Both men might be busy but neither are very good and neither are really promoting the quality of Hungarian boxing.
On Sunday we never really expect great Heavyweigth action and that was the case again this weekend as we got a very low quality bout in Hungary. The bout saw Gabor Farkas (7-30-6, 3) defeating long time professional loser Csaba Olah (5-81-3, 4). As you can guess from the records of the two men this was never going to be a great fight though we did see Farkas ending a win-less streak of 17 fights! For Olah, who was dropped in round 3, this was his 4th loss already this year.
Both men might be busy but neither are very good and neither are really promoting the quality of Hungarian boxing.
0 Comments
The Heavyweight action for a new week kicked off on Tuesday this week with a small show in Hungary. The show, which featured 2 Heavyweight bouts may not have had much of real note but there was enough to keep the Hungarian fans happy.
The more notable of the two bouts saw the unbeaten Istvan Geller (5-0, 3) claim his first 8 round victory as he was taken the distance by the highly experienced Csaba Olah (5-80-3, 4). Olah, who is tough even if he lacks skills became Geller's 5th opponent in the space of 8 weeks and although it's unlikely we'll see Geller ever fight in a genuinely interesting contest it's great to see an unbeaten Heavyweight being so busy. Talking about Geller's activity he isn't the only busy Hungarian Heavyweight and his former foe Tibor Balogh (14-4-2, 10), fighting for the 4th time this year, was also on the card. Balogh, who was beaten last time out by Geller after suffering an injury, managed to score a very quick victory over fellow Hungarian Robert Szucs (3-8, 3) who was stopped for the 8th time in his 11 fight career. 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. We all know journeymen are brought in to face better fighters with the idea that the journeymen will lose. Thankfully sometimes journeymen fight other journeymen in what, on paper, look like more competitive match ups.
One of those journeymen v journeymen match ups occurred on Wednesday as the light punching Ferenc Zsalek (13-40-3, 2) stopped fellow journeyman Csaba Olah (4-79-3, 3) in just 2 rounds. Whilst many may have favoured Zsalek going in few would have expected him to score a stoppage given he had scored just 1 stoppage in 55. Although we don't really talk about Wednesday boxing in this day and age there was a number of Heavyweight contests this past Wednesday. Split between Slovakia and the US we saw 6 Heavyweights in action and whilst none of the contests was hugely notable it was still great that we had good old midweek action.
Due to the time zone's the earliest of the action in Slovakia where 2 Heavyweight contests took place. We believe the first of those was between Zoltan Somosi (14-9, 6) and the experienced Csaba Olah (4-77-3, 3). Scheduled over the 6 round distance Somosi took a decision victory inflicting the fifth loss this year for Olah. Aged 46 years Olah seems to be picking up paydays with ease at the moment due to his eagerness to get in the ring, even if he does tend to lose. Somosi on the other hand will be happy to pick up his second victory of the year, even if it has been joined with 4 losses. In the other contest in Slovakia we saw a bit of an upset as the hard hitting Daniel Kol (6-3, 5) suffered his second successive loss. Taking on former rival Vasil Mandea (3-4, 2) Kol, who had lost in their first meeting, was stopped in 3 rounds. This may be a case of Mandea being a bogeyman to Kol, in the same way that Jerry Pahayahay was to Pongsaklek Wongjonkam, though is more likely to suggest that Kol just isn't very good. Over in the US, where we had the the remaining bout, fans saw Daniel Pasciolla (2-1) in action. Pasciolla managed to out point the tough but limited Lonnie Kornegay (1-10-2) over the 4 round distance. This was Kornegay's sixth straight decision loss. Despite losing frequently we do feel that the 35 year Kornegay could trouble novice prospects, at least if he comes in in shape, unfortunately however he was 20lbs above his best and it showed as he looked sluggish. At 28 Pasciolla does have potential though really needs to show it in more convincing performances than this. Another Saturday and another weekend whether the Heavyweight division proves there is some interest in it, even if the bigger names aren't i action.
