The Raskin PPV Running Diary: Hopkins vs. Dawson (Part II)

Published

13 years ago

October 19, 2011

BozellaHopkinsFinalPC_Blevins4 26 years in the can for a crime you did not commit, you can wear whatever 'do you like. But..Dewey..that 'do!?

We now continue our pay-per-view running diary where we left off yesterday, with Nigel Collins, Bill Dettloff, and I watching at stately Dettloff Manor and the Bernard Hopkins-Chad Dawson main event about to begin …

11:51 p.m. EST: The broadcasters note that Dawson has a tendency to “lose focus” during fights, prompting Nigel to ask aloud how it’s possible to lose focus when another man is trying to punch you in the head. It’s a heck of a question.

11:52: B-Hop is making his entrance, not to “My Way” but to some sort of sped up version of “We Will Rock You.” I’d like to take this moment to thank HBO PPV for not wasting anytime between the end of the undercard and the start of the main event. This thing might just get off before midnight on the east coast, which is great news for people like me whose children don’t believe in sleeping past 5:30 a.m.

11:59: In the words on Hector Salamanca: “Ding! Ding!”

12:00 a.m.: Steward drops a Bennie Briscoe reference, delighting Nigel, since “Baaaad Bennie” was his favorite fighter. All references to 1970s Philly fighters will be well-received in Dettloff’s living room tonight.

12:02: It’s an ugly first round (no surprise there), and as Lampley correctly observes, they’re fighting at a Bernard Hopkins pace. Despite that, I give Dawson the round, but not with a whole lot of conviction.

12:05: Dawson has a look of confidence about him in round two. He’s still not getting much done offensively, but there’s a look in his eyes that wasn’t there in the Jean Pascal fight or the Adrian Diaconu bout.

12:06: Can you say, “Worst case scenario”? Dawson lifts Hopkins in the air and throws him to the canvas without provocation, and Hopkins stays down, a look of anguish on his face as he points to his left shoulder. It quickly becomes apparent that there’s a chance the fight isn’t going to continue. Nobody wanted to see this thing end in a no-contest …

12:07: … but a no-contest would beat the crap out of an inexplicably ruled TKO to transfer ownership of the light heavyweight championship of the world! Pat Russell has just said something about there being no foul and therefore it’s a TKO, which sparks immediate outrage at our little PPV party. If he wants to call it an accidental foul instead of an intentional foul, I’ll buy that. But there’s no way Hopkins should lose the title on a TKO. While a no-decision would be the most fair outcome, a disqualification win for Hopkins would be more reasonable than a TKO win for Dawson. Surely Russell will confer with members of the commission, and they’ll get this right. Right?

12:13: We send it up to Michael Buffer in the ring, who tells us it’s Dawson by second-round technical knockout. Buffer declares him the “new Ring magazine champion.” Nigel: “Thank goodness I’m no longer the editor.”

12:15: Max Kellerman interviews a member of the California Commission who looks an awful lot like Mr. Noodle from Sesame Street. Based on what Mr. Noodle is saying, it sounds possible that they’ll reverse this ruling sometime in the near future. For the record, the real Mr. Noodle, despite his reputation for bumbling and stumbling, isn’t quite inept enough to serve on the California Commission.

12:17: On our Grantland Network podcast last week, Bill and I made note of the blandness of Dawson’s personality, with Bill somehow comparing him to a plantar wart. So it’s refreshing to see Dawson showing real personality when Kellerman interviews him. “He was faking, you know he was faking!” Dawson says of Hopkins. “Gangsta woulda got up and fought like a man!” It is at this moment that I must come to terms with the fact that I do not qualify as gangsta.

12:18: Dawson says he wants a rematch with Jean Pascal next and doesn’t want to fight Hopkins again. If this result ends up being changed and Hopkins keeps the title, I wonder if Dawson might just find himself interested in a second Hopkins fight after all. By the way, not to criticize Kellerman, who did a strong job overall with the postfight interviews, but I would have liked to have heard him ask Dawson if it was unsatisfying to win the title in this outrageous manner. (And if Kellerman did ask him that and I missed it because I was wrapped up in a conversation of my own, I apologize.)

