Welcome yet again to Under the Radar Fight Results, the every Tuesday column where I have a look at all the potentially meaningful results of the week beyond the major cards I had already covered. This week we have twins, major heavyweights, a knockout of the year contender, and more. It was a pretty slow week internationally, but thankfully a deep off-television portion of Crawford and Indongo gives us plenty to discuss.
On the Radar Fights
Luis Nery finishes the reign of Yamanaka in four
Prospect Alberto Machado makes his US television debut
Terence Crawford unifies 140 lbs at the expense of Julius Indongo
Under the Radar Fight Results
Saturday, August 19th
Andrew Moloney (14-0, 9 KOs) TKO4 Raymond Tabugon (20-8-1, 10 KOs), super flyweights & Jason Moloney (14-0, 11 KOs) UD10 Lolito Sonsona (21-2-4, 19 KOs), super bantamweights – Australia
The Moloney twin brothers returned Saturday in Australia. Along with young Tim Tszyu, these two represent the likely future of the sport down under. Andrew, the more prominent amateur of the Moloney bros, dropped down to super flyweight here for the first time in his career. He also had to get off the deck, but in the end he won the same WBA regional title that he and his brother like to have. So far these two have fought as a package duo, but it will make more sense down the line to split them into two main events if they continue developing properly.
Sean Dodd (14-2-1, 3 KOs) TKO3 Antonio Horvatic (10-40, 10 KOs), lightweights – England
Two time failed British title challenger headlined another largely absentee week of boxing for the UK. In November of 2015, Dodd was stopped in the final round by Scott Cardle in a close fight. A few months later they rematched, this time ending up in an entertaining draw in a fight which most thought Dodd narrowly edged. He is 4-0 since then in a streak that includes current European titlist Francesco Patera, a fighter I rate higher than Cardle. Obviously this fight against Horvatic was a stay busy, collect a pay check bout, but Sean Dodd remains very relevant in the British/Euro scene going forward.
Samuel Vargas (28-3-1, 14 KOs) MD10 Ali Funeka (39-7-3, 31 KOs), welterweights – Ontario
Everyone’s second favorite Danny Garcia opponent Samuel Vargas returned for the third time since falling to Garcia last November. He picked up what is probably his career best win here too, though that is not saying much. From 2008-11, Ali Funeka was a real lightweight contender. He even held a belt for a fight. We are well past that point, but he still does okay against midlevel oppposition. He dropped Jeff Horn last time out and got a judge to give him a draw here, for example. Both these guys can serves as tests for prospects, but neither should be around round a real contender.
Brandon Brewer (22-0-1, 11 KOs) MD8 Fernando Silva (15-12-3, 6 KOs), junior middleweights – New Brunswick
Brandon Brewer has done well to make a name for himself and near singlehandedly keep the sport existing on Canada’s sparsely populated East Coast. Yet, after narrowly slipping by a Mexican club fighter who had to travel all the way to Canada, this result speaks volumes about his ceiling moving forward. At 32, if Brewer has any interest in making a move, the time would be now. Absent minor sanctioning body belts or any real promotional outfit, however, I am not sure how he accomplishes this though.
Tyson Cave (30-3, 13 KOs) TKO3 Aramis Solis (16-6, 9 KOs), junior lightweights – New Brunswick
In 2014, Tyson Cave won nearly every round against Oscar Escandon in a secondary title fight and lost a split decision anyway prompting a pretty legendary Teddy Atlas rant from ringside. As a result of the robbery, Escandon has gone on to some bigger paydays while the victim, Tyson Cave, has been stuck back in Canada fighting this sort of fight for little money. It has been three years since then, moving Cave from 32 to 35 years old, a significant difference. Part of the reason that he has not been able to get another shot was a pending assault charge, but the prosecution ultimately never produced any evidence and eventually decided their accuser wasn’t credible enough to proceed. Charges were dropped in June. We live in a cruel world sometimes.
Ali Akhmedov (8-0, 6 KOs) KO4 Curtis Hill Jr (10-1, 5 KOs), light heavyweights – Texas
Ali Akhmedov is a light heavyweight prospect to keep in your periphery for now. He didn’t get to fight in the most prominent amateur tournaments because he was stuck behind Adilbek Niyazymbetov, the Kazakh bridesmaid who won silver at the world championships and Olympics in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2016. Reportedly Akhmedov clearly beat Niyazymbetov in the qualifiers for Rio, however, and was robbed. At 22 he looks the part of a major prospect in the limited footage available, but I am curious as to why no major promoter has come to sign him up yet. For this reason I am reserving judgment.
