Karim Mayfield Returns on Chavez-Vera, Aims For Alvarado and Allakhverdiev

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Karim “Hard Hitta” Mayfield has had quite a road to boxing stardom. The powerful Welterweight hailing from the rough, yet culturally rich neighborhood of Fillmore, California is often compared to Harlem for those from the east coast unfamiliar for the tradition of the legendary district of San Francisco.  Mayfield has faced five undefeated fighters in his career began in 2006, a career that began with no real amateur background. Mayfield has not had the easy road in any sense of the word even being a b side to bigger promoter’s fighters and winning, Francisco Santana comes to mind.  When posed with the question of his long, hard road to stardom Mayfield simply paused and reflected, “You really know your history, don’t you?”

 As a seasoned vet with all of this the years of fighting on undercards of Andre Ward and Robert Guerrero’s of the world, Mayfield now finds himself seven years later finally a bonafide star in the Bay Area boxing scene as he recently signed to Bob Arum’s Top Rank promotions making one of a select few in the bay area to have a national promotion behind him. Mayfield reflected that, “When Bob Arum saw me spare Manny Pacquiao they wanted to sign me that day,” but it was contractual obligations that got in the way of this Mayfield signing to Top Rank years ago.

The road to television wasn’t always easy as some critics of Mayfield have pointed to the fact that though he can end a fight at any point, he also has the ability to create clinch heavy affairs the likes that can worry major networks. Mayfield simply stated, “You can only have so many Tim Bradley fights (Referring to Bradley’s last fight against Ruslan Provodnikov). The fans remember them, but you don’t and I have a family I won’t to be there for, so I might have a smart fight that is not exciting and make it up for them in the next one.”

Mayfield who is fighting Pavel Miranda on the September 7th Top Rank card at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, headlined by Julio Cesar Chavez Jr vs. Bryan Vera is now more than ever focused on his fight. “Miranda is tough and I have to come in ready for a tough fight,” Mayfield said as he explained in order to have a dominant performance, he needs to an amazing training camp and for this camp Mayfield left the confines of Virgil Hunter’s gym and went with long-time trainer Ben Bautista to Las Vegas in preparation for this fight. “Everybody who was at a championship level at Virgil’s gym was either fighting this week or next week or injured.” Mayfield explained on the switch as to the hellish 100 plus heat weather of Vegas being a stark contrast to that of beautiful bay breeze of San Francisco, CA.

 The hellish conditions of Las Vegas training camp is an amazing symbol for the hell Mayfield had to endure to get on broadcast television. Mayfield once said that it was ESPN2’s own Teddy Atlas who rallied for him to not be on ESPN2 Friday Night Fights versus Steve Forbes due to the fact that his style was not that which allowed for good fights. It took a large push from his side sending several letters to get the fight on television. Even after it appeared Teddy Atlas was none too pleased with Mayfield’s style as it appeared Atlas was nitpicking every flaw of Mayfield in the ring and not looking at the dominant performance Mayfield was displaying. In the final round, Mayfield knocked out Forbes in what can only be explained as a true testament to his power to be able to finish a fight in the final round yet the commentary focused away from this. Steve Forbes also went on to go the distance in his next bout with Jessie Vargas, yet Mayfield got no mention of his previous knockout in the PPV telecast.

It was not until Mayfield’s second showing against undefeated Raymond Serrano that Mayfield shined in which he landed a stunning one punch knockout at the bell and Serrano’s corner foolishly encouraged him to continue as he took unneeded damage for forty or so seconds afterwards. Who knows if it was the stage or the recognition, but it appeared the Mayfield that the bay area fans had gotten to know as a crowd pleasing fighter due to his one punch power. For example, how the whole Oracle Arena in Oakland went nuts when he landed his one punch KO on the undercard of Kessler-Ward. It a magical sight to behold.

With a big knockout, a signature victory dance dubbed “The Get Low Thizz Dance”, a homage to a Fillmore dance called the Get Low.  I can only assume a bit of a tip of the cap to JT Tha Bigga Figga as well and the Thizz Dance coming from the bay area rap legend Mac Dre, who created a fashionable dance in the beginning of the millennium which can be witnessed on Treal TV. Mayfield moved his talents to HBO to fight, the prospect killer Maurico Herrera. Mayfield won, the fight, but not the fans as the “Hard Hittttttaaaaa” chant from the crowd was remembered more than the actual fight which was a much more methodical affair than expected.  After the fight rumors began to surface that HBO was not very pleased with the performance of Mayfield and that he may not be appearing on the network anytime soon.

Mayfield believes fans are harsh on the fight, “I fought a good fight, it wasn’t great, but it was a good fight. I did better than Mike Alvarado when he fought him [Herrera].” Alvarado who also is signed to Top Rank could find himself in a Mayfield fight soon as Mayfield explained that he had only been at 140 lbs for his last four fights. It was a trip to Big Bear, CA that let him know it was possible for him to make the cut to 140 lbs safely due to the high level of training he experienced during that camp. Mayfield explains that fighting at 147 lbs is completely in the picture and could happen shortly just depending on what match ups are offered, but one thing is for sure he wishes to be more active as opposed to having 10 month lay-offs.

Rumors are already afloat that if Mayfield were to win on September 7th that a late fall match up say in November with Khabib Allakhverdiev could take place. Mayfield though continued the sentiment, “This is not a fight to look past and I am not looking past Miranda!” Karim Mayfield will be in action on September 7th on the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Bryan Vera card live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA.