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Floyd Mayweather Figures Out Argentina’s Marcos Maidana Late In Fight
LAS VEGAS-Floyd “Money” Mayweather sweated out a close victory over the rugged fighting Argentine Marcos “Chino” Maidana by majority decision on Saturday.
A rematch may be in store.
Few expected the fight to be as closely fought but Mayweather (46-0, 26 Kos) had probably never seen before the overhand blows that Maidana (35-4, 31 Kos) used with impunity before 16,268 fans at the MGM Garden Arena. It took the clever WBC and WBA welterweight champion half of the fight to figure out where to duck and move.
“He really came to fight,” said Mayweather, 37. “He had an awkward style, he was a difficult guy to fight.”
The clumsy looking but effective style of Maidana scored in the first two rounds with overhand rights that looked like scorpion stings and landed often on the back of Mayweather’s head. By the third round Mayweather began to find the mark for his patented right hand leads, but Maidana seemed unaffected. In many ways it reminded some of the Ricardo Mayorga-Vernon Forrest fights a decade earlier.
During some wild exchanges that saw elbows flying and overhand rights in round four, Mayweather emerged with a cut over his left eye. It had been years that the Las Vegas boxer had suffered a cut. He’s rarely hit but he was confused by the awkwardness of Maidana who landed more blows than any previous opponent, at 221 blows connected.
Mayweather finally scored a clear cut round in the sixth with some perfectly timed right counters and several left hooks. But Maidana still remained dangerous and was able to score too.
Flashes of the Mayweather speed were apparent in the seventh round as he fired a four-punch combination and slipped away easily. Maidana fired back but his blows were stymied by Mayweather’s defense.
Mayweather began to work the body with stiff jabs and some left hooks. It seemed to bother the Argentine, who backed off a bit. From that point on Mayweather began to control the fight from the outside with pinpoint counter rights and lefts. Maidana never allowed him to feel comfortable and kept the fight interesting.
“I was in a tough competitive fight,” Mayweather said. “I take nothing away from him. I couldn’t see for two rounds after the head butt. Real champions adapt to anything.”
One judge scored it a draw 114-114, but two others saw Mayweather winning 117-111 and 116-112.
“I thought I won,” said Maidana. “He did not fight like a man like I expected him to.”
Mayweather said he would be interested in a rematch with the rugged Argentinian.
“If the fans want to see it we can do it again,” said Mayweather.
Unlike Broner, who never was able to figure out Maidana, the Las Vegas speedster kept the fight in the middle of the ring and shot rights to the head and body. It kept Maidana from attempting bull rushes as in the first half of the fight.
Richard Schaefer, CEO for Golden Boy Promotions, said it was the most blows ever landed against Mayweather in a prize fight.
Mayweather, considered the undisputed best fighter in boxing at any weight class, is approaching the record of Rocky Marciano as the most wins by a world champion from the U.S. without ever experiencing a loss in his career.
Other bouts
United Kingdom’s Amir “King” Khan (29-3, 19 Kos) showed how to win the Mayweather sweepstakes by dominating former welterweight world champion Luis Collazo (35-6, 18 Kos) with three knockdowns in winning by unanimous decision.
“He was pretty awkward,” said Khan about the left-handed Collazo of Brooklyn. “People want to see a fight between Mayweather and me. Styles make fights. I beat him (Collazo) convincingly.”
All three judges scored it for Khan at 119-104 twice and 117-106
Adrien “The Problem” Broner (28-1, 22 Kos) defeated Carlos Molina (17-2, 7 Kos) by unanimous decision after 10 rounds. It was his first time fighting at junior welterweight.
“It was just a sparring match on TV,” said Broner, who is often compared to Mayweather.
Molina was very on point with his response.
“I thought I stayed in there too much,” said Molina, who had not fought in 18 months since losing to Amir Khan in 2012. “He was tricky to time the jab.”
Speedy J’Leon Love (18-0, 10 Kos) survived a brutal fifth round which saw him floored with several big blows from Mexico’s Marco Antonio Periban (20-2-1, 13 Kos). Referee Jay Nady made a signal to stop and then shoved the Mexican fighter across the ring. “I thought he called off the fight,” said Periban. Love survived by holding and then returned to jabbing and moving for the remainder of the fight. All three judges scored the super middleweight fight for Love 95-93, 97-92, 96-93.
