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Avila Perspective, Chap. 88: Chocolatito, Marcos Caballero and Mikey
When Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez regained the WBA super flyweight world title via knockout last Saturday, you might have felt a collective vibration of glee from those whose lives this humble warrior has touched.
It was a momentous occasion.
No one was happier than Marcos Caballero who began training Gonzalez after his last loss. He was in the corner when Gonzalez defeated Khalid Yafai to reclaim a world title for the first time in 36 months. It was a task that the two planned for more than 36 months.
“He (Gonzalez) did everything perfectly,” said Marcos Caballero, via telephone on Wednesday.
It took a while, but the former pound for pound king returned to the throne. For almost three years he held no title and the world seemed to pass him by. It was only a desert mirage.
Between September 2009 when Gonzalez defeated Japan’s Yutaka Niida for the WBA minimum weight title, until March 2017, when he lost the WBC super flyweight title to Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, the Nicaraguan warrior had held some form of title.
Seldom can a former champion reclaim a world title, especially years later.
Gonzalez’s journey has been a long but seldom traveled trip that began when he was signed by Teiken Promotions years ago. Rumors had emerged before the Great Recession about a Nicaraguan boxer that might be one of those special fighters.
The first time Gonzalez fought in America was at Pomona, California on the LA County Fairgrounds on April 2012. Curiosity had stretched its arm from Nicaragua to Southern California about the Nicaraguan with tremendous fighting ability. It was a blessing to hear he was coming to this former farming community.
Opposing Chocolatito that night eight years ago was a Mexican southpaw named Ramon Hirales who had won the WBO light flyweight world title a year earlier, but lost it to Donnie Nietes by decision. He was a capable and experienced fighter.
A crowd of Nicaraguans arrived at the Pomona Fairgrounds that night carrying blue and white flags and cheering as they entered the exhibition hall that was housing the boxing card. Other boxers on that card included Jessie Magdaleno.
That night Chocolatito walked into the ring to defend the WBA light flyweight title and exhibited boxing skills and a controlled ferocity seldom seen. He dominated Hirales and floored him twice in the fourth round to win by knockout and send the Nicaraguan fans cheering and shouting through the night.
In immediate fashion Chocolatito later won flyweight and super flyweight world titles while battling superb opposition such as Brian Viloria and Mexico’s Juan Francisco Estrada and Carlos Cuadras.
But the victory tour ended when he met Thailand’s Srisaket Sor Rungvisai for the WBC super flyweight title in New York City. He lost a close and disputed decision. Six months later they met again at the StubHub Center in Los Angeles and the Thai strongman brutally knocked out Gonzalez in the fourth round on September 2017.
Fans cried and critics were shocked. Many felt it was the end of Chocolatito’s career though he returned a year later with a victory.
Marcos
Like any fighter who suffers defeat for the first time, Chocolatito looked for improvement and how to achieve it. He chose Southern California’s Marcos Caballero to become his trainer.
Based in the Coachella Valley area, the long-time trainer had worked with dozens of fighters for decades. Among those he worked with are the brothers Antonio and Julio Diaz. Perhaps his most prized pupil was his own son Randy Caballero, a former bantamweight world champion who suffered a debilitating leg injury.
Chocolatito had visited the Coachella gym years earlier and liked what he saw. It also didn’t hurt that Marcos Caballero is of Nicaraguan ancestry.
“I had been with him (Chocolatito) but not training him before,” said Caballero. “I started a year and a half ago.”
After suffering two losses Gonzalez looked to Caballero and the two sat down and analyzed what happened and what improvements could be made.
Caballero studied film and what was needed to rekindle that gear that led to four division world titles. He discovered a few things and also those elements that had disappeared. The change was immediate.
“That’s the old Chocolatito. What he did is put everything together. After the loss he was waiting for their combinations and trying to figure them out,” said Caballero. “Now he’s back and he’s fresher.”
