Welcome to Under the Radar Fight Results, the weekly column in which I go over all prominent fights not otherwise covered by separate articles. This week that is a hell of a lot of fights. We have a FOTY contender and title fight in Japan, James DeGale, Lucas Browne, and so much more.
Sunday, September 30th
Reymart Gaballo (20-0, 17 KOs) TKO1 Julias Kisarawe (29-7-1, 15 KOs), bantamweights & Marlon Tapales (31-2, 14 KOs) TKO1 Goodluck Mrema (22-4, 12 KOs), featherweights & Dave Penalosa (14-0, 10 KOs) TKO2 Twalib Tuwa (21-6-2, 14 KOs), featherweights & Carlo Caesar Penalosa (13-1, 6 KOs) TKO3 Jemsi Kibazange (11-3-2, 1 KO), flyweights & Melvin Lopez (17-0, 10 KOs) MD8 Renan Portes (10-8, 6 KOs), super bantamweights – Quezon City, Philippines
I sure hope Filipino-Tanzanian relations were in good standing coming into this fight card. If not, this show could be viewed as an act of all out aggression. With the exception of the random Melvin Lopez feature tacked on to the end, all four of the notable fights from the Philippines featured local fighters blasting out Tanzanians quickly and violently. Promising bantamweight prospect Reymart Gaballo headlined the show, returning home from a three fight North American tour capped by dominating unbeaten Stephen Young in Florida back in March for a secondary belt. The 22 year old has a potentially very bright future. Fellow bantamweight contender Marlon Tapales returned here too. Last time we saw him was about a year and a half ago in Japan in what should have been a career changing stoppage win to pick up a belt. Marlon missed weight badly, however, so it was all for naught. Having this comeback fight up at featherweight makes it unclear where he intends to campaign going forward. Also in action were two of the younger members of the venerable Penalosa clan that has produced multiple world champions. Unbeaten Dave Penalosa is the son of Dodie Boy, a light flyweight world titleholder in the early 80s and once beaten Carlo Caesar appears to be a cousin. Former two division world titleholder Gerry Penalosa promotes both of them, his nephews, at home. Finally, Nicaraguan sort of prospect Melvin Lopez barely survived a late knockdown to squeak by a local club fighter. Lopez was considered a significant central American prospect just a short time ago, but his dedication has been questioned repeatedly and he has grown four weight classes in three years now which doesn’t help. It looks doubtful that he’ll amount to much now, especially with this struggle.
James DeGale (25-2-1, 15 KOs) KO3 Fidel Monterrosa Munoz (39-13-1, 19 KOs), light heavyweights & Jesse Rodriguez (7-0, 4 KOs) UD8 Edwin Reyes (8-4-3, 5 KOs), light flyweights – Ontario, California
With the Ortiz-Molina main event off the FS1 show for the worst reasons, most of the prominent prospects got bumped up to the main card broadcast and made TV. Recent former popular titleholder James DeGale, however, did not. That speaks volumes to both the intent of this fight and the confidence his handlers have in him going forward. Clearly this was a feel out fight meant to help James and his team quietly assess what exactly he has left. Look at this fight too. Munoz made welterweight earlier this year and they pulled up up to 170 here. I have little confidence that “Chunky” can be competitive at top level anymore and his team seems to agree. 18 year old former elite junior amateur Jesse Rodriguez also picked up a win here. He’s a bit of a raw brawler for now, but he wore down Reyes and dominated after the first few rounds. I actually thought this one should have been stopped due to its one sided nature a few times. It never was though.
Saturday, September 29th
Dierry Jean (30-2-1, 21 KOs) TKO6 Abraham Gomez (28-17-1, 13 KOs), welterweights – Cornwall, Canada
36 year old two time failed title challenger Dierry Jean, a Montreal based Haitian transplant, returned this weekend from a 28 month hiatus for a low level stoppage win. Jean earned his first shot with dominant wins over fringe contenders of the time like Lanardo Tyner and Ivan Cano, but Lamont Peterson on Showtime was largely able to outclass him in 2014. A couple more solid mid level wins against the likes of Jerry Belmontes and Carlos Reyes got him back in a title fight a bit over a year and a half later, but this time it was Terence Crawford waiting for him on HBO. Jean was dominated, dropped several times, and stopped late. His comeback fight the following year ended in a surprising draw against longtime Filipino journeyman Ricky Sismundo, suggesting that maybe Crawford had done real damage to his career. That draw came in May of 2016 and this was his first fight back. I doubt he’ll be able to get back to earning a third title shot. Jean be a good matchup for a rising local prospect like Yves Ulysse Jr or Custio Clayton though.
