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THE FLURRY: On Manny-Bradley, Lee-Chavez, And More

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Pacquiao Bradley NY PC 120223 002aHere’s what’s on my mind this week:

Manny v. Timothy Bradley thoughts and predictions (June 9, HBO PPV)

This fight has more importance to the sport of boxing than any other scrap currently on the schedule. In all likelihood, Floyd Mayweather is going to handle Miguel Cotto. It could plausibly be a competitive fight, but I just don’t see Floyd losing it (he has too many ways to win, and he will hurt Miguel). Floyd hasn’t been in a barnburner (by design of his handpicking opponents) in a while, but he hasn’t shown any major weaknesses or signs of slowing down/regressing at all. While I won’t say Manny is regressing since Juan Manuel Marquez will always be a tough out for him stylistically, we haven’t seen Manny dominate a top opponent in years. Timothy Bradley is 100% a top opponent. Manny’s hand and foot speed is the stuff of legends, but Bradley is extremely fast with his hands. He’s a crafty fighter who intentionally leads with his head to make his opponents uncomfortable. As fast and solid as Timothy Bradley is, he is neither as fast nor as technically sound as Floyd Mayweather, so Manny better leave us all thinking there’s only one meaningful fight left for him. If Tim can make Manny look human, or even just good, Manny’s chances against Floyd don’t look nearly as bright as they did six months ago.

Manny’s footwork (his most impressive asset) should allow him to create angles that would effectively counter Bradley’s aggression and overhand right (by far his best punch). Bradley is both hungry and yet to taste defeat as a professional. If Manny fails to circle to his right and avoid that looping right hand, it could be a long night for him. Lastly, there’s a good chance Bradley strategically forces an inside fight by pressuring Manny, and as Lee Wylie pointed out, Freddie Roach-trained fighters aren’t particularly adept at fighting in close quarters. I think Manny’s movement should keep him out of trouble and create openings when Bradley overcommits himself with big right hands to secure a clear victory.

I’ll leave it at that… this fight has extreme significance, and it should be watched very closely to see if Manny has any signs of regression. If Manny still has what it takes to be considered in the conversation of P4P best, he’ll need to win this bout convincingly. I actually think Timothy Bradley would give Floyd a much tougher fight than he will give Manny stylistically. But that’s a moot point unless Bradley pulls off a major upset here (unlikely, not implausible). More to come… but don’t miss this fight.

Andy Lee v Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. (June 16)

In all candidness, I haven’t seen too many JCC Jr. fights. All I’ve heard is that he’s not quite a world-class fighter and has been babied from a matchmaking standpoint. He is still young, and he fights pretty aggressively so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt until my eyes tell me differently. Conversely, I’ve seen several full Andy Lee fights. He can be a world champion, but not in a weight class occupied by Sergio Martinez. Lee’s a good southpaw, but he’s not a great one. In baseball terms, he’d be referred to as a 4-A guy (one who is too good for AAA, but cannot produce in the big leagues). He will easily dominate good fighters, but he can’t cut it with the division’s elite. He’s crafty, but not quite clever. He hits hard, but his power is hardly breathtaking.  He doesn’t have any glaring weaknesses, but he also doesn’t do any one thing particularly well. Lee’s best weapon is that he has Manny Steward (still the best in the business) in his corner. He’s a perfect test for Junior because if you can’t beat Andy Lee, you prove two things: 1) You’re not a world class fighter and 2) You have no chance to beat Sergio Martinez (which, for the record, is the whole point of this match being made).

Again, I probably don’t know enough about Chavez to predict anything, but I suspect JCC will win this via iffy decision, and Bob Arum will (in a shocking turn of events) balk at making a Martinez matchup.

Hopkins-Dawson 2, (April 28, HBO)

I freaking love Bernard Hopkins. What he does at his age is as mind-boggling as it is impressive. Even as a young fighter, he never had the best God-given skill set to compete at the highest level. After Roy Jones, Jr. (who conversely has some of the most God-given boxing skills of all time) beat him in the ‘90s, he turned himself into a true student of the game to give himself competitive advantages. And it’s worked for almost two decades now. You simply cannot count him out of any fight because he finds ways to win, and he almost always finds ways to forcefully and tactically make his matches into ‘his type of fights’. I literally will not ever bet against him (similar to Randy Couture if you’re an MMA fan).

That said, I can’t in good conscience pick him to win this fight (but I wouldn’t put my reputation or money on it). Chad Dawson is a spectacular boxer. He is long, technically proficient, pretty powerful, and he simply knows how to box. Frankly, he is built to beat BHOP. The one thing Dawson hasn’t been able to do is turn the corner from great to elite. He hasn’t found that killer instinct to finish opponents. He is content to let his opponents hang around while he puts on a boxing clinic. In his first fight with Hopkins, Dawson had a nasty look in his eye I hadn’t ever seen from him. Something about fighting Hopkins is bringing out a beast in Dawson. If he can match his skills with intensity, he not only will introduce Bernard to Father Time, but he’ll start skyrocketing up the P4P lists.

