NEW YORK CITY — Both sides blamed the other for Vladimir Klitschko-Sultan Ibragimov turning into a terrible fight. But they were “unified” on the fact that it was terrible. That and other thoughts from the news conference, where there was some actual news — John Duddy-Kelly Pavlik is off — and I had a brief […]

NEW YORK CITY — For almost every second of 12 straight rounds, Vladimir Klitschko looked like he was single-handedly trying to ruin boxing by throwing no punch other than a jab. Or maybe he’s an obsessive-compulsive. Or maybe he’s a performance artist who wanted to prove a point about the beauty of only winning a […]

NEW YORK CITY — For three amazingly dramatic rock ’em sock ’em rounds, Walid Smichet was on the verge of, as I said he had a chance to, upsetting the John Duddy apple cart. He was just flat bombing Duddy out of the place as Duddy tried to out-slug him. But then, Duddy discovered some […]

NEW YORK CITY — The Garden’s starting to swell with people. Between undercard fights leading into the big heavyweight clash between Vladimir Klitschko and Sultan Ibragimov, Alexa Ray Joel, daughter of pop star Billy, rocked the National Anthem. (I’m not kidding.) The bigger names on the undercard quickly eliminated their opponents, and you can tell […]

NEW YORK CITY — The bigger undercard fights and the main event at Madison Square Garden’s heavyweight unification bout are still ahead, so here’s a diary of how things are going in the lead-up to Vladimir Klitschko-Sultan Ibragimov.

NEW YORK CITY — Madison Square Garden won’t open its doors for a little while, so how about some quick “Quick Jabs?”

NEW YORK CITY — As promised, I’ll be filing tidbits from the scene in and around Madison Square Garden in advance of, and during, the big heavyweight fight between Vladimir Klitschko and Sultan Ibragimov for a couple of title belts. Off we go:

NEW YORK CITY — It won’t air on HBO, but Saturday night’s heavyweight unification fight has an undercard worth noting. It’s been the focus of the media events here today. It is, as you might guess from the lengthy title of this blog entry, pretty middleweight-centric. There aren’t any world-class match-ups, but there are highly-touted […]

Some fights are more important than whether they’re any good or not. It’s like when you’re a kid and your parents tell you to eat some vegetable that you’ve never tried and are scared to — eating it is the right thing to do, and if it’s delicious, well, that’s bonus. Bernard Hopkins-Joe Calzaghe, in […]

Pound-for-pound lists are a lot like Britney Spears, flashy and attention grabbing but lacking of any real substance.  Of course that does little to stop my need to share my own subjective list of boxing’s current best.  My renown colleague Tim did an excellent job on sharing his pound-for-pound list and while we share similar taste […]

So here is boxing, finally setting about the business of fixing something that all of its critics have always said is one of the major reasons the sport has faded — its muddled heavyweight division — and the stories in major newspapers this morning say, in effect: Boxing Dead Because Of Muddled Heavyweight Division That’s […]

We’re in the season where change is afoot on everyone’s list of the best active fighters, weight differences aside. So here at Ring Report, the idea is to throw out the first stab at it now that a fight has transpired in 2008 that shook things up — Saturday’s rematch between Kelly Pavlik and Jermain […]

Back from vacation, but I’m about to leave again momentarily. I’ll be ringside — or wherever they station reporters for Madison Square Garden fights — Saturday night for one of the more meaningful heavyweight bouts in years, Vladimir Klitschko versus Sultan Ibragimov. It’s the showcase fight of the weekend in Week Two of a solid […]

20″ style=”width:100%; height:550px;” class=”mceEditor”>You know sometimes it’s nice to catch a glimpse of superstar athletes unscripted.  Other times it’s freakin’ hilarious as this clip of Bernard Hopkins reveals.

Dwight Howard may have won this years NBA slam dunk contest but Pavlik-Taylor II was the real all-star event.  Let’s get Punch Drunk! Pavlik Wins Again Middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik looked even more impressive in earning a hard fought 12 round unanimous decision over Jermain Taylor in their highly anticipated rematch.  While some were calling […]