Three Punch Combo: My Odd Choice for Upset of the Year and More

THREE PUNCH COMBO: On Saturday night, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (50-1-2, 34 KO’s) makes his 168-pound debut when he faces Rocky Fielding (27-1, 15 KO’s) at Madison Square Garden in New York. Fielding is a substantial underdog and most experts would be surprised if Fielding was even remotely competitive.

Given that he is such a big underdog, Fielding would seemingly be a lock for Upset of the Year if he were to win. But a much bigger upset, albeit in not a high profile fight, occurred earlier this year.

Sam Eggington was added to the Amir Khan-Samuel Vargas card on September 8^th  to simply get in some work. Two weeks later, he was slated to face Brandon Rios on a big stage on the Joshua-Povetkin undercard. The opponent chosen for Eggington’s tune-up was little known Hassan Mwakinyo of Tanzania.

Mwakinyo (pictured) entered the bout with a record of 11-2 with 7 knockouts. All but one of his fights had taken place in Africa and he hadn’t defeated anyone of note. He had one knockout loss to a 5-6-5 fighter and his other loss was by wide decision when he traveled to Moscow to face undefeated prospect Lendrush Akopian. Now, Mwakinyo was traveling on late notice to Eggington’s backyard in the UK to face a fighter who was 23-4, had won several regional belts, and had never been stopped.

Eggington was a lock-solid favorite. Some sportsbooks had Eggington at minus -10000 (100 to 1) at fight time while others had him a little lower. There are no sure things in boxing but this fight was as close to a sure thing as there was in the eyes of the sportsbooks.

Eggington got off to a good start in round one and seemed to be on his way to the expected dominant knockout win. But with ten seconds remaining in the round, Mwakinyo clipped him with a counter left hook. Eggington sagged back into the ropes and was visibly hurt. Mwakinyo teed off on Eggington for the final few seconds in the round before the bell rang.

Mwakinyo hurt Eggington with a counter right to open the second round and battered Eggington around the ring, landing countless clean punches to Eggington’s jaw. About a minute into the round, with Eggington eating so many clean punches, the referee was forced to jump in and stop the fight.

End of the year lists tend to focus on high profile fights and fighters, but that should not always be the case. As far as Upset of the Year in 2018, there was no bigger shocker in my opinion than when little known last minute opponent Hassan Mwakinyo defeated Sam Eggington.

IBHOF Voting Process – Transparency and Changes Are Needed

This past week, the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, NY released its 2019 class. Each year, three fighters are elected in the Modern category. This year’s honorees are Donald Curry, Julian Jackson and James “Buddy” McGirt.

The selections have sparked plenty of debate. And I think it is finally time for the IBHOF to not only become more transparent in the voting process but to also make some long needed changes.

Only the IBHOF views the final ballots and is aware of the final tallies. Right or wrong, this has led to rumors about what it really takes for someone to get elected in the IBHOF. I don’t buy into the rumors myself but I think it is time for them to get squashed once and for all.

My suggestion is simple. The IBHOF should have a livestream of them opening the ballots and tallying the votes. Read the name of the person who submitted the ballot and who they voted for. This is not meant to open the voter to any critique but to make sure their ballot is tallied correctly. And it also lets everyone know the exact results. That would put to an end any rumors about the voting process.

Also, changes are needed to the voting process. For one, why set the number at three for the Modern category every year? There needs to be a percentage threshold, say 65% of the vote, for someone to qualify for induction. Whoever hits that number each year is elected whether it is one, five, ten, etc.

Second, for whatever reason it seems voters tend to favor fighters in the Modern category who fought often on American television and somewhat ignore those whose careers were fought off US television. With streaming today, this issue could go away over time but right now needs to be addressed.

My suggestion would be to break up the fighters on the ballot by the decade they primarily fought and then to list certain statistics of each fighter as a side by side comparison. Stats would consist of some of the following: career record, world titles won, number of successful title defenses, number of champions defeated, number of Hall of Famers defeated and other relevant stats.

I’m certain that some voters already look at these stats, but I’m not sure this is always the case. By putting these measurable statistics on the ballot, it at least gives each voter something to think about (and maybe could cause them to do further research) before filling out the ballot. And that may give more consideration to fighters who weren’t seen as often on US television.

It is time for the IBHOF to make some badly needed changes to the voting process. Doing so will ensure the credibility of the IBHOF for years to come.

Under The Radar Fight

There will be plenty of live boxing on streaming services this coming week. ESPN+ has cards on Friday and Saturday. And, of course, there is the big card on Saturday evening on DAZN headlined by Canelo Alvarez. With so many fights on the docket, there is bound to be at least one solid fight slipping deep under the radar.

Stashed deep on the undercard of Alvarez-Fielding, Sadam Ali (26-2, 14 KO’s) returns to the welterweight division to face veteran Mauricio Herrera (24-7, 7 KO’s). Ali is only a year removed from his biggest win when he won a 154-pound title belt against the legendary Miguel Cotto. However, Ali is coming of a devastating knockout loss in his first defense against Jaime Munguia in May. In that fight, Ali showed a lot of courage but absorbed a tremendous beating before the fight was stopped in round four.

So how much did Munguia take out of Ali? And is going back to 147 going to provide resurgence in Ali’s career? We should know more after his contest with Herrera.

Herrera last fought in August of 2017 when he won a majority ten round decision over Jesus Soto Karass. That fight was a war and Herrera proved in winning that he still had something in the tank.

Ali is a boxer puncher who has a penchant to mix it up with his opposition. Herrera was once a technician but as he has gotten older has been more willing to exchange with his opponents. Given the styles, I see a very entertaining fight. Ali is more talented but, as I alluded to, there are questions as to exactly what he has left in his tank following the beating he suffered at the hands of Munguia.

This is an interesting, well matched welterweight crossroads fight and I am very intrigued to see how it plays out.

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