Featured Articles
Erislandy Lara KO’s Ramon Alvarez and Asks for Canelo or Errol Spence Next

Convincingly, and leaving no room for doubt, the Cuban southpaw Erislandy Lara defeated the Mexican Ramón Alvarez whose performance left a lot to be desired.
However, this does not take away from the accomplishment of the Cuban, seizing the vacant WBA World Super Welterweight Title.
After a very uneventful start, although with a clear advantage for the Cuban pugilist, “The American Dream” hammered Alvarez with a flurry of left hands in the second round. Had Canelo Alvarez’s brother not been held up by the ropes he would have been knocked out of the ring, which resulted in referee Mark Nelson issuing the obligatory count.
After the count, “Inocente” Alvarez received another succession of strikes and was unable to properly defend himself. Referee Nelson was forced to intervene and he stopped the contest with less than a minute left in the second round. The public was left disappointed and wanting more as they expected a long-drawn-out war, whereas both competitors had emphasized it would be a test of their personal character.
Lara said on multiple occasions that he would take out his frustrations against Ramón for the unjust and controversial loss against Canelo in 2014, when two judges, Levi Martínez (117-111) and Dave Moretti (115-113) favored the red-headed Mexican, with the other official, Jerry Roth (115-113) seeing it in favor of the Cuban. The Guadalajara-born fighter insisted that he would be another success in the Alvarez family against Lara, “just like my brother was a few years ago.” The controversy lasted for weeks, adding to the drama and hype surrounding the bout.
There were moments of uncertainty during the weigh-ins the day before the fight. Alvarez tipped the scale at 158.5lbs (4.6lbs over the weight limit). Although the Mexican was unable to make weight and therefore was excluded from the possibility of winning the belt, Lara and his team agreed to continue with the fight, driven by the motivation of getting back the title he lost to the American Jarrett Hurd in 2018, as well as “avenging” the memorable fight against Canelo.
Ramon Alvarez’s efforts to reach 154lbs clearly had negative consequences during Saturday’s competition. He was slow (more than usual), lacking the energy to both let his hands go and to construct an effective guard to defend against the fast punches of Lara. With this victory,“ The American Dream” (25-3-3, 15 KOs), now under the technical advisement of Ismael Salas, has regained the confidence to face other champions of the division. That being said, he is still anxiously awaiting the rematch with Canelo, who currently competes at 160lbs and could possibly face WBO World Light Heavyweight champion (175lbs) Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev, the Russian, in the near future.
“I want to thank my team and all my fans for the support,” said Lara after giving a hug to Salas and the other members of his corner. “I’m very happy to have regained my world title. When I cornered him the second time, I didn’t want to hurt him since he was clearly in a bad state.”
Five months after clashing with Canelo in July of 2014, Lara conquered the WBA World Super Welterweight Title convincingly by defeating the American Ishe “Sugar Shay” Smith by unanimous decision at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. But in April of last year the IBF world champion, American Jarrett “Swift” Hurd, emerged victorious over the Cuban by split decision in a unification bout which was deemed the 2018 fight of the year by various websites because of the never ending back and forth action. The balance of the fight was tipped towards the North American in the final round, when the Cuban southpaw visited the canvas. Two of the judges scored it in favor of the American 114-113, while the other judge scored it the exact same but in the Cuban’s favor.
In that duel, Lara planted his feet and stood his ground against Hurd, which was a change from his elusive style of constant movement, with great hand speed and footwork. Eleven months later, on March 2nd, Lara was unable to defeat the Argentinian Brian “El Boxi” Castaño at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, who at the time held the WBA World Super Welterweight Title. Each fighter received a winning scorecard, while the third judge saw it a draw at 114-114.
The Cuban fighter determined that these two results meant it was necessary to make adjustments, deciding to leave the American trainer Ronnie Shields and pass that responsibility on to Salas, who guided him during the first 10 fights of his professional career, between 2008 and 2010. In 2013, Lara seized the interim WBA title when he knocked out the Mexican Alfredo Angulo in the 10thround. The year after that, the Cuban conquered the “regular” WBA title with the aforementioned unanimous victory against Smith.
“I’ll fight anyone in the division,” affirmed Lara, 36, in response to what his future plans would be. “I don’t care if it has to be a rematch (with Hurd or Castaño), but I’d rather fight against the best in my division or those who are in similar weight classes. I want to fight Errol Spence Jr. or Canelo Alvarez.”
