This past Saturday was an incredibly busy day in Asian boxing

New York, USA
It was in New York that we had the two highest profile bouts of the day to feature Asian fighters.

The first of those saw saw Filipino-American Brian Viloria (36-5-0-2, 22) put in a brave showing against the sensational Roman Gonzalez (44-0, 38). Viloria, who was attempting to claim the WBC Flyweight title, came out looking for the upset and did have plenty of success of his own, including hurting Gonzalez with a hard body shot in round 9. Sadly for Viloria that body was his last success of note before the referee saved him as Gonzalez went on the offensive.

Following the Viloria/Gonzalez bout we then saw Gennady Golovkin (34-0, 31) add the IBF belt to his collection of titles as he stopped Canadian fighter David Lemieux (34-3, 31) in the 8th round of a very 1-sided bout. Golovkin showed his boxing ability early on, breaking down Lemieux with just his jab for the first few rounds before picking up the pace and eventually forcing the referee to stop a damaged Lemieux.

California, USA
Another major show from the US saw ALA make their US debut and take some of their best fighters to American soil for the first time.

The main event here saw talented WBO Light Flyweight champion Donnie Nietes (37-1-4, 21) take a clear win over the limited, but very tough, Juan Alejo (21-4, 13). Alejo was on the receiving end of a beating but never once looked like quitting as he repeatedly fought back, albeit with mixed success against the Filipino.

Another fighter who impressed was the much touted Albert Pagara (25-0, 18) who claimed the WBO Youth Intercontinental Super Bantamweight title with a 6th round KO win against former world title challenger William Gonzalez (27-6, 23). The Nicaraguan was stopped for just the third time in his career and it seems clear that Pagara is preparing himself for a world title fight in the not so distant future.

Another youngster who shined was Mark Magsayo (12-0, 10) who saw off Yardley Suarez (13-1, 8) in the early stages of their fight, whilst retaining the IBF Youth Featherweight title. On paper this one looked competitive but was totally one sided in favour of the brilliant Filipino prospect.

Another quick blow out saw Jason Pagara (37-2, 23) easily over-come Santos Benavides (25-8-2, 19) in the 2nd round as he moved a step closer to a potential world title fight of his own.

One other bout on this show saw Filipino-American Bruno Escalante (14-1-1, 6) take a 6 round decision win over Nestor Ramos (6-3-1, 2).

Massachusetts, USA
Yet more US action came from Massachusetts where a couple of promising Chinese fighters both scored wins.

One of those winners was touted Lightweight hopeful Wang Zhimin (5-0, 2) who scored a 6 round win over the experienced Guillermo Sanchez (15-17-1, 6). This was the second time that Zhimin has gone 6 rounds and it's likely than an 8 rounder bout will in the not so distant future.

The other was Meng Fanlong (4-0, 2) who scored a quick blow out win against the debuting Devonte Hopkins (0-1). This bout lasted less than a round with the Chinese fighter being too good, too strong and too talented

Gifu, Japan
In Gifu Japanese fans had a small profile show headlined by one of their most promising prospects in the lower weights.

That prospect was Genki Hanai (5-0, 4) who scored a 2nd round TKO win against Junya Nishikawa (7-7-2, 2). Following the win Hanai's team hinted that he would be fighting for a title next time out.

In the chief support bout Reiko Sugiyama (6-5-3, 4) scored a 6th round TKO win against Takuya Yamamoto (6-4, 3).

The under-card for this show, which featured 6 bouts, were all scheduled for 4 rounds. Of those two failed to go the distance. They saw Masaki Sasaki (1-0, 1) take an opening round KO win against Hidemitsu Yokoyama (0-1) whilst Yuto Nakamura (2-1, 2) took a 4th round TKO over Michitaka Umemoto (1-2, 1).

The most competitive bout of the show saw Tom Hamaguchi (3-3) take a majority decision over Seiya Kaga (1-1). Another competitive fight saw Takayoshi Mizoguchi (1-1) take a competitive win over Kiyoshi Nakamura (2-3, 1). Mizoguchi was one of 3 fighters to pick up their first win. Another was Kizuki Yamazaki (1-1), who beat Takashi Kagamihara (2-3) whilst Takayuki Sakai (1-0-1) claimed a win over Shohei Iwamoto (0-3-1).

