Yvan Mendy vs. Jesús Arévalo & Johann Duhaupas vs. Newfel Ouatah RBR

Round 3

Arévalo is trying everything he can to lay a jab on Mendy, changing angles, shooting a few at the chest before suddenly bringing it up top again, varying speeds & rhythm - nothing doin'. Mendy is able to adapt to every individual jab, it seems, and block it before it has the look of coming even close to landing. Mendy still favoring a very low-output, high-% offense. It continues to work for him, in contrast to Arévalo's smattering of lunging & missing body shots, and the bulk of his work, that poor doomed jab, which Mendy is spinning to block from every angle so the judges can see just what he's doing to Arévalo no matter their seats.

10-9 Mendy

30-27 Mendy

 

My WiFi briefly cut out but from what I saw, 40-36 Mendy unless there was a KD or point deduction.

 

Round 5

Arévalo is now getting buzzed when Mendy lands the unavoidably precise 1-2 and long chopping right from the outside. Arévalo hanging in there and showing a good chin and even some intelligent defensive instincts, rolling to one side while keeping his gloves pinned to his temples, coming up flurrying lightly, just enough to discourage Mendy from marching him down while still conserving energy - but Mendy is taking charge and is now the one coming forward. Mendy looking very confident, dissecting Arévalo with jabs, baiting him into desperation combos to avoid getting cornered and countering him with teardrop rights over the top while slipping Arévalo's punches.

10-9 Mendy

50-45 Mendy (assuming nothing crazy happened in the fourth during the bit that I missed)

 

Yvan is fighting like he is hungry for his nineteenth career stoppage, in his forty-sixth pro bout. Like he feels he is due for a violent "statement win", by taking out somebody with a beard and decent skills. (Arévalo fits the bill well enough)

 

Get ready to fight them on a regular basis now that net neutrality has been KTFO.

 

Round 6

Arévalo is getting tattooed now. Mendy putting together crisp fluid straight combos on the grill (reddening Arévalo on the interior of both eye sockets as well as the corners of his mouth, and maybe even bloodying his nose a bit), and starting to really feel his oats with fancy bits of stutter-step footwork and bending his upper half aside while landing body combos. Arévalo just getting pushed around, lit up, and overall dominated.

10-9 Mendy

60-54 Mendy

 

Round 7

Arévalo is one hard SOB. Mendy is cracking him with left hooks and looping rights on the face, which now has rosy cracks and fissures all over it, as well as pounding his ribs with his full weight thrown into them for momentum. Nothing sloppy from Mendy, though, just using Arévalo for a heavy bag to show off his punching arsenal. Virtually nothing in return from the challenger, in full survival mode, either hoping to lose on the cards as opposed to via KO, or maybe waiting on Mendy to punch himself out.

10-9 Mendy

70-63 Mendy (but the last few in a row could all legitimately have been KD-less 10-8 rounds, seriously. A card of 70-60 would not be unreasonable right now)

 

Round 8

Arévalo is under fire, consistently, his feeble single punches responded to with triple hooks going high-low-high by the brazen champ. Arévalo is nailed with a GIANT chopping right that literally must have broken his nose and still he gamely battles on, swinging and missing in one short brutally one-sided firefight after the other, and FINALLY tastes canvas, going to a knee. The ref does him the courtesy of starting a count but looks skeptical that Arévalo will bother meeting it at this point. He does, late in the count, but with unconvincing haste and that is that.

KO8!!!

 

This was honestly a hell of a performance, if anyone missed it.

 

Gotten & well-earned.

I think Mendy just made a super-fan of me in a single fight, which is almost impossible to do. From a pure boxing standpoint this performance was sublime.