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Avila Perspective, Chap 152: Oscar and Oscar and More

Avila Perspective, Chap 152: Oscar and Oscar and More
There’s a saying in the entertainment business “the show must go on.” That seems to apply in boxing too.
Oscar is out. Evander is in.
A return by the Golden Boy to the boxing ring was canceled when Oscar De La Hoya announced he had contracted the coronavirus. Instead of canceling the Triller Fight Club program, it was moved from the Staples Center in Los Angeles to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino at Hollywood, Florida.
Evander Holyfield replaces De La Hoya in facing former MMA star Vitor Belfort in the main event. Other fights on the card pit MMA stars against each other in boxing gear. Former champions like Anderson Silva against Tito Ortiz will slug it out.
Florida will now be the host for this pay-per-view card on FITE.TV.
De La Hoya seemed fit and ready after spending months of training. He even hosted a small group of reporters at his Golden Boy Promotions headquarters in downtown Los Angeles. But within days he was felled by the virus and a subsequent test revealed he had the Covid-19 Delta variant though he had been vaccinated.
Ten days ago, I sat next to him as he explained his reasons for returning to the boxing ring after a 13-year absence. There were five of us reporters who shook his hand and spoke to the six-time division world champion and International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee.
“I’m a fighter,” said the East Los Angeles boss. “I miss getting hit.”
All of his reasons seemed to point to a return to boxing. Not a last-minute cancellation. Yesterday he reported he was released from the hospital. That was good news.
Maybe a return to the fight game was not meant to be for the Golden Boy. He paid his dues.
Most of my friends are unaware that for five years I did not always cover boxing. Instead, I was a metro reporter covering crime, politics and other hard news for the Los Angeles Times. In 1993 I was asked if I knew anything about boxing and East Los Angeles. Of course, I explained my former involvement in the sport and that I was raised in East L.A.
The first time I interviewed Oscar De La Hoya one-on-one he was training in a dojo in Big Bear for one of his early Las Vegas fights in the early 1990s. I forget the year. He was a huge star and skyrocketing to fame. Think Ryan Garcia times 10 and you get a semblance of his popularity and fame. In his fifth pro fight he defeated Jeff Mayweather, the uncle of Floyd Mayweather who had 22 wins and only two losses at the time. By the time he was 21 years old he was a world title-holder.
Everywhere De La Hoya appeared, a large crowd would immediately gather. I was living in Whittier when he bought a condo there. He would show up at a restaurant and throngs of people would surround the place. It was amazing how quickly the word would spread. Cell phones were still new to the general public.
I’ve covered all of his big fights except the Ike Quartey clash in February 1999. At the time I was in Miami, Florida so I watched it from a dog racetrack. The place was packed with Puerto Ricans who backed Felix Trinidad. They booed his victory but cheered when it was announced that De La Hoya would fight Tito. I attended that September 1999 fight in Las Vegas and sat next to actor Jack Nicholson.
Those were good times.
So, when he announced his retirement following the Manny Pacquiao fight in 2008, it seemed to be a perfect time. De La Hoya had accrued nearly a billion dollars. His Golden Boy Company was doing well and he was a mere 35 years old.
This past year some of the old warriors have ventured back to the prize ring to get paid or to simply feel and smell the fragrances of new boxing gloves. De La Hoya was one of them and looked eager and excited to return.
Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be.
Top Rank in Tucson
When Oscar Valdez tested positive for a banned substance by VADA it was universally assumed he was out of the picture for the main event on Friday. Sept. 10, against Robson Conceicao (16-0, 8 KOs) at Casino del Sol in Tucson, Arizona. But, “the show must go on” at the desert casino. ESPN+ will stream the Top Rank card.
Though Valdez did indeed intake a banned substance that is used as a diuretic, not an enhancement tool or drug, he was given a pass by the boxing powers. Because of that simple fact the WBC organization and the opponent Conceicao deemed that it was OK to proceed with the title fight.
Valdez (29-0, 23 KOs) returns to the ring after his most shocking knockout win over former king Miguel Berchelt last February. It was sensational and unexpected by many who thought the opposite was going to happen. One single left hook ended that fight.
