Notebook: Medical issue forces Ortiz out of Stanionis fight again

Saturday's card will still go on; three-time title challenger Echols dies; shakeup at ESPN; Jalolov signs with TR; Boxing News appearance; Horn retires, cites memory issues; Quick hits; Show and tell

Dan Rafael

Jul 06, 2023

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Welterweight contender Vergil Ortiz Jr. fainted during a workout at his Dallas-area gym on Wednesday and was hospitalized, and on Thursday his fight with WBA “regular” titleholder Eimantas Stanionis was called off.

It is the third time the fight has not taken place as planned.

They were scheduled to meet in a long overdue mandatory bout in the main event of a Golden Boy Promotions card on Saturday on DAZN (8 p.m. ET) at the AT&T Center in San Antonio. Golden Boy announced that the card will still go forward with the remaining bouts.

When Ortiz passed out, he had to be given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation by his father/trainer Vergil Ortiz Sr. before being transported to the hospital, a source with knowledge of the incident told Fight Freaks Unite.

A Golden Boy spokesperson told Fight Freaks Unite that Ortiz was once again suffering from issues related to a recurrence of rhabdomyolysis, a condition known as rhabdo, which occurs when damaged muscle tissue releases proteins and electrolytes into the blood. It can damage the heart and kidneys and in the most severe cases cause death.

“Nothing is more important than the safety of our fighters, and we of course support Vergil’s decision 100 percent,” Golden Boy said in a statement on Ortiz’s withdrawal. “This unfortunate event does however open the door for one of Golden Boy’s top prospects, Floyd Schofield, to accelerate his profile by headlining in his home state of Texas. We will, as always, put on a high-action card from top to bottom and look forward to showcasing all of our fighters both in San Antonio and on DAZN.”

Ortiz’s condition, which he has said is related to his dealing with long Covid, has now forced him out of fights three times. The first time he was hospitalized and had to postpone a March 2022 fight with Michael McKinson five days beforehand.

Ortiz had a recurrence of rhabdo earlier this year that also caused the fight with Stanionis to be postponed. They were scheduled to meet April 29 at the College Park Center on the campus of the University of Texas at Arlington in Arlington, Texas, before Ortiz was forced to withdraw.

Ortiz and Stanionis were initially scheduled to fight on March 18, but the fight was postponed in January because Stanionis had to undergo an emergency appendectomy, which he has fully recovered from.

Stanionis (14-0, 9 KOs), 28, of Lithuania, arrived in San Antonio on Wednesday as did manager Shelly Finkel, who was irate at Golden Boy president Eric Gomez about the situation.

“Eric called me (Thursday) and said that (Ortiz’s team) called him (Wednesday) night and said that he fainted and is in the hospital and they were waiting on the doctor. I believe Eric was stalling. Come on, the fight’s off.

“Eric said it happened (Wednesday) night and he never had the courtesy of telling me until the next day. That’s not right. Eimantas is devastated. He hasn’t fought in 15 months. It’s just terrible.”

Finkel said he was unsure if the fight would ever happen and that he planned to talk to the WBA about the situation, adding that Stanionis needed to fight and could not wait indefinitely for Ortiz.

Stanionis (14-0, 9 KOs), 28, of Lithuania, and Ortiz (19-0, 19 KOs), 25, of Grand Prairie, Texas, were both limited to just one fight apiece in 2022. Stanionis won the “regular” 147-pound belt by action-packed split decision over Radzhab Butaev last April. Ortiz notched a ninth-round KO of McKinson in their rescheduled fight in August.

Lightweight prospect Schofield (14-0, 11 KOs), 20, of Austin, Texas, will face Haskell Rhodes (28-4-1, 13 KOs), 35, of Las Vegas, in a 10-rounder that has been moved from the co-feature to the main event position.

