Fox Sports (Aus): Wade Ryan vs. Dennis Hogan & Nikita Konstantinovich Tszyu vs. Aaron Stahl RBR

The power is decent, though - he smashed Aaron Stahl's face to bloody smithereens and flattened him with that left.

Gracious me, though, his defense is gallingly porous for an alleged amateur stud. Even making allowances for it being his debut, can't say he looked too impressive in any department except, again power. And only really with that left hand*, which Stahl was too basic and limited to avoid, but isn't super fast, so as he steps up Tszyu will find that when opponents elude it he's going to get eaten alive with counters.

* yes it was a cuffing right hook that officially ended things with that last knockdown, but Stahl's legs were gone at that point, he got one arm up to block it and Tszyu just swatted him down like nothing. It was the lefts that had done 99% of the damage.

 

https://ibb.co/Vw9Zcc0

1. what on earth is Timofei doing here, flashing gang signs?
2. the look on his face, like a basic white girl drunken bridesmaid hitting the dancefloor when Mr. Brightside or September by Earth Wind and Fire (or No Diggity by Blackstreet) comes on
3. this whole pic is hilarious if you look at each person one by one and imagine they're singing "Hava Nagila".

 

Hey, he'd do well to pull anything close to a Daffney (RIP).

 

Aye but was Zorran Cassady as much a useless spastic as Stahl?

You make a fair point about his abilities carrying him "in this country". On the world scene only having a powerful left hand won't do without ironing out all the other flaws apparent in early returns here - but yeah, domestically he could make a dent. Then again, we just saw two decent (however unseemly their styles clash was) super welterweights in the co-main event who combined probably only have 5% of his power but it wouldn't matter in a h2h matchup as they've both got iron chins and could swamp him with either dirty tactics or work rate or both. I'd need to see a lot of seasoning on Tszyu before confidently throwing him in with Hogan or even Ryan. A year or two maybe he could take out the latter, but not sure he'll ever be up for the Hurricane or any other world-rated contenders.

 

Wilson vs. Noynay II:

This content is protected

 

Can't find Hogan vs. Ryan anywhere, but...you're not missing anything, trust me. Knowing the result in advance there's zero reason to slog through all twelve rounds of it. Just take @CST80 and myself at our word that it was a shutout and not particularly competitive, although Hogan was himself pretty dirty (albeit just responding in kind to Ryan's provocation, much like Michał Cieślak did with Lawrence Okolie last week) and not the best I've seen him look.

Also, editorial note: either I misheard Ben Damon earlier or (more likely) he misspoke - this wasn't a WBO eliminator, but rather IBO. Neither man was ranked top 15 by the WBO heading in today. Hogan was #26 and Ryan #40 in the latest IBO rankings, which means this being an eliminator for them is still kind of ridiculous. Their super welter title is currently vacant, last held by Erislandy Lara. Their number one contender is Hogan's countryman Timofei Konstantinovich Tszyu, whose sights are set on bigger game at the moment. So at some point in the near future Hogan will probably get to fight somebody like Abbas Baraou or ex-titlist Jarrett Hurd for the division's scraps...er, I mean, the IBO's strap.