Friday Recaps: Appetizers to a Deep Saturday Boxing Menu

Saturday, July 16, will be a busy day on the international boxing scene. There are almost three dozen fights on the docket with the most arresting event being staged in the United States in Birmingham, Alabama. Friday’s activity got the ball rolling with some tasty appetizers.

Premier Boxing Champions was at the Horseshoe Casino in Tunica, Mississippi for an event televised on ESPN. In the featured bouts, rising stars Sergey Lipinets and Tugstsogt “King Tug” Nyambayar continued their upward ascents with impressive showings.

Sergey Lipinets advanced to 10-0 (8 KOs) with a 7^th round stoppage of Nicaragua’s Walter Castillo (26-4-1) in a 10-round junior welterweight contest. Lipinets, who fought the last three rounds with a deep cut over his left eye, took the starch out of Castillo with body punches – his stock in trade – and took control when Castillo’s work rate slowed. A champion kickboxer in his native Kazakhstan, Lipinets has been matched tough. His last four opponents (including Castillo) were 85-5-3 going in.

In the co-feature, a featherweight match scheduled for 10 rounds, Mongolia’s Nyambayar was electrifying. The 2012 Olympic silver medalist smashed Rafael Vazquez to the canvas three times in the opening round, forcing the referee to wave the fight off. The 38-year-old Vazquez, a Brooklynite of Puerto Rican descent, brought a 16-2 record and hadn’t previously been stopped. Nyambayar has won all six of his fights by knockout since moving to Southern California to train under Joe Goosen. His style has been compared to the late Diego Corrales, a former Goosen protégé.

At the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California, Nicaragua’s Rene Alvarez scored a mild upset with a 10-round decision over Puerto Rico’s Jayson Velez. Two judges favored Alvarez by scores of 96-94 and the other gave the nod to Velez 97-93. TSS West Coast Bureau Chief David Avila was in the house. For more on this event, check out his post-fight report.

At the National Sports Stadium in Accra, Ghana, the main event was a 12-round lightweight bout between Emmanuel Tagoe, a local product, and Carlo Magali of the Philippines. Tagoe dominated Magli who came with a record of 20-7-3. The bout was stopped in the ninth frame. Since losing his pro debut in 2004 at age 17, Tagoe has won 26 straight. Former champions Joshua Clottey and Joseph Agbeko were slated to appear on the show but their bouts fell out.

In Saarbruecken, Saarland, Germany, Robin Krasniqi won a 12-round majority decision over Juergen Doberstein in a 12-round contest in the 168-pound division. Krasniqi improves 46-4 (17). Doberstein declined to 20-3-1. With the win, Krasniqi, a German by way of Kosovo, is in line for a third title shot. He came up short in matches with light heavyweight title-holders Juergen Braehmer and Nathan Cleverley.

<h2>Women’a Fights</h2>

In Buenos Aires, Argentina, 24-year-old Anahi Esther Sanchez advanced to 14-0 with a 10 round majority decision over fellow Argentinian Tamara Nunez in a super featherweight contest that was the featured bout of a 5-bout card. Nunez was better than her record which now sits 6-7-3. She recently went 10 rounds in France with undefeated Frenchwoman Gaelle Amand, losing a close decision.

At Munich, Germany, middleweight Christina Hammer scored a sixth round TKO over Melinda Lazar, remaining undefeated at 19-0. A German by way of Kazakhstan, the 25-year old Hammer was matched soft against Lazar, a 42-year-old Hungarian.

And finally, at the Twin River Event Center in Lincoln, Rhode Island, popular Providence middleweight Kali Reis improved to 10-5-1 with a lopsided 8-round decision over Atlantic City’s 41-year-old Althea Saunders. The well-traveled Reis, who has fought in Spain, Bermuda, Germany, Costa Rica, and New Zealand, is much better than her record. In the featured bout of the 7-bout card, Chris Chatman won a split decision over Thomas Falowo in an 8-round middleweight contest. The show was promoted by Jimmy Burchfield, a longtime force on the New England boxing scene.

Sergey Lipinets