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For Whom the Bell Tolled: 2022 Boxing Obituaries PART ONE (Jan.-June)
The American flag at the International Boxing Hall of Fame in the village of Canastota is lowered to half-mast whenever a person enshrined in the Hall passes away. That exercise was performed six times in 2022. Among the leave-takers were two all-time greats, the fighter widely considered the best bantamweight ever and the first boxer of Puerto Rican descent to be inducted into the upstate New York shrine.
Here, in our annual year-end report, we pay homage to those six and other boxing notables who departed this earthly realm during the past year.
January
Jan. 5 – JOSEPHINE ABERCROMBIE. Heiress to a Texas oil fortune, Abercrombie founded the Houston Boxing Association in 1982 and for the next seven years was a force on the national boxing scene. The HBA stable included such notables as Frank Tate, Calvin Grove, and Orlando Canizales, all future champions. At age 95 at her thoroughbred horse farm in Versailles, Kentucky.
Jan. 7 – AREST SAAKYAN. The first ring fatality of 2022, Saakyan was knocked out in the eighth and final round of a match in Tolyatti, Russia, and spent 12 days in a coma before he was taken off life support. A super middleweight, Saakyan was 6-2 heading in. He was 26 years old.
Jan. 12 – MARION CONNER. A journeyman light heavyweight who finished 29-23-2, Conner fought extensively in Boston where he split two fights with Tom McNeeley in bouts billed for the New England heavyweight title. He gave up 30 pounds to McNeeley and 20 pounds to Joe Frazier who stopped him in three. At age 81 in Canton, Ohio, his lifelong home, where he was a pillar of the community.
Jan. 20 – BERNARDO CARABALLO. The first Colombian to fight for a world title, Caraballo, a bantamweight, came up short in matches with Eder Jofre (L KO 7) and Fighting Harada (L UD 15). He finished 69-18-5 in a 17-year career that began in 1961. At age 87 in Cartagena where an arena is named for him.
Jan. 20 – PERCY PUGH. A slick boxer who would have gone further if he had packed a harder punch, Pugh fought mostly in his hometown of New Orleans. Remembered for his 4-fight series with future world title-holder Billy Backus, he spent 46 months in the Top 10 of the welterweight rankings of The Ring magazine, advancing to #1 after defeating Oscar Albarado in 1970. At age 81 in New Orleans.
Jan. 23 – ALAIN RUOCCO. He won and lost the French welterweight title in bouts with future world title challenger Louis Acaries and finished 29-8-1 in a 10-year career that began in 1970. In retirement he founded a boxing club and became one of France’s most notable trainers. In Toulon, his lifelong home, at age 76 after suffering a debilitating stroke.
Jan. 25 – BRIAN HUGHES, MBE. A legend in British amateur boxing circles, he produced several British, European, and world title-holders at the Collyhurst Lads Club in Manchester, the gym he founded in 1964. Honored for his work in the community at Buckingham Palace in 2000, he authored several small bios of sporting personalities including Jock McAvoy and Thomas Hearns. At age 82 in Manchester.
February
Feb. 1 – MEL BARKER. From Rockdale, Texas, Barker turned pro in 1955 at age 19 and was a headline attraction in the Lone Star State while his career was still in its infancy. He fought some of the top welterweights of his era and was stopped only twice, finishing 29-17-7. In Austin, Texas, at age 86 where he owned a roofing company.
Feb. 4 – ZOLANI MARALI. Competing primarily as a junior lightweight, he finished 24-6 in a career that began in 2001 in South Africa and ended in 2115 in Namibia. Along the way, he acquired world title belts from two different fringe organizations. At age 46 in Johannesburg where he was shot dead in a presumed gangland hit.
Feb. 9 – RONNIE RUSH. Born in Trinidad, Rush, a junior welterweight, turned pro in 1956 after moving to the U.K. His career was unexceptional (15-16-4) but he achieved local renown as a trainer in Cardiff, Wales, where his pupils included Jane Couch, the first licensed female boxer in Great Britain, and WBO world featherweight title-holder Steve Robinson. At age 87 at a Cardiff nursing home where he was suffering from dementia.
Feb. 15 – BOBBY NEILL. A hard-punching featherweight, born in Scotland, Neill finished 28-7 and briefly held the British 126-pound title. His final fight left him in a coma, but he recovered and remained in boxing as a trainer, steering Alan Minter and Lloyd Honeyghan to world titles. At age 88 in London from COVID-19 complications.
