THE STERN VIEW: Fightnight Reports From FS1 Cali Card

Published

10 years ago

August 25, 2014

Joel Stern

On Friday night August 22^nd, a sold out crowd of close to 1200 filled the Allan Witt Sports Center in Fairfield, CA and watched junior featherweight prospect Manuel ‘Tino’ Avila and heavyweight prospect Gerald Washington emerge victorious on a FOX Sports 1 televised card presented by Golden Boy Promotions, Don Chargin Production and Paco Presents.

Fighting in his hometown, Manuel Avila, 16(7)-0, shined and displayed a rising confidence befitting a boxer turning into one of the top prospects of his division.

Gerald Washington’s struggle with veteran Nagy Aguilera, 19(13)-9, left questions of his ability to advance to the elite level.

Fairfield’s Manuel ‘Tino’ Avila entered the ring in bright white attire and to the crowd’s refrain of “Tino’s House.” Bouncing on his toes awaiting the signal from the TV broadcast that the fight could begin, Avila’s face was frozen in concentration. Sitting on a chair outside of the ring was his trainer, Al LaGardo. LaGardo has trained Avila since he was an amateur. Health issues prevent LaGardo from entering the ring, but he relays his instructions to his assistant coaches, all of whom hail from the Vacaville PAL, which Al runs with an iron fist. LaGardo can be seen at amateur shows operating the same way, often warming up elementary school age boxers while sitting in a chair using his hands as punch mitts.

Avila normally begins a fight sitting back, getting a read on his opponent and looking to counter. This night, Avila stalked his opponent, Sergio Frias, 15(8)-4-2, of Guadalajara, Mex, from the start. Working behind a sharp, fast jab, and showing Frias no respect, Avila was seeking to destroy. Avila dropped Frias with left hook and then dropped him a second time with a series of right cross, left hooks. Tino looked to finish off Frias in the final 10 seconds of the first, throwing a lot of punches and injuring his left hand in the process.

Frias collected his wits well in between rounds and began the 2^nd looking to fight his fight, but Avila was just superior. From the 2^nd through 4^th round, Avila controlled the fight with his crisp jab and his counters, favoring either a 2-3 or a 3-2 thrown tight, quick and compact. Somewhere in the 4^th Avila injured his right hand. From the 5^th through 7^th, Avila changed tactics and let Frias chase him around the ring, stinging Frias with his jab while mostly working defense.

Worn down from the early punishment, the energy expended chasing Avila and the damage from repeatedly eating a hard jab on the chin all night, Frias began the 8^th with no choice but to go for it. After opening up on Avila early in the round, Frias stumbled after getting hit a jab. Sensing Frias had nothing left, Avila drove Frias to the ropes with a flurry and put him down with a digging left hook with the body. Frias’ corner threw in the white towel just as the referee called off the fight.

With this fight, Manuel ‘Tino’ Avila may have entered a new phase of his career. He is no longer a young fighter transitioning from amateur boxing to professional. At 22 years of age, he is now a professional with full confidence in his abilities and operating under the realization that he can and should, even if injured, dispatch lesser men. Avila is ready to climb.

The supporters of heavyweight Gerald Washington, 14(10)-0, wear shirts with “Champion on the Rise” emblazoned on the back. A former USC Trojan football player and fringe NFL tight end, Washington is looking to buck the trend of former football players who turn out to be failed heavyweights. Having boxed as a youth and with backing from Al Haymon, maybe Gerald Washington will be different. After his anemic eight round unanimous decision victory over Nagy Aguilera, Gerald Washington has much more work to do if he plans on reaching his goals.

Washington is a good athlete who utilized decent footwork to evade Aguilera’s constant pressure, but he pushes his punches instead of snapping them, has issues with activity and stamina, and brings his jab hand back to his waist each time he throws. His constant circling off brought catcalls and boos from the crowd. Nagy Aguilera was correct in his prediction that he would have to knock Washington out in order to get a victory.

The television star of the night was Manuel Avila. The actual stars of the actual event, held in a building that functions as a community center, were the members of the local Northern California boxing community, who were given the opportunity to celebrate themselves.

