Fightnews.com

By Matt Richardson at ringside
Photos: Emily Harney

WBA light heavyweight title-holder Dmitry Bivol continued to impress in the co-featured fight of the night by dominating contender Sullivan Barrera over twelve rounds before finishing him off with a violent knockout with just seconds remaining in the fight on Saturday night at the Madison Square Garden Theater in New York City.

Bivol (13-0, 11 KO’s) dominated the fight early on despite being cut near the right eye in the second round. Bivol’s power and aggressive style kept Barrera backpedaling throughout and the Cuban had difficulty landing anything of significance. Barrera (21-2, 14 KO’s) was also cut and swollen in the fight but around the mid-point of the bout he started doing better by sticking and moving around the ring. Continue reading “Bivol stops Barrera, retains WBA lightheavy title”

By Arvin Nundloll at ringside
Photos: Amanda Westcott/SHOWTIME

Jose “Bolivita” Uzcategui (27-2, 23 KOs) claimed the IBF’s interim 168-pound world title with a one-sided beating over Andre Dirrell (26-3, 16 KOs) on Saturday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. Dirrell didn’t come out for round nine.

After a brief delay filled with confusion, Dirrell and Uzcategui brawled it out in a rematch for the interim IBF Super Middleweight Championship belt in a scheduled 12 round bout. Dirrell the sharper puncher but he couldn’t contain Uzcategui’s aggression and found himself eating some heavy handed shots that led to his corner stopping the fight at the beginning of round 9. Continue reading “Uzcategui stops Dirrell, wins IBF interim belt”

By Arvin Nundloll at ringside

Patrick Day and Kyrone Davis duked it out for the WBC Continental Americas Super Welterweight Championship in a scheduled 10 round bout. Day started slow, giving up early round to a more aggressive Davis but slowly found his footing. Day held firm in the center of the ring, using his jab to keep Davis at bay. Close fight all round in an evenly matched bout but after 10 rounds the judges’ scored the fight 98-92, 97-93 and 96-94 in favor of Day. Day pics up a belt and another win to move to 15-2-1, 6 KO’s while Davis drops to 13-2, 5 KO’s.

Lindenhurst, NY native, Alicia Napoleon took on Femke Hermans for the vacant WBA Super Middleweight Championship, coming out victorious in their 10 round bout. Napoleon started strong, pressing Hermans into exchanges at the center of the ring. Hermans and Napoleon would frequently trade body blows in the early rounds, keeping the score close on the judges’ scorecards. Napoleon dug deep in the middle round, edging out Hermans in activity and output and nearly ending the fight in round 8 as Hermans began to run out of stamina. Napoleon tried to get Hermans out again in the 10th but the bell saved her and left it to the judges. Official scores were 99-91, 98-92 and 98-92 to new WBA Super Middleweight champion Alicia Napoleon. Napoleon is now 9-1, 5 KO’s while Hermans drops to 6-1, 3 KO’s. Continue reading “Undercard Results from Barclays Center”

By Matt Richardson at ringside

Super middleweight prospect Vaughn Alexander won a lopsided ten-round unanimous decision against Devaun Lee in the final fight of the non-televised portion of the card. Alexander (12-0, 8 KO’s) was thought to be a big hitter before the fight but he appeared to have difficulty connecting with anything overly powerful down the stretch (although he did seem to stun Lee temporarily in the final round). Judges scores read 98-92, 97-93 and 96-94. Lee (10-3-1, 5 KO’s) tried to box and move but backed up too much to impress the judges.

Junior middleweight Frank Galarza, from neighboring Brooklyn, made the trek over the bridge a worthy one with an eight-round unanimous decision win against Norberto Gonzalez. One judge had Galarza earning a shutout, 80-72, while two others had him ahead 79-73 and 78-74, respectively. Galarza (19-2-2, 11 KO’s) was simply the quicker, more polished fighter. Gonzalez (24-11, 14 KO’s) plugged forward throughout and kept swinging until the end but he was incapable of putting together a string of clean, effective punches and when he did his power seemed to have little effect on Galarza. There were no knockdowns. Continue reading “Undercard Results from Madison Square Garden”

Unbeaten WBC #5, IBF #10, WBO #14 super lightweight Josh Taylor (12-0, 11 KOs) scored a third round stoppage against late sub Winston Campos (30-4-5, 18 KOs) on Saturday night at the SSE Hydro Arena in Glasgow, Scotland. Taylor retained the WBC silver belt.

Photos: Team SES / P. Gercke

On Saturday night at the Stadthalle in Weissenfels, Germany, IBF #5, WBO #7 light heavyweight Dominic Boesel (27-1, 10 KOs) outboxed Serhiy Demchenko (18-12-1, 12 KOs) over twelve rounds to win the EBU (European) belt recently vacated by Karo Murat.

