Standing 8 is Courtside in Saratoga Springs

“Minor” Upset Sends Local Amateur Boxer to the Professional Ranks:The second bout of the evening was an amateur bout between local heavyweight Josh Dulmer, 12-2, and Worcester, Massachusetts import Owen Minor, 7-2.Following an energetic and unorthodox performance, Minor brought his amateur ledger to 8-2 with a 3-2 decision victory.Dulmer announced afterwards that his loss to Minor is his last as an amateur, as he will now be fighting professionally going forward.While it is an open question as to whether we will ever hear of Dulmer again given his modest amateur record, Dulmer’s decision to turn professional theoretically places him into the seemingly endless sweepstakes to develop the next great American heavyweight. Indeed, even with a non-descript amateur career, American boxing managers and promoters forever have their eyes peeled for a worthy American heavyweight, so Dulmer may soon find himself subject to either people around boxing who are willing to coddle him and build up his record, or alternately, that are looking to waste him for decent paydays against young heavyweights with more upside than he might have.Dulmer should thus do some serious thinking in the coming weeks and months about where he sees himself in the professional landscape, and make sure that his team shares his vision in the early stages of his professional campaign.

As for the first bout of the evening, the contestants were 10 and 11-years-old, so perhaps we can talk about them in advance of the 2016 or 2020 Olympics, but not today.That said, congratulations to Saratoga Springs fourth-grader Mike Barcia on his victory. Local bullies are best advised to turn their efforts to extort lunch money from their hapless classmates elsewhere.

Imam Shows Why He’s an Amateur Leader: In the final amateur bout of the evening, decorated, U.S.-ranked number five welterweight Amir Imam, now 38-14, out-toughed 2009 New York State Golden Gloves champion Ray Velez, now 30-19, in advance of referee Paul Brown stopping the contest in round three. Given their respective positions in the local and national amateur pecking order, both the winner and the loser could theoretically receive offers to turn professional in the coming months.Ideally, they should each first try their hand at the upcoming U.S. Olympic Trials, where they will not only get some of their last opportunities to prove themselves against their amateur peers, but also will be heavily scrutinized by many of the professional boxing world’s scouts.If they look good in the various regional and national Olympic Trials, they could stand to earn a lot more for turning professional than they would now.Another interesting note about this bout; referee Paul Brown is also the Vice President of Operations of Pugnacious Promotions, the night’s promoter.It’s not often that you see someone assuming both roles in boxing, but Brown seemed to pull it off seamlessly, calling off the bout at the appropriate time to preserve any further hammering of Velez.

Saratoga Springs the Question of Whether Overtime Should be Contemplated for Boxing: In the first professional bout of the evening, journeyman junior middleweights Joe Yerdon, now 0-1-2, fought to a four-round majority draw with Ashantie Hendrickson, now 2-8.The very next bout produced a four-round split draw between two more junior middleweights, the debuting Eric Davidson, and Puerto Rico’s Felix Rangel, now 0-4-1.Following these back-to-back draws, Standing 8 Court was asked whether it was feasible/ legal to add an additional tie-breaking round in boxing.Under 19 N.Y.C.R.R. § 210.3, the section of the New York Code which governs the length of professional boxing contests, “[i]n non-championship contests, boxers shall compete for no more than 12 rounds unless otherwise directed or authorized to the commission.Championship contests shall be of no more than 15 rounds as directed or authorized by the commission.”It would thus appear that, if the New York State Athletic Commission so permitted, an even-rounded boxing contest could theoretically be contested for an extra round in the event of a draw, so long as it was less than 15 total rounds and did not contravene the rules of a particular sanctioning body.While highly unlikely that overtime would ever be universally adopted, or perhaps even experimented with, it would certainly be interesting to see how two boxers who knew that the contest hung in balance would go at it if given that one last opportunity to secure a victory.It would also be interesting to see how a fight contract would be crafted to address such a possibility.

Purple Rainmaker Among Haymakers: In a small, intimate venue such as the Saratoga Springs City Center, even a modest pack of traveling fans can impact the perceived excitement level of a bout.Such was the case during the four-round lightweight bout between the debuting Ryan Batt and the apparently well-supported Zach (Le Freak) Smith, 3-1, of Delmar, New York.That Smith won a majority decision following a somewhat non-descript performance did not seem to matter to the appreciable amount of “Freak Squad” members who turned up to support Smith, wielding purple balloons and wearing purple “Freak Squad” baseball jerseys.The “Freak Squad” cheered Smith’s every move, and turned the volume up several notches following the back-to-back junior middleweight draws.More importantly, the “Freak Squad” helped serve notice that Smith, despite his questionable talent level and upside, is a rainmaker among haymakers.He should thus have no shortage of local and regional promoters who seek out his services to ensure a more packed fight venue.For more on boxing’s rainmakers among haymakers, please see “Rainmakers Among Haymakers” at http://www.8countnews.com/news/138/ARTICLE/1689/2009-06-22.html.

Shea Blasts Opponent Out of the Stadium in Three:After spending the first two rounds of the co-main event feeling out the strong, but limited, Liliana Martinez, 8-10 (4 KOs), 8 Count News’ own Maureen (The Real Million Dollar Baby) Shea, 14-2 (8 KOs), closed the show in dramatic fashion with a flurry of punches that sent Martinez to the ropes and, subsequently, to her 11^th professional loss.With the win, Shea captured the vacant NABF Female Featherweight title with her win and may have moved a step closer to a world title challenge against WBC Female Featherweight Champion Jeannine Garside of Canada.When could this happen? Essentially at any time, as Shea is a popular boxer in the New York area, is probably one of the most marketable opponents out there for Garside, and moves up the WBC rankings on the strength of winning the NABF title.The WBC Rules provide no aid in figuring out when Shea should get her turn, however.Germany’s Ina Menzer is the number one contender, but under the WBC Rules “[t]he No. 1 rated boxer in the WBC rankings is not necessarily the official mandatory challenger.”Instead, “[a] mandatory defense shall always be exclusively against a WBC designated official mandatory challenger[.]”In short, if the WBC decides that Shea should now be the mandatory challenger, then it shall be so.Alternately, Shea could be approved as a voluntary defense at any time. Advantage: Shea.After the victory, Shea thanked 8 Count News for its unwavering support.

Baby-Faced Beast Let Off The Chain in Main Event:In the main event, former amateur standout and undefeated lightweight prospect Mike (Baby-Faced Beast) Faragon, now 12-0 (6 KOs) made his first appreciable step up in class in explosive fashion, scoring several knockdowns against fellow prospect Eddie Soto, now 12-2 (4 KOs), before ending matters in round four.At this stage of his career, Faragon appears to be the full package; the crowd roared with every knockdown landed by their local hero and ticket seller, he appears to be improving with every fight, and he already has a well-connected, veteran manager in Stan Hoffman, and a promotional agreement with The Empire Sports & Entertainment, a relatively new outfit with veteran boxing manager and entertainment promoter Shelly Finkel at helm.Standing 8 Court expects to hear more from this Capital Region rainmaker among haymakers in the months and years to come.

Paul Stuart Haberman, Esq. is an attorney at the New York law firm of Heidell, Pittoni, Murphy & Bach, LLP. He is also a New York State licensed boxing manager and the Chairman of the Sports Law Committee of the New York County Lawyers Association. Paul can be e-mailed at haberman@8countnews.com.