Feed http://www.queensberry-rules.com/ Fri, 14 Mar 2014 04:13:34 GMT FeedCreator 1.8.1 (obRSS 1.8.11) http://www.queensberry-rules.com/images/ Feed http://www.queensberry-rules.com/ Rivalry Week?: Previews And Predictions For The Danny Garcia Vs. Mauricio Herrera Card http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/rivalry-week-previews-and-predictions-for-danny-garcia-vs-mauricio-herrera-card.html

The prodigal son returns. Kind of. 

Rivalries are everywhere in sports. Some start with religion, like Rangers and Celtic. Some are regional, like Georgia and Florida (or insert NCAA football rivalry of your choosing). Some simply boil down to good versus evil as in the case of Carolina and Duke (Go Heels!).

Few rivalries though, are as intense as when a Mexican and Puerto Rican face off in the boxing ring. We're talking about classics. Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito. Edwin Rosario-Julio Cesar Chavez, Sr.. Wilfredo Benitez-Carlos Palomino. Wilfredo Gómez-Carlos Zárate. Kid Azteca vs The Cocoa Kid. Danny Garcia-Maurcio Herrera. Wait. Garcia vs. Herrera? That doesn't make any sense. Garcia was born and raised North Philadelphia, and Herrera is an American of Mexican decent. Why on Earth would they put two fighters from the U.S. on a card in Bayamon, Puerto Rico?

Your guess is as good as mine. But that's where the Showtime Championship Boxing card this Saturday is being held. Despite rosy reports on ticket sales from Golden Boy Promotions, Boxingscene.com's David Greisman reported on Monday that there were actually a great many seats still available at Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez.

Danny Garcia Vs. Mauricio Herrera, 12 Rounds, Junior Welterweight

While the location may not be ideal, especially considering Garcia (27-0, 16 KOs) is the legitimate 140-pound champ and has not fought in PHILLY BABY! (That's how they say it, who am I to judge) for four years, it's the opponent has left many feeling significantly less than enthusiastic. Herrera (20-3, 7 KOs) has done absolutely nothing to earn a shot at the champion, and is at least a full tier (or two) below Garcia in terms experience, skill, and talent. The Riverside, Calif. fighter has a win over Ruslan Provodnikov to give him some legitimacy, but that fight was in January 2011, and I think it's safe to say that Provodnikov has improved since then. Herrera's two recent fights of note are decision losses to Mike Alvarado and Karim Mayfield.

I was skeptical of Garcia until his last fight when he effectively neutralized the brick-fisted Lucas Matthysse, outworking and outpunching him down the stretch. Garcia has deceptive hand speed and his left hook, when thrown in combination or as a lead is a beauty. We should also not forget that he has an ace up his sleeve in father/trainer Angel. For all of Angel Garcia's bombastic frothing at the mouth, he has shown himself to be a solid tactician who knows how to get his son ready for big fights. The question in my mind is will Danny fight down to the level of his competition? If so, we'll have an ugly bout. However, if Garcia has eliminated this habit, expect a blow out. Herrera is nowhere near Garcia in terms of talent, skill, and experience.

Pick: Garcia by dominant UD, maybe late stoppage.

Deontay Wilder Vs. Malik Scott, 12 Rounds, Heavyweight

In another step up fight for the "Bronze Bomber," Wilder (30-0, 30 KOs) will take on perennial PHILLY BABY! prospect Malik Scott. Scott (36-1-1, 13 KOs) is one fight removed from his (ahem) early stoppage loss to Derek Chisora. At 33, and 14 years into his career (minus a break from 2008-2012 to recovery from a bicep injury), Scott needs a good showing to avoid being relegated to opponent status, which is pretty odd when you think about it.

This will actually be an important test for Wilder. Scott is a well-rounded fighter with underrated technique and decent foot speed. Wilder has never been past four rounds, and Scott is skilled enough to make it into the later rounds. If the 11-foot tall Wilder (he's actually 6'7" with an albatross like 84" reach) is unable to poleax Scott early, as he has done to a series of tomato cans and has-beens, any shakiness in his endurance will show up. Wilder is not a fundamentally sound boxer. His technique is rudimentary, his balance is awful, and he throws one punch at a time. In short, he does damn near everything wrong. But sweet Christ on a cracker can that guy punch.

Pick: Wilder by mid rounds KO. If Chisora could drop Scott for nine, Wilder can drop him for a full 10.

Juan Manuel Lopez Vs. Daniel Ponce De Leon, 10 rounds, Junior Lightweight

Now we get to an actual Mexico-Puerto Rico fight. It's just a fight that I wish wasn't happening. In the nearly six years since JuanMa Lopez brutally stopped Daniel Ponce De Leon in the first round, Ponce De Leon (45-5, 35 KOs) and his utterly biblical rat tail have gone 11-3 and though having slowed, he's not terribly faded. In the exact same time frame, Lopez (33-3, 30 KOs) has gone 12-3, but in his last six fights he is 3-3, and all three losses have been brutal beatings. Lopez, of Caguas, Puerto Rico looked so shot against Mikey Garcia that I was not alone in hoping he would retire. Expect a war. Despite his advantages, Ponce De Leon is there to be hit and JuanMa can punch. The only problem is that will only keep Ponce De Leon off of him long enough to extend his beating.

Pick: Ponce De Leon by mid rounds stoppage.

2014-03-14T07:11:36+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/rivalry-week-previews-and-predictions-for-danny-garcia-vs-mauricio-herrera-card.html
Throwback Thursday: Benny Leonard Snags Freddie Welsh's Title http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/benny-leonard-snags-freddie-welsh-s-title.html



Times have changed, needless to say, but though the popularity of heavyweights has waned in recent years, the little scrappers still find it difficult to earn top billing. 

Many boxing fans are either too young to remember but for eras on end  the heavyweight champion was not only the proverbial "baddest man on the planet," but he was often among the most famous or easily identified. It was rare indeed that a smaller fighter could step into that world of celebrity. 

On May 28, 1917, "The Ghetto Wizard" Benny Leonard took a huge step toward achieving exactly that. 

When fighting once per month is not only common, but expected, fighters learn how to eat losses and move on. Mickey Finnegan, an unheralded 1-1 (1 KO) fighter, knew about that and taught it to Leonard in his professional debut with a TKO victory in three rounds over the future legend.

Before one year had gone by, Leonard had three more stoppage losses under his belt. Then the bustling New York fight scene hardened the maturing fighter, turning him into the man that only lost to Johnny Dundee, Freddie Welsh and Johnny Kilbane -- all greats in their own right. 

In two prior fights against Welsh, Leonard couldn't find a clear, title-winning victory over the aptly named Welshman. However The Repository, among other publications, referred to Leonard as not only the best lightweight in the world (despite his lack of a title), but the "American lightweight title-holder." He had proven himself a worthy, improved fighter and now he needed the hardware to back the claim up. 

In a land of endless veterans, Welsh was indeed experienced, but long in the tooth. With over 150 bouts on his ledger, ring wear and tear had begun to clearly slow "The Welsh Wizard" down, and he went into the fight having lost newspaper decisions in his previous three bouts, including one apiece to Rocky Kansas and Kilbane. 

Losses to the upper echelon weren't the issue, though. Defeats and near-defeats to relative novices Richie Mitchell, Buck Fleming and Eddie Wallace just few fights earlier were.  

Stateside, few publications seemed keen on either picking Welsh to best Leonard or rooting for him to do so. For instance, The Oregonian bemoaned Welsh's style: "The studied clinching of the Briton is all that enables him to obstruct the wheels of progress and cling to the lightweight title long after he has ceased to be the best man of his class." 

The Watertown Daily Times also beamed about Leonard before the fight, reporting, "[Leonard's] punch is no fluke. It carries sleeping potion with it, and Leonard can put it over in a flash. Crafty as Welsh is, he will find Leonard on top of him in their coming battle, seeking the one chance to land. If Welsh fights he will be in more danger than if he uses his pet stalling tactics, and because Leonard is clever, because he has mastered ringcraft, there are some who believe he will knock Welsh out." 

To make oddsmaking matters worse, after having beaten Welsh in early May, Kilbane said, "Eventually the lightweight title will be turned over to Benny Leonard, I believe, and if such will be the case, I will take Leonard on, for I know I can beat him." 

Betting odds out of New York had Leonard a 7-to-5 favorite to win on points, and a 5-to-9 that Leonard would win by stoppage.  

There was a last minute wrangle over the appointment of Billy Roche as referee, as Leonard's manager Billy Gibson protested the decision. Roche had been involved in Welsh's defense over Charley White at the Ramona Athletic Club in Colorado Springs, which saw a large section of the makeshift arena fail, killing two spectators and injuring hundreds. Moving past the horror, the two men fought, with White getting the better of the action according to most, yet Roche awarded the decision to Welsh. Instead both parties compromised, choosing former lightweight title challenger Kid McPartland. 

Using savvy and occasional awkwardness, Welsh began well in round 1, keeping the charging Leonard at a distance before being forced to go defensive in rounds 2 and 3. Rather than his usual clinching and turning, Welsh put on an impressive display of blocking and parrying for sequences at a time, but couldn't much offensive momentum. 

His right hand always at the ready, Leonard used his left to work his way in and continue being the aggressor. Welsh found moments to strike back in the middle rounds, pushing Leonard back briefly before being overwhelmed by the younger, stronger man. The combination of being endlessly stung and frustrated gnawed at whatever shell Welsh had left until Leonard saw his opportunity and took it. 

United Press correspondent H.C. Hamilton described round 9 as such: "The ninth round was furiously fast, when Leonard started the whirlwind that brought the old champion down. Welsh started into a clinch. Using his right hand almost for the first time in the bout, Leonard crossed behind the champion's guard. Welsh ducked, but he was too late. The smashing power of the mauling fist caught him on the temple. Welsh tried vainly to stagger into a clinch. Leonard slipped away and his left crushed square onto Welsh's chin. Welsh sagged until his knees touched the floor. He finally went down, one hand clinging to the ropes in Leonard's corner. He arose, both hands on the ropes, his head unprotected. A dozen times the flailing fists of the eager challenger crashed into Welsh's chin. Gamely the Britisher stood it. Kid McPartland, the referee, looked appealingly to Welsh's corner, but the sponge was not forthcoming. McPartland mercifully stepped in and ended it."

Welsh found himself caught in the ropes and nearly unconscious and a sea of people flooded the ring, celebrating their newly-crowned American lightweight champion. 

"I felt in my heart I would be the lightweight champion tonight," said Leonard afterwards. "I never lost that conviction. I am happy beyond words that I have brought the lightweight title back to America. I want to pay tribute to Welsh. He is a good, game fellow, and I am only sorry that I had to climb over him to victory."

A disappointed Welsh said during his post-fight interview, "I protest the action of the referee as I feel that I did not get a fair deal. There never was a championship decided without a man getting a count."

It would be Welsh's last fight for over three years, and he would only fight six times more, going 4-1-1 (3 KO). At 31 and a lightweight, his career was all but over going into the fight, yet he found a way to make it a difficult one anyway.

In the mark of a true crossroads encounter, Leonard announced immediately after the bout that he would enlist in the U.S. Army following his next fight. He followed through, becoming a boxing and close combat fighting instructor, but boxed exhibitions and pro bouts to benefit different armed services funds during U.S. involvement in World War I. 

Leonard would stay unbeaten until 1922, save for a newspaper defeat in four rounds to Willie Ritchie, and rise to be a national hero to many, and holds a special place in Jewish boxing history. To date, he remains one of the best lightweights ever. 

2014-03-13T15:04:45+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/benny-leonard-snags-freddie-welsh-s-title.html
The Week's Boxing Schedule, Featuring Danny Garcia, Deontay Wilder And Tomasz Adamek http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/the-week-s-boxing-schedule-featuring-danny-garcia-deontay-wilder-and-tomasz-adamek.html


Anyway, enough about squirrels, let's talk about humans fighting. There are a few of them doing it this weekend. They include Danny Garcia, Deontay Wilder, Daniel Ponce De Leon, Michael Katsidis and Tony Bellew. I was going to put 52-fight Polish heavyweight veteran Tomasz Adamek in that list, but I'm not entirely sure he's human.

  • Danny Garcia vs. Mauricio Herrera, Saturday, Showtime, Bayamon Puerto Rico. No one is picking Herrera (20-3, 7 KO) in this junior welterweight fight, and for good reason. Garcia (27-0, 16 KO) is just on another level. The undercard has an intriguing heavyweight fight, between Americans Deontay Wilder (30-0, 30 KO) and Malik Scott (36-1-1, 13 KO). Wilder is undoubtedly heavy handed, but Scott, who was no doubt picked because of his own lack of pop, will be easily the best opponent of his career. Indeed, he's much more skilled than the crude Tuscaloosan. But I still think Wilder is going to do to Scott what he's done to everyone else he's ever met in the ring, and knock him out in short order. The final fight on the televised car is perhaps the most mismatched, with hardcase junior lightweight veteran Daniel Ponce De Leon (45-5, 35 KO) fighting former top prospect turned chinless wonder Juan Manuel Lopez (33-3, 30 KO) in a rematch of their 2008 fight (which Lopez won by KO). My how the tables have turned; many now consider it a fight bordering on ritual sacrifice.
  • Tomasz Adamek vs. Vyacheslav Glazkov, Saturday, NBC Sports Net, Bethlehem Pa. This fight had been scheduled to happen in November last year, but  unfortunately Adamek (49-2, 29 KO) withdrew ill and Glazkov (16-0-1, 11 KO) went on to get an unimpressive decision win over Garret Wilson. Fortunately for me, that means I can reuse my preview and prediction from then: "What matters is that this is going to be a really fun fight. Neither man is particularly large or hard-punching for a heavyweight, but neither is the shy and retiring type, either. Adamek, I suspect, has the edge in skills, but Glazkov is no slouch, with over 200 amateur fights to his name. Glazkov will likely come forward, firing lead rights and left hooks while Adamek jabs and exchanges in spurts. I think Adamek probably has it, but he’s been challenged by all his most recent opponents, so who know, maybe Glazkov will be the one to knock him off his perch." On the undercard you've got light heavyweights Denis Grachev (13-2-1, 8 KO) and Isaac Chilemba (21-2-2, 9 KO) in an intriguing pure puncher vs. pure boxer match-up.
  • The Rest. Friday brings fights from Florida on Telemundo, headlined by Puerto Rican junior featherweight Jonathan Oquendo (23-3, 16 KO) against Guillermo Avila (12-1, 9 KO)... Meanwhile in Australia should-be-retired junior welterweight Michael Katsidis is fighting on. Tell me when it's over... Mexican featherweight vet Fernando Montiel (50-4-2, 38 KO) is fighting fellow Mexican featherweight vet Cristobal Cruz (40-14-3, 24 KO) in, you guessed it, Mexico, on Saturday night on UniMas... Finally there are fights in England, with light heavyweight Tony Bellew (20-2-1, 12 KO) fighting Valery Brudov (41-4, 28 KO).
2014-03-11T20:45:48+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/the-week-s-boxing-schedule-featuring-danny-garcia-deontay-wilder-and-tomasz-adamek.html
Quick Jabs: Fake Floyd Mayweather Polls; Various Thrown Fight Suspicions; More http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/quick-jabs-fake-floyd-mayweather-polls-various-thrown-fight-suspicions-more.html

Thrown fights in boxing in the past decade or so have been hard to prove; many things that might look thrown can't be certified as such, and often we get just wisps of evidence or allegations from one source who is not as credible as we'd like. That one above from last year, via Ryan Bivins? It don't pass the eyeball test, not even a little.

In this edition of Quick Jabs, we'll talk more of the thrown fight ilk twice more below. We'll also talk the other subject in the headline; the magical powers of Al Haymon; things HBO is doing or should be; and a few items besides.

Quick Jabs

Turns out the FBI thought Muhammad Ali-Sonny Liston ONE was thrown. Not TWO, which many people think was. This would be an awfully big deal, since the first Cassius Clay-Liston bout is one of the most iconic moments in sports history. On one level, Liston's mob connections have always been a cause for reasonable doubt. On another level, the FBI had all kinds of cockamamie ideas in those years, and since Ali was moments away from out and out quitting the fight due to being blinded from some agent that was apparently on Liston's gloves, and while there's no evidence Ali was "in on it," it makes you wonder why anyone would go to the trouble of cheating in the opposite direction if it was all predetermined on Liston's end. I'm more willing to debate that the rematch was thrown than the original, although I lean "no" on that one, too. Until something more definitive comes along, I'll believe that Ali flustered Liston and outboxed him so severely that Liston, a bully, didn't want any more...

Next comes an allegation about the trainer-manager of Peter McNeeley betting $1 million that he wouldn't last 90 seconds against Mike Tyson. The allegation comes from another boxing manager, Charles Farrell. Farrell represented some real names, among them Leon Spinks and Mitch "Blood" Green, so he's not a full nobody. He also has talked about his willingness to fix fights in the past. He is not someone whose proclamations on this matter we can, by my eye, completely dismiss. But it's worth noting that in the case of Tyson-McNeeley, his allegation amounts to hearsay. And that the 89 seconds in which it was stopped was cutting it awfully close. And McNeeley didn't go nuts toward his corner over the stoppage. It's also not clear to me why we're only hearing about this now. It's enough, however, to make you, at minimum, wonder, especially since the stoppage by McNeeley's corner, even by the standards of recent raised awareness, was early...

