Scorecard: Lara defends 154-pound title in lackluster win
— -- A roundup of the past week's notable boxing results from around the world:
Saturday at Las Vegas
Erislandy Lara W12 Vanes Martirosyan
Retains a junior middleweight title
Scores: 116-111 (twice), 115-112
Records: Lara (23-2-2, 13 KOs); Martirosyan (36-3-1, 21 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: From the moment this rematch was unfortunately made, expectations were for a bad, boring fight -- just like their first miserable encounter in a 2012 world title eliminator that ended, fittingly, in a technical draw after Martirosyan sustained a bad cut over his left eye in the ninth round and was unable to continue.
The sequel, headlining a Showtime tripleheader of 154-pound world title bouts, was nearly as bad the first fights because, as we learned four years ago, the styles of Lara, 33, the former Cuban amateur standout who defected and fights out of Houston, and Martirosyan, 30, the 2004 U.S. Olympian from Glendale, California, mesh about as well as coffee and garlic. It was another awful, albeit competitive fight Lara won on his slicker moves and Martirosyan's maddening inability to let his hands go when there were openings.
Head-butts were once again a factor and they began early when Lara wound up with swelling around his left eye from one in the second round. Lara, who retained his belt for the fourth time, ran less than he has in other fights but still moves a bit too much to make an enjoyable fight. When he did fight, he landed some good combinations and straight left hands out of his southpaw stance. Martirosyan's left hook and uppercut worked well (but he didn't throw enough of them) and he had a consistent and effective body attack. One of Martirosyan's body shots landed on Lara's belt line in the 11th round and referee Vic Drakulich inserted himself in the fight for no good reason and took a point that he shouldn't have from Martirosyan. Fortunately, it turned out not to impact the final result -- another victory for Lara in yet another awful fight.
Jermall Charlo W12 Austin Trout
Retains a junior middleweight title
Scores: 116-112 (twice), 115-113
Records: Charlo (24-0, 18 KOs); Trout (30-3, 17 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Charlo won his world title in September by third-round knockout of Cornelius "K9" Bundrage and defended it via fourth-round KO against "Silky" Wilky Campfort in November. But they are not on the same level as former titleholder Trout, 30, of Las Cruces, New Mexico, who owns a win against future Hall of Famer Miguel Cotto and came very close to beating Canelo Alvarez. So, Trout, who held a title from 2011 to 2013, represented Charlo's most significant opponent so far and Charlo handled the assignment quite well as he retained his belt for the second time in a competitive bout.
By winning, Houston's Charlo, who celebrated his 26th birthday with identical twin brother Jermell Charlo three days before the fight, helped put them in the boxing record book. With Jermell knocking out John Jackson in the eighth round to win a vacant title in the preceding bout, they became the first twins to hold world titles at the same time in the same weight division.
Trout is a good fighter and he gave Charlo problems, especially down the stretch, but Charlo did more than enough to warrant the decision win against the first southpaw he had ever faced. He rode his right hand to victory. It was a punch Trout, who appeared smaller and not nearly as powerful, had few answers for. The right hand caused swelling around Trout's right eye by the fifth round. Charlo also opened a cut over Trout's eye in the 10th round.
It was an excellent win for Charlo, who went 12 rounds for the first time and will eventually have to face dangerous mandatory challenger and ringside observer Julian "J Rock" Williams (22-0-1, 14 KOs).
Jermell Charlo TKO8 John Jackson
Wins a vacant junior middleweight title
Records: Charlo (28-0, 13 KOs); Jackson (20-3, 15 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: After Floyd Mayweather retired in September he eventually vacated his world titles, including two belts at junior middleweight. Charlo and Jackson, 27, a 2008 Virgin Islands Olympian and one of the fighting sons of former junior middleweight and middleweight world titleholder Julian Jackson (one of the best punchers in boxing history), met for it.
Charlo, of Houston, got off to a poor start as Jackson, known as a puncher, did a nice job of boxing and maintaining a sound defense. He was ahead 69-64 on all three scorecards going into the eighth round and then he showed the Jackson family chin, which is to say he fell apart when he got tagged cleanly, just like what happened to his father more than once and had also happened to him when he was easily beating Andy Lee in 2014 before getting starched with one shot in the fifth round.
Out of nowhere, Charlo landed a right hand to Jackson's left eye that wobbled him. As Jackson dabbed at his face and tried to push his mouthpiece back into place, Charlo nailed him with a left hook that sent him into the ropes. He was badly dazed and referee Tony Weeks stopped the fight at 50 seconds. Just like that, the fight was over and Charlo had won a belt. Then he sat ringside and watched as his brother Jermall Charlo outpointed Trout, allowing the twins to make boxing history.
