TEST FORUM

We left off yesterday with the letter “M” and with the revelation that Twitter is an exclusively Mexican form of social media. We now continue with the rest of the alphabet, and hopefully nothing further from the world according to Bob Arum.
N is for Ninth Round
Pacquiao-Marquez III was probably the least entertaining fight of their trilogy, but only by a small margin; it was still a hell of a fight. And round nine stacks up pretty damned well against any of the other 35. I’d need to watch it again to determine whether it could possibly beat out the opening round of James Kirkland-Alfredo Angulo for Round of the Year, but it’s certainly in the discussion with one fantastic exchange after another and Pacquiao probably producing his best offense of the evening (good enough to just eke out the round, in my opinion). I won’t have an opportunity to watch this fight again until the HBO replay on Saturday night, but I’m really looking forward to re-living round nine.
O is for One-Man Chants
Between undercard fights, Spanish-language broadcasters Julio Cesar Chavez and Marco Antonio Barrera were making their way across the arena floor, and a drunk fan got a determined solo chant going, first yelling “Cha-vez! Cha-vez!” and then “Bar-re-ra! Bar-re-ra!” None of his friends were joining in, but he was undeterred. Sometimes, it’s not about the volume of your chant; it’s about the volume of your spirit. Or the volume of spirits you’ve imbibed.
P is for Puck
Bet you thought “P” would be for Pacquiao! I’m not big on taking the obvious route, so instead, this letter is for Wolfgang Puck, whose restaurant at the MGM Grand is somehow the only one in the whole building that still serves food after midnight, even on a Saturday night. I can’t wrap my mind around how a Vegas casino could be so full of restaurants that keep Salt Lake City hours. Needless to say, I ate at Puck’s a couple of times over the course of the week, including at the media dinner on Thursday, when I was able to stuff myself on Arum’s dime. I sat next to one of my favorite broadcasters, Rich Marotta, and after the usual boxing chit-chat, I discovered why it is that I like Rich so much personally: He’s a die-hard Springsteen fan. Once someone has that box checked, I know we’re going to get along.
Q is for Questions
I have quite a few on my mind in the wake of Pacquiao-Marquez III. Here are the biggies: Is Floyd Mayweather more likely to want to fight Pacquiao now? (Answer: Absolutely.) Is Arum more likely not to let Pacquiao anywhere near Mayweather now? (Answer: Absolutely.) If Mayweather-Pacquiao happens in 2012, how many PPV buys were lost because Pacquiao would be coming off this mediocre performance? (Answer: At least 500,000.) Has there ever before been demand for a fourth fight between two rivals when one of said rivals had yet to post an official win in the series? (Answer: Not that I can think of.) Who is the pound-for-pound king right now? (Answer: Mayweather. It’s hard to respect any list that doesn’t place him at number one, inactive as he’s been the last few years.)
R is for Roach
One of my favorite moments all week came during Thursday’s morning’s “trainers roundtable,” where the two trainers sit in a circle of media members and answer questions for 20 minutes or so. It’s just like a press conference, only it feels informal. Anyway, someone asked Freddie Roach about Mayweather reserving that May 5 date, and Roach was quick to insist it was only Leonard Ellerbe who made that announcement, asked “Who the f— is Leonard Ellerbe,” called him a “gopher boy,” then exclaimed, “He’s Buboy!” I’m not sure how Buboy would feel about all this if word got back to him, but still, I love the comparison. I’d pay big money for Buboy vs. Ellerbe on a Pacquiao-Mayweather undercard. Meanwhile, Roach was great at the postfight presser also, admitting he doesn’t really want to fight Marquez a fourth time because it’s such a difficult matchup, but saying he feels it has to happen.
S is for Sombrero
I couldn’t hear Marquez’s postfight interview with Max Kellerman, but I did get to see that hilarious image of the lightweight champ wearing nothing but a sombrero over his junk. It wasn’t quite Mayweather and Larry Merchant, but it was a memorable HBO PPV postfight interview just the same. (Runner-up choice for the letter “S”: Scent Of A Champion. That’s what the sign read at the little table where they were selling Manny Pacquiao’s cologne. I wish I was making this stuff up.)
