BATTLES

Published

9 years ago

June 26, 2015

I think part of the reason I love fighters is because they’re warriors, modern-day gladiators who do things most of us can’t or won’t. Boxers fight battles. And while winning battles is very important, life teaches us battles are usually remembered less by being won and more by how they were fought. That’s probably the reason more of us gravitate toward brawlers like Arturo Gatti and Mickey Ward than sweet scientists like Guillermo Rigondeaux and Erislandy Lara. That isn’t to say the latter two gentlemen haven’t been in battles. They have. Rigondeaux’s Round 11 TKO over Hisashi Amagasa and Lara’s Round 10 TKO over Alfredo Angulo were riveting slugfests with knockdowns galore. But the styles of Rigondeaux and Lara are geared more toward winning battles than fighting the good fight. Gatti and Ward didn’t just want to win their battles. They wanted to fight.

One of the most popular battles in the celebrated history of Texas was the Battle of the Alamo in 1836. It was a pivotal event in Texas’ revolution from Mexico. After holding off a reported 2,500 soldiers in the mission-turned-fortress for 13 days, the Texans fell. The Mexican troops, under the direction of President General Antonio López de Santa Anna, launched a final assault on the Alamo’s 182 defenders. They left no survivors. Santa Anna’s cruelty, along with his exponential number of troops, led to the massacre of an entire Texas garrison. It was a slaughter. Almost everyone there died that day in battle or were killed after their surrender, but many in Texas still claim the soul-crushing loss, one where Texas soldiers killed as many as 600 of the Mexican troops as well, as a great and important historical moral victory over the tyranny and cruelty of the time period.

The other night I was thinking about all of this, and I just finally told my wife.

“I’m sick of life,” I said.

“I know,” she replied. “But you should think of life as a battle. That’s what life is really. It’s a battle.”

There is no doubt Rachel was referring to some king of biblical philosophy in her answer. One of my wife’s greatest interests in life is theology, and most of her thoughts and actions are steeped the teachings and traditions of the Church.

But I wasn’t feeling particularly moved by it at the time.

“I’m sick of the battle though,” I admitted after a long pause.

“You’re supposed to be. Battles are not good.”

While our society props them up as glorious pursuits, the truth of things like wars and battles is surprisingly horrid. My father was drafted into the military when he was just 18 years old. He was flown to Vietnam on Christmas Eve so that he could kill people. Since his return, he wakes up in the middle of the night smelling Napalm. He has flashbacks to when he learned how to kill other human beings with knives so they couldn’t make a sound while they died and also wouldn’t spurt blood all over him. I’ve seen my father shoot a wild turkey with a pistol running full speed in a crosswind from 30 yards away. If you ask him what he did during the war, he’ll simply tell you he was debriefed. That’s his way of saying he can’t tell you. But if you ask him when he’s drunk, which is often, he’ll tell you he did all the bad things everyone says happens during wars but nobody ever admits to doing. That or he’ll just stare out into the abyss of the night sky and not talk back to you at all.

Boxing probably isn’t a good thing. There are many horrid things that have happened in our sport. I’m sure we don’t even know a pittance of them. The media can’t really tell you what they don’t know, and most of us aren’t really asking that many important questions. Even when we try, we probably ask the wrong people the wrong things, and even when we get it right and ask the right people the right things it doesn’t mean they have to answer. Moreover, the sport just seems to attract the most dysfunctional group of human beings possible. I’m not talking about the fighters. I’m talking about everyone else: the promoters, the managers, the television producers, the writers, the fans—everyone.

We are all horrible. But that’s probably why we love boxing.

***

I see him in the middle of the street as I’m walking. It’s another gray bird . He’s upside down and fluttering his one good wing. I walk up to him slowly, wondering if today I’ll see another miracle. I pick the bird up carefully off the hard pavement because I know he’s in pain. I find a nice, soft place to lay him nearby in the grass. The sun is out but it’s overcast so he will be comfortable. There’s a nice little place in the lawn that looks like it was made just for him, just for this very moment. The blades of grass are mashed down in one little spot like it’s a little bed for him, and the luscious green stalks around it act as little arms to hold him close.

I don’t really know what to say or do, so I say some prayers. Last time I said prayers in front of a sick looking bird, he got up and flew off. But this one just watches me with one eye as I pray. He’s breathing at a measured pace. I don’t know what to do. He looks so very tired.

I tell him that I love him. I think if I were lying there all alone, I’d want someone to tell me they love me, even if I had never seen them before. I think I would find some comfort in that. So I tell him I love him. He just stares at me and breathes at a measured pace. I know he can’t understand me, but I pretend like he can.

I tell him I love him and I tell him that it’s okay. It’s okay, I say. Everything has to die. He stares at me and breathes at a measured pace.

