A big fight is a force.
The great Norman Mailer once described a heavyweight championship as a vortex, “as charged as a magnetic field”.
Mailer wrote those words in The Fight, his remarkable account of the legendary 1974 Muhammad Ali v George Foreman fight, the “Rumble in the Jungle”.
Mailer wrote those words in a darker, more personal context than they are used here.
That was a heavy night with Don King and he was actually pondering the fragility of human life and one’s hold on it, but those words are so right.
A big fight is a force to which it is impossible not to be drawn.
That fight, more than 40 years ago now, resonates still, even if it carries no great implications for our age.
It exists in and of itself, a great monument of its time and an enduring point of cultural reference.
From it emerged great literature, not least in Mailer’s book, and later film, but overwhelmingly an entire vocabulary that went far and beyond just sport.
Immediacy prevents conferring any status to Floyd Mayweather Jr’s fight with Manny Pacquiao, but certainly, if one had a working pulse, it was impossible not to feel its force, to be drawn into that vortex.
There were few spaces of the world, real or virtual, you could travel in recent months, and particularly the last few weeks, without coming across some reference to this fight.
Jimmy Kimmel and Justin Bieber as part of their entourages will somewhat rob it forever of some seriousness.
Alternatively, maybe it is just the right kind of garnish for boxing, trampling across as it does so many boundaries, between sport, entertainment, tragedy and comedy.
But it had force, created if nothing else by pure anticipation.
How could it not, given that so many had wanted to see this for so long? Did it provide the right release?
Here is the thing about boxing.
To the casual observer – and that this fight attracted so many is testament to its bigness – boxing works best when operating at its simplest, most dumbed-down level of spectacle.
If blood and bruises and blackened, puffy eyes are visible, if there are knockdowns, obvious pain and wincing, if fighters are on wobbly legs, there is spectacle.
That is one of the reasons why Mike Tyson’s appeal went so wide.
In his early career, he reduced boxing to its most understandable and appreciable: knocking people out, drawing blood, looking mean and vicious.
It is why the Las Vegas fight between Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns exactly 30 years ago was so monumental.
In less than three full rounds, the pair, among the greatest ever, went at each other with such unrestrained fury they created exactly the kind of unruly brutality that is boxing’s central implication.
That fight radiates a violence even now and no watching human can deny its force, whether it is to be appalled by it or scared, to be exultant or energised.
There is a science to it, but sometimes, the simplicity of men beating each other up trumps everything.
This fight was a reminder that one of the ways man wins a fight is by not getting beaten up, as opposed to beating the other man down.
Mayweather’s masterful elusiveness stood out again and it holds appeal, but in a contrarian way.
Its reactivity and subtlety can be appreciated, if not widely loved.
There were stirring moments, but nothing prolonged.
This really was science, feeling ultimately like walking into a movie theatre expecting to watch Interstellar and instead sitting through an actual lecture on theoretical physics.
osamiuddin@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE
WITHIN%20SAND
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The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Destroyer
Director: Karyn Kusama
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Toby Kebbell, Sebastian Stan
Rating: 3/5
UAE release: January 31
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
SPECS
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Dengue%20fever%20symptoms
%3Cp%3EHigh%20fever%20(40%C2%B0C%2F104%C2%B0F)%3Cbr%3ESevere%20headache%3Cbr%3EPain%20behind%20the%20eyes%3Cbr%3EMuscle%20and%20joint%20pains%3Cbr%3ENausea%3Cbr%3EVomiting%3Cbr%3ESwollen%20glands%3Cbr%3ERash%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 247hp at 6,500rpm
Torque: 370Nm from 1,500-3,500rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 7.8L/100km
Price: from Dh94,900
On sale: now
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
A Cat, A Man, and Two Women
Junichiro Tamizaki
Translated by Paul McCarthy
Daunt Books
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Brief scoreline:
Al Wahda 2
Al Menhali 27', Tagliabue 79'
Al Nassr 3
Hamdallah 41', Giuliano 45 1', 62'
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
Emergency
Director: Kangana Ranaut
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
Rating: 2/5
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
More coverage from the Future Forum
ENGLAND SQUAD
Goalkeepers Henderson, Pickford, Pope.
Defenders Alexander-Arnold, Chilwell, Coady, Dier, Gomez, Keane, Maguire, Maitland-Niles, Mings, Saka, Trippier, Walker.
Midfielders Henderson, Mount, Phillips, Rice, Ward-Prowse, Winks.
Forwards Abraham, Barnes, Calvert-Lewin, Grealish, Ings, Kane, Rashford, Sancho, Sterling.
'Morbius'
Director: Daniel Espinosa
Stars: Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Adria Arjona
Rating: 2/5
RACE CARD
6.30pm Maiden Dh165,000 (Dirt) 1,200
7.05pm Handicap Dh165,000 (D) 1,600m
7.40pm Maiden Dh165,000 (D) 1,600m
8.15pm Handicap Dh190,000 (D) 1,600m
8.50pm Handicap Dh175,000 (D) 1,400m
9.25pm Handicap Dh175,000 (D) 2,000m
The National selections:
6.30pm Underwriter
7.05pm Rayig
7.40pm Torno Subito
8.15pm Talento Puma
8.50pm Etisalat
9.25pm Gundogdu
