Jamie Cox Crushes Ferenc Albert: Calls Out The Best At 168 Pounds

By Peter Silkov

After a stop and start career, which saw him sidelined by injuries in 2012 and 2014, Jamie Cox (20-0, 12koes) is a man in a hurry, and proved it again last night when he successfully defended his WBO European super-middleweight title with a clinical 68 second knockout at Dublin’s National Stadium.  Hungarian challenger, Ferenc Albert (20-8, 9koes), barely got the chance to throw a punch before Cox’s punches had him on the floor.  The first knockdown came from a right hook to the head, which seemed to just clip Ferenc.  Ferenc bravely beat the count, but was then flattened by another right hook that caught him squarely on the jaw, and sent him down with a thud, with his head bouncing on the canvas.  It was a nasty knockout, and unsurprisingly, referee Mickey Vann abandoned the count at two.  This was Cox’s 3rd straight 1st round knockout since his return from his period of inactivity, which has seen him have just 4 fights in the past four years. 

Originally a light-middleweight and ex-Commonwealth champion at that weight, Cox has come back from his spells of enforced absence a more muscular and stronger fighter, whose mixture of speed and power at super-middleweight is fast making him one of the most talked 168-pound fighters in the country.  It’s not so much who he has beaten, but the way he has been beating them.  Albert was a respectable opponent who had won his last 10 fights, and in contrast to Cox, was having his 13th fight this year.  Unfortunately for Albert, it turned out to be unlucky 13 for him, as he never had a chance against Cox’s sizzling power.

At the age of 29,  Cox is in a hurry to make up for lost time, and says that he is ready for anyone now at 168 pounds. In Liverpool on the same night, Callum Smith produced a spectacular performance of his own, to stop his Liverpool rival, Rocky Fielding, in the 1st round, and claim the vacant British super-middleweight title.  There may well be a clamour now for a showdown between Smith and Cox, in what could be a huge domestic match. After his performance against Ferenc, Cox was in no doubt about his credentials, telling Box Nation, in his post fight interview:

“If that was Smith or Fielding in there tonight they’d have been knocked out as well.  The winner out of those two is not the best in the country and the public know it. I have too much power for them.  I’m the best and when I get my chance I’ll prove it.

After being out of the ring for a while, I’ve returned this year with three first round knockouts, I mean serious business at super-middleweight, and I’m going to win a world title. I’ll fight anyone at 168 pounds in the world right now, give me the opportunity and I’ll prove it! That’s a promise!”

Ironically, Cox’s biggest problem at the moment is his recent devastating success.  He has gone less than 3 competitive rounds in the past 2 years, and could do with more rounds under his belt before he challenges for a world title, but perhaps unsurprisingly, 168-pound fighters are not exactly lining up asking to fight Cox. 
The answer could well be a showdown with Callum Smith, if boxing politics allow it.  Yet, that too looks like a fight which could end early. 

Certainly Cox is an exciting addition to the 168-pound scene, which at the moment seems to be exploding domestically with possible world class talent. There is James Degale, who already holds a world title at 168-pounds (the IBF title) then a little way behind Degale is George Groves, who was very unlucky not to win the WBC title recently against Badou Jack, and Martin Murray, who challenges veteran WBO champion Arthur Abraham, on November 21st.   Now, both Callum Smith and Jamie Cox are vying to break through into world class in the very near future. 

The chances are that Britain will end up with at least one or two more world champions at 168-pounds in the next few months. 

Hopefully, Cox won’t have to wait long to prove his worth on a bigger stage, against a world class opponent. It may be too early to say just how good Jamie Cox is, but his speed and punching power alone, looks to give him a chance at just about anyone at the weight.  What he needs now though is more demanding opposition. The next year looks set to be an explosive one at 168-pounds.

