Terence Crawford vs Mean Machine and the weeks boxing

Crawford fights Egidijus Kavaliauskas tonight at Madison Square Garden. Most think this won’t be competitive at all but I think Crawford will likely win on points in a competitive fight. On the undercard Richard Commey defends his IBF lightweight world title vs up and comer Teofimo Lopez. I think Commey’s power will see him defeat the odds and retain his IBF lightweight title. Micheal Conlan fights Vladimir Nikitin in a fight which serves no purpose for Conlan’s professional career. This is purely so Conlan can get his revenge against Nikitin who he felt he beat in the Olympics but was robbed of his deserved medal. Nikitin hasn’t looked good as a pro and Conlan should win on points or a late stoppage depending how washed Nikitin is.

I’ve started writing this very late so I can’t do my usual breakdown of all the good cards unfortunately. That’s on me though and I’ll have a full breakdown next week like usual. I hope all the fighters get home safely and that you enjoy the boxing. Like usual I’ll be doing my breakdown of the weeks fights next week, so until then enjoy!

Bektemir Melikuziev , one of boxings best prospects

Bektemir otherwise known as the “bully” is a 23 year old prospect from Uzbekistan who has made an exciting start to his professional career. Having been a top amateur who won a silver medal at the 2016 Olympics he’s now progressing quickly in the pro ranks. he’s currently 3-0 with 3 stoppages, all from body shots which is unique by itself as most prospects and even most fighters head hunt and forget about targeting the body which can lead to easier knockouts. Bektemir doesn’t have this problem as body shots are the punches he focuses on the most and it shows in his fights where his opponents are left on the floor faces screwed up in pain as their insides are rearranged after receiving brutal body shot after brutal body shot.

Bektemir MeliKuziev

For me Bektemir has to be one of the best prospects in boxing, he’s young, was a top amateur and has a style suited to the pros. Not only that but a lot of the mistakes that fighters make hes already corrected long ago. Unlike many fighters that have turned over from the amateurs he isn’t to light on his feet trying to win rounds and not the fight but at the same time he doesn’t stand in front of his opponent and take turns throwing punches. He punches while they punch and doesn’t headhunt, he works the body which most prospects and fighters in general don’t do which is a real shame because the body is almost always weaker than the head. As shown when GGG was hurt by Derevyanchenko to the body. GGG has one of the best chins in boxing but even he can be weak to the body, this is why I like when prospects and fighters use consistent body shots to break down their opponents. It works so well but it seems like its almost a forgotten art form in boxing today.

Bektemir’s style is very unique in that its so focused around stopping his opponents with body shots while most other styles use attacks to the body to open up opportunities to punch to the head. I’m not sure I’ve seen a fighter so dedicated to body shots other than Bektemir and this makes his style exciting because he saps their energy and then breaks their will to continue as he rearranges their internal organs with well placed shots. His style of fighting also means hes unlikely to be schooled by a bigger fighter trying to jab their way to a victory because with his consistent punches to the body he takes away his opponents ability to move around the ring which will enable him to get in range and really let his hands go vs some of the massive super middleweights we have at the moment. Overall he fights in a fan friendly style which is also very effective in the ring against almost all other styles whether they be boxers or pure punchers.

In Bektemirs first professional fight vs Martin Fidel Rios he still had some amateur habits and jumped around a lot without throwing many punches, he was jumping to the sides of his opponent looking for angles but not throwing punches until he landed a superb body shot that crumpled Martin face first to the canvas where the ref wisely waved it off. This was a good performance for his debut as it showed his power and how much he likes punching to the body, Martin had only been stopped 4 times in 47 fights before Bektemir destroyed him in a round.

Martin crumples to the canvas after a vicious body shot

In his second fight Bektemir faced Ricardo Adrian Luna Flores. Flores had previously gone the distance with names such as Ryota Murata and D’Mitrius Ballard but to be fair these had been at a lower weight and 2 fights before this fight he had been stopped in 5 rounds by Erik Bazinyan who is a top super middleweight prospect. This makes Bektemir’s destruction of Flores in the first round even more impressive. He used the angles he made much more effectively in this fight and again it was well placed power shots to the body which put Flores down twice.

Flores collapses to the floor for the second time.

In his third fight vs Clay Collard a guy who had never been stopped and had been on a run of upsetting prospects he dominated yet again. He constantly pressured Collard and whenever Collard went to throw a shot he’d be countered to the body and head. Bektemir cut off the ring well and didn’t follow Collard which lots of prospects do when they are trying to chase their opponents down. By the end of the third round you could tell that Collard was exhausted and hurt by the constant attacks to the body and that was confirmed in the 4th when he was dropped twice by bodyshots before the fight was waved off. I thought this was Bektemir’s best performance so far due to how he didn’t rush his work and stayed dedicated to damaging Collards body even though Collard put up much more resistance than most of his opponents have.

Collard takes a knee for the second time.

He’s currently fighting at Light Heavyweight though it seems that they eventually want him to be at super middleweight. I think he can win titles at both weights if he gets the opportunities but unfortunately I think he’ll be avoided by fighters as he’s a high risk low reward type of fighter at the moment. His team are ambitious as shown by the caliber of opposition he’s faced in his 3 fights and who he’s fighting next. Vaughn Alexander (his next opponent) is a veteran having competed since 2004. He hadn’t been active at all until relatively recently due to serving a long prison sentence. He’s fought some other very good prospects such as Anthony Sims Jr and Janibek Alimkhanuly and most recently Money Powel IV. He gave all 3 problems and actually beat Powel in quite a big upset. He’s a good fighter and a very good step up for Bektemir who is fighting him in only his fourth fight. If he is able to stop or completely dominate Vaughn it will be a big statement to the rest of the boxing world that the Bek Bully has arrived and he’s on the hunt for world titles.

