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The boy Thurman has hands for real.
Official 2013 Boxing Thread: Year is over, please lock.
- Thread in 'Sports & Training' Thread starter Started by proshares,
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Just watched the Mares fight. Son got that work early :x
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Saw the highlights, dude looked bigger than abner
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He didn't look it, he was. Abner is a really small guy and he does not have the requisite skills to keep guys at 126 off his ***.
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From what I recall Ponce De Leon was bigger too as far as mass.
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NACHO!! feint to the body, left hook upsttairs.
That was all Nacho knowing Mares from yrs of training Abner.
Abner beats Gonzalez in a rematch
When fighters take a big shot it always baffles me why they don't hold more. Floyd held on for dear life vs Shane. If he hadn't, woulda been a 2nd round KO
That was all Nacho knowing Mares from yrs of training Abner.
Abner beats Gonzalez in a rematch
When fighters take a big shot it always baffles me why they don't hold more. Floyd held on for dear life vs Shane. If he hadn't, woulda been a 2nd round KO
It's that pride.
*Marcellus* **** pride.
I'd still like to see Santa Cruz and Abner if Abner gets back to the top of 126.
Wrap up.
*Marcellus* **** pride.
I'd still like to see Santa Cruz and Abner if Abner gets back to the top of 126.
Wrap up.
A roundup of the past week's notable boxing results from around the world:
Sunday at Tokyo
Ryota Murata TKO2 Akio Shibata
Middleweights
Records: Murata (1-0, 1 KO); Shibata (21-8-1, 9 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Murata, 27, won Olympic gold for Japan in the 2012 London Games, becoming the first Japanese boxer to win a gold medal since Takao Sakurai in the 1964 Tokyo Games. Murata is also the first Japanese fighter to win an Olympic medal in a division other than bantamweight or flyweight. He made his heralded professional debut in a scheduled six-round bout against countryman Shibata, 31, a solid fighter who owns one of Asia's most respected regional titles.
Murata dropped Shibata in the final seconds of the first round with a right hand. In the second round, Murata was all over Shibata and had him staggering, prompting the referee to step in and call off the fight at 2 minutes, 24 seconds.
Murata is going to fight regularly in Japan for the time being, but you can count on seeing him in America, probably next year. He recently signed a co-promotional deal with Akihiko Honda's Teiken Boxing, the No. 1 promoter in Japan, and Top Rank.
Jorge Linares KO2 Berman Sanchez
Lightweights
Records: Linares (34-3, 22 KOs); Sanchez (26-6-3, 18 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Linares, 28, a native of Venezuela who has made Japan a second home, is a former featherweight and junior lightweight titlist trying to get his career back on track following bad knockout losses to Antonio DeMarco (in a vacant lightweight title bout in 2011) and Sergio Thompson in March 2012.
Linares won his third fight in a row since those back-to-back defeats in taking out Nicaragua's Sanchez, 29, at 1 minute, 9 seconds of the second round. Linares scored a pair of knockdowns in the second round, finishing him off with a left-right combination to send Sanchez to his third consecutive knockout loss.
Saturday at Carson, Calif.
Jhonny Gonzalez TKO1 Abner Mares
Wins a featherweight title
Records: Gonzalez (55-8, 47 KOs); Mares (26-1-1, 14 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: The excellent run that Mares has been on over the past couple of years came to a thudding halt as Gonzalez scored a major upset, dropping him twice and reclaiming the world title he once held.
Mares, 27, a 2004 Mexican Olympian now living in Hawaiian Gardens, Calif., has been one of the hottest fighters in boxing and had begun creeping up many pound-for-pound lists because of a strong résumé that includes wins against Daniel Ponce De Leon, Anselmo Moreno, Joseph Agbeko (twice) and Vic Darchinyan. In the past 21 months, Mares had won world titles at bantamweight, junior featherweight and featherweight. In May, he stopped Ponce De Leon in the ninth round to win a featherweight title, and his first defense came against Gonzalez, who had lost the same belt to Ponce De Leon by eighth-round technical decision in 2012 after suffering a bad cut from an accidental head-butt. Gonzalez, 31, of Mexico, who is also a former bantamweight titleholder, bounced back from the loss to Ponce De Leon to win two fights and then landed the shot at Mares, whom he once employed as a sparring partner when Mares was a 20-year-old prospect and they shared Hall of Fame trainer Nacho Beristain (who is still with Gonzalez, but not Mares).
Mares has come a long way since those days and was a significant favorite Saturday, so much so that talk had already begun about a possible Mares showdown with Leo Santa Cruz, who did his part by claiming a junior featherweight belt in an explosive performance on the undercard. But forget Mares-Santa Cruz for now, as Mares' night ended early and violently when Gonzalez, who has always been a great puncher, walked through him with ease before a crowd of 7,686 at the StubHub Center, one of the best venues for boxing in the United States.
Gonzalez did major damage when he dropped Mares with a flush left hook on the chin in the final minute of the opening round. Mares seemed OK when he got up, but Gonzalez immediately went on the attack again. He had Mares backing up when he unloaded a flurry of roughly eight punches. He caught Mares with some of the shots, including another fearsome left hook that dropped Mares for the second time. This time Mares was far more hurt than he had been on the first knockdown. Referee Jack Reiss began his count, but then didn't like what he saw and called off the fight at 2 minutes, 55 seconds while Mares was still on the mat.
