SAN ANTONIO – “Filipino Flash” Nonito Donaire is already celebrated among boxing insiders for his hand speed, footwork, power and charisma. Now insiders have one more gift of Donaire’s to celebrate: an eye for talent.
Donaire entertains locals, shows eye for talent at open workout
February 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Things to do in Alamo City
January 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment
SAN ANTONIO – I can see Alamodome from my window. It’s a mile southeast of where I sit, and its southwestern spire is visible between Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center and Tower of the Americas. Alamodome’s history is interesting in a way that enkindles barbershop dialogues. Indulge me a bit.
Pontiac Redux, Part 2
January 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Pontiac’s Business district wasn’t. Early on a Saturday afternoon nothing was open. I parked the Kia well off the curb of a sidestreet, confident there would be no traffic to impede, and ambled up and down Saginaw and Pike Streets. There were what appeared to be panhandlers, but as they shuffled along, in lieu of risking their bare hands in the cold, they shrugged and frowned. Why the hell bother? A few of the buildings in the Business District had silhouettes of their last occupants’ names on them, but most had been bare long enough to be unhaunted.
Pontiac Redux, Part 1
January 22, 2012 By 2 Comments
This week brings an ignominious anniversary for our beloved sport. Sunday will mark a year since “The Super Fight” – Timothy Bradley versus Devon Alexander – happened in Pontiac, Mich. The fight itself was inconsequential; neither man has done anything in the junior welterweight division since. But the consequences for HBO Sports were noteworthy, and perhaps more importantly, it still feels as though there is more to impart about the event, its city and arena, and Detroit.
Writing about Chavez Jr. while thinking about Donaire
January 16, 2012 By 1 Comment
SAN ANTONIO – Another deadline comes and goes in the silly saga of whether the two best fighters in our sport in 2009 will fight one another in 2012. It’s all bad faith now. A promoter goes to the Philippines to present his fighter four options no fan asked for. A fighter gets on Twitter to make a faux demand he didn’t make years ago, when it might have mattered.
In celebration of thinkers, skepticism and 10-10 rounds
January 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment
There is no such thing as an objective scorecard in boxing. Using that assumption, let’s take a look at – wait, what’s that? No consensus on the point above. Shucks. Let’s work it over a bit, then, break it in and see if we can use it later.
Frustrated Chavez Jr. announces February title defense at Alamodome
January 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
SAN ANTONIO – Mexican middleweight titlist Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., known as much for his father’s exploits as his own, is fully aware of what made him famous. He knows he is known for his father’s achievements in boxing more than his own, and he knows he’s known it for a long time too.
Portrait of a credential to 2011’s biggest fight, Part 2
January 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Editor’s note: For Part 1, please click here.
Portrait of a credential to 2011’s biggest fight, Part 1
December 25, 2011 By 2 Comments
The day Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez fought their rubber match in November 2011, Las Vegas was in recovery. The city tried to pull itself from the depressed conditions every cabbie was willing to describe during trips to McCarran Airport, in 2009 and 2010. Vegas’ new line was taxi traffic; record-setting or record-tying or something.
Ward and Froch, and the anfractuous path to greatness
December 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment
On a perfect evening in the ring, a night when American Andre Ward and Englishman Carl Froch both were able to make their very best fight, Ward would win. The only circumstance under which Froch could prevail, then, is an off-night for Ward. Froch realized this Saturday, and it razed his spirit. It meant no matter his willfulness or tenacity, he was not the world’s best super middleweight.
Ward-Froch to determine Fighter of the Last Two Years
December 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment
There is a conditional clause still in place on the Boxing Writers Association of America’s 2011 ballot for Fighter of the Year. It reads: “Winner Ward-Froch.” That box already has my checkmark. If Andre Ward beats Carl Froch Saturday, he will be the 2011 Fighter of the Year. If Froch prevails, he will win the honor. If there’s a draw, I’ll vote for both of them.
Cotto and Margarito, and a treatment of semi-satisfaction
December 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment
The narrative of Cotto-Margarito II will say Miguel Cotto, inspired by tens of thousands of his countrymen within Madison Square Garden, gained a richly satisfying vengeance on Mexican Antonio Margarito in 2011, confirming everything he believed about Margarito’s criminality in their 2008 match and restoring Puerto Rican pride across the land. Ah, sweet revenge.
Margarito-Cotto II: Revenge served cold
November 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Saturday’s rematch between Mexican Antonio Margarito and Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto is about revenge. It is not about establishing primacy at the kooky catchweight of 153 pounds or resolving some residual doubt from their first encounter. It is about satisfying the bloodlust Puerto Ricans feel because of the ruin Margarito brought to their guy’s career in 2008.
Chavez, Martinez, and the importance of layers
November 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
HOUSTON – And there was Sergio Martinez lurking stage left, both taller and thinner than he appears on television. He was at the postfight press conference on the second floor of Reliant Center to supervise, not make trouble. Martinez’s class prohibited him from upstaging Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., calling him out or demanding his garish WBC belt back.
Chavez improves to 44-0-1-1, having improved in every way
November 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment
HOUSTON – Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez may never win fighter of the year, but if the Boxing Writers Association of America gave out a Most Improved Fighter award, Chavez would likely be a perennial finalist.
