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WHO DO YA LIKE?? Geale or Barker? Cleverly or Kovalev?

This Saturday’s HBO card is a good one. Middleweights Daniel Geale (29-1, 15 KOs) and Darren Barker (25-1, 16 KOs) will battle each other in the main event, each in hopes of solidifying himself as a legitimate threat to long-reigning but increasingly aging and injured division kingpin Sergio Martinez. Both fighters have just one loss on their records — Geale a close decision loss to the athletic Anthony Mundine in 2009 (which was avenged this year), and Barker an 11th round knockout loss to Martinez in what was until that point a remarkably close fight.
Having been in with the best, Barker believes he now has what it takes to defeat fighters like Geale.
“I’ve heard people say in the past that you can learn from defeat, but I always thought that was mad – how can anything good come from losing?” Barker said. “[But] it’s not until you experience something invaluable like a defeat in a World title fight to a World class pound-for-pound star like Sergio Martinez that you appreciate the sentiment and I really have taken that negative – losing in a World title fight – and built on it to go one better. I feel I’ve matured from it, and I’m in my prime at 31 now.”
Barker says he and Geale know each other very well from their amateur days.
“I’ve kept an eye on his pro career as I have on a number of others, and I’m very confident. I know what he’s all about. I know what I’m all about, and I know how to beat him, so I can’t wait for August 17.”
Geale is equally confident.
“I’ve seen some of his pro fights, and he seems very confident about beating me. He’s a smart boxer, a real thinker. He’s nice and rangy, and he likes to pick people off, use his speed, skills, footwork and frustrate people.”
Geale said he plans to be the one that does the frustrating, and that he believes Barker won’t be able to keep up a good enough pace to win the fight.
“Barker has a lot of ability. He has a similar style to me, but Barker does not have my work rate. He likes to dictate and control, move and jab and keep long, but he doesn’t throw the volume of punches that I do. It’s going to be a bit of a chess match. It will come down to who wants it the most, and I’m sure I want the title more.”
Geale is an alphabet titlist (IBF) and ranked number two in the world at middleweight by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board. Barker is unranked.
Al Bernstein previewed the fight for the Boxing Channel. Bernstein said it’ll be a battle of two confident fighters. Barker, he said, has impressed since his loss to Martinez.
“Since that fight, he has put together two knockout wins,” said Bernstein. “This 31-year old believes he can handle Danny Geale.”
Meanwhile, Bernstein believes Geale’s 2013 win over fellow Australian Anthony Mundine was huge, but not quite as big as his win over Felix Sturm in 2012.
“He’s done something no one else did. He beat Felix Sturm in Germany in a fight…so that was an extraordinary event for sure.”
Bernstein also believes Geale has America on his mind.
“Danny Geale really wants to impress American fans…he wants to win over the hearts and minds of the American boxing fans.”
The Hall of Famer expects a good tussle.
“This should be a very difficult match for Geale and should be a terrific match to watch,” said Bernstein.
Before the middleweights take center stage, light heavyweights Nathan Cleverly (26-0, 12) and Sergey Kovalev (20-0-1, 18 KOs) will duke it out to see who truly is the best up-and-comer in the division.
Cleverly, a WBO belt holder, is seeking respect. He says he’s had trouble getting fights against top contenders, despite the gold trinket he lugs around his waist. Cleverly was awarded the title belt without winning it in the ring, but has defended it five times since.
“It had taken a year to get Juergen Braehmer in the ring with me and when we thought we had him, he pulled out and I was awarded the title outside of the ring.”
Cleverly said a fight against Kovalev will finally give him the opportunity to show the world what he’s made of.
“We’ve tried making the big fights but the names have avoided me,” he said. “It’s been frustrating but this is a massive breakthrough fight me. I’m fighting the most dangerous [man] in the division – Sergey Kovalev. The Russian is building a big reputation in America, and his punch is even bigger. Nobody else wants to say Kovalev’s name, let alone fight him but I will beat him to show I am the best light heavyweight in the world, and I will force the big names to fight me.”
