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Avila Perspective, Chap. 247: Jake Paul, Las Vegas Reflections and More

Once again mega influencer Jake Paul has lured a non-boxer into the boxing ring but this time it’s MMA’s Nate Diaz.
“He’s going to get sent home,” says Paul. “I’m going to knock him out.”
Paul (6-1) faces UFC super star Diaz (0-0) on Saturday, Aug. 5, at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. DAZN pay-per-view and ESPN pay-per-view will stream the Most Valuable Promotions that also features Amanda Serrano vs Heather Hardy.
It’s a 10-round fight set at 185 pounds.
One thing about Paul is he knows what sells. Diaz has a rabid fan base and though he never fought professionally as a boxer, he can box as Boxing Hall of Fame fighter Andre Ward can attest.
Ward sparred with brothers Nate and Nick Diaz on occasion and said they do have boxing skills. That will be important when facing the hard-punching Paul.
In almost every fight Paul has dropped his opponent. It took him two fights to knock out MMA champion Tyrone Woodley. Paul has power.
The first time I saw Paul perform took place in November 2020 when he knocked out NBA star Nate Robinson in two rounds. It was obvious from the opening frame that he possessed power in his right.
Diaz has dominated the MMA landscape while fighting for UFC for years. Fans love his devil-may-care attitude including his win over Conor McGregor. But the gregarious Diaz knows there is a stark difference between MMA and boxing.
“It was one-dimensional working on the one craft,” said Diaz. “Every fight I come to win. I’m here to represent me and my team.”
Diaz presents a very dangerous challenge.
Paul chose Diaz because of his popularity among MMA fans. Diaz chose Jake Paul over his brother Logan Paul who formerly boxed an exhibition against Floyd Mayweather.
“He’s obviously a full-time fighter,” said Diaz about choosing Jake over Logan Paul.
Jake Paul said this could be the last MMA fighter he challenges.
“Theres not many of them left to beat. Unless Dana (White) lets Conor fight me,” said Jake Paul about possibly facing Conor McGregor.
Paul has made millions on pay-per-views that entice boxing and non-boxing fans including his loss to Tommy Fury by split decision.
“It’s definitely pretty surreal. I manifested all this to existence. It’s probably one of the biggest fights of the year,” Paul said.
And why did he choose Nate Diaz.
“He has that warrior mindset more than anybody. I’m down for a challenge,” said Paul.
Las Vegas Revisited
Las Vegas always brings new adventures.
If you were driving on the I-15 last Thursday morning and saw a silver and black car streak by at near 80 miles an hour though the desert landscape, that would be me.
This year prizefighting has ramped up the quality of its matchups. Back in April, we saw Gervonta “Tank” Davis and Ryan Garcia attract a large crowd at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Their contest established high pay-per-view numbers and drew celebrities from all around the country.
Last weekend, boxing returned on back-to-back nights with Top Rank featuring Seniesa Estrada in the main event at the Palms Casino Resort on Friday.
I arrived early enough to catch the weigh-in at the Palms Casino on Thursday. The room was packed with fighters and their supporters. Among those attending was Mikaela Mayer and her manager George Ruiz. They were talking to someone so I waited.
When they noticed me it was all hugs and handshakes. I immediately could tell Mikaela looked stronger and more vibrant than usual. She mentioned she felt better than ever at the higher weight. She had a glow on her face.
George Ruiz commented that he’s about to sign another female fighter. He remarked how he didn’t really want to meet Mikaela when she approached him many years ago. Now he is fully committed to Mayer and to the future of women’s boxing.
Mikaela does television analysis for ESPN during Top Rank cards. She’s a very good analyst and speaks very well. Most of the female prizefighters are very good at talking off the cuff, while most men boxers are not that capable of speaking live on camera. It’s a weird fact, but something I’ve noticed over the 38 years covering boxing.