Vaughn is a tough rugged fighter whos not scared to use rough house tactics to win fights as shown in the Anthony Sims Jr fight where he repeatedly punched Sims Jr behind the head and below the belt. Vaughn normally throws single shots and will only really throw combinations when his opponent stands in front of him which Bek likely won’t do because of his amateur pedigree. Because Vaughn doesn’t throw combinations and he’s not all that active he can be outworked by anybody willing to let their hands go. This sometimes works in Vaughn’s favour because as his opponents are letting their hands go he throws massive single shot counters which if they land cleanly will do damage and likely put the prospect on the floor. Unfortunately for him these shots are easy to see coming and the top prospects should be able to get out of the way and then counter themselves because of how open Vaughn is when he throws these big shots.

Bektemir can win this fight by using his superior footwork to dart in and out of range while letting his hands go against the more flat footed Vaughn Alexander. Bektemir should also use his footwork to set up different angles for his punches and continue with his focus on body shots as I think this is the key to him securing a late stoppage against Vaughn. If he doesn’t attack the body likes hes done in his previous fights then this will likely go 10 rounds and Vaughn will push Bektemir a lot more than if Bektemir sticks to his current body focused boxing style.

Bektemir can lose this fight if he lets Vaughn push him back to much and he doesn’t use his footwork to get off the ropes and out of the corners which is where Vaughn will have the best chance of catching him with a good shot. If he switches off or gets too confident then Vaughn could catch him with a big counter and it could be all over. The most important thing for him to do in this fight is to not stand in front of Vaughn and let him throw his combinations because thats when Vaughn is at his most dangerous.

If he uses his superior footwork to create angles and continues his reign of terror on his opponents body then he can get a stoppage late. If he doesn’t then I expect him to win a hard fought decision over 10 rounds. Either way I’m extremely excited for this fight and the rest of his career where I can see him winning multiple titles and being a real menace to the Super Middleweight division.

Andy Ruiz vs Anthony Joshua and the weeks boxing

This week i’m going to do the preview a little differently I won’t be going through entire cards but picking out the fights or fighters I think are worth keeping an eye on this weekend.

To start this off we go to New York where O’Shaquie Foster fights Alberto Mercado over 10 rounds for a minor WBC belt. Foster impressed in his last fight by out classing and then delivering a stunning one punch knockout of Jesus Bravo who at the time was 19-1-1. Foster is a fighter who after having a few troubles earlier in his career is now back on track and is making a run at a world title shot. Imo he has the ability to be a top contender at super featherweight as the division isn’t hugely stacked past the top 10 and the champions will be wanting decent opponents for voluntary’s. I think he beats Mercado this weekend whos no push over with a record of 16-3-1 however the only champion I really see him beating is Jamel Herring who I think is currently the most vulnerable of all the super feather champions. If he catches Tevin Farmer clean then he could likely beat him as well I think Berchelt stops him and Santa Cruz takes a decision. He’s still a good fighter that can improve and win a title however.

The next fight that I recommend watching is Arslanbek Makmudov vs Samuel Peter. This fight is over 10 rounds and really should be very one sided however the reason that you should try and watch it is because Makmudov is one of the best prospects in the heavyweight division. I really think that he has a good chance of becoming heavyweight champ over the next four years and its always enjoyable to watch big punching heavyweights which he is. I’d call this a passing of the torch but Peter’s been passing the torch to these younger heavyweights for a few years now and he’s not been bothered about who he’s giving them to , whether their average fighters or in the case of Heredia who he lost too quite bad fighters. Peter is well past his best and is now just brought in to fight prospects or as a tune up purely because he still has a name in the division from all those years ago. I think Makmudov stops him early and then goes into a big 2020 where more fans will start to recognise him as a threat to the division.

The next fighter who I think is a must watch and also the best super bantamweight on the planet is Emanuel Navarrete. He’s defending his world title vs Francisco Horta who shouldn’t pose much of a problem for Navarrete but its worth watching because Navarrete has an exciting style and almost always knocks out his opponent and I expect nothing different this fight. He’s currently one of my favourite fighters due to how much he fights and that you don’t have to watch him labour to a decision vs lesser oppostion because “he couldn’t get up for it” which I see lots of fighters do and say at the moment.

A quick one next Jermall Charlo fights Dennis Hogan over 12 for his WBC middleweight title. I’m not super excited about this because Hogan is moving up a weight class however he did arguably beat Munguia so this could end up being a decent fight for what on paper should be a mismatch. The other fight on this card is Chris Eubank Jr vs Matvey Korobov over 12 for some stupid WBA belt. Eubank should be more active than he is and be a bigger star really but he and his father are notoriously difficult to work with so most big promoters shy away from signing him. He has a chance here to get perhaps the best win of his career and then set up a fight with Jermall Charlo who is also on the card. Korobov is a good fighter who could potentially out box Eubank if he still has enough left at 36. I wasn’t extremely impressed with his last performance and I think Eubank could potentially stop him late in the fight when those years catch up to him.

