COMMISSIONER’S CORNER: Love For Bud, Our Man Harold, And Mayflower-Merriweather

Published

10 years ago

July 1, 2014

Last week, this column kind of just appeared out of nowhere, with no explanation of what the heck it is and when to expect it. It’s like this: After signing with Al Haymon, I struck a multi-billion dollar deal with Dino DaVinci & Michael Woods to allow me to throw this column onto TSS every Monday. So, here is installment #2…Oh, I also said I’d remind you guys to call toll free into my show on SiriusXM later today. The number is 1-866-522-2846. We are on from 6-8pm (ET). You guys in other time zones, make the adjustments.

On Saturday night in Omaha, Nebraska, a boxing match—for a world championship—took place in the CenturyLink Center. Not since 1972, when heavyweight Ron Stander—who was from across the river in Council Bluffs, Iowa—took on heavyweight champion Smokin’ Joe Frazier in Omaha, had a title fight taken place there.

On Saturday, a capacity crowd came out to cheer for Omaha native Terence Crawford, who was making the first defense of the WBO lightweight title he had won less than four months earlier.

The opponent across the ring was as tough an opponent as Crawford could have possibly selected: A Cuban refugee named Yuriorkis Gamboa. The challenger brought a 23-0 professional record—enhanced by over 250 amateur fights, most of them on the elite level—into the fight. Sixteen of his wins were by knockout. Oddly and ironically enough, Crawford had the same record.

After falling behind in the first four rounds to the quick, shifty and talented Cuban, Crawford brought out his championship pedigree.

The right-hander switched to southpaw, a move which was questioned by many in the crowd and even by HBO announcers Jim Lampley, Roy Jones Jr. and Max Kellerman. However, it was really easy to see what Crawford was doing.

By switching to southpaw, his right jab began repeatedly finding the challenger. Not since switch-hitting middleweight champ Marvelous Marvin Hagler has any champion been able to switch boxing stances as easily as effectively as Crawford did. From the southpaw stance, he began to take Gamboa apart.

Crawford dropped Gamboa in the fifth and sixth rounds, only to have the Cuban come storming back each time. Finally, after two more knockdowns over a challenger who insisted on going out on his shield, referee Genaro Hernandez waved it off after 2:53 of the ninth round.

The incredibly game challenger later said he could have continued. He could NOT have. What he meant to say is that he WANTED to continue. He truly wanted to go down swinging. The fact is, he did exactly that.

He fought his heart out against probably the best lightweight on this planet and gave an amazing account of himself. A recommendation from this corner: Drop down to 130, Yuri. You’ll probably be able to win another belt there.

The fight itself was memorable in its two-sidedness and in how the champion was able to kick-start his huge heart into turning it on when the champion found himself falling behind on the scorecards.

For me, I took four things from this fight:

One: Yuri Gamboa needs to take the summer off, then get back in the ring before the end of the year. We want to see him again.

Two: Terence Crawford is the best lightweight in the world, perhaps far better than anyone else at 135 pounds.

Three: This fight might just beat out last week’s Robert Guerrero- Yoshihiro Kamegai battle for 2014’s “Fight of the Year.” How can that be, you ask, when Guerrero was 10 rounds of non-stop you-hit-me-and-I’ll-hit-you action? That’s because, Guerrero-Kamegai was contested between two guys with very little defensive skills. They get insulted if you miss them with a punch. Crawford-Gamboa was nearly nine full rounds of amazing boxing ability, drama and will-to-win excitement.

Four: Omaha, Nebraska, has a world champion. He’s one the city is in love with and who loves the city right back. His presence packed the arena on Saturday.

You can rest assured It won’t be 42 years before Omaha, Nebraska, hosts its next world title fight!

***

WHERE’S HAROLD? : HBO’s longtime ringside scorer, Harold Lederman, was conspicuous by his absence from the HBO telecast from Omaha. Sitting in, explaining the rules and giving us his scoring was Steve Weisfeld, who has been working in that capacity for over a year. Sometimes, HBO uses both Weisfeld and Lederman. We like Steve Weisfeld a lot. When I was commissioner in New York, I gave Steve his judge’s license. He turned into one of the finest judges in the world. In my mind, he’s one of the Top-10 judges. As is another once of my N.Y. judges, Julie Lederman, Harold’s daughter. Back to Harold. Here’s a guy who is a pharmacist by trade. He may hold the Guinness Book of Records for getting fired from more jobs than anybody. That’s because of fights he was assigned to by HBO when the pharmacy expected him to work for them on that night. When it came to making a choice, there was no choice. Harold chose the HBO. Incredibly, early in his HBO career, Harold made more at his pharmacy job than at HBO. Harold has shown HBO nothing but respect. They should be proud they have an employee so loyal as Harold Lederman. You’d think the least they could do is show some loyalty back to him.

