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Filipino Boxing Profile: Ten Names to Know

In the surge to crown the “New Manny Pacquiao” that did not even await the retirement of the old Manny Pacquiao, many different fighters have been lauded and discarded by the press, both western and Filipino. This rather misses the point. The reason a Mike Tyson or a Muhammad Ali or a Manny Pacquiao are so exciting isn’t that they inspire the next in line: it’s all the fighters that they inspire to try. These are the stories of the new generation of Filipino warriors and they are key to the sport. Boxing is an unfolding story, history at large, it needs journeyman, gatekeepers, title challengers and caretaker champions every bit as much as it needs all-time great sporting giants. More, even.
The Philippines is perfectly positioned to mesh with boxing behind the inspiration provided by a fistic legend. It has a large population, around a 120 million, it has a sad and bravely fought war with poverty, an estimated fifth of that population living in its clutches; and Filipino fighters from old-time flyweight champion Pancho Villa to the modern day seem both unafraid of hard work and filled with fighting heart.
Here then, we will look at the ten Filipino fighters whose names we should know right now.
Mark Magsayo, Aged 27, Featherweight, 24-2, Tagbilaran City, Bohol
Mark Magsayo is coming off back-to-back losses and it is a testimony to the vibrance of the featherweight division and to the stiff assignments Magsayo has undertaken that he has retained relevancy in a sport that is crueller now than ever before to the recently defeated.
Out-scrapped by cunning Rey Vargas in July of last year, Magsayo kept it close with a sneaky right-handed knockdown that sent the fight to a split decision on the official cards (115-112 Vargas on mine). He was never out of the contest although his chances on the cards were bolstered in the main by a fast start. He showed an even faster start earlier this month against Brandon Figueroa but allowed his opponent’s relentlessness to push him out of the contest, although two harsh points deducted for holding in an all-action fight that continued on the inside despite Magsayo’s grabbing for a spare arm seemed harsh.
I had Magsayo winning five of the first six rounds, and claiming three of the first five against Vargas. Magsayo, it seems, has a stamina issue when his workrate is pitted against that of an elite opponent. He has the guts to remain in the fight regardless of his fatigue but he doesn’t appear to have the type of tide-turning energy that can close a fight late. This is a problem for a fighter who has never knocked out a world class opponent, though his record against more limited opposition proves his dig.
But Magsayo will always be in closely contested, exciting fights. That is a testimony to his character and fortitude. He has probably been cast adrift for the moment from the divisional elite (Mauricio Lara, Brandon Figueroa, Rey Vargas and Luis Alberto Lopez) but he probably remains the best of the rest, at least until Robeisy Ramirez meets Isaac Dogboe at the beginning of April. Expect to see him out in lesser company next time around before making a possible call to his old friends at the WBO in an effort to break up the Lara/Leigh Wood/Josh Warrington lock-up of that strap.
John Riel Casimero, Aged 34, Super Bantamweight, 32-4, Ormoc City, Leyte
Nonito Donaire is the most famous of the post-Pacquiao Filipinos, but John Riel Casimero at one point was probably second. There is no greater enemy to a fighter than inactivity, whether fisticly or financially, and having boxed only two rounds in the last two years, Casimero has arguably made a victim of himself.
With all of that said, there is no reason the final years of Casimero’s career can’t be exciting and profitable, and it should be stressed that the two confusing rounds he boxed in 2022 were not entirely his responsibility. Reintroducing himself to the 122lb division he travelled to South Korea to meet Ryo Akaho. Upon being flashed while off balance by a check hook in the second, Casimero clearly lost his temper, illustrated by the wild, winging shots he launched while chasing Ryo around the ring. Many of these landed, but more than one of them strayed into rabbit-punch territory, and upon a called break used by the referee to remonstrate with Casimero about these clumsy punches, Ryo decided he could no longer continue. What was ruled a No Contest on the night was later changed to a KO2 victory for Casimero when the Korea boxing commission realised just bow bad that look was.
All’s well that ends well but it leaves Casimero rusty, probably past his prime and without a natural home for his 122lb ambitions. His name has been continuously linked with that of Naoya Inoue’s, and that is indeed the big payday at the poundage, but if he should be matched with the winner of Inoue and Stephen Fulton, Casimero wants to be at something approaching his best, not the fighter limited by inactivity we see currently. Luis Nery’s name has also been mentioned in dispatches but it is interesting that the perception would now be that Casimero is no longer a problem that Nery doesn’t need. Casimero has closed the gap on himself, for better or worse.
A schooled veteran with good power and quick feet, Casimero should remain a handful for anyone almost regardless, but speaking as a fan, I would like to see him out before the end of May and against a decent level of opposition. American Daniel Roman and the other 122lb Inoue brother, Takuma, both make all the sense in the world.
Marlon Tapales, Aged 30, Super Bantamweight, 36-3, Tubod, Lanao del Norte
Another natural fight for Casimero would be against the premier Filipino Super Bantamweight, Marlon Tapales, from the southern island province of Tubod. A damaging loss to Ryosuke Iwasa in 2019 was tempered by an eye injury caused by a clash of heads that clearly made it difficult for him, and when he came blasting back in 2021 with a two-round stoppage of Hiroaki Teshigawara he was right back in contention.
