BOXING AFTER DARK

Hi Doug,

I just finished watching HBO’s Boxing After Dark offering this week and it was uneven for me. The first fight, a bantamweight clash between Ryan Burnett and Zhanat Zhakiyanov was an ugly brawl with a lot of their attack being smothered by Zhakiyanov’s face-first style. When Burnett was able to step back and get some room it was a real punch-up. It’s too bad that they didn’t seem to have enough power to really hurt each other because neither guy ever wobbled that I saw. I had no problem with the decision.

Demetrius Andrade takes it to Alantez Fox en route to a 12-round unanimous decision on Oct. 21, 2017. Photo / @HBOboxing

The second fight, Demetrius Andrade’s debut at middleweight, was one I was looking forward to. I had not seen him before but after hearing the confident way he spoke about himself and his goals as well as the HBO guys extolling the merits of his impressive boxing resume I was expecting something exciting… I was a little let down. In the first round when he rocked Alantez Fox with a hard left hand shot I thought I was going to see a first-round blowout but Fox recovered and Andrade never did seem to figure out how to get rid of Fox and the fight became a snooze fest (for me anyway). He had a real chance to make a statement to the contenders at middleweight and he let it get by him. Don’t get me wrong, I am not prepared to dismiss Andrade by any means, anyone can have an off night. I am just saying that I am sure off Saturday night’s performance I don’t think that Triple G, Canelo or anyone else at 160 lbs. is losing any sleep at what they saw Saturday night. Who would you match him with next?

Alberto Machado (right) and Jezreel Corrales exchange power shots. Photo / @HBOboxing

The main event had more than its share of dramatic moments. Jezreel Corrales and Alberto Machado was a spirited scrap that early on seemed to prove what had been hinted at, that Machado did not have the experience versus tougher opposition to cope with Corrales’ attack. Corrales flew in, windmilling punches like the cartoon Tazmanian Devil and clearly rocked Machado early dropping him midway thru the fight. To Machado’s credit the kid got up and fought back bravely finally getting the KO in the 8th. He had me cheering. It was a great moment for him but I immediately thought, what’s next? I have heard it said that winning the title makes a fighter better… maybe, but after looking at the top ten at junior lightweight, Machado has a tough road ahead. If you were making the decisions, who would you put him in with next? – David, Nashville

I’d move Machado very carefully with his next two bouts if I were part of his management. I know hardcore fans hate hearing this (and don’t want to believe it) but in an age of 17 weight classes and four major titles in each division, winning one of the belts does not necessarily make the new titleholder a “champion” who is ready for the world. I gave Machado a shot to win Saturday’s showdown because of his tighter technique and punching power coupled with Corrales’ defensive holes and lack of form, but I also viewed him as a prospect and despite picking up the WBA belt with his come-from-behind KO, I STILL view him as a prospect – an advanced prospect to be sure, but one who is still developing and still in need of pro seasoning. 

Machado has only fought past eight rounds once – his fight prior to Saturday’s title challenge, a 10-round decision over Carlos Morales in August (and he didn’t set the boxing world on fire with that performance). I think he needs to go the championship distance at least once before he’s turned loose on the top junior lightweights (and I don’t think he’ll ever be ready for an elite stud like Vasyl Lomachenko). I would match Machado against rugged gatekeeper Rene Alvarado (who is the WBA’s No. 9-rated junior lightweight). The Nicaraguan veteran is tough, experienced and savvy enough to take Machado quality rounds (maybe all 12) – and make the young Puerto Rican FIGHT – but he likely lacks the power to KO Machado or the ring generalship to outpoint him. Machado’s No. 1 contender is former featherweight beltholder Jesus Cuellar, so he needs to get used to outboxing and fighting off hard-charging veterans.

If Machado can defend his title a few times, get the quality rounds he needs (and continue to improve under Freddie Roach’s watch), then we can start beating the drums for a unification showdown against talented WBC beltholder Miguel Berchelt. That could be built into a quality Mexico vs. Puerto Rico showdown.

