Craig Baker vs. Steve Lovett

Crosstown Texas rivals collide in Florida
By Peter Lim

In an intriguing east-versus-west matchup between two Houston area light heavyweights, Craig Baker (16-1, 12 KOs) takes on Steve Lovett (15-0, 12 KOs) on June 12 at the Lakeland Events Center in Florida. Scheduled for 10 rounds, the fight will be aired on Bounce TV.

Baker hails from Baytown, about 30 miles east of Houston, and Lovett from Stafford, a suburb just southwest of Houston. The cross town fight is as dead-even a match-up in actuality as it is on paper. The winner propels himself from prospect to contender while the loser takes a U-turn back to the proverbial square one. Kudos to both fighters for taking such a risky fight at this early juncture in their careers.

Being from the same area, they have sparred before so they will not be too much of a mystery to each other. Having similar styles, both boxers favor utilizing thumping jabs to set up potentially fight-ending rights. Standing at six-foot-two, Lovett has a slight height advantage over Baker.

While Baker, 31, represents Lovett's sternest test to date, Baker has faced tougher opposition. In his last fight Baker took on top-10 contender Edwin Rodriguez, Lovett's sparring partner and stablemate, and lost by third-round TKO in what was widely viewed as a premature stoppage. He is trained by Juan Lopez at the Lopez Boxing Club.

“I’m excited about this opportunity to take on a fighter like Steve Lovett,” Baker said. “He’s highly regarded but I know that I have the skills and experience to beat him. I’m leaving it all in the ring. A win here puts me in position to get big fights so I plan on being impressive.”

Lovett, 31, sold his every worldly possession in Canberra, Australia to move to the United States to train under Ronnie Shields at the Plex Gym in 2014. Since then he has gone 8-0, 7 KOs with one no contest due to a cut. His only non-KO win came in his last fight when his opponent disgracefully and intentionally got himself disqualified by repeatedly hitting below the belt.

"I helped Edwin Rodriguez prepare for his fight against Baker so I know him well," Lovett said. "I am at the stage to step up to the next level.”

See prediction at: http://peterliminator.blogspot.com/2016/06/craig-baker-vs-steve-lovett.html 

Afterthoughts:
It's baffling how Lovett was so flawless for the first five rounds but unraveled so thoroughly like a ball of yarn in the second half of the fight. Kudos to Baker for hanging tough and making the right adjustments. 

Artur Szpilka and Rocky Baboa: Life imitates art

By Peter Lim

If life mimics art, Artur Szpilka's world heavyweight title shot this Saturday sure bears some uncanny parallels to the 1977 academy award winning flick Rocky. And since Sylvester Stallone penned the screenplay loosely based on former fringe contender Chuck Wepner's valiant attempt at wresting the heavyweight championship from Mohammad Ali in 1975, this is actually a case of life imitating art imitating life.

Szpilka (20-1, 15 KOs) takes on WBC heavyweight titleholder Deontay Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs) in a Showtime-televised bout at the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn, NY, on Saturday. A native of Warsaw, Poland, Szpilka, 26, moved to Houston last year to train at the Plex Gym under Ronnie Shields.

In the movie Stallone’s character Rocky Balboa found himself plucked from obscurity and thrust into the spotlight for a chance at the most coveted prize in boxing when heavyweight champion Apollo Creed’s challenger pulled out at the last minute. The same scenario led to Szpilka being offered the WBC title shot when Wilder’s original opponent withdrew seven weeks prior to the fight. Despite the relative short notice, Szpilka did not hesitate to accept the challenge.

“When I was young I dreamed of this,” Szplilka said. “I know I can win. I’m hungry.”

Szpilka enters the ring a heavy underdog, as Balboa did in the movie against the physically bigger knockout artist that was Creed. While Creed had stopped every opponent he had faced, Wilder, 30, comes pretty darn close, sporting a 97 percent knockout rate. At six-foot-seven, Wilder towers over Szpilka who stands six-foot-three.

“He’s tall but he’s not big,” Szpilka said. “I don’t care (if) everybody thinks he has strong punch and everybody is scared of him. I love fighting tall guys.”

In the movie, Creed’s handlers cautioned him about venturing into unfamiliar southpaw turf. Guess what? Wilder’s pro experience against southpaws is limited to the one minute and 10 seconds it took him to dispatch badly faded former Olympic gold medalist Audley Harrison in 2013.

