LAS VEGAS – It was more of a scene than a weigh-in. More about the crowd than the scale.

The often mundane ritual of fighters in underwear stepping onto a scale was transformed Friday into a rock-and-roll like event that began about five hours before Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Canelo Alvarez even arrived at the MGM Grand.

Fans wearing red wigs in honor of Canelo’s hair and caps with Mayweather’s TMT logo stood in a line that snaked through the hallway leading into the Grand Garden Arena and between the slot machines on the casino floor. About 90 minutes before the fighters were scheduled to weigh in, the place was jammed. A crowd of 12,200 was waiting. Fans who had hoped to see them were turned away.

It was called the biggest weigh-in crowd in boxing history. There are no numbers to prove it or disprove it. But it’s fair to say that it was unprecedented and a huge sign that the Showtime telecast of the Mayweather-Canelo card Saturday night has a real chance at breaking the pay-per-view record of about 2.5 million, set in Mayweather’s 2007 decision over Oscar De La Hoya.

Only the buzz for Mayweather-Canelo was off-the-scale.

At 150 1/2 pounds, Mayweather was a pound-and-half lighter than the mandated 152 for the junior-middleweight bout. The catch weight was the source of some controversy. It was supposed to have put Canelo at a disadvantage. At least, the Mayweather camp thought so. But if Canelo had any trouble making weight, it wasn’t evident. He coolly tipped the scale at 152 pounds. Not a fraction of an ounce more. If in fact he did struggle and was weakened in the process, it might become evident midway through Saturday night’s fight, scheduled for 12 rounds. On the scale, however, Canelo looked comfortable.

“I was born ready,’’ Canelo said, abandoning his usual Spanish for English in his final words before leaving the stage to chants from a predominantly Mexican crowd.

Experience is supposed to be one of Mayweather’s biggest advantages over the 23-year-old Canelo, who is stepping onto boxing biggest stage for the first time. But as opening bell gets close, Canelo has remained relaxed and confident. Nothing appears to intimidate him, not even Mayweather, who tried.
The 36-year-old Mayweather (44-0, 26 KOs) chewed gum and talked at Canelo (42-0-1. 30 KOs) as the two posed, face-to-face, after stepping off the scale. Mayweather held the World Boxing Council’’s specially-made version of the 154 pound belt, which includes seven pounds of gold. At current gold prices, it’s worth about $150,000.
Mayweather, nicknamed Money, grabbed Canelo’s right arm and shoved the belt toward the Mexican challenger. Mayweather wanted him to hold it. Canelo slapped Mayweather’ hand away and walked off.

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer said Canelo turned to him and said he doesn’t take orders from Mayweather.

“He told me: ‘I’m not going to do what the guy tells me to,’ ’’ Schaefer said.

The fiercely-independent Bernard Hopkins, who was on stage in his role as a Golden Boy partner, was impressed by Canelo’s move.

“Bernard told me: ‘That’s a veteran move,’ ‘’ Schaefer said.

It’s clear Canelo wants no handouts. If he is going to win gold, he intends earn it. Now, the real question is whether he has enough speed in his feet and hands to do so.

“You know how these kids are,’’ said the favored Mayweather, who continued to be about 5-2 pick Friday afternoon at the MGM Grand’s sports book.

In another much-anticipated fight, Lucas Matthysse (34-2, 32 KOs) and Danny Garcia (26-0. 16 KOs) made weight, 140 pounds each, for their junior-welterweight bout. Garcia had to step onto the scale for a second time. In his first trip to the scale, he was half-pound too heavy, because the scale was rocking.

So was that crowd.

NOTES: Unbeaten super-middleweight Andre Ward, a pound-for-pound contender, was on the weigh-in stage among fighters promoted by Golden Boy and Mayweather. Ward’s presence created a lot of speculation about whether is he still trying to break away from promoter Dan Goossen. Ward went to court in an apparent attempt to break with Goossen. And arbiter ruled in Goossen’s favor. “It’s nothing,’’ Goossen said. “He has a signing in town (Las Vegas) tomorrow (Saturday). So he went to the weigh-in. Andre happens to be a boxing fan. He went there and was brought up on stage. He knows these guys, grew up with them. These are good things, not bad.’

LAS VEGAS – It wouldn’t be a big fight card without a crazy dad lurking in somebody’s corner.

Angel Garcia, junior-welterweight champion Danny Garcia’s father and trainer, filled the role Thursday with a noisy stand-up that included God, country, a Latino beat, a couple of comic-book heroes and a condemnation of anybody who doesn’t think his son can beat favored Lucas Matthysse Saturday night at the MGM Grand.

He didn’t comment on Syria. Then again, maybe we just missed that one. After all, there’s only so much time in one news conference and even a good digital recorder has limited space. Let’s just say that as we write this, Angel Garcia is still talking.

“Vegas don’t know nothing,’’ said Angel, who transformed his turn at the podium into a bully pulpit vacant since Ruben Guerrero was there in May before son Robert Guerrero’s loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. “You don’t know nothing. I know everything.’’

Crazy dads have been part of boxing’s dysfunctional family since at least Floyd Mayweather Sr., who has said little and been notably absent from the stage in the theater leading up to his son’s junior-middleweight fight Saturday night against Canelo Alvarez at the MGM Grand. But if you were expecting some silence with Mayweather Sr. in the background, forget it.

After thanking God, Angel talked about those skeptical of his son’s chances as though they were infidels, or at the very least un-American. He expects a big Latin crowd from Argentina supporting the power-punching Matthysse with Argentine colors, baby-blue and white. Angel Garcia talked about his Latino background. He and his unbeaten son (26-0, 16 KOs) are of Puerto Rican descent. But they are Philadelphia, through and through.

“Danny is an American fighter,’’ Angel said. “He represents the United States, the same country that sends you a welfare check. You sign it, don’t you? Then, you’re an Americanito.’’

Angel promised that the 140-pound titles would remain in his son’s American hands in a bout that might be the most entertaining fight on the Mayweather-Canelo card. There’s been a lot of attention of Matthysse’s knockout ratio. It’s at a head-rocking 86.49 percent. He has 32 stoppages in 36 fights, a record that includes 34 victories and two losses, both by decision. In his last bout, Matthysse generated a lot of attention with crushing third TKO of Lamont Peterson in May.

“His knockout of Lamont Peterson was heard around the world,’’ Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer said.

But Angel Garcia mocked stories about punching power that initially, he said, made Matthysse sound like Superman.

“Then, he knocked out Lamont Peterson and, whoa, Aquaman is back,’’ Angel said.

Matthysse shrugged his shoulders when asked about Angel Garcia’s mix commentary, insults and comedy. It didn’t affect him anyway, he said.

“Not at all, because I don’t understand what he says,’’ Matthysse said in Spanish.

Matthysse, about a 5-2 favorite Thursday afternoon, only promised that he would win. But Angel vowed that his surprising son would not be beaten.

“If he loses, I’ll cut my head off,’’ Angel said.

That might be the only way to silence him.

LAS VEGAS—In a rematch of their entertaining draw in December, Shawn Porter scored a ten round unanimous decision over Julio Diaz at the Premium Ballroom at the MGM Grand

Scores were 98-92, 97-93 and 97-93 for Porter

Former world title challenger Marco Antonio Periban and undefeated Badou Jack fought to a majority draw in a ten round Super Middleweight bout.

It was a closely contested bout with each guy having small spurts of effectiveness. Periban was cut around the left eye but that did not seem to deter him

Scores were 96-94 for Periban and 95-95 on two cards.

Periban, 168 lbs of Mexico City is now 20-1-1. Jack, 168 lbs of Las Vegas is now 15-0-1.

Julian Williams and Hugo Centeno fought to a no-contest as a cut over the left eye of Centeno forced the bout to be stopped in round four.

Williams hurt Centeno with a left hook in round one. Despite a height disadvantage, Williams continued to find a home with the left hook. The two clashed heads and a cut over the left eye forced the bout to be stopped in round four.

Williams, 154 lbs of Philadelphia is 13-0-1. Centeno, 153 lbs of Oxnard. CA is now 19-0.

Jermall Charlo stopped fellow Houstonian Rogelio De La Torre in round seven of a scheduled eight round Middleweight bout.

Charlo dominated and eventually dropped De La Torre and the fight was stopped at 1:50 of round seven.

Charlo, 156 lbs is now 16-0 with 12 knockouts. De La Torre, 153 lbs is now 10-4.

2012 U.S. Olympian Errol Spence Jr. destroyed Jesus Tavera in round one of a scheduled eight round Jr. Middleweight bout.

Spence dropped Tavera twice and the bout was called at 2:33 of round one.

Spence, 148 lbs of Dallas, TX is now 8-0 with 7 knockouts. Tavera, 154 lbs of Mexico City, MX is now 5-4.

Diego De La Hoya started his pro career in sensation fashion as he looks to carry on the family tradition as Oscar’s Cousin scored a third round stoppage over Luis Cosme in a scheduled four round Super Bantamweight bout.

De La Hoya jumped all over Cosme and started a huge flurry that dropped Cosme and the fight was stopped at 1:53 of round three.

De La Hoya, 122 lbs of Mexicali. MX is now 1-0 with 1 knockout. Cosme, 122 lbs of Bayamon, PR is now 8-4.

Robert Easter kept his perfect knockout streak in order as he disposed of Lance Williams in round one of a scheduled eight round Lightweight bout.

Easter dominated and dropped Williams three times and the bout was stopped at 2:43 of round one.

Easter, 134 lbs of Akron, OH is now 7-0 with 7 knockouts. Williams, 133 lbs of Muscatine, ID is now 6-2.

2012 U.S. Olympian Terrell Gausha need just 161 seconds to dispose of Bruce Runkle in a schedule six round Middleweight bout

Gausha landed a left to the body in round one that sent Runkle. Moments later a booming left hook sent Runkle to his back and the fight was stopped at of round one.

Gausha, 160 lbs of Cleveland, OH is now 6-0 with 4 knockouts. Runkle, 158 lbs of Wheeling, WV is now 4-3-1.

2012 U.S. Olympian Dominic Breazeale notched his seventh straight knockout as he dispatched John Hill in round three of a schooled eight round Heavyweight bout.

Breazeale landed a straight right that sent Hill down in round one. A huge right at the end of round two sent Hill down for a second time. In round three a huge left hook sent a battered Hill down for third and final time as when he rose to his feet referee Jay Nady stopped the bout at 1:08 of round three.

Breazeale, 248 lbs of Los Angeles, CA is now 7-0 with seven knockouts. Hill, 235 lbs of Charleston, WV is now 6-3.

LAS VEGAS – Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Canelo Alvarez arrived late and stayed late Wednesday at a news conference in a venue that figured to be an appropriate setting. Cirque Du Soleil usually plays at the MGM Grand’s KA Theatre. But boxing’s traditional version of the circus was surprisingly understated.

Mayweather coolly played the CEO role with comments that seemed to say he thinks Alvarez is the junior-partner in a junior-middleweight, pay-per-view fight Saturday night that figures to do some record-setting business.

The 23-year-old Canelo has 42 victories on a 43-fight ledger that includes no losses and one draw. It looks impressive. But Mayweather questioned the quality of opposition. Mayweather made it sound as if the Alvarez record was full of more holes than a block of Swiss cheese. Alvarez beat Matthew Hatton, Ricky’s brother, whom Mayweather beat. Alvarez beat Jose Cotto, Miguel’s brother, whom Mayweather also beat.

“You fight Miguel Cotto’s brother, but you don’t fight Miguel Cotto,’’ Mayweather said in comments after the formal portion of a news conference for pound-for-pound king’s second fight in a Showtime deal worth a potential $250 million. “You fight Ricky Hatton’s brother, but you don’t fight Ricky Hatton.’’

It was a follow-up to Mayweather’s comments at the podium during the formal part of a news conference that started about 40 minutes late.

“If he had faced 42 Mayweathers, he’d be 0-and-42,’’ he said.

Alvarez, who has been as unflappable as he is inexperienced on boxing’s biggest stage, sounded as if he isn’t listening to Mayweather. There were familiar questions about how the 23-year-old redhead will deal with Mayweather’s speed and elusiveness.

“I’m the same,’’ Canelo said. “I’ve got the same qualities.’’

What he won’t have, however, is the same paycheck. Mayweather is guaranteed $41.5 million, a record for one fight, according to several media reports. But there was some dispute Wednesday about Canelo’s purse. Mayweather said Canelo will collect $8 million.

“With no upside,’’ Mayweather said as if he had hired the popular Mexican.

Not true, according to Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer, who said Canelo’s upside is “significant.’’ During the news conference, Schaefer said he talked to Televisa, which will televise the bout in Mexico. He said was told that the network expects the Mexican audience to be between 70 and 80 million.

