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TOE TO TOE INDEED Canelo Comes Back With Fire and Fury, Stops Angulo

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Cinnamon-topped Saul “Canelo” Alvarez hoped to get back on the sunny side with a win over Alfredo Angulo, months after getting schooled by Floyd Mayweather. That he did, with a message, one of violence and passionate intensity, sent to the doubters that he wasn’t going to drop into a depression and drop off the map.

At the MGM in Vegas, Canelo and Angulo both had their fair share of rooters shouting out their preference as the fighters strode to the ring in all Mexican showdow.. and the love from the rooters didn’t decrease as the men engaged in a torrid rumble, though the ending had many folks weighing in with dismay.

Canelo came out blasting, and had a few dips, but basically landed near every power shot he threw at Angulo. Come round ten, the ref stepped in and saved the brave Angulo from eating more. Many booed the TKO call and didn’t love the timing, but he’d more than earned his check, and he’d accumulated a wicked amount of brain rattling launches.

“The referee stopped the fight, it’s the law of the ring, I could have fought another ten rounds,” the victor said afterwards, while a good portion of the crowd booed their vote at the ref’s call.

“I’m upset because they should have let the fight go on,” Angulo said. “I’m frustrated. They should have let it go to the end. I’m fine. The referee was wrong this time.”

More bewildering, perhaps, was that Canelo’s trainer Virgil Hunter declared after that his man was coming on, despite ample evidence. “Of course I’m very upset,” he said. “I told the doctor if Canelo got two or three consecutive punches on him I would stop the fight. He only landed one punch and they stopped the fight. Everybody knows Alfredo was coming on strong.”

Regarding stats, Canelo went 295-513, a sterling 58% connect percentage. Angulo went a fairly sad 104-770, landing 14%, which is in fact quite sad.

Canelo came in with slightly lighter pockets, having to give $100,000 of his purse to Fredo for coming in over the max weight on Friday. Fredo, too, was a half pound over, but didn’t have to pay a penalty. The contracts were amended late in the game to reflect a max weight of 155 pounds. Canelo had to weigh 168 or less on Saturday afternoon, and he made that hurdle.

Canelo (age 24) was 170 to 174 for Fredo (age 32) before the fight. Canelo was 42-1-1 while Fredo was 22-3 entering.

In the first, Canelo launched a sharp left hook right away. He dug the hooks to the body early on as well. Fredo woke up late in the round after eating breakfast and lunch of leather.

“He cannot beat you,” trainer Virgil Hunter told Fredo after the round.

In the second, Canelo’s power shots looked like they were top grade. He came forward, was busy, and looked like he was taking out some aggravation from the Floyd loss on Fredo. Fredo put together some combos, and the crowd was truly into the scuffle.

In the third, Fredo looked to be the attacker. He ate a right uppercut, though, and his punches didn’t look to be as stiff as Canelos.’ He had to hope Canelo would lose steam. Fredo landed some rights but nothing like Canelos’ rippers.

Fredo in the fourth ate overhand rights, but he showed signs of life. In the fifth, Canelo started to droop some. Did he eat up too much energy? Canelo was now with back to the ropes, some, not in center ring. The left hook was not so zesty from Canelo, not compared to the first few rounds.

They exchanged, the crowd went beyond ballistic, in round eight. Perro’s right eye was closing but he wasn’t in quit mode.

In round nine, Canelo was walloping Fredo and the doc took a hard look after the round.

A massive uppercut in the tenth was enough for Tony Weeks, who stepped in, and halted the tussle. The crowd booed, not liking the timing.

At the time Weeks pulled the plug, the judges had it 89-82, 89-82, 88-83, for Canelo, for the record.

In a post-fight interview with Jim Gray Nevada State Athletic Commission Chairman Francisco Aguilar defended Weeks.

“After speaking with Tony and the doctor, I think it’s understandable why the decision was made,” Aguilar said. “Tony made his decision and he made his decision with the consultation of a doctor.

“Our job as a commission is to ensure the health and safety of our fighters. We don’t want the referee to determine the outcome of the fight but he made the decision to protect the health of the fighter.”

I concur.

Your thoughts, Forum faithful.

