After a much-needed vacation and some down time to recharge the batteries, I’m ready to keep taking swipes at boxing’s scum bags as well as the free swag-loving media swine who run interference for them. Many thanks to Tim Harrison who did a great job with the Monday Rant in my absence and took over some behind-the-scenes duties while I played the role of slacker.

Now, back to the grind.

As I’ve been saying for awhile now, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is by no means the bumbling fool he was made out to be as recently as two or three fights ago.

A few “mean” bloggers and undercover mainstream guys who, each week, guiltily devour the Monday Rant under their covers with a flashlight, have “discovered” this as well.

Chavez has beaten three top 10 middleweights and, with his unanimous decision win over Marco Antonio Rubio last Saturday, he has now beaten a top 5 middleweight. Of course, this is hardly a golden age of 160 lb. talent. Most of the division’s top 10 is made up of failed title challengers and unproven prospects. Rubio, himself, despite a lofty #5 ranking, is really little more than a solid, lunch pail-carrying blue collar fringe fighter whose biggest fights were a stoppage win over an overrated, underdeveloped David Lemieux and a one-sided RTD loss to Kelly Pavlik.

Still, Chavez beat Rubio handily, and if we’re going to look at boxing like a real sport with real rankings, that means something. And it means that Jr., whether detractors like it or not, is a legitimate Top 3 middleweight (according to The Boxing Tribune’s Unbiased World Rankings).

On the flip side, though, Jr. may very well be the poster boy for boxing’s ills– a living, breathing embodiment of everything wrong with the modern fight scene.

Unlike some high-end prize fighters who work the system like a speed bag and feign honor and bravado when called on their short cuts, the boy king from Culiacan makes no pretense about respecting the conventions of the sport and, really, offers no excuses for what has been done in his name.

Everybody who follows the sport knows that the game has degenerated into something akin to a grade school being run by pedophiles. Chavez Jr. is just one of many who benefit from boxing’s rancid modus operandi.

With no credible central authority in the sport, the promoters, managers, and fighters pretty much call all the shots. Anything to the contrary is just for show.

Champions are conceived and created by management-types with suitably easy challengers being groomed by the sanctioning bodies, who, conveniently, also get their marching orders from the same money men.

Chavez, who served a seven month suspension for testing positive for a banned substance in a 2009 fight with Troy Rowland, even waved off the mandatory post-fight urine test and was backed-up by WBC President for Life, Jose Sulaiman, who allegedly shrugged his shoulders and said that the organization had simply forgotten the test.

(The pathetically inept Texas commission, which allowed Chavez to leave the arena without taking the piss test, will be a topic for another day.)

In no other case is it more obvious that the inmates are running the boxing asylum. Chavez and promoter, Top Rank, give the marching orders and the WBC does the stepping. The same could be said for Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather and quite a few others. But the difference between those fighters and Jr. is that they’ve earned the right to prima donna status after a long career of paying dues. Jr. is sitting in the driver’s seat because of name recognition and the subsequent curiosity factor.

Chavez has made a career out of fighting guys two or three divisions naturally smaller than him and there’s no indication that he’ll stop doing this any time soon, nor that he will ever be forced to do so by the WBC and Sulaiman, who seem intent upon keeping the boy king happy and secure.

I guess we can take solace in the fact that the 25-year-old, who enters the ring re-hydrated to the size of a cruiserweight, is performing his sleights of hand at a much higher level now, beating guys like Rubio and Duddy instead of hapless club fighters in Hermosillo or El Paso.

For those pulling against the second generation star, don’t hold your breath. Jr. is good enough to solidly beat just about anyone in the middleweight top 20 and connected enough to never have to fight the two or three guys with a chance of beating him.

This is the world that boxing anarchy has created.

Jr. may be among the most annoyingly smug of the fake champions, but he isn’t the first to take advantage of boxing’s lawlessness and he won’t be the last.

You can email Paul at paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com or catch him as he raffles off VHS copies of Diggstown in the first ever “Boxing Tribune Triviapalooza.” Paul is a full member of the Burger King Kids’ Club, a born iconoclast, and an ordained minister in the Universal Life Church.

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Dee Lee Promotions hosted the “Super Brawl” Saturday night from the Tropicana Casino and Hotel in Atlantic City.  The title “Super Brawl” was not an overstatement, as the main event pitted all action and Philadelphia fan favorite Victor Vasquez, against Virginia Beach’s veteran Dorin Spivey in a ten round bout for the NABA Lightweight title. 

Putting these two in ring together, with Vasquez’s aggression and Spivey’s willingness to mix it up, was as close as you get to guaranteed fan entertainment.  The nine fight card had a large and rowdy crowd of more than four thousand looking to see the fighters deliver on the Super Brawl promise.  Overall the fans got what they came for with an exciting main event, two highlight reel knockouts, and several other action packed fights.

The main event did not disappoint as both men came to fight and provide action for the fans in attendance.  Vasquez came out strong in round one using his standard pressure attack to take the opening stanza.  In round two Spivey began measuring his opponent to land his jab and right upstairs.  The veteran Spivey got very busy with his punches and was able to get the best out of each exchange.

