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Avila Perspective. Chap. 107: El Flaco, the Charlo twins and More

Avila Perspective. Chap. 107: El Flaco, the Charlo twins and More
LOS ANGELES-Middleweights and light middleweights reigned supreme last week.
Ukrainian super welterweight Serhii Bohachuk led the way with a convincing performance in Merida, Mexico last Friday where he defeated Alejandro Davila by technical knockout.
It rained throughout the fight and Bohachuk rained blows just as feverishly to score his 18th consecutive knockout in 18 pro fights.
Can anyone stop El Flaco?
The Ukrainian super welterweight who was nicknamed “El Flaco” because of his thin frame, used his superior boxing skills to out-battle determined Mexican fighter Davila and force that fighter’s corner to end the fight on a slippery canvas.
Though no knockdowns were scored it was a smart move by Davila’s Mexican trainers. He was getting battered.
“Alejandro Davila was a really tough fighter. He didn’t want to quit,” said Tom Loeffler head of 360 Promotions that promotes Bohachuk. “His trainers were arguing with him and he didn’t want to stop. But Serhii had hurt him a lot. It was a good decision on their part.”
Bohachuk, 25, a thinly framed and long-armed 154-pounder, combines tireless and precise punching mixed with experience gained in more than 100 amateur fights. Plus, he has an acute sense of vision and the ability to see incoming fire.
“My style is Mexican style,” said Bohachuk on Thursday at a press conference in Los Angeles. “That’s how I like to fight.”
This last fight was of particular concern because it was Bohachuk’s first with new trainer Manny Robles Jr. after years with Abel Sanchez.
Before Robles accepted the new fighter as a pupil, he reached out to the former trainer Sanchez. Both conversed about the situation and Robles said Sanchez gave him his blessing.
Moving from one trainer known for teaching an aggressive style of fighting to another who practices a slightly more defensive flavor can have consequences. One important factor is the fighter’s work habits.
“He’s disciplined. He has integrity,” said Robles when describing Bohachuk. “Style-wise we’re more about controlled aggression. And learning how to fight backwards.”
Robles said he’s learned that even the most aggressive punchers need to learn how to fight going in reverse. Though it didn’t occur in this last fight, Bohachuk was prepared.
So how good is Bohachuk?
It’s difficult to argue against 18 consecutive knockout wins. It’s not like he’s facing the Charlo brothers. But is he good enough to compete with fighters near that caliber?
Against Davila, who had only tasted defeat once before against Canada’s Mikael Zewski, the slender Ukrainian showed a patient approach against the ultra-aggressive Mexican fighter who attacked like a souped-up windmill.
It was a telling performance.
Bohachuk looked like a contender with his careful but determined movement. He seemed to be able to watch the incoming fire and adjust smoothly without panicking. Slowly he began busting blows at whatever openings he saw. He never over-punched and with the TKO, he triumphed in his first defense of his WBC Continental Americas super welterweight title.
Looks like Loeffler (pictured in the red shirt) has another champion on the rise.
Charlos
Speaking of champions, the brothers Jermell and Jermall Charlo shared a Showtime pay-per-view fight card last Saturday and both defended their world titles successfully.
For years I’ve witnessed the rise of the Charlo brothers from their appearances on Golden Boy cards to their current performances with Premier Boxing Champions. Though each has a world title, I did not think they were ready for the monsters of their divisions: guys like Gennady Golovkin, Daniel Jacobs or Saul Alvarez.
Well, now they are more than ready.
Jermell Charlo, the WBC super welterweight titlist, added the WBA and IBF titles to his waist with an impressive performance. Yes, he knocked out Jeison Rosario with a solar plexus punch, but more than that, he showed an intelligent approach in dissecting the dangerous Dominican fighter.
Both brothers have always shown athleticism and skill, but their ring IQ has risen dramatically and they are at the top of the peak now.
Jermall Charlo did exactly what I thought he would do and skillfully defeated a contender who had tested both Golovkin and Jacobs.
