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The Avila Perspective, Chapter. 14: Ramirez vs. Orozco Under the Radar
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All eyes are directed toward the middleweight world championship clash this weekend between Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, and deservedly so. But a few interesting fights should not be overlooked.
In Northern California a super lightweight fight between WBC champion Jose Carlos Ramirez (22-0, 16 KOs) and perennial contender Antonio Orozco (27-0, 17 KOs) takes place on Friday Sept. 14, at the Save Mart Arena in Fresno, Calif. ESPN will televise the Top Rank card.
Ramirez, 26, a 2012 US Olympian, always perplexed me as a talented fighter with speed but seemed to be matched with tailor-made foes that suited his busy style. Most of his opponents were overwhelmed by his barrage of blows but you always wondered what would happen against technically proficient fighters?
The clouds of doubt began to separate after Ramirez (pictured on the right) dissected Mike Reed and then Amir Imam in back-to-back fights with the last win handing him the WBC world super lightweight title in New York City of all places. It’s a place where fighters of Mexican descent seldom won by decision.
Now he faces a veteran contender in Orozco.
“Antonio is a very active fighter in the ring. He’s a pressure fighter like myself, and I’m more than excited to be facing fighters like him. I consider Antonio to be one of the very best in the division,” said Ramirez who trains in Riverside, Calif. with Robert Garcia.
San Diego’s Orozco is a prizefighter whose reputation of savagely working the body has kept him in the public eye for many years. But when he failed to make weight on a HBO televised card that set him back a few years. The question for Orozco: has he already peaked?
“This is the opportunity that every fighter wants to get to, and mine came at the right moment,” said Orozco, 30, who is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions. “Things happen for a reason. I’m here in Fresno in front of a great champion. I’m ready. That’s all I can tell you.”
Ramirez fights under the Top Rank banner and Orozco for the Golden Boy flag, whenever these two organizations pit their fighters against each other you can expect an explosion in the boxing ring.
More Fresno
This fight card would fit perfectly in Las Vegas between the Friday and Saturday bouts but Ramirez has ticket appeal in Northern California so Top Rank placed the heavy duty lineup in Fresno.
Costa Rica’s Bryan Vasquez recently signed with Top Rank and meets Carlos Cardenas in a lightweight contest set for 10 rounds.
Vasquez, 31, is a slick counter-puncher who lost a razor close decision to Ray Beltran a year ago. Many, including this writer, felt he should have been given the win in Los Angeles. The Costa Rican seems to have bad luck when it comes to crucial fights but few have the boxing skills he possesses. He’s married to female super welterweight world champion Hanna Gabriels and since their marriage she’s improved immensely.
Facing Vasquez will be Venezuela’s Cardenas who moved to Mexico to get more fight opportunities. He’s a veteran who has fought former world champions Robert Easter and Juan Diaz but tasted defeat against both.
Japan
Another intriguing fight pits Japan’s Hiroki Okada (18-0, 13 KOs) against Cristian Coria (27-6-2, 11 KOs) in a 10 round super lightweight clash.
If you follow Japanese boxing you probably noticed that a wave of fighters from that warrior nation have been arriving the past several years. Last weekend boxing fans saw Kazuto Ioka wake up the crowd at Los Angeles and viewers around the country with his constant attack in dominating a very good McWilliams Arroyo.
Okada, 28, arrives with glittering credentials and faces a tough Argentinean in Coria who has never been stopped. It’s a good opportunity to see what the Japanese fighter can do in his American debut. All of his fights have taken place at the legendary Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.
If all goes well he could be placed against Ramirez or maybe interim WBC titlist Regis Prograis. Suddenly the division looks even more exciting.
Saturday in Las Vegas
A clash between Canada’s David Lemieux (39-4, 33 KOs) and Ireland’s Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan (28-2, 20 KOs) has gained considerable traction from their verbal wars on social media. It will be televised on HBO pay-per-view on Saturday.
Both have promised a knockout and with 53 knockouts between them it’s well within their fistic capabilities. Both also lost to current WBO middleweight titlist Billy Joe Saunders. On paper it’s a very even fight. On social media it’s a fight fans delight.
Lemieux, 29, a former world champion who bravely made his first and only world title defense against Golovkin three years ago, gets an opportunity to trade blows with somebody who will stand right in front of him and his steam roller style.
