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Romero Duno Wins Savage Fight in Fantasy Springs
INDIO, CA. — It must be the season of the witch as two lightweights engaged in one of the most brutal and bruising battles of the year and finally ended with Romero Duno winning by technical decision over Juan Mozo Rodriguez on Thursday to win the NABO title.
You had to see it to believe it.
Filipino warrior Duno (20-1, 15 KOs) powered his way to victory over the equally powerful Rodriguez (30-8, 26 KOs) of Mexico after nine rounds in a scheduled 10-round title fight at Fantasy Springs Casino.
When the match was first announced anyone familiar with these two fighters had to expect brutality at its extreme. And that is exactly what transpired.
Both opened the first round with sledgehammer blows as if trying to knock a building down. Neither was missing and it was difficult to imagine they could continue at the pace set. They did.
Duno fired rocket rights at the Mexican fighter who barely blinked his eyes. Rodriguez snapped the Filipino fighterâs head back with savage uppercuts and he continued as if a warm desert breeze had merely rustled his short hair. They continued.
Around the fifth round Rodriguez connected with two powerful uppercuts that sent Duno reeling backward. It appeared the super strong Filipino fighter was about to go, however he returned with more wicked rights and the battle resumed.
Duno began targeting the body but in the seventh, one blow veered far below the belt line and down went Rodriguez. The referee saw the blow and deducted a point from Duno for the illegal act.
In the eighth round Duno continued the body attack and placed a left to the liver of Rodriguez who sunk to the ground. Somehow the Mexican fighter made it to his feet and the fight resumed.
Fans were mesmerized by the brutality and gutsiness shown by both fighters. In the ninth round the two lightweights engaged in an exchange of blows when their heads collided. Rodriguez slipped to the floor after receiving the butt; when he got up he was asked by referee Raul Caiz if he could continue and he answered no. According to the rules if a fighter cannot continue because of an illegal and unintentional act, the fight is stopped and determined by the scorecards up to that moment.
One judge scored it 85-84 for Rodriguez, but two others saw it 86-83 and 85-84 for Duno who becomes the NABO lightweight titlist.
It was one of the best fights of the year.
Manny IV
A battle for the NABF featherweight title saw Manny Robles score a first round knockdown with a beautiful counter left uppercut, then out-maneuver the pressure fighting southpaw Rigoberto Hermosillo over 10 rounds to win by split decision.
Every round was contested.
Hermosillo was slightly taller but preferred to fight up close and was often caught with pot shots by Robles who kept moving and hitting at the always charging fighter from Guadalajara.
Many of the fans drove from the Los Angeles area to cheer on Hermosillo, but the taller fighter never could hurt Robles who kept landing one-twos and uppercuts. After 10 rounds one judge scored it 95-94 Hermosillo, two saw it for Robles 97-92 and 96-93. Robles keeps the NABF featherweight title.
âI think I was a little bit smarter,â said Robles.
Other Bouts
Genaro Gamez (9-0, 6 KOs) needed less than a round to figure out Mexico Cityâs Daniel Evangelista (20-10-2,16 KOs) and send the super lightweight fighter to the canvas twice. A right-left-right combination dropped Evangelista the first time. After he got up Gamez cornered him and unloaded a five-punch combination that took the legs out of the Mexico City fighter. Referee Zachary Young stopped the fight at 2:43 of the first round to give Gamez the win by knockout.
âI wasnât going for the knockout but Iâm happy I got it,â said Gamez.
Popular Los Angeles prizefighter Carlos âThe Solutionâ Morales (18-4-3, 7 KOs) won by knockout over Mexicoâs Pedro Navarrete (30-24-3, 19 KOs) at 2:02 of round five in a lightweight match. Morales used his jab and pressure to break down Navarrete and finally ended it with a sweeping left hook that forced referee Raul Caiz to stop the fight.
Morales, a solid veteran fighter, used an intelligent attack while keeping the pressure on the former world champion who is also the brother of current WBO super bantamweight world titlist Emanuel Navarrete.
