Dein erstes Forum » The harder choices, for some, need to be mad

Aaron Pryor, one of the greatest fighters in boxing history, died early Sunday after a long battle with heart disease. He was 60.We are heartbroken and sad to announce that our beloved Aaron passed away at home surrounded by his family at 5:57 a.m., Frankie Pryor, his widow, said in a statement. He was known around the world as The Hawk but to our family he was a beloved husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle and friend. We appreciate the outpouring of condolences and sympathy and ask that our family be allowed time to grieve and mourn his loss. We will announce plans for a public memorial shortly.Pryor, who would have turned 61 on Oct. 20, was best known for his two knockout victories against the late, great Alexis Arguello. Pryor, however, had a career about more than just those two famous fights.A superb puncher with speed and skills, Pryor had a standout amateur career highlighted by a win against all-time great Thomas Hearns in the 1976 National Golden Gloves finals.Pryor turned professional after just missing out on a berth on the famed 1976 U.S. Olympic team when he lost to eventual Olympic gold medalist Howard Davis Jr. in the Olympic trials.Born in Cincinnati in 1955, Pryor was managed by Cincinnati businessman Buddy LaRosa, who made a fortune as a pizza restaurant owner. Fighting primarily in Cincinnati and the surrounding region, Pryor raced to a 24-0 record by mid-1980. Then he got a shot at 140-pound world champion and future Hall of Famer Antonio Cervantes at the old Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati.Pryor delivered big-time on his potential. He survived a knockdown in the first round and went on to stop Cervantes in the fourth round to win the WBA version of the junior welterweight world title. Then, in his sixth title defense, he met Arguello, the Nicaraguan legend to whom he will be tied for eternity.Arguello was attempting to win a world title in a then-unprecedented fourth weight division when they squared off on Nov. 12, 1982, at the Orange Bowl in Miami, where he and Pryor delivered a fight for the ages. It is considered one of the greatest fights in boxing history. In the end, Pryor outlasted the fading Arguello in an electrifying 14th-round knockout victory, the biggest of his career.There was some controversy surrounding the knockout because between the 13th and 14th rounds, trainer Panama Lewis (later banned from boxing for removing padding from Luis Restos gloves before a fight in 1983) was caught on HBOs broadcast telling the cutman to give him the water bottle -- the one I mixed. It has never been determined what was in the bottle Lewis was given, but whatever it was, Pryor went into the 14th round seemingly rejuvenated.After a third-round knockout win against Sang Hyun Kim in his next defense, Pryor defended the title against Arguello in a rematch on Sept. 9, 1983, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. In another action-packed battle, Pryor had an easier time, this time knocking out Arguello in the 10th round. After the fight, Pryor announced his retirement, but it was short-lived.He returned nine months later and was awarded the newly-created IBF junior welterweight title, which he defended in a 15- round decision against Nick Furlano. Pryor then defended the belt against Gary Hinton in what would be he his final world title bout in March 1985.Pryor was struggling with drug addiction and was eventually stripped of the belt for inactivity. He would fight only four more times, including suffering his only defeat in his next fight, a seventh-round knockout to journeyman Bobby Joe Young in August 1987 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.Still dealing with a drug addiction that caused him legal problems, as well as eye injuries such as cataracts and a detached retina, Pryor won his final three bouts against low-level opposition on small cards before retiring in 1990.Throughout Pryors career, there were discussions for megafights against such star fighters as Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran and Ray Boom Boom Mancini, but they fell through for various reasons.Pryor (39-1, 35 KOs) was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1996 and voted as the No. 1 junior welterweight of the 20th century by The Associated Press in 1999.He was seemingly sober in the years after his career and spent a lot of time talking to kids about the dangers of drugs. Pryor is survived by his wife, Frankie, sons Aaron Jr. and Antwan Harris, daughter, Elizabeth and grandsons Adam, Austin and Aaron Pryor III. Myles Straw Jersey .Y. -- Buffalo Bills coach Doug Marrone has drawn on his Syracuse connections once again by hiring Rob Moore to take over as receivers coach. Custom Astros Jerseys . 10 VCU 85-67 on Thursday night at the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. The Seminoles (4-0) have scored at least 80 points in each of their games. http://www.customastrosjersey.com/custom-carlos-lee-jersey-large-326y.html . Emery skated the length of the ice and fought an unwilling Holtby during the third period of the Flyers 7-0 loss Friday night in Philadelphia. He was given 29 penalty minutes, including a game misconduct. But Emery did not face even a disciplinary hearing with NHL senior vice president of player safety Brendan Shanahan because rules 46. 