It is that time of the week once more where I filter through the results of the week in the sport and report on all the notable fights not otherwise covered here at S8C. This week we are featuring a current world titlist, yet another son of a legend, the return of Tomasz Adamek, a handful of serious prospects, and much more. The sport may have lacked big fights this weekend, but it was extremely active on its middle levels.
Sunday, June 25th
John Riel Casimero (24-3, 15 KOs) UD6 Jecker Buhawe (16-14-1, 10 KOs), bantamweights – Philippines
Former two division titlist John Riel Casimero returned to his native Philippines for the first time since 2014 for a stay busy six round fight at bantamweight. Casimero, a former light and full flyweight titlist, previously last fought in September against young UK prospect Charlie Edwards in a successful defense of his IBF belt that he has since vacated. He will reportedly be moving to super flyweight, a talent rich division experiencing its golden era as we speak. Casimero in against any of the top 115 lb fighters would be amazing.
Cornelius Bundrage (36-6, 20 KOs) UD6 Juan Carlos Rojas (8-21-2, 7 KOs), junior middleweights – Michigan
It doesn’t seem possible that 44 year old “K9” Bundrage held a world title less than two years ago, but he only lost it to Jermall Charlo in September of 2015. Following the loss of his belt, Bundrage took roughly a year and a half off before returning in January. In that fight as in this fight, K9 took a light six rounder against a 20 loss opponent. Even at 44, the Detroit fighter will be able to handle nothing fights like this without issue. Something tells me we will see K9 Bundrage one more time in against a big fighter, however, probably sanctioned by the IBF as he has had a high standing with them for a number of years now.
Saturday, June 24th
Javier Fortuna (32-1-1, 23 KOs) KO2 Mario Beltre (16-3, 11 KOs), lightweights – Dominican Republic
Junior lightweight contender Javier Fortuna returned home to the Dominican Republic with a win over Mario Beltre. Beltre has a reasonable record, but as often is the case in the DR, it is entirely empty upon inspection. This was Fortuna’s first fight since his narrow points win over Omar Douglas last November, a fight I scored for Douglas. You will see Fortuna listed as a former world champion thanks to WBA stupidity, but he isn’t. While he held a WBA “world” title at 130 until he lost it to Jason Sosa last June, there was always a WBA “super world” titlist above him. The presence of a so called super champion 100% illegitimizes whoever has the regular WBA belt in any given division. They only get one.
Abrahan Nova (7-0, 6 KOs) TKO1 Andres Zapata (7-2, 5 KOs), junior lightweights – Dominican Republic
Decorated amateur Abrahan Nova continued his rise on the Fortuna/Beltre undercard. On top of his status as a top prospect, junior lightweight Abrahan Nova has an interesting heritage. He was born in Puerto Rico to Dominican parents and then fought a lot of his amateur career out of New York. This will create an interesting mix of markets for the talented twenty three year old fighter when he begins rising to the top of the sport. For now, however, he remains a prospect early in his career. Nova has already fought a few times deep on PBC undercards in the States as well as three times in his parents native Dominican Republic with a random trip to Uruguay for good measure.
Yvan Mendy (38-4-1, 18 KOs) UD12 Javier Jose Clavero (21-3, 5 KOs), lightweights – France
Yvan Mendy was a known European level talent when he served as a step up to 2012 British Olympic gold medalist Luke Campbell in 2015. Mendy came out of that fight with a well earned upset, handing the British prospect his first career loss. In the year and a half since, however, Mendy retreated back to his native France and has failed to advance his career to the world stage after his big win. This fight could help change that, however, as he picked up an important minor WBC belt that usually leads to title shots. Mikey Garcia currently holds the WBC belt. I don’t know how keen Mendy’s team would be to push for that fight, but Garcia currently has larger ambitions than defending his WBC lightweight title and is a good candidate to vacate or be stripped. Mendy could very well end up in a vacant lightweight title fight by this time next year.
Paddy McDonagh (11-2) PTS10 Steve Collins Jr (10-1, 4 KOs), light heavyweights – Ireland
Irish legend Steve Collins’s son by the same name dropped his first loss here. Collins Jr is not and never was a prospect as he had no amateur experience and is already 27. Yet, with a marketable name Collins, he could and probably still can carve out himself a profitable niche fighting at home. This loss clearly marks his ceiling, however, as McDonough himself has no finishes and his losses have come to 2-2 and 7-25-1 fighters.
