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“If There's A Rematch, Bradley Will Dominate Pacquiao”

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PacquiaoBradley Hogan 2 There's no doubting its impact within the boxing fraternity. The recent showdown between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley is the most talked about boxing event of recent times. “The decision,” as it's been aptly named, is well on its way to becoming the most infamous decision announced by three judges since Pernell Whitaker was declared to have been the equal of Julio Cesar Chavez back in 1993. Heck, it may have even eclipsed that, placing it on a pedestal alongside the decision that was Leonard versus Hagler of 1987…..I think you get the idea.

Having only touched on the subject very briefly in my last two short pieces for TSS, and as a result of many of our regular readers -and some new-taking the time to comment on some of my recent statements -which I feel were not in any way outlandish-I thought I'd take this time to go into a little more detail explaining myself regarding my views on the fight that was, and also in the event of a possible rematch between our two men of the hour.

Allow me to make one thing perfectly clear. In a crowded house on fight night, surrounded by a talkative family and blessed with a Primetime feed that just so happened to glorify everything Pacquiao did {I'm English remember, so no slick HBO for me!} I initially felt Pacquiao won the fight, by a margin of around eight rounds to four. The following day however, with a clear head and no sound to diminish or enhance an opinion, I re-watched the fight and found it to be of a close nature. Eventually, having obtained a high definition version of the fight, I decided to score it for myself.After yet another viewing, again minus the sound, I scored the fight 6 rounds apiece…even… a draw. It's a score that I've now settled on after achieving the same result multiple times after repeated viewings {I must have watched it five or six times now…. I need to get out more, I know}. The point being, at no time did I ever declare that Timothy Bradley won the fight. In all honesty, I don't have a problem with those who think Bradley won the fight, nor do I have a problem with the vast majority of people who felt Pacquiao did. What I do have a problem with though, is those who saw it as a one-sided massacre in Pacquiao's favour. Scores of 119-109 for Pacquiao are, quite frankly, absurd to say the least. To suggest Bradley only won a single round in this fight is ridiculous. It was close and it was competitive.

Here is my round by round breakdown:

Round 1: Bradley
Round 2: Bradley
Round 3: Pacquiao
Round 4: Pacquiao
Round 5: Pacqiuao
Round 6: Pacquiao
Round 7: Bradley
Round 8: Pacquiao
Round 9: Pacquiao
Round 10: Bradley
Round 11: Bradley
Round 12: Bradley

As you can see, I viewed it as an extremely close fight where the decision could have gone one way or the other. Of the twelve rounds I scored, I felt only two of them were decisive. I believe only two rounds out of the twelve could have been scored by a boxing novice, those being round four for Pacquiao and round ten for Bradley.Apart from round seven,which was close and could very well have been reversed, I considerd the rest of the rounds to have been closely contested in which there was a winner, but not by a huge margin.

Now, moving onto the comments that seemed to have ignited hellfire and brimstone, namely Pacquiao being figured out and Bradley being able to dominate the rematch.By looking at my scorecard, you will see a pattern that does not frequently occur -Bradley won the first two rounds on my scorecard, then did not win consecutive rounds until the tenth round of the fight. In my eyes, this is a clear indication of something out of the ordinary that took place during the fight, which was Bradley's early foot injury. Here's why:

Rounds 1-2~

During the first two rounds -unlike some of Pacquiao's more stationary welterweight opponents- we saw Bradley utilising a lot of movement. As Pacquiao was advancing, Bradley clearly made a point of moving to his left. Pacquiao's offense in the first two rounds -his right hand followed by his left straight, or his straight left lead- was met with Bradley sliding off to Manny's right, and away from the left hand. Regardless of what many think {yes I'm talking to “three big booms” Lampley here}Pacquiao only landed his straight left hand once in the first round. At least cleanly. To sum up, I thought Bradley isolated Pacquiao's ambushes in the first two rounds using his feet. The blueprint looked to be set in stone for him -a counterpunching strategy that used Pacquiao's aggression against him.

