THE BLOODY TRUTH: Blood in Boxing and MMA

Published

12 years ago

May 30, 2013

I became a fan of mixed martial arts, or, as it was known then, extreme fighting, back in 1996. I watched about six hours worth of the best of the Ultimate Fighting Championship on New Year’s Eve 1996 into 1997.

The sight of the blood you saw in some of the matches didn’t bother me, or affect me enough to keep me from staying a fan. No surprise, I guess, considering I’d been a boxing fan since I saw the first “Rocky” movie, in a theater, in late 1976 or early 1977. The sight of the gore onscreen when Rock implored Mick to use a blade to cut his right eyelid, to let out fluid and reduce swelling, enabling him to see, struck me, made my seven year old self squirm squeamishly..but didn’t put me off the sweet science.

The sight of blood in MMA touched me, struck me, more than it had previously, however, when I was watching some UFC PPV pre-lim action on Saturday night. Not even sure what match it was on FX, but I had a hard time taking my eyes off the stains on the floor of the Octagon.

As the fighters were circling, assessing, looking for an open striking or takedown lane, I was focused on the crimson puddles on the floor, which was soaked in. I wasn’t sure if it was from the previous fight, or the one before that, but that visual pinballed around in my brain.

It got me thinking, if this sight grabs me, someone who has been a boxing fan since the late 70s, and a fan of MMA for more than 15 years, I wonder how it strikes a newbie?

How often, I pondered, does a sports fan willing to give MMA a chance start to watch a match, and find themselves not attaching to the spectacle because they can’t get past the blood?

I recalled, as I watched, and my mind drifted, that a friend of mine, a colleague at ESPN Magazine, who’d been a boxing fan since the mid 60s, told me he gave MMA a try, but wasn’t into it. A huge part of that, he said, was that he found it “too brutal.” One fight he saw had two men bleeding badly, and they were covered in each others’ blood, and were then grappling each other, and he found the whole sight a turnoff. He also couldn’t wrap his mind around the sight of one man sitting on the others’ chest, and dropping sharp elbows down on the face of the eventual loser.

During the prelims, I also found myself wondering why the heck some removable flooring hasn’t been invented yet. Is there a reason or reasons why the top layers of the Octagon floor can’t be switched out, lickety split, after a particularly liquid-y event? Would that be too time consuming? Or is that an architectural impossibility? I’m guessing that what would be gained in appearance of cleanliness and hygiene and visual flow might be diminished in pure safety terms, because if layers of floor were removed, UFC might not be able to know beyond a shadow of doubt that the newly elevated layers were locked in, solid, and immovable.

I took to social media to process some of these thoughts and ideas and got into a spirited debate with a follower. This person didn’t at all accept much of my theorizing. He didn’t accept my loose conclusion that it stood to reason that if a seasoned fight fan like me were struck by the blood on the floor then a few or maybe more than a few potential fans were probably struck to the extent that they were lost as faithful consumers of the product.

My friend, admittedly, got off to an iffy start in our back-and-forth when he answered, “None,” after I posited that perhaps UFC loses some potential fans when they tune in for the very first time and see the buckets of blood.

“None?” Not a single, solitary one?

We engaged in debate from there. Our man said he thinks that if the sight of blood turns them off, they were “never potential fans. Just sissies who use it as an out.”

OK, I admit, the use of the absolutes “none” and “never” push my buttons. I know, social media isn’t the place for nuance, but I offer that it need not be a rarity. I reacted to my friend with a measure of “spillage emotion,” I think, latching on to him as a symbolic flag-holder for an entire movement, where a definitive declaration–not backed perhaps by anything more than a gut instinct, an inkling– has come to be viewed as fact, as Gospel.

Like when one of my relatives told me that he views the President through this lens: he told me in 2010 that he thinks that if re-elected, the President would seek to confiscate firearms held by private citizens. He pictured a door-to-door confiscation project, throughout the nation. He didn’t offer “proof” beyond his gut, and wouldn’t engage in a discussion about the feasibility of the confiscation project. I shook my head then, and now, at the slide towards a decrease in intellectual rigor, and the easy embrace of “shouter” media, opinion presented as fact, angry op eds now substituting as “news.”