The three-piece that ended that fight was a thing of beauty and underlines just exactly how Tapales has improved this decade. He’s finding the third punch where before there was only two and a coolness under fire has helped him develop a real accuracy on the attack. This makes him a dangerous finisher – nobody has carried him further than two since that loss to Iwasa.
Truthfully though, Tapales remains something of an unknown quantity at thirty years of age. That is all about to change though as he is set to meet the undefeated Murodjon Akhmadaliev on April 8th in San Antonio. A shot at a strap on American soil has been a carefully cultivated strategy for Tapales, who has fought seven of his last eight in Carson, Los Angeles, Brooklyn and elsewhere in order to carve himself out a share of what remains boxing’s biggest pie. Fight fans should circle the date as these two sit bang in the middle of the 122lb rankings, exactly the type of fight that has delivered for fans in the rich first quarter of 2023.
Akhmadaliev will likely start as a favourite, not least because the victory that unlocked the top half of the world rankings to him was over the man who defeated Tapales in 2019, Ryosuke Iwasa. That fifth- round stoppage was controversial though and triangular analysis is among the least reliable in boxing – come April, we will know where Tapales sits, one way or the other.
Reymart Gaballo, Aged 26, Bantamweight, 25-1, Polomolok, Cotabato del Su
Reymart Gaballo got lucky against Emmanuel Rodriguez in December of 2021, handed a split decision victory in what looked like a clear loss (116-112 Rodriguez for me). I have never seen a card in favour of Gaballo for that fight other than that of judges John McKaie and Don Trella. It is perhaps a form of justice then that Gaballo finds himself hanging onto the top ten by the skin on his fingertips while Rodriguez sits atop the division.
It is perhaps the greatest oddity of this sport that we reward such decisions as Gaballo was rewarded, with a match against his legendary countryman Nonito Donaire. In his fight with Rodriguez, Gaballo’s greatest successes were with a sort of weaving serpentine attack he adopted in the third quarter of the fight – so too did he find his best moments against Donaire with this approach. On the downside it placed Gaballo in a straight shootout with a thirty-nine-year-old fighter he perhaps should have looked to outlast – Donaire dropped him a gorgeous left hook to the body in the fourth and although Gaballo did beat the count, he immediately dipped back to the canvas grimacing in pain.
Gaballo’s next fight is huge – he needs a clean win if he is to find himself back in the mix at the top of the division and a loss consigns him to the oblivion of gatekeeper status. The name he is most often linked with is former Jason Maloney victim Nawaphon Kaikanha, the man with perhaps the most padded record in all of boxing. Gaballo would be favoured to win such a fight.
Vincent Astrolabio, Aged 25, Bantamweight, 18-3, General Santos City, Cotabato del Sur
Vincent Astrolabio, after a difficult 2017 and 2018, knuckled down at bantamweight and reaped the rewards of this more disciplined approach going 6-0 between 2019 and 2023, including five knockouts.
The man he couldn’t knock out was Guillermo Rigondeaux. He met the veteran out in Dubai in early 2022 and turned in a performance of real quality to take a deserved decision. Rigondeaux did his thing, made Astrolabio miss, sometimes by a lot, but the Filipino also turned in a strategic masterpiece. Patient, he also bought pressure. Careful never to throw one punch when two were there to be had, he never got greedy. His mix of touch and power was perfect. Rigondeaux kept waiting as though he expected the same old openings to present themselves, but when they did – and they did – he often found himself out of position or landing a single shot. In the eighth, Astrolabio flashed Rigondeaux with a right-handed punch, but only after repeatedly rattling him with right hands to the head throughout that round. The penny finally seemed to drop for Rigondeaux who won the ninth and tenth on my card but by then it was too late – all three judges had the fight for Astrolabio by virtue of the knockdown (I saw it slightly wider).
Astrolabio was a promising prospect before this fight and a highly ranked contender after it. It is a very exciting time in his career. Is he the master on timing that he seemed to be against the ageing Rigondeaux? Or were we a little blinded by seeing a fighter as neat as Rigondeaux out-thought unexpectedly and over-credited Astrolabio? Astrolabio knocked out Nikolai Potapov as expected in Las Vegas last year, but with Jason Maloney and Emmanuel Rodriguez the names most often being linked to his currently, we are set to find out who Vincent Astrolabio really is in 2023.
Nonito Donaire, Aged 40, Bantamweight, 42-7, Talibon, Bohol
The evergreen Nonito Donaire at forty years old remains the pre-eminent daddy of Filipino boxing in the absence of Manny Pacquiao. Replacing Manny is all but impossible; it is this man the new generation must seek to usurp.
Even at an age where most famous fighters are retired and trying to find themselves a lucrative media gig, Donaire will take some usurping. Of the two men who have a chance to try directly, Reymart Gaballo has already failed and Vincent Astrolabio would be a slender underdog at best. As for replacing him as a figurehead, what will it take? Specifically, multiple straps at multiple weights in multiple decades. It is fair to say it will take some doing.
