Kelefa Sanneh
28 articles · The New Yorker
-
Why the Best Boxers Don’t Draw the Biggest Crowds
This past Tuesday, at around 7:30 a.m. in New York, or 4:30 a.m. in California, a small but stubborn faction of the American boxing audience (which is, itself, a small but stubborn…
-
When Should a Great Boxer Retire?
Three months ago, boxing fans got some exciting news and some worrisome news on the same day. The exciting news was that Manny Pacquiao, one of the great boxers of the post-Tyson…
-
HOW WILDER-FURY II BECAME THE BIGGEST BOXING MATCH IN THE WORLD
f all the products that were advertised during this year’s Super Bowl, perhaps none was more exotic than this one: Wilder Fury II, which despite the name is neither an action-movie sequel…
-
Manny Pacquiao Might Be Making a Terrible Mistake
Muhammad Ali boxed professionally from 1960, when he outscored a journeyman (and police officer) named Tunney Hunsaker, until 1981, when Ali, damaged and diminished, was beaten, in the Bahamas, by Trevor Berbick.…
-
Wilder vs. Fury: Two Unpredictable Heavyweights and the Biggest Fight in Boxing
A recent promotional video from Showtime Sports began with a dispatch from Alabama. Nick Saban, the University of Alabama?s monomaniacal football coach, sat in a trophy-stuffed office, reminiscing about the days when…
-
G.G.G. vs. Canelo Might Be the Best Fight in Boxing
Boxing generates better stories than just about any other sport?and worse data. A few weeks ago, after Conor McGregor survived nine and a half rounds against Floyd Mayweather, Jr., before being knocked…
-
Mayweather Versus McGregor: Who?s Worse?
Boxing , like all sports, is addictive because it is so unsatisfying. In a boxing film, you can be assured of a narrative arc, building to a meaningful ending: a victory?or, more…
-
Beyond Mayweather-McGregor, a Boxing Match That Could Measure Real Greatness
he most highly scrutinized boxing video of the year comes not from a fight but from a sparring session between two men, neither of whom happens to be a professional boxer. The…
-
Mayweather vs. McGregor Is the Kind of Circus Matchup That Only Boxing Allows
On Wednesday, Floyd Mayweather announced that he was un-retiring, after nearly two years away from boxing. Despite the fact that he recently turned forty, he is still widely considered to be one…
-
It?s the Fight of the Year and No One Cares
Good news for boxing fans: this weekend?s fight is the most important one of the year, a long-awaited meeting of two of the best fighters on the planet, with no firm consensus…
-
Miguel Cotto, Canelo ?lvarez, and Boxing?s New Era
This past September, Floyd Mayweather, Jr., announced his retirement, and although plenty of boxing fans won?t miss him, a number of boxing executives surely will. The Mayweather era was also the pay-per-view…
-
Is Gennady Gennadyevich Golovkin the Next Best Boxer in the World?
At Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, eager (and perhaps not entirely sober) fans could, if they wanted, spend three hundred dollars on a bright red warmup suit branded with the name…
-
This Can?t Really Be the End of Floyd Mayweather, Can It?
Four and a half months ago, when Floyd Mayweather, Jr., fought Manny Pacquiao, promoters advertised it?not exactly inaccurately?as the Fight of the Century. The fight turned out to be, as virtually all…
-
Ultimate Fighting Versus Boxing
Like many boxing fans, Dana White was looking forward, in early May, to the so-called Fight of the Century?Floyd Mayweather, Jr., vs. Manny Pacquiao. Reached by phone, a couple of days before…
-
Floyd Mayweather?s Father: ?He Didn?t Do Bad?
Every year, the Boxing Writers Association of America gives out the Eddie Futch Award, named for the man who coached Joe Frazier to victory over Muhammad Ali in 1971, in what was…
-
How Much Does Pacquiao-Mayweather Matter?
In a humid boxing gym in Hollywood on Tuesday, members of the sports media outnumbered world-class boxers by about twenty to one. They had come to watch Manny Pacquiao, by most measures…
-
A (Relatively) Happy New Year for Boxing
loyd Mayweather told his father that he wants to fight Manny Pacquiao, according to a report from his hometown newspaper. That?s exciting news for boxing fans?or rather, it was, six years ago,…
-
Bernard Hopkins, the Not-So-Ageless Alien
Last year, after Bernard Hopkins outboxed a good but not great opponent named Karo Murat, all anyone could talk about was his age. Hopkins was forty-eight, old enough to be a retiree…
-
Breaking Bread
The other day, an aspiring doctor from Huntington, Long Island, went to dinner with a celebrity from the Philippines. They came straight from the New York Stock Exchange, where they had rung…
-
Floyd Mayweather: A Cautionary Tale
Last week, Floyd Mayweather, promoting his upcoming fight, was asked about the N.F.L.?s banishment of Ray Rice. ?I think there?s a lot worse things that go on in other people?s households,? Mayweather…
