Keep coming back here for updated Terence Crawford vs Viktor Postol results for the undercard…
******
Oleksandr Gvozdyk forced a frustrated Tommy Karpency to quit in the 6th round in a bout where Karpency started off with a bang and then couldn’t keep any momentum. Karpency, the more seasoned pro light heavyweight, caught Gvozdyk with a short right hand Gvozdyk didn’t see coming in the 1st round, dropping him and hurting him badly. But Karpency didn’t exactly pounce on the prospect, and by the 2nd round Gvozdyk’s head was clear and he took over, winning every other round. After the 3rd, Karpency complained that “I can’t work like I want to” and “I need to pace myself” against Gvozdyk: “This guy ain’t that good.” It suggested to the HBO broadcast team that Karpency wasn’t satisfied with his conditioning, a viable theory. In the 5th, a straight right opened a nasty gash on the bridge of Karpency’s nose. He thew with abandon thereafter, but it was a futile effort; the discouragement on his face was plain as he went back to his corner. A straight right to the head, then another right to the body, made Karpency take a knee, and he complained after he was counted out that a shot “pushed my eye back.”
******
A terrific, close action fight between Jose Benavidez, Jr. and Francisco Santana, won by Benavidez, was overshadowed by a disastrous scorecard handed in by Adelaide Byrd, who scored it a shutout. It was also maybe overshadowed by Benavidez’s utterly frustrating style: Here he was, the faster, longer-armed, more talented boxer, up against a pressure fighter, and he spent at least half the fight on the ropes, on purpose. But that gave Santana a chance, and that made the fight more watchable. This writer scored it six rounds to four for Benavidez, who could’ve won more easily if he had any discipline, or a brain, or whatever it is that makes him decide, “Hey, let’s make a potentially easy fight hard.” To be sure, Santana brought the fire. He showed a ton of spirit despite being hurt a few times, and just kept plugging away. The scorecard of 98-92 from Glenn Feldman wasn’t a whole lot better, and only one scorecard, from Kermit Bayless, made any sense: 96-94. Benavidez deserved to win, to be sure. But WTF. Anyway, Santana should get himself in there against a fighter of equivalent talent and give us an action fight. He belongs back on TV. Benavidez might just get wrecked the first time he faces someone of equivalent talent, and deserved to lose against Mauricio Herrera, even.
******
It’s getting harder to be skeptical of Oscar Valdez. Two left hook body shots in the 2nd round took out Matias Rueda, the first just gorgeous. The very technically astute featherweight dominated and bloodied Rueda in the 1st, then dropped Valdez in the next round on that first body shot. There wasn’t much of Rueda left after that; the second body shot, after Rueda got up, wasn’t all that menacing, comparatively. The judge waved it off. A few fights ago, the idea of Valdez facing someone like Vasyl Lomachenko (as a pro — they met in the amateurs) sounded like a bad idea. Every fight since? Less and less.
