By Bart Barry-

Saturday in Moscow undefeated Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk became the first unified cruiserweight champion of the world since Evander Holyfield, pitching a 12-round no-hitter against Russia’s Murat Gassiev to win the inaugural season of the World Boxing Super Series. Usyk decisioned Gassiev so lopsidedly not one round went unanimously the Russian’s way. It was a remarkable conclusion to a remarkable run in no way diminished by Americans’ having to watch it on a YouTube stream from Turkey.

Usyk’s was a wonderful performance in consequential of a match as we’ve had in years. What Usyk betrayed through nearly every moment of 36 minutes and Gassiev failed to disrupt more than a pair of times was comfort. There’s an equation of sorts for how a stalking powerpuncher attritions a clever boxer, and it relies mostly on fatigue begotten by discomfiting. If Usyk’s jab and movement looked nervy anxious in Saturday’s opening two minutes they looked strategic gorgeous in the closing round, and the importantest part: They looked nearly the same all through the 32 minutes separating those.

Gassiev may not have landed a single clean shot the entire fight and certainly nothing Usyk didn’t see en route; Gassiev’s few noteworthy blows went through Usyk’s southpaw guard and touched Usyk’s gloves and arms before touching his head.

There was subtlety and awkward wonderment in what Usyk did, and if it was missed by many Americans for the match’s inaccessibility, well, let’s correct what of that we might.

No matter how the opening 2:50 of most rounds went, and most especially the especially consequential middle rounds – when Gassiev had to take anything he learned watching Usyk for five six seven frames and apply his rebuttal – Usyk found a way to punctuate doubt in Gassiev’s mind as the round closed. A wellplaced right uppercut, 5, or uppercut-hook, 6-3, didn’t so much hurt Gassiev as tell him: “I can hit you anytime with anything I want, and I beseech you remember that as your trainer whispers sour nothings in your ear for the next minute.”

Gassiev didn’t get angry, he’s too good and unattached for that, but he got verily discouraged in those pivotal rounds when he expected to begin striking Usyk properly. He trudged cornerwards while Usyk strolled.

And who was there to greet Gassiev when he arrived?

Why, none other than Abel “Plan A” Sanchez, the architect of Mexican Style, a form of prizefighting not one of Mexico’s five greatest prizefighters would recognize. Sanchez’s fighting philosophy appears to rely on, well, not head movement or innovative defense but perhaps initiative – a Sanchez fighter must want to hurt the other man more and oftener, and then everything else sort of works out? To carry such initiative, such enduring and quicksummoned rage, through 36 minutes, is nigh impossible, so a Sanchez fighter must be well-conditioned and attrition his man well before the championship rounds. He must hurt his opponent with every landed punch, and this works because, at the championship level, surely even the least-creative attack must find some purchase sometime in 2,160 seconds of opportunity.

Except Saturday.

In Moscow the Sanchez tactical vision for Gassiev reduced to: Go punch that guy.

Usyk obviously knew what Gassiev would do a third of a second or more before Gassiev did and a halfsecond or more before Gassiev started to do it. If it were a football game Saturday’s fight would evince a stolen playbook; stolen signals, were it a baseball game. Since it’s a fight, though, and there are only so many punches and ways of throwing them, there’s no conspiracy – the verb “to outclass” suffices.

Gassiev recognized it, applauding for Usyk through the reading of the scorecards, but since it might be less apparent to aficionados treated since 2012 to what gullibility has marked Mexican Style’s reception, let’s set the hands unmistakably upon the clock: Usyk outclassed Sanchez at least as much as he outclassed Gassiev.

This was no aberration, either – and a replica preview of how Gennady Golovkin would fare against Billy Joe Saunders, were GGG’s handlers careless enough to make that match (unlikely: Saunders is an actual middleweight).

Usyk is a weird and wonderful gentleman pugilist, dancing ever elegantly to a ballet of his own conjuring. He is physically enormous; let not the title cruiserweight mislead you. And howsoever lightly he appeared to hit Gassiev he is mighty and unwilling to be moved or bullied about the ring. While there’s no doubting Gassiev had power enough to affect Usyk painfully in the first eight rounds of the match – hence Usyk’s abiding vigilance – there’s neither doubting Usyk’s resilience and power of resistance. Out of ideas by round 3 Gassiev’d’ve shoved Usyk where he could were he not routinely chastened by Usyk’s lefthand. Usyk didn’t (doesn’t) hit hard as Gassiev but he sure as hell hit hard enough to dissuade Gassiev.

With frustration came fatigue and with fatigue went Gassiev’s initiative. Even had Gassiev found a way to surprise Usyk after the ninth round nothing about the result’d’ve changed – Gassiev alternately winged wildness or tentatively threw darts, and if Usyk was far too seasoned to be caught by Gassiev’s windups his chin was also far too low to be destabilized by anything less than a combination, and Gassiev threw nary one of those #MexicanStyle.

Let’s close with a few words of gratitude. Thank goodness for the Turks on Saturday. Tivibu Spor, a 24/7 sports unit of Istanbul’s TTNET, delivered for aficionados where no American broadcaster bothered. Much of Saturday’s undercard and every second of its main event happened on Tivibu Spor’s YouTube channel, crisply, cleanly and legally. No logons, no credit cards, no monthly fees, no popups or pirating – just live boxing with commentary blessedly outside our comprehension. One of the talkers was wild for Gassiev, shouting crazily the three times Gassiev threatened Usyk, but otherwise it was a flawless broadcast.

Bart Barry uzerinden ulasilabilir Twitter @bartbarry

SAN DIEGO, CALIF. – July 20, 2018 – On Saturday afternoon, July 21st, undefeated cruiserweights with knock-out power, Uysk and Gassiev, will battle for four of the major world titles IBF, WBA, WBC, and WBO. KlowdTV is proud to air the exclusive live United States stream of the finals of The World Boxing Super Series Cruiserweight championship that will pit undefeated fighters Oleksandr Usyk and Murat Gassiev.

The bout will take place in Moscow, Russia beginning at 3 PM ET. “We are very proud to be able to bring this outstanding fight to KlowdTV,” said Robert Herring Sr., CEO of KlowdTV. “I know how much interest there is in the fight by reading all of the talk on all of the websites and social media. The fans have been clamoring for the fight to find a United States distributor, and we hope all the fans tune in on Saturday.”

Usyk (14-0, 11 KOs) of Kiev, Ukraine is WBC and WBO world cruiserweight champion.

The 2012 Olympic Gold Medal winner won the WBO world title with a 12-round unanimous decision over Krzysztof Glowacki on September 17, 2016 in Poland. Usyk defended the title twice with a 9th round stoppage over Thabiso Mchunu and a 12-round unanimous decision over Michael Hunter.

Usyk entered the World Boxing Super series with a 10th round stoppage over former world champion Marco Huck. In his semifinal bout, Usyk captured the WBC World Cruiserweight title with a majority decision over Mairis Briedis on January 27th in Latvia.

Gassiev (26-0, 19 KOs) of Russia, is the IBF and WBA Super Cruiserweight champion.

Gassiev now trains in Big Bear, California under famed trainer Abel Sanchez.

The 24-year-old Gassiev won IBF championship on December 3, 2016 with a 12-round unanimous decision over Denis Lebedev.

Gassiev entered The World Boxing Super Series with a 3rd round destruction of former world champion Krzysztof Wlodarczyk. In his last bout, Gassiev won the WBA World Super Cruiserweight title with a 12th round stoppage over previously undefeated Yunier Dorticos on February 3, 2018.

The weigh can be seen on KlowdTV

The action begins at 3 PM

A full undercard will be shown that includes a world championship bout.

Mairis Briedis (23-1, 18 KOs) vs Brandon Deslaurier (11-1-1, 1KO)-10 Rounds-Cruiserweights

Cecilia Braekhus (33-0, 9 KOs) vs Inna Segaydakovskaya (7-0, 3 KOs)–10 Rounds–for the IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO World Welterweight titles

Fedor Chudinov (17-2, 12 KOs) vs Nadjib Mohammedi (40-5, 23 KOs)–12–WBA International Super Middleweight title

KlowdTV is a 24/7 live streaming service, that has over 31 live channels and 50 music channels.

The fight will be free to anyone who is already a KlowdTV subscriber. For any non-subscribers, the cost will be $9.99 and that will not only guarantee Saturday’s “can’t-miss” fight, but 30 days of KlowdTV.

KlowdTV can be accessed on any device that includes Smart TV’s, Computers, ROKU, Amazon, All IOS devices, phones and Tablets.
The fight card will be streamed live via KlowdTV. Visit www.klowdtv.com for additional information.

By Norm Frauenheim-

Terence Crawford’s pound-for-pound campaign got a strong endorsement Wednesday night in downtown Los Angeles with an ESPY for best fighter.

Mikey Garcia was there for the annual awards dinner across the street from Staples Center where he will continue his own campaign on July 28 against Robert Easter Jr.

Garcia had to wonder how he could get off the red carpet and on to the main stage. He’s where Crawford was a couple of years ago. He’s a consensus pound-for-pound contender. From list to mythical list, he’s in the top five. He’s third on this one, behind Crawford, Vasiliy Lomachenko at No. 2 and ahead of Gennady Golovkin at No. 4.

Garcia’s resume puts him there. He’s unbeaten at 38-0. Thirty stoppages keep him there. He’s won titles in four weight classes. He’s got everything except the victory or two that could put where Crawford was Wednesday night.

Getting there, in large part, is as political as it is pugilistic. There’s a sense that Garcia would already be No. 1 if had fought the right guy. For a while, internet imaginations were inflamed by the possibility of Garcia versus Lomachenko, No. 1 in many pound-for-pound debates and also a lightweight champion currently in rehab for shoulder surgery.

It made sense then. Still does. But Garcia’s divorce from Top Rank a few years ago makes it problematic at best. Lomachenko is a Top Rank fighter. So, too, is Crawford, who once was mentioned as a Garcia possibility when Crawford, a newly-minted welterweight champion was still at 140.

The best way, the only way perhaps, to eventually force a Lomachenko-Garcia is to turn Garcia into a star. That means big numbers at the box office and on television. For now, that brings Garcia to an arena just a few blocks of red carpet from that ESPY dinner the other night.

Garcia is back at home, fighting in Southern California for the first time in more than seven years. Garcia had fought in New York, Texas and Las Vegas.

Along the way, however, his identity as a Los Angeles fighter had been lost. Restoring it is one path toward reawakening and regaining his fan base in southern California.

“He will be the king of LA, then the king of boxing, all of those things,’’ said Richard Schaefer, who is promoting the July 28 Showtime card, which is scheduled for 15 fights. “You will see.’’

Lomachenko has repeatedly said he wants to fight Garcia. But numbers, personality and lingering tensions between Garcia and Top Rank could always get in the way.

Then what? Former welterweight great Manny Pacquiao, back in the headlines after his stoppage last week of Lucas Matthysse in his first KO since 2009, might be a possibility, especially at 140.

Garcia, also a 140-pound champion, says he is mostly comfortable at 135 these days.

“I’m comfortable in both divisions,’’ Garcia, 30, said during a conference call Thursday after Schaefer introduced him as the pound—for-pound best. “There is a little disadvantage at 140 against bigger guys. But I feel good at either.’’

Seemingly, that would eliminate 147. Then again, that might eliminate an option in the quest for the big prize at the end of that red carpet. Garcia hasn’t mentioned Crawford, perhaps because of his issues with Top Rank and/or simply because Crawford’s dramatic emergence is beginning to scare the hell out of just about everybody in the business.

But Garcia has mentioned Errol Spence Jr, another emerging welterweight who appears to be on a collision course with Crawford sometime during the next couple of years.

It’s hard to judge how Garcia, who is as fundamentally as sound as anybody in the current game, would fare against the bigger Spence.

But maybe an early indication of that will be there against Easter (21-0, 14 KOs), also a lightweight champion, yet with a couple of physical dimensions bigger than even Spence. Easter has huge advantages in height and reach over Garcia. The unbeaten Toledo welterweight is 5-foot-11, five inches taller than the 5-6 Garcia. More significant, Easter has a listed reach of 76 inches, eight more than Garcia’s 68.

Compare that to Spence. At 5-9 ½, he’s an inch-and-a-half shorter than Easter. Spence’s reach is listed as 72 inches, four less than Easter.

If – just if – Garcia can find a way over, under and through Easter’s key advantages, then maybe he can deal with Spence, who is ranked among the second five in most pound-for-pound debates.

“I’m willing to talk about fighting anybody,’’ said Garcia, who knows the issues and understands he needs the options.

By Bart Barry-

Saturday on the ESPN+ app Filipino Manny Pacquiao smelted Argentine welterweight titlist Lucas Matthysse in Malaysia. Saturday on no app whatever undefeated Russian cruiserweight Murat Gassiev will fight undefeated Ukrainian cruiserweight Oleksandr Usyk in Moscow to unify their division. If the latter’s lack of an American broadcaster is bizarre, the former’s broadcaster was indeed apropos.

A temptation at times like these is to hedge one’s SportsCenterish prepositional phrase. Y’all know the drill: “in recent memory” is the way you take credit for boldness one word before you walk things back with a comma. Not today. After Saturday’s 25-minute comain of commercials, junior-dev graphics and overwrought pontification, it’s time someone other than an ESPN employee asserts what so many of us feel.

Manny Pacquiao’s comeback tilt in Kuala Lumpur was the greatest ESPN+ fight in history.

Before its cancellation some years back ESPN’s “Friday Night Fights” consistently presented the weakest boxing on television, the sort of underbudgeted slop advertisers and reputable promoters skirred. Far from appearing on FNF himself Pacquiao wouldn’t consider permitting towelboy Buboy to chiefsecond even Manila minimumweights on the program. Yet here we are in 2018 and Pacquiao’s now fighting on the smartphone equivalent of FridayNightFights.com.

