Clay Moyle Talks About His Obsession with Boxing Books (with Tips for Collectors)

Published

3 years ago

March 7, 2022

Clay-Moyle-Talks-About-His-Obsession-with-Boxing-Books-with-Tips-for-Collectors

How many boxing books does one really need to own? I don’t know, but I’m sure that I blew by whatever that number is a long time ago. I’m just as sure, that I know a number of fellows who’d probably answer that one can never really have too many boxing books. You see, there are an awful lot of oddballs among serious collectors, but that’s a topic for another article.

Not long after going to a boxing gym for a year in my early 30’s, I got the idea to try and acquire a biography about every world heavyweight champion since the time of John L. Sullivan. That was the spark that lit a fire that quickly raged out of control.

How so? Well, to begin with, during that initial pursuit, I began to come across other boxing books that I thought might be interesting, so I opted to purchase many of those as well. One thing led to another, and it wasn’t all that long before my new objective somehow became to add every boxing book ever written in the English language to my personal collection.

Now that’s obviously a never-ending quest as there are seemingly many that are next to impossible to find, and of course new boxing books are being written all the time. In hindsight, I’ve often thought it would have been much more sensible to target a smaller niche for myself. For example, maybe just a specific era, only non-fiction, anything saner.

I probably purchased around 300 books during the first year of my new sickness. It was about that time, that I made the acquaintance of a serious boxing book collector in Denmark named Niels Thorsen. Niels had a collection of 1,500 boxing titles at the time. I remember wondering how on earth one individual could amass a collection of that many boxing books.

But yet, here I am 30+ years later, with a personal collection of over 4,600 boxing-related books, and an understanding of how it can come about.

To begin with, I think one has to have a few loose screws and a tendency to become completely obsessed with accomplishing a goal once they’ve set their mind to it. Anybody who knows me well, would probably suggest that I fit that description pretty well.

It also takes an awful lot of time, effort and persistence to build a collection this large. When I reflect upon my own journey, I can recall a great number of things that I did along the way that I believe were key to my efforts to build a collection this large, including each of the following:

Visiting Used Bookstores
As long as I can remember, I’ve loved visiting used bookstores. There’s just something about searching bookshelves for treasure, the thrill of coming across a book of interest, holding it in your hands and getting the opportunity to flip through the pages.

This is a primary way that serious book collectors built their collections in the past. Those whose professions required them to travel, had the additional benefit of being able to take advantage of the opportunity to visit bookstores in those cities and I’ve met a number of parties who did that for years. Leaving a business card behind when you leave with your interests written on the back can sometimes prove fruitful as well.

I’ve frequented used bookstores for years, and continue to do, though I no longer expect to find as many desired books that way for reasons that will become apparent shortly.

Writing or Phoning Bookstores
In addition to visiting bookstores in other cities while traveling, I often used to phone those I couldn’t get to personally, while killing time in an airport or during spare time in my hotel room. This proved beneficial on many occasions, and sometimes provided me with some useful leads.

I know others who regularly wrote to bookstores to inquire about available books in their field of interest.

The Internet
The arrival of the internet created opportunities for serious collectors that just didn’t exist previously. Once the internet arrived, and a proliferation of websites began to crop up, it didn’t take me long to learn of a site named AbeBooks. AbeBooks is derived from their original name “Advanced Book Exchange.” They were founded in 1995 and launched their website in 1996 when their listings only included the inventory of four bookstores.

That changed very quickly as booksellers all over the world learned that they could make their inventory of books available to customers worldwide on-line. Today, the site is described as an e-commerce global online marketplace that specializes in rare and out-of-print books and they became a subsidiary of Amazon in 2008.

With the advent of used book sites like AbeBooks, many longtime used bookstores began disappearing. Sellers realized they could reach a much, much wider audience selling their books exclusively on-line, and there was no need to bear the expense of a traditional brick and mortar store presence when there were much cheaper ways to store their inventories.

Sites like AbeBooks are both an incredible resource and a curse for the serious collector. They’re an unbelievable resource from the standpoint that one can now so easily search the inventories of bookstores all over the world. And a curse, because it’s become so much easier to find treasure to spend your money on.

