In Antonio Margarito-Shane Mosley, on HBO Saturday night, we have the biggest fight of 2009 both to date and so far — there’s nothing else on the schedule as of now that touches it — and despite some growing sentiment Mosley has a chance, it may be a flat-out mismatch. When the idea of the […]

I finally remembered to set my DVR, no thanks to you, and as such I was able to catch up with The Contender after only seeing one episode previous. A series of quick observations: For those who missed this edition, first, the results and happenings. Rico Hoye, one of the top names on the show, […]

So there you have it. According to ESPN and The Los Angeles Times, the fight everyone in boxing wanted to see — Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton — has fallen through, and the blame almost entirely goes to Pacquiao, who went back on his apparent commitment to a 50-50 split that both his promoter and trainer thought […]

Tuesday, January 20, 2009, 9:15 PM CST.  That is the exact moment when I received the email from Thomas Hauser informing me that I had been voted into the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA). The email was short and direct, the BWAA membership committee had reviewed my application and a half dozen on my […]

Whatever the status of the Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton negotiations, my takeaway from this particularly inside baseball phase of a fight’s evolution is that Pacquiao has, for some reason or another, developed a contemptible case of egocentricism. He’s not the first boxer to get too big for his own britches, nor will he be the last. […]

Former light heavyweight champion Jose “Chegui” Torres passed away Monday from what is being reported as a heart attack in his home in Puerto Rico. Torres claimed the light heavyweight title by stopping Willie Pastrano in 1965.  Torres ended his career with a record of 41-3-1, 29 KOs and was inducted into the International Boxing […]

Tim has already done an excellent job of surmising all the action of this past weekend but I felt the need to drop some quick thoughts on the fights as well. Berto – Collazo I may be in the minority here but I had Collazo narrowly outpointing Berto over the twelve rounds.  But, with that […]

Andre Berto-Luis Collazo was so nice, I had to watch it twice. Here are some second thoughts on Saturday night’s ultra-swell welterweight (147 lbs.) bout. (The first thoughts are here.) On closer examination, I should have scored the 11th for Berto. That would have been enough to give him the fight on my card. Berto […]

Welcome to 2009, boxing. In a big way. Welterweight (147 lbs.) Andre Berto, hailed as a potential heir as the next American star in the sport, remained undefeated Saturday night against Luis Collazo in a really close, crackerjack fight marked by dramatic swings in momentum. Depending on how ’09 shakes out, it could end up […]

I’ve been getting a kick out of the live blogging thang, so if anyone — literally, a single soul — wants to join me at a live blog Saturday night for the welterweight (147 lbs.) Andre Berto-Luis Collazo bout, just speak it. You and me’ll watch this fight together, even if nobody else joins us. […]

(Tom Casino/Showtime) Above are the two prospects who tonight will kick off the season debut of Showtime’s Shobox, the network’s show oriented toward putting youngsters in against the toughest opponents of their careers. On the left is Leonilo Miranda; on the right is Orlando Cruz. Both weighed in at 127 pounds. Both are undefeated against […]

You may know some things about Andre Berto, what from all the fancy hype he gets from the USA Todays, the ESPN the Magazines, the Deadspins. You may know he’s “one to watch in 2009,” you may have read about his poise, you may have heard he’s a lot of folks’ favorite young fighter. Here […]

Remember the avalanche of fights happening/not happening I wrote about last week? —-> It’s a really loooong avalanche. It just keeps… avalanching, or whatever the verb form of avalanche is. Let’s hit the news of the day very quickly, because with the way things are going, it’ll change by tomorrow, anyway. Manny Pacquiao has wised […]

USA Today and Ring magazine both did features recently on who might become a breakout attraction in 2009. They were both good pieces — you can read them here and here — and timely, too, since we’re going into ’09 without anyone who’s really well-established as a name in the United States on the level […]

Raise your hand if you’re surprised.