GLENDALE, Ariz. –Never count out Oscar Valdez Jr.

That’s been the story of his career, one that has included broken jaws and busted eyes.

But that will is still there, still unbroken

Add another chapter to the Valdez edition, an ongoing example of resilience.

If somebody was to ever write a song about Valdez, the lyric would be Never Quit.

It was there all over again Friday night with a seventh-round stoppage of Australian Liam Wilson in a victory at Desert Diamond Arena that puts Valdez at the brink of re-claiming a junior-lightweight world title.

“People say you’re 30-something, they say this, they say that,’’ said Valdez, who won an interim 130-pound title and may be elevated to the World Boxing Organization’s real champion if Emanuel Navarrete wins a lightweight title in May and vacates the junior-lightweight version. “But I always come back. I always want to come back.

“In life you lose. It happens. But you have an obligation to come back.’’

This time, he did just months after a punishing loss to Navarrete last summer, also at Desert Diamond. That loss resurrected the familiar doubts about Valdez (32-2, 24 KOs).

The end is near they said, especially against Wilson, who knocked down Navarrete last summer. Arguably, Wilson was of robbed of a victory, a huge upset, on that controversial night,

But the Wilson we saw against Navarrete may have been a mirage. Now, you can wonder whether Navarrete took the then unknown Aussie seriously.

But Valdez did. Very much so.

Seconds after opening bell, the chants started, from a Desert Diamond Arena crowd of 7,102, which was populated by much of Nogales, a Mexican town south of Tucson where Valdez grew up.

Oscar, Oscar.

But the taller Wilson silenced them, at least for a few minutes. Wilson came out aggressively, trying to employ his advantage in height and reach with a long jab.

Initially, it worked. But Valdez quickly adjusted, almost as if he knew what was coming.

In the late seconds of the opening round, he slowed down Wilson with a couple of wicked body shots.

A more tentative Wilson came out for the second round. Valdez’ bodywork was an effective warning. Wilson’s forward progress stalled.

Valdez went on the attack, stepping inside and landing blows that appeared to bloody Wilson’s nose.

There was blood at his nostrils. In the third, however, there was also more aggression in the Aussie’s tactics.

Suddenly, he was willing to step inside and trade with Valdez. That, too left a mark, this time on Valdez. Suddenly there was swelling beneath his right eye.

But Wilson’s move inside proved to be his biggest mistake. That’s where Valdez is at his best. He brawls. He battles. The inside is his turf. By the fifth round, it was clear he had declared ownership of the bloody real estate.

In the seventh, he stunned a tiring Wilson with a big left hand. That was the beginning of the end.

“He caught me,’’ said Wilson (13-3, 7 KOs), who before opening bell vowed that he would knock out Valdez. Valdez saw Wilson stagger. Then, he capitalized, swarming him with punches. Wilson leaned on the ropes, looking defenseless.

Referee Mark Nelson had seen enough. He ended the fight at 2:48 of the with a stoppage that proved be a new beginning, another one, for Oscar Valdez Jr.

History; Made!

The build up to this fight was nothing short of fire works, as it should be. This one is for all the minimum weight belts (105llbs) and the chance to become the first ever Undisputed Women’s minimum weight champion. Seniesa “Super Bad” Estrada 25-0(9KOs) out of East Los Angles, CA took on Yokasta Valle 30-2(9KOs) fighting out of San Jose, Costa Rica. Estrada having the WBC, WBA and Ring belts, and Valle with the WBO and IBF titles. 

In a surprise to most in the audience, Estrada was escorted to the ring by the phoenix and boxing legend Micheal Carbajal. Who is the fore father of boxing in Arizona with the linage of his talents some would say this is why boxing is here tonight. Another reason one would have to think is it mind games to have  the AZ fans on her side giving her one advantage.

Both fighters came in at a ready 104.2 lbs and ready to go at it. With the first round going a little less than exciting then the lead up. Valle came out of the round with a cut over her right eye from a accidental head butt. Estrada also did some work with landing some over hand rights to Valles head

Perhaps tasting blood estrada came out with more intensity looking to capitalize on the cut. Maybe a little too aggressive Estrada took some clean shots 

The third was the most exciting round of the night it is too bad that the rounds only last 2 minutes. Each fighter having their moments landing significant punches in a good ole fashion brawl. Picking up where they left off in the forth it was all action, estrada looking like the better boxer jabbing and moving and Valle the more of the power puncher. 

In the fifth round Valle once again proved to be the stronger fighter taking over as she stunned estrada with a right, left combo to the head. Valle did not let off the gas as she pressed estrada till the end of the round. After the mid way point of the fight estrada was still trying to out box her opponent but Valle had different plans landing some crowd pleasing punches. With a lot of fight in her, estrada landed a strong left hook of her own. 

The next following round were just unbelievable each fighter going back and forth with their best game plan Estrada with her boxing skill going to the body most often and Valle using her power against her. So far the crowd has been on their feet in the sold out Desert Diamond Arena. 

Round 9 seniesa came out with a little bull fighting antics, baiting Valle to come and fight. As the old saying goes mess with the bull, get the horns. Valle took her up on that and went after estrada, both going at until estrada went back to boxing. 

The 10^th and final round was nothing short of fireworks, from beginning to the end both leaving it all out in the ring. As the blood of Valle started to trickle down her face again but did not play a role in the fight, As it went to the score cards. With all 3 judges scoring it the same 97-93 in favor of “Super Bad” Seniesa Estrada becoming the first Undisputed Minimum Weight champion. 

This will be one the best women’s fights not only for the significance but the action inside the ring. They gave the fans a fight possible the fight of the night. —-DAVID GALAVIZ

Muratalla wins decision over Ndongeni in awkward fight

Skillset versus puzzle.

Raymond Muratalla, an unbeaten lightweight trained by Robert Garcia, had all the skill, enough of it to win a unanimous decision over South African Xolisani Ndongeni on the Valdez-Wilson car at Desert Diamond.

But Muratalla (20-0, 16 KOs) didn have an answer for Ndongeni’s mix of awkward athleticism and resilient energy. Muratalla just couldn’t finish him. He tried repeatedly, with head-rocking shots throughout the late rounds of a 10-rounder. 

But Ndongeni (31-5, 18 KOs)  answered each challenge with a wild hook, foot speed and — in the end — gestures that said he would not fall. Repeatedly, he shook his head at Muratalla. He lost, 99-91, 98-92 and 97-93. But, in the end, he survived.  

Delgado scores seventh-round KO

Lindolfo Delgado turned boos into cheers.

Delgado (20-0, 15 KOs), booed loudly for a dull performance in his last visit to Desert Diamond Arena about a year ago, brought the  crowd to its feet with a two-knockdown stoppage of fellow Mexican Carlos Sanchez (25-3, 19 KOs) on the Valdez-Wilson card.

In the fifth, Delgado knocked down Sanchez, his former teammate on the Mexican National Team, with a left-right combo. In the seventh, the former Mexican Olympian finished the job with a short hook to the chin that put Sanchez onto the canvas — flat on his face — for a knockout at 48 seconds of the seventh.

Richard Torrez goes to 9-0, all by KO

 Richard Torrez Jr. a fan-friendly heavyweight, says he doesn’t pursue knockouts.

Don’t tell that to his opponents.

There have been nine. Torrez (9-0, 9 KOs) stopped all of them. The latest was Don Haynesworth (18-9-1, 16 KOs), a North Carolina heavyweight who was finished within three minutes on an ESPN card featuring Oscar Valdez Jr. and Liam Wilson at Desert Diamond Arena. 

Torrez (9-0, 9 KOs), a silver medalist at the Tokyo Olympics, unleashed more than 20 successive punches at a whirlwind rate. It looked as if most of them landed. At 2:19 of the first, referee Raul Caiz had seen enough. He ended it, a TKO. 

“I go in there to box,” Torrez said. “If a punch lands, it lands, I landed a body punch and I could kind of hear the air go out of him.” 

Sergio the home town attraction earned a unanimous Decision 

In what was a tall order before the fight having been sandwich between 2 of the top prospects on Top Rank Emiliano Vargas and Olympian Richard Torres. Sergio “Checo” Rodriguez in his return to the Desert Diamond Arena as he took on Sanny Duversome 12-6-2 (1KO) of Avon Park, Florida. Sergio stated earlier in the week he wanted to give the fans that came early a show.

Looking calm as if he has done this before, as he walked to the ring greeting the fans with a smile on his face. From the opening bell the fans made it known who they came to see. In what was mostly a feel out round sergio made the most of what he could get landing some clean shot, more importantly he showcased his head movement and eluding his opponents punches. 

The next 2 rounds were much of the same, however at the end of the 3^rd round Checo landed a few combination while backing Sonny into the ropes and then throwing his combos. He landed the best of the night at that point a upper cut followed by a shot to the body that got the crowd back into the fight. 

In the fourth both fighters came out with more intensity, with Checo winning the exchanges. Landing another uppercut with the left Checo stunned sonny which led to him backing into the ropes and Checos continued punches. Once Sanny got his legs back he than gave Checo some of his one medicine. 

The fifth was Sanny’s best round in what was still not much action. He caught checo with a clean left to the face. As the fight went on the crowd started to get inpatient and started with the boos. The best action came in at the last 10 seconds of the fight with both fighters exchanging till the closing bell. It went to the judges score card with one having it 60-54, and other 2 scoring it 59-55 all for Sergio “Checo” Rodriguez improving his record to 11-0-1 (8Kos). This was a really good challenge for Sergio who proved that he can go the distance and show his ring IQ and not just knocking his opponents out. The future is bright for him and will be exciting.—DAVID GALAVIZ 

Emiliano Vargas wins shutout decision

There was no knockout, but there was a workman-like performance from lightweight prospect Emiliano Vargas, who did a little bit everything in an evolving skill set for a shutout decision over Nelson Hampton in the fourth fight on the Valdez-Wilson card at Desert Diamond.

Vargas (9-0, 7 KOs), wearing silver shoes as bright as his future, displayed agile feet, good head movement and solid combinations, especially to the body, in a thorough victory over six rounds.

Vargas, whose legendary dad — Fernando Vargas — was in his corner, appeared to hurt Hampton (10-9, 6 KOs), of McAllen TX, with a body shot in the sixth. But Hampton held on, taking the bout to the scorecards.

Kid Kansas impressive in Top Rank debut

Alan Garcia didn’t waste any time showing just why Top Rank signed him.

Garcia (12-0, 10 KOs), a lightweight nicknamed Kid Kansas, didn’t kid around, delivering a multi-punch combo that left Gonzalo Fuenzalida (12-4, 3 KOs), of Chile, exhausted and slumped along the ropes, a TKO loser at 1:58 of the second round in the third bout on the Valdez-Wilson card.

Art Barrera scores lethal, second-round KO

It was short.

And lethal

Art Barrera Jr., (4-0, 4 KOs, a Robert Garcia-trained junior-welterweight, unleashed a left hand that traveled a few inches, landed and dropped Keven Soto (5-2, 3 KOs), who was unconscious before he hit the canvas at 2:17 of the the second round in the second bout on the Valdez-Wilson card at Desert Diamond

First Bell: Knee injury forces TKO end to opener

There were empty seats and echoes. But there was nothing else ordinary about First Bell, the opening bout Friday on a card featuring Oscar Valdez versus Liam Wilson at Desert Diamond Arena.

It ended in a limp.

Avner Hernandez Molina had an iron chin, but a glass knee.

Molina (4-4), a stocky junior-welterweight from Mexico City, absorbed repeated right hands from a long, lanky Ricardo Ruvalcaba (11-0-1, 10 KOs), of Ventura, CA. But in the fifth round, he ducked a wide, looping attempt and suddenly came up lame. Immediately, he bent over and grabbed his right knee, his face twisted in  evident pain. He couldn’t continue. At 1:44 of the fifth,  the matinee bout was, Ruvalcaba a TKO winner because of a knee injury.

By Norm Frauenheim –

PHOENIX — Not much separated Oscar Valdez and Liam Wilson on the scale.

Not much figures to separate them in the ring either Friday at Desert Diamond Arena in nearby Glendale in an intriguing junior-light fight (8 p.m./PT), a potential stepping stone to a world title.

Both came in under the 130-pound mandatory Thursday, Valdez (31-2, 23 KOs) at 129.7 and Wilson (13-2, 7 KOs) at 129.6.

“I saw somebody who’s ready for war,’’ Wilson said after the ritual face-to-face stare down in a ballroom and lobby crowded with fans from Valdez’ Mexican hometown in Nogales, south of Tucson.

The weigh-in, at a hotel in downtown Phoenix, also included Seniesa Estrada and Yokasta Valle, who will fight for an undisputed women’s minimum-weight title on the ESPN televised card.

Both came in under the 105-pound mandatory, Estrada (25-0, 9 KOs) at 104.2 and Valle (30-2, 9 KOs) at 104.3.

There were only unblinking stares and no words between Estrada and Valle as they posed for the cameras the day before a women’s fight that has generated plenty of trash talk and lots of attention, including media from Costa Rica, Valle’s home country.

By Norm Frauenheim –

PHOENIX — Super Fly.

Super fight.

Juan Franciso Estrada and Jesse “Bam’’ Rodriguez, little guys with a huge chance at making some history, will fight on June 29 at an arena appropriately named Footprint Center, Matchroom Promotions announced Thursday.

It’s not often that fighters in the smallest weight classes ever occupy the center of boxing or have an opportunity to leave an enduring footprint on the sport’s storied past.

But that rare moment, a potential classic, now looms with Estrada and Rodriguez in a fight for the 115-pound title. Some of the acronyms might classify the weight as junior-bantam.

Sorry, nothing junior about.

Only Super, as in Super Fly.

It was a good movie. A great sound track. Thank you, Curtis Mayfield

It could be a better fight, a master mix of technical skill and head-rocking power.

“What a fight this is,” said Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn, who first disclosed his plans for Estrada-Rodriguez in late January. https://www.15rounds.com/2024/01/27/eddie-hearn-looking-at-az-for-projected-super-fly-showdown/ “When the best fight the best, excitement is guaranteed, and there’s no doubt that these are two of the best fighters on the planet.

“There are so many plot lines for us all to get our teeth into in the build-up to this incredible clash. But when the bell goes, the talking will stop, and we will be treated to something very special.’’

Hearn, a London promoter, made the announcement about an hour before the weigh-in for the Oscar Valdez-Liam Wilson junior-lightweight fight Friday night at Desert Diamond Arena in nearby Glendale.

The weigh-in was staged at a downtown Phoenix hotel, within a couple of blocks of Footprint, the Suns home arena.

Initially, there were reports that the Estrada-Rodriguez would go to Desert Diamond, where Rodriguez beat UK flyweight Sunny Edwards in a violent stoppage last December.

Desert Diamond was booked. But Footprint was available. As it turns out, the move — location, location, location – was like everything else about this bout: It fits.

Footprint is a couple of miles within flyweight Michael Carbajal’s home. He helped open the place early in his Hall of Fame career in 1992. He left his footprint there when it was named after an airline.

Hearn is staging Estrada-Rodriguez in Phoenix, in large part because of a growing city’s traditional enthusiasm for fighters in the lightest weight classes.

“There are a lot of educated fans here,’’ Hearn said in January while in Phoenix for super-middleweight Jaime Munguia’s stoppage of John Ryder.

There are, many fans and fighters say, because of Carbajal, who will have a street in his neighborhood named for him in late April. The Phoenix City Council approved a proposal to do so at a meeting on March 20.

“One-hundred percent, it’s because of Michael,’’ said Rodriguez trainer Robert Garcia, who will work the corners for lightweight Raymond Muratalla against Xolisani Ndongeni and for welterweight Lindolfo Delgado versus Curtis Sanchez on the Valdez-Wilson undercard. “These Phoenix fans grew up with Michael.

