Tag: Boxing

Three pounds and change. Garcia triumphs over Haney.

The three pounds an effervescent Ryan Garcia elected not to shed in advance of his seismic victory over Devin Haney at the Barclays Center in down town Brooklyn last Saturday, or, if you prefer, the three pounds that proved beyond the chisels of his dedicated sculptors, dependent on the narrative most pliable to your viewpoint, could seem entirely trivial to the casual observer.

It is, when all said and done, just 2.14% beyond the contracted 140 pound Junior Welterweight limit.

Whilst it would be convenient to dismiss the significance of the three pounds and change, nobody wants a boxing superhero with an asterisks besides their name, to omit their impact in any analysis of Garcia’s upset win does a disservice to Haney, the sport and fails to recognise the advantage boxing’s newest enfant terrible sought.

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White Bronze Claret. Wardley and Clarke fight to a bloodied stand still

It is the equality of opponents that creates boxing’s finest nights not the greatness or dominance of one or the other. Fabio Wardley and Frazer Clark left London’s O2 Arena on Sunday night as a conspicuous example of this age-old truism. Wardley, the British and Commonwealth Champion, retained his titles with a draw few could argue was an accurate reflection of the equivalence of their efforts and success. Both retaining their unbeaten records also a fitting conclusion given the blood shed and the utter exhaustion they exhibited through the championship rounds.

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Thurman, the man no more.

The news Keith Thurman will not be boxing the surging Tim Tszyu for the Australian’s WBO belt and the vacant WBC Junior Middleweight title this weekend due to a bicep injury caused barely a ripple of surprise to those who have followed the Florida man’s catalogue of sabbaticals in recent years. It is cruel luck perhaps, but nevertheless an entirely predictable development for a 35-year-old fighter once of incredible gift, seeking to push his body through the rigours of training camp for only the second time in two years and the third in five.

Thurman’s career, if this marks the end of his significance, is increasingly defined by what he has been unable to do as that which once came naturally to him.

Evidence of declension, from the vitality of his twenties to the dwindling returns of his thirties, was writ large on his face long before he withdrew from the Tszyu fight. There was age in his eyes. The luster of youth lost from his skin.

The elongated Sebastian Fundora, also from Florida, and aged 26, steps forward in Thurman’s stead.

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Revisited: Quirino Garcia, the elephant and the castle.

We have no time to stand and stare. And stare as long as sheep or cows. No time to see, when woods we pass, Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

W.H. Davies, poet, ‘Leisure’

Parking had been difficult, as was finding the venue itself, and as a result, I was late for the show. It was long since dark and the city still intimidated me despite my tailored attempt to project self-assurance and belonging. I broke into a jog between the pools of street light on my way to the Elephant and Castle Leisure Centre, London. It was late March, 2002. A cool night, I missed the entrance. Twice. No fluorescent signs, no limousines. Just a door, in the shadows, almost turning away from the glare of potential passers by negotiating crossings, blurting horns and the choke of car fumes.

Boxing inhabited a different world twenty years ago. One of Leisure Centres and bootlegged world titles. Smaller. Seedier. And virtually unrecognisable from the gigantic events we now enjoy.

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VIP Boxing: Rehman impresses in stoppage win

Rochdale’s Bilal ‘Billy The Kid’ Rehman won the battle of the unbeaten 10-stone prospects on the entertaining Steve Wood card in Manchester tonight, stopping Ashley Peyton in the last of eight rounds. He is a fighter to look out for, he certainly relished the opportunity to fight an opponent with ambition and a low guard.

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Boxing: The Ali Files by Norman Giller – A review

The-Ali-Files-1

Within the pages of The Ali Files, from the pen of the prolific Norman Giller, there is a gift for boxing fans young and old. Particularly those for whom Muhammad Ali is an experience afforded by the proxy of film or television interview or those of us desensitised to his brilliance by time and the ensuing mythologising and marketing of his story.

In The Ali Files, Giller has returned Muhammad to his rightful home. The ring. The place where the story began and where his legend was hewn. It serves to refresh us all, including the great man himself.   Continue reading “Boxing: The Ali Files by Norman Giller – A review” →

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Audley Harrison. The importance of the man who wouldn’t be King.

Photo: Dave Shopland

Lennox Lewis strode languidly down the aisle. A glow of certainty and phosphorous bulbs surrounding him. Assurance emanated from his tall, imposing frame.  His stillness, the type which led him to sleep in the dressing room before a big fight, serving to amplify the latent power beneath.

Lewis the slumbering lion, on a high rock, stealing shade behind dark glasses and offering verification to proceedings merely by being present.

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Wladimir Klitschko, dominance and the burden of proof

Wladimir Klitschko

Historically, dominance is a fleeting experience in the heavyweight division. Perhaps, thankfully fleeting. In the last century we’ve seen a number of periods in which one fighter reigned over the sports blue ribbon division. Louis, Marciano, Holmes, Tyson. An exalted list of greatness. Once in a generation fighters who destroyed their contemporaries and illuminated their respective eras. Something else unified those luminaries; the lack of a defining opponent.

