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The Avila Perspective, Chap 66: Can Spence-Porter equal De La Hoya-Mosley?
The Avila Perspective, Chap 66: Can Spence-Porter equal De La Hoya-Mosley?
LOS ANGELES-Nearly 20 years ago one of the best welterweight world title fights and pay-per-view cards ever held in Los Angeles took place at the Staples Center.
Can this Saturday’s fight card be even better?
When IBF titlist Errol Spence Jr. (25-0, 21 KOs) steps in the boxing ring against WBC titlist Shawn Porter (30-2-1, 17 KOs) in a welterweight unification match on Saturday Sept. 28, can they rival one of the great welterweight cards ever held in Los Angeles?
It’s going to be difficult to equal what many consider the best welterweight clash in the history of Los Angeles.
Back on June 17, 2000, welterweight kingpins Oscar De La Hoya and Shane Mosley lit up Staples Center in a crosstown L.A. rivalry that has never been equaled. It was the first championship fight ever held in that arena and though the supporting pay-per-view card featured a young Diego Corrales and Erik Morales, it was heavily reliant on the two local stars.
Celebrities like Muhammad Ali, Halle Berry and Jack Nicholson clamored for tickets to see “the Golden Boy” De La Hoya and “Sugar Shane” Mosley. For fans in attendance, half of the enjoyment was watching the stars stroll in one by one.
Even after the fights, people on the streets or at West L.A.’s Fatburger wanted to know who won the fight.
It’s a different scenario this Saturday.
PBC
Both Spence and Porter come from other states, but they are not alone on this mega boxing card that flaunts several 50/50 matchups.
Premier Boxing Champion has an army of talented prizefighters and for years seemed to keep them from fighting each other. Well, now the gloves are off and within the past 12 months PBC, as it’s known, has presented several strong pay-per-view cards. This is possibly the best of them all.
Spence recently defeated fellow pound-for-pound fighter Mikey Garcia in a welterweight world title fight last March in Dallas, Texas. It was his first pay-per-view fight and sparked interest in the left-handed welterweight kingpin.
“I feel like all of my fights prepared me for this moment. Porter is not like Mikey Garcia. They have different styles and different mentalities,” said Spence at the press conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
Porter captured the WBC title with a withering battle against former titleholder Danny “Swift” Garcia a year ago in Brooklyn. The always punching and moving fighter has been tabbed a major 8-1 underdog against Spence.
“Being in the underdog position is literally where I come from. Northeast Ohio is always an underdog. Everybody works where I come from. We always do the best we can,” said Porter who hails from Akron, Ohio but now lives in Las Vegas.
The undefeated Spence feels he cannot be beaten.
“I’m going to win and do it in dominating fashion,” said Spence, 29, whose last fight was six months ago.
Porter doesn’t think so.
“Everyone has seen everything what I’ve done in my career. Everyone knows I can take a punch and I’ll be there from the first round to the last round,” said Porter, 31. “We’ll see what happens to Errol as the fight goes on.”
It’s the main event but several other fights on the pay-per-view card deserve mention.
Dirrell Family vs Benavidez Family
Both Anthony Dirrell and David Benavidez come from strong fighting families.
Dirrell hails from Flint, Michigan. He and his brother Andre Dirrell have been ranked contenders for more than a decade.
Benavidez comes from Phoenix, Arizona and he and his older brother Jose Benavidez are part of the reason the city has become a burgeoning location for boxing talent.
On Saturday both boxing families meet head to head with the WBC super middleweight world title the prize.
Ironically, Benavidez held the title but was stripped of the belt when he failed a PED test. Now he gets the opportunity to reclaim it from Dirrell who grabbed it with a technical decision win over Turkey’s Avni Yildirim this past February. An accidental clash of heads forced the fight to be cut short and Dirrell was ruled the winner according to the score cards.
Both see each other as pretender champions.
“It’s an honor to be in this position. It’s a dream to be on a card like this defending my title,” said Dirrell who is making the first defense of the WBC title. “Experience is definitely a big key in this fight. I think that he has holes in his game and I’m going to expose it on Saturday night.”
Benavidez, 22, first won the WBC super middleweight title in September 2017 when he was still 20 years old. He was stripped of the title when he was found with traces of an illegal substance by VADA.
“I have another opportunity to not just get a title, but take it from a champion. I’ve worked very hard for this fight. Dirrell has never been knocked out and I’m taking the challenge to be the man who does it,” said Benavidez.