Feb. 17 – GUISSEPE “BEPI” ROS. A bronze medalist at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Ros won and lost the Italian heavyweight title three times. He finished 42-16-2 and was stopped only once in a 12-year career that began in 1965. Ros was suffering from Alzheimer’s when he died from COVID-19 complications in Treviso, Italy, at age 79.
Feb. 25 – EDDIE OWENS. A lifelong resident of Massachusetts, “Red Top” Owens evolved from a leading light heavyweight contender into an “opponent” during a 14-year career in which he finished 39-35-3. In retirement, he worked as a Deputy Sheriff for Hamden County which includes the city of Springfield where he died at age 81.
March
March 2 – ROBERT COHEN. Born in Algeria when that country was a French territory, Cohen was the toast of Paris after winning the vacant world bantamweight title in 1954 before a hostile crowd of 60,000 in Bangkok, Thailand. Plagued by injuries, he lost the title in his second defense and retired two years later with a record of 36-3-3. At age 91 in Brussels, Belgium, where he worked in his father-in-law’s textile business.
March 2 – MIKE MARLEY. At various times a production assistant for Howard Cosell, a PR man for Don King, and the acerbic boxing writer of the New York Post, the multi-faceted Marley, a colorful character, first got involved in boxing at age 13 when he started a fan club for Cassius Clay. At age 71 in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, from complications of Parkinson’s.
March 3 – HERU TITO. Born Heru Putwanto, he succumbed to a head injury suffered in a match four days earlier in Jakarta, Indonesia. A former regional title-holder at 130 pounds, Tito left the ring on a stretcher and never regained consciousness. He was 33 years old.
March 7 – BERKRERK CHARTVANCHAI. A national Muay Thai champion before transitioning to boxing, he became the third fighter from Thailand to win the world flyweight title when he outpointed Bernabe Villacampo in 1970. His reign didn’t last long and he left the sport with a 29-8-3 record, retiring to the life of a postal worker. At age 77 at his home in a suburb of Bangkok.
March 7 – RON STANDER. A brawler from Council Bluffs, Iowa, the “Bluffs Butcher” had two claims to fame. In 1970, he knocked out Earnie Shavers. Three years later, in what has been called the greatest sporting event ever in Omaha, he went four lopsided rounds with heavyweight champion Joe Frazier in a match that was stopped on cuts. In Ralston, Nebraska, at age 77 from complications of diabetes.
April
April 4 – JOHN McNALLY. “Gentleman John” was the first Irish boxer to win an Olympic medal, winning silver at the 1952 Helsinki Games after losing a controversial decision to his Finnish opponent in the finals. He had a brieg pro career, finishing 14-9-2 and then became a professional banjo player as a founding member of a popular Irish folk band. At age 89 in his native Belfast, NI.
April 5 – BORIS POWELL. A national Golden Gloves champion in 1989, Powell, a crafty southpaw, was 30-2 as a pro with one of the losses coming at the hands of future world heavyweight title-holder John Ruiz. At age 57 in his native St. Louis after a 19-month battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease.
April 16 – AKIO KAMEDA. A rangy southpaw, Kameda had two cracks at the 140-pound world title in the 1980s. He was stopped in six by Aaron Pryor and stopped in seven by Terry Marsh in what was the final fight for both. He finished 27-4 (21). In retirement he worked as a karate instructor and an herbalist. At age 65 in Tokyo of rectal cancer.
May
May 7 – JUERGEN BLIN. Born on a German island in the Baltic Sea, Blin was a butcher by trade before taking up boxing. Knocked out in round seven by Muhammad Ali in 1971, he went on to win the European Heavyweight Title, avenging in earlier defeat to Spain’s Jose Manuel Urtain. He finished 30-12-6. At age 79 in Reinbeck, Germany, from renal disease.
May 14 – MUSA ASKAN YAMAK. A light heavyweight, Yamak suffered a fatal heart attack in a bout at a community center in Garting, Germany. He collapsed after two rounds of action and could not be revived. A 38-year-old native of Turkey, he was 8-0 with 8 KOs heading in.
May 21 — LES BONANO. A former New Orleans police officer, Bonano was the linchpin of boxing in the New Orleans area for more than four decades. In 1974, he started an intramural boxing program at the Orleans Parish Prison and branched out from there, becoming a man who wore many hats — trainer, gym operator, manager, promoter, etc. At age 79 at his home in Slidell, Louisiana.
