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Featured Stories
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1 - 50 of 304
Articles
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Mon 22-Feb-2010
By Thomas Hauser: This is a column I’d rather not write. But I chronicle the contemporary boxing scene, and I’d be less than honest if I didn’t write it. 
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Tue 9-Feb-2010
By Thomas Hauser: Don Elbaum telephoned last week to spread a message: Boxing fans should no longer be depressed about the demise of Pacquiao-Mayweather. A new mega-fight is on the horizon.
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Sun 17-Jan-2010
By Thomas Hauser: Two days before Manny Pacquiao fought Miguel Cotto, I talked with Alex Ariza, who has been Pacquiao’s strength and conditioning coach since early 2008. When I asked what it was like to work with an athlete of Manny’s caliber, Ariza shook his head in wonder.
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!["Did Barbra Streisand Whup Sonny Liston?"](http://secondsoutcontent.comrz.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/493/AliMuhammadHauserClintonTo_lxth.jpg ""Did Barbra Streisand Whup Sonny Liston?"")
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Mon 4-Jan-2010
By Thomas Hauser: Late last year, the Secret Service was embarrassed by the revelation that an uninvited couple had worked their way past security checkpoints and been photographed with Barack Obama at a White House state dinner honoring the Prime Minister of India. Been there, done that. Sort of.
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Mon 21-Dec-2009
By Thomas Hauser: A tip of the hat to two men who deserve it. Whenever there’s a big fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nathan Lee and La Mont Starks can be found sitting at a desk outside the media center.
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Tue 15-Dec-2009
By Thomas Hauser: Each year during the holiday season, I publish a “top forty” list of what I consider to be the best books on boxing. That list, updated to accommodate recently published titles, follows. Some of these books are now out of print. But with the proliferation of online services like Abebooks.com and Amazon.com, all of them can be found.
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Tue 24-Nov-2009
By Thomas Hauser: Thanksgiving and Christmas came early for boxing this year. The November 14th mega-match between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto was the biggest and most important fight of 2009. Think of it as a holiday festival with Pacquiao in the role of Santa Claus. Or maybe Manny is better characterized as a non-stop Energizer Easter Bunny, whose fists exploded like Fourth of July fireworks and turned Cotto’s face into a gruesome Halloween mask.
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Mon 9-Nov-2009
By Thomas Hauser: Another big fight week is here. All eyes are about to focus on Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto. Through it all, a soft-spoken man with a round face and neatly-groomed walrus mustache will be in the background, quietly doing his job.
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Mon 26-Oct-2009
By Thomas Hauser: Mike Tyson has always been a compelling presence. Many observers of the boxing scene think that, early in his career, he was a great fighter. Others (such as Dave Anderson, who called Tyson “a thug who got lucky”) take a contrary view. What’s beyond debate is that Tyson, like Muhammad Ali and Joe Louis before him, entered the national psyche. Everyone knew who he was and everyone had an opinion about him.
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Wed 14-Oct-2009
By Thomas Hauser: There was a time when big fights were chronicled in the New York Times with banner headlines in large type that stretched across the front page. Those days are long gone. Newspapers across the country are abandoning the sweet science. Like the sport itself, writing about boxing is fading from view. But the Times is America’s newspaper of record. Being slighted by the fabled “gray lady of journalism” cuts particularly deep.
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Wed 30-Sep-2009
By Thomas Hauser: HBO and boxing are at a crossroads. The first draft of the network’s overall budget for 2010 was presented in July. It called for a US$15,000,000 reduction for HBO Sports; a cut in excess of twenty percent. Then, during the first week of September, Michael Lombardo (president of HBO’s programming group and West Coast operations) further signaled senior management’s displeasure with the status quo.
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Mon 21-Sep-2009
By Thomas Hauser: When the bell rings, Manny Pacquiao’s eyes turn to burning coals. His ring skills have made him what Steve Kim calls “the Filipino version of Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, and the Beatles.” Pacquiao carried the Filipino flag at the opening ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He’s the only Filipino boxer to appear on a postage stamp. Earlier this year, Time Magazine listed him among its “100 most influential people” in the world.