Rounds 3-9~

Disaster struck for Bradley. With the injury to his foot {or feet} Bradley could no longer replicate what he was able to achieve in rounds one and two. Instead, we saw Bradley having to stand in range with Pacquiao, where he was forced to exchange with some of the fastest hands in all of boxing. Bradley, due to the pain which was evident on his face, was no longer able to use his legs to motor himself out of Pacquiao's range. Apart from the seventh, Pacquiao swept rounds three through nine.

Rounds 10-12:

With the pain seemingly under control, Bradley began neutralizing Pacquiao's lunges again with his feet. Using his jab -which seemed to go completely unnoticed- and his footwork, Bradley kept Pacquiao off balance by pivoting off of his front foot in a clockwise motion, away from Manny's back hand.

Because I felt Bradley won rounds one, two, ten, eleven and twelve -rounds where he was not in pain and could use his footwork- I think barring his injury in the second round, Bradley may have won this fight decisively. I had my doubts over Bernard Hopkins' shoulder injury against Chad Dawson,as did I with David Haye's broken toe and the alleged pain he was under during his twelve rounds with Wladimir Klitschko. There is no doubt in my mind however, as to how legitimate Tim Bradley's injuries were, nor is there any doubt as to how much pain he was in. There he was, in the biggest fight of his life, unable to use his legs for seven rounds against a fighter in which footwork and mobility is the key to unlocking him. Bradley was clearly suffering from the third to the ninth round.However, it was during those seven rounds,where Bradley had to go to plan B and plan C -you could clearly see it, and because of that, we got an idea of just how versatile Bradley is. Something, I believe, that does not bode well for Manny in the rematch.

I'm a firm believer that Bradley is one of boxing's finest technicians, even though many seem to disagree with the notion. Agreed, his punches do not flow like that of Juan Manuel Marquez' nor do his opponent's deflect off of him like Floyd Mayweather. Bradley's best asset in my eyes though, his boxing brain, is vastly underrated. Lets just forget about Bradley's injuries for a moment and ask yourself this. After the fourth round, did Pacquiao's left hand land with any regularity, if at all? I don't think it did. And it's because of the subtle adjustments Bradley made. After the fourth round {a round in which Bradley admitted to being hurt in} Pacquiao's left hand -regardless of what Primetime or HBO said- did not land clean again for the remainder of the fight -that's eight rounds where Pacquiao was unable to land his primary weapon -his only fight ending weapon- and five rounds in which Bradley was a wounded animal yet Pacquiao still couldn't hunt him down to a finish.If you look at the film again, you will see four adjustments Bradley made to negate Pacquiao's left handed attack throughout the fight.

Pre Injury: Initially, Bradley's footwork was his primary evasive action. Moving to his left, thus eliminating any left hand threat.

Foot injury: Unable to move, Bradley went to plan B, which was to use his blocking skills. Pacquiao throws two types of left hands at two different ranges. The first, in close, is swept around the guard and aimed towards the right side of an opponent's head, and the second, thrown at mid-range, is thrown straight down the middle, towards the centre of an opponent's chin. Bradley negated the first by getting inside and covering the side of his head with the outside of his right glove, and the second by bending at the waist and covering his chin with an open glove which he used to parry Pacquiao's left hand. Bradley adjusted his guard depending on Pacquiao's angle and range. Another look at the film, and you will see Bradley continually catching Pacquiao's left hand with an open mitt.

Bradley also negated the left hand through head movement. As Pacquiao lunged in, Bradley simply dipped low enough, so that Pacquiao's momentum would allow him to land on top of Bradley's back, thus forcing the official to call break.

Post foot injury: Moving again, Bradley was able to use a counter left hook as he slid off to his left. This -along with his jab- was Bradley's most effective evasive action. As Pacquiao leaned in with the straight left hand, Bradley was off to the side, throwing a well timed left hook over Manny's right shoulder. Don't be fooled by Bradley's aesthetics, only a technician learns and adapts during a fight.

