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.
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.
RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL, New York City — Forget the close unanimous decision scores (114-113, 115-112, 116-111). Tonight’s super bantamweight unification bout between Guillermo Rigondeaux and Nonito Donaire was not a close nor competitive fight, as Rigondeaux completely outboxed a clueless Donaire outside a one round where he suffered a balance knockdown. Donaire had put this fight off for some time behind the belief Rigondeaux hadn’t proven himself and wouldn’t “come to fight.” It was fitting that it was Donaire who ended the night with a busted up face and humbled spirit courtesy of the skilled Cuban exile. There’s a lot of ramifications from this fight not just for Rigondeaux and Donaire, but also for the division, Top Rank and HBO.
THE FIGHT: Rigondeaux set the tone early with a short, pin-point straight left inside that made Donaire stumble backwards. From there, Rigondeaux had Donaire’s respect. It was tense in the early rounds with each fighter using feints and waiting patiently for the other to make a mistake. Where Rigondeaux distinguished himself was in every facet of the scoring criteria. Clean punching? Rigondeaux repeatedly caught Donaire with lead southpaw right hooks and counter lefts to the body. Ring generalship? Rigo superb footwork kept Donaire’s offense ineffective while he peppered him off the backfoot. Defense? Again, the footwork aided by smooth upper body movement had Nonito’s famed left hook hitting nothing but air and gloves. And with effective aggression, Rigondeaux was the one usually getting the better of exchanges.
The crowd didn’t always love it — as we all know, Rigondeaux will coast on his leads and he didn’t break that bad habit tonight. He was content to throw a few jabs to keep Donaire honest and Walcott shuffle his way out of any danger. The crowd boos didn’t faze him. As I said last night, be mad at Donaire for not being able to adjust.
Donaire’s best moment came in the 10th when he caught a lazy Rigondeaux out of a clinch with a left hook knockdown from the southpaw stance. While the punch was solid, the fall was due to balance and Rigondeaux quickly regained control, even being able to stun Donaire late with a straight left in the closing seconds.
Rigonddeaux slowly busted up Donaire in the last two rounds. A Rigo counter left hand stifled Donaire’s attempt to rush in for a hook, causing very bad right eye swelling. Donaire immediately pawed at the wound and kept his right glove glued to his face for the rest of the 12th. Rigondeaux pushed for a stoppage with Donaire in in full retreat. However, Rigondeaux didn’t get reckless while working Donaire over with left uppercuts, crosses and right hooks. You could see Donaire looking for a backfoot opening, much like his recent one-punch late knockdown of Toshiaki Nishioka, but Rigondeaux remained too elusive.
If it wasn’t for the knockdown, I would have scored this fight a shutout for Rigondeaux.
DONAIRE’S RIDICULOUS EXCUSES: Donaire’s post-fight interview started real well as he gave Rigondeaux full credit for his boxing lesson.
The last two rounds I got stupid… I wanted to take him out so bad. I have much respect for the beautiful boxing he gave me.
From there, Donaire elicited boos from the crowd when he claimed most of his training with Robert Garcia was done long-distance, he had weight issues, a shoulder injury and didn’t study any tape of Rigondeaux’s style. The last point is what did it for me. How could you not prepare for someone as slick and tricky as Rigondeaux, especially when your last fight in NYC was the 2011 stinker at Madison Square Garden that was the Omar Navaez fight? It just boggles the mind that in a boxing era where one bad loss is a huge setback that Donaire wouldn’t make sure his preparation was top notch.
Donaire all but dismissed a rematch in saying he plans to move up to featherweight. A few years back there was talk of him doing that to face someone like Yuriorkis Gamba, but Donaire’s power is already diminished at super bantam and he loses all of his size advantage at a higher weight. I bet Nonito really wishes that Abner Mares fight would’ve been made over this one.
Top Rank and HBO have invested a lot in the Donaire brand over the last year. One loss doesn’t erase his great 2012 and “Fighter of the Year” honors, but how they move him from here will be interesting. There aren’t any big name, come-forward sluggers for him to smack around anymore like Jorge Arce, and a Rigondeaux rematch would go much like the first.
Don’t feel too bad for Nonito, though. I’m sure he found solace in the ample pregnant bosom of his beautiful wife Rachel. If you watched last night’s fight, you saw a stunning ending shot of Ms. Donaire displaying why pregnancy does a body good for some women. I didn’t screen capture it and the even the below shot doesn’t do her complete justice, but you’ll get the idea.