The final fight is obviously Ruiz vs Joshua. I’m not going to write to much about this on the preview because I plan on writing that card its own piece. If you can only watch one fight this weekend watch this one. Theres huge amounts at stake and its the biggest fight of the year for almost all of the world heavyweight titles.

As I say every week I hope you enjoy the fights and all the fighters get home safely to their families. I’ll be here next week previewing another good crop of fights and choosing which ones I think are most worth watching. Until then enjoy the fights and stay safe!

Zolani Tete vs John Riel Casimero and the weeks boxing

The first fight thats happening that I want to mention is on Friday at York Hall. Philip Bowes fights Akeem Ennis-Brown for the commonwealth and vacant British super light weight titles. This is a good 50/50 fight but i’m leaning towards Ennis-Brown on points because he has a very awkward style that most fighters won’t have faced.

In the second good card of the weekend Alexander Besputin fights Radzhab Butaev in a 50/50 all Russian Welterweight fight. Its for one of the WBA’s many world titles which isn’t surprising because they likely have some sort of belt ready for every fight just to grab those sanctioning fees. Besputin has fought the better competition recently and due to that I think he’ll have the slight edge in the fight. I could see either one winning though as often fighters fight to the level of their opposition so Butaev could have a career best performance.

Elsewhere on the undercard Joe Cordina fights Enrique Tinoco over 12 rounds. Cordina is a 2016 Olympian and before this fight campaigned at lightweight so him dropping down to super featherweight could be a concern depending on how he makes the weight. This will be his toughest test to date as Tinoco doesn’t get stopped very often and really comes to fight every time as shown when he took Jordan Gills unbeaten record.

Cecilia Breakhus defends her undisputed welterweight titles versus Victoria Noelia Bustos. Breakhus has been out of the ring for almost a year but should be able to defend her titles comfortably here with either a wide points victory or a late stoppage.

Zhilei Zhang fights late replacement Rudenko for a minor WBO belt. Zhang hasn’t fought for over a year and really needs to kickstart his career as hes getting old even for a heavyweight. Zhang should be able to win this fight on points as long he hasn’t massively slowed down with the year lay off. The final big fight on this card is Hughie Fury vs Pavel Sour. Hughie Fury needs to get the knockout here as Sour isn’t anywhere near his level and If he wants to achieve something in the division he needs to be dealing with guys like this quickly. Sour was ko’d by Hrgovic in a round and most recently went 10 rounds with Jermaine Franklin a prospect from the USA who hasn’t looked very good in his recent fights.

The last big card coming out of the UK is headlined by Zolani Tete versus John Riel Casimero. Tete is coming off a long lay off due to injury while Casimero fought just 3 months ago. Both will be looking to win this fight so they can get the big unification fights next year with the likes of Inoue. I think Tete will lose some early rounds then come back and win the fight on points due to a few knockdowns late.

Sam Bowen defends his British Super Featherweight title vs Anthony Cacace. Both of these fighters aren’t that well known but both can really fight. I think Bowen will likely get out boxed for parts of the fight before taking Cacace out with some brutal bodyshots.

Chris Jenkins defends his British Welterweight title versus Liam Taylor on the card. I think Jenkins likely wins on points but its also likely this fight gets stopped on a cut because Jenkins is very susceptible to them.

Lerrone Richards takes on Lennox Clarke over 12 for the vacant British super middleweight title. Richards has been inactive in his career but can really box while Clarke is a decent pro who hasn’t faced anywhere near the level of a fighter like Richards. I think Richards wins a decision or a late stoppage because he has more power than his record suggests.

Sam Maxwell fights Connor Parker over 10 rounds in a defense of his WBO european title. Maxwell is a big puncher and I think he has enough to walk through the light hitting Parker and ko him.

The last significant fight on this card is Hamzah Sheeraz vs Ryan Kelly. This is actually a decent match up for this stage of Sheeraz’s career. I think he wins it but it should be competitive early on at least. The size difference between the two is massive though so I can see Sheeraz wearing kelly down with a late stoppage.

The last big show I won’t talk about too much because while the show I just talked about is full of 50/50 match ups the last one is full of one sided ones. The only real competitive match up on this card is Carlos Adames vs Patrick Teixeira. This is an eliminator for a world title and one I think Adames wins by KO. I rate Adames quite highly and while Teixeira is a good fighter hes shown in his one defeat that he can be stopped and by a lesser fighter than Adames.

The other two notable fights on this card is Carl Frampton versus Tyler McCreary and Oscar Valdez versus Andres Gutierrez. Both should win their bouts especially Frampton who is fighting a guy that has been struggling with journeymen recently. Valdez’s fight should at least be competitive however I think Valdez will show his class and beat Gutierrez comfortably in the end.

Thanks for reading my preview of this weeks boxing and as always I hope all the fighters get home safe and we all enjoy some great fights, I’ll be back next Thursday for another big weekend of boxing.

Quick write up of Deontay Wilder vs Luis Ortiz 2 and more.

I missed writing my weekly preview last week because I was extremely busy and I likely will be again on Thursday so I’ll do my weekly preview on Wednesday instead. Moving on to the write up we had Wilder stop Ortiz in the 7th round of a fight he was badly losing. I do think that he needs to stop relying on his power so much because it will end up losing him a fight sooner or later. Either way he defended his title for a 10th time and helped his relatively sparse resume out with a second win over Ortiz.

