By
Mark Connor
© Copyright 2012, Mark Connor
On Friday night, February 3, the University of Nevada Reno hosted its annual card featuring its boxers competing against the Air Force Academy and boxers from the University of San Francisco and the University of Washington, Seattle. It was a night of skillful amateur boxing that included eleven bouts, ten ending in decision and one by RSCH.
The night opened with two female contests, the first a hard fought battle between Rachel Nakanishi of Washington against Jann Shane Hermano of USF. Nakanishi fought well and landed clean and punishing blows from the first round, but the judges called it for Hermano, who exhibited good movement and pulled out a close victory. Taylor Williams from Washington demonstrated admirable determination throughout the three rounds against Nargis Shaghasi of USF, but grew tired and lost a competitive contest.
In the third bout of the evening, Tyrus Korecki of AFA took a decision against a taller and smooth boxing Rashad Burton of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas at 157 pounds. Taylor Yancey of Nevada scored a decision victory of Andrew Munoz of AFA at 137.
At 140 pounds Jarred Santos, competing for the first time, won a decision over William Peterson of AFA in one of the night’s most entertaining fights. He showed admirable skill behind a strong, solid left jab against his taller opponent, backing him up for most of the fight while using good head movement and footwork.
Nolan Hebei of AFA defeated Bernard Do of Nevada at 160 pounds, dominating him with reach and aggression.
José Jimenez scored a 3rd round RSCH over Nevada’s Anthony Donahue. Originally from the Jefferson Park neighborhood on the North Side of Chicago, Donahue has been a Nevada resident since high school, having graduated in Las Vegas before attending UNR. This was Donahue’s first competition, and although he came up short he showed great determination and is full of potential as he heads back to the gym with dedication. Although he suffered two eight counts in the first, he came back to score an eight count of his own in the second. But he suffered two more eight counts, resulting in the mandatory stoppage in the third round.
From the opposite end of Donohue’s hometown came the Southside of Chicago’s Cordarius Taylor, representing Nevada at 150 pounds against AFA’s Glenn Miltenberg. While from the fourth row ringside Miltenberg could be seen pelting Taylor with a barrage of punches and keeping him against the ropes for most of all three rounds, the judges saw the fight for Taylor. (Amateur boxing is scored by counting the number of cleanly landed blows, and even though Miltenberg landed plenty and was the only boxer all night who demonstrated a command of the uppercut, he smothered himself often and could not capitalize enough on his momentum to get the nod.) Taylor did land clean blows when he did punch, although he was much less active than Miltenberg. From the fourth row ringside, it appeared Miltenberg won the fight.
Alex Flangas of Nevada defeated Robert Watts of California at 175 pounds, and in the same division Dennis Vorobyov defeated Nick Anderson of Nevada. Josue Gayton of Nevada defeated Logan Brandt of AFA at 192 pounds in the final bout of the evening.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Saturday, July 30, 2011
The Endurance of Scott LeDoux
By
Mark Connor
© Copyright 2011, Mark Connor
This story was written in Spring 2009 and accepted under contract by Boxing Digest for publication. Unfortunately the magazine nver paid me and has now folded, but at least I own the copyright. I hope you enjoy it.
----MRC
In early March Scott LeDoux sat in a Caribou Coffee shop in exurban Minneapolis, remembering his glory days as a Heavyweight contender in the 1970s and early 1980s, discussing his involvement with boxing since retirement, and scrutinizing current fighters and the competition they face. He also spoke a little about his political career and his charity work. It was a nostalgic conversation for anyone who loves boxing, given LeDoux’s history, which includes a challenge for the WBC Heavyweight title against Champion Larry Holmes, fights against seven other world champions, an exhibition with Muhammad Ali, and sparring partner duties with Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis. But it was saddening, too, because this powerful, competitive challenger of the best in the world during an era of overwhelming talent in the Heavyweight division used a walker and talked about making the most of life while each day leads him closer to death from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s Disease).
LeDoux was diagnosed late last year and announced it publicly early this year. In a life already highlighted with singular purpose and achievement, the affliction, which people usually survive no more than five years, has accentuated his natural resolve to celebrate and contribute.
In recent times LeDoux has been an Anoka County Commissioner for the town of Andover, Minnesota, where he’s lived since 1972. Before politics he spent eighteen years on the Minnesota State Boxing Commission until, much to his horror, his friend, former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura, abolished it while governor from 1999 to 2003. After years of advocacy, LeDoux diligently attended legislative hearings and testified at the State Capital in St. Paul. When the Boxing Commission was reinstated in 2006 he was named Executive Director by current Governor, Republican Tim Pawlenty. The Commission had to be self supporting, though, and for its survival morphed into the Minnesota State Combative Sports Commission, overseeing not just boxing but also mixed martial arts.
As a commissioner, says LeDoux, he wants to see good competitive fights. He advocates for boxers to choose tougher competition both because he hopes to see them improve in skill and for the sake of safety, a byproduct of evenly matched contests.
“Back in the day we fought fights,” he insists. Then, with a slightly cynical candor, he adds, “A guy today wants to fight Dusty Trunks, Kenny Last, and Willie Getup in rotation, and he gets knocked out by one of those guys. They want to fight all stiffs until they get a record built up so they can go in for a championship fight and get the payday. Look—how do you learn the sport unless you fight tough guys?”
If anyone can lecture on the subject, LeDoux is your man. Aside from his title shot and the aforementioned sparring, he fought Leon Spinks to a 10 round draw prior to Spinks’ title victory over Muhammad Ali, fought then former Heavyweight Champion Ken Norton to a controversial 10 round draw, and subsequently dropped a 12 round decision for the USBA title to eventual WBA Heavyweight Champion Mike Weaver. He lost by TKO to George Foreman, as well as to Greg Page, Gerry Cotzee, and in his final fight to Frank Bruno. In assessing all these champions, he said that when sparring with Lennox Lewis he observed him to be the most balanced boxer he’d ever seen, next to Larry Holmes. While LeDoux either lost to these champions or only held them to draws, one should not underrate his abilities. He slipped and counterpunched well and his determination kept him competitive throughout his career.
LeDoux has been involved in charity work ever since he entered public life, and after sharing his diagnosis in the press he participated in an early April benefit for ALS research. The featured act was LeDoux’s longtime friend, Frank Stallone, along with former singers from the groups Santana, Survivor, and Toto. Furthermore, he was instrumental in founding and currently serves as an Advisory Board member of Wishes and More, a charity that provides money to grant wishes to children with terminal and life threatening illnesses. The group was founded by volunteers who along with LeDoux did the same charity work through an earlier organization over the last three decades. On May 3 Wishes and More held a celebrity roast of Scott LeDoux at the Marriott City Center Hotel in Minneapolis, with Sugar Ray Leonard among the roasters.
“Scott LeDoux is a fighter’s fighter,” says Leonard. “He’s a guy who used what talent he had to compete against some of the best guys in the world . . . I was always impressed with his integrity, with his perseverance, with his heart.”
Leonard also praised LeDoux’s advocacy for boxers and his work with the commission in Minnesota.
“The fact of the matter is boxing needs stronger commissions and [to be] unified. We have to have the same criteria—whether it’s scoring, whether it’s the examinations and physicals, every state has to be on the same page, every country has to be on the same page. I agree with what Scott is doing, trying to better the sport.”
Such statements exemplify the values LeDoux has demonstrated in and out of the ring. As related over coffee that day in March, he’s given his best to every endeavor in life and continues to do so for as long as he can.
“Scott LeDoux has been a dedicated volunteer for granting wishes for children for over twenty years,” says fellow Wishes and More founder Karla Blomberg, who met him shortly after his retirement from boxing.
Besides Leonard and former Governor Ventura, “Benchwarmer” Bob Lurtsema, who played with the Minnesota Vikings in the 1974 and 1975 Super Bowls, was among the roasters. Also, a video message was played from George Foreman, and Blomberg shared email blessings from Gerry Cooney.
Having started boxing at age 17 when a fellow freshman at the University of Minnesota, Duluth appeared with a set of gloves, LeDoux served in the United States Army from 1969 to 1972 before turning professional. Since then he’s faced the tragedy of losing his first wife as well as his parents to cancer, but today he is a grandfather surrounded by a son and daughter in their 30s and his wife, Carol, who came into his life at a time of major personal transition.
“We went on our second date to church,” he says, recalling how in 1993 he made a commitment to Christianity, gave up drinking and womanizing, and forgave those who hurt him earlier in life.
Persevering with faith, each day he expresses the vitality of spirit put into his boxing career, the inner strength of the man increasing through the memory of the actions he leaves behind while the body slowly, inevitably, gives way.
For further information on Wishes and More go to www.wishesandmore.org
For further information on ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) go to www.alsa.org
Mark Connor
© Copyright 2011, Mark Connor
This story was written in Spring 2009 and accepted under contract by Boxing Digest for publication. Unfortunately the magazine nver paid me and has now folded, but at least I own the copyright. I hope you enjoy it.
----MRC
In early March Scott LeDoux sat in a Caribou Coffee shop in exurban Minneapolis, remembering his glory days as a Heavyweight contender in the 1970s and early 1980s, discussing his involvement with boxing since retirement, and scrutinizing current fighters and the competition they face. He also spoke a little about his political career and his charity work. It was a nostalgic conversation for anyone who loves boxing, given LeDoux’s history, which includes a challenge for the WBC Heavyweight title against Champion Larry Holmes, fights against seven other world champions, an exhibition with Muhammad Ali, and sparring partner duties with Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis. But it was saddening, too, because this powerful, competitive challenger of the best in the world during an era of overwhelming talent in the Heavyweight division used a walker and talked about making the most of life while each day leads him closer to death from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s Disease).
LeDoux was diagnosed late last year and announced it publicly early this year. In a life already highlighted with singular purpose and achievement, the affliction, which people usually survive no more than five years, has accentuated his natural resolve to celebrate and contribute.
In recent times LeDoux has been an Anoka County Commissioner for the town of Andover, Minnesota, where he’s lived since 1972. Before politics he spent eighteen years on the Minnesota State Boxing Commission until, much to his horror, his friend, former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura, abolished it while governor from 1999 to 2003. After years of advocacy, LeDoux diligently attended legislative hearings and testified at the State Capital in St. Paul. When the Boxing Commission was reinstated in 2006 he was named Executive Director by current Governor, Republican Tim Pawlenty. The Commission had to be self supporting, though, and for its survival morphed into the Minnesota State Combative Sports Commission, overseeing not just boxing but also mixed martial arts.
As a commissioner, says LeDoux, he wants to see good competitive fights. He advocates for boxers to choose tougher competition both because he hopes to see them improve in skill and for the sake of safety, a byproduct of evenly matched contests.
“Back in the day we fought fights,” he insists. Then, with a slightly cynical candor, he adds, “A guy today wants to fight Dusty Trunks, Kenny Last, and Willie Getup in rotation, and he gets knocked out by one of those guys. They want to fight all stiffs until they get a record built up so they can go in for a championship fight and get the payday. Look—how do you learn the sport unless you fight tough guys?”
If anyone can lecture on the subject, LeDoux is your man. Aside from his title shot and the aforementioned sparring, he fought Leon Spinks to a 10 round draw prior to Spinks’ title victory over Muhammad Ali, fought then former Heavyweight Champion Ken Norton to a controversial 10 round draw, and subsequently dropped a 12 round decision for the USBA title to eventual WBA Heavyweight Champion Mike Weaver. He lost by TKO to George Foreman, as well as to Greg Page, Gerry Cotzee, and in his final fight to Frank Bruno. In assessing all these champions, he said that when sparring with Lennox Lewis he observed him to be the most balanced boxer he’d ever seen, next to Larry Holmes. While LeDoux either lost to these champions or only held them to draws, one should not underrate his abilities. He slipped and counterpunched well and his determination kept him competitive throughout his career.
LeDoux has been involved in charity work ever since he entered public life, and after sharing his diagnosis in the press he participated in an early April benefit for ALS research. The featured act was LeDoux’s longtime friend, Frank Stallone, along with former singers from the groups Santana, Survivor, and Toto. Furthermore, he was instrumental in founding and currently serves as an Advisory Board member of Wishes and More, a charity that provides money to grant wishes to children with terminal and life threatening illnesses. The group was founded by volunteers who along with LeDoux did the same charity work through an earlier organization over the last three decades. On May 3 Wishes and More held a celebrity roast of Scott LeDoux at the Marriott City Center Hotel in Minneapolis, with Sugar Ray Leonard among the roasters.
“Scott LeDoux is a fighter’s fighter,” says Leonard. “He’s a guy who used what talent he had to compete against some of the best guys in the world . . . I was always impressed with his integrity, with his perseverance, with his heart.”
Leonard also praised LeDoux’s advocacy for boxers and his work with the commission in Minnesota.
“The fact of the matter is boxing needs stronger commissions and [to be] unified. We have to have the same criteria—whether it’s scoring, whether it’s the examinations and physicals, every state has to be on the same page, every country has to be on the same page. I agree with what Scott is doing, trying to better the sport.”
Such statements exemplify the values LeDoux has demonstrated in and out of the ring. As related over coffee that day in March, he’s given his best to every endeavor in life and continues to do so for as long as he can.
“Scott LeDoux has been a dedicated volunteer for granting wishes for children for over twenty years,” says fellow Wishes and More founder Karla Blomberg, who met him shortly after his retirement from boxing.
Besides Leonard and former Governor Ventura, “Benchwarmer” Bob Lurtsema, who played with the Minnesota Vikings in the 1974 and 1975 Super Bowls, was among the roasters. Also, a video message was played from George Foreman, and Blomberg shared email blessings from Gerry Cooney.
