Notes and Nuggets from Thomas Hauser

Published

5 months ago

October 24, 2024

Notes and Nuggets from Thomas Hauser

Pete Rose was inappropriately named. His bulky torso blended into a thick neck at one end and heavy bulging thighs at the other. He had heavy eyebrows, dark piercing eyes, and a granite-like jutting jaw. “Pete Bulldog” would have been better nomenclature. He was not evocative of a rose.

Rose played baseball in an era when fans wanted their sports heroes to be good guys.

He wasn’t.

Rose was married twice and was an unrepentant philanderer throughout both marriages. When he was in his thirties – he later admitted – he had sexual relations with a 14-year-old girl. In 1990, he pled guilty to two charges of filing false income tax returns and was sentenced to five months in prison.

A report compiled for Major League Baseball by John Dowd in 1989 concluded that Rose made at least 412 wagers on baseball games in 1985, 1986, and 1987. Fifty-two of those wagers were on teams that Rose played on and/or managed. As a result, he was banned for life from Major League baseball – a ban that precluded his being employed by any major league team and also from being considered for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The only thing Rose seemed sorry about was that he had been caught and punished. But as a baseball player, he was a legend.

Rose was born in 1941 – the year that Ted Williams batted .406 and Joe DiMaggio hit safely in 56 consecutive games. He played in the major leagues from 1963 through 1986. Baseball was more than a job to him. It was his way of life. Rose, it was said, was a baseball player first and a person second.

“Everybody wants a base hit when he goes up to bat,” Mickey Mantle observed. “But with Pete, you always had the feeling that he wanted it more.”

Rose was the National League Rookie of the Year in 1963 and its Most Valuable Player ten years later. With a lifetime batting baverage of .303, he was far from being baseball’s greatest hitter. But he was its most persistent and durable good one.

On September 11, 1985, Rose lined a single to centerfield off San Diego pitcher Eric Show for the 4,192nd base hit of his remarkable career. In so doing, he surpassed the “unbreakable” record emblazoned in baseball’s record book by Ty Cobb.

“Millions of Americans have fantasized about breaking Ty Cobb’s record,” Rose said. “But I’m the one who’s doing it.”

He finished his career with 4,256 base hits. Other MLB records that he holds to this day include most games played (3,562), most plate appearances (15,890), most career singles (3,215) and, less laudably, most career outs (10,328). He ranks second in career doubles (746), sixth in runs scored (2,165), and ninth in total bases (5,752).

“Statistics,” Rose once said, “are what let you look at a player who died before you were born and make him your hero.”

There was a time when Rose also tried his hand at boxing. When he was six years old, his father gave him a pair of boxing gloves and taught him the rudiments of self-defense. Later, Pete had two amateur fights and lost both of them.

“Just before my sixteenth birthday,” Rose reminisced years later, “Dad arranged for my first amateur match at the Finley Street neighborhood club. I fought Virgil Coles, an experienced boxer from the inner city who pretty much used me as his punching bag. But I took everything Coles dished out and on occasion landed a few wild punches myself. I was getting my brains beat out. Dad knew it but didn’t want me to see that he was concerned. I stood on my feet for the full three rounds and never once hit the canvas.”

And Rose’s second fight?

“The second one was against a guy who had five kids at ringside watching. I didn’t get knocked out. But I did say to myself, ‘I better go play ball.’”

Rose died from cardiovascular illness on September 30 at age 83. When I heard the news, my mind wandered back to two conversations that I had long ago.

The first conversation was with Rose shortly before he broke Ty Cobb’s record.

“I’ve won more games than any professional athlete ever,” Rose told me over lunch. “Baseball, football, basketball, you name it. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? I’ve walked off the field a winner more than nineteen hundred times. I’ve won more baseball games than forty-five Hall of Famers played in. I’m the winningest professional athlete ever.”

“What about Willie Shoemaker?” I queried. “He won more than six thousand races.”

That earned me a dirty look and the rejoinder, “Yeah; but jockeys have eight or nine shots at winning every day.”

The second conversation was with Tim McCarver fourteen years later. McCarver was an all-star catcher and World Series champion before becoming one of baseball’s great television commentators.

“Should Pete Rose be in the Hall of Fame?” I asked.