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Skavynskyi and Bustillos Win on a MarvNation Card in Long Beach

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Skavynskyi and Bustillos Win on a MarvNation Card in Long Beach

LONG BEACH, Ca.-A cool autumn night saw welterweights and minimumweights share main events for a MarvNation fight card on Saturday.

Ukraine’s Eduard Skavynskyi (15-0, 7 KOs) experienced a tangled mess against the awkward Alejandro Frias (14-10-2) but won by decision after eight rounds in a welterweight contest at the indoor furnace called the Thunder Studios.

It was hot in there for the more than 600 people inside.

Skavynskyi probably never fought someone like Mexico’s Frias whose style was the opposite of the Ukrainian’s fundamentally sound one-two style. But round after round the rough edges became more familiar.

Neither fighter was ever damaged but all three judges saw Skavynskyi the winner by unanimous decision 79-73 on all three cards. The Ukrainian fighter trains in Ventura.

Bustillo Wins Rematch

Applerose2

In the female main event Las Vegas’ Yadira Bustillos (8-1) stepped into a rematch with Karen Lindenmuth (5-2) and immediately proved the lessons learned from their first encounter.

Bustillos connected solidly with an overhand right and staggered Lindenmuth but never came close to putting the pressure fighter down. Still, Bustillos kept turning the hard rushing Lindenmuth and snapping her head with overhand rights and check left hooks.

Lindenmuth usually overwhelms most opponents with a smothering attack that causes panic. But not against Bustillos who seemed quite comfortable all eight rounds in slipping blows and countering back.

After eight rounds all three judges scored the contest for Bustillos 78-74 and 80-72 twice. Body shots were especially effective for the Las Vegas fighter in the fifth round. Bustillos competes in the same division as IBF/WBO title-holder Yokasta Valle.

Other Bouts

In a middleweight clash, undefeated Victorville’s Andrew Buchanan (3-0-1) used effective combination punching to defeat Mexico’s Fredy Vargas (2-1-1) after six rounds. Two judges scored it 59-55 and a third 60-54 for Buchanan. No knockdowns were scored.

A super lightweight match saw Sergio Aldana win his pro debut by decision after four rounds versus Gerardo Fuentes (2-9-1).

Photos credit: Al Applerose

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Tedious Fights and a Controversial Draw Smudge the Matchroom Boxing Card in Orlando

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Matchroom Boxing was at the sprawling Royale Caribe Resort Hotel in Orlando, Florida tonight with a card that aired on DAZN. The main event was a ho-hum affair between super lightweights Richardson Hitchins and Jose Zepeda.

SoCal’s Zepeda has been in some wars in the past, notably his savage tussle with Ivan Baranchyk, but tonight he brought little to the table and was outclassed by the lanky Hitchins who won all 12 rounds on two of the cards and 11 rounds on the other.  There were no knockdowns, but Zepeda suffered a cut on his forehead in round seven that was deemed to be the product of an accidental head butt and another clash in round ten forced a respite in the action although Hitchins suffered no apparent damage.

It was the sort of fight where each round was pretty much a carbon of the round preceding it. Brooklyn’s Hitchins, who improved to 17-0 (7), was content to pepper Zepeda with his jab, and the 34-year-old SoCal southpaw, who brought a 37-3 record, was never able to penetrate his defense and land anything meaningful.

Hitchins signed with Floyd Mayweather Jr’s promotional outfit coming out of the amateur ranks and his style is reminiscent in ways of his former mentor. Like Mayweather, he loses very few rounds. In his precious engagement, he pitched a shutout over previously undefeated John Bauza.

Co-Feature

In the co-feature, Conor Benn returned to the ring after an absence of 17 months and won a unanimous decision over Mexico’s Rodolfo Orozco. It wasn’t a bad showing by Benn who showed decent boxing skills, but more was expected of him after his name had been bandied about so often in the media. Two of the judges had it 99-91 and the other 96-94.

Benn (22-0, 14 KOs) was a late addition to the card although one suspects that promoter Eddie Hearn purposely kept him under wraps until the week of the fight so as not to deflect the spotlight from the other matches on his show. Benn lost a lucrative date with Chris Eubank Jr when he was suspended by the BBBofC when evidence of a banned substance was found in his system and it’s understood that Hearn has designs on re-igniting the match-up with an eye on a date in December. For tonight’s fight, Benn carried a career-high 153 ½ pounds. Mexico’s Orozco, who was making his first appearance in a U.S. ring, declined to 32-4-3.