Caballero used youngsters to spar with the veteran with multiple world championship belts and was criticized. But the intent was to keep Chocolatito fresh.
“We didn’t want to leave everything in training camp with sparring,” said Caballero. “That’s why you saw him fresher.”
Last weekend in Frisco, Texas the fans got to see exactly what made Chocolatito one of the finest prizefighters in the world, pound for pound, as he pounded and battered England’s Khalid Yafai for nine rounds and eventually won by stoppage.
Fans and critics had thought Gonzalez was finished as a world title contender and were shocked to see they were wrong.
“We were able to bring him back and become the old Chocolatito and he did. It was a perfect opponent,” Caballero said. “That’s the old Chocolatito, his feet are moving and once you get into range, he won’t stop punching.”
Once again Chocolatito holds the world title and, for once, Caballero gets recognition for his work.
“Nobody believed in him,” said Caballero who trained Gonzalez for his last three fights. “I’m happy for him and I’m happy for me. That’s a dream of every coach.”
Mikey Garcia
The main event saw Mikey Garcia systematically defeat Jessie Vargas with his blend of accurate punching and prove he can truly compete in the welterweight division. Were there any doubts?
Immediately after the fight Garcia was asked if Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao could be a potential target?
“Yes,” Garcia replied.
Responses on social media were immediate and mostly derisive, but the fact remains that Garcia is not your average prizefighter. He’s reminiscent of Juan Manuel Marquez or Roberto Duran in that size doesn’t matter, but timing and skills truly do.
Open your eyes and watch a special fighter as Garcia continues to establish his legacy as one of the top fighters of this era. Losing to Errol Spence Jr. only proved that a speedy, taller southpaw fighter was not a style for him. Maybe not for anybody at this time. Garcia continues to be one of the special fighters today. Enjoy it and learn.
Fights to Watch (Pacific Coast time)
Fri. Telemundo 11:35 p.m. Armando Torres (25-18) vs Pinky Alejo (25-6-1)
Sat. ESPN+ 2 p.m. Danny Dignum (12-0) vs Alfredo Meli (17-0-1)
Sat. DAZN 2 p.m. Scott Quigg (35-2-2) vs Jono Carroll (17-1-1)
Sat. FOX 5 p.m. Adam Kownacki (20-0) vs Robert Helenius (29-3)
Sat. Facebook Watch 7:30 p.m. Oscar Duarte (18-1-1) vs Andres Garcia (13-2-1).
Photo credit: Ed Mulholland / Matchroom USA
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Floyd Schofield Wins a Banger and Gabriela Fundora Wins by KO
Floyd Schofield Wins a Banger and Gabriela Fundora Wins by KO
LAS VEGAS-Shades of Henry Armstrong and Baby Arizmendi. If you don’t know those names, look them up.
Floyd Schofield battled his way past Mexico’s super tough Rene Tellez Giron who walked through every blow the Texan could fire but lost by decision on Saturday.
It was a severe test and perfect matchmaking for Schofield who yearns for the big bouts against the lightweight giants roaming the world.
Schofield (18-0, 12 KOs) remains undefeated and won the war over thick-necked Mexican Tellez Giron (20-4, 13 KOs) who has never been knocked out and proved to be immune to big punches.
In the opening rounds, the Texas fighter came out firing rapid combinations from the southpaw and orthodox stances. Meanwhile the shorter Tellez Giron studied and fired back an occasional counter for two rounds.
Tellez Giron had seen enough and took his stand in the third stanza. Both unleashed blazing bombs with Schofield turning his back to the Mexican. At that moment referee Tom Taylor could have waved the fight over.
You never turn your back.
The fight resumed and Schofield was damaged. He tried to open up with even more deadly fire but was rebuked by the strong chin of Tellez Giron who fired back in the mad frenzy.
For the remainder of the fight Schofield tried every trick in his arsenal to inflict damage on the thick-necked Mexican. He could not be wobbled. In the 11th round both opened up with serious swing-from-the-heels combinations and suddenly Schofield was looking up. He beat the count easily and the two remained slugging it out.
