Boxing!

I’ve always been a fan of the “sweet science” despite my overall apathy of sports in general. True I never officially boxed, but I had a friend who had some gloves and we had a few impromptu sparring matches in his basement. Sure, I’ve never gone out of my way to watch any boxing events or the like, but I played the shit out of Mike Tyson’s Punchout and Rocky on my Sega!

 

Ok, so maybe a “fan” isn’t the best description, but I do enjoy it, and I finally broke down and grabbed a copy of Fight Night 3 for the Xbox 360. When the Xbox was first released, and I was in my dark ages era of video gaming, my friend John Hetrick had both. I was a bit jealous that he had the 360 and I didn’t, so I never bothered to try it, but I remember him going on and on about it. He was so right. Fight Night Round 3 is an excellent boxing game with deep and intuitive controls, realistic models, and an incredibly satisfying boxing experience. It took me the better part of 3 hours last night to realize that in boxing, you can’t just block and hope for counters with hooks and uppercuts. No my friend, it’s called the sweet science because there is more than just rocking peoples domes.  Jabs, and plenty of them is what started winning fights for me. Working the body to tire my opponent out, and when the opportunity arose, clock them with the hard left hook. The learning curve hurt my win/loss record, but I did the mature thing and kept the same boxer for my game. I’m really looking forward to playing some more of it, and maybe I’ll get Fight Night Round 4 sooner than 3 years.