Free Republic

BOSTON — It was a blow the immigrant boxer could not withstand: after capturing his second consecutive title as the Golden Gloves heavyweight champion of New England in 2010, Tamerlan Anzorovich Tsarnaev, 23, was barred from the national Tournament of Champions because he was not a United States citizen. The cocksure fighter, a flamboyant dresser partial to white fur and snakeskin, had been looking forward to redeeming the loss he suffered the previous year in the first round, when the judges awarded his opponent the decision, drawing boos from spectators who considered Mr. Tsarnaev dominant. From one year to the...

Bay Area boxer legend Luis Molina, who was San Jose native recently passed away.

(CNSNews.com) – Although no group has claimed responsibility for Monday’s deadly bomb blasts at the Boston Marathon, a leading al-Qaeda ideologue last year recommended that jihadists in America include sporting events in their list of prospective terror targets.

Former heavyweight contender Carl “The Truth” Williams passed away today after a long battle with esophageal cancer. He was only 53. During a 15-year career that spanned from 1982-1997, Williams compiled a 30-10 (21 KOs) record against the best the division had to offer.

When our Lord says turn the other cheek, He speaks of a spiritual strategy to humble the self and then perhaps, to win other souls to Him. Not all the proud are shamed by humility and it seems pretty clear that those who smote the One who offered them salvation did not turn their hearts to him when He turned His cheek to them. Saint John Cantius won the hearts of some bandits when he called them back to take some money they had overlooked, but that is an instance rare enough to have become the lore of hagiography. Sane...

Two weeks before Muhammad Ali beat Sonny Liston for the heavyweight championship, the boxer’s trainer met secretly with FBI agents and identified members of the Nation of Islam who were associates of Ali, according to bureau records. In a "confidential" February 1964 memo to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, a supervisor in the bureau’s Miami office reported on a meeting with “trainer-manager” Angelo Dundee and Dundee’s brother Chris, who was promoting the fight between Liston and Ali (who was then still known as Cassius Clay).

Florentino Fernandez, whose entertaining brawling style helped him become one of the top middleweight contenders and popular local fighters of the 1960s, died of a heart attack Monday morning in Miami, his son, Florentino Jr., said. Fernandez was 76.

Manny Pacquiao's promoter Bob Arum claims that Floyd Mayweather Jr. once turned down a $100-million offer to fight Pacquiao. Speaking with ESPN 1100 in Las Vegas, Arum said there was a proposal on the table for a $180 million purse — 55% ($100 million) would have gone to Mayweather, and 45% ($80 million) would have gone to Pacquiao. Why'd he allegedly turn a hundred million dollars down? Arum claims that Mayweather hates fighting left-handed, unorthodox fighters. His closest fights have been against guys like this, and Arum says Mayweather becomes "completely vulnerable" against them. Mayweather is undefeated, and the chance...

Hector Camacho, a boxer known for his lightning-quick hands and flamboyant personality who emerged from a delinquent childhood in New York’s Spanish Harlem to become a world champion in three weight classes, died on Saturday in San Juan, P.R., after being shot while sitting in a parked car. He was 50.

Doctors say famed Puerto Rican boxer Hector "Macho" Camacho is clinically "brain dead" after being shot in the face. Dr. Ernesto Torres said at a news conference Thursday that doctors are still performing tests on Camacho before meeting with his family. Torres had said late Wednesday that Camacho was showing irregular and intermittent brain activity.

Former world boxing champion Hector 'Macho' Camacho was in critical condition today after being shot in his native Puerto Rico, with his family facing the decision of taking him off life support as his condition worsened. Doctors had said Camacho was expected to survive after he was shot in the face while sitting in a car on Tuesday night in his hometown of Bayamon. However his condition worsened overnight and his heart stopped at one point, said Dr Ernesto Torres, director of the Centro Medico trauma center in San Juan. 'He's battling minute to minute. This is the most important...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Ex-boxing champion Hector "Macho" Camacho was in critical condition Tuesday after being shot in Puerto Rico, medical officials said.

Carmen Basilio, the welterweight and middleweight boxing champion of the 1950s who fought two brutal bouts with Sugar Ray Robinson, winning his middleweight title and then losing it to him, died Wednesday in Rochester. Basilio, who lived in Irondequoit, a suburb of Rochester, was 85.

DETROIT — Emanuel Steward, earnest yet easygoing, proved rough and tough wasn’t the only way to win in boxing. With a twinkle in his eyes, a smile on his face and a soothing voice, Steward developed unique bonds in and out of the ring with a long line of champions that included Thomas Hearns, Lennox Lewis, Oscar De La Hoya and Wladimir Klitschko. Steward, owner of the Kronk Gym in Detroit and an International Boxing Hall of Fame trainer, died Thursday. He was 68. His executive assistant, Victoria Kirton, said Steward died Thursday at a Chicago hospital. She didn’t disclose...

