Lolenga "The Whiz Kid (Lumumba Boy)" Mock

What a wild career this guy has so far had (and continues to have).

He began with a six year campaign barnstorming across the Dark Continent and grinding out victories - mostly on points - over inexperienced middleweights, presumably the big-fish-in-a-small-pond "tough guys" of their respective villages, in his native East Congo (then called Zaire - for his entire undefeated run, ceasing to exist just prior to his first pro loss) as well as Tanzania, Kenya, Côte D’Ivoire & Uganda. He scored just four knockouts in these first seventeen contests, and three of them were in the deeper waters of rounds 5-10. A shocking number of these early career bouts were scheduled for - and largely went - 8 or even 10 rounds. In fact, his sophomore effort was a scheduled 10-rounder, and he scored a KO in the 6th. Another interesting tidbit about this period is that more than half of his first seventeen opponents were making their pro debuts when he fought them. Nine of seventeen.

Then, in his eighteenth try, he was bested, his second time in Tanzania, challenging for the African Boxing Union super middleweight title and taking a big step up in class in his first scheduled 12-rounder. He was defeated by Joseph Marwa, the barrel-chested, thick-necked, slow-and-steadily methodical and jab-happy incumbent champ from Zanzibar.

Mock then dialed it back and tried for lower-hanging fruit, and in his very next outing a few months later captured the more regionally specific "Eastern & Central African" title at 168lbs. Inexplicably, his opponent Lucas Omondi was allowed to compete for this despite coming off an 0-3-1 career start and then scoring his first professional victory over a guy making his debut.

The celebratory mood would not last very long, as Mock would go 3-5-1 in his next eight. The last two losses in this slump, however, would see his first taste of intercontinental travel, losing decisions in Denmark and Germany, and both to unbeaten prospects with some money and hype behind them. So he was graduating from provincial can-crusher (or rather "One upon whom you can rely to outpoint and occasionally crush tomato cans") to a boutique jobber abroad.

Then, in his 29th match, he jumped to cruiser and headed to Berkshire in the UK, taking on a young man in his 6th pro match. The young man in question, brash and corn-rowed, was none other than Bermondsey's own "former model & nightclubbing playboy", David Haye. Mock was stopped for the first (and to date only) time in his career, but in the process he dealt out the first knockdown Haye would ever suffer professionally. Mock showed a legendary chin, while exposing some nascent fissures in the ultimately far more famous Brit's, and was only thwarted via rather questionable referee intervention helping give rise to a bit of popular internet forum slang: the "British stoppage". This match predated Calzaghe vs. Manfredo, which saw the already-extant phrase more widely popularized, by four years.

For a while that was Mock's biggest claim to fame - an entertaining war in a respectable loss to a future champ. He remained more or less a footnote in David Haye's storybook, from the latter's salad days - even though he also fought admirably in a light heavyweight return one year later with Mario Veit in the German's backyard & then somewhat less competitively with Canadian matinee idol Lucian Bute in his own (but still proving durable and making Bute work for it, acquitting himself well), and rattled off a few notable upsets: over Giovanni Alvarez for a now-defunct version of the European title at 175lbs, then over former IBF world titlist Charles "The Hatchet" Brewer at super middle.

(By this point Mock has, for whatever reason, taken up permanent residency in Denmark, eventually gaining full citizenship there, and picked up a secondary ring moniker. He is now also known as "The Dane", even though he is a bit less pale than, say, Mikkel Kessler, or how one envisions the Vikings' modern descendants on average...)

Then it gets interesting. 17 years since his pro campaign began, and zeroing in on his 36th birthday (and thus his late thirties), he starts this really nice run of form. He upsets 13-0 Senegalese-Italian prospect Mouhamed Ali Ndiaye, who then spent the next seven years in the heat of the European title picture. He suffers a robbery loss (at home, no less) to 16-2 future world champion Gabriel Campillo, despite hurting and dropping the Spaniard and setting him on his bike for much of the night. El Chico Guapo would springboard directly into his WBA light heavyweight title capture in his next match, just three months later. Mock then scores two more upsets, both over Italians, capturing and defending the EBU-EU SMW title versus 16-2 future world title challenger Giovanni De Carolis and 40-3-1 perennial Euro contender and workhorse Lorenzo Di Giacomo.