“They know who they’re watching, what they’re watching.’’

Rodriguez will be making his third appearance in Phoenix. In December, he beat UK flyweight Sunny Edwards, scoring a violent stoppage at Desert Diamond.  In February 2002, he beat Carlos Cuadras, winning a Super Fly title with a unanimous decision at Footprint.

Rodriguez (19-0, 12 KOs) is from San Antonio, but there was never much of a chance that the fight would happen in his hometown, Garcia said.

“No,’’ said Garcia, who says Rodriguez had agreed to terms a couple of weeks ago. “We just couldn’t ask Estrada to fight Bam’s hometown.’’

Estrada (44-3, 28 KOs), the World Boxing Council’s reigning Super Fly champion, is no stranger to the Phoenix area. He scored a majority decision over legendary Roman Gonzalez at Desert Diamond 18 months ago. He hasn’t fought since.

He was born, the son of a Mexican fisherman, in Puerto Penasco, a town that is located at the top of the Gulf of California, about a five-hour drive south of Phoenix – the right place for the right fight.

By Norm Frauenheim –

PHOENIX – Liam Wilson is back in a city for the first step in a mission to reclaim what he says was taken from him more than a year ago.

“Unfinished business,’’ Wilson says of his junior-lightweight fight against Oscar Valdez Friday in an ESPN-televised bout that could put him in position to finally possess the belt he believes he should already have.

Wilson will return to the same arena, Desert Diamond in nearby Glendale, in an attempt to finish some messy business that erupted into controversy on February 3, 2023.

Then, at least, an angry Wilson described the ring as though the canvas should have been surrounded by yellow crime tape instead of traditional ropes.

Emanuel Navarrete, Wilson said, got away with one.

Wilson, an Australian, knocked down the unbeaten Mexican in the fourth round.

Navarrete clearly hurt, spit out his mouthpiece in an apparent attempt to gain some time to recover his consciousness and composure. As it turned out, he got plenty. It took the referee 27 seconds to retrieve the mouthpiece.

Five rounds later, Navarrete went on to win a vacant World Boxing Organization 130-pound title with a ninth-round stoppage

But it wouldn’t have happened without that long count, said Wilson, the only fighter to put Navarrete on the canvas.

“The whole world saw it,’’ Wilson said Wednesday at the final news conference at a hotel ballroom in downtown Phoenix. “I should have been world champion.’’

Wilson did not file a formal complaint with the WBO or the Arizona Boxing & MMA Commission. He said Wednesday that he only complained to the promoter. But he also said that the Long Count controversy motivated him to return for a second shot at a world title.

“Arizona, I’m glad to be back,’’ said Wilson, a road warrior from Brisbane who trained in Thailand and Las Vegas.

Another shot at a title, — the same title – was created Tuesday when the WBO ruled that Wilson (13-2, 7 KOs) and Valdez (31-2, 23 KOs) are fighting for an interim belt. What happens next depends on Navarrete.

In pursuit of a fourth division belt, he’s fighting for a vacant lightweight title against Ukrainian Denys Berinchyk on May 18 in San Diego

If Navarrete wins, as expected, he could decide to defend the 135-pound title and vacate the 130-pound version.

If that happens, the WBO announced that the Wilson-Valdez winner will be elevated from interim to real. Inevitable controversy would follow. You can already hear the social-media mob screaming “e-mail champion.’’

But, at least, it wouldn’t be a Long Count.

That controversy left some angry echoes and lessons. To wit: In his AZ return, Wilson has no illusions. It’ll be hard to win a decision.

Valdez, a former featherweight and junior lightweight champ, is favored in part because the crowd promises to be with him. He’s popular in Arizona. The two-time Mexican Olympian grew up in Nogales, about a three-hour drive from Phoenix. He has roots in Tucson

Despite his punishing loss by decision to Navarrete at Desert Diamond last August, the crowd cheered him.

“They said thank you for your performance,’’ Valdez said. “At first, I wondered why they were thanking me for a loss.’’

Above all, it was a sure sign that Valdez has some very loyal fans. They’re expected to be there for him Friday

He’ll have the crowd, leaving Wilson with a pretty good idea of what he has.

“No options,’’ he said. “I’ve come here to knock him out.’’ 

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By Norm Frauenheim –

PHOENIX – Kids and fans stood and waited in a line that stretched out into a parking lot and almost onto a busy westside street just for a chance to say hello to Oscar Valdez Jr.

Champ, they called him.

He hasn’t been one for a while.

But a real chance to prove them right all over again opened up Tuesday when the World Boxing Organization ruled that Valdez (31-2, 23 KOs) and Liam Wilson (13-2, 7 KOs) will fight for the acronym’s interim junior-lightweight title at Desert Diamond Arena Friday night in nearby Glendale.

“It’s added motivation,’’ Valdez said after signing autographs for a crowd of moms, dads, kids and fans at Old School Boxing, a gym in the industrial section of central Phoenix. “I always train like I’m fighting for a world title.

“But that chance is closer now than I thought it would be.’’

Valdez, a former featherweight and junior-lightweight champion, said the news surprised him.

“I had no idea this might happen,’’ said Valdez, a popular fighter in Arizona who was born in the border town of Nogales and has roots in Tucson.

It did because of Emanuel Navarrete’s pursuit of a fourth division title. He’ll fight for the WBO’s vacant lightweight title against Ukrainian Denys Berinchyk on May 18 in San Diego.

In its ruling, the WBO announced that the Valdez-Wilson winner would be elevated to champion if the favored Navarrete beats Berinchyk and then decides to defend the 135-pound belt instead of the 130-pound version.

The announcement was not without controversy. The WBO currently ranks Wilson No. 2 and Valdez at No. 4.

The WBO’s top-ranked contender is unbeaten Albert Bell (27-0, 9 KOs), a Toledo fighter who is coming off a first-round KO of Jonathan Romero. The No. 3-ranked contender is Andre Cortes, also unbeaten (21-0, 12 KOs).

Valdez is coming off a punishing scorecard loss to Navarrete in August, also at Desert Diamond.

“I have a tough battle facing me now,’’ Valdez said. “That’s my focus.’’

Valdez is the betting favorite, but Wilson represents a significant challenge in an EPSN-televised bout. Wilson, an Australian still pursuing his first world title, lost a controversial bout to Navarrete in February, also at Desert Diamond.

In a wild fourth round, Wilson knocked down Navarrete, clearly hurting him. In an apparent attempt to gain extra time to recover, Navarrete spit out his mouthpiece.

On the clock, it was 27 seconds before the referee retrieved the mouth piece. It was time enough for Navarrete to regain his consciousness and composure.  

Five rounds later, Navarrete won, scoring a ninth-round TKO over Wilson to take the WBO’s 130-pound title.

It was vacant then. It might be again, leaving it open for the winner of a Friday night fight that suddenly has some heightened stakes.

By Norm Frauenheim –

Canelo Alvarez threw out a couple of numbers that would seem to eliminate any chance he’ll ever fight David Benavidez

“One-hundred-and-fifty million dollars to $200-million,’’ Canelo said this week at a news conference formally announcing his May 4 fight with Jaime Munguia at Las Vegas T-Mobile Arena.

Not even Donald Trump can come up with that kind of money these days.

It’s hard to know whether Canelo is serious, but conventional wisdom

suggests that the prohibitive purse numbers are just another way of Canelo telling Benavidez that it’s just not going to happen.

But fantasy numbers have also ignited more Benavidez-Canelo trash talk, which seemed to enter another inflationary spiral this week.

Benavidez fired back from Miami, where the Phoenix-born fighter is training for a light-heavyweight fight against Oleksandr Gvozdyk, projected for June 15.

“Hopefully, after you make that $150 million, you have enough left over to buy a pair of nuts,” Benavidez said on his Instagram account.

Presumably, he wasn’t talking about a couple of Pistachios.

Nobody has yet given up on a Benavidez-Canelo possibility in September. Even Benavidez mentioned it in an Instagram post early Thursday.

“Just wait on it,’’ Benavidez posted. “don’t be surprised when this fight happens in September.’’

First, however, a lot would have to happen. Canelo has to beat Munguia. That’s considered likely. From this corner, however, Munguia has a real chance to take Canelo’s undisputed super-middleweight title in what would be a huge upset.

The 26-year-old Munguia, who in January did what Canelo could not in stopping John Ryder in Phoenix, has young legs. If he can take the fight into the late rounds – say, the eighth — he’s got a shot.

It’s no secret that Canelo runs out of gas down the stretch.

Then, there’s Benavidez, who will get a look at his future at a heavier weight against the competent Gvozdyk, a former 175-pound champion.

As of Thursday, there was still no word on where Benavidez and Gvozdyk will fight on a card also expected to feature Tank Davis, who hasn’t fought since last April’s stoppage of Ryan Garcia.

Moving on up

Emanuel Navarrete’s move up to lightweight is official. He’ll fight Ukrainian Denys Berinchyk on May 18 for a vacant World Boxing Organization in San Diego, Top Rank announced this week.

Navarrete, already a three-division champ, is expected to win. If he does, he figures to vacate the WBO junior-lightweight title.

That could open the door for the Oscar Valdez-Liam Wilson winner to land a possible shot at the vacated belt.

Valdez and Wilson, both beaten by Navarrete last year, fight March 29 – next week Friday — at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, AZ in the main event on an ESPN-televised card.

By Norm Frauenheim –

It looks as if stakes for the Oscar Valdez-Liam Wilson fight March 29 at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, AZ have been heightened by news this week that Emanuel Navarrete and Denys Berinchyk are in negotiations for a vacant lightweight title.

The news, reported by ESPN Knockout Wednesday, could put the Valdez-Wilson winner in line for the World Boxing Organization’s junior-lightweight (130-pound) title if Navarette beats Berinchyk for the WBO’s 135-pound belt in a bout projected for May 18 in San Diego.

Navarrete retained the WBO’s version of the junior-lightweight belt in a punishing decision over Valdez last August, also at Desert Diamond. Navarrete, already a champion at three weights, has talked about moving up the scale in pursuit of a fourth.

He would be the likely favorite against Berinchyk. If he beat the Ukrainian, he’s likely to defend the new title and relinquish the old one, a potential scenario with immediate significance for Valdez-Wilson later this month.

Valdez, a former champion at featherweight and junior-lightweight, wants to regain a title.

“This is definitely a crossroads fight because it will determine who gets closer to a world-title opportunity,’’ he said this week from his training camp in San Diego. “My goal for 2024 is to be a world champion again. I miss being a world champion. Boxing is my life. If you are not striving to be the best, then what are you doing in this sport?

“I always train hard to be the best. So, this fight means everything because winning this will put me one step closer to a world-title shot.”

For Wilson, the unfolding story could lead to a second chance at his first world title. In a controversial fight in February 2023 at Desert Diamond, Wilson floored Navarrete in the fourth round. Navarrete, dazed, spit out his mouthpiece. Wilson, an Australian now training in Las Vegas, argued that Navarrete – with help from the referee — bought himself some extra time to recover. Navarrete went on to win the belt, then vacant, by a ninth-round TKO.

It’s expected that the Valdez-Wilson fight, initially called a special attraction by Top Rank, will be for the WBO’s so-called interim title.

In the WBO’s current 130-pound ratings, Wilson is No. 2 and Valdez No. 4. That reflects how they did against Navarrete. Wilson had a real shot at beating him. Valdez had no chance.

However, Valdez, a two-time Mexican Olympian with roots in Tucson, is about a 3-to-1 favorite over Wilson. The odds reflect his popularity in Arizona. He was born in Nogales, about 178 miles south of Desert Diamond.

The WBO will already have a role on the card. Yokasta Valle has the WBO version of the women’s minimum tile in a challenge for the undisputed title against three-belt holder Seniesa Estrada.

Bam-Estrada negotiations

15 Rounds confirmed Thursday that Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez and Juan Francisco Estrada are close to completing a deal for a Super-Fly showdown on June 29 at Desert Diamond.

News of the possibility first broke in Phoenix during the week before Jamie Munguia’s stoppage of John Ryder on Jan. 27 at Footprint Center.

That’s when Eddie Hearn, Ryder’s promoter, said he wanted to stage Bam-Estrada in Arizona, a boxing market known for its appreciation of fighters in the smallest weight classes.

“There are a lot of very educated fans here,’’ Hearn told 15 Rounds then.

Bam-Estrada has potential to be among the best in the history of divisions between 108 and 115 pounds.

“Estrada-versus-Bam is just a stunner,’’ Hearn said on Matchroom Promotions’ YouTube channel this week. “You keep seeing these small guys giving us unbelievable nights.’’

It looks as if both Bam and Estrada will make second straight appearances at Desert Diamond.

Bam, of San Antonio, blew out Sunny Edwards, scoring a ninth-round stoppage on Dec. 17 at 108 pounds. In his last fight, Estrada, son of a Mexican fisherman in Puerto Penasco south of Phoenix, won a second rematch, a majority decision over legendary Ramon Gonzalez at 115 at Desert Diamond on Dec. 3, 2022.

Bam-Estrada, Hearn said, has Fight-of-the-Year contender “written all over it.’’

By Norm Frauenheim –

Outrage is boxing’s oxygen. So, take a deep breath, because there’s plenty of it in the hours since Netflix announced Mike Tyson-versus-Jake Paul.

Give Netflix some credit. It didn’t call it a fight, which of course it is not.  Netflix is calling it a boxing event. It’s not exactly that either.

Tyson-Paul has about as much to do with boxing as Boxing Day does in the Commonwealth countries, where people box up food and other leftovers for the poor the day after Christmas.

That’s an act of mercy. But there’s none of that in what Netflix, Tyson and Paul are planning for July 20 at Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ big top in Arlington, Tex.

There’s only money.

They’ll grab what they can and move on, leaving only the usual outrage and absolutely no mercy for the crowd that always buys into these events. It’s happening because there’s a market for it and there always will be.

There are reasonable questions, of course. By now, most of them have already been posted on outrage media.

Will Texas regulators call it an exhibition or sanction it? Will Texas drug-test Tyson, a pot farmer and user, after suspending Keyshawn Davis for a positive test in October?

Then, there’s the age debate. Tyson will be 58, if in fact he doesn’t come up lame in the gym before the scheduled date.

Fifty-eight doesn’t exactly make him a senior citizen. He’s still seven years from qualifying for Medicare, which he might need after he subjects his aging, battered body to a workout regimen. But it’s his choice, his life. His payday.

Besides, the last I checked, two guys, one 81 and the other 77, are running for President. Maybe, the loser can face the winner, although I’m guessing only Netflix wins this one.

At the opposite end of the age scale, there’s the 27-year-old Paul. He wasn’t even around for Tyson’s memorable days as a feared heavyweight.

More than 11 years before Paul was born, Tyson, then 20, became history’s youngest heavyweight champ ever with a second-round stoppage of Trevor Berbick in November 1986.

On the street or in the ring, there’d be something unseemly about a young man against an aging one. If it were real, it’d be really wrong. But it’s really not. It’s a made-for-social-media event.

As a boxing writer and fan, I suppose I could join the outrage mob. But anger at Tyson-Paul would be as phony as calling it a fight. Prizefighting’s historical canvas includes lots of scars, yet not one draws a line between right and wrong.

George Foreman once fought five guys, all in one night. Ali once fought a Japanese wrestler to a draw in Tokyo.

Truth is, it happens throughout sports.

Jesse Owens once raced a horse. In the early 1970s, Evel Knievel rode his motorcycle in a jump over an Idaho Canyon, appropriately named Snake River. Bob Arum helped promote that one. ABC’s Wide World of Sports didn’t televise it, but it did televise Knievel jumping over 13 London buses before a crowd of 90,000 at Wembley Stadium in 1975.

