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A Closer Look at Elite Boxing Trainer and 2024 Hall of Fame Inductee Kenny Adams
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Kenny Adams will be formally enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame and Museum in Canastota, New York, next month. It is a long overdue honor for the longtime Las Vegas boxing coach who turns 84 in September.
Adams grew up in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, where he was raised by a great aunt and her husband. He had his first amateur fight at age 11 in Sikeston, Missouri, and dozens more in smokers in other nearby towns. Upon graduation, he enlisted in the Army where he was a two-time all-service champion and was part of an elite squadron that worked behind enemy lines during the Vietnam War. He would eventually rise to the rank of Master Sergeant.
Adams first attracted attention as the coach of an Army team that dominated inter-service competitions. After serving as an assistant on the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, he was named head coach of the 1988 squad for the Seoul Summer Games.
The U.S. dominated the boxing competition at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, winning a gold medal in nine of the 12 weight categories, but that achievement should probably come with an asterisk. The Soviets boycotted the Games as did the powerful East Germany contingent.
Expectations were low for the 1988 squad which lacked a charismatic personality. There was no Sugar Ray Leonard or Mark Breland to whet the interest of America’s top sports scribes. The fighter that got the most pre-tournament buzz was Kelcie Banks, a spindly featherweight from Chicago who would be knocked out in the opening round.
Defying the odds, the Americans won three gold medals and two silvers. Heavyweight Ray Mercer, light heavyweight Andrew Maynard, and bantamweight Kennedy McKinney won gold. All three were Army men. Light middleweight Roy Jones Jr and light flyweight Michael Carbajal had to settle for silver after losing controversial decisions in the finals. Jones’ setback to his South Korean opponent was considered so rancid that he was named the tournament’s outstanding boxer.
Adams acknowledges the role played by his top assistants, Hank Johnson, an Army combat medic and the brother of light heavyweight champion Marvin Johnson, and Alton Merkerson, best known as the trainer of Roy Jones Jr. However, Kenny gives himself full credit for selecting the venue where the Army fighters trained for the Summer Games.
He chose Fort Huachuca, an Army installation near the Mexican border in Cochise County, Arizona. “It was perfect,” says Adams, “very secluded. A boxer couldn’t leave the base or have a visitor without us knowing about it.” (The nearest good-sized city was Tucson and that is 77 miles away.)
After the 1988 Games, as Adams was finishing up a 30-year hitch, Top Rank came calling with the proverbial offer too good to refuse. Bob Arum was putting together a syndicate to manage the careers of some of the top amateur boxers who were about to turn pro and he wanted Adams to coach them.
Notable members of the syndicate, which took the name Las Vegas Gloves, were Las Vegas businessman/restaurateur Freddie Glusman, future Las Vegas mayor Ron Lurie, and UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian. The fighters entrusted to Adams included McKinney, the most prized of the signees, Vincent Phillips, Cleveland Woods, and Eddie Cook, all former U.S. Army soldiers, plus Freddie Norwood, a boyhood friend of Cook from St. Louis.
The syndicate lost money, notwithstanding the fact that McKinney, Cook, Phillips, and Norwood captured world titles.
Eddie Cook was the first American fighter that Kenny Adams molded into a world title-holder. In 1992, Cook dethroned WBA bantamweight champion Israel Contreras, knocking out the Venezuelan veteran in the fifth round. (He lost the belt in his first defense and retired two years later, leaving the sport with a 19-3 record after suffering a TKO at the hands of future Hall of Famer Marco Antonio Barrera.)
Before Cook won his title, Adams played a role in one of the most startling upsets in boxing history.
While training boxers in Germany, Adams was introduced to Rene Jacquot, a boxer from France. Jacquot’s management inquired if Adams would “polish” him.
“He was a very good student,” recalled Adams, “a hard worker. I trained him in the American style and it enhanced him.”
Nonetheless, no one gave Jacquot a chance when he was matched against Donald Curry in Grenoble, France on Feb. 11, 1989 in a match televised on CBS. Jacquot’s reported record, 24-10, was that of a journeyman.
