Junior Middleweight: 2014, Mar 17-23
Saturday in Liverpool, Kell Brook put on a bit of a show against Mexican gatekeeper Alvaro Robles. He never scored a knockdown on the tough brawler, but piled up enough punishment by the 8th round that it forced a Mexican corner to throw in the towel- no easy task. Robles’ attack was effective in spots, and he did some good sporadic body work, in particular. He just didn’t have the base skill level to maintain that attack over time against a high-class operator like Brook.
Across the pond in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, gatekeeper Ed Paredes easily took care of low-level New Jersey journeyman George Sosa with a second round TKO on the non-televised Garcia-Herrera undercard.
The same night in Sao Paolo, Brazil, undefeated local prospect Patrick Teixeira got a knockout win over low-level journeyman Ignacio Lucero. He didn’t look particularly good to me. Lucero was backing him up consistently despite appearing significantly smaller. The knockout punch appeared to be a glancing shot, and yet Lucero would have us believe he was out cold from his reaction. I’m suspicious of, at least, Lucero’s will to win.
No changes, as Brook is still just barely unable to overcome Guido Pitto to claim a ranking. Dan’s Top 20 (Weeks in Current Position-Weeks in Top 10 if applicable-Weeks in Top 20) Champ: None 1) Saul Alvarez (2-159-174) Last Fight: 3/8/2014- TKO10 #10 Alfredo Angulo Next Fight: Unknown It’s a very soupy division, with a lot of action at the top, but a few paradoxes, especially with the way I saw some close fights. You could make an argument, I think, for Alvarez to be ranked anywhere between #1 and #5. 2) Carlos Molina (2-141-156) Last Fight: 9/14/2013- W (SD12) vs. #5 Ishe Smith Next Fight: Unknown We found out some pretty bad info about Molina’s past when he was arrested on past warrants and detained for illegal immigration following an apparent deportation from several years ago. His fight with Jermall Charlo was cancelled, and Molina’s immediate future in the sport is up in the air. 3) Erislandy Lara (2-141-163) Last Fight: 12/7/2013- UD12 #4 Austin Trout Next Fight: 5/2/2014- vs. #6 Ishe Smith Mayweather says that his protege Smith will be fighting Lara on May 2, the day before Mayweather-Maidana. 4) Floyd Mayweather, Jr. (2-27-27) Last Fight: 9/14/2013- W* (MD12) vs. #2 Saul Alvarez Next Fight: 5/3/2014- vs. #4 WW Marcos Maidana (at WW) Floyd will fight Maidana rather than Khan. Thank goodness. 5) Austin Trout (15-94-163) Last Fight: 12/7/2013- L (UD12) vs. #5 Erislandy Lara Next Fight: Unknown Trout might be getting to that unfortunate position of having a record underwhelming enough to be low-reward, while still being easily skilled enough to be high-risk. He says essentially that he wants worthwhile fights in 2014, rather than a soft diet for rebuilding purposes. 6) Ishe Smith (27-56-56) Last Fight: 9/14/2013- L (SD12) vs. #1 Carlos Molina Next Fight: 5/2/2014- vs. #3 Erislandy Lara See Lara’s notes, above. 7) Anthony Mundine (16-16-16) Last Fight: 1/29/2014- UD10 Gunnar Jackson (UNR) (at MW) Next Fight: 4/2/2014- vs. Joshua Clottey (UNR) Mundine will be fighting Joshua Clottey on April 2, and wants a fight with Lara after that. 8) Miguel Cotto (16-198-198) Last Fight: 10/5/2013- TKO3 #11 Delvin Rodriguez Next Fight: 6/7/2014- vs. MW Champ Sergio Martinez (at MW) Cotto and Martinez have now officially agreed to a Middleweight Championship fight on June 7 at MSG. 9) Cornelius Bundrage (16-189-189) Last Fight: 1/24/2014- UD12 Joey Hernandez (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown K9 was the mandatory for the Molina-Charlo winner. With that fight at least postponed, it’s unclear what will happen next. 10) Alfredo Angulo (16-234-234) Last Fight: 3/8/2014- L (TKO10) vs. #4 Saul Alvarez Next Fight: Unknown Angulo could probably use a fight with a gatekeeper or low level fringe contender just to get his career momentum going. 