Ronny Rios defeats Rico Ramos

002RamosvsRiosIMG_7317by Charles R. Dorner, photo by Tom Casino / Showtime — Rico Ramos(21-1-0 11KO) vs Ronny Rios(19-0-9 9KO)

(INDIO, CALIFORNIA), 11 January 2012

Rd 1: both fighters open the round to cautiously. Rios is throwing a bunch of jabs. Ramos lands a nice hook-straight combo. Give the first to Rios based off of higher work rate.

10-9 Rios

Rd 2: both fighters still fighting cautiously, and not landing anything significant. Ramos is sitting back trying to counter punch as the round ends without either doing much damage. Hard round to score, but I will give it to Rios due to higher work rate.

10-9 Rios

Rd 3: Rios is throwing a bunch of punches, and Ramos is sitting back. Ramos seems to be feeling the effect by a combination landed by Rios as he shakes his head. Ramos is still sitting back trying to counter punch, but Rios is keeping too much distance.

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Brandon Gonzales vs Don Mouton: round by round

by Charles R. Dorner: Brandon Gonzales(17-0-1) vs Don Mouton(11-5-1)

Rd 1: Gonzales keeping Mouton at bay with the jab. mouton trying to find his way in unsuccessfully. Gonzales doubling the jab up and landing it frequently. Mouton having a hard time finding his way in. Mouton Finally gets in throws a few punch combo, but misses. Gonzales’ hand and foot speed seems to be the difference in the opening round. Mouton finishes then rd up on the ropes as Gonzales finishes up strong , as Gonzales lands a right hand at the bell.

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Barthelemy wins first controversial decision of 2013

By Joseph Herron – If fight fans were hopeful for less controversy throughout the boxing New Year, their optimism was quickly dashed after watching the season opener of ESPN’s Friday Night Fights.

Highly touted Super Featherweight prospect Rances Barthelemy (18-0, 11 KOs) was awarded a very questionable unanimous twelve round decision over Canadian resident Arash Usmanee (20-1, 10 KOs) in the main event of an entertaining fight card at the Magic City Casino in Miami, Florida.

The three judges at ringside scored the bout 115-113, and 116-112 twice…all in favor of the local fighter, Rances “Kid Blast” Barthelemy.

Going into the contest, most fight pundits favored the Cuban exile because of his natural athletic gifts, extensive amateur pedigree, and the world class sparring during preparation in Miami and Las Vegas.

But for much of the twelve round contest, Arash Usmanee looked to be the more technically sound pugilist.

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Maskaev impressive in beating Beck

maskaev3By Rob Smith: Former WBC heavyweight champion Oleg Maskaev (37-7, 28 KO’s) didn’t look half bad in defeating Owen Beck (29-12, 20 KO’s) by a 3rd round TKO on Sunday night at the Sports Palace in Moscow, Russia. Maskaev put Beck down three times in the fight in stopping him in the 3rd round at 2:59.

Beck was knocked down once in the 1st and twice more in the 2nd round from big shots from Maskaev. The finisher came from a short right hand from Maskaev that put Beck down. To Beck’s credit, he did make it back to his feet but he was unable to stand without swaying from side to side and then caused the referee Viktor Panin to stop the fight.

Maskaev hadn’t fought since being stopped in the 1st round by Nagy Aguilera in December 2009. That’s a long time to go in between fighting for someone Maskaev’s age, but he looked good.

It’s unclear how far Maskaev can go in the division. He’ll have to be matched carefully for him to be able to get a title shot, because I have a feeling if they put Maskaev in with someone of decent quality, he’ll get stopped again.

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Oops! 1st a draw then Adamek gets SD to sink USS Cunningham

adamek3By Paul Strauss: When has hall of fame announcer Michael Buffer ever needed a second try to announce the winner of a fight? It just doesn’t happen. But, happen it did at the Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem, PA. The main event of NBC’s Saturday afternoon telecast featured a rematch of Tomasz Adamek and Steve “USS” Cunningham. The result was first announced as a split decision draw. Hold the phone! Michael Buffer hadn’t relinquished the microphone yet. The iconic announcer seemed confused as he was informed there had been a mistake. A mistake? That’s putting it lightly. This was a staggering screw up.

The winner gets the IBF North American Heavyweight title belt (okay, so that isn’t a big deal). More important he goes to the front of the line for a possible title shot against Wladimir Klitschko. Needless to say, Cunningham was crushed, not once, but twice. First, he thought he had gotten screwed out of a win. Then, he gets hammered a second time when he realizes he didn’t even get a (split) draw!

Confucius said, “To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it.” I guarantee you Cunningham is going to remember this monumental screw up. The fight was close and exciting, but most people expected Cunningham would be declared the winner, if only by a slight edge, or possibly a draw. He fought an intelligent fight, avoiding for the most part, Adamek’s heavier shots. In their first fight, four years prior, he got a little over eager, thinking he had Adamek where he wanted.

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Adamek defeats Cunningham by controversial decision

adamek435By Michael Collins: Tomasz Adamek (48-2, 29 KO’s) fought well enough to lose by four rounds tonight against Steve Cunningham (25-5, 12 KO’s) in their IBF heavyweight eliminator for the #2 spot, but instead of losing the fight, Adamek was given a HIGHLY controversial 12 round split decision at the Sands Casino Resort, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Cunningham controlled the action in every round, hitting Adamek with hard right hands, and tying him up before Adamek could land his shots. It was perfect punch and clinch from Cunningham. He did a good job of eluding Adamek’s pressure by moving around the ring to keep from getting hit.

