Protect Yourself at All Times

by Hauser, Thomas

  At an April 5 media workout, Porter said of Berto, “I’ve seen him in fights where he goes past the fifth or sixth round and things start to fall apart for him.” One week later, Shawn added, “My mindset says, every time we get in the ring, our opponent won’t be able to keep up with the pace that I perform at. I do everything I can to be ready for a fight like that. I’m always prepared to fight at the faster pace than the guys that I box.”

  Against Berto, Porter fought less aggressively than expected in round one, with neither fighter doing much of note. In round two, Shawn went to work. A mauling body attack pinned Andre against the ropes and, just before the bell, a chopping right hand high on the forehead dropped Berto to the canvas.

  Round two also saw Porter cut over his left eye from an accidental clash of heads. In round four, another head butt sliced open Porter’s right eyelid, and a third accidental clash of heads opened an ugly gash on Berto’s left eyelid.

  Soon, there was enough blood on the ring canvas that it looked like the beginning stages of a painting by Jackson Pollack.

  Meanwhile, Porter was relentlessly forcing the pace, doing his best work when he trapped Berto against the ropes and pounded away with a non-stop body attack. On occasion, Berto responded effectively with uppercuts. More often, he tried to tie Porter up.

  It was here that referee Mark Nelson mishandled the fight. There were times when Porter accepted the clinch and breaking the fighters was appropriate. But on more than twenty occasions, Nelson broke the fighters when there was no need to break them.

  Sometimes, simply instructing the fighters to “punch out” is the right thing to do.

  More troubling, there were many times when Porter pinned Berto against the ropes and, despite Andre’s efforts to tie him up, was doing damage with his free hand. Separating the fighters, as Nelson did, interrupted Shawn’s momentum and forced him to work his way in all over again.

  Nelson also lost control of the fight to the extent that he was unable to put an end to the repeated clash of heads that caused multiple cuts and seemed to leave Berto a bit shaken on several occasions.

  Porter took round seven off after dominating the first half of the fight. He resumed his assault in round eight. In round nine, he was teeing off against Berto, who was trapped against the ropes, when Nelson correctly halted the action.

  Porter out-landed Berto in every round but the seventh en route to a 175-to-81 advantage in punches landed with a 138-to-60 superiority in power punches. Fifty-one of his 138 power shots were to the body. His late dominance was reflected in the fact that he outlanded Berto 40 to 11 in round eight and 20 to 1 in the abbreviated ninth round.

  Porter can now look to the future. His next fight is expected to be a rematch against Keith Thurman in what has been likened to a de facto 147-pound tournament. A real tournament would be better than a de facto one.

  As for the Charlo brothers, they’re good fighters. It would be nice if they were matched tougher so we can find out how good.

  Saturday, May 20, 2017, saw a six-hour window with multiple fights on HBO and Showtime, five of which were notable for varying reasons.

  First up, twenty-two-year-old Gervonta Davis (17–0, 16 KOs) defended his IBF 130-pound belt against challenger Liam Walsh (21–0, 14 KOs) in London.

  Davis, who’s promoted by Mayweather Promotions, is an exciting fighter and a good one. He has breakout potential, which he showed in a seven-round demolition of Jose Pedraza earlier this year.

  Walsh was a typical sanctioning-body “mandatory” opponent. Before the fight, Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe likened Davis–Walsh to Floyd’s 2005 beatdown of Arturo Gatti. Nothing on Liam’s resume suggested that Ellerbe was wrong.

  Gervonta blew through Walsh en route to a third-round stoppage.

  Who does Davis fight next? There will always be mandatory challengers and beltholders of limited ability he can ply his trade against. Most likely, that’s the course his team will follow in the near future. It would be nice if Gervonta were given an opportunity to prove his mettle against stiffer competition now.

  Later in the evening at the MGM National Harbor in Maryland, local favorite Gary Russell Jr (27–1, 16 KOs) ran his record to 28–1 with a seventh-round knockout of Oscar Escandon (25–2, 17 KOs) in a WBC 126-pound title bout.

  Russell was born in Washington, DC, and lives in Capitol Heights, Maryland. Davis was born and lives in Baltimore. That’s a natural geographic rivalry. Russell is older and more experienced. Davis is a shade bigger. Russell could move up four pounds to challenge Gervonta.

