Welcome to Under the Radar Fight Results, the weekly column in which I examine the boxing results of the week and bring you anything even remotely notable that I hadn’t already covered. With everyone rushing to get one last fight in before the New Year, this was a busy one. This week we have many major prospects, several former world titleholders, and more.
On the Radar Results
Jeff Horn gets a late stoppage against Gary Corcoran
Jessie Vargas wins, John Molina steals the show
Alexander Povetkin cruises to mandatory status in Russia
O’Sullivan and Ulysse turn the tables on HBO’s undercard
Billy Joe Saunders dominates David Lemieux in career best performance
Saturday, December 16th
Ryad Merhy (25-0, 20 KOs) TKO4 Nick Kisner (19-4-1, 6 KOs), cruiserweights – Belgium
Ryad Merhy is a physically impressive looking 24 year old cruiserweight prospect from the Ivory Coast who has fought his career out of Belgium. He has only really just begun to step up his competition to even a journeyman level, but in doing so he has been defending a minor WBA belt that will see him appear in their rankings. On tape he looks like a decent athlete with some pop too. Merhy is definitely not there yet, but maybe is a name to keep in the back of your mind going forward. Somehow, with Yves Nagabu, Belgium currently has two notable unbeaten and rising cruiserweights. Could we have our first Belgian domestic superfight in the not too distant future?
Custio Clayton (13-0, 9 KOs) UD10 Cristian Rafael Coria (27-6-2, 11 KOs), welterweights & Batyrzhan Jukembayev (11-0, 9 KOs) UD8 Wilberth Lopez (20-9, 14 KOs), junior welterweights & Ryan Garcia (13-0, 12 KOs) TKO8 Noe Raygoza (23-10-2, 10 KOs), junior lightweights & Simon Kean (12-0, 11 KOs) TKO2 Mike Sheppard (25-22-2, 11 KOs), heavyweights – Quebec
Custio Clayton and Simon Kean were 2016 Canadian Olympians being promoted by Montreal powerhouse Yvon Mitchell. Kean looks way too rigid to survive the heavyweight landscape to me, though he does clearly have some power too. Clayton is the more interesting of the two as he is a much more dynamic athlete. Kazakhstan’s Jukembayev, also promoted by Mitchell, is another notable rising fighter on the Montreal scene. Brighter than any of these guys, however, is 19 year old Golden Boy prospect Ryan Garcia. He is a blue chipper who was drawn eight for the first time here. All of this happened on the Lemieux/Sanders undercard in Montreal.
Nordine Oubaali (13-0, 10 KOs) KO7 Mark Anthony Geraldo (34-8-3, 15 KOs), bantamweights – France
Two time French Olympian Nordine Oubaali continued his rise at home in France this weekend. Oubaali lost controversially in 2008 to eventual gold medalist Zou Shiming and then to hot prospect Michael Conlan in 2012, beating Rau’shee Warren to get there. The 31 year old Frenchman is a solid prospect, but he is old for a prospect and needs to make a move. Potentially Oubaali could step up huge overnight soon too as he holds the secondary version of the WBC’s belt and should be in line to meet the rematch winner between Luis Nery and Shinsuke Yamanaka. It’d be a lot to ask early in a professional career, but talent wise he would not be entirely out of his depth.
Francisco Rodriguez Jr (25-4-1, 17 KOs) TKO6 Ronald Ramos (40-17-4, 20 KOs), super flyweights – Mexico
Francisco Rodriguez is a rare former unified minimumweight titleholder, but that doesn’t actually make him an elite fighter because that division is consistently the weakest in the sport. Rodriguez tried to move up in 2015 to win a light flyweight belt, but he was soundly defeated by Donnie Nietes. After losing his next fight to Moises Fuentes, the Mexican former titleholder hasn’t returned to the top level of the smallest divisions despite now being 7-0 since the start of 2016.
Denys Berinchyk (8-0, 5 KOs) KO6 Allan Vallespin (11-2, 8 KOs), lightweights – Ukraine
Denys Berinchyk won silver both at the 2011 World Championships and 2012 Olympics for Ukraine, scoring wins over Anthony Yigit and Jeff Horn and losing close gold medal matches along the way. Top Ukrainian prospects have been moving quickly in the past few years, but without major promotional backing it appears that the 29 year old is taking a more traditional route up the paid ranks. He has actually come down in weight since his amateur days. This was for Berinchyk’s first title, a minor WBO belt.
Friday, December 15th
Magomed Kurbanov (13-0, 10 KOs) TKO8 Akinori Watanabe (35-7, 30 KOs), junior middleweights & Evgeny Chuprakov (19-0, 10 KOs) UD10 Pablo Manuel Ojeda (14-4, 19 KOs), featherweights – Russia
It can be difficult to sort out the prospects on the busy Russian scene and Friday’s card headlined by Alexander Povetkin’s win was full of them. In this case, both on paper and to the eye test, Magomed Kurbanov seems like a good one. The 22 is a powerful, sturdy puncher with solid technique. Featherweight Evgeny Chuprakov is a good prospect verging on fringe contender too. He is a little more agile and athletic, but I don’t know if his physical profile can get him past European level longterm. Time will tell.