Just last month, the East scored 211 points in an NBA All-Star Game devoid of anything resembling defense. In terms of competitive drama, it was about as real as Tyson-Paul will be.

I didn’t watch that.

I won’t watch Tyson-Paul, either. 

By Norm Frauenheim –

Francis Ngannou is no ordinary novice.

He’s been called one simply because of the numbers in his resume. They don’t add up to anything that would suggest he’s a champion, contender or journeyman

He’s a one-time heavyweight boxer. His heavyweight career is 10 rounds long. It’s the equivalent of a postage stamp on other heavyweight resumes.

Yet, it delivered a message, one that has made the top of boxing’s old flagship division very uncomfortable. Ngannou crashed the party in October, sending its lineal king tumbling onto the canvas like some eroding edifice.

Tyson Fury won a split decision in Saudi Arabia, but the scorecards’ inherent controversy has lingered with questions about the state of today’s heavyweight game.

It’s a question, one of many, seeking an answer Friday (main event at 6 pm ET/3 pm PT/DAZN PPV) when Ngannou enters the ring for the second time in his heavyweight boxing career against former champion and presumed Fury rival Anthony Joshua, also in Riyadh.

From personal reputations to promotional plans, the stakes are enormous, unprecedented for anything attached to a so-called novice.

Let’s start with the promotional plans. It was announced Wednesday that Queensberry Promotions wants the winner of Ngannou-Joshua to fight the winner of the rescheduled bout on May 18 between Fury and Oleksandr Usyk.

“There’s a lot on the line,’’ Fury said, stating the obvious.

The heavyweights, at least on the UK side of the division, have been waiting for a decisive Fury-Joshua confrontation for years. Few even knew Ngannou’s name when that wait began.

But here he is, a 37-year-old boxing novice and a Mixed Martial Arts veteran with the power to make everyone wonder why – why-oh-why — they waited.

“if in the coming months both Fury and Joshua win, it is on to the dream matchup in Wembley Stadium British boxing fans have dreamed of for years,” says Jim Lampley, HBO’s former ringside journalist who will co-host, real time, a live-stream chat for PPV.COM Friday. “If Usyk and Ngannou win, that is forgotten, and we keep moving into the brave new combat world.’’

The idea, at least from the UK perspective, is for Joshua to prove that Ngannou was simply an aberration last October.

Maybe.

Maybe not.

Joshua looks as if he has restored his confidence. That was evident in his solid fifth-round TKO of Otto Wallin in December. Wallin is skillful, but don’t confuse him with Ngannou. He’s imposing, dangerous. This novice is a Goliath.

The guess is that Ngannou doesn’t have the endurance or the skillset to endure 10 rounds.  Joshua has an Olympic pedigree and a gold medal. But he also has a history of retreating after he gets hit by bigtime power.

That’s been the story line since he was knocked down by a huge shot from Wladimir Klitchsko in April 2017. Joshua went on to win an 11^th-round TKO. But the Klitschko knockdown seemed to replace the confidence with over abundant caution. He became beatable.

Ngannou is nothing if not powerful. Here’s another question: What happens to Joshua if he gets rocked by the kind of Ngannou shot that dropped Fury?

A Joshua advantage is that he knows all about Ngannou’s head-turning power. Against Fury, Ngannou delivered a timely alert, says Lampley in a pre-fight analysis.

“With his very near miss against Fury, Ngannou has supplied Joshua with a potentially vital wake-up call, a useful scouting report, and massive motivation to gain public-relations ground by indirectly embarrassing Fury.’’

Lampley has some advice for each corner.

For Joshua: “Make sure the boxing match is a BOXING match. Use your jab, stay out of clinches, don’t get into a wrestling match against the rarity of a larger, stronger man,’’ Lampley says to an ex-champ with plenty to lose

For Ngannou: “Shoot the moon. Take risks, swing big when you see the target, maybe this time the knockdown will stick,’’ he says to a novice with little to lose.

Novices never do

By Norm Frauenheim

It was part soap opera. Part outrageous. Often offensive. It was sometimes sad. Sometimes silly.

I’ll let somebody else decide what was real and what was fake. News conferences are always an impossible mix of fact and fiction.

Yet even by boxing’s over-the-top and off-the-rails standard, the Devin Haney-Ryan Garcia spectacle Thursday in Hollywood was bizarre.

Put it this way: It started with Devin Haney as the solid betting favorite for a junior-welterweight fight scheduled for April 20 at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. It ended with a lot of people betting that Garcia just won’t show up.

Garcia was a man of many extremes throughout the second step of a coast-to-coast newser.

For a while, he turned it into a confessional. He said he smoked pot and drank alcohol. He said he didn’t use cocaine. He pleaded for some understanding.

“Guess what, we all have our flaws and we all have flaws as people,’’ said Garcia, who hours earlier posted a photo of him smoking what looked to be marijuana. “I’m 25 years old, you’ve got to remember. Sometimes, the weight of the world feels like it’s on my shoulders.

“I don’t know how many people have been 25-years-old and made $100 million in their life and can do what they want. I want to see what you would do in my shoes.

“Probably, a lot more than some weed.”

Then, he got angry, turning a boxing newser into a bully pulpit. He threatened somebody, who apparently doesn’t have much in common with Garcia other than alcohol.

“I’m going to beat the eff out of you,’’ Garcia shouted at a trash talker in the audience.

He was a man of many moods. He’s also a man with many followers, a social-media number that only a census can count. They’re always there, always demanding more from a personality always fearless and always willing to deliver a prayer, or a plea, or a punch. They follow him; he follows them.

Maybe, it was the setting. Like the stage at Hollywood’s Avalon, it was all Theater. That, at least, was the suggestion from many among Golden Boy Promotions. They argue that Garcia knows what he’s doing.

What he did Thursday, they say, was a calculated act, one designed to make Haney think he was in for an easy fight against his former amateur rival.

But after the newser, Haney had only one thought about a fighter he said he once respected.

“He’s not respecting himself,’’ said Haney, who might have summed up the news conference better than anyone.

NOTES

As The World Turns: Latest from Canelo-Benavidez

During a week dominated by Haney-Garcia, there was still some noise from boxing’s long-running saga, which continues to revolve around Canelo Alvarez and David Benavidez.

For now, at least, it’s not happening. Not in May and probably not in September, although Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn continued to leave open the possibility of Canelo-Benavidez.

It all depends on Canelo’s next move. Reportedly, he has split with PBC after only one fight – a forgettable victory over Jermell Charlo – after signing a three-fight deal. Depending on the source, the money just wasn’t there to cover Canelo’s $35-million demand for a May fight. PBC said okay, but only if Benavidez was the third fight.

For whatever reason, however, Canelo has never wanted to fight the Phoenix-born Benavidez.

Here’s a theory:

Benavidez is to Canelo what Antonio Margarito was to Floyd Mayweather. Too much risk for the reward. Mayweather looked at the rugged Margarito and probably said to himself: “I’ll beat him, but I might pay a physical price.’’

The wisdom behind that risk-to-reward decision came in Manny Pacquiao’s victory over Margarito. Pacquiao was never quite the same after absorbing a brutal body shot midway through the fight on the Dallas Cowboys home field in November 2010.

It’s safe to say Canelo is confident he can beat Benavidez. At a point in his career when he’s been more vulnerable to injury, however, the risk is too high, especially against a tireless fighter with a gear few have in the later rounds. From the eighth to the 12th, nobody is as dangerous as Benavidez.

Meanwhile, Benavidez has begun training in Miami for a planned light-heavyweight bout against Oleksandr Gvoysk, possibly in June.

In media interviews from Miami, Benavidez said was willing to fight Canelo for $5 million, considered minimum wage for a Canelo opponent.

But Canelo’s minimum would have been at or near Benavidez’ biggest paycheck. It’s not clear what he collected for his decision over Caleb Plant in March 2023 in Vegas. The Nevada Commission no longer discloses purses. But it’s believed that it was a lot closer to $3 million than $5 million.

Oscar Valdez back in AZ in pursuit of another title

Oscar Valdez Jr, wants to knock out the former next to his name in his current resume.

“I’m hungrier than ever, because I’ve already tasted what it is to be a world champion,’’ Valdez said last week during a round of interviews for his March 29 bout versus Liam Wilson at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale AZ, where he lost a punishing decision for a vacant junior-lightweight title to Emanuel Navarrete in August.

Against Wilson, Valdez’ chances at another title will undergo a significant test. It’s a bout that puts the 33-year-old former two-time champion at a career crossroads.

Win, and he’ll be back in contention. Lose, and there’ll be talk of retirement.

Wilson, a 27-year-old Australian, is also returning to Desert Diamond. Wilson lost a controversial fight there to Navarrete in February 2023. In the fourth round, Wilson knocked down Navarrete, who bought himself some time to recover by spitting out his mouthpiece. Navarrete went to win a ninth-round TKO.

Wilson, Valdez said, “almost took that fight, almost won. There’s nothing easy about this fight. But I’m not looking for easy fights, I’m looking for challenges.’’

Olympic boxing needs help, yet says no to Pacquiao

The international Olympic Committee said no to Pacquiao’s petition for eligibility to box at the Paris Games this summer. He’s 45 — five years older than the boxing age limit and three years younger than Bernard Hopkins was when he won a major pro title at 48 in 2013.

He’s also nine years younger than Kelly Slater, who might be surfing’s best-known name since Duke Kahanamoku. At 54, Slater hopes to surf for the US at the 2024 Games.

The denial is just another reason not to watch Olympic boxing. Rhythmic gymnastics draws a bigger audience Pacquiao might be too old to answer an opening bell at any level these days, but he would have been a good ambassador for an endangered Olympic sport.

He might have generated some positive attention. Imagine that. These days, Olympic boxing gets headlines only for lousy decisions and gestures like Mick Conlan’s middle-finger salute to the judges in 2016. Olympic bureaucrats are threatening to eliminate it altogether.

David Benavidez is moving up.

But not necessarily on.

Benavidez intends to move up the scale to light heavyweight, one division above the Canelo Alvarez-dominated super-middle division, for an interim 175-pound title against Oleksandr Gvozdyk.

“That’s the plan,’’ Benavidez father-and-trainer Jose Benavidez told 15 Rounds Thursday, confirming a social media announcement from World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman. “We came to an agreement yesterday (Wednesday).’’

Jose Benavidez did not eliminate the Canelo possibility. Speculation continues to swirl about Canelo’s projected May 4 date, the first of two this year. He’s also expected to fight on September 16. Benavidez continues to be a possibility for either date.

David Benavidez, who has been calling out Canelo for a couple of years, continues to be mentioned on a speculative list that spins faster than a dizzy roulette wheel. One day, it’s Jermall Charlo. The next day, Jaime Munguia. It could stop on Terence Crawford any day.

As of Thursday, it was still not clear what Canelo would do. Last week, the talk was that he’d fight Charlo. This week, it’s Munguia, the emerging Mexican who fought his way into the Canelo sweepstakes with a four-knockdown stoppage of John Ryder in Phoenix last month.

In a news conference a couple of weeks ago, Canelo teased that he’d be fighting an American in May. Charlo is American. So is Benavidez. Munguia is not. In any language, it’s chaos.

Translation: Who knows?

The ongoing uncertainty forces Benavidez, 27, to re-think his career, which has been defined by his pursuit of Canelo. He’d rather fight than wait. In 2024, that’s what he’ll do in an attempt to re-make himself on his own terms instead of Canelo’s.  When and where that begins, however, is still uncertain.

June is one possibility. June 15 has been mentioned. But so is May, Jose Benavidez said.

“if that other guy (Canelo) can’t decide on somebody for May, maybe we’ll move on to that date against Gvozdyk,’’ Jose Sr.  told 15 Rounds.

Whenever-wherever-whoever, it’s clear that Benavidez plans to fight at 175 pounds sometime over the next 10 months. His promoter/manager Sampson Lewkowicz confirmed as much Thursday on X, formerly Twitter.

“Boxing is unpredictable and can change multiple times in a day,’’ Lewkowicz posted. “Yes” PBC (Premier Boxing Champions) in coordination with Team Benavidez. …a guarantee of ($) 55 Million was offered to Team Canelo that would exceed 60 M by adding Azteca Sports PPV and more or We are moving to 175 Lbs.’’

That move has been inevitable since Benavidez lost the WBC title on the scale in August 2020. Then 23, he failed to make the 168-pound limit before blowing out Roamer Alexis Angulo. He hasn’t missed weight since, but it was clear then that light-heavyweight was just a matter of time.

Benavidez’ unfolding career is already notable. He’s a former, two-time super-middleweight champion, yet still unbeaten. He lost the WBC’s 168-pound belt for the first time because of a positive test for cocaine.

Now, he has a chance to become a current two-time, mandatory challenger. He’s already Canelo’s mandatory. However, it’s not clear what that means, especially in a bid to fight Canelo, the pay-per-view star who gets what he wants.

The WBC officially awarded Benavidez its super-middleweight mandatory in November, but the ruling body has yet to do anything to enforce it.

A victory over Gvozdyk would include an interim light-heavyweight title. Presumably, that would also include another mandatory, although Sulaiman’s post said only that the WBC would sanction the fight for the interim belt.

No mandatory mentioned for what could – should — be a shot at the Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol winner of a fight for the undisputed 175-pound title on June 1 in Saudi Arabia.

NOTES: After Thursday’s news, Jose Benavidez left for Miami to train his son. David Benavidez, who began his boxing career in hometown Phoenix, recently bought a condo in Miami, his dad said. The Benavidez family, including older brother Jose Jr., have been living in Seattle. … Jose Benavidez Jr., a former junior welterweight and welterweight, is coming off a loss to middleweight Jermall Charlo, who blew off a contracted catch weight. Jose Jr. will continue to fight, his dad said.

By Norm Frauenheim –

Canelo Alvarez’ news conference was a lot like a much-anticipated fight. It didn’t live up to the hype. 

More of a teaser than a newser.

That’s not exactly a surprise. Canelo’s pay-per-view numbers and celebrity status apparently allows him to behave like a diva. He’s not the first. Won’t be the last, either.

Like it or not, it’s a perk, one that comes with all the money, limos, adulation, criticism, rumors and scar tissue. He’s moved on from being a People’s Champ. It looks as if that mythical title is a better fit for the emerging Jaime Munguia. More on him later.

What we do know about today’s version of Canelo is that he keeps people waiting. He keeps media waiting for an hour or longer to appear at a post-fight news conference. Mostly, he keeps David Benavidez waiting. And waiting. More on him later, too.

Canelo’s news conference Tuesday with Azteca TV was an exercise in more of the same. He announced that he had extended his deal with Azteca. Mexicans will continue to see his fights on free TV.

But exactly who will they see him fight next? 

More over Benavidez, we’re going to have to wait on that.

Nothing much changed about that one question, which continues to revolve around his projected May 4 date, the second in his three-fight deal with Premier Boxing Champions and his first on PBC’s new streaming partner, Amazon Prime.

Reportedly, Canelo said only that his May fight would be against an American. 

That could mean Benavidez, or Terence Crawford, or Jermall Charlo, or Sylvester Stallone.

Again — reportedly, Charlo appears to be the leading possibility. Then again, Charlo quickly shot that down on social media.

“Everyone is like ‘You about to fight Canelo’… ain’t no confirmation,’’ he posted on Instagram Wednesday while reportedly on vacation in the Caribbean. “I’m in the islands somewhere.”

It’s safe to assume that neither Charlo nor anybody else will make any kind of announcement. Canelo’s many perks dictate that he makes most of the money and all of the announcements.

