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Burning Questions (And Speculative Answers) For 2012…RASKIN
In a sport with as many moving pieces, individual interests, and BS agendas as there are in boxing, nothing is ever entirely predictable. But as 2012 dawns, the year ahead feels even more unpredictable than usual. The HBO boxing department has a new leader, and he used to be the head of the Showtime boxing department. Consequently, the Showtime boxing department has a new leader, and he used to be an employee of Golden Boy Promotions. Over at ESPN, both the main man in front of the camera and the main man behind the scenes have stepped down. And switching from the guys in suits to the guys in trunks, my pound-for-pound number one, Floyd Mayweather, takes up residence at the Clark County Detention Center this Friday, my pound-for-pound number two, Manny Pacquiao, might just be in decline, and my pound-for-pound number three, Sergio Martinez, basically told HBO to suck it last week.
2012 is probably going to be a lot different than 2011 and 2010. (Except for one thing: 2010 was âthe year Mayweather and Pacquiao didnât fight each other,â 2011 was also âthe year Mayweather and Pacquiao didnât fight each other,â and 2012 just might be shaping up as âthe year Mayweather and Pacquiao didnât fight each other.â)
With this much uncertainty surrounding the sport of boxing as the calendar turns over, itâs a perfect time to ask and answer all of the burning questions on fight fansâ minds regarding the 12 months to come. Weâll start with the question we just canât seem to get away from, and move on from there:
Will Mayweather and Pacquiao fight each other?
Not in the first half of the year. But could it happen on one of those traditional pay-per-view blockbuster dates in September or November? Itâs highly possible that Floydâseeing a slipping Pacquiao and hearing a ticking clockâwill want it, highly possible that Bob Arum will recognize that the end of the Pacquiao era is nigh and begrudgingly pursue it, and a near-certainty that the fearless and fan-friendly Pacquiao will want it. I think the biggest X-factor is what happens with Pacquiaoâs fight in the spring. My guess is that heâll fight Juan Manuel Marquez for a fourth time. (Iâm not buying the idea of less marketable fights against Tim Bradley or Lamont Peterson, and I think Miguel Cotto is too smart to want a rematch with Pac.) And as we all know now, any fight against Marquez is a fight Pac-Man can lose. If he does lose, Pacquiao-Mayweather becomes pointless. If he winsâespecially if he does so without controversyâPacquiao-Mayweather is red hot again. The final guess here: Pacquiao fights Marquez, defeats him narrowly, and all parties are ready to cash in with Pacquiao-Mayweather in the fall, to the tune of 2.8 million PPV buys.
Will anything happen at heavyweight to make anyone in America care?
Only two things can move the needle at this point: a Klitschko losing or a serious new American contender emerging. The former ainât happening (although I wouldnât mind seeing a healthy Odlanier Solis get a rematch against Vitali; he has the skill to be less than a 10-1 underdog, which probably isnât true of any other potential challenger). So we need an American up-and-comer to get excited about, and Seth Mitchell, who performed as impressively as anyone could have hoped in his HBO debut in December, is the only guy with an outside chance. Unfortunately, I see the mediaâs need to find the next great heavyweight and the fact that the pressure canât be spread among numerous hopefuls as a formula for Mitchell to disappoint. Heâll struggle to an underwhelming decision win against a veteran contender to start the year, then heâll take heat for dialing back the competition to someone sub-Timor-Ibragimov the next time out. Heâll escape 2012 still unbeaten and a legit top-10 contender (in a division that goes only two deep, it should be noted), but the buzz on December 31 wonât be what it was on January 1.
What impact will Ken Hershman and Stephen Espinoza have?
From the looks of things, Hershmanâs job at HBO is going to be even more challenging than he probably expected, with Golden Boy having a built-in relationship with the new Showtime boss, with Victor Ortiz-Andre Berto II already jumping networks, with Sergio Martinez announcing that his next fight wonât be on HBO, and with Mayweather out of the mix for the first half of the year. It sure looks like the stage is set for Showtime to challenge HBOâs supremacy, even if they remain at a budgetary disadvantage. Then again, Hershman didnât earn the HBO job by being an ambition-less dummy. Sort of like how the peak of the WWF-WCW war from around 1996-â99 saw both companies pushing each other to reach new levels of entertainment, I suspect the HBO/Showtime shakeups will work out to the great benefit of boxing fans once the slow first month of 2012 has passed. (And I feel at least 63 percent confident in predicting that we wonât see Gary Russell Jr. in a four-rounder on either network at any time in 2012.)
