have a locked password on your security system, for one. RT @DaRealNette: There's an underlying message to The Purge...there's actual a few. 3 hours ago
RT @DaRealNette: There's an underlying message to The Purge...there's actual a few. 3 hours ago
(Well, at least it's an improvement over that monstrosity "Hey Porsche"...) Nelly ft. Pharrell & Nicki Minaj - "Get… wp.me/pWPBI-5s113 hours ago
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.
MONTE CARLO, Monaco – Gennady Golovkin made short work of Nobuhiro Ishida earlier tonight via a crushing third round TKO to retain his WBA middleweight title.
Golovkin was never in any danger and from the outset began landing hard jabs and right hands. Ishida was game but couldn’t score his own clean shots. The challenger got wobbled badly several times in the second from Golovkin’s right hand.
In the third it would be a Golovkin overhand right that crumpled Ishida and knocked him through the ropes, prompting referee Stanley Christodoulou to forego a ten count.
Billed as a “stay-busy fight” for Golovkin, the Ishida knockout is his seventh defense of his title. Golovkin is slated to make his third HBO appearance in June against an opponent to be determined.
Ishida loses his third straight and promised to retire if he lost this fight.
Robert Stieglitz couldn’t ask for a better rematch performance, taking just four rounds to close Arthur Abraham’s left eye and score a TKO to recapture the WBO super middleweight title.
Stieglitz applied heavy pressure from the opening bell and had Abraham trying to defend right hands behind his trademark high guard. Stieglitz’s strength had Abraham pinned on the ropes, and the right hands scored via Stieglitz’s strategy of whipping them around Abraham’s guard.
Abraham briefly came alive via a short flurry of power shots in the second, but it was Stieglitz who finished the round strong with a fusillade of shots that had Abraham desperately holding at the bell. The champion wore a shellshocked face at the beginning of the third while Stieglitz still banged away at Abraham’s guard. The damage was now visible with Abraham sporting a completely closed left eye.
After a few minutes of consultation, the ringside physician ordered the contest stopped under no protest from the disposed champion.
The TKO was the first of Abraham’s career, and Stieglitz’s win puts him in line to possibly face George Groves later this year.
A Stieglitz win wasn’t surprising in itself, but the way he just ran Abraham out the ring was. Stieglitz was literally in control from the opening bell and took complete advantage of Abraham’s lack of fluidity in switching from defense to offense. Stieglitz bullied Abraham physically by keeping him moving backwards, but made sure he was constantly landing leather.
Is there need for a rubbermatch? There’s money in it, but Abraham’s team will likely seek other options considering how badly he was dominated.
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.
UNCASVILLE, CT — Delvin Rodriguez added another scalp to his tenured Friday Night Fights resume with a systematic beatdown of previously undefeated George Tahdooahnippah at the Mohegan Sun.
The entire card was promoted around Rodriguez’s being one of the best action fighters in Friday Night Fights history and he sure didn’t disappoint.
THE FIGHT: After about a minute and a half of both starting fast and landing good shots, it became clear where this fight as headed. Rodriguez settled into his offense and began timing overhand rights and left hooks to the body. Rodriguez was landing most of these shots off the backfoot with the much slower Tahdooahnippah plodding forward into traps.
This one nearly ended early in the second when Rodriguez hurt Tahdooahnippah badly with the overhand right. Tahdooahnippah stumbled into the ropes where he received a series of rights that had his head grotesquely careening over the top rope. Referee Eddie Cotton was seconds away from stopping it at as the ring bell sounded. And in an ironic twist, Cotton misunderstood Tahdooahnippah’s corner and briefly called off the fight before the truth was discovered.
Sadly for the Tahdooahnippah, the fight being stopped in the second would have been much better for his health. Rodriguez went back to work and remained in cruise control — the overhand rights could not miss and every solid left hook downstairs had Tahdooahnippah doubling over. Tahdooahnippah wisely held time he was hurt, but Rodriguez finally hurt him for good in the sixth. Falling back into the ropes, Tahdooahnippah’s head did a replay of the second round by getting snapped back and forth under Rodriguez’s right hand before the ref stoppage.
RODRIGUEZ BACK FOR ANOTHER SHOT: Rodriguez had an ugly performance in his last fight back in September against Austin Trout. This win did a lot of justify him possibly earning another shot on Showtime or maybe HBO. I’m not sure if Gabriel Rosado would look at it as a step back after battling Golovkin to face a guy like Rodriguez, but that fight would be straight warfare. And I’m sure Friday Night Fights would have no problems airing a fight with Rodriguez against Brian Vera, who just scored a knockout of Sergiy Dzinziruk a few weeks back.
TAHDOOAHNIPPAH’S REALITY CHECK: George Tahdooahnippah was undefeated coming into last night (31-0, 23 KOs). The knock on him was he had zero notable names over his eight-year career (last night was his first 10 round bout). During the ring walk, with a rapper in tow and clad in the attire of his Comanche Indian roots, Tahdooahnippah had the look on his face of a fighter happily anxious to meet the moment that would define his professional career. But as the beating mounted, Tahdooahnippah wore the mask of a man helpless too change his fate. He tried for sure — Tahdooahnippah continued coming forward in hopes Rodriguez would make a mistake. But there were none and every Tahdooahnippah flaw, from his lack of head movement to the tendency to lean with his punches, was exploited in merciless fashion.
