Opetaia and Nakatani Crush Overmatched Foes, Capping Off a Wild Boxing Weekend

Cruiserweight Jai Opetaia and bantamweight Junto Nakatani are indisputably the best fighters in their weight class. Both were in action today (Sunday, June 8) and both performed as expected, dominating overmatched foes to set up more lucrative matches down the road.

Australia’s Opetaia, the IBF world cruiserweight champion, advanced to 28-0 (22 KOs) with a fifth-round stoppage of Claudio Squeo. The match was staged in Broadbeach, Queensland.

Opetaia put Squeo on the canvas in the fourth round with a body punch and ended matters in the next frame with a sweeping right hand that appeared to leave Squeo with a broken jaw. …

The obscure Squeo was an easy mark. The 34-year-old, red-headed Italian was 17-0 (9) heading in, but had defeated no one of note and only eight of his wins had come against opponents with winning records.

After the fight, Opetatia said his management had reached an agreement for a unification fight with WBO/WBA belt-holder Gilberto “Zorro” Ramirez. The other cruiserweight belt, the WBC version, is owned by veteran Badou Jack, a favorite of boxing power broker Turki Alalshikh.

Nakatani

At the Ariake Colosseum in Tokyo, Junto Nakatani (31-0, 24 KOs) successfully defended his WBC bantamweight title and added the IBF diadem to his dossier with a stoppage of countryman Ryosuke Nishida (10-1) whose corner pulled him out after six frames.

It was a rough night for Nishida (pictured on the right) who won his title in his ninth pro fight with an upset of Emmanuel Rodriguez. He appeared to injure his right shoulder early in the match and ended the contest with his left eye swollen shut.

Naoya Inoue was in attendance. If both Nakatani and “The Monster” remain undefeated, their eventual clash will be the biggest all-Japanese match in boxing history. Inoue currently competes one weight class up at 122.

Another potential option for Nakatani, although it wouldn’t be nearly as big globally, would be a match with Tenshin Nasukawa who is ranked #1 at 118 by the WBC despite his inexperience.

Nasukawa (7-0, 2 KOs) has regained much of the luster he lost after a disastrous “exhibition” with Floyd Mayweather who knocked him out in the first round. He appeared on today’s Ariake Colosseum card and won a lopsided 10-round decision over Victor Santillan. The scores were 100-90 and 99-91 twice.

Friday

The weekend’s activity began on Friday at the Turning Stone in Verona, New York, with an event held in conjunction with Hall of Fame Weekend at the nearby International Boxing Hall of Fame, a partnership that began in 2017. Truth be told, this Salita Promotions card wasn’t very appealing.

The card did include a title fight; sort of. Baltimore’s Fanchon Crews Dezurn (10-2, 1 NC, 2 KOs) successfully defended her WBC and WBA 168-pound belts and skirted a big upset with a 10-round majority decision over Mexicali’s Citlalli Ortiz (4-2).

Crews Dezurn, who turns 38 next week, won the fight but had an off night, as did veteran judge Glenn Feldman who scored the bout 98-92 in her favor (the other judges had it 96-94 and 95-95). The decision was lustily booed.

Crews Dezurn vs. Ortiz was the chief supporting bout to the 10-round heavyweight affair between Brandon Moore and Stanley Wright. This match ended prematurely because of a bad cut over Moore’s left eye caused by a head butt. The injury compelled the ring doctor to stop the bout at the midpoint. Through the five completed rounds, Moore was dominating. Knocked down by a combination, Wright was saved by the bell in round two.

Moore, the winner by technical decision, improved to 18-1 (10). This was his fourth straight win since getting stopped in five rounds by Richard Torrez Jr. The previously unbeaten Wright, coming off his career-best win, an upset of Jeremiah Milton, slumped to 14-1. A 34-year-old North Carolinian, Wright has put on 100 pounds since his pro debut in 2014.

