0 comments by Matthew Swain on 9/28/2018
Yesterday afternoon HBO announced that after 45 years, they are getting out of boxing at the end of October. It seemed an ignominious death rattle for the sport’s marquee platform, but in many ways is a relief for those of us who grew into our fandom watching the network. There will doubtless be glowing eulogies […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 2/21/2018
My undergraduate mentor always starts a piece of advice with, “My boy…” I’m 35 and he still does it. He spoke to me that way when I was a precocious 18 year old hell bent on fucking up his own life. He said it to me when I was a driven, if utterly directionless, 23 […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 4/20/2015
There was literally a huge variety of photos and moments that could have been used to represent all that happened last weekend in boxing: aesthetically pleasing and gratifying, moving and even regrettable. But the photo above — of Lucas Matthysse’s fist after punching Ruslan Provodnikov for over a half-hour — serves as a reminder of […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 4/18/2015
Upon Lucas Matthysse vs. Ruslan Provodnikov being so much as suggested, particularly sadistic corners of the pugilistic realm rubbed their hands together, greedily anticipating the carnage. When the fight was officially announced, the boxing world collectively stated, “Count me in.” Both Matthysse and Provodnikov are feeling the effect of that welcome, presently. The strength and […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 4/14/2015
Word on the (absence of) street is that hole in the space-time continuum up there used to be the building where Lucas Matthysse and Ruslan Provodnikov signed their contracts to fight one another. It cannot be confirmed, however, as the Hounds of Hell now guard the area, per the instructions of Momma Provodnikov. More seriously, […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 3/17/2015
If ever there were a need to tranquilize a beast before it got out of hand, now might be that moment — before Sergey Kovalev becomes self-aware and develops wings or something. Hyperbole aside, after bashing Jean Pascal on the latter’s side of the playground, one fighter stands between Kovalev and supremacy at light heavyweight: […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 3/9/2015
[UPDATED] Boxing returned to network television this past weekend, and everyone lived. There were no international incidents, no epiphanic guarantees of boxing’s survival, Casey Ryback didn’t need to be called… It was just boxing. Sure, there were things people didn’t seem to like (Hint:
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 2/23/2015
By now, everyone knows that Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao is on for May 2. And by “everyone,” we do mean everyone. The issue, of course, is a signed fight takes away an easy scapegoat when pointing a finger at all of boxing’s ills. But you know what they say about haters and their natural […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 2/16/2015
There’s no better way to make your winter more Mexican than adding a little Gennady Golovkin to it. Well, there might be a few better ways, but they aren’t as likely to hatchet some brains cells before a charmingly eccentric post-fight interview, anyway. If you like fight, then Golovkinville is where you’re buying your 22-acre […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 1/26/2015
In boxing, even sure things aren’t sure things. The idea that Brandon Rios’ bludgeoning style would match well again with Alvarado’s boxer-puncher (with emphasis on the puncher) style for a third time was a certainty. And maybe it would have, if not for Alvarado’s tendency to err on the side of erring, but the Denver […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 1/25/2015
The first time Brandon Rios and Mike Alvarado declared war on each other they embraced the messy tenets of inside battle and let the tea leaves dictate who won; it was Rios. The second time, Alvarado climbed the walls in Las Vegas, just barely escaping ruin to out-distance the gritty brawler. And this time, whatever series of […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 1/23/2015
“I read that Martin Luther King said, ‘A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.’ I was like, dang. You know, I would die for boxing. I know that’s dumb. You’ll say, ‘You got your kids — your family.’ I know. But still, you died fighting. Jermain Taylor is a boxer.” […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 1/19/2015
It’s true that boxing has a funny way of bonding two men who steal life from one another inside of a square ring, but even so, sometimes a pair of fighters compliment one another so well when the action begins, that the rest doesn’t matter. You’d think two fiery characters like Brandon Rios and Mike […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 12/15/2014
Boxing doesn’t know exactly where “across the street” is, apparently (photo via). But oddly enough, its two major network players, HBO and Showtime, seem to excel in scheduling shows across the street from one another. It was the last fight weekend of a particularly weak 2014 in boxing, so it was fitting that well over […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 12/8/2014
If the pissing contest between HBO and Showtime’s boxing departments could accurately be depicted through the magic of cartoon satire, it would look just like the old Spy vs. Spy series from Mad Magazine (via). While more boxing is usually a good thing, and while healthy competition tends to squeeze blood from the figurative stone, […]
