Sports on TV: Bitten ears, broken legs and … kissing?

AP Photo/Jack Smith

Everyone remembers Mike Tyson’s infamous Holyfield ear biting fight from ’97, right? As far as televised sports injuries goes, it’s right up there with the Theisman leg break. Don’t tell me you didn’t squirm in your seat with the mere mention of those events.

I caught talk of something on the radio yesterday, and I couldn’t make any sense of it. Recently there was an HBO-televised boxing match between Trenton Titsworth and Jesse Vargas, two welterweight fighters. During the fight, Titsworth and Vargas get tangled up on the ropes and Titsworth does something nobody saw coming, least of all Vargas: he kisses him, right on the neck.

This isn’t the first time some idiot decided that kissing another charged-up fighter was a good idea. This one’s right before a fight and, well, he gets what’s coming to him:

Boxing not a tough enough arena to try pulling a stunt like this? How about something like … I dunno, the UFC. The reaction here, though, is a bit surprising:

What kind of “strategy” is this, anyway? Maybe it’s to humiliate the competition in front of millions (well, thousands) of viewers? Obviously this isn’t some way for them to intimidate their opponent, since all it did was get him smacked in the face and deducted a couple of points (“Two points for kissing!”), with the exception of that last video.

Look, I’m all for men having the right to love men, down with Proposition 8 and all that. But when we’re sitting down to watch two men beat the piss out of each other, the last thing we want to see is any of them breaking out into making out. What’s next, a defensive end in football whipping off his helmet to smooch an offensive tackle? Offsides! Personal foul! Personal foul!

At least they don’t put up with that shit in international football:

Clacked by Keith McDuffee
on Nov 13, 2008 @ 15:00 EST5EDT