The Inoue and Serrano Championship Watches

Published

7 months ago

June 7, 2024

The-Inoue-and-Serrano-Championship-Warches

Now and then, a feel-good story of particular interest surfaces in boxing. When Naoya Inoue and Amanda Serrano were presented with championship watches by the Boxing Writers Association of America on June 6 to honor their designation as the BWAA’s male and female Fighters of the Year for 2023, it continued a long history of championship adornments. And it was an important marker on the journey of a man named Bobby Ermankhah.

Boxing’s first championship belt belonged to Tom Cribb, the champion of England, who was given a lion-skin sash with silver claws after defeating Tom Molineaux of the United States in 1811. Seven decades later, Richard K. Fox (publisher of the National Police Gazette) introduced boxing belts to the United States.

Fox was engaged in a bitter feud with John L. Sullivan. When Paddy Ryan knocked out Joe Goss in 1880, the publisher presented “his” champion with a jewel-studded belt, Sullivan’s followers were so outraged that they raised $10,000 to give “their” champion a gold-plated diamond-studded prize bearing the words, “Presented to the champion of champions by the People of the United States.” Legend has it that, when John L. received his belt, he put it on and loudly proclaimed, “Fox’s is like a dog collar compared to mine.”

In 1922, Ring magazine began publication and entered the belt trade. Jack Dempsey was the first recipient of a Ring belt.

Craig Hamilton (the foremost boxing memorabilia dealer in the United States) continues the narrative, recounting, “Championship rings came into boxing with Muhammad Ali. I don’t remember seeing any before that, and relatively few fighters have had them since. As for watches, it was not uncommon for gold pocket watches to be given to fighters in the first three decades of the twentieth century. The earliest that I remember was a gold Tiffany pocket watch given to John L. Sullivan in 1907 by his fans in Boston long after Sullivan had retired from boxing. Most often, the watches were given to fighters by their manager or promoter. I know that Tommy Burns got one. And Tex Rickard gave one to Jack Dempsey around the time of the Carpentier fight. Nat Fleischer (founder of The Ring) had a collection of 93 watches that had been previously owned by fighters, But most of those were personal, not presentation, watches.”

Enter Bobby Ermankhah, the driving force behind the Inoue and Serrano championship watches.

Ermankhah was born in Tehran in 1971. His father was a high-ranking Army official during the Shah’s regime. Babak (as Bobby was known then), his older sister, and their parents lived well. Then, in 1979, the Shah was overthrown.

“After the revolution,” Ermankhah recounts, “everything changed for the country and, obviously, for my family. We went from having everything to the fear of having nothing. My father was put in prison. Eventually, he was released but he wasn’t allowed to leave Iran.”

“In 1980,” Bobby continues, “the Iraq-Iran War began. You were not drafted into the Army until you were eighteen. But after the age of fourteen, you couldn’t leave the country. My mother was against my serving in the Army and made plans for my sister and me to leave the country. We loved Iran but we didn’t like the new government. The way I was brought up; I believe in God; I believe in doing the right thing. But I don’t think you need religion to know right from wrong. For some people, it helps. But when a small group of people tell everyone else what to believe, that’s a problem for me.”

At age eleven, Ermankhah left Iran with his sister (who was three years older than he was). They spent four months in Turkey, four months in Switzerland, and eleven months in Italy. When Bobby was twelve, they arrived in the United States. After six months in New York, they got their own apartment.

“We were children, but we looked after each other the whole time,” Bobby says. “We were raised to be independent. My mother has visited us here in the United States since then. But I’ve never been back to Iran and my father isn’t allowed to leave the country, so I haven’t seen him in more than forty years.”

Ermankhah studied electrical engineering at Chelsea Vocational High School and graduated in 1990 as class valedictorian. After that, he worked as an electrician with several local unions and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. But the electrical work dried up and he got a job as a teller for CitiBank.

