Three Punch Combo: Scenarios for Daniel Jacobs and More

Published

2 years ago

May 13, 2019

THREE PUNCH COMBO — A lot of speculation this past week has been on the future of Canelo Alvarez (52-1-2, 35 KO’s) following his big middleweight title unification win against Daniel Jacobs (35-3, 29 KO’s). But what about the future of Jacobs? First, it is clear that a move to 168 seems likely. With that said, here is a look at three possible options for Jacobs’ eventual return to the ring.

Rocky Fielding (27-2, 15 KO’s)

Fielding, who is also coming off a loss to Canelo, is probably the ideal foe for Jacobs to test the waters at 168. Not only does he have a name but he’s a tough gritty competitor with an aggressive style that is well suited for Jacobs plus he’s somewhat limited inside the ring and he doesn’t carry a big punch. Jacobs won’t have to search to find him and won’t have to fear Fielding’s power. Assuming Canelo does fight again in September, a fight between Jacobs and Fielding may be the ideal co-feature.

John Ryder (28-4, 16 KO’s)

Ryder won a 168-pound belt on the undercard of Canelo-Jacobs with an impressive third round TKO of the previously unbeaten Bilal Akkawy. That seemed to set up a fight between him and another 168-pound belt holder in Callum Smith. But what if Smith gets the call to face Canelo in September? Well a natural fall back option for Ryder would be a fight with Jacobs.

Assuming this scenario, Jacobs-Ryder would also be an ideal co-feature. Ryder is a southpaw but aggressive in nature and he would bring the fight to Jacobs. Much like Fielding, his style would be ideal for Jacobs. As an added plus, if Jacobs were to win he would immediately pick up a 168-pound belt and thus become a little more marketable as he seeks bigger opportunities down the road.

David Lemieux (40-4, 34 KO’s)

Lemieux’s career is clearly in flux at the moment and he needs a signature win now more than ever. He pulled out of his last two fights for various reasons and, like Jacobs, is seemingly headed north to 168 after a long career at middleweight. And as such, he may be willing to roll the dice with a high risk showdown with Jacobs.

As for Jacobs, if he wants a bigger name in his return then Lemieux is the most logical option. He’s a much riskier opponent then Fielding or Ryder, but Jacobs would still be favored and a win over Lemieux would vault him quickly up the rankings in the 168-pound division.

Under The Radar Fight

Saturday brings us another big day of boxing with the return of the World Boxing Super Series as well as the big heavyweight championship fight on Showtime between Deontay Wilder (40-0-1, 39 KO’s) and Dominic Breazeale (20-1, 18 KO’s). As part of that Showtime televised card, there is an intriguing 140-pound fight between Juan Heraldez (16-0, 10 KO’s) and Argenis Mendez (25-5-2, 12 KO’s) that has fallen almost entirely under the radar.

Heraldez, who turned pro in 2009, needs to make a move in his career. To say his career has moved along slowly would be an understatement. That stated, he has always shown promise and is coming off a career best win in February against Eddie Ramirez. In facing Mendez, Heraldez, 28, is taking another step up in competition.

Mendez, 32, has been a pro since 2006 and is a former 130-pound world champion. After losing consecutive fights in 2016 to Robert Easter Jr. and Luke Campbell, Mendez’s career seemed to be tilting downward. But he bounced back with two solid wins and is coming off a split draw in March with 140-pound contender Anthony Peterson. In that fight, Mendez seemed to seize control in the second half of the bout and hopes to keep that momentum going when he faces Heraldez.

Heraldez-Mendez is an evenly matched fight on paper featuring a nice contrast of styles. Heraldez will certainly be the aggressor and press the fight behind his jab looking to land power shots. Mendez is a boxer-puncher who looks to counter. And he will have plenty of opportunities to counter against the aggressive Heraldez. I expect we see an entertaining fight in what could be the most competitive fight of the entire weekend.

I Will Miss My Friend

Two years ago on the Saturday of Boxing Hall of Fame weekend in Canastota, NY, my wife and I headed to the nearby Dunkin’ Donuts. The festivities on the Hall of Fame grounds had just concluded for the day and we wanted to give the crowd a little time to filter out before heading out to dinner.

I was seated facing the door when someone I recognized entering the building. However, I couldn’t immediately put a name to the face. The person who entered must have seen me staring as he walked toward me and took a seat right next to my wife and I and immediately struck up a conversation with me. It was when I heard his voice that I realized this was Bert Cooper.

Bert was willing to share any and all experiences in his life with me that day. We talked in length about his boxing career. The Holyfield fight of course came up and he expressed deep regret for not being better prepared for that fight despite getting it on such short notice. Bert also shared with me his battles with drugs and alcohol. He was very detailed when talking about this to the point where my wife was a bit taken aback.

