Guido Vianello versus Don Haynesworth breakdown

This is a 6 round fight between Guido Vianello a 6-0 heavyweight prospect from Italy and Don Haynesworth a 16-3-1 a heavyweight from the USA. Vianello now trains in the USA as well so he shouldn’t have any trouble with Jet lag which has affected travelling fighters before.

I’ll start off with Haynesworth and what he brings to the fight plus the game plan he needs to go with to win. Haynesworth clearly isn’t feather fisted as 14 of his 16 wins come by KO even if it is against limited competition. When I’ve seen him use his jab its quite effective at getting him into range though if he is to win this fight he needs to put something behind the jab as from all the footage I’ve watched he jabs and then forgets to throw a follow up punch.

His hand speed isn’t bad and if he can get on the inside with Vianello he should be able to get his shots off first as Vianello can get wild when he doesn’t respect his opponent. He needs to be aggressive to win this as otherwise he’ll get picked off at range and beaten down before being KO’d.

Haynesworth will constantly keep one of his arms out keeping it moving up and down which can be effective when used properly but he seems to use it as more of a defensive tactic which unfortunately doesn’t work versus any fighter taller than him.

He doesn’t feint very often or at all which means that any boxer with a deep amateur background can see whats coming long before it lands. This often leads to him being on the losing side of exchanges as well as being caught with his guard down after trying to throw. I mentioned above that I think his jab is decent when he uses it but the problem is he doesn’t combine it with other punches often enough. He will either throw a hook or a jab but very rarely a jab then a straight behind it etc. This combined with him having short arms ( they look short on video) leaves him at a severe disadvantage versus most fighters. He was on the back foot for the whole Zhang Zhilei fight and this meant that he got picked off by the technically superior fighter. I know i’m being critical but I will say that he has heart and in the second round of the Zhang fight I thought he landed some good shots and pressed the action like he needed too. If he can time Vianello like he did to Zhang coming in then he may wobble him and finish him with a barrage of punches afterwards. Zhang took the shot well but there is no guarantee that Vianello would as well.

As for Guido Vianello his game plan is simple. Use his height and reach to pick Haynesworth off at range forcing him to fight on the back foot. Vianello likes to throw lots of hooks when he is close to finishing someone and this will be effective in this fight as Haynesworth’s guard doesn’t properly protect him when hes hurt and Vianello can throw hooks around the guard like Zhang did. He should also punch to the body as that seemed to make Haynesworth uncomfortable enough to lower his guard which then let Zhang start landing good blows to the head. Vianello has the superior hand speed and foot work so should use these to his advantage rather than getting into needless 50-50 exchanges with Haynesworth.

Vianello for all his amateur pedigree still holds his chin to high and stands to straight especially when hes punching. If Haynesworth can get on the inside he can make it uncomfortable for Vianello who mostly looks to clinch rather than fight. Haynesworth is no master on the inside but as long as he does more than Vianello hes winning. Haynesworth can be effective at range by throwing overhand rights which Vianello is wide open to especially when he opens up.

I think what likely happens is that Vianello uses his size to land punches at range before buzzing Haynesworth and swarming in for the finish. Haynesworth can win but I don’t think he turns into his punches enough to really hurt Vianello and he doesn’t have the speed or timing to trouble him like other fighters such as Mohammed Arjaoui did. I’m predicting a KO for Vianello in the 4th round but he’ll get caught by at least one solid punch before putting Haynesworth away.

Shakur Stevenson versus Felix Caraballo and the weeks boxing.

After months of no boxing we are back with regular live boxing. This week there is only one big card taking place however in the coming weeks the amount of events should start to pick up.

Quatavious Cash versus Calvin Metcalf is a 6 round fight between two middleweights that have lost when they’ve stepped up in competition. From looking through their boxrec I think Cash should be able to win this fight however I will watch as much as I can on both of them and do an article breaking down the fight as I will for every fight on this card because of how glad I am that boxing is back. Next up on the card is Robeisy Ramirez versus Yeuri Andujar over 6 rounds. Ramirez should win this comfortably because of his amateur pedigree however he could lose if he still hasn’t adapted to the pro game like in his debut.

The next fight is between Guido Vianello and Don Haynesworth. Vianello looks like a good heavyweight prospect and I don’t see him having too many problems with Haynesworth who has lost by KO every time hes stepped up in competition. Jared Anderson another heavyweight prospect is stepping up very early by fighting Johnnie Langston. This will be over 6 rounds and should be a tough test for Anderson as Langston is a good fighter who arguably should be undefeated against some decent competition.

