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Gridiron Stars Bell and Peterson to Give, Take Some Really Off-Tackle Hits
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NFL running backs Adrian Peterson and Le’Veon Bell face off Saturday night in the co-main event of Social Gloves 2
You see it at virtually every much-anticipated, big-ticket boxing event. The premium seats at or close to ringside are often occupied by standout athletes in other sports, there to witness the action, of course, but also to indulge in the sort of what-if daydreams that can fire the imagination of even the most sedentary of couch potatoes.
Each daydream, individually tailored though it might be, goes something like this: If I took time to train and get myself into decent shape, I bet I could do that. By “that,” the dreamer imagines being inside the ropes, winging loaded-up shots and knocking his (or, increasingly so, her) opponent colder than a gutted mackerel stashed since the preceding month or two in the freezer compartment of their kitchen refrigerator.
Two outstanding NFL running backs of reasonably recent vintage, Adrian Peterson and Le’Veon Bell, get to possibly live their shared dream Saturday night as the co-main event of a highly dubious pay-per-view card to be televised via FITE.tv from Banc of California Stadium, home of MLS’ LA Galaxy. How dubious is most of the 10-bout lineup, collectively titled Social Gloves 2? Well, Peterson and Bell, who collectively have made millions of dollars from football and have six first-team All-Pro selections between them, are getting secondary billing to a matchup of somebody named Austin McBroom (0-0) against another somebody named Ali Eson Gib, who is 0-1 with his only previous bout a technical-knockout loss to Jake Paul, the YouTube guy who has a gazillion social media followers and now is the undisputed champion of all those pugilistic daydreamers who once got the better of a classmate in a sixth-grade schoolyard fight.
Also on the card is a bout between former Los Angeles Lakers guard Nick Young, who now prefers to go by his nickname, Swaggy P, and whomever is the last-minute replacement for rapper Blueface, whose birth certificate lists him as the much less intriguing Johnathan Jamall Porter.
Make no mistake, Jake “The Problem Child” Paul now would seem to be an erstwhile combination of Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali in comparison to McBroom and Gib, who are said to have substantial presences on such platforms as TikTok. When Paul (5-0, 4 KOs, but with none of his wins coming against an actual professional boxer) swaps punches in the ring with UFC legend Anderson “The Spider” Silva on Oct. 29 in Glendale, Ariz., it will be the most legitimate step yet taken by the incrementally more-proficient fighter and extraordinarily adroit self-promoter. Silva might be 47, but he has some boxing experience (going 3-1) and was a lights-out striker in the Octagon, where he was 34-11, but lost seven of his last nine fights, including one no-decision. If Paul gets past Silva, you can bet he’ll grab a bullhorn and call out, say, Canelo Alvarez. Wait a second … he’s already done that.
Peterson’s glory seasons were with the Vikings, for whom he played through the 2016 season, whereupon he became something of a vagabond ball-carrier for hire, logging cameo stints with the New Orleans Saints, Arizona Cardinals, then-Washington Redskins, Detroit Lions, Tennessee Titans and Seattle Seahawks. Playing in just four games in 2021 with the Titans and Seahawks, he rushed for a total of just 98 yards, seemingly finishing a career that should earn him first-ballot induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame with 14,918 yards, fifth on the all-time list. Bell, 30, had a more abbreviated prime, mostly for the Pittsburgh Steelers with stopovers with the New York Jets, Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was a capable receiver too, apparently finishing his nine-year NFL career with 6,554 rushing yards and 3,289 more through the air.
Given their production while wearing helmets and shoulder pads, Peterson and Bell both express confidence that their transition will be successful, if not necessarily seamless.
“At the end of the day, I’m leaving with a `W,’” Peterson said when asked by an interviewer for his expected outcome.
Countered the slightly favored Bell, mostly based on his being seven years younger and presumably having less wear-and-tear on his body, “I think it’s a great opportunity to showcase my skills and show what I’m working hard on,” he said when asked the same question. “I’m obviously confident in myself.” Another potential factor that might prove to Bell’s advantage is the running style he exhibited to great effect with the Steelers, that being an ability to patiently wait for holes to open, then stomping on the accelerator and bursting through them.