A word or two about that, actually. What the hell are commercials doing on a paid stream? Having charged us $5/month ESPN gave us at least a halfhour of commercials during its otherwise-inexplicable 150-minute prefight Pacquiao promotion, and had its commentary crew act like nothing was the matter. “Two revenue streams!” some pitchman inevitably proclaimed, but that’s all sorts of wrong because most Saturday viewers were on a free trial and won’t be renewing after the three hours of their lives they just gave ESPN+ for seven rounds of desired boxing. “But wait,” they say, “there are all those Muhammad Ali fights that come with your subscription!” – like either they don’t know about YouTube or figure we don’t.

Almost a decade ago one of promoter Top Rank’s leaders talked about a concept he called “brand of boxing” – encouraging his peers to imagine their sport as an ecosystem whose general health be far more important than any one of their events. Today an American aficionado spends monthly $25 for basic cable (ESPN), $10-$15 for Showtime, $5 for ESPN+ and soon $10-$20 for DAZN – and that $50-$65 monthly bill assumes both a savvy cordcutting bent for our aficionado and his cancellation of HBO some time ago. But here’s the brand-of-boxing punchline: That kind of money spent the first week of July, our aficionado looks forward to the year’s best fight this Saturday and finds to his amazement somehow not one of these sundry pay services is televising Murat Gassiev vs. Oleksandr Usyk to crown the rarest thing in our beloved sport – an undefeated, undisputed, unified champion of the world.

A word or two about that, too, actually. Gassiev-Usyk is a fascinating cruiserweight culmination of World Boxing Super Series’ inaugural season. Former Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer is associated with the WBSS and repulsive. There’s no history needed to make that assertion; if we, as men, were taught to trust our intuition the way mothers do, we’d all have heeded our genuine first impressions of Schaefer 14 years ago. But while Schaefer once combined visibility and repulsiveness in a unique way he’s not otherwise repulsively unique and definitely not repulsive enough to keep us from enjoying what exceptional cruiserweight matches WBSS gave us in its semifinal round. But Schaefer or somebody affiliated with him appears to have repulsed American broadcasters sufficiently to keep Gassiev-Usyk off even our smartphones.

Which makes brand-of-boxing, for the next week at least, toxic.

Writing of which, how about that Lucas Matthysse? We already knew power punchers kept prizefighting’s frailest psyches, but Matthysse’s comportment these last few years makes one consider the symmetrical possibility a boxer’s mental hardiness is inversely proportionate to his punching power.

Five years ago while writing The Ring cover story mentioned on Saturday’s broadcast I came across an exquisite Argentine boxing writer named Osvaldo Príncipi whose Spanish prose and presence make him something like South America’s Hugh McIlvaney. During our correspondence he attributed a whole lot of things like Mathysse’s tattoos to a divorce. I felt for Matthysse then; by all accounts the guy does little in his life but love his daughter, play with his dogs, avoid the media and fight.

Saturday’s second knockdown, though, is hard to excuse. It’s one thing to realize you’re in over your head and race towards unconsciousness, but it’s something else entirely to court it so wishfully – to hope a punch cuts the lights, find it didn’t, then in full consciousness genuflect to your opponent. Let’s move on.

Saturday’s iteration of Manny Pacquiao was a pleasant return to what belligerence once endeared him to so many of us. A return to the man who dealt swiftly and disproportionately with anyone who caused him a sting, a man who didn’t collect grievances or connive but rather sought instant redress – that’s who we saw go after Matthysse each of the three times the Argentine did something offensive to Pacquiao. And it was electrifying.

So Pacquiao fights on. One can’t seriously entertain the possibility GGG is a great middleweight – hard stop – and begrudge Pacquiao three or four farewell tours against career 140-pounders like Matthysse or a talented lightweight like Vasyl Lomachenko. In fact, Pacquiao-Lomachenko in Helsinki might make a great Christmas present for ESPN+ subscribers.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

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Follow all the action as Lucas Matthysse defends the WBA Welterweight championship against the legendary Manny Pacquiao in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  The action starts at 9 PM ET / 6 PM PT / 9 AM in Malaysia/Philippines and 10 PM in Argentina with 3 more world title bouts that will see Jhack Tepora vs Edivaldo Ortega for the Interim WBA Featherweight title; Moruti Mthalane vs Muhammad Waseem for the IBF Featherweight title and Carlos Canizalez vs Bin Lu for the WBA Light Flyweight title

NO BROWSER REFRESH NEEDED; THE PAGE WILL UPDATE AUTOMATICALLY

Round 1: Left from Pacquiao..Left to body..Right from Matthysse

Round 2 Overhand right from Matthysse..Good jab..double jab/straight left from Pacquiao..Right hook..Jab from Matthysse

Round 3 UPPERCUT AND DOWN GOES MATTHYSSE…Hard straight left..

Round 4  Uppercut and left from Pacquiao..jab from Matthysse..Double jab from Pacquiao..Body shot from Matthysse…

Round 5 Right hook from Pacquiao…Left hook from Matthysse..Body shot from Pacquiao..Combination from Matthysse…SHOT TO TOP OF HEAD AND MATTHYSSE TAKE A KNEE

Round 6 Matthysse hits Pacquiao with a low blow..Hard left uppercut from Pacquiao..Right hook and body shot..Uppercut from Pacquiao…right hook/left hand…

Round 7 Lead left from Pacquiao..UPPERCUT AND DOWN GOES MATTHYSSE..FIGHT S OVER

Round 1 Winginh shots..Left to body from Tepora…Right from Ortega

Round 2 Uppercut from Tepora..Left from Ortega..Left from Tepora..1-2 to the body..Right hook from Ortega..

Round 3 Body shot from Tepora..Body

Round 4 Left to body from Tepora..

Round 5 Jabs from Tepora

Round 6  Hard left from Tepora.

Round 7 …2 lefts from Ortega

Round 8 Body shot from Tepora..

Round 9 HARD UPPERCUT AND DOWN GOES ORTEGA…HARD RIGHTS AND LEFT..BIG COMBINATION AND THE FIGHT IS OVER

Round 7: Nice right from Mthalane..Counter right

Round 9: Mthlane lands a right..Nice counter right

Round 10 Both land right hands…counter from Mthalane…Right..Right at the bell

Round 11 Waseem cut over the left eye..Left From Mthalane..HARD COMBINATION…DOWN GOES MTHALANE

Round 12 Left from from Mthalane…Jab…Good exchenge..Hard right from Mthalane..Left from Waseem

114-113 twice and 116-110 for MTHLANE

Round 1 Canizales lands a right..Left..Body..Left to body

Round 2 Right from Canizales…Right..Right

Round 3 Counter left and right from Canizales..Good body shot..Trading uppercut..Left from Lu

Round 4 Combination from Lu..Left to body from Canizales..

Round 5 Body and from Lu…Counter right from Canizales.Right..Straight left from Lu..Right from Canizales..Combination from Lu

Round 6:  Round to body from Canizales..1-2..Left to body..Combination

Round 7 Straight left from Canizales

Round 8 Good combination from Lu..Straight left..2 rights from Canizales..Good exchange..

Round 9 Hard right from Canizales…Hard right..3 punch combination..Hard right rocks Lu..

Round 10  Hard right from Canizales

Round 11:  Canizales lands a hard right..He is hurting Lu..Left and Right DOWN GOES LU

Round 12:  Big right hurts Lue..3 more rights and a jab...HUGE RIGHT AND DOWN GOES LU…FIGHT IS STOPPED

By Norm Faruenheim-

Manny Pacquiao is just the latest example of how boxing makes fools out of everybody who sticks around too long. Inevitably, the pro ring collects sad clichés like debris around a clogged drain.

I’m not sure how Pacquiao became just another one. Maybe, he needs the money. Maybe, he’s nostalgic for the good old days, although he might have a tough time recalling them if he continues to fight.

Nearly eight years ago, it was hard to imagine that Pacquiao would be poised for still another fight, this time against Lucas Matthysse in Malaysia on ESPN+ Saturday (9 pm. ET/6 p.m. PT) in the Filipino Senator’s 69th pro bout.

He’ll be 40-years-old later this year, Dec. 17. He’s been fighting for nearly a quarter century. His first recorded bout was Jan. 11, 1995, but that formal record doesn’t include all those other unregulated fights on Filipino back streets for a few pesos, or a meal, or just for the hell of it.

Pacquiao had come so far, so fast, that it was easy to think he would be different. His ascendancy from Filipino street kid, to international celebrity, to national hero was like spontaneous combustion. From karaoke to pro basketball, he’s done it all.

For a few years, much of the world stopped and watched on a night when Pacquiao fought.

He could even stop a war.

I recall his victory in a second rematch with Erik Morales on Nov 18, 2006 at Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center. I was seated next to a Filipino journalist who pointed to his computer and showed me reports from Manila on how a civil conflict on one of the nation’s many islands would cease for as long as the bout lasted. Opposing soldiers wanted to see Pacquiao fight before they resumed their own fight.

The truce lasted only three rounds. The soldiers resumed their fight after he finished his. But it occurred to me that Pacquiao’s dangerous hands were rare weapons. They could knock out opponents and wars. Then, the boxing ring looked to be just a stepping stone for a Fighter of the Year on his way to a Nobel Peace Prize. There was no reason to think he would stick around. There was so much more to do. There was too much ambition. But I was wrong, just another one of those aforementioned fools.

Like so many for so long, another opening bell has become an irresistible siren song for Pacquiao. Guess here is that he needs the money. He always needs the money.

Top Rank’s Bob Arum once said he was the only social welfare system in the Philippines. He bought homes and fishing boats for poor Filipinos who asked. Depending on the source, Pacquiao collected between $120 million and $180 million for his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2015. That’s huge money, but not a national budget.

Now, however, Pacquiao is not the attraction he was a decade ago. The beginning of his decline can be traced to one punch in one of his greatest fights. Midway through the sixth round of a November, 2010 fight in front of more 41,000 at Cowboys Stadium in the Dallas Metroplex, Antonio Margarito left him doubled over in pain with a vicious body shot to his left side. Pacquiao went on to win the fight for his eighth world title, scoring a courageous unanimous decision, despite 17-pound disadvantage. But he was never the same, never again the smiling warrior, always as happy as he was fearless.

In the rearview mirror, that would have been the time to think about retirement. But Pacquiao continued, despite that first sign of real vulnerability.

He’s made money, spent money.

He’s won fights and lost a few notable ones – Timothy Bradley, Juan Manuel Marquez, Mayweather and – in his last outing – Jeff Horn.

In the controversial loss to Horn in Brisbane, Pacquiao (59-7-2, 35 KOs) looked like a shrunken version of his former self. He still showed some speed and perhaps enough quickness to win on the scorecards. Matthysse (39-4, 36 KOs) looked shot in his last outing, yet the Argentine had a big punch and power is always the last thing to go Pacquiao’s footspeed might be critical.

The troublesome aspect to the Matthysse bout is talk about Pacquiao’s next move if he wins. There’s already speculation about a bout with lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko, the pound-for pound favorite who is recovering from shoulder surgery. The good news is that there is less talk about Pacquiao against newly-minted welterweight Terence Crawford, whose one-sided stoppage of Horn on June 9 showed just how much Pacquiao has declined. Lomachenko is very good, but Crawford is dangerous, perhaps more dangerous than anybody in the ring today.

Crawford could leave Pacquiao with long-term damage. Lomachenko beats him bad. Those aren’t options. They are a fool’s choice.

By Bart Barry-

Editor’s note: A year ago, bereft of ideas for his weekly column, Bart Barry interviewed himself again about the state of the craft. That went so well, we asked him to do it this week.

BB: Looking better, kid.

BB: It’s the fasting.

BB: Really?

BB: Doubtful.

BB: Yet it persists.

BB: Fasting, Kundalini, cold showers – they’re all of a piece, wethinks. Something gets read about these things’ benefits so they get tried suffered through. Month laters their effect be nighnil, but by now it’s a question of discipline or will.

BB: Fasting –

BB: Breaks up the monotony. Not eating on Mondays or Thursdays makes the week compelling. Half of two days spent under the illusion a bite of food can solve every problem. Their successors followed by ambivalence.

BB: This solved nothing, and it’s wonderful to be free to eat again?

BB: Yes!

BB: No more boxing gym.

BB: Not for quite a while. Miss it not slightly.

BB: What do you miss the least?

BB: The heat the heat. San Fernando that damn heater.

BB: Barbaric.

BB: Fighters make weight, they don’t lose it. Look at Duran.

BB: Is he the purest manifestation of –

BB: Yes.

BB: How goes the craft?

BB: Easier.

BB: Because the quality of subject improved?

BB: Not noticeably but maybe.

BB: Then it’s a venue change?

BB: Not a change of venue but venues changing. As this city grows denser there’s less space less time that makes everyone tenser. Even in the South Texas heat there seem more heels tapping more nervousness more suspense less time less space.

BB: That helps the writing?

BB: Helps the boredom.

BB: When did boredom surpass wordlessness as top concern?

BB: One doesn’t mark these things but it must’ve been when we started writing the column at coffeeshops instead of using them as rewards for having written the column. You write in a hermetically sealed space when you’re afraid you’ll stop because you can’t fill the blank page.

BB: Now it’s a matter of its being unamusing?

BB: But it is exactly amusing. Sunday trips to the coffee shop are the weeks’ best parts that are predictable.

BB: Who excites you the most right now?

BB: David Benavidez.

BB: Why?

BB: There’s something perishable there. An originality, too. I didn’t realize how much I liked him till you asked.

BB: Is it a Phoenix thing?

BB: No nostalgia. In a dozen years there never felt a Phoenix thing – not in the way there’s a San Antonio thing or a Silicon Valley thing or a Boston thing.

BB: When you think of Phoenix boxing, Arizona boxing even, you think of Benavidez?

