By Norm Frauenheim-

Tyson Fury is a little bit like an ex-American president. He stays in the headlines.

Fury has been there, loud and profane, throughout a week that should belong to Oleksandr Usyk.

Usyk’s rightful chance to celebrate his brilliant ascendancy to the top of the heavyweight division has been stolen, first by the fighter he beat and then by the fighter he wants to beat, all within six days.

Anthony Joshua grabbed the microphone moments after he lost a split decision to Usyk in a rematch Saturday in Saudi Arabia. Joshua also tossed two championship belts out of the ring. They weren’t even his belts. They belonged to Usyk.

Somehow, Joshua thought he could trash somebody else’s property. Even Riddick Bowe knew better thirty years ago. In 1992, Bowe tossed the World Boxing Council’s belt into a garbage can in London. But it was Bowe’s belt to throw away. Ownership and sanctioning fees come with privileges. Bad behavior doesn’t.

Joshua promoter Eddie Hearn is defending Joshua, asking for understanding. That’s his job. Still, I can’t help but think that Joshua might have faced more than just criticism if his tantrum had played out in New York or Las Vegas instead of Saudi Arabia. Boxing is the flip side to politically-correct. It’s hard to regulate behavior.  

But if belts can be tossed out of the ring and into the crowd, what’s next? Stools and buckets? Hide the kids. If you’re seated in a ringside seat, wear a helmet.

A state Commission might issue some kind of censure, a warning to Joshua. But this was Saudi Arabia, a nation that is moving into boxing, golf and auto racing as a way to sports-wash — launder — its image. Nothing new about it. It’s been around since the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Boxing, however, is a risky way to get anything clean. The sport is a collection of great moments and Godfather moments. Still, it generates headlines and money. Enter Fury.

Within hours after Joshua’s tantrum, Fury was at the bully pulpit. He slammed Usyk’s victory, saying ad nauseam that he’s ready to come out of retirement. He’ll fight, he promises, only for half-a-billion. It’s not clear whether he’s talking about pounds or dollars. 

Whatever the currency, it’s astronomical, big enough to be prohibitive. Maybe, that’s the idea. I’ve long thought that Fury’s retirement is just more hot air from a gasbag looking for more attention.

But an impossible demand is one way for Fury to say no to the Usyk possibility. He repeated it Wednesday via social media.

“Hi guys, to all out there that want to make the fight, I’m gonna give you all seven days — till the 1st of September, to come up with the money,” Fury said on Instagram.  “If not, thank you very much. It’s been a blast. I’m retired.”

In a second post, he says, “Also, guys, I forgot to say, all the offers submitted must be to my lawyer, Robert Davies, in writing and with proof of funds. So, let the games begin.”

Safe to say, the head games are already well underway.

At today’s inflation rate, there’s no telling how much Fury’s half-a-bill will be worth. How ever many zeroes, it figures to be more than anyone will be willing to pay. Reportedly, the Saudis paid $150 million for the rights to Usyk-Joshua 2, a rematch of a Usyk victory in the UK about a year ago.

For as long as Fury’s demand makes the fight impossible, he can stay in the headlines with noise mocking Usyk. He calls him a “middleweight.” He says nobody knows who he is. He says he can’t pronounce his name. The lousy lounge act continues. Some of it is funny.

He told talkSPORT that he knows the Saudis have the money.

“They offered Tiger Woods $1 billion,’’ Fury said of the Saudi attempt to get Woods to join LIV Golf.

Then, he dismissed Usyk’s punching power.

“He couldn’t knock the skin off a rice pudding,’’ Fury said.

But talk won’t beat the unbeaten Usyk. There’s no doubt that the much-bigger Fury is the only fight Usyk wants.

“If I’m not fighting Tyson Fury, I’m not fighting at all,’’ he said while standing in the middle of a chaotic ring following his victory over Joshua.

Usyk also didn’t criticize Joshua. He stood there like a parent, watching Joshua with a look that was a mix of exasperation and disapproval. Joshua was more toddler than ex-heavyweight champ. It was hard not to cringe. But Usyk kept his poise, a great champion and a serious man. He has bigger fights. He returns to Ukraine and resumes the deadly fight against the Russians.

He’s a grown-up.

The heavyweight division could use one.  

By Norm Frauenheim –

Tyson Fury, lineal heavyweight champion and undisputed populist, is back. Correct that. He never left. He’s still at the proverbial pulpit, but more as a comedian than a bully.

He never retired, of course. We knew that. He knew that. But it was a show, a lousy lounge act full of one liners and rhetorical feints. Fury needs a microphone the way the rest of us need oxygen.

That’s why he’s so much fun. That’s why he’s so exasperating. That’s also why he gets away with it — all with a wink, nod and sometimes a few lyrics from Bye-Bye, Miss American Pie.

From this corner, he’s a better singer than a comedian. But he’s neither Frank Sinatra nor Richard Pryor. What he is — who he is — has never been in dispute. He’s a great heavyweight, as cunning and clever as any.

The good news: That’s a role he’ll continue to play. Actually, it’s the only news.

Amid a flurry of Fury one-liners this week, the only headline is further confirmation that Fury’s retirement was really a vacation. There’s only one reliable guide on Fury. To wit: As long as he’s talking, he’s still active. When he’s fighting — who he’s fighting — are questions without answers.

At least, there were no answers in headlines over the last few days that said Fury was wanted to fight Derek Chisora for a third time. Fury has already beaten Chisora twice. What’s to prove in a third?

A trilogy was news to Chisora. News, too, for co-promoter Bob Arum, who told Dan Rafael’s Fight Freaks to pay no attention. It was just another performance with the microphone from Fury, said Arum, who went on to say that Fury is waiting on the winner of the Oleksandr Usyk-Anthony rematch a week from Saturday in Saudi Arabia.

That’s the smart thing, the only thing remotely believable. Between opening bells, however, Fury isn’t interested in believable. He just wants an audience, and he got one just as the media megaphone began to shift its attention to Usyk-Joshua 2.

Fury’s UK promoter Frank Warren also is confident he’ll fight again, although Warren’s tone isn’t as skeptical as the ever-forthright Arum.

“I speak to him all the time, Warren told Sky Sports. “If he wants to fight, he’ll fight. I’m not going to tempt him. Because if he needs that, then he shouldn’t be fighting.

“It’s got to come from him and his heart. Do I think we’ll see Tyson in a ring? I do because I think he’s a fighting man and I think he’ll miss it too much. The fans love him. He’s got a real rapport with the man on the street. He’s different class. And he’ll do what he wants to do.”

Warren knows as well as Fury that an all-UK fight between Fury and Joshua is a biggie. It would make some history and GDP-kind of money. But would is a key qualifier here. Yet, the fair-minded Warren doesn’t think Joshua can beat Usyk, a heavyweight every bit as cunning and clever as Fury. Usyk’s versatile skillset and genius ring IQ prevailed in an upset, a unanimous decision over Joshua last September.

“Against Joshua he looked different class,” said Warren, who watched Usyk in his first two dates at heavyweight in victories over Chazz Witherspoon and Chisora. “He didn’t use any of his physical attributes. I didn’t understand why.

“I felt that he would out-jab him or keep him on the end of the jab and let the right hand go. But he didn’t. He was getting out-jabbed by a smaller guy on the outside. I thought the only way Usyk was going to do any damage was to get underneath inside and work inside.

“But he didn’t have to do that. He was beating him on the outside. How do you fight him? I really do fancy Tyson to beat him.

“I think Tyson is a similar guy in some ways and a much, much bigger guy.”

That’s no punchline.

By Norm Frauenheim-

It’s been a summer about comebacks, which is another way of saying that it’s been mostly forgettable.

Maybe, the Oleksandr Usyk-Anthony Joshua rematch on Aug. 20 knocks out the doldrums. Maybe, it ends with something memorable in the Canelo Alvarez-Gennadiy Golovkin trilogy on Sept. 17.

For now, at least, the season belongs to a power hitter in another arena. Yankee outfielder Aaron Judge’s bat is the only Big Drama Show.

As Judge moves ever closer to Roger Maris’ magical 61 homerun mark, boxing finds itself stuck in the waiting room. Plenty appears to be on deck, but in the here-and-now there’s only Terence Crawford-Errol Spence Jr. 

ESPN reported in June that an agreement was close. Maybe it is. Maybe, Crawford and Spence are signing the contract as I write this. Maybe, it gets announced this weekend.  Maybe, maybe.

The sooner, the better, because the messy web of maybes has put the balkanized business and its suspicious fans on edge.  When ESPN first reported that a deal was close, talk was that the long-awaited welterweight fight would happen in October. Now, no news has pushed the speculated bout into November. Can the Twelfth-Of-Never be too far away?

It’s getting hard to remember when Crawford-Spence wasn’t a topic. It’s been in the public imagination for so long that the two welterweights have gone from early prime time into their 30s.

A whole new 147-pound generation is beginning to emerge. One of them, Vergil Ortiz Jr., will be back in the ring Saturday in his first fight in a year. Ortiz (18-0, 18 KOs), of Grand Prairie TX, is coming off a scary illness for a date against UK welterweight Michael McKinson (22-0, 2 KOs) in Fort Worth Saturday night on DAZN.

“Fortunately, time is on my side,’’ said Ortiz, who suffered from a debilitating condition apparently brought on by intense workouts.  “I’m only 24 years old, and at the same time, I don’t want to be wasting time. You know what that’s like. I should have fought three or four times already, and that’s time we won’t get back.’’

Time is what Crawford and Spence are running out of. Crawford is 34; Spence is 32. It’s no coincidence that one of the acronyms made the Ortiz-McKinson a title eliminator this week. Increasingly-impatient fans will watch in part to get an idea at how Ortiz might do against a Crawford or Spence.

Reasons are countless as to why there was still no Crawford-Spence deal as of Thursday. PIck one, pick-em all.

Crawford, at least, seemed confident this week that the fight will happen.

“Hopefully we can get that fight made down the line,” Crawford told FightHub on Wednesday. “Real soon, not down the line, and give fans what they’ve been looking for.

“We’re working to get it done for you all.’’

The apparent hurdle – surprise, surprise — is the size of the prize in this projected prizefight. In a welterweight bout some say could be the best since Sugar Ray Leonard-Thomas Hearns, both Crawford and Spence want big money in what would be pay-per-view. They’re hoping for big guarantees. However, most of their money would likely have to come from a percentage of pay-per-view sales.

That’s the problem. Neither Crawford nor Spence have done big PPV numbers. Crawford’s impressive stoppage of Shawn Porter last November generated fewer than 100,000 PPV buys, according multiple reports.

That makes promoters and networks leery, especially during an era when theft of the PPV signal is rampant. It also leaves a question about whether there’s a sugar-daddy willing to step up with the kind of investment that can make it happen.

That’s exactly what transpired in 2015 when then-CBS President Les Moonves stepped up and brokered the deal that led to the revenue record-setting fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.

Can it happen again? No sign of it in July. But, maybe, there will be a home-run deal in August. At least, Aaron Judge is there and on a pace to prove that just about anything is possible.

By Norm Frauenheim-

It’s a fight without all the belts and whistles. That’s what makes it interesting. There’s no confusion about what’s at stake in the Danny Garcia-Jose Benavidez Jr. bout Saturday night in Brooklyn.

The acronym guys, belts in one hand and a sanctioning fee in the other, won’t be there. Cast aside the promises from promoters who can’t keep them.  It’s just Garcia and Benavidez in a lonely fight to stay at the table.

For the loser, there’s an exit from the circus. For the winner, there’s another chance at a good payday. It is simple, a relief from a long summer full of muddled signs that it’s business as usual.

An example: A much bigger fight, Canelo Alvarez-Gennadiy Golovkin 3, approaches (September 17), yet there’s talk from promoter Eddie Hearn that a Canelo rematch with Dmitry Bivol might not be as immediate as it appeared to be after Bivol’s upset of Canelo in May. Belts and whistles, shoots and ladders. Confusion and chaos prevail.

But there’s no confusion surrounding Garcia-Benavidez at Barclays (Showtime, 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT). In a busier summer, it might have been a fight for a major undercard. But the clarity that defines this one makes it a main event. Both fighters bring faded names to the ring.

Garcia is a former junior-welterweight and welterweight champion. Benavidez is a former celebrated prospect still remembered for being the youngest national champion (16-years old) in the Golden Gloves fabled history. Garcia is fighting to further his claim on legacy with a bid at a third division title, junior-middle. Benavidez is fighting to re-discover a prodigy’s promise.

Each is motivated by different pasts.  But the story line is as clear as it is dramatic. Both are formers. Only one stays current.

Garcia’s accomplished resume makes him the favorite. So, too, does the site. The Philadelphia fighter is popular at Barclays.

“I’m just excited to be back at Barclays,’’ Garcia said Thursday at the final news conference. “…The Danny Garcia Show is back.’’

In his turn at the bully pulpit, Benavidez had a predictable counter.

“This is the end of The Danny Garcia Show,’’ Benavidez said.

Now 30, Benavidez understands the magnitude of the challenge that awaits him. He also seems to understand that Garcia, his trash-talking dad/trainer Angel and much of the boxing media see him as a steppingstone. Garcia’s resume suggests he’ll bury Benavidez.  Garcia is predicting a seventh-round stoppage of Benavidez, who grew up in a tough Phoenix neighborhood on the city’s sprawling westside.

 “Fourteen of Danny’s last 19 opponents have been world champions,’’ said Showtime sports executive Stephen Espinoza, who called Garcia’s resume Hall-of-Fame worthy.

But a resume can be one-dimensional. Garcia, the best 140-pound fighter in his generation about a decade ago, was vulnerable at welterweight. His three losses have all been at 147 pounds – Keith Thurman by split decision in March 2017, Shawn Porter by unanimous decision in September 2018 and Errol Spence Jr. also by unanimous decision in December 2020.

At 5-foot-10 ½, Benavidez is taller than Garcia, who is listed at 5-8. With a 71-inch reach, Benavidez , who is four years younger than Garcia, also has a two-and-a-half-inch advantage. Garcia reach is listed at 68 ½. Give or take, Benavidez has measurements comparable to Thurman, Porter and Spence. That resurrects an old question – also an old line – about Garcia. His stardom was stopped at welterweight. There’s a reason for weight classes.

Add Benavidez’ resume, which includes one – and only one – reason to think he can win. To wit: Nobody has fought Terence Crawford tougher than Benavidez, who lost by stoppage with 18 seconds left in a contentious fight in October 2018 in front of a roaring crowd in Omaha, Crawford’s hometown.

The unbeaten Crawford, who stopped Porter in November, might be able to further his claim on pound-for-pound supremacy in a potential showdown with Spence. Benavidez, who has fought only once since Crawford, looked terrible in a draw with unknown Argentina Emanuel Torres last November.

A hometown Phoenix crowd booed him. The crowd was right, Benavidez says. He calls his performance “trash.’’ He says it almost as if he is promising to emerge from the ashes the way the bird — the mythical Phoenix – does in his hometown’s official logo.

Says here, he has a real chance in the right fight at the right time. 

By Norm Frauenheim-

Jose Benavidez Jr. was something of a prodigy. He was a 16-year-old national champion, the youngest ever in a Golden Gloves’ history that is a lot longer than any acronym. He started at the top, a mixed blessing.

A lot since then has been a chase to fulfill expectations, a long fight to prove that the initial promise was real.

He’s been engaged in that fight, one way or another, for most of the 14 years since the teenager from the streets of west Phoenix won that Golden Gloves title. It’s been hit, miss and messy. It’s an old story. Prodigies come, go, come back and then vanish. The burden of proof is hard to beat. Think of Francisco Bojado. Think of Frankie Gomez, who beat Benavidez as an amateur before disappearing in 2016 after going 21-0 as a pro.

But the fight goes on for Benavidez, now a 30-year-old father of three daughters and just days from facing Danny Garcia on July 30 at Barclays In Brooklyn in a junior-middleweight bout that puts both at a career crossroads.

For the accomplished Garcia, it’s about coming back at a new weight, this time in an attempt to eventually become a three-time division champion.

 For Benavidez, the stakes are clearer by multiples that add up to a sense of urgency. He’s fighting to prove he still belongs. The Showtime-televised date comes with a binary question. To wit: Still a contender, or just a tune-up?

The tune-up role has already been suggested, both in on-line media and by Garcia’s dad and trainer, Angel, who has never been shy.

“Jose Benavidez Jr. is not a skillful fighter,’’ Angel said Wednesday during a media workout in Philadelphia.  “He can’t fight going backwards.

“He doesn’t have any skill.’’

“He doesn’t dip. He doesn’t slip. He doesn’t duck hits. He just comes forward, I guess. I don’t know what they’re teaching him. I teach perfection. I don’t teach just going in and getting beat up.’’

