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“Golden Boy and Al Haymon will get me that fight. I’m ready for that fight. I want to fight him.” – Lucas Matthysse on fighting Danny Garcia
ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey — Lucas Matthysse promised that Lamont Peterson wouldn’t be able to handle his power. That vow was delivered in spades last night with Matthysse scoring three knockdowns in route to a whitewash, third round TKO victory last night at the Boardwalk Hall.
Peterson came out trying to box off the backfoot and work his jab, making the bout’s first two minutes a chess match in positioning. Matthysse took the stanza in the last 20 seconds via a hard left hook counter and straight right that put Peterson on his heels.
Matthysse upped his aggression in the second by stalking after Peterson with wild haymakers and roughing him up in clinches with clubbing hooks to the body and head. Matthysse mixed in a few unintentional rabbit punches, and Peterson soon tried to come forward to stifle the pressure. Matthysse immediately countered this with a thudding right cross.
A stunned Peterson stumbled into the ropes and then clinched for time. He tried to go back to boxing off the backfoot, but his legs had stiffened and he soon found himself with his back to the ropes. Matthysse threw a straight right to the body which slightly dropped Peterson’s guard and opened up a deadly left hook upstairs.
The shot caught Peterson on the top of his head. His brain told him to move, and he made the initial steps before the damage short-circuited any further upright movement.
Peterson toppled to the floor, but was up at four and affirmed to Steve Smoger his willingness to continue. With 18 seconds left, Peterson was barely able to clinch without falling. In the corner, trainer Barry Hunter implored him not to let Matthysse “over-rough him” in the clinches. This implied he wanted Peterson to turn on his aggression and move Matthysse backwards, much like he was able to do against Amir Khan, Victor Ortiz and Kendall Holt.
Matthysse isn’t those fighters.
Peterson was scoring in-close to start the third round, but Matthysse clearly had control with cleaner, harder and varied power shots. After receiving them, Peterson would quickly hold or move away. With 1:14 left, Peterson made the fatal mistake of trying to exchange hooks with Matthysse and found himself back on the canvas via a left hook with Matthysse’s full weight behind it.
Peterson stumbled back to his feet but within seconds was back on the canvas by his corner via another left hook. The fight was quickly stopped by referee Steve Smoger.
“The first round I was trying to find out what I was bringing to the fight. After the second round I started connecting with more force,” said Matthysse in his post-fight interview. “I had two and a half months of preparation for this fight and that was the difference. Now I know I am the best at 140 pounds because no one has ever dominated Peterson the way I did tonight.”
On the undercard, Devon Alexander made easy work of a clearly overmatched Lee Purdy. The southpaw Alexander, who hurt his left hand in the first round, kept up a high workrate and many times stood in front of Purdy firing off combinations. The slower Purdy tried to come in behind a high guard, but he was mostly a step behind with his offense and didn’t possess the power to trouble the IBF welterweight titlist. Seeing the writing on the wall, Purdy’s corner threw in the towel before round eight.
“There are going to be a lot of critics saying Purdy wasn’t all that anyway, but he’s a good fighter,” said Alexander, who scored his first knockout in nearly three years. “Over in the U.K. he beat some good guys and I think he was very suitable. He came to fight and he gave me a good fight. I got the win. I got the technical knockout.”
Alexander is rumored to be in line to face Amir Khan in December.
This picture of Danny Garcia ringside after the Matthysse KO was the highlight of my night. Note Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin to his right looking at him with genuine concern for his well-being.
Most people aren’t giving Garcia any shot. I’ll go against the hype and say Danny Garcia has a solid chance of beating The Machine. Is he the favorite? No. Would I bet on him to win? Hell no. But he’s shown the ability to stick to a game plan even when hurt, and the Judah fight showed he can maintain movement (which he’ll have to do to blunt Matthysse’s power). Peterson didn’t have the power to gain Matthysse’s respect. Garcia might not either, but it’s possible a few of those powerful left hooks could give pause to Matthysse’s pressure. But as of right now, Lucas Matthysse is looking like an unstoppable force at 140 pounds.
At press time, Golden Boy is looking at reserving the Verizon Center in Washington D.C. for a Matthysse-Garcia main event supported by Judah-Peterson. I might have to make that trip.
