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Avila Perspective, Chap. 180: Olympic Auditorium and a Weekend Look-Ahead
![Avila-Perspective-Chap-180-Olympic-Auditorium-and-a-Weekend-Look-Ahead](https://tss.ib.tv/boxing/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Warrington.png)
Watching Alexis Rocha and Blair Cobbs slug it out in Los Angeles last weekend brought back burning memories of similar feuds of the past from the Olympic Auditorium.
Many of the best fights ever seen in Los Angeles took place at the old Olympic Auditorium that opened before the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1926. Some great battles between Henry Armstrong and Baby Arizmendi, Enrique Bolanos and Art Aragon happened at that grizzled venue.
A documentary called ā18th and Grand Avenue: The History of the Olympic Auditoriumā has just emerged by Steve DeBro that Iām itching to see. I watched a few talk shows on YouTube where various people chat about the documentary that hits on boxing, wrestling, concerts and roller derby.
Itās been long overdue.
No disrespect to the public that are unaware, but professional boxing or prizefighting has never died out or disappeared. The sport of boxing will always survive and no doubt in my mind is the oldest sport in the history of mankind.
Think about it.
Probably the first bet took place in prehistoric times when one caveman bet another he could whip him. Boxing is a sport that only takes two willing participants and their fists.
What has disappeared has been newspaper or television coverage of boxing. In Southern California, the sport has never disappeared except from black and white ink printed pages of local newspapers. They dropped the ball in favor of sports teams and their hype machines. Much of the blame has to be given to the demise of the Herald-Examiner newspaper in Los Angeles. When that publication ended, boxing took a big hit. The Times never had good coverage of the sport. It was a nod here and there. I should know, I worked with the Times during that period and often had arguments about it with editors. To this very day the Times has a staff room filled with reporters who couldnāt tell you where Lincoln Heights or City Terrace is located. Basically, they donāt know Los Angeles.
As a former newspaper boxing columnist, who occasionally writes for Southern California newspapers, Iāve had many discussions with editors or sportswriters who insist boxing is dead and has been for many years.
My reply has always been that Southern California has more than 100 boxing gyms and has become the center of the boxing universe. More boxing shows take place in the state of California than any other state in the country. Fighters come from all over the world to the Southern California region because they know this is the center.
Need more proof of boxingās vitality: in one single fight Saul āCaneloā Alvarez makes on average about $60 million. Thatās not a misprint. How is this possible if the sport is dead?
Last Saturday, at the Galen Center in downtown Los Angeles, a scheduled main event was canceled when the star Vergil Ortiz Jr. suffered a malady and was Ā forced to pull out for medical reasons.
Did the fight card collapse?
No.
Golden Boy Promotions penciled in a welterweight match between feuding Southern California fighters Alexis Roach and Blair Cobbs and voila! An enticing main event brought more than 5,000 fans to the arena that sits across the street from USC and the crowd atmosphere was āBobby Axelrodā intense.
Feuds bring excitement and no other sport exploits feuds better than a boxing event.
Watching Rocha and Cobbs reminded me of earlier feuds at the nearby Olympic where Armando Muniz and Carlos Palomino fought. Back in the 40s there were two guys who clashed five times: Manuel Ortiz and Carlos Chavez. Ortiz was bantamweight world champion for eight years and 20 defenses. Speaking of Carlos Chavez, he was the king of trilogies and more. Basically, he fought numerous guys three or more times and was a Los Angeles regular.
Canāt wait until I see the documentary on the Olympic by Steve DeBro.
Strong women week
An all-female boxing card in Costa Rica can be seen on Friday March 25, at MarvNation Promotions channel on YouTube.com around 6 p.m. PT.
IBF minimumweight titlist Yokasta Valle headlines in a rematch versus Japanās Sana Hazuki in the main event. Also on the card will be American fighters Maricela Cornejo and Adelaida Ruiz in separate bouts. On Saturday morning, March 26, in Leeds, England, a female bantamweight world title fight features Argentinaās Mary Roman defending the IBF title against Australiaās Ebanie Bridges. The Matchroom Boxing card will be stream on DAZN at 11 a.m. PT.
World title in England
IBF featherweight world titlist Kiko Martinez of Spain makes his first defense against Josh Warrington later on Saturday on that Matchroom card in Leeds streaming on DAZN.
