HOW HE DID IT: More Mastery From All-Time Great Bernard Hopkins

Published

12 years ago

March 11, 2013

Lee Wylie

Bernard Hopkins proved yet again that age is just a number by becoming the oldest world champion in history for a second time after beating Tavoris Cloud in Brooklyn on Saturday night.

Although he fell a little short of matching the same level of virtuosity shown in the Felix Trinidad, Antonio Tarver and Kelly Pavlik fights (he’s getting on a bit now after all), this was still a staggering display by Hopkins. Indeed, in spite of his opponent’s technical shortcomings, many of which were exposed throughout the fight, some thought Cloud –once considered a viable opponent for pound for pound contender Andre Ward—would be throwing too many punches and applying too much pressure for the old-timer to deal with.

Hopkins’ win over Cloud shouldn’t really have come as too much of a shock for anyone, for this is not the first time Bernard Hopkins has proved the naysayers wrong. With a perspicacity that may be unrivalled in the modern era, Hopkins has built a legacy based on the mastering of fancied younger fighters with perfect or near perfect records.

Here, I’d like to highlight what Hopkins did that allowed him to subdue and control an opponent 17 years his junior.

Footwork

It’s been said here before that the fighter who can dictate his opponent’s footwork using his own footwork will usually control the fight. It was clear from the opening bell that this was Bernard Hopkins’ strategy. Because Cloud tends to load up on his punches, he’s either uncomfortable in doing so or is unable to let his hands go unless his feet are well underneath him and planted. Conversely, because Hopkins never looks to load up with anything big, he can let his hands go freely without having to set himself first. By employing lateral movement and never allowing his opponent to set himself, Hopkins was able to minimize Cloud’s offensive capabilities while maximizing his own in the process.

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Notice how Hopkins’ lateral movement forces Cloud to reposition himself or risk conceding an angle.

Bernard Hopkins is notorious for his relatively low punch output. However, if he’s faced with an opponent who struggles to cut the ring off and comes forward in a straight line, his movement causes them to constantly think about his location instead of punching.

Needless to say, movement alone doesn’t win fights. Therefore, with Cloud’s punch output reduced, Hopkins had to take advantage by producing enough offense of his own to please the judges.

Feints

In response to following him around the ring, Hopkins would provoke a reaction out of Cloud with a shoulder feint, before redirecting his movement back the other way. Almost contradictory, a feint on an aggressive fighter tends to have the opposite effect as it does on a defensive based or counterpunching fighter. Where a feint will usually draw a counter from a defensive fighter or counterpuncher making them more aggressive, a feint will usually slow down the pace of an aggressive fighter, making them more hesitant. By the mid-way point in the fight, Cloud had become over sensitive to Hopkins’ shoulder twitches and feints. As a result, any time Hopkins stopped moving long enough for Cloud to get close to him, Hopkins would feint him out of a defensive position, before nailing him with a lead left hook to the head or the body, a counter right cross, or a slight variation on his usual jab.

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Notice how Hopkins sudden level change/feint pulls Cloud’s lead arm away from his guard, leaving an opening for a right cross.

Something I noticed while watching the fight was how Hopkins didn’t really bother throwing his signature right hand lead much. There were a few occasions nearing the end of the fight when he caught Cloud coming in with it, but apart from that, it certainly didn’t feature as prominently as it has in the past. This, I believe, was due to the fact that Hopkins rarely looked to clinch or tie up his man. Hopkins often uses his sneaky right hand lead as a way of getting himself inside where he can tie his opponent up. Because Hopkins’ main strategy was to keep Cloud from getting set, using footwork to turn his man and keep the fight primarily on the outside, Hopkins wasn’t too concerned with getting tying Cloud up via his right hand lead.

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Here’s Hopkins getting inside on Joe Calzaghe using his right hand lead. This has been one of Hopkins’ primary tactics for gaining entry over the years.

The Jab

In the right hand lead’s place, Hopkins introduced a slight variation of his usual jab. The jab is boxing’s most versatile punch. Here, rather than use it to set up other punches or as a probe to gain intelligence, Hopkins used a lunging jab to disrupt Cloud’s forward momentum and to prevent him from getting to the inside.

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Here is Hopkins executing a lunging jab at various stages during the fight. Notice how Hopkins’ head is taken away from the centerline. The majority of fighters will aim their counters toward an opponent’s head. By slipping to the right as he’s stepping forward with his jab, Hopkins is taking a pre-emptive measure against a potential jab or counter from Cloud.