Back in England Callum Smith got a decision that most people felt he should have lost. Not only did he get it he got it extremely wide on the scorecards with scores such as 117-111 and 116-112. I feel bad for John Ryder who after putting on the performance of a career was robbed of his career defining moment. It would have been a great story as he’s really made a great comeback since losing early on at domestic level. His run of form at Super Middleweight made him the most deserving fighter of a title shot in the whole division and when he gets that opportunity he gets robbed in his opponents home city. The judges need to be investigated but they won’t be because it wouldn’t suit the promoters like Eddie Hearn who know that their cash cow will get the decision if they need them too. Callum Smith got the decision because he’s been linked to a potential Canelo fight and unfortunately for poor Ryder they weren’t going to let him screw up their pay day no matter how well he did.

For this write up I’ve just done the two major fights of the weekend however in future ones I may do quite a few it depends on how much time I have.

Promoters getting fighters easy KO’s and why it shouldn’t be sanctioned

I’d like to start this smallish piece off by saying that later this year I’ll go more in depth into this topic where I’ll write a longer article about how the current boxing culture of giving prospects fights where they can’t lose both isn’t good for the fans, the sport and especially the prospects themselves. In this post today I just wanted to highlight a few mismatches that are taking place this weekend and one that happened last week. I thought I’d get my thoughts into writing because otherwise with how much goes on in boxing I’d likely forget and I also want to make sure that the fights that I talk about are remembered beyond people like me who scroll down the boxrec schedule to see whats coming up. Without writing about these horrible mismatches if you can even call them a mismatch and not just a licensed beating we would all forget they ever happened and just move on to the next week.

Most boxing fans don’t follow the small cards where prospects start out, they don’t look at the schedule on boxrec and realise that almost all records are padded and that there are boxers who are paid week in week out to be KO’ed. To walk out in front of the prospects jeering supporters and go down either because they know it’ll get them booked again or in many cases its because they really shouldn’t be allowed in a professional boxing ring or at least not against people that are clearly completely superior to them boxing wise.

Now you may think that i’m talking about the journeymen and women that fight week in and week out but don’t get ko’d but I don’t really have a problem with them , they know how to defend themselves. How to survive and frustrate a prospect and often teach them a few tricks as they navigate themselves through the four or 6 rounds. The mismatches I have a problem with is when someone is brought in and they have a record of 0-15 with 13 of those losses being by KO. How is it allowed that someone that gets stopped in almost all of their fights gets to keep their professional license just to be fed to another hungry prospect. Do the board of control’s around the world care about the health of these fighters? They clearly can’t defend themselves so why are they allowed to endanger themselves in the ring. The answer is of course money, the promoters that book these fighters to come and lie down to get their ticket selling prospect a win should be ashamed for playing with the health of people that clearly aren’t fit to fight in a professional ring.

A quick Mismatch that I want to mention was a fight between Natasha Jonas who was 7-1 at the time and Bianka Majlath who was 3-3. On paper this isn’t a huge mismatch however if you watched the fight you’ll see just how bad it was. Bianka clearly didn’t want to be there and turned her back multiple times to Jonas clearly hoping the referee would step in. Every shot that Jonas threw landed because Bianka doesn’t know how to defend herself. What is perhaps more disturbing is that Bianka has beat people and by KO somehow which shows that in certain countries like Hungary its much too easy to get a professional license. I hope the match maker that put it together just looked at the record and didn’t watch her fights and still book her as an opponent because she was truly out of her depth.

Bianka turns her back to Natasha , Surprisingly the ref doesn’t stop the fight and it enters the second round where Bianka does more of the same.

The first sacrifice I want to point out is Elli-Bliss Reynolds versus Ratsadaporn Khiaosopa. Reynolds is making her debut and so you don’t expect her to be in with a great fighter but drafting in Khiaosopa who is currently 0-13 and has been ko’d 9 times is wrong. Khiasopa has been a pro since 2013 and has been brought over to lose in Australia 9 times so far with 7 of those losses coming inside the distance. I don’t know how someone with that sort of KO loss record is being licensed to fight again especially in a country where she’s never won and rarely saw the final bell. These sort of mismatches are dangerous and while these fighters are paid to get knocked down thats no justification for them to still happen and for these promoters to get away with it. On the same card another fighter from Thailand is being fed to the wolves to pad an undeserving prospects record. Thitiwut Ungsuworapluk is 0-6 and out of those 6 losses has been ko’d 4 times , 5 of his losses have come in Australia and unless a miracle happens his 7th loss will also happen in Australia this weekend. Hes being put in with a fighter who’s 8-0 and has no chance of losing this fight unless he breaks his own leg.

Ratsadaporn Khiaosopa one of the fighters being brought in to lose by KO

This sort of thing happens every week and in my opinion its morally wrong to put fighters who have shown they can’t defend themselves in a professional ring against prospects just to make sure their ticket seller keeps winning.

