PBC’s young guns were on full display on FS1.
In the main event, Brandon Figueroa (17-0, 12 KOs) and Oscar Escandon (25-5, 17 KOs) engaged in a highly entertaining phone booth war. While each minute of the fight was competitive up to its ending, young Brandon was outworking Oscar pretty clearly over each three minute frame. With his height and reach advantages the younger Figueroa brother might have been better served to jab and work from the outside, but that isn’t who Brandon Figueroa is and he was doing the better work on the inside anyway. Escandon was lightly wobbled in rounds four and five as the fight appeared to be turning more and more against him.
Both men seemed tired in the six. Oscar did the better work early and then little happened for the first time, so he probably got his only round of the fight here. Both men were back at it in seven and eight after their brief break. Again the fight returned to its earlier pattern with Oscar Escandon doing good work but Brandon Figueroa still getting the better of it. Omar’s little brother saw the ninth and tenth for the first time in this one too, but the pace stayed similar. Both fighters did quality work in the ninth and maybe Escandon nicked it, but he certainly didn’t win the tenth. In fact, scoring became completely irrelevant in a hurry as Figueroa landed a short right uppercut on the inside that immediately ended the fight. The Colombian tried to rise, but he collapsed a second time on his own and the contest was waved off.
This was a mostly impressive performance for Brandon Figueroa. I’d like to see him using his natural advantages a little more, but overall a 21 year old stopping a recent former title challenger leaves little to complain about.
British Olympic super heavyweight silver medalist Joe “The Juggernaut” Joyce (6-0, 6 KOs) put on an okay performance in his American debut. Co-main event opponent Iago Kiladze (26-4, 18 KOs) confused him a bit in the first round with his movement and a few sharp right hands, but that is about all the Georgian accomplished. He was cornered and floor with a strong left hook in the second round and then felled on a body shot in the third. Joyce struggled to get to Kiladze with his movement in clinching combination in the fourth, but not in the fifth. There the 32 year old Brit put Kiladze down for the last time. While Iago appeared able to continue, he elected not to and the fight was stopped accordingly.
Fight four brought us 18 year old junior middleweight prospect Joey Spencer (5-0, 5 KOs) in a huge mismatch against winless North Carolinian (0-3-1) Cory Macon. Spencer crushed him appropriately quick. Spencer is young and raw so it makes sense to give him really easy fights while he improves in the gym, but there was little point to watching this. His attack was pretty savage, at least, but it isn’t as if he had to worry about anything coming back.
Jose Balderas (5-0), brother of US Olympian and major prospect Karlos Balderas, picked up a fun four round win in the third fight of the main card. Jose isn’t a real prospect in the way his brother is, but that doesn’t mean he and Ivan Martino (3-3, 3 KOs) didn’t put on a good show. The two young men absolutely slugged it out in the middle of the ring for three rounds. Balderas would smash Martino with a right hand and Martino would clip him back with a hard left hook almost immediately. Martino did tire going into the fourth, however, and young Jose was able to take advantage of it to take the round and seal the four round decision.
Fear inducing heavyweight puncher Efe Ajagba (7-0, 6 KOs) returned in the fight’s second contest for the first time since Curtis Harper infamously walked of the ring on him. Ajaba is a serious, serious player to watch in the heavyweight division. Oklahoma’s Nick Jones (7-1, 5 KOs) was absolutely smashed out by a pair of right hands about two minutes into the first round. The second shot face planted him and the fight was waved off by the commission, though when Jones got up at nine it did appear like he could continue. He would have just been knocked out sooner rather than later anyway though. Nigerian Olympian Efe Ajagba, 24, is one you have to see if you haven’t. He might be the long term future at heavyweight.
Opening the main card was unbeaten super bantamweight prospect Stephen Fulton (13-0, 6 KOs) picking up a pretty uneventful win over career journeyman German Meraz (61-50-2, 38 KOs). There isn’t a lot to say about this uneventful bout. Fulton is a good athlete, but he isn’t exciting by default. His 113 fight Mexican veteran foe realized he was outmatched pretty quickly and didn’t put in a lot of meaningful effort. The only time this one was interesting was the eighth and final round in which the 24 year old stepped up his aggression to look for the finish. He might have been able to get it had he started earlier, but a shut out decision is what he got in the end.
