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The Avila Perspective, Chapter 16: The Unconventional Devin Haney and More
Raised for part of his youth among the neon lights of Las Vegas, teenage sensation Devin “The Dream” Haney races toward world title aspirations and the first road stop is Juan Carlos Burgos, a Mexican fighter who knows that road very well.
Undefeated Haney (19-0, 13 KOs) meets Tijuana veteran Burgos (33-2-2, 21 KOs) at Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula CA, on Friday, Sept. 29. The regional lightweight title fight will be televised by Showtime and is co-promoted by Devin Haney Promotions.
Though only 19, Haney is not your conventional teen.
Three years ago the articulate Las Vegas resident was happily racking up national titles in the amateur boxing world. Convention dictates that an amateur boxer with his talent should wait his turn and plan for participation in the Olympic Games.
Haney took a different tack.
“When I was in the amateurs I was too young to go to the Olympics. And once they took the head gear off I decided to turn pro,” said Haney, about the decision by amateur boxing to eliminate head gear during international competition in 2015.
But a big obstacle was the age limit for pro fighters in the U.S. Haney was only 17 and in Nevada and California the minimum age to become a professional is 18.
Haney took the unconventional route and headed toward Mexico where virtually no age limit exists.
“It made no sense. I was competing with top guys with no head gear and working for free,” said Haney who made his pro debut in December 2015 in Tijuana.
Mexico
Fighting across the border can be risky business. You never know what kind of fighter stands in front of you.
“A lot of people underrate the fighters in Mexico. They helped make me the fighter I am today. If a guy even gets close to punching me the crowd over there is going bananas. A lot of people don’t know,” said Haney who fought his first four professional bouts in the border city of Tijuana. “I fought in Tijuana twice in one week. Their fighters are not going to lay down. Their families and everyone are on their backs. If you get grazed, it’s a stoppage.”
Haney has crossed the border and fought a total of 10 times on boxing cards against fighters who have no hesitation about illegally hitting you behind the head, on the kneecaps, or follow up a left hook with the end of an elbow across the face.
It’s warfare.
Now Haney faces Burgos who grew up in the streets of Tijuana and has been toughened in sparring wars that took place in the many gyms sprouting up in Mexico’s second biggest city.
“It inspires me and motivates me because I know he’s the toughest guy I’ve fought today. He fought Mikey Garcia and he won rounds,” said Haney about Burgos fighting Riverside’s Garcia for the featherweight world title in 2014. “I know he’s going to bring the best out of me.”
Garcia has won world titles in the featherweight, super featherweight, lightweight and super lightweight divisions. Burgos fought him competitively and lost by decision in New York and now he gets a very young Haney.
“He’s (Haney) fought in Tijuana a bunch of times so I’ve seen him in person. I didn’t really pay that much attention to him at the time,” said Burgos. “He has ability. He’s hungry with good skills, but I don’t think he’s ready for a fighter like me. He’s too young and I’m an experienced fighter that knows how to win.”
Burgos, 31, is familiar to Southern California fans. He fought under the Thompson Boxing Promotions banner and has engaged in eight pro bouts in the area. He’s also fought three times for the world title including a draw against then super featherweight world champion Roman Martinez in 2013.
“It’s exciting to fight someone like Burgos with all of his experience,” said Haney.
Is it too soon for the Las Vegas speedster to face Burgos?
Riverside’s Henry Ramirez, who trains several local boxers, views Haney as a high caliber prizefighter.
“Haney has awesome talent,” said Ramirez. “Fighting all the time has sharpened his skills.”
Sharp or dull Haney won’t turn 20 until November but he’s in a hurry.
“I want to be a pound for pound, multi-division world champ and at the top of the game,” said Haney.
It all starts on Friday.
Top Rank in Oakland
A pretty good boxing card features world champions in Oakland on Friday, Sept. 28, at the Oracle Arena, home of the Golden State Warriors.
Jose Uzcategui (27-2, 23 KOs) holds the interim IBF super middleweight title and faces Ezequiel Maderna in a non-title fight set for 10 rounds.
