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AVILA RINGSIDE Andre Ward Dominates Abraham

Published

14 years ago

May 15, 2011

AVILA RINGSIDE Andre Ward Dominates Abraham Craig Bennett photo

CARSON- WBA super middleweight titleholder Andre Ward dominated Germany’s Arthur Abraham on Saturday and a slimmer and faster Chris “The Nightmare” Arreola reminded fans why he’s among the top heavyweights with a battering knockout victory over Nagy Aguilera.

“It’s a tough business,” said Ward (24-0, 13 KOs). “But I was able to pull out the victory.”

It was all Ward especially after the speedy boxer from Oakland established the stinging jab to the body and head. Abraham (32-3, 26 KOs) was helpless midway through the fight. Despite large representation from Abraham’s fans the German fighter was almost helpless against Ward’s speed.

It was very tentative in the first round between Ward and Abraham in the super middleweight title match. But in the second both let loose with some good combinations. Ward opened up first and Abraham closed the round with a flurry of shots.

Jabs took the third round for Ward who worked it up and down. But a pretty right uppercut by Abraham pierced Ward’s guard for the best punch of the round.

Ward seemed to warm up in round four with some sizzling combinations and solid body shots. Abraham tried to rally but was met with a big left hook to the head that made the German fighter pause.

A very stiff left jab nearly dropped Abraham who walked into the quick blow. Ward grappled with Abraham and fired punches inside a little more than the previous rounds. Abraham couldn’t find the speedster much.

Ward’s jab and lightning combos were mounting up against the German Armenian. Few blows were coming back from the former middleweight world champion and Ward kept on ringing up the blows.

Abraham stepped it up in round eight but still could not match Ward’s speed and accuracy. Ward was willing to stay in the pocket where both fighters tangled up repeatedly. Round nine saw Ward repeat the same sequence of punches including a pretty left uppercut-left hook and right hand.

Ward dominated round 10 with combos from a right hand stance and combos from a left-handed stance. It didn’t matter. A left to Abraham’s body caused the German to complain but it was a legal blow. Ward hit him immediately in the same spot.

“I wish the referee would have let us fight more on the inside because that’s what we trained for,” said Ward.

All three judges scored it big for Ward 120-108, 118-110 and 118-111.

Now Ward proceeds to the finals of the Super Six Middleweight tournament.

“I want to be champion for a long time,” Ward said.

Arreola TKOs Aguilera

Rumors were that Arreola had cut 20 pounds from his last fight and he immediately proved that it was true with a one-side beating of Dominican heavyweight Aguilera (16-6, 11 KOs).

Arreola stalked Aguilera quickly at the opening bell and landed a left hook to the eye of the Dominican that kept him blinking throughout the first round. Lots of exchanges took place early in the round. It would prove to be the least amount of punches thrown.

A furious series of exchanges took place in the second round as Arreola opened up with everything in his arsenal and pinned Aguilera in the corner. The Dominican fought back but then Arreola opened up again.

“I felt real good,” Arreola (31-2, 27 KOs) said.

Round three saw Arreola crank out even more punches with Aguilera on the ropes and absorbing a large number of violent head snapping left hooks, right hands and stinging uppercuts.

“I know I hurt him,” Arreola said.

Referee Raul Caiz Jr. looked ready to end the fight in round three but remained a few feet away. Arreola went back to work ripping body shots to both side of the belly and still Aguilera remained upright. Arreola resumed the onslaught and finally the referee ended the fight by wrapping his hands around the Dominican’s body as the fighter fired a blow two seconds late at 1:58 of round three. Arreola scored a technical knockout.

“I’m surprised he didn’t stop it sooner,” said Arreola who looked anxious for more rounds. “I had to get composed and went back at it.”

Still feeling strong and energized by the crowd response, Arreola said that he felt the difference, that the loss of weight aided him immensely in his impressive performance.

