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Elder Statesman Saoul Mamby (1947 – 2019) Was Even More Perseverant Than B-Hop

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I think I interviewed the late Saoul Mamby just once. There might have been a time or two more, but I can’t say for sure, given the thousands of fights I have covered in my four-decades-plus on the boxing beat, not all of which made a deep enough impression on my memory that I can instantly dial up time, place and details.  In any case, it is that first occasion I was at ringside for a Saoul bout I recall now, for reasons that only peripherally touch upon his participation in the main event that night at Resorts International Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, N.J.

It was Oct. 11, 1988. I was there to report for the Philadelphia Daily News on what I seem to recall was a seven-bout card, headlined by the 10-round junior welterweight matchup pitting up-and-coming John Wesley Meekins, 23, and 41-year-old warhorse Mamby, a former WBC super lightweight champion on the way down. Eighteen years younger, stronger and faster, Meekins negated Mamby’s edge in experience to win a majority decision.

The Bronx-born, Brooklyn-based Mamby’s status as a former world titlist in and of itself seemingly should be enough to commemorate his passing, at age 72, after a lingering illness. But the reason that date still registers with me so much later is this: a 23-year-old ex-convict from Philadelphia, Bernard Hopkins, made an inauspicious pro debut on the Meekins-Mamby undercard with a four-round majority decision loss to Clinton Mitchell.

Hopkins, you’ve heard about. Inactive for 20 months after the loss to Mitchell, he would come up the hard way, eventually becoming a middleweight champion (setting a record with 20 title defenses, since tied by Gennadiy Golovkin) and light heavyweight champion. He also holds the record for being the oldest widely recognized world titlist, making the last successful defense of his IBF 175-pound belt with a split decision over Beibut Shumenov, from whom he also annexed the WBA strap, on April 19, 2014, when B-Hop was 49.

By then a legend for his longevity as well as his many signature victories, Hopkins was just 29 days shy of his 53rd birthday for his final fight, on Dec. 17, 2016, when he was tagged with the only loss inside the distance in his exemplary, 28-year career, going out in eight rounds against 27-year-old construction worker Joe Smith Jr. in Inglewood, Calif. Only then did Hopkins concede that he was as susceptible to the one opponent, Father Time, that no fighter can stave off indefinitely.

I have covered dozens of Bernard Hopkins fights, many of which were for the PDN, tying us so closely in some people’s minds that we have almost come to be viewed as joined at the hip. Roy Jones Jr. even has referred to me as “Bernard Hopkins Fernandez.” And don’t think that more than a few people see some significance in the fact that we both will be formally inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame on June 14, 2020, B-Hop in the Modern category and I in the Observer category.

But, as remarkable as Hopkins has been for achieving what he did in a sport that is harsh and unforgiving to those who try to hang on too long, consider this: Saoul Mamby, incredibly, was 60 when he appeared in his last sanctioned fight, losing a 10-round unanimous decision to 32-year-old ham-and-egger Anthony Osbourne on March 8, 2008, in Georgetown, Guyana. Osbourne, a Jamaican, entered the ring then with a 6-27-1 record.

Given the spate of aging fighters who either have launched or were contemplating ill-advised comebacks, most notably former middleweight and super middleweight champion Nigel Benn at 55 (he ultimately decided against it), Mamby’s name had been bandied about quite a bit recently as a prime example – maybe the prime example — of someone who, as in the words of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, “raged, raged against the dying of the light” of a ring career he hoped to prolong for as long as possible.

Unlike Hopkins, so celebrated now for surviving as long and as successfully as he did at the highest levels of boxing, Saoul Mamby is not likely to ever be posthumously inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, despite the WBC super lightweight title he claimed with a 14th-round TKO of Sang Hyum Kim on Feb. 23, 1980, and retained through five defenses.  He was a good but not especially remarkable, 33-12-5, with 12 KOs when he finally yielded his championship to Leroy Haley on a unanimous decision on Feb. 13, 1983, coming up short again in his bid to reclaim the same title, again by UD, to then-champ Billy Costello on Nov. 3, 1984. His final record after the loss to Osbourne shall forever stand at 45-34-6, with 18 wins by KO or TKO.

