When someone wins an Olympic medal one tends to expect that they will have a great professional career, at very least they will be expected to win on their debut. That however wasn't the case for Olympic 2012 Bronze medal winner Yamaguchi Falcao (0-0-0-1) who began his career with a rare double DQ.
Falcao, one of two talented Brazilian brothers, made his debut this past Saturday night fighting against Argentinian Fidel Rios (10-0-2-1, 4) the Latin spirit of both men boiled over in to the contest.
The fight, which hadn't been the cleanest of battles, saw both men fighting after the bell to end round 2. Rather than give both men warnings the referee, José Bezerra, decided to just disqualify both men prior to the start of round 3, a decision which appeared to please no one.
From various reports Rios spat at either Falcao or the referee, whilst Falcao was said to have commented that the decision by the referee has deprived the Brazilian people of what they had been wanting to see. From footage released, Rios had already been deducted a point for use of the head and the bout showed no sign of being "well fought".
Falcao is now expected to head to the US to fight away from the Brazilian public and referees like Mr Bezerra...which ironically sounds a bit like "bizarre-a"
Every so often we stumble on a somewhat obscure bout and feel it belongs on this site for one reason or another. The most recent one that we've seen is from 2009 as the hard hitting Solomon Haumono (15-0-1, 14) took on the novice Royce Sio (1-0, 1).
The bout it's self was in Australia despite the fact neither man was born there. Haumono was born in New Zealand whilst Sio was form Samoa. This however meant there was Tongan's, Samoan's, Australians and probably some Kiwi's all in the crowd. Lets be honest if there are some people you don't wanna piss off, it's the Tongan's and Samoans who are typically strong, powerful people who know how to fight when they need to.
Unfortunately the bout saw Sio forgetting how boxing worked and after dropping Haumono after about 10 of the bout he landed 2 more shots forcing the referee's hand and forcing himself to be disqualified.
Apparently after the bout Sio was rushed out of the venue before the crowd could get their hands on him with the promoter allegedly fearing for Sio's life.
Interestingly both men continue with the sport. Sio would fight just once more, almost 2 years later, dropping a decision to Michael Kirby. Haumono on the other hand continues to fight and earlier this week advanced his record to 21-2-2 (19) thanks to a 3rd round TKO over Brazil's Marcelo Nascimento.
The video of the bout is courtesy of supersmasher99
There are lots of things in life that I love. Chocolate, ice cream, alcohol and naked ladies, though few things compare with the unpredictable nature of South American boxing.
One of the most bizarre bouts we've found from South America was a 2011 clash between Alfredo Brigido Ruiz Diaz (then 5-3, 2) and Aldo Federico Maciel (then 3-2, 3). This all Argentinian bout was held in Maciel's home town of Formasa and fought at the the Formasa Estadio del Bicentenario (not to be confused with the beautiful Estadio San Juan del Bicentenario).
What seemed like a bout between 2 pretty poor level Argentinian sluggers ended up in what could only be termed a brawl but not between the two fighters who ended up standing next to each other as the fans took over the ring, threw plastic chairs at each other and generally acted like thugs. This forced the referee to call off the contest in the 6th round and call a no contest, likely saving Maciel from a loss.
Sadly since this bout Maciel hasn't fought again and Diaz has gone 1-1-2 (he returns at the weekend to face Icho Larenas).
The video below is thanks to FormosaDeportiva and shows some of the action and the very peculiar ending
If you see a bout listed for 10 rounds of 2 minutes the normal thought is that it's a women's title bout. This past Friday however there was, what is thought to be the first ever, mens bout scheduled for 10 rounds of 2 minutes.
The bout, which took place in Sweden, was originally scheduled for 8 rounds of 3 but after a back and forth with the local authorities (in this case the Martial Arts Delegation and the Swedish Boxing Federation) the WBC sanctioned the bout for 10 rounds of 2 minutes.
At stake was the lightly regarded WBC International Silver Welterweight title with local fighter Patrick Bogere (12-2, 3) taking on the unbeaten Patrick Allotey (28-0, 22) of Ghana.
