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Shane Mosley and Winky Wright Hang Up The Gloves
Two stellar pugilists exited the stage this weekend, though, we must caution, this being boxing, retirement announcements are always best taken with a lump of caution. Shane Mosley on Sunday night made it known that he was hanging up the gloves, after nearly 20 years as a professional, and Winky Wright earlier in the day told the world that he was through.
The Mosley news broke on the Ring website, as Lem Satterfield reported he got the word from Mosley's camp coordinator that his loss to Canelo Alvarez on May 5 would be his final scuffle. His record stands at 46-8-1. He didn't address the news on his official Twitter account right away, so I initially wanted to add a note of caution: boxers contemplate comebacks until they head for that final dirt nap. But on Monday morning, he Tweeted this: “Good Mourning everybody Just want to thank you for showing me so much love. Had a great career and loved every moment of it. win, lose or draw.”
Mosley didn't look horrid against Canelo, and in fact could beat a fair number of folks at that weight class, even at age 40. But as of today, you can start the countdown to his entrance into the Hall of Fame, in 2017. The ex lightweight ace, who also held crowns at 147 and 154 pounds, will be remembered for truly emerging on all radar screens when he went from 135 to 147 and beat Oscar De La Hoya, via split decision, in June 2000. His star dimmed a bit from back to back losses to Vernon Forrest in 2002, but he regained his shine with another win over Oscar, in 2003.
It emerged in 2008 that Mosley used an illegal PED prior to this bout, an admission the California boxer made in grand jury testimony. His rep took a hit, as he told one and all–including me, looking me in the eyes as he said it during a one on one for a then cancelled Mosley-Zab Judah fight– in defending himself that the accusation of PED use was bogus, that he must've been dosed unknowingly, before admitting under oath that he knew what he was doing when receiving chemical aid from Victor Conte at BALCO.
Back to back losses to Winky Wright in 2004 had many pundits proclaiming that clearly Mosley's best days were far behind him. But he proved doubters wrong, to an extent, with back to back wins against Fernando Vargas, in 2006. Vargas, though, was near the end of his line at the time. Many thought Mosley got the better of Miguel Cotto when they met in NYC in 2007, but the judges said otherwise, giving the Puerto Rican a UD nod. Now 37, Mosley's late-career apex came when he whacked Antonio Margarito around, and scored a TKO9 win in 2009, right after inspectors found hardened hand pads in the Mexican's mitts prior to their bout.
Critics of Mosley will say that Margarito wasn't the monster many thought, and was in fact an ordinary boxer if not able to use a PED in his gloves. Mosley didn't have much luck against Floyd Mayweather in his next bout, though he did buzz Money on the way to a wide decision loss. Mosley next engaged in a dreadful waltz with Sergio Mora, and followed that with a pick-up-the-paycheck effort against Pacquiao in May 2011. But he regained fans with a spirited effort against the phenom Canelo on the Mayweather-Cotto undercard. “Canelo can go a long ways,” Mosley said after the loss to a man 19 years younger than he. “When the kids start to beat you, you might need to start going to promoting.”
Indeed. Mosley says he has ample money in the bank, despite the theory that a divorce picked his pockets. He was always willing to take on an immense challenge and he must be lauded for never being a ducker. It could be argued that he maybe didn't live up to the sum of his parts, losing a bunch of efforts to fighters many experts thought he was more skilled than, but his willingness to test his personal boundaries will never be questioned. Best of luck to Shane Mosley in his retirement, and staving off that inevitable urge to test himself in the ring just one more time.
While Mosley's Hall call seems imminent, Winky Wright's will be up for more debate. He came back to the ring on June 2 after being away for three years, and looked OK against young gun Peter Quillin. But at 40, the reflexes weren't as cooperative as they once were for a man whose real name is “Ronald” but was tagged Winky by his grandma as a toddler. Once of the best defenders of his era, Wright was knocked down in round five and hurt a few other times. Sunday morning, after sleeping on it, he Tweeted: “It was fun while it lasted I did what I set out to do and that was to be great. Part of being a good boxer is knowing when to call it quits.