BB: No. I think of Norm, I think of Desert Diamond Casino, I think of the late Don Smith.

BB: Lately.

BB: February I sat next to him in Corpus.

BB: You conflate him with the Colorado matchmaker?

BB: Invest each with the other. Was a Top Rank card – Zurdo Ramirez. We didn’t recognize each other till we started talking about Norm and the Brothers Benavidez, Jose on the undercard. There’s a guy down here with a local chapter of Veterans for Peace, reminds me of both Don Smiths.

BB: A name you say like a single word.

BB: Like an alias.

BB: Excited about GolovCanelo 2?

BB: No.

BB: Should be a good fight.

BB: Yup. Don’t care about either guy. Both good men. Professionals. Talented. All that. No sense of character with either of them. Their first fight was two good fighters making a good fight.

BB: The fight wasn’t great. They aren’t great.

BB: It feels business cycle more than boxing cycle. We’ve got a redhead Mexican can fight a bit. HBO loves the Soviet Bloc. Golden Boy needs money. Golovkin can’t be the second coming of Hagler till he beats his Hearns. The fight has to be made because it can’t be made. Before anyone can settle into addressing how historically average both guys are we get keelhauled with revenue projections.

BB: And that’s the story.

BB: It’s a reflexive trick sort of halfassed bullying: You don’t know what you’re talking about because look at how much money it’ll make!

BB: What’s the rebuttal to that?

BB: There isn’t one because it’s a different conversation. The person who makes that argument doesn’t want the original conversation or wasting cycles to persuade you or you him.

BB: You wrestle him back?

BB: Nah. He has the energy. You sidle away. What’s the difference?

BB: What are we reading?

BB: Mitochondria.

BB: Why?

BB: No idea.

BB: Here’s a go. There’s a theory out there mitochondria was a predatory bacterium that eventually found symbiosis with a eukaryote, and cancer is a reversion by mitochondria to its original predatory state –

BB: And since Mom just passed away from cancer –

BB: This is a tribute of sorts.

BB: But it isn’t, really, not even a weak one.

BB: Then why do it?

BB: This week?

BB: Aside from calendar, boxing or general.

BB: It goes back to “Las Meninas” by Velazquez, painted, as you know, 41 years after Cervantes writes the second volume of “Don Quijote” in the same city. Cervantes has his fictional characters reading about themselves. Then Velazquez paints himself painting himself. Both do it a little messily, with irony.

BB: In the sense of not-sanitized?

BB: Cervantes is satirizing imposters. Velazquez pretends to be just painting something, that you later discover is a portrait of some royal couple, that you later discover isn’t that at all. The technical mastery is obvious and beside the point.

BB: This is neither.

BB: Neither, yes. This isn’t even Picasso cynically looping and looping till you’re so confused he must be a genius.

BB: Then do it for the ease.

BB: Easier than mailing-in a preview of a Pacquiao fight you don’t honestly care about.

BB: And because of Vermeer.

BB: You determined to make this a two-parter?

BB: If you are.

BB: Across the room from the wood-mounted print of “Las Meninas” is a wood-mounted print of “The Art of Painting” – as you know.

BB: Again.

BB: It’s the crown-thingy on the model’s head. Notice the artist is painting it differently on the canvas than Vermeer painted it on his canvas.

BB: Because of the angle of the artist’s painting.

BB: A tie-in with what Velazquez and Cervantes are up to. Vermeer is painting himself painting a model differently from how Vermeer is painting that same model.

BB: You don’t see any of this in boxing?

BB: Almost. Sometimes. Nearly. Chocolatito hanging the jab near his opponent’s right shoulder so his opponent’s counter, a right cross naturally, bangs his shoulder into Chocolatito’s glove, which bangs into his opponent’s chin.

BB: Punching himself for trying to punch Chocolatito, or Vazquez pinning –

BB: Yes, kinda, Vazquez pinning Marquez’s right arm to Vazquez’s left shoulder to pull Marquez into a right uppercut. Mijares making an opponent miss so wildly so often he injures his shoulder. Marciano and Valero punching their opponents’ arms. Rigondeaux rehearsing a combination, in full, before he throws it.

BB: What about Lomachenko?

BB: He has the timing and space to do it, but where’s the irony? He’s sensational. Technically transcendent. But he’s like what happens in the middle of Vermeer’s studio, where he’s got easel legs and chair legs and the artist’s legs and tiles all juxtaposing so successfully you have to believe him, and know you couldn’t pull it off, and suspect no one else could either.

BB: But is it joyful?

BB: But is it joyful.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

By Norm Frauenehim-

About 1,500 miles and an international border separated two fighters who only have a weight class and mutual contempt in common.

Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin were in opposite virtual corners – Canelo in Guadalajara and GGG in Big Bear, Calif. — at an unusual news conference last week that could only happen in today’s social-media world. It was social in name only, of course. But that gave it an edge. It was effective, because it was new.

But it’s effectiveness was also rooted in drama as genuine as it is timeless. GGG and Canelo don’t like each other.

They staged their satellite newser Tuesday on the Golden Boy Promotions Facebook page for a big audience that watched because it’s clear they want to unfriend each other in their Sept. 15 rematch (HBO PPPV/8 pm. ET) at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena with more than a key stroke.

The middleweights never smiled. They had a tough time even looking into the cameras throughout the hour-long session. It was awkward enough to almost be painful. Almost.

Real pain, of course, is the inherent promise in the controversial build-up for a rematch postponed by Canelo’s two positive PED tests in February and then testy negotiations that only heightened dislike the rival camps have for each other.

A clipped tone spoke volumes Tuesday. At one point, moderator Mauricio Pedroza asked Canelo for what he had to say to GGG.

“Nothing, we’ll see September 15,’’ Canelo said.

Then, there were moments when Canelo and his corner expressed their anger at GGG trainer Abel Sanchez, whose consistent wit and criticism of Canelo’s tactics in last September’s draw represent some rhetorical jabs in the early rounds of the psychological gamesmanship. Sanchez questions Canelo’s courage.

“I think that on the 15th when Oscar and Canelo are having breakfast, Oscar needs to remind him, he needs to bring his courage to the venue that night because he’s going to need it,’’ Sanchez said Tuesday. “If he intends to knock out Golovkin, he’s going to have to fight him. And if he fights him, he’s going to get knocked out. I said that before. He would have gotten knocked out the first time, but he decided to make it a track meet that night.

“But if he comes to fight and if he comes to knock out Golovkin as he said he’s going to; if he doesn’t defraud the fans again, then he’s going to get knocked out. I’ve said it and I’ll say it again.’’

During the course of the news conference, GGG suggested the fight itself is a path for both sides to regain respect for each other.

“I do have respect to all the fighters, all the athletes, all the champions who fight at this level,” he said. “And I think at the very end, we will find a way to shake each other’s hand, regardless of the outcome, regardless what we think before the fight. As two men, we should be able to stand against each other and shake each other’s hand at the end.’’

But it sounds as if Canelo has other ideas, especially when it comes to Sanchez.

When it was time for questions from the media, there was a reference to what GGG had said about eventually shaking hands.

Question: “This is for Canelo. As a Mexican, do you believe Abel Sanchez deserves a handshake? Can you actually shake Abel Sanchez’s hands?’

Canelo: “He deserves that and much more.”

The chance at much more is selling this one.

By Bart Barry-

Saturday on ESPN in Oklahoma City junior welterweight Alex “El Cholo” Saucedo made an adopted-homecoming match against Australian Leonardo “Lenny Z” Zappavigna thrilling in the moment as it was disappointing for Saucedo’s future. Saucedo ultimately prevailed when Zappavigna, blinded by his own blood, got rescued by his corner. Within an hour of the match’s conclusion Zappavigna retired from prizefighting.

Alex Saucedo, meanwhile, is now upon a plateau, or perhaps beneath it. He is not what promoter Top Rank thought he was or hoped he’d become.

The first time I interviewed Bob Arum, 13 years ago, I asked him what was the most important quality a fighter might have. Arum answered in the form of a question: “Does he dissipate between fights?” It does not appear Saucedo does (Juanma Lopez, conversely, was a worldclass dissipator).

If it is essential to Top Rank one of its fighters not forfeit quality when he is not fighting one can easily infer it is doubly better when a fighter gains quality in that same unsupervised stretch. This brings a second, if unspoken, prong to the Top Rank development program: Can we work with his trainer?

Top Rank’s matchmaking staff, best in class, is not particularly fond of the we-grow-together, entrepreneurial-dad model whereby a fighter’s father or fatherfigure acts as chief second during junior’s ascent. Trainer dads be tolerated so long as junior progresses on Top Rank’s aggressive schedule, but once a fighter falls offpace Top Rank is not timid about recommending the pursuit of a new trainer in a new city.

The first time I was ringside for a Saucedo fight, El Cholo’s pro debut on a Son of the Legend undercard in Houston, 2011, hopes were high for the lanky 17-year-old welterweight. Three months later hopes at ringside were even higher in San Antonio for Saucedo’s second professional match. Four months after that in El Paso hopes were still climbing, albeit at a slightly reduced rate. Saucedo’s first year as a prizefighter concluded in Houston on the undercard of Nonito Donaire’s soulsnatching Jorge Arce. Saucedo was by then 7-0 (5 KOs), but the two matches that were not KOs brought some concern given the opponents involved. A pair of matches back in Oklahoma preceded a return to South Texas: Laredo, Corpus Christi, Laredo. Which preceded a return to Alamodome, another Son of the Legend undercard, and openly expressed concerns about Saucedo’s development.

Saucedo costarred on Donaire’s HBO card at the end of 2012 but was an afterthought 16 months later.

“You know any good trainers in Oklahoma?” went one insider’s reply when I mentioned at ringside Saucedo was not where we thought he’d be 13 prizefights in.

I found the mood dispirited enough to stop following closely Alex Saucedo much the same way I stopped following closely Jose Benavidez, who in his third career fight, as part of Pacquiao-Clottey weekend, looked every bit promising in 2010 as Saucedo did 20 months later.

After Saucedo failed to score a knockout in 2016 against three men whose résumés indicated an ability if not a willingness to be stretched a new trainer and region got summoned for Saucedo. Abel “Mexican Style” Sanchez, the great beneficiary of HBO’s manufacture of Gennady Golovkin, became Saucedo’s chief second and evidently decided Saucedo, born in Chihuahua, wasn’t Mexican Style enough and needed a Big Bear residency at the GGG School of Robotic Pursuit where Saucedo could learn at the master’s feet exactly how far a fighter can go with the right combination of careful matchmaking and no head movement.

Reliably enough Saucedo next went down a weightclass then went lunatico on Gustavo David Vittori, an Argentine who made his pro debut 10 pounds below Saucedo’s and didn’t get a chance to leave Argentina till the call came for a Saucedo sacrifice: KO-3. Four months later it was Abner Lopez’s turn: KO-7.

Which brought Saucedo loping to Saturday’s match with Lenny Z, a b-level trialhorse and a-level bleeder. Zappavigna, who made his pro debut as a lightweight, was 32-1 in his native Australia but 5-2 in the U.S., and looked the perfect opponent for Saucedo’s homecoming on ESPN, primetime, a proud man whose face came presliced.

And for most of the match’s opening, things followed their script: El Cholo attacked without too much variety, Lenny Z swelled and readied to bleed. Then round 4 opened and Zappavigna decided to stop pretending he didn’t notice Saucedo’s head remained ever stationary. Zappavigna tagged Saucedo with righthands enough to realize Saucedo wasn’t open to them because he wanted to be but because he hadn’t the defense to have a choice. Then Lenny Z caught Saucedo going Mexican Style with a left hook, and clocked him.

Saucedo stumbled backwards to taste a lefthand hungrily as he’d eaten what right preceded it. Zappavigna went after Saucedo and in so doing showed Mexican Style comes unadorned with footwork or infighting. (Confirmed, not showed, actually; Canelo Alvarez showed this the world last September, no?)

How this was the round of the year in the fight of the year is anyone’s guess. Zappavigna beat Saucedo all round the ring for three minutes and bled profusely from the mere exertion of it. Saucedo bled, too, but did little more than that and survive Zappavigna’s relentless attack.

From there Zappavigna’s face did as it was contracted to do, spilling open and gushing everywhere, until Saucedo did exactly what an undefeated prospect in his 28th prizefight is supposed to do with a retiring journeyman – pillowface his every initiative till a handler flies the pink towel.

Saturday’s match was good and hard but won’t make anyone’s Top 5 list by year’s end, and neither, frankly, will Alex Saucedo at 140 pounds. That’s an endorsement neither of his talent nor his new trainer.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

Follow all the action as Gilberto Ramirez defends the WBO Super Middleweight title against undefeated Alexis Angulo.  The action begins at 9 PM ET / 6 PM PT with a junior welterweight bout between Alex Saucedo and Lenny Zappavigna.  Also Robson Conceicao takes on Gavin Guaman.

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Round 1: Jab from Ramirez..

Round 2:  Right to the body…3 punch combination from Angulo..Right..

Round 3: Ramirez lands a left to the body..Combination..Right from Angulo drives Ramirez back..Left from Ramirez..

Round 4 

Round 5 Right from Ramirez..Right from Angulo…Left from Ramirez

Round 6  Left to body from Ramirez…Combination..4 punch combination..Good straight left from distance

Round 7 Hard right from Angulo

Round 8  Ranirez gets in a left

RAMIREZ WINS 120-108 AND 119-109 TWICE

Round 1:  Body shot from Conceicao..CONCEICAO DROPPED GUAMAN WITH A LEFT…..right hand and down goes GUAMAN

Round 2:  Left from Conceicao..RiGHT HAND AND DOWN GOES GUAMAN,..BIG COMBINATION AT THE BELL AND DOWN GOES GUAMAN

Round 3:  4 punch combination..AND DOWN GOES GUAMAN…HE GETS UP BUT FIGHT IS STOPPED

Round 1 Overhand right from Zappavigna…Right from Saucedo..Counter right

Round 2:  Right backs up Zappavigna..Left hook and right..Right from Zappavigna..Double jab and left uppercut from Saucedo..Left from Zappavigna..Jab from Saucedo…Zappavigna is right eye.

