Let’s go over all the even remotely prominent action of the week.
Saturday, October 20th
Arsen Goulamirian (24-0, 16 KOs) TKO9 Mark Flanagan (24-6, 17 KOs), cruiserweights & Mohammed Rabii (7-0, 5 KOs) TKO1 Gogi Knezevic (33-8-1, 14 KOs), junior middleweights – Marseille, France
French cruiserweight prospect and emerging contender Arsen Goulamirian picked up his second straight quality win relative to his level over Australian regional level opponent Mark Flanagan this weekend in defense of his secondary WBA belt. He got Flanagan out of there too. A true world level operator in Denis Lebedev failed to do so last year, so that is a nice feather in the 31 year old secondary titleholder’s cap. It was a competitive fight early, but the ethnically Armenian power puncher wore his Aussie competition down over the course of the nine rounds. Flanagan sort of did himself in at the end too. Goulamirian cuffed him with one of those in the moment, bad luck of positioning shots to the back of the head. Flanagan chose to put himself in terrible position by complaining to the ref. A minute or so later he got off the deck for the second time in rapid succession and the towel came shortly after. 25 year old Moroccan major prospect Mohammed Rabii also picked up a quick win on the undercard. Rabii earned bronze in Rio and had won gold the year before at the World Amateur Championships, beating both Josh Kelly and Daniyar Yeleussinov along the way.
Emmanuel Tagoe (29-1, 14 KOs) UD12 Paulus Moses (40-5, 25 KOs), lightweights – Accra, Ghana
40 year old Paulus Moses briefly held a world title almost a decade ago in 2009, but he largely disappeared from the world scene after losing it to Miguel Acosta in his second defense. After a failed shot at Ricky Burns two years later, Moses faded into obscurity for the next half decade despite never losing again. Last year he popped back up to fight Ray Beltran for what was likely his last shot given his age. He gave a valiantly effort in defeat, but unfortunately that isn’t what happened here. Well, that’s probably not a fair characterization. Moses was trying, but at 40 he had next to nothing for a young, mobile, active opponent like Emmanuel Tagoe. This was a thorough outclassing from the opening bell to the end of the final round. I scored it a shut out, as did all three judges with a couple even rounds tossed in. With the one sided win, Tagoe becomes at least a minor player on the world scene. His one loss came in his pro debut as a 15 year old.
Francisco Rodriguez Jr (29-4-1, 21 KOs) KO3 Hernan Marquez (43-10-2, 30 KOs), super flyweights & Jose Zepeda (30-1, 25 KOs) TKO7 Domicio Rondon (15-5, 10 KOs), junior welterweights & Dewayne Beamon (16-1-1, 11 KOs) UD8 Martin Tecuapetla (14-10-4, 10 KOs), super flyweights – Tecate, Mexico
Former unified minimumweight titleholder Francisco Rodriguez initially failed at light flyweight by being outclassed in his initial title shot by underrated, borderline all time great Donnie Nietes, but it was his follow up split decision loss to Moises Fuentes that really set his career back. That was almost three years ago now, however, and Rodriguez is 10-0 since up at super flyweight. Hernan Marquez is well past his prime, but this finish was a beautiful one shot left hook regardless. Seek it out. Junior welterweight and probably lightweight contender Jose Zepeda also picked up a KO win and is equally due for another title shot. His 2015 opportunity against Terry Flanagan ended on an unfortunate second round injury which marks the only blemish on his record. American super flyweight fringe contender Dewayne Beamon avenged his loss to Martin Tecuapetla (a much better fighter than his record would indicate) on the show too. He faded late last time in a hell of an action fight for which his Mexican opponent didn’t bother to make weight, but this go around it was more one sided. Beamon is a good athlete, but he needs his shot soon. At 33 he is already notably old for the the sport’s smallest classes.
Mohamed Mimoune (21-2, 2 KOs) UD12 Franck Petitjean, junior welterweights – Dakar, Senegal
Frenchman Mohamed Mimoune traveled to West Africa to win the IBO belt. The IBO isn’t recognized as a major sanctioning body by most, but it tries to be one and sometimes fighters treat it like it is anyway. I’m sure Mimoune considers himself a world champion now. He’s a good fighter, at least. I don’t know if he has the pop to keep true world class opposition off him, but the French contender can outcraft men at that Euro sort of level pretty comfortably. He’s also gone down in weight to 140 lbs since outclassing Sam Eggington two fights ago.
Scott Quigg (35-2-2, 26 KOs) TKO2 Mario Briones (29-8-2, 21 KOs), junior lightweights & Daniyar Yeleussinov (4-0, 2 KOs) TKO1 Matt Doherty (8-6-1, 4 KOs), welterweights – Boston, Massachusetts
Junior lightweight contender Scott Quigg took a stay busy fight deep on the undercard of Demetrius Andrade’s middleweight title win in Boston. Mario Briones is a reliable trial horse and he delivered by falling in two. I didn’t initially see this one on the DAZN app and I don’t feel all that compelled to go watch the predictable matchup. I like the talk of matching him with Tevin Farmer next though for what that is worth. I definitely sought out Olympic silver medalist and expected star Daniyar Yeleussinov though as I probably always will, but I wouldn’t recommend it. The fight was a ridiculous mismatch, the worst of his young pro career. The stoppage was quick too. The whole thing seemed like an arrangement to put a KO on Yeleussinov’s record after two straight decision wins.