According to a contract filed with the Nevada State Athletic Commission, Canelo is guaranteed $5 million. But that doesn’t include international revenue. According to various sources and news reports, however, Canelo can expect to earn at least $12 million.

Saturday boxing fans will congregate for “The One,” a pay-per-view fight card with two co-main events, Argentine junior welterweight Lucas “The Machine” Matthysse versus Philadelphian Danny “Swift” Garcia, and Floyd Mayweather versus Saul Alvarez. Since that questionable prefix “co” was put there by someone else, and since any aficionado can tell you Matthysse-Garcia is much the more interesting fight, here is its preview.

That Lucas Matthysse is unknowable is a development charming as can be, that a fighter of temperament so unsuitable to the day’s discipline of promoting twice to fight once now supplies the entertaining portion of our sport’s largest 2013 event is a hopeful turn. Matthysse is a fighter who effectively hails from parts unknown, an Argentine township, Trelew, named after a colonizing Welshman, of all incongruous things, immigrated to Patagonia 130 years ago. Patagonia’s climes are famously harsh and unknown even to most Argentines, cold temperatures and rough seas and the sort of beating wind that, wherever it occurs round the world, makes the people whose ears it cuffs notably insular.

In a June conversation, Sergio Martinez, Argentina boxing’s singularly gracious ambassador (how many active world champions give 30 minutes to a writer asking questions unconstruable, even tangentially, to themselves?), conceded he was not quite familiar with Patagonia, thinking he could have passed through years before, maybe – but what winds and harshness its climate was about, and what men of almost unmatchable physical strength it birthed! Matthysse is not charismatic like his brother Walter, four years Lucas’ senior; he is timid in a way unaware of its timidity – those who joke about his quietness get a curious glance from him, as if he were certain he misunderstood them, a man who considers being in their presence a concession enough to gregariousness: I am here answering your questions, and I believe you said I am not talkative, but that cannot be correct, because I am here, so perhaps you’ll repeat yourself?

Danny Garcia is more talkative, if less charismatic, but appears nearly quiet by contrast with his buffoonish father who, conceivably, alleviates his son’s obligatory promotional affrays by servicing every hysteria, and the more publicly the more hysterically, with an impulsive bent nuns once exorcised from third graders with rulers. What should be obscured by manufactured story lines – “We are one week from ‘The One,’ and Lucas Matthysse loves his daughter, and Angel Garcia loves his son” – were there not more compelling subjects to treat, like Saul Alvarez’s ginger coif and Floyd Mayweather’s orchidaceous rides, is this: Matthysse and Garcia, both, are prizefighters in the best sense of the term. Both have been doing it a long time, both take seriously the craft, and neither was expected by his promoter to be where he is.

Matthysse was an anonymous Argentine, in 2010, with a likely inflated record that might nevertheless by rubbed against the vessel of Zab “Super” Judah’s latest self-reinvention, Comeback VII, till it flashed a shiny Brooklyn Back in the House! at those who go for such, and when Matthysse pulled Super offscript, dropping him in round 10, American matchmakers put a “*not on my watch” beside the Argentine’s name. Danny Garcia was probably supposed to lose to Nate Campbell and Kendall Holt in 2011, he was certainly supposed to lose to Erik Morales in March 2012, and when that didn’t happen, he was granted a dream chance to present Amir Khan with the WBC’s garish green belt before that esteemed institution could complete an audit of Garcia-Morales I and uncover a contractual clause that read: “The belt will be awarded to Erik Morales on March 24, or left vacant until the belt can be awarded to Erik Morales.”

Garcia promptly proved Khan’s career was fraudulent as Morales’ comeback, a comeback to which Garcia put the lie, drilling Morales on the canvas like a screw in soft pine, before apparently pleading with his advisor Al Haymon, whom he now shares with Matthysse, to spare him the Argentine’s unrelenting cruelty. This narrative, deliciously as it complements Matthysse’s taciturnity with Garcia’s fashion sense, is all wrong because it assumes, in part, Garcia was surprised as everyone else he could drop a trio of Morales, Khan and Judah six times in 30 rounds, but Garcia was not surprised, and do believe he’ll be unsurprised, too, if he does what has proved heretofore impossible: Drop Lucas “The Machine” Matthysse. It’s not impossible, and no longer even feels impossible, when one marries two images in his mind: The force with which Garcia turned his left fist on Morales’ chin in October, and the force with which Matthysse turned his chin onto Lamont Peterson’s left fist in May.

What is most underrated about Garcia, the justifiable underdog in the meaningful match of Saturday’s card, is his sense of timing, his understanding of an opponent’s rhythm and physique. Garcia has self-belief as well and confides in his left hook to the head the way Mickey Ward fancied a left hook to the body. That sort of thing can get a lad spearchiseled by Matthysse, which may well happen anyway but shouldn’t till Garcia somehow lands his reckless/wreckful left hook and subjects Matthysse’s soul to what doubts he makes money giving others. It says here if a knockout is scored in the first two rounds it will be Garcia’s, if a knockout is scored between rounds 3 and 10 the victory will belong to Matthysse, and if Saturday’s best fight somehow makes it to round 11 there is no telling what happens in the six minutes of butchery that follow.

Bart Barry can be reached at bart.barrys.email (at) gmail.com

Chris Arreola got back in the Heavyweight picture with a first round destruction of Seth Mitchell in a scheduled twelve round bout at the Fantasy Springs Resort in Indio, California.

Mitchell came out throwing hard shots but got caught with a left hook that hurt him that him hanging on. Arreola laded a hard flurry of punches that sent Mitchell to the canvas. After Mitchell wanted to fight on, which may have been the wrong decision as he ate another fuselage of punches until referee Jack Reiss rescued Mitchell at 2:24 of round one.

Arreola, 242 lbs of Riverside, CA is now 36-3 with 31 knockouts. Mitchell, 242 lbs of Brandwyne, MD is now 26-2-1.

“I want to thank myself for putting the work in,” said a fresh and jubilant Arreola after the stoppage. “I worked my ass off in Phoenix preparing for this fight. I respect Seth for his power, but the big difference for me was in training camp.”

“I have been my only downfall,” he continued. “I should only have one loss on my record. All my other losses are on me for not training properly. But I came here to win tonight. And it was easy work.”

A stunned Mitchell said, “I got caught. I am very disappointed. I was confident in my ability to win this fight. My heart just hurts right now. This was a big fight for both of us, a fight that I wanted. I didn’t want to step back after beating Jonathan Banks.”

Efrain Esquivias scored the biggest win of his career when he knocked out former two division champion Rafael Marquez in a scheduled 10 round Featherweight bout.

Marquez fought well early as he landed some nice rights and could not miss with the uppwercut. Esquivias slowly but surely got into the fight in round four as he was very effective with the right hand. Esquivias started landing those right at the beginning and end of hard combinations and age was showing on the 38 year-old Marquez.

Esquivias was having a nice round seven until Marquez had his last stand as he landed a huge flurry against the ropes just before the bell. Esquivias got back on track in round eight as he was landing some solid flurries. Esquivias came out in round nine and landed a crushing right hand that sent the future Hall of Famer to the canvas. Marquez wobbled to his feet and the fight was called off just nineteen seconds into round nine.

Esquivias, 126 lbs of Carson, CA is now 17-2-1 with 10 knockouts. Marquez, 126 lbs of Mexico City will contemplate retirement with a record of 41-9.

Esquivias drilled Marquez with a lead right hand in the ninth sending Marquez down. After a brief look, referee Raul Caiz Jr., waved it off without a count. “I am slow starter,” said an emotional Esquivias after the bout. “He caught me early, but I finished strong and that’s what matters.”

When asked about beating a legendary warrior, “It means everything. He’s one of my favorite fighters. When he beat Tim Austin I became a big fan of Rafael. Now, I am in the ring with him and it’s a huge honor. I am still his biggest fan. He’s a great champion.”

Marquez was taken to Desert Hospital on a stretcher.

SAN DIEGO (September 7, 2013)– Ricky Burns was fortunate to keep his WBO Lightweight championship with a twelve round split draw with Raymundo Beltran at the Scottish Exhibition Centre in Glasgow, Scotland

The fight was televised LIVE in the United States on AWE (formerly Wealth TV) and www.awetv.com

Burns controlled the first round and a he as he jabbed and worked the body. Beltran started landing some hard shots with the left hook and began to find his rhythm in round’s two and three. In round four, Beltran rocked Burns with a perfect left hook. Beltran continued to press Burns against the ropes where Burns started to look uncomfortable.

The fight changed in round eight when Beltran dropped Burns with a crushing left hook. Beltran continued to back up Burns and work him on the ropes. Burns recovered in spots in round’s eight through ten but he had a look of frustration on his face as he could not keep Beltran off of him. The two fought it out with championship courage down the stretch with Burns being slightly more active but from the looks of the battle, it was not enough to overcome the lead that Beltran buit up.

According to the judges, Burns was able to back his way into the draw as U.S. Judge Carlos Ortiz gave him the 115-112; Andre Van Grootenbruel of Belgium had 115-113 for Beltran while British judge Richie Davies scored it even at 114-114.

Burns, 134.3 lbs of Scotland, fought with a severely injured jaw from round two on, is now 36-2-1 while Beltran, 134.8 lbs of North Hollywood, CA via Los Mochis, MX is now 28-6-1.

“First and foremost it was an excellent fight”, said AWE CEO Charles Herring.

“The one silver lining out of all this is that fans were able to witness this controversial decision on AWE where in past years, fights like this flew under the radar. But Ray Beltran won the fight and he and the fans around the world deserve a rematch.”

In a battle of undefeated Cruiserweights, Stephen Simmons scored a ten round unanimous decision over David Graf.

Simmons dropped Graf in round four from a right to the side of the head. The two exchanged some exciting flurries and Simmons had Graf in trouble several times.

Simmons, 198 lbs of Edinburgh, Scotland won by scores of 99-91, 98-92 and 97-92 and is now 9-0. Graf, 193 lbs of Germany is now 10-1.

Scotty Cardle remained undefeated with a decision win over Gary Fox in a Lightweight bout.

The Referee scored the bout 79-73

Cardle, 135.3 lbs is now 12-0. Fox, 138 lbs is now 11-2

Callum Smith scored a 1st round destruction over Karil Psoknk in a scheduled six round Super Middleweight bout.

Smith dropped Psonko twice with body shots and Psonko did not want to continue after the second knockdown at 2:30 of round one.

Smith is now 7-0 with 5 knockouts. Psonko is now 10-27-2.

–BOXING RETURNS TO AWE ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 26TH WHEN TOP RANKED WELTERWEIGHT KELL BROOK (30-0, 20 KO’S) TAKES ON FORMER WBA WELTERWEIGHT CHAMPION VYACHESLAV SANCHENKO (34-1, 23 KO’S)

The network is currently available nationally on Verizon FiOS TV channel 169 and 669 in HD, AT&T U-Verse TV channels 470 and 1470 in HD, along with over 100 cable systems across the country and worldwide. The new website for AWE is www.AWEtv.com.

About AWE

AWE is the premier lifestyle and entertainment network —the destination for exclusive and original programming, simultaneously transmitted in high definition and standard definition. AWE delivers informative shows to its viewers, providing invaluable insights on what every American dreams of – from travel secrets to fast cars, from outrageous homes to live boxing events, and much more. The network fills a television vacuum by delivering intellectually stimulating, thought-provoking entertainment and always-unbiased news from an insider’s perspective. For more information, please visit www.awetv.com

There’s a theory that Canelo Alvarez has nothing to lose on Sept. 14 in his long-awaited showdown with Floyd Mayweather Jr. The reasons add up. Canelo is 23. He’s about to collect a career-high purse, expected to be between $10 and $13 million. He’s facing a 36-year-old fighter, whose tactical mastery has finally allowed him to prevail in the debate about who is at the top of the pound-for-pound’s mythical ratings. It’s no myth at all. It’s Mayweather and only Mayweather.

A loss for the young and still-unbeaten Canelo could become a valuable lesson in the ongoing education of a fighter who is beginning to look a lot like the pound-for-pound’s heir apparent.

What’s to lose, especially if a competitive performance from Canelo in a narrow defeat on the scorecards leads to a rich rematch?

Dumb question.

At least, it was when it was asked of Canelo during an international conference call.

“I think I have a lot to lose,’’ he said. “This is a fight that is very important to me. I have a whole lot to lose. I just don’t see it that way.’’

