Anton Novikov's stock just went up!

Most have forgotten about this, but in 2014 a still unbeaten Jessie Vargas made his first world title defense on HBO, fending off 29-0 (10) Anton "The Pick Hammer" Novikov of Russia, who entered with a so-so record in qualitative terms and to little fanfare. This was supposed to have been a relatively easy "gimme" defense for Jessie after lifting his belts from Novikov's more celebrated and highly regarded countryman Allakhverdiev. It didn't go to plan.

Most of us on the night in the RBR thread had it anything but the deceptively wide UD reflected in the record books. Many had Novikov edging it, and I scored it a draw (but with the round with the most wiggle room being the ferocious 12th, which I gave to Vargas but easily could have swung Novikov's way).

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threa...os-vs-diego-gabriel-chaves-rbr.514181/page-17

Novikov got robbed by the guy that mangled the guy that retired Cotto...ergo, Novikov is basically in the same league as Mayweather and Pacquiao.

#boxingforumlogic

 

Vargas in his four-year, 10-fight run with Top Rank (from Aron Martinez through Manny Pacquiao) honestly could have ended up in the red at 4-6.

I had the Allakhverdiev fight 116-112 for Khabib (as did Larry Merchant) and the fan opinion was split, with an equal number having it tight for either man plus a sprinkling of drawn scorecards.

On the Bradley vs. Provodnikov undercard, he was dropped by unbeaten Oyewale "Lucky Boy" Omotoso and in hanging on for dear life managed to secure himself a disturbingly wide decision. Dan Rafael scored it for Omotoso and Harold Lederman had it a draw. I actually had Vargas nicking it by a point, 95-94, but could easily see a round shifted the way of Wale. It was derided widely enough that a fan scorecard aggregator site deemed it "75% controversial" when contrasting popular opinion with the official verdict: http://www.eyeonthering.com/boxing/jessie-vargas-vs-wale-omotoso

Ditto with Ray Narh, on my card Vargas just barely held on courtesy of a last-minute knockdown for a final score of 95-94 after getting outboxed for long stretches by Narh. The wide array of scorecards in no way represented what happened and Narh's team filed a complaint with Nevada State Athletic Commission.

He beat Martinez & Gasparyan fairly (but not impressively) - though perhaps the cards were a tad generously wide in both cases - and clearly outfought a faded, set-to-retire Antonio DeMarco (though got rocked multiple times as Tony raged against the dying of the light); and obviously removed it from the judges' hands versus Sadam Ali. Otherwise, though, rough stretch for him under Bob Arum. He was supposed to be a major coup when he was poached from TMT but I don't think he gave Bob the ROI he was hoping for. Omotoso, Narh, Allakhverdiev, and Novikov all could have gone against him (and I think I remember CST80 once remarking that for that stretch he should have been at best 0-0-4) and of course he was dominated and made to look amateurish when Arum fed him to in-house stars Pacquiao and Bradley.

(so for me personally, he was 6-3-1 by my scorecards - losing to Pac, Bradley, and the Hawk while drawing with Novikov. Again, though, could easily bump that down to 4-5-1 or 4-6; in the Narh and Omotoso fights, as with Novikov, there is definitely "budge room" to review and come up with a draw or loss on a second watch; there were lots of close rounds on both nights and both men were underdogs that brought it to Vargas & partially exposed his limitations, and deserved better than what the judges put forth, no matter the result)

Novikov, meanwhile, ought to have no worse an official record than at present 31-0-1 (11), if not 32-0. He fought twice after Vargas and may or may not be retired. Had the judges given him the nod, it would have opened some majors doors for him financially and we could have seen more of what he was made of versus top shelf opposition. Shame.

 

#VargasNovikovRematch2018

Let's get it trending, comrades!

 

Novikov vs. Uzoqov (first match since the Vargas loss, sixteen months later):

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His current layoff (since knocking out Uzbek journeyman Bakhrom Payazov, a fellow southpaw who moonlights in the WSB, pretty solid win actually) is even longer than between Vargas and Uzoqov, now standing at nineteen months.

 

Yeah, I don't give Broner much credit for that one. Allakhverdiev was clearly disgusted with the sport after hearing those scorecards read (particularly that of blatant Arum employee Robert Hoyle) and you could tell his broken little heart wasn't in the work anymore versus Bonehead.

 

If the house fighter is Vargas, then yes.

(of course he wasn't the house fighter versus either Pac or Timbo)

 

That holds true of Narh/Omotoso and maybe even Novikov IMO but I had Allakhverdiev beating him 116-112 and there weren't enough razor-thin ones in the Allakhverdiev column to justify swinging it Jessie's way.