I don’t believe it’s an exaggeration to say that there was a time when I routinely searched the AbeBooks site for new inventory listings as many as 30-40 times per day.

Personal Website
I don’t remember when I began selling boxing books as well, but at some point, I pretty quickly realized that I could partially help fund my book purchasing addiction with the profits realized from buying and reselling duplicate boxing books. As I became more knowledgeable concerning the values of specific titles, I began routinely coming across a number that I knew I could quickly flip for a profit.

Acquiring duplicate books, as well as other boxing memorabilia, ultimately led to the creation of my own website (www.prizefightingbooks.com) from which I list and sell my own inventory of duplicate boxing books and other boxing memorabilia that I have available.

Or course, that inventory has also become much larger than originally planned and there are now over 2,500 boxing books listed for sale on the site as well as many magazines, programs, autographs, artwork, etc.

An unexpected benefit of creating the website is that it led to many parties contacting me with specific books, or entire collections, of boxing books that they wished to sell.

Purchasing Collections
Purchasing another party’s collection can be a pricey proposition. But it’s a quick way to acquire a large number of books to add to and upgrade your collection. It can also prove to be a relatively inexpensive way to build your collection if you can resell the duplicates, especially if a number of those duplicate books are rare and/or scarce titles. The fact that purchasing a collection often results in acquiring a number of common titles as well is one reason I have so many copies of specific titles on my website.

Many times, the purchase of a collection has enabled me to add many rare titles at a very reasonable price as a result of profits that I was able to realize from the sale of the duplicate titles. Of course, you’re liable to end up with a lot of unsold duplicates as well.

The purchase of collections, and a willingness to take on the work of reselling the duplicates, has been one key to my success in building a collection of this size.

Auction Sites
I acquired a number of books on eBay over the years. Some for very good prices, others pretty steep depending upon the rarity. While I didn’t usually find it the most economical way to purchase books I desired, I also occasionally purchased a few from sites like the Leland and Heritage Auction sites. There are many others that one can search.

Simply Making Folks Aware of Your Interests and Plain Old Good Luck
Sometimes simply making individuals aware of your interests can really pay off. Roughly eight years ago, I came across a used book store listing of a $25 signed softcover book by The Ring magazine founder and longtime editor Nat Fleischer and purchased it for resale. When I paid for the book, I added a comment to let the seller know that I’d be interested to learn of anything else he might acquire of that nature. Well, in this particular case that paid off more than I could have possibly imagined.

The seller replied and let me know they’d just acquired a large number of books, manuscripts and personal files that had belonged to Nat Fleischer. They had been kept in storage for decades by the decedents of Fleischer’s son-in-law Nat Loubet and he hadn’t had a chance to inventory it all yet. In fact, the book that I’d purchased from him was the first thing he’d listed.

I immediately let him know that I was interested in the possibility of purchasing what he’d acquired and eagerly awaited a list of offerings and prices.

As it turned out, there was an awful lot more treasure than I expected. But when the seller provided an asking price for the entire lot, I couldn’t say “Yes” fast enough.

So, I fired off a check and within a couple weeks a number of large boxes arrived in the mail. It took weeks for me to properly inventory everything but I loved every minute of it.

The purchase included many boxing books that were written by Fleischer, many of which he’d inscribed to his son-in-law as being the first off the press.

But my biggest thrill was when I discovered that what I’d purchased included a number of complete unpublished manuscripts by Fleischer. For example, where was a large 268,000 words bound four-volume works titled ‘The History of Prizefighting in Literature.’ I later discovered this monster was never published because it was considered too large by the various publishing house’s he shared it with at the time. In fact, the collection included a letter from one publisher turning it down for that specific reason.

Self-publishing a work wasn’t really the option then that it is today, so despite the fact that Nat wrote and published so many boxing books, this particular title and a number of other manuscripts of his were never published.

There were two other huge unpublished works titled ‘The History of Prizefighting in New York’ and ‘The History of Prizefighting in Chicago.’

