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RASKIN’S RANTS: The Real Winners & Losers Of Mares-Agbeko

If this life were fair, Russell Mora would be sentenced to about ten of those “bordeline” shots that Mares threw at Agbeko’s groin and legs.
One of these days, we’re going to get a highly entertaining fight that ends with one boxer winning deservedly, no controversy, nobody making excuses, nobody filing appeals. But until that day comes, we have fights like Abner Mares vs. Joseph Agbeko to discuss. This week’s dip into the mini-mailbag asks a simple question that allows me to comment extensively on Saturday’s action-packed but ultimately unsatisfying end to Showtime’s bantamweight tournament:
Eric,
Jay Nady, Laurence Cole, and Arthur Mercante Jr. are like the Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, and Jack Johnson of lousy refereeing, three absolute legends of sucking. But then there is Russell Mora, apparently the Buster Douglas of awful referees. He doesn’t have a consistent track record of sucking to compete with a buffoon like Cole, but for one night, at the peak of his powers, nobody could touch him. This really might have been the worst single-fight performance by a ref I’ve ever seen.
Here’s my question for you: There’s a certain so-called boxing writer on a certain site you used to write for who reviews the weekend in boxing with incredibly lame and obvious picks for “biggest winner” and “biggest loser.” (In the spirit of the last episode of Ring Theory, where you chose not to give sanctioning bodies or bad writers free publicity by stating their names, I won’t state his name either. But I think you know who I’m talking about.) I can promise you right now, this “writer” will tell us Abner Mares is the big winner because he technically won the fight, and Joseph Agbeko is the big loser because he technically lost. So I’m turning to you to think more creatively and tell me who the big winners and losers from this fight REALLY were. Looking forward to what you come up with.
Thanks,
Alex
Alex,
Thanks for the email, it’s an excellent set-up. I’d be more than happy to tell you who the real winners and losers from the Mares-Agbeko fight were:
BIGGEST WINNER: JOSEPH AGBEKO
Agbeko scored huge sympathy points, which sometimes carry a career farther than a simple “W” does. He also earned major respect points by battling through all the low blows and a slow start (I only gave him one of the first six rounds) to rally and do enough to earn the win had he not had the 11th-round knockdown call go against him and had Mares been penalized at least once or twice like he should have been. That 11th round alone might have been a four-point swing; two judges apparently ruled it 10-8 for Mares, but it should have been 10-8 for Agbeko. Bottom line: People will remember that Agbeko fought his ass off, and he’ll be more popular than ever before on account of the fact that he got blatantly screwed.
BIGGEST LOSER: RUSSELL MORA
Not a whole lot of explanation needed here. This was the height of incompetence, compounded by a stubborn streak. When Mora was shown the slo-mo replay of the “knockdown” punch landing squarely on the cup, he was too pig-headedly defensive to earn back a measure of public support by saying, “Boy, you know, now that I see it in slo-mo, yep, that was a low blow. My mistake. I missed it.” His behavior in the interview matched his behavior in the fight; he was locked into a singular mindset, and he just couldn’t accept that it was the wrong one. The “Buster Douglas of awful referees,” as you called him, should probably go eat himself into a diabetic coma and come out of it in two or three years, when this has all blown over.
EVEN STEVEN: ABNER MARES
Mares’ stock goes neither up nor down. He remains a definite top-five bantamweight who can’t quite win definitively against other top-five bantamweights. He’s an entertaining fighter, but we already knew that. I’d estimate he went low about 15 times over the course of the fight (a few of the shots the Showtime crew claimed were low appeared to me to be on the beltline), but he didn’t seem to be fouling on purpose. He was just throwing one borderline shot after another and figuring, “If I’m not going to lose points for it, why stop?” You can’t hold Mora’s ineptitude against Mares. That said, you can’t really call Mares a winner just because he got his hand raised.
OTHER WINNERS: JIM GRAY, AL BERNSTEIN, INSTANT REPLAY ADVOCATES
Gray is a winner because his boorish interview style was directed at the villain of the moment and therefore was well-received by the public for once. Bernstein is a winner because he (a) identified that Mora was blowing it very early in the proceedings, and (b) criticized him in a rational, even reluctant manner, coming off as the genuine pro that he is. And instant-replay advocates win because the 11th-round knockdown would have been easy to reverse between rounds if the powers-that-be in boxing would finally get into the 20th century—you know, now that we’re 11 years into the 21st.
