Usyk Turned Away Joshua Again When His Inner Taras Bulba Emerged in Round 10

Published

2 years ago

August 21, 2022

Usyk Turned Away Joshua Again When His Inner Taras Bulba Emerged in Round 10

Few people are apt to remember the 1962 film Taras Bulba, starring Yul Brynner in the title role as a fearless Cossack chieftain in war-torn 16^th-century Ukraine. Virtually no one these days, at least non-Ukrainians, has any knowledge of Nikolai Gogol’s 1835 introduction of the composite character in a collection of his short stories, or the fleshed-out 1842 novella that became the basis of the moviemakers’ decision 120 years later that the Ukrainian steppes would make a dandy setting for an epic adventure with the standard cast of thousands.

In the estimation of Victor Erlich, an early 20^th-century scholar of Russian literature, the first version of Taras Bulba was “distinctly Cossack jingoism” while the lengthier treatment presented Bulba as a “paragon of civic virtue and a force of patriotic edification.” Now it appears that Gogol’s unconquerable leader has been updated, in both forms, in the person of unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, 35, whose feats of derring-do in the ring and with padded gloves on his hands are in the finest tradition of past generations’ Cossack heroes who defeated their enemies while on horseback and clutching swords.

A strange but not entirely unexpected twist in Usyk’s closer-than-expected but hardly shocking split-decision victory over two-time former titlist Anthony Joshua came following the ninth round of the DAZN-televised rematch in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in which the much larger Briton had seemingly seized control of a fight that could go either way. AJ, a slight underdog who at 6’6”, 244.5 pounds and with an 82-inch reach to Usyk’s 6’3”, 221.5 pounds and 78-inch reach, had returned to his corner no doubt feeling justifiably confident after he’d out-thrown and out-landed Usyk by a wide margin, connecting on 28 (twice his highest total of his best preceding round) of 67 shots, several of which clearly had a damaging effect on the champion.

“In the ninth round, I ran over,” said Eddie Hearn, Joshua’s promoter. “I thought we had it. But the 10^th round was one of the best rounds I’ve seen. What Usyk did in the 10^th, 11^th and 12^th was incredible. That was the difference tonight. AJ hurt Usyk badly in the ninth and I felt he was going to come on strong, but Usyk came out like a (runaway) train and that 10^th round was the moment that he decided to regain the fight. He’s just too good. That 10^th round, 11^th round and 12^th round are why this guy is pound-for-pound No. 1.”

It would not be presumptuous to suggest that Usyk, when he needed it most, dug deep inside himself to summon his inner Taras Bulba, and so what if he is unaware or only vaguely so of the mostly fictional Cossack who never found himself in a tight spot on the battlefield that he couldn’t turn to his advantage if only by the dint of his indomitable will. Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) – whose preparation for this fight included wearing his hair in a Taras Bulba-like top-knot that was the height of Ukrainian fashion in the 16^th century, as well as being seen for all public events in Cossack-style clothing – closed with a proper flourish over the final three rounds, finding the range on 78 punches to just 29 for the gassed Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs).

It was almost as if Joshua’s own words in the lead-up to the fight were coming back to haunt him. “It’s a fight,” Joshua had offered. “Whoever throws the most punches and lands the most wins.”

In no small part because of his three-round late blitz, Usyk finished his night’s work by finding the mark on 170 of 712 (23.9%) to 124 of 492 (25.2%) for Joshua, demonstrating yet again that he is a larger and maybe even better prototype at this stage of their respective careers than former three-division world champion and fellow Ukrainian Vasiliy Lomachenko. Both are proponents of the tried-and-true philosophy that hitting and not getting hit back much goes a long way toward securing victories, as well as being devotees of less-conventional training methods designed to take fighters to the outer limits of human endurance.

Joshua, 32, who likely is facing a significant career rebuild if he is to claw back to elite status, had bragged of subjecting himself to the toughest training camp of his career. It very well might be that he wanted to get sweet revenge that would presumably mollify Queen Elizabeth II and all Englishmen as well as himself for his titles-yielding, unanimous-decision loss to Usyk on Sept. 25, 2021, in London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Fighters of all nationalities want to do well on fight night to stay on good terms with their countrymen, but current events and historical perspective heightened Usyk’s resolve to drive himself almost to the verge of death, if necessary, to give Ukraine a jolt of much-needed pride. His desert training regimen for the rematch with AJ included swimming 6.2 miles in an Olympic-sized pool in a five-hour session; bicycling 62.1 miles in 110-degree heat on a desert trek outside Dubai and holding his breath underwater for a personal-record 4 minutes, 40 seconds. How tough could Joshua be when measured against potential heat prostration and near-drowning?