“He hit me with a good shot,” Schofield said of the knockdown. “I just had to get up. I’m not going to quit.”
In the final round Schofield moved around looking for the proper moment to engage. The Mexican looked like a cat ready to pounce and the two fired furious blows. Neither was hit with the big bombs in the last seconds.
There was Tellez Giron standing defiantly like Baby Arizmendi must have stood in those five ferocious meetings against the incomparable Henry Armstrong. Three of their wars took place in Los Angeles, two at the Olympic Auditorium in the late 1930s as the U.S. was emerging from the Great Depression.
In this fight, Schofield took the win by unanimous decision by scores 118-109 twice and 116-111. It was well-deserved.
“I tried to bang it out,” said Schofield. “Today I learned you can’t always get the knockout.”
Fundora
IBF flyweight titlist Gabriela Fundora needed seven rounds to figure out the darting style of Argentina’s Gabriela Alaniz before firing a laser left cross down the middle to end the battle and become the undisputed flyweight world champion.
Fundora now holds all four titles including the WBO, WBA and WBC titles that Alaniz brought in the ring.
Fundora knocked down Alaniz midway through the seventh round. She complained it was due to a tangle of the legs. Several seconds later Fundora blasted the Argentine to the floor again with a single left blast. This time there was no doubt. Her corner wisely waved a white towel to stop the fight at 1:40 of the seventh round.
No one argued the stoppage.
Other Bouts
Bektemir Melikuziev (15-1, 10 KOs) didn’t make weight in a title bout but managed to out-fight David Stevens (14-2, 10 KOs) in a super middleweight fight held at 12 rounds.
Melikuziev used his movement and southpaw stance to keep Pennsylvania’s Stevens from being able to connect with combinations. But Stevens did show he could handle “The Bully’s” punching power over the 12-round fight.
After 12 rounds one judge favored Stevens 116-112, while two others saw Melikuziev the winner by split decision 118-110 and 117-111.
Super middleweight WBA titlist Darius Fulghum (13-0, 11 KOs) pummeled his way to a technical knockout win over southpaw veteran Chris Pearson (17-5-1, 12 KOs) who attempted the rope-a-dope strategy to no avail.
Fulghum floored Pearson in the first round with a four-punch combination and after that just belted Pearson who covered up and fired an occasional blow. Referee Mike Perez stopped the fight at 1:02 of the third round when Pearson did not fire back after a blazing combination.
Young welterweight prospect Joel Iriarte (5-0, 5 KOs) blasted away at the three-inch shorter Xavier Madrid (5-6, 2 KOs) who hung tough for as long as possible. At 2:50 of the first round a one-two delivered Madrid to the floor and referee Thomas Taylor called off the beating.
Iriarte, from Bakersfield, Calif., could not miss with left uppercuts and short rights as New Mexico’s Madrid absorbed every blow but would not quit. It was just too much firepower from Iriarte that forced the stoppage.
Photos credit: Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy
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Results and Recaps from Turning Stone where O’Shaquie Foster Nipped Robson Conceicao
Top Rank was at the Turning Stone casino-resort in Verona, New York, tonight with an 8-bout card topped by a rematch between Robson Conceicao and O’Shaquie Foster with the victor retaining or recapturing his IBF world junior lightweight title. When the smoke cleared, the operative word was “recapturing” as Foster became a two-time title-holder, avenging his controversial setback to the Brazilian in Newark on July 6.
This was a somewhat better fight than their initial encounter and once again the verdict was split. Foster prevailed by 115-113 on two of the cards with the dissenting judge favoring Conceicao by the same margin. Conceicao seemingly had the edge after nine frames, but Foster, a 4/1 favorite, landed the harder shots in the championship rounds.
It was the thirteenth victory in the last 14 starts for Foster who fights out of Houston. A two-time Olympian and 2016 gold medalist, the 36-year-old Conceicao is 19-3-1 overall and 1-3-1 in world title fights.
