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The Top Ten Light Flyweights of the Decade: 2010-2019

The Top Ten Light Flyweights of the Decade: 2010-2019
Light-flyweight was the most challenging division in this series by distance. The top three are split by a hair’s breadth. Below, there is a jumble of men who have met one another and have met one another’s conqueror in an ill-stitched mishmash of clues and hints as to superiority. It would be arrogant to consider any of my lists definitive – though I have certainly put in the hours – but this one, above all, is probably a thoroughly appraised impression rather than an attempt at definitive ordering.
This means you may occasionally find yourself surrounded by lists of names and rankings but I promise it is necessary to bring clarity, which is what this series is about. Those rankings are from Ring Magazine between January first 2010 and October 2012 at which point TBRB is founded and those rankings are preferred.
10 – Adrian Hernandez
Peak Ranking: 1 Record for the Decade: 14-4 Ranked For: 39% of the decade
Adrian Hernandez is most famous as a Naoya Inoue victim, but he was ranked the world’s best light-flyweight for a spell before that execution. Chief among the reasons for this was his brutal 2011 breakdown of Gilberto Keb Baas, the unlikely world’s #1 at that time. Hernandez found his way inside where Baas was willing to entertain him, to his great detriment and the chief cause of his being rescued by the referee and doctor in ten rounds.
More interesting was Hernandez’s two fight series against Suriyan Satorn, made necessary by his surprise loss to the Thai in December of 2011. Hernandez avenged the loss in a career’s best performance the following year. After losing the first-round, shipping some of the punches that caused him so much trouble the year before, Hernandez circled with the jab moving in behind uppercuts. Meathooks followed. A combination of these in violent arrangement sent a hurt Satorn down in the third; an even more vicious orchestration neatly closed the blinds in the sixth.
Two good wins, and throwing in a victory over a green Ganigan Lopez, rounds out a very decent decadal resume. Still, Hernandez’s grasp on the #10 spot is far from ironclad. There is Hiroto Kyoguchi, who beat Hekkie Budler; Budler himself who holds a fine win over Ryoichi Taguchi; and Javier Mendoza who fought and won a filthy fight with Milan Melindo. Any one of them would have been a valid inclusion, although if it hadn’t been Hernandez it would, for me, have been Yu Kimara.
That Hernandez defeated every light-flyweight he met in the decade aside from the immortal Naoya (for which he is most certainly not penalised) is what gets him over the line.
09 – Akira Yaegashi
Peak Ranking: 2 Record for the Decade: 16-5 Ranked For: 21% of the decade
Akira Yaegashi moved out of 105lbs and with the occasional exception, straight to 112lbs where he made his bones. In truth, though, 108lbs was where he belonged, something he proved after the disaster against Roman Gonzalez by weighing in comfortably at 107.5lbs against Pedro Guevara – to whom he also lost.
Yaegashi seemed finished and that is why it such delight that his best win, arguably his best in ring performance – the one that earns him the number nine slot – came a year later against the number two contender Javier Mendoza.
Mendoza, a puncher with a work-rate and heart to match, seemed Yaegeshi Mark II, a fresher version with better hitting. He came to wreck, seeking to march down the older man, to bury him like Gonzalez and Guevara buried him. Quite where Yaegashi produced the performance that followed is anyone’s guess.
In an echo of his match with Gonzalez, Yaegashi moved, rather well, before parking and foraging for punches. Mendoza, who had expected this, followed, and in the second and third did really good work but it is interesting to note that Yaegashi pulls out both rounds with straight right hands to the head, right hands that hurt Mendoza, and later in the fight begin to wither his desperate offence. Yaegashi won a wide decision despite Mendoza’s desperate insistence on contesting every round in a wonderful, brutal fight. The quality of that performance edges him in ahead of Hernandez.
