The Top Ten Strawweights of the Decade: 2010-2019

Published

4 years ago

November 13, 2020

The Top Ten Strawweights of the Decade: 2010-2019

The tragedy of this list, comprised of the best 105lb fighters from the past decade, is that numbers one and two share an era, a home country, a weight division, but due to promotional issues, will never meet. Modern boxing in a nutshell we see two fighters who represent the most natural sporting opposition imaginable for one another who don’t need each other, each milking an alphabet strap for their earnings.

Rant over: this list is also comprised of men who fought in some of the very best fights of the decade, against one another. The smallest division of all, the combat it produces is perennially underrated by fans and writers alike. Not by you though, perhaps, and certainly not by me.

One more time then: all rankings are by TBRB, except prior to their founding, all rankings between January of 2010 and October of 2012 are by Ring.

For those of you who have read this series from the first article to the last: I thank you.

10 – Katsunari Takayama

Peak Ranking: 1 Record for the Decade: 8-5 Ranked For: 60% of the decade

Katsunari Takayama seemed likely to place higher at the beginning of this process, but in reality, he lost most of the big fights in this 105lb decade. Often, they were worthy defeats against class operators but the disaster he suffered against Mateo Handig in October of 2012, for all that it was a close run, seemed to end his time at the top. Rather typically of boxing, Takayama came blasting back with the single best performance of his war-torn career, against the number one ranked Mario Rodriguez. Rodriguez is a man we will learn more about below, but it is enough to state here that he was the finest puncher of the strawweight decade, a puncher who was also armed with an iron jaw. For all his limitations, this was not a fighter Takayama would necessarily have expected to beat, or even meet after back-to-back losses against Handig and Nkosinathi Joyi, but that was the type of fighter Takayama was.

He was superb against Rodriguez, boxing as though he had won his last two fights, fighting hard when he needed to, boxing in a tight circle and prioritizing the jab after he was dropped in the third round by a savage Rodriguez hook. Never entirely out of danger, he nonetheless dominated exchanges with a buzzing straight-armed 1-2, swarming volume to body and head, varied movement, sometimes coming all the way out, sometimes tightening the circle, sometimes standing toe-to-toe and seeking to slip. It was a quality performance against a dangerous fighter on foreign soil.

There is so much to admire about Takayama. He was only in good or great fights, he had a strong jaw, he travelled, and he would fight anyone. All of that said, Takayama lost almost every single one of his significant fights at the poundage during the decade. Joyi beat him clean, Francisco Rodriguez Jr. received the decision in their wonder-match and although it could have gone either way, the decision was reasonable; Jose Argumedo, who defeated him on a technical decision in 2015 came close to taking his slot here.

In the end his victory over world’s number one Rodriguez is just enough, in combination with his being ranked for 60% of the decade and all those wonderful fights he gifted us, to grant him the low spot.

09 – Kazuto Ioka

Peak Ranking: 2 Record for the Decade: 22-2 Ranked For: 12% of the decade

My memory of Kazuto Ioka was false. I thought of him as a dominant 105lb fighter who would make a mark on the top ten with ease, perhaps even a candidate for a top five spot. A close look has seen him the first locked-in inclusion for the decadal top ten but nearer the #11 spot than #5.

In short, he has just a single win of real note and a single supplementary win that matters, the former over Akira Yaegashi in what appears on paper to be something of a generational contest. In fairness, the two men delivered, Ioka inflicting brutal punishment on the fearless Yaegashi who continued to fire back long after blindness must have overtaken corners of his vision. Grotesquely swollen he fought so hard as to make the contest razor-thin in scoring, so close as to make one wonder as to what those scorecards might have looked like had Yaegashi not been marked-up so badly. Such speculation is not helpful however, nor does it take into account the mercilessness and precision with which Ioka worked Yaegashi’s wounds, nor the indelible composure he wielded as his opponent’s face ballooned. The decision may have been narrow, but it is difficult to argue with.

Ten months earlier, he had scored a victory over Juan Hernandez Navarrete. Navarrete’s name is not one that echoes through eternity, but he scored a narrow, debatable win over Moises Fuentes, a fighter who would come to matter. That match is barely enough, in combination with his win over a pre-prime Yaegashi, to slip Ioka in ahead of Takayama.

08 – Mario Rodriguez

Peak Ranking: 1 Record for the Decade: 14-13-4 Ranked For: 22% of the decade

Mario Rodriguez had a disastrous decade, but his spell at 105lbs was not a part of that failure. Beaten from pillar to post at 108lbs, even by Pedro Guevara with whom he fought on even terms at 105lbs, where his paper record was a much more respectable 6-2-3. The losses, to Katsunari Takayama and Donnie Nietes (who did not remain in the division long enough to be considered for this list), hardly hurt him and the wins include some impressive supplementary names. The big win though, and the one that grabs him the number eight spot, is over preeminent minimumweight Nkosinathi Joyi, twenty-nine years old and in his absolute prime.

Joyi was coming off a career’s best win over Takayama when Rodriguez welcomed him to his native Mexico in September of 2012. A significant underdog, Rodriguez looked it early; slow, static in the feet, little dips of the head sparing him the absolute worst of Joyi’s attentions but in essence he seemed a knockout waiting to happen.

