Posts Tagged ‘Daniel Ciminera’

.

Boxing Talk With Tavoris Cloud

.

By Daniel Ciminera

Speaking to Tavoris Cloud today, he indicated he’d be fighting “real soon, possibly March/April”, though didn’t give much away with regards to who, naming Chad Dawson, Jean Pascal, Bernard Hopkns, Beibut Shumenov, and Jurgen Braehmer as possible candidates. Which is basically the top 5 ranked guys without him and Nathan Cleverly included. As generic an answer as is possible, almost.

We can pretty safely rule out Brahmer who has a mandatory defence to make against Nathan Cleverly, the interim WBO title holder, who was interestingly left out from Cloud’s shortlist. When I asked him “what if Cleverly beats Braehmer?”, he wryly responded with “we’ll see” indicating he does not think that Cleverly can beat Braehmer or that he knows something we do not about the Braehmer/Cleverly clash. He also said he wants to unify the WBO title “this year” so we can assume that Braehmer or Cleverly are definitely on the cards in 2011.

We can also probably rule out Dawson for March/April after suffering his first career loss at the hands of Jean Pascal last summer. A well rested, and eager to get back on winning ways Dawson would be a very dangerous fight for anyone in the division to take. I can’t see the young Cloud taking this fight.

This leaves WBA and IBA title holder Shumenov, off the back of a 6th round KO versus experienced William Joppy, also a dangerous proposition, but with high reward in terms of title unifications. More so than fighting either Pascal or Hopkins who drew with each other last month. Pascal put an end to Dawson’s unbeaten run in 2010 and in gaining a draw with the ever-wiley Bernard Hopkins has cemented himself among the top light-heavyweights, and as we all know, Hopkins can make anybody look bad.

So for me, of these three, Shumenov is the only one worth going after right now in terms of “risk v reward” at least anyway, with a winter bout with the winner of Braehmer v Cleverly for a massive unification bout which would likely be one of the best fights of the year. And would be another shining-light example of top boxers not avoiding each other for the sake of it!

Turbo-Charge Your Metabolism and
Burn off Body Fat the Easy Way…

Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

.

By Daniel Ciminera

A legend of boxing, does not have to be your favourite boxer. Nor even the best of their time. But someone who’s story, or ring wars are inspiring long after they have retired and even died. These people become the reasons boxing was so exciting and drew me in like a moth to a flame when I was a child. I’m not very old, I’m only 25, so perhaps these people have more to do with my father’s influence on me as he was the one who got me interested in boxing, himself boxing for our country. Despite not being old enough to have seen most of these guys live, I was brought up watching tapes of them and being gripped as though I were ringside, throwing every punch along with them and screaming them on to victory. After all, that’s what boxing is all about right?

I would like to begin with Tommy Farr as I am from about 2 miles from where he was born and raised and he is still something of a local hero. Many gymnasia across Wales are adorned with some sort of image of Tommy, and he is held in the highest regard by all. He was a fighter who, not only gave his all inside the ring, but was a great example and role model outside of it too, always sure to spend a lot of time with his family.

Farr spent his early life, as did most people from the poverty stricken South Wales valleys, “down the coal-mine”. The whole area is built around coal mining. Farr hated this life with utmost passion and was later to describe boxing as “the lesser of two evils”. At the age of twelve, having left school already, Farr took part in his first official contest, over six rounds in Tonypandy. He won the fight via a points decision and his appetite had been well and truly whetted. He was nicknamed “The Tonypandy Terror” thereafter.

His professional record hosts 126 bouts, with 81 wins (24 by KO), 30 losses, 13 draws and 2 no contests, although Farr was also a keen “booth boxer”, fighting at fairgrounds and such. Including his “booth” fights, his total career fights amasses to 296. An astonishing number in comparison to today’s boxers, and given that his original retirement was at the age of 26, this is even more amazing!

You could describe Farr as a journeyman, with ups and downs, and seemingly every time he’d build an unbeaten streak, he’d get beaten and be back to square one. However, his luck was to change in the mid 1930s, Farr managed to string together seven professional wins to receive a chance at the Welsh Light-Heavyweight title, outpointing Randy Jones to take the title and went onto another six straight wins. Then, just as with the rest of his career, he was to lose. He lost three times against Eddie Phillips, the last of which was for the British Light-Heavyweight title.

Farr then came back into favour winning eighteen contests straight, including wins against memorable opponents and former Light-Heavyweight champions, Tommy Loughran and Bob Olin as well as another renowned Welsh boxer, Jim Wilde. This gave Farr an opportunity to battle against Ben Foord in March 1937, to take both the British and Empire Heavyweight titles. He was by far and away the underdog in the bout despite his growing reputation in the sport. He used his awkward crouching style and jackhammer-esque jab to win an untidy affair. He had now proven he was good enough for the world stage.

