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Ringside in LA: Leo Santa Cruz Educates Rafael Rivera in an Entertaining Fight
LOS ANGELES-Last minute substitute or not, Leo Santa Cruz met the future in Mexico’s Rafael Rivera and banged it out with the youngster for 12 entertaining rounds to retain the WBA featherweight world title by decision on Saturday.
It was all about that learning curve.
Santa Cruz (36-1-1, 19 KOs) gave Tijuana’s Rivera (26-3-2, 17 KOs) a lesson on elite prizefighting before more than 5,000 at the Microsoft Theater. Despite the disparity in experience the featherweight clash was still packed with action.
If fans expected Rivera to be run out of town by the much more experienced Santa Cruz, they were badly mistaken. The Tijuana fighter had fought in Southern California twice before and exhibited a toughness and grit you don’t see from run-of-the-mill opponents. Though he was called in just weeks ago, Rivera was ready and willing.
Immediately Santa Cruz showed the skill and intelligence needed to be a world champion and targeted Rivera’s body from the first round. Despite the painful looking digs to the body, the youngster Rivera held firm.
It was all Santa Cruz for the first four rounds as he showed off his ability to blast body shots at will. The painful looking shots seemed to bother Rivera, not because of the pain inflicted, but from embarrassment from not being able to defend against the onslaught.
“I hit him hard to the body and head very well, but he didn’t go down,” said Santa Cruz.
Rivera found his break in the fifth round when he managed to give the champion a different look. Multiple left hooks connected on the champion and he then capped the end of the round with a vicious left hook body shot and right uppercut. Santa Cruz smiled at the effort.
Santa Cruz never allowed Rivera much more from there on. He mixed up his attack and confused Rivera with different looks, except in the ninth round when both flurried with a barrage of blows like angry alley cats.
The winner of the fight was never in doubt during the last half of the fight. But fans enjoyed the high caliber exhibition of the art of banging Mexican style. After 11 rounds both fighters looked at each other with respect and were ready for an eventful finale.
Santa Cruz probably knew he was far ahead and though he relishes bang, bang type of fights, he was still careful enough to not make obvious openings for Rivera. It was a careful and scientific round until the final 10 second warning clap, then both looked at each other and nodded simultaneously and proceeded to unleash a barrage of punches in tornado-like fashion. The fans yelled in unison for the flourish of blows and cheered at the final bell.
But after 12 rounds the judges were in agreement and all tabbed the fight 119-109 for Santa Cruz.
“I’m very happy with my performance and I thought I gave everyone a great fight. I was in there with one of the best fighters in the world and throwing punches and exchanging with him. More than anything, I’m very proud to have fought 12 rounds with a great world champion like Leo Santa Cruz,” said Rivera.
Santa Cruz was not as pleased with the performance, but happy that it was an entertaining fight.
“I tried to do my best and do what I could to give them a great fight,” said Santa Cruz. “I would have loved to have been even better, but he’s really tough and solid opponent.”
Santa Cruz fans were pleased by the effort and the champion himself seeks even more challenges this year.
“I want to fight the best. I want to fight any of the champions at featherweight or a third fight with Carl Frampton,” said Santa Cruz. “I want to be back this summer and fight three times this year against the best in the division.”
Figueroa Wins
A battle between welterweight sluggers saw Omar Figueroa (28-0-1, 19 KOs) out-punch John Molina (30-8, 24 KOs) and win by unanimous decision after 10 rounds in a fight that surprisingly saw no knockdowns despite their lofty records for stoppages.
Figueroa was the busier fighter throughout but Molina had his moments especially with the overhand rights. Each fighter scored with heavy shots throughout the 10 round match but the judges liked Figueroa’s busier output. The scores were 97-93, 98-92, 99-91 for Figueroa.
It was expected to be a fight resulting in a knockout but each fighter showed a good chin despite the big blows scored. Figueroa, who hails from Weslaco, Texas, is a former lightweight world titlist but has been forced to move up due to weight problems. Southern California’s Molina showed a good chin and keeps his name in the game.
Ryosuke Iwasa Wins Elimination Bout
Japan’s Ryosuke Iwasa (26-3) won by technical decision after 10 rounds against Mexico’s Cesar Juarez (23-7) in an IBF super bantamweight elimination title fight. The fight was stopped because of a cut on Juarez from an accidental clash of heads in the second round, A ringside physician stopped the fight at the end of the ninth round and according to California rules it went to the scorecards where Iwasa was ruled the winner by majority decision 95-95, 97-93, 98-92.