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Mon 7-Sep-2009
By Thomas Hauser: On November 14th, on the pay-per-view undercard of the mega-fight between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto, 29-year-old Yuri Foreman will challenge Daniel Santos for the World Boxing Association 154-pound crown.
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Sun 23-Aug-2009
By Thomas Hauser: In August 2007, Paulie Malignaggi traveled to Las Vegas as a representative of Everlast at the “Magic” fashion show. Moments after his return flight to New York landed, he was taking his carry-on bag from the overhead luggage bin when another passenger recognized him. “Hey, Paulie,” the man said. “I love you. You’re a great fighter. Don’t worry; Someday, you’ll win a title.”
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Mon 17-Aug-2009
By Thomas Hauser: Sugar Ray Robinson’s knockout victory over Jake LaMotta captured the imagination of America. Baseball and boxing were the country’s two national sports. Robinson had now entered the ring for 124 fights, losing once. This was his fifth victory over the man who’d defeated him. And thanks to television, thirty million people had witnessed him in his prime. He was handsome, telegenic, and lethal.
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Mon 3-Aug-2009
By Thomas Hauser: Sugar Ray Robinson is the gold standard against which all fighters are judged. “He had everything,” legendary trainer Eddie Futch said after Robinson died. “Boxing skills, punching power, a great chin, mental strength. There was nothing he couldn’t do. He knew almost everything there was to know about how to box. When Ray was in his prime, he owned the ring like no fighter before or since.”
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Mon 20-Jul-2009
By Thomas Hauser: Jessica won my heart completely, totally, and without reservation when she was three years old. I was forty-two at the time. My brother, Jim, had come east from Oregon, where he lived with his wife and daughters (Cathy and Jessica). They were visiting my parents, who lived in the suburbs of New York. Cathy was seven and too sophisticated for the game that Jessica and I were playing.
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Thu 9-Jul-2009
By Thomas Hauser: Like most boxing writers, I receive an endless stream of press releases. Recently, one caught my eye. It was for a celebrity boxing event to be held in Pennsylvania on July 24th.
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Tue 30-Jun-2009
By Thomas Hauser: On June 27th, HBO televised what was supposed to be Victor Ortiz’s coronation as the WBA “interim junior-welterweight champion of the world.” The 22-year-old Ortiz has been groomed for stardom and still might make it there someday. But at a point in his career when the competition should have been stepped up to harden him for a championship run, he was put in soft.
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Mon 22-Jun-2009
By Thomas Hauser: Barney Frank has been in Congress since 1981 and is chairman of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee. That makes him one of the most powerful people in government. His career is also notable because, in 1987, he was only the second member of Congress to openly acknowledge being gay. What does Barney Frank have to do with boxing?
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Mon 8-Jun-2009
By Thomas Hauser: A lot of people liked Arthur Curry. Almost everyone else loved him. Artie’s mind was filled with wonderful thoughts and his feelings were founded on love. He was about giving. He enjoyed doing things for people and took care to never hurt anyone. He was a man of integrity who radiated truth. He spoke his mind and didn’t hide his feelings. “Being real,” he called it. But he was always kind.
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Mon 25-May-2009
By Thomas Hauser: HBO is the dominant player in boxing today. It wasn’t always that way. In the mid-1980s, the broadcast television networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) ruled the ring. The man most responsible for upending that hierarchy was Seth Abraham, the architect of HBO’s boxing program.
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Mon 11-May-2009
By Thomas Hauser: On May 2nd, Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton engaged in battle for the right to be called boxing’s “pound-for-pound” champion. Pacquiao and Hatton have aggressive relentless ring styles. They are two of the most exciting fighters in the world. Each man has stayed close to his roots, geographically and in terms of character. Both have special meaning to their constituents. No two fighters are more loved in their native lands.
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Thu 30-Apr-2009
By Thomas Hauser:
This is the first in a series of articles that will appear over time.
Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier fought three fights that are the pyramids of boxing. Dave Wolf was in the Frazier camp for each of them.
