Honoring Cecilia Braekhus Isn’t ‘Politically Correct,’ It’s just the Right Thing

Cecilia Braekhus, receives the initial Christy Martin Award from the award’s namesake this Friday night at the 93rd annual Boxing Writers Association of America

Published

6 years ago

May 9, 2018

Bernard Fernandez

Until I decided to take a stand for women’s boxing, or more precisely for the right of women to box if that is what they choose to do, no one had ever accused me of being “politically correct.” I’m pretty sure that, on the whole, I am far from being a PC type of person. But you don’t have to conveniently fit into someone else’s stereotype to adhere to the principles by which we profess to live our lives. When the “First Lady,” Cecilia Braekhus, receives the initial Christy Martin Award from the award’s namesake this Friday night at the 93^rd annual Boxing Writers Association of America Awards Dinner in New York City, I’d like to think far more people than not will also consider it to be the right thing.

History gets made in ways both great and small, and the BWAA’s collective decision to break with tradition and create a Female Fighter of the Year award was not made hastily. It was proposed two years ago, with some members of the organization understandably cautious about taking what must have seemed a bold and possibly controversial step. As the former president of the BWAA and still its awards chairman, I championed that step being taken, as did current BWAA president Joseph Santoliquito and BWAA members David A. Avila, of The Sweet Science, and Tom Gerbasi, both of whom write extensively about women’s boxing.

The blue-ribbon committee that was formed to select the first such honoree did its job well; the 36-year-old Braekhus, who was born in Colombia and adopted as a toddler by a Norwegian family, performed splendidly in 2017, winning three bouts against quality opponents. She made more history last weekend, becoming the first featured female boxer in HBO’s 45-year involvement in the sport when she scored a 10-round unanimous decision over Kali Reis in Carson, Calif., to extend her record to 33-0 and retain her fully unified welterweight championship. Although the figurative glass ceiling for female boxers hasn’t exactly been shattered, Braekhus and women such as Claressa Shields and Ireland’s Katie Taylor have at least served to crack it a bit.

We all evolve as we grow and what we thought yesterday might not be exactly what we think today, or tomorrow. But being a son, husband and father of two daughters has served to convince me – and, really, this has little to do with politics and religion, although those hot-button topics touch all of us to some degree or another – that the women in our extraordinary country deserve no less consideration in virtually all aspects of their daily existence than is expected by their male counterparts. Equal pay for equal work, regardless of gender, would seem to be an indisputable concept in 21^st century America. There is absolutely no justification for a woman receiving 77 cents for every dollar a man receives for doing the same job, and especially so if she has similar experience and qualifications.

There are exceptions to any rule, however, and the sports world is rife with them. Thanks to the crusading efforts of Billie Jean King and others, Serena Williams can now earn as much for winning major tournaments as the men do. Professional tennis, however, is an outlier. No matter how dominant Braekhus is in the ring, she can never hope to be paid as handsomely or receive the same level of global recognition as elite male fighters. It is a matter of supply and especially demand, driven by a marketplace that gives only so much credence to the concept of gender equity. It’s the same thing in women’s basketball, where the best of the best in the WNBA, players such as Candace Parker, Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore and Sylvia Fowles, earn tiny fractions of what comparable players in the NBA receive. The average wage for WNBA players is around $75,000, and Parker is one of only six women whose skill and popularity is such that during the 2017 season they received the max of $113,500. Compare that to the NBA’s average salary of $6,517,428, or the Powerball Lottery payouts to megastars Steph Curry ($34.7 million) and LeBron James ($33.3 million). With endorsements, James augments his enormous NBA salary by an annual average of $52 million while Curry pulls down an additional $42 million. Even 55-year-old Michael Jordan, who hasn’t played in the NBA since 2003, pocketed more endorsement money in 2014 than he made from the teams that employed him during the entirety of his 15-year playing career.

The yawning gap between the benefits that had long gone to male athletes, in comparison to women, began to close somewhat at the amateur level with the passage by Congress of Title IX in 1972, which prohibits sex discrimination in any educational program or activity receiving any type of federal financial aid. Just like that, colleges receiving such aid were required to provide equal opportunities for female athletes, which resulted in vastly increased funding, or even the creation programs for women’s basketball, soccer, swimming, tennis, golf and volleyball.

Where I differed with Title IX’s hard-line feminists was their unreasonable (to my way of thinking) resistance to allowing scholarship exceptions for college football. Since football at such schools as Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, Texas and, yes, my college, LSU, were so profitable that the game basically funded all or most of the new or expanded women’s sports benefiting from Title IX, I believed the mandate to provide equal numbers of athletic grants-in-aid for men and women should have excluded football. That argument was shot down, however, resulting in the unfortunate elimination of several men’s sports such as wrestling, gymnastics and even baseball at some schools, a draconian measure instituted in order to make the numbers fit.