“He’s never fought with southpaw like me,” Szpilka said.

Shields, though, played down Szpilka’s left handedness as merely something incidental.

“It’s not the southpaw style that’s going to get him; Artur Szpilka is going to get him,” Shields said. “It’s not because of his style that he’s going to win the fight; he’s going to win the fight because he’s a better fighter.”

Mickey, Balboa’s grizzled trainer, conditioned him to rip the body with murderous intentions, a tactic Balboa successfully deployed that almost won him the fight in the final round against Creed.

Here’s what Shields had to say about his game plan: “We will get inside (Wilder’s reach) and we’re going to do something that a lot of people haven’t done and that is go to his body. Go look at all of his fights and see how many times he’s been hit to the body – not a whole lot.”

Rocky will not be the movie it is without Balboa’s love interest Adrienne, played by Talia Shire. Szpilka would not be the man he is without his girlfriend of four years Camila, whom he says keeps him grounded. And just like Adrienne gifted Balboa a dog named Butkus from her pet shop, Szpilka’s pooch Cycu came over from Poland along with Camila.

A pivotal moment in the movie occurs when Balboa comes to the realization that he is in over his head about dethroning the champion and strives instead for the lesser milestone of becoming the first man to last the distance against Creed. This is where the real life script diverges way off course from the fictional one. Artur Szpilka vows he is in it to win it, and not just go the distance.

"He talks shit every time, but he will have trouble," Szpilka said. "I have confidence and I will be champ.

“I will fight hard and after the fight you will hear, ‘the new heavyweight champion of the world.’”

Read this blogger's prediction at:
http://peterliminator.blogspot.com/2016/01/deaontay-wilder-vs-artur-szplika.html

Read article on Artur Szpilka at:  http://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/article/Polish-fighter-takes-long-road-to-title-bout-6762948.php

2015 Houston Boxing Awards

By Peter Lim

There was no shortage of action involving Houston fighters in 2015, a year that marked the end of a seven-year drought during which the Bayou City was devoid of any world titleholders. The city also played host to some remarkable match-ups that were considered for the categories of Fight of the Year, Knockout of the Year and Upset of the Year.

And the awards go to ...

Fighter of the Year: 
Jermall Charlo

Charlo (23-0, 18 KOs) ended Houston's dry spell of world titleholders since Juan Diaz lost his triple crown in 2008 when Charlo dropped Cornelius Bundrage four times en route to a third-round TKO in September to win the IBF junior middleweight belt. He defended the belt less than three months later, scoring three knockdowns against Wilky Campfort for a fourth-round TKO. Both fights were aired on NBC.

Granted, Bundrage was over the hill and Campfort was overmatched, but Charlo nevertheless showed vestiges of Mark Breland's jab, Thomas Hearns' right cross and Ray Leonard's creative punching angles in both fights. Should he prove to have Marvin Hagler's chin, he will be as complete a fighter as they come.

Honorable mention:
Virginia Fuchs (flyweight)
Jermell Charlo (junior middleweight)
Edwin Rodriguez (light heavyweight)

Fight of the Year: 

Edwin Rodriguez KO3 Michael Seals

The five explosive knockdowns in three action-packed rounds earned this doozie of a back-alley brawl the 2015 Fight of the Year honors for it's heart-stopping, Hagler-Hearns intensity. Both fighters were one punch away from being rendered unconscious at any given moment.

Rodriguez (28-1, 19 KOs) came out like a madman and dropped Seals (19-1, 14 KOs) in the opening moments of the fight but tasted the canvass twice and was on the verge of being stopped before the round was over. Still on unsteady legs, Rodriguez resumed his street-fighter mode and dropped Seals again in the second round. Seals was still very much in the fight and trying to set Rodriguez up for a debilitating counter when he was dropped for good in the third round.

Honorable mention:
Saul Alvarez KO3 James Kirkland
Dardan Zenunaj KO7 Bryant Cruz
Regis Prograis W8 Amos Cowart

Knockout of the Year: 
Saul "Canelo" Alvarez KO3 James Kirkland

After Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) survived Kirkland's initial blitzkrieg and dropped Kirkland in the opening round, there was little doubt as to who had the superior skill set in this highly anticipated showdown at Minute Maid Park. But rather than exercising caution against the always-dangerous Kirkland (32-2, 28 KOs), Alvarez turned executioner and delivered the spectacular knockout the sport so badly needed a week after the Mayweather-Pacquiao snoozer. Trapping Kirkland against the ropes in the third round, Alvarez dropped Kirkland with a right uppercut and blasted him into oblivion seconds later with a sweeping right smack on the button.

