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Boxing News by Richard E. Baker

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Fathers and Sons

December 5, 2022

The fight was an impressive victory for Saracho who seemed not the least bit winded or tired. He is ready to step up his game in the next fight...

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Buffalo Fights in the U.S.

August 21, 2022

Big guys at a boxing match always remind me of the Do Son buffalo fighting contests in Vietnam. Andy Ruiz (34-2-0) and Luis Ortiz (33-2-0) are two such buffalos…

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If Not This Year, Then Maybe Next

September 3, 2022

There is an iciness about her that keeps others at a distance. Don’t tread on me. She occasionally looks up and eyes the gym with a cold stare…

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Jesus Saracho Back on Track

September 19, 2022

The fight was an impressive victory for Saracho who seemed not the least bit winded or tired. He is ready to step up his game in the next fight...

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Sigmund Freud Talks Boxing

July 12, 2022

Daniel Garcia, a true Philly fighter, is a quiet modest man and is financially secure enough that he does not have to fight out of desperation to pay his bills…

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Cota Disgusted at Opponent Selection

May 21, 2022

Cota is what is called a reliable professional opponent, always puts up a good fight and, against top opponents, often loses. He never disappoints in the ring…

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Showtime Results

May 22, 2022

Benavidez spent time covering up on the ropes but it seemed he was just killing time to prolong the fight. Lemieux’s corner tossed in the towel in round 3…

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Daniel Boone in the Ring

June 5, 2022

He read “Somebody Up There Likes Me,” the story of Rocky Graziano, and then saw the movie starring Paul Newman. He was hooked. He wanted to box...

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Slippery When Wet

July 27, 2022

Sweat drips from under his headgear, drips in rivulets down his cheeks and dribbles over his chin. His t-shirt is soaked and clings to his body...

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Gessuri Brito—Episode 5—From Prospect to Opponent

March 15, 2022

Now, having been down twice in three fights including a knockout, is the career over? One thing is certain...

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Battle of Bellevue

March 25, 2022

The bouts in Bellevue were first class and competitive and not the usual blather of mismatches usually found on such shows…

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Stuffing the Dynamite with Powder

April 23, 2022

Reynolds has been training at the new Moreno Gym in Auburn, Washington. The gym is a state-of-the-art facility featuring everything a boxer needs including housing…

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The Illustrated Man

May 4, 2022

The one-time “Baddest Man on the Planet” has tamed the beast, which took some doing, turning the ferocious man-eater into the pussycat we know today…

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I'll See You in My Dreams

May 17, 2022

The best of today’s boxers are technical wizards. What many of them lack is guts. They are too careful with their opponents and too cautious in the fight...

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Gessuri Brito—Episode 4—Why Boxing?

August 15, 2021

Almost anyone can learn to box. Work is the difference between success and mediocrity; work and luck and things inside a person that cannot be taught...

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Merciless—Jose Benavidez Jr.

September 19, 2021

He has been accused of being lazy, combative, uninterested, unmotivated, and a general pain-in-the ass. He is all of that and much more…

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A Championship Family

October 31, 2021

Training sons is not an easy task. Sons forget what their fathers have given up for them and often appear ungrateful. No good deed goes unpunished…

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A Draw as Good as a Win

November 14, 2021

Benavidez tried his best. He had to lose about 70 pounds of candy and chips for the fight. Hours spent watching “Days of our Lives” were difficult to shed…

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Toughest Man in the World

November 15, 2021

Benavidez brought nothing new to the fight. There is nothing new he can bring unless he grows another arm. He is a complete fighter…

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Big Freeze in Montana

March 3, 2021

One is always too cold to know how cold it is in Montana. Once the temperature drops to the level of tree limbs cracking in half, what difference does the cold make?

