3,425 stories on BoxingScene are published under the Cliff Rold byline.
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By Cliff Rold - In the lightest weight classes, it takes a little extra to garner broad attention. Lots of titles, spread across multiple geographic lines, rarely allow for the best in class to lock horns. For the potential of those divisions to be reached, things have to line up just right. For most of this decade, flyweight has been the hot spot du jour. There was a period where one could argue it was the...
A good fight is a good fight no matter where on the scale, or where in the world, it takes place. Wednesday in Japan, fans could be treated to a pretty damn good fight between two genuine top ten fighters at Jr. bantamweight.
Welterweight: Felix Diaz, who appeared to do more than enough to defeat Lamont Peterson in his lone loss, got the cards he deserved in a win over rated Sammy Vasquez. He takes over Vasquez’s spot in the top ten. Consideration was given to re-inserting Manny Pacquaio as champion given the brevity of his ‘retirement’ but the formal announcement is treated consistently with past similar decisions.
The televised opener likely didn’t feature fighters who one can expect to see in contention for titles any time soon. They probably fought for a fraction of a fraction of what even a modest name goes for these days. And yet, for eight rounds, they gave it everything they had in a raucous brawl.
By Cliff Rold - One gold. One silver. One bronze. It’s one medal more than US boxers had in 2012 and this time, unlike last, the men got in on the action. It was Olympic boxing so there was more than a fair share of controversies for fighters from around the world. Like the professional world of pugilism, boxing has a hard time getting out of its own way. It’s nothing new. It doesn’t mean it doesn’t get...
25-year old super middleweight Jose Uzcategui (26-1, 22 KO), 170, of Tijuana, Mexico, made it four knockout wins in a row since his first loss with a two knockdown finish in the second round against 28-year old Fabiano Pena (18-6-1, 14 KO), 168 ½, of Sao Paolo, Brazil. It was Pena’s fifth stoppage loss.
Rising heavyweight contender Jarrell Miller (18-0-1, 16KOs) stopped division veteran Fred Kassi (18-6-1, 10KOs) in three rounds. Kassi's awkward style was on display in the first. Miller was looking for a big shot and let his hands go in the final ten seconds with nothing solid really landing. Kassi was using good movement and landing small shots on Miller that had no affect. Miller started focusing on the body to slow Kassi down.
The televised opener featured a closely contest battle. 29-year old Kazakh welterweight Bakhtiar Eyubov (11-0, 10 KO), 142 ½, of Houston, Texas, was taken past the third round, all the way through a scheduled ten for the first time, just barely hanging onto his unbeaten mark with a split decision win over 35-year old Karim Mayfield (19-4-1, 11 KO), 142 ¾, of San Francisco, California. The referee was Michael Griffin.
By Cliff Rold - There has been nothing wrong with referring to bantamweight Shakur Stevenson as Team USA’s best chance at an Olympic gold medal in boxing. There has been everything wrong with anyone failing to qualify the statement. Stevenson is the best shot at a men’s gold. With a walkover off an injury he...
Much has been made of the struggles of the US boxing team at recent Olympics. There was the failure to medal in 2012, already surpassed at these games by light flyweight Nico Hernandez. Prior to that, only one fighter medaled in 2008 and two in 2004 (with Andre Ward winning gold).