Watch Full Fight:

Copyright © 2015 The Boxing Glove, Inc. Peter Silkov Art. All Rights Reserved. Peter Silkov contributes to www.theboxingglove.com

Randolph Turpin: The Leamington Licker

 By Peter Silkov

Randy Turpin was undoubtedly one of the most exciting and talented fighters that Britain has ever produced. His outstanding and often sensational career was one that burned bright then faded away all too soon and his life ended in tragedy.

Born Randolph Adolphus Turpin on June 7, 1928, in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, Randolph and his two brothers and two sisters were the product of a mixed marriage between their English mother and Guyanese father. His parent’s marriage made for a tough upbringing due to the prejudices of the time. The Turpin’s life became even harder when Randolph’s father died when Randy was just twelve months old, due to the after effects of the gassing he had suffered in WW1. With an early life that was marked by poverty and discrimination, it is perhaps hardly surprising that all three Turpin boys made a career out of boxing. The first to turn professional was elder brother Dick, who would in 1948 became the first boxer of colour to win a British championship. Randy had his first taste of boxing at about nine years of age when he and his brother Jackie (who would himself be a good featherweight fighter) would put on spirited exhibitions against each other on the same bills as Dick’s early professional contests.  After beginning his own official amateur career at the age of twelve, Randy ran up a record of 100 fights, of which he won 95. This culminated in him winning the ABA welterweight championship in 1945 and becoming the youngest winner of that title. Turpin was also the first coloured fighter to win an ABA championship.

Randy, in time, would develop into a sensational boxer-puncher, with a good strong jab, and often underrated technical skills to go with his knockout power in both hands.
Turning professional in 1946, with the nickname ‘The Leamington Licker’, Randy’s rise to the top was swift and impressive, and only checked by his youth.  In his nineteenth contest, he out-pointed the British Middleweight champion Vince Hawkins, in a non-title bout. Randy was still too young, by two years, to fight for the British championship. Three months after his victory over Hawkins, Randy’s older brother Dick out-pointed Hawkins to win the British Middleweight crown. 

Randy had to wait until October 17,1950, before he finally got his shot at the British middleweight title, and took full advantage of it with a 5th round knockout over Albert Finch, who six months earlier had taken the title from Randy’s brother Dick.

The Next nine months would prove to be a blaze of glory for Randy that would highlight and define his career.  On February 27, 1951, Turpin added the European Middleweight title to his collection, when he knocked out Luc Van Dam in the 1st round. After four more quick wins inside the distance, including a defence of his European championship, Turpin was matched with Sugar Ray Robinson for the World middleweight championship.  When Turpin entered the ring with Robinson on July 10, 1951, in London’s Earls Court, Sugar Ray was already a legend of the ring, with just one defeat in 131 professional contests (and that had been 8 years before) and universally acknowledged as the greatest boxer in the world pound-for-pound.  Yet, Turpin, confident of his own ability, and trained to a peak of fitness like he would perhaps never be again, gave one of the greatest performances ever seen by a British boxer, to dethrone the seemingly invincible Sugar Ray. Randy surprised Robinson with his confidence, his speed, strength, and both out-punched and out-boxed the champion, so that by the later rounds, Robinson was fighting just to survive the distance. He was winning so clearly, that Turpin was being hailed by the Earls Court crowd as the new champion, long before the 15 rounds were over.

Following his win over Robinson, Randy, already a popular fighter in Britain, became an overnight sensation and celebrity, with seemingly the world at his feet. However, he was contracted to give Robinson a rematch within 90 days, and on September 12, 1951, at the Polo Grounds Stadium, New York, Robinson snatched back his World middleweight title with a controversial 10th round stoppage. The fight had been evenly contested for much of the early rounds, even though Turpin was not reproducing the form of their first match, he was still holding his own with Robinson, who was still finding him difficult to deal with.  In the 10th round, things changed when a Turpin punch (although Robinson would later say he had been butted) opened up a bad cut over Sugar Ray’s left eye, sending blood pouring down his face. The blood sent Robinson into a fighting frenzy, and he went after Turpin and unleashed a barrage of punches, culminating in a right hand that drove Turpin to the canvas. Although Turpin beat the count, he was still visibly groggy and Robinson renewed his assault, driving Randy onto the ropes, and throwing punch after punch onto Turpin. The cornered Turpin laid and sagged against the ropes, as he tried to block and dodge some of the punches coming his way.  

