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A Cursed Paradigm: The Fights That Boxing Cannot Deliver
A Cursed Paradigm: The Fights That Boxing Cannot Deliver
2023 is barely two months old and it has already been an outstanding year in the greatest sport. We’ve had Leigh Wood’s wonderful, painstakingly careful attempted deconstruction of Mauricio Lara ending in the disaster of a knockout; Luis Nery’s brutal, eventual dispatch of Azat Hovhannisyan; that strange mini-war between Jeremias Ponce and Subriel Matias. We are on a good run.
But all these fights, while thrilling, are not vital. They are not the hot blood of the machine. If they had not happened – if Ponce had lost instead to Jose Zepeda and Matias had instead beaten Steve Spark…well, no harm done if we are frank.
There are fights though, for which this isn’t true. No exchanges, substitutes, nor excuses are acceptable. They have to happen. And if they don’t, blood escapes the machine.
These are those fights, with a little bit about why.
Oleksandr Usyk vs Tyson Fury
Where else to start? The revelation of the date and site of this fight was promised to us by Bob Arum weeks ago; clearly Fury’s veteran promoter believed that Saudi Arabia was set to deliver. The latest, sparse intel is that this has not come to pass, with rumoured disharmony concerning both a newly constructed fight-venue and the enormous fight purses.
Meanwhile, Tyson Fury’s pre-disposition to a fifty-fifty split has melted away along with the promise of Saudi riches. A 60/40 split is the preference of Fury as regards a possible London showdown in front of 90,000, a defendable position but not one that has met with the approval of Team Usyk who have been chasing a 50% cut of whatever riches the fight delivers.
If Fury and Usyk do not meet there are essentially two competing lineal championship reigns. On the one hand there are those who didn’t recognise Tyson Fury’s last retirement and consider the Englishman lineal; on the other, there are those who considered him retired and recognised the meeting between the number one and two contenders in the form of Usyk and Anthony Joshua as swiftly crowning a new champion. It is bad enough trying to understand what is happening in a division where the WBA and WBC can recognise five champions between them at times but when the very soul of championship honours is up for grabs, the sport’s flagship division is in trouble. Usyk and Fury could go on bullying contenders between them into 2025 and we could all be none the wiser as to who the number one man is.
Will it happen? I think it will, but I have an awful feeling we will not get it next. I had an ugly suspicion that Fury’s decision to match the long-suffering Derek Chisora was as much about keeping Usyk inactive into the summer, as it was about the fight itself. Maybe I am providing too much – or too little – credit but that would at least make the fight likely for late summer, by which time Usyk will have been out of the ring for a year.
Josh Taylor-Jack Catterall
This all-British showdown would be a rematch of last February’s raucous and controversial twelve round decision that went in Josh Taylor’s favour. Jack Catterall immediately demanded a rematch, and one was agreed. The two were scheduled, after a long and winding road, to meet this month, Taylor’s divisional kingship on the line.
Taylor then reportedly detached a tendon from a bone in a foot and just like that, Catterall’s rematch had evaporated, and he had been cursed with a year out of the ring. Worse, the WBO decided that Teofimo Lopez was now the mandatory for their title at 140lbs and ordered Taylor to meet him. Taylor, fearful of losing yet another strap while he tries to get fit for the Catterall rematch, accepted. While there is something about that fight that does interest, Taylor has been hounded online and in the media about his failure to make a rematch of a fight many thought he lost.
It’s an unwinnable situation for the Scotsman. Even if he meets and defeats Lopez people will say that he should have matched Catterall, while making 140lbs becomes increasingly difficult for the division’s number one.
This is yet another example of an ABC intervening to hurt the sport. The selection of Lopez, who is 2-0 at the poundage for this decade, as mandatory, has more to do with his run at 135lbs than it does the fistic reality at 140lbs, but Taylor will argue his hands are tied. Catterall, meanwhile, has been cheated of a much-deserved title tilt and the most significant payday of his career.
