0 comments by Tim Starks on 5/30/2022
Let us consider the matter of Gervonta Davis’ career, as it sits at a particular kind of crossroad: The kind where he can continue to tread water in relative safety, or takes the foundations of superstardom and builds upon them. They key word in the above sentence is “relative,” because Rolando Romero is not, as […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 1/5/2021
Welcome to The Queensberry Rules’ annual year-end boxing awards, wrapping up. 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 is […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 12/31/2020
One of the things that sucks in life, if you value intellectual honesty even one iota, is having to admit that someone you don’t like did something impressive. The more prideful and/or dickish that constitute the rest… you wonder if it burns harder for them not to admit it. Michael Jordan, for instance, for all […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 12/29/2020
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 8/26/2020
In the very best of times, we here at TQBR come together to discuss the biggest fights and argue about the current state of the sport. This year, unfortunately, has been a protracted rectal bleed of Old Testament severity. With that in mind, we stocked up on Neosporin, strapped on our Depends flex fits, and […]
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 2/9/2020
Showtime made a risky decision to headline a doubleheader with A-sides who mainly had in common that they are ultra-talented fighters who routinely disappoint us. Guillermo Rigondeaux is at times virtually unwatchable. Gary Russell Jr. can also rarely be watched, because he fights about once a year — literally so, since 2015. All in all, […]
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 Brent Hedtke on 7/14/2019
If you missed a call from an unknown number this past week, chances are good that it was Top Rank’s matchmaking department inquiring about your availability to fight Shakur Stevenson Saturday night. In the month leading up to the fight, one opponent after another fell through as Stevenson’s team discovered they weren’t either a woman […]
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 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 Matthew Swain on 6/13/2018
Boxing is full of mind games. Many times they are positive and necessary. Think of a trainer subtley tweaking a fighter’s insecurities to motivate them. Many times they are just necessary, as when fighters fuck with each other before a bout. Most of the time, though, they are tedious and obvious, and we as the […]
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 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 […]
