0 comments by Jason Langendorf on 12/23/2018
Win the Powerball once, you’re a lucky bastard. Hit it twice? Now you must be up to something. And that’s why, on Saturday in Manchester, it was clear to anyone who’d been paying attention that Josh Warrington didn’t beat the odds. He’d rigged the game. Back in May, Warrington was the irresistible underdog, the locals’ […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 12/9/2018
The best boxer on the planet didn’t come in on a clear signal for large swaths of Saturday night, as Vasyl Lomachenko got some static from Jose Pedraza and maybe some interference from a layoff following shoulder surgery. Then came an electrifying two-knockdown 11th that shot the true Loma through in 4K. That Lomachenko was […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 12/2/2018
Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury fought to a draw Saturday on Showtime Pay-Per-View, a heavyweight showdown that will be remembered for a few things: Fury, rising from the grave in the 12th after getting a stake through his heart. He banged his head on the ground flat on his back in a way boxers simply […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 12/1/2018
We have a new, true light heavyweight champion. Saturday on Showtime, Oleksandr Gvozdyk stopped Adonis Stevenson in the 11th round with an intelligent, powerful attack that forced the referee to save the fallen divisional king. Gvozdyk boxed beautifully until that point — moving, countering, blocking and never getting sloppy to expose himself of boxing’s power-punching […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 11/25/2018
Dmitry Bivol this weekend hoped to make a statement on HBO: That he can be a thrilling knockout artist, not just a winning boxer. Jean Pascal didn’t cooperate, and as such Bivol made no such statement. But, it’s kind of looking like Bivol just isn’t that guy. Sometimes, Bivol has fought too patiently to be […]
0 comments by Jason Langendorf on 11/11/2018
Like brain surgeons and the bomb squad, boxers don’t get to have bad days. But on Saturday in Chicago, in his semifinal matchup of the current cruiserweight World Boxing Super Series, there stood former world titlist Mairis Briedis, quite obviously getting his wires crossed and freezing up while the patient bled out on the table. […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 10/27/2018
If this was one of HBO’s last sojourns into the sport of boxing, Daniel Jacobs and Sergiy Derevyanchenko gave the network a good
0 comments by Tim Starks on 9/8/2018
In a battle for control of style Saturday night on Showtime — Danny Garcia the technician, Shawn Porter the frantic Cookie Monster — it took a few rounds for Porter to abandon his ill-conceived plan to try to imitate Garcia. But once he started mauling and slinging junk in equal proportion to quality blows, Porter […]
0 comments by Kevin Canfield on 8/30/2018
In December 1966, Howard Cosell opened a boxing press conference with a nod to the literary arts. “To my right is the author of a great new poem,” the sportscaster said. This was Muhammad Ali’s cue. He leaned into the microphone, pointed at his opponent and reeled off a series of rhymes. “I’m not here […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 8/4/2018
As doubleheader cards teeing up the expected winners to face one another go, Saturday night was a disaster. As gobsmacking, can’t-believe-your-eyes upsets go, well, one out of two ain’t bad. Long-languishing light heavyweight Eleider Alvarez, put in the ring on HBO as an authentic test for longtime boogeyman Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev, notched the upset with […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 7/29/2018
For just a little while — about two and a half rounds, let’s say — it looked like Robert Easter might give Mikey Garcia some trouble all Saturday night long. But a Garcia knockdown in the 3rd, and a thorough takeover by midfight, reminded us yet that Garcia is an outstanding fighter. It was a […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 7/14/2018
This Manny Pacquiao, on this Saturday night, was not the Manny Pacquiao we saw last time he was in the ring more than a year ago. Nor was Lucas Matthysse the same kind of opponent as the last man Pacquiao faced. Nonetheless, those of us expecting an even further diminished Pacquiao — an older one, […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 6/9/2018
Leo Santa Cruz had moved beyond it, this Abner Mares rematch Saturday on Showtime. Mares had done almost nothing to earn the do-over, while Santa Cruz had beaten a better fighter in Carl Frampton. You know what, though? The second time around was arguably better than the first, which ended with the same victor: Santa […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 5/12/2018
For a while early, and then right in the middle, it looked like Vasyl Lomachenko’s otherworldly skill might not be enough to guarantee a victory against the bigger, faster and himself-pretty-skilled Jorge Linares. But Saturday on ESPN, Lomachenko overcame a rare knockdown to himself score a knockout in the 10th round. This might be Lomachenko’s […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 5/6/2018
You couldn’t be blamed for wondering whether Gennady Golovkin’s two-fight non-knockout streak meant he was no longer the power punching beast who once gobbled up opponents whole. It seems, rather, that it was just a matter of opponent caliber. Golovkin barely beat fellow middleweight Daniel Jacobs, then fought to a draw with Canelo Alvarez. Vanes […]