The first 10 round fight of this card will be between Mikaela Mayer and Helen Joseph. Mayer is currently one of the best prospects in women’s boxing and will likely fight for a world title soon. Joseph has been in with some very good competition and has a good chance of pulling off the upset here if Mayer doesn’t take her 100% seriously.

The main event of this card is Shakur Stevenson versus Felix Caraballo over 10 rounds. Stevenson is one of the top talents of the sport and shouldn’t have much trouble beating Caraballo in all honesty. I think the only way for Caraballo to win is to put as much pressure on Stevenson as possible and hope that he can land the one shot to put him down for the 10 count. In his last couple of fights Stevenson has gone on the back foot a lot so it will be interesting too see if he tries to push Caraballo back or continues picking him off on the back foot which Stevenson could do for 100 rounds straight if he wanted too.

I hope you enjoy the weeks boxing and are as happy as I am that its finally back. I’m going to be going hard this week with articles and breakdowns of the fights as its really nice to have some live boxing to cover. As always I hope all the boxers stay safe and get home to their family’s.

Adam Lopez back after controversial loss to Oscar Valdez.

Adam Lopez will be fighting Luis Coria for the vacant NABF Featherweight title over 10 rounds. The fight will take place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on the 11th of June. I’m happy that Top Rank have kept to their promise of backing him if he took the Oscar Valdez on short notice by putting him in a fight for a ranking belt immediately. Lopez is a real throwback fighter who is willing to take on the best competition available even if its at a days notice. In 15 fights hes fought 8 undefeated fighters including Oscar Valdez and Stephen Fulton. Those two names alone show a better level of competition than some world champions have faced so far.

I was very impressed with Lopez in the Valdez fight and him being willing to take the fight on a days notice made me a fan. I’m rooting for him to win this fight and hopefully go on a run for a world title at Featherweight.

Top Rank announces shows for June and July

Top Rank recently announced multiple shows in June and July as live sports all around the world start back up. They are having up to two events per week but are only having a few fights on each card. The first event will be headlined by Shakur Stevenson versus Felix Caraballo in a 10 round super featherweight fight.

I’m going to list all the headliners of the events that have been announced but I won’t go into the under cards because most of them still haven’t been announced.

Jessie Magdaleno versus Yenifel Vicente

Joshua Greer Jr versus Mike Plania

Jose Pedraza versus Mikkel LesPierre

Andrew Moloney versus Joshua Franco

Jason Moloney versus Oscar Negrete

Alex Saucedo versus Sonny Fredrickson

Jamel Herring versus Jonathan Oquendo

Jose Zepeda versus Ivan Baranchyk

I can’t wait for all these fights to happen and it’ll be nice to get boxing back.

This is unrelated to boxing but I stand with the Black Lives Matter movement and have made a donation to the Minnesota freedom fund to help out as much as I can from the Midlands, England. If you can afford to donate then I’d hope you would as its a good cause and I don’t think its a controversial thing to want systemic racism to be wiped out. The only way to truthfully wipe it out is for everyone to stand up. Too many people that are comfortable won’t speak out on the injustices or will say that the riots aren’t the way to go about it but when people have been peacefully protesting they’ve been ignored or told that its no longer a problem even though there’s clear evidence systemic racism still exists. Most people are still peacefully protesting and its time that everyone took a real stand and supported this movement whether its by marching in a protest or simply donating if you can’t make it to a protest like myself. If you stay silent and don’t help at all then you are upholding the current system and condemning your fellow citizens to a systemically racist society where they can be killed for the color of their skin by law enforcement.

Jaime Munguia versus Tureano Johnson edges closer

I’ve been talking about this fight for a while now and thankfully it looks like it could have some new life too it as Tureano Johnson himself has expressed interest in fighting Munguia. Johnson posted on twitter that he wanted to keep his momentum going and called out Munguia to face a true middleweight shark in himself. I’ve wanted too see this fight ever since Munguia moved up to middleweight because I think its a very competitive fight where either could win. Tureano Johnson deserves a big fight after beating Jason Quigley and Munguia needs a good opponent at middleweight seeing as hes not fighting any of the champions. They are also both signed to Golden Boy promotions so this fight should be easy to make.

Both Golden Boy and Munguia haven’t said anything about the fight yet but hopefully once the corona virus calms down that fight can be made as its the best option for all people involved. It would also be an incredible fight in my opinion as both always come to fight and won’t back down so we should get a lot of action for however long it lasts.

Samuel Serrano versus Young Ho Oh : Review

This was a fight that took place on the 8th of July 1978 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The fight was held between Samuel Serrano who was making the fourth defense of his WBA Featherweight title and the challenger Tae-Ho Kim.

