Cruiserweight and Heavyweight thread.

Brandon Glanton prevailed over the durable journeyman Mitch Williams by TKO 4 on May 1st.

Williams had most recently fought Andrew Tabiti. That fight took place last year and ended in a Tabiti TKO 5 win. Prior to that, Williams had managed to go the distance in losses against the likes of Tervel Pulev and Edwin Rodriguez.

After winning a FOTY fight against Efetobor Apochi in 2021, Glanton seemed to fall completely off the radar screen. I think that mostly has to due with the sad state of the CW division in N. or S. America. A matchup with Andrew Tabiti would probably be a good fight for him, but he would likely have a lot more to gain than Tabiti would.

 

Tough to see either fight as being competitive.

Fa has that long jab that can probably keep Lucas off him...and I'm not sure that Browne can be dangerous for more than one or two rounds at this point. So Lucas probably just rushes him and hopes for the best....which would be a miracle.

Joe Jones definitely has some power (e.g. against Junior Wrist on that Hunter-Forrest card from a few months back). But he's really easy to hit with big shots. He might give Hemi a chin check early on but I have to pick Ahio to win this by TKO 3, if not sooner.

 

Not sure if it's been posted already, but Jermaine Franklin had his first fight since late-2019. He remained undefeated by picking up a TKO 5 victory over journeyman Rodney Moore. There's no denying Moore has some skill, as he managed to go the distance against Fedosov back in 2012. But, obviously, at aged 46 his best days are long past him.

In the last week an article appeared on SkySports indicating that Franklin's promoter, Dmitriy Salita, is looking at Hughie Fury as a possible opponent for Franklin. I'm skeptical. Hughie isn't quite on the A-list himself, but Franklin doesn't really seem to have any notoriety at all outside of N. America after a couple of lackluster-ish performances against Jerry Forrest and Rydell Booker.

 

USA HW prospect Roney Hines moved to 11-0 with a TKO 2 win over Luis Pascual on May 14th after more than a year of inactivity.

Last I heard of Hines before this was an interview in which he stated that he had enlisted Ray Edwards (remember him?) as a career advisor and mentor. Seems to me that's like injecting oneself with cancer cells in the pursuit of a longer life - and that might explain why Hines went so long between fights.

As for Pascual, he was early-round TKO cannon fodder for the likes of Johann Duhaupas and Shigabudin Aliev back in 2019. So he was a low-risk way of shedding ring rust.

 

Look for Molina to complain about being fouled during the referee's instructions.

 

Luis Pascual going the distance with Junior Fa in 2018 seems to have opened a few opportunites for him against prospects, similar to Richard Lartey's performance against Daniel Dubois. Of course Lartey just goes and dives for the fun of it now.

 

Pascual weighed in at 301 lbs for his fight with Hines. That's pretty hefty. He weighed in at 251 lbs. against Aliev in 2019.

Fa was complaining quite a lot about a health condition in 2018 that was robbing his stamina. Maybe he wasn't lying after all?

But, yes, both Lartey and Pascual have followed that same career progression.

 

Terrell Jamal Woods had a busy month, on May 5th he KOd unbeaten 8-0 7 KOs Rolando Soto. Then on May 21 He dropped a decision to 7-0 4 KOs Damian Knyba. Woods improves and falls to 28-51-9. 20 KOs. Woods also ended 30-0 JD Chapman's unbeaten run last year and has several wins over Rodney Moore (mentioned a few posts back)

 

Woods is probably the closet thing to Kamil Sokolowski in the Americas HW scene right now. A true journeyman who comes to fight, is difficult to stop, and has exposed his share of prospects along the way

 

He's 100% a throwback to the tough heavyweight journeymen of the past

 

Yes Fa's health wasn't the best that year but its been sorted. Pascual spoiled all fight an Fa smothered all of his work so it was basically a 10 round clinch fest.

I'd like to see Fa v Arias next should they both win their next fights. Both DiBella fighters too so it shouldn't be that difficult a match up to make.

 

Michael Hunter vs Hughie Fury will be on July 2nd in Manchester, according to promoter Ben Shalom.

 

That's not an easy fight for Hunter, Hughie makes everyone look bad and is well conditioned. One of the few HWs that Hunter won't be able to outbox really easy. I hope Hunter comes in below 220 pounds, around 215 would be ideal. He carries good power even at a lower weight and the extra fat only slows him down.

 

That is a fight I would like to see.

It definitely makes sense for Arias. He's a shorter HW and needs to clearly demonstrate he's competitive with the big guys. Fa is a step up from Cassius Chaney on the ladder.

Arias and Fa are not really well-known fighters in the USA and Arias isn't really known outside the USA at all. I think you probably could put this fight on the undercard of a Wilder comeback fight. Not sure when that would be though. And I'm not 100% sure Fa would take it because he's already taken fights with Joseph Parker and has an upcoming fight with Lucas Brown (who is shot but still has a following). So I think you'd need to be able to show Fa that a win over Arias would lead to something bigger. In any case, I don't think you could make a Fa-Arias matchup a main event fight even in NZ.

 

No you couldn't. Fa isn't a big name here unless he was fighting a big name. He's not getting any younger though and has been very inactive in the last 2-3 years so he should be trying to push for any fight he can get.