After talking for nearly an hour (and making Bert a little late for his next engagement), we parted our separate ways. Before we did, I told Bert he was a personal favorite of mine and I always looked forward to watching him fight. And that he also had given me an unforgettable memory. He gave me a great big smile and shook my hand saying he really enjoyed hanging out with me.

I figured I’d never see him again, but as fate would have it I bumped into Bert again last year, once again during Hall of Fame weekend. This time, I was at the nearby hotel where several boxers had come out to sign autographs and interact with fans. Much to my amazement, Bert remembered me from the previous year. He greeted me with that great big smile of his and insisted on signing a photo. He whispered to me that he usually charges for these but not for his friends.

We got to talking again and literally picked up our conversation right where it ended the previous year. Later on that day, my wife and I joined Bert and the person who brought him to Canastota, Sam, for lunch at a nearby restaurant. Much like the prior year, Bert talked in depth with me about specific fights from his career and once again gave this boxing fan a memory that will be forever cherished.

At lunch, Bert told us that nowadays he was only eating healthy foods. And, of course, after lunch Bert wanted to head for ice cream. So we headed to a small local ice cream stand.

With it being a fairly hot day, the ice cream shop was well populated. Bert greeted everyone there proudly handing out his boxing card to anyone who would take it. And of course, gleefully boasting to anyone who would listen how he nearly defeated Holyfield to win the heavyweight title. He captured the crowd that afternoon at the ice cream shop.

I was very much looking forward to seeing Bert Cooper again in Canastota next month. RIP my friend, you will be missed.

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Matt Andrzejewski

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Giving Back to ex-Fighters in Need: It’s Not That Difficult

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Errol Spence Has Terence Crawford Right Where He Wants Him

BJ Saunders Improves to 30-0 at the Expense of Mildewed Martin Murray

Published

5 hours ago

December 4, 2020

Arne K. Lang

BJ-Saunders-Improves-to-30-0-at-the Expense-of-Mildewed-Martin-Murray

There was a time several months ago when it appeared that Billy Joe Saunders was in the driver’s seat as far as securing a match with Canelo Alvarez. The lucrative assignment went to BJ’s countryman Callum Smith, but there’s a strong possibility that Saunders and Canelo will lock horns in 2021. If so, Saunders will bring an unblemished record. Tonight, behind closed doors at Wembley Arena he advanced his ledger to 30-0 (14) with a predictably one-sided decision over UK veteran Martin Murray. Saunders was appearing in his seventh world title fight and making the second defense of his WBO 168-pound belt.

Saunders, a close friend and training partner of fellow Traveller Tyson Fury, represented England in the Beijing Olympics at the tender age of 17. Now 31 years old (but with the emotional maturity of an adolescent) he is the classic example of a cagey southpaw. That’s another way of saying that while a purist can appreciate his artistry, he doesn’t have a fan-friendly style. He is the British equivalent of Demetrius Andrade.

Martin Murray was making his fifth stab at a world title. The 38-year-old campaigner from St. Helens, near Liverpool, previously fought Felix Sturm and Arthur Abraham in Germany, Sergio Martinez in Argentina, and Gennadiy Golovkin in Monte Carlo. His fight with Sturm ended in a draw, but that was back in 2011 and Murray has put a lot of mileage on his odometer in the interim. Tonight, that showed as he did not instinctively let his hands go when he saw an opening. The scorecards read 118-110, and 120-109 twice. Those scorecards were similar to Saunders’ tour-de-force vs. David Lemeiux, but that was an unexpected eye-opener, whereas tonight Billy Joe was expected to win as he pleased.

This may have been the last rodeo for Murray (39-6-1), five times a bridesmaid. He can leave with his head held high. Always in shape, only Golovkin was able to stop him and it took GGG 11 rounds. BJ Saunders hopes to fight the winner of Canelo vs. Callum Smith, but there is also talk of a rematch with Chris Eubank Jr who gave him his toughest test back in 2014.

Co-Feature

In a lightweight match framed as a WBA title eliminator, James Tennyson (28-3, 24 KOs) blasted out previously undefeated Josh O’Reilly, now 16-1, in the opening round. It was the sixth straight win by TKO for Belfast’s Tennyson who moved up in weight after being stopped in the 4^th round at Boston in a bid for Tevin Farmer’s IBF 130-pound title. O’Reilly, a Hamilton, Ontario native appearing in his first fight outside Canada, was on the deck twice before the referee waived off the mismatch. The official time was 2:14.

