Premier Boxing Champions was at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas tonight with a card topped by a battle between undefeated light heavyweights David Benavidez and David Morrell. Six prelims preceded the four-bout PPV portion of the show airing on Prime Video PPV and PPV.com.

David Benavidez’s older brother Jose Benavidez Jr kicked things off with a fifth-round stoppage of Danny Rosenberger. It was odd to see the older Benavidez fighting an 8-round contest in a nearly empty arena. Heading in, he was 28-3-1 (19) with his only setbacks coming in bouts with Terence Crawford, Jarmall Charlo, and Danny Garcia. But Benavidez Jr, fighting as a middleweight in the sunset of his career, was too good for Youngstown, Ohio’s self-managed Rosenberger (20-10-4).

Unbeaten in his last 15 starts which included a draw with Nico Ali Walsh that was changed to a no-decision when the Ohioan tested positive for a banned substance, Rosenberger was on his feet and wasn’t badly hurt when the referee waived it off, it but to that point it had been a one-sided fight.

Cuello-Olivo

The marquee fight of the prelims, so to speak, pit Argentina’s Mirco Cuello, an Olympic bronze medalist in Tokyo, managed by Sampson Lewkowicz, against Christian Olivo in a 10-round featherweight contest. The Argentine, undefeated in 14 starts with 11 KOs, was a heavy favorite over his Mexican adversary and yet very nearly came a cropper, getting off the deck to pull the match out of the fire in the final round.

In the second round, Olivo knocked Cuello to his knees with a left-right combination and Cuello found himself on the canvas for the first time in his career. From that point on, this was a competitive, fan-friendly fight, seemingly closer than the judges’ scores which became moot when Cuello took the fight out of their hands, decking Olivo twice, both left hooks to the solar plexus, which motivated referee Chris Flores to step in and stop it with heavy underdog Olivo (22-2-1) ahead by 6, 4, and 2 points through the completed rounds. The official time was 2:01.

This match was billed as a WBA eliminator which puts Cuello in line to fight England’s Nick Ball but, given a choice, Cuello may opt for the Figueroa-Fulton winner later tonight.

Other Bouts

Yoenli Hernandez, a 27-year-old Cuban, TKOed feisty but overmatched Angel Ruiz in the fifth round of an 8-round middleweight affair. Hernandez has now won all seven of his pro fights inside the distance after ending his amateur career with 26 straight wins. He bears watching. Mexico’s Ruiz falls to 19-4-1.

Salt Lake City lightweight Curmel Moton, the 18-year-old prodigy of Floyd Mayweather Jr, advanced to 7-0 (6 KOs) with a third-round stoppage of Frank Zaldivar (5-2).

Milwaukee super middleweight Daniel Blancas, a stablemate of the Benavidez brothers, improved to 12-0 (5) with a unanimous 8-round decision over Victorville, California’s Juan Barajas (11-1-2). Blancas won comfortably on the cards (80-72, 79-73 twice), but Barajas came to fight and was no pushover.

Super middleweight John “Candyman” Easter, a promising prospect, was forced to go the distance for the first time in his young career, but was a clear-cut winner over Portland, Oregon’s Joseph Aguilar in their six-round match, winning by scores of 60-54 and 59-55 twice. The 22-year-old Easter advanced to 8-0. Aguilar dops to 6-3-1.

Check back later for David Avila’s recap of the Benavidez-Morrell fight and the three other PPV bouts.

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 311: Jim Lampley Adds Class to the Benavidez-Morrell Rumble

Boxing is the oldest sport.

For at least the last 100 years or so, a person with a microphone sitting ringside as an observer has spewed details in machine gun fashion to a radio or television audience of hand-to-hand combat taking place in a boxing ring.

There have been many excellent orators of the sweet science, too many to name, but one who stands out is Jim Lampley. He is the Cicero of boxing journalism.

Through showers of blood, saliva and sometimes body parts, Lampley gave oratory of boxing matches taking place from the days of Sugar Ray Leonard to the emergence of women’s boxing.

Lampley and his merry men of boxing journalism return to Las Vegas for the light heavyweight clash between David Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) and David Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) on Saturday Feb. 1, at T-Mobile Arena. PPV.Com will stream the fight card among other media outlets.

“People want to see the stars. They want to see the biggest stars,” says Lampley (pictured on the right with Morrell) about today’s boxing platforms. “We’ve gone from mass distribution to point to point distribution…it’s a product of the current digital world and how that operates.”

No other journalist rivals Lampley when it comes to prizefighting. No other can match the style and grace he describes a sport that brings unexpected intensity and sometimes shocking results.

Think Juan Manuel Marquez knocking out the great Manny Pacquiao in their fourth and final meeting in 2012.

