Mike Alvarado This Time Survives the War, Takes a Decision

Photo: Chris Farina/Top Rank

LAS VEGAS--It is impossible to determine exactly how many years of their lives Brandon Rios and Mike Alvarado have snatched from one another over the course of two fights, but just like the first time, it should be crystal clear that both men deserve equal shares of respect from fans and media alike. 

When a fight becomes so good that you simply don't care about scoring or cards or judges anymore, we wish we could just live in those brutal moments for as long as possible, and relish the knowledge that those moments were for us fans. 

We may not have gotten another stoppage, and perhaps not quite the same level of blood and gore, but Mike Alvarado winning a unanimous decision over Brandon Rios was about as fun as we wished it would be. 


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Codladh Sámh - 4 All-Irish Scraps Fit For Donnybrook Fair

As time has accumulated, the Irish around the globe have accepted that St. Patrick's Day has morphed into a kind of "every man's drinking holiday." And far be it from them to complain about a drop or two, but at its Celtic heart, it's an Irish holiday, the celebration thereof apparently important enough to maintain for over 1,000 years. 

When Irish warrior traditions gave way to pugilistic fancy, the transition was an easy one -- especially in a boxing world where, at the start, just about anything was more or less acceptable in the ring. The list of all-time great Irish fighters seems unusually long for an island that, in the eyes of the world, isn't particularly large. More difficult to compile is a list of all-Irish bouts that had a bit more on the line than a post-fight pint. 

The following four battles involved nothing but Óglaigh na hÉireann -- the warriors of Ireland. 

Boxing: Antitrust Superstar?

"Laissez faire, telle devrait être la devise de toute puissance publique, depuis que le monde est civilisé." - René-Louis de Voyer de Paulmy, marquis d'Argenson

Years of leaving sleeping dogs where they lay have marched us into an economic singularity waiting to collapse inward, pulling the rest of us into a gravity from which we cannot escape. Though the financial debacle that appeared to begin in 2008 has been made to decelerate some in the last couple of years, we still reside in the thick of it. 

A talking point repeated ad nauseum just about any time jobs reports are released is how the current economic crisis isn't all that unlike the Wall Street Crash of 1929. While not completely inaccurate, the pickle we find ourselves in appears to have the potential to be markedly worse due to the degree of deleveraging necessary to maybe turn matters around. 

But the point of comparison between the two is often that we're doomed to repeat mistakes -- or practice new unfortunate economic principles -- that crash us into a ditch. 

Not unlike the 2008 financial crisis, which in no small part was caused by deregulation, the sport of boxing has suffered from a borderline broken economic model from its mainstream inception.