0 comments by Jason Langendorf on 8/17/2020
Even in the age of social distancing, you can scarcely swing a dead cat without hitting a boxer who doesn’t have a little resentment coming to him. Fighters are hard men with pocked histories. Boxing is known for its boozers, gamblers, junkies, abusers and general dirtbaggery. Self-promotion too often falls somewhere on the spectrum between […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 9/12/2019
Few things in boxing inspire as much bile by their mere existence — or each list’s ability to inspire derision because of how obviously stupid its author is — as the mythical pound-for-pound list. That’s part of what makes them so delicious. The lists do possess a certain value, though, even the most obviously awful […]
0 comments by Jason Langendorf on 5/19/2019
Are we sure this kid isn’t Kazakh? The thought dawned on me the first time watching Naoya Inoue. It might have been his swarming stoppage of Adrian Hernandez to win a junior flyweight title. Or maybe when he hopped a weight class to turn Omar Narvaez’s liver into pâté and swipe his belt. Could have […]
0 comments by Jason Langendorf on 12/23/2018
Win the Powerball once, you’re a lucky bastard. Hit it twice? Now you must be up to something. And that’s why, on Saturday in Manchester, it was clear to anyone who’d been paying attention that Josh Warrington didn’t beat the odds. He’d rigged the game. Back in May, Warrington was the irresistible underdog, the locals’ […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 6/9/2018
Leo Santa Cruz had moved beyond it, this Abner Mares rematch Saturday on Showtime. Mares had done almost nothing to earn the do-over, while Santa Cruz had beaten a better fighter in Carl Frampton. You know what, though? The second time around was arguably better than the first, which ended with the same victor: Santa […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 3/9/2018
How do you say, “Hadouken!” in Cat? Anyone know? At any rate, we find ourselves with a stacked weekend, and not for the first time this year. 2018 is turning out quite nicely thus far. Let’s hope it continues unabated. Julius Indongo vs Regis Prograis. Friday, Showtime, 10 p.m. EST, Deadwood, S.D. Indongo (22-1, 11 KO) […]
0 comments by Brent Hedtke on 1/29/2018
Shortly before his death in 2011, Christopher Hitchens said of his impending mortality, “It will happen to all of us, that at some point you get tapped on the shoulder and told, not just that the party’s over, but slightly worse: the party’s going on — but you have to leave. And it’s going on […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 12/24/2017
It’s been a long time since we’ve done this, so, wow, have things changed a bunch. Beyond just a thinking and debating exercise, pound-for-pound lists have some value for a number of reasons. For one, a lot of fighters aspire to the greatness a consensus pound-for-pound king-dom symbolizes. For another, it’s a good snapshot at […]
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.
0 comments by Tim Starks on 1/29/2017
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 […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 1/27/2017
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 […]
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)
0 comments by Tim Starks on 1/1/2017
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)
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 12/30/2016
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 […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 12/29/2016
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 […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 12/28/2016
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 […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 12/27/2016
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 […]
