United States of America
Roberto is a fronterizo from the El Paso/Juárez borderland. Currently living in Dallas, TX, attending Southern Methodist University's history PhD program. Roberto examines how sports influence identity, specifically with boxing and Mexico. Not all clips deal with boxing, or sports. You can reach him at [email protected].
The warden at Leavenworth Federal Prison had scheduled the fights to start at 3 in the afternoon. But guests started arriving at noon and officials struggled to find enough seats to accommodate the crowd of 2,000, including 300 reporters, state officials and other notables.
For the first time in almost 30 years, the Los Angeles Dodgers are in the World Series, hosting at Dodger Stadium, third-oldest in the majors. A few miles south of the home-to-first baseline is downtown Los Angeles; over the outfield are Elysian Park's rolling hills and palm trees with mountains further in the background; an aerial view shows multiple highways surrounding the stadium.
Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez may be the world's most popular boxer, and yet he has a problem: He lacks credibility among the sport's largest fan bases, Mexicans and, increasingly, Mexican-Americans. Questions about Álvarez's boxing skill extend beyond these two groups, but since he is Mexican, attempting to understand why he lacks credibility must start here, among his fellow countrymen and those with whom he shares a heritage.
Let's get this out of the way first: Floyd Mayweather versus Conor McGregor was more entertaining than expected. After the fight, McGregor's first words on camera were, " I turned [Mayweather] into a Mexican tonight. He fought like a Mexican."
Thousands gathered outside Mexico City's train station on March 18, 1907, to catch a glimpse of their sporting heroes. The new arrivals were none other than the World Series champs, the Chicago White Sox. "Mexico is all stirred up over the visit of the Sox," Sporting Life reported, "the hidalgos throng the streets, gazing open-eyed ...
In 1994, as a high school freshman, my counselor forced me to attend summer school. He told me that without it, I risked not earning enough credits to be a sophomore. So, at my mother's insistence, I sat in a classroom making my way through workbooks while a teacher read the local newspaper and various sports magazines.
Before this past Saturday's fight, in which his son was thoroughly dominated by Saúl "Canelo" Alvarez, Julio Chávez Sr. assured anyone who would listen that his son had changed. Chávez Jr., he insisted, no longer was the apathetic boxer who woke up for an early evening bowl of cereal while wearing pink underwear instead of getting in some early morning road work.
Major League Baseball's 2017 season began on Sunday April 2nd, ten days after the United States beat Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic. The WBC is an attempt to make the baseball equivalent of the World Cup, and the international flavor of the tournament helped inspire continuing discussion of how various nations and cultures play with a different style, while adhering to different unspoken rules.
Gennady Gennadyevich Golovkin, known as Triple G or GGG, is arguably the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world. For the last several years, he has also attempted to pass himself off as Mexican. Mind you, he has not denied that he hails from Kazakhstan, nor has he changed his name to Gerardo Gaspar González.
"Stay away, Joe! Stay away, Joe!" screamed ringside observers and fans of Joe Louis, whose collapse in the 14th round appeared imminent. Moments before, his younger opponent, Ezzard Charles, landed a right cross followed by a right uppercut that initiated Louis' instinctive retreat.