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Who Would Make For a More Alluring Opponent For Joshua, Wilder or Fury?
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Well it’s official. On December 1st WBC heavyweight title holder Deontay Wilder 40-0 (39) will face former lineal champ Tyson Fury 27-0 (19) at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. And then hopefully the winner will face WBA/IBF/WBO title holder Anthony Joshua 22-0 (21) in Joshua’s next fight, booked for April 13th of next year at Wembley Stadium. And as Muhammad Ali often said prior to facing Joe Frazier back in 1971 “we’re gonna clear up all the confusion as to who the real heavyweight champ of the world is.”
The winner of Wilder-Fury vs. Joshua will be the most anticipated heavyweight showdown in at least 20 years and the only question is who would make for a bigger and better fight for Joshua, Wilder or Fury? However, before getting to that, there must be some correlations highlighted that substantiate why if Fury won and faced Joshua, it would parallel in many respects the first fight between Ali and Frazier.
Tyson Fury’s journey resembles Muhammad Ali’s. After winning the title from Wladimir Klitschko, Fury backslid into alcohol and drug abuse and never defended it. He retired and remained inactive for 31 months before returning to the ring. Fury has fought two non-entities in Sefer Seferi and Francesco Pianeta since returning.
After nine title defenses, Ali was exiled from the ring for 43 months for refusing military induction. Like Fury, Ali fought twice before earning a title shot against champ Joe Frazier. The difference is Ali fought and beat two of the top five contenders in the division at the time in Jerry Quarry and Oscar Bonavena.
In the ring, Fury, like Ali in his era, is an unconventional boxer who uses the ring and applies an unorthodox offense and defense. But this characteristic they have in common pales in comparison to the one thing where Fury most closely resembles Ali, and that’s the ability to stir things up with words, actions and pointed threats and promises as to what he’s going to do to his next opponent. Fury is clearly the best trash talker since Ali and his ability to draw crowds and gain attention is unrivaled by any fighter in boxing today. If Fury beats Wilder he’ll have a picnic going after the perceived good guy Joshua just as Ali did going after Frazier with the verbal assaults he lobbed his way.
Speaking of Joshua, in this equation he’s Joe Frazier. AJ holds a majority of the available hardware as Joe did, he’s a big puncher who wins exclusively by knockout and pretty much doesn’t say or do anything that crosses the line or is seen as being controversial. And perhaps the thing that joins Joshua and Frazier the most is that they both emerged just when the high profile charismatic champ was exiting. In Ali’s absence, Frazier looked every bit as impressive as Ali did on the way up, whereas Joshua has looked even more formidable than did Fury on Fury’s way up to the title. Moreover, both Frazier and Joshua, as terrific as they looked in the ring, both needed to beat the other fighter to be considered the true champion. In Joe Frazier’s case that meant Ali and in Joshua’s case it’s the Wilder-Fury survivor.
Who makes for a better event and fight against Joshua; Wilder or Fury?
The answer to that isn’t just a matter of who you like better between Deontay and Tyson. One makes for a more compelling fight in the ring, strategically, and the other makes for a bigger event, overflowing with boldness and insulting statements directed at Joshua on a daily basis.
From an in-the-ring perspective, a fight between Wilder and Joshua would no doubt be a better fight and more explosive. They are the two biggest punchers in the heavyweight division who for all intents and purposes seek to win their bouts by knockout. Both have an extremely long reach and use it to set up their bread and butter punch which in this case is their right hand. It can be argued as to who is the bigger puncher, and it’s plausible Wilder’s best right hand is a bigger single shot than anything in Joshua’s arsenal. Conversely, Joshua is the better two handed puncher with a left hand that no doubt carries more finishing power. Joshua is the more polished technician with better form and technique, is more capable of accurately delivering his power consistently, and he has short power and doesn’t need as much room to do damage.