Other Bouts
Giant super welterweight Sebastian Fundora (12-0, 8 KOs) knocked out Buffalo’s Donnie Marshall (10-1, 6 KOs) at 1:08 of the third round to win the battle of undefeated 154-pounders.
Despite the nine-inch reach advantage and the six-inch height advantage Fundor fought most of the clash on the inside and scored heavily with long right uppercuts. It was a long right uppercut that caught Marshall moving away and floored him in the third round. Fundora then chased the dazed fighter around the ring and battered him with a dozen unanswered blows that forced referee Jerry Cantu to halt the fight and declare a knockout win for Fundora.
Fundora fights out of Coachella, Calif.
Argentina’s Neri Romero (12-0) was blasted to the floor with a sneak punch by Thomas Smith (5-7-1) right during a break but managed to claw his way back to a win by unanimous decision after six rounds in a super featherweight match. Smith, who fights out of Dallas, showed he could really take a shot but tired at the end of the last three rounds and allowed Romero to win on endurance. All three judges saw it the same 58-55.
Shon Mondragon (1-0) stopped Julio Martinez (1-1) at 47 seconds of round two with a two-fisted attack that forced referee Ray Corona to halt the super bantamweight fight. Mondragon, a southpaw, fights out of Commerce, Colorado.
Photo credit: Al Applerose
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Usyk Outpoints Fury and Itauma has the “Wow Factor” in Riyadh
Usyk Outpoints Fury and Itauma has the “Wow Factor” in Riyadh
Oleksandr Usyk left no doubt that he is the best heavyweight of his generation and one of the greatest boxers of all time with a unanimous decision over Tyson Fury tonight at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. But although the Ukrainian won eight rounds on all three scorecards, this was no runaway. To pirate a line from one of the DAZN talking heads, Fury had his moments in every round but Usyk had more moments.
The early rounds were fought at a faster pace than the first meeting back in May. At the mid-point, the fight was even. The next three rounds – the next five to some observers – were all Usyk who threw more punches and landed the cleaner shots.
Fury won the final round in the eyes of this reporter scoring at home, but by then he needed a knockout to pull the match out of the fire.
The last round was an outstanding climax to an entertaining chess match during which both fighters took turns being the pursuer and the pursued.
An Olympic gold medalist and a unified world champion at cruiserweight and heavyweight, the amazing Usyk improved his ledger to 23-0 (14). His next fight, more than likely, will come against the winner of the Feb. 22 match in Ridayh between Daniel Dubois and Joseph Parker which will share the bill with the rematch between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.
Fury (34-2-1) may fight Anthony Joshua next. Regardless, no one wants a piece of Moses Itauma right now although the kid is only 19 years old.
Moses Itauma
Raised in London by a Nigerian father and a Slovakian mother, Itauma turned heads once again with another “wow” performance. None of his last seven opponents lasted beyond the second round.
His opponent tonight, 34-year-old Australian Demsey McKean, lasted less than two minutes. Itauma, a southpaw with blazing fast hands, had the Aussie on the deck twice during the 117-second skirmish. The first knockdown was the result of a cuffing punch that landed high on the head; the second knockdown was produced by an overhand left. McKean went down hard as his chief cornerman bounded on to the ring apron to halt the massacre.
Itauma (12-0, 10 KOs after going 20-0 as an amateur) is the real deal. It was the second straight loss for McKean (22-2) who lasted into the 10th round against Filip Hrgovic in his last start.
Bohachuk-Davis
In a fight billed as the co-main although it preceded Itauma-McKean, Serhii Bohachuk, an LA-based Ukrainian, stopped Ishmael Davis whose corner pulled him out after six frames.
Both fighters were coming off a loss in fights that were close on the scorecards, Bohachuk falling to Vergil Ortiz Jr in a Las Vegas barnburner and Davis losing to Josh Kelly.
Davis, who took the fight on short notice, subbing for Ismail Madrimov, declined to 13-2. He landed a few good shots but was on the canvas in the second round, compliments of a short left hook, and the relentless Bohachuk (25-2, 24 KOs) eventually wore him down.