There’s pride in the answer. It’s an intangible. It’s just hard to know whether it gives Canelo more of a chance on his first night ever on boxing’s biggest stage and against a fighter who has ruled that stage like personal property. But it is evident that pride motivates Canelo as much as money moves Mayweather, who has been guaranteed a record-setting $41.5 million for the second bout in a Showtime deal worth a potential $250 million. Pride is there, in the tone of Canelo’s words. It’s also there, beneath all of that attention-grabbing red-hair, in stubborn eyes the color of combustible flint.

Be careful, and Mayweather has been. He seems to know that Canelo, although young, is dangerous. Whatever has passed for trash talk in the build-up for the biggest fight since Mayweather’s victory over Oscar De La Hoya in 2007 hasn’t exactly been outrageous.

If anything, Mayweather seems to have kept his rhetorical powder dry. His sharpest words seem to be more intended for De La Hoya, Canelo’s promoter. Mayweather, a promoter in his own right, has never liked De La Hoya. Don’t look for the two to start exchanging Christmas cards any time soon, if ever. Despite that, Mayweather seems to agree with De La Hoya about one thing: Canelo is just beginning to approach his potential.

“He hasn’t shown one bit of what’s he’s capable of,’’ De La Hoya said. “He hasn’t put it all together, because he hasn’t fought Floyd Mayweather, the best pound-for-pound fighter. Mayweather will bring the best out of him.’’

He might. Then again, Canelo’s pride might exert a pressure all its own and result in chances that Mayweather has always exploited with unerring efficiency. That might be the lesson. It also might be a lot to lose. But damaged pride has never needed stitches. It heals faster than a bloodied face. As an intangible, it is potentially powerful enough to give a Canelo a chance on Sept. 14. And if not then, maybe later in a rich rematch.

SAN ANTONIO – The greatest victory of New York City welterweight Luis Collazo’s career thus far has been a controversial decision loss to WBC titlist Andre Berto in 2009, and Monday night against Californian Alan Sanchez, Collazo fought like a man about whom that can rightly be said.

The main event from Cowboys Dancehall, a second installment of the early week boxing schedule Fox Sports 1 recently kicked-off and a collaboration between Golden Boy Promotions and Leija-Battah Promotions, was a 10-round welterweight fight that represented the least of its nine-match card – starting, continuing and ending as a lusterless sparring session in which neither man was imperiled and Collazo relied on two of the distinct features that keep his generally unremarkable fights on television: His hometown and tattoos.

Collazo (34-5, 17 KOs) defeated Sanchez (12-3-1, 6 KOs) by unanimous scores of 99-91, 98-92 and 97-93, using his crafty southpaw style to subdue both the light-hitting Sanchez and the Texas crowd. Without a round onto which a marker might be placed, with, in other words, round 4 being the same as round 7 being the same as round 10, Collazo’s third win in two years was cautious to a point of being incautious: A fighter with Collazo’s record and aspirations must not squander television dates the way he did Monday night.

RAUL MARTINEZ VS. DANIEL QUEVADO
If it cannot be said the career of San Antonio junior featherweight Raul Martinez is in upswing, after “La Cobrita’s” Monday victory over California’s Daniel Quevado things might nevertheless be better than they appeared four months ago when Martinez was soundly beaten at Alamodome by a fighter with a losing record.

After the opening three rounds of Monday’s match, Martinez (30-3, 18 KOs), who appeared early not to have power enough to keep Quevado (13-14-3, 8 KOs) at bay, began to walk the larger Californian into punches, connecting with several of the match’s most meaningful blows at the end of the third.

Then after nearly three minutes of unsustained offense in which neither man had a decisive advantage, in the final seconds of round 4 Martinez buckled Quevado, this time with a 3-2 combo. Immediately afterwards, Quevado, who’d spent much of the previous six minutes moving his right arm in a winding motion while throwing nary a punch with it, told his corner he was unable to continue, citing his right shoulder and awarding Martinez a victory officially scored TKO-5.

That Martinez won by knockdown was important for his future, after his April loss in a four-round match. That Martinez appeared slower and less powerful at his new weight, and absorbed blows aplenty from a .500 fighter like Quevado, though, leaves a number of doubts about that very same future.

RAU’SHEE WARREN VS. OMAR GONZALEZ
Officially, Cincinnati’s Rau’shee Warren’s made-for-television showcase match was a lopsided decision that came after Warren dropped his opponent, San Antonio junior featherweight Omar Gonzalez, five times. In actuality, though, the fight had more suspenseful moments than its score would imply and decidedly more than Warren or his handlers anticipated.

In the second television bout of Monday’s fight card, Warren (7-0, 3 KOs) decisioned Gonzales (6-10, 1 KO) by unanimous scores of 60-49, 60-49 and 60-51. Despite hurling, and landing, a multitude of left crosses from his southpaw stance, though, Warren was not able to stop Gonzales, and collected a fair number of counter left hands himself.

After a truly shaky start, an opening round that found him dropped twice by counters, Gonzales applied himself more effectively in the second, giving nearly as good, if not accurately, as he got from his three-time Olympian opponent. The third saw Gonzales land the round’s more powerful punches, straightening-up Warren several times with right-hook counters thrown from the San Antonian’s southpaw stance.

The entirety of the match’s momentum changed in the fourth, however, as Warren made the puncher’s compact – let’s both hit each other and see what happens – and landed accurate punches enough to fell Gonzales. An adjustment between rounds, too, convinced Warren he could not miss with left-hand leads, and then he did not miss.

Warren’s rhythm did not sustain, though, and the fifth was a far closer round than its predecessor, leading to a sixth that saw Warren return to form and drop Gonzales twice more, this time with increasingly vicious shots that knocked Gonzales down with considerably greater force. The decision brought no suspense but did come at the end of a prizefight that reiterated a number of lingering questions about Warren’s power and defense, the sorts of questions a man with a losing record should not be allowed to ask a top prospect with Warren’s resume.

UNDERCARD
The seventh fight of the card, a match between local junior middleweight Jairo Castaneda (3-0, 1 KO) and Austin’s Warren Stewart (0-2), delighted the filled-in Cowboys Dancehall crowd, with Castaneda securing his career’s third victory by three scores of 40-36, but also showed Castaneda to be a fighter whose chin is inappropriately high in exchanges and whose right crosses need improved power if their thrower is to become more than a local attraction.

Monday’s final pre-television bout, one featuring two Texas middleweights, Austin’s Kenton Sippio-Cook (3-0, 3 KOs) and Brownsville’s Juan Manuel Reyna (4-2, 2 KOs), saw a spirited round and a half followed by an odd ending, when Sippio-Cook landed a low blow from which Reyna was unable to rise, at 2:08 of round 2, after five minutes of attempted recuperation. While the official result was announced as a technical knockout for Sippio-Cook, this will have to be reviewed by Texas officials – as a referee who believed a knockdown to be scored by a clean punch would not give a fighter five minutes to recover.

Before that, two Texas flyweights threw heartily at one another in a four-round female match that saw Laredo’s Christina Fuentes (2-3-3) decision Houstonian Paola Ortiz (0-1) by unanimous scores of 39-37, 39-37 and 40-36.)

Monday’s second fight saw a massive mismatch in fighter weights if not class, as two Texas heavyweights, Austin’s Aaron Rosa (0-0-2), who weighed 256, and Brownsville’s Juan Manuel Alvarez (0-0-1), who weighed 200.4, made battle for four rounds, mutually assaulting and tiring one another and scoring a majority draw the ringside judges had 40-36, 38-38 and 38-38.

The night’s opening match between two Texan junior lightweights, Houston’s Rogelio Moreno (1-1) and San Antonio’s Christian Santibanez (0-2), one that featured Moreno’s activity against Santibanez’s reach and flying chin, ended with a unanimous decision for Moreno by scores of 39-37, 39-37 and 40-36.

Opening bell rang on a half-filled Cowboys Dancehall at 6:38 PM local time.

On Sept. 14 boxing fans will congregate for “The One,” a pay-per-view fight card with a main event, Floyd “Money” Mayweather versus Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, and a co-main event, Lucas Matthysse versus Danny Garcia. Since that questionable prefix “co” was put there by someone else, and since any aficionado can tell you Matthysse-Garcia is much the more interesting fight, what do you say we save its preview for next week and treat Sept. 14’s other main event now?

There is a temptation whenever one watches Floyd Mayweather on a program he credits himself with executively producing to fixate on the banality of the spectacle, the vapidity of a guy telling you autobiographical details for the 17th time that were boring the first time, 6 1/2 years ago. But such fixation is missing the point if one wishes to understand the spectacle, forgiving, as always, any adult understandably uninterested in understanding the spectacle.

The purpose of the spectacle, and this Mayweather well comprehends, is saturation, a process television does better than its predecessor mediums, a means not unlike what immersion serious foreign-language students subject themselves to, a way of surrounding a person’s associations, and therefore thoughts, with an idea that goes to the very root of what makes a mind human: Sociability. A desire to socialize is what helped our ancestors climb out the trees in which they were cowering from all predators larger and faster and stronger, which were most, and develop an unprecedented form of communication that took them, in record time, to a place of predatory dominance so far beyond their adversaries they locked up the descendants of the creatures that feasted on them, in zoos, for their children’s amusement.

A biological drive to be round others and communicate with them, connecting in some necessary way, is the trait television preys on, flashing images that say nothing so profoundly as: “This is important because everyone is watching it because it is important enough for everyone to watch.” It’s an algorithm even a kindergartner can untwine, doing something because you are doing it, and it works and works so long as television can find its way to your retina, a gambit the ongoing unpleasantness between Time Warner Cable and CBS now cancels.

But wait, Showtime’s got round Time Warner Cable by posting its wholly unoriginal “All Access” program on the internet! Yes, well, that is helping it reach exactly zero new pay-per-viewers, because if you cared enough about “All Access: Mayweather vs. Canelo” to search for it online, your purchase of their Sept. 14 show is already accounted for; you are the 300,000th buyer, not the millionth. Which leaves the promotion with Canelomania in Mexico, real a phenomenon as anything built on television but doubtfully enough to set what records “The One’s” press tour assured.

Canelomania is evidence of television’s power in a way not even Mayweather quite understands; Alvarez is marketed continually, and has been for years, by Grupo Televisa, a media outfit whose affiliates own more than half the television stations in Mexico – for an American to understand Televisa’s power, he’d have to go back to the pre-cable days of three channels in the United States, and then combine a couple. The Televisa script says Alvarez is a midnight-clad villain but an innocent-faced hero, a fireheaded anomaly but an everyman, a taciturn corrupter of other men’s flesh but a caresser of baby’s cheeks, an urbane fashionista but a tamer of beach steeds, a man who dines in a silver microfiber suit and bathes in a ballbearing black bikini bottom – like an OkCupid profile unrestrained by plausibility. He has dated a Televisa reporter, dated Miss Mexico for Televisa, and visited on Televisa with Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto, the husband of a Televisa actress.

Canelo Alvarez is the Mexican rendition of contemporary American marketing’s best invention: An otherwise unmarked canvas with a unique imprimatura layer – Tiger Woods in 1998, Barack Obama in 2004 – onto which young and old alike can project their own best qualities. Earl Woods, an all-American dad in the very worst sense of those words, helped market his son as a savior; before America’s leader was President Obama he was derisively called “The One” by Republican campaign operatives; and in two Saturdays Saul Alvarez fights in “The One,” a singular event that will either mark Alvarez as boxing’s savior (Mayweather sure wasn’t) or, much more likely, mark him as yet another “one” some country or ethnicity got hoodwinked into projecting its collective pride on for what 36 minutes it took Floyd Mayweather to unknit him.

Is this fight unwatchably predictable as Mayweather’s last? No, decidedly it is not; Alvarez is a legitimately larger prizefighter who throws his right cross early, like one who knows no better, and Mayweather is a man who, Shane Mosley avers, can be caught with a righthand during the five minutes it takes him to secure escape routes and seal an opponent’s every exit. If Alvarez somehow buckles Mayweather the way Mosley did, Money May will have pounced on him a creature sourly distinct from the Sugar Shane he got 40 months ago.

But if the bell rings to begin round 3 and Alvarez has yet to imperil Mayweather, well, you’ll still have the co-main for solace, but not suspense: In his lifetime of fighting both amateurs and professionals, Mayweather has seen everything about Canelo, save his fabulous redbrick hair, at least 50 times, while Canelo has seen the likes of Mayweather not once. Plan accordingly.

Bart Barry can be reached at bart.barrys.email (at) gmail.com

Ilunga Makabu scored a scintillating fifth round stoppage over Eric Fields in a scheduled twelve round Cruiserweight bout at the Emperor’s Palace in Gauteng, South Africa.

The bout was fast paced with Makabu starting to land fast and heavy shots in round three. The momentum for Makabu continued in land four before he landed a combination that was followed by a devastating left that landed flushed on the chin and Fields crumbled to the canvas on his back and the fight was stopped at 1:59 of round five.