Dave was a gifted writer who later gained recognition as the manager of Ray Mancini and Donny Lalonde. He died last December.
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Thu 16-Apr-2009
By Thomas Hauser: Danny Jacobs is being groomed for stardom. Outside the ring, Jacobs is easy-going with a natural, almost disarming, quality about him. He likes to talk. “And I love to cook,” he offers. “Chicken, pasta, different sauces. Bread pudding is my favorite. I make it well.” He’s also a talented young fighter, who says without false modesty, “I’m capable of being the best in the world. I can make a big mark in this game.”
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Wed 1-Apr-2009
By Thomas Hauser: There was a time when New York City was a breeding ground for elite fighters. Those days are long gone, but prospects still surface in the Big Apple. Will Rosinsky is one of them.
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Mon 23-Mar-2009
By Thomas Hauser: In the past, I’ve recounted the memories of boxing notables who spoke fondly of their greatest moment in a sport other than boxing. Since then, I’ve received several emails asking what my own “moment in the sun” was. Here goes:
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Mon 16-Mar-2009
By Thomas Hauser: In the past, I’ve recounted the memories of fighters who spoke fondly of their greatest moment in a sport other than boxing. The recollections of some notable non-combatants follow:
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Mon 2-Mar-2009
By Thomas Hauser Don’t get carried away by the title of this article. It would be a stretch to liken Bob Arum to Gary Cooper in High Noon. But in recent weeks, there has been talk of a new economic model in boxing. And Arum, in tandem with Todd DuBoef (his stepson and the president of Top Rank) might be charting a path out of the wilderness that the sweet science has wandered through in recent years.
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Mon 16-Feb-2009
By Thomas Hauser One night next month, moments before the opening bell, ring announcer David Diamante will take the microphone for one of the many fight cards he works in the New York metropolitan area. Diamante is tall and slender with a gaunt face, aquiline nose, and piercing blue eyes. His voice is a gift and he uses it well.
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Sun 18-Jan-2009
By Thomas Hauser A fighter sacrifices. He tortures his body; he hardens his mind. And all the while, he’s surrounded by people, some of whom give him their heart and soul while others view him as prey. Depending on those associations, the business of boxing can be profitable for a fighter or worse than any physical beating that he suffers. John Duddy is learning that hard lesson now.
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Wed 7-Jan-2009
By Thomas Hauser Hi. It’s me again. Yeah; I figured that would make you happy. Anyway; HBO seems to be struggling with its boxing programming. Your ratings for boxing last year looked like polls tracking the national approval rating for George Bush’s handling of the economy. So I thought I’d pass along a few thoughts.
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Thu 25-Dec-2008
By Thomas Hauser I’ve lost a good friend. Dave Wolf died in his sleep last night. When I say “good friend,” I mean it.
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Wed 24-Dec-2008
By Thomas Hauser One of the joys in covering a big fight is that I never know what “extras” fight night will bring. Earlier this year, I was in the press room at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City readying for Kelly Pavlik vs. Bernard Hopkins when Joe Frazier came in.
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Thu 18-Dec-2008
By Thomas Hauser It’s hard to know how future generations will evaluate Oscar De La Hoya. Oscar is more than a name. He was once a very good fighter, but that time has come and gone. He has lost four of his last seven fights. One can argue that he hasn’t beaten an elite opponent since a split-decision victory over Ike Quartey on February 13, 1999.
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Fri 12-Dec-2008
By Thomas Hauser Each year during the holiday season, I publish a “top forty” list of what I consider to be the best books on boxing. That list, updated to accommodate recently published titles, follows. Some of these books are now out of print. But with the proliferation of online services like Abebooks.com and Amazon.com, all of them can be found.
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Mon 1-Dec-2008
By Thomas Hauser In today’s era of devalued titles, it’s not enough to be a “champion.” To be fully recognized and make big money, a fighter has to be a star.
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Mon 17-Nov-2008
By Thomas Hauser The main arena at Madison Square Garden is a nice place to make history. On November 8th, Joe Calzaghe and Roy Jones Jr did just that, although the results were far more gratifying to Calzaghe.
