Boxing Challenge

The boxing weekend has plenty of choices over various media options, but there is not one particular card that is especially deep, so we selected the main event from each card for the bouts for this weekend.

We start on Friday with a very rare challenge fight from Showtime's ShoBox series.
I love the series for their competitive events for young fighters, but they usually don't find their way to this stage very often.
The exception is their main event tonight with super middleweights Vladimir Shishkin and DeAndre Ware in a ten rounder.
The 8-0 Shishkin looked very strong in stopping former world title challenger Nadjib Mohammedi in his most recent win, but the former Russian amateur star has not fought in the ten months since, while Ware is coming off his biggest win, a majority decision win over then-undefeated and highly touted Ronald Ellis, so this looms as an interesting bout with the winner likely placing themselves into position for an elimination fight for one of the organizations.

ESPN Plus has the biggest fight of the weekend from Russia as WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev returns home for the first title defense of his third reign with that title against mandatory contender Anthony Yarde of Great Britain.
Kovalev looked vastly improved in his rematch victory over Eleider Alvarez in his debut with new trainer Buddy McGirt and has proven himself as a top ten pound for pound level fighter.
Yarde has stopped 17 of 18 opponents, but none of them are in the same universe as Kovalev.
Still, Yarde has the big eraser and the proverbial punchers chance against Kovalev, who has been vulnerable in recent fights in taking punches.

DAZN's portion of the challenge sends us to Mexico with Juan Francisco Estrada defending his WBC junior bantamweight title against DeWayne Beamon.
Estrada, who fought brilliantly in winning the title in his rematch with Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, is using this fight as a gift to his home fans and is a prohibitive favorite against Beamon, who is severely underqualified for a title fight.

Fox Sports One will showcase talented Brandon Figueroa in a defense of his minor junior featherweight title against Javier Chacon of Argentina.
Figueroa has looked very strong in his last three fights in stopping veterans Oscar Escandon, Moises Flores and Yonfrez Parejo and Chacon has failed each time that his opposition was upgraded in losses to Issac Dogboe, Jamie McDonnell and Anselmo Moreno, so this could be a lopsided fight

RingTV.com will have what might be the best fight of the weekend as Kosei Tanaka defends his WBO flyweight title against Jonathan Gonzalez.
Tanaka's title win over Sho Kimura was my fight of the year last year and his first defense against Ryo Taguchi was a clear but exciting victory.
With the fight taking place in Japan, Gonzalez will have to fight the fight of his life to win the title against the flashy Tanaka, because he has a lot of cards against him.

In the boxing challenge, I lead Ramon Malpica 207-179.

Super Middleweights.10 Rds
Vladimir Shishkin vs DeAndre Ware
R.L: Ware Unanimous Decision
TRS: Shishkin Unanimous Decision

WBO Light Heavyweight Title.12 Rds
Sergey Kovalev vs Anthony Yarde
R.L: Yarde KO 5
TRS: Kovalev Unanimous Decision

WBC Junior Featherweight Title 12 Rds
Juan Francisco Estrada vs DeWayne Beamon
R.L: Estrada KO 6
TRS: Estrada KO 4

Junior Featherweights. 12 Rds
Brandon Figueroa vs Javier Chacon
R.L: Figueroa KO 6
TRS: Figueroa KO 3

WBO Flyweight Title 12 Rds
Kosei Tanaka vs Jonathan Gonzalez
Both: Tanaka Unanimous Decision

Shiloh

Last night was another rough night in the household as we lost our only cat Shiloh after a brief
illness.
Many of you didn't know Shiloh because I didn't write a lot about her here, but she wasn't an ordinary cat (some pun intended) and I can say that honestly because I've never been a cat person.
An ordinary cat likely wouldn't have found a home with us and Shiloh found her way into our home and was part of the team at various times with all four of our dogs- Teddy, Chancellor, Big Ed, and now Posey.

The story behind Shiloh coming with us dates back to either our first or second year after we bought our house.
She was just a small outdoor cat that showed up in the yard for a while and played with Cherie and Rachel outside for a bit and then she disappeared for a bit.
Cherie and I went around the neighborhood for a walk one day and this cat was lying on a front porch and it was like she looked at us, thought "Hey, I remember those people!" and followed us all the way home!
Shiloh ( I never liked the name that they gave her, reminded me of Neil Diamond-Bleech) was an indoor/outdoor cat (Ryan had to go out onto the outer porch a few times to break up her catfights at night) for a period before disappearing for a few days.
We figured that she must have wandered off to greener pastures or another home as happens with outdoor cats sometimes Cherie and I were upstairs preparing for me to leave for work and we heard this light scratching at the upstairs door.