But consider this: even as he regressed from champion to trial horse, enduring an eight-fight losing streak along the way, Mamby lost only one time inside the distance, a first-round stoppage against 23-year-old contender Derrell Coley on Aug. 13, 1993. Saoul was 46 then and Coley came in at 20-0-1 with 14 KOs.

Records, however, are merely statistics, from which conclusions can be twisted to fit someone’s preferred narrative. It should be noted that Mamby, a Vietnam veteran, gave the great Roberto Duran, the reigning lightweight champ, all he could handle in losing a 10-round, non-title unanimous decision on May 4, 1976. But the “Hands of Stone” was just one of the top-tier fighters with whom Mamby swapped punches, a list that also includes Costello, Coley, Edwin Viruet, Antonio Cervantes, Esteban De Jesus, Buddy McGirt, Maurice Blocker and Javier Castillejo.

Mamby was unquestionably a lesser version of himself when he squared off against Meekins, a New York City resident who never did quite fulfill the championship promise he flashed for a time as a hot prospect. Still, I made Saoul the focus of my story for the PDN, which I thought to be of possibly greater interest to readers.

“It’s a tribute to him that he’s still able to do what he does,” Meekins said of Mamby. “He obviously takes care of himself. I personally can’t even imagine what it would be like to be fighting when I’m his age.”

A prophetic look into the future. Meekins was 29 when he quit the ring in 1994, with a 24-5-2 record with 17 wins by KO.

Mamby, by this time apparently accustomed to the reality that he no longer was the “A” side of most of the bouts in which he participated, shrugged off another loss that, once upon a time when he was still a champion, he likely would have won.

“It wasn’t too bad a performance on my part, considering that I only had a week to get ready,” he told me “I have no complaints. I did my best. The judges said it wasn’t good enough.:

And now for the part that I find most surprising, given what would transpire later. The story I wrote for my newspaper ran a few inches longer than the hole into which it was assigned, so most of the copy that made it into print dealt with the main event. Some of the undercard bouts – including the one involving the debuting Hopkins – didn’t make the cut.

Many years later, I asked Hopkins if he remembered who the main-event fighters were on the night he turned pro. He said he wasn’t sure.

“It was John Wesley Meekins and Saoul Mamby,” I said.

“Oh, yeah, John Meekins,” Hopkins replied. “Good young fighter. From New York, I think.”

The passage of time has made it easier to forget some of what Saoul Mamby did as the most elder of boxing’s once-active elder statesmen. Now that he’s gone, I don’t ever want to make that mistake again.

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Two Candidates for the Greatest Fight Card in Boxing History

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Saturday’s fight card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, topped by the rematch between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol for undisputed light heavyweight supremacy, was being hyped as the greatest boxing card ever. That was before Daniel Dubois took ill and had to pull out of his IBF world heavyweight title defense against Joseph Parker, yielding his slot to last-minute replacement Martin Bakole.

The view from here is that the card remains in the running for the best card ever, top to bottom. The public didn’t view Dubois as the legitimate heavyweight champion. That distinction goes to Oleksandr Usyk.

Terms like “greatest” are, of course, subjective. Are we referring to the most attractive match-ups or the greatest array of talent, or the card that gives the most satisfaction by churning out a multiplicity of entertaining fights?

We won’t know how satisfying this card is until after the fact. We won’t know whether the talent on display was the greatest ever assembled on one night until many years have passed. Contestants such as Shakur Stevenson, Vergil Ortiz Jr, and Hamzah Sheeraz are still in their twenties (Stevenson is the oldest of the four at age 27) and it’s too soon to gauge if they will leave the sport with a great legacy.

As for which fight card in history had the deepest pool of attractive match-ups, this is a query that is amenable to an operational definition. Betting lines are a useful tool for informing us whether or not a fight warrants our attention if the likelihood of witnessing a closely-contested bout is our primary consideration.

