Junior Middleweight: 2012, Jul 2-8
#3 Cornelius Bundrage defended his alphabet title with a rematch against #11 Cory Spinks in Indio, California on Saturday. The fight went mostly according to script. Spinks held his own with his boxing skill than was the case in their 2010 fight, which was a one-sided beating from start to finish. He managed to nab a couple rounds against the crude mauling style of Bundrage, but ultimately he lost by TKO in the 7th round for the same reason he lost a couple rounds earlier the first time around. He simply couldn’t handle the strength and power of Bundrage enough to keep him off and make it a boxing match. Bundrage closed the show impressively with 3 knockdowns in the final round.
On the undercard, #6 Erislandy Lara went the distance with prospect/gatekeeper ‘tweener Freddy Hernandez, mostly dominating the fight. Hernandez won the 3rd round- which Lara appeared to take off- but clearly lost everything else. This despite the fact that Lara fought a more amateur style than he did in his most recent notable fight against Williams (or certainly his destruction of Ronald Hearns). After all, Lara was one hell of an amateur. Judge Thomas Taylor didn’t notice the round that Hernandez clearly won, only taking off one point, as mandated by the referee for a rather dirty Lara headbutt. Fritz Werner was dead-on at 98-91, while David Denkin was atrociously and suspendably bad at 95-94. Both guys were a hair over the junior middleweight limit. This isn’t a big deal in terms of how the fight will affect the two fighters rankings, except that Lara will not have made said limit for a year as of the end of this week. In keeping with my established rules, he has bought himself an additional 6 months to make weight by missing it by less than 2 pounds.
Despite 2 important fights going down, the fact that both went as expected means in this case that no changes will occur in the rankings. Spinks risked only his health by rematching Bundrage, since he had already lost to a much more lightly regarded version, and the loss does not change the fact that he still has a better resume than #12 Sergey Rabchenko. Bundrage’s reinforcement of his earlier win over a more highly-regarded version of Spinks likewise is not sufficient to propel him past Molina, who has defeated or clearly deserved to defeat a #3 and #7 contender in his last two major fights.
Dan’s Top 20 (Weeks in Current Position-Weeks in Top 10 if applicable-Weeks in Top 20) Champ: None 1) Saul Alvarez (9-70-85) Last Fight: 5/5/2012- UD12 Shane Mosley (UNR) Next Fight: 9/15/2012- vs. Unknown Opponent After Josesito Lopez upset Victor Ortiz, Alvarez is looking for a fourth scheduled opponent for his 9/15 date. Trout and Quintana are being considered, and it also may be possible that Lopez could be asked to move up 2 weight classes over his natural weight, as well. There are also rumors of Marcos Maidana, who himself only recently moved up to 147. 2) Carlos Molina (9-52-67) Last Fight: 3/23/2012- L*(DQ10) vs. #3 James Kirkland (Robbery) Next Fight: Unknown Molina has said he’ll appeal his DQ against Kirkland. 3) Cornelius Bundrage (15-100-100) Last Fight: 6/30/2012- TKO7 #11 Cory Spinks Next Fight: Unknown After removing whatever irrational doubt may have existed by dispatching Cory Spinks for a second time, Bundrage is hoping to secure a fight with Canelo. 4) Floyd Mayweather, Jr. (9-9-9) Last Fight: 5/5/2012- UD12* #4 Miguel Cotto Next Fight: Unknown Floyd says he’s considering retirement after a tough fight with Cotto. But more recently, future fights against Pacquiao, Canelo, Khan, Cotto, Guerrero, and Ortiz have been mentioned. Of course Floyd is now in jail. 5) Miguel Cotto (9-109-109) Last Fight: 5/5/2012- L* (UD12) vs. WW #1 Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Next Fight: Unknown Cotto may be back on December 1, and he says it may be at 160. 