MYAKININO, Russia — In what will undoubtedly go down as one of the more brutal fights of 2013, Guillermo Jones returned to the ring after a year and a half layoff to utilize body punching and curshing head shots to break down Denis Lebedev before his countrymen at the Crocus City Hall.
Lebedev found success landing hard, head-rattling hooks to the head, but Jones made him pay the price for those blows with slashing uppercuts to the body. As early as the second round, Lebedev’s eye area began to swell and cut in several places due to the hammer-down motion of the 6’4 Jones’s punches.
While Jones was much slower than Lebedev, he made up for the deficiency with accuracy and sheer brute strength. Lebedev couldn’t move him backwards, and Jones very methodically continued to focus on destroying his opponent’s eye by at times going southpaw to use his right hand to club the wound.
Equally demoralizing for Lebedev was the results of rounds seven and nine, two of the his best scoring rounds. Lebedev was able to tee off with flush hooks for good portions of the rounds. However, he would be forced to hold on late in both rounds due to Jones finishing strong with a debilitating body assault coupled with uppercuts and crosses through Lebedev’s guard.
By the 11th, Lebedev was on fumes and suddenly took a knee after being hit with a left hand. Jones, still moving on adrenaline, smashed Lebedev to the floor with another shot for good measure before the ref interceded. The fight was wisely called off with no protest from Lebedev, who got to his fee immediately and went back to his corner.
The win gives Jones the WBA World cruiserweight title. The loss is Lebedev’s first KO defeat.
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It’s amazing to see a 41-year old fighter like Guillermo Jones be able to pull off what he did yesterday. The way he fights is how I imagine those old-timers like John L. Sullivan in late 1880s went about their trade. Nothing fancy, just brutal and efficient work.
Although Jones didn’t have much physical damage, these are the type of fights that take a pound of flesh out of you. He received many clean shots to the head. Lebedev’s eye was worse that what we saw inflicted on Antonio Margarito by Manny Pacquiao, the swelling on Fernando Vargas from Shane Mosley, and even Giovani Segura’s eye at the hands of Brian Viloria. What Sugar Ray Robinson did to Carmen Basilio’s eyeis a good comparison.
This one is well worth the time to sit down and watch in full.
Alexander Povetkin faced another hopeless opponent in Andrzej Wawrzyk this afternoon and scored a dominating third round knockout. The 6’5, previously undefeated Wawryzk (27-1, 13 KOs) had a thin resume and it showed against Povetkin, who quickly started to walk him down and land massive overhand rights and hooks to the body.
The backpedaling Wawrzyk was dropped via a counter overhand right in the second. A Povetkin leaping left hook notched the second knockdown in the third. Povetkin clubbed Wawrzyk inside with a right for the fourth knockdown that finally prompted the ref stoppage.
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I’d venture to say Wawrzyk wasn’t much better than the ancient Hasim Rahman that Povetkin bludgeoned back in September. It’s quite shameful that after all these years, Povetkin has yet to truly test himself against a Klitschko. The man is now 33 years old and seems content to defend his paper “WBA World” heavweight title against lame opposition. Well, at least his fight with Marco Huck last year was good.
LAREDO, TX — 37-year-old Vic Darchinyan overcame a few hiccups to re-establish his concussive power at super bantamweight via a multiple knockdown, fourth round TKO win over Javier Gallo last night at the Uni-Trade Stadium.
Darchinyan used much of the first round letting Gallo take the lead and walking him into corkscrew left uppercuts. Darchinyan mixed in his quick straight left at times, but was caught and wobbled late in the round off a counter overhand right.
The danger woke up Darchinyan, who came out blazing in the second round and promptly dropped Gallo with a jarring left cross. Darchinyan would keep his power punches straight and use the shot to drop Gallo twice more in the round. Gallo attempted to rebound by overwhelming his tormentor with volume, but Darchinyan’s power edge coupled with his accuracy only brought more significant punishment on Gallo in the third.
The fourth round saw Darchinyan wipe out Gallo once more with a left cross, prompting the referee to call off the bout sans a ten count.
With the win, Darchinyan is now ranked #1 by the WBO and #2 by the WBC, making him the prime candidate to challenge Top Rank stablemate Guillermo Rigondeaux, who holds both titles.
