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Tim Bradley: R-E-S-P-E-C-T
On October 12th, Tim Bradley fought Juan Manuel Marquez at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. The belts were irrelevant. Most fight fans had no idea which sanctioning body strap (WBO welterweight) was on the line. This was a bout between two elite fighters, period. And it was particularly significant for Bradley.
“Beating Márquez will make me one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world,” Tim said days before the fight. “I don’t do this just to make money. The money is important, but I want to fight the best to be the best. That’s what motivates me. After I beat Marquez, there’s no way that people will be able to deny me what I’m due.”
Bradley stands just under 5-feet-6-inches tall and wears size twelve shoes. “Big heart too, baby,” he’s quick to note. He’s a volume puncher without knockout power (unbeaten but with only 12 KOs in 31 fights). Roy Jones calls him “a 147-pound Evander Holyfield without the punch.”
Like most fighters, Bradley dreams big dreams. But he pushes himself harder than most to accomplish them.
“I can be stubborn at times,” Tim says. “I never doubt myself. Doubt me; tell me I can’t do something. I love it. I admire people who push themselves beyond what anyone thinks they can do. Diana Nyad; sixty-four years old, swimming in the ocean with sharks, jellyfish; keeps swimming for more than fifty hours. That’s me. I’ll go into the devil’s mouth, dive into the deepest part of the ocean, do whatever I have to do to win.”
Bradley knew that he’d have a hard road to travel against Marquez.
Mexican pride has taken a beating in the boxing ring lately. Earlier this year, Canelo Alvarez was whitewashed by Floyd Mayweather; Julio Cesar Chavez Jr embarrassed himself against Brian Vera; Alfredo Angulo quit against Erislandy Lara; and Rafael Marquez was stopped by Efrain Esquivias. In 2012, Erik Morales lost twice to Danny Garcia, and Jorge Arce was demolished by Nonito Donaire. Prior to that, Antonio Margarito was bludgeoned by Shane Mosley and Manny Pacquiao and out-finessed by Miguel Cotto. Marco Antonio Barrera disappeared from the spotlight after being terminated by Amir Khan four years ago.
That left Marquez, whose most recent outing was a one-punch highlight-reel knockout of Pacquiao last December.
“I’ve seen every one of his fights,” Bradley (seen unloading on the Mexican in Chris Farina-Top Rank photo) said during a media conference call in early October. “I’ve always been a fan of Márquez.I always thought he was a great fighter and I still think he’s a great fighter. He’s one of the best counter-punchers in the game. People struggle when they fight him. He never ducked anybody.He has been in there with Mayweather. He fought Pacquiao four times. There’s nothing he hasn’t seen.Marquez isn’t easy for anyone.”
Two issues were troubling to Tim’s fans where Bradley-Marquez was concerned. The first was PED testing.
In other sports, the great athletes are getting younger. In boxing, they’re getting older. Age thirty-five used to be washed up and over-the-hill in the sweet science. Marquez is forty (ten years older than Bradley) and as formidable as he has ever been. Indeed, in recent years, Juan Manuel seems to have gotten bigger, faster, and stronger. Sort of like Barry Bonds.
Bradley is an awesome physical specimen. “I’ve got the six-pack, the back-pack, and the ninja turtle shell,” Tim says. But he’s within three pounds of the weight that he turned pro at nine years ago. And the fact that he has made a commitment to VADA testing (all of his VADA tests came back negative prior to Bradley-Marquez) entitles him the presumption that he’s clean.
Marquez, by contrast, has elevated through six weight divisions during the course of his career. And after joining forces with conditioner Angel “Memo” Heredia (who previously admitted under oath to being a purveyor of performance enhancing drugs), Juan Manuel has come into the ring with a significantly more-muscular physique and added punching power.
Marquez refused to submit to VADA testing prior to fighting Bradley.
Also, in Bradley’s most recent fight – a narrow decision win over Ruslan Provodnikov on March 16th – he was seriously concussed and suffered from slurred speech and dizziness for ten weeks afterward.
Most fighters don’t talk about their vulnerabilities. Bradley does. In fact, he talked more openly about his concussion and its aftereffects than any active fighter in recent memory.
“One of the reasons I’ve been so open about this,” Tim explained several days before Bradley-Marquez, “is so other fighters will get the help they need when they’ve been concussed. Every fighter knows that, when he enters the ring, he might not come out the same. But a lot of times, there are things you can do to get better. Testing, therapy. And you’ve got to do them.”
Marquez was a 6-to-5 favorite. Bradley dismissed those numbers, saying, “The odds are about the last punch in Marquez’s last fight. And then you look at my last fight, when I was concussed. But I was trying to prove something against Provodnikov that I shouldn’t have tried to prove. And Pacquiao was beating Marquez until he got sloppy-overconfident. I’m fine now. Everything is back to normal. I am not worried about getting punched or can I take a punch.”
Still, many of those who predicted a Bradley victory over Marquez did so with a caveat: “If Tim is okay.”
