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The Hauser Report: The Script for Lamar Odom vs. Aaron Carter

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The Hauser Report: The Script for Lamar Odom vs. Aaron Carter

The sweet science is being inundated by a wave of what one might call “trash boxing.” YouTube personalities, social media influencers, and long-past-their-prime ring greats are capitalizing on the confusion created by hundreds of “championship” belts and the void resulting from the failure of the boxing establishment to make entertaining match-ups with the best fighting the best.

There have always been circus-like sideshows in boxing. In the 1800s, John L. Sullivan fought all comers in tours around the country. Muhammad Ali squared off against Antonio Inoki and Lyle Alzado, while Chuck Wepner faced Andre the Giant. Mark Gastineau, Jose Canseco and others tried – or pretended to try – their hand at ring combat. The difference now is that the sideshows are becoming boxing’s main event. Trash boxing is how the sport is being portrayed to the general public with paydays ranging from minimal to millions of dollars.

On June 11, 2021, former NBA basketball player Lamar Odom squared off against rapper Aaron Carter in the main event of an Official Celebrity Boxing card at the Showboat Hotel in Atlantic City. The event was available on pay-per-view through FITE for $29.99. Bovada (an online sports betting site) listed Odom as a -400 favorite. The odds on Carter were +250.

The event was marketed to the public as a legitimate fight. Prior to it, Odom told TMZ, “I’m prepared. I don’t know who he’s sparring against, but I know my gym is full of guys that can fight and I’ve been sparring with and I have a really good trainer. He’s been talking sh**, but I’m gonna put him to sleep early. I asked his girlfriend yesterday, ‘Which round do you want to wake him up in.'”

Retired UFC star Chuck Liddell, who served as the referee, told TMZ, “I just wanna see how Odom is gonna fight Aaron. I’ll let them fight to some extent. Obviously, it’s a celebrity fight. I’m not gonna let him get too hurt. I’ll protect either one from either of them no matter who’s getting hurt. We don’t want them to get hurt, but you gotta let them fight. People are paying to watch you fight. You’re getting paid to fight. You wanna make some money, you gotta fight.”

But that was hype. In reality, the fight took place pursuant to a script that was submitted in advance to the New Jersey State Board of Athletic Control. In other words – despite the existence of a betting line and the manner in which the event was marketed to the public – the fight was “fixed.”

Odom-Carter was promoted by Damon Feldman, a former Philadelphia fighter who crafted a 9-and-0 record in a four-year career that ended in 1992. His first eight opponents had a composite ledger of 8 wins against 50 losses. His last opponent had lost 10 of 12 previous fights. Give Feldman credit for knowing what it means to be in a boxing ring.

In 2011, as reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer on March 8, 2011, Feldman was sentenced to two years probation after pleading no contest to charges that he had fixed fights and promoted fights without a license in Pennsylvania.

More trouble followed. According to an April 29, 2020, article by Jack McCaffery of 21st-Century Media, Feldman was incarcerated for thirteen months ending in December of 2017 after a plea deal tied to charges of domestic violence that had been lodged against him. As recounted in a May 22, 2018, article in Philadelphia Magazine, the charges stemmed from an incident that occurred at the home of a woman who Feldman had previously been romantically involved with. The woman, who was bleeding profusely, told police that he had punched her several times in the face. Feldman told police that there had been a physical altercation between them and that the woman was injured when he threw her off of his back, causing her to fall down the stairs. The physical evidence was inconsistent with Feldman’s statement.

Feldman promoted his first “celebrity boxing” event in 2008. Over the years, his promotions have featured the likes of Tonya Harding, Paula Jones, and Joey Buttafuoco. “My dream,” he has said, “is to do a fight with Sylvester Stallone. If I could make money promoting regular fights, I would. But I can’t, so I’m doing this.”

That brings us to the June 11 encounter between Lamar Odom and Aaron Carter.

Odom is 6-feet-10-inches tall. He played in the NBA for fourteen seasons, seven of them with the Los Angeles Lakers. From 2009 to 2016, he was married to Khloe Kardashian.

In October 2015, Odom was found unconscious in a Nevada brothel after ingesting a combination of cocaine, alcohol, and other drugs. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, he suffered six heart attacks and twelve strokes. He’s now 41 years old.