OTHER LOSERS: ADALAIDE BYRD & OREN SHELLENBERGER, BOXING FANS, OSCAR DE LA HOYA
Byrd and Shellenberger are mild losers for their slightly-too-wide 115-111 scorecards (though you could argue they’re winners because Mora’s atrocious officiating made their questionable scoring barely worth mentioning). The fans are losers because they got an unsatisfying result and because an attractive 118-pound opponent for Nonito Donaire failed to emerge (Donaire thumps either Mares or Agbeko). And De La Hoya is a loser for pulling the ol’ tweet-n-delete with a disgusting comment about Showtime’s broadcasters having bet on Agbeko. You would think after getting sued for slander once, Oscar might have learned his lesson. Not so much. Time to put child locks on that Twitter account, Richard.
That wraps up this week’s mini-mailbag. Now here are a handful of bullet-pointed bloviations to get you through your Monday:
• Sure, I’m curious to hear what the investigators have to say about what they think really happened the night Arturo Gatti died. But mostly, I’m sad to be thinking about this again.
• Speaking of sad, what the hell happened to Kermit Cintron? It’s not just that he seems to have hit the wall so suddenly and without a punishing fight to blame it on; it’s that he’s emerged as the least interesting fighter on the planet. As flawed as he always was, he used to be fun on several levels, whether he was landing sensational knockout blows, shaving the NBC peacock into his hair, or even diving out of the ring like Mick Foley. Now he’s just kinda hanging around. But, hey, it could be worse. He could be David Tua.
• I’ve been away from television access most Friday nights and Saturday mornings this summer, so I’m very thankful indeed for ESPN3.com. However, I can’t begin to figure out how it’s determined which clips the website is legally blocked from showing. This past Friday, they cut out Joe Tessitore’s tribute to Scott LeDoux and the audio of an ESPN Radio interview. I would have thought ESPN-owned materials would be fair game. Then again, Lennox Lewis is currently on his second premium-cable broadcasting gig, so there’s a lot I don’t understand about this business.
• When a fighter goes down and Steve Smoger doesn’t even start to count, you know it was a sensational punch. Dannie Williams made himself a prospect worth watching with a right hand that proved not all fighters named Antonio Cervantes are created equal.
• TBS’ Lopez Tonight, a talk show that frequently welcomed boxers as guests, has been cancelled due to low ratings. The lesson: All of the Americans without senses of humor are already watching Jay Leno, making it hard for other unfunny hosts to attract an audience.
• Two things very much worth watching this coming weekend: the season finale of ESPN2 Friday Night Fights, with its outstanding short-notice main event of Demetrius Andrade vs. Grady Brewer; and the return of Alfredo Angulo, which will hopefully be viewable somewhere on the internet. Solid stuff as far as the mid-August doldrums go.
• This has nothing to do with boxing, but I’m positing the theory that The Situation’s romantic affection for Snooki is an act, designed to get him more camera time this season after he slipped into a supporting role in Season Three. I’m also not going to rule out the possibility that Sitch went legally blind prior to the fourth season. (That would certainly explain why the normally image-obsessed Situation is suddenly allowing himself to appear on camera with a dead poodle stapled to his head.)
• Look for a new episode of Ring Theory (http://ringtheory.podbean.com) this week. I’m not sure yet what topics we’ll be discussing, but I do know that you won’t hear much talk from Bill Dettloff about the volume of his footsteps.
Eric Raskin can be contacted at RaskinBoxing@yahoo.com. You can follow him on Twitter @EricRaskin and listen to new episodes of his podcast, Ring Theory, at http://ringtheory.podbean.com.
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International Brotherhood of Prizefighters Rankings: Week of September 24, 2023

What’s in a nickname, you ask? Zhilei “Big Bang” Zhang exhibited shades of the legendary Brown Bomber, Joe Louis; the exception being he conducts business from the port side. Zhang’s 3rd round stoppage of Joe Joyce sees Joyce exiting the top 10 in the heavyweight division. Also exiting due to inactivity is Andy Ruiz and Luis Ortiz, who last fought each other on September 4, 2022. Gaining entries are Daniel Dubois, Dillian White and Derek Chisora, at 8, 9 and 10 respectively.
At 140, Richardson Hitchins earned his asterisk with a one sided decision over Jose Zepeda. Hitchins enters the top 10 in the 7th slot, while Zepeda falls to 8th. Zhankosh Turarov drops to 9th in the world and immediately underneath him, rounding out the top 10, is Elvis Rodriguez. Scotland’s Josh Taylor gets bumped from the 10th slot.
At 108, World Champion Kenshiro Teraji defended his title with a stoppage of 4th ranked Hekkie Budler in round 9 of a scheduled 12. Budler drops to 7th, see list for reshuffle.
*Please note that when the fighter’s name appears with an asterisk it represents a movement in ranking from the previous week.