It’s on to better things for the Charlos brothers.
Saturday Night Fights
A fan-less Los Angeles fight card at Microsoft Theater features another set of twins in the brothers Barrientes. The Premier Boxing Champions fight card will be shown on Fox Sports 1 on Saturday, Oct. 3, at 5 p.m. PT.
The main event showcases welterweights Paul Kroll (7-0, 6 KOs) versus Lucas Santamaria (11-1-1) in a 10-round fight.
Kroll fights out of Philadelphia and that almost always means he’s a fighter. A real fighter and not a slapper and holder. He meets Orange County’s Santamaria who upset Mykal Fox a month ago. Both guys can fight inside and that means lots of action.
It should be a very good fight.
In the preliminaries Angel Barrientes (2-0) meets Fernando De Anda (2-3) in a six round super bantamweight match. And Chavez Barrientes (2-0) meets Ivan Varela (3-2) in a six round featherweight fight. The Barrientes’ hail from Las Vegas, Nevada and they are pretty tall for their weight class at 5’10 in height.
“Me and my brother train together every day. We really learn well off each other. We’ve been running up at Mt. Charleston to help us with beast level conditioning. I have remained fight-ready all of quarantine. We are ready and excited to get into the ring and show the world what we are all about,” said Chavez Barrientes.
Super Lightweights
A battle between super lightweight contenders highlights the Top Rank boxing card on Saturday night Oct. 3, in Las Vegas. ESPN+ will stream the fight card at 7:30 p.m. PT.
Jose “Chon” Zepeda (32-2, 25 KOs) meets Ivan Baranchyk (20-1, 13 KOs) at the MGM Grand Bubble for a vacant title and more importantly a place supposedly in the front of line for the super lightweight world title.
It’s been known that current WBC and WBO titlist Jose Carlos Ramirez will be facing IBF titlist Josh Taylor in a unification clash. He has already decided to move up in weight whether he wins or loses.
For the past two years Zepeda has claimed he beat Ramirez when they fought in February 2019. He will need total concentration against the Belarussian Baranchyk who promises a knockout of the Mexican fighter.
Baranchyk has only one loss and that was against Taylor in Scotland a year ago. It went the entire 12 rounds.
The card also features some solid prospects including undefeated Gabriel Flores a flashy combination puncher and Duke Ragan an amateur standout in separate fights.
Sunday Morning in England
Tall undefeated light heavyweights are the flavor of the day for a Sunday morning boxing card from Milton Keynes, England, a town located about 50 miles from London. DAZN will stream the Sunday event beginning at 11 a.m. Pacific Time.
Croatia’s Marko Calic (11-0, 6 KOs) stands three inches above six feet in height and for a 175-pounder that is extremely tall.
Ghanaian-born Joshua Buatsi (12-0, 10 KOs) is one inch shorter than Calic but hits harder. We shall see who wins the battle of the tall light heavyweights. Buatsi knocked out Mexico’s Marco Periban and that’s not an easy feat.
The co-main event pits Chantelle Cameron (12-0) versus Brazil’s Adriana Dos Santos (6-0) in a 10-round bout for the vacant WBC female super lightweight world title.
“It’s a short career so I don’t want to be wasting my time, especially with everything that has happened this year,” said Cameron, 29, who fights out of Northampton, England. “I’m 12-0 but I feel like I’ve been waiting a long time for this opportunity. I’m not looking past Adriana at all.”
Photo credit: Al Applerose
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Mercito Gesta Victorious Over Jojo Diaz at the Long Beach Pyramid

LONG BEACH, CA.-Those in the know knew Mercito Gesta and Jojo Diaz would be a fight to watch and they delivered.
Gesta emerged the winner in a super lightweight clash between southpaws that saw the judges favor his busier style over Diaz’s body attack and bigger shots and win by split decision on Saturday.
Despite losing the main event because the star was overweight, Gesta (34-3-3, 17 KOs) used an outside method of tactic to edge past former world champion Diaz (32-4-1, 15 KOs) in front of more than 5,000 fans at the Pyramid.
The speedy Gesta opened up the fight with combination punching up and down against the peek-a-boo style of Diaz. For the first two rounds the San Diego fighter overwhelmed Diaz though none of the blows were impactful.
In the third round Diaz finally began unloading his own combinations and displaying the fast hands that helped him win world titles in two divisions. Gesta seemed stunned by the blows, but his chin held up. The counter right hook was Diaz’s best weapon and snapped Gesta’s head back several times.
Gesta regained control in the fifth round after absorbing big blows from Diaz. He seemed to get angry that he was hurt and opened up with even more blows to send Diaz backpedaling.
Diaz targeted his attack to Gesta’s body and that seemed to slow down Gesta. But only for a round.
From the seventh until the 10th each fighter tried to impose their style with Gesta opening up with fast flurries and Diaz using right hooks to connect with solid shots. They continued their method of attack until the final bell. All that mattered was what the judges preferred.
After 10 rounds one judge saw Diaz the winner 97-93 but two others saw Gesta the winner 99-91, 98-92. It was a close and interesting fight.
“I was expecting nothing. I was the victor in this fight and we gave a good fight,” said Gesta. “It’s not an easy fight and Jojo gave his best.”
Diaz was surprised by the outcome but accepted the verdict.
Everything was going good. I thought I was landing good body shots,” said Diaz. “I was pretty comfortable.”
Other Bouts
Mexico’s Oscar Duarte (25-1-1, 20 KOs) knocked out Chicago’s Alex Martin (18-5, 6 KOs) with a counter right hand after dropping him earlier in the fourth round. The super lightweight fight was stopped at 1:14 of the round.
A battle between undefeated super welterweights saw Florida’s Eric Tudor (8-0, 6 KOs) emerge the winner by unanimous decision after eight rounds versus Oakland’s Damoni Cato-Cain.
The taller Tudor showed polished skill and was not bothered by a large cut on his forehead caused by an accidental clash of heads. He used his jab and lead rights to defuse the attacks of the quick-fisted southpaw Cato-Cain. The judges scored the fight 80-72 and 78-74 twice for Tudor.
San Diego’s Jorge Chavez (5-0, 4 KOs) needed less than one round to figure out Nicaragua’s Bryan Perez (12-17-1, 11 KOs) and send him into dreamland with a three-punch combination. No need to count as referee Ray Corona waved the fight over. Perez shot a vicious right followed by another right and then a see-you-later left hook at 3.00 of the first round of the super featherweight match.
Photo credit: Al Applerose
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Jojo Diaz’s Slump Continues; Mercito Gesta Prevails on a Split Decision

At age 30, Jojo Diaz’s career is on the skids. The 2012 U.S. Olympian, a former world title holder at 126 and 130 pounds and an interim title holder at 135, Diaz suffered his third straight loss tonight, upset by Mercito Gesta who won a split decision at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, CA.. The scoring was strange with Gesta winning nine of the 10 rounds on one of the cards and only three rounds on another. The tie-breaker, as it were, was a 98-92 tally for Gesta and even that didn’t capture the flavor of what was a closely-contested fight.
Originally listed as a 12-rounder, the match was reduced to 10 and that, it turned out, did Diaz no favors. However, it’s hard to feel sorry for the former Olympian as he came in overweight once again, having lost his 130-pound title on the scales in February of 2021.
Diaz also has issues outside the ropes. Best elucidated by prominent boxing writer Jake Donovan, they include a cluster of legal problems stemming from an arrest for drunk driving on Feb. 27 in the LA suburb of Claremont.
With the defeat, Diaz’s ledger declined to 32-4-1. His prior losses came at the hands of Gary Russell Jr, Devin Haney, and William Zepeda, boxers who are collectively 83-2. Mercito Gesta, a 35-year-old San Diego-based Filipino, improved to 34-3-3.
