(Almost) Every Last Fucking Thing You Need To Know About Boxing From Last Night
FULL DISCLOSURE: I was only able to watch one full fight tonight… Jarret Hurd defending his Super-Welterweight titles vs Julian Williams over on FOX.
The reason I was unavailable for more viewing was that my EXTREMELY SELFISH 9-year-old daughter needed help crafting some last-minute gifts before Mother’s Day brunch tomorrow morning.
I did, however, get a text from Robbie immediately after the Hurd decision was announced, so I was able to switch over to watch some MMA on DAZN and just in time to witness Michael “Venom” Page get his chin checked by Douglas Lima…
Nighty night, MVP.
After that, I switched back over to boxing on ESPN, and saw Isaac Dogboe get absolutely HORSEPOUNDED by Emanuel Navarrete before Dog’s dad (finally) threw in the towel with only a minute left in Round 12.
Dogboe came into this fight trying to prove his title-losing effort to Emanuel Navarrete five months ago was nothing more than a fluke.
He did the exact opposite.
As I said, I only watched 5 minutes of that action, but it seemed decidedly one-sided and it also looked like Navarrete may have broken his right hand in that final round whilst beating upon Isaac’s skull repeatedly and without consequence (other than the broken hand, of course).
Now back to the fight I did manage to watch in its entirety… Heavily-favored Jarrett Hurd vs Julian Williams.
Jarrett Hurd is notorious for getting off to slow starts, and tonight was no different. The only difference after that slow start was that he was never able to turn on the heat as the rounds slipped through his fingers.
Williams was the smaller of the 2 fighters, but he showed better conditioning, technique, and truckloads of poise throughout all 12 rounds, and easily won a couple of belts in the unanimous decision.
If there is a rematch, I highly recommend watching it because Hurd gave us the Fight Of The Year in 2018 versus Erislandy Lara…
… and he put on another show tonight in a losing effort.
Still with me, cowboy?
Good.
A couple of other things announced this weekend…
1) After months of speculation, eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao, who holds the WBA’s secondary welterweight title, will look to unify when he takes on full WBA titleholder Keith Thurman on July 20th.
Manny is 40 and Thurman is 30, but Pac (61-7-2, 39 KOs) seems to have found the fountain of youth over the past year with a stoppage of Lucas Matthysse that ended a nine-year gap between knockouts and a dominant decision win over Adrien Broner in January.
Thurman (29-0, 22 KOs), on the other hand, looked sluggish in January when he returned from a two-year layoff due to separate injuries to outpoint Josesito Lopez.
.
.
2) Former heavyweight contender “Smokin” Bert Cooper died on Friday at the age of 53 from pancreatic cancer.
You probably don’t know much about Bert Cooper, so here are some bullets (one of them I made up)…
– He was the first man to drop Evander Hollyfield.
– He fought out of Philly and was trained by Joe Frazier.
– He quit on his stool in between rounds 2 and 3 when he fought George Foreman.
– He loved cocaine.
– His daughter, Alex, co-hosts the Call Her Daddy podcast with Sofia Franklyn.
.
.
3) Not to dwell too much on death, but Harold Lederman, the beloved unofficial boxing judge for HBO, died on Saturday following a long battle with cancer. He was 79 years old.
Most people I know couldn’t pick Harold out of a lineup, as evidenced by the fact that I put up a picture of “The Fight Doctor” Ferdie Pacheco above this sentence and nobody will notice and/or care. But I think people will recognize his voice, especially those consistent first two words every time Jim Lampley shot it over to him in between rounds to get his unofficial scorecard.
“Okay, Saint Peter.”
Rest in peace Harold and Bert, Happy Mother’s Day to all the fatherfuckers out there, and take a report.
-Large