T is for Tecate Brunch
I’m a member of the media. Therefore, I am uncontrollably drawn to free food. Tecate hosted a free media brunch on Friday morning, so you’d better believe I was there. Some people made some sort of presentation in Spanish, there were several scantily clad Tecate girls, and the brunch was delicious. But the best part was watching people drink Tecate at 10:00 in the morning. Vegas is kind of a messed-up place, when you get right down to it.
U is for Upset(s)
In the opening bout of the pay-per-view telecast, Juan Carlos Burgos handed Luis Cruz his first defeat in what can be termed a mild upset (and a solid fight). Then Prescott came one round away from scoring a big upset over Alvarado. And lastly, Marquez had not just a decision and a belt taken from him by questionable judging, but he missed out on what would probably have been regarded as the Upset of the Year as well. I tell you, even though I insisted all along the fight was not a mismatch, I never really gave Marquez much chance of winning. When I arrived in Vegas and the odds on Marquez were 7-1, I didn’t give it a second thought. But on Friday night, they rose to 10-1, and I seriously debated putting 20 bucks on him. But I didn’t pull the trigger on the bet. I started really kicking myself by round five, and then the judges bailed Pacquiao, and me, out. Best great bet I ever didn’t make. Or something like that.
V is for Video Streaming
As I discussed with my HBO.com cohorts all week, the wireless signal in the MGM Grand rooms was strong enough for general surfing, but weak enough to make streaming any video a frustrating experience. My theory: This is a scheme to encourage people to pay for the hotel’s in-room adult video fare. You can’t convince me otherwise.
W is for Won’t Get Fooled Again
The song to which Marquez entered the ring turned out to be a bit ironic in terms of its title lyric, but worked fantastically for getting the crowd pumped. Really, both ring entrances produced a great vibe. Top Rank did a first-rate job with the whole production, the crowd was divided and deafening, and Pacquiao’s entrance featured that amazing moment where he steps into the arena for the first-time and a massive smile spreads across his face. Pacquiao the boxer may have lost a little luster this weekend, but Pacquiao the person did not.
X is for X-tra Effort
At the prefight press conference on Wednesday, HBO Pay-Per-View boss Mark Taffet reached deep into the well of pull-your-hair-out clichés to inform us, “These two athletes are going to give 150 percent in the ring Saturday night.” Wow. That is a serious amount of effort. However, by my final CompuTry calculations, it seemed Marquez only gave 142 percent, and Pacquiao a mere 139. A note to the entire human population: Anytime you want to convey the message that someone is going to try their best, “100 percent” will do the trick.
Y is for Yakking
I did not throw up on my flight from Vegas to Chicago on Sunday. But I came awfully close. I’ve never had a flight that approached this one for turbulence, and when combined with my alcoholic intake from the night before and lack of sleep, I very nearly lost my Wolfgang Puck cheeseburger. Normally, I have no qualms about flying; I’m always good at either sleeping or getting work done. But this flight flat-out sucked.
Z is for Charlie Z.
I had never heard of this Charlie Zelenoff clown until last week, but now I know who he is, and I must commend him for providing a couple minutes of disturbing entertainment and plenty of fuel for conversation whenever we boxing writers tired of talking about Pacquiao and Marquez. In case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the video that lit up YouTube last week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GKuiQobQi0. I’ve never rooted so hard for a Mayweather.
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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Arne’s Almanac: The First BWAA Dinner Was Quite the Shindig

The first annual dinner of the Boxing Writers Association of America was staged on April 25, 1926 in the grand ballroom of New York’s Hotel Astor, an edifice that rivaled the original Waldorf Astoria as the swankiest hotel in the city. Back then, the organization was known as the Boxing Writers Association of Greater New York.
The ballroom was configured to hold 1200 for the banquet which was reportedly oversubscribed. Among those listed as agreeing to attend were the governors of six states (New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Maryland) and the mayors of 10 of America’s largest cities.
In 1926, radio was in its infancy and the digital age was decades away (and inconceivable). So, every journalist who regularly covered boxing was a newspaper and/or magazine writer, editor, or cartoonist. And at this juncture in American history, there were plenty of outlets for someone who wanted to pursue a career as a sportswriter and had the requisite skills to get hired.