The pattern continued throughout the fight.  As rounds went by, Spivey became more and more offensive.  For every punch Victor landed, Spivey landed three or four.  Vasquez attempted to push forward and establish some momentum with some solid overhand rights and a few hard left hooks, but Spivey took the shots well and was always able to quickly regain control each time with a high punch output and high connect rate.

In round three a right hand from Spivey opened a cut over Vasquez’s left eye.  With blood flowing and Vasquez having to wipe it away, Spivey pushed harder.  Vasquez, being the warrior that has brought him such a large fan base, hardly backed down.  Round four turned into a brawl and began a furious pace that would continue for several rounds.

By round seven Spivey had a commanding lead on the cards and continued to pepper his opponent with jabs and straight rights.  Vasquez was leaning forward trying to avoid the veteran’s accurate punches but was still taking shots.  The slick Spivey would take a step forward and land on Vasquez as he backed away.  Then, abruptly in round seven, referee Lindsay Page felt Vasquez had absorbed enough shots and jumped in stopping the fight. At the time Victor was pinned in the corner but still moving and punching.  The official ending was a TKO at twenty five seconds of round seven.

The stoppage felt premature from ringside.  Vasquez was certainly losing the fight and taking some punishment but he was still punching back and had plenty of fight left.  The crowd booed the stoppage with a passion and the only person more unhappy than those in attendance was the man who had been stopped.  Vasquez (14-6-1, 7 KOs) jumped forward and protested feeling he had been robbed of the chance for a come from behind win.  The fighting machine inside of Vasquez that makes him so popular was clearly unhappy he believed he had plenty of fight left to continue and the ability to rally down the stretch.

Spivey (41-6, 30 KOs) takes home the NABA belt and a top fifteen ranking in the WBA.  It was an impressive performance as the veteran was able to use his experience to gain the upper hand on more aggressive but younger opponent.  He talked afterwards about how tough an opponent Vasquez proved to be, stating he knows anytime you fight someone from Philadelphia they are going to be a tough out.  Spivey stated that it was his ability to get stronger as the fight goes on and his conditioning that allowed him to wear down his opponent and force the stoppage.

Undercard Report

In the ten round heavyweight co-feature “The Gentleman”, Chazz Witherspoon squared off with late replacement David Saulsberry of Greenville, KY, who filled in for Evans Quinn when he dropped out this week.  Witherspoon, a Philadelphia native and graduate of Saint Joseph’s University was looking to continue building his way back up after losing to Chris Arreola in 2008, and to Tony Thompson in 2009.  Since the Thompson fight Witherspoon has won three in a row.

The SJU grad had plenty of fan support on hand and did not disappoint after a slow start.  In round one Saulsberry came out looking to disappoint the crowd by pulling the upset.  He pursued Witherspoon hard and landed several good shots while Chazz seemed content to move around the ring to feel out his opponent in the opening stanza.

Then Witherspoon changed things in dramatic fashion in round two.  Backing his opponent to the ropes Witherspoon slipped under his opponents right hand to land a monster overhand right of his own that landed perfectly flush on Saulsberry’s chin.  Saulsberry (7-5, 7 KOs) crumbled to the canvas and was counted out at thirty two seconds of round two.  The count was hardly necessary as it was clear that he was not going to get up if he has been given a minute instead of ten seconds.

The large crowd on hand at the Tropicana, many of them there for Witherspoon, erupted in the moment.  Witherspoon (30-2, 22 KOs) was pleased with his performance after being patient against the bigger man in round one.

“I wanted to feel him, the guy was really strong.  He had me by sixty pounds and I don’t want to run out there and start trading blows with someone who has sixty pounds on me.  That’s what he wants me to do.  I had really good conditioning so I wanted to let that show itself.  Anybody off the street can just run out and throw punches.  I just wanted to let that first round go by, settle down.  I saw I could set him up for that shot, I was about to throw it in the first round but I figured I’d wait and throw it in the second round.  I wanted him to think I was running from him actually and he ran right into it.”

Now Witherspoon is looking to chase bigger game and get himself back to the top.

“I’m trying to stay as busy as possible.  I want to fight better quality opponents so I can better and get ready to move into the top ten.  We had a guy Evans Quinn who I was supposed to fight but the fight fell out.  He was a better fighter, more skilled and everything like that.  We are just looking to do what we can and stay as busy as possible.”

Female fighters Nydia Feliciano and Ela Nunez put on what might have been the most action packed battle of the night in a four round jr. featherweight bout.  While the action was good, Feliciano who fights out of the Bronx, was the more skilled fighter and took the unanimous decision by scores of 39-37 on all three cards.  Nunez (11-12-2, 3 KOs) showed toughness hanging in and continuing the fight but was not able to keep up with movement and accuracy of her opponent.  Feliciano baffled her opponent with slick movement of her head and upper body while coming around each time to deliver hard shots to the head and body.

Undefeated prospect Dennis Hasson made a long awaited return to the ring after seventeen months out of action with management issues.  Hasson normally fights at Super Middleweight but after the layoff eased back down in weight, fighting tonight at 192lbs against William Santiago out of Trenton, NJ, by way of Puerto Rico.

