Tales from the Tape: HBO World Championship Boxing (Jones-McCallum/Barrera-Jones) [11-22-96]

Mark Ortega

Heading into 2009, HBO has made it known that they will no longer be airing bouts that are complete mismatches. Bouts that were denied by HBO for 2009 include Kelly Pavlik-Marco Antonio Rubio, Miguel Cotto-Michael Jennings, and Andre Ward against either Edison Miranda or Allan Green. With that news, hopefully some more evenly matched fights get put together instead of one fighter being showcased in one-sided demolition fights. It seems that HBO has finally learned their lesson, and on that note I would like to turn back the clock to an old HBO World Championship Boxing card that had two well-matched bouts televised.

Aired on November 22, 1996, it featured an extraordinary two-fight card consisting of two world title fights (sort of). In the opening bout, Marco Antonio Barrera [43-0] puts his WBO super bantamweight title as well as his undefeated record on the line against the veteran and former world champion, Junior Jones [42-2-0]. The main event is Roy Jones, Jr. [33-0], who is universally recognized as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world at this point in history, moving up to light heavyweight for the first time in his career to take on the 39-year old future Hall-of-Famer Mike McCallum [49-3-1]. This is recognized as a title fight because the WBC made it for their “interim” WBC light heavyweight title.. It is interesting looking back what the reaction was to this, as interim titles are pretty prevalent in the sport today.

HBO commentators Jim Lampley had an interesting interaction on the subject:

Jim: Larry, what the hell is an interim light heavyweight championship?

Larry: Jim, the WBC is notorious for two things: larceny and making up the rules as it goes along. So who knows what it means?

As explained, Jones, Jr. wanted to fight for a title so he offered the WBC 100 grand to make it a title fight and the WBC obliged. What made this fight even more interesting was the fact that two sets of judges were scoring the fight. The WBC said they could not trust Florida judges to score the fight fairly due to Jones, Jr. being a native of Pensacola, Florida. The Florida State Athletic Commission considered that sentiment a slap in the face and insisted in putting their judges at ringside and their own referee in the ring. The WBC then paid for three judges to score the fight from the ringside seats instead of up on top of a judge’s perch. Many were wondering what would happen if the two sets of judges saw two separate winners for the fight. The FSAC’s scores would matter on the records of the fighters but only the WBC can award title belts based on whatever scoring they want so their judges would decide the champion. This is interesting because when Nate Campbell was going to defend his lightweight titles against Joan Guzman, the Mississippi insisted their judges score the fight and we nearly had the same controversy. Fortunately, they were able to settle things, but it did not end up mattering since Guzman pulled out and a fight never took place.

Barrera taking on Jones had a lot of intriguing things heading into the fight. Barrera was the undefeated future of the little guys. His fight with Kennedy McKinney on the inaugural broadcast of HBO’s Boxing After Dark made Barrera a star. Junior Jones had been in that spot just a few years before, until a couple of knockout losses, one to a .500 level fighter, set him back. He had an impressive split decision victory over a good fighter in Orlando Canizales, although many thought he lost the fight. Barrera was supposed to look good beating him and putting a name on his already impressive ledger at only 22 years of age.

To many people’s surprise, Jones and his team went into the fight expecting to win. He ironically entered the ring to Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight”. His manager, Gary Gittelsohn, and his promoter, Cedric Kushner, gave their part of the purse (minus the cost of travel) to Jones because they expected a future that had more paydays to look forward to. HBO’s team wondered if they gave him their purse because they thought it would be the last payday Junior Jones ever received. Gittelsohn would later award his portion of the purse to Jones again, but it was following a loss to Erik Morales in Mexico later in his career.

The fight was destined to be a good one. Although Barrera was expected to win, he had never fought against a jab like Junior Jones possessed. Jones was recognized as having one of the best jabs in the sport at the time. Jones had an astonishing 35-0 record against Mexican fighters. He had just been in camp with Evander Holyfield, who was also trained by Tommy Brooks. He even had Lou Duva in his camp as a second assistant. There were a lot of wild cards going into the fight, many of them favored Jones.

The first round saw Jones throw fifty-four jabs and controlling the distance. Barrera tried stealing the round. Jones clinched anytime Barrera tried getting inside of him, which was a very effective way to control Barrera. The fight begins to get dirty in the second round when Jones hits Barrera behind the head and Barrera launches a few shots south of the border that are missed by the referee. Barrera wins the round. In the third they exchange in the center of the ring and Jones is the more effective of the two. When Barrera comes inside he doesn’t use any head movement and he is getting repeatedly tagged by Jones’ fantastic jab. Barrera is now switching it up and going to the body, which seems to be doing some good. Jones triples up behind the left hand. Barrera digs to the body before the bell rings. The fourth was a back-and-forth round that deteriorated both fighters.

Barrera begins the fifth round with a good left hook to the body. A brutal exchange leads to a bloody nose for Jones. Barrera’s left eye is cut and he claims it is due to an illegal butt. Towards the end of the round, Jones lands a picture-perfect right hook that drops Barrera violently. Barrera somehow makes it to his feet, but has still more than ten seconds before the round is over. Jones throws a violent flurry with Barrera leaning on the ropes, and the referee stops the fight, but seemingly after the bell has rung. There is mass confusion in the ring, but Jones’ corner is in the ring celebrating, selling the victory. It almost seemed like a tactic you would see in professional wrestling, and many credit Lou Duva with the idea to get in the ring and celebrate before they could figure things out. Either way; Barrera was out on his feet, and the referee cited that the corner of Barrera entered during the round, thus ending the fight. The ruling was announced as a TKO at 2:59 in the round, but the result would be changed to a disqualification later on.

While they got ready for the main event, the HBO broadcast team discussed the night’s matchup. Featured was the unofficial scorekeeper Harold Lederman’s second ever appearance on-screen. You would have to think in all the years he had been around by then he would have a few more appearances. After Lederman weighs in on the fight, Jim refers to him as the Dick Vitale of boxing, which is as close as you can peg Lederman in a few words.

They then show interview pieces with both fighters, and the most interesting story is how Mike McCallum, always one of the better fighters in the world, was avoided by so many others. His best years may have been in the mid-80’s, but neither Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, or Marvin Hagler ever gave McCallum a shot at a big payday. Interestingly, McCallum had always been smart about putting away his money, so he didn’t need the shot like many others did but he wanted a chance very badly.

He had run off a nice streak of wins to begin his career, knocking off undefeated Julian Jackson and elite fighters Milton McCrory and Donald Curry before unsuccessful challenging for his second world title against Sumbu Kalambay in 1988. He would later add the middleweight title to his junior middleweight crown when he beat Herol Graham by split decision for the WBA 160-pound title. He beat Steve Collins, Michael Watson, got revenge against Kalambay in a rematch, and drew with James Toney. Two fights later he would lose a majority decision to Toney. McCallum would later jump to 175 pounds and win a world title there in an “interim” WBC light heavyweight title, much like the one he would be fighting Jones, Jr. for. He would lose his world title to Fabrice Tiozzo before taking on the undefeated world’s best fighter in Jones, Jr.

Highlights of Roy’s career up until that point were convincing wins over Bernard Hopkins; who would go on to become perhaps the best 160-pounder of all-time, and James Toney; another all-time great multiple division champion. He would then fight softer competition for a few years before taking this fight that many considered a challenging one, even though McCallum was nearly forty years old at the time. There was a lot of mutual respect from both fighters heading into this fight.

Jones, Jr. began with his usual antics, entering the ring to a rap song recording by himself in preparation for the fight. It featured lyrics specific to his fight with McCallum, which was very egocentric, even for Jones, Jr.

The first round of the fight features a very interesting remark made by George Foreman, who was also doing commentary for the night’s action. He mentions something about Jones, Jr. moving up a few pounds to become heavyweight champion of the world to which Lampley responds, “You mean light heavyweight champion of the world?”

Foreman replies, “No, he can move up a few pounds. Every guy wants to be heavyweight champion of the world.”

“He’d have to go up thirty or forty pounds!” exclaimed Lampley. Foreman later goes on about if he is going to do it he should do it sooner rather than later. Roy wouldn’t become heavyweight champion of the world until 2003, when he outpointed John Ruiz for the WBA belt. As hard as it was to tolerate George Foreman sometimes on these HBO broadcasts, he was generally correct when he made bold statements.