Ishikawa, Japan
Another Japanese show took place in Ishikawa.

This card featured a genuine upset as Yudai Tamagawa (8-6-1, 2) claimed a split decision win over once touted Filipino Mark Gil Melligen (21-6-1, 12) For Melligen, who fought for an OPBF title earlier this year, this was a second successive set back and it's hard to see where he goes now.

The Tamagawa/Melligen bout was one of 3 bouts scheduled for 8 rounds. Another saw Yudai Arai (7-3-3, 3) scored a wide decision win over Yukiya Hanabusa (8-3-2, 2), in a fight that looked good on paper, whilst the other saw boxing nomad Omrri Bolivar (3-0, 1) defeat Xinghua Wang (11-13-1). Bolivar, from Venezuela, has fought in China and Japan in recent weeks and seems likely to continue his interesting career on the road.

In a 6 rounder Hurricane Futa (20-5-1, 11) blow away Ik Soo Han (7-5, 2) inside a round whilst Mika Iwakawa (4-3-1, 1) out pointed Aiko Yamagishi (4-3-1, 2) in a female bout, also over 6.

Another female bout saw Asami Jinnari (3-1, 1) score a 3rd round TKO win over win-less Thai Petchluksor Sor Praithong (0-3), in a bout scheduled for 4 rounds. The only other 4 rounder was a narrow win for Yohei Fukui (3-0, 1), who defeated Dong Yang (1-5).

Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Staying with Japanese fighters there was a win for foreign based Japanese fighter Aniya Seki (29-3-2, 4) who defeated the heavy handed but crude Carolina Schroeder (8-2, 7) by a clear decision in a but for a couple of lowly recognised female world titles.

Suzhou, China
There was also action in China with a small card in Suzhou.

In the main event Shunkai Xia (5-0, 2) claimed the WBO China National Cruiserweight title with an 8 round decision against Samoan fighter Falani Tavu'i (4-2, 1). We're not sure how a Somoan, making a Chinese debut, was allowed to fight for a China national title though it certainly seems like Xia is missing details from his record, that could mean bouts or just small inaccuracies.

In another 8 round contest fans saw teenager Jian Wang (1-0) take a decision win over Zhan Gupo Sun (0-1-1). The win, a clear one for the 19 year old Wang, was an impressive debut but it will be interesting to see how far he can go.

The card also featured a couple of 6 round bouts. One of those saw 17 yeard old Light Heavyweight Fei Hu Wang (1-0) claim a clear win against Yu Qu (0-1). The other was a very wide win for Wen feng Ge (1-0) who took a 60-52 win, across the board, against, Xu Gao Yan (0-1)

In a female 4 rounder YuanYuan Zhao (1-0) took a 4 round decision win over Ling Wang (0-1).

(Image courtesy of GBP)

Monte Carlo, Monaco
The biggest fight of the weekend came from Monaco where fans around the world had the chance to see the fantastic Gennady Golovkin (32-0, 29) return to the ring for the first time this year. The Kazakh destroyer was, on paper, facing his toughest opponent as he went up against teak tough Brit Martin Murray (29-2-1, 12), Murray showed his toughness but was eventually stopped in the 11th round after Golovkin's continual pressure and aggression broke him down. Prior to the stoppage Murray had been down 3 times, bloodied around the nose and although he had shown a gutsy account of himself he really did show he wasn't in the same league as Golovkin.

Negros Occidental, Philippines
As well as the big fight in Monaco there was also domestic card in the Philippines courtesy of ALA Promotions.

The main event here saw Jonas Sultan (7-2, 5) score the biggest win of his career as he scored a 5th round KO against former OPBF Light Flyweight title contender Jerson Mancio (18-6-3, 9). Mancio, best known for his loss to Naoya Inoue back in December 2013, has now lost 3 successive bouts by stoppage and appears to be a fighter who has reached his peak and is now seeing his career fall apart.