08 – Pedro Guevara
Peak Ranking: 1 Record for the Decade: 29-3-1 Ranked For: 49% of the decade
Pedro Guevara’s 108lbs career is tough to appraise. He has three key wins that need to be examined and each is marked by a question of one kind or another. His first big win came over Mario Rodriguez, a fine fighter but one who was unranked at light-flyweight but was ranked, rather at strawweight. The last is over Ganigan Lopez, a fighter I admire but one who had the barest of claims to a top ten ranking at the time. The middle of these three victories locks him onto this list though, and ahead of Akira Yaegashi, for in December of 2014, Guevara defeated him in his Japanese stronghold.
The question mark here is over Yaegashi’s frame of mind, dropping down from flyweight to 108lbs to escape Roman Gonzalez who had brutalised him so completely three months earlier. What is not in doubt is the completeness of Guevara’s victory. Guevara did everything a grizzled trainer would tell a fighter to do: worked off the jab, claimed the centre of the ring, stayed busy, kept his hands high and his chin tucked in, goes to the body. It was mastery of Boxing 101 and combined with Guevara’s solid hitting and iron jaw it was enough. With nothing between them on the cards, Yaegashi folded to consistent pressure topped off with a vicious liver shot in the seventh.
Facing Lopez, Guevara fought a mirror image of himself, a persistent and competent southpaw who fought without fear but perhaps lacked Guevara’s organisation under fire, born, maybe, of that elite punch resistance. Guevara took the decision.
So, Guevara has good wins against good opponents but being workmanlike he perhaps did not inspire. This may help explain the three narrow decisions he dropped to John Riel Casimero, Yu Kimura and Kenshiro Teraji, which exercises some drag on his position here. Eight is as high as he can climb.
07 – Milan Melindo
Peak Ranking: 3 Record for the Decade: 18-5 Ranked For: 27% of the decade
If you set out to track down Milan Melindo’s astonishing one round knockout of Akira Yaegashi, commit to the full-length version. There is something of the tragi-comic about the pomp and ceremony of the Japanese television broadcast preparing the ground for what we know to be a disastrous first round loss for Yaegashi, who was eighteen months removed from what I have described as his best performance.
After menacing Yaegashi around the ring with his left hand for ninety seconds, Melindo catches his man with a gorgeous left hook counter that sends Yaegashi stumbling and down; bringing him on and then driving him back after he rose, Melindo then dropped him again with the left, this time an uppercut; with all his experience, Yaegashi somehow did not know to run and after surviving a right uppercut double left hook combo, he was pierced by the Melindo jab and sent down for a third and final time by a cameo from the right hand.
There was no way Yaegashi was going to survive Melindo that night had he made it out of the first round. Melindo’s left hand was fire and it was absolutely dialed in to Yaegashi’s face from the first bell.
For his next trick, Melindo outpointed the world class Hekkie Budler. Budler was moving up but would turn in arguably the best performance of his career in his very next fight against Ryoichi Taguchi. The fight was mired in controversy, but this was due to inappropriate use of adrenaline on the cuts Melindo suffered around his eyes rather than scorecard issues, and Budler’s claim to the contrary were rejected; in truth I saw an enthralling but one-sided fight that was made closer only by the impact of those cuts on Melindo’s boxing.
Two quality wins like this might have put him higher up this list, but he ran smack bang into a Japanese technician named Ryoichi Taguchi.
06 – Ryoichi Taguchi
Peak Ranking: 1 Record for the Decade: 17-3-2 Ranked For: 73% of the decade
Ryoichi Taguchi glided onto the world’s stage in late 2015, defeating ranked contender Alberto Rossel. It was not just the result that impressed, but the method. Taguchi won almost every single minute of each of the first six rounds, then dropped Rossel twice with bodypunches while threatening to shut out the game Peruvian. Rossel, who had travelled a long way to Japanese territory to absorb this thrashing, managed to bank a couple of rounds late in the fight to keep it semi-respectable, but Taguchi’s jab had controlled him and allowed him to introduce right uppercuts and straights late in the fight. It was a performance of maturity and authority from a fighter who was still inexperienced.
