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No Longer Blue, But Philly Club Show Scene Still Rocks

The venerable Blue Horizon is still shuttered and apparently is destined to stay that way, but audiences for the club-show fight scene in Philadelphia clearly have found other places to sate their obsession.
One night after a sellout crowd of around 1,100 filled the room used for boxing events at the Sugar House Casino, Hard Hitting Promotions staged an eight-fight card at the 2300 Arena in South Philly that was headlined by Derrick Webster’s eighth-round stoppage of Les Sherrington for something called the NBA (that’s National Boxing Association) Intercontinental super middleweight championship, sending a full house of 1,100 or so similarly satisfied fight fans home happy.
If there is a difference between the two venues, it’s that the Sugar House, whose Friday card was staged by Marshall Kauffman’s Kings Promotions, has a fair number of luxurious touches and is located on the Delaware River waterfront, where all manner of nightclubs and other nocturnal lures are available on- and off-site to patrons after the final punch is thrown. The 2300 Arena, which has undergone several name changes, is in a grittier part of town and has more of a Blue Horizon feel, the strategically placed huge-screen TVs and nifty runway entrance from the dressing rooms to the ring notwithstanding. For fans weaned on the Blue, trips to the 2300 Arena probably feel like going home. HHP CEO Manny Rivera worked the room like a politician, thanking everyone for coming and vowing more good times to be had for those who choose to return.
Despite some early glitches – a fight which was to involve longtime local attraction Eric Hunter was canceled and the opening bout delayed more than an hour because the ambulance required to be on hand was reportedly “stuck in traffic,” causing one ringside wag to comment that it must have been coming in from West Virginia — those who stayed for the entirety of the nearly four-hour card didn’t seem to mind. The four Hard Hitting Promotions house fighters, all won inside the distance and to the lusty cheers of their cliques of supporters, with lightweight Jeremy Cuevas’ sixth-round TKO of a determined Deo Kizito, in a scheduled six-rounder, emerging as the action fight of the night.
Philly guy Cuevas (10-0, 8 KOs) seemed destined to have an easy night of it when he wobbled Kizito (3-4, 2 KOs), of Washington, D.C., in the first round. He was on the verge of closing the deal in the fourth round when he drove a retreating Kizito across the ring with a volley of punches, with referee Steve Smoger poised to wave things off if another big shot landed. But Kizito, his back to the ropes, launched an improbable counter-attack to buy himself some more time to turn the tide.
Things got a bit crazier in the fifth, when Kizito went down and Cuevas, thinking the fight was over and he had won by a knockout, mounted the ropes in a neutral corner and raised his arms in exultation. But Smoger ruled that Kizito’s flooring was the result of a slip, and he signaled the fighters back together.
Although Cuevas was far enough ahead in the final round to win on points, he took umbrage to a pair of discomforting low blows that caused Smoger to give him a few seconds of recovery time. Cuevas then went after Kizito with furious purpose and when the D.C. fighter was legitimately floored, Smoger ended matters after an elapsed time of 2 minutes and 2 seconds.
“I felt he disrespected me,” Cuevas said of Kizito’s two possibly intentional shots to his private parts. “Two in a row? That’s disrespectful. But I got to say, the guy was tough, a lot tougher than I thought. He took some hard shots.”
The pace was more leisurely in the scheduled 10-round main event, which pitted 36-year-old southpaw Webster (27-1, 14 KOs), from Glassboro, N.J., against Les Sherrington (37-11, 21 KOs). Despite Webster’s impressive-looking record, it was largely compiled against non-descript opposition, a category into which Sherrington – a native of Queensland, Australia, who also is 36 and would have gotten the door prize for having come the longest way to be on hand, had such a thing existed – probably falls. Through seven rounds, Webster employed a stick-and-move strategy that was mostly move and not much stick. But in round eight Webster, who bears a facial resemblance to IBF welterweight champ Errol Spence Jr., unleashed his inner Spence and battered Sherrington the canvas, obliging referee Gary Rosato to wave things off at the 1:32 mark.