Counterpunching

Whenever the action took place at close quarters (Cloud’s best chance of winning the fight) Hopkins managed to get the better by way of his superior counterpunching ability. One of the things that I noticed during the fight was how much Cloud telegraphs his punches, particularly his wide swings in close. On the few occasions when Cloud found himself in a more advantageous position, Hopkins managed to neutralize much of what Cloud was throwing by threading shorter, crisper blows inside of Cloud’s wide swings.

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Here’s Cloud trying to work inside with wide hooks. Hopkins, the superior craftsman in close, thwarts them easily by rolling and countering with shorter hooks and uppercuts.

Part of what makes Hopkins a truly special fighter is his ability to draw leads from his opponents by offering them false targets, creating specific openings for specific punches. Although Hopkins’ reflexes and reaction time are excellent for a 48 year-old fighter, they are greatly enhanced by the fact that he knows what punches his opponents are likely to throw in certain situations.

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Here is Hopkins in the aptly named Philly shell/half guard defense. As is often the case with when an orthodox fighter is confronted with this defense, Cloud attempts to land a right hand toward the seemingly unguarded area of Hopkins (left side). Although its main purpose is for defending, the half guard defense is great for drawing right leads. Here, Hopkins knows what punch is likely to be thrown and as a result, rolls with the blow and lands a right hand counter. What seems like split second reflex timing is really down to probability.

Here’s another example.

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Notice how low Hopkins is carrying his gloves in the first still. This is no coincidence. Hopkins’ low gloves (particularly his rear) are designed to draw a left lead from an opponent. Sure enough, Cloud obliges and Hopkins slips to the outside of the jab and counters with a right cross.

Although the official decision was that the cut above Cloud’s eye was caused by an accidental clash of heads, in reality, it stemmed from a short left hook and from Hopkins’s ability to draw a lead and counter.

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Here, as Cloud leads with a jab, Hopkins slips to the outside of the blow and comes back with a short left hand after missing with his initial right hand counter.

Defense

Although he’s starting to get hit more often these days, Hopkins’ defense is still world class. It’s one of the reasons why he’s never been seriously hurt or rocked in the ring. Apart from solid fundamentals (correct balance, tucked chin, body angled slightly to the side etc.) Hopkins elusiveness in the ring can be attributed almost entirely on the pre-emptive measures he takes. Prior to a fight, it’s well documented that Hopkins leaves no stone unturned in scouting his opponents –how many times during the past have we seen a Bernard Hopkins opponent have their primary weapon taken away from them?

Although many (Andre Ward during the HBO telecast included) believed that Cloud’s best weapon was his right hand, I think his left hook looks like his most dangerous punch. After watching the fight, I think Bernard Hopkins felt the same way.

Although Hopkins was circling both left and right, he seemed to be moving more to his right (to Cloud’s left) during the fight. Although this may suggest that Hopkins was indeed trying to avoid Cloud’s right hand, moving toward a blow with the intention of crowding it (not allowing it to reach its maximum velocity or power) can also be a way of stuffing that particular blow. By circling toward Cloud’s left hand, Hopkins was able to square Cloud up. If Cloud were to throw his left hook after being made to turn to his left, Hopkins would see it coming due to the wide, highly telegraphed angle the blow would now be coming from.

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Here’s Hopkins moving to his right (Cloud’s left) with his non-working hand glued to the side of his head. As Cloud throws his left hook, Hopkins stuffs the blow, taking it on his right arm.

Here we see it again.

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As Hopkins is tending to his right, Cloud has to square himself up to throw his left hook (2nd still). This time, Hopkins is able to circle out and away from the blow. Notice how Hopkins has his non-working hand glued to the side of his head ready to block the left hook in the second still. This type of pre-emptive measure is one of the reasons why Hopkins has rarely been hit clean during his career.

All in all it was a masterful display from Hopkins. Although Cloud kept it competitive throughout, there can be no argument as to who the better fighter was (I scored it 117-111 for Hopkins). Using clever footwork, subtle shifts, broken rhythm (changing the tempo of his punches and movements) along with feints and short combination punching in close (a rarity in a Bernard Hopkins fight these days), Hopkins neutralized Cloud’s predictable linear attacks in what was possibly his cleanest, most aesthetically pleasing performance since the Kelly Pavlik fight. I found it ironic that Hopkins’ trainer, Nazim Richardson, referenced Joe Louis’ short punching during one of the rounds. As I was watching the fight, I thought Hopkins’ movement was eerily similar to that of Jersey Joe Walcott’s when he out boxed Joe Louis in their first fight but failed to get the decision.

