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Dan Goossen’s Loss A Major Blow
Dan Goossen, president of Goossen Promotions based in Sherman Oaks, passed away from complications due to liver cancer, it was announced on Monday. He was only 64.
The jovial and likeable Goossen promoted Chris Arreola, Josesito Lopez and Andre Ward. His absence from a recent event at Pechanga Resort and Casino, when Austin Trout headlined the boxing card on Aug. 22, was the first sign that something was wrong.
It was the first boxing event that I could cover after suffering my own complications from a subdural hematoma. Dan Goossen called me during my month-long stay in a hospital and wished me well. “My family is praying for you,” he said, while never disclosing his own problems. “You have always been good to us.”
I was eager to see Dan Goossen in person to give him thanks for the call and kind words. He never showed at the event and I asked everyone involved with the promotion company where he was. No one could answer.
Many noticed his absence. He was not known for skipping fight cards in Southern California.
Henry Ramirez, trainer of Goossen Promotions fighters Chris Arreola and Josesito Lopez, said he often spoke with Goossen regarding many things. But lately, he was unavailable.
“He never showed any signs of being sick. I spoke to Rodney (Hunt) and he confirmed that Dan was sick. I talked to Dan probably three weeks ago and he still never said anything. He was attempting to get things squared away out of the ring. He helped out Chris beyond the boxing ring,” said Ramirez.
“I remember going into his hotel room before the Bermane Stiverne fight in L.A., I told Dan I want to win this fight for me, but I probably want it for you even more,” said Ramirez. “He said thanks, ‘Daddy-O.’ That’s what he used to say, ‘Daddy-O.’ I’m pretty sad.”
Arreola was promoted by Goossen from early on in his career. Through the various trials and tribulations Goossen supported the Riverside heavyweight in and out of the ring.
“Not only was he a great promoter to me, but he helped when I needed help! No matter what, he wanted to see me do well,” said Arreola on Facebook. “The boxing world lost a good promoter but the world lost a great man! We still have unfinished business to take care of! Rest in peace daddy-o!”
Goossen was always in pursuit of the heavyweight championship. Numerous heavyweights passed through his offices, such as Tony Thompson, Malik Scott, Lance Whitaker, and others. But only James “Lights Out” Toney managed to grab that title and then it was suddenly taken away.
When Toney defeated the great Evander “Real Deal” Holyfield by knockout to win at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in October 2003, it was one of the greatest wins for Goossen-Tutor Promotions. And it came right after Toney knocked out Vassiliy Jirov in a ferocious fight six months earlier. He then beat Rydell Booker for the vacant IBA heavyweight title but suffered a torn muscle in his chest. He underwent surgery and was prescribed steroids to help with the healing process. But in April 2005, after defeating John Ruiz for the WBA heavyweight world title, a drug sample detected traces of steroids. Toney had been given the drugs by doctors and had been told that the steroids would be out of his system, but that was a wrong assessment and the title was stripped from Toney. It was another setback for Toney and another blow to Goossen’s dreams of a heavyweight champion.
For several years Goossen tried to make a fight between Toney and either Vitali or Wladimir Klitshcko for the heavyweight titles they held. Several times it seemed close to fruition, tantalizingly close, but it never happened.
“I’m in shock right now. He’s (Goossen) a soldier we lost on the battle-field and one of the pioneers in boxing,” said John “Pops” Arthur, a trainer and advisor for Toney. “I was just reaching out to James (Toney). I’m just in total shock.”
Farzad Tabatabai, an attorney and friend who represented Goossen on numerous litigations, said the real Goossen was a reserved family man who was loyal to his friends and former fighters.
“I first met Dan in 2007 over the Antonio Margarito vs. Paul “The Punisher” Williams WBO welterweight title fight litigation,” said Tabatabai, whose office is based in Los Angeles. “We filed a suit and had the trial in Puerto Rico.”
Ultimately Williams fought and defeated Margarito to win the title and proceeded to win the junior middleweight title as well. But a mega fight between Williams and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez was derailed when the tall fighter from Georgia was left paralyzed from a motorcycle accident.
Williams and many others were never forgotten by Goossen, who kept tabs and assisted as much as possible.
“He was a very principled person. Every time someone screwed him it offended him. He was really a loyal person. He really cared. He asked me to help people from a long time ago that needed help. It never was about money. It was about principle. Very reserved, he was a really good, genuine, decent man,” said Tabatabai, who worked on numerous lawsuits for Goossen and became a close friend. “He genuinely cared about the fighters he worked with and he was a real family man. Fighters in the past he helped just because he was that kind of a guy. He cared about his fighters and was a very good guy.”