Mike Reed (23-0, 12 KOs) UD10 Robert Frankel (35-18-1, 7 KOs), junior welterweights – Nebraska
Yes, indeed, this fight was pretty pointless as the psuedo-main event to the WatchESPN prelims portion of the Crawford/Indongo card. It was interesting to watch Mike Reed come forward and stalk for a few rounds, I guess, as that is generally not his nature, but overall this was just an unnecessary and tedious affair. Reed is ready for a mid level contender. The Robert Frankel’s of the world often him nothing. They probably won’t even give him highlights to use going forward as Mike Reed is not really a puncher of finisher. I would be hesitant to throw him right in with a top of the division fighter, but a Darleys Perez or a Kiryl Relikh type opponent would be ideal.
Mike Alvarado (38-4, 26 KOs) KO4 Sidney Siqueira (26-13-1, 17 KOs), welterweights – Nebraska
Mike Alvarado is beyond done. He looked absolutely atrocious in this fight. He had no defense and flailing shots were clearly bothering him. Over the first two rounds, Alvarado was getting absolutely wrecked by a career journeyman. Unfortunately for both of them, Siqueira tired a bit in the third and then was destroyed in the fourth by a beautiful knockout of the year candidate. It might sound strange to call Alvarado winning by a KO of the year candidate an unfortunate thing for him, but I do believe eventually those words will prove themselves true. By scoring this knockout, Alvarado handed his promoters the ticket to selling him as “back” and then feeding him to a name fighter. I am worried they might use him for Crawford’s welterweight debut next time out. No one needs that, least of all Alvarado and his long term health.
Bryant Jennings (20-2, 11 KOs) TKO2 Daniel Martz (15-5, 12 KOs), heavyweights – Nebraska
Returning for the first time since the tail end of 2015 following spirited but clear losses to Wladimir Klitschko and Luis Ortiz, Bryant Jennings here smashed out a big but overmatched foe in Daniel Martz. Now signed to Top Rank, the tentative plan is for Arum to get Jennings in with Joseph Parker for a crack at his title should Parker prevail against Hughie Fury. Top Rank is Parker’s co-promoter, so that would be an easy fight to make assuming the WBO would sign off on it. If that can’t happen, however, a fight with Dillian Whyte, who also appeared on this card, would make a ton of sense as a title eliminator as well. Not to mention it would likely be a very fun, action oriented heavyweight battle.
Dillian Whyte (21-1, 16 KOs) TKO3 Malcolm Tann (24-6, 13 KOs), heavyweights – Nebraska
In what was a pretty odd scene, Dillian Whyte opened the Crawford/Indongo ESPN card in front of maybe one hundred people. He was first on the bill due to time considerations for those who wanted to watch in the UK, which makes sense, but it was still a strange thing to watch. As for the fight itself, Whyte brutalized Tann in the second round. The fight could have been stopped a couple times, especially those two times when the referee managed to count to ten twice, but somehow Tann ended up in the third round where he was finished by a body shot.
Kevin Ventura (8-0, 7 KOs) KO3 Baltazar Ramirez (3-4, 3 KOs), lightweights & Steven Nelson (9-0, 7 KOs) UD6 Cesar Ruiz (5-6, 2 KOs), light heavyweights – Nebraska
Venture and Nelson are regional prospects in Nebraska getting some attention thanks to the existence of Terence Crawford. Neither look like blue chippers, but they both showed some talent and skill. I don’t have a lot to say on either of them except that I do think they are worth keeping an eye on. Ventura, whose full name is Kevin Ventura Ceja, had to overcome a really hard charging Ramirez to find his third round stoppage. Nelson had a pretty easy time, but I did note that he looked like he should probably cut to super middleweight in the future.
Maurice Hooker (23-0-3, 16 KOs) UD10 Courtney Jackson (17-1, 10 KOs), junior welterweights – Texas
Maurice Hooker came into his 2016 showdown with contender Darleys Perez off the strength of consecutive first round knockout wins on prominent cards. He came into that night considered a major prospect and then left with that status all but gone. He may have gotten a bogus draw thanks to the judges, but Hooker was defeated by Perez. This was Hooker’s second win since that “draw” and it is one that looks great on paper. A shut out win over a 17-0 fighter does look a little more pedestrian when you realize the previous opponents of Courtney Jackson sport a combined 69-208-12 record, however. Yet, what really matters with Hooker is that a couple of the sanctioning bodies have him very highly ranked. If Terence Crawford jumps to welterweight, and I suspect he will, there will be four vacant belts fought over by eight different fighters. I would be shocked if Maurice Hooker wasn’t one of them.