Sadly, Taguchi squandered much of the momentum he built here on alphabet mandatories, many of them of little meaning, before tying up with Melindo in December of 2017. Their fight was fascinating, a superbly balanced tactical exchange across the first six that the two split down the middle before Taguchi took over late. The key was finding a home for his right hand, which he achieved by moving slightly to his left with Melindo moving slightly on his right. All the while, Taguchi was sharpening his control of the range, an area where he excels, although he doesn’t enjoy the otherworldly accuracy that such fighters often do. He is technically astute though, at all ranges, and as he added a higher workrate to his slightly superior punching, the brave Melindo began to slip behind on the scorecards.
Surprisingly, Taguchi then lost to Budler which makes sense, if only retrospectively; the South African used aggression and experience to negate the control of the Japanese and eased him out by the narrowest of margins. There is a case, then, for Melindo to sit above Taguchi, but in the end, I prefer Taguchi’s direct head-to-head superiority over the triangular logic of Melindo beat Budler, Budler beat Taguchi. Taguchi’s longevity at the poundage tips the scale further.
05 – Donnie Nietes
Peak Ranking: 1 Record for the Decade: 17-0-3 Ranked For: 56% of the decade
I am a little uncomfortable with placing Donnie Nietes at number five and it was nip and tuck between he and Ryoichi Taguchi. The difference, such as it is, is Nietes’ unbeaten status, but that must be tempered by the disturbing fact that Taguchi, hardly a household name (in as much as any light-flyweight ever is), faced tougher competition than divisional leader Nietes. I feel sure, for what little it is worth, that Taguchi, too, would have gone unbeaten had they swapped opponents.
But so too would Nietes, in my view. This is where the limited value of speculations on head-to-head parameters come undone a little bit, but Nietes, with his own reams of experience, almost certainly wouldn’t have been outhustled by Budler; the raw stats feel more pertinent here then and the raw stats favour Nietes.
Nor is Nietes totally devoid of quality in his 108lbs resume, with three names ringing out: serial-thriller Francisco Rodriguez Jnr., and the ranked men Moises Fuentes and Ramon Garcia Hirales. Emerging from the 105lb division, Nietes nevertheless continued to stalk his 108lb opposition and his sharpshooting and poise spooked Hirales early. Nietes swept the first five boxing well within himself, opening up his southpaw opponent with rights to the body thrown often from maximum distance; it’s hard to count these as risks when Nietes throws them such is his judgement of a punch.
There were hints, though, in the second half of that fight that 108lbs was going to prove tougher for Nietes and it proved to be the case in his sharp draw against Moises Fuentes in 2013. Fuentes, a big, rangy light-fly faded badly down the stretch allowing Nietes back into a fight in which he was all but cut adrift. A draw, reflected on my card, was the result. Nietes learned the lesson though and in a rematch, he drew his Mexican opponent onto a narrow pivot from which he could not recover organisationally as quickly as Nietes. Forced into overt aggression by a quick, teasing Nietes he was walked onto persistent counters until one hurt him at which point an undisciplined Nietes – docked a point for landing against a downed opponent at the first knockdown – scored a sensational knockout win, half moving across himself as though to throw a left before booming out a disguised right.
It was an impressive performance, a strategy designed for a bigger opponent, elements of which he drew upon for his decision victory over Francisco Rodriguez in 2015, but essentially, Nietes was far too ready to let the WBO tell him who to fight. This inevitably led to an underwhelming legacy at the poundage but I feel the unblemished record is good enough for the number five spot.
04 – Giovani Segura
Peak Ranking: Ch. Record for the Decade: 11-3 Ranked For: 14% of the decade
Giovani Segura’s career barely overlaps with 108lbs in the decade to hand; he managed just 3-0. There are two reasons we find him in the top five. Firstly, he is the only lineal champion on the list and secondly, two of those wins were over the legendary Ivan Calderon. Calderon, a Rolls Royce of a pugilist, may have been ready to be taken but someone had to do the taking and to break his thirty-four-fight unbeaten streak in the process. As such it was no small matter and clearly of greater legacy benefit than victories over Moises Fuentes and Francisco Rodriguez.
