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Avila’s L.A. to Las Vegas Journal

With the summer-like weather heating up the southwest region come the mega fights all in a row.
The southern California freeways were not crowded bumper to bumper like normal on Friday afternoon as I headed to downtown L.A. I covered the 65-mile drive in less than 90 minutes. The weather was about 88 degrees.
Golden Boy Promotions was staging its first boxing card at the Belasco Theater for the debut of the L.A. Fight Night series. The monthly series will be on Thursdays, but on this occasion Friday night was the opening salvo. JoJo Diaz was the main event.
A long line of people snaked around the building that is regularly a spot for salsa and bachata dancing. On this night there were no dancers. The fans were eagerly waiting to get inside though it was an hour before the doors were opening. I looked for parking. One parking lot had a sign for $5 dollar parking. It was a ruse to get you there. Parking was actually $10. I hate liars. I left and looked somewhere else. It’s the principle.
After spending 20 minutes looking for a better parking spot, I walked a few city blocks to the fight event. It was next door to the Mayan Theater that used to be the hot spot for L.A. back in the 90s. The first person I met at the doors was Rachel Charles, the pretty British native who does public relations for Julian “El Camaron” Ramirez and middleweight Jason Quigley of Ireland among others.
After an intense shake down and inspection by security for weapons, I had my chewing gum taken away. That was a first. There were three lines of security I had to pass through. But it went quick. Golden Boy Promotions has a whole new crew doing media and operations, except for Monica Sears. She’s still running things.
People were packed in the 20s art deco style theater, including on the balcony. On one side of the boxing ring sat Oscar De La Hoya, actor Mario Lopez and several others. On the other side of the ring sat the radiant Alysha Del Valle, ABC’s traffic advisor. She was one of the star attractions at the event and was constantly surrounded by fan requests for photos. I don’t blame them.
The Belasco Theater is located on the back street of the old Herald-Examiner newspaper that closed its doors in 1989 when Hearst Newspapers shut it down to defy the union newspaper. What kind of person shuts down a newspaper to spite a union?
About a half mile south is where the old Olympic Auditorium is located. That was a palace of prizefighting that was sold in 2005 to a Korean church group. What kind of person sells an old fight palace to a religious congregation?
Boxing took a heavy loss when they closed down the doors to the Olympic where Henry Armstrong, Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Louis, Art Aragon and Manuel Ortiz all gave their heart and soul in spectacular fights back in the day.
The fights on this Golden Boy card were well matched. There were no predictable endings as seen on some other fight cards. Every bout was a struggle with undefeated guys getting upset by their opponents, until the main event. Star attraction Jojo Diaz completely dominated Mexico’s Juan Luis Hernandez with body shots. Diaz was digging into that guy’s body and was merciless. That was the first time in my opinion that Diaz looked like a prizefighter and not an amateur boxer. The bout following the main event was Ireland’s Quigley facing Louisiana’s Lanny Dardar. It was no contest. Quigley was too strong, too fast and too good for Dardar, who was simply over-matched. Quigley looked pretty good. His guard seemed a little open and wide but sometimes it works. The crowd seemed pleased with his work. Ireland may have another middleweight contender.
After the fight card the crowd was allowed to remain and partake in the party afterward. I had to leave and get ready for my trip to Nevada. On the way out I stopped along with my photographer and pal Al Applerose to grab a sidewalk hotdog. It was messy but hit the spot.
Las Vegas
Applerose was supposed to pick both me and writer Katherine Rodriguez up at 8 a.m. It didn’t happen. When we finally departed from my house it was nearly 10 a.m. Traffic wasn’t too bad considering it was NASCAR week in Las Vegas. We made it to Vegas around 1:30 p.m.
At the MGM Grand we picked up our press credentials and ran into Chuck Giampa, the former boxing judge now working for Ring Magazine. Inside the media room we saw p.r. great John Beyrooty. He’s been around boxing since his days at the L.A. Herald-Examiner. I’ve known him since 1990 or as long as Katherine Rodriguez has been alive. She smiled at the comparison.
Premier Boxing Champions was making its first large boxing show and it was early, and there were very few journalists in the media room.
We decided to get lunch and right outside the media room we ran into referees Kenny Bayless and Tony Weeks. We said hello and visited the hotel check-in area where a display of Floyd Mayweather’s belts and robes are showcased. We ran into Norman Horton, the former p.r. rep for Sugar Shane Mosley back in the day. We shared some stories, then moved on.
The fights were about to begin so we walked into the arena. Inside we ran into our Russian colleagues Anna Dragost and Igor Frank. Both are great people and love boxing more than me. It’s something that most people don’t know about Russians: they love boxing. Anna asked to take a photo with me so we did.
