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Atlantic City Gala Recalls Good Times Perhaps Lost Forever
The mostly middle-aged crowd at 23 East, a bar in Ardmore, Pa., on Philadelphia’s Main Line, was clearly into the live rock ’n’ of a stage show headlined by Tommy Conwell, the front man for a popular local group from the 1980s, Tommy Conwell & the Young Rumblers.
“The ’80s are coming back!” Conwell yelled into the microphone, to the approval of his relatively small but enthusiastic audience. And maybe that really can be the case to some degree. There always are going to be music lovers who choose to remain rooted in the sounds of their youth because, well, thinking of the Young Rumblers as still being young is a convenient way of forgetting the graying or thinning of their own hair, or the formation of spare tires around their waists and those worrisome crow’s feet around their eyes.
One night later and 65 miles to the East, there was a similar celebration of what was. The second annual Atlantic City All Stars Boxing Gala at Resorts Casino Hotel, in a sense, was like a gathering of members of the Flat Earth Society. There had been good times for boxing in the ’80s along the boardwalk, and plenty of them, but good times and those who helped make them happen have a way of slipping away with the passage of time. Aging boxers are in their own way like Young Rumblers whose rumbling now is mostly confined to memory. When the hits stop coming, what alternative is there but to recycle past glories?
“There are mixed emotions,” admitted Jonathan Diego, the former Atlantic City prosecutor who conceived the black-tie-optional event and serves as its chairman and foremost cheerleader. “`Bittersweet’ is a good word to describe it. It’s sweet that you can get 50 former champions , referees and judges in the same room. The bitter part is that we don’t have as many big fights, world championship fights, in Atlantic City as we once had.”
Ken Condon, the Sports and Entertainment consultant for Caesars Entertainment, has waved the banner for Atlantic City boxing even longer than Diego (he was there, in the marketing department, when Resorts became the first A.C. casino to open its doors in 1978), and just as passionately. He sees a pinpoint of light at the end of what for years had been an ever-darkening tunnel.
“Boxing is cyclical,” said Condon, one of a group of award recipients Saturday night that included, among others, former world champions Virgil Hill (who’ll be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame on June 9), Iran Barkley, William Joppy, Keith Holmes, Cory Spinks, DeMarcus Corley and contenders Chuck Wepner, Ivan Robinson, Jameel McCline and John Scully. “Atlantic City has always been receptive to good boxing. I think more (casino) properties are starting to add boxing to their marketing programs. Things are getting a little better in that respect. But we have a ways to go yet.”
If the rate of fight cards continues to hold through 2013, there is a strong likelihood double-digits will be reached, with the total number of shows topping out somewhere between 15 and 20. Even as honorees strode to the podium to accept their plaques from Diego and master of ceremonies Mike Mittman, less than a mile down the boardwalk there was a J Russell Peltz-promoted card headlined by junior welterweight Teon Kennedy’s 10-round unanimous decision over Carlos Vinan.
But while a 20-fight-card year might seem puny in comparison to the early- to mid-1980s, when Atlantic City averaged 130 shows from 1982 to 1985, when it was the site of a staggering 145 events, it is a damn sight better than the even punier five cards that were staged in the erstwhile capital of East Coast boxing in 2009, which marked the sport’s nadir down the shore.
So what happened? How could something so, well, great do an about-face and march backward toward near-irrelevance? Everyone has his own theory on the rise and fall of Atlantic City boxing.
“In the late 1970s, all through the ’80s and even into the ’90s, there was a level of success you almost couldn’t expect,” said Roy Foreman, George Foreman’s younger and shorter brother who for a quarter-century has split his time between his Texas and New Jersey residences. “We knew there would have to be a lull, eventually.
“I hope more people, influential people, begin to realize that boxing built Atlantic City. I don’t mean the actual buildings, but fight fans poured into this town for boxing matches. That’s why they came for, not just for the gambling. They came from New York, they came from Philadelphia, they came from Washington. And they didn’t just come to see superstars like Mike Tyson and George. A lot of fighters made their reputations here, and they developed their own followings.
