Stevie Ongen Ferdinandus vs. Ediyanto Comaro RBR

Round 4

Ferdinandus is hooking in close with Comaro, both missing, and they clinch. Ferdinandus showboating a little more now, intentionally missing a 1-2 past Comaro's head and then gathering him in close while retracting his arms, waving to somebody in the crowd while interring his opponent in a bear hug. Comaro's feet are coming up off the canvas as he takes high stabs with both hands, but can't reach Ferdinandus. A couple of 1-2s by Ferdinandus seem to hurt Comaro and the crowd smells blood, starting to chant something monosyllabic. HUGE counter left by Ferdinandus as Comaro lunged in and missed with his own desperate straight combo.

10-9 Ferdinandus

40-36 Ferdinandus

 

Round 5

Ferdinandus partially turns away from Comaro to kiss his glove and blow it to somebody in the audience. Really borderline disrespectful, but Eddy takes it all in stride, just marching forward behind the high guard. Ferdinandus walks him onto a BIG counter 1-2, and Comaro backs up clutching the nape of his neck, which seemed to get jerked awkwardly on impact. He starts going to a knee and Ferdinandus steps in with a left uppercut as he is halfway down. Ref warns Ferdinandus and sends him to a neutral corner while administering the count on Comaro. He beats it but Ferdinandus is now incensed and wants the stoppage. Big shots by Ferdinandus, hooking off the jab and slamming down with the left as Comaro ducks, shimmies, and tries bouncing his back off the ropes to lurch into Ferdinandus and clinch, anything he can to survive until the bell. He does so.

10-8 Ferdinandus

50-44 Ferdinandus

 

Oh yeah, between-rounds slow-mo replay shows that shot actually landed on the back of Comaro's neck as the set-up jab had actually turned his face and upper body around partway to his left. Ferdinandus was probably aiming for the middle of Comaro's face but that's just the area that was left exposed by the time the punch landed.

Gotta protect yourself at all times, Eddy. If you're going to take the knee, do so immediately; if you dilly-dally while your opponent is running up to you and get hit on the way down, that's on you.

 

Ferdinandus absolutely mauled Comaro in the sixth, and spent the last half-minute just wailing on him as he flopped against the ropes. Eric Suwarno looked to be on the verge of moving in to stop it the whole time, but didn't. He did intervene at one point to push Ferdinandus away, but it was unclear whether this was an official knockdown as he didn't count as the bell rang a few moments later.

I'm calling it 10-8 Ferdinandus, either way.

60-52 Ferdinandus

 

Multiple knockdowns in the round, and Suwarno is finally convinced to wave it off with thirteen seconds on the clock after Comaro was sent flying across the ring by a left cross while mid-run.

KO7!!

 

"Stevie Wonder", turning 40 this summer, captures his eighteenth KO victory (which, coincidentally, is Comaro's eighteenth KO defeat).

 

I'd like to see Ferdinandus versus Yohanes Ruba. It would establish a clear #1 among Indonesians at super welter (for whatever that's worth) and would be a fun and wild ride.

 

They just showed multiple replays of the KO from different angles.

Ferdinandus stamped that final left cross into Comaro's forehead and turned as his opponent was airborne to shrug wide-eyed at the ref, like "come on already!"

 

Simanjantuk, Yordan and Jowan Jintar Sinambela (the other ex-fighter color analyst, who boxed in the aughts under the name "Furious" Joey de Ricardo) do a round-robin of extremely awkward fist-bumps and sign off the "Boxing Championship" broadcast.

Good afternoon, gents.

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...btw, I don't often subscribe to "he took a dive" conspiracy theories, but in light of today causing me to have a peek at Ferdinandus' record I decided to investigate more closely his one-minute KO loss at the hands of Tim Tszyu a couple of years ago. Stevie Wonder getting stopped isn't that unique; it has been done nine times in his fifty bouts. Getting stopped that fast, however, is uncommon enough to merit a closer look.

...and it doesn't look all that kosher, I must say.

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The shot looks flimsy enough in real time (a grazing right to Ferdinandus' head as he was riding it by ducking against the ropes, head bowing) ...and then you see the slow-mo. It grazed his SHOULDER - and even that, only barely.

If that result had been legit - an early blitz of the same capable Asian Pacific level fighter I saw today - I'd be fairly worried on Jeff Horn's behalf.

That, however ^ ...is blatant shenanigans and they were foolish to pull that stunt while there were cameras rolling.