This is a huge win for Gonzalez and a crushing loss for Mares, who showed enormous class after the fight. He didn't complain about the stoppage and gave Gonzalez the credit he deserved for the victory. A rematch isn't out of the question, but Mares indicated he would take a break. Meanwhile, there's nothing holding Gonzalez back from seeking bigger fights.
Leo Santa Cruz TKO3 Victor Terrazas
Wins a junior featherweight title
Records: Santa Cruz (25-0-1, 15 KOs); Terrazas (37-3-1, 21 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Santa Cruz ran roughshod over Terrazas and blew him out in this ultra-impressive performance to claim a world title in his second weight division.
Santa Cruz, 25, a native of Mexico living in Los Angeles, had won a vacant bantamweight belt in June 2012, made three defenses and then vacated the title because he was having trouble making the 118-pound weight limit. He moved up to 122 pounds in May, drilled former junior bantamweight titlist Alexander Munoz in the fifth round and was later installed as the mandatory challenger for Terrazas, 30, of Mexico. Terrazas was making the first defense of the vacant belt he won by split decision against former junior bantamweight champion Cristian Mijares in April. Terrazas has beaten good fighters such as Mijares, Fernando Montiel and Nehomar Cermeno, but he was no match for Santa Cruz, who was aggressive -- as he always is -- and took it right to Mijares.
Santa Cruz was landing hard head shots and connected on several good left hooks early. By the time the second round was over, Terrazas' right eye was badly swollen, no doubt from eating one of those hooks. In the third round, Santa Cruz continued to throw a ton of punches, and a left hook caught Terrazas on the side of the head for a knockdown. Later in the round, Santa Cruz was laying more leather on Terrazas, including a right hand that dropped him to a knee. Although he beat the count, Terrazas told referee Lou Moret that he couldn't see out of his damaged eye and Moret waved off the fight at 2 minutes, 9 seconds.
This was a total demolition for Santa Cruz and one of the most impressive performances of his career. The plan is for him to make a couple of defenses at 122 pounds (if that many) and then go up in weight again to try for a third world title. However, that plan -- Golden Boy had been steering Santa Cruz toward a featherweight title fight with Abner Mares -- will change a bit after Mares got starched by Jhonny Gonzalez in the first round of the main event.
Antonio Orozco KO3 Ivan Hernandez
Junior welterweights
Records: Orozco (18-0, 14 KOs); Hernandez (29-4, 22 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Orozco, 25, of San Diego, is a good prospect with a fan-friendly style who showed it again in this rout of Hernandez, 33, a native of Colombia living in Miami. Orozco was taking on the toughest opponent of his career but had no issues. He applied his typical constant pressure and Hernandez simply couldn't take it.
Orozco steadily broke him down, especially with body shots, and then put Hernandez away with three knockdowns in the third round. The first one came on an accumulation of shots. Then Hernandez, under heavy fire, took a knee. And he went down for the third time after eating a left uppercut-and-left hook combination, at which point referee Raul Caiz Sr. had seen enough and stopped the bout at 1 minute, 39 seconds.
Orozco is moving along well and seems on track to make his first significant fight around next summer.
Joseph Diaz Jr. KO3 Noel Mendoza
Featherweights
Records: Diaz (7-0, 5 KOs); Mendoza (6-3-1, 1 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Diaz, a 20-year-old southpaw from South El Monte, Calif., was a 2012 U.S. Olympian and is coming along nicely as a professional. He had way too much for the overmatched Mendoza, 27, of Phoenix, who lost his second fight in a row and third in his past four bouts.
Diaz unleashed numerous combinations and eventually dropped Mendoza twice in the third round with one series of punches. After the second knockdown, which immediately followed the first, referee Raul Caiz Jr. waved off the scheduled six-round bout at 1 minute, 54 seconds.
The CompuBox statistics show just how dominant Diaz was. He landed 83 of 146 punches (57 percent), while Mendoza was limited to landing just six of 73 blows (8 percent).
Dominic Breazeale KO4 Lenroy Thomas
Heavyweights
Records: Breazeale (6-0, 6 KOs); Thomas (16-3, 8 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Breazeale, of Los Angeles, was a 2012 U.S. Olympian and fighting on his 28th birthday. He has great size for a heavyweight prospect (6-foot-6½, 251 pounds), but he is a big-time project because, even though he was an Olympian, he had a limited amateur career. He had been a college football quarterback at the University of Northern Colorado before turning to boxing. He is really still learning how to fight, but he sure knew enough when it came to handling the 6-2½, 246-pound Thomas, 28, a southpaw from Jamaica, who was coming off a knockout loss and hadn't fought in nearly three years.
Thomas landed some decent shots, but he was running out of gas in the fourth round of the scheduled eight-round bout. That's when Breazeale landed a hard right hand that backed Thomas up. With Thomas trapped in a corner, Breazeale let his hands go and was teeing off, eventually dropping his opponent with a right hand to the body. Thomas went down to a knee and took the full count from referee Thomas Taylor, who counted him out at 2 minutes, 29 seconds. This was actually a decent test for Breazeale compared to the other opponents he has faced.