May 22 – OLEG PRUDKY. A two-time Ukrainian amateur champion whose best win was a 5-round decision over current IBF super featherweight champion Joe Cordina, Prudky was a war casualty, dying at age 30 while defending his hometown of Cherkasy against Russian invaders. He left behind a wife and two young children.
May 31 – JOHNNY MOLNAR. The Middletown, New Jersey welterweight finished 20-2-2 (10) in an eight-year career that began in 1997 and he had the distinction of appearing in the first “ShoBox” fight, overcoming Victor Rosado at Bally’s Park Place in Atlantic City. He was 47 when he died in an industrial accident at his workplace, a sewerage plant in Middletown.
June
June 7 – SIMISO BUTHELEZI. In the final round of a 10-round fight in Durban, the South African lightweight became disoriented, flailing away with his opponent out of range. The fight was immediately stopped and he was removed to a hospital where he died two days later from a brain bleed. A recent college graduate, Buthelezi, 24, was 4-0 heading in and participating in his first 10-round fight.
June 13 – CARLOS ORTIZ. The first Puerto Rican elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame, Ortiz won world titles at 140 and 135, in that order. A two-time world lightweight champion, he was 11-2 in lineal title fights and 61-7-1 overall in an 18-year career that began in 1955. At age 85 in the Bronx where he resided for more than 70 years.
June 20 – EDDIE HOPSON. A national Golden Gloves champion at 125 pounds, the St. Louis southpaw — known for his exceptionally fast hands – won the IBF world super featherweight title in 1995, but lost it in his first defense on a TKO to Tracy Harris Patterson. He finished 30-2 (14). At age 50 in St. Louis from complications of pancreatitis.
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 308: SoCal Rivals Rocha and Curiel Rumble and More
Avila Perspective, Chap. 308: SoCal Rivals Rocha and Curiel Rumble and More
Decades ago, battles between regional warriors were as common as freeway traffic in Los Angeles during rush hour.
Bobby Chacon repped San Fernando Valley, Mando Ramos came from the docks of San Pedro, Danny “Little Red” Lopez lived in Alhambra and Ruben “Maravilla Kid” Navarro hailed from East L.A. And they rumbled repeatedly with each other.
The boxing sphere in California has grown much larger despite the closure of boxing palaces such as the Olympic Auditorium, Hollywood Legion Stadium, Great Western Forum, the L.A. Coliseum and Wrigley Field.
Those were classic venues.
Today in the 21st century boxing continues to grow.
Golden Boy Promotions presents SoCal regional rivals Santa Ana’s Alexis Rocha (25-2, 16 KOs) facing Hollywood’s Raul Curiel (15-0,13 KOs) in a welterweight clash on Saturday, Dec. 14, at Toyota Arena in Ontario, Calif. DAZN will stream the main card and YouTube.com the remainder.
Ontario is located in the Inland Empire known as the I.E.
Rocha, 27, has grown into a crowd favorite with a crowd-pleasing style developed by Orange County boxing trainer Hector Lopez. I remember his pro debut at Belasco Theater in downtown L.A. He obliterated his foe in three rounds and the small venue erupted with applause.
Wherever Rocha goes to fight, his fans follow.
“Anyone I face is trying to take food away from my family,” said Rocha.
Curiel, 29, has traveled a different road. As a former Mexican Olympian he took the slower road toward adapting to the professional style. Freddie Roach has refined the Mexican fighter’s style and so far, he remains unbeaten with a 10-fight knockout streak.
“I want to fight the best in the division,” said Curiel who is originally from Guadalajara.
Super welter hitters
Another top-notch fighter on the card is super welterweight Charles Conwell from Cleveland, Ohio. Conwell (20-0, 15 KOs) faces Argentina’s undefeated Gerardo Vergara (20-0, 13 KOs) in the co-main event.
Conwell may be the best kept secret in boxing and has been dominating foes for the past several years. He has solid defense, good power and is very strong for this weight class. Very Strong.
“I got to go out there and dominate,” said Conwell. “This is a fight that can lead me to a world championship fight.”
Golden Boy Promotions got lucky in picking up this fighter who could compete with any super welterweight out there. Anyone.
Vergara, 30, is another Argentine product and if you know anything about that South American country, they groom strong fighters with power. Think Marcos Maidana. This will be his first true test.
“I really hope he (Conwell) backs what he is saying,” said Vergara.
