A Cursed Paradigm: The Fights That Boxing Cannot Deliver

Published

2 years ago

March 6, 2023

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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

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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Usyk Outpoints Fury and Itauma has the “Wow Factor” in Riyadh

Published

1 day ago

December 21, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Usyk Outpoints Fury and Itauma has the “Wow Factor” in Riyadh

Oleksandr Usyk left no doubt that he is the best heavyweight of his generation and one of the greatest boxers of all time with a unanimous decision over Tyson Fury tonight at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. But although the Ukrainian won eight rounds on all three scorecards, this was no runaway. To pirate a line from one of the DAZN talking heads, Fury had his moments in every round but Usyk had more moments.

The early rounds were fought at a faster pace than the first meeting back in May. At the mid-point, the fight was even. The next three rounds – the next five to some observers – were all Usyk who threw more punches and landed the cleaner shots.

Fury won the final round in the eyes of this reporter scoring at home, but by then he needed a knockout to pull the match out of the fire.

The last round was an outstanding climax to an entertaining chess match during which both fighters took turns being the pursuer and the pursued.

An Olympic gold medalist and a unified world champion at cruiserweight and heavyweight, the amazing Usyk improved his ledger to 23-0 (14). His next fight, more than likely, will come against the winner of the Feb. 22 match in Ridayh between Daniel Dubois and Joseph Parker which will share the bill with the rematch between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.

Fury (34-2-1) may fight Anthony Joshua next. Regardless, no one wants a piece of Moses Itauma right now although the kid is only 19 years old.

Moses Itauma

Raised in London by a Nigerian father and a Slovakian mother, Itauma turned heads once again with another “wow” performance. None of his last seven opponents lasted beyond the second round.

His opponent tonight, 34-year-old Australian Demsey McKean, lasted less than two minutes. Itauma, a southpaw with blazing fast hands, had the Aussie on the deck twice during the 117-second skirmish. The first knockdown was the result of a cuffing punch that landed high on the head; the second knockdown was produced by an overhand left. McKean went down hard as his chief cornerman bounded on to the ring apron to halt the massacre.

Photo (c): Mark Robinson

Itauma (12-0, 10 KOs after going 20-0 as an amateur) is the real deal. It was the second straight loss for McKean (22-2) who lasted into the 10^th round against Filip Hrgovic in his last start.

Bohachuk-Davis

In a fight billed as the co-main although it preceded Itauma-McKean, Serhii Bohachuk, an LA-based Ukrainian, stopped Ishmael Davis whose corner pulled him out after six frames.

Both fighters were coming off a loss in fights that were close on the scorecards, Bohachuk falling to Vergil Ortiz Jr in a Las Vegas barnburner and Davis losing to Josh Kelly.

Davis, who took the fight on short notice, subbing for Ismail Madrimov, declined to 13-2. He landed a few good shots but was on the canvas in the second round, compliments of a short left hook, and the relentless Bohachuk (25-2, 24 KOs) eventually wore him down.

Fisher-Allen

In a messy, 10-round bar brawl masquerading as a boxing match, Johnny Fisher, the Romford Bull, won a split decision over British countryman David Allen. Two judges favored Fisher by 95-94 tallies with the dissenter favoring Allen 96-93. When the scores were announced, there was a chorus of boos and those watching at home were outraged.

Allen was a step up in class for Fisher. The Doncaster man had a decent record (23-5-2 heading in) and had been routinely matched tough (his former opponents included Dillian Whyte, Luis “King Kong” Ortiz and three former Olympians). But Allen was fairly considered no more than a journeyman and Fisher (12-0 with 11 KOs, eight in the opening round) was a huge favorite.

In round five, Allen had Fisher on the canvas twice although only one was ruled a true knockdown. From that point, he landed the harder shots and, at the final bell, he fell to canvas shedding tears of joy, convinced that he had won.

He did not win, but he exposed Johnny Fisher as a fighter too slow to compete with elite heavyweights, a British version of the ponderous Russian-Canadian campaigner Arslanbek Makhmudov.

