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BEYOND TOKYO

What next for the stars of the Olympics?

Fighting Plant is what the sport needs

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AUGUST 26 2021

KUDOS, CANELO

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We track down the enigmatic Howard Eastman

UGAS BEATS PACQUIAO

END OF A LEGEND All that’s left for Manny to do now is say goodbye

JOHN FURY & SON + GARY SYKES + ANTHONY YARDE + MICHAEL CONLAN + DANIEL DUBOIS

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF THE GREATEST 21ST CENTURY FIGHTER

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Contents August 26, 2021

16

TIME TO SAY GOODBYE Pacquiao shows his age in gruelling loss to Ugas but his legacy is secure

UNMISSABLE

>> 8 JOHN AND TOMMY FURY

8

HIGHLIGHTS

>> 4 EDITOR’S LETTER

Steve Bunce talks to father and son

Retirement won’t come easy for Manny

>> 12 CANELO VS PLANT

>> 5 OLYMPIC CHAMPION

The only fight to be made at 168lbs

Plenty to consider for Lauren Price

>> 26 STEVE MAYLETT

>> 10 ROCK & A HARD PLACE

Meet the underrated British coach

The dilemma facing Lou DiBella

>> 30 BATTLING DEMONS

>> 14 MICHAEL CONLAN

The sobering tale of a former champion

Options aplenty for the Irish contender

>> 34 HOWARD EASTMAN

>> 18 AT BRITISH RINGS

After a lengthy search we find one of boxing’s most eccentric characters

Marcus Morrison wins in Manchester

>> 22 YARDE AND CO IN BRUM

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Previewing an intruiging BT Sport card

>> 40 WHAT COMES NEXT? Examining the future for stars of Tokyo

>> 44 REAL MAX BAER Don’t be fooled by Cinderella Man

>> 46 SAM MAXWELL Why Lomachenko is so difficult to fight

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AUGUST 26, 2021 l BOXING NEWS l 3

EDITOR’S LETTER

Photo: PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

EVER HUMBLE: Pacquiao waves and bows at the crowds after his defeat

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NOTHING LEFT TO PROVE A tribute to Manny Pacquiao, the man and the fighter EOPLE who are not Manny Pacquiao, and do not know what it feels like to be Manny Pacquiao, will attempt to advise him on what to do next. ‘Hold your head up high’, they’ll say, ‘you have nothing left to prove.’ Only Manny Pacquiao himself can come to that Matt conclusion.

Christie There are @MattCBoxingNews numerous giveaways that will tell a Editor boxer they’re not the fighter they used to be. The most common being a dulling of the reflexes that manifests itself in two ways: simply, taking more punches and failing to land as many. Another tell-tale is the legs and feet not moving as effortlessly as they once did. These signs were obvious in 42-year-old Pacquiao during his loss to Yordenis Ugas last weekend. But perhaps the most striking warning in Las Vegas was the look of perpetual horror on the face of his wife, Jinkee Pacquiao, at ringside.

She seemed to know almost immediately what her husband surely came to realise: That the “Pac-Man” is no more. But that won’t make it any easier to walk away from the sport that’s defined him since he was 16 years old.

Announcing their retirement – and sticking to it – is the hardest part of the journey for almost every boxer. One

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4 l BOXING NEWS l AUGUST 26, 2021

hopes that Pacquiao can now make the right call. But don’t for one second doubt how truly excruciating it is to admit that you can no longer do what you love to do; that one thing that used to come so naturally, gone.

It will never come back. Not for him to compete at the level to which he is accustomed. That can cause havoc with the psyche of boxers. His mind might play tricks on him, con him into believing that the late change of opponent, coupled with his layoff, were the real reasons he under-performed. Those who think it’s alright to encourage the likes of Mike Tyson, Riddick Bowe and Oscar De La Hoya to return will likely be circling, too.

Pacquiao, a humanitarian, is considering running for president of the Philippines. A career in politics is already there for him. But it is his career inside the ring that he holds closest to his heart.

His achievements are huge. To my mind he is one of the greatest fighters of them all and, though he lost to Floyd Mayweather, the most accomplished of his generation.

He picked up belts in eight weight classes and ruled definitively in five of those. At his peak, and for me that was his first three fights at 147lbs when he defeated Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto, he was an extraordinary fireball of a man who would have been competitive with any welterweight in history. He’s right up there with the best super-featherweights of all-time, too. That he started out as a light-flyweight and had success all the way up to super-welter, is yet another string to his bow. The astonishing longevity, and the manner

in which he bounced back from defeats, provide further evidence of his legend.

Outside of the ring he was a joy.

The manner in which he greeted every single person who packed into Fitzroy Lodge to meet him and Amir Khan in 2015 was unforgettable. He posed for countless selfies that day and not once did his famous smile fade. That smile, that obvious lust for life, was always so infectious. Out in Las Vegas, whether he was grinning broadly on the scales, talking to reporters before and after fights in broken English, or making his way to the ring like a kid runs to the bottom of the tree on Christmas morning, Pacquiao exuded humility that is so rare in modern day superstars. He was always grateful to his supporters and to the sport itself for changing his life.

Pacquiao may not be the fighter of old but that same person remains.

The one his country worships. The man his wife and family adore.

“Words cannot express how proud I am of the man you are,” Jinkee posted on Instagram. “I’m proud to be your wife. You mean the world to me and all our children. We love you so much. We, your family, have seen how much you have toiled, sacrificed and given of yourself, blood sweat and tears since the beginning when you dreamed of becoming world champion.”

With those words, Pacquiao has reached the ultimate mountain top.

He has achieved what really matters in life. Hold your head up high, you have nothing left to prove.

PACQUIAO EXUDED A HUMILITY THAT IS SO RARE IN MODERN DAY SUPERSTARS

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GUEST COLUMN

‘I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE IT’ Photo: THEMBA HADEBE/POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

TAKING HER TIME: Price is is no hurry to make decisions about her future

I am considering what next after the Olympic Games WAS nervous, being in the Olympic Games, the biggest tournament of my career. As the tournament went on, like any other tournament I kind of relaxed into my rhythm, Lauren then I get more Price comfortable each fight.

Olympic Against champion Nouckha Fontijn in the semi-final to win that fight, if I rushed then I would have played straight into her hands because that’s what she wanted. For me it was sticking to my gameplan.

When I had a point off, in that moment you could panic but, I don’t know, I’m a laid back person as it is anyway. I just knew I needed a big last round.

Going into the final, I knew Qian

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Li hadn’t lost since Rio. She wasn’t at the Worlds in Russia but she hadn’t lost since Rio. I knew she was quite tricky. I thought it would be a very technical fight, which it was. But in the first round, within 45 seconds I’d say, she felt a little bit lost. She didn’t know what to do with me and I felt really good. I really enjoyed that fight, it was great.

On the podium I was a little bit emotional but I kind of held myself together and when I got interviewed it kind of came out a little bit, especially when they mentioned my granddad and my nan. For me it’s been such a journey and they were such a massive part of it. For me to bring that medal back to my nan, that was pretty special.

She’s over the moon. When I came back and there were loads of people here, she was the first person to come across, it’s the quickest I’ve seen her move. She sprinted down the road and wrapped her arms around me. I was away from her six weeks. Obviously we spoke on the phone and Facetimed and she sends me inspirational text messages every

time I fight, but it was nice to come home to her and see her.

Coming home was pretty crazy.

I thought there’d be a couple of people there but when I pulled up, there were loads of people outside my house, with cards and gifts.

We were in a bubble in Tokyo and then once we got off the plane everyone was around us, interviewing us, taking pictures. For the last year and a bit, we’ve all been distanced, the world’s been on hold.

Just to be around everyone, it’s nice to be back to normal.

The schools have done drawings of the Olympics, the younger kids looking up to me. A big thing for me is trying to inspire the next generation. It was nice to come home and have pictures with the kids and you can see their faces light up. It’s nice to come home and see that support given back to me.

It’s still sinking in now. I still can’t believe it.

We had an amazing team. It might be another 100 years before we have another team like it. We’re going to enjoy that time.

I don’t know what I’m doing to do next. I’m not going to rush. I’m going to take my time. A lot of doors have opened for me. But I’m just going to enjoy the time I’ve got off. I’ve won gold and I’m going to focus on that for now and enjoy my time.

An offer from a professional promoter is going to have to be good because GB is such a great set up. We’ve got everything. It would have to be life-changing to be honest, for me to turn over. I love GB for one, I love travelling the world and competing but obviously the set up financially – you’re safe. You’ve got a monthly income.

Obviously since winning Olympic gold I’ve had a lot of people get in touch with me and stuff like that. It is a bit crazy to be honest. But like I said, we’ll just wait and see.

For me go down the professional route, even though there are opportunities there and I’m thinking about it, but it would have to be big for me to go.

There’s obviously opportunities out there but we’re in no rush. We’ve got plenty of time.

AUGUST 26, 2021 l BOXING NEWS l 5

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LETTERS

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LETTER OF THE WEEK

ONCE IN A LIFETIME MANNY PACQUIAO is truly a once-in-a-lifetime fighter whom I feel privileged to have seen fight. I can still remember him bursting onto the scene, when commentators struggled to pronounce his name, all the way to crossing through four decades (and a multitude of world class, truly electrifying, contests along the way) to where he finds himself now. I hope the loss to Yordenis Ugas was the last professional fight of his career. A defeat, but a fitting occasion nonethess. It was inside a packed stadium where everyone chanted his name, both as he stepped through the ropes and even at the end as he left the ring.

Credit is due to Ugas, whose classy Cuban right hand counters played a big part in his deserved victory, along with a little help from Father Time. It has finally caught up with Manny and tapped him on the shoulder to signify it’s over. He can hang up his gloves with pride, having

given us, the fans, more than we could have ever expected or wished for. I’ll miss him, but it’s time to walk away.

Paul Thorpe PACQUIAO A TRUE GREAT IT has become somewhat unfashionable among the hard-to-please hardcore to call a modern day fighter one of the greatest of all-time. Some fans scoff when you mention a boxer like Manny Pacquiao over an old-time fighter, like Harry Greb for instance, even though they couldn’t possibly have seen Greb fight. But Pacquiao deserves his place in history, right up there with the best of them. He never shirked a challenge and was truly one of a kind, inside the ring and out. His ring record stands up to inspection and his achievements, regardless of what era he was fighting in, are hard to top. Thanks for the memories, Manny.

Micah Collinson

KUDOS TO THE WINNER OKAY, Manny Pacquiao is a legend. We get it. But Yordenis Ugas won the fight. I hope the Cuban now gets the credit he deserves after a terrific victory.

Jack Hunter RIGO DESERVED TO WIN Personally, I had Guillermo Rigondeaux winning the fight over John Riel Casimero, simply because he landed more. Was it it pretty? No, but he effectively told the world he wasn’t going to stand still and trade. Did Casimero deserve to win? No, so why did he?

If you reward a fighter for just coming forward - what’s the point in having judges watch, use their knowledge and score the fight? You may as well give the crowd a red and blue button and get them to decide. Rigo’s performance was far from pretty and not at all entertaining, but in my opinion he did win.

Jaime Ingleby

SPECIAL FIGHTER: Pacquiao set new standards

Photo: RYAN HAFEY/PREMIER BOXING CHAMPIONS

6 l BOXING NEWS l AUGUST 26, 2021

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10 COUNT THE PANEL

STANDUP GUYS

WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF MANNY PACQUIAO HAD BEEN FIGHTING ERROL SPENCE ON SATURDAY?

We track down Howard Eastman this week [see pages 34-39]. Here are 10 other fighters to fly the flag of Guyana on the world stage 1. VIVIAN HARRIS Heavy-handed Harris rose to prominence when viciously dispatching Cuban Diosbelys Hurtado inside two rounds in 2002. A top super-lightweight in his day.

2. WAYNE BRAITHWAITE One of the world’s leading cruiserweights at the beginning of the century, the belt-holder scored good wins over Vincenzo Cantatore in Italy and fellow southpaw Yoan Pablo Hernandez.

Paul Edwards Former British flyweight champ I think Pacquiao would have got stopped. An absolute blessing in disguise.

He’s one of our greatest ever boxers. He looked in shape but nowhere near what he was years ago. I think it was a goodbye fight.

Joe Gallagher Two-time trainer of the year Hard to comment on it. Ugas was always a tough fight but full credit to Manny Pacquiao at 42 years of age and two years inactivity to go in with that calibre and quality of opponent.

Micky Helliet Manager and promoter Manny Pacquiao has been an outstanding standard bearer for boxing and the Philippines throughout his amazing career.

I’d advise him to stay right away from a fight with Errol Spence who, despite some pretty serious problems of his own, would be way too fresh for Manny.

Chris McKenna Sports reporter You have to worry given Spence’s size but he’s a different fighter to Ugas, who posed different challenges to Spence. But I think it would have been a more comprehensive defeat for Pacquiao.

Joe Gallagher I don’t think we will. But we seem to be in an era of Mike Tyson and David Haye and other people doing exhibitions. Who’s not say him versus Mayweather II? They could do it again as an exhibition.

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Micky Helliet Unfortunately I wouldn’t be surprised to see Manny back in the ring. His form has dipped but he’s not struck me as the type to be frugal and so I think he could well be back again.

4. GAIRY ST. CLAIR Super durable St. Clair was stopped just once in a 59-fight pro career and pushed the likes of Diego Corrales, Vivian Harris, Amir Khan and Cassius Baloyi, with whom he split a couple of fights, all the way.

5. PATRICK FORD Featherweight Ford had the questionable privilege of facing the great Salvador Sanchez and Eusebio Pedroza in back-to-back title attempts. He lost to Sanchez in 1980 and Pedroza in ’81 but gave a great account of himself in both fights.

6. ADRIAN DODSON Gifted Londoner Dodson was born in Georgetown, Guyana and, like Howard Eastman, is considered one of the most talented UK-based boxers never to win a world belt.

DO YOU THINK THIS WILL ACTUALLY BE THE LAST TIME WE SEE PACQUIAO IN A BOXING RING? Paul Edwards Yes. I hope it’s the last we see of him. I think he’s a big money fight for the rest of the fighters but I don’t want him to be seen like that now.

I’m hoping that it’s his last fight.

I think it will be.

I don’t think he’ll fight again, he knows he’s not at that level that he was.

3. ANDREW LEWIS Known as ‘Six Heads’, Andrew Lewis stopped James Page inside seven rounds in 2001 only to lose to Ricardo Mayorga the following year. A massive puncher, he died tragically in a motorbike accident in 2015.

Chris McKenna It all depends if he decides to run for president in the Philippines.

If he does then that surely will mean he can’t come back but if he doesn’t then I wouldn’t rule it out. I hope he retires, though. A modern day great.

7. TROY AMOS-ROSS Canada-based Ross was a Commonwealth cruiserweight champion who lost to Steve Cunningham in 2010. He then fought for the same IBF belt two years later only to this time lose against Yoan Pablo Hernandez.

8. CLIVE ATWELL Atwell won the first 13 fights of his career at home in Guyana before receiving a baptism of fire against top featherweight Jhonny Gonzalez in Mexico in 2014.

9. ANDRE PURLETTE “Tombstone” Purlette was a heavyweight also-ran who retired with a record of 35 knockouts from 40 wins, and just four defeats. Protected for much of his career, Purlette’s wheels came off when he met Elieser Castillo in 2002.

10. LENNOX ALLEN One of Guyana’s main hopes today, Allen is a supermiddleweight contender who last year came up short against Cuban David Morrell.

AUGUST 26, 2021 l BOXING NEWS l 7

THE BUNCE DIARIES

FURY AND SON N a boxing gym above a garage, on an industrial estate in south Manchester, a big man and his son lugged their kit bags up a steep staircase for the second session of the day.

It was another proper gym with lost boots, lost Steve gloves, split mats, Bunce chains with no @BigDaddyBunce bags resting against Voice of boxing the wall and the gentle smell of dirt and grime and hurt. Nobody was ever coming back for that one six-foot strip of stinking bandage, trust me.

The boy still has wet legs from the 10 rounds of sparring in another gym just a few miles away. He will run five miles later that day, run next to his big brother and with his father at his side.

Welcome to a day in the life and times of the Fury boys.

Tommy Fury and his dad, Big John, are the latest odd couple in the boxing and family game, a pair united in blood and the business they have chosen.

And they also have a relationship like any other between a father and his son working together in a tight and emotional space. “Do you fall out?” I asked Tommy. “Every week,” he replied with his big grin. Big John was lurking just in earshot, his silhouette visible against a mirror in the gym’s shadows; he can cast a considerable shadow, it has to be said.

Young Tommy was getting ready for his latest fight. It had been a hard few weeks with his dad and not a lot of neon nights.

Big John likes to praise Enzo and Joe Calzaghe. “Look at Joe, he misses his dad every day. I know, I can tell.

That was a proper relationship.” It was, I agree, but the Calzaghe team had fabulous bust-ups – often in the ring.

Big John just chuckles.

As Tommy shadow boxed in the ring, which had a tired ceiling just a few inches above his head, John walked over, never taking his eyes off his son.