Curry had started to slip. He had been stopped by Lloyd Honeyghan and Mike McCallum. But a few years prior during his reign as a world welterweight champion, Curry was rated in some quarters as the top pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. Although the fight was in France, Rene Jacquot was considered nothing more than speed bump for the American invader.
When the smoke cleared, Rene Jacquot was the new WBC 154-pound champion. The decision in his favor was unanimous and eminently fair. (He would lose the belt in his first defense, knocked out in the opening round by John “The Beast” Mugabi. Adams wasn’t around for that one.)
The Ring magazine named Jacquot vs Curry the 1989 Upset of the Year. Eight years later, Adams would be on the right side of yet another fight that would receive this distinction.
While Adams worked with Rene Jacquot for only one fight, he had a long run with Vince Phillips. It was rocky at times. Phillips, in common with his pal Kennedy McKinney, developed a cocaine problem early in his pro career. Las Vegas was no Fort Huachuca. There were temptations galore.
Phillips had a fine pro record (35-3, 24 KOs) when he challenged IBF 140-pound kingpin Kostya Tszyu at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City on May 31, 1997, but he had lost two of his last four fights, had been knocked out in three rounds by Ike Quartey, and was dropping down in weight to meet an undefeated fighter who was considered the best junior welterweight to come down the pike since Aaron Pryor.
“Cool Vince” took the fight out of the judges’ hands, scoring a 10th-round TKO. It was the 1997 Upset of the Year.
Adams would eventually train more than two dozen world champions including such notables as Diego Corrales, Edwin Valero, Johnny Tapia, and Nonito Donaire. In some cases, these relationships were long-lasting; others were fleeting as some boxers seem to change trainers as often as they change their underwear.
Nowadays, Kenny Adams can be found most afternoons at the DLX Boxing Gym in Las Vegas. The facility is a short walk from the handsome home that Adams shares with his wife of 57 years, the former Claudia Campbell of Clarksville, Tennessee.
There are no stuffed shirts at DLX. Adams is often the subject of good-natured ribbing. “I didn’t know they had a hall of fame for spit-bucket carriers,” joshed the young trainer Manny Savoy, addressing Adams one afternoon when we happened to be there.
In common with most others of his vintage and especially those that led wildly exciting lives, Adams is experiencing some memory loss. Recalling events, the timeline gets jumbled. And physically he has had a number of maladies that have slowed him down. But when Kenny works the pads with a boxer – often a schoolboy as DLX trends younger in the afternoon when school lets out – the years roll off him. By some mysterious alchemy, his reflexes become that of the young man that he once was.
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Note: The 2024 renewal of the annual Hall of Fame Induction Weekend, a 4-day jamboree, runs June 6-9. The event concludes on Sunday with the Parade of Champions in the Downtown Canastota District followed by the formal induction of this year’s honorees in the showroom of the Turning Stone Casino-Resort in Verona, NY, one exit away on the New York State Thruway.
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Cain Sandoval KOs Mark Bernaldez in the Featured Bout at Santa Ynez
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Northern California’s Cain Sandoval remained undefeated with a knockout win over Mark Bernaldez in a super lightweight battle on Friday on a 360 Promotions card.
Sandoval (15-0, 13 KOs) of Sacramento needed four rounds to figure out tough Filipino fighter Bernaldez (25-7, 14 KOs) in front of a packed crowd at Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez.
Bernaldez had gone eight rounds against Mexico’s very tough Oscar Duarte. He showed no fear for Sandoval’s reputed power and both fired bombs at each other from the second round on.
Things turned in favor of Sandoval when he targeted the body and soon had Bernaldez in retreat. It was apparent Sandoval had discovered a weakness.
In the beginning of the fourth Sandoval fired a stiff jab to the body that buckled Bernaldez but he did not go down. And when both resumed in firing position Sandoval connected with an overhand right and down went the Filipino fighter. He was counted out by referee Rudy Barragan at 34 seconds of the round.
“I’m surprised he took my jab to the body. I respect that. I have a knockout and I’m happy about that,” Sandoval said.
Other Bouts
Popular female fighter Lupe Medina (9-0) remained undefeated with a solid victory over the determined Agustina Vazquez (4-3-2) by unanimous decision after eight rounds in a minimumweight fight between Southern Californians.
