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The 50 Greatest Welterweights of All-Time Part Four: 20-11
By Matt McGrain
If this process is unique, it is for one reason only and that is its length. There are fifty spots on my list but considerably more than fifty fighters were considered. What this lends the exercise is a broader understanding of the division's history. Who was a contender to the title and when? Why? Who was the real champion in the age of casually fostered belts; why? Knowing who a fighter was when a man from the â50â defeated him is far more important than how.
The internet is awash with top ten lists at heavyweight; there are dozens at light-heavyweight and middleweight. The lighter the fighter the fewer the lists â and of justified, explained top fifties, there are none.
Exploring is fun. That's why people do it. But here we reach the outer edge of what is known: the top twenty. If this top twenty is different from other top twenties, it is because it is informed by what went before it. This results in one or two sprung surprises. I hope you enjoy them as much as, or more than, the familiar names in the familiar places.
#20 â Roberto Duran (103-16)
Roberto Duran just chiselled away at this list. His original spot was in the low twenties; but whenever I came to analyze the ordering, the ghosts of Montreal echoed and the reverberations shattered the resistance of the man above. So Roberto Duran, the animal, the beast, the thinking manâs demon, makes the top twenty at 147lbs despite a ledger of just 7-1 at welterweight. He had eight fights there. Like Charley Burley, there is a sense, under the criteria by which this list is judged, that Duran may be overrated based upon what he actually did. Nevertheless, I cannot place him any lower, because in the fifteen legendary rounds that this fighterâs 147lb prime lasted, Duran, like Burley, may have destroyed very nearly every fighter that is ranked above him. It must also be stated that he may be in possession of the single finest filmed performance ever to have occurred at the poundage.
Montreal, Canada, 1980. Duran has harbored enmity against the great Ray Leonard for years and his time has come. His boyish looks are gone. Entering the ring, he appears relaxed, but there is slate behind his eyes. He turns a circle in the ring and lashes out a series of executionerâs jabs. Duran is absolutely primed, an avatar for the summit of boxing history, as complete and prepared a fighter as ever stepped into a boxing ring. Leonard, unbeaten, smiling, the epitome of boxing cool. They are twin stars in a decaying orbit from which only one can emerge.
The man who emerged was Duran in a raucous fight that showcases territorial warfare at the highest level. Relentless through the fourteenth he could afford to cakewalk his way through the fifteenth round and lift a narrow decision in a display that astounded with its brilliant timing.
Almost every time Leonard shifted his weight in a move within range, he drove home and inflicted misery upon his range and body. For all that Leonardâs battle plan was maligned, I can understand his desire to carve out territory against a natural lightweight; it was the inflexibility of that plan that surprised me â itâs worth remembering though that the fight was desperately close and a swing of a single round may have produced a different result on the judges scorecards. Leonard, one of the greatest fighters of all and in his absolute prime, made it desperately close.
Duranâs other exceptional welterweight performance was against the recently deposed Carlos Palomino. Readers might remember that Palomino was ranked in the Fifty and in fact was profiled in Part Two; it should be understood then, that the fact that Duran arguably won every one of the ten rounds against Palomino is significant. Duran tied Palomino up in knots, controlling him beautifully with the virtual threat that was his right hand, a punch that Palomino was desperately wary of. This was with good reason, as he was dropped firmly by that very blow in the sixth round. It was a surgical performance of astounding fistic grace, as brutal as it was perfect.
These lethal displays must be weighed against what amounts to a brief flirtation with the division, and with the shameful quit job he perpetrated in his rematch with Leonard. But rating Duran is always desperately difficult. Iâve described him before as the harshest possible indictment of lists such as this one â assigning Duran a number as this just doesnât sit right. Alas, given the criteria, he can stand no higher.
#19 â Felix Trinidad (42-3)
So Felix Trinidad edges in front of peer Oscar De La Hoya despite my insistence that Oscar was robbed; why?
Certainly, the judgesâ decision played a part. Iâm ill at ease reversing an official decision for the sake of a fighterâs legacy and although I do not treat Trinidadâs win over De La Hoya in the normal way, nor do I âcount it as a lossâ for Trinidad. I will say that it is probably the most dissatisfying manner in which a welterweight has lifted the lineal title in the modern era.
