Boxing Odds and Ends: Bell vs Hunter and a JC Chavez Jr Update

Toledo’s Albert Bell is 27-0. It’s been a quiet ascent to 27-0 and it isn’t as if the lanky Glass City lightweight (pictured) has been beating up on a bunch of professional losers. His last 21 opponents had winning records. And yet, one would be hard-pressed to name another undefeated fighter with more than two dozen wins to his credit who is as little known as “Prince” Albert Bell.

Part of the reason owes to his style. He was a good amateur in a city known for producing good amateurs, but it isn’t necessary to have a hard punch to be a good amateur and he didn’t elevate his punching power when he transitioned to the professional ranks. As a pro, he’s scored only nine knockouts.

True, he’s lost very few rounds, but there is a downside to that. One-sided fights have a tendency to become monotonous. That works against building a fan base.

We’re not being entirely fair to Albert Bell. His best win, one could argue, came against the well-touted Andy Vences on the undercard of Tyson Fury’s match with Tom Schwartz at the MGM Grand. Vences, also undefeated, was the “A side” and Bell upended him by unanimous decision in a fan-friendly fight. Moreover, Bell forged stoppages in three of his last four fights which suggests that at age 32 he is now punching with more authority.

Bell returns to the ring on Saturday at the Huntington Center in Toledo with Keith Hunter in the opposite corner. It is Bell’s second straight fight at lightweight after holding a pair of regional belts at 130.

Hunter, 33, is the younger brother of Michael Hunter who has been in the news lately because of his contractual problems with Don King which forced him out of a lucrative payday with Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller.

The younger “Bounty Hunter” (16-2, 10 KOs) accepted this match on short notice but has been in the gym continuously since his last assignment evaporated with little warning, almost sending him off on a wild goose chase to Alabama.

Saturday’s event includes a cameo by Toledo heavyweight Devin Vargas who will look to stem a 5-fight losing streak.

Twenty-one years have elapsed since Vargas represented the U.S. in the Athens Olympics. As a pro, he started 17-0 but was knocked out in his first 10-rounder and overnight devolved from a prospect to a gatekeeper. His bout on Saturday in his hometown may be his final fight. If so, he should have little trouble leaving the sport on a winning note. His opponent in this scheduled 6-rounder is 40-year-old Colombian slug Santander Silgado who was stopped in the opening round in four of his last six starts.

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr

As we recall, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, the son of Mexico’s most revered boxer, was arrested by ICE agents on July 3 while riding a scooter in front of his home in an upscale neighborhood in Los Angeles. Four days earlier, the former WBC world middleweight champion had lost a 10-round decision to Jake Paul.

Chavez Jr, 39, was accused of overstaying his visa and falsifying information on his green card application, but there was a warrant out for his arrest in Mexico for allegedly smuggling firearms into Mexico on behalf the Sinaloa Cartel. Chavez Jrs stepdaughter is the granddaughter of the notorious Cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, currently serving a life sentence at a maximum-security prison in Colorado.

Chavez Jr spent nearly two months in confinement, the first six weeks at an ICE detention facility in Texas and then, after being deported to Mexico at the Nogales checkpoint, five days at a maximum-security federal prison in Hermosillo.

Chavez Jr was released from custody this past weekend. Hector Rios Morales, writing in Monday’s Latin Times, notes that prosecutors do not believe the boxer “played a leadership, administrative, or directive role” in the alleged smuggling and for this reason his attorneys were able to secure his release.

His next court date is Nov. 24. Until then, he is prohibited from leaving the country. If found guilty, he faces four to eight years in prison.

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