IBR on The Cruelest Sport

In close, Ward isn’t looking for a breather, and unlike Bernard Hopkins, he is not there to clown. No, when Ward is in a clinch, he is looking to hurt. Using his feet to take angles, Ward snarls and strikes like a wolverine in a snare. This does not make for a pretty fight, nor does it absolve Ward for the dirty tactics he regularly employs. It does, however, reveal an understanding of craft missing from the fighters he so easily dispatches. Ward dominated Rodriguez, 24-1 (16), wherever he wanted, and by the middle rounds had complete control of the fight. When the twelve rounds of target practice ended, the scores read 118-106, 117-107, and 116-108 for Ward.

Read DOMINATION: Andre Ward W12 Edwin Rodriguez on The Cruelest Sport.

IBR on The Cruelest Sport

“Donaire-Darchinyan II was billed as a grudge match, a rematch the public was clamouring for, which, like most promotional ballyhoo, is at best a half truth. Any fight with Darchinyan, who generates disdain for his opponents like the sun makes heat, is a grudge match. Interest in this rematch, however, was lost to the hour glass. Until being served his comeuppance by Rigondeaux, Donaire, San Leandro, California, had looked mostly dominant. Darchinyan, on the other hand, had suffered four losses since Donaire dealt him a dose of temporary amnesia in 2007.”

Read REPEATER: Nonito Donaire TKO9 Vic Darchinyan on The Cruelest Sport.

IBR on The Cruelest Sport

There is still a constituency that crushes on Hopkins; those who slurp up the bombastic rhetoric, and act like misty-eyed Holy Rollers at the mention of the renegade who fought the system until he could profit from it. For such acolytes, Saturday night must have been a veritable Bacchanal. Hopkins dusted off the Tickle Trunk for the hapless Murat, supposedly because he fancies himself an entertainer. It might be more genuine to say the Murat was dusted off for that purpose.

Continue reading One For The Holy Rollers: Bernard Hopkins W12 Karo Murat on The Cruelest Sport.