Welcome to Under the Radar Fight Results, the weekly column where I go over all results I hadn’t already covered on the website. This week was another semi-slow slate of action, though even in weeks like this there is still plenty going on. This week we have a couple former world titleholders, a bunch of Olympians, a Dominican you should probably be paying attention to, and more.
On the Radar Fight Results
Dirrell wins a technical decision on FS1
Frampton struggles a bit to win in Belfast
Under the Radar Fight Results
Saturday, November 18th
Matias Carlos Rueda (29-1, 26 KOs) TKO4 Guillermo Osvaldo Soloppi (22-19-2, 3 KOs), junior lightweights – Argentina
Last July, Argentinian fighter Matias Rueda and his gaudy, unbeaten knockout filled record came stateside to fight for the vacant WBO belt against Oscar Valdez. Less than two rounds later, he was picking himself up off the canvas in defeat. This was his third fight back in Argentina down on the level he came from prior to his shot that he probably didn’t deserve due to a lack of real competition. I doubt he ever accomplishes anything on the world level, but he will likely get another chance eventually.
Guillermo Jones (41-3-2, 30 KOs) SD11 Ytalo Perea (10-3-2, 6 KOs), heavyweights – Dominican Republic
24 years ago, Guillermo Jones made his debut as a welterweight and fought there for a couple years. Now he is 3-0 at heavyweight. Read that again. Granted, his heavyweight competition has been nothing serious, but there still are not many who can say that regardless. As recently as four years ago the Panamanian was a true top cruiserweight, but he is 45 now and has been inactive and there were PED concerns even then. I haven’t seen this fight and have no real interest in seeking it out, but he managed a split decision against a regional fighter. He isn’t going to do anything at this weight or probably at any weight at this point in his career. He does have a minor WBA belt now though.
Carlos Adames (13-0, 11 KOs) RTD6 Adrian Perez (7-3, 5 KOs), junior middleweights – Dominican Republic
Here top Dominican prospect and emerging contender Carlos Adames picked up a record building win on at home over a local club fighter. This was Adames’s first fight back since his career altering win over relatively recent former world titleholder Carlos Molina. The 23 year old has some world class amateur experience as well such as winning two fights in the 2013 world amateur championships, and his resume as a professional is about as good as can be expected from a short thirteen fights, especially given how Dominican fighters are often built up with empty records against hollow competition. Adames is a serious prospect to follow.
William Encarnacion (15-0, 13 KOs) KO2 Julio Cesar Cruz (11-4, 6 KOs), featherweights – Dominican Republic
William Encanacion is another Dominican with some real international amateur experience having won a fight in the 2012 London games. He isn’t moving his career aggressively like Adames, but he is also on more of a normal prospect track than the typical build a record Dominican route. Time will tell if he can pan out, but Encarnacion is worth keeping on your radar for now too.
Evgenios Lazaridis (12-1, 8 KOs) KO2 Davit Gorgiladze (14-7, 12 KOs), heavyweights – Germany
Last month little known, then unbeaten Greek heavyweight Evgenios Lazaridis fought tooth and nail with Erken Teper in a super close fight. He didn’t get the decision over the slightly more name fighter, but Lazaridis could have. Now Teper has struggled to fight at that borderline top 15 level that he was fighting at previous to his PED bust so that probably feeds into that result more than Lazaridis being good, but I am going to follow him for a while just to be sure.
Gilberto Parra Medina (26-3-1, 21 KOs) TKO4 Leyman Benavides (13-6-1, 2 KOs), light flyweights – Mexico
Mexico’s Gilberto Medina was dominated in his 2015 light flyweight title shot against Donnie Nietes, but he is 7-0 since then and on the verge of another. With this fight Medina has claimed the secondary “silver” version of Ken Shiro’s WBC belt. Given how the WBC loves Mexican fighters, the lack of depth at 108, and the history of this title at least eventually leading to a world title shot, I’d consider Medina a virtual lock to find himself in for the WBC title by the end of 2018.
Tomasz Adamek (52-5, 30 KOs) UD10 Fred Kassi (18-7, 10 KOs), heavyweights – Poland
This was a weird fight. 40 year old Tomasz Adamek won this decision and deserved to by the rules of boxing scoring, but don’t confuse that with saying he should have won this fight overall. Kassi ran for all but the fifth and the ninth. In those rounds where he threw punches, he did well and really bothered the aging Polish star, especially in the fifth. Why he came out and decided not to engage is beyond me. If he had moved his hands the rest of the night, he likely would have won by stoppage, or at least that is how I see it. Kassi needed this win badly too as he is now no where near the top 25 at heavyweight with the loss. Adamek is still in it on resume, I guess, but I don’t think he gets wins against anyone else in it at this point.
