GOOD
Jermell Charlo and Tony Harrison gave us a spirited main event Saturday night, going back and forth in a competitive tussle until Charlo landed a big left hook that led to a dramatic 11th-round knockout.
In the process, Charlo regained from this bitter rival the junior middleweight belt Harrison took from him a year ago. Great stuff.
That wasn’t my favorite part of the Fox card, though. Fans love when a fighter hired as “opponent” refuses to cooperate because of innate, unexplainable fighting spirit that isn’t necessarily commensurate with his ability. And I’m a fan.
I’m referring specifically to heavyweight Iago Kiladze and lightweight Rene Tellez Giron, who were “opponents” on the Charlo-Harrison II undercard at Toyota Arena in Ontario, California.
Kiladze was supposed to be just another step in Efe Ajagba’s ascent to stardom. The 33-year-old Los Angeles-based Georgian had been stopped in three of his previous four fights and hadn’t had his hand raised in victory since he beat a relatively unknown Cuban in 2017.
In other words, Kiladze doesn’t have championship pedigree. He has pride, though. And presumably dreams, as ever fighter does. We saw it on Saturday.
Ajagba, a 6-foot-6 Adonis from Nigeria, put Kiladze down in the second round and had people thinking, “Well, this isn’t going to last long.” Kiladze got up. Ajagba hurt Kiladze the following round, leaving him on shaky legs that seemed about to collapse. Kiladze didn’t give up. Instead, he stunned everyone watching by landing a hard right counter that put Ajagba on his butt.
Kiladze went down hard again in Round 5 and, this time, he seemed to be finished. Nope. He got up and continued to fight his heart out. The underdog’s corner threw in the towel shortly thereafter, which was fortunate: He never would have done so.
Giron was hired as a stepping stone in the career of undefeated U.S. Olympian Karlos Balderas but Giron, just another in a long line of anonymous, but unusually tough Mexicans who happens to have an impressive left hook, turned their matchup into a firefight and emerged victorious.
Undefeated? Giron didn’t care. An Olympian. Meant nothing to him. Hot prospect? Maybe that could be him instead. He had a job to do and he did it with infectious passion.
Who doesn’t love a stirring battle between gifted rivals like Charlo and Harrison? I’ll always admire that kind of ability. There’s something just as special about no-names – like Kiladze and Giron – who believe in themselves even if no one else does and fight like they want to be the best in the world.
Thank you to the featured fighters, thank you to the no-names.
BAD AND WORSE
I don’t begrudge Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. using his name to make a good living in boxing. I’d probably do the same thing.
The problem with Chavez is that he has abused the privilege, as we saw before, during and after what was supposed to be a super middleweight fight against Daniel Jacobs on Friday in Phoenix. Consider his actions:
- Junior refused to submit a sample for a random drug test administered by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency on Oct. 24, which resulted in a temporary suspension by officials in Nevada. The fight was moved from Las Vegas to Phoenix as a result.
- He missed weight by 4.7 pounds, which required the parties to renegotiate the contract. He ended up losing $1 million in the process but walked away with as much. Jacobs, making his debut as a full-fledged 168-pounder, had to face the equivalent of a cruiserweight at fight time.
- He quit after the fifth round of the fight with a broken nose and cut above his left eye, claiming he couldn’t breathe. That sparked a near riot as angry fans threw everything they could get their hands toward the ring.
- And he blamed head butts and elbows for his injuries when replays seemed to show that punches caused the damage.
Chavez might’ve been excused if all this added up to a one-time indiscretion. Many fighters run into problems – including broken noses that make it difficult to fight – at some time or another. However, with him, it has been one misstep after another most of his career.
He has failed other tests for banned substances. He has missed weight more than once. And he has skipped training sessions, a clear indication that he hasn’t taken the sport seriously. Trainer Freddie Roach, with whom he worked on Saturday and for his fight against Sergio Martinez in 2012, said Chavez missed a month’s worth of workouts leading into the latter event.
Chavez, only 33, probably will fight again because he still has a name that can earn him the kind of paychecks many more-serious fighters can only dream. A lot of people wish he wouldn’t, though. He has worn out his welcome.
And that’s a shame. Junior had some ability. Had he done things the right way, he probably would’ve been considered a less-gifted, but worthy successor to his great father. Instead, he’ll be remembered as someone who behaved more like entitled brat than a professional boxer.