Featured Articles
BIG MAC’S PREDICTION PAGE: They Like Canelo Over Lara…What About YOU?

Color me shocked when Canelo Alvarez decided to meet Erislandy Lara on July 12 in Las Vegas. Lara, long regarded as one of the most fierce and trickiest southpaws in the junior middleweight division, isn’t the kind of fighter a soon-to-be 24-year-old who has struggled against elite-level boxers would normally want to face.
But to his credit, Alvarez picked Lara for his next gig. Either Alvarez thinks he’s improved enough since eeking out a win over Austin Trout and getting his ears boxed off versus Floyd Mayweather, or he doesn’t believe Lara is as competent a boxer as most are led to believe.
Regardless, on paper the Canelo-Lara promotion is the best matched fight of the year, so I polled the smartest folks in the business to see who would win.
TSS Crew Likes Canelo 6-1
I’m picking Canelo to beat Lara by decision. He’s a pressure fighter who knows Alfredo Angulo gave Lara a lot of trouble and the blueprint to defeat the Cuban dandy. It won’t be easy, but Canelo is stronger than Angulo and will use that strength to wear down Lara. — David Avila, The Sweet Science
Lara is certainly the most exciting fighter in this bout, but his performances are inconsistent. Alvarez is steadier and will control this bout. Alvarez by decision. — Aaron Tallent, The Sweet Science
Lara is super inconsistent and you don’t know what you’re getting. He’s looked average at times and special at others… I’m not willing to bet on a temperamental performer. I’ll go with the speed and power of Canelo to catch an overly aggressive Lara for a late knockdown to give him the edge on the cards (or possibly KO him). Genuine toss-up, though. — Blake Hochberger, The Sweet Science
This is a tough one to call. I can see Alvarez landing the heavier punches which should be enough to impress the judges and get a close decision. Lara will likely make things very tricky and bring some frustration for Canelo, but I don’t see him landing enough hurtful blows. Could be similar to Alvarez versus Trout. — Ronan Keenan, The Sweet Science
Lara and his team have wanted this fight for over two years. They finally got it. While Alvarez has improved drastically over that stretch of time, there is nothing in his performances against Austin Trout and Floyd Mayweather that tell me he knows how to fight a stylist like Lara. I’m picking Lara by majority decision. — Kelsey McCarson, The Sweet Science
Eeshh, the guy who drew with Vanes Martirosyan thinks he has a chance to beat young gun Canelo Alvarez…Wait, the guy who fought Martirosyan in a stink-bomb bout then came out and looked like a pugilist-specialist against a top grade technician, in Austin Trout, in his last bout? I’m frazzled….OK, I gotta say first and foremost, I love pick em bouts. This is a coin flip special for me…but I’m going with the Mexican here, with the belief that physicality, strength and accuracy, will win out over the Cuban style of Lara, who could well spend more time being evasive than in launching and landing enough shots to convince the judges he’s done more. Canelo wins by a three point margin. — Michael Woods, The Sweet Science
I haven’t seen either guy fight live so I can’t make a confident prediction, but there is enough positive buzz around Lara that he is definitely a very live underdog. I think his draw with Martirosyan probably means a lot more than credited. Still, if I had to make a bet, considering risk reward margins and the ol’ Vegas breeze, I would lean toward a big win (mid-rounds TKO) for Alvarez. — Phil Woolever, The Sweet Science
Other Experts Pick Canelo 8-1
I think Canelo’s activity and punching volume will be enough to carry the fight. Lara’s best chance to win will be by knockout or a series of knockdowns, but Alvarez’s chin has looked pretty good at 154 to this point. Saul Alvarez wins by competitive unanimous decision. — Adam Abramowitz, Saturday Night Boxing
Saul Alvarez is not nearly as fast as he thinks he is. Erislandy Lara is not nearly the boxer his supporters think he is. Alvarez tends to fade in fights’ second halves because he commits fully to nearly every punch. Lara tends to waste significant stores of energy by taking way too many steps. Lara will take Alvarez into the late rounds and exhaust him, yes, but he’ll not know what to do with an exhausted Alvarez when he gets him there. I’ll take Alvarez, UD-12.– Bart Barry, 15Rounds.com