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Wed 5-Nov-2008
By Thomas Hauser When Paulie Malignaggi steps into the ring to face Ricky Hatton on November 22nd, two fans with unique perspectives will be at ringside. Anthony Catanzaro and Chris Santos are part owners of restaurants that are as different as the styles of the fighters they’ll be watching in Las Vegas. But they share a passion for the sweet science and for Paulie.
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Mon 27-Oct-2008
By Thomas Hauser Boxing has its own version of The Golden Rule: “Do unto to others as they would do unto you.” On October 18th, Kelly Pavlik entered the ring at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City intent upon scoring a decisive victory over Bernard Hopkins. He didn’t have to knock Hopkins out. But he was committed to fashioning a triumph that left no doubt. “I want everybody to know that I beat Hopkins,” Pavlik said. “And I want Bernard to know that I beat him too.”
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Wed 15-Oct-2008
By Thomas Hauser Sarah Palin has avoided open-ended interviews with the media since her nomination at the Republican National Convention last month. But she was willing to sit down for an extended conversation with Thomas Hauser on the subject of boxing on the condition that an unedited transcript of the interview appear on SecondsOut.com.
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Mon 6-Oct-2008
By Thomas Hauser My first book served as the basis for a feature film starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek. Missing told the true-life story of an American named Charles Horman, who was killed by the Chilean military in the aftermath of the 1973 coup that toppled Chilean president Salvador Allende. One night, I asked Charles’s mother what she thought was the most important message I could convey in the book. Her answer has always stayed with me.
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Mon 29-Sep-2008
By Thomas Hauser Most people don’t know it, but Republican Party insiders say that Sarah Palin was the “safe” choice as John McCain’s running mate. Some McCain strategists opposed her selection on grounds that America isn’t ready for a vice president who names her children "Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig." But in the end, the half-baked half-term Alaska governor was a safer pick than the alternatives.
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Mon 15-Sep-2008
By Thomas Hauser The Marquis of Queensberry Rules that John L. Sullivan proselytized for throughout his career didn’t make boxing less violent. Gloves were worn to protect fists, not an opponent’s brain. And under the new rules, a fighter could no longer gain thirty seconds of relief by falling to the ground.
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Mon 8-Sep-2008
By Thomas Hauser Throughout American history prior to John L. Sullivan’s ascent, most recreational activity had a practical side. Horse racing was the nation’s most popular spectator sport, but hunting and fishing were far more prevalent.
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Mon 1-Sep-2008
By Thomas Hauser Next month will mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of John L. Sullivan. In recent decades, Sullivan has faded from memory. To many, he’s now more myth than reality, a sporting Paul Bunyan. In a way, that’s fitting because, in his era, Sullivan was a near-mythic figure as large as Babe Ruth, Joe Louis, and Muhammad Ali were in their prime. He was America’s first mass-culture hero and the most idolized athlete who had lived up until his time.
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Mon 18-Aug-2008
By Thomas Hauser When Antonio Margarito beat Miguel Cotto into submission last month, Paulie Malignaggi was an interested observer.
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Mon 4-Aug-2008
By Thomas Hauser It was called “La Batalla.” On July 26th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, the eyes of the boxing world focused on the much-anticipated showdown between Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito But things in the sweet science are never as simple as they seem. La Batalla unfolded against a backdrop of the never-ending battle for television dates and control of boxing. Behind the scenes, tempers were flaring and tensions rising.
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Mon 21-Jul-2008
By Thomas Hauser How important is Boxrec.com? Ask people in the boxing industry: *Bruce Trampler (Top Rank matchmaker): Short of actually being at a fight, they’re the best source of information out there. I have my own computerized records, and I’m on Boxrec at least a dozen times a day. We take it for granted, but everyone in boxing would miss it if it was gone.
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Mon 14-Jul-2008
By Thomas Hauser Earlier this year, I posted a column entitled “Twenty Things You’ll Never Read on a Boxing Website”. By popular demand, here are ten more:
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