Fists Of Flash Using technology to the max, two boxing mavens have produced a fun website on the fight game

Last February online boxing writer-editor Doug Fischer and video
producer Gary Randall suffered a knockdown. Their authoritative
website, houseofboxing.com, was dramatically scaled back when
its financial backer, Magnum Sports & Entertainment, cut its
support. Fischer and Randall, both Angelinos, left houseofboxing
and, with another alum of the website, writer Steve Kim,
promptly launched a self-financed competing site, maxboxing.com.
Easy to navigate and loaded with interactive features, maxboxing
has become the best of the sweet science sites. "We would first
like to attract the general boxing audience," says Fischer.
"Then we hope to turn them into better boxing fans."

Besides providing several daily news stories and a stable of 15
columnists, maxboxing offers provocative short films such as The
Middleweight, a 4 1/2-minute documentary that explores the
Philadelphia roots and training regimen of Bernard (the
Executioner) Hopkins, who'll be fighting Felix Trinidad for the
weight class's championship on Saturday at Madison Square Garden
(TVKO, 9 p.m., $49.95). Flash profiles examine the attributes of
five leading boxers from head to toe. Click on featherweight
Marco Antonio Barrera's right fist, for example, and you'll be
told that "he likes to sneak an uppercut to the jaw when he's
close to an opponent." Fans can cast votes for the top 10
fighters in every division, and they can get a round-by-round
look at computer-driven mythical matchups. In one such fictional
bout, Oscar De La Hoya stops Thomas Hearns on a 14th-round TKO.

For Trinidad-Hopkins, maxboxing will have pre- and postfight
video and audio coverage, and Fischer will post his recap no
later than 90 minutes after the fight.

--John O'Keefe

THE ZAPPER

The Ryder Cup, scheduled for this weekend, was postponed until
2002, but golf fans won't be without drama. "The Troubleshooters
Challenge" (Golf Channel, Tuesday, 8 p.m.), a segment on the
Academy Live series, will recount the attempt of retired Key
Largo, Fla., policeman David McClain, 49, to break 100 under the
tutelage of renowned instructor Jim McLean.... CBS's translucent
score box, introduced on U.S. Open tennis telecasts and used on
the network's NFL broadcasts, is a welcome innovation, but it
should be enlarged. You need the eyes of a Ted Williams to read
it.