Boxing Odds and Ends: Looking Back and Looking Ahead

Boxing Odds and Ends: Looking Back and Looking Ahead

There were a slew of important fights this past Saturday beginning with Tony Yoka’s match in Paris with Scotch/Congolese invader Martin Bakole. Fighting on his home turf, Yoka was a consensus 7/2 favorite, so Bakole’s triumph wouldn’t classify as a monster upset, but the method in which he handled Yoka, nay manhandled him, was a big surprise. He bullied and bloodied the Frenchman who showed great resolve by lasting the full distance.

Bakole was on a nice little roll, having won seven straight coming in, but the quality of his opposition, aside from Sergey Kuzmin, left a lot to be desired. The image of him was still shaped by his lone defeat which came at the hands of the American, Michael Hunter, who stopped him in the 10^th frame. Bakole out-weighed Hunter by 43 pounds.

Tony Yoka was expected to fight former amateur rival Filip Hrgovic next in one of those so-called title eliminators. That fight is now out the window. As for Bakole, it isn’t known where he is headed. He would likely be a small favorite in a rematch with Michael Hunter, but Hunter is reportedly committed to a bout with Hughie Fury in July.

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There would be a monster upset before the day was over and it happened on the Triller show at the LA Forum where Jurmain McDonald knocked out Evan Holyfield, the son of Evander, in the second round. The younger Holyfield had launched his pro career in Las Vegas with a knockout in a fight that consumed all of 16 seconds. He had advanced his record to 9-0 preceding his match with the 32-year-old McDonald, a union electrician by trade in Jefferson City, Missouri, who was 6-5 coming in and had been stopped three times.

McDonald had a cup of coffee as a basketball player at Missouri’s tiny Westminster College before leaving school to provide for his growing family. He performed well in local Golden Gloves tournaments but could never afford to pursue boxing full-time. His purse for the Holyfield fight was reportedly $6,000. He will command more when he next steps into the ring.

The punch that knocked Evander Holyfield’s kid off the rails was a booming right hand that landed flush on the jaw. Evan pitched forward, detached from his senses, and the referee waived the fight off before concluding his count.

McDonald likely exposed a chink in Evan Holyfield’s armor; a glass jaw. However, we don’t think this will keep Evan from getting back on the winning track and making some headway in the 154 and eventually 160-pound divisions. Amir Khan, who announced his retirement this weekend, overcame a glass jaw to carve out a lucrative career.

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The Triller show had an embarrassing incident that delayed by almost 90 minutes the start of the co-feature between heavyweights Kubrat Pulev and Jerry Forrest. The gloves that Forrest’s team brought to the arena did not fit. There was speculation that Forrest would be disqualified before a punch was thrown. When Forrest finally entered the ring, wearing a pair of gloves borrowed from Pulev that appeared to be larger than regulation-size, he was greeted with a chorus of boos. The fight itself, which started after midnight and wasn’t even the main event, was rather monotonous. Kubrat won a unanimous decision.

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Long before the Triller show ended, Jermell Charlo became the sixth undisputed champion of the four-belt era and the first from the 154-pound weight class. Charlo earned that distinction with a 10^th-round stoppage of spunky Brian Castano who battled him to a standstill in their first meeting.

Charlo was comfortably ahead on the scorecards when he turned out the lights on the Argentine. The judges had him up by margins of seven, five, and three points through the nine completed rounds. But years from now, if a writer makes those scores a central theme in the recapping of the fight, he will have entirely missed the point. This was an outstanding battle that at various points was considered a Fight of the Year candidate.

Charlo’s next engagement could come against Australia’s undefeated Tim Tszyu who was ringside. The war of words has already begun. “Tim Kazoo or whatever his name is, doesn’t belong in the same ring with me,” said Charlo, or words to this effect.

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Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, says veteran boxing scribe Michael Rosenthal, might be the most under-appreciated 44-0 fighter of all time. On Saturday, Ramirez moved within six wins of tying Floyd Mayweather’s 50-0 mark with a fourth-round stoppage of German import Dominic Boesel on a show in Ontario, California.

Ramirez’s last six wins, all by stoppage, came after he abandoned his WBO world middleweight title to compete as a light heavyweight. “Zurdo” had defended that 168-bout belt five times before he was forced to vacate it because he could no longer make the weight.

Truth be told, we also have reservations about the Mazatlan southpaw who had his first 25 fights in Mexico. But 44-0 is 44-0 and commands a closer look. Ramirez covets a match with Dmitry Bivol which he views as an opportunity to restore Mexican pride.

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