By Norm Frauenheim-

LAS VEGAS – Time is in his nickname. But time is not on his side.

Keith Thurman, who calls himself One Time, faces the inevitable.  At 33, the former welterweight champion is confronted by the calendar, the ceaseless career clock, that says not much prime time is left.

It’s easy to make fun of Thurman’s nickname. He hears it often.

“People can say what they want,’’ Thurman (29-1, 22 KOs) said a few weeks before his comeback Saturday night against Mario Barrios (26-1, 17 KOs) in a Fox-pay-per-view telecast (9 pm ET/6pm. PT) at Mandalay Bay’s Michelob Ultra Arena. “Thurman ‘sometimes,’ ‘one time’, ‘no time.’

“Say what you want. I see your comments. Say what you want. But Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman will always be one of the best welterweights in the welterweight division today.”

But all the mocking has yet to include the inevitable:

Out Of Time.

That prospect approaches and might bring a growing sense of urgency to Thurman’s first fight in more than 30 months.

Thurman’s pursuit of legacy and a spot in the Hall of Fame has been interrupted by injuries, or the Pandemic, or boxing’s balkanized politics, or all of the above during the five years since he held two of the 147-pound belts in 2017. Then, it looked as if anything was possible. Now, not so much.

Instead, there are questions. Maybe, Thurman knocks them out against Barrios, a former junior-welterweight who is fighting for the first time at 147 pounds. But there are doubts, all still there after Thurman lost a split decision to Manny Pacquiao in July 2019.

There’s enough doubt, in fact, that a panel of trainers picked Barrios, who has Virgil Hunter in his corner, to upset Thurman during a zoom session Tuesday.

“I truly believe Mario Barrios has a great chance of beating Thurman, especially since Thurman has been out for so long and he’s made millions of dollars, so that changes anybody,’’ Robert Garcia said, “He’s (Thurman) gonna say he’s been training 10, 12 months, non-stop.

“But he could be saying that, it might not be true. I can’t wait for this fight, I’m actually excited about this fight, but I truly believe Barrios has whatever it takes to win.”

Thurman, about a 2-to-1 favorite, says a lot, of course. He’s a tireless self-promoter. His confidence has been evident throughout the sales-pitch for the Fox telecast, which has been criticized for it $75 pay-per-view price tag. 

At the formal weigh-in Friday, he laughed at any suggestion that Barrios had a chance.

“He already knows what’s up,’’ Thurman said after weighing in at 145.5 pounds. “Keep your hands up, defend yourself at all times, because you’re about to get your ass knocked out.’’

But the weigh-in also included one fact that could not be explained away. Barrios is bigger. In posing for the cameras, Barrios stood taller, looked broader. He also weighed more, He came in at 146.25 pounds.

“I’m just more comfortable now,’’ said Barrios, who was knocked out by Gervonta Davis in his last outing at 140 pounds in a June loss in Atlanta. “I feel better, stronger. This is my natural weight.’’

Barrios is also 26. He’s seven years younger, which only means he’s got more of the time that is no longer there for Thurman.

By Norm Frauenheim-

LAS VEGAS – It’s a noisy business. Maybe that’s why you haven’t heard much about – or from – Carlos Castro. 

He’s the quiet guy in a contentious crowd full of tireless trash-talkers who work harder in social media than they do in the gym. In Jake Paul’s world, clicks are more valuable than punches. A twitter account is today’s bully pulpit.

But Castro confines his craft – and perhaps his identity — to doing the work where it has always been done.

In the gym. 

And within the ropes.

That’s where he’ll be Saturday night at Mandalay Bay on a Fox pay-per-view card featuring seldom-seen Keith Thurman in his first fight in 30 months against newly-minted welterweight Mario Barrios.

For Castro (27-0, 12 KOs), the fight is a huge step. He faces Luis Nery (31-1, 24 KOs) in a junior-featherweight fight that could lead to a world-title shot against Stephen Fulton or Uzbek Murodjon Akhmadaliev, each of whom have two of the division’s significant belts.

A Castro victory over Nery, a former two-time champion, would speak volumes. Just don’t expect the volume to come from Castro, 

The bout is a chance at affirmation for the Phoenix fighter, one of four Arizona fighters (also Keenan Carbajal of Phoenix and the Ramos brothers, Abel and Jesus, of Casa Grande) scheduled to appear in Las Vegas on the same night when DAZN is scheduled for another PPV card featuring Carlos Cuadras-versus-Jesse Rodriguez at Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix. Location, location, location??? 

Cuadras-Rodriguez might be a good fight on an otherwise shuffled card. But it’s in the wrong place on the wrong night. Footprint, the Suns home arena, has 18,422 seats. A good bet is that there will be more people at the FanDuel book on the concourse level than in the arena’s seats at opening bell.

Arizona’s fight crowd figures to watch Castro, instead. If you haven’t heard about him yet, he’s hoping you will with a victory that will finally affirm his place on the world-class stage.

“He’s already one of the best in the world at junior-feather and featherweight,’’ his longtime promoter Robert Vargas of Iron Boy Promotions said. “He knows that. He’s proven it. But he just needs the victory that will get people talking about him.

“A win over Nery, a really tough guy, could do it.’’

It could. But a victory over Nery would also qualify as a mild upset, at least according to the prevailing odds. Castro is plus-140, meaning he’s a 7-to-5 underdog. On the percentage scale, that means he has less than a 50-50 chance at beating Nery, an aggressive lefthander from Tijuana. His chances? 41.7 percent.

There are countless ways to interpret the narrow odds. In part, they look to be based on simply who’s better known. That would be Nery. But Castro has been patiently working his way into the collective awareness of fight fans. He did so in February 2019 with a one-sided decision (110-90, 99-91,98-92) over Filipino Genesis Servania, who knocked down Oscar Valdez and had the current junior-lightweight champion in trouble throughout a 2017 Tucson fight. Valdez escaped with a decision (117-109, 116-110, 115-111).

That’s when Vargas and Castro knew they could play on the world-class stage. But Castro’s patient work ethic kept him from bragging. Kept him off social media, too. All the way, he continued to work on developing his skillset and upper body. Power has been a question, one that looms large against Nery. Does he have enough of it to keep the Mexican off of him?

We’ll see. In an eye-opening performance on a card featuring Yordenis Ugas’ upset of Manny Pacquiao last August, Castro flashed newfound power in scoring a 10^th-round stoppage of former contender Oscar Escandon in a featherweight bout. At 37, Escandon might not have had much left.

But he still had enough power to hurt Castro. He did. But that’s when Castro displayed newfound command of an evolving skillset. For nine-plus rounds, he did it all. 

All, and even more, might be necessary against Nery, whose lone defeat is a stoppage loss to Brandon Figueroa in his last bout.

“This the beginning of a new chapter to my career,’’ Castro said after the Escandon stoppage, his first bout with former Valdez trainer Manny Robles in his corner.

The career’s beginning was humble. Castro, now 27, arrived in Arizona from Obregon, Mexico as a 3-year-old. He grew up in trailer park in southwest Phoenix. The surrounding streets only led to trouble. Vargas said his father decided to get him into one of the countless mom-and-pop boxing gyms that dot the Phoenix landscape. 

Vargas signed him as a 17-year-old with a long amateur career. He labored – always quietly – on small cards in Phoenix. He also labored as a landscaper to support his family. He‘s a husband. And a dad. Now, he’s a contender, one step from a shot at the world title he has always wanted.

By today’s chest-thumping standards, that’s reason to brag. But there is no boast in Castro’s skillset. He’ll let a victory over Nery speak for itself. At least, he hopes one will.

By Norm Frauenheim-

Can anyone make sense of the heavyweight mess? Sorry for the stupid question. But boxing’s old flagship is awash in uncertainty and misinformation these days

Three fights are apparently under consideration. Apparently is the key word here, simply because it’s hard to know who or what to believe.

The reported options:

A – Oleksandr Usyk-Anthony Joshua.

B – Usyk-Tyson Fury

C – Fury-Dillian Whyte

Best guess, C. At least, that was the early leader about 24 hours before a re-scheduled purse bid Friday at the World Boxing Council’s offices in Mexico City.

Fury, who has been as loud and unbelievable as ever for the last couple of weeks, appeared on social media early Thursday shouting out a promise that suggests Whyte is next.

“I can’t wait to punch Dillian Whyte’s face right in, mate,” said Fury on video posted to UK promoter Frank Warren’s Twitter account. “I’m going to give him the best hiding he’s ever had in his life, boy. Dillian Whyte, train hard sucker, cause you’re getting annihilated, bum.”

Fury says a lot of things, of course. Let’s just say his punches are more accurate than his talk. But maybe – only maybe – he dropped a reliable hint at what’s up. Warren is his promoter. Early Thursday, there were already reports that Fury-Whyte would happen in March in the UK.

But don’t be surprised if there’s news that Fury has said something different, delivered some sort of late reversal, before or after the scheduled meeting. Nobody throws a more artful feint than Fury.

After all, the purse bid had been postponed twice. Whyte apparently had been unhappy at the reported split – 20 percent for him and 80 for Fury, the WBC’s defending champion. Be 100 percent skeptical.

Even if this purse bid results in an agreement for a so-called mandatory defense, skepticism about when and where is, well, mandatory. In Saudi or Saturn, there might not be enough money to fill the purse that Fury and Whyte hope to divide.

After all, it’s not Fury-Usyk. It’s not Fury-Joshua, a fight that was proposed yet never came off last year despite reports of a $150-million offer from the Saudis. Instead, there was an arbiter’s ruling that resulted in Fury’s dramatic stoppage of Deontay Wilder in the 2021 Fight of the Year last October.

Fury-Whyte simply looms as a prelim, one step and untold sums of money before the main event. Maybe, that’s unfair, at least to Whyte. He’s a solid heavyweight, yet unknown to fans outside of the UK. That might be his best chance against Fury.

For the world’s best-known heavyweight, there might not be as much motivation for Whyte as there would be for better wages against the better-known Usyk or Joshua.

As it is, there already have been reports about negotiations for an immediate fight between Fury and Usyk, who took four of the heavyweight belts in a stunning unanimous decision over Joshua in September.

There are also widespread reports that Joshua turned down so-called step-aside money. He would have withdrawn from his contracted right for an immediate Usyk rematch, making way for Fury-Usyk.

Step-aside, however, might hasten a permanent step-away from a ring career. His confidence looks broken ever since his upset loss by stoppage to Andy Ruiz in 2019. Acceptance of step-aside cash would only be a further sign of a shot fighter. The message: Take the money, and you’re done.

According to The Telegraph, however, the money was more than just a step aside. It was a step into some serious cash. The UK newspaper reported that the offer was for 15-million pounds. That’s 20,082,150 dollars.More, maybe, than Fury-Whyte is worth

By Norm Frauenheim-

Canelo Alvarez has options. David Benavidez has only frustration.

Canelo’s future has become a multiple-choice game. He was thinking about cruiserweight. Then, there are reports about a super-middleweight defense against a middleweight champion. Or, maybe a light-heavyweight challenge between tee times.

None of the above. Or all of the above. Benavidez is not among the reported possibilities, despite a growing number of fans and pundits who are calling for Canelo to fight him. ESPN’s Tim Bradley is just the latest to cast his vote for Canelo-Benavidez.

‘’That’s the guy that everybody wants to see him face, you know,’’ Bradley said during an ESPN telecast about the mounting speculation surrounding Canelo’s next fight.

But, you know, Benavidez is the one guy Canelo isn’t considering. His trainer, Eddy Reynoso, said so, eliminating Benavidez from a projected May 7 date.

Actually, Reynoso did more than eliminate Benavidez. He insulted him, or at least dismissed his resume. It just doesn’t measure up, Reynoso said in so many words. That brought on an inevitable counter from Benavidez, who extended his unbeaten record (25-0, 22 KOs) with a stoppage of Kyrone Davis in front of a roaring hometown crowd of about 8,000 in downtown Phoenix Nov. 13.

“It kind of, like, frustrates me now that everybody’s coming out and saying I haven’t fought nobody, that I’ve never fought on pay-per-views, I’m nobody, this and that,” Benavidez said during an appearance on the Calling Russ Anber podcast. “You can say all that, but I’m going through the ranks at super middleweight. I’ve been number one like three fights already. I’ve been beating the people I have to beat.

“The people love to see me fight, so why wouldn’t he want to fight me?’’

Good question.

Other than an opening bell, there’s not a very good answer. Inevitably, there’s talk that Canelo is simply ducking Benavidez. Maybe.

For now, however, there’s only one thing that seems to guide Canelo’s thinking on who he will — or won’t fight. A belt has to be involved. Benavidez doesn’t have one. At least, he doesn’t anymore. The World Boxing Council’s 168-pound belt was taken from him twice, first for testing positive for cocaine and then for not making weight.

Belts are like hood ornaments. They’re cheap and plentiful. But Canelo still places value on them. They are symbols, perhaps, in the history Canelo says he is pursuing.

Presumably, that’s why Reynoso mentioned cruiserweight Illungu Makabu. Makabu has a belt, the WBC’s version. A two-division jump up the scale generated a lot of headlines and social-media talk. But the possibility has cooled over the last several weeks. Makabu defends his title on Jan. 29 against Thabiso Mchunu Jan. 29 on a Don King-promoted card in Warren, Ohio.

King, of course, is still trying to trumpet the Canelo possibility. After all, he has to sell the pay-per-view. But even King hinted that Canelo’s interest has cooled.

“Hopefully, I can get him to come on in to the fight,’’ King said last week during a Zoom session for a card scheduled for a chilly locale. “So far, he don’t want to come in to that cold snow. Maybe, the sun will shine one day.’’

And, maybe, Canelo will fight Jermall Charlo instead. Talks for a May fight with Charlo, first reported by ESPN, make more sense than a risky jump up to cruiserweight.

Against Charlo, Canelo would eliminate much of the risk and retain all of the reward. It would be Charlo’s first fight at 168 pounds. But he has the one thing Benavidez doesn’t. He has a belt, the WBC’s 160-pound version.

The other Canelo possibility is at light-heavy. Joe Smith Jr. and Dmitry Bivol have been mentioned. They, too, have one thing in common: A belt. Smith retained the World Boxing Organization’s 175-pound version with a stoppage of Steve Geffrard. Bivol has a World Boxing Association belt.

Without one, Benavidez has only frustration.

His immediate future figures to include faded Montreal middleweight David Lemieux. Caleb Plant is also there. Plant is looking for a comeback from his one-sided loss to Canelo, who took his International Boxing Federation belt in a beatdown that ended in an 11^th-round TKO on Nov. 6.

Benavidez and Plant had set the stage for a showdown with trash-talking exchanges. But it all ended when Canelo decided he wanted another belt. Benavidez-Plant could still be a good fight.

For Benavidez, it also would be a yardstick, one way to measure himself against the pay-per-view star who continues to elude him.

A stoppage of Plant in an earlier round than the 11^th would give Benavidez some bragging rights. That’s better than just more of the same frustration.

By Norm Frauenheim-

It’s a lawsuit that probably shouldn’t surprise anybody. Its inevitability was evident throughout an awkward news conference a couple of months ago.

Bob Arum and Terence Crawford looked like a couple headed to divorce court after Crawford’s stoppage of Shawn Porter on Nov. 20.

The fight itself was worth celebrating. But the post-fight newser was troublesome, another sign of a game going nowhere. Arum frowned. Crawford, whose Top Rank contract expired the second Porter’s dad/trainer threw in the towel, said he was moving on. Wednesday, we found out where he’s headed.

For now, at least, Crawford is moving only into the legal ring with a lawsuit filed in Las Vegas’ Clark County District Court. The 23-page document accuses Top Rank of racism and breach of contract.

Arum called it frivolous. Crawford’s attorneys called it a lot of other things, most of which mean the same thing.  (Insert F-word of choice here). The suit is generating lots of social-media heat. But it’s anybody’s guess whether it does much more than that.

There are some predictions that it’ll go the way of a Golden Boy Promotions anti-trust suit against PBC (Premier Boxing Champions). That one was filed in May 2015. About 19 months later, it was in the trash.

A federal judge dismissed the case in January 2017 because of Golden Boy’s failure “to demonstrate that there is a genuine issue of material fact.’’ Translation: No evidence. Let a judge decide the merits of this one.

But you don’t need a law degree to wonder about the timing. For Crawford, time is everything. He’s 34 now. He’ll be 35 in September. Prime time is slipping through the hour glass. Nineteen months from now, he’ll be nearly 36.

Right now, he needs a fight more than a lawsuit against his former promoter   

Nothing in a legal brief or a courtroom will further Crawford’s claim on the top spot in the pound-for-pound debate or enhance his Hall of Fame legacy. He can do that only in the boxing ring.

Maybe, that move is forthcoming. Maybe, he’ll announce his next fight tomorrow or next week, or next month. Maybe, the lawsuit is the first step toward a deal with another promoter in what would be a new chapter to an otherwise unappreciated career.

This lawsuit, like any other, will wait. Even if it moves forward to a trial, it will sit forgotten on a docket long after the due date on its relevance has expired.

Crawford’s brilliance in the ring – he’s still No. 1 in this pound-for-pound rating – hasn’t been complemented by what he’s done, or not done, outside of the ropes.

