The 5’9″ “Raging Bull” out of Poland retires at the age of 30 with a record of 29 wins, 2 losses and a draw. Nineteen of those wins came by KO.

On Facebook, Wolak said that he is at peace with his decision to retire, and that he “left it all in the ring.”

Wolak also used Twitter to break the news to his fans:

Wolak’s social media retirement shows just how instantaneous and real-time services like Twitter and Facebook can be. According to ESPN’s NYFightBlog, Wolak’s manager Cameron Dunkin (who Wolak’s Facebook post mentions as the desired recipient of all inquiries) had no idea about the decision. Apparently, he learned about it the same way everyone else did – Twitter and Facebook. Same goes for Wolak’s sponsor, Top Rank.

We all know that social media can be full of landmines for athletes that have a tendency to fly off the handle – but as more professional athletes embrace Twitter and Facebook, will this become a trend? Will big announcements taking place on Twitter instead of via press conference become the norm?

Earlier this year, NBA great Shaquille O’Neal announced his retirement from the NBA via Twitter.

Here’s a pretty popular YouTube video of Pawel Wolak vs. Delvin Rodriguez, match one. You can see the heart in Wolak as he refused to throw in the towel, although you can clearly see he has every reason to.

Frazier, a hero in his hometown of Philadelphia, was known for his aggressive, hard-hitting style. Columnist Bill Lyon summarized Frazier’s fighting style like this:

“He was swarming and unrelenting, and he prided himself that he never took a backward step, and he reduced the Sweet Science to this brutal bit of elemental math: ‘I’ll let you hit me five times if you’ll let me hit you just once.’”

Frazier is known by many as the man who dealt the legendary Muhammad Ali his first ever defeat. It happened at the 1971 “Fight of the Century,” where Frazier downed Ali with a big left hook in the 15th round. The two boxing greats continued to give the world great matches with a rematch in 1974 (which Ali won in a decision) and 1975′s classic “Thrilla in Manilla.”

The sports world (and many others) have mourned the death of Frazier since the news was announced late Monday, with boxer Floyd Mayweather making a particularly interesting offer on Twitter:

Smokin’ Joe’s Facebook and Twitter accounts asked that fans post their thoughts and memories, and many of them have been posted on Frazier’s official site.

He obviously meant quite a bit to many people:

When i was a kid i heard a radio interview with smokin joe. my dad was a goldenglove and loved joe. he sat me down so we could hear the whole thing. from that day forth i was a boxing fan. smokin joe made a fan for life with his interview. thanks joe to this day im a fan – Tailyn, from Facebook.

The greatest and most gracious heavyweight champion ever to grace the ring in my humble opinion.When I tell my kids about boxing legends,Joe Frazier comes above everyone.I hope by telling them the truth that I can keep Joe at the forefront of future generations’ thoughts. Godspeed, big man – Paul, from Facebook

Other well-known people took to Twitter to express their condolences for the loss of Frazier:

What are your memories of Smokin’ Joe? Let us know in the comments. And head on over to Famous Dead to express your condolences.

Despite their bitter differences, Google and ABWF won’t be firing anything more dangerous than sharpened, expensive legalese at each other should their dispute remain unsettled into the fall.

CNBC said federal judge Jeremy Fogel set November 9th as the jury selection date in ABWF’s trial against Google. ABWF complained of trademark infringement by competitors through Google’s AdWords program, and filed suit in 2003.

Google permits competitors to buy keywords to trigger paid search ads through its AdWords program. However, trademarked words cannot be displayed by a competitor in an ad. Google’s chief paid search rival, Yahoo, does not permit competitor keyword buys.

In April, Google received only part of the summary judgment they wanted in the case. Fogel set aside ABWF’s claims of infringement against the marks "American Blinds" and "American Blind," but allowed the rest of the case to proceed.

That wasn’t the outcome Google expected. They have beaten GEICO and Rescuecom in similar cases (Rescuecom is appealing), though as Reuters noted they lost a French court ruling to Louis Vuitton.

Mashable writer Kristen Nicole noted the AP account of the decision. YouTube removed the content at the request of the cable network.

If HBO and the various individuals who infest the world of boxing want to try and reclaim a generation of fans they have lost, banning clips of a reasonably entertaining bout as heavily hyped as Mayweather-De La Hoya was isn’t the way to do it.

The current generation of connected would-be fans probably think people like Klitschko, Valuev, and Maskaev were former Soviet Union bureaucrats, rather than current and recent heavyweight champions. Boxers like them could use some more exposure.

HBO, Showtime, and the various boxing promoters who seem more inclined to have their fighters duck tough fights ought to try taking advantage of the online video sharing craze. Having a couple of the better rounds of Mayweather’s win on YouTube couldn’t possibly force HBO into bankruptcy.