Caleb Plant vs Alfredo Angulo and why its a disgrace

Caleb Plant IBF Super Middleweight Champion

Mike Coppinger a boxing reporter recently broke the news that a fight between Caleb Plant and Alfredo Angulo is in the works with the fight to likely take place February 15th 2020. Now theres a lot of reasons why this fight leaves a bad taste in my mouth the first one being that this is a complete mismatch. Angulo is 37 and washed up he’s not the same fighter he was and even in his prime lost to every big name he faced so why is he getting a shot over more deserving fighters? all this does is lock up the belt for another 6 months before someone that deserves the fight and has a chance of winning can compete for it. If this was Caleb’s first defense you could say that hes not doing anything different to what most new champions do by taking an easy touch and that can be excused. Hell one of his rivals and fellow world champion Callum Smith did the same thing in his first defence recently so who am I to complain. The problem here though is that this is his second defense and it is against another guy that doesn’t have a chance, his first defense was bad enough where Mike Lee his opponent showed that he’s an overachieving club fighter and shouldn’t be sharing the ring with a talent like Caleb Plant. Now i’m sure people will try to justify Angulo getting a shot because he beat Peter Quillin but should he really get a title shot by beating a shot to pieces Quillin on a split decision? For me he shouldn’t ever fight for a title again unless he actually puts together a few more good wins.

Alfredo Angulo

Now so far its looked like i’m being harsh on Angulo and blaming him for the fact hes getting a shot when in reality its the promoter behind the event and the champion Caleb Plant who are to blame for putting this together. As a champion you shouldn’t just accept these below par opponents on a regular basis. Do you not want a legacy that will make people remember you? do you not want people to talk about you potentially being in super fights where people get behind you because you never took an easier opponent for a pay day? Caleb Plant is too good of a boxer for him to fade into the background fighting guys that shouldn’t be in there with him and it would be a real shame if he wasted his career doing these sort of fights and never pushed himself to be great.

The other person to blame here is the promoter Al Haymon and while Haymon isn’t officially a promoter its very clear that he runs things at PBC (Premier Boxing Champions). Haymon is well known for trying to keep everything in house and I have no doubt that he sets up every fight with a guarantee for the winner for example the Quillin Angulo fight , the winner of that fight was going to get a title shot even if neither deserved it. The problem with this is that we see the same fighters recycled again and again and while it may be good for their bank accounts its not good for their health or the fans having competitive match ups. I know Haymon tries to squeeze every penny he can out of a fighters career so that when they retire their financially secure and I really admire that however putting a washed up fighter like Angulo in with a prime champion just to get him one last pay day is wrong. Your effectively paying him to go in there and get the shit beat out of him when theres no need. If he had a chance I wouldn’t be saying this but I really worry for Angulo’s health in this fight. If he cares about getting Angulo financially secure then help him outside the ring with Investments etc, Al Haymon is a smart business man and could easily do this like he reportedly does for lots of his fighters.

To wrap this up I think anybody that said that the Logan Paul versus KSI fight was a disgrace to boxing but is fine with fights like this need to look at themselves. At least that fight was competitive with two guys in their prime not a washed up old fighter being fed to one of the savage wolves of the super middleweight division. For me this is a disgrace to the sport of boxing and I hope this fight doesn’t come to fruition. If it does I hope Angulo has a corner team that will save him from the warrior he is and I also hope that anybody involved in this fight takes a long look at themselves and realises that money isn’t everything and that you can’t play with a boxer’s health for your own financial gain.

Moloney vs Dharry and the weeks boxing

Unlike the last few weeks we don’t have very much high profile boxing this week and so my preview should be a bit shorter. None of the major networks have shows on this week which is surprising because of how they often have shows on at the same time on other weeks so you would think someone would have snatched this week up.

The first card of interest comes out of Australia where Andrew Moloney headlines versus Elton Dharry. This fight is for the interim WBA super fly weight title and is for me just another reason to despise the WBA. An interim title is for when a reigning champion is injured and can’t fight yet the WBA use it to get sanctioning fees out of people they would like to represent their belt. In this case Khalid Yafai is not injured and will actually unify next year so why the WBA have sanctioned an interim fight I can’t explain apart from them being greedy and throwing away what little credibility they had left. As for the fight itself Moloney should be able to out box and eventually stop Dharry who has never faced someone on Moloney’s level. Andrew’s brother Jason Moloney also fights on the card versus Dixon Flores. Jason should be able to get Dixon out of there like Khalid Yafai and Carlos Cuadras have before him.

A fight happening on Friday that doesn’t effect the wider world of boxing is Saul Farah vs Carmelo Roca. Saul Farah has a record of 71-24-3 at heavyweight and with this fight is just one off having a 100 fights something not many fighters get too. I just wanted to mention him quickly because I see him pop up on the schedule quite often fighting in Bolivia and then taking fights on the road all over the world. When he has his hundredth fight I’ll also mention it because it deserves praise for boxers who make it to that amount of fights because it takes dedication.

The next card comes out of France and I think its headlined by Michel Soro vs Cedric Vitu though it could be one other bout. This fight is for the WBA gold welterweight title whatever that is (who knows , its the WBA). This is just another fight for Soro on his way to another title shot after losing out before and then losing to Brian Castano before he got another shot. He should win this quite comfortably likely inside the distance. The other important fight on this card is Arsen Goulamirian vs kane Watts for the WBA cruiserweight world title. Goulamirian is a quality fighter who’s coming off a year lay off hoping to solidify himself as champion after he was elevated after Usyk moved up to heavyweight. Kane Watts is a 37 year old who while having a nice record has never really boxed outside domestic level. He has lost at domestic level 3 times and I don’t think he’s going to fare any better when he steps up. Goulamirian should win by ko unless he’s very rusty.

