The Fights Page 66 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
"That Moment Before It Starts When You're Scared": Tyson In His Prime
Before he became the main attraction at the freak show, and before he became a kitsch icon, Mike Tyson was the youngest heavyweight champion in history, and a fighter of seemingly limitless promise. There was no way to know it at the time, but when Pete Dexter wrote the story below, he was capturing...
Dwight Howard Wants To Fight In The UFC For Some Reason
So Dwight Howard was backstage at a fight card in Houston recently and he talked boisterously, before Chandler Parsons and the world, about how he'd love to fight one day and would do it for $10 million and—and, who cares, right? It's Dwight Howard. We know he'll never fight. (Even if he did, it wou...
What Happens When Teammates Rape A Teammate?
This piece originally ran at The Sport Spectacle....
Lightweight Loses, Celebrates Anyway By Standing On His Fist
The laughing lightweight you see in the background is Scott Jenkins, who went to 10-0 with his five-round takedown of Antonio Rodriguez (5-8-4) in Sheffield, England, on Saturday....
What Happens When A Boxer Is Beaten To Death, And How We Can Stop it
After Jermichael Finley's recent spinal cord injury, a sportswriting friend of mine shook his head and referred to football as “America's sickness.” As severe as it was, though, Finley's injury wasn't nearly the worst a professional athlete suffered last weekend. On Saturday night, 26-year-old jun...
Cain Velasquez And Junior Dos Santos Should Fight Each Other Forever
Cain Velasquez, the best heavyweight in the world, is nearly unique among top fighters in that he's terrifying: patient, methodical, and utterly dead-eyed. He fights like a man with no imagination, for whom nothing exists but the logic of his situation and autonomic response. It's unnerving to watch...
The Meaning Of The First Sonny Liston-Muhammad Ali Fight
Over on The Stacks, we're republishing Murray Kempton's classic dispatch from the first Clay-Liston fight, in 1964; you can find the story below. Kempton was an elegant columnist and essayist with a great ear for the overtones and undertones of any public spectacle—mob trials, nominating conventio...
Boxing Referee Dishes Out Street Justice On Unruly Fighter
This occurred at, no joke, an event called White Collar Fight Club. I don't know what the hell White Collar Fight Club is, but I do know that its referees don't take shit from anyone....
Brazilian MMA Fighter Dies Minutes Before Weigh-In
MMA fighter Leandro "Feijao" Souza died Thursday before weigh-ins for Friday's Shooto Brazil 43 card....
Here's What A $40 Million Check Looks Like
This is just part of Floyd Mayweather's record-setting payout for his bout against Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, a split majority decision for Mayweather....
Former Heavyweight Ken Norton Sr. Dead At 70
Ken Norton Sr. died today at 70 in an Arizona hospital while rehabilitating from a stroke he suffered last year. Norton eventually finished his boxing career with a 42-7-1 record and one Muhammad Ali broken jaw. He later enjoyed mild success in acting, appearing in 80s staples The A-Team and Knight ...
Controversial Mayweather Judge Steps Down
Floyd Mayweather outclassed Saul "Canelo" Alvarez on Sunday, landing twice as many punches over a 12-round dismantling. The AP's unofficial scorecard had it 119-109 Mayweather, and pretty much every observer was in agreement. Except for one of the three judges, C.J. Ross, who inexplicably had it a 1...
Chael Sonnen Now Making Domestic Violence Jokes About Rihanna [UPDATE]
As has been exhaustively documented here, much to the displeasure of his core fanbase of men's rights activists, truthers, and racists, Fox Sports 1 pundit/middling professional fighter Chael Sonnen is a shitbag, or at least someone willing to play one on television for money, which amounts to the s...
This Is The Funniest MMA Knockout Of 2013
Derrick Mehmen landed a shot on the side of Rolles Gracie's face that didn't seem particularly brutal in the second round during Saturday night's World Series of Fight 5. Oh, but it was....
Mayweather Dominates Canelo In The Eyes Of Everyone Except One Judge
Floyd Mayweather is still unbeatable....
Tonight Is Not The Night Floyd Mayweather Loses
Every single time, you talk yourself into believing Floyd's lost a step. That every fighter has to fall off sometime. That this particular young, hungry, confident challenger will be the one to finally take Money down. ...
Boxer's Dad Vows To Cut His Own Head Off If His Son Loses
This Saturday's junior welterweight title fight between undefeated champion Danny Garcia and top contender Lucas Matthysse is a big enough bout to headline a pay-per-view card on its own, but it's of course been overshadowed by the headliner, Floyd Mayweather vs. Canelo Alvarez. Apparently Garcia's ...
The Man Who Doesn't Exist: How Canelo Álvarez Became A Myth
Juanacatlán, Jalisco, sits on the slopes of lush foothills, 20 miles southeast of Guadalajara. To reach the town from the highway, you have to pass through its industrial neighbor El Salto, then cross the Río Grande de Santiago, one of Mexico's most polluted rivers, on a two-lane bridge adorned with...
Tommy Morrison's Immediate Cause Of Death: Cardiac Arrest
According to the death certificate of Tommy Morrison, the 44-year-old boxer who tested positive for HIV in 1996 died of cardiac arrest on Sunday....