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McGovern vs. Palmer: The First Big International Prizefight on American Soil
If asked to name the first big international prizefight on American soil, most boxing historians would name the 1921 match between Jack Dempsey and Georges Carpentier, the idol of France. It’s hard to disagree. Dempsey’s heavyweight title was at stake and the event was a grand spectacle, attracting a crowd of more than 80,000, begetting the sport’s first million-dollar gate. However, 22 years earlier a match-up between Terry McGovern and Pedlar Palmer attracted considerable buzz and the event organizers contorted it into a spectacle by packaging it with frills that became standard pomp for international mega-fights.
Terrible Terry McGovern stood only five-foot-three and his best weight was a shade under 120 pounds. But my how he could hit. The noted boxing referee and pugilistic authority Charley White said of McGovern that he was a thunderstorm, a Krupp cannon and a Gatling gun all at the same time. Prominent boxing writer Robert Edgren said, “No other man in his class ever developed anything approaching his tremendous burst of fighting energy, his tremendous aggressiveness and his terrific punching power.”
When Jack Dempsey started concussing opponents left and right, it was said that he was a larger version of Terry McGovern, a supreme compliment.
McGovern had suffered only two defeats prior to meeting Pedlar Palmer, both by disqualification. He was in excellent form, having won 13 straight, 11 by KO. His knockout victims included top-notchers Harry Forbes, the pride of Chicago, Austin Rice, the Connecticut Iron Man, and Casper Leon, the Sicilian Swordfish. McGovern was recognized as the American bantamweight champion.
Born in 1880, Terry was six months old when his parents moved from Johnstown, Pennsylvania to Brooklyn, beating the great flood by nine years. The Brooklyn of Terry’s boyhood was America’s fourth largest city, a distinction it lost in 1898 when it was consolidated with the boroughs of Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island into the modern city of New York.
Brooklyn’s poster boy circa 1880 was Henry Ward Beecher, the pastor of Brooklyn’s Plymouth Congregational Church. A spellbinding orator, Beecher was America’s first great celebrity preacher; his sermons ran in dozens of major newspapers and anthologies of them out-sold popular fiction.
His fame was such that Brooklyn, in the eyes of outsiders, was perceived to be an overwhelmingly WASPish community. But the reality was different. By 1860, half the population was foreign born and half of that was Irish Catholic. And the Irish, with their knack for political organizing, soon dominated the political life of the city.
While Brooklyn’s Protestant clergymen condemned prizefighting from their pulpits, the city nonetheless developed a robust prizefighting subculture. Several bare-knuckle title claimants spent their formative years in Brooklyn, as did the first Jack Dempsey, the Nonpareil, an important transitional fighter as the sport moved into the gloved era.
McGovern was 18 years old when he engaged in his first 20-round fight. His performance caught the eye of Sam H. Harris, an ambitious young man then in his mid-20s. Harris arranged to be become Terry’s manager and proved to be an excellent fit. Then, as now, no matter how talented a boxer, he wasn’t going far without a well-connected manager. (Harris went on to have an illustrious career on Broadway, producing or co-producing 130 shows including many of Broadway’s biggest hits.)
Brooklyn in McGovern’s day, although a patchwork of ethnic enclaves, had an esprit-de-corps, a sense of togetherness that welded the populace into a tighter community. Among current Brooklyn boxers, none has a more avid fan base than Adam Kownacki. Take Kownacki’s level of popularity and multiply it several times over and that was Terrible Terry McGovern.
Pedlar Palmer
Thomas “Pedlar” Palmer grew up in a circus family. He was an acrobat who developed a novelty act in tandem with his brother. He took up boxing at age 15 and was performing at the National Sporting Club while still in his teens. He had 16 fights at the NSC before sailing off to the U.S. to keep his date with McGovern. Six of those fights were billed for the world bantamweight title, a division with no firm ceiling, fluctuating between 112 and 118 pounds. He never lost.
