Sandor Martín Clemente vs. Joseph Hughes & David Avanesyan vs. José Antonio del Río Núñez RBR

@CST80 if you're interested...

 

Ava - coming off two consecutive stoppages of Kerman Lejarraga - walks out to We Will Rock You by Queen, epically waiting behind the lit-up entrance-way until just about when the guitar solo kicks in. Brilliant.

 

Ava was originally slated to make this second defense of his European welterweight title against Josh "Pretty Boy" Kelly of the UK, but Kelly was sidelined for most of the summer & fall with injury (but is returning to action next week).

"El Nino" Del Rio isn't all that bad a replacement, considering; the rangy southpaw veteran is a three-time Spanish national welterweight champion with respectable continental level competition faced racking up a 29-8-1 record, only ever stopped by Orlando Fiordigiglio.

 

Round 1

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That was savage. Impressive performance.

 

I'm not sure Kelly is ready for that smoke, tbh. Avanesyan is an underrated welter.

 

...by Fiordigiglio, another strange one in that when you look at his overall record you wouldn't take him for a puncher, but on a good night, at his peak, when "on", he was crazy dangerous. Same as the guy that blew out Fiordigiglio a couple of months ago, in fact: Sam Eggington.

(see also Lee Selby, Hozumi Hasegawa, et cetera)

 

@Somachenko do you know the result in Alonso vs. González, by the way? I watched on the subway until my phone died, around the 6th.

 

Sandor Martín Clemente vs. Joseph Hughes, 12 rounds @ light welterweight

 

If you're unfamiliar with Hughes, the Moonraker (that is, person from Wiltshire in southwest England) was born with Erb's Palsy, meaning one arm - his right - is basically a useless little atrophied T-Rex appendage. To choose a career in professional boxing with that condition is as ballsy as hell, and for that reason alone I feel like rooting for Hughes in all his fights is all but mandatory.

Despite the disability, he managed to rack up these accolades:

• BBBoC Southern Area super lightweight title
• IBO International super lightweight title
• BBBoC English super lightweight title x2
• EBU European super lightweight title

He now looks to regain that last belt, having lost it to Robbie Davies Jnr. in March. The incumbent champion, Martín, didn't have to beat a reigning titlist for it; he claimed the belt after Davies had left it vacant, by retiring Andrea Scarpa on his stool.

Neither man is a huge puncher and neither has ever been stopped, meaning this one is very plausibly going twelve.