In the second, Rodriguez put his head on Joyi’s chest and began to throw some hard punches. Joyi outboxed him once more but Rodriguez had his blueprint in hand. Joyi continued to beat him brutally, especially to the body, but Rodriguez never threw the yolk. In the fifth, he found Joyi with punches and the referee incorrectly ruled a knockdown a slip. After dominating, Joyi had found trouble.

Mario’s secret was that he was the rarest of things: a 105lb puncher, a legitimate big hitter. Armando Vazquez ditched in four, future 108lb Gilberto Keb Baas dusted in five, lesser fighters dispatched in less time. In essence, Rodriguez, never stopped aside from his muddled debut, was equal to Joyi’s punches and Joyi, the far more established fighter, could not live with Mario’s. In the seventh, Rodriguez popped Joyi on the chin with an uppercut, a left up around the ear, a similar scuffed right and Rodriguez had beaten Joyi and locked himself in to this list.

07 – Francisco Rodriguez Jr.

Peak Ranking: 1 Record for the Decade: 33-4-1 Ranked For: 6% of the decade

Francisco Rodriguez Junior was ranked at 105lbs for just a few short months between January of 2010 and the end of 2019, barely legible as far as this list is concerned. During those weeks, he did two things that mattered: defeated number six contender Merlito Sabillo by tenth round stoppage and won the fight of the decade, at any weight, against number two contender Katsunari Takayama.

Sabillo was first, in March of 2014 and although brave, he was outgunned, as much due to Francisco’s own granite chin as his withering body attack. He dropped and handled Sabillo, then worked him over into the tenth, when Sabillo’s corner did the right thing and pulled their man.

Rodriguez had summitted and the timing could hardly have been better. Four months later he stepped in with Takayama and the result was fire. There is no way that this fight can be described in several paragraphs here and I will not even try. If you have seen, you know. If you have not, stop reading this and type Francisco Rodriguez Jnr. vs Katsunari Takayama into your search bar.

What Rodriguez shows is elite heart, elite chin, elite workrate and fine punching. Those attributes would remain when he departed 105lbs for 115lbs. In truth, he was never a natural 105lb fighter and spread himself too thin to rank any higher here. Still, his 2014 was splendid and it is impossible to imagine this list without him.

06 – Byron Rojas

Peak Ranking: 2 Record for the Decade: 27-4-3 Ranked For: 47% of the decade

Byron Rojas is one of the bravest and most underestimated road warriors in all of boxing. In May of 2016 he travelled from his native Nicaragua to South Africa to face the superb Hekkie Budler in his own back yard. All heart and charge, Rojas put his head down and threw his gloves out, repeatedly, without cease, for the twelve rounds that followed. Budler, clearly perturbed, had a long night and despite doing the cleaner punching and being the only one of the two to engage in the rudiments of upper body movement, was clearly behind after six rounds.

Budler then made the sort of gorgeous adjustment that only an experienced champion can, moving, instead of away, in to Rojas, physically trying to push him back by hitting to the body. It made for a fascinating ninth round, clearly won by the South African. In the tenth, Rojas made his own adjustment, dropping his guard and throwing violent meathooks at Budler who suddenly wanted no part of the inside. Rojas twice hurt his man in that round and although the eleventh and twelfth were close, had clearly done enough. Budler tied the belt around Rojas’s waist himself.

Having defeated the third best strawweight of his generation, Rojas set sail, in his very next fight, to meet the best, Thammanoon Niyomtrong. Rojas lost that fight – narrowly – and a 2018 rematch more definitively. Being honest though, those losing efforts, on the road, probably enhance his standing here just a tiny bit. It is a difference-maker though. Rojas was ranked at 105lbs for nearly half the decade, true, and we see some of the gatekeeper types that appear often in discussing the men on this list – Julio Mendoza, Daniel Mendoza – but overall he probably doesn’t have the flat-out win resume for the spot. Still, as a man, he was that and more.

05 – Moises Fuentes

Peak Ranking: 3 Record for the Decade: 16-6-1 Ranked For: 18% of the decade

Moises Fuentes flirted with these lists at heavier poundage, but he was never going to break on through. At 105lbs, he has cracked the top five – can it be justified?

Two key fights barrel Fuentes into the upper echelons of this list and neither one is to be missed. In 2011, coming off a defeat and one more away from gatekeeper status, Fuentes stepped in with #3 contender and tough Raul Garcia. The two staged a war, exchanging knockdowns and violence throughout. Fuentes took a close decision in a fight that could have gone either way.

This positioned him beautifully for the fight that every minimumweight wanted against the descending Don of the 105lb division, Ivan Calderon. Calderon, fresh from his brutalization at the hands of Giovani Segura up at 108lbs, was returning to reclaim what at this point seemed his birth-right. Fuentes’s name went into the hat and was drawn; he was the alphabet champion destined to pass Calderon back his gold.

