The town of Youngstown, Ohio is known for producing hard working people and hard working fighters like Ray ‘Boom Boom’ Mancini and Harry Arroyo from yesteryear and unbeaten Middleweight Champion Kelly Pavlik of today.  Hard work is what produced a 12-round unanimous decision over Jermain Taylor in their rematch last Saturday night at the MGM Grand here in Las Vegas.  The judges had it 117-111, 116-112, and 115-113.  I had it 117-112.  We all got it right. Read more: Pavlik Wins Again!

The first big fight weekend of 2008 in Las Vegas arrives with Saturday’s rematch at the MGM Grand between Middleweight Champ Kelly Pavlik and the man he wrested the title from last September in Atlantic City Jermain Taylor.  Read more: Pavlik vs Taylor 2 This Weekend!

Well, was it worth my 50 bucks to see the Roy Jones vs Felix Trinidad fight card this past weekend?  Hey I did get to see two of the best fighters of the past couple of decades.  I also got to see the guy who came has blown the most chances to become Heavyweight Champion in Andrew Golota.   Was it worth it to sit by myself on a Saturday evening in Las Vegas and watch this instead of taking my little royal blue two-seater Mercedes for a cruise on the Strip?  Read more: Jones Wins Over Tito!

Saturday night from Madison Square Garden we have our first Pay Per View of the year featuring two of last decade’s greatest fighters.  So why am I very disappointed over this fight? Well because the two fighters are named Roy Jones Jr. and Felix ‘Tito’ Trinidad.  Read more: Jones vs. Trinidad Preview

It was a record breaking year statistically in boxing. Largest live gate ever with Floyd Mayweather vs Oscar Dela Hoya here in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand. That fight also produced the biggest pay per view buy ever with over two and half million buys. Floyd and Ricky Hatton sold out within minutes of the tickets going on sale and twenty thousand some Brits came across the pond to watch their mate take on boxing’s pound for pound best.  Most watched from some type of big screen TV not from the raucous sold out MGM Grand.  Read more: 2007 A Pugilistic Year to Remember

In This Corner  mourns the loss of Hank Kaplan.

1919-2007

One of the last links to my brilliant pugilistic career is gone with the passing of Hank Kaplan last week.   More importantly and more factually  Hank’s passing truly does means the entire sport of boxing has lost one of it’s greatest links to its  entire  treasured fistic history.  Read more: Hank Kaplan Tribute

So who’s 0 will go on Saturday night from the MGM Grand Garden Arena when unbeaten five weight division champ ‘Pretty Boy’ Floyd Mayweather 38-0 (24 KO’s) takes on unbeaten two division champ Ricky ‘The Hit Man’ Hatton?  Let’s break it down. Read more: Time to Break Down Pretty Boy VS The Hit Man

I spent the afternoon at Camp Mayweather last week as we were shooting a final interview with Floyd for his upcoming episode on IN THIS CORNER.  For any that thought his participation in ‘Dancing with the Stars’ might make him somewhat vulnerable in his upcoming fight December 8th  with unbeaten Ricky Hatton, think again, cause it ain’t happening.  

Well conventional pugilistic wisdom played itself out again this past Saturday night at Madison Square Garden as the young unbeaten lion Miguel Cotto beat the once great veteran ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley scoring a unanimous 12 round decision.    There was really no controversy in the decision as Cotto built up a nice early lead before dramatically slowing down in some of the later rounds.  In fact, Miguel slowed down so drastically that I really believed he had suffered some sort of injury.  I actually thought he had hurt one of his hands, but apparently that was not the case. Read more: Cotto Rises to the Occasion!