From allegedly fixed fights to allegedly fixed polls: Floyd Mayweather and his adviser Leonard Ellerbe have explained why they ignored the results of the poll on Mayweather's site that had the public voting for him to face Amir Khan in his May welterweight Showtime pay-per-view over Marcos Maidana. Ya see, all the other results pointed to Maidana as the people's pick. Good explanation, right? Doesn't exactly explain why the Mayweather website poll was the one that was out of line with all the others, though, does it? The poll that Mayweather controlled was the one that had Khan winning. You do the math...

Antonio Tarver is the latest ex-great to fall on hard times, what with him getting the mugshot 'n' TMZ treatment thanks to an arrest over a gambling debt. Reportedly, it's not the only gambling debt he has, and that's why he's still boxing. Guess who helped him get out of jail? Adviser Al Haymon, whose magical boxing powers are legend...

So maybe light heavyweight Chad Dawson and welterweight Luis Collazo are hoping to benefit from the mystical voodoo of Haymon, since they've signed with him. Might as well. Dawson needs all the help he can get to reestablish himself, while Collazo has done himself some favors in that regard with the win over Victor Ortiz and surely it can't hurt to get a little extra push. Collazo is talking about wanting Khan, a reasonable fight for both men at this point assuming the more attractive Khan-Adrien Broner fight can't be made for the Mayweather-Maidana undercard...

Speaking of "push": Another ex-great, Pernell Whitaker, recently won a court battle with his elderly mother to force her out of the house he bought her. You want to try and give people the benefit of the doubt when you like or admire them, and when the court rules in favor of that person you're inclined to think there might be some validity to the argument, but when Whitaker's reaction to dumping his mom on the street is that the court victory was a "beautiful moment," you no longer want to give them that honor...

HBO is going to air Carl Froch-George Groves II in May. Good. One presumes the British super middleweight fight wasn't too expensive a purchase, which ought to make it so any lower rating is forgivable. The American fans who saw the first one will appreciate it, and the winner will be ripe for champion Andre Ward. Also in HBO "why not air it even though the ratings would be low" suggestions, HBO's Harold Lederman recently suggested the network should air a bout with flyweight Roman Gonzalez. I totally agree. I know the little guys don't do big ratings, but they also come pretty cheap, and anyone who saw Gonzalez would enjoy what they witnessed, right?...

Super middleweight/omniweight Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. did nearly 1.4 million viewers for his HBO rematch with Bryan Vera, a very good figure that will probably hold up as one of the better of 2014, especially with Canelo Alvarez and Miguel Cotto and even Chavez's next fight along with some other big names all set for pay-per-view this year. Congrats to you, Chavez, for having the last name you were born with!...

From the same broadcast, featherweight Vasyl Lomachenko has done some reflection on his loss to Orlando Salido and is pointing the finger squarely at himself. I like it. It's true that Salido's weight advantage and his low blows had an impact on the outcome of the fight, but it's also true that Lomachenko was, as he said, too conservative with his offense in the bout. This kind of accurate self-critique can only help him going forward, and bucks the notion that he's too arrogant to win a big one soon. His promoter, Bob Arum, was talking about matching him with Evgeny Gradovich soon. As much as I admire Lomachenko's ambition, this strikes me as a bad move (although, worth noting, it was something Arum was talking about before the Salido loss). Gradovich is very much like a younger Salido, a bruising, awkward guy who beats you up. Don't do it, Vasyl, at least not for another year or so...

The fathers of Floyd Mayweather (Floyd Sr.) and Robert Guerrero (Ruben) say they're going to have a boxing match. It's just pub for their reality show, I'm guessing. Whoever loses, America wins. Hurray for bullshit.

2014-03-10T08:22:19+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/quick-jabs-fake-floyd-mayweather-polls-various-thrown-fight-suspicions-more.html
Weekend Afterthoughts On The Canelo Alvarez Stoppage Win (Again), Dusty Hernandez-Harrison's ... http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/weekend-afterthoughts-on-the-canelo-alvarez-stoppage-win-again-dusty-hernandez-harrison-s-performance-more.html

Whatever complaints you had about the Canelo Alvarez-Alfredo Angulo pay-per-view, Jesus Soto Karass didn't care. He was having a good shirtless time in Las Vegas.

Oh but you had complaints. I did too, I did too. We'll revisit the appropriateness of some of them, and contemplate what's next for Canelo, what went wrong for Angulo, what a couple D.C.-area prospects were up to and more.

  • How good Canelo is. If you want to look like a boxing savant, fight Alfredo Angulo. If you want to look like a boxing idiot, fight Floyd Mayweather. The truth about Alvarez, based on his showing against his last two opponents and overall, is that he's actually pretty good. Yes, Angulo was in poor form on Showtime PPV Saturday night. But Canelo showed off some excellent qualities -- defense, speed, power, versatility. Outside of Angulo and Mayweather, Canelo has very little experience at just age 23 against top-10 contender-level opposition. But even if you thought Austin Trout deserved the win against Canelo (I think you're wrong), Saul Alvarez at minimum held his own with someone who was a top junior middleweight at the time. I do not think Alvarez is some kind of exceptional talent or someone likely to crack any credible pound-for-pound top 10 soon, maybe not ever. But he's gotten better than I ever thought he could when I first laid eyes on him. Can he get better still? I don't see why not. He pulled a nifty trick at one point that you don't do if you suck: He parried an Angulo body shot and with the same hand and in the same motion, came up with an uppercut. Pretty sure I used to do that in the Fight Night games.
  • Next for Canelo. Golden Boy is at least expressing openness to matching Canelo with Erislandy Lara, his natural next opponent on competitive merits if not commercial ones. Lara, continuing a streak of belligerently demanding fights -- because he might as well -- confronted Canelo at the post-fight press conference. Lara, though, is lined up to fight Ishe Smith in May, the night before Floyd Mayweather's next one, because Lara's pining for Mayweather, too. I don't figure Lara gets Canelo in July, then, if at all. The 5'9" Canelo might be struggling to make 154, since he bought from Angulo the privilege to come in at 155 this past weekend. And he's had his eye on the winner between middleweight champion Sergio Martinez and Miguel Cotto, a fight with all kinds of commercial appeal -- and that might be makeable even though both men fight on HBO these days because neither of them are wedded to Top Rank, which refuses to bring its fighters to Showtime. That means Canelo might have an argument for ducking Lara indefinitely. 
  • Tony Weeks on the stoppage. Referee Tony Weeks is standing by his decision to halt the fight, which remains the right call, and I'm glad he has the right attitude about it, because he shouldn't be bullied by boos into letting fights like this one go longer next time. He was rightly sympathetic to the complaints of Angulo, whose job it is to keep fighting at all costs, but has the proper perspective on what his job is as the referee: to protect the fighters. How anyone would think this was some kind of favor to Canelo is beyond me. Canelo didn't need any help winning that fight. There was no sign that Angulo was about to win, only evidence that he was going to take another two and a half rounds of punishment. And Weeks has seen, in a bout he officiated, what can happen in fights much like this one.
  • Canelo post-fight bombardment, the crowd. Not long ago I kind of laughed at Adrien Broner getting pelted with various objects after his loss to Marcos Maidana as a vivid manifestation of fans' hatred of Broner and his villain schtick. It's not something fans should be doing, though, to anyone. Pelting Canelo for the stoppage (as if it was his fault) and/or beating Angulo? I love a lot of boxing fans, and their passion makes a live fight an exhilarating experience. But some of them are fucking horrible. As for the size of the crowd: Canelo-Angulo, for all the complaints about the PPV-worthiness of the show, still brought in a hefty live audience of more than 14,000. How much that might translate into PPV sales, I don't know, although it's usually a positive indicator.
  • Victor Conte on Angulo. The biggest drug cheat in sports history said before the fight that Angulo would have improved foot speed as the result of working with his partner Remi Korchemny (and Angulo had been hanging with Conte, too). I think we saw how that worked out for Angulo. Laughable. Trainer/promoter/nutritionist types of all shades have a history of making promises they can't keep. But I do wonder when people are going to stop buying what this particular snake oil salesman is peddling.
  • Canelo-Angulo stoppage vs. undercard fights. Our man Sam Sheppard had this exchange about how the same standard by which Canelo-Angulo was stopped could've applied as well to other fights, including those on the undercard. Jorge Linares and Leo Santa Cruz did indeed land a great many of their power shots as well. I don't personally subscribe to the "Angulo wasn't going to win anyway" justification. The only standard should be fighter safety. Once upon a time the legendarily controversial Meldrick Taylor stoppage in his Julio Cesar Chavez, Sr. fight bothered me. These days, I look at it with kinder eyes. The power shots Canelo was landing were connecting flusher those being landed by Santa Cruz, and the Linares shots were less powerful. When Arakawa was in there with a bigger puncher, against Omar Figueroa, I thought that fight should've been stopped rather than going the full 12, too. 
  • Next for Leo Santa Cruz. I've taken to cheering on guys who call out fighters with no regard for promotional allegiance. I have become convinced that only when fans stop accepting the promotional Cold War as an incontrovertible fact will the promoters feel the heat they need to feel to end this stupid feud. So when Santa Cruz says he wants to fight junior featherweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux, I admire him by that reasoning and by another standard, too: Rigo is a tough out, and Santa Cruz wanting that challenge -- and saying he wants it because he wants to be considered the best in his division -- makes him that much more awesome. I'm good if Rigo fights Carl Frampton next because that's a damn good fight. But Santa Cruz-Rigo is more appealing to me after Santa Cruz showed for once he could deal with movement (asterisk for it being Mijares' movement with old bones).
  • Carlos Molina and prison. There was some debate the past week over the gravity of the crime that put junior middleweight Carlos Molina in prison and off the Canelo-Angulo PPV, back when we were getting conflicting versions of events. His promoter, Leon Margules, said the then 18-year-old Molina had sex with his then 15-16 year old girlfriend, leading to a conviction for second degree sexual assault on a child. This is a more defensible kind of high school senior/high school sophomore kind of thing, the kind of criminal offense that happens routinely around America with the 18-year-old becoming a "sex offender" usually only when the girlfriend's family decides they don't like the boyfriend. You can get into a fuzzy debate about the appropriateness of the laws here, and one can make legitimate arguments that there is indeed something disturbing about that kind of sexual encounter, but it's obvious that we're dealing with a lower level sex offender in these cases than a full-fledged rapist or child molester. Unfortunately for everyone involved, Margules appears to have gotten the details wrong. The Las Vegas Review-Journal got ahold of the arrest report, and the girl, it turns out, was just 13. Although the nature of Molina's conviction points toward a situation where Molina didn't intimidate or force, the description of events doesn't sound wholly consensual either. In a sport where light heavyweight champ Adonis Stevenson did some far more evil things in his youth, perhaps one can chalk Molina's behavior up to mistakes of the past -- but the arrest report sounds like it settles whether this is the kind of thing we should look at as a technical violation of the law, a rather innocent one as originally described, or the truth: a far uglier incident. Oh, and at minimum, it sounds like he handled his sex offender registration/deportation issues stupidly, so that makes it doubly hard to be sympathetic.
  • Mike Reed and Dusty Hernandez-Harrison. I'd hoped to make it to Rosecroft Raceway Friday night to watch junior welterweight prospect Mike Reed in action again, but it didn't work out. Accounts by Gautham Nagesh and David Greisman suggest he did well. His fellow D.C.-area prospect, Dusty Hernandez-Harrison, got dropped Friday night, as detailed by our Matthew Swain. I've said it will be hard to judge the 19-year-old Hernandez-Harrison until he is a full-grown man, but this is the second time the welterweight has been dropped by low-level opposition, and it's a worrisome trend. To his credit, he is tough-minded and he is smart, and fought well after going down, but while you can't discount him entirely as a prospect for things like this, it's also difficult to be too bullish.
2014-03-10T08:07:29+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/weekend-afterthoughts-on-the-canelo-alvarez-stoppage-win-again-dusty-hernandez-harrison-s-performance-more.html
Round And Round, Featuring What's Next For Nonito Donaire, Katsunari Takayama And Others http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/round-and-round-featuring-what-s-next-for-nonito-donaire-katsunari-takayama-and-others.html

Allegedly Floyd Mayweather is into kidnapping now, especially if you steal his pretty pretty earrings. Quick, someone make a photoshopped picture of Manny Pacquiao giving Liam Neeson's "I will find you and I will kill you" speech to Mayweather!

Allegedly. The only news outlet I can find to have covered the story with original reporting is TMZ, which doesn't mean the story is false, but TMZ has something of a history, and stories that aren't duplicated are sometimes wrong. A local Fox news station in Michigan said a local news station in Nevada had remarks from police, but that station doesn't have anything on its website. Showtime's Stephen Espinoza said this. Mayweather's camp is saying nothing.

Would I put it past Mayweather to do something like this? Nah, sadly. And if he did it, who knows how it might affect his planned May pay-per-view welterweight bout against Marcos Maidana. That's a roundabout way of getting to the point of this column: What fights are in the works, when and where are they going to happen, etc. 

Besides the men in the headline, we'll discuss ESPN's big-deal pick-up of Bermane Stiverne-Chris Arreola II, and what guys like Peter Quillin, Abner Mares, Gennady Golovkin, Matthew Macklin and others are up to these days.

Round And Round

ESPN has reportedly paid around half a million dollars to air the heavyweight rematch between Bermaen Stiverne and Chris Arreola. Holy. And according to ESPN's Dan Rafael, who broke the story, ESPN hopes to do this three to four times a year. ESPN is in nearly 100 million homes and it's airing a fight of that caliber -- a bout that could be a co-feature on pay-cable networks and boxing industry giants HBO or Showtime. This could be a big deal. I also daresay they've chosen wisely about what kind of fight they're airing, too; Stiverne-Arreola I was pretty good.

Meanwhile, HBO has had some rough developments to start the year. The latest is junior lightweight Mikey Garcia and Top Rank turning their nose up at Yuriorkis Gamboa, the most marketable bout at 130 for Garcia. Garcia claims that Gamboa is asking for 50 percent more than him, which, if true, is a ludicrous demand, but who knows if it's true. So Garcia's promoter, Bob Arum, is talking about taking Garcia over to China to fight Takashi Uchiyama. It might be a negotiating bluff, but whether HBO wants it or not, I do. Uchiyama-Garcia is the most competitive fight in the division, and it would begin a new championship lineage via the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board. On one level, Arum's relative TV-independence is a good thing; but his cantankerous streak (is there a network he hasn't fucked over super-hard?) makes it so you don't want a monoculture dependent on him. Case in point.

More HBO rough business: the bout between light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson and Andrzej Fonfara still isn't finalized for May, and with Stevenson having recently joined up with Golden Boy pal Al Haymon, it's fueling speculation that Stevenson will shortly move over to Showtime, another Golden Boy pal. That would be bad news for the most appealing fight in the whole sport for hardcores, Stevenson-Sergey Kovalev. Stevenson insists the Fonfara fight will happen, but in his last interview about the subject, the letters "HBO" didn't come up, at least that made it into a story.

Speaking of championship lineages: #2 strawweight Hekkie Budler is hopeful of lining up a bout with #1 Katsunari Takayama, because, why the fuck not? It's not like there are all these megafights in the strawweight division. Budler-Takayama is a great fight. Make it happen.

Other little dudes: Rad flyweight Juan Francisco Estrada is taking a bout in April against undefeated/unheralded Joebert Alvarez before looking to face Giovani Segura this summer. I love that fight, don't get me wrong, but I don't love this Alvarez fight getting in the way of it, then making it so we have to wait even longer for the winner of Estrada-Segura to fight Roman Gonzalez.

For the time being, self-destructive weight class nomad Nonito Donaire appears to be staying put at featherweight, lining up Simpiwe Vetyeka for May, presumably on HBO, although who knows with how things are going with HBO and Donaire promoter Top Rank (Top Rank's Arum is also getting testy about a June junior welterweight showdown between Ruslan Provodnikov and Antonio DeMarco that HBO is lukewarm about). Donaire-Vetyeka is a solid match-up. Donaire as usual has all the physical advantages, but Vetyeka is a rough and tumble authentic 126-pounder, and it's not clear whether Donaire is authentic at the weight.

Not sure what's up with Abner Mares, but he's playing Hamlet lately. First, abetted by some injuries, he moved away from a featherweight rematch with Jhonny Gonzalez. Now, he's balking at a junior lightweight bout with Takashi Miura. And lately he's taken to talking up a bout with junior featherweight Leo Santa Cruz, who's with Golden Boy rival Top Rank. Since I consider Mares more of a junior featherweight than a featherweight and especially than a junior lightweight, and since Mares-Santa Cruz is the most appealing bout from an aesthetic standpoint, I would rather have that one.