The first American card to mention this week is headlined by Junior Fa vs Devin Vargas. Junior Fa should win this however I haven’t been hugely impressed by him yet. Vargas is coming off of a upset win but shouldn’t have enough to upset the heavyweight prospect. Also on this card is the return of Denis Douglin who has stated that its win or retire from now on. His opponent Mike Guy is actually a decent fighter so we’ll see if Douglin can pull it off to keep fighting on.

A card on Friday that I want to mention Briefly is Rocky Fielding versus Abdallah Paziwapazi. Fielding is coming off a loss to Canelo last year where it seemed every time Canelo touched his body he went down. I’m not a big fan of Fielding and I’m not sure where he really wants to go because he’s refused fights with top Prospect Anthony Sims Jr and I don’t see him getting another title shot going the long way at the age of 32. He’s also picked a guy that could easily beat him. Paziwapazi is coming off an upset win in China and has real power in his hands , he’s gone the distance in most of his losses however I don’t think hes going to lose this fight. I know he’s a big underdog but I really think the circumstances are perfect for him. Fielding is coming back after a big lay off and also doesn’t have a great chin while Paziwapazi has been active and had one of the best wins of his career recently. With these factors I think Paziwapazi has a decent chance of winning this. Elsewhere on the card Martin Murray , Terry Flanagan and Natasha Jones return verus opponents they should easily beat. Gerald Carrol fights Jeff Ofori in a decent domestic fight where the winner may get some minor title shot.

A card thats happening at the Historic York Hall on Saturday is headlined by Alex Dilmaghani vs Francisco Fonseca. Dilmaghani is on a path towards a title shot and Fonseca is the perfect next step as he’s challenged for a world title twice and is around the top 25 in the world. I expect Dilmaghani to win on points though I could see an upset happening. The other notable fight on this card is John Joe Nevin a former Irish amateur stand out versus Freddy Fonseca the brother of Francisco. Nevin has been a pro for 5 years but has had a stop and start career. he seems to have everything under control now and I expect him to win this on points.

The last important fight from the UK this weekend is Lee McGregor vs Ukashir Farooq. This is a great fight between two top prospects and is the most evenly matched fight this weekend. Both imo can go far beyond domestic level and while this fight is for the commonwealth and British titles I see both the winner and loser being in big fights in the future. For me I think Farooq likely edges it on points but I wouldn’t be surprised either way.

That’s all for this weeks boxing as I said earlier theres not really any high profile boxing this weekend which I guess isn’t surprising considering just how much we’ve had recently. I hope you’ll tune into the fights weekend and I hope all the boxers make it safely back home. Like always I’ll post my weekly preview next week a long with other posts during the week so until then enjoy the fights!

Donaire vs Inoue Review

I’d like to start off this review by saying that I think the World boxing super series is the best thing to happen to the sport in a while. This year alone their finals have created two fight of the year contenders and also established a number one in every division they’ve held a tournament in. As a fan I enjoy watching tournaments and I also like watching the best versus the best which is what the World boxing super series brings to us again and again. They’ve had some issues with funding this season so I hope with them showing their events on Sky Sports in the UK that’s sorted out and they continue doing their tournaments.

This fight exceeded expectations , before the fight most people were predicting Inoue to get the job done in the first 6 rounds due to his youth speed and freakish power what actually happened was both showing that they really are the best of the best. I have to state that I felt it was disrespectful to Donaire who in my eyes is guaranteed a future hall of fame spot for people to be predicting him to be Ko’d in 2 or 3 rounds. Donaire deserves more respect than that and if Inoue did manage to pull that off I don’t think he would have got the credit he deserved for that sort of victory.

Donaire unlike most Inoue opponents was on the front foot bringing the fight to Inoue and willing to trade blow for blow. In my eyes at least this shows just how much of a warrior Donaire is that’s hes willing to go blow for blow with one of the biggest punchers in the sport right now. Not only that but I felt that for a lot of the fight when he landed clean it effected Inoue more than when Inoue hit him. This doesn’t mean he punches harder in this case I think its more thats hes the much more experienced fighter and is used to fighting big punchers at bigger weight classes also that Donaire really has an all time great chin. The way he was able to walk through the fire of Inoue’s accurate and devastating punches was quite frankly heroic meanwhile always throwing back with intent. After the first 4 rounds I had the fight even with Inoue starting to find his range and timing while Donaire showed he doesn’t just have his iconic left hook as he was repeatedly landing big right hands.

As the fight progressed Both Donaire and Inoue were hurt and showed the heart to come through and keep firing back. In the 9th round Donaire landed one of the cleanest right hands I’ve seen all year and Inoue took it. It clearly hurt him but he recovered quickly as Donaire went looking for the finish almost landing a massive uppercut that surely would have put Inoue down and perhaps even out. Donaire didn’t get to wild just took his opportunity while Inoue was hurt to try and finish the fight and when he realized he was recovered went back to educated pressure forcing Inoue back.

