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This Time, Barker Had The Winning View From the Canvas
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Yogi Berra, the legendary New York Yankees catcher and master of the malaprop, once observed that you can see a lot by looking.
Newly crowned IBF middleweight champion Darren Barker is from across the big water in London, so he can be excused for not knowing much about the wit and witticisms of an 88-year-old, long-retired American baseball player. But he does know that you can see so much more when you’re on your hands and knees in the boxing ring than you can when you’re flat on your back.
Barker had given WBC middleweight champ Sergio Martinez periodic trouble in their Oct. 1, 2011, title bout in Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall, but then the magnificent Argentine southpaw felled him with a thudding right hook to the head in the 11th round. The challenger then spent the next 10 seconds looking up at the lights with unfocused eyes before referee Eddie Cotton waved his arms and gave him the rest of the night off, not to mention 22½ months’ worth of recriminations.
To steal another notable line from the great Yogi, it must have seemed like déjà vu all over again on Saturday night here at the Revel Casino-Hotel, when IBF middleweight king Daniel Geale sent him crashing to the canvas with the single most devastating punch of the night, a perfectly placed left hook to the liver that had the effect of sucking all the air out of Barker’s lungs, as if it had been vacuumed.
This time, however, Barker went down on all fours, which afforded him a better, more inspirational view than he had had under similar circumstances against Martinez. As he struggled to catch his breath, gasping in agony, he peered through the ropes and saw the concerned faces of his mother, wife and sister. And although they weren’t physically in attendance, he also imagined seeing his baby daughter, Scarlett-Rose, and his late brother, Gary, also a boxer, who died in a tragic car crash nearly seven years ago.
As Cotton — who again was the referee for Barker’s second shot at fulfilling his pugilistic dream – raised and dropped his right arm nine times, something in the two-time former European middleweight champ’s brain and heart directed him to jump up, to beat the count, to give himself another chance to do what he had been unable to do in his only previous trip to this seashore resort town. Barker might have been a mere milli-second from again tumbling into the abyss, but he willed himself to not only survive, but take the fight to Geale, an Australian, in the closing moments of that crossroads round.
Six rounds later, Barker (26-1, 16 KOs; pictured, hands aloft, with promoter Hearn to his right) was awarded a close but correct split decision that caused his small, exuberant group of fans from the United Kingdom to go daffy and his British promoter, Eddie Hearn, to excitedly climb through the ropes and jump up and down as if he were on a pogo stick.
“I wasn’t sure when Darren went down if he would get up,” Hearn said. “I saw him bite down on his gum shield. But I knew how much (his getting up and going on to win) meant to him … how much it meant to all of us. Darren was just not to be denied tonight.
“The way he fought back after that knockdown was some of the bravest stuff I’ve ever seen in the ring. It just showed the determination of the man.”
Barker, who went off as a slight 7-4 underdog, was somewhat the busier fighter, as evidenced by punch statistics provided by CompuBox. He landed 292 of 862 blows (34 percent) to 259 of 693 (37 percent) for Geale (29-2, 15 KOs), who was fighting for the first time in the United States. The disparity was a bit wider in power punches, with Barker – who concentrated his attack to the body – connecting on 244 of 582 (42 percent) to 211 of 503 (also 42 percent) for Geale.
Those, however, were not the numbers that were most important. Judge Alan Rubenstein turned in a scorecard favoring Geale, 114-113, but that was countermanded by those submitted by Barbara Perez and Carlos Ortiz, who went with Barker by the respective margins of 116-111 and 114-113. Thesweetscience.com card also had Barker ahead, 115-112.
If there was any controversy – hey, this is boxing, so there had to be at least some, right? – it was that Rubenstein and Ortiz each gave the 12th and final round to Barker, despite the fact that he had eaten several solid shots and appeared to be hurt when the final bell rang.
Barker, by all accounts a truly nice guy, admitted at the postfight press conference that someone or something saved him at his moment of seemingly imminent demise. Maybe it was the sight of his distraught family, hoping and praying that he’d clamber to his feet in time. Maybe it was the fact he had mentally vowed to win in honor of his late brother. Or maybe it was some higher power that had predetermined that, on this night, he would not – could not – fail.
