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Three Punch Combo – An Under the Radar Fight Certain to Entertain and More
This is a busy week in the sweet science. There is the big rematch on Saturday night (more on that later). In addition, Top Rank has a very big card
THREE PUNCH COMBO — This is a busy week in the sweet science. There is the big rematch on Saturday night (more on that later). In addition, Top Rank has a very big card of its own on ESPN on Friday night. I love all these events but there is another card on Thursday in Las Vegas that really piques my interest. And that is because I think the main event in the 140-pound division between Ruslan Madiev (12-0, 5 KO’s) and Pablo Cesar Cano (30-7-1, 21 KO’s) is going to be a scorcher.
Cano (pictured) is one of my favorite action fighters. He is a relentless pressure fighter who is more than willing to abandon all defense and eat leather just to create openings to land one or two power shots of his own. He is heavy handed with his best punch being the classic Mexican left hook to the body. Essentially, his strategy is to look to break down his opposition with constant pressure and body punching. Regardless of whether he is successful or not, his style always leads to entertaining scraps.
Madiev is also an aggressive fighter by nature and a volume puncher. Though he may not have the power of Cano, Madiev will be the much busier fighter. Similar to Cano, defense is not one of his strong suits. He lacks head movement and often stands in the pocket too long after hurling off combinations making him an inviting target to be countered.
Matchmaking is key to making fan-friendly fights and this is an example of excellent matchmaking. Madiev, with his volume, will be landing frequently on the defensively challenged Cano. But Madiev’s weaknesses of his own on defense will create opportunities for Cano to counter. I don’t see Madiev being able to hurt Cano either, or even get Cano’s respect to where he will slow down his aggressiveness. Essentially, this is going to be a high contact war for the duration of the fight and could, when all is said and done, be a sleeper candidate for fight of the year.
Subtle Factors To Keep In Mind For Canelo-Golovkin II
The much anticipated rematch for the middleweight championship between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KO’s) and Gennady Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KO’s) is finally here. There has already been plenty of talk and plenty written about this fight. Instead of focusing on the obvious, I want to dig in a little deeper and look at a few subtle factors that may factor into the outcome.
Golovkin turned pro in 2006 as a middleweight. For 12 years, he has fought in the same weight division. Granted, he is a fitness machine, but he is now 36 years old and making 160 can’t be as easy as it once was. And he has been doing it for such a long time that it has to be taking some kind of toll on his body. Again, he is a fitness freak but Father Time catches up on all of us and our bodies. There will come a day when making 160 becomes a very difficult endeavor that zaps quite a bit of energy from Golovkin. Could that be for the rematch with Alvarez? I don’t know, but it needs to at least be mentioned.
Canelo will be coming off nearly a one year layoff, the longest layoff of his career. As such, there is certain to be some ring rust. Remember in the first fight, Canelo was sharp early, landing some eye popping combinations. The first couple rounds seemed to play in favor of Canelo before Golovkin started to come on with his pressure. In a fight that could be close, if Canelo does not come out sharp and loses the early rounds this could play a telling tale on the scorecards.
Speaking of the scorecards, the three judges for the rematch — Dave Moretti, Glenn Feldman and Steve Weisfeld — are three of the best boxing judges in the world and I would go as far as saying if these three worked more bouts together that we would see far fewer controversies. Check out their work and with the exception of one or two anomalies they are generally on the button with their scores. I am 100 percent confident that if this fight goes to the scorecards that we will get the correct result.
But will it go to the cards? Golovkin and his trainer Abel Sanchez are sure trying their very best to get under the skin of Canelo, challenging his manhood and questioning his “Mexican” style. This is a ploy in my opinion to get Canelo to stand in front of Golovkin and exchange more than he did in their first fight.
Have Sanchez and Golovkin in fact gotten under the skin of Canelo? Have they goaded Canelo into standing still and trading more than he did in the first fight? If so, it is not only to Golovkin’s advantage but will more than likely take the fight out of the hands of the judges.