Adamek kept trying but he looked like the extra weight that he’s packed on lately really slowed him down in big way. Adamek used to be a lot better before he bulked up with useless muscle and fat. He needs to get a clue and lose that weight, because he’s no more of a puncher now than he was when he was fighting at 214 as a heavyweight. Adamek simply didn’t carry his power up with him from the crusierweight division like Cunningham did, not that Cunningham is a big puncher at this weight either.

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Charr destroys Airich in 1st round knockout

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By Rob Smith: Former heavyweight title challenger Manuel Charr (22-1, 12 KO’s) got back to his winning ways with a 1st round blowout victory over Russian Konstantin Airich (24-9-2, 18 KO’s) on Friday night in winning the vacant WBC Baltic and WBC Mediterranean heavyweight titles at the Maritim Hotel, in Cologne Germany.

Charr, 28, never gave Airich a chance, as he opened up with everything in his arsenal, hitting him at will with shots until knocking him to the canvas with a left hook to the body. Airich stayed down and the fight was halted by referee Daniel Van De Wiele at 0:44 of the round.

Charr threw everything but the kitchen sink at him until knocking him down with a left to the body.

Charr, #8 WBC, lost previous fight to WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko by a 4th round cut stoppage. Charr was over-matched in that fight and he looked like he didn’t belong in there with him. However, if Charr can keep beating journeyman opposition like Airich he should get another world title shot in a year or two.

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Video: Lebedev stops Silgado in highlight reel KO; Calls out Eddie Chambers

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By Rob Smith: WBA World cruiserweight champion Denis Lebedev (25-1, 19 KO’s) showed tonight why he’s one of the most dangerous fighters in the cruiserweight division by knocking out #8 WBA Santander Silgado (23-1, 18 KO’s) in the 4th round with a devastating left uppercut to the head that put him down face first on the canvas at the Crocus City Hall, in Myakinino, Russia.

There really wasn’t any point in counting because Silgado was knocked out. The fight was stopped at 2:16 of the round.

Silgado showed really nice power during the first three rounds if the fight, as both fighters traded some monster shots. However, Silgado didn’t have quite as much power as Lebedev and he wasn’t as quick as him either. Lebedev was landing some tremendous punches that told you that the fight wasn’t going to last too long. You’ve got to give credit to Silgado for giving it a game effort but he simply was out of his class in this fight.

It would be nice to see Lebedev and WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck get back in the ring for a rematch because those two fighters are at the top of this division and there’s still a lot of controversy about Huck’s 12 round split decision win over Lebedev back in 2010.

After the fight, Team Lebedev called out Eddie Chambers, who in return said he is ready for the fight.

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Amir Khan successful in first fight with new trainer Virgil Hunter

Amir Khan successful in first fight with new trainer Virgil Hunter

by Geoffrey Ciani, photos by Tom Casino / Showtime – Amir Khan (27-3, 19 KOs) ended a two fight losing streak when he impressively defeated an overmatched Carlos Molina (17-1-1, 7 KOs) last night in Los Angeles. This marked the first time Khan was paired up with new head trainer Virgil Hunter, who is best known for his long term working relationship with rising pound-for-pound superstar Andre Ward. The new team made a good impression in their first effort together, with Khan in complete control of the action that ultimately came to an end when Molina’s corner stopped the contest after the tenth.

Even though Khan and Hunter have only worked together eight weeks, Hunter already seemed to have a visible impact on Khan’s performance. Amir was very patient in the early going and was measured in his approach, especially when it came to attacking. Everything for Khan started with his jab, and this helped create openings where he could unleash short three and four punch combinations that possessed a nice blend of speed and precision. He would throw a short series of shots, reposition himself, throw another combination, and then calmly take a stroll to establish new perspective, resetting the action where he could resume controlling the range to his liking. As Showtime commentator Paulie Malignaggi noted, “There he goes again, Khan is taking a walk”. Amir was composed.

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Leo Santa Cruz Impresses In Boxing’s Return To Network Television

Alberto Guevara vs Leo Santa Cruz Photos by Tom Casino/SHOWTIME and Esther Lin/SHOWTIME — Professional boxing returned to the CBS Television Network on Saturday afternoon for the first time in 15 years. In SHOWTIME Sports presentation of “SHOWTIME BOXING on CBS,” unbeaten Leo Santa Cruz capped a spectacular year by retaining his International Boxing Federation (IBF) World Bantamweight Championship with an exciting and closely contested 12-round unanimous decision win over previously unbeaten Alberto Guevara, live on CBS from the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

Santa Cruz (23-0-1, 13 KO’s), of Los Angeles, won the lone bout on the CBS broadcast, the network’s first since Bernard Hopkins knocked out Glen Johnson on Jan. 20, 1997, by the scores of 119-109, 118-110 and 116-112. Making his initial start in the United States, Guevara (16-1, 6 KO’s) of San Diego, Calif., made it close for six rounds but couldn’t sustain his momentum as Santa Cruz came on strongly to close the show.

Santa Cruz was making the third defense of the IBF 118-pound title he won with a 12-round decision over Vusi Malinga last June 2 on SHOWTIME®. In his two defenses, both also on SHOWTIME, he knocked out Eric Morel and Victor Zaleta in September and November, respectively.

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