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By Dan Ambrose: Exciting super middleweight power puncher Jaidon Codrington (19-2, 15 KOs) stopped journeyman William Gill (8-21, 7 KOs) with three seconds remaining in the 8th round on Thursday night at the Dunkin Donuts Center, in Providence, Rhode Island. Codrington, 24, a former star from reality television program The Contender, staggered Gill late in the 8th round with a monstrous left hand.

Codrington then followed up with a horde of combinations, driving Gill across the ring where he collapsed against the ropes causing referee Ricky Gonzalez to step in and halt the fight at 2:57 of the 8th.

By Manuel Perez: In a truly terrible decision, light welterweight contender Francisco Figueroa (20-2, 13 KOs) defeated journeyman Emanuel Augustus (38-30-6, 20 KOs) by a controversial eight-round split decision on Saturday night on the undercard of Joe Calzaghe vs. Roy Jones Jr. at Madison Square Garden, in New York City, New York.

The final judges’ scores were 77-75 and 77-75 for Figueroa, whereas Augustus received the nod by the third judge 77-75. I personally had Augustus winning by six rounds to two, as Figueroa did very little in the fight and was out-worked, out-punched in virtually every round save for two.

Ranked an incredible #4 in the IBF and WBC, Figueroa, 30, looked poor in the early going against Augustus, more like a good C-class fighter than anything close to a top tier fighter from what I could see of him.

By Aaron Klein: Unbeaten light middleweight prospect David Lemieux (12-0, 12 KOs) continued his perfect knockout streak with a 2nd round TKO over Patrick Tessier (3-8, 2 KOs) on Saturday night to win the vacant Quebec Boxing Council (CQB) light middleweight title at the Montreal Casino, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Lemieux, only 19, dropped Tessier four times in the fight, twice in the 1st round and another two times in the 2nd round. After the 4th knockdown, a devastating left-right combination, referee Marlon Wright stopped the fight at 2:50 of the 2nd round.

Lemieux, a Canadian, is still work in progress and probably a little undersized at only 5’9″ for the light middleweight division, yet his power is very much real. He hits as hard as any of the top light middleweights in the division, possibly even harder than James Kirkland or Alfredo Angulo, two of the hardest punchers in the light middleweight division. However, his defense is virtually nonexistent, making him susceptible to getting hit a lot. Indeed, Tessier, 29, had little trouble landing powerful right hands to the head of Lemieux in the short two rounds of the fight.

By Erik Schmidt: Undefeated light welterweight prospect Sergey Fedchenko (22-0, 10 KOs) destroyed Juan Alberto Godoy (22-12-1, 8 KOs) in a 4th round TKO on Saturday night at the Budivelnik, in Cherkasy, Ukraine. Fedchenko, 28, also known as “The Professor,” knocked Godoy down three times in the fight, twice in the 3rd and a final time in the 4th round. After the third knockdown, referee Yuri Koptsev stopped the one-sided bout. Fedchenko, a Ukrainian, jabbed Godoy frequently in the first round, and hammed him with power lefts and rights to the head. Fedchenko rarely threw combinations in the round and instead appeared to be loading up for quick, powerful shots that would often catch Godoy unaware.

For his part, Godoy found it difficult to land his own punches in the opening round, as when he would attempt to land a shot, Fedchenko would quickly move away to the outside leaving nothing but air in between the two fighters. In the second round, Fedchenko hurt Godoy with a hard left to the body in the early portion of the round, making Godoy grab to his side and wince in pain.

By Manuel Perez: Super bantamweight Antonio Escalante (19-2, 12 KOs) was too much for Mike Oliver (21-2, 7 KOs), knocking him down four times in total and stopping him in the 3rd round of a scheduled 10-round bout on Friday at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa, in Cabazon, California. Escalante, 23, appeared way too powerful and big for the weaker, slightly smaller 28 year-old Oliver, who just appeared too small for Escalante from the opening moments of the fight. Oliver, a fighter with over 300 amateur fights, looked smooth in the first round and landed well with hooks to the head.

