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Shigeoka Brothers Score Impressive Knockouts in Tokyo
The Shigeoka brothers Yudai and Ginjiro have both delivered on the biggest nights of their careers in Tokyo, and as per last week’s preview, in impressive fashion. Ginjiro Shigeoka, now 9-0, took out Rene Mark Cuarto (The Philippines, now 21-4-2) with Yudai Shigeoka , now 7-0, scoring his victory over late substitute Wilfredo Mendez (Puerto Rico, now 18-3).
First to the ring was Ginjiro (pictured on the right), resplendent in gold gloves and trim, followed closely by Rene Mark Cuarto who appeared grim but confident. It felt clear form the first that this would be the predicted war, but what followed was as savage and complete an engine and gut-check as any young fighter might wish for. Cuarto stayed close, and Ginjiro welcomed him; the two were so close that they could comfortably tap gloves, Ginjiro’s southpaw right in direct weave with Cuarto’s orthodox left. Their first contact on the inside was dominated by Cuarto who landed a beautiful uppercut to the body that prompted a wild response from Ginjiro, one that underlined his immaturity. A feature of the first three rounds of this fight was a determination on Ginjiro’s part to even-up the cards after any negative contact, and it made him wild.
Ginjiro visited the deck twice in the first round, a slip, but then, overeager, under-corrected, Ginjiro was flashed to the canvas by a straight right hand to find himself facing the first genuine crisis in his fledgling career. He did not respond as his corner might have wished, throwing wildly, affording Cuarto chances for roughhousing, and throwing the fight into the type of abject chaos that a veteran was much more likely to profit by. It was Ginjiro, though, who won out in a violent clash of heads that left a spot of blood on Cuarto’s left cheek, a wound that would swell as the fight progressed.
In the third, Ginjiro made a meaningful and impressive adjustment, targeting the body, slotting them in behind minor feints with the jab and Cuarto, perhaps feeling the effects of the head-clash in the second, perhaps failing to digest these early sorties to the body, gave ground. Through the third and the fourth it felt as though the epic sweep of the violently contested sections were up for grabs among wild exchanges, but when he laid down his jab, Ginjiro dominated and seemed always just in control enough that he bagged these rounds. In the fifth, Cuarto managed to land a right uppercut to the body that impressed, prompting his corner to demand a further body attack, but it was Ginjiro, now calmer, more certain, that dominated the round with bodypunches, mostly left hands, as Cuarto appeared for the first time uncertain.
More pertinently, he had not won a round since the first. Truthfully, the more controlled Ginjiro’s attack became the more dangerous he became, and the straight punches he landed to the body in the sixth had Cuarto covering up in earnest for the first time. In fact, Ginjiro appeared to drop Cuarto with such a punch in the final minute of the round but while Cuarto’s corner bellowed loudly that this had been a slip, the ringside instant replay did indeed strike it off, the referee correcting his decision with the judges before waving the fight on. The referee, Katsuhiko Nakamura, was called to action again in the seventh, rightly issuing a stern warning to Cuarto who locked and then held Ginjiro in a guillotine. Ginjiro responded in the best of ways: a counter left to the pit of Cuarto’s gut that dropped him for a legitimate count.
It should be stated now: Cuarto, who had never been stopped going into this fight, is a very tough man. He fought back hard off the ropes despite Ginjiro continuing to target his body with severe punishment. Covering up in the eighth, he also refused to surrender but his tenderness in returning fire gave Ginjiro free reign to risk more. Adding to Cuarto’s misery was another clash of heads that left him with another cut, this time on the forehead.
Bloody, badly beaten to the body, but unbowed, he stepped out of his corner in the ninth ready to fight but unable to do so. He was a sitting duck for vicious left hands to the body and Ginjiro took full advantage, ripping into him and ripping him to the canvas not once, but twice. Cuarto, who had no quit in him, and made this fight every bit as much as Ginjiro, was waved off by the referee in the ninth round.
This was too one-sided an affair to be mentioned as a fight of the year contender, but it had everything. It saw a weak start from a favoured son who rallied violently in a fight that seemed poised on a knife’s edge, who then took control of the affair with superior technical boxing matched to the violence of the early rounds bound up in a vicious, measured body-attack.
