In this week’s mailbag, we tackle a few of the big bouts on the seven-fight extravaganza scheduled for February 22 in Riyadh, including the rematch between undisputed light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol; the fight between junior middleweight contenders Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Israil Madrimov, made all the more surprising given that Madrimov will also be facing Serhii Bohachuk just two months before then; and the clash between heavyweight contenders Zhilei Zhang and Agit Kabayel.
We also remember Israel Vazquez, who died of cancer earlier this week at the age of 46.
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GREAT CARD ON FEBRUARY 22, BUT BETERBIEV-BIVOL 2 IS UNNECESSARY
Tremendous card, although the headline fight between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol wasn’t screaming out for a rematch, as Beterbiev dominated after the first couple rounds and won 118-110. That’s unlike the rematch between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury. Their first fight was littered with controversy, a knockdown that wasn’t, a war in Ukraine, and a John Fury headbutt.
-Nash out
Owen Lewis’ response: Some hot takes here! I’m not sure any media observer had the Beterbiev-Bivol fight wider than 116-112 for Beterbiev, and even the official scorecard that had Beterbiev up eight rounds to four was derided by most.
I won’t go through this fight round-by-round, but I definitely disagree that Beterbiev dominated. To my eyes, he clearly dominated one round: the 11th, when he battered a shelled-up Bivol from corner to corner and looked to be breaking him down. While Beterbiev certainly won other rounds too, Bivol had meaningful success in a lot of them. I’d point you to Bivol’s success in the ninth, when he scored repeatedly with clean shots and was neutralizing Beterbiev’s aggression. Beterbiev might have done better work in the championship rounds, but to say he dominated the fight just doesn’t represent the 12 rounds most observers saw.
As for the rematch? One judge had the fight even and a whole bunch of writers and other boxing media scored it for Bivol, but if that doesn’t sway you, Bivol also became the first man ever to last the distance in a professional bout with Beterbiev. I want to see the fight again, and I’m far from alone.
The Fury-Usyk comparison is interesting – I actually think this fight was far less controversial than you make it out to be. Though you could score it for Fury, and many of the Usyk-friendly scorecards were close, I don’t think many people had the Gypsy King ahead after the final bell. Even if you didn’t buy the knockdown, Usyk hurt Fury badly enough in that ninth round, and hurt him so many times, to merit a 10-8 round. This fight was just as close as Beterbiev-Bivol on the cards but had none of the anger over the result.
HOW CAN MADRIMOV FACE BOHACHUK IN DECEMBER AND ORTIZ IN FEBRUARY?
Fantastic card on February 22, but I don’t like that Israil Madrimov is involved vs. Vergil Ortiz. Two months is not enough time for Madrimov to recover after a war, win or lose, with Serhii Bohachuk on December 21. Why not have Bakhram Murtazaliev face Ortiz instead?
-drabjlk
response: The Riyadh Season cards thus far have been a spectacle – and I don’t mean that in the subtle, wink-wink way. These are straight-up video game matchups come to life. Or, dare I say, the kind of fights boxing fans should have been treated to on the regular.
Saudi Arabia’s foray into boxing is still in its honeymoon phase. It’s like someone just got their first Madden playbook, and they're running wild with every trick play available. Exhibit A: Israil Madrimov’s absolutely bonkers schedule.
The former junior middleweight titleholder Madrimov is set to face Bohachuk on December 21. Quick sidebar: Bohachuk is a walking sledgehammer, with 23 of his 24 wins ending by knockout. That’s a grueling fight. Then, win or lose, Madrimov is supposed to turn around and fight another fearsome puncher in Vergil Ortiz Jnr on February 22 – again in Riyadh.
If this sounds insane, that’s because it is.
For context, Xander Zayas has been calling out Ortiz, and logic would suggest that’s the fight fans will end up with. For now, we get Madrimov possibly going through two of the sport’s most bruising warriors, back-to-back, with less recovery time than a post-holiday hangover. This feels less like careful matchmaking and more like, “Screw it, let’s see what happens.”
If Madrimov pulls this off – Bohachuk, Ortiz, plus a Terence Crawford fight in his previous bout in August – he’d cement himself as boxing’s ultimate tough guy, even if he doesn’t win a single fight). Let’s be real here: Bohachuk alone is enough to leave most fighters licking their wounds for at least a month. Expecting Madrimov to bounce back in time for Ortiz? That’s not matchmaking. That’s wishful thinking.
AGIT KABAYEL WILL BEAT ZHILEI ZHANG, AND IT WON’T BE FUN TO WATCH
This is an interesting matchup, but I have a feeling it’s going to play out as boring and frustrating to watch, with a wide unanimous decision win for Kabayel. Kabayel is smart like Joseph Parker, and he's got the energy to outlast an old Zhang unless he gets lazy and gets caught clean.
-TheOneAboveAll
response: Well, of the seven excellent fights on this card, surely not every single one will be a banger. Zhilei Zhang obviously has power but can punch himself to a standstill if he’s made to work hard early, and that could be the case here.
However, he also clearly has the firepower to make Kabayel respectful and the dimensions to pose plenty of problems, so you’re right. As he fences for openings and tries not to blow a gasket, it could be slow.
But they have the power to hurt one another, and if they do that early it could be wild, fun and comparatively brief. Let’s see. Regardless, on paper, it’s a nice matchup.
