0 comments by Matthew Swain on 12/31/2019
The 1st and 12th rounds were the same, Tim Bradley in mortal danger, just about out on his feet, punching back with all his might. When the final bell rang, Ruslan Provodnikov dropped to his knees and pounded the mat in tears of rage, agony, lust, and joy. Minutes later, Bradley admitted to HBO’s Max […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 12/25/2019
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, Fight of the Year and Fighter of the Year. For each category, we give five finalists, with video and/or relevant info. On the second day after a category […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 7/16/2019
July kind of drags. For most of us, it’s hotter than Satan’s taint, and everything tends to find itself in a bit of a holding pattern. Typically there aren’t a lot of fight cards either. So, in what has been a surprisingly entertaining year to date, now feels like the exact right time to take […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 5/13/2019
It’s Monday, boys and girls. So you know what that means: TQBR group therapy. This is a safe space in which Jason and Tim help Brent and I fulfill our court-mandated counseling sessions. We reveal our deepest insecurities, talk about our feelings, and bat opinions back and forth about the previous weekend’s boxing matches. Some […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain
Faith, we’re often assured, is one of the greatest gifts to mankind. It provides comfort in dark moments and gives its bearers a sense that there is some plan. Without it, the chaos of the universe would be too much to endure, and that deep chasm of meaninglessness would overcome even the strongest soul. Most […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 12/11/2017
The cult of Guillermo Rigondeaux is small, but as the term “cult” might suggest, it’s pretty devoted. It’s had to live underground with Rigo’s long career hibernation that dates back to 2013, the year of his one and only major win against Nonito Donaire, with only the occasional decent win since. If the cultists have […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 1/29/2017
Action heroes are special. There are precious few of them in any generation. We like to pretend that every fight was an event, but mostly they are like any other fighter except for a few great nights. Mickey Ward was in his share of dreck fights. So was Arturo Gatti. We aren’t supposed to say […]
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 […]
at StubHub Center on June 4, 2016 in Carson, California.
0 comments by Tim Starks on 12/30/2016
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 […]
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 […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 11/27/2016
A super-exciting matchup we’d waited for forever turned into a mismatch followed by a quit job of epic proportions on HBO Saturday night, as Vasyl Lomachenko outclassed a toilet paper-soft Nicholas Walters to force Walters to give an actual “no mas.” This was honestly one of the best couple pairings that could be made in […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 8/3/2016
For A.M. Life is a series of tragedies. The things we love have a habit of disappointing us in the same way that the people we love do. They’re simply not what we hope they are. Mostly they are best they can be, no matter how much we wish it was otherwise. Anytime this happens, […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 6/5/2016
We finally got a great fight in 2016. We were well overdue, and it was worth the wait. Francisco Vargas and Orlando Salido fought to a draw in the kind of bout where hardly anyone cared what the scorecards read: We witnessed, on HBO Saturday night, the best the sport has to offer. Two men […]
0 comments by Alex McClintock on 6/2/2016
If you’re a boxing fan you know where it’s at this weekend: Francisco Vargas vs Orlando Salido on HBO. Everything else seems a little underwhelming by comparison. Francisco Vargas vs Orlando Salido, Saturday, HBO, Carson Calif. In what seems to be a surefire fight of the year candidate, rugged Mexican junior lightweight Vargas takes on […]
GENERAL SANTOS, PHILIPPINES – JANUARY 28: Manny Pacquiao trains at Pedro Acharon Sports Complex on January 28, 2016 in General Santos, Philippines. Pacquiao faces Timothy Bradley in the world welterweight championship bout at the MGM Grand casino on April 9 in Las Vegas. (Photo by Jeoffrey Maitem/Getty Images)
0 comments by Tim Starks on 2/21/2016
There are a couple remarkable things about Manny Pacquiao’s recent remarks on homosexuality. His views in opposition to gay marriage were already well-known; that’s not new, and it’s not cool, nor has it ever been. No, what’s remarkable is the virulent nature of how he’s expressed those views lately, and how unrelenting he has been in […]