Once I took my seat I spotted Laila Ali and waved to her, and she waved back. When she was fighting I often wrote about her fights. Female boxers seldom get ink. Even Laila Ali did not get the ink she deserved. She was at the PBC event as a journalist for NBC. Also working was BJ Flores. He can fight and he’s pretty good with the mike too.
Seeing Sugar Ray Leonard do the analysis was good to see. He’s a legend who’s kind of unknown to this new generation who were born in the late 80s and 90s. They never saw Leonard in action live.
The staging set up in the MGM Grand Garden Arena was quite impressive. It reminded me of concert setting, only this time the only music would be the sound of punches.
First up on the televised portion was Adrien “The Problem” Broner facing hard-charging John Molina. It proved to be kind of a dud.
Broner doesn’t know that he’s not in the amateurs any longer. He ran around the ring most of the 12 rounds and engaged Molina occasionally. In prizefighting you have to fight, not run. Pro boxing is all about entertaining. It’s not just about winning. Acting crazy and clowning in the ring won’t be enough to capture millions of old and new fans. They want to see action. Yes, he won, but so what?
Keith “One Time” Thurman and Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero came out thumping. The crowd was electrified by their exchanges and ability to evade destruction. For 10 rounds it was a classic fight. Then Thurman decided to get on the bicycle. I was thoroughly disappointed by that maneuver. Thurman has a reputation of being a big hitter. How many times did Mike Tyson ever run? None. Running is for the hunted, not for the hunter. It was a big mistake and one I hope he never does again. Thurman has talent.
The referees were also 50/50. Robert Byrd did a horrible job allowing Broner to get away with hitting during the breaks, yet warning Molina for lowering his head. It was one-sided refereeing and seemed biased from the opening bell. All of America saw it on NBC. Don’t take my word for it.
Kenny Bayless did a superb job of allowing the fight to be a fight. This time he did not stop the infighting when Guerrero decided to fight up close. It was Bayless at his best. Yes, head butts come from infighting but, they happen. It’s fighting.
My favorite fight of the night was when heavyweight prospect Dominic Breazeale was knocked down by Victor Bisbal in first round from a left hook during an exchange. The big guy got up composed and fought on for the rest of the round. It took Breazeale another round to figure out Bisbal, who won the second round too. But in the third, Breazeale zeroed in on Bisbal and zipped a left hook and right cross that wobbled Bisbal. You could see Breazeale’s eyes kind of light up as he calmly stalked Bisbal and dropped him with a series of blows. Bisbal made it to the fourth round but was turned around with left hooks and finally a left uppercut. The referee jumped in and stopped the fight at 1:28. It was an impressive comeback for Breazeale, who showed he can rally when necessary.
After the fights some of the journalists talked about the differences on the PBC fights and others, plus the lack of ring girls. Overall, it was a good showing, especially when 10,000 show up when they could be watching it free at home on NBC.
The 300-mile ride home was filled with boxing talk and other things between Al, Kat and me. What’s next?
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 323: Benn vs Eubank Family Feud and More

Next generation rivals Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr. carry on the family legacy of feudal warring in the prize ring on Saturday.
This is huge in British boxing.
Eubank (34-3, 25 KOs) holds the fringe IBO middleweight title but won’t be defending it against the smaller welterweight Benn (23-0, 14 KOs) on Saturday, April 26, at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. DAZN will stream the Matchroom Boxing card.
This is about family pride.
The parents of Eubank and Benn actually began the feud in the 1990s.
Papa Nigel Benn fought Papa Chris Eubank twice. Losing as a middleweight in November 1990 at Birmingham, England, then fighting to a draw as a super middleweight in October 1993 in Manchester. Both were world title fights.
Eubank was undefeated and won the WBO middleweight world title in 1990 against Nigel Benn by knockout. He defended it three times before moving up and winning the vacant WBO super middleweight title in September 1991. He defended the super middleweight title 14 times before suffering his first pro defeat in March 1995 against Steve Collins.
Benn won the WBO middleweight title in April 1990 against Doug DeWitt and defended it once before losing to Eubank in November 1990. He moved up in weight and took the WBC super middleweight title from Mauro Galvano in Italy by technical knockout in October 1992. He defended the title nine times until losing in March 1996. His last fight was in November 1996, a loss to Steve Collins.
Animosity between the two families continues this weekend in the boxing ring.
Conor Benn, the son of Nigel, has fought mostly as a welterweight but lately has participated in the super welterweight division. He is several inches shorter in height than Eubank but has power and speed. Kind of a British version of Gervonta “Tank” Davis.