I’m crying now. But he stares and I pray and I tell him I love him and that it’s okay because everything has to die. Everything. His breaths draw shorter and shorter. He looks peaceful but also terrified. He tries one more time to rise. He rolls over to his side and flutters his one good wing with all his remaining might.

But nothing happens. He flutters and flutters and flutters and then stops. His breaths grow shorter and more labored. He stares at me. I tell him I love him and he stares at me. He stares at me and dies.

We romanticize boxing as if it isn’t what it is. I know I do. I look at boxing as a kind of art. To me, it is not just two men punching each other until someone either falls down on the ground or three people sitting around the ring confer and tell us which one punched the other man the best. To me, boxing is something more. It’s poetry. It’s science. It’s religion. It’s everything interesting in the world all wrapped up in one conveniently priced package, a brutally honest one full of people who habitually tell each other lies but everyone is okay with it.

Here’s the worst part. I know all of this in my head, but I still love boxing in my heart, and all the people involved in it, even the ones I hate. And I still love the fighters for silly and naïve and idyllic reasons. I love them because they fight battles. I love them because they’re warriors, modern-day gladiators who do what most of us can’t or won’t. Boxers fight battles. They might be needless battles. They might be horrid battles. But at least they’re fighting.

Maybe Rachel is right. Maybe we do all fight battles. But if it’s true, most of us pretend we don’t. And if we do, we don’t all get to see each other fight them on the grand stage of the blue boxing mat. Some of us struggle with addiction. Others with suicidal thoughts. Some of us are lonely. Some of us are mean. Some of us are trapped in failed marriages with kids they never wanted. Some of us would do anything to hear someone say “I love you” or call them “Mommy” just one time. Some have committed heinous crimes. Others have always been the victims.

All of our lives are horrible.

But everyone is battling. Whether we admit it to ourselves or not, we are all that little bird struggling down there in the grass. We are all born to be fighters, but only some of us choose to fight. I love fighters because they choose to fight. I’m not certain their reasons are just and valid. I’m not sure if boxing is good or bad or if it should exist or even be eradicated. I don’t really care so much about any of it either. I just know it’s nice sometimes to see someone battle, to see some broken-winged creature fluttering around there on the ground doing its best to fly right up until its final breath—to see someone winning the moment, even when they end up losing the next.

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Kelsey McCarson

Usyk Outpoints Fury and Itauma has the “Wow Factor” in Riyadh

Published

1 day ago

December 21, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Usyk Outpoints Fury and Itauma has the “Wow Factor” in Riyadh

Oleksandr Usyk left no doubt that he is the best heavyweight of his generation and one of the greatest boxers of all time with a unanimous decision over Tyson Fury tonight at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. But although the Ukrainian won eight rounds on all three scorecards, this was no runaway. To pirate a line from one of the DAZN talking heads, Fury had his moments in every round but Usyk had more moments.

The early rounds were fought at a faster pace than the first meeting back in May. At the mid-point, the fight was even. The next three rounds – the next five to some observers – were all Usyk who threw more punches and landed the cleaner shots.

Fury won the final round in the eyes of this reporter scoring at home, but by then he needed a knockout to pull the match out of the fire.

The last round was an outstanding climax to an entertaining chess match during which both fighters took turns being the pursuer and the pursued.

An Olympic gold medalist and a unified world champion at cruiserweight and heavyweight, the amazing Usyk improved his ledger to 23-0 (14). His next fight, more than likely, will come against the winner of the Feb. 22 match in Ridayh between Daniel Dubois and Joseph Parker which will share the bill with the rematch between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.

Fury (34-2-1) may fight Anthony Joshua next. Regardless, no one wants a piece of Moses Itauma right now although the kid is only 19 years old.

Moses Itauma

Raised in London by a Nigerian father and a Slovakian mother, Itauma turned heads once again with another “wow” performance. None of his last seven opponents lasted beyond the second round.

His opponent tonight, 34-year-old Australian Demsey McKean, lasted less than two minutes. Itauma, a southpaw with blazing fast hands, had the Aussie on the deck twice during the 117-second skirmish. The first knockdown was the result of a cuffing punch that landed high on the head; the second knockdown was produced by an overhand left. McKean went down hard as his chief cornerman bounded on to the ring apron to halt the massacre.

Photo (c): Mark Robinson

Itauma (12-0, 10 KOs after going 20-0 as an amateur) is the real deal. It was the second straight loss for McKean (22-2) who lasted into the 10^th round against Filip Hrgovic in his last start.

Bohachuk-Davis

In a fight billed as the co-main although it preceded Itauma-McKean, Serhii Bohachuk, an LA-based Ukrainian, stopped Ishmael Davis whose corner pulled him out after six frames.

