Kirkland-Angulo: As hot as it is going to get?

Also eight other matchups and whether they would come off better now or later
Mark Ortega


There are fights out there that quickly grasp the attention of the boxing public, sometimes a bit too early in time for it to be a realistic possibility based on where in their careers those two fighters are. That is one of the many things that make our sport intriguing, it is all in the timing. It isn’t like football or baseball, where they play basically the same set schedule with a few differences here and there. In boxing, you never can guess where you will be eight months from now; let alone two to five years from now.

With that said, in boxing, many times a fight will start building up heat and excitement even if it doesn’t make sense at that exact moment for that fight to come off. Promoters are always trying to build a fight up so much until both guys are at similar stages in their career, near their projected primes, so that it makes the most money. A lot of times, this has worked and many fights have come together that took years of build-up to produce. It seems that fights like Hagler-Hearns and Tyson-Holyfield, despite their numerous setbacks, were always meant to come together the way they did, and it served the winners in both of those fights much better based on the timing.

On the opposing side of things, let’s go to the end of 2005. Jermain Taylor had just dethroned long-reigning middleweight kingpin Bernard Hopkins and then successfully defended his newly-gained unified 160-pound titles in a rematch shortly following. His stock would not be any higher, as in his subsequent title defenses he would fight three junior middleweights coming up and look unspectacular in each instance. Taylor would finally defend his titles against Kelly Pavlik, who had never fought more than a few pounds below the 160-pound middleweight limit. Two losses had Taylor out of the top-tier and his future in question.

Jeff Lacy, former Olympic teammate to Taylor, was also on top of the mountain at the end of 2005. He was coming off of his fourth straight title defense of his IBF super middleweight title in which he knocked out Scott Pemberton inside of two rounds. Lacy would also never reach a higher point in his career, soon after losing terribly to Joe Calzaghe in a 168-pound unification bout. Lacy has since not found his way back to the top, and it doesn’t look likely with how tough both 168 and 175 have become.

Now, at this point most people said that a fight between the two needed a little more time to develop. Hindsight is 20/20, but when this fight finally came off late last year it did not pose quite the level of excitement that it would have circa early 2006. Both guys were at a crossroads in their career rather than jockeying for position amongst the top of everybody’s pound-for-pound lists.

A fight such as that took place just a few weeks back, a lightweight battle between Juan Manuel Marquez and Juan Diaz, arguably the best 135-pounders in the world. There is unquestionably no other time in either fighter’s career that this fight would have had as much heat as it did a little more than two weeks ago. It was that perfect situation where the winner gains quite a bunch in victory while the loser deteriorates very little in the eyes of the public.

There is a fight currently brewing at 154-pounds that is generating a high level of excitement that has people starting to wonder if its too soon to take place. It’s a fight that guarantees a Fight of the Year caliber performance, one between James Kirkland and Alfredo Angulo. Many are pressing for it, but is it too soon?

Neither fighter is a belt holder at this point in their careers, but how important is that? We already have gotten to a point where the titles don’t really carry much significance to the general public so why risk a big fight like this over trying to grab a belt? Getting a belt at 154 might be tough, and there aren’t very many faded fighters with names at junior middleweight for these guys to add to their ledger in the meantime. Both guys have glaring weaknesses in their defense and can be beaten by a slick boxer such as Sergio Gabriel Martinez. Both of these guys run the risk of being exposed like Lacy was by Calzaghe, so a fight between these two might not get any hotter than it is already.

There are quite a few other fights that sit in this exact situation. Let’s take a look at each one and weigh the options on which would be a better choice, if this fight happened immediately or if we gave it some time to marinate.

David Haye vs. Chris Arreola – heavyweight
Now or Later? Now. Haye is having trouble locking down a fight with Wladimir Klitschko currently, mainly due to the ridiculous demands coming from the Klitschko side of things. Arreola has a bout with Jameel McCline, his first real test, for the April undercard of Paul Williams against Winky Wright. If Arreola gets by McCline, these guys should just go straight at each other rather than wait for Wlad. Wlad would then likely be forced into a fight with mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin, who at this stage in his career has more of the tools necessary for beating Wladimir Klitschko than either Haye or Arreola. Nobody can deny that a Haye-Arreola fight has a lot more excitement behind it than either guy going against Wlad. Haye’s shortcomings are his chin and stamina, Arreola’s are his defense and conditioning. Both fighters’ weaknesses play into each other’s strengths, and it would likely be a battle of who lands the first big punch. If these guys stick to the current path, there is a high risk of being beaten very badly by Wladimir and never recovering from that.

Tavoris Cloud vs. Yusaf Mack – light heavyweight
Now or Later? Later. Boxing fans are just starting to realize how good these two young fighters are, there is no sense in spoiling that by pitting the two of them against each other right away. Especially when you consider the fact that 175 is stacked at the top with veteran fighters who are on their last legs, some being tougher than they look with others being prime for the pickings. At some point, the group of fighters that includes Roy Jones, Jr., Glen Johnson, Antonio Tarver, Clinton Woods, and Julio Gonzalez have to hang them up and make room for the young talent that crowds light heavyweight. Cloud is currently the mandatory to the IBF title that Chad Dawson will likely have to vacate, meaning Cloud could be fighting for a vacant title in his next fight. Mack has just started to erase his two embarrassing losses at super middleweight with his most recent win over Chris Henry being his biggest win to date. A fight between these two would make much more sense once they tidy up their resume a little bit. Neither guy is seemingly afraid of anyone, and Cloud is one of the best young American fighters coming up. Cloud against Glen Johnson would be a fantastic battle that could give him the kind of publicity needed to gain the attention of the big money fighters at the top.

