The coach, the boxer and the gorilla

The coach, the boxer and the gorilla, sportAs a post I wrote on Monday suggests, last weeks issue of the New Yorker was particularly edifying. Alongside the fine piece about the Rod Blagojevich trial there was an fascinating story by Kalefa Sanneh about Mays Shane Mosley/Floyd Mayweather bout and the current state of pro-boxing (its subscription only now, so youll have to trust me).

A particularly memorable character in the piece, was Mosleys 45 year old coach, Naazim Richardson (pictured), a beefy oracle from Philadelphia who delivers parables and observations in a low fuzzy voice.

Richardsons finest moment comes after a sparring session with Mosley when he starts explaining his theory of boxing, which mystical but not at all sentimental. Attempting to suggest that power isnt the most important aspect in boxing, he comes up with the following glorious analogy:

The gorilla is the strongest motherfucker in the zoo, but you aint never seen that bitch walk by with the keys

Forget Ali and Clough, and indeed Maradona, this is definitely stands out as my favourite sporting quote.

As with Richardson, my previous favourite also came from a somewhat obscure location.

In 2007 I was living in Dublin and was paying more attention than I do now to the All-Ireland Gaelic Football Championships. In the quarter finals of the competition Monaghan were beaten by Kerry with a score in the last settling the tie. With the pain of defeat still raw, Monaghans coach Seamus Mc Eneaney spoke to reporters after the game and came out with this belter (I wrote it down at the time because it was so memorable):

If any of you had been in that dressing room in the last few minutes, the silence was deafening. I feel myself that Ive had my heart taken out without surgery. It is wild, wild disappointing.

Has a certain! lyricis m that seems better suited to more literary Monaghan men, such as Pat McCabe or Patrick Kavanagh.

Has anyone else got any favourite sporting quotes? Leave them in the comments section below.

(Photo: Getty Images)


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