Yep, the guy pushed my buttons. He really didn’t “deserve” my leap from 0 to 60 on the scorn-o-meter, though, as I reserve that for the ninnies who scream about Benghazi-gate without the self awareness to admit that if the circumstances of Benghazi trouble you, then you should be equally or more touched by the buildup to the Iraq War, and the fact that perhaps hundreds of thousands of human beings were killed stemming from that course of action.

My debate partner said that if you are turned off by the sight of blood you are not a “real” fight fan. I found that contention to be arrogant and arbitrary. Who is anyone, frankly, to judge what a “real” fight fan is? I applaud someone and embrace their freedom to choose if they tell me they think boxing or MMA is too vicious for them, I don’t dismiss them as a “sissy.”

My man then said that he thinks boxing “has been much bloodier than MMA.” I took issue with that, and drifted back to one UFC fight I watched a few years ago. I think it was on their “The Ultimate Fighter” show, and to my recollection, one fighter was cut, and blood was spilling out from his cut, onto the face of his foe, as he threw hammer fists down on the guy, who tried to turn his eyes so the blood wouldn’t go into his eyes. No, I admitted, I haven’t seen a study to prove which sport is bloodier.

My debate pal had to be grudgingly respected for his tenacity, if not the quality of his “evidence;” he said that there is “more” blood in boxing, “since the fights are longer.” I didn’t get into the fact that in championship UFC fights, a cut can open in the first seconds of a round, and flow for five minutes, as opposed to three in boxing, so that would leave me to believe that if we measured milliliters in a bloody boxing versus a blood MMA match, more blood would flow in the MMA bout. He said no study existed on which sport is bloodier, yet wouldn’t back off his assertion that boxing is bloodier. Absence of evidence be damned, my gut is all I need to inform me, he seemed to say.

I continued to object to the lack of rigorousness of the sifting of the information used to reach his conclusions, which were presented too much as unimpeachable fact, rather than opinion. I may have stepped over the line–sorry, bro–when I accused Mr X of intellectual arrogance, because time and again, he offered opinion based on nothing more than his perceptions. He didn’t widen the scope of inquiry beyond what his eyes and gut told him, in my view. And yes, I realize that I always have to battle this tendency myself, which is why I figured I should reach out to an expert.

Who, I wondered, is an expert on the subject of blood spilled in the ring AND the Octagon, who could bring some clarity to the debate.

How about “The Bangor Bleeder?”

How about Marcus Davis (pictured above), former pro boxer (1993-2000), who is currently a mixed martial artist? He just signed on with Bellator after fighting in UFC from 2006-2011. Davis has left his red blood cell on many a canvas, and is an engaging and willing interview subject.

I reached out to the fighter, who was kind enough to ponder the subject of blood in boxing and MMA. He weighed in on whether or not it is a deal-breaker turnoff to potential fans, and I hoped maybe he could help bring me and Mr. X further from personal theory based on perceptions to a viewpoint formed from life experience from one who has spent time in the arena, and whose words and views should be considered with extra respect, and gravity.

First off, to establish Davis’ cred: he told me that last Saturday marked the 101st time he’d needed to be sutured to close a cut from fighting. “I’m guessing I’ve had somewhere between six and eight hundred sutures done in my face over the course of my career,” the 39-year-old Maine native told me.

We got right to it, about which sports’ practitioners shed more blood.

“As far as milliliters go, I think there’s more in MMA,” he said. “I’m going to say for every pint of blood lost in boxing, there’s two to three in MMA.”

He agreed with me that the use of the elbow as a weapon in MMA probably opens up more cuts, and more deep gashes, than a boxing-gloved fist is typically able to activate. But, Davis said, to this point, the worst damage he’s suffered as a fighter came from his participation in a boxing match. “Both my eyes were split open, you could see the bone in my skull, my cheekbone was shattered,” he said. “It was against Lyndon Walker (in 1995), he headbutted me like five times in the first round.”

So, does Davis think the blood is a big turnoff to new potential fans who look down and see the swatches of blood on the floor, or see two men covered in fluid grappling each other?

