Sizing Up the Two Fascinating Heavyweight Contests in London This Weekend

Published

5 years ago

July 10, 2019

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This Saturday night in London’s O2 Arena, two heavyweight clashes of no small matter are set to unfold under the Frank Warren Promotions banner. Daniel Dubois, 6’5, 240lbs, aged 21 with an unbeaten record comprised of eleven victories and ten knockouts is set to take on Nathan Gorman, 6’3, 250lbs, aged 22, also unbeaten, 16-0 with eleven knockouts. At stake is the British heavyweight title and much more.

George Orwell once expressed the opinion that journalism is merely printing what someone else does not want printed and everything else is just public relations and it is possible to paraphrase him in relation to boxing: the best fights are the ones that scare promoters. Frank Warren did not want this fight to take place. In fact, he tried to persuade both men, each of whom he represents, to pull out. Neither would. Fight fans are the winners.

Warren has also noted, correctly, that a loss here will cause neither man irreparable damage but for the loser, there is a certain price to pay. A backwards step will be difficult to sell; for the triumphant heavyweight bigger fights loom.

One of which is almost certain to be the winner of Joe Joyce versus Bryant Jennings, the second heavyweight clash from this card. I named Joyce perhaps the most interesting of all the current heavyweight prospects earlier this year. The reason: he is a man in a hurry. 6’6″ and 255lbs, Joyce has gathered less professional experience than either Gorman or Dubois, but his other vital statistic is the key one: Joyce is 33 years old. This final number gives context to the name of the man in the other corner, former world championship challenger Bryant Jennings.

Jennings, who stands 6’3″ and weighs in at 225lbs, is at the other end of his heavyweight adventure having been last legitimately ranked as a contender in early 2016 after his troubling defeat at the hands of Luis Ortiz. His loss to Ortiz (by TKO7) was in and of itself a crossroads fight, Jennings having most recently been defeated by champion Wladimir Klitschko.

Joyce Jennings face off

His 2017 comeback was comprised only of crossroads fights denoting him as something of a gatekeeper, and when he eventually lost one to Oscar Rivas in January of 2019, his status was arguably reduced further, to that of journeyman. Jennings has journeyed to London to face Joyce, an underdog against a fighter with a third of his experience, unproven and flawed but a massive heavyweight with a massive punch. It’s an uncomfortable assignment for the 34-year-old Philadelphian, but a victory would re-elevate him.

Playing the long game is hard in the twilight of one’s career, but as Tony Thompson found out, it can be a profitable one.

And Jennings, for all that he is an underdog, is a very, very live one. The American always struck me as a cerebral fighter. He’s had to be, given the fact that he took up the sport late and jammed a lot into a relatively short run to the title. Criticized for standing in front of Wladimir, he stayed slippery, threw plenty of power punches and even managed to occasionally engage in the pocket where the champion held remorselessly – held so often that he was docked a point.

So while the champion was the clear winner Jennings discomforted the bigger, heavier puncher enough that he made errors in strategy and technique, despite the fact that in addition to the described physical advantages he was also the more seasoned fighter.

Joyce has those same physical advantages but he is far and away the less experienced. If Jennings is capable of confounding (but not beating) a competitor like Wladimir, what, then, of a pup like Joyce?

The big Englishman, to be fair to him, has been moving in circles that make Jennings only a minor step up. He most recently blasted out two familiar names to heavyweight fight fans, brutalizing Deontay Wilder victim Bermane Stiverne in six rounds this February and savaging the enormous Alexander Ustinov in three rounds this May. He has been moved along and, on paper, Jennings is not out of keeping with the class of fighter he has been mixing with.

On paper.

In reality, Stiverne was pitifully out of shape at over 270lbs, and Ustinov’s best, too, was far behind him. More than that though, each man had a problem in common: they are slow of hand and foot.

Joyce, too, has problems in this department. He appears, at times, to be punching in treacle and in these two most recent matches, the speed of thought and exchange seemed at times almost comical. Make no mistake about Joyce: he is a born puncher. In this more than any other division, that is boon. He is also capable of work and he has good accuracy.

