A Boxing-Themed Discussion with Versatile Sports Journalist Greg Bishop

Published

4 years ago

October 31, 2021

Rick Assad

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Hand Greg Bishop an assignment and he’s going to be equally comfortable writing about the NFL, MLB, college basketball, the Olympics or boxing.

Bishop began covering the sweet science while at the New York Times when he penned a feature on Manny Pacquiao in 2009 prior to his fight with Miguel Cotto.

Bishop, a senior writer at Sports Illustrated since 2014, has spent time with some of the biggest names in the sport, including Floyd Mayweather Jr.

What’s Bishop’s take on the state of boxing as it’s presently constituted?

“I don’t buy the usual arguments that boxing is dying, that it won’t continue, that all these exhibition-type fights are ruining the sport (although, Evander Holyfield, woof),” he said. “I believe there is a lot of solid boxing right now. I believe there are a ton of champions who deserve more attention than they’re getting.”

Somehow, boxing has a way of messing up its own progress. “And I believe that the sport continues to get in its own way, for myriad reasons: too many belts, not enough marquee fights, too many Pay-Per-View cards that should be on network TV or streaming,” said Bishop, a graduate of Syracuse University in 2002 with a journalism and finance degree. “Boxing’s problems continue to stem from the sports infrastructure. They have long needed fixing. The question is whether they will ever be addressed.”

In the old days, boxing had eight world champions based on weight. Today that number has multiplied because of all the sanctioning bodies.

In a way, this is beneficial for the boxer because he’s able to make more money and get recognition, but it also muddies the product.

Bishop, a sports staff writer at The Seattle Times from 2002 through 2007 and The New York Times for seven years, thinks this is a problem.

“When I write I usually leave the belts out of it. Often, my editors will ask to put them in,” he said. “I always say: to what point? The general reader will for sure be confused, and if you add in which belts, you have to explain which ones are significant. It’s too many wasted words.”

Pacquiao holds a special place for Bishop. “It will be tough to argue – in my opinion – that Manny Pacquiao didn’t have an unprecedented career. We haven’t seen anything like it,” he noted. “I doubt we will again. In an era where protecting a record from losses came to matter much more than in earlier eras, Pacquiao fought everybody. He didn’t always win, but that’s besides the point.”

Bishop continued: “Think of how many incredible fights he had: the trilogies, the four times versus Juan Manuel Marquez, Cotto, [Ricky] Hatton, [Antonio] Margarito,” he said. “I always tell people I’ve covered sports all over the world, from the Tour De France to the Olympics to every tennis grand slam, and there’s nothing in sports like when Pacquiao is coming into Thunderstruck.”

Pacquiao wasn’t perfect by any measure. “Now, that doesn’t mean I have always agreed with some of his stances, or some of his choices. But from a purely boxing standpoint, Pacquiao represents one of the most fascinating careers ever embarked upon,” Bishop said. “It was truly fun to watch, and that was part of his appeal, the way he fought, how he fought everyone, how he danced and moved and darted and dipped. I believe we will appreciate Manny and his career more over time.”

In so many ways, the undefeated Mayweather was bigger than life. “We’ve had our run-ins over the years, but whenever I went to Floyd’s gym, I knew there would be some sort of event,” Bishop said. “I saw a boxer chasing another boxer down the street with a knife one time. I also always found it interesting that Floyd could pretty much do anything he wanted, buy anything he wanted, fight anyone he wanted, and yet the one thing he wanted most – unadulterated respect – he always had trouble landing. I wrote about that a lot.”

Another boxer stood out for Bishop. “Andre Ward was a hell of a fighter who took on tough opponents and consistently performed,” he said. “He had power. He had technical skill. He won some big fights. It was a pleasure to watch him up close, too.”

Even those not in the ring are interesting characters in their own right. “I’d put Bob Arum in that category. Always funny, great stories,” Bishop said of the founder and CEO of Top Rank. “Bruce Trampler, too. I’ve never talked to Bruce and not learned something. People like those are the reason I keep coming back to cover boxing. There’s no shortage of amazing material.”

The sport’s biggest money-making bout involved Mayweather and Pacquiao. Bishop was there in May 2015 for that clash at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, but feels the best fight he covered was Pacquiao-Cotto, which was held at the same venue.

