The Hauser Report: Jermell and Jermall Charlo on Fox

Published

5 years ago

December 24, 2018

On December 22, the Charlo twins – Jermell and Jermall – fought Tony Harrison and Matt Korobov at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

The Charlos are 28 years old and have been fighting professionally for ten years.

Jermell entered the ring with a 31-0 (15 KOs) record and was the reigning WBC 154-pound beltholder. He shone brightly in a first-round demolition of Erickson Lubin last year.

Jermall had compiled a 27-0, (21 KOs) record. He previously held the IBF 154-pound title and now campaigns as a middleweight. A 2016 decision over a faded Austin Trout was the most notable victory on his ring ledger.

Everything seems personal for the Charlos. It’s hard to imagine either brother outsourcing revenge to the other (as Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko did on several occasions) and finding satisfaction in payback that wasn’t beaten out with his own fists.

Jermell vs. Tony Harrison and Jermall vs. Matt Korobov were thought to be stay-busy Christmas presents for the Charlos. Neither brother gives an opponent much to work with. They’re good defensive fighters who strike swiftly when opportunity beckons. Jermell was a 10-to-1 betting favorite over Harrison while Jermall was listed at 20-to-1 over Korobov.

Several disquieting themes underlay the promotion. The first of these revolved around the fact that, on November 1, both Charlos “missed” tests that were to be administered by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) pursuant to the WBC Clean Boxing Program. Initially, the New York State Athletic Commission sought to distance itself from the issue, saying that the WBC-VADA tests were “separate from the New York State Athletic Commission’s Rules & Regulations.” But that was an untenable position.

Piecing together from multiple sources what happened next, the NYSAC then asked the Charlos for a more detailed explanation of why they’d missed their tests and failed to answer their cellphones on November 1. Previously, Jermall had tweeted that the brothers had been doing “promotional stuff.” But the commission didn’t get an adequate response. Instead, it was suggested from above that the commission back off on requiring the Charlos to document the reason why they’d missed the tests and, instead, administer new tests. In today’s world of microdosing, this passes for a bad joke. And the joke became even less funny when the NYSAC had one brother’s test administered by Quest Diagnostics and the other brother’s test administered by Lab Corp.

Quest Diagnostics and Lab Corp can tell the difference between blood and urine. But they don’t do state-of-the-art testing (such as carbon isotope ratio testing) for banned performance enhancing drugs.

On December 14, Greg Leon of Boxing Talk interviewed Tony Harrison and told him, “I’ve got to ask what you think about the Charlo’s, who have two different coaches, missing drug tests on the same day?”

Harrison gave a vague response.

“Allow me to ask the question in a different way,” Leon pressed. “If you were the champion, would you ever defend your title against a challenger who missed a drug test?”

“No,” Harrison answered. “Honestly, I would not. It leaves too much of a gray area. I wouldn’t do it, but it’s out of my hands. There’s literally nothing I can do. I just have to take it for how it is, man, the life of being a B-side fighter.”

Then, on December 15, it was revealed that Willie Monroe Jr, who’d been scheduled to fight Jermall Charlo on December 22, had tested positive after taking a banned supplement called Nugenix (a testosterone booster). Monroe was removed from the card and replaced by Matt Korobov, which sent the message that, in New York, fighters who might be dirty should simply miss tests and they’ll be allowed to fight.

Four years ago, the New York State Athletic Commission said that it wouldn’t license Korobov to box because of what it termed a congenital brain condition. Some other jurisdictions don’t consider this particular condition to be a potential danger and, subsequent to New York’s decision, granted Korobov a license to box. To date, the NYSAC has refused to explain when it changed its standard on this issue and the reason for the change.

Finally, when asked about Monroe at a December 19 media workout, Jermall and Jermell Charlo engaged in what one might consider an exercise in hypocrisy.

“Cheaters never win,” Jermall offered.

Jermell was more expansive, proclaiming, “They should suspend him from boxing. Monroe shouldn’t be allowed to come back. I’m glad they was able to catch this beforehand. It sucks that someone would cheat, and they know that they’re cheating. We need the sport to be cleaned up. Take all his bread. Take them away from the sport. They shouldn’t be allowed back. They should be banned for life and probably sentenced to a jail sentence or something. Yeah, send their ass to jail!”

Bottom line: Jermall Charlo vs. Matt Korobov at Barclays Center on December 22 matched a fighter who missed a PED test in November under questionable circumstances against a fighter who, four years ago, was unable to obtain a license to box in New York because of a congenital brain condition.

