Derric Rossy Rages Against the Machine, Bad Judges and Not Getting Over the Hump

Published

10 years ago

February 10, 2015

Michael Woods

34.

Not old.

But not young, not for a boxer not named Hopkins.

Clock ticks, screwjobs by judges stick in the craw, but can’t let the ire derail you, must use injustices and close calls as motivator, not let cynicism dampen desire.

But oh does it sting.

To know that on March 14, the guy you know you beat, in every fiber of your 6-3, 235 pound bodily vessel, gets a shot in an IBF title eliminator, that smarts more than any liver shot could, because it’s an emotional blow.

Derric Rossy is a 34-year-old old contender who hasn’t yet been able to get over that proverbial hump fight and get that needed W which makes him a graduate of “B School,” of that that certain level of talent and accomplishment, into a realm where he could get a title crack. He told me on Tuesday that I will see on Saturday that he has dealt with the slings, arrows and screwjobs as well as can be. I will see for myself on Saturday night, on CBS Sports Network, as Rossy headlines against stocky power-hitter Akhror Muralimov, in the first foray into cable scraps for that BCS cable property. Mike Lee (13-0 with 7 KOs; age 27; from Chicago), the Notre Dame grad, will also strut his stuff, in the ring against 6-3-1 Gary Tapusoa, and also at the announce table with Col. Bob Sheridan and Benny Ricardo.

“Yep, I got the L in a couple of those fights, I’m stuck in a little story,” the Medford (Long island), NY native Rossy told me. The ex Boston College (2003 graduate) footballer, who had some pro tryouts but was seen as a “tweener,” too big for linebacker, to small to play end, stated that he’s not in woe is me mode. No self pity did I hear; “I’m still a contender. And anyone in the ring with me, they know it’s gonna be a fight.”

I had the Bruce Springsteen channel on in the background, and found myself getting pumped up as “Promised Land” played. Does he like Broooce, does he use music to motivate, I wondered? Somewhat, Rossy told me. Hell, I was happy he knows who Bruce is, being that some of the prospects I talk to don’t, lol. But desire to get to that place where the Pianetas, and Leapais have been, getting a shot at Wladimir Klitschko, that definitively does fuel him.

His record isn’t gleaming, he’s 29-9 with 14 KOs, and he’s been stopped out five times, maybe one or two dubiously. In step up fights, it hasn’t gone his way. Losses to Eddie Chambers, Kubrat Pulev, Audley Harrison, Fres Oquendo and Czar Glazkov mean some folks think Rossy is of a certain caliber. Is he better than the Chars and Pianetas and Leapais, who had those records of gleaming plausibility which helped land them lottery ticket fights…if not better, than no worse…

Oh…that Glazkov fight.

Does that sting something fierce.

Indeed.

He feigned acceptance, then dropped the pretense. “Glazkov is fighting in an IBF eliminator March 14. Am I pissed? It hurts. It stings. I think it was stolen from me. I deserved it (Glazkov won MD on 8-9-14), the whole of me thinks so…there’s not an inch of me that thinks otherwise. A layman who watched would understand…but part of me has to be like, it is what it is. Glazkov was in supreme condition. But it stings. In the long run, judges don’t realize what they take away from you. But I still gotta do my thing. In the future I have to send a message that they can’t steal it from me, that they have to take it from my dead hands.”

Rossy isn’t an eyes tightly closed type. He knows 34 is 34 and he ain’t Hopkins.

“Is this clock ticking? I feel great. I started late, at 24, in Golden Gloves. I was looking to get lean and keep muscle, and my dad (Carlos Rossy, fought in Army, fought as pro, trains Derric) suggested a boxing workout. I met my first trainer, Al Gavin. He made me fall in love with the sport. He was nurturing, a really good guy. He gave me a passion I didn’t know I had. It’s like being introduced to a woman you don’t know you’re going to fall in love with. Like a really great blind date! And sometimes it can be a sonuvabitch, it’s not all happiness. But when you’re passionate about it, you stick with it.”