Having started boxing at age 17 when a fellow freshman at the University of Minnesota, Duluth appeared with a set of gloves, LeDoux served in the United States Army from 1969 to 1972 before turning professional. Since then he’s faced the tragedy of losing his first wife as well as his parents to cancer, but today he is a grandfather surrounded by a son and daughter in their 30s and his wife, Carol, who came into his life at a time of major personal transition.
“We went on our second date to church,” he says, recalling how in 1993 he made a commitment to Christianity, gave up drinking and womanizing, and forgave those who hurt him earlier in life.
Persevering with faith, each day he expresses the vitality of spirit put into his boxing career, the inner strength of the man increasing through the memory of the actions he leaves behind while the body slowly, inevitably, gives way.
For further information on Wishes and More go to www.wishesandmore.org
For further information on ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) go to www.alsa.org
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Truax wins State Middleweight title with split ove Kolle
By
Mark Connor
© Copyright 2011, Mark Connor
On Friday night, May 27 at the St. Paul Armory Caleb "Golden" Truax won a split decision over Andy "Kaos" Kolle for the Minnesota State Middleweight Championship. Judge Mike Fitzgerald had it 96-94 Truax, Judge Scott Moe scored it 96-94 Kolle, and Judge Denny Nelson called it 97-93 Truax. It was a truly close fight that could have gone either way. The Boxers and Writers Magazine view was 96-94 Kolle, but at least one or two rounds were close enough to understand how they could have gone the other way. This is a fight that cries out for a rematch.
Truax was the immediate aggressor as the fight began, and although Kolle was able to jab his way off the ropes during the first minute of the first round and landed good lead right hooks that caught Truax charging in, he was unable to inflict damage through the second round. Truax kept plugging away, moving his head and landing body shots throughout the fight, many of which Kolle and his corner complained were low blows, but referee Mark Nelson insisted they were merely borderline. While I thought Kolle took rounds 3 and 4 to even the first third of the fight, Jesse Kelley of Minnesotaboxing.com, who was next to me at ringside, thought they’d traded the first, second, third and fourth, Truax winning one round and Kolle winning the other in a progressive give and take rhythm. As each round passed the six foot Truax would begin coming forward with an effective jab over the right hand of 6’-1” southpaw Kolle, also landing an occasional lead right down the middle and digging to the body. Kolle in turn would maneuver into the middle of the ring and continue circling, establishing the right jab or landing the lead right hook, occasionally timing the powerful straight left down the middle to stop Truax in his tracks. Invariably Truax kept coming, though, and Kolle would sometimes trade with him, sometimes cover, and sometimes move, reset and land some shots. He occasionally backed Truax up, but mostly moved throughout the fight. The difficulty in scoring the fight came in deciding at each closing bell whether Truax’s aggression or Kolle’s movement and powerful counters were more effective. The Boxers and Writers view was that Kolle took rounds 5 and 6 while Truax took 7 and 8, then Kolle pulled out the last two as Truax tired. The middle rounds were in fact close, though, as the respective 96-94 scores from Judges Moe and Fitzgerald, the former for Kolle and the latter for Truax, signify.
The two technical surprises of this fight came from Truax, landing the right uppercut—mostly to the body—and utilizing his left hook over Kolle’s right hand to force him to dip his head to the left and into the follow up right hand. He did this not only when initiating exchanges, but also while timing Kolle’s occasional habit of leaning in a little too far with the straight left, capitalizing on the momentum by turning the right hand into Kolle. In the latter rounds of the fight Kolle began landing his own right uppercut, and although a strong argument can be made that he did enough by winning rounds 11 and 12, the final decision suggests the lack of follow up hooks and straight lefts are what proved otherwise.
Mark Connor
© Copyright 2011, Mark Connor
On Friday night, May 27 at the St. Paul Armory Caleb "Golden" Truax won a split decision over Andy "Kaos" Kolle for the Minnesota State Middleweight Championship. Judge Mike Fitzgerald had it 96-94 Truax, Judge Scott Moe scored it 96-94 Kolle, and Judge Denny Nelson called it 97-93 Truax. It was a truly close fight that could have gone either way. The Boxers and Writers Magazine view was 96-94 Kolle, but at least one or two rounds were close enough to understand how they could have gone the other way. This is a fight that cries out for a rematch.
Truax was the immediate aggressor as the fight began, and although Kolle was able to jab his way off the ropes during the first minute of the first round and landed good lead right hooks that caught Truax charging in, he was unable to inflict damage through the second round. Truax kept plugging away, moving his head and landing body shots throughout the fight, many of which Kolle and his corner complained were low blows, but referee Mark Nelson insisted they were merely borderline. While I thought Kolle took rounds 3 and 4 to even the first third of the fight, Jesse Kelley of Minnesotaboxing.com, who was next to me at ringside, thought they’d traded the first, second, third and fourth, Truax winning one round and Kolle winning the other in a progressive give and take rhythm. As each round passed the six foot Truax would begin coming forward with an effective jab over the right hand of 6’-1” southpaw Kolle, also landing an occasional lead right down the middle and digging to the body. Kolle in turn would maneuver into the middle of the ring and continue circling, establishing the right jab or landing the lead right hook, occasionally timing the powerful straight left down the middle to stop Truax in his tracks. Invariably Truax kept coming, though, and Kolle would sometimes trade with him, sometimes cover, and sometimes move, reset and land some shots. He occasionally backed Truax up, but mostly moved throughout the fight. The difficulty in scoring the fight came in deciding at each closing bell whether Truax’s aggression or Kolle’s movement and powerful counters were more effective. The Boxers and Writers view was that Kolle took rounds 5 and 6 while Truax took 7 and 8, then Kolle pulled out the last two as Truax tired. The middle rounds were in fact close, though, as the respective 96-94 scores from Judges Moe and Fitzgerald, the former for Kolle and the latter for Truax, signify.
The two technical surprises of this fight came from Truax, landing the right uppercut—mostly to the body—and utilizing his left hook over Kolle’s right hand to force him to dip his head to the left and into the follow up right hand. He did this not only when initiating exchanges, but also while timing Kolle’s occasional habit of leaning in a little too far with the straight left, capitalizing on the momentum by turning the right hand into Kolle. In the latter rounds of the fight Kolle began landing his own right uppercut, and although a strong argument can be made that he did enough by winning rounds 11 and 12, the final decision suggests the lack of follow up hooks and straight lefts are what proved otherwise.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Abell avenges defeat from years ago, Alfaro proves ready for future
By
Mark Connor
© Copyright 2010, Mark Connor
Armory, St. Paul, MN, Saturday, July 17
Tonight southpaw Joey Abell fought an excellent fight, dominating the first three rounds behind a strong right jab with a punishing straight left hand that found its mark down the middle on nemesis Arron Lyons, who handed him his first loss back in December 2006. As he continued his strong start at the beginnig of the second round he eventually began landing left hand-right hook combinations, along with the right uppercut to the body followed by the hook to the head. By the end of the third round he was landing more uppercuts and hooks in combinations with more measured power, and in the fourth round he opened a vicious cut over Lyon's left eye, prompting referee Mark Nelson to consult Dr. Sheldon Siegal, under whose advice Nelson stopped the scheduled 10 round fight.
In the semi-main event Vicente Alfaro of Hastings, MN defeated St. Paul's Brad Patraw with a second round TKO. Alfaro opened the fight by outjabbing Patraw and backing him up, using great head movement and landing punishing hooks and body blows while throwing an occasional hard right hand. In the second Alfaro's right hand found the mark and his relentless combinations dropped Patraw twice before the finishing flurry caused referee Gary Meezwa to stop the fight. Alfaro looked exceptionally good in this fight, showing he has great potential to rapidly advance in his career.
In the opening fight Marty "Wolfman" Lindquist broke a four fight losing streak with a first round TKO over Frankie Quinn, who entered the Cruiserweight bout with a 6-0 record after not having fought since 1997. Lindquist stalked Quinn, missing often with a wild right hand but dropping him with the one punch when he finally landed it late in the round, following with a mild flury causing Quinn to fall again finally to his knees.
In the second fight Bobby Butters, Jr., whose father is a retired club fighter known for professoinally boxing in St. Paul and the larger Twin Cities through the 1990s, appeared to demonstrate that coming form a boxing family wold propell him by virtue of experience into victory over MMA fighter Travis Perzynski, who was 0-1 as a boxer. But after starting aggesssively with combinations off his fast jab and some good movement and footwork, Butters was careless with wild right hands. Puzynski caught him on the ropes with combinations to the body and head and put him out on his feet, prompting referee Mark Nelson to stop the fight.
José Hilario made quick work of debuting Jr. Lightweight Matthew Brogan of Green Bay. Hilario began with a couple of jabs as he moved to his left and the pair made one clockwise resolution around the cent fo the ring. Brogan looked unprepared for the professional ring, getting caught with a right uppercut that caused him to lurch forward, holding Hilario as he drove im into the ropes. Hilario turned him around and continued whipping looping combinations off of him, not hurting him with most shots but damaging him greatly when landing the right uppercut, which allowed him to land the right uppercut body shot that put Brogan down and won the fight.
Finally, Gavin Quinn, the son of Frankie Quinn, made his professional debut at Jr. Middleweight with a lackluster victory over Ryan Stock. After Stock opened the fight with first round dominance, continuously controlling im with the left jab and landing the right hand and left hook at will, estabishing a large mouse under the southpaw Quinn's right eye. But in the second round Stock began giving the victory away, deciding not to be busy enough to continue his dominance. While in the thrid and fourth rounds Quinn kept coming forward and throwing the majoirty of punches in the fight, his footwork was legthargic and came mostly off his heals rather than the balls of his feet. Stock decided to lean in a corner at one point to just put his hands up and let Quinn punch him willingly, even though most of the shots only landed on Stock's gloves. Obviosly Stock is not Muhammad Ali and if he was attempting the so-called "rope a dope" move of Ali e had no idea what he was donig. He was not in shape either, which probably explains why he only fought in the first round and deciding to go the distance a a punching bag for the remainer of the 4 round fight.
Mark Connor
© Copyright 2010, Mark Connor
Armory, St. Paul, MN, Saturday, July 17
Tonight southpaw Joey Abell fought an excellent fight, dominating the first three rounds behind a strong right jab with a punishing straight left hand that found its mark down the middle on nemesis Arron Lyons, who handed him his first loss back in December 2006. As he continued his strong start at the beginnig of the second round he eventually began landing left hand-right hook combinations, along with the right uppercut to the body followed by the hook to the head. By the end of the third round he was landing more uppercuts and hooks in combinations with more measured power, and in the fourth round he opened a vicious cut over Lyon's left eye, prompting referee Mark Nelson to consult Dr. Sheldon Siegal, under whose advice Nelson stopped the scheduled 10 round fight.
In the semi-main event Vicente Alfaro of Hastings, MN defeated St. Paul's Brad Patraw with a second round TKO. Alfaro opened the fight by outjabbing Patraw and backing him up, using great head movement and landing punishing hooks and body blows while throwing an occasional hard right hand. In the second Alfaro's right hand found the mark and his relentless combinations dropped Patraw twice before the finishing flurry caused referee Gary Meezwa to stop the fight. Alfaro looked exceptionally good in this fight, showing he has great potential to rapidly advance in his career.
In the opening fight Marty "Wolfman" Lindquist broke a four fight losing streak with a first round TKO over Frankie Quinn, who entered the Cruiserweight bout with a 6-0 record after not having fought since 1997. Lindquist stalked Quinn, missing often with a wild right hand but dropping him with the one punch when he finally landed it late in the round, following with a mild flury causing Quinn to fall again finally to his knees.
In the second fight Bobby Butters, Jr., whose father is a retired club fighter known for professoinally boxing in St. Paul and the larger Twin Cities through the 1990s, appeared to demonstrate that coming form a boxing family wold propell him by virtue of experience into victory over MMA fighter Travis Perzynski, who was 0-1 as a boxer. But after starting aggesssively with combinations off his fast jab and some good movement and footwork, Butters was careless with wild right hands. Puzynski caught him on the ropes with combinations to the body and head and put him out on his feet, prompting referee Mark Nelson to stop the fight.
José Hilario made quick work of debuting Jr. Lightweight Matthew Brogan of Green Bay. Hilario began with a couple of jabs as he moved to his left and the pair made one clockwise resolution around the cent fo the ring. Brogan looked unprepared for the professional ring, getting caught with a right uppercut that caused him to lurch forward, holding Hilario as he drove im into the ropes. Hilario turned him around and continued whipping looping combinations off of him, not hurting him with most shots but damaging him greatly when landing the right uppercut, which allowed him to land the right uppercut body shot that put Brogan down and won the fight.
Finally, Gavin Quinn, the son of Frankie Quinn, made his professional debut at Jr. Middleweight with a lackluster victory over Ryan Stock. After Stock opened the fight with first round dominance, continuously controlling im with the left jab and landing the right hand and left hook at will, estabishing a large mouse under the southpaw Quinn's right eye. But in the second round Stock began giving the victory away, deciding not to be busy enough to continue his dominance. While in the thrid and fourth rounds Quinn kept coming forward and throwing the majoirty of punches in the fight, his footwork was legthargic and came mostly off his heals rather than the balls of his feet. Stock decided to lean in a corner at one point to just put his hands up and let Quinn punch him willingly, even though most of the shots only landed on Stock's gloves. Obviosly Stock is not Muhammad Ali and if he was attempting the so-called "rope a dope" move of Ali e had no idea what he was donig. He was not in shape either, which probably explains why he only fought in the first round and deciding to go the distance a a punching bag for the remainer of the 4 round fight.