Martinez knocked out UKās Kid Galahad this past November. Warrington was knocked out by Mexicoās Mauricio Lara a year ago and in the rematch a clash of heads ended the fight prematurely due to a cut. A technical decision draw was the conclusion after a mere two rounds.
Lara was last seen knocking out Emilio Sanchez in a firefight in San Diego.
Fights to Watch
Fri. MarvNation/YouTube.com 6 p.m. Yokasta Valle (23-2) vs Sana Hazuki (8-5-1); Maricela Cornejo (14-5) vs Simone Aparecida (17-19).
Sat. DAZN 11 a.m. Kiko Martinez (43-10-2) vs Josh Warrington (30-1-1), Mary Roman (16-5-1) vs Ebanie Bridges (7-1).
Sat. Showtime 7 p.m. Tim Tszyu (20-0) vs Terrell Gausha (22-2-1).
Sat. ESPN 7 p.m. Miguel Berchelt (38-2) vs Jeremiah Nakathila (22-2).
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 289: East LA, Claressa Shields and More
![Avila-Perspective-Chap-289-East-L.A.-A-Fight-Town-Claressa-Shields-and-More](https://tss.ib.tv/boxing/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Lina.png)
Avila Perspective, Chap. 289: East LA, Claressa Shields and More
East Los Angeles has long been a haven for some of the best fighters around if you can keep them out of trouble. For every Oscar De La Hoya or Seniesa Estrada there are thousands derailed by crime, drugs or drinking.
Boxing has always been a favorite sport of East L.A. Every family has an uncle or two who boxes.
On Friday, 360 Promotionsā Omar Trinidad (15-0-1) fights Viktor Slavinskyi (15-2-1) in the main event at Commerce Casino, in Commerce, CA. UFC Fight Pass will stream the fight card.
The City of Commerce used to be part of East L.A. until 1960 when it incorporated. Itās still considered to be part of East Los Angeles, but informally.
Plenty of fighters come out of East L.A. but few make it all the way like De La Hoya and Estrada. Will Trinidad be the one?
The first world champion from East L.A. or āEast Losā as some call it, was Solly Garcia Smith back in the late 1800s. Others were Richie Lemos, Art Frias and Joey Olivo. There is also 1984 Olympic gold medalist Paul Gonzalez.
Once again 360 Promotions brings its popular brand of fights to the area. On this fight card includes two female bouts. One features Roxy Verduzco (1-0) the former amateur star fighting Colleen Davis (3-1-1) in a featherweight fight.
All that action takes place on Friday.
Elite Boxing
The next day, also in East L.A., Elite Boxing stages another boxing card at Salesian High School located at 960 S. Soto Street in the Boyle Heights area of East Los Angeles.
Elite Boxing has promoted several successful boxing cards at the Catholic high school grounds. The area is saturated by many of the best eateries in Los Angeles. Donāt take my word for it. Check it out yourself and grab some of that delicious food.
Boxing has long been a favorite sport of anyone who lives in East L.A. Itās a fight town equal to Philadelphia, Brooklyn or Detroit. Thereās something different about the area. For more than 100 years some of the best fighters continue to come out of its boxing gyms. Some will be performing on these club shows.
For tickets or information go to www.eliteboxingusa.com
Claressa Shields in Detroit
Speaking of fight towns, pound-for-pound best Claressa Shields who won two Olympic Gold Medals in boxing, moves up another weight division to tackle the WBC heavyweight world champion Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse on Saturday, July 27, at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan.
DAZN will stream the heavy-duty fight card.
Shields (14-0) cleaned out the super welterweight, middleweight and super middleweight divisions and now wants to add the big girls to her conquests. She will be facing Canadaās Lepage-Joanisse Ā (7-1) who holds the WBC belt.
The last time Shields gloved up was more than a year ago when she fought Maricela Cornejo. Donāt blame Shields. She loves to fight. She loves to win. The last time Shields lost a fight was in the amateurs and that was three presidential administrations ago.
Shields doesnāt lose.
I wonder if Las Vegas even takes bets on her fights?
The only fight she may have been an underdog was against Savannah Marshall who was the last opponent to defeat her. And that was in 2012 in China. When they met as pros two years ago, Shields avenged her loss with a blistering attack.
Donāt get Shields mad.
Perhaps her toughest foe as a pro was in her pro debut when she clashed with Franchon Crews-Dezurn in Las Vegas. It was four rounds of fists and fury as the two pounded each other on the undercard of Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev in November 2016.
That was a ferocious debut for both female pugilists.