“My sister had married by then,” Bobby says, continuing the saga. “Her husband had a small jewelry store in Flushing (an area of Queens, which is one of New York’s five boroughs). I’d saved some money, and I opened in Flushing a small Greek restaurant with my brother-in-law called The Greek Specialties. It did not do well. It lasted about a year-and-a-half, and I lost all the money I’d saved since I was fourteen years old. After that, I started working at my brother-in-law’s store, which was called King’s Jewelry and was also in Flushing. That was in 1994. I’d always loved watches. I bought a Rolex Datejust Twotone for $2,500. Everyone made fun of me. Who will go to Flushing to buy a Rolex? But I added some diamonds for $500 and sold it for $5,000. Then, with the $5,000, I bought two more Rolexes and sold them.”

In 1999, Ermankhah opened his own business, selling watches in a small booth in the back of an exchange at 45 West 47th Street in Manhattan. In 2005, he founded Azad.

The name “Azad” translates to “freedom” in Persian. The debut Azad collection was launched in 2008. In Ermankhah’s words, “An Azad watch is a luxury item and a statement. I start with the design and go from there. Any car can get you from one place to another, but some people like a different look. Most companies repeat what they’ve already done before and copy what everyone else is doing. Our customers want something different.”

But there were problems. In 2008, the year of Azad’s launch, the economy tanked. “It was a very difficult time for us,” Bobby acknowledges. “We didn’t sell a thing the first six months. But over time, the pace picked up.”

Azad now has eighteen different basic models that have been released in editions of twenty to five hundred pieces. Each model can be made with dozens of variables (e.g. different stones, colors, metals, bands, etc). The watches are assembled in New York. The parts come from Switzerland, Japan, and Germany, except for the cases, which are made in Hong Kong. There are ten to fifteen different suppliers of parts for each watch, which makes them harder to counterfeit. The key corporate players are vice president Cedric King and creative director Anna Zakrepine.

Meanwhile, Ermankhah is still at 45 West 47th Street in the heart of New York’s diamond district. But the Azad booth is now in the front of the store, encompassing four-and-a-half showcases and the front window. And the company recently opened a 2,000-square-foot showroom and factory on the third floor of the same building.

Insofar as the sweet science is concerned, Azad has been involved with boxing for years. It has had sponsorship deals with Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center. The first fighters to wear Azad patches on their trunks were Paulie Malignaggi, Paul Williams, Chris Arreola, and Kendall Holt. Since then, it has had relationships, among others, with Gennady Golovkin, Sergio Martinez, Jermain Taylor, Andre Berto, Danny Garcia, Deontay Wilder, and John Duddy.

“Boxers work hard to get what they get,” Ermankhah says. “They deserve recognition, but only a few champions are recognized on the street. You can’t walk around wearing your championship belt to show that you’re a champion. But you can always wear a watch.”

That brings us to the championship watches presented to Naoya Inoue and Amanda Serrano at the June 6 BWAA awards dinner. The design and red-and-white color motif of Inoue’s watch are evocative of the Japanese flag. It’s inner movements are visible from both the front and back. The stainless steel case is encrusted with more than two hundred diamonds. On its back, the watch reads, “Naoya Inoue, 2023 BWAA Fighter of the Year.”

Serrano’s watch is from Azad’s prestige Zada collection and, like Inoue’s, has a stainless steel case encrusted with diamonds.

“I’d love to make a one-of-a-kind watch for every BWAA Fighter of the Year in the future,” Ermankhah says. “It would be an honor.”

Is this the start of a new tradition?

Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book – MY MOTHER and me – is a personal memoir available at Amazon.com. https://www.amazon.com/My-Mother-Me-Thomas-Hauser/dp/1955836191/ref=sr_1_1?crid=5C0TEN4M9ZAH&keywords=thomas+hauser&qid=1707662513&sprefix=thomas+hauser%2Caps%2C80&sr=8-1

In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism. In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

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Thomas Hauser

Thomas Hauser is the author of 52 books. In 2005, he was honored by the Boxing Writers Association of America, which bestowed the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism upon him. He was the first Internet writer ever to receive that award. In 2019, Hauser was chosen for boxing's highest honor: induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Lennox Lewis has observed, “A hundred years from now, if people want to learn about boxing in this era, they’ll read Thomas Hauser.”

