared first on Round By Round Boxing.

Source: Neroundbyroundboxing

#Adidas Boxing Shoes

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kunlabora-blog · 7 years

Text

Staff Predictions | Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin

New Post has been published on https://bestboxingshoes.net/staff-predictions-canelo-alvarez-vs-gennady-golovkin/

Staff Predictions | Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin

Photo by Hogan Photos/Golden Boy Promotions

On Saturday, September 16, 2017, Canelo Alvarez takes on Gennady Golovkin in a scheduled 12-round fight for the Middleweight championship of the world.

The long-awaited bout will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada and will air live on HBO Pay-Per-View starting 8:00 pm, EST.

Read on for Round By Round Boxing‘s staff predictions for Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin and let us know you think will win.

Round By Round Boxing Staff Predictions – 2017

Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin

Photo by Marilyn Paulino/RBRBoxing

Liam Brady, Graphic Designer/Staff Writer

While the fight may not captivate as many viewers as Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor, several weeks ago, Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin is undoubtedly the flagship matchup in boxing.

Prediction: Golovkin

R.L. Woodson, Staff Writer

Give me Golovkin by late stoppage or a decision–which could likely get intriguing. This is boxing!

Prediction: Golovkin

CJ Halloran, Staff Writer

Prediction: Golovkin

Amber Williams, Photographer

Prediction: Canelo

Andrew Kang, Staff Writer

The biggest and best superfight that can be made is finally here! This has the makings of a true classic and their styles almost guarantee an exciting match.

If he gives Alvarez too much room and respect as he did with Daniel Jacobs, he will fall right into Canelo’s strength and get peppered with quick and powerful counter shots.

I like the younger, fresher Canelo to win by late-round stoppage or close decision and pull off a mild upset.

Prediction: Canelo

Julio Sanchez, Photographer

Prediction: Canelo

Ty Paul, Staff Writer

Prediction: Golovkin

Alex Burgos, Editor-in-Chief

I’m a notorious homebody and only fight out there could have gotten me off my ass, on to a plane and into the T-Mobile Arena–Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin.

Arriving at the Las Vegas airport on Thursday was really impressive as everywhere I turned there was some sort of Canelo or GGG advertisement.

This is the big fight I, and the rest of the world, have been salivating and waiting for for two years.

There are tons of different variables going into this fight–will Canelo’s new Hulk frame help or hinder his performance, is GGG truly on the decline and can Canelo take the Kazakh crushers punch?

The answer to all those questions, today, is we don’t know. But, let’s imagine that both fighters are at their best and come out working their optimal game plan. Who will win?

Canelo takes some early rounds, but GGG ends things late.

Prediction: Golovkin

The post Staff Predictions | Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin appeared first on Round By Round Boxing.

Source: Neroundbyroundboxing

#Adidas Boxing Shoes

0 notes

save-the-dream · 7 years

Text

Staff Predictions | Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin

New Post has been published on https://bestboxingshoes.net/staff-predictions-canelo-alvarez-vs-gennady-golovkin/

Staff Predictions | Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin

Photo by Hogan Photos/Golden Boy Promotions

On Saturday, September 16, 2017, Canelo Alvarez takes on Gennady Golovkin in a scheduled 12-round fight for the Middleweight championship of the world.

The long-awaited bout will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada and will air live on HBO Pay-Per-View starting 8:00 pm, EST.

Read on for Round By Round Boxing‘s staff predictions for Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin and let us know you think will win.

Round By Round Boxing Staff Predictions – 2017

Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin

Photo by Marilyn Paulino/RBRBoxing

Liam Brady, Graphic Designer/Staff Writer

While the fight may not captivate as many viewers as Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor, several weeks ago, Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin is undoubtedly the flagship matchup in boxing.

Prediction: Golovkin

R.L. Woodson, Staff Writer

Give me Golovkin by late stoppage or a decision–which could likely get intriguing. This is boxing!

Prediction: Golovkin

CJ Halloran, Staff Writer

Prediction: Golovkin

Amber Williams, Photographer

Prediction: Canelo

Andrew Kang, Staff Writer

The biggest and best superfight that can be made is finally here! This has the makings of a true classic and their styles almost guarantee an exciting match.

If he gives Alvarez too much room and respect as he did with Daniel Jacobs, he will fall right into Canelo’s strength and get peppered with quick and powerful counter shots.

I like the younger, fresher Canelo to win by late-round stoppage or close decision and pull off a mild upset.

Prediction: Canelo

Julio Sanchez, Photographer

Prediction: Canelo

Ty Paul, Staff Writer

Prediction: Golovkin

Alex Burgos, Editor-in-Chief

I’m a notorious homebody and only fight out there could have gotten me off my ass, on to a plane and into the T-Mobile Arena–Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin.

Arriving at the Las Vegas airport on Thursday was really impressive as everywhere I turned there was some sort of Canelo or GGG advertisement.

This is the big fight I, and the rest of the world, have been salivating and waiting for for two years.

There are tons of different variables going into this fight–will Canelo’s new Hulk frame help or hinder his performance, is GGG truly on the decline and can Canelo take the Kazakh crushers punch?

The answer to all those questions, today, is we don’t know. But, let’s imagine that both fighters are at their best and come out working their optimal game plan. Who will win?

Canelo takes some early rounds, but GGG ends things late.

Prediction: Golovkin

The post Staff Predictions | Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin appeared first on Round By Round Boxing.