“Now, the city is hurting. We have to find a way to do whatever it takes to bring it back to what it was, or somewhere near to what it was. The main problem is taxes. We need to get Gov. Christie and the legislature to give boxing some sort of tax break to make things more attractive to fighters and promoters. Guys would love to fight here more. Floyd Mayweather told me one of the best times he had was when he came here (to fight Arturo Gatti).”
Diego is mindful of the obstacles between the still-bleak current reality and a new dawn of progress. Not only is the economy gelatin-soft, but the cost of doing business is getting steeper, as is the competition from neighboring states that have legalized casino gambling to the detriment of Atlantic City’s 12 casinos, some of which are losing their battles with the bottom line. It’s hard to argue with such depressing facts as the 42 percent in lost casino revenues (from $5.2 billion to barely $3 billion) since 2006, at a time when casino revenue for the United States as a whole has increased 4.8 percent. Some 10,300 Atlantic City casino jobs have disappeared through layoffs and attrition, and the bad news could get worse when online gambling in Delaware goes into effect in the fall.
Joe Lupo, the senior vice-president of operations for one of Atlantic City’s glitziest casino properties, the Borgata, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that “the Jersey shore will never be quite the same due to the fact we are completely surrounded by gaming on all sides.”
So how boxing stage a comeback amid the overall chaos enveloping Atlantic City as a whole? Well, there are steps that might be taken, if only the powers that be choose to take them.
One is to identify a headliner, an Arturo Gatti type, who can become the city’s franchise fighter as was the late, great blood-and-guts brawler – who will be posthumously inducted into the IBHOF on June 9 – when he regularly packed Boardwalk Hall.
“In the ’80s boxing was at its height with Tyson and all those big stars that regularly appeared here,” Condon said. “I do think you’re going to see more and more boxing shows every year here. What I’ve tried to do is to find East Coast fighters who can develop a following and who want to make Atlantic City their boxing home. Obviously, we were able to do that very successfully with Arturo.
“Look, Mayweather-level fights are few and far between. They usually wind up in Vegas, anyway. We’re always hopeful we can find the next Arturo Gatti.”
To Diego, whose uncle is former middleweight contender Dave Tiberi, the solution could be as simple as giving up some money on the front end to make more on the back end.
“I don’t think some of these entertainment directors really understand the fight game and how boxing can benefit their properties,” he said. “Their predecessors did.
“A big part of the issue is cost. The reality is that staging boxing now costs a lot of money. Back in the day, you’d get a four-corner deal where a promoter would get the venue and hotel rooms for the fighters and their cornermen for free. The casinos just presumed they would get that money, and more, from fans (patronizing) their casinos and restaurants.
“Now those same properties are asking promoters to pay for everything. It’s cost-prohibitive for smaller- and medium-sized shows.”
The downside took some time to develop, just as the upside did. Casino gambling was approved by New Jersey voters in 1976, and Resorts – then known as Merv Griffin’s Resorts – opened with great fanfare on May 26, 1978. Two years later, French director Louis Malle’s 1980 film Atlantic City, starring Burt Lancaster and Susan Sarandon, depicted not only the extent of the resort town’s decades-long deterioration, but the steps taken to restore its former opulence with the erection of the gambling palaces that began to rise like so many steel skeletons. It was a transitional period from one era to the next, and with it the hope for a brighter tomorrow.
Make no mistakes, part of the vision was the realization of what boxing had meant to Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace, which opened in 1966, and to the neon-bathed desert outpost as a whole. Nudged by financier and casino owner Donald Trump, city fathers began to hype Atlantic City as the “boxing capital of the world.”
“It became very competitive between us and Vegas, maybe even a little contentious,” Larry Hazzard Sr., the chairman of the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board, from 1985 to 2007, said in 2009. “But we had the edge because we had Tyson.”
