Martin is a very promising fighter with some solid wins already but Pedro, who hadn't fought in 2 years, isn't amongst those good victories.
One of the best emerging American Heavyweight prospects is the fast rising Charles Martin (17-0-1, 15) who scored his 11th victory inside a year. Sadly for Martin, and the fans in attendance, this was a mismatch as Cuba's Rafael Pedro (25-11-1, 15) was bounced off the canvas twice inside a round before being stopped.
Martin is a very promising fighter with some solid wins already but Pedro, who hadn't fought in 2 years, isn't amongst those good victories.
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It's rare to have interesting bouts on a Wednesday night but that's exactly what we did have this week we two bouts of some note.
The stand out contest was obvious as unbeaten American's collided in a bout for the vacant WBO NABO title. The bout saw the heavy handed Charles Martin (16-0-1, 14) come out on top against Alexander Flores (14-1, 12) who was stopped in 4. Flores was down in round 3 and a body shot saw him off in round 4 as Martin become one of the few US Heavyweights to follow. The other notable bout was in Hungary of all places and saw Laszlo Toth (20-12, 14) lose for the 4th time in 5 bouts. The 42 year old Toth was fighting against domestic foe Csaba Olah (5-79-3, 4), himself 46, for the second time. In their first meeting, less than a year ago, Toth took a comfortable decision, this time however Olah denied history a chance to repeat it's self scoring a second round KO. One of the big complaints about the Heavyweight division is that the emerging fighters aren't up to much. Thankfully this isn't as true as some would have you believe and this past Saturday saw a number of great prospects in action.
The most notable of those was Britain's Anthony Joshua (5-0, 5) who swiftly took out Argentinian veteran Hector Alfredo Avila (22-16-1, 14). The bout was sold as Joshua taking on an opponent who had gone 9 rounds with Dereck Chisora though Avila didn't look like he could have gone 1 round with any half decent pro here. As soon as Joshua connected Avila wanted out and he made it obvious. If Joshua was the most notable prospect then the youngest was 18 year old Ilja Mezencev (4-0, 4) who continued his winning run by stopping Milos Doveden (0-4) in just 40 seconds. Mezencev is a fighter we'd advise keeping a close eye on and whilst he currently looks like a Cruiserweight he will mature into a very promising young fighter. Mezencev wasn't the only teenage prospect to pick up a victory as the 19 year old Tom Schwarz (4-0, 2) took a 4 round decision over Latvian Janis Ginters (5-7, 5). Schwarz, who is trained by Ulf Steinforth, will likely have people questioning his power though at 19 years old it's obvious he's not began to develop his man strength and getting rounds under his belt is probably more important to him than getting KO's at the moment. On the same card as the Schwarz/Ginters fight there was a second Heavyweight contest which saw Michael Wallisch (12-0, 8) defending his German Heavyweight title against the previously unbeaten Frank Schadwill (7-1, 6). One more unbeaten prospect in action was the heavy handed Charles Martin (15-0-1, 13) who scored a 2nd round KO over Tyyab Beale (9-4-2, 3) ending an 8 fight unbeaten run from Beale who had won his last 4, including a stoppage over former Golden Gloves champion Nathan James. It wasn't just the prospects in action but also journeymen. Back in the UK Paul Butlin (15-20, 3) defeated the still win-less James Oliphant (0-6-2) whilst in the US Danny Batchelder (30-9-1, 14) managed to out point Jonte Willis (9-9-1, 3). Although all 3 of these 4 men have poor records we'd dare say all of them are better their records indicate and all have the potential to be banana skin foes for more touted fighters. As much as we chastise the American Heavyweight scene there is some very interesting fighters emerging through the ranks. One of those is the hard hitting Charles Martin (14-0-1, 12) who saw his reign of terror continue this past Thursday.
Fighting against the experienced Maurenzo Smith (12-8-3, 9) was no challenge for Martin whose power was simply too much. Smith was dropped in rounds 1 and 3 before retiring at the end of the 3rd. This loss has seen Smith losing 6 of his last 8, including stoppage losses to Andy Ruiz, Tor Hamer, Martin, obviously, and Joey Abell who will be fighting Tyson Fury in just over a weeks time It'd be nice to see Martin step up his competition a little bit though as long as he remains as active as he is then it's hard to complain considering the lack of hype he's been getting. The last Saturday before Christmas may not have been one of the biggest in boxing but it was certainly an interesting night in term of C grade Heavyweight fights, of which we had several.