“He has a big mouth. He likes to talk garbage on social media. He’s not the best kind of guy,” said Lemieux. “I’m going to knock him out and make a lot of people happy.”
O’Sullivan, 34, brings his pressure style and his 1880’s moustache to the world stage and won’t have a problem finding Lemieux. Despite being in his mid-30s O’Sullivan started late at 24 so his body does not have the normal wear and tear that fighters have at that age.
“He’s going to be cooked. He’s very one dimensional. He does the same thing over and over again. He says the same stuff over and over again,” said O’Sullivan of Lemieux. “I fight like a Mexican. Watch out David, you’re getting knocked out.”
Words can mean “bombs away” when they jump in the ring on Saturday.
Chocolatito and More
Former four-division world champion Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez returns and the world will see just how much the Nicaraguan great still possesses.
Gonzalez (46-2, 38 KOs) meets Mexico’s Moises Fuentes (25-5-1, 14 KOs) in a super flyweight battle set for 10 rounds at T-Mobile Arena. It will be shown on HBO pay-per-view.
So far the super flyweight division has not treated Gonzalez very well. Fighting at 115 pounds has proved to be Kryptonite to the super fighter who had ravaged whole divisions since he started out in 2005. But back-to-back losses have uncloaked his weaknesses. It’s been a year since he last fought.
Fuentes, 30, is a former minimum weight world titlist and like Gonzalez has not looked good once he moved up. He was knocked out in round one by Japan’s Daigo Higa earlier this year when he fought for the WBC flyweight title. He was also knocked out by Kosei Tanaka last December 2016 when he fought for the WBO light flyweight title.
It’s a litmus test for Chocolatito, no doubt.
Also on the card are a couple of heavy hitting youngsters from the Golden Boy stable.
Welterweight prospect Alexis Rocha (11-0, 8 KOs) fights out of Santa Ana, Calif. and most of his knockouts happen in the first round. The southpaw slugger is trained by Hector Lopez and is the brother of Ronny Rios.
Rocha meets hard-hitting Mexican Carlos Cervantes (11-2, 11 KOs) in a moment-of-truth kind of fight. All of Cervantes wins have been via knockout. The Mexican from Torreon started late in the fight game at age 29. He’s now 34.
Super lightweight prospect Vergil Ortiz Jr. (10-0, 10 KOs) fights out of Riverside, Calif. but is a native of Dallas. The long armed Texan has never reached the final bell. He’s very aggressive but not careless. He destroyed former world champion Juan Carlos Salgado in his last outing this past June.
Ortiz, 20, faces knockout punching Roberto Ortiz (35-3-2, 26 KOs) of Torreon, Mexico who has lost his last two fights. They do not seem to be related. The Mexican Ortiz fought and lost to Lucas Matthysse by knockout in 2014. But that’s nothing to be ashamed about. Both fighters are explosive in this battle of the Ortiz’s.
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Cain Sandoval KOs Mark Bernaldez in the Featured Bout at Santa Ynez
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Northern California’s Cain Sandoval remained undefeated with a knockout win over Mark Bernaldez in a super lightweight battle on Friday on a 360 Promotions card.
Sandoval (15-0, 13 KOs) of Sacramento needed four rounds to figure out tough Filipino fighter Bernaldez (25-7, 14 KOs) in front of a packed crowd at Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez.
Bernaldez had gone eight rounds against Mexico’s very tough Oscar Duarte. He showed no fear for Sandoval’s reputed power and both fired bombs at each other from the second round on.
Things turned in favor of Sandoval when he targeted the body and soon had Bernaldez in retreat. It was apparent Sandoval had discovered a weakness.
In the beginning of the fourth Sandoval fired a stiff jab to the body that buckled Bernaldez but he did not go down. And when both resumed in firing position Sandoval connected with an overhand right and down went the Filipino fighter. He was counted out by referee Rudy Barragan at 34 seconds of the round.
“I’m surprised he took my jab to the body. I respect that. I have a knockout and I’m happy about that,” Sandoval said.
Other Bouts
Popular female fighter Lupe Medina (9-0) remained undefeated with a solid victory over the determined Agustina Vazquez (4-3-2) by unanimous decision after eight rounds in a minimumweight fight between Southern Californians.
