ESPN - Duddy wins, but future may be at 154 pounds - Boxing

ESPN - Duddy wins, but future may be at 154 pounds - BoxingHaving met John Duddy at the Jesse Harris boxing gym a while back, I found him to be an affable, adroit, very tough fighter with a very pleasant public demeanor, refreshing in a time of untrammeled trash talking. But I think Duddy should find a weight class far from that of middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik.

Anyway, here's the ESPN story of Duddy's win over Howe, and I'm glad of it.

Jesse Harris: The Second Coming

I was a little worried when Jesse Harris told me he was taking a fight in Newark about a week ago. I knew Harris would be formidable at any age, but Jesse already had a lot of fights under his belt, and I didn't want to risk seeing him get dumped like aging Chris Byrd.

Besides, Jesse is a great trainer with a considerable following. For me, he had nothing to prove. I'd learned a great deal of boxing knowledge from Jesse Harris, up close and personal. During a training exercise once, I rolled right when Jesse had told me to roll left to slip his right hand. Boom! In this grainy clip I've posted, dude, I feel your pain.

Jesse was a lot nicer to me than he was to this Garth fighter in the clip. Harris caught me on my way down and propped me up but I was out on my pins. Good night. It was like a car wreck.

I knew Jesse primarily as a boxer but he's kick-boxing afficionado and practitioner, too. So watch the big guy eat an overhead right thrown at a nice angle.

ESPN Friday Night Fights: Boxing Returns to Scranton

Irish boxer James Moore lands a right hand in sparring session in Stroudsburg. Moore was training for a fight at Fernwood Resort; he stopped in to get a bit of work in one of our local boxing gyms.



Professional boxing returned to Scranton, PA last night and I hope the successful event, televised by ESPN, becomes the obsession it was “back in the day.” The matchmakers put together a good card and that’s a good thing for our part of the Northeast where fight fans are very sophisticated and remember the classic matchups of old. Boxing was always popular in the coal regions with their various ethnicities, and former Heavyweight Champion Larry Holmes got his early victories in the Catholic Youth Center where the event was held last night. I’d been to Scranton for previous pro fights and wasn’t disappointed. The renowned and ebullient Lou Duva is an old Lackwanna Valley boy and he was at ringside. ESPN’s Teddy Atlas did the commentary and pre-fight hoopla. I’ve got to hand it to that guy—his scorecard seems always to get it right or so close that you won’t whine about it.

I missed the fight two weeks ago in which Irish James Moore (15-0) lost to an underdog (King Rosado) in the Hard Rock Café of New York. I need to see that. Moore’s one of my favorite guys; he’s amiable, well schooled, with a long amateur record. Big controversy in that loss—Teddy Atlas made some critical remarks about the outcome. So did a lot of other people. Without seeing the fight, I couldn't say but somebody on the internet described Moore as a "goofy white kid who looks like he should be a computer programmer, not a boxer." Yeah, so much for looks. I've seen the guy fight three or four times. Most of his opponents fall down. Kelly Pavlik looks like he might be a computer programmer, too. Both these guys would probably re-program the internet critic's head in about a nanosecond(that's a nerd word for the critic).

I love ESPN2. They’re not the big money PPVs but so many times that’s disappointing. I like to see the regular people, the up and comers. It’s often a lot more interesting and many of the fighters on the way up are willing to risk everything. Patrick Lopez and Joaquin Gallardo…got to give those guys their props….both took the fights on short notice. Gallardo is from Oakland, CA—that boy doesn’t have a stop switch. Lopez was stronger; he was something of a big name in the amateurs. He had no quit in him either. You needed fast eyes to watch. Maybe a raincoat and an umbrella if you were sitting in the first row.

ESPN - The Long and Short of Pavlik, Williams, Mora, and Lopex

ESPN - Mandatory down, megafights to come for middleweight star - Boxing

Rematch: Carlos Quintana vs. Paul Williams, 2nd Time Around

ESPN - Quintana confident he can repeat victory over Williams - Boxing ESPN did a good sketch of this fight. I like a methodical "B" class fighter like Quintana over a quirky thoroughbred like Paul Williams. 5-2 odds in favor of Williams are about right... Pn the other hand, Big Brown was the heavy favorite at the Belmont today.

