TSS WHERE ARE THEY NOW SPECIAL: Courage Tshabalala

Published

9 years ago

November 11, 2014

Boxing attracts way more solid citizens than it is given credit for. But of course, our low barrier to entry attracts more than a fair share of scoundrels and wretches. Overall, though, in my time covering the sport, I’ve found the good souls out-numbering the cads, bigtime.

I was recently in touch with yet another solid citizen, in ex heavyweight contender Courage Tshabalala, who I touched base with for a Where Are They Know? piece.

The South African native, who now lives in California, fought as a pro from 1993-2005. He was hooked up with Lou Duva and Main Events, and got pretty near the promised land, of a title fight, and life-changing moolah. But it didn’t happen that way for the big banger, who finished up with a 26-4 (22 KOs) mark.

“My ambition always exceeded my talent,” the 43-year-old told me, on the phone, in between efforts on behalf of Sheer Sports, the boxing management company he works for and with, as a talent scout and mentor. “I never thought I’d make a living at it, but I was in the same ring with Ray Mercer, Michael Grant, Henry Akinwande, Jameel McCline, David Tua…that alone is a real accomplishment. I loved every minute of it, stayed in the moment, and have no regrets.”

Courage came from South Africa to the US in 1994, and right away, found himself in the Triple Threat Gym, in Newark, NJ, where guys like Roy Jones and Al Cole often did their thing. Ray Mercer was getting ready for a fight with Frank Bruno which didn’t come off, and right away, Courage swam in the deep waters with the sharks.

Back then, Main Events was a mega-company, and had a stellar stable. Pernell Whitaker, Evander Holyfield, and Andrew Golota was working his way up. Courage has eyes wide open on where he fit on the food chain, and never, he says, got irked that the spotlight didn’t fall on him more than it did. “Lou Duva basically adopted me, I was with his family at Christmas. So yes, I have full acceptance. I was meeting good people, and I sat back, and learned,” he said. There were hiccups as he acclimated to the States, but more of the humorous variety, such as when in a deli, he asked for chips, and was bewildered when a bag of Lays was thrown to him. “I want em fried,” he recalls asking, chuckling.

Courage lived in Jersey, but went to camps everywhere. Vegas, Texas, wherever a Main Events XL hitter was readying for a rumble, he went. Today, he lives in the Valley, in Cali, and lives in the present, as he seeks to help find talent for Sheer, which boasts the talents of irish banger/boxer Jason Quigley, under the Golden Boy banner, who impressed mightily in his last outing, which ran on Fox Sports 1.

The South African, now divorced, has three children, a 22-year-old in med school, a 14 and a 7 year old. He says that he knows Quigley is a future star, and is impressed by his “talent and charisma.” Courage got a good sense of the power of having a guy who has a fanbase when he got to know Irish-American Martin O’Malley, a pro from 1996-2005, who had throngs snapping up tix when he rumbled. “Quigley is a skillful, good looking white kid who can fight his behind off,” says Tshabala. “He had a great amataeur career and he’s getting better. He’s going to be a force to be reckoned with. At Sheer, that’s the kind of talent we want, and we want to create relationships like in the old school way. We want to bring that back, it being more than just a business. Kids need to be comfortable, we need to nurse their talent.”

Sheer backs a gym in Santa Monica, Iron Boxing, and two more facilities, in the Valley, and in West LA, are in the works. “You can go there, and you can train like a pro,” Courage says.

The talent scout told me that he accepts and understands why boxers, like, say, a Floyd Mayweather, talk their smack and act up and enjoy the pub from that. But he likes what he learned from Lou Duva, which is that “character is the most important thing in a human. And people are humans before and after boxing. Back then, I was young, and I didn’t really get it. In my late 30s, I got it.”

It seeped into Courage when he saw Duva hooking up Johnny Bumphus, an ex champ down on his luck, with contender Kassim Ouma, helping “Bump City” get back on track. “How can you not admire that?” he said to me.

To this day, Courage (May 27) and Lou Duva (May 28; is 92 years old) exchange phone calls around their birthdays. “It’s more than just a relationship, we’re all connected, whether we know it or not. The biggest thing that came out of my boxing time was to understand true nobility, that we are not superior to another, to never compare myself to somebody else. What I did when I was younger, I share those lessons. There is nothing new being done. What Floyd is doing, Jack Johnson did, with cars and women. Therefore, we can take lessons from that. I learned that things are not always going to go your way, that what you plan and the universe does can differ. I don’t dwell on the challenges, you can find a way to move on. Letting go of such things is the hardest lesson, one I learned late in life.”