“That’s a difficult question,” McCarver answered. “It would be very awkward for Pete to be in the Hall of Fame until he’s reinstated by Major League Baseball. So here we are in a society that’s very forgiving, but the powers that be have yet to forgive Pete Rose.”

“If the powers that be asked you for a recommendation,” I pressed, “what would you say?”

“I’d say it’s time; that Pete has been punished enough.”

That conversation took place a quarter-century ago. My opinion at the time was that Rose should not be eligible for induction into the baseball Hall of Fame.

Now Rose exists only in memory and in baseball lore. To quote Tim McCarver, “It’s time. Pete has been punished enough.”

* * *

Lou DiBella promoted a club-fight card at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater on Wednesday night. The opening and closing bouts call for comment.

In the first fight of the evening, Jerry Forrest (27-6-2, 20 KOs, 2 KOs by) was matched against Earl Newman (10-3, 7 KOs, 1 KO by).

Forrest has had eight step-up fights in his career and failed to win any of them. Forty-four months ago, he survived three knockdowns to salvage a draw when a grossly-out-of-shape Zhilel Zhang all but collapsed under his own weight. That made Forrest a bit of a name. Then, two years ago, he was beaten so savagely by Jared Anderson that hardened ringside observers cringed at the carnage.

Newman was winless in his last four bouts dating back to 2016.

Forrest wasn’t in fighting shape. And Newman (who has fought at weights as low as 177 pounds) weighed in at 252 pounds.

Both men looked tired when the fight began and more tired as the eight-round contest dragged on. Boxing is hard. I understand that. And each fighter gave an honest effort. But it was a painfully slow, sluggish encounter with the fighters moving as though they were in waist-high water. Forrest won a unanimous decision and did a back-flip in the ring after the decision was announced. If only he’d been that active during the fight.

Forrest-Newman was sad. The closing fight of the evening featured the outrageous.

Women’s boxing is erratic. At one end of the spectrum, Madison Square Garden has hosted legitimate championship fights like Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano and Sandy Ryan vs. Mikaela Meyer that enobled the sport. But a study by John Sheppard of BoxRec.com several years ago noted that there were more available women’s “championship” belts than active women boxers.

Miyo Yoshida (17-4 with zero knockouts either way) had one of those belts – the IBF 118-pound strap. She won it last year by outboxing Ebanie Bridges (a paper champion whose greatest notoriety stemmed from having ample breast implants and appearing at weigh-ins dressed like a lingerie model). Yoshida was defending her belt at the Hulu Theater against 39-year-old Shurretta Metcalf (13-4-1, 2 KOs) who beat Mio by decision last year.

Yoshida-Metcalf looked like a club fight, not a “championship” bout. Metcalf had a huge advantage in height and reach, and Yoshida didn’t know how to bob and weave to get inside. Meanwhile, Shurretta threw wild punches from long range all night. When she landed, it seemed almost by accident.

The decision could have gone either way. I thought each fighter clearly won three rounds with four rounds up for grabs. Then the judges’ verdict was announced: 96-94, 97-93, and an abominable 99-91 for Metcalf.

97-93 was a stretch. 99-91 reeked of being an agenda-driven scorecard.

Matt Delaglio was recently named executive director of the New York State Athletic Commission and inherited a job that has long been marked by incompetence and neglect. Delagio is conscientious and well-qualified for the position. But he has a lot of work to do. One of the things on his “to-do list” should be an overhaul of ring judging in New York. Right now, the judging in New York is unacceptable.

* * *

Earlier this year, the IBF was in the spotlight for fragmenting the heavyweight title by virtue of its decision to strip Oleksansr Usyk of his belt and recognize Daniel Dubois as heavyweight champion of the world. On December 7, the WBA will outdo that absurdity by sanctioning a fight between Mahmood Charr and Kubrat Pulev for its “regular” heavyweight championship of the world.

Charr, age 40, has not fought since 2022 and is best known for being knocked out twelve years ago by Vitali Klitschko. He is the current WBA “champion” and, according to Wikipedia, underwent double hip replacement surgery in 2017.

Pulev, 43, has won two fights in the past three years (against Ihor Shevadzutskyi and Andrzaj Wawrzyk) and is best known for being knocked out by Wladimir Klitschko and Anthony Joshua.