Andre Ward vs. Andre Dirrell – super middleweight
Now or later? Now. This is a very similar situation to that of Taylor and Lacy. Both guys were on the same United States Olympic team. Unlike Taylor and Lacy, though, these two have been brought along rather slowly and carefully, so it is unlikely that these two fight each other anytime soon. 168 is a difficult division without very many big names along the way for either fighter to try and add to their resume without much risk. Both guys have fallen out of favor with the casual boxing fan before, but are creeping up on everyone’s watch lists again. Dirrell looked unimpressive in his fight against Curtis Stevens but has grabbed our attention again after thoroughly dominating Anthony Hanshaw en route to a fifth-round stoppage. Ward has looked great in his last few fights but has lacked that spectacular finish to his fights that people tend to notice. A win against an opponent the level of Dirrell would do wonders for Ward’s career.

Victor Ortiz vs. Mike Alvarado – junior welterweight
Now or Later? Later. Ortiz has busted onto the scene with spectacular wins on HBO programming, but Alvarado is not known outside of die-hard boxing circles. Both guys would be better suited adding another recognizable name or two to their resume, or even trying to pick up one of the many available titles at 140. I would like to see either guy fight Juan Lazcano, who still carries a name and a good enough test to get an idea of how good these two fighters are. Juan Urango is a world champion that many would favor both Ortiz and Alvarado over, so he remains a good possibility. Andriy Kotelnik, the WBA champion, hasn’t fought outside of Europe so unless Ortiz or Alvarado are willing to travel overseas, coming by a belt might be hard at 140 in the immediate future. Still, this fight needs a little time to sizzle before it gets put together.

Vicente Escobedo vs. Antonio DeMarco – lightweight
Now or Later? Now. Neither of these guys are very big names at all yet, but both have potential to be serious threats. Escobedo was one of Golden Boy Promotions’ first young fighters, and they received a lot of harsh criticism for moving him along very quickly at the beginning of his career. Following his decision loss to Daniel Jimenez, Golden Boy has gone the opposite way with Escobedo, moving him along at a snail’s pace. His win over Dominic Salcido was the biggest of his career, and it’s hard to say he looked fantastic in that one. DeMarco is coming off of a huge win against Kid Diamond, which many considered a mild upset. If these guys were to meet now, the winner would immediately be put in line for a shot at one of the many belts while the other would take a step back to where they just were. Waiting on this fight leaves a lot of potential for one of these guys to suffer another loss and be out of the discussion entirely.

Robert Guerrero vs. Jorge Linares – super featherweight
Now or Later? Later. This may surprisingly be the fight I wish to see the most. Guerrero, 25, just got his first shot on prime HBO television and suffered a cut and some bad luck against Daud Yordan. Linares, 23, only fought once in 2008 and has fought just once inside of the United States. Linares has many die-hard followers that have had the luck to see him in action very excited and expect to see him get more in the mix in 2009. His bout with Oscar Larios on the Hopkins-Wright undercard had lots of people talking, but a lot of that buzz wore off after he was laid off with an injury for most of 2008.

Nonito Donaire vs. Brian Viloria – flyweight
Now or Later? That all depends on how Viloria’s title shot against junior flyweight champion Ulises Solis shakes out on the undercard of Donaire’s title defense against Raul Martinez. Donaire could also easily lose to Martinez, so there is a lot to consider come April. But what makes this fight very interesting is the history between the two fighters. Viloria beat both Donaire brothers during the Olympic Trials and the Donaire clan has long felt that they were robbed against Viloria in both fights. Neither brother have made positive comments about Viloria in the past, so you could guess there may be some bad blood there. If Viloria were to become victorious against Solis (a very slim possibility), a fight between two Philippinos with world titles would be a rather big fight for a couple of undersized guys.

Ivan Calderon vs. Roman Martinez – junior flyweight
Now or Later? Now. Not many people have seen Martinez in action, but they probably have heard a thing or two. I have had the luck of seeing footage of Martinez, and he has a very good set of skills. This might not be a bout featuring two young fighters, as Calderon is 34, but it is a bout that has a small window of being very meaningful. Calderon is getting closer to the end of his career while Martinez, at 21, is just beginning what looks to be a very long one. Martinez looked fantastic in disposing of former minimumweight champion Yutaka Niida in four one-sided rounds. He didn’t look stellar in a recent title defense but still carries a lot of momentum behind him. Calderon is the undisputed king of boxing south of about 120 pounds, having gone undefeated through 32 professional bouts. The only other fight that poses as much interest would be seeing Calderon fight Ulises Solis in a battle of 108-pound kingpins.
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Kirkland takes Julio’s heart, title of biggest puncher at 154

Crowd turns out in full force for first Bay Area HBO card in eight years
Mark Ortega

In an exceptionally well-matched card on paper, Golden Boy Promotions presented three equally intriguing bouts featuring some of their hottest young stars and seemingly had a can’t miss card. Unfortunately, anything can happen in the sport of boxing, and that includes three high-profile bouts being less than expected for reasons that were uncontrollable. The HP Pavilion lured HBO into their town of San Jose, California with a mission to prove that the city is a fight fan city, and the hometown crowd was successful in that mission as 6,765 people were reported in attendance. On this night, however, quite a few instances occurred that took some of the air out of the tires that was the three televised bouts.

Kirkland seeks and destroys Julio, puts 154 on notice
In the evening’s featured bout, scalding-hot James Kirkland [25-0, 22 KOs] impressively forced former mega-prospect Joel Julio [34-3, 31 KOs] to quit after eight rounds of a scheduled ten in a bout between two of the division’s punchers. Early on, Kirkland made his mission clear that he was going to walk through anything Julio offered as well as respond with four or five punches of his own. It became clear early on that one fighter wanted to trade punches and one fighter was looking for spots to counter-punch in between the wreckage. Julio, to his credit, offered to engage in many evenly-matched exchanges with Kirkland throughout the bout, but was not able to finish the fight as he had suffered terrible swelling above his right eye.