Based on these factors, I would submit that the current leader in the race for the best card ever assembled goes to Don King’s May 7, 1994 promotion at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Six future Hall of Famers – Julio Cesar Chavez, Ricardo Lopez, Azumah Nelson, Terry Norris, Julian Jackson, and Christy Martin — were on that card, an 11-fight, eight-hour marathon with five WBC world title fights, four of which were rematches.

These were the five title fights:

140 pounds: Julio Cesar Chavez (89-1-1, 77 KOs) vs. Frankie Randall (49-2-1, 39 KOs)

Odds: Chavez 3/1 (minus-300)

154 pounds: Terry Norris (37-4, 23 KOs) vs. Simon Brown (41-2, 30 KOs)

Odds: even (11/10 and take your pick)

160 pounds: Gerald McClellan (30-2, 28 KOs) vs. Julian Jackson (48-2, 45 KOs)

Odds: McClellan 7/2 (minus-350)

130 pounds: Azumah Nelson (37-2-2, 26 KOs) vs. Jesse James Leija (27-0-2, 13 KOs)

Odds: Nelson 17/10 (minus-170)

105 pounds: Ricardo Lopez (36-0, 27 KOs) vs. Kermin Guardia (21-0, 14 KOs)

Odds: none

Results

Chavez-Randall — Julio Cesar Chavez avenged his loss to Frankie Randall, but not without controversy. An accidental clash of heads in the eighth round left Chavez with a bad gash on his forehead. Ring physician Flip Homansky would have allowed the bout to continue if that had been Chavez’s preference, but El Gran Campeon wasn’t so inclined. A WBC rule specified that in the event of a significant injury accruing from an accidental head butt, the less-damaged fighter is penalized a point. The fight went to the scorecards where Chavez won a split decision that would have been a draw without the point deduction. The crowd was overwhelmingly pro-Chavez, but the big bets were mostly on Randall and the odds got nicked down on the day of the fight.

Brown-Norris — In their first meeting in December of the previous year, Simon Brown dominated Terry Norris from the opening bell before stopping him in the fourth round. It was a massive upset. Norris was in the conversation for the top pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. In the rematch, Norris opened a slight favorite, but the late money was on Brown. And, once again, the so-called “sharps” were on the wrong side. Terry Norris, the would-be avenger, won a comfortable decision.

McClellan-Jackson — A murderous puncher, Gerald McClellan bombed out Julian Jackson in 83 seconds, or four rounds quicker than in their first engagement. Jackson was also a murderous puncher and attracted money in the sports books, lowering the price on the victorious McClellan who yet remained a solid favorite.

Nelson-Leija – WBC President Jose Sulaiman mandated this rematch after the first meeting ended in a draw after an error was found in the tabulation of one of the scorecards, overturning the original verdict which had Nelson retaining his title on a split decision. Leija thought he was robbed and was the rightful winner in the do-over, outworking Nelson to win a unanimous decision. At age 35, Azumah was getting long in the tooth.

Lopez-Guardia – Before the digital age, bookmakers didn’t trifle to post lines on bouts that on paper were egregious mismatches, save perhaps a fight of great magnitude. Guardia, the Colombian challenger, overachieved by lasting the distance in a fight with no knockdowns, but “Finito” won a lopsided decision.

A Note on Odds

Betting lines serve a useful purpose for boxing historians; they quantify the magnitude of an upset. However, quoting odds is tricky because they are fluid and vary somewhat from place to place. What this means is that two journalists can quote different odds on the same event and they both can get it right – unless there is a significant disparity. The odds quoted above are the closing lines at the MGM Grand or, at the very least, a very close approximation.

Saturday in Riyadh

One reason why tomorrow’s fight card is the best ever, said the tub-thumpers, is that the card (in its original conformation) included seven world title fights. But that’s no big deal There are so many title fights nowadays that the term “world title” has been trivialized. And what wasn’t acknowledged is that three of the title fights were of the “interim” stripe.

However – and this is a big deal — a glance at the odds informs us that tomorrow’s card is chock-full of competitive match-ups (at least on paper) and from that aspect, a blend of quality and quantity, it is a doozy of a boxing card.

