0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 6/6/2022
While George Kambosos Jr. brought the fans to the fight, Devin Haney almost immediately took them out of it. On a brisk Sunday afternoon, nearly 42,000 fans packed into Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium to watch Kambosos (20-1, 10 KO) make the first defense of the lightweight titles he lifted from Teofimo Lopez last November. What they, […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 4/25/2022
Every fighter, regardless of skill or stature, will one day throw their final punch. If Tyson Fury has indeed thrown his, one couldn’t ask for a better walk-off shot than the uppercut he landed to close the show this past Saturday night, nor a more satisfying target than Dillian Whyte’s giant planet-sized head. Here’s the […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 2/21/2022
There’s comfort in predictability. Human beings are disgusting, pattern-seeking animals attempting to find order in an increasingly chaotic world. Having our expectations met and our biases confirmed helps us feel, if momentarily, that something somewhere is in control. This is, of course, pure fantasy and we are all going to die alone, most likely in […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 1/2/2022
First off, before we even get started, shut up. I can already hear you going “B-b-but what about” and then rattling off some obscure, mid-card jobber’s stoppage win at 4am in Botswana or some shit and just shut up. You’re a nerd. A boxing nerd. And that is hands down the worst kind of nerd. […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 12/13/2021
They say you should never meet your idols, for they will only ever let you down. This past Saturday night, Reymart Gaballo learned that one should also never fight their idols. Especially if said idol has a history of denting heads and exploding livers. Growing up in the Philippines, Gaballo (24-1, 20 KOs) idolized fellow […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 11/15/2021
Remember in Wayne’s World when Garth hacks into the mainframe or whatever and reroutes a satellite signal to beam Crucial Taunt’s performance directly into Frankie Sharp’s limousine so that he’ll sign them to Sharp Records and Cassandra will continue porking Wayne? Stay with me here. Now, picture this scene as a metaphor for last night’s […]
Oct 9, 2021; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Deontay Wilder (red/black trunks) is knocked out by Tyson Fury (black/gold trunks) during their WBC/Lineal heavyweight championship boxing match at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 10/11/2021
There’s a myth in boxing that one can be taught to fight. Sure, you can walk into any gym on earth and a nice man in a beret — most likely named “Chappie” or “The Colonel” — will teach you to jab, parry and skip rope for a nominal fee. But the desire to actually […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 9/26/2021
It’s not easy being a boxing fan. The sporadic, stop-start nature of the schedule allows for long gaps of inaction resulting in waning enthusiasm from a fanbase with notoriously short attention spans. Corruption, controversy and outright criminality make it hard to find a hero in sport that oftentimes feels like it’s run by carnies. Should […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 7/7/2021
First off, since we’re all thinking it, I’ll just go ahead and say it; I deserve a ton of credit for not making the headline of this piece “Tim Tszyu Sparks Stevie Spark” or some assbrained variation thereof. That’s big-time, dumbguy normie shit and we simply don’t do that around here. That said, holy shit […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 6/28/2021
I used to have this boss that would turn his phone completely off when he went to bed at night. I know this because about the time his head was hitting the pillow at night mine was typically just beginning. Self-funded research on the limits of human alcohol consumption at one, or all, of Northeast […]
May 8, 2021; Arlington, TX; Saul “Canelo” Alvarez defeats Billy Joe Saunders and becomes the Unified WBC, WBA and WBO Super Middleweight Champion at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX. Mandatory Credit: Michelle Farsi/Matchroom.
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 5/9/2021
Let’s talk about quitting for a moment, shall we? Boxing fans, writ large, are all but genetically incapable of nuance. When it comes to the dreaded Q word, however, a bit of it is desperately required. Quitting, or the perception thereof, is tantamount to surrender in boxing, and for an industry built almost entirely on […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 4/17/2021
Just a heads up, I’m about to say a whole bunch of stuff that sucks. And not in the way I normally say stuff that sucks. This will not be fun or funny. This will hurt. We might not be friends after this. Hopefully you will find room in your heart for forgiveness and reconciliation […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 4/11/2021
Joe Smith Jr. works in construction. Did you guys hear about this?! The boxing media writ large has proven themselves wholly incapable of discussing Smith without mentioning it. You won’t read an article about the Long Island light heavyweight that doesn’t include the word “jackhammered” or “lunch pail” somewhere in the headline. Right now someone […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 3/23/2021
Let’s start off with a quick math problem. What’s sixteen divided by eight? Take your time. If you came up with two, congratulations, your relationship with your Alexa is in a good place. So what’s the significance of those numbers? Besides highlighting the fact that you went to public school, they represent the average number […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 3/21/2021
What were you doing when you were 22? I was living in what was ostensibly a crackhouse with two of my best friends just outside of Minneapolis. We had no running water and survived mainly on dollar store beer and the charity of friends who worked in restaurants. Bands practiced in the basement where an […]
