#2 WBC John Jackson’s chin betrayed him once again with him getting stopped in the 8th round by #1 WBC Jermell Charlo (28-0, 13 KOs) on Saturday night in their fight for the vacant WBC light middleweight title at the Las Vegas Events Center (DLVEC) in Las Vegas. Jackson was in control of the fighting going into the 8th round.
IBF cruiserweight title holder Victor Emilio Ramirez (22-3-1, 17 KOs) was no match for WBA cruiserweight world champion Denis Lebedev (29-1, 22 KOs) on Saturday night in folding in just two rounds in their long awaited unification fight in the main event at the Khodnyka Ice Palace, in Moscow, Russia.
Lebedev flattened the 32-year-old Ramirez in the 2nd round. Lebedev then finished Ramirez off with a flurry of shots that had the Argentinian turning his back to the Russian fighter at one point before it was halted. The fight was stopped at 1:57 of the round by referee Steve Smoger. Ramirez is a good fighter. He’s just not a world champion level fighter, and that was shown clearly tonight by Lebedev.
In an impressive punching display, former WBC 168lb champion Anthony Dirrell (29-1-1, 23 KOs) smashed the game but limited 32-year-old Caleb Truax (26-3-2, 16 KOs) in stopping him in the 1st round after putting him down twice in the 1st round on Friday night at the Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Dirrell stunned Truax with a right hand and then put him on the canvas with another right. Truax was able to continue fighting, but he was knocked down with the first clean landing shot that Dirrell threw. The fight was stopped immediately after the second knockdown. The fight was stopped at 1:49 of the round.
IBF/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs) did what everyone expected him to do in destroying an over-matched Dominic Wade (18-2, 12 KOs) in two rounds after putting him down three times on Saturday night at the Forum in Inglewood, California. The referee Jack Reiss stopped the fight after Wade was slow in getting up after the second knockdown in the 2nd round.
Undefeated super middleweight contender Callum Smith (19-0, 14 KOs) used very little finesse in blasting out an over-matched and much lighter looking EBU super middleweight champion Hadillah Mohoumadi (20-4-1, 15 KOs) in the 1st round in their contest on Saturday night at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England.
In an example of perfect match-making, Andre Ward (29-0, 15 KOs) was able to beat the much slower made to order Sullivan Barrera (17-1, 12 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision tonight on HBO in his hometown at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California. It was the perfect opponent for Ward to look good against because Barrera didn’t have the hand speed to give Ward a real test like Adonis Stevenson or one of the other far superior light heavyweights.
Australian heavyweight Lucas Browne (24-0, 21 KOs) showed that he’s not someone you take lightly at any point in his fights, as he came back late in this fight to stop WBA “regular” heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev (34-3-1, 21 KOs) by a 10th round knockout to win his WBA belt at the Colosseum Sport Hall in Grozny, Chechnya, Russia.
Chagaev, 37, showed little respect for Browne’s punching power in the fight. He was constantly putting pressure on the bigger, stronger and slightly younger 36-year-old Browne. Chagaev made a mistake of backing Browne to the corner in the 10th, resulting in the big Australian reaching back and hammering him with a huge right hand that sent Chagaev straight to the canvas. The punch was so power that even when Chagaev got to his feet, he was unsteady unable to protect himself or fight back. Referee Stanley Christodoulou wasn’t going to take any chances by letting the fight continue.
(Photo credit Matchroom Boxing) IBF super bantamweight champion Carl Frampton (22-0, 14 KOs) showed a lot of heart and determination in gutting out a 12 round split decision on Saturday night in beating WBA champ Scott Quigg (31-1-2, 23 KOs) by a narrow 12 round split decision win in their 122lb unifcation fight at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
The judges gave the fight to Frampton, but Quigg easily could have won that fight. If not winning, it could and perhaps should have been scored a draw. Quigg landed the far better punches in each round, and he came on strong in the second half of the fight to do the better work. I had Quigg winning two of the first six rounds and four of the last half to deserve a draw. The scores were 115-113 for Quigg, 116-112 and 116-112 for Quigg. Frampton was fighting on fumes in the last three to four rounds, and his punches had nothing on them.
Felix Sturm (40-5-3, 18 KOs) did just enough to win a 12 round majority decision over WBA Super World super middleweight champion Fedor Chudinov (14-1, 10 KOs) on Saturday night at the Koenig Pilsener Arena in Oberhausen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. The fight result was highly controversial though, because many boxing fans felt that the 28-year-old Chudinov had done enough to keep retain his WBA title. The judges saw it differently, however.
The judges scored it for Sturm by the scores of 114-114, 115-113, and 115-113. The judges might have liked Sturm’s more explosive punches and his better hand speed. That’s really the only reason why the judges could given the fight to Sturm, because he was outworked in 9 of the 12 rounds. Chudinov was constantly nailing Sturm with head and body shots and doing the far better work. Sturm started out well in the first two rounds, and then finished the fight well in the 12th. In between, Chudinov got the better of Sturm in rounds 3 through 11.
George Groves (22-3, 17 KOs) got his career back on the tracks tonight in beating little known Italian Andrea Di Luisa (18-4, 14 KOs) by a 5th round knockout in the main event at the Copper Box Arena in London, England. Groves, 27, gave Di Luisa a bloody nose in the process of knocking him down three times in the fight.