Collard, Raddon, Garcia score fighting wins, update on future cards, fights

 

Last weekend brought some success to local fighters. In a nationally televised MMA bout on ESPN2, Utah native Clay Collard stalked and wore down Bellator veteran Patricky Pitbull at PFL 2 card in Las Vegas on April 12. The 155-pounders competed in the first round of a yearlong tournament. Pitbull knocked down Collard in the first round but by the end of the round Collard was in control of the bout, frequently cutting off his opponent. The bout ended roughly 90 seconds into round two, with Collard pummelling a near-defenseless Pitbull. Collard recently attended an MMA card in Ogden.

In Atlantic City on the same day, in a bout of 155-pound MMA pros, former local fighter, Kaecy Raddon, who now fights out of Denver, scored a submission early in the third round over Armando Gjetga. A rear naked choke ended the bout. The card was streamed on UFC Fight Pass.

In boxing (also on Friday), standout Payson boxer Aaron Maximus Garcia, who was consistently a top-ranked national amateur, made a successful pro debut in Ensenada, Mexico, stopping Moises Cortez in round 2. 

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Upcoming fight cards in Northern Utah include Fierce Fighting Championship on April 24 at UCC  Center in Orem. Fights start at 5 pm. Headlining in separate bouts are established pros Mike Jones and Jarome Hatch. More information on card, tickets, address, is here.

On April 27 SteelFist Fight Night will have a card at The Union Event Center in Salt Lake City. It's a 7 pm start. Main bout matches 170 pounders Justin McDonald versus Rusty Pearson. More information, including tickets, address, card, is here.

On May 25, 801 Productions is having a pro/amateur boxing card at The Great Salt Air in Magna. It starts at 7 p.m. I learned recently that Ogden featherweight pro boxer Isaiah Rodriguez is scheduled to fight on the card.

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More jabs and hooks: Utah pro 135-pounder MMA Thomas Prestriedge, on a three-bout winning streak, travels to Phoenix, Ariz., this Saturday to fight undefeated Amari Sensavanh. More info on the card is here. ... Jesus Haro, a California/Nevada-based pro boxer who is related to former world-ranked featherweight Jose Haro, travels to Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico to fight Wilfredo Mendez Saturday night for the 105-pound World Boxing Association Gold Title. ... And former Utahn, veteran super middleweight boxer Christian Aguirre, lost a six-round decision to undefeated Justin Figuerora in San Antonio on March 30.

Ruiz, Owens, Silva among winners at Fierce Fighting MMA card

 

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Julian Ruiz, Ha'va Owens and Hannah Silva were among winners at the Fierce Fighting Challenger Series MMA card in Ogden on Matrch 23.

Before a large crowd that filled the Bonneville High School gymnasium, Ruiz, a 4-0 pro featherweight, wore down Desmond Manabat, 3-5, earning a TKO win by strikes in the first round.

The co-main pro bout matched two young veteran welterweights, Ogden's Ha'va Owens and Stephen Stirewalt. Owens, 4-4, (see bout photo below) dominated all three rounds, punishing a game Stirewalt, 4-6, the entire bout. Scores were 30-27 and two calls of 30-26.

The rest of the bouts matched amateurs. In the top amateur bout, Brendon Meyers, 4-2, caught Jordan Munoz, 3-8, with a triangle choke, bringing an early end to the flyweight bout.

In the co-main amateur, St. George's Hannah Silva, 5-3 (see photo above of Silva's cage walk in) used a strong ground game to wear down Hailey Hoard, 3-6. The bout was stopped in round 2.

In perhaps the most competitive bout of the night, between lightweights, Sidney Blackwood, 3-1, took a narrow 28-27 unanimous decision over Brenden Ferreira, 2-3. Blackwood controlled rounds one and three on the ground. Ferreira took round two, fought mostly boxing style. (see bout photo below article)

In a welterweight bout, one punch abruptly ended a competive match, with RJ Wilgar, 3-1, KOing Nick Jackson, 1-2, in round one. Welterweight Spencer Hansen, 1-1, submitted Arjhan Jahromi, 0-2, in round one. In a lightweight bout, Austin Munoz, 2-0, stopped Isaac Allen, 1-1, in round 2.

Also, a competitive bout between welterweights Austin Cardon, 1-0, and Skyler Burnasconi, 1-1, ended dramatically in round 2 when a right hand from Cardon dropped Burnasconi, who remained on the cage floor for several minutes. In a bout between debuting welterweights, Nico Suescon submitted Michael Trunzo in round one.

In two amateur kickboxing bouts, welterweight Brandon Ramirez stopped Tyler Harris in round two. Both were debuting. And in a women's catchweight 120-pound bout, Makia August, 1-1, used ring generalship to score a unanimous decision over debuting Mallori Melling.

The card was well promoted, with fights starting soon after the 5 pm announced time. The night was finished by 9 p.m. Fighters names and records were provided by promotional program.

-- Doug Gibson, at the fights.

