Riyadh Season WBC Boxing Grand Prix - Tournament Finals RBR, Today, Dec 20th, LIVE NOW!

Dante Darnell Stone (USA, 20-1) vs. Youness Baalla (Morocco, 2-1-1), 6 rounds @ heavyweight

 

Baalla shouldn't even be here, but heavy tourney favorite Mullojonov got himself popped for a PED, so here we are.

 

Another situation where they're only 10lbs apart but the Moroccan looks far chunkier.

Not that Stone's svelte himself... well over a quarter-ton of man-meat in that ring, not counting the ref.

 

See the post above yours.

Damn fool had a rather easy path to hoisting the José Sulaimán Trophy no matter who emerged on the other side of the bracket, and went and got himself banned.

 

WBC open scoring:

20-18 x3 for Dante Stone.

Not a very enjoyable match-up. Stone isn't doing much clean work, but Baalla's doing nothing.

 

Official cards:

59-55
58-56 x2

UD for Stone

 

K-Ram will school him, IMO. Already salivating for Ramírez versus either Krnjić or Gomes in the finals.

 

Bring on the middleweights!

 

Dmytro Rybalko (Ukraine, 5-0-1) vs. Derek "Slick" Pomerleau (Canada, 13-0), 6 rounds @ middleweight

 

Commentators say despite his nickname being "Slick", the Canadian southpaw fights more like a puncher ...and a vulnerable one, at that, as he was dropped in the previous stage of the Grand Prix by light-hitting Paul Ryan of Ireland.

So maybe "Slick" really isn't the best choice.

 

Cagey opener, mostly reach-in jabs, neither really connecting anything flush.

 

Pomerlau works with Stéphan Larouche (coach of Jean Pascal, Lucian Bute, Leo Dorin, etc)

 

Oh wow, KO2 outta nowhere!

Pomerlau was starting to come on from the beginning of the round, but it was still pretty dull and one-gear until a huge left hand rocked Rybalko as they were pushing apart from a near-clinch where they were shoved in close hip-to-hip. Pomerlau finished him in no time with straight lefts and right hooks.