Mike Tyson, for those with short memories or are too young to remember, once was as big or bigger than basketball’s Michael Jordan or golf’s Tiger Woods. His status as an Atlantic City icon began modestly – with eight appearances mostly in ballroom settings when he was gaining notoriety as a young knockout artist – but it gained traction soon after Trump threw truckloads of money at him to become the marquee attraction in Boardwalk Hall, and the face of Trump’s ambitious boxing operation headquartered at Trump Plaza.
Tyson fought five times in Atlantic City after he became heavyweight champion for the first time, but the biggest night of all for him, and for boxing on the boardwalk, was June 27, 1988, when he squared off against fellow unbeaten Michael Spinks.
Let Spinks’ manager, the loquacious Butch Lewis (who was 65 when he died on July 23, 2011), explain just how wild a scene it was the night Atlantic City boxing reached its absolute apex.
“It was the biggest event in the world at that time – not just in this country or in boxing,” Lewis recalled in 2009. “I’m talking the whole bleepin’ world. If there was a Superdome in Atlantic City, we could have filled that sucker up twice over. The demand for tickets was just crazy. (The announced attendance was a sold-out 21,785.)
“I was getting calls from everybody you could think of – superstar athletes, big-time entertainers, politicians, right up to the White House. `Butch, you gotta get me in,’ they all said. But there wasn’t anything I could do. Ringside tickets had a face value of $1,500 – remember, this is 1988 dollars we’re talking about – and they were being scalped for more, a lot more, and that’s only if the people lucky enough to have ’em were willing to sell, which they weren’t.
“Anyway, Richard Pryor calls and tells me he’ll do anything to get in. Richard and me were close, so I had to try, right? I checked around, called in some favors and, somehow, I got him two tickets somewhere in the first three rows, right behind Magic Johnson.
“The fight happens. Slim (Spinks) gets knocked down in the first round. Even before he went down, Magic stood up. Boom, boom, the fight ends just like that (after an elapsed time of 91 seconds). Richard calls me later and says he never saw a punch, all he saw was Magic Johnson’s back.
“Richard is yelling, `Bleeper-bleeper, I could just as well have stayed home!’” Lewis, cracking himself up, said in replicating Pryor’s frantic, profane indignity. “But you know what? At least Richard was in the house. That was one night when you had to be there. And if you couldn’t actually be in the arena, you at least had to be in Atlantic City, taking in the wild scene. All the hotels had closed-circuit telecasts and those sold out, too.
“People who couldn’t get into Boardwalk Hall were milling around outside and offering hundreds of dollars for ticket stubs to the people who were coming out after the fight ended. They were willing to pay good money for stubs! I never saw or heard anything like that before. But, in a way, I understood. They wanted to be able to go back to wherever they came from and tell their friends and co-workers, `See, I was there.’”
But nothing lasts forever, not for Tommy Conwell or Mike Tyson, or for municipalities either. Not only did boxing begin to lose prominence in Atlantic City, but the Miss America Pageant relocated to Las Vegas in 2006. (Miss America 2014 will be crowned in Boardwalk Hall on Sept. 15, the first in a three-year return engagement in its ancestral home.) The famous diving horses at the Steel Pier stopped diving in 1978. Even finding a saltwater taffy shop along the boardwalk isn’t as easy as it once was.
So now those who would at least partially restore Atlantic City boxing peer into an uncertain future, aware of the impediments that still exist but steadfast in their shared belief that progress is being made, if incrementally. Diego insists the second annual Atlantic City All Star Boxing Legends Gala will not be the last.
“This really is a labor of love,” he said. “I’ve been a boxing fan since I was a preteen. In the ’70s and ’80s I watched guys like Ray Mancini, Livingstone Bramble, Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Marvin Hagler, Tommy Hearns. It was a classic era for boxing and fans got to see the best of the best.
“I was there when my uncle David fought James Toney for the middleweight title. He got robbed. All right, he was in trouble in the first and second rounds, but he dominated the rest of the way. He was the far busier and more effective fighter. That fight inspired me to become more involved in the sport.
