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Munguia Nips Derevyanchenko in a Fierce Battle at Ontario
ONTARIO, Calif.-In perhaps the most explosive fight so far this year Mexico’s Jaime Munguia needed a knockdown to overcome the hard charging Sergiy Derevyanchenko in the last round to win a close unanimous decision and the WBC Silver super middleweight title on Saturday.
“He was very, very hurt and we deserved to win the fight,” said Munguia.
No one was disappointed in the fight.
Tijuana’s Munguia (42-0, 33 KOs) knew stepping into the prize ring that Ukraine’s Derevyanchenko (14-5, 10 KOs) was as dangerous as a stick of dynamite and so did the nearly sold-out crowd at Toyota Arena.
What they didn’t know was both have chins of granite.
It didn’t take long for the action to ignite. After Munguia connected solidly with a body shot, Derevyanchenko opened up with a two-fisted attack that had the Mexican fighter on his heels. Both blasted each other with lefts and rights.
The crowd went crazy.
Derevyanchenko showed he could take Munguia’s best early and both also displayed outstanding chins. After each connected with big blasts, they looked at each other almost surprised that the other was still standing.
Both fighters almost seemed to take turns out-performing the other with combustive combinations that seemed to echo in the arena.
Derevyanchenko unloaded in the fifth round in what could be the Round of the Year. Each connected with blows that snapped each other’s head violently and each returned with more big shots. It was surprising to see neither fighter seemed seriously hurt. Stunned, yes, but neither was close to going down. Derevyanchenko seemed to have a slight advantage.
The crowd ate it up.
Munguia seemed determined to crash the Ukrainian fighter’s dreams and unloaded with a ferocious volley of blows. The left hooks seemed to be the most effective punch for the taller Mexican fighter, but Derevyanchenko survived.
Just when it seemed Munguia had gained the momentum, Derevyanchenko rammed his head into the Munguia who immediately was hurt by the collision. When the fight resumed, Derevyanchenko took control as Munguia winced in pain. The Ukrainain suddenly gained control of the match.
When it seemed Munguia was losing the fight, he used the left hook to regain control. Throughout the fight the left hook seemed to be Munguia’s most potent weapon. The Mexican fighter refrained from avoiding blows and went forward with more determination. It paid off.
In the 11th round a left hook to the body by the Mexican fighter forced the Ukrainian to hold again. It was a foretelling moment.
Both fighters shook hands in the final round. No one knew who was ahead and Munguia launched into an all-out attack with left hooks. A left to the body and left to the head saw Derevyanchenko slump to the floor. A body shot opened up an even more serious attack by Munguia who chased Derevyanchenko around the ring. Always targeting the body, the Mexican fighter had the Ukrainian fighter in survival mode.
“He punched me in the rib,” said Derevyanchenko.
Derevyanchenko survived but lost the last round 10-8 due to the knockdown. It proved the difference in the fight as the judges scored it 114-113 twice and 115-112 for Munguia.
“I’m really happy I won,” said Munguia. “He was moving a lot but I caught him.”
Derevyanchenko felt he won the majority of the 12 rounds.
“I thought I won eight, nine rounds,” said Derevyanchenko.
Munguia was sure he won.
“I was doing my work and started working on the body. Once he went down I knew that I had it,” Munguia said.
After the fight Munguia received a call from Jose Benavidez, the father of David Benavidez.
Munguia assured him he is ready for anyone.
“After this, whatever champion is ready I’m waiting for them,” he said.
Mosley
Pomona’s Shane Mosley Jr. (20-4, 11 KOs) battered D’Mitrius Ballard (21-2-1, 13 KOs) for four rounds before finally scoring a knockdown in the fifth and ending the fight with a seventh round knockout in their middleweight contest.
Boos cascaded the arena in the third round but Mosley was just getting started. Eventually the early body shots on Ballard began to break him down and resulted in a six-punch battering that sent him reeling across the ring and down for a count in the fifth round.
Ballard survived that round and another.
