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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A day that begins in Australia and ends in Mexico can be an insanely long day in the boxing world. Sometimes it's not really worth it but this Saturday really was worth it as we had one of the best fights you will see in 2014! Nuevo Leon, Mexico Although it was the last bout of the day, by some margin, we can't help but start the results with the war in Mexico between Katsunari Takayama (27-7-0-1, 10) and Mexico's Francisco Rodriguez Jr (15-2, 10). The bout, a rare unification contest at 105lbs, saw the IBF and WBO titles being unified by Rodriguez who won a very hard fought decision in a bout many are dubbing the fight of the year. From the first round to the last the bout swung one way then the other, one man looked in charge then the other did, the action, relentless and pulsating from the off was the sort of thing worth staying up for and although Takayama, a man we love, lost on the scorecards he enhanced his reputation as a warrior. We're hoping for a rematch though we'll be honest and say that we don't imagine it happening which is a shame but considering how good the bout was we'll be remembering this one for a very long time. If you're interested in watching this fight we have the video here. Crimea In the hotly disputed area of the Crimea we had a Russian promoted card that featured a "world title" fight that was little more than a criminal mismatch between one of the rising Russian stars and someone who has seen much, much better days. The card began with a trio of low level decision bouts. These saw debuting Heavyweight Pavel Doroshilov (1-0) take a decision over British veteran Danny Williams (46-23-0-2, 35) to announce himself as a man to keep an eye on. Although Williams is a "shot" fighter he's still an interesting opponent to debut against, especially when you consider who many other fighters have been debuting against in recent weeks. In a 6 rounder Azerbaijan's feather fisted Ramal Amanov (6-0) took a disputed majority decision over the more experienced Wilfrido Buelvas (15-3, 9). This wasn't the only debated decision on the card with Dilmurod Satybaldiev (5-1, 2) narrowly taking a split decision over Konstantin Piternov (15-6, 6). Although some of the decisions on this show were debatable no one would argue with the decision that went in favour of the very promising Arif Magomedov (12-0, 8) who totally dominated Britain's Patrick Mendy (15-7-1, 1). Mendy, who fought to a draw with Dmitry Chudinov last year, was dropped in rounds 2, 7 and 8 as Magomedov did everything but stop his foe. By the end of the bout the scorecards didn't really matter as it was so one sided, though somehow onely 1 judge gave it a shut out with scores of 120-105, 119-106 and 118-117 all being returned from the judges. The video of this fight is available here. In the main event Dmitry Chudinov (14-0-2, 9) simply destroyed French veteran Mehdi Bouadla (30-6, 11) to retain the WBA "interim" world title. Chudinov dropped Bouadla 5 times in less than 3 rounds forcing the referee to wave off the bout and save Bouadla from any further punishment. Bouadla was down once in the opening round then twice in rounds 2 and 3 as he found out just how hard Chudinov punches. The video of this fight is here. Gauteng, South Africa We had two title fights of note in South Africa earlier and sadly neither of them went "our way". For Russian fighter Denis Grachev (13-4-1, 8) the action was exciting though he was unable to over-come the unbeaten Ryno Liebenberg (16-0, 11) who took a clear decision to claim the WBC Silver Light Heavyweight title. Grachev brought a lot of pressure in the fight but was unable to land the clean blows needed to over-come the clean counters of Liebenberg who deserved the decisions, though he cards were frustratingly wide in favour of the home fighter. For Filipino fighter Roli Gasca (22-5-1, 6) things were equally disappointing as he gave his all against the heavy handed Thabo Sonjica (20-2, 14) in a bout for the IBO Super Bantamweight title. Gasca, who was up against it when the bout was signed, found himself up against a man who failed to make weight and that was simply too much for him, despite a good effort. Sonjica came in above the Featherweight limit and was naturally bigger anyway. That size came in handy and despite being dropped in round 7 Sonjica was simply too strong, dropping Gasca in round 11 to secure a clear decision victory, though one which will come with many people feeling disappointed in the South African fighter. New South Wales, Australia The boxing began in Australia today with 2 cards. The most important of the bouts involving an Asian "down under" took place in New South Wales as Filipino fighter Ryan Sermona (16-6 9) attempted to make the first defence of his WBC International Super Featherweight title. Unfortunately for Sermona, who took on the light hitting Corey McConnell (14-1-1, 2), he became just the second stoppage victim of McConnell after suffering a cut that caused the referee to stop the bout. It's a shame for Sermona to lose his title like this but hopefully he will be able to secure a rematch with the Australian. Queensland, Australia The other bout of note in Australia saw Aussie debutant Luke Hall (1-0) over-come Thailand's win-less Arnon Yuchareon (0-5). Arnon managed to win 1 of the 4 rounds on all 3 cards losing 39-37, surprisingly this is as close as he's got to winning a professional boxing contest since he turned professional 6 months ago. Pennsylvania, USA In the US fans were rightfully impressed by the performance of the unbeaten Vasily Lepikhin (16-0, 9) who put on a text book display of boxing to defeat the heavy handed Robert Berridge (24-2-1, 20) over 5 rounds. It was an incredibly solid performance from the unbeaten Russian fighter who seems likely to become a genuine contender over the next few fights. Again if you are interested in the video of this bout we have it here. (Image courtesy of Nakazato boxing) |
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