Welcome to Under the Radar Fight Results, the weekly column in which all even moderately significant results not covered in separate write ups are discussed. This week we have a pair of major Mexican prospects, a few former titleholders, Bryant Jennings, an upset, and more.
Saturday, December 9th
Eduardo Hernandez (25-0-3, 21 KOs) TKO4 Rafael Hernandez (22-9-2, 17 KOs), junior lightweights – Mexico
20 year old Eduardo Hernandez is a rising unbeaten Mexican prospect on the verge of a breakthrough. Hernandez has done it the traditional Mexican way by learning his craft on the job. For instance, he turned professional at 15 years old. With all three draws on his record coming before his 18th birthday, those results cannot be held against him. Last year, a month before he turned 19, Hernandez blew out Victor Terrazas in two in what was a huge statement towards his potential. Strangely, I have no video of this fight despite it being on Televisa though so I can’t really write about it except to say that this was a lateral step in competition for Eduardo.
Rodrigo Guerrero (26-6-2, 16 KOs) SD10 Salvador Juarez (11-5-2, 3 KOs), bantamweights – Mexico
Rodrigo Guerrero won a super flyweight world title in his third try in 2011, but he lost in in his defense. He later lost his fourth shot at a belt in 2013 against Daiki Kameda. After that he moved to bantamweight and won five straight before dropping a decision last April to Stuart Hall. This was his third fight since then and his second win with the draw being a weird two round technical decision that probably would be better labeled a no contest. Guerrero is a top 25 guy at bantamweight, sure, but the former ever so brief world titleholder is unlikely to get a real win against a top fifteen guy.
Fedor Chudinov (16-2, 11 KOs) UD12 Ryan Ford (14-1, 9 KOs), super middleweights – Russia
I never though former middle of the road MMA fighter Ryan Ford could get this far with a late start in boxing, but here he is being competitive in Russia against a recent titleholder. Fedor Chudinov deserved this win with his work down the stretch as the Canadian faded a bit, but Ford fought very well early and was still in this until Chudinov put it away over the last few rounds despite having been cut early and bleeding most of the night. Ryan Ford is actually a pretty good boxer. With the win Fedor Chudinov picks up a minor WBA belt and probably re-enters their title carousel at 168 since they generally like to rotate the same guys in over and over.
Mikhail Aloyan (3-0) SD10 Hermogenes Castillo (12-1, 4 KOs), bantamweights – Russia
29 year old Mikhail Aloyan is a big deal. He is a two time Olympian, winning bronze and silver in 2012 and 2016 respectively. He won gold at the world championships in 2011 and 2013 and had already won bronze in 2009. Aloyan owns amateur wins over former world titleholders Amnat Ruenroeng and Rau’shee Warren, current belt holder Khalid Yafai, and prominent prospects Andrew Selby and Nordine Oubaali. Most impressively, he also owns an amateur win over two time Cuban Olympic gold medalist Robeisy Ramírez. Aloyan has already won minor belts from the WBA and WBC at 118 and 115 as a pro and has fought ten to twelve rounders in all three of his fights. Reportedly he is looking for a world title fight as soon as possible, so maybe the jump to 118 here is to avoid the monsters that hold titles at super flyweight. The split decision here, by the way, was stupid as Aloyan clearly won this. The promising Russian isn’t the otherworldly athlete like some other super successful Olympians, but you can’t ignore these credentials.
David Avanesyan (23-2-1, 11 KOs) PTS8 Serge Ambomo (6-5, 2 KOs), junior middleweights – England
Russian welterweight fringe contender David Avanesyan for some reason popped up this weekend in the UK against a club fighter up at junior middleweight in the most random result of this edition of UTR. Avanesyan won one of those stupid secondary WBA belts in 2015, defended it once against Shane Mosley in what is so far the legend’s last fight, before losing it in a competitive “unification” fight with Lamont Peterson in February. This was his first fight back.
Bryant Jennings (21-2, 12 KOs) TKO3 Don Haynesworth (13-2-1, 11 KOs), heavyweights – New York
This fight was supposed to air on the WatchESPN.com prelims. I didn’t catch it live, however. When I go back to try to watch the archives, the link that should lead to the prelims just plays the main card. I really doubt I missed much though. This was Jennings second low level fight back after taking nearly two years off following his stoppage loss to Luis Ortiz. It has been Arum’s plan to position Jennings for a WBO title shot against Joseph Parker, but with Parker potentially fighting Anthony Joshua next, I am not sure what the move is for Jennings going forward.
