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RASKIN’S RANTS: Eight Is Enough & Did Canelo Get Rough?

I’m not supposed to see snow outside my window in October. Then again, I’m not supposed to live in a world in which a boxer who looks like Howdy Doody can be a heartthrob and in which a 108-pound man who looks like this (http://tinyurl.com/3wgzhds) can possibly be in competition for the same woman as said heartthrob.?
Before we continue, an important addendum to the last sentence: “Allegedly.” There, now I’m in the clear to write whatever I want.
Let’s open up this week’s mini-mailbag, where the (alleged) street fight between (allegedly) Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and (allegedly) Ulises Solis is the (alleged) topic of (alleged) discussion:
Hey Eric,
You been hearing about this Canelo-Solis stuff? I’m curious for your take on what you think happened, because it doesn’t quite make sense to me. Doesn’t Canelo date supermodels? And if so, are we really supposed to believe he was worried about little “Archie” stealing his woman? Then again, first Team Canelo said the whole thing was just a rumor, and then they clarified that it happened and Canelo was there, but it was his brother who punched Solis’ tooth out. I’m sorry, but I don’t believe for one second that Solis would mistakenly accuse the Irish-looking guy of hitting him if in reality a Mexican-looking guy hit him (since supposedly all of Canelo’s brothers have dark hair). This is just weird. What do you think went down?
Peace,
Jorge
Hey Jorge,
You bring up valid points, and in the end, neither guy’s story sounds 100 percent logical, but one of them has to be true (unless this is some very elaborate scam they’re both in on to promote Alvarez’s fight with Kermit Cintron). Playing devil’s advocate in response to your suggestion that Solis would never get Canelo and one of his brothers confused, I suppose it’s possible that another Alvarez beat Solis up and Solis is accusing Saul to (a) get attention and (b) be able to sue for more money. Still, there’s considerably more logic to the notion that Canelo did the deed and, because he has an image and a burgeoning financial empire to protect, he’s using his brother as a human shield.
But you know what? All of this is just wild, uninformed speculation. I wasn’t there and you weren’t there. I’m down with the whole “innocent until proven guilty” philosophy, so let’s wait and see what further information comes to light. In the meantime, I’ll say this much: I have no interest in hearing what anyone with the last name Sulaiman thinks. If this street fight did take place, there was no green belt at stake in it. If Alvarez does jail time, but not enough to affect his boxing schedule and his ability to defend his belt in a timely fashion, then it’s ridiculous to strip him based on some sort of moral grounds. Then again, Alvarez won his title by defeating Matthew Friggin’ Hatton (and, more to the point, by being Mexican and marketable), so why do I care if he gets stripped? He’s not a world champion anyway—at least not in my world. He’s just a contender.
A contender who, for whatever it’s worth, became a lot more interesting in the last few days.
Allegedly.
Okay, now let’s get to this week’s (alleged) Rants:
–I love me a good eight-rounder. (Emphasis on the word “good”—we’re not talking about Gary Russell Jr. vs. Leonilo Miranda here. We’re also not talking about anything involving Malik Scott.) In eight-round fights, the combatants typically are not financially comfortable, so there tends to be hunger to win on both sides. In eight-round fights, the combatants tend not to pace themselves as cautiously as they might in a 10-round or 12-round fight. On Friday and Saturday, we saw the best single-weekend cluster of televised eight-rounders that I can remember, with two very good, close bouts on ShoBox and an opener on Fox Sports between Casey Ramos and Josesito Collado that is arguably a Fight of the Year “honorable mention.” At one point during Ramos-Collado, color analyst Rich Marotta said Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo would be proud; praise for an action fight doesn’t get much higher. If you missed it on Saturday night, definitely look around on YouTube for it. (Nobody had posted it yet as of when I filed this column, lest you think my failure to include the link is the result of laziness.)
–The best commentators’ exchange of the weekend came during that first-rate ShoBox show. Curt Menefee: “Are you saying it’s underdog night here on ShoBox?” Steve Farhood: “Every night is underdog night.” Amen.
–I’ve now heard Liev Schreiber speak the words, “He no longer drinks his own urine.” My life feels complete.