The undefeated Errol “The Truth” Spence (25-0-0, 21 KOs) will face Shawn “Showtime” Porter on the 28th of September at the Staples Center in Los Angeles where they will dispute the IBF and WBO welterweight titles that they possess respectively.
Nevertheless, the WBA has foreseen a unification bout between Julian “J-Rock” Williams, the current 154-pound super champion, and Lara, the new “regular” champion of the same organization, in the prolonged attempt to have only one champion per division. Williams unanimously defeated Hurd on the 11th of May in Virginia where Hurd suffered the first defeat of his career.
Photo credit: Stephanie Trapp / TGB Promotions
Translated by E.G. for J.J. Alvarez of Boxeo.tv
Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel
To comment on this story in The Fight Forum CLICK HERE
Featured Articles
The Fight of the Century: A Golden Anniversary Celebration

In professional boxing, fights can be rank-ordered as generic fights, big fights, bigger fights, mega-fights, and spectacles. The first fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier wasn’t merely a spectacle, but the grandest spectacle of them all. This coming Monday, March 8, is the 50th anniversary of that iconic event.
Ali-Frazier I was staged at three-year-old Madison Square Garden, the fourth arena in New York to take that name. It drew a capacity crowd: 20,455 (19,500 paid). An estimated 60 percent of all the tickets sold fell into the hands of scalpers.
The fight was closed-circuited to more than 350 locations in the United States and Canada. At some of the larger venues, it established a new record for gate receipts, and this for an attraction that wasn’t produced in-house. In Los Angeles, 15,333 saw the fight at the Forum and 11,575 at the nearby Sports Arena.
Bill Ballenger, the sports editor of the Charlotte (NC) News, saw the fight at the Charlotte Coliseum. He reported that the audio – Don Dunphy did the blow-by-blow with Burt Lancaster and Archie Moore serving as color commentators – was loud enough to be heard outside the arena and that many folks, either unable or unwilling to purchase a ticket, loitered outside and followed the action in 30 degrees weather.
An estimated three hundred million people saw the fight worldwide. In England, by some estimates, half the population tuned in, watching either at home on BBC1 or at a theater where one could watch the fight unfold on a movie screen. Now keep in mind that in England the fight didn’t commence until 6:40 in the morning on a Tuesday!
Inside Madison Square Garden, the large flock of celebrities included many folks one wouldn’t expect to find at a prizefight. Marcello Mastroianni, Italy’s most famous movie star, made a special trip from Rome. Salvador Dali was there and Barbra Streisand and Ethel Kennedy, widow of Bobby Kennedy, seated next to her escort, crooner Andy Williams. Frank Sinatra was there working as a photographer for Life magazine. Lore has it that Sinatra wangled the assignment after failing to boat one of the coveted ringside seats.
The scene was made brighter by human “peacocks,” the label applied to Harlemites with an outrageous sense of fashion, and the electricity was palpable. When Ali appeared at the back of the arena, making his way from his dressing room to the ring, everyone had goosebumps.
The late, great New York sportswriter Dick Young once wrote that there is no greater drama than in the moments preceding a big heavyweight title fight and that was never more true than on March 8, 1971 at Madison Square Garden.
Ali (31-0, 25 KOs) and Frazier (26-0, 23 KOs) were both undefeated. Both had a claim to the heavyweight title, Ali because the belt had been controversially stripped away from him for his political beliefs. Opinions as to who would win were pretty evenly divided. In Las Vegas, Joe Frazier was the favorite at odds of 6 to 5. Across the pond in England, bookies were quoting odds of 11 to 8 on Ali.
Those that favored Ali were of the opinion that ‘Smokin’ Joe was too one-dimensional. That much was true. Joe was as subtle as a steam locomotive on a downhill grade. He ate Ali’s hardest punches, said Boston Globe reporter Bud Collins, as if they were movie house popcorn and he eventually wore Ali down. There was little doubt as to how the judges would see it after Joe knocked Ali down in the 15th round with a frightful left hook. When Ali arose, it appeared that he had been afflicted with a sudden case of the mumps. The decision was unanimous: 11-4, 9-6, 8-6-1.
This wasn’t the greatest fight of all time, but it was a fight that more than lived up to the hype. And, as several people have noted, the event took on a life of its own without the benefit of modern technology to push it along. The buzz was fueled in a large part by newspapers, the “antiquated” sort of newspapers that a fellow fished from his driveway or purchased at a newsstand on the way to or from work. If twitter and facebook had been around during Muhammad Ali’s prime, Ali would have blown the doors off the internet.
