Crawford-Spence Gets More Buzz, but Inoue-Fulton is No Less Compelling

Published

2 years ago

July 20, 2023

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Writing about Japan’s Naoya Inoue just over ten years ago I claimed that “Inoue is a monster. He controls his opponents with aggression for all the finesse. This means given even his extraordinary potential there will be limits for him and that limit will be 122lbs.”

Naoya had legacy written all over him, even at 3-0. Appraising him was not a matter of speculation but of application of thought, so clear was his capacity for violence. At the very least he was to make a visitation to the pound-for-pound lists of the future, and at best? At best, Naoya was to become one of the greatest fighters of the century. What is at stake on Tuesday for Naoya is more than just a 122lb strap, a victory in yet another weight class over yet another divisional number one, his third, would make Naoya de facto pound-for-pound number one and default number three fighter of the decade behind Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.

Such achievements are transitory and such arrangements can be temporary and with Usyk and Spence and Crawford in play, they will remain so – but they are better done than left undone. My earliest expectations were that Naoya would achieve great things in boxing but that 122lbs would be a bridge too far. It seems fitting then that the fighter Naoya is presented with to break these barriers is such a special one. Stephen Fulton, 21-0 out of Philadelphia, is not here just to add to Naoya Inoue’s 24-0.

“I need some excitement in my life,” Fulton told Brian Custer when the fight was made. “I like the idea of having my back up against the wall.”

He does have his back up against the wall. Fulton will be fighting early Tuesday morning Philadelphia time. Well-travelled as an amateur and to be confronted by the traditionally polite Japanese crowd rather than the baying hordes of Scotland or Mexico; the honest promotions often associated with Japan rather than the questionable officiating sometimes associated with England or Germany, this risk seems to be a calculated risk in favour of what is rumoured to be a considerable purse. And Fulton appears confident.

That sounds like a minimum requirement, like something that could and should be said about every fighter before every championship level fight, but this is to underestimate the savage projection of the conqueror. Storied, experienced men have taken to the ring to face the Japanese with an air of a man ascending to the gallows rather than the ring. These men were not minor figures in their divisions, either, rather men like Adrian Hernandez, a Mexican warrior who travelled to Japan as the world’s number one light-flyweight, climbed into the ring with his eyes down, and having won his last two fights by speedy knockout, here spent six rounds running from the 5-0 Naoya with fear in his moves. Omar Andres Narvaez was on a long win streak and ranked the best super-flyweight in the world when he visited the Land of the Rising Sun and he was summarily butchered in two, seeming to spend more time lying on the canvas than standing on his feet. Neither of these men troubled the pound-for-pound top twenty, but they were elite sportsmen and ranked the best in their division before Naoya caved them in. What is impressive is not that he won but how he won. Intimidating world class athletes is extremely difficult in a sport governed by weight classes, but fighters know fighters. Naoya Inoue was in a different echelon from these men after just a handful of contests.

What is the thing that troubled these opponents? The answer to that is concussive power on delivery. Naoya Inoue boxes with a trident, perhaps, a three-pronged attack of power, speed, and accuracy, but he also undermines this as a final word. Naoya can also trap, trick, he spends time trying to convince an opponent he can approach safely, and he unveils his attacks as time elapses. Naoya fights like a general: some of the most important aspects of his boxing lie in reserve. In other words, even when he is apparently unfolding within the ring, he is in fact boxing within himself.

So, I was interested in Nonito Donaire’s words in discussion with Boxing Scene earlier this week. Donaire injured Naoya and forced him to box the most layered match of his career, nursing a fractured eye socket while scoring enough points to repel his most elite opponent to date. In the rematch, Naoya inevitably inflicted the same butchery upon the ageing Donaire as the rest, but Donaire extended him in their first fight. His opinion would seem to matter. His reason for choosing Fulton is the best reason there is: size.

Naoya has never boxed at 122lbs before and in moving directly into the company of the very best fighter in the division he is bold indeed. It is the actions of the pound-for-pound best in the world, something I hold Naoya to be, and it is not the normal route. Marlon Tapales, an excellent fighter in his own right, is the man in possession of two of the more relevant divisional alphabet titles and as a Filipino, his promotional connections run deep in Japan. Naoya, though, prefers Fulton and Fulton certainly prefers Naoya. The latest batch of diva heavyweights could do well to learn lessons from these two men, who seem to have settled terms in a short series of phonecalls.

Fulton is listed at between 5’6” and 5’7”. Naoya is consistently listed at 5’5”. This is not a meaningful difference. In terms of reach, however, there is a difference and one that might matter. Fulton probably outreaches Naoya by three inches. This typically has not been significant. Naoya began his career at 108lbs and has found himself outreached by a lot or a little frequently since that time. Jamie McDonnell had a longer reach than that of Fulton for his 2018 visit to Japan. Naoya made a mockery of that advantage with speed, timing, and punch selection. Donaire’s reasoning, “size” makes no more sense that his claims to Fulton’s champion’s advantage or his “hunger.” These are not meaningful reasons for his selection. But the fact that Fulton has a longer reach in conjunction with his style, that really might matter.

