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WWBU Quarterly
Volume 1, Jan 1902
Welcome to the inaugural edition of the WWBU Quarterly. In our first issue we’re going to do a state of the union recap on each of the weight division s in the WWBU. The WWBU has been active since 1897, but due to the standards mandated by the WWBU rankings committee no World titles have yet to become active. In this edition of the WWBU quarterly we will be looking back at the important bouts of the last quarter of 1901 as well as the state of play in each of the weight divisions.
The Quarter in Review
October 1901
HW: #1 Greg Page v Dan White, 6 Rounds, Cario Park
The WWBU’s marquee name was in action in October as the undefeated #1 ranked HW Greg Page (20-0-0) fought a keep busy fight against Dan White (0-1-1) in a six round walkover. Page looked to be toying with White through the first couple of rounds before he ended the fight in the third round with devastating minute of work forcing the referee to stop the bout to save White from punishment.
FLY: Little Dado v Rosendo Alvarez 10 Rounds, Memerorial Hall
Little Dado (13-0-0) took on the hard hitting Rosendo Alvarez (13-1-0) in a rematch of a June bout that saw Dado take a close but unanimous decision through his superior technical boxing abilities. Alvarez had kept busy with two knockout victories in the intervening months, the renewed confidence seemed to help him as he started the bout fast forcing Dado into several exchanges in the first three rounds that the little Philippine had avoided in their first meeting. Dado was hurt for the first time in his career when Alvarez landed an uppercut bomb in the fourth round that had him dazed and confused, however Dado managed to survive the round and come back to win a close fifth. Alvarez would once again land his uppercut to effect in the sixth and seventh, Dado rallied for the eighth but had nothing left for the remainder with Alvarez taking the final two rounds comfortably. In a tight bout the judges scored the bout 96-94 for Alvarez, 94-96 for Dado and 97-93 for Alvarez to give him the Majority Decision.
Results of Note
HW Greg Page #1 21-0-0 TKO3 Dan White 0-2-1
FLY Rosendo Alvarez 14-1-0 MD10 Little Dado 13-1-0
FW Ricardo Cardona 13-0-1 MD10 Vic Foley 10-1-0
BW Jiro Watanabe 11-0-0 KO3 Israel Contreras 12-2-0
WW Felix Trinidad 14-1-0 KO6 Bruce Finch 10-2-0
MW Daniel Santos 9-1-0 KO7 Vergil Cooper 14-2-0
November 1901
MW: #1 Mike O’Dowd v #3 Eric Lucas, 12 Rounds, Festival Hall
The popular and much proclaimed top MW, the “St Paul Cyclone” Mike O’Dowd (22-0-0) took on his first true test in a number of months in the tough Canadian Eric Lucas (17-2-1). Lucas is known for being a tough guy to fight, with solid skills but every time he had stepped up against a quality fighter he had struggled to control the bout. The trend would continue as O’Dowd dominated this match up and except for a brief period in the fourth round was never in any trouble, cruising to an easy unanimous 118-109 decision.
LW: Jack McAuliffe v Isaac Hlatshwayo, 10 Rounds, Wilburton Hall
The Irish Napoleon of the Ring Jack McAuliffe (13-0-1) would face up to hard hitting South African Isaac Hlatshwayo (12-1-0) in a rematch of a bout from September 1900 in which McAuliffe had a easy eight round unanimous decision victory. Hlatshwayo was looking to avenge his first up loss, by starting out on fire, pushing McAuliffe back to a neutral corner and then pounding on him for the first round. However one round of dominance is all McAuliffe would allow as he slowed the bout down into a technical tussle for the next two rounds. From the fourth round onwards McAuliffe started to open up again and frequently caught him with the big shots from both hands as the bout continued, and other than a rally in the seventh round Hlatshwayo was badly beaten the rest of the way. McAuliffe would get the unanimous decision with 97-92 from all judges.
Results of Note
MW Mike O’Dowd #1 23-0-0 UD12 Eric Lucas #3 17-3-1
LW Jack McAuliffe 14-0-1 UD10 Isaac Hlatshwayo 12-2-0
WW Felix Trinidad 15-1-0 TKO2 Tommy Cross 9-3-1
HW Denver Ed Martin 12-0-0 UD10 Bennie Knoetze 11-2-0
MW Paul Delaney 12-1-0 MD10 Lou Cafaro 7-1-3
MW George Abrams #2 17-3-0 TKO2 Matthew Rutherford 0-6-0
WW Billy Backus 11-0-2 UD6 Randy Kimber 1-2-0
BW Jiro Watanabe 12-0-0 TKO4 Michael McCollum 0-4-1
HW Audley Harrison #3 20-3-0 KO8 Keith Marsh 4-5-0
December Fights
LW Tracy Harris Patterson v George Lavigne, 10 Rounds, Festival Hall
Undefeated LW Tracy Harris Patterson (10-0-0) would take his first step up in class in taking on the more seasoned George Lavigne (14-1-1) who has been in some wars the last few times in the ring. Lavigne’s battle tested skills were on show from the outset, when after 2 minutes of prodding Lavigne landed a hard right hook that left Patterson shaken and holding on for the end of the first stanza. Lavigne would then take advantage of a still shell shocked Patterson, before Patterson smothered the action in the third. Lavigne started the fourth round with a smoking combination that had Patterson on his wheels for the remainder of the round trying to avoid the wall of leather that was flying his way from the hard chasing Lavigne. Lavigne refused to go to his corner before the fifth round pacing back and forth like a frustrated Jaguar waiting for it’s prey, but his agitated state seemed to work against him as his attacks lacked steam and Patterson genuinely won his first round of the fight. The resurgence was short lived as Lavigne re-established his dominance over the next two rounds till a minute into the eighth he fells Patterson with a short right. Patterson gets back up but is soon down again this time for a four count. At the 2:15 minute mark Patterson was down again, this time from a hard body shot, before he made it to his feet at the count of eight and remarkably the referee didn’t stop the bout. However, the end was nigh for the brave Patterson as he soon walked into a deadly combination that felled him for good.
