The son of Kabary Salem (the late nineties & early aughts super middleweight contender of the same nickname, who dealt a prime Joe Calzaghe the second - and perhaps the hardest - knockdown of his pro career, absolute monster of a counter right hand shot) fought the debuting Malik Jenkins on a Real Deal Sports & Entertainment card this past weekend (headlined by current middleweight fringe world title contender Alantez Fox vs. long-ago middleweight fringe world contender Elvin Ayala) in Bowie, MD. Shades of Campbell vs. Peden here, yet another "protect yourself at no less than one hundred percent of times" parable. This content is protected To be fair, Jenkins is 19 and I don't think he came in with much amateur background (which shows) after quickly transitioning from excelling at team sports in high school, whereas 21 year old Salem is the son of a fairly well-known fighter and has probably been groomed for success for some time. He improves to 5-0 (2).
'Protect yourself at all times' is excellent advice. However I fear by the third repetition on the commentary that Malik was not paying close attention.
I actually initially came across this repost from Antonio Tarver while scrolling through my feed: This content is protected The boxers' names weren't mentioned in his IG post or the comments so I had to use clues about the venue to establish context and do some reverse-engineering detective work. Tarver is something of an expert in the field of "keep your goddamn hands up " This content is protected
His old man was the most prodigious billy goat on the planet prior to the arrival on the scene of a certain 'devout Christian' from Oakland Even the refs weren't safe from his noggin' This content is protected
Speaking of retired boxers' son's/namesakes (and of Milkdud himself) - what's going on with Antonio Tarver Jr.? Dude is 5-0 (4) and fought this March, but that was off the back of a 22 month layoff. Dude is now 30, and debuted four years ago but has still just fought tomato cans, once in a blue moon. **** or get off the pot, am I right? If he isn't any good and the apple fell too far away from the paternal tree, just step him up in class so he can get exposed and have it over & done with, like Shane Mosley Jr. ...or at least keep him active like Hasim Rahman Jr. in the hopes of progressing him (Little Rock has fought six times already since debuting in April of 2017...once more than has Tarver Jr. in almost thrice as long)
So the question remains: which boxer had the more embarrassing day on Saturday (in their respective first professional losses) - Malik Jenkins, or Kaywann Sistrunk? (Sistrunk is the guy that noped out mid-round in the Mayweather Promotions cards: https://www.boxingforum24.com/threa...the-middle-of-the-round.615618/#post-19432604) I can't decide which is worse: showboating and dropping your guard only to get triple-kayoed with a single video game combination, or just throwing decorum and sporting valor out the window & peacing out when the going starts to get hot.
At the risk of adding too much seriousness to an overall lighthearted thread, as much as Ward may get ribbed for his headbutting, at least we can say he never actually killed a guy from it. Papa Salem, on the other hand...
Yes. Salam killed Randie Carver and even worse a tragedy like that didn't curtail his billy goat ways and deter him from using his head as third weapon in the ring. He even admitted in interview before the Calzaghe fight that he would use his noggin as a weapon against Joe if need be. It's not mentioned in this article but he definitely said it. 'Joe Calzaghe goes into tonight's world championship defence against Kabary Salem admitting to "concern" about the head-butting tendencies of his challenger, which have already led to a boxing tragedy and been cited in numerous controversies. Five years ago, promising American Randie Carver collapsed and died two days after a fight with Salem. Carver's mother subsequently filed a lawsuit against the referee, Ross Strada, claiming he failed to protect her son from " frequent and repeated" head-butts. Both Strada and Salem were exonerated of any blame for Carver's death. However, two years later Salem was again accused of butting on his way to a defeat against Antwun Echols. Nineteen months ago, his fight against Rudy Markussen in Denmark was declared a no contest when an accidental butt resulted in Markussen sustaining a severe cut. And last time out, in May, Salem was penalised two points for intentionally butting eventual winner Mario Velt. Incredibly, in the same fight, the self-hyped Egyptian Magician managed to break the nose of referee Manuel Maritxalar in what he claimed was an unintentional clash of heads.'
Hmm. Ironically, the reason Jenkins wasn't defending himself at the beginning of the clip in the OP was that he was petitioning the referee with a complaint of a headbutt (with the video conveniently picking up in media res after this either did or didn't take place off-screen...)