Rossy turned pro in 2004, and with a few bad judging outings, and the stoppages and the like, I wondered if he’d been close to saying eff it once or twice… “A couple times,” he said. “You reach a boiling point, when it’s not going your way. When the sport betrays you…But you have to have that blind faith, deep in you, it’s your calling to do this.”

The faith is still present, he maintains. And his foe, a 27-year-old Uzbeki living in Texas, on Saturday will pay the price for the betrayals, he tells me.

Now, it can be argued he is what he is…so how does he get over that hump? For one thing, after a loss to Joey Dawejko, Rossy gave up his 9 to 5, construction work, and is now a full time fighter. He saved up dough to invest in himself, basically.

“I figured, I want to work at it one hundred percent, or stop. And I see the progress, it’s day and night.” He seeks to work smarter, not harder, throw more combos, not go home-run hunting so much, be a more cerebral fighter, he said. He says he’ll need to be that smart fighter Saturday, as his foe is “not polished, stocky, strong, you stand in front of him, you disappear. And not getting over the hump to this point, there’s nothing deterring me. It motivates me more.”

We talked some about that fine line between acceptance, and realism, and self doubt, which can plant negative, self defeating thoughts in you…

“Oh yes, when I’ve lost, I’ve scrutinized myself. The self doubt creeps in. But hope comes back. The reassurance, ‘I can do this.’ What separates these fighters, the ‘A’ and ‘B’ fighters, it’s a fine line.”

We could see a greener Muralimov (16-0 with 13 KOs) look to land a filthy one, get off balance, and get countered by this more cerebral Rossy on CBS, friends. Rossy doesn’t think he has an iffy chin, so he won’t get stopped for a sixth time, he said. “But I can’t fall asleep,” he noted.

34. Not old.

But not young.

“Is it my last chance? There’s a little bit of that, I can’t lie. But I rage against the machine. I still feel good. And we fighters, we know this sport is dangerous. We accept that. I want to send a message, that you put me in a fight, you see fireworks. No matter what, when I fight, it is a fight, it could be with Klitschko, you know you’re getting my best. And when I think about the Glazkov fight, it does more than hurt, it makes you furious. I was being light hearted about it, but it was so close, I could smell it, taste it. When those guys are on TV, I see me. I gotta use it, this guy’s gonna feel my fury. I’m gonna project on Muralimov whatever needs to be projected, the frustration built up, I’m gonna let it go. You’re gonna see a person who is worth that title shot. I’m just as good as anybody.”

Follow Woods on Twitter, and get note when trouble’s busing in from outta state.

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Michael Woods

Skylar Lacy Blocked for Lamar Jackson before Making his Mark in Boxing

Published

10 hours ago

January 19, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Skylar-Lacy-Blocked-for-Lamar-Jackson-Before-Making-his-Mark-in-Boxing

Skylar Lacy, a six-foot-seven heavyweight, returns to the ring on Sunday, Feb. 2, opposing Brandon Moore on a card in Flint, Michigan, airing worldwide on DAZN.

As this is being written, the bookmakers hadn’t yet posted a line on the bout, but one couldn’t be accused of false coloring by calling the 10-round contest a 50/50 fight. And if his frustrating history is any guide, Lacy will have another draw appended to his record or come out on the wrong side of a split decision.

This should not be construed as a tip to wager on Moore. “Close fights just don’t seem to go my way,” says the boxer who played alongside future multi-year NFL MVP Lamar Jackson at the University of Louisville.

A 2021 National Golden Gloves champion, Skylar Lacy came up short in his final amateur bout, losing a split decision to future U.S. Olympian Joshua Edwards. His last Team Combat League assignment resulted in another loss by split decision and he was held to a draw in both instances when stepping up in class as a pro. “In my mind, I’m still undefeated,” says Lacy (8-0-2, 6 KOs). “No one has ever kicked my ass.”

