Tag Archives: boxing

Video

The Legend of Cleto Reyes boxing gloves

Almost a year ago I wrote a blog on the Cleto Reyes (http://nicholasspyer.com/2011/03/30/hecho-en-mexico-the-story-of-cleto-reyes-boxing-gloves/). As part of the excellent HBO 24/7 series this video shows the gloves being made.

→ 1 Comment

Posted on April 15, 2012 in boxing

Tagged ,

Blood, guts and champion once again, introducing Mexican boxer Jorge ‘Travieso’ Arce

Posted on May 31, 2011 | 1 Comment
Jorge 'Travieso' Arce

Jorge 'Travieso' Arce

What exemplifies a Mexican ring warrior? Fighting heart, grit, determination, the will to win, a come forward and not a backwards step taken aggressive fighter. Blood and guts you might say.

In 65 fights Jorge ‘Travieso’ Arce [won 57 (KO 44) + lost 6 (KO 3) + drawn 2] has won the hearts and minds of many a boxing aficionado bringing the Mexican fighter spirit to the ring each time he fights. A star in his native Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico – where he has made appearances on several Mexican reality TV shoes, extending his appeal outside of the ropes. The pint-sized fighter (5′ 4½″ / 164cm) has an effervescent personality – Arce’s trademark ring entrance features him wearing a black cowboy hat (thus earning him the nickname “The Mexican Cowboy”) and sucking a cherry lollipop.

His professional achievements include WBO World Light Flyweight, WBC World Light Flyweight, Interim WBC World Flyweight, Interim WBA World Super Flyweight, WBO World Super Flyweight, and just added to the list is the WBO World Super Bantamweight Champion. Arce can fight. His style isnt from the Floyd Mayweather Jnr school though, he toughs it out, comes straight at you, gloves pressed together under his chin and unloads. This is pressure fighting at its Mexican best. Not always pretty, not always defensive minded, but very effective and very fan friendly. This is what has made Arce so popular, you don’t watch his fights expecting to see a flashy showman, what you know you will get everytime is a bloody, vicious war in the ring. Win or lose.

Take his most recent fight – facing Wilfredo Vazquez, Jr (son of the Puerto Rican legend of the same name) at the MGM Grand Las Vegas. Lets be clear, Arce was not expected to win this one. He was brought in as a seasoned but probably past his best pro, and to provide the young, slick Vazquez a stiff test. Youth and flash skills would prevail all agreed in the run up. Arce thought different. He took the war to Vasquez, pulled himself off the canvas after a knockdown early on and did whats he’s done time and time – toughed it out and brutalised the younger, fresher and faster man to take the WBO World Super Bantamweight Champion – making Arce a world champion in 3 weight classes. A feat that puts him up there with the Mexican ring royalty of Barrera, Morales and Chavez. It was a great fight and what boxing is all about.

Jorge 'Travieso' Arce

A blood and guts fighter - Jorge 'Travieso' Arce

As the new world champion Arce has reopened doors to fights in a red hot division. Old rivalries with fellow veterans Vic Darchinyan can now be ignited once again. Exciting times beckon. My advice is enjoy Jorge Arce while he’s still fighting as they don’t make them like him often!

→ 1 Comment

Posted in boxing

Tagged , ,

The golden life of Oscar De La Hoya

Posted on April 30, 2011 | Leave a comment

A fabulous insight into the life and trials of Oscar De La Hoya courtesy of Sky Sports’ excellent Ringside magazine show. Oscar is an inspiration in the sport and its fascinating to hear how he views his career and what kept him on the right path during his reign as boxing’s “Golden Boy”.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in boxing

Tagged , , ,

Guts and the world of Bernard Hopkins

Posted on March 25, 2011 | Leave a comment

A rare glimpse into the world of one of the most intriguing legends of modern boxing – Bernard Hopkins. In this interview Hopkins shares some insight into whats made him and how he continues to defy the odds and father time:

→ Leave a comment

Posted in boxing

Tagged ,

All rise for the new middleweight king Sergio Martinez

Posted on March 10, 2011 | Leave a comment

Sergio Martinez

In most respected 2010 boxing reviews the fighter that came out of top was the Argentinean Sergio Martinez, all this from a fighter that never laced a glove on until the age of 20 (ancient in boxing terms).