Wladimir Klitschko, who turns 38 ahead of his next defence, is in the Autumn of a career even by today’s extended measure. Like those illustrious greats he finds himself searching for an opponent who will offer triumphant definition to his manicured statistics. Without one he is at risk of being remembered for a defeat to Lamon Brewster in 2004 or a slew of moribund victories similar to the one he will accrue in April when he tackles the over-matched Alex Leapai.

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Boxing: Dickinson wins the English Cruiserweight title

John-Lewis Dickinson fulfilled the suspicions of those cute judges who felt he may have the qualities required to upset Matty Askin for the English Cruiserweight title tonight, defeating the champion by unanimous decision. The bout provided chief support to Anthony Crolla’s British Lightweight clash with Derry Mathews. Continue reading “Boxing: Dickinson wins the English Cruiserweight title” →

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Boxing: Bobby Gunn and James Toney in a room. Never going to be tea and biscuits.

It may surprise some readers to learn Bobby Gunn causes the biggest spike in readership whenever I cobble (do you see what I did there) together a news or opinion piece on the plucky prizefighter. Avoyd Mayweather holds nothing on the scrapper once spectacularly referred to as “the most ferocious fighter since Jack Dempsey”. The outlandishness of the claim further enhanced by the one round mauling at the fists of Enzo Maccarinelli that followed shortly after the words were uttered. Gunn also fought Tomasz Adamek for another portion of the Cruiserweight title, so his notoriety isn’t entirely hollow. I ducked any coverage of his bare-knuckle contests on principle but I must confess to a curious interest in his next bout following a heated press conference.

A clash with James Toney. Yes, the real one.

Continue reading “Boxing: Bobby Gunn and James Toney in a room. Never going to be tea and biscuits.” →
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Boxing: Nobody gets out on their own terms, not even Hopkins

Hopkins lays injured in Dawson clash

It was sad to see Bernard Hopkins, a fighter who has battled the boxing establishment, its promotional cartels and the received wisdom of how to manage a career for 20 years, finished by one of the sports unshakeable truths; nobody leaves the sport on their own terms.  Bernard has spent the past decade, and intensely for the last 5 years, selling his resistance to the ageing process, declaring himself an alien or somehow immune to the ravages of time.

Alas, a cruel injury may snatch the crescendo he still pursued from his grasp.

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Boxing: Reassembling a defeated fighter, Kevin Mitchell begins to convince

Kevin Mitchell

The winning of a prizefight is decided by a complex algorithm. Combining the unquantifiable x and y’s of the scientific and the visceral, the physical and the emotional. Each aspect of a fighter’s make-up contributes to that which he is and decides the tipping point between winning and losing. These variables are infinite and even at a fight’s conclusion, the outcome can remain subjective and the underlying building blocks for the triumph and disaster which befalls them is often only ever partially revealed.

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Boxing: What a tangled web we weave. Tarver and Fury practice to deceive

Antonio Tarver clips Clinton Woods

There is a hierarchy to everything. It is nature’s insistent truth. Whether it be a pack of wolves, heavyweights or journalists. No demographic or social organism exists without either a class system or a distinct pyramid of significance. In the wild, the theory of evolution demands this hierarchy is structured upon one simple principle. ‘Survival of the fittest’.

Thus, the alpha animal remains so while ever he has the strength to repel younger aspirants. Just the type of jungle of competition fighters are supposed to emerge from as the king, if they are to demand the acclaim of one.

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Boxing relies on Don King and Terry Dooley for sense and integrity!

donking2For a man accused of just about every sin possible within the parameters of boxing and capable of bamboozling writers with quotes and sentiments drawn from Twain to Churchill it says a lot about the sport he inhabits, that veteran promoter Don King is the sole voice of reason in the aftermath of the Khan v Barrera contest. Well, alongside Terry Dooley at BritishBoxing.net at least. Dooley is a fearless, if slightly dishevelled, writer who can always see through the mist,  and is unafraid of running against the grain. Dooley titled his review of the fight; “Say what you like but Khan should never have won”. Continue reading “Boxing relies on Don King and Terry Dooley for sense and integrity!” →

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Boxing: Frank Maloney’s cold-shower for Belshaw’s prospects

SCOTT BELSHAW

Every press release I’ve read about big Scott Belshaw has been heavily doused in salt. Frank Maloney is a wise old hand at generating attention for his fighters and he’s used every reference possible to project Belshaw as a raw puncher with a big future. Last week Belshaw was calling out Audley Harrison, who for all his vulnerability and idiosyncrasies, would walk through Belshaw in less than a minute.

Yes, that Audley. Okay maybe two.

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Boxing: A Nightingale Sang In Iran Barkley Square

Barkley2Boxing’s lack of structure is never more apparent than in the plight of retired fighters struggling to eke out an existence. Somehow ageing and the problems of ensuing retirement, seems more acute than on any other sportsman. Proud warriors, frightening, thunderous, larger than life characters humbled and humiliated by their loss of youth. A loss they so rarely see approaching. Lifetimes spent proving their physical superiority over the man opposing and, seemingly, the world at large – if only for a moment, replaced by an inability to function, provide or find direction in their post boxing life is an acute and distressing contrast. Continue reading “Boxing: A Nightingale Sang In Iran Barkley Square” →

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