When the sport of Boxing is under normal circumstances
and not under the scenario of which it has been for nearly two years due to the
ongoing global COVID-19 epidemic, one of the more anticipated periods of time
for the Boxing schedule comes over Thanksgiving weekend here in the United
States as several interesting cards both here in the country as well as
internationally occur over the holiday weekend. 2021 has seen a return of sorts
to normalcy as the schedule over the Thanksgiving holiday was certainly full of
interesting events. Now
readers know the events that occurred in Madison Square Garden’s Theater where
undefeated Undisputed Lightweight world champion Teofimo Lopez finally met unbeaten
IBF number one contender George Kambosos for the crown. This column
however, will focus on the other action that took place throughout the weekend
that saw upsets, returns to the ring of top contenders and former world
champions, a women’s world championship fight, and a Unified Jr. Featherweight
Unification world championship fight. We will then conclude this column with a
short look ahead to what will begin the month of December.
First on our journey of events actually took place on
Thanksgiving day in London England’s York Hall
where unbeaten Flyweight prospect Harvey Horn faced veteran Fadhili Majiha in the main
event of the card, which was meant as a showcase of sorts for Horn as he looked
toward a year of further progression in 2022. Majiha, a veteran of forty-five
professional bouts going into the encounter, had taken the fight on short
notice. While many assume the scenario of the fighter that steps into a fight
on short notice automatically puts that fighter at a disadvantage, this is
simply not always accurate.
The first three rounds of this fight were largely
dictated by Horn. Horn, who entered the fight unbeaten in nine professional
bouts and had won the World Boxing Organization’s (WBO) version of the European
Flyweight championship prior to this bout, used good lateral movement as well
as a consistent straight left hand to keep Majiha off balance and having
difficulty in landing his own punches consistently. In round four however,
Majiha was able to catch up with the elusive Horn, staggering him with a left
hand to the head before setting off a barrage of punches that culminated with a
left hook to the body that sent Horn down. The unbeaten Horn was able to get to
his feet, but sensing his opportunity, Majiha pressed forward dropping Horn
with a right hand to the head in the center of the ring. Horn struggled to get
up the second time around and was unable to beat the referee’s ten count. The
fight was over.
Although this was an upset from the standpoint of Majiha
entering the encounter on short notice, he did have considerably more
experience than Horn in terms of professional fights. While it is indisputable
that Horn was ahead three rounds going into the fourth round of the scheduled
ten round bout, sometimes fighters do get caught with punches that they do not
see coming and in this case Majiha was able to make the most out of his
opportunity both in terms of taking the fight itself and the opportunity that
presented itself once it was clear that he was able to hurt Horn. Majiha simply
did not let Horn off the hook and that is what ultimately led to the stoppage
of this fight. Given what happened in
this fight both in terms of the unexpected result as well as the way it
occurred, it would not surprise this observer to see Majiha and Horn in a
rematch in 2022 because the fact of the matter is whatever plans that may have
been ahead for Horn in potentially getting himself into position to challenge
for a world championship in the new year has now been put on hold by a fighter
that was likely thought to be a mere opponent that would at minimum allow Horn
to get some time inside the ring before the end of 2021. An obvious flaw with
that kind of thinking is sometimes fighters are in fighting shape and are
simply waiting for the phone to ring with the next opportunity to compete. Such
fighters can at times be even more dangerous than they may appear simply
because they are in a position where they are taking fights on limited notice.
This is essentially what happened in this fight and it will be interesting to
see if things might be different in a second bout between the two with both
fighters having the benefit of a full training camp to prepare for each other
or, if the old cliché of styles make fights will apply in that Majiha just may
have a style that will be difficult for a fighter with Horn’s style to overcome,
despite how dominant Horn appeared in the first three rounds of the fight.
Our next stop in this column takes us to Dubai U.A.E
where two fighters returned to action on what is known as “Black Friday” here
in the United States, each looking to get back on track in their careers after
seeing their careers halted for a period of time due to the impacts of
COVID-19. The first fighter to enter the ring was longtime Super-Middleweight
contender Rocky Fielding. As some may recall, Fielding, had a brief stint in
holding interim/regular champion status in the WBA’s Super-Middleweight
ratings, which in short gave him a mandatory challenge, This status was taken
from him in December 2018 at the hands of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who knocked
him out in three rounds in Madison Square Garden. Fielding had only fought once
since that fight in scoring a second round knockout of Abdallah Paziwapazi in
November 2019 in his first bout as a Light-Heavyweight.