Charlo is a lot of things, but he’s not foolish enough to jeopardize what would be his biggest payday ever by trespassing on that turf.  

Let’s just say that the consensus, still speculative, is what it was before the newser. Charlo is the leading possibility. At one level, it makes some sense.

In late September, Canelo easily scored a one-sided decision over Charlo’s brother Jermell, a junior-middleweight champion who never exhibited any willingness to fight.

Initially, it was reported that Canelo would fight Jermall, a middleweight champ. But Jermall, still plagued by personal issues, decided he couldn’t fight.

So, Canelo turned to Jermell, his twin. Only a vowel and a weight class separate the twins. What’s to say a May 4 fight with Jermall wouldn’t produce an identical performance?

The real question is this: Why is Jermall Charlo even on Canelo’s rumored short list? He’s never fought at super-middleweight. He’s fought only once in about three years and that was against a former junior-welterweight champion Jose Benavidez Jr., David’s older brother.

Jermall blew off the catchweight, a contracted 163 pounds. He was more than three pounds too heavy. He paid a fine — $75,000 a pound, multiple sources told 15 Rounds.

But it didn’t matter, perhaps because it was part of the calculation. Jermall, who was already talking about Canelo, fought as if he knew he only had to win to stay in line for the bigger payday. He did, but only by a forgettable decision over the smaller Jose Benavidez

Maybe, it worked. But Jermall Charlo’s last performance, long idle stretch and zero experience at 168 pounds loom as additional reasons for further impatience, if not outright frustration, for everybody calling on Canelo to finally fight David Benavidez.

There’s an argument that Canelo isn’t trying to duck him. Yeah, and maybe Donald doesn’t quack. Fair? Not really. It’s a cheap shot. From fans to media, however, nothing about boxing is ever fair.

Canelo has the power to end the perception — silence the insults — that he’s trying to sidestep Benavidez

To begin with, he could end all the waiting, which only invites all the trash talk. He could announce he’ll fight Benavidez. Maybe, it still happens in September. That scenario made sense when Canelo signed a three-fight deal with PBC last year. It still makes sense.

But a lot could happen between May and September.

Canelo-against-Crawford, the undisputed welterweight champion and consensus No. 1 in the pound-for-pound debate, is impossible to ignore. It has box-office and pay-per-view appeal. But negotiations for a catchweight could be prohibitive.

Then, what?

As always, Canelo has options. Perhaps, he decides to move up the scale again in a light-heavyweight fight against the Dmitry Bivol-Artur Beterbiev winner on June 1 in Saudi Arabia.

If Bivol wins, he would get a chance to avenge his May 2021 loss. If the feared Beterbiev wins, he gets a chance to correct the record with a win that would turn the Bivol loss into an aberration – a bad night.

That’s also a scenario that would keep Benavidez, Munguia and the rest of the deep super-middleweight division in the waiting room. Only frustration in there.

It’s hard to imagine what would happen next. If Canelo vacated the 168-pound title, perhaps Benavidez would be given the vacant World Boxing Council’s version. He’s already held it twice.

For now, he’s been the WBC’s mandatory challenger since November. But no steps have been taken to enforce that designation.

A so-called e-mail title wouldn’t satisfy any fans. It probably wouldn’t satisfy the Phoenix-born Benavidez, either. He loves to fight.

A 168-pound tournament for the vacant title would be a better solution. But that, too, looks to be an impossibilty in boxing’s balkanized business. There are too many rivalries between promoters and acronyms, creating chaos instead of any regulation or organization.

But for the fun of it, let’s just say somebody is able to underwrite one.

Here are some of the names:

At the top, there’s Benavidez, unbeaten and climbing into pound-for-pound recognition.

There’s the newcomer, Munguia, impressive last month in Phoenix in a stoppage of John Ryder in front of a Mexican and Mexican-American crowd of more than 10,000 that roared as if it was witnessing the emergence of Mexico’s next great fighter.

There’s dangerous David Morrell, a re-emerging Edgar Berlanga, durable Caleb Plant, Christian Mbili and Diego Pacheco.

Notice who’s missing: Jermall Charlo.

Like he said, he’s somewhere, but not on anybody’s list, except for maybe Canelo’s.

Elijah Garcia faces tough test

Phoenix middleweight Elijah Garcia (16-0, 13 KOs), who ended 2023 as one of boxing’s hottest prospects, will test his chances at becoming a solid contender in 2024 against Kyrone Davis (18-3-1, 6 KOs).

A week after Garcia said he expected to fight on the PBC card featuring Tim Tszyu-Keith Thurman on March 30 at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, it was announced Tuesday that he would face Davis.

It’s a fight that could steal the show, the first since the PBC deal with Amazon Prime was announced late last year.

Davis is already well-known among Phoenix fans, who grew up watching the 20-year-old Garcia.

A  late stand-in, Davis fought David Benavidez at Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix in July 2021. Benavidez won, scoring a seventh-round TKO, but Davis kept it competitive with a fearless pursuit of the bigger, more popular Phoenix fighter. In the end, the fans and Benavidez applauded Davis.  

“I’m excited to be back in the ring, especially on this first event with PBC and Prime Video,” Garcia said. “Fighting on these major events is an incredible blessing and I plan on delivering another great performance. 

“Kyrone Davis has been in the ring with some very good fighters, and it will be a challenging fight, but my plan is to get the win by any means necessary.’’

Davis promises to test Garcia’s promising credentials.

“Elijah Garcia is a very good fighter who’s young and hungry and he looks the part, but most importantly he’s been moved right,” Davis, of Philadelphia, said. “Sometimes you can look better than you really are if you’re being moved right.

“I got asked about this fight last year and of course I said yes. Then everything went silent.

“Now, I face Cruse Stewart and he goes the distance with me and Elijah stopped him, so now he fights me. I’m not going to say too much, but I’m glad they took the fight. We’ll see if Garcia is really the future.”

By Norm Frauenheim

Tyson Fury’s cut is generating predictable skepticism and even a few conspiracy theories.

It’s as if he tripped, fell and hit his head on an elbow hidden in the proverbial grassy knoll.

Who knows what really happened?

But Fury’s nasty cut is deep, wide and real. It also might be an ominous sign, a ruptured scar and an ugly marker of the damage inevitably sustained throughout any long boxing career.

Fury is not immune, although his bravado appeared to be in the aftermath of Friday’s announcement that the injury would not allow him to fight Oleksandr Usyk on Feb. 17 for the undisputed heavyweight title. A couple of days later, it was re-scheduled for May 18, still in Riyadh.

Fury answered the skepticism and some taunts, especially from Usyk manager Egis Klimas, who said Fury was “scared’’ and scarred. Klimas then insulted his wife with a slur and said he asked her to hit him in the head with “a frying pan.’’

Fury reacted, saying he doesn’t back down, never backs down.

“Egis, never call me a coward again,’’ Fury said to Klimas on split screens, Klimas with Usyk and Fury with Prince Turki Alalshikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority.

It was an over-the-top show that might have made the WWE jealous. But it was a stage Fury has always dominated in his lousy-lounge-act kind of way.

He sings. Bye-Bye, Miss American Pie.

He trash talks. You have about as much charisma as my under pants, he told Wladimir Klitschko.

He knows how to deliver a punch line and a feint on either side of the ropes.

But that ruptured scar isn’t a feint.

It’s a target.

Like an accident waiting to happen, it has been there since he first suffered a cut near his right eye in a dangerous fight against again Otto Wallin on Sept. 15, 2019 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand.

In the third round, Wallin landed a clean left hand that turned his right eye into a bloody mess. The ruptured scar, apparently sustained in sparring for Usyk, appears to be in the same spot as the initial wound.

Wallin, a competent heavyweight, attacked the cut in successive rounds. He opened up another cut along Fury’s right eye brow. Wallin lost the fight by a wide margin on the scorecards – 116-112, 117-111, 118-110. In the middle rounds, however, there were moments when it looked as if the ringside physician could have called the fight in favor of Wallin.

It didn’t happen, of course. The stakes were huge. Fury had a new deal with Top Rank and ESPN. He was living in Vegas. Before Wallin, he introduced himself to the Vegas audience by singing and then stopping Tom Schwarz.

He was coming off a dramatic draw with powerful Deontay Wilder in December 2018. That’s when he got up twice, once in the ninth and again in the twelfth in Los Angeles. A big rematch with Wilder loomed.

Then, Wallin’s punch landed, creating a wound that required 47 stitches. Reportedly, he had a plastic surgeon on call in case of a rupture. The surgeon never got that call

There wasn’t a rupture, not against Wilder, whom he stopped in the seventh round of the first rematch in February 2020 and in the 11^th round of a wildly violent third fight in October 2021 at T-Mobile Arena, also in Vegas.

Not against Dillian Whyte, whom he stopped in the sixth at home in the UK at London’s Wembley Stadium in April 2022.

Not against Dereck Chisora, whom he stepped in the 10^th in December 2022 at Tottenham Spur Stadium, also in London.

And not against novice boxer Francis Ngannou, who knocked down Fury in the third, yet lost a split decision in Riyadh last October.

That brings us to Usyk, whose boxing skill, predatory instinct and ring smarts are superior to any other heavyweight Fury has faced since his upset of Wladimir Klitschko in November 2015.

Fury, who says he needed 11 stitches to sew up his latest wound, was eight years younger then, 27 instead of 35. He was in his prime. He fought his way through overeating, drinking and drugging. He climbed to his feet against Wilder and climbed to the top of boxing’s fabled division. He was a great story. But even the best stories get bloodied.

Amid all of Fury’s woofing about beating Wilder, he said one thing that’s believable. He said he suffered two concussions in the crazy third fight, which included five knockdowns.

He didn’t mention the concussive first fight, memorable for the way Fury managed to get up. It was called a miracle. But even miracles take a toll.

Against Usyk, Fury encounters a disciplined fighter with accuracy – precision — that was never a part of Wilder’s skillset. For Wilder, it was bombs-away, all in an attempt to land that mighty right hand. If he even tried to go after the scar tissue along the right side of Fury’s right eye, it wasn’t apparent. He just didn’t.

Whyte and Chisora didn’t either.

Ngannou didn’t know how to.

Usyk does.

NOTES

Arizona’s emerging middleweight, unbeaten Elijah Garcia, expects to fight on the March 30 card featuring Tim Tszyu-Keith Thurman at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena in the first Amazon Prime boxing show. The 20-year-old Garcia (16-0, 13 KOS) posted on social media that he’ll fight then. However, his opponent has yet to be named.

The night before Tszyu-Thurman, popular Oscar Valdez Jr. returns to Glendale AZ on March 29 at Desert Diamond Arena where he lost a punishing decision to Emanuel Navarrete on Aug. 12. Valdez (31-2, 23 KOs), a former featherweight and junior-lightweight champion, faces Australian Liam Wilson (13-2, 7 KOs) on ESPN. Wilson also is back at Desert Diamond after a controversial stoppage loss to Navarrete Feb 3, 2023. Many thought Wilson should have won. Despite that, Valdez is about a 4-to-1 favorite.

And John Ryder announced this week — about 10 days after his TKO loss to Jaime Munguia at Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix – that he’s retiring. Ryder, 35, was a solid contender. Above all, he was a consummate pro. He knew how to fight. He knew when to walk away. The sport could use more fighters like him.

By Norm Frauenheim –

Jaime Munguia fought his way into the argument with a dramatic stoppage of John Ryder that transforms him into another option for Canelo Alvarez and another potential source of frustration for David Benavidez.

Where all of this leaves Benavidez is still anybody’s guess. For now, at least, he’s where he’s always been.

Waiting, waiting for a shot that he demands and deserves, yet one that continues to be as elusive as ever.

In the here and now, he’s boxing’s version of Florida State. Unbeaten, yet still left without a chance at winning the biggest prize in the crowded super-middleweight division. Fair? Of course, not. But fair is a quaint notion in boxing, college football, politics and life. It’s just another bloody nose. If you want fair, play checkers.

In this game, protect yourself at all times, because a cheap shot is always lurking.

That brings us to Jermall Charlo. By all accounts, he is the leading possibility for Canelo’s next fight, projected to be on May 4. In his promotional role in behalf of Munguia, Oscar De La Hoya said last Saturday after the four-knockdown TKO of Ryder in Phoenix – Benavidez’ hometown – that he expects Canelo to fight Charlo next.

By now, I guess nobody should be surprised. Canelo fought a Charlo, Jermell, in his last fight in September. The plan had been for him to fight Jermall. Then, however, Jermell got the date, apparently because his twin brother still needed time to recover from some reported mental-health issues.

Jermell or Jermall, it was a dud. Jermell, a junior-middleweight champion, was just there to collect a paycheck. It says here that in the ring the only difference between Jermell and Jermall is a vowel and a few pounds. The rumored fight in May figures to be a repeat.

Put it this way: Before Canelo, Jermell had never fought at super-middleweight. Neither has Jermall, who in his last fight won a unanimous decision, yet couldn’t stop Jose Benavidez Jr., David’s older brother and a former junior welterweight and welterweight. Before beating the smaller Jose Jr., Jermall blew off a contracted catchweight, 163 pounds. He was more than three pounds too heavy.

Here’s the question: From resume to weight, on what scale does this Charlo merit a shot Canelo? Munguia is more worthy. He blew out Ryder, a respected contender whom Canelo failed to stop. Munguia won a narrow decision at 168 pounds over Sergiy Derevyanchenko last June in the Fight of the Year.

Then, there’s Benavidez, who has been at super-middleweight his whole career. He’s unbeaten and unique in that he’s a two-time former World Boxing Council champion. He lost those titles, once for testing positive for cocaine and then for failing to make weight. In a sign of his growing maturity, he was nominated for 2023 Fighter of the Year. 

On any scale, his resume outweighs Jermall Charlo’s, in credibility, especially among fans who have been calling for Benavidez-Canelo for a couple years.

Benavidez is also designated as the WBC’s mandatory challenger to Canelo, the undisputed champion. He has been since November. But the WBC has yet to do anything to enforce that mandatory.

Eddie Hearn, Ryder’s promoter, summed it up best a week ago in Phoenix when asked by 15 Rounds whether the mandatory designation means anything.

“Not really, especially if you’re Canelo Alvarez,’’ Hearn said in a wry, spot-on comment.

Meanwhile, there are other circumstances that could leave Benavidez waiting, or maybe moving up to light heavyweight. It’s no coincidence perhaps that people around light-heavyweight king Artur Beterbiev are already starting to talk about Benavidez, whose manager, Sampson Lewkowicz, says will probably fight somebody sometime this spring, perhaps in May.

It’s almost as if Canelo looks at Benavidez and sees a light-heavyweight, anyway. He’s shown about as much real interest in facing Benavidez as he has in a rematch with light-heavy champ Dmitry Bivol. 

After Bivol upset him in May 2022, Canelo initially vowed he would avenge the scorecard loss. He talked about a rematch. That’s all he did. It never happened.

According to Bivol’s management, there were never any substantive negotiations for a rematch. 

Still, stories continue to circulate about Benavidez and Bivol sparring a couple of years ago. According to Benavidez, he got the best of Bivol.

Has Canelo decided that neither is in his future? Maybe.

Meanwhile, the Beterbiev corner is hearing the same stories that everyone else is. According to multiple reports – still speculative, Canelo plans to follow a Charlo bout in May with a catchweight date against undisputed welterweight champion and pound-for-pound No.1 Terence Crawford in September.

The possibility has been circulating in social media for months. Now, there’s doubt about whether Crawford will ever fight Errol Spence in a contracted rematch.