But more than that it is that Trinidad relinquished that title undefeated; nobody at welterweight beat him, making him an impressive 35-0 before he departed for light-middleweight, middleweight and even light-heavyweight. It must be said, however, that his competition was less than sparkling. De La Hoya aside, his highest ranked opponent was the near-corpse of Pernell Whitaker and these two fights aside, his record against opponents ranked in the top five by The Ring magazine is 0-0. A withering, loose-limbed puncher with talent to burn but certain defensive frailties, his destruction of the excellent Oba Carr, then ranked #6, is perhaps the most instructive contest of his career. He boxed with the abandon only the true puncher knows, his job to engender exchanges that he would inevitably dominate, primarily with perhaps the best left-hook the division has seen. This approach carried with it dangers and after a cagey opening round those dangers were underlined by a Carr right hand that deposited the Puerto Rican neatly on the seat of his trunks. Trinidad, lethal off the canvas, boxed back steadily, using shooting straight right hands and right uppercuts to systemically break his brave opponent down, stopping him in eight.
The Joe Louis axiom âhe can run but he canât hideâ can be applied as earnestly to Tito Trinidad, and that is the highest compliment I can pay him.
#18 â Luis Manuel Rodriguez (107-13)
Luis Manuel Rodriguez was an absolute horror of a welterweight, a hideous combination of attributes and physical abilities making him among the most difficult engagements possible at 147lbs. At distance he was a superb sharpshooter in possession of a very good jab and a beautiful right hand, but most of all he was a brilliant ring general with wonderful timing and an uncanny judge of the distance. That judgement was put to good use, because he often made it vanish with a step of that gliding, shadowy footwork before deploying a swarmerâs body-attack on the inside, mixing fast, cuffing punches with hard, punishing blows cut short by technique. Capable of boxing with boxers, wrestling with strong-men and slugging with sluggers, he had the chin and durability to mix it and the balance and the skill to make it unnecessary.
His limitations, such as they were, were exploited by two other wonderful welterweights. Curtis Cokes, as described below, took Rodriguez 2-1; Emile Griffith also defeated him, over four, beating him 3-1 in as a close a series as is possible with that final score. Griffith was the stylistic opposite to Rodriguez, arrhythmic where Rodriguez was smooth and their fights were entrenched, difficult to score, stylistic anti-coagulant and arguably, despite the fact that they met four times, the series did not produce a definitive winner.
However, that is not my argument. Itâs true that their third fight, the first defense of Rodriguezâs welterweight title, a title he had taken from Griffith months earlier, easily could have been scored for Rodriguez â most ringsiders did, and I myself had it 7-6-2 â but it was a close fight with some rounds decided by a single punch or flurry. I donât hold that Rodriguez was robbed.
Nevertheless, it was a tragic turn for the Cuban; had he very reasonably been given that decision it is unlikely he would have matched Griffith again and he may have held the title for some time. A slot in the top ten would have beckoned.
As it is, Rodriguez departed for middleweight where he did more excellent work. Here, the criteria hurts him a little; in the end, he was bested, however narrowly, by the two best welterweights he met and although there were stunning performances at the weight â his incredible mastery of Luis Federico Thompson, for example â his is not a deep ledger of ranked men. I would rank him higher on a head-to-head list, or upon a list that took into account his wins at middleweight, but justifying a higher slot under these rules is not possible.
#17 â Curtis Cokes (62-14-4)
The legacy of Curtis Cokes is undernourished. Why shouldnât he rank above Luis Manuel Rodriguez? He beat him, after all.
Cokes turned professional aged twenty with, by his own account, no amateur experience. He debuted against an inexperienced Manuel Rodriguez, a fighter who would retire with a poor paper record but with wins over the likes of Emile Griffith and Gaspar Ortega; he and Cokes fought an absorbing five fight series, dominated by Cokes and culminating in a clear fifteen-round decision for the world title. Cokes won five consecutive title fights at the weight, including a wonderful five found stoppage of the highly ranked Willie Ludick. Cokes gave up real estate, even allowing himself to be cornered in exchange for counter-punching opportunities, especially with his diamond-wire right hand, one of the most cultured in the divisionâs history. He sucked the poison out of Ludickâs attack and when the time came, the straight-right, right uppercut, straight-right combination he landed to draw the blinds was Tysonesque.