“Picking and choosing your shots,” Bell said of the one trait of his on the field he hopes translates well to the ring. “When to turn it up and when not to. It’s a little different in football. In football, you get a play, you run the play. In boxing there ain’t no play. You get a read on the guy as you go.”
The history of football players who daydream of becoming heavyweight champion of the world – or in whatever weight class they might find themselves – is spotty at best and depressing at worst. Maybe the best of the lot is former San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders wide receiver Charlie Powell, who at one point in the late 1950s rose as high as a No. 2 ranking. At least Powell’s resume, which saw him go 25-11-3 with 17 wins inside the distance and eight losses in similar fashion, was mostly compiled against legitimate competition. He was 5-8-1 in his final 14 appearances, the last of which was a third-round stoppage at the hands of Muhammad Ali, still known then as Cassius Clay, on Jan. 24, 1963.
Many of the football guys following Powell, some of whom were quite accomplished on the field, were able to milk their fame in that sport en route to building artificially inflated records that crumbled like sand castles once they stepped up in class. Cowboys defensive end Ed “Too Tall” Jones tried his hand at boxing for a year and all six of his bouts were nationally televised by CBS. He was 6-0 against a parade of pretenders especially picked for the likelihood they would fall down quickly if hit, but even though he had shown some ability fighting as a young kid, enough to convince one notable observer, Angelo Dundee, with whom Jones was not associated, that he might have had something going had he stuck with it, the fight game is not something you can walk away from for two decades and pick up just like that.
Jets defensive end Mark Gastineau, former NFL single-season record holder for sacks, went 15-2 with 15 KOs in his five years as a pro, but all his wins came against carefully selected designated victims. He retired after being stopped in two one-sided rounds by another former NFL star, running back Alonzo Highsmith, who was 27-1-2 with 23 KOs. Highsmith rightly took umbrage in being compared to the mostly inept Gastineau, but he never took the kind of step-up bouts that might have stamped him as something more viable than a curiosity item.
More recently, there was Golden Boy-backed former Michigan State linebacker Seth Mitchell, whom some saw as a superstar-in-the-making during a quick ascent into semi-prominence. But Mitchell (26-2-1, 19) lost two of his last three fights, both on stoppages, one against Johnathon Banks and a bit later against Chris Arreola, which convinced him that the best way to enjoy the rest of his life was to walk away and stay away from that squared circle.
Still, Peterson and Bell are clinging to the remote possibility that whatever best part of themselves they didn’t leave between those chalked sidelines might be resurrected if they don’t embarrass themselves Saturday night. And you can hardly blame either for daring to think that way. They were, after all, once great at their former jobs. Peterson remarked that he even kayoed an unidentified sparring partner in preparation for squaring off against Bell.
“It was in the last minute of the fifth round,” he recalled. “He threw a good combination. I was able to block (most of the punches). Then I came back with a left and was able to swing through his guard with the right and it landed.
“It didn’t really feel like I hit him with a lot of power, but I was talking to some of the fighters (in his Houston gym) and they said that’s kind of how it goes.”
Sometimes it does go like that for a fighter, even a football player on a busman’s holiday. Then again, a lot of times it does not.
I’ll be interested in reading about how this particular bout goes. And no, I won’t be springing for the PPV.
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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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Cain Sandoval KOs Mark Bernaldez in the Featured Bout at Santa Ynez
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Northern California’s Cain Sandoval remained undefeated with a knockout win over Mark Bernaldez in a super lightweight battle on Friday on a 360 Promotions card.
Sandoval (15-0, 13 KOs) of Sacramento needed four rounds to figure out tough Filipino fighter Bernaldez (25-7, 14 KOs) in front of a packed crowd at Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez.
Bernaldez had gone eight rounds against Mexico’s very tough Oscar Duarte. He showed no fear for Sandoval’s reputed power and both fired bombs at each other from the second round on.
Things turned in favor of Sandoval when he targeted the body and soon had Bernaldez in retreat. It was apparent Sandoval had discovered a weakness.
In the beginning of the fourth Sandoval fired a stiff jab to the body that buckled Bernaldez but he did not go down. And when both resumed in firing position Sandoval connected with an overhand right and down went the Filipino fighter. He was counted out by referee Rudy Barragan at 34 seconds of the round.
“I’m surprised he took my jab to the body. I respect that. I have a knockout and I’m happy about that,” Sandoval said.
