Let’s break this down fight by fight.
Denis Lebedev UD12 Mike Wilson, cruiserweights
39 year old longtime elite cruiserweight Denis Lebedev (32-2, 23 KOs) returned after almost a year and a half without fighting in the division. He had a predictably easy time decisioning unknown American Mike Wilson (19-1, 8 KOs) anyway. Lebedev would have had to regress a pretty insane amount to have been vulnerable in this one though.
There honestly isn’t a lot to say about a main event that played out as about as uninspiring in the ring as it looked on paper. I’m not saying it was some all time terrible watch by any means, but I wouldn’t seek it out. Lebedev started slow early, but he recovered to look to my eye like he was on his way to a finish sooner or later as body work started accumulating. Wilson didn’t collapse, however, and the aging cruiserweight instead decided to basically coast to the decision rather than risk losing it.
Why? Denis Lebedev potentially has a lot at stake here that could have been sealed with the win. If Oleksandr Usyk isn’t moving to heavyweight in his next fight, Lebedev is all that really makes sense out of what is left. Why risk it?
Michael Hunter TKO9 Alexander Ustinov, heavyweights
Cruiserweight turned heavyweight Michael Hunter (16-1, 11 KOs) won his fourth straight fight at the weight, this time over lumbering big man Alexander Ustinov (34-3, 25 KOs). This time the former US Olympian did it while giving up an excess of 60 pounds in the ring. Hunter was just the much better fight all around though. Ustinov is so slow and unathletic that he was largely reduced to leaving on the American while hunter was able to lace the face of his Belorussian foe with straight shots all night.
Ustinov took them well for a while, but axes fell trees eventually. Hunter chopped him down with an accumulation of punishment. Though the smaller man did seem to hurt Ustinov at the end of the fourth, the real damage was done to close the eighth round. Alexander found himself on the canvas and rising on unsteady legs before being saved by the bell. He didn’t make it long in the ninth.
With the win Hunter picked up his second big one to a European audience in less than a month having toppled British heavyweight prospect Michael Illunga already. To top it off, he is apparently looking to get on the December 22nd show headlined by the rematch between Dillian Whyte and Derek Chisora as well.
Kal Yafai UD12 Israel Gonzalez, WBA super flyweight title
Surprisingly the middle bout of the show was the one world title fight of the evening. I thought it would be the co-main event. I also thought Kal Yafai (25-0, 15 KOs) would defend his WBA super flyweight title pretty comfortably over Israel Gonzalez (23-3, 10 KOs) since the challenger had been comfortably handled by Jerwin Ancajas within the last year. Wrong on both accounts.
Israel Gonzalez came out of the gate inspired with a strong opening two rounds. Yafai turned the bout around in the third and fourth, but a cut that should have hampered the Mexican only seemed to inspire Israel to attack with increased intensity. Yafai would take the fight back over a couple rounds later with more precise work, but then Gonzalez would again steal the momentum back to close the fight largely on determination. I scored the fight a 114-114 draw and would have been fine with tight scored in either direction. Instead we got 117-111 and 116-112 twice.
Though the defense ended up being successful, this outcome is not a good like for the titleholder. He does seem to have regressed a bit. Still, Eddie Hearn is insisting on unification left. Whether or not that is a good idea specifically for Yafai remains to be seen, but unification is always a good idea to me.
Daniyar Yeleussinov TKO3 Marcos Mojica, welterweights
In the second bout of the evening in Monte Carlo, amateur superstar and blue chip prospect Daniyar Yeleussinov (5-0, 3 KOs) battered overmatched Nicaraguan opponent Marcos Mojica (16-3-2, 12 KOs) on his way to a third round stoppage. It took him a round to get going, but the Kazakh likely future titleholder was straight up assaulting Mojica by the end of the second round. Having already dropped him earlier with a slick counter, Yeleussinov ripped off a fantastic combination of three straight lefts upstairs and down to his helpless opponent at the end of the second round. The fight didn’t last long in the third either. After putting Mojica down one more time, Daniyar finished on the feet. The Nicaraguan may have actually been trying to quit before the stoppage even. He was gesturing something that seemed to that effect, anyway.
Fanglong Meng TKO5 Frank Buglioni, light heavyweights
Chinese Olympian Fanglong Meng (14-0, 9 KOs) opened the show with a career best win by earning a cuts stoppage over high British level light heavyweight foe Frank Bulgioni (22-4-1, 16 KOs). Often fights ending on cuts aren’t entirely satisfying, but this one was. After two slow rounds that Meng controlled from the outside, Buglioni upped his aggression the third to put forth a closer to even round. Annoyed, apparently, Meng charged out in the fourth and spent the remaining round and change landing stiff straight left after stiff straight left. Buglioni was helpless to do anything about it until one of them opened a nasty cut over his eye that ended the fight later in the fifth. This one was clearly going in Meng’s favor at the time of the stoppage. The British fighter was probably lucky long term to have the fight end the way it did when it did.