For the first two rounds Samuel Serrano fought on the back foot circling around the ring as Tae-Ho Kim tried to walk him down. Serrano used his superior footwork to avoid most of the punches that Kim threw and he was helped by Kim not jabbing or feinting his way into range. Serrano attacked by marauding into range with lead hooks or in some cases feinting then throwing the lead hook. Once he’d got his shots in he would clinch before Kim could throw anything back and while they were in the Clinch he would often create enough space to throw forceful blows to Kim’s body. Kim didn’t have much success at all beyond a few glancing blows in these rounds and was clearly frustrated at being unable to land anything significant on the elusive Serrano.

The first half of the third round went much the same way as the first two but as it went on Kim started to find his range and landed multiple one-two combinations and hooks. His first real significant shot of the fight was when he landed a hook at the same time as Serrano did that clearly shook the champion up. After landing the hook he tried to capitalize and threw a tirade of punches as Serrano covered up on the ropes. Only a few of these punches landed clean but they had the champion backing away and clinching as soon as he could rather than throwing punches back. Near the end of the round Kim threw a picture perfect one-two and caught Serrano in the side of his head sending him to the canvas. This was a hard knockdown as when Serrano puts his hands behind his back to stand up he slipped one way then the other. Recognizing he needed to take his time he nodded his head and slowly got up before taking the rest of his count from the referee. He was still clearly not all there and Kim took advantage throwing as many punches as he could and arguably making Serrano touch the canvas again as his gloves went down as he was spun around by Kim’s punches. Now entering the last 10 seconds of the round Kim pounded Serrano to the body and head using hooks and straight punches as the champion languished on the ropes hoping for the bell which eventually came and saved him from being stopped. Serrano was still not entirely there when the round ended as he went to a neutral corner before being guided back to his by his coach.

Round 4 was a great round where Serrano showed why he was a world champion by coming right back at Kim. He was still going back early in the round but was much more willing to exchange and actually pushed Kim back in the last minute of the round as he started landing damaging blows in a sustained attack. Kim had his moments but it wasn’t enough for him to win the round against the newly energized Serrano who seemed to have woken up after being knocked down.

During round 5 and 6 Serrano was the more active fighter and would throw small combinations before resetting again and again. He was starting to land more and more significant shots and at times it looked like Kim was wilting under the pressure. Showing his own heart Kim came back near the end of round 6 and landed some of his own punches which he had mostly failed to do in the previous two rounds.

At the start of round 7 Kim came out quick and tagged Serrano hard causing him to stagger and then back into the ropes where Kim kept the pressure up throwing a barrage of punches most of which landed. The rest of the round was relatively even with Kim having some success on the front foot however Serrano was still able to be effective when he stepped in and threw a variety of combinations which he did often while circling away. In Round 8 Serrano started to land clean punches on a regular basis as well as being able to dance around the ring like he did early in the fight as Kim seemed to slow down after his effort in the previous round. Serrano landed a blatant blow after the bell and was lucky to not lose a point especially as he had done the same a few rounds before. During round 9 and 10 Kim was clearly tired and could barely keep his hands up but he still kept coming forward swinging as much as he could in his tired state. Serrano started to land punches at will in round 10 before putting Kim down with a jab which he stepped into with his full body behind it. Kim went down clutching at his eye and when he got up it was clearly closed. The referee decided he’d had enough and waved the fight off which I think was the correct decision.

I really enjoyed watching this and personally thought it was an excellent fight that went back and forth. Both of the fighters showed heart in the way they came back after being hurt and I thought Kim did especially well considering it was only his 9th fight. Serrano upping the pace after being dropped while also being more aggressive won him the fight in my opinion as Kim wore himself out trying to match him especially while taking clean shots. If you haven’t watched this fight I highly recommend you do as its a good action fight with multiple changes in momentum throughout the bout.

The new generation of boxing super stars is coming through

Boxing is always going through a transitional stage and while sometimes its more glaringly obvious that things are changing the truth is that boxing never stays still. Recently a lot of the stars of the previous generation have retired such as Floyd Mayweather, Shane Mosley, Andre Ward and Miguel Cotto. With these retirements the focus has shifted to the current crop of star fighters which include Canelo Alvarez, Anthony Joshua, Errol Spence Jr, Tyson Fury and Terence Crawford to name a few.

Not only do we have a good amount of star fighters right now in boxing but the next wave of potential super stars look like they could carry the sport to new heights. The only way for them to reach their true potential is to take hard fights and fight often not be inactive like fighters have a tendency to do today. Fighters like Floyd didn’t start out being the biggest name in boxing, he had to work his way up to that point for most of his career and thats something that these young fighters could take inspiration from.

