Snips and Snipes 5 May 2021- Just Get It Done

I will start with a message from a boxing fan to-in alphabetical order-BA, EH, FW re TF vs. AJ. I know there is BM and BE’s involved but just GID. Translation: to Bob Arum, Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren regarding Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua I know there is big money and big egos involved but just Get It Done! If it doesn’t take place by autumn then there is every chance it won’t get done at all. Fury has not fought for over 14 months and there is pressure on the WBO to order Joshua to fight Oleksandr Usyk. We know the venue and the contracts are being pored over but to say we are inching to the finishing line is probably overstating the rate of progress based on recent exchanges between the parties involved so just get it done for the sake of boxing and your bank balances.
It was a bit like an old crocks heavyweight weekend as Joseph Parker stated he had injured his right elbow in one of the middle rounds of his fight with Dereck Chisora and Chris Arreola had injured his left shoulder against Andy Ruiz.
Some compensation for Arreola would have been his official purse of $300,000 with a guarantee with ancillaries of $500,000. Ruiz official purse was $1 million with a guarantee of $1.5 million.
Other purses for the Carson show saw Erislandy Lara‘s purse at $300,000, Thomas Lamanna $100,000 (he lasted just 80 seconds which works out at $1,250 per second), Omar Figueroa at $200,000, Abel Ramos at $150,000, Sebastian Fundora at $70,000 and Jorge Cota at $60,000.
Lee McGregor is not being allowed to rest on his laurels. After stopping Karim Guerfi to win the European bantamweight title in March the EBU have asked for purse offers by May 19 for a defence against mandatory challenger 32-0 Vincent Legrand. Still on European titles it is rumoured that David Avanesyan is stepping down as European welterweight champion allowing Conor Benn to challenge for the vacant title on a show on 31 July. Right now 27-0 Frenchman Jordy Weiss is the mandatory challenger with Kell Brook at No 1 and Benn at No 2 and I have seen no confirmation of the rumour. It is a tough task to win an EBU title but every bit as hard to hold on to it.
There will also be three EBU title fights on the undercard to Joshua Buatsi vs. Frenchman Daniel Bienda Dos Santos in Manchester on 15 May. This should be an easy night for Buatsi as Dos Santos has only competed at four and six rounds. The European title fights will see title defences by Gamal Yafai against Jason Cunningham at super bantam and Tommy McCarthy vs. Alexander Jur at cruiserweight with Lerrone Richards and experienced Italian Giovanni De Carolis fighting for the vacant super middleweight title. All good quality fights.
Former WBO super welterweight champion Jaime Munguia will return on 19 June against Pole Maciej Sulecki in El Paso. He will be defending the WBO Inter-Continental title in his third fight at middleweight. Sulecki is 29-2 with his losses against Daniel Jacobs and in a WBO title challenge against Demetrius Andrade.
Excellent WBA title fight coming up in July. Ryad Merhy (29-1) will put his cruiserweight title on the line against South African Kevin Lerena (26-1) in Brussels on 17 July with Lerena’s IBO title also on the table. It will be Merhy’s first fight since October 2019 but Lerena was in the ring more recently with a win over Patrick Ferguson last December.
There is still a pandemic hangover with two shows in Japan postponed and one in Denmark. The pandemic also struck Japan’s amateurs hard. Five of the nine boxers they sent to the World Youth Championships in Poland were infected reportedly after arriving in Poland. The one bright spot was the discovery of a new talent in Reito Tsutsumi who won gold at 60kgs.
Another matter rattling around in Japan is an alleged positive test for Kazuto Ioka from his WBO super flyweight title defence against Kosei Tanaka in December which has still not been resolved. The Ioka camp protests innocence and blames the test procedure and everyone is waiting for the matter to be dealt with four months after the fight.
One fight scheduled for later this month in Japan that is on is 21-0 Junto Nakatani defending his WBO flyweight title against former WBO champion Puerto Rican Angel Acosta. It will be Nakatani’s first defence of the title he won with an eight round kayo of 24-1 of Filipino Giemel Magramo in November. Nakatani, 23, with more exposure could be the next Japanese star.
Not too surprised to see that Australia’s next heavyweight boxing star Justis Huni is to face former rugby league player Paul Gallen in Sydney on 16 June. It will probably be Huni’s last fight before competing in Tokyo. Gallen has built up a big following in Australia and he gets his reward for beating up poor Lucas Brown. A win for Gallen, who has only the most rudimentary of boxing skills, would be big blow to Australian boxing as Huni looks to be a teal talent.
It seems to be a bit of a turbulent time in boxing in Ghana. The Ghana Board gave Richard Commey a two year ban for being disrespectful now they have slapped heavyweight Richard Harrison Lartey with a five year ban. Lartey lost inside the distance in fights in Britain against Daniel Dubois, Nathan Gorman and Fabio Wardley but falsified a letter from the Board permitting him to fight Wardley. Lartey did not deny the charge but alleged that he forged the letter after the Board had taken £5,000 of his purse for the Gorman fight and this was his retaliation.