Round 3:  BIG RIGHT AND DOWN GOES ZAPPAVIGNA…Big combination and flurry to the body..Right to body..Right from Zappavigna

Round 4:  Right from Zappavigna..Zappavigna has Saucedo in trouble..lands some vicious rights,..Huge rights…Saucedo bleeding down his face from his right eye…this is a war…

Round 5 1-2 from Saucedo…Left to body..Jab and right on the ropes..3 punch combo on ropes..Big right..Left hook from Zappavigna..Big right

Round 6:  3 punch combo on ropes from Saucedo…Zappagvigna swelling under left eye…Body shot from Zappavigna..Right from saucedo

Round 7:  Doctor checks Zappavigna before round..Big right from Saucedo..Left..Right..Overhand right..Right…FIGHT STOPPED

By Norm Frauenheim-

Boxing is still a heavyweight fight short of completing a comeback that had buoyed a forever-battered business always hoping for a rebound.

But Anthony Joshua-Deontay Wilder proved that not a whole lot has really changed.

Joshua-Wilder remained buried in never, never land amid reports this week that negotiations had failed. For a whole lot of reasons hard to explain and harder to understand, Joshua and Wilder have decided to go their separate ways until at least next April. That’s pretty much the same way they’ve been going for at least the last year.

Welcome to the HoHum division.

It looked as if it might be changing with that lightning bolt of drama on April 29, 2017 when Joshua got off the deck for an 11th-round TKO over Wladimir Klitschko in front of a World Cup-like crowd of 90,000 at London’s Wembley Stadium.

There was promise in watching a historical standard re-surface, looking like the flagship division it once was. There was talk of Joshua fighting in the U.S. in the biggest British invasion since the Beatles.

Instead, there’s just the same old, same old. Plans are for Joshua to fight Russian Alexander Povetkin in a mandatory title defense in September. There’s also talk of Wilder-versus-Dominic Breazeale in the fall.

Both are yawners. Yet, both are dangerous. That’s the trouble with mediocrity. A promising date can always be completely undone by the forgettable. For the casual fans, however, there are only two heavyweights. There’s Joshua. And there’s Wilder.

For the fans who want them –and only them – to fight, Povetkin might as well be a brand of Vodka. He’s not, of course. Povetkin a potential spoiler. In the UK, the guess here is that Joshua prevails.

Like Joshua, however, Povetkin has an Olympic gold medal. He won gold in Athens at a 2004 Games that included Gennady Golovkin’s silver medal at middleweight. Translation: Povetkin knows his way around the ring.

Povetin also has a history of PED use. A positive test led to the cancellation of a May, 2016 bout with Wilder in Moscow. Wilder was willing and able to face Povetkin in Russia. But it’s reasonable to say that the positive test saved the American from a defeat.

Wilder is lots of fun. Wilder, often dismissed one-dimensional, also has the biggest right hand in boxing. The right, an equalizer, has repeatedly saved him from losing on the cards.

It’s a weapon only fool would not fear. Put it this way: Joshua, no fool, got knocked down by a Klitschko right in the fifth. He got up. If Wilder had landed that right, Joshua might have stayed down, flat and finished on Wembley canvas.

Against Povetkin in Moscow, however, Wilder might have had trouble throwing a long punch powered by the leverage he gets from a lanky body.

Unlike Wilder, Povetkin isn’t fun to watch. The Russian’s resume includes a scorecard loss to Klitschko in 2012, also in Moscow. Povetkin tried to smother Klitschko with clinches.

It was hard to watch then. It’ll be hard to watch again. But the tactic will return against Joshua in bout that could smother a chance to watch the only heavyweight fight anybody wants to see.

By Bart Barry-

This is not a trigger warning but a preamble. What follows is a consideration of fantastic writing about men, the sort of writing we aspire to do while treating our beloved sport, that happens to be written by a gay man about gay men. This column will attend neither to prurience nor politics. Rather it’s a coincidental product of a Monday falling within LGBT Pride Month after a weekend I spent reading fiction more than watching boxing.

This space once was about writing much as it was about boxing. Though it had floated away from most concerns about description by the time it began in 2005, its author nevertheless fancied himself quite good at description when called upon, since like most writers, his ability to describe objects better than others do was what first got him recognized by a teacher (in this case, Ms. White, fourth grade).

The move away from descriptive writing was not conscious, quite, but happened via a definitely conscious choice to avoid “writing” in the meretricious sense of the term, to avoid those squeamish points in all forms of literature when an author suspends subject to go on a look-at-me-I’m-writing! riff. If memory, unreliable as ever, manages to serve, the move away from descriptive writing happened in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, 2002, when a visit to a writers club found a bunch of selfcelebrating folks rarely bothering themselves with the unglamorous toil of writing while unrarely sharing brief moments of inspiration that sparked “writing”.

If this reads like an oddly hesitant preamble perhaps it is born of nervousness about treating what follows justly. Well, anyway, off we go:

“. . . as I waited, and looked around at the dozens of bodies, squatting, lying, straining, muscles sliding to the surface in thick-veined upper arms, shoulders bending and pumping, the sturdiness of legs under pressure, the dark stains on singlets that adhered to the sweating channel of the back, the barely perceptible swing of cocks and balls in shorts and track-suits, with, permeating it all, the clank and thud of weights and the rank underarm essence of effort.”

I read that about a month ago and decided I’d not read before the male body or a collection of male bodies so aptly described. That passage happens about 50 pages in to Alan Hollinghurst’s masterfully executed novel “The Swimming-Pool Library”, a firstperson account of a young gay man in London in the early 1980s, remarkable for its profiles and voice and its numerous descriptions like what’s above. What makes these descriptions remarkable is their departure from the way men’s bodies generally get described by straight authors, both male and female.

Straight men describe other men’s bodies like sanitized, actiontaking machines – on the rare occasion a muscle ripples it does so to cause an act: the shoulder vibrated as his left glove struck the opponent’s ribs. Straight women do something similar, though describe qualities of masculinity that are physical mostly by coincidence:

“Mr. Darcy soon drew the attention of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien, and the report which was in general circulation within five minutes after his entrance, of his having ten thousand a year.”

Contrast that with what Hollinghurst does. He sees and smells and hears men in a way crossed between a predator and a food critic.

Would it help our descriptions of prizefighters in the act of prizefighting if we saw them through a lens of sexual attraction? Quite possibly. It would sate, too, any writer’s search for originality. But there is, of course, the rub: Such things are not easily faked since most pathways to forgery betray their takers – you can imagine your favorite fighter is a woman and describe him thusly but imagining him treating you like a woman is another leap entirely, and unless you have both you’re not fooling any careful readers or even careless readers’ intuitions.

Good news. There is some boxing in “The Swimming-Pool Library” to leaven this Pride-month celebration of fine description. Hollinghurst’s narrator attends a night of youth boxing and offers it his often irreverent voice:

“One trio of teenage stylists bawled their encouragement while grinning and chewing, selfconscious, acting manly, caring and not caring.”

and

“After brief deliberations between the ref and the officious, serious judges (this was their life, after all) the unanimous decision was announced.”

and

“The mood here also was one of pure sportsmanship, of candid bustle, like a chorus dressing room.”

There is one more element to this novel, a historical one, that recommends it. Lost in the recent events of European marriage-equality referendums and an American Supreme Court decision is the matter of 16th-century British sodomy laws (inherited round the world) and their successors and their arbitrary and generally cruel enforcement in our lifetimes. In a few episodes Hollinghurst shows how very easily it was to be entrapped and sentenced to jail time for a man who pursued, if he did not consummate, a sexual relationship with another man. Undoubtedly this charged the exciting act of seduction with danger’s energy right up till the moment it didn’t, when, with a thud, a man’s hormonally induced sense of invincibility disbelievingly crashed into disbelief.

And of course no irony is lost on Hollinghurst: How very much serendipitous companionship awaited a gay man sent to prison for gay acts. Or is this merely an empathy offramp taken by a straightmale reader – some way to dull what a profound sense of injustice sometimes happens in us?

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

By Norm Frauenheim-

Half-empty, half-full is the best way to sum up a year stumbling toward the midpoint of a 12-month run that began amid lots of expectations.

The empty is for what didn’t happen. By now, we should be talking about the chances of the third step a Gennady Golovkin-Canelo Alvarez trilogy.

The full is for Terence Crawford, brilliant in his first welterweight appearance against Jeff Horn and yet seemingly still underrated.

Crawford was No. 1 in this corner’s pound-for-pound ratings last January 1. He still is, of course, especially after saying he wanted to take over the 147-pound division and then began to do just that with a June 9 debut that looked a lot like a take-off.

Crawford will have challengers. Lots of them. Vasiliy Lomachenko, still No. 1 on a lot of lists, is No. 2 on this one. Lomachenko is recovering from shoulder surgery after a surprisingly tough victory over Jorge Linares in a 135-pound title defense. Lomachenko was clever and tough, but the May 12 bout suggested that a move to 140 pounds might be unwise.

To wit: Mikey Garcia, No. 3 on this pound-for-pound list and awaiting an intriguing date against Robert Easter on July 28, hits a lot harder than Linares There’s already some talk about Garcia against powerful welterweight Errol Spence, No. 4 on this list and maybe Crawford’s greatest threat in a bout next year. More on that later and at a later date.

It’s hard to settle on who should be at No. 5. The guess here is that he will emerge from what didn’t happen during the first six months of 2018.

May came, went and left only more unsettling controversy in the wake of a Cinco De Mayo rematch scuttled by Canelo’s positive PED tests in February.

To use a word that has been overused for the last several months, it’s been tainted. I’m not talking about contaminated Mexican meat, or whether it had anything to do with Canelo’s testing positive for Clenbuterol. Anticipation for the rematch, postponed until Sept. 15, has been tainted by inevitable PED suspicions and mounting tension between the two fighters.

There are reports that GGG and Canelo dislike each so much that they won’t appear together on the same stage, or even perhaps in the same studio or ballroom, for a news conference.

That will sell the fight more than anything else can. Mutual contempt is more marketable these days than a high knockout ratio. There will be lots of dollars for just the chance to see lots of promised, over-the-top violence in this one.

Canelo was slow to enroll in voluntary drug testing. A stubborn GGG was slow to sign a deal until he apparently got the terms he wanted in negotiations that grew contentious once the two returned to the table. The fight was on, the fight was off, the fight was on. The roller coaster ride from now until opening bell on Sept. 15 still has a long way to go.

We’ll get there, hopefully with a decisive result instead of another draw in a bout that will allow GGG and Canelo to move on without ever having to share a room or a ring again. The year will make both of them wealthy, but the bet here is that Crawford will still own 2018.

By Bart Barry-

SAN ANTONIO – Almost exactly 300 miles north of here Saturday welterweight titlist Errol “The Truth” Spencer strolled through an overmatched Mexican named Carlos Ocampo at – let’s get this right – The Ford Center at The Star, in Frisco, Texas, home of the Dallas Cowboys’ practice field. No matter how highly one regards a prizefighter, nine hours is too much of a roundtrip drive to perform for an exhibition bout, and whatever fears any Texan had of missing out, anyway, got quelled in three minutes.

If you were to draw a circle with a 30-mile radius round the center of Dallas you’d enclose an area called the Metroplex. You’d include both Frisco and a region twice as populous as Los Angeles and 85-percent populous as New York City. You’d also be missing the country’s fourth-largest city, Houston, and its seventh-largest city, this one. Texas is not so much a boxing state, in other words, as an enormous one.

The not-particularly-believable 14,000-paid attendance figure bandied about before the gates even opened Saturday and all through Showtime’s broadcast would be a breathtaking occurrence in, say, Amarillo, but it’s less than breathtaking somewhere within a four-hour drive of 11-million people. Heaven help this column if that reads like an impeachment of Jerry Jones’ math; after all, the owner of America’s Team has his “world” headquarters within the Metroplex, and the principles and integrity of any NFL owner are above doubt. That written, there were some questions about the announced attendance for Manny Pacquiao’s two Cowboys Stadium tilts in 2010, and columnists often have long, selective memories.

However many Texans attended Saturday’s match those in attendance thrilled Errol Spence, and it was joyfilling to see a well-deserving object of affection enjoy such affection.

Let us not let that detract, though, from the fact Saturday’s mainevent sucked.

New rule: When the sacrificial b-side of a homecoming mismatch is seen nervously chewing his gumshield before walking to the ring, the match is immediately reduced to a four-round affair and the champion begins three points behind on official scorecards. Seems fair. These new mercy-feasting rules in no way endanger Spence’s undefeated record, presently or retroactively, and they give commentators some suspense worth shouting at.

Spence was fighter enough to feel ashamed of what happened Saturday and man enough to admit it. Spence wanted real contact; his style demands a certain quotient of mutual abuse to please, and had he known Ocampo would fold so quickly and completely The Truth surely would’ve holstered his best punches at least a round or two longer.

Spence has grown immensely since his first Texas prizefight five years ago in Our Lady of the Lake University Gym, five miles west of where this column happens. Frankly, the odds of Spence filling any arena back then were longer than Ocampo’s odds Saturday. Whisked by what would become the PBC from America’s worst Olympic boxing team – on which, admittedly, Spence was the best fighter – to mostly empty venues like nearby Cowboys Dancehall (neither a world headquarters nor those Cowboys) Spence looked destined howsoever unfairly to follow teammates like Terrell Gausha and Rau’shee Warren to the Sam Watson-less edges of Al Haymon’s roster, off-television.