Marlen Esparza vs Arely Mucino
Former flyweight world titlists finally meet, but at super flyweight.
Olympic bronze medalist Marlen Esparza fights Mexico’s Arely Mucino in a fight that should have taken place years ago. Both are both coming off losses in title fights.
Esparza has the “fast hands” as she said and Mucino the “aggressive style” as she mentioned at the press conference on Thursday in Ontario.
It’s a 10-round affair and could mark the end for the loser.
Friday Night Fights
Undefeated middleweight Sadridden Akhmedov (14-0, 12 KOs) headlines a 360 Promotions and faces Raphael Igbokwe (17-5, 7 KOs) in the main event on Friday, Dec. 13, at Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez, Calif. UFC Fight Pass will stream the event.
Akhmedov hails from Kazakhstan and if you remember legendary Gennady “Triple G” Golovkin also hails from that region. Tom Loeffler the head of 360 Promotions worked with GGG too among other legends.
Is Akhmedov the real deal?
Former American Olympian Carlos Balderas (14-2) is also on the card and fights veteran Cesar Villarraga (11-10-1) who has been known to upset favorites in the past.
Fights to Watch
Fri. UFC Fight Pass 7 p.m. Sadridden Akhmedov (14-0) vs Raphael Igbokwe (17-5).
Sat. DAZN 10:30 a.m. Murodjon Akhmadaliev (12-1) vs Ricardo Espinoza (30-4).
Sat. DAZN 5 p.m. Alexis Rocha (25-2) vs Raul Curiel (15-0); Charles Conwell (20-0) vs Gerardo Vergara (20-0); Marlen Esparza (14-2) vs Arely Mucino (32-4-2).
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Cardoso, Nunez, and Akitsugi Bring Home the Bacon in Plant City
Cardoso, Nunez, and Akitsugi Bring Home the Bacon in Plant City
The final ShoBox event of 2025 played out tonight at the company’s regular staging ground in Plant City, Florida. When the smoke cleared, the “A-side” fighters in the featured bouts were 3-0 in step-up fights vs. battle-tested veterans, two of whom were former world title challengers. However, the victors in none of the three fights, with the arguable exception of lanky bantamweight Katsuma Akitsugi, made any great gain in public esteem.
In the main event, a lightweight affair, Jonhatan Cardoso, a 25-year-old Brazilian, earned a hard-fought, 10-round unanimous decision over Los Mochis, Mexico southpaw Eduardo Ramirez. The decision would have been acceptable to most neutral observers if it had been deemed a draw, but the Brazilian won by scores of 97-93 and 96-94 twice.
Cardoso, now 18-1 (15), had the crowd in his corner., This was his fourth straight appearance in Plant City. Ramirez, disadvantaged by being the smaller man with a shorter reach, declined to 28-5-3.
Co-Feature
In a 10-round featherweight fight that had no indelible moments, Luis Reynaldo Nunez advanced to 20-0 (13) with a workmanlike 10-round unanimous decision over Mexico’s Leonardo Baez. The judges had it 99-91 and 98-92 twice.
Nunez, from the Dominican Republic, is an economical fighter who fights behind a tight guard. Reputedly 85-5 as an amateur, he is managed by Sampson Lewkowicz who handles David Benavidez among others and trained by Bob Santos. Baez (22-5) was returning to the ring after a two-year hiatus.
Also
In a contest slated for “10,” ever-improving bantamweight Katsuma Akitsugi improved to 12-0 (3 KOs) with a sixth-round stoppage of Filipino import Aston Palicte (28-7-1). Akitsugi caught Palicte against the ropes and unleashed a flurry of punches climaxed by a right hook. Palicte went down and was unable to beat the count. The official time was 1:07 of round six.
This was the third straight win by stoppage for Akitsugi, a 27-year-old southpaw who trains at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card gym in LA under Roach’s assistant Eddie Hernandez. Palicte, who had been out of the ring for 16 months, is a former two-time world title challenger at superflyweight (115).
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Introducing Jaylan Phillips, Boxing’s Palindrome Man
On Thursday, Nov. 28, as Americans hunkered down at the dinner table with family and friends for our annual Thanksgiving Day feast, junior welterweight Jaylan Phillips and his trainer Kevin Henry were up in the sky flying from Las Vegas to Rochester, New York. For their Thanksgiving repast, they were offered a tiny bag of peanuts.