FANS ARE ROBBED OF MARES-RIGONDEAUX: We saw how the bullshit between Golden Boy and Top Rank caused the Mares-Donaire negotiations to collapse before they even got any traction. What we all want to see is someone who can really make Rigondeaux open up and fight for a full three minutes of each round, and the only guy at super bantamweight who can do that is Abner Mares. The sad reality of 2013 boxing politics is we’ll never see it, which is why Mares has already left the division and faces Daniel Ponce de Leon next month.
THE SCORING: One last point about the scoring. Having regularly attended fights ringside over the last few years, I can say that there are times when fights live can be very much different from how they appear on TV. Ringside you can get the impact of blows much clearer than on TV depending on the fighter. But regarding this fight, I can’t see it. Yes, there wasn’t many punches connecting between them, but Rigondeaux was clearly landing the more effective and clean shots (especially the counter punches). Furthermore, if the so-called “4 points of judging criteria” are truly taught and followed (clean punching, effective aggression, defense, ring generalship), there’s no conceivable way this fight could be close. Outside of the few seconds he went down, Rigondeaux controlled every aspect of this fight.
WASHINGTON, DC — Lamont Peterson re-established himself as a player in the junior welterweight division with a methodical deconstruction of Kendall Holt last night. This fight had a lot of question marks going into it with both men having year-plus layoffs. In the end, Peterson’s pressure and merciless inside work were the decisive factors.
PETERSON WAKES UP: Peterson is a notoriously slow starter and that didn’t change in this contest. He boxed cautiously from the outside and allowed Holt to pepper him with power shots to the body and head. While Peterson caught most of these punches on the gloves, Holt was controlling these rounds and building a nice lead, not to mention confidence. Holt took Peterson’s wariness to exchange as a sign he couldn’t take his power and began to upload in the fourth round.
Big mistake.
Peterson would state later that he was simply getting a feel for Holt’s punch placement before opening up himself. Peterson gave Holt pause in that fourth round with a left hook downstairs and then badly wobbled him with a slashing overhand right. Holt’s attempt to grab resulted in him tasting a collection of hooks on his way to the canvas. Holt barely survived the round as Peterson crashed home two more hooks at the bell with Holt trapped on the ropes.
Holt never got back in the fight for the remaining three rounds. Peterson had periods where he wouldn’t punch much, but even then he’d corner Holt and force him to work either on offense by throwing punches (most of which were blocked) or forcing clinches. He never got a breather of any sort and when Peterson did punch, his shots were short, highly accurate power shots with Holt trapped on the ropes. A triple left hook lead to another knockdown in the sixth, and Holt’s night ended in the eighth with him helpless on the ropes under a barrage of Peterson blows.
PETERSON CAN’T GO WRONG WITH GOLDEN BOY: With this win, the floodgates open for Lamont Peterson in the junior welterweight division. As one of Golden Boy’s newest signees, the list of potential big opponents include Danny Garcia, Lucas Matthysse or an Amir Khan rematch. And if Adrien Broner is looking for a huge test for his 140 pound debut, he can look no further than Peterson. I’d pay money for each and every one of those fights.
SHOULD HOLT CONTINUE?: Kendall Holt is now 3-4 over his last seven fights. Being in a loaded division does him no favors either. Considering he was competitive with Danny Garcia in 2011, he can still give it a go if he doesn’t mind plying his trade on the Friday Night Fights level for the foreseeable future. He’s clearly on the downside of his career but he can still handle opponents on that level assuming this Peterson beating hasn’t taken too much out of him.
Prediction: After a few disputed decisions during his five-year run at WBA middleweight champion, Felix Sturm was finally on the wrong side of a split decision when Daniel Geale defeated him last September. On the other hand, Soliman is on a seven fight win streak dating back to 2008 when he dropped a unanimous decision to Anthony Mundine.
Even so, a 34 year-old Sturm still possesses one of the best jabs in the middleweight divison and the counter-punch timing with his right hand that should be enough to temper the whirlwind offense of Soliman, who’s not a spring chicken himself at 39 years old. Sturm has a few worrisome moments, but finishes strong to take this one by a unanimous decision.
Sturm vs. Soliman takes place tomorrow night (February 1) in Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.
The first HBO boxing card of 2013 is in the books and I’m headed back to ATL. While the main even didn’t exactly have the definitive ending everyone wanted, and the super featherweight title match draw between Rocky Martinez and Juan Carlos Burgos was a reminder of the alarming problems in boxing when it comes to judging, the Top Rank card was a success and hopefully leads to many more shows making their way to the iconic Madison Square Garden. On to the news and notes from the evening.