There were also many other exciting unpublished works written about fighters such as Tom Sharkey, Dan Donnelly, and others, as well as original manuscripts for many of his published boxing books, typewritten pieces that had been used in The Ring, and of course a lot of personal correspondence between he and various parties.

Ultimately, I kept the books, and sold a good chunk of it, including personal files, correspondence and some of the unpublished manuscripts to a university that I knew would take good care of it.

At the time, the bookseller told me that he hadn’t acquired everything in the collection, but he’d acquired everything they were willing to part with at that time. So, I held out hope that he’d one day purchase more and I’d hear from him again.

Sure enough, he eventually phoned me again and let me know that he’d purchased three more large boxes and asked if I’d be interested in those as well.

We quickly agreed upon a price and I received more unpublished manuscripts, scrapbooks, letters, and photos.

It was only later, that I came across an August 1962 Sports Illustrated article about Fleischer and read about the unpublished manuscripts that were sitting in his safe in his Madison Square Garden office at that time, and realized that it had all somehow found their way into my own home a half century later!

So, you just never know what might come about from taking the extra step to make people aware of your collecting interests and what you might be willing to purchase.

Treasured Books
Sometimes I’m asked which of my books I value the most. While I have many rare old titles from the 18^th and 19^th centuries that are worth more money, the books that I personally treasure the most are those that are signed or inscribed to other parties of note. Many of those are among my personal favorites. A dozen of them would include the following:

‘The Roosevelt That I Know. And Recollections of the Most Famous American Fighting Man’ by American Middleweight Champion, Mike Donovan. 1909. This book is a terrific read as it contains insights concerning many of the greats that Donovan knew including the likes of John L. Sullivan, Theodore Roosevelt, Jack Dempsey and many others. For many years, I assumed it was issued without a dust jacket, but one day I discovered it with a very good dust jacket. It’s still the only time I’ve come across it with a jacket. Furthermore, it’s inscribed by Donovan in 1909 to his friend William Pinkerton.
‘The Golden People’ by Paul Gallico. 1965. Profiles of numerous legends of sport. This one has a signed bookplate of Bing Crosby and is also signed to him by both Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney.
‘Champions Off Guard’ by William O. Inglis. 1932. Terrific read with a beautiful dust jacket. The author not only personally knew many of the early legendary world heavyweight champions such as John L., Jim Corbett, Bob Fitzsimmons, Jack Dempsey, and Gene Tunney, and provides interesting insights about them, but he sparred with a number of them and details those experiences. One of my favorite reads, my copy is also inscribed to the famous early promoter James W. Coffroth.
‘Battling Nelson. Lightweight Champion of The World’ by Battling Nelson. 1909. The autobiography of the great champion. This one is also inscribed “With best wishes from one champion to another. To James J. Jeffries, Heavyweight champion, From Battling Nelson, Lightweight champion Los Angles, Cal. July 12, 1909.”
‘My Life and Battles’ by James J. Jeffries. 1910. Fairly scarce title, this one is inscribed by the famous sportswriter cartoonist Bob Edgren on July 4, 1910, the date of the Johnson-Jeffries title fight.
‘The Tumult and The Shouting’ by Grantland Rice. 1954. Signed by Gene Tunney, Jack Dempsey, Doc Blanchard, Gene Sarazan, Toots Shor, Johnny Weismuller and others.
‘Relief to Royalty. The Story of James J. Braddock’ by Lud. 1936. Inscribed by Braddock to promoter Mike Jacobs.
‘Two Fisted Jeff’ (James J. Jeffries) by Hugh Fullerton. 1929. Signed by Jeffries
‘Physical Culture and Self Defence’ by Bob Fitzsimmons. 1901. Inscribed by Fitzsimmons.
‘Jack Johnson the Man with Boxing Instructions and Health Hints’ 1932. Signed by Johnson
‘The Prize Ring’ by Bohun Lynch. 1925. Long inscription from former light heavyweight champion Tommy Loughran.
‘God, Gloves and Glory. An Autobiography’ 1956 by Henry Armstrong. This book by the first man to simultaneously hold three world titles isn’t particularly scarce. But what makes this one unique is the long inscription “To the Greatest, Ray Robinson.”

