Snips and Snipes 27 April 2022

Money, money, money must be big money in a heavyweight world.  Figures given out indicate that Tyson Fury’s base purse was $29.5 million and Dillian Whyte’s $7.4 million. The WBC holds back a percentage of the total purse which then goes to the winner which boosted Fury’s purse to $33.6 million. Big money in anybody’s language and if he hangs around to face the winner of Olek Usyk vs. Anthony Joshua that would be an even bigger draw as both Usyk and Joshua have bigger profiles than Whyte and a fourth fight with Deontay Wilder would not draw as well. With Wilder stopped in both of their last two meetings it should be an ended trilogy unless Wilder scores a big win. Outside of Fury, Usyk and Joshua there are no others who would qualify to be a big enough win for there to be large scale clamouring for Wilder to get another shot at Fury.

Way down the pay scale, but still big money, Trevor Bryan will reportedly get $1.7 million and Daniel Dubois $1.4 million when they clash for Bryan’s secondary WBA heavyweight title on 11 June. That’s silly money for a fight that will be a hard sell. The purses should be reversed as Bryan is realistically rated No. 37 in the world by Box Rec and Dubois No 20. It’s a last throw of the dice by Don King and he is gambling all on Bryan winning which shows how desperate he is to still be relevant. Larry Holmes is said to be part of the team training Bryan but will need a Harry Potter magic wand not a Larry Holmes jab to make him favourite against Dubois.

With Joe Joyce No 1 with the WBO and No 2 with the WBC and Joseph Parker No 2 with the WBO and No 3 with the WBC their 2 July fight is arguably of more significance that Bryan vs. Dubois.

It was naughty of Wladimir Klitschko to hint at a return to the ring in an interview with BLID .He made it clear that the war in Ukraine was his No 1 priority but mused about returning to try to do a “George Foreman”. George came back to regain the heavyweight title at the age of 45 and Wlad is 46 but he was just teasing-I hope.

Saturday at Madison Square Garden Katie Taylor (20-0) clashes with Amanda Serrano (42-1-1) with Taylor putting all four versions of the lightweight title on the line. Serrano is the WBA and WBC featherweight champion and at other times has held both IBF and WBO divisional titles and this has to be the biggest female fight in the history of female boxing. Hopefully it will inspire more women to enter boxing as a lack of strength in depth is the Achilles heel of female boxing. On the same show Liam Smith will face Jessie Vargas and Galal Yafai tackles Miguel Cartagena.

Equally important Saturday will see yet another unification fight as Oscar Valdez and Shakur Stevenson will put their respective WBC and WBO super featherweight titles up for grabs.

On 5 June we have George Kambosos vs. Devin Haney with the IBF, WBA, WBO titles owned by Kambosos and Haney’s WBC title all on the line which will unify another division. I think it is disrespectable to Haney that the on the WBC ratings they list their franchise champion Kambosos above Haney when the franchise label is just a way for the WBC to claim that a fight which is not for their title is still a WBC affair as it is for their nonsensical franchise title . To describe them as franchise “champions” is a bastardisation of the word champion as it is understood by anyone who cherishes boxing. What next? A silver franchise champion, an interim franchise champion, a franchise champion in recess all titles invented by the WBC.

The WBC Bridgerweight division is just limping along. It was introduced in November 2020 and apart from the fight for the vacant title between Oscar Rivas and Ryan Rozicki it has lain dormant and none of the other sanctioning bodies have adopted a similar weight division. It looks set to come out of hibernation on 13 August when the Canadian-based WBC title holder Rivas returns home to Cali in Colombia to defend against Pole Lukasz Rozanski  who is 14-0 and earned his rating with a one round stoppage of Artur Szpilka in May last year. That fight is not going to set pulses racing.

Plenty of European title action scheduled but not sure how many will come off. Negotiations are said to be progressing for Frenchman Mathieu Bauderlique (21-1) to defend the light heavyweight title against unbeaten Joshua Buatsi. Bauderlique is No 2 with the WBC and Buatsi No 2 with the IBF so plenty to gain and plenty to lose for each fighter if it comes off. Purse offers were due today (27th) for David Avanesyan to defend the welterweight title against Frenchman Jordy Weiss. Unfortunately Weiss has advised the EBU that he has chosen to relinquish the position of mandatory challenger. The three top rated fighters in the EBU welterweight ratings are Kell Brook, Conor Benn and Michael McKinson but there is no guarantee that any of those three see a fight with Avanesyan in their future. Farouk Kourbanov is making a voluntary defence of the lightweight title against Zelfa Barrett but no date or venue yet from Matchroom with the winner mandated to face Joe Cordina. Despite this high level of activity and so much interest in all things heavyweight the European title remains stagnant with no date set for Marco Huck, who has not fight since August 2020, and Agit Kabayel to meet for the vacant title.

