Boxing: July 26-August 1, 2009

[H2O Man]

July 30
At Los Angeles (Versus): Charles Huerta vs. Derrick Wilson, 6 rounds, featherweights; Luis Ramos vs. Sandro Marcos, 6 rounds, lightweights; Enrique Ornelas vs. Roberto Baro, 6 rounds, super middleweights; Ronny Rios vs. Rodrigo Aranda, 4 or 6 rounds, featherweights; Ricky Lopez vs. Edgar Peralta, 4 rounds, junior featherweights; Carlos Molina vs. TBA, 4 rounds, lightweights; Jose Roman vs. TBA, 4 rounds, junior lightweights

July 31
At Temecula, Calif. (Showtime): Marvin Quintero vs. Tyrone Harris, 10 rounds, junior lightweights; Chris Avalos vs. Andre Wilson, 8 rounds, bantamweights; Freddy Hernandez vs. Hicklet Lau, 8 rounds, welterweights; Bowie Tupou vs. Demetrice King, 8 or 10 rounds, heavyweights; Gary Russell Jr. vs. TBA, 4 rounds, featherweights; David De La Mora vs. Christopher Martin, 8 rounds, bantamweights; Dashon Johnson vs. Alan Velasco, 6 rounds, welterweights; Aris Ambriz vs. Daniel Gonzalez, 6 rounds, welterweights

At Saratoga Springs, N.Y.: Darrel Madison vs. Nagy Aguilera, 10 rounds, heavyweights; Shannon Miller vs. Terrell Nelson, 8 rounds, heavyweights; Michael Faragon vs. TBA, 6 rounds, junior welterweights; Shawn Miller vs. Valentine Fortenelly, 4 rounds, lightweights; Brian Miller vs. TBA, 4 rounds, junior welterweights

At Hollywood, Florida (ESPN2) - 10 rounds, lightweights: Julio Diaz (36-5, 26 KOs) vs. Victor Manuel Cayo (22-0, 15 KOs); 10 rounds, heavyweights: Chazz Witherspoon (25-1, 17 KOs) vs. Carl Davis Drumond (26-1, 20 KOs); 10 rounds, heavyweights: Gurcharan Singh (20-0, 11 KOs) vs. Fabio Maldonado (20-0, 19 KOs).

Saturday, August 1
At Rancho Mirage, California (Showtime) - 12 rounds, light welterweights: Timothy Bradley (24-0, 11 KOs) vs. Nate Campbell (33-5-1, 25 KOs); 12 rounds, vacant WBC super lightweight title: Junior Witter (37-2-2, 22 KOs) vs. Devon Alexander (18-0, 11 KOs); 12 rounds, vacant IBF lightweight title: Yuri Romanov (21-2, 14 KOs) vs. Fernando Angulo (22-5, 14 KOs).

This is an important and competitive week in the sport of boxing. For many of us, of course, the events will be overshadowed by the brutal, senseless death of one of the sport’s truly decent men, Vernon Forrest. It’s difficult to concentrate on anything else right now, as this – the third tragic death in the boxing nation in 30 days – has all of the boxing people I know in a state of shock.

Perhaps, in a strange way, the documentary on HBO on Saturday night, "Assault in the Ring," will be airing at an appropriate time. It covers one of the ugliest chapters in boxing history, the June 16, 1983 fight between undefeated prospect Billy Collins, Jr., and journeyman Luis Resto. That fight resulted in the death of a fighter who never would have the opportunity to reach his full potential, either inside or out of the squared circle.

The fight was held in the Madison Square Garden, as the co-feature of Roberto Duran’s challenging WBA champion Davey Moore for the 154lb crown. That night sticks out in my mind, in part because shortly after I decided to retire from amateur boxing, some regional promoters offered me a chance to fight Moore. However, not only was he the last guy in this state I wanted to fight, but my friend Rubin Carter was advising me to quit fighting, and focus on my education, rather than the "ugly business" of boxing. (I’ve been re-reading some of the letters on that topic this afternoon, including one where Rubin wrote, "No matter how successful that you might be in the ring, you would still have to get hurt – for that is what prize-fighting is all about."

