Last Week: Two Charlos for the Price of One
Last Week: Two Charlos for the Price of One
By Jonathan SnowdenSaturday night in Las Vegas was designed to bring a degree of clarity to the Junior Middleweight ranks. Five fighters ranked within the t
By Jonathan Snowden
Saturday night in Las Vegas was designed to bring a degree of clarity to the Junior Middleweight ranks.
Five fighters ranked within the top 10 of the division took part in three separate bouts. The hope was that by matching them against one another, someone, anyone, would emerge with a star making performance. Instead, and somewhat predictably, the waters are as muddied as ever.
The night's big winner, and its biggest loser, was Erilsandy Lara (23-2-2, 13 KOs). The Cuban technician beat Vanes Martirosyan (36-3-1, 21 KOs) in a rematch of a bout no one was clamoring to see run back.
Lara’s performances have made him few fans—and Saturday night showed why. He again managed to outbox Martirosyan, but Vanes made the fight much closer in the eyes of the crowd and outside observers by effectively punching to the body and being the more active man in the ring. Lara’s counter punching and less than crowd pleasing style was still enough to get him to the finish line but he'll never cross it into stardom.
In the post fight interview, Showtime’s translator ignored Lara’s callout of Gennady Golovkin, the consensus top middleweight fighter who just so happens to fight on rival HBO. Instead they focused on a possible return bout with Canelo Alvarez. A Canelo rematch is enormously unlikely at this point, while a Golovkin fight seems entirely plausible and perhaps even reasonable. Lara could be sold as a dangerous opponent for Golovkin but political lines in the sand seem destined to prevent the possibility of the fight actually taking place.
-The night of fights on Showtime began with title bout for the vacant WBC 154 lb title. John Jackson (20-3, 15 KOs), a significant underdog, managed to make life exceedingly hard for Jermell Charlo by forcing him to walk forwards and awkwardly attempt to lead the exchanges. In doing so, Jackson exposed a significant hole in Jermell’s overall game, and was en route to stealing the fight on the score cards. In round 8, everything changed with a single right hand that damaged Jackson’s eye and set up the fight stopping blows. Going to 28-0 with 13 KOs, Jermell joined his brother as champion and promptly watched as his new mandatory challenger, Charles Hatley, managed to shove the wrong Charlo twin in a desperate attempt to hype up a future fight.
-That other Charlo, Jermall (24-0, 18 KOs), defended his IBF title in a closely contested fight against former world champ Austin Trout (30-3, 17 KOs). Trout certainly had his moments, and believed he was the rightful winner. His face, particularly a closed eye, said otherwise. Trout fought valiantly, but for many of the early rounds found himself on the wrong end of Jermall Charlo’s jab and right hand.
As the Showtime event ended, we left the junior middleweight class just as we found it. The Brothers Charlo won’t fight each other, and there seems to be no push for either to face Erislandy Lara. We are going nowhere, and it seems we are supposed to like it.
-Andrew Hernandez came into the ring in Downtown Las Vegas as a significant underdog to Arif Magomedov. As it turned out, he was good enough to effectively shut out and even drop the Russian middleweight, generating some turmoil in the sanctioning bodies along the way. Magomedov was ranked in the top 5 of the WBC, WBA, and WBO.
-A pair of hard punching brawlers managed to get 2nd round KOs: former world champ Ray Beltran demolished Ivan Najera Unimas’ Solo Boxeo, Over in Russia, Denis Lebedev took advantage of the opportunity to headline after Wilder/Povetkin was dissolved, defending his WBA Cruiserweight title in decisive fashion by forcing a stoppage of Victor Ramirez.
-For all out action, the big boys delivered via internet stream. Joseph Parker became the IBF Mandatory and solidified his position as WBO #1 contender in the heavyweight division by beating Carlos Takam in New Zealand. David Haye returned to his winning form with a 2nd round KO of Arnold Gjergjaj to set up another showcase with former linear and WBO heavyweight champ Shannon Briggs. And in the fight of the weekend (and a fight of the year candidate), Yunier Dorticos managed to come from behind and stop Youri Kalenga in a bombs-away cruiserweight contest out in Paris, France.