We are literally running out of superlatives to describe Bernard Hopkins. For me, he’s not only the best fighter of his era, he is among the greatest fighters ever, period. This once in a lifetime phenomenon won’t be around too much longer, so let’s just savor the moment and enjoy him while he’s still around.

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Lee Wylie

Avila Perspective, Chap. 299: Golden Boy in Saudi Arabia and More

Published

13 hours ago

October 3, 2024

David A. Avila

Avila Perspective, Chap. 299: Golden Boy in Saudi Arabia and More

A small brigade of Mexican and Latino-American fighters gathered at the beautiful Mayan Theater in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday.

Their mission: to export Mexican style fighting to the Saudi Arabia desert.

Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez defends the WBA cruiserweight title against WBO cruiserweight titlist Chris Billam-Smith and they will be joined by several other top Golden Boy Promotion fighters on Nov. 16 at the Venue in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

DAZN will stream the Golden Boy and BOXXER promotions card called “The Venue Riyadh Season.”

Mexican fighters are known worldwide for their ferocity and durability. Ramirez, a former super middleweight champion, surprised many with his convincing win over former champion Arsen Goulamirian last March.

Now Ramirez seeks to unify the cruiserweight titles against United Kingdom’s Smith who has never fought outside of his native country.

“I will become the first Mexican cruiserweight unified champion. It’s exciting because my dream will come true this November 16,” said Ramirez.

Smith has a similar goal.

“This opportunity for me is huge,” said Smith. “I’ve been written off many times before.”

The cruiserweights will be joined by two top super lightweight warriors who’ve been itching to face each other like a pair of fighting roosters.

Arnold Barboza, an undefeated super lightweight contender from Los Angeles, has been chasing top contenders and world champions for the past six years. Former super lightweight champion Jose Ramirez simply wants action and a return to elite status.

“I’ve been wanting this fight since 2019 for whatever reason it never happened,” said Barboza. “I want to give credit and thanks to Oscar, he’s a man of his word. When I signed to Golden Boy, he said he was going to give me this fight.”

“It’s honorable Barboza saying he’s been chasing the fight since 2019. Now that he stands in the way for me to reclaim my titles it’s time to get that fight on,” said Ramirez.

Others on the Riyadh fight card include Puerto Rico’s WBO minimumweight world titlist Oscar Collazo defending against Thailand’s Thammanoon Niyomtrong, along with Oscar Duarte and lightweight contenders William Zepeda and Tevin Farmer.

One fighter missing from the card is Charles Conwell, the super welterweight contender they recently signed earlier in the year. He last performed on the Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Serhii Bohachuk clash in Las Vegas.

Conwell has similar talent to those two.

And what about the women fighters”

Yokasta Valle recently re-signed with Golden Boy Promotions. What is her next scheduled fight? She was spotted facing up against Australia’s Lulu “Bang, Bang” Hawton at a fight card. Is that on the horizon?

West Coast venues

Speaking of the Mayan Theater in downtown Los Angeles, its just a few buildings north of the Belasco Theater where Golden Boy was staging its club shows for several years.

A majority of the boxing media favored that location for its cozy atmosphere and proximity to LA Live. A number of prospects that developed into contenders and world champions fought there including Vergil Ortiz Jr., Ryan Garcia, Joshua Franco, and Oscar Duarte.

On any given fight night celebrities like Mario Lopez, George Lopez and others would show up in the small venue that held several hundred fans in its ornate theater setting.

The Mayan Theater and Belasco Theater are still open for business. According to one source, LA Laker owner Jeannie Buss stages a pro wrestling show at one of those theaters.

World title fight

England’s Nick Ball (20-0-1, 11 KOs) defends the WBA featherweight world title against Southern California’s Ronny Rios (34-4, 17 KOs) on Saturday Oct. 5, at M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool, England. Starting time for the Queensberry and Top Rank promotion card is 11 a.m. PT.

