- Jul 22, 2012
- 2,605
- 454
True but I scored the fight vs Broner 7 rds to 5 for Broner. Paulie made the Broner fight close and I think Broner is a level above both Lopez and Peterson. I think both would be easier to hit for Paulie then Broner was.
Official 2013 Boxing Thread: Year is over, please lock.
- Thread in 'Sports & Training' Thread starter Started by proshares,
- Start date
- Status
- Sep 28, 2003
- 28,232
- 12,585
I would say Broner is a level above Lopez. Better than Peterson, I really don't know because I am starting to question how much the PEDs actually helped him.
Last edited:
- Jul 23, 2007
- 31,964
- 1,056
Shannon. Hahahahaha all the ingredients were there, just never learned to cook
- Jul 22, 2012
- 2,605
- 454
That's true. Same can be said for Berto too. Both haven't looked the same since they were caught using.
- Sep 28, 2003
- 28,232
- 12,585
Berto looks the same to me. Same hand speed, same technical flaws.
he just looked dumb using the Philly shell.
- Jul 26, 2012
- 1,272
- 686
I personally still think he won the fight, he just didn't look AS impressive as he's looked in recent fights. But I don't know where all the complaints come from, Paulie is a seasoned vet with solid skills AND a CHIN. Anybody who actually thought AB had a shot at the KO is prob just a casual fan of Boxing.
But because he didn't impress like some believe he should've, his stock dropped a bit. You bring in Maidana, who's MADE for AB. Great power, but will come forward, and leave his body open to attack. AB should dominate and the hype train is back rolling along like it was suppose to...
But because he didn't impress like some believe he should've, his stock dropped a bit. You bring in Maidana, who's MADE for AB. Great power, but will come forward, and leave his body open to attack. AB should dominate and the hype train is back rolling along like it was suppose to...
- May 25, 2005
- 739
- 158
Berto looks the same to me. Same hand speed, same technical flaws.
Berto was exposed in Collazo fight and got fed bums for awhile I used to be a big Berto supporter but his punch and grab style with no power was too annoying.
Its because people remember what Khan did to him and thought it would be repeat. Thing is Khan is a better boxer than AB and slightly less of a douche with no chin.
- Sep 4, 2006
- 4,706
- 375
Not impressed by the performance by Adrien Berto. I expected him to put a whooping on Paulie much like Amir Khan did. We got to see the true colors of Andre Broner. They put a quality opponent in front of him and he looked less than spectacular.
The Bika vs. Periban was the best fight of the night. That 12th round had me rolling. Both guys were winging punches from left field. If either one got touched, it looked like they were going down for the count.
The Bika vs. Periban was the best fight of the night. That 12th round had me rolling. Both guys were winging punches from left field. If either one got touched, it looked like they were going down for the count.
- Jul 7, 2011
- 7,728
- 3,808
LMAOOO @ Adrien Berto/Andre Broner
aepps20
Supporter
- Feb 8, 2004
- 42,549
- 90,787
Broner has some really bad habits.
- Dec 29, 2012
- 3,738
- 796
So Amir Kahn and Ricky Hatton can TKO Paulie but Adrien "the next Floyd Mayweather" Broner can't?
- Sep 28, 2003
- 28,232
- 12,585
I was disappointed in Broners performance, but it did not discredit him in my eyes. He had to skip a whole weight class. Not to mention, styles make fights. Plus Paulie is better than most people think.
Last edited:
- Feb 25, 2010
- 24,952
- 23,299
I was disappointed in Broners performance, but it did not discredit him in my eyes. Hehad toskipped a whole weight class because boxers @ 135 are tomato cans and boxers @ 140 all had fights. Not to mention, styles make fights. Plus Paulie is better than most people think.
Fixed.
- Jul 26, 2012
- 1,272
- 686
I mean, he did just JUMP over a weight class.
And for the record, that Hatton stoppage was garbage. There was no reason Paulie couldn't continue fighting.
Weekend wrap-up.
A roundup of the past week's notable boxing results from around the world:
Saturday at Brooklyn, N.Y.
Adrien Broner SD12 Paulie Malignaggi
Wins a welterweight title
Scores: 117-111, 115-113 Broner, 115-113 Malignaggi
Records: Broner (27-0, 22 KOs); Malignaggi (32-5, 7 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Broner is young (23), brash, sometimes vulgar, charismatic, polarizing and, oh yeah, really good. In just a 19-month span, Broner won a world title in his third weight class by dethroning Malignaggi in his hometown in a good fight that resulted in a surprising split decision -- because although Malignaggi fought his heart out, Broner was clearly the superior fighter.
