This July is a wasteland for boxing, with only one weekend bringing a seriously sure-fire awesome fight, that being Saturday’s bantamweight bout between Vic Darchinyan and Joseph Agbeko. So naturally, that’s the weekend that gets jammed up with way too many noteworthy bouts. Sigh. Granted, July 18 was originally supposed to be one of the […]

Many of you hate Vic Darchinyan because he’s a total prick. But I can’t get enough of the bastard. He cracks me up, plus his words and deeds reveal the spirit of a true fighter. He managed to work in shades of both in this anecdote from an Eric Raskin column where he interviewed the […]

If you didn’t get a chance to see it over the July 4 weekend in Germany, you can watch the video of American heavyweight Eddie Chambers’ dominant win over Alexander Dimitrenko above and in the other six parts after the jump. Happy birthday America! Here are a few of my thoughts on it: As I’ve […]

Greetings. Welcome to the open thread, where any discussion topics, preferably but not necessarily ones with a boxing focus, are yours for the taking. (h/t Steve for reminding me, and my apologies for not doing it closer to the first of the month.) A few quick agenda items:1. It strikes me that the biggest topic […]

All right. I don’t know why it ruined my XBox 360 to put Fight Night Round 4 in it, but somehow that did the trick. I had to buy a new one (or pay $179 to fix it compared to $199 for a new one) and that’s what I’ve done. So now I’m ready to […]

It’s slow going in boxing this week, and with but one major exception and a couple minor ones, it’s slow going in boxing this month. Still, there are a few things to discuss. For instance: Eddie Chambers, at right (photo credit Jan Sanders, Goossen Tutor Promotions) put together by what all accounts was an impressive […]

Having a distaste for conspiracy theories the way I do, I bit my tongue yesterday — despite my doubts — about the official explanation given that boxing great Alexis Arguello’s demise was, apparently, a suicide. But some very, very level-headed people today are openly questioning that explanation today, wondering whether he was killed, and I […]

It was a fight Alexis Arguello lost, his tremendous 1982 Fight of the Decade with Aaron Pryor, where I first laid eyes on the man, and it was that fight that turned me into a fan. Past his prime and over his ideal weight, the boxer who was arguably the finest junior lightweight ever went […]

I don’t think I’m alone in still having all kinds of conflicted feelings about what went down this weekend, especially vis-a-vis Victor Ortiz’ Fight of the Year effort/surrender routine. There’s much I’m still processing about what went down there, plus plenty to discuss about Friday Night Fights and some other subjects I didn’t get to […]

What a stunning fight, and a stunning outcome, with a stunning aftermath. In a junior welterweight fight Saturday on HBO, Marcos Maidana stopped Victor Ortiz in a fight that had two crazy first rounds, a strange ending and a bizarre interview after with Ortiz. Ortiz’ superstar rise is definitely well off the tracks now, and […]

That right there is Mahir Oral, who’s fighting top middleweight Arthur Abraham on a fight to be broadcast on tape delay from Germany via Showtime. Besides the more compelling junior welterweight Victor Ortiz-Marcos Maidana bout on HBO, it’s the top freeish weekend broadcast. There’s also the pay-per-view headlined by junior featherweight Juan Manuel Lopez, whose […]

Tomorrow night, Olivier Lontchi (left) is the sacrificial lamb for Juan Manuel Lopez (right), a junior featherweight star with greatness written all over him. Lontchi, an unknown Canadian, at least is going to make things interesting. According to a news release the event’s promoter just sent out that was titled “Lontchi May Moonwalk Ring Entrance?”: […]

Just watch this video and try not to like Victor Ortiz. I defy you. Go for it. If that doesn’t do it for you, try this one. And that’s it. That’s the formula for any American superstar-to-be. Have a personality and/or a story. Fight well and fight in an exciting way. Early in his career, […]

Twice in the last month, a boxer has pulled out of a fight with a health issue, and a substitute has been offered so the show can go on. Twice, the healthy fighter has rejected the substitute, claiming he wasn’t prepared for the substitute’s stance. His stance. Heavyweight Nicolay Valuev had been preparing for a […]

I would say at least once a week — usually when I mention one of the Klitschko brothers or Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather, Jr. — someone takes a critical remark I’ve made, or that someone else has made in this space, and responds thusly: “You just hate boxer A because you’re racist/hate country A.” […]