Sunday, July 29th
Masayoshi Nakatani (17-0, 11 KOs) TKO11 Izuki Tomioka (5-1-1, 1 KO), lightweights & Shohei Omori (19-2, 14 KOs) TKO2 Brian Lobetania (13-6-3, 11 KOs), super bantamweights & Sho Ishida (26-1, 15 KOs) TKO4 Richard Claveras (18-5-2, 15 KOs), super flyweights & Tatsuya Fukuhara (21-6-6, 7 KOs) UD10 Naoya Haruguchi (15-9, 6 KOs), minimumweights – Osaka, Japan
There was lots of action from Japan this week. On this card longtime OPBF lightweight titleholder Masayoshi Nakatani made the tenth defense of the regionally prestigious title. For those unfamiliar, think of the OPBF as similar to the European titles for those in Asia and Australia. His opponents was oddly overmatched here for an OPBF title fight, but Nakatani has looked pretty good in the past. The 28 year old wants to move on to a world title fight soon, but both he and his team seem to know how difficult it would be to get a shot with three fourth of the belts on Vasyl Lomachenko and Mikey Garcia currently. Maybe he and his team can get a shot at Ray Beltran’s title in the next year, but I think we all know that belt too is destined for Loma. Also in action were former title challengers Shohei Omori, Sho Ishida, and Tatsuya Fukuhara picking up stay busy wins. Omori lost his shot against Marlon Tapales by late stoppage in a competitive fight last April while Ishida lost a wide decision to Khalid Yafai in October. Fukuhara held an interim minimumweight title, but he lost it to Wanheng Menayothin as it became a full title.
Saturday, July 28th
Matias Rueda (31-1, 28 KOs) KO3 Miguel Cesario Antin (17-1, 7 KOs), lightweights – Cordoba, Argentina
Speaking of former title challengers, summer of 2016 failed Oscar Valdez challenger Matias Rueda kept his otherwise perfect record in tact at home against an unbeaten fighter in Argentina. Rueda was an undeserving title challenger who was absolutely rolled over in the ring by Valdez for sure, but he’s probably not as bad as he looked in his one American visit. I’m not saying he is anything near a world level talent, but Argentina has a quality fight scene and he consistently beats experienced pros there, almost always by stoppage. One thing I certainly don’t like though is the move to lightweight. Rueda was small in the ring against Valdez at featherweight.
Byron Rojas (25-3-3, 11 KOs) KO3 Daniel Mendoza (9-3, 3 KOs), light flyweights & Keyvin Lara (26-2-1, 9 KOs) UD6 Alexander Taylor (17-13, 2 KOs), bantamweights – Managua, Nicaragua
There’s not a lot to see here, really, but former minimumweight titleholder Byron Rojas and former flyweight title challenger Keyvin Lara picked up stay busy wins at home in Nicaragua. Neither man was in tough to say the least. Rojas actually upset a real solid fighter in Hekkie Budler on the road in South Africa a little over two years ago before losing the belt to current titleholder Knockout CP Freshmart in his first defense. He’s 9-0 since and will be back. Lara lost his title bid by late stoppage to Kazuto Ioka almost two years ago on the dot. He too is on an extended winning streak, but neither man has fought another contender since their losses.
Joshua Buatsi (7-0, 5 KOs) KO1 Andrejs Pokumeiko (17-15-1, 13 KOs), light heavyweights & Conor Benn (13-0, 9 KOs) UD10 Cedrick Peynaud (6-6-3, 4 KOs), welterweights & David Allen (14-4-2, 11 KOs) TKO4 Nick Webb (12-1, 10 KOs), heavyweights & Anthony Fowler (7-0, 6 KOs) TKO6 Craig O’Brien (8-1), junior middleweights – London, England
As usual, Matchroom Boxing had a full slate of prospects on their undercard this weekend. The two main ones here are Olympians Joshua Buatsi and Anthony Fowler. Most are higher on Buatsi and I’d agree. With that said, however, I don’t necessarily see his ceiling as high as some others. He isn’t a dynamic athlete in there for the weight and his shots can go wide. Fowler is even more of a workmanlike prospect, but he has good skills. Early reports of him being a bit of a headcase haven’t played out yet, but we’ll see. It is Conor Benn here who is probably the biggest prospect in terms of name value thanks to his famous father Nigel. He isn’t a true blue chipper by any means, but he might be able to make a name for himself in the way Chris Eubank Jr has as he has the same obvious athleticism mixed with the unfortunate reality of having no real technical foundation to fall back on given his late start in the sport. His fight here was a rematch of a wild and entertaining brawl with French local fighter Cedric Peynaud from last year that he probably didn’t deserve to win the first time around. This one started in similar style, but over time class showed and Benn was in complete control for the second half of the contest. Finally, popular everyman fighter David Allen scored a from no where KO with a giant overhand right to delight the crowd over previously unbeaten Nick Webb in the fourth. Webb was far from a major prospect, but this was still a big win for popular David Allen.
