This past Saturday was interesting day for the hardcore fans out there. There no fights with big names, there was no headline attraction in the US but their was plenty of bouts of note scattered around the place. The most important of those bouts was in Germany as Juergen Braehmer (43-2, 32), pictured, defended his WBA "regular" Light Heavyweight title for the first time. The German veteran managed to score a stoppage over former Cruiserweight title holder Enzo Maccarinelli (38-7, 30) who was pulled out by corner after suffering a nasty swelling around his eye and effectively leaving his trainer with little option other than to pull him out of the contest. Braehmer's bout was one of two "world" title bouts on Saturday with the other seeing Mexico's Marco Antonio Rubio (59-6-1, 51) stopping Italy's Domenico Spada (38-5, 19) in the 10th round to claim the WBC interim Middleweight title. In theory this puts Rubio as the next challenger to the winner of the bout between Sergio Mora and Miguel Cotto but having following Rubio for a while we expect he'll be forced to wait on the sidelines, once again. On the same show in Mexico their was a female bout between Ibeth Zamora Silva (20-5, 8) and Judith Rodriguez (6-7, 4). Although we don't imagine either of this will be fighting Asian fighters next both have, in recent bouts, faced Naoko Shibata. Zamora managed to take an 8 round decision though we're unsure if the bout was to keep her active or was "La Roca" dipping her toes in the Flyweight division. A separate show in Mexico saw the highly regarded Giovani Segura (32-3-1, 28) stopping Felipe Salguero (19-6-1, 14) in an absolutely thrilling contest. Salguero refused to just give in and gave back as good as he got in some rounds before being stopped late. We're not expecting Segura to face the winner of the upcoming Flyweight title bout between Juan Francisco Estrada and Richie Mepranum which is to take place in a few weeks time. (Photo thanks to boxrec.com
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Frampton stops Cazares whilst Maderna retains and Cunningham and Mansour gives us a thriller4/5/2014 It's fair to say that Friday nights can be a very mixed bag in terms of boxing. Sometimes we get firecrackers, other times we get duds. This past Friday gave us a bit of something special, a bit of something messy and a bit of confusion as we had a Friday to remember. The first bout of note was in Belfast, Northern Ireland as the unbeaten and hugely popular Carl Frampton (18-0, 13), pictured, stopped Mexican veteran Hugo Fidel Cazares (40-8, 27) in 2 rounds. On paper it looks like a fantastic result though in reality it left us all with more question than anything else. Cazares, who was genuine knock down, appeared fine through out the count though casually took the 10 before arguing with the referee. It seemed like a bizarre mistake from such a veteran and left us not just wondering about what Cazares was doing but also whether or not Frampton could have finished him. Very odd and unsatisfactory ending we're afraid. The victory for Frampton, we think, makes him the mandatory contender for the WBC Super Bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz so could well be a man in the sights of Shinsuke Yamanaka if the Japanese fighter fancies facing the winner either later this year or early next year. Whilst Cazares made a rookie mistake it appeared that in Argentina we had real rookies in action as WBO female Lightweight champion Maria Elena Maderna (12-8-3, 1) stopped Dalia Vasarhelyi (7-5, 1) in a bout that could only be described as awful. The challenger looked inept whilst the champion showed a lack of skill though some how managed to force the referee to step in after a series of clean shot did manage to connect. For the poor fans watching this they had to wonder if either fighter was lacing up the gloves for the first. Awful. For something special we turned to the US for a Heavyweight contest between former Cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham (26-7, 13) and the previously unbeaten Amir Mansour (20-1, 15). The hard hitting Mansour managed to twice drop Cunningham hard in round 5 though gassed himself out with wild and wide swings that were avoided by Cunningham. Cunningham managed to put the nightmare round 5 behind him as out won the remaining rounds to take a wide decision over Mansour. Although he lost Mansour certainly made new fans due to both his performance and style as well as his very classy post fight interview. We're really looking forward to seeing both men again, hopefully before the year is out. (Photo courtesy of boxrec.com) Whilst the clear highlight for the coming weekend for us is in Japan on Sunday plenty of fans around the world will be excited about Saturday and the major fights that are taking place in Germany and Mexico. For many fans through out Europe their is only 1 bout that really matters. This bout, in Germany, sees German Juergen Braehmer (42-2, 31) defending his WBA Light Heavyweight title against big hitting Brit Enzo Maccarinelli (38-6, 30), Maccarinelli, a