It is that time of the week once again for UTR. As always this is where I filter through the long list of the week’s fight results to uncover the relevant fights not otherwise reported on on the site. This week we have an upset in Australia, a De La Hoya, and several big prospects. It was a pretty busy weekend for the sport.
On the Radar Fight Results
Miguel Cruz redeems himself against Alex Martin on FS1
Easter Jr and Shafikov put on a good fight with bad cards
Povetkin, Troyanovsky win in Russia
Horn fights well but gets a nod he doesn’t deserve over Pacquiao
Under the Radar Fight Results
Sunday, July 2nd
Damien Hooper (13-1, 8 KOs) UD10 Umar Salamov (19-1, 14 KOs), light heavyweights – Australia
Hooper was a 2012 Olympian for Australia who beat Marcus Browne before bowing out of the games. He was considered a bright young light for Australian boxing, but a 2014 upset KO1 loss to club fighter put a real damper on that. Hooper’s dedication has also been questioned over the years. Salamov is, or maybe was, a current big time light heavyweight prospect who was definitely supposed to win this. Hooper pull off a narrow decision win, however, re-emerging as a real prospect along the way. Unfortunately, I can’t find video to determine if this was a hometown decision or a fair shake. It is a real shame Top Rank and ESPN chose to air both Michael Conlan and Toussaint/Mosley Jr over this.
Saturday, July 1st
Diego De La Hoya (19-0, 9 KOs) UD10 Alan Luques Castillo (21-7, 9 KOs), super bantamweights – Argentina
22 year old Diego, well documented cousin of Oscar, quietly went to Argentina this weekend to win a WBC youth title for his first fight abroad. De La Hoya does a lot well with his activity and combinations, but he is a flawed defensive fighter with absolutely no pop on his shots. I don’t think he can consistently win at higher levels so it will be interesting to see what Golden Boy tries to do with his name long term. I imagine he will keep taking fights like this for a couple years until they can try to arrange him a soft vacant title fight like promoters have so many times in the past. Maybe he will get better along the way too. Others have higher opinions of young Diego, but that is how I see him.
Brian Carlos Castano (14-0, 10 KOs) SD12 Michel Soro (30-2-1, 20 KOS), junior middleweights – France
Argentinian junior middleweight prospect Brian Carlos Castano, 27, traveled to France to pick up a big win in a sizable step up fight on the road against Michel Soro. Soro is a good fighter who holds a stoppage win over Glen Tapia and a draw with Antoine Douglas, so this is a fine win for a now 14-0 fighter. Castano himself owns amateur wins over both Errol Spence Jr and Sergiy Derevyanchenko and is a notable prospect. In fact, Castano owns and was defending the interim WBA belt here meaning he will likely be declared a mandatory challenger to either Demetrius Andrade or Erislandy Lara soon. They both own the two other supposed WBA “world titles” at the weight, but only Lara’s is legitimate.
Karo Murat (31-3-1, 20 KOs) TKO11 Dominic Boesel (24-1, 9 KOs), light heavyweights – Germany
Karo Murat has been a good light heavyweight for a number of years now, but he has fallen short on the world stage with his losses having come against Nathan Cleverly, Bernard Hopkins, and Sullivan Barrera. The hope in Germany was that Dominic Boesel was more like those guys and less like the guys Murat has spent most of his career beating. Evidently this is not the case. Murat started fast in this fight and while Boesel did stabilize in the middle, a big eleventh round rally was his doom. Boesel, highly ranked by multiple sanctioning bodies as he is a collector of their minor belts, was inching closer to a title shot and this was a huge set back for him while simultaneously being a career revitalizing win for Murat.
Kenichi Ogawa (22-1, 17 KOs) TKO2 Hirotsugu Yamamoto (20-14-3, 4 KOs), junior lightweights – Japan
Ogawa made the fifth defense of his Japanese featherweight belt that he won from then prospect Rikki Naito in a notable upset back in 2015. Unfortunately for Ogawa, despite his successes he has not looked particularly strong along the way since then, either needing late stoppages or some luck in decisions to stay on his fourteen fight winning streak. Nevertheless, he keeps winning. His team is next trying to secure him a world title shot which he will surely lose or, failing that, a sort of Japanese domestic super fight against Masayuki Ito which I support as it would be a good scrap.
Roberto Ortiz (35-1-2, 26 KOs) D12 Diego Cruz (17-5-2, 13 KOs), junior welterweights – Mexico
From one perspective, this is a disappointing result for 2014 Lucas Matthysse title challenger Roberto Ortiz, one of Mexico’s top junior welterweights. The 31 year old had been winning at this level consistently over his career and this was for a minor WBC belt that long term would have helped position him for a second title opportunity. Ortiz also lost a point for head butts in rounds ten and twelve, mathematically costing him the win. However, both I and the Mexican commentary team thought he was lucky even to get the draw, especially after those points. All in all this probably worked out well for Ortiz.
Frank Buglioni (20-2-1, 15 KOs) UD12 Ricky Summers (13-1, 5 KOs), light heavyweights – England
Buglioni, a failed 2015 Fedor Chudinov title challenger, returned here in defense of his British light heavyweight belt to main event a Matchroom Sky card against unbeaten, but unknown Ricky Summers. Summers was really game and had his moments, but overall Buglioni controlled and clearly won the weak Sky main event. Neither of these guys is likely to amount to anything beyond the British stage. Honestly, in watching this show the prospects along the way felt more like the main attraction than this fight.
