IBR on The Cruelest Sport

Boxing is a sport that adds years to lives without extending them, that both glosses over and emphasizes the fact that getting punched in the head is bad for you. Admittedly, the study of brain trauma is a new and underdeveloped field, and it is still unclear whether the majority of the cognitive deficits that are associated with blunt head blows result from the physical trauma itself, or the brain responding to this trauma. Those deficits, however, are undeniable—even obvious—in boxing. Boxing can chuck a man out of his prime like a bouncer, dumping him on the curb, where balance, coordination, cognition and speech get lost in the gathering crowd. This is what is happening when a fighter gets old before our eyes. This is the ugly side of growing old in a bloodsport—the side that counts in dog years, that places asterisks next to ages and question marks on futures.

Read FALLOUT: On Timothy Bradley and Manny Pacquiao on The Cruelest Sport.

IBR on The Cruelest Sport

“Despite the tortured logic of an army of zealots, history was not revised Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. That Juan Manuel Marquez prevailed over nemesis Manny Pacquiao does not prove he won the previous three encounters, or that he was robbed in not winning. Nor does the sinister right hand that ended affairs in the sixth round prove Pacquiao was overrated, or cheating, or any other nonsense that blockheads who cannot appreciate competition without imbuing it with their warped worldviews would suggest. What transpired in the ring did, however, prove that neither man has ever had a more deserving opponent, and that the knockout remains one of the most dramatic spectacles in sport.”

Read The Chilling: Juan Manuel Marquez KO6 Manny Pacquiao on The Cruelest Sport.

IBR on The Cruelest Sport

“With yesterday’s press conference announcing the final chapter in the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez quadrilogy, December 8th should find this rivalry renewed under the lights of the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. It was on that same blue canvas that Pacquiao suffered a split-decision loss to Tim Bradley in June. It was his first defeat since March of 2005, when Erik Morales’ belligerent craft trumped the Filipino’s fury. Pacquiao would avenge the loss to Morales twice via knockout, reducing the defeat to the exception confirming the rule in a roughshod assault that produced fifteen consecutive victories in five weight divisions. Unlike Morales, Bradley is being denied a rematch.”

Read “Only the Lonely: Tim Bradely Without Manny Pacquiao” on The Cruelest Sport.