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WOODS: I’m Liking Sergey Kovalev For Fighter of the Year

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Terence Crawford, a lot there to like, for sure.

Gennady Golovkin, breakout year for the good boy with the worst of fistic intentions when he gloves up.

But for me, my Fighter of the Year pick as of right now, as we head down the home stretch of a semi-cruddy year in boxing, is Sergey Kovalev.

As I Tweeted out after Crawford decisioned ex Manny Pacquiao sparring partner Ray Beltran on Saturday, when you think back on this year in boxing, are you going to remember the three guys who Crawford and Golovkin beat, or will you recall that 2014 was the year that we definitively learned that Bernard Hopkins isn’t immune to the affects of aging, and even more so, is not immune to the affects of a super-strong and technically adept and quite cerebral practitioner of the sweet and savage science, Kovalev?

Hey, we can all have our different criteria when picking and choosing Fighter of the Year. You can factor in strength of schedule, or can attach excess import to one most-meaningful win..or you can even widen it out, and think about who meant the most to the sport as a whole, and fold in factors like personality or quality of character, and how that makes the sport as a whole look. But the single most telling factor for me, when I make my vote, is the fact that Sergey Kovalev completely schooled a master pugilist, and did that in a manner that I didn’t see anyone predict he would. Oh sure, you can hunt around and find a couple smarts who liked Kovalev to beat down the (formerly) ageless wonder. And those smarts may in fact possess a wondrous ability to size up styles and arsenals and predict what happened on Nov. 8 in AC…and were not in fact going out on a limb to make a flashy prediction which can be bragged about if it plays out…and rapidly dismissed if it doesn’t. But this was a 50-50 fight in the eyes of media polled, and many pro hitters I talked to liked Hopkins to use his guile and grab the W. Not to mention, I spoke to one highly placed exec with intimate knowledge of the fighters and their abilities who told me he thought a mistake was being made by Team Kovalev, that the Russian was being thrown to the wolves in something of a cashout cash-grab.

Wins over Cedric Agnew and Blake Caparello aren’t going to land anyone a single vote for Fighter of the Year, of course…but when we look back at this year in boxing, the distance between Agnew and Caparello, and the guys Golovkin beat (Curtis Stevens, 2-2 in his last four, Daniel Geale, Marco Antonio Rubio) and the guys Crawford beat (Ricky Burns, 1-2-1 in his last four, undersized Yuriorkis Gamboa, Ray Beltran) will be negligible, I think. But Bernard Hopkins, that’s a NAME, that’s a legend, that’s a guy higher on pound for pound lists than anyone those other cats beat..yes, even at 49. C’mon now, don’t be dissing the 49-year-old and telling me you knew Kovalev was going to do that to him with a revisionists’ clarity. Or if you do, send me all your prediction picks pre-fight, and help me make some moolah!

No surprise, Kovalev’s promoter, Kathy Duva, agrees with my choice of Kovalev as Fighter of the Year 2014, unless some bizarre and super-scintillating occurrence unfolds on a card between now and New Year’s day. Here’s Duva’s take on why Kovalev should get BWAA love as FOY: “I find it interesting that people are so eager to write off the two undefeated fighters that Sergey fought earlier this year,” she told me. “They were no worse than Burns and Beltran. I tend to think that Agnew, in particular, is underrated if only because Sergey made it look so easy. Also, as you have pointed out, Hopkins is a legend, and half the media was picking him to win! That should trump Gamboa, who was undersized, coming off a long layoff and more distinguished as an amateur than as a pro. Finally, I think that Sergey earned Fighter of the Year not necessarily because he won the fight with Hopkins, but because of the WAY he won the fight. It was a masterful boxing and banging performance against a great boxer. How much more can you do?” I concur…

Also no surprise, our man Bernie Bahrmasel, publicist who does work for Team Golovkin, likes Triple G for 2014 FOY. Here’s why: “With all due respect to the rest of the fighters being considered, GGG is the 2014 Fighter of the Year.” he cited, “3 KOs, stopped two-time former world champion Daniel Geale with the KO of the Year, sold 8500 tickets in NYC, less than 90 days later sold 9300 tickets in LA (that’s Oscar-like popularity on both coasts), tremendous international interest for his fights, seen by over 200 countries, 18 straight KOs.

Lee Samuels, the esteemed gent who heads Top Rank’s PR office, told me he thinks Crawford deserves the nod for FOY, for these reasons: “Absolutely, Top Rank likes Crawford for Fighter of the Year. He defeated Ricky Burns overseas for a title, won a knockdown war over Gamboa, had a UD12 win over a strong Beltran, who came to win. It was a great 2014.”

