Tag: Boxing

Demetrius Andrade Retains WBO Middleweight Championship In A Clean Sweep

Demetrius Andrade saw a perfect score on the judges scorecards on Saturday, going over Maciej Sulecki and retaining his WBO Middleweight Championship. Despite it being the 27th victory in his professional career, it was the first time Andrade had fought in his hometown of Providence, Rhode Island, USA. The middleweight went all twelve rounds at the Dunkin Donuts Center, with all three judges giving him the win with a score of 120-107.

Andrade got off to a hot start in the fight, knocking down Sulecki in the first round. No more knockdowns came in the bout but every round that followed was a clinic being put on by Andrade. In most rounds he had a low stance keeping his head typically below Sulecki’s, despite the similar height. He even showboated in some rounds by flailing arms, lowering guard and having fancy footwork.

With the victory on Saturday, Demetrius Andrade stays on the current Mount Rushmore of the middleweight division along with Jermall Charlo, Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin.

Another championship bout went down in the co-main slot, with Khalid Yafai having a unanimous victory of Norbelto Jimenez (117-109, 119-107 & 118-108) to retain his WBA Super Flyweight Championship.

Jermall Charlo Gets Unanimous Victory Over Brandon Adams

In a homecoming fight for Jermall Charlo, the WBC Middleweight Champion successfully defended his gold in a 12 round battle with Brandon Adams. Winning on all three scorecards quite decisively (119-109, 120-108 & 120-108), Charlo picked up his 28th career victory in the NRG Arena in his hometown of Houston, Texas, USA.

While the scorecards were one-sided in favour of Charlo, it wasn’t an easy fight for him. Adams was frequently hard to hit and displayed a good chin, never getting knocked down during the 36 minutes of competition. Also, Charlo admitted afterwards that he hurt one of his hands “in like the second round.”

The victory was the first defence of the WBC Middleweight Championship for Charlo, defending the interim belt once beforehand. Canelo Alvarez is the most prominent Middleweight champion, holding the WBA Super, IBF and The Ring Championships. Demetrius Andrade and Robert Brant also hold belts in the division.

In the co-main event slot, Erickson Lubin picked up a fourth-round stoppage victory over Zakaria Attou. Attou’s corner threw in the towel after he endured a knockdown.

Jermall’s twin brother Jermell Charlo fought last week in Nevada, defeating Jorge Cota in three rounds. The victory was a bounce back from his first pro loss, losing to Tony Harrison via decision on a card he shared with his brother.

Richard Commey Gets Eighth Round Stoppage Over Ray Beltran

Richard Commey picked up an eight round stoppage against Ray Beltran on Saturday in Temecula, California, USA at the Pechanga Resort & Casino. Commey retained his IBF Lightweight Championship, in what was his first appearance since defeating Isa Chaniev in February to win it.

Commey had the edge from the start, scoring two knockdowns on Beltran in the first round, and yet another in the fifth. In the eighth round, it was a left hook from Commey that sent Beltran to the floor. Despite his willingness to continue, the referee made the decision to end the bout.

Ray Beltran’s battle started early this week when he didn’t make weight the day before. Despite not making weight initially, by Saturday, Richard Commey weighed more due to rehydration.

The fighters clashed heads twice in the fight, with the right eye of Commey swelling because of this. Upon both collisions, it looked like Commey got the worse of the exchange.

In the co-main event in Temecula, Carlos Adames defeated Patrick Day in a 10 round bout to retain his NABO and NABF Super Welterweight Championships. The scorecards favoured him unanimously (97-93, 97-93 & 98-91).

Laying Down Leather #5: Heavyweight Dream Booking, The Korean Zombie and More!

After a short absence due to high school exams, Laying Down Leather is back for another issue. For those who are first-time readers, Laying Down Leather is a series where I discuss my opinions on the numerous topics I cover on many websites. Let’s get started.

MMA

This weekend UFC held an event in Greenville, South Carolina. Overall it was a fun show. Shows that have tons of decision finishes are sometimes boring, but I didn’t find much difficulty with watching this show. Besides the main event, my two favourite moments were the opening fight between Deron Winn and Eric Spicely, and Jairzinho Rozenstruik leaving no doubt in only nine seconds.

