Scorecard: Time for Deontay Wilder to step up in competition
— -- A roundup of the past week's notable boxing results from around the world:
Sunday at Osaka, Japan
Kazuto Ioka W12 Roberto Domingo Sosa
Retains a flyweight title
Scores: 120-108, 119-109 (twice)
Records: Ioka (18-1, 10 KOs); Sosa (26-3-1, 14 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Japan's Ioka, 26, was fighting in his hometown and making the first defense of the secondary title he won by majority decision against Juan Carlos Reveco, also in Osaka, on April 22. Ioka, who is due to face Reveco in a rematch later this year, routed Sosa, 30, of Argentina, who lost his second shot at a world title. He also dropped a decision to Juan Carlos Sanchez Jr. for a vacant junior bantamweight title in 2013 (after Sanchez had been stripped for being overweight). Ioka, a two-time flyweight titleholder and former unified strawweight titlist, had too much speed and movement for the one-dimensional Sosa. Ioka counter punched Sosa with ease and made him miss almost everything of consequence. Ioka's biggest punch may have been in the 12th round when he hurt Sosa with a body shot.
Katsunari Takayama TKO8 Ryuji Hara
Retains a strawweight title
Records: Takayama (30-7, 12 KOs); Hara (19-2, 11 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Japan's Takayama, 32, who was fighting in his hometown, made the second defense of his belt against countryman Hara, 25, who has now lost two of his last three bouts. The faster Takayama blitzed Hara with punches from all angles throughout the fight. Hara landed some good shots, but most of them in the first few rounds before he began to slow down. An accidental head-butt opened a cut over Takayama's left eye in the third round, which bled for most of the rest of the fight. The cut did not seem to impact Takayama's zeal for combat as he continued to take it to Hara with his quick punches. He had him in trouble in the seventh round and then finished him in the eighth round. Takayama teed off on Hara in the eighth, landing numerous overhand right hands and bullying him along the ropes. Hara had no answers and as Takayama continued to pound away at a defenseless Hara, referee Wayne Hedgpeth stepped in to call it off at 1 minute, 20 seconds.
Takayama, who led 69-64, 68-64 and 68-65 at the time of the stoppage, won his third fight in a row since a losing a decision to Francisco Rodriguez in an epic strawweight unification fight 13 months ago that was the picked as the 2014 ESPN.com fight of the year. In his next fight, Takayama won two belts, both of which Rodriguez vacated after their fight in order to move up in weight. Takayama then vacated one of them.
Saturday at Birmingham, Ala.
Deontay Wilder TKO11 Johann Duhaupas
Retains a heavyweight title
Records: Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs); Duhaupas (32-3, 20 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Wilder's career has been built on facing soft touches and no-hopers and did not change for his second title defense. When the 2008 U.S. Olympic bronze medalist was given an unwarranted mandatory shot at a belt he finally stepped up to face a legitimate opponent when he challenged Bermane Stiverne in January and passed the test impressively with a near-shutout decision to win a world title. Since then, his handlers have reverted to the form that got him to a belt by matching him with no-name opponents who are massive underdogs. They did it in June when the 29-year-old Wilder, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, survived some rocky moments to knock out Eric Molina in the ninth round, and they did it again by matching him with Duhaupas, 34, of France, who is about as obscure as it gets. He has no particular résumé (unless you count a majority decision win against journeyman former title challenger Manuel Charr) to warrant a title shot other than that he was inexplicably in the top 15 of a ratings organization.
So the 6-foot-5, 236-pound Duhaupas traveled to Wilder's home turf, and while he put up an incredibly brave and determined effort, he got blasted around the ring from the first bell, dominated and stopped in a one-sided thrashing that could have been stopped several times. He did land a few decent shots, at least one of which raised swelling under Wilder's left eye in the second round, but it was more or less Wilder target practice for his right hand, left hook, jab and uppercut. In other words, the 6-7, 229-pound Wilder hit him with everything in the book but could not get him off his feet. Instead, he just cut him on the bridge of the nose in the first round, busted up his face, made it black and blue and beat the heck out of him for 11-plus rounds in what was every bit the mismatch most expected as the pro-Wilder crowd of 8,471 cheered him on.
How one-sided was it? Wilder landed nearly as many punches as Duhaupas threw. According to CompuBox punch statistics, Wilder landed 326 of 587 blows (56 percent) and Duhaupas connected with only 98 of 332 (30 percent).