Hasson, who fights out of Wilmington, DE, looked rusty in the first round as he was pursued by the naturally bigger Santiago who was able to catch Hasson with a few solid shots to take the first round.  Then in round two Hasson settled back in, started boxing his fight, and quickly got results.  Hasson landed a hard right to the body dropping his opponent’s gloves and then a perfect right to the head that stunned Santiago.  From that point it was all Hasson.  He landed good right hands and left hooks and it appeared the fight was close to being stopped when the bell rang.

“To be totally honest with you I’m a super middleweight but I’ve been off for seventeen months with a lot of problems trying to get my life together.  I had to take a fight at a higher weight class.  So the first round I’m not going to lie, I was a little nervous.  The guy was really husky.  I was a little cautious the first round but then my coach Dave Tiberi told me to settle down and use the jab.  So once I started doing that it started opening up.  Boxing broke him down.”

Hasson wasted no time going after his wounded foe in round three.  More rights and left hooks were landed to the dazed Santiago who stumbled around the ring.  Hasson pinned him to the corner and after several more shots referee Allen Huggins had seen enough calling a halt at 1:31 of round three.  Hasson stays unbeaten at 12-0, with 4 KOs and was able to shake off the rust from his extended stay out of action while Santiago falls to 6-8-1, with 2 KOs.

“He was going on his heels because I was double jabbing him so that when I knew I could start opening up with the big right hands.  I didn’t want to throw nothing crazy in the first round and get caught.  And I tried it and I did, I got caught.  He started throwing big wild shots at me and I was just trying to weather the storm.  Double jab and relaxing just broke him down.”

Frankie Filipone (9-2, 2 KOs) of Norfolk, VA won a unanimous decision over Harley Kilfian (9-9, 8 KOs) of Menomonie, WI in a six round light heavyweight bout.  Not much else to say as not much happened in this one.

Joey Tiberi, who always brings a large cheering section from his home in Newark, DE, sent his fans home happy with a unanimous decision win in a four round lightweight bout.  Tiberi (7-1, 5 KOs) won by scores of 40-36 on all three cards to knock off Steve Cox (2-4, 1 KOs), who came down to AC from Wisconsin.  Tiberi landed some big shots in the first two rounds including some heavy body shots.  Tiberi had Cox hurt in round two but was unable to finish the job.  Tiberi seemed winded from his efforts in the final two rounds but still did enough to sweep them on the cards.

Jon Bolden of Brooklyn, NY and Dorsett Barnwell engaged in a slow paced heavyweight bout over four rounds.  Bolden was content to jab and move while Barnwell followed his opponent, trying to land one big right that never came.  Barnwell was awarded the unanimous decision by sores of 39-37 on all three cards.  Most on press row had it a draw 38-38 including this writer.

Isaiah Seldon, son of former Heavyweight Champion Bruce Seldon, scored a devastating second round knockout at 1:41 of round two over Kenneth Moody Jr. (2-3, 1 KOs).  The Atlantic City middleweight, Seldon, won the first round and then landed a bomb of a right hand knocking his opponent to the canvas.  The fight was waived off by referee Allen Huggins without a count as Moody was clearly out and done.  Seldon (6-0, 3 KOs) was joined by his father, the former champ, who was in attendance.

In the opening bout of the evening Keenan “Killer Keenan” Smith of Philadelphia remained undefeated with a majority decision win over Chris Finley of Detroit, MI.   Lightweights, Smith (5-0, 1 KOs) and Finley (3-4, 3 KOs) put on an action-packed start to the night, but Smith’s skills were simply too much as the southpaw repeatedly landed the straight left to stagger his opponent.  Smith also showed an ability to fight through adversity when he was cut badly underneath the right eye in the fourth and final round.  It was ruled from a punch but appeared to be from a head-butt.  Smith won by scores of 39-37, 38-38, 39-37.

For more pictures from the action in AC visit the following link.

https://picasaweb.google.com/111668600900883893517/VasquezSpiveyTrop2412?authkey=Gv1sRgCLmElZa06PjCFA#

Question, comment, agree, disagree, or anything at all, send it to gboxing3@gmail.com

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SAN ANTONIO — As they piled into the Alamo Dome Saturday night, fight fans were greeted with the usual assortment of t-shirts and promotional trinkets to purchase.  Lines were stacked with anxious and eager buyers of keepsakes to remember they were there.

Hanging on the rack, with bold Mexican green and red typeface, was one such item prominently displayed.  It was a white t-shirt adorned with the classic Nike swoosh symbol.  It read: Julio Knows.

Surely, WBC middleweight titlist Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is not up to the level of ardor for dominance that Bo Jackson was all those years ago when the two-sport phenom’s Nike-sponsored ad campaign rang out all over the land.

Bo knows baseball.  Bo knows football.  You name it, Bo knows it.

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. doesn’t know all the things Bo Jackson knew back then, but none of the people standing in line to purchase those shirts were wondering about that. They only wanted to see if Julio knew how to fight.

And that he did.

Over twelve hard fought rounds in front of a raucous crowd of over 14,120 fans, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (45-0-1, 31 KOs) outworked the grizzly-tough workhorse, Marco Antonio Rubio (53-6-1, 47 KOs), for a unanimous decision victory.