Except he wasn’t. Now, there is no dispute about this: Calderon was not what he was. I covered the fight at the time and wrote that “His legs seemed less and less able to carry him for twelve rounds. Something that had seemed easy in 2008 now had the appearance of being difficult for him… The creeping sense that his legs were beginning to betray him had come to fruition. There would be no Ali-like second career”. For all that this was true, Fuentes had begun his work, the work of a fighter, even as he ceded early rounds. Fuentes was chopping off the ring, measuring the speed, measuring his guns against Calderon’s defences.

In the fourth, he tracked Calderon down to a corner and began the steady and sad process of tearing him apart. Calderon crumbled in just five.

I took this personally at the time, describing it as “the saddest sight to see in fights, the metaphorical equivalent of watching a Ferrari Italia F458 being driven off a cliff” but watching it for this series I was in the main just impressed by Fuentes. Viewed remote from the incident it is hard not to be given Fuentes’s ruthless domination of a legitimate great at the poundage. He deserves his credit, and he gets it here, decadal top five at the poundage.

04 – Nkosinathi Joyi

Peak Ranking: 1 Record for the Decade: 9-5-1 Ranked For: 25% of the decade

Nkosinathi Joyi stormed out of the 00s and in to the 10s the world’s premier minimumweight and proved it in his very first fight of the decade against the excellent Raul Garcia, who he thrashed. In his next fight he matched Katsunari Takayama but a clash of heads caused the fight to be called off and a no contest rendered. The immediate rematch was Joyi’s finest performance.

He did as fine a job as has been done in tracking Takayama down, and Takayama did try hard to keep him at arm’s length. In the fourth Joyi just outwalked him and lashed him with southpaw left hands to the face; in the ninth, too much showboating saw Takayama caught in the corner and punished. In between, Takayama had his occasional, surging moments but even in the rounds he lost, it felt that Joyi was not far away from retaining control.

A legitimate puncher, Joyi was consistently excellent at finding range and persisting in that range. Expert balance and technical footwork capable of mining that balance for maximum returns meant that once he had found the range, he was expert in maintaining it. Combined with a vicious body attack, it can be readily understood why this combination should be so difficult for a fighter like Takayama.

All that skill though was not enough to hide a certain fragility which, as we have seen, cost him against Mario Rodriguez. Another loss, this one narrow and on the cards against Hekkie Budler, sent him scurrying for 108lbs where he was repeatedly beaten up and stopped. Returning to 105lbs, he was clearly outpointed in a confused performance against Simpiwe Konkco. It seemed all but over for him.

Then something wonderful and strange happened. Two weeks before the end of the decade, Joyi was fed to the number six contender, Filipino Joey Canoy, and in a wonderful return to form, Joyi batted him unmercifully for twelve rounds. The only version of this fight I could track down was a video taken in a South African front room of a television broadcasting the fight (I’d like to thank the gentleman in question, who can at one point be overheard on the telephone), but nevertheless, it can be seen that Joyi looks himself, for all that it was a slower version. Canoy was firmly outclassed, stuck on the end of the Joyi jab and battered throughout by beltline work, underlining Joyi’s status as the finest bodypuncher of the divisional decade.

This victory enhances his standing considerably. How could it not? Once again ranked in the divisional top ten by the TBRB, he is nowhere near as deadly nor as respected he was in 2010, but at thirty-seven years of age he’s holding on, and with a strap to defend, he may just make his mark once more in the third decade of his prestigious career.

03 – Hekkie Budler

Peak Ranking: 1 Record for the Decade: 18-4 Ranked For: 51% of the decade

Hekkie Budler, a legend in his native South Africa, boxes with a catch-as-catch-can style that I thoroughly enjoy. Against number nine contender Michael Landero, Budler attacked directly, invaded the pocket and out-fought him for a near shut out. Against number ten contender Chaozhong Xiong, Budler stopped well short of a shutout, losing the first and dropped heavily in the second, trapped on the end of a fulsome left hook at a perfect angle from his jaw. Seriously hurt, he was lucky to escape the round.

Budler’s skill is in adaptations though and he spent the rest of the fight controlling the distance. Punishing Xiong for each transgression, he slowed the fight way down, taking the explosive start and making it something infinitely duller but easier to control. Xiong was reduced to launching forayed attacks from distance and sucking up what Budler had to give him in the meantime. By the fight’s end I was impressed but also nodding off.

Budler tended towards thrills though with a chin good enough to hold heavy shots and an engine good enough to run a busy fight plan against all-comers should he chose to do so. In “The Mega Fight” as it was billed in South Africa, Budler received a record payday to match fellow South African hero Nkosinathi Joyi and their fight was an excellent one. Guilty of shoe-shining early, Budler was behind in my card going into the second half of the fight but a grandstand finish saw him nip home by a smidge to win the most important fight of his career.

Losses to Gideon Buthelezi and Byron Rojas put the brakes on him just a little bit and it’s worth noting that Xiong is likely the second best win of his career, a rather unimpressive one; nevertheless, Budler was certainly in the running for the #2 spot.

02 – Wanheng Menayothin

Peak Ranking: 1 Record for the Decade: 42-0 Ranked For: 83% of the decade

Wanheng Menayothin, also known as Chayaphon Moonsri, ran across some unexpected and much deserved fame recently for overhauling Floyd Mayweather’s 50-0. Wanheng currently stands 54-0, undefeated but a different kind of undefeated; the kind that sees a fighter boxing to put food on the table in the literal, rather than that the figurative sense.