Early on Vazquez gave Medina trouble disrupting her patter with solid jabs. And when Medina overloaded with combination punches, she was laced with counters from Vazquez during the first four rounds.
Things turned around in the fifth round as Medina used a jab to keep Vazquez at a preferred distance. And when she attacked it was no more than two-punch combination and maintaining a distance.
Vazquez proved determined but discovered clinching was not a good idea as Medina took advantage and overran her with blows. Still, Vazquez looked solid. All three judges saw it 79-73 for Medina.
A battle between Southern Californian’s saw Compton’s Christopher Rios (11-2) put on the pressure all eight rounds against Eastvale’s Daniel Barrera (8-1-1) and emerged the winner by majority decision in a flyweight battle.
It was Barrera’s first loss as a pro. He never could discover how to stay off the ropes and that proved his downfall. Neither fighter was knocked down but one judge saw it 76-76, and two others 79-73 for Rios.
In a welterweight fight Gor Yeritsyan (20-1,16 KOs) scorched Luis Ramos (23-7) with a 12-punch combination the sent him to the mat in the second round. After Ramos beat the count he was met with an eight punch volley and the fight was stopped at 2:11 of the second round by knockout.
Super feather prospect Abel Mejia (7-0, 5 KOs) floored Alfredo Diaz (9-12) in the fifth round but found the Mexican fighter to be very durable in their six-round fight. Mejia caught Diaz with a left hook in the fifth round for a knockdown. But the fight resumed with all three judges scoring it 60-53 for Mejia who fights out of El Modena, Calif.
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The Return of David Alaverdian
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By TSS Special Correspondent David Harazduk — After David Alaverdian (8-0-1, 6 KOs) scored a gritty victory against a tough Nicaraguan journeyman named Enrique Irias, his plans suddenly changed. The flashy flyweight from Nahariya, Israel hoped to face even tougher opposition and then challenge for a world title within a year or so. But a prolonged illness forced David to rip up the script.
The Irias fight was over 22 months ago. On Saturday, Feb. 22, Alaverdian will be making his first appearance in the ring since that win when he faces veteran road warrior Josue “Zurdo” Morales (31-16-4, 13 KOs) at the Westgate Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. It’s the fifth promotion by Las Vegas attorney Stephen Reid whose inaugural card was at this venue on Feb. 13, 2020.
“I’m excited to come back,” Alaverdian declared.
During his preparation for Irias two years ago, Alaverdian felt fatigue after a routine six-round sparring session. “It was on April 1, 2023, about ten days before my fight. It felt like an April Fool’s joke,” he said. He came down with a sore throat, a headache, and congestion. He soon developed trouble breathing. At first, he thought his seasonal asthma had flared up, but his condition soon worsened. No matter what he did, Alaverdian could no longer take deep breaths. Fatigue continued to plague him. His heart constantly raced. Instead of breathing from his diaphragm, he was breathing from his chest. He sought out numerous doctors in the United States and in Israel.
His symptoms were finally diagnosed as Dysfunctional Breathing (DB). DB is a condition that can stem from stress and is often misdiagnosed. Its symptoms include dyspnea and tachycardia, both of which David experienced.
While receiving treatment, the Vegas-based pro went back to Israel where he coached aspiring fighters. “David’s influence on Israeli boxing is amazing, because he shows we can succeed in a big business even though we come from a small country,” said another undefeated Israeli flyweight, 20-year-old Yonatan Landman (7-0, 7 KOs). “A lot more Israelis are going to dare to succeed.”
Landman was able to work with Alaverdian during David’s return to Israel. “He is a great guy and a friend,” Landman said. “He has a lot of willingness to help, share his knowledge, and help you move forward.”
Alaverdian finally started to feel like he could compete again eight months ago. He won last year’s Israeli national amateur championship and competed in Olympic qualifiers. Now, he’s preparing to fight as a professional once again. “He doesn’t mention anything about [his breathing issues] like he did before,” his coach Cedric Ferguson said about this camp. “He’s been working like there’s no issue at all.”
It has been a whirlwind week for the 31-year-old Alaverdian. In addition to putting the finishing touches on his preparation ahead of Saturday’s comeback fight, David got married on Tuesday. His mom came over from Israel for the wedding and will stay for the fight. “It’s a good distraction,” David said of this week’s significant events. “It helps me. That way I don’t have to focus on the fight all day.”
