Bart Barry
Bradley-Pacquiao: Allowing plenty of faults
LAS VEGAS – The Bellagio Gallery of Fine Arts, a short cab ride from the week’s poorly cooled and hastily erected media tent outside...
Timothy Bradley shocks the world
LAS VEGAS –Things did not go according to plan for Manny Pacquiao. He was more aggressive than he had been in years. ...
Pavlik and Lee get by at Hard Rock
LAS VEGAS – When Kelly Pavlik fought in March, his first time in a prizefighting ring in 23 months, the match was about seeing...
Pacquiao the convert, Bradley the shameless
Manny Pacquiao can be beaten, but this is not news because any man who ties gloves on his fists and makes combat with large...
Carl Froch: Against the hypothetical
“I’m very tough, you know,” Carl Froch said Saturday, after he ruined Lucian Bute. “I’m a bit of an animal.”
It was the sort...
Another night in the gym
Inside the double blue doors, old wood with matte aluminum handles, the heater is off because with all the bodies inside and the humidity...
How I overcame Low V
We must learn to see in boxing’s story the energy and cruelty our rapturous drive demands, like the drum and swish and smack and...
Above a Texas bullring, a reminder about Floyd Mayweather
SAN ANTONIO – Suspended above a bullring on a wire-mesh floor below a cinema-size screen, one story and 50 yards from where Cowboys Dancehall’s...
Najera and Hall entertain & Ellis and McCumby thrill on Cinco...
SAN ANTONIO – Seeing a neighbor don gloves and swap blows in a prizefighting ring is often thrilling enough for any fan to go...
“Will they forgive us for this?”
Somewhere in the 11th round of Saturday’s HBO main event one man’s lovely face expressed wholly what viewers wished to see. It was Oscar...
Watching a writer watch a fan watch Floyd Mayweather
“Makes fun of the Easter Bunny / Reunites with dad / Goes to pololoco for chick . . . plays basketball; crosstraining? Hungry again,...
From outrage, an outrageously good idea
You’re angry, angrier than you have been since March. Feed that rage a touch, then, before endeavoring to diffuse it. A catharsis...
Eating barbecue, thinking about El Paso and geometry
LULING, Texas – Here is a town that is home to 5,000 souls and represents the southernmost point of a golden corridor of Lone...
Sustainability in South Texas
SAN ANTONIO – The Illusions Theatre made its debut as a boxing venue here Saturday. Named in a nod to irony, Illusions is...
Gradovich stops Leal; Pavlik succeeds in comeback
SAN ANTONIO – It was “Mexican Russian” against “Little Soldier” at Illusions Theatre, in Saturday’s main event. All of the monikers were apt.
Fighting...
Pavlik returns in Leija’s debut
SAN ANTONIO – Kelly Pavlik, the former lineal middleweight world champion and fighting pride of Ohio, approached the small stage at a crowded cantina,...
Host of masters, target of scorn
HOUSTON – Here is the largest city in the state that comprises the world’s most corrupt athletic commission, a beast of two backs that...
Not Terrible: Garcia decisions Morales in Houston
HOUSTON – Finally, Erik “El Terrible” Morales, at age 35, did not have enough of what once made him great to wrest a victory...
El Terrible, finalmente
I started to write about boxing because of Erik “El Terrible” Morales, whose face, along with those of Israel Vazquez and Juan Manuel Marquez,...
Salido-Lopez II: Only the Violence Mattered
All that is essential about our sport, in both amateur boxing and prizefighting, happens between its ropes and bells. What occurs during a match,...
Into the filth
In his 2001 essay “A rough trade,” British novelist Martin Amis writes ferociously, and with ironic humanity, about the increasing violence one finds in...
Examining the conscience before confessing the scorecard
We begin in a discomfiting place – Catholicism’s examination of conscience – and hope to move to an optimistic one. This column should...
Something less than photo realism on the Bay
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – If you were here in the beautiful coastal climes of the Gulf, 65 degrees with a cool saltwater wind, you...
Williams brings silence, Cloud brings controversy, Arreola brings violence
CORPUS CHRISTI, Tex. – Paul “The Punisher” Williams burst on the scene years ago as a gangly, volume-punching giant whom no manager wished to...
Williams, Cloud and Arreola lead a spirited “Triple Threat” weigh-in
CORPUS CHRISTI, Tex. – The banner behind the scale on the hastily erected stage read “Three of boxing's biggest threats, seeking world supremacy.” ...
Lucky punches and Paul Williams’ threat of a triple
The prizefighter formerly known as “Boxing’s Most Feared” has a problem with misfortune. Paul Williams, in his mind and his handlers’, has been...
Chavez Jr. and Warhol, juxtaposed
SAN ANTONIO – Tuesday, three or so hours after Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. skipped an open workout at Jesse James Leija’s gym, a workout...
EARLY RESULTS FROM SAN ANTONIO
SAN ANTONIO – The final undercard match of Alamodome’s “Welcome to the Future” card featured Mexican super bantamweight Raul Hirales (16-0-1, 8 KOs)...
Waiting for weighting: Chavez Jr. and Rubio take the scale
SAN ANTONIO – There was Bob Arum. There was Wilfredo Vazquez Sr. There were Nonito Donaire and Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. There...
Donaire entertains locals, shows eye for talent at open workout
SAN ANTONIO – “Filipino Flash” Nonito Donaire is already celebrated among boxing insiders for his hand speed, footwork, power and charisma. Now insiders...