Johansson boxing biography hearkens back to a different culture

 

Review by Doug Gibson

It’s probably a safe bet that if you’re not a pretty strong boxing fan, the name Ingemar Johansson will escape you. He’s mostly forgotten today, but nearly 60 years ago he was more than a sports star. He was a cultural icon. A husky, 200-pound Swede who swooped into staid America for a couple of years with an estranged wife in Sweden and a girlfriend, Birgit Lundgren, on his arm … and in his bedroom suite.

And, of course, he had a strong right cross punch, one he used to KO Floyd Patterson in the third round and briefly hold the world heavyweight boxing championship. Ingemar was extremely likeable, and America warmed to him. He was on TV often, on “What’s My Line,” Jackie Gleason’s show, and more; he even had substantial roles in a couple of motion pictures. 

As author Ken Brooks reminds readers in “Ingemar Johansson: Swedish Heavyweight Boxing Champion” (McFarland), 1959, the year Ingemar KOd Patterson, was an era where a heavyweight boxing championship fight was the biggest event in sports. It was global, bigger than an NFL championship. There was an electricity of excitement that moved through crowds, radio broadcasts, closed-circuit telecasts, newsrooms and wire services. As Brooks notes, for older sports fans, the night Ingemar won his title was the first time Howard Cosell was a broadcaster for a fight. Forget Ingemar for a moment; who remembers Cosell?

Continue reading this review at the Standard-Examiner StandardNET website. 

Olguin, Douglas, Jesus Haro score boxing wins; Siler versus King MMA headliner

 

Some boxing news: On Jan. 30 of this year in Tooele, Utah, northern Utah professional boxers Helaman Olguin, heavyweight, Brandon Douglas, featherweight, and Eric Wahlen, heavyweight, all scored KO wins. Olguin, of West Jordan, 9-3, ended the bout in round one against Carlos Reyes, 7-13-2. Olguin has won his last 8 bouts. Douglas, 10-1, stopped Rondarius Hunter, 4-8-2, in round one. And Wahlen, 6-0, defeated Joshua Brown, 1-3, in round two. (The photo above shows Douglas, at right, measuring his opponent. It is a photo posted on Facebook.)

Winners in other pro bouts were Danielle Bennett, Deborah Willies, Juan Higuera and Cody Woslager. To see all the fighters' names and amateur muy thay fighting results, go here.

On Oct. 31, in Tijuana, Mexico, Jesus Haro, a light flyweight professional boxing prospect who fights out of Merced, Calif., but has family ties in Northern Utah, won a four-round unanimous decision over Fernando Molina. Jesse Haro, now 4-1, fights in Mexico City on March 5. 

On Nov. 20, in Shelbville, Ky, at the Shelby County Fairgrounds, Idaho boxer/MMA fighter Clay Collard meets undefeated Maidel Sando in a middleweight main bout. Collard won five of six boxing matches in 2020. Livesportscaster.com is supposed to stream the card. ... After this fight he competes in the 2021 PFL MMA tournament beginning April 23. Collard will fight in the lightweight division. ESPN has broadcast rights.

In Utah MMA Mountain Force MMA, Fierce Fighting Championship and SteelFist have cards planned in February and March. The Feb. 27 FFC card at The Maverik Center in West Valley headlines pro featherweights Steven Siler and Bobby King in the main. More on that card, which features many local fighters, is here. Info on the MF MMA card Feb. 13 is here. 

Willard Bean, Mormonism's 'Fighting Preacher,' attracted the attention of the curious press

 

Above is an 1899 news clipping from The Boston Globe. I apologize the text is mostly unreadable. It's a feature, however, on a "preacher," Mormon no less, named Willard Bean. He was a very good prizefighter out of Utah 100 years plus a generation ago. I first blogged about Bean several years ago. Here's a  link. And below is Cal Grondahl's fantastic cartoon that accompanied the blog post.

Bean has an "official" 8-5-3 record with one no decision and one no contest on BoxRec between 1897 and 1902 but he likely had more wins unrecorded. He would be tagged a near world-class boxer, in my opinion. The reason I say that is his no decision fight of 10 tough rounds with Joe Choynski in 1899. Choynski is one of the greatest early pugilists; a Hall of Fame boxer. A small clip from a Quincy, Ill. newspaper is below that mentions the bout.

Bean also fought, and went the distance -- 20 rounds -- with the world-class heavyweight title challenger Fireman Jim Flynn, who fought Jack Johnson for the world heavyweight championship. Flynn also knocked out future heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey in one round a few years before Dempsey won the title. Dempsey avenged the loss about a year later with a first-round KO of Flynn. Below is a recap of the decision win by Flynn. 

Below are some long ago clips of recaps of a couple of bouts Bean won by knockout.

Most people know of Bean today due to his enthusiastic missionary skills and temple work later in life. A popular film on Bean and his wife's missionary efforts, "The Fighting Preacher,"' was released a couple of years ago. I reviewed it here. It's available on various streaming services, including Amazon Prime. The next clip exemplifies his missionary spirit. It is from The Salt Lake Tribune in 1899. 