On the undercard opener, former Olympian Oscar Valdez upped his undefeated record to 5-0 (3 KOs) with an easy first round TKO over Rocco Espinoza. Valdez dominated Espinoza with his power, scoring two knockdowns apiece with left and right hooks to get the stoppage with just seconds remaining in the opening round.
Vic Darchinyan has been one of my favorite fighters since about 2006. It’s amazing he’s still trucking along at 37 years old (absolutely ancient for a lower weight class fighter). I was surprised when looking over his record to see this was his first knockout since 2009. Ever since leaving the super flyweight division (where he made history unifying the titles), his power has ebbed with the climb to bantamweight and super bantam. And even with the decline, he’s remained competitive against the very best (Abner Mares, Anselmo Moreno, Joseph Agbeko).
Still, Darchinyan has not posted a victory over a top name since his technical division win over Yonnhy Perez in 2011. The win over prospect Luis Orlando Del Valle last September was a good start. He’ll get the ultimate chance soon as he’ll likely face Rigondeaux. I can only see that ending with Darchinyan looking at the lights, but he won’t lay back and let Rigo just potshot him all night. Vic will go for it and bow out on his shield.
GLASGOW, Scotland — WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns got the biggest scare of his professional career last night, going into the tenth round down on all cards after being soundly outboxed most of the fight by undefeated challenger Jose Gonzalez. But the champion, behind steady late pressure and a stroke a luck, retained his title via stoppage after Gonzalez shockingly quit on his stool due to a left wrist injury.
Fighting in his first bout since September 2012 and under new promoter Eddie Hearn, Burns look lethargic through the first seven rounds and was constantly stunned by accurate counters from the faster Gonzalez. When Burns attempted to take the fight inside, Gonzalez was able to score better with uppercuts and hooks to the body. Gonzalez succeeded in forcing Burns to backpedal several times due to his hard, clean punching.
Burns started to turn the tide in the eighth, when Gonzalez’s punch output dropped. Burns did his best work with hooks to the body and Gonzalez continued to backpedal away without throwing much in the ninth, likely due to the wrist injury. Before the tenth and against the pleading of his corner to continue, Gonzalez retired on his stool, giving Burns the third successful defense of his title.
“I injured my left wrist,” Gonzalez explained afterward. “It happened when I landed a punch that connected to the body of Burns. I partially hit his elbow and hurt my hand. I tried to continue, but the pain was too great and I couldn’t use my hand. I didn’t know how the fight was being scored on the cards, but I felt I was dominating him. I didn’t feel any of Burns’ punches. Also, most of the punches from Burns hit my gloves or missed.”
Burns improves to 36-2 (11 KOs), while Gonzalez falls to 22-1 (17 KOs). The entire fight can be viewed below.
Well that was a strange finish, wasn’t it? It was good for Burns that it wasn’t Miguel Vazquez or Adrien Broner in there with him last night. Nonetheless, he deserves a lot of credit for not getting discouraged and continuing to go after Gonzalez. It wasn’t just the wrist injury that made Gonzalez quit. It was the fact he threw his best punches (the ones that until now had KO’d most of his opponents) and Burns refused to go anywhere. The Burns pressure, combined with the mental stress of not having any previous experience past the eighth round, caused Gonzalez to mentally fold. You can bet he’ll regret this decision much like Vitali Klitschko did after quitting to Chris Byrd. What’s next for Burns? Despite how bad he looked for most of the fight, this definitely has to be a confidence builder. I think one more solid fight is needed before going with his original unification plans against Vazquez.
A day later it’s come as no surprise to anyone that Floyd Mayweather is still undefeated after a superb strategical performance against a clearly overmatched Robert Guerrero. The result was a wake-up call of sorts on a few fronts. For one, the fight is proof that rumblings of Mayweather’s physical decline were grossly premature. And secondly, the hope that welterweight out there can give Mayweather a legit, tough challenge before he closes his career is a longshot at best. Nonetheless, there was a little intrigue in and out of the ring this weekend. Let’s get right to it.
GABRIEL ROSADO ROBBED BLIND: There is no other way to state this. J’Leon Love and Gabriel Rosado opened the pay-per-view with a hard-fought battle that saw Love open up an early lead with good counter-punching off the backfoot. The fight would change in the sixth when Rosado scored a heavy knockown off a counter right, and the contender from Philly would land the more telling blows over the final four rounds.
