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YEAR IN REVIEW: January ’14 Got Off To A “Shady” Start

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As always, we aspired to start the new year in boxing 2014 with something approximating a blank slate, with our default setting switched to OPTIMISTIC, or, at least, measured skepticism, instead of jaded pessimism.

Sigh…

After twelve months, we are again back in the mode of attempting to summon our brighter side, the one that believes the sport can revert to a mean, one which in actuality isn’t so much of an omni-present state, but more of an intermittent status…that is, one where the best fight the best.

That is the no brainer ‘duh’ of a desire, from the fan perspective, but as we operate with eyes wide open–and they get wider the longer we stay in the business–we get it that boxing is a business…and in the business world, the customer may be under the impression that he or she is always right, but in actuality, our system of capitalism most often encourages a dynamic where the customer is seen as a check-writer, a cash cow, someone to be bled, not nurtured and respected. Boxing really isn’t so different than most any other realm in this regard, but frankly, 2014 was a downer of a year for the sunnyside sorts.

We the fans—and that’s what I am, first and foremost, let’s put that out there, because that’s important, as so many writers and even fans these days bafflingly think from the promoter-manager-coddled fighter POV, and excuse too often when the best are not fighting the best, rather than pushing for the obvious right thing to be engineered—were not graced with The Fight that would break all revenue records by a Madoff mile.

Another year passed and endless flirtation and slow dancing ensued, followed by accusations of improper groping and insults and slanted “reasoning” as to why the fight most everyone wants to see didn’t get made. At some point, you have to think, the masses get turned off, and stop caring and craving seeing Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao tangle in a real ring, rather than thru proxy warriors on Twitter…but then again, the Kardashians, in all their garish glory, jumped the shark a couple years ago, but still are an industry with no shortage of gawking followers.

Maybe we should have seen the first “theater of the unexpected” special as JANUARY unfolded. The Rances Barthelemy-Argenis Mendez clash, which went off the rails when Bart bashed Mendez after the bell, rendering him unable to continue, and the overseers on site confused, and ESPN analyst Teddy Atlas attempting to make some sense of a situation and a sport which actively discourages clarification. It’s part of the charm and the infuriating side to our shared addiction…

On Jan. 6, I touched on the not-so-merry-go-round Will They Or Won’t They affair, with Mayweather giving reason number 27, or was it 33, why he wasn’t inclined to sign on to make two or three times as much money as he’d ever hope to make for a scrap.

“Mayweather voiced last week his current number one reason why he doesn’t see a Money-Manny fight being made, and it has nothing to do with the taking of a test, or the proper cutting of the purse pie. He said that as long as Bob Arum is Manny Pacquiao’s promoter, he, Floyd, won’t do a deal to fight Pacman,” I wrote.

Twelve months have passed, and I still see that impediment as my favorite theory as to Floyd’s aversion to meeting Manny; I think he holds Arum responsible for not helping his career blow up like he thought it should have from 1996-2007. But only “Money” holds the knowledge of the why, not I…

Dig back into archives, and you see really how hard we spin our wheels on the subject. One week later, Dedham Freddie Roach told me he was upbeat on the prospects of Manny-Money coming to fruition.

“I think we’re closer and closer to a Mayweather fight,” the 53-year-old Massachusetts native told me. “It’s only rumors now, but I think the rumors will come true. I don’t think either Manny or Mayweather has anywhere else to go.”

Freddie shortly after stirred that pot when he told Radio Rahim of Maxboxing and SecondsOut that when Alex Ariza used to work with Manny, he acted “shady.” http://www.tss.ib.tv/news/articles-frontpage/17837-roach-says-qshadyq-ariza-gave-manny-mystery-drinks-ariza-responds

“He used to give Manny a drink every day before a workout and I used to ask him what’s in that drink and he would never tell me, and I said I need to know what’s in that drink, because you gave it to my fighter, and if something goes wrong I’m gonna get the blame,” Roach told Rahim.

That storyline advanced some over the course of the year, with Ariza jumping to the Floyd camp, and Floyd subsequently hinting broadly that he’d been fed damaging info on Pacman from those in the know. All in all, this stuff amounted to a poisoning of the well. Interesting to write about, a good hit magnet, but mostly additions to the wall of negativism which keeps The Fight from being made. Really, the inability to get on that same page set a tone for the whole damn year in boxing…

Top level boxers Jean Pascal and Mikey Garcia got Ws in January 2013, and both efforts were not scintillating, with Pascal downing Lucian Bute with ease and Garcia offering a measured but meh performance against Juan Carlos Burgos in NYC. It left me hoping Mikey would get his hands on some Nasty Pills moving forward. Instead, he chose to focus on promotional/contractual issues, a road he shared with other A grade talents, in Andre Ward and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., which was another downer for the year.

