It was a solid night of boxing at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center Saturday night. A crowd of several hundred, which included champs Lamont Peterson and Adrien Broner, were treated to a roster of up-and-comers looking to make a statement. Even Virginia’s governor, Terri McAuliffe, seemed to be having a good time as the fights progressed.
Month: February 2016
Leo Santa Cruz TKOs Kiko Martinez in 5th round
(Photo Credit: Stephanie Trapp/SHOWTIME) ANAHEIM, Calif. (Feb. 27, 2016) – Leo “El Terremoto” Santa Cruz defended his WBA Featherweight World Championship in convincing fashion on Saturday night, knocking down Kiko “Sensación” Martinez twice in the first round, then ending it on a barrage of punches as the fight was called at 2:09 in the fifth round in the main event of a SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING doubleheader at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.
In the co-feature on SHOWTIME, 29-year-old Hugo Ruiz (36-3, 31 KOs), Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico, regained his WBC Super Bantamweight World Title with a devastating early knockdown with just 51 seconds into the 12-round fight against 23-year-old Julio Ceja (30-2, 27 KOs) of Atizapan De Zaragoza, Mexico, in a highly anticipated rematch of their August fight won by Ceja.
Santa Cruz stops Martinez
(Photo Credit: Stephanie Trapp/SHOWTIME) In easily the most exciting fight of this weekend’s fights, WBA featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (32-0-1, 18 KOs) stood in the trenches and slugged it out with the hard hitting Kiko Martinez (35-7, 26 KOs) in mowing him down in five thrilling rounds on Showtime Boxing on Saturday night at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
Santa Cruz put Martinez down on two separate occasions in the 2nd round of the 12 round fight. The end of the fight came in the 5th, when the 27-year-old Santa Cruz unloaded on Martinez with a nonstop storm of shots that resulted in referee Raul Caiz Jr. pulling the plug on the fight. Martinez, 29, was still on his feet, but he was near helpless if not for the referee stopping it. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:09 of the round.
Crawford stops Lundy; Verdejo defeats Silva
NEW YORK (Feb. 27th, 2016) – Hank Lundy’s bid for a world title in the 140-pound division came up short Saturday as undefeated Terence Crawford retained his World Boxing Organization (WBO) Junior Welterweight Championship via fifth-round stoppage at the 2-minute, 9-second mark in the main event of HBO’s World Championship Boxing doubleheader at The Theater at Madison Square Garden, co-promoted by Top Rank and CES Boxing.
“He caught me with a good shot on the top of my head and threw my equilibrium off. I just couldn’t recover,” Lundy said.
Frampton decisions Quigg, wins WBA title
(Photo credit Matchroom Boxing) NEW YORK (Feb. 27, 2016) – IBF 122-pound world champion Carl Frampton unified the super bantamweight division with a split decision victory over WBA titlist Scott Quigg Saturday on SHOWTIME BOXING INTERNATIONAL from Manchester, England.
An encore presentation of Saturday’s telecast will re-air later this evening immediately following the live SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING® telecast headlined by three-division world champion Leo Santa Cruz and former titlist Kiko Martinez. The SHOWTIME telecast begins at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT.
Frampton defeats Quigg
(Photo credit Matchroom Boxing) IBF super bantamweight champion Carl Frampton (22-0, 14 KOs) showed a lot of heart and determination in gutting out a 12 round split decision on Saturday night in beating WBA champ Scott Quigg (31-1-2, 23 KOs) by a narrow 12 round split decision win in their 122lb unifcation fight at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
The judges gave the fight to Frampton, but Quigg easily could have won that fight. If not winning, it could and perhaps should have been scored a draw. Quigg landed the far better punches in each round, and he came on strong in the second half of the fight to do the better work. I had Quigg winning two of the first six rounds and four of the last half to deserve a draw. The scores were 115-113 for Quigg, 116-112 and 116-112 for Quigg. Frampton was fighting on fumes in the last three to four rounds, and his punches had nothing on them.
Huck stops Afolabi
Coming off of a bad knockout loss, 31-year-old former WBO cruiserweight world champion Marco Huck (39-3-1, 27 KOs) was able to score a 10th round TKO win tonight over IBO cruiserweight champion Ola Afolabi (22-5-4, 11 KOs) at the Gerry Weber Stadium in Halle, Germany. The fight was stopped by referee Jack Reiss after the 10th round had ended.
He halted it because of Afolabi’s left eye being swollen shut. Huck had been hammering Afolabi with right hands to the eye from the very start of the fight. In the 1st round, Huck rammed his head accidentally into the face of Afolabi, and that obviously didn’t help Afolabi’s eye any.
Frampton-Quigg: pre-fight tensions ensure both sides are warned about their conduct ahead of tonight’s big fight
(Photo credit: Matchroom Boxing) Not long to go now until Carl Frampton Vs. Scott Quigg, one of the biggest fights to take place in the UK in some years, finally gets underway. Frampton, the reigning and defending IBF super-bantamweight king, remains an ever so slight betting favorite to win the fight and take Quigg’s WBA 122-pound belt, but no fan – despite what they may say now or what they might say after the fight – is at all sure what will happen when the bell rings in Manchester.
This, of course, is the sign of a great match-up; with two of the best in the division squaring off with one another. The pre-fight hype and build-up has been quite something, with the two camps being notably prickly with each other – to the point where there has been pushing and shoving (between not only the two fighters, but also rival trainers, Joe Gallagher and Shane McGuigan) and threats of pulling out of the fight due to a dressing room spat.
Lee Selby to defend IBF featherweight title against Eric Hunter in either London or Cardiff
Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has just announced another big world title fight: Lee Selby, the reigning IBF featherweight champion, will defend against Philadelphia’s Eric Hunter in the UK this Spring. Hearn, talking to BBC Wales, said the fight will definitely take place in the UK, it is just a matter of the fight going ahead in either London, when the date would be April 9th, or Cardiff, when the likely date would be some time in May.
Either way, Selby-Hunter is a good fight, arguably the biggest test yet for the classy 29-year-old Welshman. Selby, 22-1(8) won the title with an 8th-round TD against Evgeny Gradovich in May of last year and he has retained the belt once, winning a 12-round UD over Fernando Montiel. The Montiel fight took place in Arizona but now “The Welsh Mayweather,” as Selby has been dubbed by some, gets ready to defend once again at home; or maybe in London.
Frampton vs. Quigg: Manchester Machismo
(Credit: Matchroom Boxing) The fight between Scott Quigg and Carl Frampton reached a fever pitch during the final presser of the week when the two men traded words and shoves. Manchester Arena is the place this U.K. super fight of sorts will take place and you can bet both fan bases equaling 20,000 strong, will let their voice be heard this Saturday night. The bout has been in the making for years and judging by the two camps the top is about to blow off with anticipation.