As much as Lara is the more skilled fighter of the two, the jury is still out as to whether or not he can rise to the occasion in a huge fight and put forth a performance as bold in the ring as he was outside of it to secure the fight. While Canelo’s overall craft remains underrated, he’ll need to find the perfect balance between counter punching and attacking in order to get the win. In the end, Canelo’s well-timed bursts of activity each round and hard punches should be enough to sway the judges in a close fight. Lara will certainly have his moments, but his passive stretches of inactivity throughout the fight will hurt him in the end. Give me Canelo by split decision in close fight. — Brian Campbell, ESPN
Unlike a lot of other folks whose opinions I’ve seen this week, I like Canelo here. Mayweather made him look awful, but Lara is no Mayweather. I think he can be gradually beaten up as he was in the Angulo fight, meaning Canelo either does enough to get the late stoppage “El Perro” might have gotten with clear eyesight, or wins enough rounds outright to take a close decision. — Lyle Fitzsimmons, CBSSports.com
I’m picking Canelo by a knockout between 6-8 rounds. He is too strong for Lara and quick enough to cut off the ring. — Gordon Marino, Boxing.com
This fight has a bit of a late-money feel and I expect the poll to be close…that said, I reckon Canelo is slightly the better man for all that Lara enjoys the bones of a style advantage. Alvarez, for me, is coming to grips with the problem he’s had at the highest level, namely the third punch he throws in combinations and I expect him to start finding Lara in the middle rounds with good shots. His work will be more pleasing to the eye and that will get him over the line in a mildly controversial fight that stirs without really hitting the afterburners. — Matt McGrain, Boxing.com
Had this fight taken place a year ago, the temptation to join the herd and say Erislandy Lara would prove Canelo Alvarez’s kryptonite would have been too much to resist. But Canelo has grown and matured since then. He’s taken the experience of fighting a couple of cagey boxers—Austin Trout and Floyd Mayweather—and used it to refine his game and become a more well-rounded fighter. This is a statement fight for him—remember, he didn’t need to take this fight, he wanted to—and his aggression, combined with an early knockdown, will make up the margin of a split-decision victory. — Kevin McRae, Bleacher Report
The Lara fight was perhaps Richard Schaefer’s finest piece of maneuvering during his on-going war with former business partner Oscar De La Hoya. It’s an incredibly dangerous bout for Canelo, De La Hoya’s last remaining PPV chess piece, one most promoters would run from at a full sprint. Much respect to Canelo for taking it. That took cajones. Too bad he’s going to lose. (Lara, Decision). — Jonathan Snowden, Bleacher Report
It’s going to be a war, but Canelo is out to prove something and his heart will lead him to a victory by decision. Two tough boxer-punchers, it will guarantee be an action-packed fight. This is a tough one, but I see Canelo winning. — Kaliesha West, World Champion Boxer
Featured Articles
“Breadman” Edwards: An Unlikely Boxing Coach with a Panoramic View of the Sport

Stephen “Breadman” Edwards’ first fighter won a world title. That may be some sort of record.
It’s true. Edwards had never trained a fighter, amateur or pro, before taking on professional novice Julian “J Rock” Williams. On May 11, 2019, Williams wrested the IBF 154-pound world title from Jarrett Hurd. The bout, a lusty skirmish, was in Fairfax, Virginia, near Hurd’s hometown in Maryland, and the previously undefeated Hurd had the crowd in his corner.
In boxing, Stephen Edwards wears two hats. He has a growing reputation as a boxing coach, a hat he will wear on Saturday, May 31, at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas when the two fighters that he currently trains, super middleweight Caleb Plant and middleweight Kyrone Davis, display their wares on a show that will air on Amazon Prime Video. Plant, who needs no introduction, figures to have little trouble with his foe in a match conceived as an appetizer to a showdown with Jermall Charlo. Davis, coming off his career-best win, an upset of previously undefeated Elijah Garcia, is in tough against fast-rising Cuban prospect Yoenli Hernandez, a former world amateur champion.
Edwards’ other hat is that of a journalist. His byline appears at “Boxing Scene” in a column where he answers questions from readers.
It’s an eclectic bag of questions that Breadman addresses, ranging from his thoughts on an upcoming fight to his thoughts on one of the legendary prizefighters of olden days. Boxing fans, more so than fans of any other sport, enjoy hashing over fantasy fights between great fighters of different eras. Breadman is very good at this, which isn’t to suggest that his opinions are gospel, merely that he always has something provocative to add to the discourse. Like all good historians, he recognizes that the best history is revisionist history.