–I’m confused: If Luis Concepcion is the Panamanian pugilistic Pauly D, then why was he falling down like a drunken Snooki on Saturday night? I need my Jersey Shore/boxing parallels to align themselves with more consistency than this.
–I am legitimately interested and excited for Tavoris Cloud vs. Zsolt Erdei, something I never thought I’d say about any Zsolt Erdei fight. It’s a quality test for both fighters. And it’s the ultimate test of my undiagnosed narcolepsy. I stay awake until midnight on New Year’s Eve about 15 percent of the time and I stay awake throughout Saturday night boxing about 25 percent of the time. The combined power of these two forces should have me asleep on my couch by 6 p.m. on December 31.
–Perhaps I’ll set up a camera in my living room and charge people to watch a pay-per-view broadcast of me trying to stay awake during Cloud-Erdei. Hey, it can’t sell any worse than Bernard Hopkins-Chad Dawson.
–If Bob Arum’s goal in trash talking Mayweather is to goad him into fighting Pacquiao, then good for you, Bob. If his goal is place all the blame on Mayweather while Arum proceeds to be equally disinterested in making the fight, then screw you, Bob.
–The first week of the Yuriorkis Gamboa-Emanuel Steward union has gone exceedingly well. Which is to say, Steward hasn’t been fired yet.
–Check out an all-new episode of Ring Theory (http://ringtheory.podbean.com) this week, with BoxingScene columnist David Greisman joining us to share his insights. Here’s hoping Dettloff and I can conduct ourselves with enough professionalism to avoid next week’s roundup of Podcasters Behaving Badly.
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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Bombs Away in Las Vegas where Inoue and Espinoza Scored Smashing Triumphs

Japan’s Naoya “Monster” Inoue banged it out with Mexico’s Ramon Cardenas, survived an early knockdown and pounded out a stoppage win to retain the undisputed super bantamweight world championship on Sunday.
Japan and Mexico delivered for boxing fans again after American stars failed in back-to-back days.
“By watching tonight’s fight, everyone is well aware that I like to brawl,” Inoue said.
Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), and Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) and his wicked left hook, showed the world and 8,474 fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas that prizefighting is about punching, not running.
After massive exposure for three days of fights that began in New York City, then moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then to Nevada, it was the casino capital of the world that delivered what most boxing fans appreciate- pure unadulterated action fights.
Monster Inoue immediately went to work as soon as the opening bell rang with a consistent attack on Cardenas, who very few people knew anything about.
One thing promised by Cardenas’ trainer Joel Diaz was that his fighter “can crack.”
Cardenas proved his trainer’s words truthful when he caught Inoue after a short violent exchange with a short left hook and down went the Japanese champion on his back. The crowd was shocked to its toes.
“I was very surprised,” said Inoue about getting dropped. ““In the first round, I felt I had good distance. It got loose in the second round. From then on, I made sure to not take that punch again.”
Inoue had no trouble getting up, but he did have trouble avoiding some of Cardenas massive blows delivered with evil intentions. Though Inoue did not go down again, a look of total astonishment blanketed his face.
A real fight was happening.
Cardenas, who resembles actor Andy Garcia, was never overly aggressive but kept that left hook of his cocked and ready to launch whenever he saw the moment. There were many moments against the hyper-aggressive Inoue.
Both fighters pack power and both looked to find the right moment. But after Inoue was knocked down by the left hook counter, he discovered a way to eliminate that weapon from Cardenas. Still, the Texas-based fighter had a strong right too.
In the sixth round Inoue opened up with one of his lightning combinations responsible for 10 consecutive knockout wins. Cardenas backed against the ropes and Inoue blasted away with blow after blow. Then suddenly, Cardenas turned Inoue around and had him on the ropes as the Mexican fighter unloaded nasty combinations to the body and head. Fans roared their approval.
“I dreamed about fighting in front of thousands of people in Las Vegas,” said Cardenas. “So, I came to give everything.”
