As before, I participated in Showtime’s poll of boxing writers for one of their upcoming fights, even though I’m 0-3 when I do so and it’s clearly cursed my prediction record. The entire results of the poll — this time on the super middleweight bout between Carl Froch and Jermain Taylor — are after the […]

Every time I produce a pound-for-pound list — that is, an accounting of the best fighters in the world, regardless of size — it prompts a heated debate about my placement of some boxer or the other. That’s not a bad thing. It’s kind of the point. I’m trying to be a tastemaker of sorts […]

An abundance of flaws — a bounty, a horn of plenty, a bumper crop — will be on display Saturday night on Showtime when Jermain Taylor fights Carl Froch, and I could care less. I quote myself once again: “Flaws are overrated.” In their last two fights, despite their multitudinous flaws, Froch and Taylor demonstrated […]

It was a real KOTY nominee kind of weekend, weren’t it? Walid Smichet, meet super middleweight “Contender” grad Peter Manfredo’s left hook. Peter Manfredo? Really? (h/t BLH)

If you don’t know JuanMa yet, where you been? Young Juan Manuel Lopez, a Puerto Rican junior featherweight with stardom written all over him, has a magnificent skill set and three consecutive 1st round knockouts. One was against a 1st round KO artist himself, Daniel Ponce De Leon, that was a real eye-opener, like the […]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb6zciD3WFo&hl=en&fs=1 We’ve covered it plenty in the post here, so little further elaboration is necessary. But if you didn’t see junior flyweight Brian Viloria’s knockout of Ulises Solis, just go to about 2:46 and feast your eyes on that sucker. Never before will you have so feared a 108-pound man.

No home cooking was necessary for the two Filipinos who headlined the Top Rank Manila boxing card, flyweight Nonito Donaire and junior flyweight Brian Viloria. Their fists made the scorecards useless. Donaire, a top-20 pound-for-pound player, put on a pure power-punching exhibition to decimate Raul Martinez by knockout in the 4th, and Viloria scored a […]

YURIORKIS GAMBOA! Yeah, part of the fun is just saying his name out loud, I admit it. The other part is that the featherweight is one of the most exciting performers in the sport these days. His awkward and defensively-astute opponent Friday night on Showtime, Jose Rojas, wouldn’t let Gamboa unleash the full excitement of […]

Besides the preview of tonight’s Showtime card featuring YURIORKIS GAMBOA. (capitalization/punctuation subject to change depending upon how I feel about “my son/love child” at any given moment), and the other stuff in the headline, this edition of Quick Jabs features this stuff: the latest on Floyd Mayweather, Jr.-Juan Manuel Marquez; the latest on Manny Pacquiao-Ricky […]

Ohmygodohmygod I want one. It’ll be handed out to select fans when Manny Pacquiao throws out the first pitch at a San Francisco Giants game on April 21 for “Filipino Heritage Night.” (h/t Fred Sternburg) Bonus quality promotional hijinks: After the jump, a humorous exchange of words between Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach and Floyd Mayweather, […]

As usual with all things political, my day job prevents me from saying much about this video (h/t Politicker NY) even in jest, but I’ll offer the following scouting report: –Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., has a nice stiff jab, hits with some power, offers some decent combos and possesses hand speed for a 65-year-old man. […]

It’s Wednesday and I’m about to hit the radio at 8 p.m. Eastern time to talk over Oscar De La Hoya’s retirement. It’s via Fight Game Blog’s radio program, FGB Radio, a nice blog that covers boxing, mixed martial arts and rasslin’. If you can’t listen live, I’ll provide an MP3 of the show ASAP […]

H/t to The Sporting Blog on this one, which they wrote up Friday and I just saw today, and which has been circulating in the general sports blog world but not so much the boxing-specific sites. As an aficionado of funny boxing videos, this one more than hits the spot. I recommend the write-up by […]

Oscar De La Hoya retired today. I’ve never had the conflicted feelings toward De La Hoya endemic to so many hardcore boxing fans. Certainly, I understood some of the animosity toward him for his wishy-washy act, both in the ring and out of it. But what I saw was a very good fighter — a […]

One weekend after HBO debuted its “Thrilla in Manila” documentary about the legendary third fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, four fighters who are anything but heavyweights will meet at the scene of that historic battle in the Philippines. But don’t let their diminutive size — none of the four will weigh more than […]