Plenty of room for debate here, and by no means am I married to my list of three top entrants for FOY honors. Feel free to add your own, in our Forum, and also weigh in on the merits or lack thereof for Kovalev, Golovkin or Crawford getting their hand raised as 2014 Fighter of the Year.

Follow Woods on the Twitter. https://twitter.com/Woodsy1069

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Fury-Usyk Reignited: Can the Gypsy King Avenge his Lone Defeat?

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In professional boxing, the heavyweight division, going back to the days of John L. Sullivan, is the straw that stirs the drink. By this measure, the fight on May 18 of this year at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was the biggest prizefight in decades. The winner would emerge as the first undisputed heavyweight champion since 1999 when Lennox Lewis out-pointed Evander Holyfield in their second meeting.

The match did not disappoint. It had several twists and turns.

Usyk did well in the early rounds, but the Gypsy King rattled Usyk with a harsh right hand in the fifth stanza and won rounds five through seven on all three cards. In the ninth, the match turned sharply in favor of the Ukrainian. Fury was saved by the bell after taking a barrage of unanswered punches, the last of which dictated a standing 8-count from referee Mark Nelson. But Fury weathered the storm and with his amazing powers of recuperation had a shade the best of it in the final stanza.

The decision was split: 115-112 and 114-113 for Usyk who became a unified champion in a second weight class; 114-113 for Fury.

That brings us to tomorrow (Saturday, Dec. 21) where Usyk and Fury will renew acquaintances in the same ring where they had their May 18 showdown.

The first fight was a near “pick-‘em” affair with Fury closing a very short favorite at most of the major bookmaking establishments. The Gypsy King would have been a somewhat higher favorite if not for the fact that he was coming off a poor showing against MMA star Francis Ngannou and had a worrisome propensity for getting cut. (A cut above Fury’s right eye in sparring pushed back the fight from its original Feb. 11 date.)

Tomorrow’s sequel, bearing the tagline “Reignited,” finds Usyk a consensus 7/5 favorite although those odds could shorten by post time. (There was no discernible activity after today’s weigh-in where Fury, fully clothed, topped the scales at 281, an increase of 19 pounds over their first meeting.)

Given the politics of boxing, anything “undisputed” is fragile. In June, Usyk abandoned his IBF belt and the organization anointed Daniel Dubois their heavyweight champion based upon Dubois’s eighth-round stoppage of Filip Hrgovic in a bout billed for the IBF interim title. The malodorous WBA, a festering boil on the backside of boxing, now recognizes 43-year-old Kubrat Pulev as its “regular” heavyweight champion.

Another difference between tomorrow’s fight card and the first installment is that the May 18 affair had a much stronger undercard. Two strong pairings were the rematch between cruiserweights Jai Opetaia and Maris Briedis (Opetaia UD 12) and the heavyweight contest between unbeatens Agit Kabayal and Frank Sanchez (Kabayel KO 7).

Tomorrow’s semi-wind-up between Serhii Bohachuk and Ismail Madrimov lost luster when Madrimov came down with bronchitis and had to withdraw. The featherweight contest between Peter McGrail and Dennis McCann fell out when McCann’s VADA test returned an adverse finding. Bohachuk and McGrail remain on the card but against late-sub opponents in matches that are less intriguing.

The focal points of tomorrow’s undercard are the bouts involving undefeated British heavyweights Moses Itauma (10-0, 8 KOs) and Johnny Fisher (12-0, 11 KOs). Both are heavy favorites over their respective opponents but bear watching because they represent the next generation of heavyweight standouts. Fury and Usyk are getting long in the tooth. The Gypsy King is 36; Usyk turns 38 next month.

Bob Arum once said that nobody purchases a pay-per-view for the undercard and, years from now, no one will remember which sanctioning bodies had their fingers in the pie. So, Fury-Usyk II remains a very big deal, although a wee bit less compelling than their first go-around.

Will Tyson Fury avenge his lone defeat? Turki Alalshikh, the Chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority and the unofficial czar of “major league” boxing, certainly hopes so. His Excellency has made known that he stands poised to manufacture a rubber match if Tyson prevails.

We could have already figured this out, but Alalshikh violated one of the protocols of boxing when he came flat out and said so. He effectively made Tyson Fury the “A-side,” no small potatoes considering that the most relevant variable on the checklist when handicapping a fight is, “Who does the promoter need?”

The Uzyk-Fury II fight card will air on DAZN with a suggested list price of $39.99 for U.S. fight fans. The main event is expected to start about 5:45 pm ET / 2:45 pm PT.