Saturday at Schwerin, Germany
Arthur Abraham W12 Willbeforce Shihepo
Super middleweights
Scores: 117-111, 116-113, 116-112
Records: Abraham (37-4, 28 KOs); Shihepo (20-7, 15 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Abraham is a shell of the fighter who held a middleweight title from 2005 to 2009 and was knocking everyone out, and this tremendous struggle against an obscure, hand-picked opponent showed just how badly he has faded. Abraham was a washout in the Super Six World Boxing Classic when he moved up to super middleweight, and he has struggled since.
Even when Abraham, 33, a native of Armenia living in Germany, has beaten second-rate opponents, he usually hasn't looked very good. And when he claimed a super middleweight belt by decision against Robert Stieglitz last August, many thought Stieglitz deserved the decision. When they met in a rematch in March, Stieglitz blew out Abraham, stopping him in the fourth round of a one-sided fight. In his return from that loss, Abraham was matched Shihepo, 30, of Namibia, who was supposed to be an easy target. Instead, Shihepo gave Abraham everything he could handle. Frankly, Abraham is lucky to have had his hand raised in victory.
As usual, Abraham didn't throw many punches as he plodded forward. Shihepo, meanwhile, probably fought better than he ever had before. He landed plenty of solid right hands that shook Abraham, but he didn't get nearly the credit he deserved from the judges. He was also robbed of a clean knockdown in the fifth round when he clipped Abraham with a left hand and Abraham went down but referee Manuel Maritxalar instead called it a slip. This is one of many examples when the use of replay between rounds would have righted an obvious wrong.
Abraham probably will get another big fight, and he would like a rubber match with Stieglitz, but that might be unlikely because they are tied to different television networks in Germany now that Stieglitz has signed with a competitor of the network Abraham fights on.
Kubrat Pulev W12 Tony Thompson
Heavyweight title eliminator
Scores: 118-110, 117-111, 116-112
Records: Pulev (18-0, 9 KOs); Thompson (38-4, 26 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: We can all be thankful that there won't be a third fight between heavyweight champ Wladimir Klitschko and Tony Thompson, who has already been the champion's mandatory challenger twice and been knocked out both times, in 2008 and 2012. Instead, it was Pulev, 32, of Bulgaria, who earned a mandatory shot at Klitschko (who first will face another mandatory in Alexander Povetkin on Oct. 5) by taking a clear decision from Thompson, 41, of Washington, D.C.
Thompson, a southpaw, had gotten into position to again fight in a final eliminator by pulling back-to-back knockout upsets of England's rising prospect David Price, stopping him in the second round in February and in the fifth round in the July rematch. However, he couldn't score a third in a row as Pulev won a tactical but convincing decision.
Both fighters started slowly, but Pulev seemed to have figured out Thompson by the fourth round. He picked up the pace, got more aggressive and started to clearly win rounds. Thompson had some sporadic moments when he landed solid shots, such as late in the seventh round, but it wasn't enough to do any real damage or even win many rounds. Pulev was comfortably ahead and Thompson could do nothing to seriously disrupt his rhythm as Pulev cruised to his biggest career victory and guaranteed himself a world title opportunity.
Juergen Braehmer W12 Stefano Abatangelo
Retains European light heavyweight title
Scores: 119-108 (twice), 115-111
Records: Braehmer (41-2, 31 KOs); Abatangelo (17-3-1, 6 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Braehmer, a 34-year-old southpaw from Germany and a former world titleholder, made his second defense of the European title by soundly outpointing Abatangelo, 31, of Italy, who hadn't lost a fight since 2007 but was taking a huge step up in competition.
It was one-sided all the way, although both fighters were warned by referee Phil Edwards for their dirty tactics. Edwards eventually docked a meaningless point from Abatangelo, who suffered cuts over both eyes, for hitting on the break in the fifth round. Braehmer won his 10th fight in a row since a 2008 points loss to Hugo Hernan Garay in a world title bout, and as the mandatory challenger for Sergey Kovalev, he is headed toward another shot at a world title.
Saturday at Chubut, Argentina
Omar Narvaez TKO10 Hiroyuki Hisataka
Retains a junior bantamweight title
Records: Narvaez (40-1-2, 21 KOs); Hiroyuki Hisataka (22-11-1, 10 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Like Old Man River, the 38-year old Argentine hero Narvaez keeps rolling along. As a flyweight titleholder from 2002 to 2009, he made 16 defenses before vacating to move up in weight. He won a junior bantamweight belt in 2010 and made his eighth sucessful defense with the dominant victory against Hisataka, 28, of Japan. Narvaez's only loss was one many would love to forget -- his non-effort in 2011 when he moved up to challenge then-bantamweight titlist Nonito Donaire and was shut out. But at junior bantamweight (despite not facing the best challengers), he is dominant. Hisataka was another relatively easy mark. He was challenging for a world title for the fourth time, but has now lost all four of those fights and dropped to 3-3 in his past six overall.
Narvaez put on a clinic in a one-sided beatdown of Hisataka. He was all over the challenger from the outset and had him in trouble throughout the fight. In the 10th round, Narvaez took target practice, pounding Hisataka to the head and body. Narvaez landed more than two dozen unanswered punches against a defenseless Hisataka, battering him around the ring before referee Julio Cesar Alvarado stepped in to stop the fight at 1 minute, 26 seconds. The win was Narvaez's fifth in a row since the debacle against Donaire.
Saturday at Glendale, Calif.