But really, his career is a tale of two men, both deadly, both welterweights. The first is Jose Napoles. Napoles, about whom I am revealing nothing in telling you he appears in the top ten, was a man Cokes could not have beaten in twenty tilts; Napoles was simply better at the things Cokes did so beautifully, Cokes plus. He lost two title fights to his nemesis.
But the second was Luis Manuel Rodriguez, the welterweight that so terrified Emile Griffith the first time they met, a demon of a boxer who Cokes crossed swords with no fewer than three times. Cokes dropped Rodriguez in the fifth round of their first fight to take a desperately close split decision; their rematch, fought just four months later, went clearly to Rodriguez. Finally, the two met in a fifteen round combat in 1966, and Cokes turned tiger in the fourteenth to become the first man and the only welterweight ever to stop Rodriguez.
For all his slick smarts, this was the greatest weapon of Curtis Cokes; he trained like a swarmer and possessed the engine of a great one, allowing him to bring the pain to his opponents late in hard fights. Cokes eliminated Rodriguez before he came to the title and then protected it until Napoles came knocking. He boxed a wonderful career.
#16 â Jimmy McLarnin (55-11-3)
Jimmy McLarnin, unquestionably a pound-for-pound great, comes up a little short of his normal standing here. A very special welterweight, I do nevertheless believe that he benefited from size and age advantages during the sixteen fights that constituted his welterweight career. This is illustrated most keenly by his destruction, in 1932, of a thirty-six-year-old Benny Leonard. McLarnin did his job, balking only at the end as his great hero swung drunkenly ring-center, incapable of inspiring himself to anything like the Olympian heights he had travelled. Leonardâs comeback had been stage-managed but McLarnin was the real deal. Their fight was depressing and non-competitive.
This was a rehabilitation fight for McLarnin who was coming off a split-decision loss to the excellent Lou Brouillard. Worse, he was moving up to 147lbs after losing out in his first title-shot at lightweight; still a superstar, McLarnin needed a championship and after belting out Leonard and lightweight Sammy Fuller, he got his second chance, blasting out Young Corbett III in just a single round. Years later, McLarnin modestly labelled this a lucky punch but nothing could be further from the truth. McLarnin, and his legendary handler and career-long partner, Charles âPopâ Foster, set a trap for the granite-jawed Corbett and it worked perfectly. Noting Corbettâs habit of dropping his left when he threw his southpaw-right to the body, McLarnin started the fight with his hands high, baring his left rack to the Corbett right; Corbett bit â McLarnin sent him to sleep. It remains the most impressive knockout in welterweight history.
This set up the trilogy for which McLarnin will be remembered best. His three fights with Barney Ross, contested through 1934-35 were genuine superfights between enormously popular legends of the sport. McLarnin lost the first and last of these and thereby remains locked, forever, below Ross on both the welterweight and the pound-for-pound scale. McLarninâs wider resume is no more impressive than that of Ross, by my eye, so even though the series was closely contested it settles the issue as to who was the greater fighter.
McLarnin closed out his welterweight career as he had begun it, using a significant size advantage to beat out lightweights Tony Canzoneri (with whom he went 1-1) and Lou Ambers; great fighters both, but perhaps not great welterweights.
#15 â Barney Ross (72-4-3)
Barney Ross, war-hero, recovered heroin addict and social activist also had a rather marvelous boxing career. Lacking the depth of resume of the men who surround him, he made his bones for this spot just outside the top ten based upon his victory in the most celebrated trilogy in welterweight history.
When Ross stepped up from 140lbs he didnât mess about; he took on the world champion, Jimmy McLarnin. Both men were already superstars and their meeting was a legitimate superfight, stoked not least by a racial element spurred by McLarninâs unwanted nickname at that time, âThe Jew Killer.â According to Douglas Century, Ross set out to wage ânaked psychological warfareâ on his bigger, harder-hitting opponent, standing with him early and trading against the McLarnin right that had sent champion Young Corbett III so lustily to sleep. It worked. âHe was mad,â said Ross post-fight, explaining his strategy to use his speed to get inside the sweeping right of the champion. âHe looked dumfounded.â Ross made neutralizing McLarninâs right his mission and it worked well for him; âa wasp in the ear of a horseâ according to one ringsider. They both bled, Ross visited the canvas for no-count in round nine, but it was he who emerged with the decision.