Robert Helenius (28-2, 17 KOs) KO8 Erkan Teper (19-3, 12 KOs), heavyweights – Waldenbuch, Germany
This was a career revitalizing win for Finland based heavyweight Robert Helenius, at least on the European level. The tall, lanky Swedish heavyweight was the European titleholder and a rising contender in the division in 2015, but he lost his belt via a dramatic knockout loss to Frenchman Johann Duhaupas the following year. After a few low level wins, Helenius stepped back up and was dominated over the distance in a lethargic performance against Dillian Whyte late last year. That looked like the end. Struggling to win an eight round decision against a losing record club fighter and needing to rematch him early this year only added to that idea. That’s why this relatively smooth, dominant stoppage performance over a decent Euro level heavyweight like Teper was a surprising result. The German too once looked like an emerging contender after 2015 wins over the same Johann Duhaupas and David Price, but he has struggled at that level since and was mostly dominated here. Even though this wasn’t exactly exciting, it was a win that will get Helenius back in the conversation at European level.
Sergio Garcia (28-0, 13 KOs) UD12 Maxime Beaussire (27-2-1, 10 KOs), junior middleweights – Torrelavega, Spain
25 year old Spanish emerging 154 lb contender Sergio Garcia picked up the European belt at the weight with a dominant decision over Frenchman Maxime Beaussire. Sometimes it can be hard to get a read on how a European prospect projects to world level and to me this is the case here. It is nice that Garcia can separate himself from someone like Beaussire, but I don’t really know how to read the larger implications of that. This is doubly true because Beaussire came in on less than a week’s notice. Former middleweight champion and Garcia’s promoter Sergio Martinez is talking a world title fight soon for Garcia. That’s going to be a tough sell. Maybe he can get Sergio in with Jaime Munguia, but I don’t see him fighting Hurd or Charlo without being named a mandatory.
Romero Duno (18-1, 14 KOs) UD8 Ezequiel Aviles (16-3-3, 6 KOs), lightweights & Oscar Duarte (15-0-1, 10 KOs) RTD4 Roger Gutierrez (19-3-1, 16 KOs), lightweights & Elnur Abduraimov (1-0, 1 KO) KO1 Aaron Jamel Hollis (4-8, 2 KOs), lightweights – Indio, California
A trio of Golden Boy prospects provided the chief support for Jorge Linares’s successful junior welterweight debut on Facebook Watch. Filipino Romero Duno and Mexican Oscar Duarte, both 22, have been fighting on Golden Boy cards for a while. Neither are blue chippers by any means, but they both have a great deal of potential. While Duno does have a loss on his record, it was over in Russia against an elite prospect before anyone really knew he should be raised as a proper prospect himself. His breakthrough came in the Spring of last year when he was brought in to be an opponent for then rising Golden Boy prospect “Chimpa” Gonzalez. Flipping the script and blowing out the house fighter out in two rounds got him signed in a hurry. Oscar Duarte took a more conventional route to his spot on the Golden Boy roster and both men have been picking up good wins for their level against solid regional opposition over the last year or so. I suspect Golden Boy is going to be able to raise them high enough to get them world level opportunities. They are good enough for a prominent promoter to work with for sure. Uzbek prospect Elnur Abdraimov made his pro debut here too. He won bronze in the 2015 world championships, but he was apparently held out of Rio due to his country not getting enough slots in the tournaments. A couple regional gold medals in 2017 led him to his pro career. I’m not sure how exactly he ended up on this show as press releases have him signing with Lou DiBella, but here he was anyway.
Junior Younan (14-0-1, 10 KOs) TKO1 Evert Bravo (24-9-1, 18 KOs), light heavyweights & Bakhodir Jalolov (2-0, 2 KOs) KO1 Eduardo Vitela (3-3, 2 KOs), heavyweights – Brooklyn, New York
ShoBox alumni Junior Younan took his first fight following his draw with Ronald Ellis on the series in February. He rolled through his opponent quickly, but it should be noted that Bravo had been finished eight times previously and was coming off another first round knockout loss. Younan showed some real talent in his step up against Ellis, but also some real rawness to his game. It was a fun, even fight so a rematch will be tempting for the prospect series. At the same time, however, I would develop Younan a bit more first if I was his team. He’s only 22. Also in action was Rio quarter finalist Bakhodir Jalolov of Uzbekistan for his second pro fight. He was pretty well dominated by Joe Joyce to bow out of the Olympics and looks to be a step below the major prospects in the division, but he’s a 6’6″ southpaw with a solid pedigree from an increasingly prominent boxing nation. He’s only 24 too. I’ll keep tabs on him.
