FROM BIRMINGHAM TO BROOKLYN, WILDER READY FOR LARGER STAGE AND ANOTHER MYSTERY GUEST

Published

9 years ago

December 8, 2015

For someone so intent on making heavyweight history, Deontay Wilder doesn’t appear to have studied up much on the subject.

Introduced to a throng of media members last Saturday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., a few hours prior to WBA “regular” middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs’ first-round stoppage of Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin, Wilder, the WBC heavyweight titlist, cut a dashing figure in designer sunglasses, a black dress shirt, black slacks and a tailored white sport coat with black lapels and polka dots. It was a look that would have been a bit extreme on most men, but worked for him. Then again, what wouldn’t be fashionable on a 6-foot-7, 228-pound, extremely fit athlete?

Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs) had come north from his home in Tuscaloosa, Ala., to announce his third title defense on Jan. 16 at the Barclays Center, his New York City debut, against the ever-intriguing opponent to be named. Negotiations had been underway to match Wilder against Ukraine’s Vyacheslav Glazkov (21-0-1, 13 KOs) on that date, but Glazkov, who had yet to sign a contract, abruptly withdrew his name from consideration when it became apparent that the IBF would strip its newly crowned champion, England’s Tyson Fury, for agreeing to an immediate rematch with the man from whom he had wrested that belt, Wladimir Klitschko, instead of fulfilling his mandatory against Glazkov. Had Klitschko won, Glazkov seemed certain to get the gig against Wilder, but he now appears to focusing on the IBF title that soon could become vacant.

“Mr. Glazkov decided to take an easier shot at a world title. That’s his prerogative,” said Lou DiBella, who has promoted Wilder’s last two defenses against relative mystery men Eric Molina and Johann Duhaupas and will do so against, well, whomever it is that shares the ring with Wilder in the Showtime-televised main event on Jan. 16.

Wilder said it is his job to beat whichever individual his management team puts in front of him, and he will continue doing just that while serving proudly as the first American heavyweight champion since … uh, Lennox Lewis?

“I promise you guys that I will unify the division and be the first American (to do so) since 1999. I think it was Lennox Lewis,” Wilder said.

None of the reporters in attendance bothered to remind Wilder that Brooklyn native Shannon Briggs, who held the WBO belt from November 2006 to June 2007, was, until the Alabamian came along, the most recent American to hold a share of what once was known as the most prestigious title in sports, or that Lewis, the son of Jamaican immigrants, was born in England and represented Canada in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. But why would they? Like John Belushi’s character in “Animal House,” reminding his Delta Tau Chi fraternity brothers that it wasn’t over for them, just like it wasn’t over for the U.S. “when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor,” Wilder was rolling, offering scattershot opinions on any number of heavyweight-related topics. If he ever is paired in a unification showdown with the chatty Fury, the prefight press conferences are likely to be as much or more entertaining than anything that takes place in the ring.

DiBella and Brett Yormack, the chief operating officer of the Barclays Center, made a point of noting that Wilder’s Jan. 16 heavyweight title bout would be the first to be staged in Brooklyn since Bob Fitzsimmons was dethroned on an 11^th-round knockout by James J. Jeffries on June 9, 1897, on Coney Island, although someone suggested that maybe a more recent big-boy championship fight had been staged in the borough sometime in the 1930s.

“We think this will be the first heavyweight title fight here in over a hundred years,” DiBella said, leaving himself an out if need be. “We’d like to know. We’re curious. We’re having problems researching it. But obviously, it’s been a long time.”

Until Nov. 28, when Fury, as a 5-to-1 underdog rattled the heavyweight establishment with his shocking — and let’s be honest, slumber-inducing points nod over the listless Klitschko – the division’s hierarchy was firmly established and had been for a long time. Wlad and his now-retired older brother, Vitali, had between them logged four title reigns totaling 22 years, 8 months. And while the younger Klitschko might not have been Mr. Excitement, he still represented, at 39, stability and a sense of order in a sport where there are more turnovers than can be found at your neighborhood Dunkin’ Doughnuts. “Dr. Steelhammer” went into that bout in Dusseldorf, Germany, as the WBA “super,” IBF, WBO, IBO, THE RING and lineal champion, bereft only of the WBC crown once held by Vitali.