“He showed me some stuff today in the sparring,” he said. “He was a big lump, about 14 and half-stone, a kick-boxer and now unbeaten as a pro. They went

I

8 O BOXING NEWS O AUGUST 26, 2021

John and Tommy Fury are doing things the right way

A FAMILY AFFAIR: Big John and son Tommy are united in blood and boxing

for it – he showed me plenty of guts today.” Big John was obviously pleased.

Tommy never had a mark on him.

There was a time when John was still fighting when he had a yard in a place like the industrial estate we were on; there is a photograph of John, dressed in layers of training clothing, hitting a bag in a yard of some sort with children looking up at him – one of the children is Tyson. “I remember that,” John says when I remind him of the picture. In the picture, Bartley Gorman, perhaps the greatest bare-knuckle fighter in the modern day, is holding the bag. Bartley and John are related. United, also, in their devotion to the fighting game.

Gorman is standing there, defiant, solid, still and it looks like nothing short of a JCB at full pelt would ever shift him.

“You know, I take this Jake Paul deadly seriously,” John said. “He’s six-two, he’s unbeaten and he’s a millionaire. He can train where he wants, get any sparring partners that he wants. He is serious. And, he’s a cash cow.” Gypsy John has a valid point or two; Paul might be a fun character but he is not a laughing fool.

Tommy will fight in Cleveland on Sunday, fight on the same bill that Paul is officially not topping. It will bring the two into each other’s orbit; stars from other worlds – Tommy from Love Island and Paul from the planet of pranks and YouTube millions. They are talking

Photo: RICHARD HEATHCOTE/GETTY IMAGES

about each other. Big John remains unconvinced: “He is serious, but right now, Tommy would cut him in half – it’s just fun and games to us; it will get serious when he gets nearer the British title.” John has a steady route planned for Tommy, not the route his other, bigger son, Tyson, followed. “You see, Tyson Fury is a unicorn in the fight game.”

Tommy and his father know exactly what they are right now. They are not making bold and stupid claims and not taking any risks. “Tommy has all the ability,” added John. “I will know when I step him up; I’ve seen him in some wars, take some digs.”

Tommy is just 22 and has fought just six times, four ending very quickly; he is a young novice, a prospect with promise – just like Jake Paul – in a business that often refuses to let modern boxers develop the old and the only way. Time, by the way, is the only way, but fast-tracked novice against fasttracked novice is a great idea.

In Telford, back in June, Fury heard a lot of personal abuse as he walked to the ring. It was not pleasant, but it was a harsh lesson in fame, jealousy and being in the cruel spotlight. “I blocked it out, I had to,” said Tommy. Even Big John, no stranger to hard and violent times, was shocked by the personal nature of the abuse. That type of abuse will not go away and it is far from pantomime banter, by the way.

“What those people don’t know is that Tommy lives it every day and you have to live it every day,” continued John. “No outside influences and if you don’t live it, you don’t want it. If he never lived it, I would walk away. He knows that.”

Tommy, by the way, has a lot of ‘outside influences’ as part of the package, the deal with being a Love Island star. He has to manage the commitments, the requests, the offers – they might be worth a nice few quid, but he has to find a balance. It’s not easy to do it well.

The pair finished up at the Manchester Fight Club gym, Tommy had a shower and Big John looked out over the plots; packed car lots, sand and shingle piles, scrap. A glimpse at his past. When it was done, they were going over to Liverpool to see Tyson, who had been sitting vigil at his daughter’s side in Alder Hey hospital. It’s a family affair, that’s for sure. Not just a boxing affair.

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LIVING IT: Tommy Fury insists his priority is now boxing Photo: JAMES CHANCE/ GETTY IMAGES

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AUGUST 26, 2021 O BOXING NEWS O 9

BOXING MEDIA REVIEW

Examining the best and worst of the sport’s weekly coverage

LOU IN A QUANDARY Photo: JAMES CHANCE/GETTY IMAGES

FRUSTRATION: DiBella is stuck between a rock and hard place

10 O BOXING NEWS O AUGUST 26, 2021

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STILL WAITING: Crawford hopes terms will be agreed for Porter showdown Photo: AL BELLO/GETTY IMAGES

PODCASTS SPEAKING on the SI Boxing Podcast, veteran boxing promoter Lou DiBella cast some light on the struggles he and his company are facing in the age of exclusive broadcast deals. Based in New York, DiBella has been a prominent figure in the sport for well over a decade and in that time has seen boxing undergo many changes.

Now, with his influence no longer what it once was, DiBella has been outlining why he is frustrated with his current situation.

“I would like to be hired by another substantial network that is not in the sport right now,” he said.

“Or [work with] one of those three [Top Rank, Premier Boxing Champions, Matchroom] if they elect to remove themselves from exclusivity and open up to the entire world of boxing in an attempt to make the best fights happen.

“I really wouldn’t potentially want to work for any one of them, unless they changed. If ESPN said, ‘I’m going to do a deal with [Top Rank CEO Bob] Arum, and Arum is going to have x amount of the budget, but I’m opening up to the rest of the boxing world’ then that would probably be my choice.”

DiBella explained that he has numerous talents in his stable, including Olympic gold medallist Bakhodir Jalolov, who may struggle to feature on major networks and shows because Lou would have to relinquish most, if not all, of his promotional control over those fighters.

As a former executive at HBO Sports, DiBella is able to see both sides of the coin here and makes some valid points.

Smaller promoters are struggling to break through to larger audiences simply because networks and streaming services don’t see the need to work with them; they’ve already got deals in place with more established outfits.

Now, promoters being aligned to particular networks is nothing new in boxing and it’s been a point of contention for as long as it’s been happening. It makes it difficult to create some of the sport’s best fights (for example Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao), and it also establishes a rather strict hierarchy within the sport.

However, there’s no clear incentive for networks to allocate some of their budget away from the promoter they hold a contract with to spend it on risky lesser-known rosters.

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The influential DiBella is facing a difficult decision if he wants to remain in the sport and the World Boxing Organisation make an interesting move on social media, writes George Gigney

So, promoters like DiBella face a tough choice; shop their best fighters out to big networks and bigger promoters and potentially compromise their relationship with said fighter, or keep the boxer away from those avenues and possibly stifle their growth in the sport.

It’s not fair, but it’s business. DiBella adopted that role as a de-facto promoter for a larger entity for a few years while working with Al Haymon’s PBC, and he said on the podcast that he would never do anything like that again, though suggested that’s more of a personal issue because he’s “not great at working for other people.”

Some will say DiBella should move with the times, others will empathise with his points and further lament the exclusivity of broadcast deals. It’s certainly a discussion worth continuing.

Shawn Porter (No.3) and, after a deal couldn’t be reached, the fight is now going to purse bids next week.

The WBO have decided to stream the entire process on their Facebook page, meaning anyone with a stable internet connection will be able to watch. Now, this won’t be one of the most thrilling things you’ll ever see, but for those interested in the machinations of boxing this is an interesting opportunity to see how the sausage is made.

Purse bids often go as expected, though they can also throw up some surprises. The marketability of Crawford has been a topic of discussion for a few years now so, with this livestream, fans and followers will be able to see in real time just how valuable promoters and broadcasters view him as.

Of course, the two sides could reach an agreement before then and there’s a strong chance they will; there’s nothing like the looming threat of a purse bid to get everyone onto the same page.

Speaking of which, it now appears Amir Khan and Kell Brook are ready to see eye-to-eye in order for a fight to be agreed between the pair. Eddie Hearn told The Sun that both men are now doing everything they can to make it happen.

“Both guys see this as their last fight, so whoever pays the most money will get the fight. DAZN has an idea of what we think the fight is worth, I think Sky would just put it on pay-per-view and that could be risky,” he said.

He also described the situation as literally an “auction” with Khan and Brook looking to squeeze as much money out of this as possible. That isn’t a bad thing – they’re prizefighters after all – but it does quite obviously hint at the motivations behind making a bout that should have happened years ago.

It also sounds as though Hearn is aware the fight is more likely to go to Sky, with whom he no longer works, which might explain why he doesn’t sound too hot on the idea.

Either way, there’s still some interest in the fight but it is nowhere near what it once was. It also makes a lot of sense for both men; they’re at the end of their careers and there are no other big names they could each face to secure a significant payday.

WHOEVER PAYS THE MOST MONEY WILL GET THE FIGHT

WEBSITES In a surprisingly transparent move from one of the sport’s sanctioning bodies, the WBO will livestream a purse bid for a major fight. They previously ordered their welterweight belt-holder Terence Crawford (No.2 in the world) to fight

AUGUST 26, 2021 O BOXING NEWS O 11

NEWS AND OPINION

Highlighting the best of the week’s stories WWW.BOXINGNEWSONLINE.NET

MAKING HISTORY: Canelo wants to leave his mark in boxing Photo: MICHAEL OWENS/ MATCHROOM

There can be only one A super-middleweight world champion will be crowned when &DQHOR ĆJKWV 3ODQW LQ 1RYHPEHU EXW EH FDUHIXO QRW WR JHW WRR GUXQN RQ WKH QRWLRQ RI çXQGLVSXWHGè ZULWHV Matt Christie

12 O BOXING NEWS O AUGUST 26, 2021

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ANELO ALVAREZ is doing exactly what pound-for-pound leaders should do when he aims for inarguable supremacy over his weight class by fighting Caleb Plant on November 6 in Las Vegas. Alvarez is currently No.1 at super-middleweight with Plant at No.2, meaning the winner will be the world champion at 168lbs.

Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) – with whom Plant is aligned – will promote the event alongside Canelo Promotions.

Eddie Hearn, who promoted Canelo’s last three bouts on short-term contracts to much acclaim from the boxer, will be involved but not as the main promoter.

Hearn told Boxing News he will be “working with and on behalf of Canelo Promotions” but won’t engage in any decision-making in regard to the event.

That of course rules out broadcast rights for DAZN, with whom Hearn has an exclusive deal. The streaming platform has screened all Canelo bouts since December 2018, even after the fighter broke free from a long-term deal with them last year. In the USA, it will be a pay-per-view event shown on either Showtime or Fox, PBC’s broadcast partners.

Hearn has identified the importance of certain fighters – like Canelo – retaining their promotional and broadcast independence for the good of the sport.

He’s long indicated that Canelo-Plant was unlikely to be a contest he exclusively promoted.

“I don’t feel like we need to sign fighters and lock them into long-term deals,” Hearn previously told BN. “We can have floating fighters, like Canelo. He comes in and fights Callum Smith, Avni Yildirim and Billy Joe Saunders [under the Matchroom banner]. Then he wants Caleb Plant. But Plant is with PBC, so if we can’t make that fight on our platforms we will go collectively with Canelo and make the fight on Fox. You can’t let your ego get out of control and stop fighters from going here or there.”

Should Canelo decide to remain at super-middleweight after this contest, there are further options at Al Haymon’s PBC with No.3-rated David Benavidez and No.2 middleweight, Jermall Charlo, both eyeing showdowns with Alvarez.

Elsewhere, world light-heavyweight champion, Artur Beterbiev, and No.1 contender, Dmitry Bivol, will be attractive options.

First, the Mexican needs to be triumphant in November. Should the current odds of 1/10 in Canelo’s favour prove accurate, victory will mark his second world championship after he definitively ruled at middleweight

C

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PRIDE AND RESPECT: Plant’s not just in it for the money Photo: RYAN HAFEY/ PREMIER BOXING CHAMPIONS

following victories over Miguel Cotto and Gennady Golovkin. He has held alphabet belts in four classes – 154, 160, 168 and 175 – but his current desire to truly dominate his division, as opposed to collecting trinkets and moving on, is to be admired.

“I am very excited to have this fight before me,” Alvarez stated. “I am happy because I am going to make history, and in my career that’s exactly what I want to do – leave my mark in boxing.”

Plant might be the 11/2 underdog but he is a live one in the eyes of some seasoned observers. A flair fighter with skills that can trouble Canelo, the Nashville-born and Las Vegas-based 29-year-old has long been mentioned as a potential opponent for Alvarez. The bearded “Sweet Hands” was first offered the contest in May last year but declined because he would not have had sufficient time to prepare. Some criticised that decision.

“I’m in this for the long haul,” Plant told Boxing News last year. “I could have taken the fight and things would have happened where nobody would have blinked an eye, but I would have blinked an eye because I would have known that I took the fight for the money.

“The fans today, they get so mad when they say, ‘Oh, he’s just in this for the money, he’s just in this for fame.’ Then they get a fighter like me, who’s not in it for the fame and not just in it for the money, who cares about being great, who cares about legacy, who cares about pride and respect, and they don’t like that either.”

Plant was then in the running to face Canelo in December 2020 before Callum Smith eventually got the nod at the eleventh hour of negotiations. Smith and his team were quietly frustrated with the lack of time to train for that contest, which was dominated by Alvarez over 12 rounds. There can be no excuses from Plant in that regard, with 11 weeks to

go before his date with the 31-year-old superstar. Furthermore, the IBF beltholder has been in camp for Canelo for quite some time already. The contest was originally muted for September 18 until negotiations stalled and the aforementioned Bivol was considered as an alternative. But Plant was always the first choice for Canelo, and what Canelo wants, he generally gets.

“I like my chances in any fight,” Plant said to reporters this week. “I’m ready for this fight. You guys have made plenty of fight predictions before and been wrong.

You know how many times I’ve been wrong? None.”

The word ‘undisputed’ will of course dominate the promotion because all four sanctioning body titles (Canelo owns the WBC, WBA and WBO straps) will be on the line. We can applaud the organisations for coming together and we must also admit if Plant didn’t hold the IBF belt, Canelo might not be so keen to face his closest rival. However, at the risk of dampening the enthusiasm for such an occasion, though it is indeed a rarity for all four belts to be in play in one bout, it is even rarer for all four to remain in play thereafter. No male fighter who has held all of the alphabet gongs has successfully retained them for any length of time because each body has different policies, rankings and priorities.

Frankly, ‘undisputed’ doesn’t make history, it rewrites it: To say that Canelo, if he wins, will be the first ‘undisputed’ champion to hail from Mexico would be doing a huge disservice to the many Mexicans who ruled without argument prior to the convoluted ‘four-belt era’.

Consider this before banging the undisputed drum too loudly: Should the winner indicate he will continue to campaign at 168, the WBO will order him to fight Zach Parker next. The WBA might demand that David Morrell Jnr, Fedor Chudinov or Aidos Yerbossynuly get their shot. The WBC’s mandatory is David Benavidez. The IBF’s leading contender is Evgeny Shvedenko. By fighting one or none of the above, he will break the rules of at least three sanctioning bodies and risk losing three belts. He might even decide he doesn’t want to keep paying the extortionate sanctioning fees anymore and give up the belts anyway.

Are we then to doubt his standing as the leader because ‘championships’ are vacant and, more so, take the claims of whomever wins those vacant titles seriously? In short, ‘undisputed’ titles ultimately do little for the sport in the long-term, purely because they never exist in the long-term.

What we must champion is that the winner will be the champion, the first at 168lbs since Andre Ward moved up to light-heavyweight in 2016, regardless.

Kudos to Canelo and Plant for that.

AUGUST 26, 2021 O BOXING NEWS O 13

NEWS AND OPINION

SPOILT FOR CHOICE: Conlan now has several options for his next fight Photo: ABBIE PARR/ GETTY IMAGES

14 O BOXING NEWS O AUGUST 26, 2021

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Decisions, decisions AVING defused the brave challenge of TJ Doheny at Falls Park on August 6, featherweight and super-bantamweight contender Michael Conlan is now considering which of those two weight divisions to campaign in.

The popular Irishman, 16-0 (8) and ranked 10th at featherweight by BN, believes he is ready to fight for a belt in his very next fight and plans to begin assessing his options upon his return from holiday.

At super-bantamweight, he remains mandatory challenger for the WBO bauble held by No.4-ranked Stephen Fulton (who fights Omar Figueroa on September 11), while at featherweight he has emerged as a potential opponent for No.9-ranked Leigh Wood, who holds one of the several WBA trinkets on offer.

Victory over either will see Conlan’s standing improve significantly.

“I’m not sure what weight it will be,” Conlan, 29, told Boxing News. “The Stephen Fulton and Omar Figueroa fight happens on September 11, so we can wait and see what happens there and weigh up my options as mandatory challenger. The option at 126 [pounds, featherweight] is Leigh Wood. That’s another fight I really like. People say I can’t do 122 [bantamweight], but I can do 122, no problem.

“I’ll go on holiday, come back, and decide what’s the best option: Fulton, Figueroa or Leigh Wood. I’m happy either way... I have a little reminder on my phone, which I read out loud. ‘I will be world champion this year; I will be world champion this year.’ I say that every day.”

For now, Conlan can take encouragement from knowing his recent decision win against Doheny in Belfast was arguably the finest performance of his pro career to date. Showing a bit of everything that night, Conlan boxed when he had to box, brawled when he had to brawl, and stifled the advances of an opponent who has already reached the heights Conlan himself is looking to soon climb.

