(Juan Maneul Lopez, left, Daniel Ponce De Leon, right;

The prodigal son returns. Kind of. Rivalries are everywhere in sports. Some start with religion, like Rangers and Celtic. Some are regional, like Georgia and Florida (or insert NCAA football rivalry of your choosing). Some simply boil down to good versus evil as in the case of Carolina and Duke (Go Heels!). Few rivalries though, […]

In what was shaping up to be an excellent Friday Night Fights main event from Pala, Calif., Rustam Nugaev collected a win via stoppage when Marvin Quintero stayed on his stool after the 4th round with a reportedly injured left hand. The official score cards had the bout even, as did I, but Quintero (25-5, […]

Two stoppages, a quit, and a debatable decision. That’s how the opening round of ESPN’s Boxcino middleweight tournament ended up Friday. It was an uneven night full of uneven performances from the Horshoe Casino in Hammond, Ind., compared to the lightweight tournament’s inaugural round. In the opening bout, Daniel Edouard (23-5-2, 14 KOs) quit on […]

Junior welterweight, masters in nutrition holder and possible future physician Chris Algieri (at left) earned a wide points decision over Emmanuel “Tranzformer” Taylor in the main event of ESPN’s Friday Night Fights card from the Paramount Theatre in Huntington, N.Y. Algieri (19-0 8 KOs) got the nod by scores of 98-92 and 97-93 twice.  I […]

(Blake Caparello throws a right at Elvir Muriqi; photo credit: Ed Diller, DiBella Entertainment) Every fight tells a story. Some tell you who a fighter is. Some tell you who he isn’t. Some tell you what you already knew, and some make you question everything you thought you knew. When two largely unknown fighters from […]

After getting the opportunity to jump into the main event of the Friday Night Fights show at Little Creek Casino in Shelton, Washington, when a broken hand caused Javier Molina to pull out of his fight with Kendall Holt, light heavyweights Thomas Williams, Jr. and Cornelius “Da Beast” White did not disappoint. In all, the […]

“That’s where he needs to go! To the BODY!” Of Manny Steward’s many great moments in the corner and on the HBO announce team, that is the one that stands out the most to me. Throughout round 9, he implored Micky Ward to return the punch that had gotten him there, the punch that had […]

(Juan Santiago, left, Juan Diaz, right; credit: Chris Farina, Top Rank) Juan Diaz once fought like a swarm of angry bees. Unable to hurt anyone with a single punch, he came forward relentlessly and stung as many times as possible. Few can forget the look of utter despair on Acelino Freitas’ face when he quit […]

If you have Showtime, or are creative with Internet streams, you most likely saw Golden Boy Promotion’s card from Carson, Calif. last Saturday night. It was supposed to be another showcase for two of the company’s up and coming stars: junior featherweight Leo Santa Cruz and featherweight Abner Mares. Mares was in tough against veteran […]

(Rustam Nugaev, left, Jose Hernandez, right; credit: Mario Serrano, Gary Shaw Productions) Continuing their recent run of competitive fights, ESPN2 put on a fun show from Cabazon, Calif. on Friday Night Fights. In the main event, Russian Rustam Nugaev (25-6-1, 15 KO) stopped Jose Hernandez (14-7-1, 6 KO) in the 5th round of a scheduled […]