Seniesa Estrada was headlining a Top Rank card for the first time. In her other cards she was the co-main event. This time she was the lead star and opposing her was Argentina’s Leonela Yudica. Both made weight, but surprisingly Yudica weighed 103 pounds. The minimumweight limit was 105.
Yudica is a former flyweight champion with the weight limit at 112 pounds. So, for her to weigh 103 was pretty astounding. Would it cause her to be too weak?
On Friday night they met in the prize ring and Seniesa Estrada was aggressive as usual. She understands that she is in the entertainment world and giving fans a knockout is part of her duty. Yudica, who usually fights bigger and heavier girls, was able to absorb Estrada’s biggest blows and deliver her own.
The two women exchanged viciously for 10 rounds with Estrada simply out-landing Yudica for the win.
Sitting in the audience dressed in black hot pants was Costa Rica’s Yokasta Valle. She has the IBF minimumweight title and wants to add Estrada’s WBC and WBA versions too.
Both have accused the other of ducking.
After the long night of boxing a few of the reporters gathered and met across the street at the Gold Coast Hotel. They have a Chinese eatery Ping Pang Pong that’s open late. For the past four years, we’ve made that one of our go-to places for after-hours dining.
We talked about Seniesa Estrada and Yokasta Valle finally meeting in the ring this year. Estrada is considered by many, including me, to be one of the top five female fighters pound-for- pound.
Valle has improved dramatically since changing trainers and is working out of Los Angeles now. She is an incredible athlete and has picked up the pro style of fighting. But will it all be enough to handle Estrada in the trenches?
Saturday
On Saturday morning I made up my mind to have breakfast at my favorite diner Blueberry Hill. There are several of the eateries to choose from in Las Vegas, so I picked the closest to me on Flamingo. It was packed as usual.
Because I was alone, I sat at the bar and immediately found a spot. Right away the waitress gave me a menu, then forgot about me. I had to wave her down and she apologized. She thought I was waiting for someone.
After eating breakfast, I returned to my hotel on the strip and began to receive calls from other reporters. Not everyone arrives early for big fights. Some come during the day of the fight. I like to get settled and sometimes visit one of the many gyms in Las Vegas.
Years ago, there were very few boxing gyms. Today there are dozens of new gyms all over Clark County.
I stopped visiting gyms because of Covid-19. The boxing gyms were a cesspool for germs and disease. They seldom clean the ropes or canvas or chairs. People in the boxing world were dying left and right. I lost many friends to the pandemic.
Now I carry alcohol wipes and try not to touch anything like door handles, chairs or tables without wiping first.
Several reporter friends warned about the parking situation and how to approach it. My photographer and buddy Al Applerose had attended the weigh-ins the day before and had encountered problems.
Temperatures were only about 115 degrees. The forecast was for 120.
Inside the T-Mobile arena they forced us to walk counter-clockwise to our section. If I had gone to the left I would have arrived 20 minutes sooner. Basically, they made us walk around the entire arena. I think these security guys do that on purpose.
The press row for the fights was down below just above the floor. It’s tough on the knees especially when carrying a heavy laptop. I found my seat and discovered I was sitting next to Dan Rafael. I’ve known him since he first arrived on the boxing scene about 23 years ago. I’ve been a credentialed boxing writer since 1993. But I was writing about boxing since 1985. My first story was a major fight between Marvin Hagler vs Tommy Hearns. It sold out the small newspaper I was working for at the time.
Most of the crowd did not arrive until the pay-per-view section of the TGB Promotions card. When Nonito Donaire and Alexandro Santiago entered the ring, the fans began to arrive. I could see celebrities like Cardi B and Mike Tyson.
Later, when fighter Isaac Cruz arrived in the ring with Manny Pacquiao and was set to fight Giovanni Cabrera, it was mentioned that Cruz was the first Latino fighter that Pacman helped. I mentioned that he had also helped other Latinos like David Rodela of Oxnard.
Ironically, later that night, I ran into Rodela at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. I was walking into the men’s room when he said “hey! What did you think of the Terence Crawford and Errol Spence Jr. fight?