Craig Goossen, his oldest son, once told me and Steve Kim that his dream was to see his father win a mega fight. It was 2008, and Dan Goossen invited a number of reporters of various media to see Andre Ward’s fight against Jerson Ravelo in the Cayman Islands. One night, the three of us floated on the waters around 1 a.m. each with a bottle of beer and Craig Goossen told us about how he quit a well-paying job and worked for almost nothing to try and make his dad’s dream come true. His devotion to his father was truly inspiring and unforgettable.
The Goossen family was airtight and really supportive of each other.
“The last time I talked to him was a week or two ago. Just a close inner circle knew. It was a very aggressive and short illness. I knew his wife and I knew his brother Joe,” said Tabatabai. “It’s a serious loss. I’m deeply saddened by his passing.”
Rodney Cruz-Hunt, marketing director for Goossen Promotions, said Dan Goossen was capable of salvaging fights in zero degree weather in far off destinations like Kazakhstan. When a bout featuring Beibut Shumenov saw his opponent suddenly disappear, Goossen didn’t panic.
“I just remember sitting there in Kazakhstan in 28 degree weather and watching Dan still pull it together. The main event fighter just left. He had to make a quick decision and he replaced (Juergen) Braehmer with William Joppy to make the show still go on. Joppy was on another fight and Dan made the switch and saved the main event.”
Hunt, a reporter for a Southern California television network, became Goossen’s go-to-guy for different aspects of fight promotions and often worked closely with the head man. He believes that Goossen would want the company to continue.
Meanwhile, dozens of calls from current and former fighters of Goossen Promotions flooded the telephone line.
“Everyone that called was proper and respectful. I can’t quote what they all said, but I can say that boxing has been hit with a major blow,” said Hunt.
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 303: Spotlights on Lightweights and More
Those lightweights.
Whether junior lights, super lights or lightweights, it’s the 130-140 divisions where most of boxing’s young stars are found now or in the past.
Think Oscar De La Hoya, Sugar Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather.
Floyd Schofield (17-0, 12 KOs) a Texas product, hungers to be a star and takes on Mexico’s Rene Tellez Giron (20-3, 13 KOs) in a 12-round lightweight bout on Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada.
DAZN will stream the Golden Boy Promotion card that includes a female undisputed flyweight championship match pitting Argentina’s Gabriela Alaniz and Gabriela Fundora.
Like a young lion looking to flex, Schofield (pictured on the left) is eager to meet all the other young lions and prove they’re not equal.
“I’ve been in the room with Shakur, Tank. I want to give everyone a good fight. I feel like my preparation is getting better, I work hard, I’ve dedicated my whole life to this sport,” said Schofield naming fellow lightweights Shakur Stevenson and Gervonta “Tank” Davis.
Now he meets Mexico’s Tellez who has never been stopped.
“I’m willing to do whatever it takes,” said Tellez.
Even in Las Vegas.
Verona, New York
Meanwhile, in upstate New York, a WBC junior lightweight title rematch finds Robson Conceicao (19-2-1, 9 KOs) looking to prove superior to former titlist O’Shaquie Foster (22-3, 12 KOs) on Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, N.Y. ESPN+ will stream the Top Rank fight card.
Last July, Conceicao and Foster clashed and after 12 rounds the title changed hands from Foster to the Brazilian by split decision.
“I feel that a champion is a fighter who goes out there and doesn’t run around, who looks for the fight, who tries to win, and doesn’t just throw one or two punches and then moves away,” said Conceicao.
Foster disagrees.
“I hope he knows the name of the game is to hit and not get hit. That’s the name of the game,” said Foster.
Also on the same card is lightweight contender Raymond Muratalla (21-0, 16 KOs) who fights Mexico’s Jesus Perez Campos (25-5, 18 KOs).
Perez recently defeated former world champion Jojo Diaz last February in California.
“We’re made for challenges. I like challenges,” said Perez.
Muratalla likes challenges too.
“I think these fights are the types of fights I need to show my skills and to prove I deserve those title fights,” said Fontana’s Muratalla.
Female Undisputed Flyweight Championship
WBA, WBC and WBO flyweight titlist Gabriela “La Chucky” Alaniz (15-1, 6 KOs meets IBF titlist Gabriela Fundora (14-0, 6 KOs) on Saturday Nov. 2, at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada. DAZN will stream the clash for the undisputed flyweight championship.
Argentina’s Alaniz clashed twice against former WBA, WBC champ Marlen Esparza with their first encounter ending in a dubious win for the Texas fighter. In fact, three of Esparza’s last title fights were scored controversially.
But against Alaniz, though they fought on equal terms, Esparza was given a 99-91 score by one of the judges though the world saw a much closer contest. So, they fought again, but the rematch took place in California. Two judges deemed Alaniz the winner and one Esparza for a split-decision win.
“I’m really happy to be here representing Argentina. We are ready to fight. Nothing about this fight has to do with Marlen. So, I hope she (Fundora) is ready. I am ready to prepare myself for the great fight of my life,” said Alaniz.
