Wayne Crolla was an OK fighter. A staple of North England fight nights during Britain’s turbulent early 1980s, Crolla satisfied his region’s fans for a night or two before retiring in 1986 with a 16-12 […]
Josh Taylor will be on his phone a lot in the coming days, but he won’t use facial-recognition technology to unlock it. Regis Prograis will draw double-takes from strangers for a while, though if you […]
When Josh Taylor and Regis “Rougarou” Prograis signed contracts in 2018 binding them to the World Boxing Super Series, they assured themselves of one thing: danger. The wallflowers, morning glories, and small dreamers of contemporary […]
“Yeah, one more, one more,” Regis Prograis says urgently as his gray T-shirt darkens with the sweat that pours down his face and body in the corner of a blue ring. We’re tucked away in […]
This piece by Carlos Acevedo, author of Sporting Blood, is a companion to Berserk: The Shocking Life and Death of Edwin Valero, written by Don Stradley (Hamilcar Publications, November 2019). *** 1. “Beneath it all, desire […]
Artur Beterbiev’s journey to light-heavyweight domination seemed to take forever. Beterbiev entered the paid ranks in 2013 atop this decade’s wave of enthusiasm for Eastern European fighters and immediately looked the part. In his sixth […]
“Me and my brother Dudley left home when I was fifteen. We had quite an abusive, vicious father, and we had to get away. Our dad was a West Indian guy, and it was his […]
A fighter’s appearance can project his menace. Think Tyson, gold tooth glinting through his snarls, neck so thick his head seemed mounted at the earlobes; think Duran, the ferine fire burning in his predatory stare; […]
Broken glass litters the street corner, along with empty cans of lager and small stones. Swanston Street is an area frequented only by factory workers or aspiring fighters. The cursing heard from the burger van […]
Not even four years have passed since Bill Haney handed over fifty dollars’ worth of crumpled bills to the landlord of a bar called El Perro Salado—the Salty Dog—in downtown Tijuana so his teenage son […]