Two videos of upset wins from yesterday for you, after the jump: one of heavyweight Nagy Aguilera knocking out Oleg Maskaev, one with highlights of welterweight Dejan Zavec knocking out Isaac Hlatshwayo.
The Maskaev loss is a tiny bit more shocking, not because Maskaev was very good or nothin’. This was supposed to be a soft fight for Oleg, or at least not the kind of fight that could derail his eventual eliminator against Ray Austin for the right to fight for Vitali Klitschko’s alphabet title. Fights with Austin, and especially Klitschko, would have made him more money than this. Those are likely out the window. Maskaev’s had a strange up-and-down career, and has at times been an entertaining fighter, but it’s hard to imagine him getting up from this down.
Hlatshwayo had barely held on to his own title in his last two fights against Delvin Rodriguez. He was top-10 welter material nonetheless, forming a nexus of lower-top-10 mediocrity with Rodriguez, Rafael Jackiewicz and now Zavec. And let me be clear here — Hlatshwayo’s been a pretty good fighter; he’s just mediocre compared to the top of the division. All four members of the nexus have fought or have spent time in eliminators trying to fight for the IBF title, which is just a perfect example of how silly the alphabet titles are. Is there anyone who thinks the winner of Zavec-Jackiewicz ought to be considered THE welterweight champion in a division where the top three are Manny Pacquiao, Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather? Anyhow, Zavec apparently becomes “the first Slovenian champion” with this win, so good for him. Since Rodriguez in two fights with Hlatshwayo drew then lost, and was immediately reinstalled as a mandatory contender to Hlatshwayo’s title, I’m guessing Hlatshwayo will soon be reinstalled as the mandatory contender to the winner of the Zavec-Jackiewicz megafight.
(Also last night, in a far more significant fight than these: Jean Pascal won a decision in his light heavyweight rematch against Adrian Diaconu, one that was said to be another good fight highlighted by Pascal’s shoulder popping out of joint a couple times and him pushing through it, but I wasn’t able to see it. There are some clips floating around on YouTube, but I doubt they’ll stay up long, so I’m not going to post them. But read about the fight here and here. P.S. If I was in a boxing match and my shoulder popped out of the joint, I would not keep fighting. That’s way more hardcore than I can grasp.)
