Matthysse blasts out Ajose

Matthysse blasts out Ajose (Photo: Tom Casino/Showtime) LAS VEGAS (Sept. 8, 2012) – Lucas Matthysse powered his way through previously undefeated Olusegun Ajose to claim the WBC Interim Super Lightweight World Championship Saturday night on SHOWTIME® from The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Matthysse’s power proved to be too much for the game Ajose and after a fantastic display of courage from both fighters, Matthysse scored a fight ending knockdown at 2:59 of the 10th round.

In the co-feature on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING, up-and-coming prospect J’Leon Love stepped into the spotlight and claimed the win over fellow prospect Ramon Valenzuela by disqualification due to unsportsmanlike conduct at 0:37 of the eighth round.

In the main event, Matthysse proved to be stronger and faster from the opening bell. Matthysse, who has had great success against left handers, stayed busier throughout and landed punishing combinations against his southpaw opponent. But Ajose showed his mettle and proved his toughness and resilience by staying on his feet through the biggest punches Matthysse could dole out.

As the rounds went on, Ajose tried to keep his opponent at a distance, but Matthysse continuously broke through, often attacking the body before going for the head. While neither fighter had ever been knocked down, Matthysse’s strength sent Ajose to the canvas in the tenth forcing referee Russell Mora to step in and halt the action. It was the first loss of Ajose’s professional career.

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Ward stops Dawson; DeMarco destroys Molina in 1st round knockout

By Michael Collins: It’s safe to say that Chad Dawson (31-2, 17 KO’s) learned a tremendous lesson tonight about the dangerous of losing weight to fight out of his weight class. Dawson, 30, was completely dominated in every sense of the word by WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward (26-0, 14 KO’s) in losing by a 10th round TKO at the Oracle Arena, in Oakland, California. Dawson was knocked down three times in this fight, if you want to call it fight. After the 3rd knockdown, Dawson told referee Steve Smoger that he’d had enough and the fight was halted.

You don’t want to make excuses for Dawson, but it was hard looking at how poorly he fought and how weak he looked throughout the fight and not feel that he was perhaps weight drained from making the foolish mistake of agreeing to drain down to 168 lbs to take the weight. I’m betting that Dawson wishing he hadn’t done that right now because he really got a humiliating beating by Ward. This wasn’t even close after the 2nd.

Ward was just battering Dawson with left hooks, right hands and hard body shots and Dawson just looked like he was trying to survive. He was getting badly punished in this fight and it’s too bad his trainer John Sculley didn’t step and stop the massacre by the midpoint of the fight because there was no reason to let the fight continue after the 6th round.

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Klitschko stops Charr in 4th; Abdusalamov stops McCline with a jab

By Rob Smith: WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (45-2, 41 KO’s) added his 41st knockout of his career on Saturday night in stopping a game but badly overmatched Manuel Charr (21-1, 11 KO’s) in a 4th round stoppage at the at the Olimpiyskiy, in Moscow, Russia. The fight was halted after Vitali opened up a bad cut over the 27-year-old Charr’s right eyebrow in the 4th round after connecting with a left hook to the head. Charr was furious with the stoppage and packed back and forth, swearing.

However, he wasn’t doing anything in the fight other than just taking terrible punishment. Vitali knocked Charr down with a hard right hand at the end of the 3rd round. It was pretty clear that Charr would have been badly hurt if the fight had gone into the second half of the fight because he was literally a punching bag tonight, and unable to land any shots. Vitali landed whatever he wanted against the helpless Charr and made it look easy.

Undefeated heavyweight contender Magomed Abdusalamov (16-0, 16 KO’s) was knocked down by a hard right hand from journeyman Jameel McCline (41-14-3, 24 KO’s) tonight but was able to come back to get a 2nd round stoppage by knocking McCline down with a jab. Abdusalamov, #13 WBA, was badly hurt after McCline tagged him with a tremendous right hand early in the 1st round. Abdusalamov stayed down a long time from that shot, and probably would have been finished off had McCline not stopped punching after that. It’s unclear why McCline backed off, because he Abdusalamov where he wanted him but he just seemed to go into a hole after that knockdown.

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Adamek stops Walker

By Dwight Chittenden: Heavyweight contender Tomasz Adamek (47-2, 28 KO’s) survived a 2nd round scare tonight when he was knocked down by the power punching Travis Walker (39-8-1, 31 KO’s) at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. However, Adamek, 35, was able to get back up and survive the round, which also saw the 6’4 1/2″ Walker get knocked down. Adamek then boxed smart and was able to take control of the fight and get a 5th round stoppage when he had Walker out on his feet. The fight was then stopped at 1:08 of the round.

It was a good win for Adamek, #4 IBF, #9 WBC, #12 WBA, as it keeps him within grasp of a title shot against IBO/IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. Adamek hopes to get a shot against Wladimir next year if everything goes alright with his next fight or two.

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Andre Ward vs. Chad Dawson: Head to Head

(photo credit: Alexis Cuarezma/Goossen Tutor) By Joseph Herron: Tonight at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California, universally recognized Super Middleweight Champion Andre “S.O.G.” Ward will defend his Super WBA and WBC titles against Ring recognized and WBC Light Heavyweight Champion “Bad” Chad Dawson in one of the most highly anticipated match-ups of the boxing year 2012.

Beginning at 9:45PM EST, HBO World Championship Boxing will broadcast a superb triple header which will be capped off with the best 168 pound fighter in the world fighting the best 175 pound pugilist on the planet. For fight fans, this pairing is a very intriguing one which should prove to be a strategic chess match with the occasional violent explosion.

