By Steve Cummings
G1 Promotions put on the six-bout card, dubbed Back To The Future, which featured numerous young fighters in hotly contested fights.
By Steve Cummings
G1 Promotions put on the six-bout card, dubbed Back To The Future, which featured numerous young fighters in hotly contested fights.
CANELO ALVAREZ UD12 OVER WILLIAM SCULL
115 – 113, 116-112, 119-109
BADOU JACK MD12 OVER NORAIR MIKAELJAN
114-114, 115-113, 115-113
JAIME MUNGUIA UD12 OVER BRUNO SURACE
116-112, 116-112, 117-111
MARTIN BAKOLE AND EFE AJAGBA fought to a 10-round majority draw.
95-95, 95-95, 96-94 Ajagba.
Posted in Fight Reports, The Latest
Tagged Badou Jack, Bruno Surace, Canelo Alvarez, Efe Ajagba, Jaime Munguia, Martin Bakole, Norair Mikaeljan, William Scull
CANELO ALVAREZ – 167.1
WILLIAM SCULL – 166.1
BADOU JACK – 200
NORAIR MIKAELJAN – 198.1
MARTIN BAKOLE – 299
EFE AJAGBA – 240
JAIME MUNGUIA – 169.1
BRUNO SURACE – 169.1
(Weights from Fightnews.com)
Posted in The Latest
Tagged Badou Jack, Bruno Surace, Canelo Alvarez, Efe Ajagba, Jaime Munguia, Martin Bakole, Norair Mikaeljan, William Scull
Multi-belt flyweight titlist Gabriela Fundora stayed unbeaten with a dominant TKO7 over previously unbeaten Marilyn Badillo on Saturday night. Fundora (16-0-1, 8 KOs) floored Badillo in the seventh round and when she got up she indicated she did not want to continue. Official time of the stoppage was 1:44.
In an earlier bout, super welterweight Charles Conwell suffered his first pro defeat, dropping a split decision to Jorge Perez over 12 rounds. Conwell (21-1, 16 KOs) was heavily favored over Perez (33-4-0, 26 KOs) but lost by scores of 115-113, 115-113 and 113-115 for Perez.
Fundora came out slowly in the first round but then turned on her attack in round two, peppering the much-shorter Badillo with both hands out of a southpaw stance. Badillo landed some hard left hands on occasion but for the most part was unable to get inside on Fundora and land consistently.
The end came when Badillo went down hard from a left to the head and got up quickly, but told the referee she did not want to continue. Fundora’s power was too much as Badillo took her first defeat.
Conwell suffered the upset after Perez came on in the second half of the fight and neutralized Conwell’s attack. The rangy Perez fired off combinations while Conwell tried to maul his way inside. Perez did more damage by punching around Conwell’s guard and working the body as well as the head. It is now time to regroup for Conwell, who was ranked in the top five at 154 by two sanctioning bodies.
Posted in Fight Reports, The Latest
Tagged Charles Conwell, Gabriela Fundora, Jorge Perez, Marilyn Badillo
IBF welterweight champion Jaron “Boots” Ennis and WBA champ Eimantas Stanionis tipped the scales today for Saturday night’s matchup in Atlantic City, NJ. DAZN is broadcasting.
JARON “BOOTS” ENNIS – 146.4
EIMANTAS STANIONIS – 146.8
Weights: Courtesy Fightnews.com
Posted in The Latest
2021 Olympic silver medalist Richard Torrez Jr. stepped up to 10-rounders for the first time in his young career and worked hard for a unanimous decision win over Italy’s Guido Vianello on Saturday night at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The heavyweight contest headlined the Top Rank card televised on ESPN Plus.
Torrez Jr. got the nod by scores of 98-91, 97-92 and 97-92, but took a good deal of criticism for the awkward fight that was not pretty to watch. The heavyweights got tangled up numerous times and Vianello had a point deducted for holding in round two after several warnings. At the time of the point deduction, it looked like Torrez Jr.’s aggressive style was going to be a huge problem for Vianello, but over the middle rounds, the Tulare, CA native faced steady adversity for the first time as a pro.
Richard Torrez Jr. came into his first main event at 12-0 with 11 KOs and had mostly run over lesser competition with his all-action attack. But Vianello was a clear step up for the new American hero.
