By Michael Liberman: As the fight nears closer, not much if any fans or experts alike are giving middleweight challenger Gary Lockett (30-1, 21 KOs) much of a chance at defeating WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (33-0, 29 KOs), whom they see as winning the fight by a likely early knockout scenario. On the face of it, it hardly seems to be fair to Lockett, who hasn’t lost a bout in six years. Though he’s faced the much softer competition, Lockett’s power is very real judging by the impressive knockouts I’ve seen him put together in the past few years. He perhaps may not punch quite as hard as Pavlik, then again who does? But he still punches as hard if not harder than any of Pavlik’s other opponents he faced thus far in his short career.
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Meza Clay Stops Lizarraga
By Scott Gilfoid: Super featherweight contender Monty Meza Clay (28-1, 19 KOs) stopped Fernando Omar Lizarraga (16-5-1, 12 KOs) in the 1st round on Friday night in a scheduled 10-round bout at the Expo Mart, in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. Meza Clay, 27, started slowly in the first round, throwing few punches and circling around the ring with a big smile on his face. After taking a handful of shots from Lizzarraga, Clay moved inside and landed a single left hand body shot, which dropped Lizarraga to the canvas. He stayed down for awhile, then got up and appeared to beat the count, but referee Rick Steigerwald waived off the fight at 1:31 of the 1st round.
This understandably upset Lizarraga a great deal, who protested to the referee that he had made it up before the count. The crowd seemed to feel that way as well, as they booed loudly the stoppage for a long time after. Even Meza Clay, didn’t appear happy that the fight was stopped so soon, looking a little embarrassed and disappointed, probably because he hadn’t been able to show more of his excellent skills against Lizarraga.
Airich Breaks Hand In Defeat To Williams
By Erik Schmidt: The young Russian heavyweight Konstantin Airich (9-1-1, 8 KOs), who gave an excellent account of himself last night, dropping veteran Danny Williams (39-6, 31 KOs) once and hurting him several other times in the fight requiring standing eight counts on two occasions. However, after appearing to run out of gas in the 4th round, Airich was eventually badly beaten by the powerful Williams, who knocked him down twice before the fight was eventually stopped in the 7th round by Airich’s corner. I thought it odd at the time that a fighter of Airich’s youth and talent would abruptly fade so quickly after dominating the first several rounds with such ease.
My questions were answered today when it was announced by Airich’s promoter Ahmet Öne that the Russian fighter had broken his left hand in the 3rd round while delivering huge shots to the head of Williams. The injury essentially turned Airich into a one-armed fighter, making him an easy prey for the clever veteran Williams to take advantage of his weakness and stop him four rounds later. After the fight, Airich, 29, was taken to a nearby hospital where it was discovered that his left hand had been broken in the fight.
Williams Stops Airich In 7th Round
By Aaron Klein: In one of the worst refereed fights I’ve ever witnessed, British heavyweight Danny Williams (39-6, 31 KOs) stopped Konstantin Airech (9-1-1, 8 KOs) in the 7th round of a scheduled 8-round bout at the Pabellon Lasearrem Baracaldo, in Pais Vasco, Spain tonight. The fight, a strange one, saw both fighters trade knockdowns, with Williams down in the 4th and Airich down in the 5th round and 6th rounds. Besides that, Williams received two standing eight counts in the 3rd round, along with two separate point deductions for low blows, once in the 2nd and another time in the 5th.
For his part, Airch received a strange standing eight count in the 2nd round, after getting hit with a left hook that was clearly low. The strange part about it, though, is that the referee Alfredo Garcia Perez upon giving the standing eight count to Airich, he then immediately spun around and deducted a point from Williams for a low blow, which would seem to have nullified the standing eight count as far as I can tell. Airich was taking sustained punishment, already having been knocked down earlier in the round, in the 6th round, with his back against the ropes when suddenly the round ended with 1:28 left on the clock.
2K Sports Launches HypeKingdom.com in Anticipation of Don King Presents: Prizefighter
2K Sports today announced it has partnered with the king of boxing and the godfather of hype, Don King, to launch HypeKingdom.com in support of the highly anticipated boxing video game, Don King Presents: Prizefighter. Fans can now enroll in the University of Hype to learn the art of larger-than-life self-promotion, while getting new insight into the man behind the mania.
Felix Defeats Claudio
By Manuel Perez: Undefeated lightweight prospect Orlando Felix (10-0, 3 KOs) defeated Carlos Claudio (8-3-1, 2 KOs) by an impressive six-round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Coliseo Antonio R. Barcelo, in Toa Baja. The final judges’ scores were 59-55, 59-55 and 59-55, all for Felix. Felix, 22, showed incredible speed and power early on, firing off combinations at will and giving the smaller 20 year-old Claudio problems.