A hugely impressive performance from Ginjiro then, it only remained to see if his brother could match it. As discussed in my preview last week, Wilfredo Mendez was a late-substitute for Panya Pradabsri and as difficult a late-substitute as could be roused. The test here was Mendez’s awkward, birdlike, crouching southpaw stylings in addition to his vaster experience. Yudai, all in silver, cut a far more cautious figure than his brother early, clearly out-speeding and out-touching his opponent but taking far fewer risks, relying in the main upon his own southpaw jab.
Yudai had Mendez running and holding as early as the second, one hoped in keeping with a plan that saw him rally late given that apart from some lefts to the body, Yudai’s offence was in the main still under wraps. Seemingly wanting to counter, Yudai was forced to wait for the Mendez attacks, which were intermittent to say the least, and although he inevitably won these exchanges, Mendez’s quickness on defence seemed to demand more from the Japanese. The best he could do in the fourth was beckon Mendez in before shipping the best punch of the round (a straight to the head) although he bagged this round along with the other three simply by out-sniping his man.
His patience was finally rewarded in the fifth, however, Mendez over-reaching with the left, a punch Yudai slipped to deliver a pair of beautiful, hard, narrow left hands to drop Mendez on his backside. Mendez escaped to his corner at the end of the count, but Yudai targeted his body with the same punch in the sixth, and Mendez, already in need of a knockout, seemed less keen to engage than ever.
It was something of a relief then when Yudai landed a whipping left to the body and Mendez took a crouch and stubbornly refused to abandon it until the referee had said “ten.” It is hard to say whether Mendez had been capable of beating the count, of course, and it was impressive to see Yudai feint him back into the corner right-handed before unleashing the final punch – but it did look like most of the finishing blow was captured on Mendez’s defences.
That said, it must be remembered who it is the brothers have knocked out today. Mendez was nothing less than the number twelve at 105lbs, whereas Cuarto could in no sensible sport be excluded from the top-ten. Cuarto had never been stopped, Mendez had been stopped just once, in eleven. These were impressive results posted by inexperienced fighters who have now made this division their playground.
Ginjiro, who has broken into the top five with this showing, is now impossible to ignore. He will presumably be re-matched with Daniel Valladares, in a rerun of their fight from January, abandoned after a clash of heads; Yudai meanwhile will presumably be matched with Panya Pradabsri, for whom Mendez was a late substitute. This though, underlines the division’s current problem.
The Thai twin-towers who rule over the division, Pradabsri and Thammanoon Niyomtrong, seem less than keen to leave their strongholds. Japan, meanwhile, holds the heavier promotional firepower and are likely to win any purse- bid. This situation might be manageable were it not for the atrocious reputation Thailand has as a fistic host currently, Erick Rosa, seen as a live threat to Thailand’s divisional hegemony, not just refused entry to the country but detained at the border when attending for a fight with divisional number one, Niyomtrong. Certain accusations have been made. Pradabsri’s withdrawal from the Yudai fight with a sore throat has not helped matters.
But it is a deep division, not always the case for 105lbs, and there are many pleasing fights to be made. If regional politics can be placed to one side there is room in the imagination for a Pradabsri-Yudai, Niyomtrong-Ginjiro showdown. The most difficult task in boxing is to place minimumweight at the centre of the fistic world; it can only be hoped that the powers that be don’t pass up such a rare opportunity.
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The first annual dinner of the Boxing Writers Association of America was staged on April 25, 1926 in the grand ballroom of New York’s Hotel Astor, an edifice that rivaled the original Waldorf Astoria as the swankiest hotel in the city. Back then, the organization was known as the Boxing Writers Association of Greater New York.
The ballroom was configured to hold 1200 for the banquet which was reportedly oversubscribed. Among those listed as agreeing to attend were the governors of six states (New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Maryland) and the mayors of 10 of America’s largest cities.
In 1926, radio was in its infancy and the digital age was decades away (and inconceivable). So, every journalist who regularly covered boxing was a newspaper and/or magazine writer, editor, or cartoonist. And at this juncture in American history, there were plenty of outlets for someone who wanted to pursue a career as a sportswriter and had the requisite skills to get hired.
