By Thomas Hauser
On June 8, 2002, Lennox Lewis knocked out Mike Tyson in Memphis. Since then, there has been only one real heavyweight championship fight. That was Lewis's stoppage of Vitali Klitschko on June 21, 2003. 
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By Thomas Hauser: Sometimes people take good things for granted. Steve Albert is approaching his twentieth year behind the microphone for Showtime Boxing. To some, he'll always be Marv's little brother, part of America's most famous sportscasting family. "People tend to compare me to Marv rather than to all commentators," he acknowledges. "That sets an extraordinarily high standard."
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By Thomas Hauser
I received an email recently from a reader complaining about an article that I wrote twenty-one months ago. The article was entitled " Jack Newfield and George Bush" and recounted my final conversation with Jack Newfield, who died of cancer in December 2004.
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By Thomas Hauser
Boxing is the world's hardest sport and also the world's hardest business. Earlier this month, Nikolai Valuev and Thomas Adamek defended their titles at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. Tucked away on the undercard in an off-television bout was a man who, sixteen months ago, stood at the center of the boxing universe.
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By Thomas Hauser
Let's start with some thoughts from Nikolai Valuev himself. He was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) on August 21, 1973. He's the World Boxing Association heavyweight champion, stands 7-feet-2-inches tall, weighs 328 pounds, and has 45 wins in 45 fights.
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By Thomas Hauser On September 29th, John Duddy fought Yory Boy Campas at the Theater at Madison Square Garden. The fight was made by Team Duddy with the expectation that it would be the next step up the ladder for the popular Irish middleweight. Instead, it became a harrowing journey and a defining fight in ways that were both good and bad.
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By Thomas Hauser
"I was clearly a mistake." Those are Steve Farhood's first words when asked to provide biographical data about himself. "I'm the last of four children," he elaborates. "And my parents were divorced one month before I was born."
Farhood might have been a mistake, but he doesn't make many of them. Over the course of 28 years in boxing, he has fashioned a well-deserved reputation for integrity and competence.
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By Thomas Hauser
The conventional wisdom in publishing circles is that books about boxing don't sell. That might be right; but in the case of David Margolick and Donald McRae, it's a shame.
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By Thomas Hauser
Millions of students will be going back to school this week, and many of them will be asked to write the time-honored essay, "What I Did On My Summer Vacation". Thus, it's worth checking in with one of boxing's finest students -- Bernard Hopkins, who retired from the sweet science this year following a unanimous decision triumph over Antonio Tarver.
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By Thomas Hauser
Sara Lee cakes once had a promotional jingle that went, "Everybody doesn't like something; but nobody doesn't like Sara Lee."
Similarly, everybody doesn't like someone; but nobody doesn't like Tim Smith.
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By Thomas Hauser
There are times when it's hard to like Don King. And there are times when it's hard to dislike him.
King is unique; a man of foresight, vision, and (some say) foul play. Hard-working, brilliant, charismatic; he's one of the most complex people ever to grace the American scene. His rise in the sweet science is almost as remarkable as Muhammad Ali's. He is an icon and a legend in his own time.
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By Thomas Hauser: A proposal that could put people in harm's way and would result in an economic windfall for a small privately-held corporation is wending its way through the New York State legislature. On June 14th, it was approved by the State Senate by a vote of 57 to 3. It's now in the State Assembly Committee on Tourism, Arts and Sports Development and is expected to come before the full Assembly this autumn.
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By Thomas Hauser
Boxing After Dark made its debut on February 3, 1996. Through July 29th of this year, it has been home to 157 fights.
The idea behind the original Boxing After Dark series was to give the public competitive fights between exciting young fighters on the rise. But on occasion, the show was a vehicle of accommodation. Instead putting "stars of the future" in competitive bouts, HBO opted at times for mismatches to showcase a particular fighter.
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By Thomas Hauser
Bob Arum and Don King aren't ordinary people. They're brilliant and demanding, focused and driven; admired in some circles and disliked in others. They've dominated the sweet science for longer than most of today's fighters have been alive. And each of them relies on a savvy director of public relations to help achieve his goals.
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By Thomas Hauser
When Roy Jones was young, he glowed. There was an aura about him and words came out of his mouth like bursts of machine-gun fire. The glow is gone now. Roy's face looks old for his 37 years and there's a bit of cotton in his voice.
