The one thing you have to understand in boxing—whether you’re a fighter, a fan, or someone in fighter management—is that you always have to hustle. Boxing exists on a foundation of cons and hustles built to benefit whoever is sharpest when it comes to protecting his investment. That’s a harsh statement, but to acknowledge anything less is laughably naive. Boxing is not a … [Read more...]
Bert Sugar Was a Fake. (A Tribute)
(Originally Published March, 2012 in RockCellar Magazine) Absolutely the hardest thing to do in boxing is to get noticed. Boxing people are cynics; their default position is to either ignore you or say no to you. Bert Randolph Sugar, who died on March 25, 2012, didn’t know much about boxing and he didn’t know much about writing. But, for over forty years, he managed to … [Read more...]
Muhammad Ali
When I went to my staff Friday night in search of someone to write the Muhammad Ali obit, staff writer Amy Green answered, "I'm under qualified....just couldn't do it justice." Amy writes very well and can hold her own with anyone in terms of boxing knowledge, but she was right. She was right about all of us. How could any of us do the life of Muhammad Ali justice? Who out … [Read more...]
Boxing is my Passion (Second Version)
“You go to an amateur tournament… You get an inner-city, really rough, hard-core black kid, and you get a white kid from Minnesota. Maybe they never even say ‘hi’ to each other all week. But they fight each other, and after the fight, they hug.”—John Scully “Boxing was on the one hand barbaric, unconscionable, out of place in modern society. But then, so are war, racism, … [Read more...]
Freak Show ala Mexicana; Magno’s Monday Rant
Looking like a cross between Lou Ferrigno and a geisha girl, Mexico’s Jorge Kahwagi, sporting what looked to be oversized pectoral, bicep, and shoulder implants, along with copious amounts of plastic surgery to his face, made a “triumphant” return Saturday after ten years away from the ring. Buried on the Donnie Nietes-Francisco Rodriguez Pinoy Pride 31 undercard in Cebu City, … [Read more...]