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Undercard Results from the Crawford-Spence Card

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LAS VEGAS, NV — The Crawford-Spence mega-fight was girded with nine other bouts. Had they all gone the distance – which obviously had scant chance of  happening – 80 rounds of boxing would have been completed before the match that everyone came to see.

The first of the preliminaries commenced at 1 pm with the main attraction yet roughly eight hours away. At this time, there weren’t more than a few dozen people in the arena, aside from the folks that had to be there – ring officials, production crews, and gig workers. More than that number milled outside the arena complaining of the heat. For most, the undercard was of no concern.

Tellez-Garcia

The 10-round super welterweight contest Between Yoenis Tellez and Sergio Garcia wasn’t technically part of the undercard. It served as the opening salvo in the four-bout pay-per-view.

Tellez, a native of Santiago, Cuba, currently residing in Stafford, Texas, where he trains under Ronnie Shields, was undefeated but had only five pro fights under his belt. He was subbing for Jesus Ramos who pulled out with a hand injury. Garcia, a 30-year-old Spaniard, had a nice record (34-2, 14 KOs) but he had come up short in his two prior fights on U.S. soil while going the distance with Sebastian Fundora and Tony Harrison.

After two even rounds, Tellez brought the fight to a swift conclusion. A straight right hand knocked the Spaniard on the seat of his pants, He was up in a blink, only to be greeted by another right hand that knocked him flat on his back. Garcia beat the count, but Tellez knocked him into the ropes and loaded up on his punches. The referee intervened. Garcia complained, but to no avail.

The was a big step up in class for Tellez (6-0, 5 KOs) whose trajectory is mindful of his close friend and fellow Cuban-American David Morrell. Tellez (pictured below on the left) has another fight booked next month in Tacoma, Washington, against a fighter from Venezuela with a 32-2 record.

Nelson-Montgomery

Omaha super middleweight Stephen Nelson, a long-time friend and training partner of Terence Crawford, kept his unbeaten record intact with a 10-round unanimous decision over Victorville, California’s Rowdy Legend Montgomery (and yes, that is his real name).

A former National Golden Gloves champion, the 35-year-old Nelson seems quite content to compete in the shadow of Crawford. Despite his record, now 19-0 (15), his career is going nowhere, albeit that’s partly due to injuries. This was only his second fight in the last 34 months, He missed all of 2021 with an Achilles injury.

Montgomery (10-5-1) seldom planted his feet and had no snap on his punches, but was game to the core.

Reyes-Palicte

Tijuana super bantamweight Jose Salas Reyes improved to 13-0 (10 KOs) with a third-round stoppage of Filipino veteran Aston Palicte (28-6-1). It initially appeared that the stoppage was premature, but Palicte gave the referee no choice, indicating that he didn’t wish to continue after taking a knee from a left uppercut.

The 21-year-old Reyes is on the fast track. In his last outing this past April, in his U.S. debut, he pitched a 10-round shutout over an undefeated fighter from Ghana. Palicte, a two=time world title challenger at 115 pounds was good enough to hold long-reigning title-holder Donnie Nietes to a draw in 2018, but is now past his prime. His last start came in June of last year when he was stopped in three frames by Jason Moloney in Melbourne.

Other Bouts

Jabin Chollet, a rangy, 21-year-old lightweight from San Diego, advanced to 8-0 (7 KOs) at the expense of Hayward, California’s Michael Portales (3-2-1). It struck many as premature when the fight was waived off —  Portales had eaten some hard shots but was still plowing forward — but it was plain that Chollet was too big for him.

Las Vegas lightweight Demler Zamora, a well-touted, 20-year-old southpaw, advanced to 12-0 (9) with a unanimous decision over Nikolai Buzolin, a Brooklyn-based Russian. This bout had several heated exchanges before Buzolin adopted a defensive posture. Zamora swept all three cards across the board.

In a 6-round welterweight contest, Kansas City’s Deshawn Prather (16-1, 2 KOs) won a gift decision over Omaha’s previously undefeated Kevin Ventura (11-1). Prather had one good moment, scoring a flash knockdown with a short straight left, but otherwise spent the entire six rounds on his bicycle. All three  judges had it 57-56.

Super featherweight Justin Viloria, a 19-year-old super featherweight from Whittier, CA, won the lid-lifter with a fourth-round stoppage of Mexico’s Pedro Borgero. Viloria improves to 3-0 (3).  It was the first pro loss for Borgero (5-1).

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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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