This week we have former stars returning, a title fight, Oliver McCall for some reason, and much more.
Saturday, December 1st
Mikael Zewski (32-1, 22 KOs) UD10 Aaron Herrera (35-9-1, 24 KOs), welterweights & Oscar Rivas (24-0, 17 KOs) UD10 Fabio Maldonado (26-1, 25 KOs), heavyweights & Oleksandr Teslenko (15-0, 12 KOs) TKO3 Edson Cesar Antonio (40-8-1, 31 KOs), heavyweights & Aaron Pryor Jr (21-11-2, 13 KOs) UD6 Gilberto Pereira dos Santos (14-9, 10 KOs), super middleweights – Quebec City, Quebec
It is hard to talk about this card with the shadow of Adonis Stevenson’s healthy looming over it, but these are the undercard bouts from Oleksandr Gvozdyk’s world title win on Saturday night.
Former Top Rank prospect Mikael Zewski won what could be considered a minor step up against veteran trial horse Aaron Herrera. Mikael lost to Konstantin Ponomarev in 2015 and was released by Top Rank before taking two years off. He returned back home in Montreal and has been fighting at a regional level ever since. This one actually went on after the main event due to the earlier time Showtime required for Stevenson-Gvozdyk. Heavyweight Oscar Rivas kept his main event date with Bryant Jennings in January on ESPN+ by widely outpointing former UFC fighter Fabio Maldonado Jr and his hilariously inflated boxing record. I’m pretty surprised he didn’t finish him, honestly, but Rivas was pretty cautious with his first big fight on the line. Also at heavyweight was Ukrainian work in progress Oleksandr Teslenko. The former amateur standout has the size and athleticism to be a top pro heavyweight, but his ability to keep the fight at range and stamina have seemed question marks so far. Still, he is a very young heavyweight at 26 so there is plenty of time for Oleksandr to improve. Finally, 40 year old journeyman Aaron Pryor Jr, notable because he is the son of the legendary fighter you’d expect, started his first winning streak since 2013. Pryor Jr was briefly a fringe contender following his 2011 upset of Librado Andrade, but he has gone 5-8-2 since then.
Juan Pablo Romero (9-0, 6 KOs) TKO1 Jose Luis Prieto (27-6, 17 KOs), junior welterweights – Mexico City, Mexico
Juan Pablo Romero has sort of been the forgotten member of Mexico’s Olympic team in Rio. I was looking forward to seeing him work a few rounds here in this Televisa main event as Prieto had gone five a couple times with decent prospects recently, but it didn’t happen. The first time Romero opened up the Colombian went into a defensive shell after being wobbled and was stopped standing. Romero looks strong physically and was patient in this fight, but that is all I really have on him so far. As for the Mexican Olympic team as a whole, Joselito Velasquez and Lindolfo Delgago look like potential stars. Misael Rodriguez still has his very promotable surprise bronze medal too, but he has looked pretty basic as a pro and hasn’t fought since May. I have not been able to see Elías Emigdio and might not since he has already taken an early career loss. Raul Curiel has moved to the US and is fighting for Golden Boy. He has potential, but maybe not to be a world class star exactly.
Luis Nery (28-0, 22 KOs) KO7 Renson Robles (13-6, 7 KOs), super bantamweights – Saltillo, Mexico
Embattled former brief bantamweight king Luis Nery took this stay busy fight at super bantamweight this weekend. Renson Robles was surprisingly durable given how powerful and dynamic Nery can be, but Luis also does look a little more human at 122. It is a shame how bantamweight has moved on without Pantera. He would have been the cherry on top of the World Boxing Super Series tournament, but he only ostracized himself with his issues with drug tests and weight following and during his briefly career defining wins over longtime divisional king Shinsuke Yamanaka. The still young 23 year old did successfully make bantamweight without failing a drug test again in October and I suspect he will try to stay there come next year when he returns to contention. This one was never competitive.
