The Middleweight Reigns of Hopkins and GGG: Truth, Lies, and Statistics

When Emmitt Smith passed Walter Payton to become the NFL’s career rushing leader on Oct. 27, 2002, a distinction he still holds, more than a few

Published

6 years ago

September 11, 2018

Bernard Fernandez

When Emmitt Smith passed Walter Payton to become the NFL’s career rushing leader on Oct. 27, 2002, a distinction he still holds, more than a few Dallas Cowboys fans immediately pronounced him the greatest running back ever because, well, their guy now had the numbers to validate that assertion. But the longevity that enabled Smith to compile those indisputably impressive numbers were not conclusive enough to sway diehard supporters of Payton, Barry Sanders, Gale Sayers, Jim Brown and, who knows, maybe Jim Thorpe and Red Grange, that those splendid runners weren’t just as good or even better.

Someone once said that there is truth, lies and damn statistics, figures that can be interpreted in different ways and might or might not prove anything beyond reasonable doubt. Virtually every starting NFL quarterback today throws for more yards than Hall of Famers Sammy Baugh and Otto Graham did way back when, given changing times and rules designed to advance the modern passing game. There is another saying that records are made to be broken, which may be so, but the erasure of an existing mark and the penciling in of another does not always allow for shifting landscapes and individual gut reaction. Fans tend to believe what they want to believe, which is why some records are not and can never be as sacrosanct as others.

Should Gennady Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KOs) defeat Canelo Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) in their HBO Pay Per View rematch Saturday night at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, it would mark his 21^st consecutive middleweight title defense, snapping the division record of 20 he now shares with the iconic Bernard Hopkins. But would that fact alone certify “GGG” as the best of the best among middleweight champions, or better than B-Hop? It is a nebulous area, in light of the fact that many legendary 160-pounders did not stay at the weight long enough to stitch together comparable streaks, or the reality that where once there was only one true middleweight ruler while now there are four presumably major sanctioning bodies which award alphabetized title belts, diluting the very concept of what a world champ is or is supposed to be.

Although Golovkin’s focus is primarily on Alvarez – they fought to a controversial and mutually dissatisfying split draw on Sept. 16 of last year — he is aware of the boxing history he is on the verge of possibly making and the specter of the very-much alive and chatty Hopkins that hangs over the bout.

“It’s very important for me to set this record,” Golovkin admitted. “It’s like going for two victories – to beat Canelo and to set the record.”

Added Tom Loeffler, Golovkin’s promoter: “It would be a tremendous accomplishment if GGG’s able to beat Bernard’s record. Most people thought 20 middleweight title defenses was untouchable. If Gennady, on this huge platform, is able to beat Canelo and break the record at the same time, that would be really be something.”

Like Loeffer, the 53-year-old Hopkins, now retired as an active boxer but still an executive with Golden Boy Promotions, whose most accomplished and marketable asset is Alvarez, didn’t expect his record, defense No. 20 coming when he scored a unanimous decision over Howard Eastman on Feb. 19, 2005, to be matched and possibly surpassed so soon. But the forever proud and defiant B-Hop is firm in his belief, at least publicly, that when all is said and done on Sept. 15 he will continue to hang onto his share of a record to which he absolutely does not want Golovkin to take sole possession.

“I never thought I’d be talking about this (his record conceivably falling) so early,” Hopkins said when contacted for this story. “I thought it would last 20, maybe 25 years. But at least my name is still in the conversation (as the co-record-holder). It’s really kind of a unique situation.

“Will I go over and shake Golovkin’s hand if he wins? It’s something I would rather not have to do, to be honest. There’s a competitive side of me that’s always going to be there no matter what I do in life. But you know what? I don’t think I’ll have to congratulate him for breaking the record because he’s not going to win. Canelo is super-confident. He’s younger (28 to GGG’s 36) and getting better and he’s fighting a guy who’s older and don’t know how to upgrade. I’ve been breaking down this fight for months and I have a good idea of how it’s going to play out.

“I’m calling this a unanimous decision, kind of lopsided, for Canelo. Now, there will be some fireworks. But when the fight gets into the championship rounds, GGG is going to be desperate. He’s a big puncher and big punchers always try to take their guy out early. He’s not going to know what to do when it’s late in the fight, he’s way behind on points and he finds himself in deep waters.”