Larry Holmes Fires Some Quick Jabs at Boxing

Holmes takes a jab at the boxing world - USATODAY.comLarry Holmes is finally being inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. It's about time. Most of the kids around today will remember an aged Larry Holmes being dumped by Mike Tyson before Mike Tyson himself was dumped by Buster Douglas. But Larry Holmes sucessfully defended his title twenty times during his prime. In all of boxing history, I doubt there was guy who had a better jab, a jab that sizzled and smacked and parted the air in a room.


I used to work in the building next the one where Larry Holmes has his offices and other businesses and went over to chat with him whenever I could. Holmes was always tolerant of my occasional visits to bother him or one of his guards. He's not the kind of egregious personality who bubbles to be loved, but he has a natural way about him which makes him far more real to me than many of the plastic personalities in TV Land. Outside the ring, I never saw him be unkind to anyone, except for one poor dumb bastard who accosted him while exiting the elevator from his offices to complain about why he couldn't park in front of main door. I was watching the whole thing, hoping to see that piston jab snaking out to drop the guy in his tracks but I was disappointed. All it took for the guy to back down was a sharp look and a couple of quiet words from Holmes that I couldn't quite hear.

That guy must have been happy his whole life long thinking about how he'd escaped death that day.

But Larry Holmes deserves his entry to the Boxing Hall of Fame if anyone does. Go to boxrec and look up his records. Even some of those less famous names would be champion in our day of heavyweights. Ernie Shavers could launch people into space with his punch and have them serve as permanent communication satellites. Check it out. Larry Holmes was an Ali without the poetry and the jive. ESPN classic needs to televise his early fights.

Ex-champ Holyfield having major money problems - Boxing - CBSSports.com MMA, Results, News

Ex-champ Holyfield having major money problems - Boxing - CBSSports.com MMA, Results, NewsIn the old days, when managers and promoters routinely took advantage of fighters, you could understand how a boxer could end up broke and unemployed. But since boxing became better regulated and most of the mob's influence was taken out of it, I find it hard to understand how a guy like Holyfield, who made millions, could end up broke and having to sell his phat crib in Atlanta. Congress should pass a law requiring all millionaire fighters to "freeze" at least one million dollars in an untouchable account, administered by a skinflint from the IRS. That way we wouldn't have to read stories like this. Hit on the headline to read the full story.

Bob Beckel On Fox & Friends: 'Bombshell Heading Michelle Obama's Way' :: Political News and commentaries :: Hyscience

Bob Beckel On Fox & Friends: 'Bombshell Heading Michelle Obama's Way' :: Political News and commentaries :: HyscienceI've been hearing about this rumor for about a week and steered away from it, believe it or not, because some people get all hot on certain issues such as:

1) Cindy McCain sells beer.

2) There are lobbyists employed full-time in Washington.

But Bob Beckel is a strong Obama supporter and the fact that he says he's terribly worried (and I heard the audio clip where he says it) gives the rumor some credibility. So far as defining it, I'm not going to try to do that. There were rumors early on of household domestic spats but I don't get into that business, as I never got much into the business of Bill Clinton's sex life. True, Bill lied under oath and that is another matter, but frankly that "slimy" dude who went on and on about yesterday's breakfast isn't my type of metrosexual. I'm glad that Bill Clinton doesn't take a licking lying down. I'd put my money on Clinton to give the guy a much needed ass-whipping. Would that it were permitted under the rules of spouses running for president.

So the internet rumor mill says the other shoe is about to drop on the Obama campaign tomorrow. We'll see if it's all that.

ESPN - Rahman, Toney agree to fight on July 16 - Boxing

ESPN - Rahman, Toney agree to fight on July 16 - Boxing It's true that Jame Toney and Hasim Rahman are in the twilight time of their boxing lives but this fight, just signed, stands out as one that may actually have unusual interest. James Toney has always been a talented fighter with the added interest of a mercurial personality. He was an absolute genius of a fighter at around 147 pounds where he started out. At heavyweight, he was a bit overblown but always attractive to me by force of his personality. Hasim Rahman is also interesting for a personality that reminds one of Sonny Liston (a nicer Sonny Liston) and for a big punch which felled a big tree named Lennox Lewis "back in the day." Rahman has not been as clever a fighter as Toney is; he is a bludgeoner, impossibly powerful, and very dangerous when he's on his game. This shapes up to be an old school fight of cagey veterans. I do confess a worry about the scales, however, and hope they don't have to bring out the truck scales for the weigh-in. That's about as well as I can express it. I just like both these guys, recognizing that they're not foremost on anyone's mind except for the few of us.