“I knew I was pitching a shutout, but my right shoulder started hurting so I figured, why not get him out there?” reasoned Webster, who said he has become accustomed to hearing he looks like Spence, also a southpaw and widely regarded as one of the top four or five pound-for-pound fighters in the world.
“A lot of people tell me that,” he said of his resemblance to Spence. “My body work needs to be better to get as good as his, though.”
The delayed opening bout might have marked the final ring appearance of Camden, N.J., veteran Prince Badi Ajamu (29-5-1, 15 KOs), who dropped a four-round unanimous decision to Puerto Rico’s Kenny Cruz (2-2-1, 2 KOs). Ajamu is 46, at 197 pounds a fleshy cruiserweight well above his optimal fighting weight of 175, and he is now 2-2 on a comeback launched in 2017 after having been inactive for eight years.
“I’m going back down to light heavy,” Ajamu, who once fought Roy Jones Jr., said of his immediate plans. “I need to keep fighting, stay consistent and be honest with myself. If I can’t be competitive and get in good condition, it might be time to do something else.”
In addition to Cuevas, Hard Hitting Promotions showcased Branden Pizarro, Samuel Teah and Gadwin Rosa also took their bouts out of the hands of the judges. Pizarro (11-1, 5 KOs), a lightweight, registered two knockdowns in stopping Hector Marengo (7-13-4, 4 KOs) in two rounds; lightweight Samuel Teah (14-2-1, 7 KOs) got Zack Ramsey (8-4, 4 KOs) out of there in one, and super featherweight Gadwin Rosa (7-0, 6 KOs) had to wait until the fifth round before stopping Angel Albelo (4-10-3, 1 KO) in a scheduled six-rounder.
Photo credit: Darryl Cobb
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Bombs Away in Las Vegas where Inoue and Espinoza Scored Smashing Triumphs

Japan’s Naoya “Monster” Inoue banged it out with Mexico’s Ramon Cardenas, survived an early knockdown and pounded out a stoppage win to retain the undisputed super bantamweight world championship on Sunday.
Japan and Mexico delivered for boxing fans again after American stars failed in back-to-back days.
“By watching tonight’s fight, everyone is well aware that I like to brawl,” Inoue said.
Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), and Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) and his wicked left hook, showed the world and 8,474 fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas that prizefighting is about punching, not running.
After massive exposure for three days of fights that began in New York City, then moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then to Nevada, it was the casino capital of the world that delivered what most boxing fans appreciate- pure unadulterated action fights.
Monster Inoue immediately went to work as soon as the opening bell rang with a consistent attack on Cardenas, who very few people knew anything about.
One thing promised by Cardenas’ trainer Joel Diaz was that his fighter “can crack.”
Cardenas proved his trainer’s words truthful when he caught Inoue after a short violent exchange with a short left hook and down went the Japanese champion on his back. The crowd was shocked to its toes.
“I was very surprised,” said Inoue about getting dropped. ““In the first round, I felt I had good distance. It got loose in the second round. From then on, I made sure to not take that punch again.”
Inoue had no trouble getting up, but he did have trouble avoiding some of Cardenas massive blows delivered with evil intentions. Though Inoue did not go down again, a look of total astonishment blanketed his face.
A real fight was happening.
Cardenas, who resembles actor Andy Garcia, was never overly aggressive but kept that left hook of his cocked and ready to launch whenever he saw the moment. There were many moments against the hyper-aggressive Inoue.
Both fighters pack power and both looked to find the right moment. But after Inoue was knocked down by the left hook counter, he discovered a way to eliminate that weapon from Cardenas. Still, the Texas-based fighter had a strong right too.
In the sixth round Inoue opened up with one of his lightning combinations responsible for 10 consecutive knockout wins. Cardenas backed against the ropes and Inoue blasted away with blow after blow. Then suddenly, Cardenas turned Inoue around and had him on the ropes as the Mexican fighter unloaded nasty combinations to the body and head. Fans roared their approval.
“I dreamed about fighting in front of thousands of people in Las Vegas,” said Cardenas. “So, I came to give everything.”
