The Champ

Published

9 years ago

April 17, 2015

When The Champ walks in the room, everything changes. The room seems smaller. The air changes from communal oxygen to single-purpose and the other people in the room suddenly try to draw shorter breaths in hopes no one notices they’re stealing what’s rightfully his.

But The Champ (pictured above, photo by Rachel McCarson) doesn’t care. Or maybe he doesn’t notice. He’s not there to worry about mundane trivialities such as who owns what. He already know what’s his, and he knows he can pretty much take whatever else it is he wants in the room, too, if he so desires.

He’s The Champ.

Our man strolls in and everyone goes quiet. There’s a hush that swells and no one wants to be the one to pierce it with a sound. The tension makes the moment taut like a balloon ready to pop. He towers over every other person at Lucky Street Boxing Gym in Fort Lauderdale, Florida like they’re ants—like we are all tiny little ants.

It’s hot outside but it’s hotter inside where two boxing rings and scores of regular folk mill about in anticipation of seeing him train. Bleachers are set up for people to come in everyday and they do. There are rules, of course, and everyone follows them. No cell phones, no cameras and no pictures while he’s sparring. Don’t bother him while he trains. Be quiet.

Other stuff, too. If you break a rule, you’re asked to leave.

No one breaks a rule.

It’s media day. People from all over the world have come to see him today. They prowl about the gym like leopards. They try to blend in but they stick out here and there because of their spots. They’ve come for pictures and videos and quotes. The Champ notices the interlopers and gives each of them a few minutes of his time. He’s smart, affable and intentional with every word. If life’s a chess match, most people walk around the world trying to anticipate the next move. The Champ isn’t most people. He’s the type who knows the moves that come after the ones everyone else is busy thinking about, and he’s pondering them in four different languages.

After a few more minutes, The Champ heads to the boxing ring closest to the bleachers. The white mat is marred with sweat and grime and blood. More will be added soon. The Champ sits in a gray metal chair just outside of the ring. He pours talcum into each of his size 15 shoes. The white powder looks like diamonds as it falls. When he’s finished, he serenely begins taping his hands, a ritual that lasts what seems like a lifetime to those snapping pictures with their phones in hopes of later showing their loved ones who they saw pour powder in shoes today.

Soon enough, The Champ is in the ring shadowboxing. He’s throwing punches light but they look like they’d break every bone in your body. Even the air seems to wince at them. The Champ isn’t just big and powerful. He’s fast, athletic, agile and skilled. He was born to fight, and while it may have taken fire, brimstone and the genius of the late Emanuel Steward to mold him into the heavyweight champion of the world, it certainly did happen. He is the champion, and The Champ is the most dominant heavyweight titleholder since Larry Holmes. In fact, the only fighters in the history of the storied division who compare to him statistically are the greatest of the greats: Holmes, Muhammad Ali and Joe Louis.

The Champ is sparring today. Two pugs are dressed up nice to take a beating. One looks tough and mean, the way every fighter of Eastern European descent seems to look these days. But he’s not nearly as big as The Champ and even if he was, he doesn’t have the power, speed or skill to compete with him. Nope, this fellow is just target practice.

The kid has guts though. He slaps down hard on The Champ’s guard using his fist as a hammer trying to create an opening. But The Champ stuffs it and returns the favor the only way a man carrying the moniker “Dr. Steelhammer” could possibly do: heavy, hard and with great malice.

The kid is in there for a reason though. He goes three rounds with The Champ, two of which he was clearly carried. The lion in the ring stalks the lamb, and the kid circles around with long arms and a high guard the way The Champ’s opponent, Bryant Jennings, might try to do on April 25 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

The Champ will be ready then. Hell, he’s ready now.

Round 3 is brutal. Where before, the only shots the kid caught were light taps, The Champ is hurling everything with full force now. The World Champion is no longer taking it easy on him. He strafes the kid’s face with all the classics: a jab that looks more like a telephone poll, a right cross that might as well be a dump truck and that vaunted left hook he used last time out to behead his opponent with ruthless precision. The kid is standing by the end of things, but only because The Champ wants it that way.

