Berto/Soto Karass Ringsider Notebook

Published

11 years ago

August 1, 2013

DSC 0627 Jesus Soto Karass was as happy as any fighter I’d ever seen at the post fight press conference last Saturday night after he defeated former titlist Andre Berto. He told those in attendance he was ready for whatever fight Golden Boy Promotions had for him next, and we should probably believe him. Why? Because the hard puncher from Los Mochis, Mexico has now won two bouts in a row against men he was a clear underdog against. First, he outpointed Selcuck Aydin in January. Next, he put a sheer beat- down on a talented fighter in Andre Berto who absolutely had to win in order to stay in the title hunt.

The scores were way closer than they should have been, but Soto Karass (pictured above, in photo courtesy of Rachel McCarson) didn’t leave it up to the three blind mice at ringside so it did not matter. (At the time of the stoppage, Cathy Leonard had it 105-103 for Berto, Hubert Minn scored it at 104-104, and Michael Mitchell had Soto Karass just two points ahead at 105-103.) In the final round, after his corner told him to box from the outside and play it safe, the angry warrior told them to take a hike. He went right after Berto because he felt he had been hit with a low blow that put him to the canvas in the previous round.

Soto Karass clocked Berto with a left hook straight to the mug, and though the brave hitter got to his feet, his starry eyes and wobbly legs told the truth of the matter to referee Jon Schorle: he was out on his feet. The fight was stopped.

Soto Karass grabbed the career defining win by TKO in the final round in impressive fashion. In fact, to these eyes it deserved the ten thousand dollar knockout bonus of night Golden Boy instead gave to Keith Thurman, but Karass didn’t seem to mind too much. He laughed it off at the podium when Golden Boy V.P. Eric Gomez told him he didn’t win it, likely knowing he had much bigger things in store for him after his tremendously exciting win over Berto.

And he absolutely deserves it.

The Demise of Andre Berto?

Former welterweight titleholder Andre Berto came into the fight Saturday looking to get back on track after a tough loss to Robert Guerrero in his previous bout. After all, Soto Karass was generally thought of as tough but otherwise unremarkable and ultimately beatable contender.

But Soto Karass was brilliant against Berto, who simply was beat down by a more aggressively-minded offensive fighter who just plain decided he’d take the fight right to the wannabe slickster.

Andre Berto is as tremendous athlete. He’s gritty, tough and fights with real determination. His performance, which essentially boiled down to him fighting with the full use of just one of his arms for over half the night, was admirable. The man has courage.

But his approach to the sweet science is just plain wrong. Berto wants to be a slick counterpuncher. He wants to use his athletic prowess to be hard to hit. The only problem, of course, is that Andre Berto is not hard to hit at all. In fact, his face seems a virtual magnet for almost any fist that comes near it. Ask Victor Ortiz. Ask Robert Guerrero. Ask Jesus Soto Karass.

Berto is at his best when he’s aggressive. When he lays back and tries to play defense, he ends up getting pummeled to the point of needing to respond. It’s true; he always does respond to his pummeling, and that’s good. To that end, he’s virtually incapable of being in a bad fight it seems. But by that time he’s taken far too many punches without inflicting any real damage of his own. That just won’t work in the long haul.

If Andre Berto wants to compete for an alphabet title again, he needs to accept what he is: a hard punching, athletic offensive fighter with grit and determination. His career might be shorter fighting this way, but its apex will be much higher and his earnings, too.

Let Them Fight!

Fight fans were treated to a brutally devout display of boxing by lightweights Omar Figueroa and Nihito Arakawa on Saturday night. It was the sweetest form of savagery the sport of boxing has to offer. Neither man relented, no matter how many punches were thrown and landed.

And there were many, many punches.

After the torrid, bloody affair had ended, one giddy ringsider from Showtime (who shall not be named) peered back to us on press row with an eerie sort of bloodlust in his eyes.

“They threw over 2100 punches combined,” he half-yelled at us.

Like our nameless ringsider, the rest of us in attendance that night were honored to be ringside to see such a display of courage and determination. Honored.

The undefeated Figueroa looked to be on his way to a quick win early. He punished Arakawa with hard hooks and uppercuts right down to the canvas in the second round. The Japanese fighter was clearly overmatched.

Or was he?

Soon, it was Arakawa standing toe-to-toe with Figueroa again right in the center of the ring. And that’s where he stayed. They were whirling dervishes trapped inside of a phone booth, except that they were bloody and mean to each other. It was a fight for the ages.

Figueroa landed the harder shots at a much higher percentage on the night. He was clearly winning the fight as it progressed. But Arakawa is as tough as they come, maybe even tougher. He would not relent, would not give in. There were times when even Figueroa seemed impressed with how gritty his opponent was.

