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EACH year during the holiday season, I publish a list of what I consider to be the best books about boxing. That list, updated to accommodate recently published titles, follows. Taken together, the books offer a compelling look at the sweet science from bare-knuckle days to the present. Some of these books are now out

In the Beginning T’was the night before Christmas at the start of this poem The Gypsy King’s family was happy at home Tyson sat next to his children and missus Full of good cheer and giving out kisses There was happiness, laughter, contentment, and love Then came a crash on the roof up above Followed

Interview: Matt Christie Q: HOW does 2022 compare to other years you’ve been in the job? For me, it feels almost like the severity of the lows outweighed the highs. RS: It’s been a long and tough year. But is it worse than any other year? I don’t know. Perhaps the things that have gone

WANTING it, if only to remove from my mouth the bitter taste which had lingered since February, I kept waiting all year to see a performance in a British ring better than the one Jack Catterall produced against Josh Taylor at super-lightweight 10 months ago. But, alas, despite my patience, it never arrived. Stuck with

Q: MORE THAN two months have passed since your first career loss to Claressa Shields in a huge, crossover event. How has life been for Savannah Marshall? SM: I feel good, perhaps a bit bored now, so looking forward to getting back into the gym in the new year. I was exhausted after the fight,

WHAT will you remember about the boxing year of 2022? As always, there were enough heart-thumping moments to remind us why we gave those hearts to boxing all those years ago. Leigh Wood’s last-ditch victory over Michael Conlan was thrilling from start to finish, their efforts awe-inspiring. We thought nobody could compete with the violent

A LITTLE more than a fortnight after Mills Lane died at the age of 85, news reached BN on Monday (December 19) that Steve Smoger – inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2015 – had passed away from an undisclosed illness. Smoger was a charismatic official, known for letting fighters sort out

ARMENIA’s David Avanesyan, 29-4-1 (17), and his team have filed an official complaint with the Nebraska Athletic Commission (NAC) following his sixth-round KO defeat to Terence Crawford, 39-0 (30), for the WBO welterweight title due to claims that Crawford’s gloves were defective and that the referee, Sparkle Lee, did not apply the rules appropriately prior

WHILE cataloguing my collection recently I came across a series of press photographs of Benny Lynch training for various contests back in the late 1930s. Benny Lynch is one of a small band of UK boxers for whom the public holds a particular fascination. This will probably be because of his early, tragic demise, as

IT WAS a relentless year, it really was, with so many fights and nights and miles and waits. The last boxing weekend of the year was no exception. On Friday, I went to Errol Johnson’s show at the Hangar in Wolverhampton. It was freezing, snow on the floor, the venue thick with frozen breath and vape and

HAVING played such a big part in the growth of British boxing over the last 10 years, you would think Anthony Joshua was in a position to make decisions about his career without outsiders relentlessly judging him for those choices. If you did think that: hello, welcome to the real world. Of course that isn’t

1 Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk Though it may end up being an eyesore stylistically, no one can deny that Fury and Usyk are the two best heavyweights in the world and should therefore fight. They are so far ahead of the rest, in fact, it seems ridiculous to wait any longer. 2 Joe Joyce

USED so often it has now become the wronged athletes’ “Live, Laugh, Love”, the Insta-mantra “let the apology be as loud as the disrespect” has been trotted out plenty in the 10 weeks since Conor Benn’s annulled fight against Chris Eubank Jnr back in October. And yet, as things currently stand, we – that is,

WHILE this might not be the year Chris Billam-Smith wins “British Fighter of the Year”, one category for which he is certainly in contention is “Most Improved Fighter”, owing to the three wins he has so far registered in 2022 and the manner in which those wins were secured. Once a cruiserweight easy to miss,

WHEN Jim Watt defeated Howard Davis at Ibrox Park, Glasgow, for the WBC lightweight title on June 7 1980, he was continuing a long tradition of great Scottish champions boxing in the country’s many large football stadia. The promoters had hoped for a crowd of 20,000 that night but far fewer than that turned up

THE 2022 World Cup Finals, despite being held in the middle of winter, have been as gripping as any World Cup that I can remember. We may all find the Qatar setting problematic but, when viewed purely as a sporting event, it has delivered thus far. The reason for that should be easy to understand.

AT 82, Barry Tompkins should be slowing down. But listen to him call the ShoBox fights on Showtime or any number of sports these days, and the Hall of Famer may just be getting started on the next chapter of his stellar career behind the mic. And that’s fine with him. “More than anything else,

I WILL start with the wonderful support that Ringside Charitable Trust have received this year. I never like to single out any of the very special people who have gone way above what could ever be expected of anyone, time and time again, as every single contribution and effort is so gratefully appreciated and I am