After more than a decade in the noisy pro game, Benavidez has heard it all. Said it all, too.  Trash talk is just another lousy punch. Angel Garcia’s rip of Benavidez’ skill level, however, was a surprise. It was the very execution of skill that made Benavidez look like the best of a new generation in 2008. It was exemplified by the delivery of a long, precise jab.

Benavidez wasn’t angry at Angel Garcia’s rip. It would have been a surprise only if Angel Garcia had not said something intended to annoy or disrupt. He’s known for the pre-fight tactic. Good at it, too. But Benavidez didn’t take the bait.

Benavidez would only say that a forgotten prodigy’s skill will be there opening bell. He’s not intimidated by either Angel Garcia’s blunt rhetoric or Danny Garcia’s signature left hook.

“Like Angel said about me, I don’t see anything special about Danny, either,’’ Benavidez told 15 Rounds Thursday in his own counter during a media day from his dad’s gym in Seattle.

Benavidez said it in an understated tone. In part, perhaps, he knew not to get into a shouting contest with a master of the bottom-feeding art-form. But there was also a sense of confidence in Benavidez’ response. His career has taken unforeseen turns since the Golden Gloves peak. He won a fringe junior-welterweight title and appeared to be enroute to bigger ones. Then, however, he was shot in the knee on a Phoenix canal bank in August 2016. It looked as if his career was finished.

It’s a stretch to say that Benavidez had to learn how to walk all over again before he could fight once more. Still, it’s a pretty good way to describe what he’s trying to accomplish against Garcia, a 2-to-1 favorite.

Benavidez’ record since the shooting is hard to judge. The Pandemic is a further complication. He’s fought only four times since February 2018. In his last two dates, he looked like two different fighters.

Last November on a card featuring his younger brother and emerging super-middleweight star David Benavidez, Jose tried to bully Francisco Torres, an unknown Argentine, into submission. The fundamentals to his prodigious beginning were forgotten. He paid with a controversial draw booed by a hometown crowd in downtown Phoenix.

Three years earlier, however, the defining skills of a celebrated teenager were still there against Terence Crawford, feared then and feared now. Crawford, known for his ring smarts, was cautious throughout the fight. He finally finished Benavidez with 18 seconds left in a 12-round bout in front of a wild, pro-Crawford crowd in Omaha, his hometown.

Since then, the bout has been called Crawford’s toughest. Shawn Porter said repeatedly that it was the one fight he studied before his own loss to Crawford last November. Crawford, himself, says his toughest fight was a ninth-round TKO over Australian Jeff Horn.

Fair enough.

Fair, too, to also assume that Crawford, still No. 1 in many current pound-for-pound ratings, would never characterize his stoppage of Benavidez as a tune-up.

Benavidez suggests that Angel Garcia’s dismissive scouting report is based on what he saw of him against Torres. He further suggests that Garcia will see more of the fighter who challenged Crawford. He’s as blunt as Angel Garcia when asked about his performance against Torres.

“Trash,’’ said Benavidez, who has seen and heard enough of it throughout his many-layered career to know he’s had enough of it.

By Norm Frauenheim-

There’s life after the statue for Deontay Wilder, whose comeback plans are beginning to fall into place within just a couple of months after he was honored – cast in bronze – in hometown Tuscaloosa.

Wilder, The Bomber with Bronze in his nickname, liked what he saw in late May when his statue was unveiled in front of a sports and tourism building.

Tyson Fury might not recognize it. Fury knocked Wilder off his pedestal repeatedly, leaving the former heavyweight champion in an exhausted heap in the 11^th round of a wild rematch last October.

Wilder looked finished then. But that statue unveiled on a spring day in Alabama is upright, a symbol for how Wilder wants to be remembered.

A durable sign, too, for a comeback that is sure to follow.

Wilder said so then, amid festivities that included him hugging the life-size statue, which weighed in at a reported 830 pounds. On any scale, it was a lot heavier than the costume Wilder said wore him out in his ring walk to a stoppage loss to Fury in their first rematch in February 2020

“So many people telling me: ‘Come back, come back,’ ‘’ Wilder told reporters as he stood alongside his bronzed likeness. “So, I’ll say I’m back by popular demand. The business of boxing needs me.’’

Just how that comeback will proceed isn’t clear yet. But some possibilities began to emerge this week. Wilder manager Shelly Finkel started with the obvious — the August 20 rematch between Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua in Saudi Arabia.

“Maybe the winner of Usyk and Joshua,” Finkel told Planet Sport, a Sky Sports partner.  “I don’t know what Fury is doing.’’

Fury is doing what he always does. He’s throwing rhetorical feints, saying one day he’ll fight if somebody offers him half-a-billion and then seemingly backtracking. He’s retired, he also says, because Wilder left him with bruises and concussions. It’s impossible to know exactly what his plans are. Chaos is his business plan. Put it this way: As long as he’s talking, he’s interested.

Meanwhile, there are questions about how fast Wilder, who will be 37 on October 22, should move in a quest to regain a title. His lethal right hand is still there, a drawing card and a powerful reason to still call him a contender.

“There’s only four real top guys in the heavyweights right now – Usyk, Joshua, Fury and Deontay [Wilder],’’ Finkel said

But the beating Wilder endured in October might have taken a psychological toll. A cautious beginning to the planned comeback might be the wise option. Derek Chisora wants a shot — and a payday — at Wilder. But Finkel said no to that one.

“Derek Chisora?’’ Finkel said. “He just edged (out) a split-decision over Kubrat Pulev. No way.”  

Fury co-promoter Frank Warren thinks Wilder already has somebody else in mind.

Robert Helenius, Warren says.

“Deontay is fighting in October,’’ Warren told TalkSport. “He’s coming back and they’re talking about him fighting (Helenius). That’ll be in (the United) States.’’

But there has yet to be any confirmation from Wilder, Finkel or Helenius’ management in Finland.

Whoever it is, expect somebody with Helenius’ journeyman-like credentials. A test-run before a real test.

Wilder, Warren said, “is coming off a bad knockout.’’

He is. But there’s a statue in Alabama that says he isn’t going away.

By Norm Frauenheim-

He’s a brother. He’s a dad. Jose Benavidez Jr. is a lot of things. These days, however, he’s a fighter in a battle to fulfill the potential that was attached to his future more than a decade ago.

Then, he was a kid with a jab, a fundamental impossible to ignore. It was pretty and precise. As an introduction, it was long and deadly, seemingly limitless in what it might do and where it might lead.

Then, it was a symbol, an 18-year-old prospect’s identity.

Now, it is what a 30-year-old father of two is fighting to recapture.

In about three weeks, Benavidez will get that chance against Danny Garcia in an intriguing bout – a crossroads fight for both – on July 30 at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.

For Benavidez, it’s a fight that comes with some urgency. He turned 30 in May. He’s fought only twice over years that shoved careers and ambitions into uncertainty brought on by the Pandemic.

He struggled in a draw against unknown Argentine Francisco Emanuel Torres in hometown Phoenix last November. Three years earlier, he fought fearlessly against the feared Terence Crawford, who finally stopped him in the final seconds of the final round.

Now, Benavidez re-enters the ring for a Showtime-televised bout after only two fights — and no victories – over the last three years.

His father and trainer, Jose Benavidez Jr., doesn’t have to be told his son is engaged in an unforgiving business, one dictated by an old line. To wit: What have you done lately?

Jose Sr. knows the counter has to be loud and definitive.

“We have to look impressive,’’ Jose Sr. told reporters in a recent Zoom session. “…At the end of the day, man, we need this fight in order to get back into the rankings, get back in boxing for Jose Benavidez Jr.

“We need to impress. We need to give it all. I guarantee you someone in this fight is going to get knocked out.’’

It’s an unambiguous message, one that includes pressure to deliver a knockout of the more accomplished Garcia, a former two-division champion who will be fighting at junior-middleweight for the first time.

Benavidez’ headlong pursuit of a knockout might have been the problem in his last outing on a card that featured his emerging younger brother, unbeaten super-middleweight David Benavidez in front of roaring crowd at the Footprint Center, the Suns home arena in downtown Phoenix.

Benavidez abandoned his signature punch. The jab wasn’t there, and neither was the gifted young prospect remembered by Phoenix fans. Maybe, it was forgotten over time and inactivity. Maybe, Benavidez thought he could simply bully the unknown Torres into submission. He couldn’t. He didn’t.

“No excuses,’’ Benavidez said after reviewing the film. “I looked bad. I tried to do too much and didn’t do enough.’’

It’s an assessment that suggests Benavidez has learned a lesson. Dad wants him to be impressive. But the son understands that happens only with the jab that identified him as such a prominent prospect in 2010.

“I’ve just got to stick to my game plan, stick to my tools and do what I do best: Work my jab,’’ Benavidez Jr. said.

No translation needed. He just needs to be himself.

“The knockout is going to come, on its own. The winner of this fight is going to go back up on the map.’’

For Benavidez, it’s a trip that will take him back to the punch where it all began.

By Norm Frauenheim-

Jesse Rodriguez storms into the headlines and pound-for-pound talk in about the time it takes to say his nickname.

Bam, he’s there.

His sudden emergence in the wake of a magnificent performance in a stoppage Saturday of Srisaket Sor Rungvisai is stunning, yet not unprecedented.

He’s a little guy, near the bottom of a scale where weights and wages are light. Not much changes. But Rodriguez, still only 22, is poised to do exactly that. His thorough breakdown of an accomplished, yet aging Sor Srisaket, 35, in hometown San Antonio was a bold statement.

For those who didn’t know much about him, it was a crash-through-the door introduction. Bam, he’s impossible to ignore. For those anxious to know more, it was reason to look again at a career that promises so much more. Bam, his dimensions have a potential dynamic that defies boxing’s traditional measure.

On the historical scale, Rodriguez looks to be the best American at a lighter weight since Michael Carbajal. It was fitting five months ago that Rodriguez won his first significant title at the newly-named Footprint Center, an NBA arena within a couple of miles of roadwork from Carbajal’s home in downtown Phoenix.

Rodriguez beat Carlos Cuadras, skilled yet also aging (33), scoring a unanimous decision for a belt at 115 pounds. Depending on the acronym, it’s a division called super-bantamweight or super-flyweight. Super-fly works best here. Lord of the Flies, too.

Carbajal stayed at light-flyweight (108) throughout his Hall of Fame career which ended in 1999.  Why?  Follow the money. Nothing about that old axiom has changed. Rodriguez, also a former light-flyweight, moved up in search of bigger names and bigger paydays. Carbajal never had to. In the. He was the key the flyweight vault.

Over the last two-plus decades, however, a search for another great American flyweight – anther Carbajal – has been hit and miss. Mostly miss.

Those around Rodriguez – trainer Robert Garcia and promoter Eddie Hearn – have been cautious. They aren’t ready to proclaim him as the next in any line of succession. There’s talk about him going down in weight — to 112 — for another title, a resume piece that could augment marketability and his leverage at the bargaining table. Given his relative youth, that’s wise.

If you follow the money, however, it’s impossible to not arrive at Naoya Inoue, a former junior-flyweight champion who retained the bantamweight (118) title with a rematch stoppage of 39-year-old Nonito Donaire a Filipino and another former flyweight champ.

Junior-lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson was the first to mention Inoue on social media last week, saying that Rodriguez would beat the Japanese star in two years. The reaction was swift.

Be careful, don’t let Rodriguez get ahead of himself, skeptics said. Fight Roman Gonzalez first.

Gonzalez is the most decorated flyweight ever. The Nicaraguan became the lightest fighter ever to be No. 1 in respected pound-for-pound ratings. The Ring and ESPN put him on top after the then flyweight champion stopped Brian Viloria in October 2015. But Gonzalez’ reign was brief. He moved up in weight, a jump to super-fly that ended in a knockout loss knocked out by Srisaket in 2017.

Before the KO — Gonzalez’ first loss, there was talk of a fight with the emerging Inoue. First, however, negotiations stalled when Gonzalez said he wanted more money. Then, any chance at the proposed bout vanished with Gonzalez’ KO loss.

Now, Inoue is in just about the same position Gonzalez was five, six years ago. He’s No. 1 in The Ring’s current pound-for-pound rating. He’s No. 2 in ESPN’s edition. Meanwhile, Gonzalez is older (35) and vulnerable to being stopped all over again. Would Gonzalez risk fighting Rodriguez, even if he could?

Meanwhile, Inoue’s stardom is peaking. He’s seeking to enhance his international celebrity and affirm his pound-for-pound supremacy.

“I would like to thank all the media for paying attention, and I would like to have more exposure from the media in the future,’’ he said this week in a video address to the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan.

He went on to say: “I’d like to have the fights that the No. 1-ranked boxer deserves.’’

That, he said, means unifying the bantamweight title. He also suggested it could mean another jump up the scale, this time to 122 pounds, junior-featherweight. But another jump in weight poses the risk that undid Gonzalez.

Instead, there looks to be a better opportunity down scale at Super Fly against Rodriguez. It might be the best way to move up the pay scale. Here’s why:

Inoue was guaranteed a reported $350,000 for his rematch with Donaire. His percentage of pay-per-view receipts were expected to boost his pay check to $500,000.

There were no reports on how much Rodriguez collected for his eight-round stunner of Sor Srisaket. Best guess, it was several numbers less than Inoue’s payday for the Donaire rematch.

That brings us back to Carbajal. Historically, he represents the financial record for reported purses in weight classes between bantam and minimum weight (118 to 105). He got a reported $1 million for his rematch loss to rival and business partner Humberto Gonzalez in a 1994 rematch in Los Angeles. Gonzalez got a reported $1-million for a third fight in Mexico City, also in 1994.

Roman Gonzalez’ biggest reported purse was $700,000 for a split-decision loss to Juan Francisco Estrada in 2021. Donaire, who had a $125,000 guarantee for the Inoue rematch, collected seven-figures twice in his long career. But both were at junior-featherweight (122 pounds). He got a reported $1.32 million for a loss to Guillermo Rigondeaux in 2013 in New York. In 2012, he got a reported $1 million for a stoppage of Jorge Arce.

Another move up in weight increases the risks that have already been there for Inoue. He suffered a fractured eye-socket in his 2019 Fight-of-the-Year decision over Donaire in their first meeting. Call it a warning. There’s also the clock. Inoue is 29. He’s in his prime. His chances will probably never be any better than they are right now against the emerging Rodriguez, still five-to-six years from his prime.

Do it now. Bam, it just makes too much sense.

By Norm Frauenheim-

It’s a rematch full of role reversals. But one thing hasn’t changed.

The same question is there about Anthony Joshua, the underdog this time instead of the favorite, the role he surrendered in Oleksandr Usyk’s stunning upset by a one-sided decision last September.

The Usyk-Joshua heavyweight sequel, set for August 20 in Saudi Arabia, is intriguing at multiple levels. Usyk, fun and fearless, is a lot of things. He brawls, he boxes. He’s clever, he’s cruel. He has many faces, many styles. All of them have worked and the odds say they will again. Usyk is a 2-to-1 favorite in a rematch announced at a formal news conference this week in Saudi Arabia.

The key is Joshua. Can he change? Amend that. Can he re-discover the fighter he was four-plus years ago in a stoppage of Wladimir Klitschko at London’s Wembley Stadium.

Then, Joshua looked like history’s next great heavyweight. Klitschko’s reign was historic for its duration and efficiency. But his efficiency was so reliable that it suffocated the fabled division. Joshua reinvigorated it with a dramatic performance in a fight that drew comparisons to the Ali era.

There were four knockdowns. Joshua scored one, got up from one and scored two more in an 11^th-round TKO of Klitschko in what was then a fight for the ages.  

But the excitement ended quietly not long after the last fan of a reported 90,000 exited Wembley after that memorable fight in April 2017. A forgettable TKO of Carlos Takam followed. Then, a forgettable decision over Joseph Parker. And another forgettable stoppage of Alexander Povetkin. There was talk that Joshua had suddenly grown tentative, seemingly a fighter who had left his aggressiveness in the ring during the up-and-down drama against Klitschko, then 41.

Then, there was Andy Ruiz Jr. in a stoppage stunner of Joshua at Madison Square Garden in June 1919. That’s when the doubts about Joshua went from a whisper to a shout. Joshua just wasn’t the same guy. The doubt is still there, loud and clear, despite Joshua’s careful decision over a woefully-prepared Ruiz about six months later, also in Saudi Arabia.

Joshua still looked tentative, despite a Ruiz who had partied himself out of heavyweight and into sumo. Joshua fought as though he was there only to win. What he needed, however, was an aggressive stoppage, a definitive statement in an answer to the questions.

Then, Joshua followed up with a stoppage, this time a ninth-round KO of Kubrat Pulev, who went into the ring with only 14 KOs in 28 victories. Pulev lacked heavyweight power. He couldn’t hurt Joshua.

But Usyk could and did so repeatedly in a unanimous decision that left Joshua looking confused and again – tentative – at Tottenham Stadium in London. The doubt persists.