Honorable mention:
Edwin Rodriguez KO3 Michael Seals

Ivan Baranchyk KO1 Shadi Sharaweb
Miguel Flores KO2 Alfred Tetteh
Jermell Charlo KO7 Joachim Alcine
Pablo Cruz KO2 Luis Alberto Lopez
Dardan Zenunaj KO7 Bryant Cruz

Round of the Year: 
Edwin Rodriguez vs. Michael Seals (round one)

Usually a cerebral boxer-puncher, Rodriguez inexplicably morphed into a violent lunatic, clubbing Seals to the canvass in the opening seconds of the first round. Rodriguez moved in for the kill, swinging wildly like a drunken sailor in a bar fight, only to be dropped heavily by a short counter right. Rodriguez continued to attack with reckless abandon and was caught again by perfectly-timed right that left him almost comatose on the canvass. Discombobulated and delirious, he barely managed to struggle to his feet just before the bell sounded.

Still buzzed, Rodriguez somehow sobered up enough to beat Seals to the trigger, drop him again in the second round and stop him in the third. But had the bell not saved Rodriguez in the first round, this would undoubtedly have been the Upset of the Year, instead of the Round of the Year.

Honorable mention:
Cedric Agnew vs. Kevin Engel (round four)
Saul Alvarez vs. James Kirkland (round one)

Upset of the Year: 
Virginia Fuchs W3 (twice) Marlen Esparza

Southpaw Fuchs was 0-5 in her previous bouts against 2012 Olympic bronze medalist and tournament favorite Esparza, but she stepped up her game when it mattered most. She defeated Esparza not once, but twice, at the 2015 Olympic Trials in Memphis in October. Fuchs went on to win the gold medal at the Olympic Test Event in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in December.

Honorable mention:
Robinson Castellanos W10 Rocky Juarez
Samuel Gutierrez W8 Juan Leija
Cortez Coleman TKO3 Robert Silva
Cesar Vila TKO3 Craig Callaghan
Adam Lopez KO2 Pablo Cruz

Prospect of the Year:
Regis Prograis 

Prograis (16-0, 13 KOs) is awarded Prospect of the Year on the strength of his back-to-back wins over previously undefeated fighters, both on ShoBox: the Next Generation. In August, Prograis resoundingly outpointed Amos Cowart (11-1-1, 9 KOs) over eight rounds. He ended the year stopping Abel Ramos (14-1-2, 9 KOs) on cuts in nine rounds in front of his hometown crowd at the Bayou City Events Center in December. The plucky southpaw displayed a concrete chin in both fights.

Honorable mention: 
Miguel Flores (featherweight)
Steve Lovett (light heavyweight)
Ryan Karl (welterweight)


Comeback of the Year: 
Cornelius White

White (23-4, 17 KOs) was all but written off after three consecutive losses, two by knockout, and a lengthy layoff due to eye surgery. But he came back strong in October, outpointing legitimate contender Marcus Oliveira (26-2-1, 21 KOs) over 10 rounds proving he is still a force to be reckoned with in the light heavyweight division. 

Honorable mention:
Cedric Agnew
Bahodir Mamadjonov
Pablo Cruz

Dynamic ShoBox Quadrupleheader in Houston

Action packed Dec. 11 card in Houston

An international cast of boxers, eight of whom were undefeated, took the stage on a thrilling ShoBox quadruple header on Dec. 11 at the Bayou City Events Center in Houston. At the end of the night, five boxers had suffered their first losses, all by stoppage.

The card was staged by Savarese Boxing Promotions and DiBella Entertainment.

In the main event local favorite Regis Prograis (16-0, 13 KOs) stopped Abel Ramos (14-1-2, 9 KOs) in the ninth round on cuts in blood-and-guts junior welterweight war.

Prograis, a southpaw, was the more accurate and elusive of the two. Utilizing difficult southpaw stances and firing from various angles, he tattooed Ramos to the head and body with multi-punch flurries. By the third round, a cut had opened above Ramos' left eye. Ramos, 23, hung tough and delivered jolting hooks to the head and rights to the body but Prograis, 26, absorbed them well and continued to dominate the exchanges.

