Carl Frampton and Leo Santa Cruz during the XX round of their WBA featherweight title fight at MGM Grand Garden Arena on January 28, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Leo Santa Cruz Avenges Carl Frampton Loss, Demonstrates New Dimensions

Between their two fights, and within them, Leo Santa Cruz vs Carl Frampton has been like a goddam lava lamp, shifting, evolving, never settling on one hard shape. In their excellent rematch Saturday on Showtime, it was Santa Cruz who showed the newest dimensions, and he won, barely, and justly. Watching these two men feed off […]

LAS VEGAS, NV – JANUARY 28: Referee Tony Weeks directs Mikey Garcia (R) to a neutral corner after he knocked out Dejan Zlaticanin in the third round of their WBC lightweight title fight at MGM Grand Garden Arena on January 28, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Mikey Garcia Reminds Us, Brutally, Of His Excellence

Before a two-year-plus layoff, Mikey Garcia showed he was a brilliant all-around fighter, capable of outboxing you, helping you catch some Zs or both in the same night. Guess what? He’s still that guy. Taking on the #2 man in the lightweight division after just one rust-shedding bout, Garcia scored what will be hard to […]

Carl Frampton, Francisco Vargas And The Rest Of The Week’s Boxing Schedule

So far, so good for 2017 in boxing, eh? Got us feeling like Scrooge McDuck this weekend. Carl Frampton vs Leo Santa Cruz II, Saturday, Showtime, Las Vegas. Showtime’s hot streak of great match-ups continues with a re-pairing of two men who shared the ring for a Fight of the Year-caliber bout. Frampton won the […]

The Liver Punch: Falling Down The Rabbit Hole

Embarrassingly, I spent last Friday night watching Yuri Foreman get knocked out by Erislandy Lara. The fight was terrible, and the knockout punch was sneaky good, but nothing like the destructive mesmerization I seek. Normally I’d forget that I’d been foolish enough to watch it and move on with my life, but over the weekend, […]

LAS VEGAS, NV – NOVEMBER 05: Manny Pacquiao stands in the croner during his WBO welterweight championship fight against Jessie Vargas at the Thomas & Mack Center on November 5, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Pound-For-Pound Top 20 Boxers Update, 12/16

Yeah, yeah, it’s “technically” not 2016 anymore, but this serves as the year-end list, mofos. We’ve got a lot of changes since the last update a couple months back, given some un-retirements and big fights that closed out the year. As always, the main standard is quality wins, especially of recent vintage. The eyeball test […]

NEW YORK, NY – JULY 30: Leo Santa Cruz of Mexico (gold trunks) fights Carl Frampton of Northern Ireland (blue trunks) during their 12 round WBA Super featherweight championship bout at Barclays Center on July 30, 2016 in the Brooklyn borough in New York City. (Photo by Anthony Geathers/Getty Images)

2016 Fighter Of The Year: Carl Frampton

A Jackal is a wild dog. They look a little differently, and they sound a little differently than the dogs we know, but that’s what they are. They’re opportunists who kill when they must and steal when they can. They work as a team. They are the the kind of creature that we hate to […]

at StubHub Center on June 4, 2016 in Carson, California.

2016 Fight Of The Year: Francisco Vargas Vs Orlando Salido

Crown him: Orlando Salido is THE boxing action hero of his time. From 2011 to 2016, he’s waged war in a whopping six Fight of the Year candidates. The workmanlike Mexican — he moonlights as an Uber driver — secretes grit. And no one alive gives a damn that his record is 43-14-4. When he […]

2016 Fighter Of The Year Nominees

Welcome to The Queensberry Rules’ annual year-end boxing awards, continuing throughout this week. Here’s how we do it around these parts: The major categories are Knockout of the Year, Round of the Year, Fight of the Year and Fighter of the Year. The final leg, which will finish after, is a pu-pu platter of awards ranging […]

2016 Round Of The Year: Hozumi Hasegawa Vs Hugo Ruiz, Round 9

Every fight tells a story. The more complex the tale, the more interesting each round becomes, a new chapter that propels the riveting narrative. Sometimes, as with Hozumi Hasegawa vs Hugo Ruiz this fall, the story mirrors the hero’s entire career arc. And even more rarely, an individual round reflects that story in microcosm, like a […]

2016 Fight Of The Year Nominees

Welcome to The Queensberry Rules’ annual year-end boxing awards, continuing throughout this week. Here’s how we do it around these parts: The major categories are Knockout of the Year, Round of the Year, Fight of the Year and Fighter of the Year. The final leg, which will finish after, is a pu-pu platter of awards ranging […]

NEW YORK, NY – JUNE 11: Roman Martinez watches as Vasyl Lomachenko does a backflip after knocking Martinez out during the fifth round of their Junior Lightweight WBO World Championship bout on June 11, 2016 at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images)

2016 Knockout Of The Year: Vasyl Lomachenko Vs Roman Martinez

It’s fitting that discourse surrounding Vasyl Lomachenko ranges between extremes. Criticism is often speculative — sometimes wholly unfounded — and the praise can be hyperbolic to the point of absurdity. Similarly, the two-time Olympic gold medalist has not only faced extraordinarily lofty expectations, but also smashed them at an unprecedented pace. What’s more, the 28-year-old […]

2016 Round Of The Year Nominees

Welcome to The Queensberry Rules’ annual year-end boxing awards, continuing throughout this week. Here’s how we do it around these parts: The major categories are Knockout of the Year, Round of the Year, Fight of the Year and Fighter of the Year. The final leg, which will finish after, is a pu-pu platter of awards ranging […]

2016 Knockout Of The Year Nominees

Welcome to The Queensberry Rules’ annual year-end boxing awards, beginning this week. Here’s how we do it around these parts: The major categories are Knockout of the Year, Round of the Year, Fight of the Year and Fighter of the Year. The final leg, which will finish after, is a pu-pu platter of awards ranging from […]

The Curious Case Of Artur Beterbiev

Artur Beterbiev on Friday put on a display of power punching en route to a 1st round knockout, showcasing what has made him such a potential player in the light heavyweight division. The keyword, there, is “potential.” And sadly, he has fallen into a netherworld from whence his escape is unclear. Isidro Prieto didn’t have […]

Naoya Inoue And The Rest Of The Year’s Boxing Schedule

We’ve only got one week boxing left in 2016, and only one fight of note this weekend. So let’s gather up one large stone, and pelt a couple birds with it, crushing them brutally beneath it with one monumental feather-and-blood-spurting boulder. Naoya Inoue vs Kohei Kono, next Friday, Tokyo. The Japanese really do love packing […]

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