Cruiserweight and Heavyweight thread.

USA HW prospect Antonio Mireles moved to 8-0 (7 KOs) with a final round TKO of opponent Dajuan Calloway in their 6 round fight on the Navarrete vs. Valdez undercard last night.

For those unfamiliar with Calloway, he's a manatee-shaped HW who's faced a couple of prospects, including Jeremiah Milton. Calloway tipped the scales at 391.7 lbs for this fight. This is not a career-high weight.

With the ESPN stream misbehaving, I could only watch the fight's ending that Top Rank posted on Twitter. Apparently, Mireles pinned an obviously tired Calloway on the ropes and proceeded to unload several dozen punches on Calloway - most of which were unanswered. Calloway never appeared hurt by these barrages, but it was getting a bit repetitious - so the ref waved off the fight. I've always suspected Mireles' power is illusory - but Calloway might not be the best test of that. Nothing Milton tagged Calloway with (and he did tag Calloway) , seemed to hurt him either.

Anyhow, I suspect Mireles - for all his imposing frame - simply hasn't got it. He needed a gift decision earlier in the year to avoid losing his 0 to Patrick Mailata. Mailata decked Mireles early in that fight, and that's not the only time Mireles has been dropped in his brief career.

Calloway drops to 5-3 and was last seen slowly making his way towards Tokyo harbor.

 

Richard Torrez Jr (6-0, 6 KOs) required all of 82 seconds to dispose of 40 year-old Willie Jake Jr (11-4-2) in their fight on the Navarrete vs. Valdez main card last night.

At the opening bell the two fighters (very predictably) flew at one another. A frenzied, wild 60 seconds followed that ended with Torrez somehow backed up near the ropes but unloading a big left and then a big right on Jake Jr - who dropped to the canvas. When the action resumed, Torrez Jr quickly unloaded a barrage of punches on Jake Jr, forcing the ref to call an end to things as Jake Jr sank to the canvas for a 2nd time.

Brief though the fight was, the opening minute was enough to confirm that Torrez Jr is quite easy to hit when he's incautious. Obviously, he needs an opponent who can dissuade him from doing that before it's too late - whether it's giving him a chin check or just making him look foolish. It shouldn't be all that hard to find one, but I'm not sure how interested Top Rank is in doing that because they've got a lot on their plate already in the HW division.

 

Derek Chisora (34-13, 23 KOs) scored a UD victory over Gerald Washington( 20-6-1, 13 KOs) in a 10 round fight on the Joshua v. Helenius card that somehow was granted co main-event status.

It was not a very exciting fight. Despite Chisora often flying forward to meet Washington, the overall pace was slow and relatively few shots that landed clean by both fighters seemed particuarly hurtful. Washington seemed to start stronger and had good success timing Chisora, particularly with uppercuts. One of these led to a fairly-serious cut on Chisora during Round 2. This threatened to stop the fight in the first half, but Chisora was able to continue.

After the 4th round, Washington (surprise) seemed to slow up and he was mostly outworked from there on out. He tried to pinch rounds with flurries (most notably in the 7th) or picking openings to land heavy shots - but Chisora was busier. Both fighters found precious little in their clips in the 10th when they attempted to empty theirs.

The judges scored it 98-93, 97-94 and 96-94. I had it as 97-93 w/ no knockdown (Chisora hit the canvas in the 2nd) but giving Chisora two close rounds.

The obvious takeaway? Both are finished.

• Chisora couldn't make Washington pay for carrying his hands absurdly low and gassing - both of which are traits Washington has had throughout his HW career
• Washington has finally developed into a reasonably-intelligent fighter, but this has happened a half-dozen years after his physical gifts have left him and he couldn't do enough to hurt the still-incautious Chisora.

 

Imagine if Top Rank had instead spent the money required to produce this fluff piece on a qualified opponent for Mr. Torrez.

 

yeah he seems very under the radar (outside of Canada). But he's a decent prospect, seems to be quite good in every area. Only negative thing is he's probably got below average speed.

 

Here are the last 3 rounds of the Mirees v. Calloway 6 rounder (no sound)

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It did make me chuckle that Calloway abbreviated his name to "C-Way" on his trunks. There was more than enough real estate available there to spell the whole thing out

I'm just not impressed with Mireles. Not much speed. Pretty poor timing on his shots. Bolt upright, etc. Power? OK, Calloway is huge and he probably does have a good chin - but if you unload 35 mostly-unanswered punches on your opponent, you should be able to bring him down. Mireles couldn't.

So as far as I can tell, his super power is being tall. And he has a bit of a motor.

Calloway is a more natural fighter than Mireles. He's carrying around a Welterweight's worth of extra weight - so he's very slow on his feet and obviously can't maintain much of a work rate. But most of the stuff he is throwing is landing cleanly on Mireles and most of what is landing cleanly on Mireles is snapping his head back. And I don't think many almost-400 lbers can move their head & torso like that guy does. It's a shame his gifts are being suffocated by his weight.

 

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Helenius said he wants to carry on. Wouldn't mind seeing him rematching either.

 

Mireles is so bad. Richard Towers all over again.... And yeah a 43 year old Lucas Browne would maul him just like he did Towers almost a decade ago.

 

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Aug 26 is going to be a real busy day for heavyweights, we have this

Usyk vs Dubois
Anderson vs Rudenko
Zhan vs Ajagba
Jalalov vs Ehwarieme

Jeremiah Milton vs Craig Lewis

 

One of the best WSB fights.

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That was a close fight. Sergy has an iron jaw.

 

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Kingpin turned up to the weigh in wearing a Putin T-shirt lol. He’s embracing the Russian Citizenship