“To me that was Pacquiao’s peak, from style to just pure brutality. The best of Manny was there that night, and Cotto didn’t fight badly at all,” he said. “I remember the energy, the way the crowd seemed drunk on adrenaline, the trading of blows and then, finally, the mood changing. Like I started to worry that Cotto might get hurt. That maybe this wasn’t a good idea. As I covered more and more fights, I kept coming back to that one. The way it felt. It was sort of like I was chasing that feeling when I kept coming back.”

Though boxing can be full of drama, it’s also not for the faint of heart, because it demands so much physical and mental strength from its participants.

“Boxing is not for everyone. It’s a tough sport, and sometimes I’m not sure whether I should be covering it,” Bishop admitted. “I’ve written about that before, too. I wonder sometimes if we’re glorifying what should not be glorified, or if we’re all part of this machine that leaves these fighters bloodied, beaten, and broken.”

Still, Bishop, like so many other insightful writers across the decades can’t escape the bravery these men produce.

“And yet, I’m drawn to boxing, too,” he declared. “For the science and the artistry and, yes, the violence. I’m conflicted about it and that conflict only grows over time.”

Some have suggested that boxing needs to be recalibrated in order to clear the air and make it better. “For one, I think it would be great if there was a boxing commissioner. The sport desperately needs a national commissioner,” Bishop said. “No more moving a bout to Florida so that it will be licensed when it shouldn’t be. No more allowing someone who’s not a boxer, fight someone else who’s not a boxer and calling it a pro fight. I’d fix the whole situation with the belts. One main one per division. That’s it. That’s the one that matters.”

Bishop then added: “I’d add pensions and healthcare plans to the careers of fighters,” he said. “I wouldn’t allow managers to also promote fighters – which technically, is against the law, but happens all the time. I wouldn’t even mind these spectacle fights, as long as they’re clearly delineated – as that, spectacle, something different, to catch a different audience. There’s room for all of it, in my opinion. But the sport needs to address its credibility above all. That starts with the best fighters fighting the best fighters, with mandated drug testing, with belts that mean something and can be easily understood.”

Having covered every major sport, there’s nothing quite like fight week leading up to a colossal main event like Deontay Wilder versus Tyson Fury.

“Even though I cover the NFL primarily, I want to stay involved in boxing, whether I should or my editors want me to or not,” Bishop said. “Part of it is they’re selling a product, for sure. Part of it is the great tradition that has been passed down with so many champions and many writers who are much better at this craft than I am.”

Bishop likes the preparation that goes into writing about the sport. “I go back and study all of them, how they ingratiated in those camps, how well they knew the fighters that they covered,” he said. “Boxing is one of the last places in sports where you can still find that. It’s not like before, but nothing ever is. You can still get deep into a camp, which helps get deep into the mind of a fighter, their preparations, what it means. There’s truly nothing like it.”

Maybe boxing has lost some of its shine, but it’s still special when two high-level fighters step into the ring.

“People always ask: why do you cover boxing? One of my go-to lines is that boxers would let you stay over if you wanted, while most NFL athletes I profile would prefer to limit our conversations to 10 minutes,” Bishop explained.

That’s just one way in which boxers stand tall compared to some athletes in other sports.

Check out more boxing news on video at the Boxing Channel

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Rick Assad

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“Breadman” Edwards: An Unlikely Boxing Coach with a Panoramic View of the Sport

Published

6 hours ago

May 8, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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Stephen “Breadman” Edwards’ first fighter won a world title. That may be some sort of record.

It’s true. Edwards had never trained a fighter, amateur or pro, before taking on professional novice Julian “J Rock” Williams. On May 11, 2019, Williams wrested the IBF 154-pound world title from Jarrett Hurd. The bout, a lusty skirmish, was in Fairfax, Virginia, near Hurd’s hometown in Maryland, and the previously undefeated Hurd had the crowd in his corner.

In boxing, Stephen Edwards wears two hats. He has a growing reputation as a boxing coach, a hat he will wear on Saturday, May 31, at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas when the two fighters that he currently trains, super middleweight Caleb Plant and middleweight Kyrone Davis, display their wares on a show that will air on Amazon Prime Video. Plant, who needs no introduction, figures to have little trouble with his foe in a match conceived as an appetizer to a showdown with Jermall Charlo. Davis, coming off his career-best win, an upset of previously undefeated Elijah Garcia, is in tough against fast-rising Cuban prospect Yoenli Hernandez, a former world amateur champion.

