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Written by Bernard Fernandez
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Wednesday, 15 May 2013 09:42
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 For most people, the boxing ring might seem a dangerous place. The guy in the other corner is trying to hit you and, if he does it often enough and hard enough, he just might knock you out. Every fighter knows what it’s like to walk on the wild side, and every fighter accepts pain as the price he must pay for doing what he does, whether he does it well or not. But there are areas far more foreboding than a roped-off swatch of canvas, and greater risks to take than swapping punches with a gloved opponent with a flashy record and putaway power. There are, after all, rules to be observed in boxing and a referee to enforce them. For a lot of highly accomplished fighters, the streets where they grew up were tougher to survive than anything their blood sport could throw at them. In the harsher precincts... Read more...
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Written by Frank Lotierzo
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Tuesday, 14 May 2013 10:48
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 There are two kinds of smart and intuitive fighters in professional boxing. The first type are the tacticians who are great at developing a new strategy on the fly during the bout or at least have the capacity to re-watch their first meeting with a particular opponent and adjust to what may have led to their defeat during the first meeting. Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, Archie Moore, Muhammad Ali, and Sugar Ray Leonard come to mind in that vein. Then there are the fighters who know how to manage their career and were great at picking their spots on when to fight certain opponents who presented a risk to them. Fighters the likes of Sugar Ray Robinson and Leonard make up that list as does Bernard Hopkins. And of course there are some fighters who belong on both list as you see. As most know Floyd Mayweather 44-0... Read more...
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Written by David A. Avila
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Monday, 13 May 2013 21:40
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 LOS ANGELES-Regardless of the promoter one thing is as certain as traffic in Los Angeles, the fight card at the Home Depot Center will be spectacular. The converted tennis stadium will once again provide the battle setting when Riverside’s Josesito “Riverside Rocky” Lopez (30-5, 18 Kos) fights Argentina’s Marcos Maidana (33-3, 30 Kos) on Saturday, June 8. Plus, Mexico’s Alfredo “Perro” Angulo (22-2, 18 Kos) meets Cuba’s Erislandy Lara (17-1-2, 11 Kos). Showtime will televise. Based on the history of the venue located in Carson, expect to be riveted to your seat. It’s matchmaking at its best and seldom will prizefighters (seen in above Al Applerose photo) accept a challenge as difficult as these four boxers. “It should... Read more...
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Written by Michael Woods
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Monday, 13 May 2013 12:24
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 His skill at choosing a succession of opponents to help a boxer travel from professional point A to point B was immense. His skill at playing life as a politician, of tamping down his voracious need to speak truth to power, to broadcast his critiques of the sport of boxing, was not present to the same extent. Johnny Bos, a Sunset Park, Brooklyn-bred boxing lifer, died in his Clearwater, Florida residence on Saturday. He was 61 years old, and did it his way to the final day. Bos (pronounced Boz) dealt with congestive heart failure for many years, and I think it's fair to say that the news of his death, for many that knew him, and knew how deeply he felt the sting of not being in the big-league mix that his talent and acumen suggested he should be, was met with a mixed emotions. This XL character--he was 6-4, north of 250 pounds, prone to wearing... Read more...
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Written by The Sweet Science
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Sunday, 12 May 2013 19:33
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 Johnny Bos, who died this weekend at his home in Forida, was a Runyonesque character. Bos was a boxing guy. Other boxing insiders describe him as one of the most knowledgeable boxing people they ever met. “He was my first mentor,” matchmaker Ron Katz told The Sweet Science on Sunday. “I was a kid doing shows in White Plains when he took me under his wing. Night after night, we were on the phone until the wee small hours of the morning, talking boxing.” “Johnny was one of my teachers,” Lou DiBella said on hearing of Bos’s death. “There are matchmakers all over the world who were influenced by him. He loved boxing. He loved fighters. He was a brilliant hardcore blue-collar boxing guy. And he was incredibly generous with his knowledge.” For years, Bos (seen in above photo, from 2009 Florida Boxing Hall of Fame induction)... Read more...