Kirkland would control the first round, coming forward with pressure and heavy hands while Julio sprinkled in a few solid right counter punches and right uppercuts. The second round saw Julio put himself into the bout with a straight right followed by a wild right hook that stopped Kirkland for a second. Julio would occasionally land big punches that Kirkland would show no effect to, and that helped frustrate the more experienced Julio. In the third round, a heavy exchange of hooks would occur that saw Kirkland emerge on the more damaging side of it, stunning Julio with a wide arrange of straight rights up top and to the body. Kirkland would continue his assault to the body in round four, but would run into a few good right counters in the fifth round. Julio began to clinch more around the early rounds, and it was during this time that Kirkland dug big shots to the body to further slow him down.

Kirkland, the Austin, Texas native who is just 24 years old, already seems ready to challenge for a world title as early as this year. The determination of both he and trainer Ann Wolfe should put everyone near 154-pounds on alert that he has indeed arrived, and is not going to let anything get in his way of becoming a star.

Ortiz scores “Vicious” knockout of former title challenger Arnaoutis
“Vicious” Victor Ortiz [24-1-1, 19 KOs] came away with his most impressive victory to date, stopping Mike Arnaoutis [21-3-2, 10 KOs] for the first time in his career in two rounds. After a first round that saw both fighters come out tentatively, Ortiz pressed the fight in the second and then staggered Arnaoutis badly with a huge left hand, following it up with a brutal combination that saw both uppercuts and hooks score until Arnaoutis’ gloves came down, forcing the referee to stop the bout.
Arnaoutis looked flat from the beginning, never throwing enough punches and when he finally did, they were slow and telegraphed.

Ortiz has a lot of options at this point, and his next bout that will probably take place on either the May 2nd Hatton-Pacquiao undercard or a June 27th HBO Boxing After Dark. An exciting evenly-matched bout with Ortiz would be one with undefeated Top Rank prospect, Mike Alvarado, who tonight also scored a 10th round stoppage of the tested Emmanuel Clottey. A more likely opponent would be someone like Juan Lazcano, who has a recognizable name as well as past dealings with Golden Boy that make it possible from a promotional point of view.

Guerrero suffers tough break, cut causes halt to bout with Yordan in second
In the opening televised bout, local Bay Area favorite and Gilroy, California native Robert Guerrero [23-1-1, 16 KOs] was forced to a no contest by Daud Yordan [23-0, 17 KOs] of Indonesia when Yordan and Guerrero clashed heads, opening up a gash directly above the right eye of the hometown fighter. Guerrero immediately responded to the blood, pawing at it with his glove, illustrating clearly that it was affecting his vision. The referee called the doctor over to take a look and it was during this exchange that Guerrero made it known that he could not see at all and there was nothing that could be done other than stopping the bout, ruling it a no contest due to the accidental headbutt. It was unfortunate for Guerrero, who for the past few years has seemingly been just one step away from becoming a big star until one thing or another sidetracks him for a period of time.

The first such instance occurred when Guerrero, then undefeated, started to appear on everyone’s radar as a serious prospect. He fought a tough veteran named Gamaliel Diaz with one good performance left in him while at the same time possibly not giving Diaz the credit he deserved and was tagged with a split decision loss in an exciting contest. Guerrero would avenge his lone defeat two bouts later by scoring a sixth-round knockout of Diaz in emphatic fashion, putting him once again on the road to the top. Guerrero would earn a title shot against Eric Aiken on Showtime, ultimately forcing Aiken to retire on his stool after eight rounds to claim his first world title, the IBF 126-pound belt. Guerrero would again be knocked down a peg after losing a decision to Orlando Salido, which was later turned into a no contest when Salido failed the post-fight drug test. Guerrero would still lose his belt, but would earn a chance to reclaim it in his very next fight.

Guerrero would travel overseas to Denmark to do so, laying waste to Spend Abazi in the ninth round to again become the IBF 126-pound champion. After achieving such a high, Guerrero would suffer a rough patch in his personal life when his wife, Casey, was diagnosed with leukemia just two weeks before his November 2007 title defense against Martin Honorio. Guerrero wound up sticking with the fight, and many picked against him thinking he would not be mentally ready for a championship-level bout with all of this happening around him. Guerrero would prove those doubters wrong, knocking out Honorio in less than a round. Guerrero would later defend his belt successfully a second straight time when he knocked out Jason Litzau three months later. It was at this point that Guerrero decided his promoter at the time, Goossen-Tutor, had taken him as far as they could and that it was time to make a change.

This would cause a layoff of nearly a year that would lead up to Guerrero’s one-round destruction of capable veteran Edel Ruiz this January, his first bout under the Golden Boy Promotions banner.
Yordan, an unknown commodity to all but those that attended the Casamayor-Marquez card last September, landed lots of good straight left hands in the opening round but was met with some wicked body shots courtesy of “The Ghost”, as well as a few left hands that wobbled Yordan if only for a second. Their heads were destined to come together as they fought in close quarters the entire time, and a headbutt from the lunging-forward Yordan caused the cut over Guerrero’s right eye midway through the second.

The fight with Yordan was expected to be Guerrero’s coming out party, and nobody felt that was the case more than he, who expressed lots of disappointment in how the bout came to an end, throwing his hands in the air as he made his way around the ring to the cheers of the local crowd.

“This sucks. I was cut and I couldn’t do anything, I couldn’t see. I was here in front of my hometown fans, who turned out in great support, and this just sucks because I didn’t get to put a show on like I had wanted,” said Guerrero shortly afterwards.