Ashley Theophane (35-6-1, 11 Kos) battled the much taller Angino Perez (15-5, 13 Kos) and won the contest that featured numerous overhand rights. In the fourth round, Theophane was able to take advantage of the wider blows and land his own first. Numerous blows forced a stoppage of the fight at 2:44 of round four to give Theophane the technical knockout win in the welterweight contest.
Ladarius Miller (2-0) used a single left cross to knock out Richard Colas (11-3) at 58 seconds of round three in a junior welterweight match between Las Vegas-based prizefighters.
Lanell Bellows (7-1-1, 6 Kos) dropped Arkansas’ Thomas Gifford (2-2-1) with the first two punches he fired. Then in the second round, two booming right hands forced referee Jay Nady to stop the fight at 1:17 of round two in the super middleweight bout.
Andrew Tabiti (6-0, 6 Kos) stopped John Shipman (3-2) at 2:11 of round four in a cruiserweight fight.
Ron Gavril (9-0, 7 Kos) knocked out Tyrell Hendrix (10-4-2) at 1:58 of round four in a super middleweight fight.
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With Olympic Boxing on the Ropes, Three Elite U.S. Amateurs Shine in Colorado
Three USA boxers won gold medals at the recently concluded World Boxing U19 tournament in Pueblo, Colorado. The tournament, restricted to boxers aged 17 and 18, attracted contestants from 30 nations and a contingent from French Polynesia.
The U.S. team, represented by eight male and six female boxers, secured 11 medals in all, an impressive haul.
The three U.S. gold medalists appear to have very bright futures if they choose to remain in the sport. They are:
Light heavyweight (80 kg) ELIJAH LUGO (Marrietta, GA)
Lugo has purportedly scored 42 stoppages in his amateur career, the most since USA Boxing began keeping track. The record was previously held by his older brother Nathan Lugo who is currently 2-0 (2 KOs) at the professional level. The Lugo brothers are represented by David McWater (Split-T Management). One of boxing’s most influential facilitators, McWater’s clients include Teofino Lopez.
Middleweight (75 kg) JOSEPH AWININGYA JR (Joliet, IL)
The son of a Ghanaian immigrant who had a brief career as a professional boxer, competing as a cruiserweight, the precocious Awiningya, mature for his age, is a college student majoring in marketing who once aspired to become a nurse like his mother.
Flyweight (50 kg) LORENZO PATRICIO (Waianae, Hawai)
One of eight children. Patricio (our poster boy for this story) comes from a boxing family. Two of his sisters are involved in the sport.
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In addition to the three gold medalists, the U.S. men’s team garnered two silver and three bronze. The U.S. women managed only three bronze, somewhat of a disappointment. Lightweight Shamiracle Hardaway (Lagrange, GA), considered one of the favorites, fell to England’s Ella Lonsdale in the semifinals. Ms. Lonsdale has a wonderful surname for a British boxer.
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The best showing was by fast-rising India which had 17 medal winners including three golds. Although boxer Mery Kom (aka Mary Kom) is one of the most popular sports personalities in India, the South Asian nation, the world’s most populous country, has never had a large presence in boxing, amateur or pro. Ten of the 17 Indian medalists, including two of three gold medal winners, were female.
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Tournament organizers noted that the Pueblo event was the first major tournament in the next Olympic cycle. Left unsaid was that boxing as an Olympic sport is on the ropes (pardon the pun). As it now stands, boxing, one of the original Olympic sports, is not on the docket for the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
The International Olympic Committee de-frocked the International Boxing Association, the governing body of amateur boxing, in 2023. The decision was upheld in April by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, an agency headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland.
A new body, World Boxing, emerged from the fallout. The Pueblo tournament bore the imprint of the new organization.
The chairman of World Boxing’s “Olympic Commission” is Gennadiy Golovkin who is also the president of Kazakhstan’s National Olympic Committee. A former Olympic silver medalist whose primary residence is in the Los Angeles area, “GGG” is reportedly fluent in four languages. He is tasked with repairing the rent between boxing and the International Olympic Committee so that boxing can continue to be an Olympic sport. A decision is expected next year.
If successful, it is possible that things may revert to the days when professional boxers were ineligible to compete for Olympic medals.