“Now I feel like speed kills especially pressure and speed,” Arreola said while talking in the tunnel as fans anxiously looked at the Mexican-American heavyweight hopeful. “I want to fight soon, real soon.”

Trainer Henry Ramirez said he was not surprised at Arreola’s dominance.

“He’s back on the right track,” Ramirez said.

Other bouts

East L.A.’s Shawn Estrada (12-0, 11 KOs) fired a right hand-left hook combination to knock out Rhode Island’s Joseph Gardner (7-3-1) in 1:27 of the first round of a light heavyweight bout. Despite weighing more than six pounds past the contracted limit, Estrada was too fast and too powerful for Gardner.

Former Olympian Javier Molina (6-0, 4 KOs) won convincingly by unanimous decision over Minnesota’s Danny Figueroa (3-2) after four rounds of a welterweight match.

Undefeated German middleweight Dominik Britsch (22-0, 8 KOs) floored Arkansas’s Delray Raines (18-10-1) three times and maybe a fourth that was discounted by the referee. After two knockdowns via body shots and right hand to the chin finished the job at 2:05 of the fifth round.

Armen Ovesepyan (11-1, 9 KOs) didn’t need much time to take out Arturo Brambilla (9-15) of Mexico with some big blows in a welterweight match. A right hand sent Brambilla down for good at 2:44 of the opening round of the mismatch.

Andrey Klimov (11-0, 6 KOs) stopped D.C.’s Ty Barnett (18-2-1, 12 KOs) with a flurry of blows to the body and head at 1:12 of the third round of a junior welterweight fight. Klimov was stunned early in the first round by a left hook but rallied to turn things around behind steady body punching.

Van Nuys bantamweight Matt Villanueva (6-0, 6 KOs) knocked down Highland’s Frank Gutierrez (0-1) with a blow behind the head early in the fight. Referee Ray Balewicz let the infraction go and Villanueva took advantage with numerous blows behind the head including one that led to a knockout of Gutierrez at 2:56 of the first round.

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David A. Avila

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2015 Fight of the Year – Francisco Vargas vs Takashi Miura

Published

9 years ago

January 4, 2016

The Sweet Science

The WBC World Super Featherweight title bout between Francisco Vargas and Takashi Miura came on one of the biggest boxing stages of 2015, as the bout served as the HBO pay-per-view’s co-main event on November 21st, in support of Miguel Cotto vs Saul Alvarez.

Miura entered the fight with a (29-2-2) record and he was making the fifth defense of his world title, while Vargas entered the fight with an undefeated mark of (22-0-1) in what was his first world title fight. Both men had a reputation for all-out fighting, with Miura especially earning high praise for his title defense in Mexico where he defeated Sergio Thompson in a fiercely contested battle.

The fight started out hotly contested, and the intensity never let up. Vargas seemed to win the first two rounds, but by the fourth round, Miura seemed to pull ahead, scoring a knock-down and fighting with a lot of confidence. After brawling the first four rounds, Miura appeared to settle into a more technical approach. Rounds 5 and 6 saw the pendulum swing back towards Vargas, as he withstood Miura’s rush to open the fifth round and the sixth round saw both men exchanging hard punches.

The big swinging continued, and though Vargas likely edged Miura in rounds 5 and 6, Vargas’ face was cut in at least two spots and Miura started to assert himself again in rounds 7 and 8. Miura was beginning to grow in confidence while it appeared that Vargas was beginning to slow down, and Miura appeared to hurt Vargas at the end of the 8th round.

Vargas turned the tide again at the start of the ninth round, scoring a knock down with an uppercut and a straight right hand that took Miura’s legs and sent him to the canvas. Purely on instinct, Miura got back up and continued to fight, but Vargas was landing frequently and with force. Referee Tony Weeks stepped in to stop the fight at the halfway point of round 9 as Miura was sustaining a barrage of punches.

Miura still had a minute and a half to survive if he was going to get out of the round, and it was clear that he was not going to stop fighting.

