The 50 Greatest Featherweights of all Time Part One: 50-41

Published

8 years ago

February 28, 2017

The Featherweights were a maddening project.

Part of the fun for me in undertaking this project, which has already seen me run through the greatest heavyweights, light-heavyweights, middleweights, welterweights and lightweights of all time has been a cross-comparison of the weight divisions which, for the most part, has been very revealing. Not so with the featherweights. Need currency, will travel, and featherweight, more than any other division, is awash with fighters who departed for big fights at lightweight or arrived looking for big fights from bantamweight.

Very few careers were begun and then finished within the division’s limits.

This makes for a fabulous mix, with pound-for-pound greats making visits in almost every installment. It makes for excruciating comparative issues which have been difficult to resolve. I hope I have resolved them and over the next five weeks, I would invite you to be the judge.

This is a featherweight list in the truest sense. It is based upon the body of work performed by fighters within that weight range, almost exclusively. It is not possible to identify a specific poundage because the limit in 1904 was different to that of 2004, but as a general rule, work done between the lower and upper weight range plus 2lbs has been the range under consideration. So while we know Eder Jofre is one of the greatest fighters to have ever lived, here we are judging him only upon his brief stay at featherweight.

Who a fighter beat, and how, are the primary concerns then. Secondary was an appraisal of a fighter’s status in his given era; was he the lineal champion, the #1 contender, and for how long? Lastly, skillset as it appears on film (where possible) and head-to-head considerations are considered. These are the least of the criteria because they are the most speculative. Ranking a fighter on who he might beat is comforting and simple but it is also pure conjecture, whatever the source. Ranked contenders dispatched, wins accrued, losses suffered, these stand as facts and although their interpretation is subjective by nature the foundations are firmer. Your favourite fighter might look a killer on film, but so did a host of failed prospects; only minimal prizes are handed out here for what a fighter “might have done.”

Note, also, that in denoting a fight, the heavier man has the say. A 134lb man fighting a 125lb man is a lightweight contest and was appraised as such. Here, it is the turn of the featherweights.

I promise this will be the longest introduction of the series and I promise that most of the boring stuff is out of the way now. But I do need this structure in order to make decisions about fighters separated by a single punch thrown a hundred years ago (and you need to understand them before you shout about your favorite featherweight being too low…). With that out of the way, we can begin.

This is how I have them:

50 – Jose Legra (133-11-4)

Jose Legra, “The Pocket Muhammad Ali”, was born in Cuba in 1943 and turned professional there seventeen years later. Castro ascended as his fledgling career sprouted wings; Mexico welcomed him with blood-soaked arms.

Mexico represented, until recently, the best apprenticeship in boxing for a smaller fighter. There were dozens of featherweights, all desperate to entertain the pugilistic immigrants pouring out of Cuba, matters of national pride as well as personal ambition seeing to Legra’s early chin check. He emerged a fighter who knew how to win, as well as lose.

Legra made his home in Spain, fascinating in that he showed little interest in fighting in America. He boxed a single contest there upon his exile from Cuba, and traveling again to suffer defeat at the hands of Vicente Saldivar in 1969. He could be seen more often in Great Britain where he had perhaps his finest moment in 1968, smashing the excellent Howard Winstone to the canvas twice before stopping him on a cut. He then travelled to Mexico for what the Associated Press called “the most one-sided championship bout in history”, yo-yoing Clemente Sanchez repeatedly off the canvas before putting a stop to the farce and lifting the world’s featherweight title.

He lost it in his very next fight, a desperately close encounter with the legendary bantamweight Eder Jofre, who was coming out of retirement for a tilt at the featherweight crown. Beating the great Brazilian in Brazil in such circumstances was never going to be easy; worse was to come as he was knocked out in a round by Nicaraguan legend Alexis Arguello, in Nicaragua. At that point Legra hung them up, his career numbered among those of the greatest road-warriors.

49 – Jeff Fenech (29-3-1)

Jeff Fenech fought only a tiny handful of contests at featherweight – five by my count – but in those few contests he made his mark upon the division. Not the indelible mark he would make up at130lbs, nor the echo that rumbles back from the name Carlos Zarate, a part of the Fenech resume down at 122lbs, but a mark, nonetheless.

Fenech popped up at featherweight early in 1987, dominating Tony “Mad Dog” Miller with the Australian featherweight title on the line. Miller’s absurd toughness carried him through to a lopsided decision loss and Fenech dropped back down to 122lbs. He emerged again at 126lbs a year later, strapping on the alphabet title earned against Victor Callejas. Fenech looked free at the poundage, perhaps having been a little tight at super-banatamweight; Callejas, after all, was a serious man riding a serious winning streak barracked by a very serious punch.

Fenech destroyed him. The fight was not even competitive. Callejas was at sea in a storm of pressure fostered by a fighter who was stonger, faster, harder and who did not give his opponent a moment’s rest. Callejas tried everything; in the second he even landed a stiff head butt. Fenech shifted further inside and landed a harder one. But more than that, he was defensively superb, dipping his way in, ditching the deadly Callejas left-hook with head-movement and bumping him out of form with the shoulder. I think it was Jeff’s very best performance, and the end, when it came in the tenth, was a mercy.