One more picture of the Fighting Preacher, Willard Bean. I do not know the source.

Some quick local MMA notes: Mountain Force MMA had an all amateur card Friday, Jan. 8 in Logan. In the main event, a great fight, Alan Rea stopped Aaron Boothe in Round 3. Fighting Out of Utah MMA has results on its Facebook page. Also, Utah professional welterweight Weston Wilson traveled to Knoxville, Tenn, on Saturday, Jan. 9 and knocked out Christian Sanchez in the first round.

Utah's Lamar Clark went from 44 straight knockouts to being KO'd by Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali)

Ever heard of heavyweight boxer Lamar Clark, of Utah? Probably not, but 60 plus years ago Clark, born in Cedar City, Utah, was briefly a hot commodity in the sport. The heavyweight, who fought mostly in Northern Utah, including Ogden, scored 44 consecutive knockouts, including six in one night! Not all the KOs were sanctioned, although most likely shouldn't have been as Clark, after scoring a decision win in his first bout, fought a long array of novice fighters whom he destroyed. His official record was 43-3 with 42 KOs. He was managed by Marv Jenson, who helmed world middleweight champ, Gene Fullmer, and his brother, contender Don Fullmer. I often wonder why Jenson allowed Clark to fatten his record with nop-hopers, but perhaps Jenson knew Clark was overhyped and wanted to give him a big payday. The great Jack Dempsey is in the above photo with Clark.

Unfortunately, the Clark hype ended at 42-0 at Weber High School, in Ogden, on April 8, 1960. In a nationally televised bout, designed to introduce Clark to the nation, the undefeated was stopped in the ninth round by New York City's Bartoli Soni, 12-2-1, a prospect who had just lost in Madison Square Garden. Clark started well but ran out of gas late. 

A couple of months later Clark, seeking to rebound, invited former Olympics heavyweight champion Pete Rademacher, who had unwisely challenged current heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson in his pro debut. The battering Rademacher received affected his entire career, and he faced the 42-1 Clark with a shaky 6-3-1 record. It was a rare easy bout for Rademacher as he battered the way overrated Utah slugger around the ring, flooring him early toying with Clark through the bout before stopping him late in the final round 10. (Photo and article on the fight is below)

At this point, most boxing observers gave up on Clark. To his credit, though, Lamar attempted a comeback, scoring a KO win in Las Vegas in March 1961. In April 1961, Clark traveled to Louisville, Ky., to face Olympics champion turned young pro Cassius Clay, who would later of course change his name to Muhammad Ali, perhaps the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. 

It was a dreadful mismatch, Clay, 5-0, stopped Clark 97 seconds into the second round. YouTube claims to have a partial recording of the bout, but I'm skeptical it is Clay versus Clark. The broadcast claims there is a fourth round. However, that could be a video typo. In the fight, "Clark" seems game but is hopelessly overmatch. In the comments, a Dave C says he knew Clark in the late 80s and describes the retired boxer as "a cheerful, kind man who spoke highly of Ali."

Clark retired after the Ali bout. There was talk of him moving to light heavyweight to compete but that never occurred. He died at at age 72 in 2006 in South Jordan, UT. 

Enjoy this montage of newspaper clippings, courtesy of NewspaperArchives.com, of Clark's career. Three, of course, are placed above. The Utah Fight Game blog hopes to do a series of prominent Utah boxers periodically over the next year. 

 

Collard's 2020 boxing run ends with decision loss to LaVallais in a rematch

 

Clay Collard's remarkable boxing year 2020 ended on a slightly down note on Saturday in Las Vegas, in The Bubble, as he lost an 8-round decision to taller New Orleans boxer Quincy LaVaillas, It was a rematch of a 2019 draw between Collard (9-3-3) and LaVallais (10-0-1).

It was a close middleweight fight. Two judges scored it an acceptable 77-75. Another erred in a too-wide 78-74 margin. This blog scored the bout a draw, giving the more aggressive Collard (seen above on the left) rounds 1, 2, 5 and 7. However, there's no doubt that the judges were impressed with repeat right hands that LaVallais landed on Collard's head/ They didn't seem to hurt the Burley, Idaho, boxer, but he rarely could get out of their way.

In the latter half of the fight, LaVallais also had success slipping punches when the more aggressive Collard pinned him in a corner. Collard was often effective, however, when he followed a retreating LaVallais, landing hooks to the head and body. In the final round Collard started strongly but LaVallais excelled in the final moment.

It's been a remarkable two years for Collard, who merits great respect for barnstorming around the nation, taking on local favorites in their home locations and usually pulling out a win or a draw. Things improved even more this year when Top Rank took notice of his talents and fan appeal. He was 5-0 in this Covid-19 year until Saturday's loss.

Collard, who until recently fought out of Utah, is well known as an MMA pro with UFC experience. He will be taking a year off to compete in the Professional Fighter League MMA tournament for 2021 that promises weight class winners a $1 million prize. We wish him the best and thank him for providing us a lot of cheers in the boxing ring.