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Written by Michael Woods
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Friday, 10 May 2013 09:57
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 The numbers are in, and Showtime is reporting that the Floyd Mayweather-Robert Guerrero fight did over one million buys. Stephen Espinoza, head of boxing at Showtime, told TSS that he is quite pleased with the result, and that the buy rate shows that Floyd Mayweather is the top PPV draw in sports. "Rumors of our financial demise were greatly exagerrated, if not fabricated," said Espinoza, in reference to the Twittersphere speculation earlier in the week that the PPV was in the 800,000 neighborhood. "We wanted to take our time, not speak without a sufficient basis. We're very comfortable saying the buys are going to be over a million. These numbers re-confirm that Floyd is without a doubt the top pay-per-view draw in the sport. This kind of number without the benefit of a well-known opponent establishes Floyd's... Read more...
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Written by David A. Avila
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Thursday, 09 May 2013 16:17
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 Springtime in Southern California can be the best time of the year. With temperatures in the 80s and a brisk wind blowing through the Cajon Pass, we breezed up the mountain freeway toward Las Vegas in speedy fashion with the wind at our backs. Of course, we had to look out for the Highway Patrol. It was Thursday morning and after a three hour drive or less, we motored right up to the 50 Cent Boxing Gym on the west side of the Las Vegas Strip. A group of cars including a sterling looking Bentley were parked in front of the spanking new boxing facility. Media types roamed outside of the gym so we looked for a doorway and walked right through. The place was packed with reporters and boxers. In one of the boxing rings a fighter was getting his hands wrapped. On the corner was Roy Jones Jr. who looked our way.... Read more...
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Written by Lee Wylie
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Wednesday, 08 May 2013 19:23
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 In what was his most dominating performance since mastering Juan Manuel Marquez back in September of 2009, Floyd Mayweather retained his welterweight title and kept his professional unbeaten streak going with a quite scintillating display of boxing against Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero in Las Vegas last Saturday night. Despite now being 36 years-old, Mayweather showed no signs of decline in what was his first outing in little over a year (it was also his first fight since being incarcerated back in June). After two fairly even rounds, Mayweather seized control (that’s if he hadn’t already done so in the first two, but more on that in a moment) and dominated the remainder of the fight to earn himself a unanimous decision, winning 117-111 on... Read more...
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Written by Michael Woods
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Wednesday, 08 May 2013 11:32
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 Floyd Mayweather put on a thoroughly masterful showing Saturday night in Las Vegas, I dare say surprising a ton of folks who thought that he'd deteriorated with age. No, he made a darn fine fighter like Robert Guerrero miss like a Golden Gloves neophyte time and again, and again proved to me that there is nobody from 140-154 who can beat or maybe even truly test him. I'd love to see him tell us all to go to hell for critiqueing him, and shut our smart mouths once and for all by challenging Andre Ward at a catch-weight, and fighting and beating him...though I know the chances of this are the same as me waking up tomorrow with a full head of hair and a 30 inch waist. Keep on dreaming, cueball... The nattering nabobs and gleeful jackals have been out in force since Sunday morning, taking to Twitter to dissect every aspect of the... Read more...
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Written by Michael Woods
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Tuesday, 07 May 2013 16:23
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 Freddie Roach is by no means thinking that Brandon Rios, because he's a come-forward guy, and isn't the counter-punching ace that Juan Manuel Marquez is, will be a tailor-made "W" for his guy Manny Pacquiao. Roach knows full well that Manny is no spring chicken, that he turns 35 in December and the finish line is near. But Roach isn't going to coddle the Congressman, take it easy on him, structure a camp where Manny is the boss and the opportunity to rest is of paramount import. No, Roach told me, he will be insuring that Pacquiao is as ready to rock Nov. 23 against Rios in Macau as fate will allow. Five-time BWAA trainer-of-the-year Roach (seen conferring with Pacman, in Chris Farina-Top Rank photo) said he will run camp in General Santos City, Phillipines, in pretty... Read more...
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