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Usyk Outpoints Fury and Itauma has the “Wow Factor” in Riyadh

Published

2 days ago

December 21, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Usyk Outpoints Fury and Itauma has the “Wow Factor” in Riyadh

Oleksandr Usyk left no doubt that he is the best heavyweight of his generation and one of the greatest boxers of all time with a unanimous decision over Tyson Fury tonight at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. But although the Ukrainian won eight rounds on all three scorecards, this was no runaway. To pirate a line from one of the DAZN talking heads, Fury had his moments in every round but Usyk had more moments.

The early rounds were fought at a faster pace than the first meeting back in May. At the mid-point, the fight was even. The next three rounds – the next five to some observers – were all Usyk who threw more punches and landed the cleaner shots.

Fury won the final round in the eyes of this reporter scoring at home, but by then he needed a knockout to pull the match out of the fire.

The last round was an outstanding climax to an entertaining chess match during which both fighters took turns being the pursuer and the pursued.

An Olympic gold medalist and a unified world champion at cruiserweight and heavyweight, the amazing Usyk improved his ledger to 23-0 (14). His next fight, more than likely, will come against the winner of the Feb. 22 match in Ridayh between Daniel Dubois and Joseph Parker which will share the bill with the rematch between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.

Fury (34-2-1) may fight Anthony Joshua next. Regardless, no one wants a piece of Moses Itauma right now although the kid is only 19 years old.

Moses Itauma

Raised in London by a Nigerian father and a Slovakian mother, Itauma turned heads once again with another “wow” performance. None of his last seven opponents lasted beyond the second round.

His opponent tonight, 34-year-old Australian Demsey McKean, lasted less than two minutes. Itauma, a southpaw with blazing fast hands, had the Aussie on the deck twice during the 117-second skirmish. The first knockdown was the result of a cuffing punch that landed high on the head; the second knockdown was produced by an overhand left. McKean went down hard as his chief cornerman bounded on to the ring apron to halt the massacre.

Photo (c): Mark Robinson

Itauma (12-0, 10 KOs after going 20-0 as an amateur) is the real deal. It was the second straight loss for McKean (22-2) who lasted into the 10^th round against Filip Hrgovic in his last start.

Bohachuk-Davis

In a fight billed as the co-main although it preceded Itauma-McKean, Serhii Bohachuk, an LA-based Ukrainian, stopped Ishmael Davis whose corner pulled him out after six frames.

Both fighters were coming off a loss in fights that were close on the scorecards, Bohachuk falling to Vergil Ortiz Jr in a Las Vegas barnburner and Davis losing to Josh Kelly.

Davis, who took the fight on short notice, subbing for Ismail Madrimov, declined to 13-2. He landed a few good shots but was on the canvas in the second round, compliments of a short left hook, and the relentless Bohachuk (25-2, 24 KOs) eventually wore him down.

Fisher-Allen

In a messy, 10-round bar brawl masquerading as a boxing match, Johnny Fisher, the Romford Bull, won a split decision over British countryman David Allen. Two judges favored Fisher by 95-94 tallies with the dissenter favoring Allen 96-93. When the scores were announced, there was a chorus of boos and those watching at home were outraged.

Allen was a step up in class for Fisher. The Doncaster man had a decent record (23-5-2 heading in) and had been routinely matched tough (his former opponents included Dillian Whyte, Luis “King Kong” Ortiz and three former Olympians). But Allen was fairly considered no more than a journeyman and Fisher (12-0 with 11 KOs, eight in the opening round) was a huge favorite.

In round five, Allen had Fisher on the canvas twice although only one was ruled a true knockdown. From that point, he landed the harder shots and, at the final bell, he fell to canvas shedding tears of joy, convinced that he had won.