Semi-wind-up
SoCal lightweight Raymond Muratalla (22-0, 17 KOs) made a big jump in public esteem and moved one step closer to a world title fight with a second-round blast-out of Jose Antonio Perez who was on the canvas twice but on his feet when the fight was stopped at the 1:24 mark of round two. Muratalla, a product of Robert Garcia’s boxing academy, is ranked #2 by the WBC and WBO. A Tijuana native, Perez (25-6) earned this assignment with an upset of former Olympian and former 130-pound world titlist Jojo Diaz,
Other Bouts
Syracuse junior welterweight Bryce Mills, a high-pressure fighter with a strong local following, stopped scrawny Mike O’Han Jr whose trainer Mark DeLuca pulled him out after five one-sided rounds. Mills improved to 17-1 (6 KOs). It was another rough day at the office for Massachusetts house painting contractor O’’Han (19-4) who had the misfortune of meeting Abdullah Mason in his previous bout.
In a junior lightweight fight that didn’t heat up until late in the final round, Albany’s Abraham Nova (23-3-1) and Tijuana native Humberto Galindo (14-3-3) fought to a 10-round draw. It was another close-but-no- cigar for the likeable Nova who at least stemmed a two-fight losing streak. The judges had it 97-93 (Galindo), 96-94 (Nova) and 95-95.
Twenty-one-year-old Long Island middleweight Jahi Tucker advanced to 13-1-1 (6 KOs) with an eighth-round stoppage of Stockton’s teak-tough but outclassed Quilisto Madera (14-6). Madera was on a short leash after five rounds, but almost took it to the final bell with the referee intervening with barely a minute remaining in the contest. Madera was on his feet when the match was halted. Earlier in the round, Tucker had a point deducted for hitting on the break.
Danbury, Connecticut heavyweight Ali Feliz, one of two fighting sons of journeyman heavyweight Fernely Feliz, improved to 4-0 (3) with a second-round stoppage of beefy Rashad Coulter (5-5). Feliz had Coulter pinned against the ropes and was flailing away when the bout was halted at the 1:34 mark. The 42-year-old Coulter, a competitor in all manner of combat sports, hadn’t previously been stopped when competing as a boxer.
Featherweight Yan Santana dominated and stopped Mexico’s Eduardo Baez who was rescued by referee Charlie Fitch at the 1:57 mark of round four. It was the 12th knockout in 13 starts for Santana, a 24-year-old Dominican father of three A former world title challenger, Mexicali’s Baez declines to 23-7-2 but has lost six of his last eight.
In his most impressive showing to date, Damian Knyba, a six-foot-seven Pole, knocked out paunchy Richard Lartey at the 2:10 mark of round three. A right-left combination knocked Lartey into dreamland, but it was the right did the damage and this was of the nature of a one-punch knockout. Referee Ricky Gonzalez waived the fight off without starting a count.
Knyba, 28, improved to 14-0 (8 KOs). A native of Ghana coming off his career-best win, a fourth-round stoppage of Polish veteran Andrzej Wawrzyk, Lartey declined to 16-7 with his sixth loss inside the distance.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 303: Spotlights on Lightweights and More
Those lightweights.
Whether junior lights, super lights or lightweights, it’s the 130-140 divisions where most of boxing’s young stars are found now or in the past.
Think Oscar De La Hoya, Sugar Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather.
Floyd Schofield (17-0, 12 KOs) a Texas product, hungers to be a star and takes on Mexico’s Rene Tellez Giron (20-3, 13 KOs) in a 12-round lightweight bout on Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada.
DAZN will stream the Golden Boy Promotion card that includes a female undisputed flyweight championship match pitting Argentina’s Gabriela Alaniz and Gabriela Fundora.
Like a young lion looking to flex, Schofield (pictured on the left) is eager to meet all the other young lions and prove they’re not equal.