The first fight was painful to watch as a Calderon fan but there was no questioning Segura’s heat, lungs or the fire in his belly. None of Calderon’s punches were beyond him through the first four rounds while he consistently and forcefully laid down his own work. That work began to tell in the fifth and by the middle of the round, Calderon, who moved as beautifully and consistently as any fighter on earth, was propping himself on the ropes and in the corner desperately trying to outfight a tormentor he could not master. Segura was savage and brilliant, walking the dancer down, scowling, invincible, brutal. Segura finally folded him like old pipe in eight.
Segura was even more impressive in the rematch. The puncher had discovered how Calderon, the boxer, moved and it was only a matter of time. Segura fouled him, beat him back, enforced his will and blasted Calderon out of the division, once more along the ropes, once more with that eye-watering body-attack.
At this weight, those two generational wins are more than enough for a top five placement.
03 – Naoya Inoue
Peak Ranking: 1 Record for the Decade: 19-0 Ranked For: 13% of the decade
Naoya Inoue fought exactly four times at 108lbs, excluding his debut; worse, two of those combats were wasted on two fighters unqualified to share the ring with him, even at what was an early stage of his career. Nevertheless, Naoya defeated no fewer than two men who made this list and in the shape of Adrian Hernandez, the world’s number one light-flyweight. The addition to what we’ll politely call supplementary knockouts over Jerson Mancio and Wittawas Basapean is just enough to make the number three spot reasonable, although I dithered with placing him at number four right up until the final moment.
Stepping up to 108lbs, Naoya met the lowly ranked Ryoichi Taguchi out of the gate in an all-Japanese money-maker he probably expected to be a little easier than it was. Taguchi’s iron jaw and technical excellence had yet to be fully recognised and realised but in truth, he was well on his way and that meant Naoya had marched straight into one of the best 108lb men of his generation. Theirs was a stiff contest, clearly won by Naoya but far from one-sided. In the end, Naoya attacked over more planes of movement than Taguchi; left-hook low, straight-right hand high, the beginnings of the fluid, dynamic, attacking prowess that would throw the world at his feet.
Less than a year later, he met divisional number one Adrian Hernandez and I would suggest this was the fight in which he summited. Naoya has made minor adjustments since his thrashing of the experienced Hernandez, but this was the fight where his offence migrated from deadly to seemingly irresistible. Hernandez, for all his guile, was rent.
In fact, for the first time, Inoue looked otherworldly. This might make his sitting at three questionable. The top three are incredibly close – there is almost nothing between them in a sense that has been replicated on any of the other lists. For now, a summary: Naoya Inoue fought too few fights against too few top men to be ranked #1 or #2.
02 – Roman Gonzalez
Peak Ranking: 1 Record for the Decade: 25-2 Ranked For: 28% of the decade
So, the top three can legitimately be rearranged in any order and their ordering will, as always, be defined by the accents placed upon criteria. What has landed the immortal Roman Gonzalez at #2?
In essence, Roman, like Naoya, has two wins that interest us but much more filler than Naoya; there is the beginning. As to those wins, the second of them is relatively unimpressive in that it is Ramon Garcia Hirales, and arguably not the prime version. It should be noted though that Roman steam-rolled him, where Nietes needed twenty-one rounds to get him out of there. It is his other victory that brings him the slot, however.
Juan Francisco Estrada, oddly enough, was not ranked at light-flyweight at the time he and Roman fought but their fight was a generational one between present and future pound-for-pounders at their physical peaks. Here is another matter for preference; do you lean towards rigorous application of the guideline that ranked fighters are the ones whose defeat carry most meaning? Or do you make room for how a fighter was perceived in the immediate wake of a contest?
Certainly Estrada would rocket to the top of the sport behind his superb effort against Roman, who he stretched to his seeming limit in taking a decision. In my view this victory qualifies as generational which outstrips Naoya’s victory over Hernandez, even though Hernandez was ranked number one and Estrada was not ranked at all. Where you land on this question will determine where Gonzalez will land.