All three judges scored it for Chavez, who was making his second title defense, 118-110, 116-112 and 115-113.

After a first round that saw each fighter feeling the other out, the bout established itself into a consistent flow. Chavez stalked his opponent with his hands held high, always coming forward and ever the aggressor.  He’d dig to the body with hooks and uppercuts and force his opponent backwards, attempting to impose his strength on Rubio with quick powerful shots.

But Rubio was ready.

Pacing like an animal in between rounds before coming to the center of the ring with renewed vigor at every sound of the bell, Rubio fought with both aggression and skill.  Instead of playing the matador to his rival’s bull, Rubio would lean in as he maneuvered around his hard charging adversary to land quick but solid blows wherever and whenever he could.

The fight continued that way until round 5 when Rubio seemed to stun Chavez with a good body shot that forced Jr. up on his toes to box for the first time in the fight until he could make his way back to the safe recovery of his corner.

Chavez returned undeterred.

Round 6 saw Chavez again coming forward.  No matter the fists flying back at him, he’d thrust himself onward towards Rubio.

By round 9 it appeared that Chavez  had lost a bit of his steam.  He looked gassed but continued to fight in the same style.  Now, though, he was getting hit more often.

Rubio seemed to be getting stronger as the fight wore on.

There was a moment in the tenth where it appeared a question arose.  Maybe it never crossed the fighter’s mind, but fight fans had to wonder if this would be the moment Chavez decided he wasn’t a real fighter after all.

A real fighter would come out in the championship rounds like he wasn’t gassed at all.  A real fighter would dig down deep and find a way to bring it home.

Chavez had grown up rich.  He didn’t have to fight his way off the street.  He doesn’t have to fight to stay off them now.

But Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is a real fighter.

Rounds 10-12 were rough and raucous. The action worked its way into a crescendo until the final bell sounded.  Both fighters had their hands raised. Perhaps they both really believed they won, or maybe they just knew they had put on a good fight.

No matter, by the end of the fight a couple things were clear. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. had won a close but clear decision against a solid, veteran tough guy that only guys who know how to fight can beat.

And Julio knows how to fight.

***

The co-feature of the evening showcased junior featherweights Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire and Wilfredo Vazquez Jr.  From the very beginning of the contest, it appeared that fight fans who predicted a blowout win for Donaire had good reason to be confident.

Donaire looked faster, quicker and stronger than Vazquez from the opening bell.  As such, Donaire was the more aggressive fighter through the early rounds using heavy-handed potshots to establish himself.  Vazquez kept his guard high but couldn’t seem to tee off on his more agile opponent.

Round 3 saw Donaire doing his best Roy Jones Jr. impression, as he held his hands down low in a showboating stance, before working Vazquez into position to land a thunderous uppercut that shook the fighter.  Vazquez went into self-preservation mode while Donaire pummeled him into the corner.  Just before it appeared the contest might be halted, Vazquez was able to uncork a straight cross to get Donaire off of him long enough to escape the onslaught.

Moments later, Vazquez wildly flailed at Donaire only to slip down to the ground.  He made it back up but looked shaky through the rest of the round.

Round 4 was perhaps Donaire’s best round.  He looked impressive and it appeared he would finish the contest whenever he decided, yet by round 5 it seemed he had lost his momentum.  From then on, Vazquez was able to jab and land enough right crosses to make the rest of the contest much more interesting.

Vazquez saw the canvas in round 9 when Donaire unleashed a lethal uppercut to stun him, followed by a sharp left hook. Vazquez managed to get back to his feet.

The championship rounds saw back and forth action.  Vazquez proved to be a spirited competitor, but Donaire was just too fast and too strong, despite what appeared after the fight to be a bloody and possible broken hand.

Nonito Donaire (28-1, 18 KOs) took home a semi-bogus split-decision win.  Two judges had the fight 117-110 while Ruben Garcia somehow scored it 115-112 for Vazquez.  While it’s conceivable the fight was much closer than 117-110, it is ridiculous to score it for Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. (21-2-1, 18 KOs) no matter how valiantly he fought.  He was simply outclassed and the decision should have been unanimous.

***

There were two notable happenings during the untelevised portion of the card.  First, Vanes Martirosyan (32-0, 19 KOs) stayed undefeated with a 3^rd round TKO victory over Troy Lowry.  Lowry came to the ring in an AC/DC shirt with the song “TNT” blaring loudly, but quickly found out the only person having any such thing as “TNT” in their gloves was Martirosyan, who should now seek bigger and better fights in the 154lb division.

Meanwhile, welterweight prospect Alex Saucedo (2-0, 2 KOs) scored a tremendous first round knockout over his opponent, Jean Colon (0-2, 0 KOs), with a sensational left hook which was surely the punch of the evening.  Expect big things from Saucedo.

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The fight started with both men feeling the other out. Cunningham worked his jab to the head and body to keep Hernandez guessing, while Hernandez landed good shots to the body. Hernandez began to mix in a left hook to the head to punctuate his flurries to Cunningham’s body in the second round.