The key, however, might be there in what is the most intriguing change made before the rematch. Robert Garcia will be in Joshua’s corner. Garcia is known for teaching aggressiveness to fighters in the middle weight classes. It’s all about pursuit, moving forward and fighting off the front foot.

He’s there to stop Joshua’s retreat.

That, however, figures to be a challenge, both for him and Joshua. Garcia is not known for his work with heavyweights. His career includes 14 world champions, but never a heavyweight champ. Joshua would be his first. He’s known for his terrific work with Mexican-American and Mexican fighters. From Antonio Margarito to brother Mikey Garcia, Robert Garcia’s aggressive philosophy is there, in tactics and demeanor.

It’s a Garcia trademark. But will it work with a UK heavyweight, who is bigger and maybe stronger than the multi-skilled Usyk?

“I started coming (to the UK) in December,’’ Garcia said this week during the newser “I’ve been coming back-and-forth to work with Anthony. I see a different Anthony now. The way he thinks, the way he talks, everything he’s practicing, everything he’s doing in the gym. I think he fought the wrong fight, and that’s the past. That happened already. 

“We’ll see who’s the better man. We’re going to do whatever it takes to win those titles back. I know he can do it. He’s the bigger man, he’s the stronger man, he’s got the reach advantage.

“So, we’re going to take advantage of all that. Come that day, I think without a doubt, we’re going to have a three-time heavyweight champion of the world.

“We’ve got to be prepared for everything. Usyk is a great fighter. He’s got skills. He’s got reflexes. He’s got accuracy. He’s got everything. I think Anthony has all the tools to beat him. We just have to do the things in the gym.” 

And in the corner for what might the story of the fight.

By Norm Frauenheim-

Tyson Fury is talking again. That, of course, would be news only if he had gone silent for, say, longer than a week or three. Put it this way: He’ll quit talking when the tide quits coming in.

He says he’s retired. He says he’s not. He mentions half-a-billion. He teases and taunts, insults and intrigues, lies and laughs We’ve yet to hear a few lyrics from Bye-Bye, Miss American Pie. But the beat goes on. The whole lousy lounge act is already unfolding.

It’s doesn’t matter what he says. What does matter is that he’s saying it, still saying it all. The heavyweight champ is back at the bully pulpit, which only means that another opening bell can’t be too far away.  

There’s an old line that a fight starts at the negotiating table. Fury is already negotiating.

The latest sure sign came in a tweet — a “QUICK MESSAGE…” — from Fury Wednesday.

“A quick message to let everybody know that I, The Gypsy King, am happily retired. But to get me out of retirement – considering I don’t need the money, I don’t need the aggravation – it’s going to cost these people half-a-billion.’’

QUICK REACTION: Gob-smacking, it’s not.

Nobody, including Fury co-promoters Frank Warren and Bob Arum, ever believed that retirement was anything more than a vacation. Fury promised he was done – retired – after his sixth-round stoppage of Dillian Whyte on April 23 in front of 94,000 at London’s Wembley Stadium.  Promises last about as long as noses in boxing, of course, They are there to be broken. Fury didn’t even let the seasons change before he started the talk that says he’ll fight again. He retired in early spring. He began signaling another fight before the official start to summer.

It’d be no surprise if Fury backed off his tweet in some way. Another great talker in another sport, basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley, once said he had been misquoted in his autobiography, Outrageous. He even said that would try to ban the book, published in 1992. Barkley got away with it, because people like him. They love the self-deprecating humor, the edgy common sense. Same with Fury. He can say whatever he wants. It’s part of the act.

The question, of course, is the half-billion, which could move Fury into the exclusive fringe of the billionaire’s neighborhood, especially if the half-a-bill is paid in pounds instead of dollars. It’s clear that a couple of “the people” in Fury’s tweet are Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk. They’re expected to fight on August 20, at least so says Eddie Hearn, another talker, but no match for Fury.

Fury is already ripping Joshua, calling him a weightlifter among other things. He’s offered to help him in the rematch of Usyk’s upset of the fellow UK heavyweight last September. Then, when asked if he would attend the projected Usyk-Joshua rematch, Fury said he wouldn’t waste his time on “bums.”

The winning bum, of course, could be Fury’s partner in what might be the biggest payday in history. The aforementioned “people” in Fury’s tweet has to be the Arabs. They are the only people who can afford a tank of gas these days. The Usyk-Joshua rematch is expected to happen in the oil-rich state. If Fury changes his mind and decides to attend, maybe he can sit ringside alongside golfer Phil Mickelson, the face of the latest purchase in Saudi Arabia’s sports-washing enterprise.

“If you do get us a deal with these Middle East folks, can you at least get me free fuel for life?” Fury saId this week during a show hosted by Warren’s Queensberry Promotions.  “I’m paying a fortune on petrol.”

For now, he’s also doing a little gas-lighting, a traditional starting point in negotiations.

By Norm Frauenheim –

The shuffle continues. It never really ceases, mostly because the pound-for-pound game is only about opinion. It’s noisier than it has been in a while.

Upsets will do that, and there have been plenty in a debate heightened by the biggest one of all – Dmitry Bivol’s upset of consensus No. 1 Canelo Alvarez.

A month later, that stunner is still generating lots of revised ratings, all at the top of the scale. Terence Crawford, Oleksandr Usyk, Naoya Inoue, Tyson Fury. Take your pick. There’s no right or wrong here. No rules either. There’s just chaos.

From this corner, Crawford, still unbeaten, was No. 1 before Bivol-Canelo. Last November, the unbeaten welterweight strengthened his hold on this corner’s mythical No. 1 with a dynamic stoppage of proven Shawn Porter, who retired after the bout.

For Crawford to become the consensus No. 1, however, he still has to beat Errol Spence Jr. Amend that. First, he has to secure a deal, date and place for a showdown with Spence, who has his own pound-for-pound credentials and aspirations. Recently, there’s been a lot of talk that the fight will happen, perhaps later this year. That’s better than all the prior talk that it would never happen. Still, it’s only talk.

Maybe the shuffle at the top of the debate will serve as further motivation for a deal, a definitive fight that should have happened a couple of years ago. The clock is pushing it perilously close to past-due. Crawford will be 35 on Sept. 28; Spence is 32, about 10 months from his next birthday. It’s still a prime-time fight, but it won’t stay in that window much longer.

More urgent, perhaps, are the pound-for-pound contenders who figure to line up – week-after-week, fight-after-fight — for an opportunity to make their own claim on No.1.

Let’s just say it’s vacant and will stay that way for a while.

There’s Inoue, already a consensus top five, who can further his pound-for-pound argument next week (June 7 in Japan) against Nonito Donaire in a rematch (ESPN+) of their 2019 Fight of the Year. Guess here: The entertaining Inoue will do exactly that. Donaire is 40. His resiliency and energy will begin to fail in the later rounds     

Then, there’s Usyk, who is already at the top of some ratings. We’ll know soon enough if he belongs there. He’s working toward a summer rematch against Anthony Joshua. He scored a stunner — a decision as unanimous as it was skillful — over the bigger Joshua in September. Guess here: He’ll do it again, this time motivated more than ever to win one for his besieged homeland, the Ukraine.

Still, there was an intriguing addition to Joshua’s corner this week. The UK heavyweight hired Robert Garcia to be his trainer. Maybe, Garcia can restore Joshua’s aggressiveness. He’s been timid, a shell of the fighter who ended Wladimir Klitschko’s career

in April 2017.

Then, there’s Tyson Fury. The unified heavyweight champ says he’s retired. But there are tons of reasons, all fungible, to be skeptical. He just leaves a lot of money on the table if he walks away and stays away. Maybe, he’s waiting on Usyk-Joshua 2. Or, maybe, he’s just trying to distance himself from questions about his relationship with Daniel Kinahan, the alleged Irish gangster with documented links to boxing. US law enforcement is offering a $5 million reward for information that would lead to the arrest and conviction of Kinahan.

Then, there’s still Canelo. The Mexican, boxing’s biggest draw in the post-Floyd Mayweather era, can put himself back in contention and win back the support he had before his unanimous-decision loss to light-heavyweight champion Bivol. But that won’t be easy. Canelo, a golfer, is in the rough. Guess here: To reclaim the top spot, he needs two convincing stoppages, first of 40-year-old Gennadiy Golovkin in September in a super-middleweight bout in their third fight and then in a rematch against Bivol in early 2023.

This argument is just getting started.

By Norm Frauenheim –

It’s a fantasy.

That, at least, is how David Benavidez’ promoter described talk about any chance at a fight with Canelo Alvarez in the wake of Benavidez’ very real beatdown of David Lemieux.

“Quit fantasizing,’’ Sampson Lewkowicz told media about an hour after a violent third-round stoppage of Lemieux at a National Hockey League arena about seven miles from where Benavidez grew up in Phoenix. “There’s no way that Canelo is going to fight the People’s Champ.’’

There no quit in fantasy, however, especially after a dominant exhibition from 25-year-old super-middleweight that got a roaring crowd and Showtime audience fantasizing about just how good Benavidez might be a year, or two, from now.

Put it this way: A little bit of fantasy is a pretty good place to start thinking about negotiations. It’s also a subtle step away from the frustration that has dogged Benavidez throughout his noisy pursuit of a rich date with Canelo.

Benavidez’ victory over Lemieux a week ago at Gila River Arena in Glendale AZ was no surprise. The brave Lemieux, a former middleweight champion, was overmatched in every way. But Benavidez exceeded expectations. The bout was meant to showcase his potential. He did that and more. The clever Lewkowicz called him a People’s Champ. The Lemieux performance was full of more reasons to think he will be one. He’s getting social-media clicks. He’s doing numbers at the box office.

That’s more than fantasy. It’s momentum, which is something Canelo is trying to regain.

This week, Canelo decided to fight Gennadiy Golovkin for a third time instead of an immediate rematch of his stunning decision loss to light-heavyweight Dmitry Bivol.

GGG was a business move, not surprising in the wake of disappointing reports about the DAZN numbers for the pay-per-view telecast of Canelo-Bivol on May 7. The PPV reports varied, but they fell nearly 300,000 short of the PPV sales — reported to be about 800,000 — for Canelo’s victory over Caleb Plant. Plant an American, was – still is — better known than the skilled Bivol, a mostly-unknown Russian.

GGG is 40. His skillset might have eroded, but his name recognition has not. People still know him for his first two fights with Canelo, both debatable. The first was a draw. The second was a majority decision, won by Canelo.

Now, questions follow Canelo as he goes into a decisive third fight with GGG. Was the Bivol loss just a bad night? Was the move from 168 pounds to 175 too much? Is he beginning to show signs of decline? They’ll all be there in September.

So, too, will Benavidez.

For now, Benavidez is first in line for Canelo. With the World Boxing Council’s so-called interim title, Benavidez is supposed to get a mandatory shot at Canelo, if and when the WBC ever orders the fight.

For the rest of this year, however, Benavidez-Canelo is fantasy. Lewkowicz is talking about Plant, Jarmall Charlo or David Morell, an emerging Cuban. perhaps in November. Whoever it is, it’s a fight that could further the fantasy. If Benavidez’ ascendancy continues, fans won’t quit thinking about it. More important, they won’t quit talking about it.

They’ll promote it in ways that Lewkowicz can’t. Could the fantasy become reality next year, say May 6 2023? It depends on Canelo’s performance against GGG. It depends on how Benavidez looks in November.

It also depends on whether Canelo in fact fights Bivol for a second time. He said this week he will. Maybe, a third GGG bout is a steppingstone toward regaining momentum and his pound-for-pound status.

But Benavidez believes that Canelo can’t ever beat Bivol. He says Canelo would lose a rematch. Then what?

“Then, he’s got nowhere to go,’’ Benavidez said before he bulldozed Lemieux. “He’ll have to come back down to 168.

That means me.’’

Fantasy meets reality

GLENDALE, Ariz. —David Benavidez was looking for a challenge. He didn’t get one. David Lemieux never had a chance.

Benavidez continued to show why he ranks as perhaps the most avoided fighter in boxing since Antonio Margarito.

He’s feared, more feared now than he was before he walked through a roaring crowd at Gila River Arena, up the steps and through the ropes. Fear came in combos, all more reasons to avoid the unbeaten super-middleweight.

The deadly delivery in a Showtime blowout Saturday night included early body punches. Then, there was a lethal uppercut, the first of what was an incoming storm.

One after another, he left Lemieux bloodied, dazed and defenseless. At the end of the first, Lemieux slumped along the ropes. In the second, Benavidez knocked the Canadian through the ropes with a blinding succession of punches.

Early in the third, it was over. At 1:31 of the round, it was stopped. Lemieux was led to his corner and placed on his stool, looking like an accident victim. He showed courage. But it was futile, if not foolish.

Above all, it was another reason to be wary of the Phoenix fighter, especially if you’re Caleb Plant or Jermall Charlo. Nobody knows what Canelo Alvarez plans to do next. He plans to choose between a rematch with Dmitry Bivol or a third fight with Gennadiy Golovkin in September.

“I’m waiting for them to sign the contract,’’ Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs) said in the immediate aftermath of the carnage. “Them bitches know what’s up.”

A beating is up, if Saturday night is a reliable guide. Lemieux (43-5, 36 KOs), a former middleweight champion, was overmatched in every way. He was just too small. Yet, his evident courage and world-class experience indicated he might have a chance.

But he didn’t, a warning sign to all the super-middleweight champions and contenders.

“I think we can make some of those fights — Plant or Charlo or David Morrell — happen, maybe by the end of the year,’’ Benavidez said during the post-fight news conference.

With the victory, Benavidez won the World Boxing Council’s so-called interim title. It could be significant, but that depends on Canelo. It’s supposed to lead to a mandatory shot at the WBC’s real title, which Canelo still holds.

But a mandatory shot at Canelo is an illusion, according to Benavidez promoter Sampson Lewkowicz.

“Forget Canelo,” Lewkowicz said. “Plant, Morrell and Charlo are the ones we’re talking about. Canelo isn’t going to fight Benavidez.

“He’s never going to fight the world’s real super-middleweight champion.’’

Yoelvis Gomez, Dominates, wins one-sided Decision

Yoelvis Gomez fled Havana and escaped to Guatemala on a raft. It was a perilous journey. Gomez had only his will, wits and fast hands.The wit and will are still there.

By Norm Frauenheim-

GLENDALE, Ariz. – It’s the only place he’s ever lost.

But the scale is no longer David Benavidez’ biggest challenge.

Benavidez (25-0, 22 KOs), who lost the World Boxing Council’s super-middleweight title when he failed to make the weight in 2020, came in under the 168-pound mandatory Friday for an interim belt in a Showtime-televised bout Saturday against David Lemieux (43-4, 36 KOs) at Gila River Arena.

Under a hot desert sun at high noon, Benavidez stepped lightly on a scale located on a stage set on a pavilion outside of the ice-hockey arena’s front doors.

No problem. Jenny Craig would have been proud. Benavidez was more than a pound lighter than the maximum. He was at 166.4 pounds. Lemieux, a former 160-pound champion, was at 166.2.

The 25-year-old Benavidez couldn’t recall when he’s ever been so light. He grew up chubby. He likes to joke that he was the fat kid in the background of photos that featured his older brother, Jose Benavidez Jr., a former national amateur champion and an ex-junior-welterweight belt-holder.

When asked whether his second son has ever been so light, father and trainer Jose Benavidez Sr. shouted:

“Never.’’

The scale had loomed as problematic since David Benavidez was stripped of the title after he was 2.8 pounds heavier than the limit in August 2020. He went on to score a 10^th-round stoppage of Roamer Alexis Angulo at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn. But he left the ring without the belt he has been trying to regain ever since.

Making the weight Friday is a key step in that direction. It keeps him in line for a mandatory shot at a title now in Canelo Alvarez’ possession. He has to beat Lemieux to stay there.

“David Benavidez is very solid, a big challenge,’’ said Lemieux, a Montreal fighter and the designated challenger in the main event on the Showtime telecast (7 pm PT/10 pm ET). “But I’m here to fight him. I’m here to take that belt away from him.’’

Benavidez is heavily-favored. He’s bigger. He’s younger. He’ll be fighting in front of a hometown crowd. He grew up in a tough Phoenix neighborhood, about seven miles from Gila River.

“This fight is not going to go the distance,’’ said Benavidez, who was already at the required weight on Monday. “It’s going to end in a knockout.

“And I’m going to win it.’’

By Norm Frauenheim-

GLENDALE, Ariz. – For a few seconds, there was more to David Benavidez’ future than questions about Canelo Alvarez.

There was his son, Anthony, a toddler in the middle of an audience full of reporters at a boxing news conference.

Anthony giggled. Benavidez smiled, a sure sign that he knew why he was fighting. No question about that one.