I was shocked to see him. I had just mentioned his name to one of the other reporters and suddenly here he was in the flesh. Rodela was one of Manny’s sparring partners and they have remained good friends. One thing about Manny is he was very good to his friends. He bought Rodela a house.
Rodela fought everybody during the early 2000s from Kevin Kelley to Jorge Linares. He even fought Terence Crawford in 2012 at the Hard Rock Casino. He remembers it well.
“Yes, I was knocked out by Terence Crawford but not beat up like that,” said Rodela about how Spence looked after the fight.
Spence versus Crawford was one of those matchups on paper that looked to be difficult to decide the winner. But in the ring Crawford was simply too strong.
After the fight was over the scene was like out of a movie set. It was a coronation of the new king of boxing Crawford.
I’ve been covering pro boxing since 1985 and no other fight result shocked as much as Crawford’s domination of Spence. I was at his fight when he won the welterweight title from Australia’s Jeff Horn in June 2018 in Las Vegas. He was a small blown-up super lightweight then. Now he’s too strong for other welterweights.
After the press conference for Crawford and Spence, photographer Al Applerose and I headed for the New York, New York Casino. Applerose apparently gambled on a 9th round knockout and won. He wanted to collect.
Inside we decided to get some pizza and beer and we ran into Japanese reporter Yuriko Miyata and American reporter Norm Frauenheim. We also sat and gobbled up pizza and beer as people walked by.
All of us were amazed at Crawford’s dismantling of Spence. I had first met Crawford way back in 2012 when Tim Bradley was about to face Manny Pacquiao for the first time. Crawford was at Bradley’s gym as a sparring partner.
Bradley introduced Crawford to me as the next great fighter. He told me then, “believe me, he is going to be great.”
Bradley was right.
On the drive back home, early in the morning, I listened to Miles Davis’ “So What.” I remembered reading in Miles Davis biography that he used to spar with his friend Sugar Ray Robinson.
It seemed appropriate to listen to Miles while contemplating Terence Crawford’s victory.
Fights to Watch
Fri. ESPN+6 p.m. Derrick Cuevas (25-1-1) vs Alberto Mosquera (28-5-2).
Fri. DAZN 5:30 p.m. Elija Pierce (17-2) vs Mike Plania (28-2).
Fri. Showtime 9 p.m. Jordan White (14-1) vs Eridson Garcia (17-0).
Sat. DAZN 3 p.m. Jake Paul (6-1) vs Nate Diaz (0-0), Amanda Serrano (44-2-1) vs Heather Hardy (24-2), Shadasia Green (12-0) vs Olivia Curry (7-1).
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Late Bloomer Anthony Cacace TKOs Hometown Favorite Leigh Wood in Nottingham

Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions was at Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham, England, tonight with a card featuring hometown favorite Leigh Wood against Ireland’s Anthony “Apache” Cacace.
Wood, a former two-time WBA featherweight champion, known for dramatic comebacks in bouts he was losing, may have reached the end of the road at age 36. He had his moments tonight, rocking Cacace on several occasions and winning the eighth round, but he paid the price, returning to his corner after round eight with swelling around both of his eyes.
In the ninth, Cacace, an 11/5 favorite, hurt Wood twice with left hands, the second of which knocked Wood into the ropes, dictating a standing 8-count by referee John Latham. When the bout resumed, Cacace went for the kill and battered Wood around the ring, forcing Wood’s trainer Ben Davison to throw in the towel. The official time was 2:15 of round nine.
Akin to Wood, Northern Ireland’s Cacace (24-1, 9 KOs) is also 36 years old and known as a late bloomer. This was his ninth straight win going back to 2017 (he missed all of 2018 and 2020). He formerly held the IBF 130-pound world title, a diadem he won with a stoppage of then-undefeated and heavily favored Joe Cordina, but that belt wasn’t at stake tonight as Cacace abandoned it rather than fulfill his less-lucrative mandatory. Wood falls to 28-4.