Bute-Froch (May 26 on EPIX)

First of all, props to EPIX. Whether it’s budget-related or not, HBO and Showtime do not book all of the great fights, and far too many mediocre fights end up on PPVs that nobody in the US should buy. EPIX is really filling a sizeable void by getting in the fight business. I think there’s real opportunity in matchmaking to book very marketable, fan-friendly fights on a network like EPIX. The issue is that I don’t have EPIX (I have Comcast cable), and can’t watch EPIX on TV. I doubt I’m in the minority here, and it’s really frustrating. (Sigh). I can log on to watch a stream on EPIXHD.com, of course.

This is another intriguing fight so I’m glad EPIX is televising it (at least to some households). Carl Froch is a gamer. The guy comes to fight, is typically is involved in action fights, and is always going to be a tough fight for any opponent. His fierce showing in the Showtime Super Six tournament was a great introduction to US fans (myself included). Standing across the apron from him will be Lucian Bute, who is poised to introduce himself to the world in this fight as a top-10 P4P fighter. Bute is a very slick fighter for this weight class, and he can really punch, too. The major question mark around Bute is why have his handlers never matched him with elite opposition? It’s not like he doesn’t draw in Montreal, so is there something they know that we don’t?

In any event, if Bute can get by Froch, an Andre Ward matchup will seemingly be inevitable, and that will be great for boxing since it would pair two of the finest technical boxers on the planet regardless of weight class. Boxing needs more superstars, and Bute/Ward could fit the bill. I like Bute to beat Froch clearly and emerge as a contender to Andre Ward’s hold on the division. Very few people can keep up with Ward, but I think he and Bute would put on a boxing clinic that even the average fan could appreciate.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

ON: Tomasz Adamek

This poor guy is in no-mans land. He decisively lost to the aforementioned Chad Dawson (whom he probably can’t beat) a few years ago, and instead of quitting had a career rejuvenation as a heavyweight. He tore through heavyweight contenders (in very impressive fashion) to get a deserved title shot against Vitali Klitschko where he was shut out and outclassed. He has no chance/style to defeat one of the Klitschko brothers. All this poor guy does is win fights and fight in a crowd-pleasing style, but he’s simply stuck in between two weight classes that he cannot win titles in. If he handles Eddie Chambers on June 16, maybe he’ll serve as the de facto finals exam for Seth Mitchell before he gets thrown to the Klitschko wolves? On the record, I’d take Adamek in that fight.

ON: Robert Garcia: How good is this guy?

Am I the only one who doesn’t see this guy as the elite trainer he’s widely regarded as? I’m just not sold on him, but he’s getting a plethora of top talent right now. Brandon Rios is one of my favorite fighters to watch, but how has he gotten better in the last two years under Garcia’s tutelage? What new wrinkles in his game has he shown? Would you really bet on Rios against Juan Manuel Marquez (god, please make this fight)? I wouldn’t. And granted Antonio Margarito was a shot fighter after the Mosley drubbing, but did he show one ounce of improvement under Garcia? Maybe I missed it. Nonito Donaire is a phenomenal talent, but his recent showings have been less than remarkable, no? Yet, this guy keeps getting more top-tier fighters. Marcos Maidana is moving over to his camp, and Kelly Pavlik has relocated there for various reasons. In fairness, I will say that Pavlik looked good in his most recent fight showcasing a tight left hook that I hadn’t seen from him before. I think Maidana will be a fair benchmark of how good Garcia really is as a trainer. Maidana is an extremely powerful natural puncher (one of the only things a trainer can’t teach, but can enhance) for his weight, but his lack of technical expertise and tactical adjustments has cost him in multiple fights. This is something a good trainer can fix. A great trainer would harness Maidana’s power and turn him into a world champion. Time will tell.

On the topic of trainers, I definitely think Emanuel Steward is still the best. As I mentioned, Andy Lee is not the most skilled fighter of all time by any means. Steward has still managed to get him into a legitimate title fight, and on the verge of stardom. Manny took Wladimir Klitschko under his wing, and he has created a truly remarkable heavyweight champion. He defense is nearly impenetrable. This can definitely be attributed to Manny Steward. He realized that Wlad didn’t have great defensive instincts, so he structured his offensive attack to serve as his best defense. And it works brilliantly. He’s almost never hit anymore, and his machine-like offense is nearly flawless. It’s Manny’s best work in years.