Mosley pounded away with overhand rights that found the mark almost every time. Then he mixed body shots and a right uppercut and Ballard was in trouble again. He tried to fight his way out of it but only got in more trouble as Mosley connected again with eight more blows including a head-snapper that forced referee Thomas Taylor to jump in to stop the fight at 1:42 of the seventh round.
Mosley was declared the winner by knockout and the new NABO middleweight titlist.
“In the early rounds I just wanted to break that body down. He kept his hands really high. Once he started pulling those hand down to protect that. I started going over the top,” said Mosley.
Mayeli Flores Beats Mariana Juarez
A battle between two Mexican super bantamweights saw the younger Mayeli Flores (10-1-1, 3 KOs) pound her way to victory over legendary Mariana “Barbie” Juarez (55-13-4, 19 KOs) after eight ferocious rounds.
How Juarez survived without suffering a knockdown was her decades of skill.
Mexico’s City’s Juarez used her jab and movement to win the first round as Flores bobbed and weaved looking to close the distance with overhand rights and wide left hooks. By the second round she found the range.
Flores pounded away at Juarez with power blow after power blow. Juarez was able to slip most of the shots but not all of them Her sharp jab was not enough to keep the shorter Flores from scoring.
The constant pressure by Flores (pictured in the white trunks) forced Juarez to cover up against the ropes. The shorter Mexican fighter unloaded with a barrage of blows as the crowd’s cheers got louder anticipating a knockout. Somehow Juarez used her craft and guile to fight out off the ropes and change places. It was a near knockout but Juarez evaded a stoppage.
“I think at that part, she used her experience. That was the key for Mariana, that she used her experience to survive,” said Flores.
In the fifth round Juarez pounded away at Flores’’ body and that seemed to take the momentum away from Flores. Juarez then returned to stiff jabs and pivoted away. It was Juarez best round since the opening but Flores was still pounding away.
Flores increased the pressure in the sixth round with a furious attack. The multi-division former champion Juarez tried to jab her way out but was caught with savage blows. Again Flores unloaded a furious attack and this time Juarez’s face showed blood and it looked bad for the legendary fighter.
She survived.
Juarez knew she was behind and stopped moving. She planted her feet and fired away at Flores who seemed excited about the new tactics. Both exchanged liberally but though Juarez connected, her blows were not as forceful as Flores. Still, Juarez kept punching.
Referee Jack Reiss seemed concerned but allowed the future hall of fame fighter to continue. She was determined to fight it out.
In the last round, both fighters fired away with Juarez and Flores both looking for a knockout to end the fight. Both connected but Flores had more zing on her punches. Juarez slipped and countered and kept winging blows against the shorter fighter until the final bell.
Both hugged at the bell.
“Not for nothing I respect Mariana Juarez. It demonstrated that the Mexican women can fight at a high level,” said Flores. “She was one of the fighters I looked at when I was young.”
Sandoval Wins
Rialto’s Ricardo Sandoval (22-2, 16 KOs) showed off his higher level of boxing in defeating L.A.’s Rocco Santomauro (22-2, 6 KOs) by unanimous decision after eight rounds in a flyweight contest.
Sandoval could not miss with the overhand rights and later used a body attack to administer more blows. After dominating the first seven rounds the Rialto fighter tired and that opened it up for Santomauro who was in great condition despite absorbing a pounding.
After 10 rounds Sandoval was deemed the winner by unanimous decision 96-94 twice and 98-92.
Photos credit: Al Applerose
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 309: 360 Promotions Opens with Trinidad, Mizuki and More
Avila Perspective, Chap. 309: 360 Promotions Opens with Trinidad, Mizuki and More
Best wishes to the survivors of the Los Angeles wildfires that took place last week and are still ongoing in small locales.
Most of the heavy damage took place in the western part of L.A. near the ocean due to Santa Ana winds. Another very hot spot was in Altadena just north of the Rose Bowl. It was a horrific tragedy.
Hopefully the worst is over.
