Torrid evening for the Tornado as Teofimo tanks Taylor
Plus, ShoBox returns, Munguia and Sonny victorious
Teofimo Lopez exploded back into relevance with a clinical points win over Josh Taylor last weekend. Boxing is such a “what have you done for me lately” sport, where a big win can quickly swing the momentum of a career. Teo found that out in both his upset win over Lomachenko and upset loss to Kambosos.
Write him off at your peril. Pre-fight projections over mental fragility and unrelenting demons were wide of the mark as Teo remained focused to sweep across two-thirds of the fight. That said, he was aided in a large part by Josh Taylor’s unconvincing display.
The lineal super-lightweight king had been out of the ring for 16 months so was looking to shake off any rust in the first six minutes. Taylor managed to do exactly that but it was a false dawn as he slowed down and struggled to press Lopez as the bout went on.
Entering as the considerably bigger man, Taylor looked a little stiff and upright as he warmed into the fight. Lopez kept his overhand right coiled ready to explode at any moment. The odd thing was, as the fight went on, Taylor didn’t seem exhausted, just flat and unable to find another gear to slip into.
At the end of the first round, Lopez suffered a cut and Taylor was already the recipient of a couple of warnings for alleged illegal activity. Canadian referee Michael Griffin, taking part in his 48th world title fight, has become a dependable staple of top events. Griffin was increasingly allowing himself to be micromanaged by Lopez who turned to the referee and pointed out every overly-physical altercation.
Taylor threw the southpaw lead before swiping home left hands to the body. While Lopez was ducking, Taylor took advantage with rough house tactics. Teofimo remained unimpressed but ESPN analyst Andre Ward was predictably pleased by the rugged strategy. “It’s not Taylor’s job to referee the fight,” offered Ward.
As Taylor lacked bounce and became even more static, Lopez took advantage in the fourth and fifth, popping him with sharp shots as the Edinburgh man posed in range without throwing. Josh looked a lot better when he utilised his strong jab.
Standing off and letting the tentative Lopez grow in confidence, Taylor appeared to be struggling in the middle rounds as his previously successful left hands started missing. Lopez, meanwhile, was visibly growing in confidence; smiling, dancing, giving the impression to everyone in the arena that he was winning the fight.
As it turns out, he was winning the fight. Casting aside the ridiculousness of two 115-113 scorecards, the final 117-111 was closer to the truth as Taylor -who had danced on the edge of defeat against Jack Catterall- finally slipped over the precipice. Lopez is now a major player once again, this time at 140 pounds.
Supporting the main event, Top Rank’s youngest ever signing Xander Zayas slid in to offer the requisite Puerto Rican flavour. Opponent Ronald Cruz had never been stopped but he was dumped on his backside within 30 seconds as Zayas landed a sizzling right hand.
Shuffling forward, motioning with the shoulders, Ronald Cruz was “subtly surviving”, soaking up body and head shots while giving the impression he was competitive. By the sixth, Cruz was accustomed to the power and knew where most of Zayas’ shots were coming from.
The left uppercut and some sneakily powerful body shots were landing, but it’s hard to overcome an opponent in survival mode. Cruz lasted until the final bell, conceding a wide 80-71 defeat on all three cards. Zayas picked up the Miguel Cotto award for his efforts.
SOLID EVENING OF SHOBOX ACTION
Taking place on Hall of Fame weekend, Showtime served up a nice three-fight ShoBox card. All six featured fighters arrived with unbeaten records. The main event saw the IBF’s fifth-ranked light-heavyweight Ali Izmailov take on Charles ‘The Truth’ Foster over 10 rounds. The combined age of the main eventers was 63 so not quite the next generation, but an intriguing battle nonetheless.
It was a nice clash of styles. Foster, a patient southpaw with a sharp jab, against Izmailov, a hard-punching stalker who enjoys punishing opponents. Izmailov’s trainer John David Jackson described his man as a next level puncher, which is quite the praise given Jackson’s experience with Sergey Kovalev.
No matter how heavy his hands, it was of little consequence if he could not get inside. Foster dictated range, frustrating the Russian with his dolly mixture jab - up, down and across, plenty of variety, always keeping Ali occupied and at distance.