12:19: The Staples Center crowd boos as Hopkins appears on the JumboTron for his interview. Hopkins says he would have continued if he knew Russell was going to rule it a TKO, referencing the time he defeated Antwun Echols with one arm after getting bodyslammed. On the one hand, I feel like if Bernard could have continued, as he claims, then he should have gotten up and told Russell he wanted to try to fight in the first place. On the other hand, why in the hell wouldn’t Russell take three seconds to tell him of his intentions to rule it a TKO, so Hopkins could make an informed decision?

12:23: Lampley and Lederman are playing microphone tug of war, conjuring up memories of the legendary Larry Merchant-Lennox Lewis microphone battle of 2003. If Lederman was 50 years younger, he could definitely wrest that mic away from Lamps.

12:29: HBO makes the executive decision to try to give viewers a little more for their money, replaying the Dewey Bozella-Larry Hopkins fight in its entirety. Underrated Bozella fact: He’s the only person who refers to Bernard Hopkins as “Bernie.” Hey, you do 26 years in jail for a crime you didn’t commit, you can call people whatever you want.

12:45: Nigel says what everyone’s thinking but nobody wants to say because we all love Bozella: “He’s gotta get a different haircut.” After the fight, Lampley notes that Bozella is “posing for the obligatory Ring magazine photograph.” Well, HBO is just mentioning The Ring left and right all of a sudden, huh?

12:47: Dettloff has been waiting all night for Lampley to reach that voice-cracking emotional place that he finds every so often, and at the conclusion of the Bozella replay, he seems on the verge. “Did you ever have a dream that you thought was out of reach,” Lamps offers with the slightest hint of a tightening throat. “Oh, here we go!” yells Bill excitedly. Sadly, it goes no farther than that. Damn you for keeping it together, Jim. (And damn you, Dewey Bozella, for keeping me out till almost 1 a.m. even though the main event lasted less than two rounds. If you hadn’t done 26 years in the slammer for no good reason, I might really be pissed at you.)

RASKIN’S RANTS

There will be no mini-mailbag this week, but let’s fill out the column with a few quick Rants, shall we?

–David Haye took a lot of abuse last week, but I commend him for his decision to retire. If your heart isn’t 100 percent committed to boxing, you’re wasting everyone’s time while risking your health. Sure, Haye had his mind mostly made up about this before fighting Wladimir Klitschko, and went ahead and fleeced the fans in that fight in order to leave himself with a healthy nest egg. But if he’s quitting after only one such ripoff, then he’s way ahead of the curve.

–Many in the boxing community are revolted by the idea of a Hector Camacho Jr. vs. Andrew “Six Heads” Lewis fight. For the record, I was revolted halfway into the announcement of the matchup.

–As you may have heard, David Tua and Cedric Kushner parted ways last week. The breakup was mutual, with both men simultaneously assuming the other had quit the boxing business five years ago.

–Because I hate being left out of things that everyone else is doing, this week I plan to fire Emanuel Steward, sue both Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, and get myself on the short list to fight Alexander Povetkin.

–Attention Ring Theory (http://ringtheory.podbean.com) subscribers, there’s a new episode coming later this week. I’m not sure yet exactly what topics we’ll be discussing, but you can be certain you’ll hear talk about the volume of Dettloff’s footsteps. You see, Quick Picks is all tied up with five episodes to go in the year. It’s a good thing I have Angelo Dundee’s cell number in my address book, because I think I need to hear a “You’re blowin’ it, son!” right about now.

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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Friday Boxing Recaps: Observations on Conlan, Eubank, Bahdi, and David Jimenez

Published

2 days ago

March 8, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Friday Boxing Recaps: Observations on Conlan, Eubank, Bahdi, and David Jimenez

March 7 was an unusually heavy Friday for professional boxing. The show that warranted the most ink was the all-female card in London, a tour-de-force for the super-talented Lauren Price, but there were important fights on other continents.

Brighton

Michael Conlan, who sat out all of 2024 on the heels of being stopped in three of his previous five, returned to the ring in the British seaside resort city of Brighton in a shake-off-the-rust, 8-rounder against Asad Asif Khan, a 31-year-old Indian from Calcutta making his first appearance in a British ring.

Conlan, a 2016 Olympic silver medalist who famously signed with Top Rank coming out of the amateur ranks, is now 33 years old. Against Khan, he was far from impressive, but did enough to win by a 78-74 score and lock in a match with Spain’s Cristobal Lorente, the European featherweight champion.