As for the action in the first round, McCallum was doing very well behind his jab. It is also amazing to see how good Jones’ reflexes were at this stage of his career. Someone mentions that, sewn into Roy’s trunks is a microphone. They were unsure what the benefit of having this microphone was, but for about twenty seconds you can hear body shots a little bit louder was about it. For what it’s worth, the round was a close one that had a slight lean towards McCallum.

McCallum was being very effective, especially with hooks to the body whenever he had Jones on the ropes. Most of Jones’ shots were reach-in shots with little to no power on them. A right cross lands for Roy, maybe his biggest punch so far. They trade equally in the center of the ring. It was a close round that McCallum edged on aggressiveness. Roy Jones, Jr. was rarely losing rounds in his career, yet I thought he was two rounds behind in the second.

HBO also reminds you of some future boxing cards, and one that jumped out at me was a double-header featuring Montell Griffin taking on James Toney and Julio Cesar Chavez fighting Micky Ward. Unfortunately, a Chavez-Ward fight never took place, and we can only imagine what kind of war that fight would have been.

Jones started to take over the fight midway through. I gave three of the first four rounds to McCallum, who was being very effective with body shots and was pressing the action. Roy was, for the most part, potshotting his way through the first half of the fight. He started to pick up the pace at the end of round five, when he unleashed a classic Roy seven punch combination that both looks flashy and does damage. It was enough to steal the round and start building momentum for Jones.

Round six was a close round but Jones landed the better looking punches. McCallum was starting to slow down at this point of the fight. At the same time, Jones was starting to open up a bit more and he also started throwing lead left hooks..

Another interesting thing about this fight was that the HBO team could see the WBC judges’ scorecards throughout the duration of the fight. The WBC judges were in paid seats in the audience or at press tables. Someone was relaying scores to the HBO team, and the WBC judges had Jones way ahead. Merchant had the fight much closer, saying he though at one point McCallum was winning the fight but that he had seen a shift. Harold Lederman, HBO’s unofficial scorekeeper, had the fight more in line with the WBC judges. Even so, everyone agreed that the Florida state judges probably had Jones well ahead in the fight.

Rounds seven and eight were still close rounds but Jones was starting to pull ahead. Foreman mentioned that McCallum has no power up top with his right hand, which is odd. He was doing good damage with body shots, especially early in the fight, but he wasn’t hurting Roy against the ropes with anything he threw to the head. Once Jones felt he couldn’t be hurt you saw him start to gain control in the fight. Early on in the bout, the HBO team discusses how you can see that Jones has a lot of respect for McCallum. Jones wasn’t going after his opponent like he had against so many overmatched foes before this one.

Round nine was an interesting one to me. I thought Jones had absolutely dominated the round and it may have been one of his best rounds so far in the fight. Yet, two of the three WBC judges scored it for McCallum. I always wondered, if in fights that are pretty close but you have one fighter way ahead, you start scoring rounds for the fighter that is behind for no reason except to make the scores closer. I thought McCallum was in the fight, but I did not think he did anything to warrant being awarded the ninth round. Did those two WBC judges have doubt that Jones should be decisively ahead like their scorecards told them he should be? It is always interesting to me when we get to know how the fight is being scored.

The tenth round was close until a Jones quick right hand over the top knocked McCallum down with seconds remaining. It was a beautiful shot that McCallum just didn’t see coming.

The eleventh was another close round until about a minute left when Jones just unloads eight straight left hooks upstairs. The bursts of speed Jones had in this fight were ridiculous. I think I would favor this version of Roy Jones, Jr. slightly over a recent version of Joe Calzaghe.

In between the eleventh and twelfth rounds, Jones spoke to the camera and HBO, which is something that you would expect from him. McCallum was on his way to having a good round until Jones started firing off combinations and he even threw in a bolo punch for good measure. He hurt McCallum at the end of the fight, but he made it to the bell.

The Florida state judges did not score a single round for McCallum between the three of them. All three judges had Jones winning, 120-107. How you do not award a single round to McCallum is disgraceful. The WBC judges had it more in the right ballpark with scores of 116-111, 117-110, and 119-108 all for Jones. I had the fight 116-112 for Jones, only giving one of the final seven rounds to McCallum.

It was a good performance from Jones against an old veteran who had a good fight or two left in him. A few months later, McCallum would give one final good performance in a unanimous decision loss to James Toney. The fight was a rematch of a 1992 fight that saw Toney win by majority decision. Five years later, McCallum would put on another good performance against James. Two judges only had him narrowly losing a decision, while a third judge had Toney slightly further ahead.

We all know where Jones’ career has gone since this fight. Jones’ early career will always be the highlight of what he has done professionally. The only thing that compares with his early work was winning the heavyweight title, but even that was cherry-picked. After this fight, Jones would fight mandatory after mandatory on HBO, milking their budget to put on sparring contests for years to come. Two knockout losses in a row after moving down from heavyweight took Jones off the big stage for a few years before he returned with a win over Felix Trinidad on pay-per-view. Jones-Trinidad drew some of the best numbers for the year, making people think a Jones-Calzaghe fight would sell well. They were wrong, with that fight drawing not too many buys (especially not enough to warrant a 24/7 series) and souring Calzaghe on the sport altogether. Whether Jones will fight on is another question, although I personally hope he hangs them up. If Jones were to have beaten Calzaghe, I would have been very interested in a Jones-Hopkins rematch. Even still, if the fight was announced I am sure I would find a way to tune in.

Hopefully we see some of these types of cards in 2009 on HBO. Already we have some fantastic matchups with Antonio Margarito-Shane Mosley taking place in Los Angeles in January. A week earlier, a great Boxing After Dark card featuring prospects Sergio Gabriel Martinez and Joe Greene in a good bout, as well as Andre Berto fighting a live body for once in Luis Collazo. Alfredo Angulo-Ricardo Mayorga and Nate Campbell-Ali Funeka should be a fun card in February. That’s a pretty good start as far as I am concerned.
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"Anytime, anyplace, anybody"

Mark Ortega

You used to hear the phrase “Any time, any place, anybody” a whole lot in boxing. For one reason or another that slogan hasn’t been applicable to the sport in quite awhile, but in newly-crowned WBO Interim Junior Middleweight champion Paul Williams and undefeated American heavyweight sensation Chris Arreola, Goossen-Tutor Promotions has two fighters that this moniker can be applied to.

Between the two of them, they fought eight times in 2008, seven of those bouts being nationally televised. Williams has even fought at three different weight classes this year alone, something that has been sight unseen in decades.

In how it has been so easy to keep these two fighters so active, Goossen-Tutor Promotions head Dan Goossen had this to say: “It takes two to come up with the decisions and that’s the business side of the fighters, meaning manager Al Haymon, the trainer in both Henry Ramirez and George Peterson, and then the fighters and ourselves.”

A case could be made that Arreola should be fighting that many times a year anyways since he has yet to reach the top of the hill, but Williams was in the ring four times this year after picking up a world title in July of last year when he knocked off the heavily avoided Antonio Margarito for his WBO welterweight crown. Williams and his team have to be commended for even fighting Margarito in the first place. As we have seen in the case of Andre Berto, there is a much easier route to a world championship than fighting a man whose last loss against an opponent at 147 pounds came in 1996, when Margarito was barely eighteen years old.

Considering the result of the fight, a unanimous decision victory for Williams, his team knew what they were doing in putting him in the ring with Margarito. The victory instantly catapulted Williams to elite status and put him in talks concerning who the best 147-pounder in the world was. Many thought his team was crazy for throwing Williams into a fight with Margarito.

“There comes a point where you take that next step towards your goal and the time was right to do it at that point,” said Goossen. “Paul proved us right and it’s one of the great things about great fighters is that they make us look like geniuses,” Goossen said.

Following the Margarito win, Williams had a bit of a letdown when he lost a unanimous decision to Carlos Quintana in February of this year. Williams was originally slated to take on Kermit Cintron in an IBF/WBO unification bout, but when Cintron hurt his hand in a November fight with Jesse Feliciano, Quintana became the opponent. Regardless of how the fight came to be, Williams dropped a tough decision, but did not hang his head for long. He was back in the ring again in June, against the only man to hand Williams a professional loss. Williams went right after Quintana and scored a thrilling first round knockout, completely erasing his lone professional defeat.

