This past Saturday was a hectic day to say the least with bouts spread across the world with many of them being major bouts. New Jersey, USA The biggest bout of the night saw unbeaten Russian puncher Sergey Kovalev (26-0-1, 23) unifying 3 Light Heavyweight world titles as he dominated American legend Bernard Hopkins (55-7-2-2, 32) in a very impressive and controlled performance. The Russian dropped Hopkins in the opening round and had all over the place in the final round as he came close to stopping Hopkins. Although the clock ran out before Kovalev could score the stoppage he still managed to unify the WBO, WBA and IBF titles at 175lbs and put real pressure on Adonis Stevenson to fight in a total unification bout later this year. Pennsylvania, USA In an unexpectedly tough bout we saw another promising Russian Light Heavyweight, Vasily Lepikhin (16-0, 9), claim a hard fought decision over Jackson Junior (15-2, 13). We had expected Lepikhin to impress, as he did against Robert Berridge, but he seemed to struggle over the line a little bit here and it shows he's a few fights away from being stepped towards a world title fight. It's a shame but he's not ready to be stepped up, at least not yet, despite being very talented. Texas, USA Staying in the US a little bit longer, fans in Texas had the chance to see the very promising Egor Mekhontsev (6-0, 6) made light work of the heavy handed Jinner Guerrero (7-3, 6) who lasted just 2 rounds. Guerrero had entered the bout as a genuinely dangerous fighter but was never in the bout against the former amateur standout who some are tipping as yet as another Light Heavyweight to keep a close eye on. Baden-Württemberg, Germany Our first world title fight came in Germany where the previously unbeaten Naoko Fujioka (12-1, 6) lost a very close fight to German local hero Susi Kentikian (34-2-0-1, 17). The fight, for the WBA female Flyweight title, was a great female fight ruined only by some frustrating officiating with a referee that seemed unable to really keep the action flowing as the two fighters fell into each other. Although the contest was competitive and full of action we do feel that Fujioka was hard done by, though we need to admit we saw the bout on a broken stream that frustrated us almost as much as the referee for the contest. Queretaro, Mexico A second female world title bout came in Mexico and again saw a Japanese fighter losing a questionable decision as Etsuko Tada (13-2-2, 3) came up short against Anabel Ortiz (16-3, 3) for a second time. Tada had traveled to Mexico in an attempt to reclaim the WBA female Minimumweight title though lost a close decision to Ortiz for the second time following a loss last year in Japan to the Mexican fighter. Sadly for Tada it appeared one judge didn't even bother watching the fight was competitive through out despite a laughable 99-90 card for Ortiz. Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand One of the days first shows came from Thailand where we had a trio of notable bouts. The main event saw the world ranked Petchbarngborn Kokietgym (29-7-1, 12) score a 9th round KO against Filipino foe Macrea Gandionco (10-2-1, 6) to record his first defense of the interim WBO Asia Pacific Super Flyweight title. The Filipino took a hard counter and whilst it looked like he could continue he instead chose to take the 10 count before getting to his feet. It was as if he was happy enough with his effort up to that point to call it a day. On the under-card fans saw Fonluang KKP (22-1-1, 10) take a 4th round TKO against Indonesian visitor Falazona Fidal (25-42-1, 8) who was stopped for the 14th time in his 68 fight career. The other contest on the card was a female bout that saw Kanda Por Muangpetch (3-1) score a 6 round decisions win over the debuting Namnung Kwanjaisrikot (0-1). Queensland, Australia On a show down under Australian fans saw several Asian fighters in action. One of those was the very notable, and extremely dangerous, Bantamweight contender Zhanat Zhakiyanov (24-1, 17) who made very light work of Australian based Filipino Roberto Lerio (16-21-1, 6). Lerio was stopped in the second round of the bout as Zhakiyanov continued to march toward a world title fight and the heavy handed Kazak has now stopped his last 11 dating back more than 3 years! Sadly it wasn't a good show for Filipino's and not only was Lerio stopped but so too was Romeo Jakosalem (15-9-1, 8) who was stopped in the 9th round of his bout with the highly touted Cameron Hammond (11-0, 5). Jakosalem has now lost 5 of his last 6 including an early blow out to Min-Wook Kim in an OPBF title fight and it appears that his career is really becoming that of a journeyman, a sham considering that he was an OPBF champion less than 3 years ago. Davao City, Philippines Sadly we've not yet received all the results from the Philippines. In an interesting clash of fringe world class fighters fans saw Drian Francisco (26-2-1, 20) take a clear win over former