Friday, July 16, 2010
The Patriarch of Minnesota Boxing, Emmett Yanez, at 90 years old
by
Mark Connor
© Copyright 2010, Mark Connor
On March 3, my boxing coach who taught me to fight at age ten and guided me to national tournaments, Emmett J. Yanez, turned 90 years old. He also trained numerous other Upper Midwest Golden Gloves Champions as well as national champions over the years, and he continues to coach amateur boxers today. His most recent champion is Robert Brant, who won the National Golden Gloves Light Heavyweight Championship for the second time this year and is attempting to win the USA Boxing Light Heavyweight Championship at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO this week. During the celebration, which took place at Mancini's Char House in St. Paul, I was privileged to read out a declaration from St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman declaring March 3, 2010 Emmett J. Yanez Day in St. Paul, Minnesota. A special thanks to my father, Robert Connor, for advising me to contact the Mayor's office for the declaration.
The text of the declaration in its entirety follows.
Whereas, Emmett J. Yanez is currently a resident of Saint Paul, Minnesota and has lived in the city for nearly 80 years, in addition to having worked for the City of Saint Paul in the Department of Public Works;
Whereas, Emmett J. yanez today turns 90 years old;
Wereas, Emmett J. Yanez is a World War II veteran of the United States Army, regiment 504 of the 82nd Airborne Division that fought to liberate Europe;
Whereas, upon returning to Saint Paul after the war Emmett J. Yanez boxed professionally and eventually became a traiiner of Saint Paul Amateur boxers for more than 50 years;
Whereas, Emmett J. Yanez has developed numerous Saint Paul Golden Gloves and Upper Midwest Golden Gloves Champions, City, state, and Regional amateur boxing champions of the juunior Olympic and Open Class age groups, and at least two open class national champions, and he has also trained successful professional boxers in Saint Paul;
Whereas, Emmett j. Yanez continues assisting Saint Paul youth and youth in general as a trainer of amateur boxers in a Saint Paul suburb,
Now, Therefore, I, Christopher B. Coleman, mayor of the City of Saint Paul, do hereby proclaim Wednesday, march 03, 2010, to be:
Emmett J. Yanez Day
in the City of Saint Paul
In Witness Whereof I have herunto set my hand
and caused the seal of the City of Saint Paul to be
affixed this Third Day of March in the Year Two
Thousand Ten.
Christopher B. Coleman, Mayor
Mark Connor
© Copyright 2010, Mark Connor
On March 3, my boxing coach who taught me to fight at age ten and guided me to national tournaments, Emmett J. Yanez, turned 90 years old. He also trained numerous other Upper Midwest Golden Gloves Champions as well as national champions over the years, and he continues to coach amateur boxers today. His most recent champion is Robert Brant, who won the National Golden Gloves Light Heavyweight Championship for the second time this year and is attempting to win the USA Boxing Light Heavyweight Championship at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO this week. During the celebration, which took place at Mancini's Char House in St. Paul, I was privileged to read out a declaration from St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman declaring March 3, 2010 Emmett J. Yanez Day in St. Paul, Minnesota. A special thanks to my father, Robert Connor, for advising me to contact the Mayor's office for the declaration.
The text of the declaration in its entirety follows.
Whereas, Emmett J. Yanez is currently a resident of Saint Paul, Minnesota and has lived in the city for nearly 80 years, in addition to having worked for the City of Saint Paul in the Department of Public Works;
Whereas, Emmett J. yanez today turns 90 years old;
Wereas, Emmett J. Yanez is a World War II veteran of the United States Army, regiment 504 of the 82nd Airborne Division that fought to liberate Europe;
Whereas, upon returning to Saint Paul after the war Emmett J. Yanez boxed professionally and eventually became a traiiner of Saint Paul Amateur boxers for more than 50 years;
Whereas, Emmett J. Yanez has developed numerous Saint Paul Golden Gloves and Upper Midwest Golden Gloves Champions, City, state, and Regional amateur boxing champions of the juunior Olympic and Open Class age groups, and at least two open class national champions, and he has also trained successful professional boxers in Saint Paul;
Whereas, Emmett j. Yanez continues assisting Saint Paul youth and youth in general as a trainer of amateur boxers in a Saint Paul suburb,
Now, Therefore, I, Christopher B. Coleman, mayor of the City of Saint Paul, do hereby proclaim Wednesday, march 03, 2010, to be:
Emmett J. Yanez Day
in the City of Saint Paul
In Witness Whereof I have herunto set my hand
and caused the seal of the City of Saint Paul to be
affixed this Third Day of March in the Year Two
Thousand Ten.
Christopher B. Coleman, Mayor
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Truax defeats Veteran Echols to top Entertaining Seconds Out Cart in St. Paul
By
Mark Connor
© Copyright 2010, Mark Connor
Minnesota’s Caleb Truax took another significant step in his undefeated career Friday night with a unanimous decision over veteran middleweight Antwun Echols of Davenport, Iowa. The fight appeared close throughout, with Truax establishing dominance in the beginning but seeming to fade as the rounds passed. Echol’s persistent body shots on the inside appeared to take their toll, but just when he seemed to cede too much control in any given round Truax would score a significant flurry to turn the tide. The Boxers and Writers Magazine view of this fight is that it was much closer than the judges saw it, but Truax did deserve the unanimous decision. He turned on the pressure in the final rounds, particularly dominating the last two. Echols gave him the challenge that is to be expected from such an accomplished veteran Middleweight and Super Middleweight who has TKO victories over skilled fighters like Charles Brewer and once went the distance with the legendary Bernard Hopkins.
In the semi-main event Blaine’s Jon Schmidt lucked out with a no contest over an accidental head butt over his right eye as Josh Crouch took control in the 2nd and 3rd rounds with effective inside uppercuts and hooks from either side as he switched from the right handed and southpaw stances.
Ismail Muwendo scored a 3rd round knockout over Juan Baltierez in a scheduled 6 round Super Featherweight fight. Baltierez actually looked much stronger than he did months ago when fighting to a draw in West St. Paul. He actually landed some effective jabs that stopped Muwendo in his tracks, as well as good right hands in the first round. He did the same thing in the 2nd, but was neutralized by Muwendo’s strong jab, which was a continuation of the first round in which Muwendo landed cleaner, clearer shots including strong uppercuts and a solid, staggering right hand that established his command of the fight. Muwendo finally found his mark with a left hook in the 3rd round, dropping Baltierez, who rose to be dropped within a couple of more exchanges that ended the fight. Baltierez has potential, but he needs to sharpen up on a lower level of competition before competing with fighters as strong and effective as Muwendo, who has proven his power and potential but will have to tighten up on his defense—including an improvement of footwork and protecting his untested chin—before he steps up his own competition.
Charles Meir of Coon Rapids rose from the canvas after Corey Rodriguez dropped him with a looping right hand during a barrage of punches Rodriguez unleashed in the first round of their 6 round Middleweight fight. Meir did exhibit a high degree of skill in moving around the ring and landing counter shots, but Rodriguez was relentless throughout the fight with his body attack and appeared to be more effective and land more punches. But Rodriquez was dropped in the third from an accumulation of blows after a sneaky shot stunned him, and even though he came back well and was competitive in the last quarter of the round he still gave it away by a 10-8 margin. Boxers and Writers Magazine scored the fight 58-55 for Rodriguez, but apparently the judges were watching an entirely different fight. Denny Nelson and Veid Muiznieas scored it 56-56, while Carl Benson scored it 57-56 for Rodriguez, the total constituting a majority draw.
0-1 Jake Backus exhibited an improved performance in his second fight, a rematch
against 2-0 Super Bantamweight Vincente Alforo of St. Paul. But his effective movement and counterpunching never amounted to effective and punishing blows, and he was caught with a right hand that almost dropped him in the third round, forcing him to grab and hold for survival. At one point he was hurt so badly that his clinching resulted in him accidentally tackling Alfaro, and the round was lopsided enough for him to lose it 10-8. With a majority decision favoring Alfaro, Nelson calling it 39-37, Muiznieas scoring it 38-37 and Benson settling for 37-37, it is obvious that Backus let the fight slip away with his precarious 3rd round performance.
Hector Orozco avenged a technical decision loss from October of last year with a majority decision over Danny Figueroa. Boxers and Writers Magazine saw this fight differently from the judges also, believing Figueroa’s jab and combinations to be more effective throughout. Figueroa slipped well and utilized the ring, and he also fought effectively inside while Orozco continuously came forward. Orozco did look better this time around, though, and his high degree of recent activity has paid off. Nelson scored it 39-37 and Benson had it 39-38 for Orozco, while Muiznieas called it a 38-38 draw.
Mark Connor
© Copyright 2010, Mark Connor
Minnesota’s Caleb Truax took another significant step in his undefeated career Friday night with a unanimous decision over veteran middleweight Antwun Echols of Davenport, Iowa. The fight appeared close throughout, with Truax establishing dominance in the beginning but seeming to fade as the rounds passed. Echol’s persistent body shots on the inside appeared to take their toll, but just when he seemed to cede too much control in any given round Truax would score a significant flurry to turn the tide. The Boxers and Writers Magazine view of this fight is that it was much closer than the judges saw it, but Truax did deserve the unanimous decision. He turned on the pressure in the final rounds, particularly dominating the last two. Echols gave him the challenge that is to be expected from such an accomplished veteran Middleweight and Super Middleweight who has TKO victories over skilled fighters like Charles Brewer and once went the distance with the legendary Bernard Hopkins.
In the semi-main event Blaine’s Jon Schmidt lucked out with a no contest over an accidental head butt over his right eye as Josh Crouch took control in the 2nd and 3rd rounds with effective inside uppercuts and hooks from either side as he switched from the right handed and southpaw stances.
Ismail Muwendo scored a 3rd round knockout over Juan Baltierez in a scheduled 6 round Super Featherweight fight. Baltierez actually looked much stronger than he did months ago when fighting to a draw in West St. Paul. He actually landed some effective jabs that stopped Muwendo in his tracks, as well as good right hands in the first round. He did the same thing in the 2nd, but was neutralized by Muwendo’s strong jab, which was a continuation of the first round in which Muwendo landed cleaner, clearer shots including strong uppercuts and a solid, staggering right hand that established his command of the fight. Muwendo finally found his mark with a left hook in the 3rd round, dropping Baltierez, who rose to be dropped within a couple of more exchanges that ended the fight. Baltierez has potential, but he needs to sharpen up on a lower level of competition before competing with fighters as strong and effective as Muwendo, who has proven his power and potential but will have to tighten up on his defense—including an improvement of footwork and protecting his untested chin—before he steps up his own competition.
Charles Meir of Coon Rapids rose from the canvas after Corey Rodriguez dropped him with a looping right hand during a barrage of punches Rodriguez unleashed in the first round of their 6 round Middleweight fight. Meir did exhibit a high degree of skill in moving around the ring and landing counter shots, but Rodriguez was relentless throughout the fight with his body attack and appeared to be more effective and land more punches. But Rodriquez was dropped in the third from an accumulation of blows after a sneaky shot stunned him, and even though he came back well and was competitive in the last quarter of the round he still gave it away by a 10-8 margin. Boxers and Writers Magazine scored the fight 58-55 for Rodriguez, but apparently the judges were watching an entirely different fight. Denny Nelson and Veid Muiznieas scored it 56-56, while Carl Benson scored it 57-56 for Rodriguez, the total constituting a majority draw.
0-1 Jake Backus exhibited an improved performance in his second fight, a rematch
against 2-0 Super Bantamweight Vincente Alforo of St. Paul. But his effective movement and counterpunching never amounted to effective and punishing blows, and he was caught with a right hand that almost dropped him in the third round, forcing him to grab and hold for survival. At one point he was hurt so badly that his clinching resulted in him accidentally tackling Alfaro, and the round was lopsided enough for him to lose it 10-8. With a majority decision favoring Alfaro, Nelson calling it 39-37, Muiznieas scoring it 38-37 and Benson settling for 37-37, it is obvious that Backus let the fight slip away with his precarious 3rd round performance.
Hector Orozco avenged a technical decision loss from October of last year with a majority decision over Danny Figueroa. Boxers and Writers Magazine saw this fight differently from the judges also, believing Figueroa’s jab and combinations to be more effective throughout. Figueroa slipped well and utilized the ring, and he also fought effectively inside while Orozco continuously came forward. Orozco did look better this time around, though, and his high degree of recent activity has paid off. Nelson scored it 39-37 and Benson had it 39-38 for Orozco, while Muiznieas called it a 38-38 draw.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Abell disqualified for late punch knockout, Walters defeated in 56 seconds
Editor's Note: The result of this fight was officially changed from Disqualification to No Contest. More information forthcoming
By
Mark Connor
© Copyright 2009, Mark ConnorBy
Mark Connor
© Copyright 2009, Mark ConnorBy
Raphael Butler appeared to be in command of the Minnesota Heavyweight Championship fight against Joey Abell as the final 30 seconds of the first round approached. He’d been landing good combinations and winning exchanges, picking apart the southpaw Abell with jabs, hooks, right hands and body shots. He was moving well and slipping well and seemed to be establishing the kind of rhythm that propels a fighter to victory. But then suddenly Abell hit him with a solid straight left hand that seriously stunned him, and then he punched some more and knocked him down. As Butler got up he did what was necessary to survive the round and the bell rang. It clearly rang. There was no mistaking it. Then, as Butler put his hands down and was ready to return to his corner, Abell threw the left again, knocking Butler out. Thereafter a melee occurred when Butler’s trainer, Dan O’Connor, ran into the ring and over to Abell, attacking him, at which time Abell’s corner attempted to protect him. When the incident had calmed down just a bit Abell went to Butler’s corner to tell O’Connor he wasn’t aware the round was over when he threw his last punch. After Butler was revived and had been awarded the victory, he was given the microphone and tried to tell the crowd Abell would get a rematch, but he could barely be heard over the boos.