Cleverly has long been rumored as a potential opponent for Bernard Hopkins. A win over Kovalev could only help matters.
Meanwhile, hard-puncher Kovalev has gone from 11-year-old street fighter to educated boxer-puncher. He credits his time spent in the Russian amateur system with his transformation into what he is today, though he also said he was forced to turn professional in 2008 because of the country’s politics.
“I decided to leave the Russian national team and turn pro,” said Kovalev.
Kovalev left country and family in 2009 in order to “make it big as a professional fighter.” He said his wife, Natalia, joined him three years later.
“It’s hard to be away from our families and friends in Chelyabinsk but we’ve found a nice group of friends here.”
It seems the hard work and sacrifice is finally paying off. Kovalev burst onto the stage in January by dismantling veteran Gabriel Campillo in just three rounds.
“I see just a target,” Kovalev said of his approach that night to NBC’s Chris Mannix. Perhaps prophetically, he then said he was eager to fight “any champion” next, and mentioned Cleverly by name.
Kovalev is ranked number four in the world at light heavyweight by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board. Cleverly is ranked number five.
Al Bernstein previewed the fight for the Boxing Channel. He believes Cleverly is in for a very stern test against Kovalev.
“This is most assuredly the toughest test he has had in his pro career,” Bernstein said.
Meanwhile, Bernstein called Kovalev’s signature win over Campillo a tremendous win.
“Campillo…I think got some terrible decisions and should have been a world champion,” Bernstein said. “And Kovalev just completely dominated him.”
Stalwart sportscaster Rich Marotta, President of the newly created Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame, chimed in on the fight via Twitter.
“Kovalev is there to be hit with the jab, and Nathan has a good one, but he’d better keep it in Kovalev’s face all night,” said Marotta.
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Arne’s Almanac: The Good, the Bad, and the (Mostly) Ugly; a Weekend Recap and More

It’s old news now, but on back-to-back nights on the first weekend of May, there were three fights that finished in the top six snoozefests ever as measured by punch activity. That’s according to CompuBox which has been around for 40 years.
In Times Square, the contest between Devin Haney and Jose Carlos Ramirez had the fifth-fewest number of punches thrown, but the main event, Ryan Garcia vs. Rolly Romero, was even more of a snoozefest, landing in third place on this ignoble list.
Those standings would be revised the next night – knocked down a peg when Canelo Alvarez and William Scull combined to throw a historically low 445 punches in their match in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 152 by the victorious Canelo who at least pressed the action, unlike Scull (pictured) whose effort reminded this reporter of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” – no, not the movie starring Paul Newman, just the title.
CompuBox numbers, it says here, are best understood as approximations, but no amount of rejiggering can alter the fact that these three fights were stinkers. Making matters worse, these were pay-per-views. If one had bundled the two events, rather than buying each separately, one would have been out $90 bucks.
****
Thankfully, the Sunday card on ESPN from Las Vegas was redemptive. It was just what the sport needed at this moment – entertaining fights to expunge some of the bad odor. In the main go, Naoya Inoue showed why he trails only Shohei Ohtani as the most revered athlete in Japan.
Throughout history, the baby-faced assassin has been a boxing promoter’s dream. It’s no coincidence that down through the ages the most common nickname for a fighter – and by an overwhelming margin — is “Kid.”
And that partly explains Naoya Inoue’s charisma. The guy is 32 years old, but here in America he could pass for 17.
Joey Archer
Joey Archer, who passed away last week at age 87 in Rensselaer, New York, was one of the last links to an era of boxing identified with the nationally televised Friday Night Fights at Madison Square Garden.

Joey Archer
Archer made his debut as an MSG headliner on Feb. 4, 1961, and had 12 more fights at the iconic mid-Manhattan sock palace over the next six years. The final two were world title fights with defending middleweight champion Emile Griffith.
Archer etched his name in the history books in November of 1965 in Pittsburgh where he won a comfortable 10-round decision over Sugar Ray Robinson, sending the greatest fighter of all time into retirement. (At age 45, Robinson was then far past his peak.)