“I’ve always said that the better the opponent, the better the performance, and I think that’s always been the way with me,” Conlan said. “The fact that there was someone there actually trying to beat me up, who came in after a full 15-week training camp ready to do the

H

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Michael Conlan tells Elliot Worsell that whoever comes next, and in whatever division, his dreams are close to being realised

job and in great shape, brought out the best in me.”

In the fifth round of their fight, Conlan clearly made an impression on Doheny by firing to the body, the impact of which left Doheny doubled over, with his knee touching the canvas. Instinctively, Conlan then set about Doheny, desperate to become the first man to stop his fellow Irishman, only to quickly realise it was perhaps more beneficial to bide his time.

“I knew how tough he was but I did think I had him,” he said. “Every time I hit him to the body I could tell it was hurting him but then, after he got up, I did the thing Adam [Booth, coach] hates, which is try to take him out.

“Once he held on, I knew I wasn’t going to get him because I know how tough this guy is and I didn’t want to blow myself out throwing a lot of punches. He survived the knockdown and the second burst and now had got a hold of me. I knew there wasn’t long left (in the round) so I kind of moved towards the end of the round.

There was no point standing there and trying to finish him.”

Better than finishing his opponent, Conlan instead settled down and showed new dimensions to his game. “The defence stuff is something Adam and me have been working on for a long time, especially when you’re in that kind of pressure bubble,” he said. “To be calm in that chaos has always been something Adam has forced me to do. I think it’s starting to show now.”

In the end, Conlan was thankful Doheny forced him to raise his game

and show his best side. Against other opponents – lesser opponents – the need would not have been so great.

“I knew he would have a lot of fight in him, especially with it being his first time fighting in Ireland,” Conlan said. “He had loads of fans there as well. I knew he would be battling until the end.

“He loves those fights and always has them. You even saw it against [Daniel] Roman. I thought he lost unanimously against Roman but it was a majority [decision] and when he was hurt was when he was most dangerous. I knew that as well. I expected it. He’s a tough dude and I have a lot of respect for him.”

In addition to gaining priceless fighting experience, Conlan continues to accumulate event experience every time he sets foot inside a boxing ring. In fact, it is fair to say that these days Conlan looks as comfortable performing in front of a packed-out Falls Park as he would shadowboxing in an empty gym.

“The madder these events have got, and the bigger they have got, the calmer I have got,” he said. “That one was probably the most I’ve ever enjoyed any of my fights.

“TJ’s a former [IBF] champion and people were questioning me. All right, I was favourite with the bookies, but in my head I was thinking, This guy’s a tough dude who has been in with some of the best. He will be there for the duration.

There was no pressure on me because of that. I could just be myself and use my skill, which is what I should always be doing. But sometimes, in the past, I would get carried away with people saying I should knock this guy or that guy out and I would then try too hard for the knockout when I should be boxing. Nobody was saying that about TJ, though, which I think helped. I could box how I box and enjoy it. It felt so good.

“Also, TJ played the villain fantastically.

He was talking s**t and trying to stop me getting in the ring. I loved all that. It’s part of pro boxing. It’s entertainment. It was the first time in my whole sporting career I’ve had fun throughout the whole fight.

I said after one of the rounds, ‘I f**king love it,’ to Adam in the corner, and I really meant it.”

‘I TELL MYSELF EVERY DAY THAT I WILL BE WORLD CHAMPION THIS YEAR’

BREAKING IN: Conlan is on the fringes in two weight classes Photo: AL BELLO/ GETTY IMAGES

AUGUST 26, 2021 O BOXING NEWS O 15

ACTION + + + + + O U T S TA N D I N G + + + + G O O D + + + FA I R + + D I S A P P O I N T I N G + RU B B I S H Re p o r t e r s ’ s t a r r a t i n g s fo r m a i n e v e n t s a n d u n d e rc a r d s a r e b a s e d o n i n - r i n g e n t e r t a i n m e n t , c o m p e t i t i v e n e s s a n d w h e t h e r o v e r a l l e x p e c t a t i o n w a s m e t

The full stop L A S V EG A S , N V AU G U S T 2 1 +++++ MAIN EVENT + + + + + U N D E RC A R D

HE eighth loss of his career did not feel like the other seven.

Manny Pacquaio could explain, justify and then wipe those defeats from his mind. Aberrations, each of them. Injury.

Poor preparation. Carelessness. Bad judging. The next time he stepped into the ring, he knew he could put it right.

But the implications of the reverse he

T

After one of the greatest of all boxing careers, the only thing left for Pacquiao is retirement following loss to Ugas, writes Matt Christie

suffered at the hands of Yordenis Ugas over 12 rounds will be significantly harder to ignore. It wasn’t the most devastating or the most punishing, nor was it the widest deficit he’s suffered on the scorecards. Yet this one came with something that even Pacquiao will struggle to brush off: A full stop.

At 42 years old and after a decade of ups, downs, upsets and triumphs, the descent of Pacquiao – first glimped when he toiled with Shane Mosley inside the MGM Grand in 2011 – surely reached its end a few-hundred metres away at the T-Mobile Arena. “In the future, you may not see Manny Pacquiao fight in the ring,” he said after two scores of 116112 and one of 115-113 (Boxing News scored it 117-111) were announced in the

impressive Cuban’s favour. “That’s boxing.

I had a hard time in the ring making adjustments. My legs were tight, but I did my best.”

That realisation that he tried his best, that he trained diligently and was as fit as he possibly could be, will tell the warhorse all he needs to know about the clock that ticks inside all of us. It will only move quicker from this point forth.

Ugas’ win will be labelled an upset but he was a live ‘dog. Promoted from the undercard when Errol Spence Jnr pulled out with an eye injury 10 days beforehand, the 35-year-old was perhaps the most high-risk, low-reward late substitute since Vitali Klitschko almost shocked world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis in 2003. Even in victory, Lewis recognised

Photos: RYAN HAFEY/PREMIER BOXING CHAMPIONS

COMPOSED: Ugas towers over Paquiao, and punishes any missteps

16 O BOXING NEWS O AUGUST 26, 2021

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OUT OF IDEAS: Pacquiao’s failure to break through effectively tells a revealing story

that same full stop that Pacquiao now faces. And fans of “Pac-Man” – as well as the sport – should perhaps be grateful it was Ugas, the No.4 welterweight, and not Spence, the No.1, providing it. Boxing history is already littered with too many old men getting beaten up: Muhammad Ali by both Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick; William Joppy thrashing Roberto Duran; Jack Johnson toying with James J. Jeffries; Mike Tyson’s depressing collapse against Kevin McBride; Joe Smith Jnr retiring Bernard Hopkins and, 14 years ago, Pacquiao himself feasting on the remains of Oscar De La Hoya. This was not as harrowing a bludgeoning but given how well we all know the Pacquiao of old, it can be argued it was just as revealing.

Though more lines are now etched into his face and his skin hangs slightly looser, Manny Pacquiao looked just like Manny Pacquiao at first glance. Smiling his irresistible smile and showing off a physique that looked typically fit for battle, he bounced to the ring on his famous sock-busting calves. But midway through the opening round those old legs were out of sync with his arms, only marginally, but enough to highlight something was amiss. Forced to overreach as a consequence, the square-on Pacquiao was clumped with a right hand counter as Ugas smartly held his position in centre ring, punishing the missteps.

The underdog towered over his opponent. That is of course nothing new for Manny, surely the greatest of all fighters to rise through the weights, but it was apparent he couldn’t get inside like he used to. The Cuban’s jab was firing,

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his defence was tight. After four rounds, in which a case for Pacquiao winning could only be made in one of them, even his most ardent fans among the 17,000 in attendance recognised the warning signs. Manny’s biggest admirer of them all, coach Freddie Roach, tried in vain to sound the alarm.

Urged to throw more combinations before the fifth, Pacquaio dutifully attempted to follow instructions. Four punches were blocked by Ugas, then he flung one of his own. The right hook – just as effective as his straight right – clumped Manny and rocked him backwards. Ugas stayed composed and resisted the urge to go for broke.

Instead, he went back to the basics and again pinged the favourite with the jab. Unhurt but unable to penetrate, Pacquiao moved backwards, briefly brushed his right glove over the swelling that was growing around the same eye, and went at it again.

Pacquiao may have edged certain rounds on activity alone but, as early as the first half, it was obvious he was out of ideas.

He kept doing what he’s always done – motoring forward, throwing punches – but he lacked the control of old. In truth, he had never looked so poor in a highprofile bout. That can partly be blamed, perhaps, on this bout coming after two years of inactivity. But the overriding factor, surely, is the 26 years Manny has endured as a professional prizefighter.

Ugas, meanwhile, was content to stay in the pocket, employing clever footwork and rarely allowing his defence to drop.

The opportunities to take advantage of his ragged foe kept coming. Even in the ninth, when Pacquiao threatened to get on top, Ugas swatted his esteemed rival with two right hands to close the session.

Pacquiao needed to win the last three rounds to stand any chance at all. But buoyed by both the effectiveness of trainer Ismael Salas’ gameplan and the ineffectiveness of his opponent, Ugas arguably took all of them. At the end, there was a cut below Pacquiao’s right eye, another above his left. Ugas’ features were swollen too but his face unquestionably belonged to the winner. He deserves another big name in his next bout after confirming his standing as one of the best welterweights in the world.

“I apologise,” Pacquiao said, “I lost the fight.”

No apology is required from the greatest fighter of his era. He gave this contest and his entire career everything he possibly could. It was inevitable that the day would come when he had so little left.

The WBA welterweight belt was retained by Ugas and the referee was Russell Mora.

In an exciting bout, and in a nod to the future, young Filipino Mark Magsayo – who long idolised Pacquiao before becoming his stablemate – got up off the floor in round five to knock out Julio Ceja in the 10th.

The featherweight contest had started quickly when Magsayo, also trained by Roach, scored a knockdown in the opening three minutes. But his lack of experience cost him.

He was hauled into a gruelling fight. Dropped in the fifth from a savage blow to the body, Magsayo did remarkably well to recover before landing a huge right hand in the 10th that essentially ended matters.

A follow up sent Ceja – leading 86-83 (twice) and 87-82 – down for referee Kenny Bayless’ full count.

Elsewhere, both Robert Guerrero and Victor Ortiz gave their all but neither looked like world-beaters in their exciting 10-rounder. The former, at 38, proved he had a bit more left when he won a close but unanimous decision. The scores were 96-94 (three times).

FULL R E S U LT S Yordenis Ugas (147lbs), 27-4 (12), w pts 12 Manny Pacquiao (146lbs), 62-8-2 (39); Mark Magsayo (125 1/2lbs), 23-0 (16), w ko 10 Julio Ceja (159 1/2lbs), 26-3 (18); Giovani Santillan (125lbs), 32-5-1 (15), w pts 8 Cecil McCalla (147 1/2lbs), 23-5 (28); Robert Guerrero (146 3/4lbs), 37-6-1 (20), w pts 10 Victor Ortiz (148lbs), 32-7-3 (25); Carlos Castro (125 1/2lbs), 27-0 (12), w ko 10 Oscar Escandon (125 3/4lbs), 26-7 (18); Frank Martin (135lbs), 14-0 (10), w pts 10 Ryan Kielczweski (134 3/4lbs), 30-6 (11); Angel Antonio Contreras (127lbs), 12-4-2 (6), w pts 8 John Dato (125 1/2lbs), 14-1-1 (9).

‘I HAD A HARD TIME ADJUSTING IN THE RING. MY LEGS WERE TIRED’

THE VERDICT Ugas confirms that the great ‘Pac-Man’ is no more.

AUGUST 26, 2021 O BOXING NEWS O 17

ACTION DIFFICULT NIGHT: But the promoters were determined that the show went on despite withdrawals and cancellations

OVERMATCHED Williams, 0-16, despatched in two rounds, writes Simon Euan Smith from ringside

BETHNAL GREEN AU G U S T 2 1 +++++ WHOLE SHOW + + + + + AT M O S P H E R E

JEZ SMITH uncorked a wicked left hook to the body to despatch Manchester’s Scott Williams in the second of a scheduled six at York Hall.

The punch sent Williams crashing down on his back, and it seemed impossible that he’d beat referee Chas Coakley’s count – amazingly he was up at nine, but started stumbling towards his corner, and Mr Coakley counted him out after 1-45.

It was a much-needed win for Smith (Harrow), who was unbeaten in his first 12 (one draw) but then lost three of his next four – all inside-schedule.

But all were to good people – Samuel Antwi (eight rounds) for the vacant

F U L L R E S U LT S Jez Smith (162 1/2lbs), 13-3-1 (6), w ko 2 Scott Williams (167bs 6oz), 0-16; Kingsley Egbunike (156 1/4lbs), 6-1-1 (1), w pts 6 Dale Arrowsmith (159lbs), 2-45-1 (1); Nathan Mizon (143lbs), 1-0, w pts 6 Matar Sambou (142 1/4lbs), 1-3 (1); Reiss Taylor (115lbs 6oz), 3-9 (1), w pts 4 Paul Roberts (113lbs), 0-1; Amy Andrews (127 1/2lbs), 1-0, w pts 4 Polina Golubeva (125lbs), 1-2 (1); Lorenzo Grasso (154lbs 2oz), 1-0, w pts 4 Kevin McCauley (161lbs 6oz), 15-211-12.

18 O BOXING NEWS O AUGUST 26, 2021

Southern Area welterweight title, unbeaten Caomhin Agyarko (nine) and, most recently, former European 147lb champion Kerman Lejarraga in Spain.

Williams, on 15 straight losses, was hardly in that league, but this was only the third time he had been stopped.

Promoter Mo Prior said after his last show here that his aim was to put on 50-50 fights – but this bill was hit by withdrawals and cancellations. Finding solid substitutes is difficult at the best of times, but Williams was in over his head here.

Smith picked his shots in the opener, while Williams tended to miss. One body-shot made Williams wince, and Smith took note and followed up.

The second began quietly, but when Smith spotted the opening for the left that was that.

Kingsley “Obi” Egbunike (Acton) clearly outpointed Hyde’s Dale Arrowsmith over six, referee Coakley scoring 60-54.

Egbunike took control from the first, forcing his rival back and landing with a good variety of shots to head and body.

Arrowsmith tried to keep his guard tight, and landed a few counters in the fourth and fifth when Ekbunike got close.

Southpaw Reiss Taylor spoiled the debut of Somerset’s Paul Roberts

in their four-rounder, a last-round knockdown earning him a 38-37 verdict from referee Kieran McCann.

A left clip to the chin put Taylor down – he was up at once, but Mr McCann correctly counted to eight. Taylor attacked again but Roberts whaled back, making for a hard-fought finish.

Roberts looked ahead after three, scoring with long lefts as the shorter Taylor tried to get close. A Roberts attack forced Taylor against the ropes in the second, and when Taylor tried to attack Roberts tied him up.

Roberts scored with jabs in the third, and looked headed for a points win until getting caught by that left in the last.

In these days of “professional losers,” who fear winning may stop them getting fights, it was a joy to see Taylor’s delight at getting the win (his third in 12 bouts).

Three other debutants scored points wins.

In a women’s six-twos Amy Andrews, a New Zealander now based in London, used her extra reach to best Estonian Polina Golubeva, referee McCann scoring 60-54.

Despite the wide margin this was entertaining. Both moved well, and Golubeva too often she fell short while Andrews scored with long jabs.

After two competitive sessions Andrews raced out for the third, hoping to catch her opponent by surprise – but Golubeva joined battle and there were some decent exchanges. But Andrews was always that bit more on target.

Golubeva finished with a swelling below the left eye.

Tadworth’s popular Nathan Mizon outscored southpaw Matar Sambou (Margate) over four, referee Coakley scoring 40-36.

Here too the loser played his part, hitting back when Mizon got close. But Mizon always had the edge and really opened up in the last to have Sambou under pressure on the ropes.

West Londoner Lorenzo Grasso beat double centurion Kevin McCauley over four, referee McCann scoring 40-36.

McCauley (Stourbridge) used his experience, occasionally turning southpaw, holding when Grasso got close and generally keeping a tight guard. Things got heated in the early stages, with Mr McCann warning both for headwork in the second and severely reprimanding McCauley in the third for a blatant head-shot after the order to break. Grasso ended the round with a bump under the right eye, but was scoring freely with both hands.

McCauley took stick on the ropes in the last, and Grasso ran out a clear winner.

THE VERDICT Smith wins a mismatch while Reiss Taylor steals the show.

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ACTION

NICE AND EASY DOES IT Just the one setback for the home boxers, writes Andy Whittle from ringside

FULL R E S U LT S Marcus Morrison (167 1/2lbs), 24-4 (16), w pts 4 Lewis van Poetsch (168 3/4lbs), 9-129-2 (2); Sion Yaxley (158 1/2lbs), 8-0, w pts 6 Jordan Grannum (168lbs), 5-76-2; Gerome Warburton (168 1/4lbs), 7-0-1(1), w pts 6 Darryl Sharp (178 1/2lbs), 5-73-1; Callum Thompson (135lbs 3oz), 1-0, w pts 6 Lee Connelly (138lbs 2oz), 7-58-5; Connor Lynch (151lbs 2oz), 8-0, w pts 6 Seamus Devlin (153 1/2lbs), 0-3; Craig Brewin (148lbs 2oz), 1-0, w pts 4 Dylan Draper (145lbs 6oz), 1-44; Ryan Hibbert (179 1/2lbs), 2-12 (1), w ko 1 Anthony Phythian (172lbs 2oz), 0-1; Ben Ridings (177lbs 6oz), 5-1, w pts 4 Ben Thomas (178lbs), 2-5-3 (1); Alex Murphy (134lbs), 1-0, w pts 4 Ricky Leach (134lbs), 3-54-1.

