Call Marvel Comics, Claressa Hammers Hammer in Making Like Wonder Woman

Published

5 years ago

April 14, 2019

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Her effort was exemplary, but the superlatives that flowed like floodwaters after a dominant Claressa Shields fully unified the women’s middleweight boxing championship with a 10-round unanimous decision over Christina Hammer suggested that the two-time Olympic gold medalist from Flint, Mich., had suddenly risen to a place of singular achievement for a female fighter.

Forget more realistic comparisons to such past women’s pugilistic icons as Lucia Rijker and Laila Ali. To hear her most ardent supporters tell it, Shields has taken on the persona of a comic-book superhero. Think Wonder Woman, or maybe Captain Marvel.

“I think tonight’s fight will go down in the history books as an epic battle with the likes of Ali-Frazier, Leonard-Hearns and De La Hoya-Trinidad,” gushed Dmitriy Salita, president of Salita Promotions, whose enthusiasm ran wild when speaking about the emerging lead pony in his stable. “With this dominating and captivating performance, Claressa Shields is well on her way to being as revered as Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson, Serena Williams, Michael Jordan, Pele and others at the top of their game.”

Also verbally genuflecting at the altar of Claressa was Mark Taffet, the former HBO executive who serves as her manager and one of her most ardent drum-beaters.

“You saw tonight a performance for the ages,” Taffet said at the postfight press conference in Boardwalk Hall. “This is a night for history. It’s her-story. Claressa Shields dreamed it, she willed it and she brought it to the table. She set out to be undisputed and she did it faster (in just her ninth pro bout) than anyone in the history of the sport. And she’s just beginning on her journey.”

Nor was the 23-year-old Shields (9-0, 2 KOs) inclined to aw-shucks her thorough thrashing of Hammer (24-1, 11 KOs) – two judges had her winning by 98-91 margins, the other by 98-92 — as just another day at her roped-off office. She can preen and posture with the cockiest of her male counterparts, and after paying the briefest of lip service to her vanquished German opponent, whom she conceded has a decent jab, she went the full Ali in proclaiming herself at this early stage of her professional career as the female GOAT.

“I thought I finished her in the eighth round. I thought I saw a white towel coming in the ring,” said Shields, who incorrectly believed that Hammer’s corner had surrendered prior to the beginning of the ninth round. “I was, like, `Oh, (crap). We got a knockout! I was so pumped. I thought the fight should have been stopped. She was holding on. She held me excessively. But I just told myself, `Stay cool, stay calm.’

“I wanted to land the perfect punch to get her out of there. (The judges) said 98-92 (and 98-91, twice). Give me 100-90. Give me my credit, man. I beat her ass every round.

“I am the greatest woman of all time!”

But being recognized as the best female fighter ever, a matter of some debate despite Team Shields’ breathless proclamations, could possibly stunt Shields’ long-range plans as much as to advance them. Asked what kind of follow-up bout could possibly match or top her dismissal of the highly regarded Hammer, Shields, who weighed 159.4 pounds for the Showtime-televised main event, said she thought she could pare down to 154 for a clear-the-decks go at Norway’s Cecilia Braekhus (35-0, 9 KOs), the undisputed women’s welterweight champion, or bulk back up to super middleweight for a revenge clash with the United Kingdom’s Savannah Marshall (5-0, 3 KOs), who handed her the only loss of her career, amateur or pro, prior to the 2012 London Olympics.

“I want to fight Cecilia Braekhus at 154,” said Shields, who not only added Hammer’s 160-pound WBO title to the IBF, WBC and WBA belts she already held, but was presented with The Ring magazine’s first women’s championship belt as well. “Bring it on, baby. That’s who I want next. If not her, give me Savannah Marshall. I’ll kill her.”

What about a possible rematch with Hammer, 28, who had held titles in three different weight classes dating back to October 2010?

“She was better than me,” Hammer conceded. “Sometimes s— in boxing happens. But I am a champion and a champion for a long time. I will come back stronger.”

But a do-over with Shields might prove a tough sell to the public after such a one-sided affair that most would presume would result in a repeat of the original. The gap between Hammer and Shields was never more evident than in round eight, when Shields likely would have scored a KO were it not for the two-minute rounds as currently mandated in women’s boxing.

