Sergey Kovalev Is Clearly “FOTY” & It’s Not Even Close

Published

9 years ago

December 2, 2014

I’m not one for year-end awards and pageantry articles and columns.

In fact I don’t think I’ve ever written a year-end piece declaring who is the fighter of the year or what was the round of the year, or anything along those lines. They’re too subjective for me and there’s usually a sound argument to be constructed for multiple candidates, especially when it comes to “Fighter Of The Year.”

However, this year it’s so overwhelmingly obvious who the fighter of the year is that it requires little thought or reflection whatsoever. Before addressing who that is, let’s get the other candidates out of the way, stating with the usual stalwarts Manny Pacquiao 57-5-2 (38) and Floyd Mayweather 47-0 (26).

In 2014 Pacquiao fought a rematch with Timothy Bradley and met Chris Algieri in his last bout. Yes, Pacquiao did hand both Bradley and Algieri their first losses as a pro. But in reality, Pacquiao beat Bradley in the ring, forget the scorecards, when they fought the first time in 2012. Sure, he dominated Algieri, knocking him down six times, but Algieri is still a beginner. Not this year, Manny.

As for his rival Floyd Mayweather, he fought twice, both times against the aggressive and crude Marcos Maidana. Mayweather struggled with Maidana the first time but clearly deserved the decision he was awarded. Maidana underperformed in the rematch and Floyd practically jogged to a decision victory. Maidana was no pushover, but Mayweather was between a 7/8-1 favorite. As is the case with Pacquiao, not this year, Floyd.

WBA/IBO middleweight champ Gennady Golovkin 31-0 (28) made his mark and certified himself as an emerging star in professional boxing. He fought three times and won all three bouts by knockout. He stopped Osumanu Adama 22-3, Daniel Geale 30-2, and Marco Antonio Rubio 59-6-1. Collectively, his three opponents in 2014 entered their bouts with him 111-11-1. That’s impressive on paper, but neither Adama, Geale nor Rubio could be thought of as outstanding. Had they arrived in an earlier era, I can’t see them cracking the top-10. Golovkin did what he should’ve done against them, and that’s get rid of them in a memorable fashion in less than 12 full rounds. Not this year Gennady, but your time is coming.

WBO lightweight title holder Terence Crawford also had a breakout year. In his first bout of the year, Crawford won the WBO lightweight title against Ricky Burns. Watching Crawford out-box Burns was a sight to behold. He had an answer for everything and anything Burns tried. And it went unmentioned in the media how Crawford’s power mostly kept Burns from fully committing to his punches because he was leery about the counters coming back at him. Crawford controlled the bout from beginning to end and was awarded an overwhelming unanimous decision verdict. In his second bout of 2014, he took on the skilled and hard-punching undefeated Yuriokis Gamboa. Gamboa really tried to bring the fight in the early rounds against Crawford. His aggression and power forced Crawford to fight, more than box and pick his spots, and Crawford answered the call. When it was over, Crawford had Gamboa on the canvas four times en-route to scoring a ninth round stoppage. Sure, Gamboa was moving up in weight, but Crawford out-boxed and out-slugged the Cuban and beat him at his own game.

Five months later in his last bout of the year, Crawford ran away with the fight, scoring a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision over the tough Raymundo Beltran. Against Beltran, Crawford switched back and forth between fighting orthodox and southpaw. And in doing such, he looked as flashy and sophisticated as Floyd Mayweather and as explosive and hard to gauge as Manny Pacquiao. No doubt Terence Crawford had a great 2014 and accomplished a lot. He’s definitely at the top of the “must see” list of boxers in 2014. Had it not been for one candidate, Crawford would have a great case for fighter of the year. Maybe next year, Terence?

In professional boxing, nothing says more about a fighter and who he is than how he fared against the best level of opposition available. Today, there are not more than three or four outstanding fighters in each division. There’s even fewer hall of famers. And if you want to shrink the field even smaller, there are only four active fighters that are certified all-time greats, and they are Bernard Hopkins, Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather and Juan Manuel Marquez. And only one of those four greats was defeated in the year 2014, and that was Hopkins. And the fighter who convincingly beat him was WBO light heavyweight title holder Sergey Kovalev 26-0-1 (23).

In 2014, Kovalev defeated Cedric Agnew 26-0 and Blake Caparello 19-0-1 in less than 12 complete rounds. Combined Agnew and Caparello were 45-0-1. Yes, impressive on paper, and like Golovkin’s opponents Adama, Geale and Rubio, it’s not exactly murderer’s row either. But that’s where the similarity ends, because in November, Kovalev shut out Hopkins 55-7-2 (32) over 12 rounds and even had him down and shook up twice during the bout. How many fighters can say they had Hopkins down and shut him out? That would be one, Sergey Kovalev.

Hopkins has been a champion for almost 20 years without much interruption. He has fought every elite fighter in the middleweight and light heavyweight division during his time campaigning in those classes. No, Hopkins didn’t go undefeated in every fight; however, the fights he lost were all by decision and some of them bordered on close calls and robbery. And yes, when he fought Kovalev he was two months shy of turning 50 years old. But that didn’t deter half the boxing writers polled from picking him to win, yes, even at age 49. Since he turned 40, Hopkins has controlled the pace and distance against virtually everybody he fought. He cut it close against Joe Calzaghe and Chad Dawson, but he never abandoned his style or veered away from trying to reduce their punch output while he won the only two or three meaningful exchanges of most of the rounds. But not against Kovalev. Sergey, 31, not only beat Hopkins conclusively, he is the only fighter I’ve seen force Hopkins out of his comfort zone and almost fight in desperation during the last third of the bout. When is the last time Hopkins was looking for a lottery punch to bail out a fight that he was so far behind on the cards that he couldn’t even convince himself that he was in it and deserved the decision?

