It is that time of the week again when I sift through the boxing results of the week and report back anything of note not already covered on the site. This week we have another Maidana, some Olympians, a pair of heavyweight contenders, and, unfortunately, yet another tragedy in the sport.
On the Radar Fight Results
Ward stops Kovalev in eight to cement his legacy
Maldonado upsets Cano on ESPN2
Under the Radar Fight Results
Diego Chaves (26-2-1, 22 KOs) KO2 Jean Carlos Prada (32-4-1, 22 KOs), junior middleweights – Argentina
In 2013, Diego Chaves fought a pretty good fight against Keith Thurman before being stopped in the tenth in what was a fairly even fight along the way. Next he fought Brandon Rios in a bizarrely officiated, foul filled fight in which he was DQ’d for… something. To this day I do not understand what for, to be honest. In 2014, Chaves fought Tim Bradley and walked out with a draw in a fight he clearly lost. Since then, including this fight, he has only fought three times in his native Argentina. Here he scored a predictably easy win over Prada who built an empty record in the Dominican Republic and then has since gone on to lose to everyone he has faced with a pulse.
Fabian Maidana (13-0, 10 KOs) TKO4 Pedro Verdu (19-16-3, 14 KOs), welterweights – Argentina
Fabian Maidana is Marcos Maidana’s brother. He fought nine out of his ten first fights in the United States buried deep on PBC cards, but since has returned to his native Argentina for his last four. I am not sure who was unhappy with the arrangement there, but it does seem to be over. Perhaps there weren’t enough dates for the 24 year old prospect as PBC slowed down, but I am just speculating here. Either way, in this fight he bashed out a soft opponent as the co-feature to the aforementioned Diego Chaves fight. Because of his heritage, Fabian Maidana is a prospect to be aware of, but he is not blue chip status or anything of the sort yet either.
Yves Ulysse Jr (14-0, 9 KOs) UD10 Ricky Sismundo (31-10-3, 13 KOs), junior welterweights – Quebec
Montreal’s Yves Ulysse has been a prospect with some buzz in that cities always busy fight scene for a while now. That small amount of hype spilled out into the larger fight world when he destroyed unbeaten Golden Boy prospect Zachary Ochoa on the David Lemiuex/Curtis Stevens undercard. This was Ulysse’s first fight after his breakout performance and he won on wide cards against the well traveled, Japan based Filipino Ricky Sismundo. In two of his last three fights, Sismundo nearly upset Top Rank prospect Jose Felix Jr and went to a draw with Dierry Jean, so the wide win here is another great mark for Ulysse’s chances on the world stage. He is already 28, however, so time is not on his side as a prospect.
Tony Luis (24-3, 8 KOs) UD10 Cam O’Connell (15-1-1, 10 KOs), lightweights – Canada
One of the few quality fighters in Canada not based in Montreal, Tony Luis picked up a wide decision win over his previously unbeaten and untested fellow Canadian opponent. Internationally, Luis is best known for losing a questionably officiated contest for an interim belt against Derry Matthews in 2015. Luis was a last minute substitute for that fight in the UK, taking the shot on less the four days notice. Nevertheless, many thought he should have gotten the nod in a fight where he wasn’t allowed to work on the inside by the referee for no discernible reason. Hopefully Luis gets another shot against a top fighter in the future.
Lolenga Mock (40-14-1, 13 KOs) UD10 Luke Blackledge (23-4-2, 8 KOs), super middleweights – Denmark
45 year old Lolenga Mock just keeps rolling now an astonishing twenty six years into his career. After starting 17-0 in Africa from 1991 to 1997, Mock went 5-9-1 from 1998 to 2004 fighting in more established places like South Africa and Europe. You might remember him during that stretch as the dramatically undersized “cruiserweight” with no power on his record who almost knocked out David Haye back in 2003. Since 2005, however, Mock is 18-4 and now has won nine straight, mostly fighting out of his native Denmark. Here Mock beat a known British commodity in Luke Blackledge rather comfortably, hurting him in the sixth round along the way. It will be interesting to see where the high volume puncher can still go in his career from here at 45 years old.
Robert Helenius (25-1, 16 KOs) RTD6 Evgeny Orlov (17-15-1, 13 KOs), heavyweights – Estonia
This was Robert Helenius’s third fight back from his 2016 upset stoppage loss at the hands of Johann Duhaupas. All three fights have been against low level, double digit loss opponents that represent no challenge to the Finland based, 6’7″ heavyweight contender. What is notable about this fight is that Helenius came in under 240 lbs for the first time since his 2011 career best win against Derek Chisora. Most recently Helenius had been weighing in the 260s. Comically, he chose to do this against an opponent who weighed in at over 300 lbs. Orlov was deducted a couple points for a variety of fouls and did not come out for the seventh. This gives Helenius a minor WBC belt that should help him in their rankings. A rematch with Chisora is rumored for his next bout.
