Kovalev’s Transformation Suggests an Old Truism Might Not be so True Anymore

Published

5 years ago

February 3, 2019

It has long been axiomatic in boxing that the last attribute any aging fighter loses is his punching power. As Exhibit A, see George Foreman, but then Big George is hardly alone in that regard. Ring history is rife with examples of veteran masters of blunt-force trauma who have remained at least somewhat relevant despite the inexorable march of time. A well-placed shot, if hard enough and delivered with bad intentions, can camouflage and even erase any number of mounting deficiencies in a bout that only seconds earlier might have appeared to be slipping away.

But there is recent evidence to suggest that maybe that hoary old truism isn’t so true anymore. Maybe the reverse is even possible. If the ability to instantly chill an opponent is more perishable than previously imagined as a big bopper moves toward and even beyond the outer limits of his prime, perhaps it can be replaced in part by guile, tactics and an acknowledgment that the willing acceptance of change is not necessarily tantamount to weakness.

It remains to be seen whether the version of Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev that was on display late Saturday night – or very early Sunday morning, for viewers in the Eastern time zone — is actually new and improved or merely different. But until more evidence is available, the clear-cut points victory for Kovalev (33-3-1, 28 KOs) over Eleider “Storm” Alvarez (24-1, 12 KOs), the man who had brutally taken his WBO light heavyweight title on a seventh-round knockout six months earlier, at least demonstrated that it is possible to teach a recalcitrant old dog a few tricks he hadn’t had to resort to much in the past.

“For me it doesn’t matter who’s next,” a smiling Kovalev, who turns 36 on April 2, said when asked what his next move would be after he captured the WBO version of the 175-pound title for a third time before a live crowd of 4,877 and an international ESPN+ viewing audience at the Ford Center at the Star in Frisco, Texas, the training facility of the Dallas Cowboys. “Who’s ready for a unification fight? I’m here to make history for me and my fans. I want to fight the champions in my division. Any fighter who is ready.”

It is not so much that Kovalev won as the manner in which he did. Had he nailed the favored Alvarez hard and early, as the Russian bully boy had done in putting away so many previous opponents who did not come close to matching his firepower, that would have been one thing. But Kovalev’s reputation as the baddest man on the planet, 175-pound division, began taking hits in and out of the ring beginning with his back-to-back losses to Andre Ward, even though there were more than a few observers who believed he had done enough to get the nod in their first fight, which Ward won on a razor-thin unanimous decision on Nov. 19, 2016 (all three judges had it 114-113). Some of the negative whispers that attached themselves to Kovalev – that he was racist, a problem drinker, an abrasive personality who did not heed the advice of his trainer do jour, be it John David Jackson or Abror Tursunpulatov – had the effect of depicting him as a fighter whose best days were already behind him, or soon would be unless he found a way pull out of his downward spiral.

Ward, for one, had publicly dismissed Kovalev as a six-round fighter whose gas tank would drain quickly if he obliged to labor into the middle and later rounds, a premise that seemingly was verified when, well ahead on all three official scorecards in his first fight with Alvarez, he was floored three times in round seven and was stopped. The consensus heading into the rematch was that another such loss would render the “Krusher” irrelevant, a non-factor in a division that was steadily moving beyond him.

To some, Kovalev’s attempts to reinvent himself post-Alvarez smacked, well, of desperation. His replacement of Tursunpulatov with McGirt, the 2002 Boxing Writers Association of America Trainer of the Year who in June will be inducted, as a fighter, into the International Boxing Hall of Fame? Nothing to get particularly excited about; hadn’t he blamed his previous trainers for his more recent missteps? Of more concern to the boxing cognoscenti was the high-speed crash of Kovalev’s Mercedes while back home in Russia and the pilgrimage he undertook to a monastery on Greece’s Mount Athos ostensibly in search of some form of inner peace.

As if all that weren’t enough, things got worse in the run-up to the do-over with Alvarez. On Jan. 18, TMZ Sports published a report that Kovalev had been arrested on a felony assault charge stemming from a June 9 incident in Big Bear Lake, Calif., in which he was accused of punching a woman in the face after she rejected his sexual advances. Kovalev is due in court in March for a preliminary hearing on the matter.

But all the doom-and-gloom projections for Kovalev, who already was being consigned by some to the dust bin of boxing history, might have been premature. He proved surprisingly amenable to the revisions proposed by McGirt and new strength-and-conditioning coach Teddy Cruz, with whom Kovalev’s longtime promoter, Main Events CEO Kathy Duva was familiar, through their work in smoothing some of the late Arturo Gatti’s rougher edges more than a decade and a half ago. And who knows, maybe the unidentified monk on the mountain imparted some words of wisdom that touched Kovalev in a manner that proved more uplifting than any standard locker-room pep talk ever could.