Two of the veteran judges, Dave Moretti and Glenn Trowbridge, were split in giving Love and Rosado respective one-point victories (95-94). An argument could be made for both, but it’s harder to argue the 95-94 score that Moretti gave Love, as he had the Mayweather Promotions fighter taking round nine (most ringside writers, including myself, had Rosado taking the last two rounds as he rocked Love in exchanges and forced him to hold multiple times). But the 97-92 card from Herb Santos? Keep in mind that’s with Rosado scoring a knockdown in the sixth, meaning that Santos only gave Rosado two rounds (the sixth and tenth).
Santos delivered a gift-wrapped present to Love and the fans knew it immediately, showering him with boos so loud we could barely hear his post-fight interview. Rosado showed a lot of balls taking a fight like this so soon after the beating he took from Gennady Golovkin, and it’s unfortunate that his efforts were not rewarded. He really shouldn’t even be fighting at middleweight. Hopefully this showing earns him another high-profile title shot, preferably at 154 against the winner of Ishe Smith vs. Carlos Molina
In regards to Santos, Rosado was of the opinion he should be fired for that score. Surprisingly, there was no real bitterness in him when he attended the post-fight press conference, and he appeared content in knowing who the true victor was.
I felt like I won the fight. I had a 10-8 round. We both fought with heavy hearts. There are no hard feelings. I fought my heart out. Everyone knows what happened. I don’t have anything to prove. I feel I deserve a shot at a world title. I came back from a tough loss, and felt I won tonight.
To his credit, J’Leon Love said he’s open to a rematch.
SANTA CRUZ HANDLES MUNOZ: Last night was my first opportunity to see Golden Boy’s undefeated super bantamweight Leo Santa Cruz, and he sure didn’t disappoint in brutalizing veteran Alexander Munoz over five one-sided rounds. Santa Cruz had a distinct size and power advantage that he used accordingly to break down his opponent with vicious left hooks to the body and counter rights upstairs. Munoz was game, but his attempts to exchange with Santa Cruz to earn respect got him buckled legs and scrambled senses.
Santa Cruz’s seek and destory style and tall frame have drawn comparisons to Antonio Margarito, but where Santa Cruz differs from the Tijuana Tornado is in his accuracy. He connected on 52% of his total punches (219 of 424), and a staggering 57% of his power shots (183 of 323). The last three rounds were especially brutal in Santa Cruz holding a 135-26 edge in connects, culminating with Munoz being sent crashing into the bottom rope for the stoppage.
This was the 34-year old Munoz’s first major fight at super bantamweight and Santa Cruz’s beating was enough to convince him to hightail back to 118 pounds.
“The inactivity hurt me,” said Munoz, who’s only fought four times over the last three years. “I have to go down in weight; this weight was too much for me. Santa Cruz is very good but he hasn’t improved. I landed a lot of punches.”
As for what’s next for Santa Cruz, there is talk among fans of what would be an explosive battle against the fighter below who also shined on the card.
MARES KOs PONCE DE LEON: Abner Mares notched another career-highlight in disposing of his good friend and power-puncher Daniel Ponce de Leon. The intrigue with this fight was if Mares, making his debut at a third weight class in featherweight, could handle the brutish strength of Ponce de Leon. What we should have been asking was if Ponce could handle Mares’s power, as he scored to big knockdown to force a ninth round stoppage.
What’s always impressed me about Mares is how he modifies his gameplan for each fight. With Anselmo Moreno, he applied constant pressure. With Ponce, he was mostly patient and jarring Ponce with flush counter shots before unleashing flurries of power shots when Ponce was trapped on the ropes. Ponce got dropped by a left hook in the second, but never quit and succeeded in stunning Mares a few times with his dangerous southpaw left.
In the end, Ponce’s recklessness would be his undoing. Mares drilled him with a right hook for the second knockdown, and forced the stoppage when Ponce got trapped on the ropes eating more flush shots. There were some complaints among the press (and definitely Ponce himself), since he was throwing back at the time ref Jay Nady stepped in, but the writing was on the wall and Nady saved Ponce some brain cells.