Co-Feature
Chihuahua, Mexico super lightweight Oscar Duarte has now won nine straight inside the distance after stopping 33-year-old Chicago southpaw Alex Martin in the eighth frame. Duarte, the busier fighter, had Martin on the deck twice in round eight before the fight was waived off.
Duarte improved to 25-1-1 (20). Martin, who reportedly won six national titles as an amateur and was once looked upon as a promising prospect, declined to 18-5.
Other Bouts of Note
New Golden Boy signee Eric Tudor, a 21-year-old super welterweight from Fort Lauderdale, overcame a bad laceration over his right eye, the result of an accidental clash of heads in round four, to stay unbeaten, advancing to 8-0 (6) with a hard-fought unanimous 8-round decision over Oakland’s Damoni Cato-Cain. The judges had it 80-72 and 78-74 twice. It was the first pro loss for Cato-Cain (7-1-1) who had his first five fights in Tijuana.
In the DAZN opener, lanky Hawaian lightweight Dalis Kaleiopu went the distance for the first time in his young career, improving to 4-0 (3) with a unanimous decision over 36-year-old Colombian trial horse Jonathan Perez (40-35). The scores were 60-52 across the board. There were no knockdowns, but Perez, who gave up almost six inches in height, had a point deducted for a rabbit punch and another point for deducted for holding.
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‘Big Baby’ Wins the Battle of Behemoths; TKOs ‘Big Daddy’ in 6

Lucas “Big Daddy” Browne weighed in at a career-high 277 pounds for today’s battle in Dubai with Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller, but he was the lighter man by 56 pounds. It figured that one or both would gas out if the bout lasted more than a few stanzas.
It was a war of attrition with both men looking exhausted at times, and when the end came it was Miller, at age 34 the younger man by nine years, who had his hand raised.
Browne was the busier man, but Miller, whose physique invites comparison with a rhinoceros, hardly blinked as he was tattooed with an assortment of punches. He hurt ‘Bid Daddy’ in round four, but the Aussie held his own in the next frame, perhaps even forging ahead on the cards, but only postponing the inevitable.
In round six, a succession of right hands knocked Browne on the seat of his pants. He beat the count, but another barrage from Miller impelled the referee to intervene. The official time was 2:33. It was the 21st straight win for Miller (26-0-1, 22 KOs). Browne declined to 31-4 and, for his own sake, ought not fight again. All four of his losses have come inside the distance, some brutally.
The consensus of those that caught the livestream was that Floyd Mayweather Jr’s commentary was an annoying distraction that marred what was otherwise an entertaining show.
As for what’s next for “Big Baby” Miller, that’s hard to decipher as he has burned his bridges with the sport’s most powerful promoters. One possibility is Mahmoud Charr who, like Miller, has a big gap in his boxing timeline. Now 38 years old, Charr – who has a tenuous claim on a WBA world title (don’t we all?) — has reportedly taken up residence in Dubai.
Other Bouts of Note
In a 10-round cruiserweight affair, Suslan Asbarov, a 30-year-old Russian, advanced to 4-0 (1) with a hard-fought majority decision over Brandon Glanton. The judges had it 98-92, 97-93, and a more reasonable 95-95.
Asbarov was 12-9 in documented amateur fights and 1-0 in a sanctioned bare-knuckle fight, all in Moscow, entering this match. He bears watching, however, as Glanton (18-2) would be a tough out for almost anyone in his weight class. In his previous fight, at Plant City, Florida, Glanton lost a controversial decision to David Light, an undefeated Australian who challenges WBO world title-holder Lawrence Okolie at Manchester, England next week.
A 10-round super featherweight match between former world title challengers Jono Carroll and Miguel Marriaga preceded the semi-windup. Carroll, a 30-year-old Dublin southpaw, overcame a cut over his left eye suffered in the second round to win a wide unanimous decision in a fairly entertaining fight.
It was the sixth straight win for Carroll (24-2-1, 7 KOs) who elevated his game after serving as a sparring partner for Devin Haney. Marriaga, a 36-year-old Colombian, lost for the fourth time in his last five outings, declining to 30-7.
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