He was a trainer by trade. He was called an ambassador by everybody who knows that boxing desperately needs one. Angelo Dundee was all of that and yet so much more.
Home-sweet-home: Ali had one in Dundee’s corner on history
February 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Ortiz’ big heart needs some maturity to go with it
January 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Just a year ago, Victor Ortiz was accused of having no heart. Turns out, everybody was wrong. Just the opposite has been revealed in two very different ways about a personable fighter impossible to predict. The only thing we know for sure about Ortiz is that he has too much heart.
Looking for hope and seeing some in HBO’s film: On Freddie Roach
January 20, 2012 By 1 Comment
Optimism is hard to find these days. Dumpster-diving is easier. From embarrassing talks about a fight still in never-never land to cancellations and hollow controversies, there’s just a lot of garbage beneath the headlines. But there is some good news. Really, there is.
Mayweather’s tweet just another silly punch line in silly talk
January 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The ever-unpredictable Floyd Mayweather Jr. has given Manny Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum another reason not to use his Twitter account.
Benavidez can’t fight on Feb. 3 because of troublesome injury that forces card’s cancellation
January 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Junior-welterweight prospect Jose Benavidez Jr. won’t fight on Feb. 3 at Wild Horse Pass Casino near his hometown, Phoenix, because of persistent pain from a lingering injury to his right wrist, said promoters, who canceled the card.
Give Mayweather a chance to win the biggest fight of his life
January 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Floyd Mayweather Jr. is scheduled Friday to begin a 90-day jail sentence that represents a term of uncomfortable uncertainty for a part of the business that dislikes him, yet needs him.
One look back and a few picks for a New Year
December 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment
A year ends with memories of those who are gone, optimism for those who are emerging and hope for those who are back. There are lessons from unresolved controversies and controversy that never ends. Farewell Joe Frazier, Genaro Hernandez, Ron Lyle, Henry Cooper, George Benton, Nick Charles and George Kimball. It won’t be the same without you. Hello Andre Ward, Nonito Donaire, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Seth Mitchell, James Kirkland, Gary Russell Jr. and Jose Benavidez Jr. You’re the future.
Mayweather’s sentence sums up a forgettable 2011
December 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Floyd Mayweather’s Jr.’s 90-day sentence on reduced charges was the battered game’s last significant headline in 2011 and sadly an appropriate wrap –a plain, brown paper bag, please — for a year best forgotten.
Ward poised for a fight that might make him a leading candidate for the new face of the next generation
December 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Reasons for the many controversies of 2011 are plentiful. Pick one. Pick a handful. In part, however, it appears to be symptomatic of a passing generation. Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. have only each other to fight and nobody seems to know today anything more than they did two years ago about whether that will ever happen. The bad blood of the last few years is getting old and tired. Maybe, it’s time to just move on to another name, a fresh face for the sagging game.
Khan is in a town where everybody fights and nobody gets a decision
December 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Amir Khan is in a city where it is very hard to get any kind of a decision. Some would say it’s impossible. Washington D.C. is only a fight town if you’re a Republican, or a Democrat, or Barack Obama.
A good Saturday could save 2011 by turning into the Year of the Rematch
December 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment
A 2011, seemingly forgettable because of controversial refereeing, has a chance to get off the mat this Saturday and be remembered as the Year of the Rematch.
Spreading the news: All the right moves sell Cotto-Margarito II in a New York second
November 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Brinksmanship equaled salesmanship in Bob Arum’s extraordinary fight to keep the Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito rematch on Dec. 3 in New York. Arum pushed all the right buttons, created all of the available leverage, in moves that figure to multiply the pay-per-view rewards in a way that traditional promoting could not have.
Leftovers from the Marquez-Pacquiao scorecard: Possibilities, politics and even a haircut
November 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Notes, quotes and random anecdotes in the turbulent wake of Manny Pacquiao’s majority decision over Juan Manuel Marquez:
Frazier mourned, but Marquez and Pacquaio honor him with another trilogy
November 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment
LAS VEGAS – The bell echoed mournfully throughout the MGM Grand Garden Arena. It was boxing’s haunting version of Taps for an old soldier. That’s what Joe Frazier really was. He was the soldier with scars from old battles, yet an undiminished memory that reminded him of who he was and often what he still wanted to be.
No surprises yet as Marquez tries to spring one on Pacquiao
November 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment
LAS VEGAS – Nothing other than perhaps the crowd was bigger than expected.
Middle-aged men wrapped in the Mexican tri-color, moms with babies napping in strollers and kids of every age stood in line for more than six hours to watch Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez step on and off a scale Friday in the formal weigh-in for the third chapter to their trilogy Saturday at the MGM Grand.
