Stacked Japanese Cards Includes Late FOTY Contender

Published

9 years ago

December 31, 2015

An extraordinary day of boxing in Japan today produced a desperately late contender for the fight of the year as many of Japan’s best fighters gathered under two separate roofs to put on a show of boxing as good as anything seen in the west this year.

First up was the absurdly talented prospect Kosei Tanaka who moved to 6-0 versus Filipino warhorse Vic Saludar (now 11-2), fought for Tanaka’s strap, which had been annexed by the Japanese in just his fifth fight. Saludar, who is twenty-five and looks about forty, embodies the bloody-mindedness and durability of his countrymen as well as any of his more famed cousins and he came to win. Tanaka was fighting here in his last fight at 105lbs, such are the demands made upon his 5’5 inch frame in making minimumweight, and perhaps it showed. Overly-eager to get his less prestigious opponent out of there he walked through fire and has now been chin-checked by an able puncher (nine of Saludar’s eleven victories have come by way of stoppage). His offense-first strategy was not without risks however, and he was dropped by a ratcheting shot to the temple in the fifth; up quickly, he surged back into the attack, winning by stoppage with a shot to the body in the sixth.

It was an odd performance that will call into question both Tanaka’s ring smarts, perhaps understandably for a twenty-year old prospect who finds himself defending a “world” title, and his punch resistance. This would be harsh were it not for the fact that Tanaka is, like his lethal countryman Naoya Inoue, bound, at some stage for super-flyweight and bantamweight. My own guess is that fighting dumb was the real problem here and that this can be amended. The great thing about the fight game is we will get to find out, and it should be great fun.

—

Perhaps not as much as the next bout on offer, Katsunari Takayama versus Jose Argumedo, a fight of the year candidate fought on the very last day of the 2015. Takayama, a strapholder at 105lbs, is always entertaining; I’ve never see him in a bad fight. Fast, with wonderful footwork and a very limited punch, one would expect to see him box and move and stay away from his opponent, always a more dangerous puncher than he, but rather he flirts with disaster. Perhaps the best engine in boxing allows him to work, work, work for three minutes of every round and this he does, often in close, throwing two-handed and providing ample opportunity for his opponent to hit back.

This, Jose Argumedo did. Not a huge puncher, Argumedo is a good hitter and likely relished the openings the lighter punching Takayama gave; indeed, after losing the first round he banked the second punching through the target with a crackling right hand. Of more concern was the cut to the left eye the paper-skinned Japanese emerged with in this round.

Takayama, of course, began aggressively in the third but was labelled with some hard punches; for the first time I doubted the fight would go the distance, although I’ve been burned by such predictions before where Takayama is concerned – the pace he sets is incredible.

Argumedo, seemed, for the moment, equal to it and I thought he poached the round to take a lead into the fourth which saw the doctor called to the ring apron for the first time for a short look at Takayama’s cut. I thought the Japanese worked well in this round however, driving back his Mexican opponent with two right hands, boxing directly and with nerve.

The fifth was a round of the year candidate with toe-to-toe wars erupting all over the ring. The work was becoming sloppy but the pace was so absurd and the battle so heart-fuelled that it was impossible not to be moved. In the sixth, Argumedo took a flush right hand and nodded, “yes” to Takayama who barrelled forwards. My feeling was that the fight was turning firmly in favour of Takayama whose stamina seems limitless.

But it was not to be. Argumedo landed hard punches in the eighth and Takayama ended this round with not one but two cuts on his formerly good right eye; the doctor, this time, spent more than a minute examining him. He was allowed to complete the eighth, and a raucous ninth but it was clear the fight would not be allowed to see twelve rounds. Takayama was pulled at the end of the ninth and the fight went to the scorecard, the Mexican taking a split technical decision 87-84 twice and 85- 86 in what should register as a minor shock. My card had it the same as this last; I had Takayama taking the fight by a point, but certainly there is nothing wrong with the decision for all that the winning cards may be a little wide.

