Welcome to Under the Radar Fight Results, the weekly column in which I take a look at all the even remotely prominent fights not covered in separate articles. This week was a busy one. We have a minimumweight world title fight, Olympians, a few serious contenders, upsets, and much more.
On the Radar Results
Oscar Valdez outpoints Scott Quigg in a bloody war
Mikey Garcia gets his fourth belt over a game Sergey Lipinets
Regis Prograis walks right over Julius Indongo on Showtme
Azat Hovhannisyan upsets Ronny Rios on ESPN2
Under the Radar Fight Results
Saturday, March 10th
Jesus Sanchez (9-1, 2 KOs) KO2 Dennis Ceylan (18-2-2, 8 KOs), featherweights – Denmark
This is pretty random. Dennis Ceylan is not a world class fighter, but he is a good Euro-level guy who has a nice win over Ryan Walsh for the European title a couple years ago. Last time out Ceylan fought Josh Warrington in a title eliminator, starting well before fading and being stopped late. I don’t have any video of this, but for him to suddenly be knocked out in two by an obscure Spanish fighter with only one previous knockout to his name is a strange result indeed. Anyone have anything more on this fight?
Brian Carlos Castaño (15-0, 12 KOs) TKO12 Cedric Vitu (46-3, 19 KOs), junior middleweights – France
Brian Carlos Castaño, one of the more underrated fighters in the sport, was always expected to win here against former European titleholder Cedric Vitu. The question really seemed to me to be just how wide the gap would be between the two men. It was wide. Castaño controlled this fight start to finish. He never seemed bothered by anything nor did he ever seem uncomfortable. He finished with a flurry in the 12th after dropping Vitu. The Argentinian is a real talent, but his WBA title is not real. Erislandy Lara holds the true version. I certainly wouldn’t mind to see Castaño in against the winner of Lara and Hurd if the WBA decides to mandate it though.
Souleymane Cissokho (5-0, 5 KOs) KO5 Daniel Vega Cota (11-1-1, 8 KOs), junior middleweights & Money Powell IV (6-0, 3 KOs) UD6 Gadzhimurad Ibragimov (2-3-1, 1 KO), junior middleweights – France
Two of Richard Schaefer’s many prominent prospects were in action on the Castaño/Vitu undercard. Cissokho was a major French amateur originally from Senegal that won bronze in Rio. He is a very nice looking athlete with real potential. Cissokho may have been a gold medal quality fighter had he not been in the same division as the ultra-elite Daniyar Yeleussinov. Money Powell is a highly regarded American prospect who is very comfortable in Europe as he spent parts of his youth growing up on American military bases on that continent. He would have been a favorite to make the US Olympic team in 2020, but he opted to turn pro instead. Watching Schaefer build a promotional company with prospects from the ground up is really interesting. He is going to have a real, expansive stable of contenders in a couple years.
Jack Culcay (23-3, 11 KOs) UD8 Craig Cunningham (19-3, 4 KOs), middleweights – Germany
After consecutive losses to top junior middleweights in Demetrius Andrade and Maciej Sulecki, recent former secondary titleholder Jack Culcay returned on Saturday with a routine eight round decision over already forgotten Anthony Ogogo conqueror Craig Cunningham. Culcay is a pretty good fighter and a contender in the division. I don’t remember the fight all that well and I definitely don’t have time with this huge slate to rewatch it, but I do remember some rumblings about the Sulecki fight being much closer than the scores indicated. Culcay was definitely competitive against Andrade despite the talent gap between the two fighters. The German is a contender on the right night for sure and should not be forgotten in the division.
Emanuel Navarrete (24-1, 21 KOs) TKO4 Breilor Teran (22-16-1, 15 KOs), super bantamweights – Mexico
23 year old Mexican prospect Emanuel Navarrete keeps marching towards a title shot. This was a minor step down in competition, but Teran has been in with good fighters and has had a bit more success than his record shows. As a prospect, Navarrete is not a natural athlete in there and will likely struggle against movers. Yet, he also brings some pretty ridiculous, thudding type power that physically moves his opponents when he lands. I’ve said it in these write ups before, but he brings those knock you over type hands to the ring. Teran actually stood up to it physically, but mentally it looked like he quit in the fourth round. His nose was probably broken based on the bleeding.
Thomas Patrick Ward (23-0, 3 KOs) TKO5 Lesther Cantillano (3-13, 3 KOs), super bantamweights – England
After to solid domestic level wins over Jazza Dickens and Sean Davis, British titleholder Thomas Patrick Ward stayed busy here at about as low of a level as there is. Cantillano is on such a low level that Ward even managed to get a stoppage. There isn’t much more to say about this one really.