Chan Sung Jung AKA “Korean Zombie” had nothing short of an explosive victory of Renato Moicano in the main event. The overhand right he landed at the start was a thing of beauty, with the bout ending shortly after to nobodies surprise. I haven’t seen a ton of The Korean Zombie in my lifetime, but I haven’t ever not enjoyed a bout of his. Consider me a fan.

Boxing

While I didn’t cover it last week, I did cover Tyson Fury’s victory over Tom Schwartz. Not only was Fury’s in-ring skill showcased, with his finishing sequence being amazing along with the numerous punches he dodged when up against the ropes, but his personality was also put on display. His serious walk through the hall followed with the “Living In America” themed walkout made him look like a star. I know the heavyweight division is a whole mess right now, but I really want to see him versus Deontay Wilder next.

Speaking of the heavyweights, I had a thought about them this week. This is pure fantasy booking since Dillian Whyte is scheduled for a fight in a month, but if he wasn’t, I’d rather see Whyte versus Anthony Joshua 2 to decide who faces Andy Ruiz Jr. Whyte has had an amazing run since losing to Joshua back in 2015, picking up nine wins in a row. It would be a fun way to shoehorn Whyte into a scenario he deserves to be a part of but isn’t being included in.

Recently Showtime put their documentary on Mauro Ranallo titled “Bipolar Rock ‘N’ Roller” on Youtube for free. I watched it when it came out and I highly recommend it. It shows Ranallo’s struggle with mental health, more specifically bipolar disorder. The doc shows how mental health isn’t glamorous, but it’s important and affects everyone. He’s been a longtime mental health advocate throughout his career and this movie showed why it’s such an important issue to him.

Wrestling

I’m happy to announce I’ll be reviewing the G1 Climax 29 shows this summer. Starting on July 6th, I’ll be reviewing the shows as they come out. I’ve been very excited for this tournament and can’t wait to see how it plays out. The lineup is stacked, with the A block looking amazing. The additions of KENTA and Jon Moxley offer some fresh matchups.

This Week on The Site and Beyond!

I plan to put out a lot of music content this week, so keep your eyes peeled for that. Besides that, expect coverage of the Saturday UFC show in Minneapolis, maybe some boxing coverage and some different stuff. I have a lot of ideas I will be testing out in the summer. See ya around.

Laying Down Leather #4: Cejudo, Prince Naseem and More!

Good morning and welcome to another issue of “Laying Down Leather.” In this series I offer my weekly thoughts on the many topics I write about online and follow. This series is usually done on Monday, but due to complications, it’s coming out on Wednesday this week. It’ll be back on it’s usual schedule next week.

MMA

Last weekend was UFC 238, with Henry Cejudo defeating Marlon Moraes in the main event. Cejudo became a double champ, now holding the bantamweight and flyweight championships. It was a short but entertaining fight, with Cejudo clearly changing his gameplan after not having a successful first round of the fight.

The show, in general, was very entertaining. Aljamain Sterling and Pedro Munhoz stole the show on the prelims, putting on an absolute war. The co-co-main between Tony Ferguson and Donald Cerrone wasn’t all we wanted it to be, but still was good. Valentina Shevchenko’s KO victory to retain her Flyweight Championship against Jessica Eye was equally horrifying and amazing.

This weekend’s Bellator show is amazingly stacked. In the final of the Welterweight tournament, Rory MacDonald and Neiman Gracie battle for five scheduled rounds. Veterans in Chael Sonnen and Lyoto Machida square off. Bellator’s favourite heel Dillon Danis sees his second challenge in the octagon. Darrion Caldwell gets his rematch against RIZIN’s Kyoji Horiguchi.

The talent on the show spills onto the prelims, with Aaron Pico returning to face Adam Borics. Also, RIZIN and Shoot Boxing talent RENA (being billed as “Rena Kubota” for this show) will face Lindsey VanZandt in her debut outside of the United States. It should be a fun evening, just like the DAZN X Bellator shows in the past have been.