The following papers were represented at the inaugural boxing writers’ dinner:
New York Times
New York News
New York World
New York Sun
New York Journal
New York Post
New York Mirror
New York Telegram
New York Graphic
New York Herald Tribune
Brooklyn Eagle
Brooklyn Times
Brooklyn Standard Union
Brooklyn Citizen
Bronx Home News
This isn’t a complete list because a few of these papers, notably the New York World and the New York Journal, had strong afternoon editions that functioned as independent papers. Plus, scribes from both big national wire services (Associated Press and UPI) attended the banquet and there were undoubtedly a smattering of scribes from papers in New Jersey and Connecticut.
Back then, the event’s organizer Nat Fleischer, sports editor of the New York Telegram and the driving force behind The Ring magazine, had little choice but to limit the journalistic component of the gathering to writers in the New York metropolitan area. There wasn’t a ballroom big enough to accommodate a good-sized response if he had extended the welcome to every boxing writer in North America.
The keynote speaker at the inaugural dinner was New York’s charismatic Jazz Age mayor James J. “Jimmy” Walker, architect of the transformative Walker Law of 1920 which ushered in a new era of boxing in the Empire State with a template that would guide reformers in many other jurisdictions.
Prizefighting was then associated with hooligans. In his speech, Mayor Walker promised to rid the sport of their ilk. “Boxing, as you know, is closest to my heart,” said hizzoner. “So I tell you the police force is behind you against those who would besmirch or injure boxing. Rowdyism doesn’t belong in this town or in your game.” (In 1945, Walker would be the recipient of the Edward J. Neil Memorial Award given for meritorious service to the sport. The oldest of the BWAA awards, the previous recipients were all active or former boxers. The award, no longer issued under that title, was named for an Associated Press sportswriter and war correspondent who died from shrapnel wounds covering the Spanish Civil War.)
Another speaker was well-traveled sportswriter Wilbur Wood, then affiliated with the Brooklyn Citizen. He told the assembly that the aim of the organization was two-fold: to help defend the game against its detractors and to promote harmony among the various factions.
Of course, the 1926 dinner wouldn’t have been as well-attended without the entertainment. According to press dispatches, Broadway stars and performers from some of the city’s top nightclubs would be there to regale the attendees. Among the names bandied about were vaudeville superstars Sophie Tucker and Jimmy Durante, the latter of whom would appear with his trio, Durante, (Lou) Clayton, and (Eddie) Jackson.
There was a contraction of New York newspapers during the Great Depression. Although empirical evidence is lacking, the inaugural boxing writers dinner was likely the largest of its kind. Fifteen years later, in 1941, the event drew “more than 200” according to a news report. There was no mention of entertainment.
In 1950, for the first time, the annual dinner was opened to the public. For $25, a civilian could get a meal and mingle with some of his favorite fighters. Sugar Ray Robinson was the Edward J. Neil Award winner that year, honored for his ring exploits and for donating his purse from the Charlie Fusari fight to the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund.
There was no formal announcement when the Boxing Writers Association of Greater New York was re-christened the Boxing Writers Association of America, but by the late 1940s reporters were referencing the annual event as simply the boxing writers dinner. By then, it had become traditional to hold the annual affair in January, a practice discontinued after 1971.
The winnowing of New York’s newspaper herd plus competing banquets in other parts of the country forced Nat Fleischer’s baby to adapt. And more adaptations will be necessary in the immediate future as the future of the BWAA, as it currently exists, is threatened by new technologies. If the forthcoming BWAA dinner (April 30 at the Edison Ballroom in mid-Manhattan) were restricted to wordsmiths from the traditional print media, the gathering would be too small to cover the nut and the congregants would be drawn disproportionately from the geriatric class.
Some of those adaptations have already started. Last year, Las Vegas resident Sean Zittel, a recent UNLV graduate, had the distinction of becoming the first videographer welcomed into the BWAA. With more and more people getting their news from sound bites, rather than the written word, the videographer serves an important function.
