January 2025

FIGHTLINE

FOREMAN TKO 5 WILLIAMSON April 4, 1989

ALI KO 8 FOREMAN Oct. 30, 1974

ALI TKO 4 MOORE Nov. 15, 1962

WILLIAMSON TKO 6 STEIGER April 21, 1990

STEIGER DRAW 6 ROBINSON Aug. 28, 1995

Fights only last a matter of minutes, but fighters are connected to each other by chains that extend for decades – even centuries – into the past. Their bond is a lineage built face-to-face – a young prospect struggles with the skills of an aging veteran whose nose was once broken by a fighter now enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame. In that way, muscle memory carries knowledge and boxers face a piece of everyone their opponent has fought, everyone those people fought, and so on. This month we’re linking Archie Moore, one of the greatest light heavyweights of all time, to Artur Beterbiev, the current undisputed champion at 175 pounds. Have a Fightline you’d like to submit? Send it to comeoutwriting@gmail.com. And remember, some fighters can be linked on paper by jumping forward and backward in time, but to be a true lineage the fights must come in chronological order.

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AGNEW KO 1 ROBINSON Jan. 27, 2011

BIVOL TKO 4 AGNEW June 16, 2017

BETERBIEV MD 12 BIVOL Oct. 12, 2024

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