If you remember Uzcategui, he fought Andre Dirrell twice but in their first confrontation in May 2017, he knocked out the Michigan fighter at the bell and was erroneously ruled to have hit him after the bell. He was given the loss by the Maryland boxing commission though replays show that the knockout blow was delivered at the bell. Immediately after the knockout, Dirrell’s uncle jumped in the ring and attacked Uzcategui. Instead of banning the uncle, he was given a slap on the wrist.
Uzcategui and Dirrell had a rematch this past March in Brooklyn and once again the Venezuelan stopped the Michigan fighter in the eighth round. He’s getting a shot at the title eventually but first he has to face Argentina’s Maderna.
On the same Top Rank fight card IBF super flyweight titlist Jerwin Ancajas (30-1-1, 20 KOs) of the Philippines defends against Mexico’s Alejandro Barrios (16-2-4, 7 KOs). This is the southpaw Ancajas sixth world title defense. He’s an exciting fighter and Tijuana’s Barrios gives everyone problems.
Another interesting bout features Rico Ramos the former super bantamweight world champion. The Southern Californian signed to fight recent former world titlist Jessie Magdaleno but the Las Vegas fighter pulled out.
Ramos (29-5, 14 KOs) now trains with master trainer Ben Lira and it will be interesting to see what new tricks they bring to the table. A new opponent, Daniel Olea (13-5-2), was brought in for Ramos and he’s ready to go. Meanwhile, Magdaleno, who departed from trainer Manny Robles Jr. and Southern California and returned to his home in Las Vegas, was apparently overweight. He pulled out last week.
Golden Boy in Indio
Former lightweight world champion Jorge Linares, whose last fight was a knockout loss to Vasyl Lomachenko, has moved up in weight and will fight as a super lightweight. He’s seeking a fourth division world title.
Linares (44-4, 27 KOs) faces Abner Cotto (23-3, 12 KOs) the relative of Puerto Rican great Miguel Cotto who promotes him. They’ll face each other in the main event set for 12 rounds at the Fantasy Springs Casino on Saturday Sept. 29. The Golden Boy Promotions fight card will be streamed on Facebook Watch.
The Venezuelan great was doing well against Lomachenko and knocked down the Ukrainian fighter in their clash in New York. He was stopped a few rounds later and quickly dispatched and forgotten. Meanwhile Lomachenko has been tabbed by many as the pound for pound king. For me it’s too early. Is Lomachenko among the best? Yes. Is he the absolute best? One major fight is not enough.
Also on the Golden Boy fight card is Oscar Duarte.
Mexico’s Duarte (14-0-1, 9 KOs) fights Venezuela’s Roger Gutierrez (19-2-1,16 KOs) in a lightweight clash set for eight rounds.
Duarte, 22, first arrived in Southern California in 2015 and fought at Belasco Theater. He showed brute strength but looked like he was stuck in cement. But the Golden Boy staff saw something in him and he was placed with Joel Diaz in Indio.
Under the brothers Diaz, the Mexican fighter from Parral, Chihuahua, has been transformed into a polished and deadly prizefighter. In his last bout at the same Fantasy Springs he took apart Filipino slugger Rey Perez, a very good fighter.
It’s always a thrill to see a young boxer with rudimentary abilities be molded and sculptured into a finely tuned fighting machine. That’s what has happened with Duarte under brothers Joel and Antonio Diaz.
Danny Roman
Speaking of finely tuned fighting machines, another great example of a good prospect sculpted into a world champion is Los Angeles-based Danny Roman, the WBA super bantamweight world champion.
When I first saw Roman he was a solid prospect but I never would have predicted him to be a world champion with two defenses in Japan.
The journey of Roman has been one of the highlights of my writing career. It’s a pleasure to see a boxer from the beginning and watch him slowly rise to the level of world champion.