Giacobbe Fragomeni (35-5-2, 14 KOs) PTS8 Vitaliy Neveselyy (13-3, 7 KOs), cruiserweights – Italy
Italy’s Fragomeni briefly held a cruiserweight belt back in 2008 and managed to not lose it to then top three cruiserweight Krzysztof Wlodarczyk via a draw in his first defense. He narrowly lost the belt to popular German light heavyweight titlist Zsolt Erdei by majority decision in Germany and has since been stopped in two rematches with Wlodarczyk. This win puts Fragomeni on a three fight winning streak following his most recent loss to Rakhim Chakhkiev in 2014, but Fragomeni, a 2000 Olympian in Sydney, is 47 years old now and very unlikely to be competitive with a top cruiserweight. If he wants to collect paydays like this against mediocre competition in Italy, by all means I hope he does well. No one should put him in with a top cruiserweight at this point, however.
Miguel Roman (57-12, 44 KOs) TKO12 Nery Saguilan (38-9-1, 13 KOs), lightweights – Mexico
In January, Miguel Roman engaged in an absolute war with Takashi Miura that simply has to be in the fight of the year discussion when 2017 closes. Though he does have twelve losses, counting this fight Roman is now 19-1 since 2013 and remains a contender at junior lightweight. This was a soft comeback fight as it probably should have been after the beating he took in the last couple rounds against Miura. Saguilan is 1-4 in his last five with the one win coming via disqualification.
Tomasz Adamek (51-5, 30 KOs) UD10 Solomon Haumono (24-4-2, 21 KOs), heavyweights – Poland
40 year old former light heavyweight and cruiserweight titlist Tomasz Adamek returned on Polish PPV to decision the powerful, but limited Solomon Haumono. Haumono can really punch and this was Adamek’s first fight back from his 2016 KO loss to Eric Molina, but even at 40 the Polish star showed he can still out maneuver lesser fighters with his feet. The fight wasn’t close as Adamek outpointed his slower opposition on his way to near shut out cards. He did discuss retiring following the Molina loss, so this may be a go out on a win scenario for the two division titlist here, but all too often that is not the case in boxing. Hopefully he does not end up in the ring with any of the major heavyweights again.
Krzysztof Glowacki (27-1, 17 KOs) TKO6 Hizni Altunkaya (29-1, 17 KOs), cruiserweights – Poland
Top cruiserweight Glowacki returned for the first time since losing his world title to Oleksandr Usyk last September. The Polish contender went into that fight riding an elite two fight winning streak against long time top cruiserweights Marco Huck and Steve Cunningham. Accordingly, Glowacki remains a legitimate top contender despite his loss to Usyk. Here the thirty year old contender stopped an unbeaten Turkish fighter with an entirely empty record as the co-feature for Adamek’s return on this weekend’s Polish PPV.
Maciej Sulęcki (25-0, 10 KOs) TKO3 Damian Bonelli (24-2, 21 KOs), junior middleweights – Poland
Unbeaten 28 year old junior middleweight prospect Maciej Sulecki also returned on the Adamek show in Poland. During the higher volume, early period of PBC shows, Sulecki was getting decent American exposure fighting on them three times consecutively. He has been one of the many casualties of the reduction of PBC dates, however, and here fought again in his native Poland for the second consecutive fight. He is definitely ready for a step up fight though and it will be interesting to see what his team can get for him going forward.
Tyrone Brunson (25-6-2, 23 KOs) KO5 Kermit Cintron (39-6-3, 30 KOs), junior middleweights – Pennsylvania
I can’t find full video of this fight, but it reads like a wild one. Reportedly Brunson was hurt badly, dropped twice, and nearly finished before being saved by the bell in the fourth. He responded by rallying back out of no where to stop Cintron in the fifth following three knockdowns. This marks the now 37 year old Cinton’s first loss since his 2011 defeat from Canelo, but he has not looked good in a long time and has no quality wins to speak of since then. Brunson has only ever been a fringe contender at best despite generating hype as a knockout artist early in his career. This is his best win. Without any real career momentum for either guy, these two might as well do this again. Just put a real camera in the room this time, please and thank you.
Carlos Negron (20-1, 16 KOs) TKO4 Derric Rossy (31-13, 15 KOs), heavyweights – Kentucky
This was the debut card for Evander Holyfield’s new Real Deal Promotions and it was broadcast on CBS Sports Net. In the main event, once beaten former Puerto Rican cruiserweight prospect Carlos Negron stopped former fringe heavyweight contender Derric Rossy in the fourth round. Gaining 43 pounds since his last fight in December and already with one pretty bad loss on his record, it is hard to take Negron seriously as a prospect. He will probably be featured by Holyfield with TV dates going forward, however, if only due to a pretty empty stable for the fledgling company.