Semi-Wind-Up
Nottingham light heavyweight Ezra Taylor, fighting in his hometown for the first time since pro debut, delighted his fan base with a comprehensive 10-round decision over previously undefeated Troy Jones. Taylor, who improved to 12-0 (9) won by scores of 100-90, 99-91, and 98-92.
This was Taylor’s first fight with new trainer Malik Scott, best known for his work with Deontay Wilder. The victory may have earned him a match with Commonwealth title-holder Lewis Edmondson. Jones was 12-0 heading in.
Other Bouts of Note
In his first fight as a featherweight, Liam Davies rebounded from his first defeat with a 12-round unanimous decision over Northern Ireland’s previously undefeated Kurt Walker. Davies, who improved to 17-1 (8), staved off a late rally to prevail on scores of 115-113, 116-112, and 117-111. It was the first pro loss for the 30-year-old Walker (12-1), a Tokyo Olympian.
In a mild upset, Owen Cooper, a saucy Worcestershire man, won a 10-round decision over former Josh Taylor stablemate Chris Kongo. The referee’s scorecard read 96-94.
Cooper improved to 11-1 (4). It was the third loss in 20 starts for Kongo.
A non-televised 8-rounder featured junior welterweight Sam Noakes in a stay-busy fight. A roofer by trade and the brother of British welterweight title-holder Sean Noakes, Sam improved to 17-0 (15 KOs) with a third-round stoppage of overmatched Czech import Patrik Balez (13-5-1).
Photo credit: Leigh Dawney / Queensberry
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 326: Top Rank and San Diego Smoke

Avila Perspective, Chap. 326: Top Rank and San Diego Smoke
Years ago, I worked at a newsstand in the Beverly Hills area. It was a 24-hour a day version and the people that dropped by were very colorful and unique.
One elderly woman Eva, who bordered on homeless but pridefully wore lipstick, would stop by the newsstand weekly to purchase a pack of menthol cigarettes. On one occasion, she asked if I had ever been to San Diego?
I answered “yes, many times.”
She countered “you need to watch out for San Diego Smoke.”
This Saturday, Top Rank brings its brand of prizefighting to San Diego or what could be called San Diego Smoke. Leading the fight card is Mexico’s Emanuel Navarrete (39-2-1, 32 KOs) defending the WBO super feather title against undefeated Filipino Charly Suarez (18-0, 10 KOs) at Pechanga Arena. ESPN will televise.
This is Navarrete’s fourth defense of the super feather title.
The last time Navarrete stepped in the boxing ring he needed six rounds to dismantle the very capable Oscar Valdez in their rematch. One thing about Mexico City’s Navarrete is he always brings “the smoke.”
Also, on the same card is Fontana, California’s Raymond Muratalla (22-0, 17 KOs) vying for the interim IBF lightweight title against Russia’s Zaur Abdullaev (20-1, 12 KOs) on the co-main event.
Abdullaev has only fought once before in the USA and was handily defeated by Devin Haney back in 2019. But that was six years ago and since then he has knocked off various contenders.
Muratalla is a slick fighting lightweight who trains at the Robert Garcia Boxing Academy now in Moreno Valley, Calif. It’s a virtual boot camp with many of the top fighters on the West Coast available to spar on a daily basis. If you need someone bigger or smaller, stronger or faster someone can match those needs.
When you have that kind of preparation available, it’s tough to beat. Still, you have to fight the fight. You never know what can happen inside the prize ring.
Another fighter to watch is Perla Bazaldua, 19, a young and very talented female fighter out of the Los Angeles area. She is trained by Manny Robles who is building a small army of top female fighters.
Bazaldua (1-0, 1 KO) meets Mona Ward (0-1) in a super flyweight match on the preliminary portion of the Top Rank card. Top Rank does not sign many female fighters so you know that they believe in her talent.
Others on the Top Rank card in San Diego include Giovani Santillan, Andres Cortes, Albert Gonzalez, Sebastian Gonzalez and others.