“The first round was busy as hell,” Michael Woods aptly penned here for TSS.

And so was the second. And the third, the fourth, the fifth…the entire fight was busy as hell.

It was truly an amazing spectacle to witness firsthand. When the bell finally rang to end the madness in the twelfth, the entire row of press I was seated with stood up an applauded. As you know, it is uncouth for press members to do such a thing, especially if it is for one fighter or another. But this was not that. This was applause for two gallant warriors doing what they are supposed to do: fight brilliantly and without fear.

To that end, there are always those among us who seem to have a background in medicine or something. Or maybe they’re just experts at all things boxing? I don’t know, but I do know they come out of the woodworks on social media when men fight each other in this way. And they always beg for the fight to be stopped. They are sometimes right, these people. I’ll give them that.

But they were wrong on this night.

Look, I am all for protecting the fighters from themselves. That’s a very important part of boxing that should never, ever be overlooked. But here was a case of two men giving there all in a very competitive fight. Sure, Arakawa wasn’t winning on the scorecards, but he hurt Figueroa multiple times in the fight right up until the very end of the bout. This was no snuff film. The men were matched well together, and both had their chances to win.

The point of all this? Let them fight. It’s what they want to do, so let them. That’s what oft-maligned referee Laurence Cole did on Saturday night and it was the right call. At no time was Arakawa stumbling around the ring after the bell not knowing where to go. Was he bruised? Yes. Bloodied? Yes. Was his life in any more danger than any other prizefighter on fight night? No.

But if you believe you have the authority to tell the fighter, his corner, the referee and the ringside doctor to stop the fight because you just can’t stand seeing the guts and the gore, then maybe boxing just isn’t for you.

Because boxing is about hurting people.

Rise of the Thurman-ator

Perhaps lost in the shuffle Saturday night in San Antonio was the standout performance by undefeated welterweight prospect Keith Thurman. He was cool, calm and confident in his battle with the previously undefeated Diego Chaves.

Better yet, he displayed poise, power and the ability to adjust to what was in front of him on fight night, something all fighters must do if they are to become world champions. Through the first three rounds of the fracas, Chaves was taking it to Thurman with an aggressive approach that featured powerful combinations.

The Argentine had never lost before and it showed, and it was easy to see why he had knocked out 18 of his 22 opponents. But Thurman started looking to counter Chaves as he came inside, and he kept a jab in the Argentinean’s face while he figured out how to do it best. Soon, it was Thurman landing the meaningful blows. Soon, it was Thurman throwing powerful combinations.

He put Chaves down in the ninth round and cold cocked him in the tenth after he bent the brave challenger over with a devastating body blow. It was brutally effective, and it made a believer out of anyone on press row who had previously doubted Thurman as a serious contender.

The kid can fight.

Anthony Dirrell Wins Again

Undefeated light heavyweight Anthony Dirrell was back in action for the second time this year Saturday night. It was the fighter’s second bout since breaking his leg in a 2012 motorcycle accident. The 28-year-old prospect and younger brother of former Olympian Andre Dirrell has been resilient in his short but beleaguered career.

In early 2007, Dirrell was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and forced to undergo chemotherapy. Dirrell was out of the ring for almost two years then, but returned in October of 2008 before being sidelined again by the accident.

Dirrell made quick work of former prospect Anthony Hanshaw, whose soft body couldn’t have been helpful against the hard punching Dirrell. After Dirrell delivered the knockout blow in the third, he literally did a standing back flip in the center of the ring in celebration.

So it seems the leg is fine.

Speaking of the untelevised portion of the evening, those bouts began at 4:30 PM local time. The timing was a bit askew, though, and there was more than an hour lull between the untelevised undercard and the start of the Showtime broadcast. Of course, fans and media members who were miffed by the hour of nothingness quickly forgave the promoters when one of the finest fight cards of the year took place right before their very eyes.

How good was it? Showtime’s Al Bernstein (who had the best seat in the house) said it was one of the best cards he’d ever announced.

“All six fighters did the sport proud,” he said.

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Kelsey McCarson

Avila Perspective, Chap. 282: Ryan’s Song, Golden Boy in Fresno and More

Published

5 hours ago

April 26, 2024

David A. Avila

Avila-Perspective-Chap-282-Ryan's-Song-Golden-Boy-in-Fresno-and-More

Don’t call it an upset.

Days after Ryan Garcia proved the experts wrong, those same experts are re-tooling their evaluation processes.

It’s mind-boggling to me that 95 percent thought Garcia had no chance. Hear me out.