No one was ever going to confuse legendary Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant as a feminist, but he was first and foremost a realist. Prior to the passage of Title IX, Bryant was of the opinion that it really didn’t matter if female cheerleaders for the Crimson Tide could do nifty tumbling routines or form human pyramids, but darn, they had better be drop-dead gorgeous. If that sounds sexist, well, it probably was. But when Title IX maneuvered him into a position he never wanted to be in, the Bear said in that growly, Chesterfield-tinged voice, and I’m paraphrasing here, “I don’t much care for girls’ sports, but if they’re gonna have `Alabama’ on the front of their uniforms they had better win.’”

Forty-six years after Title IX improved conditions for female student-athletes, some of the battles of the past are still being waged in the sordid era of Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein and Larry Nassar (the long-time doctor for the USA women’s gymnastics team convicted of sexually abusing dozens of young girls). There is no quick fix for all of society’s ills regarding the entrenched degradation of women, but with Mother’s Day fast approaching each male among us should take a moment to consider what kind of gesture we can make to honor those who gave us life. If I took even a small step in that direction by acknowledging the hard work and sacrifices made by women who wanted nothing more than to test themselves in an area previously reserved only for the guys, I’m fine with that. I’d like to think my late mom, who always said she was the fastest girl at her school and might have excelled in track had she been encouraged to do so and had an avenue through which to demonstrate her talent, celestially approves of whatever minor role I had in the creation of the Christy Martin Award.

It isn’t the first time that women’s boxing and I have intersected in a manner I hardly could have anticipated. After Muhammad Ali’s daughter, Laila Ali, made her pro debut with a perfunctory one-round blowout of a moonlighting Denny’s waitress named April Fowler on Oct. 8, 1999, I called Joe Frazier’s daughter, Philadelphia attorney Jacqui Frazier-Lyde, to get her opinion of the daughter of her father’s fiercest rival taking up her celebrated pop’s trade.

“If I trained to do it, I could kick her ass,” Frazier-Lyde, a star basketball player at American University, responded. After a moment of hesitation, she added, “As a matter of fact, I think I will kick her ass.” Shortly thereafter Frazier-Lyde began training at her dad’s gym, and on June 8, 2001, she and Ali squared off Verona, N.Y., in what was optimistically hyped as “Ali-Frazier IV.” Media from around the nation and the world showed up for the event, which Frazier-Lyde loudly and frequently proclaimed was happening because of the question I had posed to her nearly two years earlier. At least three of my male colleagues, who clearly weren’t in attendance of their own volition, came over and essentially grumbled, “So you’re the one responsible for this crap.”

Ali defeated Frazier-Lyde on an eight-round majority decision in a competitive and entertaining bout, for which they were each paid more money than any women’s boxer had ever made to that point. Of course, that largely owed to the kind of name recognition no female boxer before or since has enjoyed. While women’s boxing slipped back into a fallow period after headliners like the celebrity daughters, Martin and Lucia Rijker retired, at least a seed had been planted. It bloomed into inclusion as an Olympic sport in 2012, helping make instant stars of Shields and Taylor.

The ladies have clawed and scratched for everything they’ve achieved during this latest revival. Having served in the Marine Corps, this curmudgeonly non-PC type still opposes the notion of women as combat troops, but there can be no denying that Braekhus is a national heroine in Norway and Shields is a two-time Olympic gold medalist for the USA who might soon be paired against Christina Hammer in a fight that might turn out to be bigger than Laila-Jacqui.

The train is still building momentum, but it’s coming through and those who would defiantly oppose its even being on the track run the risk of being flattened. If you don’t care to watch, then don’t. But for any American to suggest that women shouldn’t even have an opportunity to chase their boxing dreams seems antithetical in a country that from its inception has espoused the right to freedom of expression and the pursuit of happiness.

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Bernard Fernandez

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 281: The Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia Show

Published

16 hours ago

April 18, 2024

David A. Avila

Avila-Perspective-Chap-281-The-Devin-and-Ryan-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 Garcia’s 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.

“Whichever version of Ryan shows up on April 20, I will be ready for him. Ryan Garcia is just another opponent to me,” 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 Rico’s 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.

“They know each other very well,” said Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions. “Ryan is going to beat Devin Haney.”

Haney has a buttery-smooth style with one of the best jabs in boxing. He’s very adept at keeping distance and not allowing anyone to fight him inside. His reflexes are outstanding, yet he seldom fights inside. That’s 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.

“These guys always just look at me and look at me like I don’t know how to box,” said Garcia on social media. “Why was I one of the best fighters in the amateurs. Why was I a 15-time National champion…why did I beat everyone I came across.”

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

Published

3 days ago

April 16, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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 doesn’t 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. It’s a genuine “pick-‘em” 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 Saturday’s 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 Australia’s Mark De Mori who he dismissed in the opening round. Dubois, a Londoner, rebounded from his loss to Oleksandr Usyk with a 10^th-round stoppage of corpulent Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller.

There’s 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 it’s 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. It’s 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 Jersey’s 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. Liverpool’s “Wrecking” 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 “Ammo” Williams (16-0, 11 KOs) in a 12-round middleweight match. East London’s 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

“Unbeaten for seven years, the man nobody wants to fight,” 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 Hunter’s 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 “Bounty Hunter,” 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.