After the bout, Moore, a six-foot-six Floridian, called out former sparring partner Jared Anderson.

Saturday

Saturday’s marquee event was held at a soccer stadium in Ipswich, England, where Ipswich’s Fabio Wardley (19-0-1, 18 KOs) delighted the home folks with a come-from-behind, 10th-round knockout of Justis Huni (12-1).

It wasn’t surprising that Huni decisively out-boxed Wardley for most of the contest. The 26-year-old Aussie had a strong amateur pedigree. His only true loss as an amateur came against the formidable Bakhodir Jalolov. By contrast, Wardley, 30, had virtually no amateur experience whatsoever. But a the old saying goes, it only takes one punch, especially if we are talking about heavyweights.

The one punch, in this instance was a perfectly placed counter right hand. Huni was struggling to his feet as referee John Latham reached the count of “10”. (Huni’s manager Mick Francis is claiming that Huni got a short count.)

Wardley is rough around the edges, but has a penchant for exciting fights. He was coming off a first round blast-out of Frazer Clarke after their first match produced a scintillating 12-round draw.

Wardley vs. Huni was billed for the WBA “interim regular” heavyweight title which makes Wardley the mandatory opponent for the winner of the forthcoming snoozefest between Kubrat Pulev and Michael Hunter.

Norfolk

Top Rank was in Norfolk, Virginia, on Saturday night with a card designed to showcase the talents of Norfolk’s Davis brothers – Keyshawn, Kelvin, and Keon – and two of Keyshawn’s Olympic teammates in Tokyo, welterweight Delante “Tiger” Johnson and middleweight Troy Isley.

The best laid plans….Keyshawn’s WBO lightweight title defense against Edwin De Los Santos was cancelled when Keyshawn weighed in 4.3 pounds over the limit and the two sides failed to reach a compromise. Keyshawn was summarily stripped of his title.

Making matters worse for the Davis family, Keyshawn’s older brother Kelvin was upset by Nahir Albright, suffering his first pro loss. Philadelphia’s Albright, coming off a 19-month layoff, won a majority decision that should have been unanimous, improving to 17-2. Kelvin Davis was 15-0 heading in.

Keon Davis, a lanky super welterweight and the pup of the trio at age 23, avoided the jinx, improving to 4-0 (3 KOs) with a second-round stoppage of Puerto Rico’s Michael Velez-Garcia and ex-Olympians Johnson and Isley won as expected although both were extended the 10-round distance by their respective opponents.

With Keyshawn and De Los Santos a no-go, the 10-round contest between Abdullah Mason (18-0, 16 KOs) and Jeremia Nakathila (26-4) was bumped up to the main event.

Mason continued his fast rise, repeatedly wobbling Nakathila and winning inside the distance for the seventeenth time when the Namibian told referee Chris Flores that he could no longer continue because a cut on his left eyelid obstructed his vision. Because the bell sounded for the next round before Flores waived the fight off, it goes into the books as a fifth-round stoppage.

With the WBO lightweight title suddenly vacant, Mason, the 21-year-old, baby-faced assassin from Cleveland, is in a prime position to challenge for it. His likely opponent would be England’s Sam Noakes (17-0, 15 KOs). While Mason and Noakes have near-identical records, Mason would be a prohibitive favorite.

The event was marred by an unfortunate backstage scrum in a hallway that was captured on youtube. In Nadir Albright’s version, the scuffle began in his dressing room when he was jumped by two of the Davis brothers, Keyshawn and Keon. Albright was left with a knot on his forehead and Keyshawn was reportedly escorted from the arena by police.

Kelvin Davis issued an apology on social media while denying reports that Albright was the victim of an unprovoked assault. “On behalf of DB3 we apologize for conducting ourselves in that way tension was high and emotions got the best of us we will be back and better and more professional its ups and downs with this and we gone take what comes with it…. With that being said WE DIDDNT JUMP NOBODY…Sorry to all the kids that look up to us we shall set better examples!”

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