Makabu of South Africa is now 15-1 with 14 knockouts. Fields of Oklahoma is now 22-2.

Ryno Liebenberg stopped Gabriel Ramirez in round one of a scheduled twelve round Light Heavyweight bout.

Liebenbeg dropped Ramirez with a hard combination early in the round round. Liebenberg landed a hard over hand right that hurt Ramirez whose left eye was cut bad. Liebenberg dropped Ramirez two more times with Ramirez taking the ten count on the third knockdown at 1:58 of round one

Liebenberg of South Africa is now 13-0 with nine knockouts. Ramirez of Argentina is now 13-5-1.

Johnny Muller extracted revenge as he stopped Tshepang Mohar in round eleven of their scheduled twelve round Light Heavyweight bout.

Muller landed the bigger shots on the taller Tshepang. He rocked Tshepang in the eleventh and continued tp land fush shots until Thsepang’s corner stopped the fight simultaneously as the referee at 2:28 of round 11.

Muller is 14-3-2 with 11 knockouts. Tshepang is now 9-7.

Canelo Alvarez keeps getting asked about how he will react to Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s trash talk. It’s a question that assumes the inevitable. Not if. But when. Funny thing is, there’s not been much of the Mayweather trash that seemed to type-cast him a couple of years ago.

The live stream of Mayweather’s media day from his Las Vegas gym Wednesday, projected a CEO-like persona. He was cool, calm and self-assured, almost eerily so, about his 152-pound fight on Sept. 14 at Las Vegas’s MGM Grand. Canelo said all of the right things Tuesday at his own media day from Big Bear, Calif. He talked as if he were reading from a tele-prompter. Nothing that Mayweather says, Canelo promised, will bother him.

Maybe not, but a Mayweather without the expected insults might be a reason for Canelo to sweat. Why? Mayweather doesn’t appear to be worried at all about the 23-year-old Mexican who is about to make his first step on to boxing’s biggest stage.

Much has been said about Mayweather’s evolution over the last couple of years, or at least since his infamous outburst at HBO’s Larry Merchant after his controversial stoppage of Victor Ortiz. He’s appears to have grown beyond the spontaneous, emotional outbursts that always seemed to there, just waiting to erupt. Maybe, his well-documented time last summer in jail is a factor. Maybe, it’s the accumulation of years and the wisdom that comes with them. Maybe, it’s because of his Showtime contract and the responsibility that comes with a potential $250 million. By way, that’s what Amazon founder Jeff Bezos paid for The Washington Post a few weeks ago. That might say more about the state of the newspaper biz than it does about Mayweather. But you get the idea. Mayweather is part mogul and part boxer these days. Trash-talk is for kids. He isn’t one anymore.

Nevertheless, profane insults from Mayweather continue to identify him as much as that precise counter. Hence, Canelo gets asked that familiar question. When trash-talk was as inevitable as his next breath, Mayweather often would explode into uninterrupted streams of it when threatened. Blame it on a streak of insecurity, or a big ego, or quick temper. Whatever the diagnosis, it’s probably still there, even if tempered by maturity. Scratch it with a real threat and an outburst figures to follow. In Canelo, there is no threat, or least that’s what Mayweather’s tone and words suggest.

“Am I fighting a guy who is just a pushover?’’ Mayweather said. “I don’t think so.’’

But, he then said in a matter-of-fact tone, Canelo record – 43 fights, 42 victories and one draw – includes opponents he should have knocked out.

“I’m not talking about A or B fighters,’’ said Mayweather, who praised Canelo as a solid boxer-puncher, yet also said that he went the distance against fighters who rated a C or D on his grade scale.

Between getting a fresh shave for his bald head and bites of a chicken diner, Mayweather talked about a lot more. There were jokes, some philosophy and an opinion that Juan Manuel Marquez deserves to be Mexico’s No. 1 fighter instead of the popular Canelo. But you never heard the flurry of expletives that are symptomatic of that one word: Worried.

He’s not.

Maybe, Canelo should be.

Carlos Condit avenged a 2009 defeat when he stopped Martin Kampmann in round four of a scheduled five round Welterweight bout at the Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Condit battered Kampmann with a combination of knees and punches and the fight was stopped fifty-four seconds into round four.

Condit, 170.5 lbs is now 29-7. Kampmann, 170 lbs is now 20-7

Rafael Dos Anjos scored a three round unanimous decision over Donald Cerrone in a Lightweight bout.

Scores were 29-28 on all cards for Dos Anjos, 155.5 lbs and is now 20-6. Cerrone, 156 lbs is 16-7

Court McGee won a three round split decision over Robert Whittaker in a Welterweight bout.

McGee won by scores of 39-27 and 29-28 and is now 16-3. Whittaker won a card by a 30-27 tally but falls to 12-3.

Takeya Mizugaki scored a three round split decision over Erik Perez in a Bantamweight bout.

Scores were 29-28 on two cards while a 3rd card read 29-28 for Perez.

Mizugaki, 135 1/2 lbs is now 18-7-2. Perez, 135 1/2 lbs is now 13-5.

Brad Tavares scored a three round unanimous decision over Bubba McDaniel in a Middleweight bout.

Scores were 29-28 on all cards for Tavares, 186 lbs and is now 12-2. McDaniel, 185 lbs is now 21-7.

Dylan Andrews scored a third round stoppage over Papy Abedi in a Middleweight bout.

Andrews landed a hard right that sent Abedi to the ground and he got pounded until the fight was stopped at 1:32 of round three.

Andrews, 185 lbs of Gold Coast, Aus is now 18-5-1. Abedi, 184 1/2 lbs of Stickholm, SWE 9-3.

Brandon Thatch scored a first round stoppage over Justin Edwards in a Welterweight bout.

Thatch landed some thunderous knees and the fight was stopped.

Thatch, 170 lbs is now 10-1. Edwards, 170 lbs is 9-3.

Darren Elkins scored a three round unanimous decision over Hatsu Hioki in a Bantamweight bout.

Scores were 29-28 on all cards for Elkins, 145 lbs of Portage, IN and is now 18-3. Hioki, 146 lbs of Nagoya, JP is now 26-7-2.

Jason High scored a first round choke out over James Head in a Welterweight bout.

High used the guillotine choke and the fight was over at 1:41 of round one.

High, 171 lbs is 18-4. Head, 170 1/2 lbs is 9-4.

Zak Cummings scored a first round choke out over Benny Alloway in a Welterweight bout.

The time was 4:19 of round one for Cummings, 170.5 lbs of Kansas City and is now 16-3. Alloway, 170 lbs of Gulf Coast Australia is 13-6.

Abel Trujillo (10-5) and Roger Bowling (11-4) fought to a controversial no-contest in a lightweight bout.

Bowling had Trujillo in chokes at the end of both round’s one and two. Trujillo reversed the second one and landed two illegal knees that was followed by a devastating right hand that knocked Bowling out at 4:57 of round two.

Martin Kampmann 170 – Carlos Condit 170.5
Abel Trujillo 155 – Roger Bowling 155.5
Benny Alloway 170 – Zak Cummings 170.5
Jason High 171 – James Head 170.5
Hatsu Hioki 146 – Darren Elkins 145
Brandon Thatch 170 – Justin Edwards 170
Pepy Abedi 184.5 – Dylan Andrews 185
Bubba McDaniel 185 – Brad Tavares 186
Erik Perez 135.5 – Takeya Mizugaki 135.5
Robert Whittaker 170.5 – Court McGee 170
Brian Melancon 170 – elvin Gastelum 170
Rafael dos Anjos 155.5 – Donald Cerrone 156

Saturday in Carson, Calif., Jhonny Gonzalez floored Abner Mares with a left-hook lead in the third minute of their featherweight title match then stopped Mares at 2:55 of round 1, scoring the sort of delightful upset that makes prizefighting a dasher of corporate plans and the corporate-minded folks that plan them.

Saturday’s plan was to continue a coronation of Mares, the 126-pound Mexican titlist who, in light of Nonito Donaire’s recently razed stature and Guillermo Rigondeaux’s impossible style (he’d handle Mares more easily than he handled Donaire), has run out of what opponents might attract large crowds, and fees from Showtime, a network long supportive of Mares for the good reason that he won its 2011 bantamweight tournament. Mares was valuable to Showtime though more important to Golden Boy because he was a first prizefighter developed by the outfit into a world champion, an accomplishment disproving, in small part, what was rightfully said of the promoter – handsome figurehead, good salesmen, no eye for talent.

There is, in other words, no chance Golden Boy expected its first homegrown world champion to get stretched in fewer than three minutes by a stalking-horse Mexican they promoted in an inaugural Boxing World Cup nearly eight years ago, when Gonzalez stopped Ratanachai Sor Vorapin to win the WBO’s bantamweight title, one Gonzalez defended seven months later against Fernando Montiel, in a rainstorm of boos at a venue then named Home Depot Center. Four months after that Gonzalez made the best fight any American saw live in 2006, a super bantamweight donnybrook with Israel Vazquez, a fight Vazquez won by 10th-round knockout, a fight that, were it not for YouTube, would have won 2006’s fight-of-the-year honors.

A 2007 knockout loss, on a body shot from a southpaw, a nifty bit of crossed-over footwork by one of the two best Filipino fighters Americans have seen, Gerry Penalosa, marked Gonzalez as the sort of man who did not win his biggest fights, which in its way made him pleasantly predictable, pleasant for being predictable, to any matchmaker looking to sell his network a genuine test, from a fabled and ubiquitous “tough Mexican” challenger, for any great young fighter. But Jhonny “Jhonny” Gonzalez did not see his career the way others do.

Gonzalez does not show the same self-deprecation about his craft he does about his name; in a number of interviews at Desert Diamond Casino, just south of Tucson, Ariz., in 2008 and 2007 and 2005, Gonzalez proved himself serious to a point of surliness, a man who believed he was cut from elite cloth and did not cotton to insinuations that first-round knockouts of unremarkable opponents like Leivi Brea were about burnishing a resume bright enough to get him beaten by more talented men on pay television.

The plan for Saturday was to have Showtime commentators walk a circular tightrope like this: While it would be an insult to Jhonny Gonzalez’s legacy to say he’s now what he was in his prime, it would also be an insult, an outrage even, to imply he is anything but the sternest possible test for Mares – a true superstar who just proved himself such by knocking out a man, in Gonzalez, many of us believed had a chance to beat him. That loop, repeated and reversed and reiterated thrice more, is how Saturday was scripted to go when Mares, the young superstar who once ate out of garbage cans and reminds himself he once ate out of garbage cans whenever he considers throwing money away (in garbage cans, one presumes), either scored a remarkable stoppage after round 8 or an incredible stoppage before then.

Instead of another Mares coronation, though, Showtime and Golden Boy must presently put together a rematch their young star must win – or else do it the HBO way, pretending Gonzalez no more beat Mares than Timothy Bradley beat Manny Pacquiao or Rigondeaux beat Donaire, and risk looking equally ridiculous. Writing of HBO, a child of Time Warner, a company that wisely divested itself of Time Warner Cable a few years back, there is Time Warner Cable’s ongoing contractual dispute with CBS, the parent company of Showtime. A goodish number of subscribers who pay Time Warner Cable to watch Showtime programming were sent scrambling for pirated online streams of Saturday’s fight because Time Warner Cable now blocks Showtime channels with a script that begins “The outrageous demands from CBS . . .”

It is the verbiage of businesschildren, not businessmen. Raised in a garishly self-interested generation to believe compromise is ever a synonym for weakness, the leaders of these companies, politicians more than entrepreneurs, and grotesquely overcompensated more than anything, now fail at one thing they are good at, if they are objectively good at something: Making a deal. They interrupt their customers’ service for the good of their customers, they say, and this is true, because their customers are not the witling Americans who purchase their products, but rather what computers daytrade their stocks, an army of machines collectively and absurdly called “shareholders” that sets executive compensation via the ticker symbols TWC and CBS. Any Time Warner employee of any kind itching to defend this system might first answer a simple question – “Why are we no longer called ‘AOL Time Warner’?” – and then familiarize himself with the historical omniscience of this free-market system that once openly guffawed at his company’s expense, and expenses.

Look elsewhere, then, for character, and find Jhonny Gonzalez and Abner Mares’ interaction on Twitter 38 days before their title match. While in training to render one another unconscious on Aug. 24, they had this exchange in their native Spanish on July 17:

Mares: A greeting to my great friend and proximate rival @JOGLEZ who is training hard, the same as I am, to give you all a great fight. #mexico

Gonzalez: @abnermares00 equally, a hug (for you), champion, and we’ll see each other in the ring. Encouragement!

That is what character looks like.