Will it happen? Josh Taylor has sworn it will, but a lot could serve to derail it. I’m sure Taylor would pass if Catterall lost his next fight, yet to be announced at the time of writing, but likely to be fought at the end of the month; Taylor could easily end up tied up with Lopez for two fights; his relationship with 140lbs is an uneasy one and his last fight at that weight could be anytime, including next time. History has shown that delaying a legacy fight – and this is that for both men – is as likely to sabotage that match as enhance it.
Thammanoon Niyomtrong-Panya Pradabsri
Thammanoon Niyomtrong (24-0) lives in Surin, Thailand. Panya Pradabsri (39-1) lives a fifty-minute flight away in Thailand’s capital, Bangkok. Niyomtrong is the world’s number one at 105lbs; Pradabsri is the number two.
These are the best two fighters in the division, elite talents, who almost guarantee a high quality, dramatic fight, and there is no sign of it, nor has there been since they summitted. Neighbours in global terms, they are entwined in Bangkok’s promotional rivalries and relationships, Niyomtrong (aka Knockout CP Freshmart) promoted by Petpiya Fight Promotions, a subsidiary of Petchyindee Boxing Promotion, first and foremost a Muay Thai promoter, and a fine one. Pradabsri is promoted by Piyarat “Tung” Vachirarattanawong for – Petchyindee Boxing Promotion. This relationship, it would seem, should make the fight easier to make, not more difficult but so far this seems not to be the case.
From their modern facility on the outskirts of Bangkok, the promotional team feed fighters into ONE, the world’s premier Thai Boxing organisation and this would seem to be their chief source of income. They have a storied past, one that has carried Muay Thai from a more traditional space in the seventies to a modern arena in 2023 but their approach to boxing seems to be centred on drawing as much money as possible to Thailand and to their promotional coffers. This includes keeping their promotional crown jewels separate yet together, unbeaten as titlists even at the expense of crowning one true champion.
In a way, it is difficult to blame them. Purse bids for even bigger fights for Nyomtrong and Pradabsri tend to be around 200,000 dollars, no fortune. The 105lb division is famously one in which it is difficult to make big money.
Will it happen? Yes, it will – but not until one of the two Thais has been taken, or until there is a clear read that one of them is about to be taken. Then, and only then will these two fabulous boxers be allowed to fight.
Errol Spence-Terence Crawford
Terence Crawford has been a welterweight since 2018; Errol Spence has been a welterweight since he turned professional in 2012. They have been ranked the top two fighters weighing 147lbs for more than fifty months and yet they have not agreed to fight.
This is an obscenity and should they eventually meet it may be a costly one for either Crawford (thirty-five years old) or Spence (thirty-three years old) as they creak past their respective primes with their fiercest opponent – one another – still ahead of them. For surely, despite the car crashes and the accusations and the counter-accusations, these two Americans will end up in the same ring on the same night at some point in the not too distant future. They have fewer excuses than the others on this list and direct access to the riches of the American television market to smooth their way through negotiations.
On the face of things, small details are the problem. Crawford had even accepted the smaller end of the purse according to ESPN, but wanted further transparency on expenses due to their being no fixed purse, presumably due to advanced agreements on percentages relating to pay-per-view money. This is the kind of tiny detail that can derail a fight worth millions of dollars, and I often think it is not the detail being argued that really counts. What really counts is that one alpha-male millionaire elite athlete might struggle to take a knee to another alpha-male millionaire elite athlete more than once, if at all.
Add Al Haymon to the managerial risk, a man who it might be said prefers to protect his fighters from what he sees as adverse risk, and we have had something of a perfect recipe for disaster. Crawford’s determination to achieve independence from a controlling promoter is admirable as is his apparent acceptance of the short end, but he is now the roadblock to what on paper is the best fight that can be made in the sport. That is a serious impediment to legacy. At the time of writing, it looks like he will be facing Alexis Rocha (22-1) the next time he steps to the ring, rather than Spence.