This is why this fight is exciting, this is why it might be the fight of the year, this is why I look forward to it more than Spence-Crawford: balance. Balance, speed of thought and the reaction time to match. It is not sensible to compare Daniel Roman, Fulton’s last victim, to Naoya Inoue, but there are things we can see in that fight that speak to us about this one. There was a moment early where Fulton set himself to retreat out of the corner Roman had trapped him in, readying a move to his own right. He swept his weight back near his heels and prepared to step out when he noticed that Roman had dipped all the way in with his head and upper body, so on a dime he spun his plan. Throwing his right hand, full torque, away from himself and back, he simultaneously pitched himself forwards through his toes meeting the punch with his balance in time for it landing. This is an elite physical skill, one that most fighters do not possess, one that is improvised, and in my opinion one that very, very rarely manifests itself in punchers. The trick of balance and punch blending on a knife’s edge is almost the opposite of a puncher “falling in love” with his power, something we hear all the time but rarely explore as an idea. Instead of fixating on the power, a fighter who lacks power – and Fulton does – can learn to make the punches that shouldn’t even be thrown, land with meaning. They are often his most significant punches, and they are punches absolutely primed for punishing monsters. Sweeping offence is there to be victimised by the quick, balanced, learned slickster. That is what Fulton is.

This, for me, is where the fight will be won and lost. Can Naoya Inoue, with his physical gifts, layered attack, undisputed adaptability, find the right punches against a man who doesn’t have to wait for him but can rather improvise around his failures?

The aforementioned Tapales doesn’t think so. He describes a very close fight, a fifty-fifty fight even, but one where Naoya “finds a way.” Former Naoya opponent Jason Moloney goes much further telling 4C Media that Fulton “does not have enough in the kit to trouble [Naoya] too much.” Brave words, but Moloney’s account interested me because he appraised Fulton. He talks about Fulton’s counter-punching ability and larger frame, but also Naoya’s technical superiority and explosiveness. This seems enough for Moloney with a heavy full stop.

Explosiveness is the key, in the end. How Naoya’s power translates against a genuine super-bantamweight is probably the key question for the fight. When I originally appraised the man Naoya succeeded as king of the lower weights, Roman Gonzalez, he was only a light-flyweight, as was Naoya the first time I looked at him. What I felt I saw in Gonzalez was a roof of 115lbs; I went far enough to predict that he would be stopped by a power-punching southpaw. So it proved. But it was not because I thought Gonzalez would be vulnerable to punchers at this weight. Rather it was because I felt that Gonzalez, who was already layering punches in world-class combinations, would himself surrender his status as a puncher at that weight limit.

I felt the same way about Naoya, only I saw him climb further, all the way to 118lbs. 122lbs would be where the dashing combinations would no longer end resistance.

Between 118lbs and 122lbs are only 4lbs, but there is more in the rehydration of the modern fighter. Fulton will come to the ring nearer 130lbs than the 122lbs limit he weighs in at the day before. Nobody imagines Naoya a puncher at middleweight – but where does the punching stop and the pure-boxing start? How will Fulton, personally, hold up to Naoya’s onslaught?

For all those predictions about a twenty-year old Naoya, there is no way to finally know. What we can say is that he destroyed the opposition at 118lbs. Eight out of nine opponents were sent spinning, some of them in seconds, and the only man to survive him did so after inflicting a debilitating eye injury upon him. Naoya is a destroyer at 118lbs, like Carlos Zarate before him. And like Carlos Zarate before him, he will almost certainly carry serious power to 122lbs and only the right man will be able to take it and fire back. Is Fulton that man?

This is a question for next Tuesday. Sooner or later, we will see Fulton’s reaction to Naoya’s power and learn whether he is capable of returning it. My job here is to make another guess and my guess is that Naoya Inoue will force Stephen Fulton to retreat just often enough to take a comfortable decision victory. If I am right then he still has the challenge of some aggressive punching super-bantamweights ahead of him, but those assignments should be easier than this one, a typical Naoya Inoue contest which has opposite corners of the internet insisting that each has never met a man like the other. This is true, but it is also meaningless.

Aside from the fact that could make for an astonishingly good fight, one that Naoya will win but in doing so will realise that 126lbs is too big for him, that 122lbs is his limit.

Probably.

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Arne’s Almanac: The First BWAA Dinner Was Quite the Shindig

Published

7 hours ago

April 20, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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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.

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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Gabriela Fundora KOs Marilyn Badillo and Perez Upsets Conwell in Oceanside

Published

20 hours ago

April 20, 2025

David A. Avila

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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’

Published

2 days ago

April 19, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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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 11^th 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 30^th 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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