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Ortiz’s Upset Ended a Long Night in Philly, and Much Longer Wait for the Met

As the featured attractions of the evening were preparing to enter the ring and make history of sorts, ring announcer Mark Fratto enthusiastically reminded the sellout crowd of 3,400-plus that what was about to happen was “the first main event here in 65 years!”
Put in that perspective, what had already been a long day’s journey into night, or more accurately a long night’s journey toward very early the next morning, didn’t seem that long at all. True, the first bout of a very full pugilistic dance card – 10 fights in all, with another canceled because of an unspecified “medical condition” involving one of the would-be participants – began right on time at 7 p.m., but over 4½ hours had elapsed when the scorecards for lightweight Steven Ortiz’s unanimous, eight-round decision over fellow Philadelphian Jeremy Cuevas were read by Fratto. Figure on a show that would have lasted five hours had that 11th fight taken place, or if three fights that did happen not ended in the first round, with two more only making it to round two.
But here’s the thing: boxing at the exquisitely refurbished The Met Philadelphia, which had not been the site of a boxing event since 1954, was back in the fight game, and back with a high enough entertainment quotient that few if any spectators left early because of fatigue, boredom or short attention spans.
“We’re just blessed,” Manny Rivera, president of Hard Hitting Promotions, said of the first of what he plans to be six fight cards at The Met in 2019, the next scheduled for April 26. “We had a turnout of about 3,350, maybe 3,400 (capacity for boxing had been pegged at be 3,200). I knew it could happen, but it is humbling to know that we have the support that we have. The people got their money’s worth that was more important to me than anything. We said we’re here to put on good, competitive fights, and we delivered.”
But Rivera – who snagged the coveted boxing tie-in with Live Nation Philadelphia, the concert promotional company that controls other usage dates at The Met, the erstwhile Metropolitan Opera House which over the past 18 months underwent a $56 million transformation to the historic building’s former opulence – didn’t have the total level of the satisfaction he might have had, the large audience notwithstanding. Two of Hard Hitting’s more important assets, Cuevas and super lightweight Samuel Teah, each lost his bout for a vacant Pennsylvania State championship. Then again, Rivera can justifiably note that he didn’t shortchange the paying customers by feeding a couple of his headliners no-hope opponents, as so often is the case with cards more geared toward padding the records of the favored few.
Cuevas, now 11-1 with eight victories inside the distance, might have preferred a softer touch than he got in Ortiz (10-0, 3 KOs), who floored him in the second and seventh rounds of the scheduled eight-rounder en route to a surprisingly wide margin of victory on the scorecards submitted by James Kenney (79-71) and Dewey LaRosa and Ron McNair (each 78-72).
Although Cuevas declined to be interviewed, his disappointment at being tagged with his first professional defeat elicited a familiar reaction from previously undefeated fighters whose initial reaction is that their dreams have come crashing down, never to be resurrected. “He was, like, `It’s all over, it’s all over,’” said his mom. Cuevas’ cornermen were a bit more pragmatic, vowing that their guy’s somewhat surprising comeuppance from Ortiz would simply serve as a learning experience, a useful building block on the way back to bigger and better things.
An exuberant Ortiz, on the other hand, thought he had just laid such a building block. He had helped prepare for Cuevas, a highly mobile southpaw with decent pop, in part through sparring sessions with Luis Collazo, the 37-year-old former welterweight champion and still a pretty slick lefthander at this advanced stage of his career.
“I’m excited. I’m glad I made history,” Ortiz, from North Philly, said of the distinction of being the first winning main-event fighter in the long-delayed return of boxing to The Met. “I got a win over a great fighter, and the crowd was a sellout. This is amazing, man. I’m impressed with myself.”
Ortiz’s 33.3 percent knockout rate coming in suggested a lack of punching power, but he didn’t just floor Cuevas with a left hook in the closing seconds of round two, he shook him, badly. That shot either had the effect of taking some of the spring out of Cuevas’ legs, or convincing him that he needed to stand and trade more to make up for lost ground. Either way, it didn’t work as he again went to the canvas after getting nailed by an overhand right in round seven.