Tyron Zeuge (21-0, 11 KOs) UD12 Paul Smith (38-7, 22 KOs), super middleweights – Germany
Repeat after me: This was not a world title fight. This was not a world title fight. This was not a world title fight. When the WBA sanctioned George Groves’s win over Fedor Chudinov for the “super” version of their super middleweight title, Zeuge’s “regular” WBA super middleweight title immediately ceased being a legitimate, big four belt. They only get one.
Here Tyron Zeuge fought a 34 year old Paul Smith who might as well be 44 at this point in his career. Smith, never truly a top fighter to begin win, is done at any level above the six rounders he won that somehow landed him this fight. Paul Smith had an argument to win a title over Arthur Abraham in 2014, but the cards came back strangely wide for Abraham. It was a toss up decision that Abraham still could have fairly won on close cards though and Smith lost the rematch wide. Otherwise, Paul has never won above domestic level and he probably really isn’t there anymore either. Hopefully he retires and Zeuge gets to clear up the always stupid WBA title picture, ideally by entering the World Boxing Super Series with Groves.
Stephen Smith (25-3-1, 15 KOs) KO1 Karoly Gallovich (10-3), junior welterweights – Germany
Brother to Paul, Callum, and Liam, Stephen Smith was 0-2 in world title shots in 2016. This was his first fight back from his November defeat to Jason Sosa. This fight was clearly designed to be an easy win and payday for Stephen on his bother’s undercard. Gallovich’s only other fight outside of his native Hungary was another first round stoppage loss in the UK to Northern Irish prospect Paul Hyland Jr. Not much else to say here.
Stefan Haertel (14-0, 1 KO) UD10 Patrick Mendy (17-13-3, 1 KO), super middleweights – Germany
Also on the Zeuge/Smith undercard was 2012 German Olympian Stefan Hartel. In London, Haertel lost a competitive match to Anthony Ogogo and was eliminated in the quarterfinals after two wins. Despite his legitimate pedigree, however, Haertel has an alarming lack of power that will hold him back in the higher levels of the sport. He only picked up his first stoppage just in his last fight, for example. While I do recognize a couple guys on his ledger, if he has not been scoring KOs at the low level he has been fighting on, that is just plain not good. Here the his handlers seemed to be going for a matchup with the least amount of power ever put together. In 31 wins, these two have a total of 2 KOs. Unsurprisingly, this went the distance.
Carlos Takam (35-3-1, 27 KOs) KO2 Ivica Bacurin (20-12-1, 16 KOs), heavyweights – Italy
One of the more underrated big men in the game today, this was Takam’s second fight back from his competitive points loss to Joseph Parker in the eliminator that gave Parker his title shot. Takam also has a draw with Mike Perez, a win over Tony Thompson, and a very good showing against Alexander Povetkin in which he fought on basically even terms with the top heavyweight before being stopped in the tenth. 36 is old for almost all weight classes, but not really for heavyweight. He should have a couple more big fights in him over the next few years if he can get the opportunities.
Jose Zepeda (27-1, 22 KOs) TKO6 Miguel Zamudio (39-10-1, 23 KOs), junior welterweights – Mexico
In July of 2015, Jose Zepeda traveled to the UK to fight Terry Flanagan for the vacant WBO belt. Before the fight could really get going, Zepeda suffered a dislocated shoulder and lost via TKO when he didn’t come out for the third round. Immediately in his next bout, Zepeda suffered a clash of heads that opened a cut bad enough to have the fight stopped and ruled a no contest. Since that run of epic bad luck, Zepeda is 4-0, albeit against poor competition. Here he did win a minor WBO belt so perhaps he will get another shot at Flanagan or whoever has that belt in due time.
Julio Cesar Martinez Aguilar (6-1, 3 KOs) UD8 Edgar Sosa (52-11, 30 KOs), bantamweights – Mexico
This is one of the worst results I have seen in a long time. From 2003 to 2014, Edgar Sosa went 48-3 and was consistently one of the best fighters in the world in the flyweight corridor of the sport. In 2015, however, Sosa was smashed out in two by Chocolatito. After an easy six round bounce back fight, Sosa met now titlist Donnie Nietes in an eliminator. Nietes is a very good fighter. Losing to him in itself was not damning, but doing so as noncompetitively as Sosa did raised some cause for alarm for Sosa’s career going forward. At 37, an ancient age for the weight, we have clear confirmation that Edgar Sosa sadly has little left to offer the sport. He didn’t just lose to a 5-1 club fighter, but Aguilar won it by almost shut out scores.