It should be remembered, however, that Gonzalez fought around twenty contests at 108lbs, for all that the focus here is on the end of that run and many of those fights were early in his career and near-meaningless. Comparing that resume directly to Noaya’s, he clearly ranks higher for me; and comparing it directly to the man at #1 makes Roman a perfect fit for #2.
01 – Kenshiro Teraji
Peak Ranking: 1 Record for the Decade: 17-0 Ranked For: 26% of the decade
Kenshiro Teraji boxes under the best moniker of any active fighter so far as I am concerned – “The Amazing Boy” comes from a fighting lineage and the temptation is to say that it shows. Teraji’s ambition though was more naked than his father’s ever was and in just his twelfth fight he met an experienced, tough Mexican in Ganigan Lopez, probably the two things at the very top of the list marked “things to avoid” for light-flyweight prospects. It showed. Teraji was involved in a desperate, knife-edge scrap which he won by the narrowest of margins on the scorecards. It was no robbery, but it is perhaps safe to say that the result would not have been the same in Mexico (my card read 114-114).
It has been one of the joys of the light-flyweight decade, however, watching Teraji improve. It has been fast and the consequences have been brutal. Nearly a year to the day after their first fight, Teraji took the extraordinary step of rematching Ganigan. This is not normal. A prospect who squeaks by elite opposition generally chalks it up and moves on but Teraji is a different type of man. In the rematch, he produced a stunning adjustment. Rather than stalk on his toes early, he immediately gave ground, but in small increments, bouncing in and out but to create dynamism in the position rather than specifically to score points. He moved across Ganigan, opening himself up to the Mexican’s jab, allowing his opponent to bag the first round with his right alone. But it also opened up Ganigan’s body for his own right hand. He landed this to such brutal effect in the second that Ganigan was only beginning to think of rising, his face locked in a grimace, at the count of ten. This is a thinking fighter, or a listening fighter with a thinking coach.
In between his fights with Ganigan (key in charting his rise and rise), Teraji was not idle. Instead, he met with the Pedro Guevara, then ranked the best light-flyweight in the world. Enormously ambitious, the WBC open scoring nonsense robbed us of what should have been a tension-drenched contest as Teraji strived and in the middle rounds succeeded in getting Guevera under control. Although he never seemed entirely safe, his reliance upon his jab to out-basic Guevera led the way to a gorgeous beltline attack in the seventh and bagged enough rounds on my card to rescue him from what looked like a bad start. He deserved the majority decision he received. Here was a learning fight and one that bore immediate fruit in the form of that knockout of Lopez.
In 2018 he buried a second man from this list in the shape of Milan Melindo, still among the five best light-flyweights on the planet but outclassed and savaged mercilessly until the ringside doctor and referee colluded to halt the beating. This was the Amazing Boy’s peak performance (so far), sharpshooting of the highest standard, the right hand in particular standing comparisons with Naoya’s and Roman’s.
Since, Teraji has disappointed just a little. In the three remaining fights for him that decade, he shut out the underqualified, granite-jawed Saul Juarez and outright slaughtered Jonathan Taconing and Randy Petalcorin, neither of whom belonged in a ring with him, in four. Still, of the three contenders for the number one spot, Teraji has the best record against ranked contenders, defeated as many men listed here as anyone, and most of all showed meaningful commitment to the division. Naoya and Roman staged forays into the 108lb division and departed for other divisions. Their reward is to be ranked in those other divisions as well as this one; Teraji though is the pre-eminent fighter of the poundage from this decade. He is young enough and good enough that the early part of the next decade will likely belong to him too.
The other lists:
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Jorge Garcia is the TSS Fighter of the Month for April

Jorge Garcia has a lot in common with Mexican countrymen Emanuel Navarrete and Rafael Espinoza. In common with those two, both reigning world title-holders, Garcia is big for his weight class and bubbled out of obscurity with a triumph forged as a heavy underdog in a match contested on American soil.