Farr’s first venture onto this platform was just a month later (imagine that today) against Max Baer, in which he thoroughly dominated the favourite. In the early rounds, Baer played to the crowd (in a fashion not too dissimilar to that of “Apollo Creed” in the Rocky movies), acting as though he could remove Farr from the bout at any time he wished. When Baer eventually decided he was ready to end the match, he found he couldn’t get past the iron rod that was Farr’s jab.

No matter what Baer tried, he was met head on by the jab and that was the way the fight was to play out with Farr putting in the boxing performance of his career to take a points win. Two months later in June 1937, Farr fought and knocked-out Walter Neusel in superb fashion in the third round. This set Farr up for a dream bout with Joe Louis in the August of 1937, just weeks after Louis had taken the title from “The Cinderella Man”, Braddock, and amidst a world of controversy surrounding the title and Max Schmeling.

Before the two went head to head at Yankee Stadium, New York, in front of 32,000 spectators (a large number even today), Louis asked Farr where he had got the large amount of scars on his back. With a cheerful smile, Farr replied, “oh they’re nothing, I got those from fighting with tigers”, which reportedly is said to have terrified Louis. The fight gripped the South Wales valleys like no other had done ever before, and still hasn’t been rivalled to this day, it is said that every household in the Rhondda valley had stayed up until the 3am (UK time) start to listen on the radio, which had been relayed to the BBC via telephone.

There were even loudspeaker playings of the bout in church halls and public houses. The fight, as was agreed by all, was going to be a walk in the park for Louis. Nobody outside of Wales, gave Farr a chance at all. Apparently nobody showed this script to Tommy as from the first bell, he charged at Louis and stuffed two solid jabs into his face. This was to be the tone of the evening, much to everyone’s shock. However, while Louis was obviously the more “skilled boxer” and the more fearsome puncher, Farr kept coming forward and forward the entire fight with his low guard and was completely unphased by the champion, who literally had torn Farr’s face to shreds.

Farr eventually losing out to a close judges decision met by loud, emphatic booing from the crowd. They thought Farr had beaten Louis. As did the “Los Angeles Times”, printing “A courageous, tousle-haired man from Wales named Tommy Farr tonight made a bum out of Joe Louis and all the experts when he stuck the full fifteen rounds against the world’s champion to lose a close decision”.

In my opinion, the fight was close enough to be called a draw, however, perhaps the judges had been swayed by the fact that Louis’ punches had clearly been more damaging as Farr’s face was a terrible mess. Farr commenting that his face “looked like a dug-up road”.
Farr then had four more fights in America, including bouts against James Braddock and Max Baer. He lost all four before returning to the UK to win a further four fights, avenging an earlier loss against “Red” Burman. He then retired in 1940 at the age of 26.

In 1950, after 10 years of retirement Tommy Farr was facing bankruptcy and was forced to return to the ring to make some money, having 16 more fights and winning 11 of them, Farr also became the Welsh Heavyweight Champion in 1951 with a sixth round knock-out over Dennis Powell.

In his last bout, Farr was beaten in the seventh round by Don Cocknell, after which Tommy took the ring announcer’s microphone and sang the Welsh national anthem, which is seen by us all here in Wales as a fitting and emotional farewell to a roller coaster of a career of a great man.

Tommy Farr is rightly considered one of the greats in boxing and one of the greatest Welshmen in history. A fact of which he’d be very proud. Like he said after fighting Louis, “I’ve got plenty of guts….I’m a Welshman.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

.

By Daniel Ciminera

McEwan steps in to replace retiring Duddy

.

.

Andy Lee was left high and dry without an opponent with John Duddy taking the decision to retire ahead of their scheduled 12th March clash, citing a lack of desire to make the sort of sacrifices required to be the fighter he needs to be as the reason for his retirement. Which as an aside, is quite a refreshing thing to hear in boxing, it would be nice to hear more guys admit this way sooner rather than fight on and do themselves harm.

Scottish southpaw, Craig McEwan (19/0 – 10ko) had been touted as a potential replacement for Duddy along with fan favourite, Peter Manfredo Jr. when Lee told press he was keen to go ahead and fight on the 12th March. But tonight, I am told that McEwan and Lee have agreed terms and signed their contracts for the 12th.

Some say Lee should be fighting Bryan Vera who dealt him his only career defeat back in 2008, but For me, McEwan, who decisioned Vera in 2009, is a stronger opponent and he must be given credit for not taking a softer touch, rather than criticized for not fighting Vera. Which lets face it, at the moment is applying Khan/Prescott to other fights for the sake of it! Vera is even more out of the picture than Prescott having only won 3 of his last 8 contests and is ranked at 34.

