0 comments by Jason Langendorf on 1/3/2021
When Daigo Higa emptied the contents of Yuki Strong Kobayashi’s face onto the ring canvas of Tokyo’s Ota-City General Gymnasium around suppertime, Japan Standard Time, on New Year’s Eve, I was still rubbing the sleep out of my eyes amid the glow of a flatscreen in Midwest suburbia. Nothing about the moment, neither the act […]
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 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 Matthew Swain on 8/26/2019
Kosei Tanaka defended his flyweight strap by an exciting stoppage again, defeating Jonathan Gonzalez. Tanaka went through several rough patches during the fight but rallied. Do you think it’s a matter of him fighting down to a level of his opponent, his own ceiling, or something else? And with talk of him moving up in […]
0 comments by Jason Langendorf on 1/4/2019
Perched on a stool in the kitchen of my parents’ ranch home, I was back in the middle of farm country for a family gathering — and therefore mainlining Bacardi Black — when my mother spoke up. Trusted arbiter of music culture that she is, mom couldn’t contain her excitement describing a new artist that […]
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 Tim Starks on 12/23/2016
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 […]
