Welcome to Under the Radar Fight Results, the weekly column in which I go over all results not otherwise covered by separate articles. This week we have a major card on Facebook with some technical issues, Liborio Solis, BJ Flores, prospects, and a new heavyweight champion of the world! Tongue firmly in cheek for that last one, but the quiet week still had some interesting combat bubbling right below the surface.
Wednesday, August 8th
Ali Akhmedov (12-0, 8 KOs) KO4 Jorge Escalante (9-2-1, 6 KOs), cruiserweights & Brian Ceballo (4-0, 2 KOs) RTD2 Tavorus Teague (5-21-4, 3 KOs), welterweights – Hollywood, California
Tom Loeffler and K2 Promotions continued their Hollywood Fight Night series locally in California by highlighting a really good prospect in 23 year old Kazakh light heavyweight Ali Akhmedov. Akhmedov is a serious name to keep on your radar. He didn’t get to fight in the most prominent amateur tournaments because he was stuck behind Adilbek Niyazymbetov, the Kazakh bridesmaid who won silver at the world championships and Olympics in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2016. Reportedly Akhmedov clearly beat Niyazymbetov in the qualifiers for Rio, however, and was robbed. As a young pro, Akhmedov looks like a real good one, but he’s been in an some strange matchups. A few fights ago he and his team pulled a junior middleweight up to light heavyweight and here he fight as a light heavyweight against a full fledged cruiserweight. They were just evening the scales, I guess. Regardless, Akhmedov is technically sound and can really pop. Also in action was 24 year old former prominent American welterweight Brian Ceballo. He didn’t qualify, but Ceballo placed well in the Olympic trials and could be a promising pro. He has a sneaky good promoter to build him up here in Loeffler too.
Friday, August 10th
Ricardo Espinoza Franco (21-2, 18 KOs) TKO2 Daniel Lozano (15-5, 11 KOs), bantamweights & Hairon Socarras (19-0-3, 12 KOs) UD10 Jose Nieves (22-5-3, 11 KOs), featherweights – Tampa, Florida
This All-Star Boxing promoted, Telemundo broadcast card was an absolute disaster for its A-side in the main event. Daniel Lozano looked every bit like a regional fighter when dropping three straight in 2015. He rebounded in a huge way last year after taking 2016 off by avenging two of those defeats against quality fighters in David Carmona and Ricardo Rodriguez. Those two wins put him squarely in the title shot conversation. With all bantamweight belts tied up the upcoming second season of the World Boxing Super Series, however, Lozano needed to stay busy in the mean time. He didn’t need to get blown out in two rounds by 21 year old Mexican Ricardo Franco though. This fight wasn’t competitive for a second either. With the win we do have a new young contender at least, however. Cuban expat Hairon Socarras picked up his best win in the co-main event as well. Socarras came over as a kid and doesn’t have the Cuban amateur boxing pedigree that we’ve come to expect, but he looked good here in easily outboxing a former real, albeit aging fringe contender in Nieves.
Max Ornelas (12-0-1, 4 KOs) UD8 Raymond Tabugon (20-9-1, 10 KOs), bantamweights – Las Vegas, Nevada
Roy Jones Jr continues to promote Max Ornelas with his fledgling outfit through his television contract with minor sports network BeIN Sports. The 20 year old shows some nice potential and this was his best performance. Tabugon wasn’t competitive here for a moment. While he is far from a contender, the Filipino is a nice journeyman and was a small step up. For example, Tabugon has dropped both arguable top bantamweight Luis Nery and a great Australian prospect in Andrew Moloney. Both of those guys ended up stopping him him in four, but he tested them in those handful of rounds. Conversely, Ornelas was never really tested here and that does say something about his potential. I don’t think I’ve been giving the kid enough credit up to this point.
Saturday, August 11th
Jose Velasquez (21-6-2, 14 KOs) KO2 Jonathan Burgos (13-6-1, 8 KOs), super bantamweights – Quellon, Chile
We all love a good comeback story and that is exactly what Chilean super bantamweight fringe contender Jose Velasquez is providing. After starting his career off as a completely regional, club level guy at 8-6-2, Velasquez has now rang off thirteen consecutive wins since late 2016. The 29 year old is extremely active and is picking up minor belts as well. None of these wins are really against more than journeymen if we are being critical, but his top ten ranking from multiple sanctioning bodies all but guarantees we will see him get a chance at the top of the division over the next year or so as long as he keeps winning. Learn the name before you groan about him in a title fight in 2019.
Edis Tatli (31-2, 10 KOs) UD10 Frank Urquiaga (12-1, 1 KO), lightweights & Robert Helenius (27-2, 16 KOs) UD6 Yury Bykhautsou (10-17-3, 5 KOs), heavyweights – Olavinlinna, Finland
Speaking of fringe contenders, we had Finland’s top two in action Saturday as well. Tatli and Helenius are remarkably similar in terms of accomplishment too. Both men have one big win on their ledger over top European names in French lightweight Yvan Mendy and popular British heavyweight Derek Chisora. Both also lost in their bids for secondary titles against Richard Abril and Dillian Whyte while also dropping a fight at European level that you’d of though they’d probably win against Francesco Patera and Johann Duhaupas. They both almost lost fights against lower level opposition recently too. The difference between them, however, is that Duhaupus destroyed Helenius while Patera’s win over Tatli was largely considered a random robbery and Tatli beat him in the rematch. Here they both fought back at a lower level. Tatli struggled a bit over a Spanish novice with no power, but he won clean in defense of his European title. Helenius won easily too, but the fact that this happened at all was a bit of a loss for him. He had to fight losing record journeyman Bykhautsou a second time after nearly losing to him to in his last fight to wipe the stench of the bad performance away. He did, but only somewhat. You can’t be a contender and put on a performance like that and expect it to go away with an easy rematch win that should have happened the first time.