Pro boxing returns with 360 Boxing Promotions spotlighting East L.A.’s Omar Trinidad (17-0-1, 13 KOs) defending a regional featherweight title against Mike Plania (31-4, 18 KOs) on Friday, Jan. 17, at the Commerce Casino in Commerce, Calif.
“I’m the king of L.A. boxing and I’ll be ready to put on a show headlining again in the main event. This is my year, I’m ready to challenge and defeat any of the featherweight world champions,” said Trinidad.
UFC Fight Pass will stream the Hollywood Night fight card that includes a female world championship fight and other intriguing match-ups.
Tom Loeffler heads 360 Promotions and once again comes full force with a hot prospect in Trinidad. If you’re not familiar with Loeffler’s history of success, he introduced America to Oleksandr Usyk, Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and the brothers Wladimir and Vitaly Kltischko.
“We’ve got a wealth of international talent and local favorites to kick off our 2025 in grand style,” said Loeffler.
He knows talent.
Trinidad hails from the Boyle Heights area of East L.A. near the Los Angeles riverbed. Several fighters from the past came from that exact area including the first Golden Boy, Art Aragon.
Aragon was a huge gate attraction during the late 1940s until 1960. He was known as a lady’s man and dated several Hollywood starlets in his time. Though he never won a world title he did fight world champions Carmen Basilio, Jimmy Carter and Lauro Salas. He was more or less the king of the Olympic Auditorium and Los Angeles boxing during his career.
Other famous boxers from the Boyle Heights area were notorious gangster Mickey Cohen and former world champion Joey Olivo.
Can Trinidad reach world title status?
Facing Trinidad will be Filipino fighter Plania who’s knocked off a couple of prospects during his career including Joshua “Don’t Blink” Greer and Giovanni Gutierrez. The fighter from General Santos in the Philippines can crack and hold his own in the boxing ring.
It’s a very strong fight card and includes WBO world titlist Mizuki Hiruta of Japan who defends the super flyweight title against Mexican veteran Maribel Ramirez. It’s a tough matchup for Hiruta who makes her American debut. You can’t miss her with that pink hair and she has all the physical tools to make a splash in this country.
Two other female bouts are also planned, including light flyweight banger L.A.’s Gloria Munguilla (6-1) against Coachella’s Brook Sibrian (5-1) in a match set for six rounds. Both are talented fighters. Another female fight includes super featherweights Iyana “Right Hook Roxy” Verduzco (2-0) versus Lindsey Ellis (2-1) in another six-rounder. Ellis can crack with all her wins coming via knockout. Verduzco is a multi-national titlist as an amateur.
Others scheduled to perform are Ali Akhmedov, Joshua Anton, Adan Palma and more.
Doors open at 4:30 p.m.
Boxing and the Media
The sport of professional boxing is currently in flux. It’s always in flux but no matter what people may say or write, boxing will survive.
Whether you like Jake Paul or not, he proved boxing has worldwide appeal with monstrous success in his last show. He has media companies looking at the numbers and imagining what they can do with the sport.
Sure, UFC is negotiating a massive billion dollar deal with media companies, as is WWE, both are very similar in that they provide combat entertainment. You don’t need to know the champions because they really don’t matter. Its about the attractions.
Boxing is different. The good champions last and build a following that endures even beyond their careers a la Mike Tyson.
MMA can’t provide that longevity, but it does provide entertainment.
Currently, there is talk of establishing a boxing league again. It’s been done over and over but we shall see if it sticks this time.
Pro boxing is the true warrior’s path and that means a solo adventure. It’s a one-on-one sport and that appeals to people everywhere. It’s the oldest sport that can be traced to prehistoric times. You don’t need classes in Brazilian Jiujitsu, judo, kick boxing or wrestling. Just show up in a boxing gym and they can put you to work.
It’s a poor person’s path that can lead to better things and most importantly discipline.