Jose Lopez (19-1-1, 14 KOs) UD10 Orlando Cruz (25-6-1, 13 KOs), junior lightweights – Puerto Rico
Orlando Cruz was a midlevel Puerto Rican fighter who by 2012 had failed both times he had tried to step up to something approaching world level. Then, he came out of the closet as boxing’s first active, gay fighter. A brave thing to do, for sure, but also a savvy career move. Despite never really earning them in the ring, Cruz received and was stopped in title shots in both 2013 and 2016 against Orlando Salido and Terry Flanagan respectively. Cruz lost a wide decision here to an unknown Puerto Rican fighter with an empty record so you’d figure he would be done with his title shots, but he also did the exact same thing following his 2013 loss to Salido so who knows for sure.
Paddy Barnes (3-0) MD10 Silvio Olteanu (16-12-1, 7 KOs), flyweights & David Oliver Joyce (1-0, 1 KO) TKO2 Gabor Kovacs (26-10-1, 5 KOs), lightweights – Northern Ireland
Two older former Irish Olympians were in action in Belfast this weekend. Barnes is a three time Olympian and two time bronze medalist who is already 30. Accordingly, his handlers are trying to move him fast and had him in a ten round fight for a minor WBO belt in only his third pro fight here. Olteanu, a former European belt holder, gave a good test to Barnes, but the score that came back a draw was a little generous for him. Joyce, also 30 despite only one Olympic appearance, drew a tougher than normal pro debut as well with a 38 fight, 26 win pro veteran. He had little trouble, however, quickly disposing of Kovacs in the first round.
Nico Hernandez (2-0, 2 KOs) TKO3 Jose Rodriguez (2-1, 2 KOs), flyweights – Kansas
21 year old flyweight prospect Nico Hernandez somewhat unexpectedly won bronze for the United States in Rio. As a pro, Hernandez is admirably trying use his Olympic earned cache in the sport to build boxing as a sport in his native Kansas instead of signing with a major promoter. His second pro fight aired as the main event to a CBS Sports Network card, but technical difficulties extended the show well past its intended time slot and my DVR didn’t catch the main event. From what I am reading, however, it was a predictably easy night for the potential future top fighter.
Adam Braidwood (8-1, 7 KOs) KO2 Tim Hague (1-3, 1 KO), heavyweights – Alberta
At this point, I am writing about one of these every week.
In 2009 and 2010, Tim Hague got four UFC fights. He won his first with an upset first round submission over very popular kickboxer Pat Barry, but he dropped his last three and was cut. After two fights on the regional scene, he got one more crack in the UFC, but he was stopped and never brought back. Hague spent the next few years have mixed success on the MMA regional circuits, but in 2015 and 2016 things fell apart for him when he was KO’d in four of five fights. Hague then switched to boxing where he went 0-4 and was knocked out three times including both this fight and a fight where reportedly they fought under boxing rules with MMA gloves that does not count on his record.
I watched this fight and it remains available on Youtube. It was a mismatch very quickly. There was a point in the first round where Hague was crouched in the corner somewhat defenseless and the fight could have been stopped. It wasn’t super egregious though. Hague was dropped three times before he was knocked out, but each time he bounced back up and seemed totally fine. After a very poor first round, he laughs and comes to the middle of the ring to touch gloves before going to the corner.
When he is knocked out, it is a real knockout. He is down for a bit and then the video cuts so he is sitting in his stool. The focus is not on him, but during Braidwood’s post fight interview Tim Hague can be seen leaving the ring on his own. Now, he’s dead from a brain bleed presumably stemming from this fight.
I don’t have any answers here. Yes, he was knocked out quickly in his last fight, but more than six months had passed. We love an inherently dangerous sport. This risk can never be completely mitigated.
Bakhtiyar Eyubov (13-0, 11 KOs) TKO1 Cesar Soriano Berumen (27-36-1, 16 KOs), welterweights – Michigan
Power punching Houston based Kazakh Eyubov was a pretty hot prospect until he ran into Karim Mayfield last summer. I thought he lost that fight, but the judges gave it to him in the narrowest of split decisions. His team must have agreed with my sentiment, however, as they have stepped him way back since that night. This is his second fight post-Mayfield and both opponents have had a losing record. It feels like it will be a while before we see Eyubov back in against a good opponent.
