Cruiserweight and Heavyweight thread.

Sucky news ahead.

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Bummer. Was hoping Okolie would just move on so Billam-Smith could defend against Masternak and then maybe unify with the winner of Opetaia-Riakporhe. Oh well, maybe since he's no longer "the A side" the ref won't be as lenient on Okolie and actually disqualify his ass this time.

 

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Man, I liked Shaw, too.

Well, that's why they have the fights, I guess.

 

Kingpin Johnson got a draw last night against Artem Suslenkov.
That would suggest he done enough to win. Only seen clips and he looked comfortable catching and countering off the ropes.

 

Shaw gassed after just a few rounds. Almost as if he had jet lag.

When Goodall fought Huni, it seemed clear that Goodall could hit harder but he just was getting touched all the time by Huni. Shaw didn't do anything to keep Goodall cautious and wasn't really throwing anything after a few rounds. Shaw's not a huge puncher to start with, so he had to keep busy.

 

A cruiserweight contest is scheduled for September 30 in Hamilton Ontario between Ryan Rozicki (18-1) and Alante Green (10-1-1). Green has not fought since his unimpressive SD loss to George Arias last year. With his HW experiment having failed, he's back to CW. Ryan Rozicki has been busy stopping middling CWs since his competitive loss at BW to Oscar Rivas last year.

Obviously, Rozicki has a big advantage in power. If Green remembers that he actually has a pretty useful jab he might make things interesting for a little while. But I wasn't at all impressed with his Ring IQ against Arias and I think Rozicki will have him out of there in 3 rounds or less.

 

Steven Torres and James Evans rematched their 2022 fight that ended in a draw in a fight that was buried in the Ennis v. Villa prelim undercard. Both were still undefeated prior to the rematch.

To my surprise, Torres (6-0-1) succeeded in stopping Evans (6-1-1) via TKO 3. This was a mild surprise given Evans' stoppage of Geovany Bruzon last October and Torres' inactivity since his first fight with Evans.

A bit of a sloppy fight but Evans seemed to be gradually asserting himself and was tagging Torres with some nice shots when the latter was pulling back or telegraphed his work when he put his weight on his front foot. But Torres sneaked in a big shot early in the 3rd round that stunned Evans. Torres quickly started teeing off on Evans and the latter was eventually unable to counter forcing the referee to stop the contest.

You can find the fight on YT by searching for the Ennis v. Villa prelims.

 

Alexey Papin vs Soslan Asbarov is set for an unknown date.

Matt Petrovsky will face Kevin Johnson on August 18th in Moscow.

 

Wouldn’t surprise me if that fight landed on a Hadcore boxing promotion. Asbarov was a lucky man to get the nod over Glanton last time out. Papin is too classy and too strong and wins a wide UD.

Petrovskii looks good, he’s tough and has got plenty balls. He’ll get revenge for countrymen Datsik and Suslenkov comfortably. Kingpin to take him the distance.

Looking forward to both!

 

USA HW prospect Brandon Moore moved to 13-0 with an early 2nd round TKO win over...

...Elijah McCall (12-4-1). This was McCall's first fight in just about a decade.

Moore was last active in April, 2022 winning a very wide UD decision over journeyman Curtis Harper. Moore scored a knockdown of Harper along the way. There was some sort of minor/made-up strap at stake that one of the boxing federations had concocted for the occasion - but I don't remember what it was (and why would I?)

Unfortunately, Moore's UD win was changed to a NC nine months later. The reason? Moore's promoter - Probellum - failed to pay the sanctioning fee. I can understand the sanctioning body not awarding the strap (as if anybody cared, anyhow) under such circumstances - but it's hard to take the sport seriously when they discard a result like they did here - nine months after the fact.

Hopefully Moore can quickly move on to more serious opposition and regain his career momentum.

 

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Wilder KOd him so hard he woke back up in Finland.

 

"You okay Robert?"
"FINLAND!"

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Finish FOTC.