"El Ruso Mexicano" vs. "Little Soldier Franky" This content is protected This will be the first most (if not all) of you are seeing of this match-up. All other events on this day, in boxing news, were overshadowed by unknown Sergio Fernando Díaz Santos "Yeyo (Cocaine)" Thompson's stunning upset over Jorge Linares by TKO2 in a WBC lightweight semifinal eliminator that most had considered a routine stay-busy tuneup for Linares rebuilding from his stoppage loss (while comfortably up on points) to DeMarco. This, despite the fact that Kelly Pavlik - not far removed from being among the biggest names in the sport and the lineal middleweight king - was continuing his comeback, on the undercard. That's right, this was the main event over Pavlik vs. Aaron Jaco - but exacerbating the allure of the Linares fight was Top Rank experiencing technical difficulties and dropped the ball on streaming (see the mass disappointment in the "RBR" thread here: https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/kelly-pavlik-vs-aaron-jaco-rbr.391485/ - nobody in here makes one mention of Gradovich or Leal, the ostensible headliners of the show, which in all likelihood none of us realized) and so nobody got to watch it live; only the small demographic of TV Azteca subscribers saw it, on tape delay. Evgeny Pavlovich Gradovich vs. Francisco Javier Leal, 10 rounds @ Round 1 Gradovich is already piling on body shots in combination, and drilling Leal with the 1-2 up top - but the southpaw is demonstrating why he brings in the reputation of a durable opponent unwilling to lie down and play the victim, using a mixture of timely blocks and upper body slickness to avoid taking excessive punishment at once and getting in some clean licks with counters from a serpentine bowing motion. Not enough to nearly offset Grad's work rate, but enough to get his respect perhaps. 10-9 Gradovich Round 2 Gradovich is now ripping uppercuts in clusters twos and threes, raking the body and chin of Leal but again finding him slippery and hard to find with the same punch more than a couple of times in a row. Leal is leaning in and clinching when he needs to, draping a dousing blanket over the fire of Grad's offense, and then pushing away off Grad's shoulder with his right glove and lining up a parting kiss with the left down the pipe. Good effort from both in an exchange just before the bell, although neither really lands anything despite the crowd being worked into a furor. 10-9 Gradovich 20-18 Gradovich Round 3 Gradovich is fly-fishing with the right hand from range and then stepping in with add-on flurries. Leal gets low and waits to ambush him with a big right hook on the body. Their heads clash literally, as do their strategies figuratively. Gradovich is landing incidental rabbit punches as Leal continues to bend himself in half and target Grad's body. Lots of wrestling. Gradovich knocks Leal into the ropes with a jab. Nice left hand lead by Leal, and some body punches. Huge left upper-hook by Grad in the pocket. 10-9 Gradovich 30-27 Gradovich Round 4 Gradovich is lighting up Leal with underhanded shoeshines and hooking combos depending on whether at medium-long or phonebooth range. Leal is for the most part holding the center of the ring- countering, ducking, and clinching but never really allowing Grad to move him backwards more than a single involuntary step per rush. Leal starting to ship heavy leather, but also catching Grad with a fair number of jabs and straight lefts - defense getting lax but allowing him to score (just not enough to give him a statistical edge). Grad hurt by a wrecking ball of a borderline low blow. 10-9 Gradovich 40-36 Gradovich Round 5 Gradovich is grazed with a right hook while jabbing his way in. Leal not willing to give up his Tecate logo real estate. Grad is bashing through Leal's guard with uppercuts and then lacrosse-sticking the right into his face. Leal is nudging Grad off with his right forearm but looking weary. Ref has a cut on Leal examined. Cleared to go by the physician. Grad keeps hammering Leal with spammed overhand rights, and then clips him in the side with left hooks when Leal's hands go up protectively. Flush counter lefts by Leal, but few and far between. 10-9 Gradovich 50-45 Gradovich Round 6 Grad forced on the defensive as Leal sallied out behind a strong triple right jab. Grad is caught with a right hook above the belt. Leal in a groove now, as Grad seems to be taking a round to rest, at least relative to his work rate in the first half. Leal getting bold, staying in front of Grad and eating right hands. Sloppy uppercutting combos by Grad falling in. Clinch. Leal is pressing forward, spraying right jabs in Grad's face and following through with the left cross. Messy body punches from Grad. 10-9 Leal, close 59-55 Gradovich Round 7 Grad has found that 2nd wind you knew was coming, and proceeds to do his thing: grinding down opponents in the late going like a whetstone. Grad landing unopposed now, as Leal spent what little remained in his tank in the sixth. Just weakly-pushed southpaw jabs and clinches from Leal, now. Grad with punches in bunches - none hard enough to score a KO, but not cream-puff love-taps either. Head and body, indiscriminately distributed. Gradovich a machine. 