Jerry Izenberg
98 articles · The Star- Ledger
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Pacquiao vs. Bradley: Timothy Bradley plans to make history
LAS VEGAS -- It is not a rare thought. Pundits and wiseguys alike look at the DVDs of the first two fights between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley and ask the kind…
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Fighter Jose Ramirez’s battle over water to save California pickers
LAS VEGAS -- He was driving home to Avenal, Calif. To the unpracticed eye, the acres of cracked, dry earth on either side of I-5 would have come off as simply an…
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Pacquiao vs. Bradley: Bob Arum owes his 50 years in boxing to these fight fans
NEW YORK -- If it weren't for Boom Boom Mancini's bad shoulder, Frank Sinatra's feeling for Italian-American boxers, a posh casino in Bophuthatswana, Africa, and Nelson Mandela's vision, who is to say…
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Family fight over, Floyd Mayweather Sr. says Junior is going to kick Manny Pacquiao’s [bleep]
LAS VEGAS ? It wasn't always Father's Day at the Floyd Mayweather Jr. Boxing Club. Fifteen years ago, Senior and Junior parted ways for highly personal reasons, and Junior brought in his…
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Mayweather-Pacquiao fight: Why the Las Vegas oddsmakers are nervously watching a big bettor from New Jersey
LAS VEGAS -- There is no university, no community college and no trade school that could have given Billy what he needed to move to the head of his class. There are…
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Mayweather-Pacquiao fight: Muhammad Ali’s ex-advisor now calling shots for MGM Grand’s megafight
LAS VEGAS -- The first time I met him, Gene Kilroy was the right hand of Muhammad Ali. He ran the fight camp at Deer Lake, served as business manager, kept all…
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Mayweather-Pacquiao fight: How the Kentucky Derby might be oddsmaker Jimmy Vaccaro’s secret weapon
LAS VEGAS ? Talk about basic training: Jimmy Vaccaro hit the ground running. Trafford, was a small Pennsylvania mill town with all the blue-collar distractions. Jimmy Vaccaro shot pool for money. He…
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Mayweather-Pacquiao fight: How the Kentucky Derby might be oddsmaker Jimmy Vaccaro’s secret weapon
LAS VEGAS ? Talk about basic training: Jimmy Vaccaro hit the ground running. Trafford, was a small Pennsylvania mill town with all the blue-collar distractions. Jimmy Vaccaro shot pool for money. He…
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Mayweather-Pacquiao fight: Bob Arum’s next stop is victory parade in Philippines
LAS VEGAS -- For the first 35 years of his life, Bob Arum never saw a professional fight card. He never even knew a fighter until 1962, when, as an attorney in…
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How the Mayweather-Pacquaio fight will help Las Vegas get up off the canvas
LAS VEGAS ? What is the real meaning to this town of the May 2 blockbuster fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao? To understand that, you first have to understand…
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Mayweather vs. Pacquiao: The fight that boxing (and Las Vegas) needs badly
LAS VEGAS ? Forty years ago, halfway around the world, the two best heavyweights on the planet went head to head in the greatest heavyweight fight of all time. They didn't fight…
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Why I’m picking Manny Pacquiao to beat Chris Algieri
On Sunday morning in Macau ? Saturday night in the United States ? Manny Pacquiao will put his WBO middleweight title on the line against WBO light welterweight champ Chris Algieri. It'll…
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Who is Manny Pacquiao’s real opponent: Chris Algieri or Father Time?
A couple of nights before Manny Pacquiao left for Macau, he played for and coached the professional basketball team he owns. A day later, he spoke at a college, praised the students…
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Manny Pacquiao’s trainer: Chris Algieri doesn’t hit hard enough to ‘break an egg’
LAS VEGAS ? The long hallway that marks the entrance to the Venetian Hotel is only slightly shorter than the yellow brick road from the outskirts of Oz to Emerald City. Two…
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Bob Shryock: For Lee Samuels, coming home to Salem County for honor is huge
Leroy "Lee" Samuels was part of a quintet of sportswriters (Stan Boody, John Vogeding, George Anastasia, and yours truly) who toiled here at the old Woodbury Daily Times in the late 1960s.…
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Manny Pacquiao is about to find out: Chris Algieri is man, not myth
LAS VEGAS ? The guy who will fight Manny Pacquiao in Macao later this month never spent five seconds rattling around in the imagination of Sylvester Stallone. He never yells "Yo!" at…
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40 years ago, Muhammad Ali shocked George Foreman in ‘The Rumble in the Jungle’ — and I was there
Forty years ago, Muhammad Ali ? as much as a 10-1 underdog ? shocked the world by winning the heavyweight title from George Foreman. In all of sports, there had never been…
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Manny Pacquiao is haunted by the fight against Floyd Mayweather he can?t seem to get
LAS VEGAS ? Manny Pacquiao lives with an unanswered question mark. Geography plays no role. It doesn?t matter whether he?s in Macao or Manila or Las Vegas or on his way to…
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Izenberg: Manny Pacquiao may help Tim Bradley find religion tonight
LAS VEGAS ? Well, what kind of a week has it been in Gomorrah-in-the-Desert leading up to Round 13 of the welterweight fight without end? Don?t ask. Tim Bradley, an underrated boxer…
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Izenberg on Pacquiao-Bradley: Tim Bradley is a champion seeking redemption
LAS VEGAS ? He has never lost a fight, but is still the loneliest world champion on the planet, endlessly shadow boxing with the memory of a June night two years ago…