When fight night arrived, Jermell Charlo vs. Tony Harrison was a tedious tactical encounter. Harrison fought much of the bout like a man who would be happy to survive for twelve rounds, pick up his paycheck, and go home. The general consensus was that Jermell won nine of the twelve rounds. Jimmy Lennon Jr. announced that there was a unanimous decision and read the three judges’ scorecards: 116-112 (Robin Taylor), 115-113 (Ron McNair), and 115-113 (Julie Lederman). That left people wondering how two judges could each have given Harrison five rounds. The wonderment then turned to disbelief when Lennon uttered the words “And the new WBC super-welterweight champion of the world . . .”

Ironically, the Charlo-Harrison decision went against the house fighter. This suggests that poor judging rather than corruption was at its core.

In the nightcap, Jermall Charlo pounded out a unanimous decison victory over Matt Korobov by a 119-108, 116-112, 116-112 margin. Jermall won the fight, but 119-108 was off the mark.

Perhaps the most notable thing about the December 22 fight card was that it marked the inaugural telecast of boxing under a recently-negotiated contract between Premier Boxing Champions and Fox.

On September 5, 2018, PBC and Fox announced a four-year-deal that calls for the Fox broadcast network to air ten “marquee” fight cards per year with an additional twelve cards being shown annually on FS1 and Fox Deportes. The announcement held out the promise of championship-caliber boxing on a free platform. Thus, a lot of fight fans were disappointed on November 13 when Fox announced its fight schedule through March 16, 2019.

The two Charlo fights were joined on December 22 with a 20-to-1 match-up between Dominic Breazeale and Carlos Negron. January 26, 2019, will feature Keith Thurman vs. Josesito Lopez with the odds currently favoring Thurman by 10-to-1. Virtually all of the PBC-Fox main events announced to date have what amounts to a designated winner and a designated loser.

Let’s draw an analogy to another sport. Fox televises Big Ten college football. The schedule for the first four months of its boxing series is equivalent to televising Michigan vs. Rutgers and Ohio State vs. Minnesota again and again and never getting to Penn State vs. Wisconsin or Michigan vs. Ohio State.

The core of the Fox commentating team handled itself well during the first telecast. There were too many voices. But Kenny Albert handled blow-by-blow chores smoothly. Joe Goossen and Ray Mancini have been in the trenches. And Lennox Lewis adds dignity and class to anything he touches.

The use of Larry Hazzard as Fox’s “rules expert and unofficial scorer” raises an interesting issue. Harold Lederman resigned as a ring judge in New York when he took a commentating position with HBO. So did Steve Weisfeld when Weisfeld worked as a rules expert for HBO. Hazzard is commissioner of the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board. And his son, Larry Hazzard Jr, was the judge who scored Charlo-Korobov 119-108 in favor of Jermall.

But for boxing fans, the more important issue is this:

For all the money that’s being put into the system now by Fox, ESPN, DAZN, and Showtime, we should be seeing better fights than we’re seeing. Each of the networks maintains that quality control is built into its respective output deal with its favored promoter or promoters. But in today’s world, when “quality control” is measured in terms of “championship” belts and top-ten rankings, it means nothing.

Championship belts are dispensed today like chocolates from a vending machine. There’s a never-ending supply of bogus beltholders and undeserving “mandatory” challengers for elite fighters to fight.

Thus, 2018 is ending on a bittersweet note. There’s more boxing on television and streaming video now than ever before. But sadly, there are fewer great fights. And that’s unlikely to change in the near future. Every promoter, TV network, and sanctioning body of note has its own fiefdom (or “league,” if you will) that it’s anxious to protect to the overall detriment of the sport. If baseball were run like boxing, there wouldn’t have been a World Series this year. Instead, the Boston Red Sox would have been declared “American League World Champions,” the Los Angeles Dodgers would have been designated “National League World champions,” and baseball would be a niche sport.

Thomas Hauser’s new email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book – Protect Yourself at All Times – was published by the University of Arkansas Press. In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism.

Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel

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Thomas Hauser

Thomas Hauser is the author of 52 books. In 2005, he was honored by the Boxing Writers Association of America, which bestowed the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism upon him. He was the first Internet writer ever to receive that award. In 2019, Hauser was chosen for boxing's highest honor: induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Lennox Lewis has observed, “A hundred years from now, if people want to learn about boxing in this era, they’ll read Thomas Hauser.”