Born and raised in the Bronx, Joey Archer was a cutie; a clever counter-puncher recognized for his defense and ultimately for his granite chin. His style was embedded in his DNA and reinforced by his mentors.
Early in his career, Archer was domiciled in Houston where he was handled by veteran trainer Bill Gore who was then working with world lightweight champion Joe Brown. Gore would ride into the Hall of Fame on the coattails of his most famous fighter, “Will-o’-the Wisp” Willie Pep. If Joey Archer had any thoughts of becoming a banger, Bill Gore would have disabused him of that notion.
In all honesty, Archer’s style would have been box office poison if he had been black. It helped immensely that he was a native New Yorker of Irish stock, albeit the Irish angle didn’t have as much pull as it had several decades earlier. But that observation may not be fair to Archer who was bypassed twice for world title fights after upsetting Hurricane Carter and Dick Tiger.
When he finally caught up with Emile Griffith, the former hat maker wasn’t quite the fighter he had been a few years earlier but Griffith, a two-time Fighter of the Year by The Ring magazine and the BWAA and a future first ballot Hall of Famer, was still a hard nut to crack.
Archer went 30 rounds with Griffith, losing two relatively tight decisions and then, although not quite 30 years old, called it quits. He finished 45-4 with 8 KOs and was reportedly never knocked down, yet alone stopped, while answering the bell for 365 rounds. In retirement, he ran two popular taverns with his older brother Jimmy Archer, a former boxer who was Joey’s trainer and manager late in Joey’s career.
May he rest in peace.
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Bombs Away in Las Vegas where Inoue and Espinoza Scored Smashing Triumphs

Japan’s Naoya “Monster” Inoue banged it out with Mexico’s Ramon Cardenas, survived an early knockdown and pounded out a stoppage win to retain the undisputed super bantamweight world championship on Sunday.
Japan and Mexico delivered for boxing fans again after American stars failed in back-to-back days.
“By watching tonight’s fight, everyone is well aware that I like to brawl,” Inoue said.
Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), and Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) and his wicked left hook, showed the world and 8,474 fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas that prizefighting is about punching, not running.
After massive exposure for three days of fights that began in New York City, then moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then to Nevada, it was the casino capital of the world that delivered what most boxing fans appreciate- pure unadulterated action fights.
Monster Inoue immediately went to work as soon as the opening bell rang with a consistent attack on Cardenas, who very few people knew anything about.
One thing promised by Cardenas’ trainer Joel Diaz was that his fighter “can crack.”
Cardenas proved his trainer’s words truthful when he caught Inoue after a short violent exchange with a short left hook and down went the Japanese champion on his back. The crowd was shocked to its toes.
“I was very surprised,” said Inoue about getting dropped. ““In the first round, I felt I had good distance. It got loose in the second round. From then on, I made sure to not take that punch again.”
Inoue had no trouble getting up, but he did have trouble avoiding some of Cardenas massive blows delivered with evil intentions. Though Inoue did not go down again, a look of total astonishment blanketed his face.
A real fight was happening.
Cardenas, who resembles actor Andy Garcia, was never overly aggressive but kept that left hook of his cocked and ready to launch whenever he saw the moment. There were many moments against the hyper-aggressive Inoue.
Both fighters pack power and both looked to find the right moment. But after Inoue was knocked down by the left hook counter, he discovered a way to eliminate that weapon from Cardenas. Still, the Texas-based fighter had a strong right too.
In the sixth round Inoue opened up with one of his lightning combinations responsible for 10 consecutive knockout wins. Cardenas backed against the ropes and Inoue blasted away with blow after blow. Then suddenly, Cardenas turned Inoue around and had him on the ropes as the Mexican fighter unloaded nasty combinations to the body and head. Fans roared their approval.
“I dreamed about fighting in front of thousands of people in Las Vegas,” said Cardenas. “So, I came to give everything.”
Inoue looked a little surprised and had a slight Mona Lisa grin across his face. In the seventh round, the Japanese four-division world champion seemed ready to attack again full force and launched into the round guns blazing. Cardenas tried to catch Inoue again with counter left hooks but Inoue’s combos rained like deadly hail. Four consecutive rights by Inoue blasted Cardenas almost through the ropes. The referee Tom Taylor ruled it a knockdown. Cardenas beat the count and survived the round.