Saturday night in Las Vegas was designed to bring a degree of clarity to the Junior Middleweight ranks.
Five fighters ranked within the top 10 of the division took part in three separate bouts. The hope was that by matching them against one another, someone, anyone, would emerge with a star making performance. Instead, and somewhat predictably, the waters are as muddied as ever.
The night's big winner, and its biggest loser, was Erilsandy Lara (23-2-2, 13 KOs). The Cuban technician beat Vanes Martirosyan (36-3-1, 21 KOs) in a rematch of a bout no one was clamoring to see run back.
Lara’s performances have made him few fans—and Saturday night showed why. He again managed to outbox Martirosyan, but Vanes made the fight much closer in the eyes of the crowd and outside observers by effectively punching to the body and being the more active man in the ring. Lara’s counter punching and less than crowd pleasing style was still enough to get him to the finish line but he'll never cross it into stardom.
In the post fight interview, Showtime’s translator ignored Lara’s callout of Gennady Golovkin, the consensus top middleweight fighter who just so happens to fight on rival HBO. Instead they focused on a possible return bout with Canelo Alvarez. A Canelo rematch is enormously unlikely at this point, while a Golovkin fight seems entirely plausible and perhaps even reasonable. Lara could be sold as a dangerous opponent for Golovkin but political lines in the sand seem destined to prevent the possibility of the fight actually taking place.
Notes:
-The night of fights on Showtime began with title bout for the vacant WBC 154 lb title. John Jackson (20-3, 15 KOs), a significant underdog, managed to make life exceedingly hard for Jermell Charlo by forcing him to walk forwards and awkwardly attempt to lead the exchanges. In doing so, Jackson exposed a significant hole in Jermell’s overall game, and was en route to stealing the fight on the score cards. In round 8, everything changed with a single right hand that damaged Jackson’s eye and set up the fight stopping blows. Going to 28-0 with 13 KOs, Jermell joined his brother as champion and promptly watched as his new mandatory challenger, Charles Hatley, managed to shove the wrong Charlo twin in a desperate attempt to hype up a future fight.
-That other Charlo, Jermall (24-0, 18 KOs), defended his IBF title in a closely contested fight against former world champ Austin Trout (30-3, 17 KOs). Trout certainly had his moments, and believed he was the rightful winner. His face, particularly a closed eye, said otherwise. Trout fought valiantly, but for many of the early rounds found himself on the wrong end of Jermall Charlo’s jab and right hand.
As the Showtime event ended, we left the junior middleweight class just as we found it. The Brothers Charlo won’t fight each other, and there seems to be no push for either to face Erislandy Lara. We are going nowhere, and it seems we are supposed to like it.
-Andrew Hernandez came into the ring in Downtown Las Vegas as a significant underdog to Arif Magomedov. As it turned out, he was good enough to effectively shut out and even drop the Russian middleweight, generating some turmoil in the sanctioning bodies along the way. Magomedov was ranked in the top 5 of the WBC, WBA, and WBO.
-A pair of hard punching brawlers managed to get 2nd round KOs: former world champ Ray Beltran demolished Ivan Najera Unimas’ Solo Boxeo, Over in Russia, Denis Lebedev took advantage of the opportunity to headline after Wilder/Povetkin was dissolved, defending his WBA Cruiserweight title in decisive fashion by forcing a stoppage of Victor Ramirez.
-For all out action, the big boys delivered via internet stream. Joseph Parker became the IBF Mandatory and solidified his position as WBO #1 contender in the heavyweight division by beating Carlos Takam in New Zealand. David Haye returned to his winning form with a 2nd round KO of Arnold Gjergjaj to set up another showcase with former linear and WBO heavyweight champ Shannon Briggs. And in the fight of the weekend (and a fight of the year candidate), Yunier Dorticos managed to come from behind and stop Youri Kalenga in a bombs-away cruiserweight contest out in Paris, France.