To a young British boxer, nothing matched the prestige of fighting at the National Sporting Club. The exclusive men’s club in London’s fashionable Covent Garden district was patronized by the crème-de-la-crème of London’s entrepreneurial class. They watched the fights in formal evening attire while adhering to a strict code of decorum that prohibited shouting. The Queensberry rules weren’t invented here, but were firmly applied here (with a few modifications), a big step toward universal acceptance. The NSC was the precursor of the British Boxing Board of Control.
The president of the National Sporting Club was the fabulous Earl of Lonsdale, but the day-to-day affairs of the club, and the matchmaking, were in the hands of A.F. “Peggy” Bettinson. A former English amateur lightweight champion, the autocratic Bettinson enforced the rules of the club with an iron fist.
Bettinson took a pecuniary interest in Pedlar Palmer, becoming his manager.
Palmer (pictured against the backdrop of Brighton, the seaside resort city where he lived and trained) was reportedly illiterate, but his ring IQ, reflected in his nickname, “Box-o’-Tricks,” was off the charts. “He fights according to the style of his opponent and never fights two men the same way,” noted a British writer. “Quick and agile as a cat, he is here, there, and everywhere, putting into execution more dodges and expedients than two ordinary men,” said a leading boxing authority.
When Pedlar Palmer and “Peggy” Bettinson arrived in New York from London, a brass band was waiting at the pier to greet them. The following day, the fighter and his manager were feted with a banquet at their hotel.
The Venue
McGovern vs. Palmer was staged in an outdoor arena in Tuckahoe, a little village in Westchester County, 16 miles from midtown Manhattan and 22 minutes by train from Manhattan’s Grand Central depot. The arena, which was enclosed by a wooden fence, was situated directly across from Tuckahoe’s new railroad station. The land sloped gently down to where the ring was pitched. Situated in the back, roughly 100 yards from the ring, were two cottages that were deployed as dressing rooms. They had windows that looked down on the enclosure. Terry McGovern’s young wife stayed in one of the cottages with their two-month-old baby. She would not have been welcome at ringside as it was taboo for a woman to attend a prizefight.
The crowd at the Sept. 12, 1899 fight was variously estimated at 8,000 to 12,000. Nowadays, this would hardly be considered a large crowd, but it was a large crowd for this era; an era when the law restricted prizefights to property owned or leased by an athletic club. The attendance would have been larger if the bout had gone off the previous day as scheduled as that was a Monday and the racetracks would have been dark. Racetrack workers and racetrack denizens, by and large, were big fight fans. Unfortunately for the promoters, rain pushed the fight back one day where it went head-to-head with the opening day of the autumn meet at the Gravesend track in Coney Island.
In those days, the indicator of a mega-fight wasn’t how many people were there, but who was there and McGovern vs. Palmer attracted a who’s-who of luminaries from the fields of sports and entertainment plus seemingly every person of influence in Tammany Hall, New York City’s corrupt political machine. Special trains carrying fight fans arrived from Boston, Providence, Hartford, Philadelphia and Buffalo.
The pugilistic contingent, said a reporter, included every boxer of note, “from the top-notchers in the heavyweight division to the paper weights in the amateur ranks.” The list included John L. Sullivan, who received the loudest ovation as he came down the aisle, James J. Corbett, Tom Sharkey, Bob Fitzsimmons and Kid McCoy. The British delegation included grocery chain magnate Sir Thomas Lipton, the famous yacht racer whose name would be immortalized in a popular brand of tea.
In those days, the lion’s share of the large wagers on a big fight were made in the arena through so-called betting commissioners. The commissioners filled orders, betting “x” amount of dollars at specified odds if they were able to obtain those odds. Bets by prominent people were a staple of post-fight stories. With no federal income tax, a gambler had less reason to be discreet.
McGovern was favored. Odds of 10/8 were widely available as the arena was filling up, lengthening to 10/7 as the bout drew closer to its mid-afternoon starting time. The well-known bandleader John Phillip Sousa was no greenhorn when it came to getting the best of it. He reportedly risked $300 on McGovern to win $275.
The Preamble and the Fight
The Revolutionary War was old history, but there was still a trace of hard feeling between the two nations and the promoters seized upon it to ratchet up the drama.
