Notebook: Despite suffering broken orbit in loss to Spence, Ugas won't need surgery

Arum missing Fury-Whyte due to Covid-19; Sulaiman disavows Kinahan; Khan robbed at gunpoint; Covid causes havoc with Montreal cards; Ruiz fight vs. Spong off; Quick hits; Show and tell

Apr 19, 2022

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Despite suffering a broken right orbital bone in a one-sided 10th-round knockout loss to Errol Spence Jr. in a three-belt welterweight unification fight on Saturday night at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, he will not need surgery to repair the injury, Ugas manager Luis DeCubas Jr. told Fight Freaks Unite on Monday.

Spence appeared to damage Ugas’ right eye in the seventh round with a series of straight left hands. After the round, the ringside doctor examined Ugas’ eye in the corner but allowed the fight to continue.

Referee Laurence Cole called a timeout in the eighth round to also have the doctor check Ugas’ eye but, again, the fight went on.

By the 10th round, Ugas’ eye had swelled dramatically and was closed. When he took punishment in the round, and it was obvious he could not see out of the eye, Cole stopped the fight after the ringside doctor examined Ugas and said he could not continue.

Ugas (27-5, 12 KOs) was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth following the fight.

When Canelo Alvarez broke Billy Joe Saunders’ right orbital bone (and cheek) in their three-belt super middleweight unification fight last May, also at AT&T Stadium, Saunders was taken to the same hospital but needed surgery.

Showtime announced it will replay Spence-Ugas on Saturday (9 p.m. ET). The fight initially headlined a Showtime PPV card. Immediately following the Showtime replay, the network will air the epilogue episode of “All Access: Spence vs. Ugas.”

Arum has Covid-19

Top Rank chairman Bob Arum announced on Monday that he has Covid-19 and will be unable to travel to London this week for the event he is co-promoting with Frank Warren — heavyweight champion Tyson Fury’s mandatory defense against British countryman Dillian Whyte on Saturday at Wembley Stadium.

“Excited to watch Tyson Fury defend his titles Saturday against Dillian Whyte in front of 94,000 fans at Wembley Stadium,” the 90-year-old Arum posted to his social media. “Unfortunately, I will be unable to attend as I am recovering from mild Covid-19 symptoms. I’ll be cheering on The Gypsy King from home as I watch on ESPN+ PPV.”

The fight is expected to set the all-time post-war British boxing attendance record, passing the 90,000 that attended Anthony Joshua’s unified heavyweight title defense against former unified champion Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley Stadium in the 2017 fight of the year.

Sulaiman speaks on Kinahan

WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman on Monday distanced himself from boxing adviser Daniel Kinahan, whom the United States government last week identified as an organized crime kingpin, and apologized for his recent nice words about him.

Sulaiman met Kinahan when he was in Dubai for a March 19 card. Sulaiman posed for a photo (above) with Kinahan and promoter Ahmet Oener (center) and then wrote supportive things about him in his weekly WBC column.

Then last week, the U.S. government sanctioned Kinahan and offered a $5 million reward for his arrest and conviction.

On Monday, Sulaiman issued a statement, saying he made a mistake and was ignorant of Kinahan’s situation. I wrote about it for Big Fight Weekend. Please read the story here: https://bigfightweekend.com/news/wbc-president-sulaiman-latest-to-distance-from-fugitive-kinahan/

Amir Khan robbed

Former unified junior welterweight titleholder Amir Khan said on social media that he was robbed at gunpoint while walking with his wife, Faryal Makhdoom, on Monday night in East London.

“Just had my watch taken off me at gun point in East London, Leyton,” Khan wrote on Twitter. “I crossed the road with Faryal, luckily she was few steps behind me. 2 men ran to me, he asked for my watch (whilst) having a gun pointed in my face. The main thing is we’re both safe.”

Khan (34-6, 21 KOs), 35, of England, ended a 2½ layoff on Feb. 19 to face rival and former welterweight titlist Kell Brook but was dominated and stopped in the sixth round.

On Saturday, Khan was ringside in Manchester, England, to watch as British welterweight Conor Benn knock out Chris van Heerden in the second round. After the fight he was invited into the ring and he, Benn and Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn talked about the prospect of a Benn-Khan fight, although Khan said he had not decided what his plans are.

Covid-19 impacts Montreal cards

Promoter Yvon Michel had to postpone one card and alter another due to Covid-19 on Monday.

First, Kim Clavel (15-0, 3 KOs), 31, of Montreal, tested positive for Covid-19, forcing her challenge against WBC women’s junior flyweight titleholder Yesenia Gomez (19-5-3, 6 KOs), 26, of Mexico, scheduled for Thursday in Montreal, to be called off. The entire show has been postponed.

“We learned that unfortunately Kim Clavel contracted the Covid-19 virus. Unfortunately, her fight this Thursday against the champion Yesenia Gomez will not be able to take place,” Michel said. “We will release more details soon.”

Later in the day, former light heavyweight titlist Eleider “Storm” Alvarez tested positive for Covid-19, knocking him out of his comeback fight after 19 months out of the ring.

Alvarez was scheduled for an eight-round against an opponent to be named in a move up to cruiserweight on a card scheduled for May 5 at the Montreal Casino.