LIGHTWEIGHT RATINGS: With Terence Crawford’s huge victory on Saturday night, I couldn’t help but put my list together for the world’s top 135-pounders. The list, with the title they hold in parentheses, looks like this:

1. Terence Crawford (WBO)—24-0 (17)

2. Miguel Vazquez (IBF)—34-3 (13)

3. Yuri Gamboa—23-1 (16)…He’d help his cause if he dropped to 130

4. Omar Figueroa—(WBC) 23-0 (17)

5. Ray Beltran—29-6-1 (17)

6. Richard Abril (WBA)—18-3-1 (8)“The Road Runner”…Inactive since March 2013

7. Dejan Zlaticanin—19-0 (13) WBC International Champion

8. Paulus Moses—33-2 (21) WBO International Champion

9. Hank Lundy—25-3-1 (12)

10. Kevin Mitchell—38-2 (28)

***

MY TWEEKED PxP LIST: Last week after my column was posted, I realized I had omitted one of my favorite fighters, whom I believe absolutely belongs on the list. That man is GuillermoRigondeaux. So, here goes:

10. Leo Santa Cruz

9. Vasyl Lomachenko

8. Sergei Kovalev

7. Guillermo Rigondeaux

6. Mikey Garcia

5. Wladimir Klitschko

4. Gennady Golovkin

3. Manny Pacquiao

2. Andre Ward

1. Floyd Mayweather

If you guys would like, do your own PxP list and either post your own ratings or in-box them to me by Friday at midnight (ET). I will compile them all, giving 10 points for first place down to one point for 10^th place. That way, TSS can have its own PxP Top-10 List. I await your entries.

WEEKEND RESULTS: The boxing career of Ricky Burns lies in ruins, as he suffered a 12-round split decision loss on Saturday to Montenegro’s Dejan Zlaticanin. In front of a silent, stunned hometown crowd in Glasgow, Scotland, Burns was dropped by a left hook and was never in the fight, despite the scorecards (on which a British judge, naturally, gave it to Burns). In reality, he lost at least seven—perhaps eight—of the rounds. The fight, for the WBC International Lightweight Title, was Burns’ second loss in a row. He lost his WBO lightweight title to Terence Crawford last March 1…In Kinshasa, Zaire, localite Llunga Makabu won the vacant WBC International Cruiserweight Title with a ninth-round stoppage of former world champion Glen “The Road Warrior” Johnson in the ninth round. The 45-year-old Johnson told me, when I saw him at the IBHOF weekend earlier this month, “I hope to get one more title shot.” This loss should effectively end his career and begin his five-year countdown until he is inducted in the IBHOF. Johnson is 54-19-2. Makabu is now 17-1 with 15 KO’s…Heavyweight Shannon Briggs was forced to go the distance for the first time in four comeback fights, taking a unanimous decision over Raphael Zumbano Love for the vacant NABA heavyweight title. Briggs is now 55-6-1 (48) and hoping to punch his way into a world title shot. He is 42…2012 U.S. Olympians Errol Spence and Marcus Browne scored impressive wins in Las Vegas on Saturday. Welterweight Spence took a unanimous 10-round decision over tough Ronald Cruz. It was Spence’s 13^th win in as many fights. He has 10 KO’s. On the same card, light heavyweight Marcus “The Liver Killer” Browne needed just 91 seconds to dispatch of last-minute replacement Donta Woods. Browne’s original opponent, Yusaf Mack, failed a NSAC blood test and was scratched from the card. “The Liver Killer” is 11-0 with eight stoppages. It is expected he will be fighting again on the August 9^th card at the Barclay’s Center…Also on the card in Las Vegas, heavyweight prospect Gerald Washington went to 13-0 (10) with a second-round wipeout of veteran Travis Walker…Unbeaten junior welter Ivan Redkach labored to a 10-round unanimous decision against rugged veteran Sergey Gulyakevich on a Showtime-televised card in St. Charles, MO.

