Fighting in front of a large pro-crowd, WBA light welterweight champion Ricky Burns (41-5-1, 14 KOs) kept his title by defeating previously unbeaten mandatory challenger Kiryl Relikh (21-1, 19 KOs) on Friday night at the SSE Hyro in Glasgow, Scotland. Relikh looked like the better fighter of the round in the last four rounds. He also appeared to take rounds one and two.
Dillian Whyte (19-1, 15 KOs) fought his heart out tonight in beating Ian Lewison (12-3-1, 8 KOs) by a 10th round TKO at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland. The fight was stopped after the 10th round by Lewison’s corner. He had taken a beating in the 9th and 10th rounds, and he clearly had nothing left.
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) was too big, too strong, and far too talented for WBO 154lb belt holder Liam “Beefy” Smith (23-1-1, 13 KOs) in defeating him by a 9th round knockout on Saturday night on HBO pay-per-view in front of 51,000 fans at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Canelo dropped Smith three separate times in the bout in putting him down in the 7th, 8th and 9th. Smith couldn’t get up after the knockdown in the 9th, and the fight was stopped.
WBC super flyweight champion Carlos “Principe” Cuadras (35-1-1, 27 KOs) didn’t have the engine to defeat unbeaten challenger Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez, (46-0, 38 KOs) in getting beaten by him by a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at The Forum in Inglewood, California. Cuadras, 28, had the youth, power, weight and height to beat Gonzalez, but he didn’t have the heart or the stamina.
In the end, the 28-year-old Cuadras was beaten by the smaller Gonzalez because of his inability to stand his ground and fight in an old fashioned way. When the fight called for Cuadras to stand and trade in the championship rounds, he spent it on his bicycle trying to keep away from the 29-year-old Gonzalez. When Cuadras was trapped by Gonzalez on numerous occasions in each round, he would resort to holding to stop Gonzalez from landing his shots. The judges didn’t like Cuadras’ fighting style and they gave Gonzalez the fight by the scores of 117-111, 116-112, and 115-113.
Former two division belt holder Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero (33-5-1, 18 KOs) may have seen his career finished off on Saturday night in losing to welterweight David Peralta (26-2-1, 14 KOs) in losing a 12 round split decision at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. You can forget the split decision stuff.
It was a definite win by Peralta, who took the fight to faded Guerrero from the 5th round on to get the win. Guerrero looked like he was finished physically after four rounds. Peralta took the energy out of Guerrero in round five in hitting him hard with a powerful combination to the head. Guerrero looked he didn’t want to fight after that.
Errol Spence Jr. (21-0, 18 KOs) showed scary power in destroying #6 IBF Leonard Bundu (33-2-1, 12 KOs) in a 6th round knockout in their International Boxing Federation welterweight title eliminator on Sunday afternoon at Ford Amphitheater in Coney Island, New York.
Spence put the 41-year-old Bundu down twice in the 6th to get the knockout. On both knockdowns, Spence landed crushed left uppercuts to the head of Bundu. In the final knockdown, Spence landed his left uppercut and right hook that sent Bundu down for the count.
Heavyweight Jarrell Miller (18-0-1, 16 KOs) showed that he could beat a vulnerable and much lighter Fred Kassi (18-6-1, 10 KOs) tonight in stopping him in three rounds on Friday in a one-sided contest on Showtime Boxing at the outdoor Rhinos Stadium in Rochester, New York. The 36-year-old Kassi decided he’d had enough after the third round, so he didn’t bother coming out for round four.
Officially, Kassi injured his right hand. Unofficially, he was going to get knocked out anyway had he continued to fight, because he was making it too easy for the hefty, 296.5 pound “Big Baby” Miller by playing sparring partner against the ropes and just getting worked over.
Antonio Margarito fought well tonight through the first eight rounds and then held on to beat Ramon “Inocente” Alvarez (23-5-2, 15 KOs) by a narrow 10 round split decision to win the World Boxing Organization Continental welterweight title at the Baja California Center in Playas de Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico.
In a real stinker of a fight, Terence Crawford (29-0, 20 KOs) ran his way to a dull, dull, dull 12 round unanimous decision tonight against WBC light welterweight champion Victor Postol (28-1, 12 KOs) to win his WBC and Ring Magazine light welterweight title at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Whether you liked Crawford’s performance tonight or thought it was the equivalent of watching paint dry was based on what you like to watch in a fight.
WBO light welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (28-0, 20 KOs) came right in at the light welterweight limit today in weighing in at 140lbs for his unification match this Saturday night against the taller and unbeaten WBC 140lb champion Viktor Postol (28-0, 12 KOs) for their match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The 5’11” Postol weighed in at 139.5lbs. He looked in great shape and very lean.
Crawford has a lot of expectations resting on his narrow shoulders, as he’s seen by some as the replacement for Manny Pacquiao as Top Rank’s flagship fighter for the time being. Whether Crawford can replace Pacquiao or not will be determined in part on Saturday night when he gets inside the ring with the 32-year-old Postol.