Magomed Alievich Madiev vs. Omar José García González RBR

Round 7

González is backing away, holding the knuckle pads of either glove pointed inward facing each other and flipping them down like pinball machine paddles to neutralize the feel-out jabs that Madiev is backhanding up off his left hip while stalking & circling. Madiev scoring body shots as González brushes his shoulders & neck with defensive jabs. González is down, slip, wet spot on the canvas. Another slip. Ring staff toweling down the surface from the apron. Time in. Madiev is leading with a powerful straight right downstairs, falling entirely in & down with it, then snapping upright with a left hook. This combo is very effective for him, buzzing González and making him scramble for cover. González spoils and lobs some of his own half-hearted straight rights at the body from well outside, touching forearm if anything.

10-9 Madiev

 

Round 8

González is folded in at the middle, buttocks forming the point of a V shape, feet & skull defining the vector space. González is tossing jabs at the head of Madiev to back him off but finding himself countered with powerful two- and three-pieces on the body when he does. González doing a good job sucking in his gut and keeping himself folded amply to avoid most of these, but Madiev is also following up with hooks to his jaw and González finds himself needing to be very cautious. Both men dart in with jabs or lead rights by turns, as the other skips away in a staccato waltz. González manages to fake Madiev out with a sideways move abandoned, reversed, and punctuated with a left upper-hook on the lower mandible.

10-9 Madiev, close

 

Round 9

González is starting to jab up top and swing hard underhanded rights at the body. Madiev is cowed by this new tactic, unable to find a way to counter effectively without getting his vital organs slashed heavily. González tripling up on a jab, braving the inside waters and baiting Madiev into exchanges. Madiev is loading up & just barely missing with a huge overhand right as González backs up and then creeps in again with more jabs behind a versatile defense (crossed-arm one moment, then a turtle shell, and sometimes Philly, changing with each step). González moving in and out tattooing Madiev's head with stiff jabs & rights. Madiev loading up ever more heavily on those overhand rights, eliciting appreciative cheers from the crowd.

10-9 González

 

Round 10

González is whipping underhanded rights at the body from outside. Madiev is jabbing his way in, clobbering down at the head of González with overhand rights when González ducks and throws uppercuts at the ribs of Madiev. Frenetic exchanges with both landing shots broken up by periods of each man circling taking his opponent's measure, probing with casual jabs. Starting to heat up with 90 seconds left. Madiev's overhand right the most effective punch in either man's arsenal, when he can land it and doesn't telegraph it too badly. González is scoring body shots but getting backed up consistently. Wild torpedo right on the body from outside by González, causing him to lose his footing and fall on his ass. Time in. Madiev partially scores a left hook on González's temple in an exchange and forces him to run and then clinch. Huge overhands by Madiev, hurting González. Madiev putting the pressure on and trying for the stoppage but González bravely stands his ground and keeps slugging it out, even as Madiev bounces him involuntarily off the ropes like a speed-bag.

10-9 Madiev, most dominant round for either man all day.

5-3 (77-75) Madiev of the rounds available.

 

Official cards:

sto-devyanosto (edit: сто-девяносто, or 100-90) x2
third judge's card sounded like it ended with "dva" (which is два/2 - as in 92...so mathematically w/o knockdowns or point deductions the logical extrapolation there is 98-92)

UD for Madiev

 

Madiev retains his WBA middleweight Asian title.

Would've been super awkward if he didn't, like @UnleashtheFURY pointed out.

 

González is a legit fighter, though, for the record - despite his initial 10-0 unbeaten record being as stuffed with fluff as Winnie the Pooh.

This was a competitive fight and Madiev had to dig pretty deep - at least on my card (even if he swept the first two unseen rounds, that's still just a 97-93 final score, and some of the ones I gave Madiev were very tight). Obviously not so much on the official judges', but hey...

 

The other big surprise - aside from the gameness of González - is that Madiev appears to in fact be quite heavy-handed, even though he now progresses to 11-0 with just four kayos. I wouldn't say that González came off as chinny, either - Madiev's shots just appeared to be alarmingly strong & forceful in the way they physically moved his opponent around the ring even when blocked.

 

Madiev entered today not just the custodian of their Asian title at 160lbs, but the WBA's tenth-ranked contender. A victory over the unrated González is unlikely to alter that position in and of itself (except to keep him steady pending someone above him slipping with a loss or inactivity - or to "hold the line" if someone below creeps up and threatens a leapfrog, ostensibly setting the bar at "you must beat someone better than González to pass...") - but if he stays the course and remains a top-10 fixture here are the names he could be tangling with:

1. Daniel Jacobs
2. Saúl Álvarez
3. Rob Brant
4. Demetrius Andrade
5. David Papot
6. Gary O'Sullivan
7. Maciej Sulęcki
8. Kamil Szeremata
9. Esquiva Falcão

Now, he clearly isn't landing #1 or #2 in the ring as they're on the uppermost tier and not apt to settle for anything less in terms of dance partner starpower & draw factor than each other, respective GGG rematches, BJS, or perhaps Murata.

Andrade might have the luxury of turning up his nose at someone like Madiev as well, as might Spike to a lesser extent (if he cashes in soon on having had his name linked to Canelo and Golovkin in potential match-ups to raise his otherwise pedestrian profile).

Of the remaining 5, there are some intriguing matchups and I'd probably only favor Sulęcki outright tbh.

Based on his performance today against González, a Madiev victory over Falcão (among the most disappointing pro flops in years) is hardly difficult to fathom. He unquestionably IMO defeats Szeremata, Brant, or Papot.

 

That diving straight right downstairs bundled w/ a quick left hook on the jaw on the come-up - which brought Madiev so many successful moments versus González - is his patented signature move, btw. It scored him the previous biggest victory to date, an under-a-minute blitz of 13-0-1 Ecuadorian banger Jayson Minda last July, a sleeper 2017 knockout of the year candidate:

This content is protected

 

(also happens to be my all-time-favorite combination to use myself)

 

You know what? I was actually getting Esquiva mixed up with Yamaguchi when I posted that (with the latter being the one that left the most recent dreary impression, making hard work - and hard to watch - of dispatching old Richard Gutiérrez on a card where Jason Quigley and Mark DeLuca upstaged him) but honestly they have both looked pure ass in the pros, especially compared with how much upside they were supposed to have carried over from the amateurs...