Davis said he thinks the presence of blood in MMA isn’t the main impediment to reaching new fans; rather, he said, he thinks that fight fans, many if not most, are pretty specific in their preferences. There certainly is overlap, but many boxing fans are simply not going to take to MMA, and will find elements they don’t care for. “They are not going to like it either way, so they will point out little things,” he said.

Most fight fans, he has found, seem to be educated and realize that blood is often part of the deal. They realize that there is no recorded evidence of HIV, for example, being contracted from fighter-to-fighter contact, Davis said. Good point: you might recall the fear and speculation that arose when Tommy Morrison said he wanted to fight even though he was diagnosed HIV positive.

The majority of watchers who would even consider getting deeper into MMA, Davis said, wouldn’t be likely to be repulsed by blood-strewn spectacles, because they’ve already parsed it out in their head, that a wide gash doesn’t mean one of the fighters will bleed to death. “It takes a person who is able to think outside of moment,” he said. Davis had said he doesn’t think there is a significant segment of people who might turn into MMA converts being turned off by the occasional gore. He gave a strong hint of his political leanings when he shared that he thinks prevailing “liberal” mentalities, and liberal leanings of the mass media and liberal politicians looking to score points are more likely to drive masses of people away from fighting. Fight fans, when not influenced by a liberal media push, are open to seeing blood, Davis said.

It’s not so much that a newbie will see a bloody MMA scrap and run in the other direction, Davis said, but that the potential exists for the press to settle on the sport as a target to eradicate. The press runs in cycles, he said. They hated Dana White, the UFC honcho, and now “everybody loves Dana.” The “liberal media,” he said, was seduced by the parade of celebs who gravitated to the Octagon, and that took the target off UFC’s back. “MMA is not the target right now, owning a gun is a target,” he said.

Davis has tried remedies to keep him from cutting, and no, not to keep his visage clear and keep potential fans from taking to MMA, but to keep himself in fights.
The fighter nicknamed “The Bangor Bleeder” before he switched to “The Irish Hand Grenade” used to lose time in training camps glueing his cuts closed. (I forgot to ask if he ever reached out to Super Glue as a possible sponsor.) So he had surgery, in 2008, to have the bone over his eyebrows filed down, so the skin wouldn’t be pulled as tight over that area, making it prone to split open. “That did stop the cutting,” he said. “I went for the longest I hadn’t been cut, for about two years.” But with scar tissue building up on itself, the efficacy of the treatment wore off, he said.

As for the idea of the peel-off canvas, Davis said he hasn’t heard of anyone working on that. Cost might be an issue, he said, and inventors would have to insure the stability would be the same as the current version. A stained canvas is a given, he said, when there are upwards of 12 or so fights on an average card. He fought on one card that had 31 fights on it, he said.

My takeaways: my social media debate partner helped me, as is usually the case in situations such as these, because he forced me think longer and harder about a subject matter, and try and track down some facts to help better inform us both. I am hoping he sees this piece, and is able to allow the possibility that he might be able to become a better critical thinker by searching out more facts and evidence and not relying as much on his own opinions, and, possibly, mistaking them for “facts.” I salute his effort at conciliation and applaud his invitation to sit down and smoke a stogie with him someday.

Also, I am not sure if because I haven’t been watching as much MMA in the last couple of years, for a few reasons, including the need to spend more time to properly cover boxing, in this 24-7 news cycle-world, and the unwillingness to spend pay-per-view monies on two sports during a recession, that my tastes and perceptions didn’t change. Did I become more sensitive to the sight of blood because I wasn’t seeing those large, dark puddles so often? Is that a case of habituation wearing off, did I regain some sensitivity to what (should be?) a stark image?

I am still a stubborn mutt. I do still maintain that the presence of blood, in a different context than we see in boxing, might dissuade more potential fans from MMA than boxing. Maybe not in the younger generations, Generation Saw, whose taste for gore have increased in the last 10 years or so. But I think in older fans, that sight of those extra pints spilled in the Octagon may indeed be a more-than-occasional deal-breaker to a real relation$hip with UFC.

Finally, if my removable Octagon floor idea lit a light bulb in an inventor out there, and you get to market with the new floor plan, would you kindly cut me in? Thanks!

Post Views: 1,928

Share The Sweet Science experience!