Within the last batch of comments at the end of my last article, one of our TSS readers made a good analogy when he suggested the rematch could go like Lewis-Rahman. Suggesting that Pacquiao, like Lewis did, may have learned his lesson, and will be able to adapt and win a rematch in spectacular fashion. I have to respectfully disagree with that analogy. And here's why. Lennox Lewis, unlike Pacquiao, was the technician between him and Rahman. In their first fight, an underprepared Lewis was brutally stopped by a heavyweight puncher. In the rematch, Lewis did his home work. He knew that Rahman, a one-dimensional slugger, blocked a jab by flailing his arms out and moving to his left. knowing this, Lewis walked Rahman onto a right hand, and the rest was history. Lewis, an astute student of boxing, knew how to tailor his style to suit an opponent.As I've said before, I consider Pacquiao to have one of the best A games in boxing. His “in and out” offensive attack is usually enough to get the job done against most opponents and in particular, those who opt to stand right in front of him within punching range. Nevertheless, I believe Pacquiao struggles to adapt and adjust if things are not going his way.I question Pacquiaio's -and Freddie Roach's for that matter- ability to come up with a plan B or C during a fight.

In my last piece, I referenced the Lewis-Holyfield scenario {their first fight was a disputed draw, in which Lewis clearly won and the second was closer but Lewis was awarded the decision} as how the Bradley-Pacquiao rematch may go down. Point being, Bradley may actually dominate the rematch, but judges, feeling Pacquiao was harshly treated last time, may actually award Pacquiao the decision {I believe we are in for another twelve rounder, more on that in a moment}.

A better analogy however, is the Jean Pascal-Bernard Hopkins fights. During their first fight, Hopkins, a technician, was stunned and hurt early by Pascal, who is a superior offensive fighter, with better athleticism. Pascal though, can be considered one dimensional. After Hopkins figured him out during the fifth round, he never lost a round for the rest of the fight. This carried into the rematch as Hopkins was able to neutralize Pascal from the get go. Despite the first fight being a draw, Hopkins dominated the rematch. I consider Bradley to be in a similar situation to Bradley. In my eyes, Pacquiao won the first half of the fight, but Bradley, after recuperating from his leg injury and making subtle adjustments, won the second half of the fight. This to me, suggests that Bradley has figured something out -remember,Pacquiao barely landed his left hand after the fourth round.

One of the most common perceptions I've heard and read is that Pacquiao will be able to get the knockout in the rematch. Look, I don't mean to rain on Manny's parade or anything like that, truth is I'm a bigger fan of Pacquiao's than I am of Bradley's, but I just don't see him being able to get the knockout in the rematch. Pacquiao's last six fights, in case you've forgotten, have all gone the full twelve rounds. Pacquiao's vaunted power at welterweight,I'm afraid to say,is vastly overrated. Pacquiao hit Bradley flush in the fourth round. Bradley was able to recover and claim Kendal Holt hit harder. I also don't buy into Shane Mosley saying Pacquiao's power is something else. If Pacquiao's power really was something else, then Mosley wouldn't have been there mythologizing fables. Did Thomas Hearns' opponents stand there at the end of the fight telling the world how hard he hit? No, they were being scraped off the canvas. That's how we knew Hearns was a hitter at welterweight. With Pacquiao not having scored a stoppage in his last half dozen fights and with his primary fight ending weapon not landing with any regularity since the Antonio Margarito fight, I think the Rubik's cube that was Pacquiao, is now something far less complicated, especially since he's started his inevitable decline.

Pacquiao, like Roy Jones, Naseem Hamed and Muhammad Ali did, relies heavily on his physical gifts like speed, athleticism and explosiveness. Look at Pacquiao against Oscar De la Hoya. You will see a fighter who has clearly lost a step in speed, reflexes and most notably, stamina. When was the last time Pacquiao was ever outworked throughout a twelve round fight before Bradley threw more punches than him last time out? Try never. It's obvious to me, that Pacquiao was performing that old Ray Leonard trick of trying to catch the the judges eye by turning it on for the last minute of every round. A clear indication that he is no longer capable of re-producing his frenetic pace of his featherweight days. Without volume, Pacquiao just isn't the same fighter. It's why haven't seen vintage Pacquiao since 2009.