Wilder, his WBC championship (won on a unanimous decision over Canadian-based Haitian Bermane Stiverne on Jan. 17 in Las Vegas), near-perfect knockout ratio (97 percent) and American citizenship notwithstanding, was destined to remain an outrider until he, or someone, bumped one Wlad from the throne that most of the boxing world recognized as belonging to the legitimate ruler. Taking a 60-mile ride from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham, where he stopped the semi-anonymous likes of Molina and Duhaupas, did little to suggest that the 30-year-old who had once dreamed of starring in football for the Alabama Crimson Tide was much more than another pretender, albeit one with bejeweled belt. It was reminiscent of the seven-year reign of Larry Holmes, who never held more than one version (the WBC, then IBF) of the heavyweight title but was always accorded a higher place in the division pecking order than such itinerant alphabet champs as John Tate, Mike Weaver, Gerrie Coetzee, Tim Witherspoon, Pinklon Thomas, Greg Page and Tony Tubbs.

Fury’s takedown of King Wlad I has basically taken a wrecking ball to the status quo, and although the native of Manchester, England, has to be regarded as the division’s top guy, by virtue of his multiple titles and distinction of being the first fighter to defeat Klitschko in 11 years, the presumed gap between he and Wilder is much narrower than the one that many believed existed between he and Wilder.

From Wilder’s perspective, though, he is the true shining light among the current crop of heavyweights, with a ceiling higher than anyone else and the resolve and ability to be just as dominant as Wladimir had been. He figures his Jan.16 defense – DiBella said an opponent likely will be announced sometime this week — is just another step in a process that eventually will lead to his name being entered into the conversation of best big men in boxing history. Consider his thoughts on those heavyweights who presently occupy many of the top spots in the rankings:

* “Tyson Fury’s not a puncher. My one-year-old son hits harder than him. But he entertains the crowd and sings and all that. But when it comes to lacing up those gloves and battling it out, I don’t think he got enough. We have seen smaller fighters, even cruiserweights, drop him.”

* “I think Klitschko was fighting two people. Not only was he fighting Fury, he was fighting an old man called Father Time as well. There were times in that fight when his mind wanted to throw punches, but his body wasn’t reacting. As you get older, your body don’t react like it does when you’re younger. I think Father Time is at his door. He said he’s exercising his rematch clause. I feel he’ll lose that one, too. But maybe he just had an off-night.”

* “We wanted (No. 1 rated WBC contender Alexander) Povetkin for this one. He fought Mike Perez for one round. Why is he not ready? Why did he take another fight against Mariusz Wach to prepare for me? (He’s a) slower guy, don’t hit hard. Now, he is durable. Got a good chin.”

* “Don’t be surprised if Anthony Joshua (who won the super heavyweight gold medal representing England at the 2012 London Olympics) loses to Dillian Whyte (they fight Dec. 12 in London). Dillian Whyte will give him a run for his money, if not beat him. Dillian Whyte is a very hungry fighter.”

* “I think (Cuban expatriate) Luis Ortiz (who takes on Bryant Jennings Dec. 19 in Verona, N.Y.) is a cheater. (He tested positive for the anabolic steroid Nandrolone last year.) I don’t respect him. When you got to use chemicals to enhance your performance … anybody who does that should be banned from boxing.”

* “Jennings is a good fighter. I think he’s a good fighter. We’re going to see what he does in that fight, and go from there.”

* “David Haye must win (his Jan. 16 bout with Mark de Mori in London) in great fashion. All the things he’s done, the backing out (of fights) ad stuff like that, we’re ready to write him off. But if he can win in great fashion, maybe then we’ll have something on our hands.”