Unfortunately for Bogere (who was a big betting favourite) it wouldn't have mattered on how long the bout was as the Ugandan born Swede was stopped in the 6th round by Allotey,
Despite entering as the champion Allotey had been written off, he has now made 2 defenses of the belt with this one certainly being a bit more memorable than his previous one (a 12 round decision over Ben Ankrah back in September 2012).
In a bit of a special attraction fans at a recent show in New Zealand got see two "little men" don the gloves and go at each other.
On the undercard of Joseph Parker's bout with Frans Botha, Matthew Wood, a former body builder took on fellow short parson Colin Lane in what was the debut of both men.
Lane, aged 43, gave up smoking for the bout and although he looked a little weathered chubby he had apparently trained well. Wood, 37, however looked baby faced and looked both confident and mean.
The bout, dubbed as being for the "New Zealand Dwarf Boxing Championship of the World" was certainly a curiosity bout.
Fought in amateur style headgear and over 3 rounds of 2 minutes, the fight started in highly a entertaining fashion with Lane loading up on every shot and sending himself in to pirouettes after every one. The round was the most entertaining despite lacking plenty in terms of "boxing" quality.
The second round was much more technically pleasing though was far less entertaining as the hard looking Lane managed to sort his footing out and land his shots with out spending himself spinning. The lack of jab from both men was apparent as they both connected with straight right hands as pretty much their only shots.
In the final round it was obvious that both men had started to tire, unfortunately for Colin Lane his exhaustion was much more telling than Matthew Woods who managed to continue to land right hands as he mauled Lane to claim the decision.
The "special attraction" may well be one of the most bizarre fights we've seen but is certainly worth a watch if you ever get the chance...even if it is just for the opening round.
Special thanks to Ryan Bivins for the video below.
2013-06-13 Matthew Wood vs Colin Lane by sweetboxing12
Fights can end for any number of reasons though we tend to think that the ending of the 2012 Heavyweight clash between Franklin Egobi and Amosa Zinck may well be amongst the most bizarre.
Pre-bout the fighters had taken blood tests and Zinck had tested positive for Hepatitis C. For those not aware of what Hep. C is it's a disease that effects the liver and can, in extreme cases lead to liver cancer or cirrhosis and require a transplant and is passed by blood-to-blood.
Despite the fact Zinck tested positive for the disease the then 39 year old was allowed to get in the ring with Egobi (we're not sure if Egobi himself knew, or for that matter whether Zinck even knew).
Zinck suffered a cut in the opening round and at the end of the round the Dr called an end to proceedings despite the cut not being "fight ending". Of course the ending of the fight "made sense" due to the way Hep C is spread though the bout actually left more questions than answers, such as the very frank "what the fuck were Professional Boxing & Combat Sports Board of Victoria doing letting him in the ring?"
If the Professional Boxing & Combat Sports Board of Victoria had just an ounce of sanity they would have clearly prevented Zinck from stepping in the ring and fighting. Yet instead they waited until Zinck was cut before ending the bout in what must surely be one of the most laughably stupid moves in Australian boxing history,
The official result (which was up for question due to the very unique ending) was officially ruled a 1 round TKO for Egobi, though probably should have stood as a No Contest or a Technical Draw due to the very extreme situation.
Since this bout Zinck has, rather wisely, hung up his gloves whilst Egobi has fought just once losing to Solomon Haumono in an Australian title fight.
Note-
We've received a second story regarding this bout. The second story is that the blood test was sent off to be tested. Up on the test coming back positive the Dr of the fight was sent the results by text and then forced an ending to the bout.
If this story is correct then we again need to ask what the body were up to sanctioning a bout where they hadn't had medicals results before allowing the fighters in to the ring. It's a disgrace and leaves the body up for the same sort of questioning as they'd have had if the original story was true.