“When I was down on the ground, it was all going through my head – my wife, my family, my daughter,” Barker said. “It made me get up … Someone picked me up. I’m glad they did.”
It was a good night for boxing in general as the HBO Boxing After Dark telecast also featured another title changing hands in Atlantic City, with Spain’s Kiko Martinez (29-4, 21 KOs) dramatically stopping Jhonatan Romero (23-1, 12 KOs), the IBF super bantamweight champ from Colombia, with a barrage of punches along the ropes in the sixth round. Martinez fired away 525 times, a work rate which, if maintained, would have totaled 1,000-plus punches had the bout gone the distance. Romero tried to maintain a more comfortable distance between himself and the short (5-foot-5) Spaniard, but Martinez frequently was able to crowd him into tight spots from which he could not easily escape.
“It was a great show,” said a semi-glum lead promoter, Gary Shaw, whose fighters – Geale and Romero – relinquished their belts. “This is the kind of show boxing needs to keep it at the forefront.”
That great show, however, did seem a bit misplaced geographically. Atlantic City is a fight site that usually yields its bigger crowds when there are one or more fighters from the area, or those who at least have established a local following (think Arturo Gatti). The four boxers at the top of the card hailed from Sydney, Australia (9,960 miles away), London (3,588), Cali, Colombia (2,705) and Aliante, Spain (3,928). Together they had totaled one previous appearance in A.C., that being Barker’s matchup with Sergio Martinez.
“Obviously, Gary Shaw lives in New Jersey and he has a relationship with HBO,” reasoned Hearn. “But it was a strange setup. Still, the people liked what they saw. The spectators were winners as well as Darren.”
The Revel, which has been open for business (and business in a flagging economy hasn’t been good), was making its debut as a host to a boxing event and wanted to put its best foot forward if more fight cards are to be staged in its 3,800-seat Ovation Hall. But the arena was less than half-full and some of those in attendance no doubt were comped. But kudos must go to the 50 or so Brit diehards who waved Union Jacks, sang (mostly off-key) “Walking in a Barker Wonderland,” to the tune of “Walking in a Winter Wonderland,” and periodically erupted into chants of “Come on, Darren! Come on, Darren!”
Despite his new title, Barker evidently has a way to go to rise to the national-hero level of, say, Manchester native Ricky Hatton, whose megafight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand lured 3,900 fortunate ticket-holders and 25,000 screaming Brits to the southern Nevada desert. Barker, 31, will have to build on the foundation he just laid if he is to grow his fan base, on either side of the Atlantic.
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Mizuki Hiruta Dominates in her U.S. Debut and Omar Trinidad Wins Too at Commerce
Japan’s Mizuki Hiruta smashed through Mexico’s Maribel Ramirez with ease in winning by technical decision and local hero Omar Trinidad continued his assault on the featherweight division on Friday.
Hiruta (7-0, 2 KOs), who prefers to be called “Mimi,” made her American debut with an impressive performance against Mexican veteran Maribel Ramirez (15-11-4) and retained the WBO super flyweight world title by unanimous decision at Commerce Casino in Commerce, Calif.
The pink-haired Japanese southpaw champion quickly proved to be quicker, stronger and even better than advertised. In the opening round Ramirez landed on the floor twice after throwing errant blows. On one instance, it could have been ruled a knockdown but it was not a convincing blow.
In the second round, Ramirez again attacked and again was met with a Hiruta check right hook and down went the Mexican. This time referee Ray Corona gave the eight-count and the fight resumed.
It was Hiruta’s third title defense but this time it was on American soil. She seemed nervous by the prospect of getting a favorable review from the more than 700 fans inside the casino tent.
For more than a year Hiruta has been training off and on with Manny Robles in the L.A. area. Now that she has a visa, she has spent considerable time this year learning the tricks of the trade. They proved explosively effective.
Though Mexico City’s Ramirez has considerable experience against world champions, she discovered that Hiruta was not easy to hit. Often, the Japanese champion would slip and counter with precision.
It was an impressive American debut, though the fight was stopped in the eighth round after a collision of heads. The scores were tallied and all three saw Hiruta the winner by scores of 80-71 twice and 79-72.