Wanheng is heralded and has been ranked for 83% of the decade; he is the most famous minimumweight since Calderon – and here he is, at #2 instead of #1. You are owed an explanation. Here it is:

Wanheng hasn’t fought anyone that good. I don’t mean this in the sense the word is normally used, that he has dominated a weak era (he hasn’t, and it isn’t), I mean he hasn’t fought anyone that good. The best fighter he has met may have been then number six contender Oswaldo Novo. Wanheng has done no business in the top five in the weight class he is said to have dominated. This means he hasn’t dominated it.

He crushed Novo, closing and battering him with an endless fuselage of punches that speaks of the hunger that continues to drive him at thirty-five. It is also true, though, that Novo has not won a single fight since he met Wanheng and included among the many losses he has endured is one to Saul Juarez. Juarez, then, is perhaps the best fighter Wanheng has beaten? He also met Wanheng in 2016 and Juarez, who I feel has been a little underrated, took Wanheng the distance. It was a tough fight, but one clearly won by Wanheng although Juarez, too, has been living a loser’s nightmare since that contest.

And it is hard beyond that to dig up contenders for a number one foe for Wanheng. Florante Condes has a certain doughy appeal, Pedro Taduran has looked decent since his loss to Wanheng, but beyond that, Wanheng’s 54-0 is comprised mostly of men any competent fighter would be expected to beat.

Wanheng is certainly that. He is disciplined, strong, brings good pressure and is armed with a very decent range of punches. The first real test of his career, should he have one, still lies ahead of him, and that means #2 is the absolute roof for him.

01 – Thammanoon Niyomtrong

Peak Ranking: 1 Record for the Decade: 20-0 Ranked For: 52% of the decade

Thammanoon Niyomtrong, also known as Knockout CP Freshmart (don’t ask) is unassailable in his position as the highest rated strawweight of the decade. It is not close; it is not debatable, there is no argument. The Thai (pictured) is the most accomplished 105lb fighter of the decade.

When he was but 12-0 he matched Carlos Buitrago, a fighter, for me, who is more dangerous than anyone Wanheng Menayothin has met in his celebrated fifty-four fights. It was also, for my money, the closest the undefeated Niyomtrong has come to defeat. The bones of his style were already firmly established; careful swarming, accompanied by very hard punches in ones, twos and threes in a clear adoption of drills, but also an opportunist’s eye for a winging punch. Moving across him is foolish and moving into him dangerous. At 12-0 though, he was inexperienced at pacing himself and had yet to complete the twelve-round distance. After thoroughly dominating the first half of the fight he suffered a dramatic fade late, missing often, holding intermittently. He scraped home by a single round on all three official cards (and mine).

Niyomtrong had escaped, barely, in a tough, difficult fight against the number six contender. The man he is: he rematched Buitrago eighteen months later and thrashed him. On my card, he lost only two rounds, stamina and economy worthy additions to his fighting arsenal. Noteworthy also is that between these two fights, Niyomtrong found time to meet with another undefeated ranked fighter, Alexis Diaz. Diaz, arguably as dangerous as anyone Wanheng met, deployed a hurtful beltline attack in the first which Niyomtrong lost, something that is not unusual for him. In the second though, he began launching his unusual array of one-twos, a fascinating collection of punches which take a standard pressure-stalk and render it something more thoughtful and difficult; Diaz was cracked in the fourth but was essentially tortured throughout the second and third.

I would argue that in these short months Niyomtrong had already overhauled Wanheng’s 105lb career, or the acute end of it anyway. Post Buitrago, though, Niyomtrong stepped into a new class. His foil for the second phase of the decade would be Byron Rojas, Rojas at his best, straight off his victory over Hekkie Budler. Rojas was brutal with Niyomtrong, fouling him with his shoulders, pushing at Niyomtrong’s cut eye with the top of his head, butting him. A liberal referee allowed Rojas to continue with his fierce work throughout the second half of the fight uninterrupted, but Niyomtrong was not so kind. All the while he was dolling out hurtful punches, including a peach of a lead left uppercut. The fight was close, but Niyomotrong was a narrow winner. Narrow, as we have seen, is not good enough for this fighter, so he once again provided a rematch for a fighter who had troubled him and once again beat him more widely on the second occasion.

Xiong Zhao Zhong played the part of Diaz during this second phase, another fight Niyomtrong, still just thirty, won widely.

Niyomtrong has outstripped his countryman Wanheng on every metric I use to measure fighters bar the number of fights he has had and the number of fights he has won, but the clear gulf in quality of opposition bested makes him the clear choice. He is also the final divisional number one we will encounter – with just the decadal pound-for-pound list to be revealed.

The other lists:

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“Cassius X: The Transformation of Muhammad Ali”

Philly’s Jesse Hart Continues His Quest plus Thoughts on Tyson-Paul and ‘Boots’ Ennis

Published

6 hours ago

November 21, 2024

Luis A. Cortes III

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Jesse Hart (31-3, 25 KOs) returns to the ring tomorrow night (Friday, Nov. 22) on a Teflon Promotions card at the Liacouras Center on the campus of Temple University. During a recent media workout for the show, which will feature five other local fighters in separate bouts, Hart was adamant that fighting for the second time this year at home will only help in his continuing quest to push towards a second chance at a world championship. “Fighting at home is always great and it just makes sense from a business standpoint since I already have a name in the sport and in the city,” said Hart (pictured with his friend and training partner Joey Dawejko).

