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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, “Itâs 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.â
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 â Broken Dreams: Another Year Inside Boxing â 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 Hauserâs Literary Notes: Johnny Greaves Tells a Sad Tale

Johnny Greaves was a professional loser. He had one hundred professional fights between 2007 and 2013, lost 96 of them, scored one knockout, and was stopped short of the distance twelve times. There was no subtlety in how his role was explained to him: âLook, Johnny; professional boxing works two ways. Youâre either a ticket-seller and make money for the promoter, in which case you get to win fights. If you donât sell tickets but can look after yourself a bit, you become an opponent and you fight to lose.â
By losing, he could make upwards of one thousand pounds for a nightâs work.
Greaves grew up with an alcoholic father who beat his children and wife. Johnny learned how to survive the beatings, which is what his career as a fighter would become. He was a scared, angry, often violent child who was expelled from school and found solace in alcohol and drugs.
The fighters Greaves lost to in the pros ran the gamut from inept local favorites to future champions Liam Walsh, Anthony Crolla, Lee Selby, Gavin Rees, and Jack Catterall. Alcohol and drugs remained constants in his life. He fought after drinking, smoking weed, and snorting cocaine on the night before – and sometimes on the day of – a fight. On multiple occasions, he came close to committing suicide. His goal in boxing ultimately became to have one hundred professional fights.
On rare occasions, two professional losers â âjourneymen,â theyâre called in The UK – are matched against each other. That was how Greaves got three of the four wins on his ledger. On September 29, 2013, he fought the one hundredth and final fight of his career against Dan Carr in Londonâs famed York Hall. Carr had a 2-42-2 ring record and would finish his career with three wins in ninety outings. Greaves-Carr was a fight that Johnny could win. He emerged triumphant on a four-round decision.
The Johnny Greaves Story, told by Greaves with the help of Adam Darke (Pitch Publishing) tells the whole sordid tale. Some of Greavesâs thoughts follow:
*Â Â Â Â Â Â Â âWe all knew why we were there, and it wasnât to win. The home fighters were the guys who had sold all the tickets and were deemed to have some talent. We were the scum. We knew our role. Give some young prospect a bit of a workout, keep out of the way of any big shots, lose on points but take home a wedge of cash, and fight again next week.â
*Â Â Â Â Â Â Â âIf you fought too hard and won, then you wouldnât get booked for any more shows. If you swung for the trees and got cut or knocked out, then you couldnât fight for another 28 days. So what were you supposed to do? The answer was to LOOK like you were trying to win but be clever in the process. Slip and move, feint, throw little shots that were rangefinders, hold on, waste time. There was an art to this game, and I was quickly learning what a cynical business it was.â
*Â Â Â Â Â Â Â âThe unknown for the journeyman was always how good your opponent might be. He could be a future world champion. Or he might be some hyped-up nightclub bouncer with a big following who was making lots of money for the promoter.â
*Â Â Â Â Â Â Â âNo matter how well I fought, I wasnât going to be getting any decisions. These fights werenât scored fairly. The referees and judges understood who the paymasters were and they played the game. What was the point of having a go and being the best version of you if nobody was going to recognize or reward it?â
*Â Â Â Â Â Â Â âWhen I first stepped into the professional arena, I believed I was tough. believed that nobody could stop me. But fight by fight, those ideas were being challenged and broken down. Once you know that you can be hurt, dropped and knocked out, youâre never quite the same fighter.â
*Â Â Â Â Â Â Â âI had started off with a dream, an idea of what boxing was and what it would do for me. It was going to be a place where I could prove my toughness. A place that I could escape to and be someone else for a while. For a while, boxing was that place. But it wore me down to the point that I stopped caring. Iâd grown sick and tired of it all. I wished that I could feel pride at what Iâd achieved. But most of the time, I just felt like a loser.â
*Â Â Â Â Â Â Â âThe fights were getting much more difficult, the damage to my body and my psyche taking longer and longer to repair after each defeat. I was putting myself in more and more danger with each passing fight. I was getting hurt more often and stopped more regularly. Even with the 28-day [suspensions], I didnât have time to heal. I was staggering from one fight to the next and picking up more injuries along the way.â
*Â Â Â Â Â Â Â âI was losing my toughness and resilience. When thatâs all youâve ever had, itâs a hard thing to accept. Drink and drugs had always been present in my life. But now they became a regular part of my pre-fight preparation. It helped to shut out the fear and quieted the thoughts and worries that I shouldnât be doing this anymore.â
*Â Â Â Â Â Â Â âMy body was broken. My hands were constantly sore with blisters and cuts. I had early arthritis in my hip and my teeth were a mess. I looked an absolute state and inside I felt worse. But I couldnât stop fighting yet. Not before the 100.â
*Â Â Â Â Â Â Â âI had abused myself time after time and stood in front of better men, taking a beating when I could have been sensible and covered up. At the start, I was rarely dropped or stopped. Now it was becoming a regular part of the game. Most of the guys I was facing were a lot better than me. This was mainly about survival.â
*Â Â Â Â Â Â Â âWas my brain f***ed from taking too many punches? I knew it was, to be honest. I could feel my speech changing and memory going. I was mentally unwell and shouldnât have been fighting but the promoters didnât care. Johnny Greaves was still a good booking. Maybe an even better one now that he might get knocked out.â
*Â Â Â Â Â Â Â âNobody gave a f*** about me and whether I lived or died. I didnât care about that much either. But the thought of being humiliated, knocked out in front of all those people; that was worse than the thought of dying. The idea of being exposed for what I was â a nobody.â
*Â Â Â Â Â Â Â âI was a miserable bastard in real life. A depressive downbeat mouthy little f***er. Everything Iâve done has been to mask the feeling that Iâm worthless. That I have no value. The drinks and the drugs just helped me to forget that for a while. I still frighten myself a lot. My thoughts scare me. Do I really want to be here for the next thirty or forty years? I donât know. If suicide wasnât so impactful on people around you, I would have taken that leap. I donât enjoy life and never have.â
So . . . Any questions?