Consequently, I think a rematch with Bradley would be a bad decision for Pacquiao. Bradley, to me, looked to have figured out Pacquiao's attack pattern -namely his side to side head movement, followed by a right hand….right, straight left combination. It became a case of rinse and repeat as the fight went on as Pacquiao seemed to lack any variation in his attack. One thing I did notice during the last fight, was the rare occasions when he threw it, Pacquiao seemed to have some success with the uppercut. Maybe that's something Pacquiao and Roach could pick up on if there's a rematch. On the other hand, it's not hard to imagine Bradley, just as he eventually did with Pacquiao's straight left, to figure the shot out and adjust accordingly. Again, I consider Bradley to be a boxing chameleon. Only a technician can adapt and re-adjust to the situation at hand.

I stand by my belief that if there's to be a rematch, Timothy Bradley will dominate. Pacquiao, who does not seem to be able to adjust during a fight, struggles against moving targets. The direction of Pacquiao's attack becomes lineal against fighters who are not overly aggressive and who counter movement with movement, fire with fire. Look at Pacquiao's attack angles against David Diaz, Oscar De La Hoya, Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto, then contrast his angles against Erik Morales, Juan Manuel Marquez, Shane Mosley and Timothy Bradley -you will notice Pacquiao becomes a pressurizing stalker against the latter group, yet against the former, Pacquiao was like a wasp, moving in, out and around his stationary targets.

A fully fit Bradley will be moving off at angles, not allowing Pacquiao to launch his four-five-six punch combinations that we've become accustomed to seeing him throw against his more stationary opponents {whom Pacquiao is a killer against}. I'm of the opinion, just as Bernard Hopkins did with Jean Pascal, that Timothy Bradley has a clear understanding on how to neutralize Manny's best weapons -his left hand, movement and angles-heading into the rematch.

And yet, having said all this,I would not be at all suprised if Pacquiao was given the decision, as a result of how the first fight was deemed a robbery. I hope I'm proved wrong, but the recent re-judging by the WBO has, I feel, only but enhanced my logic.

I look foward to hearing your response, TSS Universe. Thanks for reading.

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 326: Top Rank and San Diego Smoke

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 326: Top Rank and San Diego Smoke

Years ago, I worked at a newsstand in the Beverly Hills area. It was a 24-hour a day version and the people that dropped by were very colorful and unique.

One elderly woman Eva, who bordered on homeless but pridefully wore lipstick, would stop by the newsstand weekly to purchase a pack of menthol cigarettes. On one occasion, she asked if I had ever been to San Diego?

I answered “yes, many times.”

She countered “you need to watch out for San Diego Smoke.”

This Saturday, Top Rank brings its brand of prizefighting to San Diego or what could be called San Diego Smoke. Leading the fight card is Mexico’s Emanuel Navarrete (39-2-1, 32 KOs) defending the WBO super feather title against undefeated Filipino Charly Suarez (18-0, 10 KOs) at Pechanga Arena. ESPN will televise.

This is Navarrete’s fourth defense of the super feather title.

The last time Navarrete stepped in the boxing ring he needed six rounds to dismantle the very capable Oscar Valdez in their rematch. One thing about Mexico City’s Navarrete is he always brings “the smoke.”

Also, on the same card is Fontana, California’s Raymond Muratalla (22-0, 17 KOs) vying for the interim IBF lightweight title against Russia’s Zaur Abdullaev (20-1, 12 KOs) on the co-main event.

Abdullaev has only fought once before in the USA and was handily defeated by Devin Haney back in 2019. But that was six years ago and since then he has knocked off various contenders.

Muratalla is a slick fighting lightweight who trains at the Robert Garcia Boxing Academy now in Moreno Valley, Calif. It’s a virtual boot camp with many of the top fighters on the West Coast available to spar on a daily basis. If you need someone bigger or smaller, stronger or faster someone can match those needs.

When you have that kind of preparation available, it’s tough to beat. Still, you have to fight the fight. You never know what can happen inside the prize ring.

Another fighter to watch is Perla Bazaldua, 19, a young and very talented female fighter out of the Los Angeles area. She is trained by Manny Robles who is building a small army of top female fighters.