Pedlar Palmer appeared first. Someone in his cottage signaled the band to strike up “God Save The Queen” and the anthem accompanied him as he made his walk to the ring behind a man holding aloft the British flag.
After Palmer climbed through the ropes, the band struck up “The Star Spangled Banner,” McGovern’s cue to begin his ring walk. Twelve-year-old Phil McGovern, the youngest of Terry’s two younger brothers, led the way, carrying the American flag. The fellow at the back of the procession waved the green flag of Ireland with its golden harp.
According to the correspondent for the New York World, when McGovern slipped through the ropes the cheer was deafening, reverberating in the hills miles away. The combatants were then gloved in the ring, as was the custom, and then went at it in one of the most anti-climatic fights in the history of the prize ring. It was all over in 152 seconds and that included the unscheduled 12-second break when the hammer slipped out of the timekeeper’s hands and he rang the bell by mistake.
Before the bout was 90 seconds old, Palmer was on the canvas, deposited there by a right-left combination. He got up but looked woozy and McGovern moved in for the kill. But he was over-anxious and Palmer was able to dodge his punches until he succeeded in tying him up. But as soon as the referee pried them apart, McGovern resumed his attack, snapping Palmer’s head back with a left to the jaw that sent him staggering toward the ropes and then putting him down for the count with a straight right hand to the point of the jaw. “America Forever: Knocks Out England in One Round,” read the headline above the Associated Press dispatch in the next day’s Los Angeles Times.
McGovern was mobbed as he left the ring. The horseshoe-shaped floral arrangement that was presented to him after the fight was robbed of all its flowers by souvenir-hunters. Back in Brooklyn, the scene was even more tumultuous.
According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, bonfires were kindled and fireworks in large quantities were set off as McGovern alighted from the streetcar, holding his baby in his arms with his wife at his side. With much difficulty, the police cleared a path to his residence. The McGoverns then resided in an apartment above a saloon that he had recently purchased. Downstairs, the saloon was mobbed and so much money was going across the bar, said the paper, that it seemed as if everyone in the neighborhood had won something.
The Aftermath
Terry McGovern’s star shone even brighter the following year. In 1900, he added the world featherweight belt to his laurels with an eighth-round stoppage of long-reigning title-holder George Dixon, stopped the formidable Oscar Gardner, the Omaha Kid, in three rounds, and needed only three rounds to put away lightweight champion Frank Erne in their non-title fight. He also became a big attraction on the vaudeville circuit, eventually assuming the lead role in the hokey melodrama (that’s redundant) “The Bowery After Dark.” McGovern played the hero, the fellow that gets to rescue the damsel in distress.
On Thanksgiving Day, 1901, in a mammoth upset, McGovern was knocked out cold in the second round by Young Corbett II (born William Rothwell), an unheralded fighter from Denver. Terrible Terry was never the same and washed out of the sport while still in his twenties. He was in and out of sanitariums the last few years of his life and exhibiting signs of dementia when he died of pneumonia at age 37. As for Pedlar Palmer, he returned to England and recaptured the bantamweight title after McGovern abandoned it, but he lost the title in his first defense and gradually became just another name fighter playing out the string, earning his largest paydays in bouts where he served as a building block for young fighters on the rise. He died at age 73 in Brighton.
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In searching for a parallel to McGovern-Palmer, Mike Tyson’s 91-second blowout of Michael Spinks at Atlantic City in 1988 jumped quickly to mind. Akin to McGovern-Palmer it was a match between a slugger and a clever boxer. The slugger was favored but not overwhelmingly so. It too was a unification fight: Tyson held the belts of all three major sanctioning bodies, but Spinks, who had been stripped by the IBF, had a stronger claim to the lineal heavyweight title. The bout attracted enormous buzz, drew a celebrity-studded crowd, and the victor, who never let the clever boxer display his wares, experienced a big spike in his famousness.
Tyson vs. Spinks attracted a crowd of roughly 22,000. A far more intimate gathering witnessed Terry McGovern’s fast demolition of Pedlar Palmer, but yet, as measured by goose pimples, it was every bit as spectacular. I wish that I had been there.
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Many of the best female fighters of all time including Christy Martin, Laila Ali and others are gathering in the glitzy lights of Las Vegas this week.