“It’s always personal, every opponent I fight is personal. People want to say it’s strictly business, but it’s never business. If someone is trying to put their hands on me, trying to render me unconscious, it’s never business,” said Benn.
This fight was scheduled twice before and cut short twice due to failed PED tests by Benn. The weight limit agreed upon is 160 pounds.
Eubank, a natural middleweight, has exchanged taunts with Benn for years. He recently avenged a loss to Liam Smith with a knockout victory in September 2023.
“This fight isn’t about size or weight. It’s about skill. It’s about dedication. It’s about expertise and all those areas in which I excel in,” said Eubank. “I have many, many more years of experience over Conor Benn, and that will be the deciding factor of the night.”
Because this fight was postponed twice, the animosity between the two feuding fighters has increased the attention of their fans. Both fighters are anxious to flatten each other.
“He’s another opponent in my way trying to crush my dreams. trying to take food off my plate and trying to render me unconscious. That’s how I look at him,” said Benn.
Eubank smiles.
“Whether it’s boxing, whether it’s a gun fight. Defense, offense, foot movement, speed, power. I am the superior boxer in each of those departments and so many more – which is why I’m so confident,” he said.
Supporting Bout
Former world champion Liam Smith (33-4-1, 20 KOs) tangles with Ireland’s Aaron McKenna (19-0, 10 KOs) in a middleweight fight set for 12 rounds on the Benn-Eubank undercard in London.
“Beefy” Smith has long been known as one of the fighting Smith brothers and recently lost to Eubank a year and a half ago. It was only the second time in 38 bouts he had been stopped. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez did it several years ago.
McKenna is a familiar name in Southern California. The Irish fighter fought numerous times on Golden Boy Promotion cards between 2017 and 2019 before returning to the United Kingdom and his assault on continuing the middleweight division. This is a big step for the tall Irish fighter.
It’s youth versus experience.
“I’ve been calling for big fights like this for the last two or three years, and it’s a fight I’m really excited for. I plan to make the most of it and make a statement win on Saturday night,” said McKenna, one of two fighting brothers.
Monster in L.A.
Japan’s super star Naoya “Monster” Inoue arrived in Los Angeles for last day workouts before his Las Vegas showdown against Ramon Cardenas on Sunday May 4, at T-Mobile Arena. ESPN will televise and stream the Top Rank card.
It’s been four years since the super bantamweight world champion performed in the US and during that time Naoya (29-0, 26 KOs) gathered world titles in different weight divisions. The Japanese slugger has also gained fame as perhaps the best fighter on the planet. Cardenas is 26-1 with 14 KOs.
Pomona Fights
Super featherweights Mathias Radcliffe (9-0-1) and Ezequiel Flores (6-4) lead a boxing card called “DMG Night of Champions” on Saturday April 26, at the historic Fox Theater in downtown Pomona, Calif.
Michaela Bracamontes (11-2-1) and Jesus Torres Beltran (8-4-1) will be fighting for a regional WBC super featherweight title. More than eight bouts are scheduled.
Doors open at 6 p.m. For ticket information go to: www.tix.com/dmgnightofchampions
Fights to Watch
Sat. DAZN 9 a.m. Conor Benn (23-0) vs Chris Eubank Jr. (34-3); Liam Smith (33-4-1) vs Aaron McKenna (19-0).
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Floyd Mayweather has Another Phenom and his name is Curmel Moton

Floyd Mayweather has Another Phenom and his name is Curmel Moton
In any endeavor, the defining feature of a phenom is his youth. Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper was a phenom. He was on the radar screen of baseball’s most powerful player agents when he was 14 years old.
Curmel Moton, who turns 19 in June, is a phenom. Of all the young boxing stars out there, wrote James Slater in July of last year, “Curmel Moton is the one to get most excited about.”
Moton was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. His father Curtis Moton, a barber by trade, was a big boxing fan and specifically a big fan of Floyd Mayweather Jr. When Curmel was six, Curtis packed up his wife (Curmel’s stepmom) and his son and moved to Las Vegas. Curtis wanted his son to get involved in boxing and there was no better place to develop one’s latent talents than in Las Vegas where many of the sport’s top practitioners came to train.
Many father-son relationships have been ruined, or at least frayed, by a father’s unrealistic expectations for his son, but when it came to boxing, the boy was a natural and he felt right at home in the gym.
The gym the Motons patronized was the Mayweather Boxing Club. Curtis took his son there in hopes of catching the eye of the proprietor. “Floyd would occasionally drop by the gym and I was there so often that he came to recognize me,” says Curmel. What he fails to add is that the trainers there had Floyd’s ear. “This kid is special,” they told him.
