In the Evening Hours After Joshua-Ruiz, There Was a Lot Going On

In the Evening Hours After Joshua-Ruiz, There Was a Lot Going On

Hindsight is 20-20, but pundits with an historical bent looking for clues as to how the Joshua-Ruiz fight would unfold were looking in the wrong place. They went back and looked at previous heavyweight title rematches when they should have been re-visiting the career of Buster Douglas.

Douglas’s very next fight after his shocking upset of Mike Tyson came against Evander Holyfield. Douglas came in woefully out of shape and was stopped in the third round. And just like that, Buster went from a national hero to a bum in the blink of an eye.

Andy Ruiz went the distance with Anthony Joshua in Saudi Arabia, but his performance was reminiscent of Douglas-Holyfield in that he fell from grace in the court of public opinion with a loud thud. The good news for Ruiz and his kinfolk is that decades from now folks will remember his first meeting with Anthony Joshua and the rematch not so much.

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In the main go of last night’s SHOWTIME card at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, WBC world middleweight title-holder Jermall Charlo stopped Brisbane, Australia-based Dennis Hogan (28-3-1) in the seventh round. Charlo (30-0, 22 KOs) knocked Hogan down with a left uppercut early in the fourth stanza and closed the show three rounds later with a booming left that knocked Hogan (28-3-1) down and unable to continue when he arose in the eyes of the referee. Charlo who previously held a world title at 154 pounds, was making his third defense. Hogan, who was moving up from 154 pounds, hadn’t previously been stopped.

The co-main between Chris Eubank Jr and veteran Matt Korobov was billed for the WBA “interim” world middleweight title. To the great dissatisfaction of the crowd, the contest was halted in the opening minute of the second round when Korobov was unable to continue after apparently dislocating his shoulder while throwing a punch. It goes into the books as a TKO 2 for Eubank.

Korobov (28-3-1) clearly had the best of it in the opening round, giving promise of a very interesting scrap. It was the U.S. debut for Eubank Jr (29-2, 22 KOs) who apparently will move forward into a match with Jermall Charlo.

In the best of the three TV fights, a battle of southpaws, Japan’s Ryosuke Iwasa scored a mild upset with an 11^th round stoppage of former WBO bantamweight champion Marlon Tapales to claim the IBF “interim 122-pound title.

Iwasa (27-3, 17 KOs) was three-and-a-half inches taller than Tapales and had a six-and-a-half-inch reach advantage. He started slowly but gradually assumed control with a higher workrate. In round 11, he brought the fight to a finish with a hard left that sent Tapales, now 33-3, down with his head falling under the lower strand of ropes. The Filipino beat the count but was in no condition to continue.

In a 10-round match fought at a catchweight of 164 pounds, Ronald Ellis (17-1-2) out-hustled Immanuwel Aleem (18-2-2) to win a well-deserved majority decision. The scores were 98-92, 97-93, and 95-95

Puebla

Emanuel Navarrete’s fourth defense of his WBO super bantamweight title was a soft defense against countryman Francisco Horta.

As anticipated, the 26-year-old Horta, who had defeated no one of note while building a 20-3-1 record, was out of his league. Navarrete (30-1, 25 KOs) dominated from the get-go en route to a fourth-round stoppage.

The co-feature was equally one-sided. Jerwin Ancajas had little difficulty defending his title against Miguel Gonzalez, an obscure fighter from Chile. Perhaps the best of the current crop of Filipino fighters (no disrespect to Manny Pacquiao), Ancajas (32-1-2) took Gonzalez out in the sixth in what was the eighth successful defense of his IBF super flyweight title.

Montreal

David Lemieux’s first foray into the 168-pound weight class nearly ended in disaster. Lemieux was knocked down in the opening round and again in the fifth by 35-year-old Ukrainian Max Bursak who wasn’t known as a big puncher.

Lemieux scored a knockdown himself in round six and that ultimately saved him as he was given a split decision (94-93, 94-93, 93-94) that could have easily gone the other way. The narrow victory advanced Lemieux’s record to 41-4 (34) while Bursak fell to 35-6-2.

In the featured undercard fight, rising heavyweight contender Arslanbek Makhmudov dismissed 39-year-old Samuel Peter in the opening round. It was Makhmudov’s 11^th win by stoppage in as many tries since leaving the amateur ranks.

It’s sad to witness the demise of Samuel Peter. The former WBC title-holder, once ranked among the hardest heavyweight punchers of all time, currently resides in Palookaville. He has won only two of his last six fights, those coming in Tijuana against opponents who were a combined 4-33-2.

Photo credit: Stephanie Trapp / SHOWTIME

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