Large swaths of Ukraine have been decimated since Russia invaded its neighboring and former Soviet satellite country on Feb. 24 of this year, which prompted Usyk, a married father of three, to risk much, maybe even his own life, to return to his homeland from London and join his local militia. He only returned to boxing after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky persuaded him he could do more good as a world champion whose successes inside the ropes are a point of pride for modern-day Cossacks who took up arms and have continued to do so as their cultural predecessors often did centuries ago.

“It was extremely important for my country, for my team, and personally for me because I did box for my whole country, and half the world,” Usyk said at the postfight press conference.

And at no point in a tight fight he believed he had to win for a cause bigger than himself or even his family was the necessity for total commitment more obvious than after Joshua had seemingly gained the upper hand with that dominant ninth round.

“I’m not sure whether I’m right or not, but I saw in round nine in AJ’s eyes that he was feeling victorious already,” Usyk said. “I kept telling myself, `I cannot stop.’ Some big things were at stake. Thank God, the (WBA, IBF and WBO) belts are coming back to Ukraine. The victory is with us. Ukraine won … Now the whole world knows Ukraine as the country that is defending itself from the second-biggest army in the world. We stand strong.”

A former undisputed cruiserweight champion, all that remains for Usyk is to duplicate full unification as a heavyweight. To do that, he will have to meet and defeat WBC champion Tyson “The Gypsy King” Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs), who at 6’9” and 270 or so pounds makes even Joshua seem relatively small. But if you are in the business of slaying giants, maybe it is best to believe that the old adage that the bigger they are, the harder they’ll fall can come true. In the ring after announcer Michael Buffer revealed him as the winner, by scores of 115-113 and 116-112, on the scorecards submitted respectively by judges Steve Gray and Victor Fesechko (Glenn Feldman was the contrarian, seeing Joshua as the winner by 115-113), Usyk said he didn’t believe Fury’s latest declaration that he was retired and would stay that way.

“I’m sure that Tyson Fury is not retired yet,” Usyk said. “I’m convinced he wants to fight me. I want to fight him. And if I’m not fighting Tyson Fury, I’m not fighting at all.”

For his part, Fury’s recent pledge to quit the ring forever appears to have been written in wet sand on a beach just as the tide is rolling in. In an Instagram video released shortly after Usyk had reprised his earlier conquest of Joshua, Fury vowed that “I will annihilate both of them (Usyk and Joshua) on the same night. Get your f—— checkbook out because `The Gypsy King’ is here to stay forever!’”

But as boxing history has so frequently demonstrated, megafights that everyone wants to see can be lost in the haze of protracted contract negotiations. Fury’s promoter, Bob Arum, optimistically told ESPN’s Mark Kriegel that a Fury-Usyk pairing “won’t be a hard fight to make,” if both sides are amenable to a 50-50 purse split. To some, such an agreement might seem little more than a speed bump, but to fighters whose opinions of themselves owes in large part to their snagging a larger share of the take, settling on the way the financial pie is sliced can be treacherous as an attempted scaling of Mount Everest.

Perhaps it all will come down to just how badly Oleksandr Usyk wishes to test himself against the Himalayan likes of Fury. Hey, Taras Bulba didn’t back away from a conflict with numerically superior forces because that was not the Cossack way in the 1500s. Some traditions might go underground for a time, but they tend to come back around again if circumstances are just right.

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Bernard Fernandez, named to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in the Observer category with the Class of 2020, was the recipient of numerous awards for writing excellence during his 28-year career as a sports writer for the Philadelphia Daily News. Fernandez’s first book, “Championship Rounds,” a compendium of previously published material, was released in May of last year. The sequel, “Championship Rounds, Round 2,” with a foreword by Jim Lampley, is currently out. The anthology can be ordered through Amazon.com and other book-selling websites and outlets.

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Bernard Fernandez

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 282: Ryan’s Song, Golden Boy in Fresno and More

Published

5 hours ago

April 26, 2024

David A. Avila

Avila-Perspective-Chap-282-Ryan's-Song-Golden-Boy-in-Fresno-and-More

Don’t call it an upset.

Days after Ryan Garcia proved the experts wrong, those same experts are re-tooling their evaluation processes.

It’s mind-boggling to me that 95 percent thought Garcia had no chance. Hear me out.

First, Garcia and Haney fought six times as amateurs with each winning three. But this time with no head gear and smaller gloves, Garcia had to have at least a 50/50 chance of winning. He is faster and a more powerful puncher.