“The power was there,” Ortiz said. “We’re definitely going to start getting more guys out of there. It comes with experience, with discipline, with staying focused. We’re going to keep getting better, we’re going to keep getting stronger, we’re going to keep getting smarter.”
The Ortiz-Cuevas fight was good stuff, and it had to be, given that the preceding bout – an eight-round unanimous decision for Baltimore welterweight Malik Hawkins (14-0, 9 KOs) over Gledwin Ortiz (6-3, 5 KOs) – was main-event worthy. No knockdowns were registered, but Hawkins’ heavier hands made the difference the active and very game Ortiz (no relation to Steven Ortiz), whose bleached blond hairstyle would make him the winner of a Jarrett Hurd (he’s the IBF/WBA super welterweight champion) lookalike contest, if there were such a thing. Scores were 79-73, 79-74 and 77-75, all for Hawkins.
Teah (15-3-1, 7 KOs), from Northeast Philly by way of his native Liberia, couldn’t come close to solving the southpaw stylings of Tre’Sean Wiggins (11-4-1, 6 KOs) in an eight-rounder for the vacant Pennsylvania State super lightweight title. That almost was to be expected, Teach having lost an eight-round majority decision to another lefthander, Montana Love, on Feb. 2, 2018.
“Typically Sammy has problems with southpaws,” said Rivera, who thus might not have done Teah any favors by making this particular bout. “But Sammy has fights he needs to take, and win. Tonight he couldn’t pull it off, but he’ll be back.”
Some found it curious that Wiggins, who was introduced as being from Newburgh, N.Y., was fighting for a Pennsylvania state championship. Rivera, however, said it was a legit pairing, that Wiggins was only born in Newburgh and that he now resides in Johnstown, Pa.
The most emphatic ending of the night was registered by super lightweight Brandon Pizarro (14-1, 7 KOs), a 19-year-old up-and-comer who put Zack Ramsey (8-6, 4 KOs), of Springfield, Mass., down twice in the opening round, the first time on a left hook to the body, the second, for the full count, on a left uppercut.
Super featherweight Gadwin Rosa (10-0, 8 KOs), of Ocala, Fla., remained undefeated with a second-round stoppage of Jorge Luis Santos (5-3-1, 2 KOs), of Mexico. Also extending an unblemished record was another super featherweight, Puerto Rico’s Christian Tapia (8-0, 7 KOs), who also required just two rounds to put away David Veras Pena (0-2-1) on a second-round TKO.
In other bouts, bantamweight Emanuel Rodriguez (4-0), of Newark, N.J., took a four-round unanimous decision over Jose Lopez (0-1-1), Bronx, N.Y.; light heavyweight Benjamin Sinakin (3-0, 2 KOs), South Philly, bombed out fellow Philly guy Ronald Lawrence (0-4) in one round; Josue Rosa (1-0, 1 KO), Philly, turned pro with what goes into the books as a first-round stoppage when Willie Anderson (0-2), Paulsboro, N.J., did not come out for the second round, citing injury, and bantamweights Tamar Israeli (2-0-1, 2 KOs) and Karen Dullin (3-16-1, 1 KOs), North Kingstown, R.I., fought to a four-round majority draw in a women’s matchup.
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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Arne’s Almanac: The First Boxing Writers Assoc. of America Dinner Was Quite the Shindig

The first annual dinner of the Boxing Writers Association of America was staged on April 25, 1926 in the grand ballroom of New York’s Hotel Astor, an edifice that rivaled the original Waldorf Astoria as the swankiest hotel in the city. Back then, the organization was known as the Boxing Writers Association of Greater New York.
The ballroom was configured to hold 1200 for the banquet which was reportedly oversubscribed. Among those listed as agreeing to attend were the governors of six states (New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Maryland) and the mayors of 10 of America’s largest cities.
In 1926, radio was in its infancy and the digital age was decades away (and inconceivable). So, every journalist who regularly covered boxing was a newspaper and/or magazine writer, editor, or cartoonist. And at this juncture in American history, there were plenty of outlets for someone who wanted to pursue a career as a sportswriter and had the requisite skills to get hired.