The Canelo questions would soon follow. So, too, will another opening bell, this time against David Lemieux Saturday (Showtime 7 pm PT/10 pm ET) at Gila River, a National Hockey League arena about seven miles west of where he grew up in a tough neighborhood on Phoenix’s west side.

There weren’t too many real answers to the Canelo questions. Then again, there never are for Benavidez, who has been frustrated in his pursuit of a big money date with Canelo. The same questions were there the last time Benavidez was in town for a stoppage of Kyrone Davis in downtown Phoenix last November.

Lots has changed since then, of course. Canelo lost his aura of invincibility. Dmitry Bivol beat him. Anthony is walking. The last time Anthony was in Phoenix he was giving his daddy’s fans a fist bump from his stroller. He made his dad smile then, too.  A son’s giggle is a father’s motivation. Dad fights on. Maybe, there’s a date with Canelo in his future. Maybe, not.

The business of keeping that possibility – questions and all – in place, however, is Benavidez’ immediate task. The fight is for a so-called interim title, the World Boxing Council’s super-middleweight version. Interim, of course, can mean just about anything. Interim titles get bought out by step-aside money. Interim gets forgotten, almost by definition.

But this one comes with a mandatory – also so-called — challenge of the WBC’s current champion, which happens to still be Canelo, the 168-pound division’s unified champ. The belts weren’t at stake against Bivol in a light-heavyweight stunner a couple of weeks ago.  

A victory over Lemieux would also embellish Benavidez’ resume. Benavidez remembers watching Lemieux when he was a kid hanging out at Central Boxing near downtown Phoenix.

“He was the Canadian Mike Tyson,’’ Benavidez said Friday after a formal news conference in a room overlooking a floor that will include a ring instead of a rink Saturday.

Lemieux, of Montreal, has power, especially in his left hand. Lemieux, who lost his most notable fight by stoppage to Canelo rival Gennadiy Golovkin in 2015, is confident that Benavidez has never faced anybody with as much one-punch power.

“Of course not,’’ Lemieux said.

But Lemieux, a former middleweight champion, is moving up from his natural weight, 160 pounds, to 168. Benavidez (25-0, 22 KOs) is bigger in every measurable way. He’s also younger. Lemieux (43-4, 36 KOs) who has won his last five bouts, is 33. Benavidez is 25. The differences, in years and on the tape, explain the one-sided odds. Benavidez is about a 10-to-1 favorite. Yet, Lemieux’s documented power still looms as a factor.

“David Lemieux is the most dangerous fighter we’ve faced,’’ Benavidez father-and-trainer Jose Sr. said.

Still, David Benavidez is confident he has the skillset to deal with Lemieux’s power.

“It’s not like I’m going to go In there and try to test how strong my chin is,’’ he said. “We’ve worked hard in the gym, put together a plan to deal with his power. I definitely want to follow the game plan. I don’t care (if the KO) comes in the first, second, fifth or 12^th round. When it happens, it’ll happen.’’

Best guess: It’ll happen. It’s an element – documented power from both corners — that promises an explosive fight. That, too, is important for Benavidez’ larger resume. He’s pursuing more than just another victory. He wants to do something memorable against a fighter who can hurt him.

Translation: He wants to create a groundswell of support among a growing fanbase already restless for a showdown with Canelo. He’s more than a good dad. He’s a pugilist. And a populist.

Yet, there’s still a question whether any of it will ever lead to a date with Canelo. There’s even some disagreement about that within the Benavidez camp.

David Benavidez and his father think the loss to Bivol improves their chances at Canelo.

“I think it’s more likely now than it was,’’ said David, who learned enough about Bivol from sparring sessions a couple of years ago to know that the Russian had a real chance at beating Canelo. “Before Bivol, there was all this crazy stuff from Canelo about fighting at cruiserweight or even heavyweight. I think Canelo believed all that hype.

“But you’re not going to hear that any more. He’s going to have to come back down to 168 pounds. That means me.’’

But Benavidez promoter Sampson Lewkowicz thinks the chances at Canelo are less now than they were pre-Bivol. Canelo’s box-office value took a hit, Lewkowicz says. He also doesn’t think Canelo can restore it in a rematch. Bivol will beat him again, he says.

“There’s no $50 million out there for Canelo anymore,’’ Lewkowicz  said. “Will he fight for less? $30 million?  $20 million? $10 million? I don’t know. He might just walk away and decide to play golf.’’

A decision from Canelo is forthcoming. His current promoter, Eddie Hearn, says he expects Canelo to decide next week on whether he’ll fight an immediate rematch or go on to a third fight against Golovkin in September.

Whatever Canelo decides, there are still big opportunities for Benavidez. There’s Jermall Charlo and Caleb Plant. David Morrell has emerged as a possibility, too.

Benavidez will stay busy. A toddler’s giggle will make sure of it.

By Norm Frauenheim–

Canelo Alvarez has an opportunity. That sounds crazy, especially in the immediate aftermath of his loss to Dmitry Bivol. The wounds are still there. The pain lingers. He tried to hide some of it with dark glasses a couple of hours after the stunning defeat. Nobody could look into his beaten eyes.

But the bruises will heal. The pain will subside. That’s when he’ll see a chance to actually fulfill the history he always says he is seeking. Legacy is become kind of a bumper sticker, not just in boxing. Its value has been eroded, a little bit like title belts. Everybody has one.

But not everybody is confronted with the adversity that comes with defeat. It’s deeply personal, more in boxing than in any other sport. Egos can get busted up, just like jaws and noses, especially when a world-wide audience is watching.

The loss to Bivol wasn’t Canelo’s first. He’s been there, losing to a masterful Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September 2013. But that was a younger Canelo, an apprentice still learning the craft. It was also a fight few expected him to win.

Last Saturday, Canelo was considered the master. He was the favorite. The scorecard defeat to a mostly unknown Russian light-heavyweight had to be more painful, which is what transforms it into the sort of opportunity that will put some real substance into Canelo’s pursuit. For him, legacy isn’t just a word or another belt anymore.

It’s real.

Adversity defines boxing. People watch to see fighters get off the canvas. To see comebacks. There’s an inherent dilemma in all of this. Nobody seeks defeat. Mayweather retired unbeaten. So, did Rocky Marciano, Andre Ward and Joe Calzaghe. So, did guys named Sven Ottke, Dmitry Pirog and Harry Simon. They’re all great fighters.

But the game amounts to a lot more than the 0 on the right side of the record. It’s about overcoming. It’s Ali coming back to beat Frazier. It’s Sugar Ray Leonard coming back to beat Roberto Duran. That’s history. Now, Canelo has a chance at some.

Late last Saturday at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, he wasn’t exactly clear about what he plans to do. His contract with Bivol included a clause for an immediate rematch. In the middle of the ring, Canelo said he would invoke the clause. A couple of hours later, he wasn’t sure.

“We’re gonna go to see what’s next, to talk about it,’’ he said.

Canelo will take his time. And he should. There’s plenty to consider. There’s a debate about his loss to Bivol, who displayed immense poise and smarts in front of roaring Cinco de Mayo crowd.

On the one hand, there’s an argument that Canelo took a risk in moving up the scale from super-middleweight to light-heavy. He failed. No shame there. Yet, questions about his tactics linger. There are also doubts about whether he took Bivol seriously.

Throughout the week before opening bell, there was talk about what Canelo would do after Bivol. Bivol was perceived as just another steppingstone. It got ridiculous. Even heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk was mentioned as a Canelo possibility. Everybody was buying into the hype, including me. I picked Canelo. I didn’t take Bivol serious and I’m not sure Canelo did. Yet, it become clear that Canelo didn’t have many plans beyond the first half of the fight against Bivol.

He went at the Russian, moving in a straight line throughout the first four rounds, as though he intended to bulldoze him they way he did Billy Joe Saunders. By now, we know it didn’t work. By the fifth round, there were signs that Canelo was fatigued. Earlier in his career, he had a habit of tiring late. He changed that with a more measured pace in the early moments, picking his spots and picking up the pace in the later rounds.

The argument is that Bivol beats Canelo again, that Canelo should just go on to a third fight with Gennadiy Golovkin in a bout that has been projected for September.

A victory at 168 pounds over GGG, a middleweight champion, would give Canelo the final say-so in their contentious rivalry. Canelo was 1-0-1 against GGG in two middleweight bouts. But what would it really prove? GGG is 40, several steps past his prime. The critics would be there. The critics would also gather into a social-media storm, demanding a rematch with Bivol.

Without Bivol, there would still be a lot of money for Canelo in super-middleweight bouts, post-GGG. There’s David Benavidez. But money can’t really be as decisive a factor as it was. Canelo’s got more of it than he can spend in a lifetime. He is ranked No. 8 on Forbes’ annual list of the world highest-paid athletes. He made a reported $90 million over a 12-month period, May 1 2021 to May 1 2022. That doesn’t even include his paycheck for Bivol. It was reported his purse could approach $50 million.

He doesn’t want for money. He wants history

History is calling. It’s in the rematch clause.

LAS VEGAS –Canelo Alvarez said he was facing a challenge. He wasn’t kidding. He just didn’t know just how much of a challenge it would be.

Turns out, Dmitry Bivol was a bigger challenger than even Canelo, boxing’s biggest star.

Bivol took him down Saturday, upsetting Mexico’s greatest current champion on a night when his nation celebrated Cinco de Mayo.

It was a stunner, historic, but not the kind of history Canelo has said he is pursuing. Bivol was supposed to be a step in his path to all-time recognition. But that journey was interrupted.

The bigger Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs), still the World Boxing Association’s light-heavyweight champion, employed all of his measurable advantages and many that can’t be measured, scoring a unanimous decision – 115-113 on all three cards – over the favored Canelo (57-2-2, 39).

“I prove today that I’m the best,’’ Bivol said to his promoter and the stunned crowd at T-Mobile Arena after the pay-per-view/DAZN bout. “Thank you, Eddie Hearn, Sorry, I break your plans for Gennadiy Golovkin, maybe.’’

On the Canelo blueprint, the bout versus Bivol was a good payday en route to a third fight against Golovkin.

A third bout in a contentious middleweight rivalry was seen as a way for Canelo to have the final say-so. It would allow him to move on from the debate about GGG, who had a draw and a decision loss to Canelo

But maybe Canelo moved a little but too fast and too far up the scale. He unified the super-middleweight title. Light heavyweight was next. But Bivol was there, to remind him that there’s a reason for weight classes.

Canelo, who had promised victory, offered no excuses.

“I lost tonight and he won,’’ Canelo said.

He also said he wanted a rematch. He was asked whether he would exercise the rematch clause in his contract with Bivol

“Si,’’ he said to the Mexican crowd.

Canelo has proven he learns from defeat. He learned a lot after his one-sided loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. After this one – only his second defeat, he faced many more adjustments against a skilled, poised Bivol. The Russian doesn’t get rattled.

No Russian anthem was played, no Russian flag was waved, when Bivol made his entrance. The World Boxing Association ruled against both weeks before the fight in response to Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine.

Initially, the WBA’s ruling was called cosmetic. It’s a boxing acronym after all. It’s more about sanctioning fees than ethics. On fight night, however, the ban felt like the proper move. It fit the time. And the man.

Bivol, the WBA’s champion, has family in Saint Petersburg. He has never taken a position on his home country’s attack on a neighboring country. Neutrality has been hard to maintain. But he has remained quiet about his homeland. He delivers punches. Not opinions.

The Russian flag and anthem might have put further pressure on Bivol in an arena already awash in Mexican flags and symbols. It was Cinco de Mayo, a party and a celebration of Mexican pride. Bivol was the pinata at a roaring fiesta.

But the designated pinata contained surprises. Bivol was more than just a party favor. He had some weapons of his own.

In an early surprise, Canelo started faster than expected. He’s known for a measured pace in the first few rounds. Against Bivol, however, he didn’t hesitate.

The opening bell still echoed through the jammed area when he began to move forward, ever forward. Perhaps, he was buoyed by the crowd, his crowd. Perhaps, he already knew that Bivol couldn’t hurt him. Perhaps, Canelo was anxious to get the job done and join the party.

Whatever the reason, the Canelo attack got underway without hesitation. The thud from his lethal body punches could be heard in the upper-reaches of T-Mobile. The real surprise was coming from Bivol, who over the first four rounds would not give an inch.

Canelo backed up and into the ropes repeatedly. But Bivol responded, coming back behind his long jab. Midway in the third round, the Russian appeared to land a left solid enough to get Canelo’s attention.

In the fourth and again in the fifth, Canelo began to show signs of fatigue. He breathed heavily through an open mouth. The momentum – slowly, surely and inevitably – had begun to switch. It belonged to Bivol.

In the end, so did the victory and the title.

Restless crowd boos Montana Love decision over Gabriel Gollaz

It was an awkward fight between a lefthander, Montana Love, and an orthodox Gabriel Gollaz. A couple of early knockdowns were the result.

In the first round, Love,(18-0-1, 9 KOs) of Cleveland, landed a glancing blow that knocked Gollaz off balance. Then, he appeared to slip. Referee Tony Weeks ruled it a knockdown.

In the second, Gollaz (25-3-1 15 KOs) , of Mexico, threw a quick counter left. It, too, appeared to be a glancing blow off the top of Love’s. But it was enough for Love to lose his balance. He touched the canvas. It was a knockdown. He got up , looking almost embarrassed.

For the next several rounds, neither fighter knew what to do. It left the crowd unhappy. Restless fans knew what to do. There was no love for Montana. None for Gollaz either. Fans jeered, whistled and booed. Love came into the ring to a rapper who carried his pet dog. Even the dog must have whined.

In the end, Love won a unanimous decision. The crow cheered. But it was happy only because it was over.

The only good news was that the main event, Canelo Alvarez-Dmitry Bivol, was next.

Shakhram Giyasov wins unanimous decision

Shakhram Giyasov, an Olympic silver medalist and a welterweight from Uzbekistan, had enough power and poise to emerge from a sloppy fight with a unanimous decision over Mexican Christian Gomez.

It wasn’t close on the scorecards. Giyasov (13-0, 9 KOs) made sure of it with power. He knocked down Gomez (22-3-1, 20 KOs) three times. Two — one in the fourth and again the 10th were — clear. One in seventh, however, appeared to be the result more of a trip than a punch.

Marc Castro wins one-sided decision

Lightweight prospect Marc Castro (7-0, 5 KOs), of Fresno CA, got in some work, dominating Pedro Vicente (7-5-1, 2 KOs).

Vicente, of Puerto Rico, never had a chance. Never won a round either. Castro scored a six-round shutout, 60-54 on all three cards.

Zhang Zhilei scores first-round KO

He was a late stand-in. He didn’t stand for long.

Scott Alexander, a substitute for Croatian Filip Hrgovic, was gone within a minute, thanks to a straight left from Zhang Zhilei, perhaps the biggest athlete from China since Yao Ming.

Zhilei (24-0-1, 19 KOs) might not have the same height as Ming, a former Houston Rocket center. But he’s got a slam dunk for a left hand. He took one step back, threw it on a straight line and it landed, dropping Alexander (16-5-2, 8 KOs) flat onto his back in the first bout in the pay-per-view telecast of the Canelo-Bivol card. It was over at 54 seconds of the opening round

Joselito Velazquez unleashes deadly combo for TKO of Soto

Joselito Velazquez had power. He added precision. It was deadly.

Velazquez (15-0-1, 10 KOs, a Mexican flyweight, blew out Jose Soto with the combination, stopping the Colombian (15-2, 6 KOs) in the sixth round of the final fight before the pay-per-view telecast of the Canelo Alvarez-Dmitry Bivol card.

Velazquez landed a left, short and precise. Then, he followed up with a succession of powerful combinations. Jay Nady ended it at 1:06 of the sixth

Aaron Silva scores powerful TKO

Superman is stitched across the back of Aaron Silva’s trunks. The Mexican super-middleweight lived up to the nickname. Alexis Espino had no chance against his sustained power in the third fight on the Canelo-Alvarez undercard.

Silva (10-0, 7 KOs) stunned Espino (9-1-1, 6 KOs) with a huge right in the fourth and then poured it on, driving Espino into the ropes and leaving him defenseless. Kenny Bayless stopped it at 1:17 of the round.

Abduraimov scores three knockdowns for second-round stoppage

Elnur Abduraimov (9-0, 8 KOs), a powerful junior-bantamweight from Uzbekistan, appeared to be too much Manuel Correa. Appearances quickly turned real.

Correa (11-1, 7 KOs) was finished within two rounds of the second bout on a card featuring Canelo Alvarez-Dmitry Bivol. Abduraimov overwhelmed the Cuban, knocking him down three times in bout stopped at 2:43 of the second.

First Bell: Canelo-Bivol show opens with a split decision

Empty seats, lots of echoes.