“Fighters are constantly mislabled,” he says. “Everyone talks about Joe Louis’s right hand. But if you study him you see that his left hook is every bit as good as his right hand and it’s more sneaky in terms of shock value when it lands.”
Stephen “Breadman” Edwards was born and raised in Philadelphia. His father died when he was three. His maternal grandfather, a Korean War veteran, filled the void. The man was a big boxing fan and the two would watch the fights together on the family television.
Edwards’ nickname dates to his early teen years when he was one of the best basketball players in his neighborhood. The derivation is the 1975 movie “Cornbread, Earl and Me,” starring Laurence Fishburne in his big screen debut. Future NBA All-Star Jamaal Wilkes, fresh out of UCLA, plays Cornbread, a standout high school basketball player who is mistakenly murdered by the police.
Coming out of high school, Breadman had to choose between an academic scholarship at Temple or an athletic scholarship at nearby Lincoln University. He chose the former, intending to major in criminal justice, but didn’t stay in college long. What followed were a succession of jobs including a stint as a city bus driver. To stay fit, he took to working out at the James Shuler Memorial Gym where he sparred with some of the regulars, but he never boxed competitively.
Over the years, Philadelphia has harbored some great boxing coaches. Among those of recent vintage, the names George Benton, Bouie Fisher, Nazeem Richardson, and Bozy Ennis come quickly to mind. Breadman names Richardson and West Coast trainer Virgil Hunter as the men that have influenced him the most.
We are all a product of our times, so it’s no surprise that the best decade of boxing, in Breadman’s estimation, was the 1980s. This was the era of the “Four Kings” with Sugar Ray Leonard arguably standing tallest.
Breadman was a big fan of Leonard and of Leonard’s three-time rival Roberto Duran. “I once purchased a DVD that had all of Roberto Duran’s title defenses on it,” says Edwards. “This was a back before the days of YouTube.”
But Edwards’ interest in the sport goes back much deeper than the 1980s. He recently weighed in on the “Pittsburgh Windmill” Harry Greb whose legend has grown in recent years to the point that some have come to place him above Sugar Ray Robinson on the list of the greatest of all time.
“Greb was a great fighter with a terrific resume, of that there is no doubt,” says Breadman, “but there is no video of him and no one alive ever saw him fight, so where does this train of thought come from?”
Edwards notes that in Harry Greb’s heyday, he wasn’t talked about in the papers as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. The boxing writers were partial to Benny Leonard who drew comparisons to the venerated Joe Gans.
Among active fighters, Breadman reserves his highest praise for Terence Crawford. “Body punching is a lost art,” he once wrote. “[Crawford] is a great body puncher who starts his knockouts with body punches, but those punches are so subtle they are not fully appreciated.”
If the opening line holds up, Crawford will enter the ring as the underdog when he opposes Canelo Alvarez in September. Crawford, who will enter the ring a few weeks shy of his 38th birthday, is actually the older fighter, older than Canelo by almost three full years (it doesn’t seem that way since the Mexican redhead has been in the public eye so much longer), and will theoretically be rusty as 13 months will have elapsed since his most recent fight.
Breadman discounts those variables. “Terence is older,” he says, “but has less wear and tear and never looks rusty after a long layoff.” That Crawford will win he has no doubt, an opinion he tweaked after Canelo’s performance against William Scull: “Canelo’s legs are not the same. Bud may even stop him now.”
Edwards has been with Caleb Plant for Plant’s last three fights. Their first collaboration produced a Knockout of the Year candidate. With one ferocious left hook, Plant sent Anthony Dirrell to dreamland. What followed were a 12-round setback to David Benavidez and a ninth-round stoppage of Trevor McCumby.
Breadman keeps a hectic schedule. From Monday through Friday, he’s at the DLX Gym in Las Vegas coaching Caleb Plant and Kyrone Davis. On weekends, he’s back in Philadelphia, checking in on his investment properties and, of greater importance, watching his kids play sports. His 14-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son are standout all-around athletes.
On those long flights, he has plenty of time to turn on his laptop and stream old fights or perhaps work on his next article. That’s assuming he can stay awake.