Wrestling

Earlier this year I was very closely following New Japan Pro Wrestling. I would review every event right here on this site. I’ve stopped doing that, but I plan to come back to doing it during the summer. When you look at what’s been happening in the promotion as of late, it looks like an amazing time to jump back in. The G1 Climax is happening soon, with the lineup looking pretty good. Jon Moxley has put his name in the hat for the G1, which alone sets up many great matchups. I want to watch the Dominion show, but I don’t know if I’ll have time. If I do watch it, I’ll write something in the next issue of this.

Boxing

I can’t say I watched much boxing this week, although I saw a great documentary. Sky Sports put together a 25-minute long doc called “When Naz Hit New York,” a film detailing when featherweight boxer “Prince” Naseem Hamed made his American debut against Kevin Kelley. The fight itself is absolutely great, with both fighters putting on an absolute war. The film made me want to watch full fights that included Prince Naseem as he seemed like quite the entertaining fighter. I highly recommend watching the documentary. Even if you don’t care too much about Hamed, the soundtrack itself makes the video worth watching.

The documentary was made ahead of Anthony Joshua’s American debut against Andy Ruiz Jr., which obviously didn’t go as well as Naseem’s.

Tyson Fury’s fight against Tom Schwartz should be a fun one to watch this weekend. Since people have already touted that there is a rematch in the works between Fury and Deontay Wilder, I’ll be interested to see if that will be addressed during the show.

Laying Down Leather #3: Shock at MSG, RIZIN 16 and More!

Good morning and welcome to the latest article of Laying Down Leather, where I put down my thoughts related to many sports and arts covered on the site.

This week I covered Pancrase and RIZIN for the site. I didn’t get the chance to cover the Anthony Joshua versus Andy Ruiz Jr. fight, although I did witness and have some things to say about it. Let’s go through the topics for this week.

Boxing

This weekend we saw the unpredictable, viral and shocking upset of Anthony Joshua losing to Andy Ruiz Jr. in New York. I didn’t expect that Joshua would lose, and even then, I wouldn’t predict he would lose in something that took so long. Ruiz now holds many of the top Heavyweight boxing championships. He’s one of the three pillars now, with Deontay Wilder (WBC Champion) and Tyson Fury (lineal champion) being the two others. I thought the whole event was great because it showed the unpredictability of boxing. On top of that, this thing went pretty viral. There’s tons of clips, tweets, memes and more that have surpassed the six figure digit of shares online that relate to this. And that’s not something that would happen if this fight went Joshua’s way. The last time I saw this sort of viral sharing from boxing was when Floyd Mayweather beat Tenshin Nasukawa or when Tyson Fury got up in the 12th round against Deontay Wilder.

Let me share my story relating to Anthony Joshua’s fight on Saturday. I was travelling home from work when the fight was happening. I was at the station when a friend texted me that the fight was in the third round. I wasn’t happy that I was missing the fight, but I thought it wasn’t worth the mobile data to watch. It wasn’t the only thing I wasn’t happy about, as I had to wait upwards of 25 minutes for the next bus home. But then I got another notification. It was Ariel Helwani saying “Andy Ruiz just dropped Anthony Joshua in the third round of their fight at MSG. This, seconds after Joshua dropped him. High drama at the Mecca.” Once I saw that, I knew I couldn’t miss out.

I threw caution, caution to pay data overage charges that is, to the wind, and tuned in. I saw the first knockdown and the second one. I started to pace around the bus station. All of the sudden, I didn’t care that a bus wasn’t coming. All that was on my mind was that a -1200 underdog was about to capture world titles. And he did. All of the sudden my thoughts on the way home turned from “what should I order on my pizza when I get home” to “what did I just witness?”

MMA

RIZIN 16 was a fun show to watch. It got tiring when a ton of the bouts went to decision, but I still had fun. My favourite bout was of Taiju Shiratori’s kickboxing clinic. My least favourite was Nakamura versus Topnoi Tiger, as it had so much potential but did not deliver. I enjoy these kickboxing oriented shows that RIZIN does every once in a while. If we’re talking purely favourite moments on the show, my two favourites would easily be Jake Heun’s Guardians of the Galaxy themed walkout and Uoi Fullswing’s last-minute victory.