Next.

One sparring partner scurries away and another one replaces him. This time, the threat is real. Joseph Parker, a young, talented and internationally accomplished prospect from New Zealand, is clearly more formidable and since he hasn’t just fought three rounds, he’s got fresh legs and a clean face. He’s tall like The Champ, has long arms and knows how to use them.

Two rounds fly by and Parker is doing pretty well. He’s keeping The Champ off of him with jabs and crosses to the body and is able to use his reach in ways most fighters can’t. If Jennings is smart, he’ll try to do some of the things Parker did. He did well enough for six minutes to not appear completely outclassed. That’s something. He even landed one excellent right-hand counter flush under The Champ’s left eye after the two traded feints in the middle of the ring.

You haven’t seen guts until you’ve seen a man stare straight at The Champ threaten bodily harm with a punch and the man throws one hard back at him anyway.

But Parker’s conundrum will be the one Jennings’ finds, too. When the third round between them starts, the sixth and final round of sparring for the day, The Champ shakes off all gentlemanly pretense and rocks Parker around the ring as if the preceding two rounds had been some sort of mirage.

Whatever The Champ was working on beforehand, (likely slipping and blocking incoming punches from someone with as long as arms as Parker) he’s down with now. All that is left for Parker to deal with is the World Heavyweight Champion, one of the finest who has ever lived. He strives admirably and with great courage, but Parker is simply no match for him at this stage of his career.

The Champ is too much for him. He’s too much for him the way he’s been too much for every other heavyweight in the world for the last nine years and the way he’ll probably be too much for Jennings in his next fight, too.

When the violence is over, The Champ takes off his gloves and headgear. The remaining hour is spent towering over everything and everyone in the room. Some want quotes. Some want pictures. Some wants autographs. He is the master of his domain. He struts around the room like a rooster. Even his walk is pregnant with integrity, and it’s the kind that sharpens a spine like a razor, the kind that can only be earned the hard way.

Almost no one else in the world has that kind of walk. How could they? Wladimir Klitschko has it because he’s gone through hell and back to become the man he is today. Redemption was knocked to the canvas three times against Samuel Peter almost ten years ago and it clawed its way back to its feet every single time. It never gave up, and the remembrances of knockout losses to Lamon Brewster and Corrie Sanders the years prior didn’t keep it from trying to exist either.

The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. That’s something Ernest Hemingway wrote. He wasn’t writing about The Champ but he might as well have been. Klitschko is stronger now precisely because he was broken so thoroughly before. He is strong in the broken places.

Strong, intelligent, direct, polite and serious: Klitschko is unlike anyone you’ll ever meet. You can see something in his eye when he talks, whether he’s looking at you or not. You know where you stand with him right from the beginning because it rests there in his gaze, and it’s something not seen in many other human beings on the planet, much less prizefighters.

He’s The Champ. You are not. He knows it.

You do, too.

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Kelsey McCarson

Ramon Cardenas Channels Micky Ward and KOs Eduardo Ramirez on ProBox

Published

18 hours ago

April 24, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Ramon-Cardenas-Channels-Micky-Ward-and-KOs-Eduardo-Ramirez-on-ProBox

The Wednesday night bi-monthly series of fights on the ProBox TV platform is the best deal in boxing; the livestream is free with no strings attached! Tonight’s episode was headlined by a super bantamweight match between San Antonio’s Ramon Cardenas and Eduardo Ramirez who brought a caravan of rooters from his hometown in Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico.

Cardenas, coached by Joel Diaz, entered the contest ranked #4 by the WBA. He was expected to handle Ramirez with little difficulty, but this was a close, tactical fight through eight frames when lightning struck in the form of a left hook to the liver from Cardenas. Ramirez went down on one knee and wasn’t able to beat the count. It was as if Cardenas summoned the ghost of Micky Ward who had a penchant for terminating fights with the same punch that arrived out of the blue.

The official time was 1:37 of round nine. Cardenas improved to 25-1 with his14th win inside the distance. Ramirez, who was stopped in the opening round by Nick “Wrecking” Ball in London in his lone previous fight outside Mexico, falls to 23-3-3.

