Welcome to Under the Radar Fight Results, the weekly column in which I go over all even moderately significant fights that I had not previously covered in separate articles. This week we are full of more higher level fighters than normal. We also have a living legend quietly in action, a bunch of rising contenders, one unfortunate man who should no longer be fighting, and more.
On the Radar Results
Evans and Rosa go to war on ShoBox
Taylor dominates, Smith wins Liambowl 2
Jacobs, Miller, and Seldin win on HBO
Beterbiev wins his belt, but it is Ramirez that shines on ESPN
Under the Radar Results
Saturday, November 11th
Carlos Ocampo (23-0, 12 KOs) TKO7 Dario Ferman (14-4, 11 KOs), welterweights – Mexico
This must have been as disappointing of a dominant stoppage win as rising Mexican welterweight Carlos Ocampo has ever experienced. Originally he was supposed to be in an IBF title eliminator with Top Rank promoted Konstantin Ponomarev, but it was not to be. Ponomarev dropped out due to the ever changing date of the fight causing a conflict with his trainer Abel Sanchez who was already scheduled to work on Top Rank’s ESPN card the same night. Unfortunately for Ocampo, that just left him with this tune up to take care of. He did what he could.
Kerman Lejarraga (24-0, 19 KOs) UD10 Jose Del Rio (26-7, 7 KOs), welterweights – Spain
Kerman Lejarraga got drawn the distance in his bid to claim the Spanish welterweight crown. Normally a power puncher, the Spanish fighter had to settle for a wide decision here instead of his usual knockout. The plan is to bring him back stateside as he is co-promoted by Lou DiBella, but that almost seems a shame since he packed 11,000 people into the stands back home for this one. It might be necessary to find the step up fights he needs at this point though.
Martin Bakole Ilunga (10-0, 7 KOs) TKO1 (10-1-1, 6 KOs), heavyweights – England
I don’t know much about Martin Bakole Ilunga as I just discovered he existed when going through this weekend’s results, but I figured I’d drop him in here and maybe someone else could jump in. Here is what I have: He is listed as 6’6″ and remains unbeaten. He is also is supposed to be 24 and he is cruiserweight contender Junior Makabu’s brother. I like to include family of top fighters for novelty if nothing else so here he is, but, given the size and bloodline, he could also be a real prospect. I reserve judgment for a later date.
Thomas Patrick Ward (22-0, 2 KOs) UD12 Sean Davis (13-2), super bantamweights – England
Thomas Patrick Ward, or Tommy Ward as it seems like he prefers to go by, got the wide decision over Sean Davis here on the Liambowl 2 undercard. Ward is a decent boxer, but he has so little on his shots that it is hard to envision him having success above that British/European level. Given that Ward has two stoppage wins to his name and Davis has never scored one, this will probably be the only time he is ever the puncher in a fight. Can anyone remember a fight with a combined lower knockout percentage than this one?
Nathan Gorman (11-0, 9 KOs) TKO5 Mohamed Soltby (13-1, 8 KOs), heavyweights – England
Ricky Hatton trained heavyweight prospect Nathan Gorman was supposed to fight for the English belt here, but when that fell apart he had to settle for this matchup with fellow unbeaten Mohamed Soltby. After an odd knockdown that he scored borderline from behind Soltby, Gorman got the finish with a flurry that caused the ref to step in. The 21 year old is super young for heavyweight and is also a deceptively decent athlete in terms of handspeed, but he has to stop falling in so much. Despite being trained like Hatton, his skillset means he should not fight like him.
Jesse Angel Hernandez (10-1, 7 KOs) UD8 Glenn Dezurn (9-1-1, 6 KOs), super bantamweights – New York
Glenn Dezurn was on a nice two fight streak on ShoBox where he first beat former top US amateur Leroy Davila and then drew with the more experienced series veteran Adam Lopez, so it was definitely a surprise to see him lose to Hernandez here. Hernandez himself was also coming off a ShoBox win over an unbeaten Russian prospect, but Dezurn seemed the more polished fighter by quite a bit. It is too bad they couldn’t have worked this one into the weekend’s ShoBox broadcast so we could have seen it.
Conor Benn (10-0, 8 KOs) KO2 Brandon Sanudo (7-7, 4 KOs), welterweights – New York
21 year old son of British legend Nigel Benn made his American debut here alongside Matchroom Boxing with a win along the same level as he has been fighting. This was a beautiful body shot knockout finish that is worth looking up if you haven’t seen it. At 21 and against this level of competition, Conor Benn could still go in a lot of directions. He seems like a really good athlete with a lot of potential to me, much like Chris Eubank Jr did when he was fighting similar opposition. Promoter Eddie Hearn is going to have an interesting dilemma as young Benn gets to fight counts that start to come with fan expectations in terms of stepping up the level of competition though. Will Benn be ready?
Alex Saucedo (26-0, 16 KOs) KO3 Gustavo David Vittori (20-3-1, 11 KOs), junior welterweights – California
23 year old Top Rank prospect Alex Saucedo scored a painful looking left hook finish here over his Argentinian opponent on the Beterbiev undercard. Saucedo is a typical mid level Top Rank prospect. They are building his record fast against middling competition, but they just take forever to step them up. They did get him minor WBA and WBO belts with this win though so that should help in their rankings.
