Cruiserweight and Heavyweight thread.

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https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/boxing-hw-beast-arslanbek-was-in-salikhovs-corner.4247427/

Arslanbek sighting at today's UFC card. I just hope he steps in with some good next.

 

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Richard Torrez Jr scored a KO win in the first minute against Roberto Zavala Jr. Pretty much to be expected as Zavala Jr looked every bit as bad as I expected he would be. It has already been announced that Torrez Jr will be fighting Marco Antonio Canedo (4-2, 2 KO)) on the August 27th Hard Rock Casino card in Tusla, OK. A quick look at Canedo's resume (which is all that is needed) suggests that this will not be a meaningful step-up fight in any way.

Stephan Shaw (17-0, 13 KOs) scored a 1st round @ 2:35 TKO stoppage victory over Bernardo Marquez (14-5-1, 10 KOs). Marquez was down three times before the fight was stopped. About five or six years ago I would have called that result impressive - back when Marquez had gone the distance in losing efforts against Rodney Hernandez and Oleksandr Teslenko - but Marquez was stopped by Joe Cusumano in 2018 and had only had five fights against poor-quality opposition since. Apart from being a relatively-young body (aged 28) and appearing to be in reasonable shape - this was a huge mismatch with Marquez looking frighteningly-slow to the punch. About the only meaningful item here is that Stephan Shaw weighed in at 236 lbs and appeared very fit. He's been slimming-down steadily over the past 3 years. For example, he weighed in at 254 lbs when he fought Donovan Dennis in the Spring of 2019. Obviously, he needs better opponents for his career to go anywhere.

 

Three heavyweight fights on the August 27th card for the Jose Pedraza vs Richard Commey bout.

First, Jared Anderson's opponent has finally been named. He will fight Miljan Rovcanin (24-2, 16 KOs) in a ten round match.

To be sure, this is a disappointment. Rovcanin's record is a puffed-up affair built on club fighters and he reached his ceiling in a most-convincing fashion when he was stopped by Agit Kabayel in three rounds in 2018. Rovcanin's most meaningful result was lasting to Round 10 in a DQ loss to Dimitrenko back in 2017. He suffered that stoppage to Kabayel shortly afterwards and all of this fights (all victories) since that loss have been against poor-quality opponents. At best this is a sideways move from Teslenko.

Next, Trey Lippe Morrison (18-1, 17 KOs) will make his return following his wipeout stoppage loss against Mike Balogun in an 8 round fight. No opponent has been named yet and TLM is fighting in his hometown to boot - so expect a highly-outmatched opponent here.

Finally, Efe Ajagba (15-1, 12 KOs) will make his return following his UD loss to Frank Sanchez via a fight against Hungary’s Jozsef Darmos (14-4-3, 10 KOs). Let's just say that Darmos is the sort of fighter that was used by Rovcanin to pad his record - so this matchup is an even bigger disappointment than Anderson's! The word from Ajagba's camp is that he has been recovering from multiple injuries since the Sanchez loss...but I don't expect those setbacks will be of much help to Darmos!

I wouldn't expect any of these B-siders to last more than two rounds.

 

It appears 99.9% likely that it's Deontay Wilder; the internet is ablaze with statements to that effect even though it's not been formally announced yet.

 

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USA prospect Antonio Mireles (3-0, 3 KOs) will have his fourth professional fight on July 23rd .

The 6' 9" Mireles, who just turned 25, was a rival of Richard Torrez Jr in the amateur ranks these past several years. He will taking on Dannys Reyes - who is ranked #6 among Cuban Heavyweights on BoxRec. Sadly, there are only seven Cuban heavyweights rated by BoxRec, which put the 3-2 Reyes rather close to the bottom. The only recognizable name on the resume of Reyes is Carnell Porter (who dropped a UD decision to Jeremiah Milton not long ago) - who stopped Reyes rather easiliy in his debut fight.

 

USA prospect James Evans (4-0-1) will take on journeyman Tommy Washington Jr (7-12-1) on August 6th in Madison Heights, Michigan.

The 6' 5", 29 year-old Mr. Evans - who has not yet adopted the ring name "Good Times" to the disappointment of USA boxing fans over the age of 50 - most recently fought fellow-USA prospect Steven Torres in a four round bout that ended in a draw.

Tommy Washington will probably be familiar to USA boxing fans. By reputation, he is a fairly-skilled boxer who is not very difficult to defeat - but is not easy to stop. It's also safe to say that he carries some extra weight on his 6' 0" frame. He's been inactive since 2019, but before that layoff he had suffered decision losses to the likes of Lorenzo Hood (a prospect who was subsequently exposed by Terrell Jamal Woods), Devin Vargas, and Cassius Chaney. He did manage to draw on one of the cards vs. Chaney. I don't know how old Washington is, but his pro career extends back to 2006 - thus indicating he's 40 or "thereabouts". With age and weight likely being factors, it's reasonable to expect that the younger, bigger more active Evans has a good chance to end this fight inside the distance.

 

51 year-old German cruiserweight Firat Arslan scored a 2nd round KO victory over Argentne journeyman Juan Rodolfo Sanchez (20-7-0) in a bout that took place over the weekend in Germany. Aside from his stoppage loss to Kevin Larena a couple years ago, Arslan has been busy knocking out lightly-regarded opponents since he dropped a 2014 decision to Yoan Pablo Hernandez (who, of course, went missing from boxing shortly afterwards).

According to a report from the reputable Eric Armit - Arslan has indicated he plans to finally retire at the start of next year with a fight on a "big show". We'll keep our eyes peeled...

 

I want Arslan to fight until he's 70!

 

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Ahh, Dan Rafael...late to the punch and missing on his shots, as usual.

The article states that Zhang was knocked down three times when he fought Forrest. It was actually Jerry who hit the canvas three times before rallying against the tiring Zhang.

Still, it's good to see that the fight still appears to be on!

 

Haven't heard any rumors as to who his opponent will be. In April, Spong was slated to fight Andy Ruiz Jr - before the latter opted to fight Ortiz, instead.

Spong is well-known in MMA circles, but he's a relative unknown in boxing. He's 14-0 and certainly passes an "eye test" - but he's 36 and it's really difficult to see him as a useful "A-side" fighter. He's more suited to "gatekeeper" but I'm not sure which UK/Euro HW prospects are looking for a test right now.

Maybe somebody with more knowledge of the UK/Euro HW boxing scene can tell us?