In Vegas, the hometown fighter and pound for pound technician, Andre Ward, is an unusually escalated favorite at four to one odds. While the Bay area native should be considered the favored pugilist going into the bout, the odds are staggeringly high for a contest featuring an elite level talent like Dawson.

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Ward in his toughest fight to date against Dawson tonight

( Photo credit: Alexis Cuarezma/Goossen Tutor) By Dwight Chittenden: WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward (25-0, 13 KO’s) will easily be taking on the toughest opponent of his career tonight against 30-year-old Chad Dawson (31-1, 17 KO’s) at the Oracle Arena, in Oakland, California. This is a fight that can either turn the 28-year-old Ward into a star or it can send him hurtling downwards into the contender ranks.

Dawson has the talent to expose the gaps in Ward’s game, such as his lack of outside fighting skills. At one time, Ward was a good fighter on the outside, but he seems to have slowed down a step in the past three years and he’s now inside brawler 100 percent of the time. That’s all well and good because it’s worked out for him against the likes of Allan Green, Arthur Abraham, Mikkel Kessler and Carl Froch in the Super Six tournament. However, tonight will be Ward’s first fight against a fighter with superb boxing skills on the outside in Dawson and we could see Ward struggle to find his way in this fight.

Ward will likely do what he’s been doing in the past three years by getting his shots off first and then collapsing on Dawson to take the fight to the inside. Ward is awfully good at that, but Dawson isn’t someone that just stands there and let’s his opponents charge him the way that Ward does.

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Charr has no chance of beating Vitali tonight

By Michael Collins: If you’re interested in seeing a sick mismatch then in tune in to watch WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (44-2, 40 KO’s) deconstruct a badly over-matched opponent with a pumped up resume in 27-year-old Manuel Charr (21-0, 11 KO’s) in their fight in Moscow, Russia. The fight will be televised on HBO tonight as part of a split site telecast with WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward facing Chad Dawson.

Vitali must have closed his eyes and picked an opponent randomly in selecting Charr, because I can’t imagine a worse opponent than this for Vitali. To say that the slow as molasses Charr is tailor made for Vitali is putting it lightly. This guy was created to be knocked out by Vitali. Charr has no hand speed, average power and is so easy to hit. He’s not really even proven that he can dominate the 2nd tier fighters that he’s built up his unbeaten record on. Charr’s win over Zack Page was highly controversial.

I had Page winning that fight by four rounds, but I was surprised that the German based Charr got the decision. Charr also looked awful against Danny Williams, Owen Back, Sharman Williams, Robert Hawkins and Taras Bydenko. Those should have been one-sided fights but they turned out to be life and death matches for Charr, and it was not impressive stuff from the 6’4 1/2″ fighter.

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Robert Guerrero confronts Adrien Broner

By Rob Smith: WBC interim welterweight champion Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero (30-1-1, 18 KO’s) confronted former WBO super featherweight champion Adrien Broner (24-0, 20 KO’s) during Friday’s Chad Dawson – Andre Ward weigh-in in Oakland, California. Guerrero had a pack of his supporters behind him as he jawed at Broner trying to get him to step up three divisions to fight him 147 lbs.

Here’s how the discussion went:

Guerrero: “Let’s do it at 147. Let’s do it at 147.”

Broner: “I can come down to 147. You know what it is. The same s*** we’ve been talking about. I still got my O. I still got my O. I still got my O. I still got my O. Make it happen. Send the contract and I’ll sign.”

Guerrero: “We can do it at 147. We can do it at 147. Remember that, baby. He didn’t want no eye contact, baby. He didn’t want no eye contact.”

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Pianeta defeats 43-year-old Frans Botha

By Kevin Chittenden: Undefeated German based heavyweight contender Francesco Pianeta (27-1-1, 14 KO’s) defeated soon to be 44-year-old South African Frans Botha (48-8-3, 29 KO’s) by a 10 round unanimous decision on Friday night in a fight that almost more like a sparring match than an actual fight at the RWE Rhein-Ruhr Sporthalle, Muelheim, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. The 6’5″, light hitting Pianeta swept the judges’ score cards winning by the scores of 100-96, 99-92 and 97-93.

Botha was dominated in the fight but still was able to land the harder shots and the cleaner landing punches. Pianeta just does not have any power to speak and the best he could do was land weak left-right combinations that did little to slow down Botha’s forward moving progress. Botha fought well in the 4th and 10th rounds, out-working Pianeta.

Botha did a lot of jabbing and would often fight with his back against the ropes to catch breathers. It was an ugly fight to watch.

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Ward vs Dawson – Can’t get cuts out of your mind?

by Paul Strauss: Who really knows what matters most? Has Chad Dawson made a mistake is conceding too much in weight and location? Will Chad’s height and reach advantage be the difference for him against the master of ring generalship? Andre hasn’t yet lost, and has that intangible “mental toughness” that most fighters only wish they had. Can Chad muster it up for maybe the biggest fight of his career? There is a precedent for it……..at least one fighter comes to mind in Buster Douglas with his win over the then thought to be invincible Mike Tyson. It can be done.

Andre Ward has demonstrated the ability to neutralize the assets of his opponents. In other words, he is a master at preventing them from doing what they want to do. Carl Froch explained it best when he said Ward either kept him too close or too far away for him to be effective. Jean Pascal was doing a pretty good job of that with Dawson until the latter part of the fight when Dawson finally got angry and started coming on, but blood in the eye(s) cut his surge short. One good thing for Chad concerning that fight is he truly believes he was on his way to stopping Pascal. True or not, it’s good that he believes it, and believes that he is really an undefeated fighter, the same as Ward.

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