Michael Woods

Remembering Hall of Fame Boxing Trainer Kenny Adams

Published

18 hours ago

April 9, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Remembering-Hall--Fame-Boxing-Trainer-Kenny-Adams

The flags at the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, New York, are flying at half-staff in honor of boxing trainer Kenny Adams who passed away Monday (April 7) at age 84 at a hospice in Las Vegas. Adams was formally inducted into the Hall in June of last year but was too ill to attend the ceremony.

A native of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Adams was a retired Army master sergeant who was part of an elite squadron that conducted many harrowing missions behind enemy lines during the Vietnam War. A two-time All-Service boxing champion, his name became more generally known in 1984 when he served as the assistant coach of the U.S. Olympic boxing team that won 11 medals, eight gold, at the Los Angeles Summer Games. In 1988, he was the head coach of the squad that won eight medals, three gold, at the Olympiad in Seoul.

Adams’ work caught the eye of Top Rank honcho Bob Arum who induced Adams to move to Las Vegas and coach a team of fledgling pros that he had recently signed. Bantamweight Eddie Cook and junior featherweight Kennedy McKinney, Adams’ first two champions, bubbled out of that pod. Both represented the U.S. Army as amateurs. McKinney was an Olympic gold medalist. Adams would eventually play an instrumental role in the development of more than two dozen world title-holders including such notables as Diego Corrales, Edwin Valero, Freddie Norwood, and Terence Crawford.

When Eddie Cook won his title from Venezuela’s 36-1 Israel Contreras, it was a big upset. Adams, the subject of a 2023 profile in these pages, was subsequently on the winning side of two upsets of far greater magnitude. He prepared French journeyman Rene Jacquot for Jacquot’s date with Donald Curry on Feb. 11 1989 and prepared Vincent Phillips for his engagement with Kostya Tszyu on May 31, 1997.

Jacquot won a unanimous decision over Curry. Phillips stopped Tszyu in the 10^th frame. Both fights were named Upset of the Year by The Ring magazine.

Adams’ home-away-from-home in his final years as a boxing coach was the DLX boxing gym which opened in the summer of 2020 in a former dry cleaning establishment on the west-central side of the city. It was fortuitous to the gym’s owner Trudy Nevins that Adams happened to live a few short blocks away.

“He helped me get the place up and running,” notes Nevins who endowed a chair, as it were, in honor of her esteemed helpmate.

No one in the Las Vegas boxing community was closer to Kenny Adams than Brandon Woods. “He was a mentor to me in boxing and in life in general, a father figure,” says Woods, who currently trains Trevor McCumby and Rocky Hernandez, among others.

Akin to Adams, Woods is a Missourian. His connection to Adams comes through his amateur coach Frank Flores, a former teammate of Adams on an all-Service boxing team and an assistant under Adams with the 1988 U.S. Olympic squad.

Woods was working with Nonito Donaire when he learned that he had cancer (now in remission). He cajoled Kenny Adams out of retirement to assist with the training of the Las Vegas-based Filipino and they were subsequently in the corner of Woods’ fighter DeeJay Kriel when the South African challenged IBF 105-pound title-holder Carlos Licona at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Feb. 16, 2019.

This would be the last time they worked together in the corner and it proved to be a joyous occasion.

After 11 rounds, the heavily favored Licona, a local fighter trained by Robert Garcia, had a seemingly insurmountable lead. He was ahead by seven points on two of the scorecards. In the final round, Kriel knocked him down three times and won by TKO.

“I will always remember the pep talk that Kenny gave DeeJay before that final round,” says Woods. “He said ‘You mean to tell me that you came all the way from across the pond to get to this point and not win a title?’ but in language more colorful than that; I’m paraphrasing.”

“After the fight, Kenny said to me, ‘In all my years of training guys, I never saw that.’”

The fight attracted little attention before or after (it wasn’t the main event), but it would enter the history books. Boxing writer Eric Raskin, citing research by Steve Farhood, notes that there have been only 16 instances of a boxer winning a title fight by way of a last-round stoppage of a bout he was losing. The most famous example is the first fight between Julio Cesar Chavez and Meldrick Taylor. Kriel vs. Licona now appears on the same list.