Fenech stopped the over-matched Tyrone Downes in his first defense, returning to the higher level with excellent victories over George Navarro and Marcos Villasana before departing for the division above, unbeaten.

Fenech was the closest thing we have seen to a reincarnation of Sandy Saddler in the featherweight division, a monstrous proposition for any 126lb fighter. That said, he just didn’t tarry long enough in the division to nail down a higher ranking here and there is, perhaps, a case for leaving him out altogether – but head-to-head must have a place here. Simply put, Fenech would beat a lot of the fighters ranked above him.

48 – Earl Mastro (46-5-2; Newspaper Decisions 4-0)

Earl Mastro was a granite-jawed and clever boxer who, bereft of punch but not of heart, climbed to the top of the featherweight rankings in the late 1920s and early 1930s before running into the brutal Battling Battalino who kept him from championship honors. Before that time Mastro earned himself a reputation as one of the era’s finest featherweights by out-boxing some of the finest boxers of that time.

He failed his first audition for greatness, losing out to the brilliant Fidel LaBarba over ten in 1928, but the following year he reversed the decision in a narrow decision that reads like a fight which could have turned either way. Their 1930 contest was closer still, a draw, but splitting a three fight series with LaBarba is certainly no shame and it made him.

Three more standout victories shepherd Mastro in ahead of the likes of Tommy Watson and Lee Rodak, the first of these coming over Eddie Shea in Chicago Stadium. Both hometown boys, the fight was big in the city but there was only ever one man in it, Mastro getting across the line in style by distance. This may have been his most important win, coming, as it did, only weeks after a loss by disqualification in a fight he was dominating against Billy Shaw. Mastro pushed on, besting the wonderful former bantamweight champion Bud Taylor at the second time of asking after their original fight was ruled a draw. The fight ended raucously with both men piling through the ropes, Mastro named the winner when Taylor failed to regain the ring; Mastro rematched him once more and took a decision over ten.

Throw in two victories over the top-ranked Kid Francis and it is clear that Mastro built himself a most excellent resume at the poundage. Sinus trouble, difficult to treat at the time and not an uncommon ailment in busy fighters, even ones as clever as he, saw him retired in his mid-twenties; this was a great shame, but in conjunction with his loss to Battalino it limits his standing here.

47 – Solly Smith (27-14-19; Newspaper Decisions 1-0)

I am aware that the paper record of Solly Smith will send the modernist screaming for the hills while tearing his hair out, and I have a degree of sympathy. This list isn’t really the place for fighters who have failed to win even fifty percent of their fights. But Smith makes the list based upon two things. First, there is the exquisite purple patch he boxed between 1895 and August of 1898 during which he went unbeaten, reigned as the featherweight champion of the world and bested one of the greatest fighting machines ever to step into the ring, at any weight, in a twenty round contest.

George Dixon was the reigning featherweight champion in 1897 and was as admired by his fistic peers as any fighter that would ever follow him. Ray Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Pernell Whitaker, name the man and he was no more respected than was George Dixon in the late 1890s. He was also a heavy favorite over Smith, and with good reason. He had lost just three contests in the previous ten years, one to the great Frank Erne, since avenged, one meaningless four-round contest (his third that month) and one early bout by disqualification. More, he had previously knocked Smith out back in 1893.

The San Francisco Call: “Instead of swinging wildly and recklessly, as he was wont to do in his early fighting days, Smith gauged his distance and timed his blows like a polished veteran.”

Feinting for the lead, Smith threw enough to remain the aggressor, crackling the champion’s body with punches while turning in an outstanding show of slipping the left and blocking the right as Dixon moved through his full repertoire of punches. In an era where fights that held the slightest appearance of closeness were often deemed draws, he did enough to lift the title.

Dave Sullivan took it from him the very next year and Smith’s post-title collapse was extraordinary. He won just one of his last sixteen fights. But in the years leading up to his greatest night he defeated the experienced “Omaha Kid”, Oscar Gardner, himself close to claiming a place on this list, former champion “Torpedo” Billy Murphy and the undefeated English champion Willie Smith. He also managed two title defenses before Sullivan got to him and the disastrous run-in to his career began.

Of the pioneer era champions he was second only to Dixon for my money, and is good for his spot despite all those losses and draws.

46 – Juan Manuel Marquez (56-7-1)

The wonderful Juan Manuel Marquez spent much of his career toiling in relative obscurity at and around featherweight, his style more cautious than the one he would master in the divisions above. Still, his premier boxing skills were as present then as they would always be and his more cautious style brought him a number of excellent wins at the poundage.

