Spoiling has stumbled back into fashion of late. After Cuban cephalopod Richard Abril put the dampeners on Ugandan Sharif Bogere within hours of England’s Matthew Hatton and South African Chris van Heerden hugging one another to professional death, fight fans were left to pine after a performance that might clear the airways. Unfortunately, the stink left over from Abril and co. lingered into an additional week after Bernard Hopkins nullified another unbeaten patsy with his efficacious brand of marring.

Fighting ugly is no sin -- at least not for its practitioners. In boxing -- perhaps more so than in any other sport -- a winning record can generate hot money whether achieved through excessive clinching, uncomely pacifism or ungallant conduct. Here follows a handful of boxers that were adept at it -- that could spoil, maul or flat out bore as well as anyone in history.

Saoul Mamby

“Sweet” Saoul, a Jheri curl-sporting Jew from the South Bronx, carped of a bloodlust inherent in the American fight crowd, and if anyone was well-placed to contrast international viewing habits then it was the cosmopolitan operator Mamby. A superbly conditioned Vietnam veteran from Spanish-Jamaican descent, he sought his fortune across the globe in an astonishing 39-year career -- racking up wins in Jamaica, Zambia, Quebec, Seoul and Paris.

An attraction at New York’s Felt Forum back in the early 70s, Mamby’s expert technique and nimble brain allowed him to control the pace and rhythm of a bout. He could buffer things down to a crawl when the need came, and mess a man up inside as required. And rarely was he hit.

He matched wits with the likes of Roberto Duran, Edwin Viruet, Buddy McGirt, Billy Costello, Antonio Cervantes, Maurice Blocker and Esteban De Jesus -- names from cojoining eras -- in 85 contests that returned him a version of the super lightweight world championship when he starched South Korea’s Sang-Hung Kim in February 1980.

(Tavoris Cloud [tiger trunks] and Bernard Hopkins [purple/silver trunks] trade punches during their light heavyweight bout at the Barclay's Center. Credit: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports)

NEW YORK CITY - - Boos greeted Tavoris Cloud as he began his ringwalk into the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. East Coast legend Bernard Hopkins enjoyed a much warmer welcome to New York, one of his most famous stomping grounds.

Greeted like a hero, the 48-year-old Hopkins (53-6-2, 32 KO) came out in an Executioner’s mask, swathed in a purple robe with a large “X” on his back and his steely gaze looking all business.

With the IBF light heavyweight belt on the line, the two men looked eager to fight as the ref gave his last instructions.

America just don't know. That's Victor Ortiz in a publicity shot for Dancing With The Stars; he looks like he's got his VO FaceLube on in that very, very baby blue photograph, or else it's shopped to the max and DUDE WATCH OUT THERE ARE SOME FIREWORKS GOING OFF RIGHT BEHIND YOU. Although for now Ortiz is talking fairly innocuously about how he's going to win, it won't take long for the peculiarity to begin creeping into the conversation. For instance, this week, going on two years after his fight with Floyd Mayweather, he claimed for the first time that he head butted Mayweather in their welterweight bout because his corner ordered him to do it, followed by the aforementioned corner denying it. There's the Victor Ortiz Experience in a nutshell: He says something odd, then more often than not someone else immediately says it's not true.

While Ortiz is dancing, boxing keeps on keeping on without him. Somehow. A pair of old promoters are having a rough week; performance enhancing drugs are in the headlines, just like they are almost every week these days; and there are some fights in the works for people like Adrien Broner and Juan Manuel Marquez.

A couple quick housekeeping notes before we dig into it: TQBR joined the Guardian Sports Network this week, which means some of our work will be featured on the website of one of the world's biggest and best publications several times a month. We're pretty proud of that around here. And Karl Greenberg has departed the staff -- best of luck to him out there.

(Hugo Centeno, Jr. pops Keandre Leatherwood; photo credit: Tom Casino, Showtime)

You would think that if one boxer beat another by a near shutout, he'd walk away shiny and glorious, especially if he was a prospect facing his most difficult opponent to date on ShoBox. Yet, Friday on Showtime's prospect-featuring program, junior middleweight Hugo Centeno, Jr. handled Keandre Leatherwood with relative ease on the scorecards but came out with a slightly dinged up rep.