That’s how the show started Saturday, about seven hours before Canelo Alvarez and Dmitry Bivol were scheduled to fight for a light-heavyweight title at T-Mobile Arena in a DAZN pay-per-view bout.

There was nothing definitive about the opener. The matinee ended in a split decision. Mexican junior-welterweight Fernando Molina (8-0, 3 KOs) prevailed,mostly because of an edge in power. He rocked Ricardo Valdovinos (8-2, 5 KOs), of San Diego, just enough to win on two of the three score cards.

By Norm Frauenheim-

LAS VEGAS — Canelo Alvarez and Dmitry Bivol made weight while a sweating crowd lost some Friday at a weigh-in under hot afternoon sun in the Nevada desert.

With temperature approaching triple digits, both Alvarez (57-1-2, 39 KOs) and Bivol (19-0, 11 KOS) came in under the 175-pound limit for their heavyweight title fight Saturday (Pay-Per-View, DAZN) at T-Mobile Arena.

Alvarez was at 174.4. Bivol, the current World Boxing Association belt-holder, tipped the scale 174.6. Both are expected to be several pounds heavier at opening bell (PPV telecast starts at * pm ET/5 pm PT)

“Canelo, probably 180,” promoter Eddie Hearn told reporters after the weigh-in in front of a lively Cinco de Mayo crowd at the Toshiba Plaza outside of T-Mobile. “Bivol, probably 190.’

By Norm Frauenheim –

LAS VEGAS – Canelo Alvarez is moving up scale. Saturday it’s a bid for a light-heavyweight title held by Dmitry Bivol.

Then, there’s some business to finish with Gennadiy Golovkin in a third fight projected for September.

After that, he and his current promoter, Eddie Hearn, are talking about a unified title at 175 pounds, perhaps against Artur Beterbiev in May 2023.

He continues to talk about a fight at cruiserweight. Welterweight champion Errol Spence was mentioned for a date at a catch weight. Now, there’s even some wild talk about a move to heavyweight against Oleksandr Usyk.

A lot of names are mentioned, all there like milestones on the path to what Canelo calls history. There are no apparent limits to what Canelo hopes to do. Bivol might change that at T-Mobile Arena in a pay-per-view bout (DAZN). But that would be a huge upset.

If Canelo walks through Bivol the way he bulldozed Callum Smith, Caleb Plant and Billy Joe Saunders, his chances improve at actually doing what he envisions.

But at least one thing hasn’t changed. David Benavidez is still not in his plans. Among the myriad of names, weight classes and belts mentioned this week, there was no Benavidez. There was no mention of unbeaten middleweight belt-holder Jermall Charlo, either.

But increasingly Benavidez is the fighter at the top of the list. Take a poll. Benavidez, who faces David Lemieux on May 21 in Glendale AZ, is the fighter fans want to see against Canelo.

Even Hearn seemed to concede that much this week in a give-and-take with the media after a formal news conference Thursday.

“How can you say Charlo is a better fighter than Beterbiev? ‘’ Hearn said in a defensive counter to questions about the quality of Canelo’s opposition. “Are you mad? How can you say Charlo is a tougher fight than Dmitry Bivol at 175? Absolute rubbish.

“Who has Charlo ever beat? Keep going. Now, tell me the recent ones. (Juan Macias) Montiel? Terrible. He wasn’t motivated to fight. (Maciej) Sulecki? Lovely kid. But Sulecki? Put him in with Plant, with Benavidez.

“I think Benavidez could be the best of all of those.”

But it’s the best of a group that continues to be ignored in Canelo’s grand plan. For now, at least, that means the unbeaten Benavidez, a two-time former super-middleweight champion from Phoenix, is consigned to play the historical role that once belonged to Antonio Margarito. Oscar De La Hoya wouldn’t fight Margarito. Floyd Mayweather wouldn’t fight Margarito.

Hearn, however, suggests that Benavidez can change that role. It’s clear Hearn, like the fans, can see the explosive potential in a Benavidez-Canelo fight.

“That’s a big fight,’’ Hearn said.

But, Hearn also said, it’s up to Benavidez’ promotional team to put him in a better position to get the Canelo date he has sought for just about as long as Canelo has pursued history.

“Ultimately, the fights against Benavidez and Charlo are just voluntary defenses of his 168-pound title,” Hearn said. “He could (fight Benavidez at 175 pounds). But that’s another voluntary defense. If you said to Canelo, what would you rather do? ‘Fight Benavidez in a voluntary defense or fight Beterbiev for the undisputed light-heavyweight championship?’ it’s not even a conversation.

“Benavidez wants big fights. It’s embarrassing who they’re fighting. Why don’t you make Charlo versus Benavidez? Why don’t you make Benavidez versus Plant. You give them all these easy fights for all this money and they’re not selling. You’re just burning money.

“Get the guys together, make the fights. I know Benavidez. He wants the big fights. It’s PBC’s job to put him in big fights and they’re not. Canelo-Benavidez could be a massive fight.

“But it’s nowhere near what it could be.”

Interesting.Got it.Wow.

By Norm Frauenheim –

LAS VEGAS – It’s blood sport. It’s show biz, too. Canelo Alvarez does both in a career that includes risk and riches, a balancing act hard to master and even harder to sustain.

But Canelo is there, still on the high wire and on an ascending path notable in part because there just aren’t many apparent rivals in his way.

He says he fights for history. His promoter says he fights for legacy. Those are noble pursuits, of course. But fans are a little bit more pedestrian. They just want to see him fight somebody.

Maybe, Dmitry Bivol is that somebody. Bivol is there, next on Canelo’s assembly line to legacy.

He’s got a belt. He’s has an unbeaten record. He’s a step up the scale for Canelo, who is moving from super-middleweight to light-heavy. Those are elements easy to promote, easy to sell for a crowd anxious to see Canelo confront the sort of adversity he hasn’t seen since his draw and narrow decision over Gennady Golovkin in 2017 and 2018.

Front and center, those maybes have been the sale pitch this week for Canelo’s fight with Bivol at T-Mobile Arena in a pay-per-view, DAZN fight. Maybe, Bivol can deliver the drama. Maybe, he can do what Callum Smith, Avni Yildirim, Billy Joe Saunders and Caleb Plant could not.

“Yes, he is a good fighter,’’ Canelo said Thursday during a final formal news conference at MGM Grand. “He’s really a good champion. He’s solid champion, at 175 pounds. I respect Dmitry Bivol.

“This is the kind of fight that will put me in the books of history.’’

But it is also a fight burdened by much of what fans have seen for a couple of years. Despite Bivol’s overall competence and thorough skillset, he looks a little but like the string of Canelo earlier opponents.

None have had enough power to keep Canelo from mounting his trademark assault. The theory has played out repeatedly. If Canelo knows he can’t be hurt in the opening moments, he’ll launch his predictable beatdown. He’ll begin to move forward stubbornly with sustained punishment. Again, maybe Bivol has the skillset to slow him down.

“I believe in my victory,’’ said Bivol, notable because he’s a likeable Russian whose country is waging an unpopular war in the Ukraine. “If you don’t believe, you can’t win.

“Why not?’’

It’s a fair question. But there are lot of numbers that argue against Bivol’s belief. He hasn’t scored a stoppage in more than four years. More ominous, perhaps Is a revealing statistic from Compubox’s Dan Canobbio. Bivol has thrown fewer than 20 power punches in 44 of his last 51 rounds. You can’t beat Canelo that way.

Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn, Canelo’s current promoter, is frustrated with the questions about Canelo’s opposition. He countered them repeatedly in a give-and-take with media after the news conference. The questions fail to acknowledge what Canelo is achieving in the here and now, Hearn said.

“He might be the greatest fighter ever since Ali,’’ Hearn said.

The generations since Ali have include some legendary names. Here are just a few: Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, Roy Jones Jr., Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather, and Manny Pacquiao. Does Canelo belong among them? Hearn seemed to say that he does.

Canelo has been fighting champions, Hearn said. He’s been beating them too. But there are belts and weight classes aplenty these days. Hearns rival Bob Arum called all the belt-holders a bunch of “Jambonis” last Saturday when asked if he would put together a couple of more title 130-pound unification bouts together for Shakur Stevenson after his one-sided victory over Oscar Valdez for two of the junior-lightweight belts.

“Most of the people out there don’t know who the hell those guys are,’’ Arum said.

But they do know Canelo.

“This is my time,’’ Canelo said.

It is. It has been. And it might continue to be his time for a while. There’s a third fight with Golovkin looming in September. The consensus is that Canelo, now in his prime, will knock out the remains of the GGG rivalry with a dominant victory over Golovkin, who looks to be a year or two past his best days.

Hearn foresees a couple of fights in Europe. Then, he said, maybe Canelo can unify the light-heavyweight title against Artur Beterbiev in 2023.

“Maybe, next year’s Cinco de Mayo fight,’’ Hearn said.

Maybe. More like probably.

LAS VEGAS — Shakur Stevenson wondered how good he was.

He can quit wondering.

He’s good, pound-for-pound good. Pay-per-view good is still a question. But the answers he wants, the stardom he’s seeking, are a lot closer today than they were a week ago.

A one-sided victory over Oscar Valdez Jr. Saturday night for two pieces of the junior-lightweight title at the MGM Grand was another convincing piece of more evidence that there are no limits to Stevenson’s unfolding career.

Stevenson (18-0, 9 KOs) did what he had to – and often whatever he wanted to — in scoring a lopsided decision over Valdez (30-1, 23 KOs), who had only his trademark resilience and none of Stevenson’s speed or precision.

“I told ya’ll what I was going to do.,’’ Stevenson said. I said I’m gonna beat Valdez, (stablemate) Canelo (Alvarez) and (trainer) Eddy Reynoso.

“That was my game plan — beat the whole team. I feel good about it. Much respect to them, but that was my game plan.”

The judges’ cards added up to a rout. It was 118-109, 117-110 and 118-109, all for Stevenson. The oddsmakers were right. Stevenson was an 8-to-1 favorite the night before opening bell. He could have been an 80-to-1 favorite, for all that it mattered. Valdez simply didn’t have much of a chance.

That was never more evident than in the sixth round. Stevenson, often careful early. caught Valdez with a looping right hand.

It turned Valdez and sent him crashing into the ropes. Quickly, Stevenson landed another right that put Valdez onto the canvas. It was a decisive moment. It was clear then that Stevenson’s victory was just a matter of time.

“He has great boxing skills,’’ Valdez said. “He was just the better fighter this night. He did what he had to do to win the fight.

“His speed is there. Power is there. He was just he better fighter tonight. Overall, a great fighter.”

There was a theory that Valdez might be able to test Stevenson. Valdez had shown power in earlier fights. The idea was that he would take Stevenson to a place he’s never been.

But Valdez was never able to deliver that adversity. He tried early. He was the aggressor. He pursued. But his shots mostly missed. All the while, his energy drained away like water through a colander.

Not even a friendly crowd could sustain Valdez. The order to the ring walks was determined by a coin flip. Stevenson won that one too, meaning he was second to parade down the aisle, up the steps and through the ropes. Valdez was first.

Valdez was greeted by a pro-Mexican crowd that serenaded him, a Son of Sonora, as he walked into the arena. Echoes from the roaring crowd could be heard out on the Strip and maybe all the way down to Nogales, his hometown south of Tucson. The odds didn’t favor Valdez. But the crowd did. It booed Stevenson.

Stevenson let his skillset answer, again and again, with speed and precision. From round to round, Stevenson landed shots that slowly yet surely left Valdez tired and with a dwindling work rate.

It was over not long after it started, leaving the 31-year old Valdez with only questions and the 24-year Stevenson with only possibilities.

Keyshawn Davis wins sixth-round TKO

He calls himself The Businessman.

Keyshawn Davis lived up to the nickname, working his way through a few business-like rounds and then applying a finish that suggests the lightweight prospect is well on his way to doing a lot more business Saturday night on the Stevenson-Valdez card at the MGM Grand.

In only his fifth fight since winning a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics, Davis (5-0, 4 KOs) was careful early and punishing in the end, scoring a sixth-round TKO of Mexican Esteban Sanchez (19-2, 8 KOs).

Nico Ali Walsh scores first-round KO

It was a knockout that must have made a grandfather proud

Nico Ali Walsh (5-0, 4 KOS) , grandson of legendary heavyweight Muhmmad Ali, struck swiftly. Struck definitively. 

One-two, a Walsh jab and crushing right hand landed, flooring Alejandro Ibarra (7-2, 2 KOs), who looked to be unconscious before he hit the canvas 2:50 intO the first round of a middleweight fight. Ibarra had to be helped to his feet after concussive end to the first bout t on the ESPN-televised card featuring Shakur Stevenson and Oscar Valdez Jr. in a junior-lightweight title fight at the MGM Grand Saturday.

By Norm Frauenheim –

LAS VEGAS – The odds aren’t with Oscar Valdez Jr. But the crowd might be.

Valdez, a 7-to-1 underdog Saturday night against Shakur Stevenson at the MGM Grand, was the fan favorite at the weigh-in Friday.

The noise was off the scale, all for Valdez, who was at 129.6 pounds. The boos were for the heavily-favored Stevenson, who was at 130, the junior-lightweight limit.

Most of the hostility directed at Stevenson (17-0, 9 KOs) appeared to come from a few thousand fans who made the seven-and-a-half-hour trip to Las Vegas from Nogales, Valdez hometown on the Mexican side of the border south of Tucson.

Stevenson smiled at the crowd and then at Valdez, as if to say the cheers were in vain. Stevenson, of Newark, has long said that Valdez has no chance.

“I’m a dominant fighter,’’ Stevenson said a few days before the weigh-in. “I don’t know how much better I can get. But I’m going to find out.

“After this fight, I should be a big star.’’

First, however, he’ll have to get through Valdez (30-0, 23 KOs), who has fought through more adversity than many fighters ever see.

It’s Valdez’ proven resilience in the face of adversity that makes this fight (ESPN 10 pm/7 pm PT) for two pieces of the 130-pound title so intriguing.

Within the ropes, Stevenson has never encountered any of what Valdez has conquered. In part, that’s why Stevenson says he doesn’t know how much better he can be. The question and Stevenson’s projected stardom hinges on how he reacts to the adversity Valdez is expected to deliver.

On fight’s eve, at least, Stevenson appeared to be the more relaxed fighter. After they stepped off the scale, the fighters posed for the camera in the ritual stare down. Valdez didn’t blink. Didn’t smile either.

Stevenson returned the stare. He also smiled. But it wasn’t the child-like grin that was there for a couple of years after he won a silver medal at the 2016 Brazil Olympics. The innocence was gone, replaced by an edge that promised violence.

Valdez held the stare for a couple of long seconds. Then, he turned away, looked up at the crowd and gestured at his vocal fans with an upraised fist. Stevenson stepped forward and smiled some more, this time dismissively.

Valdez said nothing.

There was nothing else to say.

At least not until opening bell.

By Norm Frauenheim-

It’s easy to underestimate Oscar Valdez Jr. Easier, too, to pick against him. But he probably wouldn’t want it any other way. The role fits him like an old pair of running shoes.

The underdog gene is there, an inseparable part of his identity – and motivation. Above all, it works. At 31, he can look into that full-length mirror in the gym and know exactly who he is. Let everybody else ask the questions.

Everybody else is, all over again, before his junior-lightweight fight (ESPN, 10 pm ET/7 pm PT) against Shakur Stevenson Saturday night at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand. Look at the odds. It’s impossible not to see the doubt.

Valdez is about 5-to-1 underdog. For a long-awaited bout between two unbeaten fighters, that’s huge. Big fights come together because they’re hard to pick. But not this one. It’s hard to find many picks for Valdez.

The reasons are elusive, especially for a fighter who is known for an inexhaustible will. He ended Miguel Berchelt’s career. Berchelt was feared and also a big favorite before they fought in 2021. The biggest fear was that Valdez might get hurt. But Valdez destroyed Berchelt, scoring a knockout that stripped the fellow Mexican of his predatory aura. In his first fight since then, Berchelt was simply not the same. He was shot, a shell of what he had been, in a sixth-round stoppage loss to Jeremiah Nakathila in March.

Let’s say Berchelt had done to Valdez what so many had expected. Then, maybe Berchelt might have been fighting Stevenson. The odds? Guess here: Pretty close to 50-50, a pick-em fight.

But the Valdez-Stevenson forecast is decidedly one-sided.

Valdez thinks he knows why. 2021 was an up-and-down ride for Valdez, who calls the year a learning experience. It started with an emotional high in the aftermath of the Berchelt upset and then crashed with a positive drug test that surrounded Valdez’ difficult decision over Robson Conceicao in Tucson, Valdez’ second home.

“It ended in a place as low as I’ve ever been personally,’’ Valdez said this week in a zoom call with reporters.

