Gurgen Hovhannisyan vs. Christopher Lynn Thomas & Ángel Lawrence Barrientes vs. Jorge De Jesús RBR

Chris "Sandman" Thomas began his career at super middle, and until his last bout had only ever climbed as high as the very low end of the scale at cruiser (183 and then 178lbs), suffering his only pro loss to date at light heavy. Then he took 5 years and 1 month off from the sport - starting around when the pandemic happened - and returned a rotund 224¾ for his draw with Dominique Mayfield this past February.

 

Back to back 10-8 rounds for Hovhannisyan. Zero finishing instincts.

Near the very end of round 2, an uppercut from Hovhannisyan didn't even come halfway to landing but Thomas fell on his ass in the corner, basically in fright. The ref called it a slip - correctly - and the commentators had to stop yelling "OH!" and process that no, in fact, they didn't just witness another knockdown.

 

Bilateral straw bends (double-fisting milkshakes)

 

Hovhannisyan swarms him with heavy slow hooks, and Thomas sits on the ropes, inviting doom (aka the referee)

TKO3!

 

In the amateurs, Hovhannisyan drew a lot of comparisons with Tyson Fury. I don't think he's anywhere near as skilled. He's probably a lesser fighter than Hughie, aside from being more powerful.