Facts.

Haney is a wonderful boxer with smooth, almost artistic movements. But history has taught us power and speed like Garcia’s can’t be discounted. Think way back to legendary fighters like Willie Pep and Sandy Sadler. All that excellent defensive skill could not prevent Sadler from beating Pep in three of their four meetings.

Power has always been an equalizer against boxing skill.

Ben Lira, one of the wisest and most experienced trainers in Southern California, always professed knockout power was the greatest equalizer in a fight. “You can be behind for nine rounds and one punch can change the outcome,” he said.

Another weird theory spreading before the fight was that Garcia would quit in the fight. That was a puzzling one. Getting stopped by a perfect body shot is not quitting. And that punch came from Gervonta “Tank” Davis who can really crack.

So how did Garcia do it?

In the opening round Ryan Garcia timed Devin Haney’s jab and countered with a snapping left hook that rattled and wobbled the super lightweight champion. After that, Garcia forced Haney to find another game plan.

Garcia and trainer Derrick James must have worked hours on that move.

I must confess that I first saw Garcia’s ability many years ago when he was around 11 or 12. So I do have an advantage regarding his talent. A few things I noticed even back then were his speed and power. Also, that others resented his talent but respected him. He was the guy with everything: talent and looks.

And that brings resentment.

Recently I saw him and his crew rapping a song on social media. Now he’s got a song. Next thing you know Hollywood will be calling and he’ll be in the movies. It’s happened before with fighters such as Art Aragon, the first Golden Boy in the 50s. He was dating movie stars and getting involved with starlets all over Hollywood.

Is history repeating itself or is Garcia creating a new era for boxing?

Since 2016 people claimed he was just a social media creation. Now, after his win over Devin Haney a former undisputed lightweight champion and the WBC super lightweight titleholder, the boxer from the high desert area of Victorville has become one of the highest paid fighters in the world.

Ryan Garcia has entered a new dimension.

Golden Boy Season

After several down years the Los Angeles-based company Golden Boy Promotions suddenly is cracking the whip in 2024.

Avila

Vergil Ortiz Jr. (20-0, 20 KOs) returns to the ring and faces Puerto Rico’s Thomas Dulorme (26-6-1, 17 KOs) a welterweight gatekeeper who lost to Jaron “Boots” Ennis and Eimantas Stanionis. They meet as super welterweights in the co-main event at Save Mart Arena in Fresno, Calif. on Saturday, April 27. DAZN will stream the Golden Boy Promotions card live.

It’s a quick return to action for Ortiz who is still adjusting to the new weight division. His last fight three months ago ended in less than one round in Las Vegas. It was cut short by an antsy referee and left Ortiz wanting more after more than a year of inactivity in the prize ring.

Ortiz has all the weapons.

Also, Northern California’s Jose Carlos Ramirez (28-1, 18 KOs) meets Cuba’s Rances Barthelemy (30-2-1, 15 KOs) in a welterweight affair set for 12 rounds.

It’s difficult to believe that former super lightweight titlist Ramirez has been written off by fans after only one loss. That was several years ago against Scotland’s Josh Taylor. One loss does not mean the end of a career.

“My goal is to get back on top and to get all those belts back. I still feel like I am one of the best 140-pounders in the division,” said Ramirez who lives in nearby Avenal, Calif.

An added major attraction features Marlen Esparza in a unification rematch against Gabriela “La Chucky” Alaniz for the WBA, WBC, WBO flyweight titles. Their first fight was

a controversial win by Esparza that saw one judge give her nine of 10 rounds in a very close fight. Those Texas judges.

In a match that could steal the show, Oscar Duarte (26-2-1, 21 KOs) faces former world champion Jojo Diaz (33-5-1, 15 KOs) in a lightweight match.

Munguia and Canelo

Don’t sleep on this match.

Its current Golden Boy fighter Jaime Munguia facing former Golden Boy fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in a battle between Mexico’s greatest sluggers next week at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on May 4.

“I think Jaime Munguia is going to do something special in the ring,” said Oscar De La Hoya, the CEO for Golden Boy.

Tijuana’s Munguia showed up at the Wild Card Boxing gym in Hollywood where a throng of media from Mexico and the US met him.

Munguia looked confident and happy about his opportunity to fight great Canelo.

“It’s a hard fight,” said Munguia. “Truth is, its big for Mexico and not only for Mexicans but for boxing.”

Fights to Watch

Fri. DAZN 6 p.m. Yoeniz Tellez (7-0) vs Joseph Jackson (19-0).

