Avila Perspective, Chap. 314: A Really Big Boxing Show in Riyadh and More

One of boxing’s most spectacular fight cards takes place this weekend.

Think, Godzilla big.

It starts with an appetizer in California on Friday with 360 Promotions then on to the main course on Saturday morning in Riyadh Season with several promotions combined in Saudi Arabia.

Here is how it begins:

Undefeated “Sugar” Cain Sandoval (14-0, 12 KOs) leads a 360 Promotions card on Friday Feb. 21, at Chumash Casino as he faces Mark Bernaldez (25-6) in the main event. UFC Fight Pass will stream the fight card live.

360 Promotions is led by Tom Loeffler who knows a thing or two about promoting stars like Gennady “Triple G” Golovkin for example. He also backs Serhii Bohachuk and Mizuki “Mimi” Hiruta.

Then catch some sleep and wake up around 8 a.m. the next morning and prepare for a long day of world title fights.

Riyadh

A star-studded lineup of world titlists is led by the rematch between undefeated Artur Beterbiev (21-0, 20 Kos) and Dmitry Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) for the undisputed light heavyweight world championship at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh. PPV.Com and DAZN pay-per-view will each provide streaming.

Bivol seeks to avenge his only pro loss.

“All athletes want to win. We’re like gamblers and of course I wasn’t a winner,” Bivol said.

Beterbiev made no predictions, but one.

“it’s going to be a good fight,” said Beterbiev the undisputed light heavyweight world champion.

It’s a hefty boxing card reminiscent of Don King’s mammoth cards of the 90s and early 2000s. I once covered a boxing card that began at 10 a.m. on Saturday and ended at 1 a.m. Sunday in Las Vegas. I was hearing bells in my sleep after that adventure.

Like that Don King card, this one is loaded with world title fights.

From lightweights to heavyweights, multiple world championships are being settled in the desert nation.

IBF heavyweight titlist Daniel Dubois scratched against Joseph Parker because of a virus.

The former champion Parker (35-3, 23 KOs) will now face Martin Bakole (21-1, 16 KOs) who was last seen battering American contender Jared “The Real Big Baby” Anderson last August in Los Angeles. Despite the change of foes Parker may still be in a very intriguing fight. It could be explosive.

Another very intriguing clash pits former super welterweight champion Israil Madrimov (10-1-1) against undefeated Vergil Ortiz Jr. (22-0, 21 KOs). No world title is at stake, but reputations will be made or demoted after these two meet in the boxing ring.

Madrimov recently lost a close decision to Terence Crawford in Los Angeles. No shame there.

“I always chase at big fights. I have another big fight,” Madrimov said.

Ortiz had problems making weight after battling Covid-19 and moved up from super lightweight to super welterweight. That’s a big jump regardless of talent. The Texas-bred fighter has never been defeated but this is his first time facing a real super welterweight of championship caliber. It’s a daring test but Ortiz has never shied away from a battle.

“There’s not much to say. In my opinion, this is the best fight on the card,” said Ortiz.

Golden Boy Promotions backs Ortiz and Matchroom Boxing has Madrimov who is trained by the brothers Joel and Antonio Diaz in Indio, Calif. They formerly trained Ortiz years ago. Robert Garcia now trains Ortiz in Riverside, Calif. There are rivalries and there are rivalries.

In another sparkling match WBC middleweight titlist Carlos Adames (24-1, 18 KOs) defends against Hamzah Sheeraz (21-0, 17 KOs) a tall lanky power-hitter who looks like the real deal. I don’t expect this to reach the final bell.

Adames is a slick fighter out of the Dominican Republic and Sheeraz is a British puncher. Both train in the U.S. It’s a don’t-blink type of fight and could end early.

Others on the card are heavyweights Zhilei Zhang (27-2-1, 22 KOs) versus Germany’s Agit Kabayel (25-0, 17 KOs). The Chinese heavyweight seems to have the skills but lacks the stamina as his loss to Joseph Parker showed. Kabayel has never tasted defeat and has wins over Russia’s Arslanbek Makhmudov, Cuba’s Frank Sanchez, and England’s Derek Chisora.

Plus, Shakur Stevenson found a replacement for Floyd Schofield who dropped out due to illness. And light heavyweight contender Joshua Buatsi fights former champ Callum Smith whose only losses were to Beterbiev and Canelo Alvarez.

Get ready for a long day of title fights.

Fights to Watch (All times Pacific Time)

Fri. UFC Fight Pass 7 p.m. Cain Sandoval (14-0) vs Mark Bernaldez (25-6).