Before the fighters exited the ring I was able to talk briefly to both of them, although State Commissioners were attempting to block interviews. Just before leaving the ring Abell verified to me that he told O’Connor he hadn’t realized the bell had rung before throwing the last punch, and Butler verified my suspicion, that until getting hit with the first significant Abell left hand he felt he was in command of the fight.
“I thought it was going to be an easy fight,” Butler said in reference to how he’d been doing prior to being dropped.
As disappointed as the crowd was, the disqualification was the right call. Historically speaking, even though the reference is to the amateur rather than the professional arena, the incident reminds me of when Evander Holyfield was disqualified in his 1984 semifinal Light Heavyweight Olympic bout in Los Angelus when he didn’t break momentum and knocked his opponent. Also, Abell showed the same level of class after his disqualification as Holyfield did while representing the U.S. in the Olympics 25 years ago.
In the co-main event Zack Walter of Duluth, MN was overwhelmed by Larry Sharpe of Pine Falls, Manitoba, Canada, who dropped him twice to win by knockout at 56 seconds of the 1st round. Sharpe improved to 24-4, 13 KOs, and when interviewed after the fight he announced to a round a boos from the Twin Cities crowd that he now wants to fight Matt Vanda. “I’d been campaigning as a Junior Middleweight,” he said, “and I didn’t belong there. I’m a natural Super Middleweight.”
The night’s most entertaining fight was the unanimous decision victory of St. Paul lightweight Tony Lee in his professional debut against Hector Orozco of Hopkins. Lee took command immediately with his jab and executed fast combinations. He also landed numerous body shots throughout the fight and in the 1st round dropped the southpaw Orozco with a right hand from an angle the man couldn’t see. Orozco proved tough and determined, though, continuously coming and landing a significant amount of his own punches. Lee pressed on with speedy combinations from angles he was able to create with movement, landing right hands and left hooks against the southpaw stance but also finding the jab consistently and pounding the body. By the middle of the second Lee’s knockout opportunity appeared to have slipped away, and by the end of the third he tended to carry his hand a little low, subtly signifying the weariness creeping into his arms from punching a guy who wouldn’t give up. But before the bell to end the round he pulled his hands back above his chin and went to work with combinations. Lee was significantly less effective in the last round, though, leading me to debate whether he won it. I gave him the nod, as one judge obviously did with a 40-36 final score. My unofficial card agreed with that, but the cards of Denny Nelson and John Mariano were both 39-36, leading me to believe Lee’s fatigue lost the 4th for him in their eyes by a margin of 10-9. Lee showed me his left hand afterwards, which was significantly bruised near the outer wrist, and he said that it inhibited him during the last half of the fight. Orozco faired well enough in this fight, but he took a lot of punches and was in over his head, as he was in his professional debut in 2006 when he lost a unanimous decision to Raúl Gracia, whose corner I was in at the time. It seems to me that Orozco is an exceptional athlete and has potential as a boxer, but he needs to fight some opponents with less skill on whom he can practice new moves and sharpen his combinations and defense. Lee will need more conditioning and another entry level opponent, but should then be able to take the next step and progress steadily.
Boris, “The Russian Giant” Shishporenok, of Blaine (who is actually from Belarus, not Russia) controlled his bout from the beginning against a debuting Will Gillette of Rapid City, SD. The taller and heavier Shishporenok, a southpaw who weighed 280 pounds and stands 6’-5’’, towered over Gillette and visibly damaged him before the end of the first. He consistently jabbed and followed through with hooks and uppercuts after catching Gillette with left hands coming in. Then, in the second round he threw a perfectly timed one-two combination that Gillette walked into, the left hand landing flush and knocking him cold. Shishporonek climbs to 7-1, 6 KOs. He was originally scheduled to fight Travis Walker but the match fell through, and so he settled for this significantly easier challenge.
Lightweight Gary Eyer, Duluth, MN, has to be admired for being courageous enough to enter the arena to the cross dressing singer Boy George’s song “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?”. Standing taller than his rough Mexican opponent, Levi Cortes of St. Paul, he took punches all night in a 6 round fight he won by unanimous decision. Apparently the right hand haymakers that Cortes threw were seen by the judges as grazing blows that made some noise and riled the crow but did not actually score, event though they consistently clocked Eyer in the face and visibly damaged him. Cortes took his own share of punches and was cut badly on the mouth, while Eyer was significantly bruised on the lower corner of his left eye. While Eyer exhibited a fair amount of skill he didn’t seem to be landing nearly as many punches as Cortes, nor was he generally effective. He did score two knockdowns, however, one in the third and another in the 5th, and referee Bob Brunette (very unjustifiably, I believe) told Cortes’ trainer, Fernando Ortiz in the corner that if another such knockdown occurred in the 6th he would stop the fight. Actually, when the first knockdown happened Eyer had been taking a pummeling, but he wisely timed a left hook over Cortes’ haymaker right. Eyer was obviously trying to land that punch all night, as was evidenced by his continual lifting of his right foot while moving back to time Cortes coming in. The problem with that strategy is it tended to cause him to lean in off balance and throw his right hand with his back foot slightly in the air, inhibiting him from ever being able to seriously threaten Cortes even after knocking him down. After the first knockdown Cortes wisely clinched very tightly several times and came back strong in the closing portion of the round. The second knockdown resulted in another strong survival response. I would have scored the fight 59-56 for Cortes. However, Cortes must work on a number of things which could have helped him in this fight. The first is to shorten that right hand instead of throwing haymakers, the second is to stop smothering himself and learn to take half steps back or to the side to maintain punching range, and the third is to throw an uppercut. Any one or all of these tools could have helped him tremendously in this tough battle. Eyer’s improvement would start with a good strong jab which was nonexistent in this fight. Nevertheless, Eyer climbs to 7-0-1, 5 KOs.
Tomi Archambault of Minot, ND struggled down three pounds Thursday night to make the minimum 130 pounds to meet the 129 + or – limit for the Featherweight (normally 126 lbs) fight against Coon Rapids’ Ronnie Peterson, 127. Peterson dominated the first round with body and head combinations, hooking well off the jab and making Archmambault miss or catch his shoulders or gloves when returning fire. Peterson began to look physically troubled in the second half of round 2, however, which he obviously lost. His breathing appeared to be inhibited, and, unfortunately the bout was stopped after the second round when he complained in his corner of a shoulder injury. Peterson suffered a significant shoulder injury in his final year as an amateur, which subsequently prevented from him from competing in the National Golden Gloves at the time. Hopefully he will make a full recovery and this incident won’t significantly retard the progress of his career.
Ronnie Peterson’s older brother, Junior Middleweight David Peterson of Mounds View, had absolutely no problem against Silas Ortley of North Dakota, over whom he scored a 4th round TKO. Peterson pounded Ortley’s soft body for three and a half rounds, the North Dakotan falling to the canvas. Peterson was open and vulnerable throughout but Ortley was not skilled or conditioned enough to capitalize on it. In fact Ortley, falling to 4-8, 3 KOs, appeared to have no idea how to handle Peterson, now 12-0, 7 KOs. Peterson’s last outing was a win over Corrie Rodriguez, shortly after which he related to me that he was surprised at how easy it came. Significant training will be required, but he should fight another opponent of that caliber with the intention of taking a step up from there in the immediate future. He has potential, but he’ll never be challenged on this level, or worse—he could get lazy and get caught with an unseen punch against someone like Ortley who has no business in the ring with him.
Junior Middleweight Saverino Garcia, Jr., of St. Paul, got his first win with a unanimous decision over Jacob Dobbe of Minneapolis. Garcia, now 1-0-1, 0 KOs picked up his first win over the debuting Dobbe, who showed a lot of heart and potential. Garcia fights significantly similar to his dad, former Upper Midwest Golden Gloves Champion and professional featherweight Saverino Garcia, Sr., who trained in the Petronelli camp in Brocton, MA where he sparred with Middleweight Hall of Fame Champion Marvin Hagler. The willingness to trade blows is apparently hereditary in this case, but the lesser number of years experience are evident the son’s lack of defense. Against a fighter of significantly little experience Garcia started slow, seemingly surprised at Dobbe’s ability to hit him and determination to fight. He clearly lost the first round. He came on by the second half of the second round, though, when he began to find his timing and rhythm. Then he got into the groove and dominated the last two rounds, proving that with a little more conditioning and sharpness he can start dropping opponents on the preliminary fight level. He and his father both said that they know he has a lot to work on and they’re just happy to have gotten the experience as they look to the future.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Abell plans adjustments, Butler stands on skill
By
Mark Connor
“I guarantee I can knock him out and I know he can knock me out too,” Abell says, “but I mean I’m not gonna put myself in the position to be knocked out and I’m going to go out there every round and fight not just to win the fight but to knock him out because that’s what the fans want to see.”
Abell remembers that when they fought as amateurs he successfully pressured Butler with constant punches, and says that’s the reason the fight was stopped. Butler acknowledges that, insisting a combination of a lack of experience and less than stellar conditioning is what debilitated him at the time. To accurately judge what each is capable of doing to the other today, it is necessary to examine their professional performances, particularly their best and their worst. Abell says there are three or more ways to beat Butler, the first being the pressure he applied to them in their amateur fight nearly a decade ago.
“I’m gonna try that,” he said of the pressure strategy. “There’s probably three different ways of going about this fight. If one doesn’t work I’m gonna switch to another and if that one doesn’t work I’m gonna switch to another. There are many different things I can do.”
As far as Butler’s fight is concerned, he’ll have to make sure to keep his eyes on his opponent to avoid the sneaking shot from nowhere. He’ll have to also counter well and often after he lands lead combinations, stepping to the side instead of just straight back and wallowing on the ropes. He’s had a tendency to do the latter in the closer fights he’s had, and he’s also tired in the past. If he’s not in the best of shape and allows himself to tire, he’ll have problems. But he’s been training hard and sparring regularly with strong southpaw Boris Shishporenok; and his middle has tightened up in the last month. His endurance should be there enough to pull off the victory, but for his own sake he needs to be in better shape than the past. If he’s in really top notch condition it shouldn’t be that hard of a fight. It’s hard to say which Butler will show up for the Friday night contest, but the best guess is that he’ll pull it off one way or another.
Mark Connor
© Copyright 2009, Mark Connor
Raphael “the Silencer” Butler, 35-8-0, 28 KOs, and Joey “Minnesota Ice” Abell, 25-4-0, 24 KOs, have been training hard for their scheduled Minnesota Heavyweight Championship match this Friday, December 4. As they wind up training and ready for the 6 o’clock weigh-ins at the Target Center this Thursday night, it makes sense to evaluate their styles and histories, examine their statements about the fight, and come to a conclusion about the possible results.
Raphael “the Silencer” Butler, 35-8-0, 28 KOs, and Joey “Minnesota Ice” Abell, 25-4-0, 24 KOs, have been training hard for their scheduled Minnesota Heavyweight Championship match this Friday, December 4. As they wind up training and ready for the 6 o’clock weigh-ins at the Target Center this Thursday night, it makes sense to evaluate their styles and histories, examine their statements about the fight, and come to a conclusion about the possible results.
Both fighters spoke briefly after a press conference at the Target Center on October 27, sharing their expectations for the fight. While Butler confidently insisted that since becoming a professional in 2005 he has improved far beyond Abell’s skill and couldn’t possibly suffer the traumatic defeat he experienced against him as an amateur, Abell argues his ability to knock Butler out. Both acknowledge each other’s accomplishments, though, and also remember what they learned about themselves and each other when they’ve had occasion to spar in the past. The match is significantly dramatic given their extensive knowledge of each other, Butler being from Rochester and Abell from Coon Rapids, and now that they’ve compiled respectively impressive winning records a collision course has led them to what is for both a crossroads fight.
“I guarantee I can knock him out and I know he can knock me out too,” Abell says, “but I mean I’m not gonna put myself in the position to be knocked out and I’m going to go out there every round and fight not just to win the fight but to knock him out because that’s what the fans want to see.”
Abell remembers that when they fought as amateurs he successfully pressured Butler with constant punches, and says that’s the reason the fight was stopped. Butler acknowledges that, insisting a combination of a lack of experience and less than stellar conditioning is what debilitated him at the time. To accurately judge what each is capable of doing to the other today, it is necessary to examine their professional performances, particularly their best and their worst. Abell says there are three or more ways to beat Butler, the first being the pressure he applied to them in their amateur fight nearly a decade ago.
“I’m gonna try that,” he said of the pressure strategy. “There’s probably three different ways of going about this fight. If one doesn’t work I’m gonna switch to another and if that one doesn’t work I’m gonna switch to another. There are many different things I can do.”
Butler believes his superior command of speed and footwork, along with his ability to slip and counter punches, will carry him through the fight and secure victory.
“I feel like I’m talented enough if I get in there and I do exactly what I’m supposed to do,” he explained, “there should be no way Joey Abell should be able to beat me.” Butler didn’t go into great detail about his strategy, but it can be deduced from his statement referring to his skills in relation to Abell’s.