This fight had so many ebbs and flows and in the 10th and 11th rounds Inoue showed hes a true champion by digging in and turning the tide back to him when it looked like Donaire was going to come on strong with his championship experience. In the 11th round Inoue landed a bodyshot that i’m not sure most fully grown grizzly bears would get up from and it showed in Donaire’s face as he half jogged away from Inoue before taking a knee. The ref stood between Inoue and Donaire before he went down presuming that Donaire had been hit with a low blow. If he hadn’t done this then Inoue may have been able to finish him off but we’ll never know. Donaire somehow got up from that body shot and then in true warrior fashion went and hurt Inoue to make him back off so he could see the round out.

The twelfth and final round Inoue was more dominant but Donaire never stopped going for it because there’s no quit in him. Inoue showed that he has a chin made from titanium or at the very least granite , this fight also showed us that hes got the heart and desire to get him through hard fights and these 12 hard rounds will serve him well in the future. I especially liked that after he hit Donaire with clean shots in the early rounds and he didn’t go down that he was able to revert back to just boxing to win which many big punchers aren’t able to do. Inoue won on the scorecards 116-111 114-113 and 117-109. For me this was Inoue’s most impressive performance because it showed us that he can dig deep and compete for 12 hard rounds especially against his hardest opponent to date in Donaire. They always say that theirs life in the old dog yet and Donaire proved that by pushing Inoue to the absolute limits , I’d like him to retire on the high of this fight because I feel that this is probably his last great performance and I don’t want to see him decline after this however at the same time he showed he can still compete at the highest level so who am I to say he should retire off of one of the best performances of his career.

I’d like to see Inoue in with Nordine Oubaali next in a 3 belt unification. This fight should be quite easy to make as Inoue has signed with Top Rank and Oubaali is is with MTK and they both work with each other all the time. If not Oubaali then the winner of Casimero-Tete for another unification. I think its more likely a mandatory is enforced on him from the IBF and that’ll be his next fight but we’ll see.

This is currently my fight of the year because of the back and forth action and ebb and flow over 12 rounds between two masters of the sport. The grit and determination showed by these two warriors is incredible and can be a real inspiration in our normal life’s that you can push through adversity and to never give up. I can’t wait to watch Inoue fight again and I also wish luck to Donaire on whatever he does next whether he hangs the gloves up or not he has nothing left to prove and is in my eyes already in the hall of fame.

Nonito Donaire vs Naoya Inoue and the weeks boxing

This last month or so we really have been blessed to be fans of boxing. Getting back to back unification fights and potential fight of the year candidates weekend after weekend. This week was no different With Inoue beating Donaire by decision in an all out war. If you haven’t watched the fight yet then I highly recommend you watch it now as for me at least its the fight of the year so far. I won’t go into to much detail as I’m planning to write a review of the fight and what options Inoue has next and also Donaire. This fight actually happened Thursday instead of at the weekend so I just missed previewing it unfortunately. The way I saw it going was Inoue having his chin tested by Donaires world class left hook before taking over and stopping Donaire in the second half of the fight. This almost happened but Donaire is so tough and has so much heart. On the undercard Inoue’s brother Takuma Inoue challenged Nordine Oubaali for the WBC bantamweight world title where he was soundly beat but did have Oubaali hurt a few times. One of the things I’d like to highlight from this bout is just how horrible of a judge Alejandro Rochin is who turned in a 120-107 scorecard meaning he didn’t give Takuma a single round. He also had a horrible scorecard for the Wilder vs Fury fight and really should be questioned as to how he’s coming up with these scorecards.

On to the fights that haven’t happened yet and unlike last week theres not a huge amount of big time boxing happening this weekend unless you count Logan Paul vs Ksi as a big fight which while it is commercially it isn’t in terms of the best fighting the best or having any meaning on the boxing landscape.

On Thursday night in Arizona , USA Alexander Flores makes his return to the ring after being stopped last December by Joseph Parker. He tops a Roy Jones Jr promotion vs Mario Heredia. Flores is most known for his losses to Joseph Parker and Charles Martin both by ko. Flores currently doesn’t really have any recognizable wins on his resume and if he beats Heredia he will get his first one. Heredia like Flores is most known for his losses to the likes of Filip Hrgovic , George Arias and Jonathan Rice. He recently picked up the best win of his career when he Beat Samuel Peter in a surprising upset. I would like to point out that Peter is absolutely washed up now and is little more than a journeyman to up and coming prospects now I’d personally like to see him retire. Flores should win this in my opinion as long as he uses his superior reach and height to his advantage however if Heredia can get on the inside and rough him up he may be able to pull off another upset.

The next card of interest is on Saturday At York Hall in London , UK. This card has four interesting fights the first being Chantelle Cameron vs Anahi Ester Sanchez in a 10 round contest which is an eliminator for a world title at lightweight in the women’s division. Sanchez is a former champion at super featherweight back in 2016 while Cameron has never challenged for a world title and is still on the come up. I Think Cameron will likely win but this should be a tough fight for her as Sanchez has lots of experience at world level including a recent loss to Jessica McCaskill in a unification bout. I wouldn’t be surprised here If Chantelle loses but gets saved by dodgy scoring personally.