The card also includes a unification fight between WBC/WBA women’s flyweight champion Marlen Esparza (13-1, 1 KO), 33, of Houston, and WBO titlist Gabriela Alaniz (14-0, 6 KO), 27, of Argentina, and former junior lightweight titlist Joseph Diaz Jr. (32-4-1, 15 KOs), 30, of Downey, California, against Jerry Perez (14-2-1, 11 KOs), 30, of Oak Hills, California, in a 10-round junior welterweight bout. Diaz is seeking to end a three-fight losing streak in his first fight since re-signing with Golden Boy.

Antwun Echols dies

Antwun Echols, a big-punching top middleweight contender in the late 1990s and early 2000s, who twice challenged Bernard Hopkins for his world title, died on Sunday in Davenport, Iowa. He was 51.

One of his daughters, Antwunette Echols, announced that he died due to complications from diabetes.

Born in Memphis, he grew up in Davenport and turned pro in a first-round knockout loss in 1993. But he would eventually work his way up the rankings and scored his first big win in a nationally televised ninth-round knockout of fellow contender Brian Barbosa in 1998.

Four fights later, he was 22-1-1 when he was the IBF mandatory challenger for Hall of Famer Hopkins’ 160-pound title in Miami in December 1999. Echols, an extremely physical fighter, gave Hopkins all he could handle in a unanimous decision loss. In December 2000, Echols landed a mandatory rematch with Hopkins on HBO in Las Vegas and again gave him a very tough fight in a 10th-round knockout loss.

Echols (32-22-4, 28 KOs) bounced back with a third-round knockout of former titlist Charles Brewer in a memorable shootout in 2001. Echols would land one more title shot in 2003, traveling to Australia to challenge Anthony Mundine for the vacant WBA “regular” super middleweight title and losing a unanimous decision.

From there Echols’ career went downhill and he became an opponent, going 1-17-3 over his final 21 fights and usually was knocked out early. He last fought in 2016.

Boxing News appearance

I joined my friends at Boxing News to discuss numerous boxing topics, including Eimantas Stanionis-Vergil Ortiz Jr. (the day before it was canceled), Jaron Ennis-Roiman Villa, Errol Spence Jr.-Terence Crawford, Stephen Fulton-Naoya Inoue, Anthony Joshua-Dillian Whyte II, Tyson Fury-Francis Ngannou talks, the surprising Canelo Alvarez-Jermell Charlo announcement and Canelo’s PBC deal, a potential Devin Haney-Shakur Stevenson fight and more! Watch the video here:

ESPN shakeup

Two big-name boxing personalities, Andre Ward and Max Kellerman, who have long been part of ESPN’s boxing coverage, are out at the network as part of well-publicized cost-cutting efforts mandated by parent company Disney.

ESPN laid off or declined to renew contracts of around 20 on-air talents and they were part of the purge.

Ward, 39, the Hall of Fame former super middleweight and light heavyweight champion, has been a ringside analyst for Top Rank Boxing on ESPN since 2017. He worked the Jared Anderson-Charles Martin card on Saturday night and then announced that his contract had not been renewed.

“Tonight’s show was the last fight under my ESPN contract,” Ward said in a statement. “It’s been a great ride and I’m going to miss the whole ESPN crew that I’ve worked with for the last six years. I’m excited about my future and the chance to work on new projects and endeavors. Great things are ahead.”

Kellerman, who turns 50 next month, worked with Ward on HBO broadcasts before Ward came to ESPN and has also been associated with ESPN boxing coverage for much of the past 25 years or so. While he had various high-profile roles at ESPN on television and radio, he began at the network on “Friday Night Fights.” Prior to being laid off, he hosted weekly “Max on Boxing” on ESPN2 and was occasionally on site to host the biggest ESPN fights.

Top Rank signs Jalolov

Top Rank has signed 2020 Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist Bakhodir Jalolov (12-0, 12 KOs), 28, a 6-foot-7, 250-pound southpaw from Uzbekistan.

He had been with promoter Lou DiBella and the now-defunct Probellum but the signing was announced Saturday night during Jared Anderson-Charles Martin ESPN telecast.

