Lionell Thompson and the Afflictions of a ‘B-side’ Fighter

Published

2 years ago

April 13, 2023

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“Lionell ‘Lonnie B’ Thompson is a former professional boxer…” So reads the opening sentence of a blurb about him that popped up on the internet.

Except it’s wrong. Thompson isn’t a former boxer – his career isn’t dead, just dormant. It’s been dormant for more than three years, a prolonged gap in his boxing timeline that actually isn’t all that unusual for a “B-side” fighter. And the professional boxing career of Lionell “Lonnie B” Thompson has been quintessentially B-side.

Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, Thompson was a five-time New York State Golden Gloves champion and participated in the 2008 Olympic trials. He won his first 12 pro fights before being rudely introduced to the politics of boxing. It happened in Pointe-Claire, Quebec, where Thompson was matched against a local fighter, Nicholson Poulard.

When the bell sounded ending the tenth and final round, Poulard’s half-brother, Jean Pascal, entered the ring to congratulate Thompson who took the gesture as a sign that he had won the fight, a foregone conclusion in his mind. Alas, two of the judges differed and Thompson lost a split decision. (Ringside reporter Hans Olson and veteran Quebec judge Pasquale Procopio both had it 97-93 for Thompson.)

Four months later, Thompson found himself in the ring against Sergey Kovalev. The Russian was then in his prime, undefeated and rocketing toward a #2 ranking on the pound-for-pound list of The Ring magazine.

Thompson had no excuses after Kovalev bombed him out in the third round, but it’s worth noting that he took the fight on nine days notice when former title-holder Gabriel Campillo, Sergey’s original opponent, suffered a back injury in training.

Thompson rebounded with three wins, most notably a lopsided 10-round decision over 21-1 Ryan Coyne in Atlantic City, before misfortune struck again. His bout on HBO with Serbia’s then-undefeated “Hot Rod” Kalajdzic, truncated at the last minute from 10 to eight rounds, resulted in another narrow setback. In this bout, Lionell had a point deducted for losing his mouthpiece, without which the contest would have ended in a draw.

Thompson was inactive for the next 17 months, during which he moved to Las Vegas where he found work as a security guard and caught the eye of the big cheese while staying in shape at the Mayweather Boxing Club. He was 6-2 for Mayweather’s Money Team Promotions, advancing his record to 22-5. The last of those 22 wins came on Sept. 28, 2019, in what currently stands as his final fight.

On that date, he scored a big upset, winning a comprehensive 10-round decision over former world title-holder Jose Uzcategui.

Thompson had been a light heavyweight his entire career going back to his amateur days. For this fight, he scaled down to super middleweight (168). He says he shed 30 pounds in a few weeks without being weight-drained after accepting the match, a remarkable accomplishment for a man in his mid-30s.

Thompson says his purse for Uzcategui was $39,000. After the fight, he says, he spurned a $100,000 offer to fight WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez.

“It wasn’t a fair offer,” he says, “not with a world title on the line. When all was said and done, I might have walked away with $50,000. My life has been hard since birth. I didn’t have a strong family. I have paid my dues and I deserve to walk away from this sport with some money.”

Indeed, his life has been hard. He spent most of his middle school years and high school years in a foster home. “It was the worst time in my life, like being incarcerated,” he says, while acknowledging that it was a blessing in one regard. Down the street was the New Mt. Ararat Temple of Prayer, a nondenominational church where Lionell found a sanctuary.

“B-side” fighters often need to work as a sparring partner to keep the wolf from the door while they wait for the phone to ring. Thompson is no exception. He has sparred more than a hundred rounds with Artur Beterbiev, and a fellow who touches gloves with Beterbiev, even in a simulated fight, certainly earns every penny he makes. “He’s a beast,” says Thompson of the Montreal-based Russian who owns three pieces of the world light heavyweight title and has won all 19 of his pro fights by knockout. “There are no words to describe how hard he hit me.”

Lionell Thompson can currently be found at the DLX boxing gym in Las Vegas where he helps manage the place. Caleb Plant trained there for his recent match with the aforementioned Benavidez and there’s a great irony in that.

Both fought Jose Uzcategui. Thompson had an easier go of it than Plant who toughed out a well-earned decision in a 12-round fight. And for Plant, who purportedly had the advantage of an 8-week camp, it opened the door to eventual seven-figure purses.

Although a few succeeded in shattering the glass ceiling and achieved great wealth (think Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Floyd Mayweather Jr), the deck has been stacked against black boxers since the very dawn of the Queensberry Era when John L. Sullivan drew the color line so that he wouldn’t be embarrassed by Peter Jackson. If Lionell Thompson had been active in the 1940s, he would have fit right in with the Murderers’ Row, the term that Budd Schulberg coined to describe a group of outstanding black boxers – (e.g., Charley Burley, Lloyd Marshall, Holman Williams) – who were too good for their own good and were thus never tendered a title shot.