Bantamweight world title challenger John Mark Apolinario (17-5-3, 4). Apolinario was down in round 5 and hurt again in round 7 as Francisco proved his dominance over a much lesser foe than himself. Sadly for the heavy handed Francisco he did show signs of ring rust and it's fair to say had he not been rusty he may well have finished off Apolinario in round 7 when he was rocked hard. On the undercard the debuting Aries Buenavidez (1-0) defeated fellow debutant Sammy Caballeres (0-1) Metro Manila, Philippines A second Filipino show saw the extremely heavy handed Richard Claveras (10-0-2, 10) successfully defending the WBC Asian Boxing Council Light Flyweight title with an 8th round TKO over JC Francisco (6-9-3, 2), who had never previously been stopped. A second champion who managed to defend his title on this card was Ardin Diale (25-9-3, 12) who retained the GAB Flyweight title with a stoppage of the heavy handed Jenny Boy Buca (9-2, 9) who suffered a broken nose before being retired at the end of round 10. This was Buca's first stoppage losses and allows Diale to end the year on a high after suffering an 8th round loss to Koki Eto in a thrilling OPBF title fight back in June. In another title fight fans saw Jhon Gemino (11-3-1, 5) take the PBF Super Bantamweight title as he stopped the more experienced Rey Juntilla (19-6-3, 12) in the 7th round of their scheduled 10 rounder. Gemino was one of two new champions crowned on this show alongside Al Rivera (11-2, 9) who claimed the PBF Lightweigth title with a 2nd round KO against Junard Postrano (7-7, 2). In another stoppage we saw Renz Rosia (10-2, 5) take our Jay-ar Estremos (10-9, 4) in the 6th round. The undercard bouts all went the distance. These saw Rommel Berwela (2-2-2) even off his record with a majority draw against JR Florendo (3-2-1) in what was one of two draws on the card, the other saw Ariel Arevalo (2-1-2, 1) fight to a 4 round draw with Juanito Paredes (0-1-1). In another close bout Jason Dogelio (1-2) out pointed Manuel Mamacquiao (0-4). The only other bout on the card saw Lorence Rosas (2-0-1) out point the win-less Brando Bokingkito (0-2) Klimovsk, Russia In Russia we saw a small but interesting card that featured 2 more Filipino fighters in relatively interesting bouts, sadly however they lost both of those contests. The most interesting of the two was a PABA Lightweight title bout that saw Roman Andreev (16-0, 12) take a clear decision over the tough Rey Labao (26-6, 17). Labao was never really in the bout though that was due to Andreev who appears to be very promising and could well go all the way, one day. The other Filipino was Jason Canoy (21-5-2, 15) who was clearly beaten by the promising but previously untested Nikolay Potapov (13-0, 6). In a female bout novice professional Yulia Berezikova (2-0, 2) scored a very impressive victory by stopping the experienced Dalia Vasarhelyi (9-7, 1) in the 4th round of their scheduled 8 rounder. This was one of 3 bouts scheduled for 8 rounds with another failing to go the distance as Konstantin Piternov (17-6, 8) scored a 3rd round TKO against the previously unbeaten David Nagy (3-1, 2). The other 8 rounder saw Maxim Maslov (15-1-1, 8) struggle past Yuri Bihoutsea (8-6-2, 5) in a surprisingly competitive contest. In a 4 rounder on the under-card Alexander Podolsky (2-0) took a 4 round decision over Dmytro Aushev (1-5, 1) (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)
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Shibata and Koseki stop challengers, Kovalev Krushes Caparello, Novikov thwarted by judges and more!8/3/2014 It's fair to say this past Friday lacked activity in a big way. There was very little to comment about or be excited about. Saturday however was the complete opposite with more notable bouts than some weeks have had so far this year. In fact we had 4 world title fights, 2 former world title challengers and numerous contenders, pretenders and prospects. New Jersey, USA The most notable bout of the weekend for us was in New Jersey as WBO Light Heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (24-0-1, 23) successfully retained his world title with a 2nd round TKO over the previously unbeaten Blake Caparello (19-1-1, 6). Kovalev was officially knocked down in the opening round, after having hsi foot stopped on by southpaw Caparello, though managed to get up with no issues to then beat up the Australian challenger. Poor Caparello was almost snapped in half by a body shot early in round 2 and was dropped twice more in the round forcing the referee to wave the bout off. Following the bout Kovalev was interviewed ringside along with Bernard Hopkins and now the two are set to fight in November in a huge unification bout at 175lbs. On the same card in New Jersey another Russian was victorious as Dmitry Mikhaylenko (17-0, 6) dominated Sechew Powell (26-6, 15) in a 1-sided Light Middleweight bout. The only issue with this contest was the lack of power that Mikhaylenko