The Dream, The Nightmare and a Test of Heart – ‘Wild” Will Tomlinson vs. Francisco ‘El Bandido’ Vargas

03/10/201503/09/2015 Steven Chang

‘Wild’ Will Tomlinson’s dreams of boxing glory are about to turn nightmarish when he faces Francisco ‘El Bandido’ Vargas. Opting for a strategy that severely underestimates Vargas’ proficient volume punching, and overestimates his own ability to counter it, he’ll have to overcome a grueling tribulation to prove that he has the heart to match his championship desires.

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Boxing robot overcomes two knockdowns to systematically destroy mere Japanese human

01/02/201501/01/2015 Steven Chang

Anyone who stayed awake through the encounter between boxing’s most avoided robot, Guillermo Rigondeaux, and mere human, Hisashi Amagasa, would have been delighted to see Rigondeaux get knocked down twice and visibly hurt in round 7.

The start of the fight was typical Rigondeaux, an incredible display of balance, poise and posturing that would be heralded by the Royal Ballet School, but had everyone else nodding off more then a room full of junkies. There’s only so much “sweet science” I could marvel at before my mind wondered and started thinking about why the Japanese decided to count up to 3 minutes instead of down, and why so many in the crowd were wearing respiratory face masks.

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The Current 20 Most Exciting Boxers – A Statistical Analysis

09/16/201409/16/2014 Steven Chang

Boxing is at it’s most exciting when it’s highly skilled, competitive, back and forth fighting with plenty of drama. It peaks when a fighter is hurt and the crowd screams as killer instincts and the will to survive are on full display.

It’s rare to get life changing fights, both for the fighters and fans, such as the grueling Castillo vs. Corrales, but once in a while, a fight has all the right elements to captivate the public. A shaken Froch, climbing off the canvas to slowly dominate Groves and score a controversial stoppage, brought in an 80,000 plus crowd to Wembley stadium for the rematch.

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Austin Trout back on track

09/07/201409/06/2014 Steven Chang

Austin “No Doubt” Trout returned on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights to win a unanimous decision against the game Aussie, Daniel “Awesome” Dawson. Trout bounced back from two knockdowns in the third that initially left doubts about his fighting future, but saw him find his confidence and inner beast to dominate the rest of the fight and even knocked down an injured and unlucky Dawson in the Eighth.

This was a must win fight for Trout. Three losses in a row would put serious doubts on his career and more importantly, it could have broken him mentally.

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Gennady Golovkin – The Real Deal Destroys Daniel “The Real Deal” Geale

09/01/202007/27/2014 Steven Chang

Thank the boxing gods for Gennady Golovkin. Up until the main event, the note pad contained lines such as: “… had sleeping tablets in both … continue

Juan Manuel Lopez – The Addicted Boxer

07/22/201407/22/2014 Steven Chang

Juan Manuel Lopez is a shopworn fighter that’s going through the motions. Like a hopeless gambler, day in and day out he boxes without a plan to win and seems to be there because he has no choice. When the chips are down, he throws caution to the wind and goes for broke.

This was no more evident then in his latest fight against Francisco Vargas.

He was tentative, especially in round 2, always backing up and trying to counter or throwing obvious and lacklustre straight lefts against a faster fighter with more reach. When Vargas backed him up against the ropes and tagged him a few times, Juan Ma first exchanged, then started moving and punching along the ropes with little success.

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Alvarez vs. Lara – A fight for Alvarez to lose

07/11/201407/11/2014 Steven Chang

When Alvarez lost to Mayweather, they brought him back against Alfredo Angulo, a confidence booster. The type of fight that Canelo and his handlers would have hand picked while listening to the TLC song, don’t go chasing water falls.

Angulo is a good fighter but his come forward, plant your feet and throw style (his nick name is Perro – Spanish for dog) is perfect for Alvarez. It was a very small step towards redemption. In this modern day, business focused world of boxing, Alvarez could have chosen to fight more of these compatible opponents and made a mint along the way. Instead, he’s chosen to fight Erislandy Lara, a slick, highly skilled, highly avoided, former world amateur champion and current fighter’s nightmare.

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