LOS ANGELES and LONDON, December 9th - MaxBoxing.com, the leader in Internet boxing coverage in the United States, is pleased to announce a new partnership with the premier brand in worldwide new media boxing coverage, SecondsOut.com, for a new venture that will not only continue to bring the best of the fight game to its visitors, but that will add a number of new enhancements that will revolutionize the way the sport is covered.

Comment by Paul Upham

Experts and fans alike labelled it a mismatch as soon as the fight was made. Some boxing fans were so angered they vowed not to subscribe to the pay-per-view, labelling it a circus and a farce. Indeed the fight was one sided. It wasn’t even close. But Many Pacquiao was the one who was left standing with his arms raised in triumph. For Oscar De La Hoya, the long time Golden Boy of the sport, the Dream Match turned into a nightmare.

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.

By Matthew Hurley

As the Oscar De La Hoya vs. Manny Pacquiao fight approaches and the publicity machine ratchets it up another notch Oscar, the savvy veteran with dozens of these media blitzes under his belt, has metamorphosed into the confidently contained sound-bite machine he has perfected over the years.

By Paul Upham

This coming Saturday night the boxing world stops for the event of the year when its biggest star Oscar De La Hoya faces the best fighter in the world Manny Pacquiao. While the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas is sold out, the fight will be televised live in the USA on HBO Pay-Per-View and millions more will watch around the world. Behind the scenes at HBO, great work has gone into packaging and delivering the Dream Match to both old and new boxing fans.

By John Lumpkin

Walk into any sporting goods store in the land and see if you purchase anything related to boxing. At best, you might be able to locate a heavy bag, some training gloves and maybe a speed bag. What you will not find is T-shirt, ball cap, jacket or any other item that would help promote the sport. The reason you will not find these things is that boxing has no representative.

By Jason Pribila

On May 28th Thomas Hauser let boxing fans behind the curtain, and behind the scenes of “HBO: 2008”. He intimately detailed how the decisions by HBO’s current leadership were adversely affecting the sport as a whole. Mr. Hauser wrote, “Part of the problem is that HBO is no longer building fighters the way it once did because it tries to televise the biggest names, not the best fighters and fights.”

By Matthew Hurley

In its infancy the world of mixed martial arts that I would see late at night on ESPN held no interest for me. I found it to be slap-dash and amateurish and subsequently ignored its refinement over the years.

By Derek Bonnett

With all the big boxing talk of the last couple of months being focused on Hopkins-Pavlik and Jones-Calzaghe, it appears as if the enthusiasts of the sport have completely forgotten about the super bantamweight unification bout between Celestino Caballero and Steve Molitor on November 21 at the Casino Rama in Rama, Ontario.

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.

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.

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.”

By Matthew Hurley

The accolades Bernard Hopkins is now receiving for his master class performance against Kelly Pavlik are all warranted. The wily old veteran proved most of us wrong yet again.

By John Lumpkin

Most of today’s fans bristle at the comparisons people make about their boxing heroes chances against the fighter’s of yesteryear. In most other sports, there has been definitive upward progress of the athletes capabilities often backed by firm statistical data. Boxing, however, seems to have gone in another direction as many of today’s fighter’s lack the skills of their predecessors.

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.

By Matthew Hurley

In the weeks leading up to the WBA welterweight world boxing championship bout between Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito rumors abound as to whom Oscar De La Hoya would choose as his dance partner in what was alleged to be his final fight in December.

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.

By Jason Pribila

“Sugar” Shane Mosley returned to the ring on Saturday Night, 11 months since his hard fought loss to Miguel Cotto. Mosley was the favorite to return to his winning ways when he took on Nicaraguan Wildman, Ricardo Mayorga.

By Matthew Hurley

This past Sunday at Nuff Ced McGreevy’s Third Base Saloon on Boylston Street in Boston, USA legendary writer George Kimball signed copies of his superb new boxing book Four Kings. Kimball has written for the Village Voice, the Phoenix, Rolling Stone and the Boston Herald from which he retired in 2005 after twenty-five years.

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.

By Thomas Hauser

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.

By Clive Bernath

No matter how much I try I cannot understand why Oscar De La Hoya would want to face the much smaller pound for pound king Manny Pacquiao in a welterweight bout at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on December 12.

By Thomas Hauser

When Antonio Margarito beat Miguel Cotto into submission last month, Paulie Malignaggi was an interested observer.

By Matthew Hurley

“Kelly got the championship the right way. He earned it. I became a fan because of that.” So said Bernard Hopkins in regards to his October 18 opponent, WBC/WBO middleweight world champion Kelly Pavlik.

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.

By Matthew Hurley

Yes, it was that good. Going into the welterweight showdown between WBA champion Miguel Cotto and challenger Antonio Margarito boxing fans were salivating over a match up that guaranteed fireworks.