Hart’s view of where his career currently resides in relation to the landscape in the light heavyweight division leads you to believe that, at the age of 35, Hart is realistic about how far he can go before his career is over.

“Make good fights, win those fights, fight as much as I can and stay busy, that’s the way the light heavyweight division won’t be able to ignore me,” he says. Aside from two losses back in 2017 and 2018 to current unified cruiserweight champion Gilberto Ramirez at super middleweight, Hart’s only other defeat was to Joe Smith during Smith’s most successful portion of his career.

When attempts to make fights with (at the time) up-and-coming prospects like Edgar Berlanga and David Benavidez were denied with Hart being viewed as the typical high risk-low reward opponent, it was time to find another way. So, Hart decided to stay local after splitting with Top Rank Promotions post-surgery to repair his longtime right-hand issues and hooked up with Teflon Promotions, an upstart company that is the latest to take on the noble endeavor of trying to return North Broad Street and Atlantic City to boxing prominence.

In essence, it is a calculated move that is potentially a win-win situation for all parties. Continued success for Hart along with some of the titles at light heavyweight eventually being released from Artur Beterbiev’s grasp due to outside politics, and Jesse Hart just may lift up Teflon Promotions into a major player on the regional scene.

Tickets for Friday’s show are available on Ticketmaster platforms.

As we entered November, a glance at the boxing schedule made me wonder if it was possible for the sport to have a memorable month — one that could shine a light forward in boxing’s ongoing quest to regain relevance in today’s sports landscape. Having consecutive weekends with events that could spark interest in the pugilistic artform and its wonderful characters was what I was hoping for, but what we got instead was more evidence that boxing isn’t immune to modern business practices landing a one-two punch on the action both inside and outside of the ring.

Jaron “Boots” Ennis was expected to make a statement in his rematch with Karen Chukhadzian on Nov. 9, a statement to put the elite level champions around his weight class on notice. What we witnessed, however, was more evidence of how current champions in their prime can be hampered by having to navigate a business that functions through the cooperation of independent contractors. Ennis got the job done – he won – but it was a lackluster performance.

It’s time for Ennis to fight the fighters we already thought we would have seen him fight by now and I do believe there is some truth to Ennis rising to the occasion if there was a more noteworthy name across the ring.

—

Some positives emerged from the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul event the following week. Amanda Serrano, Katie Taylor, and women’s boxing are finally getting the public recognition they deserve. Mario Barrios’s draw against the tough Abel Ramos, also on the Netflix broadcast, was an action-packed firefight. So, mainstream America and beyond got to witness actual fights before being subjected to Paul’s latest circus.

Unfortunately for fans, but fortunately for Paul, the lone true boxing star in the main event dimmed out from an athletic standpoint decades ago. In this instance modern business practices allowed for a social media influencer to stage his largest money grab from a completely unnuanced public.

As Paul rose to the ring apron from the steps and looked around “Jerry’s World,” taking in the moment, it reminded me of an actual fighter when they’re about to enter the ring taking in the atmosphere before they risk their lives after a lifetime of dedication to try and realize a childhood dream. In this case though, this was a natural-born hustler realizing as he made it to the ring apron that his hustle was likely having its moment of glory.

In boxing circles, Jake Paul is viewed as a “necessary evil.” What occurs in his fights are merely an afterthought to the spectacle that is at the core of the social media realm that birthed him. Hopefully the public learned from the atrocity that occurred once the exhibition started that smoke and mirrors last for only so long. Hopefully Paul’s moment of being a boxing performer and acting like a true fighter comes to its conclusion. But he isn’t going away anytime soon, especially since his promotional company is now in bed with Netflix.

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Boxing Odds and Ends: Oscar Collazo, Reimagining ‘The Ring’ Magazine and More

Published

2 days ago

November 19, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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With little boxing activity over the next two weekends, there’s no reason to hold off anointing Oscar Collazo the Fighter of the Month for November. In his eleventh pro fight, Collazo turned heads with a masterful performance against previously undefeated Thammanoon Niyamtrong, grabbing a second piece of the title in boxing’s smallest weight class while ending the reign of the sport’s longest-reigning world title-holder. The match was on the undercard of the Nov. 16 “Latino Night” show in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia headlined by the cruiserweight tiff between Mexico’s Zurdo Ramirez and England’s Chris Billam-Smith.

Collazo was a solid favorite, but no one expected the fight would be as one-sided. Collazo put on a clinic, as the saying goes. He took the starch out of Niyamtrong with wicked body punches before ending matters in the seventh. A left uppercut sent the Thai to the canvas for the third time and the referee immediately stepped in and stopped it.

Collazo, wrote Tris Dixon, “dissected and destroyed a very good fighter.” Indeed. A former Muay Thai champion, Niyamtrong (aka Knockout CP Freshmart) brought a 25-0 record and was making the thirteenth defense of his WBA strap.

