By Jason Kim: Light heavyweight journeyman Rayco Saunders (16-10-2, 7 KOs) defeated 22- year-old prospect Tommy Karpency (11-1, 7 KOs) by an eight-round unanimous decision on Wednesday night at the Pullman Park, in Butler, Pennsylvania. The final judges’ scores were 76-75, 76-75 and 76-75.
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Tony Thompson vs. Wladimir Klitschko: Will Wladimir Be Too Afraid To Throw His Right?
By Erik Schmidt: Having seen many of Wladimir Klitschko’s (50-3, 44 KOs) early fights in Germany, I can’t say that I’ve been pleased with the changes that have occurred to his boxing style of fighting in recent years. More specifically, I’m referring to Wladimir’s recent reluctance to throw his right hand with any sense of regularity in his fights. I’m not sure what the cause for this growing fear is on Wladimir’s part, perhaps his knockout losses to Lamon Brewster and Corrie Sanders, but I do know that he’s going to have to overcome his dread to throw his right if he expects to defeat his number WBO #1 challenger Tony Thompson (31-1, 19 KOs) in their fight on July 12th at the Color Line Arena, Altona, in Hamburg, Germany.
If Wladimir thinks for a second that he can fight the same way he did against Sultan Ibragimov, whom he beat by a listless 12-round unanimous decision on February 23rd, he has a other thing coming. That was some of the worse fighting I’d seen from a heavyweight champion in years, and I’d expected better from Wladimir, given how well he used to fight earlier in his career.
Kelly Pavlik vs. Paul Williams in September?
By Eric Thomas: Promoter of Kelly Pavlik, Bob Arum, has reportedly been unable to make arrangements for a bout between WBC light middleweight champion Sergio Mora and WBO/WBC middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik, apparently because the offer made for Mora ($1.2 million) wasn’t enough for them. Mora needed a minimum of $1.5, for his own payment and to use as step aside money due to his already signed contract for a rematch with Vernon Forrest, whom he recently defeated by a 12-round unanimous decision last month. Arum, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN, wouldn’t go above the $1.2 million, and pulled out of the negotiations.
With that deal off the table, Arum is looking at trying to line up a bout between newly crowned WBO welterweight champion Paul Williams, a 6’1′ tall, slender, high volume puncher, with a physique not unlike that of Pavlik.
Naoufel Ben Rabah Defeats Mounir Guebbas
By Chris Williams: Wily light welterweight contender Naoufel Ben Rabah (26-3, 13 KOs) defeated the tough Mounir Guebbas (10-10-3) by a 6-round points decision on Tuesday night at the Nuovo Casinò, Campione d’Italia, in Lombardia, Italy. Rabah, 30, still trying to rebuild his once promising career after back to back defeats to Lovemore N’dou and Juan Urarango in 2006 and early 2007, had a relatively easy time with Guebbas, winning every round and scoring two standing eight counts in the 3rd round after tagging Guebbas with a flurry of shots. Using a lot of movement, punching from a vast number of angles, and wheeling around the ring whipping pot shots as he went, Rabah was in a whole different level and impossible for the slower Guebbas to catch up to much less land anything of note.
In the first two rounds, Rabah sent a blueprint of how the fight would be conducted, as he flailed away with punches throwing them sometimes from the hip, like in the old style of Sugar Ray Robinson, and other times from over the top. Indeed, Rabah seemed to be a blend of many styles of fighting, never seeming to stay in one style for any length of time for a matter of seconds.
Sebastian Zbik vs. Jamel Bahki On Saturday
By Scott Gilfoid: Undefeated middleweight contender Sebastian Zbik (22-0, 8 KOs) will be facing Jamel Bahki (17-2-2, 5 KOs) in a 12-round title bout on Saturday night with Sebastin’s WBO Inter-Continental middleweight title on the line at the Gerry Weber Stadium, Halle, in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Zbik is currently ranked #1 in the WBO, #5 in the WBA and #8 in the WBC middleweight rankings and almost certainly going to be getting a title shot against WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik in early 2009. Zbik, 28, lives and fights out of Germany, and has fought most of his fights there against relatively obscure competition, almost all of which are European. However, he’s remained unbeaten and looked especially good, showing good boxing skills, if not formidable power.
It’s still hard to tell how good he is considering his low level competition he’s faced in his career, but he looks to have quite extraordinary skills in comparison to most of the other middleweights in the division, so I wouldn’t put him in the class of a hyped fighter.
Tony Dodson Defeats Mounir Sahli
By Nate Anderson: Light heavyweight Tony Dodson (23-4-1, 12 KOs) defeated Mounir Sahli (8-12, 5 KOs) by a 6-round decision last night at the Nuovo Casinò, Campione d’Italia, in Lombardia, Italy. Dodson won every round of the fight, but looked far from impressive, walking into a lot of right hands from the defensive expert Sahli. Dodson, 28, looked far removed from his championship form of 2003, a time when he briefly held the BBBofC British super middleweight title. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t hold the title for long (all of one fight), as he was badly injured in a car accident and was out of boxing for two years recovering from his injuries.