Spence, who got blown out by Crawford in a July stunner, is coming off cataract surgery. He’s undergone two eye surgeries – one on each eye – within the last three years. Without Spence, where does Crawford go? There’s talk of Boots Ennis. Maybe, Tim Tszyu at junior middleweight, Maybe Jermell Charlo.

At 36, however, maybe it’s time for Crawford to cash out. There’s no better way to do that than in an event sure to attract the so-called crossover crowd against the 33-year-old Canelo, whose legacy among Mexican fans is probably secure regardless of whether he fights Benavidez or just continues to duck him.

By Norm Frauenheim –

PHOENIX – Oscar De La Hoya wants Jaime Munguia to fight Canelo Alvarez in September instead of May.

Before Munguia fought his way into the Canelo lottery Saturday night with a four-knockdown TKO of John Ryder, it was believed that Munguia was a possibility for Canelo’s projected return on May 4.

“Munguia-Canelo in September is the fight to make,’’ De La Hoya said about an hour after Ryder’s corner threw in the towel at 1:25 of the ninth round in front of roaring crowd of more than 10,000 at Footprint Center.

Canelo, the undisputed super-middleweight champion, might already have other plans for May, according to De La Hoya.

“I think Canelo could fight Jermall Charlo in May,’’ the Golden Boy promoter said.

It’s not clear where that leaves David Benavidez, who the World Boxing Council designated as its mandatory challenger to the WBC piece of Canelo’s title at its convention in Uzbekistan in November.

Benavidez, a former two-time WBC champion, has been calling out Canelo for a couple years. De La Hoya again said that Benavidez deserved a shot Saturday night.

But Munguia has joined the Canelo hunt. He’s another option. It’s not clear whether Benavidez’ mandatory status puts him at the front of the line.

“Networks make the mandatories,’’ Benavidez promoter/manager Sampson Lewkowicz said Saturday after his flyweight, Gabriela Fundora, retained the International Boxing Federation women’s title with TKO of Christina Cruz on the DAZN-streamed show.

Canelo is one of boxing’s few network stars. Follow the money, the only mandatory.

Benavidez, who grew up in Phoenix and began boxing at a gym – Central – just a few blocks from Footprint, got an invite to Saturday’s fight from De La Hoya De La Hoya he texted him Thursday.

But Benavidez wasn’t there for Munguia’s beatdown of the tough, smart Ryder. Munguia made a statement. So did Benavidez, who De La Hoya said was in Guadalajara, Canelo’s hometown. Benavidez showed up only on Instagram.

Above a photo of Munguia, he posted, after the fight: This a easy knock out. That’s why they ducked me. The message included three laughing emojis.

Meanwhile, social media was full of talk that Munguia might fight Edgar Berlanga next. But Munguia wasn’t sure when he’ll fight. Who he’ll fight.

“It would be an honor,’’ he said, to fight Canelo.

First, however, he said he would have to heal from a cut above his left eye.

Then, he’d go back to work at Wild Card with

his new trainer, Hall-of-Famer Freddie Roach.

“I keep hearing all of this talk about who’s next. Whatever,’’ said Roach, who predicted Munguia would win by TKO in the eighth. “We’ll head back to the gym and work hard.

“Whoever is next, he’s in trouble.’’

PHOENIX — A statement was demanded.

Statement delivered.

Jaime Munguia did what Canelo Alvarez could not. He stopped a tough, smart John Ryder Saturday night in a super-middleweight fight that was a test of Munguia’s potential.

There’s plenty of that, perhaps enough for him to land a Canelo fight projected to be in May. It’s all up to Canelo, whose pay-per-view clout and celebrity comes with a perk. He does what he wants to.

It’s anybody’s guess as to whether he wants the Munguia that 10,836 fans at Footprint Center saw against Ryder, whose corner threw in the towel at 1:25 of the ninth round.

“It would be an honor to be in the same ring with him,’’ Munguia (43-0, 34 KOs) said when asked the inevitable Canelo question.

Canelo or not, there’s one thing certain about Munguia, a 27-year-old fighter from Tijuana. He stepped out of the ring with enhanced credibility.

He’s a player, a proven threat at 168 pounds. Put him alongside David Benavidez, David Morrell, Edgar Berlanga and Jermall Charlo.

“I was ready for this,’’ he said. “I knew I was ready for this.’’

He knew more than just about anybody other than his Hall of Fame trainer, Freddie Roach. Roach predicated Munguia would win an eighth-round TKO. Roach missed by only a round.

Munguia did it with four knockdowns of Ryder (32-7, 18 KOs), a 35-year-old fighter who faces some tough question about whether his career has come to end.

Munguia knocked down Ryder in the second with a body shot that left a nasty red mark Ryder’s right side. He knocked down the UK fighter again in the fourth with successive left hands.

Then, there was the ninth. There was a right to the top head. Ryder was down for a third time. Then another blow to the head. Ryder was down for a fourth time. The towel soon followed, a sign of surrender for Ryder and the beginning of a second chapter for the emerging Munguia.

 Minimum Weight, Max Power: Oscar Collazo retains title 

It’s called minimum. Somehow, that isn’t quite fair to Oscar Collazo.

Maximum is more like it.

Collazo, the World Boxing Organization’s minimum weight champion flashed max power, knocking Reyneris Gutierrez, into the ropes and then flat on the canvas before the referee interceded and stopped it for third-round TKO Saturday night on the Jaime Munguia-John Ryder featured card at Footprint Center.

First, it was a huge right hand form Collazo (9-0, 7 KOs) that drove Gutierrez (10-2, 2 KOs) into the ropes. If not for those ropes, The Nicaraguan would have tumbled out of the ring, over the work table and onto the floor. Then, it was a left hand from the Puerto Rican. This time, no ropes were in the way. Gutierrez hit the deck. Moments later, it was over, a TKO:at 37 seconds of the third.

Darius Fulghum  wins a unanimously-booed dud

It was a fight full of clinches, missed punches, rabbit punches, boos  and more boos. There was even the wave.

Just when you thought it was extinct, Darius Fulghum and Alantez Fox brought it back. That’s how bad their super-middleweight fight was on the DAZN-streamed undercard for the Jaime Munguia-John Ryder mnin event at Footprint Center Saturday night.

The booing started in the second round. It got louder, even louder, until a near capacity crowd just bored. It started doing the wave. Yeah, that wave. Hands up, stand up and sit down, going from section to section in an undulating ring around the arena. Hey, it was better than watching the fight.

By the way, Fulghum (10-, 9 KOs), of Houston, won it, scoring a majority

 decision over Fox (28-6-1, 13 KOs), of Upper Marlboro MD. 

Not so sweet stoppage

Gabriela “Sweet Poison” Fundora 12-0 (9KOs) made her first women’s IBF Flyweight title defense VS Christina Cruz 6-0. The fight was a battle of the sweet science of hit but not get hit, no one fighter looked dominate in the match. One fighter did control the ring through out the fight and was more active with her combinations and stunning her opponent. Fundora was using her ring IQ to cut off the ring and edging out the rounds in her favor in a very close fight. More over as the championship rounds rolled along Gabriela showed the heart of a warrior and took the fight over effortlessly out boxing Cruz. With less than a minute left in the 10th and final round referee Chris Flores stepped in and called a end to the fight in a controversial fashion. Cruz was not hurt and was simply walking away with her guard up still  defending herself. Visibly upset Cruz pleaded her case of why it should not have been stopped with some ringside having it a drawing going into the final round. Coming out on top and staying undefeated Fundora moves to 13-0 (10KOs) in a post fight interview Fundora praised Cruz “Cruz is a good fighter and glad she stepped up” also “I looked to her because she was an olympian and had a picture on my wall as a kid” ending her statement by saying “Cruz is an amazing fighter and it was an honor to share the ring”. When asked about the stoppage Fundora stated “I unleashed on her, and she turned around indicating she no longer wanted to fight”

One can only ask if she deserves a rematch or does the co-promotions between Golden Boy Promotions and Sampson Promotion look to set up a fight for undisputed later this year, Seemingly the road block to undisputed is Marlen Esparza who holds the other 3 tittle and has an upcoming fight that she can not look past herself. Just as her smile, the future is bright for the undefeated fighter of Coachella, CA….David Galaviz

David Picasso scores unanimous decision in U.S. debut

David Picasso wasn’t looking for a masterpiece. 

Just a victory.

He got it.

In his first appearance in the United States, Picasso, an unbeaten featherweight from Mexico City, scored repeatedly early, tired midway, then held on and held off Erik Ruiz in the late rounds.

All of it was enough for Picasso (27-0-1, 15 KOs) to secure a unanimous  decision over Ruiz (17-10-1, 7 KOs), a fighter from Oxnard, Calif., who from round to round got more aggressive in a 10-rounder in the first DAZN-streamed fight on the Munguia-Ryder card at Footprint Center.

Daniel Garcia scores crushing first round stoppage

It was over before a lot of arriving fans ever got to their seats.

Daniel Garcia finished the non-DAZN portion of the Jaime Munguia-John Ryder card in a flash at Footprint Center. Daniel Lugo may have seen it coming. But he couldn’t do much about it.

Garcia (8-0, 6 KOs), an unbeaten  lightweight from Denver, sent a right hand flying over the edge of  Lugo’s upraised gloves. Boom, it landed, crashing off Lugo’s chin and driving his head up and around. By the time some fans looked up, it was over.

Lugo (4-2, 1 KO), of Phoenix was down and out, a stoppage loser at 1:51 of the first round.

Gregory Morales scores unanimous decision, rocks Ron and the crowd

In the third bout of the night Gregory Morales (15-1, 9KOs) of San Antonio, TX faced Ronal Ron (14-4 ,11KOs) in a super featherweight fight 

In a  feel-out first round both fighters saved all their energy for the last 20 seconds of the round with both having success landing punches. It picked right back up in the second. However as the round came to an end, Morales showed head movement and landed some crisp punches. In the theme of the fight, Morales and Ron saved all the excitement for the end of the round. They got the crowd a little excited. There were theatrics coming from Ron. He spit his mouth piece out around the 2:20 mark. A few second later, he was warned about a head butt. The pace of the round had significantly picked up, with both fighters finding their rhythm and timing. Ron was briefly stunned early in the 5th round by a well placed left from Morales.

 As the crowd started chanting “Goyo”, it gave Morales extra motivation, landing a few lefts directly to the chin of Ron. 

A left hook by Morales landed. Over the last three rounds, Morales picked up the production of his pace and dazed his opponent with a multitude of punches. The last round served as the best round for Morales as he landed some great combos that made the crowd get even loader. Morales improved to 16-1 (9KOs), scoring a unanimous decision. In fight that brought the crowd to its fight in the final round.the crowd a good fight. —–David Galaviz

Toe-to-Toe: Gael Cabrera scores knockdown wins decision in tough bout

It was power against resilience.

Gael Cabrera, a Mexican featherweight from Sonora — just south of Arizona, had the power. He needed it, all of it to win. 

Miguel Ceballos, one of two AZ fighters on the Munguia-Ryder card, had the resilience, almost enough of it to score an upset.

But the power prevailed. A straight right hand from Cabrera (4-0, 3 KOs) put Ceballos down in the first round. Then, Cabrera held on, withstanding repeated bursts of energy from Ceballos (2-1, 2 KOs), of Peoria AZ.  Cabrera appeared to tire, but he still had enough power in both hands to keep Ceballos off him. The result: Cabrera won a unanimous decision in a hard-fought fight.

First Bell: Munguia-Ryder card begins with a quick stoppage

It should have been a matinee. But Jonathan Canas turned it into a short subject.

Canas, a lightweight from Santa Ana CA, needed only 64 seconds to finish Kameeko Hall in the opening bout Saturday afternoon on the card featuring Jaime Mungia-John Ryder at Footprint Center.

Canas, still perfect with three knockouts in three fights, delivered a body-to-head combo that put Hall, a winless fighter from Brunswick GA, onto one knee. It was the body shot that hurt him the most. When Hall (0-4) tried to get onto his feet, he got sick to his stomach. At 1:04 of the first, it was over for everybody but the maintenance crew. It had to clean up the mess.

By Norm Frauenheim –

PHOENIX – Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn is looking to bring Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez back to Arizona for a projected Super Fly title fight against Juan Francisco Estrada.

Hearn talked about the possibility this week while in Phoenix for the John Ryder-Jaime Munguia super-middleweight fight Saturday night at Footprint Center.

“We want to bring Bam-Estrada here for some time this summer,’’ said Hearn, also Ryder’s promoter.

Hearn was in Glendale, a Phoenix suburb, last month to promote Rodriguez’ dramatic ninth-round stoppage of Sunny Edwards at Desert Diamond Arena for the unified flyweight title on Dec. 16.

After the 112-pound bout, Rodriguez said he wanted to move up to 115 pounds in a bid to reclaim his old title against Estrada.

“I’ve been wanting to face Estrada,’’ Rodriguez said the after a victory that got him pound-for-pound consideration. “Why not now?’’

Estrada’s last fight was also at Desert Diamond where he scored a majority decision for the World Boxing Council’s super-fly title over accomplished Roman Gonzalez on Dec. 3, 2022. Hearn was the promoter.

Hearn also promoted Rodriguez’ first fight in AZ, a unanimous decision over Carlos Cuadras for that same WBC belt at Footprint in February 2022.

“it just makes sense to bring them back to Phoenix,’’ Hearn said. “The fans here know both, know them well. This a great fight town. There are a lot of educated fans here.’’

Fighters in boxing’s lightest weight classes have always been popular in Phoenix, home for Hall of Fame junior-flyweight Michael Carbajal, who drew capacity crowds to Footprint – then named America West when the arena first opened in 1992.  

By Norm Frauenheim –

PHOENIX – Jaime Munguia stepped off the scale, the Mexican flag behind him and Mexican fans in front of him. He waved at his mom. He heard the cheers. Acknowledged the chants.

It was a moment that almost looked as if it had been rehearsed. In some ways, it had been. It was a mock weigh-in, a ceremonial replica of what had happened at the real weigh-in for the Arizona Boxing & MMA Commission Friday morning.

The afternoon version at Footprint Center was strictly for show, a show that belonged to Munguia, an emerging fighter who promoter Oscar De La Hoya says is poised to become the new face of Mexican boxing.

“This is my year,’’ Munguia said.

A stone-faced John Ryder, tough in the ring and tougher to read outside of it, might have something to say about that.

An upset? Would it surprise you? It was a question asked more for the crowd that was there, and is expected to be there in even bigger numbers for the main event’s opening bell on a DAZN-streamed card Saturday (8 p.m. ET/6 p.m.) That crowd would be shocked.

Ryder?

“No, I wouldn’t be,’’ he said. “That’s the plan, isn’t it?’’

The betting odds, about 3-to-1 for Munguia (42-0, 33 KOs), suggest that Ryder’s plan hasn’t got much of a chance.

The 27-year-old Munguia has the fresh-faced look of a kid. He’s about seven years younger than the bearded Ryder (32-6, 18 KOs), a 35-year-old UK fighter whose scars are either a sign of erosion or the mark of a hardened combat veteran’s knowhow.

The guess – and that’s all it is – is that Munguia has the energy that comes with youth. But Ryder has experience, including 12 punishing rounds against Canelo Alvarez in front 51,000 Canelo partisans in Guadalajara.

Ryder got a scorecard loss and a broken nose. But he left Canelo with a face swollen and marked up, leaving an unmistakable message that Ryder – a survivor — figures to be there, a stubborn test to Munguia’s aspirations.

On Friday, at least, there wasn’t an ounce of difference between them. On the scale, they were identical, 167.8 pounds each.

Munguia’s corner envisions a knockout. De La Hoya hopes Munguia can do what Canelo couldn’t. A knockout of Ryder, De La Hoya says, would be a statement that says Munguia deserves a chance to fight Canelo, perhaps in May.