Upon checking it out, there was an injured Shiloh with her pelvis and one of her clavicles was dislocated.
A neighbor a few houses down was doing some remodeling and apparently, she had injured herself among the materials and drug herself that distance to our home where she must have on some level known she had a safe haven.
I cannot imagine the pain that she must have felt or the courage that it took to make it here through that pain, but I brought her inside safely and took her to the vet the next day to repair her injuries.
Shiloh would fully recover and I told the family that now she was a permanent member of the family on the condition that she would now be an indoor-only cat for good.

Shiloh would have different relationships with each dog.
Teddy basically ignored this intruder, only acknowledging her when he would stumble into her path to being swatted at and then go about his business, while his buddy Chancellor gave Shiloh a very wide berth and stayed away from her.
Shiloh pretty much had the run of the house until Big Ed arrived and decided she would make a good rabbit and chased her through the house in a memorable run that I only wish would have been recorded!
After that race, Shiloh pretty much stayed upstairs by her choice and even Posey who was far closer to her size and wanted to play, Shiloh didn't want to interact very often.
I suppose that's why some of my friends from the graphing world didn't even know we had a cat because she so rarely came around downstairs around others.
She would come down on occasion, usually in the morning or later evening when things were calm and Posey was in another room.
I'll remember the last time that she came downstairs to hang out with me, as it was just Sunday and she acted just as always, trotting down the stairs and snuggling up to me on the couch as she licked my hand (I've always thought it was weird how rough cats tongues felt) and tried to bite the corner of my laptop as usual as well.
Shiloh didn't act any differently up until yesterday, although she had become visibly thinner over the last six months or so, as when I came back from the Muni to be told she was ill.
I went upstairs to "her" area and she saw me meowed a lot and snuggled up to me on the floor.
Shiloh's eyes didn't seem to have that defeated look that my other pets had at the end, but it seemed pretty clear to me that something was clearly wrong.
Her eyes seemed bright and alert, but she had no interest in food or water and I was unsure of what to do.

I had the feeling that as underweight as she was, her return home wasn't going to be likely, but I did have hope.
However, I was told that the likely news wouldn't be good by the veterinarian and it was back to that awful decision that every pet owner contends with.
This one was easier and harder in different ways than with Teddy and Ed.
It was easier because after hearing what was likely to be done, Shiloh would have basically lived her entire life with only one bad day and wouldn't we all be that fortunate?
One of my college instructors once said that her life motto was "Live Long and Die Fast", which basically meant live a long life and end quickly without pain and suffering, and that always stuck with me.
That helped me with Shiloh, but it was harder in another way as Teddy and Ed each had that look of resignation that they "knew".
Shiloh may have had that in body, but those eyes made me think again and made the decision harder.

When Ed passed, he had a medicine that gave us hope and for a week, he was back to himself.
However, the crash was heartbreaking for him and for us to watch and the one thing that Cherie asked before I left with Shiloh was to make sure that what happened to Ed, didn't happen here with false hope.

I'll miss the little gal and that's coming from a person that never considered himself too much of a cat person.
She had a sweet personality that saw her not mind being touched but on her terms.
She wasn't the type of pet that enjoyed being picked up and carried around, yet she would come to you and nuzzle you when she wanted to.
She'll be missed.

And now for the three of us here, the final link to the days that Ryan lived here is gone and for the first time in roughly 17 years, there is only one pet in the house.
It won't make a difference in noise, Shiloh was a very quiet pet, but it feels a little different this morning.
It's hard to put into words, but it's a different house than the one I woke up to yesterday and we'll adjust, but it's never a breeze in these situations.
But if we just allow time to pass, it'll be ok.

I started to write a road trip post on last weekend's trip to the Hudson Valley Renegades, but this took precedence.
I'll try to work on it later tonight.

Boxing Challenge: Navarette cruises by DeVaca

The boxing challenge was all Top Rank with two fights on their flagship ESPN network.

The main event was uncompetitive as Emanuel Navarrete dominated Francisco De Vaca and ended their WBO junior featherweight title in three rounds from Los Angeles.

Navarrete dominated the fight in scoring a third-round knockdown, was barely threatened by return fire and took such little punishment in the victory that he'll be returning in a month on the Tyson Fury-Otto Wallin card against an unnamed opponent.
Navarrete will be a tough out for anyone in the 122-pound division with his size and range and could be in the 126-pound division as well.