Lionell doesn’t resent Caleb Plant for raking in the big bucks. To the contrary, he is happy for him. “I love Caleb,” he says, “I consider him a friend.” It is the boxing establishment, not any specific person, that has wronged him, making him, by his reckoning, the most avoided boxer in his sport.

In his spare time, Thompson reads the Bible and watches “The Equalizer,” the 2014 original starring Denzel Washington as a retired government assassin turned vigilante. Lionell identifies with Washington’s character Robert McCall, a “psychopathic sweetheart” who wipes out the bad guys as he pursues justice for the exploited.

Thompson’s attachment to the “The Equalizer” is less an infatuation than a full-blown obsession. He’s watched the movie on DVD more than a thousand times. It has cost him at least one girlfriend. He has never been married.

“I don’t believe there is a super middleweight out there who can beat me,” he says. “I know that with the right guidance I can become a world champion late this year or maybe next year. My faith is strong and I believe God will bring justice to my situation.”

That may be a pipe dream. On the day that we chatted with him, he allowed that he weighed 197 pounds. He isn’t ranked in the top 10 at 168 by any of the relevant sanctioning bodies and at age 37 it figures that his peak years are behind him. But if he never captures a world title, he can take solace in knowing that he had a career that harked to the Murderers’ Row and that puts him in good company.

Arne K. Lang’s third boxing book, titled “George Dixon, Terry McGovern and the Culture of Boxing in America, 1890-1910,” rolled off the press in September. Published by McFarland, the book can be ordered directly from the publisher or via Amazon.

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Najee Lopez Steps up in Class and Wins Impressively at Plant City

Published

15 hours ago

January 24, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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Garry Jonas’ ProBox series returned to its regular home in Plant City, Florida, tonight with a card topped by a 10-round light heavyweight match between fast-rising Najee Lopez and former world title challenger Lenin Castillo. This was considered a step-up fight for the 25-year-old Lopez, an Atlanta-born-fighter of Puerto Rican heritage. Although the 36-year-old Castillo had lost two of his last three heading in, he had gone the distance with Dimitry Bivol and Marcus Browne and been stopped only once (by Callum Smith).

Lopez landed the cleaner punches throughout. Although Castillo seemed unfazed during the first half of the fight, he returned to his corner at the end of round five exhibiting signs of a fractured jaw.

In the next round, Lopez cornered him against the ropes and knocked him through the ropes with a left-right combination. Referee Emil Lombardo could have stopped the fight right there, but he allowed the courageous Castillo to carry on for a bit longer, finally stopping the fight as Castillo’s corner and a Florida commissioner were signaling that it was over.

The official time was 2:36 of round six. Bigger fights await the talented Lopez who improved to 13-0 with his tenth win inside the distance. Castillo declined to 25-7-1.

Co-Feature

In a stinker of a heavyweight fight, Stanley Wright, a paunchy, 34-year-old North Carolina journeyman, scored a big upset with a 10-round unanimous decision over previously unbeaten Jeremiah Milton.

Wright carried 280 pounds, 100 pounds more than in his pro debut 11 years ago. Although he was undefeated (13-0, 11 KOs), he had never defeated an opponent with a winning record and his last four opponents were a miserable 19-48-2. Moreover, he took the fight on short notice.

What Wright had going for him was fast hands and, in the opening round, he put Milton on the canvas with a straight right hand. From that point, Milton fought tentatively and Wright, looking fatigued as early as the fourth round, fought only in spurts. It seemed doubtful that he could last the distance, but Milton, the subject of a 2021 profile in these pages, was wary of Wright’s power and unable to capitalize. “It’s almost as if Milton is afraid to win,” said ringside commentator Chris Algieri during the ninth stanza when the bout had devolved into a hugfest.

The judges had it 96-93 and 97-92 twice for the victorious Wright who boosted his record to 14-0 without improving his stature.

Also

In the TV opener, a 10-round contest in the junior middleweight division, Najee Lopez stablemate Darrelle Valsaint (12-0, 10 KOs) scored his career-best win with a second-round knockout of 35-year-old Dutch globetrotter Stephen Danyo (23-7-3).

A native Floridian of Haitian descent, the 22-year-old Valsaint was making his eighth start in Plant City. He rocked Danyo with a chopping right hand high on the temple and then, as Danyo slumped forward, applied the exclamation point, a short left uppercut. The official time was 2:17 of round two.