Brazil’s Conceicao, a 2016 Rio Olympic gold medalist, will be challenging Valdez on his home turf. Though undefeated, he had a rough time against Luis Coria and was nearly defeated by the Southern California fighter. He wasn’t going to let this opportunity slip away and neither was Top Rank which invested time and money in the Olympian.
It’s a pretty good fight card too.
Co-headlining the fight will be WBO flyweight world titlist Junto Nakatani (21-0, 16 KOs) of Japan defending against Puerto Rico’s Angel Acosta (22-2, 21 KOs) a former light flyweight world titlist.
Nakatani has a four-fight knockout streak and Acosta a two-fight KO streak. It’s the Japanese fighter’s first match on American soil, but he has trained in Los Angeles. Don’t expect the judges to be needed for this one. Each has a rocket in his fists.
Others on the fight card include Lindolfo Delgado, Raymond Muratalla and Gabriel Flores Jr. from the Robert Garcia Boxing Academy in Riverside, Calif. Also, Puerto Rican knockout specialist Xander Zayas (9-0, 7 KOs) in a tough welterweight test against New Mexico’s Jose Luis Sanchez (11-1-1, 4 KOS) who settled for a draw after eight rounds in his last fight versus veteran Adrian Granados.
Miami Honors Yordenis Ugas
WBA welterweight world titlist Yordanis Ugas was given the key to the city by Miami’s Mayor Francis Suarez on Tuesday Sept. 7, in the office of the honorable mayor for not only successfully defending the title against eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao, but for his words bringing attention to the people of Cuba.
Ugas was a late replacement for Errol Spence Jr. who suffered a torn retina and was forced to surrender his challenge against Filipino boxing legend “Pacman” Pacquiao.
The former Cuban refugee holds one of the versions of the title; Spence has the other. It’s confusing.
Covid KOs TGB Las Vegas Fight Card
A super bantamweight clash between WBO titlist Stephen Fulton and WBA and WBC titlist Brandon Figueroa will have to wait because Figueroa tested positive for the coronavirus.
They were headlining a TGB Promotions card at the Park Theater at Park MGM in Las Vegas in a unification clash on Sept. 18. The pandemic continues and it has struck not only the boxing world, but many other sports as well.
Fulton had a prior match canceled a year ago when he tested positive for the Covid-19 virus.
TrillerVerz
WBC and WBO super middleweight titlist Franchon Crews-Dezurn (7-1) meets IBF and WBA titlist Elin Cederroos (8-0) for the undisputed world championship on Tuesday Sept. 14, at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
The co-main event pits Mexico’s Pablo Cano (33-7-1, 23 KOs) against Puerto Rico’s Danielito Zorrilla (15-0, 11 KOs) in a welterweight battle set for 10 rounds.
Fights to Watch
(All Times Pacific Coast Time)
Fri. ESPN+ 11:45 a.m. Tony Yoka (10-0) vs Petar Milas (15-0).
Fri. ESPN+ 2:30 p.m. Oscar Valdez (29-0) vs Robson Conceicao (16-0); Junto Nakatani (21-0) vs Angel Acosta (22-2).
Sat. FITE.TV pay-per-view 4 p.m. Evander Holyfield vs Vitor Belfort; Anderson Silva vs Tito Ortiz.
Tues. FITE.TV 3 p.m. Franchon Crews-Dezurn (7-1) vs Elin Cederroos (8-0); Pablo Cano (33-7-1) vs Danielito Zorrilla (15-0).
Check out more boxing news on video at the Boxing Channel
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Arne’s Almanac: The First BWAA Dinner Was Quite the Shindig

The first annual dinner of the Boxing Writers Association of America was staged on April 25, 1926 in the grand ballroom of New York’s Hotel Astor, an edifice that rivaled the original Waldorf Astoria as the swankiest hotel in the city. Back then, the organization was known as the Boxing Writers Association of Greater New York.
The ballroom was configured to hold 1200 for the banquet which was reportedly oversubscribed. Among those listed as agreeing to attend were the governors of six states (New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Maryland) and the mayors of 10 of America’s largest cities.
In 1926, radio was in its infancy and the digital age was decades away (and inconceivable). So, every journalist who regularly covered boxing was a newspaper and/or magazine writer, editor, or cartoonist. And at this juncture in American history, there were plenty of outlets for someone who wanted to pursue a career as a sportswriter and had the requisite skills to get hired.
