Junior Middleweight: 2014, Mar 24-30
Undefeated prospect Julian Williams destroyed name journeyman Freddy Hernandez on Monday in Boston, knocking the veteran down in the first and never giving up his edge. He won the 2nd clearly without a knockdown, and then caught his opponent with a nice sneaky left hook as Hernandez fell into a clinch in the 3rd to put him down for the count.
#15 Vanes Martirosyan won every round on every card (I actually gave him only 9 of the 10) and dropped his opponent in the 2nd round en route to a dominant 10 round decision on Friday Night Fights over Mexican journeyman Alberto Lozano. Lozano tried hard, but lacked the timing that could have given him an occasional edge on the Armenian fringe contender. The reason I say that better timing could have been critical is that Vanes looked like kind of a novice, considering his vast experience, by frequently jumping in on his opponent and bouncing excessively on the outside. A better opponent would have caught him hard and often.
Neither favorite was in deep enough to affect his ranking, so 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) Saul Alvarez (3-160-175) 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 (3-142-157) 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 (3-142-164) 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. (3-28-28) 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 (16-95-164) 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 (28-57-57) 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 (17-17-17) 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 (17-199-199) 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 (17-190-190) 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 (17-235-235) 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 (17-93) Last Fight: 11/16/2013- UD12 Bradley Pryce (UNR) Next Fight: 5/17/2014- vs. Emanuele Della Rosa (UNR) Rabchenko will defend his European belt in Rome on May 17 against a local prospect, and is hoping for a shot at a vacant alphabet belt after that. 12) Javier Maciel (17-22) Last Fight: 10/26/2013- Robbery L (SD12) vs. #14 Brian Rose Next Fight: Unknown Maciel wants to fight Billi Godoy or Sebastian Heiland, saying he has no problem moving up to 160. 13) Demetrius Andrade (17-20) Last Fight: 11/9/2013- W* (SD12) vs. #13 Vanes Martirosyan Next Fight: 6/12/2014- vs. #19 Brian Rose Andrade and Rose have agreed to fight in the US, with a date of June 12. 14) Delvin Rodriguez (17-141) 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 (17-147) Last Fight: 3/21/2014- UD10 Mario Lozano (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Vanes successfully stayed busy against Lozano. I’m not sure what his endgame is. 16) Jermell Charlo (9-42) Last Fight: 1/25/2014- UD10 Gabriel Rosado (UNR) Next Fight: 5/2/2014- vs. Unknown Opponent Charlo is back on the Lara-Smith undercard in Vegas, apparently in an eliminator. 17) Gabriel Rosado (9-9) 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 (9-56) Last Fight: 6/29/2013- UD10 Luciano Cuello (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown The once-delayed fight with Kirkland is apparently in the works to headline a May 24 HBO card. 19) Brian Rose (9-53) Last Fight: 10/26/2013- Robbery W (Draw at best) vs. Javier Maciel (UNR) Next Fight: 6/12/2014- vs. #13 Demetrius Andrade See Andrade’s notes, above. 20) Guido Pitto (9-15) Last Fight: 10/26/2013- L* (UD12) vs. #20 Jack Culcay Next Fight: 4/12/2014- vs. Zaurbek Baysangurov (UNR) The fight was difficult to make due to Ukrainian turmoil and originally involved Javier Maciel, but Pitto is now slated to fight Baysangurov on April 12.
The Week Ahead: Friday Sasha Yengoyan vs. Ayoub Nefzi; Gent, Belgium; TV Unknown Nefzi, of Tunisia, is a career mid-level journeyman. Yengoyan is a Belgian native and a one-loss prospect.
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