“Bowed like a penitent only minutes earlier, Smith regained his height courtesy of Alvarez’s careful work. There was a demon tormenting Smith—that much was clear. No man adopts such a posture freely, no man of such height abandons its impression unless under duress. Alvarez knew the demon’s precise location and tore it from Smith’s lanky torso with verve. The rib cage, liver, solar plexus, that internal malady seemed to possess them all, but Alvarez was undeterred. He sought it with purpose and strategy, hunting it, trapping it, wrenching it from its intestinal recesses. It was a little like watching those catfish hunters who return the slippery creatures to their muddy lairs using nothing but experience, feel, and a deep breath.”

Read Time’s Arrow: Saul Alvarez W12 Callum Smith on Hannibal Boxing.

“They left the arena in silence, weaving determinedly through the shifting obstructions. They have their rhythms, conversations, that contrapuntalism has its tides. Their tide had gone out, leaving exposed in each man’s mind a smattering of curiosities like seashells freed of the lap and retreat that withheld their submerged splendor.”

Read Chapter XXV: Anthony Joshua KO9 Kubrat Pulev on Hannibal Boxing.

“It is going to take the right opponents to make more of Spence than the most dominant welterweight in PBC history. Spence needs opponents who fight with a fire he lacks, men pathologically opposed to defeat, incapable of resignation. Imagine him against the thousand hands of Paul Williams or the iron-chinned belligerence of Antonio Margarito. These hypothetical fights were employed to assay the merits of another American welterweight who became wildly popular despite his penchant for uninspired decision wins, one who summoned his best only when an opponent refused anything less. You can hear Spence apologists already: ‘Well if that is an apt comparison, he’d be stupid to change.’”

Read Same As It Ever Was: Errol Spence Jr Cruises Past Danny Garcia on Hannibal Boxing.