The following papers were represented at the inaugural boxing writers’ dinner:
New York Times
New York News
New York World
New York Sun
New York Journal
New York Post
New York Mirror
New York Telegram
New York Graphic
New York Herald Tribune
Brooklyn Eagle
Brooklyn Times
Brooklyn Standard Union
Brooklyn Citizen
Bronx Home News
This isn’t a complete list because a few of these papers, notably the New York World and the New York Journal, had strong afternoon editions that functioned as independent papers. Plus, scribes from both big national wire services (Associated Press and UPI) attended the banquet and there were undoubtedly a smattering of scribes from papers in New Jersey and Connecticut.
Back then, the event’s organizer Nat Fleischer, sports editor of the New York Telegram and the driving force behind The Ring magazine, had little choice but to limit the journalistic component of the gathering to writers in the New York metropolitan area. There wasn’t a ballroom big enough to accommodate a good-sized response if he had extended the welcome to every boxing writer in North America.
The keynote speaker at the inaugural dinner was New York’s charismatic Jazz Age mayor James J. “Jimmy” Walker, architect of the transformative Walker Law of 1920 which ushered in a new era of boxing in the Empire State with a template that would guide reformers in many other jurisdictions.
Prizefighting was then associated with hooligans. In his speech, Mayor Walker promised to rid the sport of their ilk. “Boxing, as you know, is closest to my heart,” said hizzoner. “So I tell you the police force is behind you against those who would besmirch or injure boxing. Rowdyism doesn’t belong in this town or in your game.” (In 1945, Walker would be the recipient of the Edward J. Neil Memorial Award given for meritorious service to the sport. The oldest of the BWAA awards, the previous recipients were all active or former boxers. The award, no longer issued under that title, was named for an Associated Press sportswriter and war correspondent who died from shrapnel wounds covering the Spanish Civil War.)
Another speaker was well-traveled sportswriter Wilbur Wood, then affiliated with the Brooklyn Citizen. He told the assembly that the aim of the organization was two-fold: to help defend the game against its detractors and to promote harmony among the various factions.
Of course, the 1926 dinner wouldn’t have been as well-attended without the entertainment. According to press dispatches, Broadway stars and performers from some of the city’s top nightclubs would be there to regale the attendees. Among the names bandied about were vaudeville superstars Sophie Tucker and Jimmy Durante, the latter of whom would appear with his trio, Durante, (Lou) Clayton, and (Eddie) Jackson.
There was a contraction of New York newspapers during the Great Depression. Although empirical evidence is lacking, the inaugural boxing writers dinner was likely the largest of its kind. Fifteen years later, in 1941, the event drew “more than 200” according to a news report. There was no mention of entertainment.
In 1950, for the first time, the annual dinner was opened to the public. For $25, a civilian could get a meal and mingle with some of his favorite fighters. Sugar Ray Robinson was the Edward J. Neil Award winner that year, honored for his ring exploits and for donating his purse from the Charlie Fusari fight to the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund.
There was no formal announcement when the Boxing Writers Association of Greater New York was re-christened the Boxing Writers Association of America, but by the late 1940s reporters were referencing the annual event as simply the boxing writers dinner. By then, it had become traditional to hold the annual affair in January, a practice discontinued after 1971.
The winnowing of New York’s newspaper herd plus competing banquets in other parts of the country forced Nat Fleischer’s baby to adapt. And more adaptations will be necessary in the immediate future as the future of the BWAA, as it currently exists, is threatened by new technologies. If the forthcoming BWAA dinner (April 30 at the Edison Ballroom in mid-Manhattan) were restricted to wordsmiths from the traditional print media, the gathering would be too small to cover the nut and the congregants would be drawn disproportionately from the geriatric class.
Some of those adaptations have already started. Last year, Las Vegas resident Sean Zittel, a recent UNLV graduate, had the distinction of becoming the first videographer welcomed into the BWAA. With more and more people getting their news from sound bites, rather than the written word, the videographer serves an important function.
The reporters who conducted interviews with pen and paper have gone the way of the dodo bird and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A taped interview for a “talkie” has more integrity than a story culled from a paper and pen interview because it is unfiltered. Many years ago, some reporters, after interviewing the great Joe Louis, put words in his mouth that made him seem like a dullard, words consistent with the Sambo stereotype. In other instances, the language of some athletes was reconstructed to the point where the reader would think the athlete had a second job as an English professor.
