Hopkins Wants To Thrash King As Much As Cloud

Published

12 years ago

February 25, 2013

Try as he might, Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins is finding it difficult to generate much animosity toward IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud, whom he challenges in the HBO-televised main event March 9 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Despite their 17-year age gap and decidedly different points of origin, Hopkins, 48, feels a certain kinship toward Cloud. It’s hard to work yourself into a frothing rage in preparation of a fight with someone you sort of relate to.

“I heard this guy talking about his mom’s refrigerator being repossessed, about how they had to put their food in a washtub and fill it up with ice to keep it from spoiling,” Hopkins (photo above by Hogan Photos), a child of poverty who grew up on the mean streets of North Philadelphia, said of Cloud, who hails from Tallahassee, Fla. “I’ve been watching that tape for a couple of months. I’m from North Philly, but I know where he’s coming from. He said he used to live in a room with 15 people, and he ain’t never going back to that again.

“I know how that is. That means my ass had better get ready for this guy because he’s hungry, too.”

And the roaches that presumably are a familiar sight to kids living in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions? Hopkins recalls times when he had to brush them off stale slices of bread, and those when he and other family members ate cold beans straight out of the can because the gas in their shabby apartment had been shut off.

“Oh, man, those were our buddies, as long as they didn’t take all of (the food),” Hopkins said of co-existing with vermin. “You expect them to be in there. You were sharing space with things with a lot of legs and people with two legs. Whoever got there first got to eat.”

But if Hopkins (52-6-2, 32 KOs) can’t find a legitimate reason to be mad at Cloud (24-0, 19 KOs), he has to be mad at somebody, because, well, that is how boxing’s ageless wonder has stayed at or near the top of an unforgiving profession when most fighters are long since retired and whiling away the hours in rocking chairs, not in gyms while getting ready for another tough bout. Fortunately for B-Hop, taking on Cloud – a victory would enable Hopkins to break his own record, set against Jean Pascal on May 21, 2011, of becoming the oldest man ever to win a widely recognized world title – provides him with just such a target for vengeance and retribution.

That would be Hopkins’ former promoter, Don King, who promotes Cloud.

“Cloud believes he is the best, that he can beat anybody,” Hopkins said. “I’m not surprised he took the fight. I am surprised King agreed to it because Cloud losing to me will shut down what’s left of King’s company. He’s pretty much down to Cloud. Cloud is Don King’s last big hope.

“Who would have thought that I would have stayed around long enough to destroy Don King? I started the process with Tito (Trinidad). Look, I made a history of beating Don King fighters. Robert Allen, John David Jackson, William Joppy, Keith Holmes, Trinidad. That’s five so far. There’s probably more.”

To Hopkins’ way of thinking – and this is a proud, obstinate guy who never forgets real or imagined slights – King became an enemy during the run-up to, and aftermath of, what likely was the ex-con from Philadelphia’s most important ring success, the 12^th-round stoppage of the unbeaten and favored Trinidad on Sept. 29, 2001, in Madison Square Garden. His Hairness ostensibly promoted both fighters, but King’s continual waving of the Puerto Rican flag, and smiling shouts of “Viva, Puerto Rico!” left no doubt in Hopkins’ mind that his best interests were not exactly the promoter’s priority.

Then there was the matter of the newly created Sugar Ray Robinson Award, which was to be presented to the winner of the unified middleweight championship. Hopkins was the IBF and WBC 160-pound champion going in, Trinidad the WBA champ.

“They already had engraved Tito’s name on that thing,” recalled Hopkins, 3-1 underdog that night. “If he had won, they would have given it to him right there in the ring. I had to wait a week to get it.”

But Don King is hardly alone when it comes to inclusion on the list of the former promoters, managers and advisers who have raised Hopkins’ ire. Maybe it’s remnants of his five-year forced incarceration on an armed robbery conviction, but B-Hop – who, to his credit, has never run afoul of the law since his parole a quarter-century ago – does seem to have problems with certain authority figures. Just ask Dan Goossen and Lou DiBella, or examine transcripts of the profane rants toward Hopkins uttered by Butch Lewis, who passed away on July 23, 2011. All once had warm spots in their hearts for Hopkins which turned icy cold, and all engaged him in dueling lawsuits.