Size; workrate; targeting. Give this combination to any trainer of note and he will bring you a heavyweight prospect. But that dearth of speed is a problem and it may be one Jennings can take advantage of.

When a new man meets a former world-title challenger, the only question, in the end, is what does the veteran have left? Jennings was badly beaten by another coming man this January in the shape of Oscar Rivas. Rivas hurt and dropped Jennings in the twelfth and then finished him on his feet via bombardment, but take note: had Jennings won the twelfth instead of being stopped he would have escaped with a draw. That would have had ramifications. Oscar Rivas probably wouldn’t have landed his money fight with Dillian Whyte later this month and Jennings might have found himself in a role other than that of opponent.

These are fine margins and alarm bells are ringing for me. When slow meets skilled the outcome can be definitive in favor of the slicker man. In the end though, I think the most likely outcome is a re-run of the Rivas fight. Jennings will not be a pushover. He will win rounds and make things difficult for Joyce – but Jennings has been hit and hard by Wladimir, Ortiz and Rivas, all punchers and in the case of the first two certainly slower of hand than he. Joyce to stop Jennings in a close fight is the sensible pick.

Frank Warren’s wishes to the contrary, this may land Joyce in the ring with the winner of Dubois and Gorman. This fight, if anything, is even more fascinating than the first.

Dubois is devastating in his silence. Reluctant to speak, smiling, quiet, he has let everyone from Frank Bruno to Frank Warren do his talking for him in a series of interviews for which he has barely been present. The needle that exists between he and Gorman, supposedly dating back to a brief stint as roommates during their amateur days and in some tasty sparing sessions since, probably makes him uncomfortable.

Gorman, who is related to Tyson Fury, is far more comfortable in executing his media duties. He is also overweight at 250lbs and cuts a far less impressive figure than his muscular opponent, something we saw recently in the shape of Anthony Joshua-Andy Ruiz; but the comparisons between the two contests don’t end there.

Like Ruiz, Gorman has a reach far shorter than his taller opponent and like Ruiz his reputation going in is that of a lesser puncher. Bringing pressure against a longer opponent who can punch is one of boxing’s toughest assignments because the toll is set. Moving a fighter out of position by swarming him is natural when you have the longer jab but when you have the shorter one, you buy your range with pain and points. Gorman is going to get hit.

But once more Britain has produced an Adonis who has yet to answer questions about his gas tank. Think Frank Bruno or Joshua and think Dubois, perhaps. In his last contest Dubois was drawn into a thrilling shoot-out with a wild Ghanaian by the name of Richard Lartey. Dubois, unimpressed, was ultra-aggressive from the off, swinging two-handed but from the very beginning he had the appearance of a fighter that was uptight, blowing hard through his cheeks while throwing an odd mixture of stiff and limber bombs. Capable of speed on some punches, others appeared to be from the Joyce play book in that they sought to travel the furthest possible distance at no great speed. It made him vulnerable to counters.

Dubois took instruction well and shortened up his punches as he went, webbing his tiring opponent in an ever-decreasing circle, but he also showed a certain raggedness in his own work apparently born of fatigue. This may be an over-analysis; Dubois after all expected an easy knockout and after some fireworks, he got it, and with some rather pretty punches, too. But he also hinted at a blueprint for his own destruction: could Dubois perhaps be countered and outlasted? And if so, is Gorman the man to do it?

The bookies favor Dubois but there is a gathering sense on social media that Gorman can out-fight him. I think it boils down to a matter of technique and punch resistance which is saying nothing, really, as almost every boxing match does to one degree or another. But if Gorman has the technique to buy real estate without absorbing too much punishment, I think he will win the exchanges that result. This is the very key to this style clash revealed by Andy Ruiz: throw with the puncher and back yourself to land first. Gorman can beat Dubois to the punch often enough to amass enough points to take a hard-won decision. Doing it will be a matter of overcoming both a style and size advantage though, and that is a tall order that requires the right strategy and definitive technical advantages.

The balance here tips back towards Dubois because like his taller opponent, Gorman is unproven. The small matters that determine fights, that determine whole careers, will decide where the argument resides.