Brandon Woods notes that the Veterans Administration moved Adams around quite a bit in his final months, shuffling him to hospitals in North Las Vegas, Kingman, Arizona, and then Boulder City (NV) before he was placed in a hospice.

When Woods visited Adams last week, Adams could not speak. “If you can hear me, I would say to him, please blink your eyes. He blinked.

“There are a couple of people in my life I thought would never leave us and Kenny is one,” said Woods with a lump in his throat.

Photo credit: Supreme Boxing

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 524

Share The Sweet Science experience!

Weekend Recap and More with the Accent of Heavyweights

Published

3 days ago

April 7, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Weekend-Recap-and-More-with-Accents-on-Heavyweights

There were a lot of heavyweights in action across the globe this past weekend including six former Olympians. The big fellows added luster to a docket that was deep but included only one world title fight.

The bout that attracted the most eyeballs was the 10-rounder in Manchester between Filip Hrgovic and Joe Joyce. Hrgovic took the match on three weeks’ notice when Dillian Whyte suffered a hand injury in training and was forced to pull out.

Dillian Whyte is rugged but Joe Joyce’s promoter Frank Warren did Joe no favors by rushing Filip Hrgovic into the breach. The Croatian was arguably more skilled than Whyte and had far fewer miles on his odometer. Joyce, who needed a win badly after losing three of his previous four, would find himself in an underdog role.

This was a rematch of sorts. They had fought 12 years ago in London when both were amateurs and Joyce won a split decision in a 5-round fight. Back then, Joyce was 27 years old and Hrgovic only 20. Advantage Joyce. Twelve years later, the age gap favored the Croatian.

In his first fight with California trainer Abel Sanchez in his corner, Hrgovic had more fuel in his tank as the match wended into the late rounds and earned a unanimous decision (98-92, 97-93, 96-95), advancing his record to 18-1 (14).

It wasn’t long ago that Joe Joyce was in tall cotton. He was undefeated (15-0, 14 KOs) after stopping Joseph Parker and his resume included a stoppage of the supposedly indestructible Daniel Dubois. But since those days, things have gone haywire for the “Juggernaut.” His loss this past Saturday to Hrgovic was his fourth in his last five starts. He battled Derek Chisora on nearly even terms after getting blasted out twice by Zhilei Zhang but his match with Chisora gave further evidence that his punching resistance had deteriorated.

Joe Joyce will be 40 years old in September. He should heed the calls for him to retire. “One thing about boxing, you get to a certain age and this stuff can catch up with you,” says Frank Warren. But in his post-fight press conference, Joyce indicated that he wasn’t done yet. If history is any guide, he will be fed a soft touch or two and then be a steppingstone for one of the sport’s young guns.

The newest member of the young guns fraternity of heavyweights is Delicious Orie (yes, “Delicious” is his real name) who made his pro debut on the Joyce-Hrgovic undercard. Born in Moscow, the son of a Nigerian father and a Russian mother, Orie, 27, earned a college degree in economics before bringing home the gold medal as a super heavyweight at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. He was bounced out of the Paris Olympics in the opening round, out-pointed by an Armenian that he had previously beaten.

Orie, who stands six-foot-six, has the physical dimensions of a modern-era heavyweight. His pro debut wasn’t memorable, but he won all four rounds over the Bosnian slug he was pitted against.

Las Vegas

The fight in Las Vegas between former Olympians Richard Torrez Jr and Guido Vianello was a true crossroads fight for Torrez who had an opportunity to cement his status as the best of the current crop of U.S.-born heavyweights (a mantle he inherited by default after aging Deontay Wilder was knocked out by Zhilei Zhang following a lackluster performance against Joseph Parker and Jared Anderson turned in a listless performance against a mediocrity from Europe after getting bombed out by Martin Bakole).

Torrez, fighting in his first 10-rounder after winning all 12 of his previous fights inside the distance, out-worked Vianello to win a comfortable decision (97-92 and 98-91 twice).

Although styles make fights, it’s doubtful that Torrez will ever turn in a listless performance. Against Vianello, noted the prominent boxing writer Jake Donovan, he fought with a great sense of urgency. But his fan-friendly, come-forward style masks some obvious shortcomings. At six-foot two, he’s relatively short by today’s standards and will be hard-pressed to defeat a top-shelf opponent who is both bigger and more fluid.