Upsets and Nasty KOs on the Undercard: It was nice to see a decent crowd for the undercard. Normally in places like Vegas, the venue doesn’t start to fill up until the televised portion begins. Top Rank smartly made sure popular local fighters like Glen Tapia and Sean Monaghan were on the card to ensure an eclectic ethnic mix of fight fans. When factoring in the main card fighters, you ending up with a melting pot of Kazakhstan, Irish, Italian, Puerto Rican and Mexican nationalities.
Puerto Rican prospect Felix Verdejo (2-0, 1 KO) was the most explosive young figher on the card as he needed two punches to blow away Tomi Archambault in just 21 seconds. Verdejo told the media the fight had three “firsts” for him. One, he had never KO’d anyone with just two punches. Secondly, he’d never knocked anyone out with a double left hook. And third, it was the first time he actually felt the power of his shot travel up his arm. Just imagine how poor Tomi Archambault felt.
Anthony Ferrante (dubbed in my press row at Jackie Jr. from The Sopranos), got the biggest win of his career with a brutal, face-down knockout over previously undefeated Olympian Isa Akberbayev. Those who had seen Ferrante before had characterized him as a “club fighter” at best, and in most derisive terms as a “bum.” Well, Akberbayev had him looking like a combination of James Toney and Eddie Chambers. After trading knockdowns in the first, Ferrante used his shoulder to avoid Akberbayev’s right and counter with his own, which began to carve up his opponent’s face. Akberbayev seemed only a punch or two from going down as early as the eighth and it seemed like Ferrnate was content with just a points win. However, he made a statement and lived up to his “Boom Boom” nickname by planting Akberbayev face-first with a counter right.
Akberbayev was motionless for a long time on the canvas and although he left the ring on his own power, word came that he had to leave the arena on a stretcher. It would not surprise me at all if he never fought again.
Rosado Is a “Good Boy,” Golovkin Is a Happy Killer: The script for this one was Gabriel Rosado was tough enough to put up a good fight, but ultimately would make Gennady Golovkin look like a monster.
The storyline was followed almost to the tee with Golovkin doing an excellent job from the outset of cutting off the ring and making Rosado deal with mental and physical pressure. Rosado’s eyes were as wide as half dollar coins as he was wary of every Golovkin power shot that came his way. Golovkin made the fight harder for himself by using his jab in spots — when he was consistent, it landed flush through Rosado’s guard and set up left hooks and right hands. It was the right hands that cut Rosado above the left eye in the second and had him wobbling badly in the third.
It got ugly from there. Rosado had his moments, particularly in the fifth, when he caught Golovkin with some nice uppercut and right crosses. Although the power-puncher from Kazakhstan was swelling, he never seemed in danger and nodded approvingly when Rosado caught him. On the other hand, the challenger’s face took was rearranged into a garbled mass of blood and swelling and broken bones by the seventh. The crowd and press row began murmuring of when the fight would be stopped, but with Steve Smoger being a lenient ref in regards to letting guys take punishment, it fell on trainer Billy Briscoe to save Rosado. Rosado’s father opposed the call, but Briscoe put it as blunt as possible in stating he had to stop it before Gabriel was killed.
Word came back from Golovkin’s team that he’d be willing to grant Rosado a rematch so long as he accpted his request for them to start training together. Max Kellerman didn’t have his finest interview moment in trying to ask Golovkin, as non-native English speaker, elaborate questions. But it did yield the line of the night in Golovkin calling Rosado a “good boy.” Usually, someone of Caucasian descent calling a man of color a “boy” is ground for a fight, but it was obvious this was a language barrier issue and there was no ill intent.
Far as what’s next for Golovkin, I’d love to see him in there with a Peter Quillin or Matthew Macklin. Golovkin has his flaws (minimal head movement, not particularly fast), but I can’t see anyone in the middleweight division he’d have a subpar fight with. On Rosado’s end, I hope he’s not the exception to the rule and that HBO and other networks start to put more stock in a fighter’s ability and level of competition over having a glossy but ultimately vapid record.
Garcia Becomes Legit: Yes, the headbutt foul leading to the technical decision ending was disappointing. Even with that finish, you can’t help bit marvel at the clinic put on by Mikey Garcia, who had Orlando Salido completely outclassed from the opening. Like many people, I believed Garcia was going to put through the fight of his life. Instead it was Salido, dropped by left hooks in the opening round, who had the look of a shell-shocked warrior.
