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ANOTHER LUMP OF COLE: Texas Ref Steps In It Yet Again

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Deep in Southern Texas, a man who deserved better had a Texas Two Step tattooed on his heart, on Saturday afternoon.

The rude welcome occurred in a town called Hidalgo, near the Mexican border, and the man who will bear the scars from the treatment, who deserved so much better, traveled from Scotland. Not sure how many travelers to Texas, the Lone Star state, which collectively prides itself on a frontier spirit, a “tell it like it is” mindset, with so many of the citizens inclined to advertise a proud mindset of independence of spirit, will leave the state having been been stomped on in such a manner, but your heart goes out to the Scotsman, Ricky Burns.

After 12 rounds of rumbling, the scorcards were read: 117-109, 1116-110, 116-110, for the Texan, Omar Figueroa. So at least the two points taken from ref Laurence Cole, who turned in a subpar outing, making himself way too much part of the fight, instead of being, ideally, pretty much out of sight, out of mind, didn’t obviously affect the outcome.

Yes, the stomper, to my eyes, wasn’t so much opponent Figueroa, who coincidentally or not lives in Texas. No, it was the man tasked with being a fair and impartial arbiter of the proceeding, one Laurence Cole, who in my mind deserves a heaping helping of scorn for his (mis)condusct on Saturday afternoon.

Cole, from the get go, seemed to be acting as if Burns owed him moolah and told him his mom wears combat boots when asked to be paid back…

This was the Premier Boxing Champions main event, a super lightweight attraction which ran on CBS. Therefore, being on terrestrial TV, more folks than usual were able to check out the methods of Cole, who has a rich and lengthy history of stepping in cow pies while being the third man in the ring.

Burns started strong, color man Paul Malignaggi told us in round one. Cole interjected himself in the mix, too much, almost right away. He warned Burns for a behind the head shot which Malignaggi and fellow analyst Virgil Hunter said looked OK.

In round two, viewers saw Cole yank the arm of the Scotsman away from Omar, while the two were mixing it up. That, friends, is an unorthdox move, and one which can result in a clear deficiency situation for the person who is having an interloper tug on their body while they are trying to fend off the offense of their foe. The customary move is to demand that a fighter disengage a limb, once, twice, and then, really only on last resort, when a referee has noted that there is a break in the action, might he choose to resort to interceding physically. Again in round two, Cole grabbed Burns’ arm, like he was breaking up a scuffle between a couple of rough-housing toddlers, rather than two world class prizefighters. Hunter commented on it, and said he disagreed with the practice. “There he does it again,” said Hunter. Then he warned Burns again. “Cole has become a big factor in this fight,” Hunter said, before round two ended.

I almost expected Cole, whose face often features the look of a teen who has been caught canoodling himself in the bathroom by a finger-wagging parent,  to walk to the Omar corner, ask the kid if he wanted an espresso…

In round three, Hunter and Paulie couldn’t stop fixating on Cole, and blow by blow man Mauro Ranallo hopped in too. “I think he heard us, he’s letting them fight out,” said Ranallo, before Cole once again did the arm grab. This time, though, he did it to Omar…

Round four saw Cole being Cole-y; he warned the tourist, like a cop pulling over the guy with the Grateful Dead sticker. Omar punched after Cole yelled stop, but received no chiding. The two men worked hard, and the fight was a bit sloppy, but fun to watch…apart from the ref’s stepping into the spotlight. Omar dipped his head in, as he did time and again, but Burns got warned for pushing his head down.

In round five, Cole gave a second warning for holding…right before Omar held. Burns did some work behind the head, though maybe because Omar dipped his head on the way in. Billy goat-ing Figueroa kept on using the top of his head as a butting agent into the sixth. “I think they should be allowed to fight,” Hunter told us after the fifth. He intoned for a “fair fight,” for Omar to be held to the same regulations as the Scot.

In round six, Omar, in his first fight at 140, brawled ruggedly, made it ugly and the ref made it uglier. He took Burns’ right arm and yanked it away while the men were fighting. To be fair, it wasn’t an easy fight to over-see, but Cole did himself no favors with his work.

On to the seventh…Cole was Mr. Grabby Hands to start the round. He slapped Burns’ arm, then grabbed Omar, and I wondered if he was getting a bonus for each time he touched them. “It’s been a beautiful ugly fight,” Ranallo told us. To round eight..Mr. Grabby yanked Omar, then warned Burns for leading with his head. With a minute left the ref took a point from Burns, for holding. Malignaggi didn’t like the call, and he called it a harsh move. Omar plowed ahead, head down, and then threw some rabbit punches, and didn’t get chided.

In the ninth, the two men kept rumbling. Cole was pretty chill, bless him. In the tenth, grabby did it again, to the Texan, so give him points for consistency. Both were too tired to grab as hard so Cole was now backing off more so. In the 11th, Cole went a grabbin, agin. Burns winced at a left hook to the body. Then Cole took a point, another one, from the Scot, for grabbing. BECAUSE he was DEAD TIRED after eating a hellacious body shot. Poor call, and a shady look which benefitted the home towner. Not very kind to the tourist, Mr. Cole…

In the 12th, Cole was out of range, thankfully, for long stretches. Then he got hands-y, but of course. Happily, neither fighter landed a punch after Cole gave them an edge by holding the foe’s arm, so that’s a good thing.

So, we went to the cards, knowing Omar got an extra two points, compliments of Cole, from his iffy, maybe severely iffy, point deductions. The judges gave it to Omar, and many on social media howled. CompuBox said Burns went 270-886 to 289-799 for the Texan; I thought a win for either man would be understandable, and reserve my scorn not for the judges, but for the ref, who has a track record of missteps and seems to be rewarded for his incompetence, with continued activity, rather than being sent for remedial training, on the Golden Gloves circuit.

It was a fun/ugly fight to watch, made that much worse by the work of a man with a track record of doing just this. How many more times will I and others like me have to write this article? He has a history, he did the grabb-y thing in the Chris John-Rocky Juarez fight; and should have been banned for two years when in 2006 he told Juan Manuel Marquez he was ahead on the cards and wondered if he wanted to have the fight stopped after a butt; he was critiqued hard for his work in the Andre Dirrell-Arthur Abraham and Orlando Salido-Vasyl Lomachenko fights, and was removed from duty after being announced as the overseer of the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey fight.

Malignaggi might have had a flashback, to when he met Juan Diaz there in 2009. After losing a decision, he announced, “I had to deal with a lot of politics. That was ridiculous. I knew I was going to have to deal with this…I’m telling you, this state never gives a fair shake to anyone coming to this state to fight hometown fighters. It never happens.”

Time for Texas to do the right thing, and send Laurence Cole to the scrap heap. His missteps are too numerous to ignore, not if they seek to remain a viable landing place for big bouts.

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

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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

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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

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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

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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