“I have a track record I’m proud of,” Lewis said when he was sued by Hopkins. “I’ve gone above and beyond the call of duty with every fighter I’ve ever had, in terms of contractual commitments. But I don’t want anybody to confuse my being a nice guy with weakness. I’m not going to let that (bleeper-bleeper) kick me in the ass and take it when I’m doing right.”

And there is this from Goossen, the president of now-defunct America Presents when it promoted Hopkins and was also involved in acrimonious legal action with the legendarily hard-to-satisfy boxer.

“One of my biggest disappointments in 20 years of boxing is Bernard Hopkins,” Goossen said in 2000 (Hopkins’ contract with America Presents expired on June 30, 1999) as the charges and counter-charges were being sorted by lawyers. “He’s right up there with Michael Nunn. I always felt Michael Nunn had the ability to be one of the greatest fighters ever, and I had the same feeling about Bernard. But Nunn never achieved greatness, based upon his own decisions, and it’s too late for him now.

“With Hopkins, who has greatness written all over him, it’s getting harder and harder to believe it’s ever going to happen. I wanted to have a good relationship with the guy and enjoy it, but, well, Bernard is Bernard. I’m not going to get into a war of words with Bernard Hopkins. I’m saddened by the direction he has taken in his career. I’m proud of what we were trying to do to advance that career. He wasn’t happy with what we did; we are.”

But perhaps the most bitter split involved Lou DiBella, the former senior vice president of HBO Sports who for a time served as Hopkins’ adviser. DiBella shed tears of joy the night Hopkins dispatched Trinidad, but the relationship took a nasty turn when Hopkins accused his onetime friend of extorting $50,000 from him for a spot in an HBO-televised fight bout against Syd Vanderpool on May 13, 2000, in Indianapolis, Ind. Interestingly, that fight – Hopkins retained his IBF middleweight title on a clear-cut unanimous decision – took place 16½ months before B-Hop and DiBella expressed their undying love for one another in the glow of that big night in the Garden against Trinidad.

DiBella points out that he won a $610,000 defamation judgment against Hopkins, who continued to loudly pronounce his contention that his version of what had transpired was correct. That led to a tense situation heading into the first meeting of Hopkins and Jermain Taylor, who was promoted by DiBella Entertainment. Taylor, on a razor-thin split decision, wrested the middleweight championship from Hopkins on July 16, 2005, in addition to ending his division-record streak of 20 successful defenses.

“I’ve got a personal reason why I want to clock this guy (Taylor), but I got it under control. It ain’t reckless,” Hopkins said prior to the grudge match. “I take all fights personal, but this one’s extremely personal. It’s a fight that motivates me more than any fight I ever fought. In this fight, there’s no (attorneys raising) objections. There ain’t no (judges) presiding. I am the judge, the jury and the executioner. This is me being able to get my vindication (against DiBella).”

DiBella fired right back. “What he did hurt me in every way,” he said of Hopkins. “It hurt my family, hurt my marriage, hurt my career, hurt my business.

“Look, Bernard Hopkins is a Hall of Famer. He’s the best middleweight of his era. In my estimation, he’s one of the five best middleweights of all time. I’m not sure Marvin Hagler would have beaten him. But he is a vile human being. Inside the ring, he’s a genius. Outside the ring, he’s a hateful, lying person.”

To paraphrase Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction, allow Hopkins to retort against those he deems to have conspired against him.

“Yeah, I speak my mind,” Hopkins said when he was taking on Goossen in the courts. “I understand the politics of boxing and, in some people’s eyes, that makes me dangerous. But I can’t be bullied. Bully tactics don’t work on me. If you try to bully me, I fight back. Just because I can fight doesn’t mean I can’t think.

