0 comments by Jason Langendorf on 1/6/2021
How did a 5-foot-8, 135-pound asthmatic — a kid who showed up to work just once over the past calendar year, and who isn’t yet old enough to rent a car — become the most distinguished fighter in the world in 2020? Just ask Teofimo Lopez Jr. Or don’t. Either way, he’s probably gonna tell […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 1/3/2021
One of the joys of a global pandemic — and the ensuing isolation that accompanies it — is the feeling of being completely untethered from time. Events that occurred last night may as well have taken place in the Mesozoic era. I have no clue when my last birthday was. Who is president now? Is […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 12/29/2020
Welcome to The Queensberry Rules’ annual year-end boxing awards, continuing throughout this week. Here’s how we do it around these parts: The major categories are Knockout of the Year, Fight of the Year and Fighter of the Year. For each category, we give five finalists, with video and/or relevant info. On the second day after a category […]
0 comments by Jason Langendorf on 12/22/2020
It’s a little-known law of nature: Because crusty, bloated sportswriters are biologically predisposed to pearl-clutching, the survival of the species depends on the periodic rant about The Sanctity of the Game. In boxing, that means screeds about sanctioning bodies, state commissions, promoters, managers, yahoo judges, YouTubers, referees, Saved By the Bell refugees, various and sundry […]
HANDOUT PICTURE COMPLIMENTS OF MATCHROOM BOXING
Anthony Joshua vs Kubrat Pulev, IBF, WBA, WBO & IBO World Title.
13 December 2020
Picture By Dave Thompson
Anthony Joshua watches as Pulev receives the count.
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 12/16/2020
When you’re lost, a step back backward is often the first step in the right direction. You take your time until your surroundings look and feel familiar. That familiarity is what allows us to turn down all the noise in our brains generated by having to constantly absorb alien information while also thinking about our […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 12/8/2020
Errol Spence loves horses. Apparently, that’s his thing now. That’s fine. I suppose it’s a natural progression to make once you can no longer be trusted around automobiles. It’s not weird to like horses, I suppose. I mean, depending on what it is you’re doing with, or to, them. Horses are cool, don’t get me […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 11/29/2020
It wasn’t the end of the world. There were times where it wasn’t even terrible. That’s the sum of what you can say that’s complimentary about 50-something legends Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. fighting to a draw in a heavyweight exhibition Saturday night. At least it was better than the other celebrity boxing match […]
0 comments by Jason Langendorf
Pete Rademacher. Tyrell Biggs. Henry Tillman. Michael Bennett. Michael Grant. Expect the names to be rolled out in the coming days, like the saddest of funeral processions — a somber reminder of the heavyweight division’s most auspicious careers cut down too soon. For a Brits-only version, the ceremony will be shorter, but stingingly familiar: They’ll […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 11/28/2020
First off, before we get started, we’re not even going to bother discussing this fight. It was a sentient Ambien overdose that future generations will show to their children to combat night terrors. Secondly, in the spirit of full transparency, I feel obligated to inform you that I’m typing this on Hunter Biden’s laptop. I […]
0 comments by Jason Langendorf on 11/15/2020
Calculating precisely where Terence Crawford fits along the spectrum of boxing’s superstars is something of a fool’s errand and, if we’re being honest with ourselves, entirely beside the point. No sport is more tribal, more random in the focus of its fan adoration, nor more fickle in ascribing value to fundamentally flawed human beings — […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 11/2/2020
First off, before we even get started, Naoya Inoue fought on Halloween night and I didn’t use “Monster Mash” or any variation thereof in the headline of this piece. It’s a nearly pornographic display of willpower that future religions will base their scriptures on. While I appreciate the sentiment, your gaping jaws and undying servitude […]
0 comments by Jason Langendorf on 11/1/2020
Eleven years ago, David Haye challenged Nikolai Valuev in Nuremberg, Germany, in a heavyweight title bout that likely represented the greatest size disparity in modern boxing. Valuev, “The Russian Giant,” stood 7′ tall and weighed in well north of 300 pounds. Haye, a former cruiserweight, who had blown himself up to a career-high 217 pounds […]
0 comments by Alex Sereda on 10/26/2020
It sounds strange that anyone from Ukraine wouldn’t want to support Vasiliy l Lomachenko and Oleksandr Usyk, who are surely two of five best fighters in Ukraine’s history. It sounds stranger still that anyone in Ukraine could cheer for their opponents — even if it’s Dereck Chisora, who’s set to fight Usyk this weekend and […]
0 comments by Jason Langendorf on 10/18/2020
The gift of the truly great megafight comes around roughly as often as Halley’s Comet, a once-in-a-lifetime galactic event — an almost-spiritual happening that, for those of us inclined toward these things, helps us better understand the human experience and ground our presence within the cosmos. But there’s a hard truth that’s compulsively forgotten, again […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 10/16/2020
There’s a puzzle called a Megaminx. It’s like a Rubik’s cube, but it has 12 sides and 12 different colors. Imagine trying to solve one that’s actively changing shape at continuously variable rhythms, keeps jumping out of your hands, and if you make a mistake you get tased in the base of your scrotum, occasionally […]