Those who have already picked a fight of the year can probably rest easy given how it ended, but make no mistake, had the fighters been allowed to complete twelve rounds we might have had a problem.

—

Next up in what was becoming one of the best day’s boxing I’ve ever seen, a rematch of the desperately close Kazuto Ioka-Juan Carlos Reveco meeting from April of this year, a majority decision win for Ioka not without controversy. A meeting between the #3 and #5 ranked flyweights respectively, it was attractive for reasons other than the alphabet trinket on the line. Both good boxing and hard punching were expected and both were delivered as Ioka wiped the slate clean of any uncertainty surrounding his victory in their first contest with a splendid, dominant performance over a game, brave fighter.

Ioka opened smartly behind his composed jab, looking for and landing a left hook to the body as Reveco circled to his left while awaiting opportunities to swarm in. A clear first round for Ioka did not mean a great deal given the pattern of their first fight but as the fight progressed it was clear that a new pattern was emerging.

Ioka looked every inch how he was supposed to during his short spell as the world’s best prospect in the time before Amnat Ruenroeng got to him and decisioned him over twelve torrid rounds in 2014. A triple left hand in the third was a highlight as Ioka found a hook, uppercut and another hook as he stepped up the rattling body-attack he began in round one. Boxing neatly behind the jab, he would happily abandon it on occasion and land a lead uppercut through the middle and as he countered the work Reveco used to do damage last time around something close to a technical mismatch began to emerge. The fourth round saw a stirring two-handed surge from Ioka who had his opponent rattled with his back to the ropes and giving little back; Reveco, who emerged with a cut below his left eye, fired his way out of danger when a stoppage seemed a possibility; nevertheless after six rounds I had Ioka 5-1 ahead.

Skill is often a substitute for experience but Reveco is tough and insistent and he began, for me, to creep into a fight he had looked like losing on a stoppage as early as the fourth. Ioka seemed aware of this and in the ninth he launched a hellacious attack to both body and head, pinning Reveco on the ropes again and savaging him. Reveco, all heart, came roaring back when once again on the brink, but Ioka appeared too big, too solid and brought his own more youthful insistence to the fore. An uppercut seemed to stagger Reveco with a minute remaining and his retaliation seemed exhausted. The fight began to take on the singular sense of the brutal.

Before the eleventh, Ioka was the very semblance of calm while Reveco looked a beaten man; when Ioka folded him with the latest in a long line of brutal bodyshots – a surgical left hook, his honey punch all night – I was surprised to see Reveco force himself to his feet before 10. His determination spoke for him. But when he remained bent as though by nausea, ring centre, unable to obey the referee’s instruction to walk to him, the contest was, rightly, ended.

It was an impressive display from Ioka, the type of display I once expected of him. It may yet be that he has plenty to offer at the sharpest end of this stacked division although his size at the weight was a factor today. Whether he moves north or stays put he won’t always be so much the bigger man.

—

The “main event”, featuring senior Japanese pugilist Takashi Uchiyama, was typically one-sided. One of the longest reigning strapholders in the world and clear divisional #1 at super-featherweight, Uchiyama dominated the over-matched Oliver Flores, stopping him in three rounds, not for the first time today, with a bodyshot.

Uchiyama is in desperate need of extension at this point in his career, having fought just five rounds in 2014. Aged 36, big money fights and pound-for-pound honours will not be within his grasp much longer and while he’s proven winning is easy boxing at this sort of level, hopefully the desire to do more than the minimum will move him to greater things in 2016. He did announce himself “ready for anyone” at the post-fight press conference, but this is not new rhetoric. He expects to be matched again in April.

Destructive body-punching seems, after today, as much a part of the Japanese fistic psyche as the murderous flavour of box-punching served up by Uchiyama, Tanaka, Ioka, and, earlier in the week, Naoya Inoue. Each is different but each bursts from the same culture of brilliant violence rendered with technical surety. They won’t all come west – but those that do should be welcomed with open arms by fight fans.

