Take one name off the list of Olympic athletes with ties to the D.C. area. The Associated Press via ESPN.com is reporting that 20-year-old boxer Gary Russell Jr., who was born right here in D.C. and lives in Capitol Heights, Md., collapsed in Beijing while trying to make weight, and will no longer be competing in the Olympic games. Russell, who was not hospitalized, collapsed while running. He had been trying to drop from 125......

When Tony "The Tiger" Thompson enters the ring in Hamburg, Germany on Saturday, he will be fighting for his family and his future, but he won't be fighting because of any love of the sport. From the Post:I really don't like to train for boxing. I'm just good at it. It's what I do to make a living. If I had my choices of making a living, I'm not one of those people who would......

He's a lover and a fighter: Kassim Ouma reflects on his violent past in Kassim the Dream It sounds like — if you’ll pardon the expression — something out of a movie: Junior Middleweight Champion fighter Kassim “The Dream” Ouma escapes the darkest of pasts to find his way from Africa to America, arrives penniless and unable to speak English, and within a year he’s a professional fighter with a surrogate family, money in......

Tony Thompson (AP Photo) Via Boxing Along the Beltway, we have learned that another D.C. athlete has become a blogger. Boxer Tony "The Tiger" Thompson has started blogging in preparation for his July 12 fight with Wladimir Klitschko for the IBO, IBF, and WBO Heavyweight Championship Belts. Well, kinda. It looks like he is sending out letters to some boxing outlets. They are blog posts, but he doesn't have them on a blog of......

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Repertory: The Great Punch-Out: A Hard Hitting Week of Boxing at the Pickford Theater Those of you with an interest in the pugilistic arts may want to camp out at the Library of Congress next week. The library is doing a series of boxing features, shorts, and classic fights that lasts all week long. There's a......

Written by DCist Contributor Charles Gray As a boxer, Washington D.C. native Tony "The Tiger" Thompson suffers from a number of unpardonable sins. First, he fights left handed. In an effort avoid the "southpaw jinx," most boxers decide not to fight lefties. Second, the adjectives most often used to describe Thompson's fighting style are "awkward" and "defensive." The old boxing adage is that styles make fights -- the public is hardly clamoring for an awkward......

The Wizards and Capitals are on summer vacation. The only Redskins news prominently features Ron Mexico and is not related to sports at all (well, human sports anyway). Despite these non-developments, this weekend has some intriguing aspects regarding actual Washington sports. >> Boxing comes to the District as the brothers Peterson square off in co-featured bouts at the D.C. Armory. Lamont and Anthony Peterson are a combined 42-0 with 25 knockouts between them. Anthony will......

Welcome back, Washington. You're probably still busy with Holiday merriment, but we're here working hard for you. Err... rather, we'll be posting today between yelling at football games and re-heating the Christmas roast beast. Also worth noting is the beginning of Kwanzaa and observance of Boxing Day. While Kwanzaa is mainly an American week of celebration, we have special envy of Boxing Day, a holiday virtually everywhere else in the English-speaking world. It's a whole......

When Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Ian Hunter, Son Volt, and Calexico make a record to save your life, you’ve achieved icon status in the music world. Yet despite his performing in bands since the '70s and solo since the early '90s, Texas-native Alejandro Escovedo is hardly a household name for those who appreciate roots music. And he rarely sells out East Coast shows. But things are changing. Over the course of the past several months,......

Adding to the already crowded roster of mayoral candidates, Michael A. Brown, a lobbyist and the son of the late Clinton-era Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, today told the Washington Times that he would formally announce his candidacy for the city's top job next month. His announcement will swell the ranks of mayoral hopefuls to five, including Council-members Adrian Fenty (D-Ward 4) and Vincent Orange (D-Ward 5), Council Chair Linda Cropp, and former Verizon executive Marie......