The scoring for this fight was a disaster, with one judge finding just one round for Ross and the other two finding just three between them for McLarnin. Additionally, it appeared that the officials had not approached McLarninâs warning for low-blows in a uniform fashion; a rematch was inevitable and McLarnin won a desperately close split decision, taking advantage of an overly aggressive start on the part of Ross. They went again, the two men swapping momentum with the fortune of their jabs until the final third when a grim battle for superiority took them down a long black tunnel; Ross emerged from it with the title.
All three decisions were, to one degree or another, controversial. Itâs very possible to produce, with the right mix of sources, 3-0 for either man. Things as they are, the officials have the final word and, by the narrowest of margins, Ross is proved the superior to McLarnin. Ceferino Garcia, the then number one contender, and the highly ranked Izzy Jannazzo are his other key scalps at the weight where he suffered only two losses, one to McLarnin and one to Henry Armstrong. Certainly there is no shame in that.
#14 â Mickey Walker (94-19-4; Newspaper Decisions 37-6-2)
Mickey Walker is a pound-for-pound beast who suffers here by virtue of his enormous bravery; unlike my pound-for-pound list, Walker receives no credit for the astonishing work he did between middleweight and heavyweight but rather is appraised on only his 147lbs career. Nevertheless, so storied is Walker that his introduction represents a new level of greatness in this process, another gear-change in process that takes us deeper and deeper into the annals of the very best.
Aptly nicknamed âThe Toy Bulldogâ, Walker was an educated savage, not hard to hit but hard to hit clean, terrifying in pressure and power, armed with one of the divisionâs more devastating left hooks.
This style first turned heads in earnest in 1921 when he came off the canvas to take world-champion Jack Britton to a probable share in a no-decision bout that anointed him a champion of the future. This was born out just over a year later when he lifted the title on a decision, dropping the granite-chinned defensive genius that was Britton on his way to a fifteen round victory. It was the single greatest win of his career.
Even during his reign he was distracted by riches and competition in the divisions above, mounting defenses both sublime (Pete Latzo, who eventually deposed him, Dave Sands, Lew Tendler) and ridiculous (the embarrassingly over-matched Bob Barrett, the shameful No-Contest against Jimmy Jones).
Held back in the rankings by his bizarre 1922 downturn and by his eventual loss to Latzo, who firmly out-boxed him for his title, Walker has not appeared in the top ten in any of my divisional breakdowns, but #14 is the highest he has climbed on any individual list, having come in at #94 at heavyweight, #36 at light-heavyweight and #18 at middleweight. This is indicative of both Walker's natural size and the hellish competition for places at 160lbs.
#13 â Jackie Fields (72-9-2; Newspaper Decisions 2-0)
Jackie Fields is one of the most underrated welterweights and fighters in history. I suspect that this list will be unique in listing him in front of the likes of Luis Rodriguez and Mickey Walker but it shouldnât be. All but the most hardcore of Sweet Science readers will be unfamiliar with Fields so to start with Iâll make a list of the men who composed his stunning win resume, superior to that of every single fighter ranked beneath him, and which contains the names of many more famous fighters.
Fields beat welterweight champion Young Jack Thompson, welterweight champion Joe Dundee, welterweight champion Tommy Freeman, welterweight champion Lou Brouillard, future middleweight strapholder Vince Dundee, future middleweight champion and great Freddie Steele, ranked men Joe Cooper, Sammy Backer, Gorilla Jones, Jackie Brady, King Tut and Jimmy Belmont. To put this in context, he beat more fighters who would go on to be called champion than the likes of Roberto Duran and Felix Trinidad beat ranked contenders; when I said Walkerâs introduction heralded a new kind of welterweight, I meant it. Fields unquestionably falls into that category and his consistent oversight in naming the greatest welterweights of all time is a great shame.
It is explained though, in part, by his lack of successful defenses of the welterweight title, which he held not once but twice. He won it for the first time in 1929. Joe Dundee had been stripped of his alphabet strap and Fields was matched with Young Jack Thompson to fill that void; Fields cleaned up the mess by meeting and beating the lineal champion on a disqualification as Dundee fouled out while being dominated. Thompson avenged himself the following year, but Fields came again, defeating the wonderful Lou Brouillard, who had by that time beaten Thompson. Heavily favored, Brouillard never really recovered from the right-handed mauling he received from the ever-aggressive Fields in the sixth round. Young Corbett III then called time on his championship career, taking a clear ten-round decision from him in 1933.