105lbs
♛ Vacant
1 Thammanoon Niyomtrong (Knockout CP Freshmart) (Thailand)
2 Panya Pradabsri (Petchmanee CP Freshmart) (Thailand)
3 Oscar Collazo (USA)
4 Ginjiro Shigeoka (Japan)
5 Daniel Valladares (Mexico)
6 Yudai Shigeoka (Japan)
7 Melvin Jerusalem (Philippines)
8 Masataka Taniguchi (Japan)
9 Rene Mark Cuarto (Philippines)
10 Yudai Shigeoka (Philippines)
108lbs
♛ Kenshiro Teraji (Japan)
1 Jonathan Gonzalez (Puerto Rico)
2 Masamichi Yabuki (Japan)
3 Sivenathi
4 Elwin Soto (Mexico)*
5 Regie Suganob (Philippines)*
6 Shokichi Iwata (Japan)*
7 Hekkie Budler (South Africa)*
8 Carlos Canizales (Venezuela)
9 Daniel Matellon (Panama)
10 Miel Fajardo (Philippines)
112lbs
♛ Vacant
1 Sunny Edwards (England)
2 Artem Dalakian (Ukraine)
3 Julio Cesar Martinez (Mexico)
4 Angel Ayala Lardizabal (Mexico)
5 David Jimenez (Costa Rica)
6 Jesse Rodriguez (USA)
7 Ricardo Sandoval (USA)
8 Felix Alvarado (Nicaragua)
9 Seigo Yuri Akui (Japan)
10 Taku Kuwahara (Japan)
115lbs
♛ Juan Francisco Estrada (Mexico)
1 Roman Gonzalez (Nicaragua)
2 Kazuto Ioka (Japan)
3 Fernando Martinez (Argentina)
4 Junto Nakatani (Japan)
5 Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (Thailand)
6 Kosei Tanaka (Japan)
7 Andrew Moloney (Australia)
8 Francisco Rodriguez Jr. (Mexico)
9 Pedro Guevara (Mexico)
10 Donnie Nietes (Philippines)
118lbs
♛ Vacant
1 Emmanuel Rodriguez (Puerto Rico)
2 Alexandro Santiago (Mexico)
3 Jason Moloney (Australia)
4 Vincent Astrolabio (Philippines)
5 Gary Antonio Russell (USA)
6 Takuma Inoue (Japan)
7 Nonito Donaire (Philippines)
8 Ryosuke Nishida (Japan)
9 Keita Kurihara (Japan)
10 Paul Butler (England)
122lbs
♛ Vacant
1 Naoya Inoue (Japan)
2 Marlon Tapales (Philippines)
3 Stephen Fulton (USA)
4 Luis Nery (Mexico)
5 Murodjon Akhmadaliev (Uzbekistan)
6 Sam Goodman (Australia)
7 Azat Hovhannisyan (Armenia)
8 Kevin Gonzalez (Mexico)
9 Ra’eese Aleem (USA)
10 Liam Davies (England)
126lbs
♛ Vacant
1 Luis Alberto Lopez (Mexico)
2 Leigh Wood (England)
3 Brandon Figueroa (USA)
4 Rey Vargas (Mexico)
5 Mauricio Lara (Mexico)
6 Robeisy Ramirez (Cuba)
7 Mark Magsayo (Philippines)
8 Josh Warrington (England)
9 Reiya Abe (Japan)
10 Otabek Kholmatov (Uzbekistan)
130lbs
♛ Vacant
1 Emanuel Navarrete (Mexico)
2 Joe Cordina (Wales)
3 Hector Garcia (Dominican Republic)
4 O’Shaquie Foster (USA)
5 Oscar Valdez (Mexico)
6 Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov (Tajikistan)
7 Otar Eranosyan (Georgia)
8 Lamont Roach (USA)
9 Eduardo Ramirez (Mexico)
10 Kenichi Ogawa (Japan)
135lbs
♛ Devin Haney (USA)
1 Gervonta Davis (USA)
2 Vasily Lomachenko (Ukraine)
3 Isaac Cruz (Mexico)
4 William Zepeda Segura (Mexico)
5 Frank Martin (USA)
6 Shakur Stevenson (USA)
7 Maxi Hughes (England)
8 George Kambosos Jr (Australia)
9 Keyshawn Davis (USA)
10 Raymond Muratalla (USA)
140lbs
♛ Teofimo Lopez (USA)
1 Regis Prograis (USA)
2 Jose Ramirez (USA)
3 Jack Catterall (England)*
4 Subriel Matias (Puerto Rico)*
5 Arnold Barboza Jr. (USA)*
6 Gary Antuanne Russell (USA)*
7 Richardson Hitchins (USA)*
8 Jose Zepeda (USA)*
9 Zhankosh Turarov (Kazakhstan*)
10 Elvis Rodriguez (Dominican Republic)*
147lbs
♛ Terence Crawford (USA)
1 Errol Spence (USA)
2 Jaron Ennis (USA)
3 David Avanesyan (Russia)