With everybody at the top either avoiding Williams or fighting each other, Williams took a tune-up fight, but it came with a twist. Williams stepped in the ring again in September, fighting two weight-classes above where he was a world champion. His opponent was a capable one in Andy Kolle, whose only loss came at the hands of another Goossen fighter, 2004 Gold Medalist Andre Ward. Williams blasted Kolle out within a round, leaving fans wondering where he could go next. Not many fighters open a door wide enough for themselves where they can say they can legitimately fight for a world title in three different weight classes, but Williams took advantage of this. In his most recent bout just this past weekend, Williams picked up the WBO Interim 154-pound title against Verno Phillips, and in the process became the first man to stop the rugged Phillips in twenty years.

The most important thing to take away from Williams’ busy schedule is that all four of his bouts this year were nationally televised. He fought on HBO twice, Showtime once, and his tune-up bout with Kolle was televised by Versus. In order for boxing to fully develop “stars”, this is something that needs to be done. Fighting four times a year, on national television, can only do positive things to increase the awareness of a fighter.

Just look at what it has done to the career of Chris Arreola. In 2008, he went from being called a second-tier heavyweight by some to being universally recognized as the United States’ best heavyweight. His two biggest wins, over Chazz Witherspoon (23-0 at the time) and now Travis Walker (28-1-1 at the time) were both on HBO’s Boxing After Dark. His fight against Israel Garcia (19-1) was on Versus. Arreola’s weight problems have been well documented in the past. In his own words, Arreola says he needs to fight four or five times a year, otherwise he gets lazy. In his fight against Garcia, he was heavily chastised by the press for coming in 258 pounds, a career high. The criticism only forced Arreola to drop down to 254 for his win over Walker this past weekend. Arreola has stated in the past that for a fight with the Klitschkos he knows he would need to come to fight in much better shape. His fight with Witherspoon has shown that he is capable of working hard for a big enough fight, as he came into that contest (which was almost a pick’em fight) weighing 239 pounds.

Arreola coming in heavy for the Walker fight did have people wondering, especially after the beating he took through one and a half rounds at the hands of the 12-to-1 underdog Walker, if it was a huge issue. Arreola seemingly enjoyed taking some brutal punishment, and in his words this was his way of studying his opponent. “I wanted to see what kinds of punches he threw, whether they were looping punches or good straight punches,” said Arreola in response to why his defense was so poor early in the fight. It seems to be a much tougher way to learn how your opponent fights; most fighters seem to study their opponent on film rather than waiting to see what they offer them in the ring. That Arreola dealt with adversity in being knocked down by Walker in the second, only to come back and floor him twice in the same round, drew a positive reaction to the crowd. Arreola’s camp is happy that the adversity came in a fight like this rather than in a big fight that could happen down the road.

“That’s what a fighter or any athlete needs. You got to know how to come back from being 15 points down in the fourth quarter, or 5 points down at the end of a basketball game or a few runs down in the 9th and the only way to do that is to overcome it,” says Goossen. He continued, “And the best place to overcome that is on the way there and not when you get there.”

Another reason why this fighter has become so popular is the excitement he brings with him into the ring. In 26 fights, the distance has only been seen once, and that was in a six-round fight coming off a layoff, where he “surprisingly” weighed 256 pounds. His win over Witherspoon was all but officially a knockout, as Witherspoon was in shape to continue but was ruled disqualified when someone from his corner entered the ring. Another win of Arreola’s came when his opponent was so afraid of him in the ring he was disqualified for holding excessively and hitting on the break. Other than that, Arreola opponents have come into the ring only to crushingly get knocked out.

Arreola is not quite yet for a fight against either Klitschko, but what is great about the guy is that there are so many fights out there for him that the fans would love to see. Fights against guys like Eddie Chambers [32-1, 18 KOs] and Malik Scott [31-0, 11 KOs] would help make Arreola’s case as the best heavyweight in the States. Fights against Lamon Brewster [34-4, 30 KOs] and Oleg Maskaev [35-6, 26 KOs] would provide fireworks regardless of who wins. James Toney [70-6-3, 43 KOs] and Hasim Rahman [45-6-2, 36 KOs] would be tough tests for Arreola as experienced heavyweights. Of course the fight that everyone would love to see is Arreola taking on the United Kingdom’s David Haye [22-1, 21 KOs], who just had his first true test at heavyweight after completely cleaning out the cruiserweight division. The important thing is, there are very few places that Goossen-Tutor could go with Arreola that would leave me disappointed.

They have the same “problem” with Williams. Now that he is an active fighter in three different weight classes (147, 160, and now 154), there are lots of options for him out there. Two of them have all but been officially nixed as bouts with Antonio Margarito [37-5, 27 KOs], the WBA welterweight champion, and Vernon Forrest [41-3, 29 KOs], the once-again WBC junior middleweight champion, have roadblocks that prevent them from happening. With Margarito, it has been made public that Bob Arum, head of Top Rank and Margarito’s promoter, does not want to have anything to do with Williams’ camp again after negotiations broke down between the two sides on a proposed fight between Williams and middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik.. A fight with Forrest does not look likely because both he and Williams are managed by Al Haymon.

Both fights could be big if they were somehow to be made. A rematch with Margarito would without a doubt determine the best 147-pounder in the world. A unification fight with Forrest could be big if held in Georgia, the home state for both fighters. Even with those two fights having a limited chance of being made, there are still other places Paul Williams could go that would satisfy the fans.

By becoming the interim WBO 154-pound champion, Williams becomes the mandatory to the undefeated WBO champion from Germany, Sergei Dzinziruk [36-0, 22 KOs]. Dzinziruk stated that he would like to fight Williams, but after he gets a unification bout with the WBA champion Daniel Santos [32-3-1, 23 KOs], a rematch from 2005 that saw Santos lose a close decision in Germany. Dzinziruk even said he would come to America for a Williams fight. At welterweight, there are matchups with IBF champion Joshua Clottey [35-2, 20 KOs] and WBC champion Andre Berto [23-0, 19 KOs] that could help clear up the picture at 147-pounds while a Margarito rematch lingers. There are also guys in the top ten or fifteen that would give Williams a test (much like Verno Phillips did) that include former-titlists Zab Judah [37-6, 25 KOs], Kermit Cintron [30-2, 27 KOs], and Shane Mosley [45-5, 38 KOs].

“All of those fights are on the table with us and what we’ll do is take the biggest one. That is what we are doing is looking for the biggest fights,” said Goossen.

It will be interesting to see where these two fighters go from here, because there are so many paths they can take. What you have are two fighters that stay active, take on all comers, and that also have great personalities. Arreola is a writer’s dream and as quotable of a fighter as there has been in recent times. Williams is a very humble person with a quiet confidence of himself wherever he is. It has been awhile since there have been two fighters in a situation like this. Hopefully this time the opportunity does not get squandered, like it has many times in the past. But if 2008 was any indication of what is still to come, then boxing fans are in for a treat. Read more!

Williams, Arreola "heavy" favorites

Mark Ortega

Tonight’s HBO Boxing After Dark card features two intriguing matchups in the inaugural boxing show at Ontario , California ’s new Citizens Bank Arena. In tonight’s main event, Paul Williams [35-1, 26 KOs ] seeks his second world title when he takes on Verno Phillips [42-10-1, 21 KOs ] for the interim WBO Junior Middleweight championship. The co-featured bout is an IBF eliminator between undefeated Mexican-American heavyweight Chris Arreola [25-0, 22 KOs ] and Travis Walker [ 28-1-1 , 22 KOs ].

Williams and Arreola were both featured on the same Versus card at the end of September and both fighters scored exciting knockouts. Williams made his middleweight debut in a first round knockout of the game Andy Kolle while Arreola scored a third round stoppage of Israel Garcia. Williams is facing a much stiffer test tonight in the tough Verno Phillips, who made his professional debut back in 1988, when Williams was seven years old. Williams is also looking for his second world title in his second different weight class, as he is still currently the WBO Welterweight champion. Phillips picked up his second world title when he upset Cory Spinks for the IBF Junior Middleweight title in March of this year. Phillips has dropped that belt to pursue this fight for the WBO interim title and a fight on HBO. Phillips has rejuvenated his career with four straight victories including the upset over Spinks. Although Phillips has ten losses on his ledger, he was only stopped one time and that was in his fifth professional bout. Williams weighed in at 153.5 while Phillips came in at the junior middleweight limit of 154. Williams is a 9-1 favorite heading into the fight.