This is the environment boxing has created that turns off fans and drives them to other sports.

* * *

World in My Corner (1956) is one of those hokey, old, black-and-white boxing movies that’s fun if you like hokey, old, black-and-white boxing movies.

Audie Murphy plays Tommy Shea, a poor kid from New Jersey struggling to make it as a fighter. There’s a crooked promoter (the reprehensible Harry Cram), an honest trainer (the saintly Dave Bernstein), and a love interest (the beautiful Dorothy Mallinson, who suffers under the thumb of her wealthy controlling father). The real Jimmy Lennon Sr plays ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Sr. Chico Vejar (a veteran of 116 fights in the 1950s) plays welterweight champion Al Carelli.

More on Cram: You know a promoter is a bad guy when, almost always, he’s smoking a cigar.

Audie Murphy is unconvincing as a hard-luck tough from the wrong side of the river. Think Tom Cruise in a boxing ring. The love story is trite, but so is the rest of the film.

Dorothy: Can I ask you something?

Tommy: Sure

Dorothy: Why do you fight?

Tommy: You’re not asking me something. You’re asking me everything.

Tommy agrees to throw a fight against Carelli to get the money to marry Dorothy. Then he changes his mind.

Tommy: I’m not throwing the fight.

Cram: I don’t like your sense of humor.

If you’re a fan of old-time boxing movies, World in My Corner is fun.

Photo (c) Wojtek Urbanek

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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History has Shortchanged Freddie Dawson, One of the Best Boxers of his Era

Published

2 days ago

April 2, 2025

Arne K. Lang

History has Shortchanged Freddie Dawson, One of the Best Boxers of his Era

This reporter was rummaging around the internet last week when he stumbled on a story in the May 1950 issue of Ebony under the byline of Mike Jacobs. Boxing was then in the doldrums (isn’t it always?) and Jacobs, the most powerful promoter in boxing during the era of Joe Louis, was lassoed by the editors of the magazine to address the question of whether the over-representation of black boxers was killing the sport at the box office.

This hoary premise had been kicking around even before the heyday of Jack Johnson, bubbling forth whenever an important black-on-black fight played to a sea of empty seats as had happened the previous year when Chicago’s Comiskey Park hosted the world heavyweight title fight between Ezzard Charles and Jersey Joe Walcott.

Jacobs ridiculed the hypothesis – as one could have expected considering the publication in which the story ran – and singled out three “colored” boxers as the best of the current crop of active pugilists: Sugar Ray Robinson, Ike Williams, and Freddie Dawson.

Sugar Ray Robinson? A no-brainer. Skill-wise the greatest of the great. Even those that didn’t follow boxing, would have recognized his name. Ike Williams? Nowhere near as well-known as Robinson, but he was then the reigning lightweight champion, a man destined to go into the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the inaugural class of 1990.

And Freddie Dawson? If the name doesn’t ring a bell, dear reader, you are not alone. I confess that I too drew a blank. And that triggered a search to learn more about him.

Freddie Dawson had four fights with Ike Williams. All four were staged on Ike’s turf in Philadelphia. Were this not the case, the history books would likely show the series knotted 2-2. Late in his career, Dawson became greatly admired in Australia. But we are jumping ahead of ourselves.

Dawson was born in 1924 in Thomasville, Arkansas, an unincorporated town in the Arkansas Delta. Likely a descendent of slaves who worked in the cotton plantations, he grew up in the so-called Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, the heart of Chicago’s Black Belt.

The first mention of him in the newspapers came in 1941 when he won Chicago’s Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) featherweight title. In those days, amateur boxing was big in the Windy City, the birthplace of the Golden Gloves. The Catholic Archdiocese, which ran gyms in every parish, and the Chicago Parks Department, were the major incubators.

In his amateur days, he was known as simply Fred Dawson. As a pro, his name often appeared as Freddy Dawson, although Freddie gradually became the more common spelling.

Dawson, who stood five-foot-six and was often described as stocky, made his pro debut on Feb. 1, 1943, at Marigold Gardens. Before the year was out, he had 16 fights under his belt, all in Chicago and all but two at Marigold. (Currently the site of an interdenominational Christian church, Marigold Gardens, on the city’s north side, was Chicago’s most active boxing and wrestling arena from the mid-1930s through the early-1950s. Joe Louis had three of his early fights there and Tony Zale was a fixture there as he climbed the ladder to the world middleweight title.)

