0 comments by Matthew Swain on 11/10/2016
There’s a reality known to anyone from a small town. It’s that your peers cannot wait for you to fail. Any step outside the well-trod path is met with raised eyebrows from those who know that this spells your doom. When you do manage to go forward and make something truly your own, those very […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 11/6/2016
Sometimes a glimmer is enough. Manny Pacquiao picked up another meaningless alphabet strap that added nothing to his legacy by defeating a Jessie Vargas Saturday night. He’s already done enough to secure his Hall of Fame status. He might have needed the money, but he didn’t need the adulation. Pacquiao wasn’t the destroyer of old […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 11/4/2016
All fighters, and all people, eventually get old. Time robs us of of our physical and mental faculties with complete indifference. The reason so many of us live in the past is because that’s when we had not only the skill, but the energy to accomplish our goals. A fortunate few have their primes ripped […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 10/25/2016
I’m relatively certain that I’ve never written anything complimentary about Vanes Martirosyan. In fact, I’ve probably never given any in or out of the ring action of his more than a perfunctory eye roll. But it’s been a slow couple of weeks and fuck it, here we are. Yesterday, Martirosyan went on a miniature Twitter […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 10/13/2016
There are a variety of boxing phrases that have entered the lexicon of the general public. Probably the most well known is “roll with the punches.” It describes a specific skill within our sport, but almost everyone understands what it means on an intellectual and emotional level. The exact boxing technique is something I learned […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 10/7/2016
For all but the most devoted fans (i.e. people who need a life like me), only the top matters. If a fight isn’t for a belt or between contenders, they largely can’t be bothered to watch it. In some ways, this explains the proliferation of various nonsense alphabet straps over the last three decades. Convince […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 9/29/2016
It’s easy to love what we perceive to be perfect. It’s a childish impulse, but one to which all of us have fallen prey. Everyone has had a relationship that seemed destined for greatness fall apart when the vulnerabilities of one or both parties came to light. We either recoil in horror because we are […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 9/23/2016
Boxing is a worldwide sport. It always has been. One of the things that makes it special is that fighting is a universal experience for human beings. There are certainly cultures that place more value on it, but by and large, everyone gets it. Christopher Hitchens summed it perfectly when he lamented that our prefrontal […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 9/16/2016
What does a fighter struggling, even in a win, say about his career? Answer: Not a fucking thing. Sometime in the last decade or two, the TV talking heads and social media have convinced us that every tiny aspect of every performance can be used to indict an athlete or that they prove greatness. It’s […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 9/2/2016
I’m normally not the guy to tell another adult what to do with their professional life, but every once in a while, you just watch something and cringe. Last weekend, on the undercard of Robert Guerrero’s loss to actual fucking cab driver David Peralta, we were treated to Alfredo Angulo wandering aimlessly after Freddy Hernandez […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 8/26/2016
The end of summer is an odd time of year. For millions of Americans, it means the return of football. For millions of students, it means the return of school. Most of us while away in the heat, waiting for summer to be over so we can return to being productive. The time tends to […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 8/10/2016
It’s a little anti-climactic to learn of the retirement of someone who hasn’t fought in two years. Even the reaction to the news of Marcos Maidana’s official retirement was a bit strange. Normally when fans hear a favorite fighter is leaving the sport it’s met with bitter joy because the guy is usually shot and […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 8/3/2016
For A.M. Life is a series of tragedies. The things we love have a habit of disappointing us in the same way that the people we love do. They’re simply not what we hope they are. Mostly they are best they can be, no matter how much we wish it was otherwise. Anytime this happens, […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 7/27/2016
“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.” I’ve been using this maxim for years when people automatically assume that a ridiculous score card in a close fight is the result of corruption. Imagine my shock and horror then when the scores were announced for Jose Benavidez vs. Francisco Santana Saturday. Kermit […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 7/20/2016
Unlike most major sports, boxing exists in an anarcho-capitalist wasteland. It’s the kind of environment that would give Ayn Rand a dusty orgasm and produce a raging semi in Ted Cruz that’s normally reserved for when he imagines Jesus power bombing a refugee child. Because of this, most fighters get paid based on how many […]
