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Saturday’s Fight Will Answer a Lot of Questions about Errol Spence

THREE PUNCH COMBO — This coming weekend, star prospect turned contender Errol Spence Jr. (he’s the one on the left) takes a massive step up in competition when he faces IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook. Spence has the looks of a potential superstar, but questions remain. We will find out a lot more this weekend as to whether the hype surrounding Spence is real.
There is no doubt Spence is immensely gifted with natural talent that is just not seen that often in boxing. He possesses very fast hands and his combinations flow very smoothly, often times overwhelming his opponents who can’t match his speed. Spence is well schooled with a strong amateur background and has honed his skills in his 21 fights as a pro. He will work behind a sharp right jab from the southpaw stance and has devastating power in both hands. It is easy to see why so many in the sport are so high on him.
But there are questions. In Spence’s ninth pro fight, he took his first step up in competition in facing Emmanuel Lartey in a scheduled eight round fight. At the end of round seven, Lartey hurt Spence with a right hook. Fortunately for Spence, the punch came right at the end of the round as he was legitimately wobbled. Spence more or less went into a prevent defense in the eighth and final round as he appeared to be still feeling the effects of that punch. After that fight, some in the sport wondered about his chin. Since facing Lartey, Spence has not faced anyone who was considered to be any sort of puncher.
Another big question facing Spence is how will he respond when things don’t go his way? With the exception of the moment against Lartey, Spence has not faced any adversity in the ring as a pro. Spence has basically been able to control the ring against his opponents and do pretty much as he wanted.
Kell Brook is a big welterweight. He is a heavy handed puncher with good skills. His hands aren’t as quick as Spence’s, but he has decent hand speed. This is going to be a fight for Spence that will answer a lot of questions. This fight could be for Spence what the Diego Corrales fight was for Floyd Mayweather Jr….or this could be the night that Errol Spence gets exposed.
The Near Term Outlook For Terence Crawford and Gary Russell Jr.
Terence Crawford and Gary Russell Jr. each scored dominant stoppage victories on Saturday. Crawford outclassed the skilled Felix Diaz in impressive fashion and Russell easily dispatched the tough Oscar Escandon. Both Crawford and Russell are seeking bigger fish and both may get much bigger fights the next time they are in the ring.
Crawford would love a fight with Manny Pacquiao and the payday that comes with such an event. However, Pacquiao’s management team at this time appears to view such a fight as too risky for their charge. So such a fight is unlikely, at least in the near future.
At ringside for Crawford’s performance on Saturday was IBF and WBA super lightweight champion Julius Indongo. Though a bout with Indongo is possible for Crawford, there are issues with making this contest. First, Indongo is not a big name. Crawford has fought good fighters but no big names and badly needs a name on his resume to help build his marketability. Second, Indongo may have to deal with a mandatory of his own in Sergey Lipinets. Indongo could always vacate the belt or attempt to work a deal with Lipinets but it is a complication. Finally, Crawford put on quite a bit of weight post weigh-in and a move up to welterweight may be happening sooner rather than later which would cross Indongo off the opponent list.
If Crawford goes to welterweight, there are plenty of name options available. One such option would be Timothy Bradley. Bradley crosses off all the marks as to what Crawford and his team would be seeking in an opponent. Bradley is a big name in the sport and the fight would certainly garner a lot of attention. It is a fight that can help build Crawford’s marketability and a win would firmly put him in superstar status. With such a status, he brings more to the table when seeking the bigger fights such as one with Manny Pacquiao. I think Bradley will be the top option for Team Crawford and I suspect we see such a match materialize sometime later this summer or in the fall.
Even more so than Crawford, Gary Russell Jr. needs a big name next time out. With the exception of Vasyl Lomachenko, the talented Russell has fought mostly lower level opposition. As a matter of fact, Escandon was easily the second best opponent Russell has faced in his career.
Russell is aligned with Al Haymon who has many of the top featherweights in his stable, so making a big fight for Russell should be easy to accomplish. One Haymon featherweight who also needs a big fight is IBF champion Lee Selby. Selby, who has fought most of his career in the United Kingdom, has made it clear he wants a fight in the United States and a unification fight with Russell certainly fits that criterion. This bout would garner plenty of attention in both the US and the UK and the winner would be positioned for big money fights down the road in a stacked featherweight division. It is a fight that seems very likely to get done for later this summer or early in the fall.