In the third round Cunningham began to find his rhythm, but he was lingering in close, allowing Hernandez to catch him on the way out. Hernandez nearly ended the fight in the fourth round when he caught Cunningham with a beautiful left cross at the end of an exchange. The punch sent Cunningham down for an 8 count, and he was in serious trouble when the fight was re-started. Cunningham rushed in to hold on but was caught with another short left hand, dropping him to his knees. Cunningham made it to his feet again and held on for the remaining 30 seconds as Hernandez punched himself out.

The tide turned for Cunningham in the fifth round when he caught Hernandez with a counter right hook that staggered the rangy Cuban southpaw. Hernandez, who was beginning to tire as a result of loading up on his punches, fought back against effective pressure and opened a cut over the Cunningham’s right eye.

Cunningham began to control the action in the sixth round, as he got inside behind his jab and worked with an up-and-down attack that sapped Hernandez’s strength. Cunningham’s ability to work inside and roll and turn as he stepped away took away most of the power from the punches actually landed by Hernandez.

Cunningham controlled the pace of the fight through the eleventh round, with Hernandez finding success in spots. His left cross and uppercut occasionally landed and were effective in slowing Cunningham down.

The twelfth round may have been the best of the fight. Hernandez hurt Cunningham with a short left cross and a right hook to the body at the one-minute mark, staggering Cunningham and turning him away momentarily. Cunningham came back fifteen seconds later and stopped Hernandez in his tracks with a big right hand after Hernandez punched himself out trying to finish Cunningham. Both men raised their arms in victory at the bell, but the judges’ scorecards would tell a different story heavily favoring the Cuban national who now calls Germany his home.

The scores were a lopsides 116-110, 116-110, and a slightly understandable 115-111 for Hernandez. The Boxing Tribune scored the fight a draw, 113-113, giving Hernandez the twelfth round to pull him even with Cunningham, who took rounds five through eleven after losing the first four.

European light heavyweight champion Eduard Gutknecht (23-1, 9 KOs) took a unanimous decision over former world title challenger, Vyacheslav Uzelkov (25-2, 16 KOs). Scores were 115-114, 116-112, and 117-111, all in favor of Gutknecht.

Troy Ross (25-2, 16 KOs) took an eight-round unanimous decision victory over Polish club fighter, Lukasz Rusiewicz (10-12, 3 KOs), in his first fight after a long layoff. Scores were 80-72, 80-72, and 79-73.

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Scott Quigg marched on in his quest for a world title shot tonight when he eventually out-worked and out-punched the game but overpowered Welshman Jamie Arthur in Bolton, England tonight.

Quigg (24-0, 17 KOs), defended his British super-bantam title in decent style, despite suffering a flash knockdown in the fourth round, and will now be looking to Europe and beyond, possibly starting with an attractive looking match with fellow Englishman and former world title challenger Rendall Munroe, who also posted a win on Quigg’s undercard this evening.

Arthur (24-6, 4 KOs), is always competitive and started fast in the fight, taking two of the first three rounds, and then landing a left hand in the fourth that had the British champion down heavily. Quigg got to his feet quickly, then took a knee quite sensibly, and from that moment he took the fight to Arthur and was clearly too quick and strong for his challenger. The end came in the ninth in bizarre fashion, when Quigg dug in a vicious left hook to Arthur’s body, and the Welshman wheeled around 360 degrees clutching his ribs, and referee Mark Green jumped in immediately and stopped the fight. It was a ridiculous stoppage, even if the outcome of the fight was no longer in question.

Arthur may now consider whether it’s time to put his gloves away for good, while Quigg will be watching Nonito Donaire’s skirmish later tonight on the other side of the world with renewed interest.

Another who will have an eye on Donaire is Rendall Munroe, who earlier in the night dispatched Argentinian Jose Saez with little fuss when the visitor folded in the first round. Saez took a count when Munroe’s first left hook landed after 12 seconds, and then got into some exchanges before another left hook, this time to the body, folded him against the ropes and the referee called the fight off. Munroe (24-2, 10 KOs), has had one tilt at a world title, losing widely to Japanese WBC champ Toshiaki Nishioka two years ago, and may see Quigg as a necessary obstacle en route to another shot.

Also on the undercard 25-year-old Joe Murray (12-0, 5 KOs), (brother of recent world lightweight contender John) continued his education in the featherweight division when he out-scored journeyman opponent Jose Luis Graterol over eight rounds. Murray had been out of the ring for eight months for various reasons, and took his time to settle against his Venezualan foe. Graterol (14-12, 5 KOs), has spent the last twelve months bouncing around European rings looking for pay-cheques, and took the fight on a week’s notice, so he did well to keep things competitive and make it to the final bell.

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Isaac Chilemba (19-1-1, 9 KOs) took a big step in establishing himself at light heavyweight with a convincing ten-round decision win over Edison Miranda (35-7, 30 KOs) in Las Vegas on ESPN2′s Friday Night Fights series. In the co-feature, Rances Barthelemy (15-0, 11 KOs) did what he was supposed to do in disposing of feather-fisted junior lightweight Hylon Williams Jr. (15-1, 3 KOs) in an eight-round decision.