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By Thomas Hauser
At long last, the Nevada State Athletic Commission's Advisory Committee on Boxer Health and Safety has issued its report. Many of the recommendations simply call for further study of problems or suggest that the NSAC ask the state legislature for additional funds to address an issue.
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By Thomas Hauser
Richard Schaefer is an interesting man. Soft-spoken, polite, smart with old-world sensibilities. Like his father, he has a passion for collecting classic Swiss stamps (those from 1848 through 1875, when the postal system in Switzerland changed). He's fluent in Swiss German (his native language), German, French, and English, and also speaks a bit of Spanish.
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By Thomas Hauser
Fights that shape a fighter's legacy are rare in boxing.
Earlier this month, four elite fighters stepped into the ring in two fights on back-to-back weekends. On June 10th, Bernard Hopkins moved up in weight to challenge Antonio Tarver for the right to be called the best light-heavyweight in the world. Eight days later, Jermain Taylor defended his middleweight championship against Winky Wright.
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By Thomas Hauser
"Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match,
Find me a find, catch me a catch
Matchmaker, matchmaker, look through your book,
And make me a perfect match."
Lyrics by Shelson Harnick, Fiddler on the Roof
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By Thomas Hauser
Go to a fight. Watch each corner between rounds. If the fight is being properly regulated, someone will be standing on the ring apron just outside the ropes, staring intently at the interplay between the fighter, his trainer, and anyone else who's involved. That observer is an inspector.
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By Thomas Hauser
Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton are boxing's poster boys on either side of the Atlantic Ocean. Earlier this month, they were showcased on consecutive weekends in major fights. And to draw them closer in the public mind, HBO televised a rerun of De La Hoya's May 6th fight with Ricardo Mayorga as the lead-in to a live telecast of Hatton's May 13th bout against Luis Collazo.
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By Thomas Hauser: On September 23, 2005, Raymond "Skip" Avansino (chairman of the Nevada State Athletic Commission) announced the formation of an advisory committee on boxer health and safety to review the commission's medical guidelines and recommend changes to better protect fighters in Nevada. Avansino's action came in the wake of a four-month period during which four fighters left the ring in Las Vegas with bleeding in their brain. Two of them (Martin Sanchez and Leavander Johnson) died.
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By Thomas Hauser: When Seth Abraham left his position as president and chief executive officer of Time Warner Sports In 2000 to become executive vice president and chief operating officer of Madison Square Garden, fans hoped that the Garden would once again become The Mecca of Boxing. Abraham had developed and managed all sports strategies at HBO, but the sweet science was his signature sport. Under his leadership, the network had become the most powerful force in boxing.
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By Thomas Hauser
"A sportswriter," Jimmy Cannon once wrote, "is entombed in a prolonged boyhood." If Cannon were alive today, he might cite Dan Rafael to prove his point.
Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com. He writes breaking news, feature stories, a weekly notebook, and Monday wrap-up. He also answers questions during online chats and compiles rankings. Reading his work enables fans to keep current in the sweet science.
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By Thomas Hauser
Boxing has a problem; a big one. Think of it as a monster that's hiding under the bed. Eventually, the monster is going to come out and take a big chunk out of boxing.
Fighters, trainers, managers, promoters, even government regulators, can legally bet on fights. They can also bet on fights that they're involved with.
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By Thomas Hauser: It has been widely reported that Lamon Brewster suffered a detached retina in his left eye in the first round of his April 1st WBO heavyweight title fight against Sergei Liakhovich in Cleveland, Ohio.
However, multiple sources tell SecondsOut that these reports don't tell the whole story. Yes, Brewster suffered a detached retina during the Liakhovich fight. But his eye was injured BEFORE the bout.
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By Thomas Hauser
Some fighters let their fists do their talking for them. Not Paulie Malignaggi.
Malignaggi is a flashy dresser with a big mouth who's basically a good guy. He's also a walking poster boy for hair gel and wears so many tassels on his boxing shoes that it's like fighting with five-pound weights on his feet.
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By Thomas Hauser
"Boxing," Jon Saraceno once wrote, "remains in a perpetual eight-count time warp." To prove that theory, one need look no further than today's heavyweight muddle.
