IBR on The Cruelest Sport

“A room full of monkeys plunking away on typewriters would struggle to script a scenario where Amir Khan is anointed the grand prize of a junior welterweight tournament. Yet this is what Golden Boy Promotions proposed when they hatched their plan to pit the fighters in their 140-pound stable against each other. Khan has since decided to move to welterweight in pursuit of Floyd Mayweather, Jr., but thankfully the tournament persists. For however bogus Khan’s seeding in the tournament was, the path to determining Golden Boy’s best junior welterweight is almost guaranteed to satisfy the sanguinary. That path stands to get littered in gore this Saturday, when Lucas Matthysse faces Lamont Peterson at Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.”

Read “The Violent Men: Lamont Peterson-Lucas Matthysse Preview” on The Cruelest Sport.

IBR on The Cruelest Sport

It was a fight short on drama, one that prompted a smattering of boos among the throng gathered at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. And yet, there is a compliment buried in this criticism. For in so easily dismantling Robert Guerrero over twelve one-sided rounds on Saturday night, Floyd Mayweather, Jr., displayed a fighting prowess that, even at age 36, remains remarkable. One can take issue with some of the names on—and off—his ledger and disapprove of his preference for avoiding rather than delivering damage, but the drama of a Mayweather fight is most often lost in the yet-to-be traversed expanse between his competition’s ability and his own. And that, no matter how you look at it, is high praise.

Read Unanswered Prayers: Floyd Mayweather W12 Robert Guerrero on The Cruelest Sport.

IBR on The Cruelest Sport

“You are fuckin’ something, man!”

His arms draped across the fighter’s shoulders, looking reverently at, and beyond, the disfigured face, referee Steve Smoger offered this raw encomium. He did not address it to the victor, however—who was milling around the ring, lost in celebratory whoops and embraces—but to the loser. Nestled amongst his supporters, Zab Judah listened to Smoger with the pained smile of a man accepting consolation, the smile of a man who recognizes that, however flattering the words, they are a confirmation of failure.

Read Storm Rider: Danny Garcia W12 Zab Judah on The Cruelest Sport.