Everyone knows what Donaire does well. He is an organised puncher with power and quickness of thought. Everyone knows what his vulnerabilities are – he can be outmonstered, outsped and outworked but you better be elite in the category you decide to pursue him in because he is capable of defeating all but the very best in each and every one of those categories. As he slips in terms of speed he becomes more vulnerable to the unorthodox attacks that always upset his rhythm but Naoya Inoue himself had to place very close attention to get over the line against him in 2019. That he butchered Donaire in a 2022 rematch is alarming testimony to Donaire’s slippage.
He is not quite done though. The diminutive Mexican bantamweight Alejandro Santiago seems to be next for Donaire, and note that the way the WBC is shaping up, they might be mandating a Donaire-Gaballo rematch at the year’s end.
Regie Suganob, Aged 25, Light Flyweight, 13-0, Dauis, Bohol
Regie Suganob shot to relevancy last month with a technical decision over Mark Vicelles. Vicelles was heavily favoured to win this fight and Regie was very much in control of the contest at the time of its stoppage for a cut caused by an accidental head clash.Suganob had therefore supplanted his countryman in the 108lb rankings, near the bottom of the ten but potentially on the rise.
A clean-cut look compliments his clean-cut style which is boxed along straight lines. He punishes mistakes which is a wonderful skill for an inexperienced fighter to have and one he is certainly going to need in his next fight, which is likely to be against the South African Sivenathi Nontshinga. Nontshinga is no more experienced than Suganob in terms of contests, but he’s been fighting for longer at a higher level for his 11-0 than Suganob has. The Filipino has stepped into a ring at the second class just once, and that was against Vicelles; he’s never met true first class opposition.
That does not mean these two will not produce a high-class fight. At the time of writing they are in talks but at 108lbs, most of the time, the participants will take a chance on potential purse bids. Nontshinga, who is handled in part by Matchroom Boxing, will likely have the promotional clout to win that argument although such a result is as likely to see the two boxing as chief support on a UK undercard as it is a main event in Africa. Either way, that fight, should it come off, will be worth catching, and should Suganob win it, it would make him one of the world’s premier light-flyweights.
Rene Mark Cuarto, Aged 26, Minimumweight, 21-3-2, Jose Dalman, Zamboanga del Norte
Rene Mark Cuarto is nearer the bottom of his divisional top ten than the top, in part due to his July 2022 loss to Daniel Valladares. Valladares took a decision after a raucous, fun twelve that saw head-clashes, cuts, wild exchanges and a deduction for Cuarto for tape repeatedly coming lose on the gloves, something I have never even heard of before. The referee was put upon though, and Cuarto was already on a last warning for roughhousing and for ignoring his commands.
Cuarto had a legitimate knockdown incorrectly ruled a slip, however, so was arguably two points to the bad, which might have been enough to rescue the draw dependent upon how Daniel Sandoval scored the eighth round. The closeness of what was a controversial battle meant Cuarto held onto his ranking which he puts on the line once again this April 16th out in Japan against Ginjiro Shigeoka in what is likely to be yet another quality encounter boxed by one of the men on this list.
Shigeoka is only 8-0 but he, too, is ranked near the bottom of the 105lb division and actually matched Daniel Valladares himself last time out. Once again Valladares suffered a cut but this time the fight was called after three rounds and a No-Contest registered – so we still don’t know about Shigeoka just like we still don’t know for sure about Cuarto.
What we do know is that Cuarto will be aggressive in Japan, give up chances to Shigeoka with those wide punches, who will need to take them if he wants to keep this aggressive python of a Filipino in hand.
Melvin Jerusalem, Aged 29, Minimumweight, 20-2, Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon
Melvin Jerusalem is the best minimumweight in the world who is not from Thailand, and if a planned fight comes off against the American Oscar Collazo, he could yet split their control over the top spots. It is possible though that Jerusalem might refuse any opportunity to go to Thailand and make his mark in a match against either Thammanoon Niyomtrong or Panya Pradabsri, the reason being his prior 2017 visit to Thailand to match Chayaphon Moonsri (aka Wanheng Menayothin). Moonsri was then enjoying his superb run of victories that occasionally made the news as a comparison to Floyd Mayweather’s 50-0. He continued it at Jerusalem’s expense, but his victory was an almost indefensible gift, bordering on clear robbery (I saw it 116-111 and was unconvinced by the referee’s removal of a point from Jerusalem’s scorecard for a low blow).
It would be nice to say that Jerusalem picked himself up and dusted himself off and got right back to work but in fact he turned in the single worst performance of his career against the unheralded Joey Canoy just six months later back in the Philippines. He dropped a decision, his career in tatters. Since then, he has gone 9-0 and grabbed a strap with his recent two round destruction of Masataka Taniguchi.
Jerusalem was all light feet and heavy hands in this fight, the straight right hand that ended the fight the knockout punch of the year so far.
Jerusalem is twenty-nine, fun to watch, clever, aggressive, and has summitted. He might just be the best fighter on this list. That match with Collazo in the USA would be most welcome I suspect; look out for this one at the end of May or the beginning of June.
Manny Pacquiao, Aged 44, Welterweight, 62-8-2, Kibawe, Bukidnon
To paraphrase the fabulous movie The Princess Bride, Manny Pacquiao is only mostly retired. Last seen in the ring around twenty months ago, Manny has been busy with the politics but not so busy that he isn’t looking to return to the ring.
