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MADHOUSE MAULINGS
Brady Beats “Showman” Bowman by Bombing Body
and Fighting Foul;
Payne Wins by DQ by Shoving Drama King
Caballero
text
and photos by chris cozzone
Last night, in front of a 1,500 or so crowd
at Isleta Casino south of Albuquerque, the undefeated
“Assassin,” Joseph Brady, upped his record to an even dozen
in a fight that ended after an unbecoming shot south of the
beltline rendered opponent Anthony “the Showman’ Bowman
unable to continue.
It was classic Joseph Brady: Brady fighting a
much shorter blown-up welter or jr. welter; fighting a late
replacement; Brady showing heart and taking care of
business, but when threatened, adding unnecessary fouling to
his arsenal; and, in the end, Brady picking up another ‘W.’
In this case, the foe was last-minute sub
Anthony Bowman.
Bowman was in
Phoenix Tuesday night, matched up against Ian Mac Killop,
who’d pulled out at the last minute. It was there he met
Lenny Fresquez, who routinely collects fighters’ phone
numbers for future match-ups. It was a good thing he’d
gotten Bowman’s number, for, one day later, Brady’s
opponent, Cuban Giorbis Barthelemy had been arrested for
unknown charges in
Miami.
Barthelemy, who’d replaced Alfred Ankamah, who’d pulled out
with a broken foot the week before, was now out of the
picture.
Bowman flew back home to
Jackson, Tennessee on Wednesday morning and, after an 8-hour
work shift, got the message from his foreman: “A guy named
Fresquez called. You want to go to Albuquerque to fight some
Joseph Brady guy for three thousand?”
Bowman had never heard of Brady but accepted,
anyway. He was on a red-eye flight from
Jackson at
3:30 in the morning and made it to ‘Burque in time for the
weigh-ins Thursday afternoon.
 Bowman had everything working against him:
his height, his weight class, his record, and the fact that
he was fighting in Brady’s hometown. Still, he figured he’d
give his best, despite the warning that came backstage just
minutes before he was scheduled to make his entrance to the
ring.
“Watch out! This bullshit town is gonna
hometown your ass!”
The warning came from one of Agustin
Caballero’s out-of-town cornermen, a few minutes after the
ancient fighter had been DQ’d by ref Larry Chavez (see
details further on in the report for that fight.)
The warning didn’t faze Bowman; he’d already
figured he needed a knockout to beat Joe Brady—and that’s
exactly how he fought; like he was trying to take off the
Assassin’s head. He gave it a good shot, too. After the
first five rounds, I had the fight dead even.
Bowman set the pace in the 1st,
taking the round by landing powerful shots on a Brady that
was trying to figure out his foe’s style. In the final
minute, Bowman landed a left hook that sent Brady crashing
into the ropes—the knockdown was ruled otherwise, the ref
saying that the punch landed to the back of Brady’s head.
(If it did, it did not appear intentional; Bowman’s people
claim it landed behind Brady’s ear.) Nevertheless, Brady got
up, unhurt, and the fight resumed.
In the 2nd, Brady squeaked by,
doing just enough to win the round. Bowman controlled the
first half, coming at Brady, landing loopy lefts and
overhand rights then rolling with Brady’s punches, looking
slicker than anyone would’ve thought. Brady had developed
his strategy by the middle of the round, and started to
establish the pace by outboxing Bowman on the outside. The 3rd
was a repeat of the 2nd, Bowman’s bombs against
Brady’s outpointing make it a difficult round to score.
There was no doubt who won the 4th:
Bowman started things off by landing an overhand right that
sent Brady clear across the ring. Bowman went in for the
kill and had Brady in some trouble when pinning him against
the ropes and letting loose with a flurry of punches.
Brady, trying to weather Bowman’s storm,
retaliated by smashing Bowman to the back of the head four
or five times when ref Rocky Burke was trying to break them
up. Brady’s blatant fouls earned him a point off.