Guido Vianello, a 2016 Olympian himself, entered the ring with a record of 13-2-1 with 11 KOs. Just as importantly, at 6′ 6″, the Italian looked a lot more like the top of the division, in physical stature anyway. His only pro loss coming in was to top-10 contender Efe Ajagba by split decision last year.
So, Torrez Jr. was challenged to step up came away with a comfortable win on the scorecards. The aesthetics drew social media catcalls and the question has to be asked: what does the 25-year old need to do to climb the heavyweight mountain?
It’s a great time to jump into the heavyweight mix as many of the division’s big names are either long in the tooth or, quite honestly, limited in skill. The United States is clamoring for a champion in this glamour division and being an Olympic star is a great place to start.
Richard Torrez Jr. checks many of the boxes that a young heavyweight is measured by. But the bull-rush offense was exposed by Vianello as the taller, heavier fighter diagnosed the flaws and took advantage with some right-hand hammers to the exposed head coming in. The added rounds also showed that Torrez Jr. probably needs to dial it down a bit and plan for the long haul as he appeared to be gassed at points in the second half of the fight.
All reasonable points to be made visible at this stage of any fighter’s career, and not at all impossible to overcome.
How likely is it that Richard Torrez Jr. will improve on his weaknesses and make the climb to the heavyweight elite? This depends on the training and guidance he gets. This was one step up the ladder and he came away with a win. Let’s see how he looks next time out and against what style he is confronted with. He definitely has the drive and the athletic ability to develop into a great fighter.
Keith “One Time” Thurman traveled to Sidney, Australia to get back in the ring for the first time in over two years and scored a TKO3 over Brock Jarvis. Thurman (31-1, 23 KOs) floored Jarvis with an uppercut and then followed up with another knockdown that ended the fight. Official time of the stoppage was 2:19.
Jarvis (22-2, 20 KOs) had only lost to Liam Paro in 2022 before this fight and had scored two straight stoppage wins since then.
Thurman, age 35, whose only loss was to Manny Pacquaio in 2019, fought for just the second time since then and shook off the rust quickly. The impressive win sets up a possible fight with Tim Tszyu this summer.
Featherweight Joet Gonzalez overcame Arnold Khegai to earn a split decision after 10 hotly contested rounds on Saturday night. Gonzalez (27-4, 15 KOs) overcame a quick start from Khegai and came out on top in an entertaining match that saw both fighters bloodied. The 10-round fight headlined a ProBoxTV card from Long Beach, CA.
Official scores were 97-92 and 96-93 for Gonzalez, 95-94 Kgegai. InTheCorner.net scored it 97-92 for Gonzalez.
Khegai (22-2-1, 14 KOs), ranked #2 by the WBO and #12 by the IBF, got out to a good start with pressure and high volume punching as Gonzalez did not initially take advantage of his edge in reach. In rounds three and four, Gonzalez took control, getting into the right distance and landing power shots while slowing Khegai’s rushes. Khegai started bleeding from the nose in round four.
Round five saw a point deduction from Khegai for holding. In round six, Gonzalez was cut over the right eye and it would bleed the rest of the way.
All the while, the action was was hot with both fighters scoring consistently. Gonzalez had the upper hand, but not by much. Khegai pushed hard down the stretch but came up just short.
Khegai suffered his first pro loss since dropping a decision to Stephen Fulton in his last fight at super bantamweight in 2020. For Gonzalez, he got back in the win column after a decision loss to Luis Alberto Lopez in September. The four losses on Gonzalez’ record are Lopez, Isaac Dogboe, Emanuel Navarette and Shakur Stevenson.
UNDERCARD
Lightweight Luis Torres (21-1, 12 KOs) stopped Nicholas Walters (29-2-1, 22 KOs) after three rounds. Walters’ corner stopped the fight before the start of the fourth.
A 10-round welter weight fight between Jesus Saracho (14-2-2, 11 KOs) and Luis Lopez (16-2-3, 5 KOs) ended in a draw.
Posted in Fight Reports, The Latest
Tagged Arnold Khegai, Jesus Saracho, Joet Gonzalez, Luis Lopez, Luis Torres, Nicholas Walters