Will Shields vs. Hammer Justify the Hype and Advance the Cause of Women’s Boxing?

Published

6 years ago

April 7, 2019

At long last, the (mostly) undisputed Biggest Women’s Boxing Match Ever is here. Now all that remains is for the two undefeated principals — who see themselves as fighting not only to advance their own level of stardom but for the higher purpose of benefitting their gender in a sport long dominated by men — to produce a riveting, two-way performance that comes at least reasonably close to justifying the hype.

But neither Claressa Shields (8-0, 2 KOs), the two-time Olympic gold medalist from Flint, Mich., who holds the women’s WBA, WBC and IBF middleweight championships, nor Germany’s Christina Hammer (24-0, 11 KOs), the WBO middleweight titlist, is predicting a fiercely competitive matchup that will resemble Hagler-Hearns in sports bras. Each sees herself as winning comfortably, perhaps even brutally, in the Showtime-televised 10-round main event Saturday night from the Adrian Phillips Ballroom in Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall.

“Christina doesn’t know what’s coming for her,” Shields, 23, said recently from her training camp in Miami. “I’m going to break that Hammer in half. I’m just glad I’m going to get my chance to show her what a real champion is. Someone is going down on April 13 and I promise it’s not going to be me.”

Hammer, 28, holder of at least one sanctioning body’s version of a world championship since 2010, has heard such bluster before and silenced it where it counts, inside the ropes. She figures that Shields, her two gold medals and three pro titles notwithstanding, is too inexperienced and tightly wound to solve the riddle the statuesque fraulein has always posed to opponents who are unable to back up their bold talk with action.

“I know I have the skills to beat her,” Hammer said of Shields, “and my goal is to beat her badly.”

For the sake of a cause both women hold close to their hearts, here’s hoping that the clear demonstration of ring superiority each hopes to inflict upon the other is replaced by the kind of classic confrontation that happens all too seldom in women’s boxing, and especially when presumably elite fighters are involved. When it comes to sheer entertainment value, a case can be made that the best female bout ever took place on Aug. 21, 2016, when Heather “The Heat” Hardy came away with a scintillating, 10-round majority decision over Shelly Vincent at Brooklyn’s Coney Island with the vacant WBC International featherweight title on the line. Each woman entered with an 18-0 record, but with a combined total of just five victories inside the distance. They squared off again on Oct. 27 of last year in the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden, with Hardy winning a 10-round unanimous decision and the vacant WBO featherweight crown, but despite the popularity of Hardy, a Brooklyn native, in the New York City area, she is 37 and at this stage of her career unlikely to ever command the kind of global attention that Shields, Hammer and very few other female fighters ever come close to achieving.

Two women’s fights that might have held the distinction of being the Best Ever never came off. One would have pitted Ann Wolfe, arguably the hardest-hitting, ass-kickingest woman ever to lace up a pair of gloves, against Laila Ali, the beautiful and skilled daughter of Muhammad Ali who obviously inherited part of her genetic makeup from her dad. The other was to have paired Lucia “The Dutch Destroyer” Rijker and Christy “The Coal Miner’s Daughter” Martin, the only female fighter to have appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, on July 30, 2005. Each woman was to be paid $250,000, with promoter Bob Arum vowing to reward the winner with an additional $750,000, making her, if you’ll pardon the reference to the 2004 Academy Award-winning flick about a fictional female fighter, the real Million-Dollar Baby. That potential bit of history never came to fruition when Rijker suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon in training and retired without ever having fought again.

With those distaff megafights forever remaining theoretical, it fell to the clash of celebrity offspring, Laila Ali and Jacqui Frazier-Lyde, daughter of Smokin’ Joe Frazier, to square off in what was ambitiously labeled “Ali-Frazier IV.” The two went at it on June 8, 2001, at the Turning Stone Casino Hotel in Verona, N.Y., as if they somehow had been able channel a bit of what had made their fathers great. Laila came away with an eight-round majority decision in a scrap that was better than many had expected, but nonetheless was dismissed by some skeptics as an exploitation of the hallowed names of the participants’ fathers.

