This Week in No Mas

2/25
February 25, 1964
The 43rd anniversary of the night Clay/Liston I, with a best supporting superstar appearance by Sam Cooke.

Oscar Loves the Squared Circle
By no means an exhaustive list, No Mas takes you back through the years and the Academy Awards' longstanding love affair with the fight game in all its vicissitudes - from The Champ to The Hurricane, from Body and Soul to Fat City.

2/26
Hard to Kill starring Rulon Gardner
Another life-threatening night in spent lost in sub-zero temperatures, or what Rulon Gardner refers to as "some alone time." "Rulon laughs at Death like he's watching Chris Rock. For breakfast Rulon washes down his Death Flakes with a steaming hot cup of Death. When Death sees Rulon Gardner, it fears for its life. Sometimes Rulon Gardner thinks about how he will die, but then he just laughs, because he knows that actually he will never die."

K.O.W. - The Legend of Roy
It was inevitable that we got around to Roy Jones for a Knockout of the Week. And so it was written. Here Roy throws enough left hooks at Montell Griffin to KO a hippopotamus. "Personally, I rate Griffin's queer street struggle to stand up as more ridiculous than Trevor Berbick's Frankenstein walk after Tyson clobbered him. That should tell you all you need to know."

2/27
Buckeye Fever
Ohio State is the A.P. number one basketball team in the land for the first time since their heyday in the early 60's. Large goes back and takes a look at that Havlicek-and-Lucas-led era of the Buckeyes.

No, no... and no
For the third straight vote, the Veterans Committee inducts no new members into the Baseball Hall of Fame. So why is that a problem? "Santo's a career .277 hitter with 342 home runs. Here are some of the batters he's close to statistically according to Baseball Reference - Dale Murphy, Gary Gaetti, Graig Nettles. Nice players all, but not Hall-worthy by a longshot. Likewise for Hodges - .273, 370 HR's. They put Gil Hodges in the Hall, then they better put in Tino Martinez. Christ they might as well throw in Lee May."

2/28
Is Bobby "The Brain" Heenan somehow involved in all this?
Floyd Mayweathers Jr. and Sr. have joined forces once again to slay The Mighty Oscar. Shit is so WWE, it's not funny. Great comment from Kevin - "Floyd Fairweather Sr. will superkick Jr. before the 1st round and reveal a DLH shirt under his Jr. shirt."

The First Miracle
The anniversary of the oft-overlooked ice hockey gold medal won by the underdog Americans at the Squaw Valley Winter Games in 1960.

Scholar-Athlete
Large checks out a NY Times video conversation with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and wonders why he isn't running for president. Among the many great moments is him describing how he used to relax before a big game - he'd read Raymond Chandler and John Le Carre novels.

3/1
Sharpshootin' with The Franchise
'Chise is on fire. I'm telling you all week the kid's been running around the No Mas offices dropkicking people. Randy Couture and Matt Hughes stepping back inside the octagon? The mind-blowing Pride PPV from last Saturday night? Bobby Lashley and Umaga in the hair match? Nature Boy Ric Flair's birthday? Shit, man. You can see why he's all worked up.

Birthdays Everywhere
Lot of important birthdays to celebrate on the first of March, from Ralph Ellison to Pete Rozelle to King Booker to Burning Spear.

Barry Bonds says he's standoffish because of death threats
Barry seems to be courting our sympathies a la Henry Aaron. We here at No Mas are having absolutely none of that shit. "We worship Henry Aaron. We collect Henry Aaron baseball cards like they're gold bullion. We think Henry Aaron is one of the true unsung heroes of the civil rights movement and the entire 20th century... You, sir, are no Henry Aaron."


3/2
The No Mas Top 23 Wrestlemania Moments
It's a Franchise thing so you got to understand. This post counts it down to #19. LT and Bam Bam make an early appearance. Let the debates begin.