Despite the two stories, we'd go with the first one being the most creditable thanks to it being reported on the excellent Aus-Boxing.com (http://www.aus-boxing.com/2012/07/13/positive-hepatitis-test-ends-egobi-vs-zinck-in-round-1/)
Sometimes our great sport really does shoot it's self in it's foot and go from being brilliant to being laughable. Thankfully many of the most laughable moments are from undercards or are really obscure cards that won't have gotten a great deal of press. Sadly however the odd one slips through the crack and what was supposed to be a main event either gets scrapped at the last minute or worse becomes a none televised and much delayed bout.
Earlier today exciting Australian Alex Leapai (28-4-3, 23) was expected to face Ghana's John Napari (18-0, 12). Both fighters had weighed in the day before and were expected to headline a an internet-PPV dubbed "Thunder in the Hills".
Priced at around $9,95 and streamed by http://epicentre.tv (and shown live in Australia on Fox) the card looked poor, but still had some interest due to the Heavyweight match up. Sadly however a cluster of issues really did overshadow the whole show.
On the day of the fight Napari failed a medical (reported by some as a blood test). Yes you read that correctly, on the DAY of the fight a main event fighter was pulled on medical grounds.
Following Napari being told he couldn't fight Thornberry Promotions went calling around for another opponent for Leapai and eventually ended up with Joe Lloyd (2-5) who had to fly, whilst the show was being televised from Victoria to Queensland. This flight may only be a domestic flight but it's certainly not the preparation a fighter should have prior to facing a world ranked opponent (Leapai is the WBO #8 ranked Heavyweight).
Sadly for Lloyd his chance at having his fight televised was all but killed by the undercard which lasted only 9 combined rounds between the 4 fights thanks to 3 opening round blow outs. The speed of the under-card saw the Leapai v Lloyd bout actually called off whilst Lloyd was in the air.
Fortunately for Lloyd his wasn't totally out and after having had his flight and landed he and Leapai did end up fighting, though Lloyd was wiped out inside a round making his cross country venture painful as well as time consuming.
The card, which was genuinely laughable may well be the end of Noel Thornberry who will likely struggle to ever get a show televised.
This past weekend saw boxing fans around the world tuning in for Sergio Gabriel Martinez' title defense against Martin Murray. Originally the bout was scheduled for a late started though on the night it was brought forward by 2 hours due to a nasty storm that saw the ring, and the fans around it getting soaked. The setting wasn't great for a fight and with it being Martinez's first fight in Argentina in over a decade it certainly left a damp feeling for all those in attendance.
With the bout being televised on Boxnation we were just waiting for a mention of the now infamous bout between Jimmy Carruthers and Chamroen Songkitrat though sadly "boxing expert" (I use that term very lightly) Steve Bunce managed to not only not name the bout but also declare it occurred in Australia. Bunce however was wrong, the infamous bout took place in Thailand way back in 1954.
Going in to the bout Carruthers (then 18-0, 11) was the world Bantamweight champion and had been since beating Vic Toweel back in 1952. His challenger was Chamroen Songkitrat (then 6-1-1, 2) who was at home in the
National Stadium Gymnasium, Bangkok, Thailand.
Prior to the bout there had been a really serious storm (one that one would have made the fans in Argentina think twice) though over 60,000 people had made their way there in the hope that Songkitrat could become the first ever Thai boxing world champion.
Sadly for the fighters the storm had left the ring more like an ice rink than a boxing ring with the boots likely to slide on the canvas. Instead of calling the bout off Ring magazine founder Nat Fleischer, who had been invited there by the ruler General Pichai suggested that the bout should be fought barefooted.
The fighters not only had to fight barefoot but also experienced the nightmare of the light bulbs above them exploding and raining shards of glass on the two fighters in the ring.
Despite the genuinely awkward conditions Carruthers would retain his belt, then soon afterwards announce his retirement. Sadly his retirement lasted just 7 years before an ill fated comeback saw Carruthers scoring 1 win and losing 4 bouts as his record fell to 21-4 (13).