If I can't be the champion again theres no need to keep boxing. But I thank all of u from the bottom of my heart for always supporting me & I'll still be ringside at all the fights!”
He will be known, as will Mosley, as one who sought stiff challenges. (Though he also had a rep as a “too tough” negotiator, with some thinking he often asked for more many than his popularity called for.) Wright, who debuted in 1990, built up a nice record in Europe, as he fought for the Acaries brothers. He was known to hardcore fights fans as he wracked up title defenses of the IBF 154 pound crown he won against Robert Frazier in 2001. In his fifth defense, when he downed Shane Mosley, his time had really arrived. “A lot of people always told them that I was good but they didn’t believe it because I never fought one of the big dudes. Now that I beat one of the big-name, pound-for-pound so-called fighters, you gotta give it up to me. I did what I said I can do,” he said then. Another win against Mosley and his thorough domination of Felix Trinidad in 2005 gave him pound for pound cred in a big way. No, he wasn't a bomber or a trader, and therefore his skills were best appreciated by true fans of the sweet science. His jab and impenetrable D, featuring the longest elbows known to man, were frustrating even for the most skilled sharpshooters. Wright didn't agree with the judges who saw his 2006 clash with Jermain Taylor a draw, and he stubbornly clung to a dollar figure he thought he deserved, which squashed a rematch. Instead, he bettered Ike Quartey in December 2006, in Quartey's last bout.
Wright went out of his comfort zone, and paid for it, when he agreed to go to 170 to snag a payday with Bernard Hopkins. He suffered his first loss in eight years in that one, then took almost two years off. He flirted with fights, and sometimes marinated in self-pity and frustration. “Why should I go fight these lesser guys when I know I'm above them?” Wright said in 2008. “You got De La Hoya. He's a steady loser; he lost two of his last three. Taylor lost his last fight. All of these fighters lose. But they have opponents who want to fight them again. I have nobody that wants to fight me because they know they're in for a tough fight. They're ducking me, they don't want to fight. That's why I'm left out. They want me to fight Kessler. Why do I need to fight these dudes? I'm at the top.” He capitulated, and took a tuneup date with Michi Munoz for December 2008, but hurt his hands and cancelled it. A face-off with Arthur Abraham was discussed but instead Wright decided to lock horns with Paul Williams. It didn't go well; Long Tall Paul outboxed Wright clearly. He licked his wounds, set up a fight with Grady Brewer, and the plug got pulled on that card at the end of 2009. Kelly Pavlik went in another direction, a crack at Sergio Martinez in April 2010, so Winky went back to the links, and waiting. A K9 Bundrage gig didn't happen, neither did a scrap with Matthew Macklin in April 2011, because of a Wright injury. He filled the time helping out Chad Dawson, while eyeing Canelo or Miguel Cotto. He got a chance against a young gun, in Peter Quillin, and in that scrap Saturday, determined that at 40, he just can't do what he used to be able to. So he bid adieu to the game.
Will he resist the inevitable lure? Hard to predict…If you had to wager if either he or Mosley would un-retire, you have to think there is a decent chance that happens. It's human nature, it's especially human nature in boxing, with no teammates around to drill the truth into you in training camp. We at TSS thank both men for their service in entertaining us, and hope that their choice does them justice, in every which way, for them, their family and their long-term health and well-being.
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The Challenge of Playing Muhammad Ali
There have been countless dramatizations of Muhammad Ali’s life and more will follow in the years ahead. The most heavily marketed of these so far have been the 1977 movie titled The Greatest starring Ali himself and the 2001 biopic Ali starring Will Smith.