“I’m so happy. I could have done much more,” said Hiruta through interpreter Yuriko Miyata. “I wanted to do more things that Manny Robles taught me.”
Trinidad Wins Too
Omar Trinidad (18-0-1, 13 KOs) discovered that challenger Mike Plania (31-5, 18 KOs) has a very good chin and staying power. But over 10 rounds Trinidad proved to be too fast and too busy for the Filipino challenger.
Immediately it was evident that the East L.A. featherweight was too quick and too busy for Plania who preferred a counter-puncher attack that never worked.
“He was strong,” said Trinidad. “He took everything.”
After 10 redundant rounds all three judges scored for Trinidad 100-90 twice and 99-91. He retains the WBC Continental Americas title.
Other Bouts
Ali Akhmedov (23-1, 17 KOs) blasted out Malcolm Jones (17-5-1) in less than two rounds. A dozen punches by Akhmedov forced referee Thomas Taylor to stop the super middleweight fight.
Iyana “Roxy” Verduzco (3-0) bloodied Lindsey Ellis in the first round and continued the speedy assault in the next two rounds. Referee Ray Corona saw enough and stopped the fight in favor of Verduzco at 1:34 of the third round.
Gloria Munguilla (7-1) and Brook Sibrian (5-2) lit up the boxing ring with a nonstop clash for eight rounds in their light flyweight fight. Munguilla proved effective with a slip-and-counter attack. Sibrian adjusted and made the fight closer in the last four rounds but all three judges favored Munguilla.
More Winners
Joshua Anton, Tayden Beltran, Adan Palma, and Alexander Gueche all won their bouts.
Photos credit: Al Applerose
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 309: 360 Promotions Opens with Trinidad, Mizuki and More
Avila Perspective, Chap. 309: 360 Promotions Opens with Trinidad, Mizuki and More
Best wishes to the survivors of the Los Angeles wildfires that took place last week and are still ongoing in small locales.
Most of the heavy damage took place in the western part of L.A. near the ocean due to Santa Ana winds. Another very hot spot was in Altadena just north of the Rose Bowl. It was a horrific tragedy.
Hopefully the worst is over.
Pro boxing returns with 360 Boxing Promotions spotlighting East L.A.’s Omar Trinidad (17-0-1, 13 KOs) defending a regional featherweight title against Mike Plania (31-4, 18 KOs) on Friday, Jan. 17, at the Commerce Casino in Commerce, Calif.
“I’m the king of L.A. boxing and I’ll be ready to put on a show headlining again in the main event. This is my year, I’m ready to challenge and defeat any of the featherweight world champions,” said Trinidad.
UFC Fight Pass will stream the Hollywood Night fight card that includes a female world championship fight and other intriguing match-ups.
Tom Loeffler heads 360 Promotions and once again comes full force with a hot prospect in Trinidad. If you’re not familiar with Loeffler’s history of success, he introduced America to Oleksandr Usyk, Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and the brothers Wladimir and Vitaly Kltischko.
“We’ve got a wealth of international talent and local favorites to kick off our 2025 in grand style,” said Loeffler.
He knows talent.
Trinidad hails from the Boyle Heights area of East L.A. near the Los Angeles riverbed. Several fighters from the past came from that exact area including the first Golden Boy, Art Aragon.
Aragon was a huge gate attraction during the late 1940s until 1960. He was known as a lady’s man and dated several Hollywood starlets in his time. Though he never won a world title he did fight world champions Carmen Basilio, Jimmy Carter and Lauro Salas. He was more or less the king of the Olympic Auditorium and Los Angeles boxing during his career.
Other famous boxers from the Boyle Heights area were notorious gangster Mickey Cohen and former world champion Joey Olivo.
Can Trinidad reach world title status?
Facing Trinidad will be Filipino fighter Plania who’s knocked off a couple of prospects during his career including Joshua “Don’t Blink” Greer and Giovanni Gutierrez. The fighter from General Santos in the Philippines can crack and hold his own in the boxing ring.