Expect to see Terence Crawford and Gary Russell Jr. competing on a much bigger stage the next time they enter the ring.
The Use of Instant Replay in Boxing
I have brought this topic up before but an incident that occurred this past weekend bears once again on the issue of using instant replay in boxing . Most other major sports utilize replay and it is time for boxing to do the same.
The system I propose is similar to the challenge system utilized in both the MLB and NFL. When the technology is available, the corners of each fighter will be allowed one challenge. They can challenge the ruling of whether a cut was caused by a punch or head butt or whether a knockdown was legitimate. The challenge must be made by the designated corner man to a commission official within a reasonable time. The commission can flat out ask the corner man if he wishes to challenge and a decision must be rendered by the corner man at that moment.
As with other sports, the video evidence must be indisputable to overturn the ruling of the referee. If the corner wins the challenge, they are allowed one more challenge during the course of the bout. If the corner loses the challenge, they would be out of challenges for the remainder of the contest.
In the case of a knockdown being challenged, the referee would instruct the judges to turn in two different scorecards if the decision were still being reviewed prior to the start of the next round. The first would be the card scoring the initial ruling of the referee and the second would be the card if the ruling were overturned.
Such a system keeps the flow of the bout going without interruption. It also limits the use of replay to just those crucial moments so it is not overdone. And it put the onus on the corner and not the referee or commission as to when the technology will be used.
In Saturday’s bout between Raymundo Beltran and Jonathan Maicelo, Beltran was ruled to have been knocked down by Maicelo in the first round. However, clearly it was not a punch that caused Beltran to go down, but instead an accidental head butt. In this instance, Beltran’s corner would have made motion for a challenge and a ruling would have been quickly made, probably before the round even ended. Due to the ruling however of a knockdown, HBO’s official scorer Harold Lederman scored the round 10-8 for Maicelo and I suspect the judges had it the same. If the ruling were overturned, at worst it would have been a 10-9 round for Maicelo and there would have been a good chance that the round instead would have gone to Beltran 10-9, a three point swing and could have had a major impact if the fight had gone to the cards.
Referees are human and do make mistakes. Instant replay technology is used in other sports to make sure that correctable errors do not happen. It is time for boxing to get in line.
Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel.
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Thomas Hauser’s Literary Notes: Johnny Greaves Tells a Sad Tale

Johnny Greaves was a professional loser. He had one hundred professional fights between 2007 and 2013, lost 96 of them, scored one knockout, and was stopped short of the distance twelve times. There was no subtlety in how his role was explained to him: “Look, Johnny; professional boxing works two ways. You’re either a ticket-seller and make money for the promoter, in which case you get to win fights. If you don’t sell tickets but can look after yourself a bit, you become an opponent and you fight to lose.”
By losing, he could make upwards of one thousand pounds for a night‘s work.
Greaves grew up with an alcoholic father who beat his children and wife. Johnny learned how to survive the beatings, which is what his career as a fighter would become. He was a scared, angry, often violent child who was expelled from school and found solace in alcohol and drugs.
The fighters Greaves lost to in the pros ran the gamut from inept local favorites to future champions Liam Walsh, Anthony Crolla, Lee Selby, Gavin Rees, and Jack Catterall. Alcohol and drugs remained constants in his life. He fought after drinking, smoking weed, and snorting cocaine on the night before – and sometimes on the day of – a fight. On multiple occasions, he came close to committing suicide. His goal in boxing ultimately became to have one hundred professional fights.
On rare occasions, two professional losers – “journeymen,” they’re called in The UK – are matched against each other. That was how Greaves got three of the four wins on his ledger. On September 29, 2013, he fought the one hundredth and final fight of his career against Dan Carr in London’s famed York Hall. Carr had a 2-42-2 ring record and would finish his career with three wins in ninety outings. Greaves-Carr was a fight that Johnny could win. He emerged triumphant on a four-round decision.