Broner, of Cincinnati, had won titles at junior lightweight and lightweight, albeit against limited opposition with the exception of Antonio DeMarco, whom he dominated in an eighth-round knockout to win a 135-pound belt in November. After making one defense against Gavin Rees in February, Broner moved up to welterweight, largely because the top junior welterweights were otherwise occupied or unavailable. Now Broner is the fourth fighter in history to claim world titles at 130, 135 and 147 pounds, joining his idol Floyd Mayweather Jr., Oscar De La Hoya (both of whom were ringside) and Manny Pacquiao.
Many expected Broner, who has one of the best knockout percentages among active titleholders, to blow through Malignaggi, the 32-year-old former junior welterweight titlist who went to Ukraine last year and upset hometown titlist Vyacheslav Senchenko by eighth-round knockout to win a welterweight title. After a shaky defense against Pablo Cesar Cano in October, in which Malignaggi was dropped and lucky to escape with a hometown split decision, he faced Broner and cried about getting robbed in his hometown. But he didn't have that same attitude after getting the benefit of the doubt against Cano in a fight most thought Cano won. He seemed to forget about that during his whining session at the postfight news conference.
Malignaggi fought about as well as he could against Broner, who didn't blow him out but nonetheless deserved the unanimous decision. Malignaggi fought a fine fight, though. He was busy and moved well and deserved to be up 3-1 after four rounds. But Broner eventually settled into his rhythm and, although not nearly as active as Malignaggi, he was accurate with his punches. More important, his blows were much heavier. Much heavier. Broner's shots physically moved Malignaggi when he connected. Malignaggi's shots were more of an annoyance to Broner than anything doing damage. In an amateur fight, maybe Malignaggi would win. But in professional boxing it's about clean, hard, damaging blows, and Broner delivered way more of those, which is why Malignaggi had to come to the postfight news conference wearing sunglasses -- his face showed the damage from all the shots that Broner nailed him with.
Broner, who picked off many of Malignaggi's shots with his gloves and arms, landed his lead right hand all night. He hurt Malignaggi in the fifth and sixth rounds with the shot and closed the ninth round with a strong right hand. For the fight, Broner landed almost half of his overall punches, 246 of 524 punches (47 percent), according to CompuBox, while Malignaggi landed 214 of 843 blows (25 percent) with almost none of them having any real impact on Broner.
The promotion was filled with massive amounts of trash talk, much of it very personal in nature. These guys didn't like each other very much. Although it came across as though Malignaggi really didn't like Broner, while Broner seemed to doing his thing with more of a wink, Broner continued to taunt Malignaggi throughout the fight, and then kept it up afterward with even more talk about the woman Broner and Malignaggi had both dated and argued about.
Malignaggi threatened to retire if he didn't get a rematch, which he's not going to get any time soon. But assuming he continues to fight, Malignaggi fought well enough against Broner to keep himself in the mix for a high-profile fight in the deep 147-pound division. As for Broner, there are all sorts of interesting possibilities. He has a couple of weeks to decide if he wants to keep his lightweight title or vacate it to keep his new title. He'll almost certainly vacate. Broner also said he might think about dropping down to pursue a junior welterweight belt. Golden Boy promoter Richard Schaefer said after the fight that he'd like to match Broner against powerful Marcos Maidana. Wouldn't that be a good fight? But that is merely one possibility for a fighter who has the potential -- it's not realized yet -- to become a major, major force in boxing for a long time.
Seth Mitchell UD12 Johnathon Banks
Heavyweights
Scores: 117-109, 115-112, 114-112
Records: Mitchell (26-1-1, 19 KOs); Banks (29-2-1, 19 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: There's not too much to say about this absolute stinkeroo of a fight that fell badly short of expectations. It was a total dud that had the crowd booing often and probably dreaming of a John Ruiz fight instead. The win did not do much for Mitchell, who avenged his only defeat but nonetheless left folks even more convinced than before that he does not have the chin needed to stand up to a solid heavyweight punch. For the totally lethargic Banks, his terrible performance made the first fight look like nothing more than an aberration that he won with a lucky punch. Both guys' stock dropped after this mess.
When they met in November, Mitchell was the big favorite and rising contender when Banks dropped him three times in the second round for the upset victory. Mitchell exercised his rematch option and they met again, although they were supposed to meet in February, but that was postponed because Banks broke his right thumb two weeks before the fight. After seeing it, don't you wish it had been postponed a lot longer?
