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Saturday, April 27, 2019

Sinakin Rises from the Canvas to Win

Light heavyweight Benny "The Jewish Bulldog" Sinakin was knocked down in the second round of his bout at The Met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania last night. His veteran opponent, Patrick Pierre, threw a hard right hand to score the knockdown.

Sinakin survived the adversity and won the next two rounds.  He had taken the opening three minutes as well. Two judges even gave him an extra point despite not scoring a knockdown. Those two scored the fight 38-36 in Benny's favor and the third had it 38-37 for the Bulldog.

With this unanimous decision victory, Sinakin, who was outweighed by nearly three pounds, improves his record to 4-0 with two KOs. Pierre falls to 3-7 with one KO. he had won his last fight, but now has lost five out of his last six.

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Seldin to Face Zab Judah in June

Cletus Seldin is scheduled to face Zab Judah in an intriguing welterweight matchup at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, New York on June 7. This crossroads fight is an excellent litmus test for the Hebrew Hammer.

Seldin (23-1, 19 KOs) struggled against a boxer-mover in Yves Ulysse in his only career loss on December 16, 2017. Judah (44-9, 30 KOs) is a boxer-mover and a southpaw, which theoretically will pose problems for Cletus. But Judah, a 22-year veteran, is 41 years old. The question remains whether Judah can move well enough to cause Seldin issues.

Nicknamed "Super," Judah has fought a who's who in the 140 and 147 pound divisions over the past twenty years. He's faced the likes of Floyd Mayweather, Miguel Cotto, Kostya Tyszu, Amir Khan, and Danny Garcia just to name a few. But Judah has come up short in his biggest fights. Blessed with tremendous talent, Judah never lived up to his potential despite winning some world title straps.

Seldin has been far busier than Judah in recent years. Judah has stepped in between the ropes only twice since a decision loss to Paulie Malignaggi on December 7, 2013. Seldin's fought twice since Judah's last bout in January of 2018. But Seldin's two fights amounted to only a little over a minute in the ring. "The Hamma" tends to bum rush his opponents while firing overhand rights, and as a result, he's scored two first round knockouts since his lone loss to Ulysse.

Seldin is fairly unique for a puncher. Most punchers wait around and load up until they see an opening for their money punch. Seldin is aggressive and busy, intending to force an opening. His best chance in this fight is to get to the inside and maul the veteran in order to neutralize Zab's five inch reach advantage. Seldin can be rough on the inside, and when he was much younger, Judah was known to lose his cool easily, so it behooves Cletus to try to frustrate the lefty. Judah may no longer have the reflexes to keep the younger, stronger man off of him, allowing Seldin an opportunity to dictate the contest.

Judah will look to take a page from Ulysse and be a slick boxer. If he sticks and moves, Seldin may not be able to catch him. But it remains to be seen if the man with the nine year age disadvantage can keep it up for the scheduled ten rounds.

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Benny Sinakin to Face Pierre on April 26

Benjamin "The Jewish Bulldog" Sinakin is scheduled to fight Patrick Pierre at The Met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 26. The light heavyweight contest is slated for four rounds.

Sinakin (3-0, 2 KOs) is coming off of a first round stoppage over the winless Ronald Lawrence at The Met in February. Pierre (3-6, one KO), a native of Brooklyn, is a 36 year old of Haitian heritage. Pierre moved to New Orleans in 2014 for his boxing career according to Peter Finney Jr.

Nicknamed "Concrete," Pierre debuted as a professional in 2017 and has been busy in the ring since. He's had five fights since last summer. Against Manjaro Hills on August 11, Pierre jabbed well and went to the body, but he kept his guard too low, which allowed Hills to land potshots and one-twos over the top. That's good news for Sinakin, who landed an overhand right and a left hook over the top to score the knockout in his last fight. But Pierre was game against Hills. He never showed signs of being hurt. During the sixth and final round, Hills attempted to get in Patrick's head when he asked, "You tired?" Pierre responded, "No," and took the round; the only one he won.

Most of Pierre's fight have been in Louisiana which- with all due respect to Regis Prograis- is not known as a boxing hotbed. Pierre started his career 2-2, but then dropped his next four fights in a row. He was stopped in two of them. He defeated Rashad Jones, a fighter with a losing record, by fourth round TKO in his last fight in January to stop his losing streak. Pierre has fought as low as super middleweight and as heavy as 183 pounds.

Though Pierre has a one-inch height advantage, Sinakin has a fifteen year age advantage. All of Sinakin's bouts have been in the respected fight town of Philadelphia. This will be Benny's second match at The Met.