Either way, two fringe contenders are sure to emerge from Saturday night’s fights. This is the prediction that matters, and it is a sure one.

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Avila Perspective, Chap 55: Japan Calling, Mioletti and Competing Cards

Fast-Rising Omar Trinidad KOs Slavinskyi at the Commerce Casino

Published

3 hours ago

July 26, 2024

David A. Avila

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East L.A.’s Omar Trinidad knocked out Ukraine’s Viktor Slavinskyi to retain the WBC Continental America’s featherweight title on Friday in a strategic but entertaining contest.

Fighting in front of frenzied crowd of supporters Trinidad (16-0-1, 13 KOs) defeated southpaw Slavinskyi (15-3-1, 7 KOs) with a measured and careful attack at the Commerce Casino in Commerce, Calif.

Fans familiar with Trinidad (pictured over the right shoulder of promoter Tom Loeffler) are familiar with his aggressive pressure fighting style, but the Boyle Heights pugilist took a careful approach against Slavinskyi. Instead of a pounding assault Trinidad kept the fight at a distance and used his reach advantage to perfection.

It was reminiscent of long-armed fighters of the past like the late great Mando Ramos of the late 1960s who could punch or box. Pick your poison.

Trinidad employed a constant jab and well-placed counter shots. The right hand, in particular, was especially effective.

“I couldn’t miss with the right,” said Trinidad

For seven rounds Trinidad dominated with counter-punching. Then, Slavinskyi increased the pressure and forced the East L.A. fighter to come along. He did.

“If I could get a knockout I’d put him in the blender,” Trinidad said.

From the eighth round until the end Trinidad engaged in his usual fast and furious style and was especially effective with uppercuts in ninth round. Slavinskyi walked into a right uppercut that sent him across the ring and into the ropes. Referee Ray Corona ruled it a knockdown.

In the final round Trinidad wasted no time in looking to unload with an uppercut and Slavinskyi walked into a right hand version. There was no escape as he was ruled unable to continue by Corona at 2:31 of the 10^th and final round.

Trinidad keeps the title.

“The left hook and right uppercut was the money shot,” said Trinidad. “It was well-timed and it was a money shot.”

Welterweights

A fight between buddies from the same Armenian amateur team saw Aram Amirkhanyun (16-0-1, 4 KOs) defeat Gor Yeritsyan (18-1, 14 KOs) by split decision after 10 hard-fought rounds in a welterweight fight for a regional title.

The judges scored it 96-94 Yeritsyan and 96-94 twice for Amirkhanyun. No knockdowns were scored.

Iyana “Right Hook Roxy” Verduzco (2-0) proved that adapting into a pro style was not a problem in soundly defeating Pittsburgh’s Colleen Davis (3-2-1) after six featherweight rounds. Her best weapon was accuracy.

Verduzco, who is trained by her mother Gloria Alvarado, had been one of the most decorated amateur boxers for many years. In just her second pro fight the tell-tale signs of the amateur style were gone.

While the taller Davis circled rapidly to the left, Verduzco calmly waited for the openings and blasted away with pinpoint shots to the body and head. Her right hook was deadly accurate and the left found openings whenever they appeared.

Davis was able to land rights but just not enough to offset the incoming fire from the Southern California fighter. After six rounds all three judges scored it 60-54 for Verduzco.

In a firefight, Abel Mejia (5-0, 4 KOs) barely survived a second round knockdown against Tijuana’s rugged Jose Correa (6-10, 4 KOs) and rallied to remain relevant in the super featherweight match. In the fourth and final round Mejia beat Correa to the punch with a left hook that knocked out the tough Mexican challenger at 55 seconds as referee Ray Corona stopped the fight.

A super featherweight fight saw Hawaii’s Jaybrio Pe Benito (5-0, 4 KOs) power past Texan Michael Land (1-5-1) for a knockout win at 1:30 of the second round. Benito was too powerful and busy for Land who tried but was unable to slow down the assault.

Photo credit: Lina Baker

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 289: East LA, Claressa Shields and More

Published

1 day ago

July 25, 2024

David A. Avila

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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

3 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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