The greatest boxing linemaker of my generation, now deceased, once told me that any fight where the “chalk” was less than a 3/1 favorite is essentially a “pick-‘em” fight. Yes, I know that makes no sense mathematically. However, I know what he was getting at. In a baseball game, for example, it’s very rare to find a team favored by odds of more than 3/1. In boxing, where self-serving promoters are constantly feeding us King Kong vs. Mickey Mouse, odds higher than 3/1 are the norm.

As this is being written, there are six fights on Saturday’s card where one could play the favorite without laying more than 3/1. I believe this is unprecedented. Moreover, the main event and a fascinating match-up on the undercard, Vergil Ortiz Jr vs Israil Madrimov, are virtual toss-ups with the favorites, Beterbiev and Ortiz, currently available at 5/4 (minus-125). Another very intriguing fight is the heavyweight contest between late bloomers Agit Kabayel and Zhilei Zhang which finds the less-heralded Kabayel cloaked as a small favorite. And kudos to Joseph Parker for accepting Martin Bakole when he could have held out for a lesser opponent. If Bakole is in shape (a big “if”), he will be a handful.

And so, where does tomorrow’s card rank on the list of best boxing cards ever? Right up there near the top, we would argue, and, if the bouts in large part are memorably entertaining, we would push it ahead of Don King’s May 7, 1994 extravaganza.

That’s the view from here. Feel free to dissent.

Postscript: If you plan to watch the entire card ($25.99 on DAZN for U.S. buyers), it would help to stock up on some munchies. The first fight (Joshua Buatsi vs. Callum Smith) is scheduled to kick off at 8:45 a.m. for us viewers in the Pacific Time Zone / 11:45 a.m. ET. If the show adheres tight to its schedule (no guarantee), Beterbiev and Bivol are expected to enter the ring at 3:00 p.m. PT/6:00 p.m. ET.

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 314: A Really Big Boxing Show in Riyadh and More

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 314: A Really Big Boxing Show in Riyadh and More

One of boxing’s most spectacular fight cards takes place this weekend.

Think, Godzilla big.

It starts with an appetizer in California on Friday with 360 Promotions then on to the main course on Saturday morning in Riyadh Season with several promotions combined in Saudi Arabia.

Here is how it begins:

Undefeated “Sugar” Cain Sandoval (14-0, 12 KOs) leads a 360 Promotions card on Friday Feb. 21, at Chumash Casino as he faces Mark Bernaldez (25-6) in the main event. UFC Fight Pass will stream the fight card live.

360 Promotions is led by Tom Loeffler who knows a thing or two about promoting stars like Gennady “Triple G” Golovkin for example. He also backs Serhii Bohachuk and Mizuki “Mimi” Hiruta.

Then catch some sleep and wake up around 8 a.m. the next morning and prepare for a long day of world title fights.

Riyadh

A star-studded lineup of world titlists is led by the rematch between undefeated Artur Beterbiev (21-0, 20 Kos) and Dmitry Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) for the undisputed light heavyweight world championship at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh. PPV.Com and DAZN pay-per-view will each provide streaming.

Bivol seeks to avenge his only pro loss.

“All athletes want to win. We’re like gamblers and of course I wasn’t a winner,” Bivol said.

Beterbiev made no predictions, but one.

“it’s going to be a good fight,” said Beterbiev the undisputed light heavyweight world champion.

It’s a hefty boxing card reminiscent of Don King’s mammoth cards of the 90s and early 2000s. I once covered a boxing card that began at 10 a.m. on Saturday and ended at 1 a.m. Sunday in Las Vegas. I was hearing bells in my sleep after that adventure.

Like that Don King card, this one is loaded with world title fights.

From lightweights to heavyweights, multiple world championships are being settled in the desert nation.

IBF heavyweight titlist Daniel Dubois scratched against Joseph Parker because of a virus.

The former champion Parker (35-3, 23 KOs) will now face Martin Bakole (21-1, 16 KOs) who was last seen battering American contender Jared “The Real Big Baby” Anderson last August in Los Angeles. Despite the change of foes Parker may still be in a very intriguing fight. It could be explosive.

Another very intriguing clash pits former super welterweight champion Israil Madrimov (10-1-1) against undefeated Vergil Ortiz Jr. (22-0, 21 KOs). No world title is at stake, but reputations will be made or demoted after these two meet in the boxing ring.