Lacy was the B-side in both of those draws, the first coming in a 6-rounder against Top Rank fighter Antonio Mireles on a Top Rank show in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and the second in an 8-rounder against George Arias, a Lou DiBella fighter on a DiBella-promoted card in Philadelphia.

Lacy had the Mireles fight in hand when he faded in the homestretch. The altitude was a factor. Lake Tahoe, Nevada (officially Stateline) sits 6,225 feet above sea level. The fight with Arias took an opposite tack. Lacy came on strong after a slow start to stave off defeat.

Skylar will be the B-side once again in Michigan. The card’s promoter, former world title challenger Dmitriy Salita, inked Brandon Moore (16-1, 10 KOs) in January. “A capable American heavyweight with charisma, athleticism and skills is rare in today’s day and age. Brandon has got all these ingredients…”, said Salita in the press release announcing the signing. (Salita has an option on Skylar Lacy’s next pro fight in the event that Skylar should win, but the promoter has a larger investment in Moore who was previously signed to Top Rank, a multi-fight deal that evaporated after only one fight.)

Both Lacy and Moore excelled in other sports. The six-foot-six Moore was an outstanding basketball player in high school in Fort Lauderdale and at the NAIA level in college. Lacy was an all-state football lineman in Indiana before going on to the University of Louisville where he started as an offensive guard as a redshirt sophomore, blocking for freshman phenom Lamar Jackson. “Lamar was hard-working and humble,” says Lacy about the player who is now one of the world’s highest-paid professional athletes.

When Lacy committed to Louisville, the head coach was Charlie Strong who went on to become the head coach at the University of Texas. Lacy was never comfortable with Strong’s successor Bobby Petrino and transferred to San Jose State. Having earned his degree in only three years (a BA in communications) he was eligible immediately but never played a down because of injuries.

Returning to Indianapolis where he was raised by his truck dispatcher father, a single parent, Lacy gravitated to Pat McPherson’s IBG (Indy Boxing and Grappling) Gym on the city’s east side where he was the rare college graduate pounding the bags alongside at-risk kids from the city’s poorer neighborhoods.

Lacy built a 12-6 record across his two seasons in Team Combat League while representing the Las Vegas Hustle (2023) and the Boston Butchers (2024).

For the uninitiated, a Team Combat League (TCL) event typically consists of 24 fights, each consisting of one three-minute round. The concept finds no favor with traditionalists, but Lacy is a fan. It’s an incentive for professional boxers to keep in shape between bouts without disturbing their professional record and, notes Lacy, it’s useful in exposing a competitor to different styles.

“It paid the bills and kept me from just sitting around the house,” says Lacy whose 12-6 record was forged against 13 different opponents.

As a sparring partner, Lacy has shared the ring with some of the top heavyweights of his generation, e.g., Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte. He was one of Fury’s regular sparring partners during the Gypsy King’s trilogy with Deontay Wilder. He worked with Joshua at Derrick James’ gym in Dallas and at Ben Davison’s gym in England, helping Joshua prepare for his date in Saudi Arabia with Francis Ngannou and had previously sparred with Ngannou at the UFC Performance Center in Las Vegas. Skylar names traveling to new places as one of his hobbies and he got to scratch that itch when he joined Whyte’s camp in Portugal.

As to the hardest puncher he ever faced, he has no hesitation: “Ngannou,” he says. “I negotiated a nice price to spend a week in his camp and the first time he hit me I knew I should have asked for more.”

Lacy is confident that having shared the ring with some of the sport’s elite heavyweights will get him over the hump in what will be his first 10-rounder (Brandon Moore has never had to fight beyond eight rounds, having won his three 10-rounders inside the distance). Lacy vs. Moore is the co-feature to Claressa Shields’ homecoming fight with Danielle Perkins. Shields, basking in the favorable reviews accorded the big-screen biopic based on her first Olympic journey (“The Fire Inside”) will attempt to capture a title in yet another weight class at the expense of the 42-year-old Perkins, a former professional basketball player.