But Spence had something few other PBC prospects did: A willingness to be hit in order to hit. Everything was rougher about Spence than his stablemates, starting with his accent. Spence was “country” – as they call it round here. His accent was obviously Texan. So was his likability. He was guileless outside the ring as he was inside it. He was such a departure from the promotional antics of the PBC’s signature asset, Adrien Broner, one quickly wondered how long Spence would stay in his managerial arrangement, illfitting as it appeared.

Then Spence went tangential and put himself on a new trajectory for a PBC fighter. Spence visited someone else’s country and won a title by knockout – otherwise known as the right way. Then he began using the names of reluctant PBC welterweights in interviews. Then he washed and wore a PBC mainstay. For this he was rewarded with an illfitting homecoming 50 miles north of his native DeSoto as the headliner of what often felt like an infomercial for America’s Team and its owner – unless you believe a 147-pound man wanted more desperately to be a professional football player than a champion prizefighter.

For goodness’ sake, let them have their fun!

Yes, well, fine – so long as there is boxing to write about. But there isn’t, is there, in large part because of dreadful matchmaking, the sort that makes most aficionados feel like suckers most of the time we open our minds to the PBC brand.

Some of this is Showtime’s fault, you say? Fair enough.

Boxing’s best network now has easy access to every fighter in the world unaligned with promoter Top Rank, which is most of them. Showtime has far too many available fighters and far too few available dates to be cowed into b-sides like Carlos Ocampo. And let us have no more loose talk about mandatories. Errol Spence wishes to be the world’s best welterweight, not merely the IBF’s, and if he’s debasing himself with mandatory challengers it’s because his handlers’ handling of their other welterweight titlists makes Spence worry his share of the welterweight title is his only leverage – which is absurd if true.

A twofight series with Terence Crawford on ESPN – fight 1 in Omaha, fight 2 in Arlington (not Frisco) – would make Spence a household name, regardless of outcomes. Then he could return to Showtime as the new face of the PBC, increasing the credibility of the both his management outfit and its sole remaining broadcast sponsor.

Or Spence can fight Yordenis Ugas or Qudratillo Abduqaxorov in December and Devon Alexander next May.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

Follow all the action as Errol Spence Jr. defends the IBF Welterweight championship against fellow undefeated Carlos Ocampo.  The action kicks off at 9 PM ET / 6 PM PT with a junior welterweight battle between Adrian Granados and former world champion Javier Fortuna.  In the co-feature Danny Roman defends the WBA Super Bantamweight title against Mosies Flores

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Round 1: Body shot from Spence..LEFT TO BODY AND DOWN GOES OCAMPO…HE DOES NOT GET UP FIGHT OVER

 

Round 1 Roman jabbing to body..Right to body..Lead right from Flores..Sweeping right..Counter jab and uppercut from Roman..Uppercut..Counter right from Flores..Counter left from Roman..Right from Flores..Counter left from Roman..Uppercut..Counter left..

Round 2 Roman lands a body shot..Nice left..Uppercut from Flores..Good exchange..Double left hook from Flores..Double left hook to body from Roman..Exchanging uppercut..Counter left hook to body from Roman..

Round 3 Jab from Flores…Combination from Roman..Sweeping left from Flores..

Round 4 Counter hook to the body from Roman..Nice combination..Flores lands to the head..Left to body..Bog right from Roman..Sharp right..Body shot from Flores..Counter to head from Roman

Round 5 Flores working body..Counter from Roman…Body shots…2 lefts to the body..left hook to the body..3 punch combination..left hook to the body..Right..left to body..Solid right..left uppercut

Round 6 Jab from Roman..Combination..Right from Flores..Left to body from Roman..Body work..right hurts Flores..

Round 7 Left uppercut, right hand and body punches from Roman

Round 8 Uppercut from Flores..Right from Flores..1-2 from Roman..Left uppercut..sharp jab..Lead right from Flores..Jab and left uppercut from Roman..trading lefts hook..uppercut from Flores

Round 9 Lead left and right from Flores..Jab from Roman..Right from Flores..Jab from Roman..3 left uppercuts..right from Flores..

Round 10 Both working the body..Left from Roman..Left hook..uppercut..short left hook to body..

Round 11 1-2 from Flores..Overhand right from Roman..Lead right to body..over hand right..Good body shot..lead right from Flores

Round 12 Over hand right from Roman..Working the body..jab..counter left from Flores..Right to body from Roman..Flores lands a short right..Counter..

Roman outlanded Flores 349-225.  174 head shots and 175 body shots for Roman

349-1004 for Roman…   225-1023 for Flores

116-112; 118-110; 120-108 for DANNY ROMAN

Round 1 Body work by Fortuna..Straight left..Flurry by Granados

Round 2 Straight left by Fortuna..Exchange on the ropes..Counter by Granados…Left uppercut from Fortuna..Sharp left counter..Left hook from Granados..

Round 3 Fortuna works the body..2 uppercuts from Granados..Granados working on inside..

Round 4 Left hook to body from Granados …Right from Fortuna…FORTUNA DOCKED A POINT FOR USING HIS HEAD..FORTUNA DOCKED ANOTHER POINT FOR HOLDING..Flurry from Fortuna makes Granados back up..Combination..FORTUNA IS PUSHED OUT OF THE RING AND HE HITS HEAD ON THE CAMERAMAN STAND..FORTUNA PLACED IN A NECK BRACE AND TAKEN OUT ON A STRETCHER..BOUT RULED A NO-CONTEST AT 2:50

By Norm Frauenheim-

LAS VEGAS – There’s a long-held theory that negotiations are part of any fight. It’s a little early to pick a winner or loser in the agreement for Gennady Golovkin-Canelo Alvarez rematch.

Let’s just say the business picked up a badly-needed win. Meanwhile, there are plenty of reasons to anticipate many more twists and turns to what will finally be an opening bell in a sequel to last year’s controversial draw.

If there are hints in Wednesday’s succession of no deal to an agreement within about the time it takes to eat lunch, we can expect just about anything. Don’t miss the rules meeting. Brace for noisy debates about judges, the referee, or whether the gloves’ padding is made of horse hair or foam.

Everything will be contested, mostly because the only thing each of these corners really like about each other is the money they can generate.

There’s plenty of that and it’s why the rematch was always inevitable. Timing was really the key here. If there ever was urgency attached to doing a rematch, GGG-Canelo II was it.

If they waited until, say next year, after struggling against an emerging Billy Joe Saunders or against no-name Spike O’Sullivan, the potential money would have dwindled to a fraction of what it is now.

GGG and his promotional rep, Tom Loeffler, acted as if they knew that from the moment the rematch was in apparent jeopardy after news of Canelo’s two failed PED tests in February.

GGG, Loeffler and trainer Abel Sanchez acted proactively, carefully, and yet with an unwavering focus on securing a deal for a bout on the first good date, September 15.

In the wake of Canelo’s withdrawal from their initial date on May 5, there was controversy about GGG’s decision to fight anyway on Cinco de Mayo against overmatched Vanes Martirosyan at StubHub Center. The fight – a GGG victory in an overwhelming second round stoppage – was forgettable. In terms of his career and what it meant to his chances at more favorable terms in a Canelo rematch, however, it is huge.

The Martirosyan fight provided a forum for GGG to further question Canelo, who was not enrolled in VADA, the voluntary drug testing program attached to the WBC. It also provided GGG a forum to say he wanted more equitable terms.

A few days after Martirosyan, Canelo announced he had agreed to resume voluntary testing. Would that have happened without the criticism from GGG and fans that were amplified by the Martirosyan fight? No way.

Canelo was in a defensive posture, telling a skeptical public to trust that the positive tests were simply the result of eating tainted Mexican beef. But there’s no trust without verification. Overwhelming doubt expressed by fans before and after Martirosyan left Canelo and Golden Boy with no choice.

They were back in VADA.

Then, they were back at the table.

However, GGG also had let it be known he would not agree to the original terms, 70 percent for Canelo and 30 for GGG. He came to the table asking for 50-50. That was a good starting point, but that’s all it was. Canelo still ranks as the draw.

According to reports Wednesday, GGG first said no to a 42.5 percent in a deal that gave Canelo 57.5. GGG demanded 45 percent, take it or leave it.

Canelo promoter Oscar De La Hoya initially said no. About an hour later, however, they had a deal, although terms weren’t disclosed.

Not sure exactly what happened, but a guess is that HBO somehow got involved and saved what figures to be a pay-per-view moneymaker. Floyd Mayweather Jr.-versus- Manny Pacquiao in 2015, a record revenue setter, would probably not have happened without late involvement from Les Moonves, president and CEO of CBS, Showtime’s parent company.

Whatever happened, GGG is getting a big raise from a likely bigger total revenue pool than what he collected a year ago. In the process, he also appeared to grab the high ground in a contentious give-and-take that will continue to sell the rematch until Sept. 15.

But will that represent a GGG advantage at opening bell? Not sure about that one. Canelo has been mostly quiet. Not sure whether his relative silence represents anger or some self-doubt. Before the positive PED tests, I would have picked him to win the rematch. He’s younger and has shown he learns from adversity. He emerged from his one-sided-loss to Mayweather as a much better fighter.

Can he emerge once more? He’ll have to against a fighter and management team that has proven it can wage a patient, well-coordinated fight on both sides of the ropes.

By Jimmy Tobin-

It’s the smile, the mischief in it. There’s self-satisfaction there too, irrepressible, mocking. And something more sinister at work. A pleasure in cruelty perhaps? Even in the theatrical? A relish in the power to shape a moment according to one’s will maybe? To create a unity of the rapt thousands looking on? Yes, that’s certainly part of it. It is a conscious display, this smile, one understood by all—the crowd, the judges, the opponent—to signal one thing: that a beating is at hand.

***

Terence Crawford’s smile, like so much of the fighter, is charming in its menace. And like so much of the Omaha, Nebraska fighter, it was on display at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Saturday night where Crawford announced his arrival at welterweight by butchering Australian Jeff Horn in nine rounds. Crawford may find his ambition thwarted in his new division but if there was one message to take from watching him parse and punish Horn it was this: Crawford is not the welterweight who should be worried. And he is not.

That smile appeared in the third round when it became clear that all of Horn’s early success had been little more than the modest price of calculation, an allowance in the name of salting the meat. By the third round, Crawford found his range, appraised Horn’s rhythm, his power, his strength, and knew—like seemingly everyone save for Horn’s trainer, Glenn Rushton—that competition henceforth would bleed from the bout. Say what you will of Horn the fighter, of his disputed victory over Manny Pacquiao last year, he goes boisterously to his fate against everyone in the division not named Errol Spence. That may be an indictment of a division that even three years ago was considered as good as any in boxing; it may be a referendum on the merit of the fighters who once justified that esteem. Either way, in butchering Horn Crawford reminded us what divisional rankings cannot: that the distance between fighters on a list is anything but uniform.

Crawford was smiling in the ninth too, as he ripped double-hooks into Horn’s body, savoring the buckle and bend, the pain they produced. He was smiling again seconds later as referee Robert Byrd spared Horn, too tough for his health, the type of lingering abuse that ages fighters overnight.

Because Crawford is as good a finisher as you will find: patient, accurate, creative. Roman Gonzalez, also flawless in the pursuit of destruction, expressed a genuine appreciation for the person absorbing his punches, and that tangible intimacy kept his abuse sporting. But Crawford? Crawford is mean, irresistibly so. When he sets upon an opponent he isn’t exorcising demons, violence does not appear cathartic for him. No, Crawford is taxing opponents for their insolence, showing too those ungloved and uninteresting talking heads what he thinks of their criticisms. (Indeed he said as much when asked about his bullying of Horn, ostensibly saying that the people who questioned his strength needed to be reminded whose opinion the fighter actually credits.)

There is something Mayweather-like about Crawford (now the best American fighter in the world), in the way he first studies then disarms his opponents. But unlike the welterweight version of Mayweather, Crawford goes beyond merely establishing dominance, he imperils himself at his opponent’s expense. You do not hang around with “Bud”: if he thinks he can end you your daylights depend on convincing him otherwise. That may change at welterweight, where opponents are more stubbornly absorbent, but the strength and power Crawford displayed Saturday say otherwise.

There are some who will temper their enthusiasm for Crawford, noting that Horn was but one more hapless opponent heaped on the pile used to elevate Crawford’s accolades beyond his accomplishments. There is some truth to that, particularly given the model for developing fighters that flourished recently on HBO, where greatness was bestowed at the outset and opponents approved to preserve it. And really, did anyone save for Viktor Postol’s staunchest supporters expect Crawford to lose any of his thirty-three fights? There is something to be said for how you win, however, and in fighting the only opponents available to him Crawford has left little doubt of his excellence. Besides, any further fights below welterweight would only delay seeing Crawford challenged, which is precisely what those who have yet to embrace him need to see.

It would be interesting to hear who those same reluctant admirers would prefer Crawford face next. Because if the goal is to have Crawford prove himself there is but one name on that list. And while it might be interesting to watch Crawford chop Shawn Porter up, or hang the first stoppage loss on Danny Garcia, or show Keith Thurman the difference between a person who fights for a living and a fighter, the outcome of all of those fights would only move the bar on Crawford.

No, the fight for Crawford is with Errol Spence, and the time for that fight is now. No other opponent brings the same challenge, and scant others will teach us anything we don’t already know.

You can hear it already: “But the promotional issues, network alliances! Mandatory defenses! The fight could be BIGGER!” Stop. No one drawn to a bloodsport for the blood cares about the obstacles to this fight happening—those obstacles, however cutely worded, are only excuses long employed by promoters to deprive the public of what it wants. So fuck all that.

One imagines Spence when he looks at Crawford, sees a former lightweight coming for his crown. And Crawford, when he thinks of Spence, the strapping southpaw with the bricks in his fists? Don’t kid yourself—he probably smiles.