MANCHESTER AU G U S T 2 0 +++++ WHOLE SHOW + + + + + AT M O S P H E R E

HAVING been outpointed over 10

by Chris Eubank Jnr up the road at Manchester Arena in May, Hattersley middleweight Marcus Morrison returned to winning ways on this wellattended Kieran Farrell promotion at Bowlers Exhibition Centre, easing to a shut-out four round success over Lydney’s Lewis van Poetsch.

It was a 140th paid outing for popular Gloucester man “Poochi” who needed to have his wits about him right from the off, a fact made more apparent when Marcus followed in an initial jab with a pair of weighty overhand rights.

Lewis nodded and kept a tight guard and he would have been relieved when a purposeful left in the second session fell a whisker short of its intended target.

While Marcus doubtless had several more gears in reserve should he have chosen to use them, he kept the pace steady, allowing Lewis, bleeding slightly

WINNING AGAIN: Morrison makes successful return

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from the nose, to chance the odd venture onto the front foot in the second half.

This one was only ever going to have one outcome though and Bury referee John Latham didn’t need to check his scorecard at the finish.

The same official was in charge of a six between Colwyn Bay’s unbeaten Gerome Warburton and Middleton’s Darryl Sharp, which finished 60-55 in favour of the former but, in truth, it was a good deal closer than the score might suggest, with tattooed Sharp, always competitive, finding the target with several heavy single shots in the early rounds. Both boxers bled from the nose.

Nominal bill topper was a six between Ruthin’s Sion Yaxley and another roadwarrior in the guise of Islington’s Jordan Grannum, the Welshman, impressing and in charge throughout, taking every round on the card of Preston referee Jamie Kirkpatrick.

Several might well have wilted under similar pressure, especially when the tempo increased in the second half, but Grannum is made of stern stuff. He certainly earned his money though.

Former GB amateur Callum Thompson controlled proceedings from

start to finish in his debut six against Derbyshire’s Lee Connelly and received a 60-54 win from Mr Latham.

Trained by Joe Gallagher and previously an amateur with the Tower Hill club in Kirkby, Merseyside, southpaw Thompson didn’t rush, cut off the ring from an early stage and stayed sufficiently out of reach for the experienced Connelly to reply with any regularity. Having banked a debut victory, the man dubbed “The Tank” goes again at the Copper Box in a couple of weeks.

The six-round show opener, overseen

by Mr Kirkpatrick, resulted in a 60-54 success for Middleton’s Connor Lynch whose fast hands and ability to find the gaps and score regularly to the body soon had “Celtic Cobra” Seamus Devlin back-pedalling. Manchester’s Anthony Phythian had a nightmare debut, lasting just a little over two minutes against Irlam’s Ryan Hibbert who had won just once in 13 previous outings.

The scheduled four was still in its initial stages with Phythian edging forward behind the jab when a clubbing combination robbed him of his senses, a follow-up burst sending him over.

The first-timer managed to haul himself upright but was betrayed by unsteady legs and still doing the dance of a drunk when referee Kirkpatrick completed his count with 49 seconds of the opener still to run.

Salford debutant Alex Murphy was urged on by a small army of noisy followers and he gave them resaon to celebrate by handing Westbrook’s Ricky Leach something of a hammering en-route to a shut-out 40-36 victory.

I did wonder, more than once, if Murphy might be on for an early night and referee Mr Latham looked to be on the verge of intervening on several occasions but the visitor from Kent, while bested by a considerable margin, hung in, kept popping out the odd single shot by way of reply, and made it through to the finish.

There were 40-36 wins too for Lincolnshire first-timer Craig Brewin and for heavily tattooed Bury light-heavy Ben Ridings, Stamford’s Brewin, easing to victory over experienced Braintree welter Dylan Draper and Ridings, on the front foot and maintaining a good pace throughout, doing likewise in something of a local derby against taller Bolton puncher Ben Thomas. Third man in both contests was Mr Kirkpatrick.

THE VERDICT A welcome return to the Trafford Park venue after three and a half years away.

AUGUST 26, 2021 O BOXING NEWS O 19

ACTION ROUND-UP

Photo: UNIVERSUM

TOO EASY: Kossobutskiy preys on the unwilling Dawejko

Tank upended Dawejko walloped inside two by Kossobutskiy, writes Eric Armit as he casts his eyes over the international action

AU G U S T 1 9 B E L L A V I S TA , PA N A M A

Panamanian super-featherweight JAIME ARBOLEDA, 17-2 (14), stopped fading Argentinian JONATHAN BARROS, 43-8-1 (22), in four rounds. Arboleda was the bigger, younger and stronger man here and dominated the first three rounds.

In the fourth he had Barros pinned to the ropes and was unloading punches when the referee stopped the fight, Barros protested and pushed the referee a couple of times but the fight was over.

In a lightweight contest Californian HUMBERTO GALINDO, 14-1-1 (11), dropped previously unbeaten Colombian DARVIN GALEANO, 10-1 (7), twice for a first round stoppage.

AU G U S T 2 0 MIAMI, USA

Nicaraguan MELVIN LOPEZ, 26-1 (17), scored a fifth round kayo win over DANIEL LOZANO, 15-12-1 (11). Lopez

20 O BOXING NEWS O AUGUST 26, 2021

floored Lozano in the opening round but then landed a punch when Lozano was on the floor and was deducted two points. Lopez battered Lozano over the next three rounds and then put Lozano down twice in the fifth, with Lozano being counted out. Russian giant ANDREY MANGUSHEV, 5-0 (4), at 6ft 7ins and 62lbs heavier, was just too big for ISMAYL SILLAH 27-7 (21). Mangushev controlled the first two rounds then staggered Sillah with a right in the third and bombarded him with punches until the referee stopped the fight. Filipino lightweight ROMERO DUNO, 23-2 (18), scored heavily on late substitute RAMON ESPERANZA, 22-20-1 (11), in the first round and Esperanza did not come out for the second, citing an ankle injury.

D U B A I , UA E

In a clash of Thai’s lightweight APICHET PETCHMANEE, 10-0 (2), took a unanimous verdict

over teenager PHUMIRITDET CHONLATHONDAMRONGKUNP, 7-1 (7).

Apichet outboxed and outscored novice Phumiritdet who was competitive but well beaten. Scores 100-90 for Apichet on the three cards. In a welterweight contest India’s FAIZAN ANWAR, 8-0 (4), was awarded a points win over Filipino wild man RICKY SISMUNDO, 35-16-3 (17). Anwar had trouble dealing with the ferocious attacks of Sismundo, being floored in the fourth and constantly drawn in a brawl. The Filipino looked to have done enough to take the verdict but it was announced as a unanimous win for Anwar. No scores were announced. Afghan’s super-featherweight HASIBULLAH AHMADI, 13-0 (4), outpointed Azeri RAUF AGHAEV, 31-11 (14), in an entertaining fight. Ahmadi had Aghaev reeling in the second but Aghaev survived and made Ahmadi work hard for his win. The judges scored it 98-91, 98-94 and 97-93 for Ahmadi.

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El CA JON, USA

Favourite KALI REIS, 18-7-1 (5), was given a very rough ride by Australian DIANA PRAZAK, 14-4 (9), in their super-welterweight 10-rounder. Reis, the WBA belt-holder, controlled the action at distance but the smaller Prazak constantly found her way past the jab of Reis and scored to the body. Reis just could not keep Prazak out and Prazak looked to have done enough to win the fight but the judges gave it to Reis on a majority decision on scores of 97-93 and 96-94 for Reis and 95-95.

M E X I CO C I T Y, M E X I CO

Something of an upset when ALBERTO RUIZ 11-3 (8) kayoed previously unbeaten JAIR VALTIERRA 15-1 (8).

Ruiz was forging forward from the start putting Valtierra under pressure and scoring well to the body and was 40-36 in front on the cards after four rounds.

Valtierra launched a big attack in the fifth but was nailed by a vicious left hook counter that put him down and out.

DA R - E S - S A L A A M TA N Z A N I A

TWAHA KIDUKUT, 18-8-1(8), had to climb off the floor to win this supermiddleweight clash. A straight right from ABDALLAH PAZIWAPAZI, 29-11,1NC (26), sent Kidukut down heavily in the opening round. Kidukut only just beat the count

and the bell saved him. After that he used his better skills and some strong rights of his own to boss the action and he came out on top with all three judges scoring it 98-91 for Kidukut. In another supermiddleweight fight, this one for the Tanzanian title, SELEMANI KIDUNDA, 6-0 (6), stopped GEOFFREY KAMATA, 9-9 (4), in the seventh round flooring him and although Kamata beat the count but was in no state to continue.

AU G U S T 2 1 H A M B U RG G E R M A N Y

Kazakh southpaw heavyweight ZHAN KOSSOBUTSKIY, 16-0 (15), is credited with a second round kayo of disinterested gatekeeper JOEY DAWEJKO, 21-8-4 (12).

Dawejko made things easy for the much bigger Kossobutskiy in the first round by just lying on the ropes behind a high guard and letting Kossobutskiy pound on him. “Tank” Dawejko complained in the first round and again early in the second about punches to the back of the head.

Later in the round Kossobutskiy landed a body punch that had Dawejko turning away. It looked as though Dawejko, having almost turned completely away, received a punch behind his left ear and he pitched into the ropes and then onto the canvas face down. He made it to his feet, complaining again that he had been punched on the back of the head,

but the referee merely counted him out.

Kossobutskiy gets the win but is still to face a real test. In another heavyweight match, Cuban JOSÉ LARDUET, 5-0,1NC (4), knocked Colombian SANTANDER SILGADO, 30-9 (7), in the fourth round.

After losses to Anthony Dirrell, Saul Alvarez and Jack Cullen, AVNI YILDIRIM, 22-4 (12), returned to the winning column as he knocked out Bosnian SILVAS SIMEUNOVIC, 37-52 (31), flooring him three times in the first round. Britishbased super-welterweight FREDDY KIWITT, 18-3 (10), decisioned OCTAVIAN GRATTII, 7-15-1 (4), over six rounds on scores of 60-53, 60-54, and 59-54.

LO S H O R N O S , A RG E N T I N A

No problems for Argentinian No 5. super-featherweight AYRTON GIMENEZ, 11-0 (2), as he stopped NICOLAS HERRERA, 7-3-2 (3), in seven rounds.

Herrera was staggered repeatedly by hooks and uppercuts and was cut and floundering when the fight was stopped in the seventh.

G DA N S K , P O L A N D

In a fight that saw both boxers on the floor RADOMIR OBRUSNIAK, 4-0 (1), won the vacant Polish superfeatherweight title with a unanimous decision over PIOTR OUDEL, 10-6-1 (1), on scores of 99-90, 96-92 and 95-94.

EASING BACK: Duno has scored two one-round wins since being stopped early by Ryan Garcia in 2019

Photo: STEVE MARCUS/GETTY IMAGES

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AUGUST 26, 2021 O BOXING NEWS O 21

PREVIEWS

Previewing the best upcoming fights around the world

+ + + + + O U T S TA N D I N G + + + + G O O D + + + FA I R + + D I S A P P O I N T I N G + RU B B I S H T h e s t a r r a t i n g s i n d i c a t e h o w w e l l t h e w r i t e r b e l i e v e s t h e f i g h t e r s m a t c h u p, t h e f i g h t ( s ) ’ c o n t e x t u a l s i g n i f i c a n c e , a n d h o w g o o d t h e f i g h t ( s ) w i l l b e Photo: JAMES CHANCE/GETTY IMAGES

PATIENCE: Yarde’s laid-back tenacity wears most rivals down

Anthony must defeat Theran to secure Arthur rematch but the best fights are elsewhere on the card, writes Matt Bozeat + + + + + YA R D E -T H E R A N + + + + + U N D E RC A R D

RANK WARREN says the Anthony Yarde-Lyndon Arthur rematch goes ahead on October 9 – unless there’s a surprise result in Birmingham on Saturday night.

Anthony Yarde meets Colombian southpaw Alex Theran over 10 rounds on a busy night of boxing at the Arena.

BT Sport televise.

For Yarde, it’s his first fight since that split points loss to Arthur last December.

He has added James Cook MBE, the former British and European supermiddleweight champion, to his coaching team to work alongside Tunde Ajayi and the hint is we may see more urgency from Yarde after he ran out of time to stop Arthur last December.

The Yarde way has always been to patiently break down opponents and, in fairness, only twice in his 22-fight career has the 30-year-old from Ilford got it wrong. Against Sergey Kovalev, Yarde emptied his tank trying to finish the accomplished veteran and Arthur was able to jab his way into a points lead and then hold him off. Yarde, 20-2 (19), has lost both times he’s gone past seven rounds.

Even allowing for Yarde’s ring rust and the fact he hasn’t faced a left-hander since Dariusz Sek, stopping him in the seventh three years ago, Theran, 23-5 (15), seems unlikely to make it into the later rounds.

The fight is given some credibility by Theran’s last result, a points win over Adama Osumanu, a 40-year-old version of the fighter who challenged Daniel Geale and Gennady Golovkin for alphabet belts at 160lbs. But the 30-year-old has been stopped in three of his last six.

Theran, who boxed in World Youth (2008) and World Senior championships (2009) as an amateur, won his first 16 in the pros before he ran into Arif Magomedov (10-0) and retired after three rounds. Yarde will surely finish him off around midway.

Also in Birmingham, Gloucester

F

The final Yarde 22 O BOXING NEWS O AUGUST 26, 2021

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LONG ODDS: Theran is the 14/1 outsider compared to 1/50 for his opponent Photo: JAMIE MCCARTHY/GETTY IMAGES FOR ROC NATION SPORTS

southpaw Akeem Ennis-Brown defends his British and Commonwealth superlightweight belts against Sam Maxwell.

The fight was scheduled for March, but days before, Ennis-Brown pulled out and Liverpool’s Maxwell outpointed former Midlands champion Ben Fields (10-9-2) over eight.

Ennis-Brown and Maxwell, 15-0 (11), both had career-best wins only a few days apart last year: Maxwell was a points winner over former European champion Joe Hughes (17-5-1), overcoming a slow start to win by margins of six and three rounds (twice); four days later, EnnisBrown landed the Commonwealth and vacant British titles with a unanimous points win over Philip Bowes (20-3) in an often messy clash of left-handers. The scores were 115-112 (twice) and 116111 after Ennis-Brown finished strongly.

Bowes was docked a point in the eighth and at times, he looked a bit sorry for himself.

Fighting Ennis-Brown is nobody’s idea of an easy night’s work. He has a style that’s his own – and it works.

The 14-0 (1) record shows upset wins over Glenn Foot (20-1) and Chris Jenkins (19-2-1) and Ennis-Brown also handed Freddy Kiwitt (11-0) and Bilal Rehman (12-0) their first losses.

“I have been brought in to lose,” the

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25-year-old told Boxing News. “I have done it the hard way, the right way. The amateur pedigree won’t prepare him for this. I don’t think he’s ready.”

Maxwell turned over just before his 28th birthday after a lengthy amateur career that included Commonwealth Games bronze and as a pro, the Liverpudlian has gone into most of his 15 fights as a warm favourite.

He had that scare against Frenchman Sabri Sediri (10-1) when he was down in each of the opening two rounds before pulling off the last-round stoppage and my feeling is that Maxwell boxes to the level of his opposition.

Hughes was – by some distance – the best he’s faced in his pro career and

ADVANTAGE: Maxwell [right] will feel at home

Maxwell found the answers with long, straight punches. The 32-year-old has since switched trainers to Steve Maylett and says the game plan is to “keep it tidy, land the eye-catching shots and not make mistakes.”

He can pull it off – just.

Warren said “fingers crossed” when announcing Belfast switcher Anthony Cacace (18-1) would defend his British super-featherweight title against Lyon Woodstock Jnr. The fight has fallen through three times over the past 13 months.

For Cacace, it is the first defence of the title he took off Ibstock powerhouse Sam Bowen at the same venue in November, 2019. Though Bowen was on the front foot for much of it, he couldn’t get on top of the Irishman the way he had got on top of his previous 15 opponents and Cacace nicked enough rounds with eye-catching singles to be ahead on two of the judges’ scorecards. Bowen was docked a point in the fifth.

Cacace, who waited until the seventh year of his pro career for that breakthrough win, says if he can deal with Bowen’s pressure, he can handle Woodstock.

The temptation is to think the 28-yearold from Leicester has found his level after Archie Sharp and Zelfa Barrett outpointed him, the latter result his last fight in June, 2019.

Woodstock says that after 24 amateur and 14 pro fights, he’s still learning.

He believes Cacace is tight at 130lbs, possibly undermotivated and that he can outwork him the way Martin J Ward did. Now 32, Cacace knows to expect an honest 36 minutes from his challenger, but can Woodstock pin him down?