MY FAVORITE LOSER: British junior welterweight Kristian Laight dropped a four-round unanimous decision to Ryan Smith on the undercard to Dejan Zlaticanin-Ricky Burns. For Ryan, the win upped his record to 2-0. For Laight, the loss dropped his record to 9-176-7. In 2014, Laight is actually doing quite well—he has won two fights while only losing 12. He has two more fights scheduled in July. If he pushes, he may be able to reach that magical 20-loss circle this year. He has done it before. We just know he can do it again. Oh, in those 176 losses, he has only been stopped five times. In his nine wins, he has yet to record a knockout.

TWO MORE FOR AL: Junior middleweight Vanes Martirosyan recently signed with advisor Al Haymon. So did IBF lightweight king Miguel Vazquez. If you’re keeping track, here are some of the bigger names who have signed with the powerful but reclusive Haymon: $$$May, Deontay Wilder, Marcos Maidana, Shawn Porter, Lucas Matthysse, Amir Khan, Adonis Stevenson, Robert Guerrero, Keith Thurman, Omar Figueroa, Peter Quillin and most of the 2012 U.S. Olympians.

FUNNY: On Saturday evening, a few hours before the HBO telecast of Crawford-Gamboa, my wife and I went to see “Jersey Boys” at a Long Island theatre. As I was about to pay for the tickets, I noticed a poster on a stand. “CANELO ALVAREZ vs ERISLANDY LARA” read the poster. “See it Here.” Two female employees, one perhaps around 40 and the other in her early 20’s, stood behind the counter and saw me looking at the poster and then heard me discussing it with my wife.

“Are you a boxing fan?” asked the older woman.

“I am indeed a boxing fan,” I answered.

“Well, this is the second time we’ll be showing a big boxing match,” she replied.

“When was the first boxing match you showed? Who were the fighters?” I asked.

The older woman looked at the sign.

“We showed Alvarez,” she said, pointing to the photo of Canelo. “He fought, uh, uh…”

She had to think of Alvarez’ opponent’s name. Then it came to her.

“He fought Mayflower,” she said. I smiled. I knew who she meant.

Her younger colleague laughed and playfully said to her, “You dummy, it’s not Mayflower.”

“Well, it was something like that,” she retorted.

Before I could correct her on “Mayflower,” her colleague said, “It’s Merriweather.”

“Oh, that’s right,” said the Mayflower girl. “Merriweather. I knew it was something like that.”

I never bothered to correct her.

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Randy Gordon

Avila Perspective, Chap. 281: The Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia Show

Published

18 hours ago

April 18, 2024

David A. Avila

Avila-Perspective-Chap-281-The-Devin-and-Ryan-Show

Over the years bouts between old foes such as Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia tend to be surprising.

Yes, both are only 25 but have known each other for many years.

When undisputed super lightweight champion Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) steps into the prize ring at Barclays Center to meet challenger Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) on Saturday, April 20, fans will be witnessing the continuation of a feud that began more than a decade ago.

And though the champion is a heavy favorite, familiarity is Garcia’s best weapon heading into their fight on the Golden Boy Promotions card that will be shown on PPV.COM with Jim Lampley and friends. DAZN pay-per-view is also streaming the card.

In many ways Haney and Garcia have ventured down the same path. From amateur sensations to fighting in Mexico while teens to asking for the biggest challenges available.

“Whichever version of Ryan shows up on April 20, I will be ready for him. Ryan Garcia is just another opponent to me,” said Haney who holds the WBC super lightweight title after his win over Regis Prograis.

The first time I saw Haney as a pro he battled the dangerous Mexican contender Juan Carlos Burgos at Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula. It was an impressive performance against a fighter who fought three times for a world title.

Haney was 19 at the time.

My first look at Garcia as a pro was in his first bout in the U.S. when he met Puerto Rico’s Jonathan Cruz at the Exchange in downtown Los Angeles. The Boricua looked at Garcia and tried intimidating him with stares, taunts and the usual patter. During the fight both swung and missed until the second round when Garcia zeroed in and took him out.

Garcia had just turned 18, the legal age to fight in California.

Both fighters did not have the Olympics credentials that lead to fame. But their talent has allowed them to fight through the dense smoke that is professional boxing.

Haney has defeated numerous world champions such as Prograis, Vasyl Lomachenko and George Kambosos Jr., while Garcia has stopped champions Javier Fortuna and Luke Campbell.

As amateurs, Garcia and Haney battled six times with each winning three.

“They know each other very well,” said Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions. “Ryan is going to beat Devin Haney.”