A fine boxer-puncher with a superb engine and true-grit, Fields was stopped just once, by a young Jimmy McLarnin in an early fight at featherweight; of his nine career losses, only two came at the welterweight limit, both against fellow champions.
#12 â Joe Walcott (95-25-24; Newspaper Decisions 9-7-3)
It was the ever-strange and always brave Rube Ferns who gave Joe Walcott his second title shot in December of 1901. Probably he wished he hadnât bothered as âThe Barbados Demonâ battered him to body and head, stopping him in just five rounds. It was a performance of terrible destruction and typical of Walcott; he was the most feared puncher between John L. Sullivan and the prime of Sam Langford and among the most terrible punchers of all time, pound-for-pound.
Which is why some of what followed is so strange. First, Walcott fought Billy Woods, a tough customer, certainly, but not a great fighter and yet he had Walcott in trouble in the sixteenth and according to some reports came away with the better part of a closely contested draw. His second defense was against Young Peter Jackson, a fighter who very nearly made this list; the two had met thrice already, the ledger reading 2-0-1 in favour of Walcott. They boxed their second draw for the title, Walcott once more clinching excessively in the final quarter, with some reports suggesting that the crowd favored a Jackson decision. He then battered Mose LaFontise, who had been agitating for a fight for some time, in three rounds, before getting a little luck in draws with a young Sam Langford and the wonderful Joe Gans and losing his title to Honey Melody.
This is not a great title run. Walcott fought draw after draw and was lucky on more than one occasion. Were it not for his innate aggression and the seemingly obsessive emphasis placed upon it by scoring officials of this era, he probably would have lost to Jackson, Langford and Gans and possibly Woods.
Those were the rules of the day though and so Walcott has a serious title run, however uninspiring. He also has victories over the likes of Jackson and Billy Smith from before a time when he held the title. Finally, rumors have persisted for years that Walcott was forced to âwear the cuffs,â going easy on opponents in order to help gamblers pocket cash by carrying them the distance. But if it is true, why was Walcott often struggling by the end of fights? We will never know.
For the purposes of this list, the results are treated as genuine. Walcott was incredible at the height and weight against middleweights and even bigger foes, but against foes met at and around the welterweight limit, he just doesnât have the resume for a top ten berth.
#11 â Tommy Ryan (84-2-11; Newspaper Decisions 5-1-1)
I rate Tommy Ryan very highly at middleweight. What I do not do, is credit a fighter twice for any one performance. It is possible that Ryan suffers from something of a âmiddleweight hangoverâ in his ranking here; that said, my investigation of the championship picture in his era leaves me sure of my position in seeing him a greater middleweight than welterweight.
Even so, the threads of even championship boxing in the 1890s are difficult to unpick. After the death of Paddy Duffy in 1890 there were several claims, one of which was made by Ryan in the wake of his 1891 defeat of Danny Needham. Billy Smith, too, claimed the title and it is probably reasonable to say that the matter was not settled until 1894 whereupon Ryan defeated Smith in a twenty round decision. Ryan was brilliant in this fight, making not a single mistake by one account, using speed and footwork early to make Smith miss and stumble while finding gaps for his own offense throughout. Ryan claimed to have been hurt by the murderous Smith just once in twenty rounds, by a right hand to the throat.
The rest of Ryanâs title reign, however, was something of a mess. A rematch with Billy Smith was marred by an early end to round ten at a time when Ryan was in desperate trouble. The Australian Tom Tracey provided no competition at all in his title shot and there the story ends; Ryanâs next title fight was up at middleweight and although he turned in at the modern welterweight limit for a number of contests at this weight after Tracey, most of the significant ones were against bigger opponents. For these, he is credited up at middleweight.
Before 1894, Ryan did more interesting work at welterweight and his domination of the opposition while posting so few losses is deeply impressive as is his unbeaten run in fights for the welterweight championship.
More welterweight champions next week. Every one of them a monster.