Bart Barry can be reached at bart.barrys.email (at) gmail.com

Abner Mares defies traditional categories, perhaps because he’s nimble enough to switch from one to the other quickly and sometimes seamlessly. Within a single fight, he moves from skill to skill, category to category, like an actor changing costumes.

From brawler to boxer, from puncher to careful tactician, Mares has a variety of roles he employs for every situation. His resourceful versatility isn’t exactly a secret anymore, but that doesn’t make it any less problematic for an opponent who can never be quite sure who and what he is facing from round to round.

That leaves experienced and tough Jhonny Gonzalez with a difficult task Saturday at the StubHub Center in Carson, Calif., in the main event of a Showtime-televised card. Facing Mares is a little bit like playing Russian Roullette. At some point, Mares will find a skill that exploits a weakness.

“You can’t really compare Jhonny to my last opponent,’’ said Mares, who beat Daniel Ponce De Leon in May on the undercard of Floyd Maywetaher Jr.’s victory over Robert Guerrero. “Jhonny is more of a thinker than Ponce, who just came to brawl. I know I have to fight him in a very smart way.’’

If there’s one word that best describes Mares (26-0-1,14 KOs), it’s opportunistic. Sure enough, an intriguing opportunity is on the line for him in a featherweight fight against Gonzalez (54-8, 46 KOs). His promoter, Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, grabbed it and introduced it by arguing that Mares should be ranked No. 2 in the pound-for-pound ratings behind Mayweather.

The pound-for-pound debate is a little bit like a video game. It’s a collection of talking points and not much more. But it matters in terms of public perception. It’s Schaefer’s job to campaign for his fighters. In arguing for Mares, Schaefer has managed to get his name into the debate in a way that that figures to generate interest. Translation: A potential boost in television ratings.

The rest is up to Mares, who has held titles at three weights – 118 pounds, 122 and 126. He figures to beat Gonzalez, but now there’s some pressure on him to win impressively in a bid to further enhance his pound-for-pound credentials.

The opportunity is there because of mounting questions about the presumptive No. 2, super-middleweight Andre Ward, whose position has eroded because of inactivity brought on in part by injuries. Of late, most of the news about Ward has come from an arbitration hearing won by his promoter, Dan Goossen.

Meanwhile, another contender, middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, is on the shelf until next year because of knee and hand injures aggravated in difficult decision over Martin Murray in April. Juan Manuel Marquez is scheduled to resume his career on Oct. 12 against Timothy Bradley in his first bout since his December stoppage of Manny Pacquiao. Inactivity isn’t a loss, but it isn’t much of an argument for any fighter trying to hold onto his pound-for-pound status either.

Contrast that to Mares, who beat Eric Morel and Anselmo Moreno in 2012. If he can follow up his ninth-round TKO of Ponce De Leon with a definitive victory over Gonzalez, he can punctuate his pound-for-pound argument in a way that could be hard to counter.

LAREDO, Texas – Saturday at this city’s Energy Arena brought nothing unexpected, and perhaps 1,000 or so spectators, with the red corner going 6-0 (5 KOs), and Houston lightweight Juan “Baby Bull” Diaz winning the second fight of his comeback by a technical knockout that brought two white terrycloths flying in the ring from the corner of Diaz’s Brazilian opponent, Adailton De Jesus, in round 5. Saturday also brought recognition Diaz did not dissipate during his brief consideration of a career in pettifogging instead of prizefighting, and perhaps a wee bit of observational inadequacy too.

Even sitting 15 feet from Diaz and making him one’s sole point of concentration yields few fruitful revelations about the origins of his stamina. The question was got at a number of times from different angles during Diaz’s reign as lightweight champion, and usually, and properly, attributed to the smoothness of his physique, the languid shape and execution of his fatty-wrapped though not-nonexistent musculature – won by hours swimming laps in lieu of pumping reps, a physique naturally warmed by driving a baseball bat in a heavybag rather than snapping bicep-tightening uppercuts at a trainer’s handpads.

Diaz’s footwork is not spectacular, though he is rarely off balance in any way but one customary to volume punchers: weight too far forward, body draped over the left knee. Diaz remains, as ever, a proverbial sucker for the back uppercut, the punch Juan Manuel Marquez finished him with in the second loss of his career, a punch it takes a gambler to throw since it opens his chin to a left hook, a punch Diaz throws nearly well to the head as he throws to the body.

Diaz does that with an untold ferocity; it was the only part of being ringside for his Saturday fight with Adailton De Jesus that carried something unexpected: Diaz does not know he does not possess one-punch stopping power, or at least he fights like a man who does not know. He is instead a man who must apply geology’s study of pressure and time to undo the wills of other men who hurt other men for a living, to snatch their desire to punch him by showing them a different nature, a beast they’ve not seen, one who will not tire and will not stop punching them. While there is not one Diaz punch or even one Diaz combination that makes an opponent wince at the championship level, there is a relentlessness that raises an exasperation the peerless Larry Merchant once captured in a fittingly exasperated voice: What do I have to do to make this guy stop hitting me?

Opponents, and more so bystanders, see Diaz’s flaccid physique, the way his flesh tumbles harmlessly over the black waistband of his babyblue trunks, and suspect whatever viciousness he brings to the opening minutes is mere hot blood, akin to prison-yard fury. It’s not till the 15th minute opponents, and more so bystanders, begin to wonder what detail they missed about this friendly college grad any barroom tough would unhesitatingly accost, how in the holy hell Diaz has not relented one moment, how he could appear so physically unprepared for a craft he is so masterful at.

That’s when many a Diaz opponent makes the worst possible calculation, to try rope-a-doping a smart guy, to begin stopping each of Diaz’s punches with his body rather than slipping or ducking them – because, really, what could be the harm: The Baby Bull famously does not hit hard. The harm is this: by stopping Diaz’s punches for him, doing half his physical work, an opponent reaffirms Diaz’s fighting philosophy relentlessly as Diaz’s punches can be thrown. “This is comfortable,” Diaz thinks, “this feels right, this is like we do in the gym on those days when if they didn’t yell ‘Time!’ a 23-minute round could happen because when I’m in my place, turning into each punch turns me away from the next punch till the motion takes care of itself and I barely know or remember what happened that last half hour.”

Diaz keeps his hands open wide as his battleship-gray gloves allow until the last three or so inches before they crash against an opponent’s body, and at that instant he closes them into fists, providing just enough torque to make another prizefighter know he’s being hit by a prizefighter, not a soft, local-attraction, college-kid-makes-good, slapper, twisting his knuckles in the man’s elbows and shoulders and ears till that man’s capacity for proper defense is pulverized, and Diaz’s knuckles start to taste what’s tastier: ribs, cheeks, chin, liver. Diaz follows every clean punch with another clean punch; he does not pause if a left hook makes another man’s bones momentarily feel like lard on his fist, he does not “take a snapshot” – as promoter Oscar De La Hoya rightly accused Danny Garcia of doing in Diaz’s native Houston against Erik Morales – but instead watches with eyes big the other man’s sternum, a head’s length below the man’s now exposed chin.

What Diaz does to another in a prizefight is an entirely impersonal event, it is a fitness contest with a heavybag that occasionally punches back, and whether that man tires or does not is an afterthought to Diaz who has a tally of fully thrown punches to reach, 600 at least though perhaps 900, before he asks what his opponent is doing. It is a mindlessness mindfully planned that makes Diaz susceptible only to men who are more accurate than he, and derive deeper pleasure from meaningful punches perfectly delivered, and such men are rare.

That is why Adailton De Jesus’ cornermen threw one white towel over the rope just after the midway point of round 5, and when that didn’t make referee Jon Schorle make Diaz relent, they hurled a second towel at Schorle himself, bypassing decorum to demand mercy for their charge.

Bart Barry can be reached at bart.barrys.email (at) gmail.com

LAREDO, Texas – A small but committed group of partisan-Mexican fight fans gathered to see how real Juan Diaz’s comeback was in its second test. The crowd was relieved to find it pretty serious thus far.

Saturday before a sparse crowd at Laredo Energy Arena, Houston lightweight and former world champion Juan “Baby Bull” Diaz (37-4, 18 Kos) outworked and outhit Brazilian Adailton De Jesus (30-8, 24 KOs), eventually causing the De Jesus corner to stop the match before its midway point, at 1:51 of round 5.

From the opening moments of Saturday’s main event, Diaz swarmed and struck De Jesus, attacking him as if after the Brazilian’s very spirit. De Jesus, who wore a noble face and made manly gestures of indifference through the next 15 or so minutes, was not in the fight and knew he was not in the fight, finding himself in the position so many Diaz opponents have, the realization that punching back at Diaz is the only way temporarily to make him stop punching you, until you tire – which you inevitably will.

“I went right to the body to break him down,” Diaz said after stopping De Jesus. “I felt good doing it.”

Each round became like its predecessor, by its closing bell, with Diaz whacking elbows and gloves when he could not find De Jesus’ softer spots, and each new round began with the waistband of De Jesus’ gray trunks pulled higher and higher in the hopes of fooling referee Jon Schorle into warning Diaz, but Schorle was not fooled.

“I threw a lot of hard, accurate punches,” Diaz explained.

The assault continued, with Diaz’s trademark activity rate, until De Jesus’ corner could abide no more and threw not one but two white towels in the ring, bringing an end to the match and a continuation to Diaz’s comeback, one promoter Top Rank envisions eventually concluding with a title match.

“I am still young, only 29,” Diaz said. “And I have a lot of fight left.”

IVAN NAJERA VS. ROGER ROSA

Undefeated San Antonio lightweight Ivan Najera goes by the nickname “Bam Bam,” and every fight symmetry dictates Najera supply one Bam, and collect the other. With an action-making style that relies on a flying chin and talent for turning into opponents’ blows, Najera has yet to encounter a man who is unskilled enough for the San Antonian to make a dull fight with. And Najera’s Saturday opponent, Brazilian Roger Rosa, was not unskilled as his record indicated.

The evening’s third match was its undercard’s best, with Najera (12-0, 9 KOs) winning a unanimous decision by scores of 59-54 and 58-55 and 58-55 over Rosa (4-4-1) – a man of small stature, short muscles and enough chin and confidence to test Najera several times in their six rounds together.

A Najera counter left hook dropped Rosa in round 1, making the official scorecards somewhat wider in margin than the fight they evaluated. The right man won ultimately, but aficionados can be forgiven their concerns about the longevity of a prospect like Najera who makes wars in six rounders against opponents without knockout power.

ALEX SAUCEDO VS. RAMON PENA

There is one young fighter matchmaker Bruce Trampler travels to see wherever he fights, and he is Chihuahuense Alex Saucedo, an undefeated 19-year-old welterweight who calls himself “El Cholo” and fights out of Oklahoma City. And each time Saucedo steps in a ring, Trampler’s wisdom is confirmed more deeply.

Saturday’s second fight saw Saucedo (10-0, 7 KOs) hurt Mexican opponent Ramon Pena (7-4, 5 KOs) with every punch he threw, and hurt him badly with every punch he landed. It was a Saucedo left hook to the head, officially, that was the match’s final punch, at 1:00 of round 1, but it was actually a couple left hooks to Pena’s liver that stopped the overmatched man from Los Mochis, Sinaloa, and kept Saucedo’s record perfect.

DENIS SHAFIKOV VS. SANTOS BENAVIDES

Promoter Top Rank is well known for cultivating talent, but undefeated Russian lightweight southpaw Denis Shafikov appears to have come to them ready-made. Much like Shafikov’s opponent, Nicaraguan Santos Benavides, came to Shafikov in Saturday’s opening match, a 10-round affair that was effectively finished after its first minute, though didn’t end officially till the bell rang to conclude round 6 – when Benavides’ corner wisely called an end to their guy’s evening.

One minute was how long it took Shafikov (32-0-1, 17 KOs) to decipher the secret to Benavides’ (23-4-2, 17 KOs) jab, the southpaw brings it home slow, and begin blasting him with left crosses that made Benavides’ legs shake every time they landed. And they landed with more ferocity as rounds went on until Benavides’ corner did the sage and merciful thing and ended the mess.

Shafikov might just be good as his record anticipates.

UNDERCARD

Saturday’s first televised fight was a 66-second drubbing that saw U.S. Olympian Jose Ramirez (5-0, 4 KOs) drop hopeless Oklahoma super lightweight Mike Maldonado (6-2, 1 KO) three times, twice with body shots, bringing an end to the match barely a minute after it started.

Rangy California super welterweight Danny Valdivia (1-0, 1 KO), who appears extremely tall for a 154-pound fighter but doesn’t seem to know it, fighting behind a short man’s high guard and relying on inside punching, blasted-out Texan Jamaris Chaney (1-2) in fewer than six minutes, Saturday, winning his professional debut at 2:51 of round 2 and then launching an exuberant cheering routine of jumps and kicks.

