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Avila’s Pound for Pound List July 2014
Seven months into 2014 most of the top prizefighters on my last Pound for Pound list took to the ring and a number of significant changes took place to shake up the rankings. Here they are.
1. Floyd Mayweather (46-0, 26 Kos) – Now 37, Mayweather had a rough outing against Argentina’s Marcos Maidana. At the conclusion boxing’s top boxer had more welts and bruises than all of his previous fights combined. A rematch may be looming between Maidana and Mayweather who still commands hefty paydays and was found to be the highest paid athlete in the world surpassing $100 last year.
2. Andre Ward (27-0, 14 Kos) – Oakland’s Ward fought only one time last year and has yet to fight in 2014. Twice Ward attempted to break his contract with Goossen-Tutor Promotions and each time suffered defeat by the California State Athletic Commission that ruled against him. Inside the boxing ring Ward has proven unbeatable in the super middleweight division. The big money for Ward will be in the light heavyweight division where competitive bouts against the likes of Adonis Stevenson, Jean Pascal and Bernard Hopkins could bring major paydays.
3. Bernard Hopkins (55-6-2, 32 Kos) – When Philadelphia’s Hopkins fought Tito Trinidad for the middleweight titles back in 2001 they were calling him old. Now 49, Hopkins turns 50 this coming January and could be waiting for one last major payday. In his last fight against Beibut Shumenov he bewildered the WBA and IBA light heavyweight champion and took his titles to add to his own IBF version. Hopkins is proving to be one the greatest master boxers in the last 50 years. Has he finally convinced you?
4. Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 Kos) – Manny is back. The Filipino superstar always had the speed, agility and had been adding boxing skills to his repertoire over the years. Back-to-back losses to Tim Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez made Pacquiao and Freddie Roach re-assess their game plan and suddenly you have a revamped Pacman. And he’s pretty incredible. Pacquiao, 38, has dispensed with trying to knock out opponents and now looks to dazzle them with speed and agility. He looks unbeatable again. Now that the “cold war” between Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions seems to be over, look for great match ups to form this year for Pacquiao. Imagine Pacman and Keith Thurman.
5. Wladimir Klitschko (62-3, 52 Kos) – Now with his brother Vitali Klitschko officially retired the Ukrainian heavyweight seeks to be the undisputed champion. Klitschko, 38, said recently he’s gunning for new WBC titlist Bermane Stiverne who captured the vacant WBC title by knockout over Chris Arreola. This past decade has seen Klitschko run over every opponent, but age could be a factor against the new crop of heavyweights coming up like Deontay Wilder, Bryant Jennings and Stiverne.
6. Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 Kos) – Puerto Rico’s Cotto packed his bags and moved to Southern California to train under vaunted trainer Freddie Roach a year ago. Boy did that prove to be the right decision. Cotto dominated middleweight champion Sergio Martinez from the start and seemed the stronger and better-prepared fighter earlier this month at Madison Square Garden. Stopping the Argentina speedster was shocking. Cotto, 33, now has the WBC middleweight title to go along with his junior middle weight, welterweight and junior welterweight titles. Don’t expect Cotto to fight Gennady Golovkin who he sparred with a little several years ago in Big Bear.
7. Juan Manuel Marquez (56-7-1, 40 Kos) – The 40-year-old master boxer from Mexico City put on a show with his win over tough Mike Alvarado at the Inglewood Forum this past May. Fans were in awe of Marquez’s ability to handle the taller and stronger fighter from Denver. Marquez has hinted that he may retire. Though many fans would love to see a rematch with Manny Pacquiao, he doesn’t seem as interested. Marquez wants to maintain his legacy as one of the greatest Mexican boxers.
8. Carl Froch (33-2, 24 Kos) – The super middleweight champion from Nottingham, England may not show pretty boxing form but anyone who stands in front of him usually ends up down on the seat of their pants. Froch, 36, is a virtual human tank and runs over opponents in the ring dare they try to use power against power. He’s simply too strong and resilient for anyone in the 168-pound weight class. Froch’s back-to-back knockout victories against George Groves prove that the only one capable of standing up to him may be Andre Ward who defeated him in 2011. But that was three years ago.
