Blog

Aug 18, 2023

🥊 Callum Walsh Wins at Commerce Casino

Published on By For several rounds it seemed Ireland’s undefeated Callum Walsh was faced with his toughest foe in Juan Jose Velasco, but then the Argentine suddenly retired in the corner with a

Published

on

By

For several rounds it seemed Ireland’s undefeated Callum Walsh was faced with his toughest foe in Juan Jose Velasco, but then the Argentine suddenly retired in the corner with a whimper on Saturday.

Walsh was apologetic about the confused ending.

“He quit. So sorry,” said Walsh to the crowd.

Still, Walsh (8-0, 7 KOs) the middleweight from Cork, Ireland dazzled the crowd at Commerce Casino with an engaging battle against Velasco (24-5, 15 KOs) on the main event of the 360 Boxing Promotions card. The only thing missing was a man down.

Not in the main event.

Velasco, who formerly fought super lightweight world champion Regis Prograis, showed his veteran skills in absorbing the massive shots from young Walsh. For three rounds the Irish fighter unloaded big blows. During one exchange it was clear Velasco was stunned.

The Argentine fighter erupted in the third round with his own volley of blows. After assessing the young fighter’s power, he decided to go on attack and both fighters connected simultaneously and glared at each other.

Finally, it looked like a real competition.

In the fourth round both fighters dove in for attack and heads clashed. Velasco went down from the collision. Referee Ed Hernandez accurately ruled no knockdown. The fight resumed with Walsh in full attack mode and Velasco looking for an opening to deliver a right hand blast against the southpaw. It did not occur.

Suddenly, the referee visited Velasco’s corner at the end of the round and turned around to signal to the crowd and Walsh’s corner that the fight was over. Walsh was ruled the winner at the end of the fourth round by knockout.

“I want to apologize. It was out of my control,” said Walsh to the crowd about the sudden stoppage. “He quit. We were just getting into it.”

Welterweights

Armenia’s Gor Yeritsyan (16-0, 14 KOs) needed less than three rounds to blast out Philippine’s Rogelio Doliguez (25-5-2) with two body shots that left him unable to beat the count at 24 seconds into the second round of the welterweight match.

Over-the-weight contest

Austria’s Umar Dzambekov (7-0, 6 KOs) was forced to accept overweight Peru’s David Zegarra (35-11-1) who weighed more than 15 pounds over the accepted 175-pound limit. No matter, Dzambekov punished the pudgy Peruvian dropping him twice in the first round before referee Jack Reiss stopped the blowout at 1:59 of the second round.

Super Featherweights

Oxnard’s Arnold Alejandro (12-1, 10 KOs) won an extremely competitive super featherweight clash over Compton’s Adan Ochoa (12-4, 5 KOs) by split decision after eight rounds. All three judges scores were vastly different with two scores favoring Alejandro 80-72 and 77-75. A third judge saw Ochoa 80-72.

It was a back-and-forth contest that saw both fighters make adjustments throughout the eight rounds.

Other Bouts

Riverside’s Daniel “Chucky” Barrera (4-0-1, 3 KOs) was matched against highly experience Gilberto Mendoza (19-16-4) of Modesto and cooly out-fought the veteran behind a stiff left jab and excellent defense. Each round was competitive. After six rounds all three judges scored it 60-54 for Barrera.

Female flyweight Gloria Munguilla (5-0) proved too accurate for Florida’s Shawna Ormsby (0-2-1) after five rounds. Though Ormsby was busy she couldn’t match Munguilla’s accuracy and defense. All three judges scored it for Munguilla 50-45.

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

A Conversation With Award-Winning Boxing Writer Lance Pugmire

Jared Anderson (TKO 5) and Efe Ajagba (W DQ 4) Victorious in Tulsa

Published

on

By

A masterful storyteller, Lance Pugmire spent nearly two decades covering sports for the Los Angeles Times. He is the most-recent recipient of the prestigious Nat Fleischer Award for Excellence in Boxing Journalism which is presented annually by the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Trustworthy is just one reason why Pugmire has had a successful sports writing career.

