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Kyoguchi Breaks Down Budler and Nietes Edges Ioka in Macau
In Macau, China today, two excellent generational clashes unwound while most of America slept; in the UK the fights represented an early-morning treat for the fight fan.
If it seems as though Hekkie Budler, 32-3, out of Johannesburg, South Africa, has been around forever it’s with good reason. Budler is a veteran in the truest sense having boxed professionally for more than ten years and for most of this decade at championship level. He has wielded one belt or another for much of that time, holding straps in two different divisions.
Only thirty years old, his wealth of experience gave his match with Hiroto Kyoguchi, 11-0, out of Tokyo, Japan, a “passing of the torch” feel. Kyoguchi, who is twenty-five, broke through last year in taking a title at 105lbs in just his eighth fight. Powerful without being truly destructive, quick without being lightning, Kyoguchi is a fighter who boxes with a wisdom that belies his meager experience.
Indeed, he sought to impose his strength on the older man from the very first, handling him in the infrequent clinches and bringing steady pressure behind a direct, quick jab. But Kyoguchi comes across his front foot a little too heavily and Budler was taking advantage. Veteran, as we know, is a double-edged sword, and there is very little the South African hasn’t seen. He found his own jab, looked for a right hand to the body and an excellent short right to the head which impressed.
Kyoguchi, however, looked a clear weight class bigger than Budler, huge across the back and shoulders, and he had no problem shaking off most of this and continuing to apply pressure, to force Budler to move, to claim the center of the ring.
And as early as the second he was targeting Budler’s body. These punches, accompanied by a sick, wet sound, often sent Budler scurrying, or adjusting his guard. Kyoguchi was alert to this and he began head-hunting, especially behind a sickening left hook to the body. It was a cohesive, impressive performance from the Japanese and given his limitations, exactly the sort of mixture of generalship and physicality necessary to make the best of what he has.
Budler was wilting. He was fearful of the burgeoning body-attack wielded by the Japanese by the sixth and was trying very hard to stay on the move, boxing and picking his spots. Kyoguchi had the patience and metronomic pressure to cope with such strategy however, and Budler, I think, isn’t as capable of taking to his toes as he was in his twenties. The fight simmered down to hard exchanges, an arrangement that could only favor Kyoguchi.
Budler, however, ranked the #2 light-flyweight in the world at opening bell, is a fighter true. Clearly on the wane he continued to battle hard in the seventh, eighth and ninth, adjusting his waistband in a fruitless effort to limit the discomfort those body shots were causing, dropping his elbows, slipping and sliding and always punching back. But he did not win a round after the fourth on my card.
Kyoguchi is one-paced, yes, but he has been rolling over good competition, and Budler, the best he has faced, could do nothing to stop him. In the tenth, Budler was cut, worn, and every body shot inflicted a new misery. A booming left hook to the gut actually caused him momentarily to turn away, sickened. His corner pulled him before the eleventh; it was the right call. Obsessed with protecting his body, Budler had begun to ship to the head.
Kyoguchi, then, is the future. Now 12-0 he must now rank among the best at 108lbs just as he ranked one of the best at 105lbs. In a division stacked with excellent fighters out of Japan, there is an opportunity here for one man to emerge the best of them and that man would breach the pound-for-pound rankings. Whether or not Kyoguchi has the dimensions to emerge victorious from a series of such monumental confrontations with the likes of Ken Shiro, Ryoichi Taguchi and Tetsuya Hisada remains to be seen but it is a mouth-watering prospect.
Also mouth-watering was the co-main event in Macau, another meeting staged across generations, between Donnie Nietes and Kazuto Ioka.
Nietes, now 36, is the grandfather of Filipino boxing and he has the 42-1-5 record to prove it. That sole loss came against an opponent that busted the agreed weight limit by two weight-classes and even then, barely squeaked past the then inexperienced Nietes; that was thirteen years ago.
Nietes makes Budler look wet behind the ears.
His opponent was the Japanese, Kazuto Ioka. Ioka, 23-1 going in, lost a narrow and disputed decision to Amnat Ruenroeng back in 2014, but like Nietes, and despite having far less time in which to achieve such a feat, he has held belts at three separate weights.