9. Gennady Golovkin (29-0, 26 Kos) – The baby-face WBA middleweight champion may be the hardest hitter in professional boxing. At first skeptics bellowed that he was over-rated but in the last two years Golovkin has snuffed out all criticism by destroying the competition and scaring away middleweight contenders. No opponent has survived to hear the final bell since 2008 when Amar Amari lost by unanimous decision. Since that fight 16 fighters were stopped or knocked out by the Kazakhstani walloper. Golovkin trains in Big Bear under Abel Sanchez and needs name opposition to nail down his reputation.
10. Tim Bradley (31-1, 12 Kos) – After remaining undefeated for several years Bradley lost by decision to Manny Pacquiao last April in Las Vegas. Once again he suffered a leg injury as he banged legs while pivoting away from the southpaw. It was a freak injury but just may be one of those unavoidable quirky effects of fighting Pacquiao. Bradley, 30, remains one of the fastest boxers in the world and has repeatedly shown he can beat the elite fighters like Juan Manuel Marquez and Pacquiao. Look for the speedster from the Palm Springs desert to be in the middle of some monster match ups.
11. Danny Garcia (28-0, 16 Kos) – The Philadelphia junior welterweight champion nearly lost his title to Riverside’s Mauricio Herrera this past March in Puerto Rico. Many claim he did lose to Herrera who basically out-boxed Garcia over 12 rounds. Still, Garcia, 26, remains a very talented fighter who can box, bang or use his speed to win fights. His greatest victory came against Argentina’s Lucas Matthysse in September of last year. He will be fighting in Brooklyn this coming August facing Rod Salka. Many say Garcia will be moving up to welterweight where its very crowded and very competitive.
12. Mikey Garcia (34-0, 28 Kos) – In two years Garcia, 26, has blown out world champions Roman Martinez, Juan Manuel Lopez and Orlando Salido to win the featherweight and junior lightweight world titles. Two years ago fans and boxing experts were calling Garcia a talented but boring fighter. Now the Moreno Valley-based fighter has captured the eye of boxing fans everywhere. His perfect blend of defense and timing make him very difficult to beat. When opponents blink an eye at the wrong time, it’s over.
Honorable Mention
Robert Guerrero, Guillermo Rigondeaux, Roman Gonzalez, Nonito Donaire, Saul Alvarez, Marcos Maidana, Terence Crawford and Leo Santa Cruz.
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Junto Nakatani’s Road to a Mega-fight plus Notes on the Best Boxers from Thailand
Junto Nakatani’s Road to a Mega-fight plus Notes on the Best Boxers from Thailand
WBC bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani, whose name now appears on several of the Top 10 pound-for-pound lists, returns to the ring on Monday. His title defense against Thailand’s Petch CP Freshmart is the grand finale of a two-day boxing festival at Tokyo’s Ariake Arena.
One of several Thai boxers sponsored by Fresh Mart, a national grocery chain, Petch, 30, was born Tasana Salapat or Thasana Saraphath, depending on the source, and is sometimes identified as Petch Sor Chitpattana (confusing, huh?) A pro since 2011, he brings a record of 76-1 with 53 TKOs.
In boxing, records are often misleading and that is especially true when referencing boxers from Thailand. And so, although Petch has record that jumps off the page, we really don’t know how good he is. Is he world class, or is he run-of-the-mill?
A closer look at his record reveals that only 20 of his wins came against opponents with winning records. Fifteen of his victims were making their pro debut. It is revealing that his lone defeat came in his lone fight outside Thailand. In December of 2018, he fought Takuma Inoue in Tokyo and lost a unanimous decision. Inoue, who was appearing in his thirteenth pro fight, won the 12-rounder by scores of 117-111 across the board.
A boxer doesn’t win 76 fights in a career in which he answers the bell for 407 rounds without being able to fight more than a little, but there’s a reason why the house fighter, Nakatani (28-0, 21 KOs) is favored by odds as high as 50/1 in the bookmaking universe. Petch may force Junto to go the distance, but even that is a longshot.