Inoue looked a little surprised and had a slight Mona Lisa grin across his face. In the seventh round, the Japanese four-division world champion seemed ready to attack again full force and launched into the round guns blazing. Cardenas tried to catch Inoue again with counter left hooks but Inoue’s combos rained like deadly hail. Four consecutive rights by Inoue blasted Cardenas almost through the ropes. The referee Tom Taylor ruled it a knockdown. Cardenas beat the count and survived the round.
In the eighth round Inoue looked eager to attack and at the bell launched across the ring and unloaded more blows on Cardenas. A barrage of 14 unanswered blows forced the referee to stop the fight at 45 seconds of round eight for a technical knockout win.
“I knew he was tough,” said Inoue. “Boxing is not that easy.”
Espinoza Wins
WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinosa (27-0, 23 KOs) uppercut his way to a knockout win over Edward Vazquez (17-3, 4 KOs) in the seventh round.
“I wanted to fight a game fighter to show what I am capable,” said Espinoza.
Espinosa used the leverage of his six-foot, one-inch height to slice uppercuts under the guard of Vazquez. And when the tall Mexican from Guadalajara targeted the body, it was then that the Texas fighter began to wilt. But he never surrendered.
Though he connected against Espinoza in every round, he was not able to slow down the taller fighter and that allowed the Mexican fighter to unleash a 10-punch barrage including four consecutive uppercuts. The referee stopped the fight at 1:47 of the seventh round.
It was Espinoza’s third title defense.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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Undercard Results and Recaps from the Inoue-Cardenas Show in Las Vegas

The curtain was drawn on a busy boxing weekend tonight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas where the featured attraction was Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue appearing in his twenty-fifth world title fight.
The top two fights (Inoue vs. Roman Cardenas for the unified 122-pound crown and Rafael Espinoza vs. Edward Vazquez for the WBO world featherweight diadem) aired on the main ESPN platform with the preliminaries streaming on ESPN+.
The finale of the preliminaries was a 10-rounder between welterweights Rohan Polanco and Fabian Maidana. A 2020/21 Olympian for the Dominican Republic, Polanco was a solid favorite and showed why by pitching a shutout, punctuating his triumph by knocking Maidana to his knees late in the final round with a hard punch to the pit of the stomach.
Polanco improved to 16-0 (10). Argentina’s Maidana, the younger brother of former world title-holder Marcos Maidana, fell to 24-4 while maintaining his distinction of never being stopped.
Emiliano Vargas, a rising force in the 140-pound division with the potential to become a crossover star, advanced to 14-0 (12 KOs) with a second-round stoppage Juan Leon. Vargas, who turned 21 last month, is the son of former U.S. Olympian Fernando Vargas who had big money fights with the likes of Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. Emiliano knocked Leon down hard twice in round two – both the result of right-left combinations — before Robert Hoyle waived it off.
A 28-year-old Spaniard, Leon was 11-2-1 heading in.
In his U.S. debut, 29-year-old Japanese southpaw Mikito Nakano (13-0, 12 KOs) turned in an Inoue-like performance with a fourth-round stoppage of Puerto Rico’s Pedro Medina. Nakano, a featherweight, had Medina on the canvas five times before referee Harvey Dock waived it off at the 1:58 mark of round four. The shell-shocked Medina (16-2) came into the contest riding a 15-fight winning streak.
Lynwood, California junior middleweight Art Barrera Jr, a 19-year-old protégé of Robert Garcia, scored a sixth-round stoppage of Chicago’s Juan Carlos Guerra. There were no knockdowns, but the bout had turned sharply in Barrera’s favor when referee Thomas Taylor intervened. The official time was 1:15 of round six.
Barrera improved to 9-0 (7 KOs). The spunky but outclassed Guerra, who upset Nico Ali Walsh in his previous outing, declined to 6-2-1.
In the lid-lifter, a 10-round featherweight affair, Muskegon Michigan’s Ra’eese Aleem improved to 22-1 (12) with a unanimous decision over LA’s hard-trying Rudy Garcia (13-2-1). The judges had it 99-01, 98-92, and 97-93.
Aleem, 34, was making his second start since June of 2023 when he lost a split decision in Australia to Sam Goodman with a date with Naoya Inoue hanging in the balance.
