827 stories on BoxingScene are published under the Lyle Fitzsimmons byline.
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By Lyle Fitzsimmons - It was our first time at a live fight card … and the end of a pair of eras. When old pal Phil MacDonald and I hopped in my dad’s Chevy Caprice for a trip from hometown Niagara Falls to the Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo 34 years ago this week – this Friday, to be exact – the consensus around town lean...
By Lyle Fitzsimmons - Virgil Hill knows a good light heavyweight when he sees one. After all, the Missouri native-turned-North Dakotan was among the world’s best 175-pound fighters for more than a decade across the 1980s and ’90s, while laying the foundation for an International Boxing Hall of Fame inductio...
By Lyle Fitzsimmons - Go ahead and accept a round of applause. Because if – even as Badou Jack reeled from the onslaught of one Derek Edwards – you still viewed him as a potential pound-for-pound elite, you’re a soothsayer of the highest magnitude. The unbeaten Swede was headed toward a 168-pound title elimin...
By Lyle Fitzsimmons - Regrets? Sure, Adonis Stevenson has got a few. But when it comes to the opponents he’s fought in nearly five years as the WBC’s 175-pound champion – or, more notably perhaps, the ones he’s not fought – they’re far too few to mention. “What do I regret? Nothing really,” he said. “If we try to make...
By Lyle Fitzsimmons - Vanes Martirosyan, as of today, is a 32-year-old man. He’s been a pro fighter for 13 of those years, and was accomplished enough as an amateur to land a spot on the U.S. team that traveled to the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. But his career-defining moment - or at least the one that...
By Lyle Fitzsimmons - Turns out Jimmy Buffett was dead wrong. The Key West-sopped crooner – in what became his first Billboard Top 40 single way back in 1974 – promised that “Come Monday, it'll be all right.” So as I hit the pillow early Sunday, irritated yet again at the chronic jackass that is Adrien Broner, I clung to...
By Lyle Fitzsimmons - Jessie Vargas has been at this for a while. He's gotten paid to punch people for just short of 10 full years, has held world title belts in a pair of weight classes and was a member of Mexico’s 2008 Olympic team – though his amateur trip to the Summer Games in Beijing was canceled by a loss in a regional...
By Lyle Fitzsimmons - Add another former opponent to the list of those ripping Canelo Alvarez. Former welterweight title claimant Kermit Cintron, beaten in a bid for Alvarez’s 154-pound belt in 2011, believes the red-haired Mexican’s recent travails are likely indicative of longer-term infractions. Gennady Golovki...
By Lyle Fitzsimmons - The Box Nation announcers didn’t know. The fans at Copper Box Arena didn’t know. And James DeGale most certainly didn’t know. But Caleb Truax knew. The rugged Minnesotan dropped to his knees as the bell ended his 12-rounder with the IBF super middleweight champion last December, an...
By Lyle Fitzsimmons - It's five days until the opening bell. And now that the task of getting Joseph Parker physically prepped for a Saturday date with Anthony Joshua is complete, trainer Kevin Barry can get on to even more important matters. Making sure his man is mentally ready to deliver a career-defining performa...