Mexican veteran Dihul Olguin (14-12-3, 9 KOs) out-witted Los Angeles fighter Tenochtitlan Nava (7-2) with a slick inside game that saw him win by majority decision after six rounds in a super featherweight fight. No knockdowns were scored and though Nava fired more blows, Olguin was the more accurate. Two judges scored it 58-56 for Olguin and a third saw it 57-57 giving the Guadalajara fighter the win.
Sean Garcia (4-0, 2 KOs) used his speed and combinations to stop Mexican veteran Martin Cardona (26-20) at the end of the second round of their featherweight clash. The left-handed Garcia connected with a flashy three-punch combination that dropped Cardona but the referee ruled it a slip. The round ended and Cardona signaled he could no longer fight. Garcia, the younger brother of Ryan âThe Flashâ Garcia, grabbed his second knockout victory.
Palmdaleâs Kevin Anton (1-0) defeated New Yorkâs Lashawn Alcocks (1-6) by knockout at 53 seconds of the second round in a welterweight bout.
Photo credit: Tom Hogan / Golden Boy Promotionshttp://forum.ib.tv/forum/forum/boxing/13082-romero-duno-wins-savage-fight-in-fantasy-springs
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Boxing Odds and Ends: The Heavyweight Merry-Go-Round
There were few surprises when co-promoters Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren and their benefactor HE Turki Alalshikh held a press conference in London this past Monday to unveil the undercard for the Beterbiev-Bivol show at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on June 1. Most of the match-ups had already been leaked.
For die-hard boxing fans, Beterbiev-Bivol is such an enticing fight that it really doesnât need an attractive undercard. Two undefeated light heavyweights will meet with all four relevant belts on the line in a contest where the oddsmakers straddled the fence. Itâs a genuine âpick-âemâ fight based on the only barometer that matters, the prevailing odds.
But Beterbiev-Bivol has been noosed to a splendid undercard, a striking contrast to Saturdayâs Haney-Garcia $69.99 (U.S.) pay-per-view in Brooklyn, an event where the undercard, in the words of pseudonymous boxing writer Chris Williams, is an absolute dumpster fire.
The two heavyweight fights that will bleed into Beterbiev-Bivol, Hrgovic vs. Dubois and Wilder vs. Zhang, would have been stand-alone main events before the incursion of Saudi money.
Hrgovic-Dubois
Filip Hrgovic (17-0, 13 KOs) and Daniel Dubois (20-2, 19 KOs) fought on the same card in Riyadh this past December. Hrgovic, the Croatian, was fed a softie in the form of Australiaâs Mark De Mori who he dismissed in the opening round. Dubois, a Londoner, rebounded from his loss to Oleksandr Usyk with a 10th-round stoppage of corpulent Jarrell âBig Babyâ Miller.
Thereâs an outside chance that Hrgovic vs. Dubois may be sanctioned by the IBF for the world heavyweight title.
The May 18 showdown between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury has a rematch clause. The IBF is next in line in the rotation system for a unified heavyweight champion and the organization has made it plain that the winner of Usyk-Fury must fulfill his IBF mandatory before an intervening bout.
The best guess is that the Usyk-Fury winner will relinquish the IBF belt. If so, Hrgovic and Dubois may fight for the vacant title although a more likely scenario is that the organization will keep the title vacant so that the winner can fight Anthony Joshua.
Wilder-Zhang
The match between Deontay Wilder (43-3-1, 42 KOs) and Zhilei Zhang (26-2-1, 21 KOs) is a true crossroads fight as both Wilder, 38, and Zhang, who turns 41 in May, are nearing the end of the road and the loser (unless itâs a close and entertaining fight) will be relegated to the rank of a has-been. In fact, Wilder has hinted that this may be his final rodeo.
Both are coming off a loss to Joseph Parker.
Wilder last fought on the card that included Hrgovic and Dubois and was roundly out-pointed by a man he was expected to beat. Itâs a quick turnaround for Zhang who opposed Parker on March 8 and lost a majority decision.
Other Fights
Either of two other fights may steal the show on the June 1 event.