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In a Massive Upset, Dakota Linger TKOs Kurt Scoby on a Friday Night in Atlanta
Although it was an 8-rounder on a show with two âtens,â Kurt Scobyâs match with Dakota Linger was accorded main event status on tonightâs card at the Overtime Elite Arena in Atlanta. This had everything to do with Scoby (pronounced Scooby), a former record-setting college running back who was considered one of the brightest prospects in the 140-pound weight class. â[Scoby] works harder than almost anyone Iâve ever seen,â said veteran New York promoter Lou DIBella in a conversation with Keith Idec. âBut heâs literally getting better after every fight and heâs got the hammer of Thor, man. He can punch through walls.â
The Duarte, California product who has relocated to Brooklyn and trains at Gleasonâs Gym, was undefeated (13-0) heading in and was expected to make Linger his ninth straight knockout victim. But Linger, a 29-year-old Buckhannon, West Virginia policemen whose first ring engagements were in Toughman competitions, wasnât intimidated by Scobyâs press clippings or by Scobyâs bodybuilder physique.
Linger, who improved to 14-6-3 with his tenth win inside the distance, took the fight right to Scoby and repeatedly found a home for his overhand right. In the sixth round, after Linger strafed the ever-retreating Scoby with a barrage of punches, referee Malik Walid determined that he had seen enough and waived it off. The decision seemed a tad premature, but neither Scoby nor his cornermen offered anything in the way of a protest.
Tournament results
In the first installment of an 8-man super welterweight tournament, Brandon Adams returned to boxing after his second three-year layoff and showed no ring rust whatsoever. Adams, a 34-year-old family-man who grew up in the Watts district of LA, dismissed Ismael Villareal with a wicked punch to the liver in the waning seconds of round three. The official time was 2:59.
A former wold title challenger, Adams who improved to 23-3 (16 KOs), has become the king of boxing tournaments. He first attracted notice in 2018 when he won the fifth edition of âThe Contenderâ series, scoring a wide 10-round decision over Shane Mosley Jr in the championship round.
Villareal, a second-generation prizefighter from the Bronx whose dad fought the likes of Hector Camacho, declined to 13-3.
Adams next opponent will be Francisco Veron who will bring a record of 14-0-1 (10).
In an energetic 10-rounder, Veron, a Florida-based Argentine with a strong amateur pedigree, scored a unanimous decision over Mexico-born, LA southpaw Angel Ruiz (18-3-1). The judges had it 100-90, 99-91, and 96-94.
Ruiz certainly had his moments, but Veron launched and landed many more punches despite fighting the last six rounds with a damaged eye.
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 281: The Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia Show
Over the years bouts between old foes such as Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia tend to be surprising.
Yes, both are only 25 but have known each other for many years.
When undisputed super lightweight champion Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) steps into the prize ring at Barclays Center to meet challenger Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) on Saturday, April 20, fans will be witnessing the continuation of a feud that began more than a decade ago.
And though the champion is a heavy favorite, familiarity is Garciaâs best weapon heading into their fight on the Golden Boy Promotions card that will be shown on PPV.COM with Jim Lampley and friends. DAZN pay-per-view is also streaming the card.
In many ways Haney and Garcia have ventured down the same path. From amateur sensations to fighting in Mexico while teens to asking for the biggest challenges available.
âWhichever version of Ryan shows up on April 20, I will be ready for him. Ryan Garcia is just another opponent to me,â said Haney who holds the WBC super lightweight title after his win over Regis Prograis.
The first time I saw Haney as a pro he battled the dangerous Mexican contender Juan Carlos Burgos at Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula. It was an impressive performance against a fighter who fought three times for a world title.
Haney was 19 at the time.
My first look at Garcia as a pro was in his first bout in the U.S. when he met Puerto Ricoâs Jonathan Cruz at the Exchange in downtown Los Angeles. The Boricua looked at Garcia and tried intimidating him with stares, taunts and the usual patter. During the fight both swung and missed until the second round when Garcia zeroed in and took him out.
Garcia had just turned 18, the legal age to fight in California.
Both fighters did not have the Olympics credentials that lead to fame. But their talent has allowed them to fight through the dense smoke that is professional boxing.
Haney has defeated numerous world champions such as Prograis, Vasyl Lomachenko and George Kambosos Jr., while Garcia has stopped champions Javier Fortuna and Luke Campbell.
As amateurs, Garcia and Haney battled six times with each winning three.
âThey know each other very well,â said Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions. âRyan is going to beat Devin Haney.â
Haney has a buttery-smooth style with one of the best jabs in boxing. Heâs very adept at keeping distance and not allowing anyone to fight him inside. His reflexes are outstanding, yet he seldom fights inside. Thatâs his weakness.
