Let’s take a quick look back at last week.
I knew I’d struggle to keep up with coverage the normal cycle of the sport last week given that I was taken on a pretty serious move with lots of minor projects on top of it. I did not expect to not be able to find time to get anything up at all though. Thankfully that is mostly in the past and S8C can get back to normal business to finish the year. Let’s look back at the fights I would have covered on a normal week with some quick thoughts.
Major Shows
- Loma-Pedraza – It really bums me out that I missed timely coverage of a Vasily Lomachenko fight, but it is done at this point. At least it wasn’t a great one. Jose was game in there, just overmatched. Loma took it pretty slow early in picking his fellow titleholder apart. He turned it up late to the tune of two eleventh round knockdowns and a near finish, but he didn’t get it. I don’t want to say this was a notably poor fight or anything harsh like that. It just wasn’t the same sort of electric night we have become spoiled by when it comes to the Ukrainian. It makes sense though. He was coming off shoulder surgery and a lay off. Plus, a huge part of the problem was that he was just too good defensively. Pedraza landed a paltry 12 percent of his shots on his way to losing his piece of the lightweight title puzzle to the now unified titlholder.
- Also on the show, Emanuel Navarrete scored what is looked at as a big upset to lift a 122 lb title from the exciting Isaac Dogboe. My biggest regret this weekend was not getting a preview up so I could go into more depth on record, but I did get the schedule up before everything fell apart. I was able to note there that Navarrete was a real threat at least. This was a fun fight and worth a watch. As was Teofimo’s quick and excellent KO of Mason Menard in the televised opener. Menard’s slow motion collapse is one of my favorite kind of finishes. Lopez looks potentially special. Russian prospect Alexander Besputin picked up a career best win over decent regional level foe Juan Carlos Abreu on the prelims. It wasn’t exciting though. Also of note was Abdiel Ramirez upsetting the Top Rank debut of fringe contender Michael Perez thanks to a last round TKO finish and former top level US amateur Brian Ceballo picking up a fifth career win.
- Goodbye, HBO – This weekend also saw us sadly see longtime boxing broadcast king HBO putting on one final card. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a good one. The video packages and farewell from the sport’s longtime main voice in Jim Lampley were well done, of course. The fights just weren’t. Elite female fighters Cecilia Braekhus and Claressa Shields are great talents that overwhelmed much lesser foes without exciting. Top super flyweight Juan Francisco Estrada was also in a mismatch sandwiched as the middle bout. He picked up a finish win after little known opponent Victor Mendez retired on his stool after seven. Though normally the division is full of excitement, Estrada-Mendez was just sort of average. With boxing returning to bigger, more accessible outlets like ESPN and FOX as well as debuting on affordable streaming services like DAZN and ESPN+, I do believe HBO’s exit is good for the sport. That doesn’t mean I won’t miss their outstanding production, however. Fights just felt bigger because they were on World Championship Boxing. I am glad they aren’t continuing on as a minor player putting on thoroughly underwhelming cards like this one at least though.
- Brook-Zerafa – This certainly wasn’t Kell Brook’s best night. Australian regional level opponent Michael Zerafa didn’t come close to winning this one by any means, but he wasn’t supposed to be competitive at all and he kind of was at times. The British star was just super flat in there. Brook has been angling for a fight with fellow countryman Amir Khan for ages now and I always assumed he’d win it if he ever got it. Kell will have to put on a better showing than this one if he does get that fight now though. Honestly, my favorite part of what was a tedious card start to finish was Brook alluding the fact that maybe looking not so great will make Khan more likely to sign on to fight him as a bit of a silver lining to a bad night for the former welterweight titleholder. That one line was far more entertaining than the fight itself.
- Also of note, likely near future Tevin Farmer title challenger Jono Carroll did not secure his spot as Farmer’s mandatory challenger. He was instead held to a well scored draw by little known Frenchman Guillaume Frenois. Farmer is extremely talented and athletic, so this doesn’t bode well for Carroll’s chances if Matchroom does go ahead with that fight anyway. I suspect they will. British Olympic middleweight prospect Anthony Fowler picked up a first round finish win on the show too. Featherweight fringe contender Kid Galahad was in action as well. He picked up an eight round tune up win to stay busy for bigger opportunities in 2019.