Next week Friday Night Fights returns with the excellent matchup of Lamont Peterson vs. Kendall Holt.
Bayrern, Germany — Arthur Abraham made a successful defense of his WBO super-middleweight title yesterday with a one-sided drubbing of an over-matched Mehdi Bouadla. Abraham has shown much more fluidity in his transitions from offense to defense since his Super Six days and that continued here — the titlist used head movement and banged away to the body with wide but powerful hooks. That power difference was pronounced — any time Bouadla attempted to trade inside, Abraham’s strength forced him backwards. The damage began piling up around the sixth with Bouadla sporting a bloody nose and cut left eye. The damage was mounting with less resistance by the eighth, and a few hooks and uppercuts had Bouadla staggering around and prompted the appropriate stoppage.
Abraham’s still is in no man’s land, so to speak. Yes, he has a belt but it’s in name only. He’s not good enough to get past the likes of Carl Froch and Andre Ward, the top guys in division who already hold lopsided victories over him. And he’s outgrown the middleweight division, where some nice fight could have awaited him. What’s next for him? If Froch and Kessler rematch, maybe that opens the door for Abraham to take on Lucian Bute.
He’s told us that he’s destined to become a great fighter. He said that his opponent last night, now former WBC lightweight champion Antonio DeMarco, was nowhere near his league and would get the “Mayweather vs. Corrales” treatment. For one night at least, Adrien “The Problem” Broner was completely accurate with every pre-fight statement as he dismantled DeMarco over eight rounds.
Two things stood out to me as the most impressive aspects of Broner’s performance. His defense was exceptional; Broner use of upper body movement, spacing and gloves to pick off shots rendered DeMarco’s southpaw left and body punching absolutely usesless. Secondly, Broner was phenomenal on the inside, using an assortment of uppercuts and short hooks that had DeMarco guessing and hesitant to throw for fear of counters. The fifth round in particular is the best so far of Broner’s career, earning him a 10-8 round strictly on the number of flush, powerful punches sans a knockdown.
The ending sequence of inside punches, punctuated by a left uppercut that took DeMarco to the canvas in a shuddering heap, prompted DeMarco’s corner to bring in the white towel.
Do you think Broner was happy with his performance? Here’s what he had to say at the post-fight press conference.
“What can I say after a performance like that? I am elite,” beamed Broner. “Like I said coming into this fight, I’m an elite fighter that can make a great fighter look like an amateur and I think that’s what I did tonight.”
Can’t argue with the man. DeMarco is a very good fighter, and elite fighters treat good fighters exactly like Broner did. In his recent interview with this site, Broner mentioned his desire to face Juan Manuel Marquez. That would be an awesome fight but it’s highly unlikely to happen. If Broner doesn’t stick around at lightweight, there’s always fellow Golden Boy fighters at 140 like Lucas Matthysse and Danny Garcia that could make for excellent matchups.
For those that missed it, enjoy the full fight while it’s available on YouTube.
Boxing fans got nearly an five hour block of fights last night on Showtime with Golden Boy’s quadruple-header from the Barclays Center. Did it deliver? In a word, yes. Nearly all the fights were entertaining with an assortment of drama, knockdowns and a sad but devastating, highlight-reel knockout in the main event. Let’s get right to it.
DANNY GARCIA TKO4 ERIK MORALES: Even with the shame of the steroid controversy, I don’t think any fan that’s followed this sport at least the last 10 years or more wasn’t saddened by this knockout. On Twitter, I likened it to how Rocky Marciano ended Joe Louis’ career by knocking him through the ropes. Every solid punch shook Morales badly; the body shots shuddered his entire body. In the fourth, Garcia landed a pinpoint right cross that Morales’ equilibrium never recovered from. The same counter left hook that floored Amir Khan nearly had Morales doing a 360 before he crashed through the bottom rope. The only saving grace here is that his corner rightly jumped in to protect him. We’re all begging for Morales to retire, but he only went as far as saying this was his last fight in America. The old warrior wants to say a proper goodbye in Mexico, which we can only hope will be against a guy at the absolute lowest level. I can understand Morales not wanting his career ended with a positive steroid bust, taunts from Team Garcia and a possible KO of the Year loss, but the idea of him taking any more punches makes me cringe.
PAULIE MALIGNAGGI SD12 PABLO CESAR CANO: Did Christmas come early for the Magic Man? It’s telling that even in his Brooklyn hometown, the reaction was very mixed when he got the decision. For the record, I had the fight very close until the knockdown, and Cano definitely took the 12th as well. I felt a draw was fair, but Paulie taking it by a point on two cards (114-113) isn’t a robbery. Early on Paulie looked great; the left jab was sharp and the right opened a long, jagged cut over the left eye that looked to be a potential fight-ender. But by the third, Cano started finding a home for right hands and his thudding hooks to the body had Paulie laboring by the late rounds.