The lawsuit’s many issues center around the allegation that Top Rank failed to turn him into a pay-per-view star. His PPV record is dismal, including a reported 130,000 customers for his powerful statement win against Porter.

Those PPV numbers have left him with little bargaining power, despite his pound-for-pound acclaim. The public clamors for Crawford to fight Errol Spence Jr.

But Spence is demanding a 60-40 share of the total purse, because his PPV record proves he’s the bigger draw. Fifty-fifty or nothing, counters Crawford, who is as proud as he is defiant.

So far, it’s been nothing, nada.

Do you blame stubborn demands from both corners? Do you blame Top Rank for failing to fulfill alleged promises it can’t really keep? Do you blame a shrinking boxing market? Boxing’s gilded age – the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather era – is gone.

For now, boxing’s traditional ranks (sorry, Jake Paul) include only one proven PPV star – Canelo Alvarez. He followed Mayweather. They turned themselves into PPV stars. They broke with their promoters.

Mayweather paid Arum $750,000 to get out of his Top Rank contract in 2006. At the time, he was collecting Crawford-like wages — between $3 and $5 million per fight. Crawford earned a reported $6 million for his victory over Porter.

In November 2020, Canelo split with Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. His $250-million complaint “was resolved to everyone’s satisfaction,’’ De La Hoya said at the time.

Both took a risk that Crawford did not. A lawsuit won’t change that.

By Norn Frauenheim-

Year-enders, 2021 awards and 2022 projections, were notable for one traditional category that was mostly overlooked, if not missing altogether.

There wasn’t a whole lot of talk about fights we want to see. Maybe, that’s because only another rematch with COVID-19 seems to matter.

The New Year is only a week old, yet already there are more of the cancellations/postponements that drained enthusiasm and energy from boxing. This one is being blamed on omicron. It’s a so-called variant. From this corner, however, nothing about it has varied from exactly a year ago. Same old virus, same old buzz kill.  

It’s hard to get excited, even sustain interest when it’s uncertain exactly when or even whether an opening bell will happen.

The latest sign was news Thursday that light-heavyweight Joe Smith Jr. was looking for a new opponent for his title defense, still scheduled for Jan. 15 in Verona, N.Y., because UK challenger Callum Johnson tested positive.

“It’s a real great shame for Callum,” his promoter Frank Warren told BBC Sport. “Hopefully we can get him back in, they may want to [reschedule the fight] in late spring.’’

The Top Rank card had already been hit by COVID. Emerging featherweight Abraham Nova of Albany, NY, was supposed to fight Mexican Jose Enrique Vivas. But the stubborn virus spread through Vivas’ camp, forcing him to withdraw. Instead, Nova will fight Dominican William Encarnacion.

If the card had been scheduled for the UK, there would have been no uncertainty. No doubt at all. The date would have been off. Ring lights in the UK will be dark throughout January. Boxing won’t resume until at least Feb. 1, according to news from the British Boxing Board of Control in a story reported this week by Boxing Scene.

The step was taken because of another huge COVID surge in Britain.  In the U.S. that’s ominous, another word for omicron.

What COVID does in the UK usually foretells what it’s about to do in the U.S.

Still, the American version of the game fights on. At least, for now.

There were weigh-ins Thursday for a card featuring junior-lightweights Luis Nunez (15-0, 8 KOs)-versus-Carlos Arrieta (14-0, 9 KOs). The card includes six unbeaten fighters in three bouts. It’s a ShoBox telecast scheduled for Friday (6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET, Showtime) from Orlando, home for Disney World.

It’s also in the heart of Florida, where – according to a University of Florida report –up to 80 percent of the state’s population will get COVID during the omicron wave.

With those kind of odds, it’ll be a huge upset if the fighters, fans, cornermen and officials don’t get infected. Put it this way: Getting vaccinated is the best bet. Hopefully, they all are.

By Norm Frauenheim-

Predictions, like glass jaws, are fragile. Hangovers from a New Year’s Eve party last longer.

The best resolution: Resolve to never make another one. That’s an old line, also a lesson forgotten quickly as one year ends and another begins.

Other than a surge in more COVID-related postponements, nothing is certain. But 2022’s opening bell means just about anything else can happen.

A few guesses:

It made for an entertaining headline, but don’t expect Canelo Alvarez to fight cruiserweight Ilunga Makabu, unknown until the possibility was introduced about a month ago. There are too many issues and maybe too much risk in moving up two weight classes. Don’t expect him to fight David Benavidez or Gennadiy Golovkin, either. Do expect him to fight Joe Smith Jr. in the super-middleweight champion’s first attempt to unify the light-heavyweight division.

Expect Benavidez to say, again and again, that Canelo is ducking him. He might be right. Fans and Floyd Mayweather Jr. agree with him. But Canelo doesn’t care. Boxing’s biggest draw can do whatever he wants. Instead, expect the maturing Benavidez, who turned 25 on Dec. 17, to blow out David Lemieux and then jump up the scale, from super-middle to light-heavy, in his chase to fight Canelo.

Terence Crawford isn’t underrated. He’s unappreciated. Maybe that changes in 2022, but don’t bet on it. Pay-per-view sales for his brilliant stoppage of Shawn Porter Nov. 20 were reported to be 135,000. Underperformed is how much of the media described the PPV. But it was devastating for what it says about the state of the game. Crawford’s versatility and old-school instinct – he’s a finisher – still makes him No. 1 in some pound-for-debates, including this one. But the PPV number says that most in the boxing audience don’t care. Or, maybe, it says that audience isn’t very big anymore. Or, maybe, they’re watching Jake Paul.

More Crawford: He announced he was moving on, leaving Top Rank after he forced Porter’s dad/trainer to throw in the towel. His PPV number in November makes free-agency in 2022 problematic. Still, the year is pivotal. He’ll be 35 on Sept. 28. Does he fight Josh Taylor? Taylor might be ready to jump from junior-welterweight to welter later this year. Taylor has the UK audience. But he’s a Top Rank fighter. Errol Spence is still there. But don’t be surprised if Spence finds more ways to not fight Crawford. November 20 was just another way. Crawford stopped Porter; Spence scored a split decision over Porter.

The lightweight division was called a modern version of The Four Kings – Devin Haney, Gervonta Davis, Ryan Garcia and Teofimo Lopez — after Lopez dethroned Vasiliy Lomachenko in October 2020. Don’t be surprised if Lomachenko is back as the only lightweight king before 2022 turns into 2023. He took one step in that direction with a solid decision over Richard Commey. Now, he’s talking about Australian Geroge Kambosos Jr., who made a mockery out of The Four Kings with a decision over Lopez. Guess here: He beats Kambosos.

Oleksandr Usyk might have the same problem against the best and biggest in the heavyweight division that fellow Ukrainian Lomachenko had in the lighter weights. There’s a reason for weight classes. Lomachenko, a natural featherweight, got hurt at 135 pounds. That leaves a question about Usyk, a natural cruiserweight. Dynamic skills and guile were enough to beat Anthony Joshua. Both should be enough for victory in the rematch, projected for April. Then, there’s a looming showdown with Tyson Fury, who may or may not fight Dillian Whyte first in a mandatory. It’s hard to say how Usyk does against Fury and his 6-foot-9 NBA dimensions. But it’s a reason to look forward to 2022.

Here’s wishing ring announcer David Diamante a full recovery, a Filipino presidency for Manny Pacquiao and a Happy 2022 to everybody.

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By Norm Fraienheim-

Another year ends the same way the last one did.  Good riddance. At least, the approaching New Year can’t be postponed. It feels as if just about everything in 2021 was.

Some of the same old trouble is surging all over again. It’s ominous, which today means omicron. From the NFL to the NHL, the Postponement Pandemic is back.

The good news is that boxing did in 2021 what it has always done. It bleeds, but never breaks. It survived. It came out of the bubble and hopefully will stay there. I like its chances, mostly because of an inexhaustible defiance that was expressed throughout a problematic year.

A look back:

Fight of the Year: It’s obvious. Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder 3 was wild, wildly wonderful enough to forget about variants and protocol. It knocked our masks off. Fury was down twice; Wilder was down twice. Then, Fury delivered the finishing blow in the 11th round of their second heavyweight rematch Oct. 9 in Las Vegas. Some complained that it wasn’t an exhibition of refined skill. So, go to a museum. It was fun for fans in desperate need of some.

Honorable Mention: Juan Francisco Estrada’s split-decision over Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez. It was controversial. It was crazy. Estrada threw 1,212 punches; Chocolatito 1,317. That’s 2,529 punches without a knockdown. In the end, both had enough energy to still be standing after the March 13 junior-bantamweight bout in Dallas.

Fighter of the Year: Canelo Alvarez. Busy was possible for just one fighter during the Postponement Pandemic. The reigning super-middleweight fought three times, winning each by stoppage –  first a gimme against overmatched Avni Yildirim, then a punishing one against a skilled Billy Joe Saunders and finally one over a limited Caleb Plant. The victories kept Canelo in the headlines and at the top of year-ending ballots.  

Honorable Mention: Oleksandr Usyk turned the heavyweight division upside-down with his dominant decision over Anthony Joshua Sept. 25 in London. Usyk has more than a dynamic skillset. He’s got some charisma. If his decision on Oct. 31, 2020 over Derek Chisora had happened in early 2021, he would have been this corner’s Fighter of the Year.

KO of the Year: Tyson Fury. In a fight with five knockdowns, it’s fitting that the fifth and final one would be KO of the Year. Put it this way, each of the first four knockdowns were concussive enough to be knockouts. The fifth defined Fury at his furious best. It was also delivered by a right, the hand that Deontay Wilder had turned into a wrecking ball, feared by every heavyweight but one. Fury delivered it – a clean shot to Wilder’s temple – at 1:10 of the eleventh.

Honorable Mention: Oscar Valdez Jr.’s 10^th-round KO of Miquel Berchelt. Valdez landed a wicked left hook in the final second of the 10^th-round, finishing a feared and favored Berchelt for the 130-pound title Feb. 20 in The Bubble at Vegas’ MGM Grand.

Upset of the Year: Yordenis Ugas, whose unanimous decision over Manny Pacquiao ended an era. The Manny Era. Pacquiao finally began to show his age, all 42 years of it. As sad as it was for 12 rounds, it was compelling in the end. At the post-fight news conference on Aug. 21 at Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, Pacquiao delivered a touching performance, one that could be The Farewell of this Year or any other year. It set the stage for his inevitable decision to retire a few weeks later. It also reminded us of why we’ve liked him so much for so long.

Honorable Mention: George Kambosos, who scored a split-decision over Teofimo Lopez on Nov. 27 in New York. It was a shocker, especially for Lopez, who couldn’t quite get over the shock. Looking bloodied and beaten, he grabbed the microphone and insisted he had won. “Delusional,’’ Kambosos said, saying it all before taking the undisputed lightweight title home to Sydney, Australia. The upset left the 135-pound division upside-down, or at least Down Under. 

By Norm Frauenheim-

Olympic boxing is about to become what it has been known for making.

History.

At least, it sounds as if it’s closer to Olympic abolition than it ever has been.

Boxing, which has been around since the ancient Greek Games, was not included on a list of sports for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, The Associated Press reported this week.

The story didn’t get any attention. No surprise there. Nobody much cares anymore. Olympic boxing is already a ruin, unrecognizable and seemingly beyond repair after more than three decades of uninterrupted scandal and rank corruption.

Other than last rites, there doesn’t seem to be anything left to say. But there is concern. After all, the prize-fighting business has relied on Olympic boxing. From Muhammad Ali to Andre Ward, Olympic gold has led to box-office gold. It has been a place where talent can be discovered, refined and introduced to a diverse audience.

Even now, it’s a way of re-creating the game. To wit: Keyshawn Davis. The Tokyo silver medalist is an interesting prospect. Will he make it to the top of the pro game? Who knows? But we know him because of the Olympics. He’s a lightweight worth following.

Seven years from now, however, the Keyshawn of a new generation might not have that Olympic platform. That robs an emerging generation of fighters of an early goal. It also robs the business of prospects who sustain its future. An Olympics without boxing is one step toward the end so often predicted by the Boxing-Is-Dead crowd.

Mauricio Sulaiman knows that. Olympic boxing is a cornerstone to his place in the pro game. He plans a fight to preserve it, which is in effect a fight for his sanctioning body, the World Boxing Council (WBC).

“It’s a matter of great concern,’’ Sulaiman, the WBC president, said Thursday in an annual year-end zoom session with reporters from his office in Mexico City.

Sulaiman said he is communicating with the bodies supposedly in charge of amateur boxing. Trouble is, it’s not exactly clear what – who — those organizations are anymore. It was AIBA a year ago. Now, it is IBA. There’s acrimony in the acronyms, neither of which were supposed to be within earshot of an opening bell at the Tokyo Games last summer.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to keep amateur boxing’s ruling cartel as far away from a scorecard as possible. It looks as if nothing about the IOC’s evident exasperation has changed.  It was expressed all over again with the decision to keep boxing off its initial list sports for 2028.    

Initial is the operative word here. According to the AP, there’s a chance that boxing could still be added – restored? — if it gets its act together. Big if. We’ve been waiting for Olympic boxing get its house in order for more than three decades

No matter what the letters are in the ever-changing acronym, there’s still the whiff of more scandal.

A year ago, Russian Umar Kremlyov was elected president of the governing body. Kremlyov is still the president. And the IOC is still skeptical, according to an AP report, which a year ago cited his promise to clear up the acronym’s $16-million debt if boxing’s Olympic status was retained.

Now, Kremlyov is promising to reform boxing’s judging system, which has been riddled with corruption ever since Roy Jones Jr. and Michael Carbajal were robbed of gold at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: If Olympic boxing is serious about cleaning up its act, go back to the initial scene of the crime. Give Jones and Carbajal their rightful gold medals. Those are the fixes that never got fixed. There’s been a long succession of them ever since.

Despite Kremlyov’s lofty promise, he’s not willing to go into down and dirty details    

“We have nothing to hide,’’ Kremlyov told the AP this week.

Then, however, Kremlyov was asked about allegations of fixed fights reported in an Olympic investigation of the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Games. Kremlyov said he couldn’t he couldn’t be specific about what fights were fixed.  Or who did the fixing.

A memo to Kremlyov and everybody else with AIBA, IBA or whatever it’s called today: Get specific, or stay off that list. 

By Norm Frauenheim-

With apologies to Floyd Mayweather Jr., Andre Ward and few others, defeat is a little bit like a scar. It’s hard to get through a boxing career without one.

The key is what to do with it. There’s denial. There’s delusion. There’s blaming someone else. Anyone else.

But there’s never much healing in any of that, at least not in a sport so singularly lonely. There’s no backup quarterback to blame. No dog who ate the homework.

There’s only the fighter, looking in the mirror and at months of shadow-boxing with the personal torment left in the turbulent wake of a loss. Tough to win that one, yet a victory is often the defining fundamental in a game that’s always been about adversity.

Vasiliy Lomachenko has figured that out.

His understanding of defeat, even his empathy for a bitter rival now dealing with one, is evident in the days before the Ukrainian’s bid to get back into the lightweight title mix Saturday (ESPN, 6 pm PT/9 pm ET) against Richard Commey at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

His date with Commey comes just two weeks after Teofimo Lopez lost the 135-pound belts and his composure to George Kambosos Jr. in the same building. Lopez upset Lomachenko, taking the belts and knocking out his pound-for-pound supremacy with a unanimous decision in October 2020.

Lopez went on to rip Lomachenko, ridiculing him for saying he suffered an injury to his right shoulder. Lomachenko moved on, underwent surgery, a second procedure on a shoulder that had been injured against Jorge Linares in his first fight at lightweight.

Lomachenko, who still believes the scorecard loss to Lopez should have been judged a draw, wanted a rematch.

No way, Lopez said often and always with a dismissive tone that suggested Lomachenko (15-2, 11 KOs) was yesterday’s news.

He’s not, of course. Commey (30-3, 27 KOs) is his second fight in a comeback that began with a ninth-round stoppage of Masayoshi Nakatani in June.  

Given the trash-talking rancor left over from Lopez’s upset of Lomachenko nearly 15 months ago, however, it was easy – too easy – to think Lomachenko might experience some schadenfreude – a uniquely German word that means taking pleasure in another’s misfortune.

No, Lomachenko said Thursday during a session with reporters after the formal part of the final news conference for the Commey bout.

“I am not happy, because I understand what he’s feeling,’’ Lomachenko said when asked how he felt about the Lopez loss. “I was in the same situation.’’

It’s a situation that the once-beaten Lopez is just beginning to confront. Questions linger, including troubling news about his physical condition at opening bell. ESPN quoted a doctor as saying he could have died because of a breathing issue.

Lomachenko went on to say that he was happy Lopez would recover and “get out of this situation.’’

The situation – dealing with defeat – is a place he has been a couple of times. He had to come back from defeat after just his second pro bout – a loss to Orlando Salido. In retrospect, that defeat might have been more of a bruising way to pay some apprenticeship dues against a tough gatekeeper.

Lomachenko arrived in the pro ranks as perhaps the most celebrated Olympic boxer ever. He won two gold medals, 2008 and again in 2012. Lomachenko responded to Salido’s brutal welcome to the pros by winning titles at featherweight, junior-lightweight and lightweight.