"People think they're going to knock me out, but that ain't happening," Prograis said. "My chin is golden. You ain't going to knock me out with nothing."

By the eighth round, Ramos' cut was visibly impairing his vision as he kept pawing at it with his gloves. He obviously couldn't see the punches coming as Prograis was hitting him with virtual impunity. His corner stopped the fight before the bell sounded to start the ninth round.

In the co-main event, grit and guts prevailed over skill and speed as lightweight Dardan Zenunaj (11-1, 9 KOs) of Belgium stopped Bryant Cruz (16-1, 8 KOs) in an electrifying war of attrition. Cruz plastered Zenunaj with rapid-fire flurries and defended himself well from incoming artillery, but the Belgian stubbornly kept chugging forward.

Zenunaj's dogged determination paid off in the fourth when he wobbled Cruz with a left hook to the temple and immediately pounced with a follow-up salvo punctuated with a left hook to the jaw that sent Cruz to the canvass. Cruz beat the count and continued to rattle off multi-punch combinations for the next two rounds. But the writing was on the wall. While Cruz's punches bounced harmlessly off the Belgian, Zenunaj seemed to hurt Cruz every time he connected.

In the closing seconds of the seventh round, Zenunaj unleashed a right uppercut followed by a sweeping left hook that sent Cruz to the deck for the second time. Cruz wearily made it back to his corner but trainer Ronnie Shields would not allow him to come out for the eighth and final round.

“I wanted it to be a war for all of the people watching and I did it, so I’m feeling really good," Zenunaj said."He is really good, much stronger than I believed he would be. He hung in there, but I did the work and I won."

Murderous punching Russian junior welterweight Ivan Baranchyk (9-0, 8 KOs) scored a blood-curdling first round knockout over Shadi Shawereb (9-1-2, 5 KOs) in a junior welterweight bout. With half a minute left in the round, Baranchyk cornered Shawereb and followed an overhand right with a decapitating left hook that dropped him for the full count and then some. Shawereb remained on the canvass for several minutes.

Middleweight Steve Rolls (13-0, 7 KOs) of Canada scored a come-from-behind fourth round stoppage over Steed Woodall (9-1-1, 6 KOs) of England. Working his left jab overtime, Woodall dominated the first three rounds, scoring a flash knockdown in the second round.

But just as Woodall seemed to be taking full control, Rolls found his timing for one-twos in the fourth for which Woodall had no answers. With Woodall trapped in a corner, Rolls unleashed a double-fisted volley that bounced Woodall's head around like a speed bag. Referee Lawrence Cole stepped in to save Woodall from further punishment at the 2:36 mark.

Local favorite Pablo Cruz (12-1, 4 KOs) dropped previously undefeated Luis Alberto Lopez (6-1, 3 KOs) three times en route to a second-round knockout in a featherweight bout. Cruz caught Lopez coming in with a short left hook that sent him to the canvass in the opening round. In the second round, Cruz fired a straight right followed by a left hook that felled him again. Lopez rose on spaghetti legs and Cruz pounced with a laser of a right hand that put him down for good.

“Coach Aaron (Navarro) kept telling me to throw the right hand and double it,” Cruz said. “I caught him with it and I saw him wobble a little so I put more power to it and boom, that was that.”

Southpaw Aziz Izbakiyez (2-0, 2 KOs) of Kazakhstan, scored three knockdowns over Joshua Clayton (0-1) for a first round TKO in a middleweight bout. Clayton jumped on Izbakiyez when the bell sounded and unloaded with both fists in a corner. But the Kazakh covered himself well and countered with a right-left-right hook that dumped Clayton to the canvass. Izbakiyez scored two more knockdowns courtesy of straight lefts before the referee stepped in.

Featherweight Darryl Hayes (5-5, 1 KO) dropped Jose Ortiz (0-4-1) in the first round en route to a four-round decision victory.

Houston-based Cuban Yunier Fleitas (5-0-1, 1 KOs) dropped Patrick Simes (1-5) in the second round en route to a six-round decision in a middleweight bout.

Roman Gonzalez vs. Brian Viloria

A miniaturized version of the Rumble in the Jungle

Doesn't this showdown resemble a miniaturized Rumble in the Jungle? Starve Foreman and Ali down to half their body weights and chop off their heights by a foot and what you get is Roman Gonzalez versus Brian Viloria - a seemingly indestructible destroyer at the peak of his prowess against an accomplished 34-year-old veteran whom many consider past his prime. Both are multi-division world titleholders and potential Hall of Fame inductees.