10-9 Gradovich 69-64 Gradovich Round 8 More of the same. This should be stopped. Grad is landing some heavy rights upside the head falling in, and Leal cannot duck and weave quickly enough to dodge the flurries. All he can do anymore is block until near enough to grab. 10-9 Gradovich 79-73 Gradovich Round 9 Grad is jabbing at the face and spearing rights at the chest. Leal bravely meets him at ring center, but gets strapped across the jaw for his troubles - more than once. Leal practically falling down from exhaustion in failed attempts to hold. Grad is leaping in, unloading nonstop. Leal tries picking off what he can, which is precious little. Mouth hanging open. Hard body combo by Grad. Big overhand rights across the chin. Very 1-sided. C'mon, ref... 10-9 Gradovich 89-82 Gradovich Round 10 Leal stumbles from his corner to answer the bell. Grad pounces. A little tentative jabbing and posing, but then back to violent business. Grad tears into Leal with about two dozen unanswered bombs. Leal fires back, game but half-conscious. Grad sets him up on the ropes and chops with a hellish right. Leal beats the count but mercifully waved off. TKO10. Leal was removed from Illusions Theater on a stretcher - and would sustain another in-ring brain injury and be pronounced dead three days after losing to Raúl Benjamin Hirales Cuevas, Jr. less than nineteen months later. This was despite an order from Texas' commission that Leal undergo a neurological exam - one that yielded the unambiguous conclusion that Frankie should never lace up again...not even for hard sparring. He would spent ten months on the shelf before rattling off five matches in quick succession in Mexico, boxing 31 rounds over nine months in his return. Here's the deal, though: Franky should never even have stepped in the ring with Hirales - nor with César "El Corazón" Juárez (in an eight-rounder in April, dropping a split decision against the future world title challenger), nor even the few journeymen that he beat in this final stretch. In the aftermath of the Gradovich loss, his career should have been categorically over - full stop. Teddy Atlas, in a "broken clock is right twice a day" moment, screamed about having a national (or even global) athletic commission to provide oversight two decades ago. There was no good counter-argument then - yet we still don't have one now, somehow or another. Here are some other casualties that came about under circumstances that were IMO bear a heart-breaking resemblance to Leal's: Patrick "Straight A" Day Age died: 27 Fight after which he died - Charles Albert Shone Conwell (KO10) Previous fight(s) that was probably largely contributory - Carlos Adames (10 rounds), Ismail Iliev (10), Elvin Ayala (10), and Kyrone Davis (10)... total of 50 rounds in nineteen months. Maksim Kaibkhanovich "Mad Max" Dadashev Age died: 28 Fight after which he died - Subriel Ahmed Matías Matthew (RTD11) Previous fight(s) that was probably largely contributory - Ricky Tabacon Sismundo (4), Antonio DeMarco Soto Armenta (10), Darleys Gregorio Pérez Ballesta (10), and Abdiel José Guadalupe Ramírez Rodríguez (5), ... total of 40 rounds fought in sixteen months. Bernardo "The Kid" Paret Age died: 25 Fight after which he died - Emile Alphonse Griffith (TKO12) Previous fight(s) that was probably largely contributory - Lawrence Gene Fullmer (10), and two previous fights with Griffith the year prior (15 + 13), as well as Gaspar Ortega (10)... total of 60 rounds in thirteen months. Óscar "Fantasma" González Arraiga Age died: 23 Fight after which he died - Jesús Galicia Álvarez (KO10) Previous fight(s) that was probably largely contributory - Hector Velázquez Martínez (10), Adrian Alberto Yung Wong (10), Rico Dashon Ramos (10), Raúl Benjamin Hirales Cuevas, Jr. (10)... total of 50 rounds fought in fourteen months. Roman Nikolaevich Simakov Age died: 27 Fight after which he died - Sergey Alexandrovich Kovalev (TKO7) Previous fight(s) that was probably largely contributory - Mukhtar Mikoilovich Khizriev (4), Kanstantsin Makhankou (8), Gennady Maximov (8), Douglas Ambrose Otieno Okola (12), Jevgenijs Andrejevs (8), Gennady Maximov (6) ... total of 53 rounds in under one year, 47 rounds over six bouts in 2011 alone. Boxing needs to stop repeating the same mistakes, at the cost of young men's lives.
There need to be some universal precautions regarding the licensing of fighters after long, grueling, competitive (or worse, brutally one-sided but never culminating in a KO) affairs. If you exceed a certain # of rounds boxed in a given period of time, or if you have so much as one fight that is red-flagged by a commissioner, ringside doctor or another authorized agent as cause for review - there needs to be a review. Tests conducted. Suspensions put in place just in case when in doubt to err on the side of being safe rather than sorry. Right now most jurisdictions just have a blanket one-size-fits-all "if you get stopped, you're out for six months (or however long)" - and that's stupid. If you're on the wrong end of a Calzaghe vs. Manfredo type of TKO, with a quick-trigger ref and the victor just flurrying on the arms - that isn't what should be prompting a suspension. Hell, if you get caught out cold and KTFO in the first round by a perfect first shot landed - guess what? You're not as urgently in need of a suspension for the sake of your own health, either. Guys like Frankie Leal (and Dadashev, and Simakov) who routinely take objectively way too many clean head shots, win lose or draw - need to be suspended from the sport regularly, for their own protection. The fact that fighting as often as possible is financially attractive for them is understandable but it shouldn't mean they get cleared to step into the ring without it being established and then painstakingly reestablished, as often as necessary, that after each individual fight they are still fit to compete. Letting a guy earn his bread needs to be tempered by saving them from themselves - especially in the cases of guys whose foremost instinct when the leather starts flying isn't to defend themselves. Fan culture needs to change, and become less toxic; we need less bloodthirsty demands for "natural conclusions" - because guess what? If you have a guy like Gradovich, he's going to batter most journeymen, but not score a lot of clean 1-punch knockouts against them. We need ref interventions more, not less, in those cases. A fighter quitting because he feels dizzy, or can't see, or can't breathe due to blood filling his nose - is something we can't still be stigmatizing in 2020. When fighters hear that, and repeat the "fight on no matter what" mantra in their heads - guess what? It leads to seeking out fights and going all-out in them even after you've been advised that more could very well kill you. Nobody owes us dying in the ring. Your entertainment isn't worth more than anybody's life. I sometimes can't stand this sport, and how coldly exploitative it can be.