Other Bouts of Note

In a spirited 10-round featherweight match, Scotland’s Lee McGregor, a former European bantamweight champion and stablemate of former unified 140-pound title-holder Josh Taylor, advanced to 15-1-1 (11) with a unanimous decision over Isaac Lowe (25-3-3). The judges had it 96-92 and 97-91 twice.

A cousin and regular houseguest of Tyson Fury, Lowe fought most of the fight with cuts around both eyes and was twice deducted a point for losing his gumshield.

In a fight between super featherweights that could have gone either way, Liverpool southpaw Peter McGrail improved to 11-1 (6) with a 10-round unanimous decision over late sub Rhys Edwards. The judges had it 96-95 and 96-94 twice.

McGrail, a Tokyo Olympian and 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medalist, fought from the third round on with a cut above his right eye, the result of an accidental clash of heads. It was the first loss for Edwards (16-1), a 24-year-old Welshman who has another fight booked in three weeks.

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Fury-Usyk Reignited: Can the Gypsy King Avenge his Lone Defeat?

Published

3 days ago

December 20, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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Fury-Usyk Reignited: Can the Gypsy King Avenge his Lone Defeat?

In professional boxing, the heavyweight division, going back to the days of John L. Sullivan, is the straw that stirs the drink. By this measure, the fight on May 18 of this year at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was the biggest prizefight in decades. The winner would emerge as the first undisputed heavyweight champion since 1999 when Lennox Lewis out-pointed Evander Holyfield in their second meeting.

The match did not disappoint. It had several twists and turns.

Usyk did well in the early rounds, but the Gypsy King rattled Usyk with a harsh right hand in the fifth stanza and won rounds five through seven on all three cards. In the ninth, the match turned sharply in favor of the Ukrainian. Fury was saved by the bell after taking a barrage of unanswered punches, the last of which dictated a standing 8-count from referee Mark Nelson. But Fury weathered the storm and with his amazing powers of recuperation had a shade the best of it in the final stanza.

The decision was split: 115-112 and 114-113 for Usyk who became a unified champion in a second weight class; 114-113 for Fury.

That brings us to tomorrow (Saturday, Dec. 21) where Usyk and Fury will renew acquaintances in the same ring where they had their May 18 showdown.

The first fight was a near “pick-‘em” affair with Fury closing a very short favorite at most of the major bookmaking establishments. The Gypsy King would have been a somewhat higher favorite if not for the fact that he was coming off a poor showing against MMA star Francis Ngannou and had a worrisome propensity for getting cut. (A cut above Fury’s right eye in sparring pushed back the fight from its original Feb. 11 date.)

Tomorrow’s sequel, bearing the tagline “Reignited,” finds Usyk a consensus 7/5 favorite although those odds could shorten by post time. (There was no discernible activity after today’s weigh-in where Fury, fully clothed, topped the scales at 281, an increase of 19 pounds over their first meeting.)

Given the politics of boxing, anything “undisputed” is fragile. In June, Usyk abandoned his IBF belt and the organization anointed Daniel Dubois their heavyweight champion based upon Dubois’s eighth-round stoppage of Filip Hrgovic in a bout billed for the IBF interim title. The malodorous WBA, a festering boil on the backside of boxing, now recognizes 43-year-old Kubrat Pulev as its “regular” heavyweight champion.

Another difference between tomorrow’s fight card and the first installment is that the May 18 affair had a much stronger undercard. Two strong pairings were the rematch between cruiserweights Jai Opetaia and Maris Briedis (Opetaia UD 12) and the heavyweight contest between unbeatens Agit Kabayal and Frank Sanchez (Kabayel KO 7).

Tomorrow’s semi-wind-up between Serhii Bohachuk and Ismail Madrimov lost luster when Madrimov came down with bronchitis and had to withdraw. The featherweight contest between Peter McGrail and Dennis McCann fell out when McCann’s VADA test returned an adverse finding. Bohachuk and McGrail remain on the card but against late-sub opponents in matches that are less intriguing.