Rene Alvarado (28-8, 19 KOs) SD10 Denis Shafikov (38-4-1, 20 KOs), junior lightweights – Nevada
After three failed lightweight title bids, Russian contender Denis Shafikov surprisingly was able to drop to junior lightweight for this fun to try to start a run in a new division. Unfortunately, it didn’t pan out. In a highly competitive fight, Shafikov was outpointed by Nicaraguan fringe contender Rene Alvarado. Of note, these scores were influenced by a blown knockdown call in the fifth against Shafikov. If the judges were going to score that round 10-9 for him and ended up scoring it 10-8 against as often is the reflex, he would have won. If they were going to score it 10-9 Alvarado anyway, then Shafikov still loses. Regardless, that is how close this fight was. To my eye, Shafikov did not look as strong which means the weight cut was probably too hard, but it was also a real good performance from Alvarado.
Jaime Munguia (26-0, 22 KOs) TKO2 Paul Valenzuela Jr (20-7, 14 KOs), junior middleweights – Nevada
Jaimie Munguia is going to be in some fun fights. Recently Zanfer Promotions head Fernando Beltran has been comparing him to Antonio Margarito as a means to hype his 21 year old prospect. The comparison is easy to understand when watching the young Mexican too. Munguia charges forward with relentless pressure, eats a lot of shots early, and wears his opponent down with fearlessness and one hell of a chin. Defensively I think he is worse than Margarito, however, as the prime version of the Tijuana Tornado had a way of rolling with punches while Munguia just eats them. Even clearer, Munguia has more one punch power than Margarito on the positive side of the scale too though. Here the young prospect got a nice measure of exposure on HBO Latino and did his thing, which means he got absolutely torched by Valenzuela for a round without flinching and then put a ton of pressure on to find the finish only a round later.
Ievgen Khytrov (16-1, 13 KOs) TKO2 Jonathan Batista (16-11, 9 KOs), middleweights – Virginia
A major prospect who won gold at the 2011 World Amateur Championships and then was robbed in the Olympics, Ievgen Khytrov was not supposed to be upset by Immanuwell Aleem earlier this year. At least it was one of the more fun fights of the year to watch. The Ukrainian is still trying to recover from that night and this was his second lower level fight back. Defense is definitely what Khytrov needs to work on going forward.
Friday, December 8th
Joshua Zuniga (9-0, 4 KOs) TKO4 Raynell Williams (12-1, 6 KOs), lightweights & Ivan Dychko (3-0, 3 KOs) TKO1 Carlos Sandoval (10-15-1, 6 KOs), heavyweights – Florida
2008 US Olympian Raynell Williams can probably be called a bust now. Williams didn’t turn pro after those games, despite his strong 2007 World Amateur Championships showing behind him too. Instead he decided to stick around in the amateur games for 2012. That was a poor decision. After being upset by Jose Ramirez in the Olympic trials and missing the games, Williams ended up turning professional in 2013. This was only Raynell’s second fight in nearly two years now and the result speaks for itself. With the win, Joshua Zuniga has gone from a complete nobody to a real prospect in the sport too. 6’9″, two time Olympic medalist Ivan Dychko of Kazakhstan got a win as well.
Ali Akhmedov (10-0, 7 KOs) UD10 DeShon Webster (9-1, 6 KOs), light heavyweights – Texas
Ali Akhmedov is a serious light heavyweight prospect to know about. 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. As a young pro, Akhmedov looks like a good one. This fight was on a Roy Jones Jr promoted BeIN Sports show. DeShon Webster made it ugly with his constant holding and used those tactics to make it to the finish while sneaking in a counter right every few rounds, but it was clear that these were prospects of two different classes in the ring.
Thursday, December 7th
Mikael Zewski (29-1, 22 KOs) TKO2 Martin Enrique Escobar (17-4, 14 KOs), welterweights – Quebec
Quebecois Mikael Zewski was a Canadian amateur fighter of note who turned pro with some minor fanfare in the Montreal region. Despite the solid fight scene in Montreal, he chose to build most of his career in the United States with Top Rank. In May of 2015, Zewski main evented the short lived Top Rank fight series on TruTV against fellow unbeaten Top Rank welterweight prospect Konstantin Ponomarev. Though he started well early, over the course of the fight Zewski was beat up a bit and left that night a clear loser. This was only his third fight back as Zewski lost some time battling Top Rank to escape his contract. He succeeded and is looking to rebuild his career in Canada under Yvon Mitchell’s banners. At 28, there is time to make another run.