The following papers were represented at the inaugural boxing writers’ dinner:
New York Times
New York News
New York World
New York Sun
New York Journal
New York Post
New York Mirror
New York Telegram
New York Graphic
New York Herald Tribune
Brooklyn Eagle
Brooklyn Times
Brooklyn Standard Union
Brooklyn Citizen
Bronx Home News
This isn’t a complete list because a few of these papers, notably the New York World and the New York Journal, had strong afternoon editions that functioned as independent papers. Plus, scribes from both big national wire services (Associated Press and UPI) attended the banquet and there were undoubtedly a smattering of scribes from papers in New Jersey and Connecticut.
Back then, the event’s organizer Nat Fleischer, sports editor of the New York Telegram and the driving force behind The Ring magazine, had little choice but to limit the journalistic component of the gathering to writers in the New York metropolitan area. There wasn’t a ballroom big enough to accommodate a good-sized response if he had extended the welcome to every boxing writer in North America.
The keynote speaker at the inaugural dinner was New York’s charismatic Jazz Age mayor James J. “Jimmy” Walker, architect of the transformative Walker Law of 1920 which ushered in a new era of boxing in the Empire State with a template that would guide reformers in many other jurisdictions.
Prizefighting was then associated with hooligans. In his speech, Mayor Walker promised to rid the sport of their ilk. “Boxing, as you know, is closest to my heart,” said hizzoner. “So I tell you the police force is behind you against those who would besmirch or injure boxing. Rowdyism doesn’t belong in this town or in your game.” (In 1945, Walker would be the recipient of the Edward J. Neil Memorial Award given for meritorious service to the sport. The oldest of the BWAA awards, the previous recipients were all active or former boxers. The award, no longer issued under that title, was named for an Associated Press sportswriter and war correspondent who died from shrapnel wounds covering the Spanish Civil War.)
Another speaker was well-traveled sportswriter Wilbur Wood, then affiliated with the Brooklyn Citizen. He told the assembly that the aim of the organization was two-fold: to help defend the game against its detractors and to promote harmony among the various factions.
Of course, the 1926 dinner wouldn’t have been as well-attended without the entertainment. According to press dispatches, Broadway stars and performers from some of the city’s top nightclubs would be there to regale the attendees. Among the names bandied about were vaudeville superstars Sophie Tucker and Jimmy Durante, the latter of whom would appear with his trio, Durante, (Lou) Clayton, and (Eddie) Jackson.
There was a contraction of New York newspapers during the Great Depression. Although empirical evidence is lacking, the inaugural boxing writers dinner was likely the largest of its kind. Fifteen years later, in 1941, the event drew “more than 200” according to a news report. There was no mention of entertainment.
In 1950, for the first time, the annual dinner was opened to the public. For $25, a civilian could get a meal and mingle with some of his favorite fighters. Sugar Ray Robinson was the Edward J. Neil Award winner that year, honored for his ring exploits and for donating his purse from the Charlie Fusari fight to the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund.
There was no formal announcement when the Boxing Writers Association of Greater New York was re-christened the Boxing Writers Association of America, but by the late 1940s reporters were referencing the annual event as simply the boxing writers dinner. By then, it had become traditional to hold the annual affair in January, a practice discontinued after 1971.
The winnowing of New York’s newspaper herd plus competing banquets in other parts of the country forced Nat Fleischer’s baby to adapt. And more adaptations will be necessary in the immediate future as the future of the BWAA, as it currently exists, is threatened by new technologies. If the forthcoming BWAA dinner (April 30 at the Edison Ballroom in mid-Manhattan) were restricted to wordsmiths from the traditional print media, the gathering would be too small to cover the nut and the congregants would be drawn disproportionately from the geriatric class.
Some of those adaptations have already started. Last year, Las Vegas resident Sean Zittel, a recent UNLV graduate, had the distinction of becoming the first videographer welcomed into the BWAA. With more and more people getting their news from sound bites, rather than the written word, the videographer serves an important function.