Bradley Skeete (28-2, 13 KOs) TKO2 Fernando Valencia (8-7, 4 KOs), welterweights & Nathan Gorman (14-0, 11 KOs) PTS8 Kamil Sokolowski (5-13-2, 5 KOs), heavyweights & Zak Chelli (5-0, 2 KOs) PTS8 Umar Sadiq (3-1, 1 KO), super middleweights – Brentwood, England
Frank Warren’s stable kept busy on Anthony Yarde’s undercard. On the whole this wasn’t a particularly compelling show and only one of these fights helped. Bradley Skeete is clinging to relevancy at this point after his recent blowout loss and he took a confidence building layup here. Heavyweight prospect Nathan Gorman is an intriguing young big man, but he walked ground he had already covered on this show for some strange reason. He had already beaten Sokolowski previously. This time Gorman did worse too as the well below .500 journeyman made it the eight round distance. What was actually interesting was the matchup of unbeaten early stage prospects between Zak Chelli and Umar Sadiq. Sadiq was the hyped one with international experience on the amateur level and his Queensbury Promotions contract, but he wasn’t all that competitive here. Zak Chelli really announced himself as a prospect to watch by thoroughly controlling most of this fight. He’s still only 20 too. This bit of matchmaking really feels like a miscalculation by the matchmakers here. With Sadiq already 30, he doesn’t have a lot of time to recover from an early stage loss like this if he even wants to at all. The right thing to do here would have to build them up separately without crossing paths, but hindsight is 20/20 I guess.
Mike Perez (24-3-1, 15 KOs) UD12 Keith Tapia (18-2-1, 11 KOs), cruiserweights & Frank Sanchez Faure (9-0, 7 KOs) UD6 Garrett Wilson (18-15-1, 9 KOs), heavyweights – Orlando, Florida
Former heavyweight turned cruiserweight fringe contender Mike Perez revitalized his career here a bit with a strong performance over a decent fighter in Keith Tapia. The win makes him the official alternate in the season two cruiserweight World Boxing Super Series tournament. This fight started roughly for the Cuban with him losing a point in the first round due to blows to the back of the head, but he took over the second half of the still relatively competitive fight to pull away on the cards. The most interesting thing to me about the WBSS prelims was something else though. It was the very existence of Frank Sanchez Faure. How did I not know about a 26 year old Cuban prospect who had fared well on the national scene of that historically proud boxing nation? He’s no blue chipper, don’t get me wrong, but his bio claims he won the nationals in 2015 after several third place showings. If that is true it probably means eventual 2016 Olympian Erislandy Savon didn’t participate, but it is still a solid accomplishment. I’ll keep an eye on him going forward.
Michael Conlan (9-0, 6 KOS) TKO7 Nicola Cipolletta (14-7-2, 4 KOs), featherweights & Esquiva Falcao (22-0, 15 KOs) UD10 Guido Nicolas Pitto (25-6-2, 8 KOs), middleweights & Fazliddin Gaibnazarov (6-0, 3 KOs) TKO2 Wilberth Lopez (23-10, 15 KOs), junior welterweights & Joseph Adorno (10-0, 9 KOs) UD6 Kevin Cruz (8-1, 5 KOs), lightweights & Vladimir Nikitin (2-0) UD6 Clay Burns (5-5-2, 4 KOs), featherweights – Las Vegas, Nevada
Top Rank brought a pretty loaded preliminary undercard to their show headlined by Rob Brant’s one sided upset of Ryota Murata in Las Vegas. Popular Irish prospect Michael Conlan topped that part of the bill with an easy stoppage win. I’m still not sold on him as a future elite fighter, but Top Rank will give him every opportunity. Olympic silver medalist Esquiva Falcao had a pretty terrible night despite his easy win. He was a logical future opponent for Murata given their controversial gold medal match in London, but that fight is delayed now at best. Murata’s failure is a money loss for him. Speaking of amateur rivals, Top Rank is also building towards another Olympic rematch between Michael Conlan and Russian bronze medalist Vladimir Nikitin. Nikitin is the man Conlan was considered robbed against in the fight that ultimately made the Irish prospect a star thanks to his middle finger raising reactions. The Russian won comfortably against a local club fighter. Keeping the Olympic theme alive, gold medalist Fazliddin Gaibnazarov also picked up another early career routine win. 19 year old Joseph Adorno was not an Olympian, but he’s considered a solid prospect. He picked up a nice win over a fellow unbeaten on this show.
Friday, October 19th
Tewa Kiram (39-1, 29 KOs) TKO4 Manyi Issa (11-2-2, 8 KOs), junior middleweights – Bangkok, Thailand
Recent Lucas Matthysse HBO opponent Tewa Kiram and his entirely empty but gaudy record took his first fight back from that loss back home in Thailand. I’m basically just noting that it happened. I don’t expect anything real from Kiram going forward.
Thursday, October 18th
Jason Quigley (15-0, 11 KOs) UD10 Freddy Hernandez (34-10, 22 KOs), middleweights & Eddie Gomez (22-3, 12 KOs) UD8 Shoki Sakai (23-9-2, 13 KOs), welterweights & Rommel Caballero (4-0, 3 KOs) KO1 Hugo Padron (3-3, 2 KOs), junior lightweights – Indio, California
Promising Irish prospect Jason Quigley took his second fight back from injury and the first one back on the journeyman level he was at before in this Golden Boy on ESPN main event. He looked fine outpointing gatekeeper Freddy Hernandez. I remain skeptical of his world level chances, but he’s definitely an asset for Golden Boy given his Irish heritage’s ability to sell on the East Coast and their roster otherwise devoid of draws in the region. Fringe contender Eddie Gomez and the youngest Caballero brother, Rommel, also picked up wins.
