Golovkin and Ryan Garcia Return – Thoughts
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Golovkin Continues To Be Great
One of the best middleweights of the past 20-years is now a unified world champion, once again, as he stopped Ryota Murata in the ninth round of an entertaining bout to win Murata’s WBA 160 lbs belt as well as defend his own IBF 160 title (watch highlights above). Golovkin will now look to face Canelo Alvarez in a third fight, and not opt to try to unify all the belts, which was his goal in his prime, but now with a limited window to his career at 40-years-old, completing a trilogy with the greatest modern Mexican boxer is his focus.
Golovkin in this fight looked both good and bad. Golovkin is no youngster anymore. At times, he managed his punch output, and Murata had a lot of success in some of the early rounds, especially landing on Golovkin’s body. Golovkin’s world-class jab was the difference, and his ring intelligence combined with one of boxing’s biggest power punchers allowed him to take over the fight from the fifth round onward.
One observation I saw was that Golovkin has to fight the perfect fight each and every time, as he has less wiggle room for error. That being said, at 40-years-old, Golovkin gave us one of the best action fights of 2022, which speaks to his folklore status in the sport, as even passed his prime, he is more entertaining than most, and by the ninth round Murata’s chin couldn’t hold up to Golovkin’s power.
Next up is Canelo. The man who holds a win over him, and a draw that most sane people think Golovkin won. This is the fight the streaming service DAZN has wanted to make for years, and we will see it more than likely sometime this year.
If ever someone will bring back the greatness of Golovkin it will be Canelo, his hated rival, who he feels the industry did him wrong. A true grudge match with huge legacy implications as well.
Golovkin is a humble champion with violent intentions.
undercard
In a fight, that saw two lightweight brawlers run into each other and punch each other. Undefeated Shuichiro Yoshino was able to have a bit more than Masayuki Ito, the former 130 lbs WBO champion. The bout was stopped in the 11th due to a cut and went to the judges scorecards. Yoshino needs to improve his defense for the world level or he will have a very short career
Very popular flyweight Junto Nakatani recorded an eight-round technical knockout against one loss fighter Ryota Yamauchi. Nakatani is an offensively-gifted fighter, who has high ceiling, but I am unsure of his basement.
Fundora Outlasts Lubin
The betting favorite Erickson Lubin saw his coach Kevin Cunningham call the bout in between rounds, as Sebastian Fundora’s pressure was too much for Lubin, who will now have to rebuild his career, yet again.
Fundora, a mythic fighter, who is the size of an NBA small forward at six feet, five inches, used his size, youth and fitness to his advantage as Lubin’s power was unable to phase Fundora to keep him honest. Fundora dropped Lubin in round two, and despite Lubin boxing well – Fundora lost rounds to win the war, as despite dropping Fundora in round seven Fundora was able to outlast Lubin.
Fundora fought to do damage, and by the end of round nine, Lubin’s face was a mess, and Coach Cunningham had seen enough.
Fundora is now a major player, who can’t be ignored and reminds me a lot of Brandon Figueroa – and Lubin’s career is starting to mirror another talented fighter’s career, Amir Imam, or Antoine Douglas, of not living up to the ceiling of their given potential.
Lubin was ahead on two of the scorecards at the time of the stoppage.
So far, this is the fight of the year for me.
undercard
154 lbs contender Tony Harrison defeated Sergio Garcia. When Harrison is on, he looks like a generational fighter. The fight was Harrison outboxing Garcia.
154 lber Bryant Perrella is becoming a hard-luck fighter as he recorded his second straight draw against Kevin Salgado. The fight was close, but Perrella appeared to land the more memorable punches of the fight. In a fair world, Perrella should probably be 2-0, with a win over Tony Harrison as well.
Hayward, CA’s Aaron Coley lost yet another split decision against Jamontay Clark. Coley is the definition of a hard-luck fighter as he is 1-3 in split decision fights, and even worse the bout was not televised in a fight that was, in my opinion, a TV-quality bout. A ringside writer called @TrotmanBoxing on Twitter, who blocked me (lol) viewed the fight as a draw or a Coley win, but with no distribution of the fight, it is simply set for emotional connections to either fighter or folklore as opposed to factual information, which is a shame for both fighters.