Many a Vegas tourist sets out to paint the town red during their time in the city. Isaac Chilemba managed to paint the ballroom of the Texas Station Casino red after an accidental clash of heads in the third round opened up a cut over Edison Miranda’s left eye that spat out more blood than the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It may have been just a flesh wound, but that cut was the turning point of the fight. For the first two rounds, Miranda was controlling distance, backing Chilemba up, and imposing his will and power on his opponent. Once the cut happened, as has happened in so many of Edison Miranda’s fights in the past, he lost control mentally, and within two rounds had lost control of the fight physically as well.

Referee Robert Byrd deserves a wag of the finger here; throughout the night he clearly subscribed to the Joe Cortez “look, I’m on TV, they must’ve tuned in to watch me” school of refereeing. He deducted both fighters a point in the fifth round for rabbit punching, then reverted to using warnings or turning a “see no evil” eye to repeated rabbit punches by Miranda against Chilemba in the later rounds. The perfect combination of overreaction and inconsistency could have seriously marred the fight had Isaac Chilemba not shown the guts and the poise to keep at his task in easily winning the last five rounds of the fight.

When the decision came down, the South African Chilemba took the fight by unanimous decision, 97-91, 96-92 (twice), with both Teddy Atlas and The Boxing Tribune also scoring it 96-92. Considering the only men to beat Miranda up to this point have been Arthur Abraham (twice), Lucian Bute, Kelly Pavlik, Andre Ward, and referee Vic Drakulich (in the Yordanis Despaigne fight on FNF last year), Chilemba is in pretty elite company and can use this fight as a stepping stone to a potential title shot if he fights and beats the right guys in his next couple of fights.

In the co-feature, fans got pretty much exactly what they could expect from one guy (Barthelemy) who has knocked out a motley array of tomato cans, hobos, and nobodies and another guy (Williams Jr.) who fought that same level of opposition and couldn’t even muster the modicum of power required to knock those guys out. Williams wasn’t strong enough to impose his will or get Barthelemy to respect him in any way; Barthelemy wasn’t strong enough to finish the job against perhaps the first guy he has ever fought who had a chin.

This fight was a complete mismatch. After the first couple of rounds, once Barthelemy realized he was in absolutely no danger of being seriously hurt, he clowned around, threw one punch southpaw, one punch orthodox, danced around, and showed no respect at all for his opponent. An argument could be made for Williams winning the third round with some decent body work, but when the final decision came down, the judges had it 80-72, 79-73 (twice), with Teddy Atlas scoring it 79-73 and the Tribune scoring it 80-72.

In a planned swing fight, Russian heavyweight prospect Magomed Abdusalamov (13-0, 13 KOs) fought a guy in Pedro Rodriguez (8-1, 6 KOs) who came in at 243 pounds and looked like he was going to head to a nearby hospital to give birth after the fight. Some journeyman heavyweights have pot bellies, but Rodriguez really did look pregnant in there. Abdusalamov fought dreadfully in the first round, allowing his much shorter opponent and his unborn child to bull-rush him and get some good shots in, but when the second round opened, the Russian realized he was the only one of the two combatants in fighting trim and closed the show at the 1:04 mark of the round. As wins over unbeaten opponents go, this one was not just scraping the bottom of the barrel; it was what you get if you lift up the barrel and go digging in the dirt underneath.

Next week, ESPN2 is in Uncasville, Connecticut, for a battle between familiar face Demetrius Andrade (15-0, 10 KOs) and three-time knockout victim Derek Ennis (23-3-1, 13 KOs) in the main event at junior middleweight, while unbeaten Raymond Serrano (17-0, 8 KOs), also a repeat offender on FNF, takes on Kenny Abril (11-4-1, 6 KOs) at welterweight. The Boxing Tribune will have a full preview and recap of that card next week. Friday Night Fights airs on ESPN2 and ESPN3.com next Friday, February 10^th, at 9 PM Eastern/6 PM Pacific time.

Fox Doucette covers Friday Night Fights for The Boxing Tribune. His weekly column, The Southpaw, appears on Thursdays. Fan mail, hate mail, and “ugh, not Demetrius Andrade again” can be sent to beatcap@gmail.com.

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This Saturday from Fraport Arena in Frankfurt, Germany, Steve Cunningham (24-3, 12 KOs) will once again try to regain what he believes is rightfully his.  Cunningham, an American Cruiserweight who is forced to fight in Germany because the American boxing public has very little interest in those just south of 200lbs, will again have to fight his opponent, promoter, judges, and anyone else that could get in the way when you fight in Germany.

On October 1, 2011 Cunningham took his IBF title to Germany for a defense against Cuban Yoan Pablo Hernandez (25-1, 13 KOs).  Hernandez lives in Germany and is trained by popular and influential German trainer Uli Wegner.  Cunningham was dropped and badly hurt in the opening round but managed to make it to his feet and survive.  After fighting through the clouds in round two, the superior boxer Cunningham, took over the fight.

Cunningham began landing with ease on the strong but less skilled Hernandez.  Then suddenly after the sixth round the fight was stopped due to two cuts on Hernandez from accidental head butts.  The cuts were barely bleeding and causing no problems to the challenger’s vision.  But the fight was stopped and despite the fact that the majority of those who saw the fight believe Cunningham easily swept the final four rounds, Hernandez was awarded a technical decision victory.

