0 comments by Tim Starks on 8/16/2011
If you enjoy watching men being punched in the nards a la the television program “Ow, My Balls,” that’s the video for you. Yes yes, it was another of those kinds of weekends in boxing — the kind where good things happened, but controversy ruled. Every year, I’ve noticed, the sport seems to go through […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 8/14/2011
Teon Kennedy (17-1-1) failed to impress in Atlantic City tonight, turning in a pedestrian effort in losing to Alejandro Lopez (22-2) by unanimous decision in their junior featherweight bout. Kennedy, who finished the fight with his right eye closed and badly cut, had no answers for Lopez’ hard, straight punches and could not cut the […]
0 comments by Tim Starks
(Joseph Agbeko reacts to a low blow; photo: Tom Casino, Showtime) In the championship fight of the Showtime Bantamweight Tournament at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, a close, action-packed, and interesting fight between Abner Mares and Joseph Agbeko was overshadowed by a terrible performance from referee Russell Mora, who failed to […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 8/13/2011
Kermit Cintron has had some kind of psychedelic career, so when a fight against Antwone Smith that most scored as a close contest turned out to be a wide decision victory according to two of three judges, it barely was a blip of weirdness. There was something so routine about the weirdness of Cintron’s win […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 8/12/2011
Wonder how toe thumbs affect one’s boxing abilities. (via) Quick Jabs. You know the drill. We got the stuff in the headline, some boxers moving around from promoter to promoter, scandals from two summers ago getting revived and yet more. Quick Jabs It’s very cool for boxing and all that CNN (per a news release) […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 8/11/2011
For pound-for-pound list compilation, there are two competing standards at infinite war with one another, a bloody conflict that is more important than World War I and World War II combined: 1. an assessment of each boxer’s achievements in the ring; and 2. the “eyeball test.” I’m in the first camp. It often puts me […]
0 comments by Alex McClintock on 8/10/2011
Besides the bantamweight tournament finale freshly previewed below, there are indeed a couple other worthy bouts happening this week, one of them worthy enough for our Alex McClintock to go cover it live and in person. This is how it do: Kermit Cintron vs. Antwone Smith, Friday, ESPN2 et al, St. Charles Mo. Someday, somebody […]
0 comments by Tim Starks
Although Showtime’s bantamweight tournament has advanced on a heavily truncated schedule compared to the network’s super middleweight tournament, it sure is hard to remember how it all started off on such rocky footing not so long ago. Nonito Donaire and Fernando Montiel, the two biggest names in the division, refused to enter, causing some to […]
0 comments by Tim Starks
(Top Rank’s Bob Arum, left, and Golden Boy’s Oscar De La Hoya, right, neither strangling one another nor teaming up to destroy boxing.) It was only a few months ago that boxing’s two biggest promoters, Top Rank and Golden Boy, were doing just about everything they could to micturate on boxing fans or would-be boxing […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 8/9/2011
Inspired by Tim’s recent posts regarding the good, bad, and (mostly) ugly of the sanctioning organization titles, I decided to take a closer look at the one generally agreed upon shining beacon in the foul blackness that is the boxing championship scene – the Ring Magazine championship. In general, the boxing media and hardcore fans […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 8/5/2011
Welcome to the second and final installment of our examination of the alphabet title belt phenomenon. Last time, we took a magnifying glass to the question of whether the alphabet belts offered by the WBC, IBF et al should be ignored altogether. (My answer: Yes. Well, at least, after this post.) This time, we take […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 8/4/2011
When you think about light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins, the first phrase that comes to mind is, no doubt, “fashion model.” He’s such a pretty boy, that one. So naturally he — along with junior welterweight Amir Khan and amateur standout Roberto Cammarelle — is now modeling Prada sunglasses. Usually, as Don Steinberg
0 comments by Tim Starks on 8/3/2011
Occasioned by the WBC’s contemptible decision to strip Timothy Bradley of his junior welterweight belt and award it to the winner of Erik Morales and Jorge Barrios (who isn’t ranked anywhere by the WBC in any division), this week began with any number of writers weighing in on whether the alphabet title gang ought to […]
0 comments by Alex McClintock
The biggest boxing card of the weekend is the one that isn’t happening. Three cheers for the sport of boxing in August… Not-Kelly Pavlik vs. Darryl Cunningham, Not-Saturday, Not-Showtime, Not-Youngstown Ohio. Either Kelly “The Ghost” Pavlik doesn’t have interest in boxing anymore, or he’s still on the sauce, or he’s just flat crazy for some […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 8/2/2011
Think of Open Thread like your neighborhood bar on St. Patrick’s Day. Of course there’s going to be an Irish theme and Irish music — in the metaphor, the parallel is a boxing backdrop — but no topic is off limits. Maybe you talk boxing, maybe you don’t. Either way, I say to you: Get […]