Ranking him any higher than he is seen here is made problematic by the loss of not one but two key fights at the weight. Way back in 1999 he had his first tilt at a strap against Freddie Norwood and dropped an inexplicably wide unanimous decision. I personally had a difficult, squabbling encounter a draw and see no issue with a card either way. Seven years later he travelled to Indonesia to take on hometown legend Chris John, another wide decision loss the result. Again, I scored this fight a draw in the light of two justifiable deductions to the Marquez score for low blows (I gave John 1,3,7,11 and 12), making, again, any ruling seem reasonable to me. The net result is two key featherweight contests going against the Mexican.

In the plus column is good longevity at the weight, which brought with it solid victories over ranked contenders such as Victor Polo, Derrick Gainer and Manuel Medina, enough to speak of a fine career; but Marquez was an unlucky featherweight. In addition to those two desperately close decision losses to John and Norwood, he boxed a wonderful draw with the great Manny Pacquiao, climbing off the canvas three times, a huge effort to obtain a result that can enhance his standing, but only marginally. Worse, he was ranked the WBO’s number one contender to Naseem Hamed for two whole years without getting “The Prince” into the ring. Things only needed to be a little different in order that he might rank considerably higher.

A word here for Manny Pacquiao, a name synonymous with that of Juan Manuel Marquez; he does not make the list. His 2-0-1 ledger at the weight just doesn’t provide enough depth for him to reach these heights.

45 – Percy Bassett (64-12-1)

Percy Bassett was the “interim” world featherweight champion back when that phrase actually meant something. During World War II any championships belonging to active servicemen were frozen for the duration of the conflict; an interim champion was named for that time in order that some semblance of business as usual could continue. The practice continued into peace time for a spell.

Bassett won that title in 1953 while the lethal Sandy Saddler served in the army, and he won it against a very legitimate opponent, #1 contender Ray Famechon. The two swapped withering body punches as a fully decked out Saddler looked on, but it was Bassett who found more room for his viciousness; his knockout of Famechon, for it was such despite the fact that Famechon was helped back to his corner at the end of the third, technically resulting in a corner retirement, was brutal.

Other key wins over Lulu Perez, who was stopped in eerily similar circumstances in the eleventh, and Charley Riley, who he struggled with but was able to master, sneak him in the back door of the top fifty.

44 – Kuniaki Shibata (47-6-3)

From the heavyweights through to the featherweights, one of the most difficult questions to present itself has been, “what do you do with a robbery?” If you see a fight where the official decision is indefensible, do you “over-rule” it for the purposes of the project? Or accept it as the decision on the ground under the rules of the day scored by people only feet away?

For me, there is no one answer, but I think most of all the extremity of the bad decision is the deciding factor. So for the purposes of this list, Kuniaki Shibata’s 1971 draw with Ernesto Marcel is treated as a loss. Shibata no more drew that fight than I’ve been to the moon. He was clearly out-pointed.

He did show a huge heart in that fight though, walking through fire to keep the rounds competitive if not close. This is typical of Shibata and typical of a lot of other excellent Japanese featherweights for whom he is the standard bearer. Though I can’t quite name him a lock for this list, he is a very strong contender based upon the fact that he is the man who unseated the great Vicente Saldivar

Saldivar was on his second run as featherweight king, having come out of retirement to rip the title back, and probably he was not the fighter he had been during his first run. But nor had he been defeated since a 1962 disqualification loss and he was favored to win his 1970 match up with Shibata. The Japanese didn’t open like an underdog, charging Saldivar back to a neutral corner and lashing out.

A cursory glance might reveal a pressure fighter looking to land bombs, but in fact Shibata was a nuanced fighter and a clever one. He trusted himself enough to get close to a fighter like Saldivar, slip and counter; he baited leads then attacked in counter-rushes. It was a fine fight plan and it just wore the veteran down. By the tenth, he was bleeding heavily from a cut over the eye, and by the twelfth he looked like every one of those ring miles was right on him. Perhaps his decision to quit rather than face Shibata in the thirteenth can be forgiven.

It’s a sensational featherweight victory and the only time in his career that Saldivar lost a title match. It’s very much the peg upon which Shibata hangs his place on this list, his wider resume bereft of high quality once the Marcel draw is stripped from him. That said, his first round stoppage of the highly ranked Raul Cruz is nice and is well worth tracking down online. Cruz was as knocked out as any fighter ever was.

43 – Sal Bartolo

Sal Barolo was the contender affected most terribly by the birth in September of 1922 of one Gugliermo Papaleo, aka Willie Pep. Bartolo was ranked for half of the decade that Pep dominated, the 1940s, before throwing in the towel and fleeing for lightweight. In all, he met the defensive genius on three occasions, twice with Willie’s pet title on the line.

But Bartolo’s brush with immortality took place in a first, non-title fight with his nemesis. “One of the stiffest tests of [Pep’s] brilliant career” according to the Associated Press, it saw the “pride of East Boston” match his aggression with the champion’s wonderful skill and fall just a hair short of victory. Cut and battered early, he identified a clever shift to the right as he closed as the incitement to a withering body attack which peaked in the sixth round. He forced Pep from those famous feet, for all that a push and a slip was the culprit rather than a punch.