Boxers from Thailand
Four fighters from Thailand, all of whom were active in the 1990s, are listed on the 42-name Hall of Fame ballot that arrived in the mail this week. They are Sot Chitalada, Ratanopol Sor Varapin, Veeraphol Sahaprom, and Pongsaklek Wonjongham. On a year when the great Manny Pacquiao is on the ballot, leaving one less slot for the remainder, the likelihood that any of the four will turn up on the dais in Canastota at the 2025 induction ceremony is slim.
By our reckoning, two active Thai fighters have a strong chance of making it someday. The first is Srisaket Sor Rungvisai who knocked Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez from his perch at the top of the pound-for-pound rankings in one of the biggest upsets in recent memory and then destroyed him in the rematch. The noted boxing historian Matt McGrain named Sor Rungvisai (aka Wisaksil Wangek) the top super flyweight of the decade 2010-2019.
The other is Knockout CP Freshmart (aka Thammanoon Niyomstrom). True, he’s getting a bit long in the tooth for a fighter in boxing’s smallest weight class (he’s 34), but the long-reigning strawweight champion, who has never fought a match scheduled for fewer than 10 rounds, has won all 25 of his pro fights and shows no signs of slowing down. He will be back in action next month opposing Puerto Rico-born Oscar Collazo in Riyadh.
The next Thai fighter to go into the IBHOF (and it may not happen in my lifetime) will bring the number to three. Khaosai Galaxy entered the Hall with the class of 1999 and Pone Kingpetch was inducted posthumously in 2023 in the Old Timer’s category.
Nakatani (pictured)
Hailing from the southeastern Japanese city of Inabe, Junto Nakatani is the real deal. In 2023, the five-foot-eight southpaw forged the TSS Knockout of the Year at the expense of Andrew Moloney. Late in the 12th round, he landed a short left hook to the chin and the poor Aussie was unconscious before he hit the mat. In his last outing, on July 20, he went downstairs to dismiss his opponent, taking out Vincent Astrolabio with a short left to the pit of the stomach. Astrolabio went down, writhing in pain, and was unable to continue. It was all over at the 2:37 mark of the opening round.
It’s easy to see where Nakatani is headed after he takes care of business on Monday.
Currently, Japanese boxers own all four meaningful pieces of the 118-pound puzzle. Of the four, the most recognizable name other than Nakatani is that of Takuma Inoue who will be making the third defense of his WBA strap on Sunday, roughly 24 hours before Nakatani touches gloves with Petch in the very same ring. Inoue is a consensus 7/2 favorite over countryman Seiga Tsatsumi.
A unification fight between Nakatani and Takuma Inoue (20-1, 5 KOs) would be a natural. But this match, should it transpire, would be in the nature of an appetizer. A division above sits Takuma’s older brother Naoya Inoue who owns all four belts in the 122-pound weight class but, of greater relevance, is widely regarded the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
A match between Junto Nakatani and the baby-faced “Monster” would be a delicious pairing and the powers-that-be want it to happen.
In boxing, the best-laid plans often go awry, but there’s a good possibility that we will see Nakatani vs. Naoya Inoue in 2025. If so, that would be the grandest domestic showdown in Japanese boxing history.
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Bygone Days: Muhammad Ali at the Piano in the Lounge at the Tropicana
Bygone Days: Muhammad Ali at the Piano in the Lounge at the Tropicana
Among other things, Las Vegas in “olden days” was noted for its lounge shows. Circa 1970, for the price of two drinks, one could have caught the Ike and Tina Turner Review at the International. They performed three shows nightly, the last at 3:15 am, and they blew the doors off the joint.
The weirdest “lounge show” in Las Vegas wasn’t a late-night offering, but an impromptu duet performed in the mid-afternoon for a select standing-room audience in the lounge at the Tropicana. Sharing the piano in the Blue Room in a concert that could not have lasted much more than a minute were Muhammad Ali and world light heavyweight champion Bob Foster. The date was June 25, 1972, a Sunday.
What brought about this odd collaboration was a weigh-in, not the official weigh-in, which would happen the next day, but a dress rehearsal conducted for the benefit of news reporters and photographers and a few invited guests such as the actor Jack Palance who would serve as the color commentator alongside the legendary Mel Allen on the closed-circuit telecast. On June 27, Ali and Foster would appear in separate bouts at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Ali was pit against Jerry Quarry in a rematch of their 1970 tilt in Atlanta; Foster would be defending his title against Jerry’s younger brother, Mike Quarry.
