My big gripe with these heavy duels
THE last time Tyreek Hill lost a foot race, Adam Gemili went home with a gold medal round his neck.
Tomorrow, the NFL’s self-proclaimed speed king intends to use his blazing pace to make sure he goes home with a Super Bowl ring on his finger.
It was July 11, 2012 when rising British sprint star Gemili and American college track speedster Hill faced off as 18-year-olds in the 100m final at the World Junior Championships in Barcelona.
Hill exploded out of the blocks and led at 40m, only for Gemili’s power to carry him to gold in a games-record 10.05secs, while Hill finished fourth in 10.29, edged out of a medal by one one-hundredth of a second.
But the confident Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver, whose mouth is even faster than his legs, and who goes by the Twitter handle @cheetah, thinks no San Francisco 49ers are going to finish ahead of him in Hard Rock Stadium.
Hill (below) said: “The last time I lost a race was when I went to Barcelona. It was against Adam Gemili.
“There’s nobody faster than me. I’m the cheetah. I’m the fastest land mammal. No disrespect to anyone but there is nobody in the NFL that can beat me in a foot race.”
Hill rises to that classic American sports challenge – if you talk the talk, you’d better be able to walk the walk. And he is only too aware of how much that applies to this game more than any other he will ever play.
He said: “We have swagger. Every time we step on the field, we want to be different. We want to score on every play.
“This game is where you leave a legacy. If you want to be remembered, this is the game. The media is here, the entire world is watching. This game is where you separate yourself from a lot of players.
“A lot of people say ‘I want to be the best receiver in the league, I want to be this, I want to be that’. Well, here’s your chance to prove it. You want to be the best? Prove it, man, on the biggest stage in the world.”
But Hill also understands there is no point thinking of the Super Bowl as just another game. There is a reason they call it Super.
“For the Super Bowl, your mindset has to be different, especially when you add in all the media. Our minds are roaming a thousand different ways. And you’re in Miami so you have to be mindful of that.
“But we have some smart guys on this team who are going to do the right thing and get the job done.
“After we get the job done, that’s when we come back to Miami and have some fun.”
And if he does win the big one, Hill already accepts emotion will get the better of him, as it did two weeks ago on the night the Chiefs qualified for this game.
“I cried after the AFC Championship Game. I’m really going to boo-hoo after this game.
“It would mean a lot. Just to be a part of history is going to be crazy to me. I don’t even want to think about it because I’m ready to play right now.”
THE heavyweight year is shaking out, but not fast enough for me.
With Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder almost upon us, Anthony Joshua is lining up his mandatory defences.
Having had to wrestle the competing demands of the IBF and WBO to face Kubrat Pulev and Oleksandr Usyk respectively, it appears a deal has been struck that will see Joshua (above) face Pulev first.
The details to be ironed out relate to location. Joshua wants the UK with three sites in London plus Cardiff in the frame.
It would be great to see Joshua on these shores, but why wait until May or June as proposed?
Since beating Wladimir Klitschko to unify the IBF and WBA titles in early 2017, Joshua has fought only twice a year. That is not enough. The more active he is, the better Joshua will become.
He should go back to the old days when champions were more active. Notionally, it’s a 12-round contest. In reality, just two of his 24 bouts have gone the distance.
Four times a year would be ideal and achievable. Pulev is a easier fight than Usyk. He turns 39 in May and is slower, less technically gifted and more hittable.
Klitchsko put him away with ease inside five rounds at the back end of 2014. Though that was his only defeat, Pulev has hardly been letting off flares since.
He needed a split decision to get past Dereck Chisora and in three of his past four bouts Kevin Johnson, Hughie Fury and Rydell Booker all took him the distance.
Usyk will benefit from another fight at the weight after his debut against Chazz Witherspoon last October. Though he finished it in seven, Usyk still looked like a beefed-up cruiser.
Witherspoon is 38 and took the pay day at short notice. Despite hitting him with everything, Usyk could not put him down.
Usyk is technically excellent, but you have to have the pop to knock these guys over. He has to show us more power. The big guns will wear him out in order to get to him.
In theory, Joshua beats Pulev and Usyk to set up a showdown with Wilder or Fury this side of Christmas and unify the belts. And yes, I mean Christmas 2020.