The end of RIZIN has me wanting the trilogy fight between Seo Hee Ham and Ayaka Hamasaki. For the longest time I’ve wanted Seo Hee Ham to collaborate with RIZIN, as she is easily the biggest Atomweight fighter outside of the promotion. Since she was present at the show and incorporated in it’s presentation let’s hope she’ll be seen soon in the ring.

I thought the presentation of the upcoming bouts went well at RIZIN. Yusuke Yachi and Mikuru Asakura (but mostly Mikuru) did a great job hyping their fight. Mikuru’s personality is quite the entertaining one, saying after his Lightweight fight he is not going to be in the Lightweight GP, but instead wants a Featherweight GP and a Saitama Super Arena main event bout (credit to MikeLovesTacosX on Twitter for the translation).

This coming weekend should be a fun one. Equally explosive fighters Marlon Moraes and Henry Cejudo are finally colliding. Along with that fight is also huge match-ups in Valentina Shevchenko versus Jessica Eye and Tony Ferguson versus Donald Cerrone. Those three fights make it a pretty well put together card.

This Week on The Site and Beyond!

This week will be a very busy one for me. Due to many things, I’ll be busy essentially every evening until Friday. But with that being said, I’ll try to get out the usual Produce X 101 article, and I will try to cover UFC 238. I’ve made a hub for MMA articles on the site, with the link being www.jackwannan.com/mma. If you’re interested in the MMA articles, give it a look.

Laying Down Leather #2: RIZIN, Haney’s KO Win and More!

Good morning and welcome to the second episode of “Laying Down Leather,” where I give my thoughts on numerous subjects in the many facets of sport and entertainment that I cover.

Just a housekeeping note before we get into the article, I didn’t write much this week because I was very busy with work and school projects. It might be like that for a few weeks. Even though I didn’t write many articles, I sure do have some thoughts. Let’s get started

MMA

I only had the realization recently that a new RIZIN event is this weekend. It’s a pretty heavy show kickboxing wise but also has some good MMA bouts. I’m excited to see Ayaka Hamasaki versus Jinh Yu. Also, after Kanna Asakura and Roque Martinez have picked up wins in the DEEP promotion, they head back to RIZIN for their own matchups. Other names worth highlighting are Tofik Musaev, Topnoi Tiger Muay Thai, Yusaku Nakamura and promotion veteran Daron Cruickshank.

Speaking of RIZIN, it was announced recently that Shoot Boxing promotion star and RIZIN fan favourite RENA will make her American debut at Bellator 222. She will face Lindsey VanZandt, who looks like decent competition for her. She has less fighting experience than RENA but looks like a good match style-wise as she only has decision and striking pro finishes. The Madison Square Garden card looks stacked already, with Kyoji Horiguchi and Darrion Caldwell running back their New Year’s Eve bout. Veteran fighters Chael Sonnen and Lyoto Machida are scheduled to main event the show.

Alexander Gustafsson and Anthony Smith will square off in Sweden this upcoming weekend too. I don’t know what’s next for whoever wins this fight since both of these guys have lost to the current champion Jon Jones quite decisively. Anyways, I think this goes to Gustafsson easily.

Boxing

Around the start of the week, I caught a replay of Billy Joe Saunders defeating Shefat Isufi in a bout that earned him the WBO Super Middleweight Championship. I scored the bout 119-109 for Saunders, giving Istufi the 6th round. None of the judges shared a common ground score-wise, but winner-wise we were all in agreement. I can’t say it was the most exciting fight, but whatever. The venue, Lamex Stadium, was cute.

I also watched the second semi-final event for this season of the World Boxing Super Series. It included Naoya Inoue defeating Emmanuel Rodriguez and Josh Taylor advancing into the finals of their weight divisions. Inoue had a quick performance, getting a stoppage victory in the second, while Taylor went all 12 rounds. I scored the fight in his favour 115-111, with a two knockdown round in the 6th making it not as close of a bout. These bouts were amazing, but WBSS’ production quality is not something I’m the biggest fan of.