Same as I don't think top middleweight Gennady Golovkin should have to move up to 168, I don't think super middleweight champ Andre Ward should have to move up to 175. But both have issues with their philosophy on this. In the most recent edition of ESPN2's Friday Night Fights, Ward was saying he didn't need to go up to light heavyweight -- the available super middleweights just needed to fight him. OK. But if they don't (and right now, they aren't)? We have a problem. Likewise, his trainer Virgil Hunter is right that Golovkin is "picking and choosing" who he wants to fight if he moves up to 168. Ward would be down to face GGG. GGG's team keeps saying, why should we move up to 168? We'll stay at 160. But they're willing to for Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. I get it; Chavez brings more money than Ward, probably, and is a more winnable fight. But yeah, the notion that GGG's team is spinning that he'll fight anyone from 154-175, it's pretty clear he's not so bold. The best fighters are willing to take the top challenges where they're available, and right now neither Ward nor Golovkin are doing that.

HBO's decision to cancel the April 26 date in Madison Square Garden thanks to the GGG-? fight falling through due to the death of GGG's father hurts the chances of an all-Irish middleweight clash between Matthew Macklin and Andy Lee. It's an appealing style clash and the ethnic grudge element gave it real appeal. Too bad. Macklin, ultimately, would rather face Felix Sturm anyway. That fight, too, makes sense, given how close the first fight was.

Now, Anthony Crolla-John Murray? That's an all-U.K. bout that's nothing but awesome, and signs point to it happening in April. Book it as one of those Fight of the Year-style match-ups that you'll want to find a stream for if you're in the United States, or hope that somebody like AWE or ESPN3 finds a home for the lightweight battle.

While Kubrat Pulev waits for a shot at heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, he could face Dereck Chisora. Pulev is a shaky #1 heavyweight and Chisora has righted his ship, so it's a risky bout but a desirable one. I'd thought Pulev was next in line via alphabet belt politics, but apparently he needs to get by Chisora first. 

Next up for some mid-to-late-tier welterweights: Shawn Porter is set to face off with Paulie Malignaggi in a nice match-up on Showtime in April, where the winner would face Brit Kell Brook, who is taking yet another low-level bout while waiting for somebody big, what with domestic rival Amir Khan looking in the direction of Adrien Broner or someone else in the United States. This bolsters the card featuring "meh" light heavyweight fight between Bernard Hopkins and Beibut Shumenov the same night. It also bolsters the downright crappy meeting on that card between middleweight Peter Quillin and Lucas Kocencny. I won't be in town that weekend but the more they pump up that so-so card the more I wish I'd be here in Washington, D.C. for that one.

For the May undercard featuring a super middleweight rematch between Carl Froch and George Groves, there's talk of top lightweight Miguel Vazquez facing Kevin Mitchell. He can fight, Vazquez can, but there's no less watchable a fighter in the sport, I reckon. The only thing Vazquez-Mitchell can do for that card is Mitchell knocking him right out, I suppose, and despite the resurgence Mitchell has had of late, it doesn't seem likely.

Rocky Martinez had talked about facing the winner of Terence Crawford-Ricky Burns, that being Crawford. Now that he's moved up to lightweight and is booked to face Raymundo Beltran, I wouldn't get too excited about the possibility of Martinez getting Crawford. Beltran is a handful, and big for the weight.

As crappy as Kovalev's next fight is, as much as people have dissed Thomas Dulorme-Karim Mayfield at 140 for that undercard later this month on HBO, I like it. Mayfield, who is skilled, can be enjoyable against the right opposition, and Dulorme can be powerful against same. I'm not sure whether Dulorme is going to make Mayfield look good or vice versa, but I do like the match-up.

Ballyhooed featherweight prospect Oscar Valdez is set to step up significantly against Dat Nguyen in April, somewhere on the undercard of the HBO PPV welterweight headliner Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley II. I'd like it if that one made some kind of broadcast. Nguyen is limited as hell but he's much better than anyone Valdez has ever faced.

(Round And Round sources: BoxingScene, ESPN, RingTV, press releases)

2014-03-10T08:05:00+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/round-and-round-featuring-what-s-next-for-nonito-donaire-katsunari-takayama-and-others.html
Canelo Alvarez Power Punches Alfredo Angulo Times Infinity http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/canelo-alvarez-power-punches-alfredo-angulo-times-infinity.html

(Alfredo Angulo objects to referee Tony Weeks stopping his fight with Canelo Alvarez; credit: Tom Casino, Showtime)

From the opening seconds of the 1st round until the fight's end -- more on that very soon -- Canelo Alvarez rained down full force, total leverage power shots on Alfredo Angulo of such resounding violence that it was hard to believe Angulo's face wasn't rendered into wet papier mache. Angulo, meanwhile, was slow even by his usual three-toed sloth standards, and there was no oomph to his punches for the vast majority of the fight, it was like he was trying to land half-hugs rather than blows. Referee Tony Weeks saw enough of the Showtime pay-per-view headliner Saturday evening in the 10th round.

The crowd booed Weeks' decision. They should not have. Angulo was still defending himself, certainly, and he was in no special danger at the moment of the stoppage compared to moments before. But his trainer Virgil Hunter told Angulo he would stop it after one more round unless Angulo turned it around, and Showtime's Paulie Malignaggi, among others, suggested going into the 10th that Angulo should be examined closely. Apparently he was, and apparently the doctor didn't like what he saw, and apparently Hunter argued for one more round. But it was evident in that 10th that nothing was going to change, no matter how much Hunter played to the crowd about how Angulo was "coming on." (Hunter has his blind spots, but none bigger than that for Angulo, whom he claims to this day only lost to Erislandy Lara on a thumbing that nobody impartial saw and that it was questionable even could happen.) We witnessed what happened with heavyweight Magomed Abdusalamov late last year in a bout where he took tons of power punches, was still defending himself and there was no "perfect moment" to stop it: coma and permanent neurological damage.

About the fight, then: Those who thought Angulo would be competitive on the strength of his performance with Erislandy Lara, myself among them, were woefully wrong. This Angulo looked nothing like the man who fought Lara. It's not clear why. Perhaps the Lara fight was the straw that broke the camel's back for a junior middleweight who has practiced the "manly art of no defense." Perhaps he overtrained. Perhaps Canelo, by putting him on his back foot, defanged Angulo, as Malignaggi suggested, but that couldn't have been it entirely because on the occasions where Angulo was able to move forward, it's not like he was rocking Canelo's world. Perhaps his critics were right and Angulo was just plain terrible, although the Lara performance debunks that for me; it is true that he has always come up short in the big ones, however. One way or another, something looked wrong with Angulo compared to the version we've seen in the past.

And Canelo was right there to capitalize. He rarely threw anything -- a jab, an overhand right, a sweeping left, uppercuts, body shots -- with a level of commitment below 100 percent. No longer sharing the ring with today's finest pugilist, Floyd Mayweather, and sharing it instead with Mayweather's complete opposite, he was an offensive and defensive juggernaut. After about the 4th, Angulo began to land the occasional hard shot, and Canelo's scuffed face was evidence of it. The 8th was particularly sizzling, with Canelo doing his best shoulder-rolling impersonation of Mayweather along the ropes, a bit of toying that inspired Angulo into some of his fiercest attacks. But even then, even with each man waving the other on in a blood-pumping display of Mexican machismo, it was Canelo who got the better of the exchanges.

The natural next opponent for Canelo is Lara, which presents a thorny dilemma for Showtime. Canelo fancies himself a PPV star, and in this battle of Mexican fighters who offered a sharp contrast -- Angulo the blue collar brawler, Canelo the blue-chip prospect slowly being nurtured into the next Oscar "Golden Boy" De La Hoya -- very well could have broken even or better. Would Canelo-Lara? Hard to imagine how, unless the extremely popular Canelo does massive figures against Angulo, heralding his arrival as a full-fledged PPV supernova. And that doesn't sound likely.

In the end, although it had its moments, this PPV was a disappointment, too. The undercard lost action star Omar Figueroa to an injury; it lost the little-anticipated but evenly matched Carlos Molina-Jermall Charlo to Molina's stint in jail; Canelo came in a pound heavy, reminding too many fans of recent weight high jinks that have soiled various bouts; and only one fight on the main PPV undercard card was competitive at all, Sergio Thompson-Ricardo Alvarez. Some of that was bad luck. Or maybe it was a message.

2014-03-09T10:42:05+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/canelo-alvarez-power-punches-alfredo-angulo-times-infinity.html
Running Undecard Results For Canelo Alvarez Vs. Alfredo Angulo http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/running-undecard-results-for-canelo-alvarez-vs-alfredo-angulo.html

(Leo Santa Cruz catches Cristian Mijares; via)

Keep coming back to this spot for undercard results for the Showtime pay-per-view headlined by junior middleweights Saul Alvarez and Alfredo Angulo. Several bouts of value have fallen off the card, unfortunately, so we'll see what we get from this version of the undercard. We'll go in chronological order:


Due to a prior engagement, I missed the first three rounds of Sergio Thompson's unanimous decision win over Ricardo Alvarez, but nobody seemed to think it was as close as two of the cards, 95-93. The final card of 97-91 was more in the ballpark, most thought. I saw Alvarez won a couple rounds of the lightweight contest, but Thompson won the majority and scored two knockdowns. The older brother of Canelo did put up a fight, trading blows in a macho Mexican showdown. It was good bloody fun. It's probably too soon to say from this what kind of impact Thompson can make at 135 pounds after being a 130-pound contender, albeit a shaky one.


Jorge Linares, an electric talent with a brownout chin, stayed on his feet against human punch sponge Nihito Arakawa, and that's all he needs to do to win fights. With his lead left uppercuts, timing and speed, he avoided Arakawa's charges while dishing out heavy punishment of his own. The two lightweights did engage in a fight that was not quite a slugfest, although at times when Arakawa got close and fired combinations, it resembled one. Midway through the fight, Linares' domination began to dim, and he was getting hit cleanly here and there. This is usually when Linares' chin abandons him, but not this time. Nor did it abandon him when he suffered a late cut due to a head butt, which helped trigger his downfall against Antonio DeMarco. The two men traded punches in the final round and Linares held up. Not sure whether this means Arakawa isn't much of a puncher or Linares has somehow fortified his biggest weakness, but the cards, a near shutout or shutout in all cases, were accurate whatever the cause of Linares staying awake. Linares vs. Omar Figueroa makes sense next; whether Linares can stay on his feet against the man who gave Arakawa an even worse pounding than Linares did -- that's not a sure bet, at all.


There were some (including yours truly) who thought Cristian Mijares, with his veteran savvy and quick feet, could pose Leo Santa Cruz some problems given Santa Cruz's lack of either and his historical difficulty with "movers." Instead, Santa Cruz completely dominated him. One scorecard was 119-109, for some reason; the other two were a proper total shutout of 120-108. When Santa Cruz tried to circle and run, Santa Cruz beat him up. When Mijares tried to trade, Santa Cruz beat him up. When he tried to lead or counter -- you know the drill. Santa Cruz's size and youthful energy were far, far too much for Mijares. Mijares had made a bit of a run at junior featherweight, rebounding from three consecutive losses in 2008 and 2009. But whatever form he showed then either has disappated or Santa Cruz made it so it didn't matter. The talk now is of Santa Cruz-Carl Frampton, a big, big step up for Santa Cruz. That is some fight. Let's have it.

2014-03-09T07:03:33+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/running-undecard-results-for-canelo-alvarez-vs-alfredo-angulo.html
Rustam Nugaev Beats Marvin Quintero (Prematurely) In ESPN2 Main Event http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/rustam-nugaev-beats-marvin-quintero-prematurely-in-espn2-main-event.html In what was shaping up to be an excellent Friday Night Fights main event from Pala, Calif., Rustam Nugaev collected a win via stoppage when Marvin Quintero stayed on his stool after the 4th round with a reportedly injured left hand. The official score cards had the bout even, as did I, but Quintero (25-5, 21 KOs) seemed to be getting the better of many exchanges. Nugaev (27-6-1, 17 KOs) of Perm, Russia was able to trap Quintero along the ropes for long stretches of each round, but Quintero threw sharp counters. Nominally a lightweight bout, the fighters actually weighed in today with a 143 lb. limit as Quintero was unable to make it into the U.S. until this morning. Nugaev looked sluggish at the beginning of the bout but was starting to heat up in the 3rd and 4th rounds.

The obvious next step for both fighters is a rematch.

In the co-feature, bantamweight Roman Morales earned a unanimous decision over the excellently mulleted Khabir Suleymanov by scores of 79-68 (2x) and 80-67. As the scores make plain, it was not a close fight. Morales (18-0, 9 KOs) knocked Suleymanov down five times but was unable to finish him. Suleymanov (16-4, 6 KOs) fights like a man who is genuinely looking forward to being on an all-pudding diet. He is amazingly tough and resilient but has little skill. Morales showed good technique and an attribute that most young fighters lack, patience. At no point in the fight did he appear to be in a hurry and even when he had Suleymanov hurt, there was no special rush. Morales took his time and dominated a very game, if grossly overmatched, opponent. Morales is ready for a step up in competition.

Washington, D.C. welterweight prospect Dusty Hernandez-Harrison (at right) survived some shaky moments and a booming overhand left that dropped him unceremoniously on his ass to out work Michael Balasi and get a unanimous decision in the opening fight. The judges scored it 59-54 (2x) and 60-53. I had it 58-54. Hernandez-Harrison (21-0, 11 KOs) landed the more telling blows and was busier throughout, but was betrayed by his flaws. Balasi (10-4, 7 KOs) was able to catch Hernandez-Harrison cleanly with overhand lefts throughout the fight, but they proved not to be enough. If Hernandez-Harrison is to step up his level of competition he is going to have to learn to move his head, as well as stay on balance. He has a habit of getting too far over his lead foot. At only 19, though, he and his team have plenty of time to iron out these issues.

Rabies Watch: Where to begin? Whether it was talking over Bernardo Osuna, his diatribes about Julio Chavez, Jr. and Alfredo Angulo, or his extremely thinly veiled shots at Quintero, ESPN's Teddy Atlas was in rare form. I don't know if Quintero could have continued, but I tend to give fighters the benefit of the doubt. The only way Teddy could have been more obvious would be to just come out and call the guy a pussy.

Just a tip for the nice folks in Bristol, maybe someone should get Todd Grisham phonetic spellings for fighters names. His butchering of Marcos Maidana was bad. On the upside, Osuna did an excellent job calling the fights with Teddy.

(photo credit: All-In Entertainment)

2014-03-08T10:03:20+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/rustam-nugaev-beats-marvin-quintero-prematurely-in-espn2-main-event.html
A Boy And His Dog: Canelo Alvarez Vs. Alfredo Angulo Preview And Prediction http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/a-boy-and-his-dog-canelo-alvarez-vs-alfredo-angulo-preview-and-prediction.html
This past autumn, across the ring, there stood the greatest boxing technician of his generation. An untouchable defensive wizard. A lightning fast sharpshooter. A stylistic nightmare in a dream bout. A fill-your-pockets purse in exchange for a cash-out curse.
Floyd Mayweather took the sweetness from Saul “Cinnamon” Alvarez’s carefully prepared confection of a career and left a bitter feast for the Mexican’s faithful to swallow. Now, this Saturday night, across the ring stands a Mexican mauler. A canine collar wearing attack dog. A face first fistic bludgeoner. A stylistic remedy for a first loss malady.
For Alvarez, his back to back opponents couldn’t be more different, and he assuredly hopes the outcomes will be equally opposite. When the fight dubbed “Toe to Toe” commences at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas this weekend Alvarez will look to regain his luster against a man, Alfredo Angulo, who offers little in the way of complexity and much in the way of sheer aggression and simplicity.
In the inevitable mystery landscape of a fight not yet fought, one imagines these two junior middleweights alternately in a blazing firefight or a smoldering smokeout that never quite catches flame.
The one predictable factor is Angulo. He is a one man army, marching forward, launching wave after wave of attack with little regard for his own casualties. Perro, “The Dog”, will come after Alvarez and look to terrorize the young man into a claw and scratch affair. If Angulo is the known factor, then the mystery comes in the form of whether or not the Mexican redhead will look to make The Dog roll over by showing him who’s bark is worse, or aim to play master by out braining the bulldog.
Alvarez has the speed and skill to put on a relative boxing clinic similar to what Mayweather did to him late last year. If he isn’t worried about a fan pleasing performance that tack could be his ticket to a safety first night that would preserve his gumption for fighting two more times this year. What could foil that plan and make this fight heat up no matter what is Canelo’s penchant for fighting in spurts and becoming less active over the course of the fight. If Angulo can keep the pressure pounding, he may be able to wilt the younger man’s will and test his fortitude. The complication for Angulo, however, is that while he never stops coming forward and bombarding his opponent with punches, the bite on those blows seems to dull by mid bout. Heaving breaths and weary arm punches replace crisp combos and swarming salvos.
The balance of the two men’s conditioning may tell the tale of the boy and his dog, but if the world is just, we may never get to find out. Angulo will come to throw punches and trade. If Canelo is out to prove something, hot off his first loss, there may not be time to worry about conditioning. One of these two men may be in serious jeopardy early.
Whatever level of aggression he feels compelled to engage at, Alvarez is truly in the driver seat. His better skill, speed and power make it his fight to lose. If he is able to stay focused, he has the speed to punch with precision between Angulo’s slower blows. His more capable footwork will make him tough to corral and his own creative combos will take the often plodding Angulo out of rhythm. For someone who has been cut up often before and suffered a grotesquely swollen eye socket, forcing the end of his last bout, the tough and tenacious Angulo may be forced to dig deep to stay in the fight.
Trainer Virgil Hunter has been teaching the old dog new tricks in camp, however, and has had Angulo spar with speedy junior welterweight notable Amir Kahn., a fighter who’s hands are likely even faster than the mitts Canelo will be tossing his way on Saturday. To prepare for a bigger, more technically sound fighter, Hunter then put his charge in with pound-for-pound shortlister Andre Ward, the current super middleweight champion. That world class sparring and experience for Angulo should have his confidence high and prepare him for his task against Alvarez.
He’ll need it.
It says something when your opponent has more knockouts than you do fights. It says something else entirely when that same opponent is also eight years younger than you. Alvarez enters the ring a comparative youngster at age 23, but a savvy ring veteran of 44 fights, nearly double the number of bouts his 31-year old opponent has participated in. While Canelo has been accused of having an inflated record filled with KO fodder from south of the border, there’s no denying the success he’s continued to have against quality opposition over the last few years. 
With just about every conceivable advantage in one fighter's favor, it’s fair to wonder whether this fight is a worthy pay-per-view purchase for your hard earned dollar. Truth be told, it depends what you value.
There’s a good chance this could be a pretty entertaining fight. Even if Alvarez and his handlers hope this is a glorified tune-up and he chooses to box, Angulo is good enough to make him work more than he wants to. With a determined slugger like that, it’s hard to imagine a dull fight. Angulo has never been in one before.
But if the steep PPV price seems a tough sell to you, this might be a good fight to try out the theater experience that recent Golden Boy fights have offered. In theaters across the country the full four fight card is airing live and will cost you a fraction of the price it would to watch it at home.
Money aside, is the fight worth your time as a boxing fan? I think it is. 
It may be worth the price of admission just to see whether the dog’s bite matches it’s bark, or whether the pup gets put to sleep.
2014-03-07T18:56:13+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/a-boy-and-his-dog-canelo-alvarez-vs-alfredo-angulo-preview-and-prediction.html
Canelo Alvarez Vs. Alfredo Angulo Undercard, Previewed (And The Rest Of The Week’s Boxing ... http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/canelo-alvarez-vs-alfredo-angulo-undercard-previewed-and-the-rest-of-the-week-s-boxing-schedule.html

