Brooklyn Barwick to Face Alejandra Marruffo Tomorrow

Brooklyn Barwick is scheduled to face Alejandra Marruffo tomorrow at Salon CTM in San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora, Mexico.

A 25 year old, Barwick is making her pro debut tomorrow. She had a few fights on the influencer circuit. Her opponent, Marruffo, is a 32 year old from nearby Magdalena, Sonora.

Marruffo fought Alison Jazmin Correa last November and lost by first round TKO. Based on her lone pro performance, Marruffo didn't have the proper coaching beforehand. She dropped her hands and slapped and swiped at Correa, leaving herself open for counters. Marruffo was game and showed courage to get into the ring, though.

Barwick-Marruffo will be streamed on the JR Boxing Promotions Facebook page.

The Indominable Drive of Yonatan Landman

Good luck finding a harder worker than Yonatan Landman.

"Yonatan always trains hard," fellow Israeli flyweight David Alaverdian told The Jewish Boxing Blog. "I've never seen someone work as hard as him. It's like, does this guy take a day off?"

Under the guidance of his father Shai, Yonatan is currently training in upstate New York. "It can't just be shadowboxing, hitting the pads, and working the bag. You have to do different things," Landman told The JBB over the phone. "We're in the woods, so I'm cutting wood with an ax. It's fun."

Fun? Only a laser-focused laborer would think chopping wood is fun.

Landman trains as Luis Ortiz looks on,
5th St, Gym, Miami

Yonatan is unassuming. He looks like a guy you would cheat off of during a test in school, donning a shock of red hair on his head. During an in-ring interview after one fight, he was asked, "Why do they call you 'The redhead boxer?'" The 20 year old from Kiryat, Israel politely retorted, "Well, I have red hair, and I'm a boxer."

Landman's training regime is intense. In addition to shadowboxing, hitting the pads, working the bag, and cutting wood, he does pushups, uses bands, repeatedly beats a tire with a hammer, uses dumbbells to strengthen his wrists, works his neck, does balance exercises, explosive force drills, and  mimics getting knocked out by having to box while dizzy.

Is he worried about overtraining? "David has talked to us about overtraining," Landman said of Alaverdian. "We take off holidays."

Shabbat is treated as a day of rest, and he takes off a week every several months. Landman says that if he tells his dad he's tired, they do a lighter exercise. When a fighter has to try to convince you he doesn't work quite so hard, you know he's as diligent as they come.

Landman trains incredibly hard for two reasons. "To be the best," he said matter-of-factly. "Also, I started late. Ninety percent of boxers start at a young age," he said of the second reason. "They start in a good place like the U.S. Israel doesn't have the same level of coaching as elsewhere. I started at 15." He's ambitious and making up for lost time.

Landman was a national champion kickboxer before switching to boxing. "It was a difficult transition in the first year," he said. The stance is different, there's a lot of jumping in kickboxing, and it requires one to be bulkier and stronger. To box, one needs to be fast and accurate. Yonatan and his father Shai realized there was nowhere else to go in kickboxing, and boxing offered recognition and more money. Shai suggested Yonatan should try boxing, and the kid liked it.

Shai, who used to box, graduated from the Wingate Institute, known as the preeminent sports school in Israel. After Yonatan's switch, Shai searched out many boxing coaches for help, not just in Israel, but in Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Germany. Father and son spent two years in London, including at the Finchley club. Shai studiously took notes and videotaped what the coaches were doing. He took pieces from each coach, applying what fit Yonatan's abilities and style.

The story of fathers coaching their sons in boxing is not always a happy one. For every Joe and Enzo Calzaghe, there are plenty of fathers that stymie their son's progress. Even Floyd Mayweather Jr. and his father had trouble working together. But it works for Shai and Yonatan because Shai is willing to learn, and Yonatan is willing to listen. They've shared personal videos of Yonatan's fights with The JBB where Shai can be heard providing instructions during the action. He presses the joystick and Yonatan executes the punches to great effect.