Mitchell, 31, the former Michigan State linebacker from Brandywine, Md., had his best moment in the second round, dropping Banks with a right uppercut and a left hand behind the head that referee Michael Ortega did not notice. It was really more of a flash knockdown than anything too serious. In the third round, Detroit's Banks, who turned 31 on fight day, nearly knocked Mitchell out again. He punished him with right hands and had him wobbly, about to go down multiple times and hanging on for dear life. And then Banks basically stopped fighting for no apparent reason. He had a couple of decent moments in the eighth round, but that was it. He threw almost no punches and gave the fight to Mitchell, who was understandably cautious and simply did enough to win the rounds. Although it was a terrible fight, Mitchell deserves credit for getting revenge, showing a better ability to tie up when he was hurt in the third round and for going through with the fight just two weeks after his wife delivered a stillborn son in an emotional family situation that was on his mind.
Sakio Bika MD12 Marco Antonio Periban
Wins a vacant super middleweight title
Scores: 116-112, 115-113, 114-114
Records: Bika (32-5-2, 21 KOs); Periban (20-1, 13 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: The fourth time was the charm for Bika, who won a world title -- in a savage fight -- after three previous disappointments. The former champion of "The Contender" reality series had fought to a four-round technical draw in Germany against Markus Beyer in 2006, went to England and lost a clear decision to Joe Calzaghe in 2008 and traveled to Andre Ward's hometown of Oakland, Calif., and was routed in 2010.
But in February, Bika got another title shot when he routed unknown (and not very good) Nikola Sjekloca in the eliminator to get this shot at the belt that had been wrongly stripped from Ward. But for Bika, a title's a title and that's what matters to him. And it did not come easy at all as Bika, 34, a native of Cameroon who lives in Australia, and Mexico's Periban, 28, put on a ferocious fight that featured very little defense and a whole lot of bone-jarring blows.
It'll go down as a fight of the year honorable mention and was the fight of the night on the card. It was competitive all the way, but Bika, with more experience, better speed and a bit more volume of punches, did enough to win the grueling fight. The action was solid throughout, but really picked up in the eighth round, during which Periban wound up with a cut on his scalp after one of several head clashes. The end of the round saw he and Bika throwing down with zero regard for defense. It went that way for the rest of the fight as the crowd came to its feet more than once during the intense battle.
Bika won his fourth fight in a row since the loss to Ward, who could demand a mandatory rematch with Bika when he returns from shoulder surgery in the fall, but that's not a fight anyone's going to want to see again and there is no point to it.
Saturday at General Alvear, Argentina
Juan Carlos Reveco KO8 Ulises Lara
Retains a flyweight title
Records: Reveco (31-1, 17 KOs); Lara (12-14-2, 7 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Total mismatch. How the heck did Lara, with his horrible record, even get a title shot in the first place? This is as bad a title fight matchup as you will ever see, and it is just shameful it was even made and sanctioned. In the end, it came as no surprise whatsoever that Reveco, 29, of Argentina, scored five knockdowns and routed the hapless Lara of Mexico.
Lara gave it his all, which is all you can ask for, but this was one-sided as Reveco made the second defense of his second-tier, paper title and won his 14th fight in a row. Reveco dropped Lara twice in the sixth round, a clean overhand right and then with another right hand as soon as the action resumed. The fight probably should have been called off right then, but it wasn't, and it took Reveco two more rounds to finish Lara, whom he dropped three more times, all on right hands, in the eighth round before referee Hector Montes finally ended the action at 2 minutes, 52 seconds.
Saturday at Ixtapa Zihuatanejo, Mexico
Fernando Montiel KO3 Jaderes Padua
Junior featherweights
Records: Montiel (50-4-2, 38 KOs); Padua (8-3-1, 5 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Montiel, 34, of Mexico, is a former three-division titleholder, having won belts at flyweight, junior bantamweight and bantamweight. Many wrote Montiel off after he lost his two bantamweight titles to Nonito Donaire by a massive second-round knockout in 2011 that was the KO of the year. But Montiel has continued on, albeit with less fanfare. In November 2011 he lost again, this time a unanimous decision to Victor Terrazas (who later claimed a vacant junior featherweight world title). But since then, Montiel has won all four of his bouts, although against lesser opposition. Facing Padua, 22, of the Philippines, Montiel reached the significant plateau of 50 professional wins and did it by big knockout. It was a spirited fight with both guys having their moments, but in the third round Montiel hurt Padua with a flurry of shots and had him in terrible trouble against the ropes when he landed a whipping right hand, apparently behind the ear. Padua went down to his rear end and then fell to his side on the mat. Padua was not moving and referee Rocky Burke called off the fight at 1 minute, 12 seconds, sending Montiel into a wild celebration as he climbed up on top of the ropes. If Montiel keeps up his winning ways, even against weaker opponents, you have to figure he will get another significant opportunity. Padua, 22, of the Philippines, was game and fought better than his record might indicate, but he lost his second fight in a row by knockout.