Although Jalolov has not had a pro fight since drilling Curtis Harper in the fourth round on Nov. 26 on the Regis Prograis-Jose Zepeda card, he has had several amateur fights since.

In May, he won the super heavyweight gold medal at the 2023 World Championships in Uzbekistan. He has made significant money thanks to support from the Uzbekistan government for continuing to represent the country.

Top Rank chairman Bob Arum said Jalolov will have his first bout for the company on Aug. 26 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on the same card as fellow top heavyweight prospect Anderson.

Gualtieri outpoints Falcao for title

Germany’s Vincenzo Gualtieri (21-0-1, 7 KOs), 30, of Germany, won a unanimous decision over Brazilian southpaw Esquiva Falcao (30-1, 20 KOs), 33, on Saturday in Wuppertal, Germany on an Agon Sports card to win the vacant IBF middleweight title vacated by Gennadiy Golovkin earlier this year.

Gualtieri won 117-109, 116-110 and 116-110 after scoring a knockdown on a left hook in the second round and a disputed one in the 10th round that looked more like a combination of a low blow and push.

Falcao was hurt badly by a left hand way below the belt in the seventh round that floored him and nearly caused the fight to end. Falcao was on his back and was given recovery time by referee Vincent Dupas.

Agon Sports was able to bring the fight to Germany after outbidding Falcao promoter Top Rank at a purse bid $410,000 to $375,000).

Falcao posted to social media that his manager plans to file an appeal with the IBF over Gualtieri’s low blows that were not penalized as well as accusing him of using his shoulder to hit Falcao. Team Falcao would like for the IBF to review the video of the fight to order a rematch, which they would like in the United States.

Jeff Horn retires

Former WBO welterweight titleholder Jeff Horn announced his retirement on July 2, six years to the day after coming out of obscurity to be awarded a massively controversial decision against Manny Pacquiao to claim the title at Suncorp Stadium in his hometown of Brisbane, Australia in 2017.

The fight was one of the biggest in Australian history and made Horn, a former school teacher, a national sports hero for scoring the enormous upset.

Horn made one defense, also in Brisbane, and stopped Gary Corcoran in the 11th round in December 2017 before traveling to Las Vegas, where Terence Crawford made his welterweight debut and battered him into a ninth-round knockout to take the title he still holds.

Horn (20-3-1, 13 KOs), 35, had not fought since losing by one-sided eighth-round knockout to countryman Tim Tszyu in a junior middleweight bout in August 2020.

Horn told Australia’s Courier Mail newspaper that although he had been offered $1 million for a fight he did not identify, he decided to retire over concerns for his health, particularly his memory.

“I could have taken $1 million for another fight, but my health is more important than wealth,” Horn told the paper. “To be honest, I’ve had my concerns. I’ve had some issues with my memory. I’ve had some tests done on my brain and I was told if I kept going there was a high potential risk of things getting worse and my brain suffering more.

“I need to protect myself because I want to be able to remember my children’s names and the big moments in their lives. You can’t do that when you are punch-drunk. I’ve had a couple of tests over the years and they said they had some concerns that if I kept going, there would be more worries for me, so that made it a no-brainer to retire.”

Quick hits

Lightweight up-and-comer Raymond Muratalla (18-0, 15 KOs), 26, of Fontana, California, will face an opponent to be determined in the Emanuel Navarrete-Oscar Valdez junior lightweight title bout on Aug. 12 (ESPN), a source with knowledge of the plans told Fight Freaks Unite. Muratalla, who is trained by Robert Garcia, is coming off his most notable victory, a second-round blowout of Jeremia Nakathila, who had gone the distance in a shutout loss to Shakur Stevenson in a June 2021 junior lightweight interim title bout.