Several hundred fans including current and former world champions are attending the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame ceremony on Friday, April 4 and 5th at the Orleans Casino in Las Vegas.
It’s one of my favorite events.
Where else can you talk to the female pioneers and stars of the 1980s and 1990s?
The last time I attended two years ago, Germany’s super star Regina Halmich spoke to the packed house about her career in boxing. She and Daisy Lang were two female world champions who sold out arenas wherever they fought. The pair of blonde fighters proved that female prizefighting could succeed.
Many times, I debated with promoters who believed women’s boxing could not succeed in the USA. Though it was popular in Germany and Mexico, various organizers felt female boxing was not appealing to the American masses.
Now promoters and media networks know women’s boxing and women’s sports have crowd appeal.
Expected to attend the IWBHOF event at Orleans will be Mexico’s Jessica Chavez and Jackie Nava who will be inducted into the women’s hall of fame along with Vaia Zaganas of Canada among many others.
It’s also a gathering place for many of the top proponents of women’s boxing including the organizers of this event such as Sue Fox whose idea spawned the IWBHOF.
Each event is unique and special.
Many of my favorite people in boxing attend this celebration of women’s boxing. Stop by the Orleans Casino on the second floor. You won’t be disappointed.
Heavyweight prospects
Heavyweights take the forefront this weekend in two pivotal battles in different continents.
In England, a pair of contenders looking to maintain their footing in the heavyweight mountain will clash as Joe Joyce (16-3, 15 KOs) meets Croatia’s Filip Hrgovic (17-1, 14 KOs) at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester. DAZN will stream the event.
Both lost their last match and need a win to remain relevant. Joyce has lost his three of his last four, most recently coming up short in a riveting slugfest with Derek Chisora.
Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, Nevada, two young heavyweights looking to crack contender status clash as undefeated Richard Torrez (12-0,11 KOs) fights Italy’s Guido Vianello (13-2-1,11 KOs) at the Palms Casino.
Both are Olympians who can crack and each can take a blow.
The winner moves up into contention and the other will need to scrape and claw back into relevance.
Coming up
April 12 in Atlantic City: Jarron Ennis (33-0, 29 KOs) vs Eimantis Stanionis (15-0, 9 KOs) IBF welterweight title.
April 12 Albuquerque: Fernando Vargas Jr. (16-0) vs Gonzalo Gaston (23-7); Shane Mosley Jr. (22-4) vs DeAundre Pettus (12-4).
April 19 Oceanside, Calif: Gabriela Fundora (15-0, 7 KOs) vs Marilyn Badillo (19-0-1, 3 KOs). Also, Charles Conwell (21-0, 16 KOs) vs Jorge Garcia (32-4, 26 KOs).
April 26 Tottenham Stadium, London, England; Conor Benn (23-0) vs Chris Eubank Jr. (34-3); Aaron McKenna (19-0, 10 KOs) vs Liam Smith (33-4, 20 Kos).
Fights to Watch
Sat. DAZN 11 a.m. Joe Joyce (16-3) vs Filip Hrgovic (17-1).
Sat. ESPN+ 2:30 p.m. Richard Torrez (12-0) vs Guido Vianello (13-2-1).
Sat. AMAZON PRIME VIDEO 8:00 8 p.m. Tim Tszyu (24-2) vs. Joey Spencer (19-1)
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History has Shortchanged Freddie Dawson, One of the Best Boxers of his Era
This reporter was rummaging around the internet last week when he stumbled on a story in the May 1950 issue of Ebony under the byline of Mike Jacobs. Boxing was then in the doldrums (isn’t it always?) and Jacobs, the most powerful promoter in boxing during the era of Joe Louis, was lassoed by the editors of the magazine to address the question of whether the over-representation of black boxers was killing the sport at the box office.
This hoary premise had been kicking around even before the heyday of Jack Johnson, bubbling forth whenever an important black-on-black fight played to a sea of empty seats as had happened the previous year when Chicago’s Comiskey Park hosted the world heavyweight title fight between Ezzard Charles and Jersey Joe Walcott.