Unfortunately, it would be the only time in
the fight that the ref would warn, let alone penalize, Brady
for his continued fouling. Brady was given free reign to do
what he liked for the duration.
Bowman took the 5th off while
Brady started to build confidence boxing from outside the
pocket. Despite his 5’7” height to Brady’s 6’, the “Showman”
was showing the crowd that he wasn’t going to let Brady off
that easy.
The 6th was another close one, but
non-eventful, Brady landing more shots but Bowman’s overhand
rights the better shots, by far. By the 7th,
though, Bowman had slowed down too much, and Brady started
to show total control.
Now that he was clearly winning, he also, for
some reason, started to foul even more. Rounds 7 and 8 had
Brady hitting and holding. Amazingly, the ref actually
warned Bowman for holding at one point.
 As Bowman started to wilt—and as Brady’s
superior size and height started to take a heavy toll—Brady
started to dominate. In the 9th, he landed a body
shot that echoed off the far back wall. Bowman fell into
survival mode as the Assassin rushed in to finish his foe.
Bowman took a knee (and another shot for good
measure when down); then another knee, after Brady continued
to back his opponent up, wailing away at him with body
blows. Somehow, he survived.
In the 10th, Brady jumped all over
Bowman, looking to finish him off. Pinning him against the
ropes he let loose a flurry to the body, with one punch
landing square on Bowman’s nads.
Down he went (while Brady hit him a couple
more times), before falling face down onto the canvas.
Nearly sobbing from the pain, Bowman swore and writhed and
grimaced for nearly ten minutes before he could get to his
feet. Clearly unable to continue, the fight went to the
scorecards.
All three judges had it for Brady: 98-88,
96-91 and 98-89.
Backstage, Bowman was cursing, spitting, and
clutching his squashed jewels.
“I’m gonna get him,” he swore, going on to
say that after years of football, he’d never been hit like
that in the balls. I want to come back and fight for that
belt of his. I’m gonna get him . . .”
Bowman and trainer Bill Johnson were also
convinced he’d downed Brady in the 1st with a
left hook, and that throughout the fight, the referee had
been blatantly favoring the hometown fighter.
“He ain’t nuthin’,” said Bowman. “He couldn’t
take my overhand rights and had to resort to fouling.”
Although he was checked out by the ringside
doc (who jokingly told him he’d be lucky if he’d have sex
again in the next ten years,) Bowman still in a great deal
of pain later on that night, went to the emergency room at 2
in the morning when he discovered his penis bleeding.
Joseph Brady, after the fight, was less eager
to talk about the fight than he was to apologize for
comments made against Cubans earlier in the week.
“I’m not racist,” said Brady. “I apologize to
the Cuban people. I didn’t mean what I said.”
Trainer Jake Valencia said that Brady had
said those remarks only to motivate himself for his fight
against Cuban Giorbis Barthelemy.
And as far as Anthony Bowman went?
“He was a slick fighter, and tougher than his
record showed,” said Brady after the fight. “It must be all
the tough sparring he does down South.
“He gave a good brawl and he can hit hard. I
give him credit. But I was going to knock him out with body
shots. That last shot wasn’t low. I hit him on the side of
the hip. It was all the body blows that had him going down.”
No doubt about it, Brady did win his
fight; he did put Bowman down twice with body shots;
and he was on his way to finishing up when the low
blow occurred. The low blow might’ve even been
unintentional—it’s only after several rounds of seeing Brady
get away with several fouls that you start to wonder.
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the “Assassin” who
remains undefeated—and remains untested as far as that WBC
FecarBox belt of his is concerned.
The questions remain: Can, and will, Joseph
Brady ever fight a true 154-pounder with a good
record? Someone rated, or has been rated sometime in
the last 20 years? Can, and will, Joseph Brady ever fight a
certain middleweight or two from
Colorado, namely Elco Garcia or Andres Pacheco?