Now Shields and Hammer come along to build on all that had had been, or might have been, involving predecessors who at least had conferred a sheen of legitimacy on women’s boxing. They still face an uphill fight to reach whatever might be considered a summit, but there can be no denying that progress is being made in increments. On May 31, in midtown Manhattan, Shields will receive the second annual Christy Martin Award as Female Fighter of the Year (for 2018) from the Boxing Writers Association of America, which should add some additional incentive for her to follow through on her promise to introduce Hammer to the disappointment of defeat. No matter the outcome of Shields-Hammer, however, it is not a given that the winner will be universally hailed as the best woman boxer on the planet, not with the 2017 Christy Martin Fighter of the Year honoree, Norway’s undisputed world welterweight champion Ceciilia Braekhus (35-0, 9 KOs) and WBA/WBO lightweight titlist Katie Taylor (13-0, 6 KOs) of Ireland getting votes from their share of precincts.

Battles are won or lost, and barring a draw the Shields-Hammer fight will produce one of each. But winning wars of acceptance are quite another thing, and the stated goal of both women is to elevate their version of what used to be called a manly art to something at least within hailing distance of parity with their brothers.

“Of course this is our biggest fight ever,” Hammer said of the implications attached to her date with Shields. “We’ve never had a fight like this before. It will be a game-changer for women’s boxing.

“Times are changing. (The fight is on) Saturday night, prime time, with all four belts on the line. This is huge for women’s boxing. It’s going to change everything, and will show the world that women can be strong and earn good money.”

Shields is anxious to lead the way to bigger paydays for women boxers, but there are other things she wants from the fight game that will no longer consign her to the relative second-class citizenship that comes from having been born with two X chromosomes. She thinks women champions should also be scheduled for 12-round title bouts, at three minutes per round. Presently women fight two-minute rounds, with championship bouts limited to 10 rounds.

“I fight three-minute rounds in the gym, and against men, except when I get closer to a fight and I try to get reacclimated to the two-minute rounds,” she said. “I guess (the powers that be) want to protect us from ourselves, but that’s the stupidest thing I ever heard in my life. I’m just keeping it real. For one thing, I am a woman who chose to box. Two, I’m a grown woman. Three, I don’t need nobody to protect me but me.

“The only way women’s boxing will ever get paid the same as men, and be as respected, is for us to boxing three minutes for 12 rounds. There would be more knockouts.”

Photo credit: Jose Pineiro / SHOWTIME

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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Bombs Away in Las Vegas where Inoue and Espinoza Scored Smashing Triumphs

Published

2 days ago

May 4, 2025

David A. Avila

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Japan’s Naoya “Monster” Inoue banged it out with Mexico’s Ramon Cardenas, survived an early knockdown and pounded out a stoppage win to retain the undisputed super bantamweight world championship on Sunday.

Japan and Mexico delivered for boxing fans again after American stars failed in back-to-back days.

“By watching tonight’s fight, everyone is well aware that I like to brawl,” Inoue said.

Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), and Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) and his wicked left hook, showed the world and 8,474 fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas that prizefighting is about punching, not running.

After massive exposure for three days of fights that began in New York City, then moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then to Nevada, it was the casino capital of the world that delivered what most boxing fans appreciate- pure unadulterated action fights.

Monster Inoue immediately went to work as soon as the opening bell rang with a consistent attack on Cardenas, who very few people knew anything about.

One thing promised by Cardenas’ trainer Joel Diaz was that his fighter “can crack.”

Cardenas proved his trainer’s words truthful when he caught Inoue after a short violent exchange with a short left hook and down went the Japanese champion on his back. The crowd was shocked to its toes.

“I was very surprised,” said Inoue about getting dropped. ““In the first round, I felt I had good distance. It got loose in the second round. From then on, I made sure to not take that punch again.”

Inoue had no trouble getting up, but he did have trouble avoiding some of Cardenas massive blows delivered with evil intentions. Though Inoue did not go down again, a look of total astonishment blanketed his face.

A real fight was happening.

Cardenas, who resembles actor Andy Garcia, was never overly aggressive but kept that left hook of his cocked and ready to launch whenever he saw the moment. There were many moments against the hyper-aggressive Inoue.

Both fighters pack power and both looked to find the right moment. But after Inoue was knocked down by the left hook counter, he discovered a way to eliminate that weapon from Cardenas. Still, the Texas-based fighter had a strong right too.