The evening’s final match, a six-round super bantamweight tilt between Connecticut’s Tramaine Williams (8-0, 2 KOs) and Californian Raymond Chacon (4-6), ended in a no contest at 0:51 of round 3.

Opening bell rang on an empty Laredo Energy Arena at 7:05 PM local time.

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ–Darren Barker wrestled the IBF Middleweight championship with a 12 round unanimous decision at The Revel Hotel and Casino

The action was fast paced from the beginning with Geale coming in swarming with shots that missed that left opening for Barker to counter. Barker seemed to win the early rounds sue to the more effetive punching. Geale was fighting well but his punches did not seem to have the same affect as did Barker’s.

Geale looked he scored a fight ending knockdown in round five when he landed a perfect left hook to the solar Plexas the sent Barker down for a nine count. Geale jumped all over Barker only to have the tide turn as it looked like Barker may have hurt Geale towards the end of the frame.

After that the two took turns taking control of the action and had some furious exchanges down the stretch with a lot of close rounds.

Barker, 159.5 lbs of Barnet, England won by scores of 116-111, 114-113 while geale took a card at 114-113.

Barker is now 26-1. Geale, 159.5 lbs of Mt Annan, Australia is 29-2

Kiko Martinez won the IBF Super Bantamweight title with a sixth round stoppage over Jonathan Romero.

In round one, Martinez came out with fire as he landed some crushing shots mostly on the ropes and hurt Romero with a hard right hand in between body shots. Romero had a nice bounce back round in the second and started out well in the third but in round four he got cracked a few times in that round and started to retreat. A cut over the right eye of Romero was a result from a headbutt. Martinez continued to stick to Romero like glue and he kept firing and landing hard rights. Romero did show good defense but was starting to wear down.

In round six, Martinez was all over Romero as he battered him all over the ring. Romero showed an amazing chin as he ate some vicious shots that saw his head snap back several times. The fight could have been stopped at any point passed the half way mark of the round buy referee David Fields finally called a halt to the action at 2:40 of round six.

Martinez, 121.5 lbs of Alicante, Spain is now 29-4 with 21 KO’s. Romero, 121.5 lbs of Cali, Colombia is now 23-1.

Yordenis Ugas scored a workmanlike ten round unanimous decision over John Williams in a Jr. Welterweight bout.

Ugas started turning up the tempo in round two as he started to land hard shots to the head and body. He trapped Williams in the corner with a series of punches just before the bell rang. Ugas continued to dominate and landed some more hard combinations in round five.

In round six, Ugas landed some nice body shots on the ropes and got in a perfect uppercut. Ugas continue to pound away at Williams, who showed a terrific chin as he took some solid blows and many body shots but was never in serious danger of hitting the canvas. The two went toe to toe down the stretch with each landing that thrilled the crowed in attendance.

Ugas, 141.5 lbs of Miami via Cuba won by scores of 98-91, 98-91 and 99-90 and is now 15-1. Williams, 18 1/2 lbs of Charlotte, NC is now 11-3-1.

Thomas Dulorme scored an eighth round stoppage over Frankie Figueroa in a scheduled ten round Jr. Welterweight bout.

Dulorme used his height over the first two rounds. Figueroa came out agressive in round three until he got caught with a hard right. Seconds later that same punch put Figueroa on the canvas. In round four, Dulorme continued to jump in with the right hand with Figueroa occasionally countering with his straight left. In round five, a solid combination that was finished off by a left hook sent Figueroa to the canvas for a second time.

Dulorme started round six with a hard right hand and continued to stalk Figueroa. Dulorme would later land a wicked right hand that drove Figueroa to the ropes. Finally in round eight, Dulorme pounded Figueroa all over the ring until the bout was stopped at 47 seconds of round eight.

Dulorme, 141 lbs of Carolina, PR is now 19-1 with 14 knockouts. Figueroa, 142 lbs of Bronx, NY is now 20-5-1.

Jonathan Maicelo scored a tenth round stoppage over Jose Alejandro Rodriguez in the final scheduled round of a ten round Lightweight bout.

Round one was a feeling out process with Maicelo landing a solid right hand just before the end of the frame. In round two, Maicelo pumped in a hard one-two. Rodriguez tried to use his length and jab in round four. Rodriguez got in a nice right in round five which was his best punch of the fight up to that point.

Maicelo came out swinging in round seven and landed a hard left hook. Towards the end of the frame, he landed a perfect counter right. In round ten, Maicelo landed a hard right hand that dropped Rodriguez for the ten count at twenty-two seconds of round ten.

Maicelo, 136 lbs of Callao, Peru is now 20-1 with 12 knockouts. Rodriguez, 134.5 lbs of Guadalajara, MX is now 19-12.

It didn’t take long for Angel Garcia to erupt. He’s complaining to media that his son, Philadelphia junior-welterweight Danny Garcia, isn’t getting a fair shake in coverage of his bout with Lucas Matthysse on the Sept. 14 card featuring Floyd Mayweather Jr.-versus-Canelo Alvarez at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand.

It’s hard to judge whether his apparent anger is real or just an act. There are times when Angel Garcia, his son’s trainer, seems to enjoy throwing a temper tantrum. The more profane, the better. His insults and epithets before his son’s upset of Amir Khan in July, 2012 were enough to wonder whether he’s one of those Philadelphia fans known to boo Santa Claus.

But, come on, Angel Garcia shouldn’t complain about coverage that includes Matthysse on The Ring’s current cover. Angel Garcia, another in the long line of boxing dads behaving badly, should thank the media for a gift that allows him and his son to play the underdog, a role as effective as it is familiar to them. Now that Matthysse has gotten the glossy cover-boy treatment, Angel Garcia has a convenient target and an inexhaustible source of motivation.

Here’s a hunch that The Ring’s cover will show up, pasted onto Danny Garcia’s favorite heavy bag throughout the rest of training camp. It’ll probably make a good dart board when he isn’t training. Angel Garcia might cover the walls in Danny Garcia’s sleeping quarters with Matthysse looking down on him from several angles. Dad wouldn’t want his son to wake up and not be reminded of how badly his honor has been wronged.

It’s an old enough trick to be a cliché, of course. Still, it works. Bernard Hopkins is a master at seizing upon some perceived slight and turning it into controversy that seems to energize him and pay-per-view sales. Politicians use it to demonize their opposition. College football coaches call it bulletin-board material. But it’s the same thing. Alabama is No. 1 again this season, in part because Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban is more frightened of complacency than Georgia or Florida or Texas A&M’s Johnny Football. From Hopkins to Saban, it doesn’t matter whether the enemy is real or a mere straw man. It only matters that there is always some point to prove, some score to settle, some dragon to slay.

Danny Garcia, the grown-up in his relationship with a combustible dad, seems to have an instinctive understanding of the role. He has used it to fashion an undefeated record and ownership of two acronym-sanctioned pieces of the 140-pound title. Yet, he has almost become the understudy, the B-side to Matthysse’ starring role. Garcia addressed it in a matter-of-fact tone Wednesday during a conference call that did not include his dad.

“I’ll defend my titles and I’ll still be champion,’’ Garcia said. “The people who don’t believe, that’s their problem. It’s not supposed to be my time now. But I made it my time.’’

The twice-beaten Matthysse, The Ring’s 140-pound champ, is getting most of the attention and perhaps a nod as the favorite because of a crushing third-round stoppage of Lamont Peterson in May, the Argentine’s last outing. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer called Matthysse the next Manny Pacquiao. It made you wonder if Garcia was going to be the next Peterson.

A further complication, at least for Angel Garcia, lurked in media reports suggesting that Danny Garcia’s face was frozen in fear at the way Matthysse battered Peterson into submission. From a ringside seat, Garcia witnessed Peterson hit the canvas three times in the violent third.

During Wednesday’s conference call, Leonard Ellerbe of Mayweather Promotions dismissed the idea that Garcia has ever been frightened of Matthysse or anybody else, other than perhaps his dad.

“I know first-hand that Danny has been very, very adamant that he wanted this fight,’’ said Ellerbe, who was privy to conversations with Al Haymon, an advisor to Mayweather and Garcia. “Day-after-day, he was bugging Al Haymon to make that fight. Again, I know first-hand that they (father and son) had been demanding it.

“Besides, there’s no such thing as being scared of each other. Nobody is scared to make money.’’

But sometimes, just a little fear is powerful currency in its own right, especially if it’s a fear of losing. Matthysse was included in Wednesday’s call. But he refrained from saying a provocative word, perhaps because he knows Garcia has gained some emotional momentum in a controversy generated by a dad who has only begun to provoke.

NEW YORK—Dibella Entertainment, in association with SMS Promotions, put together another exciting installment of the Broadway Boxing series. The co-main events of the evening featured Boyd Melson in a rematch against Jason Thompson and Tor Hamer against Kertson Manswell.

Melson looked very calm and boxed well from the outset, keeping his distance and landing with hard shots from a southpaw stance.

The middle rounds got interesting though as Thompson was able to close the gap and turning the bout into a bit of a war.

Thompson opened a nasty cut over the right eye of Melson in the sixth round causing the referee to call a time out so the ringside physician could get a closer look. With blood streaming down his face, Melson smiled at the doctor, telling him that there was no way he was stopping the fight.

In the seventh round, Melson returned the favor, cutting Thompson over his right eye. In the eighth and final frame, both fighters stormed off their stools and met in the center of the ring and immediately began throwing bombs. As the fighters were exchanging shots, Melson dropped Thompson with a short right hook. Thompson seemed to be a little off balance, but nonetheless the knockdown was rightfully counted.

In the end, Melson was awarded the well-deserved and hard-fought decision, winning by scores of 78-73 twice, and 77-74. With the victory, Melson improved to 12-1-1, 4KO’s, After the bout, the victor was accompanied in the ring by award-winning actor Cuba Gooding Jr. Melson discussed his foundation “Team Fight to Walk” and the “Just a Dollar Please” organization, which raises money for stem cell research. For more information on the cause visit www.justadollarplease.org

In a strange bout between two big heavyweights, Tor Hamer (20-2, 13 KO’s, 225lbs) took on Kertson Manswell (23-7, 17 KO’s, 280lbs). During the referee instructions, both fighters refused to touch gloves at first, and the referee had to order them twice before they finally gave in. The round opened up with Manswell throwing looping overhand rights. Hamer maintained his composure despite the fact that Manswell’s 280lbs body was constantly crashing into him, often knocking both fighters back. Countering a looping punch, Hamer landed a right hand that knocked Manswell off balance and down. He beat the count, and the fight continued. As the round came to a close, Hamer landed a series of short punches on his off balance opponent, sending him to a knee. The bell to end the round sounded, and Hamer was still throwing. Manswell, on a knee, dramatically fell face first to the canvas, in a performance that not many people believed. Most importantly, the referee wasn’t buying it, and ruled a TKO victory at 3:00 of the first round to Hamer.

In a four round bout, Justin Robbins(1-2, 138lbs) made things sloppy against Donte Strayhorn (2-1, 139.5lbs). Strayhorn worked behind his jab and right, while slipping in viscous body punches in between, while Robbins lunched in with wild hooks. Despite the difficulties that Robins posed, Strayhorn was able to maintain his composure and coast to a 40-36, 40-36, and 40-36 unanimous decision victory.

Michael Doyle (1-3, 131lbs) had the tough task of containing the talented Neuky Santelises (5-0, 4 KO’s, 130lbs) in a bout scheduled for four rounds. The first thing that was noticed was the size disparity between both fighters. Santelesis had a huge height advantage over Doyle. Soon after the opening bell rang, Santelises worked Doyle towards the ropes. Doyle responded by ubleashing a powerful left hand that landed perfectly on Santelises, sending him down on his back. He made it up to his feet quickly, but the referee didn’t like what he saw and stopped the fight. Some at ringside felt that it was a quick stoppage. Still, Doyle won by way of upset TKO victory at 1:19 of the first round.

The very popular Sonia Lamonakis (7-1-2, 1 KO, 216lbs) was in another brawl Wednesday night. This time her opponent was Tanzee Daniel (4-2-1, 1 KO, 240lbs). Like any other of Lomanakis’ fights, she was able to work her opponent into the corner repeatedly with her non-stop hooks. Daniel wasn’t much of a slouch herself. She was able to land cleanly on occasion, but there was very little power behind her blows. After another Lomanokis flurry, Daniel’s response was to taunt in the center of the ring. Lomanokis followed that up with working Daniel into and continuing her assault. The bout continued in this fashion until the final bell sounded. The final scorecards read 60-54, 60-54, and 59-55 all in favor of Lomanakis for the unanimous decision.