It costs a great deal of money for a kid to travel around the country competing in a slew of amateur boxing tournaments. Only a few have the luxury of a sponsor. For the vast majority, fund raisers such as car washes keep the wheels greased.
Floyd Mayweather stepped in with the financial backing needed for the Motons to canvas the country in tournaments. As an amateur, Curmel was — take your pick — 156-7 or 144-6 or 61-3 (the latter figure from boxrec). Regardless, at virtually every tournament at which he appeared, Curmel Moton was the cock of the walk.
Before the pandemic, Floyd Mayweather Jr had a stable of boxers he promoted under the banner of “The Money Team.” In talking about his boxers, Floyd was understated with one glaring exception – Gervonta “Tank” Davis, now one of boxing’s top earners.
When Floyd took to praising Curmel Moton with the same effusive language, folks stood up and took notice.
Curmel made his pro debut on Sept. 30, 2023, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on the undercard of the super middleweight title fight between Canelo Alvarez and Jermell Charlo. After stopping his opponent in the opening round, he addressed a flock of reporters in the media room with Floyd standing at his side. “I felt ready,” he said, “I knew I had Floyd behind me. He believes in me. I had the utmost confidence going into the fight. And I went in there and did what I do.”
Floyd ventured the opinion that Curmel was already a better fighter than Leigh Wood, the reigning WBA world featherweight champion who would successfully defend his belt the following week.
Moton’s boxing style has been described as a blend of Floyd Mayweather and Tank Davis. “I grew up watching Floyd, so it’s natural I have some similarities to him,” says Curmel who sparred with Tank in late November of 2021 as Davis was preparing for his match with Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz. Curmell says he did okay. He was then 15 years old and still in school; he dropped out as soon as he reached the age of 16.
Curmel is now 7-0 with six KOs, four coming in the opening round. He pitched an 8-round shutout the only time he was taken the distance. It’s not yet official, but he returns to the ring on May 31 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas where Caleb Plant and Jermall Charlo are co-featured in matches conceived as tune-ups for a fall showdown. The fight card will reportedly be free for Amazon Prime Video subscribers.
Curmel’s presumptive opponent is Renny Viamonte, a 28-year-old Las Vegas-based Cuban with a 4-1-1 (2) record. It will be Curmel’s first professional fight with Kofi Jantuah the chief voice in his corner. A two-time world title challenger who began his career in his native Ghana, the 50-year-old Jantuah has worked almost exclusively with amateurs, a recent exception being Mikaela Mayer.
It would seem that the phenom needs a tougher opponent than Viamonte at this stage of his career. However, the match is intriguing in one regard. Viamonte is lanky. Listed at 5-foot-11, he will have a seven-inch height advantage.
Keeping his weight down has already been problematic for Moton. He tipped the scales at 128 ½ for his most recent fight. His May 31 bout, he says, will be contested at 135 and down the road it’s reasonable to think he will blossom into a welterweight. And with each bump up in weight, his short stature will theoretically be more of a handicap.
For fun, we asked Moton to name the top fighter on his pound-for-pound list. “[Oleksandr] Usyk is number one right now,” he said without hesitation,” great footwork, but guys like Canelo, Crawford, Inoue, and Bivol are right there.”
It’s notable that there isn’t a young gun on that list. Usyk is 38, a year older than Crawford; Inoue is the pup at age 32.
Moton anticipates that his name will appear on pound-for-pound lists within the next two or three years. True, history is replete with examples of phenoms who flamed out early, but we wouldn’t bet against it.
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Arne’s Almanac: The First Boxing Writers Assoc. of America Dinner Was Quite the Shindig

The first annual dinner of the Boxing Writers Association of America was staged on April 25, 1926 in the grand ballroom of New York’s Hotel Astor, an edifice that rivaled the original Waldorf Astoria as the swankiest hotel in the city. Back then, the organization was known as the Boxing Writers Association of Greater New York.
The ballroom was configured to hold 1200 for the banquet which was reportedly oversubscribed. Among those listed as agreeing to attend were the governors of six states (New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Maryland) and the mayors of 10 of America’s largest cities.
In 1926, radio was in its infancy and the digital age was decades away (and inconceivable). So, every journalist who regularly covered boxing was a newspaper and/or magazine writer, editor, or cartoonist. And at this juncture in American history, there were plenty of outlets for someone who wanted to pursue a career as a sportswriter and had the requisite skills to get hired.