The Johnny Greaves Story, told by Greaves with the help of Adam Darke (Pitch Publishing) tells the whole sordid tale. Some of Greaves’s thoughts follow:
* “We all knew why we were there, and it wasn’t to win. The home fighters were the guys who had sold all the tickets and were deemed to have some talent. We were the scum. We knew our role. Give some young prospect a bit of a workout, keep out of the way of any big shots, lose on points but take home a wedge of cash, and fight again next week.”
* “If you fought too hard and won, then you wouldn’t get booked for any more shows. If you swung for the trees and got cut or knocked out, then you couldn’t fight for another 28 days. So what were you supposed to do? The answer was to LOOK like you were trying to win but be clever in the process. Slip and move, feint, throw little shots that were rangefinders, hold on, waste time. There was an art to this game, and I was quickly learning what a cynical business it was.”
* “The unknown for the journeyman was always how good your opponent might be. He could be a future world champion. Or he might be some hyped-up nightclub bouncer with a big following who was making lots of money for the promoter.”
* “No matter how well I fought, I wasn’t going to be getting any decisions. These fights weren’t scored fairly. The referees and judges understood who the paymasters were and they played the game. What was the point of having a go and being the best version of you if nobody was going to recognize or reward it?”
* “When I first stepped into the professional arena, I believed I was tough. believed that nobody could stop me. But fight by fight, those ideas were being challenged and broken down. Once you know that you can be hurt, dropped and knocked out, you’re never quite the same fighter.”
* “I had started off with a dream, an idea of what boxing was and what it would do for me. It was going to be a place where I could prove my toughness. A place that I could escape to and be someone else for a while. For a while, boxing was that place. But it wore me down to the point that I stopped caring. I’d grown sick and tired of it all. I wished that I could feel pride at what I’d achieved. But most of the time, I just felt like a loser.”
* “The fights were getting much more difficult, the damage to my body and my psyche taking longer and longer to repair after each defeat. I was putting myself in more and more danger with each passing fight. I was getting hurt more often and stopped more regularly. Even with the 28-day [suspensions], I didn’t have time to heal. I was staggering from one fight to the next and picking up more injuries along the way.”
* “I was losing my toughness and resilience. When that’s all you’ve ever had, it’s a hard thing to accept. Drink and drugs had always been present in my life. But now they became a regular part of my pre-fight preparation. It helped to shut out the fear and quieted the thoughts and worries that I shouldn’t be doing this anymore.”
* “My body was broken. My hands were constantly sore with blisters and cuts. I had early arthritis in my hip and my teeth were a mess. I looked an absolute state and inside I felt worse. But I couldn’t stop fighting yet. Not before the 100.”
* “I had abused myself time after time and stood in front of better men, taking a beating when I could have been sensible and covered up. At the start, I was rarely dropped or stopped. Now it was becoming a regular part of the game. Most of the guys I was facing were a lot better than me. This was mainly about survival.”
* “Was my brain f***ed from taking too many punches? I knew it was, to be honest. I could feel my speech changing and memory going. I was mentally unwell and shouldn’t have been fighting but the promoters didn’t care. Johnny Greaves was still a good booking. Maybe an even better one now that he might get knocked out.”
* “Nobody gave a f*** about me and whether I lived or died. I didn’t care about that much either. But the thought of being humiliated, knocked out in front of all those people; that was worse than the thought of dying. The idea of being exposed for what I was – a nobody.”
* “I was a miserable bastard in real life. A depressive downbeat mouthy little f***er. Everything I’ve done has been to mask the feeling that I’m worthless. That I have no value. The drinks and the drugs just helped me to forget that for a while. I still frighten myself a lot. My thoughts scare me. Do I really want to be here for the next thirty or forty years? I don’t know. If suicide wasn’t so impactful on people around you, I would have taken that leap. I don’t enjoy life and never have.”
So . . . Any questions?
****
Steve Albert was Showtime’s blow-by-blow commentator for two decades. But his reach extended far beyond boxing.
Albert’s sojourn through professional sports began in high school when he was a ball boy for the New York Knicks. Over the years, he was behind the microphone for more than a dozen teams in eleven leagues including four NBA franchises.