In the co-feature of this show fans saw the heavy handed Geo Santisima (5-2, 4) score a 6th round stoppage against Boyce Sultan (8-5, 5) to record his 3rd successive stoppage.

Amazingly the rest of the winners on the card all came in without a loss. These included Jeffrey Concerman (3-0, 1) who managed to out point the heavy handed Raul Yu (5-1, 5) in a 6 round bout. Another 6 rounder saw Peter Apolinar (5-0, 3) out point Jhun Ryan Quimbo (4-8-1).

In 4 rounders Virgel Vitor (3-0, 1) over-came the previously unbeaten Kenneth Neron (1-1-1), the unbeaten Joepher Montano (2-0, 1) over-came Paul Varna (0-2-1), another decision saw the debuting Ernest Alera (1-0) over-come the win-less Jonnel Burlado (0-2). The only stoppage on this part of the card was an opening round blow out win by Richard Lumogdang (1-0, 1) who stopped fellow debutant Elmer Liboon (0-1)

(Image courtesy of Sumio Yamada)

This past Saturday was a day where the boxing world turned their attention to the US where we had two major fighters in action whilst other bouts took place in Asia it's self.

California, USA
In the US we saw two world title fights with mixed success for the Asian fighters who were involved in the contests.

For Filipino fighter Nonito Donaire (33-3, 21) the night was a painful one, a very painful one. The Filipino was attempting to defend his WBA Featherweight super title but was made to look small, weak and a long way from being a world class Featherweight as Nicholas Walters (25-0, 21) really "beat the shit" out of Donaire, to quote the Filipino himself. Donaire was dropped in round 3 before being sent down again in round 6, that time he wasn't fit to continue when he recovered to his feet. For Jamaican power puncher Walters this was a break out win whilst for Donaire it may have been a loss that sends him into retirement.

The other bout saw Kazakhstan banger Gennady Golovkin (31-0, 28) continue to rip apart the Middleweight division as he destroyed Mexico's Marco Antonio Rubio (59-7-1, 51) in just 2 rounds. Rubio, who came in well above the Middleweight limit, looked a full division bigger than Golovkin though was battered in round 2 as Golovkin went to work in style. The win for Golovkin was his 18th straight stoppage and saw him defending his WBA Middleweight super title and claiming the WBC interim title as he moved one step further to proving that he was the best 160lb fighter on the planet.

A third Asian on this show was Ruslan Madiev (2-0), also from Kazakhstan, who secured a 4 round decision over the debuting Oscar Rojas (0-1).

Suwannakhet, Laos
In Laos we had 2 more titles fights, both of which were at a much lower level.

The more notable of these bouts saw Kongthara KKP (5-0, 5) score his first title win as he claimed the WBC Asian Boxing Council silver Super Bantamweight title. Konthara, who has also gone by the name Attanon Kunlawong in the past, stopped Macau's Kin Fong Leong (0-1) to record his 4th stoppage of the year and really build on an excellent victory over Japan's Shingo Kawamura.

In the other title bout female fighter Nampetch Kwanjaisrikod (3-1, 1) out pointed Zongju Cai (0-1) to successfully defend the WBC Asian Boxing Council Continental female Light Flyweight title for the first time.

As well as the results we currently have we have been made aware of two other shows. Hopefully we'll be able to add those results shortly though currently we've not have them made available to us.

Negros Occidental, Philippines
An interesting, albeit some what small, Filipino show took place in Negros Occidental. Sadly many of the bouts turned out to be relative mismatches.

One of the mismatches was the main event which saw the very promising and unbeaten Melvin Gumban (18-0, 9) quickly dispatch of Roger Echavez (7-13-1, 4) inside a round. This blow out won't have done much for the long term development of Gumban but keeping him active over the coming years is likely as important as anything else.

Although the main event was over quickly the co-feature dud go the distance as Juren Labordo (13-2, 8) took an 8 round decision over Ryan Tampus (11-12, 8), an astonishing result given that Tampus had been stopped 7 times prior to this bout. Another bout that went the distance saw James Paul Talaman (2-0, 1) take a decision over the win-less Sonny Basanez (0-3). Other bouts that went the distance saw Kenneth Neron (1-0) take a split decision over Jay Solomon (1-1, 1) whilst Jeffrey Concerman (1-0) began his career with a win over Holly Quinones (0-2).