Ricardo Carrillo, a garbage truck driver, who has spent almost every day after work for over 20 years running the Woodland Boxing Club, who has taught thousands of kids their first punch, and who has trained an Olympian, gets to work the glove table, don a sports coat and catch a glimpse of himself in the ring on national television. Local professional boxers not fighting that night get to be guests of honor, walk tall, see the young men who they spar with compete, talk to each other about their next fight or the frustration of finding a next fight, and talk about their careers with the few people who have witnessed them and care about their journeys. In the ring, at the conclusion of each bout, promoter Paco Damian, in charge of the nuts and bolts of the promotion under the tutelage of Hall of Famer Don Chargin, can be seen expressing his authenticate appreciation to each of the boxers, from the main event fighter to the four round boxers who will never progress beyond a few fights at these local shows.

And the fans themselves starred. Most of the crowd was young and minority, coming from communities where boxing still matters, wearing shirts in support of the boxer from their neighborhood, their boxing gym or their family. ‘Team Rhino’, ‘Kennel Boxing Club’, ‘Gallo Negro’, ‘Tino’, ‘Team Robb’, ‘No Luck, All Hustle’ all represented. For each fight, there was a sizeable group emotionally invested in the result. There were very few pure spectators.

After winning his fight, dressed in his street clothes, looking younger than his age, 20 year-old boxer Chris Bautista climbed up the bleachers and quietly and respectfully shook the hands of each of the elders that came to see him. He then departed with his friends.

In other action, Sacramento junior lightweight Guy Robb, 14(6)-1, bolstered his reputation as one of the most exciting fighters in Northern California after he knocked out previously undefeated Ronell Green, 10(5)-1, in the 3^rd round. Robb made Green pay for his bad habit of bending at the waist. When Green bent over, Robb pounded the sides of his body, waiting for Green to raise his head. Green raised his head and Robb was ready with short right hand followed by a left hook that robbed Green of his consciousness.

San Jose, CA lightweight Andy Vences, 9(5)-0, defeated Cesar Martinez, 4(1)-3-2, when the ringside physician stopped the bout after the 2^nd due to cuts in Martinez’s mouth. Martinez, who was dropped once in the fight, appeared fit to fight and was visible upset by the doctor’s call. Vences has the ability to fight as a pure boxer, but he loves to exchange. His identity as a pro has yet to be established.

Los Angeles featherweight Manny Robles, Jr., 6(2)-0, boxed with the poise and technique one would expect from a boxer with a father who trains elite amateurs. Mexico’s Sergio Najera, 8-15-2, gave Robles multiple looks and was slippery enough to force Robles to work hard in earning a 60-54 unanimous decision.

Vacaville, CA cruiserweight Ryan Bourland went to 4(3)-0 after stopping San Francisco’s Philip Smith, 0-1, in the 2^nd round. There are plenty of professional boxing matches that are mismatches or that are fought at a basic level, but rarely do you see a fight where you immediately know that one of the boxers has no business being in the ring and your concern turns from reporting on the action to concern for the participant’s health and safety. This was such a fight. Philip Smith has no business being in a ring. The referee thankfully stopped the action in the 2^nd, not because any particular punch rendered Smith helpless, but because he was helpless and in danger of being seriously injured by Ryan Bourland, a professional boxer.

Middleweight Maurico Zavaleta, 1-2, lost to William Walters, 2-3, in a fight Zavaleta was well in control after the ringside physician stopped the fight due to a cut in his mouth.

Junior middleweights Joe Siapano, 0-1-1, and Jesus Sanchez, 1-0-1, fought to a majority draw in a rematch of their professional debuts.

Chris Bautista, 3-0, earned a four round unanimous decision over Percy Peterson, 0-4-1, who didn’t appear interested in engaging after suffering a bruising and competitive defeat just three weeks before.

All in all, if you knew nothing else, walking into arena that night, you would think boxing was doing just fine.