Other Bouts
Popular female fighter Lupe Medina (9-0) remained undefeated with a solid victory over the determined Agustina Vazquez (4-3-2) by unanimous decision after eight rounds in a minimumweight fight between Southern Californians.
Early on Vazquez gave Medina trouble disrupting her patter with solid jabs. And when Medina overloaded with combination punches, she was laced with counters from Vazquez during the first four rounds.
Things turned around in the fifth round as Medina used a jab to keep Vazquez at a preferred distance. And when she attacked it was no more than two-punch combination and maintaining a distance.
Vazquez proved determined but discovered clinching was not a good idea as Medina took advantage and overran her with blows. Still, Vazquez looked solid. All three judges saw it 79-73 for Medina.
A battle between Southern Californian’s saw Compton’s Christopher Rios (11-2) put on the pressure all eight rounds against Eastvale’s Daniel Barrera (8-1-1) and emerged the winner by majority decision in a flyweight battle.
It was Barrera’s first loss as a pro. He never could discover how to stay off the ropes and that proved his downfall. Neither fighter was knocked down but one judge saw it 76-76, and two others 79-73 for Rios.
In a welterweight fight Gor Yeritsyan (20-1,16 KOs) scorched Luis Ramos (23-7) with a 12-punch combination the sent him to the mat in the second round. After Ramos beat the count he was met with an eight punch volley and the fight was stopped at 2:11 of the second round by knockout.
Super feather prospect Abel Mejia (7-0, 5 KOs) floored Alfredo Diaz (9-12) in the fifth round but found the Mexican fighter to be very durable in their six-round fight. Mejia caught Diaz with a left hook in the fifth round for a knockdown. But the fight resumed with all three judges scoring it 60-53 for Mejia who fights out of El Modena, Calif.
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The Return of David Alaverdian
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By TSS Special Correspondent David Harazduk — After David Alaverdian (8-0-1, 6 KOs) scored a gritty victory against a tough Nicaraguan journeyman named Enrique Irias, his plans suddenly changed. The flashy flyweight from Nahariya, Israel hoped to face even tougher opposition and then challenge for a world title within a year or so. But a prolonged illness forced David to rip up the script.
The Irias fight was over 22 months ago. On Saturday, Feb. 22, Alaverdian will be making his first appearance in the ring since that win when he faces veteran road warrior Josue “Zurdo” Morales (31-16-4, 13 KOs) at the Westgate Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. It’s the fifth promotion by Las Vegas attorney Stephen Reid whose inaugural card was at this venue on Feb. 13, 2020.
“I’m excited to come back,” Alaverdian declared.
During his preparation for Irias two years ago, Alaverdian felt fatigue after a routine six-round sparring session. “It was on April 1, 2023, about ten days before my fight. It felt like an April Fool’s joke,” he said. He came down with a sore throat, a headache, and congestion. He soon developed trouble breathing. At first, he thought his seasonal asthma had flared up, but his condition soon worsened. No matter what he did, Alaverdian could no longer take deep breaths. Fatigue continued to plague him. His heart constantly raced. Instead of breathing from his diaphragm, he was breathing from his chest. He sought out numerous doctors in the United States and in Israel.
His symptoms were finally diagnosed as Dysfunctional Breathing (DB). DB is a condition that can stem from stress and is often misdiagnosed. Its symptoms include dyspnea and tachycardia, both of which David experienced.
While receiving treatment, the Vegas-based pro went back to Israel where he coached aspiring fighters. “David’s influence on Israeli boxing is amazing, because he shows we can succeed in a big business even though we come from a small country,” said another undefeated Israeli flyweight, 20-year-old Yonatan Landman (7-0, 7 KOs). “A lot more Israelis are going to dare to succeed.”
Landman was able to work with Alaverdian during David’s return to Israel. “He is a great guy and a friend,” Landman said. “He has a lot of willingness to help, share his knowledge, and help you move forward.”
Alaverdian finally started to feel like he could compete again eight months ago. He won last year’s Israeli national amateur championship and competed in Olympic qualifiers. Now, he’s preparing to fight as a professional once again. “He doesn’t mention anything about [his breathing issues] like he did before,” his coach Cedric Ferguson said about this camp. “He’s been working like there’s no issue at all.”