Arnold Barboza Jr (18-0, 6 KOs) UD10 Mike Reed (23-2, 12 KOs), junior welterweights – California
Top Rank prospect Arnold Barboza Jr picked up by far his career best win here over recent title challenger Mike Reed. He jumped out to a big early lead in this fight by largely sweeping its first half and successfully moved away down the stretch to seal the victory despite Reed’s attempted rally. Despite having some success late, this loss is an even bigger blow to Mike Reed’s career than his two round destruction at the hands of Jose Ramirez. I can’t help but wonder if Top Rank won’t release him. His saving grace might be that they are currently on a signing spree to help fill out these ESPN cards, but I don’t know given that he would need some wins to get back to being a useful main card fighter.
Alex Saucedo (27-0, 17 KOs) KO7 Abner Lopez (25-9, 21 KOs), junior welterweights – California
Alex Saucedo got the job done here with a nice body shot finish in the seventh, but he struggled in this fight overall. Lopez has been pretty well controlled and dominated by other good fighters, but here he was able to war successfully for a while. He really marked Saucedo up early. Class shows over time though and the 23 year old Oklahoma City prospect took over a couple rounds before the finish. I am not super high on Saucedo despite this nice finish, however, and I kind of wonder if Top Rank doesn’t feel the same. His matchmaking remains pretty stagnant despite closing in on his thirtieth fight at this point.
Esquiva Falcao (20-0, 14 KOs) KO1 Salim Larbi (20-9-2, 7 KOs), middleweights – California
2012 Olympic silver medalist Esquiva Falcao of Brazil looks to be on a professional collision course with the man who took his gold in London, Japanese secondary titleholder Ryota Murata. In their fight in the Olympic finals, Falcao lost by a single point using the old punch counting scoring system. He lost two points for a somewhat controversial holding penalty in the final round that cost him gold in that fight too. It sounds like Falcao is going to get his chance at revenge in a summer fight with Murata as that has been rumored to be Top Rank’s plan for a few months now. Here Falcao stayed busy to bridge the time against an opponent who has now lost five of six, albeit against surprisingly decent competition.
Andy Ruiz Jr (30-1, 20 KOs) KO1 Devin Vargas (20-5, 8 KOs), heavyweights – California
Talented but perpetually overweight Andy Ruiz Jr came winning a round or two from being a heavyweight titleholder against Joseph Parker in December of 2016. This was his first fight back after the extended layoff. His opponent, Devin Vargas, was actually the 2004 US Olympic boxing team captain, but obviously his pro career never panned out at all. He hasn’t really been a full time fighter since way back in 2009 and sadly was tailor made for the quick finish here. Ruiz delivered.
Eimantas Stanionis (5-0, 4 KOs) TKO4 Hector Munoz (25-20-1, 17 KOs), welterweights & Efe Ajagba (4-0, 4 KOs) KO1 Antonio Johnson (6-3, 4 KOs), heavyweights & Efetobor Apochi (3-0, 3 KOs) TKO2 Darrius Flowers (2-6, 2 KOs) – Texas
Two high level early stage PBC, Olympian prospects in Lithuania’s Eimantas Stanionis and Efe Ajagba were in action on the deep undercard of Mikey Garcia’s fourth world title win. While both of them were eliminated in their second round bouts, both reportedly project better to the professional game with their styles anyway. I say reportedly because of my usual PBC rant in this column. They have no avenue for their deep undercard, no Ring.tv or WatchESPN.com, so I don’t actually get to watch these guys develop. I’ve left 30 year old Efetobor Apochi out of the conversation as he feels like an add on to help lure in his countryman Ajagba, but that might not entirely be fair as I don’t have tape on him either.
Chazz Witherspoon (37-3, 28 KOs) UD8 Lamont Capers (9-12-4, 1 KO), heavyweights – New Jersey
There is a name I hard largely forgotten. Chazz Witherspoon was a decent fringe contender at heavyweight who got some HBO exposure as an opponent from 2008-2012. He was never elite, however, and certainly won’t be now. I include him here largely as a novelty. This was his first win since 2016.
