Dejan Zlaticanin vs. Franklin Mamani results

By Boxing News - 06/11/2016 - Comments

YouTube video

By Jim Dower: #1 WBC Dejan Zlaticanin (22-0, 15 KOs) proved to have too much for #5 WBC Franklin Mamani (21-3-1, 12 KOs) in stopping him in the 3rd round on Saturday night to capture the vacant WBC lightweight title at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino, in Verona, New York, USA.

Zlaticanin, 32, hurt Mamani in round three. Referee Charlie Fitch then stopped the contest after seeing that Mamani was too hurt to continue. The official time of the stoppage was at 0:54 of round three. In the sequence leading up to the knockout, Zlaticanin hit Mamani with a hard left to the head that badly hurt him, resulting in him backing up against the ropes. Zlaticanin then rushed in and landed a flurry of shots that caused referee Charlie Fitch to stop the bout.

It was clear from the opening seconds of the first round that Zlaticanin was going to be too powerful for Mamani. The difference in punching power between the two fighters was incredible and way too much for Mamani to have a chance of winning the fight.

Mamani was a replacement opponent and he looked like one. He did not look like a guy that belonged in the same ring with Zlaticanin, let alone ranked at No.5 by the World Boxing Council. That ranking made no sense, given that they had arguably MUCH more talented fighters like Richard Commey, Felix Verdejo, Yvan Mendy and Petr Petrov ranked below him. Mamani looked like a guy that should have been ranked no higher than #15 by the WBC. The fact that they had him at No.5 is troubling because he fought as if he didn’t have a clue.

Mamani chose not to use movement against Zlaticanin for some reason. He should have, because he was a sitting duck for Zlaticanin by standing in front of him and trying to trade shots. That was a huge mistake on his part to fight like that.

“I’m very proud. I made Montenegro proud,” Zlaticanin said. “I want to thank my fans that came to support me. I think I made my country proud. I think they will be delighted. I don’t think they know what this means, but in a few days they will know. I knew that I would knock him out. He stood too close to me. I want Linares next. He can’t run from me anymore,” said Zlaticanin.

Jorge Linares is a champion in recess right now after suffering an injury. It’ll be a good fight between him and Zlaticanin once he decides to come back and try and take back his title. Linares will need to use movement against Zlaticanin if he doesn’t want to wind up getting knocked out like Mamani was tonight.

Linares has excellent punching power and boxing skills. However, he’s traditionally had problems against big punchers in the past. Linares has shown improvement though, as he beat Kevin Mitchell last year, and he’s a pressure fighter with a great deal of punching power.

Former middleweight world title challenger Willie Monroe Jr. (20-2, 6 KOs) boxed his way to a 10 round unanimous decision over former world title challenger John Thompson (17-3, 6 KOs). Monroe Jr. knocked Thompson twice in the contest in putting him down in the 2nd and 5th rounds. The final judges’ scores were 96-92, 95-93 and 99-89.

Both fighters were coming off knockout losses in their previous fights in failed efforts to win titles. Monroe looked like he had bulked up with his upper body since his last fight against Gennady Golovkin last year. Monroe’s power looked better than it had in that fight, although not good enough to compete with someone like Golovkin or Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Monroe looks like a good fighter that could give many of the top contenders in the middleweight division problems. Based on Monroe’s performance against Thompson, I think he beats the likes of David Lemieux and possibly Billy Joe Saunders. The guys that will give Monroe problems are fighters that have both power and boxing skills. Golovkin, Canelo, Daniel Jacobs and Chris Eubank Jr. are all on another level from Monroe.

In other results on the card, Russian heavyweight contender Andrey Fedosov (29-3, 24 KOs) defeated an overmatched Mario Heredia (11-2, 9 KOs) by a 6th round knockout. Fedosov knocked Heredia down four times before the fight was stopped.