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Floyd Schofield Wins a Banger and Gabriela Fundora Wins by KO
Floyd Schofield Wins a Banger and Gabriela Fundora Wins by KO
LAS VEGAS-Shades of Henry Armstrong and Baby Arizmendi. If you don’t know those names, look them up.
Floyd Schofield battled his way past Mexico’s super tough Rene Tellez Giron who walked through every blow the Texan could fire but lost by decision on Saturday.
It was a severe test and perfect matchmaking for Schofield who yearns for the big bouts against the lightweight giants roaming the world.
Schofield (18-0, 12 KOs) remains undefeated and won the war over thick-necked Mexican Tellez Giron (20-4, 13 KOs) who has never been knocked out and proved to be immune to big punches.
In the opening rounds, the Texas fighter came out firing rapid combinations from the southpaw and orthodox stances. Meanwhile the shorter Tellez Giron studied and fired back an occasional counter for two rounds.
Tellez Giron had seen enough and took his stand in the third stanza. Both unleashed blazing bombs with Schofield turning his back to the Mexican. At that moment referee Tom Taylor could have waved the fight over.
You never turn your back.
The fight resumed and Schofield was damaged. He tried to open up with even more deadly fire but was rebuked by the strong chin of Tellez Giron who fired back in the mad frenzy.
For the remainder of the fight Schofield tried every trick in his arsenal to inflict damage on the thick-necked Mexican. He could not be wobbled. In the 11th round both opened up with serious swing-from-the-heels combinations and suddenly Schofield was looking up. He beat the count easily and the two remained slugging it out.
“He hit me with a good shot,” Schofield said of the knockdown. “I just had to get up. I’m not going to quit.”
In the final round Schofield moved around looking for the proper moment to engage. The Mexican looked like a cat ready to pounce and the two fired furious blows. Neither was hit with the big bombs in the last seconds.
There was Tellez Giron standing defiantly like Baby Arizmendi must have stood in those five ferocious meetings against the incomparable Henry Armstrong. Three of their wars took place in Los Angeles, two at the Olympic Auditorium in the late 1930s as the U.S. was emerging from the Great Depression.
In this fight, Schofield took the win by unanimous decision by scores 118-109 twice and 116-111. It was well-deserved.
“I tried to bang it out,” said Schofield. “Today I learned you can’t always get the knockout.”
Fundora
IBF flyweight titlist Gabriela Fundora needed seven rounds to figure out the darting style of Argentina’s Gabriela Alaniz before firing a laser left cross down the middle to end the battle and become the undisputed flyweight world champion.
Fundora now holds all four titles including the WBO, WBA and WBC titles that Alaniz brought in the ring.
Fundora knocked down Alaniz midway through the seventh round. She complained it was due to a tangle of the legs. Several seconds later Fundora blasted the Argentine to the floor again with a single left blast. This time there was no doubt. Her corner wisely waved a white towel to stop the fight at 1:40 of the seventh round.
No one argued the stoppage.
Other Bouts
Bektemir Melikuziev (15-1, 10 KOs) didn’t make weight in a title bout but managed to out-fight David Stevens (14-2, 10 KOs) in a super middleweight fight held at 12 rounds.
Melikuziev used his movement and southpaw stance to keep Pennsylvania’s Stevens from being able to connect with combinations. But Stevens did show he could handle “The Bully’s” punching power over the 12-round fight.
After 12 rounds one judge favored Stevens 116-112, while two others saw Melikuziev the winner by split decision 118-110 and 117-111.
Super middleweight WBA titlist Darius Fulghum (13-0, 11 KOs) pummeled his way to a technical knockout win over southpaw veteran Chris Pearson (17-5-1, 12 KOs) who attempted the rope-a-dope strategy to no avail.
Fulghum floored Pearson in the first round with a four-punch combination and after that just belted Pearson who covered up and fired an occasional blow. Referee Mike Perez stopped the fight at 1:02 of the third round when Pearson did not fire back after a blazing combination.
Young welterweight prospect Joel Iriarte (5-0, 5 KOs) blasted away at the three-inch shorter Xavier Madrid (5-6, 2 KOs) who hung tough for as long as possible. At 2:50 of the first round a one-two delivered Madrid to the floor and referee Thomas Taylor called off the beating.