Olympic bronze medalist at middleweight Eumir Marcial got a fourth-round KO – he is a capital G guy of the future.
Ryan Garcia Wins Return
A snoozer. That sums it up as Ryan Garcia, after a year-and-a-half out of the ring, loaded up on power punches that were not there, as Emmanuel Tagoe, did his part in being a tough spoiler, but didn‘t seemingly win rounds.
Garcia loves his power and believes in his power, but he followed Tagoe far too much, as opposed to cutting off the ring, and seemed void of any body attack for sustained periods. Tagoe is, who he is, a tricky, weird fighter, but Garcia looked to do the same things over and over, hoping to see a brutal KO, which never happened. More troubling, I saw few adjustments if any at all.
Garcia is a star in the sport, but he has never won a world title, and tonight he looked like a prospect, maybe a contender, but he didn’t look the part of a world champion. That is the thing – it is one fight, but this
undercard
In a mild upset, Shane Mosley Jr. upsets veteran Gabriel Rosado in a technical fight void of action, but one that saw Mosley Jr. winning fairly convincingly. That being said, one judge saw it as a draw. This is a huge win for Mosley Jr.’s career. For Rosado it appears that his decade-and-a-half career of wars might be catching up to him.
Marlen Esparza unified her WBC flyweight world title by getting a ten-round decision over Naoko Fujioka to win the WBA flyweight world title as well. The scores were wide, the fight was a bit closer than the cards, but Esparza clearly won, but nothing truly memorable happened if we’re being honest. Esparza now has two belts on to bigger and better things.
Super bantamweight Azat Hovhannisyan stopped Santander Silgado in two rounds, Hovhannisyan did his thing punching a lot. The big thing was Hovhannisyan’s opponent nearly injured himself trying to jump into the ring.
Featherweight Katsuma Akitsugi is now firmly in the position of ITRBoxing’s prospect of the year as he beat yet another in undefeated Gregory Morales. This is the third undefeated fighter Akitsugi has defeated in a row. Can someone sign Akitsugi already, the guy is fighting better competition than most world champions.
Former world champion Patrick Teixeira was disqualified as Paul Valenzuela who took the fight on a week or so notice, got a major win.
Super lightweight George Rincon got a ten-round decision, he trains with Lamont Roach Sr, and is close to a big fight.
Heavyweight Tristan Kalkreuth got a second-round KO after his first career loss.
Santos Ortega got a second-round KO on the card and is a guy who could be a future world champion.
Mikaela Mayer Wins…
WBO and IBF 130 lbs women’s champion Mikaela Mayer got a solid title defense on ESPN over former world champion Jennifer Han. Mayer dominated from start to finish, but seemingly took over once she busted the nose of Han in round four.
Mayer is a pitbull in women’s boxing, and might just be the most dangerous fighter in her weight class of her era, as I see her changing boxing in the next decade.
Mayer’s goal is to become undisputed, and I think she will when she gets the chance.
In the meantime, Mayer appears to be a fighter that has not just Top Rank’s support, but ESPN’s full backing, as she is a certified network television headliner, with the potential of being a crossover star in pop culture.
undercard
Welterweight Giovani Santillan got a seventh-round KO over Jeovanis Barraza, as Santillan stopped him standing. Santillan who is undefeated with 29 by fights, needs a big fight soon, as he feels like a prospect with a world champion-type record. Tim Bradley mentioned on the telecast a fight with Josh Taylor, and that is a fight I like.
Andrew Moloney got an eighth-round KO over Stockton, Ca’s Gilberto Mendoza. Moloney is a world-class fighter, and this performance showed his level of professionalism in a performance in which he fought to a high level from start to finish.
On the undercard, Jason Moloney secured a ten-round decision win that should set him up for a fight on the Kambosos Jnr. vs Haney undercard.
