Edgar Berlanga versus Eric Moon breakdown.

This is a slight step up for Berlanga who has beaten all of his 13 opponents in the first round so far and will be looking to repeat that here. Eric Moon has competed at a domestic level in the USA but both times he’s really stepped up hes been outclassed and in one case KO’d early. I will say that hes done a huge amount of rounds compared to Berlanga and if he can take him late and test his stamina this fight could be interesting.

I can’t say much about Berlanga because he finishes his fights so quickly. He has massive power and when he hurts his opponents he really goes for the finish. I don’t know how good his stamina or chin is as neither have been tested yet.

Eric Moon has a decent jab when he chooses to throw it but in the footage I’ve watched he doesn’t let his hands go very often. When he gets hit he just shells up and waits for his opponent to stop punching which leads to him getting beaten up on the ropes and losing rounds. When he steps up in competition he gets pushed back quite easily and in my opinion isn’t very good at fighting on the back foot. He’s got a lot of experience compared to Berlanga and if the fight goes late he could have an advantage stamina wise. In his fight with Meiirim Nursultanov he let himself be pushed back to the ropes and Nursultanov just unloaded on him as Moon just stood there using his gloves as earmuffs which didn’t stop his opponents uppercuts and looping shots. He was stopped standing in the second round as he stopped throwing back and was getting tagged hard as his defence started to falter.

I think Edgar Berlanga will win by KO within 3 rounds as long as he pushes Moon back as Moon cannot fight on the back foot and just shells up when getting hit which versus a puncher like Berlanga will lead to him getting KO’d.

Oscar Valdez versus Jayson Velez breakdown.

This is a stay busy fight for Oscar Valdez before he goes on to fight Miguel Berchelt later this year. Oscar Valdez had a rocky start to his 130 pound campaign as he was dropped versus Adam Lopez before coming back himself to drop and stop Lopez. Jayson Velez is coming off a split decision loss where he arguably should have won in what was an absolute war.

Oscar Valdez has good power and has shown that it has traveled up to 130 pounds with him to an extent. For most of his career he’s effectively been a come forward brawler that takes one to give one and its worked against the competition hes faced. Hes very tough but his defense for me is highly questionable. He’s been dropped in multiple fights and in the Adam Lopez fight was being tagged throughout the fight and struggled to get past his jab early on. I think he does everything else to a good standard and his offense is really his best defence though he has been working on his defence with Eddy Reynoso.

Jayson Velez also likes to come forward and has some real power himself that he carries into the latter rounds as he showed in his last fight. He has an Iron Chin which has enabled him to compete at a high level even if he is normally outclassed enough that he loses a competitive decision to the top guys. I don’t think he does anything particularly better than Oscar Valdez and I think Valdez is the better technical boxer but what he does have over Valdez is his chin.

I think Oscar Valdez should be able to use his superior technical skills to box his way to a decision victory though it wouldn’t surprise me if he gets into a slug fest and gets dropped making it tight on the scorecards at the end of the fight. I know some people have criticized this fight but considering the pandemic its not bad and Velez performed well in his last fight where I felt he was robbed of a deserved decision over Jaime Arboleda.

Aidos Yerbossynuly and Nursultan Zhangabayev continue world tour.

Both fighters are now confirmed to be fighting Sunday the 26th of July in Belarus on a Suleimen promotions card. Aidos Yerbossynuly (13-0) will be defending his regional titles that he has picked up in the last few years against Nuhu Lawal (27-6) who has been a regional contender on the European Super Middleweight scene for a long time.

Nursultan Zhangabayev will be fighting Sandy Messaoud over 10 rounds in what is currently a non title fight however I wouldn’t be surprised if they just haven’t put it on boxrec.

This will be the 6th country that Yerbossynuly has fought in and the 5th country for Nursultan Zhangabayev. This is quite a feat as both are undefeated and normally its only journeymen that fight all over the world as most boxers like to have home advantage.

I expect both to win their bouts and continue touring the world in their quest for world titles.

Emmanuel Tagoe and Denys Berinchyk in talks to fight for WBO Lightweight mandatory spot.

After Ryan Garcia chose to fight Luke Campbell instead of Tagoe it looks like the WBO will likely order Tagoe to fight the next ranked guy which is Denys Berinchyk. The WBO haven’t done this yet but the two fighter’s teams have already begun talks in anticipation of this happening.

The WBO president on twitter said that they are now considering doing a four man tournament to determine the WBO mandatory which makes no sense as they can simply go down the rankings and order Tagoe versus Berinchyk for the spot.