“As bad news never comes alone, we are informed that ‘Storm’ Alvarez is also afflicted with significant symptoms of Covid-19 and must be removed from the gym as a preventive measure,” Michel said. “His return to the ring is postponed.”

The rest of the May 5 card, however, will go on as planned.

Alvarez (25-2, 13 KOs), 38, a Colombia native based in Montreal, has been idle since a ninth-round knockout loss to Joe Smith Jr. in August 2020 in Las Vegas.

Ruiz-Spong off

Almost as soon as Triller announced last Wednesday that former unified heavyweight titlist Andy Ruiz Jr. would face Tyrone Spong in the 10-round main event of a Triller Fight Club pay-per-view card on July 16 at the Plaza de Toros in Mexico City, the fight was called off.

The reason is because Triller was informed that Ruiz (34-2, 22 KOs), 32, of Imperial, California, already had a signed contract to face former world title challenger Luis “King Kong” Ortiz this summer on a Premier Boxing Champions card (likely a Fox PPV).

When Triller learned of his existing agreement it backed off a few days later.

“We are working amicably with PBC to make sure Ruiz honors his obligations to both parties,” Triller Fight Club president David Tetreault said in a statement given to Fight Freaks Unite. “Had we known PBC intended to fight him prior, we would have never chosen this date.

“We enjoy a good relationship with PBC and we are currently working to identify an optimal date for rescheduling the fight. The date Triller lands on will be in collaboration with PBC and their calendar.”

Ruiz shocked the world with a seventh-round knockout of Anthony Joshua as a late replacement to win the unified titles and become the first heavyweight titlist of Mexican decent in one of the biggest upsets in boxing history in June 2019 at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

In an immediate rematch six months later, an unfocused and out of shape Ruiz lost a one-sided decision to Joshua in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. Ruiz has boxed just once since, an all-action decision over former title challenger Chris Arreola in May 2021.

Ortiz (33-2, 28 KOs), 43, a Cuban southpaw fighting out of Miami, whose two losses were by knockout to Deontay Wilder in world title fights, has won two fights in a row since the second loss to Wilder in November 2019. In his most recent fight, Ortiz knocked out former titleholder Charles Martin in the sixth round on Jan. 1.

Quick hits

The WBA announced that the purse bid for the fight between junior bantamweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada (42-3, 28 KOs), 31, of Mexico, and regular titleholder Joshua Franco (18-1-2, 8 KOs), 26, of San Antonio, which was scheduled for Monday, has been postponed until Tuesday. The both sides asked for a one-day delay to continue negotiating and try to reach an agreement. If they end going to purse bid the minimum bid is $120,000 with promoters also having to pay a $5,000 participation fee. The split is 75-25 in Estrada’s favor.

Jake Paul and his Most Valuable Promotions partner Nakisa Bidarian announced they have signed Long Beach, California, junior lightweight Ashton Sylve (6-0, 6 KOs), an 18-year-old former amateur standout. He is scheduled for a six-rounder on May 21 card in Pomona, California. “Athletes like Sylve are the reason Nakisa and I started MVP and it’s a privilege to act as his advisor during such a pivotal point in his career,” Paul said. “He represents what athletes can and should be, focused on building your brand and your skills. Sylve has all the ingredients to be a superstar in boxing and MVP is going to help him to do it in record time.”

Former featherweight title challenger Ruben Villa (19-1, 6 KOs), 24, a southpaw from Salinas, California, knocked out Horacio Garcia (35-6-1, 25 KOs), 31, of Mexico, in the ninth round of their 10-rounder on Friday night at the Doubletree Hotel in Ontario, California. Villa had given Garcia a beating and finally referee Raul Caiz Jr. had seen enough and stopped the fight at 1 minute, 12 seconds. “This was one of my best performances against a tough fighter,” Villa said. “Garcia has never been stopped, so to get the knockout against him, assures me that I’m back stronger then ever.” The fight was Villa’s first since October 2020, when he got dropped twice and lost a decision to Emanuel Navarrete for the vacant WBO featherweight title.

Show and tell

Joe Calzaghe had convincingly outpointed Mikkel Kessler in a huge fight to unify three super middleweight world titles and then finally pressed to the come and fight in the United States. But Wales’ Calzaghe, who had made 21 super middleweight title defenses and was going to move up to light heavyweight, needed a quality dance partner to make a major fight against. The logical foe was lineal light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins in what became a big HBO event between men who would eventually be elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

Calzaghe, 36 at the time, was the favorite when they met at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas for a fight I was ringside to cover. The 43-year-old Hopkins knocked Calzaghe down with a short right hand in the first round. He shook it off and by the late rounds had seized control against a tiring Hopkins, who resorted to grabbing and holding, and trying to earn a disqualification win in the 10th round by flailing on the canvas after being hit by a slightly low blow.

In the end, Calzaghe eked out a split decision, winning 115-112 and 116-111 while one judge had it 114-113 for BHop. I, and others at ringside, also had it 114-113 for Hopkins, who failed to live up to his controversial pre-fight declaration that he would “never let a white boy beat me.” The fight was on April 19, 2008 — 14 years ago on Tuesday. Here is a scarce site poster in my collection.

Ugas photo: Amanda Westcott/Showtime; Sulaiman photo: WBC; Khan photo: Lawrence Lustig/Boxxer; Ruiz photo: Sean Michael Ham/TGB Promotions

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