Welcome to Under the Radar Fight Results, the weekly column in which I go over all other relevant results not otherwise covered by separate articles. This week we have the undercards from Manny Pacquiao’s big win in Malaysia and Regis Prograis’s defense in New Orleans, as well as titles changing hands, a big win for Rocky Fielding, and more. Summer slows the sport, but it doesn’t shut it down completely.
Sunday, July 15th
Jhack Tepora (22-0, 17 KOs) TKO9 Edivaldo Ortega (26-2-1, 12 KOs), featherweights & Moruti Mthalane (36-3, 24 KOs) UD12 Muhammad Waseem (8-1, 6 KOs), IBF flyweight title & Carlos Canizales (21-0-1, 17 KOs) TKO12 Bin Lu (1-1, 1 KO), light flyweights & Yongqiang Yang (11-0, 8 KOs) TKO2 Harmonito Dela Torre (19-2, 12 KOs), lightweights – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
This was the undercard to Manny Pacquiao’s triumphant domination of Lucas Matthysse in Malaysia on Sunday local time. Pacman’s fellow Filipino Jhack Tepora picked up one of those bogus WBA fake world titles in the co-main event. It was a slow fight, but Tepora stepped it up when he saw the opportunity to finish his Mexican foe. In a better fight, 35 year old South African Moruti Mthalane recaptured the IBF belt he lost a few years ago due to inactivity. It wasn’t easy though. Pakistani former amateur standout Muhammad Waseem was overwhelmed by the giant step up early at times, but he rallied late. Mthalane had to survive an eleventh round knockdown to hold on by very tight scores. The opening two fights were a mixed bag for the fledgling Chinese boxing scene. 2016 Olympian Lin Bu ostensibly was trying to break Vasyl Lomachenko’s record as the quickest to a world title by winning one in his second pro fight, but there are several problems with this idea. For one, Carlos Canizales title is a fake WBA belt, just like the one Jhack Tepora one. Second, Bin Lu is not a super prospect capable of such a thing. He was dominated and stopped with basically no time left on the clock after suffering his second knockdown. Better for the country though was unbeaten lightweight Yongqiang Yang’s easy dismissing of Harmonito Dela Torre. Dela Torre is no top contender by any means, but a major prospect in Tugsostsogt Nyambayar had a much tougher time with him in his last fight, Granted, Nyambayar can fight at featherweight and Yang is a lightweight, but it’s still a nice win for a prospect.
Saturday, June 14th
Rocky Fielding (27-1, 15 KOs) TKO5 Tyron Zeuge (22-1-1, 12 KOs), super middleweights & Zach Parker (16-0, 11 KOs) UD8 Geard Ajetovic (31-18-1, 16 KOs), super middleweights – Offenburg, Germany
Rocky Fielding is a contender. Who saw that coming after Callum Smith blitzed him out so easily in one round still less than three years ago? Heads were turned a bit when Fielding scored an impressive KO1 of his own over David Brophy in September, but this one is the real validator. Just like with above though, this WBA belt isn’t legitimate, but we don’t have to focus on that here. Tyron Zeuge had been comfortably cruising on the Euro-level over the past couple years and he looked like was going to do the same here for three and a half rounds. Fielding almost exclusively focused on defending himself with his high guard. He didn’t get nearly enough offense going to win even these relatively slow rounds, but all that changed midway through the fourth when he decided to start pressuring. It was clear almost immediately that Zeuge was uncomfortable with the pressure and bothered by the bigger shots. Buoyed by his success late in the fourth, Fielding came out even more aggressively in the fifth. Midway through he wobbled the German with an uppercut and then felled him with an accumulation of fierce body shots. The towel came in immediately. This is a really big win for Rocky Fielding, illegitimate world title or not. Sauerland promoted British prospect Zach Parker, notable for his first round stoppage of Luke Blackledge a few fights ago, also picked up a stay busy win on the show.
Eduardo Hernandez (26-0, 23 KOs) TKO1 Marlyn Cabrera (24-3, 11 KOs), junior lightweights – Mexico City, Mexico
20 year old Mexican power punching prospect Eduardo Hernandez continued his thrashing of anyone put in front of him at the expense of the Dominican Republic’s Marlyn Cabrera. This one didn’t last long. About a minute in a left hook sent the Dominican crashing into the ropes for a count. When he got up, he tried to circle away but a huge right hand snapped his neck around violently and he collapsed into the opposite ropes. He rose, but the referee rightly waved the fight off. Hernandez is a bit hook happy and limited technically, but he is still developing in that aspect as a 20 year. What he can already do is punch and punch hard. How he’ll do against a more accomplished boxer that can nullify some of his hooks is anyone’s guess at this point, but sign me up to find out. Eduardo Hernandez is certainly a fun prospect to watch.