A Puerto Rican born in Newark, Jersey, Oscar Collazo turned pro after winning a gold medal in the 2019 Pan American games in Lima, Peru. He was reportedly named after Oscar De La Hoya (we will take that info with a grain of salt), names Hall of Famer Ivan Calderon as a mentor and is co-promoted by Hall of Famer Miguel Cotto.

Collazo, 27, won the WBO version of the 105-pound title in his seventh pro fight with a seven-round beatdown of Melvin Jerusalem. He won a world title faster than any Puerto Rican boxer before him.

His goal now, he says, is to become a unified champion. He would be the first from the island in the modern era. Although Puerto Rico has a distinguished boxing history – twelve Boricua boxers are enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame — there hasn’t been a fully unified champion from Puerto Rico since the WBO came along in 1988.

The other belt-holders at 105 are the aforementioned Jerusalem (WBC) and his Filipino countryman Melvin Taduran (IBF). Both won their belts in Japan with upsets of the Shigeoka brothers, respectively Yudai (Jerusalem) and Ginjiro (Taduran). Collazo would be a massive favorite over either.

A far more attractive fight would pit Collazo against two-time Olympic gold medalist Hasanboy Dusmatov. In theory, this would be an easy fight to make as the undefeated Uzbek trains in Indio, California, a frequent stomping ground of Collazo’s co-promoter Oscar De La Hoya who had a piece of the action when Dusmatov made his pro debut in Mexico. However, it’s doubtful that Dusmatov’s influential advisor Vadim Kornilov would let him take such a treacherous fight until the match-up had been properly “marinated,” by which time they both may be competing in a higher weight class. The Puerto Rican, who began his pro career at 110, is big for the 105-pound division notes the noted boxing historian Matt McGrain who is partial to the little guys.

—

Outside the ropes, the big news in boxing in November was the news that The Ring magazine had been sold to Turki Alalshikh. The self-acclaimed Bible of Boxing, which celebrated its 100^th anniversary in 2022, was previously owned by a subsidiary of Oscar De La Hoya’s company, Golden Boy Enterprises, which acquired the venerable publication in 2007. Alalshikh purportedly paid $10 million dollars.

Alalshikh, the head of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, confirmed the sale on social media on Monday, Nov. 11.

“Earlier this week, I finalized a deal to acquire 100% of The Ring Magazine, and I want to make a few things clear,” he said. “The print version of the magazine will return immediately after a two year hiatus and it will be available in the US and UK markets. The magazine will be fully independent, with brilliant writers and focusing on every aspect in the sport of boxing. We will continue to raise the prestige of The Ring Titles, and plans are already underway to have a yearly extravagant awards ceremony to celebrate the very best in the boxing industry.”

Alalshikh, blessed with an apparently unlimited budget, is already the most powerful man in the sport and more than a few concerns have been raised about his latest venture, especially in light of an incident involving prominent British scribe Oliver Brown.

Brown, the chief sports writer for the Telegraph who had previously covered three of Tyson Fury’s fights in Saudi Arabia, had his credential pulled for the Joshua-Dubois show at Wembley Stadium after calling the event “a grisly conduit for glorifying the Saudi regime.”

“I frankly do not trust Alalshikh to keep his personal aims from influencing the publication’s content,” says boxing writer Patrick Stumberg. One thing is certain: So long as the publication remains in the hands of the Saudis, the word “sportswashing” will never appear in the pages of The Ring magazine.

The Ring is the second major online boxing magazine to change hands this year. In February, Boxing Scene, one of the most heavily-trafficked sites in the ecosystem, was sold to Canadian-American entrepreneur Garry Jonas, best known as the founder of ProBox, a promotional entity headquartered in Plant City, Florida.

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Mike Tyson’s showing against Jake Paul was mindful of something that Jimmy Cannon once wrote: “…the flesh was corrupted by time. The mind operated as if it was in another man’s head…the talent has been contaminated by age.”

Cannon was describing Joe Louis in Louis’s farewell fight against Rocky Marciano.

True, Jake Paul is no Rocky Marciano. To include their names in the same sentence borders on sacrilege. But the fabled Brown Bomber was 37 years old when he was rucked into retirement by Marciano on that October night at Madison Square Garden. At age 58, Mike Tyson was old enough to be Joe Louis’s father and yet human lemmings by the thousands couldn’t resist betting on him.

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The Hauser Report: Some Thoughts on Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul

Published

4 days ago

November 17, 2024

Thomas Hauser

The-Hauser-Report-Some-Thoughts-on-Mike-Tyson-v-Jake-Paul

Jake Paul boxed his way to a unanimous decision over Mike Tyson at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Friday night. The bout, streamed live on Netflix, was one of the most-watched fights of all time and, in terms of the level of competition, boxing’s least-consequential mega-fight ever.

We’re living in a golden age for spectator sports. Sports generate massive amounts of money from engaged fan bases and are more popular now than ever before. Today’s athletes are more physically gifted, better conditioned, and more skilled than their predecessors. Their prowess is appreciated and understood by tens of millions of fans.