If Lee can get past his undefeated challenger in what promises to be an action-packed encounter, there are 20 or so credible guys out there including aforementioned Manfredo Jr, and the ever controversial Chavez Jr. in the ever talented middleweight division.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

The Undefeated: Terry “The Fighting Fireman” Marsh

By Daniel Ciminera

Hailing from 1958 Stepney, London, Terry Marsh is a truly fascinating character in boxing. His childhood was hardly that of a stereotypical boxer, being a junior chess champion long before he laced up any boxing gloves. He joined the Royal Marines seemingly on a whim as a youngster saying the advert said “can you hack it?” which presumably the young Londoner took as a challenge as he joined up and began boxing for the Navy.

Amongst active service in Northern Ireland and Cyprus, Marsh somehow found time to win three major ABA titles in ’78, ’80, and ’81 having moved from lightweight to welterweight via light-welter where he was also a finalist in ’79, losing out to Eddie Copeland. I am sure you will agree, four consecutive finals during active military service is quite an achievement.

1981 was to be Marsh’s final year in the military and as an amateur. He cited the fact that his rank would be limited due to his education, so he left to go to university and so began boxing professionally to pay for his studies.

Marsh’s first professional contest was a 6 round points win over Tottenham native, Andrew Da Costa in October 1981. He obviously enjoyed himself because 2 weeks later he was in the ring again facing Dave Sullivan, an archetypal journeyman from Plymouth, Devon. Again, Marsh took a 6 round decision. He fought four more times around London before his only non win where he drew with Lloyd Christie who would later hold the British light-welterweight title. Even at this stage, Christie was a risky opponent for the light-fisted Marsh as he was already garnering a reputation as someone who you knock out, or he would knock you out. The two would never square off again oddly.

Funnily enough, during this time, Terry had found that despite being ultimately successful inside the ring, boxing was not paying his bills as he had hoped, so he signed up to the fire service which later gave him the nickname “The Fighting Fireman”.

After 3 years as a professional, Marsh was given the opportunity to fight for the British light-welterweight title against experienced Jamaican, Clinton McKenzie. Marsh won over 12 rounds. Four more fights and Marsh had made ground in the European rankings and took only his second fight outside of England to face Italian Alessandro Scapecchi in Monaco. Marsh won by 6th round TKO to win the vacant EBU light-welterweight title which has since been held by Junior Witter and currently held by Paul McCloskey.

Another couple of years and Terry had emerged onto the international scene although never again fought outside of England, Marsh managed to lure American IBF light-welterweight champion Joe Manley, himself on something of a winning streak, to come and fight in Essex. In a heavily one-sided contest, Marsh eventually scored the TKO in the 10th round of a scheduled 15.

Marsh would make one single defence of the IBF crown, which has since been held by greats like Julio Cesar Chavez, Kostya Tszyu, Zab Judah, and Ricky Hatton, against Japanese fighter Aiko Kameda, winning by 7th round TKO at the Royal Albert Hall before retiring from boxing.

Many speculated that his retirement was due to his diagnosis with epilepsy, however, Marsh says this was just a mere coincidence as he was going to retire anyway. The feeling of being the first European to retire unbeaten and a world champion was worth more to him, he says, than the money and fame. He also claims that in all of his fights, numbering over 200 including his amateur contests, he never once knocked a man out. This is actually something Terry is very proud of because, quite rightly, he says that to achieve what he did without any amount of punching power, he must have been some boxer!

Unfortunately for Terry, the happy retirement he had hoped for was not to be. Two years after Marsh’s retirement, his former manager, Frank Warren, was shot whilst leaving a fight. Due to the fact that the two were involved in an ongoing libel case, police suspected Marsh and arrested him. He was held on remand and a “confession” he allegedly made whilst in prison was used against him in his trial. He served over 10 months in jail before being acquitted for the attempted murder of Warren.

More recently, the ever fascinating Marsh has worked as a stock broker, self-published an autobiography titled “Undefeated”, and stood in several elections for UK Parliament. He even now goes by the name of “None Of The Above X” which he changed his name to by deed poll as a protest against the fact that you cannot name a political party none of the above and there was no option to vote against all of the available candidates. He vowed that if he won, he would not take his seat.

A true champion and character in boxing history.

Terry Marsh: an undefeated record of 26-0-1 (10 KOs).

Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

By Daniel Ciminera:

Wales UK

Tuesday 18^th January 2011

So much negativity is being thrown around right now about Amir Khan and his future. OK, there will always be a certain amount of “he should fight this guy or that guy”, everyone has a differing opinion, of course they do, but all of it at the moment seems completely negative.

