The Future of CUBA in the Pros, by Weightclasses. (List Inside) ***UPDATED/VIDEO***

At the Texas Station in Las Vegas, Nev. for tomorrow night’s ShoBox card:

Yudel Johnson 151.5 vs. Willie Nelson 151.5
Badou Jack 167 vs. Alexander Brand 166.5
Rances Barthelemy 131 vs. Robert Osiobe 131
Jesus Gutierrez 136.5 vs. Jimmy Jones 137
Roberto Acevedo 163 vs. Martinez Porter 163
William Mitch Williams 183 vs. Carlos Gaytan 180.5
Yunieski Gonzalez 178 vs. Carlos Reyes n/a

 

Jhonson lost , good fight though . Peace .

 

Substitute jr middleweight Willie “The Great” Nelson (18-1-1, 11 KOs) won a surprise ten round unanimous decision over previously unbeaten Yudel Jhonson (12-1, 8 KOs) on Friday night at the Texas Station Gambling Hall & Hotel in Las Vegas. The 6’3 Nelson dropped Jhonson with a right hand in round two, but didn’t follow up. Jhonson floored Nelson hard in round four with a big left. Nelson, however, staggered Jhonson in round five and pretty much controlled the fight after that. Scores were 95-94, 97-92, 97-92. Nelson, who is trained by Jack Loew, took the fight on 11 days notice after Jhonson’s original foe Freddy Hernandez pulled out with an injury.


In other results: Cuban super featherweight Rances Barthelemy (16-0, 11 KOs) remained undefeated with an eight-round unanimous decision over Las Vegas’ Robert Osiobe (11-5-4, 6 KOs). Scores were 79-72 and 78-73 twice. Las Vegas super feather Jesus Gutierrez (4-0, 2 KOs) brought the crowd to watch him batter crosstown debuter Jimmy Jones (0-1) around, knocking him down twice en route to a TKO win at 2:34 of round three. All three pre-TV bouts ended by TKO: Cuban light-heavy Yunieski Gonzalez (8-0, 5 KOs) took out Phoenix’ Carlos Reyes (5-4-1, 3 KOs) at 1:39 of the first;

 

Jhonson is the classic example of an amateur having problems with the transition to pro.
He has good skills,footwork ,head movement and average( or maybe below average) power.
But he can't put all the pieces together .Last night he was fighting a much taller guy who was closing his guard and letting his flanks open.I didn't see Yudel any meanful body shot,or hitting his shoulders and arms to minimize Nelson's power.Instead he was head hunting for a guy more than 5 inches taller.He was successful once but unlucky enough to do it at the end of the round.
Yudel didn't sparr with a tall guy,he was suppose to fight Hernandez and didn't get ready properly for this fight.He was clueless last night,he couldn't follow directions or adjust to the big guy style.After rd8 his power was gone,he was just hanging out there hoping Arum was his promoter to get a robbery decision.
Styles make a fight,we saw it last night.Hope he gets back on track,there is a lot of work to do.

 

We miht get a Luis franco-Gary Russel in a eliminator for a shot at IBFs 126 pounds champ Billy Dib

 

Did somebody watch Rances fight ? Or Yuniesky ?

 

I agree with Kid. I thought that Jhonson was superior to Lara ( in technique ) but this shows he is clearly having issues making the switch to the pro style. Not all Cubans will make excellent pros as some find it very difficult to leave some of the amateur things behind. Either way Jhonson fought a extremely tall opponent who was also a great amateur, no shame in losing to someone as good as Nelson.

Yudel can come back but he needs to remain 100% focused. I wish the best for him, he has excellent technique and skills.

 

That's great news! Not many are giving Franco much of a chance saying Russell is too fast well they are not taking into consideration Franco's great amateur background, good timing, excellent chin and counterpunching skills. Franco is very underrated by all fans, but this Cubanito can beat any of them including Russell.

If Franco beats Russell he beats Dib easier, no doubt!

 

That fight was not on TV but he easily won by UD. Rances is fast becoming one of our best prospects. Rances is very tall, fast, powerful, technical and the best thing is that he is very young. He is a fighter who keeps coming at you but also has excellent reflexes and defense. I am 95% sure that Rances is going to be World Champ!

 

i heard rances didn't look good and got hurt a couple of times thru the fight,i have a feeling didn't have a good camp.
I agree about Franco being underrated but i see Russell giving him lot of problems,heart with franco but money with rusell.

 

I have a feeling that Franco will shock the world if he fights GRJ but will get robbed somehow , the bout could be staged on Russell's hometown ( D.C ) , I expect another bad decision . Peace .

 

This :deal , he needs to change not only his trainer but his whole team , he's been fighting the same way since he started . Peace .

 

He actually changed his trainer, he used to be trained by "el tigre" Castano who is an exceptional kick boxing star but lack the fundamentals of boxing,I recently saw him with Ugas and I was less than pleased by his performance.
Last night Jhonson had ismael salas on his corner who has trained also Gamboa and rigo.Salas is very experienced and solid trainer but he couldn't put together a plan against giant Nelson. Obviously they were not ready for that guy.
Jhonson had a freak injure when he hurt his hand with an old punching bag.Despite the accident he showed last night the best punch of his pro career.
I've always said he looks soft for 154, he should go down to welter but like garfios said,too much arroz con frijoles.
I think jhonson got last night the wrong opponent ,he can still beat any decent jr MW ,hope he doesn't discourage himself and work on his improvement .

 

Southpaw Johnson won the gold medal in the men's featherweight division at the 1999 PanAm Games. He moved up afterwards but skipped lightweight as the domoinant Mario Kindelán was Cuban champ.

Johnson added a silver at the 2004 Summer Olympics in the Light-Welterweight Boxing division Dilshod Mahmudov and Boris Georgiev but losing to Manus Boonjumnong in the final. He qualified for the Olympic Games by ending up in first place at the 2nd AIBA American 2004 Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Prior to the Athens Games he won the 2004 Acropolis Boxing Cup in Athens, Greece by defeating Turkey's Mustafa Karagollu in the final of the light welterweight division.

Johnson also won at the 2006 Central American Games but had strong domestic competition in Inocente Fiss. In 2008 he fought at welter losing to Carlos Banteaux in the final of the national championships.

 

He has to go down, he is not JMW and needs to use the right hand and hit the body, it was there all night and could have make the fight easy, go back to the drawing board and shave a few pounds...