If this fight gets made it will be an excellent fight and the winner would clearly deserve to get a title shot which is why I don’t understand why the WBO is reluctant to order it. The WBO haven’t had a mandatory at Lightweight for a while now and they need to do right by the fighters and give them their shot.

Jose Carlos Ramirez versus Terence Crawford could be soon.

Ramirez and Crawford have been going back and forth with comments calling each other out to fight. Ramirez will be facing Viktor Postol next while Crawford still doesn’t have an opponent scheduled.

It was expected that Ramirez would eventually face Josh Taylor for the undisputed Super Light weight championship but its looking more like he’ll fight Crawford soon. I think that Crawford will fight someone like Custio Clayton next and once he wins that he’ll face Jose Carlos Ramirez if Ramirez gets past Postol.

They would likely put this fight on PPV so I understand why Ramirez would take it but it does suck for Josh Taylor who misses out on as big undisputed fight.

Bektemir Melikuziev returns August 28th in America

Fast rising Super Middleweight prospect/Contender Melikuziev will return August 28th on a card headlined by Jorge Linares versus Javier Fortuna. I don’t know whether he’ll be fighting at Light Heavyweight or Super Middleweight but I presume it will be the latter. I think he is one of the best prospects in the sport and I am excited too see him fight again and i’m glad the pandemic hasn’t kept him out for too long.

As of right now nothing has been said about who he will be fighting though I presume with the pandemic it won’t be anybody world class as opponents are hard to come by right now. I’m going to guess that he will be facing Mike Guy as he is a decent opponent that fights anyone and would be a good name for Melikuziev to have on his resume. If not Mike Guy then perhaps he could fight Demond Nicholson the guy who just beat Guy on a split decision.

Kerman Lejarraga to return August 8th in Spain.

Popular Welterweight/ Super Welterweight Lejarraga will be returning August 8th in Spain versus an undisclosed opponent as of yet.

Lejarraga looked set to get a title shot before he suffered two stunning KO losses to David Avanesyan and now people are questioning whether he’ll ever make an impact at the top of the sport. He’s had two comeback fights since his last loss and looks to be making another run for a world title though this one will come up a weight class at Super Welterweight.

If Lejarraga wins his fight then he may get a major fight with Sergio Martinez as he has shown interest in fighting Lejarraga.

Otto Wallin to fight Travis Kauffman on August 15th

In Wallin’s first fight back since a competitive decision loss to Tyson Fury he will be fighting Travis Kauffman 32-3. Kauffman hasn’t fought since a one sided TKO loss to Luis Ortiz where he was dropped 3 times. Its been over a year from that fight in 2018 and Kauffman has struggled to return to the ring due to a surgery and the more recently because he caught the Corona Virus.

I think this should be a good comeback fight for Otto Wallin and will help us see if the Tyson Fury fight was a fluke or if he really is that good. Hopefully he is that good as I think he will be a great addition to the heavyweight division.

Edgar Berlanga returns on July 21st

Edgar Berlanga the exciting Super Middleweight from New York returns to action on July 21st on a card headlined by Oscar Valdez. Berlanga hasn’t gone past the first round so far in his career even though he’s fought 13 times.

He seems to have real power and is finishing guys in one round that really should take him at least four or five to break down. His next opponent (Erick Moon 11-2) should get out of the first round but at the same time I thought that about his last opponent too.

Dillian Whyte splits with trainer Mark Tibbs

A couple days ago Whyte announced that he would no longer be working with Mark Tibbs but that they had split on good terms.

Yesterday Mark Tibbs did an interview with IFL and then subsequently other interviews where he’s said he wasn’t told that he wouldn’t be working with Whyte until the day before they announced it on social media. He also said that Whyte himself hadn’t been in contact and that he hadn’t talked to him in for a long time and got informed by Whyte’s lawyer not the fighter himself. Interestingly the IFL interview has since been taken down so I can only presume Whyte’s lawyers or himself have been on the phone to make the video go away.

Richard Riakporhe and John Harding Jr have also split with Tibbs as both are managed by Whyte however according to Tibbs they both spoke to him personally so he doesn’t mind them leaving as much.

I understand why Tibbs feels the way he does as you would think after working with a fighter for four years they would have the decency to tell him they weren’t going to work with him face to face or at least over the phone. I’ve lost some respect for Whyte as I think its wrong that he’s ghosted Mark Tibbs and effectively cut all contact after Tibbs brought him from domestic slugger to being a world class heavyweight.

Tibbs is working on opening his own gym so I wish him good luck with that and he should be fine as he has a few young prospects that are doing well right now.