Patrick "The Fury" Ferguson

He last fought on the Isaac Dogboe vs. César Juárez undercard, to a 10-round draw with 12-0 (10) Ghanaian native Abraham "The Black Cat" Tabul, in Tabul's hometown of Ghana in a mutually failed bid for the vacant WBO African cruiser title (I personally had Ferguson nicking it, 96-94 on my card). Now the WBC United States 200lb champion, who is now 10-0-1 (10) having stopped every opponent save Tabul - and whom the now-retired former perennial HW contender turned journeyman Chauncy Welliver counts as the prize of his training/management stable - returns home to American soil to make the first defense of his belt.

The opponent, unfortunately, is a letdown for this stage of his progression and quite a step down from Tabul. His challenger is Mario "Bigmoon" Muñoz of Topeka, KS.

Now, you might be thinking "Wait, that name rings a bell - isn't he actually decent?" - but you're probably remembering Mario Francisco "Yayo" Muñoz Guzmán, a 28 year old Mexican super bantamweight. He is pretty good. This is forty year old cruiserweight Mario Muñoz, who is 12-4-1, whose most recent loss came by SD to a guy with a 10-18-2 record, and whose greatest opponent by far (and standout career result) is Nick Guivas, fought to a 6-round draw in 2013. Guivas you probably recall from his frequent TV appearances serving as easily dispatched jobber to guys like Jarrell Miller, BJ Flores, Chazz Witherspoon, Bowie Tupou, and Oleskandr Teslenko (and was crushed in a round by Zhilei Zhang in a non-televised bout last August).

So this is a showcase for The Fury on his return home stateside, but one that won't be televised anywhere or streamed AFAIK. (watch this space, though, I've contacted the event promoter to be sure there won't be a Periscope feed somewhere)

Here is the clash with Tabul for anybody that missed it:

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Here's to hoping Pat starts getting on TV cards soon, and maybe links up with a more experienced trainer and/or management team (all due respect to Welliver) so he can be exposed to higher-level sparring and conditioning. He really needs work on his conditioning. Otherwise the fundamentals are there, his jab is useful, his power if not accurately reflected by his can-crushing record at least moderate (as Tabul seemed to respect it well enough), he's unafraid of infighting and can work the body fairly well... There is plenty of room in the US scene at CW for somebody to step up as the clear #2 behind Andrew Tabiti, after whom there's a pretty big drop-off in quality (I'm not counting USS Cunningham since he's probably one foot out the door of retirement at this point); Ferguson could be not that far off from eclipsing the likes of Michael Hunter, Isiah Thomas, Sam Clarkson, and battle-wearied Tommy Karpency to emerge as Tabiti's destined rival domestically.

 

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Pity.

 

Two more cruiser prospects will be competing on the undercard.

In the opener 6'3" Butte native Kadin Lacoure makes his pro debut (after reportedly going 5-0 in a semi-pro league - a regional one, not the WSB) and then 8-0 Craig Thomson, flown all the way over from Auckland for his first match outside NZ takes on 1-1 Dennis Hallman. Thomson, interestingly, has also served in the roles of pro judge, referee, matchmaker, promoter and supervisor in the sport. Despite this prodigious workload he is yet to step up in class - despite only being a few matches behind Ferguson in total experience he is fighting much weaker opponents.

 

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I thought Hipp lost in his lone world title challenge?

 

I remember the RBR was pretty split, everybody had it for either guy by a round or a draw.

I think both have futures. IF THEY LEARN NOT TO GAS SO BADLY.

 

Craig Thomson won his match via TKO in the 2nd.

 

Ferguson scored a shutout UD over Muñoz, taking his first non-KO win.