Will we get Andre Ward vs. Lucian Bute?
Ward has already earned the right to call himself The Man at 168 pounds, but if he wants to be The Undisputed Man, he does still need to take care of business against Bute. And I suspect he intends to. Wardâs apparent disinterest in the Romanian-Canadian immediately following his Super Six finals victory over Carl Froch struck me as a negotiating ploy. Ward knows the fight belongs north of the border and if heâs going to concede home-ring advantage, he wants to at least hardball his way to the larger purse. Plus, Wardâs last five fights have come against Mikkel Kessler, Allan Green, Sakio Bika, Arthur Abraham, and Froch, lasting an average of 11.8 rounds; heâs entitled to a tuneup. So in the spring expect Bute vs. Froch and Ward vs. someone he can knock out, and then in the fall expect Ward vs. Bute if Froch doesnât upset that plan.
Who will be the new Friday Night Fights studio host?
I assume weâll get this answer any day now, since, you know, thereâs an FNF broadcast scheduled for this Friday. But in the meantime, my quick prediction: Bernardo Osuna. Heâs a part of the ESPN family already, heâs polished in front of the camera, he knows boxing, and heâs bilingual, which is handy when it comes to interviewing certain guests or even translating from a distance for Joe and Teddy. I have no inside information on this, other than me talking to Osuna in Las Vegas in November and him saying he didnât know anything yet, but if you find out in a day or two that he got the gig, you heard it here first.
Whose opposition will piss fans off more, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. or Saul Alvarez?
Before I answer the question, allow me to follow my Ring Theory co-host Bill Dettloffâs lead and note that I will henceforth cease to refer to JCC Jr. as a âChavezâ because heâs unworthy of that surname, and instead refer to him as Julio Cesar Salad. Honestly, Salad and Canelo are being moved with near-equal calculated carefulness, but Salad is 4Âœ years older, so Canelo gets more of a pass if he spends another year fighting safe opposition. That said, Marco Antonio Rubio is a credible challenge for Salad, assuming Top Rank doesnât drug Rubio in the dressing room. So if Alvarez fights a total patsy in April, he might exceed Salad in terms of his heat index. This is a tough call, but Iâll go with Chavez as the greater whipping boy of the fans by yearâs end. The only thing I know for sure is this: Salad will not fight Sergio Martinez in 2012 and Alvarez will not fight Miguel Cotto in 2012, and yet both fringe contenders will insist on calling themselves âchampions.â
Which American former middleweight champion will have a greater impact in the boxing ring, Jermain Taylor or Kelly Pavlik?
This is a modified version of a question I asked Dettloff last week on Ring Theory, and Iâm asking it again because itâs fascinating that Taylor might be in a position to make a little noise again while his two-time conqueror, Pavlik, appears to have unraveled so severely in his personal life that his career might never resume. But Iâm going to go against the grain and select Pavlik as the answer to this question. If Pavlik fights in 2012âa major âif,â I realizeâthe tabloid-ish attention surrounding his first fight will guarantee that his impact exceeds Taylorâs. I think as long as Cameron Dunkin and company can haul Pavlik the hell outta Youngstown and get him into Robert Garciaâs gym in southern California, thereâs a good chance âThe Ghostâ will be in line for 2012âs Comeback of the Year.
What are the three most horrifying things Jose Sulaiman will say this year?
1. âThe WBC proudly supports Jerry Sandusky.â
2. âDid you see the way that bee-otch was dressed? She was asking for it!â
3. âI am pleased to announce I have been re-elected president of the WBC by a unanimous vote of the board of directors.â
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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Avila Perspective, Chap. 282: Ryanâs Song, Golden Boy in Fresno and More
Donât call it an upset.
Days after Ryan Garcia proved the experts wrong, those same experts are re-tooling their evaluation processes.
Itâs mind-boggling to me that 95 percent thought Garcia had no chance. Hear me out.
First, Garcia and Haney fought six times as amateurs with each winning three. But this time with no head gear and smaller gloves, Garcia had to have at least a 50/50 chance of winning. He is faster and a more powerful puncher.
Facts.
Haney is a wonderful boxer with smooth, almost artistic movements. But history has taught us power and speed like Garciaâs canât be discounted. Think way back to legendary fighters like Willie Pep and Sandy Sadler. All that excellent defensive skill could not prevent Sadler from beating Pep in three of their four meetings.