Then, yet another robbery, this one in Rzeszów, Poland. He decked local favorite Dawid Kostecki hard with a headsman's-ax right hand, and physically dominated him the rest of the way despite having a cut and swollen eye, and still came up empty-handed. Lo and behold, two of the judges were Polish and had it remarkably wide.

Oh well, back to work. Mock immediately jumped into the ring once more to upset 13-1-1 Patrick Dobroschi, again in his opponent's backyard in Düsseldorf. Dobroschi was a former camp mate, when both sparred for a time with Felix Sturm to help prep him for Lorenzo, Hearns & Macklin (if not more). Mock was familiar enough with Dobroschi to lay a severe beating on him, such that Dobroschi has to date never fought again.

Now for a battle at home (Denmark, not Congo) with his adopted land's homegrown up-and-coming star, Erik Skoglund. Inevitably, the 41-year-old lost a unanimous decision, but gave his talented rival and compatriot a tough melee in a highly educational first-ever 12-rounder for Skoglund - whom, btw, Mock knocked down.

After that, you might expect Mock to have packed up and retired. It was, by and by, 22 years since he debuted and the solid job done in the Skoglund loss was plenty to be proud of and made for a nice torch-passing as well as sort of a microcosm of his career path (falling short versus the elite but gaining respect from all corners). You'd think he would call it a day. And so he did.

Until he changed his mind, returning 2 years and 2 months later to upset 11-0 Italian prospect Alessandro Sinacore. This began a still-going 10-0 streak in the nearly two years since, and before it hits two full calendar years he is hoping to make it an 11-0 streak by putting a nice big plume in his cap with Dmitry Chudinov. Before you let out too low a whistle in thinking he's surely taking on too much of a leap in class from whatever bums he was feasting on in the aforementioned 10 - no, it (mostly) hasn't been a bum tour. At the age of 45, he, somehow, is still pounding out decisions (and one kayo, versus obscure Jorge Silva of Portugal) over decent journeymen and fringe contenders. Look at the list of names Mock has fought; if you know the super middleweight division well, you know these are meaningful victories, especially for a man of his advanced years - and to say nothing of the rigor of the schedule itself! He fought six times in 2016...in his mid-forties!

The fact that Mock is a viable opponent for 20-1-2 former interim WBA champ Night Wolf (half of the widely touted Chudinov brothers who lit up the amateur ranks and not that long ago were expected by many experts to co-reign as elite champs in the pros) a month from now is absolutely mental. The fact that I don't think he should even be all that much of an underdog means I should probably be institutionalized - but I don't think I'm wrong. The strong and skillful 31-year-old Russian, who is often criticized for being too single-geared, is capable of being drawn into a slogging brawl. This is guaranteed to last the fully scheduled ten frames, as neither Mock nor Chudinov has a big enough punch to bypass the other's main line of defense: both have incredible chins. For all ten of those frames, judges will be seeing a lot of leather thrown & landed in both directions, while listening to a partisan crowd in Cøpenhagen roar every time Mock so much as twitch-feints. It wouldn't be the greatest shock of all time if the ancient Congolese veteran managed to put this enormously prestigious notch in his belt, in his 57th bout and 26½ years deep. I'm half-expecting to see him eke out a MD or SD, actually.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR MOCK!

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Also it has been nearly three years since Chudinov - then on top of the world, rated circa top 5-8 at the weight - was stopped by Chris Eubank Jr. after taking loads of punishment in a lopsided stylistic mismatch in what could been a prime-ruining (or at least truncating) prolonged beating. That's a long time for Chudinov's handlers to not be confident in him stepping back up yet until now, and now only to face a 45 year old. Seriously, examine Chudinov's opposition since 2015, and now look at Mock's. Chudinov's is utter trash in comparison. He might be displaying signs of being shot in the gym.

In which case, Mock, old as he is, might be the fresher man and has all that much better a chance...

 

I'm going to be so bummed if this ends up being another Campillo/Veit/Kostecki/Dziarra/Bozic scenario where the match is fought on very competitive terms and should arguably go Mock's way but swings instead to who is "supposed" to be the fave.

Mock honestly might have even worse luck than Glen Johnson, come to mention it.

