- by Bart Barry on 29 August 2010
Into a laboratory of fear
“Everyone always asks us who is going to be the next great heavyweight. Well, on Sept. 11, we feel it will be Sam Peter’s shining moment.” – Todd DuBoef, president of Top Rank, Aug. 27
Read more- by Bart Barry on 22 August 2010
Trancazos, Arizona and beer
There was “Trancazos” on Friday night. He waved to an Arizona crowd that didn’t much respond to his post-fight salute. He applauded his victorious opponent. He held the other man’s glove aloft and nodded. He raised his own taped fist when he thought a photographer asked for it. Then his [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 15 August 2010
Some easygoing messiness from the streets of South Texas
LAREDO, Tex. – A great Texas writer named John Graves once wrote a great Texas book named “Goodbye to a River” in which he described South Texas as “a piece of country with four or five different breeds of men and a consequent easygoing messiness of tone.” He got that right.
Read more- by Bart Barry on 14 August 2010
Banditry in South Texas: Vazquez decisions Kim by unseemly scores
LAREDO, Tex. – The Lone Star State has developed an unfortunate reputation for awarding hometown fighters inexplicably wide decisions. But Guadalajara is not in Texas, and so it was very hard to understand Saturday’s scorecards.
Read more- by Bart Barry on 8 August 2010
Alexander the Great (chinned)
Devon Alexander “The Great” says he is his own worst critic. He’s lucky that position is filled. Because if Alexander were accepting applications for his Worst Critic position, this week he might be inundated with resumes.
Read more- by Bart Barry on 1 August 2010
Marquez, combinations and contempt
LAS VEGAS – Juan Manuel Marquez might not be the man in this world you least wish to see in a dark alley. For at 135 pounds, he is slighter of frame than an average Homo sapiens. But if you’ve ever seen him pause in the frenzy of combat to study another man’s [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 31 July 2010
Mastery never gets old, part two: Marquez decisions Diaz
LAS VEGAS – It was entertaining as a one-sided fight could be, but finally, “The Rematch” was a one-sided fight. Blame it on Marquez’s class – the ageless type.
Read more- by Bart Barry on 30 July 2010
“The Rematch” is on: Weights from Mandalay Bay, and a Pacquiao pick too
LAS VEGAS – This town might be only a little bit closer to Houston than it is to Mexico City on a map, but if a town’s heart can be measured, this one’s a lot closer to Chilango than Houstonian. Or so it sounded Friday afternoon.
Read more- by Bart Barry on 25 July 2010
Marquez and Diaz, and a race to bankruptcy
“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked. “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.” – Ernest Hemingway, “The Sun Also Rises”
Read more- by Bart Barry on 18 July 2010
An unstylish demand for a matchmaker and tournament
Here’s how I’d planned it. Timothy Bradley might be my favorite American prizefighter and so why not write a column mimicking his style with relentless sentences words upon accurate words and rare combinations with no punctuation or pause? For Luis Carlos Abregu: Small words, lots of breaks, some heft. The conclusion seeing [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 11 July 2010
Becoming the Pete Rose of boxing
“The conduct of both Mr. Margarito and Mr. Capetillo was unacceptable and threatened the health and safety of another licensee.” – Carrie Lopez, Director, State of California Department of Consumer Affairs, Feb. 10, 2009
Read more- by Bart Barry on 4 July 2010
Las Vegas in July
No, the upcoming rematch between Juan Manuel Marquez and Juan Diaz does not belong on pay-per-view. Two fighters whose cumulative record is 1-2 since their first match should not charge extra for a second go. And no, this fight does not belong in Las Vegas. Chilango versus Houstonian, surely, has more appropriate [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 27 June 2010
Chavez and Duddy, eggs and deep water
SAN ANTONIO – Here’s something you didn’t know. Saturday afternoon round 3:30 P.M., a young Texas amateur named Adam Reynolds almost didn’t make his boxing debut at a 34-bout smoker in San Fernando Gym. Despite his youth and fitness, Reynolds’ blood pressure was too high for a ringside doctor to let him answer [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 26 June 2010
Chavez Jr. shows his mettle and surprises the Irish
SAN ANTONIO – By the 10th round, Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was marching forward, legs wide, feet crossing over, left shoulder lowered and ready to fire a hook. He no longer respected John Duddy’s ability to hurt him at all. That says more about Chavez’s conditioning, chin and heart than it says [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 25 June 2010
Chavez Jr. weight controversy “nothing to get excited about”
SAN ANTONIO – Friday afternoon at the Arneson River Theatre on the River Walk, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Ireland’s John Duddy both made the 160-pound weight limit for their “Latin Fury 15” main event. Or at least Duddy did. Chavez didn’t. And then Chavez did.