The odds in favor of Stevenson (17-0, 9 KOs), Valdez (30-0, 23 KOs) says, are simple enough to explain. They answer that old question: What have you done for me lately? Valdez says he wasn’t at his best in his debatable decision over Conceicao.  In Stevenson’s last fight, he looked sensational in a 10^th-round TKO of Jamel Herring in October.

“You’re only as good as your last fight,’’ Valdez said.

But the victory over Conceicao wasn’t exactly an exception in Valdez’ decade in the pro ring. He often fights to the level of his opposition. Put it this way: He knocked out the accomplished Berchelt and got knocked down by the pedestrian Genesis Servania.

Valdez’ famous stablemate, Canelo Alvarez, says Valdez likes to please the crowd too often. That’s part of it, perhaps. He waved in journeyman Miguel Marriaga in the final rounds of a 2017 bout in Carson, Calif. He did so, he said then, because he wanted to give the fans an entertaining fight.

Yet, he survived a broken jaw for a bloody decision over Scott Quigg in 2018, also in Carson. That one wasn’t for the fans. There were none in the seats at the outdoor arena because of a rain storm on a chilly night in March in southern California. Valdez, the winner, left the arena with his blood in a pool next to pools of rain water on wet canvas. He was placed on a stretcher and into an ambulance. Then, there were questions whether we would ever see him back in the ring.

We have, of course.

That night in Carson probably defined Valdez more than any other in his 30-fight career. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: Nobody bites down quite the way Valdez does.

It’s an intangible, meaning it’s hard to measure. Yet, it has always been there, a factor that has allowed Valdez to overcome whatever disadvantages he might have in foot speed, or power, or reach.

No matter who he fights, Valdez gets himself into trouble at some point because he has to. But he transforms his trouble into trouble for the opposition, be they named Berchelt or Servania.

Put it this way: I’ve never seen Valdez in an easy fight, but I’ve never seen him lose one either. That said, I think it ends against Stevenson, who said during the zoom session that he has never fought anybody with Valdez’ willpower.

The guess here is that time will work against Valdez, both short-term and long-term. He’s seven years older than the 24-year-old Stevenson. The wear-and-tear of his many wars will begin to take an inevitable toll. Meanwhile, Stevenson’s skill set is evolving.

Stevenson will employ all of it to score early. Then, he’ll survive a stubborn Valdez’ assault midway through the fight. In the end, Stevenson wins an unanimous decision.

I hope I’m wrong. I hope Valdez proves me wrong all over again in another victory for an underdog who knows the role and how to use it.

By Norm Frauenheim-

It’s a UK day to celebrate a Saint, Saint George, a long-forgotten Crusader. Not too many Saints in boxing. Not many Crusaders either, although the business could use one after a long week full of allegations and suspicions involving alleged Irish gangster Daniel Kinahan.

There are more questions than answers. But the questions are mounting, fueled by a sudden succession of sanctions, resignations and denials that leaves one of the biggest fights in British history under a darkening cloud.

Tyson Fury is coming home for his first UK fight in nearly four years Saturday (ESPN Pay-Per-View $69.99/2 p.m. ET) since he affirmed his worldwide celebrity. He’s the lineal heavyweight champ, which doesn’t mean he can trace his heritage all the way back to the sainted George. Nonetheless, it’s a lineage, historical enough for a projected milestone — a record crowd of 94,000 at London’s Wembley Stadium against challenger Dillian Whyte. It looked to be a majestic stage for Fury, the proverbial hero-come-home story about a people’s champ who has always been comfortable on just about any stage. He sings. He dances. He danced all over Deontay Wilder the last time we saw him.

But the expected parade is taking an ominous turn. Fury, who has more lyrics and one-liners than counters, is uncomfortable with all things Kinahan. But, increasingly, the Kinahan question is impossible to ignore. It’s crashing the party. 

Within about 10 days, the questions have gone from absent to everywhere. From muted to megaphone. On April 12, news broke that the US Treasury Department had levied sanctions against Kinahan. Actually, sanction is a polite word for what the Feds have done. They published a poster, bordered in red and Kinahan’s photo beneath a headline offering a reward of up to $5 million for “financial disruption of the Kinahan criminal organization or the arrest and/or conviction of Daniel Joseph Kinahan.’’

The wanted poster has morphed into the main event.

Fury has long acknowledged his relationship with Kinahan, who has been living in Dubai as a fugitive, reportedly since 2019. The High Court of Ireland and Irish law enforcement has long called him a gangster who smuggles drugs and guns throughout Europe. Murder has also been alleged.

But Fury doesn’t get specific about his relationship with Kinahan.

“I just had about a million questions about all of this rubbish,’’ he told Sky Sports. “But, like I said to them, it’s none of my business. I don’t get involved in other’s people’s business. So, it doesn’t really concern me.’’

But the relationship is there, caught in photos and in logos. For a while, he fought with MTK Global stitched onto his trunks. The MTK logo – originally called MGM — was the management/promotional company reportedly formed by Kinahan, who would only say that he worked as an advisor for the MTK boxers, mostly from the UK.

“I haven’t done any dealing, business, with him for a long time.’’ Fury said, again to Sky Sports. “I think there was a statement released in 2020. So, that was the end of the business.’’

A succession of moves in the aftermath of the US sanctions on Kinahan, however, suggests that the end is not that simple or definitive. MTK, which said it parted with Kinahan in 2017, shut down Wednesday, the day after MTK CEO Bob Yalen, a former ESPN executive, resigned. Thursday – just a couple of days before the Fury-Whyte opening bell, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) froze Kinahan’s assets.

World Boxing Council President Maurico Sulaiman, who helped broker the deal for the Fury-Whyte fight, appeared in a photo while meeting Kinahan during a stop in Dubai last month. Then, Sulaiman defended the meeting, saying he had no “knowledge of any wrongdoing” by Kinahan. Monday, Sulaiman said in a statement that “at no time have we (the WBC) had any relationship with Daniel Kinahan.’’

There’s no end in sight. This story is just starting. 

By Norm Frauenheim-

Errol Spence Jr. guarantees victory. But he wants more. He wants a knockout. He wants to be the fighter he was. More important, perhaps, he wants to be the fighter he remembers.

Given his unbeaten record, a hometown crowd and measurable advantages in height, reach, and age, his promised win over Yordenis Ugas looks likely.

“One-hundred percent,’’ Spence (27-0, 21 KOs) said during media appearances this week before his welterweight showdown with Ugas (27-4, 12 KOs) Saturday night (9 p.m. ET/6pm PT, Showtime PPV/$74.99) in a ring near the 50-yard line on the Dallas Cowboys home field at AT&T Stadium.

Spence didn’t offer any guarantees on a KO, however. That might have been an acknowledgement of Ugas’ skillset, which is rooted in the Cuban school of fundamentals. He knows the defensive art. It’s there, a skill turned into instinct through years and years of practice in Cuban gyms

To wit: It’ll be really hard to stop Ugas. But it would also be a huge statement and self-affirmation from and for a fighter who hasn’t scored a stoppage in almost four years. 

A knockout would say he’s back, all the way back. The KO has been part of Spence’s identity. From 2014 through 2018 he scored 11 straight, including a notable KO of Kell Brook in May 2011 in the UK. 

Then, it would have been a victory if a Spence opponent took a fight to the scorecards. For four years, nobody did. Nobody could. It was head-rocking run, one that seemed to be headed straight to the top of the pound-for-pound debate. But it ended with a first-round KO of Carlos Ocampo in June 2018 in Frisco, Tex.

The KO has been missing, raising questions, including one still asked: Who is Errol Spence Jr.? It lingers, in large part because of the October 2019 auto accident that put Spence’s career on the shelf for about 15 months. He was back in December 2020, winning a unanimous decision over Danny Garcia. 

But even before the scary accident, the familiar stoppage was MIA. First, there was an efficient, one-sided decision over Mikey Garcia in March 2019, also at AT&T. Spence won every round on every card. He got a 10-8 score in the ninth even though there was no knockdown. It was that overwhelming. Still, there was no KO.

Six months later, he faced a tough, clever Shawn Porter. Spence won a split decision in September 2019 in Los Angeles. Still no KO. The decision over Garcia had the look of a new beginning. Manny Pacquiao was next. But Spence had to withdraw from that one last August because of a torn retina. That allowed Ugas to step in with a stunning upset, a unanimous decision that sent the legend into retirement.

Any kind of victory over Pacquiao would have been enough for Spence to say he’s back, all the way back. At 42, Pacquiao’s skills weren’t the same. But there was no erosion in the Filipino’s name recognition. At 5-foot-5 and with a 67-inch reach, Pacquiao had some of the same dimensions as Garcia. The always aggressive Pacquiao might have walked right into the power possessed by the bigger Spence. We’ll never know.

But eye surgery put Spence back on the shelf for another 16 months. He returns, this time seeking the KO that could – once and for all – answer the lingering questions.

“There’s no way to elaborate on when I said I’m going for the knockout,’’ Spence said. “It’s what I said. So, if I get it, I get it. If I don’t, I don’t.

“But I definitely want to knock him out.’’

Definitely, it would be a knockout that would leave no doubt. 

By Norm Frauenheim-

The odds suggest that Gennadiy Golovkin is in Japan to celebrate a birthday. He’ll blow out 40 candles Friday. Then, he’ll blow out Ryota Murata.

It’s not that simple, of course. It might not be that one-sided either. The guess here is that Golovkin wins. But the real question is in the margins. How does he win?

It’s no secret that the middleweight bout Saturday (DAZN, 5:10 am ET/2:10 am PT) is projected to be a steppingstone to a fight that fans have wanted for three-and-half years. A long-awaited Canelo Alvarez-GGG 3 looms. It’s supposed to be next.

It’s believed that a third leg to the contentious rivalry will answer, once and for all, questions left in the unresolved wake of a draw in the first bout and Canelo’s majority decision over GGG in the second.

But a chance at finality doesn’t last long. It’s up to GGG to prove that it’s still there. He’ll be 40 at opening bell in Saitama, north of Tokyo. He’s at an age that’s hard to judge. Milestone or millstone?

It’s a question complicated by a long stretch out of the ring. It’s been about 16 months since GGG’s last fight, a seventh-round stoppage of Kamil Szeremeta in December 2020.

A fighter stuck in idle during his prime is one thing. Rust is temporary.  An idle fighter a few years beyond his prime is a question. Erosion is permanent.

GGG is in Japan, perhaps amid some uncertainty about how his legs and reflexes will respond. He’s also there aware of the country’s unique boxing history. One of history’s defining upsets happened in Japan. Buster Douglas upset Mike Tyson in 1990.

“Japan is the land of surprises, at least when it comes to boxing,’’ GGG (41-1-1, 36 KOs) said. “I remember what happened in the Tyson-Douglas fight. It has been in the back of mind throughout training camp.’’

The danger of history repeating itself, however, seems remote. Murata (16-2, 13 KOs), whose spotty record includes losses to Hassan N’Dam and Rob Brant, is listed as a 4-to-1 underdog. He’s also not exactly young. He’s 36. He’ll be 37 in January. He’s also been idle longer than GGG has. Murat hasn’t fought in about two-and-half years. He last answered an opening bell in December 2019, scoring a fifth-round stoppage of Steven Butler, an unknown Canadian.

GGG’s biggest concern might be recent history. His birthday Friday makes me think about Manny Pacquiao. Pacquiao’s legendary career ended last August in a scorecard loss to Yordenis Ugas, then a late-stand-in for Errol Spence Jr., who withdrew because of an eye injury.

Pacquiao was a huge favorite. He was the Pacquiao everybody remembered and not the 42-year-old fighting for the first time in two years. He was coming off a split decision over Keith Thurman in 2019. He was 40 then. Two years later, he was just too old.

GGG is a couple of years younger. He also appears to be facing an opponent, Murata, who isn’t the threat that Ugas turned out to be. Still, some of the questions are familiar, all brought on by a 40^th birthday.

A dramatic GGG knockout of Murata would set the stage for a third fight with Canelo, who has to take care of his own business on May 7 against light-heavyweight Dmitry Bivol. A big KO, a resurrection of GGG’s Big Drama Show, is promoter Eddie Hearn’s hope. Make that bet. It would sell the pay-per-view.

But a narrow decision – or, worse, a controversial one — would only leave further questions. It might be unfair to expect GGG to still be the force he was four, five years ago. If he isn’t, however, a third fight with Canelo won’t prove anything other than to say it is past due. 

By Norm Frauenheim-

Melbourne and Los Angeles are separated by 18 time-zones and 7,932 miles. You can get on a plane in Melbourne and arrive in Los Angeles before you left Australia. It sounds upside-down, which is another way of saying Down Under.

But there was no confusion Thursday evening in Los Angeles and Friday morning in Melbourne. Only the clocks said different things.

George Kambosos Jr. and Devin Haney spoke a universal language in a formal news conference introducing their lightweight fight June 5 in Melbourne. The newser for a world-title bout was steamed, appropriately enough, worldwide.

No interpreters were necessary. Trash talk is understood everywhere

“He keeps saying he will leave this fight as a King,’’ Kambosos said from a stage in Melbourne to Haney and his trainer/father, Bill, who were seated in a LA studio. “But what’s a King to an Emperor?’’

Kambosos is one belt short of an empire. Haney has it, a World Boxing Council version, and Kambosos intends to take it at an arena called Marvel Stadium. It’s no place for a comic book hero. Kambosos looks to be the real thing after his wild upset of Teofimo Lopez on Nov. 27 in New York.

Lopez sounded delusional after the defeat. His delusion is still evident. Now, he’s alleging that the scorecard loss was somehow fixed. It makes you wonder if Lopez is somehow finished. That’s another story for another day and another weight class. Lopez is moving up the scale, from 135 pounds to 140. Maybe, he’ll gain the pounds and lose the delusions. We’ll see.

But it’s become evident that Kambosos, a former Manny Pacquiao sparring partner, is a keen practitioner of psychology, one of boxing’s timeless arts. To wit: He knows how to get into somebody’s head long before he ever lands a head-rocking shot.

In what was perhaps an opening salvo of rhetoric, Kambosos mocked Haney. The clever Aussie suggested that the likeable American was already losing his cool. He wasn’t, of course. 

But it was the sound of what’s to come in this bout between a couple of unbeaten lightweights from different hemispheres. Kambosos is at home, and he intends to use every advantage in what is expected to be a huge Aussie crowd at the 53,000-seat stadium.

Haney laughed off the mocking. But he was also annoyed. Kambosos called the 23-year-old Haney a kid.

“He keeps calling me a kid,’’ Haney said. “I am not a kid. I am a man. So, quit calling me a kid.’’

However, it’s beginning to sound as though Kambosos is just getting started. For now, at least, Kambosos is the underdog. That’s a surprise, mostly because Kambosos is coming home after scoring a huge upset in Lopez’ hometown.

Haney, who steps in as Kambosos’ challenger when Vasiliy Lomachenko decided to stay at home in Ukraine to fight the Russians, opened as a minus-280 favorite, meaning he has about a 73-percent chance at winning.

Australia is known for gambling. From Sydney to Melbourne to Perth to Brisbane, you can bet on just about anything. It’s called “the national sickness. The guess here is that Kambosos will be favored at opening bell.

He’ll talk his way into the favorite’s role. Bet on it. But can talk his way into Haney’s head? That’s the real question. If he can, he’ll win. 

By Norm Frauenheim –

There were swimmers, gymnasts and skiers standing alongside Vladimir Putin in support of his war against the Ukraine last week in a Moscow rally.

There wasn’t a boxer among them, according to reports. But boxing’s absence doesn’t mean there won’t be an impact.

Dmitry Bivol wasn’t there.

Yet, it was hard not to think about the Russian light-heavyweight and his May Day date with Canelo Alvarez. Putin’s war is everywhere. It’s there when buying a tank of gas. It’s there in tears and trauma, 24-7, on the television news. There’s no refuge, no place to hide from it all.

Business-as-usual is an illusion. Still, it’s been brisk, at least it has been for boxing. Tickets for Canelo-Bivol on May 7 at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena sold out within the first day they went up for sale this week.

For now, at least, Bivol has sidestepped the escalating wave of controversy and sanctions. When the prizefight was announced, he was careful to say that he wasn’t political. He said all the right things. But words aren’t a rhetorical vaccine against getting swept up in it all.

Former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, already on record with his opposition to letting Bivol fight, added some fuel to the fire this week with an impassioned video on social media. He didn’t mention Bivol this time. He didn’t have to.

Waldimir stood alongside his brother-in-arms and another ex-heavyweight champ, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, and condemned the Russians, saying that the “Ukraine is not a battlefield, it is a crime scene.’’

Quit funding the crime, he then said.

“Stop doing business with Putin’s Russia, because every dollar buys them ammunition,’’ he said. “… Every cent going into the Russian budget is going today to killing our men, women and children.’’