The last of these 16 fights was fatal for Dawson’s opponent who collapsed heading back to his corner after the fight was stopped in the 10^th round and died that night at a local hospital from the effects of a brain injury.

Dawson left town after this incident and spent most of the next year in New Orleans where energetic promoter Louis Messina ran twice-weekly shows (Mondays for whites and Fridays for blacks) at the Coliseum, a major stop on boxing’s so-called Chitlin’ Circuit.

That same year, on Sept. 19, 1944, Dawson had his first encounter with Ike Williams. He was winning the fight when Ike knocked him out with a body punch in the fourth round.

The first and last meetings between Dawson and Ike Williams were spaced five years apart. In the interim, Freddie scored his two best wins, stopping Vic Patrick in the twelfth round at Sydney, NSW, and Bernard Docusen in the sixth round in Chicago.

The long-reigning lightweight champion of Australia, Patrick (49-3, 43 KOs) gave the crowd a thrill when he knocked Dawson down for a count of “six” in the penultimate 11^th round, but Dawson returned the favor twice in the final stanza, ending the contest with a punch so harsh that the poor Aussie needed five minutes before he was fit to leave the ring and would spend the night in the hospital as a precaution.

Dawson fought Bernard Docusen before 10,000-plus at Chicago Stadium on Feb. 4, 1949. An 8/5 favorite, Docusen lacked a hard punch, but the New Orleans cutie had suffered only three losses in 66 fights, had never been stopped, and had extended Sugar Ray Robinson the 15-round distance the previous year.

Dawson dismantled him. Docusen managed to get back on his feet after Dawson knocked him down in the sixth, but he was in no condition to continue and the referee waived the fight off. Dawson was then vacillating between the lightweight and welterweight divisions and reporters wondered whether it would be Robinson or Ike Williams when Dawson finally got his well-earned title shot.

Sugar Ray wasn’t in his future. Here are the results of his other matches with Ike Williams:

Dawson-Williams II (Jan. 28, 1946) – The consensus on press row was 7-2-1 or 7-3 for Dawson, but the match was ruled a draw. “[The judges and referee] evidently saw [Williams] land punches that nobody else did,” said the ringside reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Dawson-Williams III (Jan. 26, 1948) – Dawson lost a majority decision. The scores were 6-4, 5-4-1, and 4-4-2. The decision was booed. Ike Williams then held the lightweight title, but this was a non-title fight. (It was tough for an outsider to get a fair shake in Philadelphia, home to Ike Williams’ co-manager Frank “Blinky” Palermo who would go to prison for his duplicitous dealings as a fight facilitator.)

Dawson-Williams IV (Dec. 5, 1949) – This would be Freddie Dawson’s only crack at a world title and he came up short. Ike Williams retained the belt, winning a unanimous decision. The fight was close – 8-7, 8-7, 9-6 – but there was no controversy.

Dawson made three more trips to Australia before his career was finished. On the first of these trips, he knocked out Jack Hassen, successor to Vic Patrick as the lightweight champion of Australia. A 1953 article in the Sydney Sunday Herald bore witness to the esteem in which Dawson was held by boxing fans in Australia: “None of our boxers could withstand his devastating attacks which not only knocked them out but also knocked years off their careers,” said the author. “It is doubtful whether any Australian boxer in any division could have beaten Dawson.”

Dawson had his final fights in the Land Down Under, finishing his career with a record of 103-14-4 while answering the bell for 962 rounds. Following what became his final fight, he had an eye operation in Sydney that was reportedly so intricate that it required a two-week hospital stay. He injured the eye again in Manila while sparring in preparation for a match with the welterweight champion of the Philippines, a match that had to be aborted because of the injury. Dawson then disappeared, by which we mean that he disappeared from the pages of the newspaper archives that allow us to construct these kinds of stories.