Read more- by Bart Barry on 23 June 2010
Duddy looking to make bandwagons, not jump on them
SAN ANTONIO – Wednesday afternoon in Alamodome’s cavernous but air-conditioned arena, “Latin Fury 15” participants, managers and trainers joined Top Rank’s Bob Arum on stage for their final press conference before Saturday’s card. Some wore jeans, others wore t-shirts, three even wore blazers. But only one had green Chuck Taylors on.
Read more- by Bart Barry on 22 June 2010
Roach puts the open in Chavez Jr. open workout
SAN ANTONIO – Tuesday afternoon, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and his new trainer Freddie Roach conducted an open workout for local media that was much more than advertised. Far from the scripted, lather-me-up-for-the-press exercises these events usually comprise, Chavez and Roach worked long and hard. And it looked like one of them needed [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 20 June 2010
Somebody’s mojo has got to go
At some point a word for the art of inducing black magic, “mojo,” became a synonym for momentum. Today there’s even a popular Hollywood website that tracks movies’ box-office momentum and calls it mojo. Boxing has its own such mojo.
Read more- by Bart Barry on 13 June 2010
S.O.G., Sweetness and BDK
“Now is my time. I have to show and prove.” – Allan Green, June 8, 2010
Read more- by Bart Barry on 6 June 2010
Great idea, good venue, questionable refereeing
CORPUS CHRISTI, TEX. – All’s clear on the bay. While most boxing writers dined together and canvassed Yankee Stadium in the Bronx this weekend, I was in the heavy, salty air of South Texas. In this part of the Gulf of Mexico, it’s good to report, there’s no oil on the beaches – [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 31 May 2010
Encountering Barrera: Deregulation, bad experiences, and Edwin Valero
It’s easy to find a professional athlete who will talk to you about his strengths. It’s only slightly harder to find one who will tell you about his peers’ weaknesses. A professional athlete who will speak to you in good faith about his own weaknesses, though, is a rare thing.
Read more- by Bart Barry on 27 May 2010
No fury yet: Chavez Jr. meets the press at Alamodome
SAN ANTONIO – The son of legendary Mexican prizefighter Julio Cesar Chavez was at the Alamodome Thursday morning. He shared the stage with Mexican prizefighting legend Marco Antonio Barrera. He posed for pictures with famous American prizefighters Jesse James Leija and Carlos Hernandez. His name was the most recognizable, though. Even [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 23 May 2010
“It’s 2-2, and that’s the way that it should be”
LOS ANGELES – In the hot blood that came immediately after his loss, blood that had streamed in his left eye and made a red mask of his face yet again, Israel Vazquez expressed a desire to fight Rafael Marquez a fifth time, to break their tie. Thirty minutes later, when everyone’s blood had [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 23 May 2010
Cyclists outside Staples Center; bicycles prohibited within
LOS ANGELES – Despite bleeding profusely from both eyes before 10 minutes of combat were up, Israel Vazquez never retreated in his fourth match with Rafael Marquez. He made no backwards laps round the ring, a tactic that, in boxing parlance, is called “getting on your bicycle.”
Read more- by Bart Barry on 21 May 2010
Gentlemen make weight, Jesse James weighs-in, and Zaragoza can’t wait
LOS ANGELES – A place called the Star Plaza outside Staples Center on a Friday afternoon was a curious spot to stage a weigh-in between two of the era’s least-frilly, least-flashy and least-assuming prizefighters, but there it was. Under a hot sun and before a black backdrop, the “Once and Four All” fighters took [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 16 May 2010
“¡Híjole! It is going to be a fight”
Last Tuesday while the “Once and Four All” conference call happened, I sat beside Mexican Jorge “El Travieso” Arce. He was at Dave & Buster’s restaurant in San Antonio to promote a different fight, with Eric Morel on June 26 at Alamodome. Arce likes to opine. Saturday’s match is two Mexicans in [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 11 May 2010
Fury to come: Arce and Morel are friends for now
SAN ANTONIO – Whoever turns out to be the better prizefighter on June 26, one thing is already certain. Puerto Rican Eric Morel is a much better pool hustler than Mexican Jorge Arce.
Read more- by Bart Barry on 9 May 2010
The curious case of Kermit and Paul
Here’s what we know. Saturday two welterweight titlists made a non-title match at junior-middleweight on HBO’s “World Championship Boxing.” In the middle of the fourth round of a fight neither was winning conclusively, the mens’ limbs tangled. One ended on the canvas. The other ended outside the ring, where a doctor [...]
Read more- by Bart Barry on 3 May 2010
- by Bart Barry on 25 April 2010
A great round, but Froch was subpar
“Don’t be afraid of the player with a good grip and a bad swing. Don’t be afraid of a player with a bad grip and a good swing. The player to beware of is the one with the bad grip and the bad swing. If he’s reached your level, he has grooved [...]
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