MAYWEATHER, LIKE SUPERMAN, NEEDS A LITTLE KRYPTONITE TO MAINTAIN INTEREST

Published

11 years ago

July 16, 2014

NEW YORK — Maybe it really happened, maybe it didn’t. But, the oft-recited and perhaps apocryphal story goes, Muhammad Ali was seated on a jet airliner when, just before takeoff, a female flight attendant reminded him to fasten his seat belt.

“Superman don’t need no seat belt,” Ali replied.

“Superman don’t need no airplane either,” the quick-thinking flight attendant retorted.

Like Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson and a precious few other gods of boxing, Floyd Mayweather Jr., who was here at the Marriott Marquis on Monday to kick off a five-city, four-day press tour to hype his Sept. 13 rematch with Argentina’s Marcos Maidana, is so exceptionally gifted that it sometimes might appear that he arrived from another planet for the express purpose of dazzling mere earthlings. Ali and the original Sugar Ray knew — or at least found out when their aura of invincibility was finally threatened — what the creators of Superman did when they began to run out of story ideas for a character that could fly at incredible speeds, had unimaginable strength and was impervious to any sort of physical pain.

Whether it’s in comic books or inside a roped-off swath of canvas, there has to be conflict and a reasonable amount of danger faced by the protagonist to maintain interest from a public constantly expecting fresh thrills. Thus did writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, who in tandem conceived Superman in the 1930s, decide that he needed to occasionally deal with strength-sapping kryptonite and an expanding cast of super-villains that included, among others, General Zod, Kryptonite Man, Metallo, Mister Mxyzptik, Ultra-Humanite and Ultraman. There was even an issue of DC Comics in which Superman tangled with, yep, Muhammad Ali.

It remains to be seen whether the 30-year-old Maidana (35-4, 31 KOs), can match or even exceed his performance against Mayweather (46-0, 26 KOs) of May 3, when the “Money” man was obliged to settle for a more-difficult-than-expected 12-round majority decision at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, where he again will take on the Argentine brawler. It marks the 10^th straight bout for the Grand Rapids, Mich., native to fight in his adopted hometown and at his preferred venue.

To hear Mayweather, who will defend his WBC, WBA and THE RING welterweight championships, what Maidana did that night as a 10-to-1 underdog was an illusion, a juxtaposition of dirty tactics allowed by the referee (Tony Weeks) and the inflated expectations of those who see anything other than absolute domination on Mayweather’s part as some sort of failure. And Mayweather is correct, in one sense. The higher you continually set the bar, the more difficult it is for even the most exceptional of flesh-and-blood human beings to clear it with the ease of Superman leaping over a tall building in a single bound.

So, has Floyd Mayweather Jr., at 37, become too good for his own good? Has he reached the point where mere victories on his part no longer are considered satisfactory by fight fans paying top dollar for seats in the arena or pay-per-view subscriptions?

“The perception out there is that Floyd’s been the best,” said Leonard Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions. “He didn’t just become the best; he’s been the best. Any kind of success anyone has against him, people tend to gravitate toward that.”

Mayweather, looking relaxed and very fit in a black T-shirt set off by shiny, expensive jewelry, agreed that he is frequently held to a higher standard than other fighters, thus the somewhat perplexing scorecard 114-114 scorecard submitted by judge Michael Pernick, whose colleagues, Burt Clements and Dave Moretti, had him defeating Maidana by comfortable margins of 117-111 and 116-112, respectively. It wasn’t the first time, he believes, that he’s been given less than his due. In the bout prior to his matchup with Maidana, when he stepped up in weight to challenge WBC and WBC super welterweight champ Canelo Alvarez, Craig Metcalfe and Moretti had him cruising by respective scores of 117-111 and 116-112 while the third judge, C.J. Ross, like Pernick, accorded him only a 114-114 standoff.

“I think we need to get some young judges,” said Mayweather, still amazed that he has had to come away with back-to-back majority decisions in fights he is convinced he clearly won and with no hint of controversy. “I think it’s just about being fair. As a fighter, Maidana know – he know – he didn’t win that fight. Even with (Jose Luis) Castillo in that first fight, if I felt like I lost, I would have said, `Yeah, I lost.’ Because I’m fair. But I know I beat him. I know it for a fact.”

