Saturday, July 23, 2011

Khan-Judah: Chin It to Win It?

Will we see one of these moments unfold in Khan-Judah?



Friday, July 8, 2011

Remembering George Kimball



















Image credit: Boston Herald

The most renowned fight scribes earn that status, their staying power a product of dedication to the sport and the written word and the desire and ability to reach readers over the generations.

The boxing world lost one of its more renowned scribes this week. George Kimball passed away from cancer at the age of 67, dying after a battle that dated back to 2005.

"Many people engage in a flurry of activity when they’re in their sixties to make up for time lost when they were young," writes Thomas Hauser, memorializing Kimball for The Sweet Science. "George was determined to make up for time that he knew he would lose at the end.

"Over the next six years, George was living, not dying. He was as content and productive as most people are at any time in their lives.

"He added to his legacy as a writer by authoring Four Kings (the definitive work on the round-robin fights among Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, and Roberto Duran). That was followed by Manly Art (a collection of George’s own columns about the sweet science). He also edited two anthologies with John Schulian (At the Fights: American Writers on Boxing and The Fighter Still Remains: A Celebration of Boxing in Poetry and Song)."

Hauser's memorial includes an article he wrote about Kimball in 2004. It can be found here.

Kimball's longtime newspaper, Boston Herald, ran this memorial. Here's an excerpt:

"The Herald meant more to him than he ever let on, especially to his employers and superiors. George was a columnist here from 1980 to 2005, a quarter of a century. Here is where he made the transition from Angry Young to Grand Old. Here is where he got to have the most fun there is, being a big-city tabloid sports columnist. Here is where he found professional true love No. 2: boxing writing.

"He expressed his gratitude by trying to make reading as enjoyable as he found writing. A series of shared misadventures — too long for newspaper space allows me to state — illustrates that one of George’s dominant personality traits was a love of mischief. That’s a very good attribute for sportswriters, and a better one for their readers."

At the Boston Globe, columnist Bob Ryan penned this tribute to Kimball. Among the highlights:

"Long before he began treating Boston readers to his musings, he was a published novelist and contributor to many diverse "literary" publications having nothing to do with sports.

"You can look all this stuff up.

"But the reason why so many of us will miss George Kimball is, shall we say, his off-the-field self. If one were to conduct a poll of local writers, broadcasters, team officials and even players who have worked in Boston during the last 35 years or so, the question being, "Who is the most absolutely memorable personality you have encountered in the writing business?" the runaway winner --- perhaps even the unanimous choice --- would have to be George Kimball.

"That is, unless you know of some other bearded, one-eyed, chain-smoking, beer drinking, pot-bellied (I say this lovingly) vegetarian writer friend of Hunter S. Thompson who never saw a party he didn't like."

Rest in peace, George.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

In the Arena


Maybe you never watched Eliot Spitzer's news/talk show on CNN. Maybe that's one reason why it's just been canceled. But Spitzer did leave with a farewell quote from Teddy Roosevelt that I think all of us boxing writers would be smart to keep in mind. Here's a snippet of the sign-off:

SPITZER: That's it for tonight. This is my last program. And I thought the best way to sign off is with a quotation from Theodore Roosevelt. It is, in fact, the passage from which we took the title of the program "IN THE ARENA."

Here it is: It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood which strives valiantly, who errs, who comes up short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming, who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Thanks for watching. Good night from New York.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Klitschko-Haye: The Buzz Before The Big One














Image from fightnews.com


This is the big one. This is not just a fight between two of the three best heavyweights in the world. This is not just a fight that has been talked about for years.

This is the big one, the biggest fight that can be made that doesn't involve taking some guy named Manny Pacquiao and getting him in the ring with some guy named Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Wladimir Klitschko's fight with David Haye is Saturday afternoon (evening in Germany, where the fight is being held). This is the big one. And with the big-fight feel comes that big-fight buzz. We want to see what's going to happen. We don't know what's going to happen. We say we know what the result will be, and we argue why that will be the case. But we don't know, and that is why we tune in. And we will definitely tune in.

This, after all, is the big one.

This is a fight between a Ukrainian and a Brit, taking place in Germany. This is a Klitschko fight being shown on HBO, once commonplace, now a rarity.

Tim Smith of the New York Daily News looks at the situation:

"He [Klitschko] is already a megastar in Germany and Eastern Europe. His last five fights have been in Germany before sellout crowds and massive TV audiences (13 million people tuned in to see him beat Sam Peter in his last fight). He has endorsement deals with Hugo Boss and Mercedes. His face graces the covers of national magazines. His fight with Haye has been front-page news here for the past week.

"But Klitschko is an invisible man in America. He hasn't fought in the U.S. since a lackluster performance against Sultan Ibragimov at Madison Square Garden in 2008. He wants to return to the U.S. to wipe out the stench of that fight and could do it with a match against Chris Arreola if he can get past Haye Saturday."

Those are the larger stakes for Klitschko. The fight itself is much more immediate. Gabriel Montoya of MaxBoxing.com sets the table, giving the storyline on David Haye's end:

"For two years, David Haye has been talking about taking out a Klitschko, telling everyone and anyone that he can beat both brothers, even signing to fight them before pulling out of the fight (at the time, Haye cited an injury) because his promoter at Setanta Sports was having financial issues. For two years, after printing T-shirts of the brothers – both decapitated - and saying he would rid the boxing world of the boredom that is a Klitschko fight, the moment has finally arrived. Though many will take the 'I’ll believe it when the bell rings' approach, on July 2, David Haye finally will attempt in the ring what he has been trying to do in the press when he squares off against Wladimir Klitschko in the Imtech-Arena, Altona, Hamburg, Germany."

Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated believes a Haye win, which would end Klitschko's long reign, would be a good thing for boxing.

"The Klitschko Era has been impressive, but not always entertaining. Wladimir has tried to endear himself to America. He splits time between Miami and Los Angeles, has dated an American actress (Hayden Panetierre) and isn't averse to enjoying the night life. But his stoic demeanor and consonant-heavy name haven't sold many tickets and don't have casual fans looking for HBO.

"Haye could. He claims he will retire at the end of this year, but the potential embarrassment of riches that await him in the U.S. could change that. Haye could reboot the division and storm through the contenders in the States. Haye-[Chris] Arreola is a good fight. Haye-Tomasz Adamek, the Polish-born ex-cruiserweight champion who fights out of New Jersey, is another. Haye would have the full-throated support of HBO, which would jump at the chance to give another [Floyd] Mayweather-like personality a platform, and of a public starved to anoint someone as [Lennox] Lewis' heir."

For Wladimir Klitschko, a win over David Haye would be the crowning jewel in his heavyweight rain, the pinnacle of his resurrection from ruin.

For David Haye, a win over Klitschko would make all the trash talk and all the waiting worthwhile, all from one stunning win. Any other talk – about whether Haye should retire next or blaze through the heavyweight division instead – is premature.

We have Klitschko-Haye to talk about first. This is the big one.