Gilberto Ramirez W10 Derrick Findley
Middleweights
Scores: 100-90 (three times)
Records: Ramirez (26-0, 20 KOs); Findley (20-11-1, 13 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Ramirez, 22, of Mexico, is being hailed by some as the next big Mexican star, and this was his American debut. He has movie-star looks, is well-built and looks like he can fight, too. At 6-foot-2, Ramirez, a southpaw, towered over Findley, a late replacement for Julio Garcia, and stayed in total control of the fight. Ramirez basically did as he pleased. He used his jab, boxed well and showed solid defense. Findley, 29, of Gary, Ind., is often picked as an opponent for up-and-comers because he goes rounds, having been knocked out only once in his 11 defeats. He dropped to 0-3-1 in his past four fights.
Also on the card, blue-chip junior featherweight prospect Jessie Magdaleno (16-0, 12 KOs) knocked out long-faded veteran former title challenger Luis Maldonado (36-12-1, 27 KOs) at 1 minute, 10 seconds of the third round. He dropped Maldonado twice in the round.
Saturday at Donetsk, Ukraine
Stanyslav Kashtanov KO10 Jaime Barboza
Retains an interim super middleweight title
Records: Kashtanov (31-1, 17 KOs); Barboza (18-8, 8 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Kashtanov, 29, was fighting at home in Ukraine, where he has fought virtually all of his fights and remains safely tucked away in anonymity to most of the boxing world. He made the first defense of his interim belt that was created for no apparent reason -- Andre Ward holds the organization's real title, and Carl Froch holds a secondary belt -- and faced an opponent with no business being in a world title fight of any kind.
Barboza, 35, of Costa Rica, had done nothing to warrant the shot and dropped to 2-5 in his past seven with the loss. Kashtanov had a few problems with Barboza, but he eventually dropped him in the seventh round with a body shot and then finished him when he dropped him again with an accumulation of blows in the 10th round. Barboza went down to a knee and took the full count from referee Jan Christensen at 2 minutes, 40 seconds.
Also on the card, light heavyweight Ismayl Sillakh (21-1, 17 KOs) of Ukraine, a hot contender before being upset in an eighth-round knockout loss to Denis Grachev in April 2012, won his fourth fight in a row since that loss by stopping Konstantin Piternov (13-4, 4 KOs), 29, of Russia, who retired on his stool after the sixth round, losing his third fight in a row.
Friday at Verona, N.Y.
Argenis Mendez D12 Arash Usmanee
Retains a junior lightweight title
Scores: 114-114 (twice), 115-113
Records: Mendez (21-2-1, 11 KOs); Usmanee (20-1-1, 10 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Horrible decision alert! Horrible decision alert! Mendez, 27, a Dominican Republic native living in Brooklyn, N.Y., was saddled with a draw in his first title defense, but he deserved a much better fate in the first card put on by Iron Mike Productions -- former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson's company. If Tyson keeps putting on cards like this strong one, hopefully he will be around the promotional game for years to come.
Usmanee, 31, a native of Afghanistan who was raised in Montreal and recently moved to Las Vegas, is a rough, rugged fighter. In January, he lost a highly controversial decision to Rances Barthelemy in a title eliminator. But because Mendez's mandatory wasn't due yet, his team offered Usmanee the fight.
Usmanee, as is his inclination, came forward throughout the bout and tried to take Mendez's head off. But as aggressive as he was, the approach was largely ineffective. Mendez, meanwhile, slipped punches with regularity, countered well and controlled the fight. It was an entertaining fight. But the decision? Not so much. Mendez didn't get the credit he deserved for his dominant boxing, not to mention all those hooks that he caught Usmanee with, while Usmanee got far too much credit for an array of wild shots that didn't land.
Mendez's next fight likely will be the mandatory against Barthelemy, although Tyson said afterward that he would like to arrange a fight between Mendez and either fellow titleholder Roman "Rocky" Martinez or interim lightweight titlist Yuriorkis Gamboa.
Jesus Andres Cuellar W12 Claudio Marrero
Wins a vacant interim featherweight title
Scores: 116-111, 115-112, 114-113
Records: Cuellar (23-1, 18 KOs); Marrero (14-1, 11 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Neither of these guys belonged in a world title fight given their limited résumés and the fact that there are already two other fighters -- Chris John and Nicholas Walters -- whom the sanctioning body has awarded featherweight titles. But put aside the pure lunacy of having three titleholders from the same organization for a moment, and you know what? This was one heckuva fight.
Cuellar, 27, of Argentina, and Marrero, 24, of the Dominican Republic, let it all hang out in an action-packed slugfest that gave everyone their money's worth. It was a back-and-forth battle all the way, with very little to separate the two other than the fact that Cuellar -- trained by Robert Garcia -- was credited with a knockdown. In the sixth round, Cuellar landed a combination while Marrero was against the ropes, and when Marrero fell between them, referee **** Pakozdi ruled it a knockdown. The seventh round was action-packed as the fighters pounded each other for virtually the entire three minutes -- the best round of a terrific fight.
