Welcome to Under the Radar Fight Results, the weekly column in which I go over all the even moderately prominent results in the sport not otherwise covered in separate articles. This week we have a world title fight, super prospect Josh Taylor, the return of The Technician, and more. It was another busy week in the fight world.
On the Radar Fight Results
Deontay Wilder rallies, stops Luis Ortiz in 10
Sergey Kovalev and Dmitry Bivol win big on HBO
Kell Brook rolls in his return to the sport
Under the Radar Fight Results
Saturday March 3
Avni Yildirim (18-1, 11 KOs) UD12 Derek Edwards (27-8-1, 14 KOs), super middleweights – Germany
Former Turkish top prospect Avni Yildirim has some work to do after being embarrassed by Chris Eubank Jr in the World Boxing Super Series thanks to an early stoppage loss. It certainly doesn’t help that Eubank went on to look so amateur-ish in his following fight against George Groves too. Here Yildirim returned against a reliable and durable journeyman in Derek Edwards. Avni controlled the fight with his aggression and volume, especially in the midrounds, and won basically every frame of the fight. He is wide open, however, and Edwards was able to touch him quite a bit, just not enough to win rounds really. I don’t think Yildirim has the defensive skills or instincts to make it above this level, but I’ll keep covering him for now. He’s a fun fighter to watch at least.
Dominic Boesel (27-1, 10 KOs) UD12 Serhiy Demchenko (18-12-1, 12 KOs), light heavyweights & Adam Deines (14-0-1, 7 KOs) SD10 Stefan Haertel (15-1, 1 KO), light heavyweights & Enrico Koelling (25-2, 8 KOs) KO1 Giorgi Beroshvili (30-23-3, 22 KOs), light heavyweights – Germany
This was a trio of fights at European level in Germany, advancing the light heavyweight division a little. Dominic Boesel was a rising European level contender with some decent skills, but he was upset via surprise late stoppage by fringe contender Karo Murat. Boesel started terribly in that fight, but had recovered and seemed like he was moving towards a decision when when he got caught. Stefan Haertel, upset here by Adam Deines, was a German Olympian. He should have lost last time out against Viktor Polyakov too though and is clinging to prospect status life support at this point. Deines, who I did not know prior to this fight, is now a minor prospect. Finally, Enrico Koelling took his first fight back at a low level following nearly becoming the first man to take Artur Beterbiev the distance in their vacant world title fight. None of these guys are world contenders or likely to become one, but they are good German based, Euro level guys who could have interesting fights with one another.
Masayuki Kuroda (29-7-3, 16 KOs) UD10 Katsunori Nagamine (14-2-1, 10 KOs), flyweights – Japan
I didn’t catch this fight, but Masayuki Kuroda is a fringe top ten flyweight with a win over a fringe top twenty five domestic foe in Katsunori Nagamine. It is not that these guys are really good or anything though. I mean they are competent pros and Kuroda is a hard nosed guy, but they are only ranked where they are in my rankings because flyweight has no real depth after the top six or so guys.
Jayson Velez (26-4-1, 18 KOs) TKO12 Juan Manuel Lopez (35-6, 32 KOs), junior lightweights – Puerto Rico
Can this be the end of Juan Manuel Lopez, please? Jayson Velez is a fine pro and a guy who can be competitive against good fighters, sure. Losing to him or even getting stopped by him late is not a crime. That isn’t my criteria and I am not calling for the retirement of the other twenty plus men that Velez has beaten. My concern here is just how strange Juanma looks in the ring. He looks stiff and uncoordinated, like something is wrong. He still has some offensive talent and firepower, and he was able to be competitive in stretches here, but he just hasn’t passed the eye test for so long now. He can’t defend himself at all. When was the last time he looked steady in a fight? 2010 against Rafael Marquez? A stiff right hand dropped him here in the twelfth and he rose on awful legs. The fight was rightly stopped.