Evgeny Chuprakov (20-0, 10 KOs) UD10 Ernie Sanchez (18-12-1, 9 KOs), junior lightweights & Yury Kashinsky (16-0, 15 KOs) RDT4 Julio Cesar Dos Santos (28-9, 25 KOs), cruiserweights & Evgeny Romanov (10-0, 7 KOs) TKO6 Marcelo Nascimento (18-17, 16 KOs), heavyweights – Ekatinburg, Russia
Russian junior lightweight fringe contender Evgeny Chuprakov picked up another decision win at home. This is important because it is difficult for me to imagine him not becoming the WBO mandatory soon as long as he keeps winning. Chuprakov has fought for and defended multiple minor WBO belts. More importantly, he is ranked third in their ratings, behind only Christopher Diaz and Masayuki Ito. Those two men are fighting for the vacant belt shortly, meaning Chuprakov becomes the logical first challenger to the new titleholder. I don’t think he beats either guy as he has found himself in competitive fights against worse competition, but he’ll very likely get his chance. Two other men of note built their records up on this card as well. Power punching cruiserweight Yury Kashinsky and former regional heavyweight amateur standout Evgeny Romanov got their easy wins and look decent. The problem is, however, that they are already 32. Thankfully as big men this means less than at smaller weights, but it is still far from ideal.
Erick De Leon (18-0-1, 10 KOs) UD10 Adrian Young (25-5-2, 19 KOs), lightweights & Fazliddin Gaibnazarov (5-0, 2 KOs) UD8 Kevin Johnson (5-1, 4 KOs), junior welterweights & Charles Conwell (8-0, 6 KOs) TKO2 Travis Scott (19-4, 5 KOs), junior middleweights – New Orleands, Louisiana
Top Rank had their usual set of interesting fights on their ESPN+ prelims of the show headlined by a Regis Prograis title defense. Somewhat struggling prospect Erick De Leon was coming into this fight needing a good showing. Almost everyone but the official judges thought he lost to Andy Vences last time out. He got off to a pretty disastrous start in the first here too, getting caught cold, dropped, and reportedly injuring his shoulder. He rebounded and won nearly every round thereafter, but the 26 year old Mexican-American is stalling out a bit here career wise. Also in action were a pair of Olympians. Uzbek gold medalist Fazliddin Gaibnararov clearly won here against his novice opponent, but at the same time he didn’t do it as dominantly as you’d hope given his credentials. Part of that was Kevin Johnson being a sneaky good athlete and surprising him, but I can’t help but to start to believe that Gaibnazaraov might prove to be more of an amateur star than a pro one. In addition to bringing the main event to help Top Rank fill air dates and build to an eventual fight between Regis Prograis and Jose Ramirez, Lou DiBella also brought US Olympian Charles Conwell to the show. He’s probably the rawest of the 2016 US Olympic team, but the 20 year old looked good here. He buzzed his overmatched opponent upstairs before wisely finishing him to the body.
Friday, June 13th
Vic Saludar (18-3, 10 KOs) UD12 Ryuya Yamanaka (16-3, 5 KOs), WBO minimumweight title
A world title changed hands on Saturday. The minimumweight division is a consistent mess and results are largely set to randomize so this isn’t a huge surprise, but a world title win is a world title win. This was a big week for the Phillipines with Pacquiao getting a knockout, Tepora winning a secondary belt, and Saludar taking this decision on the road in Japan. Otherwise, I don’t have much to say on this one. I note the title changes, but S8C doesn’t actively cover the division. It is entirely unnecessary for the sport.
Joet Gonzalez (20-0, 11 KOs) SD10 Rafael Rivera (25-2-2, 16 KOs), featherweights – Los Angeles, California
Golden Boy on ESPN tried to highlight unbeaten prospect Joet Gonzalez this week against a decent opponent in Mexican college student Rafael Rivera and mostly succeeded. Rivera gave a great effort here too, charging ahead full force with powerful shots for much of the bout. Both corners were worrying about how close the fight was late and the commentary team agreed. As did the judges in the end, rendering a split decision verdict. I had it 97-93 for Gonzalez, however, in line with one of the two judges that did score the fight for him. I get why everyone found it closer given all of Rivera’s activity, but so little of his work actually got through. His shots upstairs were particularly ineffective. I thought he fought hard and as well as he could. I just also saw Joet Gonzalez still winning the bulk of the rounds by being the one actually landing punches. Rivera made it an entertaining fight for sure though. Gonzalez isn’t a blue chipper and I have my doubts he is going to be a world champion, but he has some good size and skills. He’s a good kid to watch fight if nothing else.
Jermaine Franklin (17-0, 13 KOs) UD10 Craig Lewis (14-3-1, 8 KOs), heavyweights & Dorell Van Horn Jr (10-1, 6 KOs) UD10 Winfred Harris Jr (17-1, 9 KOs), middleweights – Detroit, Michigan
24 year old Michigan heavyweight prospect Jermaine Franklin is an interesting one. He has a good national level amateur pedigree, winning the national Golden Gloves in 2014 and placing highly in other years, but at the same time he doesn’t have any international success to speak of that I can find. He was also a fat amateur and turned pro at 262 pounds, but he’s the rare heavyweight doing the right thing and has since worked himself down to 227 lbs for the this fight, the lowest of his career. I can’t find this fight, unfortunately, but Franklin has shown notably fast hands for a heavyweight in the fights I have seen previously. I think he’s probably too small in this era to really compete on the world stage, but he’s got some talent and is worth keeping an eye on. Another local prospect in Winfred Harris was upset on this show too apparently, but I can’t find much on it.
