Dan's Weekly Boxer Rankings and Blog

A bit of a bizarre ending capped off what was shaping up as a a very interesting fight in Concordia, Argentina on Saturday. 

 

First, let me describe the fighters, both Argentinians.  Alejandro Valori is a 3-loss, powerfully built fringe contender who rose from relative obscurity to the top of the South American scene with a TKO win over former alphabet challenger Rogelio Rossi in July.  He normally fights as a full cruiserweight, but cut a great deal of weight to meet the typically lighter Ahumada at a 176.25 catchweight this time around.

 

Ahumada is an undefeated southpaw prospect, yet to be tested, who is extremely tall and wiry.  Basically all arms and legs.  He fights in one of the craziest styles you’ll ever see.  He literally winds up his punches behind him before flinging them out the recklessly and with all his might.  He has no pretense of defense, but looks to take his opponent’s head off if he can.

 

Now to the fight itself.  The first minute or so was very much a feeling out process.  But then Ahumada caught Valori standing in front a bit near the ropes, and delivered a long and flush overhand left that sent the normally larger Valori knocked heavily to his back.  After Valori rose to his feet, Ahumada continued his brazen attack, throwing haymakers from various angles that moved Valori even when they failed to land.  Finally, Ahumada caught Valori falling in with a winding uppercut that put the more experienced man down for a second time.  In the Argentine scoring system, the resulting 10-7 deficit is even more significant, since about half the rounds scored between well-matched fighters are scored 10-9.5.  Valori, then, could have needed to win as many as 6 rounds just to draw even.

 

Valori did win the second round, I thought, in that fashion, and won the third on my card by a 10-9 margin.  Then came the 4th.  The two fighters’ heads came together near the corner, sending Ahumada for an appointment with the ringside physician.  What happened next is not entirely clear to me.  The fight was declared a TKO victory for Valori.  This was reminiscent of the first Dawson-Hopkins fight, where Pat Russell ruled Dawson the TKO winnner after Hopkins sustained an apparent shoulder injury in a fall precipitated by a Dawson shove.  I can scarcely understand Spanish, and thus was unable to ascertain the details of the goings-on in the ring, but I can only guess that the doctor declared Ahumada fit to continue, but the fighter himself chose not to do so.  I rather think that if the result mattered in my rankings, I would treat it as a no contest, if only because a headbutt scored while behind in the fight hardly justifies the trappings of victory.  As it is, a victory over the unproven Ahumada is of no import to Valori’s resume, and thus the effect is nil.  No changes this week.

 

Dan’s Top 20 (weeks in current position-weeks in top 10 (if applicable)-weeks in top 20)

Champ: None

1) Denis Lebedev (26-162-162)

Last Fight: 12/17/2012- KO4 Santander Silgado (UNR)

Next Fight: 5/17/2013- vs. Guillermo Jones (UNR)

Lebedev will be fighting inactive titlist Guillermo Jones near Moscow on May 17.

2) Yoan Pablo Hernandez (26-142-142)

Last Fight: 9/15/2012- W*(UD12) vs. #20 Troy Ross

Next Fight: Unknown

Hernandez pulled out of his scheduled 2/2 fight with Eric Fields with a fractured hand.

3) Troy Ross (26-26-58)

Last Fight: 9/15/2012- L*(UD12) vs. #1 Yoan Pablo Hernandez

Next Fight: Unknown

Ross deserved to beat Hernandez.

4) Ola Afolabi (5-209-209)

Last Fight: 5/5/2012- Draw* (MD12) vs. #4 Marco Huck

Next Fight: 5/11/2013- vs. #7 Marco Huck

Originally scheduled for May 25, the Huck-Afolabi trilogy fight is now on for May 11 in Hannover, Germany.

5) Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (5-403-403)

Last Fight: 9/22/2012- UD12 #13 Francisco Palacios

Next Fight: Unknown
After Mormeck withdrew with injury, Wlodarczyk has a fight with Fragomeni on the horizon, but probably after a voluntary defense.

6) Firat Arslan (5-44-87)

Last Fight: 11/3/2012- L*(UD12) vs. #5 Marco Huck (Robbery)

Next Fight: Unknown

A rematch with Huck might be in the offing for the summer, but there’s plenty that can happen between now and then.

7) Marco Huck (5-327-327)

Last Fight: 11/3/2012- W*(UD12) vs. #10 Firat Arslan (Robbery)

Next Fight: 5/25/2013- vs. #4 Ola Afolabi

See Afolabi’s notes, above.