Patrick Day (4-0, 2 KO’s 154lbs) took to the ring amid cheers before his bout against Donald Ward (5-1, 3 KO’s). Day was an amateur national champion, and is highly regarded as a young professional. The bout started off with Day aggressive. He was much taller than his opponent, who took to bending low at the waist to avoid Day’s right hands. Defensively, Ward was very skilled. He ducked and dodged away from many of Day’s lightning quick punches.

Day was able to land some hard blows that hurt ward. All right hands that came in the 1st, 2nd, and 4th rounds. While Ward seemed hurt, he reacted to the punches by being aggressive himself, and even briefly hurting Day in the 2nd. The problem with Ward was that he telegraphed all of his punches, and Day was able to capitalize nearly every time. The final scores 60-54, 60-54, and 60-54 in favor of Day.

In a battle of two brawlers, Amos Cowart (7-0, 5 KO’s, 135.5lbs) took on Chazz McDowell (6-3, 1 KO, 137lbs) in a bout scheduled for six rounds. Cowart pressed the action, moving forward behind big blows to the body. McDowell often waited for Cowart to stop his onslaught, and then proceeded to land hard lows of his own. The entire bout saw lots of this back and forth action, and the crowd really gathered behind McDowell. The final scores read 58-56, 57-57, and 57-57 resulting in a majority draw. Promoter, Lou Dibella, announced afterwards that both fighters have agreed to a rematch for the next installment of Broadway Boxing.

Lennox Allen scored a six round unanimous decision over Michael Gbenga in a Light Heavyweight bout.

Scores were 60-54, 59-55 and 59-55 for Allen, 169 lbs of New York and is now 17-0-1. Gbenga, 170 lbs of Washington, DC is now 13-9.

Jeremy Abram made a successful pro debut with a four round unanimous decision over Micha Branch in a Jr. Lightweight bout.

Scores were 40-36 on all cards for Abram, 128 lbs of Cleveland. Branch, 128 lbs of Cincinnati is now 1-8-1.

SAN ANTONIO – Saturday at Laredo Energy Arena, about 150 miles southwest of here, Houston’s Juan “Baby Bull” Diaz will make a 10-round match with Brazilian Adailton De Jesus, as part of the second fight of a however-many-fight comeback Diaz plans to pursue till peril massively outweighs treasure and he returns to a retirement he apparently did not enjoy in 2011 and 2012. I will be there because Laredo is not too far, Diaz is one of my favorite fighters – in part because of the match he made with Juan Manuel Marquez 4 1/2 years ago – and because Diaz’s new promoter, Top Rank, has not been in Texas nearly as much as hoped this year.

Juan Diaz’s comeback may be sincere and well designed and likely to succeed or it may not, and as there’s no way to tell at this point what it is, Top Rank has chosen for Diaz an opponent who may or may not be serious himself. Adailton De Jesus is a Brazilian lightweight whose talents do not travel particularly well. He was last seen in the United States losing an uncomplicated decision to Marco Antonio Barrera three years ago at Alamodome. That Barrera bore little resemblance to the man who twice decisioned Erik Morales; the Barrera who fought De Jesus returned from a 15-month sabbatical, almost three years after announcing a “retirement” caused by his one-way rematch loss to Manny Pacquiao (a forgettable fight historic only for bringing a cessation to Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions’ first feud) to investigate how much money Barrera could raise on the nostalgia circuit before he careered into broadcasting full-time.

De Jesus’ career, a venture apparently paused when his first-round knockout of a 14-14-1 opponent in 2011 was nonviolent enough to warrant investigation by Brazilian officials, a knockout that came just three Saturdays after De Jesus was stretched in four rounds by Mexican Humberto Soto in Mexico, was a one marked by losses on the road complemented by resume-builder wins at home. Nothing about the Brazilian lightweight’s 19-month vacation, which will end Saturday in Laredo, indicates a new desire to compete; likely this is a fight made by a matchmaker who spoke to a matchmaker who spoke to a manager – “Adailton always was tough, and Diaz never could punch” – that will get De Jesus a new truck in Sao Paulo and/or VIP passes to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

If the unforeseen comes to pass and De Jesus upsets Diaz, the Brazilian’s team will see if they can’t parlay the victory towards a guaranteed loss in a staybusy fight for Miguel Vazquez or Mike Alvarado or Brandon Rios or whomever Top Rank envisions someday feeding a plate of Baby Bull. Diaz-De Jesus, then, will determine nothing about the lightweight or junior welterweight divisions we do not already know, but it will afford an opportunity to see Diaz in action, which, for a small band of aficionados, is a treat not to be missed.

For a number of reasons Diaz was never popular with the masses as hoped; not as Don King hoped, when, by his own admission in 2006, King slipped a DKP contract over Golden Boy’s, with Diaz’s pen dangling portentously above, to get Diaz on a Liakhovich-Briggs card at Chase Field, when it became apparent nobody in Arizona knew Scottsdale’s Sergei Liakhovich, victimized just Friday on ShoBox, and the reliable Latino revenue stream would need be tapped. But Mexicans never much related with Diaz, a volume puncher with an everyman physique – long, loose muscles framing a midsection that jiggled – who possessed neither knockout power nor a fixation on opponents’ livers.

A couple years and some televised fights later, King got Diaz’s title lost to Nate Campbell in Mexico, which led Diaz, finally, to Golden Boy Promotions, an underappreciated decision over Michael Katsidis and the 2009 fight of the year with Juan Manuel Marquez, a man for whom, posterity now says with a chuckle, Diaz appeared structurally too large at 135 pounds, bulling Marquez for much of the match’s opening 18 minutes before succumbing to the finest counterpunching seen in a generation and being stopped by a gorgeous right uppercut in round 9.

Diaz’s rehabilitation tour did not go as planned; he decisioned Brooklyn’s Paulie Malignaggi in Diaz’s native Houston, and then Malignaggi premiered what can fairly be called his signature postfight speech about boxing’s evilest forces, money and corruption, being allied against a fighter from the economically irrelevant township of New York City. A lackluster rematch with Malignaggi got the “Magic Man” his desired decision, and eight months later got Diaz handed to Marquez in another rematch no one asked for – certainly not Las Vegas, the match’s unfortunate and unfortuned host, enjoying then its second year of 18-percent unemployment – and Diaz feinted at more fighting then said goodbye to attend law school or become a lawyer or some other narrative thread nobody pulls anymore because Diaz is a good guy and it’s unkind to ask if a rising Houston attorney would subject himself to other men’s fists for UniMás (formerly Telefutura) money.

How relevant is any of that to me? Not at all, honestly. Volume punchers are my favorites – whether their names are Juan Diaz, Timothy Bradley or Nihito Arakawa. Some aficionados have justified grievances with volume-punching types – they tend to outpoint the stylists whom purists pride themselves on adoring – and most casual fans hate them even more for neither scoring highlighted knockouts nor having what euphonious names garner from aficionados’ faces the admiring expressions casual fans love to cause at sportsbars. Diaz’s ability to relax in the presence of stronger punchers and stronger men, though, has enchanted me most of his career, and if his retirement did not go as planned, at age 29 he is welcome to keep plying his trade.

Expect me at ringside any time the Baby Bull fights in Texas.

Bart Barry can be reached at bart.barrys.email (at) gmail.com

BETHLEHEM, PA–Gamalier Rodriguez scored a ten round unanimous decision over Jorge Pazos in a Featherweight bout at Sands Casino.

Rodriguez was the stalker as he landed some solid shots over the first two rounds. In round three, Rodriguez started to turn up the heat on his punches as he landed some good hooks to the head and body.

Rodriguez ripped hard combinations to the body in round six. He opened up round seven with a hard right to the head. He finished out the frame by pounding Pazos numerous times with both hands. In round eight, Pazos mounted his best offense as he landed a crisp three punch combination in the middle of the ring and later landed a counter left hook.

2012 Puerto Rican Olympian Felix Verdejo was tested but scored two knockdowns en rout to a six round unanimous decision win over Guillermo Delgadillo in a Lightweight bout. Having built up a big lead, Rodriguez picked his spots between fighting and backing up. Rodriguez punctuated the fight by landing a big right hand at the bell.

Rodriguez, 125.3 lbs of Batamon, PR won by scores of 99-91, 99-91 and 98-92 and is now 22-2-3. Pazos, 125 lbs of Guamuchil, MX is now 19-6-1.

After Delgadillo came out aggressive, Verdejo landed a left hook that grazed off the top of the head and send Delgardillo to the canvas. Delgadillo continued to pressure Verdejo in round two but kept getting picked off on his way in. Delgadillo wouldnt go away and rocked Verdejo twice and round five. that seemed to incite Verdejo as he came back to land a hard right that had Delgadillo spitiing blood. In round six, Delgadillo tried to pressure Verdejo once again in the corner but was caught with a beautiful left hook that sent Delgadillo to the canvas. Verdejo tried to close the show but ran out of time and had to settle for the unanimous decision victory that saw all three judges score the bout 60-52.

Verdejo, 134.7 lbs of San Juan, PR and is now 7-0. Delgadillo, 133.2 lbs of Walla Walla, WA is now 4-5-1.

Ronald Cruz got back in the win column with a crushing second round knockout over Rodolfo Armenta in a scheduled eight round Welterweight bout.

Cruz landed a hard three punch combination in round one that slightly buckled Armenta. Armenta seemed to want to wind up and throw a home run punch throughout the first frame. Cruz started his vaunted body attack in round two as the two fought at close quarters until unleashed a vicious right and left that set off a nasty barrage of bunches that put Armenta down for referee Gary Rosado’s ten count and the bout was over at 2:40 of round two

Cruz, 147.8 lbs of Bethlehem, PA wins after dropping two straight bouts and is now 18-2 with 11 knockouts. Armenta, 145.2 lbs of Rio Rico, AZ is now 12-11-1.

In a fight between undefeated Welterweights, Arturo Trujillo scored a four round unanimous decision over Yurii Polischuk.

Trujillo scored a knockdown in round two on a hard straight left off the ropes. Trujillo landed some nice power shots in round three. Both guys had moments in round four but Trujillo built up a solid lead to get the victory.

Trujillo, 146.1 lbs of Easton, PA won by scores of 40-35 on all cards and is now 2-0. Polischuk, 145.6 lbs of Alexandria, VA is now 1-1.

Jerome Rodriguez was impressive in scoring a six round unanimous decision over Ariel Duran in a Jr. Welterweight bout.

Rodriguez landed some hard power shots in round two and rocked Duran with a hard straight left. Duran showed a solid chim upon being hammered with two lefts as the bell rang to end round four. Rodriguez continued to break Duran down in round five as he landed a nifty multi-punch combination that was followed by some hard body work. Rodriguez landed six hard lefts for good measure to in round six.

Rodriguez, 140.7 lbs of Allentown, PA won by scores of 59-55, 59-55 and 60-54 and is now 5-0-1. Duran, 139.9 lbs of Queens, NY is now 7-7-1.

In the opener, David Williams scored a four round unanimous decision over William Miranda in a Heavyweight bout.

Williams landed the better power shots the cut Miranda as early as round two.

Williams, 223 lbs of Philadelphia won by scores of 40-36, 39-37 and 38-37 and is now 7-7-2. Miranda, 242.2 lbs of Allentown, PA is 6-7-2.

Toka Kahn Clary scored a four round unanimous decision over Jose Valderrama in a Jr. Lightweight bout.

Scores were 40-36 on all cards for Clary, 131.6 lbs of Providence, RI and is now 7-0-1. Valderrama, 133.2 lbs of Manati, PR is now 3-5.

Jesse Hart scored three knockdowns in eighty two seconds and took out an overmatched Steven Tyner in a scheduled four round Light Heavyweight bout.

Hart, 171.6 lbs of Philadelphia is 9-0 with 8 knockouts. Tyner, 177.1 lbs of Akron, OH is now 3-12-2.

The search for a great American heavyweight is turning into a job for archaeologists.

Maybe, Deontay Wilder can begin to drag the endangered division out of antiquity and into modernity Friday night against Sergei Liakhovich in Indio, Calif., at Fantasy Springs Casino in a bout that is part of Showtime’s ShoBox series. A perfect element in Wilder’s unbeaten record makes him worth a look. Twenty-eight stoppages in 28 victories add up to power almost impossible to ignore.

Yet, there’s skepticism. Wilder is preceded by Seth Mitchell and Johnathon Banks in the line to claim the leading role as the next great American. Mitchell generated a lot of excitement a couple of years ago. Even reigning heavyweight Wladimir Klitschko, one of the Euro Zone’s most reliable commodities, saw Mitchell as a potential foe, a business partner in his attempt to re-enter the U.S. market.