Bartolo dropped a split decision but was rewarded with a title match. With the championship on the line Pep delivered his glittering best and won a lop-sided decision over a deeply frustrated Bartolo who barely landed a glove after the second.

Probably Willie thought he was rid of the man who had troubled him so in that first fight, but Bartolo now went on a scintillating run of form winning a stunning twenty-six fights in three years. He also managed to gather up a strap, lifting the NBA version of the title in a knockout over Spider Armstrong. Rare are the contenders so consistent as to be able to force a dominant champion into the ring three times, and rarer still were men of such quality as to force Pep into a trilogy of fights but Bartolo earned his last chance.

An unusually spiteful Pep broke Bartolo’s jaw in ninth; he battled on and into the twelfth when he was dropped for the count.

In addition to Armstrong, Bartolo defeated made men like Willie Roach, Maurice LaChance and most impressively of all Phil Terranova. He would have been the champion in many weaker eras.

42 – Eder Jofre (72-2-4)

Few men can claim to having actually mastered the art of pugilism. Eder Jofre, perhaps, is one such man.

He will be remembered as a bantamweight, principally, and that is as it should be but he made his mark too at 126lbs, a mark indelible in history for the fact that he lifted the lineal featherweight title of the world.

The leap between bantamweight and featherweight is perhaps not as difficult as that from featherweight to lightweight or lightweight to welterweight, but it is certainly no small matter. No small matter is his taking the title from one Jose Legra, then in his prime at thirty years old. Jofre was thirty-seven and it was expected that he would lose that fight.

He won it, sending Legra into a hell he often invited his opponent’s to visit, defined by a clinical body attack, despite suffering multiple cuts, despite being dropped by a winging right hand that flew through his chin at the end of the third.

Nor did he stop there. Jofre added the not inconsiderable scalp of all-time great featherweight Vicente Saldivar, who came out of retirement to meet him in a 1973 superfight. Jofre stopped him in four, proving himself the only old man on the block who could still cut it with the young bucks. He proved it one more time while marching into his forties against the thirty year old Octavio Gomez, who was on the downside but still ranked.

Throw in Shig Fukuyama and Jose Antonio Jiminez and you have what amounts to a nice little resume at featherweight; delightfully, Jofre went unbeaten at this poundage which further barracks his position, although it must be weighed against an apparent reluctance to meet some of the more outstanding challengers, Alfredo Marcano chief among them.

41 – Eloy Rojas (40-5-2)

Eloy Rojas was the legitimate, lineal featherweight champion of the world between 1993, when he impressively defeated Yong-Kyun Park in South Korea, and 1996 when he was stopped by Wilfredo Vazquez. Between, he made several impressive defenses including another duel with Park on Korean soil and against former 122lb champion Samarat Payakaroon.

Rojas was soundly beaten in his first torrid contest with Park so the rematch was the sweetest of victories. Rojas is to be admired for taking the rubber match and even more admired for finding a way to defeat his old foe once more in a raucous foul-filled battle that stressed the limitations of Park’s mauling style. Rojas found the footwork to grant him space in the early rounds and the accuracy and punch selection to pepper him with nasty uppercuts through the second half.

Rojas was one of three champions that spanned 1987 to 1996 and they all figure upon this list. Rojas ranks the lowest here, below Park despite edging that rubber. In part, this is because outside of Park, Rojas perhaps did the least, scoring that win over Payakaroon and defeating the capable Miguel Arroza, but otherwise treading water; also, of the three, Rojas managed the fewest lineal title defences and beat the fewest ranked contenders.

But he could easily have ranked at #40 or #39 based upon his victories over Park. For a detailed accounting of the reasons for Park and Antonio Esparragoza ranking over him, join me for Part Two next week.

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Philly’s Jesse Hart Continues His Quest plus Thoughts on Tyson-Paul and ‘Boots’ Ennis

Published

20 hours ago

November 21, 2024

Luis A. Cortes III

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Jesse Hart (31-3, 25 KOs) returns to the ring tomorrow night (Friday, Nov. 22) on a Teflon Promotions card at the Liacouras Center on the campus of Temple University. During a recent media workout for the show, which will feature five other local fighters in separate bouts, Hart was adamant that fighting for the second time this year at home will only help in his continuing quest to push towards a second chance at a world championship. “Fighting at home is always great and it just makes sense from a business standpoint since I already have a name in the sport and in the city,” said Hart (pictured on the left).

Hart’s view of where his career currently resides in relation to the landscape in the light heavyweight division leads you to believe that, at the age of 35, Hart is realistic about how far he can go before his career is over.

“Make good fights, win those fights, fight as much as I can and stay busy, that’s the way the light heavyweight division won’t be able to ignore me,” he says. Aside from two losses back in 2017 and 2018 to current unified cruiserweight champion Gilberto Ramirez at super middleweight, Hart’s only other defeat was to Joe Smith during Smith’s most successful portion of his career.

