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Sandor Martin Shocks The World

An unheralded Spanish super lightweight named Sandor Martin will now be someone we see on television for the next two to three years as he upset Mikey Garcia in Fresno, California.

The fight was just as much about Garcia as it was about Martin. Garcia, known for his timing which offsets the speed of previous elite fighters he has faced such as Robert Easter looked a step-slower and was unable to cut off the ring against Martin nor motivated. 

Martin fought the fight of his life and even in doing so, it was very conservative but got every benefit of the doubt on all three judge’s scorecards. The bigger story to me was that Garcia looked uninterested the whole bout, it felt as though the fight didn’t do much for him, and he continued to press forward the whole fight as Martin rarely took a step forward put three punches together maybe three or four times in the whole fight. 

The loss is a humbling one, as now fights with Regis Prograis, or even Montana Love, who came to the ring to watch Garcia, are not nearly as exciting to fans coming off a loss, and Sandor Martin isn’t one of these big-money attractions, so he can’t fill-in for the star-power of Mikey Garcia. 

Basically, this was a stay-busy fight for Garcia, that turned into a trap fight, that turned into a financial disaster. 

Title Change, Bam next?

Jonathan “Bomba” Gonzalez defeated the WBO light flyweight champion Elwin Soto via a 12-round decision with scores of 116-112, 116-112 Gonzalez, 116-112 Soto. The bout wasn’t one that kept the crowds attention as it was placed before the local draw, Marc Castro, and main eventer, Mikey Garcia. 

The big question was Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, looks the part of a superstar, stopping late-notice sub, Jose Alejandro Burgos, in four rounds. 

The logical next progression for me at least would be to see Gonzalez’s first world title defense be against “Bam” Rodriguez, who trains with Robert Garcia, and feels like the class of the division. I see Bam winning a title at this division, moving up to flyweight and staying at that division for some time. 

Lightweight Brock Jarvis looked shaky at best in a fifth-round stoppage of Alejandro Frias, who Frias had a draw with local Stockton contender Manuel Jaimes. Jarvis is a big puncher early, but has defense only a mother could love, as Frias hurt him badly in the second round, but punched himself out. The two seemingly never missed a punch, and Frias was stopped in a flurry of punches, mostly out of safety, as both men had taken far too many punches. Jarvis has talent and strength, but he needs to improve for the next level.

Brisbane, California’s Charlie Sheehy looked the part of a superstar stopped Luciano Ramos in the fourth round in his pro debut. Ramos came to win and is a part of the Diaz Training Camp in Stockton, California. Sheehy is a 17x national champion, and was the 2020 Olympian in the lightweight division before COVID restrictions changed the qualification process. 

Other notables – Diego Pacheco picked up an eighth-round stoppage on the card against an undefeated opponent. Pacheco is a solid young fighter with good power, and a child-like glee about him, he got hit with some clean punches in this fight, so when he goes to the next level he will need to clean that up to have a lot of success. 

Nikita Ababiy overpowered his opponent with physical strength. Ababiy has a great left hook, especially to the body. It seems opponents at the world level that he is facing can take his power, so now he will have to adjust.

Emanuel Navarrete Beats Joet

Emanuel Navarrete made his first defense of the WBO featherweight world title, by defeating a very game and tough Joet Gonzalez. Gonzalez appeared to have an orbital bone injury by the second round and fought through the pain and discomfort to push back Navarrete in this fight in the later rounds. 

Two big observations, Navarrete is potential on track to be.a Mexican legend as by next year he should be a 130 lber and have the chance already to be a three-division world champion in 36 pro fights. Navarrete is an action fighter, who doesn’t love going backward but is masterful at what he does. 

Joet Gonzalez won while losing this fight. Gonzalez had been dismissed as largely outclassed when he lost to Shakur Stevenson, and this bout showed that Gonzalez is actually one of the five best fighters in the division and his losses might have come to two of the most dominant champions in the past ten years of the division, Navarrete and Stevenson. 

Undercard

A Southern California grudge match-type fight saw Giovani Santillan outpoint Angel Ruiz in an action-packed fight. Santillan is a welterweight, is undefeated and has nearly 30 pro fights, so he should be getting a big fight. 

130 lbs Henry Lebron got a win over the always tough Manuel Rey Rojas by outpointing him, Floyd Diaz looked good in his bout against undefeated fighter getting a four-round decision, the card also saw two Olympic Trials 2020 winners, Javier Martinez, the middleweight winner, and Antonio Mireles, the super heavyweight winner, both win by decision in separate bouts, they also both train at Robert Garcia’s Boxing Academy. 

Triller Put On A Card That Went Unnoticed 

Unless you live in the New York area, most probably didn’t know about Triller Fight Club event at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, as Cletus Seldin stopped William Silva in seven rounds. 

Petros Ananyan had a shaky return getting a majority decision over local New Yorker, Danny Gonzalez. Ananyan holds a win over Subriel Matias, who is one of the biggest contenders in the 140 lbs division. 

The card which was supposed to be Teofimo Lopez versus George Kambosos Jnr., saw Triller not get much attention nationally something the upstart promotion, and the company have made their bones on. Triller’s mission statement seemingly has been “look at me.” On this night, that mission wasn’t accomplished. 

#1 Cruiserweight Mairis Briedis Wins

The best cruiserweight now that Usyk isn’t in the division, Mairis Briedis, stopped Artur Mann in four rounds. So begins the countdown for Briedis to move to heavyweight I suppose, as in America, no one seemingly cared about this. 

Sky Sports Boxing

Hughie Fury stopped Christian Hammer in five rounds as an injury ended the bout. The bout came a week after his family member, Tyson Fury, had one of the all-time great heavyweight performances against Deontay Wilder.

The co-main event saw Savannah Marshall win her fight dominantly, but more importantly, Marshall will now face Claressa Shields in 2022. Shields’ only amateur loss was to Savannah Marshall. 

Chris Eubank Jr returned with a fifth-round stoppage, and undefeated prospect April Hunter lost to Kirstie Bavington.