However, Escalante followed him around the ring, hitting him with huge left hooks to the body and head. Near the end of the fight round, Escalante hurt Oliver with a big left-right to the head, dropping him to the canvas. He got up but was immediately sent back down against with a left uppercut. Again, Oliver got up and was hit with a powerful right hand to the body, and staggered with a right to the head. Escalante then dropped him for the third time in the round with a left tot eh head. The round ended just in time for Oliver, who clearly would have been knocked out had it gone any longer.

By Nate Anderson: In a decision that seemed way out of whack, Italian cruiserweight contender Giacobbe Fragomeni (26-1, 10 KOs) defeated Rudolf Kraj (14-1, 10 KOs) by an 8th round technical decision after Fragomeni, 39, received a nasty cut over his left eye from an unintentional head butt in the 7th round, leading to the fight being stopped by the ringside doctor in the 8th. The fight outcome then went to the judges’ scorecards, all which saw Fragomeni winning by the scores of 77-74, 77-74 and 77-74. However, it appeared to me that Kraj had easily won the fight by at least a five rounds to three score, if not more than that.

Fragomeni, fighting in front of his home audience in PalaLido, in Milan, Lombardia, Italy, did little punching in most of the rounds, just following the much taller Kraj around and getting hit. I’m not sure if it was because of Fragomeni’s advanced age or just a case of him having an off night, but whatever the case, he was getting out-punched by at least a three to one margin from what I saw, and rarely throwing anything back. When he would attempt a punch, even the ones that missed, the Italian crowd would go crazy, applauding like mad as if he had just scored a knockout or something rather than just one punch.

By Manuel Perez: If you were looking for an exciting action packed bout, then you needed to look no further than last night’s IBF featherweight showdown for the vacant IBF title between Cristobal Cruz (37-11-1, 23 KOs) and Orlando Salido (31-10-2, 20 KOs) at the Northern Quest Casino, in Airway Heights, Washington. Both fighters traded shots all night long with both of them eventually throwing more than 1000 punches a piece, though many of them missed badly.

Cruz, 31, ultimately won the exciting bout by a 12-round split decision, but I had him winning the vast majority of the rounds with his good work rate. The final judges’ scores were 116-112, 116-112 and 113-115. Neither fighter’s punches had much power to them, as they seemed to sacrifice power for a much higher work rate. Salido, normally a hard puncher, appeared to make the mistake of trying to match Cruz punch for punch, which led to Salido tiring badly in the last four rounds of the fight causing him to push his punches rather than throw them with any kind of authority. He probably should have focused more on blocking Cruz’s mostly wild and badly telegraphed punches instead, and looking for opportunities to counter him with power shots.

By Aaron Klein: Middleweight contender Marco Antonio Rubio (43-4-1, 37 KOs) hardly looked impressive on Saturday night, defeating Enrique Ornelas (28-5, 18 KOs) by a 12-round split decision in the WBC Middleweight Title Eliminator bout at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. I had Ornelas, 28, winning the fight by seven rounds to five, out-punching Rubio in almost every round and landing by far the harder shots on the night. However, the final judges’ scores were 115-113, 113-115, and 116-112, giving Rubio the decision.

By Nate Anderson: Former BBBofC British and World Boxing Union lightweight champion Graham Earl (25-4, 12 KOs) was destroyed in the 1st round on Friday night against Henry Castle (19-4, 11 KOs) at the York Hall, Bethnal Green, in London. Earl, 30, never really stood a chance as he was blasted with hard combinations from Castle at the start of the bout, and seconds into the fight, Earl was put down with a perfect left-right combination to the head. Earl got up but took nonstop punishment until the referee Jeff Hinds stepped in and stopped the bout at 1:09 with Earl backed up against the ropes and being unloaded on by Castle. This was Earl’s second consecutive 1st round knockout and third loss in a row.

Earl did look right entering the ring, having the look of a deer frozen in the headlights of a large truck. For whatever reason, he seemed not to be into the fight and not mentally prepared to engage in battle with the hard punching Castle. Given his last loss, a first round TKO at the hands of Amir Khan, Earl appeared to be doing himself no favors by choosing the aggressive Castle as his first opponent after such a disappointing loss.