Kambosos Beats Teofimo. WOW!
Kambosos Jnr Beats Teofimo
Not many in the world expected it going in – but lightweight George Kambosos Jnr., became an Australian sports icon by defeating Teofimo Lopez for his WBA/WBO/IBF and some form of the WBC, not the one Devin Haney has though, via a 12-round decision, in a modern day boxing classic, and a cautionary tale about success coming early to any young athlete.
Of course – the story, sadly will be about Teofimo Lopez, last year’s fighter of the year, who was inactive for all of this year, faced multiple fight delays, and then had a performance, not unlike Mike Tyson vs. James “Buster” Douglas, except he made it to the final bell. Lopez fought with emotion, and that emotion worked against him as Kambosos Jnr caught him in the first round and dropped him. It looked as though Lopez intended to walkthrough Kambosos Jnr., but Kambosos Jnr refused to be walked through.
Not unlike the Douglas fight, we saw glimpses of the greatness of Lopez, when he dropped Kambosos Jnr in the tenth round, but he couldn’t pull the trigger, and his power wasn’t the same on this night.
Lopez’s life since beating Vasyl Lomachenko has been chaos, and this fight reflected the turmoil, as unsettled, seems to be a great word to describe Lopez, who as Chris Algieri stated so well on the broadcast was “…living a nightmare,” on Saturday night.
As for Kambosos Jnr he is now the second-undisputed champion from Australia, with the first being Kostya Tszyu, and becomes an Australian sports icon. Kambosos fought the fight of his life, and no matter where he goes from here, he will now be folklore in boxing history, as the man to beat Teofimo Lopez, who looked to be the next great American prospect.
here is a feature on did on George two years ago
New 130 lbs World Champ….Kenichi Ogawa
Japan’s Kenichi Ogawa battered and bruised the odds-on favorite Azinga Fuzile en route to dropping him three times, once in the fifth, and twice in the twelfth and final round. Ogawa despite appearing to win most of the rounds via pressure, and breaking Fuzile’s will, seemingly needed a big twelfth round or else he might have lost the fight, which is shocking.
Ogawa is an exciting new world champion, who is smart, setting up punches and punching to where he believes his opponent will be, not where they are, as well as has a thudding right hand. Ogawa will never be a pound-for-pound guy more than likely, but he will be someone who provides a lot of fun fights.
undercard
Featherweight Ray Ford stopped Felix Caraballo in eight-rounds as referee Ricky Gonzalez had seen enough and called a halt to the bout after a Ford combo. The performance was mixed for Ford. Ford has fast-hands and a lot of talent, but still has a bad habit of putting himself on the ropes. This win puts Ford more than likely in the top-15 world rankings of featherweights, so let’s see where he goes from here.
Chinese heavyweight Zhilei Zhang knocked out Craig Lewis. Zhang dropped Lewis twice in the second-round, both with a left hand. Zhang hits hard, but relies on his left hand, a lot, and needs to use his jab much more as well. Lewis had never been stopped. I’d like to see Zhang versus Filip Hrgovic next.
Featherweight Ramla Ali got a four-round decision over undefeated Isela Vera. Ali, 32-years-old, of Somali hertiage, has not displayed much power, and her boxing skill had a ceiling in amateur competition, as she was unable to medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, but looked world-class in this bout. It will be interesting to see how Ali is moved.
Flyweight Christina Cruz looked as good as ever, and probably two-to-three fights away from a world title fight outclassing Maryguenn Vellinga, as her right-hand couldn’t miss in this fight. Cruz reminded me of a more refined verision of Heather Hardy in terms of where she keeps her hands at distance, and reactions, as well as working with Javiel Centeno, who went 2-0 on the night cornering George Kambosos Jnr as well, seemed to have given some confidence to a pro-style as she was more assertive in this fight.
In the opening bout, Anthony “Superman” Herrera displayed his left hook, and aggressive-style that lead him to a silver medal at the Olympic Trials, and allocated him a slot to compete on the U.S. national team internationally.