Orlando Cruz from San Juan, Puerto Rico and ranked the No4 featherweight by the World Boxing Organisation (WBO) has openly admitted his is "a proud, gay man". He added: "I've been fighting for more than 24 years and as I continue my ascendant career I want to be true to myself. I want to try to be the best role model I can be for kids who might look into boxing as a sport and a professional career. I have and will always be a proud Puerto Rican. I have always been and always will be a proud, gay man."...

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Corrie Sanders, the South African southpaw who knocked out Wladimir Klitschko in one of the great upsets in heavyweight boxing, has died after being shot by robbers at a restaurant during a family celebration.

Former world heavyweight champion Michael "Dynamite" Dokes, blessed by natural boxing talent but cursed by a wicked addiction to cocaine, died early Sunday morning at his family home in Akron, Ohio. The ex-WBA champ, who served almost 10 years in a Nevada prison for a horrendous assault on a woman he lived with, was born on Aug. 10, 1958, and died on August 12 at the age of 54. Dokes was battered in recent months by cancer.

This one's not in Vegas- try Southington, Ohio:  like the Romans, Iron Mike left his his mark  (of architectural splendor) all over the place~ Is that real zebra hide carpet? More at Reaganite Republican __________________________________________________  TheVine   Modern Man   AcidCow   eBaum'sWorld   Americanurbex

CLEVELAND — Jimmy Bivins, a heavyweight boxer in the 1940s and 1950s who defeated some of the greatest fighters of his time, has died at 92.

Bad taste: Tyson says Holyfield's ear would have 'been much better' with his rival's BBQ sauce Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield trade jokes about infamous ear-biting incident on Twitter Former heavyweight champ tweets 'Holyfield's ear would've been much better with his new BBQ sauce' as his former rival looks to promote his new product. It's been 15 years since Mike Tyson had a taste of Evander Holyfield's ear. On Friday, Tyson let it be known that he would have preferred some dipping sauce to go along with it. The former undisputed heavyweight champ raised a few eyebrows when he tweeted:...

On the night two judges scored the bout 115-113 in the American's favour, prompting boos around the MGM Grand. The WBO has now met with five international judges to evaluate a video of the fight and they unanimously scored it in favour of Pacquiao. The original result still stands as the WBO does not have to power to overturn it, but a rematch could be ordered. It was a first defeat in seven years for Philippines fighter Pacquiao, who landed 94 more punches than Bradley. Pacquiao is already guaranteed a rematch because of a clause in his contract. According to...

MANILA, Philippines — World boxing icon Manny Pacquiao won over Timothy Bradley in their fight for the World Boxing Organization welterweight crown, said a five-man panel of the WBO. Upon its review, the WBO panel re-scored the controversial Timothy Bradley split-decision win over Pacquiao and had it 118-110, 117-111, 117-111, 116-112, 115-113 for the Filipino ring icon. The fight’s official result, however, still stands, according to WBO president Francisco Valcarcel. “We can’t change the result but we did this review for two reasons,” Valcarcel told ESPN.com. “If they want to make a rematch, we will approve the rematch and if...

Via Mediaite, it’s big news when the U.S. Senate majority leader says he thinks a major fight was fixed and that Congress should spring into action to solve the problem. Or at least, it would be: As you’ll see, he’s actually not saying that he thinks it was fixed. On the contrary, he thinks the outcome was the result of poor judging, not fraud. In which case … why the hell is he using this as an excuse to promote some sort of new federal boxing statute? It’s Rahm Emanuel’s infamous line about not letting a crisis go to waste,...

Cuban boxer Teofilo Stevenson, the three-time Olympic heavyweight champion with a devastating right hand and a gentlemanly demeanor, has died. He was 60.

LAS VEGAS -- Timothy Bradley promised to shock, though the biggest shock in his fight with Manny Pacquiao came from the judges' scorecards. In a fight Pacquiao seemed to have in hand, two judges decided otherwise, giving Bradley a split decision Saturday night and ending the Filipino fighter's remarkable seven-year unbeaten run. Promoter Bob Arum fumed, the crowd at the MGM Grand arena booed, and Pacquiao seemed stunned when the decision was announced. Arum said there would be a November rematch, though he blasted the way the decision went down. "I'm going to make a lot of money on the...

LAS VEGAS -- Timothy Bradley promised to shock, though the biggest shock in his fight with Manny Pacquiao came from the judges' scorecards. In a fight Pacquiao seemed to have in hand, two judges decided otherwise, giving Bradley a split decision Saturday night and ending the Filipino fighter's remarkable seven-year unbeaten run. Promoter Bob Arum fumed, the crowd at the MGM Grand arena booed, and Pacquiao seemed stunned when the decision was announced. Arum said there would be a November rematch, though he blasted the way the decision went down. "I'm going to make a lot of money on the...