PBC, Matchroom Boxing and Top Rank – My Excitement and My Concerns
2018 in boxing will be known for landmark broadcasting deals. Just this week, PBC announced its own landmark deal with Fox on top of its previously announced deal with Showtime. Matchroom Boxing is launching DAZN this week in the United States which is an online streaming platform promising to deliver marquee fights. And Top Rank has recently announced a new expanded partnership with ESPN to bring even more live boxing to their various platforms.
Fans will have access to more live boxing than ever before in the history of the sport. For a diehard fan like myself, I can’t help but be very excited. Not only will live events in the United States increase but we will now have access to worldwide fights that previously could be only be found on illegal and choppy streams.
This is all good for boxing, right? Well it should be but problems can also arise with the way these deals are structured.
The first big potential problem is that fighters aligned with these entities may only fight on the platform on which their entity is aligned. We have seen this before with television deals in boxing and it can get ugly. Crossover fights involving different entities become nearly impossible to make. One side usually has an edge (meaning their fighter is favored to win) and the other side is leery to make a deal. Plus, working out which platform the fight occurs on gets complicated. The only exceptions tend to be when a sanctioning body orders a fight or a fight becomes so big that the parties are motivated to work out a joint deal.
The other problem is that with the abundance of fights there will be many times where big events run concurrently. When two big fights take place on the same date and at the same time, eyeballs get split and everybody ultimately loses — the fans because they can only watch one event live, the promoters because interest is split, and the sport because marquee fights can only be seen by half the audience.
I am very excited about the abundance of live boxing that is about to be available in the United States. But it won’t be all positive unless those involved can find a way to work with one another and history suggests this probably won’t happen.
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Fighting on His Home Turf, Galal Yafai Pulverizes Sunny Edwards
The Resorts World Arena in Birmingham, England, was the site of tonight’s Matchroom Promotions card featuring flyweights Galal Yafai and Sunny Edwards in the main event. Yafai went to post a short underdog in what on paper was a 50/50 fight, but it was a rout from the start.
Yafai got right into Edwards’ grill in the opening round and never let up. Although there were no knockdowns, it was complete domination by the Birmingham southpaw until the referee stepped in and waived it off at the 1:10 mark of round six.
“Bloodline” was the tagline of the match-up. Sunny’s brother Charlie Edwards, now competing as a bantamweight, is a former flyweight world title-holder. Galal, a gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympics, is the third member of his family to make his mark as a prizefighter. Brother Kal, also a former Olympian, once held a world title at 115 and brother Gamal was a Commonwealth champion as a bantamweight.
Edwards and Galal Yafai were well-acquainted. They had fought as amateurs and had shared the ring on many occasions as sparring partners. Although Galal was 31 years old, he had only eight pro fights under his belt and was meeting a veteran of six world title fights whose only loss in 22 starts came the hands of the brilliant Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez.
But that loss to Rodriguez in Arizona (Edwards’ corner pulled him out after nine frames) was of the kind that shortens careers. Although Sunny won a tune-up fight since that setback, tonight he had the appearance of a boxer who had grown old overnight. In fact, after the second round, he was heard saying to his corner “I really don’t want to be here.”
Edwards wanted out, but he dutifully answered the bell for the next four rounds. After the bout, he indicated that he had planned to retire after this fight, win, or lose, or draw.
The contest was billed as a WBC “eliminator” which positions Galal Yafai (9-0, 7 KOs) for a match with Japanese veteran Kenshiro Teraji, the long-reigning light flyweight title-holder who moved up in weight last month and captured the WBC flyweight title at the expense of Cristofer Rosales.
Other Bouts of Note
Welterweight Conah Walker, from the Birmingham bedroom community of Wolverhampton, won a clear-cut 10-round decision over Lewis Ritson, winning by scores of 98-93 and 97-93 twice.
A former British lightweight champion, Ritson (23-5) lost for the fourth time in his last six starts, but was game to the core. At various times he appeared on the verge of being stopped, but he may have won the final round when he got the best of several exchanges. Walker, a heavy favorite, improved to 14-3-1 (6).