Friday at Moscow
Krzysztof Wlodarczyk TKO8 Rakhim Chakhkiev
Retains a cruiserweight title
Records: Wlodarczyk (48-2-1, 34 KOs); Chakhkiev (16-1, 12 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: This was a dramatic fight as Wlodarczyk, 31, of Poland, got knocked down, was getting beaten up and trailing on all three scorecards through seven rounds (66-63, 66-64, 66-64) before rallying for four knockdowns in the knockout victory on the road in a brutal, man's-man kind of fight.
Wlodarczyk is putting together a very nice résumé when you look at this victory, a road defense in Australia against Danny Green in 2011, two wins against previously undefeated Francisco Palacios and a win against veteran contender Giacobbe Fragomeni to claim the vacant belt in 2010. He was making his fifth title defense when he faced Chakhkiev, 30, the 2008 Russian Olympic heavyweight gold medalist who is built like a tank. This was a grueling fight, the kind that takes years off a fighter's career. The aggressive Chakhkiev was dominant early. Late in the third round, he nailed Wlodarczyk with left hand and a cuffing right around the side of the head that dropped him to his knees. Wlodarczyk, whose right eye was cut and whose face was showing major damage, was rocked again with a right hand in the last few seconds of the round.
Wlodarczyk was hanging in there and broke through in the sixth round when he dropped Chakhkiev to his knees with a solid left hook just before the end of the round. Wlodarczyk scored a second knockdown late in the seventh round, scoring with a left hand during an exchange. Chakhkiev, bleeding from the nose, did not seem too hurt this time and popped up immediately. But in the toe-to-toe eighth round, Wlodarczyk caught him with a right hand during an exchange, dropping Chakhkiev to a knee midway through the round. He barely beat the count and moments later walked into a left hand and went down again, face first, prompting referee Daniel Van de Wiele to call off the fight without counting at 2 minutes, 3 seconds. Wlodarczyk, with blood streaming down his mashed up face, held up his arm in victory. What a helluva fight.
Friday at Minneapolis
Rances Barthelemy KO2 Fahsi Sakkreerin
Junior lightweight title eliminator
Records: Barthelemy (19-0, 12 KOs); Sakkreerin (39-4-1, 21 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: In January, Barthelemy, 27, a former Cuban amateur standout now fighting out of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was given a decision against Arash Usmanee in a highly controversial result, one that caused "Friday Night Fights" analyst Teddy Atlas to have one of his all-time meltdowns as he went off on the poor judging like only he can do. But Atlas had no such issues with this fight, because Barthelemy scored a resounding one-punch knockout.
After a rather uneventful first round, the taller Barthelemy, who was able to keep Sakkreerin outside on the end of his jab, began to step up the pressure and body attack. He landed a couple of shots to the body and then landed a flush right hand to Sakkreerin's gut. He took a step back and dropped on a delayed reaction and referee Mark Nelson counted him out at 1 minute, 26 seconds. It was an explosive win for Barthelemy, who goes by the moniker "Kid Blast" and is the brother of 2004 Cuban Olympic gold medalist Yan Barthelemy. With the victory, Barthelemy, working with trainer and former junior middleweight titleholder John David Jackson in their second fight together, became the mandatory challenger for 130-pound titleholder Argenis Mendez, who is obligated to fight him before the end of the year.
"Mountain Boy" Sakkreerin, 31, was fighting outside of his native Thailand for only the second time. He fought in the Philippines in 2011 and lost a split decision to Martin Honorio in a title eliminator. Now he's 0-for-2 in title eliminators away from home.
Caleb Truax TKO6 Donovan George
Middleweights
Records: Truax (22-1-1, 13 KOs); George (24-4-2, 21 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Truax, 29, of Osseo, Minn., scored the biggest win of his career with this mild upset victory in front of a supportive home crowd, which was treated to a dominant performance and a nice knockout. Before this win, Truax had been best known for dropping former undisputed middleweight champion Jermain Taylor in one of his 2012 comeback fights before losing a 10-round decision.
George, 28, of Chicago, has been a crowd-pleasing fighter on the fringes of contending at super middleweight for the past few years. In 2012, he faced Adonis Stevenson (now the light heavyweight world champion) in a super middleweight title eliminator and was beaten down in a courageous effort in a 12th-round knockout loss. After that George decided he would be better off moving down to middleweight and began the process. Fighting a little over the 160-pound limit, he blew out James Cook in one round but then fought to a controversial draw with David Lopez in March in a fight most thought George won. But then this disaster with Truax happened, leaving George's career in ashes now that he is 2-3-1 in his last five and with few prospects for a meaningful fight.