Fred Evans (3-0) PTS6 Adam Jones (6-29-5, 1 KO), super middleweights & Lee Haskins (35-4, 14 KOs) PTS6 Isaac Quaye (31-15-1, 22 KOs), super bantamweights – Wales
What a difference five years can make. In 2012, Fred Evans won silver at home for Great Britain in London. Everyone else from that team is pretty well established as either a serious professional or a bust, but not Evans. After first punching and injuring a long time friend in a bar and then being involved in a night club assault, Evans received a suspended jail sentence then lost his amateur accreditation. Five years later his professional career is underway, but look at the level of opponent he is needing to fight given the rust he must be experiencing. Given that he fought at 152 lbs in the Olympics, super middleweight is probably not ideal here either. Recent world titleholder Lee Haskins also returned here for a routine six round tune up.
Karlos Balderas (3-0, 3 KOs) KO1 Carlos Flores (4-7-1, 3 KOs), lightweights & Misael Rodriguez (6-0, 3 KOs) UD6 Yunier Calzada (6-3-1, 1 KO), middleweights – California
A pair of PBC 2016 Olympians fought off television on their undercard Friday night. There doesn’t seem to be video of these, but I’ve seen their other fights. Balderas seems like a reasonably worthwhile prospect with all around potential. He needs to be way more active though. Rodriguez I have been quite down on, however. He does not feature any real hand speed, power, footwork, or inclination to defend himself. There is plenty of time for the surprise bronze medalist to improve though. Maybe he even did here.
Thursday, December 14th
Yvan Mendy (40-4-1, 19 KOs) KO8 Jesus Arevalo (25-3-1, 15 KOs), lightweights – France
When Mendy last fought fought in October, I wrote the following: “Has anyone ever capitalized less on a big win than Yvan Mendy? We are closing in on two years since his upset win over then unbeaten Olympic gold medalist Luke Campbell. He is 6-0 since then, but the only win close to being notable in that stretch was a European title win over Francesco Patera. What is the point of Mendy fighting a Florian Montels at this point? The Frenchman has had about as strange of a career arc as I can remember.” The sentiment still holds.
Oscar Rivas (22-0, 16 KOs) PTS10 Gabriel Enguema (8-4, 5 KOs), heavyweights & Christian Mbilli (7-0, 7 KOs) TKO5 Robert Swierzbinski (18-7-2, 3 KOs), middleweights – France
Two prospects that probably deserve some more notice were in action in the quietly rising French fight scene on Thursday. Rivas is a Colombian heavyweight with good size, power, and athleticism who normally fights out of Montreal. This was his first contest in Europe. Mbilli is the one to really know here, however. The French middleweight prospect won two fights at the 2016 games and is just a real fun fighter to watch with his aggression and power. This was a minor step up for Mbilli and he passed it with the violence that we can probably come to expect from the Cameroon born fighter.
Carlos Morales (17-2-3, 6 KOs) TD6 Dardan Zenunaj (14-4, 11 KOs), junior lightweights – California
If we exclude regional sports network shows, this is probably the worst televised main event of the year in terms of the standing of the fighters. Neither of these two approach contention. Of course, Diego De La Hoya was supposed to headline here, but he missed weight and this is what we were left with. Fortunately for Golden Boy, it was a watchable fight and it ended in some controversy. It seemed Zenunaj was really starting to come on when the fight was stopped on cuts and Morales was awarded the decision. A rematch here would now serve as a quality co-main event to a 2018 Golden Boy on ESPN card.
Joet Gonzalez (18-0, 10 KOs) KO3 Isao Carranza (15-11-1, 9 KOs), featherweights & Joshua Franco (13-0, 6 KOs) UD8 Carlos Maldonado (9-2, 7 KOs), super flyweights & Jonathan Navarro (12-0, 6 KOs) UD8 Nelson Lara (17-9-4, 9 KOs), junior welterweights & Raul Curiel (2-0, 1 KO) KO4 Israel Villela (6-8, 4 KOs), welterweights – California
Golden Boy has a deep pool of prospects, but only one or two approach that blue chip level where they need to win a world title to meet expectations. Joet Gonzalez and Joshua Franco aren’t that, but I am still high on them both as potential real contenders. Navarro is on their level right now in terms of prospect status, but I think his ceiling is much lower. Raul Curiel was a 2016 Mexican Olympian and a good signing on that alone. I have to admit that I don’t have a good reading on his potential yet. Right now if I was forced to say who is most likely to pick up a belt in their career it would be Franco, but at 22 I am concerned that he will grow into a bantamweight and not have enough power to compete at world level there.
Another young Golden Boy in Damon Allen Jr also won this week on a small card in Montreal. Why he was there I do not know, but he fits right in with these guys in terms of being a good but not great prospect.