A cultural touchstone is an event that remains sealed in our memory. As we slide into old age, if we are lucky enough to live that long, we may not remember what we had for breakfast in the morning, but some long-ago events are as vivid as if they had happened just yesterday.
Boxing historian Frank Lotierzo has written poignantly about how overjoyed he was when he was surprised with the news that his father would be taking him to the fight. “To this day it remains the biggest thrill of my life!” wrote Lotierzo, who was then in the seventh grade. “And it’s not even close!”
I didn’t see the fight, but I can recall the faces of people that I overheard talking about it, people whose interest in the fight struck me as odd as I knew they had little interest in the world of sports. So, when the fight is replayed in its entirety on Sunday – it airs on ABC at 2 p.m ET and again at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN – I will be watching it for the first time. And it will be bittersweet as I will be reminded that I am in the twilight of my life and my thoughts will inevitably drift to my friends and loved ones that have left this mortal world in the years since that grand night in 1971 when Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier locked horns in the Fight of the Century.
I get misty-eyed just thinking about it.
Check out more boxing news on video at the Boxing Channel
To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE
Featured Articles
Yoka TKO 12 Djeko in France: Claressa Pitches a Shutout on Ladies Day in Flint

Yoka TKO 12 Djeko in France: Claressa Pitches a Shutout on Ladies Day in Flint
March 8 is International Women’s Day which is actually a formal holiday in many parts of the globe. It was somehow fitting that female boxers were on display on the Friday feeding into it, a weekend without a must-see attraction on the men’s side.
Today’s activity began in the French port city of Nantes where 2016 Olympic gold medal winners Tony Yoka and Estelle Mossely, husband and wife, kept their undefeated records intact, both advancing to 10-0, against European opponents. Yoka (10-0, 8 KOs) was matched against Joel “Big Joe” Djeko (17-3-1), a 31-year-old Brussels native of Congolese and Cuban extraction who had fought most of his career as a cruiserweight. Mossely, a lightweight who now goes by Yoka-Mossely, drew Germany’s Verena Kaiser (14-2).
At the Rio Olympiad, Yoka got by Filip Hrgovic in the semis and Joe Joyce in the finals to win the gold, winning both bouts by split decision. Both would be favored over the Frenchman in a rematch fought under professional rules.
Against the six-foot-six Djeko, Yoka controlled the fight with his jab, repeatedly backing his foe against the ropes. Very few of Djeko’s punches got through Yoka’s high guard. Had the fight gone to the scorecards, it would have been a rout for Yoka, but it didn’t quite get there as Djeko turned his back on the proceedings midway through the 12th round after absorbing a sharp jab and it went into the books as a TKO for Yoka. At stake was some kind of European title or a derivation thereof.
Mossely’s fight with Kaiser, slated for 10 two-minute rounds, followed a somewhat similar tack, save that it went the full distance. With only one knockout to her credit at the pro level, Mosseley, typical of female boxers, lacks a knockout punch. But she’s a good technician and had too much class for the German.
Flint
A Covid-19 limited crowd of perhaps 300 was on hand to watch hometown heroine Claressa Shields oppose IBF 154-pound title-holder Marie Eve Dicaire at a 4,400-seat arena in Flint. There were five bouts on the undercard, three of which were women’s bouts.

Claressa Shields
Shields, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was seeking to become a four-belt title-holder in a second weight class, having previously turned the trick at 160. Dicaire, a 34-year-old southpaw, brought a 17-0 record but she had never won a fight inside the distance and all of her previous bouts took place in French-speaking Canada.
The self-proclaimed GWOAT, Shields has no peer between 154 and 168 pounds. Heading into this contest, she had hardly lost a round since meeting Hanna Gabriels and tonight was another total whitewash, her fourth overall in 10-round fights.
Claressa Shields, now 11-0 (2) may be too good for her own good. Her fights are so one-sided that they are monotonous. Her TV ratings have actually been falling. Today’s show was a $29.99 pay-per-view on FITE when the established networks refused to meet her purse demands. It will be interesting to see how many tuned in.
In another fight of note, 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Marlen Esparza, in her first fight as a bantamweight, dominated Toronto’s Shelly Barnett en route to winning a 6-round unanimous decision. There were no knockdowns, but the scorecards (60-54, 60-53 twice) were indicative of Esparza’s dominance.
