The news that featherweight titleholder Shakur Stevenson was lined up for a non-title fight with Rafael Rivera in June reminded me of a time when champions regularly appeared in non-title bouts. Back in the day, champions considered it important to stay active. A non-title (or over-the-weight) bout offered the opportunity to do so while the […]
In this time of a worldwide boxing shutdown, thoughts tend to drift back to times past, fights seen, champions remembered. Lately I have found myself thinking of Carlos Monzon. It’s possible that Monzon was the greatest middleweight champion of them all. Tall and rangy, he was an excellent technician with a sturdy chin. He could […]
Dana White’s outfit has shown how combat sports can move forward in these troubling times, writes Graham Houston. I don’t follow MMA, but in the past week I took a look at the UFC’s first two shows in what is now the Covid-19 era. I never thought I would find myself saying this, but I […]
Unbeaten records, statistics and so-called form guides don’t always mean a lot when the first bell rings. I’ve always been fascinated by boxing odds. Indeed, I have made a close study of them over the years. Things are very different now to what they were in, say, 1960. Today, many favourites are clearly overpriced. A […]
In his first column for Boxing Social, IBHOF inductee and former Boxing Monthly/Boxing News Editor Graham Houston pays tribute to the much-admired Les Stevens and remembers his creditable fighting career, which included bouts with Jimmy Young and John Conteh. It was unfortunate for Les Stevens, who passed away on April 25 at the age of […]