Kevin Lerena (20-1, 9 KOs) UD12 Dmytro Kucher (24-3-1, 18 KOs), cruiserweights – South Africa
South African cruiserweight contender Kevin Lerena is on a real nice two fight run here now with this win over fringe contender Dmytro Kucher. Last time out he won a close decision over former title challenger Youri Kalenga, but this win over Kucher wasn’t all that close. This wasn’t exactly an exciting fight, but it was a comfortable outboxing. Lerena moves well and was able to neutralize Kucher’s simple come forward aggression to win at least nine rounds. He’s a fringe top ten guy in the division now and probably close to a world title fight.
Gavin McDonnell (19-1-2, 5 KOs) UD12 Gamal Yafai (14-1, 7 KOs), super bantamweights – England
I didn’t think of Gamal Yafai as a blue chip prospect, but I didn’t think he’d lose a one sided fight here. For one I generally trust a promoter’s judgment and Matchroom having him in this fight with McDonnell at all told me that he would probably win. Plus, I just don’t think that highly of Gavin McDonnell. Well, nevermind all that. There wasn’t a big talent difference here as Yafai looked McDonnell’s equal early, but he was not prepared to go twelve rounds. He tired badly and Gavin basically swept the second half of the fight. I even thought the eight round to four cards might have been a bit generous for Gamal. Still, it isn’t the end of the line for the young super bantamweight. There is enough talent there to beat the Gavin McDonnell of the world, he just needs to get more experience and work on his conditioning. Hopefully this is a positive learning experience long term.
Kid Galahad (24-0, 15 KOs) KO3 Irving Berry (23-8-2, 12 KOs), featherweights & Rocky Fielding (26-1, 14 KOs) PTS8 Karel Horejsek (11-8-3, 9 KOs), light heavyweights – England
Kid Galahad’s finish of Irving Berry was a great knockout and the best of the week. Galahad was even kind enough to give Irving Berry a pillow in the form of the bottom rope. The finishing sequence came in the form of a quick pair of right hands, with the first buzzing Berry and the second whipping his neck and putting him out. Galahad doesn’t really come off as a puncher, but this was a perfectly placed shot that has me wondering if he doesn’t have more pop than I thought. Check out this finish if you missed it. Euro level light heavyweight Rocky Fielding also picked up a stay busy win on the card.
Josh Taylor (12-0, 11 KOs) TKO3 Winston Campos (30-4-5, 18 KOs), junior welterweights – Scotland
Scottish super prospect continued his rapid ascent up the junior middleweight rankings with an easy destruction of late replacement Nicaraguan unknown Winston Campos. Taylor was supposed to fight former top contender Humberto Soto here, but he dropped out only about a week before the fight. Taylor is extremely talented and probably would have routed Soto too though. The Scot basically hurt Campos with everything he threw here and had the Nicaraguan down officially three times before the fight was waved off. I thought he dropped him in the first too, but it quickly became academic.
Sergiy Derevyanchenko (12-0, 10 KOs) RTD6 Dashon Johnson (22-23-3, 7 KOs), super middleweights & Willie Monroe Jr (22-3, 6 KOs) UD8 Carlos Galvan (16-6-1, 15 KOs), middleweights – New York
Insert rant about PBC undercards having no stream outlet in 2018 here. Dashon Johnson is a tough out compared to his record, but Sergiy Derevyanchenko is a world class talent and finished him in six on the off-television Wilder/Ortiz undercard. Multiple time middleweight title contender Willie Monroe also picked up an unsurprising decision win over an underwhelming opponent. Derevyanchenko, Gennady Golovkin’s IBF mandatory, reportedly battered Johnson without putting him down. I’ve got nothing on the Monroe fight.