Sat. PPV.COM or DAZN ppv 7:30 a.m. Artur Beterbiev (21-0) vs Dmitrii Bivol (23-1); Vergil Ortiz Jr. (22-0) vs Israil Madrimov (10-1-1); Joseph Parker (35-3) vs Martin Bakole (21-1); Carlos Adames (24-1) vs Hamzah Sheeraz (21-0).

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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Lucas Bahdi Paid His Dues, Quite Literally, and Now his Boxing Career is Flourishing

In boxing, one punch can dramatically alter the trajectory of a fighter’s career. This is true for both the perpetrator and the unfortunate recipient.

On July 20 of last year in Tampa, Florida, Lucas Bahdi, a lightweight from Niagara Falls, Canada, rucked himself out of obscurity with a frightening knockout of Ashton “H2O” Sylva. Bahdi has fought once since then, sharing the bill at an event attended by an announced crowd of 72,300 and will be returning to the ring in a more conventional setting at Toronto on Friday, March 7.

Bahdi’s knockout of Sylve came in the final minute of the sixth frame. Although it wasn’t a classic one-punch knockout, it came out of the blue with the suddenness of a thunderclap on a clear day. Down 5-0 on all three scorecards through the five completed rounds, Bahdi unleashed a fast, three-punch combination that left poor Sylve splattered face-first on the canvas. The final punch of the trio, a sweeping left hook, was superfluous. Sylve was out on his feet. It would be named the 2024 TSS Knockout of the Year.

The match, slated for 10 rounds, was on the undercard of a Jake Paul promotion co-starring Paul and the boxer he sponsors, the great Amanda Serrano. Although Lucas Bahdi was more seasoned than Ashton Sylve and he too had an unblemished record, the conventional wisdom was that he would be just another stepping-stone for Jake Paul’s precocious house fighter.

A decorated amateur from Long Beach, California, Ashton “H2O” Sylve signed with MVP Promotions, Jake Paul’s company, when he was 18 years old. In the press release announcing his signing, Paul predicted that Sylve (who happens to be Snoop Dogg’s nephew) would become “a massive, massive superstar…not merely because of his [fistic talent], but because of his charisma.” And through his first 11 pro fights, during which he scored nine knockouts, Sylve did nothing to temper that opinion.

Meanwhile, Lucas Bahdi was building a nice record, but toiling in obscurity. Prior to meeting Sylve, he had fought exclusively in Mexico and Canada. He took the Sylve fight on three-and-a-half weeks’ notice, subbing for Floyd Schofield. Filching the title of an Oscar-contending movie that is currently making the rounds, Bahdi was “A Complete Unknown,” at least outside his native habitat.

Bahdi’s prize for knocking out Sylve was an MVP Promotions contract and a slot on the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson show at the home of the Dallas Cowboys on Nov. 15. Paul vs. Tyson was a predictable farce but it was a mega-event, purportedly the most streamed global sporting event in history. On the card, Bahdi won a 10-round decision, advancing his record to 18-0 (15 KOs).

Lucas Bahdi’s risky investment paid off. By his reckoning, he spent more than $100,000 of his own money seeding his professional boxing career before linking up with Jake Paul. About those early fights in Mexico: There was no financial reward; to the contrary, he paid the purse of his opponents.

Of Palestinian and Italian heritage, Bahdi grew up in comfortable circumstances. His father George Bahdi is a prominent builder in Niagara Falls. Away from the gym, Lucas can be found at Niagara Falls’ Olympia Motors, his used car dealership. Buying and selling cars is more than a job, he says, it’s also a hobby. His personal preference is for late 1990s, early 2000 Jaguars.

We caught up with Lucas Bahdi last week at the Top Rank Gym in Las Vegas. With him were his coach Stevie Bailey, the head trainer at Toronto’s West End Athletic Club, and Stevie’s wife Sara Bailey.

Ms. Bailey, who competed all over the world as an amateur under her maiden name Sara Haghighat Joo, happens to hold the WBA’s female light flyweight world title, a diadem she acquired in her fourth pro fight. In Las Vegas, the team stays in an AirBnB roughly a mile from the gym, but doesn’t keep a rental car handy. “We walk everywhere,” says Bahdi, “sometimes 10 miles a day. It keeps my weight in check and, besides, there is a lot to see around here.”

Bahdi reflected on some of the adversity he faced as he was toiling in the shadows. At a November 2020 fight in Cuernevaca, Mexico, he left the ring with two broken hands and both of his eyes badly swollen. “I couldn’t think straight while I was in there; I couldn’t focus” he says. And oh by the way, he knocked out his tormentor in the fourth round.

“A lot of people thought my career was over right there,” says Bahdi while noting that both of his damaged hands required surgery. He was out of action for 17 months as boxing activity slowed because of the COVID pandemic.