Not so for boxing. For the sweet science, this is an era of “fools’ gold.” Yes, fighters like Oleksandr Usyk, Canelo Alvarez, Terence Crawford, and Naoya Inoue bring honor to the sport. But boxing’s fan base has dwindled to the point where most people have no idea who the heavyweight champion of the world is. The sport’s dominant promoter has a business model that runs hundreds of millions of dollars a year in the red. And most fights of note are contested behind a paywall that shrinks the fan base even more. Few sports fans understand what good boxing is.

Mike Tyson is 58 years old. Once upon a time, he was the most destructive boxer in the world and “the baddest man on the planet.” Prior to last Friday night, he hadn’t fought in nineteen years and hadn’t won a fight since 2003.

Jake Paul is a 27-year-old social media personality who wasn’t born when Tyson lost his aura of invincibility at the hands of Buster Douglas. Paul began boxing professionally three years ago and, before fighting Tyson, had compiled a 10-1 (7 KOs) record against carefully chosen opponents.

Netflix has roughly 283 million subscribers globally, 84 million of them in North America. Recently, it made the decision to move into live sports. On December 25, it will stream the National Football League’s two Christmas games on an exclusive basis.

Netflix took note of the fact that Tyson’s 2020 exhibition against Roy Jones drew 1.6 million pay-per-view buys and concluded that Tyson-Paul had the potential to be the most-viewed fight of all time. It purchased rights to the fight as an attention grabber and subscription seller for (a best-estimate) $40 million.

Tyson-Paul was originally scheduled for July 20. A compliant Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations sanctioned the bout as an official fight, not an exhibition. In deference to Tyson’s age, the fighters agreed that the match would be contested over eight two-minute rounds (women’s rules) with 14-ounce gloves (heavyweight gloves normally weigh ten ounces).

But on May 26, Tyson became nauseous and dizzy while on a flight from Miami to Los Angeles and needed medical assistance for what was later described as a bleeding ulcer. The fight was rescheduled for November 15. Later, Tyson described the incident on the plane as follows: “I was in the bathroom throwing up blood. I had, like, eight blood transfusions. The doctor said I lost half my blood. I almost died. I lost 25 pounds in eleven days. Couldn’t eat. Only liquids. Every time I went to the bathroom, it smelled like tar. Didn’t even smell like shit anymore. It was disgusting.”

Does that sound like a 58-year-old man who should be fighting?

As Eliot Worsell noted, Tyson-Paul contained all the elements of a successful reality show. “There are for a start,” he wrote, “celebrities involved, two of them. One is ‘old famous’ and the other ‘new famous’ and both bring large audiences with them. They need only tap something on their phone to guarantee the entire world pays attention. And that, in this day and age, is all you really need to green light a project like this.”

But Worsell added a word of caution, observing, “This has been the story of Jake Paul’s pro boxing career to date; one of smoke and mirrors, one of sycophants telling him only what he wants to hear. He has been fed a lie just as Mike Tyson is now being fed a lie, and on November 15 they will both play dress-up and be watched by millions. They will wear gloves like boxers and they will move like boxers – one hampered in this quest by old age and the other by sheer incompetence – and they will together make ungodly sums of money.”

There was early talk that 90,000 fans would jam AT&T Stadium on fight night. Initially, ticket prices ranged from $381 to $7,956. And those prices were dwarfed by four tiers of VIP packages topped by a two-million-dollar “MVP Owner’s Experience” that included special ringside seating at the fight for six people, luxury hotel accommodations, weigh-in and locker room photo ops, boxing gloves signed by Tyson and Paul, and other amenities.

But by Monday of fight week, ticket prices had dropped to as little as $36. Ringside seats were available for $900. And the press release announcing the eventual MVP Owner’s Experience sale backtracked a bit, saying the package was “valued at $2 million” – not that the actual sale price was $2 million. It also appeared that the purchase price included advertising for the law firm that purchased the package since the release proclaimed, “Just as every fighter in the ring stands to represent resilience, grit, and the pursuit of victory, TorkLaw stands in the corner of the people, fighting for justice and empowering those who need it most.”

That said, the fight drew 72,300 fans (inclusive of giveaway tickets) to AT&T Stadium. And the live gate surpassed $18 million making it the largest onsite gate ever in the United States for a fight card outside of Las Vegas. More than 60 million households watched the event live around the world.

The undercard featured a spirited fight between Mario Barrios and Abel Ramos that ended in a draw. Then came the second dramatic showdown between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano.

Taylor-Serrano II was for all four major sanctioning body 140-pound belts. Two years ago, Katie and Amanda did battle at Madison Square Garden on a historic night that saw Taylor emerge with a controversial split-decision win. Katie is now 38 years old and her age is showing. Amanda is 36. Taylor was an early 6-to-5 betting favorite in the rematch but the odds flipped late in Serrano’s favor.

Amanda began Taylor-Serrano II in dominating fashion and wobbled Katie just before the bell ending round one. That set the pattern for the early rounds. Serrano looked like she could hurt Taylor, and Taylor didn’t look like she could hurt Serrano.