Conlan, who improved to 19-3 (9), absorbed a lot of punishment in those three matches that he lost. With his deep amateur background, Michael has a lot of mileage on him and he would have been smart to call it quits after his embarrassingly one-sided defeat to Luis Alberto Lopez. His frayed reflexes speak to something more than ring rust. Heading in, Khan brought a 19-5-1 record but had scored only five wins inside the distance.

Conlan vs Khan was the co-feature. In the main event, Brighton welterweight Harlem Eubank, the cousin of Chris Eubank Jr, improved to 21-0 (9 KOs) with a dominant performance over Conlan’s Belfast homie Tyrone McKenna. Eubank was credited with three knockdowns, all the result of body punches, before referee John Latham had seen enough and pulled the plug at the 2:09 mark of round 10. It was the fourth loss in his last six outings for the 35-year-old McKenna (24-6-1).

Harlem Eubank wants to fight Conor Benn next and says he is willing to wait until after his cousin “wipes Benn out.” Chris Eubank Jr vs Benn is slated for April 26 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The North London facility, which has a retractable roof, is the third-largest soccer stadium in England.

Toronto

Local fan favorite Lucas Bahdi and his stablemate Sara Bailey were the headliners on last night’s card at the Great Canadian Casino Resort in Toronto. The event marked the first incursion of Jake Paul’s MVP Promotions into Canada.

Bahdi, who is from Niagara Falls but trains in Toronto, burst out of obscurity in July of last year in Tampa, Florida, with a spectacular one-punch knockout of heavily-hyped Ashton “H2O” Sylva. His next fight, on the undercard of Jake Paul’s match with Mike Tyson, was less “noisy” and the same could be said of his homecoming fight with Ryan James Racaza, an undefeated (15-0) but obscure southpaw from the Philippines who was making his North American debut.

Bahdi vs Racaza was a technical fight that didn’t warm up until Bahdi produced a knockdown in round seven with a sweeping left hook, a glancing blow that appeared to land behind Racaza’s ear. The Filipino was up in a jiff, looking at the referee as if to say, “this dude just hit me with a rabbit punch.”

The judges had it 99-90, 97-92, and 96-93 for the victorious Bahdi (19-0) who was the subject of a recent profile on these pages.

Sara Bailey, a decorated amateur who competed around the world under her maiden name Sara Haghighat Joo and now holds the WBA light flyweight title, successfully defended that trinket with a lopsided decision over Cristina Navarro (6-3), a 35-year-old Spaniard who “earned” this assignment by winning a 6-round decision over an opponent with a 1-4-3 record. The judges scored the monotonous fight 99-91 across the board for Bailey who improved to 6-0 and then returned to the ring to assist her husband in Lucas Bahdi’s corner.

Also

Twenty-two-year-old super bantamweight Angel Barrientes, a Las Vegas-based Hawaii native, delivered the best performance of the night with a one-sided beatdown of Alexander Castellano whose corner mercifully stopped the contest after the seventh round as the ring doctor stood in a neutral corner chatting with the referee.

The gritty Castellano, who hails from Tonawanda, New York, brought an 11-1-2 record and hadn’t previously been stopped. A glutton for punishment, he appeared to suffer a broken orbital bone. Barrientes improved to 13-1 (8 KOs).

The show was marred by an excessive amount of fluffy gobbledygook by the TV talking heads which slowed down the action and made the promotion almost unwatchable.

Cartago, Costa Rica

Fighting in his hometown, super flyweight David Jimenez scored a lopsided 12-round decision over Nicaragua’s Keyvin Lara. The judges had it 120-108, 119-109, and 116-112.

Jimenez, now 17-1, came to the fore in July of 2022 when he upset Ricardo Sandoval in Los Angeles, winning a well-earned majority decision over a 20/1 favorite riding a 16-fight winning streak. That boosted him into a title fight with the formidable Artem Dalakian who saddled him with his lone defeat.

Jimenez’s victory over Lara was his fifth since that setback. It sets up the Costa Rican for another title fight, this time against Argentina’s Fernando Martinez who acquired the WBA 115-pound title in July with an upset of Kazuto Ioka in Japan. Lara, who unsuccessfully challenged Ioka for a belt in 2016, falls to 32-7-1.

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Price Conquers Jonas on an All-Female Card at Royal Albert Hall

Published

3 days ago

March 7, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Price-Conquers-Jonas-on-an-All-Female-Card-at-Royal-Albert-Hall

Ben Shalom’s BOXXER Promotions was at London’s historic Royal Albert Hall tonight with an all-female card topped by a welterweight unification fight between WBC/IBF belt-holder Natasha Jonas and WBA champion Lauren Price.