It's sinister-looking redhead week in boxing (which explains the creepy picture), with Saul "Canelo" Alvarez fighting on pay-per-view against Alfredo Angulo Saturday. As usual during a PPV week, we're going to give the undercard a slightly more detailed preview treatment, as well as look at the rest of the week's fights, such as they are. The Alvarez vs. Angulo undercard is definitely a good one, as PPV undercards go, which may or may not be a reflection of the PPV-worthy status of the main event, we couldn't possibly say (though we can aggressively hint). Jeff Pryor's preview of that fight will be along tomorrow, but let's just jump straight into the rest of it.

Canelo Alvarez Vs. Alfredo Angulo Undercard

  • Leo Santa Cruz vs. Cristian Mijares. The presence of a fight that could upstage the main event is always a good sign on a PPV, and this junior featherweight bout fits the bill. Santa Cruz (26-0-1, 15 KO), a punch-flinging machine who many see as the second coming of Antonio Margarito, is taking his toughest challenge to date against Mexican veteran Mijares (49-7-2, 24 KO). Maybe I'm a sucker (I thought Victor Terrazas would at least challenge Santa Cruz), but I think Mijares at least has the tools to pull the upset here: he's a southpaw, he can box a bit and he can take a punch. That's not to say that I think it's going to happen, but Santa Cruz has shown he can be outfoxed and I'm just waiting for someone to nail him while he's doing his windmill impression.
  • Carlos Molina vs. Jermall Charlo. If you need to grab a beer (or shampoo your cat) during the broadcast, this junior middleweight fight might be the time to do it. That said, it could be kind of interesting in that it's a monumental step up for Charlo (17-0, 13 KO), whose twin brother Jermell passed his first exam against Gabe Rosado in January. Unfortunately, perhaps for both us and Charlo, Molina (22-5-2, 6 KO) is no Rosado, who is something of a professional game loser. Molina is going to maul and hold and bore in on Charlo, whose natural game is to hunt and peck from the outside. If he can maintain some distance and work hard and fast when he's on the inside, then he can win. If not, Molina gonna Molina.
  • Jorge Linares vs. Nihito Arakawa. Consistently fragile Venezualan lightweight Linares (35-3, 23 KO) is on the comeback trail after back to back knockout losses in 2011/12. Smooth on his feet, he can box beautifully from the outside but has had a tendency to get caught with big bombs and go down. Arakawa (24-3-1, 16 KO), an aggressive but relatively limited fighter, has been brought in to make Linares look good. And there's an 80 percent probability he'll jab Arakawa into unrecognisable mush. But with a guy like Linares, that other 20 percent is always going to be there.

The Rest Of The Week’s Boxing Schedule

  • Rustam Nagaev vs. Marvin Quintero, Friday, ESPN2, Pala Calif. Friday Night Fights is on something of a streak, what with their Boxcino tournaments and all, and this fight is no exception. It's just going to be a couple guy with a few losses going for it, no questions asked (which, thinking about it, should be FNF's motto). Russia's Nagaev (26-6-1, 16 KO) is a determined come forward brawler with a bit of skill, while Mexico's Quintero is, uh, a determined come forward brawler with a bit of skill. What's not to like? I don't even care who wins!

The RestShould-be-retired featherweight Jorge Arce is putting on a show on Saturday for Mexicans who don't like Canelo (they exist, trust me). Arce could lose to a stiff breeze these days, but his opponent, Brazils' Aldimar Silva Santos, seems to have lost to a few stiff breezes himself. If this is the kind of thing you're into, it'll be on UniMas... There's also an all Latin American junior flyweight fight in the non-traditional boxing city of Lima, Peru on Saturday, between Alberto Rossel and Colombia's Gabriel Mendoza.

In Amir Khan Vs. Adrien Broner, A Formula For Showtime Supremacy? http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/in-amir-khan-vs-adrien-broner-a-formula-for-showtime-supremacy.html

(Amir Khan taunted Adrien Broner on Twitter based on how each man fared against Marcos Maidana with the above photo)

Much has made of Floyd Mayweather, Jr. reaching out to the masses to decide on his next opponent on Showtime pay-per-view. The truth, of course, was that he was trying to drum up some excitement for what would be a none too exciting affair, regardless of whether he went with Amir Khan, whom he rejected, or Marcos Maidana, the man he ended up with for May. The story is the same as always: Fans of his technical style will watch because few have his skill set, and those who hate him will watch in the hope he will get knocked out. What is missing is a viable opponent in the division -- Timothy Bradley? Danny Garcia? -- to get the casual fans to dig deep into their pockets. 

However, now with talks of Adrien Broner vs. Khan appearing on the undercard -- with the victor potentially facing Mayweather in September -- there is a buzz brewing. The co-feature with the winners facing off with each other has a WWE feel about it, to be sure, but also begins to give the fight game a slim sense of credibility: Someone will earned the right to have the high-profile Mayweather fight next. The problem with boxing at the moment is that it is not enough to win all your fights or be great in the ring; you need to be marketable, have a promoter selling you, be in the public eye, etc. The sense of a co-feature, on a much, much smaller scale to the Super Sixes gives the decision for title fights a sense of legitimacy and allows casual fans to follow the narrative of fighter, build a story and sell the next event, too.

This formula could be a winning strategy for Showtime (which, unlike HBO, doesn't place much value these days on what a PPV undercard can do for anyone, although that might be changing based on Manny Pacquiao-Bradley II having a higher quality than past recent HBO PPVs).

Being a boxing fan, I will watch what ever fight I can and I will probably watch the whole card, but my friends who watch football or other sports with me will only want to watch the big fights, with the familiar phrase being "when is the main event on?" Stick a co-feature on to build up four fighters, and punters feel they got more for their money and it sets up the next fight nicely.

The fear I have is after an amazing boxing calendar last year is that this year seems like it will be a prelude to an amazing year next year. Miguel Cotto vs. Sergio Martinez, Pacquiao vs. Bradley II and Carl Froch vs. George Groves II are the big fights this year thus far. But next year could see Gennady Golovkin finally getting a big-name opponent, Andre Ward fighting someone credible, someone worthwhile going after a heavyweight crown, and fighters like Keith Thurman, Kell Brook and Canelo Alvarez in big fights as a generation shifts, what with Cotto, Martinez, Mayweather, Juan Manuel Marquez and Wladimir Klitschko nearing the end. It is vital the up-and-comers are given promotion in co-features with the older generation so casual fans can make the transition. 

Showtime seems to realise that their main events are not as star-studded as HBO and have already given us some decent undercards. It stands to reason that the next step for Showtime is making the co-feature the newest weapon in their arsenal. Again, much like a WWE event, it is better to have a solid card with two main event-style fights between four B-grade fighters than a rubbish undercard with two superstars headlining. For the future of boxing, the sport needs up-and-coming fighters getting exposed to the public; for those fighters to face credible opponents; for them to develop a fan base (and not sold to us with records built on crappy fights); and for the fighters themselves get used to fighting in front of a sizable crowd.

There's been some talk of Khan-Broner not happening, of Broner going with John Molina instead. That came as news to Molina himself. Either way, Khan-Broner is no certainty. But: I think if Showtime do develop this approach and use the glow of the Mayweather appeal to build future stars, then that would give them a edge on HBO, which retains the status of industry giant over the smaller Showtime -- at least, for now.

2014-03-06T08:05:34+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/in-amir-khan-vs-adrien-broner-a-formula-for-showtime-supremacy.html
Weekend Afterthoughts On Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. ... http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/weekend-afterthoughts-on-julio-cesar-chavez-jr-as-necessary-evil-vasyl-lomachenko-s-arrogance-and-more.html

The Guano Apes tried to warn Robert Stieglitz with their performance right before the Arthur Abraham rematch: Don't be flying too close to the sun. But did he listen to the German metal act that named itself after shit monkeys? No, no he didn't.

There were warnings we'd have good fights and/or controversial ones, and this past weekend we got both. The bout between Orlando Salido and Vasyl Lomachenko dominated some of the conversation afterward, so it'll dominate this edition of Weekend Afterthoughts, but we'll obviously talk Abraham-Stieglitz III, Terence Crawford vs. Ricky Burns, Teddy Atlas and of course Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. vs. Brian Vera II.

  • Vasyl Lomachenko's arrogance. One of the more peculiar arguments from the weekend was that somehow Lomachenko got his comeupppance for pushing to fight for an alphabet title so soon. I've already commented on the validity of the title he was competing for; I'll comment momentarily on exactly how quick that title push was. I can't say taking on such steep competition so early was arrogance-free, but two replies: 1. Should we berate fighters for being ambitious? We can question the wisdom of it, but isn't the quality of aiming high an impressive one? There's a thin line between bravery and stupidity, sure, but I'm turned off by the notion from some boxing fans and writers smirking at Lomachenko for taking on a harder challenge than was perhaps wise, as though there was cosmic justice in his loss. Give me a Lomachenko any day over a Gary Russell, Jr., a fighter with an elite amateur pedigree who refuses to fight a live body this late in his career. 2. It almost worked. Let's say we get a properly officiated bout; let's say Salido tries to make the featherweight limit Friday. Does Lomachenko win? It wouldn't have taken much to turn the scorecards. I say this not to diminish what Salido did to legitimately win the fight, because he did an awful lot. But can you really scold the arrogance of a guy who tried something audacious and very nearly pulled it off? He aimed high. He wasn't quite ready for the kind of pro performance Salido could deliver (and his team, as Mike Ricciardelli and others have pointed out, wasn't ready either, never complaining to the referee about the low blows). But he proved he was on a high level already. 
  • Orlando Salido's low blows vs. Lomachenko's holding. Another oddly popular discussion from this weekend in response to Salido's frequent low blows was, "Yeah, so what, Lomachenko was holding!" The notion seems to be somehow that all fouls are created equal. They are not. Certainly, holding and low blows can both affect the outcome of a fight. But one does physical damage. One does not. That differentiates them in a key way. Also, referee Laurence Cole -- who got a deserved verbal beat down from HBO's Jim Lampley in a commentating team performance that otherwise too heavily favored Lomachenko and ignored Salido's good legal work -- didn't treat them equally, either, in a way that affected the outcome of the fight more. Cole warned Lomachenko early for holding. It wasn't until the final third of the fight that he issued any kind of warning at all to Salido for his low blows. And let's not forget that Salido opted to blow off the weigh-in, effectively. We still need to up the financial penalties for that. So to recap: Salido cheated in multiple ways, Lomachenko just one; at least one form of Salido's cheating was more physically damaging than Lomachenko's; and Cole did more to administer the rules in Salido's favor than he did Lomachenko's. Not the same.
  • Next for Salido and Lomachenko. Salido is gone to 130 pounds, obviously. There's been less discussion about who he might fight next, but there are all sorts of appealing fights for him there: I'd take Salido-Juan Carlos Burgos or Salido-Rocky Martinez in a battle of guys who have been beaten by Mikey Garcia, say. Apparently Lomachenko might still be up for the title that Salido vacated, which could mean he fights the aforementioned Russell. I'm guessing the powers that be will find a way to avoid the two squaring off, what with Lomachenko repped by Top Rank and Russell repped by Top Rank's mortal enemy Golden Boy, and what with the two men therefore fighting on opposite networks. I'd be pleasantly surprised if that fight happens with a WBO assist, but it's worth remembering that even a broken clock is right twice a day.
  • Lomachenko's record. So.... is Lomachenko 1-1 or 7-1? I come down on it like this: Technically, 7-1, because of the letter of the law on the World Series of Boxing bouts in which Lomachenko participated. But I'm perfectly fine considering him 1-1 for a whole host of reasons. Lee Groves did a lengthy breakdown of this that was quality, although I would dispute him on some of the specifics. For instance, FightFax determined the WSB bouts were pro fights not because of their own authority, but because some state commissions deemed them such; other countries' commissions did not. The arguments about "paid, no headgear, it's a pro fight" are offset by the fact that amateur fighters were already sometimes paid and the amateurs have been moving back toward no headgear for a while. The line between "pro" and amateur has become increasingly blurred. For more on the WSB, check out what I wrote here about FightFax and the related links, and then check out the answers to questions I asked of AIBA here. This all clearly straddles the line. Something that is "semi-pro" is not by necessity actually professional -- the semi means it's somewhere in between. I've tended to rely on BoxRec for fighters' records because they're the ones I have access to rather than FightFax, but if someone wanted to say Lomachenko was 7-1 instead of 1-1, I have no serious dispute with that.
  • Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr.'s appeal. While I have tended to enjoy Chavez fights, that's as far as my appreciation of this spoiled, lazy, serial cheating brat goes. It counts for a lot -- fans tend to watch him in droves on HBO, to the tune of 1.4 million viewers for his super middleweight rematch win over Bryan Vera, and probably a good percentage of them did so because Chavez tends to put on a good show. But his antics have probably hurt him at the gate, as this was the second consecutive lower-than-usual attendance figure, albeit a figure that is good for any U.S. audience. There are fighters who do big TV ratings and fighters who do big gates and there's some crossover in those groups, but there is no strict correlation; fighters who have passionate, passionate followings tend to get the big live audiences. I continue to be baffled, though, about why anyone would idolize a fighter for what amounts to simply his last name; there are other action fighter with far smaller followings, and who work harder, and who are more like Chavez Sr. than Jr. is. Someone said to me on Twitter recently that if Chavez had a different last name, he'd be more hated than Adrien Broner. I don't think he would, but he'd be at least in the ballpark. I saw a comment on Twitter over the weekend to the effect that when Chavez wins, it's good for boxing. In some ways, it is -- he does bring in the eyeballs, and often he appeases said eyeballs. But he also does a lot of things that reflect poorly on the sport and its governance.
  • Chavez's future. Speaking of Sr., he said (via promoter Bob Arum) that Chavez needs a better trainer as an A-level fighter. In a roundabout way, Chavez, by virtue of his size and chin and some amount of schooling, is an A-level fighter divisionally speaking, as he showed as a middleweight and as he might yet prove as a super middleweight. But he's not an A-level fighter in a pound-for-pound sense, and there's been little to suggest he ever could become one. And let's not forget that Chavez has had an elite trainer in Freddie Roach, and while it worked for a little while, it didn't cure all his ills. So we're looking at a Gennady Golovkin fight for Chavez in possibly his next fight, as mentioned before, and on skill Golovkin is A-level in a way Chavez isn't. But size, strength and a chin are weapons of their own, or else Chavez wouldn't have gotten this far, right? I lean toward thinking Golovkin beats Chavez up so badly most of his internal organs squirt out his mouth midfight, but I just don't know because Chavez is massive and Golovkin is untested at 168.
  • Terence Crawford vs. Ricky Burns, revisited. Burns thought the scores were too close because he got the benefit of the doubt in his last fight. Whatever, dude. He and his promoter said he'll try for a rematch or else next pursue a title shot against someone less tricky, but he's neglecting that the other lightweight titleholders include the ultra-tricky Miguel Vazquez and Richard Abril, so, pssshhh. Another is Adrien Broner, who hasn't fought at lightweight in his last several fights and isn't expected to in his next one; maybe that alphabet outfit will find a way to strip him, and then Burns can fight for a vacant belt. If I had to guess, Crawford might target a fight in Nebraska, which means the boxing media will flock to the state to cover it... jk, go for it, Crawford. If Nebraska can become a boxing hotbed, more power to you. I wouldn't be surprised if they turned out to support the local guy, either.
  • Arthur Abraham vs. Robert Stieglitz III. Like everybody else, I didn't see a performance like this being on the cards for Abraham, who has proven a so-so super middleweight who has gotten mostly narrow wins since leaving 160. He was more active than is his wont, and it made a difference. But Stieglitz was, too, overly aggressive, giving Abraham counterpunching opportunities aplenty, most especially in a 12th round he was winning until he got knocked down. It's one thing to come out hard like he did in the 12th to try to win it (thumbs up), and another thing to get as reckless as he got (thumbs down to still trying to go blow-for-blow with Abraham even after he was wobbled). Stieglitz can complain about the scorecards all he wants, but I don't know anyone who scored what was an honestly close fight for Stieglitz. I'm glad ESPN3 picked this one up, because while I couldn't watch it as I checked out Crawford-Burns on AWE at the same hour, I'd rather watch the replay on my Xbox 360 than catch some stream/YouTube clip on my computer screen.
  • All Access: Canelo vs. Angulo. Showtime has gotten the hang of this "marketumentary" format, hasn't it? There was compelling material in the first episode of the preview series for the junior middleweight pay-per-view fight between Canelo Alvarez vs. Alfredo Angulo, especially in the Angulo camp -- we haven't seen him in this light before, with his daughter, with him considering trainer Virgil Hunter his father, with his stablemates a cast of big talents and/or misfits trying to rebound, etc. Anytime a series like this (HBO 24/7 being the other and the originator) features new characters, it benefits. But All Access is striking the right tones on the song choices, the cinematography, the narration, all of it.
  • Friday Night Fights. Gotta agree with my man Matthew Swain -- you guys noticed he's a staff writer now, right? -- on every aspect of the ESPN2 show this weekend. Lightweight Boxcino > middleweight Boxcino, at least so far; the second round match-ups for the 160 pounders don't look half bad to me. FNF's Teddy Atlas became a subject of discussion for his bizarre, disturbing singing performance of "Coconut," which was one of those rare "funny yet scary or maybe the other way around" moments. While folk question from time to time whether Atlas has lost his marbles, I think at least most of the time he knows what he's doing. I've never spoken to him, but the impression I get from watching is that he wants to keep people engaged one way or another, be it endless metaphors or themed "fight plan" gimmicks or even, this go-round, singing. I suspect, for as long as he's been alive, he knows what his singing voice sounds like, and probably realized that such a performance would get people talking. But I dunno; that's me speculating. Sometimes I disagree with Atlas and he makes me groan, and sometimes I think he's one of the sanest guys out there. Speaking of, here he is talking about the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board of which I am a chairman. 