Hunter’s 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 won’t 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 won’t find on boxrec for the same reason is Nico Ali Walsh’s 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, boxing’s official record-keeper, it never happened.)

Anderson-Merhy Redux

The only thing missing from this past Saturday’s 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 LA’s 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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Anderson Cruises by Vapid Merhy and Ajagba edges Vianello in Texas

Published

5 days ago

April 14, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Anderson-Cruises-by-Vapid-Merhy-and-Ajagba-Edges-Vianello-in-Texas

Jared Anderson returned to the ring tonight on a Top Rank card in Corpus Christi, Texas. Touted as the next big thing in the heavyweight division, Anderson (17-0, 15 KOs) hardly broke a sweat while cruising past Ryad Merhy in a bout with very little action, much to the disgruntlement of the crowd which started booing as early as the second round. The fault was all Merhy as he was reluctant to let his hands go. Somehow, he won a round on the scorecard of judge David Sutherland who likely fell asleep for a round for which he could be forgiven.

Merhy, born in the Ivory Coast but a resident of Brussels, Belgium, was 32-2 (26 KOs) heading in after fighting most of his career as a cruiserweight. He gave up six inches in height to Anderson who was content to peck away when it became obvious to him that little would be coming back his way.

Anderson may face a more daunting adversary on Monday when he has a court date in Romulus, Michigan, to answer charges related to an incident in February where he drove his Dodge Challenger at a high rate speed, baiting the police into a merry chase. (Weirdly, Anderson entered the ring tonight wearing the sort of helmet that one associates with a race car driver.)

Co-Feature

In the co-feature, a battle between six-foot-six former Olympians, Italy’s Guido Vianello started and finished strong, but Efe Ajagba had the best of it in the middle rounds and prevailed on a split decision. Two of the judges favored Ajagba by 96-94 scores with the dissenter favoring the Italian from Rome by the same margin.

Vianello had the best round of the fight. He staggered Ajagba with a combination in round two. At the end of the round, a befuddled Ajagba returned to the wrong corner and it appeared that an upset was brewing. But the Nigerian, who trains in Las Vegas under Kay Koroma, got back into the fight with a more varied offensive attack and better head movement. In winning, he improved his ledger to 20-1 (14). Vianello, who sparred extensively with Daniel Dubois in London in preparation for this fight, declined to 12-2-1 in what was likely his final outing under the Top Rank banner.

Other Bouts of Note

In the opening bout on the main ESPN platform, 35-year-old super featherweight Robson Conceicao, a gold medalist for Brazil in the 2016 Rio Olympics, stepped down in class after fighting Emanuel Navarrete tooth-and-nail to a draw in his previous bout and scored a seventh-round stoppage of Jose Ivan Guardado who was a cooked goose after slumping to the canvas after taking a wicked shot to the liver. Guardado made it to his feet, but the end was imminent and the referee waived it off at the 2:27 mark.

Conceicao improved to 18-1 (9 KOs). It was the U.S. debut for Guardado (15-2-1), a boxer from Ensenada, Mexico who had done most of his fighting up the road in Tijuana.

Ruben Villa, the pride of Salinas, California, improved to 22-1 (7) and moved one step closer to a match with WBC featherweight champion Rey Vargas with a unanimous 10-round decision over Tijuana’s Cristian Cruz (22-7-1). The judges had it 97-93 and 98-92 twice.

Cruz, the son of former IBF world featherweight title-holder Cristobal Cruz, was better than his record. He entered the bout on a 21-1-1 run after losing five of his first seven pro fights.

Cleveland southpaw Abdullah Mason, who turned 20 earlier this month, continued his fast ascent up the lightweight ladder with a fourth-round stoppage of Ronal Ron.

Mason (13-0, 11 KOs) put Ron on the canvas in the opening round with a short left hook. He scored a second knockdown with a shot to the liver. A flurry of punches, a diverse array, forced the stoppage at the 1:02 mark of round four. A 25-year-old SoCal-based Venezuelan, the spunky but out-gunned Ron declined to 14-6.

Charly Suarez, a 35-year-old former Olympian from the Philippines, ranked #5 at junior lightweight by the IBF, advanced to 17-0 (9) with a unanimous 8-round decision over SoCal’s Louie Coria (5-7).

This was a tactical fight. In the final round, Coria, subbing for 19-0 Henry Lebron, caught the Filipino off-balance and knocked him into the ropes which held him up. It was scored a knockdown, but came too little, too late for Coria who lost by scores of 76-75 and 77-74 twice.

Suarez, whose signature win was a 12^th-round stoppage of the previously undefeated Aussie Paul Fleming in Sydney, may be headed to a rematch with Robson Conceicao. They fought as amateurs in 2016 in Kazakhstan and Suarez lost a narrow 6-round decision.

Photo credit: Mikey Willams / Top Rank via Getty Images

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