Josue Morales, a 32 year old from Houston, hopes to play spoiler on Saturday. The crafty southpaw has never been stopped during his 52-fight career. “He’s a seasoned guy with a lot of experience,” Alaverdian said of Morales. “He knows how to move around the ring and is more of a technical boxer. He’s a tough opponent for someone who has been out of the ring for two years.”
A win Saturday night would complete a monumental week for David Alaverdian, both in and out of the ring, repairing the once-shredded script.
Doors open at the Westgate fight arena at 6:30 pm. The first bout goes at 7:00. Seven fights are scheduled including an 8-round female fight between Las Vegas light flyweight Yadira Bustillos and Argentine veteran Tamara Demarco.
NOTE: Author David Harazduk has run The Jewish Boxing Blog since 2010. You can find him at Twitter/X @JewishBoxing and Instagram.
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Two Candidates for the Greatest Fight Card in Boxing History
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Two Candidates for the Greatest Fight Card in Boxing History
Saturday’s fight card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, topped by the rematch between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol for undisputed light heavyweight supremacy, was being hyped as the greatest boxing card ever. That was before Daniel Dubois took ill and had to pull out of his IBF world heavyweight title defense against Joseph Parker, yielding his slot to last-minute replacement Martin Bakole.
The view from here is that the card remains in the running for the best fight card ever, top to bottom. The public didn’t view Dubois as the legitimate heavyweight champion. That distinction goes to Oleksandr Usyk.
Terms like “greatest” are, of course, subjective. Are we referring to the most attractive match-ups or the greatest array of talent, or the card that gives the most satisfaction by churning out a multiplicity of entertaining fights?
We won’t know how satisfying this card is until after the fact. We won’t know whether the talent on display was the greatest ever assembled on one night until many years have passed. Contestants such as Shakur Stevenson, Vergil Ortiz Jr, and Hamzah Sheeraz are still in their twenties (Stevenson is the oldest of the three at age 27) and it’s too soon to gauge if they will leave the sport with a great legacy.
As for which fight card in history had the deepest pool of attractive match-ups, this is a query that is amenable to an operational definition. Betting lines are a useful tool for informing us whether or not a fight warrants our attention if the likelihood of witnessing a closely-contested bout is our primary consideration.
Based on these factors, I would submit that the current leader in the race for the best card ever assembled goes to Don King’s May 7, 1994 promotion at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Six future Hall of Famers – Julio Cesar Chavez, Ricardo Lopez, Azumah Nelson, Terry Norris, Julian Jackson, and Christy Martin — were on that card, an 11-fight, eight-hour marathon with five WBC world title fights, four of which were rematches.
These were the five title fights:
140 pounds: Julio Cesar Chavez (89-1-1, 77 KOs) vs. Frankie Randall (49-2-1, 39 KOs)
Odds: Chavez 3/1 (minus-300)
154 pounds: Terry Norris (37-4, 23 KOs) vs. Simon Brown (41-2, 30 KOs)
Odds: even (11/10 and take your pick)
160 pounds: Gerald McClellan (30-2, 28 KOs) vs. Julian Jackson (48-2, 45 KOs)
Odds: McClellan 7/2 (minus-350)
130 pounds: Azumah Nelson (37-2-2, 26 KOs) vs. Jesse James Leija (27-0-2, 13 KOs)
Odds: Nelson 17/10 (minus-170)
105 pounds: Ricardo Lopez (36-0, 27 KOs) vs. Kermin Guardia (21-0, 14 KOs)
Odds: none
Results
Chavez-Randall — Julio Cesar Chavez avenged his loss to Frankie Randall, but not without controversy. An accidental clash of heads in the eighth round left Chavez with a bad gash on his forehead. Ring physician Flip Homansky would have allowed the bout to continue if that had been Chavez’s preference, but El Gran Campeon wasn’t so inclined. A WBC rule specified that in the event of a significant injury accruing from an accidental head butt, the less-damaged fighter is penalized a point. The fight went to the scorecards where Chavez won a split decision that would have been a draw without the point deduction. The crowd was overwhelmingly pro-Chavez, but the big bets were mostly on Randall and the odds got nicked down on the day of the fight.
