Denton Daley Challenges Youri Musafu Kalenga for the Interim WBA Cruiserweight Title
By Lou Eisen
For the most part, whenever the subject of boxing in Canada comes up, most fight fans and casual observers think of Quebec and the success of promoter Yvon Michel. However, Toronto boxing promoter Don MacDonald and his ultra successful boxing promotional company, United Promotions, are changing that perception in a big way on a daily basis.
MacDonald and fellow promoter Tyler Buxton have started to have a tremendous impact on boxing in Ontario and, in the process, have drastically changed the perception of Ontario being a boxing backwater. MacDonald has quietly built up an impressive stable of world-class boxers over the past decade. How did he do it? MacDonald has built up his stable of fighters in a revolutionary way. He hires the best boxing people around and then lets them do their jobs to the best of their abilities. Along the way MacDonald and Buxton have built up a tremendous feeling of loyalty from his employees, fighters and fans.
MacDonald and Buxton scout the best Canadian talent available and then begin to work with them, bringing them along at their own pace. All the hard work and long hours and late nights are about to pay off for Macdonald’s company United Promotions in a big way.
This coming Saturday, Nov. 15 at the Hershey Center in Mississauga (a Toronto suburb) the first big star of United promotions stable, WBA world-ranked Canadian cruiserweight “Dangerous” Denton Daley, 12-0, 6 KO’s, will endeavor to separate Youri Musafu Kalenga, 20-1, 13 KO’s, from his interim WBA world cruiserweight title. Kalenga hails from the Democratic Republic of The Congo, although he now resides in Gravelines, in the north of France. Daley is originally from Brampton, a suburb of Toronto and home to world famous comedian Russell Peters.
The fact that a fighter from Ontario, is challenging for a world title on Ontario soil is, in and of itself an incredible accomplishment. The last Canadian to accomplish this feat was the legendary Nicky Furlano, who fought his heart out in 1984 at Varsity Arena in a glorious attempt to unseat the undisputed junior-welterweight world champion Aaron Pryor from his crown. Now some people reading this may be thinking, “Hey, what about Steve Molitor?” Molitor won his IBF super bantamweight world title in Britain against Michael Hunter in Nov. of 2010.
This Saturday night’s fight will be the third attempt by a Canadian cruiserweight to win a world title in the past four years. Canada’s other world ranked cruiserweight was Troy “The Boss” Ross. Unfortunately for Ross, both of his title shots occurred in Germany, which is the most corrupt boxing jurisdiction in the world, along with Texas. The German Boxing Commission overtly robbed Ross of the IBF cruiser title twice, first against Steve Cunningham and the second time against Yoan Hernandez. Hopefully, getting cheated out of a clear win will not be an issue for Daley as the fight is taking place on Canadian soil.
As stated above, all of the credit for that coup goes to United Promotions president Don MacDonald, for making a Canadian fighter’s childhood dream come true.
Daley will hold a slight height advantage, standing 6’2” compared to Kalenga’s one half inch over six feet as well as a slight reach advantage over the defending champ. The crowd will be rabidly pro Daley, of course. Daley is a very gifted technical pugilist, who wins fights with his brains as much as with his brawn. Daley’s record is rather misleading. He has twelve fights on his pro ledger but each successive fight featured a large jump up in quality of opposition. Daley has what American writer Ernest Hemingway once called, “The rarest of qualities, grace under pressure.”
Daley does not get flustered in the ring. He certainly knows how to change and control the pace of a fight and that will surely come in handy against a straight-ahead banger like Kalenga. Look for Daley to use the perimeter of the ring in the early going. Daley has excellent ring generalship thanks to his educated feet. Daley has been trained well and moved along expertly by United Promotions. His trainer is the former world-ranked Canadian fighter Syd “The Jewel” Vanderpool. Vanderpool and his brother Fitz were among the most skilled and finest fighters that Canada has ever produced. Syd has imparted his substantial boxing knowledge and expertise to Daley in order to prepare him for this weekend’s title fight with Kalenga.
Vanderpool has many great qualities as a boxing trainer. He knows what it takes to get to the top of the heap. One talent that Vanderpool shares with Hall of Fame trainer Ray Arcel is that he knows how to calm his fighters down before a fight. It was Arcel who taught Angelo Dundee this very useful tactic.
Vanderpool will not allow Daley to do too much in the early rounds of the fight, other than establish his rhythm and control the tempo of the fight. Daley will attempt to control Kalenga with his piston-like left jab. After Daley becomes comfortable landing his jab on a regular basis on Kalenga’s mug, he will then start coming over the top with short right hands, or even shorter right hooks. Daley’s chance of victory will rest partly on his formidable counter punching skills.
If Kalenga gives chase to Daley, rather than expertly cutting off the ring, he will no doubt tire out much sooner in the fight than he had originally planned. Daley is in no way taking Kalenga lightly. Although both fighters have exchanged heated words via Internet videos, on several occasions, Daley is well aware of Kalenga’s prodigious punching power. Kalenga is an outstanding finisher and Daley would do well to stay on his toes in the first five or six rounds, while Kalenga tires himself out by attempting to score a one punch classic knockout.
Kalenga likes to use his massive shoulders and arms to trap his opponents on the ropes while he wails away with both hands. It would make no sense for Daley to trade with Kalenga because that would be fighting to Kalenga’s biggest strength. The idea is to get Kalenga out of his comfort zone as quickly as possible and the best way for Daley to do that is by constantly circling the ring, forcing Kalenga to continually reset his feet in order to punch. Another plus for Daley is his superb hand speed. Speed never slumps and speed is the only thing that can beat raw power, as a young Cassius Clay proved against the formidable Sonny Liston.
Another perhaps even larger dividend for Daley from circling the ring is that Kalenga will eventually become increasingly frustrated if he is unable to catch the fleet-footed challenger with solid shots. This might force the champion to unwisely start lunging at Daley in an effort to catch him with a good punch. Once Kalenga begins to lunge, he will be off balance and very susceptible to short counter right hands and left hooks inside.
A fighter that lunges at his opponent usually ends up with his head out over his front foot. It is a dangerous thing to do because when a fighter is caught lunging, he takes the full force of his foe’s counter shots directly on his chin. Whereas a fighter that is properly balanced is able to diffuse the power of a big punch throughout his entire body and into his legs, thus minimizing the overall effects of the blows.
When the skill of both fighters is equal, the winner of the fight is usually the pugilist who is best able to impose his will on his ring rival. When it comes down to a battle of wills, grace under pressure is a good thing to have.