For us one of the most important was the return to the ring of former WBO Cruiserweight champion Victor Emilio Ramirez (16-2-0-1, 13). Ramirez, fighting for the first time in over 4 years made very light work of the limited and fragile Thabiso Mogale (14-14-2, 9). Mogale lasted less than a round with Ramirez. Staying in South America, though moving to Bolivia, there were 2 title fights. These saw veteran Billy Wright (42-4, 33) taking just 80 seconds to stop Ricky Torrez (20-7-1) to defend his WBC Latino and WBC FECARBOX Heavyweight titles. The other title fight in Boliva saw Saul Farah (45-17-3, 39) claim the interim South American title with a 3rd round stoppage over Guido Santana (13-7-2, 9). From South America to North America, where we had 2 more interesting bouts. In North American we saw promising prospect Charles Martin (13-0-1, 11) stopping the previously unbeaten Glendy Hernandez (10-1, 6) in round 4. This was on the same show as a bout between Andrae Carthron (7-10-2, 1) and Helaman Olguin (1-2, 1) which saw Carthron taking a 3rd round stoppage over Olguin. Thursday night saw the latest edition of "Prizefighter" as the 8 man tournament returned for a special "USA v UK" edition at Heavyweight. Whether you like them or not "Prizefighter" is something that appears to be here to stay and in all honesty we enjoy them. As said several times last night on various forums "they may not be world class boxing but they are usually fun" and that's what draws the neutrals in.
Sadly we, the hardcore, are out numbered so any boxing is better than no boxing. The tournament, which featured James Toney, Jason Gavern, Damian Wills, Brian Minto (team USA) and Michael Sprott, Tom Little, Matt Legg and Larry Olubamiwo (team UK) may have been a case of has-beens and who? But it was fun, mainly due to Jason Gavern who genuinely was bundle of fun. The first round of fights saw the aforementioned Gavern defeating Olubamiwo (10-4, 9) by decision with "The War Machine" suffering a knockdown; Brian Minto defeating Tom Little (3-2) via what appeared to be a clear decision in the eyes of everyone but the sole judge who had Little winning; James Toney stopping the completely out classed Matt Legg (6-2, 2) and Michael Sprott coming through against Damian Wills (31-4-1, 24). Following the quarter finals we were left with Gavern v Toney and Sprott against Minto. Despite the quarters being some what unmemorable the semi's were certainly exciting and genuinely interesting. The first saw Gavern taking a majority decision over Toney (76-9-3-2, 46) in a bout that featured more than it's share of entertainment with the third round in particular being great fun. The second saw arguably the fight of the night with both Sprott and Minto going at it for the 3 rounds. Unfortunately for Minto (38-7, 24) it was he who came up short losing a close decision. This left us with a final of Sprott against Gavern (25-16-4, 11), who had been sending the crowd into fits of "wooo", a la professional wrestler Ric "The Nature Boy" Flair. Unfortunate the final failed to live up to the excitement of the semi-finals as Gavern suffered an elbow injury that really troubled him in the final round of a bout that Sprott (40-21, 17) won with a safety first approach. As well as the Prizefighter there was, as mentioned, a bout featuring Olympic gold medal winner Anthony Joshua (3-0, 3). Joshua, fighting over-weight Croatian Hrvoje Kisicek (5-7, 1), was given arguably the most pointless work out of his career so far. Although it's fine to do things slowly at this point in Joshua's career this really wasn't a match worth making. In all honest, Joshua will have had a more meaningful work out by getting out of bed. Kisicek, who had extended Hughie Fury 6 rounds just a few weeks ago looked dreadful here and the result, a second round TKO for Joshua, said more about Fury than it did about Joshua. Across the Atlantic in the US we had yet more Heavyweight action. Hard hitting American prospect Charles Martin (12-0-1, 10) surprisingly stopped the usually durable Joey Dawejko (8-3-2, 3) in the fourth round, after dropping him in the third. This was on a show that also featured an opening round blow out for Greek-born American Thanasis Michaloudis (6-0, 6) who swiftly despatched Robert Dunton (9-10-1, 6). When a hard hitting fighter meets someone who can't really take a punch we don't expect fights to last long. We saw a case of this on Friday night as the heavy handed Charles Martin (11-0-1, 9) swiftly took out Haiti's "Untamed Beast" Dieuly Aristilde (9-7, 2). In fact Martin took just 147 seconds to take out Aristilde who has now been stopped 7 times in 16 bouts.