TQBR Radio 3/4: Saul "Canelo" Alvarez Vs. Alfredo Angulo Preview http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/tqbr-radio-3-4-saul-canelo-alvarez-vs-alfredo-angulo-preview.html

(Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., left, rekindled the above magic last Saturday on HBO; via)





Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. Beats Brian Vera The Right Way This Time http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/julio-cesar-chavez-jr-beats-brian-vera-the-right-way-this-time.html

(Brian Vera, left, Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., right; credit: Chris Farina, Top Rank)

This action-packed win Saturday on HBO by Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. over Brian Vera inspired very little of the disgust of the first meeting, when Chavez got a decision he didn't deserve, abetted by a weight scandal. This time, Chavez made weight. This time, Chavez deserved to win, which he did by unanimous decision. There were reasons for protest or offense, but they were relatively minor.

Chavez obviously has the bloodlines, he has the ridiculous size and strength. What he has lacked at times is the dedication to his craft, a respect for the sport itself. This time, Chavez made the agreed upon weight -- 168 pounds -- and fought like a man who had improved since his last outing against Vera. The best of Chavez trumped the best of Vera, then.

But oh, it was fun getting to that conclusion for a while. The two men traded enormous power punches throughout, but especially early, peaking in the 3rd. Vera's overhand right was brutal, and might even have briefly wobbled the unwobble-able Chavez. Chavez, meanwhile, massacred Vera's body with lead lefts and punished his head with left hooks and right crosses. Chavez was circling well, was even defending himself better than usual, was boxing well overall -- but Vera was also boxing well, and let's face it, the best defense by Chavez and Vera is the boxing equivalent of facing the Philadelphia 76ers this year: Even the worst opposition is going to rack up big statisitics. Chavez connected on 62 percent of his power punches per CompuBox, which, ouch.

Slowly, Chavez's size and accuracy took over. And that occasion for protest and/or disgust? It emerged in the 7th, when referee Rafael Ramos, without any warning, deducted Vera a point for pushing down on the back of Chavez's head. Yes, yes, Texas would find a way to give Chavez an edge, despite Vera being from the state, because, well, his name is Chavez. And then, again, Chavez would find a way to offend, using the 12th to showboat and play keep-away, a decision booed by the fans. Even when he puts on a quality performance, he has to behave like a punk-ass.

This was a fight that went more or less like it should've the first time: Chavez won by a mysterious 114-113, then 117-110 times two. He's the better fighter when he's on point and, at least as importantly, Vera is a smallish middleweight who fought over his head both this time and last. With the kind of punishment Vera took in these two fights, and has taken over his career, one hopes he got big enough paychecks against Chavez to contemplate retiring soon. He makes as hard a living as anyone in the sport.

Chavez didn't pack San Antonio as he has packed venues in the past. He didn't pack Carson, Calif., either, although he still did big TV ratings. You'd like to think he has his head screwed on straight about being a professional and winning over fans, but he showed up at the Alamodome exceptionally late and the 12th round hot-dogging was fully out of touch. He called out middleweight champion Sergio Martinez afterward, but Martinez, should he beat Miguel Cotto, probably isn't going to move up to 168 for a Chavez rematch, maybe not for anyone. In perfect English -- Chavez finds new ways to baffle constantly -- he also said he'd be down for Gennady Golovkin. This would be an action fight and a half. Golovkin is a murderous puncher at 160, and a quality boxer. We don't know what he would have at 168, which is why folk are intrigued by a meeting with the division's champ, Andre Ward. The Chavez fight would be a serious test of how Golovkin might fare at 168, and despite the diminished fan base for Chavez due to his antics, it's a richer fight than Ward can generate. It might also give Chavez's considerable contingent of haters a chance to see him beaten all to hell. With Golovkin pulling out of his April date due to the death of his father (condolences, GGG), maybe that fight can happen quite soon.

2014-03-02T10:46:32+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/julio-cesar-chavez-jr-beats-brian-vera-the-right-way-this-time.html
Dirty, Overweight Orlando Salido Gets By Vasyl Lomachenko http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/dirty-overweight-orlando-salido-gets-by-vasyl-lomachenko.html

(Orlando Salido, left, Vasyl Lomachenko, right; credit: Chris Farina, Top Rank)

There was nothing wrong with the judges' scorecards in the HBO meeting Saturday between grizzled veteran Orlando Salido and amateur great Vasyl Lomachenko, only with Salido's exploitation of missing weight and all the low blows he threw in the bout. It did the trick: Salido got a split decision win in San Antonio. It was the rare occasion where the judges getting it right was unfortunate.

Salido missed the 126 pound limit by two pounds and didn't bother trying to make it Friday. He then blew up to 147 pounds between the weigh-in and the fight, compared to Lomachenko's fight night weight of 135. That's two divisions' difference. Lomachenko appeared wary of the size advantage from the start, cautious with his punch output. On top of that, the crafty Salido outboxed him early -- he was especially smart in clinches and coming out of them, finding openings Lomachenko couldn't -- so it's not like the cautious Lomachenko approach translated into him racking up points smartly.

Salido's body work throughout was impressive. His low blows, which were legion, were not. Oh, they were effective -- he didn't even get warned until the 8th. They were just a turn-off. Referee Laurence Cole got snookered on some of them, with Salido using his savvy to throw low blows at angles Cole couldn't see. But some of them were obvious no matter where you were standing. Cole is a dolt, plain and simple; after a stretch of him not being involved with any controversy, I suppose we were overdue.

Lomachenko did start to surge in the mid-late rounds, as Salido began to tire, at one point falling down for no apparent reason. And Lomachenko charged for the knockout in the 11th and 12th, doing major damage in the 11th and nearly getting a 10-8 12th because he beat up Salido so severely, nearly dropping him with a straight left. Lomachenko held a ton, which Cole warned him for far earlier than he did Salido's offenses. In the 12th, Salido held on for dear life, and won by scores of of 115-113 and 116-112 to nullify the 115-113 card for Lomachenko.

Much was made about Lomachenko fighting for a title in his second bout. I'm not a fan of the alphabet titles, and I'm not impressed by Salido winning the one he won against Orlando Cruz, who transparently got the title shot not on the merits but because of the novelty of a gay fighter trying to win a bout. It's a stunt title, this 126-pound WBO strap -- what novelty opponent will be found for it next, now that Salido is without thanks to the weight shenanigans? I was impressed, however, by Lomachenko wanting to take on such a wily, hardened pro so early. As it happened, Salido gave him a cruel introduction to several aspects of the pro game. In the pros, you can miss weight flamboyantly and use it to your advantage later. In the pros, if you're fighting in Texas, you'll be subjected to a jurisdiction with a track record of incompetence or worse. In the pros, you'll meet guys like Salido, who knows all the tricks -- above board and below -- and will punish you to the body unlike any amateur will.

There are good fights for both men now, at least. Lomachenko would be wise to slow it down and learn some of those tricks himself, get some experience; that he nearly beat Salido despite all of the ugliness speaks well of his pro prospects. Salido will find opponents with which he can make exciting bouts at 130, a weaker division than 126.

2014-03-02T09:16:17+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/dirty-overweight-orlando-salido-gets-by-vasyl-lomachenko.html
Terence Crawford Wins, Ends Ricky Burns' "Skin Of His Teeth" Streak http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/terence-crawford-wins-ends-ricky-burns-skin-of-his-teeth-streak.html

(Terence Crawford [red, white and blue trunks] topped Ricky Burns; credit:  Lawrence Lustig, Matchroom Boxing)

This time, Ricky Burns couldn't benefit from an opponent quizzically quitting, like Jose Gonzalez did, or from hometown judging in Glasgow, like the kind that saved him from a loss against Raymundo Beltran. Terence Crawford was too much for Burns Saturday on AWE, even if he wasn't as good as he could've or should've been, and he got the unanimous decision win.

Both men started the fight off like they needed to, with the taller Burns continuously pumping out his jab and Crawford responding with uncharacteristically aggressive power punching combinations. For some reason, Crawford more or less disappeared in the 2nd and 3rd, fighting from a southpaw stance that didn't seem to help him much. But by the 4th, when Crawford resumed his aggression and backed up Burns to force him into a defensive shell, it was all Crawford. Burns tried to rally in the 9th, and won the 10th on my scorecard and some others, but Crawford snuffed out his momentum in the 11th and beat him up in the 12th. The score of 117-111 was the same as mine, with the two 116-112 scorecards a touch too generous to Burns.

To hear Sky Sports' Jim Watt tell it, this was a "different" Burns, an underconfident Burns, a Burns worried about the jaw Beltran broke. You'd think he hadn't seen Burns' performances against Beltran (who deserved to win in one of the robberies of 2013) or how Burns was getting dominated by Gonzalez, a fighter with no real track record. Nope, this was the same Burns we've seen lately -- a pugilist apparently past his best days, still capable of showing flashes of grit or effective yet ragged boxer-puncher business. Burns overachieved for a time, and it was an impressive run. These days, he apparently doesn't have it.

For as clearly as he won, for all his speed and schooling, Crawford comes away from the by far best victory of his career a bit of a headscratcher. He had to know that a laissez faire approach was poisonous to his chances of winning on foreign soil, yet showed that attitude early. He turned up the activity from the 4th on, but still had stretches where he didn't keep the pressure on his man; it took Burns catching him with a good one here and there to make Crawford respond with gusto. I wonder if it's about temperament for him, or maybe it's stamina -- in the 12th, he went on full attack, and it didn't take long for him to get winded. Either way, he's in the discussion for the top lightweight in a division that is thin gruel right now. Yet it's hard to imagine him beating Miguel Vazquez fighting like this. As someone with hype as the potential to become the pound-for-pound best American fighter, we needed more from Crawford than we got Saturday. And while he delivered more action than he has of late, Burns had something to do with that, so whatever the nature of his temporary exile from HBO, it's not clear that if lack of excitement was to blame, he solved that problem, either.

On the undercard, blue chip heavyweight prospect Anthony Joshua made easy work of Hector Avila, stopping him in one round with a big counter left. Joshua, in just his fifth fight, appears all the world like a potential superstar and has the personality and look to compliment his size, athleticism and Olympic pedigree. But it is very, very early, and we learned nothing from this bout that we didn't know already. Promoter Eddie Hearn and Sky tried to sell Avila as the man who went nine rounds with Dereck Chisora a year ago, neglecting the fact that he'd been stopped twice since, including once in the 1st round, by fighters far inferior to Chisora. Hearn said they'd be looking at Michael Sprott or Matt Skelton next, two reasonable step-ups and reasonably advanced opponents for a prospect at this stage of his career.

Other than the main event, the rest of the card was loaded up with bores and mismatches (which includes Joshua's), save perhaps Scott Cardle's stoppage of Paul Appelby. Usually you celebrate a seven-fight telecast, but it felt interminable because of the nature of the matchmaking. 

2014-03-02T05:08:31+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/march/terence-crawford-wins-ends-ricky-burns-skin-of-his-teeth-streak.html
Chris Pearson Tested; Badou Jack Stopped; J'Leon Love Treads Water http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/february/chris-pearson-tested-badou-jack-stopped-j-leon-love-treads-water.html

(Derek Edwards catches Badou Jack; credit: Tom Casino, Showtime)

If we must be inflicted with a zombified verson of ShoBox that fellates the promotional stable of Floyd Mayweather, the least Showtime can give us is match-ups in the spirit of the series, i.e. prospects in tough tests. We got that in two of the three bouts on Friday, with one test too difficult and another just about right. The third, the headliner, didn't rate.

Super middleweight J'Leon Love dominated Vladine Biosse in the main event, cutting up and swelling his face en route to a 10th round technical knockout. Biosse was resilient, I'll give him that, but he was outclassed. With losses to Denis Grachev and Marcus Upshaw, Biosse was no real upgrade over Lajuan Simon, Love's comeback opponent after his narrow win over Gabriel Rosado was turned into a no contest thanks to a failed drug test. Love was faster and sharper from the start, and never really lost a round definitively. He did have to fight through a cut around his left eye that opened in the 4th, but then, Biosse had to deal with a worse cut around his right eye beginning in the 3rd. In the 10th, the referee picked no particular occasion to stop the bout, but the punishment he absorbed overall made the sentiment appropriate. Love hasn't yet reestablished himself as a fighter who will make waves, rather one who might.

Derek Edwards dashed Badou Jack upon the rocks like a newborn in some religious fable, in a result that came more or less out of nowhere. Edwards has played the role of legitimate threat before, but he hasn't flashed 1st round knockout power, and Jack had proven resilient enough against solid hitters like Marco Antonio Periban (majority draw or no). As Jack went to throw a jab, Edwards timed him perfectly and walked him into an overhand right from which Jack never recovered. Jack got up, but was in little shape to continue and the next real combo Edwards landed put him down again and this time the referee saw enough. The undefeated Jack had flashed the potential to become a contender at super middleweight,flawed though he was, and while 1st round knockouts can be flukey, this was deeply discouraging for Jack's chances to move from prospect to top-10 guy.

Junior middleweight prospect Chris Pearson had demonstrated the right stuff coming into Friday, only he had done it against mediocre competition. Lanardo Tyner? That dude is never a picnic. He was no stroll in the park for Pearson, either, who controlled most rounds with his boxing ability and height/reach, except Tyner came on late, dropping Pearson in the 6th and giving him 100 percent hell in the final two rounds, too. One judge gave it to Tyner, 76-75, which was too generous to Tyner; the other two judges gave it to Pearson, 78-73, which was better, although maybe it could've been one round closer. Pearson, one of the more acclaimed Mayweather prospects, got a test he needed and fought through the adversity. That's one of the things a prospect needs, and Pearson now has it. What he does in response to all that will tell the next tale for Pearson.