Yet, Mitchell got bumped from the head of the class by Banks, of all people. Banks, Wladimir’s trainer, beat Mitchell in a crushing, second round TKO last November. Mitchell came back and won the rematch in June by unanimous decision. But the dull bout didn’t eliminate a lot of the questions about him, Banks and – in turn – Wilder.

Increasingly, it looks as if employment as an American heavyweight is an alternative way to make a living.

If not for a knee injury at Michigan State, Mitchell would probably be an NFL linebacker today. Banks, a student of the late Emanuel Steward, might be a better trainer than fighter. They are heavyweights, in large part because there just aren’t many in the U.S. any more. It’s not their fault. It’s just bad timing. The business has moved on from an era when heavyweights were the so-called flagship division. Thanks to Floyd Mayweather Jr., Manny Pacquiao, Oscar De La Hoya, Canelo Alvarez, Juan Manuel Marquez, Gennady Golovkin, Mikey Garcia, Sergio Martinez and whole host of others, fighters have gotten smaller and revenues bigger since then.

The September 14 clash at 152 pounds between Mayweather and Canelo has a chance to break the pay-per-view record set by Mayweather-De La Hoya in a 2007 junior-middleweight fight. A whole new generation of fans has grown up since Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield, America’s last great heavyweights. In a way that nobody would have predicted, the game is thriving, thank you very much. Bob Arum’s Top Rank is trying to create a brand new market in China with a junior flyweight, Zou Shiming, who at 108 pounds is lighter by more than half of Wilder’s expected weight Friday night.

There are all kinds of theories about what happened to the American heavyweight. They’re either in the NFL, or in line at the dessert bar. Take your pick, but there’s no doubt they are making a negligible impact on the American side of the business scale.

Skepticism of Wilder is rooted in his relative inexperience. Unlike Mitchell, he has some solid amateur experience. He won a bronze medal, America’s only medal, at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Still, Wilder is a newcomer. He didn’t start boxing until he was 19 in 2005. Instinctive skill acquired by Holyfield and the Muhammad Ali generation was not part of Wilder’s growing-up process.

While other fighters were learning the trade in their mid-teens, Wilder had other dreams at Tuscaloosa Central High School, not far from the University of Alabama campus. He wanted to be a receiver for the Crimson Tide’s famed football team or a forward for Alabama basketball. The birth of daughter with a spinal condition and academics got in the way. Boxing was the alternative.

Can Wilder turn it into something more than Mitchell or Banks has? Yeah, maybe. Depending on what happens against the 37-year-old Liakhovich (25-5, 16 KOs), a Wilder fight against Mitchell and/or perhaps Banks could be interesting.

Then again, it might provide further evidence about a vanishing bit of Americana that works in a museum, but not as a main event.

Most American prizefighters are damaged necessarily, damaged from taking others’ fists and hopes, damaged by youthful experiences that guided them through amateur boxing’s comparative tenderness to a career hurting others. In this era when most Americans who cover prizefighting do so without compensation, it is fair to assume a fair number of us, too, are damaged, and as much as we chose to write about prizefighting because it is one of three sports, with baseball and golf, that reliably lend themselves to good writing, we also got chosen by prizefighting in a way neither golf nor baseball chose us.

Monday was unexpectedly pleasant for me. Summoned for jury duty, my first as a resident of Lone Star State, at the Bexar County Courthouse – an edifice majestic as the county comprises, something one can say for a courthouse in most any Texas county – I sat in an enormous room with crisp air, a delightful rarity in these parts from now till October, and comfortable chairs and sternly polite strangers and wonderfully absent television sets (those are kept in adjoining rooms with walls thick enough to be soundproof).

From eight in the morning till the last jury panel was threatened but not assembled at nearly four in the afternoon, I read George Saunders’ “CivilWarLand in Bad Decline,” a collection of six short stories and one novella that are absurd and violent, primarily, but also imaginative and humorous and the standard to which contemporary American satirists should aspire. A day or so later, I happened on the recently published text of Saunders’ address to Syracuse University’s class of 2013, a speech that could be titled “Try to be Kinder,” and thought it was all too coincidental, or if it wasn’t, well, what was happening in our sport this week that I couldn’t wander off the left/right/left path?

Vulnerability, it seems, is the best place to follow Saunders’ convocational advice, and prizefighting is fine a place as anyone might look for vulnerability – its expression and discovery and expression. So is the writing it inspires, or perhaps more ably put: so are those who write about our sport. There is a disappearing middleground in our craft (I had “business” there at first, but it looked preposterous), like so much of American life, lamentably enough, and we now line up on a side that is either too gracious or not fractionally gracious enough. If as the old saw has it, academic politics are vicious because their stakes are small, boxing-writing’s stakes, tiny by comparison, have brought a proportionate viciousness that is profoundly offputting to the very few persons who still care what we do.

For years I believed this was an unpleasantness blogs wrought – young writers proselytized by misanthropic editors telling them one’s soul, or at least his backbone, was traded for a ringside credential – but now see I was wrong, as increasingly our clan’s comity is undermined by men who should expect to see one another at ringside this year, an actuality that tends to govern tongues and once governed keyboards. “Please don’t bring this pettiness to ringside” – that is what I find myself thinking as I peruse Twitter, an activity that once made every hour’s last five minutes at my dayjob nearly euphoric but now discomfits me more than my dayjob.

Ringside, you see, is a gracious place; it’s where the very voice of Arizona boxing, Norm Frauenheim, spoke to a first-year boxing writer about the craft, for hours at a time, many times, simply because they were sat beside one another and the young writer had questions and questions, and because Frauenheim is the first boxing person I thought of while reading Saunders’ address; ringside is where online boxing-writing’s trailblazer, Doug Fischer, made a point of being friendly and vulnerable with any young writer who introduced himself, and interrupted his own deadline reporting to jog to row’s end and pose for pictures with ticketholders; ringside is where our craft’s most celebrated practitioner, Thomas Hauser, still goes hours before he is due in a main-event fighter’s dressing room, to sit with young writers and impart wisdom about boxing and things that have nothing to do with boxing.

One trip to a Major League Baseball pressbox: that’s what it took to convince me how special ringside was, with its jovial regulars and enthusiastic newcomers and everyone ready to answer standard inquiries from their neighbors, like “Did you get the time on that one?” or “But it was a left hook that started it, no?” That MLB pressbox was, as my host would later call the Associated Press tent at the Beijing Olympics, the unhappiest place on earth, one filled with large suspicions and mean jealousies, reporters shoulder-blocking laptop monitors lest someone with a Visitors badge steal their peerless prose and decide, on second thought, the catch by the centerfielder in the third inning was actually unbelievable, not amazing.

See that, what’s above? It’s ungracious, and were this not a piece, in part, about vulnerability, it’d get struck on rewrite, but it will stand for purposes of illustration. There is no reason not to be gracious to one another, to suspect the other guy is doing his best the same as I am, to forego occasionally the hasty and public rebuttal, safe in the knowledge none of it will be remembered by the damaged people who now anonymously cheer it on.

Damaged is good a word as any for them, for us, a word to invoke empathy from most who read this. A desire to cover prizefighting, men who beat one another for money, percolates upwards from a spring of injury often as a willingness to beat another man for money does. Most of us who write about this sport, and a goodish number of our readers, are damaged, simply, complicatedly, and what good might come of damaging one another further, for free?

Bart Barry can be reached at bart.barrys.email (at) gmail.com

Curtis Stevens entered tonight’s middleweight bout against Saul Roman with the knowledge that a solid performance could assure him a big money title fight against Gennady Golovkin in his next appearance. His execution couldn’t have been better.

Early in round one, Stevens stunned Roman with a left hook and proceeded to unload shots, finally dropping him with a hard left hook. Roman was able to beat the count and was trying desperately to survive when a brutal counter left hook put him out cold.

So viscous was the KO that it all but put ink on the Golovkin-Stevens contract. Stevens does have legit power and assuming Golovkin-Stevens does get made, it’ll be fun while it lasts. Stevens improves to 25-3 (18KO’s) while Roman slides to 37-10 (31KO’s).

In what amounted to a stay busy fight, heavyweight Tomasz Adamek soundly outpointed the aging Dominick Guinn over 10 one-sided rounds. Adamek was initially scheduled to take on Tony Grano in a more significant fight, but a neck injury forced Grano to withdraw from the fight and Guinn took his place on short notice.

The fight between Adamek and Guinn, despite being a downgrade,turned out about as well as could be expected. Neither fighter was ever in any trouble, but Adamek was able to keep the crowd entertained by putting together 3, 4 and 5 punch combinations during each of the rounds.

Guinn, a once promising prospect who is now out of shape and in the twilight of his career, still possessed enough defense and power to keep Adamek from overwhelming him. Guinn has never been stopped and the punches he did land throughout the fight clearly kept Adamek honest.

A cut opened over Guinn’s eye in round three from an accidental headbutt but it had little effect on the fight. It was all Adamek throughout and the scores reflected it: 98-92 and 99-91 (twice) all in favor of Adamek.

Although the fight didn’t do much to raise his stock in the division, Adamek did get 10 solid rounds in and remains in place to mix it up with any of the current heavyweight contenders. His record now stands at 49-2 (29KO’s).

Guinn has become the consummate journeyman and still has enough pop in his shots to remain in the role for the foreseeable future. He drops to 34-10 (31KO’s).

If Eddie Chambers was hoping to excite people about his entrance into the cruiser weight division, his debut tonight against Thabiso Mchunu was a disaster on all counts. A lethargic Chambers seemed content to follow Mchunu around the ring, alternately posturing and flicking out the occasional jab. Mchunu did little to help, as his strategy was to counter and Chambers’lack of activity offered little to work with.

So for 30 minutes, the two circled around the ring and stared each other down. Nearly the only scoring blows were produced by Mchunu left hand counters. Each round was nearly a mirror image and few could blame Mchunu for pot-shotting his way to the biggest win of his career. Scores were 97-93 and 99-91 (twice).

Mchunu improves to 13-1 (9KO’s) and it remains to be seen how good he really is simply because Chambers looked so terrible. For Chambers, (now 36-4 18KO’s) it seems time to reassess whether or not he wants to continue to be a professional prize fighter; because his performance tonight was one of a man who has lost all interest in boxing.

Up and coming heavyweight Vyacheslav Glazkov displayed his power and annihilated journeyman Byron Polley in less than two rounds. Midway through round 1 Polley hit the canvas via a hard right hand from Glazkov. Polley rode out the 8 count on one knee but when he rose, was met from another flurry from Glazkov that put him on the canvas for the second time.

Polley survived the round but was overpowered seconds into round two. A left hook, right hand left hook combo from Glazkov dumped Polley to the seat of his pants and referee Harvey Dock waived off the fight without a count.Time of the stoppage was 30 seconds of round two. Glazkov remains unbeaten at 15-0-1 (11KO’s) while Polley slips to 25-16-1 (11KO’s).

Glazkov’s manager, Egis Klimas said after the fight that Glazkov was looking to fight Dereck Chisora in his next bout.

In a 6 round lightweight tilt, East Hartford native Joseph “Chip”Perez dropped a unanimous decision to Staten Island, NY’s Mike Brooks. Brooks opened with a strong body attack and stuck to his plan throughout the fight. Perez was busy but largely ineffective for the first 4 rounds. He picked up the pace in rounds 5 and 6, but was docked a point for an elbow in round 6 that effectively put the fight out of reach. Scores at the end were 57-56, 59-54 and 60-53 all in favor of Brooks; who now stands at 11-0 (2KO’s). Perez drops his second in a row and is now 10-3 (3KO’s).

In the opening bout of the evening undefeated junior middleweight Tony Harrison made short work of his opponent Gilbert Alex Sanchez, blitzing him out before the end of the second round. Harrison was mostly inactive during the first round and he allowed Sanchez to wing punches at his body and head with limited success.

Halfway through round 2, Harrison started sitting down on his punches and scored a delayed reaction knockdown with a jab right hand to Sanchez’s head. Sanchez was slow to rise but to his credit mounted spirited effort to get back into the fight before being dropped for good by a Harrison body shot. Referee Harvey Dock waived off the fight at 2:10 of round 2. Harrison improves to 14-0 (11KO’s) while Sancez drops to 2-3 (2KO’s).

Welterweights Jimmy Williams and Greg Jackson plodded through a 4 rounder in a fight in which neither fighter was willing to risk opening up in order to secure the win. Jackson tried counter punching for most of the fight but the strategy was ineffective because Williams was hesitant to display much more than a jab in each of the four rounds.

The result was an ugly split draw. One judge had it 39-37 for Williams but was overruled by the other two who had it even at 38-38. Both fighters remain undefeated: Williams at 4-0-1 (2KO’s) and Jackson at 3-0-1 (1KO).