- by Bart Barry on 14 March 2010
Manny, Joshua and the rays come down from Jerrytron
GRAPEVINE, Tex. – To look across the atrium of the Gaylord Texan resort on a Sunday morning – Alamo replica here, River Walk replica there – is to wonder: How did this place get built between Dallas and Fort Worth and not Mandalay Bay and MGM Grand? It would work well on the Strip; [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 13 March 2010
In the event of reluctance: Pacquiao dominates Clottey
ARLINGTON, Tex. – “The Event” was promoter Top Rank’s largest happening in years – a championship prizefight featuring the worldwide phenomenon of Manny Pacquiao in a breathtaking new edifice before the largest domestic boxing audience since 1993. So as one sportswriter thought to put it, “Joshua Clottey fought like a loyal Top Rank employee.” [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 13 March 2010
Mepranum and Marquez cap a stellar prelude at the Gaylord Texan
GRAPEVINE, TEX. – Tasty local appetizer cards have become a staple of promoter Top Rank’s superfight weekends, and Friday night’s fare at the Gaylord Texan Hotel & Convention Center – an opening course for “The Event” on Saturday – was no exception. Featuring a Filipino and a Mexican in the main event and crowd-pleasers [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 7 March 2010
Anonymity and the Lone Star streak
First, an anecdote. The night before Ghana’s Joshua Clottey fought Miguel Cotto, we took a cab from the BWAA awards dinner to Times Square. The driver was a Ghanaian. When I told him we were in town for Saturday’s big match at Madison Square Garden, he said, “Who’s fighting?”
Read more- by Bart Barry on 28 February 2010
Friends like these
“Regard friendship as the greatest thing in the world; for there is nothing which so fits in with our nature, or is so exactly what we want in prosperity or adversity. But I must at the very beginning lay down this principle: Friendship can only exist between good men.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero, “Treatises [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 21 February 2010
SubUrbano blight
The second event I covered was a Top Rank card on May 6, 2005 at Fort McDowell Casino in Fountain Hills, Ariz. Televised on “Solo Boxeo,” the marquee comprised Mexican prospects like Giovanni Segura, Mike Alvarado, Jesus Soto Karass and Jesus Gonzales. But that night no one stood out like Urbano Antillon.
Read more- by Bart Barry on 14 February 2010
In pursuit of an unbiased look at Kelly Pavlik
Wednesday brought some good news about Kelly Pavlik. All is ready but the contracts for Pavlik to defend his middleweight championship in April against Sergio Martinez. It isn’t the rematch we wanted for Martinez after his fantastic fight with Paul Williams two months ago, but it’s better than any match we’ve seen Pavlik [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 7 February 2010
Different from what was promised
There’s an old adage in prizefighting – or if there isn’t, there should be – that you can neither trust a knockout victory on a South American’s resume nor a loss on a Mexican’s. Sometime early in a South American’s career someone determines he’s a puncher then uses matchmaking to prove it. Mexicans, [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 31 January 2010
Redemption over irrelevance
LAS CRUCES, N.M. – And you thought it was flat and dark on a nighttime drive from Phoenix to Tucson? The current view from I-10 East: Indian reservations, 18-wheelers, dust and an unobstructed view of where the sky touches the road. It is not picturesque. Still, you can understand the metaphorical appeal; [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 24 January 2010
Betting on Juanma in 2010’s fight of the year
Before you put all your money on the single toss of Yuriorkis Gamboa over Juan Manuel Lopez in a featherweight superfight, consider this: Gamboa just razed a guy with 13 losses coming up (or not) from a weight class below; Lopez just rose four pounds to take the WBO belt from a titlist with one [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 17 January 2010
Cowboys Stadium in March
We come to the end of our Pacquiao-Mayweather mourning season. Fun as it is to gnash teeth and tremble at the future of prizefighting, the sun has risen anew, men still don gloves to resolve conflicts in manly ways, and a major venue awaits a major event in a couple months. Let’s think [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 10 January 2010
Goodbye to Arizona
By 2005 Arizona was very much the Helpdesk State, whatever hold the Grand Canyon still had on tourists’ imaginations, and a few wiseasses in a Tempe call center said we should change the state bird from a Cactus Wren to a Head Set. One such chap was Bob Benedetti. He started a local [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 3 January 2010
A contrarian’s dry-eyed look at the (possible) collapse of Pacquiao-Mayweather
“This one storm is going to change the face of our planet. When this storm is over, we’ll be in a new ice age. My God.” – Professor Jack Hall, “The Day After Tomorrow”
Read more- by Bart Barry on 29 December 2009
A mosaicked revisit to the year’s best fight – Part 2
Editor’s Note: For Part 1, click here.