2014-03-01T11:04:41+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/february/chris-pearson-tested-badou-jack-stopped-j-leon-love-treads-water.html
Boxcino Tournament On Friday Night Fights Dips With The Middleweights http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/february/boxcino-tournament-on-friday-night-fights-dips-with-the-middleweights.html

Two stoppages, a quit, and a debatable decision. That's how the opening round of ESPN's Boxcino middleweight tournament ended up Friday. It was an uneven night full of uneven performances from the Horshoe Casino in Hammond, Ind., compared to the lightweight tournament's inaugural round.

In the opening bout, Daniel Edouard (23-5-2, 14 KOs) quit on his stool after the 4th round of a seemingly winnable fight against Brandon Adams. Adams (13-0, 9 KOs) was making a huge step up, in that Edouard was the first fighter he had faced with anything remotely close to a winning record. Edouard, who had not fought in three years, looked the part for about half a round. By the beginning of the 2nd he was not engaging and couldn't seem to get his punches off.  Adams did not impress, but he did get the win.

Ray Gatica won a wild swinging bout by stopping Sena Agbeko in the second fight of the night. Agbeko (15-1, 15 KOs) came in with a glossy record built entirely in his native Ghana. The gloss faded very quickly as Gatica (14-2, 9 KOs) of Austin, Texas consistently landed the harder, cleaner shots. The 3rd round was one sided-enough to be scored 10-8 on my card and by the 4th, Agbeko was a sitting duck.

The Gatica-Adams matchup in the semifinals should be interesting. Neither man is technically sound but I favor Adams' straighter punches. Don't count on either man missing very much.

The performance of the night belonged to Vitaliy Kopalenko, who stopped Cerresso Fort in the 2nd round of a one-sided fight. Kopalenko (23-0, 13 KOs) was making his American debut and did not disappoint. He battered Fort (17-3-1, 11 KOs) from the opening bell with laser guided jabs and excellent combinations. The 30-year-old Ukrainian showed solid foot work and tight technique to go along with his surprising power.

Kopalenko will meet Willie Monroe, Jr. in their semi final match. Monroe (16-1, 6 KOs) beat Donatas Bondorovas by scores of 58-56, and 59-55 (twice).  I had it scored 58-56 for Bondorovas (18-5-1, 6 KOs) but it was a close bout and difficult to score; however, the 59-55 cards were too wide. There was very little to separate the two fighters. Bondorovas' aggression was largely ineffective, and Monroe's counterpunching did almost nothing to discourage his foe.

I had difficulty finding footage of the fighters involved in the tournament, so I put off making any picks until I had seen them fight. At this point, Kopalenko is clearly established as the favorite. I don't see Monroe giving him much trouble in the semis, and if Adams gets by Gatica, as I expect he will, he does not possess the tools to deal with Kopalenko's range, timing, movement and accuracy in the finals.

Rabies Watch: Another subdued performance from Teddy Atlas, though we were treated to him singing at the opening of the show. It was... special.


2014-03-01T10:12:58+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/february/boxcino-tournament-on-friday-night-fights-dips-with-the-middleweights.html
The Tale Of The (Lesser) Tape http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/february/the-tale-of-the-lesser-tape.html Styles make fights. And body types, especially when pitted against other bodies, make for styles.

For those of you who may lack gray hair or memory, this is pretty much what a description of those bodies, a Tale of the Tape, is supposed to look like -- what it used to look like. What, in the very least, every major newspaper (and often less than major: Marvin Hagler/Tommy Hearns, Daytona Beach Morning Journal) would print before a big fight; what every TV broadcaster would show.

And yes, a 10 year-old with Microsoft Publisher could probably have done a better job than this Tale from the Thrilla; and yes, Joe Frazier probably should have held a lifelong grudge against whomever actually designed it. But what the mid-70s and 80s lacked in graphics ability was more than made up for in information.

Look at the detail: age, weight, height and reach. This we still get from major broadcasters (newspapers in the U.S. for the most part abandoned boxing fans to our blogs over a decade ago) but notably (more below) the “Reach” here is full wingspan, from fingertip to tip, not the “length of arm” we get from HBO, Showtime, et al.

But the rest! Biceps, chest (normal and expanded), waist, thigh and calf.

Since when is the size of a boxer’s bicep not important? His legs, neck, waist and chest?

Years later, when Muhammad Ali fought Larry Holmes, the Tale of the Tape was a tale of woe writ large: Age: 38, weight, just five pounds more at 225; but waist: 37 ½! ; chest, three inches plus at 47 normal and 49 expanded, calves and thighs the same at 17 and 26.


I’m not sure when, exactly, we began to get the truncated Tale, but suffice it to say, knowing better, the short form leaves something to be desired. If you can give me a six minute videographic on the difficulty of a boxer’s youth, surely you can take the time to flash the size of his biceps and waist across the screen. And seemingly, a number of promoters are still compiling the information (a quick google search on “boxing tale of the tape” shows long form Tales for the likes of Floyd Mayweather/Oscar De La Hoya, Mayweather/Juan Manuel Marquez, Mayweather/Canelo Alvarez, Manny Pacquiao/Miguel Cotto, Andre Ward/Mikkel Kessler and Andre Dirrell/Arthur Abraham), it’s just not getting generally broadcast to the public through print, broadcast or otherwise.

As for the reach, the armpit to fingertip measurement would be fine -- if boxers stood square and only punched with their arms. They don’t. Or at least the good ones don’t. Just look above at Ali in his stance, left side to front extending toward his opponent, the chest both leading and set to follow the jab forward -- the chest every bit a part of reach as the fist.


I’m not saying the armpit to fingertip isn’t a useful number; I’ll take it. Just give me the wingspan reach, chest, waist, thigh, neck and calf too. And while you’re at it, maybe throw in the forearm, fist and ankle— three chapters in the Tale of the Tape that didn’t make it into this Ali/Frazier poster, but were mainstays throughout boxing history.

What good can an ankle measurement be? You’d be surprised. Consider for a moment Hagler/Ray Leonard, courtesy of The Detroit Free Press from April 6, 1987:

HAGLER. LEONARD. Age 32 30, Weight 160 160, Height 5-9 ½ 5-10 ½, Reach 75 74, Chest 40 39, Biceps 15 15, Forearm 12 11 ¾, Waist 30 30, Thigh 22 21, Calf 15 13, Neck 16 15 ½, Wrist 7 7, Fist 12 11, Ankle 9 9 ¾

If you look closely, the story of the fight is there. The numbers truly tell a Tale. Hagler did his roadwork in army boots; Leonard skipped a lot of rope. Leonard is taller, but Hagler is bigger: full inch in the chest (also his reach advantage) another inch up in the thigh, and two whole inches in the calf (look above, Hagler’s calves were, remarkably, as big as Frazier’s). But even with smaller thighs and decidedly smaller calves, Leonard still has ankles ¾ of an inch bigger!

Even if you had never heard of either fighter, tell me -- with ankles like that, which boxer demanded the 24 foot ring and would be up on his toes throughout the fight?

Telling examples of such Tales in boxing are almost endless, that’s why they told the full tale of the tape for so very long—here’s Jack Johnson/Jess Willard; Jack Dempsey/Tommy Gibbons, Joe Louis/ Rocky Marciano; and Roberto Duran/Leonard.

Just like that videographic on the fighter’s road to the big time, the Tale of the Tape is one worth telling -- and age, weight and armpit reach doesn’t begin to tell the story.

2014-03-01T02:04:01+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/february/the-tale-of-the-lesser-tape.html
Throwback Thursday: Young Peter Jackson And Dixie Kid Fight To A Stalemate http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/february/throwback-thursday-young-peter-jackson-and-dixie-kid-fight-to-a-stalemate.html

(Young Peter Jackson; via)

Even the most rabid of boxing fans would have to scrape the look of perplexity off their faces if asked about that time Sim Thompkins and Aaron Lister Brown met in a ring. But tell them Young Peter Jackson and Dixie Kid squared off, and that might be speaking their language.  

Around the time of their meeting on December 26, 1904, nicknames and clever monikers were often ways to simply pay tribute to hometowns, ethnicity and even fighters of yesteryear who paved dangerous roads. 

In this case, Young Peter Jackson's nickname was an homage to former "colored" heavyweight champion Peter Jackson, who waded through the heavyweight ranks, skin pigment unimportant, to have a respected boxing career. And that meant something to many, whether he realized it or not. 

Jack Johnson, giant of both Galveston, Texas and black history, visited the grave of Jackson -- who had died of tuberculosis in 1901 -- in Brisbane, Australia shortly after seizing the heavyweight championship in 1908, as a nod of respect to one of his predecessors. 

On Jackson's grave marker reads simply, "This was a man."

Dixie Kid and Young Peter Jackson were among those who followed in the wake of such culture-bending and stereotype-destroying figures, merely trying to be men themselves. 


By Christmas in 1904, Dixie Kid had lost inside the distance only three times in 42 fights: twice by stoppage, and once by DQ. His record was respectable in any era, but especially so in one where fewer opportunities usually meant tougher gauntlets to survive. 

Outside of Maryland and the California coast, where he had fought most of his bouts, the Kid was likely best known for his controversial April, 1904 tussle with the "Barbados Demon" Joe Walcott for the welterweight title. In the final frame of the 20 round bout, Walcott was disqualified for a punch in the kidney area despite not having been warned prior. It was later unveiled that referee James Sullivan had bet on Dixie Kid, thus the fight was voided as a title bout, but the result stuck. 

Local press in Baltimore opined that Jackson would have an easy contest in front of him. A hat was tipped the Kid's way for going nearly even up with Philadelphia Jack O'Brien at literally the last minute's notice, though, as Chicago native John Willis failed to show for their fight, and the Kid, who was sitting ringside, volunteered himself and, according to the Baltimore American, "under the conditions the Kid fought decidedly well." 

Jackson had his own run-ins with Joe Walcott, going 1-2-2 against the legendary figure. But Jackson's lone win was by stoppage -- the only early ending in their five fight series, even if Walcott claimed the final body shot was low. 

Unlike Dixie Kid, Jackson traveled to wherever he could fight, apparently. He spent chunks of time in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, the California Bay Area and more. After defeating Walcott in their final encounter, Jackson fought six times in England, winning all six fights by knockout, on what served as both a publicity and "stay busy" type of international tour. 

Though Jackson's win over Walcott was fought at a catchweight, Jackson was often billed as the welterweight champion, while the Kid claimed the welterweight and middleweight championships of California based on a KO win in one round over Al Neill the previous February. Neill had defeated Jackson by points in 20 rounds two years prior, which more or less made a Jackson vs. Dixie Kid bout a natural.

Jackson trained in Catonsville, a city in the western region of Baltimore County, where he had lived and trained for his win over Walcott. He was joined in camp by Joe Gans and Kid Sullivan, a Washington D.C. scrapper that was in and out of the lightweight title picture for a few years. But the bout was fought at the Eureka Athletic Club, which was the most famous fight venue in Baltimore for about 20 years, on Shell Rd. in an industrial section of the city.

In the days leading up to the bout, Sullivan and Dixie Kid's manager, Denny Murray, had a side bet of "$400 to $500," said The Sun. The Kid was to have arrived in Baltimore with future great trainer Jack Blackburn, but instead was seconded by a rowdy group in Murray, Eddie Haney and Billy Reynolds. 

Word of low ticket sales and attendance got out, but to aid in the promotion of the bout, it was announced that Dixie Kid would be getting married promptly after the fight. A headline in the Baltimore American read, "In Ring At Three, At Altar At Five." The Kid was to meet his bride at the Centennial Colored Church afterward, to which Jackson replied, "He certainly had no right to make two such engagements on the same day," then promised to postpone the wedding by making the Kid suffer. And on the day of the contest, Jackson said he changed his fighting style to be able to sustain his offense throughout the fight. 

When the fight materialized, the action was unfortunately relatively tame, apart from a few rounds. Both men reportedly fought a measured 1st round, but in round 2, Jackson caught the Kid with a series of punches that either put the latter through the ropes, or set him up for being pushed through them, depending on which reports are to be believed. The Baltimore American reported, "...in the second [Jackson] went to work, and in the old-school Jacksonian way put down the Kid for the count of nine with a shower of rights and lefts and shoved him through the ropes," then said, "From the third round on Jackson was sleigh-riding."

Seemingly content with the work he had done to that point, Jackson's offense dipped while the Kid forced the action from a distance. The Kid managed to batter Jackson about the ribs inside, though to ringside observers, Jackson was the stronger of the two when he let his hands go inside. What may have made Jackson reluctant, however, was that before the fight, the Kid's corner and few supporters demanded that the breaks enforced by referee James O'Hara be "clean," meaning there would be far less of the inside grappling and locking up that favored Jackson. 

The Kid's loud and trifling corner became a factor throughout the bout as well, and a famed local Deputy Marshal named Manning had to repeatedly warn the cornermen to settle down or have their man lose by disqualification. 

Either Jackson's power was telling in the middle rounds, or his foe's stamina was suspect, because the Kid vomited in his corner between rounds on a regular basis after a 6th round that saw his nose bloodied significantly. 

The final three rounds, and the 14th and 15th in particular saw Dixie Kid attempting to make up for lost time, rocking Jackson on a few occasions and taking punches in return before nearly throwing him over the ropes in the last few minutes. Both men finished exhausted, unable to bring a decisive ending, and the fight was declared a draw. 

The overall gist of things was slightly split, though, as the Trenton Evening Times said, "Dixie Kid did the leading throughout the fight, Jackson apparently not extending himself except in three rounds." Meanwhile, the Baltimore American suggested that the fight wasn't much more than a sparring session for Jackson, and the Saginaw Newsreported in their headline, "Peter Jackson could have put the Dixie Kid out."

Whatever the case, the two men crossed paths just this once and went separate ways. 

Jackson got a return bout with Philadelphia Jack O'Brien (and by proxy a shot at an unclear version of the middleweight title in the process) three months later, which is precisely what Dixie Kid craved. He repeatedly fought Sam Langford, among many others, before retiring in 1914. 

The Kid's wedding was off, as aside from the fact that marriage license clerks were on vacation for the holidays, it was found out that he was already married. He fought a week later, though, fighting to another draw, again in 15 rounds, in the same venue, with the same referee, this time against Larry Temple. From there, the quality of the Kid's opposition dipped significantly, and he never fought past 10 rounds again, losing frequently until finally retiring following his own European tour in 1920. 

And they eventually became men.

2014-02-28T02:22:02+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/february/throwback-thursday-young-peter-jackson-and-dixie-kid-fight-to-a-stalemate.html
Just Deserts: Brian Vera Vs. Julio Cear Chavez, Jr. II Preview And Prediction http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/february/just-deserts-brian-vera-vs-julio-cear-chavez-jr-ii-preview-and-prediction.html

In boxing, "deserve" is a word with little meaning. With the right promotional connections, with the right adviser, with the right name, with the right country of origin, you can skip directly to the front of the line. This Saturday on HBO, the two A-side boxers are the recipients of boons they have not truly earned, but for opposite reasons. One is the beneficiary of all that is ugly about the sport -- a spoiled, lazy child who showed no respect for the rules to get a win he did not "deserve," but who got it anyway because he had a famous father and influential godfather. The other is exemplary -- fighting for a title in just his second pro fight, he has done nothing in the professional game to "deserve" such a high-caliber foe, but because of his talent, bravery and exceptional amateur record, he is getting one anyway, and it looks all the world like a truly excellent bout on the merits.

It must be said of Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., the headliner Saturday, that he did for a time rise to the level of a top middleweight contender. The famous last name got him on the map; his considerable bulk and natural punch resistance gave him a good start to build upon; and the improvement he demonstrated under trainer Freddie Roach moved him from hype to reality. He was moments away from dethroning the division's champion, Sergio Martinez in the final round of their 2012 meeting, although indicators of a lackaidaisical training camp could have robbed him of a win he might otherwise have snatched. It was his next fight that set up this one: a decision win over Brian Vera few thought he should've received, a outcome for which he needed an ever-shifting weight target and bad judging to get even that tarnished "W." This rematch will, apparently, shed light on whether a properly prepared Chavez can earn a victory outright -- and whether Vera, who fought as well as ever in the first bout, can deal with Chavez at full power.

The undercard bout is more enticing, and without the foul aftertaste. In recent years, we've seen a few Cuban amateur greats, Guillermo Rigondeaux and Yuriorkis Gamboa, do battle with much more advanced competition than new pros usually tackle. But Vasyl Lomachenko, a Ukranian amateur great, is putting them to shame Saturday with his second opponent, Orlando Salido. As much as they thrived early on, both Rigo and Gamboa hit speed bumps on the road to pro acclaim, none of them as merciless to one's chassis as Salido has demonstrated he can be. In fact, you'd be hard pressed to find an opponent who could be any more dangerous to a new professional. He's not a man you get rid of easily, and while he can be outboxed, the longer the fight goes, the more fearsome he gets. If Lomachenko isn't ready for life in the ring without headgear, Salido will reveal that shortcoming painfully.


If Chavez was going to rip off Vera, at least by giving him a rematch he snags Vera a second paycheck. When I said above that it was his name and godfather (WBC boss Jose Sulaiman, since deceased) that got him the win, I didn't mean they did so directly. Whatever was going through the minds of the judges who thought Chavez beat Vera, consciously or unconsciously they favored him, and that can be traced back to their perception of him as the fighter who ought to have won as the big name, the man with the following, the man with the institution behind him.