He did, he says, mostly because of the way a defeat forces a fighter to accept accountability and then re-commit to the craft.

“Losing is not comfortable, but if you have a goal, you have to continue,’’ he said.

For Lomachenko, the goal has always been there. He talked about it in a compelling, Top Rank-produced video with Hall-of-Fame inductee Roy Jones Jr., his boyhood hero.

“You need to have just one dream,’’ he said. “You need to go to bed with your dream. You need to get up with your dream.

“You need to live with your dream.’’Sometimes, that means you have to come back from a nightmare

By Norm Frauenheim –

It’s appropriate that the lightweight division and much of boxing have been turned upside-down, which is another way of saying Down Under.

That’s what Australian George Kambosos did.

His stunning upset of Teofimo Lopez is a sign that maybe it’s time to get back under the hood. Time to take another look at boxers and the business from a different angle.

Kambosos used the word “delusional” to describe a bloodied and beaten Lopez, who asserted that he had somehow won their title fight last Saturday in New York.

Delusional, it was.

That much was evident in the boos at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater from a crowd filled with Lopez’ hometown partisans. Kambosos tried to give him a break, suggesting that maybe he was concussed in losing the 12-rounds by a split-decision also tainted by judge Don Trella’s 114-113 card in favor of Lopez.

Delusional, it is.

In the days since the upset and before a key lightweight doubleheader– Devin Haney-JoJo Diaz Saturday (DAZN, 5 pm PT/8pm ET) and Gervonta Davis-Isaac Cruz Sunday (Showtime, 5 pm/8 pm), Lopez has taken to social media, still insisting he won.

Meanwhile, he and father-trainer, Teofimo Sr., say they’re moving on, moving up to junior welterweight. But going up the scale won’t wipe away what happened last Saturday. There’s no moving beyond.

Instead of repeating the delusional double-down, how about congratulations to Kambosos? How about Lopez saying he’d like a rematch if he can make weight?

Maybe, Lopez will eventually review the video, review his conduct, and do both. Maybe, he just can’t make the weight any more. Maybe, he can wait to fight Kambosos at a heavier weight. Or at a catch weight. Maybe, maybe.

An acknowledgment that he lost, however, would be a beginning, the first step toward redemption for a good fighter who brags about being The Takeover, his nickname. More like the take-down.

Lopez is a likable kid, emphasis on kid. Whether he can grow into the great fighter he’s been projected to be, however, begins now.

His defeat is exactly the sort of adversity that transforms good young fighters into Hall of Famers. Ray Leonard wouldn’t be Sugar if not for his Montreal loss to Roberto Duran in 1980. Ali wouldn’t be Ali without his New York loss to Joe Frazier in 1971. Inherently, boxing is about overcoming, getting up off the canvas and coming back from defeat. Now, Lopez has that opportunity, but it’s up to him to see something beyond the delusional.

Lopez’ loss was surely on the minds of everybody at separate news conferences Thursday. First, there was the Davis-Cruz newser in Los Angeles for a 135-pound fight at Staples Center on pay-per-view (talk about delusional, but a story for another delusional day).

“Last Saturday, we all saw what happens when you don’t take your opponent seriously,’’ said Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe, who promised the heavily-favored Davis is deadly serious about Cruz, a late-stand in.

Then, there was the Haney-Diaz newser in Las Vegas for the lightweight fight at MGM Grand. Kambosos, the winning face of what can happen to the delusional, was there. In an interview with UK promoter Eddie Hearn, he said was on a “scouting mission.” He’ll be at ringside for Haney-Diaz Saturday and Davis-Cruz Sunday.

He’s hoping, he says, for a fight against Haney, who apparently holds the last link to the 135-pound division’s undisputed title. Sorry, but there’s that word again, Kambosos’ word: Delusional. It’s everywhere. Boxing has no effective vaccine for it.

In beating Lopez, Kambosos took five belts, including the World Boxing Council’s (WBC) so-called “franchise’’ designation. That left only the WBC’s other lightweight belt in the hands of Haney. Apparently, the undisputed puzzle just keeps metastasizing.

Let’s just say that Kambosos is the lightweight champion. Period. Please.

In a welcome twist, the unlikely Kambosos might have finally awakened the lightweight division. When Lopez upset Vasiliy Lomachenko in October 2020, there was a lot of talk about a golden era at 135-pounds. It was even called Four Kings (insert the D-word here).

That, of course, was an insult to Leonard, Duran, Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns, the four pillars to George Kimball’s enduring book on their defining rivalry in the late 1970s and early 80s.

In Twitter time, Lopez, Davis, Haney, and Ryan Garcia suddenly became Four Successors. But time is proving them to be Four Reluctants. They’ve yet to fight each other.

Enter Kambosos, who isn’t shy about his willingness to fight any of them as soon as possible. If not Haney, then Davis. Or maybe Lomachenko, who has a chance to reclaim his place in the division on Dec. 11 against a bigger Richard Commey at Madison Square Garden.

Five days after his bruising victory over Lopez, Kambosos was still a long way from an Aussie-style celebration in hometown Sydney He was on the road looking for another fight.

He told Hearn that he’d be willing to step in if either Haney or Diaz suffered some inadvertent injury before Saturday’s opening bell.

“I’ll use the same shorts I used against Lopez,’’ Kambosos said. “They must be still full of blood.’’

Guts instead of you-know-what, too.

By Norm Frauenheim-

Terence Crawford put the debate back into the pound-for-pound campaign. But there’s no argument about pay-per-view. Canelo Alvarez owns it. Almost monopolizes it.

Perhaps the two, P4P and PPV, shouldn’t be linked. But forget the old apples-and -oranges advice. Punches-and-pay do mix. It’s called prizefighting. It’s one word, sometimes separated only by a hyphen, depending on who’s doing the spell check. Yet, they’re forever one and the same, a little bit like blood-and-sport.

The linkage was never more evident than it has been over the last couple of weeks. It was capped by Crawford’s statement stoppage of Shawn Porter last Saturday in Las Vegas. At one level, it was almost predictable. It was vintage Crawford — always poised, powerful and predatory.

Because of delays throughout the pandemic season and some of the usual divisions in in the balkanized boxing business, however, we just forgot how good – scary good — he really is.

He reminded us, winning a 10^th-round TKO over a smart, tough ex-welterweight champion who had never been stopped. Within one round, Porter was down twice, which equaled the number of times he had been on the canvas before the 36^th bout in his 13-year career. Then, Porter announced his retirement.

It was stunning. From Keith Thurman to Errol Spence Jr., there have been all kinds of explanations as to why Crawford had not faced the best-known fighters in the 147-pound division. There was the promotional divide, PBC and Top Rank. There were rival networks. Yet in one dynamic performance, Crawford displayed plenty of reasons to avoid him.

The big reason, however, arrived a couple days after the fight. The pay-per-view numbers were a disappointment, despite a capacity crowd of 11,568 at Mandalay Bay’s Michelob ULTRA Arena.

According to various reports, they ranged from 135,000 to 190,000. Whatever the number, it fell short of expectations. The guess before opening bell was 300,000. Top Rank’s Bob Arum had talked about 500,000 to 1.5 million for a bout carried exclusively on ESPN +. That exclusivity might have limited the television audience. Crawford thinks so.

“I feel like there was a lot of opportunities left on the table,” Crawford said Tuesday on Shawn Porter’s podcast, The Porter Way. “You know what I mean? Not only with fighters (like Thurman and Spence), but also with pay-per-view. Like for instance, me and Shawn Porter fought on a app. 

“There were so many people that was telling me they don’t know how to get the app on the TV. They don’t know how to do it. And, you know, the average elderly or person that doesn’t — you know, know tech – they’re not gonna know how to get the app on the TV. So, what do they do? They don’t buy.’’

There were other factors. Crawford-Porter was just the latest in a string of pay-per-view bouts. There was Tyson Fury’s wild KO of Deontay Wilder on Oct. 9. There was Canelo’s stoppage of Caleb Plant on Nov. 6.

Then, there’s inflation. The PPV price for Crawford-Porter was $69.99. Add another $6.99 if you weren’t already an ESPN+ subscriber. A month-long subscription was part of the price tag. That comes to $76.98. In other words, do you buy the fight or a tank of gas?

Maybe, the disappointing PPV numbers were also a result of bad scheduling. It was the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Turkey isn’t exactly cheap either.

Trouble is, Crawford’s PPV numbers have never been good, despite his brilliance. That’s problematic for a fighter who was a promotional free agent the second Porter’s father and trainer, Kenny Porter, ended it at 1:21 of the 10^th. Then, Crawford indicated he was leaving Top Rank. But his PPV record, more than his unbeaten record, will determine whether he can land a rich deal. The prize in prizefighting is pretty simple: Follow the money.

Arum has talked about a one-fight deal with Crawford versus Scotland’s Josh Taylor, the best fighter in the UK today. It makes sense. Taylor, the unified junior-welterweight champion, would move to 147 to face Crawford, a former unified champion at 140.

However, Arum is talking about doing the fight in the UK. Why? Because Crawford’s PPV numbers make him the so-called B-side. The money for a Crawford-Taylor fight would be in pounds instead of dollars. More Brits than Americans would buy it.

Meanwhile, Crawford’s victory over Porter appears to have resurrected interest in a fight with Spence, who underwent eye surgery in August. Spence was at ringside for Crawford-Porter. So was Taylor. But Spence has stronger PPV numbers than Crawford. That creates a real dilemma for the fighter who – from this corner – emerged from the victory over Porter as the pound-for-pound No.1, ahead of No. 2 Canelo.

But this debate will continue, well into 2022. Canelo has more than punching power. Pay-per-view, he’s undisputed. His victory over Plant did a reported 800,000 buys, or at least 600,000 more than the reported number of customers for Crawford’s victory. The result is that Canelo can do what he wants. 

For now, that means Ilunga Makabu instead of David Benavidez.

In a surprise, Canelo manager/trainer Eddy Reynoso asked the World Boxing Council (WBC) for permission to challenge Makabu, the acronym’s cruiserweight champion from The Congo.

The WBC is about the prize, too. There’s money – a good sanctioning fee –in the move. There’s risk, too. Canelo would be jumping up the scale in a bid for a fifth division title. There’s a reason for weight classes. Canelo is in jeopardy of suffering a knockout. He could get hurt.

If he wins, however, he wins the PPV debate. Even if he’s defeated and emerges unhurt, he’s in a no-lose situation. He’ll still have his undisputed super-middleweight title. He’ll be applauded for taking the risk, and applause counts for a lot in the pound-for-pound race, which is inherently political.

For Benavidez, that means more waiting and more calling out Canelo. He did so after blowing out a brave Kyrone Davis in an impressive Phoenix homecoming a couple of weeks ago. If he fights David Lemieux – as rumored — for a mandatory shot at Canelo WBC 168-pound title, Canelo could decide to fight at light-heavyweight. Maybe, Benavidez gets shot at him at 175, Maybe, not.

For now, it’s Canelo’s call. On any scale, he’s got all the clout.

LAS VEGAS — Shawn Porter announced Saturday that will retire during the post-fight news conference following his stoppage loss to Terence Crawford for the welterweight title at Mandalay Bay’s Michelob ULTRA Arena.

“I am ending my career tonight,” Porter (31-4-1, 17 KOS) said after father and trainer Kenny Porter ended it in the 10th-round of a bout televised by ESPN+ pay-per-view.

Porter was knocked down twice in the 10th by Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs).

In losing for the first time by stoppage, Porter was knocked down as many times within one round as he was in his career — first by Adrian Broner and then by Errol Spence Jr.

LAS VEGAS – In the end, it was Terence Crawford’s dance floor.

He danced with his family. Danced with his mom. Maybe he danced to the top of the pound-for-pound debate.

Neither the dance nor the debate figures to end anytime soon. Above all, Crawford proved he still belongs on any dance floor and in any debate with a 10^th-round stoppage of Shawn Porter Saturday night in front of a capacity crowd at Mandalay Bay’s Michelob ULTRA Arena.

Porter came as advertised. He knows a lot of dance steps. But he couldn’t sustain them against the patient Crawford. He knows how to wait. Knows how to adjust. And how to finish.

The finish came at 1:21 of the 10^th round after two knockdowns of Porter. Porter’s first trip to the canvas started with a left-uppercut from. The return trip started with a combination followed by a left hand to the head. Frustrated, Porter got up and stomped his foot.

 But the gesture was futile. It was over. His father and trainer, Kenny Porter, was already up the steps with towel in hand. The towel was never thrown. The referee and inspector for the Nevada Commission saw it and acted. Kenny Porter would later say his son wasn’t properly prepared, confirming rumors that Shawn Porter had a problematic camp.

For Crawford, however, it was a moment that punctuated what he wanted to accomplish.

The belt, the World Boxing Organization’s version of the welterweight. Title, was still in his dangerous hands. More important, he strengthened his claim on the top spot in the pound-for-pound debate. Canelo Alvarez, are you listening?

One potential Crawford rival, however, was there. Listening and watching. Errol Spence had a ringside seat.

“Now wait, my thing is, who’s No. 1 in the welterweight division now?” Crawford said in a comment clearly intended for Spence.

At the top of the 147-pound division, it’s either Spence or Crawford. There is nobody else. Crawford made sure of it by eliminating Porter from any real say-so in the weight class. Crawford also has the last word, at least for now.

“You know who I want,’’ said Crawford, who collected about $6 million, $2 million more than Porter’s $4 million payday. “I’ve been calling him out all day. Maybe, Spence will get his tail out of his butt and fight me.’’

Maybe.

For now, there are questions about where Crawford is headed. Promotionally, he’s a free agent. His victory of Porter was the last fight on Top Rank contract.

Top Rank’s Bob Arum is confident he can re-sign him. Arum is already talking about a fight between Crawford and junior-welterweight champion Josh Taylor, who is preparing to move up in weight

For now, however, Crawford only wanted to celebrate a night that began with Porter coming out fast, moving forward and attacking throughout the first three minutes. For one round, it worked. He appeared to win the round with his aggressiveness.

He also was sending a message, one that he wore on the back of his black-and-orange robe. Marvelous War, it said. It was a tribute to legendary warrior, Marvin Hagler. It was note of respect to the past. But it was also a look at the immediate future, a sign of what Porter intended to do.

To wit: Crawford better be ready to brawl. He was. Porter unleashed a whirlwind of an arsenal — conventional, unconventional and often a blur of both.

“I figured that I had the reach and he had to take chances to come to him and he did what he normally does,’’ Crawford said.  “He tried to maul and push me back but I used my angles and I pushed him back at times as well.  Shawn Porter is a slick fighter he was doing some things in there and made me think

“I know I caught him with a good uppercut and then when I caught hidm with another left hook clean in his face that he was real hurt and his dad did the right thing by stopping it because I was coming with a vengeance.’’

In the end, there was nothing else to do but dance to Chaka Khan’ “Ain’t Nobody.’’

For one night, nobody but Terence Crawford.

Falcao wins technical decision in dull bout stopped by head butt

It was called an eliminator. In one way, it was. The crowd cheered when the final six rounds of the Esquiva Falcao-Patrice Volny was eliminated because head butt.

The butt came late in the sixth after Volny (16-1, 10 KOs), of Montreal, swung his head into Falcao’s face. The bout, so-called eliminator for a shot at the International Boxing Federation’s middleweight title. Everything before then was boring. Think deadly dull.

After it was determined that Falcao could not continue, the scorecards were turned in and counted. Two scores, 57-56 and 58-56 were for Falcao, an Olympic silver medalist from Brazil The third — a head scratcher — was for Volny, 86-84. Falcao (29-0, 20 KOs) got the victory by technical decision.

The crowd got some relief. At least, it was over.

Kazak middleweight Alimkhanuly wins stoppage

Janibek Alimkhanuly (11-0, 7KOs) ), a heavy-handed middleweight from Kazakhstan, administered a beating, landing lethal left hands that rocked Hassan N’Dam around the ring and off the ropes, virtually everywhere except on to the canvas.

Somehow, N’Dam (38-6, 21 KOs) , a former middleweight champion from Cameroon, stayed on his feet throughout the bout on a card featuring Crawford-Porter. But that wasn’t enough for him to have even a slim chance of winning. Finally, Kenny Bayless stopped it at 2:46 of the eighth round of a bout that could have easily been stopped a round or two earlier.

Unbeaten Raymond Muratalla wins fifth-round TKO

There was no stopping Raymond Muratalla (13-0, 11 KOs), a lightweight from Fontana CA. Elias Araujo (21-4, 8KOs), of Argentina, couldn’t. But Allen Huggins could. And did.

Huggins stepped in and ended the bout at 2:20 of the fifth round in the first ESPN + PPV bout on the Crawford-Porter card. Araujo protested, first in anger. Then, in tears. But the referee had seen enough. Muratalla began to land punch after punch. Blood began to drip from a cut on Araujo’s cheek and from his nose.

Huggins saved him from what would have been a bad beating.  

Dogboe wins majority decision

LAS VEGAS –Isaac Dogboe, a fighter from Ghana once projected to be a star, continued to try to regain some of his abundant promise, scoring a narrow victory — majority decision — over Puerto Rican Christopher Diaz (26-4, 16 KOs) on a card featuring Crawford-Porter.