Source: Neroundbyroundboxing

#Adidas Boxing Shoes

0 notes

daniel-adamsphotography · 7 years

Text

Staff Predictions | Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin

New Post has been published on https://bestboxingshoes.net/staff-predictions-canelo-alvarez-vs-gennady-golovkin/

Staff Predictions | Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin

Photo by Hogan Photos/Golden Boy Promotions

On Saturday, September 16, 2017, Canelo Alvarez takes on Gennady Golovkin in a scheduled 12-round fight for the Middleweight championship of the world.

The long-awaited bout will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada and will air live on HBO Pay-Per-View starting 8:00 pm, EST.

Read on for Round By Round Boxing‘s staff predictions for Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin and let us know you think will win.

Round By Round Boxing Staff Predictions – 2017

Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin

Photo by Marilyn Paulino/RBRBoxing

Liam Brady, Graphic Designer/Staff Writer

While the fight may not captivate as many viewers as Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor, several weeks ago, Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin is undoubtedly the flagship matchup in boxing.

Prediction: Golovkin

R.L. Woodson, Staff Writer

Give me Golovkin by late stoppage or a decision–which could likely get intriguing. This is boxing!

Prediction: Golovkin

CJ Halloran, Staff Writer

Prediction: Golovkin

Amber Williams, Photographer

Prediction: Canelo

Andrew Kang, Staff Writer

The biggest and best superfight that can be made is finally here! This has the makings of a true classic and their styles almost guarantee an exciting match.

If he gives Alvarez too much room and respect as he did with Daniel Jacobs, he will fall right into Canelo’s strength and get peppered with quick and powerful counter shots.

I like the younger, fresher Canelo to win by late-round stoppage or close decision and pull off a mild upset.

Prediction: Canelo

Julio Sanchez, Photographer

Prediction: Canelo

Ty Paul, Staff Writer

Prediction: Golovkin

Alex Burgos, Editor-in-Chief

I’m a notorious homebody and only fight out there could have gotten me off my ass, on to a plane and into the T-Mobile Arena–Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin.

Arriving at the Las Vegas airport on Thursday was really impressive as everywhere I turned there was some sort of Canelo or GGG advertisement.

This is the big fight I, and the rest of the world, have been salivating and waiting for for two years.

There are tons of different variables going into this fight–will Canelo’s new Hulk frame help or hinder his performance, is GGG truly on the decline and can Canelo take the Kazakh crushers punch?

The answer to all those questions, today, is we don’t know. But, let’s imagine that both fighters are at their best and come out working their optimal game plan. Who will win?

Canelo takes some early rounds, but GGG ends things late.

Prediction: Golovkin

The post Staff Predictions | Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin appeared first on Round By Round Boxing.

Source: Neroundbyroundboxing

#Adidas Boxing Shoes

0 notes

khstudio · 7 years

Text

Staff Predictions | Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin

New Post has been published on https://bestboxingshoes.net/staff-predictions-canelo-alvarez-vs-gennady-golovkin/

Staff Predictions | Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin

Photo by Hogan Photos/Golden Boy Promotions

On Saturday, September 16, 2017, Canelo Alvarez takes on Gennady Golovkin in a scheduled 12-round fight for the Middleweight championship of the world.

The long-awaited bout will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada and will air live on HBO Pay-Per-View starting 8:00 pm, EST.

Read on for Round By Round Boxing‘s staff predictions for Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin and let us know you think will win.

Round By Round Boxing Staff Predictions – 2017

Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin

Photo by Marilyn Paulino/RBRBoxing

Liam Brady, Graphic Designer/Staff Writer

While the fight may not captivate as many viewers as Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor, several weeks ago, Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin is undoubtedly the flagship matchup in boxing.

Prediction: Golovkin

R.L. Woodson, Staff Writer

Give me Golovkin by late stoppage or a decision–which could likely get intriguing. This is boxing!

Prediction: Golovkin

CJ Halloran, Staff Writer

Prediction: Golovkin

Amber Williams, Photographer

Prediction: Canelo

Andrew Kang, Staff Writer

The biggest and best superfight that can be made is finally here! This has the makings of a true classic and their styles almost guarantee an exciting match.

If he gives Alvarez too much room and respect as he did with Daniel Jacobs, he will fall right into Canelo’s strength and get peppered with quick and powerful counter shots.

I like the younger, fresher Canelo to win by late-round stoppage or close decision and pull off a mild upset.

Prediction: Canelo

Julio Sanchez, Photographer

Prediction: Canelo

Ty Paul, Staff Writer

Prediction: Golovkin

Alex Burgos, Editor-in-Chief

I’m a notorious homebody and only fight out there could have gotten me off my ass, on to a plane and into the T-Mobile Arena–Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin.

Arriving at the Las Vegas airport on Thursday was really impressive as everywhere I turned there was some sort of Canelo or GGG advertisement.

This is the big fight I, and the rest of the world, have been salivating and waiting for for two years.

There are tons of different variables going into this fight–will Canelo’s new Hulk frame help or hinder his performance, is GGG truly on the decline and can Canelo take the Kazakh crushers punch?

The answer to all those questions, today, is we don’t know. But, let’s imagine that both fighters are at their best and come out working their optimal game plan. Who will win?

Canelo takes some early rounds, but GGG ends things late.

Prediction: Golovkin

The post Staff Predictions | Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin appeared first on Round By Round Boxing.

Source: Neroundbyroundboxing

#Adidas Boxing Shoes

0 notes