He did not win, but he exposed Johnny Fisher as a fighter too slow to compete with elite heavyweights, a British version of the ponderous Russian-Canadian campaigner Arslanbek Makhmudov.

Other Bouts of Note

In a spirited 10-round featherweight match, Scotland’s Lee McGregor, a former European bantamweight champion and stablemate of former unified 140-pound title-holder Josh Taylor, advanced to 15-1-1 (11) with a unanimous decision over Isaac Lowe (25-3-3). The judges had it 96-92 and 97-91 twice.

A cousin and regular houseguest of Tyson Fury, Lowe fought most of the fight with cuts around both eyes and was twice deducted a point for losing his gumshield.

In a fight between super featherweights that could have gone either way, Liverpool southpaw Peter McGrail improved to 11-1 (6) with a 10-round unanimous decision over late sub Rhys Edwards. The judges had it 96-95 and 96-94 twice.

McGrail, a Tokyo Olympian and 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medalist, fought from the third round on with a cut above his right eye, the result of an accidental clash of heads. It was the first loss for Edwards (16-1), a 24-year-old Welshman who has another fight booked in three weeks.

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Fury-Usyk Reignited: Can the Gypsy King Avenge his Lone Defeat?

Published

3 days ago

December 20, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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Fury-Usyk Reignited: Can the Gypsy King Avenge his Lone Defeat?

In professional boxing, the heavyweight division, going back to the days of John L. Sullivan, is the straw that stirs the drink. By this measure, the fight on May 18 of this year at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was the biggest prizefight in decades. The winner would emerge as the first undisputed heavyweight champion since 1999 when Lennox Lewis out-pointed Evander Holyfield in their second meeting.

The match did not disappoint. It had several twists and turns.

Usyk did well in the early rounds, but the Gypsy King rattled Usyk with a harsh right hand in the fifth stanza and won rounds five through seven on all three cards. In the ninth, the match turned sharply in favor of the Ukrainian. Fury was saved by the bell after taking a barrage of unanswered punches, the last of which dictated a standing 8-count from referee Mark Nelson. But Fury weathered the storm and with his amazing powers of recuperation had a shade the best of it in the final stanza.

The decision was split: 115-112 and 114-113 for Usyk who became a unified champion in a second weight class; 114-113 for Fury.

That brings us to tomorrow (Saturday, Dec. 21) where Usyk and Fury will renew acquaintances in the same ring where they had their May 18 showdown.

The first fight was a near “pick-‘em” affair with Fury closing a very short favorite at most of the major bookmaking establishments. The Gypsy King would have been a somewhat higher favorite if not for the fact that he was coming off a poor showing against MMA star Francis Ngannou and had a worrisome propensity for getting cut. (A cut above Fury’s right eye in sparring pushed back the fight from its original Feb. 11 date.)

Tomorrow’s sequel, bearing the tagline “Reignited,” finds Usyk a consensus 7/5 favorite although those odds could shorten by post time. (There was no discernible activity after today’s weigh-in where Fury, fully clothed, topped the scales at 281, an increase of 19 pounds over their first meeting.)

Given the politics of boxing, anything “undisputed” is fragile. In June, Usyk abandoned his IBF belt and the organization anointed Daniel Dubois their heavyweight champion based upon Dubois’s eighth-round stoppage of Filip Hrgovic in a bout billed for the IBF interim title. The malodorous WBA, a festering boil on the backside of boxing, now recognizes 43-year-old Kubrat Pulev as its “regular” heavyweight champion.

Another difference between tomorrow’s fight card and the first installment is that the May 18 affair had a much stronger undercard. Two strong pairings were the rematch between cruiserweights Jai Opetaia and Maris Briedis (Opetaia UD 12) and the heavyweight contest between unbeatens Agit Kabayal and Frank Sanchez (Kabayel KO 7).

Tomorrow’s semi-wind-up between Serhii Bohachuk and Ismail Madrimov lost luster when Madrimov came down with bronchitis and had to withdraw. The featherweight contest between Peter McGrail and Dennis McCann fell out when McCann’s VADA test returned an adverse finding. Bohachuk and McGrail remain on the card but against late-sub opponents in matches that are less intriguing.