Demetrius Andrade’s debut at middleweight… I was a little let down. You’re not alone. I thought he looked pretty sharp and boxed well for most of the fight – and I also acknowledge that it can’t be easy to shine against a 6-foot-5 opponent who plays keep away for long portions of the round/fight – but I don’t believe that he made the kind of statement he needed to in order to get casual fans excited about his foray into the 160-pound division.

In the first round when he rocked Alantez Fox with a hard left hand shot I thought I was going to see a first-round blowout but Fox recovered and Andrade never did seem to figure out how to get rid of Fox and the fight became a snooze fest (for me anyway). True, but it takes two to tango, as the old saying goes, and Fox really didn’t seem all that interested in dancing with “Boo Boo.”

Don’t get me wrong, I am not prepared to dismiss Andrade by any means, anyone can have an off night. I don’t think Andrade had an “off night.” I think he shared the ring with an unwilling opponent with a difficult style/stature and though he’s willing to duke it out with anyone, he’s not a seek-and-destroy fighter by nature. Andrade is a smart boxer with good speed and decent power. He’s not a prime Roy Jones Jr.-type boxer-puncher or a GGG-style pressure fighter, which means we’re not going to see him zap opponents with the one-hitter-quitter or witness him cut the ring off on elusive cats and systematically break them down (especially this heavier weight).

I am just saying that I am sure off Saturday night’s performance I don’t think that Triple G, Canelo or anyone else at 160 lbs. is losing any sleep at what they saw Saturday night. I agree. They’re not thinking about Andrade at all at the present time. All the top middleweights – Golovkin, Canelo, Jacobs, Saunders and Lemieux – are currently concerned with each other.

Photo by Derrick Hogan / Hoganphotos

Who would you match him with next? His middleweight debut was against a prospect. I think his next fight at the weight should be against a notable fringe contender, such as Gabriel Rosado or Spike O’Sullivan, that will make for a more entertaining fight than we got with Fox. His next fight should be against a notable veteran who is still rated by one or more of the sanctioning organizations, such as Matt Korobov, Martin Murray or Hassan N’Dam – anyone who can get him a top-10 ranking with one of the major belts. And his third fight should be against a legitimate middleweight contender, such as Sergiy Derevyanchenko or Jermall Charlo, which would be dangerous and risky, but a victory would give Andrade the juice to call out whoever he wanted (GGG, Canelo, Jacobs) without getting ridiculed. In fact, if he put together a three-bout middleweight win streak against the caliber of fighter I mentioned, I think many fans and members of the media would beat the drums for him to get a shot at one of the 160-pound elites.

Bantamweight clash between Ryan Burnett and Zhanat Zhakiyanov was an ugly brawl with a lot of their attack being smothered by Zhakiyanov’s face-first style. I was only mildly into this fight, but props to Burnett for unifying two major 118-pound titles (against a rough-and-rugged customer) at age 25.

When Burnett was able to step back and get some room it was a real punch-up. The Belfast man exhibited some nice hands (technique and timing) when had a little bit of space to work with.

It’s too bad that they didn’t seem to have enough power to really hurt each other because neither guy ever wobbled that I saw. I don’t think their lack of power had much to do with the fight not being better. The problem was the manner in which their styles meshed – the way they combined produced too much clinching, holding and grappling – as well as Double Z’s lack of polish and Burnett’s tendency to fight in spots. A busier, cleaner-punching pressure fighter against a more aggressive, higher volume-punching boxer would have produced a much better bantamweight fight. For an example of what I’m talking about do yourself a favor and check out the first bout between Paulie Ayala and Johnny Tapia (if you haven’t seen it before), it was THE RING’s 1999 Fight of the Year.

CRUISERWEIGHT POWERHOUSE

Hey Dougie,

Saw the Murat Gassiev fight last night, was curious since many had said that he should end up in the finals vs Usyk. After seeing three rounds of him stalking behind his jab and ending the fight with a perfect body punch I must say that I agree.

Very impressed with his composure in the ring, jab, ring generalship, and of course power. I still kind of favor Usyk, even though I’m not a big fan of his clumsy combination punching and footwork. I feel his activity level and control of the fight can be a big problem for Gassiev; although I must admit I haven’t seen enough of Murat to make a real prediction.

