Promoter Frank Warren called it the best heavyweight fight he’d seen in past 15 years. I don’t know about that, but the highlights of Martin Rogan against Matt Skelton last weekend in the U.K. sure are nice. Good upset and back story, too. (h/t BLH)

New Mike Tyson Documentary Features Exclusive Interviews With Super Macho Man, King Hippo Fun.

I always root for the gravely injured boxer to get better, as I did for welterweight Oscar Diaz, who collapsed during a July appearance on ESPN2′s Friday Night Fights and went into a coma. But I also root — if not in the same proportion — for the boxer who did the damage, in this […]

James Kirkland, left; Joel Julio, right. (Photo splice taken from myboxingnework.com) Nothing like a good fight to turn one bullish on The State Of Boxing Today. What spate of fight cancellations? I don’t remember them. And there’s nothing like the potential of back-to-back Fight of the Year candidates on consecutive weekends to transform Wednesday, when […]

To say fans of pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao have had a love-hate relationship with me is an understatement. They’ve called me the greatest boxing writer of all time and they’ve called me a baby killer. I frequently engage them in arguments in the comments sections of this blog, but over time, I’ve found I have […]

We’re back with our second open thread. Because the first one went as well as it did, I figure we’ll go once a month, around the first of each month. I want to encourage freewheeling discussion. People should feel free to bring up whatever they want, and everyone should feel free to respond. But just […]

There has been a fair amount of moving and shaking in early 2009 amid The Queensberry Rules’ pound-for-pound rankings, but I haven’t posted a full update since December. There was Shane Mosley-Antonio Margarito and its subsequent fallout. And Vic Darchinyan-Jorge Arce. And Tomasz Adamek-Johnathon Banks. Also, Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez reaching the one year […]

Maybe you like your “chasing the white whale”-style quotes to come from the original Moby Dick. I’m no Trekkie, but that Wrath of Khan is a good flick. Either way, the “hell’s heart” quote is appropriate for lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez: He will chase rival Manny Pacquiao, the only man who can stake a […]

Move Juan Manuel Marquez-Juan Diaz to the front of the line for best fight of 2009. The great Marquez, the lightweight champion of the world, was getting beaten early on by the #1 challenger in the division, as Diaz dragged Marquez into his ultra-kinetic fight, and it didn’t look good for the second best boxer […]

Per a news release I just got, the WBA has installed John Ruiz (photo: right) as the mandatory challenger to the winner of its heavyweight title fight between Ruslan Chagaev and Nicolay Valuev (photo: left). That means we could end up with Valuev-Ruiz III, if Valuev beats Chagaev. Since the first bout only happened because […]

So young Johnathon Banks wasn’t so evidently doomed as I imagined. Fighting the cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek, Banks had scads of nice moments, landing huge right hands and left hooks that at times dealt surprising hurt to Adamek’s chops. Most cruiserweights get knocked out by those shots. Adamek is an altogether different kind of boxer. […]

This week, lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez declared that his fight Saturday night on HBO against Juan Diaz would be “complicated” and “violent.” I don’t know that he could have picked two adjectives that, taken together, better summarize what I love about the sweet science. That a complicated and violent fight is expected to break […]

Remember that one last feature I was talking about adding to the new, improved Queensberry Rules? I’m jumping the gun a little. You can now read my instant, short (140-character maximum) takes on developments in the boxing world on Twitter. Just go to

A sequence of explosive lefts and rights from cruiserweight Troy Ross in the 4th left Ehinomen Ehikhamenor (“Hino”) with his back turned and his chin draped over the top rope like it was his security blanket and he was going to sleep. When the referee stopped the fight, Ross became the champion of “The Contender” […]

I’m about to reverse myself, or appear to, on all kinds of things about this cruiserweight championship fight between divisional king Tomasz Adamek and challenger Johnathon Banks Friday night on Showtime: I know I said earlier this week that I expected this to be an excellent fight. I’m no longer convinced it will rise to […]