had which allowed the bout to go the 8 round distance. Nevada, USA Staying in the US, and staying on the theme of Russian's, it wasn't a good night for the previously unbeaten Anton Novikov (29-1-0-1, 10) who was widely out pointed by Jessie Vargas (25-0, 9) in a WBA Light Welterweight title fight. For all intents and purposes this was a thoroughly competitive bout which neither guy dominated and neither guy was really ever hurt though some how the "3 wise men at ringside" managed to see the bout a clear win for Vargas. The result in favour of Vargas was no surprise but the cards, which made the bout seem thoroughly one-sided, were revolting and really need to see the judges looked at. Sadly on the same card referee Vic Drakulich made headlines by disqualifying Argentinian Diego Chaves in an act that is likely to help disguise just how disgustingly bad the judging was here. We're not sure why but it does seem like this was a bad night for official, in fact actually it was a bad weekend for officials when we look at some of the scorecards from the UK from Friday night. Tokyo, Japan It wasn't just Russian men in world title fights this past Saturday and in Japan we had a pair of female world title fights. The first of those saw the long standing WBC Atomweight champion Momo Koseki (19-2-1, 6) secure her national record setting 14th title defence as she stopped British title challenger Denise Castle (2-1, 2) in 8 rounds. We had expected this bout to be competitive, given that Castle was a former Muay Thai champion, but it ended up being thoroughly 1-sided with Koseki winning the first 7 rounds before forcing a referee's stoppage in round 8. This defence sees Koseki over-taking Yoko Gushiken for the most successive title defences by a Japanese fighter. On the same card IBF female Light Flyweight champion Naoko Shibata (13-3, 4) proved she was still improving as a fighter as she stopped Mexican veteran Ana Arrazola (20-10-2, 13) in 9 rounds. As with Koseki's bout this one was completely 1-sided before the stoppage though surprisingly this was the first stoppage loss suffered by Arrazola in 32 fights suggesting that Shibata isn't as feather fisted as we had all imagine. As well as the world title bouts this show also featured 5 other bouts on the under-card. The most important of which was an 8 round majority draw between Ryuji Yokoyama (11-1-1, 3) and Ken Achiwa (9-11-3, 3). Interestingly one judge had Achiwa as a relatively clear winner, 77-74, whilst the others both had the bout 76-76. The Yokoyama/Achiwa draw was one of 3 draws on this card with Daishi Nagata (0-0-1) fighting to a 6 round draw with Takeshi Inoue (0-0-1) and Ryusuke Arai (0-2-1) fighting to a 4 round draw with Shunya Saito (0-0-1). Thankfully the other two under-card bouts did see winners crowned. In a 6 rounder we saw Takashi Sakamoto (5-3, 1) out point Kyohei Tsunashima (4-4, 3) whilst in a 4 round the debuting Shunsuke Nakamura (1-0) took a very narrow decision over Handsome Mizukami (0-1) in an all debutant affair. Tokyo, Japan A second show in Japan featured two former world title challengers in action and despite being a "lesser" show on paper was just as interesting as the double world title show. The show began with a number of 4 rounders including yet another draw as Satoru Todaka (2-1-1, 1) failed to over-come Rei Ochiai (2-3-4). Another of the 4 rounders saw Tasuku Nakagawa (1-0, 1) claim his first victory as he over-came Sho Nagata (1-1, 1) in a 4 round decision. Another man who took a 4 round decision was Kazuma Ishiura (3-3, 1) who defeated Kenta Taguchi (2-6-1). Only one of the 4 rounders failed to reach the final bell and that due to Takahiko Suzuki (4-1, 3) stopping Bejita Ishikawa (2-7-2, 1) with 81 seconds of the bout left to go. In the only 6 rounder on the card we saw a blow out as the hotly tipped Koki Koshikawa (2-0, 1) blasted out Yujiro Nakamura (4-8-1, 2) in just 122 seconds. Koshikawa appears to be very talented and if he continues to notch up solid victories it's only a matter of time before he will find himself in the title mix at 140lbs. The sole 8 rounder on the show also featured an early conclusion as Yota Hori (12-2-2, 7) saw off Musashi Suzuki (10-3, 4) late in the final round. On paper the best bout on the show was the co-feature which saw former OPBF Super Flyweight champion Ryo Akaho (24-1-2, 16) out point former Japanese Super Bantamweight champion Masaaki Serie (25-7, 10). The bout had a lot of promise though sadly it never really came alive as one would have hoped with Serie being able to keep the bout at a frustratingly slow pace whilst Akaho managed to land the more telling blows. The main event was saw former WBA Super Featherweight world title challenger Daiki Kaneko (21-3-3, 14) stop the out matched Cirilo Espino (19-14-3, 12) in 4 rounds due to a cut. Prior to the stoppage Espino had been dropped and looked out classed. Kaneko may well be the best fighter at 130lbs without a title though