Although Leo Santa Cruz mentioned Jonathan Romero as a potential opponent, he acknowledged a Mares fight would be action-packed and a opportunity he wouldn’t turn down. If I were Golden Boy, I’d leave this two apart for now. For one, Mares has just picked up the WBC title at featherweight while Santa Cruz is trying to build his name further at super bantamweight. Santa Cruz just got to a new weight class so it makes no sense to move him up so quickly, and Mares definitely shouldn’t move back down. In addition, Mares has a huge experience edge in having fought the best fighters in his weight classes the last few years. Santa Cruz needs a lot more seasoning, and the Romero would be a good test.
I’m normally not a big advocate of the Bob Arum school of letting potential in-house action fights marinate forever (remember what happened with Juan Manuel Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa), but I’d like to see Mares-Santa Cruz revisited sometime in 2014.
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ROBERT GUERRERO PROVES TO BE EAAAASY WORK: My prediction going into this fight was that Mayweather would stop Guerrero in the 10th round with the “competitive” portion of the fight ending around the fourth. An injury to Mayweather’s right hand prevented a potential stoppage, but the writing sure was on the wall regarding the outcome of this one as early as the third round.
Mayweather had got in a few clipping lead right hands in the first two rounds, but the third is when Floyd started to really snap Guerrero’s head back with the punch. From then on Mayweather couldn’t miss and made The Ghost look like a fool. He mixed it up by alternating between stabbing straight rights to the body, crosses down the middle, and whipping hooks around the guard. The fustration was clear on Guerrero’s face as the round’s and punishment built up. And when Guerrero became fixated on avoiding the right, Mayweather, as his father had guaranteed beforehand, started to smash Guerrero with left hooks.
Guerrero got hurt bad by a right hook late in the eighth that had him backpedaling over the last 20 seconds. At that point, it looked like this fight would go no more than two more rounds. Unfortunately, Mayweather hurt his hand somewhere around the 10th and per his defense-first mentality, Floyd took his foot off the gas and played it safe. The scores of 117-111 across the board reflected the dominance.
The main reason I picked a Mayweather KO was Floyd’s track record of being more aggressive in walking down southpaws behind a high guard, as seen in his wins over Zab Judah, Sharmba Mitchell and DeMarcus Corley. Where my analysis was flawed is those fighters had faster hands than Guerrero and could take advantage of Mayweather’s shoulder roll defense. Guerrero was too slow to do any such thing — once Mayweather used his own speed to take away Guerrero’s lead hand with his own counter left jab, The Ghost was done for.
Guerrero dared not throw a lead left with the deadly right hands coming back his away. That second guessing allowed Mayweather to get off first with his impressive array of right hand leads. To put in perspective how badly Guerrero was shut down, the Ghost’s welterweight punch output per round was at 48 last night, down from his usual 78 punches per round. Guerrero’s jab was confined to 11% accuracy (32 of 291), 28% in power shots (81 of 290) and 19% in overall punches connected (113 to 581).
Mayweather’s footwork was excellent in keeping off the ropes and forcing Guerrero to constantly have to reset his offense. And the few times Guerrero tried to maul inside, Mayweather proved to be strong enough to hold his own and made sure to land short but stinging counters out of clinches.
You couldn’t ask for a better performane from a figher that’s 36 years old and competing in his 17 year of professional boxing. MAYWEATHER VS. CANELO? NOT SO FAST: Of course, the main question most of us have is what’s next for Mayweather. The obvious name is Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who did much to raise his profile in unifying the WBA and WBC light middleweight titles by defeating Austin Trout two weeks ago in front of 40,000 fans in San Antonio, Texas.
Although Mayweather and Canelo both said they plan to fight next on September 14, I’m more inclinded to believe Canelo gets the date himself and Mayweather takes another year off. A Mayweather-Canelo fight needs time for that pay-pre-view build in addition to the training, and Floyd can’t jump back into another camp until his hand heals. If the fight truly was a go for September, you can bet there would have been some inkling of it from Golden Boy or Mayweather last night. Instead, Floyd fell back on the old “I’ll have to discuss it with Al Haymon and Leonard Ellerbe.” The only thing confirmed was Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer stating Canelo for sure would be fighting on a September 14 pay-per-view. And I caught Schaefer mentioning Cotto as a potential opponent for that date.
Maybe Floyd fights someone else in September? I highly doubt it. To fight o Mexican Independence Day weekend, Floyd needs a marketable Mexican. Before, he had Juan Manuel Marquez and Victor Ortiz. There’s no one on Golden Boy’s roster that fits that bill these days except Canelo. Fights with Amir Khan or Devon Alexander on that date make zero sense.