LHW Don LaLonde v Bob Garner, 10 Rounds, Rikaard Centre
Don LaLonde (11-0-0) who has been lauded as the first superstar of the LHW division has been slowly stepping up his competition over the last six months faces off against Bob Garner (12-2-1). Garner is a solid fighter, but he had previously lost to LaLonde by KO in January as well as a loss after that against Leslie Stewart and a Draw with Alain Simon. LaLonde wasted no time in putting his stamp on the evening in the first minute and a half with an overhand right that landed Garner on his knee for an eight count. Garner seemed to recover but he would be knocked down again at the start of the second and then twice more in the fourth. From that point on the bout degenerated into a boxer working on a punching bag with the ref stopping the one sided beating in the ninth round well after many in the crowd were calling for the stoppage to occur.
Results of Note
LW George Lavigne 15-1-1 KO8 Tracy Harris Patterson 10-1-0
LHW Don LaLonde 11-0-0 TKO9 Bob Garner 12-3-1
LW Jack McAuliffe 15-0-1 KO3 Joey Limas 10-3-1
HW Alfio Righetti #4 17-0-1 Draw Jeffrey Flores 4-5-1
BW Ronnie Jones 11-0-0 UD10 Felix Friedemann 13-4-0
FW Jaime Garza 12-1-0 TKO5 Kid Tano 11-5-1
LHW Danny Nardico 11-0-0 UD10 Alain Simon 10-2-1
WW Fritzie Zivic 9-0-0 UD8 Packy McFarland 12-2-0
BW Jiro Watanabe 13-0-0 TKO6 Tony Weldon 1-4-0
HW Kevin Isaac #6 18-6-0 TKO9 Jimmy Clark #5 17-5-0
Current Rankings and Analysis
Heavyweight Division
Champ – Vacant
1. Greg Page
2. Frankie Daniels
3. Audley Harrison
4. Alfio Righetti
5. Kevin Isaac
Greg Page has proven to be the best of the contenders for the heavyweight crown, having defeated at least once every top 5 fighter other than Alfio Righetti. Righetti’s recent draw with struggler Jeffrey Flores has people wondering whether he is a paper tiger or a real contender. As it is the jostling for places in the initial championship tournament continues as the fighters wait till the WWBU makes the title active (requires eight ranked fighters, currently there are six).
Light Heavyweight Division
Champ – Vacant
1. Michael Bennett
2. Victor Robledo
With only two fighters ranked so far in the division, it will be a while before the LHW world title will be fought for. Both Michael Bennett and Victor Robledo have been impressive in their progress to being ranked with only one blemish on their records each. Of the prospects yet to qualify for a ranking Don LaLonde (11-0-0) and Danny Nardico (11-0-0) are garnering the most excitement from the pundits and the fans.
Middleweight Division
Champ – Vacant
1. Mike O’Dowd
2. George Abrams
3. Rocky Mosley Jr.
4. Eric Lucas
O’Dowd has been the crowd’s darling as well as the acclaimed best fighter in the division for the past 18 months since being ranked in mid 1900. George Abrams is the only boxer to have pushed O’Dowd so far with two majority decision losses to O’Dowd on his ledger already. Mosley Jr. and Lucas are both solid fighters but neither seems to have the pedigree to go with O’Dowd at this stage. With several other fighters close to being rated, most experts expect that the MW title will become active in the next 6 to 12 months.
Welterweight Division
Champ – Vacant
1. Felix Trinidad
The Welterweight division and Lightweight divisions have only been active since 1899 and therefore are only just starting to have ranked fighters. Felix Trinidad, despite a disappointing KO loss to Bruce Finch (later avenged) rocketed his way to be the first ranked WW with seven fights in the last year. While there are some fighters close to being ranked, it seems like the required eight ranked fighters is some time away.
Lightweight Division
Champ – Vacant
1. Jack McAuliffe
2. George Lavigne
Jack McAuliffe and George Lavigne have proven over the past year that they are the two best LWs around at the moment. The two have met each other twice before with McAuliffe holding the advantage head to head with an eight round decision victory and a ten round draw being the results. Most observers can’t wait till the two fighters get in the ring again.
Featherweight Division
Champ – Vacant
The bottom three divisions (FW, BW and FLY) have only been active since 1900, and there are no ranked fighters in any of these weight classes. There are some bright young fighters around (Ricardo Cardona and Jaime Garza at FW, Jiro Watanabe at BW and Fermin Gomez at FLY) but none of them have met the WWBU’s minimum criteria to be ranked as yet.
Bantamweight Division
Champ – Vacant
See FW comments.
Flyweight Division
Champ – Vacant
See FW Comments
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