4 Cody Crowley (Canada)
5 Alexis Rocha (USA)
6 Rashidi Ellis (USA)
7 Souleymane Cissokho (Senegal)
8 Roiman Villa (Venezuela)
9 Egidijus Kavaliauskas (Lithuania)
10 Shakhram Giyasov (Uzbekistan)
154lbs
♛ Jermell Charlo (USA)
1 Tim Tszyu (Australia)
2 Brian Mendoza (USA)
3 Jesus Alejandro Ramos (USA)
4 Sebastian Fundora (USA)
5 Erickson Lubin (USA)
6 Michel Soro (Ivory Coast)
7 Magomed Kurbanov (Russia)
8 Tony Harrison (USA)
9 Israil Madrimov (Uzbekistan)
10 Bakhram Murtazaliev (Russia)
160lbs
♛ Vacant
1 Gennady Golovkin (Kazakhstan)
2 Carlos Adames (Dominican Republic)
3 Zhanibek Alimkhanuly (Kazakhstan)
4 Chris Eubank Jr. (England)
5 Liam Smith (England)
6 Sergiy Derevyanchenko (Ukraine)*
7 Vincenzo Gualtieri (Germany)
8 Felix Cash (England)
9 Michael Zerafa (Australia)
10 Esquiva Falcao (Brazil)
168lbs
♛ Canelo Alvarez (Mexico)
1 David Benavidez (USA)
2 Caleb Plant (USA)
3 Christian Mbilli (France)
4 David Morrell (Cuba)
5 John Ryder (England)
6 Pavel Silyagin (Russia)
7 Vladimir Shishkin (Russia)
8 Carlos Gongora (Ecuador)
9 Jaime Munguia (Mexico)
10 Demetrius Andrade (USA)
175lbs
♛ Artur Beterbiev (Canada)
1 Dmitry Bivol (Russia)
2 Joshua Buatsi (England)
3 Callum Smith (England)
4 Joe Smith Jr. (USA)
5 Gilberto Ramirez (Mexico)
6 Anthony Yarde (England)
7 Dan Azeez (England)
8 Ali Izmailov (Russia)
9 Michael Eifert (Germany)
10 Igor Mikhalkin (Germany)
200lbs
♛ Jai Opetaia (Australia)
1 Mairis Breidis (Latvia)
2 Chris Billam-Smith (England)
3 Richard Riakporhe (England)
4 Aleksei Papin (Russia)
5 Badou Jack (Sweden)
6 Arsen Goulamirian (France)
7 Lawrence Okolie (England)
8 Yuniel Dorticos (Cuba)
9 Mateusz Masternak (Poland)
10 Ilunga Makabu (So. Africa)
Unlimited
♛ Oleksandr Usyk (Ukraine)
1 Tyson Fury (England)
2 Zhilei Zhang (China)
3 Deontay Wilder (USA)
4 Anthony Joshua (England)
5 Filip Hrgovic (Croatia)
6 Arslanbek Makhmudov (Russia)*
7 Frank Sanchez (Cuba)*
8 Daniel Dubois (England)*
9 Dillian White (England)*
10 Derek Chisora (Zimbabwe)*
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Canelo-Charlo Gets All the Ink, but Don’t Overlook the Compelling Match-up of Gassiev-Wallin in Turkey

Canelo-Charlo Gets All the Ink, but Don’t Overlook the Compelling Match-up of Gassiev-Wallin in Turkey
The eyes of the boxing world will be on Las Vegas this Saturday where Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez risks his four super middleweight title belts against unified 154-pound champion Jermell Charlo. Earlier that day at a luxury resort hotel in the city of Antalya on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, there’s a heavyweight match sitting under the radar that may prove to be the better fight. It’s an intriguing match-up between former world cruiserweight title-holder Murat Gassiev and Swedish southpaw Otto Wallin, a bout with significant ramifications for boxing’s glamour division.
Gassiev (30-1, 23 KOs) and Wallin (25-1, 14 KOs) have only one loss, but those setbacks came against the top dogs in the division. Gassiev was out-boxed by Oleksandr Usyk back in the days when both were cruiserweights. Wallin gave Tyson Fury a world of trouble before losing a unanimous decision.
Since those fights, both have been treading water.