“I know I’m faster than Joey, I know that I can move better than Joey, and I actually know that I’m actually more intelligent as far as boxing goes than Joey,” he said. “So that’s why I feel confident that if I do my work in the gym and if I do everything I need to do at home, the fight will be the easy part.”
The work in the gym he referred to will be the key, because everything else he said regarding physical talent is accurate. Butler does move better and is faster than Abell, but conditioning in this fight will be the final determining factor if it is at all close. Butler has had his tendencies to tire in the past, and he will have to eliminate that possibility to accomplish what he is obviously capable of.
“Anybody will tell you that the hardest part of the fight should be your training,” he said, “and if it’s not your training than you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing.”
Abell does punch hard and he is strong, and he will most likely be in great shape. His tendency is to hold his chin too high and expose himself dangerously when loading up with the right hook from his southpaw stance, however, and his footwork is slow and plodding. He will have to pressure Butler like he mentioned in October, and if the pressure doesn’t work he’ll have to be able to avoid punches and hit him from angles that Butler cannot see. So long as Butler is in condition and boxing intelligently, however, Abell’s chance of pulling it off will be minimal. But the one factor present throughout the fight will be the possibility of Abell landing a big punch.
As far as Butler’s fight is concerned, he’ll have to make sure to keep his eyes on his opponent to avoid the sneaking shot from nowhere. He’ll have to also counter well and often after he lands lead combinations, stepping to the side instead of just straight back and wallowing on the ropes. He’s had a tendency to do the latter in the closer fights he’s had, and he’s also tired in the past. If he’s not in the best of shape and allows himself to tire, he’ll have problems. But he’s been training hard and sparring regularly with strong southpaw Boris Shishporenok; and his middle has tightened up in the last month. His endurance should be there enough to pull off the victory, but for his own sake he needs to be in better shape than the past. If he’s in really top notch condition it shouldn’t be that hard of a fight. It’s hard to say which Butler will show up for the Friday night contest, but the best guess is that he’ll pull it off one way or another.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Truax Shatters Hope, Kayongo Tops Todd
By
Mark Connor
© Copyright 2009, Mark Connor
Caleb Truax shut down a brave bid by Kerry Hope of Wales to break his winning streak for the vacant World Boxing Foundation (WBF) International Super Middleweight title at the St. Paul Armory last Friday night, November 20, while Mohammed Kayongo may have resurrected his career with a 4th round knockout of Welshman James Todd for the WBF Intercontinental Welterweight title. Although the Truax-Hope contest was much more competitive, both victors were dominant throughout their respective contests.
Hope pressed the fight immediately in the first round, and although it was close and Truax was competently composed while moving around the ring in an attempt to establish his rhythm, I thought Hope won the round 10-9 because of his effective punching and aggression. Truax took control of the fight from there, though, and I had him winning every round except the 10th. I had the chance to speak briefly with judge Denny Nelson after the fight, and he told me he scored the first seven rounds for Truax, but the 8th, 9th, and 10th for Hope as Truax got tired. I scored the 9th for Hope because Truax appeared to be taking that round off after building such a huge lead, but thought Truax did enough to take the 10th. My unofficial card was 98-92 for Truax, but the official cards were unanimous at 97-93 for Truax. Strategically speaking, it was a near perfect performance for Truax, who handled Hope’s southpaw stance with the kind of precision necessary to succeed as a professional.
Hope fought more on the outside than he has in previous losses when he demonstrated a tendency to give up his natural reach advantage by smothering his power on the inside. He concentrated on keeping his distance and punching behind his right jab from full range in this fight, but Truax was too fast and too elusive for him to dominate. Also, Truax threw a strong left jab over the top of Hope’s lead whenever he was able to step outside Hope’s right foot. More often than not Truax concentrated on the right hand, though, and just when it seemed he was headhunting he’d land a significant shot to the body before coming back upstairs to land a clear shot to the chin. It took until the 4th round for him to cleanly land the left hook after the right hand, but once he did he was able to return to that shot at various critical periods throughout the night. By the 7th round he was moving well throughout the ring and picking his spots to effectively land significant shots. Due to a continued clash of heads in the opening rounds Truax suffered a cut in the corner of his right eye and Hope was cut on the side of his head, but neither injury significantly inhibited either fighter. Hope’s brave and competitive performance justifies his prefight confidence, but his evaluation of Truax’s credentials proved particularly flawed.
“Yeah, his record suggests he can punch,” Hope said the previous night after the weigh-ins, “but he’s fought tin cans if you ask me.”
That was an interesting statement, given that Truax entered the fight with a record of 13-0, 9 KOs, against a list of opponents whose combined win-loss record is 143 wins, 123 losses, and 15 draws, whereas Hope’s previous opponents have a combined record of 126 wins, 467 losses, and 29 draws.
“It’s their job to fight every week,” Hope said of his opponents with hundreds of losses, explaining that they were experienced enough to go the distance with good boxers but that he believed Truax’s previous opponents were not. Nevertheless, Hope has only scored one knockout in his entire 15 fight career, and he must go back to the drawing board after this loss. Perhaps he could climb back to this level with some more work, because he was obviously formidable for Truax, but “Golden” Caleb has taken a big step with this victory and appears poised to improve if he steadily increases his level of competition with the conservative approach that will enable him to continue his progress.
Kayongo opened his welterweight bout with immediate aggression against Todd, loading up with his punches. He jabbed well, but put most of his effort into right uppercuts and left hooks as he continuously moved around the ring bouncing punches off the advancing Todd, who had no idea what to do with him. Todd was cut with a mouse under his left eye by the 2nd round, when he was knocked down for the first time. At 2.35 of the 4th round Kayongo landed a combination that put Todd down for an immediate stoppage, referee Mark Nelson neglecting to count over the fallen fighter. Kayongo improves his record to 15-2-1, 11 KOs. This is Kayongo’s third win in a row since being TKO’d by José Leo Moreno in June 2005. He knocked out Eberto Medina, 2-2-0 in round 4 on April 25, 2007 at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul, and won a 6 round Unanimous decision over Alex Perez, 23-30-4 on October 3, 2008 at the Ho Chunk Casino in Lynwood, IL. Todd’s rookie record falls from 2-1-1 to 2-2-1. It remains to be seen if Kayongo, the “African Assassin” can climb back to the level of challenging himself against experienced quality competition to the degree he did before falling to “The Lion Hearted” José Leo Marino.
In preliminary action Light Heavyweight Michael Faulk of St. Paul won a Unanimous decision—38-36, 39-37, 39-37—over Ryan Soft of New Town, ND. Faulk landed cleaner shots in the 1st and 2nd but got caught a bit near the end of the 2nd as Soft came on in the 3rd. Soft feigned pain from alleged low blows in both the 1st and the 4th, but it’s unclear whether anyone in the building saw Faulk land any low blows against him. Soft was able to catch Faulk with plenty of punches but many of his right hands were a little too looping to land flush and do damage, and he also lifted his right foot off the ground at critical moments while punching, throwing himself off balance and many times smothering his power. Faulk, a Southpaw, landed many effective combinations but squared himself off way too much and unnecessarily opened himself up for damage he would have best avoided. Faulk climbs to 2-0 while Soft falls to a perfectly balanced 1-1-1.
Featherweight prospect Willshaun Boxley boxed a very entertaining exhibition to open the night. He was faster, punched harder, and outmoved his opponent while making him miss throughout the fight, although he carried his chin curiously high during his performance. Hopefully he'll be in competitive action again soon so local fans can see how fast he's developing.
There were three Mixed Martial Arts matches between the Faulk-Soft match and the Kayongo-Todd match. While I was interested in them as I watched, I could have just as easily skipped the experience. They were competitive athletes, though, and very strong and tough. They deserve credit for their efforts. In the first bout Derk Abram TKO’d Gabe Wllbridge, in the second Isaiah Mahto won by submission over Jedidiah Jones, and in the third Marcus LeVessuer defeated Bruce Johnson. LeVessuer is particularly impressive.
There are two reasons I would rather not see MMA matches included on boxing cards. One is that MMA fighters are regularly paid in a manner different than boxers, wherein a participant will get a couple of hundred or a few hundred dollars to fight (or many thousands or greater in big promotions), then additional payment of the same amount if he wins. In other words the winner between two competitors on the same level makes double the loser, when in fact the fight couldn't happen without both and the loser may even be the bigger draw. I for one would hate to see any attempt to introduce this type of pay system into boxing. The other reason is that the inclusion of an MMA match necessarily means the exclusion of a boxing match. Seconds Out Promotions impresses me as a sound operation and I believe it to be a positive presence in Minnesota boxing. I understand that prmoting is necessarily a financial risk every time it's done, and I admire anyone who can organize such an event successfully. I just firmly belive the cards are always a higher quality when they are exclusive to boxing, and I worry that inclusion of MMA matches can become a crutch to fill up a card with less expensive competition. The counter to this argument, of course, is that promoters concentrating solely on boxing also must fill the cards with quality matches, and sometimes that is very challenging. More opportunity to explore this issue will present itself as the nature of boxing promotion evolves in the next decade.
Mark Connor
© Copyright 2009, Mark Connor
Caleb Truax shut down a brave bid by Kerry Hope of Wales to break his winning streak for the vacant World Boxing Foundation (WBF) International Super Middleweight title at the St. Paul Armory last Friday night, November 20, while Mohammed Kayongo may have resurrected his career with a 4th round knockout of Welshman James Todd for the WBF Intercontinental Welterweight title. Although the Truax-Hope contest was much more competitive, both victors were dominant throughout their respective contests.
Hope pressed the fight immediately in the first round, and although it was close and Truax was competently composed while moving around the ring in an attempt to establish his rhythm, I thought Hope won the round 10-9 because of his effective punching and aggression. Truax took control of the fight from there, though, and I had him winning every round except the 10th. I had the chance to speak briefly with judge Denny Nelson after the fight, and he told me he scored the first seven rounds for Truax, but the 8th, 9th, and 10th for Hope as Truax got tired. I scored the 9th for Hope because Truax appeared to be taking that round off after building such a huge lead, but thought Truax did enough to take the 10th. My unofficial card was 98-92 for Truax, but the official cards were unanimous at 97-93 for Truax. Strategically speaking, it was a near perfect performance for Truax, who handled Hope’s southpaw stance with the kind of precision necessary to succeed as a professional.
Hope fought more on the outside than he has in previous losses when he demonstrated a tendency to give up his natural reach advantage by smothering his power on the inside. He concentrated on keeping his distance and punching behind his right jab from full range in this fight, but Truax was too fast and too elusive for him to dominate. Also, Truax threw a strong left jab over the top of Hope’s lead whenever he was able to step outside Hope’s right foot. More often than not Truax concentrated on the right hand, though, and just when it seemed he was headhunting he’d land a significant shot to the body before coming back upstairs to land a clear shot to the chin. It took until the 4th round for him to cleanly land the left hook after the right hand, but once he did he was able to return to that shot at various critical periods throughout the night. By the 7th round he was moving well throughout the ring and picking his spots to effectively land significant shots. Due to a continued clash of heads in the opening rounds Truax suffered a cut in the corner of his right eye and Hope was cut on the side of his head, but neither injury significantly inhibited either fighter. Hope’s brave and competitive performance justifies his prefight confidence, but his evaluation of Truax’s credentials proved particularly flawed.
“Yeah, his record suggests he can punch,” Hope said the previous night after the weigh-ins, “but he’s fought tin cans if you ask me.”
That was an interesting statement, given that Truax entered the fight with a record of 13-0, 9 KOs, against a list of opponents whose combined win-loss record is 143 wins, 123 losses, and 15 draws, whereas Hope’s previous opponents have a combined record of 126 wins, 467 losses, and 29 draws.
“It’s their job to fight every week,” Hope said of his opponents with hundreds of losses, explaining that they were experienced enough to go the distance with good boxers but that he believed Truax’s previous opponents were not. Nevertheless, Hope has only scored one knockout in his entire 15 fight career, and he must go back to the drawing board after this loss. Perhaps he could climb back to this level with some more work, because he was obviously formidable for Truax, but “Golden” Caleb has taken a big step with this victory and appears poised to improve if he steadily increases his level of competition with the conservative approach that will enable him to continue his progress.
Kayongo opened his welterweight bout with immediate aggression against Todd, loading up with his punches. He jabbed well, but put most of his effort into right uppercuts and left hooks as he continuously moved around the ring bouncing punches off the advancing Todd, who had no idea what to do with him. Todd was cut with a mouse under his left eye by the 2nd round, when he was knocked down for the first time. At 2.35 of the 4th round Kayongo landed a combination that put Todd down for an immediate stoppage, referee Mark Nelson neglecting to count over the fallen fighter. Kayongo improves his record to 15-2-1, 11 KOs. This is Kayongo’s third win in a row since being TKO’d by José Leo Moreno in June 2005. He knocked out Eberto Medina, 2-2-0 in round 4 on April 25, 2007 at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul, and won a 6 round Unanimous decision over Alex Perez, 23-30-4 on October 3, 2008 at the Ho Chunk Casino in Lynwood, IL. Todd’s rookie record falls from 2-1-1 to 2-2-1. It remains to be seen if Kayongo, the “African Assassin” can climb back to the level of challenging himself against experienced quality competition to the degree he did before falling to “The Lion Hearted” José Leo Marino.