“The fight is not that happy”
November 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment
LAS VEGAS – After a frustrated but triumphant Juan Manuel Marquez addressed a large crowd in the MGM Grand media center Saturday, a chastened Freddie Roach came to the dais without Manny Pacquiao. The many-times Trainer of the Year said he needed to do his job better and that Marquez – and Floyd Mayweather – would always pose trouble for his charge. A while later, Pacquiao showed up with a white bandage over his right eye.
Marquez masters Pacquiao but not judges in third match
November 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
LAS VEGAS – In the years since Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez began their rivalry, fans have debated what might have happened had Pacquiao not felled Marquez four times with left hands in the men’s first two fights. Saturday, they found out. But somebody forgot to tell the judges.
Magdaleno dominant but not destructive on “Top Rank Live”
November 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
LAS VEGAS – Diego Magdaleno may not have blown through his opponent the way some hoped he would, but he made a dominant showing just the same.
Pacquiao-Marquez III: Growing intrigue
November 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment
LAS VEGAS (Nov. 11) – After ripping his shirt neckline to bellybutton and tossing its remains to a group of aghast Filipino fans, Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez mounted the MGM Grand scale Friday and weighed in at the welterweight limit. Marquez’s musculature was grotesque enough to make Manny Pacquiao’s strength and conditioning coach, Alex Ariza, plead for an immediate ruling from “anyone who knows anyone with the USADA, great God!”
Winks, daggers and exasperation
October 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment
In his latest collection of boxing writing, “Winks and Daggers” (The University of Arkansas Press; $24.95), Thomas Hauser provides his signature, last-word treatment of nine fights from 2010. Of those nine events, only three happen after June. That absence of coverage, the lack of eventfulness it reports, might just be the best metaphor in Hauser’s new book.
“20-1 odds are too much”
October 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Right on, Roy.
The quote above belongs to HBO analyst Roy Jones, who said those words Saturday in a context far different from how they deserve to be remembered. Jones was selling the HBO audience, pre-fight, on a chance oddsmakers had things all wrong about the main event to come. But the oddsmakers were right, of course.
Welcome, Mr. Hershman, we have lots of work for you
October 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Thursday the indefatigable Lem Satterfield broke news that Ken Hershman will replace Ross Greenburg as President of HBO Sports – a position akin to Commissioner of Boxing. The choice of Hershman was generally and enthusiastically applauded by boxing insiders hither and yon. Hershman, for the innovative way he handled a similar position at Showtime, is well regarded by aficionados.
Then the rains came
October 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment
SAN ANTONIO – The withering aridity that made this city consider water rations has finally broken. The drought is on, many inches of rainfall are still needed in Edwards Aquifer, but local worries now subside as the recharge zone gradually fills.
Más trabajador que maravilla
October 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Saturday continued the happiest development our sport has seen in years. Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez, a southpaw Argentine who prefers Spain but lives in California, is an accidental champion. A career 147- and 154-pounder who won the middleweight title in his first meaningful middleweight fight, Martinez makes a match with a larger man every time he defends his belts. He gets hit plenty and finishes each defense with a knockout.
And when Mayweather and Pacquiao never do fight?
September 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment
We are where we were 20 months ago. Floyd Mayweather knows he can beat Many Pacquiao, doesn’t understand why the rest of us don’t, and wants every detail just so before he’ll agree to do it. Pacquiao, when he thinks about boxing at all, fears Mayweather less than he feared a half-dozen previous opponents. Promoter Bob Arum wants no part of a Mayweather match. Boxing fans are polarized. Everyone else has moved on.
One man acted like a fighter, and the other did not
September 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment
If the day ever comes that you spar with a prizefighter, you’ll find yourself defenseless soon enough. Exhausted or confused, you’ll drop your hands or head in a silent plea for leniency. That’s when you’ll see it, no matter the other man’s decency: a click behind his eyes, almost audible, before he hits you to hurt you because you are defenseless in front of him and that is what a prizefighter does.
Chalk up another for Money May
September 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Legend has it the gambling term “chalk” precedes World War II. In the days when horsetrack bettors watched a chalkboard for odds, the action on a favorite would change so often, causing erasings and re-markings in such a frenzy, that a pile of chalk dust would accumulate on the favorite’s name, often obscuring it.
My amazing summer internship
September 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment
As a philosophy major in the mid 1990s, I never had a chance to do an internship. A decade’s worth of hindsight now tells me I should have been a communications major. Since everyone’s going back to school these days – “financial aid” rings so much sweeter than “unemployment” – I spent Saturday imagining myself an intern . . .
Fretting already about Pacquiao-Marquez III
August 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment
A friend visited me from Mexico last week. Between trips to Austin and strolls along the San Antonio River, we had occasion to watch a number of old Marco Antonio Barrera fights – the Junior Jones debacles and the classic trilogy with Erik Morales. But it was the first Manny Pacquiao fight that filled me with a dull sense of foreboding about November.
Blood, steel, canvas and warmth
August 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
“Blood, Steel and Canvas: The Asian Odyssey of a Fighter” by Craig Alan Wilson (Diversion Books; $4.99) is a spare and enjoyable e-book that uses boxing as a celebration of life instead of using life as an excuse to box. It radiates with a light-hearted warmth that many books about our beloved sport lack.