Boxing Blog – TSS Tidbits

Budapest Bomber decisions former sparring partner

Hungarian Zsolt “The Budapest Bomber” Erdei retained his WBO light-heavyweight title with a one-sided decision over Germany’s Thomas Ulrich on Saturday in Germany.

The 32-year-old Erdei (25-0, 15 knockouts) had an easy time of it, not too surprising since Ulrich was a former sparring partner.

At least Ulrich made a better payday than he would’ve as a prep aide…

Erdei opened cuts on Ulrich’s nose and closed his left eye with persistent jabs.

The judges saw it 120-108, 118-100 and 116-112 for Erdei in his sixth title defense.

In the twelfth, Ulrich (29-3, 19 knockouts) stunned the Hungarian with a right, but couldn’t finish the job.

The 31-year-old Ulrich (29-3) has now lost two title shots; he was stopped by Tomasz Adamek in 2005 for the WBC belt.

Erdei nabbed his crown in January 2004, by beating Julio Gonzalez. Stipe Drews (31-1), a 33-year-old Croat, is the number one ranked contender in the WBO’s rating ladder.

French super middleweight shines on Showtime

The Showtime super middleweight tournament kicked off on Friday night with the first two bouts of the eight-man elimination extravaganza, and while two men advanced, one did it in grand fashion that demanded viewers tune in to his next outing.

The standout of the night was Frenchman Jean-Paul Mendy, a ‘96 Olympian, who stepped in with Dallas Vargas, the most prominent legally deaf fighter in the whole world.

The 32-year-old Mendy (22-0, 12 knockouts) overwhelmed Vargas in the ring at the PFTC Sports Center in Las Vegas, after a minute of sizing him up. It appeared that Vargas hadn’t studied any scouting report that said the Frenchman had much pop or a truly aggressive ring style.

But can he be blamed? The southpaw Mendy has fought softies in France and South Carolina, so his ferocity did surprise everyone, including announcers Nick Charles and Steve Farhood.

“Deaf Pride” Vargas (21-3) ate about seven shots when the ref called it a day at 1:45 of the first of the scheduled tenner, and he protested mildly after the halting, but the ref did the right thing, saving the 29-year-old Toledo, Ohio boxer from more punishment.

Mendy will meet the night’s other winner, 27-year-old Henry “Sugar Poo” Buchanan (14-0). A Maryland resident, Buchanan was of a higher skill and experience level than his opponent, Lucas Green-Arias (11-1), of Costa Rica. He moved smartly and stayed away from the Costa Rican, who was too plodding in trying to land a power shot. The judges were unanimous for Buchanan.

He and Mendy are supposed to get it on in the semifinals on Oct.6, but Buchanan hurt his right hand so it remains to be seen whether he will be able to lace them up. Green-Arias will step in if he can’t fight.

The next installment of the tourney comes Friday, Aug. 4, when Anthony Hanshaw (19-0, 13 KOs) of Warren, Ohio, takes on Esteban Camou (18-1, 15 KOs) of Navojoa, Mexico. Also, Sakio Bika (20-1-2, 14 KOs) of Douala, Cameroon, faces Jose Luis Herrera (14-1, 14 KOs) of San Onofre, Colombia.

Heavyweights draw at Seminole Hard Rock

First off, heavyweight Sultan Ibragimov is not all that he was cracked up to be.

Tysonesque? Um, not really…

High volume puncher, an all action guy with sharkish tendencies?

Not so much.

But Ibragimov is no bum, and neither was his foe on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights, 35-year-old Ohioan Ray Austin.

Ibragimov (19-0-1) got off to a stronger start in a heavyweight beef at the Seminole Hard Rock Arena in Hollywood, Florida last night, as the southpaw stood in the pocket against the taller foe and found a home for his straight left.

But as the rounds progressed, Austin (24-3-4) showed his experience. Yes, he has a lazy jab, keeps his hands low and shows poor balance at times…

But as the bout moved forward, Austin kept a better distance and caught the Russian coming in with a long right. Ibragimov, age 31, was more hesitant to attack as Austin found his way.