Super Lightweight Title
San Antonio’s Mario Barrios (24-0) has been ruining opponents so far and finally gets a shot at the vacant WBA super lightweight world title. Standing in his way will be Batyr Akhmedov (7-0, 6 KOs), a Russian fighter with plenty of weapons.
Up until now the tall Barrios has defeated solid competition including wins over Jose Roman and Juan Jose Velasco. But this time he’s got a very strong opponent worthy of fighting for the world title.
Akhmedov trains in Indio, California with Joel and Antonio Diaz. Out in the Coachella desert area, the Russian fighter has been sparring with tough opposition and has been waiting for an opportunity just like this.
Expect a solid war between the two.
Trainer Joel Diaz says Akhmedov has outstanding talent.
Josesito, Molina and Ghost return
The welterweight clash between Josesito Lopez and John Molina could be the fight of the night. Also on the card will be Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero, a former top pound for pound fighter who seems ready to return to the forefront.
Guerrero (35-6-1, 20 KOs) meets Kansas welterweight Gerald Thomas (14-1-1, 8 KOs) in a bout set for 10 rounds. It’s a match designed to see if Guerrero has returned to championship form.
“He needed a little time off,” said Ruben Guerrero, father of Robert Guerrero. “He looks really good and strong. You will see.”
It’s a lengthy fight card featuring plenty of prospects, contenders and world champions. It’s probably the best pay-per-view card of the year.
Can it match De La Hoya-Mosley for best welterweight pay-per-view fight card ever staged in Los Angeles? We shall see on Saturday.
Suggested price for Fox PPV: $74.99
Doors open at 1 p.m. Tickets range from $61 to $659.
Photo credit: Al Applerose
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Usyk Outpoints Fury and Itauma has the “Wow Factor” in Riyadh
Usyk Outpoints Fury and Itauma has the “Wow Factor” in Riyadh
Oleksandr Usyk left no doubt that he is the best heavyweight of his generation and one of the greatest boxers of all time with a unanimous decision over Tyson Fury tonight at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. But although the Ukrainian won eight rounds on all three scorecards, this was no runaway. To pirate a line from one of the DAZN talking heads, Fury had his moments in every round but Usyk had more moments.
The early rounds were fought at a faster pace than the first meeting back in May. At the mid-point, the fight was even. The next three rounds – the next five to some observers – were all Usyk who threw more punches and landed the cleaner shots.
Fury won the final round in the eyes of this reporter scoring at home, but by then he needed a knockout to pull the match out of the fire.
The last round was an outstanding climax to an entertaining chess match during which both fighters took turns being the pursuer and the pursued.
An Olympic gold medalist and a unified world champion at cruiserweight and heavyweight, the amazing Usyk improved his ledger to 23-0 (14). His next fight, more than likely, will come against the winner of the Feb. 22 match in Ridayh between Daniel Dubois and Joseph Parker which will share the bill with the rematch between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.
Fury (34-2-1) may fight Anthony Joshua next. Regardless, no one wants a piece of Moses Itauma right now although the kid is only 19 years old.
Moses Itauma
Raised in London by a Nigerian father and a Slovakian mother, Itauma turned heads once again with another “wow” performance. None of his last seven opponents lasted beyond the second round.
His opponent tonight, 34-year-old Australian Demsey McKean, lasted less than two minutes. Itauma, a southpaw with blazing fast hands, had the Aussie on the deck twice during the 117-second skirmish. The first knockdown was the result of a cuffing punch that landed high on the head; the second knockdown was produced by an overhand left. McKean went down hard as his chief cornerman bounded on to the ring apron to halt the massacre.
Itauma (12-0, 10 KOs after going 20-0 as an amateur) is the real deal. It was the second straight loss for McKean (22-2) who lasted into the 10th round against Filip Hrgovic in his last start.
Bohachuk-Davis
In a fight billed as the co-main although it preceded Itauma-McKean, Serhii Bohachuk, an LA-based Ukrainian, stopped Ishmael Davis whose corner pulled him out after six frames.
Both fighters were coming off a loss in fights that were close on the scorecards, Bohachuk falling to Vergil Ortiz Jr in a Las Vegas barnburner and Davis losing to Josh Kelly.
Davis, who took the fight on short notice, subbing for Ismail Madrimov, declined to 13-2. He landed a few good shots but was on the canvas in the second round, compliments of a short left hook, and the relentless Bohachuk (25-2, 24 KOs) eventually wore him down.
