Welcome to Under the Radar Fight Results, the weekly column in which I go over all the prominent results not otherwise covered in separate articles. This week we have 2016 Olympic stars from Rio, Austin Trout, another Eubank somehow, controversy, a heayweight contender, and more. It was a moderately busy week in the sport.
On the Radar Results
Garcia, Benavidez, and Ugas get wins on Showtime
Devon Alexander doesn’t get the win he earns on FOX
George Groves advances to the finals by outclassing Eubank Jr
Ray Beltran finally gets his belt on ESPN
Under the Radar Fight Results
Saturday, February 17th
Vincent Feigenbutz (28-2, 25 KOs) TKO6 Ryno Liebenberg (18-6, 12 KOs), super middleweights – Germany
It has been at least a little while since Germany went full Germany, but alas, here it is. Vincent Feigenbutz is a real nice young fighter who has been fighting at high European level at a younger age than all but a very few fighters have really ever done. Thirty fights in now, he’s still only 22. Yet, this was not his night. South African Ryno Lienenberg is a good midlevel fighter who has his middling record because of a strong strength of schedule. He pretty well controlled this fight with his come forward aggression. In the fifth round, however, a nice little heavy bleeding gash was opened on his forehead. I didn’t see any sort of ruling on what had caused it though. The blood was at least running right down his nose, away from his eyes, and never seemed an issue. That didn’t stop the referee from stopping the fight in the sixth round due to the ugly looking but ultimately superficial cut, however. Vincent Feigenbutz was awarded a TKO victory on a cuts stoppage that was never declared to be caused by a punch, on a cut that wasn’t having any impact on Liebenberg’s vision, and it was in a fight that he should have been behind on the cards in. Classic Germany.
Mike Perez (23-3-1, 15 KOs) TKO1 Pablo Matias Magrini (19-4-1, 15 KOs), cruiserweights – Italy
Mike Perez continued the second chapter of his pro career as a cruiserweight this weekend in Italy. There isn’t a ton to say about this one as he put away his overmatched local opponent with the first basic one two that he threw. I will note that I thought the Cuban showed enough early against Mairis Briedis to not write him off entirely as a potential player in the division. He’s a good athlete with solid fundamentals. 32 isn’t old for a cruiserweight either.
Zach Parker (15-0, 11 KOs) TKO2 Adasat Rodriguez (16-7-2, 10 KOs), super middleweights – England
I didn’t think of British super middleweight Zach Parker as a prospect that I needed to pay much attention until he blew out quality Euro level foe Luke Blackledge in one round after just turning 23. Two fights later, Parker has another nice little scalp in his cap. Adasat Rodriguez is not a good fighter, not even really close to as good as Blackledge can be, but he has been in with the likes of Caleb Plant and Erik Skoglund. While both those talented fighters did stop him too, neither did it nearly as quickly as Zach Parker. One interesting thing about Parker that is likely to have a significant impact on his career is that he isn’t signed with Frank Warren or Eddie Hearn, but instead with Germany based power Sauerland Events.
Sebastian Eubank (1-0) PTS4 Kamil Kulczyk (2-9, 1 KO), light heavyweights – England
Yes, another Eubank from the same man. This one is 26 and just now becoming a pro fighter. ITV didn’t air his fight, however, so I’ve got nothing to go on other than an assumption that it probably won’t be good when I do get to/have to see him fight.
Edwin Rodriguez (30-2, 20 KOs) UD10 Lionell Thompson (19-5, 11 KOs), light heavyweights – Nevada
Reliable action fighter Edwin Rodriguez picked up an important win here for his career on the off-tv portion of Showtime’s Garcia/Rios card this weekend. When this fight was booked, I wasn’t sure if he’d be able to get the win. Coming up as a young pro, “La Bomba” was considered a real prospect. While he still has only lost to Andre Ward and then Thomas Williams Jr in a fight that he had Williams all but out in, Rodriguez just cannot defend himself. He doesn’t have the technique, athleticism, or feel for the other man’s work to stop himself from getting nailed. While this win over a solid pro in Lionell Thompson could prove that I am too skeptical of his chances of ever even getting back to world level, I don’t get to know because PBC is years behind the other two major American promoters. They don’t get their pre-broadcast preliminary fights any sort of coverage whatsoever, not even youtube videos. I cannot evaluate this fight.
Austin Trout (31-4, 17 KOs) UD8 Juan De Angel (20-8-1, 18 KOs), junior middleweights & Tony Harrison (26-2, 21 KOs) TKO5 George Sosa (15-12-1, 15 KOs), junior middleweights – Texas
Here are two more PBC fights to complain about, this time from the Alexander/Ortiz show on FOX. Tony Harrison and especially Austin Trout are prominent, relevant junior middleweights, but there is no way to watch these fights. By all accounts and from the shut out scores, Trout cruised to an easy decision. I can’t find anything on the Harrison fight except to say that his opponent had been stopped several times previously. Both results are what would have been expected.