That’s a quick reaction to what I saw. The good thing is that I love the way this is going, this should give us a real player in the division and make it interesting for the first time since Evander Holyfield reigned.  How do you see a Gassiev-Usyk fight? Thanks Doug. – Juan Valverde, San Diego

I think Gassiev-Usyk would be a high-quality matchup between a stalking, technically sound boxer-puncher and an athletically gifted, high-volume boxer-mover. I favor Usyk based on his maturity, ring generalship, activity and the hunch that he’s got very solid whiskers (he will definitely need them against Murat).  

Dorticos blasts Dmitry Kudryashov with a right uppercut.

However, I think you’re getting a bit ahead of yourself with this question. Nobody should – especially Gassiev – should look past Yunier Dorticos. The former Cuban amateur standout is a mature (31), rangy boxer-puncher who is adept at controlling distance and the tempo of his fights. He’s an effective stick-and-mover but he’s also very game and can be aggressive in spots. In my opinion, he’ll be the most formidable opponent (on paper) that Gassiev has faced as a pro.  

I slightly favor Gassiev because of the very tough fight that Youri Kalenga – a physically strong stalker who applies smart pressure like the young IBF titleholder – gave Dorticos last May, but it should be noted that the Cuban boxed well and stood his ground in spots en route to scoring a 10^th-round stoppage in the Congolese fighter’s adopted home country (France). However, Kalenga, a squat forward-marching powerhouse with good technique, fought Dorticos on even terms for much of their fight, so I figure that Gassiev, who is bigger, harder punching and maybe a bit craftier than Kalenga, can beat the Cuban beltholder. But I’m also assuming that Gassiev can take the power of Dorticos (who’s known as “The KO Doctor” for a reason). We’ll see.

THE FIRST LADY OF BOXING

cecelia braekhus did her thing AGAIN this weekend. undisputed champ since 2014 (3 years before bud crawford joined her for a day or two)… folks improve and get a second crack at her and she shuts em down harder…

how does she compare with other dominant women champs, like ann wolf? seems like shed have to head a couple weights up or down to find a real challenge. ANYONE have a chance at dethroning her any time soon? is the first lady the most dominant champion in boxing today? – Ceylon

I don’t follow women’s boxing as closely as I probably should, so I really can’t answer if anyone has a chance of dethroning Braekhus. I’m gonna guess that the correct answer is “nobody at the moment.” Braekhus just stopped Erica Anabella Farias, the reigning WBC 140-pound champ in six rounds, in June and the Argentine standout is considered to be one of the best female boxers in the world.

Cecilia Braekhus

However, according to THE RING’s women’s boxing correspondent Thomas Gerbasi, Braekus is No. 1 pound for pound. The undefeated Colombian-Norwegian’s title reign is heads and shoulders above anything the better-known American female boxers – such as Wolfe, Laila Ali, Holly Holm and Christy Martin – ever accomplished.

Braekhus’ title reign began back in March 2009, when she won both the WBA and WBC titles. Since then she’s defended those belts 21 times and added the IBF and WBO straps to her collection.

The only active female champs that come close to Braekhus is junior flyweight titleholder Yesica Yolando Bopp, from Argentina, who won the WBA interim belt in December 2008 and then the full WBA title in June 2009. She’s made 16 defenses of the full title and she also won the WBO belt, which she’s defended 12 times. The tiny mite also won the WBO flyweight title.

Another accomplished female standout is Christina Hammer, the popular WBC and WBO middleweight titleholder who is being courted as a possible opponent for two-time Olympic champ Claressa Shields, has been a champ since October 2010 and has retained her WBO belt 10 times. The Germany based Kazakhstan native has also won titles at junior middleweight and super middleweight.

The most accomplished female boxer ever is probably Germany’s wildly popular Regina Halmich, who retired with a record of 54 wins, one loss (early in her career) and one draw. She had two lengthy IBF flyweight title reigns, defending the belt 15 times during the first reign and 13 times during the second. He also won the IBF junior flyweight title and defended it 11 times. (And she won at junior bantamweight belt for good measure.)

