0 comments by Andy Ryan on 8/23/2015
Sports Illustrated asked me to cover the post fight activities – how the winner would spend the evening – which I expected would involve following Muhammad Ali around on a hectic evening of celebration. George Plimpton had expected a party. Sports Illustrated had asked him to cover Muhammad Ali’s celebrations after his March 1971 fight […]
0 comments by Kevin Canfield on 6/23/2015
Mark Kram worked for Sports Illustrated for 13 years, and for a good chunk of that time he was the magazine’s ace boxing writer, a coveted perch from which he penned a series of evocative, irreverent and generally superb pieces about the heavyweight wars of the 1970s. To be sure, he had lots of compelling […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 5/3/2015
The big fight Saturday, in the end, wasn’t a riveting masterpiece of blood-spattering havoc. Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao, did not, in the minds of many, match the hype. It was “boring,” so many said. Mayweather only ran away — he took no risks, was even a coward, and Pacquiao didn’t even try, and this “Fight of […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 4/30/2015
Depending on whom you ask, this is the biggest fight since Marvin Hagler-Sugar Ray Leonard or Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier. I’m not quite sure where it ranks on a biggest fights list, but Mayweather vs Pacquiao damn sure the biggest fight of this young century. The two best fighters of their generation are finally facing each […]
0 comments by Sam Sheppard on 4/29/2015
A common aphorism around professional prizefighting states it is nothing more than a means to an end. Boxing as a career, rather than mere spectacle, is a route out of poverty and societal neglect open to those willing to offer up a grizzled part of themselves. In times of great hardship, so the greatest fighters […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 4/3/2015
Read this story about the last man to beat Floyd Mayweather (no, not Jose Luis Castillo — ZING) and weep. It’s a great, tragic tale about Serafim Todorov. Then, read up below for some thoughts on the latest Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao news, with some brief accompanying analytical thoughts. (Some of them, among other topics, […]
0 comments by Andy Ryan on 10/2/2014
“That crazy bastard didn’t even know who I was when I met him in Chicago. I made a GODDAMN FOOL OF MYSELF, Harold!” It is disappointing to travel 2,000 miles to meet an interviewee who has no idea who you are. Hunter S. Thompson had dashed from Colorado to Chicago on the promise of interviewing […]
0 comments by Andrew Harrison on 9/9/2014
(Peter Robinson and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness with Carl Frampton and Barry McGuigan at Parliament Buildings Monday; Kelvin Boyes/Press Eye) It is quite something when a fight crowd becomes a draw in itself. Sixteen thousand fans congregated in a Belfast shipyard on Saturday evening, there in support of Tiger’s Bay junior featherweight Carl Frampton, who joined compatriots Wayne […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 8/4/2014
That Vice Sports interview between Carmelo Anthony and Daniel Jacobs doesn’t really get going until about five minutes in, but it’s good after that. We won’t take five minutes getting into a juicy Quick Jabs, which delves into the topics in the headline, the popularity (or lack thereof) of Gennady Golovkin, some wacky business involving […]
0 comments by Matthew Swain on 6/25/2014
It seems an eternity since the heavyweight division was relevant. As a teenager in the 1990s, I watched awestruck as Evander Holyfield, Riddick Bowe, Lennox Lewis and a couple of others temporarily loaned each other the title. Back then being the heavyweight champion of the world made you famous, and it was big business. There […]
0 comments by Sam Sheppard on 5/19/2014
“The sweet science is joined onto the past like a man’s arm to his shoulder.” – A.J. Liebling Since I began to write boxing with a degree of seriousness last year, I’ve had a notice set on my browser which dings ostentatiously every time a new piece by Springs Toledo is published on The Sweet […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 5/6/2014
(May 3, 2014; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Marcos Maidana punches against Floyd Mayweather Jr. during their fight at MGM Grand. Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports) We came so very close to history Saturday night. Had Marcos Maidana defeated Floyd Mayweather on Showtime Pay-Per-View, it would have been the biggest upset in boxing at the […]