Both fighters were coming off a loss in fights that were close on the scorecards, Bohachuk falling to Vergil Ortiz Jr in a Las Vegas barnburner and Davis losing to Josh Kelly.

Davis, who took the fight on short notice, subbing for Ismail Madrimov, declined to 13-2. He landed a few good shots but was on the canvas in the second round, compliments of a short left hook, and the relentless Bohachuk (25-2, 24 KOs) eventually wore him down.

Fisher-Allen

In a messy, 10-round bar brawl masquerading as a boxing match, Johnny Fisher, the Romford Bull, won a split decision over British countryman David Allen. Two judges favored Fisher by 95-94 tallies with the dissenter favoring Allen 96-93. When the scores were announced, there was a chorus of boos and those watching at home were outraged.

Allen was a step up in class for Fisher. The Doncaster man had a decent record (23-5-2 heading in) and had been routinely matched tough (his former opponents included Dillian Whyte, Luis “King Kong” Ortiz and three former Olympians). But Allen was fairly considered no more than a journeyman and Fisher (12-0 with 11 KOs, eight in the opening round) was a huge favorite.

In round five, Allen had Fisher on the canvas twice although only one was ruled a true knockdown. From that point, he landed the harder shots and, at the final bell, he fell to canvas shedding tears of joy, convinced that he had won.

He did not win, but he exposed Johnny Fisher as a fighter too slow to compete with elite heavyweights, a British version of the ponderous Russian-Canadian campaigner Arslanbek Makhmudov.

Other Bouts of Note

In a spirited 10-round featherweight match, Scotland’s Lee McGregor, a former European bantamweight champion and stablemate of former unified 140-pound title-holder Josh Taylor, advanced to 15-1-1 (11) with a unanimous decision over Isaac Lowe (25-3-3). The judges had it 96-92 and 97-91 twice.

A cousin and regular houseguest of Tyson Fury, Lowe fought most of the fight with cuts around both eyes and was twice deducted a point for losing his gumshield.

In a fight between super featherweights that could have gone either way, Liverpool southpaw Peter McGrail improved to 11-1 (6) with a 10-round unanimous decision over late sub Rhys Edwards. The judges had it 96-95 and 96-94 twice.

McGrail, a Tokyo Olympian and 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medalist, fought from the third round on with a cut above his right eye, the result of an accidental clash of heads. It was the first loss for Edwards (16-1), a 24-year-old Welshman who has another fight booked in three weeks.

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Fury-Usyk Reignited: Can the Gypsy King Avenge his Lone Defeat?

Published

2 days ago

December 20, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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Fury-Usyk Reignited: Can the Gypsy King Avenge his Lone Defeat?

In professional boxing, the heavyweight division, going back to the days of John L. Sullivan, is the straw that stirs the drink. By this measure, the fight on May 18 of this year at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was the biggest prizefight in decades. The winner would emerge as the first undisputed heavyweight champion since 1999 when Lennox Lewis out-pointed Evander Holyfield in their second meeting.

The match did not disappoint. It had several twists and turns.

Usyk did well in the early rounds, but the Gypsy King rattled Usyk with a harsh right hand in the fifth stanza and won rounds five through seven on all three cards. In the ninth, the match turned sharply in favor of the Ukrainian. Fury was saved by the bell after taking a barrage of unanswered punches, the last of which dictated a standing 8-count from referee Mark Nelson. But Fury weathered the storm and with his amazing powers of recuperation had a shade the best of it in the final stanza.

The decision was split: 115-112 and 114-113 for Usyk who became a unified champion in a second weight class; 114-113 for Fury.

That brings us to tomorrow (Saturday, Dec. 21) where Usyk and Fury will renew acquaintances in the same ring where they had their May 18 showdown.

The first fight was a near “pick-‘em” affair with Fury closing a very short favorite at most of the major bookmaking establishments. The Gypsy King would have been a somewhat higher favorite if not for the fact that he was coming off a poor showing against MMA star Francis Ngannou and had a worrisome propensity for getting cut. (A cut above Fury’s right eye in sparring pushed back the fight from its original Feb. 11 date.)

Tomorrow’s sequel, bearing the tagline “Reignited,” finds Usyk a consensus 7/5 favorite although those odds could shorten by post time. (There was no discernible activity after today’s weigh-in where Fury, fully clothed, topped the scales at 281, an increase of 19 pounds over their first meeting.)

Given the politics of boxing, anything “undisputed” is fragile. In June, Usyk abandoned his IBF belt and the organization anointed Daniel Dubois their heavyweight champion based upon Dubois’s eighth-round stoppage of Filip Hrgovic in a bout billed for the IBF interim title. The malodorous WBA, a festering boil on the backside of boxing, now recognizes 43-year-old Kubrat Pulev as its “regular” heavyweight champion.