Truax looked good. He had George in trouble almost right away as he hammered him with a series of right hands late in the first round. Defense has always been a dirty word to George and it remained so against Truax, who landed almost at will. In the third round, Truax did more damage with a sustained attack. George just could not avoid Truax's clean shots. In the final minute of the sixth round, Truax nailed George with a clean right hand, which forced him to take a step back toward the ropes. Truax followed him and kept throwing punches. He landed seven punches in a row, including a right hand upside George's head that sent him crashing to the mat. Referee Gary Miezwa began his count, but George, who was on all fours, was badly hurt and not going to beat the count and Miezwa didn't bother to finish it, calling off the fight at 2 minutes, 24 seconds.
Saturday at Brooklyn, N.Y.
Adrien Broner SD12 Paulie Malignaggi
Wins a welterweight title
Scores: 117-111, 115-113 Broner, 115-113 Malignaggi
Records: Broner (27-0, 22 KOs); Malignaggi (32-5, 7 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Broner is young (23), brash, sometimes vulgar, charismatic, polarizing and, oh yeah, really good. In just a 19-month span, Broner won a world title in his third weight class by dethroning Malignaggi in his hometown in a good fight that resulted in a surprising split decision -- because although Malignaggi fought his heart out, Broner was clearly the superior fighter.
Broner, of Cincinnati, had won titles at junior lightweight and lightweight, albeit against limited opposition with the exception of Antonio DeMarco, whom he dominated in an eighth-round knockout to win a 135-pound belt in November. After making one defense against Gavin Rees in February, Broner moved up to welterweight, largely because the top junior welterweights were otherwise occupied or unavailable. Now Broner is the fourth fighter in history to claim world titles at 130, 135 and 147 pounds, joining his idol Floyd Mayweather Jr., Oscar De La Hoya (both of whom were ringside) and Manny Pacquiao.
Many expected Broner, who has one of the best knockout percentages among active titleholders, to blow through Malignaggi, the 32-year-old former junior welterweight titlist who went to Ukraine last year and upset hometown titlist Vyacheslav Senchenko by eighth-round knockout to win a welterweight title. After a shaky defense against Pablo Cesar Cano in October, in which Malignaggi was dropped and lucky to escape with a hometown split decision, he faced Broner and cried about getting robbed in his hometown. But he didn't have that same attitude after getting the benefit of the doubt against Cano in a fight most thought Cano won. He seemed to forget about that during his whining session at the postfight news conference.
Malignaggi fought about as well as he could against Broner, who didn't blow him out but nonetheless deserved the unanimous decision. Malignaggi fought a fine fight, though. He was busy and moved well and deserved to be up 3-1 after four rounds. But Broner eventually settled into his rhythm and, although not nearly as active as Malignaggi, he was accurate with his punches. More important, his blows were much heavier. Much heavier. Broner's shots physically moved Malignaggi when he connected. Malignaggi's shots were more of an annoyance to Broner than anything doing damage. In an amateur fight, maybe Malignaggi would win. But in professional boxing it's about clean, hard, damaging blows, and Broner delivered way more of those, which is why Malignaggi had to come to the postfight news conference wearing sunglasses -- his face showed the damage from all the shots that Broner nailed him with.
Broner, who picked off many of Malignaggi's shots with his gloves and arms, landed his lead right hand all night. He hurt Malignaggi in the fifth and sixth rounds with the shot and closed the ninth round with a strong right hand. For the fight, Broner landed almost half of his overall punches, 246 of 524 punches (47 percent), according to CompuBox, while Malignaggi landed 214 of 843 blows (25 percent) with almost none of them having any real impact on Broner.
The promotion was filled with massive amounts of trash talk, much of it very personal in nature. These guys didn't like each other very much. Although it came across as though Malignaggi really didn't like Broner, while Broner seemed to doing his thing with more of a wink, Broner continued to taunt Malignaggi throughout the fight, and then kept it up afterward with even more talk about the woman Broner and Malignaggi had both dated and argued about.