Assisting Shields on this fight card will be several intriguing male bouts. One guy you should pay special attention is Tito Mercado (15-0, 14 KOs) a super lightweight prospect from Pomona, California.
Many excellent fighters have come out of Pomona including Sugar Shane Mosley, Shane Mosley Jr., Alberto Davila and Richie Sandoval who just passed away this week.
Sandoval was best known for his 15-round war with Philadelphiaās Jeff Chandler for the bantamweight world title in 1984. Read the story by Arne K. Lang on this link: https://tss.ib.tv/boxing/featured-boxing-articles-boxing-news-videos-rankings-and-results/81467-former-world-bantamweight-champion-richie-sandoval-passes-away-at-age-63 .
Fights to Watch
Fri. UFC Fight Pass 7 p.m. Omar Trinidad (15-0-1) vs Viktor Slavinskyi (15-2-1).
Sat. ESPN+ 12:30 p.m. Joe Joyce (16-2) vs Derek Chisora (34-13).
Sat. DAZN Ā 3 p.m. Claressa Shields (14-0) vs Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse (7-1), Michel Rivera (25-1) vs Hugo Roldan (22-2-1); Tito Mercado (15-0) vs Hector Sarmiento (21-2).
Omar Trinidad photo by Lina Baker
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Arneās Almanac: Jake Paul and Womenās Boxing, a Curmudgeonās Take
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Jake Paul can fight more than a little. The view from here is that he would make it interesting against any fringe contender in the cruiserweight division. However, Jakeās boxing acumen pales when paired against his skill as a flim-flam artist.
Jake brought a 9-1 record into last weekendās bout with Mike Perry. As noted by boxing writer Paul Magno, Jakeās previous opponents consisted of āa You Tuber, a retired NBA star, five retired MMA stars, a part-time boxer/reality TV star, and two undersized and inactive fall-guy boxers.ā
Mike Perry, a 32-year-old Floridian, was undefeated (6-0, 3 KOs) as a bare-knuckle boxer after forging a 14-8 record in UFC bouts. In pre-fight blurbs, Perry was billed as the baddest bare knuckle boxer of all time, but against Jake Paul he proved to have very unrefined skills as a conventional boxer which Team Paul undoubtedly knew all along. Perry lasted into the eighth round in a one-sided fight that could have been stopped a lot sooner.
Jake Paul is both a boxer and a promoter. As a promoter, he handles Amanda Serrano, one of the greatest female boxers in history. That makes him the person most responsible (because the buck stops with him) for the wretched mismatch in last Saturdayās co-feature, the bout between Serrano and Stevie Morgan.
Morgan, who took up boxing two years ago at age 33, brought a 14-1 record. Nicknamed the Sledgehammer, she had won 13 of her 14 wins by knockout, eight in the opening round. However, although she resides in Florida, all but one of those 13 knockouts happened in Colombia.
āWe found that in Colombia there were just more opportunities for womenās boxing than in the United States,ā she told a prominent boxing writer whose name we wonāt mention.
The truth is that, for some folks, Colombia is the boxing equivalent of a feeder lot for livestock, a place where a boxer can go to fatten their record. The opportunities there were no greater than in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1995. It was there that Peter McNeeley prepped for his match with Mike Tyson with a 6-second knockout of professional punching bag Frankie Hines. (Six seconds? So it would be written although no one seems to have been there to witness it.)
Serrano vs Morgan was understood to be a stay-busy fight for Amanda whose rematch with Katie Taylor was postponed until November. Stevie Morgan, to her credit, answered the bell for the second round whereas others in her situation would have remained on the stool and invented an injury to rationalize it. Thirty-eight seconds later it was all over and Ms. Morgan was free to go home and use her sledgehammer to do some light dusting.
The Paul-Perry and Serrano-Morgan fights played out in a sold-out arena in Tampa before an estimated 17,000. Those without a DAZN subscription paid $64.95 for the livestream. Paulās next promotion, where he will touch gloves with 58-year-old Mike Tyson (unless Iron Mike pulls a Joe Biden and pulls out; a capital idea) with Serrano-Taylor II the semi-main, will almost certainly rake in more money than any other boxing promotion this year.
Asked his opinion of so-called crossover boxing by a reporter for a college newspaper, the venerable boxing promoter Bob Arum said, āItās not my bag but folks who donāt like it shouldnāt get too worked up over it because no one is stealing from anybody.ā True enough, but for some of us, the phenomenon is distressing.
