Mus Mus Tail

Surprise Surprise

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:32:50 -0500

Stevens vs. Brinkley, fight of the year? There's 11 months to go, but...who expected this?

Good Luck

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 17:45:36 -0500

Right On

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 17:23:56 -0500

Nobody who likes boxing these days ever gets tired of lamenting the sorry state of the heavyweight division, but from this point forward, I refuse to say anything bad about Vitali Klitschko. Vitali Klitschko is a class act. (news item via The Queensbury Rules)

Puro Michoacan

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:07:06 -0500

Just caught bantamweight Abner Mares on The Finest Network Working aka the Vs. Network, where he made efficient if not quite short enough work of Carlos Fulgencio. The decisive body blow was a darkly pretty piece of inside poetry. There's a lot to like about Mares. His backstory's inspirational. He boxes out of a compact stance in an always-busy style and he thinks on his feet. All he bigger punches are immediately followed by enough head movement to miss the counters. He prefers the combo to the showpiece. He fights often. He represents Hawaiian Gardens. Importantly, he cuts a completely wicked figure coming into the ring. I wish he was fighting again tomorrow; I'd watch that fight too.

Hawaiian Punch

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 01:38:19 -0500

Is Brian Viloria for real? This fight will not tell us. 25-2 vs. 15-5-5, on Viloria's home turf, against a guy who'll be fighting abroad for the first time. This is a tune-up, I guess, if we're looking at a half-full glass. I'd like to see Viloria vs. Giovanni Segura, but that's mainly because I have a soft spot for Bell Gardens. Really, though anybody from between the #2 and the #14 slots on this list will do, followed by a series of unification bouts. Why? Because if there's one thing I think we can all agree on, it's that if Brian "the Hawaiian Punch" Viloria got massively famous by unifying the minimosca division, the world would be a much better place, and the general sporting scene would be vastly improved. Sometimes I think I missed my calling, but I understand that the competition climbing the ladder to the top of the independent boxing promoters ladder is fierce and occasionally dangerous.

Master Class

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 00:09:01 -0500

Just watched Miguel Vazquez expose the highly favored Breidis Prescott on ESPN. It was like watching a surgical student ace a practicum. Keep your eye on Vazquez. He's something else.

Sad News

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:56:26 -0500

Alexis Arguello, mayor of Managua and one-time near-household name, is dead at 57, probably by his own hand. Of the several appreciations I've read since I heard the news, Bill Gallo's is the best; take a moment to remember or learn about a fighter whose story is worth hearin:. 81-7, 65 knockouts, no draws. Men retire having fought fewer total bouts than Arguello won by KO. At rest now.

Double Take

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 09:46:45 -0500

My first response, like yours, probably, was: "how sad." And then I thought, you know, the glass is half full. Every time that chicken plays tic-tac-toe in the future, he'll think to himself: "Win or lose, I can say I stood in with the best. I played Hearns to a draw. How many other chickens can say that?" Regarding this last imagined question, however, only time will tell.

Insider Trading

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 16:14:21 -0500

Keep an eye on this guy. I don't just say that because I love his nick, either.

Full Picture

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 03:03:42 -0500

Mayweather knocks Hatton out in the 10th. Everybody who's always hollering about Mayweather not being "classy" enough: did you guys watch the post-fight press conference? Did you hear Mayweather give Hatton his propers for having knocked out Castillo, which Mayweather'd been unable to do? Did you not see the class, and the respect, and as much humility as you can reasaonbly expect from a dude who just knocked out a previously undefeated fighter? News flash, people: pre-fight taunting occurs because smart fighters and managers know you have to put asses in seats, and that pay-per-view's been sagging badly in recent years. Mayweather does his job, which includes being the heavy. Congratulations from Mus Mus Tail to Mayweather for remaining undefeated, and to Ricky Hatton for ten hard rounds.

Long Shot

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:58:10 -0500

So, they ask me, they do. "John," they say, "do you like Mayweather or Hatton?" And because la casa del Mus Mus ain't got no cable, we usually answer "when the hell is that fight, anyway?" But even the profoundly unconnected know it's soon now, because the pitch is going into its final-hours whine. People who hadn't even heard of Ricky Hatton last month have an opinion about him now (not that there's anything wrong with that - you gotta start somewhere).

Mus Mus Tail would like to senselessly boast that we got on the Hatton train a while back. Hatton v. Tszyu? We took pleasure in watching the boxing pundits eat humble pie. Hatton v. Maussa? We called that fight and were only off by one round. And whatever things Manchester may or may not have to answer, umm, for, its boxing history isn't one of them. Its traditions are the stuff of legend. But Mayweather isn't Maussa, or Tszyu; Mayweather beat De La Hoya, and Zab Judah the Giant-Killer. People use the phrase "best pound-for-pound" like it was his middle name.

My head tells me this fight goes to whichever fighter has a greater horror of losing, and I suspect that's Mayweather. But Hatton has shown a remarkable instinct for rising to an occasion. If the fight were in Manchester, I'd call it Hatton by knockout. In Vegas, where the oddsmakers unanimously favor Mayweather, it'll be a lot tighter. Dudes in Vegas don't know Salford from Cincinatti. Still. I like a dark horse, and I don't mind being wrong every once in a while. Hatton by decision.

Short, Sweet

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 22:41:25 -0500

Speaking of the ever-estimable East Side Boxing, we have an early candidate for story of the year. The story's of no importance, really, and a copy-editor could have punched the presentation up considerably, but the economy of expression in this short piece is really a marvel. Why do I love boxing? Because alone among sports, it willingly embraces its own rhetoric until there is no longer any distinction between the description and the thing-described.

We are breaking our one-graf rule here to promise that there will never, ever be another entry on this site as thick-monocled as the one you've just read. Thank you for your time.

Next Question

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 09:26:28 -0500

Samuel Peter is an overweight, slow, rather graceless fighter whose jab happens to be the most violent thing this side of a Takashi Miike flick. Mus Mus Tail endorses Samuel Peter as the most entertaining heavyweight on the scene, not because his fights are that interesting (they're not) nor because he's gonna revitalize the division (he ain't) but because in addition to his economical and efficient punching style he gives good press conference. He splits the difference between jovial and diplomatic. One gets the sense that he wants to beat a little ass not out of meanness, but out of a sense of duty. Let's listen to the master at work as he addresses not the question he's been asked but the question he'd rather answer (from a conference call at East Side Boxing; emphasis added):

Question: Sam, you won the fight and thought your next fight would be for the WBC title, but the WBC mandated a rematch with Toney. What was your initial reaction to it and what is your reaction now?
Peter: I am not from here, but from Africa. It is the only thing I can do. I am not the WBC; I am fighting for the WBC title.

Man Down

Sat, 28 Oct 2006 20:30:02 -0500

Pour out liquor for Trevor Berbick. The 80s heavyweights: there's rather a lot to say about them, and it's becoming harder and harder to know where to begin.

Endless Love

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 09:33:52 -0500

Every time Mike Tyson opens up his mouth to speak, my heart breaks a little more. People laugh at him; he knows it; he's marching into the darkness with his aging eyes open and a panoramic view of the loss that started occurring more or less on the day of his birth, and that seems to have compounded itself with every opportunity fate or talent presented him. It'd be one thing if he didn't know. But he knows. People think he doesn't. People are assholes.