Based on today’s quality of entertainment we arguably have some catching up to do.

Check out our quick result video from Japan at The Boxing Channel.

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Matt McGrain

History has Shortchanged Freddie Dawson, One of the Best Boxers of his Era

Published

2 days ago

April 2, 2025

Arne K. Lang

History has Shortchanged Freddie Dawson, One of the Best Boxers of his Era

This reporter was rummaging around the internet last week when he stumbled on a story in the May 1950 issue of Ebony under the byline of Mike Jacobs. Boxing was then in the doldrums (isn’t it always?) and Jacobs, the most powerful promoter in boxing during the era of Joe Louis, was lassoed by the editors of the magazine to address the question of whether the over-representation of black boxers was killing the sport at the box office.

This hoary premise had been kicking around even before the heyday of Jack Johnson, bubbling forth whenever an important black-on-black fight played to a sea of empty seats as had happened the previous year when Chicago’s Comiskey Park hosted the world heavyweight title fight between Ezzard Charles and Jersey Joe Walcott.

Jacobs ridiculed the hypothesis – as one could have expected considering the publication in which the story ran – and singled out three “colored” boxers as the best of the current crop of active pugilists: Sugar Ray Robinson, Ike Williams, and Freddie Dawson.

Sugar Ray Robinson? A no-brainer. Skill-wise the greatest of the great. Even those that didn’t follow boxing, would have recognized his name. Ike Williams? Nowhere near as well-known as Robinson, but he was then the reigning lightweight champion, a man destined to go into the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the inaugural class of 1990.

And Freddie Dawson? If the name doesn’t ring a bell, dear reader, you are not alone. I confess that I too drew a blank. And that triggered a search to learn more about him.

Freddie Dawson had four fights with Ike Williams. All four were staged on Ike’s turf in Philadelphia. Were this not the case, the history books would likely show the series knotted 2-2. Late in his career, Dawson became greatly admired in Australia. But we are jumping ahead of ourselves.

Dawson was born in 1924 in Thomasville, Arkansas, an unincorporated town in the Arkansas Delta. Likely a descendent of slaves who worked in the cotton plantations, he grew up in the so-called Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, the heart of Chicago’s Black Belt.

The first mention of him in the newspapers came in 1941 when he won Chicago’s Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) featherweight title. In those days, amateur boxing was big in the Windy City, the birthplace of the Golden Gloves. The Catholic Archdiocese, which ran gyms in every parish, and the Chicago Parks Department, were the major incubators.

In his amateur days, he was known as simply Fred Dawson. As a pro, his name often appeared as Freddy Dawson, although Freddie gradually became the more common spelling.

Dawson, who stood five-foot-six and was often described as stocky, made his pro debut on Feb. 1, 1943, at Marigold Gardens. Before the year was out, he had 16 fights under his belt, all in Chicago and all but two at Marigold. (Currently the site of an interdenominational Christian church, Marigold Gardens, on the city’s north side, was Chicago’s most active boxing and wrestling arena from the mid-1930s through the early-1950s. Joe Louis had three of his early fights there and Tony Zale was a fixture there as he climbed the ladder to the world middleweight title.)

The last of these 16 fights was fatal for Dawson’s opponent who collapsed heading back to his corner after the fight was stopped in the 10^th round and died that night at a local hospital from the effects of a brain injury.

Dawson left town after this incident and spent most of the next year in New Orleans where energetic promoter Louis Messina ran twice-weekly shows (Mondays for whites and Fridays for blacks) at the Coliseum, a major stop on boxing’s so-called Chitlin’ Circuit.

That same year, on Sept. 19, 1944, Dawson had his first encounter with Ike Williams. He was winning the fight when Ike knocked him out with a body punch in the fourth round.