Duva is confident that Kovalev’s legal issues can be resolved expeditiously, leaving him with enough of an unencumbered mind that he can focus on the task of again creating another reign of light heavyweight terror, albeit one that isn’t quite so reliant on the swift and savage put-away. There are different ways for a fighter to impose his will on the other guy, and it will be interesting to see how long Kovalev can be satisfied with the slow ’n’ steady building-block approach espoused by McGirt in contrast with the wrecking-ball method that once served him so well.

Both on the scorecards – Kovalev came out ahead 120-108 and 116-112 (twice) – and in the punch statistics, which saw him outland Alvarez by 213 of 816 (26 percent) to 111 of 369 (30 percent), the Russian fought with impressive constraint and control. It would be unwise to dismiss him out of hand as a threat to the other reigning light heavy titlists, the WBC’s Oleksandr Gvozdyk (16-0, 13 KOs), WBA’s Dmitry Bivol (15-0, 11 KOs) and IBF’s Artur Beterbiev (13-0, 13 KOs). Former WBO super middleweight champ Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez (39-0, 25 KOs), who has announced his intention to move up to 175, also is an interesting name in the mix.

Photo credit: Craig Bennett / Main Events

Bernard Fernandez is the retired boxing writer for the Philadelphia Daily News. He is a five-term former president of the Boxing Writers Association of America, an inductee into the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Atlantic City Boxing Halls of Fame and the recipient of the Nat Fleischer Award for Excellence in Boxing Journalism and the Barney Nagler Award for Long and Meritorious Service to Boxing.

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 289: East LA, Claressa Shields and More

Published

1 day ago

July 25, 2024

David A. Avila

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 289: East LA, Claressa Shields and More

East Los Angeles has long been a haven for some of the best fighters around if you can keep them out of trouble. For every Oscar De La Hoya or Seniesa Estrada there are thousands derailed by crime, drugs or drinking.

Boxing has always been a favorite sport of East L.A. Every family has an uncle or two who boxes.

On Friday, 360 Promotions’ Omar Trinidad (15-0-1) fights Viktor Slavinskyi (15-2-1) in the main event at Commerce Casino, in Commerce, CA. UFC Fight Pass will stream the fight card.

The City of Commerce used to be part of East L.A. until 1960 when it incorporated. It’s still considered to be part of East Los Angeles, but informally.

Plenty of fighters come out of East L.A. but few make it all the way like De La Hoya and Estrada. Will Trinidad be the one?

The first world champion from East L.A. or “East Los” as some call it, was Solly Garcia Smith back in the late 1800s. Others were Richie Lemos, Art Frias and Joey Olivo. There is also 1984 Olympic gold medalist Paul Gonzalez.

Once again 360 Promotions brings its popular brand of fights to the area. On this fight card includes two female bouts. One features Roxy Verduzco (1-0) the former amateur star fighting Colleen Davis (3-1-1) in a featherweight fight.

All that action takes place on Friday.

Elite Boxing

The next day, also in East L.A., Elite Boxing stages another boxing card at Salesian High School located at 960 S. Soto Street in the Boyle Heights area of East Los Angeles.

Elite Boxing has promoted several successful boxing cards at the Catholic high school grounds. The area is saturated by many of the best eateries in Los Angeles. Don’t take my word for it. Check it out yourself and grab some of that delicious food.

Boxing has long been a favorite sport of anyone who lives in East L.A. It’s a fight town equal to Philadelphia, Brooklyn or Detroit. There’s something different about the area. For more than 100 years some of the best fighters continue to come out of its boxing gyms. Some will be performing on these club shows.

For tickets or information go to www.eliteboxingusa.com

Claressa Shields in Detroit

Speaking of fight towns, pound-for-pound best Claressa Shields who won two Olympic Gold Medals in boxing, moves up another weight division to tackle the WBC heavyweight world champion Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse on Saturday, July 27, at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan.

DAZN will stream the heavy-duty fight card.

Shields (14-0) cleaned out the super welterweight, middleweight and super middleweight divisions and now wants to add the big girls to her conquests. She will be facing Canada’s Lepage-Joanisse (7-1) who holds the WBC belt.

The last time Shields gloved up was more than a year ago when she fought Maricela Cornejo. Don’t blame Shields. She loves to fight. She loves to win. The last time Shields lost a fight was in the amateurs and that was three presidential administrations ago.

Shields doesn’t lose.

I wonder if Las Vegas even takes bets on her fights?