In the case of Fundora, the extremely tall American fighter at 5’9” in height defeated decent competition including Maria Santizo. She was awarded a match with IBF flyweight titlist Arely Mucino who opted for the tall youngster over the dangerous Kenia Enriquez of Mexico.
Bad choice for Mucino.
Fundora pummeled the champion incessantly for five rounds at the Inglewood Forum a year ago. Twice she battered her down and the fight was mercifully stopped. Fundora’s arm was raised as the new champion.
Since that win Fundora has defeated Christina Cruz and Chile’s Daniela Asenjo in defense of the IBF title. In an interesting side bit: Asenjo was ranked as a flyweight contender though she had not fought in that weight class for seven years.
Still, Fundora used her reach and power to easily handle the rugged fighter from Chile.
Immediately after the fight she clamored for a chance to become undisputed.
“It doesn’t get better than this, especially being in Las Vegas. This is the greatest opportunity that we can have,” said Fundora.
It should be exciting.
Fights to Watch
Sat. ESPN+ 2:50 p.m. Robson Conceicao (19-2-1) vs O’Shaquie Foster (22-3).
Sat. DAZN 5 p.m. Floyd Schofield (17-0) vs Rene Tellez Giron (20-3); Gabriela Alaniz (15-1) vs Gabriela Fundora (14-0).
Photo credit: Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy
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Bakhram Murtalaziev was the Fighter of the Month in October
As we close the book on October, let’s look back at the month’s stellar performances. Kenshiro Teraji added another exclamation point to his brilliant career with an 11th-round stoppage of Cristofer Rosales. England’s Jack Catterall, considered no more than a decent domestic-level talent for most of his career, showed that he had been underrated with a comprehensive 12-round decision over declining Regis Prograis. But the top performance, by a landslide, was delivered by Bakhram Murtalaziev who annihilated Tim Tszyu on Oct. 19 in Orlando, Florida.
Murtalaziev was undefeated (22-0, 16 KOs) and the reigning IBF junior middleweight champion, but he was the underdog and the “B” side. As champions go, and there are roughly five dozen across the 17 weight divisions, the California-based Russian ranked among the least well-known. He had won his title in Berlin with an 11th-round stoppage of an unexceptional 38-year-old German-Ecuadorian campaigner, Jack Culcay, and he would be making his first defense.
Managed by Egis Klimas who also handles Oleksandr Usyk and Vasiliy Lomachenko, among others, Bakhram Murtalaziev came from a good barn in the vernacular of a horseplayer, but on paper that alone was insufficient to get him over the hump against Tim Tszyu who a few short months earlier was widely considered the best 154-pound boxer in the world.
That was before he met up with Sebastian Fundora who blemished his record, but that setback could have been written off as a fluke.
As we recall, Tszyu was scheduled to fight Keith Thurman in the initial PBC offering on Amazon Prime Video, but Thurman suffered a biceps injury in training and Fundora was bumped up from the undercard to fill the breach. With only 12 days’ notice, Tim Tszyu went from fighting a five-foot-seven fighter who fights out of an orthodox stance to fighting a southpaw who stood almost a full foot taller. The “Towering Inferno” has his limitations, but poses a special problem to anyone, let alone an opponent with little time to formulate a good game plan.
Tszyu was hampered in the Fundora fight by a gash on his hairline that hampered his vision. The injury happened in the second round when he ducked under Fundora and walked into an elbow. The gash bled copiously throughout the fight and yet the best that Fundora could do was win a split (albeit fair) decision.
To say that Tszyu failed to rebound from the Fundora misadventure would be putting it mildly. Murtalaziev steamrolled him, knocking him to the canvas four times in all before Tszyu’s corner tossed in the towel at the 1:55 mark of the third stanza. It was painful to watch. Referee Chris Young was faulted for allowing the match to continue as long as it did. Compounding Tszyu’s misery, his celebrated father, a first ballot Hall of Famer, was ringside. Kostya Tszyu hadn’t seen his oldest son fight in the flesh since Tim’s pro debut in 2016.
Although the dichotomy is imperfect, Tim Tszyu, who turns 30 on Saturday, is more of a puncher than a boxer. That may work against him so far as clawing his way back to a position of prominence. The noted boxing coach Stephen “Breadman” Edwards, a keen student of the history of boxing in the modern era, expressed this sentiment in a Q and A story for Boxing Scene. “Destructive fighters usually don’t come back to full capacity after bad KO losses,” he said, citing John Mugabi, Mike Tyson, George Foreman, Sonny Liston, and Naseem Hamed to illustrate his point. Moreover, added Edwards, “No one will ever be afraid of him again.”