First, Garcia and Haney fought six times as amateurs with each winning three. But this time with no head gear and smaller gloves, Garcia had to have at least a 50/50 chance of winning. He is faster and a more powerful puncher.

Facts.

Haney is a wonderful boxer with smooth, almost artistic movements. But history has taught us power and speed like Garcia’s can’t be discounted. Think way back to legendary fighters like Willie Pep and Sandy Sadler. All that excellent defensive skill could not prevent Sadler from beating Pep in three of their four meetings.

Power has always been an equalizer against boxing skill.

Ben Lira, one of the wisest and most experienced trainers in Southern California, always professed knockout power was the greatest equalizer in a fight. “You can be behind for nine rounds and one punch can change the outcome,” he said.

Another weird theory spreading before the fight was that Garcia would quit in the fight. That was a puzzling one. Getting stopped by a perfect body shot is not quitting. And that punch came from Gervonta “Tank” Davis who can really crack.

So how did Garcia do it?

In the opening round Ryan Garcia timed Devin Haney’s jab and countered with a snapping left hook that rattled and wobbled the super lightweight champion. After that, Garcia forced Haney to find another game plan.

Garcia and trainer Derrick James must have worked hours on that move.

I must confess that I first saw Garcia’s ability many years ago when he was around 11 or 12. So I do have an advantage regarding his talent. A few things I noticed even back then were his speed and power. Also, that others resented his talent but respected him. He was the guy with everything: talent and looks.

And that brings resentment.

Recently I saw him and his crew rapping a song on social media. Now he’s got a song. Next thing you know Hollywood will be calling and he’ll be in the movies. It’s happened before with fighters such as Art Aragon, the first Golden Boy in the 50s. He was dating movie stars and getting involved with starlets all over Hollywood.

Is history repeating itself or is Garcia creating a new era for boxing?

Since 2016 people claimed he was just a social media creation. Now, after his win over Devin Haney a former undisputed lightweight champion and the WBC super lightweight titleholder, the boxer from the high desert area of Victorville has become one of the highest paid fighters in the world.

Ryan Garcia has entered a new dimension.

Golden Boy Season

After several down years the Los Angeles-based company Golden Boy Promotions suddenly is cracking the whip in 2024.

Avila

Vergil Ortiz Jr. (20-0, 20 KOs) returns to the ring and faces Puerto Rico’s Thomas Dulorme (26-6-1, 17 KOs) a welterweight gatekeeper who lost to Jaron “Boots” Ennis and Eimantas Stanionis. They meet as super welterweights in the co-main event at Save Mart Arena in Fresno, Calif. on Saturday, April 27. DAZN will stream the Golden Boy Promotions card live.

It’s a quick return to action for Ortiz who is still adjusting to the new weight division. His last fight three months ago ended in less than one round in Las Vegas. It was cut short by an antsy referee and left Ortiz wanting more after more than a year of inactivity in the prize ring.

Ortiz has all the weapons.

Also, Northern California’s Jose Carlos Ramirez (28-1, 18 KOs) meets Cuba’s Rances Barthelemy (30-2-1, 15 KOs) in a welterweight affair set for 12 rounds.

It’s difficult to believe that former super lightweight titlist Ramirez has been written off by fans after only one loss. That was several years ago against Scotland’s Josh Taylor. One loss does not mean the end of a career.

“My goal is to get back on top and to get all those belts back. I still feel like I am one of the best 140-pounders in the division,” said Ramirez who lives in nearby Avenal, Calif.

An added major attraction features Marlen Esparza in a unification rematch against Gabriela “La Chucky” Alaniz for the WBA, WBC, WBO flyweight titles. Their first fight was

a controversial win by Esparza that saw one judge give her nine of 10 rounds in a very close fight. Those Texas judges.

In a match that could steal the show, Oscar Duarte (26-2-1, 21 KOs) faces former world champion Jojo Diaz (33-5-1, 15 KOs) in a lightweight match.

Munguia and Canelo

Don’t sleep on this match.

Its current Golden Boy fighter Jaime Munguia facing former Golden Boy fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in a battle between Mexico’s greatest sluggers next week at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on May 4.

“I think Jaime Munguia is going to do something special in the ring,” said Oscar De La Hoya, the CEO for Golden Boy.

Tijuana’s Munguia showed up at the Wild Card Boxing gym in Hollywood where a throng of media from Mexico and the US met him.

Munguia looked confident and happy about his opportunity to fight great Canelo.

“It’s a hard fight,” said Munguia. “Truth is, its big for Mexico and not only for Mexicans but for boxing.”