The only fight she may have been an underdog was against Savannah Marshall who was the last opponent to defeat her. And that was in 2012 in China. When they met as pros two years ago, Shields avenged her loss with a blistering attack.

Don’t get Shields mad.

Perhaps her toughest foe as a pro was in her pro debut when she clashed with Franchon Crews-Dezurn in Las Vegas. It was four rounds of fists and fury as the two pounded each other on the undercard of Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev in November 2016.

That was a ferocious debut for both female pugilists.

Assisting Shields on this fight card will be several intriguing male bouts. One guy you should pay special attention is Tito Mercado (15-0, 14 KOs) a super lightweight prospect from Pomona, California.

Many excellent fighters have come out of Pomona including Sugar Shane Mosley, Shane Mosley Jr., Alberto Davila and Richie Sandoval who just passed away this week.

Sandoval was best known for his 15-round war with Philadelphia’s Jeff Chandler for the bantamweight world title in 1984. Read the story by Arne K. Lang on this link: https://tss.ib.tv/boxing/featured-boxing-articles-boxing-news-videos-rankings-and-results/81467-former-world-bantamweight-champion-richie-sandoval-passes-away-at-age-63 .

Fights to Watch

Fri. UFC Fight Pass 7 p.m. Omar Trinidad (15-0-1) vs Viktor Slavinskyi (15-2-1).

Sat. ESPN+ 12:30 p.m. Joe Joyce (16-2) vs Derek Chisora (34-13).

Sat. DAZN 3 p.m. Claressa Shields (14-0) vs Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse (7-1), Michel Rivera (25-1) vs Hugo Roldan (22-2-1); Tito Mercado (15-0) vs Hector Sarmiento (21-2).

Omar Trinidad photo by Lina Baker

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Arne’s Almanac: Jake Paul and Women’s Boxing, a Curmudgeon’s Take

Published

3 days ago

July 24, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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Jake Paul can fight more than a little. The view from here is that he would make it interesting against any fringe contender in the cruiserweight division. However, Jake’s boxing acumen pales when paired against his skill as a flim-flam artist.

Jake brought a 9-1 record into last weekend’s bout with Mike Perry. As noted by boxing writer Paul Magno, Jake’s previous opponents consisted of “a You Tuber, a retired NBA star, five retired MMA stars, a part-time boxer/reality TV star, and two undersized and inactive fall-guy boxers.”

Mike Perry, a 32-year-old Floridian, was undefeated (6-0, 3 KOs) as a bare-knuckle boxer after forging a 14-8 record in UFC bouts. In pre-fight blurbs, Perry was billed as the baddest bare knuckle boxer of all time, but against Jake Paul he proved to have very unrefined skills as a conventional boxer which Team Paul undoubtedly knew all along. Perry lasted into the eighth round in a one-sided fight that could have been stopped a lot sooner.

Jake Paul is both a boxer and a promoter. As a promoter, he handles Amanda Serrano, one of the greatest female boxers in history. That makes him the person most responsible (because the buck stops with him) for the wretched mismatch in last Saturday’s co-feature, the bout between Serrano and Stevie Morgan.

Morgan, who took up boxing two years ago at age 33, brought a 14-1 record. Nicknamed the Sledgehammer, she had won 13 of her 14 wins by knockout, eight in the opening round. However, although she resides in Florida, all but one of those 13 knockouts happened in Colombia.

“We found that in Colombia there were just more opportunities for women’s boxing than in the United States,” she told a prominent boxing writer whose name we won’t mention.

The truth is that, for some folks, Colombia is the boxing equivalent of a feeder lot for livestock, a place where a boxer can go to fatten their record. The opportunities there were no greater than in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1995. It was there that Peter McNeeley prepped for his match with Mike Tyson with a 6-second knockout of professional punching bag Frankie Hines. (Six seconds? So it would be written although no one seems to have been there to witness it.)

Serrano vs Morgan was understood to be a stay-busy fight for Amanda whose rematch with Katie Taylor was postponed until November. Stevie Morgan, to her credit, answered the bell for the second round whereas others in her situation would have remained on the stool and invented an injury to rationalize it. Thirty-eight seconds later it was all over and Ms. Morgan was free to go home and use her sledgehammer to do some light dusting.

The Paul-Perry and Serrano-Morgan fights played out in a sold-out arena in Tampa before an estimated 17,000. Those without a DAZN subscription paid $64.95 for the livestream. Paul’s next promotion, where he will touch gloves with 58-year-old Mike Tyson (unless Iron Mike pulls a Joe Biden and pulls out; a capital idea) with Serrano-Taylor II the semi-main, will almost certainly rake in more money than any other boxing promotion this year.