Check back shortly for David Avila’s recaps of the two world title fights.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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Canelo Alvarez Upends Dancing Machine William Scull in Saudi Arabia

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who has acquired a new nickname – “The Face of Boxing” – is accustomed to fighting on Cinco De Mayo weekend, but this year was different. For the first time, Canelo was fighting outside the continent of North America and entering the ring at an awkward hour. His match with William Scull started at 6:30 on a Sunday morning in Riyadh.
In the opposite corner was 32-year-old William Scull, an undefeated (23-0) Cuban by way of Germany, whose performance was better suited to “Dancing With the Stars” than to a world title fight. Constantly bouncing from side to side but rarely letting his hands go, Scull frustrated Canelo who found it near-impossible to corner him, but one can’t win a fight solely on defense and the Mexican superstar was returned the rightful winner in a bout that was a fitting cap to a desultory two days of Saudi-promoted prizefighting. The scores were 115-113, 116-112, and 119-109. In winning, Canelo became a fully unified super middleweight champion twice over.
Terence Crawford was in attendance and HE Turki Alalshikh made it official: Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) and Canelo (63-2-2, 39 KOs) will meet in the Fight of the Century (Alalshikh’s words) on Sept. 12 in Las Vegas at the home of the city’s NFL team, the Raiders. For whatever it’s worth, each of Canelo’s last seven fights has gone the full 12 rounds.
Semi-wind-up
In a match between the WBC world cruiserweight title-holder and the WBC world cruiserweight “champion in recess” (don’t ask), the former, Badou Jack, brought some clarity to the diadem by winning a narrow decision over Noel Mikaelian. One of the judges had it a draw (114-114), but the others gave the fight to “Jack the Ripper” by 115-113 scores.
A devout Muslim who is now a full-time resident of Saudi Arabia, the Sweden-born Jack, a three-division title-holder, had the crowd in his corner. Now 41 years old, he advanced his record to 29-3-3 (17). It was the first pro loss for Mikaelian (27-1), a Florida-based Armenian who was subbing for Ryan Rozicki.
The distracted CompuBox operator credited Mikaelian with throwing 300 more punches but there was no controversy.
Tijuana’s Jaime Munguia, a former junior middleweight title-holder, avenged his shocking loss to Bruno Sarace with a unanimous 12-round decision in their rematch. This was Munguia’s first fight with Eddy Reynoso in his corner. The scores were 117-111 and 116-112 twice.
Surace’s one-punch knockout of Munguia in mid-December in Tijuana was the runaway pick for the 2024 Upset of the Year. Heading in, Munguia was 44-1 with his lone defeat coming at the hands of Canelo Alvarez. Munguia had won every round against Surace before the roof fell in on him.
Surace won a few rounds tonight, but Munguia was the busier fighter and landed the cleaner shots. It was the first pro loss for Surace (26-1-2) and ended his 23-fight winning streak. The Frenchman hails for Marseilles.
Heavyweights
In a 10-round heavyweight match fought at a glacial pace, Martin Bakole (21-2-1) and Efe Ajagba (20-1-1) fought to a draw. One of the judges favored Ajagba 96-94 but he was outvoted by his cohorts who each had it 95-95.
Bakole, a 7/2 favorite, came in at 299 pounds, 15 more than he carried in his signature win over Jared Anderson, and looked sluggish. He was never able to effectively close off the ring against the elusive Ajagba who fought off his back foot and failed to build on his early lead.
The fight between the Scotch-Congolese campaigner Bakole and his Nigerian-American foe was informally contested for the heavyweight championship of Africa. That “title” remains vacant.
In a 6-rounder, heavy-handed Cuban light heavyweight Brayon Leon, a stablemate of Canelo Alvarez, was extended the distance for the first time while advancing his record to 7-0 at the expense of Mexico’s Aaron Roche (11-4-1). Leon knocked Roche to the canvas in the fourth round with a right-left combination, but the Mexican stayed the course while eating a lot of hard punches.
Photo credit: Leigh Dawney / Queensberry Promotions
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