  One of the reasons Premier Boxing Champions has disappointed to date is that it hasn’t promoted enough fights that matter in the larger scheme of things. Gervonta Davis vs. Gary Russell Jr would matter.

  Also on Saturday night, WBC–WBO 140-pound champion Terence Crawford (30–0, 21 KOs), defended his titles on HBO against Felix Diaz (19–1, 9 KOs) in the big arena at Madison Square Garden.

  The twenty-nine-year-old Crawford is on the short list of the world’s best fighters.

  Díaz age thirty-three, won a gold medal representing the Dominican Republic in the 141-pound division at the 2008 Olympics. Lou DiBella (Diaz’s promoter) beat the drums loudly for his fighter to get the assignment against Crawford (who’s promoted by Top Rank).

  Diaz is a solid fighter. But his accomplishments in the professional ranks are on the thin side. His best showing to date was a 2015 loss to Lamont Peterson. Most observers felt the judges missed the mark on that one, having been influenced by too much hometown cooking. That said, Felix has been less than scintillating as of late. In his most recent fights, aside from the loss to Peterson, he (1) won seven of ten rounds against Gabriel Bracero (a faded Paulie Malignaggi won eight); (2) decisioned Sammy Vasquez (Luis Collazo knocked Vasquez out); (3) won a questionable majority decision over Adrian Granados; (4) eked out a split decision over Emmanuel Lartei Lartey; and (5) knocked out Levis Morales in the seventh round (Morales has lost 4 of his last 7 fights).

  Crawford was a 15-to-1 betting favorite.

  One might liken watching Crawford dismantle Diaz to listening to a recording of Luciano Pavarotti sing in an ordinary opera. Whatever the limits of the music, it’s still Pavarotti.

  Crawford controlled round one with a probing jab that was stiff enough to keep Diaz from working his way inside. In round two, Felix was able to close the gap a bit but was clearly troubled by Crawford’s faster hands and better footwork. Then Terence started landing power shots.

  Diaz is tough. He kept trying to grind it out, making Crawford work for everything that Terence got. But Felix was totally outclassed. By the middle rounds, Crawford was landing every punch in the book. Meanwhile, Diaz’s eyes were starting to close and his punches were getting wilder, which left him increasingly open to counters.

  By round eight, Diaz’s enthusiasm for battle had waned to the point where he was no longer moving forward aggressively but simply trying to survive. Crawford could have coasted to a decision. Instead, he stepped up his assault.

  Diaz had too much heart to quit. But the differential in skill was too great for him to defend against Crawford’s onslaught. After ten rounds, trainer Joel Diaz asked referee Steve Willis to stop the beating.

  “I didn’t want him to take any more punishment,” Joel said afterward. “Enough was enough.”

  Saturday night also saw two moments that highlighted the darker side of boxing.

  In one of these bouts, Jonathan Maicelo (25–4, 12 KOs) squared off against Raymundo Beltran (33–7, 21 KOs) in a 135-pound “title elimination” contest.

  Beltran was driven to the canvas by a blatant head butt in round one that referee David Fields mistakenly called a knockdown. The blow left Maicelo bleeding from his scalp and Beltran with a cut on his left eyelid.

  In round two, Maicelo resumed his assault, landing fifteen punches (fourteen of them “power punches”) to Beltran’s four. Then, one minute and twenty seconds into the stanza . . . BOOM! ! !r />
  The best revenge for a blatant head butt that opens a cut on a fighter’s eyelid and results in an incorrectly called knockdown is a lights-out, highlight-reel, left hook that lands flush on the jaw and renders the head-butter unconscious before the back of his head whacks against the canvas.

  Maicelo was unconscious for a disturbingly long time and, after regaining consciousness, was carried from the ring on a gurney. After being taken to the hospital for tests and observation, he was reported to be all right.

  The incident served as a reminder that boxing is a violent sport with sometimes deadly consequences.

  The other incident was more troubling. In a 168-pound bout that preceded Russell–Escandon on Showtime, Andre Dirrell (25–2, 16 KOs) faced off against Jose Uzcategui (26–1, 22 KOs).

  Uzcategui was ahead on the judges’ scorecards when, at the end of round eight, he scored with a three-punch combination, the last punch landing after the bell. The foul appeared to be inadvertent. Dirrell indicated that he was unable to continue, and referee Bill Clancy disqualified Uzcategui.

