WBO middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhanuly (15-0, 10 KOs) easily defeated IBF champion Vincenzo Gualtieri (21-1-1, 7 KOs) by a sixth-round TKO in their two-belt unification contest at 160 in a fight that was one-sided from start to finish at the Fort Bend Epicenter in Rosenberg, Texas.
Gualtieri was hurt by a left uppercut from Janibek that staggered him. Moments later, the referee, Tony Fields, stopped the fight after Janibek had Gualtieri in distress against the ropes. The time of the stoppage was at 1:25 of round six.
After the fight, Gualtieri complained about the stoppage being premature. He felt that he should have been allowed to continue.
When interviewed, Janibek said that he wants to go after the other two belts at middleweight to become the undisputed champion.
The live boxing results for the Janibek vs. Gualtieri card will be shown below.
– Lightweight Keyshawn Davis (10-0, 6 KOs) boxed his way to a ten-round majority decision victory over Nahir Albright (16-3, 7 KOs) in the co-feature fight. Keyshawn used his superior hand speed to hit Albright with pinpoint punches all night, landing 51% of his shots.
The judges’ scores:
95-95
96-94 – Keyshawn
97-93 – Keyshawn
In rounds eight through ten, Keyshawn let his foot off the gas, allowing Albright to come on late to win rounds. Albright hurt Keyshawn with a crushing right hand to the head in the final seconds of round eight. That round took the air out of Keyshawn’s tires.
From that point on, Keyshawn went into prevent-defense mode for the remainder of the fight, moving constantly and tying up Albright whenever he got near.
– In a demotion job, 2020 Olympic heavyweight silver medalist Richard Torrez Jr. (7-0, 7 KOs) stopped Tyrell Anthony Herndon (21-5, 14 KOs) in a second-round TKO.
The referee, Alejandro Leon, waved it off after Herndon turned his back on Torrez Jr. while getting hammed nonstop with huge power shots to the head. The official time of the stoppage was at 1:26 of round two.
Herndon had been knocked down from a left to the head before that, and he barely beat the count, getting up at nine. Torrez Jr. went for the kill, unloading with both hands on the Herndon until he turned around, showing that he was surrendering.
It’s time that Top Rank starts matching Torrez Jr. against better opposition because he’s not going to improve at this rate.
– Heavyweight Guido Vianello (11-1-1, 9 KOs) beat Curtis Harper (14-10, 9 KOs) by an eight round unanimous decision. The scores were 80-72, 79-73 and 79-73.
Harper hurt Vianello with a left hand in the sixth round when he got careless. Vianello played it safe in the seventh and eighth round to get the win over the 35-year-old Harper. The 2016 Olympian Vianello didn’t look like a future world champion with this performance,.
– Welterweight prospect Giovanni Marquez (7-0, 5 KOs) obliterated Donte Strayhorn (12-5-1, 4 KOs), knocking him down twice in round two to score a second-round TKO.
The fight was stopped by the referee Alejandro Leon after the 22-year-old Marquez backed Strayhorn against the ropes and unleashed a flurry of shots, with everything landing clean. Marquez couldn’t miss and looked deadly.
In the first knockdown in round two, Marquez hit Strayhorn with three right-hand uppercuts. Strayhorn sank to the canvas after the third.
Shortly after, Marquez caught Strayhorn against the ropes and unleashed a blizzard of punches that dropped him like a bad habit.
Surprisingly, Strayhorn got back up and gave it one last try before being stopped moments later after Marquez hit him with everything but the kitchen sink.
– 2020 U.S. Olympian Duke Ragan (9-0, 1 KOs) had a close call, beating Jose Perez (11-2-2, 5 KOs) by an eight-round split decision in a Featherweight contest. Perez knocked Ragan down in the fifth round with a left hook on the chin.
The judges scores were:
76-75 – Ragan
76-75 – Ragan
76-75 – Perez
Perez landed the better shots in rounds six, seven, and eight, appearing to get the better of the light-hitting Ragan. In the seventh, Perez suffered a cut from a headclash.
Ragan landed several punches to the back of the head of Perez in the eighth round and was warned by the referee.
– In welterweight action, unbeaten Kelvin Davis (10-0, 6 KOs) struggled badly to win an eight-round unanimous decision over Narciso Carmona (11-2-1, 6 KOs) in a fight that was razor-close at the end.
