Junior Middleweight: 2012, Oct 8-14
#18 Brian Rose came in a pound heavy on Friday, and knocked out smaller journeyman Vivian Harris just over halfway through the 3rd round.
The following night in Kiev, Ukraine, #15 Lukas Konecny dominated but was blatantly robbed in Kiev against heavily propped-up fringe contender Zaurbek Baysangurov. Baysangurov incredibly came in as the WBO titlist, having inherited that title via a set of circumstances that I still can’t quite figure out. Essentially reigning titlist Sergiy Dzinziruk decided to take a couple years off, so they set Baysangurov up with a very mediocre journeyman named Mike Miranda for what somehow qualified as the interim title. It was basically a coronation, rather than a fight, as Miranda was nowhere close to being a top 100 fighter, even. But then Baysangurov took almost a year off, himself, and Lukas Konecny similarly was given an interim belt for beating a journeyman. But somewhere along the way, ZB was awarded the full belt, which he defended with a dubious decision over prospect Michel Soro. Konecny’s interim belt apparently gave him what amounted to a mandatory shot.
So that gets us to this fight. What happened? Well, Konecny came out strong, beating Baysangurov to the punch, backing him up, basically imposing his will, while Baysangurov stood straight up, trying and occasionally succeeding to hold his ground, while slapping away with ridiculously unorthodox arm punches that appeared to have no effect whatsoever on Konecny. Baysangurov won, at most, 3 rounds. He only clearly won one. And yet the disgusting crooks paid by the Ukrainian commission (and likely by someone in Baysangurov’s camp) to judge the fight scored it 117-111 (Matteo Montella), 118-110 (Lahcen Oumghar), and 119-109 (Mickey Vann). And those are reasonable scores, IF YOU GIVE THEM TO THE RIGHT GUY! But of course, they all had it backwards. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the fact that Konecny has a trademark giant garish tattoo covering his back, I’d assume that each judge was confused as to which guy was which.
Montella and Vann are both known offenders. Vann’s resume can be summarized as follows: Huck-Arslan and Hernandez-Ross. He had the wrong guy winning both of those. He also scored Sturm-Soliman for Soliman, which was stretching the bounds of reason, as well. He’s basically England’s answer to John McKaie and Don Ackerman. Just awful. Montella- unless it was a mistake by Boxrec- was going all-out to rob Hakhim Zoulikha against Robert Woge before Woge took matters into his own hands and scored a knockout. There were 8 clear rounds in the fight, and Montella had apparently gotten 7 of them wrong.
Baysangurov lost the fight. No doubt. And what’s become clear is that “Zaurbek Baysangurov, Titlist, Contender,” and virtually every other positive persona you could attach to him, is a fictional character created by the Klitschko brothers, the WBO, and a slew of likely corrupt judges.
Konecny advances one spot to #14, displacing Vanes Martirosyan. Meanwhile, Baysangurov continues to be a titlist despite not being a top 25 fighter in my opinion. Rose stays where he is.
Dan’s Top 20 (Weeks in Current Position-Weeks in Top 10 if applicable-Weeks in Top 20) Champ: None 1) Saul Alvarez (23-84-99) Last Fight: 9/15/2012- TKO5 WW#? Josesito Lopez Next Fight: Unknown After some (literally) light work against Lopez, Canelo is considering Kirkland in December, and hoping for Mayweather or Cotto on May 4. The WBC plans to make him fight the Vanes vs. Lara winner in 2013. 2) Carlos Molina (23-66-81) Last Fight: 8/17/2012- UD10 Damian Frias (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown 3) Cornelius Bundrage (29-114-114) Last Fight: 6/30/2012- TKO7 #11 Cory Spinks Next Fight: Unknown Bundrage may fight Andre Berto on November 24. 4) Floyd Mayweather, Jr. (23-23-23) Last Fight: 5/5/2012- UD12* #4 Miguel Cotto Next Fight: Unknown Floyd may be looking to fight Pacquiao in April. But we’ve heard this before, and it wouldn’t even be as enticing this time after his so-so performance against Bradley and robbery win over Marquez. 5) Miguel Cotto (23-123-123) Last Fight: 5/5/2012- L* (UD12) vs. WW #1 Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Next Fight: 12/1/2012- vs. #8 Austin Trout Cotto fights Austin Trout December 1 at Madison Square Garden. 6) Erislandy Lara (23-66-88) Last Fight: 6/30/2012- UD10 Freddy Hernandez (UNR) Next Fight: 11/10/2012- vs. #15 Vanes Martirosyan After months of speculation, Lara-Martirosyan is finally on, November 10 in Vegas, with the winner to get a mandatory shot at Canelo. The fight will be shown on HBO. 7) James Kirkland (23-49-49) Last Fight: 3/24/2012- W*(DQ10) vs. #6 Carlos Molina (Robbery) Next Fight: Unknown Kirkland is apparently having managerial problems, but may be in position for a Canelo fight in December. 8) Austin Trout (19-19-88) Last Fight: 6/2/2012- UD12 #13 Delvin Rodriguez Next Fight: 12/1/2012- vs. #5 Miguel Cotto See Cotto’s notes, above. 9) Alfredo Angulo (19-159-159) Last Fight: 11/5/2011- L (TKO6) vs. James Kirkland (UNR) Next Fight: 11/10/2012- vs. Raul Casarez (UNR) After what must have been a nightmarish 8 months in a detention center for very little reason, Angulo has already got a fight scheduled, against journeyman Raul Casarez on November 10, and he reportedly may hire Virgil Hunter as trainer. 10) Gabriel Rosado (20-20-88) Last Fight: 9/21/2012- TKO10 Charles Whittaker (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown With Angulo back in action, Rosado may be looking for a rematch. 11) Cory Spinks (17-37) 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 (17-17) Last Fight: 6/16/2012- TKO7 #11 Ryan Rhodes Next Fight: 11/24/2012- vs. Cedric Vitu (UNR) Rabchenko will fight one-loss French prospect Cedric Vitu on November 24 in Manchester, England. 13) Delvin Rodriguez (20-65) Last Fight: 6/2/2012- L (UD12) vs. #12 Austin Trout Next Fight: Unknown 14) Lukas Konecny (1-61) Last Fight: 10/6/2012- L* (UD12) vs. Zaurbek Baysangurov (UNR) (Robbery) Next Fight: Unknown Konecny all but dominated Baysangurov, but walked away with one of the worst robbery losses I’ve ever seen. 15) Vanes Martirosyan (1-71) Last Fight: 2/4/2012- TKO3 Troy Lowry (UNR) Next Fight: 11/10/2012- vs. #6 Erislandy Lara See Lara’s notes, above. 16) Carlos Quintana (18-23) 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) Sechew Powell (5-134) Last Fight: 6/1/2012- L (TKO9) vs. #10 Gabriel Rosado Next Fight: Unknown 18) Brian Rose (5-45) Last Fight: 10/5/2012- KO3 Vivian Harris (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Another very mediocre opponent for Rose, but at least this time he took care of business. 19) Roberto Garcia (5-18) Last Fight: 3/23/2012- UD10 Antwone Smith (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown 20) Anthony Mundine (5-5) Last Fight: 7/14/2012- TKO7 Bronco McKart (at MW) Next Fight: Unknown
The Week Ahead: Monday in Tokyo, gatekeeper Akio Shibata defends his Japanese title against high-quality journeyman Yoshihisa Tonimura.
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