Munguia’s skillset and discipline are enough to pull off the stoppage, says his new trainer, Hall of Famer Freddie Roach, who replaces Tijuana legend Erik Morales.

After Roach’s many years of watching and working with great fighters at Los Angeles’ Wild Card Gym, he looks at Munguia and sees some of Hall-of-Famer Virgil Hill, one of the great light-heavyweights who was known for resilience and a tireless work ethic.

“Jaime works as hard as anybody,’’ said Roach, who foresees Munguia winning an eighth-round stoppage. “In this training camp, he took only one day off.’’

He did, Roach said, only because his family was celebrating the birth of a baby.

That disciplined regimen could counter Ryder’s dogged nature in a way that produces a gritty classic.

“Ryder always goes forward,’’ said Fernando Beltran, Munguia’s promoter/manager. “Jaime Munguia doesn’t know how to go backwards.’’

That’s a collision, if not a classic.

Will it make a difference in terms of what Canelo does next? On Friday, there was no answer to that. Just more speculation. Jermall Charlo has been mentioned as a Canelo possibility There’s still talk about pound-for-pound No. 1 and undisputed welterweight champ Terence Crawford in a catchweight against Canelo.

And, above all, there’s David Benavidez, a Phoenix-born fighter who first began boxing at a gym, Central, just a few blocks from the Footprint Center. Benavidez is expected to be at ringside. He’s unbeaten and a two-time ex-champ at super-middle. He’s also designated as the World Boxing Council’s mandatory challenger for the WBC piece of Canelo’s undisputed crown.

In specific terms of when or even how Benavidez’ mandatory designation turns into a real fight is still open to a lot of speculation.

Does mandatory mean much?

“Not really, especially if you’re Canelo Alvarez,’’ said Eddie Hearn who has promoted Canelo and is in Phoenix in behalf of Ryder.

It was a wry, spot-on comment from the Matchroom promoter. Canelo’s pay-per-view numbers come with some perks. To wit: He gets what he wants.

Maybe, he’ll see something he wants in Munguia-Ryder. From his perspective, it’s a must-see fight. Maybe even mandatory.

By Norm Frauenheim –

PHOENIX – Hostile crowds, long odds are nothing new to John Ryder. He’s gone where few fighters ever have.

Last May, it was Guadalajara, Canelo Alvarez’ hometown. Canelo had not fought there in 12 years. He was welcomed back, a warrior-king and the face of Mexican boxing.

Ryder was there, almost as an after-thought or maybe as a target.

But the after-thought had plenty to say. He fought back. He endured 12 punishing rounds, doggedly eluding the stoppage Canelo pursued.

He didn’t win the fight.

“But I kind of won the night,’’ said Ryder, who joked at a news conference Thursday that if he could have done anything different he would have avoided the uppercuts that bloodied his nose and set him up for a fifth-round knockdown.

But if survival is a victory, Ryder won despite one-sided cards and a one-sided crowd.

It’s an experience, perhaps, that has prepared him for the emerging Jaime Munguia in more way than Munguia knows.

For Ryder, there’s nothing that compares to what he faced in Guadalajara.

In Phoenix however, there are some similarities. The Footprint Center crowd figures to be dominated by Mexican and Mexican-American fans. It’ll be a Munguia crowd, one that knows him from his days in Tijuana. He’s 42-0, a middleweight champion fighting for the second time at 168 pounds.

Promoter Oscar De La Hoya said at Thursday’s newser that he’s “poised to become the next face of Mexican boxing.’’

Munguia is also the betting favorite, 3-to-1.

It’s almost as if Ryder is there as a steppingstone in the plan for Munguia’s next step to stardom, perhaps an all-Mexican encounter with Canelo in May.

“Possibly,’’ Ryder said. “But it’s at their own cost.’’

Ryder, a UK fighter making his first visit to Phoenix, concedes he’s facing a tough challenge. There’s pressure, too, more perhaps than what’s facing Munguia. Ryder is 35 years old. He says his career hinges on what happens Saturday in a DAZN-streamed fight (8 pm ET/6 pm AZ time).

“I need to keep my career on a high level, he said. “This is the fight to keep it going on.’’

By Norm Frauenheim –

PHOENIX – Oscar De La Hoya, already busy promoting a real fight between Jaime Munguia and John Ryder, found himself addressing questions Thursday about reports of another one in what looks to be a further episode in an ongoing feud.

The news conference was about Munguia-Ryder, a significant super-middleweight fight Saturday night on the Suns home floor at Footprint Center.

The buzz was about Ryan Garcia.

De La Hoya-Garcia, a social-media soap opera even before Twitter became X, took a confusing turn late Wednesday and early Thursday.

The brief version – if only there was one – goes something like this: Garcia was fighting Rolly Romero. Then, he wasn’t.

Sounds simple enough, and maybe it would be, pre-social media. But it isn’t. Ryan Garcia is a social media star. He needs a census to count his followers.

And they were talking late Wednesday, first about a Garcia post that said he would be fighting Mexican junior-welterweight champion Rolly Romero on April 20.

Hours later, ESPN reported that Romero was fighting Isaac Cruz on March 30 in Las Vegas. Can you hear the buzz?

De La Hoya did, and he addressed the inevitable after a news conference that included a theme about promotional unity in The Boxing Balkans.

From De La Hoya’s perspective, there’s no feud with Garcia, at least not in what transpired this week.

“A lot is happening,’’ De La Hoya said after the formal Munguia-Ryder news conference concluded. “Look, me and Ryan are on a united front. We are going to get his fight, done and sealed. And I will announce it when it is done.

“I do know for sure it will be April 20 in Las Vegas. But no names.’’

No opponent, yet. The only sure thing is that it won’t be Romero, the World Boxing Association’s 140-pound champion.

“There were negotiations that took place,’’ De La Hoya said. “But nothing in writing.’’

De La Hoya went on to say that the Romero-Cruz fight on Amazon Prime – the first since it struck a deal with Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) — could set up Garcia’s second fight in 2024.

“It turns out, the winner of the Rolly-Isaac Cruz fight could be in the Ryan Garcia lottery for the next fight.’’  

Unity, however, wasn’t exactly the message delivered by Garcia when he reacted to the ESPN news Thursday.

“Look I was informed the deal was finalizing and it would be announced in the coming days,’’ Garcia posted on X.  “Obviously That was a lie. My patience has been tested the last few weeks. I’m trying my best to be as honest and real as I can to you guys. I’ll be looking forward to announcing my next fight. I’m not going to say anything until it’s actually signed and delivered

 I still look forward to putting on a big PPV for Dazn Boxing. Have a Blessed day.’’

A blessed day, at least for some, would be the simple sound of an opening bell, a sound that for awhile might silence the back-and-forth on social media.

That, at least, is an opinion long held by the old-school, no nonsense Bernard Hopkins, a minority partner in De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions who is as direct with his words as he was with his deadly punches during his Hall of Fame days as The Executioner.

“I don’t control social media, so I don’t know what’s going on,’’ Hopkins said at the Phoenix newser. “Is there a fight or not? I don’t know.

“But I do know – and I’ll say it again – I’m sick of the drama queens.

“We as promoters, along with the fans, have to make it clear that we’re not putting up with this anymore. Last year, we started coming back to where we have to be.

“There was Ryan-Tank (Gervonta Davis) in April. People watched. More than 1.2 million watched. Then, there was Terence Crawford and Errol Spence. That was the second fight that said we’re coming back with what people want to see.

“But now we’re in a tug-of-war.’’

A war to keep it real.

By Norm Frauenheim –

PHOENIX – Oscar De La Hoya and Jaime Munguia were in David Benavidez’ old neighborhood Wednesday, talking to kids gathered at a Boys & Girls Club near a busy freeway.

In another time and place, one of those kids could have been a Benavidez.

David and his brother Jose Jr. grew up a couple blocks from the club founded by former Suns owner and general manager Jerry Colangelo.

They’ve moved on, yet they don’t forget those streets on Phoenix’s westside. It’s why they fight. Maybe, it’ says something about how they fight, too. But those streets are there. You can hear them in their words. You can see them on waistbands, trunks and robes that include the PHX logo, a symbol of their identity and fan base.

Ignore them at your peril.

De La Hoya didn’t.

“He is the guy, the most deserving guy,’’ De La Hoya said three days before opening bell before the Golden Boy-promoted Munguia fights John Ryder in a bout that could set the table for what — or who – is next for Canelo.

De La Hoya picked the right place and time to talk about David Benavidez, who somehow has not been included in the discussion about Canelo’s next fight, expected in May.

Munguia’s name is there, prominently, in speculation that is the theme of his DAZN-streamed super-middleweight fight with Ryder on the Suns home floor at Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix, about six miles from where De La Hoya was standing Wednesday.

Jermall Charlo, a middleweight champion who beat former junior-welterweight Jose Jr. after failing to make a 163-pound catchweight in November, is also mentioned.

So, too, is pound-for-pound king and undisputed welterweight champion Terence Crawford.

Also, Ryder, who went 12 rounds in losing a decision to Canelo last May in Guadalajara, is fighting to put himself back in the argument. Maybe, he does, if he upsets Munguia and looks impressive in pulling it off.

But Benavidez? He’s mostly missing in all the talk preceding a key fight in his hometown.

It’s a surprise, big to even De La Hoya, who hopes Munguia beats Ryder with the stoppage that eluded Canelo in his hometown.

“I’m shockingly surprised,’’ De La Hoya said. “David has to be there, in any discussion.’’

He’s not, perhaps, because of boxing’s tangled, tortured politics and simple timing. Canelo and Benavidez are both aligned with PBC (Premier Boxing Champions).

Canelo has two fights left on a three-fight PBC deal signed last year. From a promotional perspective, the third fight – expected in September — against Benavidez makes the most financial

sense.

But Benavidez is tired of waiting. He‘s been calling out Canelo for a couple of years. Benavidez is also the World Boxing Council’s mandatory challenger for the WBC piece of Canelo’s undisputed title. It’s not exactly clear what mandatory means anymore.

To wit: Why not next May instead of September?

“For sure, nobody is more deserving than David,’’ De La Hoya said. “Nobody.

“I hope it happens. I want it to happen. I just think David has to stay on Canelo. He has to keep talking about it.

“In some ways, it reminds me of when I was younger and fought Julio Cesar Chavez. I was the young lion. Those (two) fights (both De La Hoya victories) were like passing the torch. Like Julio, Canelo is the big name, the star. But David is bigger and younger. Maybe Canelo sees that. I don’t know’’

For De La Hoya, the business at hand is to get Munguia a victory that can’t be ignored by fans and especially Canelo.

“I’m hoping he makes a statement,’’ De La Hoya said.

De La Hoya also said that he’d be happy to talk about a fight between Benavidez and Munguia.

Absolutely,’’ De La Hoya said. ”Munguia is willing to fight anybody. Anybody.”

Apparently, De La Hoya is already talking to Benavidez, but not necessarily about Munguia.

“As I was driving over here, I got a message from David on my phone,’’ De La Hoya said Wednesday. “He told me he’s in Mexico. He said he’s in Guadalajara.

“Says he’s looking for Canelo.’’

By Norm Frauenheim –

The map is changing. More gloves and heavy bags are tagged for Riyadh than Vegas these days. But one path remains unchanged.

All roads still lead to Canelo Alvarez, or at least the money he still generates.

That continues to be part of the geography in an intriguing super-middleweight fight Jan. 27 between Jamie Munguia and John Ryder on the Suns home floor at Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix.

A projected date with Canelo is said to be at stake for the emerging Munguia, a middleweight champion who is 1-0 at super-middle with a decision over Sergiy Derevyanchenko in June.

For Ryder, maybe there’s a possibility at a rematch. He lost a decision to Canelo last May in Guadalajara in what looked to be a Canelo tune-up last May.

“I lost the fight, but I kind of won the night,’’ Ryder told reporters this week of his dogged ability to withstand Canelo’s pursuit of a KO.

Canelo, at least the possibility, was the primary question at a media day staged at the new Golden Boy Boxing Gym in Los Angeles Tuesday.

Munguia didn’t sidestep the question. Neither did Ryder.

“It is the obvious question everybody is asking,’’ said Munguia, a 27-year-old who possesses poise and enough smarts to also know he has to impress against the tough, experienced Ryder.

Munguia promoter of Oscar De La Hoya is talking about a knockout of Ryder. The reasoning is simple. Canelo couldn’t knock out Ryder in his hometown. If Munguia can do what Canelo couldn’t, the thinking is that Munguia will have an argument, a good reason to say he should fight Canelo next.

We’ve heard that one before, of course. We’ve heard it for at least two years from David Benavidez, who figures to be a very big part of the story that unfolds next week in Phoenix.

Munguia-Ryder will happen just a few miles of roadwork from the Phoenix streets where Benavidez grew up and just a couple of blocks from where he began boxing at Central, an old gym that was saved from the wrecking ball by Mike Tyson.

Tyson’s arrival nearly two decades ago brought money and fighters. Central sprung from the ashes, a lot like that mythical bird, the Phoenix logo and namesake. 

It’s no coincidence, perhaps, that Tyson is also Benavidez’ biggest fan. He gave him his current nickname, Monster. It takes one to know one, maybe.

But Benavidez, who lives in Seattle these days, will be an inevitable part of the discussion, if not a crowd that knew him as a kid.

Benavidez is the World Boxing Council’s interim 168-pound champion and its mandatory challenger for the WBC’s piece of Canelo’s undisputed title. But interim and mandatory can mean just about anything, especially when Canelo is in the equation.

He gets what he wants.

Fights who he wants.

A key question, still unanswered, is exactly what Canelo is thinking. We don’t know. Since his solid decision over Jermell Charlo in September, the last anybody has seen of Canelo is on the cover of Forbes magazine. Follow the money.

The decision, perhaps, as to who he’ll fight next will be determined by what he sees in the Munguia-Ryder fight, which will be streamed by DAZN

For months, the conventional thinking is that Canelo will fight in May and again in September. He has two more fights left on a contract signed with PBC (Premier Boxing Champions).

But there’s been no news on PBC’s plans for 2024. Showtime left boxing in December after a 37-year run of telecasts. It was announced then that Amazon Prime had struck a deal with PBC.

Reportedly, the deal would start sometime in March. Thus far, however, there’s been nothing concrete — bouts and dates — from PBC or Amazon Prime.

Maybe, they’re waiting to see what happens in Munguia-Ryder, too.

Munguia promises that they’ll see plenty.

 “I honestly feel like I can knock John Ryder out,’’ Munguia said. “That’s what we are working towards. Obviously, once you step inside the ring anything can change. But we’re training to get inside the ring in optimal condition, and if we can’t get the knockout we will be making sure we get the decision.”

Ryder promises something else.

“Munguia, obviously, is coming to use me as a stepping stone,’’ he told reporters. “I have other plans.’’

Munguia-Ryder Undercard

Strawweight champion Oscar Collazo (8-0, 6 KOs), a 27-year-old Puerto Rican, faces Nicaraguan contender Reyneris Gutierrez (10-1, 2 KOs), Golden Boy announced this week.

“With less than a week away for my second world title defense, I feel great and at my best moment,” said Collazo, who will defend his World Boxing Organization belt for the second time. “As always, we are very prepared and focused on what we are going to do and leave the ring with our hand raised.”

Collazo is promoted by fellow Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto, a Hall of Famer and former four-division champion.

Also:

Super middleweight Darius Fulghum (9-0, 9 KOs), of Houston, faces Alantez Fox (28-5-1, 13 KOs), of Upper Marlboro MD, in a 10-rounder.