In a 12-round middleweight match, Kieron Conway won his fourth straight, advancing to 22-3-1 (6) with a split decision over a local product, Ryan Kelly (19-5-1). Kelly got the nod on one of the cards (115-114), but was out-voted by his colleagues who had it 116-112 and 115-113 for Conway.
While the decision was fair, this was a lackluster performance by Conway who had fought much stiffer competition and entered the ring a 6/1 favorite.
Twenty-two-year-old junior welterweight Cameron Vuong, a stablemate of Jack Catterall, stepped up in class and improved to 7-0 (3) with a 10-round unanimous decision over Gavin Gwynne. The judges had it 97-94, 96-94, and 96-95.
Vuong, who is half Vietnamese, out-boxed Gwynne from the outside but was far from impressive. A 34-year-old Welshman and veteran of eight domestic title fights, Gwynne (17-4-1) was the aggressor throughout and there were scattered boos when the decision was announced.
In a scheduled 8-rounder that wasn’t part of the main card, Liverpool’s Callum Smith (30-2, 22 KOs) wacked out Colombian trial horse Carlos Galvan in the fifth round. Smith, whose only defeats came at the hands of future Hall of Famers Canelo Alvarez (L 12) and Artur Beterbiev (L TKO 7), knocked Galvan down in the fourth and then twice more in the fifth with body punches before the match was halted. Galvan declined to 20-15-2.
Photo credit: Mark Robinson / Matchroom
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 306: Flyweight Rumble in England, Ryan Garcia in SoCal
Avila Perspective, Chap. 306: Flyweight Rumble in England, Ryan Garcia in SoCal
With most of America in a turkey coma, all boxing eyes should be pointed toward England this weekend.
Former world titlist Sunny Edwards (21-1, 4 KOs) challenges the fast-rising Galal Yafai (8-0, 6 KOs) for a regional flyweight on Saturday, Nov. 30, at Resorts World Arena in Birmingham. DAZN will stream the Matchroom Boxing card.
Without the fast-talking and dare-to-be-great Edwards, the flyweight division and super flyweight divisions would be in a blanket of invisibility. He’s the kind of personality the lower weight classes need.
The London kid loves to talk and loves to fight even more.
Edwards was calling out Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez when the San Antonio fighter was blasting out feared Thai slugger Srisaket Sor Rungvisai and dismantling Mexico’s Carlos Cuadras. And he did this in front of a worldwide audience.
Of course, he fell short of defeating the young superstar but he kick-started the weight division with new life. And here he is again enticing more eyes on the flyweights as he challenges another potential star.
“I was happy and proud of Galal when he won the Olympic gold medal,” said Edwards who has sparred Yafai many times. “When me and Galal get in a small space, it’s fireworks.”
Yafai, a 2021 Tokyo Olympic gold medalist, only has eight pro fights but at age 31 doesn’t have time to walk through the stages of careful preparation. But with blazing speed to go along with big power in his southpaw punches, it’s time for the Birmingham native to claim his spot on the world stage.
Is he ready?
“It’s a massive fight, it speaks for itself. Sunny is a great fighter, a former world champion, a good name and we’ve got history as well,” Yafai said at the press conference.” I’ve got to be a bit smarter, but I know Sunny inside-out.”
Both have blazing speed. Yafai has the power, but Edwards has the experience of pro-style competition.
Promoter Eddie Hearn calls this one of the top fights in British boxing.
“Sunny doesn’t care, he wants to be in great fights, he believes in himself and he is rolling the dice again on Saturday night, as is Galal. An Olympic gold medalist from Birmingham with just a handful of fights really, and already stepping up to take on one of the top, top flyweights in the world,” said Hearns.
Ryan Garcia in Beverly Hills
The budding Southern California superstar Ryan Garcia met the boxing media in Beverly Hills to announce an exhibition match against Japan’s kickboxing star Rukiya Anpo on December 30 in Tokyo. FANMIO pay-per-view will show the match if it takes place.
Garcia is still under contract with Golden Boy Promotions and according to the promotion company an agreement has not been established. But with Garcia under suspension for PED use following his last fight against Devin Haney back in April, an opportunity for the popular fighter to make a living will probably be allowed.
As long as everyone gets their cut.