In the tenth, Austin, age 35, put Ibragimov down for the first time as a pro, with a sweeping left hook.

Ibragimov, not to be confused with his lesser-light cousin Timur, kept his composure. He finished the show strong, pressing the issue in the twelfth, when he had Austin in a slightly precarious state.

Analyst Teddy Atlas made a point of Ibragimov’s 11 pound weight gain since his last fight (in December against Lance Whitaker), but truth be told, he wore the weight well on his 6-2 inch frame.

The winner was supposed to get a crack at the winner of the Wladimir Klitschko/Shannon Briggs November fight.

My concept – have Ibragimov and Austin do it again in October, since no clear better man emerged tonight.

Then have the winner fight the Klitschko/Briggs winner in March….

That work for you, TSS Blog Squadders?

Former heavyweight contender makes it official

He took shots from some legit heavy hitters, like Ron Lyle, Ken Norton, Larry Holmes and Mike Weaver. Now is ready to enter another arena and take his chances.

Scott Ledoux has been installed by the governor of Minnesota as the head of the state boxing commission. “The Fighting Frenchman,” who said he wants to bring a nationally televised event to the state by the time the leaves start to fall, will be in charge in a state that disbanded its regulatory agency five years ago.

He was part of the commission for eighteen years until it folded, and worked the pro wrestling circuit for a spell after the boxing petered out…

Fights were held in Minnesota until last summer under the regulation of other overseeing bodies, but that practice fell out of favor because of liability concerns.

LeDoux, who fought eight men who were heavyweight champions at one time another, went 33-13-4 during a boxing career that ran from 1974-1983.

By the way, the Fighting Frenchman nickname was absurdly unfit for the big lug. Word was he knew about 50 French words total…

However his foray into regulation goes, Ledoux will always be fondly remembered for knocking Howard Cosell’s toupee off his head. That celebrated moment in time occurred in February 1977, after Ledoux had just finished kicking Johnny Boudreaux’s butt on ABC.

The judges, however, because of blindness or something more odious, didn’t agree. Boudreaux got the nod and Ledoux went ballistic as the “victor” talked trash. He went after Boudreaux and Cosell got caught in the mix. The Minnesotan tossed a kick at Boudreaux that hit Cosell instead, and knocked his rug awry. Cosell reset the wig and went about his business.

Scott Ledoux, for all his limitations, did something Muhammad Ali was never able to pull off.

Good luck, Ledoux, from the TSS Blog Squad…

OLN’s inaugural boxing show a big hit

It’s the answer to a trivia question: who fought on the very first OLN network boxing broadcast?

Kelly Pavlik, from the fabled Midwest fight town Youngstown, Ohio, defended his NABF middleweight title with a sixth-round technical knockout of Bronco McKart, from Monroe, Mich., in a scheduled 12-round bout at the Mohegan Sun Casino last night.

In this OLN opener, the 24-year-old Pavlik (28-0-0, 25 knockouts) sent McKart (48-7-0) to the deck at the 1:45 mark of the sixth, then knocked him down again at 2:45, the Hartford Courant reports.

McKart, the 35-year-old vet who is 3-4 in his last seven bouts, got up at the count of nine, but referee Rick Gonzalez stopped the fight. Will he now be used as fodder for marquee names looking to pad their record with the scalp of a former contender, or will wisdom prevail and retirement beckon?

Anthony “The Messenger” Thompson of Philadelphia won the co-feature with a ninth-round knockout of Mohammad Said, from Jersey City, N.J., in a scheduled 10-round middleweight bout. The 24-year-old Thompson (22-1-0) sent a potent message when he knocked out Said (17-5-1) at the 2:02 of the ninth. The Syrian born Said is 3-4-1 in his last seven. That Thompson knocked him out is saying something, as Ian Gardner, Antwun Echols, Jerson Ravelo and Raul Frank were unable to do so.

