It's not often we have great things to say about the Heavyweight division but this Saturday saw us having so much good stuff to say that really it was easy to put aside all the dislike of the current HEavyweight scene.

The key action was in the US at the USC Galen Centre in California on a show headlined by a WBC Heavyweight world title bout. The bout saw Bermane "B Ware" Stiverne (24-1, 21) became the first American based Heavyweight based champion via an exciting and very impressive 6th round stoppage over Chris Arreola (36-4, 31). Arreola had his success, especially in rounds 2 and 3, but it always seemed like Stiverne was waiting for his moment which came in round 6 as he ripped Arreola a new one dropping him twice.

Although Stiverne has been ordered to fight Deontay Wilder next we do have a feeling Wilder's team may try and find a way out of that bout as Wilder simply isn't ready for a hard hitting, highly skilled, fast handed tough guy like Stiverne who would eat Wilder alive if they met later this year.

On the same card as the Arreola/Stiverne bout fans also got to see Eric Molina (21-2-2, 15) defeat the 45 year old DaVarryl Williamson (27-8, 23) who seems likely to have had his comeback ended with this stoppage loss.

Another Heavyweight bout on this show saw Romania's Razvan Cojanu (10-1, 5) score a 5th round stoppage over Rodricka Ray (5-7-1, 2). This was Cojanu's 10th straigth victory and he has developed a lot since his loss, on debut to Alvaro Morales. From what we understand Cojanu will return to the ring in July to fight Hunter Sam in China for the WBO Asia Pacific title in a bout we are really looking forward to.

In the UK we had a trio of bouts with the most notable of those seeing a victory for the young and promising Hughie Fury (14-0, 8) who out pointed fellow Brit Danny Hughes (12-3-2, 2). Although it was a good win on paper for Fury it wasn't a great performance, in fact it again seems like Fury is showing signs of too many fights too soon and probably needs a few months break between now and his next fight.

The other bouts on this British show saw David Howe (11-2, 6) defeat Ladislav Kovarik (10-17, 5) via 3rd round TKO and Kash Ali (7-0, 1) claim his first stoppage, also in the 3rd round, as he stopped Luke Martin (0-4-1).

One of the lowest profile bouts was in France as Alban Galonnier (4-6-1, 3) took a decision over busy journeyman Edgars Kalnars (25-28, 16). This bout was Galonnier's first win in almost a year, ending a 2 fight losing streak.

Other low profile bouts, albeit it contests fought stateside, saw Antonio Mignella (3-0, 3) stopping the debuting Armando Herrera Jr (0-1) inside a round, Dwight Gipson (1-1, 1) stopping Joe Rice (0-1) in 3 rounds and Jonathon Guidry (1-0-1, 1) fighting to a 4 round draw with Ronald Baca (1-0-1).

One of the most interesting days in the Heavyweight division this year gave us a bit of everything and moved us towards a bout that we think every boxing fan actually wants to see. We know that's rare, boxing fans agreeing, but this may be one of those rare times.

The most notable Heavyweight bouts of the day all took place in the United Kingdom with 3 very notable fighters in action.

The first of the UK bouts saw the 19 year old Hughie Fury (13-0, 8) forcing a stoppage of American Matthew Greer (16-12, 13). Greer, who is a journeyman at best, has now been stopped in 4 of his last 5 contests and 6 of his last 8 and really needs to think about calling an end to his career before he gets seriously hurt. As for Fury his performance was solid, he looked sharp on his toes and with his punches and seems to be showing some of the skills that his team are telling the world he has. Unfortunately, and rather disgustingly, the fight did see some of the acne on his back popping and this was certainly one of the uglier moments of the night.

In the second Heavyweight bout on that card we saw an over-weight Tyson Fury (22-0, 16), Hughie's older and more well known cousin, defeat American puncher Joey Abell (29-8, 28). Abell did manage to trouble Fury a few times and Fury, who did carry a spare tyre, didn't look at his best. Despite the fact Fury didn't look 100% he still got the job done, dropping Abell numerous times on route to 4th round TKO.

The third and final of the Heavyweight clashes on Britain saw former world title challengers colliding as Dereck Chisora (20-4, 13) and Kevin Johnson (29-5-1, 14) got it on in an intriguing match up. Chisora seemed to just out work Johnson in the first 9 rounds or saw before Johnson started to show off the skills we all know he has. Unfortunately for Johnson it was too little too late and one must wonder just what needs to happen before he's willing to fight for 3 minutes a round. If he could do that then he could well claim a world title in a post-Klitschko era.

The victories for Chisora and Tyson Fury have moved up on to a fight between the two, a fight few will genuinely complain about.

The Fury boy's weren't the only unbeaten Heavyweight's in action in Europe as Sweden's very own Otto Wallin (6-0, 4) also extended his winning run.

Wallin, fighting for the second time this year, was matched with the experienced Ladislav Kovarik (10-16, 5). Having gone the schedule in his past 2 bouts we had assumed that Wallin may end up hearing the final bell here, instead however he stopped Kovarik with just 2 minutes left. 

