Sports Journalist · 24 articles
You won’t remember the Baltimore Rockets, the Atlantic City Seagulls, or the daddy of them all the Washington Generals. These were the stooge teams employed to nominally do their best whilst being mesmerised by the flamboyant skills and trickery of the travelling Harlem Globetrotters. They were the blank canvas that made it possible for the Globetrotters to showcase their […]
Gloucester is that rarest of places in England where the oval ball reigns supreme over the round one. Like neighbouring Bath and Worcester, Rugby Union is imprinted in the city’s DNA. So dominant is it in the local psyche that other sports barely have a chance to breathe when all the attention of the local populace […]
Talk of a ‘Drive-in Show’ might conjure up images of Arthur Fonzarelli on his Triumph motorcycle or Richie Cunningham bunting to first base up on Inspiration Point in the 1950s-themed tv series ‘Happy Days’, but to Sheffield’s Tommy Frank (13-1, 3 KOs) it means something altogether different. This particular drive-in show didn’t feature ‘The Incredible Shrinking Man’ […]
“…I got Mary pregnant And man, that was all she wrote And for my nineteenth birthday I got a union card and a wedding coat.” This haunting lament for lost or never found opportunity comes straight from Bruce Springsteen’s iconic ‘The River’. Central to its theme is the flushing away of youth way too early […]
“I felt up to that point that I’d underachieved in my career. I felt that I was better than what I’d done. I hadn’t fully shown what I could do due to injuries and other factors. But this just felt like justification for everything.” These are the words that Joe Hughes uses to describe his […]
“I’ve not seen it yet, but people have told me Tony Bellew was writing me off before I even got into the ring. I heard he was saying [Qais Ashfaq] was going to turn me over,” Marc Leach says with a smile. He tells Boxing Social that a couple of mates have since sent him the video […]
Old fight folklore recollects that the legendary Harry Greb once lured rival Johnny Wilson into putting his middleweight title on the line via unorthodox means. No stranger to unconventional tactics in the ring, the man nicknamed the ‘Pittsburgh Windmill’ secured a date with the reluctant champion after publicly hitting all the prohibition era speakeasies from […]
Scunthorpe’s coat of arms contains a golden wheatsheaf on a field of green. It is a permanent reminder of its once agricultural heritage before plough and scythe gave way to the smoke and hammers of heavy industry in the mid-19th Century. If Sheffield is Britain’s historic steel centre then the Lincolnshire town of approximately 80,000, is […]
Ellie Scotney could never be classified as your average 22-year-old. Her home is the earthy South East London outpost of Catford. An unreconstructed piece of old London still missing its dog-track and dragging a sly roll-up in the face of any attempt at gentrification. With a cheeky snigger, she terms it ‘Crackford’. Despite an abundance […]
“You are not telling me this fight is going ahead until I actually see Philip Bowes in the ring. I don’t care if you even see him at the venue or in the changing room or whatever. It’s not definitely on until he’s stood in the ring and that bell rings,” Akeem Ennis Brown tells Boxing […]
“I’ve been told I will have a minimum of five fights this year, which is very active considering we are already in March and I haven’t had a fight yet. I’m looking forward to getting back out there.” When Michael Hennessy Jr uttered these words, he was eagerly anticipating a March outing at the Skydome […]
“The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away” it was once proclaimed in a holy book. Outside of Christianity, boxing’s pagan god’s can be relied upon to do something similar, without remorse or benevolence. As a citizen of America’s Bible belt, perhaps this lesson in boxing theology is not lost on Deontay Wilder. Little more […]