Women’s flyweight champion Gabriela “Sweet Poison” Fundora (12-0, 5 KOs) of Coachella CA, will make a first title defense against Christina Cruz (6-0, 0 KOs), of Fort Lauderdale Fl. Fundora signed a co-promotional deal with Golden Boy this week.

Mexican junior-featherweight David Picasso Romero (26-0-1, 15 KOs) will face Erik Ruiz (17-9-1, 7 KOs), of Oxnard CA, in a 10-rounder.

Oscar Valdez Jr. comeback

It sounds as if Oscar Valdez Jr.’s comeback might begin where he suffered a crushing loss in his last bout. 15 Rounds has confirmed news – first reported by ESPN – that Valdez, who lost a punishing decision to Emanuel Navarrete at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale AZ on Aug. 12, might be back at the same venue on March 29 against Australian Wilson.

Wilson, who lost a controversial TKO to Navarrete at Desert Diamond last February, is talking as if it’s already a done deal.

“It’s going to be exciting,” Wilson told The Ring Wednesday. “We’re both fighters who like to come forward and love to fight. “We both bring a high intensity, and with him being a Mexican warrior, it’s going to be a war from the opening bell.’’

As of Wednesday, however, Valdez was still under medical suspension for his loss to Navarrete, who left him with a badly-bloodied right eye. The bout also was not listed on the Desert Diamond Arena calendar.

Valdez, a former featherweight and junior-lightweight champion, has strong roots in Arizona. The two-time Mexican Olympian went to school in Tucson. His comeback plans have been evident for weeks. Last month, he posted photos of himself back at work in the gym.

By Norm Frauenheim –

Errol Spence Jr.’s announcement this week included a stunning video of him in a wheel chair with his right eye bandaged.

It wasn’t a good look.

It was sad.

Hard to watch.

Harder to explain.

Spence tried, but his cryptic words and tone leave more questions than any real answers

“It’s been past due,’’ he said of cataract surgery, which he underwent more than five months after Terence Crawford punished him in a ninth-round TKO on July 29 at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena. “Shit was covering my eye.

“Why you think I got hit with so many jabs, hooks? Still a great performance by bro.’’

The author of that great performance had only two words for Spence’s video.

“No comment,’’ Crawford said in a social media post that succinctly showed why he’s one of the smartest guys in boxing.

It’s not clear whether Spence got the message. But he deleted the video post from his Instagram account.

Monday, he moved on to X (formerly Twitter), saying he wouldn’t retire.

“All that said you can kill the retire shit.’’

He added: “Yea I got my ass beat shit was past due. I didn’t live exactly like a boxer for the most part.”

The post is gone. But the questions aren’t. They’ve been there, before and after the brutal loss to Crawford.

The questions date back to Spence’s scary auto accident in October 2019. It was never clear how badly he was hurt in the single-car wreck. He was ejected from the vehicle, a Ferrari, as it flipped in midair in Dallas. According to Spence, he got into another auto accident in December 2022.

He fought twice after the first accident and before the long long-awaited welterweight showdown with Crawford last July. First, he scored a unanimous decision over Danny Garcia in December 2020. Then, he stopped Yordenis Ugas in April 2022.

But it’s what happened between Garcia and Ugas that leaves questions.

And concern.

Spence had agreed to fight faded legend Manny Pacquiao in a bout scheduled for August 21, 2021. About 10 days before opening bell, however, he had to withdraw because of surgery for a retinal tear in his left eye. Ugas, a late stand-in, went on to upset Pacquiao.

Within the last three years, Spence, 33, has undergone eye surgery twice, once on each eye. He’s expected to recover from the cataract surgery within eight weeks.

Then what?

The timing of the cataract surgery and Spence’s social-media explanation are mystifying. Apparently, the cataract condition was bothering him when he stepped into the ring against Crawford, the most dangerous man in a dangerous business. He wore glasses to the final news conference a couple of days before opening bell.

He jokes about getting hit by “jabs and hooks.’’

But it’s no joke. If he delayed the surgery for the cataract condition, he did more than compromise his chances at beating Crawford. He might have compromised his vision.

His plan, apparently, is to fight Crawford in a rematch, this time at a heavier weight, 154 pounds instead of 147. He had a rematch clause in his contract with Crawford. He exercised it in late August.

But here’s another question: Shouldn’t he have undergone the cataract surgery before exercising that rematch clause?

There’s a lot of selfish – make that stupid — talk on social media from fans who say they never wanted to see Crawford-Spence 2 in the first place because the July fight was so one-sided.

Who cares? A rematch is irrelevant. Instead, there are serious question about whether a fight against any contender, welterweight or junior-middleweight, would endanger Spence’s long-term well-being.

Yes, there’s uncertainty about what’s next for Crawford. But it was there anyway. He had planned on a sequel with Spence, perhaps in March. Now, however, he might have to move on to a date with Jaron “Boots” Ennis or a big paycheck against Canelo Alvarez at 168 pounds, three divisions heavier than the welterweight class he has dominated so brilliantly.

But, now, none of that matters.

Only Spence does.

By Norm Frauenheim –

Five days after one year turned into a new one and some resolutions were already turning into broken promises, boxing goes back to work.

2024’s first bell is Saturday with Virgil Ortiz Jr. against Frederick Lawson at Las Vegas’ Virgin Hotel in a DAZN-streamed junior-middleweight bout.

On paper, it’s an appropriate beginning, mostly because of Ortiz, a nice guy with a perfect record, yet plagued by health issues that have left questions about whether his immense promise can ever be achieved.

There was COVID. There was a blood disorder called rhabdomyolysis. There’s been a year-and-a-half layoff. But he’s also only 25-years-old. Then, there’s the unbeaten record – 19 stoppages in 19 fights, all at welterweight. The age and the numbers say the promise is still there. A definitive answer won’t be Saturday, not against the 34-year-old Lawson (33-3, 22 KOs), who is unknown, but comes from Ghana, a country known for Ike Quartey and Azumah Nelson.

But it’s a chance at renewal, a new beginning for Ortiz.

“I just want to prove I’m still here,’’ Ortiz said Thursday at a news conference.

So is the rest of boxing.

The theme continues on the second Saturday in 2024 with light -heavyweight Artur Beterbiev, who is 38, yet has Ortiz’ identical record – 19 stoppages in 19 fights.

Beterbiev is at an age when some suspect he’s at or near the end. He’ll be 39 on Jan. 21. That has to be part of Callum Smith’s thinking as he prepares to challenge Beterbiev in Quebec City in Canada, Beterbiev’s adopted home country.

For Beterbiev, the task is to prove he’s still here too. If he does, he sets up what could be a light-heavyweight classic, Beterbiev versus Dmitry Bivol.

A couple of weeks later on the fourth Saturday in January, boxing’s new year moves onto a key crossroads that could determine who belongs and who doesn’t in a bout that could set the stage for a May-to-September test of boxing’s viability. Jamie Mungia faces John Ryder in a super-middleweight bout at Footprint Center, the Suns NBA home in downtown Phoenix.

It’s a good fight and significant in terms of what it might mean for the game’s biggest earner, Canelo Alvarez. There’s been talk that Canelo might fight Mungia in May in the second of a three-fight deal with PBC (Premier Boxing Champions).

For Canelo, the decision probably rests in how Mungia looks. In a tune-up last May, Canelo won a decision at home in Guadalajara over the veteran Ryder. Mungia, hoping for a shot at Canelo, will probably try to do what Canelo didn’t. Knock out Ryder.

Whether that would secure a Cinco de Mayo date with Canelo is anybody’s guess. But it would put him in the argument alongside Benavidez, who’s been there for a couple of years.

The Jan. 27 bout’s location heightens the intrigue. Benavidez grew up a few miles from Footprint on Phoenix’s west-side streets. He first began boxing just a few blocks away from Footprint at Central, a gym known ever since Mike Tyson trained there in the late 1990s. Tyson is a Benavidez fan and friend. Because of Tyson, Benavidez changed his nickname, from The Red Bandana to Mexican Monster.

Benavidez, now a Seattle resident, continues to wear PHX prominently on the back of his trunks. It’s more than a baggage tag. It’s his identity.

He’ll be a big part of the Mungia-Ryder story. He’s already part of the neighborhood.

Boxing’s New Year begins with the Benavidez-Canelo at the top of the fan’s most-wanted list.

If it happens, it enhances boxing’s relevance. On Jan. 27, there’ll be answers as to whether it happens in May or September and in a way that would allow boxing to say:

It’s still here.

Bam-Sunny Postscript

VADA (Voluntary Anti-Doping Association) posted this week that both Sunny Edwards and Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez were clean for their entertaining Sept. 16 flyweight unification fight, won in a dramatic stoppage by Rodriguez at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, AZ.

Congratulations for successfully completing the testing, @VADA_Testing.org said.

It was unusual. Not exactly news. But it was also necessary, mostly because of Edwards’ unfounded allegations that Rodriguez was a user. It was trash talk, which ignited a social-media war — X-rated — between Edwards and sports nutritionist Victor Conte, SNAC founder.

Edwards is sidelined until at least spring of this year. He was suspended 120 days for a gruesome eye injury he sustained from Bam, whose answer to the trash talk was a beatdown. Bam doesn’t say much, but it looked as if some retribution was at the end of his punches. 

By Norm Frauenheim –

One year ends and another begins with a re-energized debate ignited by Naoya Inoue, who didn’t let a chance at a year-ending statement go to waste.

Inoue was efficient for his blend of power plus precision. He was extraordinary for his consistency. He’s not going anywhere. Neither is Terence Crawford.

A good case for both can made in Fighter-of-the-Year and pound-for-pound arguments. Take a poll, and you might get a draw.

From this corner, Inoue gets Fighter of the Year for his brilliance over two bouts, first Stephen Fulton in July and then Marlon Tapales Tuesday in Tokyo. He moves up in weight, from bantam to junior-feather, and continues to do what he did at junior-fly in 2014.

Fighter of the Year? How about Fighter of the Last Decade?

At the top of this pound-for-pound scale, however, it’s still Crawford for a singular performance, best of the year, in stopping fellow welterweight Errol Spence Jr. There’s a lot of talk that Spence was/is shot. Maybe. Still there’s no substantive evidence – no documented answers — to the questions included in all that talk.

What we did see was an extraordinary Crawford, whose dynamic skillset had a lot – perhaps everything – to do with making a onetime pound-for-pound contender look shot.

The eye test continues to say that nobody – not even Inoue — has Crawford’s quick-silver versatility or calculated ability to make the right adjustment at the right time. He’s still boxing’s best finisher, a fighter with a predatory instinct. He knows how and when to close the show.

With only one fight, however, he just didn’t do enough of it last year. Inoue did. Hence, this corner’s split ballot.

But there are no losers in this debate. It’s the debate itself, its intensity, that gives the business some vital momentum going into 2024.

The biggest news story in 2023 was Showtime’s decision in October to leave ringside after a 37-year run of boxing telecasts. In its final year, the network provided what could be a good springboard into a new — pivotal — year, especially with the pay-per-view bouts featuring Tank Davis-Ryan Garcia in April and Crawford-Spence in July.

A reported pay-per-view number of 1.2 million for Davis-Garcia proved there was still an audience out there, despite all the doom-and-gloom that suggested boxing was dying all over again.

Then, there was Crawford-Spence, a long-awaited fight that restored faith among hard-core fans that big fights could still get made.

What’s next? Amazon Prime. It and Saudi money figure to be the biggest stories in 2024. It’s still not known how much Amazon Prime will invest in the sport as boxing’s next broadcast platform. Meanwhile, the Saudis have already shown they’re willing to spend, especially on the heavyweights. But the sport’s inherent unpredictability is always a risk.

To wit: Joseph Parker’s one-sided decision over Deontay Wilder on Dec. 23 in a stunner that upset a bigger plan: Wilder-versus-Anthony Joshua.

Still, there are a lot of fights to be made, up-and-down the scale. Just listen to the Crawford-Inoue debate. It sounds like potential business.

Notes

Oscar Valdez Jr., badly bloodied and beaten by Emanuel Navarrete on August 12 at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale AZ, is back in the gym, according to social-media footage posted this week. The 33-year-old Valdez is popular in Mexico and Arizona. The Mexican Olympian went to school in Tucson. The former featherweight and junior-lightweight champ hopes for a possible comeback in March.

More year-end talk: Crawford and Inoue are at the top of the debate. Devin Haney is third in most of the Fighter-of the-Year conversation. For the first-time, super-middleweight David Benavidez is getting mentioned among the first five possibilities. Benavidez probably wouldn’t put himself there. After his solid decision over Caleb Plant in March and beat-down of Demetrius Andrade in November, the Phoenix-born fighter said he still had to work to do to gain pound-for-pound recognition. But Fighter-of-the-Year consideration is the kind recognition that further strengthens his case for a shot at Canelo Alvarez in May or September

By Norm Frauenheim –

A year that included a goodbye to Showtime and hello to Amazon Prime is about to end. First, in Saudi Arabia. Then, Japan.

The Saudi stop Saturday (DAZN/11 a.m. ET) is $ignificant, mostly because of the heavyweight money, which brings together rival promoters who will only stop feuding if the price is right. We knew that, of course.

Still, it’s important to always remember that this is prizefighting, emphasis on prize. Show Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren the money, and they’ll smile for the cameras and do the business that makes big fights.

The stop in Japan three days later, Dec. 26, is at least noteworthy, perhaps historical. Naoya Inoue, the best former junior-flyweight to move up the scale to stardom since Manny Pacquiao and Roman Gonzalez, is poised to do what nobody else ever has:

Japan’s first Fighter of the Year.

The Ring, more than a century-old since first published in 1922, has been picking a Fighter of the Year since 1928. The Boxing Writers Association of America has been picking one since 1938. But never one from Japan.

A victory over Filipino Marlon Tapales in Tokyo (ESPN+/3 a.m. ET) might do it, although there’s still a good argument for Terence Crawford.

From this corner, nobody in 2023 was better than Crawford in his singular performance, a brilliant ninth-round stoppage of Errol Spence Jr. in May. He settled the pound-for-pound argument. There’s been no debate since then: Crawford No 1; Inoue No. 2.

But Inoue can change that, reignite the pound-for-pound debate and probably ensure his Fighter of the Year selection with more brilliance of his own in a defense of the junior-featherweight, 122-pound title.

Inoue has some advantages over Crawford. The biggest: Timing. Inoue has the year’s last word. But there’s more: Tapales is also his second fight in 2023. He beat Stephen Fulton, also in Tokyo, taking both of Fulton’s 122-pound belts in his first junior-featherweight championship.

Without that second fight, the guess here is that Crawford probably wins Fighter of the Year, although Devin Haney also has a solid argument with an impressive decision over Regis Prograis earlier in December and a controversial decision over Vasiliy Lomachenko in May.

Crawford’s credentials are undercut mostly because his stunner over Spence was singular in a couple of ways. Yes, it was brilliant. But it was also Crawford’s only fight in 2023.

A rematch, mandated in Spence’s contract, might have happened in December, if not for Showtime’s exit – announced in October — from ringside after a 37-year run of telecasts. There were also questions, still unanswered, about Spence’s readiness.

Maybe, Spence was weakened in the fight to make weight, 147 pounds. Maybe, he’s shot. Then again, maybe Crawford is just that good. For now, the only undisputed evidence is Crawford’s dominance.

Conclusion: More dominance from Inoue would be a decisive counter to Crawford’s claim and the only sure way to make some Japanese history.