Photo Credit: Showtime
Knockout artists can change things in an instant and Izmailov enjoyed that privilege at the end of the fifth when he landed a right hand on his spidery foe, dropping Foster for a count. Jackson previously claimed that his man chases heavyweights out of the gym such is his finishing abilities. The knockdown threatened to change the vibe of the contest.
However, the intimidation did not work on Foster who regrouped well and got back on his jab and left hand to regain the flow and frustrate Izmailov, who was visibly struggling and temporarily lost his discipline. I thought Foster did enough to win but the judges disagreed, awarding it to Izmailov by 96-93 (twice) and 95-94. Talk of future fights with Beterbiev and Bivol are way off, but Ali remains undefeated and motors on.
Providing chief support, Juan Carlos Carrillo edged out Richard Vansiclen in an all-southpaw affair. The scores were 94-94, 95-93 and 95-92 in favour of the heavy-handed Latino. Taking part in his 11th pro fight, Carrillo claimed to have fought in an astonishing 450 amateur contests. The Colombian looked extremely focused early on, landing a snappy jab, dropping Vansiclen with a knockdown in round three off the back of two consecutive right hooks.
While Vansiclen wasn’t seriously hurt he was definitely struggling to find a rhythm and exploit any openings. That was until round four when Vansiclan suddenly stole the momentum with a knockdown of his own, against the run of play.
Carrillo was hurt but regained his composure and the visibly soft body was wiltingh as the 30-year-old puncher started to fade, having never gone past the sixth. He held on to land the harder shots over Seattle’s Vansiclen who entered off the back of a draw and now picks up his first defeat.
In the opening offering, Aussie hope Clay Waterman defeated Kenmon Evans at light-heavyweight. Significantly taller, Evans let a powerful jab go in the early rounds, keeping Waterman occupied. As the pace of the fight increased, Evans’ left hand became lazy and Waterman found a home for his overhand right. Former female pro fighter Christy Martin was part of the promotion and she signed Evans after being impressed with his attitude and character.
Now 31, the Floridian was incarcerated multiple times as a teen and facing a multitude of life sentences at one point. Another example of boxing’s restorative qualities, Evans turned his life around but could not turn this fight around as Waterman trudged his way to a unanimous eight-round decision. This was the former amateur standout’s American debut. While functional, the Queensland man (above) lacked spark and at 27 seems unlikely to pull up too many trees.
NUTHOUSE NOTES
Jaime Munguia reinforced his status as an exciting fighter by eking out a decision over Sergey Dervyanchenko. The fight was close enough to have many observers liking the work of the Ukrainian “bridesmaid” who cannot catch a break on the scores. Trained by Andre Rosier, the combative contender has found an unfortunate niche for himself as a high-class yardstick, used to separate the best from the rest.
Despite having no previous form at super-middleweight, Derevyanchenko represented a steep step-up in levels for Munguia, given the fact that the Ukrainian has always been intensely competitive in every contest. That continued into this fight. Munguia endured a torrid fifth round and was clearly hurt.
Photo Credit: Boxing Scene
Derevyanchenko could barely miss with shots from both hands and it was extremely close down the stetch. A well-placed liver shot by Munguia dropped Derevyanchenko in the final round and he hung on for dear life. Later demanding a rematch, in broken English, it is doubtful Oscar De La Hoya revisits this matchup given the razor thin nature and the fact they tried to get it sliced down from 12 to 10 rounds in fight week.
Over in England, Sunny Edwards seemed to have his hands full with Chilean challenger Andres Campos. Edwards explained after the fight that he had “given up” some rounds, insinuating he wanted to add a little excitement. It appeared Campos bulled in and took them with his aggression to head and body. Eddie Hearn reckons he can make a fight between Sunny and Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez, where we will see the best of the IBF flyweight champion.
Thanks for reading! Drop a little heart or even a comment if you get a minute. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Speak to you all next week…
About Steve: Experienced boxing writer, author of 8 books and podcaster of over 400 eps. 15+ years in the sport. Covered hundreds of shows for newspapers and Boxing News magazine. Chief video script writer for Motivedia channel and BN+. For enquiries: stevenwellings1982@gmail.com.