0 comments by Patrick Connor on 4/23/2012
Referring to Cuba’s boxing history as “rich” would be a weak cliché that doesn’t quite do the concept justice. Cuba’s boxing history is wealthy. Even in outlawing professional boxing in 1961, men like Teofilo Stevenson and Felix Savon became absolute legends without ever stepping foot in a ring for money. And thanks to Stevenson and […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 4/21/2012
(Adonis Stevenson; credit, Nina Michele le Floch) Albert Mensah vs. Mick Katsidis was an intravenous injection to keep us from slipping into some kind of hopelessly catatonic state last week on Friday Night Fights, and this week’s match up was like a booster shot to make sure last week’s treatment took. The aftermath of weeks […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 4/19/2012
It’s as though we can’t get a solid chunk of good fights lately, and the up and down fluctuation plays hell with a fan’s patience and emotions. A more consistent fight schedule would be nice. It’s part of loving this game, though, and sometimes a hiatus from constant action makes the heart grow fonder. Indeed, […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 4/17/2012
“In the clinch fighting, again Ketchel discovered that Johnson knows more in one round than the average fighter learns in a career. Ketchel as a rule is always above the average at clinch fighting, but to-day he was powerless. There were other things about these clinches. They gave an idea of Johnson’s immense strength as […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 4/9/2012
So. It’s Easter Sunday — a day millions of Christians the world over celebrate the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth some 2,000 years ago. Rather than rejoice with a church trip, an egg hunt or huge slab of ham, we’ll take a look back at a few ghastly knockdowns that looked as if they may […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 3/31/2012
It’s a wonder what even just a few minutes of nice, crisp action can do for boxing fans thirsting for something more than controversy and letdowns. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, as that “Sound of Music” lady said. The normal course of “whine for months, delight for days” should hold true […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 3/24/2012
It was a grinding type of night on Friday Night Fights. That’s not to say it was anything you’d keep on your DVR for any extended period of time, but then quality is but a piece in the unexceptional pie we’ve been fed by ESPN2 this season. It’s one thing to settle into a boxing […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 3/17/2012
We ought to start calling these weekly Friday Night Fights recaps “The Broken Record Column” — at least until ESPN begins to deliver with some entertaining match-ups on Fridays. This year hasn’t been a particularly stellar one for the show, to say the least. They should be thrown a partial bone this week though, as […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 3/11/2012
(Orlando Salido finishes off Juan Manuel Lopez; photo credit: Amanda Kwok, Showtime) We powered through one of those cyclical lulls over the past month or so, where the best we could do is make sense of mismatches and canceled fights. Heading into this Orlando Salido vs. Juan Manuel Lopez rematch on Showtime Saturday, we really […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 3/3/2012
ESPN’s boxing department rolled the dice a bit in plugging undefeated junior welterweight Joan Guzman into one of their main event slots — a subject that has been liberally covered. If some guys bring outside baggage into fights, one can only assume the posse surrounding Guzman in the Hollywood, Fla. ring was there to tow […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 3/2/2012
In the wake of Adrian Broner’s blistering stoppage of Eloy Perez last week on HBO, plenty of speculation has been tossed about as to who will take over the role of boxing’s next big star. Comparisons have been made, respected figures have offered their opinions, and round and round we go. It seems a couple […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 2/29/2012
The final installment. Previously: Part I and Part II. Mickey Walker’s ring return in August saw him in with the “Aberdeen Assassin,” light heavyweight Leo Lomski, and again it seemed as if someone had place a cookie cutter over the bulk of his fight looks and kept churning them out. Mickey charged early and had […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 2/27/2012
Continued from part I. Milwaukee fight promoter Frank Mulhern put up a good offer to stage a third match up between Mickey Walker and Jock Malone in “The Brew City,” and Mickey was also in talks to meet light heavyweight champion Mike McTigue, who had also fallen from the good graces of the New York […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 2/25/2012
Sloppy action accented what was a fairly lackluster Friday Night Fights on ESPN2 last night, as what might have been entertaining match-ups on paper turned out to be a bit underwhelming. But boxing fans looking to FNF for their pre-Saturday warm up have become somewhat accustomed to fights that look better the week before than […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 2/24/2012
The gritty mythology of boxing is the type of stuff that makes the modern “badasses” of sports look like wimpy dullards. Flipping off fans? 19th century answer: alpha heavyweight champion John L. Sullivan, who apparently never could hold his liquor, drunkenly stumbling to the ring to have a title defense against Charlie Mitchell in 1884 […]
