Dan Rafael of ESPN.com previews Roy Jones Jr vs Felix Trinidad.

Bob Foster, who was one of the greatest light heavyweights of all time, had trouble moving up to heavyweight. Jones, Terrell, and Zora Foley soundly beat him in heavyweight bouts. After winning the light heavyweight crown in 1968, he failed in attempts to beat Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali. How would he have fared at 190 pounds?

I’m sure if you took all the top boxers who weighed between 175 pounds and 190 pounds since 1960; most experts would rate Holyfield number one. How would a 190-pound Holyfield have coped with Floyd Patterson’s hand speed?

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Continue reading "Eddie Perkins on Way to Hall of Fame"

Screenshots taken from ESPN Motion.

Last weekend Showtime aired three fights that ended with three spectacular TKO finishes: Former undisputed light heavyweight Antonio Tarver pummeled Danny Santiago before eventually finishing him in the 4th round; Vernon Forrest put on a clinic until he stopped Michele Piccirillo in the 11th; and Nonito Donaire put Luis Maldonado down for the count with a left hook in the 8th round of their bout.

Above is a highlight of the end of all three fights…

The Philadelphia Daily News said that Hazzard declined to comment and that the only reason that Milgram gave for Hazzard’s release was that “It was time for a change.”

Former undisputed middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins was quite angered to hear that Hazzard was fired without proper reason:

“Nobody can tell me why Larry got fired,” Hopkins said. “Everybody told me that the attorney general said there was no comment. Just like that, there was a change. It’s just like changing quarterbacks. If you want to change [Donovan] McNabb, you have to have a reason. You just can’t change him.

Zack Arnold of Fight Opinion has a fantastic round-up of coverage on the event which reveals that Hazzard actually wrote a letter to New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine concerning the possibility that some of the NJACB employees were jeopardizing the health of some fighters by being negligent during pre-fight testing.

Apparently state officials were irked by the letter and ended up deciding to let Hazzard go.

The New Jersey Star-Ledger has a quote from Hazzard’s lawyer that might make this whole thing an even bigger deal.

Touch of gloves to Zack for this one:

Among the concerns, Binns wrote, were the employee’s decisions to sanction mismatches in mixed martial arts contests, to okay a fighter who failed to test negative for HIV and to allow promoters to “shop” for medical approvals for their fighters.

Bad news for the state of New Jersey if the allegations are true.

Cross-posted on our sister site, MMA on Tap.

Everyone knows about ESPN’s new video clips. Just about everything is available these days. However instead of seeing certain segments of The Contender, you can now watch an entire fight.

Here’s Sakio Bika vs Donnie McCrary from last week.

Enjoy.

Then a tremendous boxer-puncher of Puerto Rican heritage exploded on to the scene. He was really a blown up middleweight with an extensive and successful amateur background, but boy could he fight!

He was a thing of beauty to watch. Hands held high in front of his face in the peek-a-boo style taught to him by his mentor Cus D’Amato. The flashing combinations, the burning body shots and his business like command of the situation inside the ropes. He was quite simply, a fighting machine.

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Who is to blame for the heartbreaking oversight? People tend to forget that Patterson thrashed Archie Moore much more impressively then Marciano did the night he became the youngest man ever to win the heavyweight crown. Still when a dream match between Marciano and Patterson is talked about, Floyd is quickly dismissed… Simply put, Rocky had the punch and Floyd did not have the whiskers.

After the Moore victory, Floyd would make safe defenses against guys like Pete Rademacher and Tommy “Hurricane” Jackson. Floyd then had his chin exposed by Ingemar Johansson. To Floyd’s credit he became the first heavyweight champion to regain the title by halting Ingo not once but twice. Finally Floyd fell to the ham like fists of Charles “Sonny” Liston in one round. Sonny repeated the one round trick in their return match.

Continue reading "Why the Post-Title Patterson Was Better"