Lucas Browne, another Eubank, Christopher Diaz, and more.
Saturday, November 24th
Steven Butler (26-1-1, 23 KOs) KO2 Jesus Antonio Gutierrez (25-3-2, 12 KOs), middleweights & Artem Oganesyan (8-0, 7 KOs) TKO6 Juan Manuel Mares (20-16, 17 KOs), junior middleweights & Sadriddin Akhmedov (5-0, 5 KOs) TKO2 Jose Francisco Zuniga (14-2-2, 5 KOs), junior middleweights & Arslanbek Makhmudov (5-0, 5 KOs) KO1 Andrew Satterfield (4-1, 2 KOs), heavyweights – Rimouski, Canada
Eye of the Tiger brought a real solid show to Rimouski, a smaller city than Montreal in French speaking Quebec. Rising Canadian middleweight Steven Butler continued to trample the regional level with a two round trampling of Mexican Jesus Gutierrez. If that name sounds familiar, it is because Gutierrez is the same man who nearly upset Gabriel Rosado in 2016. Steven Butler and his real power had no such issues. I’d love to see Butler try to avenge his upset stoppage loss to solid Canadian pro Brandon Cook from the very beginning of 2017. He needs to prove that was a youth driven fluke before moving to the world stage. There is time too. Butler is somehow still only 23. Also on display was a full buffet of interesting prospects Camille Estephan has expertly brought to Canada. I’ll highlight three. Russians Artem Oganesyan and Arslanbek Makhmudov are definitely prospects to know. Oganesyan is a 19 year old who won the junior world championships and turned pro rather than try for glory on the full amateur scene. Makhmudov is 29, but he was one of the more respect amateur super heavyweights and he had a real solid run in the World Series of Boxing semi-pro league against decent competition. It is 20 year old Kazakh middleweight Sadriddin Akhmedov that is turning the most heads though. It isn’t hard to see why. He displays a confident dominance with immediately obvious physical ability. Akhmedov is a potential future star. Like Oganesyan above, Akhmedov doesn’t have a the full amateur credentials because he turned pro once he aged out of dominating the junior/youth amateur scene.
Tony Luis (26-3, 9 KOs) TKO6 Edgar Ramirez (17-14-1, 14 KOs), junior welterweights – Montreal, Canada
Yvon Michel might have become a surprising second fiddle to Camille Estephan and Eye of the Tiger, but GYM still puts on shows with notable fights consistently in Montreal. Here veteran Canadian lightweight Tony Luis took a stay busy fight to pick up his 7th win in a row. His last loss came in 2015 and it was a controversial one. Many thought he did enough on the road in the UK to pick up a secondary WBA world title against Derry Matthews, but he didn’t get the decision. Despite being close to four years later, Luis remaining unbeaten since, and him having won and defended a minor WBA title in the streak, Tony is still waiting on another opportunity. He is 30 so there is still time at least. It just feels kind of criminal that the WBA hasn’t given him another shot in a world where they keep three belts in each division after being arguably robbed of one of them in 2015.
Carlos Diaz Ramirez (27-1, 13 KOs) UD10 Jesus Antonio Perez Campos (22-2, 17 KOs), lightweights – Cancun, Mexico
Once beaten 23 year old Zanfer Promotions lightweight prospect Carlos Diaz Ramirez suffered that lone defeat last time out in a fun step up brawl with fellow Mexican contender Jose Zepeda. Ramirez fell in the fifth, but he dropped Zepeda first and was doing well when disaster struck. He is still someone worth watching. This fight was a gifted get well bout hidden behind Campos’s good on paper but entirely empty record. The B side here has exactly one win over an opponent with a winning record on his ledger. Ramirez won comfortably on points, though he did drop a couple rounds along the way.
Lucas Browne (27-1, 24 KOs) KO5 Junior Pati (12-23-1, 6 KOs), heavyweights – St Johns, New Zealand
Former MMA fighter turned improbable boxing heavyweight secondary titleholder Lucas Browne took his second soft fight back in his home region since heaving his chin detonated by Dillian Whyte in March. Browne isn’t going to beat a top heavyweight and most certainly peaked with his surprise come from behind KO of an aged Ruslan Chagaev, but he will likely be in fun fights if he isn’t matched too high on the spectrum. A semi-domestic showdown with Joseph Parker would be far too much for him even. But hey, he will always be the only man in the world who can say he has been stopped by UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier and a legit top boxing heavyweight in Whyte. That is something.
Albert Pagara (31-1-1, 22 KOs) KO1 George Krampah (14-4, 12 KOs), super bantamweights & Jonas Sultan (15-4, 9 KOs) UD10 Ardin Diale (34-13-4, 16 KOs), super flyweights & Arthur Villanueva (32-3-1, 13 KOs) D10 Carlo Demecillo (11-5-1, 5 KOs), bantamweights – Cebu City, Philippines
The top of the Filipino fight scene kept moving forward this weekend, mostly. Topping the bill is super bantamweight contender Albert Pagara. Appropriately the 24 year old blew out a Ghanaian here as he is angling to get a shot at Isaac Dogboe. His one loss came in 2016 to Cesar Juarez by stoppage, but he almost finished the almost tough Juarez early too and was ahead on the cards when he crumbled under the Mexican’s signature relentless pressure later in the fight. He was also barely even 22 then. I’d be interested in the fight with Dogboe if it happens. It would make more sense to get Pagara in with another contender first though to gauge where he is really at if possible. Recent super flyweight title challenger Jonas Sultan picked up a win too. Bantamweight fringe contender Arthur Villanueva suffered a major set back, however. Previously it had taken the likes of McJoe Arroyo, Zolani Tete, and Luis Nery to give him trouble, but here he was held to a draw with a guy I would have called a local club fighter coming into the bout. Villanueva’s status as even an ongoing fringe contender is now in real question.