Early on Vazquez gave Medina trouble disrupting her patter with solid jabs. And when Medina overloaded with combination punches, she was laced with counters from Vazquez during the first four rounds.
Things turned around in the fifth round as Medina used a jab to keep Vazquez at a preferred distance. And when she attacked it was no more than two-punch combination and maintaining a distance.
Vazquez proved determined but discovered clinching was not a good idea as Medina took advantage and overran her with blows. Still, Vazquez looked solid. All three judges saw it 79-73 for Medina.
A battle between Southern Californian’s saw Compton’s Christopher Rios (11-2) put on the pressure all eight rounds against Eastvale’s Daniel Barrera (8-1-1) and emerged the winner by majority decision in a flyweight battle.
It was Barrera’s first loss as a pro. He never could discover how to stay off the ropes and that proved his downfall. Neither fighter was knocked down but one judge saw it 76-76, and two others 79-73 for Rios.
In a welterweight fight Gor Yeritsyan (20-1,16 KOs) scorched Luis Ramos (23-7) with a 12-punch combination the sent him to the mat in the second round. After Ramos beat the count he was met with an eight punch volley and the fight was stopped at 2:11 of the second round by knockout.
Super feather prospect Abel Mejia (7-0, 5 KOs) floored Alfredo Diaz (9-12) in the fifth round but found the Mexican fighter to be very durable in their six-round fight. Mejia caught Diaz with a left hook in the fifth round for a knockdown. But the fight resumed with all three judges scoring it 60-53 for Mejia who fights out of El Modena, Calif.
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The Return of David Alaverdian
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By TSS Special Correspondent David Harazduk — After David Alaverdian (8-0-1, 6 KOs) scored a gritty victory against a tough Nicaraguan journeyman named Enrique Irias, his plans suddenly changed. The flashy flyweight from Nahariya, Israel hoped to face even tougher opposition and then challenge for a world title within a year or so. But a prolonged illness forced David to rip up the script.
The Irias fight was over 22 months ago. On Saturday, Feb. 22, Alaverdian will be making his first appearance in the ring since that win when he faces veteran road warrior Josue “Zurdo” Morales (31-16-4, 13 KOs) at the Westgate Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. It’s the fifth promotion by Las Vegas attorney Stephen Reid whose inaugural card was at this venue on Feb. 13, 2020.
“I’m excited to come back,” Alaverdian declared.
During his preparation for Irias two years ago, Alaverdian felt fatigue after a routine six-round sparring session. “It was on April 1, 2023, about ten days before my fight. It felt like an April Fool’s joke,” he said. He came down with a sore throat, a headache, and congestion. He soon developed trouble breathing. At first, he thought his seasonal asthma had flared up, but his condition soon worsened. No matter what he did, Alaverdian could no longer take deep breaths. Fatigue continued to plague him. His heart constantly raced. Instead of breathing from his diaphragm, he was breathing from his chest. He sought out numerous doctors in the United States and in Israel.
His symptoms were finally diagnosed as Dysfunctional Breathing (DB). DB is a condition that can stem from stress and is often misdiagnosed. Its symptoms include dyspnea and tachycardia, both of which David experienced.
While receiving treatment, the Vegas-based pro went back to Israel where he coached aspiring fighters. “David’s influence on Israeli boxing is amazing, because he shows we can succeed in a big business even though we come from a small country,” said another undefeated Israeli flyweight, 20-year-old Yonatan Landman (7-0, 7 KOs). “A lot more Israelis are going to dare to succeed.”
Landman was able to work with Alaverdian during David’s return to Israel. “He is a great guy and a friend,” Landman said. “He has a lot of willingness to help, share his knowledge, and help you move forward.”
Alaverdian finally started to feel like he could compete again eight months ago. He won last year’s Israeli national amateur championship and competed in Olympic qualifiers. Now, he’s preparing to fight as a professional once again. “He doesn’t mention anything about [his breathing issues] like he did before,” his coach Cedric Ferguson said about this camp. “He’s been working like there’s no issue at all.”
