Ringside Report’s Fight Report of Recent Results and Upcoming Bouts Around The World
By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart
UK – biggest and most notable
When the end came, it was brutal and was a fitting final headline of all the Matchroom Gardens shows, on Saturday the 14th of August, former Olympic bronze medallist, Joshua Buatsi beat Ricards Bolotniks for the WBA international light heavyweight title and in the WBA final eliminator. Buatsi showed an incredible level of maturity as he stalked and patiently dismantled Bolotniks. Bolotniks was difficult but out skilled in every department, leaving Buatsi getting the rounds in and then finishing him off at will. The plan is now for a further tune up fight and then, Buatsi for a world title.
Under the radar
On the same bill Scotland’s bantamweight Ukashir Farooq, was imperious against Luis Gerrardo Castillo to claim the WBC international silver belt. He won a wide shut out decision meaning that he will be looking onwards and upwards – to an extent – next. The British Boxing Board of Control have ordered that British champion, Lee MacGregor, from Edinburgh, Scotland, take on Farooq of Glasgow in a mandated defence. The last time they met, MacGregor won a very contentious points decision so it may be going up, but it will be revisiting his past too. Any Glasgow v Edinburgh fight is huge for Scotland. That the two of these boxers are close to world title level, make this an even bigger Scottish fight, a significant British fight but the chance to build it to a World title unification fight might just be too big to resist. Both fighters may make a world title elimination level fight next – and then… we truly have a massive contest. In the meantime, Farooq was incredible and improving all the time.
International – most intriguing
In the UK, the longest running theatre show, is The Mousetrap. After the weekend the WBO bantamweight contest apparently brought us the longest running boxer. According to the winner from that night by split decision, John Riel Casimero, that title firmly belongs to Guillermo Rigondeaux as he ran and ran away from him in the ring. Casimero is looking at Donaire next and then Inoue. It’s a brilliant plan – and we shall be sitting watching from a safe distance as he chases… except this time he will chase belts and not elusive Cubans!
International headline in the UK
The same night, once more on Saturday the 14th of August but this time, in Oklahoma, Joshua Franco silenced any doubters as he beat Andrew Maloney again. This was an ironic win as it was awarded after an action replay showed that a decision by the referee to rule a knockdown for Maloney was wrong. The irony was that in their previous fight an action replay proved that the damage done to Maloney’s eye socket was the result of a punch and not, as was decided by the referee and ruled by him, as an accidental clash of heads. In essence ruled a head butt, Franco was robbed of his win – this time round there was no doubt as the points win confirmed a second win out of three for Franco. The last three fights for him were all against Maloney. He won the first, was robbed in the second and has now won the third. There is little doubt as to who wins the series then…
Fast forward – the week to come
UK – biggest and most notable
We have a very light week ahead here in the UK, with just one card on Friday the 20th of August– in Manchester – and the pick of that being the return of super featherweight Alex Dilmaghani. Dilmaghani has already fought for a world title – though it was the IBO title – and that draws some attention to him. Against Francisco Fonseca, he was due to meet him in the ring on the 28th of September 2019 when Fonseca fell ill JUST BEFORE WALKING TO THE RING and the whole fight was cancelled. On the 16th of November at the iconic York Hall in London, it was rescheduled. It was still grabbing headlines as the end result of that night was a majority draw! Broadcast on the terrestrial Channel Five in the UK plenty got to see the fight.
Next came an attempt for the European title against Samir Ziani. Never in a less than entertaining fight, on the 5th of September 2020, Dilmaghini was stopped in the final round, within seconds of the bell, losing his second attempt in a row at getting his hands on a significant belt. Who he faces next will be an interesting fight, though for the moment we have no opponent named!
Under the radar
This coming week we have not one but two super lightweight world championship fights in the US as Jessica Camara fights Victoria Noelia Bustos for the WBO version whilst Kali Reis takes on Diana Prezek for the unified WBA and IBO titles at the same weight. The world of the female fighter has exploded and given the number of eyes on the Olympics, you have to think that there would be some kind of fanfare the world over for these fights, but no.
Camara is perhaps best known for beating Heather Hardy when she got knocked down in the first but rose to dominate and beat Hardy, with some ease. As for Reis, an actor, motivational speaker as well as a mechanic, she is a bit of a poster girl for Native American rights. It would be wrong to concentrate upon one side of any fight but the headlines generated by these two fighters means we have plenty on those two fighters and little on the others. Sets this up perfectly for a couple of upsets… Wonder if they shall take advantage…
International – most intriguing
The heavyweight division is stacked with intrigue and funny fights. Even the ones that don’t get made get headlines so when I saw that on Saturday the 21st of August in Hamburg that we have the WBA international heavyweight contest – because the WBA can never have enough heavyweight contenders – between Zhan Kossobutskiy – unbeaten in 15 – and the American Joey Dawejko who has had 33 fights, winning only 21 of them – 4 draws – it just seemed too much to miss. Dawejko is the guy who apparently, and this is confirmed by Joshua himself – dropped Anthony Joshua in sparring. It was during AJ’s preparation for the very first Andy Ruiz Jr fight, so it was not the best of times all round for the UK’s boxing poster boy. Dawejko looks just like Ruiz used to look and part of me wants to see if he is still a mark 1 Ruiz or has gone to mark 2… in his career to date, Dawejko has drawn with Jarrell Miller, faced and lost to Charles Martin and lost recently to the likes of Sergey Kuzmin and Bryant Jennings. This could be classed as being “outside of anything important” at the moment but given the lack of world title action, we do get a chance to glance far and wide and see what else is lurking. And what is coming over the Hamburg Hill may indeed be a bit of a monster…
International headline in the UK
This coming Saturday the 21st of August in Las Vegas, the WBC, IBF welterweight fight between the Filipino Senator Manny Pacquiao and Errol Spence Jr is now off. Instead, we are going to see Pacquiao facing the WBA something or other title holder, Yordenis Urgas. This is a fascinating fight and given that we are being denied a unification fight that the WBA had eschewed, no doubt for another WBA version of the life of a fighter – it is a fight dripping in irony. How many times can a decent legend go to the pool of youth and draw successfully? We are going to find out… I am a big Pacquiao fan and talk of a meeting with Amir Khan in the UK has excited people over here – an unlikely event – but the thinking is that, like his fight against Jeff Horn – Pacquiao will struggle against a lesser name than the ones he should be in against and a shock would not be that shocking.
Future history – and the week to follow…
UK – biggest and most notable
Saturday 28th August
Birmingham
We have a full Queensberry card that includes light heavyweight Anthony Yarde taking on Alex Theran, a super flyweight contest for the British title between Ijaz Ahmed and Quaise Khademi and the British super featherweight title fight between Anthony Cacace and Leon Woodstock
Under the radar
Saturday 28th August
Birmingham
The top of the Birmingham bill sees a huge grudge match between Akeem Ennis-Brown and Sam Maxwell for the British and Commonwealth titles – their promotional exchanges on Youtube are worth a watch.
International headline in the UK
The WBC, WBO, IBF female featherweight title fight in Ohio between Amanda Serrano and Yamileth Mercado.
Mentioned in dispatches…
Friday 27th August
Sheffield
The Fightzone initiative returns to a car park in Sheffield as decent fighters get a chance on a 10 fight bill to face off and fight off when they may otherwise get lost on an undercard. Includes the British flyweight title fight between Tommy Frank and Matt Windle and the return of the colourful heavyweight Dave Allen.
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