“I remember when Uncle David used to hold his `Night of Champions’ in Wilmington, Delaware. He had guys like Smokin’ Joe Frazier come in. I went to a couple of those events and thought, `Why can’t we do something like that in Atlantic City, only bigger and better?’ And this is bigger and better. It’s going to keep getting bigger and better.”
Avila Perspective, Chap. 314: A Really Big Boxing Show in Riyadh and More
One of boxing’s most spectacular fight cards takes place this weekend.
Think, Godzilla big.
It starts with an appetizer in California on Friday with 360 Promotions then on to the main course on Saturday morning in Riyadh Season with several promotions combined in Saudi Arabia.
Here is how it begins:
Undefeated “Sugar” Cain Sandoval (14-0, 12 KOs) leads a 360 Promotions card on Friday Feb. 21, at Chumash Casino as he faces Mark Bernaldez (25-6) in the main event. UFC Fight Pass will stream the fight card live.
360 Promotions is led by Tom Loeffler who knows a thing or two about promoting stars like Gennady “Triple G” Golovkin for example. He also backs Serhii Bohachuk and Mizuki “Mimi” Hiruta.
Then catch some sleep and wake up around 8 a.m. the next morning and prepare for a long day of world title fights.
Riyadh
A star-studded lineup of world titlists is led by the rematch between undefeated Artur Beterbiev (21-0, 20 Kos) and Dmitry Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) for the undisputed light heavyweight world championship at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh. PPV.Com and DAZN pay-per-view will each provide streaming.
Bivol seeks to avenge his only pro loss.
“All athletes want to win. We’re like gamblers and of course I wasn’t a winner,” Bivol said.
Beterbiev made no predictions, but one.
“it’s going to be a good fight,” said Beterbiev the undisputed light heavyweight world champion.
It’s a hefty boxing card reminiscent of Don King’s mammoth cards of the 90s and early 2000s. I once covered a boxing card that began at 10 a.m. on Saturday and ended at 1 a.m. Sunday in Las Vegas. I was hearing bells in my sleep after that adventure.
Like that Don King card, this one is loaded with world title fights.
From lightweights to heavyweights, multiple world championships are being settled in the desert nation.
IBF heavyweight titlist Daniel Dubois scratched against Joseph Parker because of a virus.
The former champion Parker (35-3, 23 KOs) will now face Martin Bakole (21-1, 16 KOs) who was last seen battering American contender Jared “The Real Big Baby” Anderson last August in Los Angeles. Despite the change of foes Parker may still be in a very intriguing fight. It could be explosive.
Another very intriguing clash pits former super welterweight champion Israil Madrimov (10-1-1) against undefeated Vergil Ortiz Jr. (22-0, 21 KOs). No world title is at stake, but reputations will be made or demoted after these two meet in the boxing ring.
Madrimov recently lost a close decision to Terence Crawford in Los Angeles. No shame there.
“I always chase at big fights. I have another big fight,” Madrimov said.
Ortiz had problems making weight after battling Covid-19 and moved up from super lightweight to super welterweight. That’s a big jump regardless of talent. The Texas-bred fighter has never been defeated but this is his first time facing a real super welterweight of championship caliber. It’s a daring test but Ortiz has never shied away from a battle.
“There’s not much to say. In my opinion, this is the best fight on the card,” said Ortiz.
Golden Boy Promotions backs Ortiz and Matchroom Boxing has Madrimov who is trained by the brothers Joel and Antonio Diaz in Indio, Calif. They formerly trained Ortiz years ago. Robert Garcia now trains Ortiz in Riverside, Calif. There are rivalries and there are rivalries.
In another sparkling match WBC middleweight titlist Carlos Adames (24-1, 18 KOs) defends against Hamzah Sheeraz (21-0, 17 KOs) a tall lanky power-hitter who looks like the real deal. I don’t expect this to reach the final bell.
