Boxing Recap: Anthony Joshua vs. Deontay Wilder?, Jason Quigley, Malik Hawkins
Joshua holds three belts now
The major fight of the weekend that has significance in terms of money in the boxing industry and future fights on all platforms of television saw heavyweight boxing superstar Anthony Joshua claim his third world title as he defeated Joesph Parker in Cardiff, Wales over the weekend. Joshua now holds the WBO, WBA and IBF heavyweight titles meaning he holds three of the four major sanctioning bodies world titles with the remaining title being claimed by chief rival Deontay Wilder, who holds the WBC heavyweight title.
Joshua, an Olympic gold medalist found himself at odds and troubled often by Parker’s jab and head movement, which Joshua really struggled to get by as he mostly followed Parker for the majority of the fight. Most pundits had the fight nearly even after the final bell rang, but the judges gave Joshua the win by a wide decision.
Joshua in his last three fights against Parker, Carlos Takem and Wladimir Klitschko has shown that if you move and use a jab at the very least, Joshua will find it difficult if not struggle. Joshua appears reliant on his power and seems a bit frustrated with fighters who do not stand in front of him.
The performance was not what Joshua was looking for as he looked mortal. Compare this to his contemporary, WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, who showed off a pair of whiskers against Luis Ortiz before stopping Ortiz in their fight of the year contender last month in Brooklyn, New York. As the two heavyweights, who are destined to meet gear up for one and another it feels as though one fighter is trending up and one is trending down, the one trending down, in my opinion, that of which being Joshua.
The new question is when will he fight Wilder this year? The bout which is a super fight has a lot of issues mostly because the fighters have huge followings in time zones that do not align with one fighter being from the United Kingdom and the other from the United States. Now add, Joshua’s reluctant if not unwillingness to fight in the United States in his post-fight interview just furthered fans frustrations and hopes for seeing the bout next.
Povetkin KOs Price
Alexander Povetkin vs David Price #JoshuaParker WOWOWOWOWOW!!! pic.twitter.com/J4dMOhVRYu
— Zombie Prophet (@ZPGIFs) March 31, 2018
In an oddly sublime fight between two-time PED suspended heavyweight and former world champion Aleskander Povetkin and fledging heavyweight David Price, a decent fight broke out before Price was inevitable brutally knocked out brutally. Povetkin struggled with Price’s height of 6’8” and after dropping Price, Povetkin received the rare standing eight-count in a memorable round. Povetkin had a rinse and repeat approach of throwing an overhand right followed by a left hook with all his might to get the desired result. The final round of the bout, round five, saw Price dazed badly with his hands dropped and clearly out on his feet before Povetkin brutally knocked him out.
It was more competitive than most thought, but it ended the same way most expected with David Price getting knocked out in a rather violent fashion.
Undercard ramblings
Ryan Burnett looked good defending his WBA super bantamweight title. The flashy and exciting fighter hurt his hand in the fourth round he said in a post-fight interview and fought most of the bout injured. That being said one thing that may hold him back is the same thing that hurts many fighters in the lower weights, he simply will not knock out a lot of fighters at the highest level.
Josh Kelly passed his toughest test today as he fought Carlos Molina in his sixth professional fight, not that Carlos Molina is a world champion, but Molina had given Broner a tough bout and fought Amir Khan as well. The welterweight Kelly is getting the fast-tracked as he is looking to get into major fights soon.
Anthony Crolla looked as ordinary as possible as he got a wide decision on the undercard, but didn’t look overly impressive as well. That being said it is better to win than to lose.
Malik Hawkins beats Tito Serrano
Maryland’s Malik Hawkins proved quite a bit as the undefeated fighter went into Raymond Serrano’s backyard of Philadelphia and beat him at The Fillmore.
The bout saw Hawkins control the beginning of the bout with a sizable reach advantage, Serrano came on in a bit in the middle rounds and appeared to trouble Hawkins, but Hawkins never allowed Serrano to gain control of the fight and appeared to edge close rounds. Hawkins seemed to control the bout from the sixth round onward.
With the victory, Hawkins becomes the WBA-NABA USA welterweight champion. Hawkins already has a fought booked for June 29th in Maryland, which will be his homecoming with his new title.
For Serrano, this is his fifth loss as the decorated amateur never could get over the hump in the professionals to get a marquee fight. From the outside looking in, this might be the end for Serrano.
undercard results
Super middleweight Ronald Ellis beat professional opponent and game spoiler Taneal Goyco by way of decision. The bout was Ellis’ first bout since fighting Junior Younan to a draw earlier this year.