To understand Khan’s situation you must look back at his earlier days when he was running his mouth and getting worried by D-rate fighters. I, along with all the current naysayers was hoping and wishing him to get knocked out every time he fought. Then it happened, and I thought great, now this kid will disappear and never be heard from again, or he’ll have a couple more fights to try to get back on the proverbial horse, but lose again and we’ll be rid of him.

How wrong was I? Amir Khan, the young man who many boxing “fans” still say has no heart, came back from that devastating knockout and became a world champion. Many of you will say Kotelnik was a bum, many of you will be wrong, Kotelnik was and still is, one of the most awkward, hard-to-beat fighters in boxing, Marcos Maidana can vouch for that.

For those who still say Khan has a weak chin, what is your evidence? Yes, he was hurt by weak fighters in the past, and was indeed knocked out by an “unknown” (to the casual) fighter in Prescott. But since then he has come through fights with much tougher opposition, Kotelnik caught him cleanly on many occasions but, didn’t shake the foundations. An aging Barrera also caught him, but lets be honest,

name a fighter who Barrera isn’t wiley enough of an old goat to cause problems for?

This of course leads us into his greatest test to date, Marcos Maidana. I read literally into the hundreds of articles and comments saying the fight would never happen and that Khan’s people would never expose him to such danger etc, and that even if they did, it would be pointless because Maidana would finish the job quicker than Prescott. Well, guess what… Khan, as I wrote in January 2010 that he would, took the fight, and won it fair and square. And as you all saw, had Maidana on the floor. Khan literally schooled Maidana for 9 rounds, with his vastly superior speed and boxing skills, Maidana looked lost and one-dimensional. Yes, you’re going to say, but Khan was seriously hurt in the 10th. Yes, he was, but did he go to the ground? Or did he battle on to close out a very hard fought final few rounds or what was a very gritty performance.

He has changed my opinion of his potential and future since being under the tutelage of Freddie Roach, not because I wanted him to succeed all along, but because he proved me wrong on so many levels. Not only that, but he comes to the ring each time willing to learn, he works hard to make sure he does not make the same mistake again. Not many fighters these days actively strive for better each and every time they train.

Now people are saying he simply MUST fight Prescott again to avenge the defeat, or he cannot be a credible contender. Why? Pacquiao is the biggest thing in boxing for over a decade, and he has unavenged losses on his record. Mike Tyson never got back in the ring with James Buster Douglas. Does this mean that both Pacquiao and Tyson ought to be written out of the hall of fame and struck from their legendary status in boxing history? Of course it doesn’t, because they are great fighters. And in turn, Khan has the opportunity to join them at those dizzying heights IF he continues down the path he is on and forgets all about Prescott. He has clearly rid himself of those demons and doesn’t need to revisit them for your sake, nor mine.

If Khan takes on European champion Paul McCloskey next, so what? He has just come through the fight of his life and beaten the hardest hitting guy in the division by a clear margin not just on the score cards, but in class too. Those who say khan is ducking greater opposition to fight McCloskey are horribly misinformed. This is a top 10 ranked fighter who, despite his age at 31, is a rising star at domestic and European level just like Khan was and just like Nathan Cleverly is. At some point, whether it was against Amir Khan or some other title holder, McCloskey was going to be given a shot at the world title. He’s had more pro fights than Devon Alexander, and only a couple less than Khan. Some may say the only reason he doesn’t enjoy the same profile as Khan is that he did not win an Olympic medal. This rings true, but the hype surrounding the medal is what caused Khan the headaches domestically to begin with. Something I am sure McCloskey will be glad of! As for the actual fight, I think Khan will win it in the later rounds, and people will say he only won because he fought a bum. Conversely, if Khan gets beaten, people will say he was beaten by a nobody. Both camps will be wrong of course, but that is exactly

why, aside from the skills of McCloskey, that this is such a dangerous fight for Khan. He’s damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t.

I am sure he will face both Timothy Bradley and Devon Alexander at some point, and I am sure those fights will be great to watch, but Khan is still a young fighter very much in development and throwing him in against the very best in the division too soon will always result in him being beaten. That is not cherry picking, that is working your way through the ranks and learning your trade as a professional. For the remaining doubters, the clue is in the word professional. It would be reckless and amateurish to chase after something he’s not ready for like an excited puppy the way the armchair boxing fans would have him do.

Here’s to a bright and successful year for Amir Khan.

The above article was posted by “ Worldwide Weekly Boxing Predictions League” courtesy of Daniel Ciminera

Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark It

Hide Sites