Carter, a 33-year-old rapper whose music career has been in decline in recent years, has struggled publicly with substance abuse and other issues.

Odom-Clark was scheduled for three ninety-second rounds with headgear. Paulie Malignaggi, Ice-T, and Coco provided the pay-per-view commentary. Multiple websites – many of them respected boxing and MMA outlets – reported on the encounter as though it was a real fight.

Sam Quinn of CBS Sports.com wrote, “On Friday night, we saw one of the most anticipated celebrity boxing matches of the year. On paper, the fight looked like a mismatch. The 6-0 Carter is almost a foot shorter than Odom, and the difference in their weight and reach is similar. Odom has physical gifts that the rest of us simply don’t and he showed it in knocking Carter out.”

Mark Lelinwalla of DAZN News reported, “Despite giving up 10 inches in height, 64.5 pounds, and 11 inches in reach to Odom, Carter enjoyed early success with a barrage of lefts and rights that connected to his taller, larger opponent’s head in the opening round. However, Odom got his bearings, went to the outside, and placed a right jab-left hook combination which dropped Carter. The pop star of the 90s didn’t have his legs under him and wisely held on to survive the round. But he wouldn’t make it against Odom much longer. The second round had Odom spinning Carter around and around before delivering several unanswered lefts to drop the singer once again. Special guest referee Chuck Liddell began counting, as Carter indicated that he was no longer fit to continue.”

Nick Selbe of Sports Illustrated recounted, “The stoppage occurred in the second of the fight’s three, 90-second rounds, as Carter failed to put up much defense against Odom’s flurry of punches.”

One might ask, “Where was the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board in all of this?” After all, the NJSACB is charged with regulating combat sports in New Jersey. And as earlier noted, Odom-Carter was marketed to the public as a legitimate boxing match. Odds on the outcome were posted on gambling sites such as Bovada. Normally, this would place the event within the purview of the NJSACB.

The answer is that the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board didn’t have jurisdiction over the event because it wasn’t a “real” fight. It was scripted entertainment.

Celebrity Boxing (Feldman’s promotional company) represented to the NJSACB that Odom-Clark was “scripted,” not a combat sports competition. Thus, it was no more subject to regulation by the NJSACB than professional wrestling.

Further to that point, in advance of the event, the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board asked Celebrity Boxing to send it a copy of the script. On May 23, the promotion emailed the script to Deputy Attorney General Nick Lembo (who oversees legal matters for the NJSACB). Once the script was received, NJSACB commissioner Larry Hazzard was advised by the Attorney General’s office that he had no jurisdiction over the event.

In mid-June, this writer learned about the existence of the script. On June 30, pursuant to the New Jersey Open Public Records Act, I filed a request for documents from the Office of the Attorney General of the State of New Jersey. More specifically, I asked for “All documents relating to the June 11, 2021, boxing exhibition at the Showboat Hotel featuring Lamar Odom and Aaron Carter, including but not limited to any script for the main event.”

On July 2, my request for documents was denied in its entirety by the Custodian of Records for the Attorney General’s Office. Three grounds were listed for the denial:

(1) “The event referred to in your request was not subject to the regulatory purview of the State of New Jersey Athletic Control Board.”

However, the fact that the event was not subject to the regulatory purview of the NJSACB had no bearing on the existence of the documents.

(2) “Your request is overly broad and improper.”

I did not believe that to be the case. However, in response, I told the Custodian of Records that, for the time being, I would be satisfied with receiving “any script for the main event” pursuant to my request.

(3) “To the extent that any such script may exist, it would be the confidential and proprietary property of Celebrity Boxing.”

To support this claim, the Custodian of Records stated, “Celebrity Boxing Entertainment LLC (CBE), the organizer of the June 11, 2021, boxing exhibition, repeatedly marked information, documents, and correspondence to the SACB as confidential and proprietary business information [and] stated that the release of the requested information would cause irreparable harm to CBE, its shareholders, investors and participants.”

However, just because someone writes “confidential” and “proprietary” on a document and claims that the document is exempt from production doesn’t make it so. Also, since the scripted June 11 event had already occurred, there was no longer anything confidential about the script.