The opening bout of the televised portion of the card is the twelve round heavyweight attraction between Arreola and Walker. Arreola, the heavy favorite at 12-1, has come in heavy for the second straight fight weighing in at 254 while Walker has come in at a fit 231, the lightest he has ever been. Arreola is from nearby Riverside , California and will have the hometown crowd in his favor for tonight’s bout. The winner of this bout will become Wladimir Klitschko’s new IBF mandatory.

Also on the card tonight is a 2008 United States Olympian in East Los Angeles’ Shawn Estrada who is making his professional debut at junior middleweight against Lawrence Jones [2-1-1, KO] of Washington, D.C. Estrada weighed in at 163.5, while Jones came in at 159 for this scheduled four-round bout.

Also being featured tonight is Bakersfield , California ’s undefeated junior welterweight prospect Mike Dallas, Jr. [5-0, KO] in his first six rounder against Jose Alfredo Lugo [10-5, 5 KOs] of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico. Dallas was scheduled to take on Lugo twice before, with the most recent postponement being due to Dallas having surgery on his nose. Dallas weighed in at the 140 pound limit while Lugo came in light at 138.5.

Heavyweights Manuel Quezada [24-4, 15 KOs ] and Teke Oruh [ 14-1-1 , 6 KOs ] will do battle in the second fight of the night for Quezada’s WBC CABOFE heavyweight title. This is an interesting fight for many reasons, with one of them being that these two have been scheduled to fight each other on a number of occasions, but for one reason or another the fight never went off. Their bout was at one point going to be a headlining bout in San Jose , California until Oruh suffered an injury. This fight lives up to the slogan for tonight’s card of “At Last”, as we finally will get to see who the better heavyweight is. Quezada, who is out of Wasco , California weighed in 230 while Las Vegas , Nevada ’s Oruh weighed in at 249 for this scheduled ten round bout.

The opening bout of tonight’s show is a junior welterweight bout between Riverside , California ’s Josesito Lopez [22-3, 13 KOs ] and late substitution Alex Perez [23-31-4, 18 KOs ]. The scheduled eight-round attraction is Lopez’ first fight since his controversial majority decision loss to Edgar Santana on Showtime back in April, and is expected to be a bounce back fight for him. That was a bout in which Lopez dropped his opponent twice and still was given a raw deal on the scorecards. Lopez weighed in at 141.5 while Perez came in a half pound heavier at 142.

Tonight’s card is promoted by Goossen-Tutor Promotions and the televised portion of the card will begin at 7 PM Pacific time. The main event is scheduled to start around 8 PM .
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Frankel decisions older Pacquiao!

Mark Ortega

Thursday night saw Robert Frankel [26-9-2, 4 KOs] of Denver, Colorado deliver a tremendous effort en route to a unanimous decision victory over Bobby Pacquiao [29-15-3, 14 KOs] of the Philippines at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California. The fight turned out to be a worthy, although one-sided main event, with lots of back and forth action throughout. The final scores read 98-91 unanimously in favor of Frankel, who has now won his fifth straight fight in a row after dropping his first two of 2008.Yes, this was Frankel’s seventh fight of 2008, and it may have been the best year of his career.

Although Frankel entered this fight with only four knockouts in thirty-five professional bouts, it was apparent very early on that he was the stronger fighter. Frankel was able to snap Pacquiao’s head back on plenty of occasions, and he seemed to do more damage. Pacquiao had moments where he landed well behind the jab, but he left himself too open to straight right hands from Frankel to warrant being awarded very many rounds. Pacquiao has now lost three straight but looked better in this fight than in his last two defeats and can still deliver a watchable fight.

Following the bout, Frankel had this to say when asked what it as like to add a big name like Pacquiao to his ledger. “I take every fight like it is a big fight, no matter who it is,” explains Frankel. “That is Pacquiao’s brother, it is a good name to have [on my record,] but it is not Pacquiao. Not the big man. But I am ready for him.”

In the co-featured bout, Chika Nakamura [8-0, 3 KOs] of New York, New York scored a controversial unanimous decision over Tiffany Junot [4-2, 3 KOs] of New Orleans, Louisiana in an exciting six round female lightweight bout. Although Nakamura was coming forward, many felt that Junot was landing the more effective blows. Junot seemed to be throwing more in combinations and got stronger as the bout progressed, while Nakamura was throwing one to two punches at a time.

The difference may have been Nakamura started and ended strongly. The first and last rounds were here best, while Junot did better in the middle part of the fight. Although the scorecards of 58-56 across the board drew the jeers of the crowd, it would be incorrect to classify this as a robbery as each round was razor-thin close. UBR scored the bout 58-56 in favor of Junot.

The only complaint could be that nobody officially scoring the bout was able to find the fight either a draw or for Junot. This was a fight that drew lots of attention from the crowd and may have been the best fight of the night, and could possibly lead to a rematch. Following the fight, Junot mentioned that she wished that it was an eight round fight because she was ready to keep going, so potentially they could fight down the line.

Also featured on the card was a thrilling four-round super middleweight contest that saw Roberto Florentino [3-3, 3 KOs] of Indianapolis, Indiana knock out Jason “J.P.” Peterson [2-2, KO] of San Francisco, California in the third round. Both fighters came out quickly with Florentino setting the pace for this fight by throwing lots of punches, all with bad intentions on them. Peterson was happy to oblige Florentino and willingly entered into a slugfest. Florentino was the quicker fighter and landed at will for the most part. Florentino also did not fail to offer openings to Peterson who dropped some good right hands on the southpaw that Florentino took very well. Peterson did not take the punches quite as well and got hit by a huge shot that staggered him against the ropes and prompted the referee to issue a count. Peterson boldly rose to his feet but when he arose the referee asked him vital questions that Peterson did not respond to. The time of the stoppage was 1:48 in the third round. This will be Peterson’s last fight before he goes to prison for five years stemming from a drug charge from years ago.

In a circus-like attraction, five-foot-six Karim Mayfield [7-0-1, 5 KOs] of Daly City, California shut out the six-foot-fight Trenton Titsworth [2-6-1, 2 KOs] of Omaha, Nebraska in a four round welterweight bout. Although the fight was not very pleasing to watch, much of it can be hung on the huge size disparage between the two fighters and the fact that one fighter did not come to fight. Titsworth held for much of the fight, and at one point failed to launch a punch for over three and a half minutes. Mayfield had to try and land punches and his nearly foot taller opponent, which would give anyone some trouble. When Mayfield was able to land, he was effective and had Titsworth in trouble multiple times. Mayfield was originally slated to take on Abel Perry [9-2] in a six rounder, but an injury forced a new opponent and for the fight to only be a four rounder. This was Mayfield’s first bout back since his exciting March victory over Francisco Santana at a Fight Night at the Tank. The official scores of the bout were 40-36 across the board. UBR also scored the bout 40-36 in favor of Mayfield.

Welterweight Eric Garcia [3-0-1, KO] of Salinas, California scored a four round unanimous decision over Pueblo, Colorado’s Geoffrey Spruiell [7-7, 2 KOs]. The first round was fought pretty evenly with Garcia pressing the action. In the second, Garcia threw an accurate right hand that dropped Spruiell brutally. Spruiell somehow recovered from the shot and made it out of the round despite his opponent going for the kill. Garcia was not able to finish his opponent and had to settle for a unanimous decision victory in which all the judges scored the bout 39-36. UBR scored it a shutout, 40-35, for Garcia.

In a heavyweight four rounder, Yohan Banks [2-1-1, KO] of San Jose, California scored a brutal knockout over San Francisco, California’s Bernard Gray [2-3] in the second round. A pretty uneventful fight took a sharp turn when Banks threw a wild right hand uppercut that dropped Gray and prompted the referee to not even issue a count.

In the card’s opening bout, hometown girl Melissa McCorrow scored a four round unanimous decision over Gloria Salas of Cathedral City, California. McCorrow was very well received and had her own cheering section, but the rest of the crowd joined in when they saw what was happening in the ring. There was a lot of back and forth action over the course of all four rounds, with McCorrow throwing a great jab and landing good shots to the body that slowed her opponent down. Salas had her moments, backing McCorrow up a few times, but she was not the busier fighter. The official scoring of the bout was 40-36, 40-36, and 39-37.

This was the first Fight Night at the Tank promoted by Sycuan Ringside Promotions and 3,453 people attended the show. The Fight Night at the Tank will return to San Jose in 2009.

All photos taken by Rocky Widner.
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Quezada shuts out Greeley!