Sunday at Tokyo
Ryota Murata TKO2 Akio Shibata
Middleweights
Records: Murata (1-0, 1 KO); Shibata (21-8-1, 9 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Murata, 27, won Olympic gold for Japan in the 2012 London Games, becoming the first Japanese boxer to win a gold medal since Takao Sakurai in the 1964 Tokyo Games. Murata is also the first Japanese fighter to win an Olympic medal in a division other than bantamweight or flyweight. He made his heralded professional debut in a scheduled six-round bout against countryman Shibata, 31, a solid fighter who owns one of Asia's most respected regional titles.
Murata dropped Shibata in the final seconds of the first round with a right hand. In the second round, Murata was all over Shibata and had him staggering, prompting the referee to step in and call off the fight at 2 minutes, 24 seconds.
Murata is going to fight regularly in Japan for the time being, but you can count on seeing him in America, probably next year. He recently signed a co-promotional deal with Akihiko Honda's Teiken Boxing, the No. 1 promoter in Japan, and Top Rank.
Jorge Linares KO2 Berman Sanchez
Lightweights
Records: Linares (34-3, 22 KOs); Sanchez (26-6-3, 18 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Linares, 28, a native of Venezuela who has made Japan a second home, is a former featherweight and junior lightweight titlist trying to get his career back on track following bad knockout losses to Antonio DeMarco (in a vacant lightweight title bout in 2011) and Sergio Thompson in March 2012.
Linares won his third fight in a row since those back-to-back defeats in taking out Nicaragua's Sanchez, 29, at 1 minute, 9 seconds of the second round. Linares scored a pair of knockdowns in the second round, finishing him off with a left-right combination to send Sanchez to his third consecutive knockout loss.
Saturday at Carson, Calif.
Jhonny Gonzalez TKO1 Abner Mares
Wins a featherweight title
Records: Gonzalez (55-8, 47 KOs); Mares (26-1-1, 14 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: The excellent run that Mares has been on over the past couple of years came to a thudding halt as Gonzalez scored a major upset, dropping him twice and reclaiming the world title he once held.
Mares, 27, a 2004 Mexican Olympian now living in Hawaiian Gardens, Calif., has been one of the hottest fighters in boxing and had begun creeping up many pound-for-pound lists because of a strong résumé that includes wins against Daniel Ponce De Leon, Anselmo Moreno, Joseph Agbeko (twice) and Vic Darchinyan. In the past 21 months, Mares had won world titles at bantamweight, junior featherweight and featherweight. In May, he stopped Ponce De Leon in the ninth round to win a featherweight title, and his first defense came against Gonzalez, who had lost the same belt to Ponce De Leon by eighth-round technical decision in 2012 after suffering a bad cut from an accidental head-butt. Gonzalez, 31, of Mexico, who is also a former bantamweight titleholder, bounced back from the loss to Ponce De Leon to win two fights and then landed the shot at Mares, whom he once employed as a sparring partner when Mares was a 20-year-old prospect and they shared Hall of Fame trainer Nacho Beristain (who is still with Gonzalez, but not Mares).
Mares has come a long way since those days and was a significant favorite Saturday, so much so that talk had already begun about a possible Mares showdown with Leo Santa Cruz, who did his part by claiming a junior featherweight belt in an explosive performance on the undercard. But forget Mares-Santa Cruz for now, as Mares' night ended early and violently when Gonzalez, who has always been a great puncher, walked through him with ease before a crowd of 7,686 at the StubHub Center, one of the best venues for boxing in the United States.
Gonzalez did major damage when he dropped Mares with a flush left hook on the chin in the final minute of the opening round. Mares seemed OK when he got up, but Gonzalez immediately went on the attack again. He had Mares backing up when he unloaded a flurry of roughly eight punches. He caught Mares with some of the shots, including another fearsome left hook that dropped Mares for the second time. This time Mares was far more hurt than he had been on the first knockdown. Referee Jack Reiss began his count, but then didn't like what he saw and called off the fight at 2 minutes, 55 seconds while Mares was still on the mat.
This is a huge win for Gonzalez and a crushing loss for Mares, who showed enormous class after the fight. He didn't complain about the stoppage and gave Gonzalez the credit he deserved for the victory. A rematch isn't out of the question, but Mares indicated he would take a break. Meanwhile, there's nothing holding Gonzalez back from seeking bigger fights.
Leo Santa Cruz TKO3 Victor Terrazas
Wins a junior featherweight title
Records: Santa Cruz (25-0-1, 15 KOs); Terrazas (37-3-1, 21 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Santa Cruz ran roughshod over Terrazas and blew him out in this ultra-impressive performance to claim a world title in his second weight division.
Santa Cruz, 25, a native of Mexico living in Los Angeles, had won a vacant bantamweight belt in June 2012, made three defenses and then vacated the title because he was having trouble making the 118-pound weight limit. He moved up to 122 pounds in May, drilled former junior bantamweight titlist Alexander Munoz in the fifth round and was later installed as the mandatory challenger for Terrazas, 30, of Mexico. Terrazas was making the first defense of the vacant belt he won by split decision against former junior bantamweight champion Cristian Mijares in April. Terrazas has beaten good fighters such as Mijares, Fernando Montiel and Nehomar Cermeno, but he was no match for Santa Cruz, who was aggressive -- as he always is -- and took it right to Mijares.