Bahdi, who like Ashton Sylve had a notable amateur career, takes umbrage with those that would characterize his stoppage of Sylve as a fluke. “The kid is an amazing talent,” he says, “but we adhered to our game plan. Mentally I knew I was ready. In boxing, timing beats speed.”

Fighting on the Paul-Tyson card at an NFL stadium was quite a departure from all those little fights in Mexico and Canada, but Bahdi wasn’t overwhelmed by the moment. “Knowing that I was finally the ‘A’ side, was helpful,” he concedes.

Bahdi’s forthcoming fight on March 7 at the Great Canadian Casino in Toronto marks the first incursion of MVP Promotions into Canada. Bahdi will headline against an undefeated Filipino southpaw, Ryan James Racasa, who will be stepping up in class in his North American debut. Sara Bailey is also penciled in, but her opponent hasn’t yet been determined. According to a press release, the fight card will air on DAZN for free with no subscription required.

Now 31 years old and the father of a 16-month-old son, Lucas Bahdi has taken an unconventional path to what he hopes will culminate in a world title. With a lot of sweat and a little luck, his risky investment is paying dividends.

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The Hauser Report: Keyshawn Davis at Madison Square Garden

Bob Arum promoted his first fight card – Muhammad Ali vs. George Chuvalo – in Toronto on March 29, 1966. Top Rank was formed soon after and is arguably the greatest promotional company in the history of boxing.

Top Rank has promoted more than two thousand fight cards and seven hundred world championship bouts. It has been on the cutting edge of new technologies and was the first major player in boxing to understand and exploit the power of the Hispanic market in the United States.

But Top Rank has been struggling lately. Its roster of elite fighters has gotten smaller. Its lucrative exclusive contract with ESPN expires this summer and won’t be renewed. The company is exploring other options, but so is every other promoter in boxing not tied exclusively to DAZN.

Meanwhile, Arum is doing his best to develop what he hopes will be a new generation of stars. One of these fighters – Keyshawn Davis – was on display before a sold-out crowd of 4,979 at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theatre on Valentine’s Day.

Davis is 25 years old and came into the fight with a 12-and-0 (8 KOs) record. His opponent, 36-year-old Denys Berinchyk (19-0, 9 KOs), was the reigning WBO lightweight champion by virtue of an upset split-decision victory over Emanuel Navarrete last June. Berinchyk had the belt, but the spotlight was on Davis (a 2020 Olympic silver medalist and 6-to-1 betting favorite).

Throughout fight week, Davis had the carriage of a fighter who is undefeated in the professional ranks and knew that the odds were stacked in his favor. He reveled in acting the bully at the final pre-fight press conference where he repeatedly interrupted Berinchyk before getting up from his chair and looming over the Ukrainian. That was followed by an incident at the weigh-in when Keyshawn put his hands on Denys and, as the fighters turned to face the media, stepped into Berinchyk’s space. That earned a shove and tempers flared.

It’s easy for a fighter to act out like that when he’s facing a 6-to-1 underdog. It’s unlikely that Keyshawn would have behaved in the same manner had he been readying to fight – say – Gervonta Davis.

When fight night came, it was just a matter of time until Berinchyk was knocked out. There was no way he could deal with Keyshawn’s speed and power. One guy was fighting in slow motion and the other on fast-forward.

Davis dropped Berinchyk with a body shot in round three and ended matters in round four with a brutal hook to the liver that left Denis gasping for air on the canvas.

Keyshawn has speed, skills, and power. Time will tell if he has a chin and heart.

Davis-Berinchyk highlighted a basic truth about boxing and other sports. Some athletes are simply more physically gifted than others.

LeBron James has a wonderful work ethic. But there are many basketball players who work as hard as LeBron and know the nuances of the game just as well. His physical gifts separate him from the pack. Ditto for Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Judge, and every other elite athlete.

Jack Nicklaus wasn’t just a talented golfer. At age thirteen, Nicklaus ran a 100-yard dash in eleven seconds flat and was the starting quarterback, punter, and placekicker on his junior high school football team. As a high school basketball player, he averaged eighteen points a game on a team that went to the fourth round of the Ohio state championship tournament. That same year, he made twenty-six free throws in a row and was named “all-league” and “honorable mention all-state.” To round out his resume, he played catcher on the school baseball team.

Davis has exceptional physical gifts. The phrase “physically gifted” also applies to 20-year-old Abdullah Mason (16-0, 14 KOs) who dismantled Manuel Jaimes at the Hulu Theater on Friday night. Mason is a legitimate prospect. Like Davis, he has speed, skills, and power. Five months ago, Jaimes went the distance against Rolly Romero. Mason knocked him down four times on the way to a fourth-round stoppage.

