Jesus Gonzales went pretty far in hyping his fight with Adonis Stevenson this week, including bringing to light Stevenson's criminal past. In the end, it appears he served only to anger Stevenson, who came in throwing heavy leather tonight in Montreal, and absolutely blasted Gonzales in the first round with a monster left hand, knocking Gonzalez stiff and out of the fight.
For those who haven't seen it, the video is on YouTube already.
Stevenson (17-1, 14 KO) was throwing big shots from the get-go, and clearly fighting with a purpose. He caught Gonzales (27-2, 14 KO) a bit off-guard with his heavy artillery approach, perhaps, and ended things in short order, with a KO that is going to be hard to top for Knockout of the Year, even given that it's only mid-February.
In a steady, busy fight between a pair of fighters willing to let their hands go, Paul Williams largely dominated Nobuhiro Ishida en route to a shutout 12-round decision on three scores of 120-108 tonight on Showtime from Corpus Christi, Texas. Bad Left Hook scored it 118-110 for Williams, but the two rounds that went the Japanese fighter's were were debatable at best, admittedly, and the shutout scores are entirely easy to understand.
Williams (41-2, 27 KO) was fighting for the first time since his July robbery of Erislandy Lara on HBO, a fight he's clearly sick of talking about and wishes to move on from, which is understandable enough.
Gabriel Campillo was on the short end of the stick of some awful scoring again tonight in Texas, getting robbed despite delivering a reality check to IBF light heavyweight titlist Tavoris Cloud in Corpus Christi. Cloud won on split decision scores of 116-110, 114-112, and 111-115. Bad Left Hook scored it 116-110 for Campillo.
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Campillo (21-4-1, 8 KO) is the recipient of a third straight lousy decision in a major fight (he had a couple of stay-busy wins in there, too), following his 2010 robbery loss to Beibut Shumenov and last year's robbery draw against Karo Murat.
Tonight, Cloud came out strong and looked phenomenal in the first round, flooring Campillo on a right hand, and then knocking him into the ropes moments later, rightly called a knockdown by the referee, who did a totally fine job in the fight.
But after that first round, Campillo took over.
Chris Arreola walked through fire against Eric Molina tonight in Corpus Christi, and ended things in the first round after getting rocked himself, continuing his winning streak.
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Molina (18-2, 14 KO) did rock Arreola (35-2, 30 KO) with a right hand, and Arreola didn't deny that he was hurt.
"Everybody in Texas should be proud of (Molina), he's a strong fighter," said Arreola of the local favorite. But it was just after Molina pushed Arreola back with a big shot that Arreola held on, gathered his senses, and charged forward, knocking out Molina moments later.
It's the seventh straight win for Arreola, dating back to August 2010, with five of the wins coming in 2011. He's on a roll right now, and looks locked in in the ring. But the real news from this fight may have come after the fight, when Arreola again turned heads with his post-fight interview.
Note: If you're offended by profane language, don't click the jump.
American heavyweight Malik Scott returned to the ring after a three-year layoff to win a wide unanimous decision tonight on Showtime Extreme, defeating Kendrick Releford on scores of 80-72, 80-72, and 79-73.
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Scott (33-0, 11 KO) easily won the bout with a lot of combination punching and more accurate shots, and didn't look like he'd lost much physically in his time away from the ring due to injury. The 31-year-old from Philadelphia doesn't have big power (or frankly much power at all), but he's got decent skills and working with a new trainer, is hoping to get himself in line for a potential title run.
Vitali Klitschko won a hard-fought battle today in Munich, Germany, successfully defending his WBC heavyweight title in a tense, big atmosphere fight against Dereck Chisora, who gave the 40-year-old Klitschko his toughest test in years. Klitschko won on scores of 118-110, 118-110, and 119-111. Bad Left Hook had it a tighter 116-112 for Klitschko, but he definitely deserved and earned this win.
Klitschko (44-2, 40 KO) started the fight well and was able to pick apart Chisora (15-3, 9 KO) over the first five rounds, but he couldn't get the determined, hard-charging Brit to back away, and in the middle rounds, the heat turned up. Chisora, 28, saw his pressure and body work pay off, as he pressed the veteran and started having more success offensively.
Detroit heavyweight Johnathon Banks won a wide unanimous decision over Akron's Nicolai Firtha today in Munich, Germany, retaining the regional NABF heavyweight title on scores of 120-108, 119-109, and 119-109. The fight may have been a bit closer than it was scored, but the right man definitely won.
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Banks (28-1-1, 17 KO) is probably still best-known for his competitive 2009 loss at cruiserweight to then-champion Tomasz Adamek, and has since then became a regular on Klitschko undercards, as he's usually used as a sparring partner in their camps.
Firtha (20-10-1, 8 KO) gave his usual honest effort in the fight, but was simply not good enough.
Veteran junior welterweight Serhiy Fedchenko cruised through an eight-round decision win over outclassed Laszlo Fazekas today on the Klitschko vs Chisora undercard, winning 80-72 on each of the three judges' scorecards. Bad Left Hook also scored it 80-72 for Fedchenko.
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Fedchenko (30-1, 13 KO) put his punches together nicely throughout the fight, which as it went along less and less resembled a competitive matchup and became more one-sided, as Fazekas (8-1-1, 6 KO) was busted up and bloodied, worn out over the 24 minutes of ring time that in the end, he endured more than anything else.
It's certainly not a big win for Fedchenko, a 30-year-old from Ukraine whose level of opposition is too often at this level, where he's clearly superior and isn't tested. His lone loss came via majority decision to Kaizer Mabuza in September 2009, and since then he's fought opponents routinely similar to Fazekas.
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