Former lineal/IBF cruiserweight champion Mairis Briedis (28-2, 20 KOs), 38, of Latvia, who has been idle since losing the title by unanimous decision in a grueling fight with Jai Opetaia last July in Opetaia’s home country of Australia, is scheduled to return against John McCallum (13-2, 0 KOs), 34, of England, on July 21 (Channel 5 in U.K.) on the Wasserman Boxing card headlined by the previously announced junior featherweight fight between Lee McGregor and Erik Robles at Meadowbrook Sports Centre in McGregor’s hometown of Edinburgh, Scotland. Breidis’ first loss came via majority decision in a unification fight with Oleksandr Usyk, now a three-belt heavyweight titleholder, in 2018.

Top Rank made official it has acquired American rights to the Zanfer Promotions card topped a 10-round junior featherweight bout between former two-division titlist Luis Nery (34-1, 26 KOs), 28, a Mexican southpaw, and former flyweight title challenger Froilan Saludar (33-6-1, 23 KOs), 34, of the Philippines, who meet Saturday in Metepec, Mexico. The card will stream on ESPN+ (9 p.m. ET) and include three additional bouts: junior welterweight Carlos Sanchez (24-1, 19 KOs) versus Marcos Gonzalez (22-3, 11 KOs) over 10; junior middleweight fight Jorge Garcia Perez (25-4, 21 KOs) against Ricardo Banuelos (18-9-1, 7 KOs) in a 10; and bantamweight Rashib Martinez (20-2-1, 9 KOs) versus Ernesto Garcia Flores (10-2, 9 KOs) in an eight-rounder.

South Africa’s Sivenathi Nontshinga (12-0, 9 KOs), 24, outpointed mandatory challenger Regie Suganob (13-1, 4 KOs), 25, of the Philippines, to retain the IBF junior flyweight title in his first defense on Sunday in East London, South Africa. The judges scored it 117-110, 116-111 and 116-111. Nontshinga dropped Suganob with a right hand in the first round. Nontshinga was coming off a split decision over Hector Flores to win the vacant title in Mexico in September in the action-packed 2022 Fight Freaks Unite fight of the year.

Show and tell

Eight months after two-time welterweight titlist Paul Williams suffered one of the most monstrous knockouts I have ever witnessed at ringside, a brutal second-round KO at the hands of then-middleweight champion Sergio Martinez in their rematch, many questioned whether Williams would ever be the same. Sadly, the answer was no. In his next fight, Williams faced Erislandy Lara, the onetime Cuban amateur standout who was coming off a draw with Carlos Molina, in a junior middleweight bout. I was ringside covering Williams-Lara at the Adrian Phillips Ballroom (the smaller upstairs arena at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where Williams had beaten Martinez in their first epic fight) and what I saw would go down in the pantheon of most horrendous decisions I have covered.

Williams, a once-dynamic fighter on everyone’s pound-for-pound list, looked dreadful as Lara landed straight left hands almost at will and busted Williams up in a pretty one-sided fight, or so most of us thought. The late HBO unofficial scorer Harold Lederman had it 117-111 for Lara. I scored it 116-112 for Lara and was unable to find a single ringside media member who didn’t also have Lara winning. However, our scores don’t count, so it was bad enough that judge Al Bennett scored it 114-114. But judges Hilton Whitaker (115-114) and Don Givens (116-114) absurdly both had it for Williams. The pro-Williams crowd booed the scores, which were all terrible. It was as egregious a decision as I have seen and was so bad that New Jersey State Athletic Control Board suspended the three judges indefinitely in a virtually unprecedented move and launched an investigation (though they found nothing untoward). Williams would fight just once more, a win, before he was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident soon after he had landed a fight with the then up-and-coming Canelo Alvarez. Lara, of course, would win a world title, spend the next decade as one of the top junior middleweights in the world and later claim a middleweight belt. Williams-Lara was on July 9, 2011 — 12 years ago on Sunday. Here is a very limited HBO poster in my collection.

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Photos: Ortiz Cris Esqueda/Golden Boy Promotions; Echols: Darryl Webb/Associated Press; Ward: ESPN; Jalolov: Tom Hogan; Horn: Mikey Williams/Top Rank

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