ON: Young Holyfield/Foreman being kryptonite for Wladimir Klitschko (both Klitschkos for that matter)

In the spirit of hypothetical matchmaking (I recently read some TSS posts on Roy Jones vs. Manny/Floyd—both we’re well-written and correct—and countless Manny v. Floyd predictions including my own: http://www.tss.ib.tv/forums/showthread.php?5834-Pacquiao-Would-Beat-Mayweather), I’ve been thinking of how current stars would do against past fighters within their weight class. I think both of the Klitschko brothers are phenomenal. Wladimir is almost untouchable, and he is technically brilliant. If it weren’t for his suspect chin, he’d be a lock to beat 99% of heavyweights of all time. Vitali is equally dominant, and he uses his size/fluid punch sequences to perfection. Everyone naturally thinks of a prime Mike Tyson as a potential nightmare for these two, but I don’t see that. Tyson’s unmatched power and upper body movement posed problems for everyone, but I think the size differential would be too much for him to overcome. Since Vitali and Wladimir both use their jabs and control the ring so well, I just don’t see Tyson landing much at all. Granted it was not the prime Tyson, but the way Lennox Lewis dominated him with jabs and straight right hands is exactly how the Klitschkos fight. I digress.

A young Evander Holyfield would be a real terror for either Klitschko. When he first moved up to the division, his movement (both upper body and footwork) was incredible for a fighter of his size. There are no ‘athletes’ like that in boxing anymore. His physique, his quickness, his explosiveness… you just don’t see it in the heavyweight division anymore. You see it on NFL fields. Julius Peppers could’ve been a guy to give the Klitschkos a run. Maybe even Patrick Willis or LeBron James (Could you imagine LeBron in a ring with his reach/explosive athleticism? Still, I get the feeling he’d quit on his stool at some point in a close fight).

Back to The Real Deal. Youtube some old Holyfield fights and you’ll see what I mean. He jabbed, he moved, he threw combinations. I don’t see either Klitschko being able to find him with their potent jabs, and without their jabs, throwing one right hand at a time won’t win you fights against a fighter like a prime Evander Holyfield.

I’ll also say this: I’d pay a lot more to see 1975 version of George Foreman against Wladimir Klitschko than I would to see Manny v. Floyd. George was carved from stone before getting into the grill business, and he was one of the all time heavy hitters. Not to mention he was big enough to not be at a severe size disadvantage (which is the determining factor in so many of the Klitschko brothers’ fights). Just sayin.

ON: Why Brandon Rios v Juan Manuel Marquez could be a once in a lifetime action fight if things go as planned

I’m hoping with every ounce of wishful thinking that I have that Brandon Rios and Juan Manuel Marquez don’t have any hiccups in their respective fights this weekend (though I think it’s ridiculous that it’s a PPV). Supposedly, there’s a good chance that the two will meet at the Cowboy’s Stadium in Dallas contingent on their respect victories this weekend. This will almost certainly be a phenomenal action fight for the ages. It’s a classic aggressor v. counter-puncher fight and will likely look like one of Juan Manuel’s signature wins against Juan Diaz and Michael Katsidis. Rios is tough as nails, and he’s certainly vulnerable to being hit. Marquez seems genuinely angered by the last Pacquiao decision (as opposed to upset), and I’d love to see a fiery version of him against Rios. For a technical boxing enthusiast, there is nothing better than watching Marquez against good, aggressive fighters like Rios.

It’s the same reason his fights against Manny Pacquiao have all been incredibly exciting, close, and memorable battles. Juan Manuel Marquez is not afraid of anyone, or being hit by anyone. He will not back down, and he is so goshdarn crafty at creating angles for clean, powerful counter-punches. He does not have the elite athleticism of a Manny Pacquiao, yet he manages to give him fits by being mentally and physically tough, technically brilliant, and absolutely fearless. Another reason this potential Rios fight is so exciting is that it sets the stage for Marquez-PacMan 4. While this isn’t as sexy as Floyd-PacMan 1, it’s a lot more realistic at this point. And the fact of the matter is, I’ll pay to see Manny fight Juan Manuel Marquez the tenth time. For years I’ve held that their respective styles are built for one another. They will never have a boring fight. They will never have a one-sided fight. They are truly worthy adversaries.

Rios might just be aggressive and powerful enough to send Marquez into retirement, but I’d bet the other way. Marquez is so accurate and smart. I think he would stop Rios.

Next week’s thought starters: Evolution of boxing in MMA, Need to Dissolve Weight Classes, Is Adrien Broner the real deal (spoiler: yes), Ortiz-Berto picks

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Floyd Mayweather has Another Phenom and his name is Curmel Moton

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Floyd Mayweather has Another Phenom and his name is Curmel Moton

In any endeavor, the defining feature of a phenom is his youth. Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper was a phenom. He was on the radar screen of baseball’s most powerful player agents when he was 14 years old.

Curmel Moton, who turns 19 in June, is a phenom. Of all the young boxing stars out there, wrote James Slater in July of last year, “Curmel Moton is the one to get most excited about.”

