Dirrell dominates Gbenga

02/06/201302/02/2013 ESB

dirrell23427 By Michael Collins: Last Saturday night, super middleweight Andre Dirrell (21-1, 14 KO’s) showed boxing fans why he was so highly hyped in the past by beating an out of his class 2nd tier fighter Michael Gbenga (14-7, 14 KO’s) by an impressive 10 round unanimous decision at the Convention Center in McAllen, Texas.

The 29-year-old Dirrell, who hadn’t seen action in well over a year, knocked down with a right uppercut to the head in the 9th round, and Dirrell also had Gbenga hurt in the 7th and 10th rounds from blistering right hands.

Gbenga showed good power as well, but he wasn’t able to land many of his shots due to Dirrell ducking or pulling his head away to avoid his power shots. He looked pretty frustrated with his inability to connect.

Dirrell’s hand speed was just as fast as it was when was competing in Showtime’s Super Six tournament in 2009-2010.

Carlos Molina Dominates Cory Spinks

02/02/201302/02/2013 ESB

molina3 By Joe Harrison: Junior middleweight contender Carlos Molina (21-5-2, 6 KOs) defeated former two-division champion Cory Spinks (39-8, 11 KOs) by a unanimous decision in front of 5,354 screaming fans at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, IL. The contest was the main event on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights.

Spinks showed very little fight as Molina frustrated him with his accurate punches and stellar defensive skills throughout the 12-round IBF eliminator. Spinks simply could not find an answer as Molina pressed forward and bullied him around the ring. Although Spinks was able to land an effective punch here and there, he mostly resorted to clinching to avoid further punishment.

Spinks was deducted a point in round four for excessive holding. Spinks was also dropped by a left hook in round eleven. In round twelve, Spinks received a standing eight count when it was ruled that the ropes held him up from going down again. In the end, the scores were 119-106 twice and 120-105, all for Molina.

Soliman beats Sturm, Kentikian defeats Jah

02/06/201302/01/2013 ESB

Sturm_Soliman_2 By Jeff Sorby: Former WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm (37-4-2, 16 KO’s) tasted defeat on Friday night in losing a surprising 12 round unanimous decision to 39-year-old Sam Soliman (43-11, 17 KO’s) in an IBF middleweight eliminator bout at the ISS Dome, in Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

The final judges’ scores were 116-111, 114-113 and 114-113. Sturm knocked Soliman down with a hard right hand in the 2nd round, and him in trouble late after almost knocking him down again. However, Sturm stopped throwing as many punches after the 2nd round and that caused the fight to get away from him.

Sturm was still landing the harder punches and tagging Soliman consistently with his jab, but he was letting Soliman out-work him from the 3rd round on. Sturm’ left eye began to swell up after the 5th, and he a lot of problems with Soliman’s unorthodox fighting style.

Last weekend in The Garden the BEST KO nobody saw: Tony Ferrante KO’s Isa Akberbayev

01/29/2013 ESB

Northeast Philadelphia native, Cruiserweight Tony “Boom Boom” Ferrante 13-4 (8 KO’s)was a huge underdog when he faced undefeated cruiserweight prospect Isa Akberbayev 10- 0 (7KO’s) on Saturday January 19th inside the MECCA of boxing, Madison Square Garden. Ferrante recently moved up in weight from light heavyweight to cruiserweight after struggling to cut 38 lbs. in his last fight. Taking the Akberbayev on only 20 days’ notice, Ferrante said he and his new trainer went into combat mode. “We started training right after Christmas. I had always been keeping in shape with my strength and conditioning Coach Sean Thompson, but my boxing coach Mike Cassell had me watching tape, and together we came up with a game plan, not just to win, but to knock the big Russian fighter out.”

The game plan was simple for Ferrante and his team. Make the big man fight small, then take him deep and put him to sleep. Akberbayev was coming off 4 KO’s in a row and was very confident. Ferrante was coming off 2 very tough losses that both went 10 rounds. But Akberbayev had never gone past 6 and team Ferrante were hoping that he would fade.