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Bernard Fernandez

Avila Perspective, Chap. 289: East LA, Claressa Shields and More

Published

1 day ago

July 25, 2024

David A. Avila

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 289: East LA, Claressa Shields and More

East Los Angeles has long been a haven for some of the best fighters around if you can keep them out of trouble. For every Oscar De La Hoya or Seniesa Estrada there are thousands derailed by crime, drugs or drinking.

Boxing has always been a favorite sport of East L.A. Every family has an uncle or two who boxes.

On Friday, 360 Promotions’ Omar Trinidad (15-0-1) fights Viktor Slavinskyi (15-2-1) in the main event at Commerce Casino, in Commerce, CA. UFC Fight Pass will stream the fight card.

The City of Commerce used to be part of East L.A. until 1960 when it incorporated. It’s still considered to be part of East Los Angeles, but informally.

Plenty of fighters come out of East L.A. but few make it all the way like De La Hoya and Estrada. Will Trinidad be the one?

The first world champion from East L.A. or “East Los” as some call it, was Solly Garcia Smith back in the late 1800s. Others were Richie Lemos, Art Frias and Joey Olivo. There is also 1984 Olympic gold medalist Paul Gonzalez.

Once again 360 Promotions brings its popular brand of fights to the area. On this fight card includes two female bouts. One features Roxy Verduzco (1-0) the former amateur star fighting Colleen Davis (3-1-1) in a featherweight fight.

All that action takes place on Friday.

Elite Boxing

The next day, also in East L.A., Elite Boxing stages another boxing card at Salesian High School located at 960 S. Soto Street in the Boyle Heights area of East Los Angeles.

Elite Boxing has promoted several successful boxing cards at the Catholic high school grounds. The area is saturated by many of the best eateries in Los Angeles. Don’t take my word for it. Check it out yourself and grab some of that delicious food.

Boxing has long been a favorite sport of anyone who lives in East L.A. It’s a fight town equal to Philadelphia, Brooklyn or Detroit. There’s something different about the area. For more than 100 years some of the best fighters continue to come out of its boxing gyms. Some will be performing on these club shows.

For tickets or information go to www.eliteboxingusa.com

Claressa Shields in Detroit

Speaking of fight towns, pound-for-pound best Claressa Shields who won two Olympic Gold Medals in boxing, moves up another weight division to tackle the WBC heavyweight world champion Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse on Saturday, July 27, at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan.

DAZN will stream the heavy-duty fight card.

Shields (14-0) cleaned out the super welterweight, middleweight and super middleweight divisions and now wants to add the big girls to her conquests. She will be facing Canada’s Lepage-Joanisse (7-1) who holds the WBC belt.

The last time Shields gloved up was more than a year ago when she fought Maricela Cornejo. Don’t blame Shields. She loves to fight. She loves to win. The last time Shields lost a fight was in the amateurs and that was three presidential administrations ago.

Shields doesn’t lose.

I wonder if Las Vegas even takes bets on her fights?

The only fight she may have been an underdog was against Savannah Marshall who was the last opponent to defeat her. And that was in 2012 in China. When they met as pros two years ago, Shields avenged her loss with a blistering attack.

Don’t get Shields mad.

Perhaps her toughest foe as a pro was in her pro debut when she clashed with Franchon Crews-Dezurn in Las Vegas. It was four rounds of fists and fury as the two pounded each other on the undercard of Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev in November 2016.

That was a ferocious debut for both female pugilists.

Assisting Shields on this fight card will be several intriguing male bouts. One guy you should pay special attention is Tito Mercado (15-0, 14 KOs) a super lightweight prospect from Pomona, California.

Many excellent fighters have come out of Pomona including Sugar Shane Mosley, Shane Mosley Jr., Alberto Davila and Richie Sandoval who just passed away this week.

Sandoval was best known for his 15-round war with Philadelphia’s Jeff Chandler for the bantamweight world title in 1984. Read the story by Arne K. Lang on this link: https://tss.ib.tv/boxing/featured-boxing-articles-boxing-news-videos-rankings-and-results/81467-former-world-bantamweight-champion-richie-sandoval-passes-away-at-age-63 .