Beibut Shumenov TKO10 Junior Wright
Retains a cruiserweight title
Records: Shumenov (17-2, 11 KOs); Wright (15-2-1, 12 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Shumenov, 32, a native of Kazakhstan based in Las Vegas, won the vacant interim belt by competitive decision against B.J. Flores in July. In the week leading up to this fight, Shumenov was upgraded from an interim titlist to a "regular" one and made his first defense against Wright, 29, of Chicago.
Wright dropped Shumenov, a former light heavyweight titlist, with a left hand in the fifth round and also had him trouble in the sixth round before Shumenov rallied to score a pair of knockdowns in the eighth round and one in the 10th round, after which Wright's corner threw in the towel. Shumenov now has 120 days to face so-called "super" titleholder Denis Lebedev in a mandatory fight.
B.J. Flores (32-2-1, 20 KOs), 37, of Phoenix, also appeared on the card in his first bout since losing the interim cruiserweight title bout to Shumenov. Flores put on 25 pounds to fight as a 224½-pound heavyweight and cruised to shutout six-round decision against Roberto Santos (12-4, 5 KOs), 27, of Mexico, winning 60-54 on all three scorecards.
Saturday at Moscow
Denis Lebedev TKO2 Victor Emilio Ramirez
Unifies two cruiserweight titles
Records: Lebedev (29-2, 22 KOs); Ramirez (22-3-1, 17 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: The main event of the card was supposed to be heavyweight titleholder Deontay Wilder's much-anticipated mandatory defense against Russia's Alexander Povetkin. But the fight was canceled last week after Povetkin tested positive for a banned substance and Lebedev-Ramirez, the original co-feature, was bumped up to main event status. Lebedev, a 36-year-old Russian southpaw with brute power, made it a quick night in his sixth title defense.
After a competitive opening round, Lebedev, with Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach in his corner, took Ramirez apart. He blasted Ramirez with a left uppercut 45 seconds into the round and seconds later nailed him with a right hand that sent him into the ropes and covering up. Lebedev was all over him, eventually catching him with a powerful left hook that knocked Ramirez to his rear end. As soon as the fight resumed, Lebedev teed off on him with clean head shots that doubled Ramirez over. He landed about 17 unanswered shots as Ramirez seemed out on his feet when referee Steve Smoger jumped in and waved off the fight at 1 minute, 57 seconds.
Ramirez, 32, of Argentina, will go down as having among the more unimpressive title reigns. He had an interim belt and was promoted to a full titleholder before he defended the belt in a heavily disputed draw against Ovill McKenzie in October. In defense No. 2, Lebedev wiped him out.
Dmitry Bivol W12 Felix Valera
Wins an interim light heavyweight title
Scores: 119-107 (twice), 116-111
Records: Bivol (7-0, 6 KOs); Valera (13-1, 12 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Sergey Kovalev is entrenched as three-belt light heavyweight titlist so Bivol, 25, born in Kyrgyzstan and living in Russia, claimed a secondary belt. It's still a notable accomplishment considering Bivol, who had around 300 amateur fights and has sparred with former world champion Jean Pascal, was fighting as a professional for only the seventh time.
He was up against the heavy-handed Valera, 28, of the Dominican Republic, who was defending the interim belt for the first time. He turned out to be no match for Bivol, who took his time and broke Varela down in a one-sided fight. He dropped Varela, who was cut over the right eye, in the sixth round with a cuffing left hand behind the head, and again early in the eighth round when he hammered him with 10 unanswered punches before Varela dropped to all fours. Varela showed heart to survive the round and to make it all the way to the final bell as he absorbed a terrible beating, especially in the later rounds.
Also on the card, cruiserweight contender Rakhim Chakhkiev (25-2, 18 KOs), a 2008 Olympic gold medalist and former world title challenger, won a unanimous decision against Hungarian journeyman Tamas Lodi (18-7-2, 15 KOs), 26. Chakhkiev, 33, a Russian southpaw, won on scores of 8-72, 80-72 and 79-73.