How you scored this fight really comes down to your preference. If you like boxers/stylists, you were probably taken by Paulie’s ring generalship and workrate. If power and aggression is your thing, you’ll side with Cano, who clearly landed the harder shots in nearly all the rounds (which accounts for that very wide, sole score of 118-109 for Cano). Depending on how Hatton looks, I wouldn’t mind Malignaggi’s proposition that they fight again next year. Malignaggi is looking to cash out and it’s one of best options at welterweight as far as a winnable, big fight. But if that fight doesn’t come off, Cano deserves a rematch.
PETER QUILLIN UD12 HASSAN N’DAM: This is the most entertaining six-knockdown fight I’ve ever seen. First off, N’Dam has a huge heart. Those left hooks Quillin landed were frightening and it seemed after every knockdown the fight was one solid shot from being over. But every time, N’Dam not only fired back, but he came forward and had Quillin at times in retreat. I had picked Quillin to score a KO simply because I thought N’Dam was too reckless and Quillin’s better technique would catch him. I was right about the latter, but N’Dam showed no quit whatsoever. It’s worth noting that the majority of observers had N’Dam winning all the rounds he wasn’t knocked down in. But, that means little when you’re talking three 10-7 rounds. So now that Quillin has the WBO middleweight title, where does he go from here? The two name fighters in the WBO rankings are Marco Antonio Rubio and Dmitry Pirog. I’d love the latter, but considering what Pirog did to Al Haymon’s last young middleweight (Danny Jacobs), I don’t see that one happening. Rubio is always a solid test so I could see that happening. Quillin also mentioned Matthew Macklin’s name in our interview, and Macklin definitely deserves a title shot after his performance against Joachim Alcine on the Martinez-Chavez Jr. undercard.
DEVON ALEXANDER UD12 RANDALL BAILEY: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! This fight wasn’t a good way to start the card. In fact, this should have been on Showtime Extreme instead of Danny Jacobs vs. Josh Luteran. I put more of the blame on Bailey, who failed to really uncork that right hand outside of two solid shots in the fifth. Sure, Alexander’s strategy of movement and turning him played a part, but the 38 year old Bailey showed no urgency throughout the fight. Now that Alexander has the IBF welterweight title, what’s his next move? Since Malignaggi has sights on Hatton, Alexander taking on the winner of Robert Guerrero vs. Andre Berto next month is an option, or even Kell Brook, who had a dominating KO win this weekend. One thing’s for sure is that we do not need to see another Alexander fight like this.
DANNY JACOBS TKO1 JOSH LUTERAN: Welcome back, Danny! His story is inspirational no matter where he ends up in his career. Like he said with his on-air interview, he has a greater appreciation of life and maturity that can only come from facing down death. Jacobs needs a lot more rounds under him, so about this time next year is when we’ll start to see where Jacobs fits in with the middleweight division.
BAYAMON, PUERTO RICO — Moises Fuentes spoiled a returning Ivan Calderon’s bid to recapture the WBO minimumweight with an emphatic fifth round TKO at the Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez.
Calderon showed very good footwork and upper body movement in the opening rounds to avoid Fuentes’ hooks and counter with straight lefts. Fuentes never got discouraged and continued stalking and throwing hard to the body in close.
Calderon began to slow by the fourth, allowing Fuentes to score with right hooks to the head and body. On the ropes, Fuentes added heavy left hooks to dominate the round’s last minute.
The assault signaled the end; Fuentes trapped Calderon early and dropped him to his knees with a series of hooks downstairs. Fuentes repeated the attack for two more knockdowns to force a stoppage.
The bout was Calderon’s first in nearly a year after winning a split decision over Felipe Rivas last October 29. Last night’s TKO win was Fuentes’ second successful title defense.
With the knockout losses to Giovanni Segura in 2010 and 2011, Calderon could argue that it was a combination of age and styles, that a tall pressure guy like Segura with heavy hands would always have been a problem for him. He can’t say that about Moises Fuentes, a fighter the “Iron Boy” would have definitely outboxed in his prime. At 37 years old, his legs and body could only show glimpses of the old Calderon for three rounds.
Ivan Calderon was a top Pound4Pound fighter for years and is a first ballot Hall of Famer. He has nothing to be ashamed of. Let’s hope he realizes that and hangs up the gloves.
HAMBURG, GERMANY — Alexander Povetkin (25-0, 17 KOs) made short work of Hashim Rahman (50-8-2, 41 KOs) earlier today in notching his third successful WBA World title defense via a second round TKO.
After stunning Rahman with a right hand in the first, Povetkin badly staggered Rahman in the second with a left hook. Rahman never regained his equilibrium and used his right arm to stay upright while receiving a series of hooks. Another head-jarring left hook would prompt referee Gustavo Padilla to call a halt to matters at the 1:46 mark.