Mark Ortega

On Thursday, August 21st, the Tachi Palace Casino in Lemoore , California saw Manuel Quezada win a ten-round unanimous decision over Andrew Greeley to headline an eight-bout boxing card promoted by Goossen-Tutor Promotions. The card also featured four MMA bouts following the night’s boxing action.


Quezada [ 24-4-0 , 15 KOs ] was the more active fighter for the duration of the bout while Greeley [14-23-2, 8 KOs ] fought in spurts. Quezada did his best work when he had his opponent against the ropes, ripping combinations of hooks to the body and head. Greeley was effective when he threw punches, but never did enough work to warrant winning a round. All three judges scored the bout, 100-90. Ultimate Boxing Results also scored the bout, 100-90.

Quezada hopes to now step up in competition and fight against someone in the top twenty or twenty-five in the heavyweight division. Names that Quezada mentioned following his victory included Chazz Witherspoon, Derrick Rossy, Teke Oruh, and Alonzo Butler. Oruh was named as Quezada’s opponent for this card, but has twice pulled out of fighting him. Greeley, who was a late substitution, defeated Joey Abell by knockout. Abell is the man who handed Oruh his lone professional loss in November of 2007.

In the co-featured bout, WBC Minimumweight champion Carino Moreno of Watsonville, California dominated Yahaira Martinez of Puerto Rico in a ten-round bout. Moreno [ 19-1-0 , 5 KOs ] was just a class above in every aspect over her opponent, using her superior boxing skills and smarts to win a wide decision. The three judges scored the bout 100-90, 100-90, and 97-93. UBR scored the bout, 100-90. The fight was originally planned to be for Moreno ’s title as well as a vacant belt, but Martinez [ 7-3-0 , 4 KOs ] came in over weight and was not interested in dropping the necessary weight to fight for the title. Moreno will likely fight next on October 23rd at the Tachi Palace Casino.

Las Vegas , Nevada ’s Dewey Cooper [ 17-1-3 , 11 KOs ] went ten rounds for the first time in his career, winning an uneventful unanimous decision over Galen Brown [ 30-9-1 , 19 KOs ] of St. Joseph , Missouri . Brown seemed content with clowning around for most of the bout, keeping his hands low and egging Cooper on. Cooper was the far superior athlete but seemed tentative in pressing the action, doing enough to just win rounds instead of trying to hurt his opponent. The tenth round was the most exciting of the bout, with Cooper hurting Brown and nearly putting him down before the final bell rang. All three judges scored the bout, 99-91.

Aaron Alafa [2-0-0, KO] of Visalia , California picked up his second professional win to begin his career when he beat Greg McDowell [0-1-0] via nineteen second destruction. Alafa finished McDowell with the first right hook he threw, and as soon as he went down the referee stopped the bout as McDowell had no idea where he was.

Junior welterweight prospect Mike Dallas, Jr. [5-0-0, KO] of Bakersfield, California scored the first knockout of his professional career in emphatic fashion when he disposed of Cincinnati, Ohio’s James Helmes [6-2-0, 2 KOs] in 1:45 seconds of the opening stanza. Dallas was patient in looking for openings, and even threw his opponent off with a bolo punch before landing a devastating right hook that put Helmes down. The hook came immediately after Dallas had rolled one of Helmes’ punches, and he then came forward with all of his power to knock Helmes out. Dallas has three fights on the horizon in the next few months, starting with a September 11th bout in San Jose at the HP Pavilion. Dallas was also making his debut as a Goossen-Tutor promoted fighter, having just signed a contract with the promotion days before the fight.

In a bout for the vacant WBC International Super Bantamweight title, Dominga Olivo [7-4-1] of Monticello, New York upset former amateur star Ana Julaton [4-1-1, KO] of Daly City, California in an exciting bout via eight-round split decision. The first round was a close one that saw Julaton’s superior boxing skills meet Olivo’s rough brawling tactics. Olivo built a lead by bullying Julaton on the inside, Julaton did her best work using her boxing ability and working from the outside with her jab, but too many times she allowed herself to fall into a trap and try and outwork her opponent from close range. Olivo slowed down a bit in the sixth and seventh rounds which allowed Julaton back into the fight, but then she won the eighth round wide to claim a victory. The judges scored the bout 79-73 and 77-75 for Olivo while one judge scored the bout 77-75 for Julaton. Julaton trainer Freddie Roach expressed that although he thought the decision was fair, he would like to see Ana get a rematch with Oliva as soon as possible.

Madera , California ’s Joaquin Marquez [4-0-1, 3 KOs ] scored a four-round majority decision over Loren Myers [ 6-4-0 , 2 KOs ] of Fresno , California in a super middleweight contest. Marquez was the bigger puncher, landing numerous bombs that had Myers hurt. An uppercut in the second round rocked Myers, who responded by clowning around.. The judges scored the bout 40-36 and 39-37 for Marquez while one judge had it a draw at 38-38. UBR scored the bout, 39- 37 in favor of Marquez.

In the card’s opening bout, Carlos Nevarez [14-16-1, 5 KOs ] of Denver , Colorado scored a minor upset over James Ventry [ 6-5-1 , 4 KOs ] of Niagara Falls , New York via six-round majority decision in a junior welterweight bout.

Boxing returns to the Tachi Palace , October 23rd in a Goossen-Tutor Promotions event.

Mark Ortega can be reached by e-mail at mark@ultimateboxingresults.com.


All photos taken by Jason Pachura.






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Margarito-Mayweather: This era's Hagler-Leonard?

Mark Ortega

When Antonio Margarito defeated Miguel Cotto in late July, it opened up a small possibility for a 147-pound mega-fight down the line between Margarito and the undefeated, and now retired, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Although many find it unlikely that Floyd would fight Margarito if he returned, there are many factors that lead me to believe that there is some potential for this fight happening sometime in the future.

When Sugar Ray Leonard initially retired in 1982, it all but killed any possibility of a fight with middleweight king Marvelous Marvin Hagler. Leonard had even invited Hagler to a ceremony in which everyone figured was Leonard’s way of challenging the 160-pound champion to a big money showdown between the two. Instead, Leonard said that although a fight between the two could be one of the greatest ever, it would never happen, thus announcing his retirement. Hagler went on to dominate the middleweight division for half a decade longer before finally luring Leonard out of retirement to fight him, and the fight only happened on Leonard’s terms. Although they competed in two separate weight classes, there are many similarities between the two sets of fighters. Margarito, like Hagler, was underappreciated for most of his career. His six-year reign as WBO Welterweight Champion went largely unnoticed by mainstream coverage, as Margarito was constantly being overshadowed by other names in the division including Zab Judah, Miguel Cotto, Ricardo Mayorga, Vernon Forrest, and Mayweather, Jr.

It wasn’t until Margarito completely took apart Cotto in their July showdown that he began to be mentioned as an elite fighter. Much was the same for Hagler, who until his three-round destruction of Thomas Hearns, was very much ignored in talks of who the top fighters in the sport were. The way that Margarito is built is a lot like Hagler. Margarito is undoubtedly the best chin in the sport, as well as one of the best conditioned fighters. He cannot be hurt and he never slows down. Hagler only was briefly wobbled in his fight against Hearns, who was the biggest puncher pound-for-pound in the sport at the time. Hagler also never slowed down and usually got better as the fight went on, which is something Margarito is known for. Those attributes were key to Margarito knocking out Cotto in July. With Mayweather now out of the sport and Cotto’s aura of invincibility dented, Margarito has taken center stage in the welterweight division and has a few potentially big fights on the horizon. If Margarito can run through the ranks at 147, there is a chance he could lure Mayweather out of retirement for a super-fight.

Much like Sugar Ray Leonard, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. was destined to be a world champion and a pound-for-pound great. His early bouts were televised, he made very good fighters look ordinary, and he didn’t lose. It was never a matter of if Mayweather would be a world champion, but a matter of when. He won his first world title in 1998 when he beat Genaro Hernandez, a good fighter, to win the WBC version of the 130-pound title. In 2001 he utterly destroyed an undefeated Diego Corrales, knocking him down five times during the bout before it was stopped in the tenth. He also scored two close, disputed wins over Jose Luis Castillo in his first bouts as a lightweight. For the first part of his career, he fought the best competition that was available, much like Sugar Ray Leonard..