Fisher-Allen
In a messy, 10-round bar brawl masquerading as a boxing match, Johnny Fisher, the Romford Bull, won a split decision over British countryman David Allen. Two judges favored Fisher by 95-94 tallies with the dissenter favoring Allen 96-93. When the scores were announced, there was a chorus of boos and those watching at home were outraged.
Allen was a step up in class for Fisher. The Doncaster man had a decent record (23-5-2 heading in) and had been routinely matched tough (his former opponents included Dillian Whyte, Luis “King Kong” Ortiz and three former Olympians). But Allen was fairly considered no more than a journeyman and Fisher (12-0 with 11 KOs, eight in the opening round) was a huge favorite.
In round five, Allen had Fisher on the canvas twice although only one was ruled a true knockdown. From that point, he landed the harder shots and, at the final bell, he fell to canvas shedding tears of joy, convinced that he had won.
He did not win, but he exposed Johnny Fisher as a fighter too slow to compete with elite heavyweights, a British version of the ponderous Russian-Canadian campaigner Arslanbek Makhmudov.
Other Bouts of Note
In a spirited 10-round featherweight match, Scotland’s Lee McGregor, a former European bantamweight champion and stablemate of former unified 140-pound title-holder Josh Taylor, advanced to 15-1-1 (11) with a unanimous decision over Isaac Lowe (25-3-3). The judges had it 96-92 and 97-91 twice.
A cousin and regular houseguest of Tyson Fury, Lowe fought most of the fight with cuts around both eyes and was twice deducted a point for losing his gumshield.
In a fight between super featherweights that could have gone either way, Liverpool southpaw Peter McGrail improved to 11-1 (6) with a 10-round unanimous decision over late sub Rhys Edwards. The judges had it 96-95 and 96-94 twice.
McGrail, a Tokyo Olympian and 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medalist, fought from the third round on with a cut above his right eye, the result of an accidental clash of heads. It was the first loss for Edwards (16-1), a 24-year-old Welshman who has another fight booked in three weeks.
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Fury-Usyk Reignited: Can the Gypsy King Avenge his Lone Defeat?
Fury-Usyk Reignited: Can the Gypsy King Avenge his Lone Defeat?
In professional boxing, the heavyweight division, going back to the days of John L. Sullivan, is the straw that stirs the drink. By this measure, the fight on May 18 of this year at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was the biggest prizefight in decades. The winner would emerge as the first undisputed heavyweight champion since 1999 when Lennox Lewis out-pointed Evander Holyfield in their second meeting.
The match did not disappoint. It had several twists and turns.
Usyk did well in the early rounds, but the Gypsy King rattled Usyk with a harsh right hand in the fifth stanza and won rounds five through seven on all three cards. In the ninth, the match turned sharply in favor of the Ukrainian. Fury was saved by the bell after taking a barrage of unanswered punches, the last of which dictated a standing 8-count from referee Mark Nelson. But Fury weathered the storm and with his amazing powers of recuperation had a shade the best of it in the final stanza.
The decision was split: 115-112 and 114-113 for Usyk who became a unified champion in a second weight class; 114-113 for Fury.
That brings us to tomorrow (Saturday, Dec. 21) where Usyk and Fury will renew acquaintances in the same ring where they had their May 18 showdown.
The first fight was a near “pick-‘em” affair with Fury closing a very short favorite at most of the major bookmaking establishments. The Gypsy King would have been a somewhat higher favorite if not for the fact that he was coming off a poor showing against MMA star Francis Ngannou and had a worrisome propensity for getting cut. (A cut above Fury’s right eye in sparring pushed back the fight from its original Feb. 11 date.)
Tomorrow’s sequel, bearing the tagline “Reignited,” finds Usyk a consensus 7/5 favorite although those odds could shorten by post time. (There was no discernible activity after today’s weigh-in where Fury, fully clothed, topped the scales at 281, an increase of 19 pounds over their first meeting.)
Given the politics of boxing, anything “undisputed” is fragile. In June, Usyk abandoned his IBF belt and the organization anointed Daniel Dubois their heavyweight champion based upon Dubois’s eighth-round stoppage of Filip Hrgovic in a bout billed for the IBF interim title. The malodorous WBA, a festering boil on the backside of boxing, now recognizes 43-year-old Kubrat Pulev as its “regular” heavyweight champion.