After Turpin had been under this attack for some 30 seconds, the referee Ruby Goldstein stepped in, and halted the fight. There was eight seconds left to go in the round.  Questions about whether Turpin should have been stopped or whether he should have been allowed to continue have persisted to this day.  Given the chance, he may well have recovered during the minutes rest between rounds, while Robinson, after having thrown so many punches and badly cut, maybe have shot his bolt.

In only sixty-four days, Turpin’s world title was gone, and he was left with just the fame and in some cases notoriety that his initial victory over Robinson had gained for him.  Randy was soon to find that the various pressures and pleasures of fame were not conductive to a successful boxing career.  Although he would win other titles over the next few years, including the European middleweight title, and the British and Commonwealth light-heavyweight titles, Turpin would never again be world champion, despite all of his ability.

 When Sugar Ray Robinson retired, while still world champion in late 1952, Randy was given a great chance to regain the World middleweight title when he fought Carl ’Bobo’ Olson for the vacant championship on October 21, 1953, at Madison Square Gardens,  in New York.  Randy’s preparations for this fight were left in disarray by personal problems outside of the ring and quarreling within his camp. After making a good start for the first four rounds, the inadequately trained Turpin faded under the constant pressure of Olson and spent much of the remaining fight pinned onto the ropes, and under attack from the rugged Olson. On his way to losing a wide point’s decision, Randy was floored in the 9th and 10th rounds and made groggy by Olson on numerous other occasions, and in the end, only his heart allowed him to last the distance.

This defeat would quicken the decline, which set in following Turpin’s fights with Robinson.  Seven months after his loss to Olson, Randy lost his European middleweight title to Tiberio Mitri, when he was shockingly knocked out in 65 seconds of the 1st round. The Mitri defeat signaled the end of Turpin as a world-class operator; although he did manage to comeback and win the British and Commonwealth light-heavyweight titles, he was only a shadow of the fighter who had beaten Sugar Ray Robinson. 

Randy’s last official fight took place on September 9, 1958, when he was knocked out in the 2nd round by the heavy-punching Trinidadian, Yolande Pompey, after having Pompey down in the opening round. 

Turpin would have two more fights that were unlicensed by the BBBC, but the Pompey defeat was really the end. His final record was 66(45koes)-8-1.

In retirement, Turpin discovered how fast fair-weather friends and hangers-on disappear when the paydays and fame come to an end. In the early 1960’s, the one-time star of the boxing ring, was reduced to taking part in wrestling contests, in an effort of make ends meet.  In debt and being chased by the taxman for money, which he claimed he had never received, Turpin was found dead of gunshot wounds to the chest and head on May 17, 1966, and the coroner ruled his death as a suicide.

Although his life took a dark and tragic turn, Randolph Turpin still ranks as one of Britain’s greatest and most exciting fighter of modern times, and his victory over Sugar Ray Robinson, arguably the finest ever by a British boxer.

Copyright © 2014 The Boxing Glove, Inc. Peter Silkov Art. All Rights Reserved. Peter Silkov contributes to www.theboxingglove.com and www.theboxingtribune.com

Martin Gethin vs. Derry Mathews: Winner Takes All

By Peter Silkov

This Saturday night, May 10, will see an intriguing clash for the British lightweight championship, between defending champion Martin Gethin and challenger Derry Mathews, at the atmospheric Olympia arena in Liverpool, Merseyside. In an era filled with far too many superfluous titles, the British championship still holds a special place in boxing. This title has a prestige that comes from a deep and storied history, and physically, it is by far the most aesthetically impressive of all the many championship belts in boxing today. Hardly surprising, contests for a British championship often turn out to be classics, and Saturday’s meeting between Gethin and Mathews promises to be no different.

