IBR on The Cruelest Sport

“Junior middleweight Saul Alvarez has long endured the criticism that he was a pampered and protected golden calf, a fighter whose popularity and earnings were disproportionate to his achievements. And this is true. The response to such cries, of course, is that Alvarez is a defense in himself: he makes truckloads of money grinding the husks of the welterweight division because he is worshiped for more than his performances. Nor, for that matter, is his godliness self-ascribed, but rather bestowed by the sanction of the masses. In a sport where all pursue maximum reward for minimum risk, Alvarez need not apologize for anything. Included under this all-encompassing “anything” is the hard-fought decision he earned last night when 39,472 fans packed the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, to see him win a unanimous decision over Austin Trout.”

Read The Golden Calf: Saul Alvarez W12 Austin Trout on The Cruelest Sport.

IBR on The Cruelest Sport

“In “Culture and Value,” Ludwig Wittgenstein warns: “Resting on your laurels is as dangerous as resting when you are walking in the snow. You doze off and die in your sleep.” In winning the 2012 Fighter of the Year Award, Nonito Donaire never needed to improve, never needed to deviate from a hyper-dependency on his otherworldly athleticism. Saturday night, however, at Radio City Music Hall in New York, Guillermo Rigondeaux, a fighter with comparable talent and superior polish, asked that Donaire do more than just be the faster, more powerful man. Unable to muster an adequate response, Donaire dropped a unanimous decision to the Cuban, losing for the first time in twelve years.”

Read SLUMBER TIME: Guillermo Rigondeaux W12 Nonito Donaire on The Cruelest Sport.

IBR on The Cruelest Sport

“Cleaved from his consciousness on March 30th—a single right hand having stretched him prostrate across the bottom rope in Monaco—Nobuhiro Ishida became the latest victim in Gennady Golovkin’s violent odyssey from internet bugaboo to hurt machine du jour. As has become the norm, the question of Golovkin’s next opponent was picked up with enthusiasm, an enthusiasm that has tended to wane before the ink on the contract dries. Golovkin himself seems weary of the competition he has gored recently. However spectacular his evisceration of Gzergorz Proksa, his mulching of Gabriel Rosado, his anesthetizing of Ishida—the three opponents he has faced since HBO took an interest in him—Golovkin’s achievements have not insulated him from criticism. Whether this criticism is valid is debatable. That it stands to deaden Golovkin’s career however, is a claim with some substance.”

Read “Paradox City: Gennady Golovkin & The Politics Of Avoidance” on The Cruelest Sport.