Roman (25-2-1, 9 KOs) defends the WBA title against England’s Gavin McDonnell (20-1-2, 5 KOs) on Sat. Oct. 6, in the main event at Chicago, Illinois. It’s the first time he fights under the Matchroom Boxing banner alongside Thompson Boxing Promotions. The fight will be streamed live on DAZN.
Once again Roman will be facing an opponent who has five or more inches in height advantage. That makes four-in-a-row for the champion Roman.
He recently signed a contract with Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn and this will be his debut. Look for more on Roman next week.
Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel
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Usyk Outpoints Fury and Itauma has the “Wow Factor” in Riyadh
Usyk Outpoints Fury and Itauma has the “Wow Factor” in Riyadh
Oleksandr Usyk left no doubt that he is the best heavyweight of his generation and one of the greatest boxers of all time with a unanimous decision over Tyson Fury tonight at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. But although the Ukrainian won eight rounds on all three scorecards, this was no runaway. To pirate a line from one of the DAZN talking heads, Fury had his moments in every round but Usyk had more moments.
The early rounds were fought at a faster pace than the first meeting back in May. At the mid-point, the fight was even. The next three rounds – the next five to some observers – were all Usyk who threw more punches and landed the cleaner shots.
Fury won the final round in the eyes of this reporter scoring at home, but by then he needed a knockout to pull the match out of the fire.
The last round was an outstanding climax to an entertaining chess match during which both fighters took turns being the pursuer and the pursued.
An Olympic gold medalist and a unified world champion at cruiserweight and heavyweight, the amazing Usyk improved his ledger to 23-0 (14). His next fight, more than likely, will come against the winner of the Feb. 22 match in Ridayh between Daniel Dubois and Joseph Parker which will share the bill with the rematch between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.
Fury (34-2-1) may fight Anthony Joshua next. Regardless, no one wants a piece of Moses Itauma right now although the kid is only 19 years old.
Moses Itauma
Raised in London by a Nigerian father and a Slovakian mother, Itauma turned heads once again with another “wow” performance. None of his last seven opponents lasted beyond the second round.
His opponent tonight, 34-year-old Australian Demsey McKean, lasted less than two minutes. Itauma, a southpaw with blazing fast hands, had the Aussie on the deck twice during the 117-second skirmish. The first knockdown was the result of a cuffing punch that landed high on the head; the second knockdown was produced by an overhand left. McKean went down hard as his chief cornerman bounded on to the ring apron to halt the massacre.
Itauma (12-0, 10 KOs after going 20-0 as an amateur) is the real deal. It was the second straight loss for McKean (22-2) who lasted into the 10th round against Filip Hrgovic in his last start.
Bohachuk-Davis
In a fight billed as the co-main although it preceded Itauma-McKean, Serhii Bohachuk, an LA-based Ukrainian, stopped Ishmael Davis whose corner pulled him out after six frames.
Both fighters were coming off a loss in fights that were close on the scorecards, Bohachuk falling to Vergil Ortiz Jr in a Las Vegas barnburner and Davis losing to Josh Kelly.
Davis, who took the fight on short notice, subbing for Ismail Madrimov, declined to 13-2. He landed a few good shots but was on the canvas in the second round, compliments of a short left hook, and the relentless Bohachuk (25-2, 24 KOs) eventually wore him down.
Fisher-Allen
In a messy, 10-round bar brawl masquerading as a boxing match, Johnny Fisher, the Romford Bull, won a split decision over British countryman David Allen. Two judges favored Fisher by 95-94 tallies with the dissenter favoring Allen 96-93. When the scores were announced, there was a chorus of boos and those watching at home were outraged.
Allen was a step up in class for Fisher. The Doncaster man had a decent record (23-5-2 heading in) and had been routinely matched tough (his former opponents included Dillian Whyte, Luis “King Kong” Ortiz and three former Olympians). But Allen was fairly considered no more than a journeyman and Fisher (12-0 with 11 KOs, eight in the opening round) was a huge favorite.
In round five, Allen had Fisher on the canvas twice although only one was ruled a true knockdown. From that point, he landed the harder shots and, at the final bell, he fell to canvas shedding tears of joy, convinced that he had won.
