In a year that has been full of stunners, last night’s truly shocking result in Carson, California might just have topped the lot. Srisaket Sor Ringvisai, AKA Wisaskil Wangek, absolutely destroyed one-time Pound-for-Pound king Roman Gonzalez.
Last night’s fight was a rematch of a great action fight that saw the tough, strong and, as we saw last night, viciously powerful Thai southpaw score an upset decision win over a 46-0 “Chocolatito” – what happened last night blew that win off the charts.
Former WBA/WBO flyweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada (36-2, 25 KOs) overcame a slow start to come on in the second half of the contest to defeat former WBC super flyweight champion Carlos Cuadras (36-2-1, 27 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
The win for Estrada, 27, makes him the No.1 WBC mandatory challenger to WBC 115 lb. champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai. As good as Rungvisai looked tonight, Estrada might be better off moving back down to 112 and picking up where he left off in beating all comers.
It has been confirmed by HBO how former light-heavyweight king Sergey Kovalev will make his ring return on November 25, against once-beaten contender Vyacheslav Shabranskyy of Ukraine. The bout will take place at Madison Square Garden Theatre and it’s possible Mexican warrior Orlando Salido could also return on the same card.
Kovalev, 30-2-1(26) is of course coming off back-to-back losses to Andre Ward, the second fight in June being a KO defeat for “Krusher.” Some people felt the Russian puncher would take a considerable amount of time off after being halted the way he was by Pound-for-Pound king Ward, but, no, he’s back less than six months on – and against a pretty good fighter.
WBC super flyweight world champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (43-4-1, 39 KOs) dealt former multiple world champion Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (46-2, 38 KOs) a terrible defeat in knocking him out in the 4th round on Saturday night in the main event of the “SuperFly” Card on HBO Championship Boxing at the StubHub Center in Carson. California.
Rungvisai was hitting Gonzalez at will with huge power shots in rounds 1-3. In the 4th, Rungvisai knocked Gonzalez down hard with a big shot to the head. Gonzalez got back up but was quickly knocked down a second time.
As many expected to happen, WBO WBO World champion Oleksandr Usyk (13-0, 11 KOs) toyed with the past his prime former 200 lb. champion Marco Huck (40-5-1, 27 KOs) in defeating him by a 10th round TKO on Saturday night at the Max-Schmeling-Halle in Berlin, Germany.
This was the first fight of the World Boxing Super Series. Usyk, the No.1 seed, showed that he’s going to be hard to beat with his boxing and slugging that he was doing all night against Huck. The fight was stopped at 2:18 of round 10.
WBO super flyweight world champion Naoya “The Monster” Inoue (14-0, 12 KOs) easily took care of Antonio “Carita” Nieves (17-2-2, 9 KOs) in beating him by a 6th round retirement stoppage on Saturday night on the “SuperFly” card at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
Nieves’ corner let the referee know after round 6 that he wouldn’t be coming out for the 7th. Inoue knocked Nieves down in round 5 with a shot to the midsection. Nieves took a knee and beat the count. Inoue continued to try and go after Nieves to knock him out, but he did a good job of moving to keep out of range.
What was former multi-weight world champion Oscar De La Hoya’s finest ring victory: his KO over heated rival Fernando Vargas, his close points win over the defensive wizard that was Pernel Whitaker, his first stoppage win over the legendary Julio Cesar Chavez?
Maybe it was in fact De La Hoya’s 1999 welterweight decision win over African terror Ike Quartey. This fight, one that saw “The Golden Boy” operating at his absolute peak, is also a fight that saw De La Hoya hit the deck – only to get up and win the war with the dangerous puncher known as “Bazooka.”
At 20 years, 9 months old, David Benavidez became boxing’s youngest world champion – and the youngest ever in the super middleweight division – with a split decision victory over Ronald Gavril on Friday night on an exciting night of 168-pound action on SHOWTIME BOXING: SPECIAL EDITION from The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
Benavidez (19-0, 17 KOs) placed the previously vacated WBC Super Middleweight belt around his waist after winning the title against former European amateur standout Gavril (18-2, 14 KOs) in what Benavidez later described as quite possibly the “Fight of the Year.” One scorecard had Gavril winning 116-111, with Benavidez winning on the other two scorecards, 116-111 and 117-111 in the event presented by Premier Boxing Champions.
Boxing ace Amir Khan will be a BoxNation studio guest for the epic encounter between middleweight kingpins Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin.
The pair meet at the T-Mobile Arena next Saturday night in a genuine ‘Fight of the Decade’ showdown between the two hottest 160-pounders in the world.
Former Unified Light Heavyweight World Champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-2-1, 26 KOs) returns to the ring Saturday, November 25 at The Theater Madison Square Garden to take on hard-hitting contender Vyacheslav “Lion-Heart Chingonskyy” Shabranskyy (19-1, 16 KOs) in a ten-round light heavyweight showdown. Kovalev vs. Shabranskyy will be promoted by Main Events and Krusher Promotions in association with Golden Boy Promotions, and televised live on HBO Boxing After Dark beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.