Bazaldua (1-0, 1 KO) meets Mona Ward (0-1) in a super flyweight match on the preliminary portion of the Top Rank card. Top Rank does not sign many female fighters so you know that they believe in her talent.

Others on the Top Rank card in San Diego include Giovani Santillan, Andres Cortes, Albert Gonzalez, Sebastian Gonzalez and others.

They all will bring a lot of smoke to San Diego.

Probox TV

A strong card led by Erickson “The Hammer” Lubin (26-2, 18 KOs) facing Ardreal Holmes Jr. (17-0, 6 KOs) in a super welterweight clash between southpaws takes place on Saturday at Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee, Florida. PROBOX TV will stream the fight card.

Ardreal has rocketed up the standings and now faces veteran Lubin whose only losses came against world titlists Sebastian Fundora and Jermell Charlo. It’s a great match to decide who deserves a world title fight next.

Another juicy match pits Argentina’s Nazarena Romero (14-0-2) against Mexico’s Mayelli Flores (12-1-1) in a female super bantamweight contest.

Nottingham, England

Anthony Cacace (23-1, 8 KOs) defends the IBO super featherweight title against Leigh Wood (28-3, 17 KOs) in Wood’s hometown on Saturday at Nottingham Arena in Nottingham, England. DAZN will stream the Queensberry Promotions card.

Ireland’s Cacace seems to have the odds against him. But he is no stranger to dancing in the enemy’s lair or on foreign territory. He formerly defeated Josh Warrington in London and Joe Cordina in Riyadh in IBO title defenses.

Lampley at Wild Card

Boxing telecaster Jim Lampley will be signing his new book It Happened! at the Wild Card Boxing gym in Hollywood, Calif. on Saturday, May 10, beginning at 2 p.m. Lampley has been a large part of many of the greatest boxing events in the past 40 years. He and Freddie Roach will be at the signing.

Fights to Watch (All times Pacific Time)

Sat. DAZN 11 a.m. Anthony Cacace (23-1) vs Leigh Wood (28-3).

Sat. PROBOX.tv 3 p.m. Erickson Lubin (26-2) vs Ardreal Holmes Jr. (17-0).

Sat. ESPN 7 p.m. Emanuel Navarrete (39-2-1) vs Charly Suarez (18-0); Raymond Muratalla (22-0) vs Zaur Abdullaev (20-1).

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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“Breadman” Edwards: An Unlikely Boxing Coach with a Panoramic View of the Sport

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Stephen “Breadman” Edwards’ first fighter won a world title. That may be some sort of record.

It’s true. Edwards had never trained a fighter, amateur or pro, before taking on professional novice Julian “J Rock” Williams. On May 11, 2019, Williams wrested the IBF 154-pound world title from Jarrett Hurd. The bout, a lusty skirmish, was in Fairfax, Virginia, near Hurd’s hometown in Maryland, and the previously undefeated Hurd had the crowd in his corner.

In boxing, Stephen Edwards wears two hats. He has a growing reputation as a boxing coach, a hat he will wear on Saturday, May 31, at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas when the two fighters that he currently trains, super middleweight Caleb Plant and middleweight Kyrone Davis, display their wares on a show that will air on Amazon Prime Video. Plant, who needs no introduction, figures to have little trouble with his foe in a match conceived as an appetizer to a showdown with Jermall Charlo. Davis, coming off his career-best win, an upset of previously undefeated Elijah Garcia, is in tough against fast-rising Cuban prospect Yoenli Hernandez, a former world amateur champion.

Edwards’ other hat is that of a journalist. His byline appears at “Boxing Scene” in a column where he answers questions from readers.

It’s an eclectic bag of questions that Breadman addresses, ranging from his thoughts on an upcoming fight to his thoughts on one of the legendary prizefighters of olden days. Boxing fans, more so than fans of any other sport, enjoy hashing over fantasy fights between great fighters of different eras. Breadman is very good at this, which isn’t to suggest that his opinions are gospel, merely that he always has something provocative to add to the discourse. Like all good historians, he recognizes that the best history is revisionist history.