Photos credit: Lina Baker
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Boxing Trainer Bob Santos Paid his Dues and is Reaping the Rewards
Bob Santos, the 2022 Sports Illustrated and The Ring magazine Trainer of the Year, is a busy fellow. On Feb. 1, fighters under his tutelage will open and close the show on the four-bout main portion of the Prime Video PPV event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Jeison Rosario continues his comeback in the lid-lifter, opposing Jesus Ramos. In the finale, former Cuban amateur standout David Morrell will attempt to saddle David Benavidez with his first defeat. Both combatants in the main event have been chasing 168-pound kingpin Canelo Alvarez, but this bout will be contested for a piece of the light heavyweight title.
When the show is over, Santos will barely have time to exhale. Before the month is over, one will likely find him working the corner of Dainier Pero, Brian Mendoza, Elijah Garcia, and perhaps others.
Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) turned 28 last month. He is in the prime of his career. However, a lot of folk rate Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) a very live dog. At last look, Benavidez was a consensus 7/4 (minus-175) favorite, a price that betokens a very competitive fight.
Bob Santos, needless to say, is confident that his guy can upset the odds. “I have worked with both,” he says. “It’s a tough fight for David Morrell, but he has more ways to victory because he’s less one-dimensional. He can go forward or fight going back and his foot speed is superior.”
Benavidez’s big edge, in the eyes of many, is his greater experience. He captured the vacant WBC 168-pound title at age 20, becoming the youngest super middleweight champion in history. As a pro, Benavidez has answered the bell for 148 rounds compared with only 54 for Morrell, but Bob Santos thinks this angle is largely irrelevant.
“Sure, I’d rather have pro experience than amateur experience,” he says, “but if you look at Benavidez’s record, he fought a lot of soft opponents when he was climbing the ladder.”
True. Benavidez, who turned pro at age 16, had his first seven fights in Mexico against a motley assortment of opponents. His first bout on U.S. soil occurred in his native Pheonix against an opponent with a 1-6-2 record.
While it’s certainly true that Morrell, 26, has yet to fight an opponent the caliber of Caleb Plant, he took up boxing at roughly the same tender age as Benavidez and earned his spurs in the vaunted Cuban amateur system, eventually defeating elite amateurs in international tournaments.
“If you look at his [pro] record, you will notice that [Morrell] has hardly lost a round,” says Santos of the fighter who captured an interim title in only his third professional bout with a 12-round decision over Guyanese veteran Lennox Allen.
Bob Santos is something of a late bloomer. He was around boxing for a long time, assisting such notables as Joe Goossen, Emanuel Steward, and Ronnie Shields before becoming recognized as one of the sport’s top trainers.
A native of San Jose, he grew up in a Hispanic neighborhood but not in a household where Spanish was spoken. “I know enough now to get by,” he says modestly. He attended James Lick High School whose most famous alumnus is Heisman winning and Super Bowl winning quarterback Jim Plunkett. “We worked in the same apricot orchard when we were kids,” says Santos. “Not at the same time, but in the same field.”
After graduation, he followed his father’s footsteps into construction work, but boxing was always beckoning. A cousin, the late Luis Molina, represented the U.S. as a lightweight in the 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics, and was good enough as a pro to appear in a main event at Madison Square Garden where he lost a narrow decision to the notorious Puerto Rican hothead Frankie Narvaez, a future world title challenger.
Santos’ cousin was a big draw in San Jose in an era when the San Jose / Sacramento territory was the bailiwick of Don Chargin. “Don was a beautiful man and his wife Lorraine was even nicer,” says Santos of the husband/wife promotion team who are enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Don Chargin was inducted in 2001 and Lorraine posthumously in 2018.
Chargin promoted Fresno-based featherweight Hector Lizarraga who captured the IBF title in 1997. Lizarraga turned his career around after a 5-7-3 start when he hooked up with San Jose gym operator Miguel Jara. It was one of the most successful reclamation projects in boxing history and Bob Santos played a part in it.
Bob hopes to accomplish the same turnaround with Jeison Rosario whose career was on the skids when Santos got involved. In his most recent start, Rosario held heavily favored Jarrett Hurd to a draw in a battle between former IBF 154-pound champions on a ProBox card in Florida.