“How many stories have you heard about fighters who went broke? There are a lot of those. Now, how many stories have you heard about boxing promoter who went broke? There aren’t any. Promoters hold all the power, all the leverage and most of the money. That’s the way it’s always been. They’re not going to give up any of that power and leverage to any fighter, unless they absolutely have to.”

Leave it to each individual fan of the sport to determine who is right and who is wrong in these various disputes, or if there is a greater truth to be distilled from the succession of verbal wars outside the ropes. Maybe there are shades of gray, as is frequently the case whenever absolute truths are not immediately evident and therefore open to interpretation.

What does seem clear is that Hopkins’ rigid approach to the business of boxing is very much like his approach to the brutality of boxing, where a refusal to give ground is often – but not always – a plus.

Recently retired HBO ringside analyst Larry Merchant perhaps best summed up Hopkins, the fighter, in analyzing what had taken place in his 10^th-round stoppage of No. 1 contender Antwun Echols in a foul-plagued brawl on Dec. 1, 2000.

“Gil Clancy once told me that, from a technical standpoint, today’s fighters and those from the 1930s and ’40s aren’t that dissimilar,” Merchant told a reporter minutes after that fight. “But he said those old-time guys, a lot of whom came out of the Depression, were hard men. When I look at Bernard Hopkins, I see a hard man.”

He is, undoubtedly, a hard man to deal with. Even those who marvel at his longevity, at his ring smarts and his determination, can be left exasperated and enraged. Striking deals with Bernard Hopkins that satisfy both parties can be as difficult as getting Israel and Iran to play nice.

“I know when someone’s trying to bum-rush me,” Hopkins said during another heated skirmish with a promoter. “Well, come on with it. I know about intimidation. I was taught it by Butch Lewis. The main thing I learned from Butch was this: Don’t trust anyone. I don’t trust anyone in boxing.”

Given Hopkins’ history, his ongoing relationship with Golden Boy Promotions – he has held an executive position with the company since Nov. 20, 2004, just 32 days after he knocked out company president Oscar De La Hoya – is as or more noteworthy than his 20 winning middleweight defenses or his capturing world titles deep into his 40s. A lot of people are waiting, waiting for the association to blow up in the same rancorous manner what marked so many of B-Hop’s previously ill-fated attempts at co-existence.

Even De La Hoya had harsh words prior to his ninth-round knockout by Hopkins on Sept. 18, 2004. “Hopkins is a bully. He talks about having been in prison and all this street stuff, and he thinks that’s going to intimidate me. But he’s wrong. He’s not going to win any battles before we get in the ring.”

For his part, Hopkins spoke about how he was going to rearrange De La Hoya’s matinee-idol mug. “Oscar has always been known for how handsome he is,” he said. “I’m envious of him. His nose is straight. Nobody’s really busted up Oscar. But for all of his fans who admire his Clark Gable looks, they’d better take their pictures of him now. It’s going to be one of those before-and-after deals after I get through with him.”

That De La Hoya and Hopkins should team up was quite the shock. Maybe it was De La Hoya’s way of showing appreciation that the takeout shot by Hopkins was a left hook to the liver, which did not oblige the losing fighter to seek the services of a plastic surgeon.

“Bernard Hopkins is one of the best fighters in recent history,” De La Hoya said when B-Hop joined Team Golden Boy. “His talent and skill in the ring are unquestioned, but what impressed me just as much is his charisma, vision for the future of boxing and deep love and respect for the sport.”

Hopkins, for his part, used the occasion to take a few shots at Bob Arum – who had just announced that his stepson, Todd duBoef, was taking over the day-to-day operations of Top Rank – and, yes, King.

“Perhaps Don King will get a whiff of this,” Hopkins said of the aging icons he hoped to remove from an entrenched position of power. “Those old dinosaurs will see that new, young blood is coming to town.”