Shai decided his son should turn pro when the ginger-haired warrior was 19. Many people in Israel told him that Yonatan was too young to go pro; he should stay in the amateurs for another four years. "We are going to do something different," Shai declared. Yonatan explained, "Ninety nine percent of boxers in Israel are amateurs, but it's difficult to progress in the amateur system." It's costly, time-consuming, and often times corrupt. Israeli amateur boxing is still affiliated with the discredited International Boxing Association.

Landman has fought professionally in Azerbaijan, Tanzania, and Ghana. He describes the two events in Baku as "well-managed." They had to register, there were doctors, and the competition was run beautifully. However, the opponent pulled out two days before Landman's debut. "Two days before, the guy who made the fight told us, 'The other guy was skiing and broke his leg.'" Skiing? he was asked in disbelief. "Yeah, skiing. Who goes skiing two days before a fight?" Fortunately, a replacement was found. Landman dismantled him.

In Tanzania, his fight took place on the island of Zanzibar. And how was it? "Wow, amazing!" The fight was supposed to be right on the beach. The Landmans trained locally for a week, but the venue was changed at the last minute. Father and son always try to watch as much video of the opponent as they can get their hands on. In this fight, they overestimated the Tanzanian opponent who wasn't nearly as strong in real life as on tape.

Ghana, where Yonatan has fought four times, was completely different. Before one weigh-in, he waited for six hours partially dressed in the boiling heat. Things are more open, so lots of people came to see what was happening. Landman loves the excitement the people brought. They often screamed things, sometimes even antisemitic taunts.

Before his last fight in Ghana, the opponent's trainer used pads labeled "Free Palestine" during their warmup and shouted, "Kill all Jews!" Price Patel, a self-assured British-born boxer and promoter who has been instrumental in Landman's career, told the 20 year old, "Don't fucking listen to this guy! If he says it again, give his guy a beating." Landman was so focused, the threats didn't both him in the moment. He carried tzitzit with him to the ring and then administered a proper beatdown.

That resounding victory was the culmination of two fights in Accra within eight days of each other. After defeating Asamoah Wilson in what Yonatan calls his toughest fight, he started training again the next day. His face was marked up, but he worked each day before resting on Friday, two days before the fight. The hotel had a gym, which he utilized frequently although he didn't spar that week.

In his first year as a pro, Landman won seven fights, all by knockout. "He punches hard for his weight," David Alaverdian said. The Landman clan recently spent five weeks in Miami where Yonatan trained at the legendary 5th Street Gym with coach Herman Caicedo and former heavyweight contender Luis Ortiz. Yonatan said both were great guys. He marveled at Caicedo's knowledge and Ortiz's generosity.

Prince Patel applauds after one of Landman's seven victories in 2024

Now, he's in camp up in New York where he said, "I'm making a lot of progress." As for this year, he explained, "We're looking for as many competitions as possible." He and his dad are in the U.S. looking for a good coach, someone with good connections who can take Yonatan to the next level.

One thing's for sure, whoever that coach will be is going to have a tough time finding anyone who works harder than Yonatan Landman.

Joshua Feldman on the Senga Fight

About an hour or so after his unanimous decision victory over Jonas Senga this past Friday, Joshua Feldman seemed to be a bit disappointed in his performance. He felt he could've done better and stopped his opponent.

Asked about why he felt he could've stopped Senga, Feldman told The Jewish Boxing Blog, "I don't know if he didn't want to be there, but I just felt like I wanted to be there more.

"There was a point where I hurt him to the body and I heard him go like [grunt]. I heard him exhale very loudly. It was those kind of moments where if I pushed the gas maybe a little bit more and went downstairs more, I could've forced the stoppage. It would've been hard to put him down. I just don't think he was the type of guy to actually go down. But the ref could've stepped in if I pushed the gas a little bit more."

That very well might be true as Senga visibly tired during the second half of the fight, but he was still dangerous throughout. After watching the fight later, Feldman's assessment changed. 

"It would've been stupid to risk pressing the gas too much in the last round and maybe get knocked out or hurt, because he was a big puncher. I knew if I just boxed and used my jab in the last round, I would've got the win on points."