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In a Massive Upset, Dakota Linger TKOs Kurt Scoby on a Friday Night in Atlanta

Published

2 hours ago

April 19, 2024

Arne K. Lang

In-a-Massive-Upset-Dakota-Linger-TKOs-Kurt-Scoby-on-a-Friday-Night-in-Atlanta

Although it was an 8-rounder on a show with two “tens,” Kurt Scoby’s match with Dakota Linger was accorded main event status on tonight’s card at the Overtime Elite Arena in Atlanta. This had everything to do with Scoby (pronounced Scooby), a former record-setting college running back who was considered one of the brightest prospects in the 140-pound weight class. “[Scoby] works harder than almost anyone I’ve ever seen,” said veteran New York promoter Lou DIBella in a conversation with Keith Idec. “But he’s literally getting better after every fight and he’s got the hammer of Thor, man. He can punch through walls.”

The Duarte, California product who has relocated to Brooklyn and trains at Gleason’s Gym, was undefeated (13-0) heading in and was expected to make Linger his ninth straight knockout victim. But Linger, a 29-year-old Buckhannon, West Virginia policemen whose first ring engagements were in Toughman competitions, wasn’t intimidated by Scoby’s press clippings or by Scoby’s bodybuilder physique.

Linger, who improved to 14-6-3 with his tenth win inside the distance, took the fight right to Scoby and repeatedly found a home for his overhand right. In the sixth round, after Linger strafed the ever-retreating Scoby with a barrage of punches, referee Malik Walid determined that he had seen enough and waived it off. The decision seemed a tad premature, but neither Scoby nor his cornermen offered anything in the way of a protest.

Tournament results

In the first installment of an 8-man super welterweight tournament, Brandon Adams returned to boxing after his second three-year layoff and showed no ring rust whatsoever. Adams, a 34-year-old family-man who grew up in the Watts district of LA, dismissed Ismael Villareal with a wicked punch to the liver in the waning seconds of round three. The official time was 2:59.

A former wold title challenger, Adams who improved to 23-3 (16 KOs), has become the king of boxing tournaments. He first attracted notice in 2018 when he won the fifth edition of “The Contender” series, scoring a wide 10-round decision over Shane Mosley Jr in the championship round.

Villareal, a second-generation prizefighter from the Bronx whose dad fought the likes of Hector Camacho, declined to 13-3.

Adams next opponent will be Francisco Veron who will bring a record of 14-0-1 (10).

In an energetic 10-rounder, Veron, a Florida-based Argentine with a strong amateur pedigree, scored a unanimous decision over Mexico-born, LA southpaw Angel Ruiz (18-3-1). The judges had it 100-90, 99-91, and 96-94.

Ruiz certainly had his moments, but Veron launched and landed many more punches despite fighting the last six rounds with a damaged eye.

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 281: The Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia Show

Published

1 day ago

April 18, 2024

David A. Avila

Avila-Perspective-Chap-281-The-Devin-Haney-and-Ryan-Garcia-Show

Over the years bouts between old foes such as Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia tend to be surprising.

Yes, both are only 25 but have known each other for many years.

When undisputed super lightweight champion Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) steps into the prize ring at Barclays Center to meet challenger Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) on Saturday, April 20, fans will be witnessing the continuation of a feud that began more than a decade ago.

And though the champion is a heavy favorite, familiarity is Garcia’s best weapon heading into their fight on the Golden Boy Promotions card that will be shown on PPV.COM with Jim Lampley and friends. DAZN pay-per-view is also streaming the card.

In many ways Haney and Garcia have ventured down the same path. From amateur sensations to fighting in Mexico while teens to asking for the biggest challenges available.

“Whichever version of Ryan shows up on April 20, I will be ready for him. Ryan Garcia is just another opponent to me,” said Haney who holds the WBC super lightweight title after his win over Regis Prograis.

The first time I saw Haney as a pro he battled the dangerous Mexican contender Juan Carlos Burgos at Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula. It was an impressive performance against a fighter who fought three times for a world title.

Haney was 19 at the time.

My first look at Garcia as a pro was in his first bout in the U.S. when he met Puerto Rico’s Jonathan Cruz at the Exchange in downtown Los Angeles. The Boricua looked at Garcia and tried intimidating him with stares, taunts and the usual patter. During the fight both swung and missed until the second round when Garcia zeroed in and took him out.

Garcia had just turned 18, the legal age to fight in California.

Both fighters did not have the Olympics credentials that lead to fame. But their talent has allowed them to fight through the dense smoke that is professional boxing.