Boxing certainly runs in the Mundine family. First was Tony then his son Anthony and now grandson Rahim is turning pro. Australian boxing is certainly looking interesting with George Kambosos and Tim Tszyu catching the headlines and the Moloney twins Andrew and Jason very much in the title picture. On the brink are unbeaten heavyweights Justis Huni, Demsey McKean and Joe Goodall, cruiserweight Jai Opetaia, Olympian Paulo Aokuso at light heavyweight, super middleweight Cesar Tapia and lightweights Brock Jarvis and Harry Garside a Commonwealth gold medallist and Tokyo bronze medallist- all unbeaten.

The Australian National Boxing Federation follows a policy that if a national title is declared vacant instead of nominating two fighters to contest the vacant title they formally ask for a declaration of interest from those seeking to promote the title and make a selection from there. It is a very transparent approach and keeps the titles active and I am not aware of any other national or sanctioning body following the same process.

Michael Zerafa put himself in the line for a title shot by beating fellow Australian Isaac Harman in an IBF eliminator. The hope is that Gennady Golovkin will move up to super middleweight with Zerafa fighting Brazilian Esquiva Falcao for the vacant title. Both Zerafa and Hardman owed their place in the eliminator to some manipulation of the IBF ratings. Harman first entered the IBF ratings posted on 18 August 2021 at No 15. His next fight was in December 2021 beating Adam Stowe who had a 6-2-2 record and that was enough see him jump from No 15 to No 8. Although Zerafa had finished Anthony Mundine’s career with a first round stoppage in March 2021 he was unrated at the end of 2021 but suddenly appeared from nowhere to No 10 in first IBF ratings of 2022 after beating Silveni Nawal a guy with a 12-4-1 record who had won only one of his last six fights and not even an IBF regional title to use as an excuse for jumping Zerafa over Jaime Munguia and Felix Cash. In 1999 Assistant US Attorney Robert Cleary was quoted as saying “A culture of corruption has festered in the IBF virtually since its inception… IBF ratings were not earned – they were bought… The crimes have bastardized the ratings in most of the weight classes” but of course that could not be the situation now!!

News from Ghana has Isaac Dogboe back in action in Accra on 21 May against Filipino Eugene Lagos. There is also a great deal of interest in 20-year-old Samuel Takyi. He delighted Ghana by winning a bronze medal in Tokyo only the fourth Ghanaian to win a boxing medal in Olympic boxing and the first since Prince Amartey in Munich in 1972. He had his first pro fight on 15 April winning on a second round stoppage. He will be loaded with a millstone of expectation so I wish him well.

If you want to succeed as a boxer you have to be prepared to make sacrifices. Egyptian-born Mponda Kalunga came through some very tough experiences. His family was split and at three-years-old Mponda ended up in a refugee camp in Tanzania where he stayed for seven years. When he was ten his family made its way to Canada. Eventually Mponda took up boxing and had enough success to turn professional and is 10-2 having won his last eight fights. The sensible thing would be to base yourself close to Montreal or Toronto the major boxing sites in Canada. No that’s much too easy. Mponda lives in the Yukon so travels over 5,000 kms to round-off his training every time he has a fight. Dedication or just a just a glutton for punishment?

Putting Felipe Nsue with his 4-1-1 record in with Mateusz Masternak 44-5 (29 wins by KO/TKO) was a disgrace and a near tragedy. Nsue was in a coma for almost a month after their fight in August last year. He has recovered to move through the process from coma to wheelchair to crutches but has a lot more rehab ahead with a figure of over $65,000 required to pay for it. Although born in Equatorial Guinea Nsue is a Spanish citizen and a concert was recently staged in Zaragoza to raise funds for his treatment. Boxing is a dangerous sport and injury is always a possibility. There are those who should have protected Nsue but they failed in their duty of care.