Boxing Odds and Ends: The Swedish Alliance and More Fight News

There was an oddity last weekend when fighters born and raised in Sweden – heavyweight Otto Wallin and cruiserweight Robin Safar – fought on back-to-back nights in U.S. rings. The Scandinavian country, needless to say, has produced very few world-class boxers.

Wallin fought at the Tropicana in Atlantic City where he knocked out Chris Thomas in the second round, advancing his record to 28-3 (16 KOs). This was Wallin’s second quick KO in this ring sandwiched around a loss on points to Derek Chisora in Manchester, England.

Wallin knocked Thomas on his rump with a pair of short left uppercuts. Thomas may have turned an ankle as he fell. He rolled over on his stomach and was counted out by referee Ricky Gonzalez. The official time was 1:00 of round two.

This was no great feat. The overmatched Thomas (15-3-2) had fought mostly as a super middleweight since starting his pro career in 2016 with a bout inside the recreation center of New Jersey’s notorious Rahway State Prison. Against Otto Wallin, he tipped the scales at a flabby 241 pounds.

Wallin is best known for going the distance with defending heavyweight champion Tyson Fury. In this bout, at Las Vegas in 2019, Fury suffered a bad gash over his right eye in the third round, a cut that eventually required 47 stitches, an injury that would have undoubtedly forced a doctor’s stoppage if the stakes hadn’t been so high. Wallin was the third Swede to fight for the world heavyweight title, following Ingemar Johansson and Dolph Lundgren (okay, scratch Lundgren; his fight with Rocky Balboa was fictional).

Since then, Wallin, who turns 35 later this month, has become a high-grade gatekeeper. His best win was a 12-round split decision over Russian KO artist Murat Gassiev. But his win over Chris Thomas, although no great feat, may portend good things going forward. For this match, he left his New York home for Texas to prepare under the tutelage of Houston’s Ronnie Shields (pictured). Wallin was previously trained by Joey Gamache.

The other Swedish native, Las Vegas-based Robin Safar, improved to 19-0 (13) with a lopsided, albeit messy, 10-round decision over Derick Miller Jr on Saturday’s Golden Boy card in Fort Worth, Texas (underneath Vergil Ortiz vs Erickson Lubin). Safar. the subject of a recent profile in these pages, wasn’t expected to have much trouble with Miller, a 35-year-old Michigander best described as a journeyman, notwithstanding the fact that he was undefeated (18-0-1) heading in.

The next native Swede to appear in a U.S. ring will be Badou Jack, the globetrotter who has found a spiritual home in Dubai. Jack (28-3-4, 17 KOs) meets Noel Mikaelian (27-3) on Dec. 13 in a rematch of their May 3 cruiserweight title fight in Saudi Arabia. A $29.99 pay-per-view in North America, Jack- Mikaelian II marks the debut of prizefighting at Ace Mission Studios, a former industrial warehouse in the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles.

In their first meeting, Beau Jack was the defending WBC world cruiserweight champion and Noel Mikaelian, who had fought more recently, was the WBC cruiserweight champion in recess. (We won’t attempt to sort that out; in pro boxing, anything convoluted is par for the course.) Jack won controversially, prevailing on a majority decision.

Badou Jack has won titles in three weight classes and owns a 7-fight winning streak, but he’s now 42 years old, seven years older than his Armenian opponent. The would-be avenger, Miami-based Mikaelian, a consensus minus-135 favorite, looks like the right side.

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Overshadowed by Vergil Ortiz Jr’s demolition of Richardson Hitchins in Fort Worth, Delante “Tiger” Johnson’s impressive showing on the same night attracted very little notice. Johnson (17-0, 8 KOs) TKOed Puerto Rico’s Nicklaus Flaz (15-3) in the fourth round of a ShoBox card in Lakeland, Florida.

Cleveland’s Johnson, a welterweight, knocked Flaz down with a hard right hand in the waning seconds of round three and polished him off in the waning seconds of the following round.  Although Johnson, a former U.S. Olympian, was unbeaten, he had rarely won with pizzazz and was considered something of an under-achiever. Tonight’s triumph was his best win to date.

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The Tropicana show, a step up in class for promoter Larry Goldberg, included appearances by the Lugo bothers, Nathan, 21, a light heavyweight, and Elijah, 19, a middleweight. The brothers, the pride of Marrietta, Georgia, were decorated amateurs with Elijah purportedly breaking the U.S. record for most career knockouts, a record previously held by his older brother.

The key word here is “purportedly” as documentation is lacking but, regardless, the brothers appear to have bright futures. They are managed by David McWater whose Split-T Management company is one of the major players in the industry. Nathan (6-0) and Elijah (4-0) were both extended the distance while winning comfortably. Hearing the final bell was a novelty for Nathan Lugo who won his first five pro fights by knockout.

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