Adames is a slick fighter out of the Dominican Republic and Sheeraz is a British puncher. Both train in the U.S. It’s a don’t-blink type of fight and could end early.
Others on the card are heavyweights Zhilei Zhang (27-2-1, 22 KOs) versus Germany’s Agit Kabayel (25-0, 17 KOs). The Chinese heavyweight seems to have the skills but lacks the stamina as his loss to Joseph Parker showed. Kabayel has never tasted defeat and has wins over Russia’s Arslanbek Makhmudov, Cuba’s Frank Sanchez, and England’s Derek Chisora.
Plus, Shakur Stevenson found a replacement for Floyd Schofield who dropped out due to illness. And light heavyweight contender Joshua Buatsi fights former champ Callum Smith whose only losses were to Beterbiev and Canelo Alvarez.
Get ready for a long day of title fights.
Fights to Watch (All times Pacific Time)
Fri. UFC Fight Pass 7 p.m. Cain Sandoval (14-0) vs Mark Bernaldez (25-6).
Sat. PPV.COM or DAZN ppv 7:30 a.m. Artur Beterbiev (21-0) vs Dmitrii Bivol (23-1); Vergil Ortiz Jr. (22-0) vs Israil Madrimov (10-1-1); Joseph Parker (35-3) vs Martin Bakole (21-1); Carlos Adames (24-1) vs Hamzah Sheeraz (21-0).
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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Lucas Bahdi Paid His Dues, Quite Literally, and Now his Boxing Career is Flourishing
Lucas Bahdi Paid His Dues, Quite Literally, and Now his Boxing Career is Flourishing
In boxing, one punch can dramatically alter the trajectory of a fighter’s career. This is true for both the perpetrator and the unfortunate recipient.
On July 20 of last year in Tampa, Florida, Lucas Bahdi, a lightweight from Niagara Falls, Canada, rucked himself out of obscurity with a frightening knockout of Ashton “H2O” Sylva. Bahdi has fought once since then, sharing the bill at an event attended by an announced crowd of 72,300 and will be returning to the ring in a more conventional setting at Toronto on Friday, March 7.
Bahdi’s knockout of Sylve came in the final minute of the sixth frame. Although it wasn’t a classic one-punch knockout, it came out of the blue with the suddenness of a thunderclap on a clear day. Down 5-0 on all three scorecards through the five completed rounds, Bahdi unleashed a fast, three-punch combination that left poor Sylve splattered face-first on the canvas. The final punch of the trio, a sweeping left hook, was superfluous. Sylve was out on his feet. It would be named the 2024 TSS Knockout of the Year.
The match, slated for 10 rounds, was on the undercard of a Jake Paul promotion co-starring Paul and the boxer he sponsors, the great Amanda Serrano. Although Lucas Bahdi was more seasoned than Ashton Sylve and he too had an unblemished record, the conventional wisdom was that he would be just another stepping-stone for Jake Paul’s precocious house fighter.
A decorated amateur from Long Beach, California, Ashton “H2O” Sylve signed with MVP Promotions, Jake Paul’s company, when he was 18 years old. In the press release announcing his signing, Paul predicted that Sylve (who happens to be Snoop Dogg’s nephew) would become “a massive, massive superstar…not merely because of his [fistic talent], but because of his charisma.” And through his first 11 pro fights, during which he scored nine knockouts, Sylve did nothing to temper that opinion.
Meanwhile, Lucas Bahdi was building a nice record, but toiling in obscurity. Prior to meeting Sylve, he had fought exclusively in Mexico and Canada. He took the Sylve fight on three-and-a-half weeks’ notice, subbing for Floyd Schofield. Filching the title of an Oscar-contending movie that is currently making the rounds, Bahdi was “A Complete Unknown,” at least outside his native habitat.
Bahdi’s prize for knocking out Sylve was an MVP Promotions contract and a slot on the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson show at the home of the Dallas Cowboys on Nov. 15. Paul vs. Tyson was a predictable farce but it was a mega-event, purportedly the most streamed global sporting event in history. On the card, Bahdi won a 10-round decision, advancing his record to 18-0 (15 KOs).