Other thoughts on Friday night’s fights at Madison Square Garden include:

Juanma Lopez De Jesus (who represented Puerto Rico at the 2024 Olympics and is the son of former WBO champion Juan Manuel Lopez) made his pro debut at 114 pounds against Bryan Santiago. Santiago was a  typical opponent for a prospect making his pro-debut. Lopez knocked him out at 59-seconds of round one with the first solid punch he landed. After the fight, Santiago literally didn’t know what hit him. For the record, it was an uppercut.

Rohan Polanco turned in a dominant performance, stopping Juan Carlos Torres in two rounds. Keon Davis (Keyshawn’s brother) knocked out an overmatched Ira Johnson, also in the second stanza.

Vito Mielnicki Jr. and Connor Coyle fought to a spirited draw although, in the eyes of this observer, the edge belonged to Mielnicki. And Xander Zayas turned in a solid performance in scoring a ninth-round stoppage over Slawa Spomer. Referee Charlie Fitch might have stepped in a bit too quickly. But Fitch is a good referee. Spomer was getting hit more than he should have been. And according to CompuBox, Slawa had been outlanded 257 to 39.

Top Rank hopes to keep Zayas and Mielnicki on track until there’s a vacant 154-pound belt that they can fight for or a weak champion that one of them can beat.

Two of the favorites on the February 14 card disappointed.

Jared Anderson had been touted as America’s best heavyweight until his deficiencies were exposed and he was knocked down three times en route to a fifth-round stoppage by Martin Bakole on the Crawford-Madrimov undercard in Los Angeles last August. Marios Kollias (born in Greece and now fighting out of Sweden) is a big, strong, very slow fighter with rudimentary skills. Kollias had two fights last year. In one of them, he lost to a Danish fighter named Kem Ljungquist. In the other, he beat a guy named Tamaz Izoria (who has 15 losses in 20 fights and has been knocked out 11 times).

The Jared Anderson who savagely demolished Jerry Forrest at Madison Square Garden two years ago would have made short work of Kollias. But that version of Anderson hasn’t been seen lately. Jared came in for the Kollias fight at a career-high 258 pounds. And he fought like a man who has doubts about whether he wants to continue fighting professionally.

Anderson-Kollias had the feel of a slow sparring session. Kollias’s trunks kept sliding below his protective cup, necessitating repeated stoppages so referee David Fields could adjust them. The only fire Jared showed came near the end of the tenth and final round when he flagrantly fouled Marios by throwing him over his hip to the canvas. Fields should have deducted two points for the unprovoked infraction but let the matter slide. Properly incentivized, Kollias landed his best punches of the night just before the final bell. The scorecards read 99-91, 99-91, 98-92 in Anderson’s favor.

Anderson-Kollias was a dreary fight. Nico Ali Walsh vs. Juan Carlos Guerra was a sad one.

Nico is Muhammad Ali’s grandson and fights in the neighborhood of 157 pounds. He turned pro in 2021 and, after knocking out five of six carefully chosen opponents, went the distance in his next six outings (including one “no contest”). When he entered the ring on Friday night, his record stood at 10-and-1.

Without the “Ali” name, Nico would still be an exceptionally nice young man and a college graduate with myriad talents. People are impressed by him and for good reason. But that doesn’t necessarily translate into being a good fighter.

The buzz that attended the start of Nico’s ring career is gone. He hasn’t improved noticeably as a fighter and doesn’t have the physical gifts necessary to take him beyond the club-fight level.

Guerra was a fungible opponent. The assumption was that Nico would outbox him. Juan Carlos threw wide looping punches throughout the fight and was an inartful aggressor. But inartful aggression is better than no aggression at all.

Nico got hit too much by a guy who – fortunately for Nico – was short on power. He fought tentatively, seldom initiated the action, didn’t counterpunch effectively, and failed to dissuade Guerra from coming forward.

In the final round, trailing badly by any objective measure, Nico didn’t try to pick up the pace.

Four of the rounds clearly belonged to Guerra. The other two were up for grabs. Judges Waleska Roldan and Georgi Gergov scored the bout 58-56 for Guerra.

In a shocker, Ken Ezzo’s scorecard read 58-56 in Nico’s favor.

Most fights aren’t hard to score. A judge has to pay attention, know what he (or she) is watching, and be honest. Ezzo’s scorecard was a disgrace.

It’s still possible that, by virtue of his family name, Nico can be maneuvered to a nice payday on a Riyadh Season card in Saudi Arabia. But he’s getting hit in the head too much. So I’ll repeat what I wrote after watching him fight several years ago:

“Whenever Nico fights, my heart will be in his gloves. But I’d rather that he not fight again. Muhammad Ali sacrificed so much at the altar of boxing – more than enough to obviate the need for sacrifices by any member of his family in the years to come.”

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.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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