Saturday at Auckland, New Zealand
Joseph Parker W12 Carlos Takam
Heavyweight title eliminator
Scores: 116-112 (twice), 115-113
Records: Parker (19-0, 16 KOs); Takam (33-3-1, 25 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Parker, 24, of New Zealand, one of the heavyweight division's most heralded up-and-comers, took on the best opponent of his career in battle-tested Takam, 35, a native of Cameroon living in France, and passed the test to set the stage for an eventual world title shot. With the win, Parker becomes the mandatory challenger for the winner of the fight between titleholder Anthony Joshua and Dominic Breazeale, who meet June 25 in London.
Parker did not have an easy time with Takam. He earned this one. He appeared to open a nice lead over the first few rounds but Takam had Parker in trouble in a big fifth round. He landed a lot of shots, backed Parker up and had him facing the most adversity of his career. But Parker showed poise. He weathered the storm and got himself together in the sixth round.
They went back and forth for much of the second half of the bout and each landed heavy shots that the other man took well. Takam slowed down considerably in the final rounds as Parker scored his biggest victory and set himself for a title shot. A match between Parker and Joshua would be enormous and match the two best young heavyweights in the sport.
Saturday at London
David Haye TKO2 Arnold Gjerglaj
Heavyweights
Records: Haye (28-2, 26 KOs); Gjergjaj (29-1, 21 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: On Jan. 16, Haye, 35, of England -- the former unified cruiserweight world champion and a former heavyweight titlist - returned from a 3½-year layoff to blow away low-level Mark de Mori in the first round. Gjergjaj, whose glittering record had been compiled against awful opposition, also got crushed in a farcical mismatch that bordered on fraud to the paying crowd that filled the O2 Arena. Gjerglaj was so overmatched it was incredible.
Haye hurt him with his first real punch of the right, a right hand to the head. Moments later, he landed another right hand and Gjergjaj crumpled to the canvas. Haye pounded him for the rest of the round and knocked him down again with a right hand but referee Terry O'Connor waved off the knockdown because Haye caught him after the bell. Haye scored his second official knockdown early in the second round when he dropped Gjergjaj, 31, a native of Kosovo fighting out of Switzerland, with a left jab. Later in the round, Haye unloaded a series of unanswered shots that drove Gjergjaj to the mat again. He beat the count but he was done, and O'Connor waved the overwhelming mismatch off at 1 minute, 35 seconds. Next up could be a fight with former two-time heavyweight titleholder Shannon Briggs, who won on the undercard. Haye said leading up to the fight that if Briggs won, he would fight him next. We'll see if it comes off, but if it does, prepare for the two to engage in wild trash talk.
Shannon Briggs KO1 Emilio Ezequiel Zarate
Heavyweights
Records: Briggs (60-6-1, 53 KOs); Zarate (20-17-3, 11 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Briggs, 44, of Brooklyn, New York, has been trolling for a money fight for years, since now-retired Vitali Klitschko laid an absolutely brutal beating on him in a one-sided decision win in a world title bout, and he just might get one. He couldn't lure Wladimir Klitschko into a fight despite his borderline stalking and "Let's go champ" chant. He couldn't lure titlist Deontay Wilder into the ring either. But he might get main event winner and former titleholder David Haye.
Briggs has been fighting horrible opposition since the loss to Vitali Klitschko and boosted his winning streak to nine as he crushed yet another F-level foe in late-substitute Zarate, 34, of Argentina. Briggs went into the fight having had Haye say he would fight him next as long as they both won, which they did with ease. It was a joke of a fight as Briggs battered poor Zarate around the ring with zero worries. He dropped him to knee with a right to the body 35 seconds into the fight, continued to brutalize him and then knocked him out with a right hand to the body as referee Bob Williams counted him out at 2 minutes, 22 seconds. This was a worse mismatch than Haye's trash main event.
Saturday at Laredo, Texas
Raymundo Beltran KO2 Ivan Najera
Junior welterweights
Records: Beltran (30-7-1, 18 KOs); Najera (16-3, 8 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Beltran, 34, a Phoenix-based Mexico native, and former lightweight world title challenger, returned for his first fight in a year to headline Top Rank's "Solo Boxeo Tecate" card on UniMas and took care of San Antonio's Najera, 23, in one-sided fashion.
Beltran was out of action because he tested positive for a banned substance after knocking out Takahiro Ao in the second round of what was supposed to be a vacant lightweight world title bout (for which Beltran missed weight as well) last May. Despite the layoff, Beltran did not look rusty as he moved up in weight. He rocked Najera with a left hook with a minute to go in the first round, then hurt him again with a right uppercut and was banging him around the ring. Beltran sustained a cut over his right eye in the second round but he continued to lay it on Najera, eventually driving him into the ropes and badly hurting him with a right uppercut followed by a series of left hooks that sent him to the mat as referee Jon Schorle jumped in to call it off at 2 minutes, 58 seconds. While Najera lost his third fight in a row (second in a row by knockout inside two rounds), Beltran figures to move on to a bigger fight and could eventually land another shot at a lightweight or junior welterweight belt.