Friday, March 9th
Saul Juarez (24-7-1, 13 KOs) TKO9 Gilberto Parra Medina (26-4, 21 KOs), light flyweights – Mexico
Gilberto Parra Medina had won seven straight fights since his failed title bid against the borderline untouchable Donnie Nietes in 2015. He is a top twenty fighter in the division for sure, or at least was until this happened. Saul Juarez had lost three in a row, granted against good competition, and didn’t really like much different on paper than the men Medina had been knocking over looking to get back to a title shot. Well, that’s why they fight the fights. This wasn’t a fluke late stoppage either as Juarez landed way more throughout the duration of the fight. The stoppage was maybe a little quick, but Juarez was going to win this Telemundo broadcast fight on the cards anyway.
Matt Remillard (27-1, 15 KOs) TD8 Jesus A Valdez (22-4-1, 11 KOs), junior lightweights – South Dakota
I’ll just copy and paste from last time with minor edits since I have nothing new to say on this one: In 2011, Matt Remillard was a decent prospect and blossoming regional draw in Connecticut when he met Mikey Garcia on HBO in a matchup of unbeaten prospects. Though the fight was competitive early, Mikey Garcia took over late and began to really beat Remillard up. After ten rounds and three knockdowns, Remillard retired on his stool. Later in 2011, he was convicted of assault by beating a man over the head with a baseball bat in a girl dispute. The victim needed reconstructive surgery with plates and screws to fix the skull. Remillard, now 31, was lucky to get only five years in his plea deal. The Connecticut fighter is now four fights into his comeback and back down to junior lightweight, but it is really hard to root for him to succeed at this point.
Charles Conwell (7-0, 5 KOs) UD6 Juan Jesus Rivera (28-20, 18 KOs), junior middleweights & Trey Lippe (14-0, 14 KOs) TKO3 Oswaldo Ortega (3-8, 1 KO), heavyweights – South Dakota
A pair of notable prospects were in action on the bizarrely located South Dakota Showtime card headlined by Regis Prograis’s demolition of Julius Indongo on Friday night. Charles Conwell is the sort of forgotten 2016 Olympian while Trey Lippe is the son of the late former popular heavyweight Tommy Morrison. I say Conwell is forgotten because DiBella signed him up and he has gotten basically no exposure compared to the others. Lippe was coming off nearly a year and a half layoff thanks to a bad break in his hand. For a guy who relies on some power without bringing a lot else, hand injuries are even less than ideal than normal. Nevertheless, both men prevailed as they should have here.
John Joe Nevin (10-0, 4 KOs) UD8 Alex Torres Rynn (6-1, 3 KOs), lightweights – Pennsylvannia
28 year old John Joe Nevin is a two time Irish Olympian who took home silver in 2012, narrowly losing gold to Luke Campbell in an all British clash in London. I don’t think of Nevin as a super high level pro prospect despite his amateur pedigree, but regardless, he has had an odd pro career. For one, he has only fought ten times in four years. That is a good amount for an established, elite pro, but for a prospect it is not good. Nevin has had some injury issues, including literally two broken legs from a bar fight gone wrong, which have prevented him from developing consistent fight schedules. That is beyond his control, mostly, but what I don’t get that he is in control of is his insistence in building his career largely stateside. Boxing is huge in the UK now and he’d be a much bigger name at home.
Rob Brant (23-1, 16 KOs) KO1 Colby Courter (12-12, 9 KOs), middleweights – Minnesota
I actually thought pretty highly of Rob Brant going into the World Boxing Super Series, but Juergen Braehmer quickly cooled that off with his first round rout. Still, I wouldn’t count the Minnesota middleweight out just yet. That was a huge step up both in enemy territory, a new experience, and in a weight class up from where he is comfortable. Brant is a physically talented fighter with some pop in his shots. Maybe he never gets a belt or anything like that, but I do think he has some competitive fights with pretty good fighters. He’s a top 20 guy in terms of talent in my view, but there is the obligatory concern of how he rebounds mentally the next time he is tested again. Braehmer did a number on him and sometimes guys never really get their confidence back after the first time that happens.
Tuesday, March 6th
Thammanoon Niyomtrong (17-0, 7 KOs) UD12 Toto Landero (10-2-2, 2 KOs), WBA mimumweight title – Thailand
We end this week’s UTR write up with a world title fight. Except it is a minimumweight title fight, so it almost doesn’t count. There is no depth in this division and the guys that get title shots, like Landero, almost feel random way more than they ever feel earned. I know I have annoyed a few purists with this attitude in the past, but 105 has brought so little to the sport that I’d get rid of it. Yes, I know, it has given us the likes of Finito Lopez and Iron Boy, but the vast majority of the time it has nothing interesting at all. Plus, those guys still would have been great at 108 the whole time instead of just at the ends of their careers. I’ve got nothing on this one except to note that it happened.