It has been a whirlwind week for the 31-year-old Alaverdian. In addition to putting the finishing touches on his preparation ahead of Saturday’s comeback fight, David got married on Tuesday. His mom came over from Israel for the wedding and will stay for the fight. “It’s a good distraction,” David said of this week’s significant events. “It helps me. That way I don’t have to focus on the fight all day.”
Josue Morales, a 32 year old from Houston, hopes to play spoiler on Saturday. The crafty southpaw has never been stopped during his 52-fight career. “He’s a seasoned guy with a lot of experience,” Alaverdian said of Morales. “He knows how to move around the ring and is more of a technical boxer. He’s a tough opponent for someone who has been out of the ring for two years.”
A win Saturday night would complete a monumental week for David Alaverdian, both in and out of the ring, repairing the once-shredded script.
Doors open at the Westgate fight arena at 6:30 pm. The first bout goes at 7:00. Seven fights are scheduled including an 8-round female fight between Las Vegas light flyweight Yadira Bustillos and Argentine veteran Tamara Demarco.
NOTE: Author David Harazduk has run The Jewish Boxing Blog since 2010. You can find him at Twitter/X @JewishBoxing and Instagram.
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Two Candidates for the Greatest Fight Card in Boxing History
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Two Candidates for the Greatest Fight Card in Boxing History
Saturday’s fight card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, topped by the rematch between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol for undisputed light heavyweight supremacy, was being hyped as the greatest boxing card ever. That was before Daniel Dubois took ill and had to pull out of his IBF world heavyweight title defense against Joseph Parker, yielding his slot to last-minute replacement Martin Bakole.
The view from here is that the card remains in the running for the best fight card ever, top to bottom. The public didn’t view Dubois as the legitimate heavyweight champion. That distinction goes to Oleksandr Usyk.
Terms like “greatest” are, of course, subjective. Are we referring to the most attractive match-ups or the greatest array of talent, or the card that gives the most satisfaction by churning out a multiplicity of entertaining fights?
We won’t know how satisfying this card is until after the fact. We won’t know whether the talent on display was the greatest ever assembled on one night until many years have passed. Contestants such as Shakur Stevenson, Vergil Ortiz Jr, and Hamzah Sheeraz are still in their twenties (Stevenson is the oldest of the three at age 27) and it’s too soon to gauge if they will leave the sport with a great legacy.
As for which fight card in history had the deepest pool of attractive match-ups, this is a query that is amenable to an operational definition. Betting lines are a useful tool for informing us whether or not a fight warrants our attention if the likelihood of witnessing a closely-contested bout is our primary consideration.
Based on these factors, I would submit that the current leader in the race for the best card ever assembled goes to Don King’s May 7, 1994 promotion at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Six future Hall of Famers – Julio Cesar Chavez, Ricardo Lopez, Azumah Nelson, Terry Norris, Julian Jackson, and Christy Martin — were on that card, an 11-fight, eight-hour marathon with five WBC world title fights, four of which were rematches.
These were the five title fights:
140 pounds: Julio Cesar Chavez (89-1-1, 77 KOs) vs. Frankie Randall (49-2-1, 39 KOs)
Odds: Chavez 3/1 (minus-300)
154 pounds: Terry Norris (37-4, 23 KOs) vs. Simon Brown (41-2, 30 KOs)
Odds: even (11/10 and take your pick)
160 pounds: Gerald McClellan (30-2, 28 KOs) vs. Julian Jackson (48-2, 45 KOs)
Odds: McClellan 7/2 (minus-350)
130 pounds: Azumah Nelson (37-2-2, 26 KOs) vs. Jesse James Leija (27-0-2, 13 KOs)
Odds: Nelson 17/10 (minus-170)
105 pounds: Ricardo Lopez (36-0, 27 KOs) vs. Kermin Guardia (21-0, 14 KOs)
Odds: none
Results
Chavez-Randall — Julio Cesar Chavez avenged his loss to Frankie Randall, but not without controversy. An accidental clash of heads in the eighth round left Chavez with a bad gash on his forehead. Ring physician Flip Homansky would have allowed the bout to continue if that had been Chavez’s preference, but El Gran Campeon wasn’t so inclined. A WBC rule specified that in the event of a significant injury accruing from an accidental head butt, the less-damaged fighter is penalized a point. The fight went to the scorecards where Chavez won a split decision that would have been a draw without the point deduction. The crowd was overwhelmingly pro-Chavez, but the big bets were mostly on Randall and the odds got nicked down on the day of the fight.