“Fighters are constantly mislabled,” he says. “Everyone talks about Joe Louis’s right hand. But if you study him you see that his left hook is every bit as good as his right hand and it’s more sneaky in terms of shock value when it lands.”

Stephen “Breadman” Edwards was born and raised in Philadelphia. His father died when he was three. His maternal grandfather, a Korean War veteran, filled the void. The man was a big boxing fan and the two would watch the fights together on the family television.

Edwards’ nickname dates to his early teen years when he was one of the best basketball players in his neighborhood. The derivation is the 1975 movie “Cornbread, Earl and Me,” starring Laurence Fishburne in his big screen debut. Future NBA All-Star Jamaal Wilkes, fresh out of UCLA, plays Cornbread, a standout high school basketball player who is mistakenly murdered by the police.

Coming out of high school, Breadman had to choose between an academic scholarship at Temple or an athletic scholarship at nearby Lincoln University. He chose the former, intending to major in criminal justice, but didn’t stay in college long. What followed were a succession of jobs including a stint as a city bus driver. To stay fit, he took to working out at the James Shuler Memorial Gym where he sparred with some of the regulars, but he never boxed competitively.

Over the years, Philadelphia has harbored some great boxing coaches. Among those of recent vintage, the names George Benton, Bouie Fisher, Nazeem Richardson, and Bozy Ennis come quickly to mind. Breadman names Richardson and West Coast trainer Virgil Hunter as the men that have influenced him the most.

We are all a product of our times, so it’s no surprise that the best decade of boxing, in Breadman’s estimation, was the 1980s. This was the era of the “Four Kings” with Sugar Ray Leonard arguably standing tallest.

Breadman was a big fan of Leonard and of Leonard’s three-time rival Roberto Duran. “I once purchased a DVD that had all of Roberto Duran’s title defenses on it,” says Edwards. “This was a back before the days of YouTube.”

But Edwards’ interest in the sport goes back much deeper than the 1980s. He recently weighed in on the “Pittsburgh Windmill” Harry Greb whose legend has grown in recent years to the point that some have come to place him above Sugar Ray Robinson on the list of the greatest of all time.

“Greb was a great fighter with a terrific resume, of that there is no doubt,” says Breadman, “but there is no video of him and no one alive ever saw him fight, so where does this train of thought come from?”

Edwards notes that in Harry Greb’s heyday, he wasn’t talked about in the papers as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. The boxing writers were partial to Benny Leonard who drew comparisons to the venerated Joe Gans.

Among active fighters, Breadman reserves his highest praise for Terence Crawford. “Body punching is a lost art,” he once wrote. “[Crawford] is a great body puncher who starts his knockouts with body punches, but those punches are so subtle they are not fully appreciated.”

If the opening line holds up, Crawford will enter the ring as the underdog when he opposes Canelo Alvarez in September. Crawford, who will enter the ring a few weeks shy of his 38th birthday, is actually the older fighter, older than Canelo by almost three full years (it doesn’t seem that way since the Mexican redhead has been in the public eye so much longer), and will theoretically be rusty as 13 months will have elapsed since his most recent fight.

Breadman discounts those variables. “Terence is older,” he says, “but has less wear and tear and never looks rusty after a long layoff.” That Crawford will win he has no doubt, an opinion he tweaked after Canelo’s performance against William Scull: “Canelo’s legs are not the same. Bud may even stop him now.”

Edwards has been with Caleb Plant for Plant’s last three fights. Their first collaboration produced a Knockout of the Year candidate. With one ferocious left hook, Plant sent Anthony Dirrell to dreamland. What followed were a 12-round setback to David Benavidez and a ninth-round stoppage of Trevor McCumby.

Breadman keeps a hectic schedule. From Monday through Friday, he’s at the DLX Gym in Las Vegas coaching Caleb Plant and Kyrone Davis. On weekends, he’s back in Philadelphia, checking in on his investment properties and, of greater importance, watching his kids play sports. His 14-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son are standout all-around athletes.