In the sixth round Inoue opened up with one of his lightning combinations responsible for 10 consecutive knockout wins. Cardenas backed against the ropes and Inoue blasted away with blow after blow. Then suddenly, Cardenas turned Inoue around and had him on the ropes as the Mexican fighter unloaded nasty combinations to the body and head. Fans roared their approval.

“I dreamed about fighting in front of thousands of people in Las Vegas,” said Cardenas. “So, I came to give everything.”

Inoue looked a little surprised and had a slight Mona Lisa grin across his face. In the seventh round, the Japanese four-division world champion seemed ready to attack again full force and launched into the round guns blazing. Cardenas tried to catch Inoue again with counter left hooks but Inoue’s combos rained like deadly hail. Four consecutive rights by Inoue blasted Cardenas almost through the ropes. The referee Tom Taylor ruled it a knockdown. Cardenas beat the count and survived the round.

In the eighth round Inoue looked eager to attack and at the bell launched across the ring and unloaded more blows on Cardenas. A barrage of 14 unanswered blows forced the referee to stop the fight at 45 seconds of round eight for a technical knockout win.

“I knew he was tough,” said Inoue. “Boxing is not that easy.”

Espinoza Wins

WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinosa (27-0, 23 KOs) uppercut his way to a knockout win over Edward Vazquez (17-3, 4 KOs) in the seventh round.

“I wanted to fight a game fighter to show what I am capable,” said Espinoza.

Espinosa used the leverage of his six-foot, one-inch height to slice uppercuts under the guard of Vazquez. And when the tall Mexican from Guadalajara targeted the body, it was then that the Texas fighter began to wilt. But he never surrendered.

Though he connected against Espinoza in every round, he was not able to slow down the taller fighter and that allowed the Mexican fighter to unleash a 10-punch barrage including four consecutive uppercuts. The referee stopped the fight at 1:47 of the seventh round.

It was Espinoza’s third title defense.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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Undercard Results and Recaps from the Inoue-Cardenas Show in Las Vegas

Published

2 days ago

May 4, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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The curtain was drawn on a busy boxing weekend tonight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas where the featured attraction was Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue appearing in his twenty-fifth world title fight.

The top two fights (Inoue vs. Roman Cardenas for the unified 122-pound crown and Rafael Espinoza vs. Edward Vazquez for the WBO world featherweight diadem) aired on the main ESPN platform with the preliminaries streaming on ESPN+.

The finale of the preliminaries was a 10-rounder between welterweights Rohan Polanco and Fabian Maidana. A 2020/21 Olympian for the Dominican Republic, Polanco was a solid favorite and showed why by pitching a shutout, punctuating his triumph by knocking Maidana to his knees late in the final round with a hard punch to the pit of the stomach.

Polanco improved to 16-0 (10). Argentina’s Maidana, the younger brother of former world title-holder Marcos Maidana, fell to 24-4 while maintaining his distinction of never being stopped.

Emiliano Vargas, a rising force in the 140-pound division with the potential to become a crossover star, advanced to 14-0 (12 KOs) with a second-round stoppage Juan Leon. Vargas, who turned 21 last month, is the son of former U.S. Olympian Fernando Vargas who had big money fights with the likes of Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. Emiliano knocked Leon down hard twice in round two – both the result of right-left combinations — before Robert Hoyle waived it off.

A 28-year-old Spaniard, Leon was 11-2-1 heading in.

In his U.S. debut, 29-year-old Japanese southpaw Mikito Nakano (13-0, 12 KOs) turned in an Inoue-like performance with a fourth-round stoppage of Puerto Rico’s Pedro Medina. Nakano, a featherweight, had Medina on the canvas five times before referee Harvey Dock waived it off at the 1:58 mark of round four. The shell-shocked Medina (16-2) came into the contest riding a 15-fight winning streak.

Lynwood, California junior middleweight Art Barrera Jr, a 19-year-old protégé of Robert Garcia, scored a sixth-round stoppage of Chicago’s Juan Carlos Guerra. There were no knockdowns, but the bout had turned sharply in Barrera’s favor when referee Thomas Taylor intervened. The official time was 1:15 of round six.

Barrera improved to 9-0 (7 KOs). The spunky but outclassed Guerra, who upset Nico Ali Walsh in his previous outing, declined to 6-2-1.

In the lid-lifter, a 10-round featherweight affair, Muskegon Michigan’s Ra’eese Aleem improved to 22-1 (12) with a unanimous decision over LA’s hard-trying Rudy Garcia (13-2-1). The judges had it 99-01, 98-92, and 97-93.