The reporters who conducted interviews with pen and paper have gone the way of the dodo bird and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A taped interview for a “talkie” has more integrity than a story culled from a paper and pen interview because it is unfiltered. Many years ago, some reporters, after interviewing the great Joe Louis, put words in his mouth that made him seem like a dullard, words consistent with the Sambo stereotype. In other instances, the language of some athletes was reconstructed to the point where the reader would think the athlete had a second job as an English professor.
The content created by videographers is free from that bias. More of them will inevitably join the BWAA and similar organizations in the future.
Photo: Nat Fleischer is flanked by Sugar Ray Robinson and Tony Zale at the 1947 boxing writers dinner.
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Gabriela Fundora KOs Marilyn Badillo and Perez Upsets Conwell in Oceanside

It was just a numbers game for Gabriela Fundora and despite Mexico’s Marilyn Badillo’s elusive tactics it took the champion one punch to end the fight and retain her undisputed flyweight world title by knockout on Saturday.
Will it be her last flyweight defense?
Though Fundora (16-0, 8 KOs) fired dozens of misses, a single punch found Badillo (19-1-1, 3 KOs) and ended her undefeated career and first attempt at a world title at the Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California.
Fundora, however, proves unbeatable at flyweight.
The champion entered the arena as the headliner for the Golden Boy Promotion show and stepped through the ropes with every physical advantage possible, including power.
Mexico’s Badillo was a midget compared to Fundora but proved to be as elusive as a butterfly in a menagerie for the first six rounds. As the six-inch taller Fundora connected on one punch for every dozen thrown, that single punch was a deadly reminder.
Badillo tried ducking low and slipping to the left while countering with slashing uppercuts, she found little success. She did find the body a solid target but the blows proved to be useless. And when Badillo clinched, that proved more erroneous as Fundora belted her rapidly during the tie-ups.
“She was kind of doing her ducking thing,” said Fundora describing Badillo’s defensive tactics. “I just put the pressure on. It was just like a train. We didn’t give her that break.”
The Mexican fighter tried valiantly with various maneuvers. None proved even slightly successful. Fundora remained poised and under control as she stalked the challenger.
In the seventh round Badillo seemed to take a stand and try to slug it out with Fundora. She quickly was lit up by rapid left crosses and down she went at 1:44 of the seventh round. The Mexican fighter’s corner wisely waved off the fight and referee Rudy Barragan stopped the fight and held the dazed Badillo upright.
Once again Fundora remained champion by knockout. The only question now is will she move up to super flyweight or bantamweight to challenge the bigger girls.
Perez Beats Conwell.
Mexico’s Jorge “Chino” Perez (33-4, 26 KOs) upset Charles Conwell (21-1, 15 KOs) to win by split decision after 12 rounds in their super welterweight showdown.
It was a match that paired two hard-hitting fighters whose ledgers brimmed with knockouts, but neither was able to score a knockdown against each other.
Neither fighter moved backward. It was full steam ahead with Conwell proving successful to the body and head with left hooks and Perez connecting with rights to the head and body. It was difficult to differentiate the winner.
Though Conwell seemed to be the superior defensive fighter and more accurate, two judges preferred Perez’s busier style. They gave the fight to Perez by 115-113 scores with the dissenter favoring Conwell by the same margin.
It was Conwell’s first pro loss. Maybe it will open doors for more opportunities.
Other Bouts
Tristan Kalkreuth (15-1) managed to pass a serious heat check by unanimous decision against former contender Felix Valera (24-8) after a 10-round back-and-forth heavyweight fight.
It was very close.
Kalkreuth is one of those fighters that possess all the physical tools including youth and size but never seems to be able to show it. Once again he edged past another foe but at least this time he faced an experienced fighter in Valera.
Valera had his moments especially in the middle of the 10-round fight but slowed down during the last three rounds.
One major asset for Kalkreuth was his chin. He got caught but still motored past the clever Valera. After 10 rounds two judges saw it 99-91 and one other judge 97-93 all for Kalkreuth.
Highly-rated prospect Ruslan Abdullaev (2-0) blasted past dangerous Jino Rodrigo (13- 5-2) in an eight round super lightweight fight. He nearly stopped the very tough Rodrigo in the last two rounds and won by unanimous decision.
Abdullaev is trained by Joel and Antonio Diaz in Indio.