On those long flights, he has plenty of time to turn on his laptop and stream old fights or perhaps work on his next article. That’s assuming he can stay awake.

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Arne’s Almanac: The Good, the Bad, and the (Mostly) Ugly; a Weekend Boxing Recap and More

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Arne’s Almanac: The Good, the Bad, and the (Mostly) Ugly; a Weekend Boxing Recap and More

It’s old news now, but on back-to-back nights on the first weekend of May, there were three fights that finished in the top six snoozefests ever as measured by punch activity. That’s according to CompuBox which has been around for 40 years.

In Times Square, the boxing match between Devin Haney and Jose Carlos Ramirez had the fifth-fewest number of punches thrown, but the main event, Ryan Garcia vs. Rolly Romero, was even more of a snoozefest, landing in third place on this ignoble list.

Those standings would be revised the next night – knocked down a peg when Canelo Alvarez and William Scull combined to throw a historically low 445 punches in their match in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 152 by the victorious Canelo who at least pressed the action, unlike Scull (pictured) whose effort reminded this reporter of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” – no, not the movie starring Paul Newman, just the title.

CompuBox numbers, it says here, are best understood as approximations, but no amount of rejiggering can alter the fact that these three fights were stinkers. Making matters worse, these were pay-per-views. If one had bundled the two events, rather than buying each separately, one would have been out $90 bucks.

****

Thankfully, the Sunday card on ESPN from Las Vegas was redemptive. It was just what the sport needed at this moment – entertaining fights to expunge some of the bad odor. In the main go, Naoya Inoue showed why he trails only Shohei Ohtani as the most revered athlete in Japan.

Throughout history, the baby-faced assassin has been a boxing promoter’s dream. It’s no coincidence that down through the ages the most common nickname for a fighter – and by an overwhelming margin — is “Kid.”

And that partly explains Naoya Inoue’s charisma. The guy is 32 years old, but here in America he could pass for 17.

Joey Archer

Joey Archer, who passed away last week at age 87 in Rensselaer, New York, was one of the last links to an era of boxing identified with the nationally televised Friday Night Fights at Madison Square Garden.

Joey Archer

Joey Archer

Archer made his debut as an MSG headliner on Feb. 4, 1961, and had 12 more fights at the iconic mid-Manhattan sock palace over the next six years. The final two were world title fights with defending middleweight champion Emile Griffith.

Archer etched his name in the history books in November of 1965 in Pittsburgh where he won a comfortable 10-round decision over Sugar Ray Robinson, sending the greatest fighter of all time into retirement. (At age 45, Robinson was then far past his peak.)

Born and raised in the Bronx, Joey Archer was a cutie; a clever counter-puncher recognized for his defense and ultimately for his granite chin. His style was embedded in his DNA and reinforced by his mentors.

Early in his career, Archer was domiciled in Houston where he was handled by veteran trainer Bill Gore who was then working with world lightweight champion Joe Brown. Gore would ride into the Hall of Fame on the coattails of his most famous fighter, “Will-o’-the Wisp” Willie Pep. If Joey Archer had any thoughts of becoming a banger, Bill Gore would have disabused him of that notion.

In all honesty, Archer’s style would have been box office poison if he had been black. It helped immensely that he was a native New Yorker of Irish stock, albeit the Irish angle didn’t have as much pull as it had several decades earlier. But that observation may not be fair to Archer who was bypassed twice for world title fights after upsetting Hurricane Carter and Dick Tiger.

When he finally caught up with Emile Griffith, the former hat maker wasn’t quite the fighter he had been a few years earlier but Griffith,  a two-time Fighter of the Year by The Ring magazine and the BWAA and a future first ballot Hall of Famer, was still a hard nut to crack.

Archer went 30 rounds with Griffith, losing two relatively tight decisions and then, although not quite 30 years old, called it quits. He finished 45-4 with 8 KOs and was reportedly never knocked down, yet alone stopped, while answering the bell for 365 rounds. In retirement, he ran two popular taverns with his older brother Jimmy Archer, a former boxer who was Joey’s trainer and manager late in Joey’s career.

May he rest in peace.

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