Previewing the best upcoming fights around the world
The star ratings indicate how well the writer believes the fighters match up, the fight(s)’ contextual significance, and how good the fight(s) will be
THE great thing about writing previews before the advent of social media and the push for boxers to inform you of their every thought and move was this: one’s focus and frame of reference tended to be narrow, specific. You focused not on what a boxer had posted online when bored, crying for help, or craving validation, but instead on their fighting style and what they did in the ring. You treated them, to some extent, as outlines, rather than, say, flawed human beings; flawed human beings whose flaws are made all the more obvious by a social media addiction.
In the case of , it is hard to now separate the boxer from the damaged young man. For example, at the time of me writing this, the preview of his next fight, he was busy posting the following on social