As for stoppages on the under-card fans saw Rafael Sueno (2-1, 2) blasted out Macmac Baribar (2-2-1) in a round and it took Ricardo Sueno (1-0, 1) just as long to see off Kavin Parrenas (0-1). The other stoppage on this card saw Archie Moyani (1-0, 1) stop Ronald Cajes (0-1) in the second round.

Rostov-na-Donu, Russia
We also got action from Russia with a 9 fight card that featured a trio of title bouts as well as one of the hardest hitting on world boxing.

The shortest of the title bouts saw the unbeaten Viskhan Murzabekov (10-0, 5) successfully defend the WBC Youth Intercontinental title with an opening round blow out over Ramadhani Shauri (18-6-1, 10). This was the first defense of the title by Maruzabekov.

In a UBO Middleweight title bout Aliklych Kanbolatov (10-2-2, 5) scored a 5th round TKO against Mada Maugo (17-12, 12) whilst a UBO InterContinental Super Middleweight title fight saw Varazdat Chernikov (8-2, 3) score a 6th round KO against Karama Nyilawila (18-11-2, 10).

The most notable fight on the show saw Dmitry Kudryashov (15-0, 15) score a second round stoppage over Giulian Ilie (20-8-2, 6). Ilie was sadly forced to retire after just 2 rounds giving the heavy handed Russian an unexpectedly easy victory against the usually tough Romanian. Whilst Kudryashov's stoppage run continued we did see the run of Apti Davtaev (8-0-1, 8) come to an end after he was held to a 6 round split decision draw by Ante Verunica (3-1-1, 1).

Davtaev's bout was one of 4 bouts that went the distance. Another saw Apti Ustarkhanov (8-1-2, 1) take a 6 round decision over the limited Murad Dalkhaev (3-4, 2). In 4 rounders Arbi Madaev (7-1, 2) took a unanimous decision over Andrey Zapisov (0-2), the unbeaten Robert Bagaev (2-0) defeated Oleksiy Shteplyuk (0-10-1) with a 4 round decision whilst Roman Ivanov (3-6, 1) struggled past Rustem Abdinanov (1-3-1)

(Image courtesy of Sumio Yamada)

This past Saturday was one of the busiest and longest days of the boxing year so far with fights taking place across the globe, from Australia to New York.

New York, USA
The biggest fight of the night came in New York where popular Kazakh puncher Gennady Golovkin (30-0, 27) successfully retained his WBA Middleweight super title and advanced his KO% to a simply insane 90%. Golovkin was supposedly facing his toughest test so far as he battled former unified Middleweight champion Daniel Geale (30-3, 16) though he made it look like a cake walk.

The opening round was a seeing out round for Golovkin who did little until an assault late on stole him the round. The second round saw him warming up and dropping Geale whilst the third round saw him stopping Geale who was dropped for a second time before telling the referee he wasn't okay to continue. This was supposed to be a tough fight but the champion really made it all look way too easy.

Metro Manila, Philippines
The most interesting of three Filipino shows took place in the Mandaluyong Gym in Metro Manila courtesy of former fighter-turned-promoter Gerry Penalosa who had two of his nephews on the show.

Both of the promoters nephew's managed to take home wins though things were a little bit hairy for Dave Penalosa (9-0, 6) who was dropped hard by Danilo Gabisay (5-3, 3) in the third round of their fight. Penalosa, who was dropped for the first time in his career, seemed to take the knockdown personally and dropped Gabisay twice in the following round before finishing him off in the following round.

For Dodie Boy Penalosa Jr (13-0, 12) things were much easier as he saw off the very limited Dicky Amtiran (3-9) in round 3 courtesy of a solid body shot. Amitran had been down in the opening round and looked completely out of his depth from the opening bell.

Sadly the show's most interesting bout on paper ending in the most disappointing fashion as Bernabe Concepcion (32-6-2, 18) suffered an accidental cut and was forced to accept a 3rd round technical draw with Eden Sonsona (32-6-2, 10). The hope was that the winner would go on to fight in a solid international bout but with this sort of ending it seems that a rematch makes more sense than anything else for either man.

