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By Scott Gilfoid: Hard-hitting middleweight contender Marco Antonio Rubio (42-4-1, 37 KOs) stopped 38 year-old Alfredo Cuevas (26-10-1, 17 KOs) in the 5th round of a scheduled 10-round bout on Friday night at the Sovereign Performing Arts Center, in Reading, Pennsylvania. Rubio, ranked #3 in the WBC middleweight division and a potential opponent for WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik’s next bout, dispatch Cuevas when his corner stopped the bout at the end of the 5th round. Despite Rubio’s high ranking and high percentage of knockouts on his record, he was far from impressive and looked little better than the 38 year-old Cuevas. Rubio’s high punch output was the telling factor in the fight, especially when he suddenly turned up the volume in the 5th round and landed a lot of hard combinations to the head of Cuevas in the round. It came to no surprise to me that the fight was stopped in the corner after the round.

Rubio, however, showed to have little defense for the right hand of Cuevas, who found it relatively easy to nail Rubio with punches anytime he felt like, which as it turns out, was quite often. Heck, Cuevas couldn’t miss Rubio even if he tried because he never seemed to be able to block anything thrown his way.

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By Manuel Perez: undefeated light middleweight Carlos Garcia (2-0-1, 2 KOs) fought to an exciting four-round draw on Wednesday night at the Aviator Sports Arena, in Brooklyn, New York. Garcia, 19, was knocked down twice in the 1st round after walking into right hands thrown by Prada. In the 2nd round, Garcia returned the favor, knocking Prada down with a powerful right hand. In the 4th and final round, Garcia knocked Prada down for the 2nd time in the fight after nailing him with a big right.

However, given the fact that Garcia was knocked down twice in the 1st and appeared to lose the 3rd round, the fight was eventually ruled a draw. The final judges’ scores were 36-36, 36-36 and 37-35 for Garcia. I personally thought Garcia won the fight by a narrow margin based on his strong finish in the 4th round. However, I’m also comfortable with the fight being scored as a draw, because it was a very close fight and difficult to pick a winner between the two of them.

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By Manuel Perez: Previously undefeated light middleweight prospect James Moore (15-1, 10 KOs) was shockingly upset by little known Gabriel Rosado (10-2, 6 KOs) by an 8-round unanimous decision on Wednesday night at the Aviator Sports Arena, in Brooklyn, New York. After losing the first three rounds and appearing on his way to losing the fight, Rosado stunned Moore with a right hand at the end of the 4th round. In the 5th round, Moore walked into a big right hand from Rosado was sent to the canvas. For the next three rounds, Rosado pretty much controlled action with his right hand, although it was close due to Moore – the much better skilled fighter – pressing the action most of the time. The final judges’ scores were 77-74, 78-73 and 76-74.

Going into the bout, Moore, 30, a former 2001 amateur World Champion for Ireland and a veteran of over 314 amateur fights, was thought to walk right though the 22 year-old Rosado, who had a decent right hand but little else in the way of boxing skills or ability.

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By Erik Schmidt: Undefeated light middleweight prospect Alexander Abraham (21-0-1, 15 KOs) stopped a badly over-matched Mihai Macovei (6-3, 4 KOs) in the 5th round of a scheduled 8-round bout on Tuesday night at the Salle la Soucoupe, Saint-Nazaire, in Loire-Atlantique, France. Abraham, 26, the younger brother of IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham, dropped Macovei twice in the 5th round, the second time a result of a huge left to the midsection which Macovei was unable to get up. The fight was immediately stopped when it was apparent that Macovei, 32, wasn’t going to be able to make it from the knockdown.

As in many of his other fights, Abraham looked rather pedestrian, fighting slowly without much interest and fouling often with rabbit punches and forearms to the head. His opponent, Macovei had only two years of professional boxing experience under his belt, and only eight fights. It astonishing that Abraham, a fighter with 22 fights under his belt and five years of professional boxing experience, would be matched against such a poor opponent. But, it was also very telling as Abraham has few of the skills of his older brother, and looks almost crude in comparison. The speed, combinations, power and ring intelligence are all missing from the younger Abraham, and it’s unlikely that at this stage of his career that he’ll ever attain them.

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By Aaron Klein: After watching former street fighter now Mixed Martial Arts star Kimbo Slice struggle to beat an average at best James Thompson last Saturday night in the EliteXC: Primetime Event in Newark, New Jersey, I can’t help but think that Slice is better off moving to boxing where he can utilize his extraordinary power in the heavyweight division. Slice, 34, original name Kevin Ferguson, is a relative newcomer to the sport of MMA after having made a name for himself with underground fights that have been shown widely on the Internet, making him a minor star.

With no grappling or martial arts experience to speak of, the 6’2″ 240 lb Slice recently moved over to MMA, where he’s now had three fights over exclusively soft opposition. As one would expect, Slice has won all three matches, two of them quite easily with 1st round TKOs in which Slice took out both opponents with head shots while they were on their feet.

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By Eric Thomas: Undefeated light middleweight prospect Latif Mundy (8-0, 3 KOs) defeated George Rivera (8-2, 3 KOs) when the fight was stopped at the end of the 4th round by the ringside doctor on Friday night at the Expo Mart, in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. Mundy, 25, one of the top prospects in the light middleweight division, dominated the fight against Rivera, 30, using a combination of power punching and lightning quick combinations to control the bout. There were no knockdowns in the fight, but Rivera was cut on the left side of his face near his eye in the 3rd round. His face would redden and swell in the 4th round from Mundy’s blistering shots to the head. Mundy kept a steady jab going in the first round, using it to set up his fast combinations.

Rivera, after initially landing a couple of shots in the opening round, almost immediately backed once he got a taste of Mundy’s power. I couldn’t figure out whey Mundy doesn’t have more knockouts after watching the opening round because he hits incredibly hard, but after seeing that most of his fights have only been four rounders, I understood why.

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By Erik Schmidt: Undefeated WIBF Women’s International Boxing Federation featherweight and WBC Female featherweight champion Ina Menzer (21-0, 9 KOs) destroyed her American challenger Stacey Reile (8-1, 3 KOs) with a series of big right hands on Saturday night, knocking her flat with a devastating right hand in the 2nd round. Referee Daniel Van de Wiele immediately stopped the bout at 1:39 after seeing how badly Reile had been hurt by the knockdown. The fight started off slowly in rounds one and two, with Reile for the part in control of the fight using her faster hands to land effectively with combinations.

Menzer, 27, originally from Kazakhstan and now living in Germany, seldom let her hands go in the first couple of rounds, instead jabbing and looking for openings. In the third round, the fight continued to be controlled by Reile, that is, until the final seconds of the round when Menzer unloaded with a huge right hand that landed to the side of Reile’s head, staggering badly and almost causing her to go down. The referee did something I’d never seen before in a fight, he grabbed a hold of Reile to steady her, and actually prevented what very likely would have been a knockdown from occurring.

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