Iriarte, from Bakersfield, Calif., could not miss with left uppercuts and short rights as New Mexico’s Madrid absorbed every blow but would not quit. It was just too much firepower from Iriarte that forced the stoppage.
Photos credit: Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy
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Results and Recaps from Turning Stone where O’Shaquie Foster Nipped Robson Conceicao
Top Rank was at the Turning Stone casino-resort in Verona, New York, tonight with an 8-bout card topped by a rematch between Robson Conceicao and O’Shaquie Foster with the victor retaining or recapturing his IBF world junior lightweight title. When the smoke cleared, the operative word was “recapturing” as Foster became a two-time title-holder, avenging his controversial setback to the Brazilian in Newark on July 6.
This was a somewhat better fight than their initial encounter and once again the verdict was split. Foster prevailed by 115-113 on two of the cards with the dissenting judge favoring Conceicao by the same margin. Conceicao seemingly had the edge after nine frames, but Foster, a 4/1 favorite, landed the harder shots in the championship rounds.
It was the thirteenth victory in the last 14 starts for Foster who fights out of Houston. A two-time Olympian and 2016 gold medalist, the 36-year-old Conceicao is 19-3-1 overall and 1-3-1 in world title fights.
Semi-wind-up
SoCal lightweight Raymond Muratalla (22-0, 17 KOs) made a big jump in public esteem and moved one step closer to a world title fight with a second-round blast-out of Jose Antonio Perez who was on the canvas twice but on his feet when the fight was stopped at the 1:24 mark of round two. Muratalla, a product of Robert Garcia’s boxing academy, is ranked #2 by the WBC and WBO. A Tijuana native, Perez (25-6) earned this assignment with an upset of former Olympian and former 130-pound world titlist Jojo Diaz,
Other Bouts
Syracuse junior welterweight Bryce Mills, a high-pressure fighter with a strong local following, stopped scrawny Mike O’Han Jr whose trainer Mark DeLuca pulled him out after five one-sided rounds. Mills improved to 17-1 (6 KOs). It was another rough day at the office for Massachusetts house painting contractor O’’Han (19-4) who had the misfortune of meeting Abdullah Mason in his previous bout.
In a junior lightweight fight that didn’t heat up until late in the final round, Albany’s Abraham Nova (23-3-1) and Tijuana native Humberto Galindo (14-3-3) fought to a 10-round draw. It was another close-but-no- cigar for the likeable Nova who at least stemmed a two-fight losing streak. The judges had it 97-93 (Galindo), 96-94 (Nova) and 95-95.
Twenty-one-year-old Long Island middleweight Jahi Tucker advanced to 13-1-1 (6 KOs) with an eighth-round stoppage of Stockton’s teak-tough but outclassed Quilisto Madera (14-6). Madera was on a short leash after five rounds, but almost took it to the final bell with the referee intervening with barely a minute remaining in the contest. Madera was on his feet when the match was halted. Earlier in the round, Tucker had a point deducted for hitting on the break.
Danbury, Connecticut heavyweight Ali Feliz, one of two fighting sons of journeyman heavyweight Fernely Feliz, improved to 4-0 (3) with a second-round stoppage of beefy Rashad Coulter (5-5). Feliz had Coulter pinned against the ropes and was flailing away when the bout was halted at the 1:34 mark. The 42-year-old Coulter, a competitor in all manner of combat sports, hadn’t previously been stopped when competing as a boxer.
Featherweight Yan Santana dominated and stopped Mexico’s Eduardo Baez who was rescued by referee Charlie Fitch at the 1:57 mark of round four. It was the 12th knockout in 13 starts for Santana, a 24-year-old Dominican father of three A former world title challenger, Mexicali’s Baez declines to 23-7-2 but has lost six of his last eight.
In his most impressive showing to date, Damian Knyba, a six-foot-seven Pole, knocked out paunchy Richard Lartey at the 2:10 mark of round three. A right-left combination knocked Lartey into dreamland, but it was the right did the damage and this was of the nature of a one-punch knockout. Referee Ricky Gonzalez waived the fight off without starting a count.
Knyba, 28, improved to 14-0 (8 KOs). A native of Ghana coming off his career-best win, a fourth-round stoppage of Polish veteran Andrzej Wawrzyk, Lartey declined to 16-7 with his sixth loss inside the distance.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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