If boxing’s powers-that-be wanted to tread water in 2008 after a comeback year in 2007, well then, mission accomplished.

After months of speculation and widespread rumor, 2008 US Olypmic boxing team light flyweight Luis Yanez has decided to turn pro. The announcement was made Tuesday morning at a press conference held at the American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas, Texas. “Man, it’s a big day for me,” Yanez would tell the Queensberry Rules.  “It’s […]

Thomas Hauser, I’ve made no bones about saying, is the finest boxing writer in the land. He’s somewhere between the sport’s poet laureate and its Bob Woodward. If you have read any of Steve Kim’s pieces in recent months, you’ll recall Kim writing about HBO execs trying to suss out who Hauser’s sources are for […]

(Photo: Flickr/wallyg) I should have posted this sooner, since it’s Christmas-themed, but so what, it’s still cool. And it’s close enough to Christmas. There were at least two boxing-themed Christmas storefront windows in New York City. One, above, was at Bergdorf Goodman. I discovered it via this interactive feature, which captures some nice glimmers of […]

…And we’re back. While we were away, it wasn’t exactly the biggest news week in the history of boxing, but there were indeed some developments deserving “Quick Jabs” treatment. So before we bring you a couple more features to close out the year — including an interview with Tom Hauser about his newest book (and […]

The last month has been our most successful yet at our humble boxing blog, in terms of traffic. I won’t share the number of visits — it might look like I was bragging, and besides, in some corners of the blogging universe, they would be considered laughably small — but I can tell you this: […]

We still have a bit of 2008 housekeeping to attend to, and one of the final tasks is a final pound-for-pound list of the best fighters in the world regardless of weight. As usual, my criteria includes, in approximate order of importance: recent activity, career achievement and overall ability.

I didn’t fork over the $24.95 required to watch the heavyweight alphabet title fight featuring Evander Holyfield and Nicolay Valuev because I didn’t want to participate in the sorry spectacle — voting with my pocketbook and all — but after catching the bout on YouTube, I can tell you that it exceeded my imagination in […]

Sean hit you with his delicious 2008 Pu Pu Platter science here, following up on our Round of the Year, Knockout of the Year, Fight of the Year and Fighter of the Year awards entries. I agree with a great deal of his picks, but we conclude our awards week today with my own, second […]

Welcome to boxing’s weekend of disgrace! You’ve got the “Will this be the day Evander Holyfield’s gets really bad brain damage?” bout with heavyweight titlist Nicolay Valuev. You’ve got Joan “I can’t make weight for a fight and don’t even want to but didn’t tell anyone until the last minute and now my scheduled opponent […]

While we here at the Queensberry Rules have already shared with you, our values readers, a host of year end awards, Tim and I have also decided to award some deserving nominees in some other pertinent categories.  I will share my “pu pu platter” of awards first and Tim will drop some knowledge on your […]

When your year roughly mirrors one of the finest achievements in boxing history — Henry Armstrong’s simultaneous three-division reign — then it’s going to be hard for anyone to top you in the Fighter of the Year category. And that’s what Manny Pacquiao did in 2008. Just a few weeks ago, Pacquiao toppled Oscar De […]

In the book “Boxing Scene” by Thomas Hauser, Lou Duva, a former trainer of Evander Holyfield, said, circa early 2007: “If he stops fighting now, he could be our greatest ambassador. But when he keeps fighting, it downgrades the sport. And God forbid something really bad should happen to him.” In a Dec. 4 article, […]

With the boxing year effectively completed, every day this week at The Queensberry Rules we’ll be presenting nominees for 2008 year-end awards, followed the next day by our actual award recipients. The categories are: Round of the Year; Knockout of the Year; Fight of theYear; and Fighter of the Year. Sean and I will provide […]

When Israel Vasquez and Rafael Marquez first agreed to terms to fight each other back in March 2007, you knew it would result in something special. But in no way could even the most ardent fan have predicted an all-time classic trilogy would have sprouted from the encounter. With both fighters each taking one victory […]