2020 Olympic silver medalist Duke Ragan returned to the ring getting a six-round win over veteran spoiler Diuhl Olguin. Ragan is really good and is an American prospect to watch.
Floyd Diaz got a fourth-round KO and continues to look like an exciting prospect.
2020 flyweight women’s Olympian Ginny Fuchs turned pro on the card, a longtime friend of main eventer, Mayer, stopping Randee Lynn Morales in the fourth round standing, and Fuchs dropped Morales in the first round.
Toscano Boxing Promotions
Damian Sosa, who holds the WBO Latino 154 lbs title made the first defense of his title against Jesus Vega, stopping Vega in the third round. Sosa is getting better with each fight, and should be entering the top-15 rankings at 154 lbs, and has a chance to be the first Toscano Boxing Promotions fighter to be on a major card with a co-promotional deal. With the belts potentially vacating in the coming year at 154 lbs, Sosa is in the running for being in conversations for something in the WBO ranking system. A fight I wouldn’t mind seeing would be Sosa versus Xander Zayas if it leads to a world title shot for the winner.
In a shocker, a friend of the website Stockton, Ca lightweight Manuel Jaimes lost to Pedro Bernal Rodriguez in his first attempt to defend his WBC youth lightweight title. Pedro Bernal Rodriguez is now the WBC youth lightweight champion.
The feeling from those ringside was that Jaimes outboxed Bernal in the first four rounds, but the judges gave Bernal those rounds based on aggression not scoring the punches of Jaimes and since the bout had open scoring it forced Jaimes to change his style. Bernal had dropped every opponent prior to Jaimes and is a highly ranked opponent, but still, shouldn’t Jaimes have gotten the benefit of one of the early rounds – I think so.
Very frustrating to see.
Gabriel Muratalla, who had fought in the Top Rank bubble during the pandemic, and trains at Robert Garcia’s Boxing Academy got an entertaining first-round KO against a hard-charging opponent. A good.
Club Shows
In just his second pro fight, 2020 Australian Olympian Harry Garside won the Australian lightweight world title against Manuer A Matet, in a ten-round bout. Garside debuted in December of last year, in a six-rounder, and is moving fast. Interesting guy to follow.
Fellow Austalian Olympian light heavyweight Paulo Aokuso, who some compared to Roy Jones Jr., which I never fully saw, made his debut, a fifth-round KO in an eight-round bout.
Nicole Ocasio of Reyes Boxing Gym in Texas, turned pro and got a first-round KO in her fight. She is trained Vincent Reyes, the son of legendary trainer, Paul Reyes
MMA in 500 Words Or Less.
UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski might be one of the best to ever do it, but in this era, he is having trouble standing out in the “talent is just part of the picture” era. Volkanovski defeated Chan Sung Jung, a fan favorite from the last decade, known for brawling, and was stopped standing in the fourth round as Volkanovski was just picking him apart. Volkanovski might not be a household name, but he is becoming legendary.
UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling got revenge by defeating Petr Yan by way of a split decision. Sterling won the belt via DQ against Yan last year.
Welterweight Khamzat Chimaev won a wildly entertaining bout against Gilbert Burns in which Chimaev, may have punched his ticket to being the next world title contender in this division. Chimaev also has some geopolitical views that might be concerning for some.
Women’s strawweight Mackenzie Dern got a split decision over Tecia Torres to seemingly vault her into the picture for the world champion.
The card started with lightweight Mark Madsen winning a three-round decision over Vinc Pichel.
ESPN Prelims
Welterweight Ian Garry won his fight.
Women’s bantamweight Raquel Pennington defeated Aspen Ladd in a rather even fight that saw Pennington’s veteran experience is the difference. After the fight, she called someone out, I forget who.
Welterweight Mike Malott knocked out Micky Gall in one round, Gall is best known for beating famous pro-wrestler CM Punk.
Buried deep on the undercard, heavyweight Alexey Oleynik got a first-round submission on ESPN+