Astana, Kazakhstan

Torrez’s shortcomings were exposed in his two amateur fights with six-foot-seven southpaw Bakhodir Jalolov. A two-time Olympic gold medalist, the Big Uzbek was in action this past Saturday on the undercard of Janibek Alimkhanuly’s homecoming fight with an obscure French-Congolese boxer with the impossible name of Anauel Ngamissengue. (Alimkhanuly successfully defended his IBF and WBO middleweight tiles with a fifth-round stoppage).

Jalolov (15-0, 14 KOs) was extended the distance for the first time in his career by Ukrainian butterball Ihor Shevadzutski who was knocked out in the third round by Martin Bakole in 2023. Jalolov won a lopsided decision (100-89. 97-92, 97-93), but it did not reflect well on him that he had his opponent on the canvas in the third frame but wasn’t able to capitalize.

At age 30, Jalolov is a pup by current heavyweight standards, but one wonders how he will perform against a solid pro after being fed nothing but softies throughout his pro career.

Hughie Fury

Hughie Fury, Tyson’s cousin, has been gradually working his way back into contention after missing all of 2022 and 2023 with injuries and health issues. Early in his career he went 12 in losing efforts with Joeph Parker, Kubrat Pulev, and Alexander Povetkin, but none of his last four bouts were slated for more than eight rounds.

His match this past Friday at London’s venerable York Hall with 39-year-old countryman Dan Garber was a 6-rounder. Fury reportedly entered the fight with a broken right hand, but didn’t need more than his left to defeat Garber (9-4 heading in) who was dismissed in the fifth round with a body punch. In the process, Fury settled an old family score. Their uncles had fought in 1995. It proved to be the last pro fight for John Fury (Tyson’s dad) who was defeated by Dan’s uncle Steve.

Negotiations are reportedly under way for a fight this summer in Galway, Ireland, between Hughie Fury and Dillian Whyte.

Looking Ahead

The next big heavyweight skirmish comes on May 4 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where Efe Ajagba and Martin Bakole tangle underneath Canelo Alvarez’s middleweight title defense against William Scull.

Ajagba has won five straight since losing to Frank Sanchez, most recently winning a split decision over Guido Vianello. Bakole, whose signature win was a blast-out of Jared Anderson, was knocked out in two rounds by Joseph Parker at Riyadh in his last outing, but there were extenuating circumstances. A last-minute replacement for Daniel Dubois, Bakole did not have the benefit of a training camp and wasn’t in fighting shape,

At last glance, the Scottish-Congolese campaigner Bakole was a 9/2 (minus-450) favorite, a price that seems destined to come down.

On June 7, Fabio Wardley (18-0-1, 17 KOs) steps up in class to oppose Jarrell Miller (26-1-2) at the soccer stadium in Wardley’s hometown of Ipswich. In his last start in October of last year, Wardley scored a brutal first-round knockout of Frazer Clarke. This was a rematch. In their first meeting earlier that year, they fought a torrid 10-round draw, a match named the British Fight of the Tear by British boxing writers.

Miller last fought in August of last year in Los Angeles, opposing Andy Ruiz. Most in attendance thought that Miller nicked that fight, but the match was ruled a draw. For that contest, Miller was a svelte 305 ½ pounds.

Wardley vs. Miller is being framed as a WBA eliminator. Wardley, fighting on his home turf, opened an 11/5 (minus-220) favorite.

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 1,614

Share The Sweet Science experience!

Results and Recaps from Las Vegas where Richard Torrez Jr Mauled Guido Vianello

Published

4 days ago

April 6, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Results-and-Recaps-from-Las-Vegas-where-Richard-Torrez-Jr-Mauled-Guido-Vianello

LAS VEGAS, NV – In an inelegant but wildly entertaining rumble, Richard Torrez Jr, bullied his way past Guido Vianello. The 10-round heavyweight contest, an appealing match-up between former Olympians, was the featured attraction on a Top Card at the Pearl Theater at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas.