Wallin is talented, young and a good looking however he does need a lot of time to develop. We would certainly not think about rushing this kid though the potential is there and is there in a big way.

In the US we saw the debut of Trey Lippe (1-0, 1), the son of former world champion Tommy Morrison. Lippe was dropped by Kris Renty (1-1, 1) before turning things around and stopping Renty in round 3. Lippe will certainly be a fighter who gets a lot of attention due to who his father though he is very unlikely to ever get as far as "The Duke".

Further south, all the way in Buenos Aires, Argentina, we saw a very young man in action as Esteban Juarez (2-0, 2), a 16 year old prospect, stopped Joaquin Pereyra (0-1) in 3 rounds. We're very interested in following Juarez, esepcially considering his age, though we're been stumped as to just what his credentials are.

From a 16 year old to a 37 year. We move back to Europe for the unbeaten Jens Tietze (3-0, 3) who recorded his third stoppage by beating the relatively hapless Milos Doveden (0-3) who has now been stopped 3 times. Whilst we're interested in Juarez, it's hard to say we care about Tietze who is 37 and beating on incredibly poor competition. In his 3 fights to date Tietze's opponents have had a combined 0-26-1 record.

Staying in Germany, for the final fight, there was a rare victory for Werner Kreiskott (15-19-2, 9) as he over-came the debuting Andre Bunga (0-1) by a score of 39-38. From what we understand Kreiskott deserved no more than a draw and the picture of him celebrating seemed to suggest that he knew he didn't deserve the victory.

Friday night saw a little bit of Heavyweight action though in all honesty it was difficult to get too excited by it.

The most notable bout of the evening saw Hughie Fury (12-0, 7) fighting the out of shape David Gegeshidze (10-5-1, 2) who in all honesty made for a poor opponent. Gegeshidze, who came in at a career high 244lbs had amazingly put on 25lbs in the space of a month and it showed as his belly hung over his shorts and stamina lasted little more than two rounds.

After the second round Fury went through the gears and easily broke down Gegeshidze who in all honesty did little to build on the hype Fury has been getting. In fact if anything Fury himself was as disappointing as the god awful opponent.

Fury's wasn't the only early bout with another Heavyweight contest taking place in Europe, Sweden to be precise. This contest saw the unbeaten Joel Larsson (2-0, 1) stopping the win-less Marko Vucevic (0-2).

Later on in the day we had action in Canada. This saw the unbeaten Samer Barakat (2-0, 2) traveling to Quebec where he defeated local debutant Mike Gales (0-1) via 2nd round TKO.

There was also a late fight in Argentina where Juan Fernando Romero (2-1) managed to out point the debuting Angel Gustavo Schmitt (0-1) over 4 rounds.

After a disappointing Saturday it was down to Sunday to give us a Heavyweight headline for the weekend. Fortunately we got such a thing as the highly promising Hughie Fury (11-0, 6) continued on his busy scheduled.

Fighting for the 11th time in 7 months Fury mananaged to over come Croation Hrvoje Kisicek (4-6, 1) via a clear 6 round decision, his second successive decision and his third in just 4 bouts.

Although Fury's activity is very commendable it's really time that he either stepped up in terms of opponent or in terms of rounds. It's great that he's racking up a lot of victories but at the moment we're not really seeing him tested in anyway which is a shame given the hype and belief his camp appear to have in him.

With Tyson Fury's bout for Saturday against David Haye having been called off it's fair to think that their would be no action from the Fury family this weekend, that however was wrong as youngster Hughie Fury (10-0, 6) was in action for the 10th time in little more than 6 months.

The unbeaten teenager, who just recently turned 19, moved in to double figures courtesy of a 6 round decision over Welshman Dorian Darch (7-2, 1) who was dropped in round 5, though did manage enough for a 54-60 score (meaning that he drew a round with Fury).

This bout, Fury's second to go 6 rounds, had it's positives and negatives. It was just the second time Fury had faced a fighter with a winning record (having beaten the then 1-0 Alex Rozman) and just the second time he had been extended the 6 rounds however the fact he was taken the distance by a guy who had been stopped in 4 by Ian Lewison may be a concern considering that Fury was said to have big power.

The potential of Fury is big, he has some genuine gifts and his activity is great, as is trainer and father Peter Fury, but their is still a lot of work to be done to unlock that potential. Fighting regularly will help though the expectation on his shoulders is huge and a big question is just how well will he handle it?

In, arguably, the most notable Heavyweight bout of the weekend youngster Hughie Fury (9-0, 6) continued to impress. Matched against former British Cruiserweight champion Shane McPhilbin (8-8-1, 5), Fury needed just a round to claim the victory as McPhilbin retired with an arm injury.

When you read that Fury has beaten a former British champion it's fair enough to be impressed. Though in all honesty McPhilbin is a shadow of the man who took the British Cruiserweight belt, and even then he wasn't anything great. In fact McPhilbin's fall from grace has been nothing short of amazing with this being his 6th loss in 7 bouts and in fact it could spell the end of his career.

In a second Heavyweight bout in the UK Darren Morgan (6-5, 4) took just 26 seconds to stop the debuting Adel Badawy (0-1). Hard to say much about this one other than that it was over quickly.

