It's nice when we have a few notable Heavyweight bouts and this past Saturday certainly gave us that with 4 or 5 genuinely note worthy bouts.

For us the most notable was in Germany as we saw one of the worlds best Heavyweights in action. Although there wre TV issues in the United Kingdom with Boxnation there were few problems for Kubrat Pulev (19-0, 10) who stopped American Joey Abell (29-7, 28). Pulev was dropped for the first time as a professional, albeit it from punch-come-slip, before getting up and breaking Abell down with body shots which seemed to drop Abell everytime they landed. Abell, rather than contine to take shots was stopped apparently by the referee in his corner. This bout, a stay busy contest for Pulev, really was just a case of staying busy for the Bulgarian who is almost certain to fight for the IBF world title in the next 12-18 months.

As well as the fight in Germany there was also notable action stateside with several world ranked fighters as well as a man who has been gaining some traction with a loyal fan base. The most predictable of the results on the show saw former Cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham (26-6, 12) out point Manuel Quezada (29-8, 18) over the 8 round scheduled. This always seemed the most likely outcome despite the fact Quezada is the naturall bigger and stronger fighter.

What no one would have expected was that the previously unbeaten David Rodriguez (36-1, 34) was stopped by journeyman Darnell Wilson (25-17-3, 21). Of course many would describe Rodriguez as untested, and he was, but this was still an unexpected result that left fans waiting until the final seconds to be sure of the outcome. Unfortunately for Rodriguez the KO came at the 2:59 mark of round 6, the final round of the bout, as Wilson connected with a left hand bomb.

Whilst Rodriguez was totally exposed it's fair to say that Amir Mansour (20-0, 15) certainly didn't shine either. The unbeaten Mansour manage to force the retirement of Kelvin Price (14-2, 6) though looked distinctly limited over the 7 completed rounds. Sorry to say folks but on this performance "Hardcore" mansour looks anything but a promising championship level fighter, merely a man looking for a nice pay day.

At a lower level there were several fights around the world. These included a notable shock as Brian Minto (39-7, 25) traveled to New Zealand and defeated Shane Cameron (29-4, 22) who was retired by his corner. For Minto this victory appears set to be rewarded with a fight against the very promising Joseph Parker, a fight that should give Parker a test early in 2014.

In Azerbaijan fans had 2 bouts. The most notable of these saw Roman Golovashchenko (13-1, 10) upset the padded Yakup Saglam (31-4, 28) with a majority decision. Whilst one judge had the bout 115-115, the other two saw Golovashchenko as a clear winner with one judge having the bout 119-107. The other bout in Azerbaijan saw the debuting Elchin Ahmadov (1-0) take a clear decision over Latvia's Janis Ginters (5-5, 4). Not toofar away in the Ukraine Vladimir Tereshkin (18-0-1, 8) continued his unbeaten run as he outpointed the limited Oleksiy Mazikin (14-10-2, 4) over 8 rounds. Despite the victory Tereshkin did fail to impress.

In Poland Wlodzimierz Letr (1-1, 1) scored his first professional victory as he scored a 146 second stoppage over Ihar Karavaeu (5-5, 4) who was down twice. Staying in Europe, though going over to the UK, fans got to see Andy Jones (1-0) make a wining strat to his professional career as he over-came the always tough Moses Matovu (4-33-4) in a very close 4 rounder.

With regards to the global action South Africa saw their national champion, Anton Nel (18-12-3, 14), make the first defense of his title as he took out the previously unbeaten Sibusiso Sibiya (5-1, 4) in 6 rounds.

The final bouts of the night were in Argentina as we got 2 Heavyweight fights. These saw veteran Gonzalo Omar Basile (61-8, 28) shut out Alfredo Brigido Ruiz Diaz (7-6-1, 2) whilst Marcelo Fabian Dominguez (45-7-1, 24) took a clear decision over Martin David Islas (12-30-1, 4) in an 8 rounder.

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.