By Mark Eisner: Former unified cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (17-0, 13 KOs) defeated last minute replacement opponent Chazz Witherspoon (38-4, 29 KOs) by a 7th round knockout in his heavyweight debut on Saturday night on DAZN at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois.
The fight stopped by Witherspoon’s corner after the 7th round due to him being gassed out, and worn out from the one-way punishment he’d received at the hands of Usyk. The time of the stoppage was at 3:00 of round 7.
Usyk was marked up over his right eye from some of Witherspoon’s heavy shots early on. Witherspoon was most effective in the first rounds. He was able to land an occasional right hand. Usyk tried to tee off on Witherspoon after trapping him against the ropes, but he was forced to back off after eating a right hand that he didn’t see coming.
Usyk, 32, constantly was trying to loosen up his left hand throughout the fight. It’s unclear if Usyk was injured or if his left arm was tight. Usyk didn’t look powerful with the left hand shots that he was landing, and he was mostly jabbing a lot.
After the out of shape looking Witherpoon gassed out in the 5th, Usyk was able to hit him at will with his shots. Witherspoon frequently backed up against the ropes, and allowed Usyk to unload on him. The reason Witherspoon kept backing up against the ropes was because he was exhausted. He obviously that he should stay off the ropes, but he didn’t have the engine to stay in the center of the ring.
While Usyk did get the win, he didn’t look overly impressive. He was getting hit, and his power wasn’t exceptional. If Usyk has to trade shots with the younger, bigger and stronger heavyweights like Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder or Andy Ruiz Jr., it’s difficult to imagine him doing well.
Dmitry Bivol defeats Lenin Castillo
WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol (17-0, 11 KOs) put in a lackluster performance in beating counter puncher Lenin Castillo (20-3-1, 15 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision in the co-feature bout.
Bivol dropped Castillo with a beautiful right hand in round 6. However, Castillo was unhurt after he got up, and he fought reasonably well in surviving for 12 rounds. Castillo, 31, fought like he was trying to survive.
The scores were 120-107, 119-108, and 119-108. Boxing News 24 scored it 120-107 for Bivol.
Bivol loudly booed by fans
After the fight results were announced, the crowd booed Bivol heavily, and continued to boo him during his entire post-fight interview. Bivol acknowledged that some of the boxing fans might have seen his performance as a boring one.
Bivol then dared the other 175-lb champions to come and try and beat him. Later, Bivol said he wants to fight the winner of next Saturday’s unification fight between IBF light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev and WBC champ Oleksandr Gvozdyk.
Bivol will need to fight a lot more power, and aggression for him to defeat the Beterbiev-Gvozdyk winner. He might be better off moving down to 168 where his lack of power won’t be as much of a problem. Bivol would do well at super middleweight against fighters like Canelo Alvarez, David Benavidez, Billy Joe Saunders and Callum Smith. At 168, Bivol would be near enough to the middleweight division to fight Gennady Golovkin.
Otha Jones III beats Eric Manriquez
Undefeated super featherweight prospect Otha Jones III (4-0, 1 KO) outscored journeyman Eric Manriquez (7-9-1, 3 KOs) by a four round majority decision.
Jessica McCaskill decisions Erica Farias
WBA/WBC female light welterweight champion Jessica McCaskill (8-2, 3 KOs) defeated Erica Farias (26-4, 10 KOs) by a 10 round majority decision.
The judges’ scores were 97-91, 96-92 for McCaskill, and 94-94 even. Boxing News 24 scored it 96-92 for McCaskill. There was a great deal of holding and wrestling by both fighters. The fight lacked a lot of clean scoring shots from both fighters. McCaskill, 35, has looked a lot better in the past than how she performed tonight.
McCaskill defeated Farias last October by a 10 round unanimous decision. The scores were 97-93, 98-92 and 96-94. with this second win by McCaskill, it’s time that the two fighters go their separate ways rather than getting locked into any additional rematches.
Movladdin Biyarslanov decisions Tyrome Jones
Unbeaten light welterweight Movladdin Biyarslanov (5-0, 4 KOs) had a harder time than expected in beating Tyrome Jones (4-6-1, 1 KO) by a 6 round unanimous decision. The judges scored it 59-55, 59-55, and 58-56 for the unbeaten 24-year-old Russian Biyarslanov.
It wasn’t a good sign that the 2016 Olympian Biyarslanov was unable to dominate Jones. This should have been an easy fight for him. The fact Biyarslanov isn’t able to crush opposition like Jones suggests that he might not be talented enough to go far in the sport.
Anthony Sims Jr. defeats Morgan Fitch
Undefeated super middleweight prospect Anthony Sims Jr. beat Morgan Fitch (19-4-1, 8 KOs) by a 6th round knockout in a scheduled 10 round fight. The highly accomplished Sims, 24, knocked Fitch down two times in the 1st round. In the sixth, Sims dropped Fitch for a third time in the contest.
The referee Dave Smith then stopped in and stopped the fight. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:18 of round 6. It was a good performance by Sims, who appears to be ready to be stepped up against a higher level of opposition.
Charles Conwell KOs Patrick Day
Undefeated junior middleweight Charles Conwell (11-0, 8 KOs) beat Patrick Day (17-4-1, 6 KOs) by a 10th round knockout. Conwell knocked Day out with a big left hook in the 10th. The badly hurt Day was then taken out of the ring on a stretcher. The time of the stoppage was at 1:46 of round 10. Earlier in the contest, Conwell knocked Day down in rounds 4 and 8. The fight was a complete mismatch from start to finish.
TJ Doheny beats Jesus Martinez
Former Intentional Boxing Federation super bantamweight champion TJ Doheny (22-1, 16 KOs) defeated Jesus Martinez (26-10, 13 KOs) by a 6th round knockout. It was a good win for Doheny, who was coming off of a disappointing loss to Danny Roman in his last fight in April of this year.