Bidding adios to boxing after more than a decade and marking the end of an era, on both local and global fronts, Holly Holm left an emotional sold-out crowd, last night at Route 66 Casino in Albuquerque, with a final-but-furious victory. Relinquishing all claims to pound-for-pound supremacy, Holm securely stepped down from her throne [...]
Book review by David Finger of Fightnews.com: Boxing fans can be forgiven if the idea of another regional boxing history book doesn’t excite them right off the bat. Most tend to fall into two categories: an overglossed pamphlet that rehashes well known boxing stories or a book long on facts but short on drama. A [...]
Report from Friday night in Albuquerque: Mark Twain once wrote, “A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.”. . . So went the lesson learned last night at the Wool Warehouse in Albuquerque, N.M., where big hearts and big appetites did not, alas, equate to chomping [...]
The Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) has announced the winners of its annual Bernies (formerly “Barneys”) contest, which each year recognizes the best writing about boxing by BWAA members. The strong field of prize-winning works appeared during 2012 in a wide range of print and online outlets and shows that boxing journalism is as vital [...]
Anyone looking to pick up a copy of “Boxing in New Mexico: 1868-1940,” by Chris Cozzone and Jim Boggio, can do so at Friday night’s fights at the Wool Warehouse. Cozzone will have a table in the lobby in the hour before first bell. As a special for fight fans attending Friday’s card, the usually $45 [...]
Finally out! “Boxing in New Mexico: A History 1868-1940.” Books are now shipping! About the Book On June 28, 1868, a group of men gathered alongside a road 35 miles north of Albuquerque to witness a 165-round, 6-hour bare-knuckle brawl between well-known Colorado pugilist Barney Duffy and “Jack,” an unidentified fighter who died of his [...]
Black/white shots from Friday night’s local show in Albuquerque . . . |more| For Cozzone’s written report, see report on Fightnews/NewMexicoBoxing.com
Lightweight title hopes, an emerging local and the first win for New Mexico’s perennial “Hard Luck Kid” brought out close to 800 fight fans, Friday night at the Indian School’s “Pueblo Pavilion” in Santa Fe, N.M. . . . |more|
Prayers and get-well wishes to Raymond “Hollewood” Montes, who is in critical condition from injuries sustained in his KO loss last night in ABQ.
Full gallery of shots in black & white . . . |more| Fight report with shots by Jose Leon Castillo . . . |more|
Sorely skewed in favor of the hometown corner, with a cast of foes whose combined records totaled 14-53-6, Saturday night’s “Fight Night at the Kiva” could’ve easily have been a case of karma carrying out the kayo on Chavez-Crespin Promotions. The crowd of 800 who showed up to watch the hometowners win ridiculous, obscure titles [...]
Click here for full gallery by Cozzone, minus the report Click here for fight report & photos by Jose Leon Castillo.
Friday night’s fights in black and white: A bonus gallery from the “Warehouse Rumble II” . . . |more|
They called it “The Reckoning,” but most expected a wrecking. What a packed house of 3,000 got, last night at Route 66, west of Albuquerque, was the hometown champ’s repossession of the mythical pound-for-pound crown of women’s boxing . . . |more|
“Albuquerque, I’m still your hometown champion . . . .” Those were the words Johnny Tapia never failed to yell into the camera, in between the rounds of his countless TV fights. That and “I love you, Grandma, Grampa.” Those two sentences said more about the man than his 162 amateur bouts (150-12), two National [...]
New Mexico’s greatest hometown fighter has passed away. Former five-time world champion Johnny Tapia was found dead in his home today.
With no fights to cover until Mayweather-Ortiz week, I’m knee-deep in writing – presently lost somewhere around the border around 1915-1919. My Jan. 1 deadline approaches for “The History of Boxing in New Mexico, Volume I,” due out next year by McFarland Press. Photo above: A ticket stub from the scrapbook of New Mexico’s first [...]
Last night’s card in Albuquerque, televised on Telefutura . . . |more|
Always nice to be back in the Duke City, even if it means choking on smoke from the east Arizona wildfires. Where else can you attend a weigh-in, only to hear one of the fighters will not be making the fight because she was arrested that morning for a parole violation? Where Holly Holm, despite [...]
Writer/photographer Chris Cozzone has inked a two-volume book deal with McFarland Press on the history of boxing in New Mexico. In between covering the big fights and local fight scenes in both New Mexico and Las Vegas, Cozzone has spent the last six years in heavy research. He inherited the project in 2005 from the [...]