Super bantamweight Tramaine Williams of Roc Nation Sports also picked up a decision win on the card. Darmani Rock, who is also signed to Roc Nation Sports as well picked up a second-round TKO.
Samuel Teah also got a first-round knockout over an opponent who appeared to not want to fight and was dropped with every clean punch thrown.
Hollywood Boxing Nights Debut
Tom Loeffler’s 360 Promotions made its debut on Tuesday night at The Avalon in Hollywood, CA, as highly touted junior welterweight Ryan Martin (21-0 12KOs) picked up a fourth-round technical knockout win over the professional opponent, Luis Florez (23-9 19KOs). The bout saw Martin not respecting Florez’s power which lead to a knockdown in the third and a stoppage in the fourth.
Previously, Martin fought at lightweight, but as mentioned on the telecasts had trouble making the weight mixed with a split decision win in his last outing saw him leave that weight class completely.
The co-main event saw highly touted amateur standout Brian Ceballo (1-0 1KO) make short work of Luis Lopez Longoria (1-1 1KO) as the decorated amateur appeared to break Longoria’s nose with a punch forcing Longoria to ask the referee to stop the bout. Ceballo showed great poise as well as great instincts ongoing for the kill when he sensed his opponent was hurt
Sergeii Bohachuk (7-0, 7 KOs), who trains with Abel Sanchez got a third-round stoppage of Lucious Johnson (4-3, 3 KOs). The first round was one to remember as Bohachuk rocked Johnson who in exchange dropped Bohachuk, who got up before the standing eight count to essentially drop Johnson. Bohachuk would go on to dominate the rest of the bout. My observation, Bohachuk gets hit far too much.
Anthony “Pretty Boy” Chavez looked fairly pedestrian in a fight against Carlos Apodaca. Chavez appeared rocked in the first round, but Apodaca appeared to have nothing after the third round. Both somewhat underwhelmed in the performance, after the fight Chavez agreed with the assessment by grading his performance a D.
Bantamweight Jose Casillas (1-0, 1 KO) with a third-round knockout over May Garduno. It is important to note that Casillas was losing the fight on my card until he landed the knockout punch.
Luis Rosales (7-0-1, 6KOs) won a unanimous decision over Guadalupe Arroyo (3-11).
The opening bout saw Mike Melikian (2-2-1) get a split decision over Alfredo Hernandez (3-2, 2 KO). I didn’t see this fight, but a lot of people are giving Melikian a lot of heat. I commentated one of Melikian’s fight and think people should leave him alone, he didn’t judge the bout.
DeLuca, Quigley win on ESPN2
Jason Quigley KO's Daniel Rosario in R6. RIP Liver function. #GBPonESPN pic.twitter.com/QhTYHLDR4h
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) April 1, 2018
Mark DeLuca picked up the biggest win of his career on ESPN2 against game veteran Ramses Agaton in Masschuttes, though sadly his performance was outweighed by a terribly refereed fight. Agaton was deducted two points for a DeLuca low blow, yes you read that correctly, a low blow from De Luca actually cost his opponent two points and with no warning. The bout was odd as De Luca shows talent, but fight screamed of hometown bias and was hard to judge what he can or can not do besides the fact that De Luca can switch from orthodox to southpaw.
Jason Quigley stopped Daniel Rosario in the sixth round of their scheduled eight round bout in the middleweight division. Quigley changed from former trainer Manny Robles to Dominic Ingle and though Quigley had moments of adversity in the fight, Quigley looked solid at the end of the day.
Quigley was coming off a year layoff after badly injuring his hand in a bout against Glen Tapia, when Golden Boy first got their television deal with ESPN.
Noteworthy
Damon Allen Jr. was pushed to the limit in the undercard as he picked up a split decision win over Alexis del Bosque. Allen Jr. posted on Instagram after the fight that he had battled illness before the fight. The two fighters sat in the pocket and traded punches in a very entertaining affair.
Middleweight Yamaguchi Falcao got off the canvas in the first round, albeit his opponent stepped on his foot to set-up the knockout to defeat his foe in the television opener. The bout was neither here nor there, it was serviceable opening bout, left no major impression on me.
Nadjib Mohammedi
Former Sergey Kovalev opponent, Nadjiib Mohammedi defeated Hadillah Mohoumadi in a super middleweight bout in France over the weekend. Mohammedi, who now competes at super middleweight picked up the WBA continental super middleweight title.
Flyweight champ wins
WBO flyweight Kosei Tanaka stopped undefeated Ronnie Baldonado in the ninth round of their bout. Tanaka dropped Baldonado in the fourth round as well. It is unclear if this bout was for the title or not as both fighters were undefeated, but it appears may not of been sanctioned since it was only a ten round fight.