There are those who would say that it’s Hopkins who is the last dinosaur. In any case, it’s likely he’ll be taking his last punch in the not-so-distant future. Cloud is a 3-1 favorite to be the guy to deliver that parting shot.

A lot of people will bid Hopkins, the living legend, a fond farewell then. And a lot of people will be saying goodbye, and good riddance, to Hopkins the legendary pain in the ass.

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Bernard Fernandez

History has Shortchanged Freddie Dawson, One of the Best Boxers of his Era

Published

2 days ago

April 2, 2025

Arne K. Lang

History has Shortchanged Freddie Dawson, One of the Best Boxers of his Era

This reporter was rummaging around the internet last week when he stumbled on a story in the May 1950 issue of Ebony under the byline of Mike Jacobs. Boxing was then in the doldrums (isn’t it always?) and Jacobs, the most powerful promoter in boxing during the era of Joe Louis, was lassoed by the editors of the magazine to address the question of whether the over-representation of black boxers was killing the sport at the box office.

This hoary premise had been kicking around even before the heyday of Jack Johnson, bubbling forth whenever an important black-on-black fight played to a sea of empty seats as had happened the previous year when Chicago’s Comiskey Park hosted the world heavyweight title fight between Ezzard Charles and Jersey Joe Walcott.

Jacobs ridiculed the hypothesis – as one could have expected considering the publication in which the story ran – and singled out three “colored” boxers as the best of the current crop of active pugilists: Sugar Ray Robinson, Ike Williams, and Freddie Dawson.

Sugar Ray Robinson? A no-brainer. Skill-wise the greatest of the great. Even those that didn’t follow boxing, would have recognized his name. Ike Williams? Nowhere near as well-known as Robinson, but he was then the reigning lightweight champion, a man destined to go into the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the inaugural class of 1990.

And Freddie Dawson? If the name doesn’t ring a bell, dear reader, you are not alone. I confess that I too drew a blank. And that triggered a search to learn more about him.

Freddie Dawson had four fights with Ike Williams. All four were staged on Ike’s turf in Philadelphia. Were this not the case, the history books would likely show the series knotted 2-2. Late in his career, Dawson became greatly admired in Australia. But we are jumping ahead of ourselves.

Dawson was born in 1924 in Thomasville, Arkansas, an unincorporated town in the Arkansas Delta. Likely a descendent of slaves who worked in the cotton plantations, he grew up in the so-called Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, the heart of Chicago’s Black Belt.

The first mention of him in the newspapers came in 1941 when he won Chicago’s Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) featherweight title. In those days, amateur boxing was big in the Windy City, the birthplace of the Golden Gloves. The Catholic Archdiocese, which ran gyms in every parish, and the Chicago Parks Department, were the major incubators.

In his amateur days, he was known as simply Fred Dawson. As a pro, his name often appeared as Freddy Dawson, although Freddie gradually became the more common spelling.

Dawson, who stood five-foot-six and was often described as stocky, made his pro debut on Feb. 1, 1943, at Marigold Gardens. Before the year was out, he had 16 fights under his belt, all in Chicago and all but two at Marigold. (Currently the site of an interdenominational Christian church, Marigold Gardens, on the city’s north side, was Chicago’s most active boxing and wrestling arena from the mid-1930s through the early-1950s. Joe Louis had three of his early fights there and Tony Zale was a fixture there as he climbed the ladder to the world middleweight title.)

The last of these 16 fights was fatal for Dawson’s opponent who collapsed heading back to his corner after the fight was stopped in the 10^th round and died that night at a local hospital from the effects of a brain injury.

Dawson left town after this incident and spent most of the next year in New Orleans where energetic promoter Louis Messina ran twice-weekly shows (Mondays for whites and Fridays for blacks) at the Coliseum, a major stop on boxing’s so-called Chitlin’ Circuit.

That same year, on Sept. 19, 1944, Dawson had his first encounter with Ike Williams. He was winning the fight when Ike knocked him out with a body punch in the fourth round.

