Indholdsfortegnelse for 7 August 2025 i Boxing News

THE CAMDEN BUZZSAW – if ever a nickname fitted a fighter, that one fitted Dwight Muhammad Qawi, the former light-heavyweight and cruiserweight champion. Qawi, who passed away on July 25 at the age of 72, made his stumpy 5ft 6½ins frame work for him against taller fighters. His style was uncomplicated but highly effective. He’d bore in, rolling under punches and then go to work with compact, jolting blows once he’d closed the distance. His low crouch made him difficult to hit with clean shots. Qawi’s pressure was accompanied by head movement, almost Joe Frazier-like. He fought as if he was enjoying himself, his white gumshield bared in what legendary commentator Howard Cosell once described as a “grinning leer”. And while Qawi wasn’t a big puncher as such, he could…

THOSE who prefer their combat sports to feature actual combat will scoff at any comparisons between boxing and the carnival world of professional wrestling. But there’s more overlap than you might think – and it’s not always the “fake” fighters taking their cues from the real ones. When Muhammad Ali rose through the ranks in the early 1960s as a young Cassius Clay, trash-talking his opponents, unashamedly praising himself to the heavens and spouting eloquent streams of scripted dialogue, it was a schtick hitherto unseen in boxing – but Ali was only repeating an act he’d seen performed by a wrestler. In June 1961, Ali was in Las Vegas for his seventh pro boxing match, against Duke Sabedong, when he attended a wrestling show headlined by Gorgeous George. Ali had…

A FUNNY thing happened to Tim Tomashek when he went to watch Tommy Morrison defend his heavyweight championship. He ended up fighting Tommy Morrison for his heavyweight championship. “I was done with work and I got a call,” says Tomashek, casting his mind back to August 1993. “They said: ‘This guy [Morrison’s scheduled opponent Mike Williams] isn’t making the press conferences.’ “They were getting a bit nervous and they wanted a replacement in case this guy took off. My manager, Pete Susens, told me: ‘You will get $2,500 just to turn up.’ I went straight to the airport… “Mike Williams was in the arena and I thought: ‘Nobody pulls out of a world title fight.’ He pulled out an hour before! “I was sitting in the crowd, drinking a beer. All of…

CARACAS AUGUST 1 MAIN EVENT YOU’VE heard the term “fighting like a man possessed”. Well, that’s exactly how Carlos Canizales fought in his rematch with Panya Pradabsri for the WBC light-flyweight title. Having lost a highly debatable decision in their first meeting, in December on Panya’s home ground in Thailand, Canizales left no doubt in the rematch, storming to a fifth-round knockout victory to win the title at the third attempt. With a home crowd behind him, Canizales fought with a knockout on his mind. He absolutely did not want the fight to go to the scorecards. But being relentless led to Canizales being reckless, and Panya dropped him in the fourth round. There was, however, no change in strategy. Canizales picked himself up and was soon steaming in again…

AT THE start of the 1920s, British boxers did extremely well on the European scene, with a good number of them becoming European champions, a title that was gaining considerably in prestige at that time. But then boxing politics, ill-feeling and organisational distrust set in, and for most of the rest of the decade, British fighters were squeezed out of the European title picture, at considerable cost to both the status of the sport here and to the pockets of our leading fighters. At the heart of the matter was a ruling by the European sanctioning body that only a national champion could fight for a European title. Britain was producing fighters who, while not having won a British championship, were still good enough to win the European title. Tommy…

Aug 08 ALBERT RAMIREZ VS JEROME PEMPELLONE Martyrs of Benina Stadium, Benghazi, Libya DAZN Mirco Cuello vs Sergio Rios Jimenez Sofiane Oumiha vs Francisco Fonseca Mike Perez vs Christian Fabian Luis Aug 13 WBC GRAND PRIX QUARTER-FINALS Riyadh DAZN Aug 15 OMAR TRINIDAD vs LORENZO PARRA Chumash Casino, Santa Ynez, California UFC Fight Pass Mizuki Hiruta vs Naomy Cardenas Gomez (WBO super-flyweight title) CAN XU vs JAOUAD BELMEHDI Beijing Aug 16 MOSES ITAUMA vs DILLIAN WHYTE Riyadh DAZN PPV Nick Ball vs Sam Goodman (WBA featherweight title) Filip Hrgovic vs David Adeleye Ray Ford vs Abraham Nova Hayato Tsutsumi vs Qais Ashfaq Aug 20 MICHAEL ZERAFA vs MIKEY DAHLMAN ICC Exhibition Centre, Sydney Nikita Tszyu vs Lulzim Ismaili Brock Jarvis vs Sam Beck Aug 23 JACK RAFFERTY vs MARK CHAMBERLAIN Planet Ice, Altrincham DAZN (British and…