When attempts to make fights with (at the time) up-and-coming prospects like Edgar Berlanga and David Benavidez were denied with Hart being viewed as the typical high risk-low reward opponent, it was time to find another way. So, Hart decided to stay local after splitting with Top Rank Promotions post-surgery to repair his longtime right-hand issues and hooked up with Teflon Promotions, an upstart company that is the latest to take on the noble endeavor of trying to return North Broad Street and Atlantic City to boxing prominence.

In essence, it is a calculated move that is potentially a win-win situation for all parties. Continued success for Hart along with some of the titles at light heavyweight eventually being released from Artur Beterbiev’s grasp due to outside politics, and Jesse Hart just may lift up Teflon Promotions into a major player on the regional scene.

Tickets for Friday’s show are available on Ticketmaster platforms.

As we entered November, a glance at the boxing schedule made me wonder if it was possible for the sport to have a memorable month — one that could shine a light forward in boxing’s ongoing quest to regain relevance in today’s sports landscape. Having consecutive weekends with events that could spark interest in the pugilistic artform and its wonderful characters was what I was hoping for, but what we got instead was more evidence that boxing isn’t immune to modern business practices landing a one-two punch on the action both inside and outside of the ring.

Jaron “Boots” Ennis was expected to make a statement in his rematch with Karen Chukhadzian on Nov. 9, a statement to put the elite level champions around his weight class on notice. What we witnessed, however, was more evidence of how current champions in their prime can be hampered by having to navigate a business that functions through the cooperation of independent contractors. Ennis got the job done – he won – but it was a lackluster performance.

It’s time for Ennis to fight the fighters we already thought we would have seen him fight by now and I do believe there is some truth to Ennis rising to the occasion if there was a more noteworthy name across the ring.

—

Some positives emerged from the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul event the following week. Amanda Serrano, Katie Taylor, and women’s boxing are finally getting the public recognition they deserve. Mario Barrios’s draw against the tough Abel Ramos, also on the Netflix broadcast, was an action-packed firefight. So, mainstream America and beyond got to witness actual fights before being subjected to Paul’s latest circus.

Unfortunately for fans, but fortunately for Paul, the lone true boxing star in the main event dimmed out from an athletic standpoint decades ago. In this instance modern business practices allowed for a social media influencer to stage his largest money grab from a completely unnuanced public.

As Paul rose to the ring apron from the steps and looked around “Jerry’s World,” taking in the moment, it reminded me of an actual fighter when they’re about to enter the ring taking in the atmosphere before they risk their lives after a lifetime of dedication to try and realize a childhood dream. In this case though, this was a natural-born hustler realizing as he made it to the ring apron that his hustle was likely having its moment of glory.

In boxing circles, Jake Paul is viewed as a “necessary evil.” What occurs in his fights are merely an afterthought to the spectacle that is at the core of the social media realm that birthed him. Hopefully the public learned from the atrocity that occurred once the exhibition started that smoke and mirrors last for only so long. Hopefully Paul’s moment of being a boxing performer and acting like a true fighter comes to its conclusion. But he isn’t going away anytime soon, especially since his promotional company is now in bed with Netflix.

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Boxing Odds and Ends: Oscar Collazo, Reimagining ‘The Ring’ Magazine and More

Published

3 days ago

November 19, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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With little boxing activity over the next two weekends, there’s no reason to hold off anointing Oscar Collazo the Fighter of the Month for November. In his eleventh pro fight, Collazo turned heads with a masterful performance against previously undefeated Thammanoon Niyamtrong, grabbing a second piece of the title in boxing’s smallest weight class while ending the reign of the sport’s longest-reigning world title-holder. The match was on the undercard of the Nov. 16 “Latino Night” show in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia headlined by the cruiserweight tiff between Mexico’s Zurdo Ramirez and England’s Chris Billam-Smith.

Collazo was a solid favorite, but no one expected the fight would be as one-sided. Collazo put on a clinic, as the saying goes. He took the starch out of Niyamtrong with wicked body punches before ending matters in the seventh. A left uppercut sent the Thai to the canvas for the third time and the referee immediately stepped in and stopped it.

Collazo, wrote Tris Dixon, “dissected and destroyed a very good fighter.” Indeed. A former Muay Thai champion, Niyamtrong (aka Knockout CP Freshmart) brought a 25-0 record and was making the thirteenth defense of his WBA strap.

A Puerto Rican born in Newark, Jersey, Oscar Collazo turned pro after winning a gold medal in the 2019 Pan American games in Lima, Peru. He was reportedly named after Oscar De La Hoya (we will take that info with a grain of salt), names Hall of Famer Ivan Calderon as a mentor and is co-promoted by Hall of Famer Miguel Cotto.

Collazo, 27, won the WBO version of the 105-pound title in his seventh pro fight with a seven-round beatdown of Melvin Jerusalem. He won a world title faster than any Puerto Rican boxer before him.