There is a suspicion when listening to Hopkins that his lofty expectations of what Canelo is capable of doing against Golovkin are actually his imagination of what he could do against the knockout artist from Kazakhstan if they somehow could square off prime-on-prime. It is a notion that Hopkins does not reject out of hand.

“There’s always going to be a debate about who fought the better guys, but you can’t fault Gennady Golovkin for the quality of people that were and are in his era,” Hopkins continued. “His history is his history and my history is my history. He must be respected for what he’s done, regardless of what happens on Sept. 15.

“But if people insist on making comparisons, there are names on my resume, and on his, that we both can be proud of having beaten. Some other names, not so much. But you can only beat who’s put in front of you.

“That said, there’s no question I fought more quality opponents, and it’s not just (Felix) Trinidad and Oscar (De La Hoya). What about Joe Lipsey? Robert Allen? Glen Johnson? Howard Eastman? We could get into a cat fight on social media about this, but I ain’t going to play that game. Like him, I had to fight a few guys that weren’t top-rate – Morrade Hakkar, he ran around the ring like Carl Lewis – but I had to fight them because they were mandatories and I didn’t want to relinquish my title that way. I’m glad I took those fights because if I didn’t I wouldn’t be talking now about the record I still have.”

So, does Hopkins allow himself to play the what-if game of what would happen if he and GGG could have met at the top of their respective and tactically different forms?

“If I was fighting in my prime now, or if he was fighting me back then, he’d find out what ring generalship is all about,” Hopkins said. “You don’t put yourself in spots where you are vulnerable, you put the other guy in spots where he’s vulnerable. I made a living off of guys that came forward and wanted to bang. I knew how to make aggressive guys miss, and then I made them pay. GGG is going to realize what ring generalship is when he fights Canelo.”

Bold words, like statistics, are not really definitive proof of anything. If someone wants to say that Golovkin or Hopkins currently is the pugilistic version of Emmitt Smith because of their shared record, fine. But there are other middleweights who are always going to be mentioned for that figurative No. 1 all-time position, a who’s who list that includes the celebrated likes of Harry Greb, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Carlos Monzon and Sugar Ray Robinson, among others. The outcome of a fantasy pairing of the clever Hopkins and power-punching Golovkin does make for an interesting matchup of mental poker, however, and more so when the damnable numbers get pushed into the pot.

Of Hopkins’ 20 defenses (one was a four-round no-contest against Robert Allen on Aug. 28, 1998, when Hopkins inadvertently was pushed out of the ring by referee Mills Lane and injured his ankle) were against opponents who posted a cumulative record of 620-49-29 with 454 wins by stoppage and 23 losses by knockout. Three of those title bouts were against Allen, two against Antwun Echols. Golovkin’s 20 defenses all came against different opponents – the do-over with Alvarez marks his first championship rematch – who were a collective 574-59-10 with 381 KO wins and 19 losses inside the distance. Hopkins fought seven men who either had been or would become world champions, the same number as Golovkin. And where Hopkins scored signature victories against Trinidad and De La Hoya, GGG can counter with a points nod over Daniel Jacobs and the split draw with Canelo, which many believe should have resulted in a win.

If Hopkins is correct that his title reign came against a generally better grade of opposition, so too might be Loeffler’s claim that Golovkin’s efforts to enhance his legacy against big-name rivals has been thwarted in part by a reluctance by some of the marquee middleweights to trade punches with one of the most devastating punchers ever to grace the division.

“There’s a lot of names in the past that we would like to have gotten in the ring, but for whatever reason they chose not to fight Gennady, whether it was Felix Sturm or Sergio Martinez or Peter Quillin,” Loeffler said. “Gennady’s definitely had kind of a blue-collar career. He was willing to fight anyone, and anywhere. Now he’s in the T-Mobile Arena against Canelo Alvarez in the biggest fight of the year. It’s definitely a legacy fight for him.

“We’ll see the best fighting the best, and that’s really what the sport is all about. It’s what Gennady’s always wanted.”

Bernard Fernandez is the retired boxing writer for the Philadelphia Daily News. He is a five-term former president of the Boxing Writers Association of America, an inductee into the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Atlantic City Boxing Halls of Fame and the recipient of the Nat Fleischer Award for Excellence in Boxing Journalism and the Barney Nagler Award for Long and Meritorious Service to Boxing.

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Bernard Fernandez

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

Published

6 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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