It has been a whirlwind week for the 31-year-old Alaverdian. In addition to putting the finishing touches on his preparation ahead of Saturday’s comeback fight, David got married on Tuesday. His mom came over from Israel for the wedding and will stay for the fight. “It’s a good distraction,” David said of this week’s significant events. “It helps me. That way I don’t have to focus on the fight all day.”
Josue Morales, a 32 year old from Houston, hopes to play spoiler on Saturday. The crafty southpaw has never been stopped during his 52-fight career. “He’s a seasoned guy with a lot of experience,” Alaverdian said of Morales. “He knows how to move around the ring and is more of a technical boxer. He’s a tough opponent for someone who has been out of the ring for two years.”
A win Saturday night would complete a monumental week for David Alaverdian, both in and out of the ring, repairing the once-shredded script.
Doors open at the Westgate fight arena at 6:30 pm. The first bout goes at 7:00. Seven fights are scheduled including an 8-round female fight between Las Vegas light flyweight Yadira Bustillos and Argentine veteran Tamara Demarco.
NOTE: Author David Harazduk has run The Jewish Boxing Blog since 2010. You can find him at Twitter/X @JewishBoxing and Instagram.
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Two Candidates for the Greatest Fight Card in Boxing History
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Two Candidates for the Greatest Fight Card in Boxing History
Saturday’s fight card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, topped by the rematch between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol for undisputed light heavyweight supremacy, was being hyped as the greatest boxing card ever. That was before Daniel Dubois took ill and had to pull out of his IBF world heavyweight title defense against Joseph Parker, yielding his slot to last-minute replacement Martin Bakole.
The view from here is that the card remains in the running for the best fight card ever, top to bottom. The public didn’t view Dubois as the legitimate heavyweight champion. That distinction goes to Oleksandr Usyk.
Terms like “greatest” are, of course, subjective. Are we referring to the most attractive match-ups or the greatest array of talent, or the card that gives the most satisfaction by churning out a multiplicity of entertaining fights?
We won’t know how satisfying this card is until after the fact. We won’t know whether the talent on display was the greatest ever assembled on one night until many years have passed. Contestants such as Shakur Stevenson, Vergil Ortiz Jr, and Hamzah Sheeraz are still in their twenties (Stevenson is the oldest of the three at age 27) and it’s too soon to gauge if they will leave the sport with a great legacy.
As for which fight card in history had the deepest pool of attractive match-ups, this is a query that is amenable to an operational definition. Betting lines are a useful tool for informing us whether or not a fight warrants our attention if the likelihood of witnessing a closely-contested bout is our primary consideration.
Based on these factors, I would submit that the current leader in the race for the best card ever assembled goes to Don King’s May 7, 1994 promotion at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Six future Hall of Famers – Julio Cesar Chavez, Ricardo Lopez, Azumah Nelson, Terry Norris, Julian Jackson, and Christy Martin — were on that card, an 11-fight, eight-hour marathon with five WBC world title fights, four of which were rematches.
These were the five title fights:
140 pounds: Julio Cesar Chavez (89-1-1, 77 KOs) vs. Frankie Randall (49-2-1, 39 KOs)
Odds: Chavez 3/1 (minus-300)
154 pounds: Terry Norris (37-4, 23 KOs) vs. Simon Brown (41-2, 30 KOs)
Odds: even (11/10 and take your pick)
160 pounds: Gerald McClellan (30-2, 28 KOs) vs. Julian Jackson (48-2, 45 KOs)
Odds: McClellan 7/2 (minus-350)
130 pounds: Azumah Nelson (37-2-2, 26 KOs) vs. Jesse James Leija (27-0-2, 13 KOs)
Odds: Nelson 17/10 (minus-170)
105 pounds: Ricardo Lopez (36-0, 27 KOs) vs. Kermin Guardia (21-0, 14 KOs)
Odds: none
Results
Chavez-Randall — Julio Cesar Chavez avenged his loss to Frankie Randall, but not without controversy. An accidental clash of heads in the eighth round left Chavez with a bad gash on his forehead. Ring physician Flip Homansky would have allowed the bout to continue if that had been Chavez’s preference, but El Gran Campeon wasn’t so inclined. A WBC rule specified that in the event of a significant injury accruing from an accidental head butt, the less-damaged fighter is penalized a point. The fight went to the scorecards where Chavez won a split decision that would have been a draw without the point deduction. The crowd was overwhelmingly pro-Chavez, but the big bets were mostly on Randall and the odds got nicked down on the day of the fight.