REST IN PEACE, ISRAEL VAZQUEZ
RIP Israel Vazquez. His trilogy against Rafael Marquez was brutal and highly underrated in comparison to the likes of the trilogy between Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales. Thanks for the memories, champ.
-ELPacman
response: Israel Vazquez was a warrior in the ring and a warrior outside of it. His death, just weeks shy of his 47th birthday, took him away far too soon. He left us with so many fond memories. And so many who met him in person spoke warmly of what Vazquez was like when the gloves were off.
And when those gloves were on? My goodness.
Vazquez had two trilogies, one with Oscar Larios and the other with Rafael Marquez. He took out Larios in the first round of their first fight in 1997; lost in the last round of their rematch in 2002, a fight in which Larios was a late replacement; and put away Larios in the third round of their 2005 rubber match.
Just nine months later, Vazquez won a war with Jhonny Gonzalez, scoring the 10th round technical knockout while behind on the scorecards in September 2006. And then Vazquez jumped immediately into the trilogy with Marquez.
It’s unfair to hold every fighter up to what guys like Vazquez did. What guys like Vazquez did was so remarkable. Less than six months after beating Gonzalez, Vazquez met Marquez in March 2007 in a fight that we all knew would deliver highly skilled violence — and deliver it did.
Speaking of unfair standards: When boxing fans criticize a fighter for quitting instead of going out on their shield, I always offer Vazquez’s first fight Marquez as an example of a time when calling it a night was the wise choice. It doesn’t make Vazquez any less of a warrior in our eyes. Vazquez knew that facing Marquez was difficult enough while healthy, but downright dangerous with a broken nose and trouble breathing and five rounds still to go.
Remaining in his corner after the seventh round was a tactical retreat, giving up a battle in hope of winning the war. Vazquez came back five months later and stopped Marquez in six. And then their rubber match came seven months later, providing what we thought was a fitting finale to their trilogy. Vazquez scored a knockdown in the final seconds of the final round when the ropes held Marquez up. That one-point swing proved to be the difference between a victory and a draw. Vazquez won via split decision.
Marquez-Vazquez I and Vazquez-Marquez III won the Fight of the Year for 2007 and 2008 from The Ring. Their third fight also got the nod in 2008 from the Boxing Writers Association of America. Those three sensational battles all took place between March 3, 2007, and March 1, 2008, in the span of less than a year.
Vazquez only had two more bouts after. He spent 19 months recovering from the trilogy, returned with a win over Angel Priolo in October 2009, though Vazquez looked either rusty or battleworn or both. Then came the fourth and final fight with Marquez in May 2010, and it was clear that all of the punishment had taken its toll. Vazquez was stopped in the third round. Mercifully, he was wise enough never to mount a comeback.
Along the way, Vazquez held a pair of world titles at junior featherweight, including the IBF belt from 2004-2005, and a couple of reigns with the WBC belt and Ring magazine championship from 2005-2007 and then from 2007-2009.
I hope Vazquez will wind up in the International Boxing Hall of Fame. I voted for him, and the latest class of inductees will be announced today (December 5, 2024). I’m sad that Vazquez won’t be there in Canastota, or just here in general, to continue to feel the love and admiration and respect he truly earned.
More important than that, Vazquez deserved more time than he wound up receiving to enjoy the fruits of his labors. His family deserved to have more time with him.
If you have time in the coming days, find yourself some time to watch an Israel Vazquez fight. And to hug a loved one.
CONTRASTING ISRAEL VAZQUEZ AND JAKE PAUL
What does it mean when an idiot like Jake Paul makes billions via repeated farces, while a genuine warrior like Israel Vazquez leaves us at just 46 after a life of wars in the ring and private suffering?
-Tatabanya
Owen Lewis’ response: I’m not sure these two occurrences can be tied together by a single statement. Jake Paul’s boxing profitability is due to his social media-era popularity and some expert marketing; Vazquez died from a sarcoma, the cause of which is unknown.
What I think you’re getting at is that boxing is not a meritocracy and is not fair. The best, most crowd-pleasing fighters do not always “win.” Those seeking only to profit from the sport, like Paul, do not always “lose.”
We like to look at boxing as the ultimate justice system. Someone like Paul, who hardcore boxing fans look at with derision, is supposed to get knocked out – as if by a higher power – because of how he has disrespected the sport. And those who do boxing justice, like Vazquez, need to be rewarded with a long and healthy life.
Unfortunately, boxing as justice is a mirage. Money and star power talk. Taking part in wars might thrill the fans, but the consequences are real and severe.
The best way to approach boxing is to not hope for it to be more than it is. It allows for the coalescence of so many ugly bits of humanity. It’s wildly dangerous. It invites people and organizations to cut corners to make an extra buck. And the fights can be incredible spectacles that show the very highest point of human bravery, but after the final bell, the fighter is a little bit less than they were before.
As long as fans of the sport recognize that, they’ll have an easier time making peace with the myriad injustices that happen in boxing every year. But if we’re pinning our hopes on boxing properly rewarding its best ambassadors and punishing its worst, we’ll always be very disappointed.
Want to be featured in the mailbag? Comment or ask a question in the comments section below. Submissions may be edited for length and clarity. We also may select readers’ comments from other BoxingScene stories.