SAUNDERS-LEMIEUX, GOLOVKIN-CANLEO II

Dear Mr. Fischer,

I wanted to write to remark on HBO being able to put on the title fight between David Lemieux and Billy Joe Saunders. I wouldn’t have thought that the budget would be there so late in the schedule, especially considering Golden Boy Promotions’ offer of a seven-figure payday to Billy Joe. What gives?

I’m guessing that either HBO didn’t see the falloff of subscribers expected after the Game of Thrones finale, or that Oscar and GBP made considerably more money than expected from Saul Alvarez’s fight with Gennady Golovkin. If it’s the latter (which seems much more likely), I have my concerns that the rematch will fall squarely within the confines of Las Vegas.

I don’t fault a promoter for taking ridiculous amounts of money, but a rematch in Las Vegas (with NSAC judges, regardless of which) would have a certain odor to it (like the rendering plants in Vernon, in your neck of the woods). As I’ve said before, I think Golovkin clearly beat Alvarez (at least as clearly as he beat Jacobs) and I’ve yet to encounter a boxing fan, journalist, or expert who can break the rounds down for me to explain a Cinnamon win. Bernard Hopkins’s explanation of his score (with the fourth and fifth rounds “even” and the first and final three all for Canelo) was perhaps the clearest example of the various GBP shills at work. I love listening to Hopkins, and it’s a shame that I can’t when the discussion topic is the Golden Boy golden goose.

Please don’t mistake my tone, Golovkin and Alvarez fought a very close, competitive fight that was entertaining and worth viewing again (I’ve already watched it a few times more than I watched Golovkin defeat Jacobs, which was the least entertaining of the champion’s near-record title defenses). I want to see the rematch and I hope it’s at least as exciting, but another fight in Vegas would leave me absolutely convinced that GGG needs to knock out Canelo to win. He’s up against too much otherwise.

Back to Lemieux Saunders, I don’t know if the British beltholder has the power behind his jab to keep Lemieux off him, especially over 12 rounds. I think people will bring up the Eubank Jr. fight, but I think Eubank was more baffled by the skillset he was up against than startled by the power in the southpaw’s right. But even thinking that Lemieux can handle Saunders’s power (a clear yes for me), I don’t know if he can win the fight. How do you see it?

I apologize for some of the negativity, I remain as pleased as ever about this year (and think December will be awesome with Loma vs Rigo, BJS vs Lemmy, Berchelt vs Salido, among others). What do you think of Salido passing on more money against Lomachenko only to fight El Alacran? I can’t imagine Berchelt will be any easier than Loma (and will likely be at least as punishing), but perhaps Siri sees something there.

I hope this finds you and your family well and I send the best. Thank you again for the fantastic coverage.

PS: as always, please feel free to cut down anything from this email you like. I’m far too long winded for my own good when it comes to boxing. Peace. – John

I can’t be mad at anyone for being long-winded, John. I’m the most long-winded fool that I know when it comes to boxing talk.

Thanks for the kind words. I’m sorry the official scorecards of the Canelo-Golovkin fight has produced so much angst in you and many other hardcore boxing fans. That middleweight championship showdown was supposed to free the boxing diehards from all of those negative/cynical feelings they’d become accustomed to during the May-Pac PPV era/GBP-Showtime-Top Rank-HBO Cold War years.

Oh well, I guess even when boxing gets it right, it somehow ends up being all wrong (at least for significant portions of the sport’s fandom).

The Canelo-GGG event did extremely well in terms of PPV revenue, live gate, closed-circuit ticket sales, foreign TV rights, merchandise, etc., and Las Vegas was a major factor in most of those numbers. At the end of the day, one of the integral responsibilities of a promotional company is to make its star clients as much money as possible. If going back to Vegas is the best way they can uphold that responsibility then that’s what they’ll do (regardless of the risk of being screwed by incompetent or shady officials).

Marvelous Marvin Hagler never trusted Las Vegas after getting screwed there against Vito Antuofermo in his first world title fight in 1980 (and he was vocal about his distrust of the gambling capital), but he returned to Sin City in 1983 for his high-profile showdown with Roberto Duran and then fought four of his last five bouts in Vegas. Why? Because that’s where he could make the most money against top contender badasses like Juan Roldan and John Mugabi, and especially against fellow stars/fellow future hall of famers Thomas Hearns and Sugar Ray Leonard.