Every clean shot had Salido either backpedaling, his knees buckling or flat-out tasting the canvas, as he did again with the latter in the third and fourth. To his credit, he continued coming forward and trying to brawl, having marginal success and forcing Garcia to hold before the accidental head butt. Even so, it’s hard to imagine a demand being there for a rematch. I liked that Garcia called out Yuriorkis Gamboa. It’s an easy, exciting fight to make and much better than watching Gamboa get bullied and thrown around the ring by Timothy Bradley (a fight that’s amazingly being discussed now).
Keep It Up and Do Better, MSG: Although we had a full house last night, I felt the buzz could’ve had been even better around the city if just an extra step had been taken on the promotional end. I’m not sure about their policy, but Madison Square Garden should strongly consider making the weigh-ins open to the public.
I strongly suggest coming through for future shows at the Garden’s Theatre venue. It’s spacious enough for a good crowd but small enough that you’ll have a good view no matter where you’re seated, as you’ll see from a few pics below I posted on Instagram last night.
That’s all from NYC. Let’s hear your thoughts on the card.
SANTA FE, New Mexico — John Molina erased the memory of his 40-second meltdown at the hands of Antonio DeMarco with a devastating one-punch knockout of Dannie Williams last night in the main event of ESPN’s Friday Night Fights.
After a quiet opening round for both fighters, Molina began to pick up his pressure despite having his left jab countered by right hands. A bad clash of heads in the third temporarily rattled Williams. Adding to his woes, Molina stunned him with a slashing left hook.
Molina focused on the body with wide, powerful hooks in the fourth that forced Williams to hold. While backpedaling, Williams was caught on the top of the temple with a short right hook that immediately destroyed his equilibrium. He fell to the floor writhing under the bottom rope and clutching his head. Although he made it to his feet, it was too late to beat the count.
John Molina Jr. improves his record to 25-2 (20 KOs). The KO defeat, the first of Williams’s career, drops his to 22-3 (18 KOs).
MEXICO CITY, Mexico — While Friday Night Fight’s super featherweight fight met with a contentious ending, Saturday’s WBC silver title match came to a definitive ending courtesy of Edgar Puerta, whose body punching wore down Abraham Rodriguez in route to an eighth round TKO.
The bout was a bruising inside battle the majority of the way with Puerta withstanding Rodriguez’s short hooks and using his taller frame to get more leverage on his counter-punches. Puerta’s body shots were instrumental in lowering Rodriguez’s hands enough to open up the ending sequence, which featured Puerta driving Rodriguez to the ropes with repeated left hookd to the body and head. A series of unanswered hooks forced the referee stoppage.
The 30-year-old Puerta improves to 21-4-1 (19 KOs) while the 27-year-old Rodriguez falls to 24-14-4 (13 KOs), having lost 4 of his last 5.
MIAMI, Fl. – We couldn’t even have a few weeks of peace before the nonsense started. Not even a full week into 2013, boxing fans have been reminded that not much has changed about our beloved sport with ESPN’s Friday Night Fights kicking off their season with a good main event sullied by an absolute robbery decision victory for Rances Barthelemy. Let’s review the embarrassing turn of events.
ONCE AGAIN, A FIGHTER GETS POINTS JUST FOR COMING FORWARD: In the first two rounds, it appeared that Afghan fighter Arash Usmanee was headed to a knockout loss. Barthelemy was landing hard, compact left hooks at well and countering Usmanee’s offense with stiff jabs. The latter punch was so effective that twice it stunned Usmanee as if it were a power shot. But starting in the third, Usmanee began slipping the punches effectively and throwing excellent body shots around Barthelemy’s long arms. By the middle rounds the tide had completely turned with Barthelemy reduced to haymaker shots that lost more and more steam as the rounds (and body shots) mounted. By the end, Barthelemy was spent and it looked to be on his was out in the 12th when Usmanee abused him on the ropes.
I only gave Barthelemy a round after the second so imagine my incredulity at Barthelemy being awarded the fight on scores of 115-113 and 116-112 twice. To even have this fight remotely close, you have to completely ignore clean punching (especially to the body), defense and ring generalship, things I thought were the part of the criteria judges are supposed to score.