The final show I watched this week was DAZN’s broadcast of Devin Haney versus Antonio Moran. The fight was all Haney, being up 60-53 before the 7th round when he landed an absolutely nasty overhand right to knock down Moran and end the bout. This was a fun little show, with Haney being someone who is worth watching.

I didn’t catch the PBC or Top Rank broadcast on Saturday, but I will later this week and report back about it.

Wrestling

I didn’t catch all of AEW’s “Double or Nothing” show, but from what I’ve seen it looks like a big success. They’re set to do a show called “All Out” in August at the Sears Center, using the same venue that they did for “All In” last year. While that’s exciting, what interests me now is when they will implement TV content. How will they tape it? How long will the show be and when during the week will it air? These are all details that will be interesting to see.

This Week On The Site and Beyond!

I feel somewhat behind on Produce X 101 episodes recently but hope to catch up after writing my episode four article this week. Keep an eye out for that. I’m planning on getting some other things out music related, along with a recap of the Pancrase event from this past weekend. This week is hard to talk about ahead of time because school might be busy. So with that being said, stuff will come out so keep an eye out!

Billy Joe Saunders Earns Super Middleweight Belt In Dominant Performance

Billy Joe Saunders put on a dominant 12 round performance on Saturday, defeating Shefat Isufi via unanimous decision (120-108, 117-111 & 118-110) and becoming the new WBO Super Middleweight Champion. The championship was vacated prior to the fight which took place at Lamex Stadium, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, UK.

Saunders looked comfortable in the opening rounds, landing combinations and even finding time to taunt his opponent. He seemed to be more mobile than Isufi throughout. The only hiccup in his offence came in round 6 when Saunders was caught with two overhand rights that had him retreating. He walked the perimeter of the ring for the rest of the round.

After the fight, Saunders called out Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin whilst expressing his interest in a bout with Callum Smith. “Golovkin and Canelo, they don’t want that style… I’ll sign the contract twice to fight them,” said Saunders. Smith’s last bout was in September, defeating George Groves and extending his undefeated record to 25-0.

My Scorecard:

FighterSaundersIsufi
Round 1109
Round 2109
Round 3109
Round 4109
Round 5109
Round 6910
Round 7109
Round 8109
Round 9109
Round 10109
Round 11109
Round 12109
Total119109

Laying Down Leather #1: Wilder’s Quick Win, Double or Nothing and More!

For the most part, I try to keep my opinion out of the articles I write. For the events I cover and the news stories I write about MMA and Boxing, I do my best to call it down the middle. As an attempt to have an outlet to put my opinions into articles, I’m planning on doing this series of articles: Laying Down Leather. I’ll discuss many topics and events that occurred recently, along with updates on upcoming projects on the website. Let’s get started.

Boxing

Deontay Wilder picked up a swift and easy victory against Dominic Breazeale on Saturday in Brooklyn, New York. Most people expected a stoppage victory to go in the way of Wilder, but less expected it to be so sudden. For one, I was happy the ending was more like his victory over Artur Szpilka than it was like his second win over Bermane Stiverne. It’s fun to see Wilder win, but I’m not one to see someone get beaten that badly.

Prior to the fight, Wilder turned some heads because of his comments about wanting to “have a body on his record.” This was something he’s mentioned before, with the comments getting quite the reaction when he was on radio talk show “The Breakfast Club.” His comments went viral yet again last week, saying in a media scrum that “this (boxing) is the only sport where you can kill a man and get paid for it at the same time, it’s legal. So why not use my right to do so?” Honestly, I thought this was just a marketing thing. When someone says something that outrageous, you expect people to make a controversy about it. And there was. Do I legitimately think Wilder wants to murder a man in the ring? No. He’s fully aware of what he’s saying, and people are falling for it. Even if he was serious, he boxes within the rules of the competition, so should you hate the player or the game? But I feel he’s not serious, so that’s not a discussion worth having in my opinion.

The question of what’s next for Wilder will have to wait. The top tier contenders in Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua are both tied up in their own bouts where they will fight someone of a much lower tier than themselves. When those are done with, maybe something can be made. Though we’ll not know for certain until an announcement is made.

