Nov. 6, 1981: Holmes vs Snipes
In May of 1981, undefeated fair-skinned heavyweight contender Gerry Cooney galvanized the attention of fair-skinned American sports fans by demolishing
Read more
Ken Norton
Oct. 30, 1974: Ali vs Foreman
In 1974, George Foreman reigned supreme. The previous year he had astonished the sports world with his terrifying demolition of
Read more
Oct. 1, 1975: Ali vs Frazier III
More than four decades later, one still hears the echoes, the reverberations of that final, epic struggle between two boxing
Read more
Sept. 28, 1976: Ali vs Norton III
In a time of constant media exposure and fifteen second attention spans, it is almost impossible to fully appreciate the
Read more
Sept. 28, 1979: Holmes vs Shavers
We talk of fighters having a “puncher’s chance,” and that, more than anything else, was what Earnie Shavers brought into
Read more
Sept. 21, 1985: Holmes vs Spinks I
In March of 1985, heavyweight champion Larry Holmes scored a tenth round stoppage of undefeated contender David Bey and then
Read more
Sept. 10, 1973: Ali vs Norton II
It had been years since Muhammad Ali worked with such intensity and purpose, years since he had forced his body
Read more
On Eddie Futch
Perhaps it’s just me but I get the feeling Eddie Futch , who was born on this date 110 years
Read more
Deposing The Greatest
There’s never a bad time to pay tribute to an all-time great trainer and boxing genius, but with tomorrow being
Read more
June 11, 1982: Holmes vs Cooney
It was boxing’s biggest night, but for all the wrong reasons. In terms of sheer popularity, exposure, and the money
Read more
June 9, 1978: Holmes vs Norton
While it may be going a bit far to classify Ken Norton as a “hard-luck fighter,” it’s difficult not to
Read more
May 25, 1980: Cooney vs Young
“I’m going to win this fight, going to win it big. I’ve trained hard for this and I’ve got it
Read more
May 21, 1966: Ali vs Cooper II
Looking back, it’s easy to forget that until the early 1970s and his punishing wars with Bonavena, Frazier, Norton and
Read more
May 20, 1983: Holmes vs Witherspoon
The career of heavyweight champion Larry Holmes is, among other things, a study in frustration. First, there was the struggle
Read more
March 31, 1973: Ali vs Norton I
Few deny that Muhammad Ali was one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all-time, perhaps even “The Greatest,” and a
Read more
March 26, 1974: Foreman vs Norton
On March 31, 1973, unheralded heavyweight contender Ken Norton outpointed Muhammad Ali to score a huge upset. Seven months later, Ali
Read more
March 13, 1963: Clay vs Jones
No matter how impressive the amateur credentials, or how good they look in the gym, you can never know what
Read more
Feb. 28, 1973: Napoles vs Lopez II
They call boxing the cruelest sport for a number of reasons, one of them being that no matter how talented
Read more
On Leon Spinks
In mourning the death of Leon Spinks one week ago, one is not lamenting the loss of “a great fighter,”
Read more
Jan. 28, 1974: Ali vs Frazier II
That first historic Ali vs Frazier confrontation in 1971, without question one of the biggest sports events of all-time, took
Read more
Facing Ali
Casualties of a cruel sport. Broken spokes on boxing’s eternal wheel. Archetypes for the noble poor. Or, to cast such reductive generalizing
Read more
Muhammad Ali: The Fighter
A few days ago the boxing world marked the anniversary of Muhammad Ali’s birth and so we keep the festivities
Read more
Top 12 Reasons Why Muhammad Ali Is The Greatest
Today is the anniversary of the birth of the amazing athlete who changed boxing forever and, as we must each
Read more
Top 12 Greatest Muhammad Ali Performances
Do we need a special occasion to pay tribute to arguably the most popular and influential prizefighter of all-time? Is
Read more
Colin Hart: From Caracas To Kinshasa
For almost six decades, renowned British sports writer Colin Hart has covered the good, the great, and not so great
Read more
Ali vs Shavers: The Greatest’s Finest Hour
No matter how dismal the fight scene may be at a given time, fans can always cherish and take comfort
Read more
Top 12 All-Time Greatest Rivalries
The best boxing rivalries are about more than a series of action-packed fights. Great rivalries are stories, absorbing narratives that
Read more
McIlvanney On Boxing
A.J. Liebling will always be boxing’s literary standard bearer, his masterwork The Sweet Science and other books certain to find
Read more
Top 12 All-Time Greatest Heavyweights
At a very leisurely pace over the last couple of years, The Fight City has offered its own idiosyncratic rankings
Read more
Turning Defeat Into Victory
“A rose is a rose is a rose,” writer Gertrude Stein once famously claimed. Likewise, a loss is a loss
Read more