Fights to Watch

Fri. UFC Fight Pass 7 p.m. Omar Trinidad (15-0-1) vs Viktor Slavinskyi (15-2-1).

Sat. ESPN+ 12:30 p.m. Joe Joyce (16-2) vs Derek Chisora (34-13).

Sat. DAZN 3 p.m. Claressa Shields (14-0) vs Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse (7-1), Michel Rivera (25-1) vs Hugo Roldan (22-2-1); Tito Mercado (15-0) vs Hector Sarmiento (21-2).

Omar Trinidad photo by Lina Baker

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Arne’s Almanac: Jake Paul and Women’s Boxing, a Curmudgeon’s Take

Published

3 days ago

July 24, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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Jake Paul can fight more than a little. The view from here is that he would make it interesting against any fringe contender in the cruiserweight division. However, Jake’s boxing acumen pales when paired against his skill as a flim-flam artist.

Jake brought a 9-1 record into last weekend’s bout with Mike Perry. As noted by boxing writer Paul Magno, Jake’s previous opponents consisted of “a You Tuber, a retired NBA star, five retired MMA stars, a part-time boxer/reality TV star, and two undersized and inactive fall-guy boxers.”

Mike Perry, a 32-year-old Floridian, was undefeated (6-0, 3 KOs) as a bare-knuckle boxer after forging a 14-8 record in UFC bouts. In pre-fight blurbs, Perry was billed as the baddest bare knuckle boxer of all time, but against Jake Paul he proved to have very unrefined skills as a conventional boxer which Team Paul undoubtedly knew all along. Perry lasted into the eighth round in a one-sided fight that could have been stopped a lot sooner.

Jake Paul is both a boxer and a promoter. As a promoter, he handles Amanda Serrano, one of the greatest female boxers in history. That makes him the person most responsible (because the buck stops with him) for the wretched mismatch in last Saturday’s co-feature, the bout between Serrano and Stevie Morgan.

Morgan, who took up boxing two years ago at age 33, brought a 14-1 record. Nicknamed the Sledgehammer, she had won 13 of her 14 wins by knockout, eight in the opening round. However, although she resides in Florida, all but one of those 13 knockouts happened in Colombia.

“We found that in Colombia there were just more opportunities for women’s boxing than in the United States,” she told a prominent boxing writer whose name we won’t mention.

The truth is that, for some folks, Colombia is the boxing equivalent of a feeder lot for livestock, a place where a boxer can go to fatten their record. The opportunities there were no greater than in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1995. It was there that Peter McNeeley prepped for his match with Mike Tyson with a 6-second knockout of professional punching bag Frankie Hines. (Six seconds? So it would be written although no one seems to have been there to witness it.)

Serrano vs Morgan was understood to be a stay-busy fight for Amanda whose rematch with Katie Taylor was postponed until November. Stevie Morgan, to her credit, answered the bell for the second round whereas others in her situation would have remained on the stool and invented an injury to rationalize it. Thirty-eight seconds later it was all over and Ms. Morgan was free to go home and use her sledgehammer to do some light dusting.

The Paul-Perry and Serrano-Morgan fights played out in a sold-out arena in Tampa before an estimated 17,000. Those without a DAZN subscription paid $64.95 for the livestream. Paul’s next promotion, where he will touch gloves with 58-year-old Mike Tyson (unless Iron Mike pulls a Joe Biden and pulls out; a capital idea) with Serrano-Taylor II the semi-main, will almost certainly rake in more money than any other boxing promotion this year.

Asked his opinion of so-called crossover boxing by a reporter for a college newspaper, the venerable boxing promoter Bob Arum said, “It’s not my bag but folks who don’t like it shouldn’t get too worked up over it because no one is stealing from anybody.” True enough, but for some of us, the phenomenon is distressing.

—

The next big women’s fight happens Saturday in Detroit where Claressa Shields seeks a world title in a third weight class against WBC heavyweight belt-holder Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse.