The first and last meetings between Dawson and Ike Williams were spaced five years apart. In the interim, Freddie scored his two best wins, stopping Vic Patrick in the twelfth round at Sydney, NSW, and Bernard Docusen in the sixth round in Chicago.

The long-reigning lightweight champion of Australia, Patrick (49-3, 43 KOs) gave the crowd a thrill when he knocked Dawson down for a count of “six” in the penultimate 11^th round, but Dawson returned the favor twice in the final stanza, ending the contest with a punch so harsh that the poor Aussie needed five minutes before he was fit to leave the ring and would spend the night in the hospital as a precaution.

Dawson fought Bernard Docusen before 10,000-plus at Chicago Stadium on Feb. 4, 1949. An 8/5 favorite, Docusen lacked a hard punch, but the New Orleans cutie had suffered only three losses in 66 fights, had never been stopped, and had extended Sugar Ray Robinson the 15-round distance the previous year.

Dawson dismantled him. Docusen managed to get back on his feet after Dawson knocked him down in the sixth, but he was in no condition to continue and the referee waived the fight off. Dawson was then vacillating between the lightweight and welterweight divisions and reporters wondered whether it would be Robinson or Ike Williams when Dawson finally got his well-earned title shot.

Sugar Ray wasn’t in his future. Here are the results of his other matches with Ike Williams:

Dawson-Williams II (Jan. 28, 1946) – The consensus on press row was 7-2-1 or 7-3 for Dawson, but the match was ruled a draw. “[The judges and referee] evidently saw [Williams] land punches that nobody else did,” said the ringside reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Dawson-Williams III (Jan. 26, 1948) – Dawson lost a majority decision. The scores were 6-4, 5-4-1, and 4-4-2. The decision was booed. Ike Williams then held the lightweight title, but this was a non-title fight. (It was tough for an outsider to get a fair shake in Philadelphia, home to Ike Williams’ co-manager Frank “Blinky” Palermo who would go to prison for his duplicitous dealings as a fight facilitator.)

Dawson-Williams IV (Dec. 5, 1949) – This would be Freddie Dawson’s only crack at a world title and he came up short. Ike Williams retained the belt, winning a unanimous decision. The fight was close – 8-7, 8-7, 9-6 – but there was no controversy.

Dawson made three more trips to Australia before his career was finished. On the first of these trips, he knocked out Jack Hassen, successor to Vic Patrick as the lightweight champion of Australia. A 1953 article in the Sydney Sunday Herald bore witness to the esteem in which Dawson was held by boxing fans in Australia: “None of our boxers could withstand his devastating attacks which not only knocked them out but also knocked years off their careers,” said the author. “It is doubtful whether any Australian boxer in any division could have beaten Dawson.”

Dawson had his final fights in the Land Down Under, finishing his career with a record of 103-14-4 while answering the bell for 962 rounds. Following what became his final fight, he had an eye operation in Sydney that was reportedly so intricate that it required a two-week hospital stay. He injured the eye again in Manila while sparring in preparation for a match with the welterweight champion of the Philippines, a match that had to be aborted because of the injury. Dawson then disappeared, by which we mean that he disappeared from the pages of the newspaper archives that allow us to construct these kinds of stories.

What about Freddie Dawson the man? A 1944 story about him said he was an outstanding all-around athlete, “a champion in all athletic undertakings – basketball, baseball, track and even jitterbugging.” A story in a Sydney paper as he was preparing to meet Vic Patrick informs us that he had two young children, ages 2 and 1, owned his own home in Chicago, and drove a two-year-old Cadillac. But beyond these flimsy snippets, Dawson the man remains elusive.

What we learned, however, is that he was one of the most underrated boxers to come down the pike in any era, a borderline Hall of Famer who ought not have fallen through the cracks. Inside the ring, this guy was one tough hombre.