Photo / THE RING

I’m sure Hagler felt like he needed to bring his own judges to each of those Vegas fights – especially against the bigger names – and I know that he thought the scores were too close in the Duran fight and that he believed that he got screwed again by the judges in Leonard mega-event. Many fans agree with Hagler. However, many fans believe that Duran legitimately boxed on even terms with Hagler until the championship rounds of that 15 rounder, and many more believe that Leonard deserved the nod in their long-awaited showdown (I’m one of them).

I’m pretty sure the majority of Canelo-Golovkin observers believe that GGG clearly won seven or eight rounds (I’m one of them), but a significant number of fans and media think the draw outcome was fair and that a 115-113 card for Alvarez was not out of the realm of reality.

Here’s the bottom line: Team Canelo, Golden Boy Promotions, Team Golovkin and Tom Loeffler with GGG Promotions are going to try to make the most money they can with the rematch. That’s just business. If GBP and Team Canelo are adamant about taking the return bout to Las Vegas, and Golovkin and his team truly believe that Alvarez can’t be knocked out and that there’s no way he can win a decision against the Mexican star in Vegas, then GGG and Loeffler won’t do the rematch – at least not immediately. It’s as simple as that.

Canelo will have to go to Plan B (probably the winner of Saunders-Lemieux) for his Cinco De Mayo fight, and GGG will have to do the same thing (either entertain the idea of doing the Daniel Jacobs rematch, or taking on one of his mandatory challengers, such as IBF No. 1 Sergey Derevyanchenko). But keep in mind that they won’t be able make nearly as much money against those Plan B opponents as they would against each other, and there’s real risk in those other fights. If they have a bad night against those guys, they could lose, and then the value and momentum of their rematch will drop significantly.

So maybe returning to Las Vegas isn’t the worst thing in the world when considering the other options. And consider this, John, the rematch could wind up in Texas, California or New York and we could STILL wind up with f__ked-up officiating. It’s not like Nevada has a monopoly on bad judging and refereeing in boxing.

Back to Lemieux-Saunders, I don’t know if the British beltholder has the power behind his jab to keep Lemieux off him, especially over 12 rounds. I don’t know, either, which is why this is such an interesting boxing-vs.-puncher matchup. However, Billy Joe’s chin has held up thus far, and he has faced a few punchers on his way to earning the WBO title.

I think people will bring up the Eubank Jr. fight, but I think Eubank was more baffled by the skillset he was up against than startled by the power in the southpaw’s right. I agree. Eubank was also taking his first real step-up in competition with that Saunders fight, and while he can crack with the best of them, he doesn’t have Lemieux’s full-throttle style.

But even thinking that Lemieux can handle Saunders’s power (a clear yes for me), I don’t know if he can win the fight. How do you see it? I view it as a toss-up, so I’m giving Lemieux the slight nod due to home-town advantage. Had the fight landed somewhere in England, I would have slightly favored Saunders. Another edge that Lemmy has is that this will be his third bout of 2017 (and his last bout, plus his last bout of 2016, were 10-rounders, giving him much needed rounds to gain confidence in going the full 12 against better foes). Activity is important, and BJS has struggled to fight more than once a year since winning the belt.

I apologize for some of the negativity, I remain as pleased as ever about this year (and think December will be awesome with Loma vs Rigo, BJS vs Lemmy, Berchelt vs Salido, among others). No need to apologize, just be sure to enjoy the fights coming up.

What do you think of Salido passing on more money against Lomachenko only to fight El Alacran? I could be wrong but I think at the time of the Loma offer there were two other equally lucrative offers – with Jorge Linares and Tank Davis – that distracted the poor veteran and his advisers.

I can’t imagine Berchelt will be any easier than Loma (and will likely be at least as punishing), but perhaps Siri sees something there. Berchelt will be a handful for the rugged old man, but not as much as the current version of Lomachenko would be.

Email Fischer at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @dougiefischer and on Periscope.