Guerrero should be okay and is likely to appear on either the Hatton-Pacquiao undercard or the June 27th HBO date, either in a return bout with Yordan or against a new opponent.

Salinas native Perez finishes Garcia in four, eliminator with Salido in 2 weeks
Salinas, California native and Garcia Boxing stable-mate Eloy Perez [13-0-2, 3 KOs] scored a fourth-round knockout of Gabe Garcia [4-6-1, KO] in a scheduled six-round super featherweight bout. Perez, whose March 21st bout with Orlando Salido in an IBF eliminator at the Playboy Mansion looms just two weeks away, got through the bout without incident and looked strong in dominating every second of the bout.

Although Perez was fighting a guy in Garcia that is more than a few classes below the caliber fighter that Salido is, his power was surprisingly overwhelming and led to some scary moments in a bout that probably should have been stopped sooner. Perez dominated the bout from bell to bell, slicing the much slower Garcia with huge left hooks and uppercuts. In the second round, Perez landed a fantastic triple left-hand combination that staggered Garcia. The third round saw Eloy land a huge left hook that bounced Garcia against the ropes like a yo-yo, where he took more punishment until the referee finally decided to call it a knockdown. Eloy would close the show in the fourth round with an onslaught that could do nothing but convince the referee to stop the bout at 2:23 in the fourth round.

Mayfield edges Lozano in a battle of undefeated welterweight prospects
In a bout that had fans either booing or standing on their feet screaming, Karim “Hard Hitta” Mayfield [8-0-1, 5 KOs] of San Francisco, California overcame a slow start to win a unanimous decision over the formerly undefeated Mario Lozano [5-1, 4 KOs] of Chihuahua, Mexico in a rollercoaster six-round 147-pound bout. Mayfield, who seemed hesitant to throw any punches in the early goings, was consistently getting hit by straight and overhand rights of Lozano in the first two rounds. Lozano dropped Mayfield in the second round with a straight right, opening up a big early lead on the scorecards.

The third round saw a change in momentum as Mayfield, although not doing enough to win the round landed a few shots that moved his opponent for the first time in the fight. Mayfield still likely lost the round. Mayfield was able to keep it going into the next round, scoring a knockdown that caused much confusion to those at ringside.

Mayfield landed an overhand right that dropped Lozano, and then struck his opponent again while he was down on the canvas. Initially, many thought that a point had been taken away from Mayfield for hitting Lozano behind the head and that no knockdown was ruled, vastly changing the scoring on the round. It was cleared up by the commission that both a knockdown was ruled and a warning was issued to Mayfield, but no point was deducted. The fifth became a close round that saw both fighters open up more and therefore land at a higher rate.

The sixth round began with Mayfield trying to close the show big, and in the process he scored a knockdown that would ultimately determine the margin of victory in the bout. Judges at ringside had it 57-54, and 56-55 twice all for Mayfield by unanimous decision.

Huerta, Ramos bring So-Cal flavor to Nor-Cal card
Entering the night’s action, both Charles Huerta and Luis Ramos had fought exclusively in Southern California en route to becoming two of the lower half of the state’s most talked about prospects. Both fighters emerged victorious, with Huerta scoring a six-round split-decision victory over veteran Andres Ledesma in a bout that was not close at all and Ramos pounding out a four-round unanimous decision over the also experienced Anthony Martinez.

Huerta [9-0, 5 KOs], of Paramount, California followed Ledesma [15-12-1, 10 KOs] around the ring, occasionally landing a big punch or two along the way while his opponent felt the desire only to run and not exchange any punches. Huerta could have done a better job at cutting off the ring, as he seemed too willing to accommodate Ledesma on moving to his opponent’s right rather than taking a step to the right and firing a right-hand. That being said, there is no way possible that Ledesma won anything close to four rounds, as this was a clear one-sided bout. The buzz on Huerta is heavy, and he would be much better served to be in the ring with someone who is willing to engage him in a fight next time.

Ramos [10-0, 5 KOs], who hails from Santa Ana, California, was very impressive in totally dismantling former belt challenger Anthony Martinez [21-29-3, 9 KOs] in four one-sided rounds. Ramos tagged Martinez often with both left hooks to the body and right hooks to the head, nearly stopping his opponent numerous times. In the third round, Martinez absorbed a frightening amount of damage and ultimately should have been saved by the referee, but somehow he made it through the round. During the flurry of shots, the referee initially stepped in to halt the bout and then quickly changed his mind, allowing it to continue. Martinez would occasionally land an overhand right that would effect Ramos slightly, but never mounted anything close to a worthy offense. Golden Boy Promotions made it clear that Ramos was someone they were taking a close look at, and it was also his first appearance in the Bay Area.

“It gave me a lot of excitement, being here,” said Ramos following his victory. “I was so happy competing here for the first time, and my family came here to support me, so it was exciting.”

Promising heavyweights Jordan, Mitchell score devastating knockouts
Two heavyweights with a lot of weight behind them promotionally and managerially saw their stocks rise just a bit as both San Francisco, California’s Ashanti Jordan and Seth Mitchell of Brandywine, Maryland scored highlight-reel knockouts of overmatched opponents on the undercard.

Jordan [8-0, 7 KOs] ended a bout with battle-worn Willie Perryman [10-18, 7 KOs] of Clarksdale, Mississippi with a single left-hook to the chin that sent him down hard to the canvas. The bout was halted at 1:50 in the third round of a scheduled six-round heavyweight contest. Jordan is one of Golden Boy’s few young heavyweights, and they have put him on the undercard of many of these HBO cards.

Mitchell [10-0-1, 7 KOs] only needed 1:59 to dispatch his opponent, as he blasted Joseph Rabotte [3-5, KO] of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with an overhand right and followed it up with a devastating right hook to finish this bout much earlier than the scheduled six-rounds. Mitchell is managed by the well-known Shelly Finkel.