Jacobs ridiculed the hypothesis – as one could have expected considering the publication in which the story ran – and singled out three “colored” boxers as the best of the current crop of active pugilists: Sugar Ray Robinson, Ike Williams, and Freddie Dawson.
Sugar Ray Robinson? A no-brainer. Skill-wise the greatest of the great. Even those that didn’t follow boxing, would have recognized his name. Ike Williams? Nowhere near as well-known as Robinson, but he was then the reigning lightweight champion, a man destined to go into the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the inaugural class of 1990.
And Freddie Dawson? If the name doesn’t ring a bell, dear reader, you are not alone. I confess that I too drew a blank. And that triggered a search to learn more about him.
Freddie Dawson had four fights with Ike Williams. All four were staged on Ike’s turf in Philadelphia. Were this not the case, the history books would likely show the series knotted 2-2. Late in his career, Dawson became greatly admired in Australia. But we are jumping ahead of ourselves.
Dawson was born in 1924 in Thomasville, Arkansas, an unincorporated town in the Arkansas Delta. Likely a descendent of slaves who worked in the cotton plantations, he grew up in the so-called Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, the heart of Chicago’s Black Belt.
The first mention of him in the newspapers came in 1941 when he won Chicago’s Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) featherweight title. In those days, amateur boxing was big in the Windy City, the birthplace of the Golden Gloves. The Catholic Archdiocese, which ran gyms in every parish, and the Chicago Parks Department, were the major incubators.
In his amateur days, he was known as simply Fred Dawson. As a pro, his name often appeared as Freddy Dawson, although Freddie gradually became the more common spelling.
Dawson, who stood five-foot-six and was often described as stocky, made his pro debut on Feb. 1, 1943, at Marigold Gardens. Before the year was out, he had 16 fights under his belt, all in Chicago and all but two at Marigold. (Currently the site of an interdenominational Christian church, Marigold Gardens, on the city’s north side, was Chicago’s most active boxing and wrestling arena from the mid-1930s through the early-1950s. Joe Louis had three of his early fights there and Tony Zale was a fixture there as he climbed the ladder to the world middleweight title.)
The last of these 16 fights was fatal for Dawson’s opponent who collapsed heading back to his corner after the fight was stopped in the 10th round and died that night at a local hospital from the effects of a brain injury.
Dawson left town after this incident and spent most of the next year in New Orleans where energetic promoter Louis Messina ran twice-weekly shows (Mondays for whites and Fridays for blacks) at the Coliseum, a major stop on boxing’s so-called Chitlin’ Circuit.
That same year, on Sept. 19, 1944, Dawson had his first encounter with Ike Williams. He was winning the fight when Ike knocked him out with a body punch in the fourth round.
The first and last meetings between Dawson and Ike Williams were spaced five years apart. In the interim, Freddie scored his two best wins, stopping Vic Patrick in the twelfth round at Sydney, NSW, and Bernard Docusen in the sixth round in Chicago.
The long-reigning lightweight champion of Australia, Patrick (49-3, 43 KOs) gave the crowd a thrill when he knocked Dawson down for a count of “six” in the penultimate 11th round, but Dawson returned the favor twice in the final stanza, ending the contest with a punch so harsh that the poor Aussie needed five minutes before he was fit to leave the ring and would spend the night in the hospital as a precaution.
Dawson fought Bernard Docusen before 10,000-plus at Chicago Stadium on Feb. 4, 1949. An 8/5 favorite, Docusen lacked a hard punch, but the New Orleans cutie had suffered only three losses in 66 fights, had never been stopped, and had extended Sugar Ray Robinson the 15-round distance the previous year.
Dawson dismantled him. Docusen managed to get back on his feet after Dawson knocked him down in the sixth, but he was in no condition to continue and the referee waived the fight off. Dawson was then vacillating between the lightweight and welterweight divisions and reporters wondered whether it would be Robinson or Ike Williams when Dawson finally got his well-earned title shot.