Following proper procedure, I asked the Custodian of Records to reconsider my request. Again, the request was denied. This time, the Custodian of Records abandoned her first two objections to production, restated her position that the documents were exempt from production because they contain confidential and proprietary information, and added a new excuse – that the documents “were obtained as part of SACB’s review of the event” and thus are exempt from release because they are “records concerning background investigations or evaluations for public employment, appointment to public office, or licensing, whether open, closed, or inactive.”

That was blatant nonsense. The “investigation” exemption under New Jersey law applies to instances where an individual has submitted an application for public employment, appointment to public office, or licensing by the State of New Jersey and an investigation of the applicant followed. There was no such application in this matter.

On July 21, I took things to the next level and filed a complaint with the New Jersey Government Records Council. In response, the Custodian of Records conceded that the script at issue exists and had been transmitted by email to Deputy Attorney General Nick Lembo on May 23, 2021. But the Custodian continues to claim that the script is exempt from production for the reasons stated above.

The Custodian has also refused to identify or produce relevant documents other than the script, claiming, “as Mr. Hauser failed to identify with specificity the records he sought, aside from requesting a copy of the script, it was not possible to determine the full universe of records that could be responsive.”

This is a ridiculous assertion. It’s impossible for me to “identify with specificity” the records sought because I don’t know with specificity what these records are. I do know that the universe of documents responsive to my request is small and easily reviewable. Indeed, in one of its responses, the Custodian states, “the organizer of the June 11, 2021, boxing exhibition repeatedly marked information, documents, and correspondence to the SACB as confidential and proprietary business information.” So obviously, the Custodian has already reviewed the documents.

That’s where things stand at the moment. My request for documents is still before the Government Records Council. Conceivably, the Custodian of Records will force the matter to full-blown litigation.

There are serious issues involved here. If Odom-Carter was in fact “scripted” (which now appears to be conceded, given the acknowledgment that there was a script), then the NJSACB was correct in not exercising jurisdiction over it. However, if Odom-Carter was scripted, it was marketed in misleading fashion to the public. Pursuant to this marketing, at least some consumers were deluded into paying money for on-site tickets and pay-per-view buys. And more troubling, legal gaming companies posted odds and took bets on a “fixed” match.

On the other hand, if the event was not “scripted,” then the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board should have exercised jurisdiction over it.

The New Jersey Open Public Records Act was enacted to protect the public through the free flow of information. Hiding the truth of this matter through a disingenuous response to a valid Open Public Records Act request is a disservice to the public and also a violation of the act. I’d like to think that the denial of my request was an inadvertent error by a well-intentioned public servant and not an act designed to cover up possible wrongdoing by a well-connected private entity.

Meanwhile, according to TMZ and the Celebrity Boxing website, Odom has signed a contract to fight 54-year-old, former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe in Florida on October 2. The bout is slated to be contested with 23-ounce gloves and will consist of three two-minute rounds. It’s not clear at the present time whether headgear will be worn.

Bowe hit rock bottom on February 25, 1998, when he kidnapped his estranged wife and their five children in a frightening irrational attempt to reunite his family. After lengthy pre-trail maneuvering, he pled guilty to criminal charges and was imprisoned for seventeen months. In conjunction with Bowe’s plea bargain and sentencing, his attorneys submitted evidence to the court stating that Riddick’s conduct resulted from brain damage sustained as a consequence of boxing. More specifically, Dr. Neil Blumberg interviewed Bowe at length, studied the results of an MRI and various cognitive tests, and testified that, as a consequence of multiple blows to the head, Bowe suffered from a brain impairment known as frontal lobe syndrome. Blumberg further testified that this condition was “not curable.”

One has to wonder how many of the other fights that boxing fans have seen in recent months have been scripted? One should also note that boxing is a dangerous game. Eventually, a YouTuber or old-timer will be seriously hurt. What then?

Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His next book – Broken Dreams: Another Year Inside Boxing – will be published this autumn University of Arkansas Press. In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism. In 2019, he was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

Check out more boxing news on video at the Boxing Channel

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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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Remembering the Macho Man, Hector Camacho, a Great Sporting Character

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Twelve years ago tomorrow, on Nov. 24, 2012, Hector Camacho was officially declared dead. He was effectively dead before then, having suffered a heart attack in the hospital after his spinal cord had been severed by a bullet, but his attendants at the hospital in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, waited until his mother had arrived from New York to remove him from life support.

