Saturday night, New York City’s Madison Square Garden hosts an HBO Championship Boxing show headlined by WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, who takes on former title holder Daniel Geale. The nights co-feature pits undefeated American heavyweight Bryant Jennings against undefeated Cuban Mike Perez. Also on the card is former cruiserweight contender Ola Afolabi, … [Read more...]
Heat Treatment: Heavyweight Division Sizzles With Title Eliminators and Other Treats for 2014
by Johnny Walker If boxing's heavyweight division was, as this writer has contended, underrated in the value it provided in 2011 and 2012, there's no getting around the fact that in 2013 it did kind of suck. When even Klitschko fans can't really defend an aesthetic disaster like the world champion Wladimir 's Povetkin fight, you know times are tough. Actually, even the … [Read more...]
Sacre Blah: Pascal decisions Bute in disappointing showdown, Perez and Takam draw
Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada-- The first "major" fight 0f 2014 turned out to be a major disappointment as Jean Pascal (29-2-1, 17 KOs) gave an uneven performance in taking a unanimous decision over Lucian Bute (31-2, 24 KOs) by scores of 116-112, 117-111, and 117-110. (The Boxing Tribune scored the bout 116-112, also for Pascal) This battle of adopted Canadians, … [Read more...]
The New York State Athletic Commission And Their Inept Ring Doctors: Perfect Together
by Myron Usher In the movie Gladiator, Russell Crowe’s character, Maximus, stands exhausted in the center of an arena after brutally slaying a dozen challengers and angrily asks the blood-thirsty audience “Are you not entertained!? Is this not why you are here!?” Hand to hand combat is one of mankind’s earliest spectator sports. From depictions of wrestlers in prehistoric … [Read more...]
Come You Masters of War; Magno’s Monday Rant
Violence is the byproduct of desperation, when necessity meets uncertainty and fear. Fine-tuned rage is the currency of boxing; brutality puts asses in seats. These are two facts that even the highest of the high-minded can't bury beneath reams of flowery boxing prose and college boy philosophy. While technical mastery and clinical dissertations in ring defense leave some … [Read more...]