The focal points of tomorrow’s undercard are the bouts involving undefeated British heavyweights Moses Itauma (10-0, 8 KOs) and Johnny Fisher (12-0, 11 KOs). Both are heavy favorites over their respective opponents but bear watching because they represent the next generation of heavyweight standouts. Fury and Usyk are getting long in the tooth. The Gypsy King is 36; Usyk turns 38 next month.

Bob Arum once said that nobody purchases a pay-per-view for the undercard and, years from now, no one will remember which sanctioning bodies had their fingers in the pie. So, Fury-Usyk II remains a very big deal, although a wee bit less compelling than their first go-around.

Will Tyson Fury avenge his lone defeat? Turki Alalshikh, the Chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority and the unofficial czar of “major league” boxing, certainly hopes so. His Excellency has made known that he stands poised to manufacture a rubber match if Tyson prevails.

We could have already figured this out, but Alalshikh violated one of the protocols of boxing when he came flat out and said so. He effectively made Tyson Fury the “A-side,” no small potatoes considering that the most relevant variable on the checklist when handicapping a fight is, “Who does the promoter need?”

The Uzyk-Fury II fight card will air on DAZN with a suggested list price of $39.99 for U.S. fight fans. The main event is expected to start about 5:45 pm ET / 2:45 pm PT.

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Unheralded Bruno Surace went to Tijuana and Forged the TSS 2024 Upset of the Year

Published

4 days ago

December 19, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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Unheralded Bruno Surace went to Tijuana and Forged the TSS 2024 Upset of the Year

The Dec. 14 fight at Tijuana between Jaime Munguia and Bruno Surace was conceived as a stay-busy fight for Munguia. The scuttlebutt was that Munguia’s promoters, Zanfer and Top Rank, wanted him to have another fight under his belt before thrusting him against Christian Mbilli in a WBC eliminator with the prize for the winner (in theory) a date with Canelo Alvarez.

Munguia came to the fore in May of 2018 at Verona, New York, when he demolished former U.S. Olympian Sadam Ali, conqueror of Miguel Cotto. That earned him the WBO super welterweight title which he successfully defended five times.

Munguia kept winning as he moved up in weight to middleweight and then super middleweight and brought a 43-0 (34) record into his Cinco de Mayo 2024 match with Canelo.

Jaime went the distance with Alvarez and had a few good moments while losing a unanimous decision. He rebounded with a 10th-round stoppage of Canada’s previously undefeated Erik Bazinyan.

There was little reason to think that Munguia would overlook Surace as the Mexican would be fighting in his hometown for the first time since February of 2022 and would want to send the home folks home happy. Moreover, even if Munguia had an off-night, there was no reason to think that the obscure Surace could capitalize. A Frenchman who had never fought outside France, Surace brought a 25-0-2 record and a 22-fight winning streak, but he had only four knockouts to his credit and only eight of his wins had come against opponents with winning records.

It appeared that Munguia would close the show early when he sent the Frenchman to the canvas in the second round with a big left hook. From that point on, Surace fought mostly off his back foot, throwing punches in spurts, whereas the busier Munguia concentrated on chopping him down with body punches. But Surace absorbed those punches well and at the midway point of the fight, behind on the cards but nonplussed, it now looked as if the bout would go the full 10 rounds with Munguia winning a lopsided decision.

Then lightning struck. Out of the blue, Surace connected with an overhand right to the jaw. Munguia went down flat on his back. He rose a fraction-of-a second before the count reached “10,”, but stumbled as he pulled himself upright. His eyes were glazed and referee Juan Jose Ramirez, a local man, waived it off. There was no protest coming from Munguia or his cornermen. The official time was 2:36 of round six.

At major bookmaking establishments, Jaime Munguia was as high as a 35/1 favorite. No world title was at stake, yet this was an upset for the ages.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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