Leonard won his first world title in 1979 when he scored a victory over Wilfred Benitez, who at the time had never lost a fight. Two fights later, he fought and lost to Roberto Duran by decision, but five months later made Duran quit to regain his belt. Less than a year later, he knocked out the undefeated Thomas Hearns in a welterweight unification bout. On top of his stellar career, Leonard was also by far the most famous boxer in the United States , maybe even the world. Leonard used that fame to then fight less than stellar competition when there were more important bouts out there. Leonard fought against guys like Larry Bonds and Bruce Finch when there was potential to fight a rematch with Benitez, or a rubber match with Duran instead of making him wait nine years like he did with Thomas Hearns, another fighter he could have fought at the time. This compares very well to Mayweather, who as the recognized welterweight champion of the world fought Oscar De la Hoya, who fights at junior middleweight, and Ricky Hatton, who fights as a junior welterweight. Mayweather could have attempted to fight the more important fights in terms of clearing up his own division by fighting guys like Cotto, Margarito, or Paul Williams. Instead he opted for the big paydays that came in less risky bouts.

About half a year following his win over Ricky Hatton, Mayweather retired. Why would anyone think there is chance of a Mayweather comeback? The same reasons that Leonard ended up fighting a second and third stint. It is plausible that Mayweather would miss the limelight enough to return for a mega-fight that guarantees him to be the talk of the sporting world again.

There are only two real chances this fight has of happening. One, Margarito could dominate welterweight for a few years in the way that Hagler took apart the middleweight division in Leonard’s absence from the sport. If Margarito could put together an impressive run over the next few years, he could make his case. A perfect world would see Margarito fighting a rematch with Clottey in November, then following that up with a title defense against Shane Mosley in early to mid-2009, and then closing the year with a welterweight unification rematch with Paul Williams to determine who is the world’s best welterweight. If Margarito could pull that off, it would be hard for Floyd to come back and not fight Margarito.

The other possibility is that Margarito somehow finds himself lucky enough to win the Oscar De la Hoya sweepstakes and take the Golden Boy out in a more emphatic fashion than Floyd was able to. If Margarito were to fight Oscar, he would likely knock him out in the middle rounds rather than edge a split decision like Floyd. Unfortunately, Oscar has come up with every possible excuse to avoid fighting Margarito, and with Oscar signed to fight Manny Pacquiao at the end of the year, a Margarito-De la Hoya fight is dead.

The first scenario is the much more likely of the two, and even that seems farfetched.. Hopefully, for our fans’ sake, Margarito becomes Marvelous over the next few years and lures Mayweather out of retirement for the most important fight of the decade.

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Disgrace gone unpunished

Mark Ortega

On May 30th, something truly disgraceful happened in the boxing world that has gone largely unnoticed.

The bout in which so much corruption and incompetency occurred was a heavyweight bout between Konstantin Airich and Danny Williams in Pais Vasco, Spain.

To start, Williams was deducted two points for a second low blow in the second round. The referee initially issued a standing eight count for the second low blow, but then took away two points from Williams. He couldn’t make up his mind whether it was a knockdown or a low blow, but then deducted points. If it were a low blow, normally a fighter would be deducted one point or even issued a second warning before points were taken away. In the third round, Williams was given two standing eight counts. Williams was hit by a hard shot against the ropes that staggered him, and since he was against the ropes I can see how a standing count was fair in that instance. Also in the third round, the tape comes severely loose from Williams’ glove, but the referee does nothing about it. Williams is stunned by a punch and finds his balance but is quickly issued another standing eight count. It is during this time that Williams himself had to remove the tape from his glove.

In the fourth round, Williams was issued a count after throwing a right hand that missed and falling. This means a third “knockdown” was awarded to Airich.

In the fifth round, Williams knocked Airich down legitimately, and the referee gave Airich nearly thirty seconds to recover.

In the sixth round, the most disgusting thing I have seen happen in a bout in a long time occurred when Airich was badly hurt by Williams a minute or so into the round. At this juncture, Airich’s PROMOTER Ahmet Oner of ArenaBox Promotions, went and rung the bell, and the round was declared over.

In the seventh round, Williams swarmed a badly hurt Airich and the towel was thrown in by Oner, probably to try and save face for the debacle that happened in the previous round. Oner also had no right to throw in the towel, as he was not part of Airich’s corner.

The sixth round in particular just mesmerized me in terms of what happened. It was almost comical how badly they were trying to save their fighter from a loss. Oner should be at the very least be fined a large amount of money, if not barred from the sport altogether.

Another thing that I have yet to conclude is why the boxing media has failed to report most of this, or even mention how corrupt this fight was. No website I have browsed has even a mention of Oner being the one who rang the bell about a minute and a half early. ArenaBox Promotion’s website fails to even mention that the sixth round was halted early. This was obviously omitted for a reason.

Not only should Oner be seriously penalized, but the referee of the bout, Alfedo Garcia Perez, should never be allowed to officiate a professional bout ever again. In the fifth round, Perez was yelling at Williams in Spanish. Danny Williams does not speak Spanish, so he obviously had no idea what Perez was saying. The only way the referee was able to show Williams he was doing wrong was by waving his finger at him and shouting “No, no,” as if Williams was a young child who had done something wrong. The referee failing to stop the action to remove loose tape from Williams’ gloves was also vastly overlooked without reason. The fact that the fighter himself had to remove loose tape from his gloves is more than ridiculous.

What happened during this fight that is even more disappointing is that it was an otherwise exciting fight, especially by today’s heavyweight standards. Both fighters were throwing hurtful bombs with bad intentions, but it will forever be overshadowed by the fact that the fight was riddled with corruption and incompetence.

Arena Promotions have since replied to Mark Ortega with this statement:

Dear Mr. Ortega,

First of all I want to thank you for asking for our side of this story. I understand your anger but before you blame Ahmet Öner and ARENA Box-Promotion please keep in mind that it was Mr. Öner personally who threw in the towel to end the fight IN FAVOUR OF DANNY WILLIAMS. If he had in mind to cheat on Danny or steal the victory from him that would have been the stupidest thing to do – especially considering that Konstantin Airich was way ahead on all scorecards.

To clarify the situation below you find the official statement of Mr. Öner.

Ahmet Öner on Konstantin Airich vs. Danny Williams on May 30th in Bilbao : “First of all I want to apologize for all the confusion in this fight. And I want to point out that I never meant to cheat on Danny ion any way. If it would have been my goal to steal the victory from him I wouldn’t have thrown in the towel at a point were Konstantin was leading on all scorecards.

To me the first couple of rounds between Konstantin Airich and Danny Williams have been the most entertaining I’ve seen in a while in heavyweight boxing. Konstantin showed a great performance and impressed Danny with his enormous power and very hard hands and sent him to the canvas a couple of times. The way Danny recovered from that and came back to win the fight with all his experience was very impressive as well. The main problem of the fight, however, was very poor refereeing and the officials of the local commission.

Regarding this I want to make clear that the show was only co-promoted by ARENA and we didn’t bring German officials to Spain but worked with the local commission in Bilbao . I didn’t know anybody of the officials before the fight and to me they really turned this great bout into a farce. The referee was at no point in control of the action inside the ring. When Danny’s tape loosened from his glove the ref wouldn’t stop the bout to have it fixed. At one point the ref even tried to wrap the tape around the glove himself which looked really stupid to me after that he even ripped it off completely. In addition to that he warned Danny and deducted points in strange situations, he gave him a standing eight-count which wouldn’t have happened in Germany and he saw knockdowns where the fighters obviously slipped. The supervisor did nothing to correct the referee and what the timekeepers did was the biggest disgrace. They stopped the breaks prematurely and had one round – I think it was the 5th – going for 3:30..

Because the fight was very exciting but disturbed by poor refereeing I got very angry and started to argue with the officials. Additionally I had heard after the 3rd round that Konstantin had problems with his left hand and seemed to be seriously injured. So when Danny started to attack Konstantin in the 6th I shouted at the officials to stop the fight. Actually Konstantin’s trainer didn’t think that his fighter was in danger so he didn’t throw in the towel what would have been the best at this point of time. I thought Konstantin might get knocked out hard as I know that Danny can do some damage. So I kept on shouting ‘Stop the fight!’ and meant that it should have been a tko for Danny at this point. This situation led to the ringing of the bell with 1:30 to go in the round. As the officials acted as if nothing had happened and just started the 7th round after a break I threw in the towel to end all discussions. I never meant to cheat on Danny or to steal the victory from him. Otherwise I wouldn’t have thrown the towel in.

