A Closer Look at Jack vs Makabu: A Very Modern Crossroads Fight

Published

1 year ago

February 20, 2023

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Crossroads fights in the 1930s were about ranked contenders vying for a shot at one of only eight championships in all the world. In the 1980s, crossroads combat tended to consist of a past-prime former contender meeting with an up-and-comer in pursuit of one of three belts. Today, in 2023, a crossroads match in the cruiserweight division looks like Ilunga Junior Makabu (29-2) defending his dusty strap against a man that used to hold one of his own at 168 and 175lbs, Badou Jack (27-3-3) this weekend in Saudi Arabia.

Jack’s career has been a mess of confusion. From the moment he stepped into the ring to box for an alphabet title, his ground has been unsure. Jack met with Anthony Dirrell in 2015 at 168lbs for his first bauble, Dirrell sweeping in with single right hands, Jack returning the favour, each trying to counter the other’s jabs. At no time did either man establish dominance and at no time was a decision sure but Jack probably, barely, deserved the majority nod he received. In his first defence Jack met George Groves in a fight I scored a draw where Jack came away with a split. His second defence against Lucian Bute was scored a majority draw, later altered to a disqualification victory for Jack because of Bute’s use of Ostarine. Still with me?

Jack then boxed two more majority draws, this time with James De Gale, who lost a tooth during the fight but apparently managed to bank enough rounds to escape unbeaten (I thought Jack was a little unlucky), in defence of his 168lb strap; then against Adonis Stevenson (the luck here may have run for rather than against him), this time in defence of the 175lb strap he’d picked up against Nathan Cleverly. Three majority draws, a split decision win, a majority decision win and a disqualification win later, Jack finally dropped his title to Marcus Browne. After returning to form with a desperately close decision loss to Jean Pascal in 2019, Jack left 168 and 175 behind forever, departing for cruiserweight. He also began treading water, short of title-boxing and serious purses.

Confusion, too, has been the watchword of the world’s number four cruiserweight Ilunga Junior Makabu, but there was no uncertainty about his 2016 match with Tony Bellew where Makabu was butchered in three. It took him three years to return to the top-tier, against the Russian Aleksei Papin against whom he achieved a majority decision. In truth Makabu looked a winner in that fight, the drilled straight left Makabu seated Papin with in the twelfth seemingly the cherry on a cake made up predominantly of vicious body-punching. The judges though, saw that knockdown as all that separated the two men from a draw. Nevertheless, Makabu was able to return to the Congo for his shot at a belt, beating Michal Cieslak in a torrid affair that perhaps should not have been scored a split – Makabu took it clear. After one more defence in Congo, Makabu put his feet up. He did not box a single contest in the whole of 2021. In January of 2022 he travelled to America for the first time and under the auspices of Don King put his belt on the line against South African Thabiso Mchunu. The result was a fight so close that any narrow card is reasonable – Makabu got the split decision win.

Indeed, Makabu apparently found the decision so desperate that he rewarded himself with the rest of the year off. His story, for all that it is a tale of narrow margins, is somewhat redemptive, but in boxing just once in twenty-six months, he has rendered himself all-but irrelevant despite the strap he wears. He has clung on to his ranking by virtue of modern boxing’s tolerance for inactivity and a formerly thriving 200lb division bereft of intrigue in the wake of Oleksandr Usyk and Murat Gassiev but, in reality, should Makabu lose to Jack this weekend, he is 1-1 since 2020 and the single win is a questionable one. Makabu has been brought to the cusp of gatekeeper status by the most modern of fistic malaise, inactivity. He doesn’t fight so he can’t win – but he also can’t lose which means he has yet to be eliminated.

Explicitly, though, there is nowhere for the thirty-five-year-old Makabu to go should he lose to Jack. Jack, for his part, has been much more active but at a lower level. Out twice in 2022, he knocked out the hapless Hany Atiyo in a round before facing off against his first legitimate test since his loss to Jean Pascal, meeting the American prospect Richard Rivera on the undercard of the Usyk-Anthony Joshua rematch. Many considered Jack a little lucky to get the decision that night but I was not among them. I thought Jack made it close enough that the cards were reasonable and he landed some of the better punches in the fight, including a fizzing right hand at the beginning of the sixth. Jack was at his best throwing such sudden punches, all whip and torque, speedy and unexpected, but a lot of these gifts have departed him now. Jack is thirty-nine and the 168lb fighter that out-slicked Dirrell is gone. Jack cuts a ponderous figure in the ring, slow, fleshy, more than capable of the occasional flighted power-punch but probably no longer able to sustain such punches in bunches.