The Greatest was fictionalized. Its saving grace apart from Ali’s presence on screen was the song “The Greatest Love of All” which was written for the film and later popularized by Whitney Houston. Beyond that, the movie was mediocre. “Of all our sports heroes,” Frank Deford wrote, “Ali needs least to be sanitized. But The Greatest is just a big vapid valentine. It took a dive.”
The 2001 film was equally bland but without the saving grace of Ali on camera. “I hated that film,” Spike Lee said. “It wasn’t Ali.” Jerry Izenberg was in accord, complaining, “Will Smith playing Ali was an impersonation, not a performance.”
The latest entry in the Ali registry is a play running this week off-Broadway at the AMT Theater (354 West 45th Street) in Manhattan.
The One: The Life of Muhammad Ali was written by David Serero, who has produced and directed the show in addition to playing the role of Angelo Dundee in the three-man drama. Serero, age 43, was born in Paris, is of Moroccan-French-Jewish heritage, and has excelled professionally as an opera singer (baritone) and actor (stage and screen).
Let’s get the negatives out of the way first. The play is flawed. There are glaring factual inaccuracies in the script that add nothing to the dramatic arc and detract from its credibility.
On the plus side; Zack Bazile (pictured) is exceptionally good as Ali. And Serero (wearing his director’s hat) brings the most out of him.
Growing up, Bazile (now 28) excelled in multiple sports. In 2018, while attending Ohio State, he won the NCAA Long Jump Championship and was named Big Ten Field Athlete of the Year. He also dabbled in boxing, competed in two amateur fights in 2022, and won both by knockout. He began acting three years ago.
Serero received roughly one thousand resumes when he published notices for a casting call in search of an actor to play Ali. One-hundred-twenty respondents were invited to audition.
“I had people who looked like Ali and were accomplished actors,” Serero recalls. “But when they were in the room, I didn’t feel Ali in front of me. You have to remember; we’re dealing with someone who really existed and there’s video of him, so it’s not like asking someone to play George Washington.”
And Ali was Ali. That’s a hard act to follow.
Bazile is a near-perfect fit. At 6-feet-2-inches tall, 195 pounds, he conveys Ali’s physicality. His body is sculpted in the manner of the young Ali. He moves like an athlete because he is an athlete. His face resembles Ali’s and his expressions are very much on the mark in the way he transmits emotion to the audience. He uses his voice the way Ali did. He moves his eyes the way Ali did. He has THE LOOK.
Zack was born the year that Ali lit the Olympic flame in Atlanta, so he has no first-hand memory of the young Ali who set the world ablaze. “But as an actor,” he says, “I’m representing Ali. That’s a responsibility I take very seriously. Everyone has an essence about them. I had to find the right balance – not too over the top – and capture that.”
Sitting in the audience watching Bazile, I felt at times as though it was Ali onstage in front of me. Zack has the pre-exile Ali down perfectly. The magic dissipates a bit as the stage Ali grows older. Bazile still has to add the weight of aging to his craft. But I couldn’t help but think, “Muhammad would have loved watching Zack play him.”
****
Twenty-four hours after the premiere of The One, David Serero left the stage for a night to shine brightly in a real boxing ring., The occasion was the tenth fight card that Larry Goldberg has promoted at Sony Hall in New York, a run that began with Goldberg’s first pro show ever on October 13, 2022.
Most of the fights on the six-bout card played out as expected. But two were tougher for the favorites than anticipated. Jacob Riley Solis was held to a draw by Daniel Jefferson. And Andy Dominguez was knocked down hard by Angel Meza in round three before rallying to claim a one-point split-decision triumph.
Serero sang the national anthem between the second and third fights and stilled the crowd with a virtuoso performance. Fans at sports events are usually restless during the singing of the anthem. This time, the crowd was captivated. Serero turned a flat ritual into an inspirational moment. People were turning to each other and saying “Wow!”