Edwards’ other hat is that of a journalist. His byline appears at “Boxing Scene” in a column where he answers questions from readers.

It’s an eclectic bag of questions that Breadman addresses, ranging from his thoughts on an upcoming fight to his thoughts on one of the legendary prizefighters of olden days. Boxing fans, more so than fans of any other sport, enjoy hashing over fantasy fights between great fighters of different eras. Breadman is very good at this, which isn’t to suggest that his opinions are gospel, merely that he always has something provocative to add to the discourse. Like all good historians, he recognizes that the best history is revisionist history.

“Fighters are constantly mislabled,” he says. “Everyone talks about Joe Louis’s right hand. But if you study him you see that his left hook is every bit as good as his right hand and it’s more sneaky in terms of shock value when it lands.”

Stephen “Breadman” Edwards was born and raised in Philadelphia. His father died when he was three. His maternal grandfather, a Korean War veteran, filled the void. The man was a big boxing fan and the two would watch the fights together on the family television.

Edwards’ nickname dates to his early teen years when he was one of the best basketball players in his neighborhood. The derivation is the 1975 movie “Cornbread, Earl and Me,” starring Laurence Fishburne in his big screen debut. Future NBA All-Star Jamaal Wilkes, fresh out of UCLA, plays Cornbread, a standout high school basketball player who is mistakenly murdered by the police.

Coming out of high school, Breadman had to choose between an academic scholarship at Temple or an athletic scholarship at nearby Lincoln University. He chose the former, intending to major in criminal justice, but didn’t stay in college long. What followed were a succession of jobs including a stint as a city bus driver. To stay fit, he took to working out at the James Shuler Memorial Gym where he sparred with some of the regulars, but he never boxed competitively.

Over the years, Philadelphia has harbored some great boxing coaches. Among those of recent vintage, the names George Benton, Bouie Fisher, Nazeem Richardson, and Bozy Ennis come quickly to mind. Breadman names Richardson and West Coast trainer Virgil Hunter as the men that have influenced him the most.

We are all a product of our times, so it’s no surprise that the best decade of boxing, in Breadman’s estimation, was the 1980s. This was the era of the “Four Kings” with Sugar Ray Leonard arguably standing tallest.

Breadman was a big fan of Leonard and of Leonard’s three-time rival Roberto Duran. “I once purchased a DVD that had all of Roberto Duran’s title defenses on it,” says Edwards. “This was a back before the days of YouTube.”

But Edwards’ interest in the sport goes back much deeper than the 1980s. He recently weighed in on the “Pittsburgh Windmill” Harry Greb whose legend has grown in recent years to the point that some have come to place him above Sugar Ray Robinson on the list of the greatest of all time.

“Greb was a great fighter with a terrific resume, of that there is no doubt,” says Breadman, “but there is no video of him and no one alive ever saw him fight, so where does this train of thought come from?”

Edwards notes that in Harry Greb’s heyday, he wasn’t talked about in the papers as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. The boxing writers were partial to Benny Leonard who drew comparisons to the venerated Joe Gans.

Among active fighters, Breadman reserves his highest praise for Terence Crawford. “Body punching is a lost art,” he once wrote. “[Crawford] is a great body puncher who starts his knockouts with body punches, but those punches are so subtle they are not fully appreciated.”

If the opening line holds up, Crawford will enter the ring as the underdog when he opposes Canelo Alvarez in September. Crawford, who will enter the ring a few weeks shy of his 38^th birthday, is actually the older fighter, older than Canelo by almost three full years (it doesn’t seem that way since the Mexican redhead has been in the public eye so much longer), and will theoretically be rusty as 13 months will have elapsed since his most recent fight.

Breadman discounts those variables. “Terence is older,” he says, “but has less wear and tear and never looks rusty after a long layoff.” That Crawford will win he has no doubt, an opinion he tweaked after Canelo’s performance against William Scull: “Canelo’s legs are not the same. Bud may even stop him now.”

Edwards has been with Caleb Plant for Plant’s last three fights. Their first collaboration produced a Knockout of the Year candidate. With one ferocious left hook, Plant sent Anthony Dirrell to dreamland. What followed were a 12-round setback to David Benavidez and a ninth-round stoppage of Trevor McCumby.