In the co-feature, Jessie Magdaleno won a unanimous decision after nine rounds over Rafael Rivera when the fight was stopped in the ninth for cuts suffered by Magdaleno from an elbow thrown by Rivera.
Magdaleno knocked Rivera down earlier in the round and seemed to be on this way to possibly stopping Rivera before the elbow that seemed to be thrown in desperation.
I had Magdaleno winning 88-82 in the nine rounds that were scored.

I earned four points to Ramon Malpica's three on the evening, moving my lead to 207-179.

Jose Napoles

Boxing lost one of its greatest welterweights ever as Jose Napoles passed away at the age of 79 in Mexico.

Napoles held the welterweight title from 1967 to 1975 twice and only a loss on cuts to Billy Backus in 1970 broke up what would have been an eight-year reign and would have ranked among the longest ever in the division.

Jose Napoles lost only one fight as an amateur in Cuba and likely would have won or defended his eventual championship there had the Fidel Castro regime not taken power with Napoles as a young prospect.
Castro's banning of professional boxing and Napoles turning professional before that ban left Napoles without a choice- he needed to leave Cuba to continue and he found a home in Mexico where he established himself as a title contender in the lightweight and junior welterweight divisions.

Unable to receive a title shot in either of those divisions, Napoles rose to welterweight to have one against champion Curtis Cokes, who he would stop in back to back fights to win and then retain the championship.
Napoles defended the championship next against former welterweight and middleweight champion Emile Griffith via decision, which gave Napoles arguably the biggest win on his career resume' and a stoppage victory over Ernie "Indian Red" Lopez, the older brother of future featherweight champion Danny "Little Red' Lopez before entering what seemed to be an easy defense against Billy Backus.


"Mantequilla" (Spanish for butter) did have a weakness as he cut and swelled up very easily and when Backus was able to slice Napoles open in the first round and when both fighters heads smashed into each other in the third, Napoles had his cut worsen and watched the title move to the undistinguished Backus.


Napoles would overwhelm Backus in eight rounds in the rematch to regain the title and would rip off six successful defenses with wins over solid contenders Hedgemon Lewis and Clyde Gray as well as another victory over Ernie Lopez as highlights.


At nearly 34, Napoles decided to cash in for a big payday as he rose to middleweight to challenge Carlos Monzon for the middleweight crown.
This was the fight that continued to come to my memory both before and after the 2016 fight between Gennady Golovkin and Kell Brook.
As great as Napoles was, Monzon was (in my opinion) the best middleweight ever, considering that and giving away thirteen pounds of natural weight, four inches of height, and four inches of official reach (it seemed like much more), Napoles was overmatched and despite all of that, Mantequilla had his moments in the first few rounds.
However, Monzon established himself in the fifth and it was all downhill after that as Monzon battered Napoles badly in the fifth and sixth with Napoles barely surviving the sixth.
Trainer Angelo Dundee made the smart call and ended the fight in the corner and saved Napoles from an unneeded pounding and a likely KO loss by refusing to allow Napoles out for the seventh.


Napoles returned to the welterweight division and stopped Hedgemon Lewis in a rematch along with a knockout of Horatio Saldano entering a championship defense against former U.S. Olympian Mando Muniz, who had upset Lewis to earn a title shot, in Mexico
In a rough and violent fight that saw about every dirty tactic that one could think of used by both fighters, Muniz seemed to have the upper hand with a bloody and fading Napoles in round 12.before one of the most controversial incidents in boxing history that saw the officials meet at ringside for minutes in what seemed to be an attempt to find a way to allow Napoles to retain the title.
After all of that, the ruling was that Napoles' cuts had been caused by butts from Muniz in the third round (yet, there had no notice from the referee in that round that the cuts had been caused in that manner) and therefore the fight would move to the scorecards instead of Muniz being declared the winner via TKO.
The fight became even more farcical than as Napoles was judged the winner via decision in a fight that he should have been far behind on.


The mandated rematch after both fighters had healed in four months later. a motivated Napoles controlled the bout over a disheartened Muniz and won a unanimous decision.in what proved to be not only his final brilliant performance but also his final title defense and his final victory as Napoles would lose the title in six rounds to Britain's John H. Stracey, who survived a first-round knockdown to batter Napoles, cut him above one eye and swell shut the other on his way to the referee stopping the fight in the sixth round.
The stoppage was a good one by the referee and the decision by the soon to be 36 years old Napoles to retire was just as smart as he finished his career with an 81-7 mark with 54 knockouts.
What was even smarter was Napoles never attempting a comeback as so many in boxing try to do and usually unsuccessfully so.
Napoles had to know that his skills were ebbing as a prime Napoles would have likely outclassed Stracey, who was a fighter at the right place on the right night.