Post Views: 1,111

Share The Sweet Science experience!

The Sweet Science

Up Next

Boxing Odds and Ends: The Tszyu Brothers and a Requiem for an old Bantamweight

Don't Miss

Boxing Writer Mike Marley Was a Colorful Character

History has Shortchanged Freddie Dawson, One of the Best Boxers of his Era

Published

20 hours ago

April 2, 2025

Arne K. Lang

History has Shortchanged Freddie Dawson, One of the Best Boxers of his Era

This reporter was rummaging around the internet last week when he stumbled on a story in the May 1950 issue of Ebony under the byline of Mike Jacobs. Boxing was then in the doldrums (isn’t it always?) and Jacobs, the most powerful promoter in boxing during the era of Joe Louis, was lassoed by the editors of the magazine to address the question of whether the over-representation of black boxers was killing the sport at the box office.

This hoary premise had been kicking around even before the heyday of Jack Johnson, bubbling forth whenever an important black-on-black fight played to a sea of empty seats as had happened the previous year when Chicago’s Comiskey Park hosted the world heavyweight title fight between Ezzard Charles and Jersey Joe Walcott.

Jacobs ridiculed the hypothesis – as one could have expected considering the publication in which the story ran – and singled out three “colored” boxers as the best of the current crop of active pugilists: Sugar Ray Robinson, Ike Williams, and Freddie Dawson.

Sugar Ray Robinson? A no-brainer. Skill-wise the greatest of the great. Even those that didn’t follow boxing, would have recognized his name. Ike Williams? Nowhere near as well-known as Robinson, but he was then the reigning lightweight champion, a man destined to go into the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the inaugural class of 1990.

And Freddie Dawson? If the name doesn’t ring a bell, dear reader, you are not alone. I confess that I too drew a blank. And that triggered a search to learn more about him.

Freddie Dawson had four fights with Ike Williams. All four were staged on Ike’s turf in Philadelphia. Were this not the case, the history books would likely show the series knotted 2-2. Late in his career, Dawson became greatly admired in Australia. But we are jumping ahead of ourselves.

Dawson was born in 1924 in Thomasville, Arkansas, an unincorporated town in the Arkansas Delta. Likely a descendent of slaves who worked in the cotton plantations, he grew up in the so-called Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, the heart of Chicago’s Black Belt.

The first mention of him in the newspapers came in 1941 when he won Chicago’s Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) featherweight title. In those days, amateur boxing was big in the Windy City, the birthplace of the Golden Gloves. The Catholic Archdiocese, which ran gyms in every parish, and the Chicago Parks Department, were the major incubators.

In his amateur days, he was known as simply Fred Dawson. As a pro, his name often appeared as Freddy Dawson, although Freddie gradually became the more common spelling.

Dawson, who stood five-foot-six and was often described as stocky, made his pro debut on Feb. 1, 1943, at Marigold Gardens. Before the year was out, he had 16 fights under his belt, all in Chicago and all but two at Marigold. (Currently the site of an interdenominational Christian church, Marigold Gardens, on the city’s north side, was Chicago’s most active boxing and wrestling arena from the mid-1930s through the early-1950s. Joe Louis had three of his early fights there and Tony Zale was a fixture there as he climbed the ladder to the world middleweight title.)

The last of these 16 fights was fatal for Dawson’s opponent who collapsed heading back to his corner after the fight was stopped in the 10^th round and died that night at a local hospital from the effects of a brain injury.

Dawson left town after this incident and spent most of the next year in New Orleans where energetic promoter Louis Messina ran twice-weekly shows (Mondays for whites and Fridays for blacks) at the Coliseum, a major stop on boxing’s so-called Chitlin’ Circuit.

That same year, on Sept. 19, 1944, Dawson had his first encounter with Ike Williams. He was winning the fight when Ike knocked him out with a body punch in the fourth round.