The reporters who conducted interviews with pen and paper have gone the way of the dodo bird and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A taped interview for a “talkie” has more integrity than a story culled from a paper and pen interview because it is unfiltered. Many years ago, some reporters, after interviewing the great Joe Louis, put words in his mouth that made him seem like a dullard, words consistent with the Sambo stereotype. In other instances, the language of some athletes was reconstructed to the point where the reader would think the athlete had a second job as an English professor.
The content created by videographers is free from that bias. More of them will inevitably join the BWAA and similar organizations in the future.
Photo: Nat Fleischer is flanked by Sugar Ray Robinson and Tony Zale at the 1947 boxing writers dinner.
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Gabriela Fundora KOs Marilyn Badillo and Perez Upsets Conwell in Oceanside

It was just a numbers game for Gabriela Fundora and despite Mexico’s Marilyn Badillo’s elusive tactics it took the champion one punch to end the fight and retain her undisputed flyweight world title by knockout on Saturday.
Will it be her last flyweight defense?
Though Fundora (16-0, 8 KOs) fired dozens of misses, a single punch found Badillo (19-1-1, 3 KOs) and ended her undefeated career and first attempt at a world title at the Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California.
Fundora, however, proves unbeatable at flyweight.
The champion entered the arena as the headliner for the Golden Boy Promotion show and stepped through the ropes with every physical advantage possible, including power.
Mexico’s Badillo was a midget compared to Fundora but proved to be as elusive as a butterfly in a menagerie for the first six rounds. As the six-inch taller Fundora connected on one punch for every dozen thrown, that single punch was a deadly reminder.
Badillo tried ducking low and slipping to the left while countering with slashing uppercuts, she found little success. She did find the body a solid target but the blows proved to be useless. And when Badillo clinched, that proved more erroneous as Fundora belted her rapidly during the tie-ups.
“She was kind of doing her ducking thing,” said Fundora describing Badillo’s defensive tactics. “I just put the pressure on. It was just like a train. We didn’t give her that break.”
The Mexican fighter tried valiantly with various maneuvers. None proved even slightly successful. Fundora remained poised and under control as she stalked the challenger.
In the seventh round Badillo seemed to take a stand and try to slug it out with Fundora. She quickly was lit up by rapid left crosses and down she went at 1:44 of the seventh round. The Mexican fighter’s corner wisely waved off the fight and referee Rudy Barragan stopped the fight and held the dazed Badillo upright.
Once again Fundora remained champion by knockout. The only question now is will she move up to super flyweight or bantamweight to challenge the bigger girls.
Perez Beats Conwell.
Mexico’s Jorge “Chino” Perez (33-4, 26 KOs) upset Charles Conwell (21-1, 15 KOs) to win by split decision after 12 rounds in their super welterweight showdown.
It was a match that paired two hard-hitting fighters whose ledgers brimmed with knockouts, but neither was able to score a knockdown against each other.
Neither fighter moved backward. It was full steam ahead with Conwell proving successful to the body and head with left hooks and Perez connecting with rights to the head and body. It was difficult to differentiate the winner.
Though Conwell seemed to be the superior defensive fighter and more accurate, two judges preferred Perez’s busier style. They gave the fight to Perez by 115-113 scores with the dissenter favoring Conwell by the same margin.
It was Conwell’s first pro loss. Maybe it will open doors for more opportunities.
Other Bouts
Tristan Kalkreuth (15-1) managed to pass a serious heat check by unanimous decision against former contender Felix Valera (24-8) after a 10-round back-and-forth heavyweight fight.
It was very close.
Kalkreuth is one of those fighters that possess all the physical tools including youth and size but never seems to be able to show it. Once again he edged past another foe but at least this time he faced an experienced fighter in Valera.
Valera had his moments especially in the middle of the 10-round fight but slowed down during the last three rounds.
One major asset for Kalkreuth was his chin. He got caught but still motored past the clever Valera. After 10 rounds two judges saw it 99-91 and one other judge 97-93 all for Kalkreuth.
Highly-rated prospect Ruslan Abdullaev (2-0) blasted past dangerous Jino Rodrigo (13- 5-2) in an eight round super lightweight fight. He nearly stopped the very tough Rodrigo in the last two rounds and won by unanimous decision.
Abdullaev is trained by Joel and Antonio Diaz in Indio.