Where do I rank Jose Napoles in the all-time welterweight conversation?
I'd say he's clearly a top ten welterweight of all-time and maybe even a top-five as there are quite a few qualified candidates for the fourth spot behind my solid top three of (considering only their record at 147 pounds) Ray Robinson, Ray Leonard, and Henry Armstrong.
Napoles, Floyd Mayweather, Kid Gavilan, and others, all could make a claim to a top-five position on their welterweight resume' and Napoles fits into that company very well.
Napoles was what could be called the Swiss Army Knife of great welterweights as he did everything on an above-average level, yet he wasn't a dominant fleet-footed boxer or possess dazzling speed or crunching power- he just did everything very well and except for that tissue paper-like skin, Napoles had no obvious weaknesses.

Jose Napoles would have been a deserving entry into our Forgotten Superstars series, but he deserved a salute rather than just an obituary.
An excellent champion and a proud competitor, Jose Napoles should certainly be recalled as an all-time great.

Boxing Challenge

If you thought last weeks Boxing Challenge was light, this weeks version is even lighter as we build for the next two weekends loaded versions.

The only fights this week are from ESPN/ Top Rank on their main network with one of them a world title fight as Emanuel Navarrete defends his WBO junior featherweight championship against undefeated Francisco DeVaca.
Navarrete won his title against and defended it for the first time against Issac Dogboe, looking very impressive in both victories, while DeVaca will be fighting in a twelve rounder for the first time,

The co-feature is a featherweight tussle with Jessie Magdaleno battling Rafael Rivera in a ten rounder.
Magdaleno, who lost the belt that Navarette currently holds to the aforementioned Dogboe, will be making his second foray into the 126-pound division against Rivera, who is 2-3 in his last five fights, but all against world-class competition in WBA champion Leo Santa Cruz, Joet Gonzalez, who will be facing Shakur Stevenson for the WBO title vacated by Oscar Valdez and former title challenger Joseph Diaz.

In the boxing challenge, I lead Ramon Malpica 203-176.

WBO Junior Featherweight Title 12 Rds
Emanuel Navarrete vs Francisco DeVaca
R.L: Navarrete Unanimous Decision
TRS: Navarrete KO 9

Featherweights. 10 Rds
Jessie Magdaleno vs Rafael Rivera
Both: Magdaleno Unanimous Decision

Cleaning out the inbox: Passings

The passings list is cleaned up for the time being with the remainder of the list of notables being posted today.

Goodbye to Harley Race at the age of 76.
Race, who was the first wrestler to win the NWA world title seven times in the era when it was that championship and not that of Vince McMahon's WWF that was the most prestigious title in pro wrestling.
Race was noted for his legitimate toughness outside the ring and the legendary stories about Race's knocking people cold away from the arena are plentiful.
Race, who had a steel plate along his forearm and wasn't afraid to smash someone in the skull with it, also survived several car crashes that damaged him severely through the years and in these crashes broke many bones among other injuries.
Race won the NWA title for the first time in 1973 with a victory over Dory Funk Jr and lost it for the final time in 1983 to Ric Flair in the first Starrcade in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Due to my lack of cable television during Race's reigns as NWA champion, my exposure (as far as actually seeing Race wrestle) to Race came after Race's defection to the WWF as the "King" Harley Race managed by Bobby Heenan.
Race defeated the Junkyard Dog at Wrestlemania III and would receive a run against Hulk Hogan, but during the run, Race would injure himself by falling through an unprepared table in a Hogan match and would receive a hernia when the metal from the table drove into his abdomen and gave Race a hernia.
Race would never be the same in the ring and other than a brief return against the new King Haku and some cameo appearances in the AWA and WCW, Race would be finished as a wrestler, although he would manage Lex Luger and Big Van Vader to championships in WCW.


Goodbye to Chris Kraft at the age of 95.
Kraft, who was the head of NASA Flight Operations and the first-ever Flight Director for the agency. retired before the start of the Apollo program as the Flight Director in favor of being the director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
In other words, as the head of flight operations for an agency that was brand new and for spacecraft that had never flown, Kraft was the person in charge of making the rules for every part of the mission from scratch.
Kraft's duties as head of the space center included training and being in charge of the other flight directors as well as being part of the decision-making process on who flew on what missions.