The following papers were represented at the inaugural boxing writers’ dinner:
New York Times
New York News
New York World
New York Sun
New York Journal
New York Post
New York Mirror
New York Telegram
New York Graphic
New York Herald Tribune
Brooklyn Eagle
Brooklyn Times
Brooklyn Standard Union
Brooklyn Citizen
Bronx Home News
This isn’t a complete list because a few of these papers, notably the New York World and the New York Journal, had strong afternoon editions that functioned as independent papers. Plus, scribes from both big national wire services (Associated Press and UPI) attended the banquet and there were undoubtedly a smattering of scribes from papers in New Jersey and Connecticut.
Back then, the event’s organizer Nat Fleischer, sports editor of the New York Telegram and the driving force behind The Ring magazine, had little choice but to limit the journalistic component of the gathering to writers in the New York metropolitan area. There wasn’t a ballroom big enough to accommodate a good-sized response if he had extended the welcome to every boxing writer in North America.
The keynote speaker at the inaugural dinner was New York’s charismatic Jazz Age mayor James J. “Jimmy” Walker, architect of the transformative Walker Law of 1920 which ushered in a new era of boxing in the Empire State with a template that would guide reformers in many other jurisdictions.
Prizefighting was then associated with hooligans. In his speech, Mayor Walker promised to rid the sport of their ilk. “Boxing, as you know, is closest to my heart,” said hizzoner. “So I tell you the police force is behind you against those who would besmirch or injure boxing. Rowdyism doesn’t belong in this town or in your game.” (In 1945, Walker would be the recipient of the Edward J. Neil Memorial Award given for meritorious service to the sport. The oldest of the BWAA awards, the previous recipients were all active or former boxers. The award, no longer issued under that title, was named for an Associated Press sportswriter and war correspondent who died from shrapnel wounds covering the Spanish Civil War.)
Another speaker was well-traveled sportswriter Wilbur Wood, then affiliated with the Brooklyn Citizen. He told the assembly that the aim of the organization was two-fold: to help defend the game against its detractors and to promote harmony among the various factions.
Of course, the 1926 dinner wouldn’t have been as well-attended without the entertainment. According to press dispatches, Broadway stars and performers from some of the city’s top nightclubs would be there to regale the attendees. Among the names bandied about were vaudeville superstars Sophie Tucker and Jimmy Durante, the latter of whom would appear with his trio, Durante, (Lou) Clayton, and (Eddie) Jackson.
There was a contraction of New York newspapers during the Great Depression. Although empirical evidence is lacking, the inaugural boxing writers dinner was likely the largest of its kind. Fifteen years later, in 1941, the event drew “more than 200” according to a news report. There was no mention of entertainment.
In 1950, for the first time, the annual dinner was opened to the public. For $25, a civilian could get a meal and mingle with some of his favorite fighters. Sugar Ray Robinson was the Edward J. Neil Award winner that year, honored for his ring exploits and for donating his purse from the Charlie Fusari fight to the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund.
There was no formal announcement when the Boxing Writers Association of Greater New York was re-christened the Boxing Writers Association of America, but by the late 1940s reporters were referencing the annual event as simply the boxing writers dinner. By then, it had become traditional to hold the annual affair in January, a practice discontinued after 1971.
The winnowing of New York’s newspaper herd plus competing banquets in other parts of the country forced Nat Fleischer’s baby to adapt. And more adaptations will be necessary in the immediate future as the future of the BWAA, as it currently exists, is threatened by new technologies. If the forthcoming BWAA dinner (April 30 at the Edison Ballroom in mid-Manhattan) were restricted to wordsmiths from the traditional print media, the gathering would be too small to cover the nut and the congregants would be drawn disproportionately from the geriatric class.
Some of those adaptations have already started. Last year, Las Vegas resident Sean Zittel, a recent UNLV graduate, had the distinction of becoming the first videographer welcomed into the BWAA. With more and more people getting their news from sound bites, rather than the written word, the videographer serves an important function.
