0 comments by Tim Starks on 6/23/2014
One of the best match-ups in boxing is now booked, so if you’re a snob about the smaller weight classes, time to get over it. Lineal flyweight champion Akira Yaegashi and pound-for-pound talent Roman Gonzalez are going to fight in September (a notion that has been in the works for a while). That’s plenty good, […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 6/22/2014
Saturday’s Showtime main event between Robert Guerrero and Yoshihiro Kamegai was overshadowed in the pre-fight hype by Vasyl Lomachenko-Gary Russell, Jr. As an action bout, it was much, much better, one of the best of 2014, and Guerrero came out with the bloody unanimous decision. It was a Fight of the Year candidate, a kind […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 6/21/2014
As of Saturday afternoon, Vasyl Lomachenko was 1-1 since leaving the amateur ranks. Gary Russell, Jr. was 24-0. But all of Russell’s pro fights against hopeless opponents weren’t enough to prepare him for how good Lomachenko was on Showtime Saturday night, as Lomachenko — who was fearless in taking on Orlando Salido then Russell — […]
0 comments by Tim Starks
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0 comments by Tim Starks
(Chad Dawson connects on George Blades;
0 comments by Tim Starks
(Rich Graessle/Main Events) Two awkward, ungainly boxers from far off lands wearing comedy clothing met on NBC Sports Saturday for the right to fight for the belt owned by Bernard Hopkins, and it was Nadjib Mohammedi’s awkwardness that ruled the day against Anatoliy Dudchenko. He won by 7th round stoppage. Mohommedi’s comedy clothing of choice […]
0 comments by Tim Starks
After Saturday, it’s fair to go ahead and assume indefinitely that middleweight Martin Murray will never impress overwhelmingly, but he’ll be good enough to win against 160-pounders of most kinds, which is what he did against Max Bursak by unanimous decision. Murray made his name in a disputed loss against then-champion Sergio Martinez and a […]
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Strawweight Hekkie Budler got something of a challenge from Pigmy Kokietgym, Saturday, but suppressed Kokietgym’s charge every time it threatened to amount to something, then took him out in the 8th. Budler controlled the rounds he won with superior volume and accuracy, while Kokietgym got within range of winning a couple with some accurate, hard […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 6/19/2014
Gary Russell, Jr. vs. Vasyl Lomachenko airing Saturday on Showtime is a fight that shouldn’t be happening for so many reasons, and now that it is, it’s nearly impossible to make any sense of it. It is the most mystifying fight of 2014, and therefore one of its most alluring, outshining the main event by […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 6/15/2014
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0 comments by Tim Starks on 6/12/2014
In at least one way, Ruslan Provodnikov, fighting Saturday on HBO, can’t be beat: lovability. He eats raw moose lever, yells “MAMA!” after he wins then bleeds all over her when he sees her, promises to break people “morally,” gets emotional when he thinks of Siberia, recites poetry and watches “Cinderella Man” before every fight… […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 6/10/2014
http://youtu.be/PFwA4jaSNZM Everybody’s trolling these days. The only appropriate response is to put up a couple knockout videos from recent weekends before discussing it all, so as to give you happy thoughts before delving into the sad business stuff (if you can be happy about knockouts, anyway). The one above is from this past weekend, via […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 6/8/2014
Boxing is, sometimes, tragedy and triumph all at once. I’m not talking about how unfortunate it is that someone has to lose, or how nice it is that someone gets to win. I’m talking about tragedy, in the dramatic sense of a great figure brought to ruin, and about the exultation that accompanies the kind […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 6/4/2014
First, we talk business. Then, we talk the fight. Sergio Martinez, the 39-year-old middleweight champion of the world, has waited his whole life to fight someone who will give him the kind of payday big-name Miguel Cotto will get him Saturday on HBO Pay-Per-View. Martinez’s 2012 tilt with Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. was probably somewhat […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 6/2/2014
It’s not going to be possible now, or even probably over the next few months, for the ramifications of Richard Schaefer’s departure from the sport’s biggest promoter Golden Boy — announced Monday — to become fully realized. Finish typing a sentence about it, and it’s already changed, say, with the sport’s biggest star Floyd Mayweather […]
