Brooklyn Barwick to Stay Active

Brooklyn "The Big Deal" Barwick is scheduled to fight Kelly Valentina Roldan in Medellin, Colombia on August 16. Brooklyn has two more fights scheduled: one for September and another in October.

Barwick, a 25 year old based in New York, has a record of 2-0 with 2 KOs. She is a come-forward chainsaw, who showed an upgraded boxing ability in her Team Combat League debut last month. She faces Roldan, a 26 year old Colombian whose record is listed as 3-1.

BoxRec says Roldan won her first three fights, all in Colombia this year. In her last fight on June 14, the site says she lost a close decision to "Pink Tyson," Kallia Kourouni.

Brooklyn plans to be very active with a fight scheduled on September 13, also in Medellin. Her opponent is slated to be Mileydis Mercado. Mercado went pro in 2017 and has an 0-4 record. She has been stopped all four times in the first round against opposition with a combined record of 12-3-1 before they faced her.

Barwick then is penciled in to fight on October 11 in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, Mexico. Her first two fights took place there. No opponent has yet been announced for this one.

Barwick is accruing experience the right way, by challenging herself in the ring. She's making up for lost time, having started boxing just two years ago. In an era when it's tough to get fights, Barwick is learning her craft on the job, which is the best way to improve.

All of her fights are scheduled for four two-minute rounds in the junior featherweight division.

Legendary Promoter Don Elbaum, 93, Dies

"I lost an old friend Don Elbaum today, as did the sport of boxing, which just became less interesting and fun," wrote Teddy Atlas upon hearing the news that the eccentric Hall of Fame boxing promoter died yesterday at the age of 93. Elbaum, who promoted boxing events for nearly 70 years, began his legendary career at a time when the International Boxing Club ruled the roost.

Born on August 6, 1932 in Cincinnati, Ohio to a Belgian immigrant named Max and a New Yorker named Sally, Donald Elbaum grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania from the age of 6. Sally was a concert pianist, and Don claimed he was a child prodigy on the piano, first playing at four years old. His uncle Danny Greenstein took him to his first boxing match, and Don fell in love. He claimed to have met the original editor of The Ring, Nat Fleischer, at the age of 13. A lightweight, Don fought numerous times as an amateur before he was shipped out to Korea.

While serving during the Korean war, Elbaum found his calling. He pitted American soldiers and Koreans in boxing matches. When he returned home to the U.S., he began promoting small shows in and around Erie. Elbaum represented both boxing's delightful irreverence and its foundational flaws.

He worked with all-time greats Muhammad Ali, Sonny Liston, Floyd Patterson, and Roberto Duran.  "Sugar" Ray Robinson and Willie Pep too, although both were old enough to be grandfathers at the time. At an honorary dinner, he once presented Robinson with the very gloves Sugar had used in his pro debut... or so he said. Robinson was touched by the gesture until he saw the two gloves. Both were for left hands.

Elbaum occasionally filled in for no-shows on cards he promoted. When a doctor didn't turn up, he fooled the commission by sticking tongue depressors into the mouths of the fighters and deeming them physically fit to fight on his show. He also brought another outlandish future nonagenarian into boxing, an ex-felon named Don King. "And I've been apologizing to the world ever since," Elbaum explained.

A great storyteller, he often blurred the lines between fiction and reality. He hustled, fibbed, and worked hard at his craft. In one feature story, he acknowledged to a writer that he sometimes said he was 45 years old even though he was actually 49. In truth, he was almost 60 at the time. But he promoted thousands of shows, taking risks all the while. He put on nearly 200 shows at the Tropicana in Atlantic City and was elected to that city's boxing Hall of Fame.

In 2019, he was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame. It was the culmination of a colorful career. "He has a core of decency about him," Teddy Atlas said, "having done so many things on a shoestring, living out of a suitcase." The writer Jack Obermayer summed Elbaum up more succinctly, "The bum is a great man."

Paradoxically, Don Elbaum was the archetype of a crusty old amoral boxing promoter and yet he was one of a kind. May his memory be a blessing.

Yan Zak Embarasses Victor Chvarkou

Cruiserweight Yan Zak performed a balletic beatdown of veteran Victor Chvarkou by unanimous decision in a six-rounder at Vere Basketball Palace in Tbilisi, Georgia today. After a slow start, Zak embarrassed his tough Belarusian foe.

Entering the ring to hardcore sounds of No Sons of Mine's Not Meant to Strive, Zak began the fight cautiously. Chvarkou, a 39 year old, feinted, slipped Zak's jab, and used his counter right to carry a slow first round.

After the first, Zak's cornerman Artur Zlatopolsky waved a towel in front of his fighter's face ostensibly to cool him off. Instead, it served to light a fire under the 25 year old Israeli. Zak looked like the Jewish Ali in the second round: boxing, dancing, and punching circles around the befuddled bearded Belarusian.

From the second round onward, the difference in class was as a wide as the Black Sea. Zak's cheetah-like hand-speed made Chvarkou's rather pedestrian punch-quickness look slower than a snail. As a result, Chvarkou decided to keep his hands close to home, only attempting to win in the opening round and at the beginning of the final one.

Zak landed some ridiculous shots. At one point, he connected with a clean lead right, brought his hand back, and smashed the same lead right onto the left side of Chvarkou's skull. Zak hit the target with a counter left uppercut from the outside. He kept both hands down in the pocket and then unleashed a four-punch combination from the oddest angles; each punch hit the mark. He also left his right hand out with his legs in an orthodox stance, but his body titled like a southpaw. Chvarkou was confused and couldn't block the left hook that came out of that bizarre setup.

Zak told The Jewish Boxing Blog he carried an injured right hand into the fight, "So we decided to fight slowly all six rounds. We also wanted experience." The injury explains why he started too slowly in the first and why he didn't press too hard for the knockout. Zak said he couldn't hit hard with the damaged right. The only problem with going rounds against Chvarkou is that Zak is several levels above and could develop some bad habits against lesser opposition It's rare that a 3-0 fighter should step up the competition, but Zak is just that skilled.

The judges' scores were not announced, but Zak won by decision. The JBB scored it 59-55 for Zak. He's 3-0 with 2 KOs. Chvarkou tumbles to 6-26 with 3 KOs.

Yan Zak and Victor Chvarkou Make Weight

Yan Zak and Victor Chvarkou both made the cruiserweight limit of 200 pounds ahead of their clash tomorrow at Vere Basketball Palace in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Zak, a 25 year old Israeli with a 2-0 record, has weighed 199.3 and 200.3 pounds in his two pro fights, according to BoxRec. He arrived in Tbilisi on Tuesday. This will be his second prizefight in the city.

Chvarkou is a 39 year old Belarusian with a ton of experience. His 6-25 record belies his quality as a fighter. He has almost always been the B-side in the opponent’s hometown. As a result, he’s been ripped off more than once.

Chvarkou has typically fought as a heavyweight but has campaigned in the cruiserweight division more and more. Two hundred pounds is still on the lighter side for the bearded Belarusian, who has another fight scheduled for September 13.

Zak-Chvarkou is scheduled for six rounds. Visit here for a preview.