Another difference between tomorrow’s fight card and the first installment is that the May 18 affair had a much stronger undercard. Two strong pairings were the rematch between cruiserweights Jai Opetaia and Maris Briedis (Opetaia UD 12) and the heavyweight contest between unbeatens Agit Kabayal and Frank Sanchez (Kabayel KO 7).
Tomorrow’s semi-wind-up between Serhii Bohachuk and Ismail Madrimov lost luster when Madrimov came down with bronchitis and had to withdraw. The featherweight contest between Peter McGrail and Dennis McCann fell out when McCann’s VADA test returned an adverse finding. Bohachuk and McGrail remain on the card but against late-sub opponents in matches that are less intriguing.
The focal points of tomorrow’s undercard are the bouts involving undefeated British heavyweights Moses Itauma (10-0, 8 KOs) and Johnny Fisher (12-0, 11 KOs). Both are heavy favorites over their respective opponents but bear watching because they represent the next generation of heavyweight standouts. Fury and Usyk are getting long in the tooth. The Gypsy King is 36; Usyk turns 38 next month.
Bob Arum once said that nobody purchases a pay-per-view for the undercard and, years from now, no one will remember which sanctioning bodies had their fingers in the pie. So, Fury-Usyk II remains a very big deal, although a wee bit less compelling than their first go-around.
Will Tyson Fury avenge his lone defeat? Turki Alalshikh, the Chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority and the unofficial czar of “major league” boxing, certainly hopes so. His Excellency has made known that he stands poised to manufacture a rubber match if Tyson prevails.
We could have already figured this out, but Alalshikh violated one of the protocols of boxing when he came flat out and said so. He effectively made Tyson Fury the “A-side,” no small potatoes considering that the most relevant variable on the checklist when handicapping a fight is, “Who does the promoter need?”
The Uzyk-Fury II fight card will air on DAZN with a suggested list price of $39.99 for U.S. fight fans. The main event is expected to start about 5:45 pm ET / 2:45 pm PT.
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Unheralded Bruno Surace went to Tijuana and Forged the TSS 2024 Upset of the Year
Unheralded Bruno Surace went to Tijuana and Forged the TSS 2024 Upset of the Year
The Dec. 14 fight at Tijuana between Jaime Munguia and Bruno Surace was conceived as a stay-busy fight for Munguia. The scuttlebutt was that Munguia’s promoters, Zanfer and Top Rank, wanted him to have another fight under his belt before thrusting him against Christian Mbilli in a WBC eliminator with the prize for the winner (in theory) a date with Canelo Alvarez.
Munguia came to the fore in May of 2018 at Verona, New York, when he demolished former U.S. Olympian Sadam Ali, conqueror of Miguel Cotto. That earned him the WBO super welterweight title which he successfully defended five times.
Munguia kept winning as he moved up in weight to middleweight and then super middleweight and brought a 43-0 (34) record into his Cinco de Mayo 2024 match with Canelo.
Jaime went the distance with Alvarez and had a few good moments while losing a unanimous decision. He rebounded with a 10th-round stoppage of Canada’s previously undefeated Erik Bazinyan.
There was little reason to think that Munguia would overlook Surace as the Mexican would be fighting in his hometown for the first time since February of 2022 and would want to send the home folks home happy. Moreover, even if Munguia had an off-night, there was no reason to think that the obscure Surace could capitalize. A Frenchman who had never fought outside France, Surace brought a 25-0-2 record and a 22-fight winning streak, but he had only four knockouts to his credit and only eight of his wins had come against opponents with winning records.
It appeared that Munguia would close the show early when he sent the Frenchman to the canvas in the second round with a big left hook. From that point on, Surace fought mostly off his back foot, throwing punches in spurts, whereas the busier Munguia concentrated on chopping him down with body punches. But Surace absorbed those punches well and at the midway point of the fight, behind on the cards but nonplussed, it now looked as if the bout would go the full 10 rounds with Munguia winning a lopsided decision.
Then lightning struck. Out of the blue, Surace connected with an overhand right to the jaw. Munguia went down flat on his back. He rose a fraction-of-a second before the count reached “10,”, but stumbled as he pulled himself upright. His eyes were glazed and referee Juan Jose Ramirez, a local man, waived it off. There was no protest coming from Munguia or his cornermen. The official time was 2:36 of round six.
At major bookmaking establishments, Jaime Munguia was as high as a 35/1 favorite. No world title was at stake, yet this was an upset for the ages.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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