Alvarado defeats Rios; Crawford decisions Prescott in boring fight

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In a big upset, Mike Alvarado (34-1, 23 KO’s) defeated former WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision tonight at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The final judges’ scores were 115-113, 115-113 and 114-113.

Rios started off well with his heavy pressure and was able to force Alvarado to brawl with him despite the fact that Alvarado was constantly moving in the first three rounds.

In the 2nd round, Rios staggered Alvarado badly with a hard jab. Alvarado’s legs went to jelly briefly, but he was able to hold onto Rios long enough to clear his head. Rios landed several big shots before the round ended, but to his credit Alvarado was able to take them and stay upright. Rios should emptied his arsenal in that round because Alvarado was able to take control of the fight from the 3rd round on and dominate with his movement and hard right hands to the head.

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Bellew-Chilemba and Crolla-Mathews both end in draws

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In one of the worst decisions I’ve seen in a while, WBC Silver light heavyweight champion Tony Bellew (19-1-1, 12 KO’s) was given a 12 round draw against challenger Isaac Chilemba (20-1-2, 9 KO’s) tonight in Bellew’s home city of Liverpool, at the Echo Arena in the UK.

Chilemba completely controlled the last 9 rounds of the fight, and deserved a clear win by making the 6’2″ Bellew miss again and again with his shots. At the same time, Bellew got away with an awful of fouling in the fight in terms of holding and hitting, throwing a shot after the bell, a head butt and push that occurred after the 1st round had ended, and a handful of rabbit shots.

It look like the referee was just there to watch the fight instead of controlling it. The final judges scores were 116-112 for Chilema, 116-115 for Bellew, and 114-114 even. I scored the fight 117-111 for Chilemba.

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Vera defeats Bondorovas on questionable stoppage

vera11Middleweight Brian Vera (23-6, 13 KO’s) got a lucky break tonight when the referee Charlie Fitch stopped a fight that Vera was clearly losing to Donatas Bondorovas (17-4-1, 6 KO’s) after the 7th round because of two small cuts that Bondorovas in their fight at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino, Verona, New York, USA.

After an especially strong round by Bondorovas in the 7th, referee Fitch asked Bondorovas if he could see out of his eyes, and he said “not so good.” Bondorovas then angrily got to his feet and told Fitch “I said I CAN see.” It was no use, Fitch had made up his mind and the fight, which was actually good one, was stopped prematurely.

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Abraham vs Stieglitz: Robert Stieglitz uses great game plan to beat Abraham’s turtle defense

stieg1By Jeff Sorby: You’ve got to give Robert Stieglitz (44-3, 25 KO’s) a ton of credit tonight for putting together the perfect game plan to stop WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (36-4, 28 KO’s) in the 4th round in Magdeburg, Germany. Stieglitz’s plan was a simple one. Come out fast and overwhelm Abraham’s turtle shell defense with punches in the first part of the fight.

It worked out perfectly, as Abraham ended up being stopped from a badly swollen left eye after the 3rd round had ended. Abraham’s habit of just covering up in his turtle shell defense to save energy for the later rounds ended up backfiring on him.

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Stieglitz defeats Abraham; Groves KOs Barakat; Helenius oupoints Sprott; Ref saves Gerber; McMorrow beats Raoui

abe444By Vladimir S: Robert Stieglitz (44-3, 25 KO’s) came out on fire tonight blasting away at WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (36-4, 28 KO’s) with punch after punch for the first three rounds, and it paid off by Stieglitz getting a 4th round TKO win after the fight was halted by the advice of the ringside doctor due to Abraham’s left eye closing on Saturday night at the GETEC Arena, Magdeburg, Sachsen-Anhalt, Allemagne, Germany.

Stieglitz looked like he’d put on a lot of muscle and strength from the last time they fought in August of last year when Abraham was the bigger guy. Stieglitz just looked on fire out there. He took the fight to Abraham in a calculated risk that he’d be able to score a knockout before he gassed out and it definitely paid off as Abraham was stopped.

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Stevenson stops Boone in 6th! Fury stops Whittom

boone22By Jeff Sorby: Adonis Stevenson (20-1, 17 KO’s) was able to avenge his defeat against journeyman Darnell Boone (19-21-3, 8 KO’s) by giving him a terrible beating and stopping him in the 6th round on Friday night at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

It’s rare that you see a fighter ranked as high as the #1 IBF Stevenson dipping into the 2nd tier ranks to fight a journeyman like Boone, but for Stevenson it was personal because he had been knocked out in the 2nd round by Boone three years ago.

Stevenson paid him back on Friday night by giving him a furious beating that ended with Stevenson hurting Boone with a left uppercut to the head, and then knocking him out with a straight left hand finisher. The shot put Boone down face first on the canvas where he laid for some time before getting back to his feet. The fight was halted at 2:43 of the round.

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Solis decisions Larsen; Chagaev & Aydin both victorious

solis33By Vladimir S: IBF Inter-Continental heavyweight champion Odlanier Solis (19-1, 12 KO’s) successfully defended his title on Friday night in defeating previously unbeaten Leif Larsen (17-1, 14 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision at the Universal Hall in Berlin, Germany.

The action between the two fighters seemed to resemble more of a sparring session than an actual fight, as both guys looked slow and lazy from start to finish. Solis won the fight by the judges’ score of 116-112, 115-114, 117-111, but he looked unimpressive.

Larsen was just slow, and focused most of his shots upstairs to the head rather than to Solis’ soft looking body.

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Saunders easily defeats Hall

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By Kevin Chittenden: British/Commonwealth middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (17-0, 10 KO’s) proved tonight that he’s good enough to beat a domestic level junior middleweight fighting out of his weight class in beating Matthew Hall (25-7, 17 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision at the York Hall, Bethnal Green, London, United Kingdom.

The judges scored it 120-108, 120-109, 119-110. After the fight, Hall said he’s retiring from the sport. He doesn’t want to take punishment needlessly. Someone should have told Hall ahead of time that it’s not a good idea for him to be fighting at middleweight, and definitely not against a fighter like Saunders. The fight was one-sided in every round with Saunders working Hall like he was a punching bag.

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Manfredo Defeats Wright

By James Stillerman at Ringside – Former IBO super middleweight title holder, Peter “The Pride of Providence” Manfredo Jr. kept his latest comeback alive, as he outwork and out landed the Seattle, WA native, Walter “2 Guns” Wright in front of a sold out hometown crowd at the Twin River Event Center in Lincoln, Rhode Island en route to an ten round unanimous decision victory by scores of 98-93, 100-90 and 97-93. “Unfinished Business” was sponsored by Jimmy Burchfield`s Classic Entertainment and Sports, Inc.

“I`d give myself a B- tonight. I`m glad I won, however, I wanted to fight better tonight and get a knockout in front of all my fans, but it just didn`t happen” said Manfredo Jr. the runner up on season of the Contender. “It was difficult fight for me because I trained for Joey Spina who is a strong powerful puncher and then three weeks before the fight, Spina got hurt and I had to train for a totally different fighter with a very different fighting style in Wright who is a slick counter puncher. I`m professional and I made the best of the situation.”

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