Opening Bell: Busy is best
All too often a boxer will win — or lose — a big fight and then, poof, they disappear for who knows how long. It is far too common to see a guy out of action for eight months, a year, even longer.
Top fighters, even ones who are “active” might fight only twice a year. Three times would be considered very busy in this era, unfortunately.
When a fighter goes inactive, sometimes it’s the fighter who decides to take a break to enjoy the fruits of his labor, or perhaps to give his body a rest and to recover from nagging injuries. Other times the fighter is put on the shelf by his handlers for any number of reasons, whether it’s a lack of cards or a lack of money to support the cards they do have.
However, if there are no major injuries, there’s nothing better for a fighter than activity. They stay sharp, they stay in the spotlight and they make money.
Jose “Sniper” Pedraza (25-1, 12 KOs) is a perfect example of what activity can do for a fighter. His recent activity is the reason he now owns a lightweight world title and is in position for a huge fight and a career-high payday.
When Puerto Rico’s Pedraza, 29, won a junior lightweight world title in June 2015 it should have been the beginning of an active period of his career in which he defended his belt with regularity, built his name and collected paychecks.
Fighting under the Premier Boxing Champions banner, Pedraza fought only once more in 2015, once in 2016 and only once in 2017. That kind of schedule makes it hard to stay sharp and remain in the minds of boxing fans.
Pedraza made only two title defenses and then lost his belt to Gervonta Davis. To say it was a disappointing turn of events would be an understatement.
But when Pedraza became a free agent, he signed with Top Rank in February and has fought as many times in the six months since — three — as he fought in the previous 15 months. And Pedraza is not done yet because he will fight once more this year, likely Dec. 1, in the biggest fight of his life — a world title unification fight with pound-for-pound king Vasiliy Lomachenko (11-1, 9 KOs) for a high six-figure purse that will be by far the biggest of his career.
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Timothy Bradley and Mark Kriegel analyze whether Vasyl Lomachenko is a logical next fight for Jose Pedraza.
Clearly, activity pays off.
When Pedraza returned to the ring in March and moved up to lightweight, he shook off the rust of a 14-month layoff with an eight-round decision win over Jose Luis Rodriguez in a tune-up fight. Then Top Rank put him in a featured bout on the Terence Crawford-Jeff Horn card in June and Pedraza won a 10-round decision against Antonio Moran in a terrific battle. That set the stage for Pedraza to get another world title shot on Saturday night at the Gila Rivera Arena in Glendale, Arizona.
Pedraza traveled to the home region of Phoenix’s Beltran (35-8-1, 21 KOs), 37, who was making his first lightweight world title defense after having won a vacant belt in February in his fourth chance.
Pedraza was all business. He had an excellent game plan, displayed an effective jab and came on strong in the second half of the fight to drop Beltran in the 11th round to win a unanimous decision by scores of 117-110, 117-110 and 115-112.
The foundation of Pedraza’s victory was undoubtedly his recent activity level. It meant he was in shape, in a groove and firing on all cylinders. And now he’s in position for a far bigger fight — and payday.
When Top Rank made its deal with ESPN one of the things that promoter Bob Arum promised his fighters was that they would be active because he had plenty of dates and money to go around. Pedraza is the prime of example of a promise made and a promise kept.
Fights you might have missed
Saturday at Mexico City
Middleweight Ramon Alvarez (27-6-3, 16 KOs) W10 Nicolas Luques Palacios (10-5, 1 KO), scores: 98-91, 97-92, 96-93
In the beIN Sports Espanol main event, Alvarez, 32, of Mexico, the older brother of superstar Canelo Alvarez, rolled to a rather easy victory over Argentina’s Palacios, whose three-fight winning streak ended. Alvarez scored a knockdown in the third round and nearly had Palacios out but he survived to go the distance. Alvarez picked up his third win in a row since a draw with Johnny Navarrete last September.
Friday at Minneapolis
Middleweight Willie Monroe Jr. (23-3, 6 KOs) W10 Javier Francisco Maciel (33-7, 23 KOs), scores: 100-90 (twice), 99-91
Twice, Monroe, 31, of Rochester, New York, challenged for a middleweight world title, getting stopped in the sixth round by Gennady Golovkin in 2015 and losing a competitive decision to Billy Joe Saunders in last September. Monroe has now won two fights in a row since the loss to Saunders, including this near-shutout of Maciel, 34, of Argentina, on the Premier Boxing Champions on Fox Sports 1 undercard. Like many Monroe fights, this was a fairly uneventful bout with Monroe easily outboxing Maciel, who lost a decision to Dmitry Pirog in a 2011 middleweight world title bout.
Light heavyweight Caleb Truax (30-4-2, 19 KOs) TKO3 Fabiano Pena (15-11-1, 11 KOs)
In December, Truax, 34, of Oseo, Minnesota, pulled the biggest upset of 2017 when he traveled to London and stunningly outpointed James DeGale to win a super middleweight world title. Truax’s reign was brief as he lost the title by decision in an immediate rematch in April. In his first since losing the belt, Truax moved up light heavyweight and easily stopped Pena, 30, of Brazil, who lost his third fight in a row by knockout. Truax knocked Pena down with an uppercut in the third round and although he beat the count he was unable to continue.