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Jalapeño Popper—Episode 3—Debut

March 5, 2021

That first walk to the ring must feel like it takes forever. The crowd in Great Falls, Montana, was anxious for a fight, any kind of activity that would let them out of the house…

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Canelo vs. The Fans

March 24, 2021

Many of the best fighters are not champions and many champions are little more than contenders. Not being a champion may be a convenient excuse to avoid a fight…

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Sixteen Pounds of Punches

March 29, 2021

The decision for a young boxer to go pro is partially made for boxers in the United States. The law does not say how old he can be but how young he cannot be…

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The "Habanero Kid,"Luis Gallegos, Wins First Victory

May 10, 2021

The hand wraps feel good, just enough padding and tension. You are here to establish your dominance…

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David Benavidez, a Hawk Seeking a Meal

February 14, 2021

After Benavidez beat Dirrell he has been calling out Caleb Plant. Plant has responded with a tweet-full of excuses. “He acts like a woman on twitter,” said Benavidez…

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Do Not Go Gently

February 5, 2021

He has always been an in-your-face kind of fighter, a non-stop banger exciting to watch. He will exhaust an opponent by walking him down. He also hits very hard...

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Waiting for a Call

January 25, 2021

Thinking Simmons was finished, he showered him with bombs coming all the way from Canada. LeCoure learned that not every stunned fighter goes down…

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Weight and See

January 26, 2021

Reyes picked up the black & white picture and held the shot in both hands. He outlined his face and body with his finger. “I look fat,” he said. “You are fat,” replied Javier…

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One Chocolate Malt, Please

February 4, 2021

Brito stayed in Washington. With David Benavidez, Abraham Martinez, and Jose Valenzuela training in Big Bear for future fights the gym here feels fairly empty…

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Fight Rumor

January 16, 2021

Word spread and I expected a number of calls. People in the boxing game often call me thinking I might have some information that might benefit them. I don’t…

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The Sun Will Come Out

January 21, 2021

Think of all the great fighters we have known, boxers who have put their lives on the line yet could not eat in certain restaurants or stay in certain hotels…

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Rascon, Back to Mexico

January 22, 2021

She brings something more into the ring than just boxing. She likes putting on a show. Costumes are fine but there is no greater show than a good fight with plenty of action…

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Down at the Chicken Ranch

January 23, 2021

“I always thought he would be one of the greats. You can’t be great if you don’t fight the best and Benavidez is currently the best super middleweight in the world…”

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Goodbye 2020

January 1, 2021

The last bit of news concerns the very popular heavyweight Chauncy Welliver. He was rushed to the hospital suffering from a very dangerous case of covid…

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The Jalapeño Popper Ready for Pro Debut

October 21, 2020

When Brito decided he did not like the amateurs, he and his father decided to do something different, an interesting experiment. His father kept him in the gym…

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Monster Mash

October 24, 2020

The Buddhists say all sorrow lies in the past and dwelling there is not the best choice. We have a tendency to glorify such times…

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Mexican Fiesta

December 4, 2020

Finding fights in the time of covid is tough. Fights have gone the way of the blacksmith, the party line telephone, and silent movies. Many gyms have been closed… 

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Mike Gavronski—Once More into the Breach

December 24, 2020

If David Morrell wins, he goes on to more money and more fame. If Mike Gavronski loses, he falls into the well paid opponent category…

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Exit, Stage Right

December 27, 2020

The corner wanted to continue. Gavronski was not yet beaten into insensibility, still able to almost speak a complete sentence, and still recognizable as human…

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Television Exposure Does a Fighter Good

October 9, 2020

Heavy bags hang like bats from the ceiling accompanied by four round body bags dangling as if from two enormous bulls...

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Benavidez Back on Track

October 9, 2020

“When I started boxing I used the ropes a lot. Being there came naturally to me. I learned how to swing back to the center whenever I liked…”

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KO, or Not KO, that is the question 

October 12, 2020

Many shot fighters say they can make a comeback, that they have been reborn and renewed. Flores is hardly a shot fighter. He is more a throwback fighter...