There was a time when a heavyweight championship bout was a seismic event in the world of sports. Now, with four "champions," few people know when a title fight is taking place, let alone care.
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By Thomas Hauser
Fighters are never alone in the ring. Metaphorically, yes; but not literally. There's always a third man. Yet fans tend to forget the referee unless there's controversy or worse.
Dave Barry is enshrined in boxing lore as the arbiter who presided over the "long count" in the second bout between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney.
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By Thomas Hauser
As Muhammad Ali grows older, there have been myriad books that view him in middle-age and seek to put his accomplishments in perspective. These efforts have been of varying merit. For example, The Soul of a Butterfly purports to be Ali's own reflections on life's journey. Unfortunately, his "reflections" include Muhammad reminiscing about a thirteenth-round knockout of Joe Frazier in 1974 at Madison Square Garden.
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By Thomas Hauser
Early on the evening of February 16th, Anthony Ottah took the subway from his home in Brooklyn to 34th Street in Manhattan.
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By Thomas Hauser
This Saturday is a time of celebration. Larry Merchant, the heart and soul of HBO Boxing, will turn 75. Merchant was born in New York on February 11, 1931. He's best known to sports fans for his association with the sweet science. But his first love was football, and he was pretty good on the gridiron.
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By Thomas Hauser
During the build-up to the January 21, 2006, rematch between Erik Morales and Manny Pacquiao, a great deal was said about the relationship between Pacquiao and his former promoter, Murad Muhammad. Pacquiao's current management team maintained that the Filipino hero had been badly exploited by Muhammad, and that there would be no more exploitation in the future. In examining what has happened since then, it makes sense to let the numbers speak for themselves.
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Thomas Hauser surveys the fate of the heavyweight division in the post-Lennox-Lewis era. And in a SecondsOut exclusive, he reveals the fight by-fight predictions of twenty experts who were asked what the results would be if the ten leading heavyweights in the world fought each other?
The first-place finisher?
JAMES TONEY
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By Thomas Hauser
It would have been a great writers' fight. Floyd Mayweather Jr is at or near the top of most pound-for-pounds lists. Zab Judah was the undisputed 147-pound champion of the world. But forget about pound-for-pound. With these guys, it's carat-for-carat.
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By Thomas Hauser
Last week, when I posted an article about pay-per-view piracy and the Internet, reader reaction was swift.
Some of the responses involved humorous recollections. Writer extraordinaire George Kimball reminisced about a man he met a dozen years ago who was a retired cop working as an investigator for a Boston cable company.
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By Thomas Hauser
There was a time not long ago when boxing's pay-per-view industry was undermined by illegal "black boxes". Authorized cable boxes contain filters that impede the flow of unauthorized signals to a subscriber's home.
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By Thomas Hauser
A. J. Liebling once wrote of the importance of tradition in boxing with the words, "The sweet science is joined onto the past like a man's arm onto his shoulder."
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Taylor-Hopkins II was the last big fight of 2005. Thomas Hauser was with Team Taylor in the days leading up to the fight and in Taylor's dressing room during the climactic hours just before the fight. Now he tells the full story of that dramatic week.
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By Thomas Hauser
The Romans forced gladiatorial slaves into combat wearing cesti weighted with iron spikes on their fists. Getting hit with cesti must have hurt. Now boxers wear gloves; not to protect an opponent's face but to safeguard their hands.
Modern gloves date to John Broughton, whose "Broughton's Rules" governed boxing from their promulgation in 1743 until 1838, when the London Prize Ring Rules were adopted.
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By Thomas Hauser
Every now and then, a chain of events reveals rot within a respected institution.
In recent years, the Nevada State Athletic Commission has been wrestling with a series of high-profile medical incidents. Through it all, Flip Homansky has been the commission's leading proponent of proper medical care for fighters. Homansky was appointed to the commission five years ago. Prior to that, he served as a ringside physician for two decades.
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By Thomas Hauser: From time to time, I recount the memories of boxing personalities regarding the first professional fight they ever saw. The tradition continues with this column.
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By Thomas Hauser
The Beijing Olympics are three years away. The London games are seven years in the future. But reform comes slowly in the convoluted world of international sports, so now is the time to take a long hard look at how Olympic boxing is scored.
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