Aleem, 34, was making his second start since June of 2023 when he lost a split decision in Australia to Sam Goodman with a date with Naoya Inoue hanging in the balance.

Check back shortly for David Avila’s recaps of the two world title fights.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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Canelo Alvarez Upends Dancing Machine William Scull in Saudi Arabia

Published

3 days ago

May 3, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who has acquired a new nickname – “The Face of Boxing” – is accustomed to fighting on Cinco De Mayo weekend, but this year was different. For the first time, Canelo was fighting outside the continent of North America and entering the ring at an awkward hour. His match with William Scull started at 6:30 on a Sunday morning in Riyadh.

In the opposite corner was 32-year-old William Scull, an undefeated (23-0) Cuban by way of Germany, whose performance was better suited to “Dancing With the Stars” than to a world title fight. Constantly bouncing from side to side but rarely letting his hands go, Scull frustrated Canelo who found it near-impossible to corner him, but one can’t win a fight solely on defense and the Mexican superstar was returned the rightful winner in a bout that was a fitting cap to a desultory two days of Saudi-promoted prizefighting. The scores were 115-113, 116-112, and 119-109. In winning, Canelo became a fully unified super middleweight champion twice over.

Terence Crawford was in attendance and HE Turki Alalshikh made it official: Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) and Canelo (63-2-2, 39 KOs) will meet in the Fight of the Century (Alalshikh’s words) on Sept. 12 in Las Vegas at the home of the city’s NFL team, the Raiders. For whatever it’s worth, each of Canelo’s last seven fights has gone the full 12 rounds.

Semi-wind-up

In a match between the WBC world cruiserweight title-holder and the WBC world cruiserweight “champion in recess” (don’t ask), the former, Badou Jack, brought some clarity to the diadem by winning a narrow decision over Noel Mikaelian. One of the judges had it a draw (114-114), but the others gave the fight to “Jack the Ripper” by 115-113 scores.

A devout Muslim who is now a full-time resident of Saudi Arabia, the Sweden-born Jack, a three-division title-holder, had the crowd in his corner. Now 41 years old, he advanced his record to 29-3-3 (17). It was the first pro loss for Mikaelian (27-1), a Florida-based Armenian who was subbing for Ryan Rozicki.

The distracted CompuBox operator credited Mikaelian with throwing 300 more punches but there was no controversy.

Tijuana’s Jaime Munguia, a former junior middleweight title-holder, avenged his shocking loss to Bruno Sarace with a unanimous 12-round decision in their rematch. This was Munguia’s first fight with Eddy Reynoso in his corner. The scores were 117-111 and 116-112 twice.

Surace’s one-punch knockout of Munguia in mid-December in Tijuana was the runaway pick for the 2024 Upset of the Year. Heading in, Munguia was 44-1 with his lone defeat coming at the hands of Canelo Alvarez. Munguia had won every round against Surace before the roof fell in on him.

Surace won a few rounds tonight, but Munguia was the busier fighter and landed the cleaner shots. It was the first pro loss for Surace (26-1-2) and ended his 23-fight winning streak. The Frenchman hails for Marseilles.

Heavyweights

In a 10-round heavyweight match fought at a glacial pace, Martin Bakole (21-2-1) and Efe Ajagba (20-1-1) fought to a draw. One of the judges favored Ajagba 96-94 but he was outvoted by his cohorts who each had it 95-95.

Bakole, a 7/2 favorite, came in at 299 pounds, 15 more than he carried in his signature win over Jared Anderson, and looked sluggish. He was never able to effectively close off the ring against the elusive Ajagba who fought off his back foot and failed to build on his early lead.

The fight between the Scotch-Congolese campaigner Bakole and his Nigerian-American foe was informally contested for the heavyweight championship of Africa. That “title” remains vacant.

In a 6-rounder, heavy-handed Cuban light heavyweight Brayon Leon, a stablemate of Canelo Alvarez, was extended the distance for the first time while advancing his record to 7-0 at the expense of Mexico’s Aaron Roche (11-4-1). Leon knocked Roche to the canvas in the fourth round with a right-left combination, but the Mexican stayed the course while eating a lot of hard punches.

Photo credit: Leigh Dawney / Queensberry Promotions

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