That's OK. This was an awkward style match-up that showed some work Centeno needed to do if he's to beat superior physical specimens, which is another of the ideas of the program -- ShoBox is not a prospect showcase, ideally, as much as it's a proving grounds for talented youngsters. Both Centeno and Leatherwood have talent (Centeno had won acclaim as a sparring partner for the likes of Peter Quillin and Paulie Malignaggi), but neither have yet to harness it. The fight showed they had more to prove, and this is the kind of lesson a boxer can use to grow on.

Leatherwood was faster, and, when he landed solid shots, landed them better and more accurately. Centeno, though, was more active, and held a better grasp on that elusive "ring generalship," and at least early, appeared to be the better technical fighter who worked a sharp jab. As the fight wore on, though, Centeno got a bit sloppier, and some smart boxing writers on Twitter attributed some of his shortcomings to a lack of physical strength on a gangly frame. Leatherwood's penchant for holding also contributed. In the end, Centeno came out with a unanimous decision where there was an argument for Leatherwood winning a round or two, but the danger Leatherwood flashed with his speed and accuracy never mounted into a full-throated threat.

On the undercard, Braulio Santos made a much more definitive impression against Kevin Hoskins, blitzing him for a stoppage win in less than a minute. The featherweights felt each other out very briefly before Santos sneaked a powerful left hook between Hoskins' gloves that wobbled him badly, and followed it up with a series of punches before another left hook rendered his upper and lower body paralyzed in sequence. He rose, but was too unsteady to continue. Showtime's broadcasting team got all hot and bothered over Santos' win, and it was his best win to date, but it also was just his 10th win and 1st round knockouts can be fluky. That said, it was far from a bad thing, and it was the kind of showing that would make folk want to see more of Santos before long.

“Hail to the Victors” was not the theme of ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights on March 8 as junior welterweight Emmanuel Taylor defeated Victor Cayo by technical knockout in the main event from the Resorts Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, N.J.

The boxers tussled in tight quarters for the 3rd round, where Taylor seemed to jar the one known as “Mermelada.” Collecting his bearings, Cayo worked hard and often as he found a weapon by switching to southpaw. He knocked down Taylor with a right hook from the lefty stance at just over two minutes into round 5. Taylor recovered, but Cayo smelled blood. Though he was warned for a low blow 15 seconds into the 6th, Cayo maintained his pace and strategy while his left cheek started to swell.

Time waits for no man, except, perhaps, Bernard Hopkins. The 48-year-old has fought at a high level despite a decrepit-for-boxing age far later than he has had any right to, and probably better than anyone ever has in the history of the sport. As his Saturday showdown on HBO with Tavoris Cloud nears, though, one gets the impression that time has at last grown impatient with Hopkins. It has tapped its foot, drummed its fingers, hinted that it has to wake up early in the morning, stopped offering him cocktails and is this close to physically throwing him out.

If anyone has the physicality to throw out the cantankerous old man, it’s someone like Cloud, a power-punching young light heavyweight. In two meetings with Hopkins, division champ Chad Dawson nudged him closer to the door during a no contest and then the first definitive defeat of Hopkins’ career in decades. But he did it by outmaneuvering him, rather than roughing him up, and left the sentiment that Hopkins merely ran into the kind of style match-up – speedy, long, technically proficient – that always would’ve caused him consternation.

Thing is, the famously stubborn Hopkins has chewed up many a strong youngster in the winter of his ring life. Jean Pascal, Kelly Pavlik – they were hard-hitting boxers in their primes when Hopkins opened up his devilish bag of tricks on their asses, giving Pavlik a career-altering beating and first drawing with then defeating Pascal by decision. You’d be foolish not to at least wonder whether he can’t do it again, even with Hopkins showing clear signs of aging. When is it, then, that boxing’s natural order – the young eat the old – is restored with Hopkins, and is that moment Saturday? Because Hopkins fights are rarely works of art in any conventional understanding of beauty, that is the central appeal of Hopkins-Cloud – that, and it’s the first really high-level boxing match on one of the main two networks in what feels like months.