Dogboe , a former 122-pound champion now at featherweight, won his third straight since his career(26-4, 16 KOs) was sidetracked by successive losses to Emanuel Navarrete.

Head butt leads to no decision

There was blood. But there was no decision.

Adan Ochoa (12-2, 5 KOs), a featherweight from Long Beach CA, was badly cut above his right eye in a head butt with Adam Lopez (15-3, 6 LOs of Glendale CA during the first round of a scheduled eight-rounder. on the Crawford-Porter card.

Late in the second, the blood began to flow into Ochoa’s eye. Just as the bell rang to start the third, the fight was stopped, declared a no decision because it had not gone at least four rounds.

Karlos Balderas wins fourth-round stoppage

Karlos Balderas (11-1, 10 KOs), a junior-lightweight from Santa Maria CA, was bigger and just better, scoring repeatedly with combinations, including a headrocking left-right that finished Julio Cortez (15-4, 11 KOs) of Ecuador at 2:13 of the fourth round in the second bout on the Crawford-Porter card.

First Bell: Tiger Jonson kicks off his career and Crawford-Porter card with TKO win

It was first bell. A debut, too.

Tiger Johnson, a welterweight from Cleveland, kicked off his career and the card featuring Terence Crawford-versus-Shawn Porter with a stoppage of Antonius Grable (3-3-1, 3 KOs) in a Saturday matinee at Mandalay Bay’s Michelob ULTRA Arena.

Johnson landed successive right hands, leaving Grable of Sarasota, FL dazed and done at 1:54 of the fourth round.

Just to make sure that everybody noticed, celebrated by walking toward retired welterweight champion Timothy Bradley, who was already in his ringside seat for he ESPN + pay-per-view telecast..

“I’m here, Tim,” Johnson shouted as he leaned over the ropes. “I’m here.”

By Norm Frauenheim –

LAS VEGAS – Only two ounces separated them on the scale. That amounts to a couple of AA batteries, or maybe a tennis ball. It’s not much, somewhere between tiny and imperceptible.

Call it even, a sign perhaps of what to expect in a compelling welterweight fight between Terence Crawford and Shawn Porter Saturday (ESPN + pay-per-view/6 pm PT, 9 pm ET) at Mandalay Bay’s Michelob Ultra Arena.

Betting odds suggest otherwise. They were 6-to-1 in favor of Crawford after he was at 146.4 pounds and Porter at 146.6 Friday at the formal weigh-in.

If those odds are reliable, Crawford will prove what he’s been saying all along. His skillset, he says, is unrivaled at welterweight and perhaps any weight.

It’s a claim he has asserted and re-asserted throughout a pound-for-pound debate that has shifted in favor of Canelo Alvarez, a super-middleweight champion who apparently is planning to fight for a cruiserweight title.

Against the smart and stubborn Porter, Crawford has a chance to punch some real evidence into his pound-for-pound claim.

“Beating a guy like Shawn Porter would boost my resume and my legacy to the next level,’’ Crawford, the World Boxing Organization’s champion, said earlier this week. “I’m not going to be biased. I’m going to be realistic.

“It depends on how I beat Shawn Porter and what fashion.’’

Fashion could mean just about anything. But a stoppage seems to fit best. It would say everything Crawford hopes to.

However, Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs), never a man of many words, said even less Friday. Opening bell is close. He stepped off the scale Friday and only said he wanted to win.

But he punctuated that comment with the intense eyes that appear to to see opportunity in the approaching storm. Lose the opportunity and he has lost the debate.

Porter (31-3-1, 17 KOs) also understands the stakes. He said a few weeks ago that he thought Crawford, unbeaten and a three-division champion, is already in the Hall of Fame. Porter is not quite there yet. But he’s on the brink, he said. An upset of Crawford would put him there.

Despite the seemingly one-sided odds, Porter has a resume that suggests he can spring that upset.

He has lost three fights – to Errol Spence Jr., Keith Thurman and Kell Brook He has a draw with Julio Diaz. He’s been down twice, once against Spence and once against Adrian Broner. That’s the part of his record that says he’s vulnerable.

But here’s what says he has a shot: He’s never been stopped. More significant, perhaps, is that he lost narrowly on the scorecards — a split decision — to Spence before Spence was badly hurt in a car crash. Pre-accident, Crawford-Spence might have been a pick-em fight.

Porter’s gritty resilience against Spence is just one marker that says that he can do what the odds say he can’t.

He knows that, knows it enough to smile straight into the menace projected by Crawford’s unforgiving eyes.

They measured each other throughout an unblinking stare-down during the ritual face-off for nearly 23 seconds after the weigh-in.

Porter finally broke it off, faced the crowd and smiled.

“Terence, you know better than I do that you’ve matured,’’ he said a couple of days before the weigh-in. “I feel like people see your personality and your character right now more than they’ve ever seen, but I feel like I’m still correct in saying that when the wrong Tweet or Instagram post goes up, you can get upset.’’

Upset, maybe, in more ways than one.

By Norm Frauenheim–

LAS VEGAS – Friends aren’t supposed to fight each other. But Terence Crawford and Shawn Porter are about to in a fight fascinating in large part because of a friendship forged and often tested over a couple of decades.

Both 34, they’ve grown up together, brothers-in-arms who on Saturday night at Mandalay Bay’s Michelob ULTRA Arena will walk to opposite corners and then face each other in perhaps the best bout (ESPN+ pay-per-view, 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET) in the fabled welterweight division in awhile

It’s intriguing for all the usual reasons. There’s legacy and the pound-for-pound debate. It’s also the best fight at any weight in the post-Manny Pacquiao era. It’s a chance to move on in a business so often trapped in nostalgia.

That accounts for some late buzz suddenly surrounding a fight that was kind of lost when formally announced amid noisy hype before Tyson Fury’s wild stoppage of Deontay Wilder in the capper to a heavyweight trilogy on October 9.

Fury-Wilder was a carnival. Crawford-Porter could be a classic.

A sure sign of it is in the absence of the tired trash talk that cheapens so much of what boxing has to offer. In terms of the pre-fight rhetoric, most bouts these days are a cross between pro wrestling and a lousy-lounge act.

The pre-fight tone to this one is different. Translation: Nothing phony about it. The reason rests in what Crawford and Porter know about each other. They’ve watched each other, sometimes in admiration and sometimes warily, as amateurs and then as young pros. They might never have imagined that they would one day meet at the top of the 147-pound division.

But here they are, at a crossroads to a shared journey. In some ways, it almost looks inevitable. Then again, doesn’t everything in hindsight? But much of the bout revolves around what they’ve seen in each other over the years. Their past creates a dramatic dynamic.

They’ll step into the ring as very different personalities. Crawford says little. Porter, a television analyst, says a lot.

Crawford has the most expressive eyes since Thomas Hearns. They say everything. There’s anger there. Menace, too. More than a few opponents have looked into Crawford’s eyes and melted down.

But Porter won’t. He has looked into them. Looked back. Seen that anger. If anything, he’ll try to turn it around, turn it against Crawford.

Porter’s father and trainer, Kenny Porter, looks at Crawford and recalls a testy confrontation with him when the Omaha welterweight was 20-years old. Both Crawford and Shawn were fighting in an amateur tournament in Venezuela. There was a brawl in the stands. Kenny Porter thought he saw Crawford in the middle of it.

Kenny Porter decided to confront Crawford about it. He said he encountered Crawford in a dark hallway beneath the stands. He was about to ask him what in- the-hell happened.

That’s when Kenny Porter said he looked at Crawford and saw those eyes flash like a spark off flint.

“Then, I looked at Terence’s hands, which were already balled up into fists,’’ Kenny Porter said. “He looked at me. It was a look that said: ‘What do you want to do?’

“I decided to walk away. But that’s Terence.’’

Then and now.

It’s the Terence Crawford that father Kenny Porter and son Shawn say is essentially still there.

“I believe Terence Crawford is more dangerous than any fighter today,’’ Kenny Porter said.

But dangerous doesn’t mean unbeatable. Mike Tyson was the defining face of dangerous until he ran into Buster Douglas and then Evander Holyfield.

Shawn Porter puts on his analyst’s cap when he studies today’s Crawford, No. 2 to Canelo Alvarez in many pound-for-pound rankings.

He sees a fighter he might be able to disrupt with an inside attack full of uppercuts and counters.

Crawford’s versatile skillset – an ability to switch from orthodox to southpaw and one-punch power – has allowed him to dictate tempo throughout his unbeaten career (37-0, 28 KOs), which includes titles at three weights. That – and those eyes – help explain the odds. He was a 6-to-1 favorite Thursday.

But Porter (31-3-1, 17 KOs) thinks he can frustrate Crawford in ways that might anger him enough to interrupt a rhythm that from – fight-to fight – Crawford has been able to establish and sustain.

Porter knows Crawford’s temperament. He has seen him get angry at criticism.

“Every tweet, every social-media post that goes up, you’re going to get upset,’’ Porter said to Crawford Wednesday during the final formal news conference.

Crawford looked back and said:

“Maybe, maybe not.”

Texts and social media posts aren’t exactly uppercuts and counters. But Porter hopes they have the same impact, mostly because he’s seen how an old friend reacts to them. Porter’s use of the word “upset” was no coincidence. That’s what he’s planning.

Maybe, maybe not.

The Pick: Crawford, split decision. In the end, it’s a fight between consummate professionals. That means it will be decided by inches. Crawford is an inch taller. He has four-and-half more inches in reach. He’ll need those advantages and he’ll know how to use them against the clever Porter for a margin of a few points – inches – on the scorecards.

By Norm Frauenheim (Ringside) –

PHOENIX – There was a crowd of about 8,000. And there was an audience of one.

David Benavidez hopes he heard them.

All along, the Benavidez campaign has been about Canelo Alvarez. He’s been chasing Canelo for a couple of years. On Saturday, he delivered another performance in a homecoming that keeps him squarely in the mix for a shot at the undisputed super-middleweight champion.

Benavidez (25-0, 25 KOs) beat a tough Kyrone Davis (16-3-1, 6 KOs), forcing Davis’ corner to throw in the towel early in the seventh round at The Footprint Center.

“I think everybody wants to see me fight Canelo, right? Benavidez said in the middle of the ring moments after his victory.

The crowd roared yes. A Showtime audience heard it. Maybe, Canelo did too. The echoes will be there weeks from now as Canelo thinks about who’s next. There’s plenty of talk about a Benavidez-Canelo showdown on May 7. It’s a perfect match – Benavidez, a Mexican-American against Canelo, a Mexican — for the Cinco de Mayo celebration.

But Canelo, deliberate in the ring and out of it, said he won’t be in a rush to make a decision. He has the belts. He has the pay-per-view numbers. He has options aplenty. He has the time. He’s has it all.

For now, Benavidez can only wait. That won’t be easy.

“I don’t care what his assessment of my fight is,’’ Benavidez said of Canelo. “But they keep putting these contenders in front of me. 

“…They need to give me the opportunity. I’ll go through anybody.’’

At 24, Benavidez is still a maturing fighter with poise and power. He’s anxious to test that poise, use the power against the biggest name in the game.

Both were evident, again and again, through six rounds against Davis, who took huge shots from a relentless assault from the taller Benavidez.

Benavidez is known for throwing a so-called volume of punches. But there was no silencing Davis, a Terence Crawford sparring partner who agreed to the fight just two weeks before opening bell.  In the end, Davis trainer Stephen Edwards stepped in with a timely decision. It was time to end it. He did so at 47 seconds of the round

“David Benavidez is a tremendous fighter,’’ Edwards said. “He’s a monster.

“We fought. We tried to win. We didn’t come here to lay down. I think a lot people through that was the case. But I love this kid. I didn’t want to see him get hurt.’’

Seconds after the towel landed in the center of the ring, Benavidez showed his appreciation for Davis. He hugged him.

“He thanked me, thanked me for being a warrior,’’ Davis said.

David Benavidez’ victory helped his family and his fans forget about brother Jose Benavidez Jr.’s debatable majority draw with Argentine Francisco Torres (17-3-1, 5 KOs) in 10-round fight contracted to be at 159 pounds. Two judges scored it 95-95 each. One judged scored it 96-94 for Jose, who was fighting for the first time in three years. 15 Rounds scored it 96-94 for Torres.  

“I don’t know how I got a draw,’’ Jose Jr. (27-2, 18 KOs) said.  “We can run it back. I beat him. I thought I beat him. He kept running. He didn’t want to stay in the pocket. I can’t do anything about the judges’ decisions. I felt good. He just kept holding. I beat him every round. What can I do?

“I beat him. I beat him. He wasn’t hitting me hard. He just kept holding.’’

But the crowd seems to think otherwise. It booed Jose Benavidez. It cheered Torres.

In the end, however, there were only cheers.

For both David Benavidez and Davis.

Best of the Undercard

Junior-middleweight Elijah Garcia (9-0, 8 KOs) of nearby Glendale AZ, opened the show, flashing some prospect possibilities with a succession of power shots for a fifth-round TKO of Todd Manuel (2-91-1, 6 KOs) of Rayne, LA.

The Rest

Micky Scala (3-0, 1 KO), a Mesa AZ junior-middleweight who recently signed with Floyd Mayweather, endured some head-rocking shots, countered and in the end won a four-round unanimous decision over Martez Jackson (5-6-3, 2 KOs) of Macon GA.

Jesus Ibarra (12-0, 6 KOs), a junior-welterweight from Mesa AZ, calls himself Monsoon. He showed why in the second, storming Mexican Hector (12-14-2, 6 KOs) for a TKO victory at 2:05 of the round.

Farid Ngoga (12-0, 11 KOs), a junior-middleweight from Glendale AZ, employed a mix of speed and precision for a unanimous decision over Isaac Freeman (3-10-2, 3 KOs) of Los Angeles.

Junior-lightweight Jonathan Fierro (12-0, 11 KOs) didn’t waste any time. It took him 29 seconds to blow out fellow Mexican Victor Ruiz (13-12, 11 KOs). Officially it was a technical knockout. Nothing technical about it.

Phoenix featherweight Keenan Carbajal (23-2-1, 15 KOs) was too big for an overmatched Josean Bonilla (12-7-2, 9 KOs), who was bloodied and beaten after three rounds. The referee ended it after just two second of the fourth.

By Norm Frauenheim-

PHOENIX – More than three years, 37 months and counting, have come, gone and almost been forgotten since Jose Benavidez Jr. answered an opening bell.

He learned how to be a dad. He has a young daughter and his wife is expecting another child in February. He learned how to live like just another guy. There was no roadwork at sunrise. Holidays were spent at home and at the dinner table instead of at a gym decorated by only bags and bruises.

Benavidez learned to like it.

At least, most of it.

But he couldn’t quite learn how to live without that old regimen. He grew up to the rhythm of a speed bag.  He missed it, all of it during the days, weeks, months and years since he fought fearlessly against Terence Crawford, perhaps the game’s most feared fighter.

It was an intriguing fight then. Now, it’s a memorable one, a significant fight remembered for what it still says about Crawford’s pound-for-pound aspirations as he prepares for a key test against Shawn Porter. It’s memorable, too, for what it still says about Jose Benavidez Jr.

The bold swagger is still there, impossible to contain. You can hear it in his words and see it in dark eyes that flash like a spark off flint.

All that and more were evident Thursday at a news conference for Jose Jr.’s comeback at junior-middleweight against Argentine Francisco Torres in Showtime-televised card (6 p.mp PT/9 pm ET) featuring brother David Benavidez-versus-Kyrone Davis on the Phoenix Suns home floor at Footprint Center.

The brothers are there to make a statement. For David, it’s about a fight that says he belongs at the front of the line for a shot at Canelo Alvarez. For Jose Jr., it’s a fight to say he’s back.

In a sport that has seen and done it all, thirty-seven idle months are expected to leave so-called rust on much, if not all, of the skillset. We’ll see. But there was no rust or reticence in Jose Jr.’s willingness to engage in some familiar trash talk. The words and the look were as fearless as ever.

“I feel like I’m a different animal now,’’ Jose Jr.  said as he looked at Torres. “When I say I’m going to do something, I do it. He better not run on Saturday. I’m coming to break his ribs with body shots. 

“I don’t care how busy he’s been. He’s never seen anyone with power like mine. You better be ready for Saturday night.

“He’s a bum just like the bums that he’s fought. I’m back to take this clown out and show everyone that I’m going to be the next 154-pound world champion.’’

Moments later, he would stand in front of Torres in the ritual face-off for the cameras. All the while, a media consultant for PBC (Premier Boxing Champions) said: “Easy, easy.’’

Three-plus years away from the ring have done nothing to dull Jose’s mind set. It’s still got that fearless edge. It was there on Oct. 12, 2018 in Omaha, Neb., at the weigh-in before the bout with Crawford. Jose Jr. shoved Crawford. Crawford countered with a missile-like, bare-handed punch that narrowly missed Benavidez’ jaw.

“I thought maybe he was trying kiss me or something,’’ Benavidez said then.

Let’s just say that Crawford’s attempted punch was not motivated by affection. Hostility at the weigh-in led to Omaha police adding further officers to its presence both in and outside the ring. There was tension evident in the capacity crowd, which gathered to watch the hometown Crawford punish Benavidez. But Benavidez wasn’t intimidated. Crawford stopped him, but not until midway through the 12^th and final round.