Still, ponderous but far from unsure. Jack always had one of the better static defences in boxing, another modern manifestation and one that has come about due to changes in the rules. The removal of the thumb and the increased weight of boxing gloves has made defending against weaved punches, already less effective due to the reduce nimbleness in the glove, easier: stick the mitts to the face and tuck in those elbows. Jack was never difficult to hit, but he was always difficult to hit clean and this is an art he has perfected. The reason I thought Jack did better against Rivera than many is that many of Rivera’s punches slid off those gloves by my eye. Jack relies on clean-eyed judging now, but it is a valid form of defence. It has covered for his diminished mobility.

Only on defence though – Jack isn’t going to be able to cut off the ring on many younger cruiserweights. This is in interesting opposition to Makabu’s stylistic cornerstones though; Makabu isn’t going to be running. Makabu’s problems are as old as the sport in that he has to get closer to taller, rangier foes. This has seen him develop a fascinating offensive strategy built around a fine judge of the distance. Makabu “dashes” his offence, quick punches from many different angles, he loves bodyshots, but he uses them to buy headshots, he has a stiff jab, but it is short so he uses the full range of attacking planes to buy himself that punch. In short, he is one big cruiserweight feint, a trickster masquerading as a slugger, a veteran before his time and legitimately one now. He will be right in front of Jack, who will not have to look for him.

Ilunga Makabu

Makabu, though, has become skilled at distance and controlled punching specifically because of his stature relative to his division. He is usually the shorter man with the shorter reach. In his last fight though, he was neither and clearly this threw him stylistically. Thabiso Mchunu has in many ways demonstrated just how a naturally smaller man might handle Makabu. Jack is strategically adept and will be watching that fight. What he will see is that a general defence – his defence – is more efficient here than a punch-picking defence. He will also see that Makabu is there for the type of sudden, unexpected leads that he used to be known for. This is a tantalising combination in any circumstances, but at the crossroads, it will be all the more so. Jack’s shorter reach will likely be no handicap.

Makabu’s strategy will likely hang upon a body-attack that for Jack, soft at the weight, could prove to be a painful one. Could it be that this most cerebral of confrontations could come down to the oldest cliché of them all: who wants it most? It is not impossible. Certainly the equivalent fight fought between much younger, more active fighters in a bygone era could easily have fallen into that type of violence, here it is just one of many possibilities. Will Makabu be rusty, and if so for how long? If he is, can Jack shake off that usual slow start, and if he can, how will that sit with his thirty-nine-year-old frame in rounds ten and eleven? Can Makabu’s variety crystalise to the punches that pierce the Jack guard, and if they do, can Jack uncork enough of those lashing, uncovered right hands to compensate?

There is much to be seen here and it will be seen by millions as this strange contest appears on the undercard of one even stranger. In a final and most modern of twists, Jack and Makabu will box on the undercard of the Tommy Fury-Jake Paul event, subservient to two reality tv stars. Hardcore fight fans such as those that make up the Sweet Science readership will have to decide whether to put money in the pockets of these reality tv stars in order to see Jack-Makabu. It is harder to think of a more complete summary of the strange world of boxing in 2023.

I will be sitting this one out but equally I’ll be looking for news of this crossroads contest that will set the winner on the road to a potentially lucrative showdown with Lawrence Okolie who has the promotional clout to bring the belt to Britain, but sets the loser on the road to retirement. I cannot imagine anyone wanting to see a forty-year-old Badou Jack take another tilt at cruiserweight gold in 2024; should Makabu lose, late 2024 would be about when we could expect to see him again.

In the end, I expect the man to lose out will be Jack. It will be sad to see given his long, strange, storied career but I just don’t see him holding up against that body attack and I just don’t think he is mobile enough to escape it. It could be slow and painful and he could have his right-handed moments but I think it will be a question of whether or not Jack can see the bell rather than win the day.

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Fast-Rising Omar Trinidad KOs Slavinskyi at the Commerce Casino

Published

3 hours ago

July 26, 2024

David A. Avila

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East L.A.’s Omar Trinidad knocked out Ukraine’s Viktor Slavinskyi to retain the WBC Continental America’s featherweight title on Friday in a strategic but entertaining contest.

Fighting in front of frenzied crowd of supporters Trinidad (16-0-1, 13 KOs) defeated southpaw Slavinskyi (15-3-1, 7 KOs) with a measured and careful attack at the Commerce Casino in Commerce, Calif.

Fans familiar with Trinidad (pictured over the right shoulder of promoter Tom Loeffler) are familiar with his aggressive pressure fighting style, but the Boyle Heights pugilist took a careful approach against Slavinskyi. Instead of a pounding assault Trinidad kept the fight at a distance and used his reach advantage to perfection.