The reporters who conducted interviews with pen and paper have gone the way of the dodo bird and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A taped interview for a “talkie” has more integrity than a story culled from a paper and pen interview because it is unfiltered. Many years ago, some reporters, after interviewing the great Joe Louis, put words in his mouth that made him seem like a dullard, words consistent with the Sambo stereotype. In other instances, the language of some athletes was reconstructed to the point where the reader would think the athlete had a second job as an English professor.
The content created by videographers is free from that bias. More of them will inevitably join the BWAA and similar organizations in the future.
Photo: Nat Fleischer is flanked by Sugar Ray Robinson and Tony Zale at the 1947 boxing writers dinner.
It was just a numbers game for Gabriela Fundora and despite Mexico’s Marilyn Badillo’s elusive tactics it took the champion one punch to end the fight and retain her undisputed flyweight world title by knockout on Saturday.
Will it be her last flyweight defense?
Though Fundora (16-0, 8 KOs) fired dozens of misses, a single punch found Badillo (19-1-1, 3 KOs) and ended her undefeated career and first attempt at a world title at the Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California.
Fundora, however, proves unbeatable at flyweight.
The champion entered the arena as the headliner for the Golden Boy Promotion show and stepped through the ropes with every physical advantage possible, including power.
Mexico’s Badillo was a midget compared to Fundora but proved to be as elusive as a butterfly in a menagerie for the first six rounds. As the six-inch taller Fundora connected on one punch for every dozen thrown, that single punch was a deadly reminder.
Badillo tried ducking low and slipping to the left while countering with slashing uppercuts, she found little success. She did find the body a solid target but the blows proved to be useless. And when Badillo clinched, that proved more erroneous as Fundora belted her rapidly during the tie-ups.
“She was kind of doing her ducking thing,” said Fundora describing Badillo’s defensive tactics. “I just put the pressure on. It was just like a train. We didn’t give her that break.”
The Mexican fighter tried valiantly with various maneuvers. None proved even slightly successful. Fundora remained poised and under control as she stalked the challenger.
In the seventh round Badillo seemed to take a stand and try to slug it out with Fundora. She quickly was lit up by rapid left crosses and down she went at 1:44 of the seventh round. The Mexican fighter’s corner wisely waved off the fight and referee Rudy Barragan stopped the fight and held the dazed Badillo upright.
Once again Fundora remained champion by knockout. The only question now is will she move up to super flyweight or bantamweight to challenge the bigger girls.
Perez Beats Conwell.
Mexico’s Jorge “Chino” Perez (33-4, 26 KOs) upset Charles Conwell (21-1, 15 KOs) to win by split decision after 12 rounds in their super welterweight showdown.
It was a match that paired two hard-hitting fighters whose ledgers brimmed with knockouts, but neither was able to score a knockdown against each other.
Neither fighter moved backward. It was full steam ahead with Conwell proving successful to the body and head with left hooks and Perez connecting with rights to the head and body. It was difficult to differentiate the winner.
Though Conwell seemed to be the superior defensive fighter and more accurate, two judges preferred Perez’s busier style. They gave the fight to Perez by 115-113 scores with the dissenter favoring Conwell by the same margin.
It was Conwell’s first pro loss. Maybe it will open doors for more opportunities.
Other Bouts
Tristan Kalkreuth (15-1) managed to pass a serious heat check by unanimous decision against former contender Felix Valera (24-8) after a 10-round back-and-forth heavyweight fight.
It was very close.
Kalkreuth is one of those fighters that possess all the physical tools including youth and size but never seems to be able to show it. Once again he edged past another foe but at least this time he faced an experienced fighter in Valera.
Valera had his moments especially in the middle of the 10-round fight but slowed down during the last three rounds.
One major asset for Kalkreuth was his chin. He got caught but still motored past the clever Valera. After 10 rounds two judges saw it 99-91 and one other judge 97-93 all for Kalkreuth.
Highly-rated prospect Ruslan Abdullaev (2-0) blasted past dangerous Jino Rodrigo (13- 5-2) in an eight round super lightweight fight. He nearly stopped the very tough Rodrigo in the last two rounds and won by unanimous decision.
Abdullaev is trained by Joel and Antonio Diaz in Indio.