A two-time Olympic gold medalist, undefeated in 14 fights as a pro, Shields is very good, arguably the best female boxer of her generation which makes her, arguably, the best female boxer of all time. But turning away Lepage-Joanisse (7-1, 2 KOs) won’t elevate her stature in our eyes.

Purportedly 17-4 as an amateur, the Canadian won her title in her second crack at it. Back in August of 2017, she challenged Cancun’s Alejandra Jimenez in Cancun and was stopped in the third round. Entering the bout, Lepage-Joanisse was 3-0 as a pro and had never fought a match slated for more than four rounds.

Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse

True, on the women’s side, the heavyweight bracket is a very small pod. A sanctioning body has to make concessions to harness a sanctioning fee. Nonetheless, how absurd that a woman who had answered the bell for only 11 rounds would be deemed qualified to compete for a world title. (FYI: Alejandra Jimenez was purportedly born a man. She left the sport with a 12-0-1 record after her win over Franchon Crews Dazurn was changed to a no-contest when she tested positive for the banned steroid stanozolol.)

Following her defeat to Jimenez, Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse, now 29 years old, was out of action for six-and-a-half years. When she returned, she was still a heavyweight, but a much slender heavyweight. She carried 231 pounds for Jimenez. In her most recent bout where she captured the vacant WBC title with a split decision over Argentina’s Abril Argentina Vidal, she clocked in at 173 ¼. (On the distaff side, there’s no uniformity among the various sanctioning bodies as to what constitutes a heavyweight.)

Claressa Shields doesn’t need Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse to reinforce her credentials as a future Hall of Famer. She made the cut a long time ago.

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Former World Bantamweight Champion Richie Sandoval Passes Away at Age 63

Published

4 days ago

July 22, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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Richie Sandoval, who won the WBA and lineal bantamweight title in one of the biggest upsets of the 1980s and then, not quite two years later, suffered near-fatal injuries in a title defense, has passed away at the age of 63.

News circulated fast in the Las Vegas boxing community on Monday, July 22, the grapevine actuated by a tweet from Hall of Fame matchmaker Bruce Trampler: “Boxing and the Top Rank family lost one of our own last night in the passing of former WBA bantamweight champion Richie Sandoval. It hurts personally and professionally to know that Richie is gone at age 63. RIP campeon.”

Details are vague but the cause of death was apparently a sudden heart attack that Sandoval experienced while visiting the Southern California home of his son of the same name.

Richie Sandoval put the LA County community of Pomona, California, on the boxing map before Shane Mosley came along and gave the town a more frequently-cited mention in the sports section of the papers. He came from a fighting family. An older brother, Albert “Superfly” Sandoval, became a big draw at LA’s fabled Olympic Auditorium while building a 35-2-1 record that included a failed bid to capture Lupe Pintor’s world bantamweight title.

Richie was a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic boxing team that was stranded when U.S. President Jimmy Carter (and many other world leaders) boycotted the event as a protest against Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan.

As a pro, Sandoval’s signature win was a 15^th-round stoppage of Jeff Chandler. They fought on April 7, 1984 in Atlantic City. Chandler was making the tenth defense of his world bantamweight title.

Despite being a heavy underdog, Sandoval dominated the fight, winning almost every round until the referee stepped in and waived it off. Chandler, who was 33-1-2 heading in and had avenged his lone defeat, never fought again.

Sandoval made two successful defenses before risking his title against Gaby Canizales on the undercard of Hagler-Mugabi in the outdoor stadium at Caesars Palace. In round seven, Sandoval, who had a hellish time making the weight, was knocked down three times and suffered a seizure as he collapsed from the third knockdown. Stretchered out of the ring, he was rushed to the hospital where doctors reduced the swelling in his brain and beat the odds to save his life. This would be Richie’s lone defeat. He finished his pro career with a record of 29-1 (17 KOs).

Bob Arum cushioned some of the pain by giving Richie a $25,000 bonus and offering him a lifetime job at Top Rank which Richie accepted. And let the record show that Arum was good to his word.

A more elaborate portrait of Richie Sandoval was published in these pages in 2017. You can check it out HERE. May he rest in peace.

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