At the age of 50, one of the most charismatic personalities in the sporting life of America was silenced forever.

Hector “Macho” Camacho, the Macho Man, was flamboyant – boy was he ever – but he was also a great talent. A three-time New York City Golden Gloves champion, reputedly 96-4 as an amateur, he was undefeated in 31 bouts at 135 pounds and below and went on to conquer some of the sport’s biggest names – Boom Boom Mancini, Vinny Pazienza, Roberto Duran (twice), Sugar Ray Leonard – before the sun set on his long career.

Camacho was born in Bayamon but grew up in Spanish Harlem where his mother moved when he was four. He was 21 years old and 21-0 as a junior lightweight when he was first profiled in Sports Illustrated, then the best medium for enhancing the marketability of a young athlete. At this juncture in his life, Hector, who became a father at age 17, was still living in a Spanish Harlem housing project, sharing an apartment with his 38-year-old mother, his stepfather, three siblings, a niece and a nephew.

By then he had already been expelled from six schools and was no stranger to the legal system, having spent 3 ½ months at New York’s notorious Rikers Island for — as Pat Putnam phrased it — borrowing other people’s automobiles without their permission.

The story in S.I. noted that Camacho’s reflexes were so quick that he could play two video games at once. Among his many physical attributes, it was his hand speed that attracted the most attention. When he ramped up his offense, his fists were a blur. But eventually, when folks thought of Camacho, what they remembered was his choirboy face with the spit curl in the middle of his forehead and his outrageous ring costumes which ran the gamut from a loincloth to a dress.

Hot-dogging came natural to Hector Camacho; it was embedded in his DNA. And in common with Muhammad Ali, he could be arrogant without coming across as arrogant. There was an impish quality to his bravado. He was fun to be around and, in his own words, could light up a room like a Christmas tree.

What Camacho lacked was any capacity for embarrassment.

Former WBA super bantamweight champion Clarence “Bones” Adams, who is now the proprietor of a Las Vegas gym that bears his name, became fast friends with the Macho Man when both trained in Las Vegas, the host city for their most lucrative fights. Mention Camacho’s name to Adams and a smile creases his face if he doesn’t burst out laughing.

“One day after Hector and I had gone jogging,” recollects Adams, “we drove over to the old White Cross Drugs [on the north Strip near the Stratosphere] to grab a bite to eat at their lunch counter. When we left and were standing outside by the car, Hector said, ‘Hold on a minute, I have to go pee.’ I said I’ll wait for you but then I noticed he was already peeing. Some cars honked as they passed by.

“Greg Hannely, my manager at the time, and I went to Detroit in 2000 to support Hector who was on the undercard of a show featuring Thomas Hearns. At the weigh-in, Hector wore a long shirt with nothing underneath it. This wasn’t apparent until he stepped off the scale and started doing jumping jacks.

“Hector,” continues Adams, “once had a Ferrari that he misplaced; he couldn’t remember where he parked it. He never did recover that car, but he wasn’t too bothered by it. His attitude was, ‘there’s always more where it came from.’” (Presumably this was the same Ferrari that Camacho was driving when he was ticketed for driving too slow with a suspended license on a Florida highway while being pleasured by a woman sitting astride him.)

Historians would compartmentalize Camacho’s career into two segments. Part One ended with his successful lightweight title defense against Edwin Rosario at Madison Square Garden on June 13, 1986.

Camacho kept his undefeated record intact, prevailing on a split decision, but ended the fight looking as if he had taken all the worst of it. Badly hurt in the fifth round and again in the 11th, he repaired to his dressing room with a swollen nose and two black eyes.

This fight, reads a story in a Canadian paper, “persuaded him to scale back his ultra-aggressive style in favor of a more cerebral, defensive approach.” That’s a diplomatic way of saying that Camacho devolved into a runner.

In his next fight, Camacho proved too clever for Cornelius Boza-Edwards, winning a unanimous decision, but the crowd didn’t like it when Hector spent the last two rounds on his bicycle and there were boos aplenty as the match wended to its conclusion. This would be the Macho Man’s final fight as a lightweight. He moved up to 140 where a slew of attractive match-ups awaited, notably a showdown with Julio Cesar Chavez.