To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE
Featured Articles
Arne’s Almanac: The Good, the Bad, and the (Mostly) Ugly; a Weekend Boxing Recap and More

Arne’s Almanac: The Good, the Bad, and the (Mostly) Ugly; a Weekend Boxing Recap and More
It’s old news now, but on back-to-back nights on the first weekend of May, there were three fights that finished in the top six snoozefests ever as measured by punch activity. That’s according to CompuBox which has been around for 40 years.
In Times Square, the boxing match between Devin Haney and Jose Carlos Ramirez had the fifth-fewest number of punches thrown, but the main event, Ryan Garcia vs. Rolly Romero, was even more of a snoozefest, landing in third place on this ignoble list.
Those standings would be revised the next night – knocked down a peg when Canelo Alvarez and William Scull combined to throw a historically low 445 punches in their match in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 152 by the victorious Canelo who at least pressed the action, unlike Scull (pictured) whose effort reminded this reporter of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” – no, not the movie starring Paul Newman, just the title.
CompuBox numbers, it says here, are best understood as approximations, but no amount of rejiggering can alter the fact that these three fights were stinkers. Making matters worse, these were pay-per-views. If one had bundled the two events, rather than buying each separately, one would have been out $90 bucks.
****
Thankfully, the Sunday card on ESPN from Las Vegas was redemptive. It was just what the sport needed at this moment – entertaining fights to expunge some of the bad odor. In the main go, Naoya Inoue showed why he trails only Shohei Ohtani as the most revered athlete in Japan.
Throughout history, the baby-faced assassin has been a boxing promoter’s dream. It’s no coincidence that down through the ages the most common nickname for a fighter – and by an overwhelming margin — is “Kid.”
And that partly explains Naoya Inoue’s charisma. The guy is 32 years old, but here in America he could pass for 17.
Joey Archer
Joey Archer, who passed away last week at age 87 in Rensselaer, New York, was one of the last links to an era of boxing identified with the nationally televised Friday Night Fights at Madison Square Garden.

Joey Archer
Archer made his debut as an MSG headliner on Feb. 4, 1961, and had 12 more fights at the iconic mid-Manhattan sock palace over the next six years. The final two were world title fights with defending middleweight champion Emile Griffith.
Archer etched his name in the history books in November of 1965 in Pittsburgh where he won a comfortable 10-round decision over Sugar Ray Robinson, sending the greatest fighter of all time into retirement. (At age 45, Robinson was then far past his peak.)
Born and raised in the Bronx, Joey Archer was a cutie; a clever counter-puncher recognized for his defense and ultimately for his granite chin. His style was embedded in his DNA and reinforced by his mentors.
Early in his career, Archer was domiciled in Houston where he was handled by veteran trainer Bill Gore who was then working with world lightweight champion Joe Brown. Gore would ride into the Hall of Fame on the coattails of his most famous fighter, “Will-o’-the Wisp” Willie Pep. If Joey Archer had any thoughts of becoming a banger, Bill Gore would have disabused him of that notion.
In all honesty, Archer’s style would have been box office poison if he had been black. It helped immensely that he was a native New Yorker of Irish stock, albeit the Irish angle didn’t have as much pull as it had several decades earlier. But that observation may not be fair to Archer who was bypassed twice for world title fights after upsetting Hurricane Carter and Dick Tiger.
When he finally caught up with Emile Griffith, the former hat maker wasn’t quite the fighter he had been a few years earlier but Griffith, a two-time Fighter of the Year by The Ring magazine and the BWAA and a future first ballot Hall of Famer, was still a hard nut to crack.
Archer went 30 rounds with Griffith, losing two relatively tight decisions and then, although not quite 30 years old, called it quits. He finished 45-4 with 8 KOs and was reportedly never knocked down, yet alone stopped, while answering the bell for 365 rounds. In retirement, he ran two popular taverns with his older brother Jimmy Archer, a former boxer who was Joey’s trainer and manager late in Joey’s career.
May he rest in peace.
To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE
Featured Articles
Bombs Away in Las Vegas where Inoue and Espinoza Scored Smashing Triumphs

Japan’s Naoya “Monster” Inoue banged it out with Mexico’s Ramon Cardenas, survived an early knockdown and pounded out a stoppage win to retain the undisputed super bantamweight world championship on Sunday.
Japan and Mexico delivered for boxing fans again after American stars failed in back-to-back days.
