0 comments by Tim Starks on 5/31/2010
(“I’d like to thank God, without God none of this would have been possible.”) Malignaggi, Hamed, Tyson good. Cotto, Oscar, Lennox bad. Everything about being a prize fighter is tough, not least the part which comes directly after the fight, when an erudite guy in a penguin suit sticks a mic in your grill and […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 5/30/2010
Two of my man-crushes, ESPN’s Brian Kenny and featherweight Yuriorkis Gamboa, let me down in the above video, conducted during the Friday Night Fights show. Kenny never fails to ask the most important or challenging question, but he never asked Gamboa about the opponent he was going to face this summer, Celestino Caballero, and Gamboa […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 5/29/2010
Yesterday, I visited Goochland, Va. It’s named after Sir William Gooch, a contrast I enjoy — the dignity of “Sir William” and the 7th grade nickname quality of “Gooch.” I attended a high school graduation where the class of 2010 totaled two people. (The class of 2012 will be half that.) It was a Christian […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 5/28/2010
It’s obvious Amir Khan is aiming for bigger things! (I stole that joke straight from friend of the site Irvin Ryan.) Salacious is fun, but when a model came forward nearly a month ago with allegations that the junior welterweight was sending her dirty text messages, I didn’t even blink. Hell, I didn’t even read […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 5/26/2010
Some boxers are luckier than others. Some are really unlucky. Maybe you don’t believe in luck. There’s a saying about how the harder you work, the better you prepare, the luckier you get, and it’s a good saying. But luck is a useful concept. There are some fighters who, no matter how hard they prepare, […]
0 comments by Tim Starks
After a pretty prolonged stretch of top-notch boxing, this week the sport returns to being busy but not especially top-notch. It’s not that there aren’t some good fighters in action or some decent cards, it’s just that the matches themselves don’t add up to anything as significant as Yonnhy Perez-Abner Mares or even Victor Ortiz-Nate […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 5/25/2010
(Rafael Marquez v. Human Fountain, Saturday; Photo credit: Tom Casino, Showtime) What you see above is the gaping wound in Israel Vazquez’ face spurting blood like it came from a slit throat, a wound so horrific that some have already ranked it amongst the most graphic cuts in boxing ever. When you can more or […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 5/23/2010
Rafael Marquez evened the score with Israel Vazquez in their four-fight rivalry by stopping Vazquez in the 3rd round, really blowing away his shopworn nemesis who probably ought to retire now — something even his manager realized afterward. At featherweight, Vazquez was the naturally bigger man, but Marquez was sharper and busier and chopped up […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 5/22/2010
Let’s start with an all-caps rant about junior bantamweight Nonito Donaire’s likely next opponent July 10 on Showtime, one of the following three men: Jose Lopez, Victor Zaleta or Hernan Marquez. Lopez and Marquez lost their most recent fights, and Zaleta’s not done anything. It’s good that Donaire won’t be on yet another Pinoy Power pay-per-view […]
0 comments by Tim Starks
That right there is some video on the Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez trilogy, in case the fourth installment doesn’t do much for you and you want to revisit the awesomeness that was I through III. You can watch them all, in full, right here. The ol’ day job kicked my ass this week, but late or […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 5/20/2010
From time to time along comes a fight where both warriors are so carnivorous and so offensively skilled that every time you think of it, you’re ALREADY on the edge of your seat. On three occasions from 2007 to 2008, that fight was Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez. They meet for Vazquez-Marquez IV Saturday on Showtime, but […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 5/19/2010
Golly, it’s been quite a stretch since we had an update in the ol’ Prediction GameTM. And at long last, we shook up what was effectively a nine-way tie, thanks to a four-fight sequence where a whopping eight people picked all four fights correctly — and all of them are in a better neighborhood because […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 5/17/2010
London is a sprawling mess of missed connections. The fight taking place in the East End of the city tonight, however, should feature more correlation and interaction than can be found in its surroundings. Lightweights Kevin Mitchell and Michael Katsidis are the type of men who’ll go out of their way to introduce themselves to […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 5/16/2010
I was in the minority at the Theater at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, as I had come to New York simply to see a good fight card. The majority of the crowd seemed more interested in asserting tribal dominance than witnessing pugilistic excellence. Passion among boxing fans can be a beautiful thing. Arturo […]
0 comments by Tim Starks
Competitive on paper, or in theory, or in the minds of boxing fans who were split on the outcomes, Amir Khan-Paulie Malignaggi and Victor Ortiz-Nate Campbell turned into junior welterweight mismatches in reality, producing two fights on HBO Saturday where the loser never won a round and the younger, more physically talented fighters controlled things […]