Resto, who was trained by boxing’s infamous Panama Lewis, entered the ring withboth plaster of Paris on his hand wraps, and stuffing removed from his gloves As the HBO documentary will show, this allowed him to not only upset Collins, but to cause permanent damage. Eventually, both Resto and Lewis would be convicted and sent to the slammer. Collins would commit suicide nine months after the fight, by driving his car off a cliff.

All the reviews of the HBO special indicate that it will be up to the standard of the best of their documentaries. It will show the best and the worst of boxing: certainly, men like Collins and Forrest are representative of the good, and snakes like Panama Lewis are its dark side.

Now, to this week’s fights. On Thursday, the new VS fights, which are Oscar de la Hoya’s attempt to interest the general sports fans with competitive fights between young, potential contenders, continues. I think that Oscar is providing boxing fans with a valuable service, and I strongly recommend watching these fight cards.

On Friday, there will be ESPN FNF and Showbox. Both cards look very good. I will be in Saratoga Springs that night, watching a good card from a ringside table. For several years, the Saratoga Springs cards have been featured on ESPN FNF. This year, the card appears to be more on the level of the Versus’ cards, and for that reason, I think ESPN will be featuring the card in Hollywood, FL. While it’s too bad that the Pugnacious Promotions were not able to secure a main event on the level that Teddy Atlas has worked to have ESPN cover, it should be an interesting card. The main event features NYC’s Nagy Aguilera challenging Darrel Madison for the NYS heavyweight title. Both are talented young fighters, and by coincidence, each has only one loss – by DQ!

I’ve had the pleasure of watching Aguilera fight twice, including last year on the Saratoga undercard. I think that he has the potential to do very well in the division. While I haven’t seen Madison in person, I’ve seen enough to know that both men are facing their toughest test to date. Look for my report, including photos and interviews, over the weekend.

And finally, Showtime is presenting an outstanding card on Saturday. The co-feature bout between Junior Witter and Devon Alexander is worthy of being a "main event." Then, Tim Bradley meets Nate Campbell, in what should be an intense fight. Bradley appears to be beginning to peak, and certainly has the potential to mature into a great fighter. But Nate Campbell is a cagey veteran, who will provide Bradley with a serious – and dangerous – test.

Enjoy the fights this week. And consider honoring Vernon Forrest by making a contribution to one of the charities that he supported.

[JonLP24]

1. A lot of fights

It will be difficult for me to track the results of them but I'll be able to catch the ESPN card as well as your recap of the Saratoga card. Unfortunately I don't get Versus but I used to when I had digital cable as opposed to basic cable.

The ESPN card looks like a good just by looking at records alone. Julio Diaz is perhaps the most experienced fighter featured in the main card that I'll watch since I started watching 3 weeks ago. Also I can probably say this safely that the ESPN under cards will feature the best-to-date fighters I've seen on an ESPN under card so I will really can't wait for the fights. However like the last 3 weeks I have not heard of any of those fighters so I'm basing this off the records alone but the records are impressive.

[H2O Man]

2. The ESPN FNF card

will be good. Though it was on the schedule, I do not think that the Witherspoon vs Drumond fight is still going to happen. It would have been interesting, though.

Witherspoon is a big, young heavyweight (cousin to former top contender Tim Witherspoon, who almost upset Larry Holmes). I saw him fight in person a couple of years ago, when he and Andre Berto always fought on the same card. It was evident to me that Chazz was attempting to "be" his cousin, and in boxing -- as in life -- he who knows "why" usually dominates he who knows "how." Chazz is not strong enough to be a slugger, and when he forgot that against Chris Arreola, he got KOed. (Forget the DQ in the record books, he got KOed.)

