News & Updates

Posted on 01/20/2022

By: Hans Themistode

The light heavyweight division has always been considered one of the more glamorous ones in the sport of boxing. However, as of late, the names associated with the top of the weight class have been placed on display for the world to see.

In December of 2021, current unified light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev registered his 17th consecutive knockout victory against Marcus Browne. The Russian native fought through bloody vision, which occurred following an inadvertent head butt, to score the stoppage win over the skilled contender in the ninth round.

Just one day later, on December 18th, highly ranked contender and former 168 pound titlist Gilberto Ramirez, moved his pristine record to 43-0 following a one-sided 10th round knockout victory over Yunieski Gonzalez.

Most recently, Joe Smith Jr. solidified his placement amongst the upper echelon of the 175 pound division. Just a few short weeks ago, Smith Jr. kicked off his 2022 by pummeling fringe contender Steve Geffrard, winning by knockout in the ninth round.

While the top of the weight class continues to display their talents, WBA belt holder Dmitry Bivol continues to do the same. After failing to enter the ring at all in 2020, Bivol ended his recent stretch of inactivity by registering back-to-back wins over fringe contenders Craig Richards and Umar Salamov.

Since nabbing the WBA title in 2017, Bivol has urged those in and around his division to take him on. While he has been a bit quiet as of late, Bivol reveals that he still craves showdown against big-name fighters including Beterbiev, Smith Jr., a fighter he easily outboxed in 2019, and newly crowned undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez.

Although the paydays associated with those notable showdowns would be life-changing, Bivol is more interested in planting his flag at the top of the light heavyweight mountain.

“My motivation and my ambitions have not changed for a long time,” said Bivol during an interview with The Ring. “I want to fight the best. I want to prove that I am the best in my division.”

Ian Satterfield always envisioned an experience playing professional indoor volleyball overseas. It didn’t necessarily have to be a career, but a year or two, maybe a small contract, would have been nice.

A South Bay kid, Satterfield competed for the famed Mira Costa High School, which straddles the border of Manhattan and Hermosa Beach, Calif., helping the Mustangs to a pair of Bay League titles and a division championship in 2008. He’d land an offer to compete for Long Beach State, where he was teammates with a few brothers bearing the last name of Crabb, finishing his senior season with a 22-10 record and a little more than two kills per match.

But when graduation came, no contract offers came with it.

He took to the beach instead, representing the United States in the 2015 Pan American Games and cashing his first AVP check in 2017, when he qualified for the Austin main draw with Orlando Irizarry. Up the AVP ladder he climbed from there, beginning the majority of tournaments directly into the main draw in 2018 and 2019.

Indoor was out of his mind.

Until, just a few weeks ago, David Lee gave him a call.

“There’s an indoor league starting up in India,” Lee told him. “It could be a sweet gig for us to do in the off-season before we come back and start training again.”

“I said ‘Wow that’s super cool, thanks for reaching out,’ ” Satterfield recalled. “I never got to play professional indoor overseas anywhere after college, so I was like ‘Yeah, hell yeah, count me in.’ He didn’t even say how much, I just said ‘I’m in, let’s do it.’”

And thus Satterfield’s long lost professional indoor career was born, beginning with the RuPay Prime Volleyball League in, of all places, Kochi, India. He still doesn’t know when he’s supposed to leave, only that the initial date was scheduled for January 15. He doesn’t know the schedule yet, or how long he’ll even be in India.

All he knows is there’s volleyball to be played, and money to be made doing it.

“To me, it sounds like the best case scenario when it comes to playing indoor overseas,” Satterfield said. “It’s a shortened season, we’re in a popular city, we’re all going to be in the same boat, the same area.”

Satterfield will be joined in India by a host of fellow Americans, many of whom were also plucked off the beach: Kyle Friend, Ryan Meehan, Cody Caldwell, Bruno Amorim, Aaron Koubi, Colton Cowell, Matt August, Noah Taitano, and Lee, who has been serving as a de facto agent for the group.

In 2019, Lee, alongside former Olympic teammate Paul Lotman, competed in the RuPay Pro Volleyball League, an initiative between the Volleyball Federation of India, Head Digital Works Pvt. Ltd. and Baseline Ventures. Matches were broadcast by Sony Pictures Networks, and the players were, by all accounts, handsomely paid. The experience was a unanimous positive.

COVID, of course, did its worst on live sporting events in 2020 and 2021, but RuPay injected another round of funds into the league, coined the Prime Volleyball League, restarting it again in 2022.