Lucas Browne (26-1, 23 KOs) KO3 Julius Long (18-21-3, 14 KOs), heavyweights – Queensland, Australia
I should be writing about heavyweight fringe contender Lucas Browne, but Julius Long is the name that caught my eye here. I remember Long as a the freakish, 7 foot tall B-side to a few smaller US TV show main events in the early 2000s. He fought forgotten fringe contenders of the time like Rob Calloway, Tye Fields, and Derrick Jefferson before those losses completely cemented his status as a journeyman. From there he was fed to guys thought to be major prospects almost exclusively and disappeared deep into undercards around the world. The last I remember of him was getting wiped away quickly by Sam Peter on Friday Night Fights twelve years ago. He kept going though, apparently, posting a record of 4-12 starting from that night against Peter to when it looked like he retired in 2016 on a rare win. I started writing UTR shortly after his last fight and have been scouring boxrec ever since, so I don’t get a whole lot of surprises anymore. Julius Long was a 7 foot, 300 lb surprise for sure though. As the actual fight itself, this was a borderline comically soft touch even in a sport full of them. Not only did Browne and his team pull a 41 year old chef (new Julius Long fact!) out of retirement who hadn’t fought in two years and was 4-12 in the decade prior, they pulled a 41 year old chef out of retirement with those credentials that they had already knocked out. Browne finished the seven footer in 2015, but I guess the demand for the rematch was just too high to resist.
Friday, September 28th
Zhilei Zhang (20-0, 16 KOs) KO3 Don Haynesworth (15-3-1, 13 KOs), heavyweights & Jianzheng Wang (9-0, 7 KOs) TKO1 Yodkhunsuk Mor Poowana (11-6-1, 8 KOs), cruiserweights – Changsha, China
At this point my assumption is that one day I’ll write about a Zhilei Zhang fight and that’ll be the last time I ever think about him. He’ll just quietly retire and I won’t ever remember him to realize it. Zhang is a two time Olympian who won silver in 08 before bowing out to Anthony Joshua four years later. He also has a pair of amateur world championship medals and he’s 36. Yet, despite his tremendous size and amateur credentials, Zhang is just knocking out no hope opponent after no hope opponent. Haynesworth was the first foe in nine fights to make it past the second round before falling. Zhang looks decent too. That’s what bothers me. I can’t watch him fight these no hopers and say that he doesn’t have a shot at world level. It is really hard to tell with all these quick fights, but he might. He doesn’t look slow, he seems coordinated, and these guys fall over as soon as he touches them. Zhang has been fighting in the US mostly over the last couple years too. So what exactly is holding him back? Three words: Roc Nation Sports. The sooner that inept organization gets out of boxing, the better. 31 year old cruiserweight Jianzheng Weng also competed in the 2008 Olympics, but he did so at middleweight and lost to Sergiy Derevyanchenko in the first round. The jump from middleweight to cruiserweight since then doesn’t seem ideal, but he hasn’t fought outside of China yet so this is the first time I’m noticing him and I don’t have an opinion yet.
Rico Ramos (29-5, 14 KOs) UD8 Daniel Olea (13-6-2, 5 KOs), featherweights & Genesis Servania (32-1, 15 KOs) KO3 Carlos Carlson (23-5, 14 KOs), featherweights & Joshua Greer Jr (18-1-1, 10 KOs) KO3 Giovanni Delgado (16-8, 9 KOs), super bantamweights & Janibek Alimkhanuly (3-0, 1 KO) UD6 Carlos Galvan (16-8-1, 15 KOs), super middleweights – Oakland, California
Here is the meaningful action from Top Rank’s undercard on Friday. Rico Ramos was once a top prospect who even won a world title while remaining unbeaten. He defended against Guillermo Rigondeaux first and got a rare, relatively aggressive performance from the virtuoso that predictably didn’t end well in 2011. From there Ramos kind of fell apart, winning at lower levels but getting dominated on the world stage. He was supposed to be a reasonably respectable but relatively easy comeback opponent for Jessie Magdaleno here. When the recently deposed former titleholder dropped out, Top Rank held his spot anyway. Genesis Servania and Joshua Greer also competed. Servania put in an unexpectedly good performance in a fun, competitive loss to Oscar Valdez this time last year. He seems to be thinking about dropping back down to junior bantamweight for the first time since 2015 given the 123 lb weight for this fight. Greer already fights there and has been making a name for himself with finishes on ShoBox before signing with Top Rank. This was his promotional debut and he got to bring out his gimmicky good night pillow after the finish even though the fight was stopped standing. Finally, 2016 Olympian and former World Amateur Championship gold medalist Janibek Alimkhanuly of Kazakhstan picked up his third career win on the show to. He’s 25.