The focal points of tomorrow’s undercard are the bouts involving undefeated British heavyweights Moses Itauma (10-0, 8 KOs) and Johnny Fisher (12-0, 11 KOs). Both are heavy favorites over their respective opponents but bear watching because they represent the next generation of heavyweight standouts. Fury and Usyk are getting long in the tooth. The Gypsy King is 36; Usyk turns 38 next month.

Bob Arum once said that nobody purchases a pay-per-view for the undercard and, years from now, no one will remember which sanctioning bodies had their fingers in the pie. So, Fury-Usyk II remains a very big deal, although a wee bit less compelling than their first go-around.

Will Tyson Fury avenge his lone defeat? Turki Alalshikh, the Chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority and the unofficial czar of “major league” boxing, certainly hopes so. His Excellency has made known that he stands poised to manufacture a rubber match if Tyson prevails.

We could have already figured this out, but Alalshikh violated one of the protocols of boxing when he came flat out and said so. He effectively made Tyson Fury the “A-side,” no small potatoes considering that the most relevant variable on the checklist when handicapping a fight is, “Who does the promoter need?”

The Uzyk-Fury II fight card will air on DAZN with a suggested list price of $39.99 for U.S. fight fans. The main event is expected to start about 5:45 pm ET / 2:45 pm PT.

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Unheralded Bruno Surace went to Tijuana and Forged the TSS 2024 Upset of the Year

Published

4 days ago

December 19, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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Unheralded Bruno Surace went to Tijuana and Forged the TSS 2024 Upset of the Year

The Dec. 14 fight at Tijuana between Jaime Munguia and Bruno Surace was conceived as a stay-busy fight for Munguia. The scuttlebutt was that Munguia’s promoters, Zanfer and Top Rank, wanted him to have another fight under his belt before thrusting him against Christian Mbilli in a WBC eliminator with the prize for the winner (in theory) a date with Canelo Alvarez.

Munguia came to the fore in May of 2018 at Verona, New York, when he demolished former U.S. Olympian Sadam Ali, conqueror of Miguel Cotto. That earned him the WBO super welterweight title which he successfully defended five times.

Munguia kept winning as he moved up in weight to middleweight and then super middleweight and brought a 43-0 (34) record into his Cinco de Mayo 2024 match with Canelo.

Jaime went the distance with Alvarez and had a few good moments while losing a unanimous decision. He rebounded with a 10th-round stoppage of Canada’s previously undefeated Erik Bazinyan.

There was little reason to think that Munguia would overlook Surace as the Mexican would be fighting in his hometown for the first time since February of 2022 and would want to send the home folks home happy. Moreover, even if Munguia had an off-night, there was no reason to think that the obscure Surace could capitalize. A Frenchman who had never fought outside France, Surace brought a 25-0-2 record and a 22-fight winning streak, but he had only four knockouts to his credit and only eight of his wins had come against opponents with winning records.

It appeared that Munguia would close the show early when he sent the Frenchman to the canvas in the second round with a big left hook. From that point on, Surace fought mostly off his back foot, throwing punches in spurts, whereas the busier Munguia concentrated on chopping him down with body punches. But Surace absorbed those punches well and at the midway point of the fight, behind on the cards but nonplussed, it now looked as if the bout would go the full 10 rounds with Munguia winning a lopsided decision.

Then lightning struck. Out of the blue, Surace connected with an overhand right to the jaw. Munguia went down flat on his back. He rose a fraction-of-a second before the count reached “10,”, but stumbled as he pulled himself upright. His eyes were glazed and referee Juan Jose Ramirez, a local man, waived it off. There was no protest coming from Munguia or his cornermen. The official time was 2:36 of round six.

At major bookmaking establishments, Jaime Munguia was as high as a 35/1 favorite. No world title was at stake, yet this was an upset for the ages.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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