Sports Journalist · 38 articles
‘I coulda’ been a contender’. The immortal words of ex-boxer Terry Malloy, as memorably portrayed by Marlon Brando in On The Waterfront. In the real world, boxing history is littered with the bodies of fighters who could quite conceivably have achieved legendary status in the sport, but never fulfilled their potential whether through being wronged, injury, […]
This Saturday, rejuvenated super middleweight contender John Ryder will headline a Matchroom card on home ground at the Copper Box Arena, London, against Russian Andrey Sirotkin in a WBA final eliminator, with the winner in line for a title shot against recently-crowned WBA ‘Super’ champion Callum Smith. It represents the biggest opportunity to date for […]
It was business as usual on Saturday night for Terence Crawford against Jose Benavidez Jr, in his first WBO welterweight title defence. Benavidez, once regarded as one of the sport’s top prospects, had stirred up bad blood between the two men with persistent trash-talking during the fight build-up, and it boiled over at the weigh-in […]
The World Boxing Super Series (WBSS) is back with a bang this Saturday in Yokohama, Japan. With Callum Smith’s explosive knockout of George Groves in the super middleweight tournament final at the weekend officially bringing season 1 of the WBSS to an end, season 2 brings us tournaments in two new weight divisions, bantamweight and […]
On Saturday night, WBA (Super), IBF and WBO heavyweight World champion Anthony Joshua returns to familiar territory at Wembley stadium to make his sixth title defence against WBA mandatory Alexander Povetkin. The fight has been described invariably as ‘dangerous’ and a potential ‘banana skin’ by the defending champion and his promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing. […]
British heavyweight David Price returns to the ring this Saturday on the undercard of the Anthony Joshua-Alexander Povetkin world heavyweight title fight to face rising Russian prospect Sergey Kuzmin. Price had originally been scheduled to face Irish heavyweight Sean Turner next month in a crossroads fight in Belfast, only for the fight to be cancelled, reportedly due […]
Weeks of bad blood had simmered between former IBF middleweight world champion, David Lemieux, and Ireland’s Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan leading up to their fight on the undercard of the Canelo-Golovkin HBO main event on Saturday night, fuelled by the exchange of insults and taunts on social media. During fight week, it boiled over into a very public […]
Juan Francisco Estrada vs Felipe Orucuta Juan Francisco Estrada may be one of the most accomplished fighters in boxing, not just his weight class. The former unified flyweight titlist is an excellent counter-puncher blessed with fight-ending power, a great chin and superb boxing skills. He gave a prime Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez the toughest fight of […]
The modern art of match-making on behalf of the boxing prospect is one of the finest to master in the realm of the sweet science, demanding honesty, rigour and objective judgment. The dilemma which its practitioners grapple with on a daily basis is a familiar one; achieving the right balance between risk and reward. Match […]
Recently, former WBC female world champion, Mia St. John, set the boxing Twittersphere on fire with tweets defending Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez against the heated criticism faced by the Mexican star after he tested positive for the banned substance clenbuterol earlier this year. St. John went on to say that ‘everyone does it’ in reference to […]
Paddy Barnes’ hopes of making Irish boxing history by winning a World title in only his sixth professional contest came to a crushing end on Saturday night in Belfast at the heavy hands of WBC World flyweight champion Cristofer Rosales. Barnes, fighting in his home-city on the undercard of his good friend Carl Frampton’s WBO interim […]
Eleider Alvarez sprung one of the boxing upsets of the year on Saturday night with a stunning seventh round stoppage of Sergey Kovalev in Atlantic City. Ironically, the bout took place at the same venue where the Russian ‘Krusher’ scored his signature career win in 2014; a shutout of the legendary Bernard Hopkins which saw […]