Latest editorial
Deontay Wilder (left) and Joseph Parker during a press conference at OVO Arena, Wembley, London, November 15, 2023.
PROFESSIONAL boxing’s report card for the year 2023 is liberally covered in low marks for integrity, transparency, accountability, credibility and sustainability. Offsetting the low marks are high marks for greed, mendacity, and malevolence.
A story that appeared on the website of the Irish Sunday World newspaper on December 27 would in any other sport make news headlines everywhere, raising a veritable cri de coeur. But this is boxing — a sport, business and culture where anything goes.
The story revolves around an unredacted transcript of a California court hearing which took place in August this year. It took place as part of an ongoing legal battle against Irish mobster Daniel Kinahan over his now defunct management company MTK’s alleged attempt to illegally poach US fighter Jojo Diaz from boxing manager Moses Heredia.
From Manchester pubs to global arenas, Ricky Hatton embodied working-class pride in and out of the ring, but his last round was fought in solitude, writes JOHN WIGHT
Vilified by the public after defeating Henry Cooper, Joe Bugner’s remarkable career and tragic decline reflected the era’s attitudes as much as the man himself, says JOHN WIGHT
Amid riots, strikes and Thatcher’s Britain, Frank Bruno fought not just for boxing glory, but for a nation desperate for heroes, writes JOHN WIGHT
In recently published book Baddest Man, Mark Kriegel revisits the Faustian pact at the heart of Mike Tyson’s rise and the emotional fallout that followed, writes JOHN WIGHT