This is one year that “FOTY” is obvious. I don’t care what your criteria is for determining who deserves the award, Sergey Kovalev clearly shined more than Pacquiao, Mayweather, Crawford and Golovkin and had the better year. Yes, when we look back at Hopkins career, Kovalev will be remembered as the fighter who basically retired him, and that alone is enough to win “FOTY.”

Frank Lotierzo can be contacted at GlovedFist@Gmail.com

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Frank Lotierzo

Ramon Cardenas Channels Micky Ward and KOs Eduardo Ramirez on ProBox

Published

6 hours 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 liver the 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 time. 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

2 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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In a Shocker, Ryan Garcia Confounds the Experts and Upsets Devin Haney

Published

4 days ago

April 21, 2024

David A. Avila

In-a-Shocker-Ryan-Garcia-Confounds-the-Experts-and-Upsets-Devin-Haney

Its good to be crazy. Like a fox.

Ryan “KingRy” Garcia knocked down WBC super lightweight titlist Devin Haney three times to remind everyone of his fighting abilities in winning by majority decision on Saturday.

“I just knew what I could do,” Garcia said.

Fans will not forget the lanky kid from Victorville, California now.

Garcia (25-1, 20 KOs) fooled everyone in playing crazy weeks before the fight, then showed shocking power to hand Haney (30-1, 15 KOs) his first loss as a professional at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Haney’s WBC super lightweight title was not at stake for Garcia because he weighed three pounds over the limit.

After Garcia seemingly acting out of control on social media, Haney’s guard must have slipped in the first round during the first few seconds as Garcia connected with that hellish left hook and Haney, with a look of shock in his eyes, almost went down. He barely survived the first round.

“He caught me with it,” said Haney.

During the next few rounds, Haney proceeded to advance toward Garcia seemingly fully aware of the lethal left hook. He used feints and rights to score with a busier approach as Garcia seemed cocked and ready to counter with a left hook.

In the fourth round it seemed Haney was confident he had regained control of the fight, but every time he opened up with more than a two-punch combination Garcia reminded him whose hands were faster and more dangerous.

Though Garcia seldom jabbed he seemed bent on looking for the right moment to unleash his deadly left hook. And every time the Southern California fighter opened up with a combination he scored and Haney dare not exchange.

A few times Haney smiled as if signifying he escaped.

In the seventh round Haney looked to punish Garcia’s body and instead was met with a three-punch combination included a left hook to the chin and down went Haney slumped on the ground. He managed to beat the count and as soon as Garcia came within reach Haney wrapped his arms around him with a python grip. Despite the warnings by referee Harvey Dock, the fallen fighter would not release and Garcia impatiently fired a weak punch during the break. The referee deducted a point from Garcia though he could have deducted a point from Haney for not obeying his instructions to release his hold. Haney actually went down three times in the round but only one was counted by the referee.

From that point on Haney was very cautious but still looking to win by decision.

Though Garcia kept using a shoulder-roll defense that left his body exposed, he would retaliate with three and four punch combinations that usually Haney could defend against other fighters.. But Garcia’s blazing combinations were too fast to defend.

In the 10^th round Haney looked to attack and was countered by Garcia’s right and a blinding left hook to the chin and another two blows that sent the former undisputed lightweight champion to the floor again.

It didn’t look good for Haney to survive.

Garcia walked into the 11^th round still composed and never out-of-control He dared Haney to exchange and when within striking distance Garcia unleashed another lightning combination and down went Haney again with a defeated look.

Both fighters had fought each other as amateurs six times so there were no surprises between them. But Garcia’s power and speed were superior and that was the difference in a professional fight.

In the final round both were cautious with Garcia’s combination punching proving too dangerous for Haney to open up. Garcia celebrated early as the round ended confident of victory.

After 12 rounds Garcia was seen the victor by majority decision 112-112, 114-110, 115-109.

“You really thought I was crazy,” Garcia told the interviewer and the crowd. “You guys hated on me.”

Other Bouts

Arnold Barboza (30-0) won a curious split decision victory over United Kingdom’s Sean McComb (18-2) in a 10-round super lightweight fight. McComb’s long reach and busy southpaw style gave Barboza trouble. But he managed to win the fight though the crowd was not pleased.

Bektemir Melikuziev (14-1, 10 KOs) defeated France’s Pierre Dibombe (22-1-1) by technical decision after eight rounds due to a cut on his eye from an accidental head butt. It was a very competitive super middleweight fight.

Costa Rica’s David Jimenez (16-1, 11 KOs) outworked John “Scrappy Ramirez (13-1, 9 KOs) in a 12-round scrap to upset the Los Angeles based fighter. After a few close rounds Jimenez simply bullied his way inside and forced Ramirez against the ropes and unloaded his guns.

After 12 rounds two judges saw it 117-111 and 116-114 all for Jimenez.

“I’m a hard-working man from Cartago I come from nothing,” said Jimenez. “My corner told me I had to work inside.”

Charles Conwell (19-0, 14 KOs) stepped on the gas early with vicious body shots and uppercuts and blasted through the resilient Nathaniel Gallimore (22-8-1, 17 KOs) for several rounds. After a brutal fifth and sixth round the referee halted the one-side beating in favor of Conwell who was fighting for the first time under the Golden Boy banner.

Another winner was Sergiy Derevyanchenko (15-5) by decision over Vaughn Alexander (18-11-1) in a super middleweight match.

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