Malignaggi threatened to retire if he didn't get a rematch, which he's not going to get any time soon. But assuming he continues to fight, Malignaggi fought well enough against Broner to keep himself in the mix for a high-profile fight in the deep 147-pound division. As for Broner, there are all sorts of interesting possibilities. He has a couple of weeks to decide if he wants to keep his lightweight title or vacate it to keep his new title. He'll almost certainly vacate. Broner also said he might think about dropping down to pursue a junior welterweight belt. Golden Boy promoter Richard Schaefer said after the fight that he'd like to match Broner against powerful Marcos Maidana. Wouldn't that be a good fight? But that is merely one possibility for a fighter who has the potential -- it's not realized yet -- to become a major, major force in boxing for a long time.
Seth Mitchell UD12 Johnathon Banks
Heavyweights
Scores: 117-109, 115-112, 114-112
Records: Mitchell (26-1-1, 19 KOs); Banks (29-2-1, 19 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: There's not too much to say about this absolute stinkeroo of a fight that fell badly short of expectations. It was a total dud that had the crowd booing often and probably dreaming of a John Ruiz fight instead. The win did not do much for Mitchell, who avenged his only defeat but nonetheless left folks even more convinced than before that he does not have the chin needed to stand up to a solid heavyweight punch. For the totally lethargic Banks, his terrible performance made the first fight look like nothing more than an aberration that he won with a lucky punch. Both guys' stock dropped after this mess.
When they met in November, Mitchell was the big favorite and rising contender when Banks dropped him three times in the second round for the upset victory. Mitchell exercised his rematch option and they met again, although they were supposed to meet in February, but that was postponed because Banks broke his right thumb two weeks before the fight. After seeing it, don't you wish it had been postponed a lot longer?
Mitchell, 31, the former Michigan State linebacker from Brandywine, Md., had his best moment in the second round, dropping Banks with a right uppercut and a left hand behind the head that referee Michael Ortega did not notice. It was really more of a flash knockdown than anything too serious. In the third round, Detroit's Banks, who turned 31 on fight day, nearly knocked Mitchell out again. He punished him with right hands and had him wobbly, about to go down multiple times and hanging on for dear life. And then Banks basically stopped fighting for no apparent reason. He had a couple of decent moments in the eighth round, but that was it. He threw almost no punches and gave the fight to Mitchell, who was understandably cautious and simply did enough to win the rounds. Although it was a terrible fight, Mitchell deserves credit for getting revenge, showing a better ability to tie up when he was hurt in the third round and for going through with the fight just two weeks after his wife delivered a stillborn son in an emotional family situation that was on his mind.
Sakio Bika MD12 Marco Antonio Periban
Wins a vacant super middleweight title
Scores: 116-112, 115-113, 114-114
Records: Bika (32-5-2, 21 KOs); Periban (20-1, 13 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: The fourth time was the charm for Bika, who won a world title -- in a savage fight -- after three previous disappointments. The former champion of "The Contender" reality series had fought to a four-round technical draw in Germany against Markus Beyer in 2006, went to England and lost a clear decision to Joe Calzaghe in 2008 and traveled to Andre Ward's hometown of Oakland, Calif., and was routed in 2010.
But in February, Bika got another title shot when he routed unknown (and not very good) Nikola Sjekloca in the eliminator to get this shot at the belt that had been wrongly stripped from Ward. But for Bika, a title's a title and that's what matters to him. And it did not come easy at all as Bika, 34, a native of Cameroon who lives in Australia, and Mexico's Periban, 28, put on a ferocious fight that featured very little defense and a whole lot of bone-jarring blows.
It'll go down as a fight of the year honorable mention and was the fight of the night on the card. It was competitive all the way, but Bika, with more experience, better speed and a bit more volume of punches, did enough to win the grueling fight. The action was solid throughout, but really picked up in the eighth round, during which Periban wound up with a cut on his scalp after one of several head clashes. The end of the round saw he and Bika throwing down with zero regard for defense. It went that way for the rest of the fight as the crowd came to its feet more than once during the intense battle.
Bika won his fourth fight in a row since the loss to Ward, who could demand a mandatory rematch with Bika when he returns from shoulder surgery in the fall, but that's not a fight anyone's going to want to see again and there is no point to it.
Saturday at General Alvear, Argentina
Juan Carlos Reveco KO8 Ulises Lara
Retains a flyweight title
Records: Reveco (31-1, 17 KOs); Lara (12-14-2, 7 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Total mismatch. How the heck did Lara, with his horrible record, even get a title shot in the first place? This is as bad a title fight matchup as you will ever see, and it is just shameful it was even made and sanctioned. In the end, it came as no surprise whatsoever that Reveco, 29, of Argentina, scored five knockdowns and routed the hapless Lara of Mexico.