I’ve been catching up on boxing from the past two weeks lately. On the weekend I watched Jarrett Hurd face Julian Williams in what was an upset of a fight. I scored it 117-110 for the challenger, Williams. I thought it was an entertaining contest despite it being somewhat on-sided.

MMA

Man, I’m happy there’s no UFC show this week. Even though last weekend’s UFC Fight Night wasn’t had numerous first-round stoppages which made it a quick viewing, I’m just starting to feel burnt out. On top of that, I went 2-11 for predictions on the show, maybe the worst I’ve ever done for a show (my biggest achievement so far this year is going 9-1 on the RIZIN 15 card). I assume part of why this card didn’t make me all too excited was its lack of name value.

In the main event of the show, Kevin Lee won all of the rounds until he hit a brick wall and gave up the fight. On my scorecard, the first three rounds went his way. He was working harder than Rafael dos Anjos and was winning every round. But why he was out-working him was because he didn’t pace himself. The finish of the fight is almost sad because of how defenceless Lee looked. He shot for a takedown, which RDA reversed and put into an arm triangle with ease. Maybe Lee should take a step down from five round fights, as this was the fifth fight in a row he took that was scheduled for all five.

I doubt I need to tell any of you this, but Michel Pereira’s performance was possibly the highlight of the night. From his emotional walkout to his in-fight antics, to his brutal victory, he’s hard to root against. While they are entertaining, maybe it was for the better that he left moonsaults back in his Road FC days.

I’ve started watching old UFC events through Fight Pass. I plan to make a series on this website, recapping events in a news report style whilst also putting my opinion into the articles. Should be a fun thing that I’ll try to make similar to my “09 Revision” for WWE that is still a work in progress. I plan to write quite a bit ahead of time before publishing the series. I’ll put up updates, but the plan right now is to start publishing in the first week of July.

Wrestling

As of late I’ve not been interested in WWE. I’ve kept up with storylines through podcasts and news stories, but other than that the last time I tuned in was on Wrestlemania. From what I’ve heard, I’m not missing much.

While my interest in WWE has been down, I’m pretty pumped for AEW’s “Double or Nothing” event on Saturday. I’ll be working while it happens, but I’ll watch it the following day. When you look at card you can tell the show has the potential to deliver. More than anything else, I want to see people like Kenny Omega, Chris Jericho, The Young Bucks and many others wrestle after being absent from TV and computer screens for quite some time. Since the announcement of this event, the wait has been long. But soon that wait will end.

This Week on The Site and Beyond!

For this week on the website, I plan to write only a little. School is ramping up as the year is coming to a close, and I know there is a few assignments that I’ll need to put some real time into this week. I want to write more smaller news pieces, so keep your eyes peeled for that. Pancrase is on the weekend, but like I did last time with their show, I’ll most likely have the report on it out on the weekdays. For lwos.life, I’ll write the third episode recap of Produce X 101, and if I can find the time, another article on top of that.

Deontay Wilder KOs Dominic Breazeale In One Round

The “Bronze Bomber” Deontay Wilder made his return to the win column on Saturday, getting a first round KO victory over Dominic Breazeale, retaining his WBC Heavyweight Championship in Brooklyn at the Barclays Center. The win came after the Heavyweight Champion’s draw against Tyson Fury back in December, the first time Wilder saw a result that wasn’t a victory, and only the second time he finished a fight without a stoppage.

The victory came in the third minute of the initial round. After the referee separated the two fighters from a clinch, Wilder stuck out his left arm and then came around with a right hook that dropped Breazeale. He did not answer to the 10 count, making the referee end the contest.

People wonder what’s next for Wilder as the Heavyweight division is still divided. Anthony Joshua, the WBO, IBF, WBA and IBO Heavyweight Champion is set to take on Andy Ruiz Jr. on June 1st, putting all four belts on the line in his American debut at Madison Square Garden. Lineal champion Tyson Fury will have to defeat Tom Schwarz in Las Vegas on June 15th before he can try for a rematch. The heavyweight division has the potential for a superfight on the horizon, but whether that may actually happen won’t be found out for a little more time.