However, Felix seemed to fight much too conservatively for much of the fight, treating the light-hitting Claudio as if he were a knockout threat despite the clear indication that he was not anything of that sort. Much of the time, Felix fought very careful, throwing jabs and watching closely for return fire from Claudio. Yet when Felix would get hit with something, he would frequently forget his cautious game plan and attack hard with powerful combinations to the head and body of Claudio. It was during these brief exchanges that Felix showed that he may be something special in the future, for he looked very impressive when he was letting his hands go.
Watson Easily Defeats Matthew Hatton
By Chris Williams: Commonwealth (British Empire) welterweight champion Craig Watson (13-2, 4 KOs) had an easy time defeating challenger Matthew Hatton (33-4-1, 13 KOs) by a 12-round unanimous decision on Saturday night in Manchester. The final judges’ scores were 116-112, 117-112 and 118-111. The fight was even more lopsided than the scores suggest, as Watson, 25, controlled virtually every round of the fight, out-landing Hatton by a significant margin. Hatton, 27, the younger brother of former light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton, looked poor for the most part, too slow and for some reason unable to let his hands go with much regularity.
Perhaps the major reason for his inability to throw punches, I believe, is because Watson would tag him with combinations each time Hatton would attempt to land anything. That was made possible because of Hatton’s terrible hand speed, which seemed as if he had a great deal of dead fast twitch nerve tissue in his arms. Going into the bout, I thought Hatton might have a decent chance at winning the title given his impressive record of 33 wins.
Lundy Defeats Almaraz
By William MacKay: In a particularly badly scored fight, undefeated light welterweight prospect Henry Lundy (11-0-1, 6 KOs) defeated Esteban Almaraz (7-1, 4 KOs) by a 4-round unanimous decision on Friday night at the Twin River Even Center, in Lincoln, Rhode Island. It was especially hard for me to see Lundy, 24, winning considering that he’d been knocked down twice in the fight, first in round one and then another time in the 4th and deciding round.
Estrada Stops Witherspoon
By William MacKay: In a stay busy fight, one-beaten heavyweight prospect Jason Estrada (13-1, 3 KOs) stopped an over-matched 6’6” Moultrie Witherspoon (14-2, 8 KOs) in the 7th round of a scheduled eight-round bout at the Twin River Event Center, in Lincoln, Rhode Island on Friday night. Estrada, a former Gold medalist at the 2003 Pan-American Games, three-time U.S, amateur super heavyweight champion between 2001-2003, and U.S. super heavyweight representative at the 2004 Athens Olympics, battered around the 34 year-old Witherspoon for seven rounds. The fight was finally stopped in the 7th round after Estrada, normally a very weak puncher, landed a series of hard left and right hooks to the head of Witherspoon, prompting for referee Joey Lopino to step in and halt the fight at 1:38 of the 7th round.
Estrada, 27, was coming off an impressive 10-round unanimous decision over former heavyweight contender Lance Whitaker just a month ago in April, which probably accounts for his choice of Witherspoon, a fighter clearly not in the same class as him, as an opponent. Estrada controlled the first two rounds, using left hooks and uppercuts to the head of the much taller Witherspoon.
Jimenez Stops Cardenas, Padilla and Hernandez Fight To a Draw
By Manuel Perez: Featherweight prospect Marcos Jimenez (13-1, 8 KOs) stopped Mexican fighter Baudel Cardenas (17-14-2, 6 KOs) in the 4th round of a scheduled 8-round bout at the Coliseo Antonio R. Barcelo, in Toa Baja, on Saturday night. At the end of the 4th round, Jimenez, 24, landed a huge left hook to the midsection of Cardenas, dropping him to the canvas where he lay in agony for over a minute. Referee Roberto Ramirez Jr. immediately stopped the fight at 2:59 of the 4th round after seeing Cardenas’ stricken condition.
Jimenez, from the Dominican Republic, fought very conservatively in the first round, shooting jabs out repeatedly while trying to avoid Cardenas’ sloppy attacks. Cardenas, 27, was mostly ineffective with his shots as he tended to come in a little too wild and often came up hitting nothing with his big looping hooks.
In the 2nd round, Cardenas came out much faster, throwing a lot of wide shots mostly to the head. Like in the previous round, Cardenas missed many of his punches. He looked really bad, missing almost half of his attempts at landing.