A back and forth battle of wills between two world championship level fighters, Takashi Miura versus “El Bandido” Vargas wins the 2015 Fight of the Year.

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Jan 9 in Germany – Feigenbutz and De Carolis To Settle Score

Published

9 years ago

January 4, 2016

The Sweet Science

This coming Saturday, January 9th, the stage is set at the Baden Arena in Offenburg, Germany for a re-match between Vincent Feigenbutz and Giovanni De Carolis. The highly anticipated re-match is set to air on SAT.1 in Germany, and Feigenbutz will once again be defending his GBU and interim WBA World titles at Super Middleweight.

The first meeting between the two was less than three months ago, on October 17th and that meeting saw Feigenbutz controversially edge De Carolis on the judge’s cards by scores of (115-113, 114-113 and 115-113). De Carolis scored a flash knock down in the opening round, and he appeared to outbox Feigenbutz in the early going, but the 20 year old German champion came on in the later rounds.

The first bout is described as one of the most crowd-pleasing bouts of the year in Germany, and De Carolis and many observers felt that the Italian had done enough to win.

De Carolis told German language website RAN.DE that he was more prepared for the re-match, and that due to the arrogance Feigenbutz displayed in the aftermath of the first fight, he was confident that he had won over some of the audience. Though De Carolis fell short of predicting victory, he promised a re-vamped strategy tailored to what he has learned about Feigenbutz, whom he termed immature and inexperienced.

The stage is set for Feigenbutz vs De Carolis 2, this Saturday January 9th in Offenburg, Germany. If you can get to the live event do it, if not you have SAT.1 in Germany airing the fights, and The Boxing Channel right back here for full results.

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2015 Knock Out of the Year – Saul Alvarez KO’s James Kirkland

Published

9 years ago

December 29, 2015

The Sweet Science

On May 9th of 2015, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez delivered a resonant knock-out of James Kirkland on HBO that wins the 2015 KO of the Year.

The knock-out itself came in the third round, after slightly more than two minutes of action. The end came when Alvarez delivered a single, big right hand that caught Kirkland on the jaw and left him flat on his back after spinning to the canvas.Alvarez was clearly the big star heading into the fight. The fight was telecast by HBO for free just one week after the controversial and disappointing Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao fight, and Alvarez was under pressure to deliver the type of finish that people were going to talk about. Kirkland was happy to oblige Alvarez, taking it right to Alvarez from the start. Kirkland’s aggression saw him appear to land blows that troubled the young Mexican in the early going. Alvarez played good defense, and he floored Kirkland in the first round, displaying his power and his technique in knocking down an aggressive opponent.

However, Kirkland kept coming at Alvarez and the fight entered the third round with both men working hard and the feeling that the fight would not go the distance. Kirkland continued to move forward, keeping “Canelo” against the ropes and scoring points with a barrage of punches while looking for an opening.

At around the two minute mark, Alvarez landed an uppercut that sent Kirkland to the canvas again. Kirkland got up, but it was clear that he did not have his legs under him. Kirkland was going to try to survive the round, but Alvarez had an opportunity to close out the fight. The question was would he take it?

Alvarez closed in on Kirkland, putting his opponent’s back to the ropes. Kirkland was hurt, but he was still dangerous, pawing with punches and loading up for one big shot.

But it was the big shot “Canelo” threw that ended the night. Kirkland never saw it coming, as he was loading up with a huge right hand of his own. The right Alvarez threw cracked Kirkland in the jaw, and his eyes went blank. His big right hand whizzed harmlessly over the head of a ducking Alvarez, providing the momentum for the spin that left Kirkland prone on the canvas.

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez went on to defeat Miguel Cotto in his second fight of 2015 and he is clearly one of boxing’s biggest stars heading into 2016. On May 9th Alvarez added another reel to his highlight film when he knocked out James Kirkland with the 2015 “Knock Out of the Year”.

Photo by naoki fukuda

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