In many ways, the last few weeks have been somewhat of a throwback: a bombastic homage to a time when, somewhat apocryphally perhaps, top fighters were matched with their fiercest rivals and fans could expect to see the best facing off against the best with brutal regularity. Floyd Mayweather’s decision to take on arguably his toughest […]

  Okay, that’s a lie. Summer is technically already here. And while boxing has no official “season,” the upcoming schedule makes it clear that 2013 will be closing out with much more bang than whimper. It’s nothing to lose your head over, though, Ned. This week on Queensberry Rules Radio,

(Mickey Bey, left, and John Molina, right, at the weigh-in; credit: Tom Casino, Showtime) John Molina was fighting a horrible 10th round on ShoBox Friday night, walking forward aimlessly, not throwing many punches in a replication of what he'd done wrong in earlier rounds, getting pounded by Mickey Bey to the point that it looked […]

From the outset, the audio and visual components of "The Good Son," a documentary about Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini, are bracing. Here we have the story of a working class Youngstown, Ohio hero, and the soundtrack is smooth brass with spacey hip-hop beats like you'd encounter in a lower Manhattan lounge on a Thursday night, […]

(Lucas Matthysse, left, Danny Garcia, right; via) In an ideal world, it wouldn't be so flabbergasting. But this isn't an ideal world. And the Showtime pay-per-view boxing card Sept. 14 that gives fans two of the best fights in the sport on one night is downright astonishing. On Thursday, Golden Boy Promotions announced that Lucas […]

Sometimes being a boxing fan is like being a pizza enthusiast. Once in a while you’ll get an amazing pizza, but even an average pizza is still, y’know, pizza. That’s what this week is like. There’s nothing superlative, but there’s cheese and sauce and it’s all pretty good. Are you getting this extended metaphor? I […]

(Edwin Rodriguez raises his arms in victory after defeating Denis Grachev quickly; photo credit: Ed Mulholland/USA Today Sports) Adventure, excitement… A jedi might crave not those things, but boxing fans do. Unfortunately this July hasn’t quite been the month to provide said adventues or excitement — at least not on a very high level, for […]

After an 11-day trip to Japan, I've returned from the East, where I saw no sign of Takashi Uchiyama or Hozumi Hasegawa but got an eyeful of sumo. First off, it was way cool. But witnessing a combat sport about which I knew very little got me to comparing it to boxing. In sumo wrestling, […]

(Kell Brook, right, pounds Carson Jones) Kell Brook beat the living daylights out of rock-solid Carson Jones at Hull’s Craven Park on Saturday. The Sheffield marksman, 27, pounded the indomitable visitor with piercing jabs and chopping right hands that repeatedly span the American’s head around as though it were fixed to a swivel. Somehow, Jones, […]

(Left to right: Luke Campbell, Kell Brook and Tommy Coyle) Olympic gold medalist Luke Campbell makes his professional debut on Saturday at the home of Hull Kingston Rovers on Humberside. Kell Brook, 29-0 (17), and Carson Jones, 35-9-3 (25), headline alongside him while Lee Selby, Rocky Fielding, Anthony Ogogo, Curtis Woodhouse and John Ryder add padding to […]

High drama is built into boxing, so it’s hardly surprising that the sweet science has had a long and profitable association with documentary film. We’re not talking about the boxing infomercials you see on cable television, either (though they are strangely mesmerising). Leon Gast’s Academy Award winning When We Were Kings is the most obvious specimen […]

For a sport ensconced in the visceral, bound up with the most primitive forms of human interaction, professional prizefighting comes with a surprisingly lengthy set of criteria for those wishing to get ahead. Its participants are tacitly expected to tick a range of boxes if they are to succeed, with the chosen few ushered smoothly […]