It is the time of the week where I scour the boxrec results and look for anything interesting that I hadn’t already covered in separate articles. This week featuring Ricardo Mayorga, Tyrone Spong, Youri Kalenga, and more!
Ricardo Mayorga (32-9-1, 26 KOs) TKO3 Jaudiel Zepeda (12-18-1, 9 KOs), Nicaragua
Everyone’s favorite chain smoking, fight hyping, and eventual KO victim Ricardo Mayorga was back in action as a 44 year old Light Heavyweight in his native Nicaragua. His vaunted opponent hadn’t won a fight in 16 tries, but there were two no contests in there so at least it wasn’t a 16 fight losing streak! And one of those KOs was to David Lemiuex, so can’t hate on him for that. I guess the stoppage was ridiculous too, but I am not going to watch this so you judge. Mayorga wants Margarito now. Make of that what you will.
Cesar Juarez (20-5, 15 KOs) KO3 Eugene Lagos (11-4-2, 7 KOs), Mexico
Tormentor of Phillipinos everywhere Cesar Juarez struck once again. In 2015 he almost upset Nonito Donaire and then last year he stopped then unbeaten Albert Pagara. Lagos was much less heralded than those two, but I guess this was a pretty brutal KO.
Jose Zepeda (26-1, 21 KOs) TD5 Jesus Silveira (8-4-2, 3 KOs), Mexico
In 2015 Zepeda flew to the UK for a title shot against Terry Flanagan. He dislocated his shoulder in the second round and understandably did not come out for the third. In his following fight he sustained a terrible cut in the first round on a head clash with Jose Alfaro and the fight was ruled a no contest. Since the two bouts of terrible luck, Zepeda is 3-0 including this stay busy bout, but even here a class of heads rendered Silveira unable to continue and the fight was forced to the cards.
Hernan Marquez (41-8-2, 29 KOs) D8 Jose Quirino Jr (14-2-2, 5 KOs), Mexico
From 2011 to 2012, Hernan Marquez held the WBA Flyweight title before being dominanted and stopped in ten by Brian Viloria. Up a weight class or two, Marquez has struggled going 7-6-2 since. Here he fought to an eight round draw against a regional fighter. Marquez is only 28, but he is clearly done as a top level fighter.
Paulus Moses (39-2, 24 KOs) TKO7 Crispin Moliati (18-7-4, 8 KOs), Namibia
In 2009 Namibian Lightweight Paulus Moses went to Japan to win the WBA Lightweight belt, defending it once before losing it to Miguel Acosta at home in Namibia. In 2012 he went to the UK to try to win the WBO version against Ricky Burns, but he was easily outpointed. It is hard to imagine him doing much more at 38, but he is 11-1 with a no contest since the Burns fight in 2012 so I wouldn’t be shocked to see someone use him for a soft defense somewhere down the line.
Alberto Machado (17-0, 15 KOs) TKO1 Juan Jose Martinez (26-4, 18 KOs), Puerto Rico
Miguel Cotto Promotions prospect Machado continued to shine on his home island in Puerto Rico. Martinez had previously lost a seven round technical decision to Rey Bautista and last June was stopped in five by Felix Verdejo on HBO, but he couldn’t go a round with Machado. Definitely a name to watch out for from Puerto Rico.
Matt Remillard (24-1, 13 KOs) UD8 Agustine Maurus (6-1-3), Massachusetts
In March 2011 Matt Remillard was 23-0 and making his HBO debut at 126 a 24-0 Mikey Garcia. He was an underdog, but not an impossible one, and it was a competitive first half to the fight before Garcia took over in the second half. From there it was a beating and Remillard did not come out for the 11th. In fact, he still hadn’t come out for another round until this weekend, over six years later, when he took an extremely low level fight on a small card in Massachusetts. I have no idea if this was the start of a comeback or a one off go out with a win sort of thing, but he was a decent young fighter six years ago even if he proved not to be on a Mikey Garcia level. Few are, in truth. He is still only thirty, but I can’t imagine him doing much up at 135 if that is where his target is after fighting this fight at 136. His main weakness at 126 was a lack of real power. If he can’t get back down there, 130 is a must.
Tyrone Spong (7-0, 7 KOs) TKO1 Carlos Rodriguez (0-15), Domican Republic
One of two super random surprises to come from the Dominican Republic this week, Tyrone Spong fought what looks like a joke on paper. Dutch fighter Spong is a star in the fight world, just not in boxing. A 74-7 kickboxing superstar (2-0 in MMA as well), Spong suffered a gruesome break to his leg in a 2014 Glory title fight when his opponent blocked one of his kicks. Since then he has fought sparingly in pro boxing matches and has taken two MMA fights. I don’t know who would approve him fighting someone 0-14, but I guess it wasn’t a surprise in the Dominican Republic. Spong is 31, but I actually think he can be competitive at a pretty high level in boxing. I don’t know how high, exactly, but I hope he takes it seriously and tries to go as high as he can. He would probably be best as a Cruiserweight.
Youri Kalenga (23-3, 16 KOs) TKO4 Adam Gadajew (17-14, 8 KOs), France
About 11 months after his great fight and failed title bid against Yunier Dorticos, the Congolese Cruiserweight returned with a low level return fight in his adoptive home country of France. Not much else to say about this other than Kalenga is an exciting, quality fighter and I hope he finds himself in with other top guys in that super deep division again soon.
Antoine Douglas (20-1-1, 15 KOs) KO2 Eduardo Mercedes (32-17, 27 KOs), Dominican Republic
I thought it was weird to find Tyrone Spong’s name in the middle of a random DR bill, but that was nothing compared to finding Douglas’ name. 13 months ago Douglas, a very talented then unbeaten 23 year old middleweight prospect, found himself in a too much, too soon fight against miniature Middleweight buzzsaw Avtandil Khurtsidze and was stopped in ten. He took a year off and returned two weeks ago in a low level bout on a low level card in Louisiana. So to see him, who had never fought outside the US, two weeks later on a random card in the Dominican Republic was a real head scratcher. So much so that I would kind of question if this even happened were it not for some super minor WBC trinket that will presumably help him get ranked and on track for a bigger fight down the road. What is definitely real is the talent belonging to Douglas. At 24, he can definitely still amount to something big if his psyche is okay after that beating.