Power has always been an equalizer against boxing skill.
Ben Lira, one of the wisest and most experienced trainers in Southern California, always professed knockout power was the greatest equalizer in a fight. âYou can be behind for nine rounds and one punch can change the outcome,â he said.
Another weird theory spreading before the fight was that Garcia would quit in the fight. That was a puzzling one. Getting stopped by a perfect body shot is not quitting. And that punch came from Gervonta âTankâ Davis who can really crack.
So how did Garcia do it?
In the opening round Ryan Garcia timed Devin Haneyâs jab and countered with a snapping left hook that rattled and wobbled the super lightweight champion. After that, Garcia forced Haney to find another game plan.
Garcia and trainer Derrick James must have worked hours on that move.
I must confess that I first saw Garciaâs ability many years ago when he was around 11 or 12. So I do have an advantage regarding his talent. A few things I noticed even back then were his speed and power. Also, that others resented his talent but respected him. He was the guy with everything: talent and looks.
And that brings resentment.
Recently I saw him and his crew rapping a song on social media. Now heâs got a song. Next thing you know Hollywood will be calling and heâll be in the movies. Itâs happened before with fighters such as Art Aragon, the first Golden Boy in the 50s. He was dating movie stars and getting involved with starlets all over Hollywood.
Is history repeating itself or is Garcia creating a new era for boxing?
Since 2016 people claimed he was just a social media creation. Now, after his win over Devin Haney a former undisputed lightweight champion and the WBC super lightweight titleholder, the boxer from the high desert area of Victorville has become one of the highest paid fighters in the world.
Ryan Garcia has entered a new dimension.
Golden Boy Season
After several down years the Los Angeles-based company Golden Boy Promotions suddenly is cracking the whip in 2024.
Vergil Ortiz Jr. (20-0, 20 KOs) returns to the ring and faces Puerto Ricoâs Thomas Dulorme (26-6-1, 17 KOs) a welterweight gatekeeper who lost to Jaron âBootsâ Ennis and Eimantas Stanionis. They meet as super welterweights in the co-main event at Save Mart Arena in Fresno, Calif. on Saturday, April 27. DAZN will stream the Golden Boy Promotions card live.
Itâs a quick return to action for Ortiz who is still adjusting to the new weight division. His last fight three months ago ended in less than one round in Las Vegas. It was cut short by an antsy referee and left Ortiz wanting more after more than a year of inactivity in the prize ring.
Ortiz has all the weapons.
Also, Northern Californiaâs Jose Carlos Ramirez (28-1, 18 KOs) meets Cubaâs Rances Barthelemy (30-2-1, 15 KOs) in a welterweight affair set for 12 rounds.
Itâs difficult to believe that former super lightweight titlist Ramirez has been written off by fans after only one loss. That was several years ago against Scotlandâs Josh Taylor. One loss does not mean the end of a career.
âMy goal is to get back on top and to get all those belts back. I still feel like I am one of the best 140-pounders in the division,â said Ramirez who lives in nearby Avenal, Calif.
An added major attraction features Marlen Esparza in a unification rematch against Gabriela âLa Chuckyâ Alaniz for the WBA, WBC, WBO flyweight titles. Their first fight was
a controversial win by Esparza that saw one judge give her nine of 10 rounds in a very close fight. Those Texas judges.
In a match that could steal the show, Oscar Duarte (26-2-1, 21 KOs) faces former world champion Jojo Diaz (33-5-1, 15 KOs) in a lightweight match.
Munguia and Canelo
Donât sleep on this match.
Its current Golden Boy fighter Jaime Munguia facing former Golden Boy fighter Saul âCaneloâ Alvarez in a battle between Mexicoâs greatest sluggers next week at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on May 4.
âI think Jaime Munguia is going to do something special in the ring,â said Oscar De La Hoya, the CEO for Golden Boy.
Tijuanaâs Munguia showed up at the Wild Card Boxing gym in Hollywood where a throng of media from Mexico and the US met him.
Munguia looked confident and happy about his opportunity to fight great Canelo.
âItâs a hard fight,â said Munguia. âTruth is, its big for Mexico and not only for Mexicans but for boxing.â
Fights to Watch
Fri. DAZN 6 p.m. Yoeniz Tellez (7-0) vs Joseph Jackson (19-0).
