Dan Rafael: "I wish Vitali - Briggs had been 15 rounds!"

[TheSurgeonMDMPH]

this is a perfect example at how much respect the so called journalists have for this sport. a fighter just recently died in the ring and this fat corrupted pos makes this comment, publicly. this is what happens when u feed the trolls.

[fitefanSHO]

I'm new to writing and blogging about boxing but I am already better than Rafael. That's because I'm a respectful, 25 year fan of the sport. I get the impression there are other things Dan would rather be doing than covering boxing.

[ChopperRead]

I'm new to writing and blogging about boxing but I am already better than Rafael. That's because I'm a respectful, 25 year fan of the sport. I get the impression there are other things Dan would rather be doing than covering boxing.

Dan wants to be a boxing bigwig, a shot caller, which is why he's trying for the HBO job. Dan is a great self-promoter, gotta give him that. But when you do that, you open yourself up to a lot of criticism of being too close to people in the boxing biz and losing your independent point of view.

[ChopperRead]

ESPN.com boxing scribe Dan Rafael and retired heavyweight ex-champion Shannon "The Cannon" Briggs have been engaged in a verbal war for the past couple of months, after Briggs launched a highly personal Twitter attack on Rafael, claiming that the popular journalist is unduly influenced by certain boxing figures and in his opinion is likely on the take.

Briggs also made numerous derogatory comments about Rafael's physical appearance, specifically targeting the writer's weight.

Rafael in return expressed irritation with Briggs, saying he needed to "watch what he says." But today, he went further, saying in his regular Friday chat session that after hearing Briggs' remarks about him, he wished that Briggs' fight against Vitali Klitschko, in which he took a vicious, career-ending beating, "went 15 rounds," instead of the usual 12.

12 rounds of the pummelling from Klitschko was enough to put Briggs in a German hospital for two weeks.

Immediately, negative reaction developed, with one poster saying that that remark "wasn't very nice."

"It wasn't meant to be," Rafael replied, before promptly ending the session, suggesting that perhaps many of the chat participants didn't approve of the verbal shot at Briggs.

Furthermore, the pointed barb about wishing Briggs had taken a 15-round beating, along with Rafael's clarification that he was serious, has now been excised from today's chat transcript by someone at ESPN.com.

ESPN.com has so far given no explanation as to why the chat transcript has been censored.

Briggs' Twitter account is now private.

[fitefanSHO]

Well, like I said, I miss the good old days of Bert Randolph Sugar.

[ChopperRead]

Well, like I said, I miss the good old days of Bert Randolph Sugar.

I wouldn't go that far, myself, but to each his own.

[davidoff]

Dan's a keyboard warrior. He should get in ring so Briggs can smack the **** out of him.

[ChopperRead]

Dan's a keyboard warrior. He should get in ring so Briggs can smack the **** out of him.

You think Dan could actually make the climb to the ring?

[fitefanSHO]

I wouldn't go that far, myself, but to each his own.

What didn't you like about Bert Randolph Sugar?

I loved his ****zines, and he an an epic sense of humor, at least IMO.

Plus the cigar, the hat; he played the part.

This guy?



Not so much...

[ChopperRead]

What didn't you like about Bert Randolph Sugar?

I loved his ****zines, and he an an epic sense of humor, at least IMO.

Plus the cigar, the hat; he played the part.

This guy?



Not so much...

Sugar for me promotes too much of the view that boxing was always better in some imagined bygone utopia where all the fighters were great and all the fights were classics. That is a bunch of bull**** and promoting that point of view the way he does hurts the sport.

Nostalgia can help a sport if it doesn't become the be-all and end-all: it can also help choke the life out of a sport when over-indulged in. Maybe Sugar was better years ago, but today, he just bugs me.