I defended Kelly Pavlik after his loss to Bernard Hopkins from idiotic remarks that he had been “exposed,” as if his entire career up to that point was fraudulent and it took B-Hop to reveal the truth that he sucked. But I think Pavlik and his crew are missing an opportunity to turn Pavlik into […]

The California State Athletic Commission has temporarily suspended welterweight (147 lbs.) Antonio Margarito and his trainer over those controversial hand wraps that were discovered before Margarito went on to fight and lose to Shane Mosley this weekend. The press release is here. By my read, it looks to be fairly standard procedure for state commissions […]

Said all there is to say about this one for now, so I’ll just get out of the way and let the news release from Golden Boy Promotions speak for itself. Anyone who needs tickets, they tell you how to get them and how much they’ll cost, although who knows how many will be made […]

[Sorry, y’all — looks like I accidentally disabled comments on this one. Won’t happen again, now that I know what went wrong. Comment away now…] Other topics in this edition of Quick Jabs, besides what’s in the headline: the value of trash talk versus sportsmanship; Ring magazine’s interesting new top-10 pound-for-pound man; an amusing (and […]

(Cynthia Plaster Caster, from her MySpace page) We’ve got some more people jumping into the news about Antonio Margarito’s allegedly illegal hand wraps from this weekend’s welterweight (147 lbs.) loss to Shane Mosley: another member of his management team (there was no plaster!) and three past opponents (feeling a little shy).

If you didn’t think Shane Mosley-Antonio Margarito had enough wild storylines — divorces, steroids, allegedly loaded gloves, a wholly unanticipated upset result –well, Margarito’s camp is throwing another out there. Mr. Ryan directed me to this article where Margarito’s manager said the welterweight (147 lbs.)  “had to have surgery on his eye a little over […]

I’m not trying to get all Nancy Grace up in here, convicting someone before they are proven guilty. I want to emphasize upfront that we need a fuller investigation of the allegations against welterweight (147 lbs.) Antonio Margarito that his team tried to artificially load his glove before Saturday night’s bout with Shane Mosley. But […]

That was mind-boggling. Mind-boggling. Shane Mosley knocked out Antonio Margarito in the 9th round Saturday night on HBO. You read that right. Margarito, with his cement block of a head, got knocked out by anyone. And the man who did it, Mosley, did it with a near-perfect performance at age 37 to overcome 4-1 odds […]

Big ol’ welterweight Antonio Margarito weighed in at 145 and some change Friday, a bit less than two pounds below the limit, while Shane Mosley was two-tenths over initially. If you’re a Mosley fan, you have to like the sound of that. Why? Because Margarito has apparently had a tendency to overtrain before fights where […]

Just when you thought it was dead, Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton has sprung back to life. Again. But unlike in a zombie movie when they think they’ve killed the zombie but then the zombie gets back up and keeps coming, I’m glad Pacquiao-Hatton has returned. Apparently. I probably won’t believe it until I have a signed […]

In Antonio Margarito-Shane Mosley, on HBO Saturday night, we have the biggest fight of 2009 both to date and so far — there’s nothing else on the schedule as of now that touches it — and despite some growing sentiment Mosley has a chance, it may be a flat-out mismatch. When the idea of the […]

I finally remembered to set my DVR, no thanks to you, and as such I was able to catch up with The Contender after only seeing one episode previous. A series of quick observations: For those who missed this edition, first, the results and happenings. Rico Hoye, one of the top names on the show, […]

So there you have it. According to ESPN and The Los Angeles Times, the fight everyone in boxing wanted to see — Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton — has fallen through, and the blame almost entirely goes to Pacquiao, who went back on his apparent commitment to a 50-50 split that both his promoter and trainer thought […]

Tuesday, January 20, 2009, 9:15 PM CST.  That is the exact moment when I received the email from Thomas Hauser informing me that I had been voted into the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA). The email was short and direct, the BWAA membership committee had reviewed my application and a half dozen on my […]

Whatever the status of the Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton negotiations, my takeaway from this particularly inside baseball phase of a fight’s evolution is that Pacquiao has, for some reason or another, developed a contemptible case of egocentricism. He’s not the first boxer to get too big for his own britches, nor will he be the last. […]