Round And Round: Next For Joe Calzaghe, Yonnhy Perez, Yuriorkis Gamboa, Danny Green, Amir Khan, Fernando Guerrero And More

0 comments by Tim Starks on 6/4/2010

There’s not much Quick Jabbing material this week, other than: This interview with Virgil Hunter, the trainer of super middleweight Andre Ward (paired at right), who’s fast become one of my favorite interviews in the sport; A worthy Lou DiBella rant against the sanctioning organization that stripped his promotional charge, Sergio Martinez, of his middleweight […]

Alternate Universe: Steve Cunningham Vs. Troy Ross Preview And Prediction

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Steve Cunningham-Troy Ross Saturday in Germany is the fight of cruiserweights who would be stars. “Would be” is the key phrase. Cunningham’s Fight of the Year-caliber duel with Tomasz Adamek at the end of 2008 should have launched the charismatic ex-Marine into at least minor stardom, but the networks never took to him and promoter […]

Video Of A Round Of The Year Candidate, Round 3 Of Rocky Martinez Vs. Gonzalo Munguia

0 comments by Tim Starks on 6/3/2010

I’d been waiting to see that. Now you can too, if you haven’t already. Quite the sizzling Round 3 between these two junior lightweights, Roman Martinez and Gonzalo Munguia. As always, the clip stays up as long as YouTube lets it stay…

Show And Tell: Previews And Predictions For Miguel Cotto Vs. Yuri Foreman And Vanes Martirosyan Vs. Joe Greene

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You have to hand it to Uncle Bob on this one: The wily old promoter has taken a moderately interesting fight between a light-punching junior middleweight and a potentially war-drained welterweight and turned it into an event, a regular media sensation, even. Arum’s boxing brand of identity politics has its critics — sometimes, I’m among […]

The Rest Of The Week’s Boxing Schedule, Featuring Fight Camp 360, Friday Night Fights, Solo Boxeo And More

0 comments by Tim Starks on 6/2/2010

Tonight, Showtime will air the next episode of Fight Camp 360, its documentary-style show about its super middleweight tournament. It might be hard to top last episode, but Allan Green has a big mouth and knows how to use it to hype his bout with Andre Ward this month — the man calls his right […]

Open Thread, Up All Night Sleep All Day Edition

0 comments by Tim Starks on 6/1/2010

We begin the Open Thread earlier in the day this month, so as to allow maximum participation for our overseas friends and for those who otherwise tend not to see the Open Thread until it’s just about wound down. And the Open Thread comes even though y’all haven’t been too chatty the last week or […]

Grading The Boxing Divisions, 2010

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Ring magazine’s “The State of the Game” review came out this month, and like this annual feature I do, it examines what’s what in all of boxing’s divisions. But they complement each other, these two columns. Ring is a bit more comprehensive, but it doesn’t rank every division in order of who’s best, like I […]

Interview Tips And Techniques: A Fighter’s Guide

0 comments by Tim Starks on 5/31/2010

(“I’d like to thank God, without God none of this would have been possible.”) Malignaggi, Hamed, Tyson good. Cotto, Oscar, Lennox bad. Everything about being a prize fighter is tough, not least the part which comes directly after the fight, when an erudite guy in a penguin suit sticks a mic in your grill and […]

Weekend Afterthoughts, Featuring Vitali Klitschko Taking Forever, The Week Of Cuts, A Couple Stirring Bouts, Wilfredo Vazquez Jr.’s Talent And More

0 comments by Tim Starks on 5/30/2010

Two of my man-crushes, ESPN’s Brian Kenny and featherweight Yuriorkis Gamboa, let me down in the above video, conducted during the Friday Night Fights show. Kenny never fails to ask the most important or challenging question, but he never asked Gamboa about the opponent he was going to face this summer, Celestino Caballero, and Gamboa […]

Round And Round, Featuring Drama At Bantamweight, Featherweight, Heavyweight And More

0 comments by Tim Starks on 5/29/2010

Yesterday, I visited Goochland, Va. It’s named after Sir William Gooch, a contrast I enjoy — the dignity of “Sir William” and the 7th grade nickname quality of “Gooch.” I attended a high school graduation where the class of 2010 totaled two people. (The class of 2012 will be half that.) It was a Christian […]

Quick Jabs: Ali Funeka Gets Unluckier; The WBC Hounds Israel Vazquez; Carl Froch Imitates Andre Dirrell; More

0 comments by Tim Starks on 5/28/2010

It’s obvious Amir Khan is aiming for bigger things! (I stole that joke straight from friend of the site Irvin Ryan.) Salacious is fun, but when a model came forward nearly a month ago with allegations that the junior welterweight was sending her dirty text messages, I didn’t even blink. Hell, I didn’t even read […]

The Five Most Bescrewed Boxers In The Sport

0 comments by Tim Starks on 5/26/2010

Some boxers are luckier than others. Some are really unlucky. Maybe you don’t believe in luck. There’s a saying about how the harder you work, the better you prepare, the luckier you get, and it’s a good saying. But luck is a useful concept. There are some fighters who, no matter how hard they prepare, […]

The Week’s Boxing Schedule, Featuring Vitali Klitschko, Librado Andrade, Kassim Ouma, Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. And Others [UPDATED x2]

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After a pretty prolonged stretch of top-notch boxing, this week the sport returns to being busy but not especially top-notch. It’s not that there aren’t some good fighters in action or some decent cards, it’s just that the matches themselves don’t add up to anything as significant as Yonnhy Perez-Abner Mares or even Victor Ortiz-Nate […]

Weekend Afterthoughts: Next For Rafael Marquez, Israel Vazquez, Abner Mares, Yonnhy Perez; The Fight Of The Weekend May Have Been Between Two First-Time Pros; TQBR Prediction Game 2.0 Standings, Update #4; More

0 comments by Tim Starks on 5/25/2010

(Rafael Marquez v. Human Fountain, Saturday; Photo credit: Tom Casino, Showtime) What you see above is the gaping wound in Israel Vazquez’ face spurting blood like it came from a slit throat, a wound so horrific that some have already ranked it amongst the most graphic cuts in boxing ever. When you can more or […]

Abner Mares And Yonnhy Perez Fight To A Draw, Deliver On Fight Of The Year Promise; Rafael Marquez Delivers Israel Vazquez Into Retirement (Maybe, Hopefully)

0 comments by Tim Starks on 5/23/2010

Rafael Marquez evened the score with Israel Vazquez in their four-fight rivalry by stopping Vazquez in the 3rd round, really blowing away his shopworn nemesis who probably ought to retire now — something even his manager realized afterward. At featherweight, Vazquez was the naturally bigger man, but Marquez was sharper and busier and chopped up […]