They all will bring a lot of smoke to San Diego.
Probox TV
A strong card led by Erickson “The Hammer” Lubin (26-2, 18 KOs) facing Ardreal Holmes Jr. (17-0, 6 KOs) in a super welterweight clash between southpaws takes place on Saturday at Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee, Florida. PROBOX TV will stream the fight card.
Ardreal has rocketed up the standings and now faces veteran Lubin whose only losses came against world titlists Sebastian Fundora and Jermell Charlo. It’s a great match to decide who deserves a world title fight next.
Another juicy match pits Argentina’s Nazarena Romero (14-0-2) against Mexico’s Mayelli Flores (12-1-1) in a female super bantamweight contest.
Nottingham, England
Anthony Cacace (23-1, 8 KOs) defends the IBO super featherweight title against Leigh Wood (28-3, 17 KOs) in Wood’s hometown on Saturday at Nottingham Arena in Nottingham, England. DAZN will stream the Queensberry Promotions card.
Ireland’s Cacace seems to have the odds against him. But he is no stranger to dancing in the enemy’s lair or on foreign territory. He formerly defeated Josh Warrington in London and Joe Cordina in Riyadh in IBO title defenses.
Lampley at Wild Card
Boxing telecaster Jim Lampley will be signing his new book It Happened! at the Wild Card Boxing gym in Hollywood, Calif. on Saturday, May 10, beginning at 2 p.m. Lampley has been a large part of many of the greatest boxing events in the past 40 years. He and Freddie Roach will be at the signing.
Fights to Watch (All times Pacific Time)
Sat. DAZN 11 a.m. Anthony Cacace (23-1) vs Leigh Wood (28-3).
Sat. PROBOX.tv 3 p.m. Erickson Lubin (26-2) vs Ardreal Holmes Jr. (17-0).
Sat. ESPN 7 p.m. Emanuel Navarrete (39-2-1) vs Charly Suarez (18-0); Raymond Muratalla (22-0) vs Zaur Abdullaev (20-1).
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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“Breadman” Edwards: An Unlikely Boxing Coach with a Panoramic View of the Sport

Stephen “Breadman” Edwards’ first fighter won a world title. That may be some sort of record.
It’s true. Edwards had never trained a fighter, amateur or pro, before taking on professional novice Julian “J Rock” Williams. On May 11, 2019, Williams wrested the IBF 154-pound world title from Jarrett Hurd. The bout, a lusty skirmish, was in Fairfax, Virginia, near Hurd’s hometown in Maryland, and the previously undefeated Hurd had the crowd in his corner.
In boxing, Stephen Edwards wears two hats. He has a growing reputation as a boxing coach, a hat he will wear on Saturday, May 31, at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas when the two fighters that he currently trains, super middleweight Caleb Plant and middleweight Kyrone Davis, display their wares on a show that will air on Amazon Prime Video. Plant, who needs no introduction, figures to have little trouble with his foe in a match conceived as an appetizer to a showdown with Jermall Charlo. Davis, coming off his career-best win, an upset of previously undefeated Elijah Garcia, is in tough against fast-rising Cuban prospect Yoenli Hernandez, a former world amateur champion.
Edwards’ other hat is that of a journalist. His byline appears at “Boxing Scene” in a column where he answers questions from readers.
It’s an eclectic bag of questions that Breadman addresses, ranging from his thoughts on an upcoming fight to his thoughts on one of the legendary prizefighters of olden days. Boxing fans, more so than fans of any other sport, enjoy hashing over fantasy fights between great fighters of different eras. Breadman is very good at this, which isn’t to suggest that his opinions are gospel, merely that he always has something provocative to add to the discourse. Like all good historians, he recognizes that the best history is revisionist history.
“Fighters are constantly mislabled,” he says. “Everyone talks about Joe Louis’s right hand. But if you study him you see that his left hook is every bit as good as his right hand and it’s more sneaky in terms of shock value when it lands.”