It is notable that the rematch with Maidana marks only the second time Mayweather, who generally abhors the notion of do-overs, has grudgingly consented to swap punches with a previous victim. There are those – quite a few, actually – who are of the belief that the then-27-year-old Mayweather was the beneficiary of a gift decision as a challenger against WBC lightweight titlist Castillo on April 20, 2002. Castillo, outboxed in the early rounds, was to a degree able to bully Mayweather down the stretch. Mayweather, however, won a unanimous decision with scores of 116-111 and 115-111 (twice), which ran counter to the unofficial tabulations of HBO’s Harold Lederman and Larry Merchant, both of whom had Castillo retaining his championship.

Maidana, looking very much like a mild-mannered and bespectacled Clark Kent during his session with the media, said he and his team studied the tape of Mayweather-Castillo I at length and incorporated some of what they saw into their game plan against Floyd.

“We did look at and analyze that fight,” Maidana said. “It was a very close fight. We tried to implement a lot of the same things that Castillo did. But Mayweather is a great fighter. He has great defense and he’s not very easy to hit.”

And his repeat shot at the consensus No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter?

“I think our plan of attack (the last time) was great,” he said. “I just got to add to it.” Added Robert Garcia, Maidana’s trainer: “(Marcos) thought—I thought – that Mayweather was going to be something different, something special. He isn’t, not really.”

Mayweather, who maintains that he never watches tape of upcoming opponents because he can adapt to anything he might encounter on the fly, gives the impression that any tinkering by Maidana is certain to end in disappointment. The guy he’s fighting always has to adjust to him, not the other way around. Hasn’t Maidana ever read a Superman comic book? The flying man from Krypton always prevails, as does the man from Grand Rapids with the fancy footwork and rapid-fire hands.

“Maidana’s a tough competitor, but I’m really not worried about nothing,” Mayweather said. “I don’t worry about no fighter. They’re all the same to me.”

So, is there anything that Maidana did or does well, that might prove nettlesome this time around?

“Fight dirty,” said Mayweather, who figured that Maidana won three rounds, tops, the first time around. “Is he a better fighter than Canelo? No. Is he a better fighter than (Miguel) Cotto? No. Is he a dirtier fighter? Yes. That’s safe to say. That’s the only thing that sets him apart. He wants to hold with one hand, he wants to elbow. I didn’t get a deep gash from a punch, I got a deep gash from a head-butt. Low blows all night. Twenty of them, at least. We can go on and on.”

But Mayweather, who will be fighting for the fourth time as part of a six-bout pay-per-view deal with CBS/Showtime that will yield him upwards of $200 million, is enough of a businessman to understand that having a close call against Maidana, or what passes for a close call, is apt to produce higher gross revenues for the rematch. That’s enough reason for him to consent to a Part II, which has unimaginatively been dubbed “Mayhem,” as did Stephen Espinoza, Showtime’s executive vice president and general manager of sports and event programming.

It has not gone unnoticed that Showtime did not release the number of PPV buys for Mayweather-Maidana I, which some contend is proof that Mayweather, whose fights have produced a record $700 million-plus in PPV sales, is losing some clout as his sport’s foremost can’t-miss attraction. That could owe to generally soft sales for all PPV bouts in a saturated market, and it might owe, at least in part, to the growing feeling that Mayweather is blowing through a procession of no-chance opponents who might as well be shooting rubber bullets at the Man of Steel. Some have pegged the PPV buy rate for Mayweather-Maidana I at 850,000, which falls below the threshold of a million buys believed in some quarters to be the break-even point for any PPV fight involving Mayweather in his current deal, which guarantees him a minimum of $32 million per outing.

“Those numbers (for Mayweather-Maidana I) have not been released,” Espinoza acknowledged. “There’s a very small circle of people that know what the numbers are. But the May 3 fight was the most exciting and entertaining bout of Mayweather’s career, certainly the toughest of his career. Yet, in the aftermath, all people wanted to talk about was pay-per-view buys. I think it’s negative for the event, negative for the sport, negative for our company, when people draw conclusions that aren’t merited and thus spread misinformation.

“There’s only one fighter in history that’s done over two million PPVs twice, and that’s documented. (Mayweather did 2.5 million buys for his fight with Oscar De La Hoya, and 2.2 million for his fight with Alvarez.) There’s no question Floyd is the No. 1 pay-per-view star, regardless of whether we released numbers for Mayweather-Maidana 1 or not. There’s no question he does bigger gates, he does more buys and he generates more attention than any other boxer in the sport.”

And Espinoza’s prediction for Part II?