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Ringside at the Fontainebleau where Mikaela Mayer Won her Rematch with Sandy Ryan

Published

5 days ago

March 30, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Ringside-at-the-Fontainebleau-where-Mikaela-Mayer-won-her-Rematch-with-Sandy-Ryan

LAS VEGAS, NV — The first meeting between Mikaela Mayer and Sandy Ryan last September at Madison Square Garden was punctuated with drama before the first punch was thrown. When the smoke cleared, Mayer had become a world-title-holder in a second weight class, taking away Ryan’s WBO welterweight belt via a majority decision in a fan-friendly fight.

The rematch tonight at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas was another fan-friendly fight. There were furious exchanges in several rounds and the crowd awarded both gladiators a standing ovation at the finish.

Mayer dominated the first half of the fight and held on to win by a unanimous decision. But Sandy Ryan came on strong beginning in round seven, and although Mayer was the deserving winner, the scores favoring her (98-92 and 97-93 twice) fail to reflect the competitiveness of the match-up. This is the best rivalry in women’s boxing aside from Taylor-Serrano.

Mayer, 34, improved to 21-2 (5). Up next, she hopes, in a unification fight with Lauren Price who outclassed Natasha Jonas earlier this month and currently holds the other meaningful pieces of the 147-pound puzzle. Sandy Ryan, 31, the pride of Derby, England, falls to 7-3-1.

Co-Feature

In his first defense of his WBO world welterweight title (acquired with a brutal knockout of Giovani Santillan after the title was vacated by Terence Crawford), Atlanta’s Brian Norman Jr knocked out Puerto Rico’s Derrieck Cuevas in the third round. A three-punch combination climaxed by a short left hook sent Cuevas staggering into a corner post. He got to his feet before referee Thomas Taylor started the count, but Taylor looked in Cuevas’s eyes and didn’t like what he saw and brought the bout to a halt.

The stoppage, which struck some as premature, came with one second remaining in the third stanza.

A second-generation prizefighter (his father was a fringe contender at super middleweight), the 24-year-old Norman (27-0, 21 KOs) is currently boxing’s youngest male title-holder. It was only the second pro loss for Cuevas (27-2-1) whose lone previous defeat had come early in his career in a 6-rounder he lost by split decision.

Other Bouts

In a career-best performance, 27-year-old Brooklyn featherweight Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington (15-0, 9 KOs) blasted out Jose Enrique Vivas (23-4) in the third round.

Carrington, who was named the Most Outstanding Boxer at the 2019 U.S. Olympic Trials despite being the lowest-seeded boxer in his weight class, decked Vivas with a right-left combination near the end of the second round. Vivas barely survived the round and was on a short leash when the third stanza began. After 53 seconds of round three, referee Raul Caiz Jr had seen enough and waived it off. Vivas hadn’t previously been stopped.

Cleveland welterweight Tiger Johnson, a Tokyo Olympian, scored a fifth-round stoppage over San Antonio’s Kendo Castaneda. Johnson assumed control in the fourth round and sent Castaneda to his knees twice with body punches in the next frame. The second knockdown terminated the match. The official time was 2:00 of round five.

Johnson advanced to 15-0 (7 KOs). Castenada declined to 21-9.

Las Vegas junior welterweight Emiliano Vargas (13-0, 11 KOs) blasted out Stockton, California’s Giovanni Gonzalez in the second round. Vargas brought the bout to a sudden conclusion with a sweeping left hook that knocked Gonzalez out cold. The end came at the 2:00 minute mark of round two.

Gonzalez brought a 20-7-2 record which was misleading as 18 of his fights were in Tijuana where fights are frequently prearranged. However, he wasn’t afraid to trade with Vargas and paid the price.

Emiliano Vargas, with his matinee idol good looks and his boxing pedigree – he is the son of former U.S. Olympian and two-weight world title-holder “Ferocious” Fernando Vargas – is highly marketable and has the potential to be a cross-over star.

Eighteen-year-old Newark bantamweight Emmanuel “Manny” Chance, one of Top Rank’s newest signees, won his pro debut with a four-round decision over So Cal’s Miguel Guzman. Chance won all four rounds on all three cards, but this was no runaway. He left a lot of room for improvement.