Dargan, no-contest round out Bay Area’s biggest card
In the card’s prematurely started opening bout of the day, Nazim Richardson junior welterweight project Karl Dargan [3-0, KO] scored the first knockout of his young professional career as he stopped Sergio Orantes [0-1] in the second round of a scheduled four with an overhand right that required no count before the bout was declared over. Dargan employed the Philadelphia style of turning your shoulder away from oncoming offense, being very effective defensively and in the process landing heavy leather as well.

The second bout of the evening was one between Newark, New Jersey’s Michael Perez [2-0, 2 KOs] and Andres Reyes [1-1-1] of Los Angeles, California that was ruled a no-decision when the two clashed heads, causing a cut above the eye of Reyes. The scheduled four-round lightweight bout came to an end at the end of the first round when the doctor decidedly halted the bout.

Golden Boy sees a future in the Bay
At the post-fight press conference all the figureheads of Golden Boy Promotions unanimously agreed that they would love to come back to the Bay Area after seeing the crowd of 6,765 people show up in full force. Even more surprising was that a lot of the crowd turned up in time to see many of the preliminary bouts, and that is something you don’t see on a lot of the big cards these days. It clearly points out that the average Bay Area fight fan is willing to show up early for boxing as long as the boxing is worth viewing, and the preliminary action certainly had a lot of intrigue to it.

De La Hoya referred to Guerrero, Ortiz, and Kirkland as their young hot prospects when in reality, one of the fighters has already claimed a world title and the other two are not close behind that pace. When posed a question on whether it would be in Golden Boy’s future interest to participate in small-scale shows around the Bay Area, De La Hoya seemed open to the possibility.

“We don’t just want to try and bring HBO here, we would love to be involved with some smaller-scale shows in the Bay Area now that we have seen the response to what we brought here today,” said De La Hoya.
It would make sense for Golden Boy to, at the very least, establish a working relationship with some of the club and regional promoters along the Bay Area so that they could have a heavier handful of scheduled dates to put their truly young fighters that have yet to establish themselves as anything more than young professionals.

Kirkland-Angulo, desired but not quite marinated
The one fight at junior middleweight that everyone has been clamoring for is one between Kirkland and fellow young undefeated 154-pounder, Alfredo Angulo. Angulo was in attendance for the night’s action, and has a close eye on Kirkland as a future opponent. Kirkland noted in the post-fight press conference that he knows Angulo very well and what he offers, and if they were to ever fight he imagines he would stop him. A fight between the two now would stir a lot of response from the die-hard boxing fans, but it is likely that if this bout ever happens it would be down the road when one or both of the fighters have titles.

The only potential roadblock in negotiations for this fight lies at the feet of Gary Shaw, who used to promote Kirkland and has made it clear in the past that he does not like to work with people who have burned him. Take, for instance, his comments following the Darchinyan-Mijares bout when Vic was pressed about a potential Darchinyan-Donaire rematch. He immediately broke into the conversation with the answer of “No way” and the fact that he doesn’t “reward unloyalty” as he put it. If that is just an excuse to keep Vic out of harms way or the actual truth, nobody knows. Kirkland has made it known that he doesn’t feel Shaw would get in the way of negotiations for a future bout, which is good news for those that believe that.

Ringside guests Jack Mosley and Andre Ward make note of current plans
The first big Bay Area fight card in years also brought out quite the array of those famous within the boxing circle. Along with Angulo, Jack Mosley was in attendance, as well as Oakland, California native and Olympic Gold-medal winner Andre Ward. Mosley assisted in the corner of Eloy Perez, as both he and son Shane Mosley have a long-time relationship with the Garcia family that manages Eloy.

Along with working with two heavyweights right now, Jack trains Shane, Jr., the 17-year old son of Shane who wishes to continue the family legacy of boxing. Jack also noted that his grandson would like to do something his father didn’t even do, and that is win an Olympic gold-medal. The eldest son of the Mosley children also plans on attending college.

Andre Ward said he will likely be fighting somewhere during the first or second week of May, possibly at the Oracle Arena in Oakland. Ward seemed enthusiastic in response to the turnout for this big local card on HBO, saying that it looks good for the future of boxing in the Bay.

Final thoughts
Although the main portion of the card was a slight let-down due to unforeseeable occurrences, I am fairly certain that the hometown crowd will turn out again in heaps for another boxing card that promises to deliver at this level. This may be wishful thinking, and many other local boxing staples who have many more years of experience than I have convinced me that it is, but maybe this is the spark that the Bay Area needed to start churning out fun, guaranteed action-packed cards with recognizable names and high intrigue. The fact that many followed the few So-Cal fighters that competed on Saturday night up to the Bay also helps convince you that people will come out to support fighters from California both north and south.

It is interesting to note that when Golden Boy first started up, one of the first places they promoted regularly was in San Jose, and they were the first behind the “Fight Night at the Tank” series that is still running. Even if Golden Boy isn’t interested in devoting the time to organizing these smaller scale cards anymore, there are a slew of promoters who haven’t been putting on their regular shows over the past few years that would be willing to basically do the work for them.

Northern California longs for the past days that saw many fighters on the way up make stops in the area on their way to greatness. Just the other day, I saw a clip from an old card of longtime Santa Cruz and Monterey promoter Jerry Hoffman from 1994 that featured a young “Sugar” Shane Mosley, an at-the-time world-ranked Hector Lizarraga, and a rematch between Maui Diaz and Felipe Garcia all on one card. More recently Hoffman was promoting shows that featured talent like Eloy Perez, Jose Celaya and female minimumweight champion Carina Moreno until he lost his sponsors following his last show in October of 2007.