Outside of the UK, though staying in Europe there was a bout in Hungary as Tibor Balogh (8-1-2, 5) out pointed veteran Laszlo Toth (19-9, 13), who lost the first decision of his career. And also a bout in Croatia as Ivica Perkovic (20-21, 15) scored a 4th round stoppage over the winless Sanid Imamovic (0-11).

In the US the promising Constantin Bejenaru (4-0-0-1, 2) managed to avenge his no contest as he out pointed Excell Holmes (2-2-1-1, 1) in a clear decision. This was the second meeting between the two men after their first was ended from a clash of heads just a few months ago.

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.

The first Heavyweight bout of the day saw the debuting Nathan Brown (0-1) suffer the worst possible start to his career. Brown, despite notable size advantage (some 40lbs) was stopped inside a round by Iggy McGowan (3-1, 1). Surprisingly this was McGowan's first bout in almost 6 years and he may be wondering whether or not to make a real go of this in the near future.

A few hours after the Brown McGowan contest we say the very promising Hughie Fury (7-0, 5) scoring his most noteworthy victory to date. Fury, facing experienced journeyman Ivica Perkovic (19-21, 14) forced the 5th round retirement of the veteran to extend his own unbeaten run to 7 bouts in just 4 months.

The only other result that we have comes from Bolivia as Rodrigo Felipe Carvajal (1-0-1) took a 4 round decision over Widen Saucedo (0-3-1). Saucedo was apparently ending a 6 and a half year break from the ring though the break didn't help him record his first victory.

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.

The first result we have for a busy Saturday was that of Heavyweight prospect Hughie Fury (5-0, 3) who faced Czech veteran Ladislav Kovarik (10-15, 5). Fury, a stand out prospect needed only 97 seconds to stop the Czech who was down twice before the referee was forced to stop the bout.

It's very easy to get excited about Fury, especially given his physical appearance, charisma, family (he's the cousin of Tyson Fury) and skills, though we need to see him step up before we can be too sure about what he actually has. It's great that he's now scored 5 wins this year, but many of his opponents have been incredibly limited and this was the case again here as Fury did as he wished.

Fury wasn't the only unbeaten prospect to score and early win as Canadian Didier Bence (9-0, 3) got rid of the previously unbeaten Eric Barrak (7-1, 6) in eye catching fashion in round 5 of their 6 round bout in Quebec. Bence lacks the upside of Fury but will be interesting to follow over the coming years.

Arguably the most impressive result of the night actually occurred in one of the worst fights of the as the unbeaten Gerald Washington (8-0, 5) claimed a clear 8 round decision over stalwart Sherman Williams (35-13-2-1, 19). Although Washington did drop Williams (apparently the first knockdown of Williams' long career) he was very conservative and was loudly booed by the crowd due to his safety first style.

The success for unbeaten fighters continued as the rather humorously nick-named American Jerry "The Slug" Forrest (7-0, 6) stopped Darrick Allen (2-12, 2) in a lighting quick 36 seconds. It's fair to say that this Slug was in a hurry, though that has been his way entire career. From Forrest's 7 bouts so far (all squashed in to around 10 months) he has had just 12 rounds of action and only one of his bouts has gone beyond the second round.

You may have thought that a 36 second victory would be the quickest of the night but amazingly Mexican Heavyweight Andy Ruiz Jr (19-0, 13) managed to take out Carl Davis (16-6, 12) even quicker! Davis was dropped twice in just 35 seconds as the referee was forced to call an extremely early end to the bout.

Ruiz is now expected to go on and face Joe Hanks in Macau later this year.

In Brazil the unbeaten Irineu Beato Costa Junior (14-0, 13) claimed the WBO Latino title by stopping Argentinian veteran Hector Alfredo Avila (21-14-1, 13) inside a round. This was an incredibly impressive result given that it took British Heavyweight Dereck Chisora 9 rounds to defeat Avila.

Around the world there was mixed fortunes for debutants. In the Czech Republic Vojtech Koncitnik (1-0) clearly out pointed David Liska (0-4). The decision, very wide on all 3 cards, was the first bout of Liska's to go the distance after being blasted out in the opening round of his 3 previous contests. Things were as successful for Michal Mamula (0-0-1) however as he could only manage a draw Radovan Kuca (0-7-1).

Arguably the most forgettable debut was actually in France however as Ibrahim Traore (0-1) was out pointed by Hungarian visitor Gyorgy Novak (1-1).

The stand out match, at least on paper, saw Fres Oquenco (36-7, 23) successfully defend his WBA Fedelatin Heavyweight title and claim the NABA belt as he over-came Derric Rossy (28-7, 14) in a competitive decision.

Aged 40 it's very unlikely that Oquendo will get another chance at a world title, though there has certainly been worse challengers in recent years (Hasim Rahman getting a chance in 2012 is a notable one).

In a moderately surprising outcome Roberto White (5-6, 5) suffered his first decision loss as John Turlington (6-11-1-1, 4) claimed a 4 round victory. This was the first time White had been the distance in his 11 fight career though it was also his 4th straight loss.