“I consider that one of my greatest achievements,” says Santos, noting that Rosario was stopped four times and effectively out of action for two years before resuming his career and is now on the cusp of earning another title shot.
The boxer with whom Santos is most closely identified is former four-division world title-holder Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero. The slick southpaw, the pride of Gilroy, California, the self-proclaimed “Garlic Capital of the World,” retired following a bad loss to Omar Figueroa Jr, but had second thoughts and is currently riding a six-fight winning streak. “I’ve known him since he was 15 years old,” notes Santos.
Years from now, Santos may be more closely identified with the Pero brothers, Dainier and Lenier, who aspire to be the Cuban-American version of the Klitschko brothers.
Santos describes Dainier, one of the youngest members of Cuba’s Olympic Team in Tokyo, as a bigger version of Oleksandr Usyk. That may be stretching it, but Dainier (10-0, 8 KOs as a pro), certainly hits harder.
This reporter was a fly on the wall as Santos put Dainier Pero through his paces on Tuesday (Jan. 14) at Bones Adams gym in Las Vegas. Santos held tight to a punch shield, in the boxing vernacular a donut, as the Cuban practiced his punches. On several occasions the trainer was knocked off-balance and the expression on his face as his body absorbed some of the after-shocks, plainly said, “My goodness, what the hell am I doing here? There has to be an easier way to make a living.” It was an assignment that Santos would have undoubtedly preferred handing off to his young assistant, his son Joe Santos, but Joe was preoccupied coordinating David Morrell’s camp.
Dainer’s brother Lenier is also an ex-Olympian, and like Dainier was a super heavyweight by trade as an amateur. With an 11-0 (8 KOs) record, Lenier Pero’s pro career was on a parallel path until stalled by a managerial dispute. Lenier last fought in March of last year and Santos says he will soon join his brother in Las Vegas.
There’s little to choose between the Pero brothers, but Dainier is considered to have the bigger upside because at age 25 he is the younger sibling by seven years.
Bob Santos was in the running again this year for The Ring magazine’s Trainer of the Year, one of six nominees for the honor that was bestowed upon his good friend Robert Garcia. Considering the way that Santos’ career is going, it’s a safe bet that he will be showered with many more accolades in the years to come.
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Bygone Days: The Largest Crowd Ever at Madison Square Garden Sees Zivic TKO Armstrong
Bygone Days: The Largest Crowd Ever at Madison Square Garden Sees Zivic TKO Armstrong
There’s not much happening on the boxing front this month. That’s consistent with the historical pattern.
Fight promoters of yesteryear tended to pull back after the Christmas and New Year holidays on the assumption that fight fans had less discretionary income at their disposal. Weather was a contributing factor. In olden days, more boxing cards were staged outdoors and the most attractive match-ups tended to be summertime events.
There were exceptions, of course. On Jan. 17, 1941, an SRO crowd of 23,180 filled Madison Square Garden to the rafters to witness the welterweight title fight between Fritzie Zivic and Henry Armstrong. (This was the third Madison Square Garden, situated at 50th Street and Eighth Avenue, roughly 17 blocks north of the current Garden which sits atop Pennsylvania Station. The first two arenas to take this name were situated farther south adjacent to Madison Square Park).
This was a rematch. They had fought here in October of the previous year. In a shocker, Zivic won a 15-round decision. The fight was close on the scorecards. Referee Arthur Donovan and one of the judges had it even after 14 rounds, but Zivic had won his rounds more decisively and he punctuated his well-earned triumph by knocking Armstrong face-first to the canvas as the final bell sounded.
This was a huge upset.
Armstrong had a rocky beginning to his pro career, but he came on like gangbusters after trainer/manager Eddie Mead acquired his contract with backing from Broadway and Hollywood star Al Jolson. Heading into his first match with Zivic – the nineteenth defense of the title he won from Barney Ross – Hammerin’ Henry had suffered only one defeat in his previous 60 fights, that coming in his second meeting with Lou Ambers, a controversial decision.