Read more- by Bart Barry on 27 December 2009
A mosaicked revisit to the year’s best fight – Part 1
Because of the breadth of Texas, and its effects on time – zones and flight – to arrive at Houston’s William P. Hobby airport, collect a rental car and make a 1 p.m. weigh-in, you’d better depart Sky Harbor before 8:30 a.m., which means being in downtown Phoenix round 6:00.
Read more- by Bart Barry on 22 December 2009
A mosaicked revisit to the year’s biggest fight – Part 2
Editor’s Note: For Part 1, click here.
Read more- by Bart Barry on 20 December 2009
A mosaicked revisit to the year’s biggest fight – Part 1
Mosaic (n.) A picture or decorative design made by setting small colored pieces, as of stone or tile, into a surface. 2. A composite picture made of overlapping, usually aerial, photographs.
Read more- by Bart Barry on 13 December 2009
Begging for a super-lightweight Super Six
A few months ago in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, master novelist Philip Roth addressed the bestselling popularity of writers such as James Patterson and Nora Roberts thusly: “They are entertainers. They aren’t writers.”
Read more- by Bart Barry on 6 December 2009
Why we watch the fights
Maybe it wasn’t the best fight of the year, or maybe it was. What Paul Williams and Sergio Martinez did Saturday, though, deserves an award of some sort. How about favorite fight of the year? The one that, when considered as a 36-minute body of work, brings back the most complete feelings [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 29 November 2009
Andrade’s pursuit, Bute’s conclusion
There were two questions to answer when Lucian Bute and Librado Andrade fought a rematch of their 2008 IBF super middleweight championship bout. Was Bute an outstanding fighter who’d made merely a strategic error in getting worn down, or was he something less? And what psychological effect would Andrade’s relentlessness have on a [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 22 November 2009
- by Bart Barry on 15 November 2009
Sung through him, Muse
LAS VEGAS – Sitting ringside at Madison Square Garden in June, the image of Miguel Cotto’s swollen and torn face still fresh, most writers would have picked Manny Pacquiao to beat Cotto decisively. The next five months talked many of us out of it. Such are the powers of time and promotion.
Read more- by Bart Barry on 14 November 2009
PACQUIAO REIGNS SUPREME AS HE STOPS COTTO IN 12!!!
LAS VEGAS – There were a lot of promises. In the end, there was only Manny Pacquiao.
Read more- by Bart Barry on 14 November 2009
A Friday night preview of Filipinos and Latinos
LAS VEGAS – No promoter has a better feel than Top Rank for the passion ethnic rivalries breed. As “Firepower” weekend was about Manny Pacquiao against Miguel Cotto, Friday night’s nine-fight appetizer card was about Filipinos against Latinos.
Read more- by Bart Barry on 13 November 2009
Capacity weigh-in portends great things for Saturday fight
LAS VEGAS – If there’s anything to be said for weigh-ins acting as preambles to super fights, “Firepower” promises to be like nothing boxing has seen for a long time. Then again, what could possibly be the fight-night corollary for a sold-out weigh-in?
Read more- by Bart Barry on 8 November 2009
Presenting the year’s biggest fight
If there’s anything to reincarnation, and if I straighten up real soon, I like to imagine I’ll come back as a Miguel Cotto fan. No, it’s not quite nirvana, but it’s a sight better than this jaded boxing-writer existence a past life of apparently unthinkable transgressions got me.
Read more- by Bart Barry on 1 November 2009
A beautiful spectacle
Chances are, even serious boxing fans didn’t know who Joseph King Kong Agbeko (given name) and Yonnhy Perez were before Saturday. One is from Ghana, the other Colombia. Neither speaks English fluently. Neither weighs 120 pounds. Let’s hope that didn’t dissuade. Saturday’s fight was a gorgeous thing.
Read more- by Bart Barry on 25 October 2009
Showing “negativity”
In covering the Froch-Dirrell fight that composed half Showtime’s kickoff of the “Super Six” tournament two Saturdays ago, British sportswriters loved the term “negativity” for describing Andre Dirrell’s fighting style. A contextual definition of negativity might go: Any tactic a prizefighter employs that does not bring him closer to an opponent’s unconsciousness.
Read more- by Bart Barry on 18 October 2009
“Super Six”! How about “Halfway Decent Two or Three”?
Common wisdom says sporting events are better in person than on television. I’m not sure. With boxing it depends on what you look for. If you like the bacchanal of violence and vicariousness that assembles at prizefights, being there is better. If you like jab-cross-hook, you probably prefer home – though [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 17 October 2009
Jirov makes successful return; Phoenix tries to rise
PHOENIX – It will go on the books as a second-round knockout for the former cruiserweight champion of the world after a 27-month layoff. Best for Vassiliy Jirov if it stays on the books.
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