Woodstock has trouble with movers and box-of-tricks Cacace can keep his belt with a points win.

One of the better domestic fights we’ve this year was the clash between super-flyweights Ijaz Ahmed (8-2) and East Ham-based Afghan Quaise Khademi (8-1) in February.

Ahmed won a split vote and gets home advantage when they meet again for the vacant British title.

First time they met, Ahmed was the compact, front-foot fighter, Khademi the flashy switcher with the leaky defence who needed time and space to work.

There was good back-and-forth action throughout, Ahmed getting the verdict with a strong start and finish. We go for him to win on points again.

THE VERDICT Solid matchmaking among the bouts for domestic titles.

AUGUST 26, 2021 O BOXING NEWS O 23

PREVIEWS

PURELY ABOUT EXPOSURE Dubois and Fury set to win mismatches on Jake Paul undercard though SerranoMercado is passable

KO SPECIALIST: Dubois is back from injury and won’t be holding back

+++++ WHOLE SHOW

DANIEL DUBOIS and Tommy Fury make their Stateside debuts on Sunday night.

Showtime and BT Sport screen a show from Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse that also features women’s pound-for-pound star Amanda Serrano defending featherweight supremacy against Yamileth Mercado.

Frank Warren says the US broadcasters have wanted to show Dubois for a while.

As for Fury, the idea is to build up a fight with Jake Paul, who makes his fourth professional start against a fourth non-boxer, this time in the shape of 39-year-old former UFC champion Tyron Woodley.

Tommy Fury is matched with Anthony Taylor, whose sole pro fight ended in a points defeat four years ago, and Daniel Dubois meets Joe Cusumano.

Dubois, 16-1 (15), gets his wish to fight in America, nine months after the 23-year-old’s career was left in the balance by an eye injury from Joe Joyce.

Once Dubois was given the all-clear to box again, Warren brought him back in June with a perfect confidence-builder

Photo: QUEENSBERRY PROMOTIONS

against Bogdan Dinu. The 34-year-old Romanian had a decent 20-2 record, the defeats coming against Jarrell Miller and Kubrat Pulev. Dubois decked him with a second round right hand and though the Dinu corner implored him to get up, he stayed on his knees. That was a promising start to Dubois’ relationship with new trainer Shane McGuigan.

This weekend is a fight that can be billed as a clash of knockout specialists that Dubois will surely win early. The 6ft 4ins Cusumano, raised in Sicily, brought up in New York and now based in Danville, Virginia, has never been stopped in his 19-3 (17) career.

But he’s never fought anyone who hits like Dubois – and Cusumano likes to stand and trade punches. Ominously for him, Dubois gets most of his knockouts when opponents trade with him. Now 33, Cusumano has been a pro for 11 years.

He had battles with alcohol after the loss of trainer Robert Matney and Andy Touchstone a few years ago.

Cusumano has never been anywhere near world class, apart from when sparring Deontay Wilder, and his ambitions were dented by an eight-round points loss to veteran southpaw Steve Vukosa (11-1) in August, 2019.

Vukosa was a 42-year-old who won the

Golden Gloves title in 2000, but whose pro career has been wrecked by knee injuries. He knew enough to outpoint Cusumano, who weighed a careerheavy 241lbs. Vukosa was able to make him reach and fall onto punches. That was how the third-round knockdown occurred; Cusumano lunging in with a right and being beaten to the punch by a short right hook. That was decisive on the cards, with Vukosa winning with 76-75 (twice) and 77-74.

Cusumano learned from that, shedding 16 ½lbs before returning 15 months later to fight on the Mike Tyson-Roy Jones Jnr card last November. Promoter Jimmy Burchfield reportedly offered Tyson £1 million, along with a share of the pay-perview takings, to fight Cusumano; a good publicity stunt.Of course the offer was declined and Cusumano instead went in with 40-year-old Gregory Corbin (15-3).

Corbin had lost his previous three, to Charles Martin, Filip Hrgovic and Stephan Shaw. Cusumano produced an exclamation-mark finish in the sixth, laying Corbin flat out on his back with a right-hand piledriver. Cusumano, though crude and predictable, can crack.

That fight went ahead hours after Dubois was beaten by Joyce.

The manner of that loss, Dubois taking a knee in the 10th with his left eye badly damaged, meant most of the post-fight debate was about the loser rather than the winner.

The opinion of football writers and selfappointed social media experts will have been easier to shrug off than the words of fellow fighters, who questioned whether Dubois belongs in their hardest of worlds.

That win over Dinu was definitely a relief.

We don’t see too much emotion from Dubois usually, but he was beaming from ear to ear after dispatching Dinu. He will be smiling again on Sunday night. Dubois can win inside three rounds.

Amanda Serrano, 40-1-1 (30) and from Brooklyn, still hopes to take on Katie Taylor and returns to boxing after winning an MMA bout in June.

Nine years younger, the 18-2-2 (5) Yamileth Mercado, who steps up from 122lbs, says she is part of “a new generation” but on the evidence of her ninth-round KO of the decent Daniela Bermudez in March, Serrano has plenty left. The southpaw box-puncher has too much quality for the Mexican in every department and can stop her in the middle rounds.

THE VERDICT Not a card for the hardcore but plenty will watch.

24 O BOXING NEWS O AUGUST 26, 2021

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PREVIEWS POWERFUL: Those in the Tomlinson business point to his punching prowess

+++++ WHOLE SHOW

THE Fightzone cameras return to Sheffield on Friday night (August 28) for a show at the Ponds Forge Arena that’s topped by local welterweight Anthony “The Truth” Tomlinson and also features the return of popular heavyweight Dave Allen.

Tomlinson meets Mexico’s Dante Jardón (33-6) over 10 rounds, while Allen eases back after 18 months out against Andrea Pesce (7-13-3) over six.

Fight Academy promote.

Roger Sampson, the ex-pro who trains Tomlinson, describes Jardón as “a big step up.” The 40-fight record (one no contest) shows wins over belt-holders Juan Carlos Salgado and Gamaliel Diaz, but those career-best wins were at 130lbs and several years ago.

Jardón has boxed only five times since August, 2016, winning three, including a split decision over Chester Parada Torales (4-1). The sequence also includes a five-round knockout defeat to Francisco Hernandez Rojo (18-2) and a no contest against Omar Alejandro Aguilar (17-0) last June.

Jardón was stopped in the opening round, but with covid restrictions still in place, the result was rubbed from the record books. If Jardón is vulnerable, he could be in trouble because Tomlinson can punch, with “world-class power.”

He had five straight stoppages – including a career-best win over Stewart Burt (13-1-1) – before going the full six against Genadij Krajevskij (0-12) in May. The 30-year-old had been lined up to fight James Moorcroft (13-1) in a goodlooking fight, but that fell through and Tomlinson got a workout against the Liverpool-based Lithuanian. That was his first fight with Sampson back in his corner.

Sampson trained Tomlinson during his 15-bout amateur career before he turned pro with Stefy Bull in 2017. The 13-0 (7) Tomlinson, who didn’t walk into a gym until he was 22 years old, is already a success story.

“I didn’t have a father figure growing up,” he said. “I got kicked out of school, was homeless and in and out of prison.

I’m showing people that if you put your mind to it and believe in yourself, you can achieve things.”

Though he’s not always the most textbook of boxers, Tomlinson has plenty going for him. He is loose around the shoulders, comfortable in the ring – and there’s pop in his punches.

“He throws them from weird angles,” said Sampson, who was a 9-3 pro himself, “and they don’t see them coming until it’s too late.”

He should hit too hard for Jardón, and we go for Tomlinson to win around the sixth round.

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FACING THE TRUTH Jardon tests Tomlinson and Allen sees what he has left, writes Matt Bozeat

Also in Sheffield, Dave Allen, 18-52 (15) relaunches his career against Andrea Pesce, a 36-year-old who’s lost seven of his last eight and stands only 5ft 9ins tall (according to BoxRec).

Last time out, Pesce lasted into the eighth with gatekeeper Andriy Rudenko (33-5) and Allen, last seen knocking out Welshman Dorian Darch (12-11-1) in three rounds in February, 2020, hopes the Italian can give him some rounds.

“I’ve had loads of offers,” said the 29-year-old from Conisborough, Yorkshire. “I think people see me as a big name who’s on the slide. That’s fine by me.

“The people who say that don’t know I’ve been training harder than I’ve ever trained before, but I still won’t know how much is left until I get in there.”

Allen, who showed world-class resilience in losses to Dillian Whyte and Luis Ortiz and was perhaps unlucky not to get the decision over Lenroy Thomas for the vacant Commonwealth belt in their first fight, isn’t putting any pressure on himself.

“This next part of my career is a bonus,” he said. “It’s a free swing. I started boxing at 18 because I wanted people to like me and I ended up

headlining at the O2 Arena [against Lucas Browne in April, 2019].

“I’ve achieved more than I thought I would and I’ve set myself up financially.

If I needed the money, I would have asked Eddie Hearn to put me on DAZN. Instead of that I’m fighting for peanuts and looking to get wins. I’m doing it my way.”

Allen – who announced his retirement this year – now believes he can be a match for Fabio Wardley and Nathan Gorman, but reckons his main target is crazy Croatian knockout specialist Alen Babic (8-0).

“I think that’s the one people want to see,” said Allen.

“That’s a huge fight, it could be chief support on a pay-per-view bill, and I’m sure I can beat him if I’m at my best. I don’t know if I am still at my best. This next fight will tell me more.”

The most evenly-matched fight on the bill, however, might be Sheffield’s Central Area super-featherweight champion, Kane Salvin taking on Manchester’s Michael Gomez Jnr over 10 rounds.

THE VERDICT Two decently matched bouts will be overshadowed by return of the likeable Allen.

AUGUST 26, 2021 O BOXING NEWS O 25

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE Steve Maylett is known for being the trainer of Terry Flanagan but, as John Evans discovers, that is not even scratching the surface

I

T is a Friday evening and Steve Maylett is leaning on his car in the Ancoats sun, one eye constantly peering through the front door of his gym where his group of fighters are skipping. The lads from the locksmith’s unit next door are unloading their vans and the latest batch of apartment blocks that have started to spring up in the

area stand half-built and empty, the workmen having gone for the weekend.

“I’ll do it again with one of those lads,” said Maylett, whose job never seems to stop. “I’ll bring one of them through. It’s always hard work to get to British title level but if they do get there and win that, they’ll just go on.”

Maylett isn’t watching his stable of professional fighters. He is talking about his 11 and 12-year-old amateurs. Taking an unknown, unfancied kid from his first skills bout to the top of the world might sound like a fantasy but it isn’t a daunting prospect for Maylett. He knows exactly what it will take. As he said, he has done similar before.

26 O BOXING NEWS O AUGUST 26, 2021

There is a small dog-eared photograph on the wall in the gym. It shows a teenage Maylett and an impossibly young-looking Terry Flanagan joking around. Taken before everybody carried a camera around in their pocket, Flanagan looks no older than the youngsters Maylett is watching skip. A few years later, Maylett would stand back and proudly watch his friend get chaired around the ring after training him to become the first ever Englishman to win a sanctioning body lightweight title.

Together they would win the British title, defend the WBO belt five times and take part in the World Boxing Super Series.

Flanagan is waiting for a phonecall tempting enough to entice him back into

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AUGUST 26, 2021 O BOXING NEWS O 27

the lightweight mix, but for Maylett the work he unknowingly began years ago FRQWLQXHV b “I was schooled quite well by my amateur coach, Sean Rafferty. You don’t notice it at the time because you’re young, into boxing and don’t realise how good your coach is but looking back now he taught us the fundamentals,” Maylett told BN. “You stretched before the session and then afterwards, when you just wanted to get home and have your tea. You’re a teenage lad and might think that you could catch the last hour with the lads on the estate but you had to do everything right. From footwork up, he taught us what we needed to go on and be a good all-round boxer, not a fighter. A boxer.

“I loved it. I trained hard as anything and treated my amateur fights like world title fights. That was probably a bit too much but that’s what I was like. I was a winner. I never really thought too much about being a pro. I trained with them for a while and when I was about 19 I went and trained at Champs Camp with Michael Brodie for a few months. I trained hard and was sparring some of the pros there and I think if somebody would have asked if I fancied going pro at the time I might have had a go, but it never came.

“I had my last amateur fight at about 21 and I stopped boxing, but about a year later I started coaching Terry and Karl Place in the amateurs. I did a year or 18 months with them and became a pro coach at 24.”

Photo: JAN KRUGER/GETTY IMAGES

The following morning, the professionals LPSURYLQJ WKHLU IRRWZRUN b begin to arrive. It doesn’t matter how many “Yeah, people probably just thought times you walk into The Finest Gym – ego it was Terry’s style to be honest,” said and arrogance have no place here, the Maylett. “He was one of the first fighters gym is named after the popular local band I had, so they probably thought that was Maylett’s dad played drums in – the words how he had always boxed. That wasn’t the leave your mouth automatically. “Warm in case. It took years and years of building. here, innit?” In winter, the wall-mounted Even when I go back and watch old videos heater is a blessing. On a warm summer’s and tapes I can see where we had learned day it is a curse. Today it is Michael new stuff. I’ll watch a video a year later on McKinson’s turn to step into the sauna. and he’ll be using different punches or he The unbeaten welterweight has made the might have improved his right hook or not trip north to get in some sparring with Jack be giving up as much ground because he’s Rafferty and The Finest’s latest member, got physically stronger. He’s been built into Sam Maxwell. the style everybody has seen. It sort of was Rafferty is robust and aggressive, my style but before everybody got to know Maxwell was an international class amateur us, they probably just thought that was the and Liam Taylor is a heavy-handed box way he boxed. fighter. Featherweight prospect Zak Miller “The styles are there. I look at them is probably the fighter closest in style to and think, ‘What’s their best way of going Flanagan but there is more variety in the forward as a fighter?’ It could be anything. gym than some may imagine.

It’s whatever I feel is gonna get the best out The way the world is these days of them in the gym and it certainly doesn’t everything has to be black or white and have to be Terry Flanagan-style footwork, once people have pigeonholed you, it is because his footwork is one in a million very hard to escape those perceptions. anyway. It’s something that I teach because Flanagan’s instantly recognisable footwork you’re on your feet for 12 rounds if you means that the term ‘a Steve Maylett wanna win titles.” fighter’ is used whenever one of his boxers The internet is full of padwork videos and gets up on their toes and uses their feet. it isn’t too hard to find a fighter practicing It is clearly intended as a compliment lengthy arcade game style combinations but it must be a source of frustration that will never be used under live fire. that some haven’t yet grasped Maylett’s take on padwork that much, much more goes may characterise the mentality THE MAN MAYLETT: into a creating ‘a Steve Maylett needed to succeed in the gym Flanagan is one of fighter’. It’s not simply a case of better than anything else. several under his watch

The pace steadily increases and once His demolition of a confident Diego one phase is mastered another is added.

Magdaleno happened just a few hundred If a front foot strays an inch too close, or yards away at the Manchester Arena. After an angle isn’t cut properly, the routine every major win, rather than screaming VWDUWV DJDLQ :DWFKLQJ WKHUH LV D VHQVH and shouting about the success, Maylett that as much as he is trying to perfect the would quietly retreat back into the gym fighters’ technique, Maylett is desperate to and the cramped changing rooms of the get better and better himself.

VPDOO KDOO FLUFXLW DQG FRQWLQXH WKH ZRUN b Blessed with something of a If a fighter doesn’t really begin to fulfil photographic memory, Maylett can make their potential until they understand what his way over to the gym’s digital recorder they are doing and why they are doing it, and automatically stop the video on a the same can be said of a trainer. Starting at single frame of an eight-round the very bottom has allowed OLD PALS: spar where one of his fighters’ Maylett an unhindered view Maylett and Flanagan shapes was perfect of the sport and given go back a long way or where they came him a clear opinion out of an exchange on how things should with poor balance. be done. Some of At normal speed the the most valuable moments initially qualities a trainer pass in a blur but, can possess – like the over time, the eyes awareness that a plan become accustomed needs changing and to noticing the tiny the confidence to rip details and intricacies it up and start again that go into making – can only be learned the fighters from the through experience. gym so hard to beat. bȊ:H KDG .DUO 3ODFH Ȋ:H VHW WKHVH 7H] .DOOXP 'Hȇ$WK standards right and Dale Coyne at from the beginning,” first. Dale was the KH VDLG Ȋ7KH ILUVW first fighter I started training session I did working a different with Terry was on style with,” Maylett New Year’s Day at UHPHPEHUHG Ȋ'DOH 5.30 in the morning. had talent but was I woke him up and getting caught too took him running. I much. He was too was lucky really. A lot open and too square of it was guesswork on the ropes. I knew in the beginning, but going forward it I guessed a lot of it wouldn’t work for him. right. I just knew that You can’t stand on the if I was gonna do it I ropes on fight night had to do it properly. and take punches Ȋ0\ IDYRXULWH SDUW with small gloves on. I believe it or not, is in adapted his style and the gym. I’ve had some it was something that great nights and big was new to me. He wins and we’ve won would have his hands things that were goals up high, blocking so when we were young I took them away and only dreaming from him so he had but my favourite part to move his head of boxing is in the gym and feet more and and teaching them become dominant stuff. That feeling when you start thinking, with his front hand to control people and ‘He’s never gonna get this’ and then you slow them down. see them start to use it in sparring and ȊΖW WRRN D ORW RI WKRXJKW ΖW ZDVQȇW DQ it adds another dimension to them as a overnight thing. I was going home after ILJKWHU 7KDWȇV WKH SDUW Ζ ORYH 3UREDEO\ sparring sometimes and sitting there more than the wins sometimes.” frustrated. I just wasn’t happy even though There have been plenty of wins. Maylett a lot of people might have been. I was could probably count the losses his seeing the bigger picture, I was seeing fighters have suffered on one hand but three years down the line. One day I as well-respected as the gym is inside the decided to do it. It seemed to work for sport, to those on the outside the only Dale and things just progressed then. He real advertisement for the work they were transformed massively. It was a big shame doing came when Flanagan’s feet flashed that he didn’t go on and fulfil what he could across the canvas. have done but I feel like I learned a lot from His coronation as a belt-holder came just working with him [Coyne retired with a two miles away from the gym, his friends UHFRUG@ b cascading down the banked track of the ȊΖ VWLOO WKLQN HYHQ WKH ZRUN Ζ GLG ZLWK .DUO city’s velodrome after he beat Jose Zepeda.