Feldman played it right. Up big on the cards against a tough guy with power, there was no sense in taking a reckless chance in the hopes that the referee might jump in to stop the fight.  The 20 year old junior middleweight from Cape Town understands this, "I can't afford to lose this early in my career."

To begin the fight, Feldman quickly decided to box Senga, a fellow southpaw. He stayed with that strategy most of the way. "Even though he was a southpaw and he was a smart boxer, I knew that my boxing skills are better than his," Feldman said. "There were times when I was setting him up with little traps and he was falling for it. I knew I could easily outbox this guy even though he's very strong. I felt I was in a little better condition than him, so that if my output was more and I didn't let him hit me, I was just going to coast through the rounds."

But there were times Senga was able to land flush counters. Feldman took the shots well and appeared unfazed by the blows. When complimented on his chin, Feldman sheepishly replied, "No boxer wants to say they have a good chin; it's not something I'm proud of." That's because he doesn't want it to be tested. "I do know I've taken some big shots in sparring and in a couple of fights. I've never gone down from a headshot," he said. "I definitely trust my chin a lot."

The Senga fight wasn't the first time his chin has been put to the test. He got plenty of hard sparring at the Blood, Sweat, and Tears Gym in Cape Town, and now gets those tough sparring sessions at the Hot Box Gym in Johannesburg.

"I knew that he hit very hard," Feldman said of Senga. "I did think that if he lands clean he could hurt me, but never in the fight was I hurt."

With the win, Feldman is now 6-0 with 3 KOs. He hopes to have an active year in the ring. As Josh says, It's "on to the next."

Brooklyn "Big Deal" Barwick to Make Pro Debut Saturday

Brooklyn "The Big Deal" Barwick is scheduled to make her pro debut on Saturday at Salon CTM in San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora, Mexico. The 25 year old from Laguna Beach, California comes from the world of influencer boxing.

Barwick, who stands 4'11", now resides in New York. A former gymnast, she started boxing only two years ago. "I got an offer from an influencer promotion," Barwick told Jeff Mayweather. "I thought it would be a one-off thing, but I've got ADHD, so I'm very hyperactive. This actually chills my brain out, so I went with boxing."

Barwick explained, "My amateur career is influencer boxing."

She decided to move away from influencer boxing because she was expected to perform crazy antics to sell her fights. She also found the competition wanting. "I have better skills than what those girls provide," Barwick declared. "There's not much competition there. I wanted to try in the pros. I take this sport seriously. They're all doing it for clout. At the end of the day, I have respect for the sport and for myself."

Whether she is out for clout or truly respects the sport will be determined by her performance in the ring. Brooklyn Barwick is no Barbara Buttrick. At least not yet. During her time in the ring, Barwick showed more moxie than skill. Her influencer record is a bit unclear but less than stellar. She has one win by knockout and has lost at least three times. Another fight is listed as a split decision loss on one site and a draw on another.

In those fights, Barwick fought out of a crouch. She switched stances although it would be more accurate to say that her stance is to boxing as a Jackson Pollock painting is to realism. She showed a great chin, massive heart, and a boatload of courage as she absorbed a ton of punishment in a couple of her fights. She has described herself as a power puncher although her punch technique has not been textbook.

Jewish on her dad's side, Barwick's in the process of converting. She'd love to fight in Israel sometime and hopes to partner with Jewish brands. "I love my people and want to show my support in anyway I can," she told The Jewish Boxing Blog. 

In preparation for her debut, the Big Deal has recently worked with some experienced coaches: Bones Adams, David McDonough, AJ Easley, and Alex Solomon. During her influencer career, she trained with a different, less effective team. She now realizes how much better her current coaches are. She appreciates how Adams has taught her the fundamentals. She understands her previous shortcomings and is looking to improve on them as she traverses through the pro ranks.

"There is going to be a big skill divide," Barwick said of the difference between influencer boxing and the pro game. "It's going to put me to the test. It's going to put my physical and my mental abilities to the test.

"And I'm ready for it."

A featherweight, Barwick's  opponent has not been announced.