0 comments by Jason Langendorf on 1/12/2020
Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re pretty easy. You get what I’m saying: loose. But consider it a compliment. You’re always down to party. You’re low-maintenance. Agreeable. Even in this modern environment of seemingly endless entertainment options, your viewing standards for a fight are admirably … squishy. When you, the consummate boxing fan, […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke
In boxing, we’re so concerned with who’s moving up and who’s falling down that we forget most fights, and fighters, exist in the laterally flowing currents of the soft, mushy middle. Try as they might, the powers that be can’t make every fight a pay per view. Outliers can’t exist without a median. So much […]
Adrien Broner (left) is hit by Marcos Maidana during their WBA Welterweight fight part of the “Danger Zone” boxing card Saturday Dec. 14, 2013 at the Alamodome. Maidana won by unanimous decision.
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 1/2/2020
If there’s one overarching sentiment that comprehensively sums up the 2010s it would be spite. Everyone is mad at someone, the planet has taken its rightful revenge on its inhabitants, and there’s a genuine shitposter in the White House. Why bother rooting for something when you can root against everything? And look, I get it. […]
Aug 26, 2017; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Floyd Mayweather Jr. leaves the ring after defeating Conor McGregor (not pictured) in the tenth round during a boxing match at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
0 comments by Tim Starks
For better or worse — really, for better AND for worse — Floyd Mayweather cast a long shadow over the 2010s. This is the cultural impact of Mayweather in the decade: Among those who find him generally reprehensible, it’s easy to forget that Mayweather didn’t break all those pay-per-view buy records simply because those who […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 12/31/2019
The 1st and 12th rounds were the same, Tim Bradley in mortal danger, just about out on his feet, punching back with all his might. When the final bell rang, Ruslan Provodnikov dropped to his knees and pounded the mat in tears of rage, agony, lust, and joy. Minutes later, Bradley admitted to HBO’s Max […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain
“He’s not gettin’ up, Jim!” That’s all anyone has to say. You know what they’re talking about. In a single moment on Dec. 8, 2012, and with a single punch, Manny Pacquiao was rendered unconscious and mortal. And he was rendered so by the only man in eight years who’d managed to withstand him. The […]
iNov 2, 2019; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Canelo Alvarez (blue/green trunks) knocks out Sergey Kovalev (black/white/red trunks) during their WBO light heavyweight title bout at MGM Grand Garden Arena. Alvarez won via 11th round TKO. Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
0 comments by Jason Langendorf on 12/29/2019
Somewhere in the memory banks, wedged between a 7,000-piece Millennium Falcon LEGO set and a fuzzy “Best of Christy Canyon” VHS tape, you’ll find a yellowed paperback copy of “The Sun Also Rises” — a remnant from Mrs. Nelson’s eighth-grade English Lit class. The novel, published in 1926, chronicles a very particular time and place, […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 12/27/2019
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 Brent Hedtke
If you saw it in a movie you wouldn’t believe it. A fight with a backstory so romantically improbable that any attempt to regale a non-observer with it would immediately be met with accusations of exaggeration. Hell, I myself can no longer tell where my real memory of this wondrous night in Saitama, Japan ends […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 12/26/2019
Brutality. Finality. Significance. Those are the three criteria on which we judge knockouts. The knockout of the year is seldom the most cartoonish because, well, anyone can poleaxe a 10-17 club fighter. In fact, if you’ve made it to the upper echelons of the sport, chances are extremely high that you’ve done that a few […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 12/25/2019
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 Tim Starks on 12/24/2019
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 Brent Hedtke on 12/22/2019
“He earned it. I hate it, but he earned it.” That was a dejected Tony Harrison after his 11th round TKO loss to Jermell Charlo on Saturday night, and despite being the exact thing the judge told my ex upon granting me full custody of our Super Nintendo, this wasn’t Harrison so much squashing a […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 12/21/2019
It began with ducked drug tests and a missed weight, continued on to snow cone-colored hair and ended in a quit job that spurred the delusional crowd in Phoenix to rain beer cans down on the ring Saturday night. In other words, a Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. bout was a Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. bout. […]
0 comments by Jason Langendorf on 12/16/2019
Because the world is a straightforward, uncomplicated place and because nuance and consideration are for suckers and Democrats, it should come as no surprise that we, as an undivided boxing nation, awoke Sunday morning to yet another fully formed, collective realization: Vasiliy Lomachenko is the best fighter on the planet, and if you think otherwise […]