Gassiev
Gassiev was inactive for 27 months after his match with Usyk while dealing with legal issues and an injury to his left shoulder. He is 4-0 (4 KOs) since returning to the ring while answering the bell for only eight rounds. The only recognizable name among those four victims is German gatekeeper Michael Wallisch. After stopping Wallisch, Gassiev was out of action for another 13 months while reportedly dealing with an arm injury.
A first-round knockout of Carlouse Welch, an obscure 40-something boxer from the U.S. state of Georgia on Aug. 26, 2022, in Belgrade, Serbia, was promoted as a title fight. The sanctioning body was the Eurasian Boxing Parliament (insert your own punchline here). Gassiev followed that up with a second-round knockout of former NFL linebacker Mike Balogun who came in undefeated and was seemingly a legitimate threat to him.
Although he has yet to fight a ranked opponent since leaving the cruiserweight division, Gassiev — a former stablemate of Gennady Golovkin who has been living in Big Bear, California, training under Abel Sanchez – is one of the most respected fighters in the division because he has one-punch knockout power as Balogun and others can well attest. The rub against the Russian-Armenian bruiser is that he is somewhat robotic.
Wallin
Otto Wallin, a 32-year-old southpaw from Sweden who trains in New York under former world lightweight champion Joey Gamache, fought Tyson Fury on Sept. 14, 2019 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. There was a general feeling that the Swede would be a stroll in the park for Fury, but to the contrary, he gave the Gypsy King a hard tussle while losing a unanimous decision.
Wallin is 5-0 since that night beginning with victories over Travis Kauffman (KO 5) and Dominic Breazeale (UD 12), but his last three opponents were softer than soft and all three lasted the distance. In order, Wallin won an 8-round decision over Kamil Sokolowski, who was 11-24-2 heading in, won a 10-round decision over ancient Rydell Booker, and won an 8-round decision over Helaman Olguin. His bout with Utah trial horse Olguin was at a banquet hall in Windham, New Hampshire.
It isn’t that Wallin has been avoiding the top names in the division; it’s the other way around. His promoter Dmitriy Salita reportedly came close to getting Wallin a match with Anthony Joshua whose team had second thoughts about sending Joshua in against another southpaw after back-to-back setbacks to Oleksandr Usyk.
Gassiev vs Wallin is a true crossroads fight. Both are in dire need of a win over a credible opponent. At last look, Gassiev, who figures to have the crowd in his corner, was a 3/1 favorite.
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Skavynskyi and Bustillos Win on a MarvNation Card in Long Beach

Skavynskyi and Bustillos Win on a MarvNation Card in Long Beach
LONG BEACH, Ca.-A cool autumn night saw welterweights and minimumweights share main events for a MarvNation fight card on Saturday.
Ukraine’s Eduard Skavynskyi (15-0, 7 KOs) experienced a tangled mess against the awkward Alejandro Frias (14-10-2) but won by decision after eight rounds in a welterweight contest at the indoor furnace called the Thunder Studios.
It was hot in there for the more than 600 people inside.
Skavynskyi probably never fought someone like Mexico’s Frias whose style was the opposite of the Ukrainian’s fundamentally sound one-two style. But round after round the rough edges became more familiar.
Neither fighter was ever damaged but all three judges saw Skavynskyi the winner by unanimous decision 79-73 on all three cards. The Ukrainian fighter trains in Ventura.
Bustillo Wins Rematch
In the female main event Las Vegas’ Yadira Bustillos (8-1) stepped into a rematch with Karen Lindenmuth (5-2) and immediately proved the lessons learned from their first encounter.
Bustillos connected solidly with an overhand right and staggered Lindenmuth but never came close to putting the pressure fighter down. Still, Bustillos kept turning the hard rushing Lindenmuth and snapping her head with overhand rights and check left hooks.
Lindenmuth usually overwhelms most opponents with a smothering attack that causes panic. But not against Bustillos who seemed quite comfortable all eight rounds in slipping blows and countering back.
After eight rounds all three judges scored the contest for Bustillos 78-74 and 80-72 twice. Body shots were especially effective for the Las Vegas fighter in the fifth round. Bustillos competes in the same division as IBF/WBO title-holder Yokasta Valle.
Other Bouts
In a middleweight clash, undefeated Victorville’s Andrew Buchanan (3-0-1) used effective combination punching to defeat Mexico’s Fredy Vargas (2-1-1) after six rounds. Two judges scored it 59-55 and a third 60-54 for Buchanan. No knockdowns were scored.
A super lightweight match saw Sergio Aldana win his pro debut by decision after four rounds versus Gerardo Fuentes (2-9-1).
Photos credit: Al Applerose
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