Wilder secures greatness

Whether you like Deontay Wilder or not, you can not deny that he is great. Luis Ortiz posed many problems including a more traditional boxing style, legit power, the ability to counter punch and a southpaw stance. Wilder, who my buddy who watched the fight with me accurately stated, fights with one hand, his right, loading up on it, essentially while moving backwards looking to land the aforementioned punch. Sure, Wilder might paw with the jab, but Wilder is looking to land with ill intent with his power hand and in this bout, Wilder battled back against adversity to win as well.

Wilder, who dropped Ortiz in the fifth, nearly saw himself on the way out of the bout as he was hurt by a right hook of Ortiz that dazed him. Wilder should maturity and ring prowess by taking rounds off to save himself for the final stages of the fight in which he stopped Ortiz.

Love him or hate him, Wilder has proven at least to me, that he is not an ordinary fighter and worthy of praise. That despite his unconventional and sometimes odd maneuvering in the ring, Wilder has a reason for the methods he employes and is a tough test for any heavyweight.

And New!  Uzcategui wins title

Jose Uzcategui has been the forgotten name in the super middleweight division and part of it might be because his name is just that hard to pronounce. Last year, Uzcategui fought Andre Dirrell in a bout that was deemed a disqualification win for Dirrell when Dirrell was KO at the bell by a punch that was ruled late. In the re-match, at nearly the same point in the fight, nearly the same thing happened, only this time it was Dirrell deciding not to answer the bell for the ninth round.

Uzcategui is not the prettiest boxer, but has a lot of power and brings a lot of pressure that mentally wears on fighters, who do not want to see a boxer constantly in their face.

Uzcategui won the IBF interim super middleweight title with the full version being held by Minnesota’s Caleb Truax, so one might assume a unification bout could be on the way or a bout with IBF #1 contender Caleb Plant.

Pat Day’s career is back!

Patrick Day, a New York City beloved gym fighter, who has been in essentially everyone at the top-level of the middleweight division’s camp, has his career back in order after beating Kyrone “Shut It Down” Davis in an entertaining and competitive bout that saw Day just edge it on the scorecards and should of been broadcast on television.

Day won the World Boxing Council Continental Americas super welterweight title meaning he now has some leverage to get some type of fights and hopefully fight on television

Alicia Napoleon wins a world title

Well, we may not have given women’s super middleweight Alicia Napoleon enough credits as she seized the WBA women’s super middleweight title from undefeated Femke Hermans. Napoleon dominated the whole fight and looked to attempt to stop Hermans late, but just couldn’t quite set-up the sequence to do so.

A fight between Napoleon and recently signed DiBella Entertainment fighter Raquel Miller, both of whom fought each other in the amateurs could loom large in the future.

Monroe Jr., Derevyanchenko, and Hitchins 

Willie Monroe Jr picked up a win despite being on after the main event of Deontay Wilder vs. Luis Ortiz. Sergey Derevychenko impressed this reported by stopping the game journeyman, Dashon Johnson in six rounds and welterweight Richardson Hitchins picked up another win as well in notes from the undercard as well.

Kovalev Classic

Bouts like Sergey Kovalev vs. Igor Mikhalkin feel like The X-Files. No, not in the bizarre nature of it, but that in The X-Files you would often get a “monster of the week” episode and when Kovalev is put in with less caliber of opponents then himself it is like a brutal beating waiting to happen. It is an uncomfortable and sometimes sublime, but watching Kovalev on Saturday night on HBO, felt something like a throwback to classic horror films as Kovalev embodied the monster looking to seek and destroy his victim, that being the challenger in this case, who simply looked ill-equipped to handle what Kovalev brings to the table.

Bivol, HBO’s next guy?

All signs point to Dmitry Bivol being the next fighter to get a push from HBO as he outpointed and then stopped Sullivan Barrera with only seconds left in the fight. Bivol, a world champion in just twelve fights now is looking to face Sergey Kovalev sometime in the near future to cement his legacy as the next light heavyweight champion.