Fisher-Allen
In a messy, 10-round bar brawl masquerading as a boxing match, Johnny Fisher, the Romford Bull, won a split decision over British countryman David Allen. Two judges favored Fisher by 95-94 tallies with the dissenter favoring Allen 96-93. When the scores were announced, there was a chorus of boos and those watching at home were outraged.
Allen was a step up in class for Fisher. The Doncaster man had a decent record (23-5-2 heading in) and had been routinely matched tough (his former opponents included Dillian Whyte, Luis “King Kong” Ortiz and three former Olympians). But Allen was fairly considered no more than a journeyman and Fisher (12-0 with 11 KOs, eight in the opening round) was a huge favorite.
In round five, Allen had Fisher on the canvas twice although only one was ruled a true knockdown. From that point, he landed the harder shots and, at the final bell, he fell to canvas shedding tears of joy, convinced that he had won.
He did not win, but he exposed Johnny Fisher as a fighter too slow to compete with elite heavyweights, a British version of the ponderous Russian-Canadian campaigner Arslanbek Makhmudov.
Other Bouts of Note
In a spirited 10-round featherweight match, Scotland’s Lee McGregor, a former European bantamweight champion and stablemate of former unified 140-pound title-holder Josh Taylor, advanced to 15-1-1 (11) with a unanimous decision over Isaac Lowe (25-3-3). The judges had it 96-92 and 97-91 twice.
A cousin and regular houseguest of Tyson Fury, Lowe fought most of the fight with cuts around both eyes and was twice deducted a point for losing his gumshield.
In a fight between super featherweights that could have gone either way, Liverpool southpaw Peter McGrail improved to 11-1 (6) with a 10-round unanimous decision over late sub Rhys Edwards. The judges had it 96-95 and 96-94 twice.
McGrail, a Tokyo Olympian and 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medalist, fought from the third round on with a cut above his right eye, the result of an accidental clash of heads. It was the first loss for Edwards (16-1), a 24-year-old Welshman who has another fight booked in three weeks.
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Fury-Usyk Reignited: Can the Gypsy King Avenge his Lone Defeat?
Fury-Usyk Reignited: Can the Gypsy King Avenge his Lone Defeat?
In professional boxing, the heavyweight division, going back to the days of John L. Sullivan, is the straw that stirs the drink. By this measure, the fight on May 18 of this year at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was the biggest prizefight in decades. The winner would emerge as the first undisputed heavyweight champion since 1999 when Lennox Lewis out-pointed Evander Holyfield in their second meeting.
The match did not disappoint. It had several twists and turns.
Usyk did well in the early rounds, but the Gypsy King rattled Usyk with a harsh right hand in the fifth stanza and won rounds five through seven on all three cards. In the ninth, the match turned sharply in favor of the Ukrainian. Fury was saved by the bell after taking a barrage of unanswered punches, the last of which dictated a standing 8-count from referee Mark Nelson. But Fury weathered the storm and with his amazing powers of recuperation had a shade the best of it in the final stanza.
The decision was split: 115-112 and 114-113 for Usyk who became a unified champion in a second weight class; 114-113 for Fury.
That brings us to tomorrow (Saturday, Dec. 21) where Usyk and Fury will renew acquaintances in the same ring where they had their May 18 showdown.
The first fight was a near “pick-‘em” affair with Fury closing a very short favorite at most of the major bookmaking establishments. The Gypsy King would have been a somewhat higher favorite if not for the fact that he was coming off a poor showing against MMA star Francis Ngannou and had a worrisome propensity for getting cut. (A cut above Fury’s right eye in sparring pushed back the fight from its original Feb. 11 date.)
Tomorrow’s sequel, bearing the tagline “Reignited,” finds Usyk a consensus 7/5 favorite although those odds could shorten by post time. (There was no discernible activity after today’s weigh-in where Fury, fully clothed, topped the scales at 281, an increase of 19 pounds over their first meeting.)
Given the politics of boxing, anything “undisputed” is fragile. In June, Usyk abandoned his IBF belt and the organization anointed Daniel Dubois their heavyweight champion based upon Dubois’s eighth-round stoppage of Filip Hrgovic in a bout billed for the IBF interim title. The malodorous WBA, a festering boil on the backside of boxing, now recognizes 43-year-old Kubrat Pulev as its “regular” heavyweight champion.