An upper appeared in the form of a filthy blast from Luis Collazo on Victor Ortiz at Barclays Center on a Golden Boy card which pitted two welters looking to get back to the big stages. Ortiz reminded us that the iffy chin on Ortiz was still that, and he parlayed the victory into a tangle with Amir Khan later in the year.

We can’t know that harbingers are that until some time passes, and it’s safe to say that much of what happened in January 2014 set a poor tone for the remainder of the year. But of course, we embraced February with the open-mindeness of one who hadn’t yet blown their resolutions to bits. Check back for a trot down memory lane that was February 2014…

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

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Canelo-Charlo Gets All the Ink, but Don’t Overlook the Compelling Match-up of Gassiev-Wallin in Turkey

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Canelo-Charlo Gets All the Ink, but Don’t Overlook the Compelling Match-up of Gassiev-Wallin in Turkey

The eyes of the boxing world will be on Las Vegas this Saturday where Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez risks his four super middleweight title belts against unified 154-pound champion Jermell Charlo. Earlier that day at a luxury resort hotel in the city of Antalya on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, there’s a heavyweight match sitting under the radar that may prove to be the better fight. It’s an intriguing match-up between former world cruiserweight title-holder Murat Gassiev and Swedish southpaw Otto Wallin, a bout with significant ramifications for boxing’s glamour division.

Gassiev (30-1, 23 KOs) and Wallin (25-1, 14 KOs) have only one loss, but those setbacks came against the top dogs in the division. Gassiev was out-boxed by Oleksandr Usyk back in the days when both were cruiserweights. Wallin gave Tyson Fury a world of trouble before losing a unanimous decision.

Since those fights, both have been treading water.

Gassiev

Gassiev was inactive for 27 months after his match with Usyk while dealing with legal issues and an injury to his left shoulder. He is 4-0 (4 KOs) since returning to the ring while answering the bell for only eight rounds. The only recognizable name among those four victims is German gatekeeper Michael Wallisch. After stopping Wallisch, Gassiev was out of action for another 13 months while reportedly dealing with an arm injury.

A first-round knockout of Carlouse Welch, an obscure 40-something boxer from the U.S. state of Georgia on Aug. 26, 2022, in Belgrade, Serbia, was promoted as a title fight. The sanctioning body was the Eurasian Boxing Parliament (insert your own punchline here). Gassiev followed that up with a second-round knockout of former NFL linebacker Mike Balogun who came in undefeated and was seemingly a legitimate threat to him.

Although he has yet to fight a ranked opponent since leaving the cruiserweight division, Gassiev — a former stablemate of Gennady Golovkin who has been living in Big Bear, California, training under Abel Sanchez – is one of the most respected fighters in the division because he has one-punch knockout power as Balogun and others can well attest. The rub against the Russian-Armenian bruiser is that he is somewhat robotic.

Wallin

Otto Wallin, a 32-year-old southpaw from Sweden who trains in New York under former world lightweight champion Joey Gamache, fought Tyson Fury on Sept. 14, 2019 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. There was a general feeling that the Swede would be a stroll in the park for Fury, but to the contrary, he gave the Gypsy King a hard tussle while losing a unanimous decision.

Wallin is 5-0 since that night beginning with victories over Travis Kauffman (KO 5) and Dominic Breazeale (UD 12), but his last three opponents were softer than soft and all three lasted the distance. In order, Wallin won an 8-round decision over Kamil Sokolowski, who was 11-24-2 heading in, won a 10-round decision over ancient Rydell Booker, and won an 8-round decision over Helaman Olguin. His bout with Utah trial horse Olguin was at a banquet hall in Windham, New Hampshire.

It isn’t that Wallin has been avoiding the top names in the division; it’s the other way around. His promoter Dmitriy Salita reportedly came close to getting Wallin a match with Anthony Joshua whose team had second thoughts about sending Joshua in against another southpaw after back-to-back setbacks to Oleksandr Usyk.

Gassiev vs Wallin is a true crossroads fight. Both are in dire need of a win over a credible opponent. At last look, Gassiev, who figures to have the crowd in his corner, was a 3/1 favorite.

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Skavynskyi and Bustillos Win on a MarvNation Card in Long Beach

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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

Applerose2

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

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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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