6) Erislandy Lara (9-52-74) Last Fight: 6/30/2012- UD10 Freddy Hernandez (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Lara dominated Hernandez, and should be looking to follow up his Williams win with other guys on that level. 7) James Kirkland (9-35-35) Last Fight: 3/24/2012- W*(DQ10) vs. #6 Carlos Molina (Robbery) Next Fight: Unknown Kirkland bailed almost immediately on a fight he signed with Canelo, and says he plans to return in October or November. 8) Austin Trout (5-5-74) Last Fight: 6/2/2012- UD12 #13 Delvin Rodriguez Next Fight: Unknown Trout is among those being considered to tangle with Canelo on 9/15, but the WBC is trying to shoot down that excellent alphabet unification fight. 9) Alfredo Angulo (5-145-145) Last Fight: 11/5/2011- L (TKO6) vs. James Kirkland (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Troubling news. Angulo has been detained by US authorities since at least January. Apparently his only crime was being here on an expired Visa. Don’t get me wrong. I’m in favor of enforcing immigration laws, but to lock a guy up for months on end without so much as a trial? Awful. We’re rooting for you, Perro. 10) Gabriel Rosado (6-6-74) Last Fight: 6/1/2013- TKO9 #19 Sechew Powell Next Fight: Unknown Rosado still wants Canelo, though Canelo isn’t considering him as an option at present. 11) Cory Spinks (3-23) Last Fight: 6/30/2012- L (TKO7) vs. #3 Cornelius Bundrage Next Fight: Unknown Spinks failed to revenge his ugly 2010 TKO loss to Bundrage, but managed to look a little better and capture a round or two this time. 12) Sergey Rabchenko (3-3) Last Fight: 6/16/2012- TKO7 #11 Ryan Rhodes Next Fight: Unknown Rabchenko is likely to defend his European title against France’s Cedric Vitu in his next fight. 13) Delvin Rodriguez (6-51) Last Fight: 6/2/2012- L (UD12) vs. #12 Austin Trout Next Fight: Unknown 14) Vanes Martirosyan (4-57) Last Fight: 2/4/2012- TKO3 Troy Lowry (UNR) Next Fight: 7/7/2012- vs. Ryan Davis (UNR) Vanes’ pointless scheduled fight with journeyman Ryan Davis is in doubt, as he now says (against his normal character) that he’d like to go direct to a fight with Canelo. 15) Lukas Konecny (4-47) Last Fight: 4/5/2012- TKO7 Salim Larbi (UNR) Next Fight: 10/27/2012- vs. Zaurbek Baysangurov (UNR) Konecny-Baysangurov will finally happen- October 27 in Kiev. 16) Carlos Quintana (4-9) Last Fight: 5/5/2012- TKO6 Deandre Latimore (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Quintana said he wanted Canelo in the immediate aftermath of his upset TKO of Deandre Latimore, and has since expressed interest in Cotto and Trout, as well. 17) Ryan Rhodes (3-141) Last Fight: 6/16/2012- L (TKO7) vs. Sergey Rabchenko (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Rhodes says he has no plans to retire after losing to Rabchenko. 18) Sechew Powell (3-120) Last Fight: 6/1/2012- L (TKO9) vs. #10 Gabriel Rosado Next Fight: Unknown 19) Brian Rose (3-31) Last Fight: 6/2/2012- W* (UD12) vs. Kris Carslaw (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Rose’s reign as British Champion hasn’t been the greatest- partly due to limited available opposition, and partly due to his own awful performance against Carslaw. 20) Roberto Garcia (3-4) Last Fight: 3/23/2012- UD10 Antwone Smith (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown
The Week Ahead: #14 Vanes Martirosyan may or may not be fighting journeyman Ryan Davis in Carson, California on Saturday’s Pavlik-Rosinsky undercard. He has expressed interest in skipping the pointless fight and concentrating on a possible 9/15 challenge of Canelo, who is currently in search of a new opponent.
More or less simultaneously and just a half-hour away in Costa Mesa, Jesus Soto Karass gets a showcase opportunity against Dominican journeyman (or more generously, fringe prospect) Euri Gonzalez. Gonzalez has two losses, but they came against an up-and-coming Saul Alvarez and an undefeated prospect.
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