“Can we get three-minute rounds now?” wondered Shields, who on May 31 will receive the second annual Christy Martin Award as 2018’s Female Fighter of the Year from the Boxing Writers Association of America. “I think I proved (women) can do 10 rounds and two minutes a round, but in order for women to get knockouts, in order for women to get equal pay, we need 12 rounds and three minutes.”

No doubt Shields struck a blow for gender equity, or for the narrowing of the gender inequity gap. But if she thinks she someday can command the kind of multimillion-dollar purses that routinely went or go to Mike Tyson, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Canelo Alvarez, that ain’t ever gonna happen. If she fights and pummels Braekhus as she did Hammer, an already shallow talent pool of possible opponents will get even more shallow, as likely victims will want to be compensated far more handsomely than the market is apt to bear. Maybe three-minute rounds will eventually happen, but Shields might soon discover that there is such a thing in boxing as a fighter being too good for his (or her) own good.

The seven-bout card in the Adrian Phillips Ballroom at Boardwalk Hall featured another women’s world title bout, with Argentina’s Brenda Karen Carabajal (16-4-1, 9 KOs) claiming the vacant IBF featherweight belt with a 10-round unanimous decision over Russia’s Elena Gradinar (9-1, 2 KOs).

There were three male heavyweight fights, two of which featured young up-and-comers and the other a grizzled former world champion who could be nearing the end of a long and mostly productive career.

Jermaine Franklin (18-0, 13 KOs), the 25-year-old prospect from Saginaw, Mich., scored a 10-round, unanimous decision over veteran Rydell Booker (25-2, 12 KOs), of Detroit, the 38-year-old ex-con from Detroit who lost 13 years from his promising career after being found guilty of felony possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. Franklin might yet develop into the best young American heavyweight as projected by some, but Booker was no more than semi-impressed, saying, “He needs a lot of work. He stays too centered with his head. But he’s all right. What he has on his side is youth.”

At least Franklin got in some needed work. Swedish southpaw Otto Wallin (20-0, 14 KOs), who was making his U.S. debut, never made it through the first round as he and Nick Kisner (21-4-1, 6 KOs), of Baltimore, inadvertently clashed heads early on in their scheduled 10-rounder. Kisner suffered a cut over his right eye that was deemed serious enough by the ring physician that a no-contest was declared. That had to be a disappointment for Wallin, who came as the fifth-ranked heavyweight in the world by both the IBF and WBA. “To me, (Kisner’s) cut didn’t look that bad,” said Wallin, 28. “It’s a shame because I trained really hard for this fight and was looking to put on a show for fans in America.”

Samuel Peter (37-7, 30 KOs) briefly held the WBC heavyweight title, but that was many pounds and long ago. Now 38, the erstwhile “Nigerian Nightmare,” who resides in Las Vegas, had pared down from 330-plus pounds last September to the 259 he weighed for his scheduled 10-rounder against Mexican journeyman Mario Heredia (16-6-1, 13 KOs). Although Peter did score a second-round knockdown and was seven points up on one judge’s card, Heredia came away with the upset when the other two judges favored him by margins of 77-74 and 76-75. “I just came off a layoff,” said the disappointed Peter. “I need to go home, practice more and see if I can come back again.”

In other bouts, super bantamweight Marcus Bates (9-1-1, 8 KOs), of Washington, D.C. scored the only TKO of the evening when Jesse Angel Hernandez 9-12-3, 7 KOs) did not come out for the fourth round of their scheduled eight-rounder, and Atlantic City middleweight Isiah Seldon (13-2-1, 4 KOs), son of former WBA heavyweight champ Bruce Seldon, overcame a first-round knockdown to post a six-round unanimous decision over Bryan Goldsby (5-10), of Macon, Ga.

Photo credit: Stephanie Trapp / 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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Avila Perspective, Chap. 289: East LA, Claressa Shields and More

Published

1 day ago

July 25, 2024

David A. Avila

Avila-Perspective-Chap-289-East-L.A.-A-Fight-Town-Claressa-Shields-and-More

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

2 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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