Santa Cruz was landing hard head shots and connected on several good left hooks early. By the time the second round was over, Terrazas' right eye was badly swollen, no doubt from eating one of those hooks. In the third round, Santa Cruz continued to throw a ton of punches, and a left hook caught Terrazas on the side of the head for a knockdown. Later in the round, Santa Cruz was laying more leather on Terrazas, including a right hand that dropped him to a knee. Although he beat the count, Terrazas told referee Lou Moret that he couldn't see out of his damaged eye and Moret waved off the fight at 2 minutes, 9 seconds.
This was a total demolition for Santa Cruz and one of the most impressive performances of his career. The plan is for him to make a couple of defenses at 122 pounds (if that many) and then go up in weight again to try for a third world title. However, that plan -- Golden Boy had been steering Santa Cruz toward a featherweight title fight with Abner Mares -- will change a bit after Mares got starched by Jhonny Gonzalez in the first round of the main event.
Antonio Orozco KO3 Ivan Hernandez
Junior welterweights
Records: Orozco (18-0, 14 KOs); Hernandez (29-4, 22 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Orozco, 25, of San Diego, is a good prospect with a fan-friendly style who showed it again in this rout of Hernandez, 33, a native of Colombia living in Miami. Orozco was taking on the toughest opponent of his career but had no issues. He applied his typical constant pressure and Hernandez simply couldn't take it.
Orozco steadily broke him down, especially with body shots, and then put Hernandez away with three knockdowns in the third round. The first one came on an accumulation of shots. Then Hernandez, under heavy fire, took a knee. And he went down for the third time after eating a left uppercut-and-left hook combination, at which point referee Raul Caiz Sr. had seen enough and stopped the bout at 1 minute, 39 seconds.
Orozco is moving along well and seems on track to make his first significant fight around next summer.
Joseph Diaz Jr. KO3 Noel Mendoza
Featherweights
Records: Diaz (7-0, 5 KOs); Mendoza (6-3-1, 1 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Diaz, a 20-year-old southpaw from South El Monte, Calif., was a 2012 U.S. Olympian and is coming along nicely as a professional. He had way too much for the overmatched Mendoza, 27, of Phoenix, who lost his second fight in a row and third in his past four bouts.
Diaz unleashed numerous combinations and eventually dropped Mendoza twice in the third round with one series of punches. After the second knockdown, which immediately followed the first, referee Raul Caiz Jr. waved off the scheduled six-round bout at 1 minute, 54 seconds.
The CompuBox statistics show just how dominant Diaz was. He landed 83 of 146 punches (57 percent), while Mendoza was limited to landing just six of 73 blows (8 percent).
Dominic Breazeale KO4 Lenroy Thomas
Heavyweights
Records: Breazeale (6-0, 6 KOs); Thomas (16-3, 8 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Breazeale, of Los Angeles, was a 2012 U.S. Olympian and fighting on his 28th birthday. He has great size for a heavyweight prospect (6-foot-6½, 251 pounds), but he is a big-time project because, even though he was an Olympian, he had a limited amateur career. He had been a college football quarterback at the University of Northern Colorado before turning to boxing. He is really still learning how to fight, but he sure knew enough when it came to handling the 6-2½, 246-pound Thomas, 28, a southpaw from Jamaica, who was coming off a knockout loss and hadn't fought in nearly three years.
Thomas landed some decent shots, but he was running out of gas in the fourth round of the scheduled eight-round bout. That's when Breazeale landed a hard right hand that backed Thomas up. With Thomas trapped in a corner, Breazeale let his hands go and was teeing off, eventually dropping his opponent with a right hand to the body. Thomas went down to a knee and took the full count from referee Thomas Taylor, who counted him out at 2 minutes, 29 seconds. This was actually a decent test for Breazeale compared to the other opponents he has faced.
Saturday at Schwerin, Germany
Arthur Abraham W12 Willbeforce Shihepo
Super middleweights
Scores: 117-111, 116-113, 116-112
Records: Abraham (37-4, 28 KOs); Shihepo (20-7, 15 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Abraham is a shell of the fighter who held a middleweight title from 2005 to 2009 and was knocking everyone out, and this tremendous struggle against an obscure, hand-picked opponent showed just how badly he has faded. Abraham was a washout in the Super Six World Boxing Classic when he moved up to super middleweight, and he has struggled since.
Even when Abraham, 33, a native of Armenia living in Germany, has beaten second-rate opponents, he usually hasn't looked very good. And when he claimed a super middleweight belt by decision against Robert Stieglitz last August, many thought Stieglitz deserved the decision. When they met in a rematch in March, Stieglitz blew out Abraham, stopping him in the fourth round of a one-sided fight. In his return from that loss, Abraham was matched Shihepo, 30, of Namibia, who was supposed to be an easy target. Instead, Shihepo gave Abraham everything he could handle. Frankly, Abraham is lucky to have had his hand raised in victory.
As usual, Abraham didn't throw many punches as he plodded forward. Shihepo, meanwhile, probably fought better than he ever had before. He landed plenty of solid right hands that shook Abraham, but he didn't get nearly the credit he deserved from the judges. He was also robbed of a clean knockdown in the fifth round when he clipped Abraham with a left hand and Abraham went down but referee Manuel Maritxalar instead called it a slip. This is one of many examples when the use of replay between rounds would have righted an obvious wrong.
Abraham probably will get another big fight, and he would like a rubber match with Stieglitz, but that might be unlikely because they are tied to different television networks in Germany now that Stieglitz has signed with a competitor of the network Abraham fights on.