Over two years removed from that fight, Fielding returned
to action against veteran Emmanuel Danso. In short, this fight amounted to
little more than a brief workout for Fielding against an opponent in Danso, who
appeared to be in survival mode from the opening bell. The highlight of this
bout came late in the second round when Fielding decked Danso with a left hook
to the head. Although Danso was able to get up and finish the round, he did not
come out for the third round giving Fielding his twenty-eighth career victory.
Unfortunately, there is not much one can say about fights that are fought like
this, but if there is a silver-lining, it is that at least Fielding was able to
get back in the ring and resume active competition. If circumstances improve
with the COVID-19 virus and it’s numerous variants, hopefully, Fielding will be
able to continue fighting on a more regular schedule in 2022 as the enemy of
any fighter is “Ring Rust” and the more active a fighter is, the better off
they will theoretically be as they look to position themselves for world
championship fights and more lucrative opportunities.
Much like Rocky Fielding, former WBC Super-Middleweight
world champion Badou Jack is in a similar position in looking to stay active.
Jack, like Fielding also held an interim/regular championship designation in
the WBA’s rankings system during his time as a Light-Heavyweight. Although Jack
was unable to secure a Light-Heavyweight world championship during his time in
the division, the former Super-Middleweight world champion has returned to
action, this time as a Cruiserweight. On this card, Jack faced veteran Samuel
Crossed. Unlike Fielding, Jack came into this fight off of a victory in June of
this year so there was not as much of a question of “Ring Rust” going into this
fight for Jack.
The similarities between the two on this card would
continue however, as Jack would overpower a “Game”, but overmatched Crossed in
scoring a convincing second round stoppage. Jack dropped Crossed with a right
hand to the head in the second round, this would be followed by a second knockdown
courtesy of another Jack right hand. Despite being out gunned, the twelve fight
veteran Crossed showed his mettle by trying to continue on after the second
knockdown. Jack, knowing he had his opponent compromised, would close the show
by landing a combination to the head highlighted by a left hook that sent
Crossed down for the third and final time as the bout was subsequently stopped.
Although ultimately both Jack’s bout with Crossed and
Fielding’s bout with Danso amounted to miss-matches, the benefit of time inside
the ring is crucial and as far as Jack in concerned, 2022 could be a year where
he looks to enter the world championship picture in the Cruiserweight division.
A division where marquee lucrative fights tend to be few and far between, but
never the less offers a fighter like Jack a possible opportunity to attempt to
win a world championship in a second weight class. Hopefully, if he were to get
that opportunity, it will not come in the form of an interim/regular
designation, which as this observer has stated frequently over the years though
well-intended does more harm to the sport and creates more problems than it
solves.
As world championship fights are concerned, “Black
Friday” over Thanksgiving weekend concluded with a world championship fight in
the Women’s Featherweight division where champion Erika Cruz made the first
defense of the WBA Featherweight world championship that she won earlier this
year in scoring a technical decision then champion Jelena Mrdjenovich in a
fight that was halted due to an accidental clash of heads. Cruz’ first title
defense came against WBA number five rated contender Melissa Esquivel in Puerto
Vallarta, Mexico.
In what was a very competitive fight from the outset, it
quickly became a battle of an at times more accurate fighter in Esquivel
against a more active and seemingly stronger fighter in Cruz. While the wisdom
that some might use is to say that the stronger fighter often gets the better
of the action, that was not necessarily the case for a good portion of this
fight as Esquivel found success in landing straight clean punches in between
the punches that Cruz was throwing. A
challenge that can be present throughout the sport and in particular in Women’s
Boxing due to rounds only being two minutes in duration, is to distinguish
between who is more active versus who is more accurate and then to determine
which element is dictating the tempo of combat.
As someone who has long advocated the need for Women’s
Boxing to move to three minute rounds, the same distance as their male
counterparts, there were times throughout this fight where I had the conundrum
of trying to form an opinion in my mind as to who was getting the better of the
action because in many of the rounds, both fighters had periods of
effectiveness and because of the limited round length, this made it an
extremely challenging fight to score.