The highest profile Heavyweight fight of night was in Germany as former world title challenger Manuel Charr (25-1, 15) added the WBC CISBB Heavyweight title to his Baltic, International Silver and Mediterranean. Unfortunately despite the fact Charr won the ending was less than satisfactory as his opponent, Russian Denis Bakhtov (36-9, 24) was forced to retire with a damaged arm/hand. This was a shame as the first 5 rounds were genuinely interesting and it appeared that Charr was going to be given a test prior to the injury. On the same card as the Charr/Bakhtov there was another Heavyweight contest. This contest, which came much earlier on in the night saw the promising Tom Schwarz (2-0, 2) taking out the over-matched Pavlo Nechyporenko (2-9-1, 1) in just 90 seconds. On paper this was a good result though in all honesty it was a mismatch and really little more than a stay busy fight, despite how inexperienced Schwarz is as a professional. In fact Schwarz will have had harder spars. Over in Germany's neighbour of France there was another notable title fight fight as Frenchman Johann Duhaupas (30-1, 19) took on Finland's Jarno Rosberg (14-1-0-1, 4) for the EBU-EU title. Rosberg, who took an unbeaten record in to the ring with him, was unable to cope with the power of Duhaupas who dropped him in round 3 before finishing him off in round 4 to claim the title, adding it to an impressive collection of lower tier belts. Staying in Europe, though crossing over to Poland, there was yet more action in the division. This time around it saw fringe contender Krzysztof Zimnoch (17-0-1, 11) taking a decision over veteran Art Binkowski (16-4-3, 1). The bout, Binkowski's second in 6 years was rather one sided with Zimnoch using his boxing to rack up a wide lead on the cards. Despite being in total control leading in to the final round Zimnoch did try to close the show though Binkoswki showed his toughness and experience to see out the torrid final round. We're now hoping that Zimnoch will face domestic rival Artur Szpilka, though the fight does seem somewhat unlikely for the timing being. Still in Europe, Hungarian, Tibor Balogh (10-1-2, 6) successfully defeated compatriot Csaba Olah (4-76-3, 3) for the second time. Olah had taken Balogh 4 rounds in their first meeting, this time they stepped up to 6 rounds with Balogh taking his second decision over Olah. There is now an expectation that the two men will fight for a third time in November as we see quite an odd rivalry continuing. Across the Atlantic the very promising Donovan Dennis (7-0, 6) scored a dominant stoppage of the overmatched Hugo Arceo (4-1-1, 3) who looked out classed from the opening bell and out of shape. Dennis had looked sharp from the off and appears to be one of the most promising US prospects in the division even if his name isn't one of the ones that tends to be mentioned by many fans. The second successive day of Heavyweight action this week took place in Slovakia, a country that appears to be slowly growing in terms of activity in the boxing world, even if the talent pool, at least for now, is poor.
The first of the Heavyweight contests saw a notable surprised as Csaba Olah (4-75-3, 3) claimed a very rare win. Unfortunately for Olah it was over the novice Marton Cagany (1-3) who was forced to retire with an injury. The second Heavyweight bout on the show saw the hard hitting Daniel Kol (6-2, 5) suffer his second professional loss as Tibor Balogh (8-1-2, 6) recorded his 7th straight victory. This loss ended Kol's 4 fight winning streak which was amazingly run up in the space of just 2 months. Despite the loss it'd be great if Kol resumed his brilliant level of activity in the coming weeks. This past Sunday saw a Heavyweight double header in the wonderfully named "Gentlemen Fight Club Boxing House" in the Hungarian capital of Budapest.
Of the two bouts one ended in a draw as Gabor Farkas (6-28-6, 3) was held by debutant Attila Zsiros (0-0-1). Although one judge had Farkas as a 40-36 winner he was over-ruled by his fellow judges who both had it 38-38. The other Heavyweight bout on the card saw the highly experienced Csaba Olah (3-75-3, 2) defeated by novice Tibor Balogh (4-1-2, 2) via a clear decision. Olah, who has been stopped in 31 of his 74 losses was out pointed 40-34 on all 3 cards so it may well have been a case that he was fortunate the bout was only scheduled for 4 rounds. In a low profile card in the UK young British prospect Hughie Fury (8-0, 5) recorded his 8th victory in the space of just 4 months. Fury over-came the tough Moses Matovu (4-29-4) for the second time. As with their first fight, back in May, Matovu managed to see out the 4 round distance and is now the only man to have done 8 rounds with Fury.
