Odelia Ben Ephraim Comes Up Short in European Title Challenge

Odelia "Thunder" Ben Ephraim lost by unanimous decision tonight against European junior featherweight champion Tania "La Violencia" Alvarez at Casal Cultural i Recreatiu in Castellbisbal, Spain.

Both fighters threw constantly in an exciting phonebooth style fight. The 25 year old French challenger told The Jewish Boxing Blog, "I felt mentally prepared, and I won the first three rounds by a good margin."

She then admitted, "But then I felt tired. I don't know if it was because of the diet." Ben Ephraim weighed in the lightest of her career for this fight, but she thought she cut weight intelligently. "I did it step by step and didn't starve myself at all," she said.

This was Odelia's  first ten round bout. Both she and Alvarez are intense fighters who let their hands go. Alvarez pressures consistently even if it means eating a few punches along the way. Ben Ephraim picked her combinations well, but her high punch activity and low right hand did allow Alvarez to land her left.

Ben Ephraim's dad David, a long time trainer, explained, "She didn't manage to do the little extra things to win at the opponent's place." Alvarez has benefitted from hometown decisions in the past.

The judges' scores were 99-91, 98-92, and 97-93, all for Alvarez, who is now 12-1 with 2 KOs. Ben Ephraim, who was gracious in defeat, is 5-4.

"I have no regrets at all," Odelia said. "I did everything I could. I gave my whole soul and body out in the ring even when I felt exhausted." Despite the challenges she has encountered this year and during this past training camp, she's proud of her performance. "I made a lot of progress, I never gave up, and most importantly, I'm not injured nor bruised at all after the fight."

Odelia Ben Ephraim, Tania Alvarez Make Weight Ahead of European Title Fight

Both Odelia "Thunder" Ben Ephraim and Tania "La Violencia" Alvarez weighed in under the junior featherweight limit of 122 pounds ahead of their clash tomorrow at Casal Cultural i Recreatiu in Castellbisbal, Spain. The contest is for Alvarez's European junior featherweight title.

Ben Ephraim (5-3) is a 25 year old from Blagnac, France. She weighed 119.5 pounds, the lightest of her pro career. Her previous lightest came before her last fight when she was 122.8 pounds in June. Her heaviest was 126 in her debut in 2021. To this point, she has been a career featherweight.

Alvarez (11-1, 2 KOs) came in at 121.7 pounds. The 22 year old champion from Barcelona, Spain has had most of her fights at featherweight as well. She had one scheduled fight at 130 pounds a year and a half ago. This will be her third fight at the 122 pound limit. Alvarez won the vacant Spanish junior featherweight title two fights ago and the vacant European super featherweight title in her last fight.

After the weigh-in, Ben Ephraim immediately ate a banana and drank a glass of water. She then had lunch, which consisted of salmon, rice, and vegetables. Later, she drank some tea and indulged in some chocolate, which she had been missing during training.

This bout is scheduled for ten two-minute rounds. The title is on the line! For a preview of the fight, click here. So far, no live stream has been announced.

courtesy of Toni Moreno's IG page via Tim Boxeo

Review of Then the World Moved On

Then the World Moved On: The Brutal Truth Behind the Max Baer-Frankie Campbell Fight

By Catherine Johnson

Brown Glove Books, 2024

Many Jewish boxing fans have long idolized Max Baer. By reexamining his deadly fight against Frankie Campbell in her wonderful book Then the World Moved On, Catherine Johnson convincingly argues Baer is more deserving of condemnation than idolization.

A son of Italian immigrants, Frankie Campbell first made his name in fistic circles in San Francisco. Something of a crude slugger, he took his fan-friendly style to Los Angeles and eventually became a popular figure among all of California's fight fans. Meanwhile, Max Baer embroiled himself in constant controversy. Ties to the mob and fixed fights defined his early career.

In their fateful fight, Baer first fouled Campbell in the second round after he was knocked down. Referee Toby Irwin failed to clean Baer's gloves and instead watched as he sucker-punched Campbell in the back of the head. In the fifth, Irwin ignored Baer's barrage of unanswered punches as Campbell descended into unconsciousness. Johnson contends this was no accident. Irwin admitted that he let the carnage continue to appease gamblers.

The previously accepted narrative follows that Baer felt extreme guilt over his role in the death of Frankie Campbell as seen by his reluctance to fight all-out against future opponents, and that Baer made a concerted commitment to Campbell's surviving family members. Johnson effectively dismantles those notions. Baer is often given responsibility for the eventually death of Ernie Schaaf, who died six months after Baer beat him mercilessly. The Livermore Larupper pummeled Max Schmeling with no remorse, and later brutalized Primo Carnera to win the heavyweight world championship. In none of these fights did Baer show any reluctance to injure his opponents on account of what he did to Frankie Campbell.

Furthermore, Baer had very little to do with Campbell's family after the tragedy. He boasted of attending Frankie Jr.'s college graduation, but the boy had sadly died in a plane accident months before graduating, so Baer's story was made up. Baer, in fact, didn't even know how many children the Campbell family had, mistakenly claiming they had two sons. Johnson shows that Baer's supposed concern for the Campbell family was a self-serving mirage.

Johnson views Baer's ties to Judaism with skepticism. A genealogist by trade, she does confirm the belief that he had a Jewish grandparent. His sudden identification as a Jew, though, was not merely done to sell tickets to Jewish fans in New York ahead of his fight against Schmeling but because a significant boycott movement had grown in reaction to Schmeling's alleged Nazi ties. Johnson is sensitive to Baer's meaning to Jews, including my grandmother's family. She writes, "By ever wearing the Star of David on his trunks, did Max Baer give hope to Jews during utterly dark days? Absolutely," (pg. 296). But Baer did not truly identify as Jewish in life or in death. A cross decorates his tomb.

To be clear, this book is not a hit job on Baer. Johnson actually idolized the man before delving into the research, even naming her dog after him. Regardless of anybody's sentiment for Baer, the facts are laid out in a way as to make her argument incontrovertible.

More than merely making a case against Max Baer, Then the World Moved On goes into fascinating detail about Frankie Campbell, boxing in California during his era, and much more. There are also many illuminating pictures. Lined with amazing bits of research, Campbell's opponents, managers, and promoters come alive. This book brings readers into the boxing world of that time and place, something only the best boxing books can achieve.

With mountains of research, there are bound to be a few slip ups. These couldn't be more minor. On page 47, it's claimed that Jimmy McLarnin won the lightweight world championship. The two-time welterweight champion beat the reigning lightweight champ three times in nontitle fights, but never won that belt. Similarly trivial, in describing coach George Blake, the author writes, "[H]e had guided Jackie Fields to a [w]elterweight title," (pg. 113). After researching Fields's life the past two years, it'd be a slight to Gig Rooney to give Blake credit for Fields's pro championship. Undeniably, Blake guided Fields to Olympic gold in the featherweight division in 1924, but Blake and Fields had a falling out when Jackie wanted to turn pro after the Olympics and Blake wanted him to wait two years. So Rooney trained and managed Fields through his first welterweight run. A nitpicky critique for sure. More relevant for those who want to use this book as a source, a random sampling of the index shows the pages don't match up in the paperback. These tiny issues don't impact Johnson's argument about Max Baer in the least and hardly detract from the narrative. 

Then the World Moved On is such a good book, There are so many interesting anecdotes and stories to more than satisfy a boxing history lover, but it's written so clearly and explained so well that a beginner to the subject wouldn't be lost. Johnson masterfully finds the balance. The Jewish Boxing Blog highly recommends this book.