Benavidez didn’t win. But there was – still is — talk that maybe he could have. He took Crawford into the 12^th, limping on his right leg. He kneecap was blown way in a still mysterious shooting on a Phoenix canal bank in August 2016.

“The knee is fine,’’ he said Thursday. “It’s 100 percent. One-hundred-and-ten percent.’’

Nothing wrong with that fearlessness, either.

A day before the news conference, Jose Benavidez Jr. was reminded of the Crawford fight. In a zoom call Wednesday, Porter said he has been studying video of the fight in training for his Nov. 20 date against Crawford at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay.

“You could see that Jose had boxing abilities that gave Terence problems,’’ Porter said.

Then, Porter added: “I’ve got everything Jose has got and maybe a little bit more.’’

Porter’s comment seemed to be a nod a respect for Benavidez. When told of the quote, Jose Jr.’ eyes flashed the way they would at Thursday’s face-off with Torres.

“I used to kick Porter’s ass when I was 16-year-old sparring with him,’’ Benavidez said. “Terence Crawford is going to kick his ass. After he does, I’ll be happy to.’’

No rust on the rhetoric.Attachments area

BY Norm Frauenheim-

LAS VEGAS – It was part weigh-in. Part popularity contest.

Caleb Plant made the weight and – from the sound of it – a ton of more enemies.

On any scale, Canelo Alvarez won Friday’s weigh-in by thunderous acclamation for Saturday night’s super-middleweight fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

That wasn’t exactly a surprise. Showtime’s pay-per-view telecast (6p.pm PT/9 pm ET) has always been Canelo’s show. He’s the draw, the irreplaceable dynamic that stirs up the interest, if not the drama. The odds say so. Canelo was still a 10-1 favorite late Friday, according to BetMGM.

The purses say so, too. Canelo will collect at least $40 million, or four times more than Plant’s $10-million guarantee, according to multiple sources.

Canelo, who was at the 168-pound limit Friday, appears to be close to having it all. A final piece, Plant’s International Boxing Federation belt, is expected to be in his possession. sometime Saturday night.

A lot of it depends on Plant (21-0, 12 KOs), however. Can he surprise – stun – the heavily-favored Canelo? His agile footwork and hand speed might give Canelo (56-1-2, 38 KOs) some trouble in the early rounds. Still, the questions are whether he has any real power and whether he can survive a predictable Canelo assault to body and head in the later rounds.

There were no sounds of doubt in Friday’s weigh-in crowd. There were only jeers, all for Plant at every turn. First, there were boos when he stepped onto the scale. Then, there were insults when he stepped off after weighing 167 pounds.

Plant fired back, mocking the Canelo crowd with gestures and words. He looked angry. Then, the Tennessee native turned defiant, sounding like a southern-fried Vanilla Ice.

“It’s easy to sit in those seats,’’ Plant said. “It ain’t easy to stand up here.’’

Canelo, of course, is saying that Plant won’t be standing at all when it’s over. The Mexican superstar says he’ll stop Plant between the seventh and ninth rounds.

With his growing command of English and all its expletives, Canelo trash-talked Plant while the two glared at each other. They were separated by the scale, regulators and promoters. Everybody was anxious to avoid an encore of the brawl that erupted two months ago during a news conference in Los Angeles.

Behind them, stood Mike Tyson, a former heavyweight champion known for wild news conferences and wilder moments. He was standing not far from the floor where he bit off a piece of Evander Holyfield’s ear in the notorious Bite Fight in 1997.

Tyson likes Canelo. He picks him to win

“He’s the he best fighter of his generation,’’ said Tyson, who at the time almost looked as if he were relieved not to be involved in any of the tension, words and other signs of imminent hostility.

Showtime’s Jim Gray asked him if he missed the scene, a mix of chaos and nervous anticipation.

“Not so much,’’ said Tyson, a Canelo fan who also knew how Plant felt.

He’s been there, a sign perhaps that just about anything can happen Saturday night.    Attachments area

By Norm Frauenheim –

Canelo Alvarez moves forward, forever forward. In the ring. Out of it, too.

In a twist to an old line, his life on the safe side of the ropes is beginning to imitate his punishing mastery of a brutal art.

He wears silk pajamas. Sorry, Marvin Hagler. Hagler used to say that it was hard to get up early to train when you’ve been sleeping in silk sheets. Hagler’s words are classic, a timeless warning about how wealth in a successful prizefighting career can erode motivation.

But the reasons to fight remain undiminished in Canelo (51-1-2, 38 KOs), powerfully evident and still evolving in a 31-year-old fighter moving into his prime Saturday against Caleb Plant (21-0, 12 KOs) with business-like attention to detail.

He wears caps and T-shirts that include trainer Eddy Reynoso’s trademark motto:

No Boxing, No Life.

It’s good advertising, marketing that sells gloves and gear. But it’s also a philosophy, a guide that helps define how Canelo fights. How he lives. Other than the ropes, there’s no separation between the two. Boxing buys the silk. It allows him to work on his handicap on the golf course when he’s not in the gym working on how to handicap his next opponent.

This week, it happens to be Plant in Canelo’s pursuit of the fourth significant piece to the super-middleweight title at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena (Showtime PPV). Months from now, it could be David Benavidez, who is expected to stay in the Canelo mix against Kyrone Davis on Sept. 13 in Phoenix another Showtime-televised 168-pound bout.

Or, it could be against a bigger fighter in a jump up to light-heavyweight in the beginning of another bid for another unified title.

Canelo likes to say he is pursuing history. That’s a little easier to do these days with a preponderance of title and weight classes. But make no mistake about his pursuit. It’s methodical, almost merciless if, like Plant, you happen to be in his way.

“They know what I’m going to do in the ring, even more so in this fight,’’ said Canelo, who is seeking to become the first so-called undisputed champion in the 54-year history of the super-middleweight division. The weight class was created in 1967.

They – Plant and his corner – should know. It’s hard not to for anybody who has watched Canelo’s steady, almost deliberate ascent from an entertaining kid from Mexico with red hair to the feared fighter he is today.

There’s always something new, some additional tactical wrinkle to his war chest. Sustaining a successful business means evolving. Canelo always is. A couple of years ago, there was more head movement. More defense.

Lately, there appears to be more precision to his power, a warning for Plant, who might be in trouble if he doesn’t deliver a punch in the early rounds that says he has enough power to hurt Canelo.

It’s abundantly clear that neither Canelo nor the odds makers think Plant has that power. It’s never really been there with much consistency. The betting odds favor Canelo by a one-sided margin, now at 11-1.

Then, there’s Canelo’s evident confidence. He’s relaxed and seemingly as sure of himself as he has ever been. He’s a man in command of the ring and the bully pulpit. Years ago, he relied on an interpreter to translate his Spanish. In the weeks before Saturday’s opening bell, he’s been answering questions in English. He’s even been translating for Reynoso.

It’s just another sure sign that Canelo never quits learning.

Against Plant, he says the fight is personal. For a fighter who conducts himself according to the No Boxing, No Life motto, when is it not?

Plant, who was involved in altercation with Canelo a couple of month ago during a news conference in Los Angeles, knows that. He said so Wednesday after the final formal news conference at the MGM Grand.

“All fights are personal for me,’’ Plant told reporters. “It’s not a job. It’s my whole life. My dad is a boxing coach. My wife is a boxing reporter. …

“It’s all we do, all we think about.

“Anybody getting in my way of what I’m trying to accomplish — being remembered after I’m no longer here – anybody trying to disrupt that, that’s personal.’’

In other words: No Boxing, No Life.

Canelo makes it personal better than anyone. It’s the way he does business.

“I need to be patient the few first rounds, like Eddy said,’’ Canelo says. “Then, I’ll start doing my job.”

Prediction: He’ll do to Plant what he did to Avni Yildirim and Billy Joe Saunders in his last two bouts. Yildirim quit after three rounds. Saunders’ corner threw in the towel after eight. This one figures to end with Plant on the stool, finished in a late round.

By Norm Frauenheim–

David Benavidez, unbeaten and lately unlucky, waits more than wins these days.

He waited to recover from COVID. He waited to regain a shot at a super-middleweight title. He’s waited on Canelo Alvarez. And waited to go home.

The wait continued Thursday. The good news: It didn’t last long.

The day broke with a report that Benavidez’ homecoming foe, Jose Uzcategui, had been pulled from his Nov. 13 date in Phoenix because of a positive test for a banned performance enhancer.

About six hours later, the homecoming — Benavidez’ first fight in Phoenix in more than six years – was still on with an announcement from PBC (Premier Boxing Champions) and Showtime that a late stand-in had been found.

His name: Kyrone Davis (16-2-1, 6 KOs), a Wilmington, Delaware fighter who is 3-1-1 over his last five. The draw on Feb. 27 in Los Angeles was with Anthony Dirrell, whom Benavidez stopped in a ninth-round blowout in September 2019.

The potential bad news: The quick switch in opponents 17 days before opening bell means Benavidez won’t be fighting a World Boxing Council (WBC) title eliminator. The winner would have gained a mandatory chance at the acronym’s version of the belt, which Canelo will defend Nov. 6 against Caleb Plant in Las Vegas.

It was a scheduled 12-rounder against Uzcategui, a former 168-pound belt holder in a bout that had already been postponed. It was supposed to happen August 28 but was rescheduled after Benavidez caught COVID.

Against Davis, it’s a scheduled 10-rounder at Footprint Center at the Suns home arena in downtown Phoenix.

Will it matter? Maybe not. Benavidez was expected to beat Uzcategui. He was a 9-to-1 favorite. He is expected to beat Davis by odds so one-sided that they might never be posted.

Uzcategui or Davis, Benavidez is the overwhelming choice against either, a lot like Canelo versus Plant at T-Mobile Arena. Canelo is an 8-to-1 favorite.

With an eliminator victory for the so-called mandatory, Benavidez might have gained some trash-talk leverage in the media about securing a deal for fight with Canelo fight.

But Canelo has the final say-so. It’s a prerogative that comes with his documented status as boxing’s biggest draw. If he takes the final piece in the 168-pound puzzle – the International Boxing Federation’s belt – from Plant, he might choose to move up the scale to light heavyweight.

However, he didn’t shut the door on the possibility of a fight with Benavidez. Before news of Uzcategui’s positive test, Canelo was asked what – who – was next during a Zoom session Wednesday for his bout with Plant. Would he fight the winner of Benavidez-Uzcatequi winner?

“Right now, I am 100-percent focused on this fight,’’ Canelo said. “Then we will see. If it’s right, no problem.’’

The calendar suggests an answer. Canelo, a Mexican, is fighting one Saturday and Benavidez, a Mexican-American, is fighting the next Saturday, both on Showtime.

That might be mere coincidence. But it doesn’t look like it. Canelo-Benavidez looks to be a perfect fit for May 7, two days after the Cinco de Mayo celebration next year.

Benavidez’ best argument for a fight with Canelo is in his performance. To wit: Do to Davis what he had promised to do Uzcategui.

“I’m going to go in there and do what I always do,’’ Benavidez said during a zoom session with reporters last week. “I’m always looking for a spectacular knockout. That’s just the way I train. I put my heart and soul into camp. No matter what fight might be on the horizon, it doesn’t change the way I prepare.

“…I’m the best super-middleweight in the, and I just have to show everybody why.’’

That’s one way to end all that waiting.

By Norm Frauenheim-

David Benavidez comes home in three weeks for his first fight in front of Phoenix friends and neighbors in about six-and-half years.

He’s back for a key date against Jose Uzcategui on the Suns home floor on November 13, a teenager no more. He was 18 then. He’s 24 now, still young. Young enough, in fact, to still be making that pivotal passage from prospect to contender.

But Benavidez blew past that step fast enough to be a prodigy. He was a contender and then a champion almost before anybody noticed.

Suddenly, he was a 20-year-old with a world title at super-middleweight, the youngest in the division’s history. He couldn’t buy a beer in his home state, but he was old enough to win a belt. Everything looked possible. Turns out, everything was.

He would go on to lose the title twice, but never within the ropes. He tested positive for cocaine, sat out a suspension and regained the belt.

Then, he failed to make weight, losing the title for a second time. His career is still years from its predicted prime, yet it has already moved along at an astonishing rate, including all of the ups and downs that are often the bookends — the beginning and the end – to other careers.

Now, he fights this time after battling COVID. His homecoming, initially scheduled for Aug. 28, was postponed when he tested positive for the virus.

Benavidez, who will step into the ring next month just 35 days before he turns 25 on Dec. 17, has seen a lot. But not all.  That won’t begin to happen, at least probably not until he gets a chance to fight Canelo Alvarez (More on that later.)

But enough has happened to say his wild ride has already included lots to celebrate and lessons to use. With each birthday, those lessons could grow in value.

A test of how much he has learned – how much he’s maturing – will be there against Uzcategui in an eliminator for a mandatory shot at his old title, the World Boxing Council’s version of the 168-pound title.

That makes his imminent Showtime date something of a milestone. Enough time has passed since his last appearance to get a measure of he was and who he’s becoming. A kid then. A man now.

He’s changed. So, has everything else, including. The last time he fought in Phoenix, it was at US Airways Center.

Now, it’s Footprint Center. Then, it was May 15, 2015. David Benavidez was the little brother. He was on the undercard for big brother Jose Benavidez Jr.’s victory for a junior-welterweight title.

This time around, Jose Jr. is on the card, making a comeback from his 12th-round stoppage loss in October 2018 to Terence Crawford.

“Now, roles are reversed,’’ David Benavidez said in a Zoom session with reporters earlier this week. “Still, I have my brother with me.’’

The brothers, both trained by their dad Jose, have been inseparable since they first started appearing on cards in and around Phoenix. Eventually they moved on, first to Los Angeles and then Seattle.

They’ve sparred. They’ve trashed talked, opponent and probably each other. There are no siblings without some kind of rivalry. In terms of their boxing records, however, they may one day have a unique connection.

Jose Benavidez Jr. lost to Crawford at a point when Crawford was beginning to lead the pound-for-pound polls. Their fight is among Crawford’s toughest bouts. During a recent session with reporters for his Nov. 20 bout with Shawn Porter, Crawford said it wasn’t his toughest. Instead, Crawford mentioned his ninth-round TKO of Egidijus Kavaliauskas in 2018.

Nevertheless, Benavidez was resilient throughout, still there midway through the final round in front of a roaring crowd in Omaha, Crawford’s hometown. It was memorable enough for Porter to include it as a fight film he says he will study throughout his training for Crawford.

Then, Jose Benavidez challenged a leading pound-for-pound contender. Now, brother David wants his pound-for-pound chance against Canelo, who first has to beat Caleb Plant the Saturday (11-6) before his date with Uzcategui.

Over the last 18 months, Canelo has overtaken Crawford in the pound-for-pound debate. Canelo is the consensus No. 1. David Benavidez wants to knock him off that perch. The calendar suggests he’ll get a chance to that.

Showtime’s scheduling doesn’t look to be a coincidence. Canelo-Plant the first Satuday in November Benavidez- Uzcategui on the second is sure to fuel speculation, especially if both Canelo and Benavidez win. Both are favored. The winners, Canelo a Mexican and Benavidez a Mexican-American, would be a perfect fit for the Cinco de Mayo date next year.

“I feel like the winner of this fight deserves the Canelo-Plant winner,’’ Benavidez said. “We’ve definitely put the work in throughout our careers to earn it. I think Canelo has the experience and power that’s going to help him get the victory on November 6 over Plant.’’

Unlike times earlier in his career, Benavidez is cautious. He seems determined not to get ahead of himself with words that would say he is looking past Uzcatequi’s power. He also knows that Canelo might have other ideas in his ambitious plans to make history. If he beats Plant, he’ll have all of the significant super-middleweight titles. That might signal a permanent move up to light-heavyweight.

“I don’t know, I don’t know,’’ David Benavidez said. “I don’t know why he’d (Canelo) go in a different direction. But, sometimes, things happen.’’

Wise words from a fighter who has seen things happen often enough to make him wise beyond his years.  Attachments area

By Norm Frauenheim-

Classics never end. Look it up. They are timeless by definition. So, too, is Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder.

A sure sign of it is in the story of the beautiful brawl. It’s still being told, four days after Fury got up twice, scored three knockdowns and finished Wilder in the eleventh round.

Just four days might as well be four decades on a modern clock accelerated by social media. The public attention span lasts about as long as a tweet these days. Here now, forgotten a blink later.

But we’re still talking about Fury-Wilder, rare for a heavyweight fight or any other bout in a crowded schedule full of baseball playoffs and football. Interest endures, not because there will be a fourth fight. No worries, there won’t be.

But the third fight will continue to reverberate, repeated and re-written, mostly because of the personal drama that continues to unfold.

Unlike the definitive end brought on by Fury’s right hand at 1:10 of the eleventh, there are still more rounds to go in this one. The first of many came from Wilder Thursday.

“We didn’t get the win but a wise man once said the victories are within the lessons,” Wilder said through social media. “I’ve learned that sometimes you have to lose to win. Although, I wanted the win I enjoyed seeing the fans win even more. Hopefully, I proved that I am a true Warrior and a true King in this sport. Hopefully, WE proved that no matter how hard you get hit with trials and tribulations you can always pick yourself up to live and fight again for what you believe in.

