The Hauser Report: Triller at Madison Square Garden

Published

4 years ago

August 4, 2021

The-Hauser-Report-Triller-at-Madison-Square-Garden

On Tuesday, August 3, I went to the fights for the first time in seventeen months. The occasion was the inaugural TrillerVerz event at Madison Square Garden – a nine-bout card followed by a hip-hop “rap battle.”

On July 1, it was reported that Triller would present twelve monthly shows at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden beginning on August 3, 2021. Each event would consist of a regular live boxing card followed by a TrillerVerz music battle. A subsequent press release stated that these events would take place on the first Tuesday of each month and be streamed on FITE.TV and other platforms.

Boxing is a vehicle of opportunity for Triller. The company is selling what it calls a “four-quadrant model” consisting of “influencers, legends, music artists and contemporary fighters.” During the past year, it has sought to build its brand by blending the sweet science with contemporary urban music. It’s greatest success to date was a November 28, 2020, event featuring an exhibition bout between Mike Tyson and Roy Jones paired with performances by Wiz Khalifa, French Montana, YG, and Snoop Dogg. Other Triller events have been less commercially successful, and Triller has struggled to find a formula that will give it an adequate return on its $6,018,000 purse bid for a lightweight title-unification bout between Teofimo Lopez and George Kambosos.

The Garden gave Triller a good deal on rent for TrillerVerz and pushed for the involvement of a local promoter to oversee the boxing end of the promotion. DiBella Entertainment was hired to perform the nuts-and-bolts, on-site duties. In return, it received slots on the card for four of its fighters – Mikkel LesPierre, Eric Walker, Ivan Golub, and Joe Ward.

Explaining the series, Ryan Kavanaugh (the driving force behind Triller) proclaimed, “It’s about continuing to build our customers as well as to continue to deliver what they want. Pay-per-view is one way to make money but that is for big, big events. In the meantime, we need to build up our fighters and image. The idea is to have a series leading up to our big PPV events.”

There are a lot of questions that can – and should – be asked about Triller, its financial underpinnings, its ever-changing business model, and Kavanaugh. These questions are for another forum. This article is about a return to ringside after a long absence occasioned by the pandemic and what it felt like for this writer to be on the boxing scene again.

Tickets for the August 3 TrillerVerz show went on sale on July 15 with five hundred tickets held in reserve as comps and for sale to the fighters and their camps. Within hours, every ticket available to the public had been sold. The music, not the fights, drove the promotion.

There was confusion surrounding the start time for the event. Initially, the media was told that the first fight would begin at 6:05 PM. Then, on August 2, a 4:05 PM start time was finalized with a 7:00 PM start for the streaming portion of the fight card. The rap battle would commence around 9:30 PM.

I arrived at Madison Square Garden at 3:45 PM, the same time as Gerry Cooney (who co-hosts a radio show devoted to boxing). Gerry and I are friends and try to sit next to each other at fights. Toward that end, the first thing Gerry did on arriving at The Theater was rearrange the seating labels on press row so we could sit together.

The specter of COVID-19 and its variants hung in the air. Media and spectators had been told in advance that, to be allowed entry, they had to be fully vaccinated and provide proof of having received their final dose no later than fourteen days prior to the event. All Madison Square Garden personnel on site had to be vaccinated. New York State Athletic Commission personnel were required to wear masks but there was no requirement that they be vaccinated. Everyone in the technical zone at ringside wore masks. Virtually none of the spectators were masked. With close to five thousand people in attendance by evening’s end, it was a statistical certainty that some of the spectators were COVID-positive.

Gerry and I wore our masks throughout the night. Security was tight, and I missed being able to move around freely from area to area to schmooze with friends. But as the evening progressed, I was able to chat with Michael Buffer, Lou DiBella, Keith Idec, and others.

The first fighters – junior-middleweights Nikoloz Sekhniashvili and Guido Schramm – entered the ring at 4:00 PM. When the bell for round one sounded, there were two dozen spectators in the stands. Schramm won a unanimous decision. Then Robert Sabbagh decisioned an overweight, out-of-shape Cleveland Billingsly in a four-round heavyweight contest, and light-heavyweight prospect Matthew Tinker stopped sacrificial lamb Michael Rycraft in two rounds. There was little crowd response. Of course, there was little crowd.