Shirley Povich, the nationally-known sports columnist for the Washington Post, conducted an informal survey of boxing insiders and found only person who gave Zivic a chance. The dissident was Chris Dundee (then far more well-known than his younger brother Angelo). “Zivic knows all the tricks,” said Dundee. “He’ll butt Armstrong with his head, gouge him with his thumbs and hit him just as low as Armstrong [who had five points deducted for low blows in his bout with Ambers].”
Indeed, Pittsburgh’s Ferdinand “Fritzie” Zivic, the youngest and best of five fighting sons of a Croatian immigrant steelworker (Fritzie’s two oldest brothers represented the U.S. at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics) would attract a cult following because of his facility for bending the rules. It would be said that no one was more adept at using his thumbs to blind an opponent or using the laces of his gloves as an anti-coagulant, undoing the work of a fighter’s cut man.
Although it was generally understood that at age 28 his best days were behind him, Henry Armstrong was chalked the favorite in the rematch (albeit a very short favorite) a tribute to his body of work. Although he had mastered Armstrong in their first encounter, most boxing insiders considered Fritzie little more than a high-class journeyman and he hadn’t looked sharp in his most recent fight, a 10-round non-title affair with lightweight champion Lew Jenkins who had the best of it in the eyes of most observers although the match was declared a draw.
The Jan. 17 rematch was a one-sided affair. Veteran New York Times scribe James P. Dawson gave Armstrong only two rounds before referee Donovan pulled the plug at the 52-second mark of the twelfth round. Armstrong, boxing’s great perpetual motion machine, a world title-holder in three weight classes, repaired to his dressing room bleeding from his nose and his mouth and with both eyes swollen nearly shut. But his effort could not have been more courageous.
At the conclusion of the 10th frame, Donovan went to Armstrong’s corner and said something to the effect, “you will have to show me something, Henry, or I will have to stop it.” What followed was Armstrong’s best round.
“[Armstrong] pulled the crowd to its feet in as glorious a rally as this observer has seen in twenty-five years of attendance at these ring battles,” wrote Dawson. But Armstrong, who had been stopped only once previously, that coming in his pro debut, had punched himself out and had nothing left.
Armstrong retired after this fight, siting his worsening eyesight, but he returned in the summer of the following year, soldiering on for 46 more fights, winning 37 to finish 149-21-10. During this run, he was reacquainted with Fritzie Zivic. Their third encounter was fought in San Francisco before a near-capacity crowd of 8,000 at the Civic Auditorium and Armstrong got his revenge, setting the pace and working the body effectively to win a 10-round decision. By then the welterweight title had passed into the hands of Freddie Cochran.
Hammerin’ Henry (aka Homicide Hank) Armstrong was named to the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the inaugural class of 1990. Fritzie Zivic followed him into the Hall three years later.
Active from 1931 to 1949, Zivic lost 65 of his 231 fights – the most of anyone in the Hall of Fame, a dubious distinction – but there was yet little controversy when he was named to the Canastota shrine because one would be hard-pressed to find anyone who had fought a tougher schedule. Aside from Armstrong and Jenkins, he had four fights with Jake LaMotta, four with Kid Azteca, three with Charley Burley, two with Sugar Ray Robinson, two with Beau Jack, and singles with the likes of Billy Conn, Lou Ambers, and Bob Montgomery. Of the aforementioned, only Azteca, in their final meeting in Mexico City, and Sugar Ray, in their second encounter, were able to win inside the distance.
By the way, it has been written that no event of any kind at any of the four Madison Square Gardens ever drew a larger crowd than the crowd that turned out on Jan. 17, 1941, to see the rematch between Fritzie Zivic and Henry Armstrong. Needless to say, prizefighting was big in those days.
A recognized authority on the history of prizefighting and the history of American sports gambling, TSS editor-in-chief Arne K. Lang is the author of five books including “Prizefighting: An American History,” released by McFarland in 2008 and re-released in a paperback edition in 2020.
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