Twenty-eight-year-old London light heavyweight Lerrone Richards improved to 14-0 (3) in a monotonous 8-round contest with 36-year-old Finland journeyman Timo Laine, 28-14 (15). Laine fought to survive, not to win, and Richards won every round on the referee’s card.

Undefeated super middleweight Zach Parker (19-0) was scheduled to fight former Edgar Berlanga victim Cesar Nunez, a 35-year-old Spaniard, but the fight fell out when a member of Nunez’s team tested positive for the coronavirus. Parker is ranked #2 by the WBO.

Photo credit: Dave Thompson / Matchroom Boxing

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Boxing Exhibitions: Side Show, New Angle, or Something Else? Part Two

Published

13 hours ago

December 4, 2020

Ted Sares

Boxing Exhibitions: Side Show, New Angle, or Something Else? Part Two

YouTuber Jake Paul (2-0) says he wants to fight English YouTuber KSI, and then maybe Ryan Garcia, Conor McGregor, and some of the top UFC fighters (using boxing rules). This comes after his recent coldcocking of former NBA star Nate Robinson.

“There is a long list of opponents that I want, you know Conor McGregor, Dillon Danis. I’m going to knock them both out.”– Paul

Jake and his brother Logan are participants in a continuing side show and the more attention they get, the more this freak show will last. In that vein, this writer will no longer mention them except to quote the following from a poster named VashDBasher: “Hopefully these exhibition matches with these retired fighters don’t get out of hand. Not to mention these youtubers with single digit fights making more money than a lot of top prospects and contenders. Boxing is turning into a sham with…”

Exhibitions: The Fire Has Been Ignited; Will It Burn?

Jorge Arce and Julio Cesar Chavez, Sr. launched the tour when they faced off in September in Tijuana but it was done under the radar.

The super-hyped and much anticipated Tyson-Jones exhibition is now in the past, but already it appears that many others will take place. After all, this one—though a stylistic stinker– reportedly pulled in close to 1.2 million PPV buys!

“There’s a sucker born every minute.” – usually attributed to P. T. Barnum

Mike Tyson, coming in at a svelte 220 pounds wants to continue and asserts “my body feels splendid. I want to beat it up some more…I will do it again.” If he does, it may well happen in Europe.

Others are coming out of the woodwork sniffing around like dogs smelling Purina chow but the chow in this case is money and plenty of it. Suddenly, the “seniors tour” seems to enjoy the certainty of a Cher’s final tour. Ex- fighters like Glen McCrory, Lennox Lewis, Riddick Bowe, Johnny Nelson, Buster Douglas, Shannon Briggs, Erik Morales, Evander Holyfield, Marco António Barrera, and possibly Oscar De La Hoya (in a traditional comeback rather than an exhibition) are all looking to get in on the action.

“The rumors are true, and I’m going to start sparring in the next few weeks.” –De La Hoya

The usually quiet Holyfield in particular has made a lot of noise saying among other things that, “Roy Jones was a good local opponent for Tyson, but a fight with me would be a global event and the only one fight that anyone wants to see is a fight between us. There is absolutely no reason why we shouldn’t make it happen…”

But the “Real Deal” also has said he won’t fight for less than 25 million which is pretty much tantamount to saying he doesn’t want to fight.

Tyson vs. Holyfield III? Don’t bet on this one happening.

However, if there is money to be made, Floyd Mayweather Jr will be hovering about like a helicopter perhaps looking to fight Manny Pacquiao in a mega fight, but Manny may be looking to fight everybody’s favorite opponent, UFC star Conor McGregor. A real fight involving Floyd against a risky opponent would be of enormous interest, but keeping in mind that one of his mottos has been “my health is my wealth,” that is not something to bet on.

Ted Sares can be reached at tedsares@roadrunner.com

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Errol Spence Jr’s Near-Death Experience Has Made Him More Well-Grounded

Published

1 day ago

December 3, 2020

Bernard Fernandez

Errol-Spwnce-Jrs-Near-Death-Experience-Has-Made-Him-More-Well-Grounded

Maybe it’s a good thing that Errol Spence Jr. had to learn the hard way that talent, like life, is a perishable commodity. Even so accomplished a world boxing champion as Spence had to discover that harsh reality in the blink of an eye, or however long as it took for his fast-moving sports car to veer out of control and produce a knockdown far more perilous than anything the man known as “The Truth” ever has had to face in the ring, or likely ever will.

The Errol Spence Jr. (26-0, 21 KOs) who puts his IBF and WBC welterweight championships on the line against two-division former titlist Danny “Swift” Garcia (36-2, 21 KOs) Saturday night in AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, could have, and maybe even should have, died in the early morning hours of October 10, 2019, on a virtually open stretch of highway near Interstate 30 in downtown Dallas. Spence’s white Ferrari, capable of hitting speeds up to 200 mph, went over the center median and flipped over several times. It seemed miraculous that Spence (who was cited for misdemeanor driving under the influence), who sustained significant injuries, could be ejected from the car yet somehow recover to the point where he could fight another day.

