“The year was 2081 and everybody was finally equal.” So begins “Harrison Bergeron,” Kurt Vonnegut’s short story about a future where anyone who has a natural gift — too attractive, too fast, too strong, too tall, too talented, too smart — any kind of natural advantage is encumbered by a physical handicap that basically erases […]

Well, who would have thought we’d have a post-fight that is more entertaining (and likely to be a lot lengthier) than the actual fight itself? Victor Ortiz and Oscar De La Hoya are demanding a rematch, while Floyd Mayweather, Jr. is rolling out the infamous fishnet stocking shots. I give Mayweather the points lead on […]

There is a certain space in boxing, inhabited only by the most transcendent talents, where the interest of fans dims in any match-up that these pugilists can feasibly make in their own division because the fights are seen as total wipe outs. That is the lonely, tormented zone in which middleweight champion Sergio Martinez resides […]

There’s Philadelphia, the historic “City of Brotherly Love,” and then there’s boxing’s Philadelphia — the city with an unquestionable penchant for producing the type of fighters that laugh off blood and smirk at guts. The industrial apathy of early 20th century Pennsylvania gifted the boxing world with one of the original “Philly fighters,” Tommy Loughran. […]

Like a surfboard with five dogs on it, this weekend’s boxing schedule is packed! Yeah, that’s a stretch – but you’ve gotta find something to head these schedules with. Anyway, to the fights, which are rather good. Sergio Martinez is taking on Darren Barker on HBO in a mismatch than nobody really cares about because […]

(Photo: Fight Camp 360, Showtime) That’s quite a “scratch” on Andre Ward’s eye, Carl Froch. it’s the kind that would make the average boxer realize why a fight might need to be postponed to Dec. 17, per a news release, which is when the finale of Showtime’s super middleweight tournament has been rescheduled. It’s especially […]

Could it be six years ago already? Six years since Bernard Hopkins turned in what many saw as half a performance against Jermain Taylor in their first bout to lose to the young Arkansan upstart and end his reign as the longest defending middleweight champion in the history of the sport? The fingers clacking on […]

If pound-for-pound lists are pointless exercises in intellectual wankery, as the current fashion in some boxing writing circles holds, then all-time ratings must be some kind of grand circle jerk. You could see both as a kind of intellectual game and interesting debate point, but what’s the fun in that? With that in mind, I […]

(Gary Sykes, left; Gary Buckland, right) SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND — Gary Sykes’s pre-fight mantra had been that “lightning wouldn’t strike twice” in his rematch with Gary Buckland, yet it was the thunder clap from the first blast which cost him his British junior lightweight crown after a pulsating rematch at the Steel City’s Ponds Forge Arena. […]

Rarely in life are we afforded the chance to revisit and then rewrite our greatest regrets. Dewsbury dynamo Gary Sykes is presented with just such an opportunity at the Ponds Forge Arena in Sheffield on Saturday evening, when he reunites with the man who knocked him senseless a little shy of a year ago. An […]

It’s a cynical world, the boxing world, where no matter how much evidence or reason there is to believe something, people go out of their way to believe the exact opposite. So when news broke that super middleweight Andre Ward had been cut in sparring and would be postponing his Super Six finale showdown with […]