Style-wise, Gonzalez is a rare breed of educated slugger while Viloria is a quintessential boxer-puncher. As his record suggests, Gonzalez (43-0, 37 KOs) has been nothing but consistent thus far in his career, having beaten everyone he has faced including several fighters who defeated Viloria. Both an overachiever and underachiever, Viloria (36-4, 22 KOs) has shined against top-shelf fighters but also under-performed down to the level of mediocre to above-average opponents. Like Ali in Kinshasa 41 years ago, Viloria enters the ring a substantial underdog in New York.

Assets and liabilities

Power: Both fighters' formidable punching power stem not from their physical strength per se, but timing and accuracy. Conventional wisdom suggests that a calculating boxer-puncher always has a higher connect rate than a relentless volume puncher, analogous in military lingo, to a sniper always having more kills, bullet for bullet, than a machine gunner. But the exception proves the rule in this case.

Viloria does pack one-punch knockout power, especially with explosive counters, but they have to be perfectly timed and smack on the button to get the job done. He knows how to set his opponents up for a fight-ending punch, but more often than not, he doesn't connect cleanly enough to get the desired result. Gonzalez, on the other hand, throws punches in bunches with remarkable pinpoint precision. Even arm punches, thrown without much torque or leverage, can force opponents to reset and regroup because they connected spot on.

Body punching: Gonzalez is a headhunter; when he punches to the body it's a means to an end, secondary almost, designed to set up subsequent shots to the head rather than inflict damage in and of themselves. When Viloria zeroes in on the torso, he blasts away with the wickedest of intentions.

Chin: Both fighters have proven to have sturdy whiskers but Viloria's have been tested more than Gonzalez's. Viloria has been in more give-and-take wars and in his only stoppage loss against Carlos Tamara, he was more out of gas than hurt. Offense being Gonzalez's best defense, he rarely allows an opponent to plant his feet long enough to deliver a big punch.

Defense: Here again, conventional wisdom is defied. Gonzalez has superb armor and head movement but it is often overlooked because of his hyper-intense offense. Viloria, supposedly the more cerebral of the two, has been caught flush by stick-and-movers and crude brawlers alike.

The Intangibles

The sport of boxing could certainly benefit from the publicity windfall that an against-all-odds, Ali KO8 Foreman type upset would generate, but at age 34, can Viloria repeat at the garden what a 32-year-old Ali pulled off in the jungle? That Viloria has struggled against gatekeeper type opponents suggests he lacks the versatility to adjust and improvise mid-fight like Ali did with the rope-a-dope 41 years ago. 

But despite the overwhelming odds against him, there remain a few remote scenarios in which Viloria might emerge victorious. He does have the capacity to end a fight with a single punch but, as mentioned above, it has to be a perfectly-timed direct hit. Should Viloria connect consistently with rib-rattling body shots, will it take it's toll on Gonzalez in the later rounds?

Viloria is most dangerous when hurt and at the receiving end of relentless double-fisted attacks, which is exactly Gonzalez's modus operandi. And the Hawaiian Punch does have a knack for stopping fighters with high knockout percentages who had never or rarely been stopped.

Read this blogger's prediction for Gonzalez-Viloria at: peterliminator.blogspot.com/2015/10/roman-gonzalez-vs-brian-viloria.html.

Too much ado about 49-0

Marciano's record has been mangled, misinterpreted and misunderstood by many in the media. The reality is, 49-0 represents a heavyweight milestone and nothing else.
By Peter Lim

So much has been made about Floyd Mayweather's recent victory over Andre Berto that raised his ledger to 49-0, equaling the record Rocky Marciano retired with and took to his grave. But really, how relevant was Mayweather's accomplishment?

The number has been a jinx for sure, with several champions and titleholders attempting to reach or surpass that mark, coming tantalizingly close but falling a hair short at the finish line.

Larry Holmes, in the 21st defense of his heavyweight crown, was 48-0 when he was monumentally upset by reigning light heavyweight champ Michael Spinks 1985. Two-division champion Ricardo Lopez was 47-0-1 in 1998 when Rosendo Alvarez fought him to a draw in a unification straw-weight bout. And in 2013 Chris John was 48-0-3 when he was stopped by Simpiwe Vetyeka in the 19th defense of his WBA featherweight title.