But will it happen? I hope so. Crawford’s age and what has been a lengthy negotiation process which has come to naught means that if Crawford signs another contract he would be thirty-six years old by the time the fight was made. Insiders have deemed the fight “unachievable” but money does talk and there are millions being left upon the table. I think looming retirement coupled with the moderate purses to be made elsewhere in the division should deliver this one.
Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol
Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol were both born in Russia, both are light-heavyweights and both pound-for-pound talents. Their styles gel, their physical assets gel and the winner would be deemed one of the very best fighters in the world and the greatest light-heavyweight champion of the modern era.
And so far, there is no sign of it being made.
The clock is very much ticking as Beterbiev is now thirty-seven years old. Next year, or the year after, he will start to fail and although the standards which are applied to older fighters are higher, unfairly, I felt that he showed small signs of slippage last time out against Anthony Yarde, who he stopped in eight.
Beterbiev and Yarde split an estimated 950,000 dollars fighting in front of a partisan London crowd with the British broadcast controlled by telecommunications giants BT. Despite being backed by that corporate wealth and 12,000 paying customers at Wembley, the two couldn’t break a million dollars.
Bivol made a similar payday for his last fight in Russia, against Umar Salamov. In front of a home crowd against a fellow Russian, these two did not get so close to a million dollars as Beterbiev did travelling to London for Yarde. To make the big money, Bivol had to tempt superstar Canelo Alvarez north to 175lbs and Beterbiev represents a much higher risk for Bivol than Alvarez did; the purse will be a fraction.
Bivol and Beterbeiv have nowhere to fight. There is no big money in Moscow and no interest in London. It may be the case that boxing can turn yet again to the Middle East, Bivol’s people have connections in Abu Dhabi, but even here Bivol’s purse barely topped 500,000 dollars. It is not clear what these men would look for in order that they meet each other but this will be the toughest fight of their respective careers.
Will it happen? I have my doubts. Bivol and Beterbiev can pocket 500,000 dollars for fighting fighters they will expect to beat in third gear. Each will need his absolute best to better the other. How much is that worth? And where will that money come from? I suspect we will miss out on this one; there is likely no greater tragedy on this list.
Three of these five pairs share a country. Some of them even share promoters – but what they all share is a determination that the risk should match the reward. Fighters don’t want to be paid the same to fight at the pinnacle as they do on the slopes and, if they do, they want compensation as control elsewhere in the mined territory of the modern boxing contract. Going all the way back the 1800s and the failure of the mighty John Sullivan to match Peter Jackson, the failure of the most important fights to come off has made its mark upon the suffering soul of boxing almost as indelible as the huge fights that happen.
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 303: Spotlights on Lightweights and More
Those lightweights.
Whether junior lights, super lights or lightweights, it’s the 130-140 divisions where most of boxing’s young stars are found now or in the past.
Think Oscar De La Hoya, Sugar Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather.
Floyd Schofield (17-0, 12 KOs) a Texas product, hungers to be a star and takes on Mexico’s Rene Tellez Giron (20-3, 13 KOs) in a 12-round lightweight bout on Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada.
DAZN will stream the Golden Boy Promotion card that includes a female undisputed flyweight championship match pitting Argentina’s Gabriela Alaniz and Gabriela Fundora.
Like a young lion looking to flex, Schofield (pictured on the left) is eager to meet all the other young lions and prove they’re not equal.
“I’ve been in the room with Shakur, Tank. I want to give everyone a good fight. I feel like my preparation is getting better, I work hard, I’ve dedicated my whole life to this sport,” said Schofield naming fellow lightweights Shakur Stevenson and Gervonta “Tank” Davis.
Now he meets Mexico’s Tellez who has never been stopped.
“I’m willing to do whatever it takes,” said Tellez.
Even in Las Vegas.