“I’d like to think of myself as the type of reporter that the athletes, no matter how high profile they became in their career, they could trust me completely, and that they knew that, yes, I am on the quest for the truth, but I’m also going to allow them to speak their truth while delivering it the way they wanted it delivered,” he said.

Pugmire spoke about the trust Saul “Canelo” Alvarez had in him while Canelo was training for a fight several years ago.

“One time I went to San Diego and Alvarez gave me an interview in English, and I like to think I was the first reporter he spoke to in English,” he said of the boxer who will meet Jermell Charlo on September 30.

Pugmire also built a rapport with Miguel Cotto who had two big matches with Antonio Margarito.

Margarito was accused of using loaded hand-wraps on more than one occasion including his first meeting with Cotto and had his license revoked for one year by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

“I was able to do a lot of reporting on loaded gloves,” Pugmire noted. “When I spoke to Cotto,” he said to me, “he knows about the hand wraps. I will get revenge for this. When he fought him at Madison Square Garden [December 2011] in front of all his people, that was one of the more emotional fights that I covered.” (After Cotto lost to Margarito in July 2008 in Las Vegas via eleventh-round technical knockout, Cotto came back and earned a ninth-round stoppage in the rematch).

While Pugmire is straightforward in his dealings with the men in the ring, so too are they honest with him.

“I’ve always had a soft spot for them. Boxers are always an open book on every level. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Tyson Fury or some young prospect on his way up,” he pointed out. “There’s not a lot of publicists in their ear saying, ‘don’t talk about this and don’t talk about that.’ They always give you their truth and then you report it as you see fit. As a reporter we like to know that it’s not scripted or sugar coated and that’s what I like about boxers.”

Pugmire began his career in 1999 at the Times Inland Valley office. He covered the 2000 Shane Mosley-Oscar De La Hoya fight as a round-by-round reporter and became a full-time boxing writer in 2007 with the Israel Vasquez-Rafael Marquez tussle.

Pugmire enjoyed his tenure at the Times, but felt a tugging to try something different.

“I absolutely loved my 19 years at the Los Angeles Times – so many amazing experiences and unforgettable stories that we nailed,” he said. “I’ve always sought to continue challenging myself. Because of my earnings there and The Athletic, I was able to experience real estate investment, which led me to a new career that is still all about learning people’s stories and helping them reach a better place. Not ever taking myself out of my comfort zone would have been my ultimate regret.”

To this end, Pugmire recently moved into a career selling high-end property for Seven Gables Real Estate/MX Associates in Huntington Beach after nearly two decades at the Los Angeles Times.

While boxing doesn’t hold sway like it once did, there are weekends when the sport is still important, such as the night Crawford faced Spence at T-Mobile Arena.

“The powers that be who run boxing know that staging these great fights is the best thing for the sport’s future. So, when we can get these fights, everybody knows this is the fight that should be happening,” Pugmire noted. “Then boxing still has the ability to capture the mainstream sports fans and get complete attention on that Saturday fight night. That is still the great thing about boxing. Boxing will never die as long as it is giving fans that moment.”

Crawford-Spence turned out to be lopsided in favor of Crawford who won on a ninth-round stoppage, notes Pugmire, but it still created significant buzz because it did take place after a lot of earlier wrangling.

“When Spence said, ‘Unless you’re going to bring me a Crawford fight, I’m not going to fight,” he [he showed that he] understands what this sport is about…For Spence, he believed I’m the naturally bigger man, I am the more skilled man, and I can win this fight. As tough as Crawford is and an undefeated three-division champion, we all know Terence is one of the great finishers of this generation. For Spence to take on this fight, he has to be given a lot of credit.”

Boxing will always have a place in the sun even if it’s not at the top of the food chain.

“To me, there’s no better example, so let’s just go global,” Pugmire said. “Manny Pacquiao sold rice on the streets so he and his family could eat. If it wasn’t for boxing, what would have become of Pacquiao? This is someone who, with his money, with his power, is elevated to political office and is doing everything that he can to help his fellow humans in the Philippines escape the ravages of poverty. We all know this [boxing] isn’t good for someone’s health. Absolutely not.”