Camacho and Chavez touched gloves in Las Vegas on Sept. 13, 1992, before an announced crowd of 19,100 at the UNLV basketball arena in what reportedly was the fastest sellout in Las Vegas boxing history up to that date. Chavez, widely seen as the top pound-for-pound fighter in the sport, advanced his record to 82-0 with a lopsided decision, winning all 12 rounds on the card of one of the judges. The Macho Man, who had avenged his lone defeat to Greg Haugen, declined to 41-2.

This wasn’t a milquetoast performance by Camacho. He simply couldn’t deal with Chavez’s unrelenting pressure. LA Times scribe Alan Malamud wrote that Hector showed unexpected grit by trading with Chavez after his legs were gone, thereby reducing him to a stationary target. But more brickbats came Camacho’s way following setbacks to Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. He lasted the distance in both bouts but was roundly out-pointed. By the third round of the De La Hoya fight, wrote Kevin Iole, it was a foregone conclusion that De La Hoya would win.

Between the Trinidad and De La Hoya fights, staged 44 months apart, Camacho had 21 fights and won them all. His victims were mostly journeyman with two notable exceptions. On June 22, 1996, he scored a 12-round unanimous decision over 45-year-old Roberto Duran. Eight months later, he defeated another faded legend when he stopped Sugar Ray Leonard in the fifth round. Leonard, who had been out of the ring for six years, was forever retiring and unretiring and Camacho retired him for good. Both bouts were in Atlantic City.

A wag wrote that Sugar Ray was 40 years old going on 41 and that Camacho was 35 years old going on puberty.

Camacho’s advisors kept him busy to keep his name in the news and Hector did his part by making the news for bad behavior outside the ring. In January of 2005, he was arrested for the November 2004 burglary of a computer store in Gulfport, Mississippi. He went there to retrieve a laptop that was being repaired but entered the property after hours by way of the ceiling. An illegal drug, ecstasy, was found in his hotel room when he was placed under arrest.

After serving five months in jail, Camacho was released with the understanding that he would be placed under house arrest for one year when he returned to Puerto Rico but, by all accounts, the authorities in Puerto Rico were never notified of this arrangement.

Camacho’s frequent misdeeds, once seen as the amusing antics of a fun-loving man-child, came to be seen in a different light as he grew older; as a pattern of behavior that betrayed a dark side in his personality.

In a 1985 conversation with New York Times boxing writer Michael Katz, Camacho’s estranged manager Billy Giles said, “someday he’ll wind up like Tyrone Everett, maybe worse,” the reference to a talented junior lightweight from Philadelphia who was murdered under sordid circumstances.

That proved to be eerily prophetic.

Camacho had 20 more fights after his hollow performance against Oscar De La Hoya, ending his career as a bloated middleweight. His only noteworthy opponent during this final phase of his boxing career was Duran who was then 50 years old when they clashed in Denver. In a bout that echoed their first meeting, Hector won a unanimous decision. This was Roberto Duran’s farewell fight. Camacho soldiered on for eight more bouts, winning five.

In November of 2012, thirty months after his last ring assignment, Hector Camacho and a companion were ambushed as they sat in a car in the darkened parking lot of a Bayamon, Puerto Rico bar. The companion died instantly in the hail of bullets. Police found nine packets of cocaine on the decedent and an open packet of cocaine in the car.

Camacho’’s funeral was held at Harlem’s landmark Saint Cecilia’s Church. Hundreds of mourners stood in the cold outside the church as his casket was being placed in the funeral car. They cheered and shouted Camacho’s battle cry, “Macho Time,” as the hearse pulled away.

They say you shouldn’t speak bad about the dead, so we will let Bones Adams have the last word. “Hector had his demons,” says Adams, “but he was a great friend, a nice, kind, and caring guy.”

Editor’s note: For more on Hector Camacho, check out Christian Giudice’s biography, “Macho Time: The Meteoric Rise and Tragic Fall of Hector Camacho,” published by Hamilcar in 2020.

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 304: A Year of Transformation in Boxing and More

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A subtle transformation in professional boxing is taking place with the biggest fights no longer placed in Las Vegas, New York or Los Angeles. Instead, they are heading to the Middle East.