Both boxers have good skill levels, but usually prefer to turn their fights into physical brawls, with this taken into account and looking at both fighters styles, it seems almost impossible for this clash to be anything other than exciting,

Each man goes into this fight with something to prove. With  the domestic lightweight division  busting at the seams and the amount of talent that there is in the division at the moment, a win for either man will catapult him into the upper ratings of the division, and the promise of bigger fights in the future.  However, the loser will be relegated to the back of the queue; regarding the domestic pecking order of the division.

The stakes are high for both men in this match, each coming into it off a loss, and know that two losses in a row will represent a significant career setback. Gethin’s most recent outing was on May 31, 2013, when he was knocked out in the 7th round by Ammeth Diaz, in an IBF World lightweight title eliminator, while Mathews’ last fight on December 7, 2013, saw him losing on points to Stephen Ormond, for the WBO European lightweight championship. 

Although he is the defending British champion, Gethin is in some ways the division’s forgotten man, as fighters such as Anthony Crolla, Tommy Coyle, Kevin Mitchell, John Murray, Gavin Rees, Ricky Burns, and Mathews, have all enjoyed higher profiles recently than the current British champion has. 

‘Dirty’ Derry Mathews is one of the most popular and familiar faces at lightweight, with a colourful, up and down career, that stretches back to 2003, and has seen him score wins over Rees, Crolla, and Coyle amongst others. Mathews is the kind of fighter who entertains the fans; win, lose or draw, his fights are never dull, even if he is having a bad night.  During 2008 to 2010, Mathews’ career seemed to be all but over, after he lost 5 out of 8 fights, but he came back with some of his career best performances, to revitalise his career, and become a firm favourite with the fans.  

2013 was a kind of year that sums up Derry’s career, highs and lows, amidst constant drama, and action.  Mathews fought a controversial draw with Anthony Crolla in March, for the Commonwealth title, he then won the vacant Commonwealth title in July, when he came from behind to knockout Tommy Coyle in the 10th round.  Mathews then defended the Commonwealth title in September, with an impressive 4rd round knockout of Curtis Woodhouse (who has since gone on to win the British light-welterweight title) then came the December defeat to Stephen Ormand, in which Mathews broke his hand, and looked to be suffering the effects of a busy and punishing year. In March, while he was still recovering from having his injured hand operated on, Mathews suffered the added setback of being stripped of his Commonwealth lightweight title, when it was deemed that he would not be ready in time to defend against mandatory challenger, Richard Commey.  Ironically, Mathews’contest against Gethin on Saturday is a week before Commey fights Benjamin Ashley for the now vacant Commonwealth lightweight championship on May 17.

2014 has already given us a number of ‘fights of the year’ candidates at lightweight, with Gavin Rees vs. Gary Buckland, Anthony Crolla vs. John Murray, and Tommy Coyle vs. Daniel Brizuela.  Come Saturday, the chances are that there will be another classic fight to add to this list.  Both Mathews and Gethin have similar boxer-fighter styles and like to mix it up whenever possible. Mathews has an edge in skills and experience at the highest level, and the fact that he will be fighting in front of his own Liverpool crowd, will also be a distinct bonus for Mathews.

While Gethin will be looking to gain some recognition of his own by beating Mathews tomorrow, Mathews in turn, will be aiming to get his career back on track with a win over Gethin, which will get him closer to his dream of fighting for the world title before he retires. 

Derry Mathews has said that if he loses to Martin Gethin tomorrow he will probably retire from the sport, but Mathews should have too much experience and overall ability for Gethin, and should find himself a winner on points, or via a late round stoppage, in what is likely to be another colourful chapter in Derry Mathews ring history.

         

Copyright © 2014 The Boxing Glove, Inc. Peter Silkov Art. All Rights Reserved. Peter Silkov contributes to www.theboxingglove.com and www.theboxingtribune.com