Drumond has fought almost exclusively in Costa Rica. His first fight outside of his home/comfort zone was a decision over a washed-up journeyman. And in his only other venture away, he lost a TD in 6 to Chagaev. I see he is actually fighting again in Florida on the card, but against a substitute, Derric Rossy. (Rossy is 21-2; 12 of his victories are by KO, as are both of his loses. Looking at his record, I think he can make an interesting fight against Drumond. However, both times he has taken a big step up, he has been knocked out.)

The other fight listed as a co-feature is questionable, also. Hopefully, it will happen. Singh is from India, and fought in the Olympics as a light heavyweight in 2000. He now lives in Atlantic City, and has a good record in terms of numbers. However, he has faced extremely soft competition, and has yet to fight anyone who is even a top "club" fighter. His last fight was against a 2-5 opponent, and was still only a 6-rounder. I dare say his managers are protecting him for a reason.

Maldonado has an even weaker record. In 20 fights, he has only fought one opponent who has more than a single victory. Thirteen of his opponents lacked even a single victory. (I'm thinking that he may be a guy who has crossed over from MMA, and boxes for a pay-day, but is more serious about the other sport. This is speculation on my part, as I do not watch MMA. But I recall one of my sons talking about a guy who does this, and I suspect it might be him.)

The main event, however, will be a "fan friendly" match, in that both are quality fighters, who like to fight aggressively.

[JonLP24]

3. Thank you

I always appreciate the knowledge you share to help me understand the sport more. Recently I went to bookmarks and like I said, I read every word in the Hall of Fame thread. I saw that you mention there was a powerful documentary about Emile Griffith and the story fascinated me. I looked into it and it is a tragic story and they referenced "Ring of Fire" as a documentary on the incident. I'm sure that might be the documentary you were talking about as I came across. Anyways I put the documentary "Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story" on my netflix list and I'll consider the one you referenced in the OP as well. The reason why is my netflix list is long and I want to narrow it down before I add anything else but if you have any favorite documentaries I'll add them to my list for sure because for the most part I have selector's block when it comes to choosing good movies/documentaries.

[H2O Man]

4. "Ring of Fire"

is the documentary that I had spoken of. It's outstanding.

I can't think of any others off the top of my head. But that is perhaps in part because I'm tired out, having gone first to the doctors, then being sent to the hospital. Getting old takes its toll!

The interesting thing, though, about the doctor's appointment was that we got talking about my plans for Friday. It turns out that he grew up with one of the guys on the card in Saratoga Springs. That led towhat I considered the start of an interesting discussion about boxing history. Sadly, he still sent me for more procedures at the hospital. No matter, I'm going to the fights.

[H2O Man]

5. The Versus card

was strange, but good.

In the first fight, they featured two heavyweights -- one 33 and one 35 -- who were as big as they were inexperienced. After one minute in the first round, their combined size knocked a ring post loose. There was a 15-minute delay, while the ring was put together correctly. Someone easily could have been hurt by the sloopy job; I suspect Oscar will fire someone.

In the main event, Wilson attacked Huerta from the opening bell. He stunned him early, but Huerta attempted to slug it out. Both men landed a couple hard shots, but missed many others. It was evident that this fight wasn't going a full round, much less six.

My younger son said Huerta was finding his range, and was going to take Wilson out. My younger son said no, he was starting to become an open target as he loaded up on punches. Just as he finished saying that, Huerta went down, hard. He struggled to his knees, and looked the referee in the eye as he was counted out.

When the ref waved it off, Huerta's expression changed -- he was clearly upset the fight was over, though he had not gotten up. I said that he was still unconscious. Later, he commented that he was up, had his feet under him, and was ready to fight, but the ref decided to stop it. He did not know that he took the count on his knees. I image that this afternoon,he will begin to piece it back together.

In a few hours, I'm off to Saratoga Springs for the annual card. After some last-minute work, the promoters have 8 fights on the card. Four of them should be competitive. I've filled my notebook with statistics, background information, etc. I'm prepared to do some reporting/interviews.