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Joel Stern

Avila Perspective, Chap. 289: East LA, Claressa Shields and More

Published

1 day ago

July 25, 2024

David A. Avila

Avila-Perspective-Chap-289-East-L.A.-A-Fight-Town-Claressa-Shields-and-More

Avila Perspective, Chap. 289: East LA, Claressa Shields and More

East Los Angeles has long been a haven for some of the best fighters around if you can keep them out of trouble. For every Oscar De La Hoya or Seniesa Estrada there are thousands derailed by crime, drugs or drinking.

Boxing has always been a favorite sport of East L.A. Every family has an uncle or two who boxes.

On Friday, 360 Promotions’ Omar Trinidad (15-0-1) fights Viktor Slavinskyi (15-2-1) in the main event at Commerce Casino, in Commerce, CA. UFC Fight Pass will stream the fight card.

The City of Commerce used to be part of East L.A. until 1960 when it incorporated. It’s still considered to be part of East Los Angeles, but informally.

Plenty of fighters come out of East L.A. but few make it all the way like De La Hoya and Estrada. Will Trinidad be the one?

The first world champion from East L.A. or “East Los” as some call it, was Solly Garcia Smith back in the late 1800s. Others were Richie Lemos, Art Frias and Joey Olivo. There is also 1984 Olympic gold medalist Paul Gonzalez.

Once again 360 Promotions brings its popular brand of fights to the area. On this fight card includes two female bouts. One features Roxy Verduzco (1-0) the former amateur star fighting Colleen Davis (3-1-1) in a featherweight fight.

All that action takes place on Friday.

Elite Boxing

The next day, also in East L.A., Elite Boxing stages another boxing card at Salesian High School located at 960 S. Soto Street in the Boyle Heights area of East Los Angeles.

Elite Boxing has promoted several successful boxing cards at the Catholic high school grounds. The area is saturated by many of the best eateries in Los Angeles. Don’t take my word for it. Check it out yourself and grab some of that delicious food.

Boxing has long been a favorite sport of anyone who lives in East L.A. It’s a fight town equal to Philadelphia, Brooklyn or Detroit. There’s something different about the area. For more than 100 years some of the best fighters continue to come out of its boxing gyms. Some will be performing on these club shows.

For tickets or information go to www.eliteboxingusa.com

Claressa Shields in Detroit

Speaking of fight towns, pound-for-pound best Claressa Shields who won two Olympic Gold Medals in boxing, moves up another weight division to tackle the WBC heavyweight world champion Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse on Saturday, July 27, at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan.

DAZN will stream the heavy-duty fight card.

Shields (14-0) cleaned out the super welterweight, middleweight and super middleweight divisions and now wants to add the big girls to her conquests. She will be facing Canada’s Lepage-Joanisse (7-1) who holds the WBC belt.

The last time Shields gloved up was more than a year ago when she fought Maricela Cornejo. Don’t blame Shields. She loves to fight. She loves to win. The last time Shields lost a fight was in the amateurs and that was three presidential administrations ago.

Shields doesn’t lose.

I wonder if Las Vegas even takes bets on her fights?

The only fight she may have been an underdog was against Savannah Marshall who was the last opponent to defeat her. And that was in 2012 in China. When they met as pros two years ago, Shields avenged her loss with a blistering attack.

Don’t get Shields mad.

Perhaps her toughest foe as a pro was in her pro debut when she clashed with Franchon Crews-Dezurn in Las Vegas. It was four rounds of fists and fury as the two pounded each other on the undercard of Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev in November 2016.

That was a ferocious debut for both female pugilists.

Assisting Shields on this fight card will be several intriguing male bouts. One guy you should pay special attention is Tito Mercado (15-0, 14 KOs) a super lightweight prospect from Pomona, California.

Many excellent fighters have come out of Pomona including Sugar Shane Mosley, Shane Mosley Jr., Alberto Davila and Richie Sandoval who just passed away this week.

Sandoval was best known for his 15-round war with Philadelphia’s Jeff Chandler for the bantamweight world title in 1984. Read the story by Arne K. Lang on this link: https://tss.ib.tv/boxing/featured-boxing-articles-boxing-news-videos-rankings-and-results/81467-former-world-bantamweight-champion-richie-sandoval-passes-away-at-age-63 .