Dejan Zlaticanin (23-1, 16 KOs) KO1 Hevinson Herrera (22-14-1, 16 KOs), junior welterweights – New York
This was former world titleholder Dejan Zlaticanin’s first fight back from his January obliteration at the ultra gifted hands of pound for pound elite Mikey Garcia. With that high profile, brutal loss and his inactivity since, people have largely forgotten that Zlaticanin is actually a really good fighter. Here he quietly started to regain his footing and confidence on a low profile NYC show.
Wednesday, December 13th
Rohan Murdock (21-1, 15 KOs) UD10 Apti Ustarkhanov (15-3-3, 5 KOs), super middleweights & Paul Fleming (25-0, 17 KOs) TKO7 Vergil Puton (17-9, 8 KOs), junior lightweights – Australia
Two little known internationally but important to the Australian scene fighters picked up wins on Jeff Horn’s undercard early in the week. Rohan Murdock is an athletic super middleweight who easily controlled this fight. Of the two he is the much more likely to matter soon as Bob Arum has repeatedly floated him as a world title challenger for Zurdo Ramirez. Murdock is a fine fighter, but he won’t be competitive on that stage. Paul Fleming is a 2008 Olympian who is still unbeaten, but still somehow isn’t even fighting ten rounders consistently. He has never exactly built up any real career momentum. His arc, or lack there of, is kind of strange to look at in truth.
Martin Joseph Ward (19-0-2, 9 KOs) KO6 Juli Giner (21-3-1, 8 KOs), junior lightweights – England
Despite Martin Joseph Ward nominally upgrading his British belt here to a European strap, Spain’s Juli Giner probably represented a step down in competition after a narrow win over Anthony Cacace in July. Still, this was a good performance and Ward got him out of there after dropping the Spaniard with a nice left hook. The 26 year old emerging contender was a solid European level amateur and brings some skill to the table. Ward is probably ready for a step up. There are good domestic fights for him against recent world level losers Liam Walsh and Stephen Smith which would work.
Joe Cordina (6-0, 5 KOs) TKO4 Lee Connelly (7-31-3), junior welterweights & Lawrence Okolie (7-0, 6 KOs) TKO2 Antonio Sousa (4-7-1, 3 KOs), cruiserweights & Josh Kelly (5-0, 4 KOs) TKO6 Jean Michel Hamilcaro (25-9-3, 6 KOs) & Gamal Yafai (13-0, 6 KOs) TKO3 Ricky Starkey (2-4-2), super bantamweights – England
Joe Cordina, Lawrence Okolie, and especially Josh Kelly are outstanding Olympic prospects in Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom stable. Okolie is really raw and needs some work, but the power and frame are there for sure. He reminds me a lot of Wilder inside the heavyweight champion’s first fifteen or so professional fights. At 6’5″, Okolie is destined to be a heavyweight too. He will probably be better served up in weight as well as elite cruiserweights are more skilled and more likely to use effective movement. Cordina is much more polished and will be ready sooner while early returns suggest Josh Kelly, the only one taking any kind of step up here, might be the brightest of the bunch. Gamal Yafai, brother to world titleholder Khalid, doesn’t have the amateur pedigree or hype of the other three, but he is increasingly passing the eye test even if he was in absurdly soft here for where he is in his development.
Conor Benn (11-0, 8 KOs) PTS6 Cedrick Peynaud (5-5-3, 3 KOs), welterweights & Ted Cheeseman (12-0, 8 KOs) PTS8 Tony Dixon (10-2, 3 KOs), middleweights & Felix Cash (7-0, 5 KOs) TKO1 Greg O’Neill (5-4, 3 KOs), middleweights – England
Benn, Cheeseman, and Cash are not prospects of close to blue chip status like Eddie Hearn’s trio above, but they are solid young fighters with some upside that will really help flesh out the Matchroom stable in another year or so. Despite nearly losing and probably deserving a draw on the cards here in an exciting brawl that saw both him and Peynaud down twice, I think Conor Benn and his famous last name have a higher ceiling than most do. Yes, he is very raw as evidenced here, but he is a plus looking athlete. The problem will be patience in matchmaking as he improves in the gym while the public cries for him to step up well before he is ready. Young Benn probably needs 30 fights before he will even be ready for European level. Either way, find Benn/Peynaud if you haven’t seen it. Fun stuff.
Tuesday, December 12th
Edis Tatli (30-2, 10 KOs) UD12 Francesco Patera (18-3, 7 KOs), lightweights – Finland
In a rematch of their controversial first fight from May, Finnish lightweight Edis Tatli regained his European title in a near shut out decision. This wasn’t as competitive as their first fight as Tatli controlled this one from the opening to the final bell. The first time out Patera managed to confuse the judges with largely ineffective volume, but this time Tatli’s advantage in clean shots was so big that there could be no confusion. It is minor in the grand scheme of things, but Tatli getting robbed at home to a then near complete unknown was one of the stranger outcomes of 2017.