These two were meeting, then, for the right to call themselves “four weight world champions” and even allowing for the pitiful watering down of the meaning of that phrase by the belts-for-hire attitude of the sanctioning organizations, that is impressive.
Nietes, also known as “Snake”, remained coiled for much of the first round, perhaps measuring the guns of his younger, larger opponent. These were in the main a stiff jab, sometime right hand to the body behind that shot, and a very nice cuffing left hook off a feinted jab. In the final seconds he added a left hook to the body that Nietes didn’t care for; clearly the older man had his work cut out.
In the second, he unveiled his grand strategy. Nietes was going to try to out-squabble Ioka. Distinct from out-fighting him, this involved letting the younger man set the pace then just, barely, out-hitting him in distinct exchanges where he would try to counter and snipe his way to superiority enough times to bag individual rounds and hence the fight.
It was a bold approach and one that involved ceding aspects of the fight to his opponent, but Nietes had fought for straps almost as often as Ioka had donned the gloves. He backed himself and it made for a fascinating contest.
After six absorbing and intensely contested rounds, none of them absolutely clear, I saw it all-square; after ten, I still couldn’t separate them and it seemed the fight might be settled in the eleventh and twelfth rounds.
Here Nietes fight-plan revealed its limitations. He might have been expected to try to control Ioka with virtual threats to keep his workrate down to a pace he was more comfortable with. Instead, he tried to match and eclipse that workrate with punches of his own. Now, his thirty-six year old tank was emptying. Still his precise punching and smarts made the round close, Ioka looking for the breather by the ten second marker. Nietes was lunging though and suddenly available for counters himself.
The two exchanged curt nods at the opening of the twelfth but watching live I thought Ioka missed a chance here. Had he barreled into Nietes I think the Filipino would have given way. As it was he felt his way into a round that seemed a crucial one, for all that we now know Ioka couldn’t win on the cards and needed a knockout. Although he held and was clearly very tired, I think this round belonged to the Snake. This is a nickname Nietes has earned.
A special word for the scorecard of Levi Martinez, who was either drunk, corrupt or does not have a proper understanding of the rules of boxing; his score of 118-110 for Nietes is impossible.
The other two judges scored it 116-112 with a card for each fighter, making this a split-decision victory for Donnie Nietes. He climbs to 42-1-5 while Ioka drops to 23-2.
A rematch would be very welcome and would likely make sense for both men. But the evergreen Nietes is nearing the end now for all that he manages to continue to postpone it. He may chase the money.
Sandwiched between these two excellent fights was the inexplicably hyped contest between Moruti Mthalane and Masahiro Sakamoto. Mthalane, among the best ten in his division if only barely, stopped the unranked Sakamoto in ten rounds.
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Bygone Days: The Largest Crowd Ever at Madison Square Garden Sees Zivic TKO Armstrong
Bygone Days: The Largest Crowd Ever at Madison Square Garden Sees Zivic TKO Armstrong
There’s not much happening on the boxing front this month. That’s consistent with the historical pattern.
Fight promoters of yesteryear tended to pull back after the Christmas and New Year holidays on the assumption that fight fans had less discretionary income at their disposal. Weather was a contributing factor. In olden days, more boxing cards were staged outdoors and the most attractive match-ups tended to be summertime events.
There were exceptions, of course. On Jan. 17, 1941, an SRO crowd of 23,180 filled Madison Square Garden to the rafters to witness the welterweight title fight between Fritzie Zivic and Henry Armstrong. (This was the third Madison Square Garden, situated at 50th Street and Eighth Avenue, roughly 17 blocks north of the current Garden which sits atop Pennsylvania Station. The first two arenas to take this name were situated farther south adjacent to Madison Square Park).
This was a rematch. They had fought here in October of the previous year. In a shocker, Zivic won a 15-round decision. The fight was close on the scorecards. Referee Arthur Donovan and one of the judges had it even after 14 rounds, but Zivic had won his rounds more decisively and he punctuated his well-earned triumph by knocking Armstrong face-first to the canvas as the final bell sounded.
This was a huge upset.
Armstrong had a rocky beginning to his pro career, but he came on like gangbusters after trainer/manager Eddie Mead acquired his contract with backing from Broadway and Hollywood star Al Jolson. Heading into his first match with Zivic – the nineteenth defense of the title he won from Barney Ross – Hammerin’ Henry had suffered only one defeat in his previous 60 fights, that coming in his second meeting with Lou Ambers, a controversial decision.
