Boxing Gym

MARK TUCKER, 43, of Eldersburg, is bringing the sport of amateur boxing to the area by forming the Maryland Boxing Club and holding exhibition fights Jan. 11 at Super Sports, a sports complex in Eldersburg. The exhibition, he says, will feature amateur boxers from New Jersey, Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, West Virginia and Salisbury. The boxers will spar in an elevated ring in an event that Tucker describes as Las Vegas-style boxing, complete with "ring card girls." The event will include female boxers.

For years, mixed martial art has been a man's world. But 2013 is shaping up to be the year women take the spotlight. Ronda Rousey beat Liz Carmouche in February, during Ultimate Fighting Championship's first female bout. And this weekend, Shogun Fights VIII will host the first female professional mixed martial arts fight in Maryland. On Saturday, Rosanna Garcia and Gabrielle Holloway will face off at Baltimore's 1st Mariner Arena , as the co-main event on the card - an event that could open doors for women in the sport and ultimately allow for more female professional fights locally.

PHILADELPHIA -- They were again in close quarters, sharing popcorn and laughs rather than punches and nasty looks. Ali-Frazier IV was much different from I, II and III. This wasn't the Thrilla in Manila, but the most public detente between these two former world champion boxers and longtime arch-enemies. That it came in the City of Brotherly Love seemed a fitting way for Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier to finally put their 30-year feud behind them. "Absolutely," said Miya Ali, who sat behind her legendary father at courtside during yesterday's NBA All-Star Game at the First Union Center.

A Baltimore jury has awarded an aspiring boxer more than $113,000 in damages and medical expenses after a hit-and-run by an unmarked police vehicle in 2009, according to his attorney. Deon Johnson, 19, said he was sitting on a dirt bike at Pennsylvania Avenue and Mosher Street when an unmarked city police car hit him and knocked him to the ground. The civil jury awarded Johnson more than $53,000 for pain and suffering and his medical expenses, as well as $60,000 in punitive damages from Officer Scott Reid, who was driving, and Officers Steven Kolacz and Brandon Barnes, who were passengers.

Baltimore electrician Tim Coleman Sr. was out of a job when he went looking for work in Las Vegas nearly six years ago. When he took his son, Tim Jr., with him, the father had no idea his loss would turn into the son's gain. "Tim never really played organized sports, but he was very athletic and looking for something physical to keep him busy," said Tim Sr. "We made some calls and wound up at a boxing gym run by Richard Steele." A natural in the ring, the younger Coleman, then 14, met and trained alongside such future world champions as Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Zab Judah.

For all too long, women's boxing started and ended with the colorful ring exploits of "The Coal Miner's Daughter," Christy Martin. With Martin, 32, showing signs of wear and tear, not to mention scar tissue, promoters of women's bouts have attempted to spice the sport by showcasing the fighting daughters of legendary Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman and Roberto Duran. To Isra Girgrah, the International Boxing Federation women's lightweight champion, this is just a circus act, distracting from the women who can really fight and don't need to ride their fathers' coattails.

The Fighter of the Year in 2004 was not Bernard Hopkins. Or Winky Wright. Or Marco Antonio Barrera. Or James Toney. It was Glen Johnson, who, as recently as 2003, considered retirement after winning only six of 15 fights during a frustrating downward spiral. "But, somehow, you know you have to pick yourself back up," said Johnson, a 36-year-old Jamaican-born fighter known as "The Road Warrior" for his reputation of engaging rivals on their home turf. "You have to have faith to go back to the gym and start all over again.

Two months ago, 17-year-old Deon Johnson was among the top-ranked boxers at a junior national championship, he said. But on Friday, he was sitting in a law office in an oversized suit, his right hand and right leg bandaged from injuries suffered in what his attorney says was a police hit-and-run. Attorney J. Wyndal Gordon said Johnson was sitting on a dirt bike on Pennsylvania Avenue about 9 p.m. Tuesday, talking to friends, when an unmarked police cruiser drove into him and knocked him to the ground.

The boxing business certainly can be a dog-eat-dog world. That's something world champion Manny Pacquiao should know. For Pacquiao, boxing actually is a man-eat-dog proposition. The Filipino fighter, a champ at multiple weight classes, got into the sport while trying to escape crushing poverty. And what was it that finally pushed Pacquiao to become a boxer? His father ate his pet dog. "That's why Manny ran away from home and became a boxer," said his trainer, Freddie Roach, according to England's Daily Star.