Floyd as all about business first, so what’s makes better fiscal sense over sitting out in September to heal that right hand, letting Canelo increase his rep even further by knocking out Cotto, and then facing him in a huge 2014 pay-per-view during Cinco de Mayo weekend.
Let’s hear your thoughts. Did you enjoy the Mayweather-Guerrero card? Is the time right for Mayweather-Canelo?
BROOKLYN, New York — Zab Judah failed last night in another championship match. That statement is a cold fact, but it doesn’t begin to reveal the entire truth behind the event, as Judah showed heart and grit in overcoming a knockdown and various perilous moments to inflict his own damage on champion Danny Garcia in route to losing a highly entertaining unanimous decision (116-111, 115-112 and 114-112) at the Barclays Center.
This was a bout that surpassed my expectations in that the fight was still on the table in the late rounds. What made it so exciting? Onto the fight’s major points.
THE LEFT HOOK? AH, MADE YOU LOOK!: Danny Garcia’s main weapon is his massive left hand and Judah was on the lookout for it by constantly circling away to his left. Garcia wisely anticipated this and framed his offense around various right hands. Garcia mixed it to the body and head, at times looping it around Judah’s guard, shooting down the middle, or stabbing it downstairs. It made Judah have to think about when to throw his own counter lefts, allowing Garcia to outland him and rack up the early rounds. However, when Judah did throw the left with conviction, he connected flush.
BODY SHOTS: Around the fifth round it became clear that Garcia right hands downstairs were beginning to break down his opponent. Zab’s movement slowed and it allowed Garcia to wobble him badly with a right upstairs. Judah refused to go down and even talked a little trash while back-peddaling for dear life.
The sixth was no better for Judah with Garcia jumping on his immediately and going right back to the body, forcing Judah to hold. It was probably the longest round of Zab’s career as he was hurt in the opening moments and literally knocked around the ring like a pinball for the entire 3 minutes. Still, he refused to go down.
THE 8TH ROUND COMEBACK/KNOCKDOWN: I know it’s strange to consider a round he got dropped in as the start of his comeback, but that’s the round where Zab started to turn it around. He was winning the eighth by countering Garcia at mid-range, but he lingered too long and got planted on the seat of his pants by a right cross.
With his eyes swelled up, Judah could have easily packed it in as we’ve seen him do before. Instead, he let his Brooklyn hometown fuel him and commenced to throwing home run straight lefts. It allowed him to survive the round, and he kept it up in the ninth to great effect. Still, Garcia continued to land regularly with the right that kept Judah from completely turning it around.
JUDAH’S CHAMPIONSHIP ROUNDS: Now when have you ever seen Judah dominate in the late rounds? He finally succeeded in stunning Garcia with a left in round 10 and had him moving backwards. Garcia is not nearly as effective off the backfoot and he got wobbled again off a Judah power shot. Zab also landed his best hooks, with both hands, in the 11th.
But to Garcia’s credit, his chin held up amazingly well and he made sure at the end of these rounds he was the one coming forward and forcing Judah to hold.
A clash of heads had both streaming blood in the final stanza. Judah got in a few more big counters while Garcia went back to the body for what was a thrilling finish.
RESPECT EARNED, NOT GIVEN: All the bullshit trash talk between these two camps had all but evaporated at the final bell. Garcia and Judah embraced, and the latter could be seen standing by and shaking hands with former nemesis Angel Garcia during the post-fight interview. Danny was high on praise for Zab and gave him accolades as the best fighter he’s ever fought.
It was a hell of a fight. I had to beat the Brooklyn guy in his hometown. I knew he had a lot of pride behind him and he was never going to give up. He is a crafty veteran with power. He hit me with a good shot. He hit me in the eleventh with a left hand that spun me around. It shook me up a little bit.
I am a true champion and I had to fight through a storm tonight to prove that. Judah is the craftiest and strongest guy that I have fought so far. I knew he had a lot of power with the left, but I was able to stand my ground and counter it. My game plan was to try to use the jab, but he was stepping around. He was crafty and he took my jab away so I had to do what I had to do.
And as far as all the animosity we saw before the fight?
It’s gone. It’s respect. As you can see, it’s a lot of bad blood (on our faces). I’ve got cuts. He has cuts. We came here and gave the people of Brooklyn a nice show.