Torrez, the pride of Tulare, California and a 5/2 favorite, promised to show more dimensions to his game, but was the same old frenetic bull-rusher. Torrez likes to dig inside and smother the punches of his opponent who is invariably taller. His chief asset is an engine that never quits.

The early rounds were marred by a lot of wrestling. Referee Tom Taylor, who had a difficult assignment, took a point away from Vianello for holding in round two, a controversial call although it proved to be a moot point.

Vianello, who was coming off an eighth-round stoppage of Russian-Canadian behemoth Arslanbek Makhmudov, wasn’t able to build on that victory and declined to 13-3-1 (11). Torrez, competing in his first scheduled 10-rounder, won by scores of 97-92 and 98-91 twice, improving to 13-0 (11).

Co-Feature

In a tactical fight (translation: no fireworks) Lindolfo Delgado remained undefeated with a 10-round majority decision over Elvis Rodriguez. The scores were 95-95 and 96-94 twice.

Delgado, a 2016 Olympian for Mexico, won over the judges by keeping Rodriguez on his back foot for most of the fight. However, Rodriguez won the most lopsided round of the bout, the ninth, when he hurt the Mexican with a punch that sent him staggering into the ropes.

Delgado, a 3/2 favorite, improved to 23-0 (17). It was the second pro loss for Rodriguez (17-2-1), a 29-year-old Dominican who trains in Los Angeles under Freddie Roach.

Abdullah Mason

Cleveland southpaw Abdullah Mason celebrated his 21^st birthday by winning his first scheduled 10-rounder. Mason (18-0, 16 KOs) scored three knockdowns before the fight was waived off after the sixth frame.

Mason’s opponent, Mexican southpaw Carlos Ornelas (28-5), fought a curious fight. He wasn’t knocked down three times, not exactly; he merely thought it prudent to take a knee and after each occasion he did his best work, if only for a few brief moments.

Ornelas, a late sub for Giovanni Cabrera who had to pull out with an eye injury, was clearly buzzed after the third “knockdown.” The doctor examined him after the sixth round and when Ornelas left his corner with an unsteady gait, referee Raul Caiz Jr had seen enough.

Other Bouts

Featherweight Albert “Chop Chop” Gonzalez, a protégé of Robert Garcia, improved to 14-0 (7) with an 8-round unanimous decision over Australia’s durable but limited Dana Coolwell. The judges had it 80-72, 78-74, and 77-75.

The granite-chinned Coolwell (13-4) was making his second start in a U.S. ring after taking Shu Shu Carrington the distance in an 8-rounder underneath the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson exhibition at the stadium of the Dallas Cowboys.

SoCal bantamweight Steven Navarro, the TSS 2024 Prospect of the Year, stepped up in class and scored a fourth-round stoppage of Mexicali’s Juan Esteban Garcia who was winning the fourth round when Navarro (6-0, 5 KOs) reversed the momentum with a flourish, forcing the stoppage at the 2:46 mark.

Junior middleweight Art Barrera Jr (8-0, 6 KOs) polished off Daijon Gonzalez in the second round. Barrera decked Gonzalez with a hard left hook and when Gonzales got to his feet, he was immediately greeted with another devastating punch which forced the referee to intervene. The official time was 2:56 of round two. A 32-year-old campaigner from Davenport, Iowa, Gonzalez brought a 12-5 record but had scored only one win vs. an opponent with a winning record.

Jahi Tucker, a 22-year-old middleweight from Deer Park, Long Island, scores his best win to date, winning a lopsided decision over former British junior middleweight champion Troy Williamson. The scores were 99-89 across the board.

Tucker (14-1-1) scored two knockdowns. The first in the second round was called a slip but overruled on replay. The second, in round eight, was the result of a left hook. Williamson stayed on his feet but the ropes held him up and it was properly scored a knockdown. The Englishman, 34, fell to 20-4-1 in what was his U.S. debut.

In a junior lightweight bour slated for eight rounds, 21-year-old Las Vegas southpaw DJ Zamora, advanced to 16-0 (11 KOs) with a fourth-round stoppage of Tex-Mex campaigner Hugo Alberto Castaneda (15-2-1). The official time was 1:24 of round four.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 2,101

Share The Sweet Science experience!