Often times when it comes to Women’s Boxing, the fights are generally
fought at a fast pace, which I feel can directly be attributed to the
two-minute round length. This creates a scenario where fights are often
determined by subtle differences between two fighters as many bouts in Women’s
Boxing do end up going to decisions.
In this case, although Esquivel had periods of
effectiveness throughout, the champion Cruz was the one who dictated the tempo
of combat by approaching the challenger at odd angles and mixing her offense
up, which made it difficult for Esquivel to find a consistent rhythm though the
bout remained very competitive until the final bell where Cruz would retain her
WBA Featherweight world championship via ten round split decision. This victory for Cruz may lead to an
encounter with Amanda Serrano, the multi-division world champion, who currently
holds the WBC and WBO world championships in the Women’s Featherweight
division. Although this fight would make the most sense for Cruz both from a
financial standpoint as well as a fight that would likely draw attention as a
unification bout, Serrano, who will fight former world title challenger Miriam
Gutierrez on December 18 on the undercard of undefeated YouTube star Jake
Paul’s encounter with unbeaten Cruiserweight Tommy Fury in Tampa, FL, appears
to be on a collision course with undefeated Undisputed Lightweight world
champion Katie Taylor for a bout sometime in 2022. Taylor herself, will be back
in action on December 11th in Liverpool, England in defense of her
Lightweight crown against WBA number one rated contender Firuza Sharipova.
Obviously, the outcomes of these two upcoming fights will likely go a long way
in determining Cruz’ next move in the new year.
Speaking of unification bouts, coincidentally, our last
stop chronicling the action that took place over Thanksgiving Weekend 2021 in
the sport takes us to Las Vegas, NV, where two undefeated world champions in
Boxing’s 122lb. Jr. Featherweight division put their respective world titles on
the line. This observer is referring to the bout between undefeated WBO world
champion Stephen Fulton and WBC world champion Brandon Figueroa.
There is always an element of the unknown when two boxers
get into the ring to face each other. Such an element is magnified and
anticipation naturally increases when two fighters are unbeaten and each hold a
world championship in a given weight class. This was a fight that was fought almost
exclusively on the inside. Figueroa generally the fighter coming forward, but
Fulton holding his own and at times out landing Figueroa. While a grueling back
and forth battle is something that seemed to favor Figueroa going into this
encounter, it turned out to be essentially a dead even fight in my view. After
twelve back and forth rounds, it would be Stephen Fulton who would earn an
extremely hard fought twelve round majority decision to emerge as a unified
world champion.
In all honesty, this fight turned out to be one of the
better fights of 2021 and given how close the combat between the two fighters
was, as well as the outcome of the bout, which will obviously be debated, the
conditions appear ideal for a rematch. Whether or not that indeed happens in
2022 remains to be seen.
As the month of December begins, two Lightweight fights
will take center stage during the first weekend of the month, which given the
changing of the guard that occurred with George Kambosos dethroning previously
undefeated Undisputed Lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez, which also occurred
over Thanksgiving weekend, the stakes of these two Lightweight bouts, which
will headline separate cards will likely be elevated as the winners of these
two bouts are likely to be vying for an opportunity to face the new champion. The
first of these two bouts will take place in December 4th where undefeated top
contender Devin Haney will meet former IBF Jr. Lightweight world champion
Joseph Diaz. A fight that will take place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, NV,
which can be seen globally on digital subscription sports streaming network DAZN, brings together two of the rising stars
in the sport.
Devin Haney is coming off what many observers, including
this one felt was the toughest test of his career in scoring a hard-fought twelve
round unanimous decision over former three-division world champion Jorge
Linares in May of this year. Some may recall Linares nearly brought a sudden
end to the fight at the end of the tenth round in that bout when he badly
staggered the unbeaten Haney and appeared to have him momentarily knocked out
on his feet. Haney however, was able to regroup and finished the fight strong
to secure the decision victory. Haney, who holds what amounts to an interim
championship designation in the WBC’s Lightweight rankings, will be putting his
unbeaten record on the line against relative newcomer to the 135lb. Lightweight
division Joseph Diaz. Diaz, known to his fans as “Jo Jo,” won the IBF Jr.