Humberto Velazco Torres (19-1-1, 13 KOs) KO4 Thomas Williams Jr (20-4, 14 KOs), light heavyweights – Texas
On the contrary, this is not a result that would have been expected by most from the same card. In 2016, Thomas Williams Jr picked up a career defining win over Edwin Rodriguez via early stoppage. 2017 didn’t bring the same success, but a defensively deficient action fighter getting stopped by the likes of Adonis Stevenson and Marcus Browne is hardly all that damning. Following that up with a third straight stoppage loss at the hands of an entirely unknown fighter, however, is something else entirely. Thomas Williams Jr’s career is now on life support. As for Torres, I know nothing of him and cannot get anything from this fight because, well, see the PBC rants from above.
Friday, February 16th
Imre Szello (20-0, 12 KOs) UD Denis Grachev (16-6-1, 9 KOs), cruiserweights – Hungary
Hungary is a country that, outside of Zsolt Erdei, has historically only produced warm bodies for the rest of Europe to build records against. There is an outside chance they have something real here in Imre Szello though. Szello was a solid European amateur for a long time. He medaled in all the usual regional 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 20 of his fights have come in a little over three years. They have all also been in Hungary. This will probably have to change soon if he wants to continue progressing.
Joe Joyce (2-0, 2 KOs) KO1 Rudolf Jozic (4-2, 3 KOs), heavyweights & Willy Hutchinson (3-0, 2 KOs) PTS6 Eric Mokonzo (2-7, 2 KOs), light heavyweights – England
It is hard for me to get a solid read on Joe Joyce as a professional prospect. As an amateur he was elite and should have been crowned the super heavyweight gold medalist in Rio, but an all too familiar poor work in judging put that status on Tony Yoka instead. As a pro, he has a really strange style for an elite heavyweight prospect with a serious amateur pedigree. He’s a pressure fighter. Stylistically through two fights Joyce has looked not to dissimilar to many come forward Mexican fighters in the sport. Time will tell how this works out for the 32 year old, or even if it continues to be his style going forward at all. Time, of course, isn’t necessarily on his side to begin with either having turned pro in his early 30s. Scottish prospect Willy Hutchinson was also in action. There are high hopes for the 19 year old, but he is young and has a lot of work to do. He is nice, crisp athlete for sure though.
Alexander Besputin (9-0, 7 KOs) RTD5 Wesley Tucker (14-2, 8 KOs), welterweights & Robson Conceicao (6-0, 4 KOs) UD6 Ignacio Holguin (5-1, 5 KOs), lightweights – Nevada
Two of Top Ranks top prospects were in action pre-television on the Beltran/Moses card Friday night. They were available on the WatchESPN stream, however. Do something like this, PBC. Besputin is a hard nosed Russian that Top Rank seems to have a lot of confidence in. They are usually matching their prospects much more weakly than Besputin has been before his tenth pro fight. Here, he punished Tucker to the body until his team pulled him out. Robson Conceicao, a 2016 Olympic gold medalist for his native Brazil, is a more difficult read. The 29 year old is clearly a great athlete capable of really impressive work physically in the ring, but his technique is extremely lose. On top of that, I thought he tired really quickly. It’ll be interesting to see how all this goes as he steps up further.
Bryant Jennings (22-2, 13 KOs) KO3 Akhror Muralimov (16-4, 13 KOs), heavyweights – Nevada
Heavyweight contender Bryant Jennings picked up the third straight low level win on his comeback from a two year hiatus with Top Rank. Here he battered Muralimov, hurting and dropping him repeatedly until the fight was stopped in the third. Arum seems to be going for the slow build with Jennings as he hasn’t even gone as far as to put the Philly heavyweight on television yet. Since Top Rank also co-promotes WBO titleholder Joseph Parker, Jennings is in a prime position to get a shot at him should he upset Anthony Joshua in March.
Thursday, February 15th
Mikael Zewski (30-1, 22 KOs) UD8 Jose de Jesus Macias (23-8-2, 12 KOs), junior middleweights – Quebec
I say the same thing each time Zewski fights, but nothing has really changed. 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 fourth 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 29, there is time to make another run.
Steve Bosse (1-0, 1 KO) KO2 Julio Cuellar Cabrera (12-7, 11 KOs), heavyweights – Quebec
Here was an unexpected oddity. Steve Bosse was a second tier hockey league enforcer turned MMA fighter. He made it all the way to the UFC, losing his debut and then winning two straight before walking away from the sport at the end of 2016. I didn’t expect him to pop up boxing on an Yvon Mitchell card, but here he is. Bosse was definitely a hands oriented striker in MMA and has some power, but never going matter in boxing as he is 36 years old.
Tuesday, February 13th
Kermit Cintron (39-6-3, 30 KOs) NC3 Marquis Taylor (8-1), junior middleweights – Pennsylvania
38 year old Kermit Cintron is still trying and weird things are still happening in his fights. This one was cut short due to an accidental headbutt in the third. Cintron hasn’t fought a top fighter in five years, not since he was gifted a draw against Adrian Granados in 2013. Last time out he was stopped by Tyrone Brunson. Now Brunson definitely has some power, but he is such a limited fighter that he doesn’t get to use it on top guys. Kermit Cintron is clearly not that anymore, if he ever really was. It seems like a lifetime ago now that he had a belt and was billed as a feared puncher.