former Cruiserweight champion, is looking to become a 2-weight world champion though his career has been full of up and downs and this is his toughest bout since his 2010 loss to Alexander Frenkel. Braehmer is the clear betting favourite though will know that this is no walk over due to Maccarinelli's ferocious power. The Braehmer/Maccarinelli bout is one of two "world title" bout taking place on Saturday with Mexican veteran Marco Antonio Rubio (58-6-1, 50) battling against Domenico Spada (38-4, 19) in a bout for the interim WBC Middleweight title. Rubio is one of the hard luck stories of recent boxing and it's be great to see him finally win a world title though unfortunately he's unlikely to ever be seen as a top champion in the division, especially considering some of the other fighters in the Middleweight division. In a non-title fight in Mexico the highly ranked Giovani Segura (31-3-1, 27) will take on Felipe Salguero (19-5-1, 14) in what is regarded as a warm up fight for Segura before he moves on to fight for a world title later this year. We love watching Segura and hope to see another thrilling contest here. (Image courtesy of boxnation.com) If you've been following the Japanese boxing scene with real conviction over the past year or two you will be fully aware that Shinsuke Yamanaka wants to fight WBC Super Bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz. Unfortunately for Yamanaka he'll have to wait for that opportunity. Instead of Yamanaka/Santa Cruz we'll instead see the exciting Mexican fighting either Carl Frampton (17-0, 12) or fellow Mexican Hugo Fidel Cazares (40-7-2, 27). Frampton is the big favourite and is a hugely popular fighter in both Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This bout does however promise to be one of the toughest fights of his career and Cazares, who is known to Japanese fight fans for bouts with Nobuo Nashiro, Hiroyuki Hisataka and Tomonobu Shimizu, will not have travelled half way around the world to just make up the numbers. The Frampton/Cazares bout is easily the biggest of the day internationally though we're also going to be keeping an eye on action in Argentina where we get two fights of note. One of those fights puts bangers against each other as Luis Carlos Abregu (35-1, 28) fights the unbeaten Jean Carlos Prada (30-0-1, 21) in what is sure to feature bombs from both men. We've seen more of Abregu and fancy him to win though Prada is on a 30 fight winning streak and will feel confident he can stretch it to 31. Admittedly Prada has faced weak opponents but this is a tough, tough test and he knows what a win would mean to his career. The other Argentinian bout is a female bout as WBO female Lightweight champion Maria Elena Maderna (11-8-3) defends her belt against Dalia Vasarhelyi (7-4, 1). We can't imagine Maderna losing and despite her less than stellar record she is a genuinely good fighter who should be successful her in a tough drawn 10 round out bout. (Image courtesy of Cyclone Promotions) This past Saturday was of course highlighted by power punching Russian Sergey Kovalev who defended his WBO Light Heavyweight title for the second time. He wasn't the only world champion in action though and in the UK fans got the chance to see IBF Bantamweight champion Stuart "Stuey" Hall (16-2-2, 7). Unfortunately for fans expecting a great fight between Hall and fellow Brit Martin Ward (18-2-1, 4) things were disappointing as a clash of heads caused a cut on Ward which lead to a 2nd round technical draw. Although the bout was disappointing it did have significance to us with the champion, Hall, now set to face the winner of the eliminator that takes place on April 4th between Kohei Oba and Randy Caballero. The Hall/Ward was the biggest male fight other than Kovalev's though on the same card as Kovalev's bout we had a well matched bout between the once beaten Thomas Dulorme (21-1, 14) and the previously unbeaten Karim Mayfield (18-1-1, 11). The bout flared up at the weigh in, when Mayfield licked the chest of Dulorme, though unfortunately the bout failed to come alive with Dulorme's holding and Mayfield's tentativeness really spoil what looked, on paper, to be a great fight. Unfortunately for Mayfield he was thoroughly neutralised for chunks of the bout leading to him dropping a decision. In terms of female boxing the biggest bout, by a mile, was in Argentina where IBF Super Flyweight champion Debora Anahi Dionicius (16-0, 5) successfully defended her title with a 4th round stoppage over Neisi Torres (11-2-1, 7). This was the second Torres had been beaten in a world title bout on and probably sums up the feeling that she's not world class. Unfortunately it's very unlikely Dionicius will face WBA champion Naoko Fujioka who would likely dominate Dionicius if they did meet. |
InternationalWe know that not every fight involves an Asian fighter but a lot of fights do affect Asian fighter. As a result we've decided to add this new section to Asian boxing where we look at selected International bouts. Archives
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