Shirley Povich, the nationally-known sports columnist for the Washington Post, conducted an informal survey of boxing insiders and found only person who gave Zivic a chance. The dissident was Chris Dundee (then far more well-known than his younger brother Angelo). “Zivic knows all the tricks,” said Dundee. “He’ll butt Armstrong with his head, gouge him with his thumbs and hit him just as low as Armstrong [who had five points deducted for low blows in his bout with Ambers].”
Indeed, Pittsburgh’s Ferdinand “Fritzie” Zivic, the youngest and best of five fighting sons of a Croatian immigrant steelworker (Fritzie’s two oldest brothers represented the U.S. at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics) would attract a cult following because of his facility for bending the rules. It would be said that no one was more adept at using his thumbs to blind an opponent or using the laces of his gloves as an anti-coagulant, undoing the work of a fighter’s cut man.
Although it was generally understood that at age 28 his best days were behind him, Henry Armstrong was chalked the favorite in the rematch (albeit a very short favorite) a tribute to his body of work. Although he had mastered Armstrong in their first encounter, most boxing insiders considered Fritzie little more than a high-class journeyman and he hadn’t looked sharp in his most recent fight, a 10-round non-title affair with lightweight champion Lew Jenkins who had the best of it in the eyes of most observers although the match was declared a draw.
The Jan. 17 rematch was a one-sided affair. Veteran New York Times scribe James P. Dawson gave Armstrong only two rounds before referee Donovan pulled the plug at the 52-second mark of the twelfth round. Armstrong, boxing’s great perpetual motion machine, a world title-holder in three weight classes, repaired to his dressing room bleeding from his nose and his mouth and with both eyes swollen nearly shut. But his effort could not have been more courageous.
At the conclusion of the 10th frame, Donovan went to Armstrong’s corner and said something to the effect, “you will have to show me something, Henry, or I will have to stop it.” What followed was Armstrong’s best round.
“[Armstrong] pulled the crowd to its feet in as glorious a rally as this observer has seen in twenty-five years of attendance at these ring battles,” wrote Dawson. But Armstrong, who had been stopped only once previously, that coming in his pro debut, had punched himself out and had nothing left.
Armstrong retired after this fight, siting his worsening eyesight, but he returned in the summer of the following year, soldiering on for 46 more fights, winning 37 to finish 149-21-10. During this run, he was reacquainted with Fritzie Zivic. Their third encounter was fought in San Francisco before a near-capacity crowd of 8,000 at the Civic Auditorium and Armstrong got his revenge, setting the pace and working the body effectively to win a 10-round decision. By then the welterweight title had passed into the hands of Freddie Cochran.
Hammerin’ Henry (aka Homicide Hank) Armstrong was named to the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the inaugural class of 1990. Fritzie Zivic followed him into the Hall three years later.
Active from 1931 to 1949, Zivic lost 65 of his 231 fights – the most of anyone in the Hall of Fame, a dubious distinction – but there was yet little controversy when he was named to the Canastota shrine because one would be hard-pressed to find anyone who had fought a tougher schedule. Aside from Armstrong and Jenkins, he had four fights with Jake LaMotta, four with Kid Azteca, three with Charley Burley, two with Sugar Ray Robinson, two with Beau Jack, and singles with the likes of Billy Conn, Lou Ambers, and Bob Montgomery. Of the aforementioned, only Azteca, in their final meeting in Mexico City, and Sugar Ray, in their second encounter, were able to win inside the distance.
By the way, it has been written that no event of any kind at any of the four Madison Square Gardens ever drew a larger crowd than the crowd that turned out on Jan. 17, 1941, to see the rematch between Fritzie Zivic and Henry Armstrong. Needless to say, prizefighting was big in those days.
A recognized authority on the history of prizefighting and the history of American sports gambling, TSS editor-in-chief Arne K. Lang is the author of five books including “Prizefighting: An American History,” released by McFarland in 2008 and re-released in a paperback edition in 2020.