By Paul Upham

To be in the presence of one undisputed boxing world champion is special. To be able to sit back and observe two of them interacting together is a privilege that doesn’t come along every day. Such was the case on July 23, when Sugar Shane Mosley accepted an invitation to visit Kostya Tszyu at his home in Sydney, Australia.

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.

By John Lumpkin

Wladimir Klitschko defeated Tony Thompson this past weekend in a manner that can best be described as a relatively good performance.

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:

By Thomas Hauser

It’s a feeling that most people never experience in their lifetime; the feeling of landing a punch that separates an opponent from his senses and leaves him lying unconscious on the ring canvas.

By Matthew Hurley

Back in April of 1985 there was a fight contested for the WBA heavyweight crown between Greg Page and the aptly named Tony Tubbs that immediately went down as one of the worst fights ever contested for a belt in boxing’s premier division.

By Thomas Hauser

Dear Senator Clinton,

I know you’re disappointed at the way things worked out with your presidential campaign. But all is not lost. There’s a good chance that you can still be president of something.

By Matthew Hurley

With the retirement of welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather the position at the top of the mythical “pound-for-pound” list was vacated as well.

By John Lumpkin

Every once and a while when a popular champion loses his title in a close fight we hear people proclaiming that it was somehow unfair.

By Paul Upham

It started with a simple phone call from a business associate in Thailand to Jeff Fenech in Sydney in February 2008. “Jeff, your old foe Samart Payakarun is telling people over here that he can beat you in a boxing rematch and there is a promoter who is ready to put the fight on.”

By Thomas Hauser

Former middleweight champion Tony Zale grew up in the steeltown of Gary, Indiana. In the late-1940s, he won two of three slugfests against Rocky Graziano in boxing’s bloodiest championship trilogy.

By John Lumpkin

It used to be that heavyweights were king. The fights were exciting and there were many big names to root for. Those days, however, are long gone. Heavyweights are no longer the dominant force in the sport.

By Matthew Hurley

With the apparent retirement of welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather-soon to be retired fighter Oscar De La Hoya is now sitting back in his leather chair in the offices of Golden Boy Promotions recalculating his plan for his 2008 exit from the boxing game.

By Thomas Hauser

On January 22, 1988, former champion Larry Holmes challenged Mike Tyson for the heavyweight championship of the world. That night, a staggering 53 percent of all homes with HBO tuned in to the fight. By way of comparison, only 35 percent of homes equipped with HBO had watched Barbra Streisand’s historic HBO concert two years earlier.

By Paul Upham

The decision by Floyd Mayweather Jr, the pound for pound best boxer in the world, to announce his retirement on June 6, 2008 will send shockwaves through the boxing world. As always, with a decision of this magnitude there will be winners and losers and wide ranging affects on many other boxers and people within the sport. SecondsOut.com now attempts to answers all of the questions created by ‘Money Mayweather’s’ retirement.

By John Lumpkin

Imagine if you have been asked to rank two fighters whose records stand at 20-0 (18) and 14-5 (6). The casual fan might assume that the undefeated fighter should be ranked higher.

By Matthew Hurley

Following a monumental assault on the middleweight division in 2007 that saw him win the WBC and WBO titles from Jermain Taylor in a classic brawl Kelly Pavlik surveyed the 160 pound landscape and could not have been too excited at what he saw.

By Thomas Hauser

John L. Sullivan’s last fight (other than exhibitions) was in 1892. James J. Corbett retired from the ring in 1903. Bob Fitzsimmons followed a decade later. It’s safe to say that no one alive today saw them ply their trade. And with the passage of time, less and less is remembered about them.

By John Lumpkin

Ranking fighters is hard work and it is much more difficult than most of us realize. If it were a simple matter, all of those wonderful pound for pound lists you see posted would have the same fighters listed in the same order. Fact is, few of us even agree on what constitutes the credentials necessary to be placed on one of those lists.

By Thomas Hauser

When Paulie Malignaggi steps into the ring on May 24th for his rematch against Lovemore N’dou, an integral member of Team Malignaggi will be watching intently from the corner.

By Matthew Hurley

At the opening press conference for the June 28 showdown between WBC lightweight champion David Diaz and challenger Manny Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum, with his usual bluster, described this match-up as a fight “for the ages.”

By Thomas Hauser

In boxing today, fighters fight for bogus world championship belts bestowed upon them by money-hungry sanctioning bodies in exchange for sanctioning fees subsidized by television networks that demand “title” fights.

By John Lumpkin

Most of us are fairly familiar with the rules of boxing contests, but how many of us really understand the rules of championships?

By Matthew Hurley

There is nothing quite as frustrating for a sports fan than to watch a once great athlete prolong his career well after the expiration date has run out. It happens in every sport but boxing is a cruel and unforgiving profession and as the fighter ages and his body begins to break down his descent into mediocrity can happen suddenly and then linger on in an agonizing display of masochism as the pugilist refuses to hang up the gloves.