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

“Enthusiasm, as defined by Voltaire in his “Philosophical Dictionary” is a “disturbance of the entrails, internal agitation.” Working with this definition, it is reasonable to say that the super middleweight fight between Andre Ward and Chad Dawson indeed generated a great deal of enthusiasm. The fight, staged at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California, pitted arguably the two best fighters in the world between 168 and 175 pounds against each other. For some, enthusiasm came in the form of anticipation of this “Best versus Best” affair—a seemingly mythical occurrence in boxing, a pugilistic Sasquatch sighting. Others found themselves plunked at the other end of the spectrum, their entrails disturbed by the potential for viewing drudgery. What transpired over the course of the fight, a 10th-round TKO victory for Ward, was something resembling the mean.”

Read “Easy Living: Andre Ward TKO10 Chad Dawson” on The Cruelest Sport.

IBR on The Cruelest Sport

“It is late October 2011, in Toronto, a time of year when the chill lays siege to your bones. The clouds menace overhead, tumbling like waves, seemingly within reach. In St. James Park, close to 2000 protesters gather; the marginalized voiceless—legitimate and otherwise—congregate in a small park within shouting distance of the epicenter of Canadian finance to give sound to their disparate plight.”

Read “New Paradigms: On Carl Froch and Lucian Bute” on The Cruelest Sport

http://thecruelestsport.com/2012/06/01/new-paradigms-on-carl-froch-and-lucian-bute/