But the truth of the matter is, only Holmes' derailment to Spinx has any real bearing to 49-0. Marciano's undefeated record represents a heavyweight milestone and means very little outside that weight division. While 49-0 has been spin-doctored and over-hyped as a pinnacle achievement for the entire sport of boxing, in actuality, it only applies to the big boys. Fighters in lighter divisions have exceeded that magical number, and then some. 

Julio Cesar Chavez eclipsed Marciano's 49-0 record by either 38 or 41 victories, depending on one's criterion; Chavez was 87-0 when he was gifted with a draw against Pernell Whitaker in 1993, and 89-0-1 when he suffered his first lost against Frankie Randall the following year. Willie Pep was 62-0 before losing to Sammy Angott in 1943. And Yori Boy Campas was 56-0 when he lost to Felix Trinidad in 1994.

Granted, Marciano and Mayweather might still share the record as boxers who retired with the most victories without a loss, but should their status be elevated above those who opted not to call it quits after exceeding 49-0? Chavez, Pep and Campas continued to win world titles and fight at the highest levels after their first defeats. Chavez ended his career at 107-6-2, 86 KOs, Pep at 229-11-1, 65 KOs and Campas at 103-17-3, 79 KOs. Holmes, too, remained competitive enough to vie for a world title on four occasions after his first loss to Spinks, ending his career at 69-6, 44 KOs.

Even the aforementioned Lopez and John might have surpassed 49-0, depending one's definition of "undefeated" as opposed to "unblemished." Lopez finished his career undefeated at 51-0-1, and John was undefeated in 51 fights (48-0-3) before suffering his first loss. Technically speaking, Ricardo Lopez is the fighter who retired with the best undefeated record while Marciano and Mayweather share the best unblemished record of retired boxers.

The prestige of 49-0 gets even more diluted when zooming further back to a prehistoric age when, God forbid, if you missed the fight on the radio or black-and-white TV, you had to read about it on actual paper and ink the next morning. Before this modern era of multi-million-dollar signing bonuses and slick multi-media marketing, boxers typically fought for their next meal rather than their next Maserati. Fighters often had to accept fights on less than a week's notice, sometimes against naturally bigger men, while laboring at exhausting day jobs.

Jake LaMotta, for example, made his debut in March of 1941 and ended the year at 18-2, averaging two fights a month. Sam Langford, in his 22-year career, fought everyone at lightweight to heavyweight.

Imagine how many other fighters would have exceeded the 49-0 mark in the old days if exceptional talents the likes of Ray Robinson, Archie Moore, Henry Armstrong, Sandy Saddler, Barney Ross and countless more were scouted early, carefully coddled, selectively matched and afforded the luxury of eight-week training camps like their present-day contemporaries.

Jermall Charlo fights for IBF belt

Jermall Charlo will most likely bring a world title back to Houston after a seven-year drought. Charlo fights for the IBF junior middleweight belt against Cornelius Bundrage at the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut on Saturday.

Read my prediction of the fight at: http://peterliminator.blogspot.com/2015/09/jermall-charlo-vs-cornelius-bundrage.html

Since Juan Diaz lost his three world lightweight world title belts to Nate Campbell in March of 2008, Houston has been devoid of a world titleholder. Houston's boxers sport a 0-5-1 record in title fights since Diaz's dethroning. This is how it went down:

Nov. 8, 2008: Houston's Raul Marquez was stopped in the sixth round by Arthur Abraham in Germany for the IBF middleweight title.
Feb. 9, 2009: Juan Diaz was stopped in the ninth round by Juan Manuel Marquez for the RING Magazine lightweight belt.
Feb. 28, 2009: Rocky Juarez fought to a draw against Chris John at the Toyota Center for the WBA featherweight belt.
Sept. 19, 2009: Juarez was outpointed over 12 rounds by John in a rematch in Las Vegas.
July 31, 2010: Diaz lost to Juan Manuel Marquez again in a rematch by 12-round decision.  
March 29, 2014: Cedric Agnew was stopped in the eighth round by Sergey Kovalev for the WBO light heavyweight belt.

Can Jermall Charlo break the dry spell?

Read The Houston Chronicle article on Charlo-Bundrage at:
http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/fortbend/sports/article/Missouri-City-boxer-relishes-title-shot-6493763.php