© Sergio Martinez Now that we have had a few days to reflect on the middleweight title this past weekend, what did it show us and what does the future hold for both men? In my analysis prior to the bout I stated that in order for Taylor to be successful he would need to…
On 4 July 1910, Reno, Nevada was proclaimed “The hub of the universe.” This was a bout that many thought would never happen. Johnson, born in 1878 in Galveston, Texas, had many jobs before becoming a boxer. When he became a fighter, he was forced as a Negro to participate in many humiliating contests such…
The Olympian meets the blue-collar champion. Sounds familiar doesn’t it. In February, Hopkins achieved his goal of twenty successful title defenses against Howard Eastman with a points win. Taylor on the other hand is unbeaten in twenty-three professional fights and was a bronze medalist at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. Could this be a…
1978 was a very strange year in the heavyweight division. In February of that year, Leon Spinks in just his eighth professional fight defeated a thirty-six-year-old Muhammad Ali on a split fifteen round point’s decision in Las Vegas. At this time, the number one WBC contender was Ken Norton. Spinks ended up stripped of this…
It was a bout that contained arguably the most famous punch in British boxing history. Cassius Clay, the 1960 Olympic Gold Medalist at light heavyweight was unbeaten in eighteen professional bouts. He had already had some impressive names on his record such as Archie Moore, Sonny Banks, Alex Miteff and Doug Jones. Henry Cooper entered…
There are so many questions to answer leading to this fight. Is Tszyu over the hill? If his last defense against Sharmba Mitchell is any indication, then the answer to that is a resounding no. Will Tszyu’s past injuries catch up with him? No reason why they should. Will Hatton’s vicious body attack have an…
It is hard to believe but May 25 sees the fortieth anniversary of one of the most controversial fights in heavyweight history. Much had happened since Cassius Clay, as he was then known, won the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston in February 1964. Born in 1942, Clay’s only reason for boxing came when, as…
April of 2000 saw Lennox Lewis’s first defense as the unified heavyweight champion. The Briton had lost and regained the world championship to Oliver McCall and followed this up with defenses against Henry Akinwande, Andrew Golota (who he blew away in 97 seconds), Shannon Briggs and Zeljko Mavrovic. He then unified the title on points…
It was a fight that was hyped as “The Battle of the Ages.†In one corner, from Atlanta, Georgia, the world heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, twenty-eight and at the peak of his powers. Opposing him, from Marshall, Texas, George Foreman, forty-two, former world heavyweight champion. Holyfield had an unblemished professional record leading up to this…
It was a fight that many believed would never happen. This was to be Leonard’s first bout in three years and as he said before the fight, this would not be a career but one fight. Born in May 1956, Sugar Ray Leonard first came to prominence when he won the Olympic Gold Medal in…
Don King controlled the heavyweight championship at this time. The champions were the WBC’s Frank Bruno, the WBA’s Bruce Seldon and the IBF title was to be contested later in the year by Michael Moorer and Axel Schultz. Bruno was making the first defense of his WBC title. He had won the title six months…
This was a battle between two undefeated British heavyweights. Lennox Lewis was 14-0 with 13 KO’s having defeated Jean Maurice Chanet in six rounds in his last fight. Mason was the British champion for the last two years and had an impressive 35-0 record with 32 KOS. The bout was seen by many in the…