All too often the story we read about ex fighters is the “what might have been” or the “now down on his luck” sagas. This one is different; like most of us humans, he fell short of some goals, but he came out stronger, wiser, and I dare say a better man for it. That’s a role model, again, I dare say, a better one than one who wants you to look up to him for the money he’s made or the baubles he’s collected.

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Michael Woods

Skavynskyi and Bustillos Win on a MarvNation Card in Long Beach

Published

23 hours ago

September 24, 2023

David A. Avila

Skavynskyi and Bustillos Win on a MarvNation Card in Long Beach

LONG BEACH, Ca.-A cool autumn night saw welterweights and minimumweights share main events for a MarvNation fight card on Saturday.

Ukraine’s Eduard Skavynskyi (15-0, 7 KOs) experienced a tangled mess against the awkward Alejandro Frias (14-10-2) but won by decision after eight rounds in a welterweight contest at the indoor furnace called the Thunder Studios.

It was hot in there for the more than 600 people inside.

Skavynskyi probably never fought someone like Mexico’s Frias whose style was the opposite of the Ukrainian’s fundamentally sound one-two style. But round after round the rough edges became more familiar.

Neither fighter was ever damaged but all three judges saw Skavynskyi the winner by unanimous decision 79-73 on all three cards. The Ukrainian fighter trains in Ventura.

Bustillo Wins Rematch

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In the female main event Las Vegas’ Yadira Bustillos (8-1) stepped into a rematch with Karen Lindenmuth (5-2) and immediately proved the lessons learned from their first encounter.

Bustillos connected solidly with an overhand right and staggered Lindenmuth but never came close to putting the pressure fighter down. Still, Bustillos kept turning the hard rushing Lindenmuth and snapping her head with overhand rights and check left hooks.

Lindenmuth usually overwhelms most opponents with a smothering attack that causes panic. But not against Bustillos who seemed quite comfortable all eight rounds in slipping blows and countering back.

After eight rounds all three judges scored the contest for Bustillos 78-74 and 80-72 twice. Body shots were especially effective for the Las Vegas fighter in the fifth round. Bustillos competes in the same division as IBF/WBO title-holder Yokasta Valle.

Other Bouts

In a middleweight clash, undefeated Victorville’s Andrew Buchanan (3-0-1) used effective combination punching to defeat Mexico’s Fredy Vargas (2-1-1) after six rounds. Two judges scored it 59-55 and a third 60-54 for Buchanan. No knockdowns were scored.

A super lightweight match saw Sergio Aldana win his pro debut by decision after four rounds versus Gerardo Fuentes (2-9-1).

Photos credit: Al Applerose

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Tedious Fights and a Controversial Draw Smudge the Matchroom Boxing Card in Orlando

Published

1 day ago

September 23, 2023

Arne K. Lang

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Matchroom Boxing was at the sprawling Royale Caribe Resort Hotel in Orlando, Florida tonight with a card that aired on DAZN. The main event was a ho-hum affair between super lightweights Richardson Hitchins and Jose Zepeda.

SoCal’s Zepeda has been in some wars in the past, notably his savage tussle with Ivan Baranchyk, but tonight he brought little to the table and was outclassed by the lanky Hitchins who won all 12 rounds on two of the cards and 11 rounds on the other. There were no knockdowns, but Zepeda suffered a cut on his forehead in round seven that was deemed to be the product of an accidental head butt and another clash in round ten forced a respite in the action although Hitchins suffered no apparent damage.

It was the sort of fight where each round was pretty much a carbon of the round preceding it. Brooklyn’s Hitchins, who improved to 17-0 (7), was content to pepper Zepeda with his jab, and the 34-year-old SoCal southpaw, who brought a 37-3 record, was never able to penetrate his defense and land anything meaningful.

Hitchins signed with Floyd Mayweather Jr’s promotional outfit coming out of the amateur ranks and his style is reminiscent in ways of his former mentor. Like Mayweather, he loses very few rounds. In his precious engagement, he pitched a shutout over previously undefeated John Bauza.

Co-Feature

In the co-feature, Conor Benn returned to the ring after an absence of 17 months and won a unanimous decision over Mexico’s Rodolfo Orozco. It wasn’t a bad showing by Benn who showed decent boxing skills, but more was expected of him after his name had been bandied about so often in the media. Two of the judges had it 99-91 and the other 96-94.