Lucas Bahdi’s risky investment paid off. By his reckoning, he spent more than $100,000 of his own money seeding his professional boxing career before linking up with Jake Paul. About those early fights in Mexico: There was no financial reward; to the contrary, he paid the purse of his opponents.
Of Palestinian and Italian heritage, Bahdi grew up in comfortable circumstances. His father George Bahdi is a prominent builder in Niagara Falls. Away from the gym, Lucas can be found at Niagara Falls’ Olympia Motors, his used car dealership. Buying and selling cars is more than a job, he says, it’s also a hobby. His personal preference is for late 1990s, early 2000 Jaguars.
We caught up with Lucas Bahdi last week at the Top Rank Gym in Las Vegas. With him were his coach Stevie Bailey, the head trainer at Toronto’s West End Athletic Club, and Stevie’s wife Sara Bailey.
Ms. Bailey, who competed all over the world as an amateur under her maiden name Sara Haghighat Joo, happens to hold the WBA’s female light flyweight world title, a diadem she acquired in her fourth pro fight. In Las Vegas, the team stays in an AirBnB roughly a mile from the gym, but doesn’t keep a rental car handy. “We walk everywhere,” says Bahdi, “sometimes 10 miles a day. It keeps my weight in check and, besides, there is a lot to see around here.”
Bahdi reflected on some of the adversity he faced as he was toiling in the shadows. At a November 2020 fight in Cuernevaca, Mexico, he left the ring with two broken hands and both of his eyes badly swollen. “I couldn’t think straight while I was in there; I couldn’t focus” he says. And oh by the way, he knocked out his tormentor in the fourth round.
“A lot of people thought my career was over right there,” says Bahdi while noting that both of his damaged hands required surgery. He was out of action for 17 months as boxing activity slowed because of the COVID pandemic.
Bahdi, who like Ashton Sylve had a notable amateur career, takes umbrage with those that would characterize his stoppage of Sylve as a fluke. “The kid is an amazing talent,” he says, “but we adhered to our game plan. Mentally I knew I was ready. In boxing, timing beats speed.”
Fighting on the Paul-Tyson card at an NFL stadium was quite a departure from all those little fights in Mexico and Canada, but Bahdi wasn’t overwhelmed by the moment. “Knowing that I was finally the ‘A’ side, was helpful,” he concedes.
Bahdi’s forthcoming fight on March 7 at the Great Canadian Casino in Toronto marks the first incursion of MVP Promotions into Canada. Bahdi will headline against an undefeated Filipino southpaw, Ryan James Racasa, who will be stepping up in class in his North American debut. Sara Bailey is also penciled in, but her opponent hasn’t yet been determined. According to a press release, the fight card will air on DAZN for free with no subscription required.
Now 31 years old and the father of a 16-month-old son, Lucas Bahdi has taken an unconventional path to what he hopes will culminate in a world title. With a lot of sweat and a little luck, his risky investment is paying dividends.
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The Hauser Report: Keyshawn Davis at Madison Square Garden
Bob Arum promoted his first fight card – Muhammad Ali vs. George Chuvalo – in Toronto on March 29, 1966. Top Rank was formed soon after and is arguably the greatest promotional company in the history of boxing.
Top Rank has promoted more than two thousand fight cards and seven hundred world championship bouts. It has been on the cutting edge of new technologies and was the first major player in boxing to understand and exploit the power of the Hispanic market in the United States.
But Top Rank has been struggling lately. Its roster of elite fighters has gotten smaller. Its lucrative exclusive contract with ESPN expires this summer and won’t be renewed. The company is exploring other options, but so is every other promoter in boxing not tied exclusively to DAZN.
Meanwhile, Arum is doing his best to develop what he hopes will be a new generation of stars. One of these fighters – Keyshawn Davis – was on display before a sold-out crowd of 4,979 at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theatre on Valentine’s Day.