Verona, New York
Meanwhile, in upstate New York, a WBC junior lightweight title rematch finds Robson Conceicao (19-2-1, 9 KOs) looking to prove superior to former titlist O’Shaquie Foster (22-3, 12 KOs) on Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, N.Y. ESPN+ will stream the Top Rank fight card.
Last July, Conceicao and Foster clashed and after 12 rounds the title changed hands from Foster to the Brazilian by split decision.
“I feel that a champion is a fighter who goes out there and doesn’t run around, who looks for the fight, who tries to win, and doesn’t just throw one or two punches and then moves away,” said Conceicao.
Foster disagrees.
“I hope he knows the name of the game is to hit and not get hit. That’s the name of the game,” said Foster.
Also on the same card is lightweight contender Raymond Muratalla (21-0, 16 KOs) who fights Mexico’s Jesus Perez Campos (25-5, 18 KOs).
Perez recently defeated former world champion Jojo Diaz last February in California.
“We’re made for challenges. I like challenges,” said Perez.
Muratalla likes challenges too.
“I think these fights are the types of fights I need to show my skills and to prove I deserve those title fights,” said Fontana’s Muratalla.
Female Undisputed Flyweight Championship
WBA, WBC and WBO flyweight titlist Gabriela “La Chucky” Alaniz (15-1, 6 KOs meets IBF titlist Gabriela Fundora (14-0, 6 KOs) on Saturday Nov. 2, at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada. DAZN will stream the clash for the undisputed flyweight championship.
Argentina’s Alaniz clashed twice against former WBA, WBC champ Marlen Esparza with their first encounter ending in a dubious win for the Texas fighter. In fact, three of Esparza’s last title fights were scored controversially.
But against Alaniz, though they fought on equal terms, Esparza was given a 99-91 score by one of the judges though the world saw a much closer contest. So, they fought again, but the rematch took place in California. Two judges deemed Alaniz the winner and one Esparza for a split-decision win.
“I’m really happy to be here representing Argentina. We are ready to fight. Nothing about this fight has to do with Marlen. So, I hope she (Fundora) is ready. I am ready to prepare myself for the great fight of my life,” said Alaniz.
In the case of Fundora, the extremely tall American fighter at 5’9” in height defeated decent competition including Maria Santizo. She was awarded a match with IBF flyweight titlist Arely Mucino who opted for the tall youngster over the dangerous Kenia Enriquez of Mexico.
Bad choice for Mucino.
Fundora pummeled the champion incessantly for five rounds at the Inglewood Forum a year ago. Twice she battered her down and the fight was mercifully stopped. Fundora’s arm was raised as the new champion.
Since that win Fundora has defeated Christina Cruz and Chile’s Daniela Asenjo in defense of the IBF title. In an interesting side bit: Asenjo was ranked as a flyweight contender though she had not fought in that weight class for seven years.
Still, Fundora used her reach and power to easily handle the rugged fighter from Chile.
Immediately after the fight she clamored for a chance to become undisputed.
“It doesn’t get better than this, especially being in Las Vegas. This is the greatest opportunity that we can have,” said Fundora.
It should be exciting.
Fights to Watch
Sat. ESPN+ 2:50 p.m. Robson Conceicao (19-2-1) vs O’Shaquie Foster (22-3).
Sat. DAZN 5 p.m. Floyd Schofield (17-0) vs Rene Tellez Giron (20-3); Gabriela Alaniz (15-1) vs Gabriela Fundora (14-0).
Photo credit: Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy
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Bakhram Murtalaziev was the Fighter of the Month in October
As we close the book on October, let’s look back at the month’s stellar performances. Kenshiro Teraji added another exclamation point to his brilliant career with an 11th-round stoppage of Cristofer Rosales. England’s Jack Catterall, considered no more than a decent domestic-level talent for most of his career, showed that he had been underrated with a comprehensive 12-round decision over declining Regis Prograis. But the top performance, by a landslide, was delivered by Bakhram Murtalaziev who annihilated Tim Tszyu on Oct. 19 in Orlando, Florida.