The content created by videographers is free from that bias. More of them will inevitably join the BWAA and similar organizations in the future.
Photo: Nat Fleischer is flanked by Sugar Ray Robinson and Tony Zale at the 1947 boxing writers dinner.
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Gabriela Fundora KOs Marilyn Badillo and Perez Upsets Conwell in Oceanside

It was just a numbers game for Gabriela Fundora and despite Mexico’s Marilyn Badillo’s elusive tactics it took the champion one punch to end the fight and retain her undisputed flyweight world title by knockout on Saturday.
Will it be her last flyweight defense?
Though Fundora (16-0, 8 KOs) fired dozens of misses, a single punch found Badillo (19-1-1, 3 KOs) and ended her undefeated career and first attempt at a world title at the Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California.
Fundora, however, proves unbeatable at flyweight.
The champion entered the arena as the headliner for the Golden Boy Promotion show and stepped through the ropes with every physical advantage possible, including power.
Mexico’s Badillo was a midget compared to Fundora but proved to be as elusive as a butterfly in a menagerie for the first six rounds. As the six-inch taller Fundora connected on one punch for every dozen thrown, that single punch was a deadly reminder.
Badillo tried ducking low and slipping to the left while countering with slashing uppercuts, she found little success. She did find the body a solid target but the blows proved to be useless. And when Badillo clinched, that proved more erroneous as Fundora belted her rapidly during the tie-ups.
“She was kind of doing her ducking thing,” said Fundora describing Badillo’s defensive tactics. “I just put the pressure on. It was just like a train. We didn’t give her that break.”
The Mexican fighter tried valiantly with various maneuvers. None proved even slightly successful. Fundora remained poised and under control as she stalked the challenger.
In the seventh round Badillo seemed to take a stand and try to slug it out with Fundora. She quickly was lit up by rapid left crosses and down she went at 1:44 of the seventh round. The Mexican fighter’s corner wisely waved off the fight and referee Rudy Barragan stopped the fight and held the dazed Badillo upright.
Once again Fundora remained champion by knockout. The only question now is will she move up to super flyweight or bantamweight to challenge the bigger girls.
Perez Beats Conwell.
Mexico’s Jorge “Chino” Perez (33-4, 26 KOs) upset Charles Conwell (21-1, 15 KOs) to win by split decision after 12 rounds in their super welterweight showdown.
It was a match that paired two hard-hitting fighters whose ledgers brimmed with knockouts, but neither was able to score a knockdown against each other.
Neither fighter moved backward. It was full steam ahead with Conwell proving successful to the body and head with left hooks and Perez connecting with rights to the head and body. It was difficult to differentiate the winner.
Though Conwell seemed to be the superior defensive fighter and more accurate, two judges preferred Perez’s busier style. They gave the fight to Perez by 115-113 scores with the dissenter favoring Conwell by the same margin.
It was Conwell’s first pro loss. Maybe it will open doors for more opportunities.
Other Bouts
Tristan Kalkreuth (15-1) managed to pass a serious heat check by unanimous decision against former contender Felix Valera (24-8) after a 10-round back-and-forth heavyweight fight.
It was very close.
Kalkreuth is one of those fighters that possess all the physical tools including youth and size but never seems to be able to show it. Once again he edged past another foe but at least this time he faced an experienced fighter in Valera.
Valera had his moments especially in the middle of the 10-round fight but slowed down during the last three rounds.
One major asset for Kalkreuth was his chin. He got caught but still motored past the clever Valera. After 10 rounds two judges saw it 99-91 and one other judge 97-93 all for Kalkreuth.
Highly-rated prospect Ruslan Abdullaev (2-0) blasted past dangerous Jino Rodrigo (13- 5-2) in an eight round super lightweight fight. He nearly stopped the very tough Rodrigo in the last two rounds and won by unanimous decision.
Abdullaev is trained by Joel and Antonio Diaz in Indio.