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Lucas Matthysse, Jesus Soto Karass And Jermell Charlo Impress On Showtime

01/27/2013 ESB

Matthyssee_Dallas02 Photos: Michael Bennett/SHOWTIME– WBC Interim Super Lightweight Champion Lucas Matthysse scored a one-punch knockout win over Mike Dallas, Jr., in the main event of SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING from The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas last night. The knockout came via a short counter right hand at 2:26 of the opening round. Matthysse advanced his record to 33 wins, two losses with an impressive 31 knockouts. The dangerous Argentine is now looking for the biggest names in the 140-pound division.

The triple header, presented by Golden Boy Promotions, will replay Tuesday, January 29 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on SHOWTIME EXTREME®.

In one of the evening’s co-features, Jesus Soto Karass won a majority decision over Selcuk Aydin in a 10-round super welterweight fight. Soto Karass simply outworked Aydin from the opening bell, continually pushing forward and controlling most of the rounds. The scores were 97-93 twice and 95-95. Soto Karass’ record improved to 27 wins, eight losses and three draws with 17 knockouts.

Matthysse destroys Dallas Jr.; Soto-Karass defeats Aydin

01/27/201301/26/2013 ESB

matthysse1 By Bill Phanco: It took WBC interim light welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse (33-2, 31 KO’s) most of the 1st round to adjust to the hand speed of Mike Dallas Jr. (19-3-1, 8 KO’s) tonight but once he did, he tagged him with a monstrous overhand right late in the round that knocked Dallas Jr. clean out, sending him down face first on the canvas at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The referee immediately stopped the fight after realizing that Dallas Jr. was out cold and wasn’t moving a muscle. The official stoppage was at 2:26 of the round.

Dallas Jr. was jabbing well in the early part of the fight, and tying Matthysse up each time he could get in close to land his power punches. However, as the round wore on, Matthysse began to catch Dallas Jr. with hard left hooks to the head and big right hands. You could see with the power that Matthysse was throwing his shots that Dallas Jr. wasn’t going to last very long in this fight.

Matthysse’s power was pretty impressive in this fight because he wasn’t just punching big power with his left hand. He was also throwing with good power with his right as well, and there aren’t too many fighters at 140 that would have been able to last long tonight against him.

Andrade dominates Hernandez

01/26/201301/26/2013 ESB

andrade By Bill Phanco: Unbeaten junior middleweight Demetrius Andrade (19-0, 13 KO’s) kept his perfect record intact with a lopsided 10 round unanimous decision win over Freddy Hernandez (30-4, 20 KO’s) on Friday night at the Paramount Theater in Huntington, New York. Hernandez was down in the 6th, and hurt on number of occasions by big shots from Andrade. The judges’ scores were 100-89, 100-89 and 100-89.

It was a fine performance from Andrade, #3 IBF, #3 WBO, #8 WBC, #13 WBA,. He showed good power at times and nice hand speed. He didn’t have much to worry about in this fight because Hernandez was way out of his league and he didn’t have a lot of power.

Andrade knocked Hernandez to the canvas in the 6th round with a right hand to the head, and he also had Hernandez hurt in the 9th after nailing him with a right uppercut. Hernandez showed a good chin to make it the full 12 considering it looked like the fight was on the verge of being stopped in the 9th when Andrade was unloading on Hernandez with everything but the kitchens sink.

Mikey Garcia is a joy to watch

01/20/201301/20/2013 ESB

garcia1 by Paul Strauss: Here’s a bucket of money. Now go out and hire a biological engineer and make known your wishes for the creation or design of a great boxer. If necessary, the lab rats will take a little DNA here and a little there, garnering the needed ingredients to come up with the desired result. It will be your job to give a detailed description of what you want. Don’t leave anything out. Make it known you want your boxer (not fighter) to have power in both hands. He must be technically sound, demonstrating the ability to block, slip, parry, duck under and counter each and every shot thrown at him.

Undoubtedly, you will want your fighter to be tough and not to get flustered when defending or attacking. Give your fighter great instincts, so he can read opponents’ tells. Go ahead and let the biologist know your man should not expel energy unnecessarily. He should be graceful and move well, but only at the right time and at the right distance, not wasting any motion or get himself out of position.

Tell the scientists, your boxer must always be on balance, ready to strike at any instant and with power. After supplying these instructions, chances are you will end up with a boxer closely resembling Miguel Angel “Mikey” Garcia.