Ashley Theophane (45-8-1, 15 KOs) RTD3 Bakhtiyar Isgandarzada (11-16, 4 KOs), junior middleweight – Zgorzelec, Poland
Long time fringe contender Ashley Theophane looked on his way to a late career break through win when he was outboxing an overweight Adrien Broner through eight rounds in 2016. Unfortunately, the British fighter was hurt in the ninth and fell victim to a pretty terrible stoppage when the referee pulled the plug at a bizarre moment. Previously Theophane had scored underrated wins over Delvin Rodriguez and was a victim to a questionable decision loss to the prospect version of Danny Garcia as well. The 38 year old has had a solid career, but he showed his age just two fights and a year and a half after the Broner fight by clear and wide decision to longtime Japanese regional level fighter Shoki Sakai. Theophane has returned in 2018 as a world traveler with five easy wins in five different countries. He is extremely unlikely to challenge at the world level ever again, but fighters like Ashley Theophane are the beating heart of the sport and never quite get the credit for it.
Umar Salamov (23-1, 17 KOs) UD10 Emmanuel Anim (13-2-1, 11 KOs), light heavyweights – Estosadok, Russia
Russian light heavyweight prospect was considered a soon to emerge contender when he took a slot on the Pacquiao-Horn undercard against then thought to be failed Australian Olympian Damien Hooper. As the adage goes, there is a reason they still fight the fights though. Hooper defied expectations and narrowly outboxed the more hyped prospect over ten rounds to re-establish himself as a potential player. It has been a year and a half since then and Salamov is 4-0, but he hasn’t really faced anyone who would be likely to challenge him. Ghanaian foe Emmanuel Anim hadn’t won either of his last two fights for example, nor has he ever won outside of his home country.
Carlos Licona (14-0, 2 KOs) SD12 Mark Anthony Barriga (9-1, 1 KO), IBF minimumweight title & Chris Arreola (37-5-1, 32 KOs) RTD6 Maurenzo Smith (20-11-4, 13 KOs), heavyweights & Julian Williams (26-1-1, 16 KOs) KO2 Francisco Javier Castro (28-9, 23 KOs), junior middleweights & Robert Guerrero (34-5-1, 19 KOs) KO2 Adam Mate (28-13, 21 KOs), welterweights & Jesse Rodriguez (8-0, 4 KOs) UD6 Josue Morales (8-9-3), super flyweights & Marsellos Wilder (3-0, 2 KOs) UD4 David Damore (1-6-3), cruiserweights – Los Angeles, California
23 year old Carlos Licona became a relatively rare American based minimumweight titleholder with his upset split decision win over Filipino Olympian prospect Mark Anthony Barriaga on the deep undercard of the Wilder-Fury PPV. The same deep undercard also featured the returns of former contenders Chris Arreola and Robert Guerrero after over two years and a year and a half away respectively. Arreola was last seen getting finished in a title shot against Wilder while Guerrero was blown out by Omar Figueroa Jr. Visibly well past their best at 37 and 35 respectively, neither will be top fighters again. Both are likely to be fed to a name fighter if they keep winning though. Much more relevant to his division is junior middleweight contender Julian “J-Rock” Williams who also picked up stay busy win at a lower level on the card. Finally, prospects Jesse Rodriguez and Marsellos Wilder also picked up wins. I’m using that word loosely for Marsellos Wilder, the 29 year old brother of Deontay with next to no amateur experience competing as an early stage pro at cruiserweight. He’s not really a prospect of note, but more of a novelty at this point. 18 year old super flyweight Jesse Rodriguez is former junior amateur star, however, and very much a real prospect. He is also the brother of Golden Boy fighter Joshua Franco.
Carlos Gongora (14-0, 11 KOs) RTD1 Antonio Chaves Fernandez (9-35-4, 3 KOs), middleweights – Skowhegan, Maine
This is a confusing one. Though he is being brought up relatively softly for his credentials, Ecuadorian 29 year old junior middleweight prospect Carlos Gongora is a two time Olympian and three time World Amateur Championship participant. Though Gongora never medaled, he won at least one fight in every single tournament as well. As a pro the Ecuadorian has toured the Northeast fighting for various regional promoters of note, but Maine is something else entirely. How a well amateur system credentialed Ecuadorian prospect ended up main eventing one of two whole cards this year in the state of Maine against a 9-35 fighter is a confusing route to try to track. I also don’t have video for this one, but in the past Gongora has looked like a competent and strong fighter. At 29 it is time to step up at least a little though.