Also, Almazbek “Kid Diamond” Raiymkulov (22-1-1, 13 KOs) of Las Vegas won a fourth-round TKO over Antonio Wong (11-6-1) of Tijuana, Mexico. He’s looking to get back on track after the October loss to Nate Campbell and June 2005 draw with Joel Casamayor…

Garry Delaney facing 11 years for throwing punch

Garry Delaney, the 35-year-old former cruiserweight/heavyweight who fought out of England, was sentenced to at least 11 years behind bars for killing Paul Price, age 23, with a single punch in an October incident.

Price fell to the ground and fractured the back of his skull and died five days later despite undergoing surgery after Delaney punched him. The ex-boxer was working as a doorman at a hotel disco, and had removed Price’s pal James Farrell from the hotel bar after the bartender complained he was unruly. Price came to his friend’s defense, and Delaney turned on him.

As Price lay on the floor, Life Style Extra reported, Delaney fled in his BMW, but was arrested that night.

Judge Leonard Goldstone QC gave Delaney a stern dressing down at sentencing: “It is often said that a bully is a coward.

“On that night you behaved like a bully. And when you knew that both of them were injured – at least one seriously – you reacted like a coward.

“Your fist became a lethal weapon. Paul Price was no threat to you, or anyone else.”

Delaney was also given a nine months jail sentence for the assault on Farrell, which will run concurrently.

It’s been a bad run for Brit-based boxers and their penchant for lawlessness, hasn’t it…

Former boxer/bouncer kills man with single punch

Garry Delaney, a British cruiserweight/heavyweight who fought as a pro from 1991-2005, was convicted yesterday of killing man with a punch.

While working as a doorman at a hotel disco on October 7, Delaney hit Paul Price with a devastating uppercut and the blow lifted him off his feet.

Price fell backwards and his head hit the ground. His skull was fractured and, despite having surgery, Price died.

Delaney is due to be sentenced tomorrow.

Delaney “did not hang around and although he was due to have worked until 1 a.m. he made himself scarce and got into a BMW and drove away without putting the lights on,” a prosecutor told the Sun newspaper.

The 35-year-old ex-fighter, who lives in London, denied murdering Price, aged 23.

On the fateful evening, Price and a friend, James Farrell, had been turned away after not meeting the dress code. Instead they went to the hotel’s bar.

The bartender thought Farrell was behaving “in a troublesome way” and asked Delaney to remove him.

Delaney, who stepped away from the ring after losing his last seven straight, sprayed Farrell with a substance, the prosecution said, and then dragged him outside, where he dumped the man in a shrub.

His pal came to his aid.

“Paul Price saw what happened and went outside to remonstrate verbally with the defendant,” the prosecutor said. “Delaney was seen to hit him in the face with an uppercut. It lifted him off the ground.”

A post mortem showed that Delaney, who quit with a 31-3-1 mark, left a heavy toll on his victim.

Price suffered a swollen right eye, bruising to the eye socket and cheek and a fracture to the upper jaw, swelling on his right cheekbone and damage to his upper lip.

Showtime, trying harder, laces ‘em up in September

Showtime, the Avis to HBO’s Hertz (or is it the other way around?) has been diligently hacking away at the acknowledged cable giant, HBO.

The network that used to show obscure British Commonwealth title fights and Don King-crafted mismatches stays in the hunt with their next heavyweight offering.

On the James Toney/ Samuel Peter Sept. 2 broadcast, the cabler announced an IBF world title fight between current 126-pound champion Eric Aiken (16-4, 12 KOs) and Robert Guerrero (18-1-1, 11 KOs).

That card will air live at 10 p.m. ET/PT from STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, and I dare say, it strikes me as a more attractive viewing opportunity than paying to see Rahman/Maskaev II…

Also, if you hadn’t heard, Diego Corrales will meet Joel Casamayor for a third time on the Oct. 7, 2006 edition of SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING (9 p.m. ET/PT).

Corrales and Casamayor have each won one match; the Cuban cutie Casamayor won the first bout on a controversial sixth-round TKO as Corrales suffered a severely cut lip on Oct. 4, 2003. Corrales then evened the deal in their March 6, 2004 rematch when he defeated Casamayor by split decision for the vacant WBO junior lightweight title.