****
The unexpected happened in Tijuana last Saturday night when 25-to-1 underdog Bruno Surace climbed off the canvas after a second-round knockdown to score a shocking, one-punch, sixth-round stoppage of Jaime Munguia. There has been a lot of commentary since then about what happened that night. The best explanation I’ve heard came from a fan named John who wrote, “The fight was not over in the second round although Munguia thought it was because, if he caught him once, he would naturally catch him again. Plus he looked at this little four KO guy [Surace had scored 4 knockouts in 27 fights] the way all the fans did, like he had no punch. That is what a fan can afford to do. But a fighter should know better. The ref reminds you, ‘Protect yourself at all times.’ Somebody forgot that.”
photo (c) David Serero
Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book – MY MOTHER and me – is a personal memoir available at Amazon.com. https://www.amazon.com/My-Mother-Me-Thomas-Hauser/dp/1955836191/ref=sr_1_1?crid=5C0TEN4M9ZAH&keywords=thomas+hauser&qid=1707662513&sprefix=thomas+hauser%2Caps%2C80&sr=8-1
In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism. In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
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L.A.’s Rudy Hernandez is the 2024 TSS Trainer of the Year
L.A.’s Rudy Hernandez is the 2024 TSS Trainer of the Year
If asked to name a prominent boxing trainer who operates out of a gym in Los Angeles, the name Freddie Roach would jump immediately to mind. Best known for his work with Manny Pacquaio, Roach has been named the Trainer of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of America a record seven times.
A mere seven miles from Roach’s iconic Wild Card Gym is the gym that Rudy Hernandez now calls home. Situated in the Little Tokyo neighborhood in downtown Los Angeles, the L.A. Boxing Gym – a relatively new addition to the SoCal boxing landscape — is as nondescript as its name. From the outside, one would not guess that two reigning world champions, Junto Nakatani and Anthony Olascuaga, were forged there.
As Freddie Roach will be forever linked with Manny Pacquiao, so will Rudy Hernandez be linked with Nakatani. The Japanese boxer was only 15 years old when his parents packed him off to the United States to be tutored by Hernandez. With Hernandez in his corner, the lanky southpaw won titles at 112 and 115 and currently holds the WBO bantamweight (118) belt. In his last start, he knocked out his Thai opponent, a 77-fight veteran who had never been stopped, advancing his record to 29-0 (22 KOs).
Nakatani’s name now appears on several pound-for-pound lists. A match with Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue is brewing. When that match comes to fruition, it will be the grandest domestic showdown in Japanese boxing history.
“Junto Nakatani is the greatest fighter I’ve ever trained. It’s easy to work with him because even when he came to me at age 15, his focus was only on boxing. It was to be a champion one day and nothing interfered with that dream,” Hernandez told sports journalist Manouk Akopyan writing for Boxing Scene.
Akin to Nakatani, Rudy Hernandez built Anthony Olascuaga from scratch. The LA native was rucked out of obscurity in April of 2023 when Jonathan Gonzalez contracted pneumonia and was forced to withdraw from his date in Tokyo with lineal light flyweight champion Kenshiro Teraji. Olascuaga, with only five pro fights under his belt, filled the breach on 10 days’ notice and although he lost (TKO by 9), he earned kudos for his gritty performance against the man recognized as the best fighter in his weight class.
Two fights later, back in Tokyo, Olascuaga copped the WBO world flyweight title with a third-round stoppage of Riku Kano. His first defense came in October, again in Japan, and Olascuaga retained his belt with a first-round stoppage of the aforementioned Gonzalez. (This bout was originally ruled a no-contest as it ended after Gonzalez suffered a cut from an accidental clash of heads. But the referee ruled that Gonzalez was fit to continue before the Puerto Rican said “no mas,” alleging his vision was impaired, and the WBO upheld a protest from the Olascuaga camp and changed the result to a TKO. Regardless, Rudy Hernandez’s fighter would have kept his title.)