In order for boxing to thrive in the Bay it needs more than just the big cards to do that, it needs the regional cards to make fans remember why they enjoy boxing and to also help develop the next era’s local stars.

All photos courtesy of Jason Pachura.

Mark Ortega can be reached at mark@ultimateboxingresults.com
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Young Stars of Golden Boy Set to Rise

Weigh-In Results, HBO Boxing After Dark Preview


Mark Ortega

Tomorrow night will mark the first time in a long time that HBO is televising boxing from California’s Bay Area, once regarded as one of boxing’s biggest pools of young talent. On both the televised and non-televised portions of the card, young talent harvested from this very stretch of land will be trying to leave a memory in the minds of Golden Boy Promotions, who is promoting this extravagant triple-header set to be televised Saturday night at 10PM ET on HBO’s Boxing After Dark from the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California. Considering that the expected turnout for this card far exceeds both what people expected as well as any card to take place in Northern California in nearly a decade, the pressure will be on all of these fighters to produce both great performances and exciting action.


It is interesting to note is that not a single fighter on the “A” side of any of the ten scheduled bouts is over the age of thirty save for one, 31-year old Golden Boy heavyweight prospect and Fairfield, California native Ashanti Jordan. This makes it clear that on top of snatching up the best already developed talent in the sport, Golden Boy is now starting to make a move towards developing their own fighters. In the past few years, Golden Boy has slowly developed fighters Vicente Escobedo, Abner Mares, Danny Garcia, Daniel Jacobs, and Rock Allen, who was slated to fight on this bill against Rogelio Castaneda, Jr. but pulled out after having some dental work done, from hot commodities into sure-fire prospects.

The three televised bouts make it just how clear they are about their commitment to their young talent, new and old. You could call this card the “Night of the Stolen Prospects” as James Kirkland (Gary Shaw), Victor Ortiz (Top Rank), and Robert Guerrero (Goossen-Tutor) all came from other promoters as little as six months ago. Note that in those six months, which began with Ortiz being the first to join Golden Boy, all three of these fighters have appeared on HBO television a tremendous three out of their four fights. The only fight not to appear on HBO’s was Guerrero’s tune-up bout against Edel Ruiz from the off-TV portion of Margarito-Mosley in January. Even if that bout was televised Guerrero would have received nearly the same amount of airtime as he finished Ruiz in 43 seconds. The point is, Golden Boy is committing to their young talent.

In the opening bout of the televised portion, you have Guerrero [23-1-1, 16 KOs], a fighter who had desperately been asking for a big bout on HBO near his hometown of Gilroy, California for years. He had fought in San Jose a few times before, even headlining, but not on a card the magnitude of tomorrow night’s. Golden Boy delivered in two fights what his previous promoter had been unable to do since taking control of Guerrero at the beginning of his career. At the same time, he was led to a world title and a subsequent second world title under this same guidance so you can’t dismiss them entirely. Guerrero will be taking on the unknown Daud Yordan [23-0, 17 KOs], the second Indonesian fighter to make their way onto HBO programming in the last two weeks, following Chris John’s impressive draw against Rocky Juarez on last weekend’s magnificent Juan Manuel Marquez-Juan Diaz card. Both fighters weighed in at the super featherweight limit of 130 pounds in this bout which is for the vacant NABO 130-pound title.

When asked if he thought he had an advantage, being the unknown commodity in the United States with only a few rounds of footage available, Yordan seemed hesitant in answering before admitting that it has to be a slight advantage at the least. Yordan feels he could come out with any kind of gameplan and fool Guerrero, and he plans on unleashing a few surprises along the way. Guerrero has said he is ready for the challenge, and won’t rely solely on the couple of rounds he was able to view of his opponent and will instead take it as he goes. Guerrero has widely stated that he feels no added pressure, but being the local draw on an HBO telecast is a big deal to his career, and he must know that. In trying to think of potential opponents in the future, Robert Guerrero has targeted the tough Humberto Soto, who currently holds the WBC 130-pound title. If Guerrero should win you can almost guarantee that he will again be on premium TV for his next bout in some capacity.

Following Guerrero-Yordan is a twelve round bout for both the NABO and the USBA junior welterweight titles between hard-hitting ESPN.com 2008 Prospect of the Year, Victor Ortiz of Oxnard, California, and former alphabelt challenger Mike Arnaoutis of Greece. Arnaoutis [21-2-2, 10 KOs] brings a lot of experience with him in the ring for a fighter who has yet to hit 30. He has taken on the likes of present and past belt-holders Kendall Holt (L UD12 to), Juan Urango (D12) and Ricardo Torres (L SD12 to), never losing more than a close decision. Although unsuccessful in two attempts at winning a “prestigious” belt from one of the four main sanctioning bodies, a win for “Mighty Mike” over Ortiz would put him right back in line for a third shot. With both fighters coming in at the junior welterweight limit of 140 pounds, questions about the preparedness of these two can fly right out the window.

Ortiz [23-1-1, 18 KOs] comes across as the Fernando Vargas of this next batch of young stars, but with an added twist. Ortiz likes to clown around and have a lot of fun while Vargas seemed to always be pretending whenever he was supposed to be having a lot of fun. The proof in the merit of Ortiz’ reputation lies in the fact that for this fight, which does not feature any one big name, loads of boxing reporters from Southern California are going to be in attendance thanks to the heavy So-Cal flavor in Ortiz, as well as a few undercard bouts.

In the night’s main event, a very closely matched bout between top contenders James Kirkland of Austin, Texas and Joel Julio of Monteria, Columbia will take place in a ten-round junior middleweight bout that promises to end early. Kirkland [24-0, 21 KOs] has made it clear he has worked hard for this bout and plans on running through Julio like a train. Surprisingly, Kirkland was not bashful in making it clear what his next target is should he emerge victorious Saturday night, equally-impressive junior middleweight contender Alfredo Angulo.