Next up, flyweight Cristina Cruz won her pro debut against Indeya Smith. BoxRec.com credits Cruz with a 93-39 amateur record and three knockout victories in 132 fights. It was hardly a surprise that the bout went the distance.

The best fight of the evening – on paper and in the ring – came next: Eric Walker (20-3, 9 KOs) vs. Ivan Golub (19-1, 15 KOs) in a welterweight match-up. It was 5:30 PM when the bout began. Golub dropped Walker twice en route to a ten-round unanimous decision triumph. Then light-heavyweight Joe Ward decisioned Tory Williams.

At 7:00 PM, the Triller stream began with junior-welterweight Aaron Aponte knocking out Gerardo Gonzalez in the second stanza. The Theater was still two-thirds empty.

Then came the first co-featured fight of the evening, Chris Algieri (24-3, 9 KOs, 1 KO by) vs. Mikkel LesPierre (22-2-1, 10 KOs) at a 143-pound contract weight.

There was a time when Algieri was willing to go in tough. His career peaked in 2014 when he overcame two first-round knockdowns and a badly damaged eye to win a split decision over Ruslan Provodnikov and claim the WBO 140-pound title. But he lost by decision in his next outing when he was knocked down six times by Manny Pacquiao. Defeats at the hands of Amir Khan and Errol Spence followed. Since then, Algieri has sought out less threatening opposition. LesPierre met that criteria.

Early in the fight, it became clear that the bout was likely to go ten dreary rounds. And it did. Neither guy is a puncher. But Algieri was stronger physically, and LesPierre fought like he was just mailing it in. The final scorecards read 100-90, 100-90, 99-91 in Chris’s favor.

Now the arena was filling up. But these were hip-hop fans, not fight fans. In essence, the fights were an opening act for the rap artists to follow

Michael Buffer took over ring announcing duties from Mark Fratto for the main event – Michael Hunter vs. Mike “White Delight” Wilson in what was styled as a ten-round WBA title-elimination bout. For the first time in memory, Buffer’s classic intonation of “Let’s get ready to rumble” failed to elicit a roaring Pavlovian response. This wasn’t a boxing audience.

Hunter (19-1-1, 13 KOs heading in) is a credible heavyweight. But he has fallen short each time he stepped up the level of competition, losing as a cruiserweight to Oleksandr Usyk and fighting to a draw in the heavyweight ranks against Alexander Povetkin.

Wilson, despite his 21-1 (10 KOs) record, was a safe opponent. His most credible credential was that he’d gone the distance, losing eleven of twelve rounds against Denis Lebedev three years ago. One could make the case that he’d never even beaten a good club fighter. He weighed in for Hunter at 224 pounds, 26 pounds more than for his most recent fight.

Wilson came to fight but didn’t know how. He’s tough. But at a certain level, that’s not nearly enough. In round four, with “White Delight” reeling like a heavy bag getting hit by a precision puncher, Hunter ended matters with a straight righthand up top.

At 8:30 PM, a Madison Square Garden maintenance crew began breaking down the ring and setting up a stage for the music to follow. On July 1, hip-hop fans had been told that N.O.R.E. and Beanie Sigel would square off in the August 3 TrillerVerz Rap Battle. But on July 14, that was changed to The Lox vs. Dipset.

If Little Richard vs. Fats Domino had been on the bill, I would have hung around. But their voices were stilled a long time ago, so I put away my pad and pen and went home.

Earlier in the evening, tickets for the event had been scalped on the streets outside the Garden and there were reports that some would-be spectators had tried to storm one of the entrances to the arena. As I was leaving The Hulu Theater, a security guard stopped me and said, “You might want to take off your [press] credential so someone outside doesn’t rip it off your neck.”

Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His next book – Broken Dreams: Another Year Inside Boxing – will be published by the University of Arkansas Press this autumn. 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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Thomas Hauser

Thomas Hauser is the author of 52 books. In 2005, he was honored by the Boxing Writers Association of America, which bestowed the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism upon him. He was the first Internet writer ever to receive that award. In 2019, Hauser was chosen for boxing's highest honor: induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Lennox Lewis has observed, “A hundred years from now, if people want to learn about boxing in this era, they’ll read Thomas Hauser.”