Hernandez, 62, is the brother of the late Genaro “Chicanito” Hernandez. A two-time world title-holder at 130 pounds who fought the likes of Azumah Nelson, Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr., Chicanito passed away in 2011, a cancer victim at age 45.
Genaro “Chicanito” Hernandez was one of the most popular fighters in the Hispanic communities of Southern California. Rudy Hernandez, a late bloomer of sorts – at least in terms of public recognition — has kept his brother’s flame alive with own achievements. He is a worthy honoree for the 2024 Trainer of the Year.
Note: This is the first in our series of annual awards. The others will arrive sporadically over the next two weeks.
Photo credit: Steve Kim
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A Shocker in Tijuana: Bruno Surace KOs Jaime Munguia !!
It was a chilly night in Tijuana when Jaime Munguia entered the ring for his homecoming fight with Bruno Surace. The main event of a Zanfer/Top Rank co-promotion, Munguia vs. Surace was staged in the city’s 30,000-seat soccer stadium a stone’s throw from the U.S. border in the San Diego metroplex.
Surace, a Frenchman, brought a 25-0-2 record and a 22-fight winning streak, but a quick glance at his record showed that he had scant chance of holding his own with the house fighter. Only four of Surace’s 25 wins had come by stoppage and only eight of his wins had come against opponents with winning records. Munguia was making the first start in the city of his birth since February 2022. Surace had never fought outside Europe.
But hold the phone!
After losing every round heading into the sixth, Surace scored the Upset of the Year, ending the contest with a one-punch knockout.
It looked like a short and easy night for Munguia when he knocked Surace down with a left hook in the second stanza. From that point on, the Frenchman fought off his back foot, often with back to the ropes, throwing punches only in spurts. Munguia worked the body well and was seemingly on the way to wearing him down when he was struck by lightning in the form of an overhand right.
Down went Munguia, landing on his back. He struggled to get to his feet, but the referee waived it off a nano-second before reaching “10.” The official time was 2:36 of round six.
Munguia, who was 44-1 heading in with 35 KOs, was as high as a 35/1 favorite. In his only defeat, he had gone the distance with Canelo Alvarez. This was the biggest upset by a French fighter since Rene Jacquot outpointed Donald Curry in 1989 and Jacquot had the advantage of fighting in his homeland.
Co-Main
Mexico City’s Alan Picasso, ranked #1 by the WBC at 122 pounds, scored a third-round stoppage of last-minute sub Yehison Cuello in a scheduled 10-rounder contested at featherweight. Picaso (31-0-1, 17 KOs) is a solid technician. He ended the bout with a left to the rib cage, a punch that weaved around Cuello’s elbow and didn’t appear to be especially hard. The referee stopped his count at “nine” and waived the fight off.
A 29-year-old Colombian who reportedly had been training in Tijuana, the overmatched Cuello slumped to 13-3-1.
Other Bouts of Note
In a ho-hum affair, junior middleweight Jorge Garcia advanced to 32-4 (26) with a 10-round unanimous decision over Uzbekistan’s Kudratillo Abudukakhorov (20-4). The judges had it 97-92 and 99-90 twice. There were no knockdowns, but Garcia had a point deducted in round eight for low blows.
Garcia displayed none of the power that he showed in his most recent fight three months ago in Arizona and when he knocked out his German opponent in 46 seconds. Abudukakhorov, who has competed mostly as a welterweight, came in at 158 1/4 pounds and didn’t look in the best of shape. The Uzbek was purportedly 170-10 as an amateur (4-5 per boxrec).
Super bantamweight Sebastian Hernandez improved to 18-0 (17 KOs) with a seventh-round stoppage of Argentine import Sergio Martin (14-5). The end came at the 2:39 mark of round seven when Martin’s corner threw in the towel. Earlier in the round, Martin lost his mouthpiece and had a point deducted for holding.
Hernandez wasn’t all that impressive considering the high expectations born of his high knockout ratio, but appeared to have injured his right hand during the sixth round.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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