Salandy vs Holm/ Sanders?

[B. Singh]

Trinidad Express
Sanders sets up Laila Ali fight
Ian Prescott's round-up

Thursday, April 5th 2007


www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_sports_mag?id=161125520

Metro Detroit's Mary Jo Sanders connected with an amazing 50 per cent of her punches as she outclassed Valerie Mahfood on a ESPN Friday Night Fights.

Sanders, a junior-middleweight and middleweight world champion, is one of the fighters which local promoter Buxo Potts has said is running from a showdown with Jizelle Salandy, Trinidad & Tobago's WBA & WBC junior-middleweight world champion.

Sanders, the daughter of former Detroit Lions great Charlie Sanders, continues to win over the boxing world, attracting the interest, and national television coverage, of ESPN Sports, which carried the fight.

Rarely do women get the spotlight of the main event position on a televised card, but Mary Jo's recognition in the boxing world as one of the best pound-for-pound women in the sport today-plus her growing fan base across the USA- has convinced the boxing experts at ESPN to come to Detroit and showcase Sanders.

Her opponent, #1 rated light-heavyweight Valerie Mahfood, Laila Ali's toughest opponent. Mahfood sports a record of 19-12-3 (9 ko's), but all her fights have been in the light-heavyweight class-a full two weight divisions over Mary Jo's natural weight. At this higher weight, Mahfood faced some of the toughest women in boxing, including Laila Ali and Ann Wolfe whom she knocked out in three rounds.

Sanders' demolition of Mahfood had the likes of Bernard Hopkins, the former undisputed middleweight world champion, stating that Sanders connect percentage might just be a record for both male and female boxers. Sanders scientifically dismantled Mahfood, connecting at will to the face. Mary Jo, with a current record of 25-0 (7 ko's), holds six titles including the IBA Middleweight Championship-but has visions of moving up in weight to face the best known female boxer, Laila Ali, who herself was on the ESPN telecast and seemed impressed by what she had seen. Ali hinted there was the likelihood of the two meeting after she finishes her stint on Dancing with the Stars.

Ali has gone on record as being very interested in a Sanders bout-but it's Sanders job to prove she can move up in weight successfully.

[B. Singh]

Trinidad Express
Holm is undisputed welterweight champ
Thursday, April 5th 2007

www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_sports_mag?id=161125510

Undisputed welterweight champion Holly Holm, right, connects with a right to the head of Ann Marie Saccurato.

In front of yet another packed house of 3,000, Holly Holm put on a show of sweet science, in one of three women's world title fights featured on a card promoted by Fresquez Productions and televised on FOX Sports' The Best d**n Sports Show Period. Holm holds one of the junior-middleweight world titles and is billed as a future opponent for Jizelle Salandy, Trinidad and Tobago's world champion,

The card, and main event, made history on several levels, first, by marking FOX Sports Network as the first network to air an all-women's non-pay-per-view show; and second, by Holm becoming the first women's champion to unify all major belts-the four top titles, currently, being the IFBA, WBA, WBC and WIBA-in addition to the IBA and GBU belts.

Holm's challenger, Ann Marie Saccurato, of White Plains, New York, never had a chance. Outsized, outhustled, outclassed and outpowered, Saccurato, though game and determined, had no answer for the top New Mexican box-office bombshell.

Saccurato came out punching at Holm, but had a hard time trying to find the fast-moving Holm in the first. When she did catch up with the jabbing-moving Holm, however, Saccurato looked surprised when Holm stood her ground and fired back with superior firepower.

Saccurato was not so eager to find Holm in the first minute of round two, but, in the second half, and in the third, she went at Holm, who popped her repeatedly with jabs and straight lefts from the outside. Clearly unable to box with Holm, Saccurato's only chance of success was in turning the fight into a street fight, but after several toe-to-toe exchanges, it was plain to see that Saccurato's attempts to maul and brawl were no match for Holm's faster, harder-hitting combinations.

So, Saccurato tried to spoil Holm's pretty, pugilistic performance with a stanza sullied with several attempts of hitting-and-holding. Tying up Saccurato in close, Holm kept to the outside where she made the fight look easy.

In the fifth and sixth, Holm, making Saccurato miss with reaching overhands and hooks to the body, poured it on with increasing right hooks, at least two of which rocked Saccurato. The White Plains fighter, losing round after round, continued to hit and hold.

In the seventh, Referee Rocky Burke, tired of warning Saccurato, zapped her with a one-point deduction, though she was on her way to possibly winning the round, opening it up with a solid lead right uppercut. A straight right also landed for Saccurato but Holm's punch output and footwork made it look easy for her.

In the final three rounds, Holm slowed down somewhat but continued to deposit rounds in the bank by catching a growing-desperate Saccurato coming in. To her credit, Saccurato, though looking exasperated, continued to come forward and did not give up-though it was a clearly losing battle.

At the end of ten, the judges ranged from 98-91, twice, to 97-92, all for Holm. NewMexicoBoxing/FightNews (NMB/FN), however, was hard-pressed to give Saccurato a single round, scoring it 99-90 for Holm, with the one-point deduction in round seven.

"I knew she was gonna be wild," said Holm, who rises to 17-1-2 (5 KOs) and adds the WBC, WIBA, IFBA, IBA and GBU 147-pound belts to a trophy case that already contains the WBA welter, IFBA Jnr middle and IBA junior welter belts.

"So, I didn't want to stand there and brawl with her the whole time. She rang my bell a couple times-not really bad-but I felt I had her hurt at least twice.

"The win feels great. I feel great. I wanted to win, not only for my family, friends and myself, but for women's boxing. I think this was a big step for the sport."

Backstage, Saccurato said she was disappointed with her showing:

"I thought it was a close fight, but I felt I did not perform at my usual high caliber. I wasn't getting my shots off right and I caught myself thinking too much.

"It wasn't my night-but the bottom line is, the show was a step forward for women's boxing. Let's do it again."

Saccurato, while dropping a notch to 12-2-2 (5 KOs), still hangs on to a world title-the WBC-at lightweight.

[Rick Scharmberg]

B. Singh: Who wrote that article for the Trinidad Express? I want to tell them that they did a good job of describing what they saw, but there is no credit on the article.

[B. Singh]

Ian Prescott most likely.

His email: iprescott.trinidadexpress.com

If the mail (his mail does not always work) is returned you can email Marlon Miller, Sports Editor at [e-mail] asking him to forward the email to Mr. Prescott

[Rick Scharmberg]

Thank you B. I hope it isn't the same guy I previously ripped! :-)