Lawrence Okolie (4-0, 4 KOs) TKO1 Russ Henshaw (7-6, 2 KOs), cruiserweights & Conor Benn (7-0, 5 KOs) TKO3 Mike Cole (4-1, 1 KO), welterweights & Joshua Buatsi (1-0, 1 KO) TKO2 Carlos Mena (4-7, 1 KO), light heavyweights – England
More interestingly, the Sky card featured three prominent British prospects. Okolie and Buatsi, both 24 and a cruiserweight and light heavyweight respectively, are real top prospects who fought in Rio. Buatsi brought bronze back with him and Okolie was good enough to do the same had he not run into Cuban gold medal favorite Erislandy Savon so early in the bracket. Conor Benn, 20 and son of legendary Nigel Benn, was never a top amateur and is largely having his amateur career now in the pro ranks. As of now until he develops more, Benn isn’t truly a top prospect like Okolie and Buatsi, but he will be promoted as such due to that valuable last name in British boxing. He did look really good here though against his limited opponent for what that is worth.
Jamie Cox (23-0, 13 KOs) TKO1 Ivan Jukic (24-12, 16 KOs), light heavyweights – England
Also on the Sky card, the historically legally troubled Jamie Cox returned for a super soft tune up win in preparation for his slot in the World Boxing Super Series super middleweight bracket this fall. That bracket so far also features George Groves, Erik Skoglund, and reportedly Juergen Braehmer with four fighters yet to be named. It clearly won’t be what the cruiserweight bracket is even if the last four in are true top super middleweights, but if we get four more fighters like these guys then it will still be a very useful tool in helping to sort out the super middleweight division a bit better.
Gavin McDonnell (17-1-2, 4 KOs) PTS6 Simas Volosinas (7-62, 1 KO), junior lightweights – England
Gavin McDonnell lost a competitive vacant world title shot in February against Mexico’s Rey Vargas, failing in his bid to join his twin brother as world titleholders. This was his first fight back, a terrible bit of matchmaking that should never have been allowed to happen. I know McDonnell has absolutely no power and was unlikely to really be able to hurt Volosinas, but come on here. He was a round or two away from winning a world title since months ago and now he is allowed to fight a fighter with 55 more losses than wins? Beyond that even, how does this even help him? Regardless, McDonnell’s team believes they can position him back in a world title attempt in a couple fights. They are probably right.
Friday, June 30th
Lamont Roach (14-0, 5 KOs) UD10 Jesus A Valdez (20-3-1, 9 KOs), junior lightweights, California
When top US amateur Lamont Roach decided to turn pro in 2014 at 18 instead of pursuing the Rio Olympic games, Golden Boy snatched him up prior to his first pro fight. Still only 21, Roach has been brought up slowly. Even with that in mind, the DC based prospect hasn’t really developed buzz as a pro in the way Golden Boy probably would like him too. This is partly because of his lack of finishing power. Roach will step up over the next couple years and it will be interesting to see if his lack of real pop holds him back or if he is able to overcome the deficiency with skill and talent.
KeAndre Gibson (17-1, 7 KOs) UD8 Dennis Dauti (14-3, 7 KOs), welterweights – California
Golden Boy was looking to give a second quality main event to start their ESPN2 boxing series when they paired St. Louis’s Gibson with contender Antonio Orozco. It was too much, too soon for KeAndre and it may have marked his ceiling at 27. Still, Gibson is a plus athlete with some real skill so it is nice to see him back in less than three months after his first loss. Dauti is no push over and Gibson was able to comfortably outpoint him. Despite his one sided loss to Orozco, I do believe Gibson has enough talent to at least make a minor push back towards the top of the division.
Ray Robinson (24-2, 12 KOs) TD7 Breidis Prescott (30-11, 22 KOs), welterweights – New Jersey
In his mid 20s around 2008 and 2009, “The New” Ray Robinson was briefly a prospect of note registering on the American national stage. Back to back losses to better prospects in Brad Solomon and Shawn Porter quickly ended that. Now 31, Robinson is 13-0 since the Porter loss in 2010. This win over a badly faded Breidis Prescott is the biggest name on that resume, however, so it remains to be seen if he is any more able to compete at the top level than he was seven years ago. I’ve read reports that this should have been have a TKO as it appeared to be a legal blow that ended Prescott, but it was ruled an accidental foul and I can’t find any video.
Thursday, July 29th
Maksim Vlasov (39-2, 22 KOs) TKO3 Mussa Ajibu (28-9-5, 24 KOs), cruiserweights – Russia
Vlasov, a Russian cruiserweight I have ranked just outside the top ten, took his second consecutive fairly easy fight here following his big late 2016 stoppage win over Rakhim Chakhkiev. A twelve year pro at only age thirty, Vlasov actually turned pro at middleweight back in 2005. On his way up to cruiserweight he lost very close fights to both Isaac Chilemba and Gilberto Ramirez as well. He is a good fighter and would be a good alternate to secure for the World Boxing Super Series should one of the main fighters have to pull out due to injury.
Note: Miguel Vasquez was supposed to fight this weekend in Mexico against a can. I can’t find any indication that that fight actually happened though.