“I’m expecting it to pick up right where it left off,” he said. “What we have typically seen in the past is Mayweather cruising in the later rounds, when he establishes dominance and kicks into rhythm. That wasn’t the case in the last fight. Some people felt that Mayweather won comfortably. Others thought it was a slimmer margin. Probably a minority felt that Maidana won. From a business standpoint, it is a major advantage to have a thrilling, very competitive fight to sell as a rematch. We’ve made no secret of the fact it is a challenge to market some of these events because, given Floyd’s history, there is a presumption he’s going to dominate anyone who’s in the ring with him.”

The one fighter who continues to offer the most intriguing option is, of course, Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao. But Pacquiao is aligned with Top Rank founder Bob Arum, whom Mayweather despises, and with HBO, twin obstacles that have proved insurmountable in the past and might continue to be too much to overcome. Should Mayweather get past Maidana again, and easily, that leaves a comparatively skimpy menu of entrée items that might include Amir Khan, Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman, Kell Brook and Lucas Matthysse. All would be significant underdogs against a Mayweather that is even a reasonably close approximation of his familiar Superman persona.

Mayweather, who more and more is dropping hints that he is tiring of the demands placed upon him, is certain of only two things until he hangs up his gloves for keeps. One is that he remains the closest thing to a sure thing we have seen in boxing in some time. If he fulfills these last three bouts of his contract and remains undefeated, he’d be 49-0, and likely to be satisfied with that. He professes to have little interest in taking an additional fight, to go to 50-0 and surpass the record of the late, great heavyweight champion, Rocky Marciano.

“I never seen Marciano fight,” Mayweather said. “I seen some highlights. But this is the Mayweather era. All I can do is focus on the guy in front of me. Marciano had his time. Right now it’s my time. If my career was over today, I’d be happy with what I’ve accomplished. My job is not to go out there and break records. If it happens, it happens. If it don’t, it don’t.”

And that other certainty?

“You done seen this a thousand times,” he said. “`This guy is going to beat Floyd, he’s a young, hungry lion. He’s got power.’ But he’s not going to win, no matter who he is or who his trainer is. Each fight is the same result, and the same excuses. There’s so many excuses that they use. When I fought (Juan Manuel) Marquez, he was over the hill, washed up. Then he comes back to knock out Pacquiao and he’s pound-for-pound one of the best. They said I fought Cotto at a bad time for him. Now he’s the middleweight champ.

“I say this: Line ’em up like bowling pins so I can continue to knock ’em down.”

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Bernard Fernandez

History has Shortchanged Freddie Dawson, One of the Best Boxers of his Era

Published

2 days ago

April 2, 2025

Arne K. Lang

History has Shortchanged Freddie Dawson, One of the Best Boxers of his Era

This reporter was rummaging around the internet last week when he stumbled on a story in the May 1950 issue of Ebony under the byline of Mike Jacobs. Boxing was then in the doldrums (isn’t it always?) and Jacobs, the most powerful promoter in boxing during the era of Joe Louis, was lassoed by the editors of the magazine to address the question of whether the over-representation of black boxers was killing the sport at the box office.

This hoary premise had been kicking around even before the heyday of Jack Johnson, bubbling forth whenever an important black-on-black fight played to a sea of empty seats as had happened the previous year when Chicago’s Comiskey Park hosted the world heavyweight title fight between Ezzard Charles and Jersey Joe Walcott.

Jacobs ridiculed the hypothesis – as one could have expected considering the publication in which the story ran – and singled out three “colored” boxers as the best of the current crop of active pugilists: Sugar Ray Robinson, Ike Williams, and Freddie Dawson.

Sugar Ray Robinson? A no-brainer. Skill-wise the greatest of the great. Even those that didn’t follow boxing, would have recognized his name. Ike Williams? Nowhere near as well-known as Robinson, but he was then the reigning lightweight champion, a man destined to go into the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the inaugural class of 1990.

And Freddie Dawson? If the name doesn’t ring a bell, dear reader, you are not alone. I confess that I too drew a blank. And that triggered a search to learn more about him.

Freddie Dawson had four fights with Ike Williams. All four were staged on Ike’s turf in Philadelphia. Were this not the case, the history books would likely show the series knotted 2-2. Late in his career, Dawson became greatly admired in Australia. But we are jumping ahead of ourselves.

Dawson was born in 1924 in Thomasville, Arkansas, an unincorporated town in the Arkansas Delta. Likely a descendent of slaves who worked in the cotton plantations, he grew up in the so-called Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, the heart of Chicago’s Black Belt.