That begs a question: Will any of Bivol’s purse go to the Russians? As a Russian citizen with a family in Saint Petersburg, he pays Russian taxes. According to reports when the bout was announced last month, Bivol is guaranteed $2 million. His final paycheck could grow to $4-million, depending on the pay-per-view sales. If the quick sellout of T-Mobile is a sign, there’s a pretty good chance that the PPV will be strong enough to double Bivol’s payday.

International sanctions limiting Russian access to banks and dollars might stop Russia from getting a share.

There’s an argument that Bivol should be allowed to fight. Fair enough. Citizenship shouldn’t be enough to keep any athlete off the track, out the water and out of the ring. Bivol appears to be a quiet craftsman. He’s not making any noise. He’s staying apolitical. But war, the money and his Russian citizenship won’t allow him to be neutral in what could be one of the most watched prizefights of the year.

For one thing, the Klitschko Brothers will continue to campaign against all things Russian. They are committed, compelling and comfortable in front of the camera.

Then, there are mounting sanctions against Russian athletes. Don’t confuse Bivol with any who stood with Putin at the Moscow rally. They were wearing the Z that is supposed to be a sign of support for his war. We keep hearing that Z is not in the Russian alphabet. Neither is a swastika.

They have identified themselves, front and center, as targets for the terror the Klitschko Brothers are fighting. But there’s more than one symbol that ties Bivol to them. There’s the dollar $ign.  

A swimmer, Evgeny Rylov, got an endorsement deal with Speedo after the backstroker won two gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics last summer. Speedo terminated the contract Wednesday after video surfaced of him on stage with Putin.

“Any outstanding sponsorship fees will be donated to the United Nations,’’ Speedo said in a formal statement, perhaps precedent for a prizefight.

By Norm Frauenheim-

It’s a busy schedule. Ambitious, too.

Showtime announced nine cards over five months on a spring-to-summer series that includes 21 unbeaten fighters, seven championship fights and a lot of the same old questions.

The ambition is to get some of the answers, never simple in a balkanized business plagued by noisy feuds and defined by its inherent divisiveness.

Search for logic at your own peril.

But that’s what Stephen Espinoza, Showtime President of Sports and Programming, is seeking.

Espinoza wants to give fans “a sense of logic,’’ he said Tuesday in announcing a schedule that kicks off next week Saturday (March 26) with legend Kostya Tszyu’s son Tim (20-0, 15 KOs) against former U.S. Olympian Terrell Gausha (22-2-1, 11 KOs) in a junior-middleweight fight at The Armory in Minneapolis      

Boxing and logic don’t belong in the same sentence. Not even in the same universe. Together, they create a classic oxymoron. Put it this way: Peace on earth is more likely than logic in boxing. If there was any, we would have already seen Terence Crawford-versus-Errol Spence Jr. and Canelo Alvarez-versus-David Benavidez.

But give Espinoza credit, or at least some sympathy. The logic he hopes to find will be a product of organization. In other words, he hopes fans can follow a telecast schedule like some sort of blueprint, a road map to title fights.

Under today’s chaos-as-usual model, title fights between Belt Holder and Who’s He just seem to appear, then vanish. Too many fighters have only a record and no name recognition. Their path to a title fight is a mystery. It hard to follow, which is a sure way to lose fans. There’s no way for them to sustain interest.

Trouble is, the messy web is there in large part because of the feuding   promotional entities and dizzy array of acronyms – all with sanctioning fees and mandatories. It’d be nice if it could be cleaned up and sorted out. But the business only knows chaos. There’s no simple tournament-like bracket to sum it all up.

At least, somebody is trying. But Espinoza’s mission looks quixotic. From this corner, logic is the longest of long shots.

At this point, a Crawford fight against Spence looks to be as elusive as ever. Still, there will be plenty of talk about it before Showtime’s biggest card, an interesting pay-per-view bout on April 16 between Spence and Yordenis Ugas on the Cowboys home field in Arlington, Tex. Ugas emerged with a stunning upset of Manny Pacquiao in August. Ugas was a late stand-in for Spence, who suffered an eye injury.

There are questions about Spence. We just haven’t seen enough of him since his scary auto accident in October 2019. Ugas might prove to be better than anybody thought. He also might be emboldened by his victory over Pacquiao. Maybe, Ugas has a chance at springing another upset. Whoever the winner, however, there’s still no clear path to logic, which is another way of saying Crawford, still a promotional free agent.

Another intriguing bout on the Showtime card involves David Benavidez on May 21 in his second straight appearance in hometown Phoenix. He faces faded David Lemieux. It promises to be another moment in evolution of Benavidez, still only 25 years old. His body is growing. So is his fan base. But his campaign to fight Canelo has been going nowhere. Don’t look for that to change.

Canelo has a DAZN deal, first to fight Russian light-heavyweight Dmitry Bivol on May 7 in a step that could lead to a third bout with Gennadiy Golovkin, who first has to beat Ryota Murata in Japan.

“Obviously, David Benavidez is angling for the biggest fight,’’ Espinoza said. “But this is the next best thing.’’

The next best thing is only good if it leads to the fights that frustrated fans want. There’s plenty to like about Showtime’s schedule. There’s a heavy investment in the junior-middleweights, first with Tim Tzsyu and Gausha. Then there’s a rematch of Jermell Charlo and Brian Castano on May 14 in southern California at a site to be determined.

But logic? For now, that’s still elusive as ever.

By Norm Frauenheim–

Dmitry Bivol doesn’t look like collateral damage. Not yet, anyway. But the controversy, if not the possibility, is there. Wladimir Klitschko made sure of it.

Bivol, a Russian light-heavyweight champion, should not be allowed to fight Canelo Alvarez, Klitschko told UK media in a condemnation of Russia and its ongoing attack of Ukraine, the former heavyweight champion’s homeland.

His blunt comments are not a surprise. He and brother Vitali, mayor of Kyiv and also a former heavyweight champ, are just a few of the prominent faces engaged in a desperate fight. Wladimir, soldier and statesman, wants a boycott of all things Russian.

Right now, that means Bivol. The light-heavyweight is a current face, a Russian symbol, of what the Klitschkos and their fellow Ukrainians believe the world should boycott.

Bivol’s deal to fight Canelo, the world’s wealthiest and best-known boxer, was formally announced last week.  Bivol can’t escape the timing. Perhaps, it’s just coincidence. But the timing of the deal and Klitchko’s subsequent comments put him in the crosshairs.

In interviews with BBC 5 Live Radio and London tabloid The Mirror, Klitschko likened a ban on Bivol to another sanction on Russia.

“Every sanction – and it’s nothing against the personalities or athletes, it’s about the politics of Russia,’’ Klitschko told BBC. “Every Russian representative in this case needs to be sanctioned, because this way we show to Russia that the world is against his senseless war and there is no good in this war.”

In other words: Don’t buy Russian oil, don’t let Russians use ATMS, don’t let them eat Big Macs, sink the oligarch yachts and don’t watch Bivol.

For promoter Eddie Hearn and Canelo, the aforementioned watch – as in watch DAZN’s pay-per-view telecast on May 7 – looms as perhaps the real threat, some collateral damage to the biggest boxing promotion this year.

The deal is done. Business, as it always has in boxing, moves on, no matter what. Muhammad Ali-George Foreman, 1974’s fabled Rumble in the Jungle, happened in dictator Mobutu’s country, then Zaire. Ali-Joe Frazier 3, 1975’s Thrilla In Manila, happened under strongman Ferdinand Marcos’ rule.

More tyranny from Vladimir Putin probably won’t stop the fight. But it might make at least some people in the projected audience think twice about paying $79.98 for the PPV. Nothing about Putin War is pretty. Ugly is the only word for it. Wall-to-wall coverage on cable networks is full of tears, trauma, rubble and blood. An end to the carnage is not in sight.

The sports world is reacting. The NBA’s Utah Jazz just announced it will fund 32,000 nights of housing for Ukrainian refugees. Expect more of the same. Maybe, the Canelo-Bivol promotion can do something similar. But that won’t silence the controversy over Bivol’s appearance on a card that could earn him a reported $4 million, more than four times bigger than his biggest payday.

He seems to be a nice guy. He’s quiet. He was born in Kyrgyzstan. He has lived in Russia most of his life. He has family in Saint Petersburg. He tried to say all the right things last week at the newser in San Diego. He said he has friends in Ukraine. He said he has friends in Russia.

“I wish everyone peace and only the best,’’ Bivol said. “It’s really sad for me. Every day, I wake up and read the news. I hope this ends soon.”

It’s a dilemma, one that Bivol didn’t seek. But there’s no hoping it just goes away. There’s also no way to pacify both sides. The Klitschko brothers stand as a lesson and also a warning, at least to the Russians. They won’t quit. 

It was hard not to notice Thursday that the Ukrainians destroyed a Russian tank column, a reported regiment, in Brovary, a suburban town about 10 miles east of Kyiv. It’s the same town where Wladimir Klitschko first learned how to box at Brovary Olympic Reserve School in the late 1980s.

Those burning tanks are a warning.

So, too, are Klitschko’s words.

So, too, are pound-for-pound contenders Vasiliy Lomachenko and Oleksandr Usyk, both symbols of Ukraine’s inexhaustible will to fight. Lomachenko and Usyk are still in the middle of brilliant ring careers. Lomachenko was projected to fight unified lightweight champion George Kambosos in Australia. Usyk was working toward a rematch of his heavyweight stunner over Anthony Joshua.

Lomachenko was training in the Greek islands. Usyk was in the UK. Then, Putin attacked. Their lives changed. But their priorities did not. They enlisted in the fight to save their homeland.

It’ll be impossible not to think about their real fight while watching Bivol in a prize fight.

By Norm Frauenheim –

The deal is done, all nine figures of it, without any chance that Canelo Alvarez will face David Benavidez over the next year.

It’s not a surprise. It’s more of a pattern. Months ago, Canelo and his trainer, Eddy Reynoso, were clear that their plans did not include Benavidez.

If not now, when?

It’s an unanswered question. The pressure is on Benavidez to provide an answer.  Canelo put it there, squarely on his young shoulders, in interviews after Canelo’s May 7 date with light-heavyweight Dmitry Bivol on May 7 at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena was formally announced Wednesday.

Canelo repeated his mantra about his pursuit of history. He suggested there was no chance at making some against Benavidez or Jermall Charlo. He suggested that they needed to fight each other.

Mostly, he said they needed to bring more to the table in terms of legacy, a word that is at the cornerstone of the marketing for the Canelo-Bivol bout, the first in a rich Matchroom deal expected to lead to a third Canelo fight with Gennadiy Golovkin.

On the virtual fight poster, it says “Legacy Is Earned.’’ In social media, it comes with a hashtag, #legacyisearned. Intentional or not, the message to Benavidez and Charlo is that they haven’t earned enough of it.

“They have nothing to offer,’’ Canelo told reporters after the Bivol bout was announced at a news conference in San Diego. “I just want to make history, and they have nothing to offer me.’’

Canelo’s kind of history, of course, is attached to more than a hashtag. There’s a dollar sign, a very big one. According to some reports, the deal for perhaps three fights is worth $160 million.

That’s a lot of legacy, enough to be a powerful factor in any calculation of the risk-to-reward ratio.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. perfected it.

Canelo learned it.

It’s impossible to understand Canelo’s career without his loss to Mayweather on Sept. 14, 2013 at Vegas’ MGM Grand. The loss was a lesson, on both sides of the ropes for Canelo, who was 23 – two years younger than Benavidez – when he lost a decision to Mayweather.

In the eight-plus years since then, Canelo has evolved as a boxer. And a businessman. He has succeeded Mayweather at the top of the game because of what he learned from him.

There are two fundamentals: Knowing who to fight. And when to fight him.

It’s no coincidence that Canelo has waited until GGG turned 40 before a second rematch of their two controversial bouts, the first a draw and the second a Canelo victory by majority decision.

Assuming GGG beats Ryota Murata on April 9 in Japan, he’ll face Canelo, still well within his prime. He’ll turn 32 on July 18. Insert the respective ages to the risk-to-reward equation, and GGG looks less risky than a 25-year-old Benavidez, especially for a payday that could exceed $50 million.

Put it this way: Who would you fight? Dumb question. It’s GGG every time.

It’s hard to see how the emerging Benavidez ever gets included in Canelo’s application of the risk-reward ratio. Benavidez, expected to fight Canadian David Lemieux in May perhaps in hometown Phoenix, is just entering his prime. He’ll be 30 in five years. By then, Canelo might have moved from the gym to the golf course for good.

Benavidez might be to Canelo what Antonio Margarito was to Mayweather. Mayweather never fought Margarito. That’s not because he couldn’t beat him. He could. He probably would have. But it would have been a very tough fight. Margarito was tough and aggressive. He was dangerous. Manny Pacquiao beat him, scoring a one-sided decision in November 2010 on the Dallas Cowboys’ home field in Arlington, Tex.

But Pacquiao got hurt by a huge body shot midway through the bout from Margarito. It took something from Pacquiao. The Filipino great was never quite the same fighter, so relentless and fearless early in his pro career.

Pacquiao won. But he paid a price. Mayweather wouldn’t go there. A likely victory wasn’t worth the potential cost.

It looks as if Canelo sees Benavidez the same way. Canelo would probably beat him. But Benavidez’ size, high volume of punches and relentless pursuit could take a toll. The risk is a steep price, one not worth it on a scale that has rewarded Canelo with Mayweather-like money. 

By Norm Frauenheim-

Josh Taylor has always hoped a castle would be in his future. He likes history. Mostly, he likes making some.

The castle will have to wait. But another chance at history is close. It might be there Saturday after Taylor’s first bout in his native Scotland in more than four years. He defends his unified junior-welterweight title against somebody named Jack Catterall, known only in the UK.

Despite an unbeaten record, Catterall’s anonymity says a lot about what Taylor is expected to do. A win is almost assumed. He won’t say that. Not exactly.   

“How is he going to win?” Taylor asked Thursday at a news conference.

Taylor then went on to answer his own question. It was an answer that also included what Scottish fans expect.

“…This isn’t a one-sided fight,’’ he said. “It’s my job to make it a one-sided fight.’’

If that task gets done as thoroughly as the betting odds suggest, it’ll be definitive. Actually, it’ll be a lot more than that. On Thursday, Taylor (18-0, 13 KOs) was a 20-to-1 favorite over Catterall (26-0, 13 KOs). Translation: He’d have to trip and fall into a moat to lose this one.

This fight itself has the feel of a homecoming parade. Taylor returns with all the relevant belts – WBO, WBC, WBA, IBF and The Ring. He’s the second Scottish fighter to win an undisputed title since lightweight great Ken Buchanan.

The only complaint, perhaps, is the setting. The bout (ESPN+, Sky Sports, 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT) will happen at the OVO Hydro arena in Glasgow. No moat there. It has none of the magic of that castle, the one on a hilltop in Edinburgh about eight miles from Prestonpans, a mining town where Taylor grew up.

Taylor has long fantasized about a summer fight on a lawn in front of the castle or somewhere within the medieval walls. He talked about the possibility after taking possession of the belts in a decision over Jose Ramirez in Las Vegas last May. He talked about it before his long-awaited showdown with Ramirez. But there was no place at the roundtable for one of boxing’s royalty.

“I’m beginning to get to the point of telling them just to ram it,’’ Taylor told The Herald, a Glasgow newspaper, before his two-knockdown victory over Ramirez at Vegas’ Virgin Hotels. “It’s beyond me why the people at the castle don’t want to have one of their natives and have a massive historical event there.

“Yet they’ll let Lady Gaga or someone go up there and have a concert. It’s beyond me, the logic.’’

But history is not beyond him. There’s plenty of talk that his homecoming is also his goodbye to the junior-welterweight division. A jump up the scale makes sense. There’s not much else he can do at 140 pounds. Other than The Ring’s version, the acronym-sponsored titles come up with a succession of mandatories and sanctioning fees. That’s what Catterall is. He’s the WBO’s mandatory challenger.

In a move to welterweight, Taylor moves up to challenges he has long envisioned. He has talked about Terence Crawford for a couple of years. At 5-10, he’s two inches taller than Crawford. At 31, he’s four years younger. It’s time.

The problem is Crawford’s lawsuit against his former promoter, Bob Arum, Taylor’s current promoter. It was filed not long after Crawford’s November stoppage of Shawn Porter in a victory that enhanced his pound-for-pound credentials in the ongoing debate with Canelo Alvarez, still No. 1 in most rankings.

Crawford alleges racism, among other things. As long as the lawsuit is pending, the inflammatory allegations aren’t exactly a way of bringing Arum to the bargaining table.

Still, Taylor, who argues that Crawford – not Canelo –is pound-for-pound No. 1, believes the fight could happen. He has mentioned Crawford several times throughout the media tour for the Catterall bout.

The lawsuit, Taylor told FightHype.com “is a bit of an obstacle. But I still believe it’s a very doable fight. We’re both sort of in the same house. It looks like it can be made. I think it can be made.’’