What about Freddie Dawson the man? A 1944 story about him said he was an outstanding all-around athlete, “a champion in all athletic undertakings – basketball, baseball, track and even jitterbugging.” A story in a Sydney paper as he was preparing to meet Vic Patrick informs us that he had two young children, ages 2 and 1, owned his own home in Chicago, and drove a two-year-old Cadillac. But beyond these flimsy snippets, Dawson the man remains elusive.

What we learned, however, is that he was one of the most underrated boxers to come down the pike in any era, a borderline Hall of Famer who ought not have fallen through the cracks. Inside the ring, this guy was one tough hombre.

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Ringside at the Fontainebleau where Mikaela Mayer Won her Rematch with Sandy Ryan

Published

5 days ago

March 30, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Ringside-at-the-Fontainebleau-where-Mikaela-Mayer-won-her-Rematch-with-Sandy-Ryan

LAS VEGAS, NV — The first meeting between Mikaela Mayer and Sandy Ryan last September at Madison Square Garden was punctuated with drama before the first punch was thrown. When the smoke cleared, Mayer had become a world-title-holder in a second weight class, taking away Ryan’s WBO welterweight belt via a majority decision in a fan-friendly fight.

The rematch tonight at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas was another fan-friendly fight. There were furious exchanges in several rounds and the crowd awarded both gladiators a standing ovation at the finish.

Mayer dominated the first half of the fight and held on to win by a unanimous decision. But Sandy Ryan came on strong beginning in round seven, and although Mayer was the deserving winner, the scores favoring her (98-92 and 97-93 twice) fail to reflect the competitiveness of the match-up. This is the best rivalry in women’s boxing aside from Taylor-Serrano.

Mayer, 34, improved to 21-2 (5). Up next, she hopes, in a unification fight with Lauren Price who outclassed Natasha Jonas earlier this month and currently holds the other meaningful pieces of the 147-pound puzzle. Sandy Ryan, 31, the pride of Derby, England, falls to 7-3-1.

Co-Feature

In his first defense of his WBO world welterweight title (acquired with a brutal knockout of Giovani Santillan after the title was vacated by Terence Crawford), Atlanta’s Brian Norman Jr knocked out Puerto Rico’s Derrieck Cuevas in the third round. A three-punch combination climaxed by a short left hook sent Cuevas staggering into a corner post. He got to his feet before referee Thomas Taylor started the count, but Taylor looked in Cuevas’s eyes and didn’t like what he saw and brought the bout to a halt.

The stoppage, which struck some as premature, came with one second remaining in the third stanza.

A second-generation prizefighter (his father was a fringe contender at super middleweight), the 24-year-old Norman (27-0, 21 KOs) is currently boxing’s youngest male title-holder. It was only the second pro loss for Cuevas (27-2-1) whose lone previous defeat had come early in his career in a 6-rounder he lost by split decision.

Other Bouts

In a career-best performance, 27-year-old Brooklyn featherweight Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington (15-0, 9 KOs) blasted out Jose Enrique Vivas (23-4) in the third round.

Carrington, who was named the Most Outstanding Boxer at the 2019 U.S. Olympic Trials despite being the lowest-seeded boxer in his weight class, decked Vivas with a right-left combination near the end of the second round. Vivas barely survived the round and was on a short leash when the third stanza began. After 53 seconds of round three, referee Raul Caiz Jr had seen enough and waived it off. Vivas hadn’t previously been stopped.

Cleveland welterweight Tiger Johnson, a Tokyo Olympian, scored a fifth-round stoppage over San Antonio’s Kendo Castaneda. Johnson assumed control in the fourth round and sent Castaneda to his knees twice with body punches in the next frame. The second knockdown terminated the match. The official time was 2:00 of round five.

Johnson advanced to 15-0 (7 KOs). Castenada declined to 21-9.

Las Vegas junior welterweight Emiliano Vargas (13-0, 11 KOs) blasted out Stockton, California’s Giovanni Gonzalez in the second round. Vargas brought the bout to a sudden conclusion with a sweeping left hook that knocked Gonzalez out cold. The end came at the 2:00 minute mark of round two.

Gonzalez brought a 20-7-2 record which was misleading as 18 of his fights were in Tijuana where fights are frequently prearranged. However, he wasn’t afraid to trade with Vargas and paid the price.

Emiliano Vargas, with his matinee idol good looks and his boxing pedigree – he is the son of former U.S. Olympian and two-weight world title-holder “Ferocious” Fernando Vargas – is highly marketable and has the potential to be a cross-over star.

