Some of you have said you wish you had the option of being able to have a picture attached to your comments, like you used to. I got you.
There are these things called “Gravatars.” You can use them here at TQBR. Go to www.gravatar.com. Sign up for an account, which will be tied to your e-mail address. Upload a picture. That picture will be your picture for any comment you make on sites that accept Gravatars, so if you only want it for this site, sign up one e-mail address for use here and use another e-mail address for commenting elsewhere. You can change your picture there anytime you want. You’ll notice I’m all Gravatared up myself.
With that bit of housekeeping attended to, let’s take a look at some of the other fights from this weekend. It was a pretty interesting weekend, with Andre Ward-Mikkel Kessler, already covered, being just the biggest of the interesting fights. I got videos of three of them in there for you, too.
Starting with the first one I’ll discuss.
- Rodel Mayol-Edgar Sosa. This was arguably the upset of the weekend, not Ward’s number on Kessler. Sosa was in some people’s pound-for-pound top 20, not unjustifiably, and Mayol had never gotten over the hump against the elite junior flyweights. Mayol knocked Sosa out in two. This may or may not be a fluke, especially because of the head butt that seemingly left Sosa very groggy, but the sense is that Mayol has gotten better under Freddie Roach’s tutelage. Suddenly, me having Ivan Calderon in my pound-for-pound top 10 still after a draw and close win against Mayol doesn’t look so bad. Mayol said he’d happily grant Sosa the rematch he wants. He should. We’d know for sure then if it was a fluke.
- Zsolt Erdei-Giacobbe Fragomeni. Erdei made a successful cruiserweight debut in a close decision, but get this: He weighed in at 178 pounds, 22 below the cruiserweight limit. Word is it was a close fight, and you wonder if Erdei doesn’t go back down to light heavyweight after winning a title strap, given his size and the narrow win. Which would raise questions about Erdei’s claim to the lineal title at light heavyweight. I think if he cared enough to vacate his alphabet title strap, he effectively left the division, which should restart the lineage. But there will still be an argument, which is annoying.
- Giovanni Segura-Sonny Boy Jaro. In the other major junior flyweight bout of the weekend, Segura put Jaro away in about a minute with a killer body shot. Jaro was an OK opponent for Segura, but I’d like to see him step it up again in his next fight. He wants Calderon. Calderon-Segura is a very nice little scrap. Enjoy the video of the knockout below. I do not endorse calling Sonny Boy Jaro “Smelly Boy Jaro,” Bart Simpson. That’s immature.
- Marvin Sonsona-Alejandro Hernandez. I’m not sure what more Sonsona could have done to halt his considerable momentum. One fight after picking up a junior bantamweight belt in a great fight against Jose Lopez, he came in way overweight and lost his belt on the scales. Then, he fought to a draw against someone who was clearly meant to be a soft first defense. Word is that Sonsona and his team didn’t take this fight very seriously, and their acknowledgement that Sonsona didn’t even try to make weight is confirmation of that. Sonsona is 19. He clearly has some growing up to do mentally. The plan is to move him to junior featherweight, as he’s still physically growing. Nonito Donaire, meanwhile, might now go for the belt Sonsona lost. The WBO’s junior bantamweight rankings are idiotic; you have to go to #6 to find somebody even ranked in The Ring’s top 10. Presumably, then, it’d be an easy belt for Donaire to pick up.
- Marcos Maidana-William Gonzalez. Maidana is a junior welterweight who can really bang. In the 3rd round when he scored the knockout, he had Gonzalez in trouble every second. This was a soft defense, but watching a heavy-handed guy like Maidana makes you say “wow,” so I pass along the finish to you. Maidana is due to fight the winner of Amir Khan-Dmitriy Salita, and unless one of those two guys can really hurt Maidana or else play a highly skillful game of keep-away, I don’t like their chances. Maidana is no master boxer, but he’s good enough that he’s going to hit you at some point. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the winner of Khan-Salita drop their belt rather than face him.
- Moruti Mthalane-Julio Cesar Miranda. I don’t have much to say about this one, other than it’s nice that Mthalane made the most of a second shot at a flyweight belt after a competitive showing last year against Donaire. Also agree with BLH that trainer Nick Durandt agrees some consideration for Trainer of the Year.
- Dimitri Sartison-Stjepan Bozic. Sartison, who lacks qualifications, won a vacant super middleweight belt here against an opponent who lacked qualifications. This tells me it’s easier to win alphabet title belts than people think it is.
- Wilfredo Vazquez Jr.-Genaro Garcia. On Telemundo, Vazquez took one step closer to a junior featherweight alphabet title belt by stopping Garcia, who had lost three of his last four. See what I mean?
- Steve Molitor-Jose Saez. I thought Molitor was for real, I did. Either that loss to fellow junior featherweight Celestino Caballero took a ton out of him, or I was wrong, because Saez was supposed to be an easy opponent and instead he decked Molitor at one point. The consensus is Molitor didn’t look good. He even got booed in his backyard of Ontario.
- Jorge Barrios-Michael Lozada. Barrios beat Lozada by knockout in the 5th. I covet a lightweight fight between Barrios and Edwin Valero, but I’m not convinced it ever happens, given both men’s demands for where it should happen.