Murtalaziev was undefeated (22-0, 16 KOs) and the reigning IBF junior middleweight champion, but he was the underdog and the “B” side. As champions go, and there are roughly five dozen across the 17 weight divisions, the California-based Russian ranked among the least well-known. He had won his title in Berlin with an 11th-round stoppage of an unexceptional 38-year-old German-Ecuadorian campaigner, Jack Culcay, and he would be making his first defense.
Managed by Egis Klimas who also handles Oleksandr Usyk and Vasiliy Lomachenko, among others, Bakhram Murtalaziev came from a good barn in the vernacular of a horseplayer, but on paper that alone was insufficient to get him over the hump against Tim Tszyu who a few short months earlier was widely considered the best 154-pound boxer in the world.
That was before he met up with Sebastian Fundora who blemished his record, but that setback could have been written off as a fluke.
As we recall, Tszyu was scheduled to fight Keith Thurman in the initial PBC offering on Amazon Prime Video, but Thurman suffered a biceps injury in training and Fundora was bumped up from the undercard to fill the breach. With only 12 days’ notice, Tim Tszyu went from fighting a five-foot-seven fighter who fights out of an orthodox stance to fighting a southpaw who stood almost a full foot taller. The “Towering Inferno” has his limitations, but poses a special problem to anyone, let alone an opponent with little time to formulate a good game plan.
Tszyu was hampered in the Fundora fight by a gash on his hairline that hampered his vision. The injury happened in the second round when he ducked under Fundora and walked into an elbow. The gash bled copiously throughout the fight and yet the best that Fundora could do was win a split (albeit fair) decision.
To say that Tszyu failed to rebound from the Fundora misadventure would be putting it mildly. Murtalaziev steamrolled him, knocking him to the canvas four times in all before Tszyu’s corner tossed in the towel at the 1:55 mark of the third stanza. It was painful to watch. Referee Chris Young was faulted for allowing the match to continue as long as it did. Compounding Tszyu’s misery, his celebrated father, a first ballot Hall of Famer, was ringside. Kostya Tszyu hadn’t seen his oldest son fight in the flesh since Tim’s pro debut in 2016.
Although the dichotomy is imperfect, Tim Tszyu, who turns 30 on Saturday, is more of a puncher than a boxer. That may work against him so far as clawing his way back to a position of prominence. The noted boxing coach Stephen “Breadman” Edwards, a keen student of the history of boxing in the modern era, expressed this sentiment in a Q and A story for Boxing Scene. “Destructive fighters usually don’t come back to full capacity after bad KO losses,” he said, citing John Mugabi, Mike Tyson, George Foreman, Sonny Liston, and Naseem Hamed to illustrate his point. Moreover, added Edwards, “No one will ever be afraid of him again.”
But there were two stories that emerged from the Murtalaziev-Tszyu fight. Tim Tszyu crashed, but Bakhram Murtalaziev emerged from obscurity, announcing his presence (pardon the cliché) as a force to be reckoned with. As for his next assignment, the best guess is that it will come against Sebastian Fundora or Errol Spence Jr. who are expected to meet early next year. And based on Murtalaziev’s stunning performance in Orlando, it will be impossible to bet against him.
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Foreman-Moorer: 30 Years Later
Foreman-Moorer: 30 Years Later
By TSS SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT JAMIE REBNER — In sports, middle-aged athletes are not supposed to beat opponents who are half their age and in their athletic primes. Only the greatest ones can use guile, technique, and experience to compensate for the dulling of speed, reflexes, and athleticism that have unavoidably eroded with time.
That is why George Foreman’s feat of reclaiming the heavyweight title at 45 is so impressive. It was thirty years ago this coming Tuesday, Nov 5, 1994, that Foreman scored a monumental upset in knocking out Michael Moorer to win back the title he had lost twenty years prior against Muhammad Ali in The Rumble in the Jungle. In doing so, Big George became the oldest heavyweight champion, breaking the record previously held by Jersey Joe Walcott, who had won the title at 38.