Gervonta Davis is the most established name on this list and has already proven hes not a hype job that a promoters selling to the public. Davis is a power puncher who goes for the finish when he gets you hurt. He currently has 22 knockouts out of 23 wins which shows his punching power and ferocity in the ring. Hes a very good boxer to go with his power and this is something that people underrate about him. He has championship experience as hes a 2x champ at Super Featherweight which if he can make the weight is the division he should stay in.

He sells more tickets than almost any other fighter in America but there are warning signs that his path to becoming a star is crumbling beneath him. Hes had issues outside the ring involving both the law and his weight which is never a good sign especially because of how early he is in his career. His fight at Lightweight wasn’t impressive and if he wants to keep his momentum going then he needs to go down a weight and take the Leo Santa Cruz fight which should be his real breakout fight. Thankfully it seems once this Corona Virus has ended that will be the fight that is made.

An enigma in the boxing community is Ryan Garcia a 21 year old 20-0 fighter from California. On the one hand hes clearly got talent as is obvious due to his hand speed and power but on the other hand he hasn’t fought a top 10 opponent and yet has more of a following than most world champions. He chooses to use this following to his advantage and for not being a world champion is picky on who he fights and how much he gets paid. I think that out of all the new potential stars in boxing Ryan Garcia uses social media most effectively and if he does start winning world titles then he could be one of the biggest stars in boxing within a few years. Garcia is currently being trained by Eddy Reynoso who also trains Canelo Alvarez.

He has all the tools to become a star but I have heard him say that he wants to retire by the age of 26 which is a bad sign as hes already thinking about retirement before winning his first world title. His last few performances have been good and we should see just how good he is when he faces his first real test soon.

The next potential star is David Benavidez who at only 23 years of age is already a two time champ at Super middleweight. He has 22 wins with 19 of them coming by knockout which is down to how big he is for the weight and also the unrelenting pressure he brings. I feel his feet are a bit slow and he relies on his size too much but hes only 22 so he can work on it. As long as he stays out of trouble outside the ring he should be able to have a long and successful career. The reason he had to fight to become a champion again was because he was stripped of his title due to effectively having cocaine in his system. It seems a very stupid way to lose your title and thankfully hes now got it back and it hasn’t effected his career too much.

David Benavidez

Shakur Stevenson is the guy out of all of these young fighters who I think will go the furthest. He has a good style for longevity in the sport and seems to want to take on the best challenges as soon as possible. He also has good people around him like Terence Crawford and Andre Ward who can help guide him. He has excellent boxing skills and so far in his career has looked almost impossible to hit. His performance to win the title was great and while some people might call it boring you can see how much skill you need to do what he did that night. The only fault you can really find with him is that he got in a scuffle at a gas station almost two years ago. Lots of people made a big deal out of it but if you watch the video he didn’t do much and its the only incident hes ever been involved in to my knowledge. I don’t think it will effect his boxing career at all and he seems to be quite a calm guy normally.

Shakur Stevenson

Devin Haney is 24-0 and technically a world champion while only being 21. He has superb boxing skills and so far it seems decent power though we still need to see if it holds up at the highest level. He went pro at a young age and built his experience fighting guys in Mexico until he was old enough to fight in America. Fast forward a few years and hes got one of the biggest promotional networks backing him to be the next big thing.

Devin Haney

Unfortunately due to the WBC making Lomachenko franchise champion (whatever that means) its unlikely he’ll be able to get the mega fights he wanted especially at lightweight. When he moves up he’ll struggle even more to get a fight as almost all of the Super lightweights are signed to Top Rank. I really hope they can find him good opponents and don’t just feed him tune ups for years which is something Hearn has done before.

The last of the fighters who I see as the next generation of stars is IBF Lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez. To call Lopez athletic would be an understatement as he quite easily does back flips in the ring after knocking his opponents out cold. He has huge one shot power with a killer instinct which I think all top fighters need. Another thing is that out of all the fighters I’ve mentioned hes the most competitive alongside Stevenson who is also hyper competitive. He has been troubled by taller fighters in the past and was being tagged by Edis Tatli often before he KO’d him. It looks like he’ll be heading towards A massive fight with Lomachenko later this year and if he wins that fight then he instantly becomes one of the biggest names in boxing. I think he has a chance in that fight but win or lose his credit goes up for taking such a hard fight so early in his career.

Terence Crawford needs a top 5 opponent at Welterweight.