The 6’1″ Kelvin fought effectively through the first half of the fight, hitting Carmona with pinpoint shots from the outside. After the fourth, Kelvin went to war with Carmona on the inside, trading shots from close range with uppercuts and hooks.
Carmona took advantage of the situation by hurting Kelvin with right hooks in the seventh & eighth rounds that had him holding on. The judges’ scores were 80-72, 79-73, and 77-75.
Moving forward, Kelvin is going to need to work on his power game because he showed tonight that he’s not a big puncher, and he’s going to have to focus on staying on the outside. He doesn’t have a good enough inside game to be fighting in close against his opponents.
In a middleweight unification tonight, WBO champion Janibek Alimkhanuly (14-0, 9 KOs) is battling IBF champ Vincenzo Gualtieri (21-0-1, 7 KOs) in the main event in a Top Rank-promoted card live on ESPN at the Fort Bend Epicenter in Rosenberg, Texas.
This fight has gone under the radar of a lot of fans, but it’ll be interesting to see how the huge puncher Janibek deals with the skills of Gualtieri.
Gualiteri will need to be on his bike all night to keep from getting knocked out by the 2016 Olympian Janibek, as he’s going to be on a seek-and-destroy mission from the opening bell.
It was scary what Janibek did to his last opponent Steven Butler, brutally knocking him out in the second round last May. In Janibek’s previous fight, he beat Denzel Bentley by a twelve-round decision in a grueling contest last November.
Bentley took a lot of heavy shots in the contest, but he showed a lot of heart to go the distance. What he exposed in Janibek is the lack of stamina, as he looked exhausted in the second half of the fight, and appeared uncomfortable with getting hit by Bentley.
Luckily for Janibek, Bentley isn’t a huge puncher because if he had a little more pop, he might have won.
In tonight’s chief support bout, lightweight contender, Keyshawn Davis (9-0, 6 KOs) will be fighting Nahir Albright (16-2, 7 KOs) in a 10-round stay-busy fight.
Premlinary undercard at 5:55 p.m. ET on ESPN+
- Heavyweight prospect Richard Torrez Jr. (6-0, 6 KOs) will continue his progression, fighting in veteran Tyrrell Anthony Herndon (21-4, 14 KOs) in a six-round bout. Torrez Jr, 24, is a huge puncher, and this fight likely won’t go past the second round. If Torrez Jr. can get to the chin of the 36-year-old Herndon, he’ll end it.
- Junior middleweight Giovanni Marquez (6-0, 4 KOs) fights Donte Strayhorn (12-4-1, 4 KOs) in a six-round affair. Marquez is from nearby Houston, so he’ll likely have some fans in the audience.
- Unbeaten featherweight prospect Duke Ragan (8-0, 1 KO) battles Jose Perez (11-1-2, 5 KOs) in an eight-round fight. This one might go the distance.
- Junior welterweight Kelvin Davis (9-0, 6 KOs) battles Narciso Carmona (11-1-1, 6 KOs) in an eight-round contest. Kelvin is the older brother of Keyshawn Davis but is a lot taller at 6’1″ and not as much of a slugger.
“I would fight Tank tomorrow if you give me a million dollars,” said Keyshawn Davis to Fight Hub TV. “Yes,” said Keyshawn when asked if he sees himself still being at 135 two or three years from now.
“Yes, [lightweight is where Keyshawn plans on staking his claim to become a star]. If I started out at 130 with nobody in the division, that would still be the goal because that’s just how I think.
“I don’t care if I don’t fight. People are going to see the talent inside me. People are going to see how great I am, just like with [Naoya] Inoue when he first started coming up in the weight classes before he fought Fulton.
“You could tell that Inoue is a great. He can f***king fight, even though he didn’t have that exact partner yet, you just tell. That’s the same thing I have. Every time I fight, people just love watching me fight, and I don’t think it’s going to change.
“Yeah, and if I don’t, it’s not because of me,” said Keyshawn when asked if he thinks he’ll one day get a fight with Tank Davis. “I was fighting,” said Keyshawn when asked how many street fights he had growing up. “People knew I was a boxer. It was only a select few, but after a while, people wouldn’t even mess with me.”