Both fighters made the 147-pound limit with room to spare. Bradley weighed in at 146 pounds; Marquez at 144-1/2. An announced crowd of 13,011 was on hand when the main event began.
It’s hard to outbox Marquez. But for much of the night, Bradley did it.
“Concentration will be very important in this fight,” Tim had said earlier in the week. “Never taking a second off physically or mentally, but especially mentally.”
Bradley stayed true to that creed, making adjustments throughout the night in a tactical fight fought at a high skill level with neither man able to establish control.
“The game plan was to move and keep moving,” Tim said afterward. “I felt his power in the first round. He caught me with an uppercut that hurt . . . My speed and footwork were the key. I got in a rhythm early . . . You have to be careful when you fight him. He’s really dangerous when he backs up. You follow him in and BOOM . . . He knocked Pacquiao out with that big right hand. I knew he’d be going for that . . . I had a good tight defense. I was blocking a lot of his shots and making him miss . . . He changed gears in the second half of the fight, kept making adjustments, started closing the gap. After a while, he started timing my jab and I said to myself, ‘It’s time to do something else’ . . . A lot of times when we had big exchanges, I wanted to fight with him. But he was throwing heavy shots and I told myself, ‘Stay disciplined; stay smart’ . . . Marquez is a smart fighter and very dangerous.”
It was a hard fight to score. According to CompuBox, neither fighter outlanded the other by more than six punches in any round. In six of the twelve rounds, the differential was two punches or less. There were only five rounds in which the judges were in agreement.
Glenn Feldman scored the bout 115-113 for Marquez. But he was overruled by Robert Hoyle (115-113) and Patricia Morse Jarman (116-112), each of whom gave the nod to Bradley.
Marquez and Nacho Beristain (his trainer) were notably ungracious at the post-fight press conference.
“The judges did it again,” Juan Manuel said, alluding to his previous losses by decision to Pacquiao in Sin City. “To win in Las Vegas, I need to knock my opponent out.”
“Bradley is a good fighter and he’s also very lucky,” Beristain added. “He’s the only undefeated fighter with two losses [the other “loss” being a controversial decision victory over Pacquiao in 2012].”
But in truth, there’s no judging controversy here. Bradley-Marquez was a close competitive fight that could have gone either way. Two of the three judges said that Bradley won. It’s as simple as that.
One might also note that Juan Manuel’s face was bruised and swollen after the fight, particularly around his left eye, while Bradley was largely unmarked.
How good is Bradley?
Tim doesn’t talk constantly about the “0” on his record. But it’s there. After decisioning Marquez, he had a 31-and-0 record. In addition to beating Juan Manuel, he has victories over Manny Pacquiao, Devon Alexander, Lamont Peterson, Junior Witter, Ruslan Provodnikov, Luis Abregu, Joel Casamayor, and Nate Campbell to his credit.
Floyd Mayweather, at the same age, had a 36-and-0 record with wins over Genaro Hernandez, Diego Corrales, Jose Luis Castillo, Arturo Gatti, Zab Judah, Carlos Baldomir, Angel Manfredy, and Jesus Chavez.
“Fighting Mayweather is a huge goal for me,” Bradley says. “I’m not Manny Pacquiao. I’m not Juan Manuel Marquez. I’m not Floyd Mayweather. But you can put my name in the conversation. I’m Tim Bradley and I know how to fight. If you think you can beat me, come on and try.”
Tim Bradley has arrived. Enjoy the show.
Thomas Hauser can be reached by email at thauser@rcn.com. His most recent book (Straight Writes and Jabs: An Inside Look at Another Year in Boxing) was published by the University of Arkansas Press.
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, improved 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 21st 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
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In a battle to retain heavyweight contender status, Filip Hrgovic out-fought Joe “The Juggernaut” Joyce to win by unanimous decision on Saturday on Queensberry Promotions’ first card on DAZN.
It was a heavyweight brawl.
Croatia’s Hrgovic (18-1, 14 KOs) was the more accurate puncher over England’s Joyce (16-4, 15 KOs) in their heavyweight title fight at Manchester, England. Both were coming off losses.
Hrgovic, 32, entered the boxing ring as a replacement for Joyce’s original foe Dillian Whyte. Though short on notice, he worked with Abel Sanchez who formerly trained Joyce. It proved to be a wise move.
From the opening round Hrgovic opened-up with a battering attack, especially with the one-two combination that rocked Joyce repeatedly in the first two rounds. The British fighter known for his rock-hard chin, withstood the challenge.
“He is a beast,” said Hrgovic. “This guy is like steel.”
For the first half of the 10-round heavyweight clash, Hrgovic was the aggressor and the much more accurate puncher. Joyce seemed unsteady on his legs but every round he seemed to gain more stability and confidence.
By midway, Joyce resorted to his juggernaut ways and began to stalk the Croatian fighter whom he defeated in the amateurs a dozen years ago.
Though Joyce had lost by knockout to Zhilei Zhang and was knocked down by Derek Chisora, he was able to remain upright throughout the match with Hrgovic despite some wicked shots.