“That’s basically what we are building toward, now. This fight, and then that one,” Kirkland said in response to the name Angulo being thrown out.

“I just think he’s an average fighter. If we fight each other, I’m gonna crush him.”

A Kirkland-Angulo perspective bout has die-hard boxing fans salivating as it all-but-guarantees a Fight of the Year candidate between two hard-hitting young fighters that have so far looked unstoppable. The only roadblock, seemingly, is the fact that Gary Shaw promotes Angulo, and Kirkland just got away from Shaw before arriving at Golden Boy in October. Kirkland does not think that will pose a problem to future negotiations.

“We don’t have any hard feelings, Golden Boy should be able to get it done,” assured Kirkland.

Kirkland is expected to have his hands full with his opponent, Joel Julio, who is coming off of a decision loss to WBO 154-pound champion Sergiy Dzinziruk back in November of last year. Julio [34-2, 31 KOs] gave a solid account of himself in a losing effort, and has made it known he is going to bounce back by ending the young dreams of Kirkland with his heavy right hand. Many people don’t expect this fight to go the distance and a surprising number of people are giving Julio the best chance of scoring a huge upset on the night’s card. Julio weighed in at the junior middleweight limit of 154 pounds while Kirkland came in a half-pound light at 153 ½.

There are quite a few intriguing bouts on the stacked undercard, which features eight bouts in total.

A stand-out bout featuring Ashanti Jordan, one of Golden Boy’s few heavyweight prospects, against the experienced William Perryman is slated for six rounds. Jordan [7-0, 6 KOs], of San Francisco, California, came in at 220 pounds while Perryman [10-17, 7 KOs], of Clarksdale, Mississippi, outweighed him by only two pounds at 222. Jordan has a win over equally experienced John Clark under his belt, so don’t expect him to not know what to expect against a fighter who has been around long enough to learn a few tricks.

Another prospect on a few boxing watch-lists is young featherweight Charles Huerta of Paramount, California. Huerta will be fighting the experienced Andres Ledesma of Miami, Florida by way of Colombia, in a six-round junior lightweight clash. Huerta has been moved along rather quickly, with tomorrow night’s bout against Ledesma being the fourth time that he has taken on a fighter with more than twenty-five bouts under their belt as a professional. Huerta’s extensive amateur career has his people resting easy about this decision, and he will be getting into the ring with someone who has fought (and lost) against the likes of Jesus Chavez (TKO9 by), Mario Santiago (TKO4 by), Raul Martinez (TKO8 by) and Juan Carlos Burgo (UD8 to). His biggest win to date is a May 2007 fifth-round stoppage of once-beaten Gary Stark, Jr. Ledesma would lose a close unanimous decision in the rematch, and he has also lost six of his last seven bouts with his lone win coming against an opponent with one recorded victory. Ledesma came in heavy at 127.5 while Huerta came in at 125.


Undefeated San Francisco, California native Karim Mayfield makes his fifth appearance at the HP Pavilion in nine professional bouts when he meets fellow undefeated welterweight Mario Lozano of Chihuahua, Mexico in a six-round contest. Mayfield came in at 147 ½ pounds while Lozano weighed in at the welterweight limit of 147 pounds. Mayfield [7-0-1, 5 KOs] will be fighting a fourth undefeated foe in his last five fights, emerging from each of these situations as the fighter who was able to hold onto his “0”. Lozano [5-0, 4 KOs] will provide a tough test as he fits the blueprint of a tough Mexican fighter with plenty of heart and power but not much in terms footwork and speed. This fight could be determined by which fighter is in the better condition, and many expect it to be one of the bigger crowd-pleasing fights of the undercard.


Espinoza Boxing Club prospect Luis Ramos takes on 50+ fight veteran and former WBO title challenger Anthony Martinez in a six-round lightweight bout. Ramos [9-0, 5 KOs] of Santa Ana, California has been heavily watched in the So-Cal boxing scene and will now make his first appearance in the Northern California region on Saturday night’s card.

In Martinez [21-28-3, 9 KOs], Ramos has an opponent who has just come off of a February loss to another young fighter south of 140 pounds in Mike Dallas, Jr., losing a unanimous decision. Ramos could try and one-up Dallas by scoring a more emphatic victory, and he has two extra rounds to work with on top of that. Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer made note that Ramos was one of the fighters their company was looking closely at in terms of a potential new addition to their young stable of lions, so there is quite a bit on the line in this one. Ramos weighed in at 136 pounds and Martinez tipped the scales at 137.

San Jose favorite Eloy Perez will be taking a tune-up bout before his expected March 21st clash with Orlando Salido in an IBF featherweight eliminator, taking on Glendale, Arizona’s Gabe Garcia in a six-round super featherweight bout. Both fighters came into the bout weighing 130 ½ pounds. Perez [12-0-2, 2 KOs] also had the luxury of working with Robert Guerrero in sparring for the past two weeks before the fight. Guerrero suffered a loss to Salido that was later overturned to a no contest when Salido did not pass his drug test. At 22 years old, Perez would be receiving a tremendous opportunity should the bout with Salido come off, and Eloy does not plan on wasting it.

“Personally, I think I can beat Salido. I am ready for this fight, it’s my shot to be in the mix. I took this fight so that I can stay sharp because it has been awhile since my last fight,” said Perez at the weigh-in. Should a bout with Salido fall through, Perez still has plenty of time to worry about another opportunity in his young boxing career.

Garcia [4-5-1, KO] should be familiar with Perez as they have fought on a show together promoted by Jerry Hoffman in Monterey back in October of 2007. Both fighters came out of that card victorious, this time one of them will have to leave on the losing end.