Breadman keeps a hectic schedule. From Monday through Friday, he’s at the DLX Gym in Las Vegas coaching Caleb Plant and Kyrone Davis. On weekends, he’s back in Philadelphia, checking in on his investment properties and, of greater importance, watching his kids play sports. His 14-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son are standout all-around athletes.

On those long flights, he has plenty of time to turn on his laptop and stream old fights or perhaps work on his next article. That’s assuming he can stay awake.

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Arne’s Almanac: The Good, the Bad, and the (Mostly) Ugly; a Weekend Boxing Recap and More

Published

2 days ago

May 6, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Arne's-Almanac-The-Good-the-Bad-and-the-(mostly)-Ugly-A-Weeend-Boxing-Recap-and-More

Arne’s Almanac: The Good, the Bad, and the (Mostly) Ugly; a Weekend Boxing Recap and More

It’s old news now, but on back-to-back nights on the first weekend of May, there were three fights that finished in the top six snoozefests ever as measured by punch activity. That’s according to CompuBox which has been around for 40 years.

In Times Square, the boxing match between Devin Haney and Jose Carlos Ramirez had the fifth-fewest number of punches thrown, but the main event, Ryan Garcia vs. Rolly Romero, was even more of a snoozefest, landing in third place on this ignoble list.

Those standings would be revised the next night – knocked down a peg when Canelo Alvarez and William Scull combined to throw a historically low 445 punches in their match in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 152 by the victorious Canelo who at least pressed the action, unlike Scull (pictured) whose effort reminded this reporter of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” – no, not the movie starring Paul Newman, just the title.

CompuBox numbers, it says here, are best understood as approximations, but no amount of rejiggering can alter the fact that these three fights were stinkers. Making matters worse, these were pay-per-views. If one had bundled the two events, rather than buying each separately, one would have been out $90 bucks.

****

Thankfully, the Sunday card on ESPN from Las Vegas was redemptive. It was just what the sport needed at this moment – entertaining fights to expunge some of the bad odor. In the main go, Naoya Inoue showed why he trails only Shohei Ohtani as the most revered athlete in Japan.

Throughout history, the baby-faced assassin has been a boxing promoter’s dream. It’s no coincidence that down through the ages the most common nickname for a fighter – and by an overwhelming margin — is “Kid.”

And that partly explains Naoya Inoue’s charisma. The guy is 32 years old, but here in America he could pass for 17.

Joey Archer

Joey Archer, who passed away last week at age 87 in Rensselaer, New York, was one of the last links to an era of boxing identified with the nationally televised Friday Night Fights at Madison Square Garden.

Joey Archer

Archer made his debut as an MSG headliner on Feb. 4, 1961, and had 12 more fights at the iconic mid-Manhattan sock palace over the next six years. The final two were world title fights with defending middleweight champion Emile Griffith.

Archer etched his name in the history books in November of 1965 in Pittsburgh where he won a comfortable 10-round decision over Sugar Ray Robinson, sending the greatest fighter of all time into retirement. (At age 45, Robinson was then far past his peak.)

Born and raised in the Bronx, Joey Archer was a cutie; a clever counter-puncher recognized for his defense and ultimately for his granite chin. His style was embedded in his DNA and reinforced by his mentors.

Early in his career, Archer was domiciled in Houston where he was handled by veteran trainer Bill Gore who was then working with world lightweight champion Joe Brown. Gore would ride into the Hall of Fame on the coattails of his most famous fighter, “Will-o’-the Wisp” Willie Pep. If Joey Archer had any thoughts of becoming a banger, Bill Gore would have disabused him of that notion.

In all honesty, Archer’s style would have been box office poison if he had been black. It helped immensely that he was a native New Yorker of Irish stock, albeit the Irish angle didn’t have as much pull as it had several decades earlier. But that observation may not be fair to Archer who was bypassed twice for world title fights after upsetting Hurricane Carter and Dick Tiger.

When he finally caught up with Emile Griffith, the former hat maker wasn’t quite the fighter he had been a few years earlier but Griffith, a two-time Fighter of the Year by The Ring magazine and the BWAA and a future first ballot Hall of Famer, was still a hard nut to crack.