“Manny still feels he can box at the highest level,” Pacquiao associate Sean Gibbons, told Max Boxing last week.“Some business things have to be sorted, but when that happens, we are looking at a date for early June. We are looking at Abu Dhabi, and the name that looks like it is a go is Conor Benn.”
Most followers of British boxing are horrified by this revelation. Conor Benn was recently suspended by the British Boxing Board of Control after failing not one but two drug-tests whereafter his much-hyped contest with Chris Eubank Jr was cancelled. Somehow, Conor Benn has been cleared by the WBC (who to my knowledge, didn’t actually suspend him and whose multitude of divisional belts Conor has never fought for), who say he failed these drug tests due to all the eggs he ate. Conor, in turn, has said that that is untrue and that the WBC publicly stating they have cleared him for this reason was not helpful. Given that the WBC cleared him based exclusively upon his own testimony in a document that Conor himself submitted – but equally refused to release to the public or to the BBBC who are the people who have actually charged him with wrongdoing – one wonders how the WBC reached this bizarre conclusion. Perhaps we will know more if Conor Benn follows through on his threat to sue the BBBC, who did nothing but their job in preventing a fighter that tested positive for illegal performance enhancing drugs from fighting. Conor claims that the information that the BBBC was acting upon was faulty. By his own testimony he seems to be threatening litigation against the wrong people.
As World Boxing News observed this week, “Manny Pacquiao is about to walk into an absolute PR nightmare” but for Pacquiao, this is survivable – and the effects of a Pacquiao return on an already thriving Philippines boxing scene cannot be overstated.
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 319: Rematches in Las Vegas, Cancun and More

Rematches are the bedrock for prizefighting.
Return battles between rival boxers always means their first encounter was riveting and successful at the box office.
Six months after their first brutal battle Mikaela Mayer (20-2, 5 KOs) and Sandy Ryan (7-2-1, 3 KOs) will slug it out again for the WBO welterweight world title this time on Saturday, March 29, at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas.
ESPN will show the Top Rank card live.
“It’s important for women’s boxing to have these rivalries and this is definitely up there as one of the top ones,” Mayer told the BBC.
If you follow Mayer’s career you know that somehow drama follows. Whether its back-and-forth beefs with fellow American fighters or controversial judging due to nationalism in countries abroad. The Southern California native who now trains in Las Vegas knows how to create the drama.
For female fighters self-promotion is a necessity.
Most boxing promoters refuse to step out of the usual process set for male boxers, not for female boxers. Things remain the same and have been for the last 70 years. Social media has brought changes but that has made promoters do even less.
No longer are there press conferences, instead announcements are made on social media to be drowned among the billions of other posts. It is not killing but diluting interest in the sport.
Women innately present a different advantage that few if any promoters are recognizing. So far in the past 25 years I have only seen two or three promoters actually ignite interest in female fighters. They saw the advantages and properly boosted interest in the women.
The fight breakdown
Mayer has won world titles in the super featherweight and now the welterweight division. Those are two vastly different weight classes and prove her fighting abilities are based on skill not power or size.
Coaching Mayer since amateurs remains Al Mitchell and now Kofi Jantuah who replaced Kay Koroma the current trainer for Sandy Ryan.
That was the reason drama ignited during their first battle. Then came someone tossing paint at Ryan the day of their first fight.
More drama.
During their first fight both battled to control the initiative with Mayer out-punching the British fighter by a slender margin. It was a back-and-forth struggle with each absorbing blows and retaliating immediately.
New York City got its money’s worth.
Ryan had risen to the elite level rapidly since losing to Erica Farias three years ago. Though she was physically bigger and younger, she was out-maneuvered and defeated by the wily veteran from Argentina. In the rematch, however, Ryan made adjustments and won convincingly.
Can she make adjustments from her defeat to Mayer?
“I wanted the rematch straight away,” said Ryan on social media. “I’ve come to America again.”
Both fighters have size and reach. In their first clash it was evident that conditioning was not a concern as blows were fired nonstop in bunches. Mayer had the number of punches landed advantage and it unfolded with the judges giving her a majority decision win.
That was six months ago. Can she repeat the outcome?
Mayer has always had boiler-oven intensity. It’s not fake. Since her amateur days the slender Southern California blonde changes disposition all the way to red when lacing up the gloves. It’s something that can’t be taught.
Can she draw enough of that fire out again?
“I didn’t have to give her this rematch. I could have just sat it out, waited for Lauren Price to unify and fought for undisputed or faced someone else,” said Mayer to BBC. “That’s not the fighter I am though.”
Co-Main in Las Vegas
The co-main event pits Brian Norman Jr. (26-0, 20 KOs) facing Puerto Rico’s Derrieck Cuevas (27-1-1, 19 KOs) in a contest for the WBO welterweight title.
Norman, 24, was last seen a year ago dissecting a very good welterweight in Giovani Santillan for a knockout win in San Diego. He showed speed, skill and power in defeating Santillan in his hometown.
Cuevas has beaten some solid veteran talent but this will be his big test against Norman and his first attempt at winning a world title.