Co-Feature

In an upset, Tijuana super welterweight Damian Sosa won a split decision over previously undefeated Marques Valle, a local area fighter who was stepping up in class in his first 10-round go. Sosa was the aggressor, repeatedly backing his taller opponent into the ropes where Valle was unable to get good leverage behind his punches.

The 25-year-old Valle, managed by the influential David McWater, was the house fighter. This was his 10^th appearance in this building. He brought a 10-0 (7) record and was hoping to emulate the success of his younger brother Dominic Valle who scored a second-round stoppage of his opponent in this ring two weeks ago, improving to 9-0. But Sosa, who brought a 24-2 record, proved to be a bridge too high.

The judges had it 97-93 and 96-94 for the Tijuana invader and a disgraceful 98-92 for the house fighter.

Also

In a fight whose abrupt ending would be echoed by the main event, 34-year-old SoCal featherweight Ronny Rios, now training in Las Vegas, returned to the ring after a 22-month hiatus and scored a fifth-round stoppage over Nicolas Polanco of the Dominican Republic.

A three-punch combo climaxed by a left hook to the liver took the breath out of Polanco who slumped to his knees and was counted out. A two-time world title challenger, Rios advanced to 34-4 (17 KOs). Polanco, 34, declined to 21-6-1. The official time was 0:54 of round five.

—

The next ProBox show (Wednesday, May 8) will have an international cast with fighters from Kazakhstan, Japan, Mongolia, and the United Kingdom. In the main event, Liverpool’s Robbie Davies Jr will make his U.S. debut against the California-based Kazakh Sergey Lipinets.

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Haney-Garcia Redux with the Focus on Harvey Dock

Published

3 days ago

April 22, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Haney-Garcia-Redux-with-the-Focus-on-Harvey-Dock

Saturday’s skirmish between Ryan Garcia and WBC super lightweight champion Devin Haney was a messy affair, and yet a hugely entertaining fight fused with great drama. In the aftermath, Garcia and Haney were celebrated – the former for fooling all the experts and the latter for his gallant performance in a losing effort – but there were only brickbats for the third man in the ring, referee Harvey Dock.

Devin Haney was plainly ahead heading into the seventh frame when there was a sudden turnabout when Garcia put him on the canvas with his vaunted left hook. Moments later, Dock deducted a point from Garcia for a late punch coming out of a break. The deduction forced a temporary cease-fire that gave Haney a few precious seconds to regain his faculties. Before the round was over, Haney was on the deck twice more but these were ruled slips.

The deduction, which effectively negated the knockdown, struck many as too heavy-handed as Dock hadn’t previously issued a warning for this infraction. Moreover, many thought he could have taken a point away from Haney for excessive clinching. As for Haney’s second and third trips to the canvas in round seven, they struck this reporter – watching at home – as borderline, sufficient to give referee Dock the benefit of the doubt.

In a post-fight interview, Ryan Garcia faulted the referee for denying him the satisfaction of a TKO. “At the end of the day, Harvey Dock, I think he was tripping,” said Garcia. “He could have stopped that fight.”

Those that played the rounds proposition, placing their coin on the “under,” undoubtedly felt the same way.

The internet lit up with comments assailing Dock’s competence and/or his character. Some of the ponderings were whimsical, but they were swamped by the scurrilous screeching of dolts who find a conspiracy under every rock.

Stephen A. Smith, reputedly America’s highest-paid TV sports personality, was among those that felt a need to weigh-in: “This referee is absolutely terrible….Unreal! Horrible officiating,” tweeted Stephen A whose primary area of expertise is basketball.

Harvey Dock

Dock fought as an amateur and had one professional fight, winning a four-round decision over a fellow novice on a show at a non-gaming resort in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. He says that as an amateur he was merely average, but he was better than that, a New Jersey and regional amateur champion in 1993 and 1994 while a student New Jersey’s Essex County Community College where he majored in journalism.