In preliminary action Light Heavyweight Michael Faulk of St. Paul won a Unanimous decision—38-36, 39-37, 39-37—over Ryan Soft of New Town, ND. Faulk landed cleaner shots in the 1st and 2nd but got caught a bit near the end of the 2nd as Soft came on in the 3rd. Soft feigned pain from alleged low blows in both the 1st and the 4th, but it’s unclear whether anyone in the building saw Faulk land any low blows against him. Soft was able to catch Faulk with plenty of punches but many of his right hands were a little too looping to land flush and do damage, and he also lifted his right foot off the ground at critical moments while punching, throwing himself off balance and many times smothering his power. Faulk, a Southpaw, landed many effective combinations but squared himself off way too much and unnecessarily opened himself up for damage he would have best avoided. Faulk climbs to 2-0 while Soft falls to a perfectly balanced 1-1-1.
Featherweight prospect Willshaun Boxley boxed a very entertaining exhibition to open the night. He was faster, punched harder, and outmoved his opponent while making him miss throughout the fight, although he carried his chin curiously high during his performance. Hopefully he'll be in competitive action again soon so local fans can see how fast he's developing.
There were three Mixed Martial Arts matches between the Faulk-Soft match and the Kayongo-Todd match. While I was interested in them as I watched, I could have just as easily skipped the experience. They were competitive athletes, though, and very strong and tough. They deserve credit for their efforts. In the first bout Derk Abram TKO’d Gabe Wllbridge, in the second Isaiah Mahto won by submission over Jedidiah Jones, and in the third Marcus LeVessuer defeated Bruce Johnson. LeVessuer is particularly impressive.
There are two reasons I would rather not see MMA matches included on boxing cards. One is that MMA fighters are regularly paid in a manner different than boxers, wherein a participant will get a couple of hundred or a few hundred dollars to fight (or many thousands or greater in big promotions), then additional payment of the same amount if he wins. In other words the winner between two competitors on the same level makes double the loser, when in fact the fight couldn't happen without both and the loser may even be the bigger draw. I for one would hate to see any attempt to introduce this type of pay system into boxing. The other reason is that the inclusion of an MMA match necessarily means the exclusion of a boxing match. Seconds Out Promotions impresses me as a sound operation and I believe it to be a positive presence in Minnesota boxing. I understand that prmoting is necessarily a financial risk every time it's done, and I admire anyone who can organize such an event successfully. I just firmly belive the cards are always a higher quality when they are exclusive to boxing, and I worry that inclusion of MMA matches can become a crutch to fill up a card with less expensive competition. The counter to this argument, of course, is that promoters concentrating solely on boxing also must fill the cards with quality matches, and sometimes that is very challenging. More opportunity to explore this issue will present itself as the nature of boxing promotion evolves in the next decade.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Hope Optomistic Against Truax
by
Mark Connor
© Copyright Mark Connor 2009
Welshman Kerry Hope, 12-2, 1 KO, weighed in at Brits Pub in Minneapolis last night at 168 pounds for his fight tonight against Osseo’s Caleb Truax, 13-0, 9 KOs at the St. Paul Armory for the World Boxing Federation (WBF) International Super Middleweight title. Truax also weighed 168 pounds.
Hope is a step down from Truax’s original opponent, Carl Daniels, 50-18, 32 KOs. Daniels is a 21 year professional who’s first fight was at 140 pounds, but has recently campaigned at Light Heavyweight. He has failed to go the distance three times in a seven fight losing streak that began with a 7th round Technical Decision loss to Minnesota’s Zach Walters on February 23, 2008. He also lost a 10 round unanimous decision to Anthony Bonsante on September 20, 2008. While he’s been fighting at Light Heavyweight, his recent presence in Minnesota obviously familiarizes him not only with local fans, but also Truax’s trainer and his promoter. Hope, on the other hand, is a newer appearance on the radar screen, but he should certainly be less of a challenge than the ruggedly experienced Daniels. Hope poses little threat in punching power, and although the southpaw stance may be an adjustment for Truax, Hope has had a tendency to diminish his reach advantage by ignoring the jab and slugging inside. In that respect he seems to be tailor made for Truax. After the weigh-in Hope spoke briefly about his past and his first look at Truax when they crossed paths at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood.
Truax had been sent to training camp this fall in Big Bear, California, followed by some days of training and sparring at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood. Hope was there too, saying he watched Truax spar and he believes he can beat him. He also said fans should not be fooled by his lack of knockouts in the past and that since moving from Wales to California in June he’s greatly improved, adding confidently that he will win tonight. The region he’s from is mountainous, he said, and he has great endurance from running steep hills. While Hope won his last fight via 6 round unanimous decision, he lost the previous two, getting stopped in the 4th round of a 10 round battle in February for the Welsh Area Light Middleweight title, and TKO’d in the 8th of an 8 round fight at 156 ½ pounds in March, 2008.
A full report on the fight and the undercard will appear here in the coming days.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Vanda dominates as Hilario pushes through in Hinckley
Vanda dominates as Hilario pushes through in Hinckley
By
Mark Connor
© Copyright 2009, Mark Connor
Matt Vanda dominated his Super Middleweight fight against Phil Williams last Friday, November 13, at the Grand Casino in Hinckley, MN. From the opening bell Williams appeared hesitant as Vanda found his range, out jabbed his taller and heavier opponent, and landed just enough punches at critical stages of each round to win the majority of them in a convincing fashion. In the co-main event IBA Americas Super Featherweight Champion Wilton Hilario, of St. Louis Park, MN won a unanimous decision over Leon Bobo of St. Louis, MO. While Hilario began the fight explosively his momentum was shut down and all possibilities of a knockout were prevented by the highly skilled Bobo, who with a record falling to 18-4-1 proved too weak to effectively fight Hilario but too experienced to suffer serious damage or be knocked out. There were four preliminary fights on the card.
By the third round it was evident that Vanda had taken full control of the fight, landing good uppercuts and hooks to the body and head and easily out jabbing Williams. In the fourth Williams’ movement and punches slowed Vanda progress a bit, but couldn't stop it. In the fifth Vanda began mockingly copying Williams’ style and landed shots plentifully, and Williams seemed clueless about how to neutralize him. Williams finally started better in the sixth round, but he lost his momentum to Vanda’s efforts in the second half of it. I scored the seventh and ninth rounds even, but gave the rest of the fight to Vanda easily. However, I was not seated at ringside and know the judges always have the best view in the house. The seventh and ninth could have easily gone to Williams, and a couple of other rounds could have too. I found many of them to be close and believed that Vanda’s extra efforts near the end of them resulted in more clear and effective punching and ring generalship, allowing him to win otherwise competitive rounds. If I would have given the seventh and ninth to Williams my unofficial score would have been 98-94 rather than 100-92. Denny Nelson’s score was 97-93 in favor of Vanda, and I can’t argue with it. Nelson is the most experienced and also the most accurate judge in Minnesota. He has judged and refereed a large number of World Championship fights, and his score should serve as a good indicator that many of the rounds were close but Vanda was in control and decisively victorious. Vanda won by 10 round Split Decision.
Hilario showed the vulnerability inherent in his slugger’s style when he occasionally got caught with stunning left hands from the taller Southpaw, Bobo. The St. Louis fighter did not keep his distance though, mainly because Hilario was too strong and too relentless for him to do so. Hilario was just too strong for Bobo to pose a threat. He was also too light of a puncher (his only two career stoppages came in a TKO for his pro debut against an 0-9 fighter in 2003 and a KO of a 7-12 fighter in 2007) to pose any threat to Hilario. Hopefully the “Pretty Warrior” will learn from this fight, make adjustments for southpaws he may face in the future, and learn to gage his distance better so as not to have his power smothered or avoided by clinching, rolling and slipping masters of defense.
Cerresso “Wu Wu” Fort of St. Paul remained undefeated with a six round unanimous decision over former amateur nemesis Lamar “The Prince of Pain” Harris of St. Louis. He was quite fortunate in his victory, however, given how difficult he made the fight. He caught Harris with a heavy right hand in the first round and could have easily knocked him out before the card girl readily held the number 2, but he blotted strategy from his mind and became a headhunter for most of the night. A round or two later he did the same thing again, hurting Harris with the natural power in his right hand but ignored the body and battered the glove’s Harris used for protection while backing into the corner. Then Harris decided to smash a couple of shots into Fort’s body, landed a left hook and right hand to his head, and spun him onto the ropes and went on the attack. Yes, Fort won the fight, but he made the rounds close and expended more energy and took more punishment than a fighter wishing to challenge on the world class level and exit the sport without permanent injury can afford. He is obviously one of the strongest and hardest punchers to come out of Minnesota in the last decade, but at Middleweight and Super Middleweight he hardly compares at this point to the local legends of Dan Shcommer, who out boxed Chris Eubank for 12 rounds in the 1990s before losing a controversial WBO Super Middleweight title shot, or Doug Demmings, who went 15 rounds with Sugar Ray Seals, 10 rounds with Alan Minter, and gave Marvin Hagler all he could handle in the 1970s. Fort is in dire need of quality coaching and must stop relying on the long, looping overhand right that will get him hurt against higher quality competition. Also, for the sake of his career, he must avoid illegitimate competition like Bobby Kliewer, his teammate from St. Paul’s Rice Street Gym whom he stopped at the Target Center in Minneapolis last April 18.
Tim Taggert of Hinckley and Sam Morales of St. Paul fought to a 4 round majority draw in the opening bout. Taggert displayed an obvious preponderance of skill in the beginning, but he was evidently not conditioned well enough to handle Morales’ admirable determination. Neither one was the pinnacle of athletic prowess, but Morales had enough strength to keep himself in the fight and make it close. A few more miles of roadwork is all Taggert would have needed to outbox him and win.
Don Tierney showed the results of inactivity in his 4 round majority decision loss to Zach Schumach, whom he defeated in a mutual pro debut last April 18 at the Minneapolis Target Center. Schumach earned a draw in June and got knocked out in July, but the activity apparently sharpened him enough for this fight. I thought Tierney’s defense, which he no doubt learned from the wise instruction of former World Title challenger Mike Evgen who’s joined his corner, was enough to win the fight. I thought he was scoring more solid punches as he made Schumach chase him around the ring. However, as I said earlier, the judges have the best view in the house and Schumach got the decision. Tierney was lucky to fight a shorter man who could barely hit him, because he kept his chin in the air all night as if his life depended on it. These two are a good match because their skills are roughly even, but I’d hate to watch either one make the foolhardy mistake of fighting a skilled, serious boxer.
Mark Connor
© Copyright 2009, Mark Connor
Matt Vanda dominated his Super Middleweight fight against Phil Williams last Friday, November 13, at the Grand Casino in Hinckley, MN. From the opening bell Williams appeared hesitant as Vanda found his range, out jabbed his taller and heavier opponent, and landed just enough punches at critical stages of each round to win the majority of them in a convincing fashion. In the co-main event IBA Americas Super Featherweight Champion Wilton Hilario, of St. Louis Park, MN won a unanimous decision over Leon Bobo of St. Louis, MO. While Hilario began the fight explosively his momentum was shut down and all possibilities of a knockout were prevented by the highly skilled Bobo, who with a record falling to 18-4-1 proved too weak to effectively fight Hilario but too experienced to suffer serious damage or be knocked out. There were four preliminary fights on the card.
By the third round it was evident that Vanda had taken full control of the fight, landing good uppercuts and hooks to the body and head and easily out jabbing Williams. In the fourth Williams’ movement and punches slowed Vanda progress a bit, but couldn't stop it. In the fifth Vanda began mockingly copying Williams’ style and landed shots plentifully, and Williams seemed clueless about how to neutralize him. Williams finally started better in the sixth round, but he lost his momentum to Vanda’s efforts in the second half of it. I scored the seventh and ninth rounds even, but gave the rest of the fight to Vanda easily. However, I was not seated at ringside and know the judges always have the best view in the house. The seventh and ninth could have easily gone to Williams, and a couple of other rounds could have too. I found many of them to be close and believed that Vanda’s extra efforts near the end of them resulted in more clear and effective punching and ring generalship, allowing him to win otherwise competitive rounds. If I would have given the seventh and ninth to Williams my unofficial score would have been 98-94 rather than 100-92. Denny Nelson’s score was 97-93 in favor of Vanda, and I can’t argue with it. Nelson is the most experienced and also the most accurate judge in Minnesota. He has judged and refereed a large number of World Championship fights, and his score should serve as a good indicator that many of the rounds were close but Vanda was in control and decisively victorious. Vanda won by 10 round Split Decision.
Hilario showed the vulnerability inherent in his slugger’s style when he occasionally got caught with stunning left hands from the taller Southpaw, Bobo. The St. Louis fighter did not keep his distance though, mainly because Hilario was too strong and too relentless for him to do so. Hilario was just too strong for Bobo to pose a threat. He was also too light of a puncher (his only two career stoppages came in a TKO for his pro debut against an 0-9 fighter in 2003 and a KO of a 7-12 fighter in 2007) to pose any threat to Hilario. Hopefully the “Pretty Warrior” will learn from this fight, make adjustments for southpaws he may face in the future, and learn to gage his distance better so as not to have his power smothered or avoided by clinching, rolling and slipping masters of defense.