Sat. DAZN 9:30 a.m. Peter McGrail (8-1) vs Marc Leach (18-3-1); Beatriz Ferreira (4-0) vs Yanina Del Carmen 14-3).

Sat. DAZN 5 p.m. Vergil Ortiz (20-0) vs Thomas Dulorme (26-6-1); Jose Carlos Ramirez (28-1) vs Rances Barthelemy (30-2-1); Marlen Esparza (14-1) vs Gabriela Alaniz (14-1).

Photo credit: Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy Promotions

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Ramon Cardenas Channels Micky Ward and KOs Eduardo Ramirez on ProBox

Published

2 days ago

April 24, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Ramon-Cardenas-Channels-Micky-Ward-and-KOs-Eduardo-Ramirez-on-ProBox

The Wednesday night bi-monthly series of fights on the ProBox TV platform is the best deal in boxing; the livestream is free with no strings attached! Tonight’s episode was headlined by a super bantamweight match between San Antonio’s Ramon Cardenas and Eduardo Ramirez who brought a caravan of rooters from his hometown in Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico.

Cardenas, coached by Joel Diaz, entered the contest ranked #4 by the WBA. He was expected to handle Ramirez with little difficulty, but this was a close, tactical fight through eight frames when lightning struck in the form of a left hook to the liver from Cardenas. Ramirez went down on one knee and wasn’t able to beat the count. It was as if Cardenas summoned the ghost of Micky Ward who had a penchant for terminating fights with the same punch that arrived out of the blue.

The official time was 1:37 of round nine. Cardenas improved to 25-1 with his14th win inside the distance. Ramirez, who was stopped in the opening round by Nick “Wrecking” Ball in London in his lone previous fight outside Mexico, falls to 23-3-3.

Co-Feature

In an upset, Tijuana super welterweight Damian Sosa won a split decision over previously undefeated Marques Valle, a local area fighter who was stepping up in class in his first 10-round go. Sosa was the aggressor, repeatedly backing his taller opponent into the ropes where Valle was unable to get good leverage behind his punches.

The 25-year-old Valle, managed by the influential David McWater, was the house fighter. This was his 10^th appearance in this building. He brought a 10-0 (7) record and was hoping to emulate the success of his younger brother Dominic Valle who scored a second-round stoppage of his opponent in this ring two weeks ago, improving to 9-0. But Sosa, who brought a 24-2 record, proved to be a bridge too high.

The judges had it 97-93 and 96-94 for the Tijuana invader and a disgraceful 98-92 for the house fighter.

Also

In a fight whose abrupt ending would be echoed by the main event, 34-year-old SoCal featherweight Ronny Rios, now training in Las Vegas, returned to the ring after a 22-month hiatus and scored a fifth-round stoppage over Nicolas Polanco of the Dominican Republic.

A three-punch combo climaxed by a left hook to the liver took the breath out of Polanco who slumped to his knees and was counted out. A two-time world title challenger, Rios advanced to 34-4 (17 KOs). Polanco, 34, declined to 21-6-1. The official time was 0:54 of round five.

—

The next ProBox show (Wednesday, May 8) will have an international cast with fighters from Kazakhstan, Japan, Mongolia, and the United Kingdom. In the main event, Liverpool’s Robbie Davies Jr will make his U.S. debut against the California-based Kazakh Sergey Lipinets.

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Haney-Garcia Redux with the Focus on Harvey Dock

Published

4 days ago

April 22, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Haney-Garcia-Redux-with-the-Focus-on-Harvey-Dock

Saturday’s skirmish between Ryan Garcia and WBC super lightweight champion Devin Haney was a messy affair, and yet a hugely entertaining fight fused with great drama. In the aftermath, Garcia and Haney were celebrated – the former for fooling all the experts and the latter for his gallant performance in a losing effort – but there were only brickbats for the third man in the ring, referee Harvey Dock.

Devin Haney was plainly ahead heading into the seventh frame when there was a sudden turnabout when Garcia put him on the canvas with his vaunted left hook. Moments later, Dock deducted a point from Garcia for a late punch coming out of a break. The deduction forced a temporary cease-fire that gave Haney a few precious seconds to regain his faculties. Before the round was over, Haney was on the deck twice more but these were ruled slips.

The deduction, which effectively negated the knockdown, struck many as too heavy-handed as Dock hadn’t previously issued a warning for this infraction. Moreover, many thought he could have taken a point away from Haney for excessive clinching. As for Haney’s second and third trips to the canvas in round seven, they struck this reporter – watching at home – as borderline, sufficient to give referee Dock the benefit of the doubt.