Also on the Top Rank card will be Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington and Emiliano Vargas, the son of Fernando Vargas, in separate bouts.
Golden Boy in Cancun
A rematch between undefeated William “Camaron” Zepeda (32-0, 27 KOs) and ex-champ Tevin Farmer (33-7-1, 8 KOs) headlines the lightweight match on Saturday March 29, at Cancun, Mexico.
In their first encounter Zepeda was knocked down in the fourth round but rallied to win a split-decision over Farmer. It showed the flaws in Zepeda’s tornado style.
DAZN will stream the Golden Boy Promotions card that also includes a clash between Yokasta Valle the WBC minimumweight world titlist who is moving up to flyweight to face former flyweight champion Marlen Esparza.
Both Valle and Esparza have fast hands.
Valle is excellent darting in and out while Esparza has learned how to fight inside. It’s a toss-up fight.
Fights to Watch
Fri. DAZN 12 p.m. Cameron Vuong (7-0) vs Jordan Flynn (11-0-1); Pat Brown (0-0) vs Federico Grandone (7-4-2).
Sat. DAZN 5 p.m. William Zepeda (32-0) vs Tevin Farmer (33-7-1); Yokasta Valle (32-3) vs Marlen Esparza (15-2).
Sat. ESPN 7 p.m. Mikaela Mayer (20-2) vs Sandy Ryan (7-2-1); Brian Norman Jr. (26-0) vs Derrieck Cuevas (27-1-1).
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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Boxing Odds and Ends: The Wacky and Sad World of Livingstone Bramble and More

One couldn’t write a book about prizefighting’s most eccentric characters without including former lightweight champion Livingstone Bramble who passed away last Saturday (March 22) at age 64 in Las Vegas. The Bramble chapter might well be the longest chapter in the book.
Born on the island of St. Kitt’s and raised in St. Croix, Virgin Islands, Bramble had his first 22 pro fights in New Jersey, nine at Ice World where he made his pro debut. A 3,000-seat hockey rink in Totowa, a community in Northern New Jersey roughly equidistant between Newark and the state capitol of Paterson, Ice World was the stomping ground of Main Events, a family-run enterprise founded by former labor lawyer Dan Duva, the oldest son of colorful boxing trainer Lou Duva who was effectively the face of the operation.
Bramble burst into prominence on June 1, 1984, when, in his twenty-third pro fight, he upset Ray “Boom” Mancini at Buffalo’s War Memorial Auditorium, taking away Mancini’s WBA world lightweight title.
Referee Marty Denkin stopped the fight in the 14th stanza with Boom Boom on his feet but in very bad shape. Bramble dominated the second half of the fight but was yet trailing on two of the scorecards, a potential scandal that was averted when he took the fight out of the judges’ hands. They fought again 11 months later in Reno and Bramble won a narrow but fair 15-round decision, out-pointing Mancini by 1 point on all three cards.
Bramble’s eccentricities overshadowed his feats in the ring. He owned a boa constrictor named Dog and a pit bull terrier named Snake. A Rastafarian, he trained with reggae music in the background, braided his hair before it was fashionable, and began his public workouts by having his trainer blow soap bubbles which he popped with his fists. Prior to both Mancini fights, he had a voodoo witch doctor place a hex on Boom Boom (the man was exposed as Bramble’s former middle school basketball coach).
After the second Mancini fight, Bramble successfully defended his title with a 13th-round stoppage of Tyrone “Butterfly” Crawley, but he was then shocked by Edwin Rosario who became a lightweight champion for the second time when he knocked out Bramble in the second round at an outdoor stadium in Miami Beach. Rosario’s upset spoiled a lucrative unification fight between Bramble and Hector Camacho.
Attempting to fight his way back into title contention, Bramble never did get over the hump. His best win as a former champion was a second-round knockout of junior welterweight Harold Brazier, a boxer who would be stopped only one other time, that coming late in a 124-fight career. Bramble took that fight on nine days’ notice, subbing for Micky Ward who pulled out with a hand injury.
Bramble eventually devolved into a gatekeeper, a diplomatic term for a professional loser. He won only three of his last 16 fights to finish 40-26-3.
Late in his career, Bramble settled in Las Vegas. He was 41 years old when he made his first and only ring appearance in his adopted hometown. It came at the Orleans, an off-Strip property where he was paired against Guadalajara journeyman Juan Carlos Rodriguez who had lost seven of his previous nine heading in. At the time, Bramble was preparing for his life after boxing by taking a class for aspiring slot machine technicians.
Bramble lost a wide 10-round decision. “[He] couldn’t get his jab working or put his punches together in a disappointing performance,” wrote Review-Journal ringside reporter Royce Feour. The bout’s matchmaker Brad Goodman was more scathing in his assessment. “Bramble should retire,” said Goodman. “He can’t pull the trigger. His mind was telling him to do something, but his body was not reacting.”
Bramble had four more fights, the last two 6-rounders on small cards in Idaho and Utah. All told, he answered the bell as a pro for 498 rounds.
Jacob “Stitch” Duran, boxing’s most prominent cutman, was new in town and scrounging for work when he first met Livingstone Bramble. They met at the long-shuttered Golden Gloves gym.