“Last but not least I would like to congratulate Tyson Fury for his victory and thank you for the great historical memories that will last forever.”

There was a tone of resignation, if not outright concession, in Wilder’s words. It was far from what he told Fury in the fight’s immediate aftermath. Video shows him saying he didn’t “respect” Fury, who went to his corner. Fury also said he refused to shake hands.

Many in the Twitter mob weren’t happy with Wilder’s message. It didn’t go far enough, they said. “Last but not least” angered many. “First and foremost” apparently should have been the lead.

Some also ripped Wilder for his faith. They were unhappy with his reference to God. Their complaints remind a soldier’s son of something he often heard from his father after he returned from combat in some far-flung hellhole. There are no atheists in a foxhole, he used to say.

Wilder had just been under hellish fire in what these days is called a combat sport. I’m not sure how many of those key-board chicken-hawks have experienced, much less endured, incoming punches from a 6-foot-9 heavyweight named Fury. But, please, give Wilder a break.

From this corner, Wilder’s message is another step in a personal evolution. We’ve watched him – and Fury – grow up in a cruel place. While covering the Beijing Olympics 13 years ago, I remember a wide-eyed kid with a bronze medal. He was just happy to be there.

His emergence, first as a heavyweight contender and then a feared champion, has been both unlikely and unsettling. The happy kid changed. Increasingly, he believed in the infallibility of his one-dimensional power. Then suddenly, his deadly right hand failed him.

Fury got up from it in their first fight and eliminated it in their second. In the third, Fury again got up from it and then delivered some cruel irony, knocking out Wilder with his own right hand. For Wilder, it had to be devastating. His sense of self – the singular power that defined him – was gone.

His identity crisis was evident throughout the long delays before the third bout. He called Fury a cheater. His crazy talk included body bags and legal homicide. He wouldn’t – couldn’t — begin to accept defeat.

Until now.

The nice kid in Beijing is beginning to re-emerge, this time with some of the wisdom that comes with a hard-earned maturity.

He reminds me of George Foreman, the biggest power puncher of his generation. A defining photo of Foreman is of a smiling kid waving an American flag in a bear-paw-sized hand after winning gold at the 1968 Mexico City Games.

Like Wilder, however, Foreman’s fundamental good nature got fractured by Muhammad Ali in a devastating loss, the classic Rumble in the Jungle in the former Zaire almost exactly 47 years ago — Oct. 30, 1974.

Foreman was supposed to win. There were even fears that he would hurt Ali. But Ali won, scoring a stunning eighth-round stoppage. The loss changed Foreman.

“For a couple of months, it was like he was in a trance,’’ said Bill Caplan, Foreman’s publicist then and his friend forever. “I couldn’t talk to him.’’

Foreman even had his own conspiracy theories as a way to explain away the loss. He suggested he had been drugged, alleging that somebody put something in his water bottle.

If that sounds familiar, it is. Wilder alleged the same thing after his loss to Fury in the second fight in February 2020.

But eventually Foreman took it back, got over it.

Eventually, Caplan said, Foreman became Ali’s friend.

He grew up, which is what we are seeing Wilder do.

Foreman, himself, marveled at what he saw in Fury-Wilder.

“I’m just so happy to have lived long enough to see the past come alive again,’’ Foreman said on his YouTube platform from a desk that included a photo of Ali in the background. “It was like something out of the past.’’

Foreman also said it’s time to move on.

“We can quit talking about George Foreman, Muhammad Ali, Jack Johnson,’’ he said.

The graceful humility in those words is a Foreman trademark, there now as a 72-year old man just as surely as they were in his flag-waving gesture 53 years ago.

But I, for one, will never quit talking about Foreman, Ali, Johnson or Joe Frazier or Joe Louis or any of the other heavyweights made great by the classics they won. And lost.

In Fury-Wilder, it’s just nice to have another one, alongside all of them.Attachments area

LAS VEGAS – It’ a fight between friends. It’s a fight for legacy. It’s a fight for all seasons. And all the right reasons.

Finally, there will be a step toward some real resolution at the top of the welterweight division between fighters represented by rival promotional entities.

The fight between Terence Crawford, of Top Rank, and Shawn Porter, of Premier Boxing Champions (PBC), was a done deal a few weeks ago. The marketing began Saturday with a formal news conference for the November 20 fight (pay-per-view, ESPN+) at Mandalay Bay.

“It’s my biggest fight, no doubt,’’ said Crawford, a former lightweight and junior-welterweight champion who has a chance to reassert his pound-for-pound claim on a big stage.

For Porter, it’s a chance to define how he will be remembered. A victory over Crawford, he said, will put him closer to the fame be believes Crawford already has.

“I think I’m on the brink of being in the Hall of Fame,’’ Porter said. “I think he’s done enough already to be in. My legacy depends on me beating Terence Crawford.’’  

The news conference at the MGM Grand was a preliminary to a long day of boxing in Vegas. The newser ended just a few hours before the Fox/ESPN pay-per-view card featuring Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder at T-Mobile Arena began.

LAS VEGAS – It was wild. Wildly chaotic. Wildly sloppy. It careened from reckless to dangerous, from crazy to classic.

Wildly wonderful.

In the end, the wild victory belonged to Tyson Fury, who scored a knockdown in the third round, got up twice in the fourth, scored another knockdown in the tenth and finished exhausted Deontay Wilder in the eleventh.

The end, the closing blow, at 1:10 of the eleventh Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena was appropriate for a heavyweight title fight that included just about everything.

Amid the chaos, it was clean and crisp. It was a right hand that traveled through midair looking like an orbiting projectile.

It landed, ground zero, on the side of Wilder’s face. He was out. Unconscious, he fell along the ropes and onto the canvas, a wild man in name only.

For Wilder, there was some cruel irony that the end would come at the end of Fury’s right hand. The right was his defining weapon. It’s how he climbed to the top of the division. In the end, it his rival’s right that brought him down, toppled him and perhaps his career.

“I hope he goes down in history as a great fighter,’’ Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) said during an interview in the middle of the ring moments after the fourth. “I hope.’’

Fury won’t have to hope about his place in history.

“Like the great John Wayne said: Iron and steel, baby,’’ Fury said.

Wayne, iron and steel endure. So, too will the memory of this, Fury’s defining triumph.

“I have never seen a heavyweight fight like this,’’ said Fury co-promoter Bob Arum, who promoted the great Muhammad Ali. “Two tremendous warriors.’’

Fury might not be the most refined heavyweight. He’s not Ali. But he ranks as one of the smartest ever in the fabled division. At 6-foot-9 and jiggly, nobody would pick him out of a lineup as a world heavyweight champ. He doesn’t look the part.

Even against Wilder (42-2-1, 41 KOs), his midsection shook like Jello. But it shook because he was bouncing on his toes, resilient as ever after knockdowns that might have been the end of any other heavyweight.

At times, it looked as if it might be enough for Wilder to win the third fight in a turbulent trilogy with Fury. He hurt Fury in the fourth, knocking him down for the first time within those three minutes with the deadly punch.

But Fury got up, looking composed as he sat down on a stool with Wilder’s likeness emblazoned on top of it. Fury sat there, looking as though he knew he would eventually flush Wilder away in defeat.

He could see the doubt, then fatigue in Wilder’s eyes. With patience and then power, he would finish him. And he did.

“Don’t ever doubt me,’’ said Fury, who retained his lineal and World Boxing Council titles. “When the chips are down, I will always deliver.’’

There was no post-fight reaction from Wilder. He was taken to the emergency room at a Las Vegas hospital. There was no immediate word on his condition.

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Frank Sanchez wins unanimous decision

There was controversy. When is a knockdown really a knockdown? Who knows? There appeared to be no answer in a strange seventh round of a heavyweight bout between Frankie Sanchez and Efe Ajagba. 

In the end, it didn’t matter. Sanchez made sure of it. He had all of the other answers. Foot speed and accuracy were enough for Sanchez (19-0, 13 KOs) to score a unanimous decision over Ajagba (15-1, 12 KOs) in the final fight before the third step in the Fury-Wilder trilogy.

In the seventh, a long right from Sanchez appeared to put Ajagba onto one knee. The Cuban heavyweight quickly followed with a left uppercut that put the Nigerian on his butt. But there was no count, no point reduction, no nothing from referee Mike Ortega.

It was as if it didn’t happen. Truth is, it had no impact on the result. There’s no doubt about Sanchez’ victory.

Helenius wins sixth-round TKO

There were low blows. There was confusion. In the end, there was only Robert Helenius.

Helenius (31-3, 20 KOs), a Swede who sparred with Deontay Wilder at his Alabama training camp for Saturday night’s third fight with Tyson Fury, emerged from it all with a victory over Polish heavyweight Adam Kownacki (20-2, 15 KOs). Officially, it was a TKO at 38 seconds of the sixth round. Initially, it looked to be a disqualification of Kownacki for throwing a low blow.

A low blow from Kownacki in the third sent Helenius to the canvas in evident pain. Helenius had been dominating most of the fight, which started with him landing a big right onto Kownacki’s left eye. By the third round, it looked as if the eye was swollen shut.

Jared Anderson rolls on, scoring second-round TKO

He is being hyped as the heavyweight of the future. That future got a little closer Saturday night in the first fight on an all heavyweight pay-per-view card featuring Fury-Wilder.

Jared Anderson (10-0, 10 KOs), of Toledo OH,  rocked and rolled all over Russian Vladimir Tereshkin (22-1-1, 12 KOs), leaving him dazed, defenseless and defeated within just two rounds.

Anderson fired a succession of punches, a blend of power and speed, all while moving forward. Tereshkin never had a chance. Referee Kenny Bayless ended it, a TKO, with the Russian standing motionless and helpless at 2:51 of the second round. 

Berlanga survives knockdown, wins decision.

Edgar Berlanga‘s apparent ride to a world title suddenly took a couple of unexpected turns. Both took him to places he’s never been. Never heard. 

First, there was the canvas. He was knocked flat on his back. 

Then, there were boos. 

In the end, Berlanga escaped with his unbeaten record (18-0, 16 KOs) intact. He won a  decision, unanimous on the cards but not so unanimous in a crowd gathering for the Fury-Wilder heavyweight collision. He beat a tireless Argentine, Marcelo Coceres (30-3-1, 16 KOs), whose ceaseless movement confused him throughout 10 rounds. Then, there was Cocere’s right hand. That nearly stopped him.

The right put Berlanga down in the ninth of 10 rounds. He got up, surprised and perhaps embarrassed. But he was never able to really elude the right or catch Cocere’s with a clean shot of feared power. But he did enough, at least in the judges’ eye’s. All three scored it 96-93

Julian Williams loses split decision

Julian Williams started fast. Faded late.

In the end, he fell, losing a split decision to bloodied, yet resilient Vladimir Hernandez in a junior-middleweight bout, the fourth fight on the card featuring Fury-Wilder.

Williams (27-3-1, 16 KOs) , a former 154-pound champion, was in control early. He cut Hernandez (13-4, 6 KOs)badly. Blood streamed from a nasty wound at one corner of Hernandez’ eye. The Mexican looked beaten. But he wasn’t. He began rocking Williams with precise shots midway through the 10-rounder. At times in the final two rounds, Williams looked exhausted. Hernandez saw the fatigue. So did a small crowd. So, too did, two of the judges. On two cards, it was 96-94 and 97-93 for Hernandez. On the third, it was 96-94 for Williams.

Robeisy Ramirez wins a yawner

It was a unanimous decision. A unanimous bore, too.

Featherweight Robeisy Ramirez (8-1, 4 KOs) put on a performance that made Guillermo Ringondeaux look exciting. Still, it was enough for a 99-91, 97-93, 99-91 decision over Olrando Gonzalez (17-1, 10 KOs on the Fury-Wilder undercard..

Ramirez is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, including a victory over Shakur Stevenson in the gold-medal bout at the 2016 Rio Games. He must have put Stevenson to sleep with his slick, no-risk tactics. No wonder nobody watches Olympic boxing any more.

Featherweight prospect scores shutout in debut

Bruce Carrington, a potential featherweight prospect from Brooklyn, scored a shutout in his debut.

He won, beating Cesar Cantu (3-2, 1 KO) in a professional introduction that was a unanimous success on the scorecards and to the handful of fans seated at T-Mobile a few hours before the Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder heavyweight title fight. He won, 40-36, on all three cards.

Carrington’s combination of power and hand-speed repeatedly rocked Cantu, a tough Texas who somehow stayed on his feet throughout the four rounds.  

First Bell: Heavyweight Viktor Faust wins third-round TKO

LAS VEGAS — It started early. It ended early.

A heavyweight card featuring Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder began with a heavyweight matinee
Saturday at T-Mobile Arena. 

Unbeaten Ukrainian Viktor Faust (8-0, 6 KOs) flashed his power quickly, knocking Mike Marshall  (6-2-1, 4 KOs) off balance and forcing him to slip in the second round of a scheduled eight. A round later, Faust finished the job, scoring a crushing knockdown of Marshall, of Danbury, CT, down. Marshall was dazed and done, a TKO loser at 1:49 of the third.

By Norm Frauenheim-

LAS VEGAS – Tyson Fury stepped onto the official scale four pounds heavier for his third fight Saturday night with Deontay Wilder than he was for his victory in their rematch.

Fury didn’t take off his shirt or his black hat. Both might have weighed more than four pounds. But Fury was in no mood to pose – or perhaps expose a soft belly – after his weight was announced at 277 at Friday’s weigh-in. He only wanted to taunt and promise.

He did that, with a series of off-the-scale threats at Wilder, who was seven pounds heavier (238) than he was for his rematch loss (231).

The weight, Fury said, “means total obliteration of the Dosser.’’

Wilder stood and stared back through glasses dark enough to hide what had to be a darkening intent.

Wilder is seeking vengeance in an attempt to regain the World Boxing Council’s heavyweight title defense Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in a Fox/ESPN pay-per-view bout.

Fiury was at 273 pounds 19 months ago when he dominated Wilder in a seventh-round stoppage for the WBC belt.

A heavier Fury was no surprise. He had hinted repeatedly that he had added pounds. But he was from the 290 that been speculated during the days before the weigh-in.

Both fighters have been climbing up the scale throughout the trilogy.

Fury was 16.5 pounds heavier for the rematch than he was for their first fight, a draw, in December 2018 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

That’s when a 256.6-pound Fury got up from two knockdowns. Wilder was at 212.5 for the first fight.

A heavier Fury proved to be more effective in the rematch. The added weight allowed him to suffocate Wilder with size and early aggression. The tactic forced Wilder to retreat. Wilder, who has never shown he can fight off his back foot, was never able to land his big right.

Fury goes into the third fight promising to stop Wilder earlier than he did in the second fight.

Fury might have to. If the fight goes into the late rounds, he might tire, make a mistake and walk into a deadly right hand that Wilder calls “the power of God.’’

By Norm Frauenheim-

LAS VEGAS – Deontay Wilder, a man with many more personalities than punches, once talked about legal homicide. Now, he’s talking about love.

He’s changed all right, which is exactly what he promised to do after Tyson Fury fractured his identity in a one-sided stoppage more than a year-and-a-half ago

But it’s hard to know if the changes are real or rhetoric. Has he evolved? Repaired his sense of self after Fury stripped him of his defining power? Or is he role playing? It’s impossible to know. At least, it is until his heavyweight trilogy with Fury unfolds Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena.

Call Wilder the biggest wild card in a bout hard to pick because of the 19 months that have come and gone since either fighter has answered an opening bell. There are questions after the long stretch of idle time amid a Pandemic and postponements brought on by legal issues and Fury’s positive tests for COVID.

A lot has led up to the third fight. The first two fights left plenty of clues about what to expect Saturday night. Yet, the third bout is wrapped in mystery. It’s almost as if they are starting over. At least, Wilder hopes so.

He has Malik Scott in his corner instead of Mark Breland, who threw in the towel midway through the seventh round, halting an embarrassing beatdown from Fury in the rematch. He still calls Breland disloyal, a word he used again Wednesday during an exchange with Fury during a heated news conference.

“Mark Breland, he saved your life that night,’’ Fury said. “You ought to have given him a pay raise.’’

What was striking about Fury’s edgy rip – one of many, however, was in Wilder’s reaction. He hasn’t changed his mind about Breland, who ranks among one of the good guys in a business without enough of them.

Wilder didn’t apologize, not for Breland or allegations that Fury cheated. But he didn’t go on a rant, either.

Throughout the newser, Wilder remained seated while Fury paced.

“I detect some nervous energy,’’ Wilder told him, sounding a little bit like a dispassionate psychiatrist analyzing an anxious patient.

“Insecure piece of shit,’’ Fury fired back.

It was at that point that the Wilder from six months might have jumped up and gone Mike Tyson on Fury. Didn’t happen. This time, there was no talk of body bags. The crazy Wilder of June was gone. This was the composed Wilder. He was happy and calm just a couple of days before a chance to wreak havoc against a bitter rival.

“With me and my team aboard, we all understand everything that has happened,’’ Wilder said during a Zoom call a couple of weeks before the news conference. “We’re just looking forward to it. We all smile. You know, we all laugh.