ANOTHER OBSTACLE FOR USMANEE TO OVERCOME: Before the fight, we got a nice video package of Usmanee’s tough upbringing in Afghanistan and losing his father in the war-torn country. By the end, yyou understood all the adversity he’s overcome just to make it to America and progress a fighter. To wtiness all that work derailed by shoddy judging made this robbery feel much worse. Usmanee had no words and immediately stormed from the ring. Teddy Atlas was outraged to the point of hoarseness and appropriately so. He posed the rhetorical question of when things will change, citing the need for federal intervention as the only way to stifle much of the cavalier corruption running amuck in this industry.
Unfortunately, with the “fiscal cliff” controversy and the majority of America living check to check, the government doesn’t have the time nor funds to justify spending the millions needed to investigate, clean up and provide a new infrastructure for boxing. For the foreseeable future, we’re on our own. And best believe the shady characters are fully aware of this.
A NICE OPENING KO AND A MID-CARD DUD: The junior featherweight four-rounder to start the night ended in a lovely KO courtesy of 19-year-old Hairon Socarras, who dropped Josh Bowles flat on his back with an overhand fight. Then it was became a chore watching the yawning waltz that was Johnathan Gonzalez’s majority decision victory over Derek Ennis. If you saw Gonzalez’s draw against Serhiy Dzinziruk last September, you saw the same plodding fighter last night. Kudos if you can stay awake through it.
Friday Night Fights heads to Sante Fe, New Mexico next week for a show headlined by a lightweight clash been John Molina Jr. and Dannie Williams
Looks like we just couldn’t end the 2012 year of boxing on a high note. Yesterday afternoon, Tomasz Adamek and Steve Cunningham met in a rematch four years in the making. The bout had everything you’d want in a network TV bout to attract more fans — a contrast in styles, some late round drama and two highly skilled fighters. All of that was unfortunately mired by a decision that managed to slap Cunningham in the face twice.
AFTERNOON ROBBERIES SUCK JUST AS MUCH AS LATE NIGHT ROBBERIES: Let me clear from the jump — this fight was not close. Some people have tried to say this fight “could’ve gone either way” and that even the draw was acceptable. NO. Unless your definition of “effective aggression” is coming forward, eating jabs and missing or having the majority of your power punches blocked when trying to steal rounds in the last 10 seconds, then Adamek was not winning that many rounds. Sure, there wasn’t a lot in the way of clean punching or exchanges early on, but that’s when a trained judge is supposed to look at other things like ring generalship and defense, two criteria Cunningham far and away exceeded at. My final scorecard had Cunningham winning by a score of 116-112. The official judge scores were 115-113, 116-112 and 113-115 for Adamek. To make matters worse, one card was initially announced as 115-115 for a draw, leaving Cunningham visibly shocked. Then the real hammer came down about a minute later with the “correction” giving Cunningham a majority decision loss. Completely absurd.
Tor Hamer’s First and Final Chance: I wasn’t too familiar with heavyweight Tor Hamer, who got a chance to showcase himself in the opener. Funny thing is when he was trying to stare down his opponent Vyascheslav Glozkov, I put a comment on Twitter that he needed to work on it as I was not scared. Well, neither was Glazkov, who after feeling out Hamer’s power in the first completely humiliated Hamer and made him fold. Glazkov is a former Olympic bronze medalist and had a clear advantage in skill over Hamer, who repeatedly ran into left hook potshots and short right crosses. Glazkov dominated Hamer in the fourth, but was still outboxing Hamer over really putting a beating on him. However, the mental aspect of getting hit and knowing what was coming was too much for Hamer, who promptly quit on his stool. On the replay, you could hear him saying “I can’t do it anymore.”
It was mentioned on the broadcast that Hamer holds a degree in Urban Planning. Now would be the time for the 29 year old to put that degree to good use and find a new line of work. If he couldn’t handle the difficulties that Glazkov was starting to put on him, there’s no feasible way he can have a successful career as a boxer. The ring is the ultimate cold truth, and Hamer found out the Sweet Science is definitely not his calling.
There Was Some Good: The main event robbery was a bitter end, but overall NBC Sports did a good job with the show. The production wasn’t HBO or Showtime slick, but the presentation was very clear and the storylines cogently established for anyone who just happened to flip there. In addition, I liked how they put the fighter themselves in the ring to review their fight strategies Teddy Atlas style. There were complaints about there being no post-fight interviews and commentary, but the early evening news will always take precedent much like it does with other sports (ie. football) end.
What are your thoughts? Am I going overboard with the robbery claims against Steve Cunningham?