Another difference between tomorrow’s fight card and the first installment is that the May 18 affair had a much stronger undercard. Two strong pairings were the rematch between cruiserweights Jai Opetaia and Maris Briedis (Opetaia UD 12) and the heavyweight contest between unbeatens Agit Kabayal and Frank Sanchez (Kabayel KO 7).
Tomorrow’s semi-wind-up between Serhii Bohachuk and Ismail Madrimov lost luster when Madrimov came down with bronchitis and had to withdraw. The featherweight contest between Peter McGrail and Dennis McCann fell out when McCann’s VADA test returned an adverse finding. Bohachuk and McGrail remain on the card but against late-sub opponents in matches that are less intriguing.
The focal points of tomorrow’s undercard are the bouts involving undefeated British heavyweights Moses Itauma (10-0, 8 KOs) and Johnny Fisher (12-0, 11 KOs). Both are heavy favorites over their respective opponents but bear watching because they represent the next generation of heavyweight standouts. Fury and Usyk are getting long in the tooth. The Gypsy King is 36; Usyk turns 38 next month.
Bob Arum once said that nobody purchases a pay-per-view for the undercard and, years from now, no one will remember which sanctioning bodies had their fingers in the pie. So, Fury-Usyk II remains a very big deal, although a wee bit less compelling than their first go-around.
Will Tyson Fury avenge his lone defeat? Turki Alalshikh, the Chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority and the unofficial czar of “major league” boxing, certainly hopes so. His Excellency has made known that he stands poised to manufacture a rubber match if Tyson prevails.
We could have already figured this out, but Alalshikh violated one of the protocols of boxing when he came flat out and said so. He effectively made Tyson Fury the “A-side,” no small potatoes considering that the most relevant variable on the checklist when handicapping a fight is, “Who does the promoter need?”
The Uzyk-Fury II fight card will air on DAZN with a suggested list price of $39.99 for U.S. fight fans. The main event is expected to start about 5:45 pm ET / 2:45 pm PT.
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Unheralded Bruno Surace went to Tijuana and Forged the TSS 2024 Upset of the Year
Unheralded Bruno Surace went to Tijuana and Forged the TSS 2024 Upset of the Year
The Dec. 14 fight at Tijuana between Jaime Munguia and Bruno Surace was conceived as a stay-busy fight for Munguia. The scuttlebutt was that Munguia’s promoters, Zanfer and Top Rank, wanted him to have another fight under his belt before thrusting him against Christian Mbilli in a WBC eliminator with the prize for the winner (in theory) a date with Canelo Alvarez.
Munguia came to the fore in May of 2018 at Verona, New York, when he demolished former U.S. Olympian Sadam Ali, conqueror of Miguel Cotto. That earned him the WBO super welterweight title which he successfully defended five times.
Munguia kept winning as he moved up in weight to middleweight and then super middleweight and brought a 43-0 (34) record into his Cinco de Mayo 2024 match with Canelo.
Jaime went the distance with Alvarez and had a few good moments while losing a unanimous decision. He rebounded with a 10th-round stoppage of Canada’s previously undefeated Erik Bazinyan.
There was little reason to think that Munguia would overlook Surace as the Mexican would be fighting in his hometown for the first time since February of 2022 and would want to send the home folks home happy. Moreover, even if Munguia had an off-night, there was no reason to think that the obscure Surace could capitalize. A Frenchman who had never fought outside France, Surace brought a 25-0-2 record and a 22-fight winning streak, but he had only four knockouts to his credit and only eight of his wins had come against opponents with winning records.
It appeared that Munguia would close the show early when he sent the Frenchman to the canvas in the second round with a big left hook. From that point on, Surace fought mostly off his back foot, throwing punches in spurts, whereas the busier Munguia concentrated on chopping him down with body punches. But Surace absorbed those punches well and at the midway point of the fight, behind on the cards but nonplussed, it now looked as if the bout would go the full 10 rounds with Munguia winning a lopsided decision.
Then lightning struck. Out of the blue, Surace connected with an overhand right to the jaw. Munguia went down flat on his back. He rose a fraction-of-a second before the count reached “10,”, but stumbled as he pulled himself upright. His eyes were glazed and referee Juan Jose Ramirez, a local man, waived it off. There was no protest coming from Munguia or his cornermen. The official time was 2:36 of round six.
At major bookmaking establishments, Jaime Munguia was as high as a 35/1 favorite. No world title was at stake, yet this was an upset for the ages.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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