RIP, Nelson Mandela, world leader and pugilist/boxing aficionado. (per Deadspin). In a long overdue combined edition of Quick Jabs/Round And Round, we contemplate the Manny Pacquiao vs. Brandon Rios pay-per-view numbers, a provocative interview or two, what's next for Carl Froch and some other news items/fights in the works. Quick Jabs There are any number […]

“Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Y’all cats know how I do my thing. Brooklyn King that’ll snatch your bling…” So said the Masta Killa in 2006, a year in which Zab Judah knocked down Floyd Mayweather (check YouTube if you don’t believe me) and Paulie Malignaggi won the hearts of the boxing world against a […]

(Julio Gonzalez, shortly after winning his first belt from Dariusz Michaelczewski in 2003; via) Just because a fight doesn’t take home all sorts of awards, honors and palpable recognition, doesn’t mean it wasn’t good or even great. On odds alone, it’s probable that there are untelevised matches all over the world that would overwhelm the system […]

As the sport of boxing becomes more digitized along with society at large, fight fans and even fighters themselves constantly seek to cherish snapshots of a career — frozen moments perhaps closer to what we’d prefer than the present. In that sense, not only are fighters from the past revered in some apparent ageist conspiracy, […]

(Queensberry Rules Radio staff can’t be sure, but we think Sergey Kovalev may have landed another punch at the site above; via) If you have a boxing itch that needs scratching, it’s possible that Adonis Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev’s respective disembowelments of Tony Bellew and Ismayl Sillakh didn’t do it for you. Hey, some people […]

(Manny Pacquiao arrives at the Venetian Macau; via) When it comes to sports fans, boxing spectators are among the most vociferous and voracious. Part of that are the pitched battles and high stakes in the ring. There’s more on the line than in any other contest. Men have lost their lives. The fear of that […]

(Ismayl Sillakh in happier times, left, Sergey Kovalev right; photo credit: Ed Mulholland, HBO) Light heavyweight king Adonis Stevenson finished up a stellar 2013 campaign with another smashing knockout Saturday on HBO, the kind he has made routine along the way to building his case for Fighter of the Year. But a contender for his […]

With the vast number of most meaningful fights in 2013's rear view mirror, HBO on Saturday is delivering a doubleheader that is more about 2014: light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson vs. Tony Bellew, paired with Sergey Kovalev vs. Ismayl Sillakh, bouts meant to whet the appetite for Stevenson-Kovalev, not that appetites could be much whetter […]

(Zack Padilla before being inducted into the California Boxing Hall of Fame in 2011; photo credit: San Gabriel Valley Examiner) Zack Padilla was already a local celebrity in his hometown of Azusa, Calif. By June 9, 1993. Having retired after a TKO loss to a journeyman named Dwayne Prim, Padilla was in the midst of […]

There are worse ways I can imagine to spend a weekday night than to watch Fox Sports 1's Golden Boy Live program: getting all of the skin on my forehead shaved off by a hyperactive drug addict wielding a big chunk of glass, say, or listening to Aerosmith's "Love In An Elevator" for two hours […]

Has the sport of boxing shrunk? It always seem like it the week after a big pay-per-view. You don’t have to go cold turkey, though, because there’s at least a bit of quality headpunching on. Macau makes way for Montreal on HBO, with a light heavyweight-centric card headlined by that division’s champion, Adonis Stevenson. As […]

Everywhere you turned this past weekend, some fight was ending too early or too late, as the New Yorker's Kelefa Sanneh touched upon here in examining the struggle pitting quality boxing against boxer health, a subject the sport can't get away from post-Frankie Leal and post-Magomed Abdusalamov. The balance isn't easy. But let's go case […]

(Above, a “pre-enactment” of what Manny Pacquiao did to Brandon Rios in Macau; via) Sometimes a fight fan invests in watching a fight card that, on paper, seems as though it should be high quality, and it falls short of expectations when all is said and punched. When that happens, nothing can be done. But […]

(via) Referee Howard Foster curtailed a national drama in Manchester Saturday night with a call that was every bit as anti-climactic as a power cut during soap hour. George Groves, 19-1, 15 KOs, a King Rat figure heading into his super middleweight grudge match with Carl Froch, had been a revelation – dropping his iron-clad […]