Free Republic

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?