There was a long intermission before the co-main and again before the main event, but the tedium was assuaged by a moving video tribute to George Foreman.

Photos credit: Al Applerose

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William Zepeda Edges Past Tevin Farmer in Cancun; Improves to 34-0

Published

5 days ago

March 29, 2025

David A. Avila

William Zepeda Edges Past Tevin Farmer in Cancun; Improves to 34-0

No surprise, once again William Zepeda eked out a win over the clever and resilient Tevin Farmer to remain undefeated and retain a regional lightweight title on Saturday.

There were no knockdowns in this rematch.

The Mexican punching machine Zepeda (33-0, 17 KOs) once more sought to overwhelm Farmer (33-8-1, 9 KOs) with a deluge of blows. This rematch by Golden Boy Promotions took place in the famous beach resort area of Cancun, Mexico.

It was a mere four months ago that both first clashed in Saudi Arabia with their vastly difference styles. This time the tropical setting served as the background which suited Zepeda and his lawnmower assaults. The Mexican fans were pleased.

Nothing changed in their second meeting.

Zepeda revved up the body assault and Farmer moved around casually to his right while fending off the Mexican fighter’s attacks. By the fourth round Zepeda was able to cut off Farmer’s escape routes and targeted the body with punishing shots.

The blows came in bunches.

In the fifth round Zepeda blasted away at Farmer who looked frantic for an escape. The body assault continued with the Mexican fighter pouring it on and Farmer seeming to look ready to quit. When the round ended, he waved off his corner’s appeals to stop.

Zepeda continued to dominate the next few rounds and then Farmer began rallying. At first, he cleverly smothered Zepeda’s body attacks and then began moving and hitting sporadically. It forced the Mexican fighter to pause and figure out the strategy.

Farmer, a Philadelphia fighter, showed resiliency especially when it was revealed he had suffered a hand injury.

During the last three rounds Farmer dug down deep and found ways to score and not get hit. It was Boxing 101 and the Philly fighter made it work.

But too many rounds had been put in the bank by Zepeda. Despite the late rally by Farmer one judge saw it 114-114, but two others scored it 116-112 and 115-113 for Zepeda who retains his interim lightweight title and place at the top of the WBC rankings.

“I knew he was a difficult fighter. This time he was even more difficult,” said Zepeda.

Farmer was downtrodden about another loss but realistic about the outcome and starting slow.

“But I dominated the last rounds,” said Farmer.

Zepeda shrugged at the similar outcome as their first encounter.

“I’m glad we both put on a great show,” said Zepeda.

Female Flyweight Battle

Costa Rica’s Yokasta Valle edged past Texas fighter Marlen Esparza to win their showdown at flyweight by split decision after 10 rounds.

Valle moved up two weight divisions to meet Esparza who was slightly above the weight limit. Both showed off their contrasting styles and world class talent.

Esparza, a former unified flyweight world titlist, stayed in the pocket and was largely successful with well-placed jabs and left hooks. She repeatedly caught Valle in-between her flurries.

The current minimumweight world titlist changed tactics and found more success in the second half of the fight. She forced Esparza to make the first moves and that forced changes that benefited her style.

Neither fighter could take over the fight.

After 10 rounds one judge saw Esparza the winner 96-94, but two others saw Valle the winner 97-93 twice.

Will Valle move up and challenge the current undisputed flyweight world champion Gabriela Fundora? That’s the question.

Valle currently holds the WBC minimumweight world title.

Puerto Rico vs Mexico

Oscar Collazo (12-0, 9 KOs), the WBO, WBA minimumweight titlist, knocked out Mexico’s Edwin Cano (13-3-1, 4 KOs) with a flurry of body shots at 1:12 of the fifth round.

Collazo dominated with a relentless body attack the Mexican fighter could not defend. It was the Puerto Rican fighter’s fifth consecutive title defense.

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