Elco Garcia is highly doubtful.
Garcia was watching the fight up close last
night at Isleta.
“Why does he keep fighting welterweights or
junior welters?” he kept asking me, as if I had the answer.
“Why does he keep calling me out?”
Garcia has had enough. Biting his tongue,
trying not to talk smack, Garcia says he would love
to fight Brady. “Anytime, anywhere,” is the answer—but no,
he’s not going to take the fight last minute. He said he was
called to replace Ankamah but was unable to accept, due to a
nasty cut he received fighting Earl Jackson a couple weeks
ago in Ignacio.
“I refuse to talk smack,” says Garcia. “I do
all my talking in the ring. I let my fists do the talking.”
 A Night at the Theatre, Part II
If some of the scenes of Brady vs. Bowman
could be considered ludicrous, then Payne vs. Caballero
was a complete farce.
It looked a ridiculous father-son match from
the start: undefeated, 28-year-old “Vicious” Vernon Payne up
against the weathered, ancient 44-year-old Agustin
Caballero—a shaky fighter who was
1-8-2 since 1997, his one “win” won by DQ.
For the short while it lasted, it was a dull
fight, with Payne trying to crack Caballero’s southpaw
style, then crack Caballero with a big straight right. But,
the old man’s clinching, hugging and head-butting kept
getting in the way of
Vernon’s plan.
In the 2nd, Caballero lost a point
for holding, but immediately went back to doing so—it was a
only a matter of time before Vern lost his head.
Losing patience happened at exactly
3:00 of the 2nd round, when Payne, sick of
Caballero’s game, shoved the older man. Caballero fell
backward into the ropes, hitting his head on the lower rope,
then on the canvas.
There, he remained, spread-eagled,
spread-armed, like a dead man. The crowd instantly booed and
Payne walked away, visibly disgusted, shaking his head.
 Ref Larry Chavez asked Caballero if he could
continue, and as the Ancient One tried to make it to his
feet, wobbling all over the place in dramatic fashion, he
said no.
So, the ref, no doubt thinking he was faking
(which was not a bad assessment), DQ’d him (which
was a bad assessment.)
Playing the victim, Caballero reacted by
holding his arms out, then wobbled over to the ropes and
dramatically folded himself onto the canvas once more. It
took a couple borrowed cornermen to get him back up and out
of the ring.
“How you do that? How you do that?” Caballero
was asking everyone backstage, seemingly outraged at the DQ.
“He should DQ the other guy—not me! How you fight like that?
Why he push me? This is boxing, not wrestling! I want a
rematch!”
Vern’s reaction was merely another shake of
the head: “When are they gonna give me someone to fight?” he
asked.
Someone next to me whispered, “How ‘bout
Brady?”
 Undercard Saves the Night
High comedy was reserved for the main and
co-main event—last night’s undercard was all action, all
business.
The fights opened up with a junior
middleweight four-rounder between
Albuquerque’s
Fernando Yguado and
Pueblo’s Phil Gurule.
Yguado was coming off a year layoff and
Gurule, coming off a knockout loss to ‘Burque’s other
‘Mi Vida Loca,’ Lee Montoya.
Gurule came on strong, making the 1st
round a close one, until Yguado swarmed Gurule and put him
down. Yguado went in for the kill at the start of the 2nd,
clubbing Gurule down again, this time for the count.
At :59, Yguado was winner by KO.
The 2nd fight was a six-round jr.
welterweight battle between
Pueblo’s
highly-touted Stevie Marquez and
Albuquerque’s
Nazareth Rojas.
 Got to admit, I thought Marquez would destroy
Rojas in a round or two. But Naz not only survived, he won
most of the rounds and put on a boxing clinic. I had to eat
plenty of crow when I went backstage to congratulate Rojas.
Hell, I’m still spitting out black feathers . . . .