Dodson looked stiff and uncomfortable in the 1st round against Sahli, following him around and looking to land some big right hands. Some of them landed, but more than a few missed their mark badly. Sahli, somewhat of a defensive wizard despite his poor record, expertly countered Dodson when he’d come trying to tag him with a big shot. Dodson did some good work with his jab, tripling it up at times and setting up his right hand quite well.
Nestor Rocha Defeats Jose Angel Beranza
By Manuel Perez: Bantamweight contender Nestor Rocha (19-1, 6 KOs) won a 10-round unanimous decision over the always tough Jose Angel Beranza (30-13-2, 25 KOs) on Friday night at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa, in Cabazon, California. Rocha, 25, looked good in the early rounds, landing well to the body and keeping Beranza, 32, backing up with heavy pressure.
However, it was Beranza who came on in rounds six through eight, giving the light-hitting Rocha a lot of problems with his heavy pressure. Rocha came back to win rounds nine and ten closely, in large part due to his good body work. The final judges’ scores were 99-91, 100-90 and 97-93. Clearly, some of the judges seemed to be watching an altogether different fight, because there was no way that Rocha could have won rounds six, seven and eight, for he was taking heavy shots throughout and forced to back up continuously by the journeyman Beranza.
On paper, this was a fight that Rocha, a good prospect, should have won quite easily without much trouble at all due to his vastly superior boxing skills.
Julio Cesar Garcia Stops Jose Medina in 1st round KO!
By Tony Krebs: Making his first ring appearance since last June, former light middleweight prospect, now fighting as a super middleweight Julio Cesar Garcia (41-3, 35 KOs) stopped Jose Medina (14-12, 10 KOs) in the 1st round on Friday night at the War Memorial Auditorium, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The fight was over with the first punch, however, with Garcia, 21, dropping Medina with a powerful left hook to the head, sending him to the canvas where he lay on his back, his left legs sticking up in the air slightly in a rigid manner – a classic sign of a fighter having been knocked out.
The referee Jorge Alonso officially stopped the bout at 0;13 of the 1st round. Some people grumbled about the knockout later, suggesting that Medina, whom had been knocked out in five of his last six fights, didn’t want to fight and had gone down with the first punch to have an easy night, and to collect a quick paycheck.
Antwone Smith Stops Juan Camilo Novoa
By Aaron Klein: Exciting but deeply flawed welterweight prospect Antwone Smith (12-1-1, 8 KOs) was too much for his 26 year-old Colombian counterpart Juan Camilo Novoa (13-2, 11 KOs), taking him out with a flurry of punches in the 4th round of a scheduled 8-round bout on Friday night at the War Memorial Auditorium, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Smith, 21, had problems in the first two rounds with the immense power of Novoa, who shelled Smith incessantly with powerful right hands to the head.
It looked as if the young 21 year-old Smith was well on his way to being an early knockout victim of the hard-hitting Novoa. However, in the 4th round, Smith got lucky and hurt Novoa with a left-right combination, staggering him badly in the process. Not to let the opportunity go to waste, Smith unloaded on Novoa with a series of right hand shots sending him backwards down on the canvas. The referee Telis Assimenios quickly called a stop to the fight at 2:59 of the round, even though I thought that Novoa appeared alert enough to possibly continue fighting. The way that Smith was punching, however, I doubt that he would have lasted for long, though, before taking a few more big right hands and possibly going down again.
Breidis Prescott Edges Richard Abril
By Aaron Klein: Making his first appearance in the United States, undefeated Colombian lightweight knockout artist Breidis Prescott (19-0, 17 KOs) defeated former Cuban amateur star Richard Abril (10-1-1, 5 KOs) by a 10-round split decision on Friday night at the War Memorial Auditorium, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The final judges’ scores were 95-94, 97-92 for Prescott and 94-95 for Abril. I have no problems with the score whatsoever, because it looked as if Prescott, 25, narrowly pulled out the decision by at least a round. Despite his impressive knockout record, Prescott was unable to drop Abril, having to chase him for most of the fight as Abril seemed more content with trying to stay alive in the later rounds of the fight.
The first two rounds were fairly close, as both fighters landed almost equally. What wasn’t equal, however, was the power that they were putting on their shots, because Prescott was loading up constantly with shots to the body and head, winging big body shots and trying to take Abril out with every shot. Abril, not wanting to stand and trade with Prescott, stayed constantly on the move, flicking a jab in the face of Prescott and giving him problems with the movement.