Haney has defeated numerous world champions such as Prograis, Vasyl Lomachenko and George Kambosos Jr., while Garcia has stopped champions Javier Fortuna and Luke Campbell.

As amateurs, Garcia and Haney battled six times with each winning three.

“They know each other very well,” said Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions. “Ryan is going to beat Devin Haney.”

Haney has a buttery-smooth style with one of the best jabs in boxing. He’s very adept at keeping distance and not allowing anyone to fight him inside. His reflexes are outstanding, yet he seldom fights inside. That’s his weakness.

Garcia fights tall and has superb hand speed and a lightning quick left hook. Though his defense lacks tightness his ability to rip off three-punch combinations in a blink of an eye pauses opponents from bullying their way inside.

“These guys always just look at me and look at me like I don’t know how to box,” said Garcia on social media. “Why was I one of the best fighters in the amateurs. Why was I a 15-time National champion…why did I beat everyone I came across.”

Haney is a strong favorite by oddsmakers to defeat Garcia. But you can never tell when it comes to fighters that know each other well and are athletically gifted.

When Sergio Mora challenged Vernon Forrest he was a big underdog. When Tim Bradley fought Manny Pacquiao the first time, he was also the underdog. And when Andy Ruiz met Anthony Joshua few gave him a chance.

Haney and Garcia have history in the ring. It should be an interesting battle.

PPV.COM

Jim Lampley will be leading the broadcast on PPV.COM for the Haney-Garcia card at Barclays and texting with fans on the card live. He will be accompanied by journalists Lance Pugmire, Dan Conobbio and former champion Chris Algieri.

The PPV.COM broadcast begins at 5 p.m. PT. and is available in Canada and the USA.

Other News

MMA stars Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal will be holding a media day event on Friday, April 19, at NOVO at L.A. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

Diaz and Masvidal will be boxing against each other in a grudge match on June 1 at the KIA Forum in Inglewood, Calif. The two MMA stars met five years at UFC 244 with Masvidal winning by TKO over Diaz due to cuts.

This is a grudge match, but under boxing rules.

Fight card in Commerce, Calif.

360 Promotions returns to Commerce Casino on Saturday April 20 with undefeated super lightweight Cain Sandoval leading the charge.

Sandoval (12-0) faces Angel Rebollar (8-3) in the main event that will be shown live on UFC Fight Pass. Also on the card are two female events including hot prospect Lupe Medina (5-0) versus Sabrina Persona (3-1) in a minimumweight clash.

Doors open at 4 p.m.

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Boxing Odds and Ends: The Heavyweight Merry-Go-Round

Published

3 days ago

April 16, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Boxing Odds and Ends: The Heavyweight Merry-Go-Round

There were few surprises when co-promoters Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren and their benefactor HE Turki Alalshikh held a press conference in London this past Monday to unveil the undercard for the Beterbiev-Bivol show at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on June 1. Most of the match-ups had already been leaked.

For die-hard boxing fans, Beterbiev-Bivol is such an enticing fight that it really doesn’t need an attractive undercard. Two undefeated light heavyweights will meet with all four relevant belts on the line in a contest where the oddsmakers straddled the fence. It’s a genuine “pick-‘em” fight based on the only barometer that matters, the prevailing odds.

But Beterbiev-Bivol has been noosed to a splendid undercard, a striking contrast to Saturday’s Haney-Garcia $69.99 (U.S.) pay-per-view in Brooklyn, an event where the undercard, in the words of pseudonymous boxing writer Chris Williams, is an absolute dumpster fire.

The two heavyweight fights that will bleed into Beterbiev-Bivol, Hrgovic vs. Dubois and Wilder vs. Zhang, would have been stand-alone main events before the incursion of Saudi money.

Hrgovic-Dubois

Filip Hrgovic (17-0, 13 KOs) and Daniel Dubois (20-2, 19 KOs) fought on the same card in Riyadh this past December. Hrgovic, the Croatian, was fed a softie in the form of Australia’s Mark De Mori who he dismissed in the opening round. Dubois, a Londoner, rebounded from his loss to Oleksandr Usyk with a 10^th-round stoppage of corpulent Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller.

There’s an outside chance that Hrgovic vs. Dubois may be sanctioned by the IBF for the world heavyweight title.

The May 18 showdown between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury has a rematch clause. The IBF is next in line in the rotation system for a unified heavyweight champion and the organization has made it plain that the winner of Usyk-Fury must fulfill his IBF mandatory before an intervening bout.

