Welcome to Under the Radar Fight Results, the weekly series in which I go over all the even remotely prominent fight results of the week not otherwise covered. This week we have prospects like always, a man defying age, the return of Jesse Hart, and more. Be sure to check out the linked articles below too for complete coverage of the week’s fights.
On the Radar Results
Ellis and Younan fight to a draw on ShoBox
Murat Gassiev advances, impresses with last round finish
Lawrence Okolie bores, Ted Cheeseman gets a big win
Zurdo Ramirez and Jerwin Ancajas dominate their Showcase bouts
Daigo Higa keeps his perfect KO percentage in short order
Under the Radar Fight Results
Saturday, February 3rd
Omar Narvaez (48-2-2, 25 KOs) UD10 Jesus Vargas (16-12-1, 12 KOs), super bantamweights – Argentina
Originally supposed to meet Zolani Tete for his bantamweight world title next weekend, 42 year old former two division world titleholder Omar Narvaez lost the date when Tete went down with an injury. This stay busy fight was as a result of the ageless Argentinian not wanting to waste a camp this late in his career and he cruised to a safe, easy decision against a last minute foe that he had already comfortably dominated previously. Narvaez proved that he is still at world level somehow by forcing unbeaten Russian Nicolai Potapov to quit in October after seven rounds. I can’t stress enough how unlikely this is. While we have seen a handful of fighters stay world class in their early forties before, never at this low of a weight. Most men are badly faded by their early to mid 30s when they are this small. Narvaez isn’t likely at all to beat Tete when they finally meet, but he has had a remarkable run.
Tom Schwarz (20-0, 13 KOs) TKO4 Samir Nebo (10-2-1, 10 KOs), heavyweights – Germany
Full sized, full blooded 23 year old German heavyweight Tom Schwarz is starting to catch on at home in an excellent boxing market. I don’t really see an elite athlete or a future world titleholder here, but I suspect he is going to become a familiar name over the next couple years thanks to the high quality German promotional machine. Here he is already main eventing a televised card in front of a good sized crowd. One thing Schwarz is doing well is remaining conscious of keeping his opponent on the outside of his 6’6″ frame. He isn’t great at it yet and sometimes falls in, but it is easy to see his brain working in there to make it happen. Given that a 23 year old is an absolute baby at heavyweight and his physical prime might still be a decade away, Schwarz has all the time to work on that further. Here he didn’t look great, really, but few would against an opponent with absolutely no interest in trying to win. Schwarz finally got some offense going in the fourth here and Nebo basically folded over in the corner, forcing the fight to be stopped when he wasn’t defending himself.
Robin Krasniqi (47-5, 17 KOs) UD8 Bartlomiej Grafka (20-28-3, 9 KOs), light heavyweights – Germany
I did a double take when I opened his record and saw multi-time failed title challenger Robin Krasniqi was only 30. I feel like he’s been operating on the Euro-scene forever. He’s never won above that level and this fight certainly wasn’t even there, but Krasniqi has gotten title shots off wins over mediocre opposition before. He likely will again.
Nieky Holzken (13-0, 10 KOs) TKO2 Viktor Polyakov (13-3-1, 6 KOs), super middleweights – Netherlands
I guess it is time for us to learn the name Nieky Holzken. Before I saw this result, I never had heard of him before. I definitely knew Viktor Polyakov though. Polyakov was a Ukrainian Olympian way back in 2004. He never really committed to his pro career, however. Or maybe something happened that I don’t know about and can’t uncover on Google. Either way, Polyakov all but stopped fighting in 2012 after starting 11-0. He came back last year and promptly lost his first fight, but then went on to make himself very relevant at a high-European level. Two fights ago he beat recent secondary titleholder Giovanni de Carolis and last time out he was robbed against unbeaten German Olympian Stefan Haertel. So for him to go to the Netherlands and get crippled by a second round body shot from an entirely obscure 34 year old non-prospect was a random result to find to say the least. Welcome the column, Nieky Holzken.
Roman Andreev (21-0, 15 KOs) TKO9 Craig Evans (17-2-2, 3 KOs), lightweights – Russia
With the win, 31 year old Russian Roman Andreev becomes the WBO’s mandatory title challenger at lightweight. That belt is currently vacant and will be up for grabs on the 16th when Ray Beltran and Paulus Moses fight for it. I didn’t know a ton about Andreev coming into this, but he is a steady looking fighter at least. This was also an extremely nice standing finish coming out of no where. It reminded me of Corrales finishing Castillo all those years ago now, just without the dramatic comeback. I suspect we will end up seeing Beltran against Andreev. That could be a good fight too based on what I saw here.
Maksim Vlasov (42-2, 25 KOs) RTD10 Olanrewaju Durodola (27-5, 25 KOs), cruiserweights – Russia
Generally when people talk about elite fighters not on the cruiserweight World Boxing Super Series tournament, they discuss Tony Bellew and Denis Lebedev. Let me submit Maksim Vlasov as the third man on the list. His stoppage wins over Rakhim Chakhkiev and now Durodola are really, really solid outings. Vlasov is also undefeated at cruiserweight and still only 31 despite his advanced record. Here he did his thing in breaking down powerful Nigerian opponent over the long course of a fight, delivering a notable beating over the last few rounds until Durodola was finally retired.
Fedor Chudinov (17-2, 12 KOs) RTD7 Timo Laine (21-10, 6 KOs), super middleweights – Russia
Former super middleweight titleholder Fedor Chudinov took his third fight back here from his highly entertaining May stoppage loss to George Groves. While the 30 year old easily dominated his well overmatched Finnish foe, he showed the same liabilities that ultimately did him in against Groves. Fedor Chudinov is just really easy to hit. He doesn’t defend himself and that will never end well at world level. He was supposed to fight Bobby Gunn Jr here, but a passport issue did that in last minute.