Martinez accomplished his rise to the top of the middleweight pile with a crushing KO of Paul “the punisher” Williams – see the video below.

It was the kind of finish that requires no explanation, no scorecards or judges. With it Martinez added to a trio of fights inside a calendar year that propelled him into the boxing elite. This started with a debatable loss to the same Paul Williams he would crush at the end of the same year and the pumling of Kelly Pavlik to take the WBC and WBO Middleweight titles.

Martinez has the world at his feet as 2011 starts. He begins with a fight for the WBC Diamond Belt against Sergiy Dzinziruk. He is expected to win this conclusively and judging by recent training footage (see videos on this post) he looks in tip top shape to do just that.

To update this post with the outcome of the Martinez vs Dzinziruk fight, check this HBO highlight video out to see just how amazing Martinez was on the night:

 

→ Leave a comment

Posted in boxing

Tagged , , , ,

Jamie Moore – British boxing great

Posted on June 2, 2010 | Leave a comment
Jamie Moore

Jamie Moore

 

When Jamie Moore announced his retirement from boxing earlier this year British boxing fans lost a genuine warrior from their ranks. Moore attained British, Commonwealth and European championship belts but never made it to world title honours – that is no reflection on his ability though, more in my mind a product of being held back in domestic level fights for too long. With a final record of 32 wins (23 by KO) and 5 losses, Moore certainly can be said to have a comprehensive career and took many a scalp along the way.Two fights stick out for me though – both against tough British rivals and both real wars, the fights against Matthew Macklin and Ryan Rhodes have become classics.   

   

Both of these fights are the kind of action that can end a career, they are the sort of fights that age their participants. Moore rose from his fight against Macklin (after his spectacular KO in the 9th round) as the genuine article but 3 long years later and now with the well-paying European title added Moore met light middleweight rival Ryan Rhodes in what would be another night of brutal brilliance. Although Moore lost the fight and with it his dreams of a world title, you couldn’t take anything away from his performance. He came to fight and in the process gave far more of himself that was required.  

  

In his retirement statement Moore perhaps summed up his career best:  

“I have had a fantastic career and achieved more than I could have dreamed of by winning Irish, British, Commonwealth and European light-middleweight titles.  

I retire with my head held high knowing I contested some of the best fights ever witnessed in a British ring, and proud of the fact that, win or lose, fans were going to see an exciting fight.”

→ Leave a comment

Posted in boxing

Tagged , ,

Ricardo Mayorga – the craziest man in sport

Posted on March 20, 2010 | Leave a comment

It’s easy to write off someone as wildly entertaining as Ricardo Mayorga as a sideshow in boxing – mad, bad, trash talking ‘El Matador’ is everything but ordinary. 

Ricardo Mayorga

To write him off would be to ignore the pedigree of the opposition he has faced – Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley, Felix Trinidad and Fernando Vargas to name but a handful. At his finest the Nicaraguan bad boy Mayorga was throw back to the good old days of real fighters, taking on everything with scant regard for manners and rules.

Ricardo Mayorga Ring Magazine Cover

There are many enjoyable highlights from Mayorga’s career – frequent press conference brawls, childish taunting of his opponents (see below video of his exchange with Vargas), a habit of letting fighters take clean open shots on his head in pure macho demonstration of his strength! His heavy smoking – while training goes against every tenant of boxing fitness but somehow Mayorga made it part of his persona.

Mayorga will probably be remembered for his losses to truly great fighters and his defection to the Mixed Martial Arts as a fringe contender there. His boxing style was certainly not the sweet science in action – he was a pure street fighting brawler, windmilling punches and hoping for the best. He was enjoyable to watch though and you always knew there would be a proper tear up if he was fighting and for that we should salute his contribution to boxing!

→ Leave a comment

Posted in boxing

Tagged , , , , ,

Julio Cesar Chavez – El Gran Campeón Mexicano!

Posted on March 10, 2010 | 2 Comments

Picture a moment in time if you will: it’s the final seconds of the 12th round of a WBC and IBF  light welterweight championship title fight in Las Vegas, 1990.  

