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Sunday, October 31, 2010

Finer Retains Her Title

Hagar Shmoulefeld Finer retained her WIBF bantamweight title last night at Casino Rama in Rama, Canada. Finer defeated Julia Sahin by ten-round unanimous decision. Finer garnered the win thanks to scores of 98-92, 97-92, and 96-94 over the German native. Both women weighed in at 112 pounds for the fight.

Finer avenged a 2006 majority decision loss to Sahin with this win. Finer, who made her third defense, improves to 22-7-3 with six KOs. Sahin fell to 20-2 with two knockouts. Undefeated cruiserweight Ran Nakash was in attendance supporting Finer.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Foreman-Chavez?

A possible return opponent for Yuri Foreman, who has been recuperating from a torn ACL and meniscus, is Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Chavez (41-0-1, 30 KOs) is scheduled to fight Alfonso Gomez on December 4.

According to Lem Satterfield, Top Rank head Bob Arum lays out a rather convoluted series of events that leads to Foreman (28-1, 8 KOs) fighting Chavez. If Chavez beats Gomez and Antonio Margarito either beats Manny Pacquiao or looks good in a loss, Miguel Cotto could get a rematch with Margarito.

Arum is currently targeting Cotto-Chavez for early next year. But if Cotto gets the rematch with Margarito, Arum has considered Yuri Foreman as a replacement to fight Chavez. Foreman likely won't fight until 2011 while he recovers from those injuries sustained against Cotto this past June.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Salita to Fight Anchondo

Dmitriy Salita (31-1-1, 16 KOs) will take on Mike Anchondo (30-3, 19 KOs) for the vacant IBA welterweight world championship on December 16, 2010 at the Roseland Ballroom in New York. The IBA title is considered a minor belt.

Salita is coming off of a unanimous decision victory over Franklin Gonzalez in September. This fight marks Salita's second straight campaign at welterweight after fighting mostly at junior welter throughout his career. To prepare for this fight, Salita has worked with the renowned trainer Emanuel Steward for a few weeks, though Nirmal Lorick will be his principal trainer.

Salita is the naturally bigger man and holds a significant height and reach advantage over Achondo. Both men are the same age, 28 years old. Anchondo is a former world champion, defeating Julio Pablo Chacon for the vacant WBO super featherweight title in 2004. He lost the title on the scales before his first defense, a loss to Jorge Barrios.

Anchondo looked unimpressive in his last fight, a 4th round TKO loss televised on ShoBox against Freddy Hernandez last month. Hernandez, coincidentally, was the last man to hold the IBA welterweight title back in 2008. Anchondo appeared out of shape and was never really in the fight with the talented Hernandez.

A win over Anchondo would be the best of Sailta’s career to this point. The bout is scheduled for 12 rounds.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Foreman's Manager Dies

Murray Wilson died last Wednesday of a heart attack. Wilson was the manager of former WBA light middleweight champion Yuri Foreman. He also owned a popular New York restaurant called Campagnola.

Foreman told Dan Rafael of ESPN, "He was like a dad to me. I had total trust in him."

Wilson was 72 years old. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Foreman Recovering

Yuri Foreman's knee continues to heal after he tore his ACL and his meniscus in his last fight back in June. Foreman, the former WBA light middleweight champion, has already started running as part of his recovery.

Foreman (28-1, 8 KOs) isn't exactly sure of the date of his return. His return was originally scheduled for February, but he said more will be known in a month. In the meantime, Foreman is enjoying being a father for the first time. His wife gave birth this past August.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

A Look Back: Abe Attell

In an effort to link the past with the present, The Jewish Boxing Blog will present monthly a short biography of notable former Jewish boxers.

The legendary boxing promoter Tex Rickard once claimed that Abe Attell was the greatest boxer that he had ever seen. Allen Bodner asserts that Attell is the second best Jewish boxer in history, behind only the Great Benny Leonard. Bert Sugar ranks him in the top fifty fighters of all time. The Hall of Famer, nicknamed "The Little Hebrew" and "the Little Champ," held the featherweight title from 1901 until 1912.

Born on February 22, 1884, Abraham Washington Attell was the 16th of 19 children had by Russian immigrants. Attell was raised in an Irish neighborhood in San Francisco. He turned pro in 1901 after a brief but thunderous amateur career. The 5'4" youngster first engaged in a 10-round draw with the splendid former champion George Dixon in 1901, then a 20-round tie a couple of months after, and finally beat Dixon eight days later on points in a 15-round contest. When Young Corbett beat Terry McGovern and then failed to make weight, Attell laid claim to the featherweight championship at the age of 17.

It was in the final Dixon contest that Attell transformed from a knockout puncher into a cunning boxer. In complete control of everything in the ring, Attell often threw non-title fights in order to make the rematch more lucrative. An obsessive gambler, Attell would bet heavily on himself in the rematch. After winning, he was wont to throw his money away at the track. Attell KOed Harry Forbes in the 5th round in 1904 to leave no doubt as to the name of the featherweight champion. He had bet his entire purse that he would stop Forbes in that round.

Later that year, Tommy Sullivan knocked out Attell, but was deemed to be over the 122 pound featherweight limit, so Attell retained the title. At the start of 1908, Attell defended his title, no rare occurrence, this time against Owen Moran of England. Throughout the fight, Moran kept referring to the champ as a "dirty Jew." Attell was enraged and bit off a piece of Moran's nose. Moran begged referee Jim Jeffries for a disqualification. Jeffries refused and advised Moran to, "Bite him back."

Attell boxed circles around the featherweight division and, as a result, often took on heavier opponents. Battling Nelson and Jim Driscoll were the two best lightweights the featherweight champion faced and he fared well against both. After 11 years at the top, Attell lost a 20-round decision to Johnny Kilbane in 1912.

In addition to gambling, Attell also enjoyed retiring from boxing, something he did with a greater frequency than Sugar Ray Leonard. Attell finally retired for good in 1917. His record was an estimated 72-11-18 with 39 KOs, not including a 37-6-5 record with regards to newspaper decisions (a combined 109-17-23 record for the mathematically-challenged). Attell was alleged to have been an accomplice in Arnold Rothstein's attempt to fix the 1919 World Series, what became known as the Black Sox Scandal. Both managed to elude justice, but it involved a year exiled in Canada for Attell. Attell had two brothers and two nephews who were also boxers and remained a lifelong fan of the sport. He died on February 6, 1970 in New York.

Bibliography
Blady, Ken. The Jewish Boxers Hall of Fame. 1988.
Bodner, Allen. When Boxing Was A Jewish Sport. 1997.
Riess, Stephen A. Sports and the American Jew. 1998.
Somrack, Daniel F. Boxing in San Francisco. 2005.
Sugar, Bert Randolph. Boxing's Greatest Fighters. 2006.