Ideally, Vera would be coming into this fight with the win he deserved and forcing Chavez to get even. It's not totally clear to me why this fight is happening under the circumstances, but I gather it's that Chavez couldn't be taken seriously for a harder fight without first definitively beating Vera, a fringe contender at best prior to the Chavez loss.

That's not to denigrate Vera as a fighter. He has gotten awfully far on grit and determination. He's a difficult man to wound, and he has sprung upsets on the likes of Andy Lee and Sergio Mora. Moreover, against Chavez, Vera boxed as intelligently as he ever has, actually making use of the concepts known as "head movement" and "counterpunching." Trainer Ronnie Shields practically turned him into a slickster! Vera kept the stiff-legged Chavez in the mud with constant activity -- both circling the ring and throwing punches in volume. When Chavez would get close and land something, Vera would throw combinations to nullify Chavez's harder punching. Chavez did wound him at least once, but Vera recovered well.

Even at his best, Vera didn't dominate the fight -- a number of fans and writers could've lived with a draw. Chavez most certainly wasn't at his best, repeatedly negotiating changes to the weight limit before settling on 173 pounds. This fight is set for 168, and there are big financial penalties should Chavez exceed it. Eyewitnesses have said Chavez looks to be in shape this week. His lead left to the body and hooking shots up top with both hands were impressive against Vera. All he needs is more of it this time and he can hurt Vera and/or win rounds more clearly. If he has trained properly, that's an achievable goal.

Vera said he's added even more wrinkles this time, and I'm inclined to believe he has. That makes me want to pick him, plus I don't like predicting winners from people with poor work habits who are saying "this time" they're ready. But the combination of a slightly improved Vera and perhaps greatly improved Chavez, along with all the same institutional backing Chavez gets, makes it hard to pick Vera. I'll go with Chavez by a narrow decision, but a less controversial (if still debatable) one.

It's like the Game of Thrones commercials HBO keeps running -- just substitute out the setting of Westeros for boxing: "If you want justice, you've come to the wrong place." 


The featherweight Lomachenko made a big impression in his pro debut, and he certainly has considerable tools. He hurt Jose Ramirez to the body repeatedly, including with the shot that finished him in the 4th. He's no lumbering Eastern European -- his hands are lightning fast, and he throws world class combinations with them. He does damage with a combination of power and punch placement, which is immaculate. Defensively, he has good head movement and can dodge punches with slight body adjustments. And to make everything that much trickier, he's a southpaw.

But he got hit more than I expected him to by Ramirez. He took body shots early. He also got cornered at times and hit. The abrasion on his face was evidence of the damage done. Ramirez was a fantastic opponent for his pro debut, but he hasn't exhibited any of the power or veteran savvy Salido has. If Ramirez can hit Lomachenko like that, Salido can, and we'll find out a good deal about Lomachenko's chin here.

In a lot of ways, Lomachenko is like a more offensive-minded, quicker and less cautious version of Mikey Garcia, who carved Salido up pretty well. At least, he did for a while. Salido began to get into that groove he gets into over the course of a fight. He's not a defensive wizard but he has a few tricks up his sleeve, and used timing, willpower and cleverness on both ends to work his way into the bout. If the bout hadn't been stopped due to Garcia's broken nose, we don't know whether Salido would've gotten to him.

And we don't know if Salido can do the same to Lomachenko. That's one of the things that makes this bout so fascinating. It could go any which way. Lomachenko could demolish Salido and prove he's the prodigy Top Rank clearly believes him to be, to match him this adventurously this early. Lomachenko could dominate to start, then Salido could give him the Salido treatment in a fight to the finish with a close result. Salido could prove too much, too soon for Lomachenko's pro career and stop him.

As good as Salido looked in his last fight against Orlando Cruz, though, it must be remembered that he was fighting Cruz and that he has struggled more and more frequently as he has aged. The high points are still very recent, like against Juan Manuel Lopez in 2011 and 2012 -- but he has had a couple close calls, too. He also has been talking about moving up in weight for a while now, a complaint he issued again this week.

Given all this, I'll submerge my nagging notion that Salido is going to beat up Lomachenko. I expect it to look like Salido-Garcia, only with Salido getting started a bit later and Lomachenko not being as gravely threatened as a result. Lomachenko by decision.

2014-02-27T11:52:16+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/february/just-deserts-brian-vera-vs-julio-cear-chavez-jr-ii-preview-and-prediction.html
The Week’s Boxing Schedule, Featuring Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., Vasyl Lomachenko And Ricky Burns http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/february/the-week-s-boxing-schedule-featuring-julio-cesar-chavez-jr-vasyl-lomachenko-and-ricky-burns.html  

At TQBR we like to expand your sporting frontiers, which is why we’re leading this edition of the weekly schedule with this gif of excited South African cricketer Dale Steyn. Like Steyn, we’re excited. Excited about big fights being back on the menu. Those large events come courtesy of HBO, AWE (formerly Wealth TV) and even ESPN2 with their Boxcino tournament. Let’s get into it.

  • Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. vs. Brian Vera, Saturday, HBO, San Antonio. This fight actually makes me a bit sad. Chavez, Jr. (47-1-1, 32 KO) is a spoilt child who used his star power to force Vera (23-7, 14 KO), a natural middleweight at best, to fight at light heavyweight when he was too lazy to make the weight in their first go-round. Vera, to his credit, fought his heart out only to see the judges take his deserved win away. Now they’re doing it again, except this time Chavez has taken the fight seriously and I think he’ll win easily. I wish it wasn’t so but it is. The much more interesting fight is the featherweight support bout between Ukraine’s Vasyl Lomachenko (1-0, 1 KO) and Mexico’s Orlando “Siri” Salido (40-12-2, 28 KO). Lomachenko, a two-time Olympic gold medallist, wanted to win a world title in his first pro fight, but had to settle for attempting in his second. Talk about precocious. They guy is an animal, like the version of Yuriorkis Gamboa that we used to capitalise around these parts. Salido is a real challenge as well, he takes a while to warm up but he’s hard as hell (if a little inconsistent). I think Lomachenko can do it.
  • Ricky Burns vs. Terence Crawford, Saturday, AWE, Glasgow. The Glaswegian crowd might not get all they bargained for here, with two tactical boxer types topping the bill (I just wanted to write Glaswegian). That’s not to say that this lightweight match-up isn’t a quality one, it is; Burns (36-2-1, 11 KO) and Crawford (22-0, 16 KO) are #3 and #5 in the Transnational Boxing Rankings, respectively. It’s just that Burns is a mover and a fencer, while Crawford is a pure counterpuncher. Burns has been dragged into the trenches before (paging Ray Beltran), but Crawford isn’t the man to do that. Crawford has the pizzazz to engage Burns, but if he doesn’t show more urgency than he did in his last fight, against Andrey Klimov, he’ll just eat jabs all night. London super heavyweight gold medalist Anthony Joshua fights on the undercard (he seems to fight virtually every weekend at this point, good on him).
  • Boxcino middleweight tournament, Friday, ESPN2, Hammond Ind. If last week’s lightweight quarterfinals were anything to go by, then the middleweight bracket of Friday Night Fights’ Boxcino middleweight tournament should be a blast. It should also be fairly unpredictable, but that’s never stopped me before. The wild cards are Ghana’s Sena Agbeko (15-0, 15 KO) and Ukraine’s Vitaliy Kopylenko (22-0, 12 KO), who fight Midwestern club fighter Cerresso Forte (17-2-1, 11 KO) and Texan Raymond Gatica (13-2, 8 KO), respectively. The toughest match-up of the night might be between Chicago based Lithunian Donatas Bondorovas (18-4-1, 6 KO), who had a close run thing with the aforementioned Vera last year, and Willie Monroe, Jr. (15-1, 6 KO). Monroe is doubtless the more polished of the two, but Bondorovas could maybe shake things up if he can fluster the New Yorker with his big right hand. The remaining fight pits LA prospect Brandon Adams (12-0, 8 KO) against Daniel “The Haitian Sensation” Edouard (23-4-2, 14 KO). Adams looks like he applies intelligent pressure (in the footage I’ve seen of him), but he’s a little ponderous and somewhat hittable. Eduouard hasn’t fought in three years and lost last time out to Peter Manfredo, Jr., but he’ll nevertheless be a big step up for Adams. I’d like to think the rookie can do it, though.
  • Robert Stieglitz vs. Arthur Abraham, Saturday, Magdeburg Germany. Stieglitz (46-3, 26 KO) and Abraham (38-4, 28 KO) are having a third fight and I see absolutely no reason why it won’t turn out exactly like the second, in which Stieglitz stopped Abraham in four. Abraham’s large water bird is cooked. He was never that flash as a super middleweight anyway.
  • The Rest. If you’ve got a thing for former drug cheats, then Showtime has a ShoBox for you on Friday night, with middleweight J’Leon Love (16-0, 9 KO) and lightweight Mickey Bey (19-1-1, 10 KO) both fighting… If that’s not your thing, but you still want to watch some boxing before Saturday, Universal Sports Network is airing a Thursday show from Brooklyn on tape delay, headlined by a clash of young New York cruiserweight prospects, Steve Bujaj (10-0, 7 KO) and Elvin Sanchez (6-2-1, 5 KO) Slow but fun Mexican welterweight brawler Pablo Cesar Cano (27-3-1, 20 KO) fights veteran Fernando Angulo (no relation of Alfredo) on the outskirts of Mexico City Saturday on Fox Deportes. Angulo’s boxrec page intriguingly claims that he “ran away at age seven to live in the jungle for months at a time over the years.” I’m sold… Hekkie Budler (24-1, 7 KO), the #2 strawweight contender, fights Karluis Diaz (21-4, 13 KO) in Johannesburg the same night.
2014-02-26T06:33:39+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/february/the-week-s-boxing-schedule-featuring-julio-cesar-chavez-jr-vasyl-lomachenko-and-ricky-burns.html
Finally, Floyd Mayweather Picks His Next Fight: Marcos Maidana http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/february/finally-floyd-mayweather-picks-his-next-fight-marcos-maidana.html The wait to figure out who Floyd Mayweather will beat next is over, and the choice, announced Monday, is Marcos Maidana. It was always down to two men, Maidana and Amir Khan, and an impatient, overeager, petulant Khan deliberately removed himself from the competition last week, declaring, laughably, that Mayweather was scared -- a failed attempt to save face when it looked like Madana would get the call for the May 3 Showtime pay-per-view gig.

Despite the opening sentence's submission to the foregone conclusion, Maidana (at right) proactively established himself as the most viable available option at welterweight, whereas Khan did not. Khan scraped by his last opponent, Julio Diaz, nearly a year ago in his debut above 140 pounds. Maidana bashed his way into the Mayweather fight with a hard-nosed defeat of Mayweather's "little brother," second rate Mayweather clone and protege Adrien Broner.

Other welterweight options weren't options for one reason or another. Manny Pacquiao still isn't an option for Mayweather, so long as Pacquiao remains with Top Rank Promotions, and probably forever anyway, because Mayweather has never wanted the fight and neither have various other people attached to the two men. Other Top Rank-affiliated fighters are also therefore out. Shawn Porter is more highly ranked at 147, but not by much, and he only recently arrived as a real contender, whereas Maidana -- as the news release points out repeatedly -- is Latino and has the marketable storyline of having beaten Mayweather's buddy.

There are better Mayweather opponents in other divisions, too. They just aren't on the cards yet. Junior middleweight Erislandy Lara is widely viewed as the biggest threat to Mayweather in the division where his is the lineal champion, but his fan base is small and therefore brings little money to the table. Middleweight champion Sergio Martinez would make an attractive opponent both from a competitive standpoint and marketability standpoint, if Mayweather dared to venture that high in weight or if Martinez could be lured over from HBO, but there's little indicator either is likely.

So Mayweather had a poll on his website between Khan and Maidana. Khan won, which everyone interpreted as meaning Mayweather wanted to fight Khan next, since every other poll on every other website selected Maidana. But maybe Mayweather wised up when he saw the fan reaction; Khan might have a bigger name, he might even have beaten Maidana himself, he might even have had more of a chance somehow based on his length and speed. But most people didn't really believe the shaky-chinned Khan had a prayer given the degeneration of his skills and multiple losses since the Maidana win, and maybe the notion that the Pakistani/Brit would bring a U.K. fan base or Middle East fan base was a fantasy.

The Argentinian Maidana does bring a Latino angle, although it's not like his countrymen or Americans of Argentinian descent have really translated into massive TV ratings. He also brings rugged power, unholy intent, ugly tattoos and demonic determination. Although improved under the tutelage of Robert Garcia (and in alliance with controversial strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza -- one assumes there will be advanced testing in place for performance enhancing drugs), Maidana is positively paleolithic compared to Mayweather. It's one thing for Maidana to have kicked the ass of a blown-up welterweight with questionable work habits like Broner, an impressive feat given the athletic and boxing advantages Broner had; it's an entirely different task to do that to Mayweather, the best fighter in the world today.

We'll see how much the perception of Mayweather's inevitable win hurts the PPV buy rate. The perception of the threat posed by Canelo Alvarez (which proved a flawed perception) helped propel that card to no worse than the second biggest PPV ever. Plenty of Mayweather fights have sold well when Mayweather was the heavy favorite, but it doesn't exactly help, and some of those fights against big underdogs at least featured big names. That's not Maidana. And the choice of Maidana comes late for promotional purposes -- about as late as when he picked Robert Guerrero, who shared Maidana's lack of name recognition and underdog status, and whom Showtime and Golden Boy Promotions have argued somewhat unconvincincly did 1 million buys with Mayweather. Each of those factors -- the perception of an inevitable win, the late hour of the choice of opponent and the lack of name recognition for said opponent -- should do damage to sales.

In a year where boxing is off to a slow start, you could play the optimist and celebrate that between his two choices, Mayweather made the right pick. Or you could play the pessimist, and shake your head that boxing's in such a state where you're mildly pleased about an outcome like this. Or if you really wanted to get fanciful, you could play the dreamer, and imagine a world where Maidana takes out two of boxing's biggest villainous characters in succession.

2014-02-25T07:19:43+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/february/finally-floyd-mayweather-picks-his-next-fight-marcos-maidana.html
Zou Shiming Puts Opponent To Sleep; Miguel Vazquez Does Same To Audience http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/february/zou-shiming-puts-opponent-to-sleep-miguel-vazquez-does-same-to-audience.html If you'd forgotten how horrible Miguel Vazquez is to watch in the 14 months he was away from the ring, he served up a reminder on HBO2 Saturday's tape delayed show from China. He took a unanimous decision over Dennis Shafikov in a fight where his biggest difficulty was a cut around his left eye in the 4th round.

If you have never seen Vazquez fight, it's mildly fascinating in the early rounds to see him win rounds the way he does -- circling, rarely getting hit, landing jabs, landing the occasional 1-2 and landing lead left uppercuts. But it gets old awfully quickly as the fight goes on, especially if you've endured it repeatedly.  Shafikov was not without his stretches of success, attacking to the body or catching Vazquez backing up at times. But he had his own left eye cut in the 7th, much worse than Vazquez's, and was visibly tiring by the 8th, when Vazquez tried to hold him twice and ended up tackling him.

The score of 115-113 from Patricia Morse Jarman was more than faintly ridiculous -- how do you score five rounds for Shafikov in that fight if you're not just giving Shafikov credit for moving forward? The 116-112 card wasn't much better, with the 119-109 far more like reality. His inactivity ended, Vazquez's win over a top 10 contender in Shafikov restores him to the top of the lightweight food chain. If he didn't have an alphabet belt, I doubt he'd ever be on TV again. Hurray for that?

The main event in China, but not on HBO, featured the continued offensive evolution of flyweight Zou Shiming, who scored the first knockout of his pro career in his fourth fight. Through four, the Olympian was getting hit a bit too much by Yokthong Kokietgym, a higher-end opponent for a pro's fourth fight (he was knocked out in two by contender Ryuji Hara in 2012). Shiming's offense has developed rather well under trainer Freddie Roach. He's taken on some Manny Pacquiao-like qualities on offense, that kind of two-fisted charge from unconventional foot position. And he can take a punch against this level of opposition, but he is still sloppy on defense. By the 5th he had tamed Kokietgym a bit by hurting him and wasn't getting tagged as often. In the 7th, he put Kokietgym down three times on combinations, and the fight probably should've been stopped after the second knockdown. He was in very bad shape after the third, and then it was over.

As long as Shiming makes money in the burgeoning market of China, we'll keep seeing him on HBO or its affiliates. When he's ready for contender-level competition will depend on how he fares as he keeps stepping up, obviously. But despite facing more advanced than usual competition, it feels like he won't be ready for another year or more, at this pace.

