3,425 stories on BoxingScene are published under the Cliff Rold byline.
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by Cliff Rold - In September 2010, it was announced that Bernard Hopkins would challenge Jean Pascal for the lineal light heavyweight title in what would be the first of two fights between the two. It seemed as good a time as any for a career retrospective. Hopkins was, then, 45 years old. A win seemed like a...
Experience matters. Abner Mares drew on a well of as much of it as almost any current fighter. Dating back to his run at 118 lbs., Mares has never been shy about taking on tough outs. He won Showtime’s bantamweight tournament. At 122, he took on an Anselmo Moreno many might have avoided. He got past a shocking knockout loss to Jhonny Gonzalez, giving Leo Santa Cruz a hell of a fight last year.
30-year old super middleweight and former middleweight titlist Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (50-2-1, 32 KO), 168, of Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico, ended a year and a half layoff in front of an enthusiastic and packed house at the Arena Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico, on Saturday night with a workmanlike ten-round unanimous decision over 29-year old Dominik Britsch (32-3-1, 11 KO), 168 ¾, of Neckarsulm, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
It doesn’t take much to push someone off the top of the world. Abner Mares was red hot just three years ago. A former Olympian with belts in three weight classes, he’d put together a take all comers resume that was hard not to admire. He won Showtime’s four-man bantamweight tournament, ended Anselmo Moreno’s decade long unbeaten streak, and was rising in pound-for-pound esteem.
By Cliff Rold - In a weekend chock full of fighting on the US airwaves, one of the more interesting bouts on tap didn’t make the cut. Quality young heavyweights? Check. Jr. welterweight champion in front of a raucous hometown crowd? Check. A rock solid doubleheader on Showtime? Check. We’ve even got Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. for those who still care. Fans who want their fill...
Denis Lebedev is a lot of things. He’s a skilled professional. He’s as tough as they come. Still fighting at a high level as he nears forty years old, his professionalism is evident in abundance.
by Cliff Rold - The Russian professional boxing market is one that is still growing, with lots of potential upside. As seen for the multi-million dollar purse bids for Wladimir Klitschko-Alexander Povetkin and the aborted Povetkin-Deontay Wilder fight, it is an upside with real financial backing. Nothing helps...
By Cliff Rold - According to the reports originating with Yahoo’s Kevin Iole and verified by others, the best made fight of 2016 was far from its biggest. If Bob Arum is telling the truth about Manny Pacquiao’s numbers against Jessie Vargas (a claim of around 300,000 buys), it wasn’t even the biggest fight of the month. Serious fight fans marked their calendars with anticipation for...
The pre-fight report card posited the question of whether Jamaica’s Nicholas Walters might have been a tad overrated after his big featherweight wins over Nonito Donaire and Vic Darchinyan; if maybe those wins had something to do with being a big featherweight against men who started their titled days at flyweight.
by Cliff Rold - The timing of things can be funny. Had this fight happened even six months ago, the buzz among hardcore fight fans would likely be off the charts. It’s still good. It feels like it could be more. After all, this was a fight people started to get interested in during 2014. Then it looked like one of those contests...