3ODFH KDV VWRRG PH LQ JRRG VWHDG WR EH WKH

A LOT OF IT WAS GUESSWORK IN THE BEGINNING, BUT I GUESSED A LOT OF IT RIGHT”

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RARE WORKLOAD Maylett’s hands-on approach to all aspects of training MAYLETT’S father, Big Ste, helps out with strength training and he has a trusted group of experienced friends such as Bobby Rimmer and Frank Hopkins on call for fight nights but from diet to sparring, and from water intake to circuits, Maylett handles everything else. It doesn’t matter if the fighters are running Collyhurst Steps, swimming lengths or riding the watt bikes in an altitude chamber, Maylett will be there. It is an increasingly rare workload to take on but he feels is gives him a far better picture than if he sent them away to their own strength and conditioning coaches.

“I think so, because you know exactly where they’re at. There’s no cheating going on,” he said. “I do everything by eye too. It’s all recorded and timed but to be honest it’s my eye that tells me if they’re tired or if they’re flying. I know when they need easing down or when they need a kick up the arse.

“If they come in to do the bike or rower in the morning and they’re lively and having a chat, I know in the afternoon I can push them again. If they come in on a Monday and they say they haven’t slept too well or that their legs are still tired from Saturday, we’ll warm up for the afternoon session and if they don’t seem quite right I might take something out of the session I had planned. I’ve worked with great people too. There are people as good as me. I just feel that for consistency, if I keep on top of everything nothing will go amiss. They’ll get in on fight night fit and strong and they’ll have done the weight well. That’s the most important thing.”

FRDFK Ζ DP WRGD\ Ζ OHDUQHG D ORW IURP .DUO DQG .DUO OHDUQHG D ORW IURP PH Ζ WKLQN KH also helped Terry get to where he has. Ȋ7KH ORVVHV KLW PH KDUG ȋ KH FRQWLQXHG ȊΖ ZRXOGQȇW VD\ WKH\ NQRFN P\ FRQILGHQFH but it’s a horrible feeling. The losses hurt but I never dwelled on a win either. Two weeks down the line I won’t be rewatching WKH WDSHV DQG WKLQNLQJ Ȇ:RZ ZDVQȇW WKDW great?’ Once it’s done, it’s done and you get on with it and see what is fired at us next.

You just have to keep your motivation, no matter what.”

Motivation certainly won’t be a problem for the rest of the year. Sam Maxwell’s delayed shot at the British and Commonwealth super-lightweight titles is due to happen this weekend and Liam Taylor is waiting for a date for his mandatory shot at European welterweight champion, David Avanesyan. The fights will be tough but each will enter the ring knowing that the man in their corner has put as much into their preparation as they have. Ȋ7KH\ MXVW KDYH WR ZDQW LW DV PXFK DV me.” Maylett once told me on the phone.

You can almost imagine what he said after SXWWLQJ WKH SKRQH GRZQ ȊΖI \RXȇUH JRLQJ WR do something, do it properly.” bn

AUGUST 26, 2021 O BOXING NEWS O 29

TRADING WITH

30 O BOXING NEWS O AUGUST 26, 2021

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Gary Sykes has been struggling with mental illness for several years and when he last spoke to BN in 2019 there seemed to be some light at the end of the tunnel for the former British champion. Then the pandemic, the lockdown and that all too familiar darkness followed. By Lewis Watson

DEMONS

PRIZEFIGHTER: Sykes in the 2010 super-featherweight tournament before his problems began Photo: MATTHEW LEWIS/ GETTY IMAGES

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AUGUST 26, 2021 O BOXING NEWS O 31

I WAS convinced my kids were going to die if I didn’t do something… so I took a knife to my throat.”

The call goes silent yet the tension remains. Former twoWLPH %ULWLVK FKDPSLRQ *DU\ 6\NHV LV FOHDUO\ VXIIHULQJbEXW VSHDNV FDQGLGO\ WRbBoxing NewsbLQ DQ DWWHPSW WR SXQFK through the stigma of his mental health struggles.

Sykes’ bravery, honesty, and willingness to speak out are inspiring. Following his retirement in 2016, the Dewsbury fighter has attempted to slalom through life’s obstacles yet, at almost every turn, all that awaited was darkness. A familiar, inescapable, darkness.

That darkness is caused by bipolar disorder – more specifically, mania – and the 37-year-old details how it impacted his life more severely after the decision was made to hang up his gloves.

“After I retired from boxing everything started going wrong, to be honest with you,” he said. Sykes is affable and engaging, but the faint scar across his throat is a visible reminder of how serious this conversation would be.

“I lost my job and me and the missus split up; I left her with our nice house. I started drinking more than before, and I basically lost my mind. I’d manage to go through stints of being sober and then I’d slip once again, and the cycle would start all over again.”

Along with depression, mania is a common symptom of bipolar disorder. It LV GHILQHG E\ WKHb Medical Dictionaryb DV ȊDQ

haze. I black out a lot after my worst episodes and can’t really remember what happened.”

Before being admitted to Wakefield’s Fieldhead mental health hospital, Sykes resisted the long arm of the law, breaking a police officer’s cheekbone in retaliation and fear of being sectioned. He squirms with embarrassment while attempting abnormally elated mental state, typically to recall the altercation, and struggles to characterised by feelings of euphoria, lack piece the events together with real clarity. of inhibitions, racing thoughts, diminished “I go through cycles of episodes that are need for sleep, talkativeness, risk-taking, really hard to control,” he continued. “One and irritability. In extreme cases, mania can of the most recent ones was the scariest. induce hallucinations and other psychotic I was watching the television and I was symptoms.”

FRQYLQFHG WKDW LW ZDV LQ WKH IXWXUH Ȃb OLNH Sykes alludes to experiencing a number the TV was showing me what was going of these states throughout multiple to happen in my life. It was to do with my episodes, with 2020 – fused with the Covidkids – who are my world. I was terrified 19 pandemic – proving one of the hardest that they were in some sort of danger. I years to navigate. don’t really know why I turned to the knife, “I’d stopped drinking for a while, but then but I had this overwhelming feeling that I a year ago I completely lost my head again,” QHHGHG WR GRbsomething. he admitted. Sykes openly documented his “During an episode, the feeling can struggles on social media, raising concerns be amazing, it’s just the crash and burn across the boxing, and wider community. afterwards that is the hardest part. It leaves “To prove to everyone that I was okay, me feeling lifeless, fed up, and without any I decided to attempt to do one million motivation.” burpees on camera,” he continued. “I Sykes survived and returned to Fieldhead wanted everyone to think I was still fit and where he was treated and given a safe healthy. In my head, I was a superhero space to rehabilitate. Previous attempts that was training to fight coronavirus. After to check himself into Sporting Chance loads of videos were posted on Twitter I Clinic – a mental health charity had friends and family calling founded by Tony Adams MBE, the police on me as they IT’S ALL OVER: Sykes’ former Arsenal and England were clearly concerned. To be 2016 loss to Campbell football captain, for current honest, a lot of it is a real was his last pro bout

Photo: GETTY IMAGES

32 O BOXING NEWS O AUGUST 26, 2021

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and retired athletes – were unsuccessful due to the cost and a lack of support for ex-boxers.

“I struggled mainly with the medication,” he explained. “But in hospital, I could stay away from trouble, temptation, and just lead a fairly normal life. You can watch television, play on your phone, socialise – I couldn’t just easily grab a drink like I would at home.”

Addiction is a running theme throughout Sykes’ story – each turn of the page made harder by an internal battle with control.

He takes small, but important, crumbs of comfort knowing that he is not alone.

Alcoholism has had a vice-like grip on the life and vocation of the retired British champion, and there is an undercurrent of regret despite his achievements inside the ring.

“I struggled with alcohol throughout my FDUHHU ȋ KH H[SODLQHG Ȋ7KDWȇVbDGGLFWLRQ IRU you. Between six-eight weeks before each fight, I’d manage to stop drinking, but other than that I would be on back-to-back benders.

“I’m not trying to blame other people, but I had a lot of bad influences throughout my career. I’m from Dewsbury – there aren’t any other boxers from here really so my career was different b Ζ ZDVQȇW able to surround myself with fighters doing the same thing as me day in, day out.

“I found it impossible to live the life of a professional fighter.

That dedication I needed to reach the highest level just wasn’t there and the partyside of my personality outweighed it. If I hadn’t lived like that in-between camps, I would have been a world champion – guaranteed.”

7KDW RSSRUWXQLW\b DOPRVWb FDPH NQRFNLQJ in 2012. Sykes was scheduled to fight for Adrien Broner’s super-featherweight belt inside Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, but the contest was eventually pulled due to the main event – Lamont Peterson vs Amir Khan II – falling through.

“That was the best I had ever prepared for a fight – I was completely heartbroken when it was cancelled,” he admitted. “Most young kids dream of becoming famous footballers and playing at Wembley, but for me, the dream was always to fight in Las Vegas. I was up training at 2am to prepare for the time difference in Las Vegas, eating right, doing all I could. I couldn’t have been more ready.”

Despite these crippling regrets, Sykes is also able to look back fondly on his successes. His boxing genesis is a welltrodden route having followed a friend to a local boxing gym aged 15, but the talent he unearthed is less common.

Self-deprecation is a characteristic shared by many of us. A comforting smile

appears on his face when he’s allowed the space to reminisce about some of his greatest nights as a fighter.

“Winning the British title for the first time against Andy Morris [w pts 12] is an obvious highlight,” “Five Star” explained.

“Hearing the announcer say ‘from Dewsbury’ is something I’ll never forget – I knew then that I’ll probably be the only fighter from Dewsbury to achieve this accolade. The reaction was incredible. I remember going to visit the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown and ploughing through a load of wine beforehand. I stuck the Lonsdale Belt on him for a couple of pictures and he told me how proud he and the country were of me.

“Defending it successfully against Kevin O’Hara [w pts 12] was another standout moment, but beating Carl Johanneson has to be my best win. Carl was a massive puncher. To be honest, I never really thought I’d be good enough to mix it with him after he put me down in sparring.

There was real fear coming into that fight and to recover after being knocked down in the ninth round proved I belonged in there.”

Sykes enjoyed two spells as British champion across a professional career spanning 10 years, but a 2009 victory over Anthony Crolla was the earliest indication that he could elevate his game to the very top of the domestic tree.

“I knew after beating [Anthony] Crolla that I could go onto become British champion – before that, I’m not really sure I had the belief. I was a fairly late starter to the sport [at 15], so always felt that I was a couple of steps behind. I did the weight bang on and felt so strong on fight night. I could have easily done another 10 rounds.”

Sykes had to navigate plenty of setbacks along his career. Two attempts at a Prizefighter crown ended in defeats to Gary Buckland [l rsf 1] and Terry Flanagan [l pts 3], while an injury to his hand following a British title defence against Jon Kays [w rsf 10] saw part of his finger amputated after an infection spread.

“Everything became harder after that operation,” he explained. “Training ZDVbWRXJK DV ΖȇG ORVW DOO WKH JULS LQ P\ KDQG so I could no longer lift the sort of weights that I had been previously. It was also impossible to clench a tight fist after that.”

He’d go onto lose two of his last three fights against Liam Walsh [l pts 12] and Luke Campbell [l rsf 2] before calling it a day. But his hardest opponent would remain.

“Boxing gave me structure and a real purpose,” he added. “I could balance my life better with a career, but as soon as I retired it became so much harder. I used

THE DREAM WAS ALWAYS TO FIGHT IN LAS VEGAS. I COULDN’T HAVE BEEN MORE READY”

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GARY SYKES: “The mind is a powerful thing”

to be ‘Gary Sykes: the boxer’, but then that disappeared overnight. Now, I can do what I want, eat what I want, drink what I want.

“I didn’t get the support that I needed after retiring. I’m not exactly sure what the British Boxing Board of Control couldbKDYH done, but anything would have helped.”

Advice on how to navigate the boxing afterlife is rare and boxers willing to listen, particularly when at the height of their careers, are even more so.

Sykes has found his own way of looking on the bright side – though the consequences of his condition exhibit the seriousness of it. He laughs as he recalls a previous manic episode where he held a lighter to his arm for 30 seconds, feeling “nothing”. Ȋ*DU\ ȆIRXU DQG D KDOI VWDUVȇb6\NHV Ζ VKRXOG be called now,” he quips, referring to the remains of a tattoo of a star that was left after being scorched off.

He also tells the story of fighting his local pub landlord for charity a couple of \HDUV DJR b ΖDQ 0XUUD\ ȃ ODQGORUG RI WKH Station Pub in Dewsbury – agreed to the bout in order to help Sykes stay sober through a regimented training camp. The thanks that Murray got was a set of broken ULEV EXW WKLVb DFW RI DOWUXLVPb ZDV D JRRG demonstration of how boxing could still shape Sykes’ life for the better.

Sykes still has his back against the ropes but he won’t stop fighting. He’s back in the gym working on his strength and overall fitness, and with the help of mood stabilisers is able to navigate his days PRUH SHDFHIXOO\ b +LV FRXUDJH WR VSHDN out is admirable, and he takes solace in knowing that his story could well help others that suffer.

“The mind is a powerful thing,” he concluded. “I’ve slipped a few times since FRPLQJ RXW RIb KRVSLWDO VR DW WKH PRPHQW I am just concentrating on staying sober UHDOO\ b %R[LQJ ZDV VXFK D ORQHO\ VSRUW ΖWȇV only you in that gym; it’s only you in that ring, but at least I had the sport. Now, my next goal is to stay sober for a year.”

Perhaps, that would be Gary’s JUHDWHVW YLFWRU\ RI DOO Ȃb FHUWDLQO\ KLV PRVW LPSRUWDQW b $QG ZH DUH DOO EHKLQG KLP $OO in his corner. bn

AUGUST 26, 2021 O BOXING NEWS O 33

CHASING THE BATTERSEA BOMBER Elliot Worsell first interviewed Howard Eastman, the eccentric middleweight, back in 2003. After a long search, he finds an altogether different character to the one he met 18 years ago Photo: JOHN GICHIGI/ALLSPORT

34 O BOXING NEWS O AUGUST 26, 2021

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A www.boxingnewsonline.net

AUGUST 26, 2021 O BOXING NEWS O 35

EUROPEAN CHAMP: The smooth skills of Eastman are too much for Tendil Photos: GETTY IMAGES

IN LIFE SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH THE UGLY TO GET TO THE BEAUTY. I HAD TO GO THROUGH SOME STUFF”

36 O BOXING NEWS O AUGUST 26, 2021

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N GUYANA, his homeland, they prefer to call him ‘Boxer’ and he likes it this way. By choosing to address him by his profession, rather than using his given name, the locals show their respect for Howard Eastman’s past achievements while also granting him the one thing he has been craving for at least 15 years: anonymity.

“One of the reasons why I ran away from London is because of all the memories of my life,” Eastman said from his home. “Sometimes I just want to turn a new page. But I can’t run away from Howard Eastman because I then get guys like you chasing me.

“I don’t talk to anybody. Nobody can reach me.

They can’t find me out here. You’re the only one who did. Once I knew who was chasing me, I said to myself, ‘I’ve got to talk to him.’”

The first time I interviewed Howard Eastman it was July 2003 and he was sitting inside one of the changing rooms of the Norwich Sports Village having just stopped Frenchman Hacine Cherifi in defence of his European middleweight title. Still in character, most of the answers he offered me that night were brief and ambiguous, owing either to post-fight fatigue or, more likely, a need to live up to the eccentric, truculent weirdo reputation he had throughout the years created for himself as a means of protection. But, at 16, I knew no better and didn’t really mind.

Eighteen years on, Eastman, now 50, is even more reluctant to be interviewed. He has fled from journalists and from himself, or at least that version of himself, and today views London, our only common ground, through a different lens than he did when he called it home.

