Floyd Mayweather, JR Retires, Gervonta Davis Acts Unprofessional & Miguel Cotto Wins Big!
By Joshua “City” Brewer
What can really be said about this past weekend? Matches like this weekend’s fiasco between Floyd “Money” Mayweather, JR. 50-0, 27 KO’s, and “The Notorious” Conor McGregor, 0-1, 0 KO’s, tend to bring about the good, bad, and ugly. Mayweather, JR. won the fight via an easy technical knockout in the 10th round. At this point, there’s really no more I can say that hasn’t already been stated in some form or fashion. There have been those thinking the fight was fixed. There have been cries that referee Robert Byrd stopped the fight too early. Many, many people have chimed in from all centers of the universe. It’s been rather exhausting. Hopefully this is the last we see of both Mayweather, JR. and McGregor in a boxing ring.
Miguel Cotto, 41-5, 33 KO’s, picked up the vacant World Boxing Organization (WBO) junior middleweight in an exciting win over the always game Yoshihiro Kamegai, 27-4-2, 24 KO’s. As exciting as the showing was, Cotto was in with the right showcase opponent in Kamegai. Cotto is at the tail end of a hall of fame career and says that he’ll have his final fight later this year, preferably against the winner of Canelo Alvarez Vs Gennady Golovkin. That could spell trouble for him at middleweight, but he’s certainly earned the right to go out in style, which would certainly be the case in some way or another.
Gervonta “Tank” Davis, 19-0, 18 KO’s, was uneventful in his stoppage win over Francisco Fonseca, 19-1-1, 13 KO’s. Davis came into the fight having missed weight by two pounds and lost his International Boxing Federation (IBF) junior lightweight title on the scale. He seemed to be more concerned with showboating than actually fighting during this match. He chose to show his power in skill in spurts. Though few and far in between, when Davis did land he caused damage. Davis will very likely be moving up to 135 pounds and I’d like to see him in with a rugged veteran like Ray Beltran.
In other noteworthy fight news, Immanuwel Aleem, 17-1-1, 10 KO’s, was knocked out cold by Hugo Centeno, JR., 26-1, 14 KO’s. It was the right punch thrown at the perfect time for Centeno, JR., who snuck in a short left hook that would make Joe Louis proud. Expect to see Centeno, JR., on your television screens again very soon. Aleem can bounce back, but he’ll need to make sure that he takes as much time as needed to get himself back into form after such a devastating knockout.
Sergiy Derevyanchenko, 11-0, 9 KO’s, laid the hammer to Tureano Johnson, 20-2, 14 KO’s. Like many of his Ukrainian counterparts, there’s no question that Derevyanchenko has the skills to make noise at middleweight, but his power will grab attention. Hopefully he can lure one of the bigger names in with him for his next matchup.
Badou Jack, 22-1-2, 13 KO’s got a stoppage win over Nathan Cleverly, 30-4, 16 KO’s. Jack looked pretty good for his first showing at light heavyweight and threw a lot of punches, but this matchup was almost tailor made as Cleverly’s best days are well behind him. Jack called out World Boxing Council (WBC) light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson, who I’m sure would take this matchup without hesitation. I’d favor Stevenson by stoppage. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see where Jack goes from here.
Plenty more action ahead in the coming weeks.
On behalf of Ringside Report, stay tuned…
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