“It was a bunch of garbage.  They were waiting to see how the fight was gonna go.  They see I got knocked down in the first round so they figure he could beat me and they were wrong.  So they wanted to wait and see if he could beat me so as the rounds went by they see I was picking up steam and I was winning rounds and winning rounds.  Now the cuts were not going into his eye and weren’t bleeding at all.  It was a sham.”

Cunningham fought the result and was awarded when the IBF ordered an immediate rematch.  But once again he will have to cross the Atlantic and fight in hostile territory to regain the title.

Cunningham has been down this road before.  He was on the wrong end of a split decision that most felt he won in his first title opportunity in 2006 against Krzysztof Wlodarczyk.  The fight was in Wlodarczyk’s home country of Poland and the rematch was in Poland as well.  Despite having to go into his opponent’s backyard, Cunningham won the fight by majority decision to get his first title.  And again this weekend he will have to march into enemy territory if he wants to march out with a belt and redemption for last October.

“This has happened to me before.  I went to Poland and they robbed me of my undefeated, of my 0. We got the immediate rematch and went back over there and got the title.  This is gonna make me go and work even harder and I’ve got so much energy, rage, and anger and fight in me so I’m gonna channel that to my training and the fight.”

Cunningham knows this is serious for his career.  He is well aware of how difficult it will be to beat the strong Hernandez and overcome all the factors that go along with fighting in Germany.  The normally happy and smiling Cunningham seems to have an edge about this situation.  Instead of preparing for the fight at his regular home, Shuler’s Gym, where a large banner of Cunningham hangs from the walls he has been in seclusion in a solo training camp.

“It’s personal, I take this very personal, they stole something from me.  I feel I got robbed.  I feel somebody came into my house and stuck me up and took some of my belongings.  I know who did it so I gotta go get it.”

Cunningham is clearly on a mission to regain the title he believes was taken from him by factors outside of the ring.  While he does not believe he has to get a knockout, he does feel he can break Hernandez down and stop him to guarantee he goes home with the IBF title.  Either way Cunningham has stated he is ready for war to get redemption this weekend in Germany.

“This fight coming up here for Hernandez, we already coined it “It’s time for War”.  It’s like the scripture says, there is a time for love, there’s a time for peace, and there’s a time for war.  This is time for war.”

Also on the card Alexander Alekseev (22-2, 20 KOs) and Enad Licina (21-3, 11 KOs) square off for the vacant EBU (European) Cruiserweight title.  Alekseev brings some real power to the ring stopping twenty of his twenty two opponents he has defeated.  His most recent loss came to contender Denis Lebedev by second round KO in a WBO eliminator in 2010.  Alekseev has wins over former Contender show participant Max Alexander and most recently over Daniel Bruwer by eighth-round TKO.

Licina’s two losses have come to the two men that headline the same card.  He lost to Cunningham in early 2011 challenging Cunningham for the IBF title and lost to Hernandez in 2009.  Both losses were by unanimous decision.  Licina’s most noteworthy victory came in 2010 over former Contender show participant Felix Cora.  Licina’s last two opponents were young and untested providing him with some easier comeback wins after losing to Cunningham.

Notes

• Quotes from this article were taken from a previous interview from this writer with Steve Cunningham.  To read the entire extensive interview with Cunningham about the last fight and his career as a whole visit http://theboxingtribune.com/2011/10/steve-cunningham-gets-his-rematch-and-a-shot-at-vindication-its-time-for-war/

Question, comment, agree, disagree, or anything at all, send it to gboxing3@gmail.com

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The first of two main events will feature a 25-year-old fighter from Salinas, California who’s sure to have a hometown crowd cheering him on.  Alejandro Perez began his professional career in 2004, and he’s fought nineteen bouts since.  He’s gone 3-3 in his last six fights and is coming off a UD loss to Diego Magdaleno for a minor title.  He also has a KO win over Antonio Escalante and a UD loss to Rico Ramos.

Across the ring from Perez will be Derrick Wilson, a 23-year-old fighter from Florida.  In his last nine bouts he’s gone 5-2-2, and he’s coming off a TKO win over Mario Lacey where the fight was called in the first round due to the three knockdown rule.  The fight before that, he recorded a loss to Javier Fortuna in which he suffered a knockout in the eighth and final round.

The second half of this doubleheader features two fighters native to California.  Ronny Rios resides in Santa Ana, California and comes into this bout undefeated.  Since 2009, Rios has fought as a super featherweight, but as an amateur he was the 2007 and 2008 United States Amateur Bantamweight Champion and the 2007 National Golden Gloves Bantamweight Champion.  Rios is coming off a UD win over Roger Gonzalez who is now 27-5.

At thirty years old, Jeremy McLaurin is eight years his opponent’s senior but has five less fights on his record.  Although he resides in Minnesota, McLaurin is an Anaheim native.  This will be McLaurin’s first fight in his hometown.  He has won two of his last four bouts, with one of those losses coming by TKO to Juan Gonzalez who is now 11-0.  His last bout was a UD win over Gary Eyer who is now 8-2.

The Phoenix Club in Anaheim, California will be hosting the Golden Boy Promotions event.  Doors open at 6pm and the first bell rings at 7pm.