Fights to Watch

Fri. UFC Fight Pass 7 p.m. Omar Trinidad (15-0-1) vs Viktor Slavinskyi (15-2-1).

Sat. ESPN+ 12:30 p.m. Joe Joyce (16-2) vs Derek Chisora (34-13).

Sat. DAZN 3 p.m. Claressa Shields (14-0) vs Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse (7-1), Michel Rivera (25-1) vs Hugo Roldan (22-2-1); Tito Mercado (15-0) vs Hector Sarmiento (21-2).

Omar Trinidad photo by Lina Baker

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Arne’s Almanac: Jake Paul and Women’s Boxing, a Curmudgeon’s Take

Published

3 days ago

July 24, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Arne's-Almanac-Jake-Paul-and-Women's-Boxing-a-Curmudgeon's-Take

Jake Paul can fight more than a little. The view from here is that he would make it interesting against any fringe contender in the cruiserweight division. However, Jake’s boxing acumen pales when paired against his skill as a flim-flam artist.

Jake brought a 9-1 record into last weekend’s bout with Mike Perry. As noted by boxing writer Paul Magno, Jake’s previous opponents consisted of “a You Tuber, a retired NBA star, five retired MMA stars, a part-time boxer/reality TV star, and two undersized and inactive fall-guy boxers.”

Mike Perry, a 32-year-old Floridian, was undefeated (6-0, 3 KOs) as a bare-knuckle boxer after forging a 14-8 record in UFC bouts. In pre-fight blurbs, Perry was billed as the baddest bare knuckle boxer of all time, but against Jake Paul he proved to have very unrefined skills as a conventional boxer which Team Paul undoubtedly knew all along. Perry lasted into the eighth round in a one-sided fight that could have been stopped a lot sooner.

Jake Paul is both a boxer and a promoter. As a promoter, he handles Amanda Serrano, one of the greatest female boxers in history. That makes him the person most responsible (because the buck stops with him) for the wretched mismatch in last Saturday’s co-feature, the bout between Serrano and Stevie Morgan.

Morgan, who took up boxing two years ago at age 33, brought a 14-1 record. Nicknamed the Sledgehammer, she had won 13 of her 14 wins by knockout, eight in the opening round. However, although she resides in Florida, all but one of those 13 knockouts happened in Colombia.

“We found that in Colombia there were just more opportunities for women’s boxing than in the United States,” she told a prominent boxing writer whose name we won’t mention.

The truth is that, for some folks, Colombia is the boxing equivalent of a feeder lot for livestock, a place where a boxer can go to fatten their record. The opportunities there were no greater than in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1995. It was there that Peter McNeeley prepped for his match with Mike Tyson with a 6-second knockout of professional punching bag Frankie Hines. (Six seconds? So it would be written although no one seems to have been there to witness it.)

Serrano vs Morgan was understood to be a stay-busy fight for Amanda whose rematch with Katie Taylor was postponed until November. Stevie Morgan, to her credit, answered the bell for the second round whereas others in her situation would have remained on the stool and invented an injury to rationalize it. Thirty-eight seconds later it was all over and Ms. Morgan was free to go home and use her sledgehammer to do some light dusting.

The Paul-Perry and Serrano-Morgan fights played out in a sold-out arena in Tampa before an estimated 17,000. Those without a DAZN subscription paid $64.95 for the livestream. Paul’s next promotion, where he will touch gloves with 58-year-old Mike Tyson (unless Iron Mike pulls a Joe Biden and pulls out; a capital idea) with Serrano-Taylor II the semi-main, will almost certainly rake in more money than any other boxing promotion this year.

Asked his opinion of so-called crossover boxing by a reporter for a college newspaper, the venerable boxing promoter Bob Arum said, “It’s not my bag but folks who don’t like it shouldn’t get too worked up over it because no one is stealing from anybody.” True enough, but for some of us, the phenomenon is distressing.

—

The next big women’s fight happens Saturday in Detroit where Claressa Shields seeks a world title in a third weight class against WBC heavyweight belt-holder Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse.