Goodbye to Denise Nickerson at the age of 62.
Nickerson might be best known as "Violet Beauregard" in the original "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", the chewing gum obsessed teenager that would blow up with berry juice and would be rolled to the "squeezing room".
Nickerson also was known for her role in the vampire soap opera "Dark Shadows" and after the Wonka film, she would appear in "The Brady Bunch" as a date of Peter Brady's and was a member of the "Short Circus" troupe on the "Electric Company" in the mid-70s before retiring from acting.


Goodbye to Ernie Broglio at the age of 83.
Best known as being the key part of the trade that sent Lou Brock to the Cardinals that resulted in Brock going to the Hall of Fame and Broglio winning only seven games in three years before retiring at thirty years old, what is often forgotten is what a quality pitcher Broglio was with the Cardinals before the trade.
Broglio won 21 games for the Cardinals in 1960 and 18 in 1963 in the season before the mid-season trade that sent him to the Cubs.


Goodbye to Prudencio Cardona at the age of 67.
A 1972 Olympian at the Munich games, Cardona held the WBC flyweight title in 1982 after slashing through Antonio Avelar in one round to win the title and became one of what seemed to be 74 guys to hold the WBC title while Santos Laciar (remember our Hall of Fame boosting of Laciar?) held the WBA title.
Keeping in the form of the time, Cardona dropped the championship to Freddie Castillo via unanimous decision in his first title defense and would challenge Laciar for his title in 1984, losing by 10th round knockout.


Goodbye to Eddie Marlin at the age of 89.
Marlin, a long-time wrestler in the 50s through the 70s, was better known as the authority figure in the Memphis territory as the general manager (in character) of the territory.
Marlin was one of those people that that always looked like he was 70, even when he was 40, so it worked to have him as the enforcer of company policy.
Marlin happened to be the father-in-law of company owner Jerry Jarrett, which helped in getting and holding his position and the grandfather of Jeff Jarrett.


We now are finished catching up on the inbox (finally) and I hope to begin writing about the road trip shortly!

Cleaning out the inbox-Non-Sports Edition

Photo Credit: NASA

As promised, we now move to the inbox cleaning from the non-sports perspective with a handful of nuggets of interest.

NASA has added a wrinkle in their never-ending attempts to keep the now 42-year-old Voyager's information sending transmissions running for as long as possible and the latest is firing thrusters that haven't been used in decades to keep their antennas pointed at Earth.
The main thrusters have degraded over the years and the thrusters being used currently can keep those antennas pointed in the right spot and keep all of this information from "where no man has gone before" to continue to be gathered for reference.

The Guardian speaks with Petula Clark, who still tours and records at soon to be 87 years of age about her career.
Clark speaks of her child acting career during World War II, her various hits, her marriage, Harry Belafonte and their famous interaction during her NBC special, Elvis Presley, Karen Carpenter and even more.
As a long time fan of Ms.Clark's music, I found it very interesting and learned a bit more about Clark, who will be starring in London as Mary Poppins in the theatre soon, which at 87 is downright stunning when you consider the energy that will take!

Parade talks to Poppy Montgomery about her new show "Reef Break" on ABC among other topics.
I always liked "Without a Trace", which Montgomery was a supporting star of the show, but her character wasn't one of my favorites.
However, Reef Break has been reviewed as a lighter fun show with more of a 60s/70s detective show feel than the grittier shows of today and it looked interesting.
I haven't watched Reef Break yet, but I'm saving them for a binge-watch after baseball season, when I don't have as much to do.

Atlas Obscura wraps this edition with three different links.
The first discusses the "fallen astronaut" sculpture that was left on the moon by the Apollo 15 crew.
The figure salutes the astronauts from both the United States and the Soviet Union that died in the race to the moon and lies alongside a plaque that lists all the names of the fallen.

The second looks at the scientific world that wants to study Okjokull, a glacier near Iceland that is almost nearly devoid of ice after warming.
Recently, a plaque was left on a stone on Okjokull that lists that this was once the site of a glacier, and in case someone finds it in the future that may not know what glaciers are, what they were composed of, how many existed and how they may have been eliminated.

The final note mentions the Buzludzha Memorial House, which was built by the then communist government of Bulgaria in 1981, only to be abandoned nine years later with the fall of communism in Bulgaria.
Located at the top of a peak in the Balkan mountains, Buzludzha was a meeting place for the Bulgarian leaders but has not been maintained since 1990.
The building has been looked at for damage and preservation experts state that work needs to be done in preferably the next five years or no more than the next ten or the building will not remain salvageable.

The inbox is close to being spic and span for a while with only another passings post to finish the job.
I still have a road trip to work on, so count things to keep flowing along for a while!