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One More Shot at the Big Time Awaits the Winner of Nietes vs Waseem on Saturday

A perfect, strange fight is scheduled to take place in the bantamweight division this Saturday in Dubai. Available on FITE TV and broadcast in the middle of the afternoon in the UK and early in the morning for America, it is one for the Sweet Scientists among us. The major attraction, I suggest, is not the inexplicable headliner to be fought between Hector Andres Sosa and James Dickens, but the chief support – the talented Muhammad Waseem squaring off against the veteran Donnie Nietes, boxing far from home for a minor strap and a future in a sport that has all but used them up.
Waseem, The Falcon, never quite landed. A hero in Pakistan, he seemed destined to put his country on the boxing map after repeatedly medalling as an amateur. A promising beginning saw him challenge for world titles twice at 112lbs; Waseem failed on both occasions. Nietes, on the other hand, is past-prime. A wonderful fighter, he has held high rankings in multiple divisions but he has not won a significant fight since 2018 – although that narrow triumph over the mighty Kazuto Ioka was a fabulous victory.
Ioka avenged the defeat by a wide unanimous decision in the summer of 2022 and it seemed that this might be all from the unsung Filipino.
Instead, he meets Waseem, and the winner shall emerge with a minor alphabet title at the weight and no small amount of leverage. It is a resurrection of sorts and for all that Nietes (pictured) has fallen the further, Waseem is every bit as much in need of a sporting rebirth. Quick-handed and organised, he was also a huge flyweight and one that looked superb in out-pointing Nietes’ countryman Giemel Magramo in 2016. In 2017 though, Waseem bizarrely returned to treading water, moving out of twelve round competition and back in to six and eight round matches against professional losers. What it all meant was that he was ill-prepared for his 2018 shot at a strap against storied veteran Moruti Mthalane.
Waseem-Mthalane took place in 2015 but remains the key fight in handicapping Waseem-Nietes. Mthalane was much older but streets craftier – the question in their contest was whether the bigger, quicker, younger man could overcome the wily campaigner out for the latest in a long line of alphabet titles. These questions are the same as those that will be answered this Saturday in Dubai Studio City. On that occasion, Waseem came up short, but it was an intriguing fight. Mthalane had all the control early. Waseem looked planless, like a fighter who had been told that the way to shed his amateur style was to visit the trenches, but this essentially meant he was thoroughly outfought while failing to use either his reach or size advantage. Still, that size may have worn Mthalane who suffered badly late in the fight, even visiting the canvas in the eleventh after a square, aggressive Waseem pinned him to the ropes. It would be an exaggeration to call this a near miss, but had this much more aggressive Waseem materialised a few rounds earlier, it would have been exactly that.
Travelling between Lahore and Dubai, Waseem again inexplicably returned to shortform boxing and questionable opposition and around this time, I lost interest in him – only for him to box for a title once more, this time against divisional number one Sunny Edwards. Edwards was far too good for Waseem, but just like the Mthalane fight, he showed flashes of promise.
Promise can only carry a fighter so far, however, and Waseem was somehow thirty-four years old at this point. When he vanished for a year, it seemed he might have hung up his gloves.
So, his date with Nietes came as something of a surprise, and at bantamweight no less. Waseem has the advantage here and he even fought at the weight limit during his inexplicable 2017 rummage through journeyman hell. But it is not the weight class he fought for titles at, nor is it a division in which he will hold a meaningful size advantage over the average contender. This is probably why Nietes has been selected as an opponent. Donnie Nietes is a fighter I could talk about all day. Having turned professional in 2003, he has been boxing for two decades and is about to enter his fifth weight class, but at 5’3” he is small for even a flyweight and will be a tiny bantamweight. This has never stopped him making a vivid impression on his opponents, though. Nietes has a deep well of tactical attack, he is the type of fighter who makes small strategic adjustments for big differences in the ring, a left-hooker at heart, he changed this punch out for right hands to lift his 108lb strap against southpaw Ramon Garcia (having already dropped one unbeaten at 105lbs). Seven years later in his wonderful first fight with Kazuto Ioka, he counteracted Ioka’s super one-two combination with a weak but quick scoring jab and by subtly moving the fight to the inside where he edged his foe. Moises Fuentes baffled him to a draw in 2013 but Nietes seemed a different man in the rematch, dirty and direct, stopping his man with a right-hand behind a beautifully feinted left.
A near-genius, Nietes travelled both the weight-classes and the world in search of money and recognition, achieved a modicum of both before starting, finally, to slip in the early 2020s. Subjected to a robbery draw against Aston Palicte in 2018, he suffered the real thing against Norbelto Jimenez in 2021. I thought Nietes did barely enough, but this was no robbery. He appeared uncertain at times against a fighter who he would have buried even two years earlier. When Ioka turned his old foe around with such ease in June last year it was clear that Nietes was past it and at forty, perhaps finished with the sport.
Sweet Science readers can see then why these two are made for each other.
I will be cheering for Donnie Nietes and there is no real reason he cannot get it done. It is true he is the older man but at six years, the difference is not prohibitive; it is true he is the smaller man, but that has been the case since about 2016 and it really has not made a meaningful difference. Still, unless he loses the battle of the jabs despite his length and speed, I think Waseem will get the job done. Aggressive, and capable of weaving together swift punches out of a reasonably adaptable stance, Waseem will get home for a win on points. Nietes needs a fast start to take the prize because one of boxing’s best engines has begun to sputter of late.
Still, if he is in the fight as the tenth and eleventh wind down, Nietes may just find a way. Up to bat for the fifty-third time, it is impossible to believe that Waseem will be able to show Nietes anything he has not seen before.
Waseem, the man who reached for potential super-stardom but never made it, thirty-five years old, 12-2, still very much the athlete, the man with the physical advantages. In the other corner, Nietes, brilliant, has seen the likes of Waseem many times before, but perhaps unable to pull the trigger now against a quicker opponent, perhaps unable to position himself as he did before to avoid the hurtful blows from a sport that is harder on veterans than any other.
Each is the other’s worst nightmare stylistically, and each is the other’s only chance at one more shot at the big time. It is a perfectly balanced fight, taking place in a fistically unfashionable part of the world at a strange time of the day but I submit it should not be missed, certainly not by anybody who has read this far.
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Floyd Mayweather has Another Phenom and his name is Curmel Moton