Rojas showed Marquez who was boss in the 1st,
downing his man with body shots. To his credit, Marquez
listened to his cornermen who were shouting “Suck it up!”
and hurled himself at Naz, backing him up for the first time
near the end of the round.
Rojas boxed beautifully in the 2nd,
staying in front of Marquez but counter-punching his way to
winning the round. Marquez seemed tired, and he seemed
reluctant to keep his gloves up.
The 3rd was slower-paced, but with
Marquez coming forward and Naz taking it to him before
moving out of range. Rojas kept to plan in the 4th,
popping away at Marquez with jabs and short combinations.
Marquez was blowing wind by the middle of the
4th, visibly short of breath. Still, he managed
to take the 5th round to Rojas, scoring big right
hands.
Rojas was back on track in the 6th
and final round, outboxing Marquez who no longer had the
energy to launch anything at Naz.
All three judges had it for Rojas: 58-57,
58-55 and 59-54.
Records can be deceiving: Naz’s 5-4 record
does little to show his vast improvement over the course of
his three fights this year.
“I heard he was a tough dude, but with my
cornermen, we knew we could do it,” Rojas said after the
fight. “I was surprised, though, when I put him down in the
1st.”
Marquez said that Rojas had caught him right
in the bread basket, forcing him to take a knee seconds
later. Marquez also said that he’d been six pounds
overweight the day before, and that he’d had to lose the
weight last minute.
“We thought the fight was at 145-146,” said
Marquez, who’d originally been scheduled to fight Jeremiah
Torres, who’d pulled out. “They never told us we’d be
fighting Rojas at 140-142.”
Marquez also damaged his right hand in the 3rd.
He was icing his blown-up knuckles immediately after the
fight. Although he gave props to Rojas, he said he’d love to
come back for a rematch.
Rojas vs. Marquez warmed things up for the
long-awaited pro debut of the “Hurricane,” Hector Munoz.
 Sporting garb worthy of an HBO-contracted
fighter (that must’ve had a total value equivalent to, say,
one to two years of boxing paydays under the Fresquez
banner, depending, of course, on how active,) Munoz gave the
crowd what they wanted to see: a few moves and a knockout.
Opponent and overblown lightweight Tony Loudy (now 0-3, all from
knockouts) was game but damn it all, just can’t take a
punch. He was down from a left hook in the 1st
and could not get anywhere near Munoz who was zappin’ inside
the range, hitting Loudy, then moving away.
Loudy did what he could in the 2nd,
trying to crowd Munoz but after a counter-flurry, Loudy was
on the canvas for the count.
 Munoz, who will be back in action next month,
scores a KO on his first pro fight.
The final undercard saw the return of “El
Diablo” Alex Becerra, who was coming off a tough knockout
loss in September. Up against rugged veteran Len Martinez,
Becerra was anxious to redefine himself.
Becerra was not going to lose last
night. Although scheduled for eight rounds, the fight lasted
but
2:21.
Becerra, showing a sharp defense, and a
furious attack, took down
Martinez
three times before the fight was stopped.
“I came back hungry,” Becerra said after the
fight. “We’ve been working on my mistakes and I was anxious
to prove myself again.”
Becerra rises to 11-2, with 5 KO’s.
# # #
Quick
Results
Joseph
Brady
(12-0, 5 KO's)
10 UD
Anthony Bowman
(6-4-2, 2 KO's)
Vernon Payne
(9-0, 4 KO's)
DQ 2 over
Agustin Caballero
(17-15-2)
Alex "El Diablo" Becerra
(11-2, 5 KO's)
KO 1 Len Martinez
(17-15-1)
"Hurricane" Hector Munoz
(1-0, 1 KO)
KO 2
Tony Loudy
(0-3)
Fernando Yguado
(4-4, 4 KO's)
KO 2
Phil Gurule
(0-2)
Nazareth Rojas
(5-5, 2 KO's)
UD 6
Stevie Marquez
(1-1, 1 KO) |