Phillips would not have eaten too much had the opportunity presented itself. The next day was the weigh-in. On Saturday, the 30th, he would compete in the 6-round main event of a small club show.
Phillips wasn’t brought to Rochester to win. His opponent, Wilfredo Flores, had a checkered career but he had once held a regional title and he lived in the general area. In boxing parlance, Jaylan Phillips was the “B” side. His role, from the promoter’s standpoint, was to fatten the record of the house fighter.
Jaylan didn’t follow the script. He won a unanimous decision over his 11-3-1 opponent, advancing his record to 4-3-4, and returned to Las Vegas with a new nickname, albeit not one of his own choosing or intended as a permanent accessory. This reporter dubbed him The Palindrome Man.
A palindrome is a word that spells the same backward and forward. Phillips’ current record is palindrome-ish.
It’s an odd record. One would be hard-pressed to find other active boxers with a slew of draws inside a small window of fights. It harks to the days, circa 1900, when some journeymen boxers accumulated as many draws as wins and losses combined.
A boxer with a 4-3-4 record would seem to be an unlikely candidate for a feature story, but the affable Jaylan Phillips is not your run-of-the-mill prizefighter.
Boxers, as we know, tend to be city folk, drawn from the black belts and the barrios of America’s urban places. Phillips grew up in Ebro, Florida, population 237 per the 2020 U.S. census. Ebro is in the Florida panhandle in the northwestern part of the state in a county that was dry until 2022. It is 23 miles due north of Panama City Beach but a world apart from the seaside Florida resort town and its pricey beachfront condos.
Of those 237 people, only five identified as African-American or black, or so it would be written, but the census-taker was obviously slothful. “That’s a crazy number,” says Phillips. “There has to be at least 40 or 50. And the reason I know that is that we are all related.”
“What does one do for excitement in Ebro?” we asked him. “Hunting, fishing, trapping, that sort of thing,” he said. And what does one trap? “Mostly raccoons,” he said, while adding that some of the elders in his extended family consider it a delicacy.
Phillips fought in Rochester, New York, on Saturday and was back in the gym in Las Vegas on Tuesday. He lives alone and does not own a car. His apartment, near UNLV, is three-and-a-half miles from the Top Rank Gym where he does most of his training. He jogs there and then jogs home again, this in a city where the temperature routinely exceeds 100 degrees for much of the year.
During his high school years, Phillips, now 25, concedes that he smoked a lot of weed and it impacted his grades. His interest in boxing was fueled by the exploits of Roy Jones Jr, another fighter with roots in the Florida panhandle. In his spare time, he enjoys watching tapes of old Sugar Ray Robinson fights which can be found on youtube. “He was the best,” says Phillips of Robinson who has been dead for 35 years, echoing an opinion that hasn’t diminished with the passage of time.
In his second pro fight, Phillips was thrust against a baby-faced novice from Cleveland, Abdullah Mason. Although Mason was only 17 years old, the Top Rank matchmaker did Jaylan no favors. He was still standing when the referee waived the fight off in the second round.
About the heavily-hyped Mason, Phillips says, “He’s a beast, like they say, but I would love to fight him again. I took that fight on two weeks’ notice. I’m confident the outcome would have been different if I had had a full camp.”
This observation will undoubtedly strike some as a delusion. Pound for pound, the precocious Mason just may be the top pro fighter in the world in his age group. But Jaylan isn’t lacking confidence which spills over when he talks about what lies ahead for him. “I will be a world champion,” he says matter-of-factly. And after boxing? “I see myself back home in Ebro living a humble life, hunting and fishing, but with a million dollars in the bank.”
If unswerving dedication and self-confidence are the keys to a successful boxing career, then Jaylan Phillips, notwithstanding his 4-3-4 record, is destined for big things. But here’s the rub:
“In boxing, it isn’t what you earn, but what you negotiate,” says the esteemed British boxing pundit Steve Bunce alluding to the importance of a well-connected manager. In a perfect world, each win would be stepping-stone to a bigger fight with a commensurately larger purse. But in this chaotic sport, a “B side” fighter who scores an upset in a low-level fight may actually be penalized for his “impertinence.” Promoters may be wary of using him again (the old “risk/reward” encumbrance) and, in a sport where it’s important for an up-and-comer to stay busy, his progress may be stalled.
Phillips doesn’t know when his next assignment will materialize, but regardless he will keep plugging along while setting an example that others who aspire to greatness would be wise to emulate.
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