Lara gave it his all, which is all you can ask for, but this was one-sided as Reveco made the second defense of his second-tier, paper title and won his 14th fight in a row. Reveco dropped Lara twice in the sixth round, a clean overhand right and then with another right hand as soon as the action resumed. The fight probably should have been called off right then, but it wasn't, and it took Reveco two more rounds to finish Lara, whom he dropped three more times, all on right hands, in the eighth round before referee Hector Montes finally ended the action at 2 minutes, 52 seconds.
Saturday at Ixtapa Zihuatanejo, Mexico
Fernando Montiel KO3 Jaderes Padua
Junior featherweights
Records: Montiel (50-4-2, 38 KOs); Padua (8-3-1, 5 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Montiel, 34, of Mexico, is a former three-division titleholder, having won belts at flyweight, junior bantamweight and bantamweight. Many wrote Montiel off after he lost his two bantamweight titles to Nonito Donaire by a massive second-round knockout in 2011 that was the KO of the year. But Montiel has continued on, albeit with less fanfare. In November 2011 he lost again, this time a unanimous decision to Victor Terrazas (who later claimed a vacant junior featherweight world title). But since then, Montiel has won all four of his bouts, although against lesser opposition. Facing Padua, 22, of the Philippines, Montiel reached the significant plateau of 50 professional wins and did it by big knockout. It was a spirited fight with both guys having their moments, but in the third round Montiel hurt Padua with a flurry of shots and had him in terrible trouble against the ropes when he landed a whipping right hand, apparently behind the ear. Padua went down to his rear end and then fell to his side on the mat. Padua was not moving and referee Rocky Burke called off the fight at 1 minute, 12 seconds, sending Montiel into a wild celebration as he climbed up on top of the ropes. If Montiel keeps up his winning ways, even against weaker opponents, you have to figure he will get another significant opportunity. Padua, 22, of the Philippines, was game and fought better than his record might indicate, but he lost his second fight in a row by knockout.
Friday at Moscow
Krzysztof Wlodarczyk TKO8 Rakhim Chakhkiev
Retains a cruiserweight title
Records: Wlodarczyk (48-2-1, 34 KOs); Chakhkiev (16-1, 12 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: This was a dramatic fight as Wlodarczyk, 31, of Poland, got knocked down, was getting beaten up and trailing on all three scorecards through seven rounds (66-63, 66-64, 66-64) before rallying for four knockdowns in the knockout victory on the road in a brutal, man's-man kind of fight.
Wlodarczyk is putting together a very nice résumé when you look at this victory, a road defense in Australia against Danny Green in 2011, two wins against previously undefeated Francisco Palacios and a win against veteran contender Giacobbe Fragomeni to claim the vacant belt in 2010. He was making his fifth title defense when he faced Chakhkiev, 30, the 2008 Russian Olympic heavyweight gold medalist who is built like a tank. This was a grueling fight, the kind that takes years off a fighter's career. The aggressive Chakhkiev was dominant early. Late in the third round, he nailed Wlodarczyk with left hand and a cuffing right around the side of the head that dropped him to his knees. Wlodarczyk, whose right eye was cut and whose face was showing major damage, was rocked again with a right hand in the last few seconds of the round.
Wlodarczyk was hanging in there and broke through in the sixth round when he dropped Chakhkiev to his knees with a solid left hook just before the end of the round. Wlodarczyk scored a second knockdown late in the seventh round, scoring with a left hand during an exchange. Chakhkiev, bleeding from the nose, did not seem too hurt this time and popped up immediately. But in the toe-to-toe eighth round, Wlodarczyk caught him with a right hand during an exchange, dropping Chakhkiev to a knee midway through the round. He barely beat the count and moments later walked into a left hand and went down again, face first, prompting referee Daniel Van de Wiele to call off the fight without counting at 2 minutes, 3 seconds. Wlodarczyk, with blood streaming down his mashed up face, held up his arm in victory. What a helluva fight.
Friday at Minneapolis
Rances Barthelemy KO2 Fahsi Sakkreerin
Junior lightweight title eliminator
Records: Barthelemy (19-0, 12 KOs); Sakkreerin (39-4-1, 21 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: In January, Barthelemy, 27, a former Cuban amateur standout now fighting out of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was given a decision against Arash Usmanee in a highly controversial result, one that caused "Friday Night Fights" analyst Teddy Atlas to have one of his all-time meltdowns as he went off on the poor judging like only he can do. But Atlas had no such issues with this fight, because Barthelemy scored a resounding one-punch knockout.