The following papers were represented at the inaugural boxing writers’ dinner:
New York Times
New York News
New York World
New York Sun
New York Journal
New York Post
New York Mirror
New York Telegram
New York Graphic
New York Herald Tribune
Brooklyn Eagle
Brooklyn Times
Brooklyn Standard Union
Brooklyn Citizen
Bronx Home News
This isn’t a complete list because a few of these papers, notably the New York World and the New York Journal, had strong afternoon editions that functioned as independent papers. Plus, scribes from both big national wire services (Associated Press and UPI) attended the banquet and there were undoubtedly a smattering of scribes from papers in New Jersey and Connecticut.
Back then, the event’s organizer Nat Fleischer, sports editor of the New York Telegram and the driving force behind The Ring magazine, had little choice but to limit the journalistic component of the gathering to writers in the New York metropolitan area. There wasn’t a ballroom big enough to accommodate a good-sized response if he had extended the welcome to every boxing writer in North America.
The keynote speaker at the inaugural dinner was New York’s charismatic Jazz Age mayor James J. “Jimmy” Walker, architect of the transformative Walker Law of 1920 which ushered in a new era of boxing in the Empire State with a template that would guide reformers in many other jurisdictions.
Prizefighting was then associated with hooligans. In his speech, Mayor Walker promised to rid the sport of their ilk. “Boxing, as you know, is closest to my heart,” said hizzoner. “So I tell you the police force is behind you against those who would besmirch or injure boxing. Rowdyism doesn’t belong in this town or in your game.” (In 1945, Walker would be the recipient of the Edward J. Neil Memorial Award given for meritorious service to the sport. The oldest of the BWAA awards, the previous recipients were all active or former boxers. The award, no longer issued under that title, was named for an Associated Press sportswriter and war correspondent who died from shrapnel wounds covering the Spanish Civil War.)
Another speaker was well-traveled sportswriter Wilbur Wood, then affiliated with the Brooklyn Citizen. He told the assembly that the aim of the organization was two-fold: to help defend the game against its detractors and to promote harmony among the various factions.
Of course, the 1926 dinner wouldn’t have been as well-attended without the entertainment. According to press dispatches, Broadway stars and performers from some of the city’s top nightclubs would be there to regale the attendees. Among the names bandied about were vaudeville superstars Sophie Tucker and Jimmy Durante, the latter of whom would appear with his trio, Durante, (Lou) Clayton, and (Eddie) Jackson.
There was a contraction of New York newspapers during the Great Depression. Although empirical evidence is lacking, the inaugural boxing writers dinner was likely the largest of its kind. Fifteen years later, in 1941, the event drew “more than 200” according to a news report. There was no mention of entertainment.
In 1950, for the first time, the annual dinner was opened to the public. For $25, a civilian could get a meal and mingle with some of his favorite fighters. Sugar Ray Robinson was the Edward J. Neil Award winner that year, honored for his ring exploits and for donating his purse from the Charlie Fusari fight to the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund.
There was no formal announcement when the Boxing Writers Association of Greater New York was re-christened the Boxing Writers Association of America, but by the late 1940s reporters were referencing the annual event as simply the boxing writers dinner. By then, it had become traditional to hold the annual affair in January, a practice discontinued after 1971.
The winnowing of New York’s newspaper herd plus competing banquets in other parts of the country forced Nat Fleischer’s baby to adapt. And more adaptations will be necessary in the immediate future as the future of the BWAA, as it currently exists, is threatened by new technologies. If the forthcoming BWAA dinner (April 30 at the Edison Ballroom in mid-Manhattan) were restricted to wordsmiths from the traditional print media, the gathering would be too small to cover the nut and the congregants would be drawn disproportionately from the geriatric class.
Some of those adaptations have already started. Last year, Las Vegas resident Sean Zittel, a recent UNLV graduate, had the distinction of becoming the first videographer welcomed into the BWAA. With more and more people getting their news from sound bites, rather than the written word, the videographer serves an important function.
The reporters who conducted interviews with pen and paper have gone the way of the dodo bird and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A taped interview for a “talkie” has more integrity than a story culled from a paper and pen interview because it is unfiltered. Many years ago, some reporters, after interviewing the great Joe Louis, put words in his mouth that made him seem like a dullard, words consistent with the Sambo stereotype. In other instances, the language of some athletes was reconstructed to the point where the reader would think the athlete had a second job as an English professor.
The content created by videographers is free from that bias. More of them will inevitably join the BWAA and similar organizations in the future.
Photo: Nat Fleischer is flanked by Sugar Ray Robinson and Tony Zale at the 1947 boxing writers dinner.
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