Boxing’s Voice

Lampley has few rivals in broadcast journalism unless you compare other sports like baseball where the late Dodger announcer Vin Scully carved his legend. Or perhaps Chick Hearn the originator of pop culture basketball terminology like “it’s in the refrigerator.”

Boxing has Lampley and since his childhood, the sport has captivated his interest. He recalls after his father passed away his mother sat him in front of a small television set at age six to watch Sugar Ray Robinson fight Carl “Bobo” Olson in their second fight. Boxing was his babysitter.

“I’ve had boxing in my heart and in my head ever since,” Lampley said.

During his youth, after his widowed mother moved their family to Miami, Florida, the young Lampley saved car washing and lawn-mowing money to buy a ticket to watch Cassius Clay versus Sonny Liston.

“My mother took me and dropped me off with my individual ticket to go in and watch the fight. That was the night I saw my very first prize fight,” described Lampley about one of the most important boxing events that took place in 1964. “So, boxing has always been big in my background and in my sports fan experience.”

Eventually Lampley worked with ABC Sports covering college football, Wide World of Sports, and Olympic coverage. The only sport he did not cover in 13 years was boxing because Howard Cosell had a vice grip hold on boxing coverage for ABC. But when new leadership arrived it was decided to insert Lampley to cover boxing as a means of punishment.

“He immediately sized up that I was culturally allergic to boxing,” said Lampley of the new ABC leadership. “He assumed that I would be such a bad fit in boxing that it would bring an end to my broadcasting career and kick me out of his division.”

Ironically the event Lampley was forced to cover was Mike Tyson against Jesse Ferguson in Troy, New York on February 1986.

“This was an astonishing opportunity,” Lampley said. “Maybe this was meant to be,”

After a year or two more with ABC, Lampley moved to CBS and HBO to be part of their boxing programming and blazed a course for that program and himself as the preeminent voice of boxing broadcasting.

From Duran to Mayweather

Among those epic fights HBO covered featured Roberto Duran, Boom Boom Mancini, Marvin Halger, Roy Jones Jr., Oscar De La Hoya, Lennox Lewis, James Toney, Bernard Hopkins and Floyd Mayweather to name some.

When it was announced that new ownership for HBO decided to cancel its boxing programming, the boxing world was aghast.

“It was painful, sad, I was bereft,” said Lampley of the last HBO boxing card at the StubHub Center in Carson, Calif. “We had no idea why the brand new owners at HBO, a bunch of cell phone salesmen from Dallas, did not see boxing as an important part of the franchise.”

That night on Dec. 8, 2018, women’s boxing was featured for the first and only time on HBO. Lampley was aided by Max Kellerman and Roy Jones Jr. It was a cold night as usual at the outdoor arena known for its gladiator-like results such as the two bloody clashes between Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez. (Photo insert: Lampley’s last HBO hurrah; photo by Al Applerose)

Among the women who fought that evening were Cecilia Braekhus and Claressa Shields. Ironically, seven months earlier, Braekhus fought Kali Reis at the same venue. Reis would go on to earn an Emmy nomination for an HBO series for her portrayal in the True Detective series.

Six years ago was HBO and Lampley’s final bow together.

“Still to this day I have no idea why they thought that was better for the long term,” Lampley said of HBO’s boxing abortion.

PPV.COM        

Though HBO Championship Boxing no longer exists, Lampley’s undisputed talent for describing the art of boxing has brought him back. Now he represents PPV.COM an outfit wise enough to recognize the appeal of boxing’s greatest broadcast journalist from 1988 to December 2018. They reeled him back and with a new format that includes texting with fans during the actual fights.

“I help introduce the audience to the new communication phenomenon which I’m involved,” said Lampley who is partnered with journalist Dan Canobbio and Chris Algieri for this event. “It puts me back in touch with all my old friends in the media room where I spend the whole week leading up to the fight.”

Lampley recalls his first broadcast with PPV.COM 15 months ago already saw debates regarding undefeated David Benavidez possibly accepting a challenge from David Morrell.

“As style fights go, its potentially a great one,” said Lampley. “Its two punchers with legitimate punching power in an extremely fan friendly fight. The winner is regarded as logical upcoming opponent for Canelo Alvarez the number one money attraction in the world.”

On Saturday night when Benavidez and Morrell lead a talented fight card, be sure to select PPV.COM as your choice to listen to Lampley’s undeniable talent for describing boxing action.

Take advantage boxing fans.

One last note, Lampley’s book “It Happened” will be coming soon on April 15.

Fights to Watch

Sat. PPV.COM 3 p.m. David Benavidez (29-0) vs David Morrell (11-0); Brandon Figueroa (25-1-1) vs Stephen Fulton (22-1); Isaac Cruz (26-3-1) vs Angel Fierro (23-2-2).