The RuPay Prime Volleyball League is comprised of seven teams — Ahmedabad Defenders, Calicut Heroes, Chennai Blitz, Black Hawks Hyderabad, Kochi Blue Spikers, Bengaluru Torpedoes, Kolkata Thunderbolts — in cities across India.

They just needed players to fill out those rosters.

“When Dave asked if I was interested, I said ‘Are you sure they’re looking for a retired indoor player from five years ago?’” Friend said, laughing. “My first thought was no I don’t think so. But then I thought ‘How long? Six weeks? Ok.’ I have some flexibility with work, I think it’s possible I could get away for six weeks. A week later he put me in contact with India and I have a contract.”

So Friend, who hasn’t played indoor since his final contract in Switzerland expired in 2017, is a professional indoor volleyball player again.

“The minute we got the contract filled out I said ‘Ok, let’s get the body ready, let’s start jumping around, feeling out the indoor court. Let’s start doing stuff with shoes on,’” Friend said, alluding to the beach-to-indoor transition many of the Americans will be making.

For the past five years, Friend has been playing on the AVP Tour, on the soft and cushy surface of the sand, barefoot, with just one other player on the court, which is considerably smaller. Satterfield, too, has been exclusively on the beach, as has Lee, though with four indoor Olympics on his resume and the unofficial title as Best American Middle, it doesn’t take much time for him to get the indoor legs back.

“The first day I went to VIBE [Volleyball Lab, in El Segundo, Ca.], went in there for an hour and he hit down balls, served, passed, and it felt rusty, it felt shaky,” Friend said. “You needed to hold the angle harder because the ball is heavier. It required more resistance because on the beach it’s so squishy and light. I was like ‘Oh my God, this is hard.’ My forearms were hurting. But I went back the next day and it felt a lot better.”

It will only get better from here. The Americans are still waiting on their visas, so when they’ll go remains something of a mystery. But when they do? It’ll be a long flight, a quick quarantine, and then?

Back to indoor volleyball.

“My body will be moving, I’ll still be touching a volleyball, it will just be a slightly different vibe,” Friend said. “It will be physically demanding and still rewarding. The timing is tip top. Everything kinda fell into place.”

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Shipping cost included. Photos upon request. Prefer Germany/Europe.

 

We’ve known about it since last week, but now it’s official. Super middleweight up-and-comer Edgar Berlanga’s next fight will see him face veteran Steve Rolls on March 19th, headlining a prospect-filled ESPN tripleheader at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater.

Berlanga (18-0, 16 KO) is looking for a standout performance after last October’s shaky win over Marcelo Esteban Coceres, and Rolls (21-1, 12 KO) seems a reasonable mix of troublesome and beatable. He’s the sort of fighter Berlanga needs to demolish to regain the luster he built up during his knockout streak.

Berlanga said, “I’m so excited to fight in my first main event in my hometown. It’s a dream come true for a fighter representing New York City and Puerto Rico. I can’t wait to show the world what I’m truly about. We are going to blow the roof off the Hulu Theater, so grab your tickets early and get your popcorn ready for this performance.”

Rolls said, “I’m happy to be back headlining at Madison Square Garden. Training camp has been going well, and I feel very strong with nothing but war on my mind. Berlanga has power, but I’ll be ready for whatever he brings. I’m looking forward to March 19. I’ll see you then.”

The co-feature pits 19-year-old super welterweight standout Xander Zayas (12-0, 9 KO) against Bubble veteran Quincy LaVallais (12-2-1, 7 KO), best known for going 1-0-1 against Clay Collard. Zayas went 6-0 in 2021, while LaVallais is coming off a decision loss to Norbelto Casco in Nicaragua.

Zayas said, “It’s an honor to fight again at Madison Square Garden, where I know my Puerto Rican people will come out to show their support. 2021 was a great year, but I’m looking forward to an even bigger 2022. Quincy LaVallais is a solid veteran, so I can’t overlook him. I want to make a major statement on March 19.”

Tokyo silver medalist Keyshawn Davis (4-0, 3 KO) opens the show against Mexican youngster Esteban Sanchez (18-1, 8 KO). Sanchez’s record is mostly fluff, as you might imagine, and he’s three fights removed from a stoppage loss to a super featherweight.

Davis said, “I put on a show at Madison Square Garden in December, and I’m going to do it again. Esteban Sanchez is supposed to be my hardest fight as a pro, but it’s going to be easy work. The Davis Brothers are coming to represent Norfolk and leave no doubt that we are the future of boxing.”

The ESPN+ prelims include John Bauza (16-0, 7 KO), Pablo Valdez (6-0, 5 KO), Henry Lebron (14-0, 9 KO), and Davis’ brother Kelvin (3-0, 2 KO).