—
The next big womenās fight happens Saturday in Detroit where Claressa Shields seeks a world title in a third weight class against WBC heavyweight belt-holder Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse.
A two-time Olympic gold medalist, undefeated in 14 fights as a pro, Shields is very good, arguably the best female boxer of her generation which makes her, arguably, the best female boxer of all time. But turning away Lepage-Joanisse (7-1, 2 KOs) wonāt elevate her stature in our eyes.
Purportedly 17-4 as an amateur, the Canadian won her title in her second crack at it. Back in August of 2017, she challenged Cancunās Alejandra Jimenez in Cancun and was stopped in the third round. Entering the bout, Lepage-Joanisse was 3-0 as a pro and had never fought a match slated for more than four rounds.
![Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse](https://tss.ib.tv/boxing/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Vanessa-300x263.png)
Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse
True, on the womenās side, the heavyweight bracket is a very small pod. A sanctioning body has to make concessions to harness a sanctioning fee. Nonetheless, how absurd that a woman who had answered the bell for only 11 rounds would be deemed qualified to compete for a world title. (FYI: Alejandra Jimenez was purportedly born a man. She left the sport with a 12-0-1 record after her win over Franchon Crews Dazurn was changed to a no-contest when she tested positive for the banned steroid stanozolol.)
Following her defeat to Jimenez, Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse, now 29 years old, was out of action for six-and-a-half years. When she returned, she was still a heavyweight, but a much slender heavyweight. She carried 231 pounds for Jimenez. In her most recent bout where she captured the vacant WBC title with a split decision over Argentinaās Abril Argentina Vidal, she clocked in at 173 Ā¼. (On the distaff side, thereās no uniformity among the various sanctioning bodies as to what constitutes a heavyweight.)
Claressa Shields doesnāt need Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse to reinforce her credentials as a future Hall of Famer. She made the cut a long time ago.
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Former World Bantamweight Champion Richie Sandoval Passes Away at Age 63
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Richie Sandoval, who won the WBA and lineal bantamweight title in one of the biggest upsets of the 1980s and then, not quite two years later, suffered near-fatal injuries in a title defense, has passed away at the age of 63.
News circulated fast in the Las Vegas boxing community on Monday, July 22, the grapevine actuated by a tweet from Hall of Fame matchmaker Bruce Trampler: āBoxing and the Top Rank family lost one of our own last night in the passing of former WBA bantamweight champion Richie Sandoval. It hurts personally and professionally to know that Richie is gone at age 63. RIP campeon.ā
Details are vague but the cause of death was apparently a sudden heart attack that Sandoval experienced while visiting the Southern California home of his son of the same name.
Richie Sandoval put the LA County community of Pomona, California, on the boxing map before Shane Mosley came along and gave the town a more frequently-cited mention in the sports section of the papers. He came from a fighting family. An older brother, Albert āSuperflyā Sandoval, became a big draw at LAās fabled Olympic Auditorium while building a 35-2-1 record that included a failed bid to capture Lupe Pintorās world bantamweight title.
Richie was a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic boxing team that was stranded when U.S. President Jimmy Carter (and many other world leaders) boycotted the event as a protest against Russiaās invasion of Afghanistan.
As a pro, Sandovalās signature win was a 15th-round stoppage of Jeff Chandler. They fought on April 7, 1984 in Atlantic City. Chandler was making the tenth defense of his world bantamweight title.
Despite being a heavy underdog, Sandoval dominated the fight, winning almost every round until the referee stepped in and waived it off. Chandler, who was 33-1-2 heading in and had avenged his lone defeat, never fought again.
Sandoval made two successful defenses before risking his title against Gaby Canizales on the undercard of Hagler-Mugabi in the outdoor stadium at Caesars Palace. In round seven, Sandoval, who had a hellish time making the weight, was knocked down three times and suffered a seizure as he collapsed from the third knockdown. Stretchered out of the ring, he was rushed to the hospital where doctors reduced the swelling in his brain and beat the odds to save his life. This would be Richieās lone defeat. He finished his pro career with a record of 29-1 (17 KOs).
Bob Arum cushioned some of the pain by giving Richie a $25,000 bonus and offering him a lifetime job at Top Rank which Richie accepted. And let the record show that Arum was good to his word.
A more elaborate portrait of Richie Sandoval was published in these pages in 2017. You can check it out HERE. May he rest in peace.
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