There are a lot of problems with boxing, many of which are self-inflicted. Getting more visibility for their best prospects, and their better bouts, could go some ways toward building more interest.

Otherwise boxing promoters like Don King and Bob Arum, not to mention HBO, will continue to see a younger audience put their pay-per-view dollars towards mixed martial arts matches like the upcoming Chuck Liddell-Rampage Jackson rematch.

HBO is too worried about what they might lose today with fight clips on YouTube. We’re inclined to think the viral buzz potential from YouTube would build interest among viewers HBO might not attract without it.

The first battle begins with a match-up between MSN‘s Kelly Thomas and Yahoo’s Jim Lampley. By winning the best two of the three rounds, MSN takes the victory and is ready to take on reigning champion Vanessa Fox of Google, who won the sumo wrestling championship fight at the SES conference in San Jose.

To win this championship round, MSN or Google has to conquer the most of the five rounds. Fox begins confident and strong and takes out Thomas in the first two rounds. MSN strikes back at Google by winning the next two rounds. The score is now tied with one round left to go. As if Google and MSN didn’t have enough butterflies already, the judges made a controversial equipment replacement. The officials made this decision in order to keep the competition fair for the final round.

So, who takes the role as the best search engine of this Rock Em Sock Em fight? We would love to share the results with you, but we want to keep you biting your nails in suspense. Watch the video and find out and let us know what you thought of the outcome below!

Six months ago, most analysts, bloggers and journalists left Yahoo for dead, stopping just short of eulogizing the Internet portal. It’s declining market share in search as well as its highly publicized debacle in attempting to buy Facebook left Yahoo with egg on its face, and led to a serious shakeup within the company’s personnel infrastructure.

Half a year later, however, Yahoo is still alive and kicking and, by some accounts, is poised for a comeback that could rival George Foreman and his unlikely knockout of Michael Moorer to capture the heavyweight title nearly thirteen years ago.

Market projections by Pike & Fischer suggests that Yahoo will bounce back in a big way this year:

In a new analysis, P&F forecasts that Yahoo! will expand its user base significantly thanks to its aggressive recruitment of top scientists and its acquisition of such innovative social-networking and video services as Bix.com and Jumpcut. In addition, P&F projects that Yahoo!’s investment insuch initiatives as its ”Project Panama” — designed to improve search accuracy and increase click-throughs for paid advertisers — will narrow Google’s lead in online ad sales.

"We have said from the beginning and we say it clearly right now, again, that our intention is to close the gap, and Panama is doing a great job," Yahoo CEO Terry Semel says in a CNET article.

While I’m not quite ready to strip Google of the heavyweight championship just yet, it does appear that Yahoo is serious about positioning itself as the number one contender, and is looking for a showdown to settle the matter once and for all.

Now that’s a fight I can’t wait to see. 

Boxing writer and podcaster Eddie Goldman posted that boxing is stuck in the past. “Most of boxing is still in an era of ink-stained, cigarette-smoking, fedora-wearing drunks banging away on manual typewriters,” he wrote.

The kids aren’t going backward, but forward. Social media and networking are all the rage, with MySpace receiving plenty of press for its growth and role in that arena. It’s with this in mind that Goldman approached boxing promoter Lou DiBella after the Ike Quartey/Vernon Forrest junior middleweight bout, which DiBella’s fighter Quartey lost by decision in ten rounds.

Goldman wrote that he asked DiBella, “Why don’t you get on MySpace?” Quite a few boxers have made their online homes on the site, and after some back and forth DiBella agreed to get a profile on the site for his company.

DiBella knows plenty about the power of promotion, considering his eleven-year run at HBO Sports. During that time boxing became a big draw for the cable network, as did HBO’s lucrative pay-per-view programming.

His profile is picking up friends on MySpace from among boxers and fight fans. It’s a small number right now, with no limits or guarantees on how far it can rise. Any fans boxing can gain will be welcome in the sport.

Growing fanbases can lend some competitiveness outside of the ring. With DiBella’s “Broadway Boxing” coming up later in September, and a pair of his fighters on the card, the ideal viral marketing result would come from fans spreading the word themselves about the junior welterweights and their opponents.

Of course boxing still has to do its part, by developing more fighters like middleweight champ Jermain Taylor who younger fans will want to follow. Just like websites that need quality content to keep their visitors coming back, DiBella and other promoters have to offer that too.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

The new boxes include more baseball and new football statistics, weather facts and stats, info on government officials, and major holidays.

Examples:

president of russia

senator new york (not a great result)

kurt warner quarterback rating

carlos delgado walks

rainfall in seattle

high temperature in seattle

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what is boxing day

Nathan Weinberg writes the popular InsideGoogle blog, offering the latest news and insights about Google and search engines.

Visit the InsideGoogle blog.