“I approached him and asked ‘when is your next fight?’” recalled Duran. “He looked me in the eye and said, ‘right now if you don’t shut up.’”
Duran was taken aback, but then Bramble smiled his radiant smile and Duran knew he was being spoofed. He would eventually work the pads for Bramble and the two became fast friends.
Livingstone Bramble spent his final years in an assisted living facility in Las Vegas, the cost of which, notes Duran, was born by the World Boxing Council which has a fund set aside to assist former professional boxers who have fallen on hard times.
Duran had a habit of visiting Bramble every week but stopped when the boxer could no longer recognize him. “I told his son that I just couldn’t do it anymore, it was too heartbreaking, and that I wanted to remember his dad the way that he was,” Duran told this reporter. “His son was very understanding.”
Stitch Duran remembers the exact time when he was informed that his friend had died. The call from Bramble’s son came at 3:44 in the morning.
News travels fast in the digital age and after Las Vegas fight writer Kevin Iole shared the news of Bramble’s departure on his website, other news outlets quickly latched hold of the info. What’s missing is a formal obituary and funeral arrangements. As yet, there are none.
Bobby Czyz
Livingstone Bramble and Bobby Czyz were stablemates whose careers ran on parallel paths and sometimes intersected. Both earned their spurs on Main Events promotions at Ice World.
The headline attraction on the card where Livingstone Bramble made his pro debut was a match between Bobby Czyz and Tommy Merola, young middleweight prospects. He and Bramble were on the same bill again the following year. The May 21, 1981 event was reportedly the first advance sellout of a boxing card in Totowa.
The brainy Czyz, who finished sixth of 365 in his high school graduation class according to a story in the New York Times, went on to win world titles as a light heavyweight and a cruiserweight. He had a promising career as a Showtime boxing commentator when he hung up his gloves.
Czyz lost that gig (we won’t elaborate) and things went downhill from there. In the summer of 2018, he was discovered working as a cashier in a New Jersey grocery store by a reporter for the Newark Star Ledger.
In December of last year, Bobby Czyz, now 63 years old, was diagnosed with brain cancer. And that brings us to this Sunday (March 30) when a benefit will be held for Czyz at the Elks Lodge located at 242 Chestnut Street in Nutley, New Jersey. A number of boxing luminaries of yesteryear will be in attendance at the event which commences at 1 pm. Tickets to the fundraiser, which are tax-deductible, start at $100.
At last look, the event was a near-sellout. Those interested in attending or just supporting Bobby in this battle should go to this website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/battle-for-bobby-czyz-tickets-1243505882569
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A Paean to George Foreman (1949-2025), Architect of an Amazing Second Act

George Foreman had two careers as a prizefighter. He finished his first career with a record of 45-2 and his second career with a record of 31-3.
The two careers were interrupted by a 10-year intermission. During the lacuna, George morphed seamlessly into a different person. The first George Foreman was menacing and the second George Foreman was cuddly. But in both incarnations, Foreman was larger than life. It seemed as if he would be with us forever.
George Foreman, born in 1949 in Marshall, Texas, a suburb of Houston, learned to box in the Job Corps, a federally-funded vocational training program central to President Lyndon Johnson’s anti-poverty initiative. He was already well-known when he made his pro debut in 1969 on a card at Madison Square Garden topped by an alluring contest between Joe Frazier and Jerry Quarry.
The previous year, at the Olympic Summer Games in Mexico City, George endeared himself to the vast majority of white Americans (and many African-Americans too) by parading around the ring clutching a tiny American flag in his right hand after winning his gold medal match with a second-round stoppage of his Russian opponent. The scene was viewed by millions on television and the picture of it graced the front page of many large-circulation American papers.
The image would not have resonated as strongly if not for the actions of medal-winning American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos. Ten days earlier, at the same Summer Games, Smith and Carlos stood on the podium with their black-gloved fists clenched high in a black power salute during the playing of the National Anthem. Big George, although only 19 years old, was hailed as a patriot, an antidote to those that would tear apart (or further rent) the fabric of American society.
Foreman squandered the admiration that flowed his way with his disposition. He didn’t handle the demands of celebrityhood very well. Reporters found him stand-offish if not downright surly. But he kept winning.
Foreman was never better than on the night of Jan. 22, 1973, when he conquered defending heavyweight champion Joe Frazier in less than two rounds at Kingston, Jamaica. Frazier, like Foreman, unbeaten and a former Olympic gold medalist, was as high as a 5/1 favorite in U.S. precincts, but George demolished him. Frazier was up and down like a yo-yo, six times in all, during the brief encounter.
In his next two fights, Foreman knocked out veteran Puerto Rican campaigner Joe Roman in the opening round and took out Ken Norton in the second frame, the same Ken Norton who had fought 24 rounds with Muhammad Ali, winning and losing split decisions.
Then came the iconic Rumble in the Jungle and we know what happened there. Riding a skein of 24 wins inside the distance, Foreman entered that contest with a record of 40-0 and the prevailing sentiment among the cognoscenti was that he would horizontalize Muhammad Ali in the same fashion as he had starched most of his other victims.
Following this setback, Foreman sat out all of 1976. He would have six more fights before his goodbye starting with a bout at Caesars Palace with Ron Lyle.