It was reminiscent of long-armed fighters of the past like the late great Mando Ramos of the late 1960s who could punch or box. Pick your poison.

Trinidad employed a constant jab and well-placed counter shots. The right hand, in particular, was especially effective.

“I couldn’t miss with the right,” said Trinidad

For seven rounds Trinidad dominated with counter-punching. Then, Slavinskyi increased the pressure and forced the East L.A. fighter to come along. He did.

“If I could get a knockout I’d put him in the blender,” Trinidad said.

From the eighth round until the end Trinidad engaged in his usual fast and furious style and was especially effective with uppercuts in ninth round. Slavinskyi walked into a right uppercut that sent him across the ring and into the ropes. Referee Ray Corona ruled it a knockdown.

In the final round Trinidad wasted no time in looking to unload with an uppercut and Slavinskyi walked into a right hand version. There was no escape as he was ruled unable to continue by Corona at 2:31 of the 10^th and final round.

Trinidad keeps the title.

“The left hook and right uppercut was the money shot,” said Trinidad. “It was well-timed and it was a money shot.”

Welterweights

A fight between buddies from the same Armenian amateur team saw Aram Amirkhanyun (16-0-1, 4 KOs) defeat Gor Yeritsyan (18-1, 14 KOs) by split decision after 10 hard-fought rounds in a welterweight fight for a regional title.

The judges scored it 96-94 Yeritsyan and 96-94 twice for Amirkhanyun. No knockdowns were scored.

Iyana “Right Hook Roxy” Verduzco (2-0) proved that adapting into a pro style was not a problem in soundly defeating Pittsburgh’s Colleen Davis (3-2-1) after six featherweight rounds. Her best weapon was accuracy.

Verduzco, who is trained by her mother Gloria Alvarado, had been one of the most decorated amateur boxers for many years. In just her second pro fight the tell-tale signs of the amateur style were gone.

While the taller Davis circled rapidly to the left, Verduzco calmly waited for the openings and blasted away with pinpoint shots to the body and head. Her right hook was deadly accurate and the left found openings whenever they appeared.

Davis was able to land rights but just not enough to offset the incoming fire from the Southern California fighter. After six rounds all three judges scored it 60-54 for Verduzco.

In a firefight, Abel Mejia (5-0, 4 KOs) barely survived a second round knockdown against Tijuana’s rugged Jose Correa (6-10, 4 KOs) and rallied to remain relevant in the super featherweight match. In the fourth and final round Mejia beat Correa to the punch with a left hook that knocked out the tough Mexican challenger at 55 seconds as referee Ray Corona stopped the fight.

A super featherweight fight saw Hawaii’s Jaybrio Pe Benito (5-0, 4 KOs) power past Texan Michael Land (1-5-1) for a knockout win at 1:30 of the second round. Benito was too powerful and busy for Land who tried but was unable to slow down the assault.

Photo credit: Lina Baker

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 289: East LA, Claressa Shields and More

Published

1 day ago

July 25, 2024

David A. Avila

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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 Promotions’ 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. It’s 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 “East Los” 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. Don’t 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. It’s a fight town equal to Philadelphia, Brooklyn or Detroit. There’s 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 Canada’s Lepage-Joanisse (7-1) who holds the WBC belt.

The last time Shields gloved up was more than a year ago when she fought Maricela Cornejo. Don’t 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 doesn’t 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.

Don’t 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 Philadelphia’s 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 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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Arne’s Almanac: Jake Paul and Women’s Boxing, a Curmudgeon’s Take

Published

3 days ago

July 24, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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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, Jake’s boxing acumen pales when paired against his skill as a flim-flam artist.

Jake brought a 9-1 record into last weekend’s bout with Mike Perry. As noted by boxing writer Paul Magno, Jake’s previous opponents consisted of “a 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.”

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 Saturday’s 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.

“We found that in Colombia there were just more opportunities for women’s boxing than in the United States,” she told a prominent boxing writer whose name we won’t 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. Paul’s 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, “It’s not my bag but folks who don’t like it shouldn’t get too worked up over it because no one is stealing from anybody.” True enough, but for some of us, the phenomenon is distressing.

—

The next big women’s 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) won’t 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 Cancun’s 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

True, on the women’s 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 Argentina’s Abril Argentina Vidal, she clocked in at 173 ¼. (On the distaff side, there’s no uniformity among the various sanctioning bodies as to what constitutes a heavyweight.)

Claressa Shields doesn’t 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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