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Undercard Results From Garcia-JuanMa Texas/HBO Card

Published

11 years ago

June 16, 2013

Martirosyan Davis 130615 002a Dallas – The untelevised portion the Mikey Garcia vs. Juan Manuel Lopez card at the American Airlines Center Saturday night was packed full of prospects promoted by Top Rank.

Oscar Valdez (6-0, 5 KOs) continued his impressive rise up the professional ranks of the featherweight division with a swift demolition of Gil Garcia (5-5-1, 1 KO). Valdez looked as if he might be in tough against Garcia first, but then turned up the heat in the second round. Valdez dropped Garcia with a beautifully savage overhand right, then overwhelmed Garcia after he dared to get up from it. The fight was stopped by referee Laurence Cole in the second at 2:32 after a series of unanswered punches.

“Dangerous” Ryan Davis found himself in deep and dangerous waters against rugged talent Vanes “The Nightmare” Martirosyan (33-0-1, 21 KOs). Frankly, Davis isn’t the sort of the competition Martirosyan (pictured post-win, in Chris Farina-Top Rank photo) wants or needs right now in his career. Nonetheless, he did his part by making short work of Davis, who earned the distinction of being the only fighter this writer has ever seen to wear pink and black-striped leggings into a boxing ring.

It was clear from the beginning who’d be the victor. Martirosyan was the stalker, Davis, the prey. In the second round, Martirosyan landed three hard right hands in a row to send Davis to the canvas. He picked himself up back onto his feet but was pummeled back down again shortly thereafter. Davis’ corner did the right thing by asking referee Neal Young to stop it, who reluctantly obliged at 2:01 of round two.

“This was just a stay busy fight,” Martirosyan admitted afterwards. “I want big fights.”

Punishing bodywork did the deed for welterweight Mikael Zewski (20-0, 15 KOs) early on in his battle against Damian Frias (19-8-1, 10 KOs). The Canadian prospect landed a three-punch combination to Frias’s midsection to send him down to his knees in misery. Frias got up, but Zewski now knew the drill.

Zewski was aggressive but not wild. He worked his way in with good form and sent hard shots downstairs as much as he could get away with it. Hooks, uppercuts…even jabs went hard to the torso of Frias. That isn’t to say Zewski ignored Frias’ head. Rather, Zewski was intentional in his efforts to utilize the information presented to him in the first: Arias didn’t like getting hit to the body.

Arias did a good job of keeping covered. He was hittable but didn’t open himself up much by throwing anything significant. He mostly jabbed and threw arm punches. He did seem to feel he landed enough to showboat now and again, despite not doing much to win rounds.

The pace slowed after the fifth. Zewski seemed to tire a bit, and some of the snap on this punches dwindled. He turned the dial back up in the eighth, only to be stunned himself by the now invigorated punching of Arias. The two finished the round like most hoped the entire fight would’ve gone: letting their hands go fast and furiously.

All three judges at ringside scored the bout 77-74 for Zewski.

Other Bouts

Middleweight Kurtiss Colvin (8-1, 7 KOs) kicked things off by scoring a TKO in round five over Angel Sigala (8-4, 2 KOs). Both fighters came to fight and impressed the spectators who’d arrived at 6 pm for the opening bell.

John Karl Sosa (7-0, 5 KOs) used fast hands and terrific talent to knockout ill-fated Ramon Alejandro Pena (7-3, 5 KOs) in round number two of their welterweight encounter. The undefeated prospect from Caguas, Puerto Rico looks like he might have the goods to become a real force someday.

Undefeated super bantamweight prospect Tony Lopez was too much for game challenger Jonathan Hernandez. Lopez threw sharp, educated punches with real force until he obliterated Hernandez down to the welcoming canvas with a twisting overhand left. The highlight reel style knockout came at 33 seconds of round four. Hernandez did his best to match the hard-charging Lopez punch for punch, but it was to no avail. Lopez landed the cleaner, harder punches the entire night, at no time more apparent than in the final seconds.

Middleweight Matt Korobov (20-0, 12 KOs) lulled opponent Ossie Duran (27-11-2, 10 KOs) into thinking it’d be a slow and easy contest in the first round of their scheduled eight rounder. So much so, in fact, that one irate local Texan screamed at the men with a thick Texas twang to throw punches.

“You’re in Texas,” he admonished. “Throw some punches!”

It must’ve worked. Duran hit the canvas hard in the second after a hard left hook from Korobov detonated on his chin. He made it up and through the round, but was finished off in the third by an equally devastating left hook downstairs.

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Kelsey McCarson

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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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