11) Sergey Rabchenko (16-92) Last Fight: 11/16/2013- UD12 Bradley Pryce (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Apparently reports that Rabchenko had dumped his Euro belt were premature. His promoter, Ricky Hatton, is saying that he is waiting on a date to fight Italy’s Emanuele Della Rosa for that title. He’s also ranked #1 by the WBC, so with Mayweather apparently going back down to 147, he hopes to fight for a vacant alphabet belt after that. 12) Javier Maciel (16-21) Last Fight: 10/26/2013- Robbery L (SD12) vs. #14 Brian Rose Next Fight: Unknown After the blog “A Puro Boxeo” reported that Maciel would be fighting Baysangurov on March 15, there’s been no mention of that fight anywhere else, and it doesn’t appear on Boxrec’s schedule. I have to assume it’s off, or that the reporting was incorrect to begin with. 13) Demetrius Andrade (16-19) Last Fight: 11/9/2013- W* (SD12) vs. #13 Vanes Martirosyan Next Fight: Unknown Date- vs. #19 Brian Rose Andrade and Rose have agreed to fight in the US, with June 14 now likely. 14) Delvin Rodriguez (16-140) Last Fight: 10/5/2013- L (TKO3) vs. #7 Miguel Cotto Next Fight: Unknown Rodriguez appears to be solid against borderline top-10 types (see Wolak), but completely out of his depth at just a tad higher level. 15) Vanes Martirosyan (16-146) Last Fight: 11/9/2013- L* (SD12) vs. Demetrius Andrade (UNR) Next Fight: 3/21/2014- vs. Mario Lozano (UNR) Vanes has signed with a new promoter, and will debut under the Goossen-Tutor banner on March 21st’s Friday Night Fights broadcast. He was initially slated to fight the solid Luciano Cuello, but he’ll settle for mid-level journeyman Mario Lozano after Cuello pulled out over money. 16) Jermell Charlo (8-41) Last Fight: 1/25/2014- UD10 Gabriel Rosado (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Charlo let Rosado back into the fight late, but overall was very impressive against a battle-tested opponent. 17) Gabriel Rosado (8-8) Last Fight: 1/25/2014- L (UD10) vs. #18 Jermell Charlo Next Fight: Unknown Atrocious judges and a fragile eyelid have helped put Rosado’s career more or less in tatters. 18) Willie Nelson (8-55) Last Fight: 6/29/2013- UD10 Luciano Cuello (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown It appears that Nelson-Kirkland has become a casualty of Gennady Golovkin’s withdrawal from the planned 4/26 HBO main event. No word on Nelson’s next move. 19) Brian Rose (8-52) Last Fight: 10/26/2013- Robbery W (Draw at best) vs. Javier Maciel (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown See Andrade’s notes, above. 20) Guido Pitto (8-14) Last Fight: 10/26/2013- L* (UD12) vs. #20 Jack Culcay Next Fight: Unknown
The Week Ahead: Monday Julian Williams vs. Freddy Hernandez; Boston, Massachusetts; FS1 (US) Williams is an undefeated Golden Boy prospect who is already pretty well-established in the division, and might even be rated if he had made 154 for any of his significant wins. He did so for his recent fight with Hugo Centeno, but Centeno begged out of that fight with a cut before 4 rounds had been complete, after getting his butt handed to him for the first 3 plus. Hernandez was once a respected gatekeeper, but he’s lost his last 4 and is probably better viewed as a mid-to-upper level journeyman at this point.
Friday Vanes Martirosyan vs. Mario Lozano; Cabazon, California; ESPN2 (US) Vanes was originally set to fight Argentine tough guy Luciano Cuello, but that fight quickly fell apart. Martirosyan will instead be headlining the Friday Nights broadcast almost all by himself, as Mexico’s Lozano is a confirmed mid-level journeyman, and very little threat. His crowning achievement is a 2012 decision over a journeyman brother of Canelo.
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