****
Steve Albert was Showtime’s blow-by-blow commentator for two decades. But his reach extended far beyond boxing.
Albert’s sojourn through professional sports began in high school when he was a ball boy for the New York Knicks. Over the years, he was behind the microphone for more than a dozen teams in eleven leagues including four NBA franchises.
Putting the length of that trajectory in perspective . . . As a ballboy, Steve handed bottles of water and towels to a Knicks back-up forward named Phil Jackson. Later, they worked together as commentators for the New Jersey Nets. Then Steve provided the soundtrack for some of Jackson’s triumphs when he won eleven NBA championships as head coach of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers.
It’s also a matter of record that Steve’s oldest brother, Marv, was arguably the greatest play-by-play announcer in NBA history. And brother Al enjoyed a successful career behind the microphone after playing professional hockey.
Now Steve has written a memoir titled A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Broadcast Booth. Those who know him know that Steve doesn’t like to say bad things about people. And he doesn’t here. Nor does he delve into the inner workings of sports media or the sports dream machine. The book is largely a collection of lighthearted personal recollections, although there are times when the gravity of boxing forces reflection.
“Fighters were unlike any other professional athletes I had ever encountered,” Albert writes. “Many were products of incomprehensible backgrounds, fiercely tough neighborhoods, ghettos and, in some cases, jungles. Some got into the sport because they were bullied as children. For others, boxing was a means of survival. In many cases, it was an escape from a way of life that most people couldn’t even fathom.”
At one point, Steve recounts a ringside ritual that he followed when he was behind the microphone for Showtime Boxing: “I would precisely line up my trio of beverages – coffee, water, soda – on the far edge of the table closest to the ring apron. Perhaps the best advice I ever received from Ferdie [broadcast partner Ferdie Pacheco] was early on in my blow-by-blow career – ‘Always cover your coffee at ringside with an index card unless you like your coffee with cream, sugar, and blood.’â
Writing about the prelude to the infamous Holyfield-Tyson “bite fight,” Albert recalls, “I remember thinking that Tyson was going to do something unusual that night. I had this sinking feeling in my gut that he was going to pull something exceedingly out of the ordinary. His grousing about Holyfield’s head butts in the first fight added to my concern. [But] nobody could have foreseen what actually happened. Had I opened that broadcast with, ‘Folks, tonight I predict that Mike Tyson will bite off a chunk of Evander Holyfield’s ear,’ some fellas in white coats might have approached me and said, ‘Uh, Steve, could you come with us.'”
And then there’s my favorite line in the book: “I once asked a fighter if he was happily married,â Albert recounts. âHe said, ‘Yes, but my wife’s not.'”
“All I ever wanted was to be a sportscaster,” Albert says in closing. “I didn’t always get it right, but I tried to do my job with honesty and integrity. For forty-five years, calling games was my life. I think it all worked out.”
 Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His next book â The Most Honest Sport: Two More Years Inside Boxing â will be published this month and is available for preorder at:
https://www.amazon.com/Most-Honest-Sport-Inside-Boxing/dp/1955836329
         In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
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Argentinaâs Fernando Martinez Wins His Rematch with Kazuto Ioka

In an excellent fight climaxed by a furious 12th round, Argentinaâs Fernando Daniel Martinez came off the deck to win his rematch with Kazuto Ioka and retain his piece of the world 115-pound title. The match was staged at Iokaâs familiar stomping grounds, the Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo.
In their first meeting on July 7 of last year in Tokyo, Martinez was returned the winner on scores of 117-111, 116-112, and a bizarre 120-108. The rematch was slated for late December, but Martinez took ill a few hours before the weigh-in and the bout was postponed.
