June 16, 2007, Uncasville, CT Lou DiBella, who promotes Stevens, had promotional options on Dirrell in the event that he won. But DiBella was so disgusted by the way Dirrell fought, he doesn’t plan to pick up the option and said he doesn’t want to ever have Dirrell on one of his cards again. – […]

I got invited to do a “Syllabus” at Bookforum, the literary review magazine, so naturally I leaped at the opportunity. The idea was to do a list of essential boxing books. You can read it here (free registration required). In addition, there’s a review at the site and in the print edition by Katherine Dunn […]

Even though the boxing schedule for the week lost its marquee attraction, the canceled welterweight showdown between Shane Mosley and Andre Berto once booked for Saturday, the schedule is still jam-packed to the point of being a Heironymus Bosch painting — on Friday in particular — with nice little fights. Consider: Jesse Brinkley-Curtis Stevens, Friday, […]

Here we go with our first standings recap in the prediction game, which I figure we’ll do every two fights. The two fights this time were, obviously, the featherweight bouts Juan Manuel Lopez vs. Steven Luevano and Yuriorkis Gamboa vs. Rogers Mtagwa on Jan. 23. (We need a good, catchy name for the game, by […]

I’m not one of these anti-Texas people. I’ve been there once, driving from Indiana to California. I didn’t enjoy the humid heat, but I found nothing to hate. But Texas’ boxing jurisdiction is loathsome. It is nauseating. It’s sleazy, it’s vile, it’s vulgar. Horrible judging, horrible refereeing, nepotism and an utter disregard for the health […]

I first flirted years ago with the idea of a friendly competition whereby friends of the site and myself would see who could predict fights most accurately. (I almost suggested this would be a game of wits, but anyone who regularly predicts fight outcomes knows that the sport quite delightfully can make fools of us […]

I never gave away the Muhammad Ali poster from the t-shirt design contest during the summer, because the winner, Kevin, was only really interested in the Manny Pacquiao bobblehead doll. So here’s the deal. Below is a comic by Kate Beaton. She does really wonderful work; my brother recently bought me her book, “Never Learn […]

Andre Berto announced Monday he is pulling out of his Jan. 30 welterweight fight with Shane Mosley, saying the the destruction in his native Haiti — during which he reports that he “lost several relatives” — has left him “physically and mentally exhausted.” What can you do about that? Berto said he couldn’t fight in […]

When Jake “the Snake” Roberts held a cobra to a helplessly ensnared Randy “Macho Man” Savage and the cobra sunk his fangs into the Macho Man’s shoulder, I was enthralled. When the “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase broke out his inimitable cackle or The Undertaker slammed an opponent into a casket or the “Nature Boy” […]