Foreman bombed out Lyle in the fifth frame of a back-and-forth slugfest that would be named The Ring magazine Fight of the Year. Four more knockouts would follow beginning with a fifth-round stoppage of Joe Frazier in their second and final meeting and then came a date in San Juan with Jimmy Young, a cutie from Philadelphia.
Foreman and Young met on a sultry afternoon in March of 1977 at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum, a building with no air-conditioning. Foreman nearly took Young out in the seventh round of the 12-round contest but ran out of gas and lost a unanimous decision.
In his dressing room after the fight, Foreman experienced an epiphany and became a born-again Christian. His trainer Gil Glancy rationalized the voices that Foreman heard in his head as a hallucination born of heat prostration, but George was having none of it. He returned to Houston where he could be found evangelizing on street corners or preaching as a guest pastor in storefront churches. His Rolls Royce was gone, replaced by a Volkswagen, and he found coveralls more to his liking than the fancy silk suits he had once purchased in bulk. He eventually established his own church, the Church of Lord Jesus Christ, and became an ordained minister.
ACT TWO
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “There are no second acts in American lives,” but Fitzgerald never met Reverend George Foreman.
Foreman’s second act began on March 9, 1987, before an announced crowd of 5,555 at Arco Arena in Sacramento with a fourth-round stoppage of journeyman Steve Zouski. He told reporters in attendance that he would use his purse, reportedly $24,000, to build a youth center but the cynics were of the opinion that every penny would go into his coffers as expensive divorces and other burdens had exhausted his savings. When George passed the collection plate at his church, wisecracked the wiseguys, all that came back was lint.
Although Foreman had been out of action for a decade, it seemed much longer. By then, Muhammad Ali had fallen into decrepitude, dating an entire generation of heavyweights as relics. In appearance and in fighting style, Foreman scarcely resembled his former self which had the sensory effect of elongating the gap in his timeline. The new George Foreman shaved his head bald and his torso was more massive. When he sallied out of his dressing room, Hall of Fame boxing writer Graham Houston likened the impression to that of an ancient battleship coming out of the mist.
This reporter was ringside for Foreman’s second comeback fight at the Oakland Coliseum where he was paired against Charles Hostetter, a smallish heavyweight packaged as the heavyweight champion of Texas. Hostetter folded his tent in the third round, taking a knee like a quarterback running out the clock at the end of a football game. Foreman carried 247 pounds, 20 pounds less than what he had carried for Zouski but nearly 30 pounds more than what he had carried in his first meeting with Joe Frazier.
The Hostetter fight was a set-up, as were many of Foreman’s fights in the first two years of his comeback, but Big George never cheated himself. Away from the probing eye of reporters, he always went the extra mile in his workouts.
Foreman stayed busy, but his comeback proceeded in fits and starts. In his eighth comeback fight, he stopped Dwight Muhammad Qawi in the seventh round (more exactly, Qawi quit, turning his back on the referee to signal that he was finished) at Caesars Palace, but it was a lackluster performance by George whose punches were slow and often missed the mark. This was the same Dwight Muhammad Qawi who had given Evander Holyfield a tough tussle in a 15-round barnburner when both were cruiserweights, but against Foreman the “Camden Buzzsaw” was a bloated butterball, carrying 222 pounds on his five-foot-seven frame.
The bout’s promoter, Bob Arum, exhorted Foreman go back to the bushes to freshen-up and when George returned to the ring nine weeks later it was in Alaska in an off-TV fight against an opponent with a losing record.
But Foreman’s confidence never wavered and when he finally lured a big-name opponent into the ring, Gerry Cooney, he was more than ready. They met on Jan. 16, 1990, at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
At age 33, Cooney was also on the comeback trail. He hadn’t fought in two-and-half years, not since being stopped in the fifth round by Michael Spinks in this same ring. Since his mega-fight with Larry Holmes in mid-1982, he had answered the bell for only 12 rounds. But, rusty or not, Cooney still possessed a sledgehammer of a left hook.
Cooney landed the harder punches in the first round and won the round on all three cards, but Big George was just warming up. In the second stanza, he decked Cooney twice. The second knockdown was so harsh that referee Joe Cortez waived the fight off without starting a count.
“He smote him,” wrote Phil Berger for his story in the New York Times. “The Punching Preacher gained a flock of converts,” said Bernard Fernandez in the Philadelphia Daily News.
Foreman called out Mike Tyson after the fight. The wheels were set in motion when they shared top billing on a card at Caesars Palace in June of 1990 (Tyson knocked out former amateur rival Henry Tillman in the opening round; Foreman dismissed the Brazilian, Adilson Rodrigues, in round two), but the match never did come to fruition and Foreman, tired of waiting, set his sights on Evander Holyfield who owned two of the three meaningful pieces of the world heavyweight title.
An Adonis-physiqued gladiator renowned for his vitality, Holyfield, 28, figured to be too good and too fast for Foreman. If Evander set a fast pace, Foreman, it seemed, would eventually crumble from exhaustion. “Hopefully Holyfield will take it easy on him,” wrote the sports editor of the Tennessean. “There’s no glory to be gained in mugging a senior citizen.”