NOTES

Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez-Sunny Edwards afterthoughts:

·                Rodriguez punishing beatdown of Edwards last Saturday in Glendale AZ put his name into the speculative hat of possibilities for a shot at Inoue if – as expected – he beats Tapales. First, Rodriguez wants a shot at reigning Super-Fly Juan Francisco Estrada. A year ago, Estrada said after a decision over Ramon Gonzales in Glendale that he wanted to fight Inoue

·                Edwards lost, but he won a lot of recognition with his gutsy performance. Mostly unknown in AZ before opening bell, he developed a hate-love relationship with the crowd. Pre-opening bell, it hated him for trash-talk that included unfounded charges that Rodriguez was a drug cheat. After losing, the crowd loved him for his blood-and-guts and post-fight accountability.

·                In the face of Edwards’ pointed accusations, Rodriguez kept his poise – and his tongue – before and after he badly bloodied Edwards in a ninth-round stoppage. Still, it was hard not to think that there was some vengeance at the end of his punches, especially the left hand that finished Edwards. It landed with an emphasis that words could never express.

By Norm Frauenheim

GLENDALE, Ariz. – Sunny Edwards owned the news conferences.

Jesse Rodriguez owned the ring.

Rodriguez turned that ring into his own bully pulpit, punishing Edwards and then dropping him with a left hand that landed like his nickname, Bam, in the final moments of the ninth round Saturday night at Desert Diamond Arena.

In the final second of the ninth, Rodriguez got the last word after a long week full of unfounded accusations. He called Rodriguez a drug cheat. He called him weird.

In the end, he could only call him champ. Edwards, whose corner threw in the towel at 2:59 of the ninth, lost for the first time and lost his International Boxing Federation flyweight title.

Rodriguez (19-0, 15 KOs) added the belt to his collection, including the World Boxing Organization’s version of the 112-pound crown.

At the moment that Edwards’ corner tossed in the towel, Rodriguez fell to his knees and onto his chest. He looked relieved. 

Maybe, that’s because he won’t have to listen anymore to Edwards (20-1, 4 KOs), a little guy with heavyweight Tyson Fury’s big mouth.

The two, Sunny and Bam, embraced in the middle of the ring after it was all over. Sunny promised he’d be back. Bam promised that he was moving back up the scale, in pursuit of the super-fly title he vacated.

It was no coincidence that super-fly (115 pounds) champ Juan Francisco Estrada was in the crowd. It was also no coincidence that Hall of Fame junior flyweight Michel Carbajal was there, too.

Rodriguez showed why he is perhaps the best American in boxing’s lightest weights since Carbajal’s era through the 1990s.

Rodriguez kept his poise early and then slowly began to control the pace and the ring.

A key round was the fifth. That’s when Rodriguez grabbed the momentum At the end of the round, he rocked Edwards onto his heels with a big overhand punch. It was asign of things to come.

In the sixth, Bam opened up a cut under Sunny’s left eye. He drove him into the ropes. Then, he raised both hands over his head, as if to mock Sunny.

The mocking continued. Seconds later, the fighters drifted back toward the center the ring. That’s when Bam stuck his tongue out at Edwards. Edwards, suddenly no longer so Sunny, seemed to respond in anger. He went straight at Rodriguez, a bullish assault from a fighter known for working off his back foot.

It was as if he had forgotten who he was and how he fought.Rodriguez made him forget, mostly because the San Antonio fighter always remembered how to apply the fundamentals that are transforming him into a pound-for-pound contender. 

Murodjon Akhmadaliev restores confidence with solid TKO

Murodjon Akhmadaliev knocked out the doubt.

Knocked out Kevin Gonzalez too.

Akhmadaliev came off an emotionally crushing loss, scoring an eighth-round stoppage  in a junior-featherweight fight that restored his confidence and, he hopes, puts him back in line for a shot at pound-for-pound contender Naoya Inoue.

Akhmadaliev (12-1, 9 KOs)lost a debatable split decision to Marlon Tapales in April. Tapales used that victory to secure a date against Inoue on Dec. 26 in Japan. For weeks, Akhmadaliev wondered: It could have been me.

Saturday night, he quit agonizing and resumed fighting, knocking down the rugged Gonzalez (20-1-1, 13 KOs) four times — twice in the sixth round and twice in the eight —  for a solid TKO victory at 2:49 of the eighth in the final fight before the Sunny Edwards-Bam Rodriguez main event at Desert Diamond Arena.

“It’s been a long road back,” the Uzbekistani said. “I had a little bit of a chip on my shoulder.”

The chip is gone. A bright future is back.

Galal Yafai wins unanimous decision

-He has an Olympic gold medal, an unbeaten record and a lot of work still to do.

Galal Yafai (6-0, 4 KOs), the 2020 Olympic flyweight champion from the UK. Yafai scored a business-like decision over Rocco Santomauro (22-3, 6 KOs) Saturday night on the DAZN portion of the Sunny Edwards-Bam Rodriguez card at Desert Diamond Arena.

Yafai was never in danger of losing. The 99-91, 98-93, 97-93 scorecards, all in his favor, reflect that. He left Santomauro, a Califorina flyweight,  badly bloodied over one eye. But he didn’t do much to convince anyone in the crowd that he’ll be a major flyweight title anytime soon. 

They applauded the victory, then booed him for a dull performance.

Boom, DAZN lives-stream opens with a huge KO

One punch from Ja’Rico O’Quinn kicked DAZN’s live-stream into high-gear.

It happened suddenly.

It landed like an unseen bolt.

Peter McGrail was down, unconscious seemingly before he knew what hit him.

O’Quinn, of Detroit, was losing on the scorecards through the first four rounds Saturday on the first DAZN-streamed fight on a card featuring Sunny Edwards-Bam Rodriguez. McGrail controlled the pace and the punches. 

Then — boom, O’Quinn (8-1, 5 KOs) threw a counter-right that landed like a missile onto the side of McGrail’s face, sending the Brit  (17-1-1, 9 KOs) crashing to the canvas and under the lowest rope late in the fifth round. 

HIs cornermen, ringside physician, and paramedics rushed to help. For a few  scary moments, he simply laid on his  back. Then he was helped, first onto a stool and then to his feet..

“I knew they wouldn’t give me a decision,” O’Quinn said. “He was boxing well. But I seen him try to throw a right to the body. That’s when I countered and — boom — that’s all she wrote

Boom, indeed.

Prospect Arturo Cardenas wins 4th-round TKO

Arturo Cardenas, a Robert Garcia-trained super-bantamweight from Mexico, continued to combine power, precision and poise in his journey from prospect to contender Saturday in a thorough beat down of Carlos Mujica, a Las Vegas fighter who never had much of a chance.

From head-to-body, Cardenas (2-0-1, 8 KOs) landed punches from all angles, leaving Mujica (8-4, 2 KOs) defenseless and finally beaten, a TKO loser at 1:24 of the fourth round in the fourth fight on the Sunny Edward-Bam Rodriguez card. at Desert

 Diamond Arena  

Bostan wins, fans boo in hostile brawl

They exchanged profanities. Then, their respective camps brawled.

Turns out, the hostility at a news conference was real.

Junaid Bostan and Gordie Russ II don’t like each other.

Proof was delivered in a messy, junior-middleweight fight Saturday at Desert Diamond Arena on the Sunny Edwards-Bam Rodriguez undercard. They fought, they brawled, Russ (6-1, 6 KOs) hurt Bostan (8-0, 6 KOs) in the third, Bostan recovered and furt Russ in the seventh and again in the eighth.

Bostan, of the UK, won. The eight-round decision was probably closer than the three scorecards, 79-73. But Bostan’s unanimous decision didn;t settle anything. He stretched out a gloved hand, an offer of congratulations with a fist bump. But Ross, of Detroit, turned his back and walked out of the ring.

He might have been angry at the scoring. Some in the small crowd. They booed, and Bostan encouraged them too while standing at ringside for an interview.

“Go ahead, boo, go ahead,” he said, looking at the unhappy customers.

By then Russ was long gone. 

Albert Gonzalez chops down Molina

That’s exactly what California featherweight Albert Gonzalez (7-0, 3 KOs) did, chopping down Mexican Albert Molina (9-3-1, 5 KOs), who collapsed onto the canvas in evident pain after sustaining a lethally precise body shot late in the second round of the second fight Saturday on a card featuring Jesse Rodriguez-Sunny Edwards at Desert Diamond Arena.

Molina, who rolled around the canvas for several seconds after the punishing shot from the Robert Garcia-trained Gonzalez, got up. But he was finished, a TKO loser at 2:24 of the second.

First Bell: Joe McGrail scores second-round TKO

A card stacked with UK fighters began with a British accent.

Joe McGrail, a featherweight from Liverpool, wasted little time, quickly flashing all of the reasons he’s a prospect with a second round TKO of Carlos Ortiz Jr. Saturday in the opener to a card featuring flyweights Jesse Bam Rodriguez and Sunny Edwards at Desert Diamond Arena.

McGrail (8-0, 4 KOs) dropped the overmatched Ortiz (8-5-2, 4 KOs), of Phoenix, twice in the first round and twice in the second, finishing him with a left hook at 2:40 of the second. 

By Norm Frauenheim –

GLENDALE, Ariz. – There were no surprises on the scale. Off-the-scale, there weren’t many either.

On the scale, at least, Sunny Edwards and Jesse Bam Rodriguez were identical, 111.6 pounds each, Friday morning at the official weigh-in conducted by the Arizona Boxing & MMA Commission.

They repeated that weigh-in in a staged version later in the day at Desert Diamond Arena just a few feet away from where the ring awaited them for Saturday night’s DAZN-streamed flyweight-title unification fight.

It was on that stage that the dramatic differences between them became evident. The left-handed Rodriguez (18-0, 14 KOs) had little to say. The right-handed Edwards (20-0, 4 KOs) had plenty to say.

Edwards is sometimes called the UK’s pound-for-pound best. You might get an argument from heavyweight champion Tyson Fury about that.

Place Edwards next to Fury, and it might be hard to find the flyweight. Fury was 268.8 pounds for his last fight. Even by heavyweight standards, Fury is mammoth, more than two times bigger than Edwards, the International Boxing Federation’s 112-pound champion

But Edwards’ mouth is just as big.

It continued to roar, Fury-like, at what promoters called a ceremonial weigh-in. After he stepped off the scale, he continued to call Rodriguez a cheater.

The drug-cheat theme started on social media a few days ago. It continued Thursday during a news conference when he called Rodriguez a cheat because of his relationship with SNAC and sports-nutritionist Victor Conte.

Friday, Edwards weighed in by pointing to the inside of each of his arms.

“Clean veins, clean veins,’’ he said.

By now, no interpretation of the body language was necessary.

Then, he grabbed the microphone and offered his own narrative of what had transpired in the moments leading up to the staged weigh-in. He said that Rodriguez had kept him waiting.

“Bam was still getting the needle outta his arm,’’ Edwards said.

Then, he promptly – and appropriately – dropped — the mike just as Rodriguez and his corner exited the stage, shaking their heads in dismay and perhaps anger.

The tension is there — nothing ceremonial about it — and it’s building for a contentious fight on the DAZN card (5 pm PT/8 pm ET/ 1 am UK).  

Edwards offers no real evidence to support his allegations. Promoter Eddie Hearn, Scott Fletcher of the Arizona Commission and Conte have all told 15 Rounds that both fighters have been undergoing anti-doping tests.

Edwards said on X (formerly Twitter) that he was tested by VADA Friday. Still, he continues his trash-talk campaign, which is seemingly intended to distract Rodriguez, the World Boxing Organization’s flyweight champion.

If it’s working, it’s not evident. Rodriguez, a quiet fighter from San Antonio, stayed composed in the face of Edwards’ latest rhetorical assault Friday.

“Mentally and emotionally, I’m as ready as I’ve ever been for any fight,’’ he said.

The favored Rodriguez, who plans to jump back up to super-fly (115 pounds) after Saturday, acknowledges that Edwards represents a challenge. The UK fighter is elusive. He’s often best when fighting off his back foot.

There’s no argument about Edwards’ ring style. It poses problems, both for Rodriguez and perhaps a crowd expected to be predominantly Mexican-American.

Can Edwards win a decision?

“He can’t win at all,’’ Rodriguez said in what might be a simple summation of what he thinks of Edwards and what he hopes to do to him.

By Norm Frauenheim –

GLENDALE, AZ – Sunny Edwards called Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez a cheater Thursday, alleging that he has been using banned performance enhancers.

Edwards leveled the controversial charges in a face-to-face exchange with Rodriguez in the final news conference before their flyweight fight Saturday for two pieces of the 112-pound title at Desert Diamond Arena.

“You have SNAC on your trunks,’’ Edwards said. “Everybody knows what that means. SNAC, that means cheat.’’

Edwards offered no other evidence to support his charges other than the SNAC acronym for a sports-nutrition company run by Victor Conte.

Rodriguez is a SNAC client, one of many in boxing.

“I don’t cheat,’’ Rodriguez said to reporters after the contentious newser. “I don‘t have to cheat.’’

Scott Fletcher, Chairman of the Arizona Boxing & MMA Commission, and Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn, the fight’s promoter, told 15 Rounds that both fighters have undergone testing.

Hearn said testing has been conducted by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA).

“VADA has been testing for months,’’ Hearn said of a fight that was announced in mid-August.

Conte told 15 Rounds that the testing was contractually-mandated at his urging in talks with Rodriguez trainer Robert Garcia.

“I strongly recommended to Robert that they test, and he agreed,’’ said Conte, who served time in prison for pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute steroids in 2005 when he ran BALCO.

Conte also said he strongly recommended that VADA conduct the testing.

“It’s the most stringent and most expensive test,’’ Conte said.

Conte also told 15 Rounds that fighters aligned with SNAC “are, for the most part, the cleanest in boxing.’’

Edwards’ explosive allegations came near the end of a wild news conference that began with a scuffle between camps for a couple of undercard fighters, junior-middleweights Gordie Ross II of Detroit and Junaid Bostan of the UK.

They exchanged profane insults on-stage. Moments later, their handlers exchanged blows in an off-stage fracas that sent chairs flying and bodies falling.

Next up: Sunny and Bam. Their part in newser began predictably, meaning both fighters promised to win.

“I’ll be taking his belt and his 0,’’ Rodriguez (18-0, 14 KOs), a San Antonio fighter and the World Boxing Organization’s champion, said to the London flyweight (20-0, 4 KOs), the International Boxing Federation’s champ.

Then, it took a nasty turn when Edwards interrupted Rodriguez.

At first, it sounded as if Edwards was annoyed at remarks Rodriquez had made a few days ago.

Apparently, Edwards thought Rodriguez had questioned the Londoner’s confidence in himself.

“I know exactly who I am,’’ said Edwards, suddenly not so Sunny. ”But you, you don’t know who you are. Don’t deny all this stuff I’m saying to you. You’re weird, wear weird clothes, too.’’

The PED allegations soon followed in what might have been an attempt to rattle Rodriguez, who is known for his quiet composure.

Then, there was the closing curtain, except this ritual in boxing theater went on longer than most. Afternoon almost turned into after-dark – lunch into dinner — before Edwards and Rodriguez broke off their ritual face-off for the DAZN-streamed card.

Edwards talked and gestured, talked and gestured some more. Rodriguez mostly glared. For about 15 minutes, they stood, face-to-face, nose-to-nose, eye-to-eye. Hearn stood there, managing to squeeze an open hand between their faces – once, twice and again when there was an opening.

For one long moment, it looked as if it would ever end. But it did. Finally. Next, there’s a weigh-in Saturday. Then, opening bell Saturday. But, it’s safe to say, the hostilities are already underway.

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Sunny Edwards calls Bam Rodriguez a cheater Thu at newser for Sat flyweight fight. Bam is SNAC client. “SNAC, that means cheat,” Edwards says. AZ Commission and promoter Eddie Hearn tells 15 Rounds both fighters have been tested. “VADA has been testing for months,” Hearn says