Welcome to Under the Radar Fight Results, the weekly column in which I take a look at all the even remotely prominent action internationally not already covered in separate articles. This week we have a pair of world titles up for grabs in Japan, a major upset in New York, prospects everywhere, and even a Sam Soliman sighting. It wasn’t a busy week for major cards, but that didn’t stop it from being busy otherwise.
On the Radar Results
Jose Ramirez and Oleksandr Gvozdyk win on ESPN
Under the Radar Fight Results
Sunday, March 18th
Ryuya Yamanaka (16-2, 5 KOs) RTD8 Moises Calleros (28-8-1, 16 KOs), WBO minimumweight title & Carlos Canizales (20-0-1, 16 KOs) UD12 Reiya Konishi (15-1, 5 KOs), WBA light flyweight title – Japan
Japan had two world title fights on Sunday. Ryuya Yamanaka made the first defense of his WBO minimumweight belt after winning it in August while Carlos Canizales of Venezuela picked up the belt vacated by Kosei Tanaka after he announced his move to flyweight. Despite their world title statuses here, these four are largely unknowns still. This isn’t uncommon at the sport’s lowest weights where there isn’t much depth, especially at minimumweight. We’ll see where they go moving forward.
Saturday, March 17th
Alberto Melian (2-0, 2 KOs) TKO8 Julian Evaristo Aristule (32-9, 16 KOs), super bantamweights – Argentina
Two time Argentinian Olympian and 2016 quarter finalist Alberto Melian looks to want to move fast in his pro career. I don’t mean to say that he is fighting opponents anywhere near world class, but debuting against a 23-2 fighter and following that with 32-8 opponent is pretty solid stuff. At 28 and with years of world class experience, it does make sense to move Melian fairly quickly. I like Melian fine, but at the same time he doesn’t necessarily seem like a world class athlete and did get dropped in the first round here.
Sam Soliman (45-14-1, 19 KOs) MD12 Wes Capper (19-2-1, 11 KOs), middleweights – Australia
44 year old Sam Soliman reportedly won the first half of this fight, including scoring a second round knockdown, before fading down the stretch and suffering a draw here. Obviously this is not the result the former titleholder was hoping for if he is ever to become relevant to the sport again. Spoilers: He won’t. I’ve always had a soft spot for Sam Soliman and his weird, frog meets boxer style ever since he came out trying so hard against Winky Wright thirteen years ago, but he isn’t going to ever matter again. Still, let’s stop for a moment to appreciate his career. Sam Soliman held a world title and will always hold wins over Sakio Bika and Felix Sturm. He was also on The Contender and fought many fights against world class opponents, occasionally doing pretty well too. He is not someone who will be remembered in all likelihood, but most are not. My hat is off to Sam Soliman for making damn a good run of it.
Felix Valera (16-2, 14 KOs) KO8 Beibi Berrocal (17-5, 16 KOs), light heavyweights – Dominican Republic
Felix Valera has stepped up to world class twice against Dmitry Bivol and Sullivan Barrera, losing widely on the cards both times. That makes him 15-0 with 14 knockouts in the Dominican Republic and 1-2 outside of it. Given how easy it is to build a big record on that beautiful island nation, I think we really know all we need to about Valera at this point. He is a pretty good athlete with some pop, but he never developed anywhere near the skill set necessary to compete at world level. At 30, he isn’t about to now either.
Cristian Mijares (59-8-2, 27 KOs) TKO8 Fernando David Saucedo (61-8-3, 10 KOs), lightweights – Mexico
Former long time unified super flyweight titlist Cristian Mijares continues to be a force on the Mexican domestic scene. The 36 year old even took his second consecutive fight at lightweight here, seven weight classes up from when he was a flyweight. Mijares is way too small, too old, and probably just too outgunned to compete at world level at this point, especially above featherweight, but he has made a nice second career for himself here staying at home and fighting this level of opponent. His canceled title shot against Miguel Berchelt wouldn’t have ended well by any means, but Mijares still cruises at this level.
Jaime Munguia (28-0, 24 KOs) KO3 Johnny Navarrete (33-12-2, 15 KOs), junior middleweights – Mexico
Exciting 21 year old Mexican junior middleweight prospect Jamie Munguia surprised me here by returning only five weeks removed from his last fight. This fight was a rematch too with Navarrete previously being one of four men to go the distance with the young slugger last April. He didn’t go the distance this time. Navarrete went down on a glancing shot in the second and the fight was stopped in the third when he was wobbled with a big blow. It was a quick stoppage, but he was also really getting beaten up so I couldn’t be upset. Jaime Munguia remained the same swarming, powerful fighter with little defense that he has always been here. With his style, his ability to make to the the world level will mostly be dependent on his chin. At worst he is an exciting action fighter in the sport.