Sat. DAZN 9:30 a.m. Peter McGrail (8-1) vs Marc Leach (18-3-1); Beatriz Ferreira (4-0) vs Yanina Del Carmen 14-3).
Sat. DAZN 5 p.m. Vergil Ortiz (20-0) vs Thomas Dulorme (26-6-1); Jose Carlos Ramirez (28-1) vs Rances Barthelemy (30-2-1); Marlen Esparza (14-1) vs Gabriela Alaniz (14-1).
Photo credit: Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy Promotions
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Ramon Cardenas Channels Micky Ward and KOs Eduardo Ramirez on ProBox
The Wednesday night bi-monthly series of fights on the ProBox TV platform is the best deal in boxing; the livestream is free with no strings attached! Tonightâs episode was headlined by a super bantamweight match between San Antonioâs Ramon Cardenas and Eduardo Ramirez who brought a caravan of rooters from his hometown in Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico.
Cardenas, coached by Joel Diaz, entered the contest ranked #4 by the WBA. He was expected to handle Ramirez with little difficulty, but this was a close, tactical fight through eight frames when lightning struck in the form of a left hook to the liver from Cardenas. Ramirez went down on one knee and wasnât able to beat the count. It was as if Cardenas summoned the ghost of Micky Ward who had a penchant for terminating fights with the same punch that arrived out of the blue.
The official time was 1:37 of round nine. Cardenas improved to 25-1 with his14th win inside the distance. Ramirez, who was stopped in the opening round by Nick âWreckingâ Ball in London in his lone previous fight outside Mexico, falls to 23-3-3.
Co-Feature
In an upset, Tijuana super welterweight Damian Sosa won a split decision over previously undefeated Marques Valle, a local area fighter who was stepping up in class in his first 10-round go. Sosa was the aggressor, repeatedly backing his taller opponent into the ropes where Valle was unable to get good leverage behind his punches.
The 25-year-old Valle, managed by the influential David McWater, was the house fighter. This was his 10th appearance in this building. He brought a 10-0 (7) record and was hoping to emulate the success of his younger brother Dominic Valle who scored a second-round stoppage of his opponent in this ring two weeks ago, improving to 9-0. But Sosa, who brought a 24-2 record, proved to be a bridge too high.
The judges had it 97-93 and 96-94 for the Tijuana invader and a disgraceful 98-92 for the house fighter.
Also
In a fight whose abrupt ending would be echoed by the main event, 34-year-old SoCal featherweight Ronny Rios, now training in Las Vegas, returned to the ring after a 22-month hiatus and scored a fifth-round stoppage over Nicolas Polanco of the Dominican Republic.
A three-punch combo climaxed by a left hook to the liver took the breath out of Polanco who slumped to his knees and was counted out. A two-time world title challenger, Rios advanced to 34-4 (17 KOs). Polanco, 34, declined to 21-6-1. The official time was 0:54 of round five.
—
The next ProBox show (Wednesday, May 8) will have an international cast with fighters from Kazakhstan, Japan, Mongolia, and the United Kingdom. In the main event, Liverpoolâs Robbie Davies Jr will make his U.S. debut against the California-based Kazakh Sergey Lipinets.
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Haney-Garcia Redux with the Focus on Harvey Dock
Saturdayâs skirmish between Ryan Garcia and WBC super lightweight champion Devin Haney was a messy affair, and yet a hugely entertaining fight fused with great drama. In the aftermath, Garcia and Haney were celebrated â the former for fooling all the experts and the latter for his gallant performance in a losing effort â but there were only brickbats for the third man in the ring, referee Harvey Dock.
Devin Haney was plainly ahead heading into the seventh frame when there was a sudden turnabout when Garcia put him on the canvas with his vaunted left hook. Moments later, Dock deducted a point from Garcia for a late punch coming out of a break. The deduction forced a temporary cease-fire that gave Haney a few precious seconds to regain his faculties. Before the round was over, Haney was on the deck twice more but these were ruled slips.
The deduction, which effectively negated the knockdown, struck many as too heavy-handed as Dock hadnât previously issued a warning for this infraction. Moreover, many thought he could have taken a point away from Haney for excessive clinching. As for Haneyâs second and third trips to the canvas in round seven, they struck this reporter â watching at home â as borderline, sufficient to give referee Dock the benefit of the doubt.