Just when it seemed Joyce might take over the fight, Hrgovic opened-up with an eight-punch volley in the eighth round that had the British heavyweight reeling. The fight turned around.
Hrgovic seemed to get a second wind and began connecting with left hooks and pinpoint accurate combinations. Joyce tried to fight back but his accuracy was off. The Croatian fighter regained the momentum and never allowed Joyce back in the fight.
After 10 rounds all three judges scored for Hrgovic 97-93, 96-95, 98-92.
“I came to fight on short notice. Thanks to God he gave me strength,” said Hrgovic. “Thanks to Joe for the opportunity.”
The Croatian fighter said he seeks a fight with IBF heavyweight titlist Daniel Dubois.
“This guy beat Dubois and I beat him,” said Hrgovic who lost to Dubois a year ago but defeated Joyce who knocked out Dubois when they fought.
Other Bouts
Heavyweight David Adeleye (14-1, 13 KOs) knocked out Jeamie Tshikeva (8-2, 5 KOs) during a clinch and interference by the referee. It remained a knockout win for Adeleye at 55 seconds of the sixth round. Adeleye becomes the British heavyweight champion.
Super lightweight Jack Rafferty (26-0, 17 KOs) knocked out Cory O’Regan (14-1, 3 KOs) in a punch seemingly delivered during a clinch in the fifth round. The match was stopped at 2:26 of the sixth round.
British Olympian Delicious Orie (1-0) made his pro debut and won by decision over Milos Veletic (3-8) in a heavyweight contest.
Avila Perspective, Chap. 320: Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame, Heavyweights and More
Many of the best female fighters of all time including Christy Martin, Laila Ali and others are gathering in the glitzy lights of Las Vegas this week.
Several hundred fans including current and former world champions are attending the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame ceremony on Friday, April 4 and 5th at the Orleans Casino in Las Vegas.
It’s one of my favorite events.
Where else can you talk to the female pioneers and stars of the 1980s and 1990s?
The last time I attended two years ago, Germany’s super star Regina Halmich spoke to the packed house about her career in boxing. She and Daisy Lang were two female world champions who sold out arenas wherever they fought. The pair of blonde fighters proved that female prizefighting could succeed.
Many times, I debated with promoters who believed women’s boxing could not succeed in the USA. Though it was popular in Germany and Mexico, various organizers felt female boxing was not appealing to the American masses.
Now promoters and media networks know women’s boxing and women’s sports have crowd appeal.
Expected to attend the IWBHOF event at Orleans will be Mexico’s Jessica Chavez and Jackie Nava who will be inducted into the women’s hall of fame along with Vaia Zaganas of Canada among many others.
It’s also a gathering place for many of the top proponents of women’s boxing including the organizers of this event such as Sue Fox whose idea spawned the IWBHOF.
Each event is unique and special.
Many of my favorite people in boxing attend this celebration of women’s boxing. Stop by the Orleans Casino on the second floor. You won’t be disappointed.
Heavyweight prospects
Heavyweights take the forefront this weekend in two pivotal battles in different continents.
In England, a pair of contenders looking to maintain their footing in the heavyweight mountain will clash as Joe Joyce (16-3, 15 KOs) meets Croatia’s Filip Hrgovic (17-1, 14 KOs) at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester. DAZN will stream the event.
Both lost their last match and need a win to remain relevant. Joyce has lost his three of his last four, most recently coming up short in a riveting slugfest with Derek Chisora.
Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, Nevada, two young heavyweights looking to crack contender status clash as undefeated Richard Torrez (12-0,11 KOs) fights Italy’s Guido Vianello (13-2-1,11 KOs) at the Palms Casino.
Both are Olympians who can crack and each can take a blow.
The winner moves up into contention and the other will need to scrape and claw back into relevance.
Coming up
April 12 in Atlantic City: Jarron Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) vs Eimantis Stanionis (15-0, 9 KOs) IBF welterweight title.
April 12 Albuquerque: Fernando Vargas Jr. (16-0) vs Gonzalo Gaston (23-7); Shane Mosley Jr. (22-4) vs DeAundre Pettus (12-4).
April 19 Oceanside, Calif: Gabriela Fundora (15-0, 7 KOs) vs Marilyn Badillo (19-0-1, 3 KOs). Also, Charles Conwell (21-0, 16 KOs) vs Jorge Garcia (32-4, 26 KOs).
April 26 Tottenham Stadium, London, England; Conor Benn (23-0) vs Chris Eubank Jr. (34-3); Aaron McKenna (19-0, 10 KOs) vs Liam Smith (33-4, 20 Kos).
Fights to Watch
Sat. DAZN 11 a.m. Joe Joyce (16-3) vs Filip Hrgovic (17-1).
Sat. ESPN+ 2:30 p.m. Richard Torrez (12-0) vs Guido Vianello (13-2-1).
Sat. AMAZON PRIME VIDEO 8:00 8 p.m. Tim Tszyu (24-2) vs. Joey Spencer (19-1)
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