Inoue looked a little surprised and had a slight Mona Lisa grin across his face. In the seventh round, the Japanese four-division world champion seemed ready to attack again full force and launched into the round guns blazing. Cardenas tried to catch Inoue again with counter left hooks but Inoue’s combos rained like deadly hail. Four consecutive rights by Inoue blasted Cardenas almost through the ropes. The referee Tom Taylor ruled it a knockdown. Cardenas beat the count and survived the round.
In the eighth round Inoue looked eager to attack and at the bell launched across the ring and unloaded more blows on Cardenas. A barrage of 14 unanswered blows forced the referee to stop the fight at 45 seconds of round eight for a technical knockout win.
“I knew he was tough,” said Inoue. “Boxing is not that easy.”
Espinoza Wins
WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinosa (27-0, 23 KOs) uppercut his way to a knockout win over Edward Vazquez (17-3, 4 KOs) in the seventh round.
“I wanted to fight a game fighter to show what I am capable,” said Espinoza.
Espinosa used the leverage of his six-foot, one-inch height to slice uppercuts under the guard of Vazquez. And when the tall Mexican from Guadalajara targeted the body, it was then that the Texas fighter began to wilt. But he never surrendered.
Though he connected against Espinoza in every round, he was not able to slow down the taller fighter and that allowed the Mexican fighter to unleash a 10-punch barrage including four consecutive uppercuts. The referee stopped the fight at 1:47 of the seventh round.
It was Espinoza’s third title defense.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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Undercard Results and Recaps from the Inoue-Cardenas Show in Las Vegas

The curtain was drawn on a busy boxing weekend tonight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas where the featured attraction was Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue appearing in his twenty-fifth world title fight.
The top two fights (Inoue vs. Roman Cardenas for the unified 122-pound crown and Rafael Espinoza vs. Edward Vazquez for the WBO world featherweight diadem) aired on the main ESPN platform with the preliminaries streaming on ESPN+.
The finale of the preliminaries was a 10-rounder between welterweights Rohan Polanco and Fabian Maidana. A 2020/21 Olympian for the Dominican Republic, Polanco was a solid favorite and showed why by pitching a shutout, punctuating his triumph by knocking Maidana to his knees late in the final round with a hard punch to the pit of the stomach.
Polanco improved to 16-0 (10). Argentina’s Maidana, the younger brother of former world title-holder Marcos Maidana, fell to 24-4 while maintaining his distinction of never being stopped.
Emiliano Vargas, a rising force in the 140-pound division with the potential to become a crossover star, advanced to 14-0 (12 KOs) with a second-round stoppage Juan Leon. Vargas, who turned 21 last month, is the son of former U.S. Olympian Fernando Vargas who had big money fights with the likes of Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. Emiliano knocked Leon down hard twice in round two – both the result of right-left combinations — before Robert Hoyle waived it off.
A 28-year-old Spaniard, Leon was 11-2-1 heading in.
In his U.S. debut, 29-year-old Japanese southpaw Mikito Nakano (13-0, 12 KOs) turned in an Inoue-like performance with a fourth-round stoppage of Puerto Rico’s Pedro Medina. Nakano, a featherweight, had Medina on the canvas five times before referee Harvey Dock waived it off at the 1:58 mark of round four. The shell-shocked Medina (16-2) came into the contest riding a 15-fight winning streak.
Lynwood, California junior middleweight Art Barrera Jr, a 19-year-old protégé of Robert Garcia, scored a sixth-round stoppage of Chicago’s Juan Carlos Guerra. There were no knockdowns, but the bout had turned sharply in Barrera’s favor when referee Thomas Taylor intervened. The official time was 1:15 of round six.
Barrera improved to 9-0 (7 KOs). The spunky but outclassed Guerra, who upset Nico Ali Walsh in his previous outing, declined to 6-2-1.
In the lid-lifter, a 10-round featherweight affair, Muskegon Michigan’s Ra’eese Aleem improved to 22-1 (12) with a unanimous decision over LA’s hard-trying Rudy Garcia (13-2-1). The judges had it 99-01, 98-92, and 97-93.
Aleem, 34, was making his second start since June of 2023 when he lost a split decision in Australia to Sam Goodman with a date with Naoya Inoue hanging in the balance.