TIME TO GET OFF THE SENIOR CIRCUIT: Danny Garcia impressed me with his chin, ability to remain calm under fire, and in executing such a sound game plan. However, his last two title defenses have been against 35+ year old fighters well past their primes. For all intents and purposes, it should have been his mandatory, Lucas Matthysse, in there with him last night. Garcia needs to be facing the winner of Matthysse-Peterson next unless a Khan rematch comes off.
QUILLIN DOMINATES: Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin’s power resulted in another multiple-knockdown victory as he deposited Fernando Guerrero on the canvas four times in route to a seventh round TKO. Quillin was patient and used his right hand counters to destroy Guerrero. It was his first title defense of the WBO title he lifted last October over Hassan N’DAm. Quillin has name-checked two potential opponents in Gennday Golovkin and Sergio Martinez. With Martinez getting injured again last night, the Golovkin fight would be the most explosive bout that can be made at middleweight.
SHEFFIELD, United Kingdom — Deontay Wilder needed just 55 seconds to dispatch Audley Harrison before his countrymen at the Motorpoint Arena earlier this afternoon.
Harrison was put in trouble by the only solid punch of the fight, a Wilder counter right. With Harrison hurt and trapped in a corner, Wilder swung wild haymakers until Harrison crumpled to the canvas. Although Harrison beat the count, the ref quickly waved it off.
Wilder’s perfect KO record remain in tact with all of his 28 wins coming inside the distance.
The first round KO mirrors the result of Harrison’s last significant fight. Last year, David Price also defeated Harrison via first round knockout.
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What took you so long, Deontay! Seriously, Harrison is just cannon fodder at this point for any decent fighter. In the above pic, the look on the ref’s face seems to say “get the hell out of the ring with this nonsense.” Check out the full fight below and see what I mean.
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Golden Boy did everything to persuade Saul “Canelo” Alvarez to avoid taking on Austin Trout. He wasn’t marketable. You’ll mess up potential bigger fights. You won’t look good even if you win, But Canelo proved his championship worth in not only taking on the best challenger in his division, but showing new facets to his game in defense and counter-punching to take a unanimous decision and unify the WBA and WBC light middleweight titles.
Once again, we had scorecards that didn’t reflect the high competitiveness of this fight. However, the verdict was one that most sane fans won’t have much of a problem with.
ADJUSTMENTS, CLOSE ROUNDS AND PREFERENCE: The fight had lots of ebbs and flows with each man making a strong case for their strategies in every round. Starting off, Trout controlled the pace behind his southpaw right jab. Canelo began timing it and shooting powerful right hands down the middle. Trout’s chin held up and he made sure to keep enough distance to make Canelo have to lunge with follow-up hooks. Trout also kept himself off the ropes which nullified Canelo’s offense to one punch at a time. Nonetheless, these singular Canelo punches were very powerful and often times the clearest, most effective punches of the round. Over the first six rounds, I thought Trout’s activity and ring generalship was effective enough to have him ahead 4-2.
Canelo then promptly had his best round in the seventh when he drilled Trout with a straight right for the bout’s only knockdown. It was a delayed reaction with Trout taking the blow, trying to reset and having his legs turn to jelly. Despite eating a jarring right uppercut later, Trout controlled the rest of the round and was actually coming forward as the stanza closed. A pure heart display.
Trout did good work in rounds 8-9 by focusing on the body and mixing in his own uppercuts. Instead of holding inside or moving away, he picked his spots with hooks and took advantage of Canelo’s tendency to fight in spots.
Rounds 10-11 were very competitive with Canelo holding the edge with his powerful counter shots. Trout got caught several times with thudding counter right uppercuts. In addition, Canelo showed good head movement in slipping Trout’s jab and disrupting the rest of his offense. Even when Canelo went on the backfoot, he was still able at times to counter Trout’s jab. On the other hand, Trout seemed confused on how to adjust to land his own power shots.
Canelo backed off in the 12th, allowing Trout to win it and making the fight 114-114 on my card. I wouldn’t be mad with either guy winning and usually the one moving forward and landing the harder punches will get the benefit of the doubt. To his credit, Trout had no complaints and said the better man tonight won.
