0 comments by Matthew Swain on 8/19/2019
Prizefighters are entertainers. And like all entertainers, their act has to be perfected. Normally that’s done at the gym. And normally we get crabby when we get practice instead of a show. Normally. Saturday night from the Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles, televised on ESPN, junior featherweight Emanuel Navarrete (28-1, 24 KO) got […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 8/11/2019
The following two statements are simultaneously true: Over 23% of Jason Sosa’s professional fights have ended in something other than a victory. *AND* Jason Sosa is an exceptionally talented fighter who is very much in the mix at the upper tier of the junior lightweight division. We talk a lot in these columns about how […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 8/10/2019
Vergil Ortiz Jr. got his first real test Saturday night. And oh, did he pass. Fighting tough veteran and top 5 junior welterweight Antonio Orozco on DAZN proved anything but easy. They swapped rounds until the 6th — the first time Ortiz had even seen that round — when Ortiz shifted into a gear neither […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 8/9/2019
This is an edited extract from former TQBR staffer Alex McClintock’s debut book, “On the Chin,” available now on the Kindle Store and other e-book retailers through Text Publishing. A compilation of the grim origin stories of famous boxers would span many leather-bound volumes and remain nowhere near complete, so I’ll content myself with an […]
0 comments by Jason Langendorf on 8/5/2019
I think a lot about retirement. I’m not yet of an age that anyone other than my teenagers would consider “old,” but it occurs to me now and then that I’m closer to the end than to the beginning. I get tired. Most days, I possess neither the optimal levels of energy nor give-a-shit. The […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 7/28/2019
Yep, that kicked ass. Well, have a great week, everybody! *closes laptop, starts car, cranks up the Whitesnake* What’s that? There’s more to discuss? Do I have to do everything around here?! Fine. Whatever. In a deliciously thrilling junior welterweight bout, Jose Ramirez slithered into Maurice Hooker’s backyard and stole his title, his heart and, […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 7/27/2019
All right, it’s time for Gervonta Davis to stop dicking around. Davis notched yet another stoppage within three rounds Saturday on Showtime, detonating Ricardo Nunez in the 2nd. He’s now done this kind of quick work four times in five fights. It has something to do with Davis’ explosive offense, his blend of speed and […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 7/24/2019
Maxim Dadashev died yesterday from injuries he sustained during his junior welterweight match with Subriel Matias last Friday night on a card televised on ESPN+. He is survived by his wife Elizabeth, and their 2 year old son, Daniel. Dadashev was 28 years old. After the 11th round, trainer Buddy McGirt pleaded with Dadashev to […]
0 comments by Jason Langendorf on 7/21/2019
Time and tide wait for no man, but for a select few, they’re willing to look the other way. Cezanne didn’t put on his first art exhibit until turning 56. Diana Nyad swam the Gulf, from Havana to Key West — 110 miles — at age 64. (Shark cages, by the way, are for candy-asses.) […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 7/20/2019
Imagine you work at an insurance company collating and sorting accident claims. Also, for the sake of verisimilitude, your name is Ruth and you have what can only be described as “way too many” cats. Now, you’re a bit of a hotshot in the collating department. You’ve done some highlight reel alphabetizing and your stapling […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 7/19/2019
We spend so much of our lives focused only on the things that affect us. When someone offers us perspective, it often comes as a shock. That wise counsel you received when you really needed it was provided by someone standing further away from, or closer to, the problem than you. Everything that had been […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 7/16/2019
July kind of drags. For most of us, it’s hotter than Satan’s taint, and everything tends to find itself in a bit of a holding pattern. Typically there aren’t a lot of fight cards either. So, in what has been a surprisingly entertaining year to date, now feels like the exact right time to take […]
0 comments by Jason Langendorf on 7/14/2019
It’s hard to know what not to look at first. The mudflap ears. The lump of a chin, almost an identical twin to the Adam’s Apple in its tiny shadow. The stringy build, like a bedsheet slung over an old TV antenna — or the Vlasic Pickles Stork on a pilates regimen. With an awkward […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke
If you missed a call from an unknown number this past week, chances are good that it was Top Rank’s matchmaking department inquiring about your availability to fight Shakur Stevenson Saturday night. In the month leading up to the fight, one opponent after another fell through as Stevenson’s team discovered they weren’t either a woman […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 6/30/2019
Before we go any further let’s just get this out of the way: twins are creepy. There’s no way around it. Over three percent of the world has a nearly exact genetic copy and no one ever talks about it. There’s a sentient flesh mound walking around with a Xerox of your genome and we’re […]