Kubrat Pulev W12 Tony Thompson
Heavyweight title eliminator
Scores: 118-110, 117-111, 116-112
Records: Pulev (18-0, 9 KOs); Thompson (38-4, 26 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: We can all be thankful that there won't be a third fight between heavyweight champ Wladimir Klitschko and Tony Thompson, who has already been the champion's mandatory challenger twice and been knocked out both times, in 2008 and 2012. Instead, it was Pulev, 32, of Bulgaria, who earned a mandatory shot at Klitschko (who first will face another mandatory in Alexander Povetkin on Oct. 5) by taking a clear decision from Thompson, 41, of Washington, D.C.
Thompson, a southpaw, had gotten into position to again fight in a final eliminator by pulling back-to-back knockout upsets of England's rising prospect David Price, stopping him in the second round in February and in the fifth round in the July rematch. However, he couldn't score a third in a row as Pulev won a tactical but convincing decision.
Both fighters started slowly, but Pulev seemed to have figured out Thompson by the fourth round. He picked up the pace, got more aggressive and started to clearly win rounds. Thompson had some sporadic moments when he landed solid shots, such as late in the seventh round, but it wasn't enough to do any real damage or even win many rounds. Pulev was comfortably ahead and Thompson could do nothing to seriously disrupt his rhythm as Pulev cruised to his biggest career victory and guaranteed himself a world title opportunity.
Juergen Braehmer W12 Stefano Abatangelo
Retains European light heavyweight title
Scores: 119-108 (twice), 115-111
Records: Braehmer (41-2, 31 KOs); Abatangelo (17-3-1, 6 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Braehmer, a 34-year-old southpaw from Germany and a former world titleholder, made his second defense of the European title by soundly outpointing Abatangelo, 31, of Italy, who hadn't lost a fight since 2007 but was taking a huge step up in competition.
It was one-sided all the way, although both fighters were warned by referee Phil Edwards for their dirty tactics. Edwards eventually docked a meaningless point from Abatangelo, who suffered cuts over both eyes, for hitting on the break in the fifth round. Braehmer won his 10th fight in a row since a 2008 points loss to Hugo Hernan Garay in a world title bout, and as the mandatory challenger for Sergey Kovalev, he is headed toward another shot at a world title.
Saturday at Chubut, Argentina
Omar Narvaez TKO10 Hiroyuki Hisataka
Retains a junior bantamweight title
Records: Narvaez (40-1-2, 21 KOs); Hiroyuki Hisataka (22-11-1, 10 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Like Old Man River, the 38-year old Argentine hero Narvaez keeps rolling along. As a flyweight titleholder from 2002 to 2009, he made 16 defenses before vacating to move up in weight. He won a junior bantamweight belt in 2010 and made his eighth sucessful defense with the dominant victory against Hisataka, 28, of Japan. Narvaez's only loss was one many would love to forget -- his non-effort in 2011 when he moved up to challenge then-bantamweight titlist Nonito Donaire and was shut out. But at junior bantamweight (despite not facing the best challengers), he is dominant. Hisataka was another relatively easy mark. He was challenging for a world title for the fourth time, but has now lost all four of those fights and dropped to 3-3 in his past six overall.
Narvaez put on a clinic in a one-sided beatdown of Hisataka. He was all over the challenger from the outset and had him in trouble throughout the fight. In the 10th round, Narvaez took target practice, pounding Hisataka to the head and body. Narvaez landed more than two dozen unanswered punches against a defenseless Hisataka, battering him around the ring before referee Julio Cesar Alvarado stepped in to stop the fight at 1 minute, 26 seconds. The win was Narvaez's fifth in a row since the debacle against Donaire.
Saturday at Glendale, Calif.
Gilberto Ramirez W10 Derrick Findley
Middleweights
Scores: 100-90 (three times)
Records: Ramirez (26-0, 20 KOs); Findley (20-11-1, 13 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Ramirez, 22, of Mexico, is being hailed by some as the next big Mexican star, and this was his American debut. He has movie-star looks, is well-built and looks like he can fight, too. At 6-foot-2, Ramirez, a southpaw, towered over Findley, a late replacement for Julio Garcia, and stayed in total control of the fight. Ramirez basically did as he pleased. He used his jab, boxed well and showed solid defense. Findley, 29, of Gary, Ind., is often picked as an opponent for up-and-comers because he goes rounds, having been knocked out only once in his 11 defeats. He dropped to 0-3-1 in his past four fights.
Also on the card, blue-chip junior featherweight prospect Jessie Magdaleno (16-0, 12 KOs) knocked out long-faded veteran former title challenger Luis Maldonado (36-12-1, 27 KOs) at 1 minute, 10 seconds of the third round. He dropped Maldonado twice in the round.
Saturday at Donetsk, Ukraine
Stanyslav Kashtanov KO10 Jaime Barboza
Retains an interim super middleweight title
Records: Kashtanov (31-1, 17 KOs); Barboza (18-8, 8 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Kashtanov, 29, was fighting at home in Ukraine, where he has fought virtually all of his fights and remains safely tucked away in anonymity to most of the boxing world. He made the first defense of his interim belt that was created for no apparent reason -- Andre Ward holds the organization's real title, and Carl Froch holds a secondary belt -- and faced an opponent with no business being in a world title fight of any kind.