Shelly Finkel managed heavyweight prospect Seth Mitchell of Brandywine, Maryland will be meeting Long Beach, California’s Jason Rabotte in the second scheduled six-round heavyweight bout of the night. Mitchell [9-0-1, 6 KOs] has either provided highlight-reel knockouts or very mediocre distance performances. Rabotte [3-4, KO] has a wide unanimous decision over a 3-0 fighter to his name and not much else, but should give Mitchell a round or two, hopefully.

Rounding out the card is Nazim Richardson project Karl Dargan of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania taking on Sergio Orantes of Carson, California, who is making his professional debut. Dargan [2-0] turned pro in December of 2007 but has only had two professional fights. Dargan is hoping that in 2009 he can stay busier and fight more than once every six months. Dargan weighed in at 138 ½ and Orantes weighed in at 137 ½ for this four-round junior welterweight contest.

HBO’s March 7th Boxing After Dark marks the first time they have covered a fight from Northern California’s Bay Area since a 2001 card that pitted Floyd Mayweather, Jr. against Jesus Chavez that took place in San Francisco. Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer has made it clear that if this show is a success they will make a conscious effort to make more big fights up north rather than letting them all get picked up by the casinos or southern California, which is great news for those who thought boxing was dying a slow death in those parts of the state.

Tickets for the event, promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, are available online at Ticketmaster.com.

Random Ramblings:
-The Rock Allen-Rogelio Castaneda, Jr. bout that was originally slated to take place on this card has been moved to the ARCO Arena card on March 26th due to Allen having some dental work done recently.
-Of the six fighters featured on the televised broadcast, only two fighters fight orthodox (Julio and Yordan).
-All three A-sides of these fights are American-born fighters and all three B-sides of these fights were born outside of the United States. Four continents are represented on this all-world card.
-Kirkland and Julio, the two guys in the main event, are the only two fighters to have fought on non-PPV HBO television in the past. The other four fighters are new faces to the regular subscribers to the channel.
-Aside from McGirt's work in Vernon Forrest's corner, can anyone remember the last time McGirt was in the corner of the winning side of a meaningful fight? That's bad news for Mike Arnaoutis, who brought McGirt in for his fight against Ortiz.

Photos courtesy of Mario Ortega, Jr.

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



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Paul Nave Weigh-In Results

Mark Ortega

On the eve of the first HBO card to take place in the Bay Area in a little over eight years, another staple to the area will return to boxing as "The Marin County Assassin" Paul Nave returns to the ring following an equally long eight-year layoff to take on unheralded yet tested Mikhall Lyubarsky at the Marin Center Exhibit Hall in San Rafael, California.



Nave [15-8-2, 7 KOs], who is best known for his 1998 ESPN-televised conquering of former junior welterweight beltholder and Julio Cesar Chavez foe, Greg Haugen, is now 48 years old but still feels that he has enough left to get back in the ring. Nave fought Haugen three times, with all three wars taking place at the same venue he will be fighting at tonight. Although those bouts did not display the most tactical of in-ring skills by either fighter, they showed that Nave has world-class heart and will as he grinded out a win even though he was the much more limited fighter.

Lyubarsky [3-9. KO], of Hollywood, California by way of the Ukraine, flashes a very unappealing record as a professional, but in his last three bouts he has been in the ring with fighters that were at least a few classes above him in terms of skill. He has been in the ring with a few prospects such as Brian Mihtar and Donald Orr, failing to make it out of the second round against either.

Nave weighed in at a trim 152 pounds, while his opponent tipped the scales at 159 pounds. Nave showed no reluctance in accepting the bout anyways, which is fortunate since he is the main draw on the card, as well as the promoter.

In an intriguing bout at 159 pounds, former ShoBox participant Enrique Gutierrez will take on David Tabatadze in a battle of two fighters of vastly different experience levels. Gutierrez [10-3, 8 KOs] of Santa Rosa, California ran off ten straight wins to start his professional career, but has since suffered three straight losses, one of which came at the hands of Shamone Alvarez who is fighting tonight as well in an eliminator. Tabatadze [2-0, KO] of Reseda, California is only a few bouts into his professional career and is matched very tough in this one after his original opponent fell out. The bout was originally scheduled for four rounds, but with the addition of Gutierrez it makes much more sense as a six-round bout. Gutierrez weighed in at 157.5 pounds while Tabatadze came in at 159.

Also in action is junior welterweight prospect Alex Paracha [1-0, KO] of San Francisco, California against the always tough Dario Castillo [5-8-1] of Pittsburg, California. Paracha fought Castillo three times in the amateurs, so it is safe to say these two know each other quite well. Paracha weighed in at 140 while Castillo tipped the scales at 139 for this four-round bout.

Dario Castillo's brother, Daniel, will also be fighting tonight as he takes on Michaelangelo Lynks in a six-round welterweight bout. Daniel Castillo [2-4-1, KO], also of Pittsburg, has only lost by decision, with all but one defeat coming by majority or split decision. Castillo will be fighting a six-rounder for the first time in his professional career. Lynks [6-9-2, 2 KOs] has been scheduled for ten before and has gone as many as eight rounds in the past, so expect the Los Angeles, California native to be ready for the later rounds. Castillo weighed in at 147.25 while Lynks came in ready at 144.

Rounding out the card is a four-round middleweight fight between George Uberti of Navato, California and DeMarcus Stephens of Oakland, California. Stephens formerly worked in the gym with Olympic gold medal winner Andre Ward and will be making his professional debut tonight. He weighed in at 158, while his opponent, who is also making his debut, also weighed in at 158.

Tickets for the event, promoted by Liberty Boxing Enterprises, are available online at Ticketmaster.com. Read more!