He’s only 62. 62 is the new 42, and we all know what George Foreman did in his 40s, so it’s no big deal that we hear Smokin’ Joe Frazier is going to be lacing up the gloves once again.

On this day in 1956, Floyd Patterson won the heavyweight title with a fifth-round knockout of Archie Moore in Chicago. It made Patterson, who was just five weeks shy of his 22nd birthday, the youngest heavyweight champion in history.

We get loads of press releases daily from PR types and are happy to receive them, as they clue us in to the latest goings-on in the fight game. Often, the phrasing is hyperbolic, but that’s understandable, the publicists are paid to hype their guy.

Sweden, birthplace of former heavyweight champion of the world Ingemar Johansson and one of the more enlightened countries on the planet, banned professional boxing in 1970 after a study determined that the those who engage on the sport run the risk of suffering “severe and even life-threatening injuries,� and that boxing “had a brutalizing effect on the audience� and “was governed by unsound economic interests,� according to the AP.

It’s a sad time for Michigan fight fans and, really, fight fans the world over that enjoyed seeing the products from the Detroit pugilism machine known as the Kronk Gym churn out champs, contenders and prospects for 30 plus plus years.

Undefeated super middleweight sensation Joe Calzaghe, from Newbridge, Wales, boxing’s current longest-reigning world champion, will make his landmark 20th title defense – sixth-best on boxing’s all-time list – against top-10 contender Peter Manfredo Jr., from Providence, RI.

On this day in 1902, former light heavyweight champion Tommy Loughran was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Loughran was one of the most talented fighters in the history of the sport.

I’m a tough nut to crack. I don’t like “Rocky,� love “Raging Bull,� must be a dark side of the moon kind of guy. I remember drifting through Michael Mann’s “Ali� almost half asleep, seemingly narcotized by the reverence.

Seminole Warriors Boxing, Golden Boy Promotions, Golden Grain Promotions and Sampson Lewkowicz won the promotional rights to the WBO heavyweight championship bout between their fighter, unbeaten Sultan Ibragimov, and the champion from Brownsville, Brooklyn, Shannon “The Cannon� Briggs.

Former World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Greg Page has been hospitalized since Friday, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports, and is undergoing treatment for “pneumonia and other complications.”