In a busy day of Heavyweight action it's fair to say that eyes were turned to the United Kingdom as Kazakhstan born German Edmund Gerber (23-2, 14) took on former world title challenger Dereck Chisora (18-4, 12).
Having seen his former matchmaker, Dean Powell, pass away this past week Chisora seemed intent of fighting for a man he was close to and made it known from the off. Although tears seemed to be close to his face on his walk in, Chisora went out and made a statement as he stopped Gerber, becoming the first man to do so. Also in the UK Carl Spencer (4-0, 3) took his first decision victory as he over came Carl Baker (9-7, 6) via a 6 round points decision in a bout that we dubbed "The Battle of Carl's". The European Heavyweight action wasn't just in the UK with two bouts in Ukraine. These saw the unbeaten Vladimir Tereshkin (17-0-1, 8) swiftly dispatching Laszlo Toth (19-10, 13) whilst Ivan Tkachenko (1-0, 1) came out on top in a battle of debutants, stopping Denys Nedashkovskyy (0-1). Across the Atlantic, to the US, Nathan Luis Rosa (1-0, 1) made the perfect start to his career taking out John Schimon (1-2) in just 63 seconds. Although it was a great for Rosa the key US action happened in Washington as Charles Martin (10-0, 8) overcame Vincent Thompson (13-1, 2). With the unbeaten men colliding someone's "0 had to go" though few would have expected Martin to have such an easy nights work with Vincent. In an unbeaten showdown down under Craig Vitale (3-0, 1) overcame Michael Cornelius (2-1, 1) via a 4 round decision. This was Vitale's 3rd win in as many months, having only debuted in May whilst Cornelius, who only debuted himself in March suffered his first setback in an all-Victoria battle.
In the US we had a busy night. The first result we got came from the ESPN "Friday Night Fights" card as Charles Martin (9-0-1, 8) recorded his 6th victory of the year and stopped Aaron Kinch (5-2-1, 1) in the 4th of a scheduled 6. For Kinch it was the second loss in 3 bouts and could well have been the 4th in 5 had he not had a couple of decisions go his way last year. The ESPN card also saw a victory for Daniel Martz (9-1-1, 6) who narrowly overcame Jonathan Hamm (7-2, 5) via a 4 round majority decision and a victory for the hard hitting Alexis Santos (11-0, 10). Santos managed to bag his best victory to date by stopping veteran Marlon Hayes (23-12, 11) in the 4th round tying the achievement of Deontay Wilder. The Heavyweight division in the US is thought of as being like the Dodo, though with 4 Heavyweight bouts on a Thursday it's fair to say there is still some life there.
The sole unbeaten man from the 8 in action was the hard hitting Charles Martin (8-0-1, 7) who took his first decision victory by clearly over-coming Joshua Clark (2-2-2, 2) in California. The scorecards were wide to say the least (60-52 twice and 59-53) showing the domination of Martin. On the same card as the Martin/Clark fight, Jonathan Hamm (7-1, 5) hammered out an equally as impressive result as he defeated Andrae Carthron (6-10-2, 1). Like Martin, Hamm was a mile ahead on the cards which all read 60-52. In Louisiana Terrance Marbra (7-3, 6) forced a retirement of the hard hitting but vulnerable Bobby O'Bannon (10-6, 10). This victory saw Marbra ending a 2 fight losing streak however it ended O'Bannon's losing stream to 3 straight. In Pennsylvania John Lennox (12-2, 5) scored his second successive victory since being stopped by Rodricka Ray as he over overcame Joseph Rabotte (11-25-1, 3) over the 6 round distance. This was the 9th straight loss for Rabotte who is now with out a win in almost 2 years. In the biggest shock of the night Richard Dawson (4-1, 2), the Heavyweight who was beaten by English cricketer Andrew Flintoff, overcame the much more experienced Ty Cobb (16-4, 9). Although Cobb is now 37 years old he was still expected to beat Dawson who looked very timid in his most high profile bout to date. |