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Mizuki Hiruta Dominates in her U.S. Debut and Omar Trinidad Wins Too at Commerce

Published

2 days ago

January 18, 2025

David A. Avila

Mizuki-Hiruta-Dominates-in-her-U.S.-Debut-and-Trinidad-Wins-Too-at-Commerce

Japan’s Mizuki Hiruta smashed through Mexico’s Maribel Ramirez with ease in winning by technical decision and local hero Omar Trinidad continued his assault on the featherweight division on Friday.

Hiruta (7-0, 2 KOs), who prefers to be called “Mimi,” made her American debut with an impressive performance against Mexican veteran Maribel Ramirez (15-11-4) and retained the WBO super flyweight world title by unanimous decision at Commerce Casino in Commerce, Calif.

The pink-haired Japanese southpaw champion quickly proved to be quicker, stronger and even better than advertised. In the opening round Ramirez landed on the floor twice after throwing errant blows. On one instance, it could have been ruled a knockdown but it was not a convincing blow.

In the second round, Ramirez again attacked and again was met with a Hiruta check right hook and down went the Mexican. This time referee Ray Corona gave the eight-count and the fight resumed.

It was Hiruta’s third title defense but this time it was on American soil. She seemed nervous by the prospect of getting a favorable review from the more than 700 fans inside the casino tent.

For more than a year Hiruta has been training off and on with Manny Robles in the L.A. area. Now that she has a visa, she has spent considerable time this year learning the tricks of the trade. They proved explosively effective.

Though Mexico City’s Ramirez has considerable experience against world champions, she discovered that Hiruta was not easy to hit. Often, the Japanese champion would slip and counter with precision.

It was an impressive American debut, though the fight was stopped in the eighth round after a collision of heads. The scores were tallied and all three saw Hiruta the winner by scores of 80-71 twice and 79-72.

“I’m so happy. I could have done much more,” said Hiruta through interpreter Yuriko Miyata. “I wanted to do more things that Manny Robles taught me.”

Trinidad Wins Too

Omar Trinidad (18-0-1, 13 KOs) discovered that challenger Mike Plania (31-5, 18 KOs) has a very good chin and staying power. But over 10 rounds Trinidad proved to be too fast and too busy for the Filipino challenger.

Immediately it was evident that the East L.A. featherweight was too quick and too busy for Plania who preferred a counter-puncher attack that never worked.

“He was strong,” said Trinidad. “He took everything.”

After 10 redundant rounds all three judges scored for Trinidad 100-90 twice and 99-91. He retains the WBC Continental Americas title.

Other Bouts

Ali Akhmedov (23-1, 17 KOs) blasted out Malcolm Jones (17-5-1) in less than two rounds. A dozen punches by Akhmedov forced referee Thomas Taylor to stop the super middleweight fight.

Iyana “Roxy” Verduzco (3-0) bloodied Lindsey Ellis in the first round and continued the speedy assault in the next two rounds. Referee Ray Corona saw enough and stopped the fight in favor of Verduzco at 1:34 of the third round.

Gloria Munguilla (7-1) and Brook Sibrian (5-2) lit up the boxing ring with a nonstop clash for eight rounds in their light flyweight fight. Munguilla proved effective with a slip-and-counter attack. Sibrian adjusted and made the fight closer in the last four rounds but all three judges favored Munguilla.

More Winners

Joshua Anton, Tayden Beltran, Adan Palma, and Alexander Gueche all won their bouts.

Photos credit: Al Applerose

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 309: 360 Promotions Opens with Trinidad, Mizuki and More

Published

4 days ago

January 16, 2025

David A. Avila

Avila Perspective, Chap. 309: 360 Promotions Opens with Trinidad, Mizuki and More

Best wishes to the survivors of the Los Angeles wildfires that took place last week and are still ongoing in small locales.

Most of the heavy damage took place in the western part of L.A. near the ocean due to Santa Ana winds. Another very hot spot was in Altadena just north of the Rose Bowl. It was a horrific tragedy.

