December 18
Verona, NY, USA: Heavy: Luis Ortiz (24-0,2ND) W TKO 7 Bryant Jennings (19-2). Super Feather: Nicholas Walters (26-0-1) DREW 10 Jason Sosa (18-1-4). Super Welter: Gabriel Rosado (22-9,1ND) W PTS 10 Joshua Clottey (39-5). Light Heavy: Vyacheslav Shabranskyy (15-0) W PTS 10 Yunieski Gonzalez (16-2). Middle: Steve Martinez (16-2) W TKO 2 Jorge Melendez (29-6-1). Light: Yuriorkis Gamboa (25-1) W PTS 10 Hylon Williams Jr (16-2-1).Super Middle: D’Mitrius Ballard (11-0,1ND) W PTS 6 Fabiano Pena (14-4-1). 19 Ortiz vs. Jennings Ortiz stops Jennings to retain his interim WBA title and put himself in line for fights with the other title holders. Both started fast with Jennings looking to get inside and work the body of the older southpaw. Ortiz scored with a good right hook and that was followed by a left that saw Jennings retreat to the ropes where Ortiz worked him over with body punches. Jennings managed to get off the ropes but Ortiz knew he had him hurt and was stalking Jennings. Near the end of the round a left again had Jennings hurt and in trouble and Ortiz landed two hard left hooks to the body just before the bell. Jennings had a better second round as he moved inside to deny Ortiz punching leverage and although rocked by a right inside he probably edged the round. Jennings was using the same tactics in the third but was hurt by a left uppercut and then sent reeling into the ropes by an overhand right and a left hook and momentarily had his back turned to Ortiz. He again managed to escape off the ropes but was having trouble getting past the right jabs of Ortiz. By the end of the round Jennings had found his way inside and landed some good punches of his own with Ortiz not working inside and getting a warning for pushing Jennings back but it was Ortiz’s round. In the fourth Jennings was able to get inside again and was throwing uppercuts and hooks of his own. In the fifth Ortiz came out dancing on his toes ad stabbing out his jab and inviting Jennings to come forward. Jennings was doing well until he did come forward walked onto a left uppercut which shook him but Ortiz did not press his advantage. Ortiz was boxing again in the sixth dominating the action with his jab and Jennings was not able to work inside. Ortiz had taken the fifth and sixth rounds but Jennings had the better of the first two minutes of the seventh bulling forward against a retreating Ortiz and scoring with a thudding right to the chin. That all changed when Ortiz landed a wicked right uppercut followed by a left uppercut that put Jennings face down on the canvas. Jennings got up but Ortiz staggered him with another left that had Jennings tumbling into the ropes and the referee stopped the fight. Cuban Ortiz “The Real King Kong” showed good skills and impressive punching power. Every time he landed cleanly with his left Jennings was hurt and the punch that marked the beginning of the end was an equally impressive right uppercut. Where the 36-year-old Ortiz goes from here I am not sure. Tyson Fury is tied into a return match with Wlad Klitschko and the secondary WBA champion Ruslan Chagaev has a defence lined up against Lucas Browne in March. Deontay Wilder is making yet another voluntary defence this time against Pole Artur Szpilka and then hopefully the WBC will finally stop screwing Alex Povetkin and insist Wilder makes an overdue mandatory defence. The vacant IBF title is to be decided between Vyacheslav Glazkov and Charles Martin next month. Because he is the interim WBA champion none of the other bodies have Ortiz rated and with WBA No 2 Browne and No 3 Klitschko tied-up who knows No 4 Shannon Briggs might get a title shot-unfortunately. Jennings, 31, just met a better fighter on the night. He has an inside the distance win over Szpilka and a points victory over Mike Perez with his only losses being on points against Klitschko and this one to Ortiz. He is a possible opponent down the line for any of the other champions or even Anthony Joshua in late 2016/2017. Walters vs. Sosa Walters has his first fight at super feather and looks very unlucky to have to settle for a majority draw against Sosa. Walters had the skill to win this on boxing alone but he seemed to want to prove he was just as strong at the new weight and spent more time than he needed to do fighting inside. After a feeling-out first round there were constant exchanges making it an exciting fight and although many rounds were close and Sosa was throwing lots of punches the sounder defence and the cleaner, more accurate and heavier punches were coming from the Jamaican. This was not a battle of jabs but of hooks and uppercuts inside. Sosa was setting himself a fast pace with his busy, busy style but that and the body work from Walters eventually had Sosa fading a bit over the last three rounds. Walters landed a sharp right inside in the fifth which had Sosa stumbling a couple of steps but he banged back with a couple of rights to the head but his punches lacked the power of the Jamaican’s. Walters landed some thudding body punches in the seventh and scored with a hard right to the head at the end of the eighth. They battled toe-to-toe in the ninth and Sosa landed some nice rights as they just threw caution out of the ring and banged away. It was the same in the tenth as two tired warriors slugged it to the bell. Walters seemed to have the edge in the last round and the fight but the judges saw it differently. Scores 95-95 twice and 96-94 to Sosa. The former unbeaten WBA feather champion looked to have won this one clearly and although Sosa was the busier the CompuBox statistics had Walter landing 281 punches to 168 for Sosa. He may need a couple more fights but the 29-year-old Jamaican is a big threat to any super feather. Camden’s Sosa, 27, is now unbeaten in his last 17 fights but against a much lower level of opposition. However, he showed he belonged up with the rated guys in the division and this showing will have given him a much higher profile. Rosado vs. Clottey Rosado outworks Commey to win a fight which neither fighter could afford to lose if he was to remain in with a chance of a title fight somewhere in the future. This was close over the first three rounds with Clottey being more aggressive and probably just getting the better of the action but then Rosado started to edge the rounds. Clottey