Julio Cesar Chavez

El Gran Campeón Mexicano

Eleven savage rounds have already passed and Julio Cesar Chavez is losing the fight, the judges, everyone watching and Chavez himself knows it. All his opponent Meldrick Taylor has to do is remain standing and he wins the belts and more importantly takes Chavez’s unbeaten record of 68 wins away from him.  

With 20 seconds left on the clock Chavez who has been stalking his man doggedly throughout the entire fight connects the right hand he had been waiting to land all night and wipes Taylor out. When Taylor staggers to his feet the referee Richard Steele waves the fight off with Taylor in no state to continue.  

 

Controversial as the referees decision was, for me Chavez showed the virtues in that fight that he had displayed throughout his ring entire career – aggression, pressure and a mindset of coming to battle – to walk through all that was thrown at him and destroy!  

Chavez finally retired in his twenty-fifth year as a professional boxer with a record of 107 wins, 6 losses and 2 draws, with 86 knockouts. He holds records for most successful defenses of world titles - 27! and most title fights – 37! 

Chavez also has the longest undefeated streak in boxing history. His record was 89-0-1 going into his first loss to Frankie Randall and had an 87 fight win streak until his controversial draw with Whitaker. 

For those keen to know more about Chavez track down Diego Luna’s recent film: 

→ 2 Comments

Posted in boxing

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hands of stone – the legend of Roberto Duran

Posted on March 9, 2010 | Leave a comment

 

Some fighters become legends, Roberto Duran is one such fighter.

Roberto Duran

He is viewed as the greatest lightweight of all time, but he won championships in four weight classes:  lightweight (1972–79), welterweight (1980), junior middleweight (1983–84) and middleweight (1989). The belts and championships only tell a tiny fraction of the force of nature that was “Manos de Piedra” or hands of stone.

Roberto Duran Lightweight Champion

Duran was a tough guy both inside the ring and outside. Raised in the streets of Panama he fought his way out of poverty – literally fighting for meals. His legend started early with a remarkable story of a young Duran knocking a horse with a single punch. Whether that story is pure urban legend it hardly matters but it emphasises the remarkable strength that Duran possessed in both hands.

Duran’s fighting style had it all – pure machismo in action, brawling, in fighting, taking shots and constantly coming forward to walk his man down. His actual boxing skills and technical ability are too often overlooked in favour of his tough guy style. Duran benefited from existing in an era of greats – Sugar Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns and Marvin Hagler to name just three in the middleweight golden age of the 1980′s.Roberto Duran Training

Duran’s brutal contest with Leonard – where he took Sugar Ray out of his slick boxing game plan and brought him to a street fight was a classic, but it was their rematch got all the intention though. Leonard refused that time to be drawn into a slug fest and punched and moved to the total disgust of Duran. The eventual “no mas” where Duran turned his back on Leonard and walked out of the fight created criticism that dogged Duran for many years. To Duran though the macho side of boxing was the most important part – he refused to engage Leonard in a slick boxing skills contest – he came to fight, to go to war. He meant it.

Duran fought on well past his prime, packed on weight between fights in a way that Ricky Hatton would emulate years later. He was written off many times but flashes of his brilliance still remained. One such night was June 6, 1983: when he brutalised then knocked out Davey Moore in the eighth round to win the WBA Junior Middleweight Championship. This was at a time when Duran was considered by all to be past his best and frankly washed up. You can see some of that fight in the video below.

I think Duran’s own quote sums his up best:

“There’s only one legend. That’s me.”
– Roberto Duran

→ Leave a comment

Posted in boxing

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The perfect punch Volume 3 – the uppercut

Posted on March 8, 2010 | Leave a comment

Devastating when applied correctly, this punch is rightly the favorite of many boxing fans. 

Juan Manuel Marquez Juan-Diaz 

Juan Manuel Marquez used it to savage effect to close the show on Juan Diaz in their fight. Having dropped Diaz just earlier in the round, Marquez manoeuvred his man into position and used the punch that he knew would turn the lights out in his opponent – the uppercut! 

Some of the greatest and most aggressive forces in boxing like Mike Tyson and Roberto Duran can be remembered for their spectacular use of the uppercut. 

Juan Manuel Marquez vs Juan Diaz uppercut

Juan Manuel Marquez vs Juan Diaz

Watch how Marquez uses it and what it does to Diaz in this video:  

→ Leave a comment

Posted in boxing

Tagged , , , , , , , ,