By Scott Gilfoid: In perhaps the best performance on the card, undefeated super middleweight Jamie Cox (19-0, 11 KOs) destroyed Blas Miguel Martinez (21-8-1, 12 KOs) by a 1st round knockout to capture the vacant WBO European super middleweight title on Friday night at the Wembley Arena in London, UK.
Cox dropped Martinez with a powerful right to the body. The fight was then halted. Cox was punching with a lot of power and looked fast.
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#13 WBA 168lb fringe contender Frank Buglioni (17-1-1, 13 KOs) defeated replacement opponent Fernando “Castaneda (23-10, 14 KOs) by a 5th round knockout. Buglioni connected with a right hand to the head of Castaneda to put him on the canvas in the 5th.
Castaneda got back to his feet, but the referee decided to halt the fight anyway. The official time of the stoppage was 2:56 of the 5th.
Buglioni had been hoping to fight WBA World super middleweight champion Fedor Chudinov for his world title, but the Russian fighter was injured in training, causing the fight to be postponed.
“The man in front of me next is going to get it,” an an angry Buglioni said after the fight about Chudinov. It’s strictly business for me from now one. All I’m going to do is take the title from the Russian. That’s what I’m going to do to Chudinov. He’s the one who is in trouble.”
Buglioni looked very, very robotic and mechanical against Castaneda. I couldn’t help thinking that if Buglioni was matched against a decent quality fighter, he would have been beaten. Buglioni looked like someone who is painting by the number system rather than someone with some actual talent that knows how to put his shots together. I saw no improvement in Buglioni’s game from his recent draw against Lee Markham and his loss to Sergey Khomitsky. Buglioni looked like the same limited fighter that he was in those fights.
Buglioni’s promoter said that he’ll be fighting for the world title on September 26th against Chudinov, who he mistakenly called “Dmitry.” That’s actually the brother of Fedor Chudinov. I just hope he understands who Buglioni will be fighting next, because there’s a big difference in talent between Fedor Chudinov and Dmitry Chudinov.
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A flabby looking #1 WBO middleweight contender Billy Joe Saunders (22-0, 12 KOs) defeated an over-matched Yoann Bloyer (17-28-2, 3 KOs) by a 4th round knockout on Friday night in a tune-up bout. Saunders weighed in at 173¼ pounds at the weigh-in. Talk about about being heavy, eh? Saunders looked even more out of shape than former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was in his last fight against Marcos Reyes.
Saunders, 25, knocked the 32-year-old Boyer down twice in the 3rd round with left hands to the head, and then another time in the 4th round. The referee halted the fight following the knockdown in the 4th after Bloyer was dropped with a left to the head. The fight was stopped at 0:53 of the 4th.
Bloyer actually connected with some good right hands to the head of Saunders in the 2nd round. Saunders was spending too much time posing with his hands down by his sides, and he was nailed repeatedly.
Overall, Saunders did not look that good. He had visible flab around his midsection, as if he’d been eating too good and not working out.
Saunders will now be challenging WBO middleweight champion Andy Lee (34-2-1, 24 KOs) on September 19th at Thomond Park Stadium, Limerick, Ireland. Saunders is going to have to fight a lot better against Lee than he did tonight if he wants to have a chance of winning the fight.
“He put on a good show and we have a fight,” Lee said after the fight. “He was in a no-win situation. I have the punch and I’ll find the punch eventually.”
“I’ll be a lot sharper and a much different animal come September,” Saunders said. “Andy Lee is a good fighter, but I’m there to smash him up. A good smart boxer will always beat a brawler,” Saunders said.
With Saunders putting on a lot of flab, we could see him suffer stamina issues against Lee next September. It doesn’t matter if Saunders loses all the weight, I think we still could see him looking slow and having stamina problems late in the fight. Saunders ran out of gas against Chris Eubank Jr., and was fortunate to get the win. Lee has the power to make Saunders suffer if he gasses out against him.
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Making his first fight since being stopped last November, former world title challenger Dereck Chisora (21-4, 14 KOs) stopped an over-matched Beqa Lobjanidze (13-4, 11 KOs) in the 1st round. Chisora hurt Lobjanidze with a big right hand to the head.
Chisora said that he’d like to fight newly crowned EBU heavyweight champion Erkan Teper to try and capture his title. Teper recently destroyed David Price in 2 rounds last Friday. I think Teper would be way too strong for Chisora, who is always there to be nailed with head shots. If Chisora crowds Teper like he normally does with his opponents, it’ll be the equivalent of bringing the food to the lion.
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In other action, undefeated junior middleweight Gary Corcoran (13-0, 6 KOs) defeated Rick Godding (21-1-1, 3 KOs) by a 10 round unanimous decision. The final judges’ scores were 97-93, 99-91, and 99-92.
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Undefeated super featherweight Mitchell Smith (13-0, 7 KOs) stayed unbeaten in stopping an over-matched Dennis Tubieron (19-5-2, 8 KOs) in the 1st round. Smith dropped Tubieron with a punch to the body. The referee then halted the fight at 2:42 of the round.
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35-year-old cruiserweight journeyman Ovill McKenzie (22-12, 13 KOs) defeated Jann Forsman (19-2, 12 KOs) by a 2nd round knockout.
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Other boxing results on the card:
Lewis Pettitt TKO 7 Antonio Horvatic
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