Thom Loverro

I was a 24-year-old kid working for a small weekly newspaper in the Poconos in 1978 when I made my first trip to “Fighter’s Heaven” — Muhammad Ali’s mountain training camp in Deer Lake, Pennsylvania, about an hour away. Ali was training for his rematch against Leon Spinks, having lost in February to the former Olympic gold medalist who had just seven professional fights — a bout Ali had no business losing. The camp was packed with people, which was always part of Ali’s traini

Washington’s lightweight contender Anthony Peterson was holding court in the back of the main floor of the EagleBank Arena on the George Mason campus while there was action in the ring on Saturday at the nationally televised “Premiere Boxing Champions” card. He had disposed of Mike Oliver in one round earlier in a debacle that was called a fight. Peterson landed a hard body shot, then grazed Oliver on the head. Oliver went down on his knees, waited for the 10 count and walked

Sonny Liston is buried at Davis Memorial Park in Las Vegas. His gravestone reads: 1932 – 1970 A man. There also lies the mystery of Sonny Liston, at one time the baddest man on the planet — the feared heavyweight champion of the world — and what happened that historic night in Miami Beach on Feb. 25, 1964, when a young, loudmouthed, but seemingly overmatched Cassius Clay stopped Liston after seven rounds. Clay — his name before he announced the change to Muhammad Ali after th

Sugar Ray Leonard was in the ring face to face with Roberto Duran in Panama recently for the filming of the ESPN documentary, “No Mas.” I asked Leonard if he was tempted to take a shot at Duran. “Just a slap, Ray, and you’ve got Leonard-Duran IV,” I said, joking. “No,” Leonard answered. “I had a lot of comebacks but when I hit 50 I knew it was over.” Actually, at that moment — the point in the documentary, now airing on ESPN, where Leonard, 57, confronts Duran, 61, and asks h

PHILADELPHIA - Hidden in a hilly corner of Merion Memorial Park, just outside the city limits of Philadelphia, are the gravestones of Beatrice Tate (born 3/14/20, died 5/6/99) and Nellie J. Garrett (1929-2001). The cemetery is filled with mothers, fathers, sons and daughters - everyday people with names nobody knows except the family they left behind. Between Beatrice Tate and Nellie Garrett, though, is a name whose mention will give pause to any boxing fan and bring a

Juan Carlos Robles doesn't need any additional advertisements to convey the message he's a tough guy. The cruiserweight boxer from Staunton, Va., looks formidable enough with his tattoos and Mohawk. But if you take a closer look at Robles, you see something that raises tough to a whole new level - a piece of a finger hanging on a necklace. "It does draw a crowd," Robles said before his fight Friday at the Maryland Sportsplex in Millersville. Let's take tough, thoug

LAS VEGAS -- "This is my time," Floyd Mayweather Jr. declared. That's a shame because this is the wrong time. Floyd was born too late, and that's too bad: He would have made the golden era of middleweights in the 1980s glisten even more. "I don't live in Muhammad Ali's era," Floyd said yesterday at the MGM Grand, where he will fight Oscar De La Hoya at 154 pounds Saturday night. "I don't live in Sugar Ray Robinson's era. ... I want my grandchildren to say I was the bes

Tensions are running a little high as we get closer to the Mellow Mike Tyson-Irish Kevin McBride fight tomorrow night at MCI Center. Not between the fighters, mind you. Mike is still mellow, and Irish Kevin is still catatonic, though he did show some emotion yesterday with a shake of his fist and a "yes!" after surviving a staredown following the weigh-in at Howard University's Blackburn Ballroom for their scheduled 10-round heavyweight fight. But those people around th

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The city of Louisville went out of its way to embrace its boxing legacy of heavyweight champions in the week leading up to Mike Tyson's fight last night against Danny Williams at Freedom Hall. Four Louisville natives have held the heavyweight title. The least known is Marvin Hart, a plumber who won the title in 1905. The other three are more familiar to boxing fans: Muhammad Ali, Jimmy Ellis and Greg Page. Those three Louisville fighters were featured

Don Elbaum, a boxing promoter who could probably outsell Cadillac Bud Selig anytime in any automobile showroom, has a message for baseball's commissioner. Boxing may be dirty. It may be corrupt. It may be down for the count. But it is not hypocritical. Not compared to baseball, which, despite all of the game's sordid problems of late, still insists on shunning one of its all-time greats. There may not be a place in baseball's Hall of Fame for Pete Rose, but he is welco