Then again, he was probably "supposed" to lose to Luke Blackledge, David Zegarra, Derek Edwards, Lorenzo Di Giacomo, Mouhamed Ali Ndiaye, etc. but a) he bossed them enough to leave no doubt and b) none had the political connections in the sport or the perceived value or the aura of expected superiority heading in that any of those guys did that received gifts over him.

If he loses fair and square - if say the Night Wolf rediscover his mojo and either puts on a clinic or deals Mock his first legitimate stoppage defeat (which still has a hard limit on how much credit you can gove Chudinov for being first to kayo a damn 45 year old...same as there's a cap on the kudos you can give that guy that finally kayoed B-Hop) then fine, so be it. A robbery though...I'd rage.

 

...and still many large swaths left with big question marks. How did this scrawny 19 year old kid (eighteen as of a month before his debut) from Kinshasa fall into boxing? How did he afford traveling around to different countries to box full-time? Did he compete in the amateurs at all? Was there even an amateur scene in Zaire in the late 1980s/early 90s? Then, fast-forward, how does he decide he wants to be Danish? What happened there? Why there specifically? Did he meet a girl? Was it some behind the scenes manager or friend or just philanthropic wealthy boxing enthusiast sponsoring him to move to a far more industrialized nation? Did he already speak Danish or did he learn it during adulthood in the middle of a prizefighting career?

And then on top of THAT...what changed his mind about retirement? And why is his un-retirement (thus far) so damn successful? Is he training harder than ever now? Why, if so? What is his motivation to face a grueling schedule of stiff competition so late in the game?

 

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I Iove how just before Mock drops Haye you hear the crowd start chanting "Bo-ring!"

He's like "is that right? Well lemme drill ya boy through the canvas, how bout that?"

 

I think I read he also runs a gym and/or coaches youth in Aarhus, where he lives.

 

Yeah, upon further analysis...roll over, Glencoffe.

Mock's only for sure (that is, filmed) non-controversial defeats are to:

Lucian Bute (in his prime and much younger, and Mock still never tasted canvas once)
Erik Skoglund (and even this was super close and the old lion managed to bite out a chunk from the young one's hide)
Joseph Marwa (unfilmed but I trust in this result on blind faith just based on styles and Marwa showing good form himself in his later filmed bouts, and where they were respectively in their development)

That's all. Once green and wet behind the ears, once to a burgeoning mega-talent with a big punch getting neither schooled nor hurt along the way, and once in a torch passing where the younger foe nearly succumbed via KO before rallying and outlasting the man whose career he grew up watching as a fan.

 

Oh and FYI, the Ukrainian-Polish opponent he beat yesterday headlining a Palle card at home, Roman Shkarupa, was a late replacement for Manny Siaca, the former SMW champ. Shkarupa was honestly an upgrade from the Puerto Rican coming off three years' inactivity - not bad for a few weeks notice. Either way, it was going to be a very quick turnaround boxing anyone in late October and then hopping in with Chudinov in late November. Mock and his team are just radiating confident swagger.

 

Chudinov is currently ranked sixteenth by the WBC, and Mock is #32. An upset could unlock the door to an improbable first-ever world title challenge at, by then (presuming it comes after this coming April) 46 years of age. Talk about Cinderella Man stuff.

More realistically, he could parlay his #10 spot in the WBA's continental European rankings to snatch that lesser belt from its current guardian, Jamie Cox. That is where he probably tops out, as today's crop of actual world champs at the weight (including Cox's recent conqueror, full WBA titlist Groves) are probably a bridge too far and would end his feel-good tale with an embarrassing schooling or a mythology-busting KO they don't really deserve on their ledger (much as Joe Smith Jr. benefited greatly from Bernard Hopkins lingering too long while too long of tooth and, while decent, can't ever truly be said to be proven worthy of being the one to finally knock him out). Super middle is pretty shallow once you get past the half dozen at the very top, but that half dozen is quite talented.

 

How is Chudinov looking, post-CEJ, anyway? Has anybody seen him in action?

 

22 year old Danish prospect Ditlev "Mr. D-Struction" Rossing will open the Nordic Fight Night undercard going for the vacant WBC Youth Cruiser title.

He's crude but packing thunder.

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Most recently he fought on the Mock vs. Shkarupa undercard, taking a big step up in class and beating former Cruiser world contender Valery Brudov via SD.

 

Are the Palle cards usually televised anymore nowadays? I remember they used to air on I think EuroSport?