Manny Pacquiao scored his greatest victory seven months ago. Not in the boxing ring, but in a Philippines church. Having been blessed with a successful boxing career, a beautiful family, and fame and fortune, the pugilist nearly threw it all away on riotous living – hard drinking, non-stop clubbing, heavy gambling and serial philandering. But the boxing game’s only eight-division world champion was convicted by the Holy Spirit following his bout this past November with Juan Manuel Marquez. Not because his long suffering wife, Jinkee, was ready to kick him to the curb. But because Pacquiao took to heart the...

CNN’s Fareed Zakaria to Boxing Champ Manny Pacquiao: "You know, there are reports, your Forbes magazine, other places say you make tens maybe more millions of dollars, $40 million one year. Philippines is a very poor country. Do you think that there is some, there is something wrong with somebody, with somebody in the Philippines making that much money when people are starving in your country?"

Boxer Johnny Tapia has reportedly died. Family members say Albuquerque police were summoned to Tapia's house at 7:45 PM Sunday by a family member who discovered the body. Cops say the death does not appear suspicious, but an official cause has not been determined.

The Grove shopping mall in Los Angeles has banned boxer Manny Pacquiao over comments he made about gay marriage, but the boxer said he was misquoted. "Based on news reports of statements made by Mr. Pacquiao, we have made it be known that he is not welcome at The Grove and will not be interviewed here now or in the future. The Grove is a gathering place for all Angelenos and not a place for intolerance," the Grove said in a statement. In an interview with National Conservative Examiner, Pacquiao addressed President Obama's recent endorsement of gay marriage. "God's words...

Update, 8:30 p.m.: Pacquiao is "not welcome at The Grove and will not be interviewed here now or in the future." Full statement at the bottom. ==================================== Update, 6:50 p.m.: "We're canceling the event," says Grove spokesman Bill Reich. "Manny Pacquiao is not coming to the Grove." And thus the backlash begins. ==================================== Professional boxer Manny Pacquiao and "Extra" host Mario Lopez were blowing up Twitter today about their 3/3:30 p.m. interview at the Grove on Wednesday. But mall executives tell LA Weekly that the event may be called off. Pacquiao told the National Conservative Examiner over the weekend that...

This brutal knockout blow turned a boxer's face to mush - making him look more like jelly than a prized jouster. Tony Pietrantonio came crashing to the canvas in the 31st second of the third round following the devastating right-hander from fellow U.S. light heavyweight Lavarn Harvell. Harvell, 23 - dubbed Baby Bowe because of his resemblance to former heavyweight champ Riddick Bowe - said: 'I felt that punch all the way up my shoulder and back, so I knew he wasn’t getting up.

Boxing suffered a great loss Sunday when the sport’s legendary journalist and historian Bert Sugar died at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco of a heart attack following a lengthy battle with lung cancer. He was 74.

Will Pacquiao v. Mayweather ever happen? Who turns down a $50 million guarantee that could be turn out to be more than $100 million? Floyd Mayweather Jr., that's who. According to ESPN.com, Manny Pacquiao's camp approached Mayweather with their latest offer for the much anticipated fight between the world's two best boxers. Pacquiao's offer includes a split of the Pay-Per-View (PPV) revenue with the winner taking home 70%.  With the fight estimated to draw $150 million in PPV revenue, that would means more than $100 million to the winner and about $50 million for the loser. And that doesn't...

Dave Charnley, one of the best British boxers never to win a world title, passed away on Saturday morning after a short illness. He was 76. The 'Dartford Destroye'r is widely considered to have been robbed in his second challenge to world lightweight champion Joe 'Old Bones' Brown in London in 1961.

Angelo Dundee, the brilliant motivator who worked the corner for Muhammad Ali in his greatest fights and willed Sugar Ray Leonard to victory in his biggest bout, died Wednesday in Tampa, Fla. He was 90.

Utah's gentleman bruiser, Don Fullmer, 72, who fought some of the world's most famous boxers and came within a single fight of a world title himself, died peacefully Saturday morning surrounded by the prize he valued most — his family. Fullmer and his boxing brothers, Gene, the oldest and a world middle weight champion in 1957, and Jay, second oldest who left the sport with a 20-5-2 record after an eye injury, put Utah on the international boxing stage in the 1950s and '60s.

DENVER — Heavyweight contender Ron Lyle, who fought Muhammad Ali for the title in 1975 and later battled George Foreman, has died in Denver at age 70.