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Jai Opetaia Brutally KOs David Nyika, Cementing his Status as the World’s Top Cruiserweight
In his fifth title defense, lineal cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia (27-0, 21 KOs) successfully defended his belt with a brutal fourth-round stoppage of former sparring partner David Nyika. The bout was contested in Broadbeach, Queensland, Australia where Opetaia won the IBF title in 2022 with a hard-earned decision over Maris Briedis with Nyika on the undercard. Both fighters reside in the general area although Nyika, a former Olympic bronze medalist, hails from New Zealand.
The six-foot-six Nyika, who was undefeated in 10 pro fights with nine KOs, wasn’t afraid to mix it up with Opetaia although had never fought beyond five rounds and took the fight on three weeks’ notice when obscure German campaigner Huseyin Cinkara suffered an ankle injury in training and had to pull out. He wobbled Opetaia in the second round in a fight that was an entertaining slugfest for as long as it lasted.
In round four, the champion but Nyika on the canvas with his patented right uppercut and then finished matters moments later with a combination climaxed with an explosive left hand. Nyika was unconscious before he hit the mat.
Opetaia’s promoter Eddie Hearn wants Opetaia to unify the title and then pursue a match with Oleksandr Usyk. Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, a Golden Boy Promotions fighter, holds the WBA and WBO versions of the title and is expected to be Opetaia’s next opponent. The WBC diadem is in the hands of grizzled Badou Jack.
Other Fights of Note
Brisbane heavyweight Justis Huni (12-0, 7 KOs) wacked out overmatched South African import Shaun Potgieter (10-2), ending the contest at the 33-second mark of the second round. The 25-year-old, six-foot-four Huni turned pro in 2020 after losing a 3-round decision to two-time Olympic gold medalist Bakhodir Jalolov. There’s talk of matching him with England’s 20-year-old sensation Moses Itauma which would be a delicious pairing.
Eddie Hearn’s newest signee Teremoana Junior won his match even quicker, needing less than a minute to dismiss Osasu Otobo, a German heavyweight of Nigerian descent.
The six-foot-six Teremoana, who akin to Huni hails from Brisbane and turned pro after losing to the formidable Jalolov, has won all six of his pro fights by knockout while answering the bell for only eight rounds. He has an interesting lineage; his father is from the Cook Islands.
Rising 20-year-old Max “Money” McIntyre, a six-foot-three super middleweight, scored three knockdowns en route to a sixth-round stoppage of Abdulselam Saman, advancing his record to 7-0 (6 KOs). As one can surmise, McIntyre is a big fan of Floyd Mayweather.
The Opetaia-Nyika fight card aired on DAZN pay-per-view (39.99) in the Antipodes and just plain DAZN elsewhere.
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R.I.P. Paul Bamba (1989-2024): The Story Behind the Story
Paul Bamba, a cruiserweight, passed away at age 35 on Dec. 27 six days after defeating Rogelio Medina before a few hundred fans on a boxing card at a performing arts center in Carteret, New Jersey. No cause of death has been forthcoming, leading to rampant speculation. Was it suicide, or perhaps a brain injury, and if the latter was it triggered by a pre-existing condition?
Fuel for the latter comes in the form of a letter that surfaced after his death. Dated July 25, 2023, it was written by Dr. Alina Sharinn, a board-certified neurologist licensed in New York and Florida.
“Mr. Bamba has suffered a concussion and an episode of traumatic diplopia within the past year and now presents with increasing headaches. His MRI of the brain revealed white matter changes in both frontal lobes,” wrote Bamba’s doctor.
Her recommendation was that he stop boxing temporarily while also avoiding any other activity at which he was at risk of head trauma.
Dr. Sherinn’s letter was written three months after Bamba was defeated by Chris Avila in a 4-round contest in New Orleans. He lost all four rounds on all three scorecards, reducing his record to 5-3.
Bamba took a break from boxing after fighting Avila. Eight months would elapse before he returned to the ring. His next four fights were in Santa Marta, Colombia, against opponents who were collectively 4-23 at the time that he fought them. The most experienced of the quartet, Victor Coronado, was 38 years old.
He won all four inside the distance and ten more knockouts would follow, the last against Medina in a bout sanctioned by the World Boxing Association for the WBA Gold title. As widely reported, the stoppage, his 14th, broke Mike Tyson’s record for the most consecutive knockouts within a calendar year. That would have been a nice feather in his cap if only it were true.