Mikhail Aloyan (4-0) SD10 Alexander Espinoza (15-1-2, 7 KOs), bantamweights – Russia
This was a very fun and surprisingly fairly scored fight. 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. He was also really tested here by his third straight unbeaten opponent. Aloyan is trying to angle for an early title shot, but he needs to be careful not to lose on the way. I thought he fairly edged this, however, and the scores came back razor close after a back and forth scrap.
Sergio Garcia (26-0, 13 KOs) PTS8 Jeffrey Rosales (8-7-2, 2 KOs), junior middleweights – Spain
25 year old Spanish prospect and secondary title holder Sergio Garcia returned for another win on even below the same level he has been functioning on in Spain. Garcia is basically just notable because he holds the WBC Silver belt as that is a valid path to an eventual world title shot. I’d like to see him take a shot at a European title soon, especially if Cedric Vitu still holds it. Without a fight like that, it is difficult to gauge what potentially, if any, Garcia has on the world level.
Paul Butler (26-1, 14 KOs) TKO8 Jefferson Vargas (5-8), featherweights & Charlie Edwards (12-1, 5 KOs) TKO1 Ricky Little (3-2-1, 1 KO), super flyweights & Gamal Yafai (14-0, 7 KOs) KO3 Jose Hernandez (4-17-1, 3 KOs), super bantamweights – England
Paul Butler, Charlie Edwards, and Gamal Yafai all picked up super easy, very low level wins on the Okolie/Chamberlain deep undercard. Butler is a decent bantamweight contender with two wins over former titleholder Stuart Hall. Edwards is a young super flyweight and former British flyweight belt holder who got a far too much, too soon world title shot against John Riel Casimero in 2016 that he is still coming back from. Finally, Gamal Yafai, brother to world titleholder Khalid, is a rising British contender staying busy while he waits for a tentatively scheduled big fight with former world title challenger Gavin McDonnell.
Jesse Hart (23-1, 19 KOs) TKO1 Thomas Awimbono (25-8-1, 21 KOs), super middleweights – Texas
I don’t think most of us thought a ton of Jesse Hart as a challenger to Gilberto Ramirez last September. After the final bell rang, that changed. Ramirez started dominant and nearly finished Hart early, but the second half of the fight was largely all the Philadelphia super middleweight. He was at times dominant over my top ranked super middleweight. Unfortunately for him, he was also in too big of a scoring hole early to fairly get a decision at the end. A rematch seems like something that will happen in the next couple of years given that it was an entertaining scrap and Top Rank understandably loves their in house options. Here Hart returned against overmatched opposition and blew the Ghanian out in one. Awimbono was put down on the first right hand of the fight and stopped for the first time in his career in the follow up flurry.
Rohan Murdock (22-1, 16 KOs) RTD4 Frankie Filippone (27-4-1, 18 KOs), super middleweights – Texas
Ready or not, a Gilberto Ramirez title defense against Rohan Murdock is coming. The Australian contender is a plus athlete with a sharp, quick, and creative right hand behind excellent length. He’s a good fighter offensively. Unfortunately, Murdock has also shown himself to be a rather limited fighter defensively in this minor slice of the lime light he has received in the last six month’s or so through Top Rank. He is just too easy to hit to really be competitive with someone like Zurdo in my view. It might be a fun few rounds though depending on what we get. This fight was fun too with Filippone being extremely game. It was stopped in between the fourth and fifth rounds after Murdock put him down hard twice in the fourth.
Jose Benavidez (26-0, 17 KOs) TKO8 Matthew Strode (24-6, 9 KOs), welterweights – Texas
Even though he has only been a professional for five years, it feels like forever ago since Jose Benavidez was considered one of it not the single best prospect in boxing. The hype had faded a bit by his 2014 secondary title fight with Mauricio Herrera and it was gone after that night. A pretty terrible decision kept Benavidez’s “0” in tact, but his reputation has never been the same. Injuries have slowed Jose’s ability to recover as his younger brother David has emerged as the family’s star. This was his first fight in eighteen months following getting shot in the leg in 2016. Early on, this was a serious beating. It settled in to a slow motion beating in its midrounds with Strode eventually losing a point for holding before Jose got the finish in the eighth and final round. He first put Strode down with a right uppercut before flurrying to get the ref to step in.
Teofimo Lopez (8-0, 6 KOs) UD6 Juan Pablo Sanchez (30-15, 14 KOs), junior welterweights & Gabriel Flores Jr (6-0, 5 KOs) TKO1 Alex Solorio (4-3, 1 KO), junior lightweights – Texas
2016 Olympian Teofimo Lopez and Gabriel Flores, the first ever 16 year old signed by Top Rank, are two of the better prospects in Top Rank’s really good stable of them. Flores, still only 17, displays an extreme calm, looseness, and fluidity in the ring behind a great jab. He has so long to go that it is difficult to make meaningful predictions, but there is definitely a reason Top Rank jumped on him so early. There is more to be sure of about 20 year old Olympian Teofimo Lopez. While he was badly cut here and fought cautiously on his way to a decision over his vastly more experience opponent, Lopez has every tool an elite prospect needs. He isn’t a big puncher, but his shots are extremely crisp and accurate. His defensive reflexes are clearly something notable too. I’d be absolutely shocked if Teofimo Lopez never won a world title after his career is said and done.