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Ringside at the Fontainebleau where Mikaela Mayer Won her Rematch with Sandy Ryan

Published

2 days ago

March 30, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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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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William Zepeda Edges Past Tevin Farmer in Cancun; Improves to 34-0

Published

2 days ago

March 29, 2025

David A. Avila

William Zepeda Edges Past Tevin Farmer in Cancun; Improves to 34-0

No surprise, once again William Zepeda eked out a win over the clever and resilient Tevin Farmer to remain undefeated and retain a regional lightweight title on Saturday.

There were no knockdowns in this rematch.

The Mexican punching machine Zepeda (33-0, 17 KOs) once more sought to overwhelm Farmer (33-8-1, 9 KOs) with a deluge of blows. This rematch by Golden Boy Promotions took place in the famous beach resort area of Cancun, Mexico.

It was a mere four months ago that both first clashed in Saudi Arabia with their vastly difference styles. This time the tropical setting served as the background which suited Zepeda and his lawnmower assaults. The Mexican fans were pleased.

Nothing changed in their second meeting.

Zepeda revved up the body assault and Farmer moved around casually to his right while fending off the Mexican fighter’s attacks. By the fourth round Zepeda was able to cut off Farmer’s escape routes and targeted the body with punishing shots.

The blows came in bunches.

In the fifth round Zepeda blasted away at Farmer who looked frantic for an escape. The body assault continued with the Mexican fighter pouring it on and Farmer seeming to look ready to quit. When the round ended, he waved off his corner’s appeals to stop.

Zepeda continued to dominate the next few rounds and then Farmer began rallying. At first, he cleverly smothered Zepeda’s body attacks and then began moving and hitting sporadically. It forced the Mexican fighter to pause and figure out the strategy.

Farmer, a Philadelphia fighter, showed resiliency especially when it was revealed he had suffered a hand injury.

During the last three rounds Farmer dug down deep and found ways to score and not get hit. It was Boxing 101 and the Philly fighter made it work.

But too many rounds had been put in the bank by Zepeda. Despite the late rally by Farmer one judge saw it 114-114, but two others scored it 116-112 and 115-113 for Zepeda who retains his interim lightweight title and place at the top of the WBC rankings.

“I knew he was a difficult fighter. This time he was even more difficult,” said Zepeda.

Farmer was downtrodden about another loss but realistic about the outcome and starting slow.

“But I dominated the last rounds,” said Farmer.

Zepeda shrugged at the similar outcome as their first encounter.

“I’m glad we both put on a great show,” said Zepeda.

Female Flyweight Battle

Costa Rica’s Yokasta Valle edged past Texas fighter Marlen Esparza to win their showdown at flyweight by split decision after 10 rounds.

Valle moved up two weight divisions to meet Esparza who was slightly above the weight limit. Both showed off their contrasting styles and world class talent.

Esparza, a former unified flyweight world titlist, stayed in the pocket and was largely successful with well-placed jabs and left hooks. She repeatedly caught Valle in-between her flurries.

The current minimumweight world titlist changed tactics and found more success in the second half of the fight. She forced Esparza to make the first moves and that forced changes that benefited her style.

Neither fighter could take over the fight.

After 10 rounds one judge saw Esparza the winner 96-94, but two others saw Valle the winner 97-93 twice.

Will Valle move up and challenge the current undisputed flyweight world champion Gabriela Fundora? That’s the question.

Valle currently holds the WBC minimumweight world title.

Puerto Rico vs Mexico

Oscar Collazo (12-0, 9 KOs), the WBO, WBA minimumweight titlist, knocked out Mexico’s Edwin Cano (13-3-1, 4 KOs) with a flurry of body shots at 1:12 of the fifth round.

Collazo dominated with a relentless body attack the Mexican fighter could not defend. It was the Puerto Rican fighter’s fifth consecutive title defense.

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 319: Rematches in Las Vegas, Cancun and More

Published

4 days ago

March 28, 2025

David A. Avila

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Rematches are the bedrock for prizefighting.

Return battles between rival boxers always means their first encounter was riveting and successful at the box office.

Six months after their first brutal battle Mikaela Mayer (20-2, 5 KOs) and Sandy Ryan (7-2-1, 3 KOs) will slug it out again for the WBO welterweight world title this time on Saturday, March 29, at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas.

ESPN will show the Top Rank card live.

“It’s important for women’s boxing to have these rivalries and this is definitely up there as one of the top ones,” Mayer told the BBC.