“By watching tonight’s fight, everyone is well aware that I like to brawl,” Inoue said.
Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), and Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) and his wicked left hook, showed the world and 8,474 fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas that prizefighting is about punching, not running.
After massive exposure for three days of fights that began in New York City, then moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then to Nevada, it was the casino capital of the world that delivered what most boxing fans appreciate- pure unadulterated action fights.
Monster Inoue immediately went to work as soon as the opening bell rang with a consistent attack on Cardenas, who very few people knew anything about.
One thing promised by Cardenas’ trainer Joel Diaz was that his fighter “can crack.”
Cardenas proved his trainer’s words truthful when he caught Inoue after a short violent exchange with a short left hook and down went the Japanese champion on his back. The crowd was shocked to its toes.
“I was very surprised,” said Inoue about getting dropped. ““In the first round, I felt I had good distance. It got loose in the second round. From then on, I made sure to not take that punch again.”
Inoue had no trouble getting up, but he did have trouble avoiding some of Cardenas massive blows delivered with evil intentions. Though Inoue did not go down again, a look of total astonishment blanketed his face.
A real fight was happening.
Cardenas, who resembles actor Andy Garcia, was never overly aggressive but kept that left hook of his cocked and ready to launch whenever he saw the moment. There were many moments against the hyper-aggressive Inoue.
Both fighters pack power and both looked to find the right moment. But after Inoue was knocked down by the left hook counter, he discovered a way to eliminate that weapon from Cardenas. Still, the Texas-based fighter had a strong right too.
In the sixth round Inoue opened up with one of his lightning combinations responsible for 10 consecutive knockout wins. Cardenas backed against the ropes and Inoue blasted away with blow after blow. Then suddenly, Cardenas turned Inoue around and had him on the ropes as the Mexican fighter unloaded nasty combinations to the body and head. Fans roared their approval.
“I dreamed about fighting in front of thousands of people in Las Vegas,” said Cardenas. “So, I came to give everything.”
Inoue looked a little surprised and had a slight Mona Lisa grin across his face. In the seventh round, the Japanese four-division world champion seemed ready to attack again full force and launched into the round guns blazing. Cardenas tried to catch Inoue again with counter left hooks but Inoue’s combos rained like deadly hail. Four consecutive rights by Inoue blasted Cardenas almost through the ropes. The referee Tom Taylor ruled it a knockdown. Cardenas beat the count and survived the round.
In the eighth round Inoue looked eager to attack and at the bell launched across the ring and unloaded more blows on Cardenas. A barrage of 14 unanswered blows forced the referee to stop the fight at 45 seconds of round eight for a technical knockout win.
“I knew he was tough,” said Inoue. “Boxing is not that easy.”
Espinoza Wins
WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinosa (27-0, 23 KOs) uppercut his way to a knockout win over Edward Vazquez (17-3, 4 KOs) in the seventh round.
“I wanted to fight a game fighter to show what I am capable,” said Espinoza.
Espinosa used the leverage of his six-foot, one-inch height to slice uppercuts under the guard of Vazquez. And when the tall Mexican from Guadalajara targeted the body, it was then that the Texas fighter began to wilt. But he never surrendered.
Though he connected against Espinoza in every round, he was not able to slow down the taller fighter and that allowed the Mexican fighter to unleash a 10-punch barrage including four consecutive uppercuts. The referee stopped the fight at 1:47 of the seventh round.
It was Espinoza’s third title defense.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE
-
Featured Articles4 weeks ago
Remembering Hall of Fame Boxing Trainer Kenny Adams
-
Featured Articles4 weeks ago
Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis Wins Welterweight Showdown in Atlantic City
-
Featured Articles4 weeks ago
Boxing Notes and Nuggets from Thomas Hauser
-
Featured Articles4 weeks ago
Avila Perspective Chap 320: Boots Ennis and Stanionis
-
Featured Articles4 weeks ago
Dzmitry Asanau Flummoxes Francesco Patera on a Ho-Hum Card in Montreal
-
Featured Articles3 weeks ago
Mekhrubon Sanginov, whose Heroism Nearly Proved Fatal, Returns on Saturday
-
Featured Articles3 weeks ago
Avila Perspective, Chap. 322: Super Welterweight Week in SoCal
-
Featured Articles3 weeks ago
TSS Salutes Thomas Hauser and his Bernie Award Cohorts