Patryk Szymanski (19-0, 10 KOs) TKO2 Robson Assis (16-6, 9 KOs), junior middleweights – Poland
What a strange career arc it has been for Patryk Szymanski. In 2016 PBC thought enough of him to give the Polish fighter a co-main event spot on their ESPN series. Despite winning wide, Szymanski did not impress and has not been back. Instead, he returned to Poland where he first barely beat a novice fighter and then was nearly knocked out by a largely washed up former high Euro-level fighter in 41 year old Rafal Jackiewicz. Here Szymanski punched out an easy win, but his ride from top prospect to borderline failed prospect has been a strange route to watch him take given that he hasn’t lost a fight yet.
Batuhan Gozgec (3-0, 2 KOs) UD10 Ricky Sismundo (33-11-3, 15 KOs), lightweights – Russia
Turkish Olympian Batuhan Gozgec was one win away from a medal in the junior welterweight division in Rio. Here he picked up a real good win for a third pro fight over well worn journeyman Ricky Sismundo. The Filipino has been used as a prospect test a few times before and his Turkish foe here dismissed him as easily as anyone else really has. Sismundo hasn’t been stopped since 2009, but Gozgec came close here with two second round knockdowns. Of note, boxrec lists the 27 Turkish fighter as set to make his US debut in April on a Holyfield promoter Real Deal boxing card. If true, that would be a real nice signing for Evander and company.
Joe Joyce (3-0, 3 KOs) KO1 Donnie Palmer (9-2-1, 8 KOs), heavyweights – England
2016 Olympic super heavyweight silver medalist Joe Joyce ended this one quickly, dancing a bit and then landing a huge right hand all within the first 30 seconds in the fight. It was an impressive enough looking finish, but there isn’t much to be learned from the fight. That won’t be the case next time out as Joyce is tentatively scheduled to fight the always enigmatic Derek Chisora next time out on the Haye/Bellew II undercard. That is one hell of a step up, but Joe Joyce is already 32 and was a top amateur for years. We’d sure learn something there if that fight comes through. It should also be noted that most considered his loss to Tony Yoka in the Rio finals to be a robbery.
Antonio Lozada Jr (39-2, 33 KOs) TKO10 Felix Verdejo (23-1, 15 KOs), lightweights – New York
A few years ago Felix Verdejo was considered one of the best prospects in all of boxing and the surefire future of Puerto Rico’s proud history in the sport, but we can finally put a nail in that coffin now. A series of less than impressive performances and questionable out of the ring decisions left Verdejo without most of his previous shine coming into this fight and now it is all gone. This was a pretty fun fight to watch at least with Lozada walking through the prettier shots of Verdejo to land his more crude ones more powerfully. I’ve read this fight being stylistically compared to Cotto v Margarito I and I can definitely see that. It didn’t matter what Verdejo did, Lozada was just going to walk through it and rip him. Already battered, the Puerto Rican went down in the final round and the fight was stopped with less than thirty seconds to go in the follow up. I don’t really know where he goes from here.
Christopher Diaz (23-0, 15 KOs) TKO4 Braulio Rodriguez (19-3, 17 KOs), junior lightweights & Jose Pedraza (23-1, 12 KOs) UD8 Jose Luis Rodriguez (23-12, 13 KOs), lightweights – New York
Two other notable contenders were in action on the Top Rank on ESPN undercard. Christopher Diaz is more of a prospect turning into an emerging contender. He put on an impressive performance on the Lomachenko/Rigondeaux televised undercard in December, stopping Bryant Cruz in 3. It was disappointing seeing him buried here as I think he deserves more exposure. Jose Pedraza is a new Top Rank signing who fought for the first time since losing his junior lightweight title in a one sided beating at the hands of Gervonta Davis in January of 2017. He will help add depth to and fill out the growing number of cards Bob Arum has agreed to put on for ESPN and their soon to be launched streaming platform, ESPN+.
TJ Doheny (19-0, 14 KOs) TKO2 Mike Oliver (26-8-1, 8 KOs), super bantamweights – Massachusetts
Irish-Australian prospect TJ Doheny took a rather bold fight here against Mike Oliver. It isn’t that the badly faded and never that great to begin with Mike Oliver was likely to do more than he did here, but Doheny is the IBF mandatory challenger to Ryusuke Iwasa’s super bantamweight title. To risk losing here is to risk losing that shot. For my money, Iwasa might be the weakest titleholder in the game too. That is one nice title shot to be sitting on. Doheny did his work here, however, stopping his badly faded and inactive since 2015 opponent in two rounds.