8) Lateef Kayode (5-41-121)

Last Fight: 6/2/2012- Draw (SD12) vs. ‘Roided up #3 Antonio Tarver

Next Fight: Unknown

All indications are that Kayode will next fight at heavyweight, but the plan to get him in the ring in February obviously didn’t work.

9) Danny Green (5-18-171)

Last Fight: 11/21/2012- UD12 Shane Cameron (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

As has been the case after every fight since he had very serious surgery a couple years ago, there is speculation that Green may retire following his win over Shane Cameron.  Green himself remains non-committal.

10) B.J. Flores (5-5-142)

Last Fight: 10/6/2012- TKO2 David McNemar (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

Flores says on Twitter that he’ll be fighting for a title in May, and has a contract almost signed.  No word yet on the details.

11) Giacobbe Fragomeni (5-226)

Last Fight: 12/15/2012- W*(SD12) vs. #13 Silvio Branco

Next Fight: Unknown

After limping to back-to-back tossup fights with the painfully old Silvio Branco, Fragomeni is now looking to step up to what would have to be seen as a cash-out trilogy fight with the much better Krzysztof Wlodarczyk.

12) Silvio Branco (5-52)

Last Fight: 12/15/2012- L*(SD12) vs. #12 Giacobbe Fragomeni

Next Fight: Unknown

Branco can still hang with whippersnappers like 43 year-old countryman Fragomeni, but you’ve gotta think his active days are numbered at 46.

13) Alexander Alekseev (3-113)

Last Fight: 2/22/2013- UD12* Garrett Wilson (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

Alekseev barely squeaked by after building an early lead against Wilson, but it’s still an improvement from his previous fight.

14) Mateusz Masternak (3-50)

Last Fight: 12/15/2012- UD12 Juho Haapoja (UNR)

Next Fight: 4/13/2013- vs. Jeremy Ouanna (UNR)

Masternak will be back on April 13, fighting French gatekeeper Jeremy Ouanna in Vienna.

15) Francisco Palacios (3-102)

Last Fight: 9/22/2012- L(UD12) vs. #7 Krzysztof Wlodarczyk

Next Fight: Unknown

Very little of note left on his resume after his should-be win over Wlodarczyk was neutralized by a close but clear loss to same, and with his win over Louis Azille over 5 years old now.

16) Thabiso Mchunu (5-18)

Last Fight: 11/10/2012- TKO5 #20 Danie Venter

Next Fight: Unknown

The promoter of Congolese prospect Ilunga Makabu has offered to fight Mchunu, but reportedly met with tepid interest from Mchunu’s camp.

17) Dmytro Kucher (5-37)

Last Fight: 12/22/2012- UD8 Willie Herring (UNR)

Next Fight: 3/21/2013- vs. Julio Cesar Dos Santos (UNR)

Kucher’s return is set for March 21 in Kiev against Brazilian journeyman Julio Cesar Dos Santos.

18) Enad Licina (5-142)

Last Fight: 11/10/2012- TKO2 Koeksal Orduhan

Next Fight: Unknown

19) Grigory Drozd (5-18)

Last Fight: 12/17/2012- UD12 Jean-Marc Monrose (UNR)

Next Fight: 6/8/2013- vs. Unknown Opponent

Drozd will apparently be fighting in an unpronounceable Russian town in early June, but no opponent has been named yet.  He suffered a hand injury in his last fight, and is on the shelf from training until April.

20) Pawel Glazewski (5-5)

Last Fight: 2/23/2013- UD10 Bartlomiej Grafka (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

It was with a bit of regret that I chose Glazewski to assume the #20 spot, as I expect him to campaign around the light heavyweight limit for the foreseeable future.

 

THE WEEK AHEAD:  Thursday in Kiev, #17 Dmytro Kucher is set to fight Brazilian mid-level journeyman Julio Cesar Dos Santos.

 

Saturday in Poland, borderline top 50 one-loss prospect Lukasz Janik is in against German journeyman Lars Buchholz.

This entry was posted on March 20, 2013 at 3:39 pm and is filed under Cruiserweight, Rankings with tags Alejandro Valori, Denis Lebedev, Dmytro Kucher, Krzysztof Wlodarczyk, Lukasz Janik, Ola Afolabi, Troy Ross, Yoan Pablo Hernandez. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.