The first and last meetings between Dawson and Ike Williams were spaced five years apart. In the interim, Freddie scored his two best wins, stopping Vic Patrick in the twelfth round at Sydney, NSW, and Bernard Docusen in the sixth round in Chicago.

The long-reigning lightweight champion of Australia, Patrick (49-3, 43 KOs) gave the crowd a thrill when he knocked Dawson down for a count of “six” in the penultimate 11^th round, but Dawson returned the favor twice in the final stanza, ending the contest with a punch so harsh that the poor Aussie needed five minutes before he was fit to leave the ring and would spend the night in the hospital as a precaution.

Dawson fought Bernard Docusen before 10,000-plus at Chicago Stadium on Feb. 4, 1949. An 8/5 favorite, Docusen lacked a hard punch, but the New Orleans cutie had suffered only three losses in 66 fights, had never been stopped, and had extended Sugar Ray Robinson the 15-round distance the previous year.

Dawson dismantled him. Docusen managed to get back on his feet after Dawson knocked him down in the sixth, but he was in no condition to continue and the referee waived the fight off. Dawson was then vacillating between the lightweight and welterweight divisions and reporters wondered whether it would be Robinson or Ike Williams when Dawson finally got his well-earned title shot.

Sugar Ray wasn’t in his future. Here are the results of his other matches with Ike Williams:

Dawson-Williams II (Jan. 28, 1946) – The consensus on press row was 7-2-1 or 7-3 for Dawson, but the match was ruled a draw. “[The judges and referee] evidently saw [Williams] land punches that nobody else did,” said the ringside reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Dawson-Williams III (Jan. 26, 1948) – Dawson lost a majority decision. The scores were 6-4, 5-4-1, and 4-4-2. The decision was booed. Ike Williams then held the lightweight title, but this was a non-title fight. (It was tough for an outsider to get a fair shake in Philadelphia, home to Ike Williams’ co-manager Frank “Blinky” Palermo who would go to prison for his duplicitous dealings as a fight facilitator.)

Dawson-Williams IV (Dec. 5, 1949) – This would be Freddie Dawson’s only crack at a world title and he came up short. Ike Williams retained the belt, winning a unanimous decision. The fight was close – 8-7, 8-7, 9-6 – but there was no controversy.

Dawson made three more trips to Australia before his career was finished. On the first of these trips, he knocked out Jack Hassen, successor to Vic Patrick as the lightweight champion of Australia. A 1953 article in the Sydney Sunday Herald bore witness to the esteem in which Dawson was held by boxing fans in Australia: “None of our boxers could withstand his devastating attacks which not only knocked them out but also knocked years off their careers,” said the author. “It is doubtful whether any Australian boxer in any division could have beaten Dawson.”

Dawson had his final fights in the Land Down Under, finishing his career with a record of 103-14-4 while answering the bell for 962 rounds. Following what became his final fight, he had an eye operation in Sydney that was reportedly so intricate that it required a two-week hospital stay. He injured the eye again in Manila while sparring in preparation for a match with the welterweight champion of the Philippines, a match that had to be aborted because of the injury. Dawson then disappeared, by which we mean that he disappeared from the pages of the newspaper archives that allow us to construct these kinds of stories.

What about Freddie Dawson the man? A 1944 story about him said he was an outstanding all-around athlete, “a champion in all athletic undertakings – basketball, baseball, track and even jitterbugging.” A story in a Sydney paper as he was preparing to meet Vic Patrick informs us that he had two young children, ages 2 and 1, owned his own home in Chicago, and drove a two-year-old Cadillac. But beyond these flimsy snippets, Dawson the man remains elusive.

What we learned, however, is that he was one of the most underrated boxers to come down the pike in any era, a borderline Hall of Famer who ought not have fallen through the cracks. Inside the ring, this guy was one tough hombre.