JOE LOUIS was a pitiful sight when Rocky Marciano’s fists folded him on the ropes one sad night in 1951. It was the boxing end for the ‘Brown Bomber’. Five years later, as his bare hand was raised in victory, Louis looked even sadder when he won his first fight as a wrestler. Joe Louis lost his dignity, that is for sure, when the taxman chased him for every penny he had. He had to wrestle to try and make money to try and stay out of a pauper’s prison. Louis and his old opponents, Ezzard Charles, Jersey Joe Walcott, Tony Galento and Primo Carnera all wore elasticated tight shorts and grappled with their legacy inside a wrestling ring at some point. Some made it, some flopped. The fallen heavyweights…

OUTSTANDING GOOD FAIR DISAPPOINTING RUBBISH Reporters’ star ratings for main events and undercards are based on in-ring entertainment, competitiveness and whether overall expectation was met CHICAGO AUGUST 2 MAIN EVENT IN A CLASSIC fighter vs boxer matchup, Oscar Duarte proved too strong and too heavy-handed for the more stylish Kenneth Sims Jr. It was a close fight on the judges’ cards; a majority decision, with scores of 114-114, 115-113 and 116-112. But it seemed a clear win for Duarte, who applied consistent pressure and landed the heavier blows, although Sims’ sharpshooting made the contest competitive throughout. Sims, 31, was boxing in his hometown, but you wouldn’t have thought so as the Mexican and Mexican-American fans got right behind Duarte, the 29-year-old from Chihuahua. There were chants of “Mexico! Mexico!” and…

BACK IN 2018, I wrote about the night a world champion journeyed to the New St James Hall in Newcastle to take on a local hero. Young Perez of Tunisia came a cropper in just two rounds when he was knocked out by a lad from Byker, Mickey McGuire. I stated that, despite this victory, McGuire never even came close to a British title fight, or even an Area one. Another Byker lad, Benny Sharkey, achieved a similar feat just four years later and in the same hall. The world champion this time was Spain’s Baltasar Sangchili, who had annexed the bantamweight title by outpointing the great Panama Al Brown in his native Valencia in June 1935. Note I said the world champion, for at the time McGuire and Sharkey…

HOUGHTON LE SPRING JULY 26 WHOLE SHOW JASON ‘THE ENGINE’ CUMMING utilised every kilowatt of energy to extend his winning run to five fights in a six-round Rainton Arena classic with Eliecer Quezada. Hartlepool’s 21-year-old super-featherweight found it tough going early on as Quezada (24-38-4, 9KOs, 131¾lbs) countered quite brilliantly in the opening two rounds. But Cumming (5-0, 2KOs, 133lbs) came on strong to take the fight away from the Spain-based Nicaraguan with one Rocky-esque punch-for-punch exchange at the end of round four worth the admission money alone. Cumming’s intensity was decisive, with referee Ron Kearney scoring it 59-56. Sunderland’s Beau Smith (6-0, 1KO, 154¾lbs) won early for the first time in his opening excursion over six rounds by knocking out Lewis Varley at 0-40 of the third session. The Birmingham boxer…

OUTSTANDING GOOD FAIR DISAPPOINTING RUBBISH The star ratings indicate how well the writer believes the fighters match up, the fight(s)’ contextual significance, and how good the fight(s) will be WHOLE SHOW AS THE clock ticks on the careers of Oleksandr Usyk, Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder, perhaps the WBC Grand Prix will reveal a potential new heavyweight champion? The tournament, devised by Mauricio Sulaiman to unearth boxing’s next generation, reaches the quarter-finals in Riyadh on Wednesday (August 13). Pick of the eight remaining heavyweights looks to be Piotr Lacz, the Pole who entered as the No.2 seed behind Uzbek Lazizbek Mullojonov, who has withdrawn from the last eight. Lacz (14-0, 10 KOs) meets Kevin Cristopher Ramirez, and if the 10-0-1, 4 KOs, Argentine pulls out with his chin…

UNFORTUNATELY a hospital appointment meant Croydon EBA Chairman Barry Penny couldn’t attend CEBA’s July meeting – but he was in good spirits when I called on him afterwards, and delighted to hear it went well. The raffle raised £90, and Barry was especially pleased when I told him three new members had signed up. They say it’s good when someone comes the first time, even better if they come back – and that’s what former BBBofC timekeeper Bob Edgeworth did, and joined. The other two – John Scanlon and Bobby Wells - were first-timers, but enjoyed it so much they signed up too. As Acting Chairman, I invited both to introduce themselves, and John said he boxed for the Robert Browning Club for 17 years. Trainer there was Roy Francis,…