Davis is 25 years old and came into the fight with a 12-and-0 (8 KOs) record. His opponent, 36-year-old Denys Berinchyk (19-0, 9 KOs), was the reigning WBO lightweight champion by virtue of an upset split-decision victory over Emanuel Navarrete last June. Berinchyk had the belt, but the spotlight was on Davis (a 2020 Olympic silver medalist and 6-to-1 betting favorite).
Throughout fight week, Davis had the carriage of a fighter who is undefeated in the professional ranks and knew that the odds were stacked in his favor. He reveled in acting the bully at the final pre-fight press conference where he repeatedly interrupted Berinchyk before getting up from his chair and looming over the Ukrainian. That was followed by an incident at the weigh-in when Keyshawn put his hands on Denys and, as the fighters turned to face the media, stepped into Berinchyk’s space. That earned a shove and tempers flared.
It’s easy for a fighter to act out like that when he’s facing a 6-to-1 underdog. It’s unlikely that Keyshawn would have behaved in the same manner had he been readying to fight – say – Gervonta Davis.
When fight night came, it was just a matter of time until Berinchyk was knocked out. There was no way he could deal with Keyshawn’s speed and power. One guy was fighting in slow motion and the other on fast-forward.
Davis dropped Berinchyk with a body shot in round three and ended matters in round four with a brutal hook to the liver that left Denis gasping for air on the canvas.
Keyshawn has speed, skills, and power. Time will tell if he has a chin and heart.
Davis-Berinchyk highlighted a basic truth about boxing and other sports. Some athletes are simply more physically gifted than others.
LeBron James has a wonderful work ethic. But there are many basketball players who work as hard as LeBron and know the nuances of the game just as well. His physical gifts separate him from the pack. Ditto for Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Judge, and every other elite athlete.
Jack Nicklaus wasn’t just a talented golfer. At age thirteen, Nicklaus ran a 100-yard dash in eleven seconds flat and was the starting quarterback, punter, and placekicker on his junior high school football team. As a high school basketball player, he averaged eighteen points a game on a team that went to the fourth round of the Ohio state championship tournament. That same year, he made twenty-six free throws in a row and was named “all-league” and “honorable mention all-state.” To round out his resume, he played catcher on the school baseball team.
Davis has exceptional physical gifts. The phrase “physically gifted” also applies to 20-year-old Abdullah Mason (16-0, 14 KOs) who dismantled Manuel Jaimes at the Hulu Theater on Friday night. Mason is a legitimate prospect. Like Davis, he has speed, skills, and power. Five months ago, Jaimes went the distance against Rolly Romero. Mason knocked him down four times on the way to a fourth-round stoppage.
Other thoughts on Friday night’s fights at Madison Square Garden include:
Juanma Lopez De Jesus (who represented Puerto Rico at the 2024 Olympics and is the son of former WBO champion Juan Manuel Lopez) made his pro debut at 114 pounds against Bryan Santiago. Santiago was a typical opponent for a prospect making his pro-debut. Lopez knocked him out at 59-seconds of round one with the first solid punch he landed. After the fight, Santiago literally didn’t know what hit him. For the record, it was an uppercut.
Rohan Polanco turned in a dominant performance, stopping Juan Carlos Torres in two rounds. Keon Davis (Keyshawn’s brother) knocked out an overmatched Ira Johnson, also in the second stanza.
Vito Mielnicki Jr. and Connor Coyle fought to a spirited draw although, in the eyes of this observer, the edge belonged to Mielnicki. And Xander Zayas turned in a solid performance in scoring a ninth-round stoppage over Slawa Spomer. Referee Charlie Fitch might have stepped in a bit too quickly. But Fitch is a good referee. Spomer was getting hit more than he should have been. And according to CompuBox, Slawa had been outlanded 257 to 39.
Top Rank hopes to keep Zayas and Mielnicki on track until there’s a vacant 154-pound belt that they can fight for or a weak champion that one of them can beat.
