One of My Father's Famous Quotes Verified

While I downloaded almost all of the extra boxers I use in Fight Night Champion, there were two I made from scratch. 

The first was myself. I based the total ranking of the stats on Honey Roy Palmer, to give myself a chance against other top tier fighters. (No sense in getting the crap beaten out of me every time. I had enough of that at the bus stop growing up.) However, I didn't want to make myself invulnerable. I did tailor the statistics and AI to compliment my preferred defensive, counterpunching, right hand lead, outside boxing style, using uppercuts to get away when the opponent got inside. 

Aside- Using a right hand lead has nothing to do with any knowledge of boxing. It's due to the way I hold the controller. When I used left handed boxers, I work remarkably well off the jab.

 

Because of preprogrammed elements the announcers can say in the game, I took the nickname "Thunder" for custom superhero reasons, and used the last name "Stanley" as my Dad's first name was an option the commentators would say. It was a tribute to him teaching me most of what I know about the sport. There are more limited edits to physical appearance than in the wrestling game. The best I could do was an approximation of my younger, in shape self when I lifted a lot. I picked similar tattoos, with flashy (or as most would say, ugly) clothing and shoes. Making my head bald was obvious, and the look was completed with pasty skin, a stubble beard, squinty eyes with scary eyebrows, and a large fur bearing mammal amount of body hair.

Later on, In trying to figure out the game better, I wanted to make a Middleweight with fully maxed out statistics to see what effects changing the AI selections and styles (aggression, stance, preferred punches, etc.) had. I also wanted to see how the stats affected different weight classes. With the game's "two weight class" rule, a Middleweight could take on up to Heavyweights, and down to Lightweights.  

The greatest pound for pound  boxer ever, Sugar Ray Robinson, is in the game as a middleweight so I could have used him for this experiment.

But I wanted to make my Dad.

I gave him the first name of "Steamer" an Up the Lake friends' nickname for him and moved Stanley to his last name to allow the announcers to say it. As a nickname the game could say, I picked "The Man" (As in, "Stan the Man," duh.) I couldn't match his older appearance given the limitations of the creative engine, but used his general body shape and took a shot based on old pictures. 

Aside- Honestly, he looks more like a mix between himself and my Grandfather's family. It turned out to be a fine compromise.  The bits I learned about boxing that didn't come from Dad came from Grandpa. Plus the whole Frissora clan has strong boxing fan genes. This is how I ended up learning how to film the instant replays. Mostly for Dad, but also for fighters she liked and watched with her Father, I'd video the results and e-mail them to my Mother in the middle of the night. Her comments on the "footage" and "Dad"s appearance the next morning lead me to tweak both his character and my filming style. Yes, we are still a fun family. 

For Dad's ring gear, I used a funny bathing suit all the guys in the Up the Lake crew had, plus a robe that matched the terrycloth one he used after he showered.

Fighting as Dad was how I first defeated the previously unstoppable Ivan Drago.  There was a lot of practice using Dad against many others in his own weight class, and eventually Heavyweights before Drago to get prepared. However, there was one fight I waited to do until later. Unfortunately, due to sending Mom SOOOO many fight videos, I accidentally over clogged by email allowable size, and deleted the video I had in the purge. Mom saves all of them but deleted it as well due to me sending a confusing reply. Therefore I had to do it again. 

As always, I am an optimistic cynic, finding the good side of the inevitable worst case situation. Now I could pay attention and do extra filming, plus Dad is in his "post tweaked form" for what went from a "bonus bout" from last week, to an entire post.

Of course we needed to meet in Madison Square Garden.

The pronouns are going to get weird since I fought in the game controlling Dad against Myself. Therefore I'll just stick with "Dad" and "Jeff."

Against an opponent two weight classes above him, as always Dad started with a defensive and methodical presence in the ring. Dad spent most of the early rounds dodging and blocking, while using surgical strike counter punches to soften his much larger opponent. 

Jeff did get a lucky punch in. (Ironically with a right hook to the jaw that Dad ducked into.) It scored a knockdown in the second round. 

Aside- this is a later simulation of the knockdown. I could not film "Dad" getting knocked down in the actual bout because I was too busy using the controller trying desperately to get back up. Nine years later and I still suck at that game mechanic.

While things looked bleak early on, giving up a huge weight and reach advantage, Dad was conserving his strength and building up stamina between rounds. 

The payoff began shortly after his knock down as Dad's continuous, perfectly timed assault dropped Jeff with a series of powerful, digging body punches in the third round.

Dad continued conserving energy, blocking and slipping Jeff's longer reach, in order to  rush inside to land large and powerful combinations to the body.  The advantage shifted more and more in his favor, and Jeff was floored again in the sixth round with the right hook that bounced a young smart assed version of me off the refrigerator goofing around in the kitchen one day. 

After that it was completely clear who was in control of the fight. Dad pressed the attack to both the body and head until another one of those right hooks ended Jeff's night. Here's most of that final round from a clearer angle.

After his second round knock down, the conservative focused style kept Dad ahead on points until he ended the match. 

By throwing far less punches, but making them much more accurate and effective, while concentrating on body punches to remove Jeff's stamina, Dad was able to take out the larger, stronger Jeff with relative ease.

This bout proved some of the words of wisdom Dad often reminded me of:

"No matter how big you get, 

I'll always be smarter than you, 

and I'll always be able to knock you on your ass."