Stephen “Breadman” Edwards was born and raised in Philadelphia. His father died when he was three. His maternal grandfather, a Korean War veteran, filled the void. The man was a big boxing fan and the two would watch the fights together on the family television.
Edwards’ nickname dates to his early teen years when he was one of the best basketball players in his neighborhood. The derivation is the 1975 movie “Cornbread, Earl and Me,” starring Laurence Fishburne in his big screen debut. Future NBA All-Star Jamaal Wilkes, fresh out of UCLA, plays Cornbread, a standout high school basketball player who is mistakenly murdered by the police.
Coming out of high school, Breadman had to choose between an academic scholarship at Temple or an athletic scholarship at nearby Lincoln University. He chose the former, intending to major in criminal justice, but didn’t stay in college long. What followed were a succession of jobs including a stint as a city bus driver. To stay fit, he took to working out at the James Shuler Memorial Gym where he sparred with some of the regulars, but he never boxed competitively.
Over the years, Philadelphia has harbored some great boxing coaches. Among those of recent vintage, the names George Benton, Bouie Fisher, Nazeem Richardson, and Bozy Ennis come quickly to mind. Breadman names Richardson and West Coast trainer Virgil Hunter as the men that have influenced him the most.
We are all a product of our times, so it’s no surprise that the best decade of boxing, in Breadman’s estimation, was the 1980s. This was the era of the “Four Kings” with Sugar Ray Leonard arguably standing tallest.
Breadman was a big fan of Leonard and of Leonard’s three-time rival Roberto Duran. “I once purchased a DVD that had all of Roberto Duran’s title defenses on it,” says Edwards. “This was a back before the days of YouTube.”
But Edwards’ interest in the sport goes back much deeper than the 1980s. He recently weighed in on the “Pittsburgh Windmill” Harry Greb whose legend has grown in recent years to the point that some have come to place him above Sugar Ray Robinson on the list of the greatest of all time.
“Greb was a great fighter with a terrific resume, of that there is no doubt,” says Breadman, “but there is no video of him and no one alive ever saw him fight, so where does this train of thought come from?”
Edwards notes that in Harry Greb’s heyday, he wasn’t talked about in the papers as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. The boxing writers were partial to Benny Leonard who drew comparisons to the venerated Joe Gans.
Among active fighters, Breadman reserves his highest praise for Terence Crawford. “Body punching is a lost art,” he once wrote. “[Crawford] is a great body puncher who starts his knockouts with body punches, but those punches are so subtle they are not fully appreciated.”
If the opening line holds up, Crawford will enter the ring as the underdog when he opposes Canelo Alvarez in September. Crawford, who will enter the ring a few weeks shy of his 38th birthday, is actually the older fighter, older than Canelo by almost three full years (it doesn’t seem that way since the Mexican redhead has been in the public eye so much longer), and will theoretically be rusty as 13 months will have elapsed since his most recent fight.
Breadman discounts those variables. “Terence is older,” he says, “but has less wear and tear and never looks rusty after a long layoff.” That Crawford will win he has no doubt, an opinion he tweaked after Canelo’s performance against William Scull: “Canelo’s legs are not the same. Bud may even stop him now.”
Edwards has been with Caleb Plant for Plant’s last three fights. Their first collaboration produced a Knockout of the Year candidate. With one ferocious left hook, Plant sent Anthony Dirrell to dreamland. What followed were a 12-round setback to David Benavidez and a ninth-round stoppage of Trevor McCumby.
Breadman keeps a hectic schedule. From Monday through Friday, he’s at the DLX Gym in Las Vegas coaching Caleb Plant and Kyrone Davis. On weekends, he’s back in Philadelphia, checking in on his investment properties and, of greater importance, watching his kids play sports. His 14-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son are standout all-around athletes.
On those long flights, he has plenty of time to turn on his laptop and stream old fights or perhaps work on his next article. That’s assuming he can stay awake.
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