Back then, London was, to Eastman, many things.

It was where Howard and his brothers, Gilbert and Nigel, moved with their parents a week before Howard turned 15; it was where he learned to box, having been assured by his father that there would, in London, be greater opportunities to exercise; it was where he also once slept on the streets, for a time seeking and, most nights, finding warmth on the underground.

“London was very trying for me,” he said. “I had a dream and I knew that London was where the dream was possible. But in order to get to the dream I had to overcome certain obstacles. London is a beautiful place but underneath the beauty there is something else. In life, sometimes you have to go through the ugly to get to the beauty. I had to go through some stuff.

“It was all partly building Howard Eastman’s character, though, so I wouldn’t want to change it.

If it wasn’t for the rough times I had on the street, I don’t think I would have been so tough in the ring.

Pound-for-pound, I took the best punches from all of them and I never fell down. It was London that made me hard and strong like that. I went through a lot of difficulties and that was part of training me for the ring.”

The Eastman training programme, as demanding and unorthodox as any, saw him start in Carey Gardens, Battersea, before later leaving his breadcrumb trail in Elephant and Castle and Deptford. Sometimes he would find shelter in these places and other times he would have to create his own. “We had to do a lot of walking and then we got to know the underground,” he said. “I spent a few nights in the underground, dodging the guy who comes to see if anyone’s hiding, because it’s warm

I

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in there when it’s cold upstairs. I’ve been locked down there with the trains just to keep warm. The inspectors never saw me.

“Believe it or not, I was never scared of the dark.

I was just scared of people. I just prayed I could get a hot meal from somewhere. You have to beg sometimes and it’s not easy. People in London don’t really want to give you something when you’re begging. They don’t tolerate the homeless.”

Eastman’s voyage through the streets of London led him to Centrepoint, Stockwell, where he was helped by the YMCA and where he first met the mother of one of his sons. Without the YMCA, Eastman says he would be “six feet under” and would certainly never have been able to thrive as a professional boxer, which, against the odds, is precisely what he did.

It is when listening to men like Eastman, 49-13 (38), you begin to realise that the fighters who speak of hardship and pain solely in the context of what happened to them inside a boxing ring are the lucky ones.

“When I was on the streets of London, homeless, I remember walking in the snow,” he said. “I had never experienced snow before but my body got so cold, then it got frozen, and then it got warm again.

I will never understand how that happened. It was like I had some kind of heater in the body and it just switched on. It was something inside of me I can’t explain. But I think that’s why when people hit me, I didn’t fall down. I was born with something inside me to overcome all of that. I want to know what it is myself. I ask myself why all the time. I’m still trying to find out who I am, too.”

Both enigma and chameleon, Eastman would be the first to say he was an amalgamation of many influences and experiences. Along the way he absorbed the spirit of the people he encountered as a child in Guyana, as well as the people he encountered as an adult on the streets of London, and he later combined and manifested all the lessons taught to him by boxers like Jack Johnson, Roberto Duran, and Mike Tyson, each of whom he studied growing up. Even his blonde beard, as iconic as any in boxing, was something borrowed.

“I’m in Deptford and I’m thinking one day I’m going to be famous,” Eastman said. “I look in the mirror and decide that I need to create a style. What shall I do?

“I used to watch a lot of kung-fu movies and tried to learn from these movies to develop Howard Eastman. The beard that you saw came from Silverfox. I thought to myself, ‘They don’t know me for kicking people but I’m going to take the beard off this guy and take it into boxing.’”

Opponents also left their mark on Eastman, with one, in particular, responsible for teaching him during three different phases of his fighting life: sparring partner, opponent, coach.

“When I fought Robert McCracken, that was, for me, a step up,” Eastman said of his British, Commonwealth and European title fight in April 2001. “People didn’t believe Howard Eastman had the qualities to beat Robert McCracken and I could understand why. Robert was not a normal fighter.

He was a very special guy. He was already a top fighter in London. He was well-schooled. He was the bee’s knees.

“I met him at a younger age, when I didn’t have much experience in the game, and I was a sparring partner for Robert. Tony Mancini (Eastman’s mentor and coach) wanted me to get work with Robert McCracken as often as possible. I never knew at the time what he saw but now I understand what

AUGUST 26, 2021 O BOXING NEWS O 37

he was doing. He was giving me the experience and figured I could learn from Robert. Robert was teaching me a lot when I was sparring with him. He trained me even when we were sparring.

“When it came to fight, he thought he could do the things to me he used to do in sparring, but I was learning all the time. I remember your weaknesses.

I adapt.

“People were very shocked by the outcome but I knew I had it in me to beat him. I had to step up my game, though. If I didn’t, he would have dealt with me. It takes a good guy to beat him.”

After being stopped inside 10 rounds by Eastman, McCracken elected to retire from boxing at the relatively young age of 32.

“I knew how much Robert loved boxing and said to myself, ‘I’ve got to bring him in as a trainer to train me,’” Eastman recalled. “A lot of people close to me said I was mad. M-A-D. They said it was mad to bring in someone I had defeated to train me.

But the people saying these things did not know Howard Eastman. Robert was like a friend to me. He was helping me and training me when I was coming up. He was teaching me before he even knew it. He taught me to beat him without even knowing it.

“I called him one day and said he had to train me.

I said, ‘Where you’re at is not where you need to be.

You need to be in the boxing circle.’

“He was a very good trainer. If it wasn’t for Robert McCracken, I wouldn’t have been Howard Eastman.

He helped build me.”

If all Eastman’s influences and experiences were leading up to something, that something appeared to be a shot at William Joppy, the WBA belt-holder, in November 2001. That was meant to be his coronation night; the night one of the 160-pound division’s most feared and avoided contenders finally came of age and received his first taste of popularity. But, alas, it didn’t work out like that.

“I can tell you why I didn’t win the fight now,” said Eastman, beaten on a majority decision by Joppy that night. “I never signed with Don King.”

Long before King watched Joppy, his fighter, defeat Eastman, the self-managed maverick, he had flown to London to set up a meeting with Britain’s number one middleweight. “He persuaded me to sit with him in a Chinese restaurant and gave me a lot of talk about future plans and what he had up his sleeve,” Eastman said. “Basically, he tried to pimp me. He wanted me to sign the document in front of him. I said, ‘With all due respect, I admire you, and I want to be like you, and that is one of the reasons I am self-managed.’ That didn’t go down very well.

Don King liked to look around and see the potential bad boys coming up and he then wanted to control you. People don’t know all this because I am so private.”

Don King left London frustrated, which was the exact same emotion Eastman then experienced the night he faced Joppy in Las Vegas. “I beat Joppy pretty much every single round,” he said. “The whole world saw that.

“But I was fighting Don King and he is not one person. He is a much bigger entity. The judges around ringside are all Don King.

“In a way I was a fool for not signing with him. Things could have been different if I had.

I said to myself later, ‘Shucks, if only I had signed with him, I would have been a world champion.’

“But it shouldn’t be like that. A man should be able to willingly go where he feels comfortable and not be forced to do something they don’t want to do. That’s the problem with the

boxing game, all the tricks involved.

“I had to knock Joppy out to win and I tried my best to do this. But he’s a very skilled guy and it was not easy. I put him down in the last round and he got up real quick.

“I saw him in the hotel lobby afterwards and his face was all swollen and looked like a big ball. I said, ‘Did you win the fight?’ He just shrugged. He had no control over what happened. He knew Don King won the fight for him.”

It’s only right that a man with nine lives gets a second chance and Eastman’s came some four years after the Joppy defeat. He had, by that stage, reigned as European champion again, retaining the belt three times, and would, to fulfil his world title dream, have to conquer the meanest champion of them all: Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins.

Few fights have contained as much combined toughness as Hopkins vs Eastman on February 19, 2005, but the guile of Hopkins was, in the end, the key difference between the two.

“I haven’t told anybody what happened with the Hopkins fight,” said Eastman, outpointed once more on his big night. “It took me a long time to speak with anyone about anything. I’ve just stayed away from it all. I had to leave everything. The way I was mentally, I had to get away.

“But, basically, Bernard was a very lucky guy. The night before the fight I had something happen to me that should have never happened.

“One of my problems was that because I was selfmanaged I believed I could take care of everything.

But I’m my own worst enemy. I really needed people around me. Sometimes in life people are so determined to get to you, they get to you. They will do anything.

“I had a visitor the night before the Hopkins fight and they should never have been there. It was so close to me, so dear to me. If I had a manager, they would have made sure no one had access to me until after the fight. But I gave access to an individual and this created a major distraction for me. Hopkins was no problem for me at all. I could have knocked him out easily.”

Only with hindsight has Eastman come to accept that the things that made the “Battersea Bomber” such a formidable force were also, in a cruel twist of fate, the things that were detrimental to his progress at the elite level – namely, stubbornness, a lack of trust, and single-mindedness.

“When I was in Hollywood, I saw Evander Holyfield fight,” he said. “I was in his changing room and he said to me, ‘Eastman, I saw your fight [against Joppy],’ and he was lecturing me, but positively. I could see in Holyfield’s camp this team working for him. I said to myself, ‘Shucks, that’s what I was lacking.’ I couldn’t see it until I saw Holyfield’s situation. I learned a lot from him. He educated me so much about life that night.

“One of my downfalls as a fighter, in terms of not getting the world title, was never having a management team. Because teamwork is so

ONE OF MY DOWNFALLS AS A FIGHTER WAS NOT HAVING A MANAGEMENT TEAM... BEING A LONE WOLF MESSED ME UP. YOU’VE GOT TO HAVE A TEAM”

38 O BOXING NEWS O AUGUST 26, 2021

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important. Without teamwork, you can never be a world champion. Being a lone wolf messed me up.

You’ve got to have a team that is connected to make it easier for the fighter to do what they have to do.”

After the Hopkins fight, Eastman flew from Los Angeles to London and before the week was over had then flown to Guyana, his country of birth. “I was just so vexed and upset with everything that happened,” he said. “I told myself I was going to be a world champion and it never happened.

“It took me a few years to deal with it all. The distance between London and Guyana, and the time that has passed, has given me the chance to reflect and get over it all.”

Though he split his life between Guyana and the UK in that testing period post-Hopkins, the last time Eastman visited England was in December, when he returned to London to celebrate his 50th birthday.

Having now spent ample time away, he admits to missing the following: his family, including his brother, Gilbert, a former pro, and his son, Troy; the warmth and honesty of the British people; ice apples; his African grey cockatoos.

“Hear this,” he said. “When I came back to Guyana, I had parrots, but the parrots we’ve got here I got them when they were baby parrots, so they had no feathers on their skin. These parrots, they’re loose.

They can fly. Once they hear my voice, no matter where they are, they come land on me. I jump on my bike, and I’m riding my bike, and these guys are flying alongside me on this 1000cc bike. They’re Caribbean macaws, blue and yellow and white and black, and it’s beautiful seeing these boys fly with me. As soon as I stop and talk, they fly up and away.

Then when I’m ready to go I call them down and they land on top of me. People want to know how I do it. I don’t even know. I’ve just got a way with birds.”

In Guyana, Eastman is now busy working with the government to implement boxing in schools, all the while hoping one of his three sons will follow in his footsteps and attempt to become a champion. He has not given up the ghost of returning to the ring himself, either, admitting he thinks about it every day and that his aim is to train for two or three more professional fights.

“Here’s what happened the other day,” he said.

“I’m in the yard and one of my sons said to me, ‘Dad, someone has come to see you.’ I said, ‘Okay, who is it?’ He said, ‘There’s a guy outside with gloves on and he wants to spar with you.’ I said, ‘Are you sure it’s me he wants to spar?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ “So I went to see this guy and it was a guy who turned up from the town – I’m living in the suburbs – and he had ran with his gloves and boxing boots on to challenge me. It was the craziest thing I’d ever seen. I said, ‘Boy, are you sure you want to spar with me?’ I called my son and said, ‘Why don’t you spar with him?’ But he didn’t want to. So I told him to bring me my gloves. I then told him to go and get my boots for me.

“I did some time with this kid and he was very talented – strong as an ox. But he just didn’t have the technical ability like me. Despite my age, they can’t touch me. I deal with them. But I was impressed by the mindset of this individual. He ran about six miles to reach me.”

Perseverance. It’s something Eastman himself often demonstrated throughout his fighting life and it’s something, in retirement, he has come to appreciate in others.

Were that not the case, we never would have spoken. ‘Boxer’ would not have allowed himself to be found. bn

www.boxingnewsonline.net

EDGED OUT: Eastman blames a mixture of things for his losses to Joppy [top] and Hopkins Photos: GETTY IMAGES

EXCEPTIONAL TALENT: Too good for Richard Williams

AUGUST 26, 2021 O BOXING NEWS O 39

AMATEURS

AMATEUR SCENE

The very best action, previews and news from Olympic-style boxing With JOHN DENNEN | @BoxingNewsJD

SEND us your club's news, results or upcoming events to john.dennen@kelsey.co.uk or 0195 954 3747

BEYOND TOKYO John Dennen considers what’s next for the Olympic stars and what next for the sport ahead of Paris T used to be simpler. Make a name at the Olympic Games and wait for the offers from professional promoters to roll in. Spend many months mulling them over, secure a lucrative future in the process and eventually turn over, maybe even an entire year after the Games.

But post-Tokyo the picture is more complex.

For a start, some of the medallists in Japan were already professional boxers. The rules allowing pros into the Olympics were relaxed for Rio 2016, though back then in Brazil the pro boxers made little impression. In Japan there was a professional belt-holder, France’s Maiva Hamadouche who left without a medal after losing to Mira Potkonen.

In fact, it was early career professional boxers, ones who had either managed to balance parallel progress in Olympic-style tournaments with a few pro bouts, or boxers who’d had some pro contests before being brought back into their national team. Duke Ragan, for instance, won Olympic silver in one of the most hotly contested divisions in Tokyo. But the featherweight is already signed to Top Rank. His new-found prominence should give him more leverage but his future essentially is already set. America had two other silver medallists, Richard Torrez at super-heavyweight and lightweight Keyshawn Davis. Davis is 3-0 as a pro, but not tied in with any one promoter.

He didn’t win gold but did show off his array of skills. He finishes in a strong position, probably the most talented of the Americans. Torrez, in contrast, had been a true amateur. He will now look to turn professional and while not the biggest heavyweight his gallant effort in Tokyo and his character make him a marketable prospect.

Torrez lost in the super-heavyweight final to towering super-heavyweight Bakhodir Jalolov. He is now a prominent national figure in Uzbekistan.

Jalolov is one of the boxers who has successfully balanced his Olympic ambitions with the early stages of a professional boxing career, taking

I

40 O BOXING NEWS O AUGUST 26, 2021

eight straightforward wins over the likes of Kristaps Zutis, Wilfrido Leal and Brendan Barrett in Tashkent, Mexico and New York. Those pro bouts didn’t stop him from entering minor and major Olympic-style boxing tournaments in Europe and Asia. It worked for these Olympic Games. But inevitably as a professional he’ll move up towards the alphabet belts. Training for 10 and 12-round contests will make it much harder for him to strike that balance with tournament boxing. This could be his last Olympics.

Filipino Eumir Marcial had one professional contest during the year-long wait for the delayed Games. The middleweight had a thrilling semifinal with Ukraine’s Oleksandr Khyzhniak. With his Olympic bronze medal and already established relationship with world-famous trainer Freddie Roach, he can continue to try to follow in the footsteps of Manny Pacquiao. Brazil’s Hebert Sousa is another middleweight with a big future after spectacularly levelling Khyzhniak to win the 75kgs gold medal. He returned to an absolute hero’s welcome and will be a star in Brazil.

No British boxers have dipped their toe in professional waters. They all stayed with the GB programme, even after these Olympic Games were postponed an additional year. Many had been on the team for multiple Olympic cycles but their patience has been rewarded. With this being GB’s most successful Olympic team in 100 years, all the Tokyo Olympians will be highly appealing signings for any professional promoter.

For some, the wait will very soon be over.

Peter McGrail didn’t medal in Japan but he is one of the most decorated amateur boxers to have come out of the UK. The only British man to have won two World championship medals and the first Liverpudlian to win European gold, McGrail already has his pro debut inked. He will box on Matchroom’s October 9 bill in Liverpool. He’s been looking forward to this for a long time. It’s a good move, putting the demons of his Olympic disappointment behind him and debuting on a big show in his home town. But intriguingly he

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LAST GAMES? Jalolov, boxing Torrez here in the super-heavy ȴQDO ZDV RQH RI WKH QHZ SURV ZKR PHW D WRS DPDWHXU

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AUGUST 26, 2021 O BOXING NEWS O 41

AMATEURS

hasn’t settled on a long-term professional deal yet.

It’s clear that much of the men’s team have fought their last amateur contests. Galal Yafai competed in both Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2021. Winning flyweight gold in Japan, and being tipped as the boxer of the tournament by many, has made Yafai a star. His older brothers are professionals, Kal held the WBA’s super-flyweight belt and Gamal was the European champion, so there is a natural path for him there.