Fabian Maidana (16-0, 12 KOs) TKO7 Andrey Klimov (20-5, 10 KOs), junior welterweights & Karlos Balderas (6-0, 5 KOs) KO4 Giovanni Caro (27-24-4, 21 KOs), junior lightweights & Brandon Glanton (7-0, 6 KOs) KO3 Daniel Najera (7-3-1, 3 KOs), cruiserweights & Jose Balderas (4-0) UD4 Jose Chanez (6-6, 3 KOs), bantamweights – Los Angeles, California
You should definitely be paying attention to Marcos Maidana’s 26 year old brother Fabio. I was a little skeptical of the younger Maidana at first, but he really won me over with his win over former secondary titleholder Johan Perez. That fight was marred by some real weight related unfairness and Fabio found himself in some adversity early in the fight itself, but he steadied the ship to rally up a clear unanimous decision anyway. Klimov, a former world titleholder himself was no match here. Also in action was 2016 US Olympian Karlos Balderas and his bright future. I really like Balderas, or at least Karlos. Jose is his brother, but he isn’t a major prospect. Finally, Brandon Glanton was a top US amateur that never quite made it to the international level and is now making a go of it as a pro. He picked up a stoppage win here as well.
Esquiva Falcao (21-0, 15 KOs) KO1 Jonathan Tavira (17-6, 13 KOs), middleweights & Antonio Vargas (7-0, 3 KOs) UD6 Aaron Echeveste (5-3, 3 KOs), bantamweights & Vladimir Nikitin (1-0) UD6 Edward Kakembo (10-5, 3 KOs), featherweights – Kissimmee, Florida
2012 Olympic silver medalist Esquiva Falcaco was arguably robbed of gold against Ryota Murata thanks to a questionably late two point penalty in a one point loss. There would be no robbery on ESPN+ on Saturday, however, as Falcao made sure of that in his prelims headlining bout. The Brazilian came out hyper aggressive and thoroughly beat up Jonathan Tavira over the two minutes or so the fight went. Tavira was down once before going down again for good on a vicious body shot. This was a really nice showing for Falcao who hopes to rematch Murata soon in the pros. Another pair of earlier stage Olympians were also in action. Antonio Vargas represented the US in 2016 while Vladimir Nikitin brought home bronze for Russia in the same games. Vargas might be the weakest of this US Olympic class as he is missing an element of physicality to his game, but he definitely has some skills to work with still. Nikitin was fortunate on his journey to his medal due to a terrible decision win over popular Irish prospect Michael Conlan along the way. This was the result that had Conlan famously flipping off the corruption afterward. No doubt Top Rank eventually will hope to stage a rematch here in the pros.
Sam Soliman (46-14-1, 19 KOs) MD10 Tej Pratap Singh (13-5-2, 7 KOs), middleweights & Czar Amonsot (34-3, 22 KOs) SD6 Phuengluang Sor Singyu (52-5, 35 KOs), welterweights- Melbourne, Australia
44 year old former improbable middleweight titleholder Sam Soliman just won’t give up the ghost. The 21 year pro hasn’t won a high level fight since his 2014 win over Felix Sturm, but he’s still trying. Unfortunately it isn’t going all that well. Last time out Soliman was held to a majority draw against a regional level fighter and this time he only mustered a majority decision win at a level even below that. A decade ago Sam was a reality TV star on NBC’s The Contender, but it is probably time to hang them up now. Competing at this local level is harmless going forward if he wants to still, but the former titleholder should not be stepped back up to world level. Sergiy Derevyanchenko dismissed him in two the last time this happened and he is unlikely to improve on that result in the future. As for former action star Czar Amonsot in the co-feature, I don’t know what to make of this boxrec result to the point that I wonder if it is a mistake. Amonsot, a fighter banned from fighting years ago due to a brain bleed that somehow found a second career in Australia anyway, was meeting a man coming off a world title shot here supposedly, but Sor Singyu took that shot at bantamweight whereas this was at… welterweight? Something isn’t right here, clearly.
Friday, July 27th
Sho Kimura (17-1-2, 10 KOs) KO6 Froilan Saludar (28-3-1, 19 KOs), WBO flyweight title & Knockout CP Freshmart (18-0, 7 KOs) UD12 Chaozhong Xiong (27-8-1, 14 KOs), WBA minimumweight title – Qindao, China
Froilan Saludar tried to add to the family legacy on top of his brother Vic’s recent minimumweight title win, but it was not to be. The Filipino boxed beautifully for about two rounds in this world title clash, but it was all Sho Kimura from there. The somewhat crude Japanese titleholder began successfully cutting off the ring after Saludar’s initial successes. From there his offense avalanched. Kimura put his challenger down in both the fifth and sixth before the fight was stopped. It was a good fight that sets up an even better one. The ultra talented Kosei Tanaka will now go for his third world title against Kimura at the end of the year. I can’t wait for that one. That is where my positives end here though. The minimumweight title bout here was a real stinker. I did not enjoy it.
Jeyvier Cintron (7-0, 4 KOs) UD8 Gregory Vera (12-2, 6 KOs), bantamweights – Barranquilla, Colombia & Christian Mbilli (11-0, 11 KOs) KO5 Ramon Aguinaga (13-1, 9 KOs), middleweights – Le Cannet, France
I don’t normally do this, but I am group cards in separate locations together here because they are both notable for only one prospect in action. Top Rank signed former and only two time Puerto Rican Olympian Jeyvier Cintron strangely continued his career in Colombia. I’m sure there is an explanation here as to why a Puerto Rican prospect signed to a US promoter is competing in Colombia, but I don’t know it. Regardless, Jeyvier is a good, but not great prospect. I can’t say the same for Cameroonian-Frenchman Christian Mbilli. Not because he isn’t good, but because he is a great prospcet. I love Mbilli. He is a notable athlete with some real power and aggression. He has all the physical abilities of a real star in the sport. He’ll need to tighten up his technique a bit, but all the raw tools are there. Mbilli had been fighting out of Montreal mostly, but he returned to his adoptive France for this one.