OPEN SCORING: This has been tried a bunch of times over the last 30 years and it never works. The scores were told to each corner twice in the fight and Canelo took a cautious approach in the 12th because he knew he had it won. Had that info been withheld, we might have been treated to an awesome finale to what was an excellent fight. I honestly don’t think there’s any true benefit to this as it takes too much drama out of the sport. Back in 1977, open scoring was tried in Muhammad Ali’s title defense against Earnie Shavers. The scores were only told to the television audiences so the fighters wouldn’t be influenced to coast if they had a lead. Being ever the strategists, Ali’s camp got around this by having someone running to the back to watch the TV and get the scores after every round.
As for the actual scoring (115-112, 116-111 and 118-109), the one that jumps out at you as completely erroneous is Stanley Christidoulou’s card of 118-109. I would have loved to hear his justification for that atrocious score.
WHAT’S NEXT?: Canelo has wanted Floyd Mayweather for the past year and he reiterated that point in his post-fight interview. Although Canelo showed he’s still prone to being outboxed, the jury is still out on if Mayweather has the legs left to do it (we’ll see in a few weeks against Robert Guerrero). Mayweather-Canelo would be a huge event fight and there’s no other option that makes sense for both. If Mayweather pulls some BS at the negotiation table and opts to fight someone like Devon Alexander, he’ll rightly get a huge backlash from fans and media.
As for Trout, I hope Golden Boy sees his worth and we get to see him return on Canelo’s September card. As for an opponent, the winner of Erislandy Lara vs. Alfredo Angulo is a good option. And if James Kirkland ever gets himself together, that’d be a good fight although I doubt Kirkland would face someone like Trout in his first fight back.
FIGUEROA DESTROYS COTTO: Miguel Cotto was in the house and unfortunately had to watch his cousin, lightweight Abner Cotto, get annihilated in just one round by the whirlwind that is Omar Figueroa. This kid has that constant pressure of Abner Mares and Juan Diaz, but a good bit of power to back it up. He connected with a hook to the body that he followed to the head that sucked the fight out of Cotto. The punches dropped Cotto, and when he rose he found himself trapped in a corner and quickly put back on the canvas for good with a stabbing left to the body. With Adrien Broner gone from the division, lightweight is wide open for Figueroa to make a name for himself..
NEW YORK CITY, NY — Tyson Fury rose from a massive second round knockdown in his American debut to overpower and knock out Steve Cunningham yesterday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.
There had been a lot of jawing back and forth between these fighters and Fury continued it during the opening bell by mocking Cunningham’s jab. That disdain was quickly wiped off Fury’s face in the second when Cunningham took full advantage of a low guard and dropped Fury flat on his back with an overhand right (think the first Marquez knockdown on Pacquiao in their fourth fight). Fury took time to collect himself and while he tied up Cunningham effectively, Fury remained buzzed for the rest of the round.
Realizing the peril with continuing to box with a faster opponent, Fury smartly changed the contest to an inside fight. He utilized his massive 6’9 frame and 40 pound weight advantage to manhandle Cunningham in clinches. In addition, Fury landed short, hard hooks and uppercuts during these inside exchanges that began taking effect within a few rounds.
It would be a right uppercut while Cunningham was trapped on the ropes that badly stunned him in the seventh. Fury kept him on the ropes and used his left forearm to hold Cunningham’s head in place to smash home a crushing right hook. Cunningham toppled backwards onto the canvas and couldn’t beat the ten-count.
The win was an IBF eliminator, putting Fury in line to face champion Wladimir Klitschko.
It was really cool to have this fight going on in the Garden at the same time the Knicks were beginning their playoff race in the main building. Fury brought out a good crowd and handled business. That knockdown was strictly due to his arrogance and lack of respect for Cunningham. But to Fury’s credit, he adapted and started using his physical advantages. It was a nasty KO and reminds me of what you’d see someone do in a street fight.
Cunningham was very sour after the defeat. There was disbelief in there as I’m sure he really thought it was over after that second round knockdown. If he had landed that on a cruiserweight, the answer would have been yes. Getting stretched like he was after dealing with the Adamek robbery is a tough reality to swallow.
As for Fury-Klitschko, I hope we see that by the end of the year. Wlad is the massive favorite of course, but I’d like to see if Fury can get any work done inside and be the boss with the clinches. It’s his only chance and he’s sure big enough to do it.