By Bart Barry-

Saturday on ESPN+ Nebraska’s Terence Crawford won his first welterweight title the right way. He beat to relenting titlist Jeff Horn, the Aussie who upset Manny Pacquiao in 2017.

Crawford is everything.

He came in our collective consciousness the right way – making his television debut on short notice in a higher weightclass, then winning his first title in another country. He understands fighting at its genetic level; he is good enough at fundamentals to find space enough between confrontational moments to ask himself what-if questions that reveal new options, some of which improve him (the route to better ideas, firstly, comes of having more ideas). He has a high physical IQ; he senses another man’s intentions at least as soon as those intentions get set. He keeps his personality out the way – he knows what it is and requires to be great at something and knows th’t he, like most of us, hasn’t the resources to make a great spokesman. He takes chances, hitting and getting hit early in matches, the faster to assess the men across from him. He is ambitious; much lesser talents than “Bud’s” have made gainful livings staying in one weightclass to gorge on smaller men.

And he is mean.

There are myriad socioeconomic factors that make Crawford the perfect concoction this moment locates him as, but not one of them needs excavation here.

(Been thinking a good bit about machine learning lately, and its contemporary sexed-up alias, artificial intelligence, and the more seriously one considers such things the quicker and more frequently he returns to Arthur Samuel’s checkers-playing program, nearly 60 years-old now, and an idea occasionally lost in contemporary celebrations of Samuel’s other remarkable ideas like alpha-beta pruning. The idea goes like this: The entirety of any piece’s relevant history in a game of checkers is contained in its current position on the board. Human minds have way, way more processing and storage power than Samuel’s hardware did, obviously, and likely way more processing power than even today’s liberal approximations assign them, but the metaphor is instructive just the same: Everything that made Terence Crawford what he is was cumulatively contained Saturday in the 26 1/2 minutes he spent unbelting Horn.)

There may be contentment or at least satisfaction in relating things Crawford did to their histories but not joy. Here’s joy: When Crawford stuck Horn to the body in round 8 and an instant later you chucklecoughed or whistled alone in a room. That moment for one, other moments for others, canceled the argument – no conditions, no comparisons, no reductions, no history.

We are blessed as aficionados right now to have at the highest level of our sport – a level shared by Crawford and Vasyl Lomachenko, hard stop – two men who cancel the argument for those of us who enjoy sports primarily for their making us present, not giving us identities (I’m someone who knows things) or outlets (helps me forget the ways others have wronged me) or income.

Crawford did so many things so well Saturday. He placed fast, precise combinations – middle knuckle of fist within a quarter’s radius of intended target – and converted possibilities to openings. He bullied the larger man, walking Horn backwards without once pleading backwards for official intervention; he took Horn’s initiative, to remind Crawford every second he was in a fight, not an athletic spectacle, and amplified it, ensuring Horn felt in every clinch Crawford’s sinews. No give, no defensiveness.

He remanded Horn to a corner every three minutes for 60 seconds of doubting his handlers’ expertise – yes, I will leap off this stool filled with positive thoughts, I promise I will, but in another minute or two, that guy you told me wasn’t my better is going to start hitting me again, not you, so thanks for the water, I guess?

He lashed Horn’s belly with left crosses and hooks and uppercuts no one hit Horn with before. Horn reacted like a man prepared to be hit in ways he didn’t prepare for, prepared to remind his body everything was all right with stiffening thoughts galore, but since you can’t outthink a feeling no amount of thinking could enduringly offset what painful signals Horn’s body sent in torrents.

This is where physical IQ trumps intellect in every fight; Bud Crawford probably couldn’t put it in a poem or a paragraph or a painting (nor could Horn), but in hot blood Crawford’s mind knew where to put his knuckle on Horn’s body to stop the flow of actionable thoughts to and from Horn’s brain, a brain, one must remember, roted to continue that flow of actionable thoughts no matter how torrential the signals bubbling up from his body. Horn didn’t interrupt Crawford’s thoughts but a fraction so often.

Crawford enjoyed Horn’s diminishment. He felt Horn relenting and smiled.

This is what makes men like Crawford (or Mayweather or Marquez or Hopkins) exceptional; where something like empathy for a man being stripped publicly of his dignity begins to drain others, such a stripping makes the purest fighters euphoric. It transcends professionalism: I’m not doing this because it’s my job, no, I’m doing this because I like hurting you. You can’t really teach this; for who that knew how to teach it could conscience doing so? Those who would say they can teach it mistake sadism and chance for a template.

Herein lies the distinction between Crawford and Lomachenko, the world’s two best fighters, ranked numbers 1 and 1: Where one senses Lomachenko learned to hurt men for glory’s sake, Crawford glories in hurting men.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

Follow all the action live as Jeff Horn defends the WBO Welterweight Title against 3-division world champion Terence Crawford.  The action kicks off at 9:30 PM ET / 6:30 PM PT /11:30 AM in Brisbane with a lightweight battle between Jose Pedraza and Antonio Moran.

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Round 1: Left from Crawford…Right by Horn..Right hook from Crawford..Good exchange..Crawford lands a combination

Round 2 Left to body from Crawford..Straight left..Left from Horn

Round 3 Right Hook from Crawford..Exchange in middle of ring..Double jab..Right from Horn…Left from Crawford,,Hard left..Jab..Left..Jab…good left and a combination..Blood over right eye of Horn

Round 4 Left by Crawford

Round 5 Combinations from Crawford…Horn trying but not getting much done

Round 6 3 punch combination..Uppercut with the left hand.Good body shot..Hard body shot

Round 7 Double right from Horn..Inside left from Crawford..Lead left..Left to body..Left uppercut

Round 8  Crawford lands a left to the body..left hook..Left..3 huge shots wobbles Horn..Huge shots Rocks Horn at the bell

Round 9 Left from Crawford…left..big RIGHT AND A BIG LEFT AND DOWN GOES HORN...2 BIG LEFTS..HORN GOING BACK TO THE ROPES AND THE FIGHT IS STOPPED

Round 1 Left from Pedraza..Right drives Moran off balance..Moran lands a body shot..Combination..Left..Right from Pedraza..

Round 2  Blood from the bridge of nose from Moran..Uppercut from Pedraza..Moran landing combinations..Good exchange

Round 3 Pedraza lands a right

Round 4 Over hand right from Pedraza..Moran lands a right over the top..Hard right..Body shot..Nice left from Pedraza

Round 5 Lead right from Pedraza..jab and right

Round 6 Right from Pedraza…

Round 7 Right from Moran..Right..Hard body shot and combination from Pedraza..Jab from Moran..Pedraza landsa left to the body

Round 8 Body shot from Pedraza..Right..Hard left..Double drives Moran back

Round 9 Pedraza lands a short left on inside..uppercut..Sweeping left

Round 10 

96-94 ON ALL CARDS FOR JOSE PEDRAZA

Follow all the action as former world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury makes his return after almost 3 years out of the ring when he takes on Sefer Seferi.  The action kicks off at 4:30 PM ET / 9:30 PM in the UK with the WBO Junior Welterweight title bout between undefeated fighters Terry Flanagan and Maurice Hooker.

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Round 1:Good jab from Fury

Round 2 Right from Seferi..Fury warned for too much clowning..Good right from Fury..Short right

Round 3  Right and left from Seferi..Right from Fury

Round 4 Body shot from Fury..Right from Seferi..Combination from Fury…Uppercut

Round 5 FIGHT STOPPED IN CORNER…WINNER VIA TKO—TYSON FURY

Round 1 Jab from Flanagan…Right from Hooker..Jab..Left..

Round 2 Left from Flanagan..Right from Hooker..Good left..Left to body from Flanagan..Right from Hooker..Good straight left from Flanagan..Right from Hooker

Round 3 Left from Flanagan..Left to body..Left..left

Round 4 Left from Flanagan..Right from Hooker…Right

Round 5 Good right from Hooker..Referee warns Flanagan for headbutts…Good left from Flanagan..2 rights from Hooker and another one..Body shot..body shot

Round 6 Right from Hooker..Body shot from Flanagan..Right from Hooker..Body shot from Flanagan

Round 7 Big left from Flanagan..Flangan is cut on forehead and around right eye..Straight left from Flanagan..Uppercut..Straight left..Big left..Good right and combination from Hooker..

Round 8 Good right from Hooker..Right..Good body shot..Right on ropes from Flanagan..Left..Combination and right from Hooker

Round 9 Good body shot from Flanagan..Combination from Hooker

Round 10 Left hook from Hooker..Left from Flanagan..Left from Flanagan

Round 11 Flanagan lands a body shot

Round 12 Flanagan lands a big flurry..Big uppercut from Hooker..Good left hook..Body shot..Good right..

115-113 Hooker…117-111 Flanagan…117-111 Hooker

By Norm Frauenheim-

LAS VEGAS – Surprises came early for Jeff Horn. There was one on the scale Friday, more than 24 hours before the opening bell Saturday against pound-for-pound contender Terence Crawford.

Horn stepped on the scale once, then twice. First, he was a pound heavier than the welterweight limit at 148.

Off came the shorts and up came a long black curtain. Naked, Horn was back on the scale, but still a half-pound too heavy at 147.5 to defend the World Boxing Organization’s version of the welterweight title at the MGM Grand in an ESPN+ televised bout (6:30 p.m. PT/9:30 p.m. ET).

One more chance awaited. If he missed the weight a third time, however, he was out, an ex-champ before the heavily-favored Crawford would ever have a chance to turn him into one.

But after a warm shower and a trip to the bathroom, Horn was back 45 minutes later. No problem. No penalty. He even kept his shorts, along with his belt, this time, making weight without a digit to spare. The Australian was at 147-even. Crawford was at 146.5 in his first and only trip to the scale for his welterweight debut.

What exactly happened, however, wasn’t clear. The Queenslander from Brisbane didn’t blame the extra weight on a bit too much Vegemite on his morning muffin. He questioned the scale.

`We tested on the official set from Top Rank and my weight was fine,’’ Horn told Australian media moments after making the weight. “I think there was something up their sleeve because Crawford was just under the weight and I was just over. We thought we’d calibrated our scales to the correct weight, but they’ve tricked us. There was a bit of play with the scales.’’

Three fighters on the undercard also missed weight by small margins. The weigh-in drama, intentional or not, didn’t appear to rattle Horn, however. If anything, it emboldened him.

“I could see, face-to-face with Terence, he was a bit rattled,’’ said Horn, who will make a second defense of the belt he took from Manny Pacquiao Down Under in a controversial stunner last July. “He’s shaking. I’m calm. I’m fine. I think they think I’m a bit mentally weaker than I actually am. This stuff’s all part of it, I know it.”

Horn believes there’s a bit of play with the betting odds, too. Horn says he is surprised that Crawford is so heavily favored at minus-950.

“I’m the bigger fighter,’’ said Horn (18-0-1, 12 KOs), whose contract filed with the Nevada Athletic Commission includes a $500,000 purse. Horn’s final check is expected to be $1.25 million.

Crawford’s contract with the Commission lists a $1.75 million check. He’s expected to wind up with $3 million.

The difference in size is said to be Horn’s biggest, perhaps only advantage against the multi-dimensional Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs), a former lightweight and junior-welterweight champion. The weigh-in left a question about whether Horn would try to maximize his advantage in size by adding as much weight as possible in the hours before opening bell.

“I expect to him to be about 70 kilos,’’ Horn trainer Glenn Rushton said.

That’s 154.3 pounds, if you believe the scale.

By Norm Frauenheim-

LAS VEGAS – Despite mounting doubts about his reflexes, speed and durability, there’s still plenty of power in Manny Pacquiao’s name. Celebrity is the last thing to go these days. But don’t mistake Terence Crawford for Pacquiao. Crawford doesn’t have any of Pacquiao’s celebrity. He’s not exactly the nice guy Pacquiao is, either.

Not that Crawford cares.

For now, at least, Crawford is not seeking Pacquiao’s kind of global celebrity or personal likability. It sounds as if another wicked stoppage would be enough. And that’s exactly what Crawford is pursuing Saturday night at the MGM Grand in his welterweight debut against Jeff Horn, once an unknown Aussie who is in Las Vegas this week because of his controversial decision over Pacquiao in Brisbane nearly a year ago.

“I’m not Manny Pacquiao,’’ Crawford said Thursday at a news conference in a matter-of-fact tone. “I’m bigger. I’m stronger.

“I’m in my prime. And that’s gonna show, come Saturday. A lot of people are comparing how he pushed around Pacquiao. But that’s not me.’’

Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs), who is ranked No.2 behind Vasiliy Lomachenko in most pound-for-pound debates, is heavily favored – minus-950 at Vegas books late Thursday — to take the 147-pound belt that Horn (18-0-1, 12 KOs) took from Pacquiao last July. Some foresee the ESPN+ featured bout (6:30 pm PT/9:30 pm ET) as a showcase for the world’s next dominant welterweight. Errol Spence might have something to say about that. But more on him at a later date.

“We’re here to take over at 147,’’ Crawford trainer Brian McIntryre said. “Jeff just happens to be there, happens to be the first victim.’’

But there’s a theory that Horn’s size, rugged strength and bullish tactics will make the Top Rank-promoted Crawford regret that he decided to venture into a heavier division.

“We think Top Rank erred,’’ Horn promoter Dean Lonergan said. “We think Top Rank put Crawford in against the wrong guy.’’

It’s a matter of record that Top Rank put Pacquiao in against the wrong guy last summer. In a long, bruising 12 rounds Down Under last July, Horn punished Pacquiao in ways that nobody has. But it was a different Pacquiao. The Filipino Senator looked tentative. The fighter in all of those Bruce Lee-like poses from a decade ago look like a shrunken version of who and what he had been. He sure didn’t look like himself and it’s safe to safe he didn’t look anything like the Crawford Horn figures to see Saturday.