Esparza, who pushed her record to 9-1 (1), came in ranked #1 by the WBC in the flyweight class. Her lone defeat came at the hands of rugged Seniesa Estrada. Barnett declined to 4-4-3.
Check out more boxing news on video at the Boxing Channel
To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE
Featured Articles
Brandon Adams Bursts Bohachuk’s Bubble in Puerto Rico

Brandon Adams Bursts Bohachuk’s Bubble in Puerto Rico
Ring City USA, a new promotional entity, debuted on Nov. 19, 2020 with a show staged in the parking lot of Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, CA. Ring City stayed outdoors for their first offering of 2021, but the company was a long ways from California. Tonight’s card was staged on a roundabout near a municipal gym in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico.
The headline attraction was an attractive match between junior middleweights Serhii Bohachuk and Brandon Adams. The bout was originally set for Dec. 3, but had to be pushed back when Bohachuk tested positive for the coronavirus.
Bohachuk, a 25-year-old California-based Ukrainian, had stopped all 18 of his previous opponents. He had never gone past six rounds. Brandon Adams, a former world title challenger, represented a step up in class.
Bohachuk was well on his way to winning a unanimous decision when the tide turned dramatically in round eight. Fighting on a slick canvas, Adams suddenly found a new gear, unloading a series of punches climaxed by a thunderous left hook as Bohachuk retreated. The Ukrainian beat the count, but was teetering on unsteady legs and the referee properly called a halt.
Adams was without his regular trainer, 80-year-old Dub Huntley, who remained back in LA as a health precaution. In winning, he elevated his records to 23-3 (15). It was his best performance since defeating Shane Mosley Jr in the finals of Season 5 of the “Contender” series.
—
In the co-feature, an 8-round featherweight contest, Puerto Rico’s Bryan Chevalier improved to 15-1-1 (12) with a third-round stoppage of Peru’s Carlos Zambrano (26-2). Chevalier scored two knockdowns, the first a sweeping left hook that appeared to land behind Zambrano’s head, and the second a punch to the liver that left Zambrano in severe distress. The referee waived the fight off in mid-count.
The official time was 2:21. Chevalier, a tall featherweight (5’11”) made a very impressive showing; he bears watching. This was Zambrano’s first fight since April of 2017 when he was knocked out in the opening round by Claudio Marrero in a bout for the WBA interim featherweight title.
—
The TV opener was an entertaining fight between contrasting styles that produced a weird conclusion when Danielito Zorrilla was awarded a technical decision over Ruslan Madiyev. The bout was stopped at the 1:16 mark of round eight after Zorrilla sank to his knees after absorbing a punch to the back of the head. The ringside physician examined him for evidence of a concussion, but ultimately it was Zorrilla’s choice as to whether the bout would continue. He declined and was reportedly taken to a hospital for observation.
Madiyev, a California-based Kazahk, was the aggressor. He fought the fight in Zorilla’s grill, often bullying him against the ropes. In round five, he had a point deducted for hitting behind the head, squandering what was arguably his best round.
The fight went to the scorecards with Zorrilla winning a split decision (77-74, 77-75, 73-76), thereby remaining undefeated: 15-0 (12). Ironically, Madiyev (13-2, 5 KOs), suffered his previous loss in a similar fashion.
Madiyev’s new trainer Joel Diaz reportedly discouraged his charge from taking this fight for fear that he wouldn’t get a fair shake in Puerto Rico. Diaz’s apprehensions were well-founded.
Photo credit: Tom Hogan / Ring City USA
To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE
-
Featured Articles3 weeks ago
Rustico Torrecampo’s Historic KO (Historic in Hindsight)
-
Featured Articles4 weeks ago
Leon Spinks, Dead at 67, Fell Far and Fast After Shocking Muhammad Ali
-
Featured Articles4 weeks ago
Leon Spinks Passes Away at Age 67
-
Featured Articles4 weeks ago
Ali-Spinks I: A Trip Down Memory Lane in Search of the Elusive Betting Line
-
Featured Articles3 weeks ago
R.I.P. Davey Armstrong, Two-Time U.S. Olympian
-
Featured Articles2 weeks ago
Oscar Valdez KOs Miguel Berchelt in a Torrid Mexican Battle
-
Featured Articles3 weeks ago
Boxing Odds and Ends: The Return of Otto Wallin, Bad Judging, and Obits
-
Featured Articles2 weeks ago
Ten Heavyweight Prospects: 2021 Catchup