Stephen Fulton Edges Brandon Figueroa
In a closely contested bout, Stephen Fulton won a narrow majority decision over Brandon Figueroa to win the WBC and WBO super bantamweight world titles, and unify two of the four world titles in the division.
The bout felt like the same round over-and-over again. Fulton would box for spurts, Figueroa would do the Figueroa thing that would lead to wrestling, and then it just came down to what you deemed more effective. The judges sided with Fulton, the fans seemingly sided with Figueroa.
After the bout, a frustrated Figueroa confronted Fulton, the two had a calm, and actually nice exchange, before we found out Figueroa won’t even stay at 122 lbs. any longer, and he will next fight at featherweight.
I doubt this is the last we see of these two as Figueroa will become a world champion at 126 lbs, and Fulton will be there sometime in the future as well. This was a world-class fight that sadly didn’t get enough views.
undercard
Raeese Aleem is becoming one of my favorite fighters in the sport as he put forth a day-in-the-office-like performance defeating Eduardo Baez, who was coming off a 12-fight win streak, with his lone loss being to Mauricio Lara, who is now a featherweight world champion. Aleem is the fighter no one is calling out at 122 lbs., he has a case to be made as the most avoided fighter in all of boxing. Hopefully, he gets Fulton next.
In the TV opener, Gary Antonio Russell had to dig deep to get a win over Alexandro Santiago, who has a draw with super flyweight world champion Jerwin Ancajas. The fight was simple Russell won early rounds based on his hand speed, and lost rounds late due to Santiago’s willingness to come forward, and throw a lot of punches, which put Russell on the ropes. It simply came down to when did you feel Santiago started winning rounds. I started giving him rounds in the fifth, so I had it a draw, but the fifth was also a swing round, in my opinion.
Russell can learn from this fight.
Club Shows
Northern California boxer Mike Guy upset yet another fighter winning a form of a regional title as he got a ninth-round KO of Kendrick Ball Jr. Congrats to his coach Ace Johnson on the victory as well.
Ronald Cruz and Kevin Ottley fought to a draw in a 154 lbs battle of two Southern California fighters in Burbank, California.
Yet another L for U.K. boxing as the vacant WBA Intercontinental light flyweight title will be headed to Mexico as undefeated Hector Gabriel Flores picked up a sixth-round KO over former prospect and contender Jay Harris on Friday night at the Vale Sports Arena in Cardiff, Wales, in Harris’ hometown. Flores dropped Harris twice to the body in round six. Harris was coming off a knockout loss to Ricardo Sandoval in a flyweight title eliminator.
We saw two former world champions return to action Friday night at MotoSpace in Dubai, U.A.E, as two-division world champion Badou Jack “The Ripper” stopped regional fighter Samuel Crossed in two rounds, in his second bout at cruiserweight. Jack is looking to make a run at a cruiserweight title.
Former super-middleweight world champion Rocky Fielding returned at light heavyweight against a seemingly hand-selected opponent to get a secon- round TKO over Emmanuel Danso.
In a confusing affair, a bout touted as a WBA super lightweight eliminator, Golden Contract winner Ohara Davies outpointed Nicholas Mwangi over ten rounds, as the original opponent, Ismael Barroso couldn’t get into the country.
Photo: Matchroom Boxing Release
Erika Cruz made the first title defense of her WBA women’s featherweight title against Melissa Esquivel, in all-action fight. Cruz reminds me of Orlando Salido, as she thrives in chaos, throws awkward punches and is not afraid to have her head fall forward. Cruz is beatable, but is an action-fighter, who doesn’t take any shortcuts, and is someone who you will have to earn a victory, to beat.
“I am happy to retain my title,” said Cruz. “Maybe I feel a bit unhappy too because she confused me a bit in there. However, I think the decision was fair. I would have also accepted a draw, but I definitely did not lose. I think the most powerful and effective blows were mine. In the future I would like to fight for the featherweight titles that Amanda Serrano has, but that is in the long term.”