It’s as if we’re only beginning to see Crawford’s many dimensions, including an evident like for the brutal task of breaking down an opponent. There’s a mean streak in eyes that elicit their damage with hands that Crawford delivers with equal speed and accuracy. Right or left doesn’t matter. Crawford uses both, leads with either in an almost seamless switch, with lethal precision. Then, he smiles. It’s a deadly combo.

Yeah, Horn is bigger. Crawford is shorter by about an inch, a listed 5-foot-8 to Horn’s 5-9, which was more than three inches taller than Pacquiao (5-5 ½). The more significant tale on the tape, however, is in reach. The shorter Crawford has that advantage by two inches, 70 to Horn’s 68, in an edge that figures to multiply very quickly with a two-handed attack.

By Bart Barry-

Three fights happen across nine timezones Saturday in a crescendo of sorts before boxing’s summer ritual ends much of our fun. Going least essential to most, Tyson Fury returns against someone named Sefer Seferi in England, Leo Santa Cruz and Abner Mares finally rematch in Los Angeles, and Jeff Horn defends his fraction of the world’s welterweight championship against Terence Crawford in Las Vegas. If none of these events is great or particularly consequential, none is bad either, and all three should entertain.

This was going to be a piece about how much better than the rest of us a gay novelist can describe the movements of a man’s body – for glancing through a lens of avarice – then a glance at next week’s docket undid those plans. As we round the bend and race towards our seasonless sport’s annual doldrums wisdom advises against spending boxingless ideas the week before three compelling things happen. Fear not, though, an attempt to explore and celebrate a sexualized description of the male form will happen at least before GolovCanelo 2 does.

MGM Grand becomes Hornet’s Nest Northern Hemisphere this week as Aussie hoards ascend on Las Vegas, one hopes, to see their man defend his WBO title against one of today’s two best fighters. This marks Terence Crawford’s debut at 147 pounds, and it’s not a particularly easy one mainly for this reason: Horn’s first prizefight happened against a man who weighed 154 1/2 pounds, while Crawford’s first opponent weighed 138.

This three-weightclasses difference might mean less if Horn were a boxer or a slugger – since Crawford could slug his way through a long cutie or use defense and footwork to dissuade a onetrick puncher. But Horn’s a volume guy, a physical one, who expects to get hit often by men who likely punch harder than, if not accurately as, Crawford. The angles and stanceswitching tricks Crawford uses to disarm then attack smaller men mightn’t make much difference to Horn. So long as some part of Crawford is somewhere in front of Horn, regardless which part is in front of the other, expect Horn to hit that part. Horn cuts easily, and Crawford is very good at what he does, so there’s little chance Horn makes it to the closing bell, and even littler chance Vegas judges give him what doubtful benefits judges do in Brisbane, but the match should be fun.

The competing priorities of ESPN’s app launch and < $5.99 pay-per-view price (if you combine “Nature Boy”, noticeably better than “Andre the Giant”, for an adult anyway, with Horn-Crawford, you’re paying 95-percent less than you paid for Crawford-Postol) leave only one worry, which returns, as usual, to commentary. If ESPN plays it straight, tempering the crew’s admiration for Crawford with investigative stories about Horn’s having a father, all will be fine, regardless of outcome. But if ESPN has already decided Crawford must win because promoter Top Rank promised he would and having the world’s two best fighters on the network overwhelms every other consideration, things could go staggeringly sideways, the way they did when Horn narrowly upset Manny Pacquiao and widely upset Teddy Atlas.

Nothing so untoward will happen on Showtime when boxing’s best broadcast team covers Santa Cruz-Mares 2, a rematch no one considers anymore essential but everyone has a reasonable expectation will be safe and busy as their first match. Neither man has suffered an unavenged loss in the nearly three years since their first fight, but their promotional and managerial situation precludes either man from maintaining professional momentum. Santa Cruz now fights every eight months – a rate of activity at which Mares gazes lustfully. After PBC paid ESPN to televise the men’s first scrap, aficionados suspected the delay that followed was attributable to PBC’s having to save up to buy another broadcaster for the rematch, but evidently we were wrong. Santa Cruz would return six months later to beatdown Kiko Martinez and Mares would go underground for 16 months.

Much as both men rely on activity the more active fighter will win Saturday, and that should be Santa Cruz. The gloves will look too big and the rounds will meld together, but the match will have action enough for someone to mistake it for 2018’s fight of the year, until at least July.

That leaves only the return of boxing’s clown king, Tyson Fury, on a Saturday afternoon card illegally streaming from Manchester. It has been 2 1/2 years since England’s enormous lunatic decisioned Wladimir Klitschko and everything has changed about the heavyweight division except Fury. There have been suspensions and cancellations and rehabilitations and protestations, but Fury is unbowed, genuine and loony as he was ages ago when he became heavyweight champion of the world. He’s either out of shape or in the shape of his life for his return against an unknown man with whom he hopes to log rounds. He is publicly vulnerable in a way one does not expect a 6-foot-9 and 247-274-pound professional fighter to be, and so he wins fans’ forgiveness for being likable. He is capable of decisioning any man in the world, too, including Anthony Joshua, and likely as not to denude Deontay Wilder, 120-108, if ever PBC’s poverty forces such an encounter.

Frankly Wilder-Fury is the fight we deserve, whatever better match we happen to want, a reasonable man who fights crazy against a crazy man who fights reasonable, and both men grasp their division is about spectacle much as merit – while AJ’s dignity precludes his being less or more than a rolemodel, however little boxing fans honestly ever want such a thing.

Writing of which, let’s see if we can collect some clicks in this, our new, legalized-sports-betting country:

Crawford stops Horn on cuts in round 11.

Santa Cruz decisions Mares 115-113, 113-115, 115-113.

Fury TKOs Seferi with a somersault punch in round 7.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

By Norm Frauenheim-

Stalled negotiations for a Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin rematch are diverting attention and headlines away from two intriguing fights – Abner Mares-Leo Santa Cruz II in Los Angeles and Terence Crawford’s welterweight debut against Jeff Horn in Las Vegas, both on June 9.

It reminds me of an old line: The only thing killing boxing is boxing. It is the flaw, the proverbial glass jaw, that always seems to undercut a chaotic business that just can’t get out of its own way.

Television ratings have been promising this year, especially on ESPN. There’s an audience of young fans in America’s changing demographics. There’s looming interest in Crawford, Mikey Garcia, Vasiliy Lomachenko, Santa Cruz, Mares, Oscar Valdez Jr., Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder.

But today the business is being held hostage by talk that has been about percentages. According to various reports, GGG wants an equitable split, 50-50, since Canelo’s positive PED tests and subsequent withdrawal from a rematch that was supposed to happen on May 5. Canelo’s Golden Boy reps are reportedly standing by numbers they said were the terms of the initial deal, 65 percent for Canelo and 35 for GGG.

Those are numbers that are interesting only if you’re shopping for a new mortgage. Fans, I suspect, only want to know there’s a date and place for an opening bell.

In the here and now, who knows. There has only been a chilling silence for the last week. As I write this, there have been no reports talks have resumed.

I keep thinking back to GGG’s comment a couple of days before his swift, second-round stoppage of Vanes Martirosyan on May 5 at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif. Then, he said there was only a 10 percent chance that a rematch of their controversial draw last September would happen.

Then, it sounded like an opening line in re-setting the table for a new deal in the controversial wake of the Canelo PED controversy, which includes an ongoing, Nevada Athletic Commission-imposed suspension that will end in mid-August. Now, it sounds like a prediction,

I can only hope he’s wrong. At the time, there appears to be some sympathy for his attempt to get more favorable terms. Fifty-fifty looks unlikely. Canelo still ranks as the bigger draw and becomes more of one because of the controversy that now surrounds him.

But a better deal for GGG only seems fair, especially after the cancellation of the May 5 bout. GGG had no hand in the cancellation and, in fact, fought for a reported $1 million guarantee against Martirosyan on the same day. GGG’s promotional rep, Tom Loeffler of K-2, suggested that the Nevada Commission should have levied a fine against Canelo in addition to the suspension. The Commission said a fine was not possible, because Canelo’s positive PED tests in February were not related to a fight that had already happened in the state.

Still, Loeffler said damage had been done to GGG. The only way to get some of it back is through negotiations. Thus far, however, Golden Boy has yet to buy any of it. Hard to know where it goes next, if anywhere.

No rematch is a loss for just about everybody. Hardcore fans will eventually move on to Crawford, Lomachenko, Garcia, Santa Cruz, Mares, Valdez, Joshua and Wilder. But causal fans will again have another reason to stay away.

Meanwhile, no deal for a sequel on September 15 is reason to wonder whether there will ever be a rematch. GGG has bigger global footprint than Canelo. The Kazak fighter, whose pro career started in Germany and includes stops in Monaco, could go to Tokyo for good money against Ryota Murata.

There are also opportunities for Canelo, although the rumored one is bound to get only boos. Spike O’Sullivan? Really? Arguments over a proposed purse split are more interesting.

Billy Joe Saunders also has been mentioned. But both GGG and Canelo need to be careful about the emerging UK middleweight. Saunders has a chance to beat both. GGG has begun to display some wear and tear. At 27, Canelo continues to fight in spurts. Fatigue just might be part of his genetic make-up.

But it’ll get him beat, just as surely as time will eventually beat GGG, who will be 37 next April.

A year or two from now, GGG and Canelo could come back to talk with a loss or two between them and a lot less on the table.

The time is now.

By Bart Barry-

I was up before dawn Friday morning to begin the day for 20 minutes before I remembered I was up to watch my first live event on ESPN+, boxing’s newest app: Japan’s Naoya Inoue versus England’s Jamie McDonnell for yet another historic title attempt, this time at bantamweight. Such historic offerings happen no worse than monthly in our sport anymore, though history must record May and ESPN as twice-historic for their two historic broadcasts.

At great risk to my credibility as a surveyor of historic happenings, I must concede I do not recall before seeing McDonnell in a prizefighting ring. Which is to write my first impression of him was indeed a pathetic one. This is troubling because in order for me to certify Inoue as a historic talent I should first see him ply his wares against a competent opponent if not a historic one.

Call it stubbornly unfashionable but an undefeated puncher blasting his way through a boxer titlist in six or fewer punches heralds, for me, great matchmaking much as great punching. Time will tell how wrong I am about Inoue.

The ESPN+ app itself has a pleasantly lowbudget feel to it; my favorite part of Friday’s telecast was when some visionary made the decision to stop promoting upcoming mismatches flummery and simply go to a blank screen with a mainevent start time at the bottom. Would that we had more such honesty; we’ve run through our contingency material and welcome you, dear viewer, to set an alarm and go do something better with your time.

And now, dear writer, you may do the very same . . .

*

I am not a Philip Roth scholar or interested in being mistaken for one. I flatter myself to believe he influenced me during the year or so I read nearly all his works in 2003 or 2004. I later read his later works as they came out, thinking, I’m sure inappropriately, “The Plot Against America” was his worst novel since “Portnoy’s Complaint” (though “Our Gang” was proper dreadful, too) – and nearly every other of the novels he published after 2004, “Everyman” and “Exit Ghost” and “Indignation” and “The Humbling”, were excavation vehicles for incomplete scenes from his masterwork, “Sabbath’s Theater”.

That is the work of Roth I return to and return to for its relentlessness, for its boundless pleasure in offending, for its desecration of everything it encounters. Its arc is a parabola. I’m sure when I first read it, when it was about sex and sex and sex, I didn’t believe a writer could sustain such a pace for 30 pages much less 300 (years later, when I returned to it, I read death and death and death).

Here’s my favorite passage in all American literature, presented without context but deliciously offensive for those familiar with what precedes it:

“It couldn’t have ended otherwise. Final proof that life is perfect. Knows where it’s going every inch of the way. No, human life must not be extinguished. No one could come up with anything like it again.”

There’s not a Zuckerman-narrated novel I didn’t enjoy, though if pressed for a Roth book to rate immediately behind Sabbath, I’d probably choose “Operation Shylock” for its originality. I’m not a Jew or a misogynist or a feminist or whatever other political identify makes one cheer or boo Roth. I enjoyed Roth’s books as an American, and for me he is the quintessential American author of the last 40 years. He began with a tight ethno-religious identity and transcended it, first-person to third-. And that maneuver, first-person to third-, is the technique I enjoy most of his: First-person introduces an informality that permits the narrator later intrude on his story whenever he wishes, however formal its third-person progression.

At his worst Roth is political and screechy, a parody of himself recognized by itself, a product of the idealism of his times – at his worst, he just can’t help himself. The rest and best of the time he is mock heroic; Zuckerman behind drunken Jaga in “The Anatomy Lesson”, Mickey Sabbath as he “passeth the time, pretending to think without punctuation, the way J. Joyce pretended people thought . . .” Serious literature done by a writer whose narrators made you laugh at them.

Where does Roth rate in the canon of literary blah, blah, blah? Who, for heaven’s sake, cares! One should rate what he reads according to what joy it brings him, and to hell with every single other consideration.

Are you able to return to an author’s words and enjoy them more than once? Then you’ve found your version of great literature. Ranking art against itself is an empty, academic game, a game Roth subjected a character to when he wished torture that character a wee bit, like he did, and often, to Coleman Silk in “The Human Stain” – Rage!

Roth went gracefully, not tragically, when his time came. He stopped writing almost a decade before he passed, absolving his obituarists any cookiecutter lamentations about how much more he had to give. He wrote what he had, justified his gifts, and brought joy to his readers. It could have ended otherwise, but thankfully it did not.

*

Thus far in 2018 Showtime and ESPN are the two indispensable networks for aficionados. ESPN+ certainly is not that yet but might become so. Eddie Hearn’s DAZN is not likely to become indispensable this year, but it might. Which makes one premium network glaringly dispensable, does it not?