Ball was last seen nearly toppling WBC featherweight titlist Rey Vargas but lost last March. He then defeated Ray Ford for the WBA title

Fights to Watch

Fri. ESPN+ 2 a.m. PT Janibek Alimkhanuly (15-0) vs Andrei Mikhailovich (21-0)

Sat. ESPN+ 11 a.m. PT Nick Ball (20-0-1) vs Ronny Rios (34-4)

Photo credit: Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy

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Boxing Odds and Ends: ‘Paint-Gate,’ the Haney-Garcia lawsuit and More

Published

2 days ago

October 2, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Boxing-Odds-and-Ends-Paint-Gate-the-Haney-Garcia-lawsuit-and-More

This reporter chanced upon Manny “Flick” Savoy yesterday afternoon at a boxing gym in Las Vegas. That afforded me an opportunity to get his take on “paint gate.”

In case you missed it, Sandy Ryan was splashed with red paint on Friday as she left her hotel for Madison Square Garden where she would be defending her WBO world welterweight title against Mikaela Mayer. Manny Savoy was roughly 10 feet away from her when the incident happened. It happened so fast and was so unexpected that Savoy – who would be Ryan’s chief voice in her corner — never got a good look at the perpetrator who was wearing a hoodie.

A security camera captured the attack and Savoy keeps the little video on his cell phone. In the video that Savoy shared with me, one can see a late-model vehicle pull up and double-park. The man with the hoodie emerges from the passenger side holding a receptacle of some sort and then, moments later, rushes back without it and the car speeds off.

The paint-splashing was part of a multi-pronged assault. Sandy Ryan was defamed in leaflets that appeared around her hotel and near Madison Garden. The leaflets had Ryan’s image and the text, among other things, called her a whore. (We were shown a screenshot of one of the leaflets tacked to a pole, but it was not a close-up and we were only able to make out a few words.)

Who would do such a thing and why? Let’s rule out the possibility that the assault was random; that’s too far-fetched. Someone had to have been tipped-off when Sandy Ryan would emerge from her hotel. The defamatory leaflets, coupled with the paint attack and threatening messages from anonymous callers that Ryan says were left on her phone, are compelling evidence that this was a premeditated and well-thought-out scheme of attack.

Sandy Ryan and Mikaela Mayer were well-acquainted. They had known each other since their amateur days. Mikaela had sparred with Sandy in preparation for the 2016 Olympics. But what had been a warm relationship soured when Ryan hooked up with Mikaela’s coach Kay Koroma in Las Vegas at the same gym where Mayer regularly trained. Mikaela didn’t think that was kosher and eventually ditched Koroma in favor of Kofi Jantuah, a sundering that left hard feelings on both sides.

Ryan is firm in her belief that Mayer’s team was behind the attack. “What else could it be?” she says. Manny Savoy won’t go that far, but notes that Ryan, a British citizen with a home in Portugal, never spent enough time in New York to make any enemies there. Her fight with Mayer was her second fight in the U.S. and her first fight in the Big Apple.

Mikaela Mayer’s manager George Ruiz was quick to respond to Sandy Ryan’s veiled accusation: “Let me be clear. No one associated with Team Mayer had anything to do with the paint assault on you or the leaflets and the alleged anonymous threatening messages you say you received….Mikaela and Team Mayer want the perpetrator(s) found, caught, and punished to the full extent of the law.”

(The view from here is that while it seems logical that someone associated with Mayer orchestrated the attack, we would be shocked if Mikaela had any foreknowledge of it. The lady has far too much common-sense to get involved in a scheme that could ruin her boxing career and her promising post-boxing career as a TV boxing pundit.)

The presumed intent was to psychologically unsettle Sandy Ryan to where she couldn’t bring her A-game. (Sandy was a short favorite and the odds wavered only slightly, diluting the theory that the assault was orchestrated as part of a betting coup.)

As for the fight itself, it was outstanding. If Ryan was rattled, she didn’t show it although she came out on the short end of a majority decision, a decision that was somewhat controversial. (ESPN’s Mark Kriegel had Ryan winning six rounds to four.)

Ryan’s promoter Eddie Hearn has called on the WBO to mandate a rematch. “[Sandy] had to go back to her room, take all her clothes off, take all the paint off her body. [She had to be] emotionally shocked to pieces and yet she gave an incredible performance. The WBO, if they have any compassion, must order an immediate rematch.”

The rematch, if it happens, won’t be in New York. Advised to leave the city for her own safety, Sandy Ryan got out of town in a hurry.