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Ringside at the Fontainebleau where Mikaela Mayer Won her Rematch with Sandy Ryan

Published

5 days ago

March 30, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Ringside-at-the-Fontainebleau-where-Mikaela-Mayer-won-her-Rematch-with-Sandy-Ryan

LAS VEGAS, NV — The first meeting between Mikaela Mayer and Sandy Ryan last September at Madison Square Garden was punctuated with drama before the first punch was thrown. When the smoke cleared, Mayer had become a world-title-holder in a second weight class, taking away Ryan’s WBO welterweight belt via a majority decision in a fan-friendly fight.

The rematch tonight at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas was another fan-friendly fight. There were furious exchanges in several rounds and the crowd awarded both gladiators a standing ovation at the finish.

Mayer dominated the first half of the fight and held on to win by a unanimous decision. But Sandy Ryan came on strong beginning in round seven, and although Mayer was the deserving winner, the scores favoring her (98-92 and 97-93 twice) fail to reflect the competitiveness of the match-up. This is the best rivalry in women’s boxing aside from Taylor-Serrano.

Mayer, 34, improved to 21-2 (5). Up next, she hopes, in a unification fight with Lauren Price who outclassed Natasha Jonas earlier this month and currently holds the other meaningful pieces of the 147-pound puzzle. Sandy Ryan, 31, the pride of Derby, England, falls to 7-3-1.

Co-Feature

In his first defense of his WBO world welterweight title (acquired with a brutal knockout of Giovani Santillan after the title was vacated by Terence Crawford), Atlanta’s Brian Norman Jr knocked out Puerto Rico’s Derrieck Cuevas in the third round. A three-punch combination climaxed by a short left hook sent Cuevas staggering into a corner post. He got to his feet before referee Thomas Taylor started the count, but Taylor looked in Cuevas’s eyes and didn’t like what he saw and brought the bout to a halt.

The stoppage, which struck some as premature, came with one second remaining in the third stanza.

A second-generation prizefighter (his father was a fringe contender at super middleweight), the 24-year-old Norman (27-0, 21 KOs) is currently boxing’s youngest male title-holder. It was only the second pro loss for Cuevas (27-2-1) whose lone previous defeat had come early in his career in a 6-rounder he lost by split decision.

Other Bouts

In a career-best performance, 27-year-old Brooklyn featherweight Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington (15-0, 9 KOs) blasted out Jose Enrique Vivas (23-4) in the third round.

Carrington, who was named the Most Outstanding Boxer at the 2019 U.S. Olympic Trials despite being the lowest-seeded boxer in his weight class, decked Vivas with a right-left combination near the end of the second round. Vivas barely survived the round and was on a short leash when the third stanza began. After 53 seconds of round three, referee Raul Caiz Jr had seen enough and waived it off. Vivas hadn’t previously been stopped.

Cleveland welterweight Tiger Johnson, a Tokyo Olympian, scored a fifth-round stoppage over San Antonio’s Kendo Castaneda. Johnson assumed control in the fourth round and sent Castaneda to his knees twice with body punches in the next frame. The second knockdown terminated the match. The official time was 2:00 of round five.

Johnson advanced to 15-0 (7 KOs). Castenada declined to 21-9.

Las Vegas junior welterweight Emiliano Vargas (13-0, 11 KOs) blasted out Stockton, California’s Giovanni Gonzalez in the second round. Vargas brought the bout to a sudden conclusion with a sweeping left hook that knocked Gonzalez out cold. The end came at the 2:00 minute mark of round two.

Gonzalez brought a 20-7-2 record which was misleading as 18 of his fights were in Tijuana where fights are frequently prearranged. However, he wasn’t afraid to trade with Vargas and paid the price.

Emiliano Vargas, with his matinee idol good looks and his boxing pedigree – he is the son of former U.S. Olympian and two-weight world title-holder “Ferocious” Fernando Vargas – is highly marketable and has the potential to be a cross-over star.

Eighteen-year-old Newark bantamweight Emmanuel “Manny” Chance, one of Top Rank’s newest signees, won his pro debut with a four-round decision over So Cal’s Miguel Guzman. Chance won all four rounds on all three cards, but this was no runaway. He left a lot of room for improvement.