Martin Tecuapetla (14-9-4, 10 KOs) SD8 Dewayne Beamon (15-1-1, 8 KOs), super flyweights – Mexico City, Mexico
Pour one out for America’s great flyweight hope Dewayne Beamon. In his first big step up, Beamon fell just short down in Mexico City. He’s lucky this was only an eight rounder too as he was fading badly and likely to be stopped had the fight continued. Beamon started the fight well, but he didn’t have the high level experience to pace himself for the full distance. Maybe it was the altitude too. Regardless, don’t be fooled by Martin Tecuapetla’s record. The Mexican contender has gone the distance in fights with top fighters and multiple division titleholders Akira Yaegashi and Milan Melindo with perfectly reasonable arguments to have won the fights. He lost the narrowest of decisions, but he’s fought elite fighters absolutely evenly. Really Beamon did reasonably well here given the huge step up, the hostile crowd, and the elevation. But at 33 at one of the lower weights, this could realistically be his peak in a fun, competitive loss.
Joseph Diaz (27-1, 14 KOs) UD12 Jesus Rojas (26-2-2, 17 KOs), featherweights & Jonathan Navarro (15-0, 8 KOs) KO7 Damon Allen (15-1-1, 5 KOs), junior welterweights & Ferdinand Kerobyan (10-0, 5 KOs) UD6 Jose Carlos Rivera (6-4, 4 KOs), junior middleweights & Aaron McKenna (5-0, 3 KOs) UD4 Rolando Mendivil (10-5, 3 KOs), welterweights – Hollywood, California
This was supposed to be the one card I covered in full this week, but Facebook Watch was pretty much a streaming disaster. For me it struggled all night. For most others it at least dropped about half the main event. I didn’t get around to watching it until yesterday morning after it failed me on Saturday. As for the fights, they were good at least. Jesus Rojas pushed JoJo Diaz for twelve rounds just like I thought he would. It was a fun fight that JoJo controlled stretches of with his superior craft, but Rojas is a fine fighter himself and was winning rounds here and there. It was close in the end after an exciting finish. I didn’t have any issue with the decision though. Unfortunately, the former Olympian missed weight and cost himself the secondary title on the line here. Not that it really matters as one of approximately 34 bogus WBA belts, but I’m sure he wanted it.
In the co-main event, Golden Boy did a good thing and matched two of their many unbeaten but middling prospects against one another. It really separated the two as well. After an okay start for Damon Allen, Jonathan Navarro had taken over by the fight’s scheduled midpoint and really started to beat Allen up. He got the finish standing in the seventh. Also in action were two prominent, young fighters in 20 year old Armenian-American Ferdinand Kerobyan and 19 year old Irishman Aaron McKenna. Kerboyan was a solid domestic amateur stateside who placed well in the Olympic trials, but Golden Boy’s hopes really rest on McKenna. He was too young for Rio and would have been a likely Olympian for Tokyo, but he elected to go pro instead. He really appeals to a Northeastern demographic that Golden Boy sorely needs to develop too as they’ve largely retreated back to a Southern Californian, regional promotional outfit. Good for them because he’s close to a blue chipper in my view as well. I think McKenna will do well by them.
Trevor Bryan (20-0, 14 KOs) TKO4 BJ Flores (34-4-1, 24 KOs), heavyweights – Phoenix, Arizona
A lot of very fair trash has been written about this fight, but not at the fault at either of the fighters. For some bizarre reason, the WBA decided to bestow the two entirely undeserving combatants an opportunity to fight for one of their bogus, fake world titles here. This is low by even their standards. Flores had never as much even fought a fringe contender at heavyweight, for example, while Bryan’s last two opponents had a combined record of 4-44. Yet, I’m going to put a slightly more positive spin on this than anyone else. For one, who really gives a shit about the WBA’s fake titles? Just recognize their highest titleholder at each weight and move on. The way to make these go away long term is to stop covering them. Second, lost in the WBA narrative here is the fact that Bryan stepped up and won emphatically. Look, I know Flores isn’t a true heavyweight and is a 39 year old part time fighter now, but he’s been a competent high regional level guy for a decade plus. The only guy to ever blow him out like this before was Tony Bellew. It doesn’t make Bryan a heavyweight contender and he shouldn’t have a belt, but that doesn’t mean this wasn’t a real nice win for the 28 year old.
Liborio Solis (27-5-1, 12 KOs) UD6 Jose Alfaro (6-6-1, 5 KOs), featherweights – Maracay, Venezuela
We conclude with 36 year old hard luck bantamweight contender Liborio Solis taking a stay busy fight back home in Venezuela. Solis was a strong super flyweight titleholder back in 2013 with a couple real nice wins over top Japanese fighters, but he sized out of the division shortly after. Strangely it took three years to get a bantamweight title shot. When he did he was mostly soundly defeated by Shinsuke Yamanaka, but he did have a huge third round in which he dropped the longtime titleholder twice and nearly scored the upset. Eight months later he again got a shot, this time against British belt holder Jamie McDonnnell. Solis won the fight and should have finally become a two division titleholder, but he was outright robbed by the judges. It took a year for the rematch to come together for last November. There would be no justice, however, as an accidental foul rendered round two a no decision before it could get going. This was his second low level fight for Solis as he waits for another shot. Hopefully it won’t take another three years as he can’t afford the time.