Two of the favorites on the February 14 card disappointed.
Jared Anderson had been touted as America’s best heavyweight until his deficiencies were exposed and he was knocked down three times en route to a fifth-round stoppage by Martin Bakole on the Crawford-Madrimov undercard in Los Angeles last August. Marios Kollias (born in Greece and now fighting out of Sweden) is a big, strong, very slow fighter with rudimentary skills. Kollias had two fights last year. In one of them, he lost to a Danish fighter named Kem Ljungquist. In the other, he beat a guy named Tamaz Izoria (who has 15 losses in 20 fights and has been knocked out 11 times).
The Jared Anderson who savagely demolished Jerry Forrest at Madison Square Garden two years ago would have made short work of Kollias. But that version of Anderson hasn’t been seen lately. Jared came in for the Kollias fight at a career-high 258 pounds. And he fought like a man who has doubts about whether he wants to continue fighting professionally.
Anderson-Kollias had the feel of a slow sparring session. Kollias’s trunks kept sliding below his protective cup, necessitating repeated stoppages so referee David Fields could adjust them. The only fire Jared showed came near the end of the tenth and final round when he flagrantly fouled Marios by throwing him over his hip to the canvas. Fields should have deducted two points for the unprovoked infraction but let the matter slide. Properly incentivized, Kollias landed his best punches of the night just before the final bell. The scorecards read 99-91, 99-91, 98-92 in Anderson’s favor.
Anderson-Kollias was a dreary fight. Nico Ali Walsh vs. Juan Carlos Guerra was a sad one.
Nico is Muhammad Ali’s grandson and fights in the neighborhood of 157 pounds. He turned pro in 2021 and, after knocking out five of six carefully chosen opponents, went the distance in his next six outings (including one “no contest”). When he entered the ring on Friday night, his record stood at 10-and-1.
Without the “Ali” name, Nico would still be an exceptionally nice young man and a college graduate with myriad talents. People are impressed by him and for good reason. But that doesn’t necessarily translate into being a good fighter.
The buzz that attended the start of Nico’s ring career is gone. He hasn’t improved noticeably as a fighter and doesn’t have the physical gifts necessary to take him beyond the club-fight level.
Guerra was a fungible opponent. The assumption was that Nico would outbox him. Juan Carlos threw wide looping punches throughout the fight and was an inartful aggressor. But inartful aggression is better than no aggression at all.
Nico got hit too much by a guy who – fortunately for Nico – was short on power. He fought tentatively, seldom initiated the action, didn’t counterpunch effectively, and failed to dissuade Guerra from coming forward.
In the final round, trailing badly by any objective measure, Nico didn’t try to pick up the pace.
Four of the rounds clearly belonged to Guerra. The other two were up for grabs. Judges Waleska Roldan and Georgi Gergov scored the bout 58-56 for Guerra.
In a shocker, Ken Ezzo’s scorecard read 58-56 in Nico’s favor.
Most fights aren’t hard to score. A judge has to pay attention, know what he (or she) is watching, and be honest. Ezzo’s scorecard was a disgrace.
It’s still possible that, by virtue of his family name, Nico can be maneuvered to a nice payday on a Riyadh Season card in Saudi Arabia. But he’s getting hit in the head too much. So I’ll repeat what I wrote after watching him fight several years ago:
“Whenever Nico fights, my heart will be in his gloves. But I’d rather that he not fight again. Muhammad Ali sacrificed so much at the altar of boxing – more than enough to obviate the need for sacrifices by any member of his family in the years to come.”
Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book – MY MOTHER and me – is a personal memoir available at Amazon.com. https://www.amazon.com/My-Mother-Me-Thomas-Hauser/dp/1955836191/ref=sr_1_1?crid=5C0TEN4M9ZAH&keywords=thomas+hauser&qid=1707662513&sprefix=thomas+hauser%2Caps%2C80&sr=8-1
In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism. In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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