After Wilder brutalized Duhaupas in the 10th round, the ringside doctor checked him out but he was sent out for the 11th round. Wilder drove Duhaupas back toward the ropes as he landed about a dozen unanswered punches, including a huge right hand, forcing referee Jack Reiss to stop the fight at 55 seconds, ending the Premier Boxing Champions main event that was the first heavyweight title bout on NBC in prime time in 30 years (since Larry Holmes' 15-round decision against Carl "The Truth" Williams in 1985). Wilder led 100-90 (a shutout) on one scorecard and 99-91 on the two others at the time of the stoppage. As if the fight didn't go badly enough for Duhaupas, his flight home to France was canceled on Sunday.
Next up for Wilder is supposed to be a mandatory defense against former titlist Alexander Povetkin (29-1, 21 KOs), of Russia, but it is possible that with Povetkin scheduled for a Nov. 4 bout that Wilder might wind up with a January bout before finally meeting Povetkin in the spring. If he makes it past that tough test, perhaps the world will get the one heavyweight fight it really wants to see -- Wilder in a unification fight with long-reigning real heavyweight champ Wladimir Klitschko (64-3, 54 KOs), a fight both fighters say they want.
Dominic Breazeale W10 Fred Kassi
Heavyweight
Scores: 100-90, 98-92, 97-93
Records: Breazeale (16-0, 14 KOs); Kassi (18-4-1, 10 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Worst judging of the year alert! In what was obviously a very close and competitive fight (and not bad for sloppy action either), Kassi, 36, a native of Cameroon fighting out of New Orleans, was the victim of absolutely terrible scoring all around. If a judge gave the decision to Breazeale, 30, of Alhambra, California, so be it, even though it appeared as though Kassi deserved the nod. NBC's broadcast crew had him winning and so did Twitter. But Breazeale was the house fighter and the supposed prospect and he got the benefit of the doubt. At the very least, Kassi, who was coming off a draw (which he also deserved to win) against faded contender Chris Arreola on July 18, exposed Breazeale as not even close to being ready for prime time. Breazeale, a 2012 U.S. Olympian, held advantages in every category, especially size. He is 6-7 and 258 pounds compared to the 6-0, 222½ Kassi, but he did not put it to good use. Kassi took it to him and landed lots of hard shots. Overall, Kassi landed 119 of 458 punches (26 percent) and Breazeale landed 118 of 555 blows (21 percent).
In the end, however, the judges were atrocious. As bad as the scores were from Irwin Deutsch (98-92) and David Hudson (97-93) they looked awesome compared to the unfathomable scoring of John Westerterp, who had the audacity to give Breazeale every single round. That is unacceptable.
Charles Martin TKO3 Vicente Sandez
Heavyweight
Records: Martin (22-0-1, 20 KOs); Sandez (15-5, 10 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Martin, a 29-year-old southpaw from Carson, California, is a heavyweight up-and-comer to keep an eye on and he figures to get much more exposure now that he has signed with adviser Al Haymon. In his first bout under Haymon's guidance, Martin's bout was televised on NBC Sports Net as part of the Deontay Wilder-Johann Duhaupas card and while Martin was not facing a very good opponent in Sandez, 29, of Mexico, he did look good taking him apart with ease.
Martin, who is 6-5, 248 pounds, totally dominated. He dropped the 6-2, 249-pound Sandez to his rear end with a clean straight left hand to the chin about a minute into the second round and he barely beat the count. Martin, who also landed some nice body shots to Sanchez's ample midsection, landed another straight left to Sandez's chin early in the third round and he went down again and, again, he barely beat the count. But this time he was a bit shaky and referee Flynn Gerald waved off the fight 35 seconds into the round.
How dominant was Martin? He landed as many punches Sanchez threw. According to CompuBox punch statistics, Martin connected on 42 of 90 punches (47 percent) and Sandez landed only eight of 42 (19 percent).
Also on the card, junior middleweight Terrell Gausha (16-0, 8 KOs), a 28-year-old 2012 U.S. Olympian from Cleveland, won a unanimous decision against Eliezer Gonzalez (15-2, 10 KOs), 28, of Puerto Rico, on scores of 78-72, 77-73 and 77-73. Gonzalez, loser of two of his last three fights, had points deducted for low blows in the seventh round.