A fourth bout of note on this show saw former OPBF Bantamweight title challenger Richard Pumicpic (15-6-2, 4) clearly defeating domestic journeyman Rex Olisa (10-25-1, 8) in an 8 rounder decision. Pumicpic, one of the more under-rated Filipinos, came in to this bout following a majority decision loss to Ryosuke Iwasa and seems likely to get another title fight in the next year or two. A real danger man Pumicpic is a fighter than people will likely avoid due to the "high risk-low reward" factor that he brings to the ring, though we'll admit we're impressed when fighters do beat him.

We hope to get the remaining results from this show soon.

Metro Manila, Philippines
A second show in Metro Manila took place at The Flash Grand Ballroom of the Elorde Sports Complex and featured 8 bouts in total.

This show saw 7 bouts going the distance including the shows opening bout between BJ Sampiton (1-1) and Rolando Prima Jr. (0-2). Sampiton was dropped in the opening round of the 4 round contest but managed to recover well to win the remaining 3 rounds and take home the decision with scores of 38-37 across the board.

As well as the opening bout going the distance so to did the 6 bouts scheduled for 6 rounds, these include some very competitive bouts. The most even of the contests was a was a split decision draw between Jun Blazo (1-1-1, 1) and Ryan Medez (1-2-2) with the judges really struggling to split the men over the 6 rounds. Another close bout saw Jonathan Ligas (8-5-1, 1) taking a majority decision over Roy Lagrada (3-7-1, 3). A third close bout was probably the most shocking result on the card as the young Warlight Dapidran (3-1, 2) saw his unbeaten run come to an end at the hands of Gilbert Donasales (5-7-1, 3) courtesy of a split decision loss. Strangely the judge who gave the bout to Dapidran had it a near shut out, 59-55, in his favour suggesting he was watching a very different fight to the other judges who both gave Dapidran just 2 of the 6 rounds.

One of the most one sided of the decision bouts was the win for the unbeaten Joe Noynay (5-0) who dropped Mark Postrano (2-3, 1) in the opening round before taking a clear decision. Another clear decision was won by the experienced Lionel Mark Duran (13-10-2, 5) who out pointed Ruben Traza (4-7-3, 1). The remaining 6 round was a near shut out in favour of the world ranked Lionel Legada (12-6-1, 5) who over-came the over-matched Ricky Oyan (4-21-2, 2).

The only bout to see a stoppage was the main event which saw Bebong Manalo (9-2, 6) blowing away Jovill Marayan (8-18-3, 3) in just 122 seconds to score an eye catching victory.

Bohol, Philippines
At the moment we're awaiting the full set of results from a show in Bohol though we've been informed that the excellent Mark Magsayo (7-0, 5) scored a 6th round stoppage against Ernesto Tata Fontanilla (11-6-1, 5). Hopefully the rest of the results will hit us in he next few hours.

Hidalgo, Mexico
Sadly Mexico wasn't a happy location for the visiting Takahiro Shigee (11-1-1, 9) who suffered his first loss as he remained in his corner at the end of round 9. Shigee, fighting out side of Japan for the first time, was unable to cope with the pressure and experienced of the very talented Rodrigo Guerrero (21-5-1, 14) who has now scored back-to-back wins since losing to Daiki Kameda last year. With this win Guerrero also claimed the interim WBC Silver International Bantamweight title.

As with a number of other shows we are awaiting the other results from this show.

Queensland, Australia
In Australia locals fans will have been pleased to see Jason Cooper (11-3-1, 6) defeat Thai visitor Phissanuthep Chaiyonggym (4-11-1, 3) to claim the IBO Asia Pacific Super Bantamweight title. Cooper is best known to us for his loss, in China, to Qiu Xiao Jun earlier this year. Since that loss Cooper has scored a trio of victories may well turn his attention back to Jun for a rematch of what was a competitive contest.