Haney has a buttery-smooth style with one of the best jabs in boxing. He’s very adept at keeping distance and not allowing anyone to fight him inside. His reflexes are outstanding, yet he seldom fights inside. That’s his weakness.

Garcia fights tall and has superb hand speed and a lightning quick left hook. Though his defense lacks tightness his ability to rip off three-punch combinations in a blink of an eye pauses opponents from bullying their way inside.

“These guys always just look at me and look at me like I don’t know how to box,” said Garcia on social media. “Why was I one of the best fighters in the amateurs. Why was I a 15-time National champion…why did I beat everyone I came across.”

Haney is a strong favorite by oddsmakers to defeat Garcia. But you can never tell when it comes to fighters that know each other well and are athletically gifted.

When Sergio Mora challenged Vernon Forrest he was a big underdog. When Tim Bradley fought Manny Pacquiao the first time, he was also the underdog. And when Andy Ruiz met Anthony Joshua few gave him a chance.

Haney and Garcia have history in the ring. It should be an interesting battle.

PPV.COM

Jim Lampley will be leading the broadcast on PPV.COM for the Haney-Garcia card at Barclays and texting with fans on the card live. He will be accompanied by journalists Lance Pugmire, Dan Conobbio and former champion Chris Algieri.

The PPV.COM broadcast begins at 5 p.m. PT. and is available in Canada and the USA.

Other News

MMA stars Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal will be holding a media day event on Friday, April 19, at NOVO at L.A. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

Diaz and Masvidal will be boxing against each other in a grudge match on June 1 at the KIA Forum in Inglewood, Calif. The two MMA stars met five years at UFC 244 with Masvidal winning by TKO over Diaz due to cuts.

This is a grudge match, but under boxing rules.

Fight card in Commerce, Calif.

360 Promotions returns to Commerce Casino on Saturday April 20 with undefeated super lightweight Cain Sandoval leading the charge.

Sandoval (12-0) faces Angel Rebollar (8-3) in the main event that will be shown live on UFC Fight Pass. Also on the card are two female events including hot prospect Lupe Medina (5-0) versus Sabrina Persona (3-1) in a minimumweight clash.

Doors open at 4 p.m.

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Boxing Odds and Ends: The Heavyweight Merry-Go-Round

Published

3 days ago

April 16, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Boxing Odds and Ends: The Heavyweight Merry-Go-Round

There were few surprises when co-promoters Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren and their benefactor HE Turki Alalshikh held a press conference in London this past Monday to unveil the undercard for the Beterbiev-Bivol show at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on June 1. Most of the match-ups had already been leaked.

For die-hard boxing fans, Beterbiev-Bivol is such an enticing fight that it really doesn’t need an attractive undercard. Two undefeated light heavyweights will meet with all four relevant belts on the line in a contest where the oddsmakers straddled the fence. It’s a genuine “pick-‘em” fight based on the only barometer that matters, the prevailing odds.

But Beterbiev-Bivol has been noosed to a splendid undercard, a striking contrast to Saturday’s Haney-Garcia $69.99 (U.S.) pay-per-view in Brooklyn, an event where the undercard, in the words of pseudonymous boxing writer Chris Williams, is an absolute dumpster fire.

The two heavyweight fights that will bleed into Beterbiev-Bivol, Hrgovic vs. Dubois and Wilder vs. Zhang, would have been stand-alone main events before the incursion of Saudi money.

Hrgovic-Dubois

Filip Hrgovic (17-0, 13 KOs) and Daniel Dubois (20-2, 19 KOs) fought on the same card in Riyadh this past December. Hrgovic, the Croatian, was fed a softie in the form of Australia’s Mark De Mori who he dismissed in the opening round. Dubois, a Londoner, rebounded from his loss to Oleksandr Usyk with a 10^th-round stoppage of corpulent Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller.

There’s an outside chance that Hrgovic vs. Dubois may be sanctioned by the IBF for the world heavyweight title.

The May 18 showdown between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury has a rematch clause. The IBF is next in line in the rotation system for a unified heavyweight champion and the organization has made it plain that the winner of Usyk-Fury must fulfill his IBF mandatory before an intervening bout.

The best guess is that the Usyk-Fury winner will relinquish the IBF belt. If so, Hrgovic and Dubois may fight for the vacant title although a more likely scenario is that the organization will keep the title vacant so that the winner can fight Anthony Joshua.