In a post-fight interview, Ryan Garcia faulted the referee for denying him the satisfaction of a TKO. âAt the end of the day, Harvey Dock, I think he was tripping,â said Garcia. âHe could have stopped that fight.â
Those that played the rounds proposition, placing their coin on the âunder,â undoubtedly felt the same way.
The internet lit up with comments assailing Dockâs competence and/or his character. Some of the ponderings were whimsical, but they were swamped by the scurrilous screeching of dolts who find a conspiracy under every rock.
Stephen A. Smith, reputedly Americaâs highest-paid TV sports personality, was among those that felt a need to weigh-in: âThis referee is absolutely terribleâŠ.Unreal! Horrible officiating,â tweeted Stephen A whose primary area of expertise is basketball.
Harvey Dock
Dock fought as an amateur and had one professional fight, winning a four-round decision over a fellow novice on a show at a non-gaming resort in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. He says that as an amateur he was merely average, but he was better than that, a New Jersey and regional amateur champion in 1993 and 1994 while a student New Jerseyâs Essex County Community College where he majored in journalism.
A passionate fan of Sugar Ray Leonard, he started officiating amateur fights in 1998 and six years later, at age 32, had his first documented action at the professional level, working low-level cards in New Jersey. The top boxing referees, to a far greater extent than the top judges, had long apprenticeships, having worked their way up from the boonies and Dock is no exception.
Per boxrec, Haney vs Garcia was Harvey Dockâs 364th assignment in the pros and his forty-second world title fight. Some of those title fights were title in name only, they werenât even main events, but, bit by bit, more lucrative offerings started coming his way.
On May 13, 2023, Dock worked his first fights in Nevada, a 4-rounder and then a 12-rounder on a card at the Cosmopolitan topped by the 140-pound title fight between Rolly Romero and Ismael Barroso. It was the first time that this reporter got to watch Dock in the flesh.
Ironically (in hindsight), the card would be remembered for the actions of a referee, in this case Tony Weeks who handled the main event. Barroso was winning the fight on all three cards when Weeks stepped in and waived it off in the ninth round after Romero cornered Barroso against the ropes and let loose a barrage of punches, none of which landed cleanly. Few âpremature stoppagesâ were ever as garishly, nay ghoulishly, premature.
With all the brickbats raining down on Weeks, I felt a need to tamp down the noise by diverting attention away from Tony Weeks and toward Harvey Dock and took to the TSS Forum to share my thoughts. Referencing the 12-rounder, a robust junior welterweight affair between Batyr Akhmedov and Kenneth Sims Jr, I noted that Dockâs Las Vegas debut went smoothly. He glided effortlessly around the ring, making him inconspicuous, the mark of a good referee. (This post ran on May 15, two days after the fight.)
Folks at the Nevada State Athletic Commission were also paying attention. Dock was back in Las Vegas the following week to referee the lightweight title fight between Devin Haney and Vasyl Lomachenko and before the year was out, he would be tabbed to referee the biggest non-heavyweight fight of the year, the July 29 match in Las Vegas between Terence Crawford and Errol Spence Jr.
The Haney-Garcia fight wasnât Harvey Dockâs best hour, Iâll concede that, but a closer look at his full body of work informs us that he is an outstanding referee.
—
While the Haney-Garcia bout was in progress, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman threw everyone a curve ball, tweeting on âXâ that Devin Haney would keep his title if he lost the fight. Everyone, including the TV commentators, was under the impression that the title would become vacant in the event that Haney lost.
Sulaiman cited the precedent of Corrales-Castillo II.
FYI: The Corrales-Castillo rematch, originally scheduled for June 3, 2005 and aborted on the day prior when Castillo failed to make weight, finally came off on Oct. 8 of that year, notwithstanding the fact that Castillo failed to make weight once again, scaling three-and-a-half pounds above the lightweight limit. He knocked out Corrales in the fourth round with a left hook that Las Vegas Review-Journal boxing writer Kevin Iole, alluding to the movie âBlazing Saddles,â described as Mongo-esque (translation: the punch would have knocked out a horse). After initially insisting on a rubber match, which had scant chance of happening, WBC president Jose Sulaiman, Mauricioâs late father, ruled that Corrales could keep his title.
Whether or not you agree with Mauricio Sulaimanâs rationale, the timing of his announcement was certainly awkward.
Haneyâs mandatory is Spanish southpaw Sandor Martin (42-3, 15 KOs), a cutie best known for his 2021 upset of Mikey Garcia. A bout between Haney and Martin has the earmarks of a dull fight.
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