It’s a very strong fight card and includes WBO world titlist Mizuki Hiruta of Japan who defends the super flyweight title against Mexican veteran Maribel Ramirez. It’s a tough matchup for Hiruta who makes her American debut. You can’t miss her with that pink hair and she has all the physical tools to make a splash in this country.
Two other female bouts are also planned, including light flyweight banger L.A.’s Gloria Munguilla (6-1) against Coachella’s Brook Sibrian (5-1) in a match set for six rounds. Both are talented fighters. Another female fight includes super featherweights Iyana “Right Hook Roxy” Verduzco (2-0) versus Lindsey Ellis (2-1) in another six-rounder. Ellis can crack with all her wins coming via knockout. Verduzco is a multi-national titlist as an amateur.
Others scheduled to perform are Ali Akhmedov, Joshua Anton, Adan Palma and more.
Doors open at 4:30 p.m.
Boxing and the Media
The sport of professional boxing is currently in flux. It’s always in flux but no matter what people may say or write, boxing will survive.
Whether you like Jake Paul or not, he proved boxing has worldwide appeal with monstrous success in his last show. He has media companies looking at the numbers and imagining what they can do with the sport.
Sure, UFC is negotiating a massive billion dollar deal with media companies, as is WWE, both are very similar in that they provide combat entertainment. You don’t need to know the champions because they really don’t matter. Its about the attractions.
Boxing is different. The good champions last and build a following that endures even beyond their careers a la Mike Tyson.
MMA can’t provide that longevity, but it does provide entertainment.
Currently, there is talk of establishing a boxing league again. It’s been done over and over but we shall see if it sticks this time.
Pro boxing is the true warrior’s path and that means a solo adventure. It’s a one-on-one sport and that appeals to people everywhere. It’s the oldest sport that can be traced to prehistoric times. You don’t need classes in Brazilian Jiujitsu, judo, kick boxing or wrestling. Just show up in a boxing gym and they can put you to work.
It’s a poor person’s path that can lead to better things and most importantly discipline.
Photos credit: Lina Baker
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Boxing Trainer Bob Santos Paid his Dues and is Reaping the Rewards
Bob Santos, the 2022 Sports Illustrated and The Ring magazine Trainer of the Year, is a busy fellow. On Feb. 1, fighters under his tutelage will open and close the show on the four-bout main portion of the Prime Video PPV event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Jeison Rosario continues his comeback in the lid-lifter, opposing Jesus Ramos. In the finale, former Cuban amateur standout David Morrell will attempt to saddle David Benavidez with his first defeat. Both combatants in the main event have been chasing 168-pound kingpin Canelo Alvarez, but this bout will be contested for a piece of the light heavyweight title.
When the show is over, Santos will barely have time to exhale. Before the month is over, one will likely find him working the corner of Dainier Pero, Brian Mendoza, Elijah Garcia, and perhaps others.
Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) turned 28 last month. He is in the prime of his career. However, a lot of folk rate Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) a very live dog. At last look, Benavidez was a consensus 7/4 (minus-175) favorite, a price that betokens a very competitive fight.
Bob Santos, needless to say, is confident that his guy can upset the odds. “I have worked with both,” he says. “It’s a tough fight for David Morrell, but he has more ways to victory because he’s less one-dimensional. He can go forward or fight going back and his foot speed is superior.”
Benavidez’s big edge, in the eyes of many, is his greater experience. He captured the vacant WBC 168-pound title at age 20, becoming the youngest super middleweight champion in history. As a pro, Benavidez has answered the bell for 148 rounds compared with only 54 for Morrell, but Bob Santos thinks this angle is largely irrelevant.
“Sure, I’d rather have pro experience than amateur experience,” he says, “but if you look at Benavidez’s record, he fought a lot of soft opponents when he was climbing the ladder.”
True. Benavidez, who turned pro at age 16, had his first seven fights in Mexico against a motley assortment of opponents. His first bout on U.S. soil occurred in his native Pheonix against an opponent with a 1-6-2 record.
While it’s certainly true that Morrell, 26, has yet to fight an opponent the caliber of Caleb Plant, he took up boxing at roughly the same tender age as Benavidez and earned his spurs in the vaunted Cuban amateur system, eventually defeating elite amateurs in international tournaments.