Friday, November 30th
Fabio Turchi (16-0, 12 KOs) KO7 Tony Conquest (18-3, 6 KOs), cruiserweights – Florence, Italy
This cruiserweight battle was the main event of Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boxing’s maiden voyage into promoting in Italy on top of his well established UK dominance and nascent American presence. Expanding into a third country at all so soon after opening shop in America was a strange decision, doubly so in choosing Italy. There isn’t a ton of talent in the proud European nation, Fabio Turchi is the hopeful standout the first Matchroom Italy show. He controlled and finished mid level British regional talent Tony Conquest with relatively ease. Conquest was down and in visibly pain at the finish and it looked like he may have suffered an eye injury. Turchi is far from a blue chip guy and Conquest was not high level opposition, but he is at least someone to build some of these cards around going forward.
Chris Algieri (22-3, 8 KOs) UD10 Angel Hernandez (14-12-2, 9 KOs), junior welterweights – Huntington, New York
Former junior welterweight titleholder Chris Algieri lifted his former belt off Ruslan Provodnikov after rallying from extreme early adversity in 2014 despite essentially fighting with one eye for eleven rounds. That got him a fight with Manny Pacquiao that Algieri wasn’t remotely ready for. He survived it despite going down five times though. Next was a fight with Amir Khan at the full welterweight limit that Chris was competitive in, but he still lost clearly. Two fights later in April of 2016 ascendant welterweight star Errol Spence Jr blew him out in five and the former titleholder promptly retired to the commentary booth. The draw of competition is strong, however, and the Huntington native returned to the sport back down at junior welterweight this weekend for an easy comeback win over a Texan journeyman opponent. At 34 the road towards the top of the division might be harder this time for Chris Algieri, but he is a skilled fighter and will be an interesting addition to the mix when he works his way back up.
Oliver McCall (58-14, 37 KOs) UD6 Larry Knight (3-17-1, 1 KO), heavyweights – Corpus Christi, Texas
53 year old former top heavyweight contender Oliver McCall got back in the ring this weekend for a fight at home in southern Texas against an extremely low level opponent half his age. He took a shut out decision win, his first since a 2014 win in Poland. “The Atomic Bomb” was a fringe contender as recently as eight years ago when he outpointed Fres Oquendo, but of course 45 is much different than 53. He hasn’t been a world level fighter since the very end of he 90s. Unfortunately, McCall will always be remembered most for his mental breakdown in the rematch of his huge upset stoppage win against Lennox Lewis. The image of a grown man crying in the ring in the middle of a fight is a tough one to shake even now 33 years into his career. Hopefully this was a one off to scratch an itch and not a move with actual goals in the sport. I don’t want to see an older man step up past this level.
Ricardo Espinoza Franco (22-2, 19 KOs) KO2 Yeison Vargas (17-1, 12 KOs), bantamweights & Derrieck Cuevas (19-0-1, 14 KOs) UD10 Breidis Prescott (31-15, 22 KOs), welterweights & Livan Navarro (10-0, 7 KOs) KO4 Wilfrido Buelvas (19-11, 13 KOs), junior middleweights & Hairon Socarras (20-0-3, 13 KOs) TKO1 Mike Oliver (26-10-1, 8 KOs), featherweights – Hollywood, Florida
Strong regional promoter All-Star Boxing put on a nice show highlighting their quietly deep roster of prospects on Friday. 21 year old Mexican prospect Ricardo Franco followed up his surprise quick demoltion of fringe contender Daniel Lozano from August by scoring another second round finish over Colombian unbeaten Yeison Vargas. While Franco has two losses, I wouldn’t reach much into them. Mexican fighters often develop on the fly in the pros and it isn’t unusual for one to take a hard route up and pick up a loss or two along the way. Also in action were a trio of Caribbean prospects from traditional powers. Puerto Rican Derrieck Cuevas and Cubans Livan Navarro and Hairon Socarras all stayed unbeaten as well. None of the prospects featured on this show are sure things. but all four have enough potential that someone is likely to pan out for the Florida outfit here.