“It’s just a miracle for things to turn out like they did,” Spence has said. “For anybody to be ejected out of a Ferrari … I mean, it could have been so much worse. I could have lost a leg, an arm. I could have been paralyzed or had brain damage. I could have been killed right then and there. But I didn’t have to deal with any of that. I’m just blessed. I’m definitely going to heed this warning. You go through what I did, you definitely don’t take things for granted as I once did.”

His professional return Saturday night will not only be met with as much public anticipation as is standard for fighters occupying as elite a level as does Spence, but even more so given his career-long 14½-month layoff (his most recent bout was a 12-round split decision over Shawn Porter on September 28, 2019) and questions attendant to how well he has recovered from his near-catastrophic experience. Has the ordeal in any way diminished him physically or psychologically? Was he imprudent in choosing to forego a less-risky tune-up fight for a matchup with the very formidable Garcia, who previously has held the WBC and WBA super lightweight and WBC welterweight belts? Can he demonstrate that he still is as special a fighter as he had been before his car crashed? Or maybe even better?

Not all of the answers will be provided in the Showtime Pay-Per-View main event, but enough will be to ascertain whether Spence can still claim to be the best 147-pound fighter on the planet (as listed in The Ring magazine ratings) or, even if victorious, reveal himself to be at least somewhat damaged goods.

Not that he was prone to preening and chest-thumping before, but, if anything, Spence, although highly confident he will come away with his undefeated record extended, still presents a public posture similar to that of his understated trainer, Derrick James. That is a stark contrast to the bombast for which Garcia’s father-trainer, Angel Garcia, is noted, and has even ratcheted up a notch for this fight. Angel has even gone on record as predicting that Danny will stop Spence in seven rounds.

“He’s going to go out there and show the world what true champions are made of,” Angel said of what he expects from his son, a +340 underdog in contrast to Spence’s -450 favoritism. “Danny don’t just know how to win, he knows how to kick your ass.”

Noting that his date with Spence had already been twice-delayed, the 32-year-old Danny figures all good things come to those who wait, and his patience is about to be rewarded. “Boxing is a sport of timing,” he said. “And the time is now. I feel great. I had a tremendous camp and did everything I’m supposed to do. Now it’s time to go out there and do what I do best, and win.

“I’ve been the underdog in many fights. I don’t worry about the critics or the media. I know that I’m a great champion, and a great fighter. And that’s what I’m going to prove Saturday night.”

James, for his part, is only too glad to yield the megaphone to Angel Garcia. He’s not about to talk smack about the Garcias because, well, he believes no good can come for those who brag about what they expect to do before they do it.

“I don’t make predictions for myself or my guy, but (Angel Garcia) is supposed to believe in himself,” James said. “He’s supposed to believe in what he thinks his son is going to do. Why wouldn’t he? At the same time, we feel the exact same way. I don’t go in there saying we are going to get a knockout. I can’t predict anything like that. But I can predict that we will be victorious.

“My guy’s quiet, I’m quiet. If you believe in yourself, you don’t have to talk about it.”

Any changes in Spence might not be obvious inside the ropes, but he insists his lifestyle has undergone a radical makeover that can only serve to benefit him in the time he has left at or near the top of a brutal sport that chews up and spits out those who can’t appreciate that today’s glory can soon become tomorrow’s memory. For one thing, he has traded a Ferrari’s massive horsepower for, well, a different sort of horse power.

“I think it did renew my focus and got me back to the thing that got me to the top of the mountain,” he said of his reconfigured priorities stemming from the accident. “After a fight I started taking a week off, then two weeks off to a month off. Now I’m grinding hard again. You realize that having this time on earth is a luxury. Being young (Spence was 29 at the time of the crash, and is now 30), you think you’re invincible. You think nothing bad can happen to you. But when something does happen to you, you realize that time is important, especially time spent with your family and loved ones.

“That’s why I actually moved out of downtown (Dallas), got a ranch with horses, cattle and things like that. I got a pool and I’m outside with my kids. I just had a newborn son.”

Still, Spence knows that saying he’s as good, or better, than he previously had been is not going to convince any doubting Thomases until he delivers the goods. Danny Garcia, proud and tough, poses the test he needs to pass before any lingering suspicions can be laid to rest.

“I’m a realist,” Spence said. “I know people have a lot of questions. Am I still the same? Am I a shadow of myself? Those are questions that need to be answered.”

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