“You know, I always talk about the love I have in my camp. And it is so real. You know, I love to display it. I love to talk about it because, you know, so many people look for this type of love, because there’s so many fake people out there that show fake love. 

“And I know for sure if I see love, it’s between the family that I have within my team and my brotherhood that I have with all my guys. You know, and that means a lot to me.”

The imminent Fox/ESPN pay-per-view date won’t exactly be a lovefest. But peace and harmony in Wilder’s corner might be a sign that he and Scott are communicating. 

There’s an old theory that experienced fighters don’t change, at least not much. Wilder is 35. He’s fought 44 times (42-1-1, 41 KOs). He successfully defended the World Boxing Council’s version of the heavyweight title 10 times. It’s a comprehensive resume, one which says that new tricks in this old warhorse are unlikely.

Fury, who survived Wilder’s deadly right hand in the first fight and nullified it in the second, is confident he has seen every Wilder dimension. There’s been only one: That right.

Wilder promises more, saying Scott has found heretofore dormant weapons in a skillset that had started and ended with the right. There’s a guessing game that Wilder will enter the ring, planning a small adjustment that will allow him to create the space he needs for the leverage to throw – and land — the right. 

In the rematch, Fury suffocated him, leaving him no space. No leverage. In the end, Wilder was left with only an identity crisis.

Maybe, he has conquered it. If he has, he has a chance.Attachments area

By Norm Frauenheim –

Tyson Fury, street-corner philosopher and street-wise pugilist, has no illusions about what he does for a living.

“It’s not rocket science,’’ he said.

Sometimes, it’s not even Sweet Science.

That bring us to Fury’s third fight with Deontay Wilder on Oct. 9 for Fury’s heavyweight title at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena.

The long-awaited third chapter in the heavyweight trilogy is a lot of things. There’s rancor, trash-talk, some cheap drama, a little bit of mystery and an element of risk. The theatrics make it interesting.

But science, rockets or sweet, don’t figure to be a big part of the show. That might have to wait, perhaps for a Fury-Oleksandr Usyk fight in a division turned on to its top-heavy head last Saturday by Usyk’s skillful upset of Anthony Joshua in London.

Usyk took Joshua’s collection of belts, scoring a unanimous decision in a stunner that some argue places him at the top of the heavyweight ranks, ahead of even Fury, the World Boxing Council champion who also has a claim on the lineal title.

Fury, who knows a lot more about The Sweet Science than he does rockets, is not ready to step down or aside for anybody. No surprise there.

“Not a man born from his mother can beat me,’’ he said in a zoom call with reporters Wednesday.

No comment from Usyk’s mom, yet. But you get the idea.

Usyk, who waits on a contracted rematch with Joshua, is on Fury’s horizon and will stay there if there is no single misstep that will allow Wilder to land his right hand. The power in that Wilder right is scary.

“I only got one fight on my mind and that’s Deontay Wilder, the most dangerous heavyweight in the world right now,’’ Fury said.

The danger is there, all right. It nearly finished Fury in their first fight in December 2018, when Fury got up twice in a draw. Fury survived the power. Remembers it. Understands it, too.

He neutralized it in an embarrassing rout of Wilder in February 2020, forcing Wilder’s corner to throw in the towel after six-plus rounds. Then, Fury predicted what he would do and how he’d do it. As potent as that power is, it’s the only thing Wilder has had throughout his 44-fight career (42-1-1, 41 KOs).

Wilder has since changed his corner, firing Mark Breland and hiring Malik Scott. But a new corner, Fury says, won’t change Wilder’s fundamental character or add to his one-dimensional skillset.

“It’s been so long since that last fight that he could have got a college degree in that time,’’ Fury said in a crack that suggested he’s confident the same Wilder will be there at opening bell for an ESPN/Fox pay-per-view bout.

Wilder’s thorough whipping of Wilder in their rematch was a simple task of fundamental geometry. Fury went straight at him, smothering him with his 6-foot-9 frame and taking away the space he needs for leverage on that feared right hand.

The simple move stripped Wilder of his only weapon. More than that, it stripped him of his identity. That wasn’t science. It was the art of psychology, one that Fury seems to be practicing during the days before opening bell next week.

Wilder has never acknowledged that he lost the rematch. He blamed Breland. He blamed a costume that he says weakened him in the walk to the ring. He suggested that Fury’s gloves were loaded. He forgot to mention the grassy knoll. Lots of conspiracies, but no accountability.

“He hasn’t accepted defeat,’’ Fury said. “Therefore, he can’t overcome it.’’

Sometimes, common sense is the best kind of science. 

By Norm Fraueheim-

Ray Beltran’s fight continues, just a couple days after Manny Pacquiao announced his retirement.

Beltran (36-9-1, 22 KOs), Pacquiao’s sparring partner during the prime years of his legendary career, is scheduled for a comeback Friday night against Mexican Edgar Ramirez (18-18-1, 14 KOs) in a junior-welterweight fight at the Glendale (AZ) Civic Center in suburban Phoenix.

Beltran, a former World Boxing Organization lightweight champion, hasn’t fought since he was stopped by Richard Commey in June 2019. Beltran, who lives in the Phoenix area, had hoped to fight on July 18. But the scheduled bout fell through when his opponent decided to stay home in Mexico.

Ramirez, a 30-year-old Mexican from Hermosillo, is 1-5 over his last six fights. Seven fights are scheduled for the card, including Phoenix featherweight Danny Barrios, who is coming off an impressive stoppage of Edward Ceballos for an Arizona 126-pound title on July 16 in Maryvale, AZ.

First bell is scheduled for 7 p.m. (PT).

By Norm Frauenheim-

Oleksandr Usyk showed up a little early for Octoberfest. But there he was this week, wearing a red suit that made him look like a rare red pumpkin waiting to be the centerpiece of what could be a heavyweight celebration over the next few weeks.

Pumpkins, of course, get carved up.

But Usyk looked as if he has other ideas. Usyk, a man dressed for a change in the seasons, had the bold appearance of a fighter prepared for a changing of the guard. The heavyweights are a lot of things these days. The fabled division is a jagged collection of faces.

There’s Tyson Fury, a clever entertainer with one-liners as sharp as his long jab. There’s Deontay Wilder, wildly erratic with one scary punch to go along with crazy talk about body bags and legal homicide. There’s Anthony Joshua, proud yet often tentative in a brutal business that rarely rewards caution.

It’s a hard division to know. Harder, perhaps, to like.

For now, Usyk is the wild card, the Joker who also showed up at a news conference Wednesday in a black shirt and a yellow vest, appropriate complements to the autumn-like red. Call it Fashion by Candy Corn.

It was a statement all right. But it was more than just about fashion. Usyk has been the heavyweight of the future for a while now. Trick-or-treat, he thinks that day has arrived in his bid to take Joshua’s three versions of the belt Saturday (DAZN, 5 p.m. ET/2p.m. PT) at London’s Tottenham Stadium in the first of two heavyweight bouts in two weeks.

After a torturous succession of delays and cancellations brought on by the Pandemic and contract complications, Fury and Wilder are finally scheduled to settle their differences in a third fight on Oct. 9 in Las Vegas.

It’s been assumed that, in the end, it would all lead to Fury-Joshua.  That’s still the best guess. But Usyk, who emerged as Joshua’s challenger because of an arbitrator’s ruling last summer, has a chance to overturn those long-term plans.

The guess here is that Usyk has a better chance at doing that than Wilder does. It’s hard to see how the third Wilder-Fury fight will be any different than the second one. That’s when Fury went straight at Wilder, taking away the leverage he needs to throw his feared right while also exposing him as one dimensional. Wilder’s corner threw in the towel after an embarrassing rout through six-plus rounds.

Put it this way: If Usyk were fighting Wilder instead of Joshua Saturday, he’d might be favored. He’d be this corner’s pick. Against Joshua, however, he’s not, for a variety of reasons.

Joshua (25-1, 22 KOs) is just the bigger man with enough of a skillset to offset the versatile Usyk (18-0, 13 KOs).

“I can outbox him, of course I can,’’ Joshua told Sky Sports this week. “And I can out-strength him. You have to have a bit of aggression, boxing skill, head movement. There is not just one factor that determines a fight.

“Obviously we have our go-to — our strength. I will use my strengths. But it’s called a boxing match for a reason. I love the sweet science. I will display my boxing skills, but I won’t make it too complicated in there.”

Strip away potential complications, and the guess is that Joshua will simply overpower Usyk to win a late stoppage. But it might not be that uncomplicated. Usyk has shown he can be tricky. He knows his way around the ring. The problem, however, is that he doesn’t exactly know his way around today’s generation of jumbo-sized heavyweights. All of his brilliant potential was on display during his undisputed reign at cruiserweight. At heavyweight, not so much.

The historical parallel is Evander Holyfield, who also made the cruiserweight-to-heavyweight jump.  But Holyfield took his time. He had six heavyweight bouts before he took the title from poorly-conditioned Buster Douglas in October 1990.

After just two heavyweight bouts, Usyk is trying to do what Holyfield did more than three decades ago. Usyk won both, a stoppage of Chazz Witherspoon and decision over Dereck Chisora. But each performance left questions about whether he was in fact ready for Joshua or Fury.

Usyk insists he is, saying he is a full-fledged heavyweight. Maybe. He has the ability to surprise Joshua. His footwork, southpaw style, smarts and instincts can give Joshua fits. If Joshua stays poised, uses his jab and remembers he’s the bigger man, he wins. Usyk won’t, but he wins the argument for a rematch if it goes the distance.

The pick: It’ll go 12 rounds. Joshua wins a narrow decision in a bout that will lead to calls for a rematch in the court of public opinion.

Pick, Part 2: The rematch will happen and this time Uysk won’t have to wear a costume before the opening bell. Then, there will be no disguise, no doubt, about what he’s become. He’ll be a full-fledged heavyweight, perhaps the best in the division because of what he figures to learn Saturday.

By Norm Frauenheim-

Last week, it was Triller. This week, it’s PBS.

It’s hard to go from the gutter to the Ivory Tower, but boxing knows the way. Maybe, that’s because of its curious mix of bloody brutality and ballet of footwork. At its best, it dances in and out, never far from garbage or grace.

Last week, it was the garbage, a pay-per-view Triller telecast that made heavyweight great Evander Holyfield look like an aging fool while Donald Trump played ringside commentator, praising fighters he claimed to have known. Instead, the ex-President should have been honoring dead American heroes at 9-11 Memorials.

This week, grace supplants disgrace with the build-up to a four-part Public Broadcasting Service documentary about Muhammad Ali.

I’m trying to forget the image of a 58-year-old Holyfield suddenly on the canvas within just a couple of minutes of opening bell in a depressing exhibition against somebody named Vitor Belfort last Saturday in south Florida. I have a friend who likes to say that boxing is dead. The Triller telecast was like hearing last rites.

Maybe the PBS series, scheduled to begin Sunday, will help. But I’m not sure. I’ll watch, but more out of nostalgia than anything else. I’m part of the generation that grew up with Ali. As a high-school kid, I listened to the radio for the blow-by-blow accounts of his victories over Sonny Liston. As a college student, I watched him lose to Joe Frazier in 1971 on a movie screen in an old theater. All the time, I argued with my father about who was better, Ali or Joe Louis.

As a sportswriter, I met Frazier and heard how his anger at Ali was still there, hard and bitter, more than 20 years after their brutal third fight in Manila. I met George Foreman, who moved beyond his 1974 loss to Ali in Zaire. He called Joe Louis the greater heavyweight. He called Ali the greater man.

Then, I met Ali, who had moved to Phoenix in 2005 for treatment of his advancing Parkinson’s. Initially, he was playful, almost childlike. He’d play magic tricks, then draw cartoons on a sheet of paper ripped from a reporter’s notebook. From year-to-year, however, the advancing disease trapped him and silenced even him, the very man who created trash talk.

It was hard to watch.

It was even harder to not think of the punches he took.

 I asked Frazier if he wondered whether his punches were responsible for Ali’s Parkinson’s.

“I don’t have to wonder,’’ Frazier said as he watched his feared left hook land during a replay of his ‘71 decision over Ali on a nearby screen during a US Olympic Committee celebration of an anniversary of the famous fight. “You see that left hand. See it. See it. That’s why he is the way he is.’’

When Foreman was making a memorable comeback that led to him regaining a heavyweight title in a victory over Michael Moorer in 1994, I asked him if Ali’s “Rope-A-Dope” tactic in ’74 might have led to Parkinson’s. Ali absorbed huge blows from the most powerful puncher of the day. The tactic paid off then. Foreman tired. Ali won, scoring an eighth-round knockout. But I’ve always wondered whether Ali paid for it later.

“Maybe,’’ Foreman told me before he launched his improbable comeback with a victory in 1989 over Bert Cooper in Phoenix.

In the years before and after he died June 3, 2016 in Phoenix, Ali’s legend has grown. He was always boxing’ biggest name, one of the sport’s original celebrities. He made sure of it with his braggadocio, social activism, opposition to the Vietnam War and his name change from Cassius Clay. He’s been gone for more than five years. But his charisma is alive. On video, it lives on in the eyes that dance like his feet. His voice is always there, a lyric like a Golden Oldie soundtrack. He had fun. And he was fearless. We can still see him. Hear him.

That’s a reason for the PBS documentary by Ken Burns, whose interest in boxing is not new. Burns’ work includes Unforgivable Blackness, the story of Jack Johnson. In Ali, he is trying to take a long look at somebody Burns calls the most important athlete in the 20^th century. Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens, Joe Louis and Jack Johnson might argue. But Ali’s role is impossible to deny. It’s huge, big enough for further documentaries, more rewrites. In boxing, at least, it is magnified by what we’ve seen – or haven’t seen lately — on Triller.

But Ali is also not bigger than boxing, although that has been suggested in some of the PBS promos. No boxer is bigger than the punches they take. Not even Ali, who landed many and took too many in a legend still growing long after the last one landed. 

TUCSON —He stepped into the ring with lots to prove. He stepped out of it with lots to prove.

But Oscar Valdez Jr.’s burden must have felt a lot lighter late Friday, buoyed by a gritty victory over Robson Canceicao at Casino del Sol’s AVA Amphitheatre, an outdoor arena on the road between his first and second homes, Nogales to the south and downtown Tucson to the north.

Valdez scored a unanimous decision, a bittersweet end to a long stretch of controversy, criticism and outrage over news of a positive test for a banned stimulant nearly two weeks ago. The controversy, the burden, is still with Valdez. It’s up to him to provide the proof that the traces of Phentermine in the positive were not intentional.

“I’ve been through a hard week,’’ he said. “I’m sorry for all this ruckus. I’m not a disrespectful man. I’ve been through enough. We won the fight. We did what we had to do and it’s on to the next chapter.”

Valdez continues to call himself a clean fighter.

That remains unproven. Perhaps the proof will come in that next chapter. We’ll see.

For 12 rounds at the end of a hot summer day in the Arizona desert, however, there was plenty of proof that Valdez (30-0, 23 KOs) is courageous fighter.

From round-to-round, he reaffirmed his stubborn, no-quit nature in a relentless attack against a Brazilian challenger who beat him as an amateur at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara.

In the early moments, it looked as if Conceicao (16-1, 8 KOs) would do what the World Boxing Council (WBC) would not. It looked as if the Brazilian would take the acronym’s junior-lightweight title from him.

After Conceicao stepped through the ropes and took off his robe, Valdez must have felt like David looking at Goliath. He was taller. His shoulders were big enough to cast a shadow. He feet moved with a mix of agility and speed. Valdez appeared to be in trouble.

But Valdez endured the first two-to-three rounds. That’s when it looked as if Conceicao’s long jab would dictate the bout. But Valdez adjusted. Then, attacked. There’s more to winning a fight than a powerful jab, he said.

Suddenly in the sixth, Valdez came back with an edge. In the ring at least, his punches pack some proof. At the end of the sixth, Valdez landed a head-rocking right. The punch looked like it had been by a delivered by a trigger. An angry one. 

For the next six rounds, anger was a motivation. Valdez would not back down from a bigger man who began to mock him in the fourth and fifth rounds. Conceicao dropped his hands and danced around Valdez.

“He’s over here yelling in my face,’’ Valdez said. “We’re grown men. Don’t be yelling in my face. He might be upset. Of course, you want to be a world champion, but don’t point at me, don’t be yelling in my face. I’ve been through enough this week, man.”

Conceicao complained often and loudly about the scorecards – 115-112, 117-110 and 115-112, all for Valdez. He and his corner said they had been robbed. But Valdez’ aggression and short punches were scoring, especially from the eighth through the 12^th. 

Conceicao also appeared to tire in the later rounds of a night when the temperatures were still in the low 90s. His feet stopped moving and his hands dropped, Roy Jones-style. He was still big. But he had become a big target for Valdez, the incoming missile.

After the final bell, Conceicao waved one gloved hand above his hand as if he had won. But the capacity crowd, a sellout, booed.

The crowd knew different. It had seen the proof from from on of their own, a son of Sonora.

Lopez upsets Gabriel Flores in beat-down

It was an upset. And more.