Gary Antuanne Russell (4-0, 4 KOs) TKO2 Keasen Freeman (4-1, 2 KOs), junior welterweights & Richardson Hitchins (4-0, 2 KOs) TKO2 Charles Stanford (2-3), junior welterweights & Chordale Booker (9-0, 4 KOs) UD6 Emmanuel Sanchez (7-8-1, 1 KO), middleweights – New York
Again, I’ve got no way to see these because of PBC being way behind the other major shows. Still, I think really, really highly of Gary Antuanne Russell, the 21 year old younger brother of featherweight titleholder Gary Russell Jr. Gary Antuanne was one win in the Olympics from medaling. He was bounced in the quarterfinals to eventual gold medalist Fazliddin Gaibnazarov, however, though not with some controversy. Many thought Russell deserved the win. Richardson Hitchins is also a nice Mayweather promoted Olympic prospect, but he fought for his parent’s Haiti and was bounced in the first round by Gary Antuanne Russell. Chordale Booker is a guy I didn’t know much about until he upset more known PBC prospect Malcom McAllister in October. That was a nice, unexpected win and now he is on the radar.
Vaughn Alexander (12-0, 8 KOs) UD10 Devaun Lee (10-3-1, 5 KOs), super middleweights – New York
Back in 2004, now 32 year old Vaughn Alexander (Devon’s older brother) was a major Top Rank welterweight prospect expected to reach world class. Eleven years in prison for armed robbery and assault put an end to that. Now a year back in the sport, Alexander is now 7-0 as an old middleweight prospect. Stopping Elvin Alaya in October was a minor notch in his belt as the only other men to do so have been big punchers in Curtis Stevens, Arthur Abraham, and David Lemieux. He does have some good years left since he went away so young, but Vaughn Alexander is looking at a very narrow window to make something of himself. His performance here was a little tedious and uninspiring though. He plowed forward and won enough of the rounds to clearly take the fight, but he never really bothered Lee and was outboxed at times.
Friday, March 2nd
Brock Jarvis (13-0, 12 KOs) KO3 Hamson Lamandau (8-2-1, 5 KOs), bantamweights – Australia
The jury is still out on 20 year old Brock Jarvis. He wasn’t a big time amateur. Given his age and experience, he is of course being matched very soft as well. He is at the very least blowing out these opponents as a real top prospect should be. What is definitely notable is that Jarvis is the pupil of trainer Jeff Fenech, one of the most successful and popular fighters in Australian history. Fenech was a three division world titleholder and probably should have grabbed a fourth given that his 1991 draw with Azumah Nelson for 130 lb belt was considered controversial. This was before the WBO too, making this a slightly harder feat. Fenech has trained high level fighters before. If he can get Jarvis to world level, we can add him to the list. There is a lot of potential good young fighters in Australia right now, more than I can ever remember before. We may be on the verge of an Aussie renaissance in the sport in the next few years.
David Carmona (21-5-5, 9 KOs) KO4 Jesus Iribe (20-11-5, 10 KOs), bantamweights – Mexico
Super flyweight fringe contender David Carmona got back in the win column Friday night in Mexico. Carmona has had a weird last couple years. In late 2015, he picked up a good win over fellow Mexican Ricardo Rodriguez to get a shot against Naoya Inoue. He fought admirably against the hyper talented Japanese multi-division titleholder and surprisingly went the distance. This got him a fight with Carlos Cuadras in which Carmona was highly competitive. He had really elevated himself despite losing those fights, but it all came crashing down against Daniel Lozano. Carmona’s original opponent had missed weight, so Lozano was brought in with 24 hours notice as a guy Carmona had already comfortably beat previously. It didn’t play out that way the second time, however, as Lozano shocked him in two. That was in July and this was David Carmona’s first fight back since.
Wednesday, February 28th
Daniel Roman (24-2-1, 9 KOs) UD12 Ryo Matsumoto (21-2, 19 KOs), WBA super bantamweight title – Japan
Power punching Japanese challenger Ryo Matsumoto was no real obstacle at all for Daniel Roman in his first defense of his belt that he won in the same country over Shun Kubo. This was a boxing clinic with the plodding Japanese slugger unable to ever really get set to get off more than a single shot. The 27 year old’s two losses and his draw came early in his career, but in recent times Roman has looked like a potentially special fighter. This was his third straight dominant win over good competition, though Kubo was definitely the best of the three. I’d love to see him in against Rey Vargas in a unification bout.