Local favorite Boesel survived a late rally by the 38-year-old Demchenko to win 116-112, 116-112, 118-110.

In a clash between unbeaten light heavyweights, Adam Deines (14-0-1, 7 KOs) edged Stefan Haertel (15-1, 7 KOs) by ten round split decision to claim the German domestic belt. Scores were 96-95, 96-94 Deines, 96-94 Haertel. Continue reading “Boesel beats Demchenko for EBU title”

Former IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (37-2, 26 KOs) stopped Siarhei Rabchenko (29-3, 22 KOs) in the second round to win the WBC silver belt in his 154lb debut on Saturday night at the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, England. A right hand dropped Rabchanko to end it.

In a clash between brothers of current WBA world champions, super bantamweight Gavin McDonnell (19-1-2, 5 KOs) hammered out a twelve round unanimous decision over previously unbeaten Gamal Yafai (14-1, 7 KOs) to claim the WBC international title. Scores were 116-112, 116-112 and 117-113. Gavin is the brother of WBA regular bantamweight champion Jamie McDonnell. Gamal is the brother of WBA super flyweight champion Khalid Yafai.

A rematch between heavyweights Lenroy Thomas (22-4-1, 10 KOs) and David Allen 12-3-2, 9 KOs) ended in a technical draw after Allen was cut over the right eye in a first round headclash. The Commonwealth belt was at stake.

By Craig Wick

A five-bout card was on tap in the Chicago suburb of Elk Grove Village Friday night, as Hitz Boxing rolled into the Belvedere Event Center and drew a SRO crowd for their 2018 kick-off. While it’s a well-known fact that Chicago is home to a large Polish population, who the hell knew it was also an enclave for a sizeable Bulgarian contingent? Apparently promoter Bobby Hitz did, telling Fightnews.com® that Bulgarians “scooped up tickets like the Beatles were in town,” all on account of Sofia native, and former amateur standout, Tervel Pulev, who steamrolled in the main event. Continue reading “Pulev’s brother scores KO1 in Chicago”

Late money is going on WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, who is now a -350 favorite over Luis Ortiz +275 tonight at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. In the co-feature on that card, Jose Uzcategui is -210 to dethrone current IBF interim super middleweight beltholder Andre Dirrell +175.

Across the river in Manhattan, WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev is -2000 vs. Igor Mikhalkin +1000 and WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol is -900 vs. Sullivan Barrera +550.

In Sheffield, England, former world champion Kell Brook is a -2000 favorite vs. Sergey Rabchenko +1000. Brook is now campaigning at super welterweight.

Odds courtesy thegreek.com.

Tonight HBO and Showtime go head-to-head. Not only that, two major world championship cards are talking place at the same time at venues just 5.7 miles apart in New York City.

Wilder came in super light for tonight’s clash against Otiz. This is a very intriguing matchup. Later this month, WBA/IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua meets WBO king Joseph Parker, plus we have Dillian Whyte vs. Lucas Browne, Alexander Povetkin vs. David Price and Andy Ruiz vs. Devin Vargas.

March is shaping up as a helluva month for heavyweight boxing.

William Silva 134 vs. Rogelio Casarez 135
(NBA World/IBO Continental lightweight titles)

Antonio Tarver Jr 161 vs. Carlos Dixon 159.8
Nick Iannuzzi 195.8 vs. Lamarcus Tucker 200.1
Ricky Tomlinson 124.8 vs. Ernest Hall 125
Joseph Fernandez 145.8 vs. Clifford Gray 154.2*
Joseph White 241.4 vs. Rodriquez Cade 274.8
Ozodbek Aripov 151.8 vs. Chaklit Ali Redwood 152.8

*Fernandez-Gray bout cancelled by the Florida State Athletic Commission due to weight discrepancy

Promoter: Fire Fist Boxing Promotions
Venue: Banquet Masters Clearwater, FL
First Fight: 7 PM
Broadcast: Fite.tv

Photos: Pablo Lozano Reyes

In a bantamweight clash between former world title challengers, David “El Severo” Carmona (21-5-5, 9 KOs) scored a punishing fourth round KO over Jesús “El Azul” Iribe (20-11-5, 10 KOs) on Friday night at the Auditorio Blackberry in Mexico City.

Carmona dropped Iribe twice round two, but Iribe weathered the storm. The bout was stopped in round four after Carmona sent Uribe to the canvas again. Time was 1:04. Carmona claimed the WBC Latino belt with the win. “I think this victory serves to make clear that we learned the lesson, now I want a third fight against Daniel “Daniel “El Alacrán” Lozano. Last time I gave him a rematch without thinking about it. Now I want us to have a third fight,” said Carmona.

Photos