His goal now, he says, is to become a unified champion. He would be the first from the island in the modern era. Although Puerto Rico has a distinguished boxing history – twelve Boricua boxers are enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame — there hasn’t been a fully unified champion from Puerto Rico since the WBO came along in 1988.

The other belt-holders at 105 are the aforementioned Jerusalem (WBC) and his Filipino countryman Melvin Taduran (IBF). Both won their belts in Japan with upsets of the Shigeoka brothers, respectively Yudai (Jerusalem) and Ginjiro (Taduran). Collazo would be a massive favorite over either.

A far more attractive fight would pit Collazo against two-time Olympic gold medalist Hasanboy Dusmatov. In theory, this would be an easy fight to make as the undefeated Uzbek trains in Indio, California, a frequent stomping ground of Collazo’s co-promoter Oscar De La Hoya who had a piece of the action when Dusmatov made his pro debut in Mexico. However, it’s doubtful that Dusmatov’s influential advisor Vadim Kornilov would let him take such a treacherous fight until the match-up had been properly “marinated,” by which time they both may be competing in a higher weight class. The Puerto Rican, who began his pro career at 110, is big for the 105-pound division notes the noted boxing historian Matt McGrain who is partial to the little guys.

—

Outside the ropes, the big news in boxing in November was the news that The Ring magazine had been sold to Turki Alalshikh. The self-acclaimed Bible of Boxing, which celebrated its 100^th anniversary in 2022, was previously owned by a subsidiary of Oscar De La Hoya’s company, Golden Boy Enterprises, which acquired the venerable publication in 2007. Alalshikh purportedly paid $10 million dollars.

Alalshikh, the head of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, confirmed the sale on social media on Monday, Nov. 11.

“Earlier this week, I finalized a deal to acquire 100% of The Ring Magazine, and I want to make a few things clear,” he said. “The print version of the magazine will return immediately after a two year hiatus and it will be available in the US and UK markets. The magazine will be fully independent, with brilliant writers and focusing on every aspect in the sport of boxing. We will continue to raise the prestige of The Ring Titles, and plans are already underway to have a yearly extravagant awards ceremony to celebrate the very best in the boxing industry.”

Alalshikh, blessed with an apparently unlimited budget, is already the most powerful man in the sport and more than a few concerns have been raised about his latest venture, especially in light of an incident involving prominent British scribe Oliver Brown.

Brown, the chief sports writer for the Telegraph who had previously covered three of Tyson Fury’s fights in Saudi Arabia, had his credential pulled for the Joshua-Dubois show at Wembley Stadium after calling the event “a grisly conduit for glorifying the Saudi regime.”

“I frankly do not trust Alalshikh to keep his personal aims from influencing the publication’s content,” says boxing writer Patrick Stumberg. One thing is certain: So long as the publication remains in the hands of the Saudis, the word “sportswashing” will never appear in the pages of The Ring magazine.

The Ring is the second major online boxing magazine to change hands this year. In February, Boxing Scene, one of the most heavily-trafficked sites in the ecosystem, was sold to Canadian-American entrepreneur Garry Jonas, best known as the founder of ProBox, a promotional entity headquartered in Plant City, Florida.

—

Mike Tyson’s showing against Jake Paul was mindful of something that Jimmy Cannon once wrote: “…the flesh was corrupted by time. The mind operated as if it was in another man’s head…the talent has been contaminated by age.”

Cannon was describing Joe Louis in Louis’s farewell fight against Rocky Marciano.

True, Jake Paul is no Rocky Marciano. To include their names in the same sentence borders on sacrilege. But the fabled Brown Bomber was 37 years old when he was rucked into retirement by Marciano on that October night at Madison Square Garden. At age 58, Mike Tyson was old enough to be Joe Louis’s father and yet human lemmings by the thousands couldn’t resist betting on him.

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The Hauser Report: Some Thoughts on Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul

Published

5 days ago

November 17, 2024

Thomas Hauser

The-Hauser-Report-Some-Thoughts-on-Mike-Tyson-v-Jake-Paul

Jake Paul boxed his way to a unanimous decision over Mike Tyson at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Friday night. The bout, streamed live on Netflix, was one of the most-watched fights of all time and, in terms of the level of competition, boxing’s least-consequential mega-fight ever.

We’re living in a golden age for spectator sports. Sports generate massive amounts of money from engaged fan bases and are more popular now than ever before. Today’s athletes are more physically gifted, better conditioned, and more skilled than their predecessors. Their prowess is appreciated and understood by tens of millions of fans.

Not so for boxing. For the sweet science, this is an era of “fools’ gold.” Yes, fighters like Oleksandr Usyk, Canelo Alvarez, Terence Crawford, and Naoya Inoue bring honor to the sport. But boxing’s fan base has dwindled to the point where most people have no idea who the heavyweight champion of the world is. The sport’s dominant promoter has a business model that runs hundreds of millions of dollars a year in the red. And most fights of note are contested behind a paywall that shrinks the fan base even more. Few sports fans understand what good boxing is.