The next fight that is interesting is Micheal Mckinson vs Luis Alberto Veron. Mckinson is a rising welterweight prospect whos managed by MTK Global. I don’t think he’ll get to world level due to his lack of power having only 2 ko’s out of 17 wins however that shouldn’t be a problem here as while Veron has a pretty record of 17-0-2 hes beat no one of note and his last few fights have been draws vs average domestic fights. McKinson should win on points here unless Veron is a hidden talent that no ones heard of. Liam Walsh fights Maxi Hughes for the vacant WBO European light weight title. Liam Walsh is on the comeback after being stopped by Gervonta Davis for the IBF world super featherweight title while Maxi Hughes is a solid domestic fighter whos beaten a few undefeated fighters while losing to the top guys at domestic level. Liam Walsh should win this i’m not sure whether by decision or ko. Danny Dignum fights Conrad Cummings for the vacant WBO. Neither of these fighters are great however I think Dignum should have enough to beat Cumming’s by decision. Daniel Egbunike fights Billy Allington for the vacant super light weight southern area title. I think Egbunike will win either on points or a late ko as he does carry some power while Allington has no ko’s in his fights. If you want to look at the rest of the undercard its mostly prospects fighting Journeymen but I’ll link it here. https://boxrec.com/en/event/795302

The first big card out of America this weekend is Jamel Herring vs Lamont Roach for the WBO super featherweight title. This is Herring’s first defense in which he’s fighting his mandatory challenger in Roach. Herring is a solid all round fighter who is also a former marine and an all round great guy who I’m happy took his chance to become a world champ. Lamont Roach is also a solid fighter but for me hasn’t been tested like Herring has and I also think that Herring is currently in the prime of his career while Roach hasn’t got there yet. Therefore my prediction will be Herring to win on points. Kubrat Pulev also returns on the card facing Rydell Booker in a keep busy fight while he waits for his world title shot next year. He should win quite comfortably. Janibek Alimkhanuly the former standout amateur contines making his way towards a world title by fighting Albert Onolunose who at 39 is past his best. I expect Janibek to win by stoppage here and add a few new ranking belts to his collection. Amir Imam fights for the first time in more than a year after his unsuccessful challenge to win the WBC Super light weight title vs Jose Carlos Ramirez. The guy he’s fighting now is Marcos Mojica who while having a nice record of 16-4 has been stopped against all top competition he’s faced and I expect the same to happen here again. Watch out for Imam in the future as if he gets it all together he could end up winning a title. Also of interest in this card is the second fight of Robeisy Ramirez the two time gold medalist from Cuba who suffered a shock defeat in his pro debut this year. It’ll be interesting to see how he bounces back. Esquiva Falcao a 2012 silver medalist also fights on the card, hes now 24-0 and after this fight I’d really like Top Rank to start stepping up the competition and promoting him well to see if he can mix it up at the top.

The other card coming from America this week and the card that will have the most eyes watching is KSI vs Logan Paul 2. Before I get to the main event I’ll go through the undercard which if I’m honest is a little disappointing. Billy Joe Saunders makes the first defense of his WBO Super Middleweight title vs Marcelo Esteban Coceres who before this fight had never fought outside of Argentina. Coincidentally no one outside of Argentina had heard of him. Billy Joe should win this comfortably as Marcelo hasn’t fought any where near the competition that Saunders has and really shouldn’t be going from his level of competition to fighting for a world title. I’m actually rooting for Marcelo in this one because he’s clearly been picked as a guy with a shiny record (28-0-1) who Billy Joe can KO to look good in front of a massive audience. If Marcelo wins this and theres no rematch clause Canelo will likely fight him to try and get a legitimate world title at 168 in what will be percieved as a very easy touch. Devin Haney fights and defends his “world Title” which he got via an email vs Alfredo Santiago Alvarez who credit to him is a decent fighter who’s taken this on short notice when he hasn’t faced the competition needed to beat Haney who is one of the worlds top prospects. Hopefully he puts in a good showing as no matter what happens on Saturday his stock will go up. Ronny Rios fights Hugo Berrio over 12 rounds in what for me could be the best fight of the card. Both are on good runs right now with Rios beating Diego De La Hoya who before Rios beat him was 21-0. That win saved his career and if he wins this fight could elevate him very close to a title shot. Berrio meanwhile hasn’t lost in two years and his last loss was a majority one in Russia where he was the B side so he may have been robbed there. This should be an exciting fight however I think Rios should win here by either points or late stoppage. Elsewhere on the card prospects Diego Pacheco, Reshad Mati, Alexis Espino and Nikita Ababiy all fight in 4 or 6 rounders to keep gaining experience almost all of them currently have under a years experience in the pro ranks and are quite young so expect them to be moved slowly over the next few years. On to the main event then…. KSI vs Logan Paul is not something that I thought would be headlining a professional boxing card in 2019 but here we are. A lot of people have aren’t happy that their headlining over champions like Billy Joe Saunders but I personally don’t have a problem with it as it will bring more eyes to boxing which is always good for the sport. I also won’t get offended on the boxers behalf if they don’t mind fighting on the undercard of these two youtubers then I won’t be getting offended for them. Don’t get me wrong this is only happening because of how much money it will bring in the people promoting weren’t thinking of helping the sport when they agreed to promote this , no they were thinking of how much this would line their pockets. Anyway for what its worth the build up has been entertaining and If you don’t want to watch it then you don’t have to. I personally won’t be watching because It’s a 10 pound ppv here and I don’t think this card is worth that. I also don’t have a prediction for this fight apart from mayhem.

Thank you for reading my weekly boxing write up, if it doesn’t make too much sense this week then its because I’ve felt a bit ill while writing this and my heads not all there lol. The next preview will be up next Thursday and also a review of the Noninto Donaire vs Naoya Inoue fight. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.