Cerresso “Wu Wu” Fort of St. Paul remained undefeated with a six round unanimous decision over former amateur nemesis Lamar “The Prince of Pain” Harris of St. Louis. He was quite fortunate in his victory, however, given how difficult he made the fight. He caught Harris with a heavy right hand in the first round and could have easily knocked him out before the card girl readily held the number 2, but he blotted strategy from his mind and became a headhunter for most of the night. A round or two later he did the same thing again, hurting Harris with the natural power in his right hand but ignored the body and battered the glove’s Harris used for protection while backing into the corner. Then Harris decided to smash a couple of shots into Fort’s body, landed a left hook and right hand to his head, and spun him onto the ropes and went on the attack. Yes, Fort won the fight, but he made the rounds close and expended more energy and took more punishment than a fighter wishing to challenge on the world class level and exit the sport without permanent injury can afford. He is obviously one of the strongest and hardest punchers to come out of Minnesota in the last decade, but at Middleweight and Super Middleweight he hardly compares at this point to the local legends of Dan Shcommer, who out boxed Chris Eubank for 12 rounds in the 1990s before losing a controversial WBO Super Middleweight title shot, or Doug Demmings, who went 15 rounds with Sugar Ray Seals, 10 rounds with Alan Minter, and gave Marvin Hagler all he could handle in the 1970s. Fort is in dire need of quality coaching and must stop relying on the long, looping overhand right that will get him hurt against higher quality competition. Also, for the sake of his career, he must avoid illegitimate competition like Bobby Kliewer, his teammate from St. Paul’s Rice Street Gym whom he stopped at the Target Center in Minneapolis last April 18.
Tim Taggert of Hinckley and Sam Morales of St. Paul fought to a 4 round majority draw in the opening bout. Taggert displayed an obvious preponderance of skill in the beginning, but he was evidently not conditioned well enough to handle Morales’ admirable determination. Neither one was the pinnacle of athletic prowess, but Morales had enough strength to keep himself in the fight and make it close. A few more miles of roadwork is all Taggert would have needed to outbox him and win.
Don Tierney showed the results of inactivity in his 4 round majority decision loss to Zach Schumach, whom he defeated in a mutual pro debut last April 18 at the Minneapolis Target Center. Schumach earned a draw in June and got knocked out in July, but the activity apparently sharpened him enough for this fight. I thought Tierney’s defense, which he no doubt learned from the wise instruction of former World Title challenger Mike Evgen who’s joined his corner, was enough to win the fight. I thought he was scoring more solid punches as he made Schumach chase him around the ring. However, as I said earlier, the judges have the best view in the house and Schumach got the decision. Tierney was lucky to fight a shorter man who could barely hit him, because he kept his chin in the air all night as if his life depended on it. These two are a good match because their skills are roughly even, but I’d hate to watch either one make the foolhardy mistake of fighting a skilled, serious boxer.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Uppercut’s Saturday Night Fights Features Developing Talent
By
Mark Connor
© Copyright Mark Connor, 2009
The highlights of the amateur boxing card on Saturday, October 10 at the Uppercut Gym in Minneapolis came from one of the club’s beginning boxers and another who is more seasoned. While a debuting Tim Tu, 155 lbs., walked across the ring and landed a solid right hand on the chin of an unsuspecting Brian Karanez of Anoka to score an opening round knockdown, capitalizing on the early surprise to win when the referee stopped the contest a short time later, Gizzy Hobbs, 145 lbs., showcased superior footwork and head movement in a bout against a taller and very determined Roberto Mendoza of Canada. Hobbs mixed his punching approach with shifting concentrations on jabs, lead left hooks, and occasional right hands, and at times confused his larger opponent by dancing and moving away and luring him in, rather than trying to chase him down to cut the reach advantage. His skill and poise won for him a well deserved decision.
In the opening bout Bryan Beccera demonstrated the degree of talent to be found in boxers younger than 12, defeating Julian Alvarez of Canada in a fight at the 75 pound division. Beccera, a southpaw with a noticeable reach advantage, fought off a determined Alvarez who landed his own share of punches. But Beccera’s jab proved to be too much, and the precocious punch controlled the momentum and secured the fight.
In the third bout of the evening, St. Paul’s Steve McComas, the three time Ringside Masters Division Light Heavyweight Champion, took on Heavyweight Jack Kennelly, also of St. Paul, in Kennelly’s competitive debut at 193 lbs. I was not at the weigh ins, but it seems highly unlikely McComas weighed anywhere near 193, although that didn’t deter him from out boxing Kennelly from opening to closing bell. Kennelly should be commended, however, because he kept coming every round and McComas admitted afterward that he gave him all he could handle. McComas is now in his mid-50s, and Kennelly is 57. I trained Kennelly for a short time in 2004 at St. Clair Fitness in St. Paul, and he has trained at Uppercut since 2005. It is a major accomplishment for him to have gotten to this point, and it will be no surprise if this nearly 30 year marketing professional is seen competing in Masters competition in the future.
In one of the more exciting contests of the night, Uppercut’s Jesse Vasquez of St. Paul fulfilled a lifelong dream of getting into the ring to compete when he won a 150 pound match with Dane Smith of Anoka. Vazquez, 22, showed his inexperience in catching a few more punches than he had to, but he kept his jab in Smith’s face, landed some good right hands, and kept up enough pressure throughout the fight to take the decision.
In the main event, Upper Midwest Golden Gloves Champion Deon Jordan gave his best effort at 163 pounds against Canada’s Kelly Page, but procrastination in the execution of combinations and getting hit at the end of exchanges put victory an inch or so out of reach.
Robbie Loyd of Uppercut took till the third round, but he stopped Jehrid Hale of Rochester to win a 165 pound fight. Jamie Barlett of Rochester defeated Damon Lachaman of White Bear Lake in the second bout at 115 pounds, and Abdi Gelle of Rochester won a decision over Brendan Feiler of St. Cloud in the 8th bout of the evening.
Uppercut Gym is located at 1324 N.E. Quincy Street, Minneapolis, MN 55410,
(612) 822-1964, www.uppercutgym.com.
(612) 822-1964, www.uppercutgym.com.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Figeuroa Settles for Technical Decision after Desperate Orozco Lands Headbutt in West St. Paul
By
Mark Connor
© Copyright Mark Connor, 2009
Danny Figeuroa, below, was far ahead of Hector Orozco after three rounds when in the 4th round he was forced to settle for a technical decision after a head butt cut him deeply over his left eye. (© Copyright Mark Connor, 2009)
The main event on the card of preliminary fighters promoted by Fernando Ortiz on October 3 at the Armory in the city of West St. Paul, MN lasted through an entertaining three rounds before a victorious Danny Figueroa (now 3-0-0, 2 KOs) was forced to accept a unanimous technical decision after being cut over the left eye from a head butt by a desperate Hector Orozco (now 1-3). Figeuroa’s performance warrants a chance for a preliminary fight at a bigger venue in the near future, and the other contests on the card made up for a lack of collective experience and polish with competitive action.
Figueroa was the aggressor throughout the fight, landing the majority of punches and forcing Orozco to back up each round. Whenever Figueroa actually found himself against the ropes he countered with solid shots that lead him out of danger and turned the tide immediately back in his favor. Finally, as Figueroa continued his dominance in the fourth round, Orozco butted him over the left eye, inflicting a deep cut to which referee Mark Nelson immediately responded by stopping the fight and sending it to the scorecards. All three judges had Figueroa ahead at 29-28. The Boxers and Writers Magazine card was 30-27 in favor of Figueroa in a fight that was reminiscent of another Orozco loss three and a half years ago.
On March 4, 2006, I assisted Dennis Presley in the corner of Raúl Gracia, against whom Hector Orozco was making his professional debut in Fargo, ND. He was absolutely no match for the superior skills of Gracia, who at one point even put Orozco down with a body shot. Orozco could do nothing offensively in that fight, and his most effective move was to tie him up. But in the middle of the fight (I think it was in the third round) he charged in with his head, opening a severe gash on Gracia’s face. Luckily it wasn’t in as severe a spot as the cut over Figeuroa’s eye on Saturday night, so the same referee, Mark Nelson let it go the distance. In four fights Orozco has lost three, and I have witnessed half of his career. It’s possible the two head butts in question actually were accidental, but if they were they indicate a lack of boxing skill on his part, because a fighter with proper balance who keeps his eye on his opponent is capable of keeping his head from becoming and illegal advantage in the fight. Let this fight be a warning to local officials in Orozco’s future competition, because it seems curiously coincidental that half of Orozco’s career has so far followed this pattern.
In a Lightweight contest Levi Cortes was announcedat 132 pounds, and David Lacque was announced at 138. Lacque actually weighed in the day before at 140, but the respective fighters agreed to go ahead with the fight so long as Lacque did not weight over 140 by fight time. Boxers and Writers Magazine received no information about any subsequent weigh-ins on the actual day of the fight. Nevertheless, the weight difference made no difference for Cortes. Lacque came out aggressively from the opening bell, but Cortes proved too much for him before the round was over. Lacque was repeatedly warned by Mark Nelson to keep his head up, because he was making the amateurish mistake of ducking punches with his head below his opponent’s belt while looking directly at the canvas. When Lacque complained about being hit in the back of the head he was sternly told to keep his head up. In the mean time, Cortes handled the Southpaw Lacque with brute strength and the unschooled thuggery of constant roundhouse rights. As he punished Lacque’s body with shots that echoed throughout the arena and drew excitement from the crowd, Lacque’s face appeared more troubled by the moment. It was evident that Lacque rushed into accepting this fight, and he definitely needs to head back to the drawing board before putting himself at further risk.
Jake Backus of White Bear Lake was unsuccessful in his professional debut at Bantamweight, dropping a unanimous decision to Vicente Alfaro. Backus, a southpaw, rushed in too fast, and although he had control in the first 30 seconds of the fight while backing Alfaro up, Alfaro caught him with a straight right hand off the ropes that irreversibly changed the tide of the fight. Alfaro was the aggressor for the last two minutes of the first round, and he landed more effective shots and remained the aggressor in the second round. Alfaro got caught a few times in the third round but landed clear shots throughout and recovered well when he did get hit, and although Backus landed a few solidly he got caught too much and was off balance at times. The final tally was announced as 39-37 from Judge John Mariano, 40-36 from Denny Nelson, and 40-36 from Joe Shoemaker. Boxers and Writers Magazine scored the fight identically with Nelson and Shoemaker.
Gustavo Espinoza and Juan Baltierrez fought to a majority draw in their 4 round Lightweight bout. While Baltierrez obviously had the skill to defeat the southpaw Espinoza, he was neither aggressive nor strong enough to pull it off. In fact, while he effectively countered with good right uppercuts to both the body and the jaw, there were never enough follow through punches and he let himself get tied up too much. Each round was close and judge Denny Nelson admitted it was a hard fight to score, but Boxers and Writers Magazine finds his assessment of 39-37 in favor of Espinoza to be much more accurate than the 38-38 ruling reached by both Mariano and Shoemaker. Baltierrez must build his strength and endurance to progress as a professional, and he also must use a solid jab if he expects to successfully fight against this level of competition or better. While he was able to counter a bit against the southpaw, he was obviously confused by the style and made the fight harder than it had to be. Given his small height and reach advantage, a solid jab and the shifting of angles—including body shots on both sides with left hooks to the head and straight right hands over the top—would have worked wonders for him and maybe even tilted the fight in his favor.
Brad Patraw scouted out Antwon Robertson in anticipation of their October 23 bout for the USA Minnesota State Bantamweight Championship at the Shooting Star Casino in Mahnomen, Minnesota. (© Copyright Mark Connor, 2009)
Antwan Robertson boxed a 4 round Junior Featherweight/Super Bantamweight exhibition with Hassan Waswa. Robertson dominated as Waswa, charming and likeable but stubbornly persistent in his bad habits, moved on his heals and punched with stolid predictability. Robertson caught Waswa with a right hand that put him down once, but they both boxed an exceptionally entertaining sparring match to the crowd’s approval, and Robertson proudly put his Superman outfit back on before leaving the ring. Robertson was smooth and rhythmic, but his nemesis, Brad Patraw who recently defeated him and was scouting him out for their rematch over the Minnesota State Bantamweight title on October 23 at the Shooting Star Casino in Mahnomen, MN, was privy to the mistakes he seems to habitually make. Specifically, Patraw only has to time Robertson with a right hand if he wants to hurt him in their upcoming bout, so long as Robertson—who is sparring with Waswa on a regular basis—continues in that fight to constantly employ the practice of spinning to the left on his planted left foot on every left jab he throws, bringing his hand back low with his chin held high. Hopefully Robertson will correct this dangerous habit so his chances are increased and the fight in Mahnomen is much more competitive.
For a newly active promoter showcasing new, undeveloped talent, the card was well run. An exhibition of two young amateurs (Jordan Carranza and Chuy Rivera, whose ages and weights weren’t announced) was boxed at the opening of the show, and for filler there were some friendly farcical antics, including two women dressed in “Sumo Wrestler” outfits for a mock Sumo Wrestling match and a pair of neighborhood friends with oversized, pillow-like boxing gloves hamming it up for intermission entertainment that kept the crowd amused for their nominal, 25 dollar general admission fee.
Evelyn, from Chile by way of Richfield, MN, was the friendliest and most professional of the card girls, stopping here to smile and pose for a picture while informing us that round 3 is to come. She is employed by Accidenses Latina, a personal injury attorney law firm that sponsored the event. (© Copyright Mark Connor, 2009)
Some local ladies dressed up like Sumo Wrestlers for a theatrical Sumo wrestling match, while a couple of neighborhood friends battled with oversized, pillow-like boxing gloves during intermission entertainment below. (© Copyright Mark Connor, 2009)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Dunne Loses, Klitschko Wins
By
Mark Connor
© Copyright Mark Connor, 2009
Saturday, September 26, was a good day for me because I was able to watch two entertaining world championship professional boxing matches. The first was Bernard Dunne’s defense of the 122 pound WBA Super Bantamweight title against Poonsawat Kratingdaengym, and the second Vitali Kiltschko’s defense of the WBC Heavyweight Championship against Chris Arreola. Dunne lost his title to Kratingdaengym at the end of the third round in an action packed fight, and Klitschko successfully defended his title with a dominating performance putting him far ahead on the scorecards before Arreola’s corner refused to let him answer the 11th round bell at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA.