Mike Tyson is 58 years old. Once upon a time, he was the most destructive boxer in the world and “the baddest man on the planet.” Prior to last Friday night, he hadn’t fought in nineteen years and hadn’t won a fight since 2003.

Jake Paul is a 27-year-old social media personality who wasn’t born when Tyson lost his aura of invincibility at the hands of Buster Douglas. Paul began boxing professionally three years ago and, before fighting Tyson, had compiled a 10-1 (7 KOs) record against carefully chosen opponents.

Netflix has roughly 283 million subscribers globally, 84 million of them in North America. Recently, it made the decision to move into live sports. On December 25, it will stream the National Football League’s two Christmas games on an exclusive basis.

Netflix took note of the fact that Tyson’s 2020 exhibition against Roy Jones drew 1.6 million pay-per-view buys and concluded that Tyson-Paul had the potential to be the most-viewed fight of all time. It purchased rights to the fight as an attention grabber and subscription seller for (a best-estimate) $40 million.

Tyson-Paul was originally scheduled for July 20. A compliant Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations sanctioned the bout as an official fight, not an exhibition. In deference to Tyson’s age, the fighters agreed that the match would be contested over eight two-minute rounds (women’s rules) with 14-ounce gloves (heavyweight gloves normally weigh ten ounces).

But on May 26, Tyson became nauseous and dizzy while on a flight from Miami to Los Angeles and needed medical assistance for what was later described as a bleeding ulcer. The fight was rescheduled for November 15. Later, Tyson described the incident on the plane as follows: “I was in the bathroom throwing up blood. I had, like, eight blood transfusions. The doctor said I lost half my blood. I almost died. I lost 25 pounds in eleven days. Couldn’t eat. Only liquids. Every time I went to the bathroom, it smelled like tar. Didn’t even smell like shit anymore. It was disgusting.”

Does that sound like a 58-year-old man who should be fighting?

As Eliot Worsell noted, Tyson-Paul contained all the elements of a successful reality show. “There are for a start,” he wrote, “celebrities involved, two of them. One is ‘old famous’ and the other ‘new famous’ and both bring large audiences with them. They need only tap something on their phone to guarantee the entire world pays attention. And that, in this day and age, is all you really need to green light a project like this.”

But Worsell added a word of caution, observing, “This has been the story of Jake Paul’s pro boxing career to date; one of smoke and mirrors, one of sycophants telling him only what he wants to hear. He has been fed a lie just as Mike Tyson is now being fed a lie, and on November 15 they will both play dress-up and be watched by millions. They will wear gloves like boxers and they will move like boxers – one hampered in this quest by old age and the other by sheer incompetence – and they will together make ungodly sums of money.”

There was early talk that 90,000 fans would jam AT&T Stadium on fight night. Initially, ticket prices ranged from $381 to $7,956. And those prices were dwarfed by four tiers of VIP packages topped by a two-million-dollar “MVP Owner’s Experience” that included special ringside seating at the fight for six people, luxury hotel accommodations, weigh-in and locker room photo ops, boxing gloves signed by Tyson and Paul, and other amenities.

But by Monday of fight week, ticket prices had dropped to as little as $36. Ringside seats were available for $900. And the press release announcing the eventual MVP Owner’s Experience sale backtracked a bit, saying the package was “valued at $2 million” – not that the actual sale price was $2 million. It also appeared that the purchase price included advertising for the law firm that purchased the package since the release proclaimed, “Just as every fighter in the ring stands to represent resilience, grit, and the pursuit of victory, TorkLaw stands in the corner of the people, fighting for justice and empowering those who need it most.”

That said, the fight drew 72,300 fans (inclusive of giveaway tickets) to AT&T Stadium. And the live gate surpassed $18 million making it the largest onsite gate ever in the United States for a fight card outside of Las Vegas. More than 60 million households watched the event live around the world.

The undercard featured a spirited fight between Mario Barrios and Abel Ramos that ended in a draw. Then came the second dramatic showdown between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano.

Taylor-Serrano II was for all four major sanctioning body 140-pound belts. Two years ago, Katie and Amanda did battle at Madison Square Garden on a historic night that saw Taylor emerge with a controversial split-decision win. Katie is now 38 years old and her age is showing. Amanda is 36. Taylor was an early 6-to-5 betting favorite in the rematch but the odds flipped late in Serrano’s favor.

Amanda began Taylor-Serrano II in dominating fashion and wobbled Katie just before the bell ending round one. That set the pattern for the early rounds. Serrano looked like she could hurt Taylor, and Taylor didn’t look like she could hurt Serrano.

Then in round four, Serrano got hurt. A headbutt opened a gruesome gash on her right eyelid. As the bout progressed, the cut became more dangerous. From an armchair perspective, it looked as though the fight should have been stopped and the result determined by the judges’ abbreviated scorecards. But the ring doctor who examined Serrano allowed it to continue even though the flow of blood seemed to handicap Amanda more and more with each passing round.