Garcia had his “coming of age party” on April 19 in the first boxing event at the new Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California (roughly 35 miles north of San Diego), a 7,500-seat facility whose primary tenant is an indoor soccer team. It was a Golden Boy Promotions event and in the opposite corner was a Golden Boy fighter, Charles Conwell.
A former U.S. Olympian, Conwell was undefeated (21-0, 16 KOs) and had won three straight inside the distance since hooking up with Golden Boy whose PR department ballyhooed him as the most avoided fighter in the super welterweight division. At prominent betting sites, Conwell was as high as a 12/1 favorite.
The lanky Garcia was 32-4 (26 KOs) heading in, but it was easy to underestimate him as he had fought extensively in Tijuana where the boxing commission is notoriously docile and in his home state of Sinaloa. This would be only his second fight in the U.S. However, it was noteworthy in hindsight that three of his four losses were by split decision.
Garcia vs. Conwell was a robust affair. He and Conwell were credited with throwing 1451 punches combined. In terms of punches landed, there was little to choose between them but the CompuBox operator saw Garcia landing more power punches in eight of the 12 rounds. At the end, the verdict was split but there was no controversy.
An interested observer was Sebastian Fundora who was there to see his sister Gabriela defend her world flyweight titles. Sebastian owns two pieces of the 154-pound world title where the #1 contender per the WBO is Xander Zayas who keeps winning, but not with the verve of his earlier triumphs.
With his upset of Charles Conwell, Jorge Garcia has been bumped into the WBO’s #2 slot. Regardless of who he fights next, Garcia will earn the biggest payday of his career.
Honorable mention: Aaron McKenna
McKenna was favored to beat veteran campaigner Liam Smith in the co-feature to the Eubank-Benn battle this past Saturday in London, but he was stepping up in class against a former world title-holder who had competed against some of the top dogs in the middleweight division and who had famously stopped Chris Eubank Jr in the first of their two encounters. Moreover, the venue, Tottenham Hotspur, the third-largest soccer stadium in England, favored the 36-year-old Liverpudlian who was accustomed to a big fight atmosphere having fought Canelo Alvarez before 50,000-plus at Arlington Stadium in Texas.
McKenna, from the small town of Monaghan, Ireland, wasn’t overwhelmed by the occasion. With his dad Feargal in his corner and his fighting brother Stephen McKenna cheering him on from ringside, Aaron won a wide decision in his first 12-round fight, punctuating his victory by knocking Smith to his knees with a body punch in the 12th round. In fact, if he hadn’t had a point deducted for using his elbow, the Irishman would have pitched a shutout on one of the scorecards.
“There might not be a more impressive example of a fighter moving up in class,” wrote Tris Dixon of the 25-year-old “Silencer” who improved his ledger to 20-0 (10).
Photo credits: Garcia/Conwell photo compliments of Cris Esqueda/Golden Boy; McKenna-Smith provided by Mark Robinson/Matchroom
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Chris Eubank Jr Outlasts Conor Benn at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

Feudal bragging rights belong to Chris Eubank Jr. who out-lasted Conor Benn to
emerge victorious by unanimous decision in a non-title middleweight match held in
London on Saturday.
Fighting for their family heritage Eubank (35-3, 26 KOs) and Benn (23-1, 14 KOs)
continued the battle between families started 35 years ago by their fathers at Tottenham
Hotspur Stadium.
More than 65,000 fans attended.
Though Eubank Jr. had a weight and height advantage and a record of smashing his
way to victory via knockout, he had problems hurting the quicker and more agile Benn.
And though Benn had the advantage of moving up two weight divisions and forcing
Eubank to fight under a catch weight, the move did not weaken him much.
Instead, British fans and boxing fans across the world saw the two family rivals pummel
each other for all 12 rounds. Neither was able to gain separation.