The first mention of him in the newspapers came in 1941 when he won Chicago’s Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) featherweight title. In those days, amateur boxing was big in the Windy City, the birthplace of the Golden Gloves. The Catholic Archdiocese, which ran gyms in every parish, and the Chicago Parks Department, were the major incubators.

In his amateur days, he was known as simply Fred Dawson. As a pro, his name often appeared as Freddy Dawson, although Freddie gradually became the more common spelling.

Dawson, who stood five-foot-six and was often described as stocky, made his pro debut on Feb. 1, 1943, at Marigold Gardens. Before the year was out, he had 16 fights under his belt, all in Chicago and all but two at Marigold. (Currently the site of an interdenominational Christian church, Marigold Gardens, on the city’s north side, was Chicago’s most active boxing and wrestling arena from the mid-1930s through the early-1950s. Joe Louis had three of his early fights there and Tony Zale was a fixture there as he climbed the ladder to the world middleweight title.)

The last of these 16 fights was fatal for Dawson’s opponent who collapsed heading back to his corner after the fight was stopped in the 10^th round and died that night at a local hospital from the effects of a brain injury.

Dawson left town after this incident and spent most of the next year in New Orleans where energetic promoter Louis Messina ran twice-weekly shows (Mondays for whites and Fridays for blacks) at the Coliseum, a major stop on boxing’s so-called Chitlin’ Circuit.

That same year, on Sept. 19, 1944, Dawson had his first encounter with Ike Williams. He was winning the fight when Ike knocked him out with a body punch in the fourth round.

The first and last meetings between Dawson and Ike Williams were spaced five years apart. In the interim, Freddie scored his two best wins, stopping Vic Patrick in the twelfth round at Sydney, NSW, and Bernard Docusen in the sixth round in Chicago.

The long-reigning lightweight champion of Australia, Patrick (49-3, 43 KOs) gave the crowd a thrill when he knocked Dawson down for a count of “six” in the penultimate 11^th round, but Dawson returned the favor twice in the final stanza, ending the contest with a punch so harsh that the poor Aussie needed five minutes before he was fit to leave the ring and would spend the night in the hospital as a precaution.

Dawson fought Bernard Docusen before 10,000-plus at Chicago Stadium on Feb. 4, 1949. An 8/5 favorite, Docusen lacked a hard punch, but the New Orleans cutie had suffered only three losses in 66 fights, had never been stopped, and had extended Sugar Ray Robinson the 15-round distance the previous year.

Dawson dismantled him. Docusen managed to get back on his feet after Dawson knocked him down in the sixth, but he was in no condition to continue and the referee waived the fight off. Dawson was then vacillating between the lightweight and welterweight divisions and reporters wondered whether it would be Robinson or Ike Williams when Dawson finally got his well-earned title shot.

Sugar Ray wasn’t in his future. Here are the results of his other matches with Ike Williams:

Dawson-Williams II (Jan. 28, 1946) – The consensus on press row was 7-2-1 or 7-3 for Dawson, but the match was ruled a draw. “[The judges and referee] evidently saw [Williams] land punches that nobody else did,” said the ringside reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Dawson-Williams III (Jan. 26, 1948) – Dawson lost a majority decision. The scores were 6-4, 5-4-1, and 4-4-2. The decision was booed. Ike Williams then held the lightweight title, but this was a non-title fight. (It was tough for an outsider to get a fair shake in Philadelphia, home to Ike Williams’ co-manager Frank “Blinky” Palermo who would go to prison for his duplicitous dealings as a fight facilitator.)

Dawson-Williams IV (Dec. 5, 1949) – This would be Freddie Dawson’s only crack at a world title and he came up short. Ike Williams retained the belt, winning a unanimous decision. The fight was close – 8-7, 8-7, 9-6 – but there was no controversy.

Dawson made three more trips to Australia before his career was finished. On the first of these trips, he knocked out Jack Hassen, successor to Vic Patrick as the lightweight champion of Australia. A 1953 article in the Sydney Sunday Herald bore witness to the esteem in which Dawson was held by boxing fans in Australia: “None of our boxers could withstand his devastating attacks which not only knocked them out but also knocked years off their careers,” said the author. “It is doubtful whether any Australian boxer in any division could have beaten Dawson.”