Unlike other (German) promoters I stand for boxing as a sport. I want to see interesting fights and great action inside the ring. That’s why I do the aggressive matchmaking I’m known for. No other promoter in the world would have let a guy with only 10 pro-fights take on a world class fighter like Danny Williams. In addition to that I didn’t do the fight on German soil or with German officials like other German promoters do it to control the judging. We went to neutral soil which proofed to be a mistake as this local commission really did a bad job. I think the first half of the fight showed that it was a good match-up. That this was ruined by poor refereeing teaches me not to work with inexperienced referees and officials again. And I regret the mistake I made in choosing Bilbao as place for the fight to happen.

I hope that Danny understands my motives and what happened in Bilbao . And I hope that he didn’t mean to accuse me personally but point on a problem we have in professional boxing in general: Promoters impinging on officials to have their fighters win. This might be a typical German problem but I am not a typical German promoter – I am Turkish; I work internationally; and I am a boxing fan as well which means I want to see great fights with fair decisions. Everybody who accuses me personally should not forget that it was me who ended the fight in favour of Danny and that I saw Sinan Samil Sam losing to Oliver McCall in Ankara one year ago which wouldn’t have happened one of the other ‘typical German promoters’.

After all I hope that Danny gives Konstantin a rematch one day after he recovers from his broken hand because I think Konstantin deserves it as he really showed a hack of a fight which shouldn’t be forgotten besides all the anger and confusion.”
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Griffin dominates Cockerham!

Mark Ortega

It was a successful night at the Red Lion Hotel for Sacramento as all four of it’s local fighters won fights. Leading the way were veterans Otis Griffin and Michael Simms, who both won by unanimous decision in their co-main events.

Otis Griffin picked up a win in the light heavyweight division by battering journeyman Carl Cockerham over six rounds en route to a unanimous decision. Griffin [19-3-2] had Cockerham hurt and nearly out a few times, most notably in the second round right before the bell. The referee went to break the action as if he was stopping the fight, even to the point of holding the hurt fighter, but the bell rang and he then dismissed it and allowed the fight to go on. Cockerham [12-18-3] took many punishing shots and was there to land quite a few good blows himself. “Carl is a tough guy. I mean, Mario Veit couldn’t even knock him out so that says something. He also doesn’t throw enough shots to get knocked out. It is hard to knockout a guy who is always coming in with his guard up.” He had his moments throughout the fight but was unable to put much together in terms of winning rounds. Griffin landed the straighter punches, while Cockerham was more looking for the one big shot throughout the fight.

This is Griffin’s first win since losing to Jesse Brinkley in February, in a fight where he came in totally weight drained. “I want to get three wins here in Sacramento, and then start getting in the mix with the bigger names. I want to take my time, it should happen this year. When I had my belt, I should have sat there and waited,” Griffin said. “I am gonna stay at light heavyweight and get all those belts. Right now I would like to fight Tavoris Cloud, who has my old (WBO NABO) belt that I never lost. He has the belt, but I think he should give me that chance. He didn’t beat the man; he beat the man next to the man.”

Michael Simms ended his career long five fight losing streak by winning a unanimous decision over former Roy Jones, Jr. opponent Derrick Harmon in six rounds. Simms [20-9-1] was able to drop Harmon in the first round and had him badly hurt, but did not jump on him and wasn’t able to finish him. Harmon [25-7] outworked Simms over the next five rounds, but the judges believed that Simms must have been more effective with his shots. There were some sparks with twenty seconds left in the sixth as both fighters knew that whoever won the sixth round likely won the fight. Simms ended up winning by a wider margin than the fight would make you believe, with scores of 58-55 (x2) and 57-56. Harmon was coming off of a nearly two year layoff, and seemed upset at the result of the fight. “He dropped me in the first, but then I feel I won the next five rounds.”

Brandon Gonzales got his fourth straight knockout in four professional fights over Mike Alexander, but not before having to deal with his first taste of adversity. Gonzales [4-0] was dropped by Alexander from a glancing blow in the first round, but then got up and won the rest of the round. Alexander [1-2-2] was having some problems with his hand somewhere along the bout, and Gonzales was able to put his combinations together before finally walking Alexander down and dropping him with a vicious left body blow. Alexander didn’t beat the count and the bout was stopped at the 2:50 mark. “It was a good fight, you know first round I came out kinda sleeping and be got me but then I got him out of there in the second round. Gonzales also added, “I knew I needed to go to the body, he had his ear muffs on. He has a long torso so there was a lot of opportunities to get him downstairs, and that is how we finished him.” Gonzales will also be July card in Sacramento.

In the opening bout, Stan Martyniouk scored his first professional knockout as he was able to finish Matt Mahler at the thirty second mark of the opening round with a flury of punches followed by a right hook. Mahler [0-1] started off swarming Martyniouk, but his superb defense wasted all of Mahler’s shots. Martyniouk worked patiently behind his combinations and scored a devastating knockout near the ropes. “It was his pro debut, I knew he was going to jump on me. I knew I just had to be patient,” Martyniouk said. Stan moves to 3-0 and will definitely be fighting on the next Sacramento card in July, but he hopes to fit in a fight before then as well.
A bout was scrapped at the last minute between Geraldo Lopez and Tyrone Scott. Lopez will likely be fighting on the July Sacramento card, as well.

The card was promoted by Uppercut Promotions and was held at the Red Lion Hotel in Sacramento.
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Ward stops Williams!

Mark Ortega

Andre Ward took his biggest step up Thursday night and was successful, stopping veteran Rubin Williams in the seventh round at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California, in front of 4,588 fans. This was the 2004 sole Olympic gold medal winning fighter’s biggest test to date, and he dominated every second of the fight from the opening bell. Ward [15-0] did what Allan Green could not do, stopping Williams for the first time since his TKO loss to Jeff Lacy, in a fight he was winning up until that point, back in 2005. Williams [29-4] has lost his second straight fight and has not picked up a win since August of 2006.

Ward worked behind his jab for the duration of the fight, and even turned southpaw in the third round, something he said he never worked on in camp. Ward pressed the action, while Williams was content in sitting back and looking for one big punch. A cut was opened up in the second round near Williams’ left eye, which helped slow Williams down. Ward’s best punch of the night was the uppercut, which stunned Williams numerous times throughout the contest.

Ward doesn’t know what is next for him, but when asked about a potential fight with Allan Green, he said it was inevitable for them to meet sometime in the future. Ward’s promoter, Dan Goosen, has said they are looking at June for his next fight. Goosen also mentioned that they tried getting fights with Contender champion Sakio Bika, former Contender contestant Peter Manfredo, Jr., and Canadian prospect Jean Pascal. Ward’s team also believes they will go after a regional title in his next affair.

In the co-main event, Karim Mayfield [6-0-1] won a contested six-round split decision over Francisco Santana [8-1]. The fight started off slowly, with both fighters having success in the opening rounds. But it was in the fourth round that the fight changed, when Santana landed a flurry that had Mayfield noticeably hurt against the ropes. Mayfield looked in bad shape but was able to stay on his feet, nearly being knocked down at the end of the round when he crashed to the canvas in what the referee ultimately ruled was a slip. In the fifth, Mayfield was still on weak legs and did his best to survive, while Santana continued throwing everything he had. In the final round, Mayfield had his legs back and was the one going for the kill, hurting Santana numerous times and nearly knocking him down. When the decision was announced, two judges had it 58-56 for Mayfield with one judge having it 58-56 for Santana. The decision was loudly booed by the crowd, who seemed to be in Santana’s corner throughout the bout.

After the fight, Santana said he wished he had two more rounds, because he thinks he could have finished Mayfield if the fight went on longer. “I would love a rematch with him, maybe take a few fights in between, but definitely meet up again somewhere down the line, but make it eight rounds this time. Maybe we could headline here, because I know we could pack the place.”

WBC Minimumweight title-holder Carina Moreno [17-1] continued her march towards a date with Eileen Olszewski in June on a female pay-per-view card by winning a unanimous decision over the game Mayela Perez [7-6-1]. Both fighters were willing to trade and never seemed to tire, and this was a good stay busy fight for Moreno while she waits for a title defense against Dan-Bi Kim and her fight with Olszewski. All three judges scored the bout, 40-36. The victory also won Moreno the AM&I Cup and a $500 bonus for winning the “You Be the Judge” contest, which was given to the best performance of all the four round preliminary fights.

