Las Vegas, Nevada, 1970. His life was a firetrap; his days were dry tinder. A small spark here or there—some ash from a cigarette, perhaps—and the whole ramshackle hovel would go up in roaring flames. You could shovel all the sand in the world on it, hose it down with the entire Atlantic Ocean—nothing was going to stop that conflagration. Click link for more.

Everyone keeps arguing on who won the fight but why not ask Trout himself?

What to say?

Ali's 1960 Olympic trainer has passed. RIP.

You can see them in the dim corners of dingy gyms from one end of the country to the other. They play dominoes at rickety card tables. They wander back and forth, unsteadily, across the room, the heat—almost never offset by whirring ceiling fans—and the permanent stench of sweat, grit, and cracked or creaking leather a backdrop to nearly all they say or do. Now and then one of them will come up to you and offer advice when he sees you struggling with the heavybag or making a fool of yourself in front of a mirror. They teach arcane, archaic methods. Their eyes, unfocused, wander here or there; you can catch a glimpse of pain in them from time to time. Their hands are as gnarled as tree roots breaking through the earth. They stand in front of begrimed windows looking down on the faraway streets below. Who can tell you what their daydreams are? (read more)

Via Deadline: "Robert De Niro and Edgar Ramirez have signed on to star in Hands Of Stone, a drama written and to be directed by Jonathan Jakubowicz. Boxing fans will know where we are going from the title. Ramirez will play champ Roberto Duran. De Niro will play his trainer Ray Arcel in a drama that focuses on how each man changed the life of the other.......The focus will be on the Panamanian boxer’s incredible brawls with Leonard, culminating in an inexplicable ending of the famous fight where Duran quit in the ring and cried "No mas," on a night when Leonard was having his way."

Fan cards page at eyeOnTheRing dot com is up.

Hamilton Nolan, periodically a pretty boxing writer, takes on the question of, well, Why are we interviewing athletes who have been knocked out of their heads, and won't remember a word they said? The Bradley interview and the one where JuanMa started spouting conspiracy are mentioned.

Alan Minter was perhaps the most popular man in Britain heading into his fateful clash against Marvin Hagler on September 27, 1980. After winning the world title in March in Las Vegas from Vito Antuofermo, the new champion turned in a star-making performance in handing the American brawler a decisive trouncing three months later on home soil. Soon the affable pub owner from Crawley was modeling jeans, recording pop songs, and mapping out a glittering future... (read more at The Living Daylights)