Bakersfield prospect Joel Iriarte (7-0, 7 KOs) needed only 1:44 to knock out Puerto Rico’s Marcos Jimenez (25-12) in a welterweight bout.
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‘Krusher’ Kovalev Exits on a Winning Note: TKOs Artur Mann in his ‘Farewell Fight’
At his peak, former three-time world light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev ranked high on everyone’s pound-for-pound list. Now 42 years old – he turned 42 earlier this month – Kovalev has been largely inactive in recent years, but last night he returned to the ring in his hometown of Chelyabinsk, Russia, and rose to the occasion in what was billed as his farewell fight, stopping Artur Mann in the seventh frame.
Kovalev hit his peak during his first run as a world title-holder. He was 30-0-1 (26 KOs) entering first match with Andre Ward, a mark that included a 9-0 mark in world title fights. The only blemish on his record was a draw that could have been ruled a no-contest (journeyman Grover Young was unfit to continue after Kovalev knocked down in the second round what with was deemed an illegal rabbit punch). Among those nine wins were two stoppages of dangerous Haitian-Canadian campaigner Jean Pascal and a 12-round shutout over Bernard Hopkins.
Kovalev’s stature was not diminished by his loss to the undefeated Ward. All three judges had it 114-113, but the general feeling among the ringside press was that Sergey nicked it.
The rematch was also somewhat controversial. Referee Tony Weeks, who halted the match in the eighth stanza with Kovalev sitting on the lower strand of ropes, was accused of letting Ward get away with a series of low blows, including the first punch of a three-punch series of body shots that culminated in the stoppage. Sergey was wobbled by a punch to the head earlier in the round and was showing signs of fatigue, but he was still in the fight. Respected judge Steve Weisfeld had him up by three points through the completed rounds.
Sergey Kovalev was never the same after his second loss to Andre Ward, albeit he recaptured a piece of the 175-pound title twice, demolishing Vyacheslav Shabranskyy for the vacant WBO belt after Ward announced his retirement and then avenging a loss to Eleider Alvarez (TKO by 7) with a comprehensive win on points in their rematch.
Kovalev’s days as a title-holder ended on Nov. 2, 2019 when Canelo Alvarez, moving up two weight classes to pursue a title in a fourth weight division, stopped him in the 11th round, terminating what had been a relatively even fight with a hellacious left-right combination that left Krusher so discombobulated that a count was superfluous.
That fight went head-to-head with a UFC fight in New York City. DAZN, to their everlasting discredit, opted to delay the start of Canelo-Kovalev until the main event of the UFC fight was finished. The delay lasted more than an hour and Kovalev would say that he lost his psychological edge during the wait.
Kovalev had two fights in the cruiserweight class between his setback to Canelo and last night’s presumptive swan song. He outpointed Tervel Pulev in Los Angeles and lost a 10-round decision to unheralded Robin Sirwan Safar in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Artur Mann, a former world title challenger – he was stopped in three rounds by Mairis Briedis in 2021 when Briedis was recognized as the top cruiserweight in the world – was unexceptional, but the 34-year-old German, born in Kazakhstan, wasn’t chopped liver either, and Kovalev’s stoppage of him will redound well to the Russian when he becomes eligible for the Boxing Hall of Fame.
Krusher almost ended the fight in the second round. He knocked Mann down hard with a short left hand and seemingly scored another knockdown before the round was over (but it was ruled a slip). Mann barely survived the round.
In the next round, a punch left Mann with a bad cut on his right eyelid, but the German came to fight and rounds three, four and five were competitive.
Kovalev had a good sixth round although there were indications that he was tiring. But in the seventh he got a second wind and unleashed a right-left combination that rolled back the clock to the days when he was one of the sport’s most feared punchers. Mann went down hard and as he staggered to his feet, his corner signaled that the fight should be stopped and the referee complied. The official time was 0:49 of round seven. It was the 30th KO for Kovalev who advanced his record to 36-5-1.
Addendum: History informs us that Farewell Fights have a habit of becoming redundant, by which we mean that boxers often get the itch to fight again after calling it quits. Have we seen the last of Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev? We woudn’t bet on it.
The complete Kovalev-Mann fight card was live-streamed on the Boxing News youtube channel.
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