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The Basement Banger

October 13, 2020

“It was a sign. I left college sold everything I had, and moved to Los Angeles. I would stay in boxing and I would become a champion…”

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Beautiful Boxing

October 15, 2020

At the fights she glides to her seat like an apparition of Athena, goddess of wisdom, handicraft, and warfare. Athena is often depicted with a helmet and a spear…

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A Championship Family

July 28, 2020

Boxers are constantly screwed. Chicanery in the game seems to be the normal. He was not going to let that happen to his boys…

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The fight of his life

August 1, 2020

Every fight is the biggest fight of a serious boxer’s life, every fight a step forward or backward on what he hopes to be a successful career…

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Boxing in the Time of Covid

August 9, 2020

"Usta be a fighter needed 50 bouts before he could fight for a championship. Now they fight for them on television after 10 or fifteen fights; and they don’t know nothing…"

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Pass the Vegetables

August 17, 2020

The long walk was not the walk of heroes, of cheering crowds, and of flashing lights. Both men entered the ring through a wave of silence, nothing to arouse the spirits...

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From one side of the ring to the other

September 6, 2020

When boxers get smart they start to think about their health and the best ways to collect a payday without getting hurt. When that happens a day job is in order…

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Hope and Despair

June 10, 2020

Sure, the fights were not much, a few young scrappers getting a bit of paid exercise, but something is usually better than nothing...

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Beantown Boxing 1896

April 3, 2020

Forty men worked all night to erect a suitable ring, the sand packed hard, covered with boards, and blanketed with a resin-coated canvas…

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Chauncy and the Chocolate Factory

March 10, 2020

Chauncy was learning on the job and was quickly gaining a following, more as an oddity than as a boxer. He should have been the first Butterbean…

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Duane Ford—a Lifetime in Boxing

January 31, 2020

A short, soft-spoken man with a lovely wife, he sits in the lobby of the Legends Casino in Toppinesh, Washington nursing a cup of coffee...

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Bump City Blues

February 24, 2020

He first looked old and beaten like a rich man who had just lost his fortune in the stock market and did not know how to get the money back...

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Mick Conlon's Revenge

December 15, 2019

He was redeemed by earning a 10-round unanimous decision over Vladimir Nikitin to retain his WBO Intercontinental featherweight belt...

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The Grinch Can Fight

January 11, 2020

Steve Nelson is another Midwest boxer, the new hotbed since Bud Crawford proved one does not have to be born in L.A., New York, or Las Vegas…

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Roy Jones Jr. Moves on Washington

January 15, 2020

To have a fight with any BoxRec stars in the Northwest is a treat. Jones is bringing several. He and the casino appear to be a perfect fit...

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Dannie Williams on the Comeback Trail

January 17, 2020

Keys clearly had the better skills. Trouble was, he did not throw enough of them. Someone forgot to tell him that throwing punches is a big part of boxing...

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Toppenish—2020

January 31, 2020

Delgadillo has also fought mostly winning opponents, the bouts staged in Texas where tough boxers abound. This bout promised to be all action...

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A dull fight for fans, a great fight for Canelo

November 7, 2019

"He was defensive, he was closing up his guard. All he was doing was trying to establish points, but we knew what was coming..."

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Tortoise vs. Tortoise: Wilder stops Ortiz again

November 24, 2019

Today’s boxers live in fear. They are afraid of stiff competition; they are afraid of losing; they are afraid of getting hurt...

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Mick Conlon's Revenge

December 15, 2019

He was redeemed by earning a 10-round unanimous decision over Vladimir Nikitin to retain his WBO Intercontinental featherweight belt...

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Jermell Charlo Wants to Make History

December 25, 2019

He wanted no judges involved in the decision and decided to throw as many ineffectual punches as he could hoping he might miss the air... 

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Just Another Travesty

January 6, 2020

He wanted no judges involved in the decision and decided to throw as many ineffectual punches as he could hoping he might miss the air... 

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