Raymond Ford (15-0-1, 8 KOs) meets Nick Ball (19-0-1, 11 KOs) in a 12-round featherweight contest. New Jerseyâs Ford will be defending the WBA world title he won with a come-from-behind, 12th-round stoppage of Otabek Kholmatov in an early contender for Fight of the Year. Liverpoolâs âWreckingâ Ball, a relentless five-foot-two sparkplug, had to settle for a draw in his title fight with Rey Vargas despite winning the late rounds and scoring two knockdowns.
Hamzah Sheeraz (19-0, 15 KOs) meets fellow unbeaten Austin âAmmoâ Williams (16-0, 11 KOs) in a 12-round middleweight match. East Londonâs Sheeraz, the son of a former professional cricket player, is unknown in the U.S. although he trained for his recent fights at the Ten Goose Boxing Gym in California. Riding a skein of 13 straight knockouts, he has a date with WBO title-holder Janibek Alimkhanuly if he can get over this hurdle.
The Forgotten Heavyweight
âUnbeaten for seven years, the man nobody wants to fight,â intoned ring announcer Michael Buffer by way of introduction. Buffer was referencing Michael Hunter who stood across the ring from his opponent Artem Suslenkov.
This scene played out this past Saturday in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. It was Hunterâs second fight in three weeks. On March 23, he scored a fifth-round stoppage of a 46-year-old meatball at a show in Zapopan, Mexico.
The second-generation âBounty Hunter,â whose only defeat prior to last weekend came in a 12-rounder with Oleksandr Usyk, has been spinning his wheels since TKOing the otherwise undefeated Martin Bakole on the road in London in 2018. Two fights against hapless opponents on low-budget cards in Mexico and a couple of one-round bouts for the Las Vegas Hustle, an entry in the fledgling and largely invisible Professional Combat League, are the sum total of his activity, aside from sparring, in the last two-and-a-half years.
Hunterâs chances of getting another big-money fight took a tumble in Tashkent where he lost a unanimous decision in a dull affair to the unexceptional Suslenkov who was appearing in his first 10-round fight. The scores of the judges were not announced.
You wonât find this fight listed on boxrec. As Jake Donovan notes, the popular website will not recognize a fight conducted under the auspices of a rogue commission. (Another fight you wonât find on boxrec for the same reason is Nico Ali Walshâs 6-round split decision over the 9-2-1 Frenchman, Noel Lafargue, in the African nation of Guinea on Dec. 16, 2023. You can find it on YouTube, but according to boxrec, boxingâs official record-keeper, it never happened.)
Anderson-Merhy Redux
The only thing missing from this past Saturdayâs match in Corpus Christi, Texas, between Jared Anderson and Ryad Merhy was the ghost of Robert Valsberg.
Valsberg, aka Roger Vaisburg, was the French referee who disqualified Ingemar Johansson for not trying in his match with LAâs Ed Sanders in the finals of the heavyweight competition at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Valsberg tossed Johansson out of the ring after two rounds and Johansson was denied the silver medal. The Swede redeemed himself after turning pro, needless to say, when he demolished Floyd Patterson in the first of their three meetings.
Merhy was credited with throwing only 144 punches, landing 34, over the course of the 10 rounds. Those dismal figures yet struck many onlookers as too high. (This reporter has always insisted that the widely-quoted CompuBox numbers should be considered approximations.)
Whatever the true number, it was a disgraceful performance by Merhy who actually showed himself to have very fast hands on the few occasions when he did throw a punch. With apologies to Delfine Persoon, a spunky lightweight, U.S. boxing promoters should think twice before inviting another Belgian boxer to our shores.
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Anderson Cruises by Vapid Merhy and Ajagba edges Vianello in Texas
Jared Anderson returned to the ring tonight on a Top Rank card in Corpus Christi, Texas. Touted as the next big thing in the heavyweight division, Anderson (17-0, 15 KOs) hardly broke a sweat while cruising past Ryad Merhy in a bout with very little action, much to the disgruntlement of the crowd which started booing as early as the second round. The fault was all Merhy as he was reluctant to let his hands go. Somehow, he won a round on the scorecard of judge David Sutherland who likely fell asleep for a round for which he could be forgiven.