  That gave Dirrell the dubious distinction of being a fighter whose two biggest wins have come via disqualification. In 2010, Arthur Abraham was appropriately disqualified for punching Dirrell when Andre was on the canvas. But in Dirrell–Uzcategui, disqualification seemed an unduly harsh penalty since Uzcategui’s transgression appeared to be inadvertent. Going to the judges’ scorecards (which would have given the victory to Uzcategui) would have been a more equitable judgment. But Dirrell was the house fighter, and the house fighter is often given favorable treatment in boxing.

  What happened next was far worse.

  Dirrell’s trainer and uncle, Leon Lawson, walked across the ring to the opposing corner as though he intended to talk with Uzcategui’s trainer. Then he sucker punched Uzcategui with a vicious left hook that landed flush on the fighter’s jaw. Somehow, Uzcategui managed to stay on his feet. A wider in-ring altercation followed.

  Lawson’s blow was reminiscent of the sucker punch that James Butler unloaded on Richard Grant after losing to Grant in 2001. Going back further in time, it evoked memories of the assault that Riddick Bowe’s manager, Rock Newman, visited on Andrew Golota after Golota was disqualified for low blows in a 1996 bout at Madison Square Garden.

  Butler was arrested on the spot. He later pled guilty to felony assault, served four months in prison, and was released on five years’ probation. In 2004, he bludgeoned Sam Kellerman (the brother of HBO commentator Max Kellerman) to death with a hammer.

  Newman’s assault sparked a riot that overwhelmed the seventy Madison Square Garden security personnel and fifty ushers who were on site. One hundred fifty New York City police officers were called to Madison Square Garden before order was restored. Fifteen spectators and nine police officers were treated for injuries at local hospitals. There were sixteen arrests.

  Following Lawson’s unprovoked attack, a charge of criminal assault was filed against him. As of this writing, a warrant for his arrest is outstanding. Incarceration followed by a multi-year suspension from boxing would appear to be in order.

  Some observers criticize boxing as barbaric. When things like this happen, they’re right.

  It was a good night for the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Long Island in New York but a bad night for fighters from Long Island. That in a nutshell summarizes the fight cards that were televised on July 15, 2017, by HBO and FOX.

  Seanie Monaghan and Joe Smith are “throwback fighters.” Each man grew up on Long Island and still lives there. In the 1940s, they would have been neighborhood fight-club headliners and local heroes. And they would have been fighting each other, as they did ten years ago, when Monaghan lost a decision that could have gone either way to Smith in the finals of the light-heavyweight novice division of the Golden Gloves.

  Instead, on Saturday night, they were in separate cities in separate bouts. Monaghan on FOX at the newly renovated Nassau Coliseum, and Smith on HBO at the Forum in Inglewood, California.

  Saturday marked the first sports event at the Nassau Coliseum since it reopened in April after a two-year renovation. It was also the first fight card there since Mike Tyson knocked out Steve Zouski in 1986.

  Monaghan (28–0, 17 KOs) was matched against Marcus Browne (19–0, 14 KOs).

  Seanie started boxing late. Now thirty-five years old, he has paid his dues and done everything that trainer Joe Higgins has asked of him over the past seven years. But he’d never fought a quality opponent in the pros.

  “I’m lucky,” Monaghan said as fight night approached. “I’ve fought in some pretty cool places. Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, Radio City Music Hall, Foxwoods, the MGM Grand and Thomas & Mack in Las Vegas, the big arena at Madison Square Garden. Up until now, the Theatre at the Garden has been my favorite. I fought there in the finals of the Golden Gloves, which was my first taste of the bigtime. And I’ve fought there six times as a pro, so it feels like home. But Nassau Coliseum is ten minutes from my gym and twenty minutes from my home. I can see the Coliseum becoming a new home for me.”

  Browne didn’t care about geography. Now twenty-six, he’d represented the United States as a light-heavyweight at the 2012 London Olympics, where he lost in the first round to Australian Damien Hooper. His record stood at 19-and-0 with 14 KOs. He’d been groomed from the start of his professional career as a “prospect” and viewed Monaghan as a stepping stone.

  Seanie was aware that some people labeled him as little more than a white Irish guy from Long Island who could sell tickets. For the first time in his pro career, he would be entering the ring as an underdog.

  “That just adds fuel to the fire,” Seanie warned.