Christopher Diaz (24-1, 16 KOs) KO1 David Berna (17-6, 16 KOs), featherweights & Luis Lebron (14-0-1, 7 KOs) UD10 Luis May (21-11-1, 8 KOs), featherweights & Joseph Adorno (11-0, 10 KOs) TKO4 Luis Gerardo Avila (8-14-3, 5 KOs), lightweights & Henry Lebron (7-0, 5 KOs) TKO2 (5-5, 3 KOs), junior lightweights – San Juan, Puerto Rico
Failed title challenger Christopher Diaz returned this weekend for the first time since his upset loss at the hands of Masayuki Ito in July. Instead of coming back on a big Top Rank show, however, he did it quietly at home in Puerto Rico for an easy win over a Hungarian foe who has picked up a habit in being stopped early. The fight itself wasn’t the test in this case though. Instead, Diaz cut to down featherweight for the first time since the fall of 2016. I’m assuming that’ll be his division going forward given this result. Top Rank has fighters in that corridor that Christopher can have some real fun fights with too. Also in action were the Lebrons, a pair of top Puerto Rican prospects that aren’t actually related as far as I can tell. Luis Lebron is further along and got the co-main event slot here, but it is Henry Lebron who was the local star amateur and seems to have more potential. 19 year old Top Rank prospect Joseph Adorno also traveled to Puerto Rico to pick up an easy win on this card as well.
Harlem Eubank (6-0, 2 KOs) TKO2 Petar Alexandrov (3-5, 2 KOs), welterweights – London, England
Harlem Eubank, cousin to Chris Eubank Jr and nephew to his legendary father, is not a prospect of note. I came in here to make a joke about his presence and then to quickly move on. Then I googled to see if there is video of this fight. There is, but it isn’t good. It is grainy, oddly angled footage that is serviceable but not exactly pleasant. You need to go watch it anyway, right now. I didn’t think I’d be typing that, but I am. Despite showing no real power against complete made to order cans in his first fights, Harlem Eubank might have just scored the left hook KO of the year. It is a goddamn work of art. Go find it immediately. Harlem still can’t be considered a prospect at 24 without any amateur career, but I am at least going to roll my eyes a little less the next time I see he fought.
Sergey Kuzmin (14-0, 11 KOs) TKO6 LaRon Mitchell (16-2, 14 KOs), heavyweights & Shakhram Giyasov (6-0, 5 KOs) TKO1 Miguel Zamudio (41-12-1, 25 KOs), junior welterweights & Israil Madrimov (1-0, 1 KO) TKO6 Vladimir Hernandez (10-3, 6 KOs), junior middleweights & Evgeny Tishchenko (3-0, 2 KOs) TKO2 Christian Mariscal (11-2, 5 KOs), heavyweights – Atlantic City, New Jersey
Kathy Duva at Main Events is quietly assembling quite the roster of Eastern European talent. Emerging heavyweight contender Sergey Kuzmin is the furthest along of the prospects brought to the pre-TV HBO undercard this weekend. Kuzmin a solid pro, but not a slam dunk future world class heavyweight. He just doesn’t have the athleticism. 2016 Olympic silver medalist and 2017 world amateur champion Shakhram Giyasov on the other hand is more of a sure thing. Shakhram is extremely aggressive body puncher, powerful, and is clearly a plus athlete. The 25 year old should probably work on his patience and defense a bit, but he is going to be a popular fighter to watch before long and likely a world class one to boot. Giyasov shared the card with fellow Uzbek Israi Madrimov making his pro debut as well. Madrimov isn’t quite as decorated as his countryman, but he was a top international amateur in his own right. Finally, controversial 2016 heavyweight gold medalist Evgeny Tishchenko picked up his third win too. The Russian who probably didn’t deserve to win the gold medal match will need to go on a Wilder-like journey to fill out his 6’5″ frame, but the technique needed to succeed is there. Tishchenko just needs to get stronger if he doesn’t want to be a cruiserweight. This is an extremely impressive lineup of prospects for Main Events right now. Their future is very, very bright.
Friday, November 23rd
Diego Gabriel Chaves (27-4-1, 23 KOs) KO2 Jean Carlos Prada (36-10-1, 25 KOs), junior middleweights – Moreno, Argentina
Argentinian former welterweight contender Diego Chaves has had his career completely fall apart over his last two fights. First he shockingly got stopped by the usually light hitting American fringe contender Jamal James a year ago and then he went to South Africa and was again stopped by Thulani Mbenge in June. Diego isn’t giving up, however, and was back on Friday with an easy two round win over journeyman opposition that he had already easily knocked out in 2016. It is hard to see the Argentinian returning to world level at this point, but he’ll give it a go.
Ganigan Lopez (35-8, 19 KOs) UD10 Ricardo Rodriguez (16-7, 5 KOs), light flyweights – Mexico City, Mexico
Longtime top light flyweight Ganigan Lopez won his world title late in the game in 2016 in Japan. He defended it once before returning to Japan and narrowly losing the belt by majority decision to rising star Ken Shiro. The two rematched in May of this year, but the second time wasn’t competitive at all. The ascendant Japanese star put Lopez down for the count in the second round. Despite that loss, I still put forth the idea that what the Mexican longtime contender is doing is remarkable. Ganigan Lopez is 37. At the lowest weight classes of the sport, fighters age quickly. It is nearly unheard of for someone to still be a world level flyweight at 37 years old. To comfortably outpoint a fringe contender and remain in title shot discussions at that age is noteworthy indeed.