There was a long intermission before the co-main and again before the main event, but the tedium was assuaged by a moving video tribute to George Foreman.

Photos credit: Al Applerose

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William Zepeda Edges Past Tevin Farmer in Cancun; Improves to 34-0

Published

6 days ago

March 29, 2025

David A. Avila

William Zepeda Edges Past Tevin Farmer in Cancun; Improves to 34-0

No surprise, once again William Zepeda eked out a win over the clever and resilient Tevin Farmer to remain undefeated and retain a regional lightweight title on Saturday.

There were no knockdowns in this rematch.

The Mexican punching machine Zepeda (33-0, 17 KOs) once more sought to overwhelm Farmer (33-8-1, 9 KOs) with a deluge of blows. This rematch by Golden Boy Promotions took place in the famous beach resort area of Cancun, Mexico.

It was a mere four months ago that both first clashed in Saudi Arabia with their vastly difference styles. This time the tropical setting served as the background which suited Zepeda and his lawnmower assaults. The Mexican fans were pleased.

Nothing changed in their second meeting.

Zepeda revved up the body assault and Farmer moved around casually to his right while fending off the Mexican fighter’s attacks. By the fourth round Zepeda was able to cut off Farmer’s escape routes and targeted the body with punishing shots.

The blows came in bunches.

In the fifth round Zepeda blasted away at Farmer who looked frantic for an escape. The body assault continued with the Mexican fighter pouring it on and Farmer seeming to look ready to quit. When the round ended, he waved off his corner’s appeals to stop.

Zepeda continued to dominate the next few rounds and then Farmer began rallying. At first, he cleverly smothered Zepeda’s body attacks and then began moving and hitting sporadically. It forced the Mexican fighter to pause and figure out the strategy.

Farmer, a Philadelphia fighter, showed resiliency especially when it was revealed he had suffered a hand injury.

During the last three rounds Farmer dug down deep and found ways to score and not get hit. It was Boxing 101 and the Philly fighter made it work.

But too many rounds had been put in the bank by Zepeda. Despite the late rally by Farmer one judge saw it 114-114, but two others scored it 116-112 and 115-113 for Zepeda who retains his interim lightweight title and place at the top of the WBC rankings.

“I knew he was a difficult fighter. This time he was even more difficult,” said Zepeda.

Farmer was downtrodden about another loss but realistic about the outcome and starting slow.

“But I dominated the last rounds,” said Farmer.

Zepeda shrugged at the similar outcome as their first encounter.

“I’m glad we both put on a great show,” said Zepeda.

Female Flyweight Battle

Costa Rica’s Yokasta Valle edged past Texas fighter Marlen Esparza to win their showdown at flyweight by split decision after 10 rounds.

Valle moved up two weight divisions to meet Esparza who was slightly above the weight limit. Both showed off their contrasting styles and world class talent.

Esparza, a former unified flyweight world titlist, stayed in the pocket and was largely successful with well-placed jabs and left hooks. She repeatedly caught Valle in-between her flurries.

The current minimumweight world titlist changed tactics and found more success in the second half of the fight. She forced Esparza to make the first moves and that forced changes that benefited her style.

Neither fighter could take over the fight.

After 10 rounds one judge saw Esparza the winner 96-94, but two others saw Valle the winner 97-93 twice.

Will Valle move up and challenge the current undisputed flyweight world champion Gabriela Fundora? That’s the question.

Valle currently holds the WBC minimumweight world title.

Puerto Rico vs Mexico

Oscar Collazo (12-0, 9 KOs), the WBO, WBA minimumweight titlist, knocked out Mexico’s Edwin Cano (13-3-1, 4 KOs) with a flurry of body shots at 1:12 of the fifth round.

Collazo dominated with a relentless body attack the Mexican fighter could not defend. It was the Puerto Rican fighter’s fifth consecutive title defense.

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