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The innings would have caught the attention of talent scouts from IPL teams, if not the state associations. For some players like Abbas, the tournament could be a big step towards realising their dream of playing top-level cricket. It is with this intention - of bringing university cricket to the fore - that the T20 tournament was introduced.The initiative is backed by the BCCI and Indias ministry of human resource development and is an extension of the annual Rohinton Baria Trophy. It promises to be the boost an ailing 77-year-old inter-university tournament, and the once healthy university cricket system, needs.Unlike the disconnected relationship between the Ranji Trophy and the IPL, Rohinton Barias fortunes are closely intertwined with that of the UCC. Eight universities - the top two from each zone - compete for the Rohinton Baria Trophy. The same eight teams qualify for the UCC. If the UCC is successful, the interest in next years Rohinton Baria could get a massive surge. Abbas, you see, is also the captain of the Jain University team that won the Rohinton Baria Trophy this year.The Rohinton Baria is not the premier tournament it used to be and could do with a marketing push. Things were different a few decades back. The tournament blossomed in the 60s and the 70s and launched many careers. Sunil Gavaskar played in the 1966-67 final for Bombay University, Mohinder Amarnath led Delhi University to the title in 1972-73, Sanjay Manjrekar used it as a springboard to the Mumbai Ranji team after six consecutive hundreds and Dilip Sardesais 435 runs at an average of 87 pushed him straight into the national reckoning.They were not the only ones. Vijay Manjrekar, Ajit Wadekar, Kapil Dev, Arun Lal, Sandeep Patil, Mohammad Azharuddin, Dilip Vengsarkar, Manoj Prabhakar, Shivlal Yadav, Roger Binny - all played university cricket. For us, it was the biggest tournament and the college was the be all and end all of our cricket, says Lal, who played for Delhi University.Sifting through the archives, many more recognisable names pop up. Harsha Bhogle, Rajdeep Sardesai, Piyush Pandey.To be selected in the university team was big. I remember the day our team was being picked, my friend had got up early searching for newspapers to see the list, reminisces Bhogle, who was a chemical engineering student at Osmania University in Hyderabad.The universities that did well in the tournament were the ones from regions with strong cricketing cultures and established Ranji teams - Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Punjab, Bangalore.The quality was high, and competition to get into the sides was tough. Delhi, in a 10-year period starting in 1973, won seven titles despite the transient nature of the teams. Lal fondly remembers the 1977-78 final when he played with a fractured leg and scored an unbeaten 165 - 76 of them in an 80-run stand with No. 10 Sunil Valson.The management wanted to send me home but I told them if I go back, my mother would never let me come back to play. So we waited for ten days, cut the plaster off. Our manager asked for a fitness test, and I said Are you crazy? I will stand in the slips and I will hobble while batting.ddddddddddddAnd thats what happened. It was one of the best innings I have ever played.It was serious cricket, a primary route to be selected for state teams. A combined universities squad also used to take on visiting international teams.A positive side effect of the structure was that the players got a degree too. Back in the days when there were no mass employers and campus placements were not in fashion, the value of a graduate degree was almost as much as a professional degree and university cricket came with this insurance. Sanjay Manjrekar mentions the positive role his college administration played in helping players manage academics along with pursuing their cricket. The lack of jobs also meant that for amateurs in the team, there were no distractions during the cricket season.But around about the same time the Buggles recorded their debut single Video killed the radio star, Indias university cricket scene was being threatened by a new commodity -age-group cricket.I tell you what killed it, it was Under-19 cricket, says Bhogle. The moment U-19 became big, people stopped playing for the university or didnt go to the university. The BCCI started age-group cricket to expand the game and to ensure that talent met opportunities irrespective of the background. The board-run age-group versions also received further boost with the inception of global tournaments like the U-19 and U-15 World Cups. Players received exposure like never before. Moreover, as the board grew richer and started improving the general standards around the tournaments by including daily allowances, comfortable travel and stay arrangements, it wasnt a surprise that players started choosing such tournaments over university cricket.Sanjay Manjrekar presents a terse assessment: We are not missing anything. For me if U-15, U-19, U-22 and club cricket remain vibrant and the quality of cricketers coming through remains good, there is no need for a tournament like the Rohinton Baria as a feeder.But in a country like India where choosing sport over a stable profession has always been tough, the safety net of education doesnt exist for young cricketers who now skip university to focus on age-group cricket. The harder choices, for some, need to be made earlier in their lives. So although the new structure has provided opportunities, it could possibly also have been a deterrent to some for not taking up the game.Age-group cricket is not the only reason as Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCIs cricket development general manager, points out. The popularity of university cricket is further diminished because of the large number of universities that participate (in inter-zonal qualifiers). This tournament is now about quantity more than quality and in most cases its played on matting wickets, Shetty says.The question is, with so much cricket, does an additional T20 tournament do any favours to the university cricket system? N Srinivasan, the BCCI president, speaking at the launch of the UCC last month, was positive when he said, the viewership will make a big difference as it will enable people to see university cricket close at hand.The matches are being covered live on Star Cricket and have sponsor support from NDTV and Toyota. The viewership is guaranteed for three years at least. But it is hard to predict how a minor tournament with unknown names is going to sustain interest.The idea is that you will get to know some names soon and build around it, says Lal. It is now over to Abbas and other boys to bring some attention back to university cricket. ' ' '