—

In an article published here on June 23, Thomas Hauser wrote about the possible ramifications to Ryan Garcia’s failed PED test beyond the sanctions imposed upon him by the New York State Athletic Commission. Garcia’s victory over previously undefeated Devin Haney at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on April 30, 2024, was a changed to a no-contest when ostarine, a banned substance, was discovered in Garcia’s urine samples.

Hauser speculated that Team Haney might file a lawsuit against Garcia. By using a performance-enhancing substance, Garcia denied Devin a level playing field, yielding a result that adversely affected Devin’s future earnings, or so it would be argued.

Team Haney was paying attention. Six days ago, on Sept. 27, they filed a lawsuit in New York seeking compensation for “battery, fraud, and breach of contract.”

If successful, the lawsuit, which has polarized the boxing community, may benefit the sport. “Win, lose, or draw in court, I think this is actually a good thing to deter fighters from using performance enhancing drugs because the [current] penalty is not strict enough,” said Eddie Hearn in a conversation with Boxing Social.

—

This is a boxing site, but kindly indulge me as I go off-topic and say a few words about Pete Rose who passed away at his home in Las Vegas on Monday, one day after appearing with several of his former Cincinnati Reds teammates at a sports memorabilia show in Nashville.

I never felt sorry for Pete because he was an a-hole. Ask some of the veteran blackjack dealers here in Las Vegas and you will be hard-pressed to find one who has a nice word to say about him. However, whether his lifetime ban from baseball should have been lifted so that he could go into the Hall of Fame while he was still alive…well, that’s a horse of a different color.

Pete Rose was baseball’s all-time hit king, but forget the stats; he transcended the sport.

News of Pete’s death transported me back more than three decades to a conversation I had with my young son who hadn’t yet started kindergarten. He had become a fan of the Atlanta Braves, one of two teams (the other was the Cubs) whose home and away games were nationally televised.

One day, when he was watching baseball and I was in the next room, he came in and said, “dad, so-and-so [the player’s name eludes me] just did a Charlie Hustle.”

I have no idea where he got that from and he likely wouldn’t have recognized Pete Rose if he had bumped into him on the street – Pete had been out of baseball for some time – but I knew exactly what he was talking about. He had just witnessed a player on the Braves beat out an infield hit or maybe a bunt by sliding head-first into first base.

A friend e-mailed me yesterday from North Carolina and said, “From my view, the Hall is diminished by not having him in there rather than the other way around.”

I share that sentiment. If you disagree, we can still be friends.

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Alycia Baumgardner is Legit, but her Title Defense vs Persoon was a Weird Artifice

Published

3 days ago

September 30, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Alycia-Baumgardner-os-Legit-but-her-Title-Defense-vs-Persoon-was-a-Weird-Artifice

Women’s fights were bursting out all over this past weekend. The bout that warranted the most attention, one could argue, was the match between Alycia Baumgardner and Delfine Persoon. That’s because it had the most world titles at stake; Baumgardner was recognized as the world super featherweight champion by all four major sanctioning bodies. But this fight got lost in the shuffle because two other female title fights were packaged on larger platforms. On Friday at Madison Square Garden, airing on ESPN, Mikaela Mayer captured the WBO welterweight title from Sandy Ryan. On Saturday in Sheffield, England, airing on Sky Sports in the UK and globally on DAZN, Terri Harper wrested the WBO lightweight title from Rhiannon Dixon.

Baumgardner vs. Persoon, the capstone of an all-female, nine-bout card, was staged before an invitation-only audience at a film and TV production studio situated near Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. The card, all nine bouts, was livestreamed on BrinX.TV, a fledging, sports-oriented streaming platform. We made it a point to check it out, less because we were smitten by the card than because we had heard of BrinX.TV and we didn’t quite understand it.

Baumgardner kept her hardware in a bout that ended inconclusively (more about that later). As for BrinX.TV which bills itself as the next generation of sports and entertainment (company motto: ‘The Kingdom of Awesomeness”), we still don’t quite understand it.

Here’s what we know: BrinX.TV is into niche sports. Examples include freestyle trampolining, downhill skateboarding, powerboat racing, and jai alai. “The more unique the sport, the more passionate its fans,” says BrinX.TV co-founder and spokesperson John Brenkus.

Where it gets weird is that viewers have a chance to compete for cash prizes while watching a competition. However, to have skin in the game, one apparently has to purchase something. There’s a shopping channel component in the BrinX.TV business model.