In the eighth round Inoue looked eager to attack and at the bell launched across the ring and unloaded more blows on Cardenas. A barrage of 14 unanswered blows forced the referee to stop the fight at 45 seconds of round eight for a technical knockout win.
“I knew he was tough,” said Inoue. “Boxing is not that easy.”
Espinoza Wins
WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinosa (27-0, 23 KOs) uppercut his way to a knockout win over Edward Vazquez (17-3, 4 KOs) in the seventh round.
“I wanted to fight a game fighter to show what I am capable,” said Espinoza.
Espinosa used the leverage of his six-foot, one-inch height to slice uppercuts under the guard of Vazquez. And when the tall Mexican from Guadalajara targeted the body, it was then that the Texas fighter began to wilt. But he never surrendered.
Though he connected against Espinoza in every round, he was not able to slow down the taller fighter and that allowed the Mexican fighter to unleash a 10-punch barrage including four consecutive uppercuts. The referee stopped the fight at 1:47 of the seventh round.
It was Espinoza’s third title defense.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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Undercard Results and Recaps from the Inoue-Cardenas Show in Las Vegas

The curtain was drawn on a busy boxing weekend tonight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas where the featured attraction was Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue appearing in his twenty-fifth world title fight.
The top two fights (Inoue vs. Roman Cardenas for the unified 122-pound crown and Rafael Espinoza vs. Edward Vazquez for the WBO world featherweight diadem) aired on the main ESPN platform with the preliminaries streaming on ESPN+.
The finale of the preliminaries was a 10-rounder between welterweights Rohan Polanco and Fabian Maidana. A 2020/21 Olympian for the Dominican Republic, Polanco was a solid favorite and showed why by pitching a shutout, punctuating his triumph by knocking Maidana to his knees late in the final round with a hard punch to the pit of the stomach.
Polanco improved to 16-0 (10). Argentina’s Maidana, the younger brother of former world title-holder Marcos Maidana, fell to 24-4 while maintaining his distinction of never being stopped.
Emiliano Vargas, a rising force in the 140-pound division with the potential to become a crossover star, advanced to 14-0 (12 KOs) with a second-round stoppage Juan Leon. Vargas, who turned 21 last month, is the son of former U.S. Olympian Fernando Vargas who had big money fights with the likes of Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. Emiliano knocked Leon down hard twice in round two – both the result of right-left combinations — before Robert Hoyle waived it off.
A 28-year-old Spaniard, Leon was 11-2-1 heading in.
In his U.S. debut, 29-year-old Japanese southpaw Mikito Nakano (13-0, 12 KOs) turned in an Inoue-like performance with a fourth-round stoppage of Puerto Rico’s Pedro Medina. Nakano, a featherweight, had Medina on the canvas five times before referee Harvey Dock waived it off at the 1:58 mark of round four. The shell-shocked Medina (16-2) came into the contest riding a 15-fight winning streak.
Lynwood, California junior middleweight Art Barrera Jr, a 19-year-old protégé of Robert Garcia, scored a sixth-round stoppage of Chicago’s Juan Carlos Guerra. There were no knockdowns, but the bout had turned sharply in Barrera’s favor when referee Thomas Taylor intervened. The official time was 1:15 of round six.
Barrera improved to 9-0 (7 KOs). The spunky but outclassed Guerra, who upset Nico Ali Walsh in his previous outing, declined to 6-2-1.
In the lid-lifter, a 10-round featherweight affair, Muskegon Michigan’s Ra’eese Aleem improved to 22-1 (12) with a unanimous decision over LA’s hard-trying Rudy Garcia (13-2-1). The judges had it 99-01, 98-92, and 97-93.
Aleem, 34, was making his second start since June of 2023 when he lost a split decision in Australia to Sam Goodman with a date with Naoya Inoue hanging in the balance.
Check back shortly for David Avila’s recaps of the two world title fights.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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