The Fights Page 75 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Deadspin Inquires: Was Floyd Mayweather's Dustup With Larry Merchant A Put-On?
We're creating a new feature, folks. It's called Deadspin Inquires. You send us a sports question to investigate. It could be a riddle, an enigma, an urban legend, or just something that's been bugging you. Did Sonny Liston throw the Lewiston fight against Ali? Was Bison Dele eaten by his brother ...

Black-Hatted Mystery Man And Alleged Scorecard Meddler At Amir Khan Fight Identified
The boxing world was abuzz last week with the revelation that a gentleman in an extremely shady black hat might have interfered with judges' scorecards while ringside at the Amir Khan-Lamont Peterson fight in Washington, D.C. in December. At least that's what the Khan camp alleged. (Khan lost both h...

I-Team: Who Is The Mystery Man Allegedly Meddling With Scorecards At The Amir Khan Fight? (UPDATED)
The Amir Khan-Lamont Peterson fight in DC last month ended with a surprising and narrow split decision win for the underdog Peterson in front of his hometown crowd. Khan is a budding superstar. Peterson is a solid fighter. He could have pulled off an upset, but he didn't, not according to our boxi...

Johny Hendricks Knocked Out Jon Fitch In Ten Seconds
Actually, it was more like one second, as it was a single punch from Johny Hendricks that took Jon Fitch out of their welterweight match at UFC 141....

Machines Don't Fall Down Dead: How Rock'em Sock'em Robots Came To Be
Before Mortal Kombat arrived to satisfy my prepubescent need for button mashing, there was Rock'em Sock'em Robots, the first game I ever played where the objective was decapitation. Here's how it worked: You controlled one of two punching plastic androids—the Red Rocker or the Blue Bomber—by pushing...

How To Get Robbed In D.C.: Amir Khan Vs. Lamont Peterson
WASHINGTON—A black guy in dark shades and a pimp-style chinchilla coat strode through the D.C. convention center, headed toward the entrance to the fight. Ten feet behind him, a white guy in a button-up shirt surreptitiously snapped photos of him on his cell phone. "Look, a real live pimp, at the fi...

Why Brain Damage Isn't An Issue In MMA, According To Dana White And UFC Fighters
Interesting little colloquy here by UFC chief Dana White and some of his UFC 140 fighters about brain damage and concussions in MMA. For all its sanguinary appeal and danger, MMA is actually safer than sports like boxing, football, and hockey, at least according to the limited medical studies avai...

Manny Pacquiao's Trainer Thinks He'd Retire After A Mayweather Fight
Every morning, the fine folks at Sports Radio Interviews sift through the a.m. drive-time chatter to bring you the best interviews with coaches, players, and personalities across the sports landscape. Today: Freddie Roach says Pacquiao will have nothing left to prove after getting in the ring with F...

The Two-Fisted, One-Eyed Misadventures Of Sportswriting's Last Badass
George Kimball hung upside down some 70 feet in the cold Manhattan air, still in need of a cigarette. Well, the doctors had said smoking would kill him, hadn't they? The previous autumn, they had found an inoperable cancerous tumor the size of a golf ball in his throat and given him six months to li...

This Is What Happens To Your Face When You Try To Rob An MMA Expert
Anthony Miranda, a 24-year-old from Chicago, allegedly attempted a robbery on the Southwest Side of the city late Friday night. Police say he strolled up to a parked car, asked the driver for a light, and then pulled out a handgun....

Cotto-Margarito II: Mistakes, Revenge Porn, And The Looming Dread Of Watching Miguel Cotto Fight
We all make mistakes....

You've Always Wanted To See Mike Tyson Sing "Girl From Ipanema" On Brazilian TV, Right?
When exactly did Mike Tyson become this cultural palimpsest? His layers are manifold, his depths eternal. He is all things at once. I half expect him to show up in Kente cloth, having been elected mayor of some downtrodden mid-Atlantic burg. Or to spot him racing along the Bonneville Salt Flats in...

Scottish MMA Community Mourns Amateur Cage Fighter Killed By Falling Cow Carcass
"Ally McCrae, 23, was trapped when the carcass fell off a hook and he suffered head injuries which triggered a heart attack. The super-fit amateur cage fighter was rushed to hospital but surgeons were unable to save his life. David Bateman, editor of the Scottish Fighting Breakdown Magazine, said: ...

A Musical Version Of <em>Rocky</em> Is Coming To Germany, With The Klitschko Brothers As Co-Producers
The film was always about boxing, but it's also a love story. "Stallone said he had long thought that a musical transfer for the 1976 Oscar-winning drama was a good idea, in particular if its romantic side was amped up." Given the dreadful state of boxing's heavyweight division, the Klitschkos are ...

MMA Fans Boo Vladimir Putin, Will Soon Watch Fights In Gulags
Vladimir Putin, the most manly of manly sportsmen of sport and also prime minister of Russia, couldn't have been expecting boos when he stepped into the ring on Sunday night to swing his dick around in advance of Russian parliamentary elections. But it was boos he got. Russian MMA superstar Fedor ...

Cracked Ribs, Staph Infections, And Poked Eyes: What It's Like To Train MMA
Last week, we brought you an excerpt from Matthew Polly’s new book, Tapped Out, which chronicles his two-year journey to prepare himself for a pro MMA fight. Today, Polly tells us about the various injuries he sustained during that process....

Is Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., The Justin Bieber Of Mexican Boxing, Actually Any Good?
Our guy Hamilton Nolan has a preview of this weekend's fight, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Peter Manfredo Jr., up at HBO. Chavez is clearly a star, with one hell of a bloodline, but is he a champion? Meanwhile, Manfredo's an older journeyman, but he's been winning lately. Read up. [HBO]...

500 Pounds Of Cocaine Discovered In Former Boxing Champ's Puerto Rico Home
U.S. federal agents seized 500 pounds of cocaine worth $4 million in a home owned by former WBO champ Ivan Calderon in Humacao, Puerto Rico earlier this week. Calderon, who recently said he would return to fight in minimumweight at 105 pounds, has denied having any knowledge of the drugs. [AP]...

A Collection Of Literary Gems From The UFC's Lawsuit Against New York
Zuffa, the UFC's parent company, has sued New York officials in an attempt to overturn the state's idiotic ban on MMA, a prohibition that drives the sport underground and exists chiefly because of the efforts of one misguided moralist. Several prominent fighters, including light heavyweight champ Jo...

When You Get Cocky In An MMA Gym, You Get Beat Down
Matthew Polly has never been a man for half-measures. When he wanted to learn kung fu, he left college for two years to live and train in the famous Shaolin Temple in China. Polly wrote an excellent book about the experience. His new book, Tapped Out, follows Polly on another two-year journey as the...