Mexican junior-lightweight Luis Alberto Lopez (23-2, 13 KOs), a massive underdog, delivered a massive beating, pouring it on throughout ten rounds for a decision over Gabriel Flores Jr. in the final fight before the ESPN+ telecast of Oscar Valdez-Robson Conceicao.

On the scorecards, it was unanimous, 98-90 on two and a 100-90 shutout on the third. Flores (20-1, 7 KOS, of Stockton, Calif., was never in it. In the late rounds, he looked out of it, especially after taking a succession of head-rocking punches in the night round. But his father and trainer, Gabriel Flores Sr., would not end it.

“I didn’t think he was really hurt,” he said during a post-fight interview in the middle of the ring.

Really, the crowd seemed to say in a deafening chorus of boos.

Moments later, Flores Sr. said he thought his son was exhausted. He was that, too. He barely made it to his stool on shaky legs after the ninth. In the 10th and final round, a Flores cornerman climbed up onto the ring apron as if he wanted to end it. But the referee never saw his futile gesture in what was a futile fight for Flores..  

Nakatani Stops Acosta to retain Flyweight Title

It was an introduction to the United States. Turns out, it was a good one. Maybe even memorable. For sure, it was powerful.

Japanese flyweight Junto Nakatani employed his great reach and sweeping left hand, retaining his World Boxing Organization title with a stoppage of tough Puerto Rican Angel Acosta on the Oscar Valdez-Robson Conceicao undercard.

Nakatani (22-0, 17 KOs) , declared the victor just as a hot Arizona sun was setting beneath the horizon, broke Acota’s nose in the first. He targeted the injury throughout the second. The ringside physician called timeout in the second to evaluate the injury. Acosta (22-3, 21 KOs) rebounded, rocking Nakatani with a straight right counter. But blood kept pouring from the busted nose. The ringside physician took another look at Acosta in the third.

MIdway through the fourth, it was over, a TKO. declared by the referee on advice from the physician.

“I hope everybody liked it,” Nakatani said through an interpreter.

Everybody did.

Xander Zayas wins unanimous decision

It was a tough way to celebrate a birthday. But.leading middleweight prospect Xander Zayas (10-0, 7 KOs) did, absorbing some heavy right hand from Jose Luis Sanchez before winning a solid (60-53, 60-54, 60-53) decision on the Oscar Valdez-Robson Conceicao undercard.

Sanchez (11-2-1, 4 KOs), of Albuquerque, tested Zayas’ with his power, once in the third round and again in the fourth. But the Puerto Rican, now 19, battled back each time, returning fire with beautifully-placed uppercuts

Junior welterweight prospect scores second-round TKO

Lindolfo Delagado (13-0, 12 KOs), a Mexican junior-welterweight trained by  Robert Garcia,  continued to pour on the heat, overwhelming an overmatched Miguel Zamudio (45-17-1, 28 KOs), also of Mexico. Delgado rocked Zamudio early in the second, then left him defenseless and beaten moments later for a TKO at 50 seconds of the round. 

KO body punch punctuates second bout on Valdez-Conceicao card

Mexican junior-lightweight Rene Tellez Giron (16-1, 10 KOs) got a stoppage string rolling, throwing a body punch in the seventh round that could be heard on the other side of the border with Mexico in the second bout on the Va;dez-Conceicao card. Eduardo Garza (15-5-1, 8 K)s), of Mission, Texas, collapsed, finished at 44 seconds of the round.

First Bell: Valdez-Conceicao card begins with hot KO

It was 102 degrees at first bell. It was hot enough to stay inside. Maybe that’s why Mexican junior-welterweight Omar Aquilar didn’t waste much time.

Aquilar (22-0, 21 KOs),  a Mexican fighting as if he planned to get back into air-conditioning as fast as possible, knocked down Carlos Manuel Portillo late in the first round and then twice during the first minute of the second in the first bout an an ESPN+ card featuring Oscar Valdez-Robson Conceicao Friday at an outdoor amphitheater next to Casino del Sol.

Portillo (22-4, 17 KOS), of Paraquay, couldn’t take the heat — from either Aguliar or from the mid-afternoon sun in the Arizona  desert. He was finished, knocked out at 55 seconds of the second. 

By Norm Frauenheim-

TUCSON – Outrage is off the proverbial scale. On the real scale, it is quiet. Almost dull. Controversy magnified by multiple decibels by today’s social-media megaphone could barely be heard Thursday. Oscar Valdez Jr. and Robson Conceicao made weight without debate.

That’s not to say there weren’t some momentary questions. There was guessing about whether Valdez would come in at the mandatory 130 pounds. The doubt was there, inevitable after a week full of allegations and a noisy argument about whether he should be allowed to defend his title Friday at Casino del Sol after his positive test for a stimulant.

The banned substance, phentermine, is an appetite suppressant prescribed to people, mostly obese, who are fighting to lose pounds. If Valdez couldn’t make the junior-lightweight limit, safe to say it would be interpreted as further evidence that reasons for the positive test were less than innocent.

But peace prevailed. It went as planned, not an ounce more or less. Valdez had to take off his socks after his first step on to the scale. Then, officials from the Pascua Yaqui Athletic Commission and onlookers from Conceicao’s corner had to back away from a scale affected by movement on wooden planks from those wanting a closer look.

The third try was perfect, although there were some who might have lost some cellulite while sweating out the outcome. One-hundred-thirty pounds, even. ESPN+, Casino del Sol and the World Boxing Council have a fight, despite the crowd that says they shouldn’t.

The show goes on, one that is expected to attract a capacity crowd at the Casino del Sol’s outdoor AVA Amphitheatre on a day when temperatures in southern Arizona are expected to reach 103 degrees. It’ll be hot at first bell (3:15 p.m. PT).  Then again, it already has been for anybody involved or opposed to the card’s main event.

Conceicao’s manager, Sergio Batarelli, is still surprised it’s happening.

“About a week ago, I wouldn’t have believed it,’’ Batarelli said after Conceicao weighed in at 129.6 pounds. “I still don’t think it should happen. I think they should have just given the title to Robson. But that’s okay. He’ll win it anyway in the ring.’’

That would probably make many happy, especially ESPN commentator Timothy Bradley, a former welterweight champion who expressed his outrage by saying he hopes Conceicao knocks out Valdez.

A lot of ESPN commentators have said the fight should not happen. None of them, however, have gone so far as to say that their employer should pull the plug on televising the controversial bout on the network’s premium channel. All that outrage is a sign there will be more buyers for a bout that was just another title fight before news of Valdez’ positive test broke eleven days ago. But that’s another story.

For now, it a story about Valdez, a son of Sonora. He grew up in Nogales, a border town about 65 miles south of Tucson where he went to school. At home in front of family and old friends, he is fighting to defend a hell of a lot more than just another belt. His credibility, character, is at stake, both Friday and beyond whatever happens against a Brazilian Olympic gold medalist who beat him as an amateur during the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara.

Conceicao has been forgotten amid the furor surrounding Valdez (29-0, 23 KOs). But he would be a threat to Valdez, even without the controversy. He’s unbeaten (16-0, 8 KOS). He’s bigger. After the weigh-in, he looked down – perhaps in more ways than one – on Valdez during the ritual face-to-face pose for the cameras.

“He’s very motivated,’’ Batarelli said. “He’s upset at what happened.’’

A hint at Conceicao’s opinion of Valdez and the surrounding controversy was there in a somewhat cryptic remark translated by Batarelli Wednesday during a news conference.

“About the problem with the champion, what is done is done,’’ Conceicao said, according to the manager’s translation of his native Portuguese. “There is no explanation, but I’m here to do my best and fight the greatest fight of my life.” 

Interpret it anyway you want, it’s a tough fight for Valdez, who has had a lot of them in a career that reached a peak in his knockout upset of feared Miguel Berchelt in his last outing.

On any scale, it might be his toughest ever.

By Norm Frauenheim–

TUCSON – Oscar Valdez Jr. is about to step into the ring a little bit like a defendant about to take the witness stand in an attempt to defend himself against charges in the court of public opinion.

He’s doing it in a prizefight that many say is indefensible.

He’s doing it to defend a junior-lightweight title that many say the World Boxing Council should have stripped from him.

He’s doing it amid a furor of allegations from an angry internet crowd that accuses him of lying.

Questions his credibility.

Condemns his integrity.

He’s doing it to defend himself, more than a belt. His defense began Wednesday, a couple of days before opening bell in an ESPN+ fight Friday night at Casino del Sol against Robson Conceicao and eight days after news broke that he had tested positive for a banned stimulant.

Valdez took the stage at a news conference at a small casino just down the road from the AVA Amphitheater about 12 miles from what he calls his second home in downtown Tucson. The controversial belt hung from his right shoulder. Conceicao, an unbeaten challenger and a Brazilian who beat him as an amateur, was there too, alongside junior-lightweight contenders Gabriel Flores Jr. and Luis Alberto Lopez.

But all were there as props and bit players. Valdez was there by himself, solemn-faced and confronted with a lonely battle to defend his character.

“Yeah, it’s a fight to prove I’m a clean fighter,’’ said Valdez, who tested positive for phentermine.

Translation: It’s a fight he has to win long-term and within the ropes against Conceicao, mostly unknown but now a challenger who has gained a groundswell of support from those outraged at Valdez and the decision to go forward with his first defense of a 130-pound title he won in a stunning stoppage of feared of Miguel Berchelt. ESPN boxing commentator Timothy Bradley said he hopes that Brazilian knocks out Valdez.

“I’ve been disappointed, I’ve been angry,’’ said Valdez (29-0, 23 KOs), a two-time Mexican Olympian who returned to his native Nogales on the Mexican side of the border after a few formative years in school in Tucson. “I can’t lie. But I I’ve been very focused on not looking at anything negative out there. It has been a little difficult — I can’t lie — but this is what we have to go through. Sometimes, this is what you have tp go through to prove yourself as a person and a fighter. This is what it’s going to be.

“This is when you realize who the real people are around you, who are loyal to you and got your back. I realize that my family is number one and also my team. I have to thank everyone on my team, {including} my manager, Frank Espinoza, and my trainer, Eddy Reynoso. My father has always been there with me. Just everyone who has been around supporting me during these tough times because it has been difficult. They had my back, and we know we did nothing wrong. We’re going to be real concentrated for this fight.”

His father, Oscar Valdez Sr., has been at his son’s side and in his corner throughout his many triumphs and now his trouble. He believes his son is ready to begin his long fight to answer the allegations with a victory over Conceicao, who beat Valdez at the 2009 Pan American Game in Guadalajara. The fight against Conceicao (16-0, 8 KOs), a gold medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, figured to be tougher than expected even before the news of the positive test broke.

It’s impossible to really know how Valdez will react until opening bell at an outdoor arena in front of what is expected to be a sold-out crowd. But a victory has taken on a sense of urgency brought on by the controversy. Valdez wants to keep himself in the public, perhaps now more than ever. He has a lot of to prove. It’s a burden he never anticipated. And it’s a burden that his many detractors believe will crush him.

But his manager, Frank Espinoza, is confident he has moved on from the controversy and onto the task of beating both Conceicao and the internet crowd with tweets and taunts. After Conceicao, Espinoza says the task will be to prove that the positive test was not intentional.

“We have to,’’ said Espinoza, who said he has some preliminary discussion on how to proceed with Valdez attorney Pat English.

Valdez’ father continued to say that he believed his son tested positive for the stimulant because of herbal tea. He said his son quit drinking coffee and started drinking tea during training. He tested positive on August 13. He tested negative on August 30.

However, it was still unclear Wednesday what kind of tea Valdez was drinking, or where the brew and brand were acquired. This fight – and perhaps controversy – is just beginning.

By Norm Frauenheim –

It looks as if Oscar Valdez won the argument. He’s expected to fight, expected to defend his junior-lightweight title on Sept. 10 in a homecoming, according to an ESPN report both in English and Spanish. But he could have never known he’d be going home to so much controversy.

Fight or no fight, the controversy will be there at Casino del Sol, about 12 miles down the road from downtown Tucson where he grew up.

It’ll be in headlines and social media. It’s already been there, a virtual storm of criticism and the usual taunts. Brazilian challenger Robson Canceicao might be a lot easier to beat than questions that promise to come at Valdez like dangerous punches from unseen angles.

Valdez’ title, patience and poise are among the heightened stakes in an expected fight that appeared to be in real jeopardy just a day ago because of a positive test for a reported stimulant.

Three contentious days full of an ongoing debate about whether he should or shouldn’t fight appeared to end late Thursday. The Top Rank-promoted fight is on, according to ESPN’s Mike Coppinger, who cited unnamed sources in his report.

The reported decision to go forward came a day after a Zoom meeting that included Top Rank, Valdez attorney Pat English, the World Boxing Council’s Mauricio Sulaiman and the Pascua Yaqui.

The fight at an outdoor arena adjacent to the casino is subject to approval and jurisdiction by the Pascua Yaqui commission. 15 Rounds could not confirm ESPN’s report. There was no answer to calls to Commissioner Ernie Gallardo’s office at the Pascua Yaqui headquarters. However, the bout was still advertised on both Casino del Sol and Top Rank websites late Thursday.

The reported decision also came down a few hours after news, also from Coppinger, that Valdez’ B-sample tested positive.

Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Who knows? There’s never much clarity, much less certainty, in the hazy, balkanized business of boxing and drugs. We can only be sure that there probably will be another opening bell.

As this one approaches, public and pundits are increasingly split, thumbs up or thumbs down. But it’s not that simple.

Deliberations had been ongoing since the story broke Tuesday on ESPN, which also is scheduled to televise Valdez-Conceicao on its premium channel, ESPN+.

There’s an inherent conflict-of-interest in ESPN’s role. Emphasis on conflict. But boxing wouldn’t have its corner on chaos without the messy mix of conflicting interests. It’s always there, often just beneath the surface, but always ready to emerge with more conflict, confusion and controversy.

That made everything about Thursday’s news volatile, hard to predict. As I wrote early Thursday, the jury was still out. A decision was expected soon. But mostly the controversy raged on, especially on social media.

It’s been noisy enough for ESPN to sell more premium buys for the bout. Yes, that’s cynical. But cynicism, like conflict, is also part of boxing.

Let’s face it, Valdez-Conceicao was interesting.  And it still figures to be more competitive than expected. But it was never a must-see bout. Until now.

Over just a few days, it’s been transformed — turned into a hot-button issue — for fans who might have had a moderate interest, but now have a definite opinion. They’ll buy the telecast.

Add to that, a capacity crowd – about 5,000 – at Casino del Sol’s Ampitheatre. Sellouts, in any sport, have been rare during the Pandemic. This will be an exception.

The Pascua Yaqui is not new to professional boxing. It knows what it’s getting into. The Tribal Commission has been regulating bouts since Fernando Vargas fought there in 2003. It’s also a Commission that’s been caught squarely in the conflict-of-interest web. Fair or not, a sellout will be seen as motivation for the Pascua Yaqui to sanction the bout, despite the positive test for a banned substance.

The Pascua Yaqui commission is aligned with the Association of Boxing Commissions, which means it should follow its guidelines.

Then again, so is the Arizona State Boxing & MMA Commission, which licensed Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to fight Danny Jacobs in December 2019. Chavez turned to Arizona when Nevada said no after he reportedly ran away from VADA when it showed up at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles prepared to subject him to a a random test.

Chavez got his AZ license and then went on to lose, quitting on the stool against Jacobs, at the Phoenix Suns arena. The crowd erupted, throwing debris in a near-riot. But that’s another story.

Another Arizona story.

This chapter will be controversial for everyone involved, regardless of what happens.

It’s inevitable that discussion at Wednesday’s meeting included an argument that Valdez tested positive for a substance, phentermine, that WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) prohibits only on the day of competition. Valdez’ underwent the test while training mid-August in San Diego.

If Valdez were a UFC fighter, there’d be no doubt.  according to Kevin Iole in a story for Yahoo. WADA rules apply, meaning Valdez would be fighting on Sept. 10 without questions.

But this is boxing, meaning options, loopholes and argument. The Valdez test was conducted by VADA (Voluntary Anti-Doping Association). WADA, VADA, nobody knows nada. But there’s a difference, minor most of the time but major now.

VADA doesn’t differentiate between in-competition and out-of-competition when it comes to phentermine, which suppresses the appetite for people trying to lose weight. It’s banned, period.

For someone who had plans to cover the fight, I would have been happy if everyone just tested positive for Moderna.

But I understand the argument that Valdez, a good guy, should be held accountable. Perhaps, he was confused. As a two-time Mexican Olympian, he was under WADA rules. As a pro, he’s under VADA rules. Too many different rules mean no rule at all. Confusion is understandable. But not an excuse.

That said, everybody on social media and elsewhere, please, stop condemning Valdez. Please, get off the pulpit. There’s no high ground in boxing. There’s just that messy collection of rules, regs, commissions, acronyms, egos and self-interest.

If Valdez wins, he’ll still have to deal with scarring questions that never go away. His stablemate, Canelo Alvarez, still gets hammered by talk from the cheap seat in social media about whether tainted Mexican beef was the real reason he tested positive for performance-enhancing clenbuterol in 2018.

Meanwhile, boxing continues to sow the confusion that allows it to move on. That’s unfair to Valdez and any other fighter so often caught in the middle.

Don’t blame him. Blame the business.