For at least a year, Antonio Margarito — a man who had become among the handful of the very best boxers in the world and a major attraction in the sport — will not be able to fight in California and therefore the entire United States, the result of a California Athletic Commission decision to […]

[Update below: The L.A. Times is reporting on what’s happening at the hearing as we speak. It’s getting bad in there.] Two indicators of the way things will be presented by Antonio Margarito’s team at today’s California State Athletic Commission hearing RE: his allegedly loaded gloves. First, promoter Bob Arum: Arum contends Margarito did not […]

Joe Calzaghe’s retirement should bring his relinquishing of the Ring magazine title belt at light heavyweight, with the Ring belt being the one title that matters most because it traces its lineage back to the days when there was only one champion in each division.* Unfortunately, it’ll be one more vacancy in a list of […]

Above is the conclusion to the flyweight (112 lbs.) battle between Omar Narvaez and Rayonta Whitfield. With the win, Narvaez broke the record for title defenses by an Argentinian previously held by the great Carlos Monzon. Let’s weigh the relative value of that, and revisit all of the jam-packed weekend’s action, in roughly chronological order. […]

The first couple rounds, it looked like it was going to be an easy night for Vic Darchinyan. Then in the 3rd round, Jorge Arce looked like he might, after all, give his fellow power puncher but better boxer a handful. But it didn’t take long for Darchinyan to take back over, and by the […]

In my excitement over Vic Darchinyan-Jorge Arce (I was part of a Showtime poll on the fight, the results of which you can read here) and a couple other fights I already mentioned, I left out a few noteworthy fights this weekend. I like super middleweight (168 lbs.) Andre Ward, so it’s crazy that I […]

(Arce, left; Darchinyan, sitting. Tom Casino/Showtime) Saturday night delivers the first surefire action brawl of 2009, which is not to say that a couple other bouts, like Andre Berto-Luis Collazo, haven’t surprised in how they turned unexpectedly into action brawls. Vic Darchinyan-Jorge Arce? That’s the kind of fight where the surprise would be if it […]

After thinking it over for a few months, Joe Calzaghe is calling it quits. It’s easy to have some hard feelings toward Joe if you’re a boxing fan these days, since the last taste he left in our mouths was a pronouncement that the sport was “dying,” when in fact it’s on more of an […]

February feels like the hardcore boxing fan’s month. Every weekend, it’s one or more bouts that are almost certain to dispense with the pretty stuff and turn into a brawl, from Saturday’s junior bantamweight (115 lbs.) battle between Jorge Arce and Vic Darchinyan to Feb. 28’s lightweight (135 lbs.) fight between champion Juan Manuel Marquez […]

At least 50% of the awesomeness of this Saturday’s bout pitting Vic Darchinyan against Jorge Arce has been the pre-fight trash talk. And while it’s not that Arce hasn’t had plenty interesting to say — “When I am cut, I am content. My blood pleases me” — Darchinyan has spit out so many nasty things […]

Quickly, a look at some boxing results from this week besides the Friday Night Fights show: Everything about the above video is just kind of strange. Why was Marco Antonio Barrera taking a tune-up fight before what was likely to be a big-money U.K. showdown with lightweight (135 lbs.) Amir Khan in March? He had […]

…I have two pieces of recommended reading. A. Donald Tremblay, the universally respected former PR man for promoter Main Events, is doing some freelance writing these days, and this piece, at Ring magazine’s site, is a doozy. It’s all about the 2000 Ali Act that was supposed to protect fighters, and saying much more gets […]

ESPN2 aired a top-notch match-up Friday night, and although it ended up not so close on the scorecards, it was a bout with stretches of competitiveness. Juan Urango grabbed a junior welterweight (140 lbs.) title belt by beating Montreal hometown favorite Herman Ngoudjo, and despite some protesting of the scores by the “Friday Night Fights” […]

I defended Kelly Pavlik after his loss to Bernard Hopkins from idiotic remarks that he had been “exposed,” as if his entire career up to that point was fraudulent and it took B-Hop to reveal the truth that he sucked. But I think Pavlik and his crew are missing an opportunity to turn Pavlik into […]

The California State Athletic Commission has temporarily suspended welterweight (147 lbs.) Antonio Margarito and his trainer over those controversial hand wraps that were discovered before Margarito went on to fight and lose to Shane Mosley this weekend. The press release is here. By my read, it looks to be fairly standard procedure for state commissions […]