Dawson had his final fights in the Land Down Under, finishing his career with a record of 103-14-4 while answering the bell for 962 rounds. Following what became his final fight, he had an eye operation in Sydney that was reportedly so intricate that it required a two-week hospital stay. He injured the eye again in Manila while sparring in preparation for a match with the welterweight champion of the Philippines, a match that had to be aborted because of the injury. Dawson then disappeared, by which we mean that he disappeared from the pages of the newspaper archives that allow us to construct these kinds of stories.

What about Freddie Dawson the man? A 1944 story about him said he was an outstanding all-around athlete, “a champion in all athletic undertakings – basketball, baseball, track and even jitterbugging.” A story in a Sydney paper as he was preparing to meet Vic Patrick informs us that he had two young children, ages 2 and 1, owned his own home in Chicago, and drove a two-year-old Cadillac. But beyond these flimsy snippets, Dawson the man remains elusive.

What we learned, however, is that he was one of the most underrated boxers to come down the pike in any era, a borderline Hall of Famer who ought not have fallen through the cracks. Inside the ring, this guy was one tough hombre.

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Ringside at the Fontainebleau where Mikaela Mayer Won her Rematch with Sandy Ryan

Published

5 days ago

March 30, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Ringside-at-the-Fontainebleau-where-Mikaela-Mayer-won-her-Rematch-with-Sandy-Ryan

LAS VEGAS, NV — The first meeting between Mikaela Mayer and Sandy Ryan last September at Madison Square Garden was punctuated with drama before the first punch was thrown. When the smoke cleared, Mayer had become a world-title-holder in a second weight class, taking away Ryan’s WBO welterweight belt via a majority decision in a fan-friendly fight.

The rematch tonight at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas was another fan-friendly fight. There were furious exchanges in several rounds and the crowd awarded both gladiators a standing ovation at the finish.

Mayer dominated the first half of the fight and held on to win by a unanimous decision. But Sandy Ryan came on strong beginning in round seven, and although Mayer was the deserving winner, the scores favoring her (98-92 and 97-93 twice) fail to reflect the competitiveness of the match-up. This is the best rivalry in women’s boxing aside from Taylor-Serrano.

Mayer, 34, improved to 21-2 (5). Up next, she hopes, in a unification fight with Lauren Price who outclassed Natasha Jonas earlier this month and currently holds the other meaningful pieces of the 147-pound puzzle. Sandy Ryan, 31, the pride of Derby, England, falls to 7-3-1.

Co-Feature

In his first defense of his WBO world welterweight title (acquired with a brutal knockout of Giovani Santillan after the title was vacated by Terence Crawford), Atlanta’s Brian Norman Jr knocked out Puerto Rico’s Derrieck Cuevas in the third round. A three-punch combination climaxed by a short left hook sent Cuevas staggering into a corner post. He got to his feet before referee Thomas Taylor started the count, but Taylor looked in Cuevas’s eyes and didn’t like what he saw and brought the bout to a halt.

The stoppage, which struck some as premature, came with one second remaining in the third stanza.

A second-generation prizefighter (his father was a fringe contender at super middleweight), the 24-year-old Norman (27-0, 21 KOs) is currently boxing’s youngest male title-holder. It was only the second pro loss for Cuevas (27-2-1) whose lone previous defeat had come early in his career in a 6-rounder he lost by split decision.

Other Bouts

In a career-best performance, 27-year-old Brooklyn featherweight Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington (15-0, 9 KOs) blasted out Jose Enrique Vivas (23-4) in the third round.

Carrington, who was named the Most Outstanding Boxer at the 2019 U.S. Olympic Trials despite being the lowest-seeded boxer in his weight class, decked Vivas with a right-left combination near the end of the second round. Vivas barely survived the round and was on a short leash when the third stanza began. After 53 seconds of round three, referee Raul Caiz Jr had seen enough and waived it off. Vivas hadn’t previously been stopped.

Cleveland welterweight Tiger Johnson, a Tokyo Olympian, scored a fifth-round stoppage over San Antonio’s Kendo Castaneda. Johnson assumed control in the fourth round and sent Castaneda to his knees twice with body punches in the next frame. The second knockdown terminated the match. The official time was 2:00 of round five.

Johnson advanced to 15-0 (7 KOs). Castenada declined to 21-9.

Las Vegas junior welterweight Emiliano Vargas (13-0, 11 KOs) blasted out Stockton, California’s Giovanni Gonzalez in the second round. Vargas brought the bout to a sudden conclusion with a sweeping left hook that knocked Gonzalez out cold. The end came at the 2:00 minute mark of round two.