Wilder-Zhang

The match between Deontay Wilder (43-3-1, 42 KOs) and Zhilei Zhang (26-2-1, 21 KOs) is a true crossroads fight as both Wilder, 38, and Zhang, who turns 41 in May, are nearing the end of the road and the loser (unless it’s a close and entertaining fight) will be relegated to the rank of a has-been. In fact, Wilder has hinted that this may be his final rodeo.

Both are coming off a loss to Joseph Parker.

Wilder last fought on the card that included Hrgovic and Dubois and was roundly out-pointed by a man he was expected to beat. It’s a quick turnaround for Zhang who opposed Parker on March 8 and lost a majority decision.

Other Fights

Either of two other fights may steal the show on the June 1 event.

Raymond Ford (15-0-1, 8 KOs) meets Nick Ball (19-0-1, 11 KOs) in a 12-round featherweight contest. New Jersey’s Ford will be defending the WBA world title he won with a come-from-behind, 12th-round stoppage of Otabek Kholmatov in an early contender for Fight of the Year. Liverpool’s “Wrecking” Ball, a relentless five-foot-two sparkplug, had to settle for a draw in his title fight with Rey Vargas despite winning the late rounds and scoring two knockdowns.

Hamzah Sheeraz (19-0, 15 KOs) meets fellow unbeaten Austin “Ammo” Williams (16-0, 11 KOs) in a 12-round middleweight match. East London’s Sheeraz, the son of a former professional cricket player, is unknown in the U.S. although he trained for his recent fights at the Ten Goose Boxing Gym in California. Riding a skein of 13 straight knockouts, he has a date with WBO title-holder Janibek Alimkhanuly if he can get over this hurdle.

The Forgotten Heavyweight

“Unbeaten for seven years, the man nobody wants to fight,” intoned ring announcer Michael Buffer by way of introduction. Buffer was referencing Michael Hunter who stood across the ring from his opponent Artem Suslenkov.

This scene played out this past Saturday in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. It was Hunter’s second fight in three weeks. On March 23, he scored a fifth-round stoppage of a 46-year-old meatball at a show in Zapopan, Mexico.

The second-generation “Bounty Hunter,” whose only defeat prior to last weekend came in a 12-rounder with Oleksandr Usyk, has been spinning his wheels since TKOing the otherwise undefeated Martin Bakole on the road in London in 2018. Two fights against hapless opponents on low-budget cards in Mexico and a couple of one-round bouts for the Las Vegas Hustle, an entry in the fledgling and largely invisible Professional Combat League, are the sum total of his activity, aside from sparring, in the last two-and-a-half years.

Hunter’s chances of getting another big-money fight took a tumble in Tashkent where he lost a unanimous decision in a dull affair to the unexceptional Suslenkov who was appearing in his first 10-round fight. The scores of the judges were not announced.

You won’t find this fight listed on boxrec. As Jake Donovan notes, the popular website will not recognize a fight conducted under the auspices of a rogue commission. (Another fight you won’t find on boxrec for the same reason is Nico Ali Walsh’s 6-round split decision over the 9-2-1 Frenchman, Noel Lafargue, in the African nation of Guinea on Dec. 16, 2023. You can find it on YouTube, but according to boxrec, boxing’s official record-keeper, it never happened.)

Anderson-Merhy Redux

The only thing missing from this past Saturday’s match in Corpus Christi, Texas, between Jared Anderson and Ryad Merhy was the ghost of Robert Valsberg.

Valsberg, aka Roger Vaisburg, was the French referee who disqualified Ingemar Johansson for not trying in his match with LA’s Ed Sanders in the finals of the heavyweight competition at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Valsberg tossed Johansson out of the ring after two rounds and Johansson was denied the silver medal. The Swede redeemed himself after turning pro, needless to say, when he demolished Floyd Patterson in the first of their three meetings.

Merhy was credited with throwing only 144 punches, landing 34, over the course of the 10 rounds. Those dismal figures yet struck many onlookers as too high. (This reporter has always insisted that the widely-quoted CompuBox numbers should be considered approximations.)

Whatever the true number, it was a disgraceful performance by Merhy who actually showed himself to have very fast hands on the few occasions when he did throw a punch. With apologies to Delfine Persoon, a spunky lightweight, U.S. boxing promoters should think twice before inviting another Belgian boxer to our shores.

