Boxing Odds and Ends: A Closer Look at Noel Mikaelian and More

Noel Mikaelian gets another crack at the WBC cruiserweight title on Dec. 13 when he opposes Badou Jack in Los Angeles. The fight, which will be live-streamed on more channels than you can name (including amazon prime video ppv and ppv.com) is a rematch of their May 3 encounter in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Badou Jack won that fight, prevailing on a majority decision (115-113, 115-113, 114-114). Mikaelian, who formerly held the title that reverted to Badou Jack, took the bout on three weeks’ notice.

To call this a highway robbery would be overstating it, but the consensus from those in the arena and those watching at home was that the wrong guy won. The WBC mandated a rematch. Bash Boxing Promotions, a firm founded by Beverly Hills attorney Steve Bash, out-bid Mikaelian’s promoter Don King for the right to stage the fight.

When ring announcer Thomas Treiber announced the scores, the expression on Mikaelian’s face betrayed disappointment, but not anger. “I knew what was coming,” he said, when we chatted with him on a zoom call yesterday (Nov. 25). “Several important people in boxing were in the ring and they told me ‘this isn’t going to go well for you.’ “

Mikaelian was the “B side” in Saudi Arabia against the globetrotting veteran Badou Jack who resides in Dubai. Nor was it the first time that Noel had been in this situation. In May of 2017, he lost a controversial split decision to Poland’s Krzystof Wlodarczyk in Poznan, Poland. That knocked him out of a date with IBF belt-older Murat Gassiev and a slot in the fondly-remembered World Boxing Super Series.

He was invited to the tournament the following year where he suffered his second defeat, out-pointed by Mairis Briedis in a competitive fight. Briedis was then recognized as the world’s second-best cruiserweight, a slim notch behind Oleksandr Usyk who was poised to leave the division to compete as a heavyweight.

In those days, Mikaelian was usually referenced as Noel Gevor, the ring name he wore at the behest of his first manager. The name “Gevor” came from his stepfather, Khoren Gevor, one of the most well-known boxers in Germany, a former European middleweight champion and three-time world title challenger, active as recently as 2022.

“I finally decided I wanted to go with my birth name,” he says, “to reflect my ethnic roots.” Raised in Germany, Mikaelian was born in Armenia.

Five years ago, Mikaelian settled in Miami where he trains under the watchful eye of Pedro Diaz, a former coach with the Cuban National Team who has worked with the likes of Miguel Cotto and recently took on Tim Tszyu.

Mikaelian (27-3, 12 KOs) won four fights between his dates with Mairis Briedis and Badou Jack but that warrants an asterisk. Owing to injuries and managerial issues, he missed all of 2021 and 2024.

Fluent in four languages (plus a smattering of Spanish), the well-spoken Mikaelian looks on his chosen profession with a jaundiced eye. “Boxing is like a box of chocolates,” he says Forrest Gump-ishly. “You never know what you are going to get.” He takes his hat off to his brother, Abel Gevor Mikaelyan, who racked up a 13-0 pro record as a light heavyweight before abandoning the sport and is now a successful attorney specializing in labor disputes. “He did things the right way [while I stayed with this crazy sport],” he says self-effacingly.

Badou Jack, a world title-holder in three weight classes, is enjoying something of a late career surge, having won seven straight beginning in Los Angeles with an 8-round shutout over third-rater Blake McKernan. If the odds are any indication — Noel Mikaelian is a small favorite – Noel will end that skein in another competitive fight.

Shane Mosley re Jake Paul

Hall of Fame boxer Shane Mosley is very familiar with Jake Paul, having coached the “Problem Child” at various times in Big Bear, California, and again in Puerto Rico. When Jake was just getting started, Mosley was one of the very few people who saw potential in him, believing that Jake, if he stayed in the gym, could eventually hold his own with some of the best fighters in his weight class. However, Mosley concurs that Jake bit off more than he could chew when he chose to fight Anthony Joshua.

Much has been made of a clause in the contract that requires AJ to weigh no more than 245 pounds. “I don’t understand the thinking here,” Mosley told this reporter. “You want [Joshua] at 260 or heavier because he would be slower; he would be easier to move around the ring. Jake may have shot himself in the foot.”

Mosley will be working in the corner of his son’s bout with Jesus Ramos on Dec. 6 in San Antonio, assisting his son’s head trainer Eric Belanger. A 12-round middleweight contest, Shane Mosley Jr vs. Jesus Ramos will air on Amazon Prime Video PPV. Other bouts on the card include Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz vs. Lamont Roach and an interesting IBF/WBO middleweight title fight between Janibek Alimkhanuly and Erislandy Lara.

R.I.P. Janks Morton

“Janks Morton was the primary personality behind [Sugar Ray] Leonard’s meteoric rise to boxing fame.” So reads a blurb about Morton that celebrates his heroics in football at Truman State University (formerly Northeast Missouri State).

Morton passed away yesterday, Nov. 25, the latest ring personality to leave us from one of boxing’s best eras. He was 85 years old.

A Cincinnati native, Janks settled in Maryland after having a cup of coffee with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns and opened an insurance agency that would become one of the largest independent agencies in the state. On the side, he helped out Dave Jacobs, the boxing coach at a recreational center in the D.C. suburb of Palmer Park. One day, a scrawny kid named Ray Charles Leonard walked through the door and the rest, as they say, is history.

Boxing’s second Sugar Ray looked upon Janks Morton as less a co-trainer than a friend and mentor. It was Morton who brought attorney Mike Trainer into the fold after Leonard won a gold medal at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Trainer assembled a group of investors to kick-start Sugar Ray’s pro career and hired Angelo Dundee as Leonard’s manager.

Dundee would become the chief voice in Leonard’s corner, but Janks was quite content to play a secondary role and, late in Sugar Ray Leonard’s career, Morton supplanted Dundee in the corner when Leonard fought Donny LaLonde in a match billed for LaLonde’s light heavyweight title and for the WBC 168-pound belt which was conveniently vacant.

Regarding Sugar Ray Leonard’s second fight with Roberto Duran, the infamous “no mas” fight, Morton said, “I knew we were in good shape when I convinced Ray Charles to sing the national anthem. Duran was hurt when he turned away from Sugar Ray; hurt from body punches.”

Morton said he told Sugar Ray to prioritize the body after watching Duran eat a steak with his fingers.

Janks Morton didn’t carry himself like a bully, but he was tough as nails. Besides running his insurance agency and coaching boxing, he was a catcher on a fast pitch pro softball team. He didn’t wear a catcher’s mask or any mask at all.

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