Lightweight world championship in January of last year shortly before the
impacts of the ongoing global COVID-19 epidemic really began to emerge, by
scoring a narrow twelve round unanimous decision over then champion Tevin
Farmer. Diaz’ reign would be a short one as he would lose his title on the
weight scale shortly before his first scheduled title defense against top
contender Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov in February of this year. Although the fight
would go on, the title would ultimately be vacated due to a controversial majority
draw that many believed Rakhimov deserved the decision. While the title would
have been vacated anyway with a Diaz victory due to him failing to make the
130lb. weight limit, the struggle to make weight as well as the difficulty Diaz
had in that fight ultimately led to him moving up to the 135lb. Lightweight
division.
In his Lightweight debut, Diaz scored a twelve round
unanimous decision over Javier Fortuna in July, but did sustain a cut over the
left eye as a result of an accidental clash of heads during the bout. What this fight boils down to in my eyes beyond
it being a well-matched encounter between two boxer/punchers is whether or not
Diaz will be able to provide Haney with a more difficult fight than Linares was
able to.
While it is important to keep in mind that prior to that
bout, Devin Haney had not been significantly tested in his career and that
Linares did provide him a legitimate test, Haney is now at the level of the
Lightweight division where the fights will be tougher and tougher as his level
of opposition continues to increase. Although he has what amounts to a
mandatory challenger slot in the WBC’s rankings due to the organization giving “Franchise”
status to Teofimo Lopez as an undisputed world champion prior to his loss to
George Kambosos, what happens in this fight against a fighter that like Linares
is highly regarded in Joseph Diaz will likely determine how soon he will get an
opportunity to fight for the world championship. One might assume if Haney is
able to win this fight, but does not look impressive in doing so, that a
potential bout between him and fellow unbeaten top contender Ryan Garcia, who
Haney faced and defeated in the 2015 Youth National Championships as an amateur,
could be made before determining whether he is ready to face Kambosos, assuming
that Kambosos is not heading towards an immediate rematch with Lopez.
There is also the obvious possibility that Diaz might
upset any potential plans that Haney might have by scoring a victory in this
fight. Diaz has slightly more professional experience than Haney and per his
already being a world champion knows what it’s like to be in a hard grueling
fight. Haney did get a taste of what a difficult and grueling fight can be like
against Jorge Linares and it will be interesting to see if Diaz, who was
supposed to face Ryan Garcia prior to Garcia taking a sabbatical to address his
mental health earlier this year, saw anything in what Linares was able to do
against Haney that he might be able to exploit.
Finally, the first weekend of December will conclude on Sunday,
December 5th, when undefeated unified WBA/IBF Jr. Lightweight world
champion Gervonta Davis meets top contender Isaac Cruz in a twelve round
Lightweight bout, which will headline a card from the about to be renamed Staples
Center in Los Angeles, CA and will be broadcast on Showtime
Pay-Per-View here in the United States. Davis, who has a record of 25-0,
with 24 Knockouts has spent his recent time in the ring earning interim/regular
champion status in the WBA rankings in multiple weight classes. While such
designations are nothing more than a mandatory challenger position for whomever
holds those world championships, Davis has nonetheless looked very impressive
in his recent outings in scoring knockouts of Leo Santa Cruz and most recently
Mario Barrios in his last fight in June of this year.
Davis does have the type of style and punching power that
draws interest no matter who he fights and recently it is clear that the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC)
group of promoters has been trying to position him as a pay-per-view draw even
as the medium of pay-per-view is in decline due largely to both inflated price
points, as well as the rise of digital subscription based streaming networks
that have emerged as major players not just in Boxing, but in all of sports.
One of the criticisms that Davis has faced recently is the desire to only fight
against fighters that are also aligned with the PBC. While yours truly is very
critical of this approach by any promoter, it is clear that such an approach is
not necessarily rooted in the best interest of the fighters themselves and is
more to the benefit of those who are involved on the business end of the sport.
Although clearly such approaches oftentimes backfire on those who see it as a
viable strategy, thus far it has not in regard to Davis though demand has
continued to increase for him and other PBC linked fighters throughout the
sport to fight against opposition outside of the PBC banner.