Devin Haney (20-0, 13 KOs) UD10 Juan Carlos Burgos (33-3-2, 21 KOs), lightweights & Thomas Mattice (13-0-1, 10 KOs) SD8 Zhora Hamazaryan (9-1-1, 6 KOs), lightweights & Cem Kilic (12-0, 7 KOs) UD8 DeAndre Ware (12-1-2, 8 KOs), super middleweights – Temecula, California
19 year old Devin Haney, one of the best prospects in all of the sport, easily outboxed former top contender Juan Carlos Burgos on his way to a ten round shut out. He showed a lot of diversity to his game along the way including some great and slightly unexpected in fighting, but mostly he still employed his rapid movement to completely eliminate any offense coming back at him. While I think he will certainly hold a belt and probably more than one, I do wonder how big of a star he can become. For one, he’s self promoting for now, and two his fights are generally not exciting. He did have Burgos hurt a bit in the sixth, but finishing isn’t a huge priority for him. In the co-main event Zhora Hamazaryan tried to get revenge for the robbery loss he suffered to Thomas Mattice earlier this year, but it wasn’t there for him. This draw was a fair one. Finally, German prospect Cem Killic kept his unbeaten record together in a high volume affair against DeAndre Ware in the opener. That was a fun fight.
Tuesday, September 25th
Hiroto Kyoguchi (11-0, 8 KOs) TKO4 Tibo Monabesa (18-1-2, 8 KOs), light flyweights & Kyotaro Fujimoto (20-1, 12 KOs) RTD6 Suthat Kalalek (12-10, 11 KOs), heavyweights – Tokyo, Japan
24 year old former minimumweight titleholder Hiroto Kyoguchi vacated his belt to move up to light flyweight and made his debut early Tuesday morning. Undefeated Indonesian fringe contender Tibo Monabesa was no match for him. He was outclassed from the opening bell. When the Indonesian tried to get aggressive to change his fate in the third, Kyoguchi deposited him on the canvas. He did so again in the fourth and finished Monabesa shortly after. Kyoguchi had the IBF belt at 105. The 108 lb version of that title currently vacant thanks to Hekkie Budler declining to defend against power puncher Felix Alvarado for little money. Alvarado will instead meet Filipino fringe contender Randy Petalcorin for the belt and I suspect Kyoguchi will end up in with the winner. Japanese heavyweight Kyotaro Fujimoto defended his high regional title here too, but he’s more of an oddity note than someone that needs to be paid attention to as a world level threat.
Monday, September 24th
Kosei Tanaka (12-0, 7 KOs) MD12 Sho Kimura (17-2-2, 10 KOs), WBO flyweight title & Kento Hatanaka (7-0, 7 KOs) TKO5 Aprilianto Rumahpasal (1-3, 1 KO), flyweights – Nagoya, Japan
Sho Kimura defending against two division titleholder Kosei Tanaka looked like an amazing fight on paper and it lived up to the billing in the ring. This one is readily available online with a quick google search and there is no excuse not to go find it. It opened up on fire from second one. Kimura charged forward and tried to use his experience against bigger men to his advantage, but it only worked for a round to start. He got clipped and hurt with a huge counter left in the second and bothered a little again in the third on a right hand. From there, Kimura re-asserted his strength and it was a grueling back and forth affair absolutely loaded with action. The defending titleholder would bully Tanaka for a round only to get lit up in the next one, so on and so forth. Tanaka seemed like he had a small but safe lead going into the last couple rounds, but instead of sitting on it he upped his aggression. This fed right into Kimura’s favor as he busted up Kosei in the championship rounds. I had no idea what the cards were going come back as and I completely lost track of scoring while consumed with the fight of the year level drama. In the end, Kosei Tanaka had his hand raised by very narrow margins. This was truly great stuff. With the win, Kosei Tanaka tied Vasyl Lomachenko’s young record of fewest fights to a third world title with twelve. I think he’s too small to take one at super flyweight, but I bet he’ll try at some point. At 24, time remains on his side. Finally for UTR this week, 20 year Kento Hatanaka picked up his seventh career win. Kento is the son of early nineties titleholder Kiyoshi Hatanaka.