Saturday at Puerto Penasco, Mexico
Juan Francisco Estrada TKO10 Hernan "Tyson" Marquez
Retains flyweight title
Records: Estrada (33-2, 24 KOs); Marquez (39-6-1, 28 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Marquez, a 27-year-old southpaw from Mexico, held a flyweight world title in 2011 and 2012 before losing it by 10th-round knockout to Brian Viloria in a November 2012 title unification fight. In Viloria's next fight, in April 2013, he lost a split decision and the belts to Estrada in an action-packed fight.
Marquez was bidding to regain his old belt -- and add another -- against Estrada, 25, also from Mexico. But Estrada is one of the best fighters in the world and Marquez, although always in entertaining fights, has been on the decline as he dropped to 3-3-1 in his last seven fights. But as always, he put up a great effort against Estrada, who was making his fifth title defense and mostly dominated the action-packed fight.
Estrada scored seven -- count 'em, seven! -- knockdowns. He put Marquez on the canvas twice in the sixth round, twice more in the seventh round, again in the ninth round and two more times in the 10th round. After the seventh knockdown, on a clean right hand to the head that dropped Marquez to all fours, referee Ramon Pena waved it off without a count at 1 minute, 26 seconds. Despite going down seven times, Marquez did not appear badly hurt on any of them until the two in the 10th round.
Now the big flyweight fight, one that could be possible on HBO next year, is a rematch between Estrada and recognized champion Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez to unify their titles. Gonzalez, who outpointed Estrada in a fantastic battle in November 2012 to retain his then-strawweight world title, would have to get past Viloria in an Oct. 17 title defense. But a unification fight/rematch between Gonzalez and Estrada is about as big as it gets for the little weight classes.
Saturday at London
Fedor Chudinov W12 Frank Buglioni
Retains a super middleweight title
Scores: 120-106, 118-108, 117-109
Records: Chudinov (14-0, 10 KOs); Buglioni (16-2-1, 12 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: On May 9, Chudinov, 28, of Russia, won a split decision on Felix Sturm's turf in Germany to claim a secondary title (which figures to soon be elevated to the full title when legitimate champion Andre Ward makes the move to light heavyweight later this year). Chudinov made his first defense by going to the home turf of England's 26-year-old Buglioni. Chudinov dominated the fight. He landed a lot of combinations and he was the heavier hitter.
Although Buglioni was trailing, he had a big moment in the sixth round but it was not reflected on the scorecards. They were engaged in toe-to-toe action late in the sixth round before Buglioni took over in the final seconds. He hurt Chudinov with a right hand and then landed another right hand that knocked Chudinov down. However, Buglioni landed the punch after the bell sounded to end the round and referee Terry O'Connor docked him two points for the foul. Buglioni and his corner argued they could not hear the bell -- and it was a very loud and wild pro-Buglioni crowd -- but he did land after the bell and O'Connor had to make the call. Nonetheless, Chudinov was not badly hurt and Buglioni was already deep in a hole on the scorecards anyway so it did not impact the final verdict in what was an entertaining scrap. In an interesting side item, Chudinov was trained for the first time by former pound-for-pound king Roy Jones Jr., who opposed Buglioni trainer Steve Collins, who never got the fight with Jones he always wanted in the late 1990s, when Collins held a super middleweight world title and Jones gave up his version of the title and went on to become the light heavyweight world champion.
Also on the card, former heavyweight title challenger Dereck Chisora (22-5, 14 KOs), 31, of England, won an easy decision against Marcelo Nascimento (18-11, 16 KOs), 34, of Brazil, on a score of 99-91 from the referee (which is how things are done in some non-title bouts in the United Kingdom). Chisora won his second fight in a row since taking a beating in a 10th-round knockout loss to Tyson Fury in their rematch 11 months ago. Nascimento lost for the sixth time in his last seven bouts.
Saturday at Lodz, Poland
Tomasz Adamek TKO5 Przemyslaw Saleta
Heavyweight
Records: Adamek (50-4, 30 KOs); Saleta (44-8, 22 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Adamek, 38, of Poland, has had an excellent career. He won a light heavyweight and cruiserweight title, became a top heavyweight contender and challenged Vitali Klitschko for a heavyweight belt in 2011. But after 16 years as a pro, he has been in tons of high-contact fights and has seen better days, as evidenced by his back-to-back decision losses in 2014 to Vyacheslav Glazkov (in a world title eliminator) and Artur Szpilka in a much-anticipated all-Polish showdown. After the loss to Szpilka in November, Adamek said he was going to retire. But 11 months later he returned to the ring for another fight with the long-faded Saleta, 47, in another Polish showdown.