2014-02-23T05:11:37+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/february/zou-shiming-puts-opponent-to-sleep-miguel-vazquez-does-same-to-audience.html
Hank Lundy Thrives In His Latest Dance With Danger http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/february/hank-lundy-thrives-in-his-latest-dance-with-danger.html

(Hank Lundy drops Angelo Santana; photo credit: Tom Casino, Showtime)

Bless Hank Lundy's arrogant, stubborn soul. He doesn't need to trade punches like he does and really ought not to, based on that knockout loss to John Molina, yet he does it anyhow. Far from perfect, he's just good enough to hang with superior fighters and take care of lesser ones, usually with a hefty dose of peril, win or lose. Friday night on ShoBox, Lundy kept the peril to a manageable level and was good enough to beat busted prospect Angelo Santana by a wide unanimous decision.

Moving back down to lightweight, Lundy had to endure a few competitive rounds early from Santana, who made his name as a puncher on ShoBox with a big knockout win in 2012 then lost it in his next appearance on ShoBox in 2013 with a knockout loss. But Santana clearly can punch, name or no, it's only how long he can retain that power as the fight goes on that matters -- he had weight problems in his last fight and the once-a-year pace courtesy of Don King surely can't help with his fighting shape. Lundy, for all his showiness, does not suffer from any apparent lack of devotion these days, coming off a rebound win against Olusegun Ajose after two straight losses. So with his speed, movement and guts, he eventually took over against the slowing Santana.

It was harrowing in places, of course, or else it wouldn't have been a Lundy fight. His corner exhorted him late to step up the pace, something he didn't really need to do, based on the 98-91 scorecards across the board. That meant he traded, naturally, and this time he came out ahead in the bargain: With a roundhouse right that connected on an off-balance Santana, he scored a knockdown. Afterward, he crowed loudly about his power. Makes sense. But he also said he wanted Lucas Matthysse, a fight once booked that fell through when Lundy dealt with some promotional problems. At the time, it was viewed as a brutal mismatch. It makes even more sense now than then, with Matthysse rebounding from his own loss and Lundy showing more these days than ever.

On the ShoBox undercard, Amir Imam scored a violent knockout that sent Jared Robinson tumbling out of the ring and onto the floor head first. Imam, a junior welterweight prospect, has a record that says "big puncher" with 12 knockouts now in 13 fights, but it has been against unknown competition. Robinson offered more of the same, although he was undefeated and put up a good scrap through three rounds, bloodying Imam and withstanding his power. That changed in the 4th with a couple jabs and a big right hand that put Robinson on the concrete. As impressive as Imam's power was, Robinson's ability to get up and climb the stairs under the circumstances was even more dumbfounding. He wasn't ready to continue, so the referee waived it off correctly, but the big punching was excellent and the recovery was excellent because of it. If Imam can do this against even better fighters, we might have something, and we'll remember this fight as a helpful one that got him to that level.

2014-02-22T11:28:42+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/february/hank-lundy-thrives-in-his-latest-dance-with-danger.html
Friday Night Fights Boxcino Tournament Gets Off To Hot Start http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/february/friday-night-fights-boxcino-tournament-gets-off-to-hot-start.html








2014-02-22T09:57:14+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/february/friday-night-fights-boxcino-tournament-gets-off-to-hot-start.html
A New Standard For Men, Vitali Klitschko http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/february/a-new-standard-for-men-vitali-klitschko.html


You can see it in their downturned eyes—“if only I had grown”; “if only I had taken Iowa.” But they didn’t, and everything else is just second rate at best: that to which one is relegated.

The president of the United States is the most powerful man in the world, the commander-in-chief of the greatest military force in all of history; the leader of the free world. But one wonders if he too wouldn’t trade it in to be crowned heavyweight champ.

At least it is so for men of a certain age.

Of heavyweight champions, Norman Mailer famously wrote:

The closer a heavyweight comes to the championship, the more natural it is for him to be a little bit insane, secretly insane, for the heavyweight champion of the world is either the toughest man in the world or he is not, but there is a real possibility he is. It is like being the big toe of God. You have nothing to measure yourself by.

But for the rest of us, the yardstick is stark -- a highly illuminated guide by which to reckon our personal underperformance. We can measure ourselves, and we fall short.

And to make matters worse, a new standard has emerged: heavyweight champion/president. For the first time since, well, maybe David -- who stood mano y manos con piedra against the heavyweight champion of his time, Goliath -- a heavyweight champion is poised to take leadership of his country.

Ukranian Vitali “Dr. Ironfist” Klitschko (45-2, 41 KO) is the former lineal heavyweight champion, currently on sabbatical as he attempts to fix his country’s increasingly violent and center stage ills (his brother Wladimir “Dr. Steelhammer” Klitschko [61-3, 51 KO] at present holds the only heavyweight belt worth mentioning —and the brothers steadfastly refuse to fight each other).

After losing a bid for Mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, the first boxing champion ever to hold a Ph.D., (it just gets worse and worse) was elected to the Ukranian Parliament as a member of the party he founded and leads -- the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform (UDAR). Including Klitschko’s, the UDAR won 40 seats. On Oct. 24, 2013, “Dr. Ironfist” announced that he would run for president of the Ukraine in its 2015 election. He favors an association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, and also favors Ukraine-NATO cooperation -- none of which has endeared him to Russia and Vladimir Putin, or, it seems, the United States (as evidenced by the leaked phone conversation of the U.S. assistant secretary of State, Victoria “Fuck the E.U.” Nuland).

On Feb. 19, 2014, holding fast as an opposition leader of 20,000 protesters occupying Independence Square in Kiev -- under siege by government forces and beset by increasing violence with street battles reported to have left at least 26 dead (including 10 police officers) --  Vitali Klitschko proclaimed as relayed by ESPN to the crowd under fire: “We will not go anywhere from here… This is an island of freedom, and we will defend it.” Klitschko also demanded the resignation of the Ukranian president.

On Feb. 20, NBC News reported that Mr. Klitschko, still there, reiterated the demand for a changing of the guard.

“In a statement posted online just after noon (5 a.m. ET), the former boxing star said: ‘President Yanukovych has to announce early presidential election. This is the only way to stop the violence.’”

Gentleman, it is clear, a new standard has been set.

Godspeed Mr. Klitschko.

Mike Ricciardelli, has written about boxing for the Daily Record, Asbury Park Press and 15 Rounds.com. He is also the former Legal Media Officer and Managing Editor of HealthReformWatch.com, the web log of the Health Law Program at Seton Hall University School of Law. 

2014-02-21T10:38:23+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/february/a-new-standard-for-men-vitali-klitschko.html
Pound-For-Pound: Boxers Turned Politicians http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2012-articles/pound-for-pound-boxers-turned-politicians.html There’s never been a better time to be someone who used to get hit in the head for a living. Two senior senators from both U.S. political parties are former boxers, along with the prime minister of Australia, Ukraine’s opposition leader and this little congressman from the Philippines you might have heard of.

With the news that Roy Jones, Jr. is  isn’t running for mayor of Penascola, Fla., it’s time for the political world to sit up and take notice: You don’t need rhetoric, charm or even the ability to string together a coherent sentence to hold high office. All you need is a hard head and thick skin (which rules out Gabe Rosado from running for office).

Some people say pound-for-pound lists are useless, purely speculative intellectual exercises for people who have too much time on their hands. So to prove them wrong, here’s TQBR’s pound-for-pound list of heavy hitters turned, well, heavy hitters.

Vitali Klitschko

Vitali gets top spot because this is a p4p list and he does weigh a lot of pounds (that’s how this works, right?) The dominant former heavyweight champion with the nearly 90 percent knockout ratio is currently one of the main opposition leaders in Ukraine, which must keep him busy, seeing as there’s quite a lot of opposition there right now. Jokes aside, things are getting increasingly serious in Kiev. Klitschko will need intelligence and all the toughness he showed us in the ring if he’s to prevail in his latest struggle.

Theodore Roosevelt

It’s well known that apart from the heavyweight champion of the world, the President of the U.S. of A. is the most important person on earth. Roosevelt was an “avid sportsman” (which is how they used to say total badass before you were allowed to say ass), so I have to assume that all his boxing matches took place while he was riding an elk or something. He continued his love affair with the sweet science even while he was president, or at least until a young artillery captain "cross countered [the president] on the eye, smashing the little blood vessels."

Nelson Mandela

Everyone says Nelson Mandela was such a nice guy, but did he really need to punch Muhammad Ali in the face like that? Can you make a joke about Nelson Mandela? I don’t know – I just did. The recently deceased freedom fighter learned to box in prison and was a featherweight dynamo before he was South Africa’s first post-apartheid president. "Boxing is egalitarian,'' he wrote. “In the ring, rank, age, colour and wealth are irrelevant.”

Tony Abbott

(Abbott, right, eating some leather)

Australia’s PM laced up the gloves while at Oxford and went undefeated. His technique mightn’t have been the best, but his face-first, bruising style has served him well in the political arena. His brief dabble in the pugilistic arts has provided Australian journalists with a seemingly never-ending supply of metaphors, so cheers to you, Tone.

Manny Pacquiao

A four time lineal champion and boxing’s most unlikely star, Pacman can do it all: fight, act, sing and be chased by ghosts through an unearthly maze. The current governor of Sarangani province in the southern Philippines is likely to be a contender for president when he reaches the age limit of 40 in five years time. Reportedly not paying your tax to the government that you’re part of isn’t really a good look, though.

Harry Reid and John McCain

I can’t really split these two and I know how seriously you yanks take your politics. It’s interesting to note that two senior senators who had common apprenticeship in beating people up are the ones that can occasionally compromise on things (crazy, right?). Reid boxed in college, while McCain was apparently a handy lightweight in the navy. The leader of McCain’s first year class said "it was clear that nobody was going to take him down without a hell of an effort.” The pair have actually done a lot of good for boxing over the years, and are currently working together for a pardon for Jack Johnson. Interestingly, McCain is LEFT handed, while Reid’s power hand is his RIGHT. ALL THE EVIDENCE IS THERE, SHEEPLE!

Roy Jones, Jr.

All-time-great turned HBO commentator Jones announced on Tuesday (to that well known political diary, TMZ) that he’s running for mayor of his hometown. The only problem: He isn’t eligible. It’s just the kind of flashy move the former middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight used to make in the ring. In a parallel with the sad tail end of his boxing career (which is ongoing at age 45), he probably could have used a bit more attention to detail once the pizzazz wore off.

Maybe it’s for the best, since Jones seemed to be running on a platform of getting kids into punch ups, telling TMZ: "I tell the kids, don't fight in the streets. Go into MMA, go into boxing.” True Jones aficionados will be glad in any case, as mayoral duties would have been unlikely to provide the former middleweight champion with the opportunity to say “cheen” instead of "chin" very often.

2014-02-21T10:08:35+00:00 http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2012-articles/pound-for-pound-boxers-turned-politicians.html
Sena Agbeko Will Go As Far As His Dedication To His Craft, Country Will Take Him http://www.queensberry-rules.com/2014-articles/february/sena-agbeko-will-go-as-far-as-his-dedication-to-his-craft-country-will-take-him.html

(Sena Agbeko, left, sparring with Michael Moore; credit: Morgan Hines)

Ike Quartey. Joseph Agbeko. Josh Clottey. Azumah Nelson. The list of boxing greats to come out of Ghana is impressive, especially considering the sub-Saharan country’s modest population of 25 million. But before refamiliarizing yourself with this list, pencil in one more name: Sena Agbeko. The 21-year-old middleweight is not only confident that he’ll be the next Ghanaian world champion in the ring, but that he’ll be able to further the sport out of it as well.

Agbeko (15-0, 15 KOs) will make his U.S. debut next week in ESPN’s two-division Boxcino 2014 tournament, which kicks off this coming Friday with the lightweight class. With the network giant touting the tournament as a means to "develop boxing’s newest stars," it’s easy to see how the 6’1”, uber-chiseled prospect with a 100% kayo rate might fit the bill.

Intrigued by what I saw from Agbeko in a sparring session at a Nashville gym (as well as the utter dearth of related YouTube footage) I decided to travel to his camp in Columbia, Tenn. to spend some time with the enigmatic up-and-comer and learn more.


Agbeko is rangy and raw. His body overflows with athleticism -- and his eyes with intelligence, whether he’s providing a thoughtful answer to a question you haven’t asked yet or processing shouted instructions from his corner mid-combination. While his tools are impressive, Agbeko is still very much a work-in-progress. Not only did he get a late start in boxing (he began boxing in 2008 at the age of 15) but, at the direction of his trainer Morgan “Doc” Hines, is still refining a new, high-pressure style he adopted just a few months ago.

“In Ghana, I had a counterpunching style, because that’s what was working,” said Agbeko. “My team has helped me to not wait on punches, initiate the attack and transition to being a pressure fighter. It’s made me more of a complete fighter. I’m able to deal with every style and I have a bit of every style within me.”

After watching Agbeko average almost 120 punches per round during a sparring session with Cleveland-based middleweight Michael Moore, it was hard to imagine the same sinewed frenzy of fists being successful as anything other than a “punch first, move head later” volume fighter. But Agbeko’s team insists the transition is real and only has been possible due to the extreme studiousness of their trainee.

“Sena is a sponge,” Hines said. “He’s realized there’s more he can do as a boxer. His desire to work hard makes all the difference in the world. He absorbs everything you say to him, and then he doesn’t mind working his butt off to perfect it.”

In fact, Agbeko’s mule-like work ethic drove him to isolate himself as he adapts to life in the United States. Shortly after signing with KO Management last year, Agbeko moved to a small town in middle Tennessee to dedicate himself to his craft.

“Hard work and dedication has brought me this far,” said Agbeko. “Being alone in Tennessee lets me focus on just the sport. If I was someplace like Las Vegas, I’d have distractions, but here it’s just me. I’m happy with it. I treat every day like camp.”

Agbeko also claims that, since 2008, he has never taken more than four days off from the gym. Whether that’s true or not, it’s a testament to his systematic approach that he’s even counting.


Early in life, Agbeko’s focus was on education rather than athletics. It wasn’t until high school that he began shifting energy from his studies towards sports. After having success as an amateur judoka, Agbeko’s interest in boxing was piqued by the lead-up to the 2007 superfight between Floyd Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya.

“Growing up, I’d wake up in the middle of the night to watch these champions," he said. "I imagined myself one day fighting in the U.S. and people in Ghana would wake up to watch me fight. So fighting on ESPN alone feels like an accomplishment... I’m also very happy to be the first fighter to graduate from college in Ghana, but I want to complete this picture by winning a world championship.”

When asked if he feels pressure from the weight of the eyes (and expectations) of a country, Agbeko insisted that he can handle it. In fact, he feels only inspiration.

“For many people back home, it’s surprising that I’ve transformed from a weak, nerdy kid to the guy I am in the ring," he said. "So there are a lot of people looking up to me in Ghana. And sometimes I do think it’s a bit too early to be getting all of that pressure, but in another way, it’s a good thing because it makes me work extra hard.’”

Following in the footsteps of other Ghanaian pugilists has also given Agbeko -- no relation to Joseph -- a blueprint to become a more complete fighter. While religiously watching old fight tapes, Agbeko analyzes the best traits of each fighter and tries to apply them to his own game. He specifically named Quartey’s jab and Clottey’s defense as tools he’d like to emulate in order to hone his skills to a championship caliber.

Along the way, Agbeko has developed other plans to give back to his country outside the ring. He intends to pursue a master’s degree in sports management and eventually wants to start a promotional company in Ghana. Eventually, he wants to leverage his boxing success to grow the sport across Africa, helping develop champions and generate local income.


Agbeko will square off with Raymond Gatica (13-2, 8 KO) in the first round of the Boxcino tournament. Even with Gatica’s limited merits, he’ll unquestionably be Agbeko’s toughest opponent to date. However, the young fighter forewarns anyone who might dismiss his experience to this point.

“Gatica definitely is a step up in the level of competition. But I do think a lot of people tend to underestimate the kind of guys we fight [in Ghana]," said Agbeko. "A lot of people back home don’t have access to the facilities or the expertise of trainers that you have here, but they’re really strong. They’re raw, but have brutish strength. They’re durable and I knocked them out.

“So if you do tell me that the level of opposition I’ve faced isn’t high enough and you do underestimate me, you’re doing that to your own detriment,” Agbeko continued. “If you get surprised and you lose, that’s your fault. But everything I have to prove will happen inside the ring.”

Even after building a knockout streak against wholly unknown competition in Ghana, Agbeko knows better than to look for a quick kayo in upcoming fights. The current gameplan for the Gatica fight calls for Agbeko to out-jab and out-work his opponent, breaking him down with relentless pressure.

“Experience has taught me that if you stick to the gameplan, the knockout will come naturally,” noted Agbeko.

Tim Gibson, Agbeko’s manager and advisor, doesn’t feel that the knockout streak will be a distraction. However, he did caution that challenges might arise from an unexpected place: the bout’s context.

“Gatica is a tough fighter, but you have to remember this is Sena’s first fight in America," Gibson said. "This is his first fight in almost a year and his first time fighting in front of all of these lights and cameras. There’s a lot at stake. It’s a whole new world for him."

But Agbeko remains un-phased by the big stage and bright lights, let alone his opponent. Like with all of his triumphs to date, he knows anything is possible with the right amount of effort and preparation.

“I realize there’s a lot of hard work from now until a championship,” Agbeko said. “I just have to be consistent and I believe I’ll get there.”