Archer went 30 rounds with Griffith, losing two relatively tight decisions and then, although not quite 30 years old, called it quits. He finished 45-4 with 8 KOs and was reportedly never knocked down, yet alone stopped, while answering the bell for 365 rounds. In retirement, he ran two popular taverns with his older brother Jimmy Archer, a former boxer who was Joey’s trainer and manager late in Joey’s career.

May he rest in peace.

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Bombs Away in Las Vegas where Inoue and Espinoza Scored Smashing Triumphs

Published

4 days ago

May 4, 2025

David A. Avila

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Japan’s Naoya “Monster” Inoue banged it out with Mexico’s Ramon Cardenas, survived an early knockdown and pounded out a stoppage win to retain the undisputed super bantamweight world championship on Sunday.

Japan and Mexico delivered for boxing fans again after American stars failed in back-to-back days.

“By watching tonight’s fight, everyone is well aware that I like to brawl,” Inoue said.

Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), and Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) and his wicked left hook, showed the world and 8,474 fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas that prizefighting is about punching, not running.

After massive exposure for three days of fights that began in New York City, then moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then to Nevada, it was the casino capital of the world that delivered what most boxing fans appreciate- pure unadulterated action fights.

Monster Inoue immediately went to work as soon as the opening bell rang with a consistent attack on Cardenas, who very few people knew anything about.

One thing promised by Cardenas’ trainer Joel Diaz was that his fighter “can crack.”

Cardenas proved his trainer’s words truthful when he caught Inoue after a short violent exchange with a short left hook and down went the Japanese champion on his back. The crowd was shocked to its toes.

“I was very surprised,” said Inoue about getting dropped. ““In the first round, I felt I had good distance. It got loose in the second round. From then on, I made sure to not take that punch again.”

Inoue had no trouble getting up, but he did have trouble avoiding some of Cardenas massive blows delivered with evil intentions. Though Inoue did not go down again, a look of total astonishment blanketed his face.

A real fight was happening.

Cardenas, who resembles actor Andy Garcia, was never overly aggressive but kept that left hook of his cocked and ready to launch whenever he saw the moment. There were many moments against the hyper-aggressive Inoue.

Both fighters pack power and both looked to find the right moment. But after Inoue was knocked down by the left hook counter, he discovered a way to eliminate that weapon from Cardenas. Still, the Texas-based fighter had a strong right too.

In the sixth round Inoue opened up with one of his lightning combinations responsible for 10 consecutive knockout wins. Cardenas backed against the ropes and Inoue blasted away with blow after blow. Then suddenly, Cardenas turned Inoue around and had him on the ropes as the Mexican fighter unloaded nasty combinations to the body and head. Fans roared their approval.

“I dreamed about fighting in front of thousands of people in Las Vegas,” said Cardenas. “So, I came to give everything.”

Inoue looked a little surprised and had a slight Mona Lisa grin across his face. In the seventh round, the Japanese four-division world champion seemed ready to attack again full force and launched into the round guns blazing. Cardenas tried to catch Inoue again with counter left hooks but Inoue’s combos rained like deadly hail. Four consecutive rights by Inoue blasted Cardenas almost through the ropes. The referee Tom Taylor ruled it a knockdown. Cardenas beat the count and survived the round.

In the eighth round Inoue looked eager to attack and at the bell launched across the ring and unloaded more blows on Cardenas. A barrage of 14 unanswered blows forced the referee to stop the fight at 45 seconds of round eight for a technical knockout win.

“I knew he was tough,” said Inoue. “Boxing is not that easy.”

Espinoza Wins

WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinosa (27-0, 23 KOs) uppercut his way to a knockout win over Edward Vazquez (17-3, 4 KOs) in the seventh round.

“I wanted to fight a game fighter to show what I am capable,” said Espinoza.

Espinosa used the leverage of his six-foot, one-inch height to slice uppercuts under the guard of Vazquez. And when the tall Mexican from Guadalajara targeted the body, it was then that the Texas fighter began to wilt. But he never surrendered.

Though he connected against Espinoza in every round, he was not able to slow down the taller fighter and that allowed the Mexican fighter to unleash a 10-punch barrage including four consecutive uppercuts. The referee stopped the fight at 1:47 of the seventh round.

It was Espinoza’s third title defense.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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