When Foreman beat Moorer, he was in the twilight of his second career, a comeback that began in 1987. George had retired in 1977 after losing to Jimmy Young and experiencing a spiritual awakening in his locker room. That led him to become a minister and devote himself to his family and congregation. During his retirement, he opened a youth center in Houston, which required much financial support, prompting him to return to the ring.
After winning 24 straight fights from 1987-1990, Foreman lost his first title shot by decision to Evander Holyfield in 1991. He rebounded from that loss with three more wins before getting a crack at the WBO title against Tommy Morrison in 1993. But his performance against Morrison was disappointing and he lost another decision. After that, Foreman was out of the ring for 17 months before he was gifted another title shot against Moorer.
Foreman got that gift because Moorer, due to his sullen demeanor and curtness with the media, was not a draw with the fans. He was also an unproven champion, having beaten Holyfield for two belts only seven months prior. So. Moorer needed a name opponent who could bring in the crowds for his first title defense. And the other top heavyweights like Oliver McCall (WBC champ), Lennox Lewis, and Riddick Bowe didn’t have close to Foreman’s drawing power. So. deserving or not, Foreman was chosen as the challenger to make a fight that would be worth the public’s attention and pockets.
Even Foreman was surprised by getting selected to fight Moorer. “I never in my wildest imagination thought I’d get a title shot again,” he told Associated Press sports columnist Tim Dahlberg. Still, George was determined to make his third time a charm.
But as motivated as George was, there was an irrefutable gap in speed between himself and the much younger champion. From the opening bell, Moorer used his superior quickness and reflexes to make Foreman look stiff and slow. And although George landed punches early on, he fired them one at a time while Moorer countered with multiple shots. But despite Moorer’s advantage in connects, his trainer Teddy Atlas advised him from the get-go not to stand in front of Foreman and make himself a stationary target for a right-hand bomb.
But Moorer failed to heed that advice as he continued to outwork Foreman in the middle rounds. Although he was winning, Moorer’s overconfidence kept him at close quarters, and he continued to circle unwisely to his left and into Foreman’s dangerous right hand. And despite absorbing many quality shots, Foreman never appeared hurt or discouraged thanks to his granite chin and unyielding resolve. He was determined to win and he was willing to walk through as many flush shots as he needed to do so.
With Moorer content to stay in range, Foreman gladly returned his firepower and he landed some telling right crosses, uppercuts, and plenty of thudding body blows during the battle. And while Moorer continued to pile up points and rounds, as long as George was marching forward and throwing shots, he had a puncher’s chance.
And with a minute to go in round ten, that punch came. After missing a three-punch combination, Foreman scored with a one-two, with the right hand landing on the forehead. He immediately repeated that combination but this time aimed the right hand lower on Moorer’s jaw. That slight adjustment caused his bulldozer right to collide perfectly with Moorer’s chin, sending the champion crashing to the canvas and sprawled onto his back. The champion couldn’t beat the count, and just like that, the fight was over, Moorer’s short-lived title run ending before it ever truly began.
With a single, shattering blow, Foreman etched his name into boxing history. Wearing the same trunks from Zaire 20 years before, he was now heavyweight champion of the world once again. It was a shocking result that defied conventional wisdom since seldom do 45-year-old boxers score knockouts over champions in their athletic primes. But Foreman reminded us that he was anything but your typical quadragenarian. He was special, and he had two distinct heavyweight championship reigns to prove it.
—
About the author:
Jamie Rebner lives in Toronto, Canada. He has been a freelance boxing writer since 2016 and his writing has appeared in The Fight City, Boxing News Online, The Ring, and Ringside Seat magazine. His Substack blog is Fight Fundamental, and he is currently writing a book about George Foreman’s comeback. He is also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Follow him on Twitter @J_NReb.
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