Benn (22-0, 14 KOs) was a late addition to the card although one suspects that promoter Eddie Hearn purposely kept him under wraps until the week of the fight so as not to deflect the spotlight from the other matches on his show. Benn lost a lucrative date with Chris Eubank Jr when he was suspended by the BBBofC when evidence of a banned substance was found in his system and it’s understood that Hearn has designs on re-igniting the match-up with an eye on a date in December. For tonight’s fight, Benn carried a career-high 153 ½ pounds. Mexico’s Orozco, who was making his first appearance in a U.S. ring, declined to 32-4-3.

Other Bouts of Note

The welterweight title fight between WBA/WBC title-holder Jessica McCaskill (15-3-1) and WBO title-holder Sandy Ryan (6-1-1) ended in a draw and the ladies’ retain their respective titles. Ryan worked the body effectively and the general feeling was that she got a raw deal, a sentiment shared by the crowd which booed the decision. There was a switch of favorites in the betting with the late money seemingly all on the Englishwoman who at age 30 was the younger boxer by nine years.

The judges had it 96-94 Ryan, 96-95, and a vilified 97-93 for Chicago’s McCaskill.

In the opener of the main DAZN stream, Houston middleweight Austin “Ammo” Williams, 27, improved to 15-0 (10) with a 10-round unanimous decision over 39-year-old Toronto veteran Steve Rolls (22-3). All three judges had it 97-93. Rolls has been stopped only once, that by Gennady Golovkin.

Photo credit: Ed Mulholland / Matchroom Boxing

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Zhilei Zhang KOs Joe Joyce; Calls Out Tyson Fury

Published

2 days ago

September 23, 2023

Arne K. Lang

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Joe Joyce activated his rematch clause after being stopped in the sixth frame by Zhilei Zhang in their first meeting. In hindsight, he may wish that he hadn’t. Tonight at London’s Wembley Stadium, Zhang stopped him again and far more conclusively than in their first encounter.

In the first meeting, Zhang, a southpaw, found a steady home for his stiff left jab. Targeting Joyce’s right eye, he eventually damaged the optic to where the ring doctor wouldn’t let Joyce continue. At the end, the fight was close on the cards and Joyce was confident that he would have pulled away if not for the issue with his eye.

In the rematch tonight, Zhang (26-1-1, 21 KOs) closed the curtain with his right hand. A thunderous right hook on the heels of a straight left pitched Joyce to the canvas where he landed face first. He appeared to beat the count by a whisker, but was seriously dazed and referee Steve Gray properly waived it off. The official time was 3:07 of round three.

Zhang, who lived up to his nickname, “Big Bang,” was credited with landing 29 power punches compared with only six for Joyce (15-2) who came in 25 pounds heavier than in their first meeting while still looking properly conditioned. One would be inclined to say that age finally caught with the “Juggernaut” who turned 38 since their last encounter, but Zhang, 40, is actually the older man. In his post-fight interview in the ring, the New Jersey resident, a two-time Olympian for China, when asked who he wanted to fight next, turned to the audience and said, “Do you want to see me shut Tyson Fury up?”

He meant it as a rhetorical question.

Semi-Windup

Light heavyweight Anthony Yarde was matched soft against late sub Jorge Silva, a 40-year-old Portuguese journeyman, and barely broke a sweat while scoring a second-round stoppage. Yarde backed Silva against a corner post and put him on the deck with a short right hand. Silva’s body language indicated that he had no interest in continuing and the referee accommodated him. The official time was 2:07 of round two.

A 30-year-old Londoner, Yarde (24-3, 23 KOs) was making his first start since being stopped in eight rounds by Artur Beterbiev in a bout that Yarde was winning on two of the scorecards. Silva, a late replacement for 19-3-1 Ricky Summers, falls to 22-9.

Also

Former leading super middleweight contender Zach Parker (23-1, 17 KOs) returned to the ring in a “shake-off-the-rust” fight against 40-year-old Frenchman Khalid Graidia and performed as expected. Graidia’s corner pulled him out after seven one-sided rounds.

In his previous fight, Parker was matched against John Ryder who he was favored to beat. The carrot for the winner was a lucrative date with Canelo Alvarez. Unfortunately for Parker, he suffered a broken hand and was unable to continue after four frames. Tonight, he carried 174 pounds, a hint that he plans to compete as a light heavyweight going forward. Indeed, he has expressed an interest in fighting Anthony Yarde. Graidia declined to 10-13-4.

The Zhang-Joyce and Yarde-Silva fights were live-streamed in the U.S. on ESPN+.

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