Bakersfield prospect Joel Iriarte (7-0, 7 KOs) needed only 1:44 to knock out Puerto Rico’s Marcos Jimenez (25-12) in a welterweight bout.
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‘Krusher’ Kovalev Exits on a Winning Note: TKOs Artur Mann in his ‘Farewell Fight’

At his peak, former three-time world light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev ranked high on everyone’s pound-for-pound list. Now 42 years old – he turned 42 earlier this month – Kovalev has been largely inactive in recent years, but last night he returned to the ring in his hometown of Chelyabinsk, Russia, and rose to the occasion in what was billed as his farewell fight, stopping Artur Mann in the seventh frame.
Kovalev hit his peak during his first run as a world title-holder. He was 30-0-1 (26 KOs) entering first match with Andre Ward, a mark that included a 9-0 mark in world title fights. The only blemish on his record was a draw that could have been ruled a no-contest (journeyman Grover Young was unfit to continue after Kovalev knocked down in the second round what with was deemed an illegal rabbit punch). Among those nine wins were two stoppages of dangerous Haitian-Canadian campaigner Jean Pascal and a 12-round shutout over Bernard Hopkins.
Kovalev’s stature was not diminished by his loss to the undefeated Ward. All three judges had it 114-113, but the general feeling among the ringside press was that Sergey nicked it.
The rematch was also somewhat controversial. Referee Tony Weeks, who halted the match in the eighth stanza with Kovalev sitting on the lower strand of ropes, was accused of letting Ward get away with a series of low blows, including the first punch of a three-punch series of body shots that culminated in the stoppage. Sergey was wobbled by a punch to the head earlier in the round and was showing signs of fatigue, but he was still in the fight. Respected judge Steve Weisfeld had him up by three points through the completed rounds.
Sergey Kovalev was never the same after his second loss to Andre Ward, albeit he recaptured a piece of the 175-pound title twice, demolishing Vyacheslav Shabranskyy for the vacant WBO belt after Ward announced his retirement and then avenging a loss to Eleider Alvarez (TKO by 7) with a comprehensive win on points in their rematch.
Kovalev’s days as a title-holder ended on Nov. 2, 2019 when Canelo Alvarez, moving up two weight classes to pursue a title in a fourth weight division, stopped him in the 11th round, terminating what had been a relatively even fight with a hellacious left-right combination that left Krusher so discombobulated that a count was superfluous.
That fight went head-to-head with a UFC fight in New York City. DAZN, to their everlasting discredit, opted to delay the start of Canelo-Kovalev until the main event of the UFC fight was finished. The delay lasted more than an hour and Kovalev would say that he lost his psychological edge during the wait.
Kovalev had two fights in the cruiserweight class between his setback to Canelo and last night’s presumptive swan song. He outpointed Tervel Pulev in Los Angeles and lost a 10-round decision to unheralded Robin Sirwan Safar in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Artur Mann, a former world title challenger – he was stopped in three rounds by Mairis Briedis in 2021 when Briedis was recognized as the top cruiserweight in the world – was unexceptional, but the 34-year-old German, born in Kazakhstan, wasn’t chopped liver either, and Kovalev’s stoppage of him will redound well to the Russian when he becomes eligible for the Boxing Hall of Fame.
Krusher almost ended the fight in the second round. He knocked Mann down hard with a short left hand and seemingly scored another knockdown before the round was over (but it was ruled a slip). Mann barely survived the round.
In the next round, a punch left Mann with a bad cut on his right eyelid, but the German came to fight and rounds three, four and five were competitive.
Kovalev had a good sixth round although there were indications that he was tiring. But in the seventh he got a second wind and unleashed a right-left combination that rolled back the clock to the days when he was one of the sport’s most feared punchers. Mann went down hard and as he staggered to his feet, his corner signaled that the fight should be stopped and the referee complied. The official time was 0:49 of round seven. It was the 30th KO for Kovalev who advanced his record to 36-5-1.
Addendum: History informs us that Farewell Fights have a habit of becoming redundant, by which we mean that boxers often get the itch to fight again after calling it quits. Have we seen the last of Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev? We woudn’t bet on it.
The complete Kovalev-Mann fight card was live-streamed on the Boxing News youtube channel.
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