Garcia fights tall and has superb hand speed and a lightning quick left hook. Though his defense lacks tightness his ability to rip off three-punch combinations in a blink of an eye pauses opponents from bullying their way inside.
âThese guys always just look at me and look at me like I donât know how to box,â said Garcia on social media. âWhy was I one of the best fighters in the amateurs. Why was I a 15-time National championâŠwhy did I beat everyone I came across.â
Haney is a strong favorite by oddsmakers to defeat Garcia. But you can never tell when it comes to fighters that know each other well and are athletically gifted.
When Sergio Mora challenged Vernon Forrest he was a big underdog. When Tim Bradley fought Manny Pacquiao the first time, he was also the underdog. And when Andy Ruiz met Anthony Joshua few gave him a chance.
Haney and Garcia have history in the ring. It should be an interesting battle.
PPV.COM
Jim Lampley will be leading the broadcast on PPV.COM for the Haney-Garcia card at Barclays and texting with fans on the card live. He will be accompanied by journalists Lance Pugmire, Dan Conobbio and former champion Chris Algieri.
The PPV.COM broadcast begins at 5 p.m. PT. and is available in Canada and the USA.
Other News
MMA stars Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal will be holding a media day event on Friday, April 19, at NOVO at L.A. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.
Diaz and Masvidal will be boxing against each other in a grudge match on June 1 at the KIA Forum in Inglewood, Calif. The two MMA stars met five years at UFC 244 with Masvidal winning by TKO over Diaz due to cuts.
This is a grudge match, but under boxing rules.
Fight card in Commerce, Calif.
360 Promotions returns to Commerce Casino on Saturday April 20 with undefeated super lightweight Cain Sandoval leading the charge.
Sandoval (12-0) faces Angel Rebollar (8-3) in the main event that will be shown live on UFC Fight Pass. Also on the card are two female events including hot prospect Lupe Medina (5-0) versus Sabrina Persona (3-1) in a minimumweight clash.
Doors open at 4 p.m.
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Boxing Odds and Ends: The Heavyweight Merry-Go-Round
Boxing Odds and Ends: The Heavyweight Merry-Go-Round
There were few surprises when co-promoters Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren and their benefactor HE Turki Alalshikh held a press conference in London this past Monday to unveil the undercard for the Beterbiev-Bivol show at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on June 1. Most of the match-ups had already been leaked.
For die-hard boxing fans, Beterbiev-Bivol is such an enticing fight that it really doesnât need an attractive undercard. Two undefeated light heavyweights will meet with all four relevant belts on the line in a contest where the oddsmakers straddled the fence. Itâs a genuine âpick-âemâ fight based on the only barometer that matters, the prevailing odds.
But Beterbiev-Bivol has been noosed to a splendid undercard, a striking contrast to Saturdayâs Haney-Garcia $69.99 (U.S.) pay-per-view in Brooklyn, an event where the undercard, in the words of pseudonymous boxing writer Chris Williams, is an absolute dumpster fire.
The two heavyweight fights that will bleed into Beterbiev-Bivol, Hrgovic vs. Dubois and Wilder vs. Zhang, would have been stand-alone main events before the incursion of Saudi money.
Hrgovic-Dubois
Filip Hrgovic (17-0, 13 KOs) and Daniel Dubois (20-2, 19 KOs) fought on the same card in Riyadh this past December. Hrgovic, the Croatian, was fed a softie in the form of Australiaâs Mark De Mori who he dismissed in the opening round. Dubois, a Londoner, rebounded from his loss to Oleksandr Usyk with a 10th-round stoppage of corpulent Jarrell âBig Babyâ Miller.
Thereâs an outside chance that Hrgovic vs. Dubois may be sanctioned by the IBF for the world heavyweight title.
The May 18 showdown between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury has a rematch clause. The IBF is next in line in the rotation system for a unified heavyweight champion and the organization has made it plain that the winner of Usyk-Fury must fulfill his IBF mandatory before an intervening bout.
The best guess is that the Usyk-Fury winner will relinquish the IBF belt. If so, Hrgovic and Dubois may fight for the vacant title although a more likely scenario is that the organization will keep the title vacant so that the winner can fight Anthony Joshua.
