An independent boxing website
Talent is an almost indefinable quality. You can spot it in a prodigious young athlete, but at the same time it’s difficult to define precisely what it is. It can manifest itself as an aura, a reality-defying sense
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Boxing, by its very nature, is the sport of heartache and disappointment. More than any other, it sadistically toys with its fans, raising expectations and then, as often as not, dashing all the excitement and anticipation to smithereens
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You’ve seen it. The photo taken when he was sixteen, standing in a corner, staring at the camera, hard to tell whether in defiance or hope. He’s skinny, wiry, all sinew and muscle and bone. His face is
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It was the classic confrontation: age and experience vs youth and raw talent. Southpaw Daniel Zaragoza was the grizzled veteran, a survivor of 65 professional battles and some 21 world title fights with champions such as Carlos Zarate, Paul
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Last Saturday a 42-year-old Manny Pacquiao stepped into the ring, and even before the opening bell one sensed the curtain was descending on an extraordinary career. This feeling had much to do with the retrospective video featured before
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At this point it’s anybody’s guess how much longer Manny Pacquiao will continue boxing, but what is known beyond a shadow of a doubt is that, win or lose tomorrow night against Yordenis Ugas, the Filipino marvel is
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In certain respects, Marco Antonio Barrera is not your typical Mexican fighter. When compared to such compatriots as Julio Cesar Chavez, Ruben Olivares, and longtime rival Erik Morales, Barrera had a relatively placid upbringing. He was in fact
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It’s been more than a year since our world was devastated by the deadly COVID-19 virus and we’re still far from getting back to normal. In fact, depending on where you happen to reside, you may be hunkered
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A while back your preferred independent combat sports website had a special week on Mexican pugilists called “Mexican Style” and part of it was a spirited debate regarding just who are the best Mexican boxers of all-time. So
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“I’m here training the greatest featherweight of all time.” None other than Emanuel Steward spoke those words, three weeks before Prince Naseem Hamed faced Marco Antonio Barrera in the biggest little fight money could buy in 2001. Manny
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The expectations were high this past Saturday when Miguel Berchelt and Oscar Valdez answered the bell in Las Vegas and with good reason. Few countries can match Mexico when it comes to a long-standing national tradition of furious
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No one can really pin down how the animosity began. Perhaps it was a regional rivalry with Erik Morales hailing from the working class region of Zona Norte, Tijuana while Marco Antonio Barrera came from the more genteel
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It’s 1996 and HBO has decided to start a new series of live boxing, providing fight fans with more excitement and their prizefighters with more exposure. At that time, Mexico’s Marco Antonio Barrera was a young boxer with tremendous
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For a country so small, Scotland has punched well above its weight in producing champion boxers. Benny Lynch, “The Little King of the Gorbals,” famously lit up the flyweight division in the 1930s, trading blows at football grounds
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Michael Carbert: Several years ago I wrote up a Top 12 Greatest All-Time Mexican Boxers list and to my delight, it inspired some consternation. I’ve wanted to revisit the topic because I’ve since learned the list is missing
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Bloody and Bruised: Berchelt and Miura Emerge Victorious. It’s not often that boxing fans get to witness two fights back-to-back that are so steeped in savagery that they likely takes years off of the respective careers of those involved.
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Fight fans are avidly looking forward to this Saturday night as we have what should be an amazing all-action, all-Mexico showdown between two blood-and-guts warriors, Orlando Salido and Francisco Vargas. If ever there was a potential Fight of
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In celebration of #MexicanStyle week we bring you Rafael’s write up of Erik “Terrible” Morales’ historic title-winning effort of September 17, 2011, when he defeated Pablo Cesar Cano for the vacant WBC super lightweight championship. Two weeks ago
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Dear Paulie, When I first learned you were fighting Danny Garcia, my concern for you almost matched my disappointment in Danny. After all, and despite his recent lackluster performances, Garcia is a young, strong champion. He’s eight years
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“Everybody is so talented nowadays that the only people I care to honor as deserving real distinction are those who remain in obscurity.” –Thomas Hardy What, then, are we to make of those who toil
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