Isaac Chilemba (25-5-2, 10 KOs) UD12 Blake Caparello (26-3-1, 10 KOs), light heavyweights – Australia
Long an underrated player on the light heavyweight world scene, crafty South African fighter Isaac Chilemba picked up a low key quality win on the road over Australian fellow fringe contender Blake Caparello on Saturday. Previously, Chilemba had faced a pretty ridiculous trio of fighters in Eleider Alvarez, Sergey Kovalev, and Oleksandr Gvozdyk in a twelve month window from late 2015 to late 2016 before understandably taking 2017 off. He didn’t win any of those fights, but he had somewhat of a case against Alvarez and really did give Kovalev some problems in there. Gvozdyk dismissed him pretty easily, however, making me wonder if he was still a contender in the division. Beating Blake Caparello doesn’t mean that Chilemba is necessarily a contender again, but it does slot him back within the top twenty five. That is a good start for the 30 year old.
Kemahl Russell (13-1, 11 KOs) TKO2 Michi Munoz (26-8, 17 KOs), middleweights – Jamaica
When Jamaican prospect Kemahl Russell met Sergiy Derevyanchenko in March of last year, it was obviously way too much for a fighter who had never seen a world class operator before. Yet, until he was stopped in the fifth, I felt Russell was actually fighting pretty well given what he was up against. Two fights later, Russell returned to the states to knockout former successful Shobox alumni Ian Green. That was a pretty nice win on paper, though I never did find video for it. Still, I did see enough in the Derevyanchenko fight to think the 28 year old Jamaican might be someone to watch out for looking forward. He he returned home to Jamaica for a squash match that he finished in the second round with a flashy flurry. Given that Holyfield was at the fight and interviewed, I do think it is safe to assume Russell will be a Real Deal Promotions fighter going forward. As a side note, the commentary was hilarious for this during and after the finish and you should seek it out. No mass was my favorite part.
Friday, March 16th
Roberto Arriaza (16-0, 13 KOs) KO1 Sammy Valentin (13-2, 10 KOs), welterweights – Florida
Pardon my French, but holy shit. This knockout was extremely brutal. Roberto Arriaza landed a big right hand about fifteen seconds into the fight that staggered Sammy Valentin into the corner. An argument could have been made for scoring it a knockdown. Unfortunately for Valentin, it wasn’t ruled that the ropes kept him up. Arriaza moved in for the kill and unleashed a monstrous three punch combination on his defenseless opponent to put him out cold. This was shades of Ray Mercer versus Tommy Morrison, just toned down a little bit. This was a disaster for Sammy Valentin, of course, but beyond even the brutality it was his second early knockout loss on a Telemundo broadcasted All Star Boxing main event. For Arriaza, this is a coming out party. I look forward to seeing him again.
Antonio Orozco (27-0, 17 KOs) UD8 Martin Honorio (33-13-1, 16 KOs), junior welterweights – California
In September and for the second time in his career, Antonio Orozco missed weight badly enough for an HBO fight that it was called off completely. I can’t imagine they will have him back for a third go at it, but that is entirely of Orozco’s own doing. Even though he is a fighter that Golden Boy clearly wants to feature on their biggest stage, here the weight troubled Mexican-American contender returned on their lowest instead as an undercard performer on their EstrellaTV broadcast LA Fight Club series. I am sure this was a test to see if he could make the junior welterweight limit without much risk to his or their reputation should he fail. Orozco at least passed that test this time for Golden Boy. He also won wide against faded former contender Martin Honorio.
Oscar Duarte (13-0-1, 9 KOs) KO5 Jorge Rodriguez (10-2, 10 KOs), lightweights & Edgar Valerio (13-0, 8 KOs) TKO1 Giovanni Caro (27-24-3, 21 KOs), featherweights – California
Golden Boy likes to use LA Fight Club to scout regional talent and build records of their young, but less prominent prospects. Both Oscar Duarte and Edgar Valerio certainly fit that bill. Neither of these guys are blue chippers by any means, but they are both competent young fighters in their early twenties with the most important thing a prospect can have in this game: The backing of a major promoter. We’ll see where they go long term.
Thursday, March 15th
Christian Mbilli (8-0, 8 KOs) KO2 Jesus Gurrola (24-13-3, 12 KOs), middleweights – Quebec
22 year old Christian Mbilli was a major amateur for France who probably only didn’t medal in Rio due to the luck of the draw when he ran into Cuban soon to be gold medalist Arlen Lopez in the quarterfinals. Mbilli, originally from Cameroon and now fighting out of Montreal, is an aggressive and powerful young prospect. Jesus Gurrola was game here and let his hands go, but it didn’t take long for Mbilli to beat that gameness out of him. I especially like how young Christian goes to the body quite mercilessly. I think the future is quite bright for this under the radar young prospect.