Floyd Mayweather has Another Phenom and his name is Curmel Moton
In any endeavor, the defining feature of a phenom is his youth. Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper was a phenom. He was on the radar screen of baseball’s most powerful player agents when he was 14 years old.
Curmel Moton, who turns 19 in June, is a phenom. Of all the young boxing stars out there, wrote James Slater in July of last year, “Curmel Moton is the one to get most excited about.”
Moton was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. His father Curtis Moton, a barber by trade, was a big boxing fan and specifically a big fan of Floyd Mayweather Jr. When Curmel was six, Curtis packed up his wife (Curmel’s stepmom) and his son and moved to Las Vegas. Curtis wanted his son to get involved in boxing and there was no better place to develop one’s latent talents than in Las Vegas where many of the sport’s top practitioners came to train.
Many father-son relationships have been ruined, or at least frayed, by a father’s unrealistic expectations for his son, but when it came to boxing, the boy was a natural and he felt right at home in the gym.
The gym the Motons patronized was the Mayweather Boxing Club. Curtis took his son there in hopes of catching the eye of the proprietor. “Floyd would occasionally drop by the gym and I was there so often that he came to recognize me,” says Curmel. What he fails to add is that the trainers there had Floyd’s ear. “This kid is special,” they told him.
It costs a great deal of money for a kid to travel around the country competing in a slew of amateur boxing tournaments. Only a few have the luxury of a sponsor. For the vast majority, fund raisers such as car washes keep the wheels greased.
Floyd Mayweather stepped in with the financial backing needed for the Motons to canvas the country in tournaments. As an amateur, Curmel was — take your pick — 156-7 or 144-6 or 61-3 (the latter figure from boxrec). Regardless, at virtually every tournament at which he appeared, Curmel Moton was the cock of the walk.
Before the pandemic, Floyd Mayweather Jr had a stable of boxers he promoted under the banner of “The Money Team.” In talking about his boxers, Floyd was understated with one glaring exception – Gervonta “Tank” Davis, now one of boxing’s top earners.
When Floyd took to praising Curmel Moton with the same effusive language, folks stood up and took notice.
Curmel made his pro debut on Sept. 30, 2023, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on the undercard of the super middleweight title fight between Canelo Alvarez and Jermell Charlo. After stopping his opponent in the opening round, he addressed a flock of reporters in the media room with Floyd standing at his side. “I felt ready,” he said, “I knew I had Floyd behind me. He believes in me. I had the utmost confidence going into the fight. And I went in there and did what I do.”
Floyd ventured the opinion that Curmel was already a better fighter than Leigh Wood, the reigning WBA world featherweight champion who would successfully defend his belt the following week.
Moton’s boxing style has been described as a blend of Floyd Mayweather and Tank Davis. “I grew up watching Floyd, so it’s natural I have some similarities to him,” says Curmel who sparred with Tank in late November of 2021 as Davis was preparing for his match with Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz. Curmell says he did okay. He was then 15 years old and still in school; he dropped out as soon as he reached the age of 16.
Curmel is now 7-0 with six KOs, four coming in the opening round. He pitched an 8-round shutout the only time he was taken the distance. It’s not yet official, but he returns to the ring on May 31 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas where Caleb Plant and Jermall Charlo are co-featured in matches conceived as tune-ups for a fall showdown. The fight card will reportedly be free for Amazon Prime Video subscribers.
Curmel’s presumptive opponent is Renny Viamonte, a 28-year-old Las Vegas-based Cuban with a 4-1-1 (2) record. It will be Curmel’s first professional fight with Kofi Jantuah the chief voice in his corner. A two-time world title challenger who began his career in his native Ghana, the 50-year-old Jantuah has worked almost exclusively with amateurs, a recent exception being Mikaela Mayer.
It would seem that the phenom needs a tougher opponent than Viamonte at this stage of his career. However, the match is intriguing in one regard. Viamonte is lanky. Listed at 5-foot-11, he will have a seven-inch height advantage.
Keeping his weight down has already been problematic for Moton. He tipped the scales at 128 ½ for his most recent fight. His May 31 bout, he says, will be contested at 135 and down the road it’s reasonable to think he will blossom into a welterweight. And with each bump up in weight, his short stature will theoretically be more of a handicap.
For fun, we asked Moton to name the top fighter on his pound-for-pound list. “[Oleksandr] Usyk is number one right now,” he said without hesitation,” great footwork, but guys like Canelo, Crawford, Inoue, and Bivol are right there.”
It’s notable that there isn’t a young gun on that list. Usyk is 38, a year older than Crawford; Inoue is the pup at age 32.
Moton anticipates that his name will appear on pound-for-pound lists within the next two or three years. True, history is replete with examples of phenoms who flamed out early, but we wouldn’t bet against it.
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Arne’s Almanac: The First Boxing Writers Assoc. of America Dinner Was Quite the Shindig

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.
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Gabriela Fundora KOs Marilyn Badillo and Perez Upsets Conwell in Oceanside

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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