Ringside in Verona: Bivol and Hooker Victorious; Callum Johnson Mauls Monaghan

VERONA, NY — The main event at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, NY may have turned into a more tactical fight than expected but it certainly had some drama. In the end, Dmitry Bivol (16-0, 11 KO’s) retained his WBA light heavyweight title with a wide 12-round unanimous decision over Joe Smith Jr. (24-3, 20 KO’s).

Bivol easily out-boxed Smith for most of the night. Working behind a pinpoint left jab along with using subtle ring movement, Bivol controlled range and landed sharp clean hard punches behind the jab. Smith’s punches were often launched one at a time from the outside and easily telegraphed. Bivol would easily slip those big punches and often counter with clean left hooks.

For eight rounds, Bivol completely dominated Smith. And it was more of the same for most of the ninth. But then suddenly Smith caught Bivol at the end of the 10th with a big right hand to the side of Bivol’s head. Bivol staggered back to his corner at the round’s conclusion.

Smith came out firing in round 11 looking to follow up on his advantage, but he was unable to land anything of substance on Bivol who was in retreat mode most of the round.

Bivol got back to working behind the left jab in the 12th and once again took control of the fight. With only seconds remaining, Bivol staggered Smith with a massive left hook to Smith’s jaw. Smith backed to the ropes and was met with a volley of clean hard punches. But with only seconds remaining Smith was able to make it to the final bell.

The cards were all in favor of Bivol with two judges seeing it 119-109 and the other 118-110.

In the co-feature, Maurice Hooker (26-0-3, 17 KO’s) retained his WBO 140-pound title with a wide 12-round unanimous decision against a very determined Mikkel LesPierre (21-1-1, 10 KO’s).

Hooker used lateral movement working behind his left jab to land his straight right with consistency. LesPierre was aggressive but not effective in his aggression and couldn’t muster enough on his punches to garner’s Hooker’s respect.

In round five, Hooker hurt LesPierre with a hard right hand. From there, he battered LesPierre in the corner and appeared to be possibly closing in on a knockout. But LesPierre fought back and was able to momentarily extricate himself from trouble.

After LesPierre enjoyed a good round eight landing combinations on Hooker, Hooker came out more aggressive in the ninth and knocked LesPierre down with a hard left hook to the body. Hooker went for the finish but despite landing some solid combinations could not stop LesPierre. And amazingly at the end of the round, LesPierre brought the crowd to its feet exchanging with Hooker.

Down the stretch, Hooker boxed and used movement scoring the cleaner more effective punches. LesPierre gamely tried to land something to turn the tide but was unable to do so. The final scores read 120-107, 119-108 and 118-109.

Callum Johnson (18-1, 13 KO’s) scored a third round TKO over Sean Monaghan (29-3, 17 KO’s) in a light heavyweight contest that was scheduled for 10 rounds. It was a surprisingly one-sided fight with Johnson battering Monaghan early and often with clean power shots. Monaghan was put down with a flush counter right towards the end of round two and then quickly sent down again from Johnson’s follow up attack. Though the bell would save Monaghan, Johnson quickly jumped on him in round three and after an unanswered volley of punches referee Charlie Fitch waived it off.

In a heavyweight fight largely devoid of action, Sergey Kuzmin (15-0, 11 KO’s) scored a close 10-round majority decision over Joey Dawejko (19-7-4, 11 KO’s). Two judges saw it in favor of Kuzmin 96-94 while the third had it 95-95.The rounds were close and often separated by the slimmest of margins. Kuzmin consistently landed the harder punches, particularly with the overhand right, and that was just enough to keep his undefeated record intact.

Uzbekistan prospect Israil Madrimov (2-0, 2 KO’s) put on a power punching display in knocking out Frank Rojas (24-3, 23 KO’s) in the second round of their scheduled 10-round fight. After scoring an earlier knockdown in round two, Madrimov closed the 154-contest with a right uppercut followed by a vicious left hook to the head that sent Rojas crashing violently to the canvas.

Junior Younan (15-0-1, 10 KO’s) outworked Derrick Findley (30-25-1, 20 KO’s) to win a wide unanimous decision win in a six round light heavyweight swing bout.

Amateur phenom Otha Jones III (1-0) picked a tough opponent for his pro debut and received a tough fight. But in the end, he landed the cleaner sharper punches with his superior hand speed to win a clear cut unanimous decision over Giorgi Gelashvili (5-2, 3 KO’s).

In the opening bout of the evening, middleweight prospect Nikita Ababiy (3-0, 3 KO’s) stopped  journeyman Cory Dulaney (5-9-3, 1 KO) in the opening round. Ababiy knocked Dulaney down twice in the opening stanza and after the second knockdown referee Gary Rosato waived it off.

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