Crazier things have been made in boxing, where today’s enemy is tomorrow’s business partner. The hostility between Crawford and Arum could be part of the promotion. Bad blood sells.

There are other possibilities. Taylor has also mentioned Errol Spence Jr. and Yordenis Ugas, who are scheduled to fight April 16 on the Dallas Cowboys home field at AT&T Stadium in Arlington TX. But Crawford is always first and foremost in any Taylor talk about the welterweight division.

“That’s the fight that would give me the fear factor and push me to new heights,” Taylor told The Guardian. “Otherwise, if you don’t have that kind of challenge, you go stale.’’

Going stale is also no way to get into that old, upscale house on top of a Scottish hill.

By Norm Frauenheim –

It looks as if Canelo Alvarez has more deals on the bargaining table these days than he has clubs in his golf bag. There’s no end to the reported options or the money. Mostly, the money.

The unsourced reports are all over the proverbial ballpark. Eight-five million dollars here. A hundred-million over there. Only the B-word — as in billion — hasn’t been reported. Given today’s inflation rate, that one can’t be too far away.

It’s always safe to attach some skepticism to the dollar sign next to those eight and nine-figure sums. When talks begin at boxing’s bargaining table, they might as well be speaking Russian. The numbers are hard to understand. Harder to believe. But they do include some lessons, especially for David Benavidez. He continues to be the odd man out.

He knows that. He’s known it for a while.

“Of course, I want to fight Canelo, (Caleb) Plant, (Jermall) Charlo, any of those guys,’’ Benavidez, a Phoenix native, said Wednesday during a media workout featuring middleweight prospect Diego Pacheco in Rancho Fe, CA. “But they don’t want to fight me, so I’ll fight who I have to fight, become a world champion until they have no choice but to face me.”

The abundance of Canelo’s options and his proven pay-per-view numbers allow him to do whatever he wants. For now and probably for a while, what he doesn’t want is a date with Benavidez.

Instead, all of the reports point to a Matchroom Boxing deal for a Canelo fight in May with light-heavyweight Dmitry Bivol that could lead to a third bout with Gennadiy Golovkin, according to ESPN. As of Friday, however, there was no agreement.

“About my next fight nothing is confirmed,’’ Canelo said in a tweet Thursday.

ESPN reported that GGG has yet to agree. He’s training for a bout at middleweight in Japan with Ryota Murata in April. He’s expected to beat Murata. But he’s past his prime and a third fight with Canelo is past its due date. GGG turns 40 on April 9. He still argues that he beat Canelo, first in a fight judged to be a draw in 2017 and then a rematch that Canelo won by majority decision in September 2018.

The lingering controversy perhaps is still reason enough for a third fight. It’s a chance for Canelo to shut up the doubters, once and for all. For the aging GGG, it’s a chance to make his point and an opportunity at one more big payday. But it’s a little late in the game.

The momentum, at least among younger fans, is swinging increasingly toward Benavidez-versus-Canelo.

On their respective career paths, Benavidez and GGG are going in opposite directions. GGG’s best days are behind him. Benavidez’ best is still ahead of him. The two-time former super-middleweight champion, who is expected face David Lemieux in a spring bout perhaps in hometown Phoenix, is about 15 years younger than GGG. He turned 25 on December 17.

That’s why Canelo appears to be leaning toward a deal that leads to GGG instead of a reported PBC offer that would have led to Benavidez.

On the risk-to-reward ratio – a formula that Canelo has learned and applied ever since his lone loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September 2013, the choice is easy. Frustrating too, for Benavidez and his growing crowd of supporters who see him as the only real threat to Canelo Inc.

By Norm Frauenheim-

It’s never been much of a secret. It could be a great fight. Now, it’s official. Shakur Stevenson-versus-Oscar Valdez Jr. is going to happen

Stevenson and Valdez formally signed Thursday for a junior-lightweight fight projected for April 30 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand. Top Rank posted photos on social media of each fighter sealing the deal for a bout that has been in the works for at least a month.

In hindsight, it’s a fight that’s been inevitable for a couple of years. Both are unbeaten. Both have belts. Both are Top Rank fighters, meaning there weren’t the usual hurdles that keep rival promoters from ever getting to the table.

There’s been speculation that the deal wasn’t done a few weeks ago because Stevenson wanted provisions about drug testing written into the contract. That’s reasonable, given the furor over Valdez’ positive test for a stimulant – phentermine – about a month before his Sept.10 fight with Robson Conceicao in Tucson, Valdez’ second home.

Valdez was allowed to fight because of different rules – WADA instead of VADA — regulating the bout on Pascua Yaqui land. Valdez went on to retain his World Boxing Council title, scoring a debatable decision over Conceicao. But the controversy lingers. 

It’ll still be there, part of the story, if not the marketing.  For Valdez, it figures to be a source of motivation. The fight is an opportunity for him to get past the controversy. It’s still not clear why he tested positive. He blamed a herbal tea. 

But the social-media mob believes that one about as much as it believes Canelo Alvarez’ claim that tainted beef was the reason he tested positive in 2018 for clenbuterol, a steroid, before his rematch with Gennadiy Golovkin.

Canelo went on to answer the furor by beating Golovkin in a postponed bout. What controversy? Just a few days before the Super Bowl, here’s an old, yet always relevant quote from late Raiders owner Al Davis.

Just win, baby.

Question the ethics, but not the effectiveness. Winning works, especially in a game where ethics are, well, negotiable.

For Valdez, however, victory won’t be as likely as the “just” in Davis’ enduring line might suggest. 

Winning has been predictable for Canelo, now a Valdez stablemate whose current negotiations might lead to a bout, also in Las Vegas on May 7, the Saturday after the projected date for Valdez-Stevenson. Winning is all Canelo has done. He’s 8-0, post-clenbuterol.

Stevenson has already opened as the betting favorite, according to some online books. He’s at minus-250, making him a 5-2 favorite. That puts Stevenson’s chances at 71.4 percent. Don’t be surprised if the odds in his favor grow. 

He’s got all the documented advantages. At 24, he’s seven years younger than the 31-year-old Valdez. Stevenson is two inches taller and has a two-inch advantage in reach.

The numbers, however, don’t measure the intangibles, especially Valdez’ tenacity. It’s off the charts. Put it this way: Valdez is never in an easy fight. He’s never lost one either, including a crazy night nearly four years ago in the rain at Carson CA when he overcame a broken jaw to score a unanimous decision over a bigger Scott Quigg.

Despite the victory, there were doubts about whether there was much left of Valdez after that bloody night. Turns out there was plenty, including a stunning knockout of heavily favored Miguel Berchelt a year ago.

Then, there was the bigger Conceicao, who was beating Valdez through the first half of their fight on a hot desert day in an outdoor ring in Tucson. But Valdez battled back – both from potential distractions brought on by the PED controversy and Conceicao’s early advantage. 

So far, Valdez’ tenacity has been inexhaustible. Nobody bites down quite the way he does.

It’s a factor that’s hard to quantify and harder to predict. But if that Valdez tenacity is still there, it could test Stevenson in ways he has never been tested. 

For Stevenson, this a fight for pound-for-pound recognition. It’s a potential springboard to the stardom many believed was there when he came home from Brazil with a 2012 Olympic silver medal.

For both, the fight is defining. For different reasons, it’s personal, which is another way of saying the stakes have never been more dramatic. This deal has a chance to be a classic. An official one.

LAS VEGAS – Keith Thurman calls it the beginning of another campaign, a second fight in an attempt to reclaim the welterweight perch he once called home, But that old home is already occupied. It belongs to Terence Crawford. In the spring, maybe the winner of the projected

Errol Spence Jr.-Yordenis Ugas will move in.

For now, at least, Thurman is just a guy in line hoping for a chance to get the keys to the top of the 147-pound division.

He put himself back in that line Saturday night with his first fight in more than 30 months. He won a unanimous decision over Mario Barrios in Fox pay-per-view telecast at Mandalay Bay.

He was good. But not great.

“I give myself a C-plus, B-minus,’’ Thurman (30-1, 22 KOs) said after winning a 118-110, 117-111, 118-110 victory.

That’s a grade that puts him in class behind Crawford and perhaps a few others. But Thurman, who calls himself One Time, says he’s in no hurry.

In Barrios, he was just looking to get back in the hunt.

He calls himself One Time. But he hasn’t been seen in a long time, or at least not since he lost a decision to Manny Pacquiao in July 2019.

Thurman suggests he’s going to be seen often for at least the next 10 months.

“I’m looking forward to a better year in 2022,’’ he said. “I want the belts, I want all the champions, baby.’’

Only time will tell if in fact his one-sided victory over Barrios is the springboard to a showdown with Crawford or a fight with the Spence-Ugas winner.

Barrios was a fight that got him back in the ring. It also was his first real payday in more than two years.

Through the first five rounds, he looked a lot like the old Thurman. His feet moved relentlessly in a lateral dance that began to make Barrios look confused, if not downright dizzy.

Barrios, a former junior welterweight fighting at 147 pounds for the first time, left himself open. But some of Thurman’s power just wasn’t there. He missed the KO shots he would have landed five years ago.

It was kind of the fight I expected,’’ Barrios (26-2, 17 KOs) said. “He’s a great fighter.’’

But Barrios tested that perceived greatness in the later rounds when some of the energy in Thurman’s legs seemed drain way. A well-placed punch from Thurman opened a nasty cut above Barrios’ left eye in the eighth.

Barrios was hurt, yet also re-energized. He went at Thurman, rocking him with a left hand.

Suddenly, Thurman looked all of his 33 years, a little bit like a guy looking more for a retirement home than his old residence near or at the top of the welterweight division.

Leo Santa Cruz was looking for a tune-up. He got a test, instead.

Santa Cruz (38-2-1, 19 KOs) fighting for the first time since he was knocked out by Gervonta Davis in October 2020, was forced to work 10 rounds Saturday by Keenan Carbajal (23-3-1, 15 KOs), a Phoenix fighter who many thought was way over his head in challenging one of the great featherweights of his generation.

Santa Cruz, a 12-to-1 favorite at opening bell, looked rusty early. He looked rusty late. In part, he was bothered by a nasty cut across his left eyelid, caused by a headbutt with the bigger Carbajal in the second round.On the scorecards, at least, Santa Cruz was never in peril in what the last fight before the the Keith Thurman-Mario Barrios main event at Mandalay. He won by a shutout, 100-90 on all three cards. From round-to-round, he scoreed repeatedly with body shots and a relentless pursuit.

Carbajal, who was nearl;y three inches taller, never could use his height to to uncork a powerful uppercut.In the later rounds. He seemed to back as, is to say that. Santa Cruz’ body shots were having the intended effect.

Jesus Ramos wins sixth-round TKO

It was beginning to look like a long night for Arizona.

But that all changed, thanks to Jesus Ramos.

There would be no 0-for-AZ on a card that featured four Arizona fighters on the Fox pay-per-view telecast of a card featuring Keith-Thurman-Mario Barrios Saturday at Mandalay Bay.

Jesus Ramos (18-0, 15 KOs), of Casa Grande, stepped through the ropes after Phoenix junior-featherweight Carlos Castro lost a split decision to Luis Nery and brother Abel Ramos lost a unanimous decision to Luke Santamaria in a welterweight bout.

In what was an immediate slugest, Jesus Ramos’ power and poise prevailed. He stopped Vladimir Hernanadez (13-5, 6 KOs), of Mexico, with a big left followed by a beautifully-executed combination. It left Hernandez dazed and done, a TKO loser at 2:21 of the sixth round.

Luis Nery scores split decision over Carlos Castro

Carlos Castro entered the ring hoping to get his world-class credentials punched.

He left the ring without the credentials.

They didn’t get punched.

He did.

In a painful lesson Saturday night on the Fox pay-per-view telecast of the Keith Thurman-Mario Barrios fight at Mandalay Bay Saturday, Castro (27-1, 12 KOs) was dealt a loss that could force him to re-set his goals. Luis Nery (32-1, 24 KOs), a former champion at two weights, beat him.

The loss itself was controversial. It was a split decision. Judge Tim Cheatham scored it 95-94 for Castro. Max DeLuca had it 95-94 and Steve Weisfeld 96-93, both for Nery. On the 15 Rounds card, it was 96-93 for Nery, who floored the Phoenix fighter in the opening seconds of the junior-featherweight bout.

Nery’s early salvo, a jab followed by concussive left, sent an early message. It set the tone for the next nine rounds. Castro appeared tentative. For about three rounds, he tried to stay away. He fought behind a cautious jab. By the fifth he appeared to regain his footing and much of his poise. He began to land sporadic shots against Nery. It appeared as though the Tijuana fighter was coasting to what he thought was an easy win. That might explain Cheatham’s scorecard.

But there was never a moment in the mid-to-late rounds when it looked as if Castro had enough power to gain the momentum or even keep the aggressive Nery off him. In the eighth and again in ninth, Nery drove Castro into the ropes and unleashed a succession of deadly punches, all of which left Castro with a collection of more questions than credentials.

Abel Ramos loses unanimous decision

Abel Ramos started fast. Faded fast, too.

Ramos, the first of four Arizona fighters on the Thurman-Barrios-featured card Saturday,  couldn’t sustain his early pace and power, allowing Luke Santamaria to gain enough momentum to win a unanimous decision.at Mandalay Bay.

From A-to-Z, Ramos (27-5-2, 21 KOs), a welterweight from Casa Grande, looked to be the better fighter. In the opening moments, he landed a left that sent Santamaria (13-3-1, 7 KOs), of Garden Grove CA, backpedaling across the ring. Ramos pursued, but couldn’t finish the job.

Slowly and almost deliberately, Santamaria fought his way back into the fight. By the middle wounds, he was beating Ramos to the punch. By the ninth and 10th, he was in control .Of the ring. 

And the scorecards (96-94, 98-92, 96.94) 

Mexican welterweight Omar Juarez wins split-decision

It was close. Controversial, too. In the end, it belonged to Omar Juarez, a welterweight from Brownsville TX.

Juarez (13-1, 5 KOs) prevailed after about an hour-long intermission on the card featuring Keith Thurman-Mario Barrios at Mandalay Bay. Correction. Let’s say he survived, overcoming a point penalty for throwing an elbow and repeated power shots straight down the middle from fellow Texan Ryan Karl (19-4, 12 KOs), a cowboy from Milano. 

Karl got rocked repeatedly from looping counters. He also came back from a deep wound above his left. Blood, brighter than his red hair, poured down his face and across chest. In the end, two scorecards favored Juarez, 95-94 and 96-93. The third card went to Karl, 95-94 

Bloody cut forces quick end to junior-welterweight bout 

A bloody cut, ruled to be the result of a punch instead of a head butt, brought a quick end to a junior-welterweight bout between Keith Hunter (14-1, 9 KOs) and Jesus Silveyra (10-7-2, 4 KOs) in the fourth fight on the Thurman-Barrios card.

Hunter, of Las Vegas, got the victory at 1:42 of the first round. Blood poured from the wound and into Silveyra’s left eye. The ringside physician ruled that it would have affected the Mexican’s vision. Referee Russell Mora ruled that a punch caused the injury.

Junior-welterweights fight to debatable draw

Enriko Gogokhia (14-0-1, 8 KOs), a junior-welterweight from The Republic of Georgia, scored two knockdowns, but that wasn’t enough for the judges scoring the third bout on the Thurman-Barrios card.. Gogokhia wound up with a split draw after a back-and-forth eight rounds with elusive Kent Cruz (16-0-2, 10 KOs), a St. Louis fighter who was dropped twice in the fifth round by short right hands.

Fernando Vargas Jr. flashes dad’s old power for TKO win

Fernando Vargas was back in the Vegas arena where he lost to Oscar De Hoya nearly 20 years ago. The place hasn’t changed much.

But Vargas left it as a winner this time.

His son, junior-middleweight Fernando Vargas Jr. (5-0, 5 KOs), dominated, flashing some of dad’s old power en-route to a third TKO victory. With his dad in his corner, Vargas Junior scored two knockdowns, flooring Kody Kobowski (2-1, 2 KOs, of Ventura CA, in the first and again in the third in the second bout on the Thurman-Barrios card at Mandalay Bay. That’s where De La Hoya knocked out Vargas Sr. in a memorable fight on Sept. 14, 2002.

First Bell: Welterweight Joba Rincon opens the show, wins unanimous decision 

It’s early. It’s empty. But it’s underway.

Joba Rincon (6-0, 2 KOs), a welterweight from Corpus Christi TX, fired the first salvos, landing most of them for a unanimous decision over Mexican Ramon Marquez (4-1, 4 KOs) in an afternoon matinee in front of empty seats in the first bout on a  card featuring Keith Thurman-Mario Barrios Saturday at Mandalay Bay’s Michelob-Ultra Arena