For Songkitrat, who put up a genuinely solid challenge despite the lack of experience he would fight on though lose in 3 of his subsequent 5 bouts including title bouts with Robert Cohen and Raton Macias before retiring in 1958 with a record of 8-5-1 (2).
This bout, to this day, still remains the only world title bout in the history of "the gloved era" to have been
Like Carruthers, the bout, in horrid conditions, really did suggest that it was time for Martinez to hang them up, hopefully, for the sake of his legacy he makes the right decision here.
Some fights demand a rematch and some rematches demand a rubber match. We've seen it with great trilogies such as Ali v Frazier, Ali v Norton, Ward v Gatti, Barrera v Morales, Zale v Graciano and Patterson v Johansson. Other fights however don't deserve rematches, much less a series of 3 bouts, one such case was between "king of the 4 rounders" Eric 'Butterbean' Esch and Harry Funmaker (who we need to say has a genuinely fantastic name).
Esch and Funmaker met for the first time back in 1998 fighting for the IBA Heavyweight title over the course of 4 rounds. In that bout Esch claimed a decision to move his respectable looking record to an impressive 37-1-1 whilst Funmaker dropped to 9-10.
The two men then fought a rematch in 2000 with Esch again claiming the victory via a decision in a 4 round contest. This saw Esch moving to an even more impressive looking 61-1-2 whilst Funmaker again fell to a losing record as he dropped to 14-15.
Amazingly despite the fact Esch had gone 2-0 against Funmaker someone thought it was a brilliant idea to have them meeting for a 3rd bout in 2009, 11 years after their first battle (which was actually televised on ESPN). By then Esch had seen his record fall to 77-7-4 and he had lost 4 of his previous 9 dating back over 4 years! The "Bean" wasn't just on the slide but he was also well over 40 and had been all but forgotten by boxing fans who had thought the affable and rotund fighter had retired.
Of course it wasn't just Esch that had aged and Funmaker himself was 46! In fact Funmaker had been out of the ring for nigh on 4 years and had only fought once in 6 years!
Amazingly Funmaker managed to avenge his losses to Esch as he claimed a split decision over the the popular but much forgotten "Butterbean" who had by now lost the appeal of being a bit of a "side show freak". Sadly the growing trend of fatter Heavyweights had presumably ruined the Butterbean gimmick and Esch would fight just once more as a professional, losing to Curt Allan in 2012 before retiring (hopefully for good) with a record of 77-9-4(58).
Funmaker, like Esch would fight until January 2012, in fact Funmarker managed a nice little string of wins before losing to Billy Wright in a PABA Heavyweight title bout (some how Funmaker qualified for that, not sure how) before retiring with a record of 19-18-0-1 (6) calling an end to a career that had started way back in 1989.
We all love the all action wars from fighters like Arturo Gatti, Diego Corrales and and Evander Holyfield however sometimes boxing is at it's most amusing when someone just can't fight. In the case of American Brian Sutherland (0-1 entering the bout) things were just none stop hilarity at least in his second bout against Liverpudlian Kenny Rainford (then 2-1, 1).
Prior to the bout Sutherland was apparently an unbeaten street fighter (which would believable enough if he was having fights with little old ladies and toddlers) and was apparently making his professional debut (it was later discovered that he had fought previously). Despite his claims it was obvious from the off that Sutherland had no idea to fight (or how find a hairdresser).
Within seconds of throwing his first punches, it was blatantly obvious that Sutherland wasn't going to stand a chance at anything other than a comedy act and he made life incredibly easy for Rainford who caught him with accurate and clean shots every time he threw.
Sadly the comedy came to an early end with Sutherland comically falling after being caught by a straight right hand and failing to recover to his feet.
Thankfully the fight (films as part of a USA Tuesday Night Fights show) has been spread across the internet allowing us to all relieve the comedy of the fight which turned out to be Sutherland's final bout as a professional. For Rainford it was his highest profile bout before he retired in 2000 with a solid but unspectacular record (11-3, 6).
The fight below (sadly with foreign language commentary) is thanks to madboytv
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