Manny Pacquiao is not the only boxer in politics. The Marquez brothers Juan Manuel and Rafael are campaigning, peaceably, in the elections in their district. Both were world champions but they will both have to remember that punches below the belt are expected in politics.
Talking about punches last weekend saw a number of boxers warned for punches to the back of the head and a plethora of such fouls ignored. Any punch to the back of the head is a foul! Most of those punches are delivered in clinches as a boxer reaches up and taps slaps or thumps his opponent. It doesn’t matter whether it is a tap or a full blooded punch it is still a foul. You can’t have a rule saying it is not a foul as long as it is not hard. You can’t say it is all right to hit someone to the back of the head but not in the groin after all not every man’s brains are down there no matter what women say. Is it going to need a tragedy or near tragedy such as that suffered by Prichar Colon before something is done about it?
It is always encouraging to see a former boxer staying in the sport and playing a leading role. Dominique Nato was French amateur champion at heavyweight four times and a constant member of the French national team for eight years. A detached retina forced him out of boxing in 1985 with a 14-0 record and he was appointed national technical director to the French Federation and oversaw a period when France won six Olympic medals. He was appointed Vice President of the Federation and in March this year was elected President. So a good pair of hands at the wheel for French boxing.
Not such a good time for boxing has seen two fighters facing serious charges. Felix Verdejo, 27, was arrested whilst the death of his pregnant lover Keishia Rodriguez is investigated. It is alleged that Verdejo attacked and kidnapped Rodriguez and then threw her off a bridge near San Juan. When he turned professional in 2012 Verdejo was being touted as a future world champion and he won his first 23 fights. He was then seriously injured in a car accident and was out of the ring for 13 months. When he returned he lost his first fight and had never really recovered his previous form before losing on ninth round stoppage against Masayoshi Nakatani in December 2020
On a less high profile case Namibia’s top amateur Junias Jonas has been arrested and is facing charges of allegedly attempted murder and assault of a police officer. Jonas, 27, was to have had his first professional fight last Saturday but that did not happen. Jonas had won gold at the African Championships and the Commonwealth Games and was considered one of the favourites at 63kg in Tokyo. He competed in the Rio Olympics but that was a traumatic event for him. He was arrested in Brazil for alleged sexually assaulting a housekeeper at the Athlete’s Village. He was released on the day of his quarter-final which he lost and had to remain in the Namibian Embassy in Brazil for eight months before being able to leave Brazil and was eventually cleared of the charges.
Better news was that Argentinian Maximiliano Veron had returned to consciousness after a twelve day induced coma. He had undergone emergency surgery for a bleed to the brain after being stopped in eight rounds by Gustavo Lemos last month.
Fights to watch for this weekend will see Liam Smith (29-2-1) vs. Magomed Kurbanov (21-0) at super welter in Ekaterinburg on Friday and of course Saul Alvarez vs. Billy Joe Saunders in Texas on Saturday with Mexican Elwin Soto (18-1) defending the WBO light flyweight title against Japan’s Katsunari Takayama (32-8) and unbeaten Cuban heavyweight Frank Sanchez vs. seasoned veteran Nagy Aguilera (21-10) also on the card. May 14 will see Polish cruiserweight Michal Cieslak (20-1) vs. Russian Yury Kashinsky (20-1) in an IBF eliminator. Saturday 15 in yet another piece of WBA rubbish Mahmoud Charr will defend his-his what? He’s the WBA “champion in recess” but the WBA already have a Super a Secondary, and a Gold title holder so if Charr wins does he remain champion in recess or if Box Rec’s No 304 rated heavyweight Chris Lovejoy wins does he become champion in recess which would be farcical even for the WBA. I guess there is always the fall-back position of interim.
Since I am on the WBA they pulled off another beauty this month. It had already been announced that Carlos Canizales would defend the secondary WBA light flyweight title against Esteban Bermudez even though Bermudez was not in the WBA ratings. In his last three fights in October 2020 Bermudez had lost on points to unrated Rosendo Guarneros who had lost his last two fights. This was Bermudez first and only fight to have been scheduled for ten rounds. In December 2020 he beat Javier Marquez who was having his first pro fight and in March this year had a technical draw in an eight round fight with Luis Macias who was 11-10-2 and had lost four of his last five fights. Surprise surprise! In the WBA ratings published 30 April Senor Bermudez suddenly appears where? At No 15-no, No 14 no, No 13 no, No 12 no, No 11 no and there he is a No 10. The WBA are so arrogant they don’t even bother to hide their manipulations.
I am sure that many youngsters who enter boxing have dreams with one of those being to actually compete at the Olympic Games. Well Ghana has one of those young men in Prince “The Buzz” Larbie. He has already set his sights on the Olympics-for 2032! Larbie is only seven but already is a household name Ghana. He certainly has all of the moves of a “honey I shrunk the kids” version of a Gervonta Davis or Devin Haney and regularly takes part in exhibitions with much elder youths who don’t go easy on him. You can see him on You Tube but 2032 is a long way away and a lot can happen between now and then but you can’t blame him for dreaming.