Putting the length of that trajectory in perspective . . . As a ballboy, Steve handed bottles of water and towels to a Knicks back-up forward named Phil Jackson. Later, they worked together as commentators for the New Jersey Nets. Then Steve provided the soundtrack for some of Jackson’s triumphs when he won eleven NBA championships as head coach of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers.
It’s also a matter of record that Steve’s oldest brother, Marv, was arguably the greatest play-by-play announcer in NBA history. And brother Al enjoyed a successful career behind the microphone after playing professional hockey.
Now Steve has written a memoir titled A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Broadcast Booth. Those who know him know that Steve doesn’t like to say bad things about people. And he doesn’t here. Nor does he delve into the inner workings of sports media or the sports dream machine. The book is largely a collection of lighthearted personal recollections, although there are times when the gravity of boxing forces reflection.
“Fighters were unlike any other professional athletes I had ever encountered,” Albert writes. “Many were products of incomprehensible backgrounds, fiercely tough neighborhoods, ghettos and, in some cases, jungles. Some got into the sport because they were bullied as children. For others, boxing was a means of survival. In many cases, it was an escape from a way of life that most people couldn’t even fathom.”
At one point, Steve recounts a ringside ritual that he followed when he was behind the microphone for Showtime Boxing: “I would precisely line up my trio of beverages – coffee, water, soda – on the far edge of the table closest to the ring apron. Perhaps the best advice I ever received from Ferdie [broadcast partner Ferdie Pacheco] was early on in my blow-by-blow career – ‘Always cover your coffee at ringside with an index card unless you like your coffee with cream, sugar, and blood.’”
Writing about the prelude to the infamous Holyfield-Tyson “bite fight,” Albert recalls, “I remember thinking that Tyson was going to do something unusual that night. I had this sinking feeling in my gut that he was going to pull something exceedingly out of the ordinary. His grousing about Holyfield’s head butts in the first fight added to my concern. [But] nobody could have foreseen what actually happened. Had I opened that broadcast with, ‘Folks, tonight I predict that Mike Tyson will bite off a chunk of Evander Holyfield’s ear,’ some fellas in white coats might have approached me and said, ‘Uh, Steve, could you come with us.'”
And then there’s my favorite line in the book: “I once asked a fighter if he was happily married,” Albert recounts. “He said, ‘Yes, but my wife’s not.'”
“All I ever wanted was to be a sportscaster,” Albert says in closing. “I didn’t always get it right, but I tried to do my job with honesty and integrity. For forty-five years, calling games was my life. I think it all worked out.”
Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His next book – The Most Honest Sport: Two More Years Inside Boxing – will be published this month and is available for preorder at:
https://www.amazon.com/Most-Honest-Sport-Inside-Boxing/dp/1955836329
In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
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Argentina’s Fernando Martinez Wins His Rematch with Kazuto Ioka

In an excellent fight climaxed by a furious 12th round, Argentina’s Fernando Daniel Martinez came off the deck to win his rematch with Kazuto Ioka and retain his piece of the world 115-pound title. The match was staged at Ioka’s familiar stomping grounds, the Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo.
In their first meeting on July 7 of last year in Tokyo, Martinez was returned the winner on scores of 117-111, 116-112, and a bizarre 120-108. The rematch was slated for late December, but Martinez took ill a few hours before the weigh-in and the bout was postponed.
The 33-year-old Martinez, who came in sporting a 17-0 (9) record, was a 7-2 favorite to win the sequel, but there were plenty of reasons to favor Ioka, 36, aside from his home field advantage. The first Japanese male fighter to win world titles in four weight classes, Ioka was 3-0 in rematches and his long-time trainer Ismael Salas was on a nice roll. Salas was 2-0 last weekend in Times Square, having handled upset-maker Rolly Romero and Reito Tsutsumi who was making his pro debut.
But the fourth time was not a charm for Ioka (31-4-1) who seemingly pulled the fight out of the fire in round 10 when he pitched the Argentine to the canvas with a pair of left hooks, but then wasn’t able to capitalize on the momentum swing.