On this occasion, the unbeaten Davis will face what could
be a stern test in the form of Isaac Cruz. Cruz, who will enter the bout with a
record of 22-1-1, with 15 Knockouts, comes into the fight with limited time to
prepare due to original Davis opponent Rolando Romero being removed from the bout
earlier this month due to several allegations made against him outside of the
ring. While the unbeaten Romero is in limbo due to said allegations, which
ultimately could sideline him indefinitely, this now becomes a significant
opportunity for Cruz to step in against a high-profile opponent that if he were
to pull off what many would call an upset, could lead to even more opportunities
down the road. Cruz has been unbeaten since losing an eight round unanimous
decision in 2016 to Luis Montano, in what was his sixth professional bout.
What Cruz will bring into this fight is that he is a
boxer/puncher that does have deceptive punching power and is capable of ending
a fight quickly should an opportunity arise as he showed in scoring a first
round knockout of Diego Magdaleno on Halloween night of last year,
coincidentally on the undercard of Davis’ knockout of Leo Santa Cruz. The
challenge for Cruz coming into this fight beyond the limited time that he has
had to prepare is whether or not he will be able to weather an early storm by Davis
who usually starts fights at a fast pace and looks to land power shots.
Although Cruz proved that he is also capable of starting
quickly and ending a fight quickly as he did against Magdaleno, conventional
wisdom would suggest that he will look to counter Davis’ offense and try to
extend the fight into the middle and late rounds. Davis has also shown an
ability to end fights in later rounds as well as well as maintain his stamina
as a fight progresses, so it will be interesting to see whether Cruz will be
able to disrupt Davis from being able to get into a rhythm and if he can,
whether or not he will be able to maintain it for all twelve rounds if he needs
to.
Despite the fact that this bout is an interesting clash
of styles, what is of perhaps equal interest is the fact that the ViacomCBS-owned Showtime, has chosen to
make two curious moves. The first as it relates specifically to the Davis-Cruz bout
is to stage it on a Sunday evening on pay-per-view at a $74.99 price point. The
second is the fact that the network will stage a second pay-per-view during the
month of December when they will broadcast the Jake Paul-Tommy Fury
Cruiserweight bout in Tampa FL. Although as of this writing, a price point for
the Paul-Fury pay-per-view event has not been announced, it is nevertheless a
curious choice to stage two pay-per-view events, which may be similar in price
point during the month of December, particularly due to the state of the
pay-per-view medium and consistently dwindling pay-per-view buy numbers for the
majority of cards aired on the medium.
While yours truly has been and will continue to be
critical of such an inflated model, the recent news that the PBC will be
staging a Heavyweight-themed card on pay-per-view on New Year’s Day, with Fox
Sports this time doing the broadcast/distribution duties at an already
announced $39.99 price point has me wondering aloud as to how successful these
two Showtime Pay-Per-View events will be when the returns come in. In the
interest of honesty and with the reader keeping in mind this observer’s vocal
support for digital subscription-based streaming options over the pay-per-view
model due largely to the value it offers consumers for a monthly or annual
subscription as well as often times every bout on a card being televised as
opposed to the consumer being asked to pay an oftentimes inflated fee to see a
portion of a card, often between three or five bouts on a full Boxing card,
which may have between eight or twelve bouts in full, I believe that in regard
to Showtime, ViacomCBS is missing what could be a significant opportunity to do
Boxing events on it’s digital subscription streaming network Paramount+, which does offer sports
content including the Combate Americas mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion as
well as several soccer leagues and NFL games broadcast by CBS Sports on it’s streaming network.
While the potential of offering these type of cards under something along the
lines of “Showtime Boxing on Paramount+” branding would likely increase
subscriptions to Paramount+ while also allowing ViacomCBS and Showtime to take
advantage of both the live and on-demand aspects of streaming technology for
said cards, something that cannot be done via traditional pay-per-view platforms,
the success or lack thereof of these two cards may finally be the tipping point
to convince the powers that be that it is time to adapt because it is obvious
that the cable/satellite medium’s decline is not going to cease any time soon
and the solution to the issue of dwindling buy numbers will not be found by
continuing to do undervalued pay-per-view cards at inflated prices where
ultimately everyone involved from the networks, to the promoters, and finally the
fighters, who are lured by the promise of shares of revenue, lose out.
“And That’s The Boxing Truth.”
The Boxing Truth® is a registered trademark of Beau
Denison All Rights Reserved.
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