“If you look at his [pro] record, you will notice that [Morrell] has hardly lost a round,” says Santos of the fighter who captured an interim title in only his third professional bout with a 12-round decision over Guyanese veteran Lennox Allen.
Bob Santos is something of a late bloomer. He was around boxing for a long time, assisting such notables as Joe Goossen, Emanuel Steward, and Ronnie Shields before becoming recognized as one of the sport’s top trainers.
A native of San Jose, he grew up in a Hispanic neighborhood but not in a household where Spanish was spoken. “I know enough now to get by,” he says modestly. He attended James Lick High School whose most famous alumnus is Heisman winning and Super Bowl winning quarterback Jim Plunkett. “We worked in the same apricot orchard when we were kids,” says Santos. “Not at the same time, but in the same field.”
After graduation, he followed his father’s footsteps into construction work, but boxing was always beckoning. A cousin, the late Luis Molina, represented the U.S. as a lightweight in the 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics, and was good enough as a pro to appear in a main event at Madison Square Garden where he lost a narrow decision to the notorious Puerto Rican hothead Frankie Narvaez, a future world title challenger.
Santos’ cousin was a big draw in San Jose in an era when the San Jose / Sacramento territory was the bailiwick of Don Chargin. “Don was a beautiful man and his wife Lorraine was even nicer,” says Santos of the husband/wife promotion team who are enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Don Chargin was inducted in 2001 and Lorraine posthumously in 2018.
Chargin promoted Fresno-based featherweight Hector Lizarraga who captured the IBF title in 1997. Lizarraga turned his career around after a 5-7-3 start when he hooked up with San Jose gym operator Miguel Jara. It was one of the most successful reclamation projects in boxing history and Bob Santos played a part in it.
Bob hopes to accomplish the same turnaround with Jeison Rosario whose career was on the skids when Santos got involved. In his most recent start, Rosario held heavily favored Jarrett Hurd to a draw in a battle between former IBF 154-pound champions on a ProBox card in Florida.
“I consider that one of my greatest achievements,” says Santos, noting that Rosario was stopped four times and effectively out of action for two years before resuming his career and is now on the cusp of earning another title shot.
The boxer with whom Santos is most closely identified is former four-division world title-holder Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero. The slick southpaw, the pride of Gilroy, California, the self-proclaimed “Garlic Capital of the World,” retired following a bad loss to Omar Figueroa Jr, but had second thoughts and is currently riding a six-fight winning streak. “I’ve known him since he was 15 years old,” notes Santos.
Years from now, Santos may be more closely identified with the Pero brothers, Dainier and Lenier, who aspire to be the Cuban-American version of the Klitschko brothers.
Santos describes Dainier, one of the youngest members of Cuba’s Olympic Team in Tokyo, as a bigger version of Oleksandr Usyk. That may be stretching it, but Dainier (10-0, 8 KOs as a pro), certainly hits harder.
This reporter was a fly on the wall as Santos put Dainier Pero through his paces on Tuesday (Jan. 14) at Bones Adams gym in Las Vegas. Santos held tight to a punch shield, in the boxing vernacular a donut, as the Cuban practiced his punches. On several occasions the trainer was knocked off-balance and the expression on his face as his body absorbed some of the after-shocks, plainly said, “My goodness, what the hell am I doing here? There has to be an easier way to make a living.” It was an assignment that Santos would have undoubtedly preferred handing off to his young assistant, his son Joe Santos, but Joe was preoccupied coordinating David Morrell’s camp.
Dainer’s brother Lenier is also an ex-Olympian, and like Dainier was a super heavyweight by trade as an amateur. With an 11-0 (8 KOs) record, Lenier Pero’s pro career was on a parallel path until stalled by a managerial dispute. Lenier last fought in March of last year and Santos says he will soon join his brother in Las Vegas.
There’s little to choose between the Pero brothers, but Dainier is considered to have the bigger upside because at age 25 he is the younger sibling by seven years.
Bob Santos was in the running again this year for The Ring magazine’s Trainer of the Year, one of six nominees for the honor that was bestowed upon his good friend Robert Garcia. Considering the way that Santos’ career is going, it’s a safe bet that he will be showered with many more accolades in the years to come.
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