Pugmire was able to cozy up to Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr., who were two very opposite personalities.

“The creativity and the power that we saw from Pacquiao as he moved through these divisions was such an impressive thing to cover. Same thing with Mayweather. His defensive acumen and his brilliance of being able to figure out whatever opponent was set before him. Even if it was to his advantage to handpick guys like a 23-year-old Alvarez or an over-the-hill Oscar De La Hoya,” he said. “The fact is that he did it. [We all who covered Floyd’s career] know that there were many tough fights against guys like Jose Luis Castillo that he took that were 50-50 endeavors, and even his fight against Marcos Maidana, that was a tough task. He found a way to get the victory. He fought Cotto and Juan Manuel Marquez. The guy deserves to be credited. In my eyes, it’s not a sin how he handled his career.”

The May 2015 bout between Pacquiao and Mayweather was a dud in terms of entertainment, but an immense money-maker.

Pugmire recalls being inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena that evening.

“To me, when I see these two guys, I always go back to that moment when I looked up right before the first bell rang and they were both bouncing in each other’s corner right before it went down,” he recalled. “Wow, it was one of the most electric moments that I can ever remember.”

Pugmire no longer covers boxing full-time but still keeps track of the sport. As a contributor to the boxing website ppv.com, he covered the Gervonta Davis-Ryan Garcia battle and the Terence Crawford-Errol Spence Jr. showdown.

He’s honored that the Boxing Writers Association of America deemed his block of work worthy of being included with the best writers to have spent time ringside.

“The thing that really struck me after looking at the past winners was who had won the Fleischer before me and how deeply I’ve been influenced by past winners,” he said. “Growing up in Phoenix, I read Norm Frauenheim in grade school. When I moved to Orange County to go to college [majoring in communications with an emphasis in journalism] at Cal State Fullerton, I read Mark Whicker. My sports editor at the Los Angeles Times that brought me downtown from a satellite office in Ontario was Bill Dwyer. I’m very close to Dan Rafael.”

Pugmire then spoke about the obligation all reporters have.

“These guys were never beholden to any particular side. They were not shills. They spoke their truth. They were obligated to the readers,” he said. “I was there to tell the truth and I do love the sport and I was there to communicate what their stories were in the most truthful, elegant and dignified way that I could. That enough people on this committee noticed my work is a great honor. They said, ‘You belong among us.’”

And now he does.

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Published

on

By

Toledo’s Jared Anderson, widely considered the best of the new crop of heavyweights, took care of business tonight on a Top Rank card in Tulsa, improving to 16-0 (15 KOs) with a fifth-round stoppage of teak-tough but limited Andriy Rudenko (35-7) who lost for the fifth time in his last nine starts. Anderson softened Rudenko up with body punches before a fusillade of unanswered head punches forced the referee to intervene at the 1:40 mark of the fifth stanza.

It was quick turnaround for Anderson, 23, who was extended the 10-round distance for the first time in his career in his previous bout eight weeks ago against Charles Martin. Prior to the stoppage, he had won every minute of every round against his 39-year-old Ukrainian foe who was hardly “the tough out for anyone” as claimed by the ESPN announcing crew, but had been stopped only once previously.

Co-Feature

The co-feature between Efe Ajagba and Zhan Kossobutskiy was an intriguing match-up on paper that proved to be a piece of junk which was entirely the fault of the Kazakhstan import, Kossobutskiy, who channeled the infamous Andrew Golota and got himself disqualified in the fourth round because of a series of low blows.

Kossobutskiy brought a fancy record for his North American debut (19-0, 18 KOs) but proved to be a plodding, short-armed heavyweight with a very low ceiling. He was out of his element against the six-foot-six Ajagba, the former Nigerian Olympian, who had a 3-inch height advantage and an 11-inch reach advantage.

Referee Chris Flores deducted two points from Kossobutskiy for low blows in round three, but that proved to be no deterrent. Ajagba advanced to 18-1 with his fourteenth win inside the distance. The official time was 0:33 in round four.

