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 4/14/2015
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 3/24/2015
Nearly two years after Jhonny Gonzalez shocked Abner Mares with a huge left hook, it’s clear their careers have certainly gone in different directions. For instance, 28 million people in Mexico watched Gonzalez toy with a faded Jorge Arce, while Mares has struggled to impress against nondescript opposition on undercards. The question is whether or […]
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 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 1/12/2015
So, how about that 2014, huh? Brutal stuff, let’s call it what it was. And here we stand, 2015 is in full swing, and we just don’t even know what comes next — kinda like that picture up there (via). This weekend could start the year out on a positive note, as far as more […]
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, […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 10/7/2014
You children of the 80s will know exactly what that picture above is, and some of you might even know what the next line is, from there. If not, I’ll help you: “…the Nothing.” That’s more or less what we’ve been left with on our boxing schedules lately. At least as far as quality goes. […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 9/16/2014
We’re all likely still trying to shed the hangover we feel after “big fight” weekends. If it’s not the fighting itself, it’s the flood of redundant news stories and reactions. So why not add to the torrent? This week on Queensberry Rules Radio,
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 9/8/2014
Almost exactly four months ago, Robert Garcia (Pictured, right;
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 9/1/2014
Never mind the title. That’s just for attention. This coming weekend is all about the flyweights. The man pictured above, Sid Smith (via), is perhaps the granddaddy of the division, which is the lightest of what are generally considered the original eight weight classes. (Also, most boxing fans have the same unimpressed look on their […]