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HBO’s new mini-documentary focusing on boxing’s out of the ring personalities, "Cornered," debuted earlier in the week. The first instalment focused on Mr “let’s get ready to rumble” himself, ring announcer Michael Buffer. The Buff (as I will now call him) seems like an interesting guy. His chiselled jawline and John Boehneresque complexion certainly belie the amount of time he’s been involved in the fight game.

But it got TQBR to thinking about boxing’s other, equally colourful personalities. Specifically, the ones we want to see HBO give the high-def, slightly shaky, mini doco treatment:

Naazim Richardson - Trainer

I’m not even sure if brother Naazim counts as an out of the ring personality given the amount of time he spends between the ropes training and advising fighters -- I just want to see him talk for 10 minutes. Richardson might not be the wisest man in boxing, but he’s the smoothest talking. The man who has given us gems like “Knock the grease off this dude then swim without getting wet," simply needs more air time.

Rafael Garcia – Cutman

Floyd Mayweather’s 83-year-old cutman is an interesting dude. Don’t you want to know why he has all those pins on his cabby hat? I do. Also love the fact that he’s worked for Floyd for more than 10 years and still calls him “Floy Maguaider.”

Frank Maloney - Promoter

You can’t question the heart of British promoter Maloney, who has twice fainted and once had a heart attack after seeing his boxers in strife. Can you imagine Oscar De La Hoya or Bob Arum having a heart attack after seeing one of their boxers get knocked out? I’m not even sure they have hearts. Despite being a fairly hardcore anti-immigration, anti-EU politician, Maloney mainly lives for his dogs (at least judging by his Twitter feed).

Nacho Beristain – Trainer

How many 73-year-olds can pull off that look? Nacho is the man. Not only has he trained a who’s who of Mexican badassery, he’s a badass in his own right. He drives a Shelby Mustang, smokes Cuban cigars and has an old school Mexican ‘stache. Who has been the highlight of every single 24/7 series featuring Nacho? Nacho! When Freddie Roach wanted a picture with him after Manny Pacquiao/Juan Manuel Marquez II, Beristain is reported to have walked away before dismissing Roach in Spanish, saying: “What do you want to do, blow me?” Also says “Floy Maguaider.”

Nicole Duva - Promoter

As close as boxing comes to a Kennedy, Nicole Duva seems pretty fascinating. A scion of the Duva family who run Main Events, her life is pretty awesome. Based on nothing but social media, she goes to lots of fights, sasses people and gets boozy. What’s not to like? She’s pretty hot too, at least judging by her dingus on Twitter (dingus is Aussie for headshot – I'm hoping it's going to become a "thing").

Looks like meat’s back on the menu boys! And by meat, I mean big time boxing. The main meal is the juicy HBO doubleheader headlined by a light heavyweight fight between Bernard Hopkins and Tavoris Cloud. There are other interesting titbits here and there that can serve as appetisers, and an excellent fight on HBO Latino that can be dessert.

That’s me in the blue up there, pushing my punches and falling off to the side. Like a handful of current boxing writers, I’ve tried my hand at the busted beak business. I did OK, won four out of my five amateur bouts and managed to avoid getting badly hurt.

Giving the sweet science a go seems almost to be in fashion for internet based writers; Maxboxing’s Gabe Montoya and Steve Kim train in various L.A. gyms, this site’s founder Tim Starks trains on and off in D.C., Ryan Bivins of Sweetboxing/Bad Left Hook has had amateur fights and plans on going pro and TSS’ Frank Lotierzo actually had a pro fight back in the day.

It stands to reason that having a familiarity with the physical side of the sport might help a writer. The idea has history, too –George Bernard Shaw was friends with Gene Tunney and once entered a boxing competition, while Norman Mailer went running with Muhammad Ali in Zaire. Though when he wrote about it, it seemed more like Muhammad Ali was going for a run with Norman Mailer.

So does being a writer who boxes make you a better boxing writer? Yeah, this is an incredibly introspective, navel gazing topic, but what are blogs for? I’m a stanky blogger and proud of it.