Gennady Golovkin dominates Gabriel Rosado to earn TKO in 7

01/20/201301/20/2013 ESB

rosado1 By Joseph Herron – Gennady Golovkin (25-0, 22 KOs) successfully retained his WBA Middleweight Championship with a technical stoppage over a lively but overmatched Gabriel Rosado (21-6, 13 KOs) at the 2:46 mark of round seven.

The decision to stop the contest was made by Rosado’s trainer and friend, Billy Briscoe, when it became abundantly clear that the courageous Philly native’s vision was being impaired by a horrid gash over his left eye. After bleeding profusely for the majority of the seven round contest, the 27 year old fighter stopped being competitive and shifted gears into survival mode throughout the final stanza of the halted bout.

While the stoppage was unanimously supported by those at ringside, it was also collectively understood that Golovkin’s second consecutive HBO appearance was much more competitive than most fight pundits and boxing scribes had anticipated.

Garcia tames Salido; Golovkin destroys brave Rosado and Martinez is lucky against Burgos

01/20/201301/20/2013 ESB

By Peter Wells: After a great night of boxing on Friday night for all UK fans on Boxnation followed by one of the best Prizefighters to date, the whole world was treated to another great nights action to round off a superb weekend. Boxing 2013 has well and truly kicked off, after a triple-header full of explosive punchers.

To kick off the three world title fights was the fight of the night between pressure fighter Roman ‘Rocky’ Martinez and the powerful counter puncher Juan Carlos Burgos. It was to be another classic instalment to the Puerto Rico-Mexico rivalry.

The challenger for the WBO Super Featherweight title, Burgos, started the faster, but both fighters landed heavy blows in the first round. It was an exciting round where Burgos’ quick combinations won the round over Martinez’ single big right hands. The fight stayed relatively in the centre of the ring where Burgos had his most success but occasionally the champion would force his younger foe onto the ropes where he would later have huge success.

Four rounds gone and although the fight hadn’t quite caught fire, Burgos seemed to have taken all the rounds, which invoked a response from the champion in the fifth. Martinez started to force the pace more but Burgos had plenty of success too. Martinez banged his chest whenever Burgos landed a solid punch, calling for the challenger to engage in a brawl that would suit the champion down to the ground.

Garcia defeats Salido; Golovkin stops Rosado

01/20/201301/20/2013 ESB

By Bill Phanco: WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido (39-12-2, 27 KO’s) didn’t have it tonight as he was beaten by the young Mikey Garcia (31-0, 26 KO’s) by an 8 round technical decision at Madison Square Garden in New York. Garcia was able to knock Salido down four times in the first four rounds with superb power punching.

Unfortunately, the fight was stopped after the 8th round from a head-butt that broke Garcia’s nose. Mikey said he couldn’t breath through his nose. The crowd pretty much hated it with some boxing shouting at Mikey, wanting him to continue fighting. It did seem strange that Mikey didn’t want to keep fighting considering fighting with a broken nose seems to be a common thing. However, Mikey had built up a big lead by that point in the fight so he could afford to have it go to the scorecards.

The judges scored it 79-70, 79-69 and 79-69. Salido was fighting better from the 6th round on and getting to Mikey more and more at the time the fight was stopped. I don’t know if Salido would have won but he was definitely starting to land his shots from the 6th to the 8th. Mikey was stopping a lot of Salido’s attacks by shoving him while backing up. Since the referee allowed Garcia to do this, he was able to stop many of Salido’s attacks with this move.

Curtis Stevens destroys Elvin Ayala in 1st round knockout

01/19/201301/19/2013 ESB

By Jeff Sorby: Fighting for the first time at middleweight Curtis Stevens (23-0, 17 KO’s) destroyed Elvin Ayala (26-6-1, 12 KO’s) in the 1st round on Saturday night to capture the vacant NABF middleweight title at the Mohegan Sun Casino, in Uncasville, Connecticut.

ShoBox Results & Photos: Rios, Arnett Triumphant

01/12/2013 ESB

Photos: Tom Casino/SHOWTIME – Ronny Rios (20-0, 9 KO’s), of Santa Ana, Calif., remained undefeated and captured the vacant NABF Featherweight Championship with a unanimous 10-round decision over former WBA Super Bantamweight World Champion Rico Ramos (21-2, 11 KO’s), of Los Angeles, in Friday’s main event on ShoBox: The New Generation from Fantasy Springs Resort Casino live on SHOWTIME®.

In a clash of unbeaten junior middleweights in the co-feature, Daquan Arnett (10-0, 6 KO’s), of Orlando, Fla., won an eight-round decision over hard-trying Brandon Quarles (10-1-1, 2 KO’s) of Alexandria, Va.

The doubleheader was featured on the first night of a Free Preview Weekend on SHOWTIME, which continues through tomorrow/Sunday, Jan. 13.

Rios, who turns 23 on Jan. 22, won his ShoBox debut and the biggest fight of his career by the scores of 100-90, 97-93 and 96-94. Arnett, 20, a Junior Olympic national champion, got the nod over Quarles by the scores of 78-73, 77-74 and 76-75. There were no knockdowns in either bout.

Ronny Rios defeats Rico Ramos

01/12/201301/12/2013 ESB

by 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.

Brandon Gonzales vs Don Mouton: round by round

01/12/201301/11/2013 ESB

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.

Barthelemy wins first controversial decision of 2013

09/15/201601/05/2013 ESB

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.

Maskaev impressive in beating Beck

01/03/201312/31/2012 ESB

By 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.

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

12/23/201212/23/2012 ESB

adamek3 By 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.