Madrimov recently lost a close decision to Terence Crawford in Los Angeles. No shame there.

“I always chase at big fights. I have another big fight,” Madrimov said.

Ortiz had problems making weight after battling Covid-19 and moved up from super lightweight to super welterweight. That’s a big jump regardless of talent. The Texas-bred fighter has never been defeated but this is his first time facing a real super welterweight of championship caliber. It’s a daring test but Ortiz has never shied away from a battle.

“There’s not much to say. In my opinion, this is the best fight on the card,” said Ortiz.

Golden Boy Promotions backs Ortiz and Matchroom Boxing has Madrimov who is trained by the brothers Joel and Antonio Diaz in Indio, Calif. They formerly trained Ortiz years ago. Robert Garcia now trains Ortiz in Riverside, Calif. There are rivalries and there are rivalries.

In another sparkling match WBC middleweight titlist Carlos Adames (24-1, 18 KOs) defends against Hamzah Sheeraz (21-0, 17 KOs) a tall lanky power-hitter who looks like the real deal. I don’t expect this to reach the final bell.

Adames is a slick fighter out of the Dominican Republic and Sheeraz is a British puncher. Both train in the U.S. It’s a don’t-blink type of fight and could end early.

Others on the card are heavyweights Zhilei Zhang (27-2-1, 22 KOs) versus Germany’s Agit Kabayel (25-0, 17 KOs). The Chinese heavyweight seems to have the skills but lacks the stamina as his loss to Joseph Parker showed. Kabayel has never tasted defeat and has wins over Russia’s Arslanbek Makhmudov, Cuba’s Frank Sanchez, and England’s Derek Chisora.

Plus, Shakur Stevenson found a replacement for Floyd Schofield who dropped out due to illness. And light heavyweight contender Joshua Buatsi fights former champ Callum Smith whose only losses were to Beterbiev and Canelo Alvarez.

Get ready for a long day of title fights.

Fights to Watch (All times Pacific Time)

Fri. UFC Fight Pass 7 p.m. Cain Sandoval (14-0) vs Mark Bernaldez (25-6).

Sat. PPV.COM or DAZN ppv 7:30 a.m. Artur Beterbiev (21-0) vs Dmitrii Bivol (23-1); Vergil Ortiz Jr. (22-0) vs Israil Madrimov (10-1-1); Joseph Parker (35-3) vs Martin Bakole (21-1); Carlos Adames (24-1) vs Hamzah Sheeraz (21-0).

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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Lucas Bahdi Paid His Dues, Quite Literally, and Now his Boxing Career is Flourishing

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Lucas Bahdi Paid His Dues, Quite Literally, and Now his Boxing Career is Flourishing

In boxing, one punch can dramatically alter the trajectory of a fighter’s career. This is true for both the perpetrator and the unfortunate recipient.

On July 20 of last year in Tampa, Florida, Lucas Bahdi, a lightweight from Niagara Falls, Canada, rucked himself out of obscurity with a frightening knockout of Ashton “H2O” Sylva. Bahdi has fought once since then, sharing the bill at an event attended by an announced crowd of 72,300 and will be returning to the ring in a more conventional setting at Toronto on Friday, March 7.

Bahdi’s knockout of Sylve came in the final minute of the sixth frame. Although it wasn’t a classic one-punch knockout, it came out of the blue with the suddenness of a thunderclap on a clear day. Down 5-0 on all three scorecards through the five completed rounds, Bahdi unleashed a fast, three-punch combination that left poor Sylve splattered face-first on the canvas. The final punch of the trio, a sweeping left hook, was superfluous. Sylve was out on his feet. It would be named the 2024 TSS Knockout of the Year.

The match, slated for 10 rounds, was on the undercard of a Jake Paul promotion co-starring Paul and the boxer he sponsors, the great Amanda Serrano. Although Lucas Bahdi was more seasoned than Ashton Sylve and he too had an unblemished record, the conventional wisdom was that he would be just another stepping-stone for Jake Paul’s precocious house fighter.