At the press conference following his impressive fifth round TKO over Peter Manfredo Jr. last November, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., along with promoter Bob Arum, were peppered with a litany of questions surrounding who the fighter’s next opponent would be.

As is the case most often, promoter and fighter spoke of lining up huge names for the future.  Sergio Martinez, who (with an almost disinterested disposition) sat in the same room as they spoke, was mentioned as a candidate, along with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito.  When asked specifically whether or not he thought he was now ready for such a huge test, Chavez Jr. delivered a response consistent with the company line.

“I’m ready.”

Since that night, and perhaps even before, fight fans have eagerly anticipated the undefeated Mexican fighter’s step up in competition.  While Manfredo Jr. was a game competitor, the fact remains that he was simply outgunned that night by the naturally bigger, stronger and more skilled opponent.

And while the opponent Top Rank’s CEO Bob Arum lined up for Chavez Jr. isn’t quite on par with the list of names bandied around back in November, the rugged slugger Marco Antonio Rubio does provide another big step in right direction for the 26-year-old, undefeated WBC titlist.  Rubio is tough as nails and comes to fight, and he’s been in the ring with a level of competition his opponent has hasn’t come close to.

Let’s face it, lots of fight fans just don’t like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., and it has nothing to do with what has actually gone on inside the ring.  It started when he began his career at age 17 headlining minor PPV cards based on name-value alone.

Being the son of a legendary champion is hard enough, but using your father’s notoriety to prop yourself up past where you belong in a sport where most guys have to fight and scrap their way onto undercards alone, just rubs people the wrong way.

But regardless of how he did it, he didn’t lose any of those fights, and he’s shown steady improvement along the way to boot.  While there’s certainly a vocal contingent of boxing fans out there rooting for him to fail, his consecutive fights headlining HBO cards is quite possibly evidence of–dare it be said–a burgeoning acceptance among the boxing community.

And for good reason.

Under the careful tutelage of world famous trainer Freddie Roach, Chavez Jr. seems to display newly polished skills with each and every effort.  In his last fight, the always ready-to-rumble fighter used a stiff jab and his lanky frame to set up the knockout.  He’ll need to do the same against Rubio.

Rubio, a fellow Mexican fighter, comes into this fight with a wealth of experience on his side bolstered by an impressive tally of recent successes.  He’s won ten consecutive fights, with nine of them coming by TKO, since his last loss way back in February of 2009 against the then-more-formidable Kelly Pavlik.

If you ask a boxing fan on the street who should win this fight, you’ll get a perhaps surprising number of votes for Rubio to pull the upset and to do it by knockout.  While a bit of that likely attributed to that vocal contingent that just wants Chavez Jr. to lose, it’s at least in some small part also because Marco Antonio Rubio is just a damn good fighter.

So for Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., this one is big.

A win against Rubio does several important things.  It validates what Team Chavez already believes about their fighter: that he’s a legitimate top level competitor headed towards the upper echelon of the sport.  It proves that maybe those headlining PPVs cards way back at the beginning of his career were more warranted than people believed at the time.  And it sets him on an inevitable collision course, barring any sort of promoter/sanctioning body shenanigans, with superstar champion Sergio Martinez for the real middleweight championship of the world.

And if he looks good enough in defeating Rubio, it could mean that a clash with Martinez would be a better fight than most people think.

Top Rank’s “Welcome to the Future” will feature a WBC middleweight title bout with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (44-0-1, 31KOs) facing Marco Antonio Rubio (53-5-1, 46KOs) on Saturday, February 4^th.  Co-headlining will be Nonito Donaire (27-1, 18KOs) vs. Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. (21-1-1, 18KOs) in the junior featherweight division.  The doubleheader will air on HBO World Championship Boxing at 9pm central.

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Donaire, ranked third in the world among bantamweights, has vacated his WBO and WBC title belts with his move to the junior featherweight division.  The southpaw has suffered only one loss in his career, losing the second bout of his professional career in 2001.  Since then, he’s gone undefeated with wins over notables such as Vic Darchinyan, Moruti Mthalane, Fernando Montiel and Omar Andres Narvaez.  Donaire isn’t wasting any time, taking on a skilled opponent in his first bout at junior featherweight for a chance to take home the vacant WBO title.

Vazquez Jr. is a skilled fighter who is currently ranked fourth in the world among junior featherweights.  Since 2010, he has gone 4-1, with the loss coming against Jorge Arce on May 7, 2011.  Vazquez Jr. knocked down his opponent in round four, but in the twelfth and final round, with fifty-five seconds to go, his corner threw in the towel as Vazquez Jr. lay against the ropes taking punches.  This Saturday, Vazquez Jr. has a chance to reclaim the WBO title he lost to Arce, who has since vacated the title and currently holds a title in the bantamweight division.

In addition to the doubleheader, the fight card will also feature seven bouts on the undercard including Vanes Martirosyan (31-0, 19KOs) vs. Troy Lowry (28-11, 17KOs) in the junior middleweight division and Wale Omitoso (20-0, 17KOs) vs. Nestor Ramos (2-1, 1KO) in the welterweight division.  All fights will take place in San Antonio, Texas at the Alamodome with doors opening at 6:30pm central.

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