Now 26, Garcia seeks to get back in the prize ring and do what he does best and that’s fire left hooks in machine gun fashion.
“He tried to knock out Manny Pacquiao and it pissed me off,” said Garcia on his reasons for accepting an exhibition match with the bigger in size Anpo. “That rubbed me the wrong way and now I’m here to show him someone in his prime with speed and power.”
Anpo wants a knockout and nothing else.
“I regret that I couldn’t finish Manny Pacquiao,” said Anpo who met Pacquiao in an exhibition this past summer in Tokyo. “That’s what we train to do in every fight. I have even more motivation this time and I will knock him out and finish Ryan Garcia as a professional.”
Following the press conference on Tuesday, Nov. 26, an e-mail by Golden Boy was sent to the media and stated: “Golden Boy Promotions has exclusive rights to Ryan Garcia’s fights. The organizers of this event (Garcia vs. Anpo) have acknowledged as such and have agreed in writing that our sign-off is needed for this event to occur. As no such sign-off has been given, as of today there is no event with Ryan Garcia.”
Simply said, they get their cut or no fight.
The potential money-making fight has a strong possibility to occur.
Photo credit: Mark Robinson / Matchroom
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The Noted Trainer Kevin Henry, Lucky to Be Alive, Reflects on Devin Haney and More
This past summer, on July 21, Las Vegas boxing trainer Kevin Henry almost died. He was on the Las Vegas Strip, walking north from Caesars Palace, when he was the victim of an auto-pedestrian accident, hit by a careless uber driver exiting the Treasure Island casino after dropping off a passenger.
Henry suffered two broken bones in his neck, shoulder and hip displacements, lost two teeth, and had facial injuries that required plastic surgery. He spent three months in the hospital, the first 20 days in ICU and the final month at an in-patient rehabilitation facility.
The good news is that the pain has subsided and Kevin Henry is back in the gym mentoring boxers and enjoying the camaraderie of his peers.
Kevin, 55, grew up around the sport. His father, the late Norman Henry, was a fixture on the Philadelphia boxing scene going back to the late 1940s when he was Bob Montgomery’s Man Friday. The elder Henry co-managed Jeff Chandler and others and had a long association with Don King where he defined his role as that of a troubleshooter. Kevin was born in Philadelphia, spent several years in the LA area during the days when his father was a matchmaker for Harold Smith’s MAPS (an acronym for Muhammad Ali Professional Sports), and has been a full-time resident of Las Vegas since 1992.
“When I was 16, maybe 17, I was the youngest licensed second in New Jersey” says Henry. “In Philadelphia, I got to hang with great old-school trainers like George Benton. In LA, my home away from home was the Hoover Street Gym. Jackie McCoy, Eddie Futch, and Jesse Reid trained fighters there. A young trainer couldn’t ask for a better schoolhouse.
“The old-school trainers liked me because I was organized. If a kid said to me, oops, I forgot my gym bag or I can’t spar because I forgot my mouthpiece – and this happened a lot – I’d say, no you didn’t, I have it right here. And the kids knew if they went out and did something they shouldn’t have, that I wasn’t going to tattle-tale.”
When Henry moved to Las Vegas, the local heavyweight scene was percolating. Michael Dokes was here as were Oliver McCall and Michael Hunter Sr. The latter two fought each other as they were climbing the ladder and eventually became fast friends.
The ill-fated Hunter would become a member of the family. He married Kevin Henry’s sister. Michael Hunter Jr, a leading heavyweight contender whose victims include the white-hot Martin Bakole and Michael’s younger brother Keith Hunter, a 15-2 junior welterweight, are Kevin’s nephews.
Discounting Devin Haney’s father Bill, no boxing coach has spent more time in the company of Devin Haney. Henry was in Devin’s corner for the vast majority of his amateur bouts, including five of Devin’s six meetings with his great amateur rival Ryan Garcia, and their tie continued after Devin transitioned into a pro.