When boxing great Joe Frazier died last week, the media managed to say nice things about Smokin' Joe without ever detailing how they and their chosen one of the moment, Muhammad Ali, conspired to ruin Frazier's life. I got a sense of this in March 1971, when my friends from grad school and I drove from Purdue to watch a large screen presentation of the first Ali-Frazier fight. Given the imperatives of student poverty, we headed not south to Indianapolis, which was 40 miles closer, but north to Gary, which was five dollars cheaper. The moment we walked into the...

Manny Pacquiao escaped Saturday night with a win at the MGM Grand arena in a decision that left Juan Manuel Márquez fuming once again. The Filipino sensation, considered the world's best pound for pound fighter, was taken to the limit before winning a majority decision that infuriated Márquez and most of the sellout crowd. While close, the win helped Pacquiao continue a remarkable run that has made him the most exciting fighter in the sport. In a bruising battle against a counterpuncher who was both accurate and fast, Pacquiao needed the final round on two scorecards to pull out the...

It is appropriate to set aside this journal’s customary business now and then to pay tribute to class and loss away from baseball. If you think that boxing is a profession, if not necessarily a sport, to which class is an unwelcome intruder, you may not have known Joe Frazier, who died of liver cancer at 62 on Monday. Or, at least, you may not really think that class was beaten out of the profession once and for all by the third and last of his showdowns with Muhammad Ali. “I heard somethin’ once,” Ali told Sports Illustrated‘s Mark Kram,...

‘Don’t you know I’m God?” taunted Muhammad Ali, in the first of the epic trilogy of heavyweight prizefights with Joe Frazier that defined the early 1970s. Ali even took to accompanying each word — Don’t — you — know — I’m — God? — with a swing of his fists, unleashing another flurry of his lightning-fast punches. Frazier, undaunted, singularly unaffected by Ali’s sophomoric doggerel and sophisticated psy-ops, kept boring in on his opponent, a steady, bobbing, weaving machine, and spat back through his bloodied mouthpiece: “Well, God, you gonna get whupped tonight!” And very near the end of that...

(CNN) -- Joe Frazier, the hard-hitting boxing heavyweight who handed the legendary Muhammad Ali his first defeat, died Monday, shortly after being diagnosed with liver cancer, his family said in a statement. The former heavyweight champion, who was 67, became a legend in his own right and personified the gritty working-class style of his hard-knuckled hometown, Philadelphia -- a fitting setting for the "Rocky" film series, starring Sylvester Stallone as hardscrabble boxer Rocky Balboa. "You could hear him coming, snorting and grunting and puffing, like a steam engine climbing a steep grade," Bill Lyon wrote in a Philadelphia Inquirer column...

Joe Frazier needed the night of his career to knock down "The Greatest." Frazier knocked Muhammad Ali down in the 15th round and became the first man to beat him in the Fight of the Century at Madison Square Garden in March 1971, the first in a trilogy of bouts that have gone down as boxing's most fabled fights. "That was the greatest thing that ever happened in my life," Frazier said. It was his biggest night, one that would never come again. The relentless, undersized heavyweight ruled the division as champion, then spent a lifetime trying to fight his...

PHILADELPHIA - November 7, 2011 (WPVI) -- Former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier has lost his battle with liver cancer, his family tells Action News.

He beat Muhammad Ali in the Fight of the Century, battled him nearly to the death in the Thrilla in Manila. Then Joe Frazier spent the rest of his life trying to fight his way out of Ali's shadow. That was one fight Frazier never could win. He was once a heavyweight champion, and a great one at that. Ali would say as much after Frazier knocked him down in the 15th round en route to becoming the first man to beat Ali at Madison Square Garden in March 1971. But he bore the burden of being Ali's foil, and...

LAS VEGAS (AP) — In just one round, Floyd Mayweather Jr. got a head butt, a kiss and a hug from Victor Ortiz before responding with a contentious punch that knocked out his opponent and put the WBC's welterweight belt back around the American's waist. Mayweather remained unbeaten and did it in emphatic fashion Saturday, stopping Ortiz at 2:59 of the fourth round. Mayweather made a minimum of $25 million for his first fight in 16 months, a sum that will likely go up as the pay-per-view receipts are tallied. He could make even more against Manny Pacquiao next May...

Any fight fans out there?

Mayweather (42-0, 26 KOs) delivers another victory and wins the WBC title from Ortiz, but it may have been the most bizarre night of the great fighter's career. The end of the fight was pure insanity. The bout was heating up in the fourth when Ortiz landed some solid shots and drove Mayweather into ropes. The 24-year-old got too aggressive and leapt into the air headbutting Mayweather. Referee Joe Cortes wisely paused the fight. That's when Ortiz walked behind the ref's back to apologize and hug Mayweather. Cortes grabbed Ortiz and walked him back to center of the ring to...

Former world heavyweight boxing contender and Minnesota Duluth football lineman Scott LeDoux died this afternoon at his home in Coon Rapids, Minn., at age 62 after a long battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.