0 comments by Tim Starks on 10/19/2019
For the second time in as many years, a rising contender violently ripped away the lineal light heavyweight championship with a late round knockout. Artur Beterbiev became the king vs Oleksandr Gvozdyk Friday night in an excellent match-up square in the middle one of boxing’s periodic hot streaks, and Beterbiev didn’t just get the championship, […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 10/16/2019
You have some thoughts. You can no longer be alone with them. They involve boxing, so all of your loved ones abandoned you years ago. What to do? Well, you could go out and make some new friends. Haha, just kidding! You’re going to die alone in your parents’ basement, just how god intended. Ha, […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 10/14/2019
Boxing is the toughest sport. Science says so! That means if you’re doing something really badass in pugilism, you’re multiplications of badass. It’s one thing to be in the toughest sport. It’s a whole ‘nother level to be the most badass within the sport. Just last month, welterweight Shawn Porter delivered a really cool moment […]
0 comments by Jason Langendorf on 10/13/2019
Oleksandr Usyk contains multitudes. Scratch that. Not multitudes. Magnitudes. The 32-year-old Ukrainian lineal cruiserweight champ-turned-heavyweight contender is guided by two indomitable polar forces, and he brings them to bear with magnetic energy, a twinkle in his maniacal eyes, and a gnashing of his gap-toothed grin. He’d be as comfortable wearing a Kievan Rus war helmet, […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 10/6/2019
Just because the ball dropped doesn’t mean the party’s over. And let’s be clear, the party most definitely rages on for middleweight star Gennadiy Golovkin, but it’s the part of the night where the soundtrack is a skipping Bongzilla record and all that’s left to drink is peach flavored Boone’s Farm with a garnish of […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 10/3/2019
Boxing is one of the most physically degrading sports in the world. It’s not just the fights themselves, but the rigors of making weight and training that accumulate over time. Elite athletes are left, often at a young age, in a diminished state that cannot be reversed. Common also, to the point of being stereotypical, […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 9/29/2019
Scoring a Shawn Porter fight is a thankless job. Over the course of his career, Porter (30-3-1, 17 KO) has developed an in-ring style seemingly meant to scramble the brains of anyone tasked with judging his performance. His mauling, face-first approach can appear as high-octane button-mashing until you glance down at your scorecard and realize […]
0 comments by Jason Langendorf on 9/15/2019
It’s tempting to view boxing as the ultimate meritocracy. On Forbes’ annual World’s Highest Paid Athletes list, a fighter routinely cracks the top five — and often leads the way, with Floyd Mayweather recently banking nearly a third of a billion dollars in a single calendar year. Social media directly connects fans to fighters, promoters […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain
Boxing is a cruel sport. We love to tell ourselves that it’s poetic and has the power to uplift its participants, but at its core, boxing is about hurting another human being with your fists. Obviously, there are rules, and we expect them to be enforced, but it’s always enjoyable to see a serial rule-breaker […]
September 13, 2019; New York, NY, USA; Devin Haney and Zaur Abdullaev during their bout at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom Boxing USA
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 9/14/2019
Achievement Unlocked: Contender Status Acquired Welp, make it a hat trick for Devin Haney in 2019. Three fights, three impressive beatdowns. After a one-sided shutout decision over outgunned Xolisani Ndongeni in January and a Knockout of the Year contender over rugged Antonio Moran in May, Haney (23-0, 15 KOs) put the finishing touches on his […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 9/12/2019
Few things in boxing inspire as much bile by their mere existence — or each list’s ability to inspire derision because of how obviously stupid its author is — as the mythical pound-for-pound list. That’s part of what makes them so delicious. The lists do possess a certain value, though, even the most obviously awful […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 9/3/2019
Vasiliy Lomachenko is limited. He’s mortal. He’s short, and his punching power isn’t otherworldly. He doesn’t so much conquer as he assimilates. At 31 years old, and in his third weight class, he has to convince opponents that he’s the better man, rather than have it be a simple statement of fact. The question seems […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 8/26/2019
Kosei Tanaka defended his flyweight strap by an exciting stoppage again, defeating Jonathan Gonzalez. Tanaka went through several rough patches during the fight but rallied. Do you think it’s a matter of him fighting down to a level of his opponent, his own ceiling, or something else? And with talk of him moving up in […]
0 comments by Jason Langendorf
Biologists have a name for it: Thanatosis. In the animal realm, certain species will exhibit, as a means of self-protection or sexual predation, an adaptive behavior also described as tonic immobility, aka playing dead. A few predators have evolved to incorporate this assumed posture in order to lure their prey into a state of vulnerability. […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 8/25/2019
In the end, Anthony Yarde got his moral victory while Sergey Kovalev took home the actual one. Ok, so what angle should we take here? There’s a lot to unpack so how should we approach this? Professionally? Anthony Yarde put forth a valiant effort but ultimately a lack of proper preparation saw him fall short […]