The best guess is that the Usyk-Fury winner will relinquish the IBF belt. If so, Hrgovic and Dubois may fight for the vacant title although a more likely scenario is that the organization will keep the title vacant so that the winner can fight Anthony Joshua.

Wilder-Zhang

The match between Deontay Wilder (43-3-1, 42 KOs) and Zhilei Zhang (26-2-1, 21 KOs) is a true crossroads fight as both Wilder, 38, and Zhang, who turns 41 in May, are nearing the end of the road and the loser (unless it’s a close and entertaining fight) will be relegated to the rank of a has-been. In fact, Wilder has hinted that this may be his final rodeo.

Both are coming off a loss to Joseph Parker.

Wilder last fought on the card that included Hrgovic and Dubois and was roundly out-pointed by a man he was expected to beat. It’s a quick turnaround for Zhang who opposed Parker on March 8 and lost a majority decision.

Other Fights

Either of two other fights may steal the show on the June 1 event.

Raymond Ford (15-0-1, 8 KOs) meets Nick Ball (19-0-1, 11 KOs) in a 12-round featherweight contest. New Jersey’s Ford will be defending the WBA world title he won with a come-from-behind, 12th-round stoppage of Otabek Kholmatov in an early contender for Fight of the Year. Liverpool’s “Wrecking” Ball, a relentless five-foot-two sparkplug, had to settle for a draw in his title fight with Rey Vargas despite winning the late rounds and scoring two knockdowns.

Hamzah Sheeraz (19-0, 15 KOs) meets fellow unbeaten Austin “Ammo” Williams (16-0, 11 KOs) in a 12-round middleweight match. East London’s Sheeraz, the son of a former professional cricket player, is unknown in the U.S. although he trained for his recent fights at the Ten Goose Boxing Gym in California. Riding a skein of 13 straight knockouts, he has a date with WBO title-holder Janibek Alimkhanuly if he can get over this hurdle.

The Forgotten Heavyweight

“Unbeaten for seven years, the man nobody wants to fight,” intoned ring announcer Michael Buffer by way of introduction. Buffer was referencing Michael Hunter who stood across the ring from his opponent Artem Suslenkov.

This scene played out this past Saturday in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. It was Hunter’s second fight in three weeks. On March 23, he scored a fifth-round stoppage of a 46-year-old meatball at a show in Zapopan, Mexico.

The second-generation “Bounty Hunter,” whose only defeat prior to last weekend came in a 12-rounder with Oleksandr Usyk, has been spinning his wheels since TKOing the otherwise undefeated Martin Bakole on the road in London in 2018. Two fights against hapless opponents on low-budget cards in Mexico and a couple of one-round bouts for the Las Vegas Hustle, an entry in the fledgling and largely invisible Professional Combat League, are the sum total of his activity, aside from sparring, in the last two-and-a-half years.

Hunter’s chances of getting another big-money fight took a tumble in Tashkent where he lost a unanimous decision in a dull affair to the unexceptional Suslenkov who was appearing in his first 10-round fight. The scores of the judges were not announced.

You won’t find this fight listed on boxrec. As Jake Donovan notes, the popular website will not recognize a fight conducted under the auspices of a rogue commission. (Another fight you won’t find on boxrec for the same reason is Nico Ali Walsh’s 6-round split decision over the 9-2-1 Frenchman, Noel Lafargue, in the African nation of Guinea on Dec. 16, 2023. You can find it on YouTube, but according to boxrec, boxing’s official record-keeper, it never happened.)

Anderson-Merhy Redux

The only thing missing from this past Saturday’s match in Corpus Christi, Texas, between Jared Anderson and Ryad Merhy was the ghost of Robert Valsberg.

Valsberg, aka Roger Vaisburg, was the French referee who disqualified Ingemar Johansson for not trying in his match with LA’s Ed Sanders in the finals of the heavyweight competition at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Valsberg tossed Johansson out of the ring after two rounds and Johansson was denied the silver medal. The Swede redeemed himself after turning pro, needless to say, when he demolished Floyd Patterson in the first of their three meetings.

Merhy was credited with throwing only 144 punches, landing 34, over the course of the 10 rounds. Those dismal figures yet struck many onlookers as too high. (This reporter has always insisted that the widely-quoted CompuBox numbers should be considered approximations.)

Whatever the true number, it was a disgraceful performance by Merhy who actually showed himself to have very fast hands on the few occasions when he did throw a punch. With apologies to Delfine Persoon, a spunky lightweight, U.S. boxing promoters should think twice before inviting another Belgian boxer to our shores.

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