Real Deal Boxing: Sergey Kuzmin vs. Jeremiah Karpency & Josué Vargas vs. Victor Vazquez RBR

Round 5

Vargas is getting strong-armed into the corner, Vazquez imposing his size, having apparently caught a second wind and gaining in confidence after his relatively stronger fourth! Vargas is squatting and thrashing up top with quick flurries, seemingly unable to utilize his legs as effectively anymore. The commentators remark that he seems to possibly have injured or sprained a leg? Either way, Vazquez is putting some heavy pressure on him and cuffing the sides of the head with hooks, landing if not with his knuckle pads then with the inner wrist. Vargas is doing his best to back Vazquez off with quick flurries and landing some picture-perfect flush left hand leads & crosses, but can't hold the determined bigger man off for long. Pendulous lefts on the body from Vazquez, hammering Vargas into the ropes. Light uppercut combos by Vazquez, peppering the bottom of the chin of Vargas.

10-9 Vazquez

49-46 Vargas

 

Damn, this has turned out to be a really fun & interesting fight. You suckers who missed the beginning of it to watch Adrien freaking Broner vs. Jessie freaking Vargas, well, idk what to say, y'all played yourselves.

 

Round 6

Vargas is reaching out past his fixed leading foot and rubbing the nose of Vazquez with his right jab. I think it was his right leg that Vargas hurt, as he's favoring it, shaking it every time he scurries to one side, giving it a little therapeutic shake when he can. Vazquez is down, slip. Vazquez is walking Vargas down, threatening with a left hook, pulling it, and plugging a right on the body. Left hand up top by Vargas, who then breaks into a trot around Vazquez. Sticking and moving nicely, Vargas is scoring with the pot shot line drive left and then breaking into a full orbit around Vazquez, and falling atop him in a clinch. Impressive boxing display from an effectively three-limbed fighter. A few right hooks dinged off the crown by Vargas as Vazquez bows into him, attempting to gore him into the corner.

10-9 Vargas

59-55 Vargas

 

B's vs. Leafs ended about 20min ago, I think. I had it on TV and was mostly listening while keeping my attention on this card on my laptop.

 

Round 7

Vargas is dancing in and out, keeping the ball of his right foot elevated or at least not weight-bearing on it while flashing out quick jabs and one-twos. Vazquez is too gassed to apply much pressure now, just taking swipes at the body with left hooks from too far out. Vargas jumps in, rocked back onto the sides of the heels, throwing right hooks flush into the face of Vazquez. Very anticlimactically, a towel toss signifies that Vazquez's corner has seen enough. First the ref, then Vargas register a look of mild surprise. Vargas then shrugs, smiles and puts his arms up. No complaint from Vazquez. Good decision by the corner but weird moment to pick - although he did eat a fair number of clean shots in the run-up to it.

TKO7!

 

Not a bad showing considering the unexpected adversity.

 

FYI:

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(Just in case any of you were left wondering, like me, why the announcement came so late and to barely any fanfare...there was a green light from parties on both sides until yesterday afternoon, when the commission said "oh btw...red stamp" )

 

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Wow, just had a peek at HW top 15 major org rankings and Kuzmin appears in none of them. He'll be 31 in a couple of months, and debuted in 2014, and this division is anemic. If he's even half as good as his supporters claimed when he emerged from the amateur scene he should have no excuse to not be storming past the likes of washed-up Sasha Dimitrenko and this Ebenezer Tetteh clown (https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/ebenezer-tetteh.605771/) in the rankings.

He's still fluctuating in weight, and should probably be aiming to get below 240, which to date he never has done, but at least in his last four consecutive outings he managed to keep himself below the roly-poly 250lb cap.

I'm remaining skeptical for now that he can become a force until I see a little more discipline in the gym and fire in his belly during a live fight, but if he can boil to maybe high 230's on a regular basis and motivate himself to maximize it, there is potential there, undeniably. The guy's skilled, that much is obvious from all his performances, even the overall shoddy ones, visible in glimpses that are frustratingly brief and scattershot.

 

Interesting.

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It was a) just sparring, b) just a half minute clip, and c) Floyd returning from yet another predictably temporary combat sports "retirement" (which is synonymous with a layoff in his personal vernacular) but young Josué appeared to be giving the ATG some of that serious work.

If this footage was indeed from today, I guess the leg wasn't hurt that badly.