But there were two stories that emerged from the Murtalaziev-Tszyu fight. Tim Tszyu crashed, but Bakhram Murtalaziev emerged from obscurity, announcing his presence (pardon the cliché) as a force to be reckoned with. As for his next assignment, the best guess is that it will come against Sebastian Fundora or Errol Spence Jr. who are expected to meet early next year. And based on Murtalaziev’s stunning performance in Orlando, it will be impossible to bet against him.
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Foreman-Moorer: 30 Years Later
Foreman-Moorer: 30 Years Later
By TSS SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT JAMIE REBNER — In sports, middle-aged athletes are not supposed to beat opponents who are half their age and in their athletic primes. Only the greatest ones can use guile, technique, and experience to compensate for the dulling of speed, reflexes, and athleticism that have unavoidably eroded with time.
That is why George Foreman’s feat of reclaiming the heavyweight title at 45 is so impressive. It was thirty years ago this coming Tuesday, Nov 5, 1994, that Foreman scored a monumental upset in knocking out Michael Moorer to win back the title he had lost twenty years prior against Muhammad Ali in The Rumble in the Jungle. In doing so, Big George became the oldest heavyweight champion, breaking the record previously held by Jersey Joe Walcott, who had won the title at 38.
When Foreman beat Moorer, he was in the twilight of his second career, a comeback that began in 1987. George had retired in 1977 after losing to Jimmy Young and experiencing a spiritual awakening in his locker room. That led him to become a minister and devote himself to his family and congregation. During his retirement, he opened a youth center in Houston, which required much financial support, prompting him to return to the ring.
After winning 24 straight fights from 1987-1990, Foreman lost his first title shot by decision to Evander Holyfield in 1991. He rebounded from that loss with three more wins before getting a crack at the WBO title against Tommy Morrison in 1993. But his performance against Morrison was disappointing and he lost another decision. After that, Foreman was out of the ring for 17 months before he was gifted another title shot against Moorer.
Foreman got that gift because Moorer, due to his sullen demeanor and curtness with the media, was not a draw with the fans. He was also an unproven champion, having beaten Holyfield for two belts only seven months prior. So. Moorer needed a name opponent who could bring in the crowds for his first title defense. And the other top heavyweights like Oliver McCall (WBC champ), Lennox Lewis, and Riddick Bowe didn’t have close to Foreman’s drawing power. So. deserving or not, Foreman was chosen as the challenger to make a fight that would be worth the public’s attention and pockets.
Even Foreman was surprised by getting selected to fight Moorer. “I never in my wildest imagination thought I’d get a title shot again,” he told Associated Press sports columnist Tim Dahlberg. Still, George was determined to make his third time a charm.
But as motivated as George was, there was an irrefutable gap in speed between himself and the much younger champion. From the opening bell, Moorer used his superior quickness and reflexes to make Foreman look stiff and slow. And although George landed punches early on, he fired them one at a time while Moorer countered with multiple shots. But despite Moorer’s advantage in connects, his trainer Teddy Atlas advised him from the get-go not to stand in front of Foreman and make himself a stationary target for a right-hand bomb.
But Moorer failed to heed that advice as he continued to outwork Foreman in the middle rounds. Although he was winning, Moorer’s overconfidence kept him at close quarters, and he continued to circle unwisely to his left and into Foreman’s dangerous right hand. And despite absorbing many quality shots, Foreman never appeared hurt or discouraged thanks to his granite chin and unyielding resolve. He was determined to win and he was willing to walk through as many flush shots as he needed to do so.
With Moorer content to stay in range, Foreman gladly returned his firepower and he landed some telling right crosses, uppercuts, and plenty of thudding body blows during the battle. And while Moorer continued to pile up points and rounds, as long as George was marching forward and throwing shots, he had a puncher’s chance.
And with a minute to go in round ten, that punch came. After missing a three-punch combination, Foreman scored with a one-two, with the right hand landing on the forehead. He immediately repeated that combination but this time aimed the right hand lower on Moorer’s jaw. That slight adjustment caused his bulldozer right to collide perfectly with Moorer’s chin, sending the champion crashing to the canvas and sprawled onto his back. The champion couldn’t beat the count, and just like that, the fight was over, Moorer’s short-lived title run ending before it ever truly began.
With a single, shattering blow, Foreman etched his name into boxing history. Wearing the same trunks from Zaire 20 years before, he was now heavyweight champion of the world once again. It was a shocking result that defied conventional wisdom since seldom do 45-year-old boxers score knockouts over champions in their athletic primes. But Foreman reminded us that he was anything but your typical quadragenarian. He was special, and he had two distinct heavyweight championship reigns to prove it.
—
About the author:
Jamie Rebner lives in Toronto, Canada. He has been a freelance boxing writer since 2016 and his writing has appeared in The Fight City, Boxing News Online, The Ring, and Ringside Seat magazine. His Substack blog is Fight Fundamental, and he is currently writing a book about George Foreman’s comeback. He is also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Follow him on Twitter @J_NReb.
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