Bakersfield prospect Joel Iriarte (7-0, 7 KOs) needed only 1:44 to knock out Puerto Rico’s Marcos Jimenez (25-12) in a welterweight bout.
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‘Krusher’ Kovalev Exits on a Winning Note: TKOs Artur Mann in his ‘Farewell Fight’

At his peak, former three-time world light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev ranked high on everyone’s pound-for-pound list. Now 42 years old – he turned 42 earlier this month – Kovalev has been largely inactive in recent years, but last night he returned to the ring in his hometown of Chelyabinsk, Russia, and rose to the occasion in what was billed as his farewell fight, stopping Artur Mann in the seventh frame.
Kovalev hit his peak during his first run as a world title-holder. He was 30-0-1 (26 KOs) entering first match with Andre Ward, a mark that included a 9-0 mark in world title fights. The only blemish on his record was a draw that could have been ruled a no-contest (journeyman Grover Young was unfit to continue after Kovalev knocked down in the second round what with was deemed an illegal rabbit punch). Among those nine wins were two stoppages of dangerous Haitian-Canadian campaigner Jean Pascal and a 12-round shutout over Bernard Hopkins.
Kovalev’s stature was not diminished by his loss to the undefeated Ward. All three judges had it 114-113, but the general feeling among the ringside press was that Sergey nicked it.
The rematch was also somewhat controversial. Referee Tony Weeks, who halted the match in the eighth stanza with Kovalev sitting on the lower strand of ropes, was accused of letting Ward get away with a series of low blows, including the first punch of a three-punch series of body shots that culminated in the stoppage. Sergey was wobbled by a punch to the head earlier in the round and was showing signs of fatigue, but he was still in the fight. Respected judge Steve Weisfeld had him up by three points through the completed rounds.
Sergey Kovalev was never the same after his second loss to Andre Ward, albeit he recaptured a piece of the 175-pound title twice, demolishing Vyacheslav Shabranskyy for the vacant WBO belt after Ward announced his retirement and then avenging a loss to Eleider Alvarez (TKO by 7) with a comprehensive win on points in their rematch.
Kovalev’s days as a title-holder ended on Nov. 2, 2019 when Canelo Alvarez, moving up two weight classes to pursue a title in a fourth weight division, stopped him in the 11th round, terminating what had been a relatively even fight with a hellacious left-right combination that left Krusher so discombobulated that a count was superfluous.
That fight went head-to-head with a UFC fight in New York City. DAZN, to their everlasting discredit, opted to delay the start of Canelo-Kovalev until the main event of the UFC fight was finished. The delay lasted more than an hour and Kovalev would say that he lost his psychological edge during the wait.
Kovalev had two fights in the cruiserweight class between his setback to Canelo and last night’s presumptive swan song. He outpointed Tervel Pulev in Los Angeles and lost a 10-round decision to unheralded Robin Sirwan Safar in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Artur Mann, a former world title challenger – he was stopped in three rounds by Mairis Briedis in 2021 when Briedis was recognized as the top cruiserweight in the world – was unexceptional, but the 34-year-old German, born in Kazakhstan, wasn’t chopped liver either, and Kovalev’s stoppage of him will redound well to the Russian when he becomes eligible for the Boxing Hall of Fame.
Krusher almost ended the fight in the second round. He knocked Mann down hard with a short left hand and seemingly scored another knockdown before the round was over (but it was ruled a slip). Mann barely survived the round.
In the next round, a punch left Mann with a bad cut on his right eyelid, but the German came to fight and rounds three, four and five were competitive.
Kovalev had a good sixth round although there were indications that he was tiring. But in the seventh he got a second wind and unleashed a right-left combination that rolled back the clock to the days when he was one of the sport’s most feared punchers. Mann went down hard and as he staggered to his feet, his corner signaled that the fight should be stopped and the referee complied. The official time was 0:49 of round seven. It was the 30th KO for Kovalev who advanced his record to 36-5-1.
Addendum: History informs us that Farewell Fights have a habit of becoming redundant, by which we mean that boxers often get the itch to fight again after calling it quits. Have we seen the last of Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev? We woudn’t bet on it.
The complete Kovalev-Mann fight card was live-streamed on the Boxing News youtube channel.
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