HardDoor's Olympic Wrap-Up! '08

A little late coming, as a number of things occurred in the past week that prevented me from getting this finished earlier. Nonetheless, here are a few of my thoughts on the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. --HD

Alas, the Summer Olympics Games have concluded, and Beijing certainly didn't disappoint. The level of competition all around was great, the athletes and those involved seemed to enjoy themselves very much, many new faces made their presence know and a few old ones made their final bows. Outside of a relatively very few unfortunate acts unsportsmenlike conduct, the human rights antics and information suppression of China even during the Games, and the usual gymnastics drama, the events were very smooth and went without a great deal of controversy. The following is a simple list of random thoughts about the experience of watching all of those events, which gladly dominated the bulk of my TV viewing time, and of how the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games played out.

Olympic Fever Hits HardDoor! '08

Ah, it's that time of the fourth year! When the many countries of the world center around one city for two weeks to compete over twenty separate athletic games to vie not only for national pride and bragging rights, but also for personal and individualistic achievement as well.

I've always been a big fan of the Olympic Games and this year's festivities in Beijing have certainly been on my mind as of late. I like to watch as many of the sports as I can (read: all) and I'll probably be literally only watching Olympic-related programming all throughout (that's just how I like it :D ). At the same time, however, Otakon 2008 will be taking place this weekend (with some big news bound to come up) and then there is the preparing of the fall anime and boxing previews (with some great titles and fights coming up).

Things might be a little tight in getting posted, but I certainly will try be up-to-date with everything. But hey, here's to a safe and great Olympics and Otakon!

--HD

:boxing: Boxing Bits ::08.05.08:: IBF Titles - Darchinyan Wins, Judah Falters

The welterweight division just keeps shifting, as another major player gets derailed.

:Sat.08.02.08:
[C] Vic Darchinyan KO5 IBF Super Flyweight Champion Dimitri Kirilov [Showtime]


Not Previously Mentioned
[C] :Sat.08.02.08: (Vacent IBF Welterweight Championship) Joshua Clottey TD9 Zab Judah [HBO]
--Not a bad match, as Judah looked to be up in the first couple of rounds before Clottey began to take advantage of the seemingly tiring fighter. An "accidental headbutt" created a long, nasty cut above Judah's right eye and he failed the ringside doctor's "finger count" test, the fight was stopped and went to the score cards (the replay, however, would show an uppercut as the more probable culprit, as there was no such head contact shown). Clottey's command of the mid- and latter rounds helped him win the unanimous decision. Judah, fighting at his best in years (and not completely melting-down like in other bouts), held steadfast that the cut was caused by a headbutt, even though the tape shown to him said otherwise. Will this win garner Clottey another chance at toppling new division king Antonio Margarito, who he gave such a hard time two years ago?

:Sat.08.02.08: Anthony Peterson UD(10) Javier Jauregui (Light Welterweight)