we're hoping to see him in a title bout by the end of the year. Cebu, Philippines As well as the two shows in Japan there were also two shows in the Philippines. At the moment we only have the results from one of these shows, the one Cebu. The undercard on this show saw Prex Cabilla (1-2) score his first victory as he defeated the still win-less Honorato Boc (0-2) with a 4 round decision. In another 4 rounder Elias Joaquino (1-0-1, 1) got off the mark with a 3rd round KO over Garry Rojo (1-8). Another of the undercard bouts, a 6 rounder, saw Carlo Demecillo (3-2, 1) out point journeyman Marlou Talili (5-10, 2). The car also featured a pair of 8 rounders. These saw Kenny Demecillo (7-2-1, 4) stopping the limited Rogen Flores (13-24-5, 6) in the 6th round and the unbeaten Joey Canoy (6-0-1, 3) over-coming the tough Junior Salvador (5-19-3) in a clear 8 round decision, a decision made wider by the fact Salvador has a point deducted in round 4 for low blows. Canoy wasn't the only unbeaten fighter to extend his winning run as Neil John Tabanao (8-0, 6) over-came Jhon Gemino (10-3-1, 4) in a 10 round decision victory. This was the best win so far for Tabanao and it's clear that he can step up following this win. Tabanao's win was followed by a victory for a very impressive stoppage victory for Ardie Boyose (11-0-1, 8) who stopped Richard Betos (20-9-1, 7) in just 2 rounds. What made this win all the more impressive was the fact that it was just the second time Betos had been stopped in 30 fights! Quintana Roo, Mexico Staying on the theme of Filipino's there was also one in action in Mexico and one who gave a surprisingly stirring effort. That was Adones Aguelo (21-10-2, 13) who came up short against Mexico's Sergio Thompson (30-3, 26) but gave a very solid effort and one that proved he belonged in there with world class Super Featherweights, despite the loss. California, USA Again staying with Filipino there was also one in action in the US. This time it was the hard hitting Drian Francisco (25-2-1, 20) who took home a stoppage victory over Colombian journeyman Manuel de los Reyes Herrera (21-14-1, 15). (Image courtesy of Sumio Yamada) This past Saturday was a surprisingly quiet day in the world of Asian boxing with very, very little domestic based action taking place. In fact, from what we can gather, there was just a single Filipino card in Asia. Despite the relatively quiet day domestically there was still plenty of headlines on the international front. New Jersey, USA We'll start not with the domestic card but with the headline making show in the US which was headlined by one of sports most popular puncher, Sergey Kovalev (24-0-1, 22), pictured. Kovalev, the WBO Light Heavyweight champion, took on what turned out to be one of his toughest opponents in the form of American Cedric Agnew (26-1, 13). It wasn't that Agnew really tested Kovalev with his skills, speed or power, but more frustrated the Russian with his defence, the occasional foul and generally negative tactics. Unfortunately with Kovalev's reputation as a vicious puncher we may see more opponents fighting Kovalev in the same negative manner rather trying to have a fight with the "Krusher". On the same card as Kovalev's title defense was another Russian fighter, Khurshid Abdullaev (6-1-1, 3) who suffered his first professional loss. Abdullaev took a huge step up to fight the experienced Winky Campfort (17-1, 9) and made a really good account of himself despite losing a split decision. Nuevo León, Mexico As well as the fights in the US there was also action in Mexico with Filipino Balweg Bangoyan (18-9, 7) fighting. Unfortunately for the Filipino he was, as expected, beaten by Mexican destroyer Adrian Estrella (17-0, 17). Estrella, defending his WBC FECARBOC Super Featherweight title needed just 3 rounds to stop Bangoyan who was out of his league from the opening bell. Camarines Sur, Philippines From a Filipino to the Philippines where the Asian action for the day kicked off with a small card promoted by Saved By the Bell promotions. This card was supposed to feature 5 bouts, though currently we only have results from 3 of them. The results we have include an 8th round stoppage victory for the highly regarded Al Sabaupan (21-2-1, 16) who lost last time out in Mexico. Sabupan's power was felt by Thailand's Rachamongkol Sor Pleonchit (14-8, 6) who suffered his 6th stoppage loss in 22 contests. Another stoppage on this card saw the once beaten Michael Dasmarinas (15-1, 9) stopping the usually durable Zoren Pama (5-10-3, 2) in 3 rounds. Pama is noting special but usually sees the final meaning this was a pretty solid stoppage for Dasmarinas. The only other result we have from this card is that the unbeaten Junar Adante (4-0-1, 2) scored his first 8 round victory as he took a decision over the experienced, but very limited, Arjet Caballes (6-30-5, 3). (Photo courtesy of http://www.mainevents.com) |
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