In those days, whenever Las Vegas hosted a prizefight that was a major news story, it was customary for the contestants to arrive in town about three weeks before their fight. They held public workouts, perhaps for a nominal fee, at the hotel-casino where they were lodged.
Muhammad Ali and Bob Foster were sequestered and trained at Caesars Palace. The Quarry brothers were domiciled a few blocks away at the Tropicana.
The Trop, as the locals called it, was the last major hotel-casino on the south end of the Strip, a stretch of road, officially Highway 91, the ran for 2.2 miles. When the resort opened in 1957, it had three hundred rooms. Like similar properties along the famous Strip, it would eventually go vertical, maturing into a high-rise.
In 1959, entertainment director Lou Walters (father of Barbara) imported a lavish musical revue from Paris, the Folies Bergere. The extravaganza with its topless showgirls became embedded in the Las Vegas mystique. The show, which gave the Tropicana its identity, ran for almost 50 full years, becoming the longest-running show in Las Vegas history.
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Although the Quarry brothers were on the premises, Ali and Foster arrived at the Blue Room first. After Dr. Donald Romeo performed his perfunctory examinations, there was nothing to do but stand around and wait for the brothers to show up. It was then that Foster spied a grand piano in the corner of the room.
Taking a seat at the bench, he tinkled the keys, producing something soft and bluesy. “Move over man,” said Ali, not the sort of person to be upstaged at anything. Taking a seat alongside Foster at the piano, he banged out something that struck the untrained ear of veteran New York scribe Dick Young as boogie-woogie.
When the Quarry brothers arrived, Ali went through his usual antics, shouting epithets at Jerry Quarry as Jerry was having his blood pressure taken. “These make the best fights, when you get some white hopes and some spooks,…er, I mean some colored folks,” Young quoted Ali as saying.
This comment was greeted with a big laugh, but Jerry Quarry, renowned for his fearsome left hook, delivered a better line after Ali had stormed out. Surveying the room, he noticed several attractive young ladies, dressed provocatively. “I can see I ain’t the only hooker in here,” he said.
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The doubleheader needed good advance pub because both bouts were considered mismatches. In the first Ali-Quarry fight, Quarry suffered a terrible gash above his left eye before his corner pulled him out after three rounds. Ali was a 5/1 favorite in the rematch. Bob Foster, who would be making his tenth title defense, was an 8/1 favorite over Mike Quarry who was undefeated (35-0) but had been brought along very carefully and was still only 21 years old. (In his syndicated newspaper column, oddsmaker Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder said the odds were 200/1 against both fights going the distance, but there wasn’t a bookie in the country that would take that bet.)
The Fights
There were no surprises. It was a sad night for the Quarry clan at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Muhammad Ali, clowning in the early rounds, took charge in the fifth and Jerry Quarry was in bad shape when the referee waived it off 19 seconds into the seventh round. In the semi-wind-up, Bob Foster retained his title in a more brutal fashion. He knocked the younger Quarry brother into dreamland with a thunderous left hook just as the fourth round was about to end. Mike Quarry lay on the canvas for a good three minutes before his handlers were able to revive him.
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In the ensuing years, the Tropicana was far less invested in boxing than many of its rivals on the Strip, but there was a wisp of activity in the mid-1980s. A noteworthy card, on June 30, 1985, saw Jimmy Paul successfully defend his world lightweight title with a 14th-round stoppage of Robin Blake. Freddie Roach, a featherweight with a big local following and former U.S. Olympic gold medalist Henry Tillman appeared on the undercard. The lead promoter of this show, which aired on a Sunday afternoon on CBS (with Southern Nevada blacked out) was the indefatigable Bob Arum who seemingly has no intention of leaving this mortal coil until he has out-lived every Las Vegas casino-resort born in the twentieth century.
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I may drive past the Tropicana in the next few hours and give it a last look, mindful that Muhammad Ali once frolicked here, however briefly. But I won’t be there for the implosion.
On Wednesday morning, Oct. 9, shortly after 2 a.m., the Tropicana, shuttered since April, will be reduced to rubble. On its grounds will rise a stadium for the soon-to-be-former Oakland A’s baseball team.