The first and last meetings between Dawson and Ike Williams were spaced five years apart. In the interim, Freddie scored his two best wins, stopping Vic Patrick in the twelfth round at Sydney, NSW, and Bernard Docusen in the sixth round in Chicago.

The long-reigning lightweight champion of Australia, Patrick (49-3, 43 KOs) gave the crowd a thrill when he knocked Dawson down for a count of “six” in the penultimate 11^th round, but Dawson returned the favor twice in the final stanza, ending the contest with a punch so harsh that the poor Aussie needed five minutes before he was fit to leave the ring and would spend the night in the hospital as a precaution.

Dawson fought Bernard Docusen before 10,000-plus at Chicago Stadium on Feb. 4, 1949. An 8/5 favorite, Docusen lacked a hard punch, but the New Orleans cutie had suffered only three losses in 66 fights, had never been stopped, and had extended Sugar Ray Robinson the 15-round distance the previous year.

Dawson dismantled him. Docusen managed to get back on his feet after Dawson knocked him down in the sixth, but he was in no condition to continue and the referee waived the fight off. Dawson was then vacillating between the lightweight and welterweight divisions and reporters wondered whether it would be Robinson or Ike Williams when Dawson finally got his well-earned title shot.

Sugar Ray wasn’t in his future. Here are the results of his other matches with Ike Williams:

Dawson-Williams II (Jan. 28, 1946) – The consensus on press row was 7-2-1 or 7-3 for Dawson, but the match was ruled a draw. “[The judges and referee] evidently saw [Williams] land punches that nobody else did,” said the ringside reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Dawson-Williams III (Jan. 26, 1948) – Dawson lost a majority decision. The scores were 6-4, 5-4-1, and 4-4-2. The decision was booed. Ike Williams then held the lightweight title, but this was a non-title fight. (It was tough for an outsider to get a fair shake in Philadelphia, home to Ike Williams’ co-manager Frank “Blinky” Palermo who would go to prison for his duplicitous dealings as a fight facilitator.)

Dawson-Williams IV (Dec. 5, 1949) – This would be Freddie Dawson’s only crack at a world title and he came up short. Ike Williams retained the belt, winning a unanimous decision. The fight was close – 8-7, 8-7, 9-6 – but there was no controversy.

Dawson made three more trips to Australia before his career was finished. On the first of these trips, he knocked out Jack Hassen, successor to Vic Patrick as the lightweight champion of Australia. A 1953 article in the Sydney Sunday Herald bore witness to the esteem in which Dawson was held by boxing fans in Australia: “None of our boxers could withstand his devastating attacks which not only knocked them out but also knocked years off their careers,” said the author. “It is doubtful whether any Australian boxer in any division could have beaten Dawson.”

Dawson had his final fights in the Land Down Under, finishing his career with a record of 103-14-4 while answering the bell for 962 rounds. Following what became his final fight, he had an eye operation in Sydney that was reportedly so intricate that it required a two-week hospital stay. He injured the eye again in Manila while sparring in preparation for a match with the welterweight champion of the Philippines, a match that had to be aborted because of the injury. Dawson then disappeared, by which we mean that he disappeared from the pages of the newspaper archives that allow us to construct these kinds of stories.

What about Freddie Dawson the man? A 1944 story about him said he was an outstanding all-around athlete, “a champion in all athletic undertakings – basketball, baseball, track and even jitterbugging.” A story in a Sydney paper as he was preparing to meet Vic Patrick informs us that he had two young children, ages 2 and 1, owned his own home in Chicago, and drove a two-year-old Cadillac. But beyond these flimsy snippets, Dawson the man remains elusive.

What we learned, however, is that he was one of the most underrated boxers to come down the pike in any era, a borderline Hall of Famer who ought not have fallen through the cracks. Inside the ring, this guy was one tough hombre.

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 643

Share The Sweet Science experience!

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

Published

5 days ago

March 30, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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

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

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 1,970

Share The Sweet Science experience!

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

Published

5 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.

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 1,617

Share The Sweet Science experience!