Christian Giudice

One can use all of the superlatives available to depict the late Arturo Gatti as the ultimate warrior whose penchant to hit, get hit, and hit back harder went unparalleled during the last 25 years. But merely categorizing him as a fighter in the mold of a Jake LaMotta or a punching phenomenon would be unjust. The beauty of Gatti was that he united people who otherwise wouldn’t watch boxing, and forced them to fall irrevocably in love with a sport.

Losing Gatti (40-9, 31 KOs) will be one of the… Continue

Papi Mendes Part II: Sparring with Ricca

By Christian Giudice

The dried-out, hole-filled gloves spilled into the makeshift ring

sequestered in the corner of the Papi Mendes Gym. Kids were constantly running by, some

stopped in to innocently throw some jabs, others were content to kill time on the rusted bike.

Some young fighters took orders from the gentle taskmaster Celso Chavez Sr.,

the lifeline of the gym, who was content to talk boxing endlessly on one of his cigarette breaks.

On good… Continue

Prince of Papi Mendes: Ricca Cordoba

Part I

By Christian Giudice

In June 2002, I was riding on a bus with a young fighter from Panama.
He started singing, "My name is....my name is..." a rap song that
was wildly popular at the time. It was one of the few times I saw him open up; often
he was reserved, content to follow the lead of the older fighters.

The fighter, Ricardo Cordoba, was part of a team of boxers from the Papi Mendes Gym
in the San Antonio Projects of San Miguelito. He was a risi… Continue

"The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority."

- Ralph W. Sockman

Upon hearing the news of Luis Spada's passing last week, I tried to recall the day I met the man nearly six years ago. He had no idea who I was, but allowed me into his home for an interview and spent time showing me all of his boxing memorabilia. Kind, gentle and proud were a few of the words I used to describe the man who treated me so well in his home that day… Continue

Violence is terribly seductive; all of us, especially males, are

trained to gaze upon violence until it becomes beautiful.

- Martin Espada


How rare to find a professional boxer more committed to a boxer's welfare and analyzing the human condition than ensuring his place in ring annals. Last Monday morning, when Jose “Chegüí” Torres suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 72, the boxing fraternity lost one of the few boxers whose vision extended beyond the ring.

People will soon begin to… Continue