Fights to Watch

Fri. DAZN 6 p.m. Yoeniz Tellez (7-0) vs Joseph Jackson (19-0).

Sat. DAZN 9:30 a.m. Peter McGrail (8-1) vs Marc Leach (18-3-1); Beatriz Ferreira (4-0) vs Yanina Del Carmen 14-3).

Sat. DAZN 5 p.m. Vergil Ortiz (20-0) vs Thomas Dulorme (26-6-1); Jose Carlos Ramirez (28-1) vs Rances Barthelemy (30-2-1); Marlen Esparza (14-1) vs Gabriela Alaniz (14-1).

Photo credit: Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy Promotions

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Ramon Cardenas Channels Micky Ward and KOs Eduardo Ramirez on ProBox

Published

2 days ago

April 24, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Ramon-Cardenas-Channels-Micky-Ward-and-KOs-Eduardo-Ramirez-on-ProBox

The Wednesday night bi-monthly series of fights on the ProBox TV platform is the best deal in boxing; the livestream is free with no strings attached! Tonight’s episode was headlined by a super bantamweight match between San Antonio’s Ramon Cardenas and Eduardo Ramirez who brought a caravan of rooters from his hometown in Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico.

Cardenas, coached by Joel Diaz, entered the contest ranked #4 by the WBA. He was expected to handle Ramirez with little difficulty, but this was a close, tactical fight through eight frames when lightning struck in the form of a left hook to the liver from Cardenas. Ramirez went down on one knee and wasn’t able to beat the count. It was as if Cardenas summoned the ghost of Micky Ward who had a penchant for terminating fights with the same punch that arrived out of the blue.

The official time was 1:37 of round nine. Cardenas improved to 25-1 with his14th win inside the distance. Ramirez, who was stopped in the opening round by Nick “Wrecking” Ball in London in his lone previous fight outside Mexico, falls to 23-3-3.

Co-Feature

In an upset, Tijuana super welterweight Damian Sosa won a split decision over previously undefeated Marques Valle, a local area fighter who was stepping up in class in his first 10-round go. Sosa was the aggressor, repeatedly backing his taller opponent into the ropes where Valle was unable to get good leverage behind his punches.

The 25-year-old Valle, managed by the influential David McWater, was the house fighter. This was his 10^th appearance in this building. He brought a 10-0 (7) record and was hoping to emulate the success of his younger brother Dominic Valle who scored a second-round stoppage of his opponent in this ring two weeks ago, improving to 9-0. But Sosa, who brought a 24-2 record, proved to be a bridge too high.

The judges had it 97-93 and 96-94 for the Tijuana invader and a disgraceful 98-92 for the house fighter.

Also

In a fight whose abrupt ending would be echoed by the main event, 34-year-old SoCal featherweight Ronny Rios, now training in Las Vegas, returned to the ring after a 22-month hiatus and scored a fifth-round stoppage over Nicolas Polanco of the Dominican Republic.

A three-punch combo climaxed by a left hook to the liver took the breath out of Polanco who slumped to his knees and was counted out. A two-time world title challenger, Rios advanced to 34-4 (17 KOs). Polanco, 34, declined to 21-6-1. The official time was 0:54 of round five.

—

The next ProBox show (Wednesday, May 8) will have an international cast with fighters from Kazakhstan, Japan, Mongolia, and the United Kingdom. In the main event, Liverpool’s Robbie Davies Jr will make his U.S. debut against the California-based Kazakh Sergey Lipinets.

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Haney-Garcia Redux with the Focus on Harvey Dock

Published

4 days ago

April 22, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Haney-Garcia-Redux-with-the-Focus-on-Harvey-Dock

Saturday’s skirmish between Ryan Garcia and WBC super lightweight champion Devin Haney was a messy affair, and yet a hugely entertaining fight fused with great drama. In the aftermath, Garcia and Haney were celebrated – the former for fooling all the experts and the latter for his gallant performance in a losing effort – but there were only brickbats for the third man in the ring, referee Harvey Dock.

Devin Haney was plainly ahead heading into the seventh frame when there was a sudden turnabout when Garcia put him on the canvas with his vaunted left hook. Moments later, Dock deducted a point from Garcia for a late punch coming out of a break. The deduction forced a temporary cease-fire that gave Haney a few precious seconds to regain his faculties. Before the round was over, Haney was on the deck twice more but these were ruled slips.

The deduction, which effectively negated the knockdown, struck many as too heavy-handed as Dock hadn’t previously issued a warning for this infraction. Moreover, many thought he could have taken a point away from Haney for excessive clinching. As for Haney’s second and third trips to the canvas in round seven, they struck this reporter – watching at home – as borderline, sufficient to give referee Dock the benefit of the doubt.