was methodical with Rosado more fluent and fluid. Neither was capable of hurting the other but Rosado was making use of his strength to force the fight. There was never much in it with Rosado just doing enough to cancel out the early work of Clottey and with a strong tenth round doing enough to be a deserving winner. Scores 97-93 twice and 96-94 all for Rosado. The 29-year-old “King” had lost three tough fights in a row against Peter Quillin for the WBO title, Jermell Charlo and David Lemieux and this was his first fight since losing to Lemieux in December last year. Former WBA welter champion “Grand Master” Clottey, 38, is not the force he was in 2008/2009 when beating Zab Judah and taking Miguel Cotto a split decision. He showed he was still a player last year with a win over Anthony Mundine but if continues his role may just be that of a scalp for the up and coming prospects. Shabranskyy vs. Gonzalez With both fighters having a high percentage of inside the distance wins this one might have been expected to end early but after ten close round of action they both showed they also have a good chin. These two went straight to it with Gonzalez rumbling forward throwing sweeping hooks focusing on the body and the taller Shabranskyy using his extra reach working behind his jab slotting in straight rights and mainly head hunting. Gonzalez was wild with his swinging punches early with Shabranskyy finding openings but a solid right in the first did not even make Gonzalez blink. Neither fighter was interested in fighting inside and they were both willing to stand in the pocket and let their punches go with huge shots flying in both directions. In the third Shabranskyy had Gonzalez on the ropes and looked to have hurt him with a series of head punches with Gonzalez again swinging wildly in furious spurt of action. Gonzalez worked his way off the ropes only for a left jab and a right cross from Shabranskyy to send him back there and for a few seconds it looked as though Gonzalez might crumble. Instead he banged back but again was mainly swishing air. Just before the bell they again just stood and pitched bombs. No one was interested in digging trenches. Shabranskyy seemed to have tired himself in that frantic third round and Gonzalez was able to get into the fight with a bit more success and was blocking Shabranskyy’s jab with a high guard. Shabranskyy was still doing the cleaner scoring with his jab/straight right and working the body a bit more but Gonzalez kept coming. The Cuban landed a big right in the sixth but Shabranskyy took it well and in the seventh Shabranskyy was given recovery time after a low punch from Gonzalez. The Cuban scored with some clubbing shots before they again ended the round like a couple of Friday night drunks swinging away. An amazing last round saw Gonzalez scoring early with a four punch combination but with 20 seconds left Shabranskyy landed a thunderous right and Gonzalez was almost out on his feet as Shabranskyy piled in more punches only for Gonzalez to stagger forward swinging to the bell. Scores 98-92 and 97-93 for Shabranskyy and 95-95. For me the middle score was the most accurate but it was a pity either had to lose as these two gave everything for the full three minutes of every round. Ukrainian Shabranskyy, 28, lived up to his “Lion Heart” nickname and although Gonzalez marked a big step up from his previous victims he showed he is ready to face some tough opposition. Gonzalez, 30, had shown his quality in losing to Jean Pascal in July with all three judges scoring it 96-94 to spark some controversy. With a little bit more composure and accuracy he might just have won this one. Martinez vs. Melendez This was a case of the biter bit as big puncher Melendez is blown away inside two rounds. Despite it being his first fight for a year Martinez was sharp and landed a hard combination at the end of the first round that had “Destroyer” on shaky pins. Martinez knew he had shaken Melendez and went right after him in the second. A left hook put Melendez down. He was up quickly but in a bad way and a succession of unanswered punches brought the referee’s intervention. The 25-year-old from the Bronx has 12 wins by KO/TKO and made the perfect recovery from a loss to Chris Pearson in his fight last December. Puerto Rican Melendez, 26, was in the ratings when he had a 13-0 run with 12 wins by KO/TKO but is now 3-4 in his last 7 fights. Gamboa vs. Williams Gamboa and Williams had rust to shed as Gamboa returns with a win. The Cuban was just that bit quicker and more accurate and within the first ten seconds of the fight he made Williams stumble with a short left hook. Williams recovered and showed a good jab to keep himself out of trouble for the rest of the round. Williams scored with a sharp right in the second but Gamboa was showing plenty of head movement and lateral shifts with Williams often swishing air. Williams was the one coming forward but Gamboa’s movement was making it difficult for Williams to find the target and meanwhile Gamboa was shifting about changing angles and getting his punches off first. There were some wild exchanges in the fourth but Gamboa was in charge. Over the late rounds Gamboa’s work rate dropped and Williams had a bit more success but never enough to endanger Gamboa or change the pattern of the fight and Gamboa got in ten good rounds of work. Scores 98-92 twice and a too close 96-94 all for Gamboa. The 34-year-old former IBF and WBA feather and interim WBA light champion was having his first fight in 13 months and although he is not the force he was he is still a class fighter who needs to be more active. He was 133lbs for this one so he could go up or down. Williams, 25, won his first 15 fights before losing to Rances Barthelemy in 2012. He had almost three years out before returning with a draw against Jason Litzau in August. Ballard vs. Pena Ballard remains unbeaten as he wins every round against Pena. No real excitement as Ballard outboxed the Los Angeles-based Brazilian but never really had him in any trouble. Scores 60-54 from all three judges. A flat end to the year for the 22-yeear-old from Maryland but he does not need to be rushed. Pena is 3-3 in his last six fights but has usually been stopped quickly by the prospects he has faced.
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