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Unheralded Bruno Surace went to Tijuana and Forged the TSS 2024 Upset of the Year

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Unheralded Bruno Surace went to Tijuana and Forged the TSS 2024 Upset of the Year

The Dec. 14 fight at Tijuana between Jaime Munguia and Bruno Surace was conceived as a stay-busy fight for Munguia. The scuttlebutt was that Munguia’s promoters, Zanfer and Top Rank, wanted him to have another fight under his belt before thrusting him against Christian Mbilli in a WBC eliminator with the prize for the winner (in theory) a date with Canelo Alvarez.

Munguia came to the fore in May of 2018 at Verona, New York, when he demolished former U.S. Olympian Sadam Ali, conqueror of Miguel Cotto. That earned him the WBO super welterweight title which he successfully defended five times.

Munguia kept winning as he moved up in weight to middleweight and then super middleweight and brought a 43-0 (34) record into his Cinco de Mayo 2024 match with Canelo.

Jaime went the distance with Alvarez and had a few good moments while losing a unanimous decision. He rebounded with a 10th-round stoppage of Canada’s previously undefeated Erik Bazinyan.

There was little reason to think that Munguia would overlook Surace as the Mexican would be fighting in his hometown for the first time since February of 2022 and would want to send the home folks home happy. Moreover, even if Munguia had an off-night, there was no reason to think that the obscure Surace could capitalize. A Frenchman who had never fought outside France,  Surace brought a 25-0-2 record and a 22-fight winning streak, but he had only four knockouts to his credit and only eight of his wins had come against opponents with winning records.

It appeared that Munguia would close the show early when he sent the Frenchman to the canvas in the second round with a big left hook. From that point on, Surace fought mostly off his back foot, throwing punches in spurts, whereas the busier Munguia concentrated on chopping him down with body punches. But Surace absorbed those punches well and at the midway point of the fight, behind on the cards but nonplussed,  it now looked as if the bout would go the full 10 rounds with Munguia winning a lopsided decision.

Then lightning struck. Out of the blue, Surace connected with an overhand right to the jaw. Munguia went down flat on his back. He rose a fraction-of-a second before the count reached “10,”, but stumbled as he pulled himself upright. His eyes were glazed and referee Juan Jose Ramirez, a local man, waived it off. There was no protest coming from Munguia or his cornermen. The official time was 2:36 of round six.

At major bookmaking establishments, Jaime Munguia was as high as a 35/1 favorite. No world title was at stake, yet this was an upset for the ages.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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Steven Navarro is the TSS 2024 Prospect of the Year

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“I get ‘Bam’ vibes when I watch this kid,” said ESPN ringside commentator Tim Bradley during the opening round of Steven Navarro’s most recent match. Bradley was referencing WBC super flyweight champion Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, a precociously brilliant technician whose name now appears on most pound-for-pound lists.

There are some common threads between Steven Navarro, the latest fighter to adopt the nickname “Kid Dynamite,” and Bam Rodriguez. Both are southpaws currently competing in the junior bantamweight division. But, of course, Bradley was alluding to something more when he made the comparison. And Navarro’s showing bore witness that Bradley was on to something.

It was the fifth pro fight for Navarro who was matched against a Puerto Rican with a 7-1 ledger. He ended the contest in the second frame, scoring three knockdowns, each the result of a different combination of punches, forcing the referee to stop it. It was the fourth win inside the distance for the 20-year-old phenom.

Isaias Estevan “Steven” Navarro turned pro after coming up short in last December’s U.S. Olympic Trials in Lafayette, Louisiana. The #1 seed in the 57 kg (featherweight) division, he was upset in the finals, losing a controversial split decision. Heading in, Navarro had won 13 national tournaments beginning at age 12.

A graduate of LA’s historic Fairfax High School, Steven made his pro debut this past April on a Matchroom Promotions card at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas and then inked a long-term deal with Top Rank. He comes from a boxing family. His father Refugio had 10 pro fights and three of Refugio’s cousins were boxers, most notably Jose Navarro who represented the USA at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and was a four-time world title challenger as a super flyweight. Jose was managed by Oscar De La Hoya for much of his pro career.

Nowadays, the line between a prospect and a rising contender has been blurred. Three years ago, in an effort to make matters less muddled, we operationally defined a prospect thusly: “A boxer with no more than a dozen fights, none yet of the 10-round variety.” To our way of thinking, a prospect by nature is still in the preliminary-bout phase of his career.

We may loosen these parameters in the future. For one thing, it eliminates a lot of talented female boxers who, like their Japanese male counterparts in the smallest weight classes, are often pushed into title fights when, from a historical perspective, they are just getting started.

But for the time being, we will adhere to our operational definition. And within the window that we have created, Steven Navarro stood out. In his first year as a pro, “Kid Dynamite” left us yearning to see more of him.

Honorable mention: Australian heavyweight Teremoana Junior (5-0, 5 KOs)

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