David Oliver Joyce (5-0, 4 KOs) RTD6 Reynaldo Cajina (14-46-5, 10 KOs), lightweights & Paddy Barnes (5-0, 1 KO) KO6 Eliecer Quezada (21-7-3, 8 KOs), flyweights – Northern Ireland
A pair of Irish Olympians were in action on Carl Frampton’s undercard Saturday. Neither in my view are likely former stars, but Joyce of the two definitely has more potential. Barnes, despite his three Olympic appearances and two bronzes, just doesn’t seem to have that high level athleticism needed for the professional game. He got his first stoppage here at least though. Joyce is a lot stronger and therefore more promising, but he too is already 30 like the three Olympian. Time isn’t the friend of either man here.
Tugstsogt Nyambayar (9-0, 8 KOs) UD8 Harmonito Dela Torre (19-1, 12 KOs), junior lightweights – Nevada
Major Mongolian prospect Tugstsogt Nyambayar, or “King Tug,” got tested here for a bit by fellow unbeaten Dela Torre from the Philippines. As a former World Championships and Olympic silver medalist fighting under the PBC banner, King Tug is definitely an extremely significant prospect. Though he was drawn the distance here for the first time, the 25 year old features clear power and a real athletic fluidity to his game. He is not perfect, however. Nyambayar uses his footwork to keep range and then some upper body movement as his defense. He doesn’t really feature a traditional guard. This means he is opened to be timed, which his Filipino opponent did at the very end of the second round. King Tug got off the canvas and went on to control the rest of the fight regardless, but hopefully that was a teachable moment for the promising young prospect.
Duke Micah (21-0, 18 KOs) MD10 Jose Santos Gonzalez (23-5, 13 KOs), bantamweights – New York
2012 Olympian Duke Micah was eliminated in London by Michael Conlan after winning his first fight in the games. Now 26, Micah is unbeaten but also struggling a little bit abroad. While he is 4-0 outside of Ghana, two of those were against fighters with atrocious records. The other two were this fight, a majority decision against an opponent who had lost two of three, and previously a split decision win over a seven fight novice for the commonwealth belt. Micah has that former British strap and a minor WBC belt now too, so he is advancing his career still for sure, but he should probably stop flirting with defeat before he accidentally finds one.
Friday, November 17th
Giovanni Santillan (23-0, 13 KOs) RTD4 Dodzi Kemeh (19-2, 17 KOs), welterweights – California
25 year old regional attraction Giovanni Santillan continues to build his record and defend his minor WBO belt in the Ontario, California area. Given that he is right within their footprint and knocking on contention, it is surprising to me that Golden Boy hasn’t picked Santillan up. Currently he fights for Thompson Boxing, one of the strong midsized outfits currently operating. Last time out Santillan picked up his best win via second round stoppage in a Telemundo broadcast matchup of undefeateds against All Star Boxing’s Sammy Valentin. Already comfortably inside the top ten of the WBO, the Californian is potentially only a couple fights from a real shot at world level, if not straight up for a title.
Gabriel Flores Jr (5-0, 4 KOs) TKO2 Alexander Acuna (2-2, 1 KO), junior lightweights – Nevada
Gabriel Flores made history last year at 16 when he became the youngest fighter in history to sign with a major promoter after inking a deal with Top Rank. After waiting to turn 17 so he could actually legally fight professionally, Flores took a fight just days after his early May birthday and has fought four more times since then. Flores just basically walked through Acuna here as a major prospect should against a part time club fighter. Obviously Top Rank thinks Flores is special, but he is absurdly young still so patience needs to be preached. He will likely have a ton of fights before he really steps up.
Thursday, November 16th
Jose Martinez (20-0-1, 13 KOs) KO4 Jesus Martinez (23-3-3, 11 KOs), super flyweights – Mexico
This was a fun main event to Golden Boy’s Thursday night card that snuck on to ESPN2 despite everything saying all week that it would only be on ESPN Deportes. The Cancun location was a little confusing for this Puerto Rican versus Colombian battle, but that aside Jose Martinez looked good here in victory. As discussed on the broadcast, Martinez is working his way mainly up the WBO rankings. I don’t think he’d trouble WBO titleholder Naoya “Monster” Inoue, but a lot of good fighters wouldn’t.
Alexis Rocha (10-0, 7 KOs) KO1 Pascual Salgado (12-8, 8 KOs), welterweights & Vergil Ortiz (8-0, 8 KOs) TKO1 Evandro Cavalheiro (13-4, 10 KOs), junior welterweights – Mexico
Two of Golden Boy’s top prospects were in action as the co-featured bouts to their all Martinez main event on Thursday night. Rocha is a good prospect here and won on a body shot, but Vergil Ortiz is potentially the real special one. He and Ryan Garcia probably represent Golden Boy’s best shots at future super stars. Rocha is in that next tier of less sure things but still promising fighters alongside fighters like Joshua Franco, Yamaguchi Falcao, and Joet Gonzalez. Of course, both Ortiz and Garcia are teenagers, so a lot could still change between now and contention. Of note, Ortiz’s shot was initially deemed illegal as it technically landed behind the ear, but the Mexican official overturned the call thanks to instant replay as Cavalheiro had turned his head and caused it himself. Get on instant replay, American commissions.