Dunne defended his title in Dublin, Ireland, and I watched it at The Local, one of the “Trinity of Pubs” owned by Irish native Kieran Folliard, including Kieran’s, not far from The Local in downtown Minneapolis, and The Liffey, on West 7th Street and Kellogg Boulevard in downtown St. Paul. It was good to view the fight at The Local and the staff were quite friendly to me, as I was the only one to show up for it and the rest of the patrons were watching soccer matches in other sections of the place. The bartender indulged me in conversation, listening to my technical analysis of the fight and fighters as the action took place.
Dunne fought well and moved and jabbed effectively the first round, but from the beginning he periodically stopped and traded punches, and that caught up to him with 1:23 left in the third round, when he suffered the first knockdown. He got up and struggled to clinch. He shook the cobwebs and moved, and although he seemed to be surviving he started trading punches again and went down. He got up and went right back to it, foolishly, and was knocked out. The last knockdown came with 13 seconds left in the round, and he was unable to recover
The quick turn of the tide from the first to the third round was striking. Dunne moved and landed punches well from the opening bell, and actually looked very skillful, strategically jabbing and dancing to the left, sometimes hooking effectively off the jab and landing right hands and left hooks over the top. He also landed left uppercuts to the liver followed by left hooks and right hands, and some good right uppercuts when Poonsawat tried to move in under his jab. After moving Poonsawat all the way around the ring to the left Dunne would double back to the right, and about halfway to where he started he’d reset and lead him the other way again. But when Dunne stopped to throw his own power combinations, Poonsawat punched right with him and always landed solid blows at the end of exchanges. Also, Poonsawat kept bobbing and weaving forward, had his own jab, and was effective with left hooks and right hands. His determination was overwhelming, and Dunne could not keep the necessary pace. The first knockdown came from a perfectly thrown left hook, and Dunne’s response was to increase his vulnerability by slugging back instead of moving away and avoiding more punishment.
Dunne actually has a connection to St. Paul, having fought in Aldrich Arena in North St. Paul on August 19, 2004, when he won a unanimous decision over Adrian Valdes. That fight was on the under card of the first loss of St. Paul’s East Side son, Matt Vanda, who was defeated in a 154 pound Junior Middleweight fight by Armando Velardez of San Bernardino, California. Freddie Roach was with Dunne for that fight. I had the privilege of meeting Roach and working out at his gym while visiting Hollywood at the end of May, and when I told him I was from St. Paul he recalled being there with Dunne. It seems to me that if fighting is in Dunne’s future he’d benefit from more training with a man like Roach, because in spite of beginning very well he did everything wrong once he got solidly hit. Poonsawat deserves extra credit for the victory, though, because the large ring was obviously chosen for Dunne’s advantage, but in spite of the Irishman’s initial speed and movement the Thai warrior walked him down and caught him with the fatal blows.
The Klitschko fight was not nearly so exciting, but that’s often to be expected among heavyweights, especially when the fight is such a mismatch. But it was still pleasurable to watch this 38-year-old Ukrainian World Champion so skillfully move and pick Arreola apart for ten rounds, especially while taking into consideration the overwhelming intellect he carries through life along with his boxing skills. When a heavyweight capable of beating him or his brother, Vladmir, will come along is anybody’s guess at this point. But Jim Lampley’s assessment at the end of the HBO broadcast was poignant. He and colleague Larry Merchant discussed how difficult it is for a man in his fourth decade to be physically fit enough to compete on the world class level in boxing or any professional sport, and Lampley emphasized in the closing statement that Arreola or any other fighter believing he can take even a short period off to drink beer and still defeat the likes of Vitali Klitschko is only fooling himself.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Emmett Yanez Honored with 2009 Harry Davis Award
By
Mark Connor
© Copyright Mark Connor, 2009
Robert Brant of the White Bear Lake Boxing Club carried the flag for the U.S. team at the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) World Chapmpionships in Milan, Italy, which took place September 1 through September 12. After receiving a bye in the tournament's opening round, Brant lost a decision to Cuba's José Larduet Gomez. Brant is guided locally by the same trainer who taught me to box as a boy and guided me to national tournaments, 89-year-old Emmett Yanez, who was awarded this year's Harry Davis Memorial Award at the Upper Midwest Golden Gloves. Pictured above is Brant (L), Yanez, boxer Jonathan Escoto (R) and me. ( © Copyright 2009, Mark Connor) The following article appeared in the 2009 Upper Midwest Golden Gloves Yearbook in recognition of Emmett's receipt of the award.
I was thrilled to learn that Emmett Yanez is receiving this year’s Harry Davis award. At age 89, he is still healthy and working daily with boxers, which he has done for at least forty years. His longevity greatly impresses me, and I’m satisfied to know he continues doing what makes him happy. Nearly thirty years ago, when I was ten years old, Emmett taught me the skills that led to an Upper Midwest Golden Gloves title and competition in three national tournaments. But what I most value about him is a quality he shared with me from the moment we met, and would have shared regardless of whether I succeeded in boxing. That quality is integrity.
Emmett Yanez always demanded dedication from the boys and men he trained, and also the small number of girls and women he began training in the mid-1990s. He communicates as well as possible with a boxer’s parents, and when I was growing up he demanded that I skip the gym and concentrate on school if my grades ever suffered. Also, unlike some coaches, he never cut corners. He always insisted on covering every aspect of training, including daily running, before even thinking of sparring. While some boxers from other gyms chewed tobacco after the weigh-ins or in the crowd after a fight, he would not allow such detrimental behavior in front of him. If he ever drank alcohol I didn’t know it, because when on a trip to a tournament he only concentrated on the boxers’ safety, success and enjoyment, and he was forever conscious of the example he was setting. He never spoke disrespectfully about women and would not tolerate it among us. He let us know it was great we were boxing, especially if we were winning, but that our success was not separate from our other responsibilities. That’s the way Emmett Yanez was, and he still is.
I sincerely hope Emmett Yanez is around for many years to come. There’s no reason to believe he won’t live and still be healthy far past 100, but of course he’s only working on 90 right now. Always dedicated to his family and his wife, Emmett Yanez is able to do what he wants to do when he wants to do it because he’s always done what he has to do—such as fighting in the U.S. Army to liberate Europe from Nazi Germany during World War II, being consciously present in the lives of his children, and caring for his first wife when she suffered and died from Alzheimer’s Disease—when he’s had to do it. Now he lives happily with his wonderful bride, Sylvia, in St. Paul, plays golf through the summer, and still trains boxers all year. That’s because he is a man of integrity, personally expressed in a manner that will live beyond his years in the lives he’s touched in the past, as well as the ones he’ll touch in the future.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Ali Makes Irish-American Version of Hajj to Ennis, County Clare
By
Mark Connor
© Copyright 2009, Mark Connor
On Tuesday, September 1, the greatest boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali, visited his matrilineal Great Grandfather’s birthplace in Ennis, County Clare, Ireland. Like pilgrimages made by so many Irish-Americans over the last century, the trip enabled a descendant of Erin to spiritually and emotionally reconnect with an ancestral identity buried beneath the outward national expression that forgets the Diaspora experience of an immigrant past. Ali is not thought of as an Irishman in America, but as an African, a descendent of slaves who joined the Nation of Islam and changed his name from Casius Clay immediately after winning the Heavyweight Championship of the World from Sonny Liston. But his Great Grandfather, Abe Grady, emigrated from Ireland and settled in Kentucky in the 1860s, marrying a freed slave. Grady’s Granddaughter, Odessa Lee Grady Clay, gave birth to Ali (then Casius Clay) in 1942.
Such an Irish-American journey back to one’s ancestral home, in this case including a visit to the actual house Grady was born in, is a journey for descendants of Erin that carries heavy emotional weight, one that would not equal but could be compared to the religious journey a Muslim makes at some point in one’s life to Mecca, in Saudi Arabia, known as a Hajj. The comparison here is not in any way meant to equate such sentiments for one’s ancestry with religious obligations, as the Hajj is for a Muslim who can afford it, but to celebrate the expression of an individual while recognizing the different combinations—from religious and ethnic to racial and cultural—that contribute to an individual human being’s identity. Such historical reality greatly influences Ali’s contribution to world history and status as an American icon.
Ali, who was stripped of his title, spent a short period behind bars and was unable to fight for three years because of his refusal to be inducted into the United States Army while objecting to the Vietnam War on religious grounds as a member of the Nation of Islam, had worn the U.S. colors in Rome where he won the 1960 Light Heavyweight Gold Medal in the Olympics. While everyone in the United States has a right to express political opinion, his actions at that time were different than those who actually dodged the draft, because he publicly stood for his principles and accepted the consequences. Then, in 1990 as the standoff between the United States and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq built up to the Persian Gulf War, Ali traveled to Iraq as a Muslim on behalf of the United States and negotiated the release of some American citizens being held hostage in the American Embassy. These two events, along with his illustrious career including winning the Heavyweight Championship three times and becoming the most recognizable sports figure in the world, make him one of the most legendary American celebrity figures ever. His Irish ancestry mixed with his African identity also reflects the social and cultural history of the United States, where African and Irish intermingled from the beginning and by no exaggeration largely built our country together.
I was first made aware of Ali’s visit to Ennis, County Clare by an email received from my friend and colleague, Ger Regan, publisher of The Wild Geese today, http://www.thewildgeese.com/, an Irish Diaspora website. In early August he forwarded a press release to me that he’d received from another contact. On September 2 ESPN published a story on its website along with video coverage from Ireland.Ali’s wife, Yolanda, is quoted saying she believes if Abe Grady were alive today he’d be in every pub bragging about his champion boxer grandson, and that Ali’s poetic abilities that so enhanced his boxing persona and accentuated his skills are probably attributable to his descending from the Grady Clan.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Litzau and Hilario Battle for IBA Beltand Vanda Features on April 18
by Mark Connor
© Copyright 2009
Mark Connor
While the more widely known and accomplished Super Middleweight Matt “The Predator” Vanda of St. Paul is the featured attraction for the upcoming April 18 professional boxing card at the Minneapolis Target Center, the war of words between Featherweights Wilton “Pretty Warrior” Hilario and Alan “The American Boy” Litzau overshadowed most of the March 4 press conference that announced the event.
“There’s something that really irritates me about this kid,” Litzau said in his opening remarks at the conference; “I just don’t understand how he calls himself the ‘Pretty Warrior’ when he looks like he got slapped with a ugly stick. The only thing I can say is pretty about him is this ass whipping I’m going to give him on April 18th.” When pressed by Boxers and Writers Magazine for the personal strengths he will utilize and Hilario’s weaknesses that he’ll exploit, Litzau only said that he knew what those were but wouldn’t reveal them publicly before the fight. The flaws are there and he’s ready to capitalize on them, but he would not share strategy with the press.
Hilario took his turn at the microphone with the ice cold confidence that has driven his red hot career over the last four years. Currently 10-0 with 8 knockouts and 1 draw, he has so far shown a determination that can only lead him to greater success.
“He said he beat me twice in the amateurs,” Hilario said, “but we didn’t fight two years ago because he didn’t have enough to gain from me, but now he’s fighting me because he’s got everything to win. I don’t got nothing to win from him. He’s already lost three times, got knocked out twice; so this is just another opponent for me, this is just another fight.”
Hilario makes a good point. As can be seen from my coverage of his last fight in Hinckley, Minnesota on January 24 published on the Blog section of www.boxersandwritersmagazine.com, I am critical of Hilario’s style and vulnerabilities. But he has fought a slightly tougher string of opponents, been much more active, and proven himself more relentless in the ring. Litzau does have the skills to beat Hilario, but his nearly 10 months of inactivity and lack of credible opponents will surely hurt him.
Litzau’s last fight was a 6th round TKO victory in a scheduled 6 round fight against Mario Galan, 4-3-0, at Grand Casino in Hinckley. Hilario’s last fight was a 5th round TKO victory over Darrell Martin, 4-6-0, at the same venue on January 24 of this year in a scheduled 6 round fight. Martin was one tough cookie, and he had the physical tools to beat Hilario also. However, he fought him toe to toe and paid the price. But even if the taller Martin would have jabbed and moved and tried to set up counter shots, there’s no telling whether he could have sustained his efforts amidst Hilario’s relentless attack. Furthermore, prior to the success of Litzau’s last outing, he hadn’t fought since losing by 3rd round knockout to Robert DaLuz on April 6, 2007.
The final observation between the 5’-7’’, 26 year old Litzau and the 5’-10’’, 25 year old Hilario is the respectively combined records of their opponents. Litzau, who himself is 13-3-0 with 7 KOs and two losses by knockout, has fought a list of opponents whose combined record is 106-99-12. Hilario, with his 10-0-1, 8 KO record has fought a list whose combined record is 132-113-8. Based on a surface level glance at these records, Hilario’s level of competition has been higher.
Yes, Litzau does have the skills to defeat Hilario, and as Hilario himself was quoted earlier in this article, he did beat him in the amateurs. Litzau also has much more amateur experience to enhance his years as a professional. But he has not been active and he has had some traumatic losses that have taken a toll on him. Furthermore, in spite of his flaws, Hilario is more determined, he is stronger, and he is a much more powerful puncher. Look to see Hilario win by the end of round 5.
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