Liverpool’s Jonas, who turns 41 in June, has had a sterling career, but Father Time has caught up with her. The 30-year-old Price, an Olympic gold medalist, had faster hands, faster feet, and hit harder. The classy Jonas (16-3-1) acknowledged as much in her post-fight interview: “She beat me to the punch every time.”

The scores were 100-90, 98-92, and 98-93.

In advancing her record to 9-0 (2), Price built a strong case that she is the best fighter to come down the pike from Wales since Joe Calzaghe. As for her next bout, she hopes to fight the winner of the March 29 rematch in Las Vegas between Mikaela Mayer and Sandy Ryan. That match, with all of the meaningful welterweight hardware at stake, would be a hot ticket item if potted in Cardiff.

Semi-wind-up

Caroline Dubois staved off a late rally to successfully defend her WBC lightweight title with a majority decision over South Korea’s spunky Bo Mi Re Shin. The judges had it 98-92, 98-93, and 95-95. Although the 95-95 tally by the Korean judge was quite a stretch, Shin performed far better than the odds – Dubois was a consensus 35/1 favorite — portended.

Dubois, a 24-year-old Londoner trained by Shane McGuigan, is the sister of IBF heavyweight title-holder Daniel Dubois. Reportedly 36-3 as an amateur, she advanced her pro record to 11-0-1 (5). Heading in, Shin (18-3-3) had won nine of her previous 10 with the lone setback coming via split decision in a robust fight with Belgium’s Delfine Persoon in Belgium.

Other Bouts of Note

Kariss Artingstall returned to the ring after a 14-month absence and scored a unanimous decision over former amateur rival Raven Chapman. The scores were 98-91, 97-92, 96-93.

The prize for Artingstall, who happens to be Lauren Price’s partner, was the inaugural British female featherweight title and a potential rematch with Skye Nicolson who would relish the chance to avenge her last defeat, a loss by split decision to Attingstall in the quarterfinals of the Tokyo Olympics. Nicolson, who was part of tonight’s broadcast team, defends her title later this month in Sydney against Florida’s Tiara Brown.

It was the first 10-rounder for Artingstall (7-0). Chapman (9-2) had an uphill battle after Artingstall decked her in the second round with a straight left hand.

In a mild upset, Jasmina Zopotoczna, a UK-based Pole, won a split decision over Chloe Watson, adding Watson’s European flyweight title to her own regional trinket. One of the judges favored Watson 97-93, but each of his colleagues had it 96-95 for the Pole. Although there was no great furor, the verdict was unpopular.

Zapotoczna, who fought off her back foot, improved to 9-1. It was the first pro loss for Watson who is trained by Ricky Hatton.

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 316: Art of the Deal in Boxing and More

Published

4 days ago

March 6, 2025

David A. Avila

Avila-Perspective-Chap-316-Art-of-the-Deal-in-Boxing-and-More

So, they want to save boxing?

A group of guys with recent ties to the sport of boxing and bags of money suddenly believe they can save a sport that is older than any other sport since the dawn of mankind.

Boxing is the oldest sport.

When cavemen roamed the planet, you can believe one tribe bet another tribe their guy could whip the other guy. Thus began the sport of boxing. There was no baseball, soccer or horse racing.

Even the invention of the wheel was still a few generations away when men were duking it out with other men for sport.

Throughout history mentions of one man fighting another man without arms are written in the Tales of Ulysses and other literary references.

Boxing will never die. Period.

Here is the reason why.

Boxing requires only two men in their underwear with no weapons and no requirement of classes in jujitsu, kickboxing, wrestling or advance training facilities. You can prepare in your backyard with one heavy bag and a pair of boxing gloves. It’s simple.

MMA, on the other hand, requires money.

Boxing is for the poor. Any kid can walk into a gym and begin training. When they become adults, then they start paying to use the gym.

Don’t let people fool you and tell you “boxing is dying.”

People have been saying those same words since John L. Sullivan in the late 1800s. You can look it up.

The phrase “boxing is dying,” is said by people who want you to pay them money to save it. Kind of sounds like the guy currently sitting in the White House who is going to save America by firing Americans from their jobs and allowing Russia to take over Ukraine.

Don’t believe these people.

Boxing does not need saving.