A recognized authority on the history of prizefighting and the history of American sports gambling, TSS editor-in-chief Arne K. Lang is the author of five books including “Prizefighting: An American History,” released by McFarland in 2008 and re-released in a paperback edition in 2020.
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WBA Feather Champ Nick Ball Chops Down Rugged Ronny Rios in Liverpool
In his first fight in his native Liverpool since February of 2020, Nick Ball successfully defended his WBA title with a 10th-round stoppage of SoCal veteran Ronny Rios. The five-foot-two “Wrecking Ball” was making the first defense of a world featherweight strap he won in his second stab at it, taking the belt from Raymond Ford on a split decision after previously fighting Rey Vargas to a draw in a match that many thought Ball had won.
This fight looked like it was going to be over early. Ball strafed Rios with an assortment of punches in the first two rounds, and likely came within a punch or two of ending the match in the third when he put Rios on the canvas with a short left hook and then tore after him relentlessly. But Rios, a glutton for punishment, weathered the storm and actually had some good moments in round four and five.
The brother of welterweight contender Alexis Rocha and a two-time world title challenger at 122 pounds, Rios returned to the ring in April on a ProBox card in Florida and this was his second start after being out of the ring for 28 months. He would be on the canvas twice more before the bout was halted. The punch that knocked him off his pins in round seven wasn’t a clean shot, but he would be in dire straits three rounds later when he was hammered onto the ring apron with a barrage of punches. He managed to maneuver his way back into the ring, but his corner sensibly threw in the towel when it seemed as if referee Bob Williams would let the match continue.
The official time was 2:06 of round ten. Ball improved to 21-0-1 (12 KOs). Rios, 34, declined to 34-5.
Semi-wind-up
A bout contested for a multiplicity of regional 140-pound titles produced a mild upset when Jack Rafferty wore down and eventually stopped Henry Turner whose corner pulled him out after the ninth frame.
Both fighters were undefeated coming in. Turner, now 13-1, was the better boxer and had the best of the early rounds. However, he used up a lot of energy moving side-to-side as he fought off his back foot, and Rafferty, who improved to 24-0 (15 KOs), never wavered as he continued to press forward.
The tide turned dramatically in round eight. One could see Turner’s legs getting loggy and the confidence draining from his face. The ninth round was all Rafferty. Turner was a cooked goose when Rafferty collapsed him with four unanswered body punches, but he made it to the final bell before his corner wisely pulled him out. Through the completed rounds, two of the judges had it even and the third had the vanquished Turner up by 4 points.
Other Bouts of Note
In a lightweight affair, Jadier Herrera, a highly-touted 22-year-old Cuban who had been campaigning in Dubai, advanced to 16-0 (14 KOs) with a third-round stoppage of Oliver Flores (31-6-2) a Nicaraguan southpaw making his UK debut. After two even rounds, Herrera put Flores on the deck with a left to the solar plexus. Flores spit out his mouthpiece as he lay there in obvious distress and referee Steve Gray waived the fight off as he was attempting to rise. The end came 30 seconds into round three.
In a bantamweight contest slated for 10, Liverpool’s Andrew Cain (13-1, 12 KOs) dismissed Colombia’s Lazaro Casseres at the 1:48 mark of the second round.
A stablemate and sparring partner of Nick Ball, Cain knocked Casseres to the canvas in the second round with a short uppercut and forced the stoppage later in the round when he knocked the Colombian into the ropes with a double left hook. Casseres. 27, brought an 11-1 record but had defeated only two opponents with winning records.
In a contest between super welterweights, Walter Fury pitched a 4-round shutout over Dale Arrowsmith. This was the second pro fight for the 27-year-old Fury who had his famous cousin Tyson Fury rooting him on from ringside. Stylistically, Walter resembles Tyson, but his defense is hardly as tight; he was clipped a few times.
Arrowsmith is a weekend warrior and a professional loser, a species indigenous to the British Isles. This was his twenty-fourth fight this year and his 186th pro fight overall! His record is “illuminated” by nine wins and 10 draws.
A Queensberry Promotion, the Ball vs Rios card aired in the UK on TNT Sports and in the US on ESPN+.
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