Martinez set a fast pace and had Ioka fighting off his back foot for much of the fight. Beginning in round seven, Martinez looked fatigued, but the Argentine was conserving his energy for the championship rounds. In the end, he won the bout on all three cards: 114-113, 116-112, 117-110.
Up next for Fernando Martinez may be a date with fellow unbeaten Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, the lineal champion at 115. San Antonio’s Rodriguez is a huge favorite to keep his title when he defends against South Africa’s obscure Phumelela Cafu on July 19 in Frisco, Texas.
As for Ioka, had he won today’s rematch, that may have gotten him over the hump in so far as making it into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. True, winning titles in four weight classes is no great shakes when the bookends are only 10 pounds apart, but Ioka is still a worthy candidate.
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Emanuel Navarrete Survives a Bloody Battle with Charly Suarez in San Diego

In a torrid battle Mexico’s Emanuel “Vaquero” Navarrete and his staccato attack staved off the herky-jerky non-stop assaults of Philippine’s Charly Suarez to win by technical decision and retain the WBO super feather world title on Saturday.
What do they feed these guys?
Navarrete (40-2-1, 32 KOs) and his elongated arms managed to connect enough to compensate against the surprising Suarez (18-1, 10 KOs) who wowed the crowd at Pechanga Arena in San Diego.
An accidental clash of heads opened a cut on the side of Navarrete’s left eye and forced a stoppage midway through the fight.
From the opening round Navarrete used his windmill style of attack with punches from different angles that caught Suarez multiple times early. It did not matter. Suarez fired back with impunity and was just as hungry to punch it out with the Mexican fighter.
It was savage.
Every time Navarrete connected solidly, he seemed to pause and check out the damage. Bad idea. Suarez would immediately counter with bombs of his own and surprise the champion with his resilience and tenacity.
Wherever they found Suarez they should look for more, because the Filipino fighter from Manila was ferocious and never out of his depth.
Around the sixth round the Mexican fighter seemed a little drained and puzzled at the tireless attacks coming from Suarez. During an exchange of blows a cut opened up on Navarrete and it was ruled an accidental clash of heads by the referee. Blood streamed down the side of Navarrete’s face and it was cleared by the ringside physician.
But at the opening of the eighth round, the fight was stopped and the ringside physician ruled the cut was too bad to continue. The California State Athletic Commission looked at tape of the round when the cut opened to decipher if it was an accidental butt or a punch that caused the cut. It was unclear so the referee’s call of accidental clash of heads stood as the final ruling.
Score cards from the judges saw Navarrete the winner by scores of 78-75, 77-76 twice. He retains the WBO title.
Interim IBF Lightweight Title
The sharp-shooting Raymond “Danger” Muratalla (23-0, 17 KOs) maneuvered past Russia’s Zaur Abdullaev (20-2, 12 KOs) by unanimous decision to win the interim IBF lightweight title after 12 rounds.
Both fighters were strategic in their approach with Muratalla switching from orthodox to southpaw at various times of the fight. Neither fighter was ever able to dominant any round.
Defense proved the difference between the two lightweights. Muratalla was able to slip more blows than Abdullaev and that proved the difference. The fighter from Fontana, California was able to pierce Abdullaev’s guard more often than not, especially with counter punches.
Abdullaev was never out of the fight. The Russian fighter was able to change tactics and counter the counters midway through the fight. It proved effective especially to the body. But it was not enough to offset Muratalla’s accuracy.
There were no knockdowns and after 12 rounds the judges scored it 118-110, 119-109 twice for Muratalla who now becomes the mandatory for the IBF lightweight title should Vasyl Lomachenko return to defend it.
Muratalla was brief.
“He was a tough fighter,” said Muratalla. “My defense is something I work on a lot.”
Perla Wins
Super flyweight Perla Bazaldua (2-0) eased past Mona Ward (0-2) with a polished display of fighting at length and inside.
Combination punching and defense allowed Bazaldua to punch in-between Ward’s attacks and force the St. Louis fighter to clinch repeatedly. But Ward hung in there despite taking a lot of blows. After four rounds the Los Angeles-based Bazaldua was scored the winner 40-36 on all three cards. Bazaldua signed a long term contract with Top Rank in March.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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