He did not win, but he exposed Johnny Fisher as a fighter too slow to compete with elite heavyweights, a British version of the ponderous Russian-Canadian campaigner Arslanbek Makhmudov.
Other Bouts of Note
In a spirited 10-round featherweight match, Scotland’s Lee McGregor, a former European bantamweight champion and stablemate of former unified 140-pound title-holder Josh Taylor, advanced to 15-1-1 (11) with a unanimous decision over Isaac Lowe (25-3-3). The judges had it 96-92 and 97-91 twice.
A cousin and regular houseguest of Tyson Fury, Lowe fought most of the fight with cuts around both eyes and was twice deducted a point for losing his gumshield.
In a fight between super featherweights that could have gone either way, Liverpool southpaw Peter McGrail improved to 11-1 (6) with a 10-round unanimous decision over late sub Rhys Edwards. The judges had it 96-95 and 96-94 twice.
McGrail, a Tokyo Olympian and 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medalist, fought from the third round on with a cut above his right eye, the result of an accidental clash of heads. It was the first loss for Edwards (16-1), a 24-year-old Welshman who has another fight booked in three weeks.
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Fury-Usyk Reignited: Can the Gypsy King Avenge his Lone Defeat?
Fury-Usyk Reignited: Can the Gypsy King Avenge his Lone Defeat?
In professional boxing, the heavyweight division, going back to the days of John L. Sullivan, is the straw that stirs the drink. By this measure, the fight on May 18 of this year at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was the biggest prizefight in decades. The winner would emerge as the first undisputed heavyweight champion since 1999 when Lennox Lewis out-pointed Evander Holyfield in their second meeting.
The match did not disappoint. It had several twists and turns.
Usyk did well in the early rounds, but the Gypsy King rattled Usyk with a harsh right hand in the fifth stanza and won rounds five through seven on all three cards. In the ninth, the match turned sharply in favor of the Ukrainian. Fury was saved by the bell after taking a barrage of unanswered punches, the last of which dictated a standing 8-count from referee Mark Nelson. But Fury weathered the storm and with his amazing powers of recuperation had a shade the best of it in the final stanza.
The decision was split: 115-112 and 114-113 for Usyk who became a unified champion in a second weight class; 114-113 for Fury.
That brings us to tomorrow (Saturday, Dec. 21) where Usyk and Fury will renew acquaintances in the same ring where they had their May 18 showdown.
The first fight was a near “pick-‘em” affair with Fury closing a very short favorite at most of the major bookmaking establishments. The Gypsy King would have been a somewhat higher favorite if not for the fact that he was coming off a poor showing against MMA star Francis Ngannou and had a worrisome propensity for getting cut. (A cut above Fury’s right eye in sparring pushed back the fight from its original Feb. 11 date.)
Tomorrow’s sequel, bearing the tagline “Reignited,” finds Usyk a consensus 7/5 favorite although those odds could shorten by post time. (There was no discernible activity after today’s weigh-in where Fury, fully clothed, topped the scales at 281, an increase of 19 pounds over their first meeting.)
Given the politics of boxing, anything “undisputed” is fragile. In June, Usyk abandoned his IBF belt and the organization anointed Daniel Dubois their heavyweight champion based upon Dubois’s eighth-round stoppage of Filip Hrgovic in a bout billed for the IBF interim title. The malodorous WBA, a festering boil on the backside of boxing, now recognizes 43-year-old Kubrat Pulev as its “regular” heavyweight champion.
Another difference between tomorrow’s fight card and the first installment is that the May 18 affair had a much stronger undercard. Two strong pairings were the rematch between cruiserweights Jai Opetaia and Maris Briedis (Opetaia UD 12) and the heavyweight contest between unbeatens Agit Kabayal and Frank Sanchez (Kabayel KO 7).