Check back shortly for David Avila’s recaps of the two world title fights.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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Canelo Alvarez Upends Dancing Machine William Scull in Saudi Arabia

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who has acquired a new nickname – “The Face of Boxing” – is accustomed to fighting on Cinco De Mayo weekend, but this year was different. For the first time, Canelo was fighting outside the continent of North America and entering the ring at an awkward hour. His match with William Scull started at 6:30 on a Sunday morning in Riyadh.
In the opposite corner was 32-year-old William Scull, an undefeated (23-0) Cuban by way of Germany, whose performance was better suited to “Dancing With the Stars” than to a world title fight. Constantly bouncing from side to side but rarely letting his hands go, Scull frustrated Canelo who found it near-impossible to corner him, but one can’t win a fight solely on defense and the Mexican superstar was returned the rightful winner in a bout that was a fitting cap to a desultory two days of Saudi-promoted prizefighting. The scores were 115-113, 116-112, and 119-109. In winning, Canelo became a fully unified super middleweight champion twice over.
Terence Crawford was in attendance and HE Turki Alalshikh made it official: Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) and Canelo (63-2-2, 39 KOs) will meet in the Fight of the Century (Alalshikh’s words) on Sept. 12 in Las Vegas at the home of the city’s NFL team, the Raiders. For whatever it’s worth, each of Canelo’s last seven fights has gone the full 12 rounds.
Semi-wind-up
In a match between the WBC world cruiserweight title-holder and the WBC world cruiserweight “champion in recess” (don’t ask), the former, Badou Jack, brought some clarity to the diadem by winning a narrow decision over Noel Mikaelian. One of the judges had it a draw (114-114), but the others gave the fight to “Jack the Ripper” by 115-113 scores.
A devout Muslim who is now a full-time resident of Saudi Arabia, the Sweden-born Jack, a three-division title-holder, had the crowd in his corner. Now 41 years old, he advanced his record to 29-3-3 (17). It was the first pro loss for Mikaelian (27-1), a Florida-based Armenian who was subbing for Ryan Rozicki.
The distracted CompuBox operator credited Mikaelian with throwing 300 more punches but there was no controversy.
Tijuana’s Jaime Munguia, a former junior middleweight title-holder, avenged his shocking loss to Bruno Sarace with a unanimous 12-round decision in their rematch. This was Munguia’s first fight with Eddy Reynoso in his corner. The scores were 117-111 and 116-112 twice.
Surace’s one-punch knockout of Munguia in mid-December in Tijuana was the runaway pick for the 2024 Upset of the Year. Heading in, Munguia was 44-1 with his lone defeat coming at the hands of Canelo Alvarez. Munguia had won every round against Surace before the roof fell in on him.
Surace won a few rounds tonight, but Munguia was the busier fighter and landed the cleaner shots. It was the first pro loss for Surace (26-1-2) and ended his 23-fight winning streak. The Frenchman hails for Marseilles.
Heavyweights
In a 10-round heavyweight match fought at a glacial pace, Martin Bakole (21-2-1) and Efe Ajagba (20-1-1) fought to a draw. One of the judges favored Ajagba 96-94 but he was outvoted by his cohorts who each had it 95-95.
Bakole, a 7/2 favorite, came in at 299 pounds, 15 more than he carried in his signature win over Jared Anderson, and looked sluggish. He was never able to effectively close off the ring against the elusive Ajagba who fought off his back foot and failed to build on his early lead.
The fight between the Scotch-Congolese campaigner Bakole and his Nigerian-American foe was informally contested for the heavyweight championship of Africa. That “title” remains vacant.
In a 6-rounder, heavy-handed Cuban light heavyweight Brayon Leon, a stablemate of Canelo Alvarez, was extended the distance for the first time while advancing his record to 7-0 at the expense of Mexico’s Aaron Roche (11-4-1). Leon knocked Roche to the canvas in the fourth round with a right-left combination, but the Mexican stayed the course while eating a lot of hard punches.
Photo credit: Leigh Dawney / Queensberry Promotions
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