Eighteen-year-old Newark bantamweight Emmanuel “Manny” Chance, one of Top Rank’s newest signees, won his pro debut with a four-round decision over So Cal’s Miguel Guzman. Chance won all four rounds on all three cards, but this was no runaway. He left a lot of room for improvement.

There was a long intermission before the co-main and again before the main event, but the tedium was assuaged by a moving video tribute to George Foreman.

Photos credit: Al Applerose

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William Zepeda Edges Past Tevin Farmer in Cancun; Improves to 34-0

Published

5 days ago

March 29, 2025

David A. Avila

William Zepeda Edges Past Tevin Farmer in Cancun; Improves to 34-0

No surprise, once again William Zepeda eked out a win over the clever and resilient Tevin Farmer to remain undefeated and retain a regional lightweight title on Saturday.

There were no knockdowns in this rematch.

The Mexican punching machine Zepeda (33-0, 17 KOs) once more sought to overwhelm Farmer (33-8-1, 9 KOs) with a deluge of blows. This rematch by Golden Boy Promotions took place in the famous beach resort area of Cancun, Mexico.

It was a mere four months ago that both first clashed in Saudi Arabia with their vastly difference styles. This time the tropical setting served as the background which suited Zepeda and his lawnmower assaults. The Mexican fans were pleased.

Nothing changed in their second meeting.

Zepeda revved up the body assault and Farmer moved around casually to his right while fending off the Mexican fighter’s attacks. By the fourth round Zepeda was able to cut off Farmer’s escape routes and targeted the body with punishing shots.

The blows came in bunches.

In the fifth round Zepeda blasted away at Farmer who looked frantic for an escape. The body assault continued with the Mexican fighter pouring it on and Farmer seeming to look ready to quit. When the round ended, he waved off his corner’s appeals to stop.

Zepeda continued to dominate the next few rounds and then Farmer began rallying. At first, he cleverly smothered Zepeda’s body attacks and then began moving and hitting sporadically. It forced the Mexican fighter to pause and figure out the strategy.

Farmer, a Philadelphia fighter, showed resiliency especially when it was revealed he had suffered a hand injury.

During the last three rounds Farmer dug down deep and found ways to score and not get hit. It was Boxing 101 and the Philly fighter made it work.

But too many rounds had been put in the bank by Zepeda. Despite the late rally by Farmer one judge saw it 114-114, but two others scored it 116-112 and 115-113 for Zepeda who retains his interim lightweight title and place at the top of the WBC rankings.

“I knew he was a difficult fighter. This time he was even more difficult,” said Zepeda.

Farmer was downtrodden about another loss but realistic about the outcome and starting slow.

“But I dominated the last rounds,” said Farmer.

Zepeda shrugged at the similar outcome as their first encounter.

“I’m glad we both put on a great show,” said Zepeda.

Female Flyweight Battle

Costa Rica’s Yokasta Valle edged past Texas fighter Marlen Esparza to win their showdown at flyweight by split decision after 10 rounds.

Valle moved up two weight divisions to meet Esparza who was slightly above the weight limit. Both showed off their contrasting styles and world class talent.

Esparza, a former unified flyweight world titlist, stayed in the pocket and was largely successful with well-placed jabs and left hooks. She repeatedly caught Valle in-between her flurries.

The current minimumweight world titlist changed tactics and found more success in the second half of the fight. She forced Esparza to make the first moves and that forced changes that benefited her style.

Neither fighter could take over the fight.

After 10 rounds one judge saw Esparza the winner 96-94, but two others saw Valle the winner 97-93 twice.

Will Valle move up and challenge the current undisputed flyweight world champion Gabriela Fundora? That’s the question.

Valle currently holds the WBC minimumweight world title.

Puerto Rico vs Mexico

Oscar Collazo (12-0, 9 KOs), the WBO, WBA minimumweight titlist, knocked out Mexico’s Edwin Cano (13-3-1, 4 KOs) with a flurry of body shots at 1:12 of the fifth round.

Collazo dominated with a relentless body attack the Mexican fighter could not defend. It was the Puerto Rican fighter’s fifth consecutive title defense.

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