Benavidez witnesses a lesson in not what to do during undercard news conference for Pacquiao-Marquez
November 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment
LAS VEGAS – Jose Benavidez Jr.’s days as a prospect means time as an understudy. There was a lot to study Thursday. At the top of the lesson plan, there were examples of what-to-do, what-not-to-do at a news conference that ended in a profane, trash-talking exchange between Tim Bradley and Joel Casamayor.
No time for Mayweather: Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach rips Ellerbe and gets ready for Marquez
November 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment
LAS VEGAS – Floyd Mayweather Jr. calls Leonard Ellerbe his advisor, but Manny Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach calls him a go-fer, whom he likens to Pacquiao’s longtime friend and assistant trainer, Restituto Fernandez, nicknamed Buboy.
Marquez’ coach has many names, but he isn’t hiding behind any of them or anywhere else
November 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment
LAS VEGAS – Juan Manuel Marquez’ strength coach has been called controversial. He’s been called a couple of other things too, including two different last names, once Heredia and now Hernandez. He’s always been Angel, yet with a devil in his past. He testified during the BALCO scandal that he supplied performance enhancers to Olympic track-and-field medalists.
Arum rips HBO’s Thrilla in Manila, calling it unfair to Ali
November 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment
LAS VEGAS – Bob Arum threw a combination as only he can, first by praising Home Box Office for its work in the build-up to Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez and then ripping the network for its documentary, Thrilla in Manila, a look at the Joe Frazier-Muhammad Ali rivalry that HBO will replay Thursday and Sunday in honor of the late Frazier.
Marquez makes an offer Pacquiao can’t refuse
November 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment
A contentious conference call full of questions about Juan Manuel Marquez’ hiring of a controversial strength coach linked to performance-enhancers included an offer that represents an opportunity for Manny Pacquiao.
Bradley leaves the critics and moves on in a way that might finally pay
October 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Timothy Bradley has lived with criticism, but hasn’t been able to make a living off of it. It’s a subtle distinction, perhaps. But it’s a lesson that Bradley accepted and then spun into simple wisdom that led him away from Gary Shaw to Top Rank.
Donaire is in the right place and time to deliver some relief
October 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment
It’s a reach to make too much out of one punch. But we can hope, can’t we? I’m talking about Nonito Donaire, whose second-round thunderbolt in February dumped Fernando Montiel into a shaking heap and created an aura about Donaire.
Dawson sacks a victory — for now — over Hopkins in another controversial fight
October 15, 2011 By
LOS ANGELES – Chad Dawson held up his gloved hands in celebration. Bernard Hopkins held his left shoulder in pain. Fans, an endangered species, held their noses. It stinks.
Hopkins has more years, but fewer pounds than Dawson
October 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment
LOS ANGELES – Bernard Hopkins kept it light. He also kept his sunglasses on. Then again, it was Hollywood and he is the designated star for his fight Saturday night against Chad Dawson at Staples Center, just a few freeway miles from the scales Friday at Ripley’s Believe It or Not.
If Dawson can figure out who he is, he can figure out how to beat Hopkins
October 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment
It’s hard to know what to expect from Bernard Hopkins and Chad Dawson. Don’t blame Hopkins for that. After 23 years, we know Hopkins, mostly because he knows himself. He’s comfortable with what and who he has become. But the book on Dawson is an unfinished manuscript, an unresolved mystery. Who is he?
History: Hopkins has some in mind for Dawson and more for himself
October 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Bernard Hopkins will show up in wax next week. It ought to be granite. He’s been indestructible.
Another acronym ? Olympic governing body sticks a toe into the alphabet soup
September 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Boxing needs another ruling body like the U.S. needs another downgrade, but if news from the amateur World Championships in Azerbaijan are an indication, Olympic boxing’s administrative acronym (AIBA) is rehearsing for a role on a scrabble board already crowded with the WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO.
Everybody has a good argument, but what would we say if Ortiz had been seriously hurt?
September 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Try as one might, it is impossible to escape the yada yada about Floyd Mayweather Jr., Victor Ortiz, Joe Cortez and Larry Merchant. I’ve tried. Trust me, I’ve tried. Just when you think you’ve heard every argument echo from pillar-to-post, however, there’s another one. There’s no final word, I suspect, simply because there’s some truth in all of them.
Sorry night ends with no apologies from Floyd Mayweather
September 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment
LAS VEGAS – LAS VEGAS – Don’t ever say sorry to Floyd Mayweather Jr. He’ll make you feel sorry, very sorry, if you do.
Alexander on the move: He jumps to Golden Boy in a jump up to welterweight
September 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment
LAS VEGAS – Devon Alexander introduced his intentions Friday and made them official Saturday morning with a formal announcement that he has left Don King for Golden Boy Promotions in a move that also signals a move up in weight, from 140 pounds to 147.