Sugar Ray wasn’t in his future. Here are the results of his other matches with Ike Williams:
Dawson-Williams II (Jan. 28, 1946) – The consensus on press row was 7-2-1 or 7-3 for Dawson, but the match was ruled a draw. “[The judges and referee] evidently saw [Williams] land punches that nobody else did,” said the ringside reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Dawson-Williams III (Jan. 26, 1948) – Dawson lost a majority decision. The scores were 6-4, 5-4-1, and 4-4-2. The decision was booed. Ike Williams then held the lightweight title, but this was a non-title fight. (It was tough for an outsider to get a fair shake in Philadelphia, home to Ike Williams’ co-manager Frank “Blinky” Palermo who would go to prison for his duplicitous dealings as a fight facilitator.)
Dawson-Williams IV (Dec. 5, 1949) – This would be Freddie Dawson’s only crack at a world title and he came up short. Ike Williams retained the belt, winning a unanimous decision. The fight was close – 8-7, 8-7, 9-6 – but there was no controversy.
Dawson made three more trips to Australia before his career was finished. On the first of these trips, he knocked out Jack Hassen, successor to Vic Patrick as the lightweight champion of Australia. A 1953 article in the Sydney Sunday Herald bore witness to the esteem in which Dawson was held by boxing fans in Australia: “None of our boxers could withstand his devastating attacks which not only knocked them out but also knocked years off their careers,” said the author. “It is doubtful whether any Australian boxer in any division could have beaten Dawson.”
Dawson had his final fights in the Land Down Under, finishing his career with a record of 103-14-4 while answering the bell for 962 rounds. Following what became his final fight, he had an eye operation in Sydney that was reportedly so intricate that it required a two-week hospital stay. He injured the eye again in Manila while sparring in preparation for a match with the welterweight champion of the Philippines, a match that had to be aborted because of the injury. Dawson then disappeared, by which we mean that he disappeared from the pages of the newspaper archives that allow us to construct these kinds of stories.
What about Freddie Dawson the man? A 1944 story about him said he was an outstanding all-around athlete, “a champion in all athletic undertakings – basketball, baseball, track and even jitterbugging.” A story in a Sydney paper as he was preparing to meet Vic Patrick informs us that he had two young children, ages 2 and 1, owned his own home in Chicago, and drove a two-year-old Cadillac. But beyond these flimsy snippets, Dawson the man remains elusive.
What we learned, however, is that he was one of the most underrated boxers to come down the pike in any era, a borderline Hall of Famer who ought not have fallen through the cracks. Inside the ring, this guy was one tough hombre.
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LAS VEGAS, NV — The first meeting between Mikaela Mayer and Sandy Ryan last September at Madison Square Garden was punctuated with drama before the first punch was thrown. When the smoke cleared, Mayer had become a world-title-holder in a second weight class, taking away Ryan’s WBO welterweight belt via a majority decision in a fan-friendly fight.
The rematch tonight at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas was another fan-friendly fight. There were furious exchanges in several rounds and the crowd awarded both gladiators a standing ovation at the finish.
Mayer dominated the first half of the fight and held on to win by a unanimous decision. But Sandy Ryan came on strong beginning in round seven, and although Mayer was the deserving winner, the scores favoring her (98-92 and 97-93 twice) fail to reflect the competitiveness of the match-up. This is the best rivalry in women’s boxing aside from Taylor-Serrano.
Mayer, 34, improved to 21-2 (5). Up next, she hopes, in a unification fight with Lauren Price who outclassed Natasha Jonas earlier this month and currently holds the other meaningful pieces of the 147-pound puzzle. Sandy Ryan, 31, the pride of Derby, England, falls to 7-3-1.
Co-Feature
In his first defense of his WBO world welterweight title (acquired with a brutal knockout of Giovani Santillan after the title was vacated by Terence Crawford), Atlanta’s Brian Norman Jr knocked out Puerto Rico’s Derrieck Cuevas in the third round. A three-punch combination climaxed by a short left hook sent Cuevas staggering into a corner post. He got to his feet before referee Thomas Taylor started the count, but Taylor looked in Cuevas’s eyes and didn’t like what he saw and brought the bout to a halt.
The stoppage, which struck some as premature, came with one second remaining in the third stanza.