The chief sponsor of the all-female boxing card was Ninja Pirates Misfits which appears to be a clothing brand with no relation to the 2012 animated film, “The Pirates! Brand of Misfits.” It must be a brand-new brand because the only item offered for sale during the boxing card was a $45 tee shirt. We might be wrong, but we were left with the impression that the player that won the most money finagled his way to the top of the leaderboard by buying the most tee shirts.

One doesn’t merely make a fashion statement by purchasing a Ninja Pirates Misfits tee shirt. A portion of the receipts, we were told, would go to increasing the prize pool for the boxers while, in a wider context, “elevating women in sports.”

The card moved at a brisk pace through the first five fights. It slowed to a crawl when John Brenkhus addressed the audience from the center of the ring. “The energy here is amazing,” said Brinkhus to the largely subdued crowd of perhaps 200 people, some of whom were dressed in formal attire. Later in the show, he brought Laila Ali and then former NFL player Dez Bryant into the ring and gushed over them while they reciprocated by congratulating him for “making history.”

Brenkus intentionally created the impression that this was the first all-female card in the annals of boxing. It was no such thing.

Not quite two years ago, there was an all-female show at London’s O2 Arena, a Matchroom promotion topped by two compelling title fights, Claressa Shields vs Savannah Marshall and Mikaela Mayer vs Alycia Baumgardner, with former Olympians Lauren Price, Caroline Dubois, Karriss Artingstall and Ginny Fuchs showcased in four of the nine supporting bouts.

Moreover, a quick google search reveals that the O2 event wasn’t the first of its kind. On July 13, 1979, there was an all-female card at the LA Sports Center. A very good bantamweight, Graciela Casillas, made her pro debut on the undercard which also included a fight for Mirian “Lady Tyger” Trimiar who would be named to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2020 along with her cohort, the fraudulent Jackie Tonawanda.

Baumgardner vs. Persoon: The Fight

Alycia Baumgardner, 15-1 with 7 KOs heading in, was a unified champion. In her most recent bout, in July of last year, she avenged her lone defeat with a lopsided decision over Christina Linardatou.

Delfine Persoon, who brought a 49-3 (19) record, will be the first fighter from Belgium to go into the Hall of Fame, of that we are quite certain. Two of her three losses came at the hands of Irish superstar Katie Taylor and the first of those losses, underneath Joshua-Ruiz I at Madison Square Garden, was a barnburner that could have gone either way. There were scattered boos when Taylor was announced the winner by majority decision, notwithstanding the fact that the crowd was teeming with Brits.

But Persoon wasn’t the same fighter against Alycia Baumgardner that she had been back in the day when she touched gloves with Katie Taylor. She was now 39 years old (Baumgardner is 30) and entered the ring wearing a large brace over her right knee, an apparatus that compromised her mobility.

In the first round, Alycia knocked Persoon off-balance with a left-right combination. It was ruled a knockdown when both of Persoon’s gloves brushed the canvas.

In round four, with Baumgardner up by 4 points on all three cards through the three completed rounds, a clash of heads left the Belgian with a nasty gash above her right eye and referee Laurence Cole, on the advice of the ring doctor, stopped the fight. By rule, the bout had to go four full rounds to go to the scorecards. It fell 23 seconds short and was ruled a “no-contest.” Ergo, Baumgardner retained her titles.

Afterthoughts

Of the 18 ladies on the BrinX.TV card, eight were making their pro debut and several of these novices were already in their 30s. But, while they were new to boxing, they were not new to combat sports.

In the new world order, there’s a lot of crossover, especially at the club fight level. Boxrec, the sport’s indispensable record keeper, now carries BK (bare knuckle) and TCL (Team Combat League) results. Add MMA to the mix and there are now four pieces to the combat sports pie, five if one counts kickboxing as a separate entity. And while many women boxers in the past had a kickboxing background, nowadays there is more fluidity across multiple disciplines (a major headache for state boxing commissions).

Of the undercard fighters, we were most impressed by super bantamweight Isabel Vasquez, a 21-year-old Floridian, and junior welterweight Stephanie Simon, a 30-year-old former Marine and former U.S. national amateur champion. Both would appear to have bright futures at the professional level.

A final note: We would be remiss if we failed to note that BrinX.TV is free and that one doesn’t have to jump through hoops to summon it up. Hooray for that. And for the record, this reporter didn’t buy any Ninja Pirates Misfits tee shirts; we already had plenty in the closet (just kidding).

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