Bivol is every HBO seemingly loves in a fighter, not from the United States, power punching and carries an air of mystery around himself. Question have been answered about how good Bivol is, now we just need to see him in with the best as he is slowly creeping into the top ten pound-for-pound

Vaughn Alexander, Frank Galarza

Vaughn Alexander, the brother of Devon Alexander, who served 11 years in prison defeated late-replacement opponent Devaun Lee in an entertaining affair. Alexander is a come forward pressure fighter, who will make a few good outs before his days are done in boxing.

The very likable Frank Galarza also outboxed Norberto Gonzalez seemingly shutting him out for the full course of eight rounds.

Danny Roman, underrated U.S. champ

WBA super bantamweight champion Danny Roman defended his belt against Ryo Matsumoto despite it being in the middle of the week with little fanfare state side since it was in Japan. This was Roman’s first title defense and in a division that has Rey Vargas, Ryosuke Iwasa and Jessie Magdaleno as the champions of the division, it might not be far-fetched to that Roman is close to if not the best in the division.

The big question now remains will Roman spend the majority of his career overseas getting paid a much more adequate salary to entertain or will some of these fights happen stateside? Who knows, the answer, but Roman is definitely a talented fighter and worthy of a watch.

Luis Nery, WTF?

It is never simple with Luis Nery. Luis Nery lost his belt on the scale the day prior on the scale coming in a grutusce 3 lbs over the bantamweight limit as he was stripped of the WBC bantamweight title. Nery would brutally knockout Shinsuke Yamanaka in two rounds in a rematch against a fighter, Yamanaka, many had on the pound-for-pound list prior to his first KO loss to Luis Nery last year.

The brutal defeat likely signals the end of Yamanaka’s career. As for Nery, he is now indefinitely suspended from being ranked by the WBC and seemingly has risk factor attached to him despite being a potential top 10 pound-for-pound fighter. Essentially, Nery comes off as the modern day Orlando Salido.

Highlights from the fight are right here [EDITOR’S NOTE: THIS VIDEO IS NOT HOSTED ON ITRBOXING.COM AND SIMPLY LINKED TO A VIDEO ON YOUTUBE]

Josh Taylor makes it look easy

Josh Taylor was too much for late replacement Winston Campos as he stopped the fighter in three rounds. Taylor, who only has 12 wins with 11 KOs called out Mikey Garcia as well as the winner of Jose Ramirez vs. Amir Imam after the bout.

Taylor for me still needs to fight the next tier of opponent, a high-level gatekeeper before a world title shot, in my opinion.

Kell Brook is back

Kell Brook back with a bang! pic.twitter.com/i42vVxqnC8

— The Boxing Post (@theboxingp) March 3, 2018

Kell Brook dismantled and destroyed former junior middleweight contender Sergey Rabchenko in his first bout in the 154 lbs. division. Brook, the former IBF welterweight world champion needed only two rounds to knock out the Ricky Hatton trained fighter, Rabchenko.

This performance was so dominant it could pole vault him into the title picture right away. Quite amazing in terms of moving up a weight class.

Jayson Velez KOs Juan Ma

@jayson_velez TKO @Juanma_Lopez Rd 10 pic.twitter.com/tS2LTQRpDN

— boxeo24hrs (@boxeo24hrs) March 4, 2018

In the fun fight of the weekend, Jayson Velez secured himself another fight against a marquee name as he stopped Juan Manuel Lopez in the 12th and final round of their fight in Puerto Rico. The bout was everything you expected, but not the modern day classic between Deontay Wilder and Luis Ortiz, but a good fight nonetheless.

Velez appeared the more controlled fighter as typical with Juan Ma Lopez, he fought in spurts emotionally getting very winded coming into the final frame and finally getting stopped by a flurry of shots, which you can see above.

Philly Prospects Get Mixed Results

Philly bantamweight Christian Carto picked up the biggest win of his career with an eight round unanimous decision over James Smith. Carto, who has been incredibly active fighting picking up 14 wins in under two years of being a professional boxer is nearing the point of getting major fights and showed poise and skill to fight at the next level.

Junior welterweight prospect Tyrone Crawley Jr. was in control of Anthony Mercado for three rounds even dropping Mercado in the second. Unexpectedly, the fight was stopped in the corner in between the third and fourth round as Crawley’s corner called an end to the bout as Crawley had a broken hand. Crawley losses his first fight in a bitter fashion in a bout he was dominating.