Sun. DAZN 4:30 p.m. Claressa Shields (15-0) vs Danielle Perkins (5-0).

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One of the last of the breed – a full-time boxing writer for the print edition of a major metropolitan daily – left us this week. Hall of Fame boxing writer Michael Katz was 85 when he drew his last breath at an assisted living facility in Brooklyn on Monday, Jan. 27.

Born in the Bronx, Katz earned his spurs writing for the school newspaper “The Campus” at the City College of New York. He was living in Paris and working for the international edition of the New York Times when he covered his first fight, the 15-round contest between Floyd Patterson and Jimmy Ellis at Stockholm in 1968. He eventually became the Times boxing writer, serving in that capacity for almost nine years before bolting for the New York Daily News in 1985 where he was reunited with the late Vic Ziegel, his former CCNY classmate and cohort at the campus newspaper.

From a legacy standpoint, leaving America’s “paper of record” for a tabloid would seem to be a step down. Before the digital age, the Times was one of only a handful of papers that could be found on microfilm in every college library. Tabloids like the Daily News were evanescent. Yesterday’s paper, said the cynics, was only good for wrapping fish.

But at the Daily News, Michael Katz was less fettered, less of a straight reporter and more of a columnist, freer to air his opinions which tended toward the snarky. Regarding the promoter Don King, Katz wrote, “On the way to the gallows, Don King would try to pick the pocket of the executioner.”

With his metaphoric inkwell steeped in bile, Katz made many enemies. “Bob Arum would sell tickets to a Joey Buttafuoco lecture on morals and be convinced it was for a noble cause,” wrote Katz in 1993. Arum had had enough when Katz took him to task for promoting a fight on the night of Yom Kippur and sued Katz for libel.

“It was out of my hands, HBO picked the date,” said Arum of the 1997 bout between Buster Douglas and John Ruiz that never did come off after Douglas suffered a hand injury in training. (Arum would subsequently drop the suit, saying it wasn’t worth the hassle.)

At press luncheons in Las Vegas, the PR people always made certain to seat Katz with his pals Ed Schuyler, the Associated Press boxing writer, and Pat Putnam, the Sports Illustrated guy. They reveled in each other’s company. But Katz also made enemies with some of his peers on press row, in some cases fracturing longstanding friendships.

“I like Hauser,” wrote Katz in a review of Thomas Hauser’s award-winning biography of Muhammad Ali, “and was afraid that after Tom put in those thousands of hours with Ali, somehow the book couldn’t be as good as I wanted. With relief, I can report it’s better than I had hoped.”

The two later had a falling-out.

Katz’s most celebrated run-in with a colleague happened in June of 2004 when he scuffled with Boston Globe boxing writer Ron Borges in the media room at the MGM Grand during the pre-fight press conference for the fight between Oscar De La Hoya and Felix Sturm. During the fracas, Katz, Borges, Arum, and Arum’s publicist Lee Samuels toppled to the floor. The cantankerous Katz, who initiated the fracas by attacking Borges verbally, then wore a neck brace and carried a cane.

“I had my ups and downs with him,” wrote Borges on social media upon learning of Katz’s death, “but we traveled the world together for nearly 50 years and I long admired his talent, his willingness to stand up for fighters and to call out the b.s. of boxing and its promoters and broadcast entities who worked diligently to try and destroy a noble sport.”

A little-known fact about Michael Katz is that he played a role in getting one of the best boxing books, George Kimball’s vaunted “Four Kings,” to its publishing house. Kimball, who passed away in 2011, an esophageal cancer victim at age 67, was hospitalized and too ill to finish the proofing and editing of the manuscript and enlisted the aid of Katz and an old friend from Boston, Tom Frail, an editor at the Smithsonian magazine, to complete the finishing touches. “If there are any mistakes in the book,” wisecracked Kimball, “blame them.”

Katz was one of the first sportswriters to hop on the internet bandwagon, moving his tack to HouseofBoxing.com which became MaxBoxing.com. That didn’t work out so well for him. Some of his last published pieces ran in the Memphis Commercial Appeal and in the Las Vegas weekly Gaming Today.

A widower for much of his adult life, Katz was predeceased by his only child, his beloved daughter Moorea, a cancer sufferer who passed away in 2021. Her death took all the spirit out of him, noted matchmaker and freelance boxing writer Eric Bottjer in a moving tribute.

During a moment in Atlantic City, Bottjer had been privy to a different side of the irascible curmudgeon, “a beautiful soul when open and vulnerable.” The best way to honor Katz’s memory, he writes, is to reach out to a long lost friend. Pass it on.

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