Golden Boy Promotions joined the crowd last week with one of their stronger fight cards taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The main attractions were new unified cruiserweight champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez of Mexico along with Puerto Rico’s diminutive Oscar Collazo unifying the minimumweight division.

And there is more to come.

Matchroom Boxing seemed to lead the way in this rerouting of major boxing events. It goes as far back as December 2019 when Anthony Joshua fought Andy Ruiz in a rematch for the heavyweight championship in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.

Little by little major fights are being rerouted to Saudi Arabia.

Is it a good thing or not?

For promoters looking to cut costs it’s definitely welcomed. But what does it do for the fan base accustomed to saving their money to buy tickets for one or two major events?

Now there is talk of Shakur Stevenson, Devin Haney and Terence Crawford heading to the Middle East to fight on major cards sponsored by “Riyad Spring.” It’s a new avenue for the sport of pro boxing.

This past week Golden Boy and its roster of Latino fighters took its turn and showed off their brand of aggressive fights. Some like Collazo and Arnold Barboza made the best of their moments. And, of course, Zurdo proved he should have moved up in weight years ago. He could be the Comeback Fighter of the Year.

Benavidez vs Morrell

Interim light heavyweight champion David Benavidez accepted a challenge from WBA light heavyweight titlist David Morrell to meet on Feb. 1 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Bad blood between the two tall fighters already exists.

Morrell claims Benavidez is over-rated.

“I’m getting the knockout. 100%. He’s all talk and no bite. He can’t do what he thinks he’s gonna do,” said Morrell. “He has no idea what he’s talking about, but he’s provoking me and now I want to go out there and beat the crap out of him. I’m here now and none of that talk matters.”

Benavidez begs to differ.

“Here we are again. I told you that I was going to give you the fights you want to see, and now we’re here,” Benavidez said while in Los Angeles. “Morrell has been talking about me for a while and disrespecting me. He wanted to make it personal with me, so I’m personally going to break his mouth. That’ll give him something to remember me by.”

Also scheduled to fight on the fight card are Isaac Cruz, Stephen Fulton, Brandon Figueroa and Jesus Ramos Jr.

Netflix

No surprise for me with the massive success of the Jake Paul and Mike Tyson event on the Most Valuable Promotions boxing card last week.

According to Netflix there were 108 million people tuned into the event last Friday that also featured the incredible Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor rematch. Another exciting card was the men’s welterweight clash between Mario Barrios and Abel Ramos that ended in a draw.

If fans weren’t satisfied with the Paul fight, they certainly got their fulfillment with the world title fights, especially Serrano and Taylor who were estimated to be viewed by more than 72 million people. No female fight in history can touch those numbers.

So, what’s next for Netflix in terms of boxing?

West Coast Blues

Southern California is usually a hotbed for boxing events no matter what time of the year. But this year only a few boxing cards are taking place within a driving distance until the end of the year.

Las Vegas is in slumber and Southern California has a few smaller boxing cards still on schedule. Arizona has a significant Top Rank fight card in a few weeks as does Golden Boy Promotions in the Inland Empire.

Here are some upcoming fight events worth noting:

Dec. 5 – at OC Hangar in Costa Mesa, Calif. Vlad Panin vs Sal Briceno by SOCA Fights.

Dec. 7 – at Footprint Center in Phoenix, Rafael Espinoza vs Robeisy Ramirez and Oscar Valdez vs Emanuel Navarrete by Top Rank.

Dec. 13, at Chumash Casino 360 in Santa Ynez, Calif. Carlos Balderas vs Cesar Villarraga by 360 Promotions.

Dec. 14 at Toyota Arena in Ontario, Calif. Alexis Rocha vs Raul Curiel by Golden Boy Promotions.

Turkeys in East L.A.

The 25th annual Turkey Giveaway by Golden Boy takes place on Saturday Nov. 23, at Oscar De La Hoya Animo High School starting at 11 a.m.

It’s incredible that 25 years have passed since the inception of this yearly event. Many current and past fighters for the promotion company will be passing out turkeys and meeting fans. Among those expected to appear are Alexis Rocha, Victor Morales, Joel Iriarte, Bryan Lua and others.

Photo: Eddie Hearn, Frank Warren, and HE Turki Alalshikh at the Joshua-Dubois fight

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

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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 on the left).

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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