Moton was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. His father Curtis Moton, a barber by trade, was a big boxing fan and specifically a big fan of Floyd Mayweather Jr. When Curmel was six, Curtis packed up his wife (Curmel’s stepmom) and his son and moved to Las Vegas. Curtis wanted his son to get involved in boxing and there was no better place to develop one’s latent talents than in Las Vegas where many of the sport’s top practitioners came to train.

Many father-son relationships have been ruined, or at least frayed, by a father’s unrealistic expectations for his son, but when it came to boxing, the boy was a natural and he felt right at home in the gym.

The gym the Motons patronized was the Mayweather Boxing Club. Curtis took his son there in hopes of catching the eye of the proprietor. “Floyd would occasionally drop by the gym and I was there so often that he came to recognize me,” says Curmel. What he fails to add is that the trainers there had Floyd’s ear. “This kid is special,” they told him.

It costs a great deal of money for a kid to travel around the country competing in a slew of amateur boxing tournaments. Only a few have the luxury of a sponsor. For the vast majority, fund raisers such as car washes keep the wheels greased.

Floyd Mayweather stepped in with the financial backing needed for the Motons to canvas the country in tournaments. As an amateur, Curmel was — take your pick — 156-7 or 144-6 or 61-3 (the latter figure from boxrec). Regardless, at virtually every tournament at which he appeared, Curmel Moton was the cock of the walk.

Before the pandemic, Floyd Mayweather Jr had a stable of boxers he promoted under the banner of “The Money Team.” In talking about his boxers, Floyd was understated with one glaring exception – Gervonta “Tank” Davis, now one of boxing’s top earners.

When Floyd took to praising Curmel Moton with the same effusive language, folks stood up and took notice.

Curmel made his pro debut on Sept. 30, 2023, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on the undercard of the super middleweight title fight between Canelo Alvarez and Jermell Charlo. After stopping his opponent in the opening round, he addressed a flock of reporters in the media room with Floyd standing at his side. “I felt ready,” he said, “I knew I had Floyd behind me. He believes in me. I had the utmost confidence going into the fight. And I went in there and did what I do.”

Floyd ventured the opinion that Curmel was already a better fighter than Leigh Wood, the reigning WBA world featherweight champion who would successfully defend his belt the following week.

Moton’s boxing style has been described as a blend of Floyd Mayweather and Tank Davis. “I grew up watching Floyd, so it’s natural I have some similarities to him,” says Curmel who sparred with Tank in late November of 2021 as Davis was preparing for his match with Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz. Curmell says he did okay. He was then 15 years old and still in school; he dropped out as soon as he reached the age of 16.

Curmel is now 7-0 with six KOs, four coming in the opening round. He pitched an 8-round shutout the only time he was taken the distance. It’s not yet official, but he returns to the ring on May 31 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas where Caleb Plant and Jermall Charlo are co-featured in matches conceived as tune-ups for a fall showdown. The fight card will reportedly be free for Amazon Prime Video subscribers.

Curmel’s presumptive opponent is Renny Viamonte, a 28-year-old Las Vegas-based Cuban with a 4-1-1 (2) record. It will be Curmel’s first professional fight with Kofi Jantuah the chief voice in his corner. A two-time world title challenger who began his career in his native Ghana, the 50-year-old Jantuah has worked almost exclusively with amateurs, a recent exception being Mikaela Mayer.

It would seem that the phenom needs a tougher opponent than Viamonte at this stage of his career. However, the match is intriguing in one regard. Viamonte is lanky. Listed at 5-foot-11, he will have a seven-inch height advantage.

Keeping his weight down has already been problematic for Moton. He tipped the scales at 128 ½ for his most recent fight. His May 31 bout, he says, will be contested at 135 and down the road it’s reasonable to think he will blossom into a welterweight. And with each bump up in weight, his short stature will theoretically be more of a handicap.

For fun, we asked Moton to name the top fighter on his pound-for-pound list. “[Oleksandr] Usyk is number one right now,” he said without hesitation,” great footwork, but guys like Canelo, Crawford, Inoue, and Bivol are right there.”

It’s notable that there isn’t a young gun on that list. Usyk is 38, a year older than Crawford; Inoue is the pup at age 32.

Moton anticipates that his name will appear on pound-for-pound lists within the next two or three years. True, history is replete with examples of phenoms who flamed out early, but we wouldn’t bet against it.

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Arne’s Almanac: The First Boxing Writers Assoc. of America Dinner Was Quite the Shindig

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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.

A recognized authority on the history of prizefighting and the history of American sports gambling, TSS editor-in-chief Arne K. Lang is the author of five books including “Prizefighting: An American History,” released by McFarland in 2008 and re-released in a paperback edition in 2020.
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Gabriela Fundora KOs Marilyn Badillo and Perez Upsets Conwell in Oceanside

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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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