David Alaverdian Back in Action This Saturday

David Alaverdian is scheduled to fight on Saturday, December 3 against Edgar Mendoza Hernandez at Auditorio Ernesto Rufo in Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico. Both men fought on the same card on November 11 in Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico.

David Alaverdian (6-0-1, 5 KOs) is a 29 year old from Nahariya, Israel. On November 11, the judges called his fight with Angel Geovanny Meza Morales a split draw. It was a horrible decision meant to save the local kid's undefeated record. Alaverdian landed about as many punches as Meza threw. The judges seemed to discount David's jab completely. The Jewish Boxing Blog scored it 59-55 for Alaverdian.

Edgar Mendoza (3-8, 1 KO), nicknamed Torito, is a 29 year old from Mexico City, Mexico. Torito translates to "little bull," and it isn't an apt description of Mendoza. A tall super flyweight, Mendoza is best on the outside keeping his opponent at range.

Teddy Atlas and Emanuel Steward, both legendary trainers and tv analysts, used to say they preferred taller fighters. But taller fighters tend to have skinny legs and at times Mendoza has exhibited the grace of a newborn fawn while circling the perimeter of the ring. In his 2015 debut against Edgar Hernandez Villanueva, Mendoza traded too often with his shorter foe and lost a majority decision.

On November 11, Mendoza was beaten badly by Ernesto Garcia, an aggressive fighter who switches stances like Alaverdian, and cuts off the ring well. Torito showed heart and a willingness to trade while under fire, but he was officially knocked down three times in under two rounds of action. His corner mercifully stopped the contest.

This is the right opponent on the right timeline for Alaverdian after that frustrating draw. Mendoza, a tall guy who lets his hands go, of course has a puncher's chance, but he boasts of only one KO in eleven fights. He is tough however, only stopped twice.

News and Notes

Shawn Sarembock, a 31 year old junior middleweight, had been tentatively scheduled to fight on December 16, but his bout has been pushed back to January although nothing is official yet. Check out his interview last month with The Jewish Boxing Blog.

Yuri Foreman worked with his old trainer Joe Grier this past week. Grier, who is retired, helped Foreman win the WBA junior middleweight world championship in 2009. Grier threw in the towel after Foreman tore his ACL in his first title defense against Miguel Cotto in Yankee Stadium. In so doing, Grier attempted to save his fighter by stopping the fight in the eighth round, but referee Arthur Mercante Jr. inexplicably rejected the towel and forced the fight to continue. Foreman, normally an agile boxer, was a sitting duck because of his compromised leg.

David Kaminsky, a 22 year old super middleweight, had surgery this week to repair a torn ACL and MCL. Despite the injuries, he attempted to fight on October 8th, but the California State Athletic Commission won't allow him to enter the ring until his injuries are surgically repaired. The absolute minimum timetable to rehabilitate after ACL surgery is six months, but a year is closer to the norm.

Frustratingly Unfair Decisions

There is an old anti-Semitic trope that asserts Jews run the world, and since boxing is part of the world, they run boxing, too. This line of thinking is particularly deleterious, because it casts suspicion on any individual Jew who achieves success. At one time, Jews were certainly overrepresented as boxing promoters, but overrepresentation, of course, does not equal control.

If, for some peculiar reason, we accept the anti-Semites' view that Jews control boxing, it certainly hasn't helped Jewish boxers. This year has seen several frustratingly bad decisions go against Jewish fighters.

The worst decision came in Poland this past March. Igor Lazarev dominated the local kid, Dominik Harwankowski. The Jewish Boxing Blog scored the bout 59-55 for Lazarev, but the local judges disagreed. Eugeniusz Tuszynski, Tomasz Chwoszcz, and Arek Malek scored the fight 59-55, 58-56, and 58-56 respectively for their fellow countryman. The JBB soon learned that Arek Malek had a significant conflict of interest considering he was Harwankowski's mentor.

On November 11, David Alaverdian showed off his skills against local prospect Angel Geovanny Meza Morales in Mexico. The JBB scored the fight 59-55 for Alaverdian. The judges' scores are a bit of a mystery, but one had it 59-55 one way, another scored it 56-58 the other way, and the third judge saw it 57-57 for a spit draw.

The most bizarre incident dates to Mor Oknin's fight on February 26 in Agua Prieta, Mexico. Oknin claims he defeated Jose Cariaga by fourth round TKO. BoxRec lists the result as a third round TKO victory for Cariaga. The JBB investigated and was told by an editor of BoxRec that the site has "lots of problems with wrong reports." BoxRec posts whatever result the local commission reports. This fall, Oknin told The JBB that an effort to overturn the result was ongoing.

There has been no evidence of anti-Semitism as a motivation for any of these bad decisions. They were almost certainly erroneous decisions made to favor the local fighter regardless of the background of the opponent. The pro game is so decentralized that local commissions can pretty much do whatever they want. 

Jewish boxers also suffered from bad decision in amateur boxing this year. During the European Amateur Championships in May, Alaverdian and Miroslav Kapuler were the victims of curious judging. In Alaverdian's fight, two judges inconceivably scored the third round for his opponent. Kapuler clearly controlled the second round of his bout, but two judges inexplicably scored the round for his opponent. Judge Johany Maden of France was the common denominator in both decisions, scoring against the Israelis regardless of their performance in the ring.

The IBA, which ran the European amateur champions, is so corrupt it has been barred from running the Olympic boxing tournament. That corruption is the likely culprit for those bad decisions.

For all the power a faceless group of Jews supposedly possesses, it sure hasn't helped actual Jewish boxers. Those boxers have been on the short end of some terrible decisions this year, not because of their religious persuasion, but because the amateur game is shrouded in corruption and the pro game is so decentralized that results are determined by the whims of individual commissions.