After a rather uneventful first round, the taller Barthelemy, who was able to keep Sakkreerin outside on the end of his jab, began to step up the pressure and body attack. He landed a couple of shots to the body and then landed a flush right hand to Sakkreerin's gut. He took a step back and dropped on a delayed reaction and referee Mark Nelson counted him out at 1 minute, 26 seconds. It was an explosive win for Barthelemy, who goes by the moniker "Kid Blast" and is the brother of 2004 Cuban Olympic gold medalist Yan Barthelemy. With the victory, Barthelemy, working with trainer and former junior middleweight titleholder John David Jackson in their second fight together, became the mandatory challenger for 130-pound titleholder Argenis Mendez, who is obligated to fight him before the end of the year.
"Mountain Boy" Sakkreerin, 31, was fighting outside of his native Thailand for only the second time. He fought in the Philippines in 2011 and lost a split decision to Martin Honorio in a title eliminator. Now he's 0-for-2 in title eliminators away from home.
Caleb Truax TKO6 Donovan George
Middleweights
Records: Truax (22-1-1, 13 KOs); George (24-4-2, 21 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Truax, 29, of Osseo, Minn., scored the biggest win of his career with this mild upset victory in front of a supportive home crowd, which was treated to a dominant performance and a nice knockout. Before this win, Truax had been best known for dropping former undisputed middleweight champion Jermain Taylor in one of his 2012 comeback fights before losing a 10-round decision.
George, 28, of Chicago, has been a crowd-pleasing fighter on the fringes of contending at super middleweight for the past few years. In 2012, he faced Adonis Stevenson (now the light heavyweight world champion) in a super middleweight title eliminator and was beaten down in a courageous effort in a 12th-round knockout loss. After that George decided he would be better off moving down to middleweight and began the process. Fighting a little over the 160-pound limit, he blew out James Cook in one round but then fought to a controversial draw with David Lopez in March in a fight most thought George won. But then this disaster with Truax happened, leaving George's career in ashes now that he is 2-3-1 in his last five and with few prospects for a meaningful fight.
Truax looked good. He had George in trouble almost right away as he hammered him with a series of right hands late in the first round. Defense has always been a dirty word to George and it remained so against Truax, who landed almost at will. In the third round, Truax did more damage with a sustained attack. George just could not avoid Truax's clean shots. In the final minute of the sixth round, Truax nailed George with a clean right hand, which forced him to take a step back toward the ropes. Truax followed him and kept throwing punches. He landed seven punches in a row, including a right hand upside George's head that sent him crashing to the mat. Referee Gary Miezwa began his count, but George, who was on all fours, was badly hurt and not going to beat the count and Miezwa didn't bother to finish it, calling off the fight at 2 minutes, 24 seconds.
- Jul 23, 2007
- 31,964
- 1,056
So the CONsensus is that Broner just cakewalks Maidana? O word?????!!!!???!!?
- Dec 28, 2003
- 22,881
- 29,710
Time lapse
Last edited:
- Dec 29, 2012
- 3,738
- 796
I think Broner would win but I don't see it being a cakewalk. Maidana can crack and he's also learned to setup things off of his jab. I think it would be an interesting fight.
- Sep 28, 2003
- 28,232
- 12,585
Maidana is too one dimensional, predictable, and has trouble when put against someone with decent boxing skills. Theres a reason why he was brought up right after the match on Saturday. Broner and his handlers already scouted him out. Broner by wide UD.
Last edited:
- Jul 20, 2012
- 768
- 409
I think People are a little hard on Broner including myself. He is only 23 years old and he moved up 2 divisions to face the stiffest competition of his career. It is obvious that Broner is not a defensive wizard like Floyd. He is more of boxer puncher who is very selective with his punches and tries to walk you down with the Philly shell and forces you to make a mistake and tries to clip you with a big punch. This is style was very effective for him at the lower weights because he was big for the weight class and he was a huge puncher. It is clear that at 147 he doesn't carry the same power or size advantage. I think he should go back to lightweight and dominate and weight till he matures more physically and naturally grows out of the weight class then move back up to 140 and 147.
- Jul 23, 2007
- 31,964
- 1,056
Victor ortiz was supposed to run thru Maidana also.
Them punches HURT.
Aint seen Broner take a big punch, would hate to see his first come from Maidana
Them punches HURT.
Aint seen Broner take a big punch, would hate to see his first come from Maidana
- Dec 29, 2012
- 3,738
- 796
Broner is not that good of a boxer to be honest with you though. He's more of a puncher and it's clear he's not the same puncher at 147 that he was at 130/135. Maidana can crack and he's now setting up things off his jab. He can also take a punch. The fight would be legit imo. I'd like to see how Broner handles that power. Maidana is the wrong guy to be flat footed against.
- Nov 8, 2004
- 4,946
- 548
I believe he does, yes.
- Status