In round eight, referee Jon Schorle took a point away from Taylor after the fourth clash of heads that he thought Katie had initiated. By then, Serrano’s face resembled a gory Halloween mask and the bout had turned into a non-stop firefight. Each woman pushed herself as far as it seemed possible to go.

In the eyes of most observers, Serrano clearly won the fight. This writer scored the bout 96-93 in Amanda’s favor. Then the judges had their say. Each one favored Taylor by a 95-94 margin.

“My God!” blow-by-blow commentator Mauro Ranallo exclaimed after the verdict was announced. “How does one rob Amanda Serrano after a performance like that?”

In keeping with the hyperbole of the promotion, one might say that it was the most-watched ring robbery (although not the worst) in boxing history.

CompuBox is an inexact tabulation. But there’s a point at which the numbers can’t be ignored. According to CompuBox, Serrano outlanded Taylor in nine of ten rounds with an overall 324-to-217 advantage in punches landed.

From a boxing standpoint, Taylor-Serrano II made the evening special. Casual fans who don’t know much about the sweet science saw a very good fight. But they also saw how bad judging undermines boxing.

Meanwhile, as good as Taylor-Serrano II was, that’s not what Netflix was selling to the public. Jake Paul’s most recent events had engendered disappointing viewer numbers. This one was a cultural touchstone because of Tyson.

Paul has worked hard to become a boxer. In terms of skills, he’s now a club fighter (which is more than 99.9 percent of the population could realistically dream of being). So, what happens when a club fighter fights a 58-year-old man who used to be great?

Jack Johnson fought until the age of 53, losing four of his last six bouts. And the two he won were against opponents named Rough House Wilson (who was disqualified in what would be his only recorded professional fight) and Brad Simmons (who was barred from fighting again in Kansas because he was believed to have thrown the fight against Johnson).

Larry Holmes fought until age 52, knocking out 49-year-old Mike Weaver at age 51 and winning a unanimous decision over Eric Esch (aka Butterbean) in his final bout.

Paul was a 2-to-1 betting favorite. Serious PED testing for the fight was a murky issue but seems to have been minimal. Taylor and Serrano underwent VADA testing in advance of their bout. Tyson and Paul didn’t.

Tyson weighed in for the contest at 228.4 pounds; Paul at 227.2 (well over his previous high of 200). Following the weigh-in, Mike and Jake came face to face for the ritual staredown and Mike slapped Jake. But the incident was self-contained with no ripple effect and had the feel of a WWE confrontation.

That raised a question that was fogging the promotion: “Would Tyson vs. Paul be a ‘real’ fight or a pre-arranged sparring session (which was what Tyson vs. Roy Jones appeared to be)?”

That question was of particular note because sports betting is legal in 38 states and 31 of them were allowing wagers on the fight.

Nakisa Bidarian (co-founder of Paul’s promotional company) sought to lay that issue to rest, telling ESPN, “There’s no reason for us to create a federal fraud, a federal crime. These are pro fights that consumers are making legal bets on. We have never and we’ll never do anything that’s other than above board and one hundred percent a pro fight unless we come out clearly and say, ‘Hey, this is an exhibition fight that is a show.'”

Tyson looked old and worried during his ring walk and wore a sleeve on his right knee. The crowd was overwhelmingly in his favor. But it’s an often-repeated truism that the crowd can’t fight. And neither could Mike.

Once upon a time, Tyson scored nine first-minute knockouts in professional fights. Not first-round. First-minute.

Against Paul, “Iron Mike” came out for round one as hard as he could (which wasn’t very hard) while Jake kept a safe distance between them. Then Tyson tired and took all the air out of the fight. By round three, he was in survival mode with his head tucked safely behind his 14-ounce gloves. And Jake didn’t have the skills to hurt him.

The CompuBox numbers favored Paul by a 78-to-18 margin in punches landed. In other words, Tyson landed an average of two punches per round. The judges’ scores were 80-72, 79-73, 79-73 in Jake’s favor. It was a “real” fight but a bad one.

“I love Mike Tyson,” Terence Crawford posted on X afterward. “But they giving him too much credit. He looked like trash.”

Prior to the bout, Tris Dixon wrote, “Tyson-Paul is a weird event, and I can’t think of anything even remotely like it in terms of the level of fighters, celebrity, and their ages. The event is unique, and morally and ethically it is questionable. It is a cynical cash grab. I can’t see it being particularly entertaining as a high-level sporting event. But I’m sure once it starts you won’t be able to take your eyes off it.”

All true. But let’s remember that there was a time when Mike Tyson was universally recognized as the best fighter in the world. Not many people in history have been able to say that.

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Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book – MY MOTHER and me – is a personal memoir available at www.amazon.com/My-Mother-Me-Thomas-Hauser/dp/1955836191/ref=sr_1_1?crid=5C0TEN4M9ZAH&keywords=thomas+hauser&qid=1707662513&sprefix=thomas+hauser%2Caps%2C80&sr=8-1

In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism. In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

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