Gonzalez brought a 20-7-2 record which was misleading as 18 of his fights were in Tijuana where fights are frequently prearranged. However, he wasn’t afraid to trade with Vargas and paid the price.

Emiliano Vargas, with his matinee idol good looks and his boxing pedigree – he is the son of former U.S. Olympian and two-weight world title-holder “Ferocious” Fernando Vargas – is highly marketable and has the potential to be a cross-over star.

Eighteen-year-old Newark bantamweight Emmanuel “Manny” Chance, one of Top Rank’s newest signees, won his pro debut with a four-round decision over So Cal’s Miguel Guzman. Chance won all four rounds on all three cards, but this was no runaway. He left a lot of room for improvement.

There was a long intermission before the co-main and again before the main event, but the tedium was assuaged by a moving video tribute to George Foreman.

Photos credit: Al Applerose

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William Zepeda Edges Past Tevin Farmer in Cancun; Improves to 34-0

Published

5 days ago

March 29, 2025

David A. Avila

William Zepeda Edges Past Tevin Farmer in Cancun; Improves to 34-0

No surprise, once again William Zepeda eked out a win over the clever and resilient Tevin Farmer to remain undefeated and retain a regional lightweight title on Saturday.

There were no knockdowns in this rematch.

The Mexican punching machine Zepeda (33-0, 17 KOs) once more sought to overwhelm Farmer (33-8-1, 9 KOs) with a deluge of blows. This rematch by Golden Boy Promotions took place in the famous beach resort area of Cancun, Mexico.

It was a mere four months ago that both first clashed in Saudi Arabia with their vastly difference styles. This time the tropical setting served as the background which suited Zepeda and his lawnmower assaults. The Mexican fans were pleased.

Nothing changed in their second meeting.

Zepeda revved up the body assault and Farmer moved around casually to his right while fending off the Mexican fighter’s attacks. By the fourth round Zepeda was able to cut off Farmer’s escape routes and targeted the body with punishing shots.

The blows came in bunches.

In the fifth round Zepeda blasted away at Farmer who looked frantic for an escape. The body assault continued with the Mexican fighter pouring it on and Farmer seeming to look ready to quit. When the round ended, he waved off his corner’s appeals to stop.

Zepeda continued to dominate the next few rounds and then Farmer began rallying. At first, he cleverly smothered Zepeda’s body attacks and then began moving and hitting sporadically. It forced the Mexican fighter to pause and figure out the strategy.

Farmer, a Philadelphia fighter, showed resiliency especially when it was revealed he had suffered a hand injury.

During the last three rounds Farmer dug down deep and found ways to score and not get hit. It was Boxing 101 and the Philly fighter made it work.

But too many rounds had been put in the bank by Zepeda. Despite the late rally by Farmer one judge saw it 114-114, but two others scored it 116-112 and 115-113 for Zepeda who retains his interim lightweight title and place at the top of the WBC rankings.

“I knew he was a difficult fighter. This time he was even more difficult,” said Zepeda.

Farmer was downtrodden about another loss but realistic about the outcome and starting slow.

“But I dominated the last rounds,” said Farmer.

Zepeda shrugged at the similar outcome as their first encounter.

“I’m glad we both put on a great show,” said Zepeda.

Female Flyweight Battle

Costa Rica’s Yokasta Valle edged past Texas fighter Marlen Esparza to win their showdown at flyweight by split decision after 10 rounds.

Valle moved up two weight divisions to meet Esparza who was slightly above the weight limit. Both showed off their contrasting styles and world class talent.

Esparza, a former unified flyweight world titlist, stayed in the pocket and was largely successful with well-placed jabs and left hooks. She repeatedly caught Valle in-between her flurries.

The current minimumweight world titlist changed tactics and found more success in the second half of the fight. She forced Esparza to make the first moves and that forced changes that benefited her style.

Neither fighter could take over the fight.

After 10 rounds one judge saw Esparza the winner 96-94, but two others saw Valle the winner 97-93 twice.

Will Valle move up and challenge the current undisputed flyweight world champion Gabriela Fundora? That’s the question.

Valle currently holds the WBC minimumweight world title.

Puerto Rico vs Mexico

Oscar Collazo (12-0, 9 KOs), the WBO, WBA minimumweight titlist, knocked out Mexico’s Edwin Cano (13-3-1, 4 KOs) with a flurry of body shots at 1:12 of the fifth round.

Collazo dominated with a relentless body attack the Mexican fighter could not defend. It was the Puerto Rican fighter’s fifth consecutive title defense.

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