A passionate fan of Sugar Ray Leonard, he started officiating amateur fights in 1998 and six years later, at age 32, had his first documented action at the professional level, working low-level cards in New Jersey. The top boxing referees, to a far greater extent than the top judges, had long apprenticeships, having worked their way up from the boonies and Dock is no exception.

Per boxrec, Haney vs Garcia was Harvey Dock’s 364^th assignment in the pros and his forty-second world title fight. Some of those title fights were title in name only, they weren’t even main events, but, bit by bit, more lucrative offerings started coming his way.

On May 13, 2023, Dock worked his first fights in Nevada, a 4-rounder and then a 12-rounder on a card at the Cosmopolitan topped by the 140-pound title fight between Rolly Romero and Ismael Barroso. It was the first time that this reporter got to watch Dock in the flesh.

Ironically (in hindsight), the card would be remembered for the actions of a referee, in this case Tony Weeks who handled the main event. Barroso was winning the fight on all three cards when Weeks stepped in and waived it off in the ninth round after Romero cornered Barroso against the ropes and let loose a barrage of punches, none of which landed cleanly. Few “premature stoppages” were ever as garishly, nay ghoulishly, premature.

With all the brickbats raining down on Weeks, I felt a need to tamp down the noise by diverting attention away from Tony Weeks and toward Harvey Dock and took to the TSS Forum to share my thoughts. Referencing the 12-rounder, a robust junior welterweight affair between Batyr Akhmedov and Kenneth Sims Jr, I noted that Dock’s Las Vegas debut went smoothly. He glided effortlessly around the ring, making him inconspicuous, the mark of a good referee. (This post ran on May 15, two days after the fight.)

Folks at the Nevada State Athletic Commission were also paying attention. Dock was back in Las Vegas the following week to referee the lightweight title fight between Devin Haney and Vasyl Lomachenko and before the year was out, he would be tabbed to referee the biggest non-heavyweight fight of the year, the July 29 match in Las Vegas between Terence Crawford and Errol Spence Jr.

The Haney-Garcia fight wasn’t Harvey Dock’s best hour, I’ll concede that, but a closer look at his full body of work informs us that he is an outstanding referee.

—

While the Haney-Garcia bout was in progress, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman threw everyone a curve ball, tweeting on “X” that Devin Haney would keep his title if he lost the fight. Everyone, including the TV commentators, was under the impression that the title would become vacant in the event that Haney lost.

Sulaiman cited the precedent of Corrales-Castillo II.

FYI: The Corrales-Castillo rematch, originally scheduled for June 3, 2005 and aborted on the day prior when Castillo failed to make weight, finally came off on Oct. 8 of that year, notwithstanding the fact that Castillo failed to make weight once again, scaling three-and-a-half pounds above the lightweight limit. He knocked out Corrales in the fourth round with a left hook that Las Vegas Review-Journal boxing writer Kevin Iole, alluding to the movie “Blazing Saddles,” described as Mongo-esque (translation: the punch would have knocked out a horse). After initially insisting on a rubber match, which had scant chance of happening, WBC president Jose Sulaiman, Mauricio’s late father, ruled that Corrales could keep his title.

Whether or not you agree with Mauricio Sulaiman’s rationale, the timing of his announcement was certainly awkward.

Haney’s mandatory is Spanish southpaw Sandor Martin (42-3, 15 KOs), a cutie best known for his 2021 upset of Mikey Garcia. A bout between Haney and Martin has the earmarks of a dull fight.

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In a Shocker, Ryan Garcia Confounds the Experts and Upsets Devin Haney

Published

5 days ago

April 21, 2024

David A. Avila

In-a-Shocker-Ryan-Garcia-Confounds-the-Experts-and-Upsets-Devin-Haney

Its good to be crazy. Like a fox.

Ryan “KingRy” Garcia knocked down WBC super lightweight titlist Devin Haney three times to remind everyone of his fighting abilities in winning by majority decision on Saturday.

“I just knew what I could do,” Garcia said.

Fans will not forget the lanky kid from Victorville, California now.

Garcia (25-1, 20 KOs) fooled everyone in playing crazy weeks before the fight, then showed shocking power to hand Haney (30-1, 15 KOs) his first loss as a professional at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Haney’s WBC super lightweight title was not at stake for Garcia because he weighed three pounds over the limit.