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

By Norm Frauenheim-

Politics and boxing, like former business partners Donald Trump and Don King, often play by the same rules. Only one really matters. Protect yourself at all times. Forget that, and the potential consequences are as dangerous and long lasting as a concussion.

I kept reminding myself of that fundamental Thursday after hearing that President Trump pardoned Jack Johnson, who a century ago served 10 months in federal prison for transporting a white woman across state lines “for immoral purposes.” It was a conviction rooted in that era’s racism.

A pardon was the right thing to do, and maybe that’s where we should leave it. Yet, there is skepticism, here and elsewhere, because of the timing. Trump issued the pardon at precisely the same time African-American activists are criticizing him and the National Football League, which this week announced it would fine teams with players who continue to protest by taking a knee during the national anthem.

Last year, Trump noisily ripped players who refused to stand for the anthem, urging owners to fire them. Critics see the NFL’s move this week as acquiescence. Trump praised the NFL for a policy that would allow players to stay in the locker room during the anthem. Trump also said, almost in an aside, that players not willing to stand for the anthem maybe “shouldn’t be in the country.’’

The NFL decision sets the stage for another long season of discontent, full of further charges that Trump is a racist. On the same day that the debate re-ignited, however, Trump pardoned Johnson, the original name in a compelling history of African-American athletes, including Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson, Jim Brown, Muhammad Ali, John Carlos and Tommie Smith.

Today, however, Trump has a counter he didn’t have a few days ago. He pardoned Johnson.

Barack Obama could have, should have, and yet history’s first African-American president didn’t issue the overdue order for reasons that have never been very clear.

One was repeated Thursday in the New York Times, which reported that “the Obama administration passed on pardoning Johnson, citing in part allegations of domestic violence against women.’’

Huh? When have there ever been pardons for allegations? If there were, Trump would have already pardoned himself multiple times. Maybe, century-old allegations are more a matter for archaeologists and historians than current law.

Guess here is that the Obama administration decided it didn’t want to waste time or money on a pardon for a historical figure in a sport that – even in good times — has been a guilty pleasure for some and an outrage for others.

But the pardon was necessary. The Mann Act was no allegation. It was the racist law that put Johnson behind bars for crossing state lines with a woman named Belle Schreiber, who had worked as a prostitute and had dated the heavyweight champion.

Arizona Senator John McCain knew it was a wrong that had to be acknowledged when he and New York Representative Peter King introduced a resolution a decade ago to pardon Johnson, who 100 years earlier – 1908 – sparked a furious search for The Great White Hope after he won the heavyweight title in a victory over Canadian Tommy Burns in Sydney Australia. Two years later — 1910, he beat the designated Great White Hope, American Jim Jeffries, in Reno. In 1913, the Mann Act was the only Great White Hope that could stop Johnson. He was convicted by an all-white jury, left the country and returned in 1920, only to wind up in jail for nearly a year.

“Mr. Johnson’s conviction was motivated by nothing more than the color of his skin,” McCain and King said in a statement about 10 years ago. “As such, it not only injured his family, but also our nation as a whole.”

About a decade later, there is profound irony that McCain’s long and worthy pursuit of the pardon would finally end with Trump granting it. Enmity between Trump and the ailing McCain is hardly a secret these days.

But I suspect the ailing McCain, a boxer during his days at the Naval Academy, welcomes the pardon more than he would an apology from the Trump administration for the ghoulish joke about him dying a few weeks ago. There also has never been an apology from Trump himself for his mocking dismissal of McCain’s experience as a Viet Nam prisoner-of-war. Early in the last presidential campaign, Trump said he preferred people “who weren’t captured.’’

Yet, McCain has a win, thanks to a president he doesn’t like. The contempt is mutual. But, again, boxing and politics also mean that your worst enemy can sometimes be your best friend. Just be sure to protect yourself. All the time.

By Bart Barry-

One doesn’t know when the urge to experimentalism will strike but one learns indulge it until he learns not to (many efforts before he learns to indulge it once more, in the doubly helical way of creative and open systems). Saturday’s aficionado’s buffet – Lee Selby versus Josh Warrington and Gary Russell versus Joseph Diaz, for featherweight titles, and Adonis Stevenson versus Badou Jack for the light heavyweight championship – present a clean enough roster to explore biases and their possible origins.

This column happens in a coffeeshop as it has for a number of years now, ever since I discovered making the process a reward itself was more sustainable than making the process a thing that merits reward; a decade of Sunday morning procrastinations followed by struggles followed by coffeeshop rewards accidentally gave way to an obvious solution that became such only once it happened accidentally. Then a minor epiphany followed: It’s more fun, if not demonstrably better, to write in a loud and bustling place, and to allow the noises and bustles seep in the column, than run the fool’s errand of sealing your system off – what happens when one’s weekly fears shift from being blocked to being bored.

There are echoes and architectural debates and orders and gossiping happening all round – “flood zones” gets articulated but won’t be used – the workaday wanderings of a mind that spent 25 senseless minutes on haploid cells before sending himself northwards to one of the five coffeeshops of the Sunday morning circuit. The irony of exchanging, or having exchanged for us, immortality for rapid improvement, to become fitter, though alas no more adaptable, than bacteria, sets itself outside of irony for preceding irony by a few hundred million years.

No segue. No bridge.

I didn’t care who would win Warrington-Selby for at least a round. Then it became apparent via observation and commentary Warrington was the shorter busier guy, the volume-puncher to Selby’s boxer, and I began to favor Warrington. I’ve been the shorter busier guy far more often than the taller craftier one, and I initially cheer for whomever reminds me of myself, like you do, though not quite inflexibly as Roy Jones does.

Whither the ancient journalistic ideal of unbias? I’m no longer sure it exists or ever did; bias precedes interest a bit like friction precedes motion. Until we have a thought to prove or disprove, I suspect, we’re daydreaming.

No sooner was Selby bleeding from beside both eyes then I began rooting for Selby in the same halfhearted way I rooted for Warrington. Then Selby and Warrington bled together as different arms and legs of the same general body and I began to root for a fair decision, to root halfheartedly for prizefighting itself, until the decision got read. Then I took a nap.

No segue.

I didn’t care who would win Russell-Diaz for a round and a half. I believed Russell was way overrated when HBO hardsold him to us 6 1/2 years ago the same way I believed Vasyl Lomachenko was way overrated when HBO hardsold him to us four years ago. Then they fought, and by virtue of Lomachenko’s victory Lomachenko could no longer be overrated as Russell.

I interviewed Jose Ramirez six years ago for The Ring magazine and wondered if the California-born U.S. Olympian with a last name ending in ‘z’ mightn’t be Diaz until I spent a few minutes looking that up Sunday morning (since I stopped caring if he was, a minute into round 2 Saturday night). The guy I interviewed was too polished by half, too entrepreneurial, too much about branding, to show what composure Diaz showed 30 seconds into Russell’s flashassault on his gloves Saturday.

I’m so tired of hearing about handspeed, Russell’s or anyone else’s. Maybe because I can’t relate. Maybe because I think it’s an unimaginative way to describe a prizefighter – one doesn’t cultivate handspeed any more than he cultivates height or eyecolor.

Russell’s hometown crowd’s cheering his brief show of exhausting ineffectiveness in round 2 made me cheer against him. Then Diaz’s aggressive reply made me stop caring if Diaz was the young branding executive I spoke with in 2012. I continued to cheer for Diaz until the ninth or 10th round, when by virtue of Russell’s not wilting, howsoever many Diaz bodyshots made Russell’s narrow waste crinkle, I decided Russell was doing something very clever to disarm Diaz. The final round I cheered for suspense, and therefore Diaz, but I didn’t mind the decision.

And I admire Russell for giving himself a C+ and being vulnerable about what vulnerable knuckles keep him inactive. While we lament a talent wasted by indolence Russell finds solace and pride in concealed deficiencies overcome.

No bridge.

I didn’t care who would win Stevenson-Jack for its entirety – an acknowledged disinterest influenced in part by the hour when the match’s opening bell rang. At times I wanted the 40-year-old southpaw to do something reckless and violent with his left hand and end the fight because the fight was not entertaining most of its duration. Later I wanted Jack to wearout the old man and end Stevenson’s deeply unsatisfactory reign as world’s lineal light heavyweight champion.

I wanted to cheer for Stevenson because he won his title the right way, lest we forget, mowerstrapping a talented champion favored to outclass him easily, and because Stevenson has a certain roguish charisma, but finally I couldn’t because Stevenson is neither talented nor active enough to bias me. Stevenson obviously received the draw like a victory, not because he thought he won the fight, unconscious as he was when it ended, but because he got to leave the Canadian ring with his title, ensuring one more championsized purse.

Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev, today, form a pair of prizefighters that stands further from a once-desired rivalry than anyone does.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

Follow all the action as Adonis Stevenson defends the WBC Light Heavyweight title against Badou Jack.  The action begins around 11 PM ET / 8 PM PT

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Round 1: Stevenson lands a left

Round 2 Straight left from Stevenson..Left..Jack lands a jab..

Round 3 Jack lands a right to the body.  Another..Stevenson lands..Right from Jack..left from Stevenson..

Round 4 Right from Jack..right to body..Right to body..jab..Right..Left uppercut from Stevenson..

Round 5 Left hook from Jack..Right and left to body from Stevenson..Uppercut..Right uppercut from Jack..Right..Stevenson works on the inside

Round 6 Left to body from Stevenson..Lead uppercut and right hook..Counter right from Jack..Sweeping left from Stevenson..right to body..Straight left..Right uppercut from Jack..2 left hooks from Jack..Right from Stevenson

Round 7 Good right Jack..Counter right from Stevenson..Right from Jack..Good right

Round 8 Jab from Stevenson..Left..Jab from Jack..Jack warned for a low blow..Short left from Stevenson..Quick combination from Jack..right…left from Stevenson..2 rights from Jack

Round 9 Short right to body from Jack..Left from Stevenson..Left and right snaps Stevenson head back..Right from Jack

Round 10 Left hook from Jack..Right uppercut.Right..Stevenson lands a couple shots

Round 11 Stevenson lands a body shot..Left hook from Jack..right to body..Jack backpedaling..2 rights from Jack..Right hook from Stevenson..Right from Jack..Body shot..Left uppercut from Stevenson..Jab and combination from Jack..

Round 12 Good uppercut from Jack..Lead left from Stevenson..Uppercut on inside from Jack..Right hook from Stevenson..Jack lands a right to the body..Over hand right..

115-113 JACK; 114-114 TWICE —DRAW

Follow all the action as Gary Russell Jr. defends the WBC Featherweight title against Joseph Diaz, Jr in a battle of former U.S Olympians.  The action begins at 10:05 Et / 7:05 PT

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Round 1: Double jab from Russell..Jab to body..Diaz lands a left to body

Round 2 Right hook from Russell..Jab from Diaz…Good left..3 punch combination..Body shot from Russell..Left uppercut on inside…Diaz lands a right to the body Combination to the body..right to the head..Left to head..Left to body..left to jaw..Double left hand..body shot

Round 3 Left uppercut in inside from Russell..Counter left from Diaz..Lopping left from Russell..Counter left from Diaz….Body shot..Nice left..

Round 4 Combination from Diaz..Nice body shot and another..Right from Russell…Right to body from Diaz..Left to jaw from Russell..

Round 5 Jab from Russell..Left from Diaz..Good combination..Right to the body..Counter left..Good body shots and nice uppercut

Round 6 Combination from Russell..Left from Diaz..Right to the body..Nice combination..Left..Body work from Russell..Double right from Diaz..Double jab and over hand left…Counter right from Russell..Combination..

Round 7 Jab..from Russell..1-2…

Round 8 Left hook from Russell…Left to body..Nice left from Diaz..Jab from Russell..Left from Diaz..Double right from Diaz..

Round 9 Double jab from Russell

Round 10 Counter left from Diaz..Left to body..Double left hand..Ripping combination from Russell..Good counter from Diaz..

Round 11 Russell pot shotting..Body shots from Diaz..2 rights from Russell..body and head from Diaz..uppercuts exchanged on the inside..Left cross from Russell

Follow all the action as Lee Selby defends the IBF Featherweight title against Josh Warrington from Leeds, England.  The action kicks off at 5 PM ET / 2 PM ET / 10 PM in Great Britain

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Round 1: Trading left hands..Right from Warrington

Round 2 Good jab from Selby..2 good rights from Warrington..Selby is cut over the left eye..Hard left and right from Warrington…Good left hook to body from Selby..Good right from Selby..Right and left bucked Warrington..Cut caused by accidental clash of heads.

Round 3 Straight right from Warrington..Right..Right and left uppercut from Selby..Left hook..Good right..Right

Round 4 Good left from Selby…Double left from Warrington…Sneaky right from Warrington..Good left lead..2 body shots…Good left hook..Right from Selby

Round 5 Jab from Warrington..Straight right from Selby..Left from Warrington..Solid right..Good left hook from Selby…1-2..Good left from Warrington

Round 6  Good right from Selby..Good right…Right from Warrington..Left and right to the head..Good right..Doctor checking on cut as Selby is now cut around his right eye..Great combination from Warrington..

Round 7 Good body shot from Selby..Good body shot from Warrington..3 punch combination from Selby..Jab from Warrington..Good left to body from Selby…

Round 8 Good jab from Warrington..Good right from Selby…Nice right..Good left hook and another..Good right from Warrington

Round 9 Good uppercut from Selby..Right to body from Warrington..Good right..Left hook..Nice left hook in close..Right hand..Good work inside..3 punch combination..

Round 10  Good right from Warrington…

Round 11 Jab and right over the top from Warrington…Good right at the bell

Round 12 Good right from Warrington..Good right from Selby…Right to head from Warrington..Good right..Good left from Selby..

115-113 FOR SELBY….116-112 WARRINGTON…115-113 WARRINGTON