The same card also saw Matt Legg (6-1, 2) claim his first victory in almost 5 years as he overcame Czech puncher Radek Linka (4-1, 4). Linka, who went in with a perfect record, paid the price of having never fought a live opponent and was shown up by a fighter who although inactive in recent years knew how to handle himself. In Slovakia there was action a plenty with a staggering 4 Heavyweight contests on the same show. The most interesting of the 4 bouts in Slovakia saw Hungarian novice Daniel Kol (2-0, 2) in a scheduled 8 round contest. Kol, who had only had 2 rounds prior to today faced the experienced Zoltan Somosi (12-8, 5) of Romania and stopped him in the 3rd round. The most notable name on the Slovakian card was Laszlo Toth (18-8, 12) who out pointed "professional loser" Csaba Olah (3-74-3, 2). Olah, fighting for the 80th time, is now winless in over 11 years and has won just once since 1998. There was also a decision victory for Tibor Balogh (3-1-2, 2) who claimed a 4 round points victory over Norbert Szucs (0-2-1). The remaining contest saw Istvan Ruzsinszky (10-7-1, 7) stopping the undersized Marton Beke (3-11, 1) who was stopped for the seventh time as a professional. It's not every day that we can say there was a lot of Heavyweight action however it's nice when we can. This Saturday was one of those pleasant rarities thankfully.
The most notable action of the night was in Germany as former world title contender Manuel Charr (24-1, 14) and the highly ranked Denis Boytsov (33-0, 26) were both in action. Unfortunately the two highly regarded fighters weren't facing each other in what would have been a genuinely fantastic match up, but both managed to edge their way towards a more notable fight. For the 27 year old Boytsov it was an easy nights work as he stopped Oleksandr Nesterenko (9-2, 4) in 3 rounds in a bout that was there to keep the rust off Boytsov who has fought just once in the past 12 months. Charr's bout was only slightly more meaningful as he took out Oleksiy Mazikin (14-9-2, 4). Charr, who has had a frustrating few weeks made sure that he didn't take his eye off the ball and recorded his 3rd stoppage victory since his loss to Vitali Klitschko last year. On the same card as Boytsov and Charr was former Cruiserweight contender Enad Licina (23-4, 13) who stopped the ever popular Marcel Zeller (22-10, 21) who despite his record is becoming a bona-fide professional loser having lost 8 of his last 9. In Britain the popular and very promising Hughie Fury (6-0, 4) had his best test to date as he out pointed the very experienced Tomas Mrazek (7-41-6, 5) over 6 rounds. The bout gave us the best look at Fury that we've had as he found out not every fighter was going to just drop when he hit them. Also on the card was former Commonwealth champion Sam Sexton (18-3, 7) who claimed an easy decision over the light hitting Czech Jiri Svacina (12-10, 1). The touted Polish Heavyweight Artur Szpilka (15-0, 11) maintained his unbeaten record as he out pointed the always fun Brian Minto (37-6, 24). Despite the victory Szpilka was made to look very unimpressive and it appears to be only a matter of time before his bubble is burst. Polish fans not only got to see Szpilka but also Damian Trzcinski (2-1, 1) who stopped Damian Sarzala (0-1) and Marcin Siwy (6-0, 3) who stopped Artsem Hurbo (4-16-1, 3) in 2 relative mismatches. Staying in Europe, Sweden's Otto Walin (1-0, 1) got off to the dream start in his career as he took out the gigantic Roman Cherney (1-1) in just 177 seconds. The stories coming out about Walin are very promising and we've got to believe the kid has something to him, certainly more than Hungarian Istvan Ruzsinszky (9-7-1, 6) who stopped Csaba Olah (3-73-3, 2). Across the Atlantic to Canada we actually witnessed 2 upsets on the same card. The previously unbeaten Kevin Cormier (3-1, 3) was stopped in the second round by Bradley Foulagi (1-0, 1) whilst the Canadian Heavyweight champion Julien Collette (8-3, 6) was out pointed by Sandy Pembroke (3-6, 1) over 4 rounds. In Argentina the experienced Gonzalo Omar Basile (59-8, 28) scored yet another victory as he stopped Victor Dario Gimenez (22-6, 11) and claimed the IBF Latino Heavyweight title. Gimenez was stopped in the 7th round due to a nasty looking injury to his eye. On the same card the ridiculously out of shape pair of Marcelo Fabian Dominguez (43-7-1, 23) and Miguel Angel Morales (12-13-1, 5) fought to an 8 round decision. Dominguez, a former Cruiserweight world champion (WBC) may have rightfully taken a unanimous decision but he looked a rather over-weight shadow of his former self and the 43 year old really needs to hang them up rather than turning up in such an awful shape. We try our hardest to promote the Heavyweight division in a positive light but when fighters are coming in this over-weight it's hard, even for us, to enjoy the action. |