Asked his opinion of so-called crossover boxing by a reporter for a college newspaper, the venerable boxing promoter Bob Arum said, “It’s not my bag but folks who don’t like it shouldn’t get too worked up over it because no one is stealing from anybody.” True enough, but for some of us, the phenomenon is distressing.

—

The next big women’s fight happens Saturday in Detroit where Claressa Shields seeks a world title in a third weight class against WBC heavyweight belt-holder Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse.

A two-time Olympic gold medalist, undefeated in 14 fights as a pro, Shields is very good, arguably the best female boxer of her generation which makes her, arguably, the best female boxer of all time. But turning away Lepage-Joanisse (7-1, 2 KOs) won’t elevate her stature in our eyes.

Purportedly 17-4 as an amateur, the Canadian won her title in her second crack at it. Back in August of 2017, she challenged Cancun’s Alejandra Jimenez in Cancun and was stopped in the third round. Entering the bout, Lepage-Joanisse was 3-0 as a pro and had never fought a match slated for more than four rounds.

Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse

True, on the women’s side, the heavyweight bracket is a very small pod. A sanctioning body has to make concessions to harness a sanctioning fee. Nonetheless, how absurd that a woman who had answered the bell for only 11 rounds would be deemed qualified to compete for a world title. (FYI: Alejandra Jimenez was purportedly born a man. She left the sport with a 12-0-1 record after her win over Franchon Crews Dazurn was changed to a no-contest when she tested positive for the banned steroid stanozolol.)

Following her defeat to Jimenez, Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse, now 29 years old, was out of action for six-and-a-half years. When she returned, she was still a heavyweight, but a much slender heavyweight. She carried 231 pounds for Jimenez. In her most recent bout where she captured the vacant WBC title with a split decision over Argentina’s Abril Argentina Vidal, she clocked in at 173 ¼. (On the distaff side, there’s no uniformity among the various sanctioning bodies as to what constitutes a heavyweight.)

Claressa Shields doesn’t need Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse to reinforce her credentials as a future Hall of Famer. She made the cut a long time ago.

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Former World Bantamweight Champion Richie Sandoval Passes Away at Age 63

Published

4 days ago

July 22, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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Richie Sandoval, who won the WBA and lineal bantamweight title in one of the biggest upsets of the 1980s and then, not quite two years later, suffered near-fatal injuries in a title defense, has passed away at the age of 63.

News circulated fast in the Las Vegas boxing community on Monday, July 22, the grapevine actuated by a tweet from Hall of Fame matchmaker Bruce Trampler: “Boxing and the Top Rank family lost one of our own last night in the passing of former WBA bantamweight champion Richie Sandoval. It hurts personally and professionally to know that Richie is gone at age 63. RIP campeon.”

Details are vague but the cause of death was apparently a sudden heart attack that Sandoval experienced while visiting the Southern California home of his son of the same name.

Richie Sandoval put the LA County community of Pomona, California, on the boxing map before Shane Mosley came along and gave the town a more frequently-cited mention in the sports section of the papers. He came from a fighting family. An older brother, Albert “Superfly” Sandoval, became a big draw at LA’s fabled Olympic Auditorium while building a 35-2-1 record that included a failed bid to capture Lupe Pintor’s world bantamweight title.

Richie was a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic boxing team that was stranded when U.S. President Jimmy Carter (and many other world leaders) boycotted the event as a protest against Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan.

As a pro, Sandoval’s signature win was a 15^th-round stoppage of Jeff Chandler. They fought on April 7, 1984 in Atlantic City. Chandler was making the tenth defense of his world bantamweight title.

Despite being a heavy underdog, Sandoval dominated the fight, winning almost every round until the referee stepped in and waived it off. Chandler, who was 33-1-2 heading in and had avenged his lone defeat, never fought again.

Sandoval made two successful defenses before risking his title against Gaby Canizales on the undercard of Hagler-Mugabi in the outdoor stadium at Caesars Palace. In round seven, Sandoval, who had a hellish time making the weight, was knocked down three times and suffered a seizure as he collapsed from the third knockdown. Stretchered out of the ring, he was rushed to the hospital where doctors reduced the swelling in his brain and beat the odds to save his life. This would be Richie’s lone defeat. He finished his pro career with a record of 29-1 (17 KOs).

Bob Arum cushioned some of the pain by giving Richie a $25,000 bonus and offering him a lifetime job at Top Rank which Richie accepted. And let the record show that Arum was good to his word.

A more elaborate portrait of Richie Sandoval was published in these pages in 2017. You can check it out HERE. May he rest in peace.

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