Merhy, born in the Ivory Coast but a resident of Brussels, Belgium, was 32-2 (26 KOs) heading in after fighting most of his career as a cruiserweight. He gave up six inches in height to Anderson who was content to peck away when it became obvious to him that little would be coming back his way.
Anderson may face a more daunting adversary on Monday when he has a court date in Romulus, Michigan, to answer charges related to an incident in February where he drove his Dodge Challenger at a high rate speed, baiting the police into a merry chase. (Weirdly, Anderson entered the ring tonight wearing the sort of helmet that one associates with a race car driver.)
Co-Feature
In the co-feature, a battle between six-foot-six former Olympians, Italyâs Guido Vianello started and finished strong, but Efe Ajagba had the best of it in the middle rounds and prevailed on a split decision. Two of the judges favored Ajagba by 96-94 scores with the dissenter favoring the Italian from Rome by the same margin.
Vianello had the best round of the fight. He staggered Ajagba with a combination in round two. At the end of the round, a befuddled Ajagba returned to the wrong corner and it appeared that an upset was brewing. But the Nigerian, who trains in Las Vegas under Kay Koroma, got back into the fight with a more varied offensive attack and better head movement. In winning, he improved his ledger to 20-1 (14). Vianello, who sparred extensively with Daniel Dubois in London in preparation for this fight, declined to 12-2-1 in what was likely his final outing under the Top Rank banner.
Other Bouts of Note
In the opening bout on the main ESPN platform, 35-year-old super featherweight Robson Conceicao, a gold medalist for Brazil in the 2016 Rio Olympics, stepped down in class after fighting Emanuel Navarrete tooth-and-nail to a draw in his previous bout and scored a seventh-round stoppage of Jose Ivan Guardado who was a cooked goose after slumping to the canvas after taking a wicked shot to the liver. Guardado made it to his feet, but the end was imminent and the referee waived it off at the 2:27 mark.
Conceicao improved to 18-1 (9 KOs). It was the U.S. debut for Guardado (15-2-1), a boxer from Ensenada, Mexico who had done most of his fighting up the road in Tijuana.
Ruben Villa, the pride of Salinas, California, improved to 22-1 (7) and moved one step closer to a match with WBC featherweight champion Rey Vargas with a unanimous 10-round decision over Tijuanaâs Cristian Cruz (22-7-1). The judges had it 97-93 and 98-92 twice.
Cruz, the son of former IBF world featherweight title-holder Cristobal Cruz, was better than his record. He entered the bout on a 21-1-1 run after losing five of his first seven pro fights.
Cleveland southpaw Abdullah Mason, who turned 20 earlier this month, continued his fast ascent up the lightweight ladder with a fourth-round stoppage of Ronal Ron.
Mason (13-0, 11 KOs) put Ron on the canvas in the opening round with a short left hook. He scored a second knockdown with a shot to the liver. A flurry of punches, a diverse array, forced the stoppage at the 1:02 mark of round four. A 25-year-old SoCal-based Venezuelan, the spunky but out-gunned Ron declined to 14-6.
Charly Suarez, a 35-year-old former Olympian from the Philippines, ranked #5 at junior lightweight by the IBF, advanced to 17-0 (9) with a unanimous 8-round decision over SoCalâs Louie Coria (5-7).
This was a tactical fight. In the final round, Coria, subbing for 19-0 Henry Lebron, caught the Filipino off-balance and knocked him into the ropes which held him up. It was scored a knockdown, but came too little, too late for Coria who lost by scores of 76-75 and 77-74 twice.
Suarez, whose signature win was a 12th-round stoppage of the previously undefeated Aussie Paul Fleming in Sydney, may be headed to a rematch with Robson Conceicao. They fought as amateurs in 2016 in Kazakhstan and Suarez lost a narrow 6-round decision.