Bakersfield prospect Joel Iriarte (7-0, 7 KOs) needed only 1:44 to knock out Puerto Rico’s Marcos Jimenez (25-12) in a welterweight bout.
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‘Krusher’ Kovalev Exits on a Winning Note: TKOs Artur Mann in his ‘Farewell Fight’

At his peak, former three-time world light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev ranked high on everyone’s pound-for-pound list. Now 42 years old – he turned 42 earlier this month – Kovalev has been largely inactive in recent years, but last night he returned to the ring in his hometown of Chelyabinsk, Russia, and rose to the occasion in what was billed as his farewell fight, stopping Artur Mann in the seventh frame.
Kovalev hit his peak during his first run as a world title-holder. He was 30-0-1 (26 KOs) entering first match with Andre Ward, a mark that included a 9-0 mark in world title fights. The only blemish on his record was a draw that could have been ruled a no-contest (journeyman Grover Young was unfit to continue after Kovalev knocked down in the second round what with was deemed an illegal rabbit punch). Among those nine wins were two stoppages of dangerous Haitian-Canadian campaigner Jean Pascal and a 12-round shutout over Bernard Hopkins.
Kovalev’s stature was not diminished by his loss to the undefeated Ward. All three judges had it 114-113, but the general feeling among the ringside press was that Sergey nicked it.
The rematch was also somewhat controversial. Referee Tony Weeks, who halted the match in the eighth stanza with Kovalev sitting on the lower strand of ropes, was accused of letting Ward get away with a series of low blows, including the first punch of a three-punch series of body shots that culminated in the stoppage. Sergey was wobbled by a punch to the head earlier in the round and was showing signs of fatigue, but he was still in the fight. Respected judge Steve Weisfeld had him up by three points through the completed rounds.
Sergey Kovalev was never the same after his second loss to Andre Ward, albeit he recaptured a piece of the 175-pound title twice, demolishing Vyacheslav Shabranskyy for the vacant WBO belt after Ward announced his retirement and then avenging a loss to Eleider Alvarez (TKO by 7) with a comprehensive win on points in their rematch.
Kovalev’s days as a title-holder ended on Nov. 2, 2019 when Canelo Alvarez, moving up two weight classes to pursue a title in a fourth weight division, stopped him in the 11th round, terminating what had been a relatively even fight with a hellacious left-right combination that left Krusher so discombobulated that a count was superfluous.
That fight went head-to-head with a UFC fight in New York City. DAZN, to their everlasting discredit, opted to delay the start of Canelo-Kovalev until the main event of the UFC fight was finished. The delay lasted more than an hour and Kovalev would say that he lost his psychological edge during the wait.
Kovalev had two fights in the cruiserweight class between his setback to Canelo and last night’s presumptive swan song. He outpointed Tervel Pulev in Los Angeles and lost a 10-round decision to unheralded Robin Sirwan Safar in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Artur Mann, a former world title challenger – he was stopped in three rounds by Mairis Briedis in 2021 when Briedis was recognized as the top cruiserweight in the world – was unexceptional, but the 34-year-old German, born in Kazakhstan, wasn’t chopped liver either, and Kovalev’s stoppage of him will redound well to the Russian when he becomes eligible for the Boxing Hall of Fame.
Krusher almost ended the fight in the second round. He knocked Mann down hard with a short left hand and seemingly scored another knockdown before the round was over (but it was ruled a slip). Mann barely survived the round.
In the next round, a punch left Mann with a bad cut on his right eyelid, but the German came to fight and rounds three, four and five were competitive.
Kovalev had a good sixth round although there were indications that he was tiring. But in the seventh he got a second wind and unleashed a right-left combination that rolled back the clock to the days when he was one of the sport’s most feared punchers. Mann went down hard and as he staggered to his feet, his corner signaled that the fight should be stopped and the referee complied. The official time was 0:49 of round seven. It was the 30th KO for Kovalev who advanced his record to 36-5-1.
Addendum: History informs us that Farewell Fights have a habit of becoming redundant, by which we mean that boxers often get the itch to fight again after calling it quits. Have we seen the last of Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev? We woudn’t bet on it.
The complete Kovalev-Mann fight card was live-streamed on the Boxing News youtube channel.
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