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Anderson Cruises by Vapid Merhy and Ajagba edges Vianello in Texas

Published

5 days ago

April 14, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Anderson-Cruises-by-Vapid-Merhy-and-Ajagba-Edges-Vianello-in-Texas

Jared Anderson returned to the ring tonight on a Top Rank card in Corpus Christi, Texas. Touted as the next big thing in the heavyweight division, Anderson (17-0, 15 KOs) hardly broke a sweat while cruising past Ryad Merhy in a bout with very little action, much to the disgruntlement of the crowd which started booing as early as the second round. The fault was all Merhy as he was reluctant to let his hands go. Somehow, he won a round on the scorecard of judge David Sutherland who likely fell asleep for a round for which he could be forgiven.

Merhy, born in the Ivory Coast but a resident of Brussels, Belgium, was 32-2 (26 KOs) heading in after fighting most of his career as a cruiserweight. He gave up six inches in height to Anderson who was content to peck away when it became obvious to him that little would be coming back his way.

Anderson may face a more daunting adversary on Monday when he has a court date in Romulus, Michigan, to answer charges related to an incident in February where he drove his Dodge Challenger at a high rate speed, baiting the police into a merry chase. (Weirdly, Anderson entered the ring tonight wearing the sort of helmet that one associates with a race car driver.)

Co-Feature

In the co-feature, a battle between six-foot-six former Olympians, Italy’s Guido Vianello started and finished strong, but Efe Ajagba had the best of it in the middle rounds and prevailed on a split decision. Two of the judges favored Ajagba by 96-94 scores with the dissenter favoring the Italian from Rome by the same margin.

Vianello had the best round of the fight. He staggered Ajagba with a combination in round two. At the end of the round, a befuddled Ajagba returned to the wrong corner and it appeared that an upset was brewing. But the Nigerian, who trains in Las Vegas under Kay Koroma, got back into the fight with a more varied offensive attack and better head movement. In winning, he improved his ledger to 20-1 (14). Vianello, who sparred extensively with Daniel Dubois in London in preparation for this fight, declined to 12-2-1 in what was likely his final outing under the Top Rank banner.

Other Bouts of Note

In the opening bout on the main ESPN platform, 35-year-old super featherweight Robson Conceicao, a gold medalist for Brazil in the 2016 Rio Olympics, stepped down in class after fighting Emanuel Navarrete tooth-and-nail to a draw in his previous bout and scored a seventh-round stoppage of Jose Ivan Guardado who was a cooked goose after slumping to the canvas after taking a wicked shot to the liver. Guardado made it to his feet, but the end was imminent and the referee waived it off at the 2:27 mark.

Conceicao improved to 18-1 (9 KOs). It was the U.S. debut for Guardado (15-2-1), a boxer from Ensenada, Mexico who had done most of his fighting up the road in Tijuana.

Ruben Villa, the pride of Salinas, California, improved to 22-1 (7) and moved one step closer to a match with WBC featherweight champion Rey Vargas with a unanimous 10-round decision over Tijuana’s Cristian Cruz (22-7-1). The judges had it 97-93 and 98-92 twice.

Cruz, the son of former IBF world featherweight title-holder Cristobal Cruz, was better than his record. He entered the bout on a 21-1-1 run after losing five of his first seven pro fights.

Cleveland southpaw Abdullah Mason, who turned 20 earlier this month, continued his fast ascent up the lightweight ladder with a fourth-round stoppage of Ronal Ron.

Mason (13-0, 11 KOs) put Ron on the canvas in the opening round with a short left hook. He scored a second knockdown with a shot to the liver. A flurry of punches, a diverse array, forced the stoppage at the 1:02 mark of round four. A 25-year-old SoCal-based Venezuelan, the spunky but out-gunned Ron declined to 14-6.

Charly Suarez, a 35-year-old former Olympian from the Philippines, ranked #5 at junior lightweight by the IBF, advanced to 17-0 (9) with a unanimous 8-round decision over SoCal’s Louie Coria (5-7).

This was a tactical fight. In the final round, Coria, subbing for 19-0 Henry Lebron, caught the Filipino off-balance and knocked him into the ropes which held him up. It was scored a knockdown, but came too little, too late for Coria who lost by scores of 76-75 and 77-74 twice.

Suarez, whose signature win was a 12^th-round stoppage of the previously undefeated Aussie Paul Fleming in Sydney, may be headed to a rematch with Robson Conceicao. They fought as amateurs in 2016 in Kazakhstan and Suarez lost a narrow 6-round decision.

Photo credit: Mikey Willams / Top Rank via Getty Images

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