2013.12.21; Andrae Carthron vs Helaman Olguin - All Star Promotions

Without a doubt the match of the evening was the second bout. Andrae Carthron from Los Angeles CA with an upside down record of 6-10-2 (2KOs) was matched up with a newcomer from Lancaster CA, Helaman Olguin 1-1-0. Carthron hadn't had a win since Sept. of 2011, his last 3 fights were losses (2 UD and one RTD), the RTD was to Glendy Hernandez who was to battle Charles Martin later that night, he desperately needed a win to keep his career alive. Carthron was knocked down twice in the first round by Olguin, but Carthron got back up each time and continued to fight. Carthron fought his heart out, took punch after punch, but gave out more then he received. Carthron knock Olguin down twice in the third, with referee Raul Caiz Jr stopping the fight with the second knock down. The win was very emotional for Carthron, one could certainly feel for him.

Here are images from the matchup;

Special thanks to Ed Holmes and All Star Promotions.

As always, all images and text are copyright Peter Politanoff / RedStarImage and cannot be reproduced without explicit consent. You are more than welcome however to link to this site.

Andre Ward - The Return: 2013.11.16 Andre Ward vs Edwin Rodriguez WBA Super Middleweight Championship Bout

Two super middleweight with almost identical records entered the ring for a 12 round bout. One, Andre Ward (26-0,14 KOs) being the WBA Super World Super Middleweight Champion (and WBC Super Middleweight Champion), while the other, Edwin Rodriguez the challenger ( 24-0, 16KOs)  didn't even make weight. As the saying goes "one of those '0's' is got to go". But the WBA title was no longer on the line. The rationale behind not making weight for a major title fight escapes me, but the fight went on.
The first 4 rounds seemed more like an MMA outing than a boxing bout. Referee Jack Reiss had his hands full, continually having to separate the combatants and getting shoved and punched in the process. In the 4th he had had enough, penalizing both fighters 2 points each for unsportsmanlike conduct and asking the the commission to fine them both. After that things started to settle down, although Reiss still felt it necessary to step in between both fighters on the occasional round ending stare down.
Needless to say Ward dominated Rodriguez in an impressive fashion, landing combinations while Rodriguez was only able to land single shots.
Here are my images from that fight;

Rodriguez scores early, but we saw little of this afterwards.

  

The 4th round, Reiss has to pull the fighters apart,

 then talks to Rodriguez,

 Then Ward,

 And finally reminds each fighter again at the beginning of the 5th!

 After things settled down, Ward totally dominated.

 With head shot after head shot,

 Reiss stepping in between at rounds end, escorting Ward back to the corner while Rodriguez continues to stare!

If you can't hit him with the glove, the elbow to the back of the head will do!

 In the end it was a unanimous decision, 118-106, 117-107, 116-108 for Andre 'S.O.G.' Ward

Special thanks to Goossen/Tudor Promotions.

As always all text and images are copyright Peter Politanoff / RedStarImage and cannot be reproduced without explicit consent. You are welcome however to link to this site.

All images shot with Canon 1Dx and EF 300mm f/2.8 lens. I was 'shooting from the stratosphere'.

All images are also available in color.

Boxing Blurs - at Henry Tillman Championship Boxing Club

Motion blurs are one of my favorite diversions. For me at least they are most effective when shooting action sports, although that seems to be stating the obvious. I have already posted a series or two on surfing blurs, also on Muay Thai boxing. In surfing you not only have the motion of the water (the spray in particular) but also the very dynamic motion of the surfer. Motion blurs also tend to be very successful in color, the streaks running across the frame competing with the rest of the image. The end result is an image that playfully captures and details movement.
In boxing the ring remains idle, it is just the two combatants that are moving. In this instance the colorful streaks left by the gloves and the head gear reinforce the movement. You get a sense of where the punches came from, and where they stopped in that 1/20 of a second.
Here are images of heavyweights Malik Scott (pink head gear) and Charles Martin (red head gear) sparring at Henry Tillman Championship Boxing Club in Carson CA. Shot 2013.11.08 with Canon 5D3 and EF 24-70 f/2.8 or EF 70-200 f/2.8 lens. With a little post work in Photoshop.

As always, all images copyright Peter Politanoff / RedStarImage and cannot be reproduced without explicit consent. You are more than welcome however to link to this site.

Muay Thai Boxing Blurs

Last nights 'All Star Promotions' fight card had 8 bouts of Muay Thai and 7 bouts of Boxing. I shot the first 3 bouts of Muay Thai as motion blurs. Here are some of the images. as you can see I opted for color this time, seemed more appropriate!

 A special thanks to Ed Holmes and All Star Boxing.

As always all images are copyright Peter Politanoff / RedStar Image, and may not be reproduced without expressed consent. However you are more than welcome to link to this site.

Jonathan Hamm vs Andrae Carthron ; OC Fight Club 2013.06.06

The main event on the 9 bout fight card, at The OC Fight Club', matched Heavyweights Jonathan Hamm (6-1, 5KO) and Andrae Carthron (5-7, 3KO).
Coming into this fight not only did we know both Hamm and Carthron could punch, we also knew Carthron could take a punch. Taking punches Carthron did indeed. It was an impressive show on Hamm's part landing punch after punch, but equally impressive or should I say amazing was the fact that Carthron did not go down. Hamm won by unanimous decision improving his record to 7-1, while Carthron dropped to 5-8.

Here are some of the images from that fight.

As always, all images are copyright Peter Politanoff / RedStarImage. Images cannot be reproduced without expressed permission. You are more than welcome to link to this site however.