Rico Ramos [1-0] won a unanimous decision in his professional debut against Sammy Yniguez [2-2-1]. Ramos dominated the fight, hurting and nearly stopping Yniguez multiple times. Ramos landed some uppercuts that would have put most fighters down, but Yniguez seemed to have a chin made of granite, and would get his legs back soon after being stunned. All three judges scored the bout 40-36, and Ramos said he will next be fighting on the Antonio Tarver-Danny Green/Chad Dawson-Glen Johnson double header on April 12th against a yet to be determined opponent.

Eric Garcia [0-0-1] fought to a majority draw in his professional debut with Marlo Cortez [2-4-2]. Garcia seemingly won the first two rounds with ease, but in the third round, Cortez was backing Garcia straight backwards and was landing some good combinations in the process. Cortez controlled the first two minutes of the round, while Garcia was the aggressor over the final minute. In the fourth round, both fighters went to war, with Cortez getting the best of it to start the round. When the referee stopped the action to examine a cut under the left eye of Cortez, Garcia got his second wind and swarmed his opponent to close the final minute of the fight. Unfortunately for Garcia, it was only enough to win on one judge’s scorecard 39-37, while the other two judges scored it even at 38-38. Garcia’s camp could not believe the outcome. “I went in and I got robbed. It hurts. I feel bad for the next opponent.”

In the opening fight, Mike Dallas, Jr. [1-0] emerged victorious against Alejandro Balladares [0-1] in a fight between guys making their professional debuts. Dallas, Jr. earned a unanimous decision by using his noticeably quicker hands and superior skills. Dallas had Balladares hurt a few times, but was unable to put his opponent down. The judges all scored the bouth 40-36 in favor of Dallas. Dallas will next be fighting on April 26th in Porterville, California.

The card was promoted by Goosen Tutor Promotions. Both the headlining and co-headlining bouts will appear on Fox Sports Net’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period” on March 27th. All of the preliminary fights are also said to be broadcast on Fox Sports Net. The next Fight Night at the Tank is scheduled for June 19th. Read more!

Brinkley TKOs Griffin!

Mark Ortega

In a main event featuring two former boxing reality stars, “Contender” star Jesse Brinkley emerged victorious via eleventh round knockout over Otis Griffin, the winner of “The Next Great Champ”, earning him the vacant WBC USNBC Super Middleweight Championship in the process.

Brinkley [ 30-5-0 ] controlled the fight from the opening bell, pressuring Griffin all night against the ropes. The overhand right was the punch that landed all night for Brinkley, but it was the left hook which put Griffin down in the tenth and ultimately finished him in the eleventh. Griffin [ 18-3-2 ] had trouble all night landing anything of meaning, and never had Brinkley in any sort of real trouble. Brinkley was able to bully Griffin against the ropes and control the tempo of the fight and won nearly every round before dropping Griffin at the end of the tenth round. A bombardment of punches to start the eleventh prompted the referee to wave the bout off, much to Griffin ’s decline. Griffin is expected to continue fighting as a light heavyweight, as he had a lot of trouble making super middleweight and was noticeably drained heading into the fight. When asked what his future holds, Brinkley stated, “I am looking for that world championship. I am hoping to have a couple more fights before challenging for a world title on HBO.” In the co-feature, a rematch between Glenn Donaire and Jose Albuquerque won the fans over in what is surely one of the best fights of 2008. Unfortunately, only the fans in attendance were able to view this as the card was not televised. Donaire [ 17-3-1 ] won a unanimous decision, avenging a draw with Albuquerque [ 8-3-2 ] from 2006 in his first fight in a little over fourteen months following his knockout loss to Vic Darchinyan. Both fighters went toe-to-toe for much of the fight, leading to a few headbutts and elbows thrown by Albuquerque , which were deemed unintentional. Both fighters were cut, with Albuquerque being busted open pretty badly. The scores were 79-73, 77-75, 77-75. Donaire and his team are hoping to setup a fight with IBF champion Ulises Solis sometime in the future.

In the card’s only upset, Oakland , California ’s Tony Hirsch knocked out Reno ’s Derek Hinkey in the final round of a scheduled four-round contest. Hirsch landed the overhand right at will, due mainly to the fact that Hinkey did very little to defend himself. Hirsch [ 4-1-0 ] has only one loss on his record, stemming from a TKO loss in which the fight was stopped prematurely when Hirsch was against the ropes. Hinkey [ 4-1-0 ] drops his first professional fight, and many, including Hirsch and his team, wonder if the scorecards would have favoured the hometown fighter if the fight reached a decision. “I knew I had to knock him out to win,” said Hirsch after the fight. “I thought they might steal it from me.” When asked what is in the future for Hirsch, his manager Repo Ric declared loudly that they are targeting Sacramento prospect Brandon Gonzales and would like to fight him within the next year. It is also possible that Hirsch could appear on San Jose ’s March 20th show at The Tank in which Andre Ward will be headlining.

Emily Klinefelter won in her professional debut, earning a four-round unanimous decision over the game Elizabeth Cervantes. Klinefelter punished Cervantes for much of the exciting bout, with Cervantes landing a few good exchanges over the course of the four two-minute rounds. An amateur national champion, Klinefelter’s future is a bright one, and she proved she can take as much punishment as she can dish in her first victory as a professional.

The first fight of the night was a good scrap between lightweights as Michael Peralta of Carson City won an entertaining four-round majority decision over Oscar Marin of Las Vegas . The first few rounds were close, but Marin’s conditioning caught up with him and he tired over the last few rounds, allowing Peralta to pull a win out. Scores were 40-36, 40-36, and 38-38.

The card was promoted by “Let’s Get it On Promotions” and was held at the beautiful Silver Legacy Resort & Casino. Promoter Terry Lane is looking to host another show sometime in May, and could very likely use Brinkley as the headliner in defence of his newly won crown. Read more!

Norris upsets Simms, local fighters shine in support.

Mark Ortega

Damian Norris scored a shocking upset over Michael Simms in a ten-round battle of heavyweights Thursday night at the Red Lion Hotel in downtown Sacramento, California.

Norris [11-5-0] was awarded a split decision victory having won 98-92 and 96-94 on two scorecards while Simms won 97-93 on one judge’s card. Many people were left wondering how Norris won the fight when he had not landed very many clean punches over the course of the ten rounds. Simms [19-8-1] did himself no favor by staying against the ropes and letting Norris throw combinations, even if the punches did not land cleanly. Simms landed the much cleaner shots throughout the fight, including a huge right hand that had Norris hurt in the fifth round. Simms was hoping a win in this fight would be the beginning of a descent to the cruiserweight ranks, especially after he came into the fight in pretty good shape following a more than ten month layoff.

On the undercard, Ernesto Castaneda won a six-round unanimous decision over Christian Cruz in a battle of local super middleweights. Castaneda outworked Cruz from the beginning, and found an opening with the right hand throughout the fight. Cruz [12-9-1] was rusty in his first fight back following a loss to rising prospect Jean Pascal back in June of last year. Castaneda [10-7-1], one of four fighting brothers, won by the scores of 60-54, 59-55, and 59-54.

Local middleweight Brandon Gonzales needed only twenty-two seconds to notch his third professional victory as he easily dispatched Flavio Cardoza with a huge left hook. Cardoza [1-2-0] came into the fight six pounds overweight, but Gonzales agreed to fight anyways and it worked in his favor. Gonzales [3-0] is scheduled to fight in two weeks on the undercard of Otis Griffin-Jesse Brinkley in Reno on February 22nd.

Lightweight Stan Martyniouk, also a Sacramento based fighter, scored his second professional win by winning a unanimous decision over Jesus Hernandez. Martyniouk [2-0] had Hernandez down in both the second and third rounds, with both knockdowns coming towards the end of rounds in which Hernandez [2-2] was competitive in. The scores weren’t disclosed. Martyniouk looked impressive after narrowly winning his professional debut back in October.

The Red Lion Hotel has announced that they will be holding another boxing show April 24th, which is likely to be promoted by Uppercut Promotions, who ran Thursday night’s card.

In attendance were a slew of local fighters, including junior welterweight contender Juan Lazcano and “The Next Great Champ” winner Otis Griffin. Lazcano is looking to return to the ring in May, while Griffin is in the middle of preparing for his fight in Reno, Nevada on February 22nd with Jesse Brinkley.
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