BJ Flores (34-3-1, 21 KOs) UD6 Nick Guivas (13-6-2, 9 KOs), heavyweights – Arizona
On a small card in Arizona, former cruiserweight title challenger and ESPN commentator BJ Flores quietly returned for his second fight of the year against Kansas club fighter Nick Guivas. When given the chance to step up, Flores has repeatedly shown himself to be a cut below the top fighters in the sport. Most recently he was stopped by Tony Bellew in October in a world title bid. At 38, it appears Flores is very unlikely to ever get his belt, but he remains a competent pro fighter and might just get himself one more opportunity before he takes off the gloves for the last time.
Devin Haney (16-0, 11 KOs) TKO5 Angel Aispuro (8-6-2, 5 KOs), lightweights – California
18 year old Floyd Mayweather Sr trained Devin Haney is one of the better kept secrets in the sport. Instead of pursuing an Olympic bid, Haney chose to turn pro in Mexico just days after his seventeenth birthday. Due to his age, it is much easier for him to get fights in Mexico and accordingly ten of his professional bouts have come within the country. At eighteen now, he should be able to consistently be able to fight back north of the border. Despite his stellar youth amateur pedigree, Haney is essentially having the rest of his amateur career Mexican style on the pro circuit. We are probably two of three years away and potentially thirty fights into his career before he fights someone with a pulse, but Haney is a likely future top contender that you should definitely have on your radar.
Friday, June 23rd
Stuart Hall (21-5-2, 7 KOs) PTS6 Jose Aguilar (16-36-4, 6 KOs), featherweights – England
Former unlikely bantamweight titlist Stuart Hall returned with an extremely soft touch following his September failed bid to reclaim his belt against Lee Haskins. Aguilar’s record speaks for itself here. At 37, Haskins’s very winnable belt was probably Hall’s last hurrah at the world stage. He will need to focus back down at the European and/or British levels of the sport should he wish to continue his career. This fight took place on Eddie Hearn’s ludicrously named “NXTGEN” prospect series.
Josh Kelly (3-0, 2 KOs) TKO1 Tom Whitfield (4-2), welterweights & Anthony Fowler (2-0, 2 KOs) TKO4 Nikoloz Gvajava (9-7-1, 7 KOs), middleweights – England
Also and more appropriately on NXTGEN, 2016 British Olympians Josh Kelly, 23, and Anthony Fowler, 26, returned for their third and second pro fights respectively. Neither made any significant waves in Rio, but given the Matchroom backing and current strength of the sport in the UK, they will likely be important names in the years to come. For my money, Kelly is the better prospect of the two, but Fowler is known as a bit of a hot head and may generate more headlines.
Rafael Rivera (25-0-2, 16 KOs) KO2 Ruben Tamayo (26-10-4, 18 KOs), featherweights – California
23 year old Mexican featherweight prospect Rafael Rivera extended his unbeaten mark against former fringe contender Ruben Tamayo in California. Though this marked Tamayo’s sixth straight loss, he went the distance with JoJo Diaz, Miguel Flores, and Oscar Valdez in that stretch, making Rivera’s quick two round execution of Tamayo notable. Both of his draws took place within his first five fights. This bout was Rivera’s fourth in the United States, all coming inside his last six, and he seems ripe to be picked up by a bigger promoter at this point in his career.
Sergey Kuzmin (11-0, 8 KOs) KO4 Malcom Tann (24-5, 13 KOs), heavyweights – California
Also on the Rivera/Tamayo card was Russian heavyweight prospect Sergey Kuzmin. Heavyweight is the only division where a fighter can be thirty and still legitimately a prospect. As an amateur, Kuzmin had strong success at the European championships, picking up a gold and silver in 20111 and 2013, but he fell short at the world championships and never stood a shot at an Olympic bid in Russia’s increasingly full amateur system. After fighting his first nine pro bouts in his native Russia, Kuzmin has now fought two consecutively here in the United States.
Alan Sanchez (19-3-1, 10 KOs) Miguel Angel Huerta (28-15-1, 18 KOs), welterweights – California
A solid fringe contender, Golden Boy’s Alan Sanchez is now 14-1 since 2011 with his sole defeat in that window having come against former top contender Luis Collazo. In that time Sanchez has picked up pretty good wins against the likes of Ed Paredes, Pablo Cesar Cano, and the then unbeaten John Karl Sosa. At 26, Sanchez has plenty of time to keep winning and eventually maybe earn a title shot. That would be a tall order at welterweight, however, given the depth of the current field. No matter what his future holds, I’d expect to Sanchez start popping up on these Golden Boy on ESPN cards sooner rather than later. He has definitely earned a graduation from the Estrella TV cards they have had him fighting on on.