Brown-Norris — In their first meeting in December of the previous year, Simon Brown dominated Terry Norris from the opening bell before stopping him in the fourth round. It was a massive upset. Norris was in the conversation for the top pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. In the rematch, Norris opened a slight favorite, but the late money was on Brown. And, once again, the so-called “sharps” were on the wrong side. Terry Norris, the would-be avenger, won a comfortable decision.
McClellan-Jackson — A murderous puncher, Gerald McClellan bombed out Julian Jackson in 83 seconds, or four rounds quicker than in their first engagement. Jackson was also a murderous puncher and attracted money in the sports books, lowering the price on the victorious McClellan who yet remained a solid favorite.
Nelson-Leija – WBC President Jose Sulaiman mandated this rematch after the first meeting ended in a draw after an error was found in the tabulation of one of the scorecards, overturning the original verdict which had Nelson retaining his title on a split decision. Leija thought he was robbed and was the rightful winner in the do-over, outworking Nelson to win a unanimous decision. At age 35, Azumah was getting long in the tooth.
Lopez-Guardia – Before the digital age, bookmakers didn’t trifle to post lines on bouts that on paper were egregious mismatches, save perhaps a fight of great magnitude. Guardia, the Colombian challenger, overachieved by lasting the distance in a fight with no knockdowns, but “Finito” won a lopsided decision.
A Note on Odds
Betting lines serve a useful purpose for boxing historians; they quantify the magnitude of an upset. However, quoting odds is tricky because they are fluid and vary somewhat from place to place. What this means is that two journalists can quote different odds on the same event and they both can get it right – unless there is a significant disparity. The odds quoted above are the closing lines at the MGM Grand or, at the very least, a very close approximation.
Saturday in Riyadh
One reason why tomorrow’s fight card is the best ever, said the tub-thumpers, is that the card (in its original conformation) included seven world title fights. But that’s no big deal There are so many title fights nowadays that the term “world title” has been trivialized. And what wasn’t acknowledged is that three of the title fights were of the “interim” stripe.
However – and this is a big deal — a glance at the odds informs us that tomorrow’s card is chock-full of competitive match-ups (at least on paper) and from that aspect, a blend of quality and quantity, it is a doozy of a boxing card.
The greatest boxing linemaker of my generation, now deceased, once told me that any fight where the “chalk” was less than a 3/1 favorite is essentially a “pick-‘em” fight. Yes, I know that makes no sense mathematically. However, I know what he was getting at. In a baseball game, for example, it’s very rare to find a team favored by odds of more than 3/1. In boxing, where self-serving promoters are constantly feeding us King Kong vs. Mickey Mouse, odds higher than 3/1 are the norm.
As this is being written, there are six fights on Saturday’s card where one could play the favorite without laying more than 3/1. I believe this is unprecedented. Moreover, the main event and a fascinating match-up on the undercard, Vergil Ortiz Jr vs Israil Madrimov, are virtual toss-ups with the favorites, Beterbiev and Ortiz, currently available at 5/4 (minus-125). Another very intriguing fight is the heavyweight contest between late bloomers Agit Kabayel and Zhilei Zhang which finds the less-heralded Kabayel cloaked as a small favorite. And kudos to Joseph Parker for accepting Martin Bakole when he could have held out for a lesser opponent. If Bakole is in shape (a big “if”), he will be a handful.
And so, where does tomorrow’s card rank on the list of best boxing cards ever? Right up there near the top, we would argue, and, if the bouts in large part are memorably entertaining, we would push it ahead of Don King’s May 7, 1994 extravaganza.
That’s the view from here. Feel free to dissent.
Postscript: If you plan to watch the entire card ($25.99 on DAZN for U.S. buyers), it would help to stock up on some munchies. The first fight (Joshua Buatsi vs. Callum Smith) is scheduled to kick off at 8:45 a.m. for us viewers in the Pacific Time Zone / 11:45 a.m. ET. If the show adheres tight to its schedule (no guarantee), Beterbiev and Bivol are expected to enter the ring at 3:00 p.m. PT/6:00 p.m. ET.
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