“I’ve been in the room with Shakur, Tank. I want to give everyone a good fight. I feel like my preparation is getting better, I work hard, I’ve dedicated my whole life to this sport,” said Schofield naming fellow lightweights Shakur Stevenson and Gervonta “Tank” Davis.
Now he meets Mexico’s Tellez who has never been stopped.
“I’m willing to do whatever it takes,” said Tellez.
Even in Las Vegas.
Verona, New York
Meanwhile, in upstate New York, a WBC junior lightweight title rematch finds Robson Conceicao (19-2-1, 9 KOs) looking to prove superior to former titlist O’Shaquie Foster (22-3, 12 KOs) on Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, N.Y. ESPN+ will stream the Top Rank fight card.
Last July, Conceicao and Foster clashed and after 12 rounds the title changed hands from Foster to the Brazilian by split decision.
“I feel that a champion is a fighter who goes out there and doesn’t run around, who looks for the fight, who tries to win, and doesn’t just throw one or two punches and then moves away,” said Conceicao.
Foster disagrees.
“I hope he knows the name of the game is to hit and not get hit. That’s the name of the game,” said Foster.
Also on the same card is lightweight contender Raymond Muratalla (21-0, 16 KOs) who fights Mexico’s Jesus Perez Campos (25-5, 18 KOs).
Perez recently defeated former world champion Jojo Diaz last February in California.
“We’re made for challenges. I like challenges,” said Perez.
Muratalla likes challenges too.
“I think these fights are the types of fights I need to show my skills and to prove I deserve those title fights,” said Fontana’s Muratalla.
Female Undisputed Flyweight Championship
WBA, WBC and WBO flyweight titlist Gabriela “La Chucky” Alaniz (15-1, 6 KOs meets IBF titlist Gabriela Fundora (14-0, 6 KOs) on Saturday Nov. 2, at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada. DAZN will stream the clash for the undisputed flyweight championship.
Argentina’s Alaniz clashed twice against former WBA, WBC champ Marlen Esparza with their first encounter ending in a dubious win for the Texas fighter. In fact, three of Esparza’s last title fights were scored controversially.
But against Alaniz, though they fought on equal terms, Esparza was given a 99-91 score by one of the judges though the world saw a much closer contest. So, they fought again, but the rematch took place in California. Two judges deemed Alaniz the winner and one Esparza for a split-decision win.
“I’m really happy to be here representing Argentina. We are ready to fight. Nothing about this fight has to do with Marlen. So, I hope she (Fundora) is ready. I am ready to prepare myself for the great fight of my life,” said Alaniz.
In the case of Fundora, the extremely tall American fighter at 5’9” in height defeated decent competition including Maria Santizo. She was awarded a match with IBF flyweight titlist Arely Mucino who opted for the tall youngster over the dangerous Kenia Enriquez of Mexico.
Bad choice for Mucino.
Fundora pummeled the champion incessantly for five rounds at the Inglewood Forum a year ago. Twice she battered her down and the fight was mercifully stopped. Fundora’s arm was raised as the new champion.
Since that win Fundora has defeated Christina Cruz and Chile’s Daniela Asenjo in defense of the IBF title. In an interesting side bit: Asenjo was ranked as a flyweight contender though she had not fought in that weight class for seven years.
Still, Fundora used her reach and power to easily handle the rugged fighter from Chile.
Immediately after the fight she clamored for a chance to become undisputed.
“It doesn’t get better than this, especially being in Las Vegas. This is the greatest opportunity that we can have,” said Fundora.
It should be exciting.
Fights to Watch
Sat. ESPN+ 2:50 p.m. Robson Conceicao (19-2-1) vs O’Shaquie Foster (22-3).
Sat. DAZN 5 p.m. Floyd Schofield (17-0) vs Rene Tellez Giron (20-3); Gabriela Alaniz (15-1) vs Gabriela Fundora (14-0).
Photo credit: Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy
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