We have a new serious middleweight contender.
That didn’t go according to plan. All parties involved seemed to be looking forward to Japanese star and Olympic gold medalist Ryota Murata (14-2, 11 KOs) hosting Gennady Golovkin for a major fight in Japan early next year. All parties, that is, except Minnesota’ emerging contender Rob Brant (24-1, 16 KOs). Brant was a decided underdog here given Murata’s pedigree and his own struggles in the World Boxing Super Series, but no one would have known it watching this play out.
Rob Brant jumped out of the gate with an athletic, high volume attack and never relented for more than a minute here and there. He threw and threw, accumulating pretty lofty punch stats for a middleweight along the way. Ryota Murata has always been skilled, but he’s also a sort of plodder with a base level athleticism below what might be hoped for someone of his credentials. He can be hit and he was tonight, repeatedly. Murata also struggled with cutting off the ring quite a bit too by just sort of following around after Brant without much consistent footwork. It wasn’t a good performance at all from the Olympic star.
It was from Rob Brant though. He was so dominant that the judges came back with a 119-109 paired with two 118-110s in his favor, near shut outs. That certainly was not the outcome as planned by Top Rank.
Also on the main card was Russian prospect Maxim Dadashev (12-0, 10 KOs) out pointing faded former contender Antonio DeMarco (33-7-1, 24 KOs) over ten rounds. This one was a bit more competitive than I expected as I apparently underrated what DeMarco had left in the tank. Still, it was a clear win for Dadashev. He started and finished well while Antonio gained a little momentum in the middle rounds.