Why would Dana White, who has stated for decades that MMA is bigger than boxing, though no MMA fighter can equal the purses of a Saul “Canelo” Alvarez or Tyson Fury, why is he involved in boxing?

There is big money to be made in boxing, especially with internet gambling sites being allowed all over the world. And boxing is popular worldwide. MMA is not.

More people know who Canelo is than UFC’s Alex Pereira.

I respect the UFC fighters. They put in hard work and battle injuries throughout their careers. But MMA is simply not as big as boxing. The purses of MMA fighters at the top level don’t come close to boxing’s top money earners.

Why did Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz and others quickly switch to boxing when called?

The money in boxing is much bigger.

Follow the money.

NYC

A rumble is planned for Times Square in New York City.

Vatos from Southern California are fighting dudes from Nevada and Brooklyn. Sounds like a script from the Gangs of New York.

Where is Leonardo DiCaprio when you need him?

Ryan “KingRy” Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) will meet Rollie Romero (16-2, 13 KOs) in a welterweight match set for May 2, on Times Square in mid-Manhattan. This is one of three marquee bouts planned to be streamed on DAZN.

Others matched will be Arnold Barboza (32-0, 11 KOs) versus super lightweight titlist Teofimo Lopez (21-1, 13 KOs), and Devin Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) against Jose Carlos Ramirez (29-2, 18 KOs) in a welterweight contest.

This is the proposed match by The Ring magazine backed by Turki Alalshikh who, along with Golden Boy Promotions and Matchroom Boxing, is sponsoring this fight card.

It was also announced that Alalshikh, TKO Group Holdings, and Sela are forming a promotion company.

TKO owns UFC and WWE.

SoCal Fights

Southern California will be busy with boxing cards this weekend.

This Thursday, March 6, is Golden Boy Promotions with a boxing card featuring Manny Flores (19-1, 15 KOs) versus Jorge Leyva (18-3, 13 KOs) in a super bantamweight match at Fantasy Springs Casino. DAZN will stream the boxing card from Indio, California.

On Saturday, March 8, the Fox Theater in Pomona, California hosts a boxing card featuring super middleweights Ruben Cazales (10-0) vs Adam Diu Abdulhamid (18-16). Also, super featherweights Michael Bracamontes (10-2-1) meets Eugene Lagos (16-9-3) at the historic venue promoted by House of Pain Boxing.

On Saturday March 8, Elite Boxing hosts a boxing card at Salesian High in East Los Angeles featuring East L.A. native Merari Vivar (8-0) against Sarah Click (2-8-1) and several other fights.

On Saturday, March 8, an event hosted by House of Champions features top contenders Joet Gonzalez (26-4) vs Arnold Khegai (22-1-1) in a featherweight main event at Thunder Studios in Long Beach, Calif.

A Big All-Female Card in London

On Friday, March 7, the historic Royal Albert Hall in the Kensington borough of London will host an all-female card with two world title fights including a unification fight in the welterweight division.

Natasha Jonas (16-2-1) and Lauren Price (8-0) meet 10 rounds for the IBF, WBC, and WBA belts.

Jonas, 40, the current WBC and IBF titlist, recently defeated Ivana Habazin and before that edged past Mikaela Mayer in a win that could have gone the other way very easily. She will be facing Price, an Olympic gold medalist and current WBA and IBO titlist.

Price, 30, hails from Wales and has an aggressive pressure style that saw her win a battle between punchers with a third-round knockout of Colombia’s Bexcy Mateus this past December in Liverpool. Before that she defeated the always tough Jessica McCaskill.

In the co-main event, lightweights Caroline Dubois (10-0-1) and Bo Mi Re Shin (18-2-3) meet for the WBC world title.

Me Re Shin, 30, fights out of South Korea and has knockout power. She was one of only two fighters to stop Venezuela’s Ana Maria Lozano who has 38 pro fights. That says something. She lost a split decision to Delfine Persoon in Belgium. That really says something.

Dubois had two competitive fights, first, against Jessica Camara that ended in a technical draw due to a clash of heads. Before that she defeated Maira Moneo. Dubois has very good talent and is still young at 24. Is she ready for Mi Re Shin?

Times Square photo credit: JP Yim

Fights to watch:

Thurs., March 6: DAZN, Manny Flores (19-1) vs. Jorge Leyva (18-3)

Fri., March 7: free on DAZN, Lucas Bahdi (18-0) vs. Ryan James Racaza (15-0)

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