In a post-fight interview, Ryan Garcia faulted the referee for denying him the satisfaction of a TKO. “At the end of the day, Harvey Dock, I think he was tripping,” said Garcia. “He could have stopped that fight.”

Those that played the rounds proposition, placing their coin on the “under,” undoubtedly felt the same way.

The internet lit up with comments assailing Dock’s competence and/or his character. Some of the ponderings were whimsical, but they were swamped by the scurrilous screeching of dolts who find a conspiracy under every rock.

Stephen A. Smith, reputedly America’s highest-paid TV sports personality, was among those that felt a need to weigh-in: “This referee is absolutely terrible….Unreal! Horrible officiating,” tweeted Stephen A whose primary area of expertise is basketball.

Harvey Dock

Dock fought as an amateur and had one professional fight, winning a four-round decision over a fellow novice on a show at a non-gaming resort in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. He says that as an amateur he was merely average, but he was better than that, a New Jersey and regional amateur champion in 1993 and 1994 while a student New Jersey’s Essex County Community College where he majored in journalism.

A passionate fan of Sugar Ray Leonard, he started officiating amateur fights in 1998 and six years later, at age 32, had his first documented action at the professional level, working low-level cards in New Jersey. The top boxing referees, to a far greater extent than the top judges, had long apprenticeships, having worked their way up from the boonies and Dock is no exception.

Per boxrec, Haney vs Garcia was Harvey Dock’s 364^th assignment in the pros and his forty-second world title fight. Some of those title fights were title in name only, they weren’t even main events, but, bit by bit, more lucrative offerings started coming his way.

On May 13, 2023, Dock worked his first fights in Nevada, a 4-rounder and then a 12-rounder on a card at the Cosmopolitan topped by the 140-pound title fight between Rolly Romero and Ismael Barroso. It was the first time that this reporter got to watch Dock in the flesh.

Ironically (in hindsight), the card would be remembered for the actions of a referee, in this case Tony Weeks who handled the main event. Barroso was winning the fight on all three cards when Weeks stepped in and waived it off in the ninth round after Romero cornered Barroso against the ropes and let loose a barrage of punches, none of which landed cleanly. Few “premature stoppages” were ever as garishly, nay ghoulishly, premature.

With all the brickbats raining down on Weeks, I felt a need to tamp down the noise by diverting attention away from Tony Weeks and toward Harvey Dock and took to the TSS Forum to share my thoughts. Referencing the 12-rounder, a robust junior welterweight affair between Batyr Akhmedov and Kenneth Sims Jr, I noted that Dock’s Las Vegas debut went smoothly. He glided effortlessly around the ring, making him inconspicuous, the mark of a good referee. (This post ran on May 15, two days after the fight.)

Folks at the Nevada State Athletic Commission were also paying attention. Dock was back in Las Vegas the following week to referee the lightweight title fight between Devin Haney and Vasyl Lomachenko and before the year was out, he would be tabbed to referee the biggest non-heavyweight fight of the year, the July 29 match in Las Vegas between Terence Crawford and Errol Spence Jr.

The Haney-Garcia fight wasn’t Harvey Dock’s best hour, I’ll concede that, but a closer look at his full body of work informs us that he is an outstanding referee.

—

While the Haney-Garcia bout was in progress, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman threw everyone a curve ball, tweeting on “X” that Devin Haney would keep his title if he lost the fight. Everyone, including the TV commentators, was under the impression that the title would become vacant in the event that Haney lost.

Sulaiman cited the precedent of Corrales-Castillo II.

FYI: The Corrales-Castillo rematch, originally scheduled for June 3, 2005 and aborted on the day prior when Castillo failed to make weight, finally came off on Oct. 8 of that year, notwithstanding the fact that Castillo failed to make weight once again, scaling three-and-a-half pounds above the lightweight limit. He knocked out Corrales in the fourth round with a left hook that Las Vegas Review-Journal boxing writer Kevin Iole, alluding to the movie “Blazing Saddles,” described as Mongo-esque (translation: the punch would have knocked out a horse). After initially insisting on a rubber match, which had scant chance of happening, WBC president Jose Sulaiman, Mauricio’s late father, ruled that Corrales could keep his title.

Whether or not you agree with Mauricio Sulaiman’s rationale, the timing of his announcement was certainly awkward.

Haney’s mandatory is Spanish southpaw Sandor Martin (42-3, 15 KOs), a cutie best known for his 2021 upset of Mikey Garcia. A bout between Haney and Martin has the earmarks of a dull fight.

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