A two-time Olympic gold medalist, undefeated in 14 fights as a pro, Shields is very good, arguably the best female boxer of her generation which makes her, arguably, the best female boxer of all time. But turning away Lepage-Joanisse (7-1, 2 KOs) won’t elevate her stature in our eyes.

Purportedly 17-4 as an amateur, the Canadian won her title in her second crack at it. Back in August of 2017, she challenged Cancun’s Alejandra Jimenez in Cancun and was stopped in the third round. Entering the bout, Lepage-Joanisse was 3-0 as a pro and had never fought a match slated for more than four rounds.

Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse

True, on the women’s side, the heavyweight bracket is a very small pod. A sanctioning body has to make concessions to harness a sanctioning fee. Nonetheless, how absurd that a woman who had answered the bell for only 11 rounds would be deemed qualified to compete for a world title. (FYI: Alejandra Jimenez was purportedly born a man. She left the sport with a 12-0-1 record after her win over Franchon Crews Dazurn was changed to a no-contest when she tested positive for the banned steroid stanozolol.)

Following her defeat to Jimenez, Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse, now 29 years old, was out of action for six-and-a-half years. When she returned, she was still a heavyweight, but a much slender heavyweight. She carried 231 pounds for Jimenez. In her most recent bout where she captured the vacant WBC title with a split decision over Argentina’s Abril Argentina Vidal, she clocked in at 173 ¼. (On the distaff side, there’s no uniformity among the various sanctioning bodies as to what constitutes a heavyweight.)

Claressa Shields doesn’t need Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse to reinforce her credentials as a future Hall of Famer. She made the cut a long time ago.

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Former World Bantamweight Champion Richie Sandoval Passes Away at Age 63

Published

4 days ago

July 22, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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Richie Sandoval, who won the WBA and lineal bantamweight title in one of the biggest upsets of the 1980s and then, not quite two years later, suffered near-fatal injuries in a title defense, has passed away at the age of 63.

News circulated fast in the Las Vegas boxing community on Monday, July 22, the grapevine actuated by a tweet from Hall of Fame matchmaker Bruce Trampler: “Boxing and the Top Rank family lost one of our own last night in the passing of former WBA bantamweight champion Richie Sandoval. It hurts personally and professionally to know that Richie is gone at age 63. RIP campeon.”

Details are vague but the cause of death was apparently a sudden heart attack that Sandoval experienced while visiting the Southern California home of his son of the same name.

Richie Sandoval put the LA County community of Pomona, California, on the boxing map before Shane Mosley came along and gave the town a more frequently-cited mention in the sports section of the papers. He came from a fighting family. An older brother, Albert “Superfly” Sandoval, became a big draw at LA’s fabled Olympic Auditorium while building a 35-2-1 record that included a failed bid to capture Lupe Pintor’s world bantamweight title.

Richie was a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic boxing team that was stranded when U.S. President Jimmy Carter (and many other world leaders) boycotted the event as a protest against Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan.

As a pro, Sandoval’s signature win was a 15^th-round stoppage of Jeff Chandler. They fought on April 7, 1984 in Atlantic City. Chandler was making the tenth defense of his world bantamweight title.

Despite being a heavy underdog, Sandoval dominated the fight, winning almost every round until the referee stepped in and waived it off. Chandler, who was 33-1-2 heading in and had avenged his lone defeat, never fought again.

Sandoval made two successful defenses before risking his title against Gaby Canizales on the undercard of Hagler-Mugabi in the outdoor stadium at Caesars Palace. In round seven, Sandoval, who had a hellish time making the weight, was knocked down three times and suffered a seizure as he collapsed from the third knockdown. Stretchered out of the ring, he was rushed to the hospital where doctors reduced the swelling in his brain and beat the odds to save his life. This would be Richie’s lone defeat. He finished his pro career with a record of 29-1 (17 KOs).

Bob Arum cushioned some of the pain by giving Richie a $25,000 bonus and offering him a lifetime job at Top Rank which Richie accepted. And let the record show that Arum was good to his word.

A more elaborate portrait of Richie Sandoval was published in these pages in 2017. You can check it out HERE. May he rest in peace.

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