A decorated amateur from Long Beach, California, Ashton “H2O” Sylve signed with MVP Promotions, Jake Paul’s company, when he was 18 years old. In the press release announcing his signing, Paul predicted that Sylve (who happens to be Snoop Dogg’s nephew) would become “a massive, massive superstar…not merely because of his [fistic talent], but because of his charisma.” And through his first 11 pro fights, during which he scored nine knockouts, Sylve did nothing to temper that opinion.

Meanwhile, Lucas Bahdi was building a nice record, but toiling in obscurity. Prior to meeting Sylve, he had fought exclusively in Mexico and Canada. He took the Sylve fight on three-and-a-half weeks’ notice, subbing for Floyd Schofield. Filching the title of an Oscar-contending movie that is currently making the rounds, Bahdi was “A Complete Unknown,” at least outside his native habitat.

Bahdi’s prize for knocking out Sylve was an MVP Promotions contract and a slot on the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson show at the home of the Dallas Cowboys on Nov. 15. Paul vs. Tyson was a predictable farce but it was a mega-event, purportedly the most streamed global sporting event in history. On the card, Bahdi won a 10-round decision, advancing his record to 18-0 (15 KOs).

Lucas Bahdi’s risky investment paid off. By his reckoning, he spent more than $100,000 of his own money seeding his professional boxing career before linking up with Jake Paul. About those early fights in Mexico: There was no financial reward; to the contrary, he paid the purse of his opponents.

Of Palestinian and Italian heritage, Bahdi grew up in comfortable circumstances. His father George Bahdi is a prominent builder in Niagara Falls. Away from the gym, Lucas can be found at Niagara Falls’ Olympia Motors, his used car dealership. Buying and selling cars is more than a job, he says, it’s also a hobby. His personal preference is for late 1990s, early 2000 Jaguars.

We caught up with Lucas Bahdi last week at the Top Rank Gym in Las Vegas. With him were his coach Stevie Bailey, the head trainer at Toronto’s West End Athletic Club, and Stevie’s wife Sara Bailey.

Ms. Bailey, who competed all over the world as an amateur under her maiden name Sara Haghighat Joo, happens to hold the WBA’s female light flyweight world title, a diadem she acquired in her fourth pro fight. In Las Vegas, the team stays in an AirBnB roughly a mile from the gym, but doesn’t keep a rental car handy. “We walk everywhere,” says Bahdi, “sometimes 10 miles a day. It keeps my weight in check and, besides, there is a lot to see around here.”

Bahdi reflected on some of the adversity he faced as he was toiling in the shadows. At a November 2020 fight in Cuernevaca, Mexico, he left the ring with two broken hands and both of his eyes badly swollen. “I couldn’t think straight while I was in there; I couldn’t focus” he says. And oh by the way, he knocked out his tormentor in the fourth round.

“A lot of people thought my career was over right there,” says Bahdi while noting that both of his damaged hands required surgery. He was out of action for 17 months as boxing activity slowed because of the COVID pandemic.

Bahdi, who like Ashton Sylve had a notable amateur career, takes umbrage with those that would characterize his stoppage of Sylve as a fluke. “The kid is an amazing talent,” he says, “but we adhered to our game plan. Mentally I knew I was ready. In boxing, timing beats speed.”

Fighting on the Paul-Tyson card at an NFL stadium was quite a departure from all those little fights in Mexico and Canada, but Bahdi wasn’t overwhelmed by the moment. “Knowing that I was finally the ‘A’ side, was helpful,” he concedes.

Bahdi’s forthcoming fight on March 7 at the Great Canadian Casino in Toronto marks the first incursion of MVP Promotions into Canada. Bahdi will headline against an undefeated Filipino southpaw, Ryan James Racasa, who will be stepping up in class in his North American debut. Sara Bailey is also penciled in, but her opponent hasn’t yet been determined. According to a press release, the fight card will air on DAZN for free with no subscription required.

Now 31 years old and the father of a 16-month-old son, Lucas Bahdi has taken an unconventional path to what he hopes will culminate in a world title. With a lot of sweat and a little luck, his risky investment is paying dividends.

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