Crawford has had four fights at welterweight and while his opponents haven’t been bad they also haven’t been good. The Jeff Horn win was solid but not great and his three wins since have been on the same level. If he was just some random titlist then his run at welterweight wouldn’t look bad but hes a top 5 P4P talent. He’s been a world champ at welterweight for almost two years but hasn’t been able to tempt any of the top guys to fight him.

I don’t blame Crawford for not being able to get good fights but I do blame his promotional company Top Rank who haven’t made a huge effort to him fights. Its not entirely their fault as its unlikely they would have been able to get Shawn Porter, Danny Garcia or Errol Spence Jr as they are all big parts of the PBC plan at welterweight. Top Rank could have payed fighters like Yordenis Ugas or Jessie Vargas to fight Crawford as they are very good fighters but don’t have the profile or popularity of Errol Spence Jr etc.

I think that Top Rank could throw a LOT of money to get Keith Thurman to fight Crawford next as hes used up most of his options over on the PBC side and so it makes sense for him to “cross the street” and fight Crawford in a big fight. Al Haymon who effectively runs PBC has no problem with sending fighters to other networks as long as it makes sense money wise. Top Rank and PBC have done business recently with Fury versus Wilder 2 so we know that they can have conversations about fights.

These conversations about Crawford fighting a good welterweight have been going on ever since I really got into boxing and I just hope that we don’t have to talk about this in a year because Top Rank won’t reach into their pockets. Its not entirely Crawford and Top Rank as PBC have a plan with their fighters and so none of them are particularly bothered about fighting Crawford right now.

Daniel Roman becoming a free agent shows the harshness of boxing.

Daniel Roman has recently become a free agent and is no longer working with Dazn/Matchroom. He was on a Co-promotional deal between Thompson Boxing and Matchroom however he is now back to solely being promoted by Thompson Boxing until they work a deal out with another of the promotional powerhouses.

Daniel Roman is one of the most hard working fighters in the sport and always gives it his all in the ring. He didn’t get signed to one of the major promoters out of the amateurs and so had to really work to get to a world title shot. He had some early losses but got right back to work and eventually won his first world title on the road by KO. Hes a great TV fighter who never puts in a boring fight and in his 3 fights with Dazn had two fight of the year candidates versus TJ Doheny and Murodjon Akhmadaliev.

You would think with all these qualities that Dazn/Matchroom would do their best to keep working with him after he lost his titles (In a decision that could have gone either way) but it seems the opposite is true. As soon as he lost they decided that he wasn’t worth working with which doesn’t make any sense as hes a popular fighter who makes for good fights. This especially annoys me because the fight he lost could easily have gone his way though you wouldn’t have been able to tell with how bias the Dazn broadcast were to Akhmadaliev.

I don’t understand the reasoning behind not working with a fighter who’s always in good competitive fights but paying millions for Billy Joe Saunders in tune up fights. Dazn would have payed Andrade millions to fight Luke Keeler but can’t find it in them to back Daniel Roman after a very close decision loss. I don’t know who’s making the decisions at Dazn but lets just say its come as no surprise that they are in financial trouble. Hopefully Roman can get a deal with another big promoter soon as hes a very talented fighter who deserves to be in big fights on TV.

Should Canelo skip fighting Billy Joe Saunders.

Due to the Corona Virus the rumored bout between Canelo and Saunders was never finalized however both sides said that a deal had been agreed in principle. This is a good fight and not one that people can complain about but recently I’ve had the thought that perhaps Canelo should skip fighting Saunders entirely. The reason for this is that Saunders in my opinion won’t provide a huge challenge to Canelo and he also doesn’t have the profile of some of the other champions in boxing.

I think he should attempt to skip ahead to a third GGG fight as that would be a much bigger fight and based on the first two fights much more competitive. GGG isn’t getting any younger and the older he gets the less credit people will give Canelo if he beats him decisively in the third fight.

If not GGG then either Caleb Plant or David Benavidez. Both are American world champions so it would be a much bigger fight than bringing over Saunders from the UK. Plant has done big numbers before and also has the style which can give Canelo a lot of problems. Hes looked good in his recent fights while Saunders seems to be on the decline. Benavidez is a young undefeated champ that could push Canelo for 12 rounds and this is one of the fights I really want to see. I’d like too see how Canelo deals with Benavidez’s size and pressure especially over 12 rounds where Canelo has shown he takes rounds off.

If the Saunders fight does go ahead i’m happy with it as it’ll have more buzz in the UK where I live and to be fair Saunders does have the style to trouble Canelo. I just personally don’t think hes good enough especially at Super Middleweight to trouble Canelo.