Frazer Clarke has just turned 30 and after more than 10 years on the GB squad, he made it to an Olympics and won a medal. He will turn professional.

As a big heavyweight with power and good skill, he will make an impact. Clarke was very successful in the World Series of Boxing, the quasi pro format.

Between 2016 and 2018, he beat Kamshybek Kunkabayev, another Olympic medallist, as well as Guido Vianello, now a pro prospect, in London and Italy, among many others in five-round bouts.

With his experience now, he has essentially served a professional apprenticeship already and could be moved quickly towards British and European title fights like his predecessor Joe Joyce.

“Without being part of this team, I’m going to be a bit lost,” Frazer told Boxing News. “The thought of not being part of GB Boxing anymore, it hits me right in the heart, honestly. A third of my life they’ve seen me through, both my kids have been born and they’ve seen me through that, helped me through the good times, the bad times, people have been there for me. I’ve seen them more than my family.”

He showed genuine leadership skills in Tokyo, so who knows what his long term future could hold? After a pro career, he hasn’t ruled out a return to GB eventually as a coach or even, ultimately, maybe performance director like Rob McCracken is now. “I feel like I’ve got experience and knowledge which I could definitely pass on,” he suggests. “One day I reckon I’ll be walking through that gym in Sheffield with a cup of tea and a biscuit a bit like Rob.” Ben Whittaker put in a sequence of star-making performances in Tokyo, not only boxing well enough to win the light-heavyweight silver medal but catching the public’s attention as he danced into the ring and finished bouts with his Dragon Ball Z-inspired celebrations. He is considering overtures from professional promoters and managers but, at the time of writing, hadn’t signed with anyone.

Intriguingly he revealed he had carried a shoulder injury through the Olympics. Whittaker has now had an operation but won’t be expected to box professionally until 2022.

Twin brothers Pat and Luke McCormack will be an enticing package for professional boxing.

Lively characters, Pat has been an outstanding amateur, rated number one in the world last year and only losing in the Olympic welterweight final to outstanding Cuban Roniel Iglesias. Luke had the misfortune to be drawn against another brilliant Cuban, the great Andy Cruz, in his second bout in Tokyo. But he was a highly successful international boxer too, winning multiple European medals. He is an aggressive boxer, with a style that’ll translate

well to the pro sport. At the end of his campaign in Tokyo, Pat felt they had served their apprenticeship.

They are eyeing a professional future, but a chance to rest and recover was the first item on the agenda.

Lauren Price and Karriss Artingstall are two stars to come out of the women’s team. Artingstall won featherweight bronze, losing a very tight semi-final to Japan’s eventual gold medallist Sena Irie. Karriss has the skill, she also has real power and with relatively well-known pro boxers around her weight, she could take that side of the sport by storm.

Lauren Price was not only sensational when winning Olympic gold in Japan, she has literally completed amateur boxing. Price has won gold medals at the Commonwealth Games, the European Games, World championships and now the Olympic Games.

But staying on three years to do the next Olympic Games is a genuine consideration. There is a commercial appeal to being an Olympic athlete and potentially playing a starring role at Paris 2024. In women’s professional boxing, the élite talents can also move quickly. Those big fights surely will still be there in three years’ time. While promoters are currently making offers, neither Lauren nor Karriss has yet ruled out another Olympic run.

If they were to stay on, it would be a coup for the GB Boxing programme. The British women’s team going into the Paris cycle could be very strong. Rosie Eccles, the Welsh welterweight, will be back.

There was only one Olympic qualification event for these Games. Eccles lost to Russia’s Saadat Dalgatova before the qualifier was suspended in 2020. Beating the Russian in a revenge win this year would have been scant consolation but it shows Eccles belongs at that level. Lewis Richardson also had a tough draw at the Olympic qualifier, losing to eventual Olympic silver medallist Khyzhniak in the preliminary stage. But Richardson acquitted himself well against such a strong opponent and is determined to represent GB in Paris. Other new faces will be appearing from the next generation of GB boxers. Flyweight Kieran MacDonald, for instance, and super-heavyweight Delicious Orie were among the sparring partners brought over to Tokyo. Now they will want to step into the limelight themselves.

They have big events to look forward to themselves, with a World championships in October and the Commonwealth Games taking place in Birmingham next year. Any GB team would be pushed to match the Tokyo squad’s six medal haul at the Olympics – that was a one in a century event – but there will still be exciting boxers coming through.

Ireland had a hard draw. Brendan Irvine met eventual flyweight finalist Filipino Carlo Paalam in his first bout. Featherweight Kurt Walker boxed brilliantly well, beating fearsome Uzbek World champion Mirazizbek Mirzakhalilov, a stunning win, only to miss out on a medal when America’s Ragan got the decision in their quarter-final. Undoubted star of the Irish team was Kellie Harrington who followed Katie Taylor in winning lightweight Olympic gold. But she certainly has no intention of calling out Taylor and is undecided about whether to turn professional or stay amateur. A local hero, she’s

WITHOUT BEING PART OF THIS TEAM, I’M GOING TO BE A BIT LOST. THEY’VE SEEN ME THROUGH”

42 O BOXING NEWS O AUGUST 26, 2021

APPRENTICESHIP SERVED: Clarke will turn professional, but it might not be goodbye forever to Team GB

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PATH TO SUCCESS Gal Yafai could follow in his brothers’ footsteps

already returned to her part-time job at a hospital.

Apart from the Britons, it was the Cuban team that stunned in Tokyo. Four gold medallists, three twoweight Olympic champions, they were sensational.

The Cuban regime doesn’t allow their boxers to go pro but Arlen Lopez and Andy Cruz would be simply superb if they could defect. Iglesias has already competed in four different editions of the Olympics.

A third gold medal in Paris is surely a step too far even for him, but if he were to manage it, he would join a group of the greatest Olympians of all.

Where it gets complicated is waiting to see what weight classes will be contested at Paris 2024. There will be more women’s divisions. The International Olympic Committee expects to see gender parity when it comes to the number of events, and the standard of women’s boxing in Tokyo was higher

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than ever. But boxing isn’t going to get extra medals (though the full complement of divisions at the Worlds and other international competitions will remain). It adds another element of uncertainty. We all have to wait to see who will even run the boxing tournament in Paris. Replaced by the IOC’s Boxing Task Force, AIBA was suspended from handling the event in Tokyo due to officiating controversies, concerns about potential corruption and issues with its governance and finances. The new AIBA president Umar Kremlev has set the organisation on a path to reform, but the IOC pointedly would not comment on boxing’s future while the Tokyo Games were underway. It has to be hoped that the success of the boxing event in Japan bodes well for the future. But it is not certain. The progression from these Games must continue. bn

OPEN TO OPTIONS: Lauren Price [centre] isn’t ruling out another Olympic run, while Ben Whittaker [bottom] is considering his options

AUGUST 26, 2021 O BOXING NEWS O 43

YESTERDAY’S HEROES

The Real Max Baer When London met the real Max Baer – a far cry from the ugly 21st-century Hollywood depiction

JOVIAL JOKER Ben Foord [on scales] vs Max Baer weigh in. Baer was nothing like his depiction in Cinderella Man

Alex Daley @thealexdaley Historian & author

HE 2005 blockbuster film Cinderella Man, which chronicled the life of world heavyweight champ James J. Braddock, was grossly unfair in its depiction of Braddock’s rival Max Baer, from whom he won the title. In the movie, Baer is portrayed as a vicious sadist who threatens to kill Braddock in the ring and sleep with his wife. This is nonsense. It never happened. The real Max Baer was nothing like this hideous Hollywood distortion.

“Madcap Maxie”, as he was known, was one of the most popular and entertaining fighters of the interwar era.

Aside from his formidable punch (51 of his 66 wins came inside time), Baer was a happy-go-lucky joker whose contagious smile and clown-like ring antics lit up the fight game amid the gloom of the Great Depression.

Max had a Jewish father, but didn’t practice the faith himself. However, he proudly wore the Star of David on his fighting shorts and was a hero to Jewish people everywhere.

In 1937, two years after he lost the world crown to Braddock, Max and his brother, fellow heavyweight Buddy Baer, each had two fights in Britain. Buddy won his two, but Max lost to Tommy Farr in his British debut at Harringay

T

NORMALITY BECKONS AT LAST There’s life in the EBA yet!

Simon Euan-Smith simonoldtimers @googlemail.com EBA correspondent

THE lifting of restrictions means that not only can EBAs start meeting again – EBA members can travel to other Associations.

And, as I keep stressing, that’s so important.

Croydon EBA Chairman Barry Penny attended this month’s Brighton meeting, and came home full of enthusiasm. “I had a really good time,” he said. “It was very well supported. There were a few of us from Croydon, including former Commonwealth lightweight champion Pat Doherty, and visitors from Leeds, London and the Home Counties.”

That’s good to hear. It’s been hard for everyone – not just EBAs – and it will be some time before we’re back to anything like normal. But how encouraging that EBAs are starting to hold regular meetings again – and are back to supporting one another.

Manchester’s current newsletter includes a “Good Luck” message to Beswick’s Kane

44 l BOXING NEWS l AUGUST 26, 2021

Gardner in his September 3 clash with Liverpool’s Nathan Bennett for the vacant Central Area super-lightweight title. A nice gesture and welcome nod to the current scene.

Croydon is another Association that hasn’t been able to meet for some time – but all being well we’ll be getting together at The Orchard, Cherry Orchard Road, on Sunday, September 26. Of course things could flare up again – we all need to be careful. But let’s hope.

And London are due to meet on Sunday, September 5 at the Sports Bar and Grill, Old Street.

The current Seconds Out – LEBA’s monthly newsletter – has an in-depth interview by Mike Taub with long-time member Mickey Hayes, now 87. Mickey applied for a pro licence and got it, but never took it up – his career as a musician

took up too much of his time. He did, however, have a lot of booth fights.

Among the good memories are sad ones – of being abused for being Irish.

Sadly racism has been around a long time – and to some extent still exists today. It’s not good to attend a bout and see two fighters give their all, and show nothing but respect for each other afterwards – while their so-called fans are hurling abuse at the opponent. The sportsmanship in boxing is a wonderful thing – it would be good if it extended to its supporters.

LEBA committee member Bob Cheeseman is heavily involved with the Freddie Mills Club – which is holding a Boxing Champions Golf Day on Friday, September 23, at Selsdon Manor Golf Course, Selsdon, South Croydon, CR2 8YA. Cost is £75 per head for a full English breakfast, one round of golf, and evening

www.boxingnewsonline.net

CROWDS OF WELL-WISHERS: Baer is mobbed by admirers in Brick Lane - May 31, 1937

Arena, on April 15. He made up for this, however, with an emphatic win over Ben Foord at the same venue on May 27, thumping the South African to defeat in nine. But more memorable perhaps than the fight itself was the reception Max and Buddy received when they visited east London days later.

On May 31, Morry Bloom, the owner of a well-known delicatessen in Brick Lane, Whitechapel, threw a victory party for Max above his store. When news spread that Baer was attending, the locals, many of them Jewish, turned out in their thousands to greet the ex-world champion. Max and Buddy were due to arrive at Bloom’s at 7pm, but crowds started to gather hours beforehand, and as the Baers’ arrival drew near the road was almost impassable, with police struggling to part the throng to make room for traffic. Every car that entered Brick Lane was hailed with shouts of, “Here comes Maxie!” and enveloped by wildly cheering well-wishers.

At 8pm, the Baers’ car drew into view.

“The journey from the top of Osborn Street to Bloom’s shop – only 200 yards – took nearly a quarter of an hour,” reported East End newspaper The Weekly Sporting Review.

“The scenes of excitement which marked their short journey were indescribable; the local populace went hysterical in its frenzied endeavour to get

a glimpse of the ex-world champion and his brother, Buddy.”

After wading through the throng, the brothers found their way to the dining room above the store, where a superb spread had been laid on. But this didn’t deter the crowds outside – in fact they grew larger, and there were persistent cries of “We want Maxie!”

Never one to let down an audience, the ex-world titlist appeared at the window with his brother, waving and grinning to the cheering crowd. Through a microphone, Max thanked the East Enders for their great welcome, and Buddy sang a couple of songs, with the outside audience joining in the choruses.

Sid Nathan, the well-known referee – then a 14-year-old autograph hunter – was part of the massive crowd and remembered Max and Buddy being regarded “like royalty”.

Twenty-two years later, when Max died of a heart attack in a Hollywood hotel at the age of 50, the boxing world was devastated at the loss of one of its most loveable characters. Max believed that the world would be a better place with more laughter, and made this his personal mantra. When asked on his deathbed by hotel staff if he needed the house doctor, he is reported to have quipped: “No. Get me a people doctor!”

Forget the unfair 2005 Hollywood depiction. This was the real Max Baer.

BROTHERS IN ARMS: Max and Buddy at the party held in his honour at Bloom’s store

WHAT YOU LOOKING AT? Ronnie Davies [alongside Lee Town] is his usual cheery self at the triumphant Brighton BBQ Photo: PHILIP SHARKEY

dinner – or £35 for dinner only. For more details, and a booking form, contact Bob Cheeseman (0776-869-7929) or Dougie Donaghey (0794-922-9722). This is a great cause, and these events are always successful.

The Scottish EBA has started meeting again, and their next meeting is scheduled for Sunday, September 12 at the Hutchesontown Bowling Club, 9 Oatlands Gate, Glasgow, G5 0LA. Attendance is still restricted to members only – sad, but everyone needs to take care.

Their newsletter includes a divisionby-division look at 1960, which saw lightheavyweight Chic Calderwood score six straight victories – victims including Arthur Howard (vacant British title), Tongan Johnny Halafihi (vacant Empire title), and brilliant American, Willie Pastrano, who later became world champion. Middleweight

www.boxingnewsonline.net

“Cowboy” John McCormack, re-grouping after losing his British and Empire titles to Terry Downes, also had a good year, with four wins against one loss – on points in Berlin to German star Gustav Scholz. To quote the newsletter: “Cowboy received a fantastic reception from the German fans in appreciation of his efforts.” McCormack went on to win, and successfully defend, the European middleweight title.

There’s also a photo of colourful American heavyweight Freddie Mack, the first man to KO Chic Calderwood (in eight rounds at Wolverhampton in February 1965). Mack boxed several times in Britain in the 1960s, going 1-1 with Ray Shiel and future European, Commonwealth and British champion Jack Bodell.

EMAIL simonoldtimers@googlemail.com with your ex-boxer association news.

AUGUST 26, 2021 l BOXING NEWS l 45

SIXTY SECONDS

SAM MAXWELL John Dennen talks to an emotional guy Photo: MORGAN HARLOW/GETTY IMAGES

Prescott. They do the best salt and pepper everything. That’s where I’ll be going after my fight anyway.

Best friends in boxing: Sean McGoldrick, Ekow Essuman, Kody Davies and Ryan Vaughan.

Other sportsperson you would like to be: There are so many easier sports than ours. Give me Usain Bolt, everyone still knows who he is.

Last film/TV show you saw: Time, it was brilliant.

Who would play you in a film of your life: Denzel Washington.

Have you ever been starstruck: Maybe Usain Bolt in the Commonwealth Games. I got to see him there, that was amazing.

Last time you cried: That Time show is quite sad. I can’t think, but I’m an emotional guy.

Best advice received: George Vaughan told me it’s nice to be nice. It was something I related to.

Worst rumour about yourself: Paul Walmsley round team GB used to say I was the tightest man on team GB. But I wasn’t. I was just poor!

Something not many people know about you: I went to university, won the university boxing championships.

I am a nerd. Good job I started boxing.

FAST FACTS

When and why you started boxing: I started boxing when I was 10. I’d been doing kickboxing since I was about five. My cousin went to a local gym and I went to work on my punches and just fell in love with it. I went to Higherside ABC and quit kickboxing not long after that.

Favourite all-time fighter: My favourite all-time fighter is Muhammad Ali. I used to grow up watching all his videos. I think the greatest boxer of all time is Ray Robinson, but my favourite is easily Muhammad Ali. Best fight you’ve seen: I’ve seen so many good ones, I’ll say Morales vs Barrera 1.

Personal career highlight: The first time winning the ABAs in 2011. I realised how I’m good at this and the best in England. I was in Boxing News every time I fought and it was just amazing. Definitely winning the ABAs the first time.

Toughest opponent: It’s got to be Lomachenko. That’s the only person where I’ve got in there and I don’t have a clue what to do. He’s just too many steps ahead of me.

Best and worst attributes as a boxer: I’ve got a textbook one-two and I feel like I’m world class with it. I feel I’ve got a good mentality. As for my worst there’s a few but perhaps I don’t believe in myself as much as I should.

Training tip: Be consistent, go every day, even if you don’t feel like it, get there, get training. I think that’s the key. Don’t miss sessions.

Favourite meal/restaurant: I’d say it was the China Palace in

Age: 32 Twitter: @sammaxwell88 Height: 5ft 10ins Nationality: English From: Liverpool Stance: Orthodox Record: 15-0 (11) Division: Superlightweight Next fight: Maxwell will box Akeem Ennis Brown for the British and Commonwealth titles on Saturday (August 28) in Birmingham

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