Also on the card, welterweight prospect Arturo Marquez (2-0, 2 KOs), the 19-year-old son of former junior middleweight world titleholder Raul Marquez, dropped Jesus Rodriguez (0-2) in the first round and knocked him out in the second round. He has scored second-round knockouts in his first two pro bouts.
Saturday at Las Vegas
Andrew Hernandez W10 Arif Magomedov
Middleweights
Scores: 100-89 (twice), 98-91
Records: Hernandez (12-4-1, 3 KOs); Magomedov (17-1, 10 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Upset alert! Magomedov, 23, of Russia, came into the fight highly touted by many with a promotional contract from Main Events. He was the heavy, heavy favorite against Hernandez, 30, of Phoenix, who boxes only part-time and came into the main event of the "Knockout Night at The D" card on CBS Sports Net just 3-4 in his previous seven fights. And then he turned in a masterpiece as he totally shut down Magomedov, who seemed totally out of his game from the opening bell. Hernandez stuffed his jab in Magomedov's face non-stop and knocked him down with a combination with about a minute left in the fight to put a cherry on top of his huge victory.
"This fight changes everything for me," Hernandez said. "He's very good and deserves all of the accolades he has received, but I now have my head on straight and I'm focused. My jab was very important. He's very strong but I wanted to fight him inside because I knew he couldn't take it from me. I was very prepared. I think I may have broken my ankle in the fourth round, but I kept going."
Also on the card: Flashy and fast 17-year-old lightweight prospect Devin Haney (6-0, 4 KOs), who is trained by Floyd Mayweather Sr., knocked out Jairo Fernandez (4-1, 3 KOs), 28, of Mechanicsville, Virginia, at 1 minute, 34 seconds of the fourth round.
Friday at Paris
Yunier Dorticos TKO10 Youri Kalenga
Wins a vacant interim cruiserweight title
Records: Dorticos (21-0, 20 KOs); Kalenga (23-2, 15 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Fight of the year alert! Miami's Dorticos, 30, a former standout on the Cuban amateur national team before he defected, and Congo native Kalenga, 28, of France, slugged it out in a tremendous action battle in which they both showed heart and bravery.
Dorticos, who had not faced the same kind of competition in the pros as Kalenga, hammered him with a series of right uppercuts in the second round to score a knockdown. Dorticos appeared to open a big lead as he dominated the first few rounds before Kalenga came back strong in the middle of the fight as they went toe-to-toe for long stretches and stood up to big power shots. Dorticos landed a right hand after the bell ended the eighth round and referee Raul Caiz Jr. docked him one point. With the fight seemingly tightening, Dorticos took it out of the judges' hands in the 10th round. They both were landing heavy punches but Kalenga was getting ripped with right hands repeatedly and fading fast. When Dorticos backed him into the ropes and fired another clean right hand, Caiz stepped in and stopped it with 46 seconds to go. It was a terrific, hard-hitting fight. With the WBA attempting to whittle things down to one titleholder per division, unified titlist Denis Lebedev (who outpointed Kalenga in an April 2015 defense) is next supposed to face "regular" titlist Beibut Shumenov, both of whom also won fights Saturday. Dorticos is positioned as the mandatory challenger for the winner of Lebedev-Shumenov.
Friday at Indio, California
Eddie Gomez W10 John Karl Sosa
Welterweights
Scores: 98-92, 96-94 (twice)
Records: Gomez (19-1, 11 KOs); Sosa (13-2, 6 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Gomez, 23, of the Bronx, New York, was a highly touted prospect before he suffered an upset decision loss to Francisco Santana in June 2014. Gomez returned to win his next two fights before an extended layoff. After 13 months out of the ring, Gomez returned with a solid win in a tough, competitive fight against Sosa, 23, of Puerto Rico, who dropped his second fight in a row in the main event of Golden Boy's "Boxeo Estelar" card on Estrella TV. Gomez jabbed, used his speed advantage, combination punching and crisp shots to turn back a spirited effort from Sosa.
"I have been out of the ring for 13 months and at times I did feel a little ring rust, but I fought my fight," Gomez said. "What matters is that I came back a winner."