Hopefully the worst is over.

Pro boxing returns with 360 Boxing Promotions spotlighting East L.A.’s Omar Trinidad (17-0-1, 13 KOs) defending a regional featherweight title against Mike Plania (31-4, 18 KOs) on Friday, Jan. 17, at the Commerce Casino in Commerce, Calif.

“I’m the king of L.A. boxing and I’ll be ready to put on a show headlining again in the main event. This is my year, I’m ready to challenge and defeat any of the featherweight world champions,” said Trinidad.

UFC Fight Pass will stream the Hollywood Night fight card that includes a female world championship fight and other intriguing match-ups.

Tom Loeffler heads 360 Promotions and once again comes full force with a hot prospect in Trinidad. If you’re not familiar with Loeffler’s history of success, he introduced America to Oleksandr Usyk, Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and the brothers Wladimir and Vitaly Kltischko.

“We’ve got a wealth of international talent and local favorites to kick off our 2025 in grand style,” said Loeffler.

He knows talent.

Trinidad hails from the Boyle Heights area of East L.A. near the Los Angeles riverbed. Several fighters from the past came from that exact area including the first Golden Boy, Art Aragon.

Aragon was a huge gate attraction during the late 1940s until 1960. He was known as a lady’s man and dated several Hollywood starlets in his time. Though he never won a world title he did fight world champions Carmen Basilio, Jimmy Carter and Lauro Salas. He was more or less the king of the Olympic Auditorium and Los Angeles boxing during his career.

Other famous boxers from the Boyle Heights area were notorious gangster Mickey Cohen and former world champion Joey Olivo.

Can Trinidad reach world title status?

Facing Trinidad will be Filipino fighter Plania who’s knocked off a couple of prospects during his career including Joshua “Don’t Blink” Greer and Giovanni Gutierrez. The fighter from General Santos in the Philippines can crack and hold his own in the boxing ring.

It’s a very strong fight card and includes WBO world titlist Mizuki Hiruta of Japan who defends the super flyweight title against Mexican veteran Maribel Ramirez. It’s a tough matchup for Hiruta who makes her American debut. You can’t miss her with that pink hair and she has all the physical tools to make a splash in this country.

Mizukii Hiruta

Two other female bouts are also planned, including light flyweight banger L.A.’s Gloria Munguilla (6-1) against Coachella’s Brook Sibrian (5-1) in a match set for six rounds. Both are talented fighters. Another female fight includes super featherweights Iyana “Right Hook Roxy” Verduzco (2-0) versus Lindsey Ellis (2-1) in another six-rounder. Ellis can crack with all her wins coming via knockout. Verduzco is a multi-national titlist as an amateur.

Others scheduled to perform are Ali Akhmedov, Joshua Anton, Adan Palma and more.

Doors open at 4:30 p.m.

Boxing and the Media

The sport of professional boxing is currently in flux. It’s always in flux but no matter what people may say or write, boxing will survive.

Whether you like Jake Paul or not, he proved boxing has worldwide appeal with monstrous success in his last show. He has media companies looking at the numbers and imagining what they can do with the sport.

Sure, UFC is negotiating a massive billion dollar deal with media companies, as is WWE, both are very similar in that they provide combat entertainment. You don’t need to know the champions because they really don’t matter. Its about the attractions.

Boxing is different. The good champions last and build a following that endures even beyond their careers a la Mike Tyson.

MMA can’t provide that longevity, but it does provide entertainment.

Currently, there is talk of establishing a boxing league again. It’s been done over and over but we shall see if it sticks this time.

Pro boxing is the true warrior’s path and that means a solo adventure. It’s a one-on-one sport and that appeals to people everywhere. It’s the oldest sport that can be traced to prehistoric times. You don’t need classes in Brazilian Jiujitsu, judo, kick boxing or wrestling. Just show up in a boxing gym and they can put you to work.

It’s a poor person’s path that can lead to better things and most importantly discipline.

Photos credit: Lina Baker

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