Other Bouts of Note

Brooklyn featherweight Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington, improved to 9-0 (5) with a unanimous decision over Mexico import Angel Contreras (13-7-2). The scores were 80-72 and 79-73 twice. Shu Shu is highly skilled, but lacks a big punch and that may keep him from reaching the highest pedestals of the sport.

In a ho-hum 8-round heavyweight affair, Tulsa native Jeremiah Milton improved to 11-0 (7) with a unanimous decision over 38-year-old Detroit trial horse Craig Lewis (15-7-1). The scores were 80-72 and 79-73 twice. Lewis valiantly huffed-and-puffed his way to the final bell. It was his sixth loss in his last seven starts with all of those losses coming against undefeated opponents.

Sona Akale, a 35-year-old Minnesota native with an MMA background, sprung an upset in an 8-round middleweight contest, saddling Nico Ali Walsh (8-1, 1 NC) with his first pro loss by way of a majority decision in a fight that could have gone either way. Akale (8-1) hadn’t previously defeated an opponent with a winning record.

In the lid-lifter, Bakhodir Jalolov, the gold medalist at super heavyweight for Uzbekistan in the Tokyo Olympics, is 13 for 13 with 13 knockouts as a professional after stopping Onoriode Ehwarieme in the opening round. Jalolov, a six-foot-seven southpaw, had his overmatched foe on the canvas three times before the bout was waived off. This bout aired exclusively on Top Rank’s youtube channel. According to prominent boxing writer Jake Donovan, a potential territorial dispute with another promoter compelled Top Rank to pull the imposing Jalolov from their main menu.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank via Getty Images

To0 comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Published

on

By

On a rainy night at a 45,000-seat soccer stadium in Wroclaw, Poland, Oleksandr Usyk successfully defended his IBF, WBA, and WBO world heavyweight titles with a ninth-round KO of Daniel Dubois. It was a short right hand from the southpaw that brought the bout to a sudden conclusion at the 48-second mark of round nine. The punch knocked Dubois sideways where he took the count on all fours. Referee Luis Pabon reached the count of 10 just as it appeared that Dubois would beat the count.

Usyk scored a knockdown in the final second of the previous round as he crowded Dubois with a series of glancing blows.

A heavy favorite in the 11/1 range, the Ukrainian was comfortably ahead on the cards through the completed frames, but yet the fight was not without controversy. In round five, Dubois collapsed Usyk with a punch that TV replays showed was right on the belt-line, directly below the naval. Pabon ruled it a low blow and discouraged Usyk from resuming the fray until he had used up all the time allotted to him – the full five minutes.

Usyk, who improved to 21-0 (14 KOs), was making his twelfth straight start outside his native country. However, he had a home field advantage in Wroclaw as an estimated 250,000 Ukrainians now reside in Poland, many recent arrivals seeking refuge from the war.

Dubois, who declined to 19-2, had won four straight heading in after suffering his lone setback at the hands of Joe Joyce. Those wins came with Shane McGuigan in his corner. For this bout, he used Don Charles as his chief trainer, a man best known for his work with Derrek Chisora.

Dubois’s promoter Frank Warren has demanded a rematch, insisting that his fighter was cheated by Pabon’s actions. More than likely, nothing will come of it. For his next fight, Usyk is expected to fulfill his WBO mandatory which would pit him against the winner of the forthcoming rematch between Joe Joyce and Zhilei Zhang. That’s assuming that Team Usyk can’t successfully and quickly rekindle talks for a unification fight with WBC title-holder Tyson Fury.

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

The Hauser Report: Tony Danza, Federico Castelluccio, and Boxing

Before ‘Bud’ Crawford, there was Ace Hudkins: A Look Back at the ‘Nebraska Wildcat’

The Hauser Report: Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant, and Spence-Crawford

Oleksandr Usyk Recovers from a Wicked Body Punch to KO Daniel Dubois

Emmanuel Rodriguez Storms Past Melvin Lopez in the Featured Bout on Showtime

Avila Perspective, Chap. 248: Canelo vs Charlo plus Weekend Boxing Notes

Terence Crawford Unifies Another Title; Destroys Errol Spence

Canelo Alvarez and Jermell Charlo Face Off at Their LA Presser