Another difference between tomorrow’s fight card and the first installment is that the May 18 affair had a much stronger undercard. Two strong pairings were the rematch between cruiserweights Jai Opetaia and Maris Briedis (Opetaia UD 12) and the heavyweight contest between unbeatens Agit Kabayal and Frank Sanchez (Kabayel KO 7).

Tomorrow’s semi-wind-up between Serhii Bohachuk and Ismail Madrimov lost luster when Madrimov came down with bronchitis and had to withdraw. The featherweight contest between Peter McGrail and Dennis McCann fell out when McCann’s VADA test returned an adverse finding. Bohachuk and McGrail remain on the card but against late-sub opponents in matches that are less intriguing.

The focal points of tomorrow’s undercard are the bouts involving undefeated British heavyweights Moses Itauma (10-0, 8 KOs) and Johnny Fisher (12-0, 11 KOs). Both are heavy favorites over their respective opponents but bear watching because they represent the next generation of heavyweight standouts. Fury and Usyk are getting long in the tooth. The Gypsy King is 36; Usyk turns 38 next month.

Bob Arum once said that nobody purchases a pay-per-view for the undercard and, years from now, no one will remember which sanctioning bodies had their fingers in the pie. So, Fury-Usyk II remains a very big deal, although a wee bit less compelling than their first go-around.

Will Tyson Fury avenge his lone defeat? Turki Alalshikh, the Chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority and the unofficial czar of “major league” boxing, certainly hopes so. His Excellency has made known that he stands poised to manufacture a rubber match if Tyson prevails.

We could have already figured this out, but Alalshikh violated one of the protocols of boxing when he came flat out and said so. He effectively made Tyson Fury the “A-side,” no small potatoes considering that the most relevant variable on the checklist when handicapping a fight is, “Who does the promoter need?”

The Uzyk-Fury II fight card will air on DAZN with a suggested list price of $39.99 for U.S. fight fans. The main event is expected to start about 5:45 pm ET / 2:45 pm PT.

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Unheralded Bruno Surace went to Tijuana and Forged the TSS 2024 Upset of the Year

Published

3 days ago

December 19, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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Unheralded Bruno Surace went to Tijuana and Forged the TSS 2024 Upset of the Year

The Dec. 14 fight at Tijuana between Jaime Munguia and Bruno Surace was conceived as a stay-busy fight for Munguia. The scuttlebutt was that Munguia’s promoters, Zanfer and Top Rank, wanted him to have another fight under his belt before thrusting him against Christian Mbilli in a WBC eliminator with the prize for the winner (in theory) a date with Canelo Alvarez.

Munguia came to the fore in May of 2018 at Verona, New York, when he demolished former U.S. Olympian Sadam Ali, conqueror of Miguel Cotto. That earned him the WBO super welterweight title which he successfully defended five times.

Munguia kept winning as he moved up in weight to middleweight and then super middleweight and brought a 43-0 (34) record into his Cinco de Mayo 2024 match with Canelo.

Jaime went the distance with Alvarez and had a few good moments while losing a unanimous decision. He rebounded with a 10th-round stoppage of Canada’s previously undefeated Erik Bazinyan.

There was little reason to think that Munguia would overlook Surace as the Mexican would be fighting in his hometown for the first time since February of 2022 and would want to send the home folks home happy. Moreover, even if Munguia had an off-night, there was no reason to think that the obscure Surace could capitalize. A Frenchman who had never fought outside France, Surace brought a 25-0-2 record and a 22-fight winning streak, but he had only four knockouts to his credit and only eight of his wins had come against opponents with winning records.

It appeared that Munguia would close the show early when he sent the Frenchman to the canvas in the second round with a big left hook. From that point on, Surace fought mostly off his back foot, throwing punches in spurts, whereas the busier Munguia concentrated on chopping him down with body punches. But Surace absorbed those punches well and at the midway point of the fight, behind on the cards but nonplussed, it now looked as if the bout would go the full 10 rounds with Munguia winning a lopsided decision.

Then lightning struck. Out of the blue, Surace connected with an overhand right to the jaw. Munguia went down flat on his back. He rose a fraction-of-a second before the count reached “10,”, but stumbled as he pulled himself upright. His eyes were glazed and referee Juan Jose Ramirez, a local man, waived it off. There was no protest coming from Munguia or his cornermen. The official time was 2:36 of round six.

At major bookmaking establishments, Jaime Munguia was as high as a 35/1 favorite. No world title was at stake, yet this was an upset for the ages.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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