Photo credit: Mikey Willams / Top Rank via Getty Images
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Ellie Scotney and Rhiannon Dixon Win World Title Fights in Manchester
Englandâs Ellie Scotney started slowly against the long reach of Franceâs Segolene Lefebvre but used rough tactics and a full-steam ahead approach to unify the super bantamweight division by unanimous decision on Saturday.
âThereâs a lot more I didnât show,â said an excited Scotney (pictured on the left).
IBF titlist Scotney (9-0) added the WBO title by nullifying Lefebvreâs (18-1) reach and dominating the inside with a two-fisted attack in front of an excited crowd in Manchester, England.
For the first two rounds Lefebvre used her long reach and smooth fluid attack to keep Scotney at the end of her punches. Then the fight turned when the British fighter bulled her way inside with body shots and forced the French fighter into the ropes.
Aggressiveness by Scotney turned the fight in her favor. But Lefebvre remained active and countered with overhand rights throughout the match.
Body shots by Scotney continued to pummel the French championâs abdomen but she remained steadfast in her counter-attacks. Combinations landed for Lefebvre and a counter overhand right scored to keep her in the contest in the fifth round.
Scotney increased the intensity of her attack in the sixth and seventh rounds. In perhaps her best round Scotney was almost perfect in scoring while not getting hit with anything from the French fighter.
Maybe the success of the previous round caused Scotney to pause. It allowed Lefebvre to rally behind some solid shots in a slow round and gave the French fighter an opening. Maybe.
The British fighter opened up more savagely after taking two Lefevbre rights to open the ninth. Scotney attacked with bruising more emphatic blows despite getting hit. Though both fired blows Scotneyâs were more powerful.
Both champions opened-up the 10th and final round with punches flying. Once again Scotneyâs blows had more power behind them though the French fighter scored too, and though her face looked less bruised than Scotneyâs the pure force of Scotneyâs attacks was more impressive.
All three judges saw Scotney the winner 97-93, 96-94 and a ridiculous 99-91. The London-based fighter now has the IBF and WBO super bantamweight titles.
Promoter Eddie Hearn said a possible showdown with WBC titlist Erika Cruz looms large possibly in the summer.
âGreat performance. Great punch output,â said Hearn of Scotneyâs performance.
Dixon Wins WBO Title
British southpaw Rhiannon Dixon (10-0) out-fought Argentinaâs Karen Carabajal (22-2) over 10 rounds and won a very competitive unanimous decision to win the vacant WBO lightweight title. It was one of the titles vacated by Katie Taylor who is now the undisputed super lightweight world champion.
An aggressive Dixon dominated the first three rounds including a knockdown in the third round with a perfect left-hand counter that dropped Carabajal. The Argentine got up and rallied in the round.
Carabajal, whose only loss was against Katie Taylor, slowly began figuring out Dixonâs attacks and each round got more competitive. The Argentine fighter used counter rights to find a hole in Dixonâs defense to probably win the round in the sixth.
The final three rounds saw both fighters engage evenly with Carabajal scoring on counters and Dixon attacking the body successfully.
After 10 rounds all three judges saw it in Dixonâs favor 98-91, 97-92, 96-93 who now wields the WBO lightweight world title.
âItâs difficult to find words,â said Dixon after winning the title.
–Hometown Fighter Wins
Manchesterâs Zelfa Barrett (31-2, 17 KOs) battled back and forth with Jordan Gill (28-3-1, 9 KO-s) and finally ended the super featherweight fight with two knockdowns via lefts to the body in the 10th round of a scheduled 12-round match for a regional title.
The smooth moving Barrett found the busier Gill more complex than expected and for the first nine rounds was fighting a 50/50 fight against the fellow British fighter from the small town of Chatteris north of London.
In the 10th round after multiple shots on the body of Gill, a left hook to the ribs collapsed the Chatteris fighter to the floor. He willed himself up and soon after was floored again but this time by a left to the solar plexus. Again he continued but was belted around until the referee stopped the onslaught by Barrett at 2:44 of the 10th.
âA tough, tough fighter,â said Barrett about Gill. âI had to work hard.â
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