A second-generation prizefighter (his father was a fringe contender at super middleweight), the 24-year-old Norman (27-0, 21 KOs) is currently boxing’s youngest male title-holder. It was only the second pro loss for Cuevas (27-2-1) whose lone previous defeat had come early in his career in a 6-rounder he lost by split decision.
Other Bouts
In a career-best performance, 27-year-old Brooklyn featherweight Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington (15-0, 9 KOs) blasted out Jose Enrique Vivas (23-4) in the third round.
Carrington, who was named the Most Outstanding Boxer at the 2019 U.S. Olympic Trials despite being the lowest-seeded boxer in his weight class, decked Vivas with a right-left combination near the end of the second round. Vivas barely survived the round and was on a short leash when the third stanza began. After 53 seconds of round three, referee Raul Caiz Jr had seen enough and waived it off. Vivas hadn’t previously been stopped.
Cleveland welterweight Tiger Johnson, a Tokyo Olympian, scored a fifth-round stoppage over San Antonio’s Kendo Castaneda. Johnson assumed control in the fourth round and sent Castaneda to his knees twice with body punches in the next frame. The second knockdown terminated the match. The official time was 2:00 of round five.
Johnson advanced to 15-0 (7 KOs). Castenada declined to 21-9.
Las Vegas junior welterweight Emiliano Vargas (13-0, 11 KOs) blasted out Stockton, California’s Giovanni Gonzalez in the second round. Vargas brought the bout to a sudden conclusion with a sweeping left hook that knocked Gonzalez out cold. The end came at the 2:00 minute mark of round two.
Gonzalez brought a 20-7-2 record which was misleading as 18 of his fights were in Tijuana where fights are frequently prearranged. However, he wasn’t afraid to trade with Vargas and paid the price.
Emiliano Vargas, with his matinee idol good looks and his boxing pedigree – he is the son of former U.S. Olympian and two-weight world title-holder “Ferocious” Fernando Vargas – is highly marketable and has the potential to be a cross-over star.
Eighteen-year-old Newark bantamweight Emmanuel “Manny” Chance, one of Top Rank’s newest signees, won his pro debut with a four-round decision over So Cal’s Miguel Guzman. Chance won all four rounds on all three cards, but this was no runaway. He left a lot of room for improvement.
There was a long intermission before the co-main and again before the main event, but the tedium was assuaged by a moving video tribute to George Foreman.
Photos credit: Al Applerose
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A Fresh Face on the Boxing Scene, Bryce Mills Faces His Toughest Test on Friday
Bernard Fernandez Reflects on His Special Bond with George Foreman
A Paean to George Foreman (1949-2025), Architect of an Amazing Second Act
Notes and Nuggets from Thomas Hauser: Callum Walsh Returns to Madison Square Garden
Spared Prison by a Lenient Judge, Chordale Booker Pursues a World Boxing Title
Friday Boxing Recaps: Observations on Conlan, Eubank, Bahdi, and David Jimenez
Sebastian Fundora TKOs Chordale Booker in Las Vegas
Ever-Improving Callum Walsh KOs Dean Sutherland at Madison Square Garden
Keith Thurman Returns with a Bang; KOs Brock Jarvis in Sydney
Price Conquers Jonas on an All-Female Card at Royal Albert Hall
Avila Perspective, Chap. 318: Aussie Action, Vegas and More
Boxing Odds and Ends: The Wacky and Sad World of Livingstone Bramble and More
Avila Perspective, Chap. 316: Art of the Deal in Boxing and More
Avila Perspective, Chap. 319: Rematches in Las Vegas, Cancun and More
Nick Ball Wears Down and Stops TJ Doheny Before the Home Folks in Liverpool
Results and Recaps from Sydney where George Kambosos Upended Late Sub Jake Wyllie
Avila Perspective, Chap. 317: Callum Walsh, Dana White and More
Ringside at the Fontainebleau where Mikaela Mayer Won her Rematch with Sandy Ryan
High Drama in Japan as ‘Amazing Boy’ Kenshiro Teraji Overcomes Seigo Yuri Akui
William Zepeda Edges Past Tevin Farmer in Cancun; Improves to 34-0
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