After Garcia seemingly acting out of control on social media, Haney’s guard must have slipped in the first round during the first few seconds as Garcia connected with that hellish left hook and Haney, with a look of shock in his eyes, almost went down. He barely survived the first round.

“He caught me with it,” said Haney.

During the next few rounds, Haney proceeded to advance toward Garcia seemingly fully aware of the lethal left hook. He used feints and rights to score with a busier approach as Garcia seemed cocked and ready to counter with a left hook.

In the fourth round it seemed Haney was confident he had regained control of the fight, but every time he opened up with more than a two-punch combination Garcia reminded him whose hands were faster and more dangerous.

Though Garcia seldom jabbed he seemed bent on looking for the right moment to unleash his deadly left hook. And every time the Southern California fighter opened up with a combination he scored and Haney dare not exchange.

A few times Haney smiled as if signifying he escaped.

In the seventh round Haney looked to punish Garcia’s body and instead was met with a three-punch combination included a left hook to the chin and down went Haney slumped on the ground. He managed to beat the count and as soon as Garcia came within reach Haney wrapped his arms around him with a python grip. Despite the warnings by referee Harvey Dock, the fallen fighter would not release and Garcia impatiently fired a weak punch during the break. The referee deducted a point from Garcia though he could have deducted a point from Haney for not obeying his instructions to release his hold. Haney actually went down three times in the round but only one was counted by the referee.

From that point on Haney was very cautious but still looking to win by decision.

Though Garcia kept using a shoulder-roll defense that left his body exposed, he would retaliate with three and four punch combinations that usually Haney could defend against other fighters.. But Garcia’s blazing combinations were too fast to defend.

In the 10^th round Haney looked to attack and was countered by Garcia’s right and a blinding left hook to the chin and another two blows that sent the former undisputed lightweight champion to the floor again.

It didn’t look good for Haney to survive.

Garcia walked into the 11^th round still composed and never out-of-control He dared Haney to exchange and when within striking distance Garcia unleashed another lightning combination and down went Haney again with a defeated look.

Both fighters had fought each other as amateurs six times so there were no surprises between them. But Garcia’s power and speed were superior and that was the difference in a professional fight.

In the final round both were cautious with Garcia’s combination punching proving too dangerous for Haney to open up. Garcia celebrated early as the round ended confident of victory.

After 12 rounds Garcia was seen the victor by majority decision 112-112, 114-110, 115-109.

“You really thought I was crazy,” Garcia told the interviewer and the crowd. “You guys hated on me.”

Other Bouts

Arnold Barboza (30-0) won a curious split decision victory over United Kingdom’s Sean McComb (18-2) in a 10-round super lightweight fight. McComb’s long reach and busy southpaw style gave Barboza trouble. But he managed to win the fight though the crowd was not pleased.

Bektemir Melikuziev (14-1, 10 KOs) defeated France’s Pierre Dibombe (22-1-1) by technical decision after eight rounds due to a cut on his eye from an accidental head butt. It was a very competitive super middleweight fight.

Costa Rica’s David Jimenez (16-1, 11 KOs) outworked John “Scrappy Ramirez (13-1, 9 KOs) in a 12-round scrap to upset the Los Angeles based fighter. After a few close rounds Jimenez simply bullied his way inside and forced Ramirez against the ropes and unloaded his guns.

After 12 rounds two judges saw it 117-111 and 116-114 all for Jimenez.

“I’m a hard-working man from Cartago I come from nothing,” said Jimenez. “My corner told me I had to work inside.”

Charles Conwell (19-0, 14 KOs) stepped on the gas early with vicious body shots and uppercuts and blasted through the resilient Nathaniel Gallimore (22-8-1, 17 KOs) for several rounds. After a brutal fifth and sixth round the referee halted the one-side beating in favor of Conwell who was fighting for the first time under the Golden Boy banner.

Another winner was Sergiy Derevyanchenko (15-5) by decision over Vaughn Alexander (18-11-1) in a super middleweight match.

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