Pennsylvania, USA
Back in the US fans had the chance to see unbeaten Uzbek Heavyweight Akhror Muralimov (16-0, 13) continue his winning run as he scored a 2nd round TKO over American who stopped Jason Bergman (23-11-2, 16) to claim the NABA USA title

(Image courtesy of Thegarden.com)

It's not often that we get fights of note around the world but today was one such case with fights in Japan, the Philippines, Russia and Monaco.

Tokyo, Japan
The earliest action of the day was in Tokyo courtesy of a brilliant domestic card that was headlined by a national Light Flyweight title fight.

The aforementioned Japanese title fight saw Yu Kimura (13-2-1, 2) narrowly defeating Kenichi Horikawa (25-13-1, 4) in a split decision. The bout, Horikawa's 3rd national title fight, was one that could easily have gone either way and sadly for Horikawa it went against him just like his previous 2. Although Horikawa lost we'd love to see him getting one more chance, even if it's in a rematch with Kimura, because of how close he has been, not just in this attempt but in prior bouts to Ryuji Hara and Akira Yaegashi.

In the co-feature the well liked Yasutaka Ishimoto (24-6, 7) made light work of Indonesia's Zun Rindam (9-4-1, 4) stopping him early on. After the bout Ishimoto said he wanted to win titles this year and appeared to mention the OPBF title which is currently held by Shingo Wake which is a bout we'd love to see made as a world title eliminator.


Two of the three 8 rounders on the card went the distance with Masanobu Nakazawa (14-1-1, 5) out pointing Kazumasa Kobayashi (8-4-1, 5) the closest of the two bouts whilst Jun Hamana (9-1, 3) beat Kosuke Saka (8-2, 5) in what was, on paper, a very competitive looking contest. The third however was never going to complete the scheduled as Yuichi Yokoyama (13-2, 12) managed to force a retirement of Koichi Ito (9-2-2, 8) in what was, on paper, the least likely bout of the day to go the scheduled distanced.

In the opening bouts, both 4 rounders, Ryuya Kaji (1-0, 1) scored a debut win stopping Koichi Nagatsuka (3-2, 1) mid-way through round 2 whilst Regent Kusumoto (1-0) fought hard to claim a victory over Takahiro Yoneshige (0-1) in an all debutant contest.


Metro Manilla, Philippines
Whilst we'll admit that the Japanese card, above, and the Monaco card, below, were the two that had our interest there was also a notable card in Metro Manila with several title fights and a number of notable fighters.

The biggest fight on this show saw Dennis Laurente (47-5-5, 28) stopping the over-matched Thai Singdet Nonpitayakom (11-16-1, 8) in a successful defense of the WBC Asian Boxing Council Light Middleweight title. The experienced Laurente sent Singdet down for the count with a devastating body shot.

Laurente was one of two men who retained his title asJuan Martin Elorde (15-1-1, 7), the grand son of Flash Elorde, retained his WBO Asia Pacific super Featherweight title courtesy of a disappointing technical draw with Chaiyong Sithsaithong (32-12-4, 24). The bout was unfortunately ended when Elorde was cut on the temple from a clash of heads.

The Elorde/Chaiyong fight wasn't the only one which ended early due to a clash of heads as Randy Braga (12-0-1, 2) also suffered a cut from a clash of heads as he took on Jonel Alibio (16-17-5, 8). As with the Elorde fight this was ended in the second round.

Braga wasn't the only man keeping his unbeaten record on this show as the talented Giemel Magramo (9-0, 6) scored a 3rd round KO over Rey Morano (8-39-1, 1), Jay Loto (7-0) took a hard fought decision over Dexter Dimaculangan (3-4-5, 1), JK Elorde (3-0, 3) stopped the debuting Juanito Paderes (0-1) and Roderick Flores (2-0-1, 1) narrowly kept his 0 with a draw against the win-less CJ De Tomas (0-1-1).

The other bouts on the show saw Diomel Diocos (2-1-2, 2) fighting to a draw with Fidel Cuyno (1-2-2), Robin Langres (1-0) scoring a debut victory over fellow debutant Raul Luba (0-1) and Wilbert Berondo (1-0) also took an all debutant victory over Jomar Manlangit (0-1).