Saleta had not boxed since February 2013, when he knocked out countryman Andrew Golota in the sixth round of a bloodbath. He had very little against Adamek, who is still good enough to beat old, shot opponents as he reached his milestone 50th career victory. Adamek boxed and moved pretty well relative to the statuesque Saleta, whose punches looked like they were being thrown in slow motion. While Saleta went forward in an effort to take it to Adamek, he had virtually no success while Adamek picked his shots and landed easily with both hands. When the fifth round ended, Saleta, whether because he was getting hammered or maybe because he was just frustrated by Adamek, quit on his stool. Adamek lives to fight another day.
Saturday at Milan
Paulie Malignaggi W8 Laszlo Fazekas
Welterweight
Scores: 80-71 (twice), 79-72
Records: Malignaggi (34-7, 7 KOs); Fazekas (27-22-1, 17 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: On Aug. 1, Malignaggi, 34, a former welterweight and junior welterweight titlist, lost badly by ninth-round knockout to Danny Garcia. The loss was Malignaggi's second in a row, coming 16 months after he had been brutalized in a fourth-round knockout to then-welterweight titlist Shawn Porter. Malignaggi said he considered retirement after both defeats. But he decided to carry on both times. This time, however, instead of a long layoff with a return against an elite opponent, Malignaggi got back in the ring quickly against a soft opponent and did so by realizing a career-long dream of fighting in Italy, where his parents are from and where he also has citizenship after having spent several years living there during his childhood.
He took on Fazekas, 25, of Hungary, and the outcome was predictable -- a one-sided rout for Malignaggi, who won every round except for one on one scorecard. The victory could propel Malignaggi into another fight in Italy against European welterweight champion Gianluca Branco (49-3-1, 24), of Italy, for the title.
Saturday at Lemoore, Calif.
Andy Ruiz W8 Joell Godfrey
Junior middleweight
Scores: 80-72 (three times)
Records: Ruiz (25-0, 17 KOs); Godfrey (17-15-1, 6 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: Ruiz, 26, who is from Mexico but living in Imperial, California, is a talented heavyweight with fast hands and good power. But his handlers have wanted to see him take his conditioning more seriously, so they pulled him from the ring for the past nine months to work on it. He had not fought since easily outpointing faded former world titleholder Sergei Liakhovich in December. In that fight, Ruiz weighed 267¾ pounds. For this fight Ruiz got himself in much better shape and weighed 247¾. But be it 267 or 247, however, he was not going to have any problems with late substitute Godfrey, 34, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, a club fighter who lost his fourth fight in a row. He was pressed into service when the California State Athletic Commission declined to license Devon Vargas, 33, of Toledo, Ohio, a long-faded 2004 U.S. Olympian.
Ruiz did as he pleased in a shutout decision with no element of the fight being competitive. He was all over Godfrey from the opening bell. While Ruiz took it to him, Godfrey barely threw any punches in an embarrassing televised main event on UniMas. Ruiz was only added to the card a couple of weeks ago after 2012 U.S. Olympian Jose Ramirez suffered an injury and dropped off the card.
"He wouldn't fight back or engage, but I was able to get in some good work for eight rounds," said Ruiz, who is due back in action Oct. 24 on the undercard of junior welterweight titlist Terence Crawford's defense against Dierry Jean in Crawford's hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.
Also on the card, Brazilian middleweight prospect Esquiva Falcao (11-0, 8 KOs), 25, a silver medalist at the 2012 Olympics, scored a second-round knockout of fellow southpaw Zoltan Papp (7-2-1, 3 KOs), of Hungary.
Saturday at Bahia Blanca, Argentina
Juan Carlos Reveco W10 Breilor Teran
Junior bantamweight
Scores: 100-90 (twice), 99-91
Records: Reveco (36-2, 19 KOs); Teran (14-13-1, 7 KOs)
Rafael's remarks: On April 22, Reveco, 32, of Argentina, lost a majority decision and his flyweight world title to Kazuto Iola in Japan. In his first bout since the defeat, he returned to face soft touch Teran, 30, of Venezuela, who lost for the fourth time in his last five bouts (all by decision). Reveco easily outboxed Teran on his way to a virtual shutout decision. One judge gave Teran a single round. The victory paved the way for Reveco to return to Japan later this year to face Ioka in a rematch.