Holyfield won the fight, but Foreman – the oldest man to challenge for a world title in any weight division to that point in time — won the hearts of America with his buoyant performance. On several occasions Holyfield rattled him, but Big George kept coming back for more and at the finish it was he, improbably, who seemed to have more fuel in his tank. After trouncing Gerry Cooney, casual fans, at least most of them, finally took him seriously and with his gallant performance against Holyfield, he graduated into a full-fledged American folk hero. One would be hard-pressed to find an example of a boxer elevating his stature to such an extent in a match that he lost.
There was more to George Foreman’s growing popularity. He proved to be a great salesman, leavening his fistic fearsomeness with self-effacing humor. He developed an amusing shtick that played off his fondness for cheeseburgers and he became a popular guest on the talk show circuit. “Is this Adilson Rodrigues a good fighter?” inquired Johnny Carson. “I sure hope not,” deadpanned Foreman.
History would show that Big George wasn’t done making miracles, but there were potholes in his path. He had ended the Holyfield fight with a puffy face and with swelling around both of his eyes, but he looked a lot worse following his 10-round match with Alex Stewart in April of 1992. At the final bell, his face was a bloody mess and both of his eyes were swollen nearly shut. Fortunately, he scored two knockdowns in the second stanza, without which he would have been on the wrong side of a split decision.
Two fights later, he was out-pointed by Tommy Morrison in a bout sanctioned as a world title fight by the fledgling and lightly-regarded World Boxing Organization (WBO). Purportedly a distant relative of John Wayne, “Tommy the Duke” had the equalizer, a Cooney-ish left hook, but there were holes in his defense. A slugfest on paper, this bout played out like a chess match. Go figure.
Eighteen months after his lackluster showing against Morrison, Foreman got another shot at the world heavyweight title, thrust against Michael Moorer who had upset Holyfield to win the WBA and IBF (and lineal) titles. (The WBC version was held by Lennox Lewis; Mike Tyson was in prison.) A former light heavyweight champion who had successfully defended that diadem nine times, Moorer, not quite 27 years old, was undefeated in 35 fights with 30 knockouts.
The match-up was widely disparaged because of the alphabet soup nonsense and because Foreman was coming off a loss. “Big George has been good for the game, but has outstayed his welcome,” wrote Harry Mullen. The noted British scribe, who had been ringside for Larry Holmes’ beatdown of Muhammad Ali, told his readers that he wouldn’t be going to Las Vegas to see the fight because he just couldn’t stomach yet another dispiriting spectacle. “The most likely outcome,” he said, “is a prolonged and painful beating.”
At this juncture of his life, Foreman didn’t need the money. Although his TV sitcom “George” had been cancelled after only eight episodes (George played a retired boxer who starts an after-school program for inner-city kids), he had money rolling in from a slew of endorsements. McDonald’s, KFC, Frito-Lay, Oscar Meyer – you name it – and Big George was a “brand ambassador.” With his purse of no great importance in the big picture, George’s only incentive for defeating Moorer was his pride.
Through nine rounds, Moorer vs. Foreman was a tedious affair. Moorer was ahead by a commanding 5 points on two of the scorecards while the third judge had Moorer ahead by only 1. Foreman, who scored 68 knockouts over the course of his pro career, always had a puncher’s chance, no matter the opponent, but there was no inkling of the thunderclap that would come. This was shaping up as the sort of fight that would have the patrons streaming to the exits before the final bell.
The thunderclap arrived in the final minute of the 10th frame. It was a classic British punch in execution, a stiff right hand delivered straight from the shoulder. The punch didn’t travel far, but landed smack on Moorer’s jaw. His face went blank and he fell to the canvas where he lay prone as the referee counted him out. Before the stupefied crowd had a chance to soak it all in, Foreman dropped to his knees in prayer. Many were misty-eyed as ring announcer Michael Buffer made it formal, orating the particulars.
Six days after the 20th anniversary of the Rumble in the Jungle, Big George Foreman had rolled back the clock, recapturing the world heavyweight title, or at least pieces of it, capping the most astonishing comeback in the history of human endurance sports.
Foreman would have four more fights before leaving the sport for good two months shy of his 49th birthday. We won’t delve into those bouts other than noting that he was fortunate to get the nod over Axel Schulz and unfortunate to lose to Shannon Briggs in his farewell fight, a narrow decision widely assailed as a heist.
And the money kept rolling in. In 1994, the year that Foreman conquered Michael Moorer, a portable indoor grill that came to be called the George Foreman Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine was introduced to the public. The contraption proved so popular that Foreman, the TV pitchman and the face of it, reaped a reported $200 million in royalties, more money than he had earned in all of his prizefights combined.
They say you can never go home again, to which Big George replied , “bah, humbug.”
Foreman’s heroics during his Second Act put a spring my step and had the same effect on many others. In the words of the inimitable Jim Murray, he was a hero to every middle-aged man and older who looked in the mirror and saw some stranger looking back at him.
Thank you, George, thanks for the memories. Rest in peace
***
Note: TSS editor-in-chief Arne K. Lang is the author of five books including “Prizefighting: An American History,” released by McFarland in 2016 and re-released in a paperback edition in 2020. Several of the passages in this story were extracted from that book.
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