In a post-fight interview, Ryan Garcia faulted the referee for denying him the satisfaction of a TKO. “At the end of the day, Harvey Dock, I think he was tripping,” said Garcia. “He could have stopped that fight.”

Those that played the rounds proposition, placing their coin on the “under,” undoubtedly felt the same way.

The internet lit up with comments assailing Dock’s competence and/or his character. Some of the ponderings were whimsical, but they were swamped by the scurrilous screeching of dolts who find a conspiracy under every rock.

Stephen A. Smith, reputedly America’s highest-paid TV sports personality, was among those that felt a need to weigh-in: “This referee is absolutely terrible….Unreal! Horrible officiating,” tweeted Stephen A whose primary area of expertise is basketball.

Harvey Dock

Dock fought as an amateur and had one professional fight, winning a four-round decision over a fellow novice on a show at a non-gaming resort in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. He says that as an amateur he was merely average, but he was better than that, a New Jersey and regional amateur champion in 1993 and 1994 while a student New Jersey’s Essex County Community College where he majored in journalism.

A passionate fan of Sugar Ray Leonard, he started officiating amateur fights in 1998 and six years later, at age 32, had his first documented action at the professional level, working low-level cards in New Jersey. The top boxing referees, to a far greater extent than the top judges, had long apprenticeships, having worked their way up from the boonies and Dock is no exception.

Per boxrec, Haney vs Garcia was Harvey Dock’s 364^th assignment in the pros and his forty-second world title fight. Some of those title fights were title in name only, they weren’t even main events, but, bit by bit, more lucrative offerings started coming his way.

On May 13, 2023, Dock worked his first fights in Nevada, a 4-rounder and then a 12-rounder on a card at the Cosmopolitan topped by the 140-pound title fight between Rolly Romero and Ismael Barroso. It was the first time that this reporter got to watch Dock in the flesh.

Ironically (in hindsight), the card would be remembered for the actions of a referee, in this case Tony Weeks who handled the main event. Barroso was winning the fight on all three cards when Weeks stepped in and waived it off in the ninth round after Romero cornered Barroso against the ropes and let loose a barrage of punches, none of which landed cleanly. Few “premature stoppages” were ever as garishly, nay ghoulishly, premature.

With all the brickbats raining down on Weeks, I felt a need to tamp down the noise by diverting attention away from Tony Weeks and toward Harvey Dock and took to the TSS Forum to share my thoughts. Referencing the 12-rounder, a robust junior welterweight affair between Batyr Akhmedov and Kenneth Sims Jr, I noted that Dock’s Las Vegas debut went smoothly. He glided effortlessly around the ring, making him inconspicuous, the mark of a good referee. (This post ran on May 15, two days after the fight.)

Folks at the Nevada State Athletic Commission were also paying attention. Dock was back in Las Vegas the following week to referee the lightweight title fight between Devin Haney and Vasyl Lomachenko and before the year was out, he would be tabbed to referee the biggest non-heavyweight fight of the year, the July 29 match in Las Vegas between Terence Crawford and Errol Spence Jr.

The Haney-Garcia fight wasn’t Harvey Dock’s best hour, I’ll concede that, but a closer look at his full body of work informs us that he is an outstanding referee.

—

While the Haney-Garcia bout was in progress, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman threw everyone a curve ball, tweeting on “X” that Devin Haney would keep his title if he lost the fight. Everyone, including the TV commentators, was under the impression that the title would become vacant in the event that Haney lost.

Sulaiman cited the precedent of Corrales-Castillo II.

FYI: The Corrales-Castillo rematch, originally scheduled for June 3, 2005 and aborted on the day prior when Castillo failed to make weight, finally came off on Oct. 8 of that year, notwithstanding the fact that Castillo failed to make weight once again, scaling three-and-a-half pounds above the lightweight limit. He knocked out Corrales in the fourth round with a left hook that Las Vegas Review-Journal boxing writer Kevin Iole, alluding to the movie “Blazing Saddles,” described as Mongo-esque (translation: the punch would have knocked out a horse). After initially insisting on a rubber match, which had scant chance of happening, WBC president Jose Sulaiman, Mauricio’s late father, ruled that Corrales could keep his title.

Whether or not you agree with Mauricio Sulaiman’s rationale, the timing of his announcement was certainly awkward.

Haney’s mandatory is Spanish southpaw Sandor Martin (42-3, 15 KOs), a cutie best known for his 2021 upset of Mikey Garcia. A bout between Haney and Martin has the earmarks of a dull fight.

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