The 33-year-old Martinez, who came in sporting a 17-0 (9) record, was a 7-2 favorite to win the sequel, but there were plenty of reasons to favor Ioka, 36, aside from his home field advantage. The first Japanese male fighter to win world titles in four weight classes, Ioka was 3-0 in rematches and his long-time trainer Ismael Salas was on a nice roll. Salas was 2-0 last weekend in Times Square, having handled upset-maker Rolly Romero and Reito Tsutsumi who was making his pro debut.
But the fourth time was not a charm for Ioka (31-4-1) who seemingly pulled the fight out of the fire in round 10 when he pitched the Argentine to the canvas with a pair of left hooks, but then wasnât able to capitalize on the momentum swing.
Martinez set a fast pace and had Ioka fighting off his back foot for much of the fight. Beginning in round seven, Martinez looked fatigued, but the Argentine was conserving his energy for the championship rounds. In the end, he won the bout on all three cards: 114-113, 116-112, 117-110.
Up next for Fernando Martinez may be a date with fellow unbeaten Jesse âBamâ Rodriguez, the lineal champion at 115. San Antonioâs Rodriguez is a huge favorite to keep his title when he defends against South Africaâs obscure Phumelela Cafu on July 19 in Frisco, Texas.
As for Ioka, had he won todayâs rematch, that may have gotten him over the hump in so far as making it into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. True, winning titles in four weight classes is no great shakes when the bookends are only 10 pounds apart, but Ioka is still a worthy candidate.
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Emanuel Navarrete Survives a Bloody Battle with Charly Suarez in San Diego

In a torrid battle Mexicoâs Emanuel âVaqueroâ Navarrete and his staccato attack staved off the herky-jerky non-stop assaults of Philippineâs Charly Suarez to win by technical decision and retain the WBO super feather world title on Saturday.
What do they feed these guys?
Navarrete (40-2-1, 32 KOs) and his elongated arms managed to connect enough to compensate against the surprising Suarez (18-1, 10 KOs) who wowed the crowd at Pechanga Arena in San Diego.
An accidental clash of heads opened a cut on the side of Navarreteâs left eye and forced a stoppage midway through the fight.
From the opening round Navarrete used his windmill style of attack with punches from different angles that caught Suarez multiple times early. It did not matter. Suarez fired back with impunity and was just as hungry to punch it out with the Mexican fighter.
It was savage.
Every time Navarrete connected solidly, he seemed to pause and check out the damage. Bad idea. Suarez would immediately counter with bombs of his own and surprise the champion with his resilience and tenacity.
Wherever they found Suarez they should look for more, because the Filipino fighter from Manila was ferocious and never out of his depth.
Around the sixth round the Mexican fighter seemed a little drained and puzzled at the tireless attacks coming from Suarez. During an exchange of blows a cut opened up on Navarrete and it was ruled an accidental clash of heads by the referee. Blood streamed down the side of Navarreteâs face and it was cleared by the ringside physician.
But at the opening of the eighth round, the fight was stopped and the ringside physician ruled the cut was too bad to continue. The California State Athletic Commission looked at tape of the round when the cut opened to decipher if it was an accidental butt or a punch that caused the cut. It was unclear so the refereeâs call of accidental clash of heads stood as the final ruling.
Score cards from the judges saw Navarrete the winner by scores of 78-75, 77-76 twice. He retains the WBO title.
Interim IBF Lightweight Title
The sharp-shooting Raymond âDangerâ Muratalla (23-0, 17 KOs) maneuvered past Russiaâs Zaur Abdullaev (20-2, 12 KOs) by unanimous decision to win the interim IBF lightweight title after 12 rounds.
Both fighters were strategic in their approach with Muratalla switching from orthodox to southpaw at various times of the fight. Neither fighter was ever able to dominant any round.
Defense proved the difference between the two lightweights. Muratalla was able to slip more blows than Abdullaev and that proved the difference. The fighter from Fontana, California was able to pierce Abdullaevâs guard more often than not, especially with counter punches.
Abdullaev was never out of the fight. The Russian fighter was able to change tactics and counter the counters midway through the fight. It proved effective especially to the body. But it was not enough to offset Muratallaâs accuracy.
There were no knockdowns and after 12 rounds the judges scored it 118-110, 119-109 twice for Muratalla who now becomes the mandatory for the IBF lightweight title should Vasyl Lomachenko return to defend it.
Muratalla was brief.
âHe was a tough fighter,â said Muratalla. âMy defense is something I work on a lot.â
Perla Wins
Super flyweight Perla Bazaldua (2-0) eased past Mona Ward (0-2) with a polished display of fighting at length and inside.
Combination punching and defense allowed Bazaldua to punch in-between Wardâs attacks and force the St. Louis fighter to clinch repeatedly. But Ward hung in there despite taking a lot of blows. After four rounds the Los Angeles-based Bazaldua was scored the winner 40-36 on all three cards. Bazaldua signed a long term contract with Top Rank in March.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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