Then in round four, Serrano got hurt. A headbutt opened a gruesome gash on her right eyelid. As the bout progressed, the cut became more dangerous. From an armchair perspective, it looked as though the fight should have been stopped and the result determined by the judges’ abbreviated scorecards. But the ring doctor who examined Serrano allowed it to continue even though the flow of blood seemed to handicap Amanda more and more with each passing round.

In round eight, referee Jon Schorle took a point away from Taylor after the fourth clash of heads that he thought Katie had initiated. By then, Serrano’s face resembled a gory Halloween mask and the bout had turned into a non-stop firefight. Each woman pushed herself as far as it seemed possible to go.

In the eyes of most observers, Serrano clearly won the fight. This writer scored the bout 96-93 in Amanda’s favor. Then the judges had their say. Each one favored Taylor by a 95-94 margin.

“My God!” blow-by-blow commentator Mauro Ranallo exclaimed after the verdict was announced. “How does one rob Amanda Serrano after a performance like that?”

In keeping with the hyperbole of the promotion, one might say that it was the most-watched ring robbery (although not the worst) in boxing history.

CompuBox is an inexact tabulation. But there’s a point at which the numbers can’t be ignored. According to CompuBox, Serrano outlanded Taylor in nine of ten rounds with an overall 324-to-217 advantage in punches landed.

From a boxing standpoint, Taylor-Serrano II made the evening special. Casual fans who don’t know much about the sweet science saw a very good fight. But they also saw how bad judging undermines boxing.

Meanwhile, as good as Taylor-Serrano II was, that’s not what Netflix was selling to the public. Jake Paul’s most recent events had engendered disappointing viewer numbers. This one was a cultural touchstone because of Tyson.

Paul has worked hard to become a boxer. In terms of skills, he’s now a club fighter (which is more than 99.9 percent of the population could realistically dream of being). So, what happens when a club fighter fights a 58-year-old man who used to be great?

Jack Johnson fought until the age of 53, losing four of his last six bouts. And the two he won were against opponents named Rough House Wilson (who was disqualified in what would be his only recorded professional fight) and Brad Simmons (who was barred from fighting again in Kansas because he was believed to have thrown the fight against Johnson).

Larry Holmes fought until age 52, knocking out 49-year-old Mike Weaver at age 51 and winning a unanimous decision over Eric Esch (aka Butterbean) in his final bout.

Paul was a 2-to-1 betting favorite. Serious PED testing for the fight was a murky issue but seems to have been minimal. Taylor and Serrano underwent VADA testing in advance of their bout. Tyson and Paul didn’t.

Tyson weighed in for the contest at 228.4 pounds; Paul at 227.2 (well over his previous high of 200). Following the weigh-in, Mike and Jake came face to face for the ritual staredown and Mike slapped Jake. But the incident was self-contained with no ripple effect and had the feel of a WWE confrontation.

That raised a question that was fogging the promotion: “Would Tyson vs. Paul be a ‘real’ fight or a pre-arranged sparring session (which was what Tyson vs. Roy Jones appeared to be)?”

That question was of particular note because sports betting is legal in 38 states and 31 of them were allowing wagers on the fight.

Nakisa Bidarian (co-founder of Paul’s promotional company) sought to lay that issue to rest, telling ESPN, “There’s no reason for us to create a federal fraud, a federal crime. These are pro fights that consumers are making legal bets on. We have never and we’ll never do anything that’s other than above board and one hundred percent a pro fight unless we come out clearly and say, ‘Hey, this is an exhibition fight that is a show.'”

Tyson looked old and worried during his ring walk and wore a sleeve on his right knee. The crowd was overwhelmingly in his favor. But it’s an often-repeated truism that the crowd can’t fight. And neither could Mike.

Once upon a time, Tyson scored nine first-minute knockouts in professional fights. Not first-round. First-minute.

Against Paul, “Iron Mike” came out for round one as hard as he could (which wasn’t very hard) while Jake kept a safe distance between them. Then Tyson tired and took all the air out of the fight. By round three, he was in survival mode with his head tucked safely behind his 14-ounce gloves. And Jake didn’t have the skills to hurt him.

The CompuBox numbers favored Paul by a 78-to-18 margin in punches landed. In other words, Tyson landed an average of two punches per round. The judges’ scores were 80-72, 79-73, 79-73 in Jake’s favor. It was a “real” fight but a bad one.

“I love Mike Tyson,” Terence Crawford posted on X afterward. “But they giving him too much credit. He looked like trash.”

Prior to the bout, Tris Dixon wrote, “Tyson-Paul is a weird event, and I can’t think of anything even remotely like it in terms of the level of fighters, celebrity, and their ages. The event is unique, and morally and ethically it is questionable. It is a cynical cash grab. I can’t see it being particularly entertaining as a high-level sporting event. But I’m sure once it starts you won’t be able to take your eyes off it.”

All true. But let’s remember that there was a time when Mike Tyson was universally recognized as the best fighter in the world. Not many people in history have been able to say that.

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Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book – MY MOTHER and me – is a personal memoir available at www.amazon.com/My-Mother-Me-Thomas-Hauser/dp/1955836191/ref=sr_1_1?crid=5C0TEN4M9ZAH&keywords=thomas+hauser&qid=1707662513&sprefix=thomas+hauser%2Caps%2C80&sr=8-1

In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism. In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

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