“He was like a little brother to me,” says Henry. “I remember the first day I saw him. It was at the old Round One gym which isn’t here anymore. A Rolls Royce pulled up out front. Derrick Harmon, who fought Roy Jones, was there with me. We figured that the person in the car was probably some famous professional athlete who had come to work up a sweat. But it was Bill Haney with his nine-year-old son. Neither Bill nor his kid knew anything about boxing; Bill wanted someone to teach Devin how to box. The boy was a blank canvas.
“Bill left and when he came back, he said, ‘how did he do?’ He was so proud when we told him his kid was a natural. Derrick and I couldn’t believe that the boy had never been in the gym before. We were amazed.”
The precocious Haney, who turned pro in Mexico at age 16, proved to be as good as advertised. He won the WBC world lightweight title in his twenty-fourth pro fight, pitching a shutout over previously undefeated Alfredo Santiago, went on to unify the title with wins over George Kambosos and Vasyl Lomachenko, and pitched another shutout in his first venture at 140, whitewashing Regis Prograis to capture another world title belt.
Kevin Henry was there for some of these fights and was lost in the shuffle at others. It remains a sore spot.
No active boxer has been looked-over by as many prominent trainers as Devin Haney. Bill Haney, who would be a finalist for both the 2023 BWAA Trainer of the Year and Manager of the Year, winning the latter, operated on the assumption that all had something useful to contribute and that from their inputs he could build something that was greater than the sum of its parts. He was bucking several bromides including the chestnut that too many chefs spoil the broth and that brings us to the night of April 20, 2024, when Bill Haney’s son caught up with his old amateur rival Ryan Garcia at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
In a memorable fight, Garcia buzzed Haney in the opening minute of the match with his patented left hook and would then go on to dominate the second half of the fight, putting Haney on the canvas three times – in rounds 7, 10, and 11 – en route to a scorching upset.
As we know, Garcia, who came in three pounds overweight, would have the “W” stripped from him when his urine samples revealed the presence of a performance-enhancing drug, ostarine. The New York State Athletic Commission changed the result to a no-contest and that is how it appears at boxrec, the sport’s official record-keeper.
Devin Haney remains undefeated (31-0, 1 NC) but Ryan Garcia knocked the mystique out of him.
In part because of his tender age – he turned 26 earlier this month – Haney was considered a threat to break Floyd Mayweather’s 50-0 record. No one talks about that anymore and if it should happen, it would command an asterisk.
Kevin Henry was there at the Haney-Garcia fight but, in a sense, he wasn’t there.
“They never put my name on the comp list ” he says, “so there was no ticket or pass waiting for me when I got to the arena. I was actually on the subway heading back to my hotel when Devin called me. He said, ‘where you at ‘bro.’ When I explained the situation to him, he said ‘turn around and come back and go to security.’
“Devin arranged to have a ticket waiting for me. My seat was directly behind his corner. The undercard was already in progress when I got back.
“This will sound arrogant, but I am certain the outcome would have been different if Devin had a different corner. The most experienced guy in his corner that night was Bob Ware, and Bob isn’t a trainer; he’s a cutman. When Devin faced adversity for the first time in his life, there was no experienced head there to get him turned around.
“In preparation for Garcia, we spent 3-4 weeks at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym. I actually suggested to Bill that he use Freddie in the corner. Freddie sees things that other trainers don’t see, even me, and Freddie would have known what adjustments to make. But Bill said no. He didn’t want to cede his authority.”
Kevin Henry’s admiration for Devin Haney, as a boxer and a person, hasn’t waned. “Ryan Garcia came in overweight at the weigh-in and you can just imagine how much weight he put on after he rehydrated. When they stood at center ring to get the referee’s instructions, Garcia looked like a middleweight to me. Devin dug deep and fought a great fight against a guy who was bigger and on steroids. One of the judges even had it a draw.” (True. Veteran arbiter Max DeLuca scored it 112-112. The other judges had Garcia winning by 4 and 6 points.)
As to what to expect from Devin when he returns, Henry says, “I worry about the mental part; some boxers don’t take losing well.” There are no such concerns about Kevin Henry who lost none of his mental acuity in that terrible accident and is back in his comfort zone.
Haney-Garcia photo credit: Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy Promotions
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