Tomorrow’s semi-wind-up between Serhii Bohachuk and Ismail Madrimov lost luster when Madrimov came down with bronchitis and had to withdraw. The featherweight contest between Peter McGrail and Dennis McCann fell out when McCann’s VADA test returned an adverse finding. Bohachuk and McGrail remain on the card but against late-sub opponents in matches that are less intriguing.
The focal points of tomorrow’s undercard are the bouts involving undefeated British heavyweights Moses Itauma (10-0, 8 KOs) and Johnny Fisher (12-0, 11 KOs). Both are heavy favorites over their respective opponents but bear watching because they represent the next generation of heavyweight standouts. Fury and Usyk are getting long in the tooth. The Gypsy King is 36; Usyk turns 38 next month.
Bob Arum once said that nobody purchases a pay-per-view for the undercard and, years from now, no one will remember which sanctioning bodies had their fingers in the pie. So, Fury-Usyk II remains a very big deal, although a wee bit less compelling than their first go-around.
Will Tyson Fury avenge his lone defeat? Turki Alalshikh, the Chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority and the unofficial czar of “major league” boxing, certainly hopes so. His Excellency has made known that he stands poised to manufacture a rubber match if Tyson prevails.
We could have already figured this out, but Alalshikh violated one of the protocols of boxing when he came flat out and said so. He effectively made Tyson Fury the “A-side,” no small potatoes considering that the most relevant variable on the checklist when handicapping a fight is, “Who does the promoter need?”
The Uzyk-Fury II fight card will air on DAZN with a suggested list price of $39.99 for U.S. fight fans. The main event is expected to start about 5:45 pm ET / 2:45 pm PT.
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Unheralded Bruno Surace went to Tijuana and Forged the TSS 2024 Upset of the Year
Unheralded Bruno Surace went to Tijuana and Forged the TSS 2024 Upset of the Year
The Dec. 14 fight at Tijuana between Jaime Munguia and Bruno Surace was conceived as a stay-busy fight for Munguia. The scuttlebutt was that Munguia’s promoters, Zanfer and Top Rank, wanted him to have another fight under his belt before thrusting him against Christian Mbilli in a WBC eliminator with the prize for the winner (in theory) a date with Canelo Alvarez.
Munguia came to the fore in May of 2018 at Verona, New York, when he demolished former U.S. Olympian Sadam Ali, conqueror of Miguel Cotto. That earned him the WBO super welterweight title which he successfully defended five times.
Munguia kept winning as he moved up in weight to middleweight and then super middleweight and brought a 43-0 (34) record into his Cinco de Mayo 2024 match with Canelo.
Jaime went the distance with Alvarez and had a few good moments while losing a unanimous decision. He rebounded with a 10th-round stoppage of Canada’s previously undefeated Erik Bazinyan.
There was little reason to think that Munguia would overlook Surace as the Mexican would be fighting in his hometown for the first time since February of 2022 and would want to send the home folks home happy. Moreover, even if Munguia had an off-night, there was no reason to think that the obscure Surace could capitalize. A Frenchman who had never fought outside France, Surace brought a 25-0-2 record and a 22-fight winning streak, but he had only four knockouts to his credit and only eight of his wins had come against opponents with winning records.
It appeared that Munguia would close the show early when he sent the Frenchman to the canvas in the second round with a big left hook. From that point on, Surace fought mostly off his back foot, throwing punches in spurts, whereas the busier Munguia concentrated on chopping him down with body punches. But Surace absorbed those punches well and at the midway point of the fight, behind on the cards but nonplussed, it now looked as if the bout would go the full 10 rounds with Munguia winning a lopsided decision.
Then lightning struck. Out of the blue, Surace connected with an overhand right to the jaw. Munguia went down flat on his back. He rose a fraction-of-a second before the count reached “10,”, but stumbled as he pulled himself upright. His eyes were glazed and referee Juan Jose Ramirez, a local man, waived it off. There was no protest coming from Munguia or his cornermen. The official time was 2:36 of round six.
At major bookmaking establishments, Jaime Munguia was as high as a 35/1 favorite. No world title was at stake, yet this was an upset for the ages.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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