Beats, Boxing and Mayhem

UNCASVILLE, Connecticut — Last night’s Main Events card was capped by an explosive, potential middleweight title-shot earning performance from Brooklyn’s Curtis Stevens, who needed a little under two and half minutes to blast away Saul Roman at the Mohegan Sun Casino.

For a man that’s vowed to “bathe in the blood” of current middleweight destroyer Gennady Golovkin, Stevens needed to make a statement and did just that on a nationally televised main event. Stevens took advantage of Roman’s ponderous shots and countered with fast, vicious left hooks that short-circuited Roman’s senses from the first clean blow. It was a Stevens left hook that dropped Roman awkwardly to his knees. Roman couldn’t effectively clinch, and trying to fight his way out the round resulted in another left hook that left him prone on his back and without the referee needing to bother with a count.

“[I]Tried to set up the jab but the hooks caught him… NAAARRGGGH!” said an animated Stevens in his post-fight interview, complete with his own adlibs. “Nuclear warfare! Crunch! My finisher! Ahhh! Golovkin is gonna get caught just like that!”

Stevens made his intentions known that he wants Golovkin next, but cast doubt on if Golovkin’s team would be interested in making that fight. In addition, he dismissed GGG’s recent third-round KO over Matthew Macklin as Golovkin feasting on a scared fighter.

MAKE IT HAPPEN HBO: The irony about this win is that Macklin has a similar first round blowout in his bout before facing Golovkin (in addition to also claiming GGG hadn’t faced a fearless opponent yet). With Golovkin having a November 2 date at MSG on hold, making this bout is a complete no-brainer. Golovkin has yet to face someone as explosive as Stevens so that’s a new look for the him, and Stevens would bring a nice hometown NYC crowd with him.

As far as who would win, Golovkin will and should be the overwhelming favorite. Roman was a solid opponent, but competing at middleweight was a stretch for him considering most of his career has been spent at 154 pounds. In an inside battle of power shots (because Stevens sure won’t be able to outbox him), I pick the guy who’s crushed better fighters with his power and also shown to have a sturdier chin (quiet as it’s kept, Macklin did crack GGG flush a few times).

ADAMEK UD10 GUINN: Dominick Guinn is 1-4 in his last five fights and we saw why with Tomasz ADamek having an easy time in scoring a ten round unanimous decision (99-91 twice, 98-92). While Adamek is no spring chicken himself at 36, he still has much more left than the 38-year old Guinn, who was repeatedly beat to the punch in every exchange. Adamek didn’t have to take many chances, and took his time countering and moving back outside before Guinn, who’s reaction time reflected his age, could offer any significant return fire. Guinn remains a very durable guy (never stopped in any of his 10 losses), so Adamek’s punches never threatened a stoppage. For a replacement opponent, the fight was ok, but you wonder what’s next for Adamek as his career has been treading water since the KO loss to Vitali Klitschko back in 2011. You’d have to think fellow Main Events fighters like Bryant Jennings or Vyacheslav Glazkov should be on his radar.

CHAMBERS A FLOP AGAINST MCHUNU:  One of the main attractions of this card was supposed to be Eddie Chambers finally being able to fight at his “natural” weight of cruiseweight. No longer would he have to struggle against bigger, stronger fighters, right? What we got last night was a listless, plodding fighter with no passion or seemingly concern that he was throwing his credibility and career in the toilet with every passing lackadaisical round.

The storyline going into this fight was Thabiso Mchudu being untested. But once the bell rang, Chambers was the one unsure of himself. Mchudu chose to box off the backfoot and counter. Chambers struggled mightily all night to find the range with his right hand and repeatedly got popped with counter rights and left hooks . Chambers never adjusted by utlizing his own left hook, or providing any significant pressure to get Mchudu out of his comfort zone. All it would take is a glancing shot for Chambers to back off, incredulously look at his gloves, and smile at Mchudu in acknowledgement of a landed punch.

It was an absolute pitiful display. Chambers is 31 years old and with cruiserweight having a talent fall-off after about the initial Top 5 fighters, he can definitely string together a few victories to get back into contention. However, if this is all he can muster against the good fighters of the division, then his prospects of making any serious noise are nil.