Wilder-Zhang
The match between Deontay Wilder (43-3-1, 42 KOs) and Zhilei Zhang (26-2-1, 21 KOs) is a true crossroads fight as both Wilder, 38, and Zhang, who turns 41 in May, are nearing the end of the road and the loser (unless itâs a close and entertaining fight) will be relegated to the rank of a has-been. In fact, Wilder has hinted that this may be his final rodeo.
Both are coming off a loss to Joseph Parker.
Wilder last fought on the card that included Hrgovic and Dubois and was roundly out-pointed by a man he was expected to beat. Itâs a quick turnaround for Zhang who opposed Parker on March 8 and lost a majority decision.
Other Fights
Either of two other fights may steal the show on the June 1 event.
Raymond Ford (15-0-1, 8 KOs) meets Nick Ball (19-0-1, 11 KOs) in a 12-round featherweight contest. New Jerseyâs Ford will be defending the WBA world title he won with a come-from-behind, 12th-round stoppage of Otabek Kholmatov in an early contender for Fight of the Year. Liverpoolâs âWreckingâ Ball, a relentless five-foot-two sparkplug, had to settle for a draw in his title fight with Rey Vargas despite winning the late rounds and scoring two knockdowns.
Hamzah Sheeraz (19-0, 15 KOs) meets fellow unbeaten Austin âAmmoâ Williams (16-0, 11 KOs) in a 12-round middleweight match. East Londonâs Sheeraz, the son of a former professional cricket player, is unknown in the U.S. although he trained for his recent fights at the Ten Goose Boxing Gym in California. Riding a skein of 13 straight knockouts, he has a date with WBO title-holder Janibek Alimkhanuly if he can get over this hurdle.
The Forgotten Heavyweight
âUnbeaten for seven years, the man nobody wants to fight,â intoned ring announcer Michael Buffer by way of introduction. Buffer was referencing Michael Hunter who stood across the ring from his opponent Artem Suslenkov.
This scene played out this past Saturday in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. It was Hunterâs second fight in three weeks. On March 23, he scored a fifth-round stoppage of a 46-year-old meatball at a show in Zapopan, Mexico.
The second-generation âBounty Hunter,â whose only defeat prior to last weekend came in a 12-rounder with Oleksandr Usyk, has been spinning his wheels since TKOing the otherwise undefeated Martin Bakole on the road in London in 2018. Two fights against hapless opponents on low-budget cards in Mexico and a couple of one-round bouts for the Las Vegas Hustle, an entry in the fledgling and largely invisible Professional Combat League, are the sum total of his activity, aside from sparring, in the last two-and-a-half years.
Hunterâs chances of getting another big-money fight took a tumble in Tashkent where he lost a unanimous decision in a dull affair to the unexceptional Suslenkov who was appearing in his first 10-round fight. The scores of the judges were not announced.
You wonât find this fight listed on boxrec. As Jake Donovan notes, the popular website will not recognize a fight conducted under the auspices of a rogue commission. (Another fight you wonât find on boxrec for the same reason is Nico Ali Walshâs 6-round split decision over the 9-2-1 Frenchman, Noel Lafargue, in the African nation of Guinea on Dec. 16, 2023. You can find it on YouTube, but according to boxrec, boxingâs official record-keeper, it never happened.)
Anderson-Merhy Redux
The only thing missing from this past Saturdayâs match in Corpus Christi, Texas, between Jared Anderson and Ryad Merhy was the ghost of Robert Valsberg.
Valsberg, aka Roger Vaisburg, was the French referee who disqualified Ingemar Johansson for not trying in his match with LAâs Ed Sanders in the finals of the heavyweight competition at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Valsberg tossed Johansson out of the ring after two rounds and Johansson was denied the silver medal. The Swede redeemed himself after turning pro, needless to say, when he demolished Floyd Patterson in the first of their three meetings.
Merhy was credited with throwing only 144 punches, landing 34, over the course of the 10 rounds. Those dismal figures yet struck many onlookers as too high. (This reporter has always insisted that the widely-quoted CompuBox numbers should be considered approximations.)
Whatever the true number, it was a disgraceful performance by Merhy who actually showed himself to have very fast hands on the few occasions when he did throw a punch. With apologies to Delfine Persoon, a spunky lightweight, U.S. boxing promoters should think twice before inviting another Belgian boxer to our shores.
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