Brown-Norris — In their first meeting in December of the previous year, Simon Brown dominated Terry Norris from the opening bell before stopping him in the fourth round. It was a massive upset. Norris was in the conversation for the top pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. In the rematch, Norris opened a slight favorite, but the late money was on Brown. And, once again, the so-called “sharps” were on the wrong side. Terry Norris, the would-be avenger, won a comfortable decision.
McClellan-Jackson — A murderous puncher, Gerald McClellan bombed out Julian Jackson in 83 seconds, or four rounds quicker than in their first engagement. Jackson was also a murderous puncher and attracted money in the sports books, lowering the price on the victorious McClellan who yet remained a solid favorite.
Nelson-Leija – WBC President Jose Sulaiman mandated this rematch after the first meeting ended in a draw after an error was found in the tabulation of one of the scorecards, overturning the original verdict which had Nelson retaining his title on a split decision. Leija thought he was robbed and was the rightful winner in the do-over, outworking Nelson to win a unanimous decision. At age 35, Azumah was getting long in the tooth.
Lopez-Guardia – Before the digital age, bookmakers didn’t trifle to post lines on bouts that on paper were egregious mismatches, save perhaps a fight of great magnitude. Guardia, the Colombian challenger, overachieved by lasting the distance in a fight with no knockdowns, but “Finito” won a lopsided decision.
A Note on Odds
Betting lines serve a useful purpose for boxing historians; they quantify the magnitude of an upset. However, quoting odds is tricky because they are fluid and vary somewhat from place to place. What this means is that two journalists can quote different odds on the same event and they both can get it right – unless there is a significant disparity. The odds quoted above are the closing lines at the MGM Grand or, at the very least, a very close approximation.
Saturday in Riyadh
One reason why tomorrow’s fight card is the best ever, said the tub-thumpers, is that the card (in its original conformation) included seven world title fights. But that’s no big deal There are so many title fights nowadays that the term “world title” has been trivialized. And what wasn’t acknowledged is that three of the title fights were of the “interim” stripe.
However – and this is a big deal — a glance at the odds informs us that tomorrow’s card is chock-full of competitive match-ups (at least on paper) and from that aspect, a blend of quality and quantity, it is a doozy of a boxing card.
The greatest boxing linemaker of my generation, now deceased, once told me that any fight where the “chalk” was less than a 3/1 favorite is essentially a “pick-‘em” fight. Yes, I know that makes no sense mathematically. However, I know what he was getting at. In a baseball game, for example, it’s very rare to find a team favored by odds of more than 3/1. In boxing, where self-serving promoters are constantly feeding us King Kong vs. Mickey Mouse, odds higher than 3/1 are the norm.
As this is being written, there are six fights on Saturday’s card where one could play the favorite without laying more than 3/1. I believe this is unprecedented. Moreover, the main event and a fascinating match-up on the undercard, Vergil Ortiz Jr vs Israil Madrimov, are virtual toss-ups with the favorites, Beterbiev and Ortiz, currently available at 5/4 (minus-125). Another very intriguing fight is the heavyweight contest between late bloomers Agit Kabayel and Zhilei Zhang which finds the less-heralded Kabayel cloaked as a small favorite. And kudos to Joseph Parker for accepting Martin Bakole when he could have held out for a lesser opponent. If Bakole is in shape (a big “if”), he will be a handful.
And so, where does tomorrow’s card rank on the list of best boxing cards ever? Right up there near the top, we would argue, and, if the bouts in large part are memorably entertaining, we would push it ahead of Don King’s May 7, 1994 extravaganza.
That’s the view from here. Feel free to dissent.
Postscript: If you plan to watch the entire card ($25.99 on DAZN for U.S. buyers), it would help to stock up on some munchies. The first fight (Joshua Buatsi vs. Callum Smith) is scheduled to kick off at 8:45 a.m. for us viewers in the Pacific Time Zone / 11:45 a.m. ET. If the show adheres tight to its schedule (no guarantee), Beterbiev and Bivol are expected to enter the ring at 3:00 p.m. PT/6:00 p.m. ET.
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