Barboza, 35, of Costa Rica, had done nothing to warrant the shot and dropped to 2-5 in his past seven with the loss. Kashtanov had a few problems with Barboza, but he eventually dropped him in the seventh round with a body shot and then finished him when he dropped him again with an accumulation of blows in the 10th round. Barboza went down to a knee and took the full count from referee Jan Christensen at 2 minutes, 40 seconds.
Also on the card, light heavyweight Ismayl Sillakh (21-1, 17 KOs) of Ukraine, a hot contender before being upset in an eighth-round knockout loss to Denis Grachev in April 2012, won his fourth fight in a row since that loss by stopping Konstantin Piternov (13-4, 4 KOs), 29, of Russia, who retired on his stool after the sixth round, losing his third fight in a row.
Friday at Verona, N.Y.
Argenis Mendez D12 Arash Usmanee
Retains a junior lightweight title
Scores: 114-114 (twice), 115-113
Records: Mendez (21-2-1, 11 KOs); Usmanee (20-1-1, 10 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Horrible decision alert! Horrible decision alert! Mendez, 27, a Dominican Republic native living in Brooklyn, N.Y., was saddled with a draw in his first title defense, but he deserved a much better fate in the first card put on by Iron Mike Productions -- former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson's company. If Tyson keeps putting on cards like this strong one, hopefully he will be around the promotional game for years to come.
Usmanee, 31, a native of Afghanistan who was raised in Montreal and recently moved to Las Vegas, is a rough, rugged fighter. In January, he lost a highly controversial decision to Rances Barthelemy in a title eliminator. But because Mendez's mandatory wasn't due yet, his team offered Usmanee the fight.
Usmanee, as is his inclination, came forward throughout the bout and tried to take Mendez's head off. But as aggressive as he was, the approach was largely ineffective. Mendez, meanwhile, slipped punches with regularity, countered well and controlled the fight. It was an entertaining fight. But the decision? Not so much. Mendez didn't get the credit he deserved for his dominant boxing, not to mention all those hooks that he caught Usmanee with, while Usmanee got far too much credit for an array of wild shots that didn't land.
Mendez's next fight likely will be the mandatory against Barthelemy, although Tyson said afterward that he would like to arrange a fight between Mendez and either fellow titleholder Roman "Rocky" Martinez or interim lightweight titlist Yuriorkis Gamboa.
Jesus Andres Cuellar W12 Claudio Marrero
Wins a vacant interim featherweight title
Scores: 116-111, 115-112, 114-113
Records: Cuellar (23-1, 18 KOs); Marrero (14-1, 11 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Neither of these guys belonged in a world title fight given their limited résumés and the fact that there are already two other fighters -- Chris John and Nicholas Walters -- whom the sanctioning body has awarded featherweight titles. But put aside the pure lunacy of having three titleholders from the same organization for a moment, and you know what? This was one heckuva fight.
Cuellar, 27, of Argentina, and Marrero, 24, of the Dominican Republic, let it all hang out in an action-packed slugfest that gave everyone their money's worth. It was a back-and-forth battle all the way, with very little to separate the two other than the fact that Cuellar -- trained by Robert Garcia -- was credited with a knockdown. In the sixth round, Cuellar landed a combination while Marrero was against the ropes, and when Marrero fell between them, referee **** Pakozdi ruled it a knockdown. The seventh round was action-packed as the fighters pounded each other for virtually the entire three minutes -- the best round of a terrific fight.
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If anyone cares, Shane Mosley vs Anthony Mundine set for October 23rd in Australia .. 
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That divorce must have cleaned Shane out, he's going to be eating through a straw soon
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Smh
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"I'm Filipino, man"
"I'm American"
"I'm American"
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"I'm Filipino, man"
"I'm American"
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Iron Mike almost made me shed a tear.....
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/08/mike-tyson-says-hes-on-the-verge-of-dying/
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/08/mike-tyson-says-hes-on-the-verge-of-dying/
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I'm glad Mares got knocked out.
Always felt like Mares was the most overrated up-and-coming star. I never liked his style. He's up there with Danny Garcia to me. He's undefeated, yeah, but neither are great.
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and here comes all the overrated talk lol
he got caught, **** happens...
he got caught, **** happens...
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Don't understand how dudes let social media rustle their jimmies
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Yea Man. Mares resume is as good as most 30 yr old fighters today
Fight enough good guys you'll lose one.
Lets see how he responds
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Oh, I wasn't saying he was overrated. I was a big Agbeko fan, I'll never get over how he got away with murder in that first fight with those low blows
He should not have won those belts.
Exactly why I don't like him. And I hate how he constantly rams his head into opponents stomachs. At least he has done that many times in the past.
Gennady Golovkin VS Curtis Stevens set for 11/2/2013
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No you're exactly right. Mares is definitely overrated. Kid has been feasting on guys that were smaller than him. On top of that, his propensity for throwing cheap shots and fouling is outrageous. Johnny Gonzalez would KO son again if they fought. If I was him I'd move back down to 122. Styles make fights. He will lose to any and every elite 126 pounder.Oh, I wasn't saying he was overrated. I was a big Agbeko fan, I'll never get over how he got away with murder in that first fight with those low blows
He should not have won those belts.
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oh hell yeah! Stevens mouth vs Golovkin's fists, lol... should be good.
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