Chelyabinsk, Russia
As well as the shows in Japan and the Philippines we also had a small one in Russia courtesy of Ural Boxing Promotions. The main contest here sa Murat Gassiev (15-0, 9) out pointing teak tough veteran Ismail Abdoul (51-28-2, 19) to claim the vacant IBF East/West Europe Cruiserweight title. Although Gassiev was taken 12 rounds, for the first time in his career, it's unlikely he expected anythign less with Abdoul being one of the toughest men in boxing.

In a Welterweight contest on this show Konstantin Ponomarev (23-0, 11) managed to over come Ramon de la Cruz Sena (16-10-2, 9), who we believe was a late replacement opponent.

The only other bout on this show saw Heavyweight hopeful Murad Khalidov (10-0, 5) take an easy stoppage over the very limited Sedrak Agagulyan (1-27-1) who had previously been stopped 16 times.

Monte Carlo, Monaco
The biggest show of the day in Monaco as we got the excellent "Monte Carlo Boxing Bonanza" and thankfully for us it included a number of fighters of major interest to ourselves.

In the shows first contest we had a bout of interest to us as Russian born-German based Welterweight Roman Belaev (13-0, 10) defeated the gutsy but out classed Dean Byrne (17-3-1, 6) and claimed the WBA Continental Welterweight title. The fight, the biggest of Belaev's career so far, really saw him shining as he beat up and broke down Byrne.

Whilst it was a good win for Belaev, who was impressive and looked very strong from the opening round to the final round, we will admit that there are faults to be picked with his performance. Firstly Belaev's lack of a jab could have been costly against a better opponent than Byrne, secondly he doesn't really seem willing to throw combinations too much and thirdly his understanding of distance is questionable. With those things said however he does look very promising and very entertaining.

Although Belaev was the more impressive man we do need to give a lot of credit to Byrne who proved to be very tough, very game and the fact he lasted the distance was genuinely shocking considering how many hard shots he took.

The second bout on the show was another one of interest to us as Filipino Rey Loreto (18-13, 10) took on South African Nkosinathi Joyi (24-3-0-1, 17) in a battle for the IBO Light Flyweight title and scored one of the biggest upsets of 2014.

The fight started competitively with Loreto showing not fear of the highly regarded Joyi. It seemed obvious that Loreto knew he belonged at this and wasn't there to be intimidated despite the reputation of Joyi who was once regarded as being on the fringes of the pound-for-pound lists. The confidence of Loreto was obvious again in the second round as he landed a number of solid counter punches, including one that seemed to rock Joyi on the bell.

Knowing he had hurt Joyi in round 2 Loreto jumped on his opponent to start round 3 and within a minute of the round he had dropped Joyi hard with one of the best shots he will ever land. Joyi, with his eyes closed, was out for the count and Loreto deservedly celebrated his second major win in a row having beaten Pornsawan Porpramook last time out

The key thing that needs saying about Loreto's win is "what an upset!"

The third bout on the show was a Cruiserweight contest that saw the very highly ranked Ilunga Makabu (16-1, 15) stopping the previously unbeaten Ruben Angel Mino (20-1, 20) in 2 rounds. It wasn't a bout with an Asian interest per se but it was still an interesting result that was worth mentioning, like wise the same could be said of Jarrod Fletcher's (18-1, 10) victory over Max Bursak (29-2-1, 12).

In the main event we saw Gennady Golovkin (29-0, 26) successfully retain his WBA Middleweight title in an entertaining, though thoroughly one sided, bout with Ghana's tough Osumanu Adama (22-4, 16). Golvokin managed to drop Adama in rounds 1, 6 and 7 before the referee finally waved the bout off as Adama's knees buckled.

It wasn't the most impressive performance from Golovkin but it showed what he was about as he methodically broke down and beat up a game and brave opponent. At the end of the day however it was a mismatch with Adama having nothing to bother the Kazakh destroyer who took the challengers best shots and kept coming forward.

We're hoping that Golovkin gets a fight with a big name in the US in April, the rumour seems to be that he'll be facing James Kirkland next though from our view Daniel Geale would make for a much better contest. Whoever he fights it'll be a major day with the boxing world already in love with the man known as "Triple G".