Brown-Norris — In their first meeting in December of the previous year, Simon Brown dominated Terry Norris from the opening bell before stopping him in the fourth round. It was a massive upset. Norris was in the conversation for the top pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. In the rematch, Norris opened a slight favorite, but the late money was on Brown. And, once again, the so-called “sharps” were on the wrong side. Terry Norris, the would-be avenger, won a comfortable decision.
McClellan-Jackson — A murderous puncher, Gerald McClellan bombed out Julian Jackson in 83 seconds, or four rounds quicker than in their first engagement. Jackson was also a murderous puncher and attracted money in the sports books, lowering the price on the victorious McClellan who yet remained a solid favorite.
Nelson-Leija – WBC President Jose Sulaiman mandated this rematch after the first meeting ended in a draw after an error was found in the tabulation of one of the scorecards, overturning the original verdict which had Nelson retaining his title on a split decision. Leija thought he was robbed and was the rightful winner in the do-over, outworking Nelson to win a unanimous decision. At age 35, Azumah was getting long in the tooth.
Lopez-Guardia – Before the digital age, bookmakers didn’t trifle to post lines on bouts that on paper were egregious mismatches, save perhaps a fight of great magnitude. Guardia, the Colombian challenger, overachieved by lasting the distance in a fight with no knockdowns, but “Finito” won a lopsided decision.
A Note on Odds
Betting lines serve a useful purpose for boxing historians; they quantify the magnitude of an upset. However, quoting odds is tricky because they are fluid and vary somewhat from place to place. What this means is that two journalists can quote different odds on the same event and they both can get it right – unless there is a significant disparity. The odds quoted above are the closing lines at the MGM Grand or, at the very least, a very close approximation.
Saturday in Riyadh
One reason why tomorrow’s fight card is the best ever, said the tub-thumpers, is that the card (in its original conformation) included seven world title fights. But that’s no big deal There are so many title fights nowadays that the term “world title” has been trivialized. And what wasn’t acknowledged is that three of the title fights were of the “interim” stripe.
However – and this is a big deal — a glance at the odds informs us that tomorrow’s card is chock-full of competitive match-ups (at least on paper) and from that aspect, a blend of quality and quantity, it is a doozy of a boxing card.
The greatest boxing linemaker of my generation, now deceased, once told me that any fight where the “chalk” was less than a 3/1 favorite is essentially a “pick-‘em” fight. Yes, I know that makes no sense mathematically. However, I know what he was getting at. In a baseball game, for example, it’s very rare to find a team favored by odds of more than 3/1. In boxing, where self-serving promoters are constantly feeding us King Kong vs. Mickey Mouse, odds higher than 3/1 are the norm.
As this is being written, there are six fights on Saturday’s card where one could play the favorite without laying more than 3/1. I believe this is unprecedented. Moreover, the main event and a fascinating match-up on the undercard, Vergil Ortiz Jr vs Israil Madrimov, are virtual toss-ups with the favorites, Beterbiev and Ortiz, currently available at 5/4 (minus-125). Another very intriguing fight is the heavyweight contest between late bloomers Agit Kabayel and Zhilei Zhang which finds the less-heralded Kabayel cloaked as a small favorite. And kudos to Joseph Parker for accepting Martin Bakole when he could have held out for a lesser opponent. If Bakole is in shape (a big “if”), he will be a handful.
And so, where does tomorrow’s card rank on the list of best boxing cards ever? Right up there near the top, we would argue, and, if the bouts in large part are memorably entertaining, we would push it ahead of Don King’s May 7, 1994 extravaganza.
That’s the view from here. Feel free to dissent.
Postscript: If you plan to watch the entire card ($25.99 on DAZN for U.S. buyers), it would help to stock up on some munchies. The first fight (Joshua Buatsi vs. Callum Smith) is scheduled to kick off at 8:45 a.m. for us viewers in the Pacific Time Zone / 11:45 a.m. ET. If the show adheres tight to its schedule (no guarantee), Beterbiev and Bivol are expected to enter the ring at 3:00 p.m. PT/6:00 p.m. ET.
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