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1 week ago | 
defector.com | Dave McKenna
Ramon Cardenas saved boxing. Or, he at least made the biggest weekend the sport has seen in years memorable for good reasons. But, damn, he took a beating along the way. Cardenas, obviously overmatched by Japanese opponent Naoya Inoue in everything but heart, knocked the mythically powerful champ down with a lightning-quick and savage left hook in the second round of their thrilling and brutal super bantamweight title fight Sunday in Las Vegas.
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1 week ago | 
defector.com | Dave McKenna
If you enjoy old-timey American pastimes, have I got a weekend for you! Three consecutive nights of televised title fights! Who invited the mid-1950s?
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3 weeks ago | 
defector.com | Dave McKenna
The pope died on Sunday. Here’s hoping his holiness got to see the Kerry–Cork football match first. To call it the greatest Gaelic game of the millennium would be an understatement of Irish proportions. Or something.
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1 month ago | 
defector.com | Dave McKenna
For somebody who followed Alexander Ovechkin's chase for as long and closely as I had, I didn’t get much fun out of his pursuit of Wayne Gretzky. A small, stupid wager I made with a buddy more than a decade ago screwed everything up. See, I bet against the Great 8. Dammit. I was listening to the local radio broadcast on Friday night when Ovechkin scored two goals against the visiting Chicago Blackhawks to tie Gretzky at 894.
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1 month ago | 
defector.com | Dave McKenna
I'm not much of a TV guy. Sure, I’ll grab the remote and a seat on the couch for any live sports broadcast. But the last scripted series I watched was Derry Girls, and only because I had a pending work trip to Ireland and hoped it would prepare me for the brogues I’d encounter. (Not much. But, what a show!)But I broke my fast to watch Zero Day, the prestige TV poli-sci-fi thriller starring Robert DeNiro and Angela Bassett. Nothing against the Oscar winners, but they weren’t what drew me.
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1 month ago | 
defector.com | Dave McKenna
In a game from the gods, Texas Tech played its way into a not-so-sweet 16-point second-half deficit against Arkansas, then played its way out. And then some. The gutsy and fun Red Raiders used a late bank shot from Darrion Williams and some great last-second defense to beat John Calipari’s Razorbacks, 85-83, in the first overtime game of this year’s NCAA Tournament. Tech now advances to Saturday’s West Region final.
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1 month ago | 
defector.com | Dave McKenna
George Foreman could take a punch. Foreman, who died Friday at his home in Houston, was better known for other things. Like, most obviously, throwing a punch. He’s remembered as one of the hellaciousest hitters the sweet science ever saw, and his ring record (76-5 with 68 knockouts) and lots of YouTube highlights bolster that.
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1 month ago | 
defector.com | Dave McKenna
Dammit. At least England didn’t win. Heading into the final round of this year’s Six Nations, Ireland needed a win over Italy and lots of help from above to get back to the top of the table and take an unprecedented third consecutive continental championship. The Irish did their part, creaking past Italy, 22-17, for a bonus-point win in Rome. The gods? Not so much. So there will be no three-peat. Tres bien, France.
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2 months ago | 
defector.com | Dave McKenna
The Washington Post database shows that John Feinstein wrote his first story for the newspaper in 1977. It was about college basketball. Feinstein also wrote a story about college basketball that ran in the Post on Thursday, the day he died. Between his first and last Post pieces, Feinstein went from a local D.C. reporter to a national powerhouse and back.
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2 months ago | 
defector.com | Dave McKenna
A fighter can’t call a timeout in boxing. Unless, that is, you’re Gervonta "Tank" Davis. Because in the heat of battle during the ninth round of a shockingly fabulous and dramatic WBA lightweight title fight Saturday night against underdog challenger Lamont Roach in Brooklyn, Davis did just that. And he got away with it. Then again, this fight was full of the unexpected. Not the least of which was the majority draw the judges gave the fight after 12 fascinating rounds.