Something else Joshua and Wilder share is that neither is great defensively and each is vulnerable to what the other does well. Joshua is most vulnerable to cuffing/overhand rights and Wilder has been out-jabbed by many of his opponents. To date, neither has shown that they have a chin remotely close to the ones exhibited by George Foreman and Ron Lyle during their slug-fest for the ages. Joshua was dropped in his fight against Wladimir Klitschko and Wilder was dropped by Harold Sconiers, a journeyman with a losing record. Joshua was shook for a few seconds against Dillian Whyte before winning by stoppage and was jarred by Alexander Povetkin at the end of the first round in his last fight. As for Wilder, he was buzzed good by Artur Szpilka and, despite not going down, was close to being stopped by Luis Ortiz.
The point is both AJ and Deontay have more than enough power to get rid of the other inside the distance. Couple that with the fact that neither will have much trouble catching the other and there’s no way the fight can’t be action-packed. And it may be the millennial version of Foreman-Lyle, without them having to hit each other with as many clean bombs as George and Ron dropped on each other, simply because it’s doubtful Joshua or Wilder are as rugged or durable as they were. Obviously Wilder beating Fury affords fans an opportunity to see a more exciting fight pitting the top Brit and American heavyweights in the world against each other.
What if Fury beats Wilder?
If Fury wins and goes on to fight Joshua, the similarities to Frazier-Ali I are there as mentioned above. Fans would see theatrics and bombast that might even rival Ali’s behavior prior to taking on Frazier in the “Fight of The Century” back in 1971. And as we saw before he fought Wladimir Klitschko, Tyson Fury, like Ali, is quite good at getting under his opponent’s skin. Fury will say things about Joshua that will make Ali calling Frazier an “Uncle Tom” seem like a pleasantry.
The other thing Fury shares with Ali is that he enters the ring more with a mindset to embarrass and humiliate his opponents than to hurt or knock them out. Fury, if he were to fight Joshua, wouldn’t even entertain beating him by stoppage. He’d be focused on out- maneuvering and out-boxing him, mixed in with some facial taunts and body gyrations during the action, again emulating Ali.
Being the lineal champ who never lost the title in the ring, Fury actually makes for the more credible fight if he were to beat Wilder. That’s because a Wilder win could be seen as being a matter of Fury having not gained his championship form after having fought only twice after a long layoff. And the likelihood is if Fury can beat Wilder, it would be by decision in a fight that went the full 12 rounds. And if that’s the case, Fury, having shaken off even more rust, could be better going in against Joshua than he was going into the Wilder bout.
Fury vs. Joshua is clearly a bigger fight from a monetary and promotional vantage point than Wilder vs. Joshua could ever hope to be. Wilder isn’t as well-known worldwide as Fury and isn’t nearly the promoter or entertainer Tyson is. And in the UK, the place they’d more than likely fight, it would be accompanied by a holiday and festive atmosphere like no other fight in British history. That said, the actual bout wouldn’t be exciting at all. And just as when he fought Klitschko, Fury would enter the ring against Joshua with the intent to make him look bad and turn the bout into a wrestling match instead of beating Joshua up or knocking him out.
So there you have it. If you want to be entertained, root for Wilder to beat Fury. On the other hand if you want to experience some funny antics and be amused up until the first bell, than you want Fury to beat Wilder.
Lastly, if the Wilder-Fury fight does come off as scheduled and the winner really fights Joshua in April, it’ll be the quickest turnaround between two major heavyweight title fights in years, and whoever fights Joshua should get a lot of credit for taking the fight so soon.
Between 1977 and 1982, Frank Lotierzo had over 50 fights in the middleweight division. He trained at Joe Frazier’s gym in Philadelphia under the tutelage of the legendary George Benton. Before joining The Sweet Science his work appeared in several prominent newsstand and digital boxing magazines and he hosted “Toe-to-Toe” on ESPN Radio. Lotierzo can be contacted at GlovedFist@gmail.com
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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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