Eubank looked physically bigger and used a ramming left jab to connect early in the
fight. Benn immediately showed off his speed advantage and surprised many with his
ability to absorb a big blow.Chris Eubank Jr Outlasts Conor Benn at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
Benn scrambled around with his quickness and agility and scored often with bigcounters.
It took him a few rounds to stop overextending himself while delivering power shots.
In the third round Benn staggered Eubank with a left hook but was unable to follow up
against the dangerous middleweight who roared back with flurries of blows.
Eubank was methodic in his approach always moving forward, always using his weight
advantage via the shoulder to force Benn backward. The smaller Benn rocketed
overhand rights and was partly successful but not enough to force Eubank to retreat.
In the seventh round a right uppercut snapped Benn’s head violently but he was
undeterred from firing back. Benn’s chin stood firm despite Eubank’s vaunted power and
size advantage.
“I didn’t know he had that in him,” Eubank said.
Benn opened strong in the eighth round with furious blows. And though he connected
he was unable to seriously hurt Eubank. And despite being drained by the weight loss,
the middleweight fighter remained strong all 12 rounds.
There were surprises from both fighters.
Benn was effective targeting the body. Perhaps if he had worked the body earlier he
would have found a better result.
With only two rounds remaining Eubank snapped off a right uppercut again and followed
up with body shots. In the final stanza Eubank pressed forward and exchanged with the
smaller Benn until the final bell. He simply out-landed the fighter and impressed all three
judges who scored it 116-112 for Eubank.
Eubank admitted he expected a knockout win but was satisfied with the victory.
“I under-estimated him,” Eubank said.
Benn was upset by the loss but recognized the reasons.
“He worked harder toward the end,” said Benn.
McKenna Wins
In his first test in the elite level Aaron McKenna (20-0, 10 KOs) showed his ability to fight
inside or out in soundly defeating former world champion Liam Smith (33-5-1, 20 KOs)
by unanimous decision to win a regional WBA middleweight title.
Smith has made a career out of upsetting young upstarts but discovered the Irish fighter
more than capable of mixing it up with the veteran. It was a rough fight throughout the
12 rounds but McKenna showed off his abilities to fight as a southpaw or right-hander
with nary a hiccup.
McKenna had trained in Southern California early in his career and since that time he’s
accrued a variety of ways to fight. He was smooth and relentless in using his longer
arms and agility against Smith on the outside or in close.
In the 12 th round, McKenna landed a perfectly timed left hook to the ribs and down went
Smith. The former champion got up and attempted to knock out the tall
Irish fighter but could not.
All three judges scored in favor of McKenna 119-108, 117-109, 118-108.
Other Bouts
Anthony Yarde (27-3) defeated Lyndon Arthur (24-3) by unanimous decision after 12 rounds. in a light heavyweight match. It was the third time they met. Yarde won the last two fights.
Chris Billam-Smith (21-2) defeated Brandon Glanton (20-3) by decision. It was his first
fight since losing the WBO cruiserweight world title to Gilberto Ramirez last November.
Viddal Riley (13-0) out-worked Cheavon Clarke (10-2) in a 12-round back-and-forth-contest to win a unanimous decision.
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 323: Benn vs Eubank Family Feud and More

Next generation rivals Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr. carry on the family legacy of feudal warring in the prize ring on Saturday.
This is huge in British boxing.
Eubank (34-3, 25 KOs) holds the fringe IBO middleweight title but won’t be defending it against the smaller welterweight Benn (23-0, 14 KOs) on Saturday, April 26, at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. DAZN will stream the Matchroom Boxing card.
This is about family pride.
The parents of Eubank and Benn actually began the feud in the 1990s.
Papa Nigel Benn fought Papa Chris Eubank twice. Losing as a middleweight in November 1990 at Birmingham, England, then fighting to a draw as a super middleweight in October 1993 in Manchester. Both were world title fights.
Eubank was undefeated and won the WBO middleweight world title in 1990 against Nigel Benn by knockout. He defended it three times before moving up and winning the vacant WBO super middleweight title in September 1991. He defended the super middleweight title 14 times before suffering his first pro defeat in March 1995 against Steve Collins.