If you follow Mayer’s career you know that somehow drama follows. Whether its back-and-forth beefs with fellow American fighters or controversial judging due to nationalism in countries abroad. The Southern California native who now trains in Las Vegas knows how to create the drama.

For female fighters self-promotion is a necessity.

Most boxing promoters refuse to step out of the usual process set for male boxers, not for female boxers. Things remain the same and have been for the last 70 years. Social media has brought changes but that has made promoters do even less.

No longer are there press conferences, instead announcements are made on social media to be drowned among the billions of other posts. It is not killing but diluting interest in the sport.

Women innately present a different advantage that few if any promoters are recognizing. So far in the past 25 years I have only seen two or three promoters actually ignite interest in female fighters. They saw the advantages and properly boosted interest in the women.

The fight breakdown

Mayer has won world titles in the super featherweight and now the welterweight division. Those are two vastly different weight classes and prove her fighting abilities are based on skill not power or size.

Coaching Mayer since amateurs remains Al Mitchell and now Kofi Jantuah who replaced Kay Koroma the current trainer for Sandy Ryan.

That was the reason drama ignited during their first battle. Then came someone tossing paint at Ryan the day of their first fight.

More drama.

During their first fight both battled to control the initiative with Mayer out-punching the British fighter by a slender margin. It was a back-and-forth struggle with each absorbing blows and retaliating immediately.

New York City got its money’s worth.

Ryan had risen to the elite level rapidly since losing to Erica Farias three years ago. Though she was physically bigger and younger, she was out-maneuvered and defeated by the wily veteran from Argentina. In the rematch, however, Ryan made adjustments and won convincingly.

Can she make adjustments from her defeat to Mayer?

“I wanted the rematch straight away,” said Ryan on social media. “I’ve come to America again.”

Both fighters have size and reach. In their first clash it was evident that conditioning was not a concern as blows were fired nonstop in bunches. Mayer had the number of punches landed advantage and it unfolded with the judges giving her a majority decision win.

That was six months ago. Can she repeat the outcome?

Mayer has always had boiler-oven intensity. It’s not fake. Since her amateur days the slender Southern California blonde changes disposition all the way to red when lacing up the gloves. It’s something that can’t be taught.

Can she draw enough of that fire out again?

“I didn’t have to give her this rematch. I could have just sat it out, waited for Lauren Price to unify and fought for undisputed or faced someone else,” said Mayer to BBC. “That’s not the fighter I am though.”

Co-Main in Las Vegas

The co-main event pits Brian Norman Jr. (26-0, 20 KOs) facing Puerto Rico’s Derrieck Cuevas (27-1-1, 19 KOs) in a contest for the WBO welterweight title.

Norman, 24, was last seen a year ago dissecting a very good welterweight in Giovani Santillan for a knockout win in San Diego. He showed speed, skill and power in defeating Santillan in his hometown.

Cuevas has beaten some solid veteran talent but this will be his big test against Norman and his first attempt at winning a world title.

Also on the Top Rank card will be Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington and Emiliano Vargas, the son of Fernando Vargas, in separate bouts.

Golden Boy in Cancun

A rematch between undefeated William “Camaron” Zepeda (32-0, 27 KOs) and ex-champ Tevin Farmer (33-7-1, 8 KOs) headlines the lightweight match on Saturday March 29, at Cancun, Mexico.

In their first encounter Zepeda was knocked down in the fourth round but rallied to win a split-decision over Farmer. It showed the flaws in Zepeda’s tornado style.

DAZN will stream the Golden Boy Promotions card that also includes a clash between Yokasta Valle the WBC minimumweight world titlist who is moving up to flyweight to face former flyweight champion Marlen Esparza.

Both Valle and Esparza have fast hands.

Valle is excellent darting in and out while Esparza has learned how to fight inside. It’s a toss-up fight.

Fights to Watch

Fri. DAZN 12 p.m. Cameron Vuong (7-0) vs Jordan Flynn (11-0-1); Pat Brown (0-0) vs Federico Grandone (7-4-2).

Sat. DAZN 5 p.m. William Zepeda (32-0) vs Tevin Farmer (33-7-1); Yokasta Valle (32-3) vs Marlen Esparza (15-2).

Sat. ESPN 7 p.m. Mikaela Mayer (20-2) vs Sandy Ryan (7-2-1); Brian Norman Jr. (26-0) vs Derrieck Cuevas (27-1-1).

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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