Other Bouts of Note

The welterweight title fight between WBA/WBC title-holder Jessica McCaskill (15-3-1) and WBO title-holder Sandy Ryan (6-1-1) ended in a draw and the ladies’ retain their respective titles. Ryan worked the body effectively and the general feeling was that she got a raw deal, a sentiment shared by the crowd which booed the decision. There was a switch of favorites in the betting with the late money seemingly all on the Englishwoman who at age 30 was the younger boxer by nine years.

The judges had it 96-94 Ryan, 96-95, and a vilified 97-93 for Chicago’s McCaskill.

In the opener of the main DAZN stream, Houston middleweight Austin “Ammo” Williams, 27, improved to 15-0 (10) with a 10-round unanimous decision over 39-year-old Toronto veteran Steve Rolls (22-3). All three judges had it 97-93. Rolls has been stopped only once, that by Gennady Golovkin.

Photo credit: Ed Mulholland / Matchroom Boxing

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Zhilei Zhang KOs Joe Joyce; Calls Out Tyson Fury

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Joe Joyce activated his rematch clause after being stopped in the sixth frame by Zhilei Zhang in their first meeting. In hindsight, he may wish that he hadn’t. Tonight at London’s Wembley Stadium, Zhang stopped him again and far more conclusively than in their first encounter.

In the first meeting, Zhang, a southpaw, found a steady home for his stiff left jab. Targeting Joyce’s right eye, he eventually damaged the optic to where the ring doctor wouldn’t let Joyce continue. At the end, the fight was close on the cards and Joyce was confident that he would have pulled away if not for the issue with his eye.

In the rematch tonight, Zhang (26-1-1, 21 KOs) closed the curtain with his right hand. A thunderous right hook on the heels of a straight left pitched Joyce to the canvas where he landed face first. He appeared to beat the count by a whisker, but was seriously dazed and referee Steve Gray properly waived it off. The official time was 3:07 of round three.

Zhang, who lived up to his nickname, “Big Bang,” was credited with landing 29 power punches compared with only six for Joyce (15-2) who came in 25 pounds heavier than in their first meeting while still looking properly conditioned. One would be inclined to say that age finally caught with the “Juggernaut” who turned 38 since their last encounter, but Zhang, 40, is actually the older man. In his post-fight interview in the ring, the New Jersey resident, a two-time Olympian for China, when asked who he wanted to fight next, turned to the audience and said, “Do you want to see me shut Tyson Fury up?”

He meant it as a rhetorical question.

Semi-Windup

Light heavyweight Anthony Yarde was matched soft against late sub Jorge Silva, a 40-year-old Portuguese journeyman, and barely broke a sweat while scoring a second-round stoppage. Yarde backed Silva against a corner post and put him on the deck with a short right hand. Silva’s body language indicated that he had no interest in continuing and the referee accommodated him. The official time was 2:07 of round two.

A 30-year-old Londoner, Yarde (24-3, 23 KOs) was making his first start since being stopped in eight rounds by Artur Beterbiev in a bout that Yarde was winning on two of the scorecards. Silva, a late replacement for 19-3-1 Ricky Summers, falls to 22-9.

Also

Former leading super middleweight contender Zach Parker (23-1, 17 KOs) returned to the ring in a “shake-off-the-rust” fight against 40-year-old Frenchman Khalid Graidia and performed as expected. Graidia’s corner pulled him out after seven one-sided rounds.

In his previous fight, Parker was matched against John Ryder who he was favored to beat. The carrot for the winner was a lucrative date with Canelo Alvarez. Unfortunately for Parker, he suffered a broken hand and was unable to continue after four frames. Tonight, he carried 174 pounds, a hint that he plans to compete as a light heavyweight going forward. Indeed, he has expressed an interest in fighting Anthony Yarde. Graidia declined to 10-13-4.

The Zhang-Joyce and Yarde-Silva fights were live-streamed in the U.S. on ESPN+.

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