Benn won the WBO middleweight title in April 1990 against Doug DeWitt and defended it once before losing to Eubank in November 1990. He moved up in weight and took the WBC super middleweight title from Mauro Galvano in Italy by technical knockout in October 1992. He defended the title nine times until losing in March 1996. His last fight was in November 1996, a loss to Steve Collins.
Animosity between the two families continues this weekend in the boxing ring.
Conor Benn, the son of Nigel, has fought mostly as a welterweight but lately has participated in the super welterweight division. He is several inches shorter in height than Eubank but has power and speed. Kind of a British version of Gervonta “Tank” Davis.
“It’s always personal, every opponent I fight is personal. People want to say it’s strictly business, but it’s never business. If someone is trying to put their hands on me, trying to render me unconscious, it’s never business,” said Benn.
This fight was scheduled twice before and cut short twice due to failed PED tests by Benn. The weight limit agreed upon is 160 pounds.
Eubank, a natural middleweight, has exchanged taunts with Benn for years. He recently avenged a loss to Liam Smith with a knockout victory in September 2023.
“This fight isn’t about size or weight. It’s about skill. It’s about dedication. It’s about expertise and all those areas in which I excel in,” said Eubank. “I have many, many more years of experience over Conor Benn, and that will be the deciding factor of the night.”
Because this fight was postponed twice, the animosity between the two feuding fighters has increased the attention of their fans. Both fighters are anxious to flatten each other.
“He’s another opponent in my way trying to crush my dreams. trying to take food off my plate and trying to render me unconscious. That’s how I look at him,” said Benn.
Eubank smiles.
“Whether it’s boxing, whether it’s a gun fight. Defense, offense, foot movement, speed, power. I am the superior boxer in each of those departments and so many more – which is why I’m so confident,” he said.
Supporting Bout
Former world champion Liam Smith (33-4-1, 20 KOs) tangles with Ireland’s Aaron McKenna (19-0, 10 KOs) in a middleweight fight set for 12 rounds on the Benn-Eubank undercard in London.
“Beefy” Smith has long been known as one of the fighting Smith brothers and recently lost to Eubank a year and a half ago. It was only the second time in 38 bouts he had been stopped. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez did it several years ago.
McKenna is a familiar name in Southern California. The Irish fighter fought numerous times on Golden Boy Promotion cards between 2017 and 2019 before returning to the United Kingdom and his assault on continuing the middleweight division. This is a big step for the tall Irish fighter.
It’s youth versus experience.
“I’ve been calling for big fights like this for the last two or three years, and it’s a fight I’m really excited for. I plan to make the most of it and make a statement win on Saturday night,” said McKenna, one of two fighting brothers.
Monster in L.A.
Japan’s super star Naoya “Monster” Inoue arrived in Los Angeles for last day workouts before his Las Vegas showdown against Ramon Cardenas on Sunday May 4, at T-Mobile Arena. ESPN will televise and stream the Top Rank card.
It’s been four years since the super bantamweight world champion performed in the US and during that time Naoya (29-0, 26 KOs) gathered world titles in different weight divisions. The Japanese slugger has also gained fame as perhaps the best fighter on the planet. Cardenas is 26-1 with 14 KOs.
Pomona Fights
Super featherweights Mathias Radcliffe (9-0-1) and Ezequiel Flores (6-4) lead a boxing card called “DMG Night of Champions” on Saturday April 26, at the historic Fox Theater in downtown Pomona, Calif.
Michaela Bracamontes (11-2-1) and Jesus Torres Beltran (8-4-1) will be fighting for a regional WBC super featherweight title. More than eight bouts are scheduled.
Doors open at 6 p.m. For ticket information go to: www.tix.com/dmgnightofchampions
Fights to Watch
Sat. DAZN 9 a.m. Conor Benn (23-0) vs Chris Eubank Jr. (34-3); Liam Smith (33-4-1) vs Aaron McKenna (19-0).
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