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Japanese Superstar Naoya Inoue is Headed to Vegas after KOing Ye Joon Kim

Published

1 day ago

January 24, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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Japan’s magnificent Naoya Inoue, appearing in his twenty-fourth title fight, scored his 11^th straight stoppage tonight while successfully defending his unified super bantamweight title, advancing his record to 29-0 (26 KOs) at the expense of Ye Joon Kim. The match at Tokyo’s Ariake Arena came to an end at the 2:25 mark of round four when U.S. referee Mark Nelson tolled “10” over the brave but overmatched Korean.

Kim, raised in a Seoul orphanage, had a few good moments, but the “Monster” found his rhythm in the third round, leaving Kim with a purplish welt under his left eye. In the next frame, he brought the match to a conclusion, staggering the Korean with a left and then finishing matters with an overhand right that put Kim on the seat of his pants, dazed and wincing in pain.

Kim, who brought a 21-2-2 record, took the fight on 10 days’ notice, replacing Australia’s Sam Goodman who suffered an eye injury in sparring that never healed properly, forcing him to withdraw twice.

Co-promoter Bob Arum, who was in the building, announced that Inoue’s next fight would happen in Las Vegas in the Spring. Speculation centers on Mexico City’s Alan Picasso (31-0-1, 17 KOs) who is ranked #1 by the WBC. However, there’s also speculation that the 31-year-old Inoue may move up to featherweight and seek to win a title in a fifth weight class, in which case a potential opponent is Brandon Figueroa should he defeat former Inoue foe Stephen Fulton next weekend. In “olden days,” this notion would have been dismissed as the Japanese superstar and Figueroa have different promoters, but the arrival of Turki Alalshikh, the sport’s Daddy Warbucks, has changed the dynamic. Tonight, Naoya Inoue made his first start as a brand ambassador for Riyadh Season.

Simmering on the backburner is a megafight with countryman Junto Nakatani, an easy fight to make as Arum has ties to both. However, the powers-that-be would prefer more “marination.”

Inoue has appeared twice in Las Vegas, scoring a seventh-round stoppage of Jason Moloney in October of 2020 at the MGM Bubble and a third-round stoppage of Michael Dasmarinas at the Virgin Hotels in June of 2021.

Semi-wind-up

In a 12-round bout for a regional welterweight title, Jin Sasaki improved to 19-1-1 (17) with a unanimous decision over Shoki Sakai (29-15-3). The scores were 118-110, 117-111, and 116-112.

Also

In a bout in which both contestants were on the canvas, Toshiki Shimomachi (20-1-3) edged out Misaki Hirano (11-2), winning a majority decision. A 28-year-old Osaka southpaw with a fan-friendly style, the lanky Shimomachi, unbeaten in his last 22 starts, competes as a super bantamweight. A match with Inoue may be in his future.

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Eric Priest Wins Handily on Thursday’s Golden Boy card at the Commerce Casino

Published

1 day ago

January 24, 2025

David A. Avila

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Model turned fighter Eric Priest jabbed and jolted his way into the super middleweight rankings with a shutout decision win over veteran Tyler Howard on Thursday.

In his first main event Priest (15-0, 8 KOs) proved ready for contender status by defusing every attack Tennessee’s Howard (20-3, 11 KOs) could muster at Commerce Casino, the second fight in six days at the LA County venue.

All ticket monies collected on the Folden Boy Promotions card were contributed to the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation as they battle wildfires sprouting all over Los Angeles County due to high winds.

Priest, 26, had never fought anyone near Howard’s caliber but used a ramrod jab to keep the veteran off-balance and unable to muster a forceful counter-attack. Round after round the Korean-American fighter pumped left jabs while circling his opposition.

Though hit with power shots, none seemed to faze Howard but his own blows were unable to put a dent in Priest. After 10 rounds of the same repetitive action all three judges scored the fight 100-90 for Priest who now wins a regional super middleweight title.

Priest also joins the top 15 rankings of the WBA organization.

In a fight between evenly matched middleweights, Jordan Panthen (11-0, 9 KOs) remained undefeated after 10 rounds versus DeAundre Pettus (12-4, 7 KOs). Though equally skilled, Panthen simply out-worked the South Caroliina fighter to win by unanimous decision. No knockdowns were scored.

Other Bouts

Grant Flores (8-0, 6 KOs) knocked out Costa Rica’s David Lobo Ramirez (17-4, 12 KOs) with two successive right uppercuts at 2:59 of the second round of the super welterweight fight.

Cayden Griffith (3-0, 3 KOs) used a left hook to the body to stop Mark Misiura at 1:43 of the second round in a super welterweight bout.

Jordan Fuentes (3-0) floored Brandon Badillo (0-3-1) in the third round and proceeded to win by decision after four rounds in a super bantamweight fight.

A super featherweight match saw Leonardo Sanchez (8-0) win by decision over Joseph Cruz Brown (10-12) after six rounds.

Photo credit: Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy

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