Tag: Brian Ackley

How Will ESPN Cutbacks Affect Women’s Boxing? – 2003

By BRIAN ACKLEY –  WBAN Senior Editor (DEC 5) It’s good news that the postponement of Ali-Wolfe apparently had nothing to do with the sad news leaked on the same day that ESPN is significantly cutting back it’s involvement in boxing. Scheduled as a second straight Valentine’s Day matchup, the two rivals were scheduled as the

Standing Eight Count – Monthly Series – November 2002

  (TL FOX Note: “Standing Eight Count” made it’s debut in October 2002 as a monthly feature from WBAN senior editor Brian Ackley, offering news, notes and comment from the world of women’s boxing.  It’s been a while since one individual boxer as earned so much attention, but welcome to November’s Standing Eight Count, Ali

Pay-per-view giveth and Pay-per-view taketh Away – Feb. 20, 1999

Was it really three years ago when Christy Martin and Diedre Gogarty thrust women’s boxing on to the American sports scene? You bet. That pay-per-view event, March 16, 1996, is universally recognized as the singular most important event in women’s boxing, maybe ever. Martin and Gogarty was a pay-per-view feature on a Mike Tyson undercard.

Biggest Upset of the Year – Sumya Anani vs. Christy Martin

The Coal Miner’s daughter must have been more naughty than nice in 1998.  How else to explain Sumya Anani’s delivery of a lump of early  Christmas coal to Christy Martin’s holiday celebration?    When the Kansas City native stunned the women’s boxing world with her upset win December 18, it was the kind of fight that