- Zurdo-Hart II – Longtime WBC super middleweight titleholder Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez once again managed a fun, extremely narrow decision win over Jesse Hart to defend his belt on Friday night. The Mexican titleholder got out to a nice start, but by the later middle portions of the contest the fight was all Jesse Hart. Part of this was because Ramirez had suffered a left elbow injury in the eighth round. That left him particularly vulnerable as Hart worked him over in rounds nine through eleven, but improbably the one armed man battled back valiantly for an outstanding twelfth round even if he did get buzzed at its very end. That was enough to get him a majority decision win with one 114-114 draw card overruled by a pair of 115-113 judgments. I scored it a draw and saw the scores as very reasonable. Jesse Hart was visibly upset at the decision. Again, I don’t have a problem with it, but I can definitely empathize with how torturous it must be for the Philly fighter to have come so close twice against Zurdo now with nothing to show for it.
- Also of note, Top Rank featured junior welterweight prospect Arnold Barboza Jr in the co-feature. He cruised to the expected easy win over his unknown opponent rather uneventfully. This was a dumb choice for the co-feature, I thought. The bantamweight battle between Joshua Greer Jr and Daniel Lozano was a much better fight on paper. It wasn’t a classic or anything, but it was the better fight in the ring too. Greer retired Lozano to his stool after seven after dropping him in the fight’s final round. It was a good showing for the 24 year old. He’s a character too and I wish Top Rank would have showcased him more. Rising potential female star Mikaela Mayer and highly touted teenage prospect Gabriel Flores Jr also got decision wins on the South Texas show.
Quick Hits on the Under the Radar Fights
- Olympic Prospects – Major Olympic prospects in Japanese featherweight Satoshi Shimizu, French middleweight Christian Mbilli, Puerto Rican super flyweight Jeyvier Cintron, US Virgin Island heavyweight Clayton Laurent Jr, and Croation heavyweight Filip Hrgovic all picked up wins over the week. Of the five, Hrgovic and Mbilli are very much future major world level players in my view. Shimizu will definitely get his shot at some point too given his strong connections and emerging star power in Japan. Cintron and Laurent are more well pedigreed projects than sure things at this point.
- Other Prospects – There were lots of other prospects I usually cover in UTR in action well. Nicaraguan super bantamweight Melvin Lopez picked up a win, as did Golden Boy prospects Hector Tanajara and Jonathan Navarro on their own show. Navarro struggled, however. Maryland lightweight Mykal Fox, Uszbek junior welterweight Shohjahon Ergashev, Japanese lightweight Masayoshi Nakatani, son of former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman Jr, and Ukrainian middleweight Serhii Bohachuk all stayed unbeaten as well. Ergashev is the one to know of that crew, though they all have potential or at least a famous last name. Ergashev just looks like a potential monster. Bohachuk is slowly being positioned as a Gennady Golovkin successor by Tom Loeffler as well. That’s a lot of pressure.
- South Africa – The biggest show that would have been on UTR took place on the mother continent’s southern tip. Troubled former promising light heavyweight Thomas Oosthuizen surprisingly revitalized his career in September when he moved up to cruiserweight and gamely upset fellow South African fringe contender Thabiso Mchunu. They rematched while I was gone and lightning could not strike twice. Oosthuizen was pretty listless and lost a near shut out decision to abruptly lose all the momentum he had given his career. More immediately relevant to the world scene was promising welterweight Thulani Mbenge stopping former titleholder Miguel Vasquez. The Mexican was undersized and is past his best, but the win is now coupled with another stoppage of former contender Diego Chaves last time out too. Together those are very solid names for a 15 fight pro from South Africa.
- Fringe Contenders – Junior welterweight Ladarius Miller and super middleweight Ronald Gavril picked up wins on a Mayweather Promotions card. Miller struggled quite a bit though. It is probably time to accept that he isn’t going to become a real contender. Lightweights from Mexico and Puerto Rico respectively in Antonio Moran and Jonathan Oquendo both picked up main event wins at home too. Oquendo has lost to most top fighters he has faced, but he does have wins over Jhonny Gonzalez and a decent Jose Lopez. Moran is really only known for giving Jose Pedraza a real tough fight when Jose went on to win a belt in his next outing. Finally, former title challengers in Congolese cruiserweight Ilunga “Junior” Makabu and Nicaraguan super flyweight Keyvin Lara were in action too. Makabu won a nothing six rounder, but Lara was upset on the road in South Africa by Yanga Sigqibo, an entirely new fighter to me. Sigqibo looked competent and scored a nice win, but he definitely was allowed to hold a ton in the fight at home without repercussion.