Born in Puerto Rico, Paul Bamba was a former U.S. Marine who spent time in Iraq as an infantry machine gunner. In interviews on social media platforms, he is well-spoken and introspective without a trace of the boastfulness that many prizefighters exhibit when talking to an outsider. Interviewed in a corridor of the arena after stopping Medina, he was almost apologetic, acknowledging that he still had a lot to learn.
His life story is inspirational.
His early years were spent in foster homes. He was homeless for a time after returning to civilian life. Speaking with Boxing Scene’s Lucas Ketelle, Bamba said, “I didn’t have any direction after leaving the Marine corps. I hit rock bottom, couldn’t afford a place to stay…I was renting a mattress that was shoved behind someone’s sofa.”
He turned his life around when he ventured into the Morris Park Boxing Gym in the Bronx where he learned the rudiments of boxing under the tutelage of former WBA welterweight champion Aaron “Superman” Davis. “I love boxing,” he would say. “The confidence it gives you permeates into other aspects of your life.”
Bamba’s newfound confidence allowed him to carve out a successful career as a personal trainer. His most famous client was the Grammy Award winning R&B singer-songwriter Ne-Yo who signed Bamba to his new sports management company late in the boxer’s Knockout skein. Bamba was with Ne-Yo in Atlanta when he passed away. Ne-Yo broke the news on his Instagram platform.
Paul Bamba had been pursuing a fight with Jake Paul. Winning the WBA Gold belt opened up other potentially lucrative options. In theory, the holder of the belt is one step removed from a world title fight. Next comes an eliminator and, if he wins that one, a true title fight attached to a hefty purse will follow…in theory.
Rogelio “Porky” Medina, who brought a 42-10 record, had competed against some top-shelf guys, e.g., Zurdo Ramirez, Badou Jack, James DeGale, David Benavidez, Caleb Plant; going the distance with DeGale and Plant. However, only two of his 42 wins had come in fights outside Mexico, at age 36 he was over the hill, and his best work had come as a super middleweight.
Thirteen months ago, Medina carried 168 ½ pounds for a match in New Zealand in which he was knocked out in the first round. He came in more than 30 pounds heavier, specifically 202 ¼, for his match with Paul Bamba. In between, he knocked out a 54-year-old man in Guadalajara to infuse his ledger with a little brighter sheen.
Why did the WBA see fit to sanction the Bamba-Medina match as a title fight? That’s a rhetorical question. And for the record, the record for the most consecutive knockouts within a calendar year wasn’t previously held by Mike Tyson. LaMar Clark, a heavyweight from Cedar City, Utah, scored 29 consecutive knockouts in 1958 after opening the year by winning a 6-round decision. (If you are inclined to believe that all or most of those knockouts were legitimate, then perhaps I can interest you in buying the Brooklyn Bridge.)
Clark was being primped for a fight with a good purse which came when he was dispatched to Louisville to fight a fellow who was fairly new to the professional boxing scene, a former U.S. Olympian then known as Cassius Clay who knocked him out in the second round in what proved to be Clark’s final fight.
Paul Bamba was a much better fighter than LaMar Clark, of that I am quite certain. However, if Paul Bamba had gone on to meet one of the world’s elite cruiserweights, a similar outcome would have undoubtedly ensued.
One can summon up the Bamba-Medina fight on the internet although the video isn’t great – it was obviously filmed on a smart phone – and pieces of it are missing. Bamba was winning with his higher workrate when Medina took his unexpected leave, but one doesn’t have to be a boxing savant to see that Paul’s hand and foot speed were slow and that there were big holes in his defense.
This isn’t meant to be a knock on the decedent. Being able to box even four rounds at a fast clip and still be fresh is one of the most underrated achievements in all of human endurance sports. Bamba’s life story is indeed inspirational. When he talked about the importance of “giving back,” he was sincere. In an early interview, he mentioned having helped out at a Harlem food pantry.
Paul Bamba had to die to become well-known within the fight fraternity, let alone in the larger society. One hopes that his death will inspire the sport’s regulators to be more vigilant in assaying a boxer’s medical history and, if somehow his untimely death leads to the dissolution of the fetid World Boxing Association, his legacy would be even greater.
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