Amir Imam (21-1, 18 KOs) RTD4 Johnny Garcia (19-6-1, 11 KOs), welterweights – California
This was a hugely important fight for Amir Imam as he has been ordered to meet Jose Ramirez for the Terence Crawford vacated WBC junior welterweight title. Taking this fight at all was kind of a strange decision as Imam had been mandated to fight for that belt once before and lost his shot and an upset stoppage to Adrian Granados in the same exact situation. Imam dominated here, however, dropping Garcia once in the fourth and hurting him repeatedly until the referee decided to pull the plug before the fifth round. Imam versus Ramirez is being targeted for an ESPN show in February.
Alexander Besputin (8-0, 6 KOs) KO7 Juan Ruiz (20-1, 12 KOs), welterweights & Maxim Dadashev (9-0, 8 KOs) KO4 Clarence Booth (15-4, 8 KOs), junior welterweights – California
Besputing and Dadashev are two early stage Russian prospects signed to Top Rank. Alexander Besputin in particular was a high level international amateur who doesn’t have that Olympic credential that people look for simply because he rose in between games from 2013 to 2015. He has won silver and gold at the European championships and won a pair of fights in the 2013 worlds. He has also been matched aggressively by Arum and company. Last time out he beat former contender Briedis Prescott and here he took on a 20-0 fighter in only his seventh and eighth fights respectively. It appears that Top Rank is looking to move this 26 year old quickly.
Tommy Karpency (28-6-1, 17 KOs) TKO1 Rubin Williams (29-30-1, 16 KOs), heavyweights – Maine
Fringe contender Tommy Karpency is the guy that confirmed Chad Dawson was shot for us a few years back. Otherwise he has lost to every top fighter he has faced, but he isn’t the story here. Rubin Williams is. Twelve years ago he was enough of a contender to get a title fight against Jeff Lacy. He was stopped, but bounced back to win three straight before meeting fellow former title challenger Antwun Echols in a fight that ended in a draw. Since that night in January of 2009, Williams has lost 28 straight fights. He has gone from 29-2-1 to 29-30-1. 18 of the 28 losses have come by knockout. Since 2010, Williams has been fighting almost exclusively at heavyweight which is where Karpency moved up to dispatch of him here. Just… why? It is clear what needs to be done, so of course the 41 year old will continue to take beatings. No one ever saves these guys from themselves.
Friday, November 11th
Randy Petalcorin (28-2-1, 21 KOs) KO1 Oscar Raknafa (13-16, 5 KOs), super flyweights – Australia
Former secondary light flyweight titleholder Randy Petalcorin returned here with a stay busy romp over an Indonesian club fighter in Australia. I don’t think he will fight at this high of a weight should he find himself in against a live body though. Petalcorin’s losses so far have come against Marlon Tapales in only his fifth pro fight and Omar Kimweri in a controversial split decision. He is definitely a top 25 light flyweight should he return to the division. I probably have him a little underrated.
Imre Szello (19-0, 12 KOs) TKO9 Robert Hall Jr (11-1, 8 KOs), cruiserweights – Hungary
Hungarian cruiserweight Imre Szello defended his minor WBO belt at home in Budapest over American Robert Hall on Friday. Hungary is a country that, outside of Zsolt Erdei, has historically only produced warm bodies for the rest of Europe to build records against, but there is an outside chance they have something real here. Szello was a solid European amateur for a long time. He medaled in all the reigonal tournaments and won a fight in the 2008 Olympics. After that the Hungarian stayed amateur for a few years before transitioning to the World Series of Boxing. He then turned fully professional in 2014. Szello is moving quickly at 34 as he should be if he has world title aspirations. All 19 of his fights have come in a little over three years. They have all also been in Hungary which will probably have to change soon if he wants to continue progressing.
Willie Nelson (26-3-1, 16 KOs) TKO1 Alexis Hloros (18-7-2, 12 KOs), middleweights – Ohio
After upsetting Tony Harrison in 2015 by come from behind stoppage, Willie Nelson earned another high profile Showtime fight a year later against Demetrius Andrade. Unfortunately for Nelson, Andrade styled on him that night en route to turning in a career best performance. That fight was a one sided beating. Nelson returned off television here at home in Cleveland on Friday’s ShoBox card seventeen months after that night to pick up an easy win.
Acelino Freitas (41-2, 34 KOs) UD8 Gabriel Martinez (29-11-1, 16 KOs), junior middleweights – Brazil
From 2000-2007, Acelinos “Popo” Freitas was one the absolute top junior and full lightweights in the sport. One of if not the single greatest Brazilian boxers of all time, the former two division titleholder scored wins over the likes of Joel Casamayor and Zahir Raheem in his prime. He also had one of the best action fights of the early 2000s with his late 2003 stoppage win over Argentinian star Jorge Barrios. After losing to the then ascendant Juan Diaz in 2007, Freitas retired only to return in 2012, again in 2015, and now once in 2017. All three of these fights are way up junior middleweight as well. I don’t know why the 41 year old fought this weekend, but as long as he stays on this domestic Brazilian level in that weak scene, he is fine.
Samuel Vargas (29-3-1, 14 KOs) SD10 Jussi Koivula (23-5-1, 9 KOs), welterweights – Canada
Welterweight fringe contender Samuel Vargas picked up a win at home in Ontario over Finnish non-contender Koivula. To be frank, Vargas is probably a non-contender as well, but he retained a minor WBA belt here and is featured in their top fifteen. That plus past fights against name fighters like Danny Garcia and Errol Spence Jr keep him in the column for now. Last time out he beat an aged Ali Funeka by majority decision.
