0 comments by Tim Starks on 1/11/2015
On the surface, boxing in 2014 sucked. Everyone knows this, and most everyone knows why. Scratch a little deeper, and it still sucked — worse than any year since the mid/late-2000s — just maybe not as atrociously as commonly understood on the surface. There’s little need to rehash, at length, the rather obvious diagnosis about what ailed […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 1/1/2015
Sick of the drip-drip-drip of year end boxing awards yet? Hard to blame you, hard to blame you. So we’ll bring out two enormous platters to conclude our 2014 awards. In the first installment, that flavor is heavy and serious. In the second one, that flavor is light and fluffy. Just add “of the year” […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 12/17/2014
(Nov. 8, Atlantic City; Sergey Kovalev celebrates his win over Bernard Hopkins after their bout at Boardwalk Hall. Credit: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports) Just about all the 2014 business is finished for the best boxers in the world across every weight division, with only Adonis Stevenson and Guillermo Rigondeaux on this list yet to have […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 11/30/2014
(Jayson Velez, left, Evgeny Gradovich, right; via @HBOBoxing on Twitter) Jayson Velez proved he belonged on the world stage against Evgeny Gradovich, who proved what he always proved, which is that fighting him is one of the most painful outings in boxing. But Gradovich probably deserved a decision win Saturday night on HBO rather than a split […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 11/25/2014
Really, what that title probably should read up there is “Terence Crawford vs. Ray Beltran Preview,” but it’s Manny Pacquiao, and we got mouths to feed. Besides, if we’re going to be made to shell out a few baker’s dozen clams to watch mismatches, we may as well revel in the horrifyingly one-sided slapping that […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 11/22/2014
(Lomachenko connects on Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo; via @HBOBoxing on Twitter) Vasyl Lomachenko does astounding things in the ring. Saturday night he was on his way to a beautifully boxed win, perhaps even a knockout, that showed off his versatility and all-around excellence. Then he injured his left hand. He didn’t lose a round after that. Appearing on […]
0 comments by Sam Sheppard on 11/19/2014
(Promoter Bob Arum, Pacquiao, Zhou and Algieri arrive in Macau; photo via) “You can pretend for a long time, but one day it all falls away and you are alone… Alone in the most beautiful place in the world.”- Jean Rhys Despite his unabashed confidence, which can at times border on a smugly dismissive sense […]
0 comments by Alex McClintock on 11/18/2014
What’s worse than the tepid undercard to Manny Pacquiao vs. Chris Algieri? Top Rank Promotions’ attempt to get down with the youth with their trash talk gifs creator (example pictured above). Not only is it so very “How do you do, fellow kids,” it also stole the name of friend of the site David Greisman’s column, Fighting […]
0 comments by Patrick Connor on 11/17/2014
The enclosed picture is photographic proof of what happens to Chris Algieri’s face when he hasn’t done his daily avocado treatments, presumably (via). We’re just bloggers, here, so we can’t be sure, but if our avocadospectrometers are correct, Manny Pacquiao could be in a world of hurt this weekend. We head to Macau, once more, […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 11/2/2014
Here’s boxing in 2014, in a nutshell: Showtime, which had cast its lot with Golden Boy’s Richard Schaefer prior to the company’s split with him, has aired trash almost exclusively this year, yet is putting on a quality welterweight bout Dec. 13 between Devon Alexander and Amir Khan. The undercard bout between junior middleweights Demetrius […]
0 comments by Cathal McGuigan on 10/29/2014
After his Oct. 24 bout with Ruben Tamayo was called off, the latest setback to Orlando Cruz’s career must mean that thoughts of retirement are creeping into his mind. After 14 years as a pro featherweight he’s no closer to a world title. He failed to take the WBO belt from Orlando Salido last October […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 10/18/2014
(Nicholas Walters, right, Nonito Donaire, right;
0 comments by Tim Starks on 9/30/2014
(Roman Gonzalez, left; Akira Yaegashi, right) At last, some movement. Since our last update of the best boxers in the world, regardless of weight, some of them have, actually, you know, fought. And in some meaningful fights, too. There are two new entrants to the top 10 (hint: one of them is in the picture), […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 9/2/2014
What if… there existed another universe where fighters were ranked pound-for-pound — i.e., who’s best regardless of weight — based nothing at all on any actual evidence from what a fighter had actually accomplished? A dimension where some figure or the other just points at a fighter and says, “I think he looks like he’s […]
0 comments by Tim Starks on 7/28/2014
This weekend TQBR had a chance to talk to Main Events’ Kathy Duva, fellow promoter Lou DiBella and manager Egis Klimas about their plans for the fighters they represent. In a previous post, they talked about Sergey Kovalev vs. Blake Caparello. Here, they talk about Sergio Martinez, Vasyl Lomachenko, Evgeny Gradovich, a featherweight tournament, Curtis […]