  One week before the fight, Monaghan downloaded a photo of Browne to use as the screensaver on his iPhone. “After Saturday, I’ll put the picture of my kids back up,” he promised.

  Browne has good physical gifts, but his heart has been questioned. Monaghan’s pre-fight strategy was straightforward. “My job is to turn this into a battle of wills, a grinding kind of fight,” he said.

  Talent versus heart.

  Seanie knew coming in that the early rounds would be hard. But he didn’t know they’d be as hard as they were.

  Speed kills. Monaghan was a sitting duck for everything that Browne threw at him, and Browne threw every punch in the book. A straight left that landed high on the forehead dropped Seanie in the first minute of round one. A low blow from Marcus halfway through the opening stanza that referee Steve Willis correctly called gave Seanie time to recover. But round two was more of the same. A right hook followed by a barrage of punches had Monaghan in trouble again, and Willis stopped the carnage. The CompuBox stats were 42 to 9 in Browne’s favor.

  Two more slugfests followed.

  When last seen in New York, Artur Szpilka (20–2, 15 KOs) was being scraped off the canvas at Barclays Center after being knocked out by Deontay Wilder. In his only other Big Apple outing, he’d been knocked out by Bryant Jennings. Szpilka’s opponent, twenty-eight-year-old Adam Kownacki, had fashioned a 15–0 (12 KOs) record against mediocre opponents and wanted to show that he’s more than a club fighter.

  In a battle of Polish-born heavyweights, Kownacki, as is his custom, plodded forward aggressively from the opening bell. Szpilka had been out of action for eighteen months and looked flat from the start. Kownacki knocked him down in the fourth round and was beating Artur around the ring when referee Arthur Mercante stopped the slaughter.

  The main event matched thirty-four-year-old Robert Guerrero 33–5–1 (19 KOs) against Omar Figueroa (26–0–1, 18 KOs), who’s seven years Robert’s junior.

  Guerrero collected an array of belts as he moved from 126 to 147 pounds. But he has now lost in five of his most recent seven outings. Three of these losses were to Floyd Mayweather, Keith Thurman, and Danny Garcia. But Robert had also lost to David Peralta and Gamaliel Diaz. He’s still a tough out, but he’s an out. His best days are in the past.
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  Figueroa is a crowd-pleasing fighter who gets hit too much and has benefited in the past from home-state refereeing and judging in his native Texas. Prior to facing Guerrero, Omar hadn’t fought in nineteen months, in part because of chronically injured hands.

  Figueroa–Guerrero was contested at 147 pounds. It was an exciting in-close, action fight that at times resembled a barroom brawl.

  Whatever Guerrero once had, he doesn’t have it anymore. Round one was his. Then, in round two, Figueroa turned things around with a huge left uppercut that dropped Robert for a count of nine. Guerrero came back firing hard, but was knocked down twice more in the stanza. Only the absence of a three-knockdown rule and the bell saved him.

  It was a short reprieve. Two more knockdowns in round three ended matters. It’s time for Guerrero to think seriously about retiring.

  Meanwhile, on the other side of the continent, Joe Smith faced off against Sullivan Barrera.

  Smith (23–1, 19 KOs), age twenty-seven, moved onto the radar screen last year with knockout victories over Andrzej Fonfara and Bernard Hopkins. He’d been stopped early in his career after suffering a broken jaw against Eddie Caminero (a career 7-and-9 fighter who lost six fights in a row after beating Smith). But that was in the past.

  The thirty-five-year-old Barrera (19–1, 14 KOs) lost a twelve-round decision to Andre Ward in 2016. His most notable victory was a 2015 knockout of Karo Murat.

  Smith–Barrera was marked by spirited, mostly one-way action. Joe’s moment of glory came in round one (which he was losing) when a left hook to the forehead thrown from an awkward angle put Barrera on the canvas. But Sullivan soon found a home for his uppercut and took Joe to school, helped by the fact that Smith has good power but also has trouble setting up his punches. The final CompuBox numbers were a lopsided 187 to 61 with the judges scoring the fight 97–92, 97–92, 96–93 in Barrera’s favor.

  HBO’s triple-header at Madison Square Garden on November 25, 2017, marked the start of a unique fifteen-day period. The current Madison Square Garden opened in 1968. This was the first time ever that the building has hosted boxing in three consecutive weeks.