It wasn't the biggest Saturday night for boxing, but here's what happened around the world.
Newark, New Jersey
- Tomasz Adamek UD-12 Michael Grant ... Joel Julio UD-10 Jamaal Davis ... Sadam Ali KO-5 Lenin Arroyo ... Jeremy Bryan RTD-1 Daniel Mitchell. Our full recap of the Integrated Sports PPV is here.
Erfurt, Germany
- Marco Huck TKO-5 Matt Godfrey ... Robert Helenius TKO-6 Gregory Tony ... Enad Licina UD-8 Ismail Abdoul ... Dustin Dirks KO-2 Sami Selesmaa. Our full recap of Sauerland's 100th show on ARD is here.
Tijuana, Mexico
- Guillermo Rigondeaux RTD-6 Jose Angel Beranza. Beranza is no star, but he's a good, solid journeyman who has given a lot of people good rounds over the years. Rigondeaux (6-0, 5 KO) beat the crap out of him. Beranza had only been stopped three times in his career, which right now stands with a record of 33-19-2 (26 KO), and two of those stoppage losses came in 1997 and 1999. Rigondeaux put him down twice in the fourth round and Beranza quit after six. Rigondeaux is a legitimate amateur legend, the most overall talented of the current Cuban crop of pro fighters (and that includes Yuriorkis Gamboa), and is probably ready to step in and fight anyone at 122 pounds. The 29-year-old southpaw is ready to go. He split with Freddie Roach, who he felt couldn't give him enough attention, showing that he's very serious about how fast he wants to move. Hopefully his handlers agree, because he's more than ready.
- Joksan Hernandez KO-1 Ira Terry. Everyone keeps calling Terry a "late replacement," but I'd seen Terry listed as Hernandez's opponent before Joksan was supposedly set to fight Marlon Aguilar. I then assumed the Terry listing was just wrong, but when he's the one called in for a late replacement job... No matter, anyway. Hernandez (21-2, 14 KO) got him out in 2:32, improving to 5-0 in 2010. There was a point earlier this year when I started looking for Joksan's fight every month, as he fought on 1/30, 3/27, 4/24 and 5/15 before taking this three-month break. His two losses are to Bernabe Concepcion and Eduardo Escobedo, and he's only 23 years old. He's moved up to 130, which has little going on in the States, and he could be a factor in the near future.
- Alejandro Lopez UD-10 Edgar Riovalle. Lopez (19-1, 6 KO) is a 23-year-old featherweight out of Tijuana. Riovalle is also 23, but more experienced (27-11-1, 18 KO), though much of that experience is irrelevant as it has come against poor competition. Not a lot to read into with this fight.
Irapuato, Mexico
- Marco Antonio Rubio TKO-6 Jose Luis Zertuche. This fight really shouldn't have happened. Rubio (48-5-1, 41 KO) is lining himself up for another bunk WBC middleweight title shot, so he stayed busy with Zertuche (21-7-3, 16 KO). Not only has Zertuche looked fairly wrecked since Kelly Pavlik knocked the hell out of him in early 2007, but Rubio already beat the crap out of Zertuche, which was JLZ's comeback from the Pavlik loss 13 months later. We've already seen what happens when Rubio is matched against an actual top opponent, when he himself fought Pavlik in Youngstown. Rubio looked flat-out scared of Pavlik and stood motionless for most of his nine rounds in the ring with Kelly, after which MAR quit in the corner, which he probably should have done three rounds before he actually decided to do it. But the WBC is absolutely intent on getting him another title shot. Sergio Martinez currently holds their full title, and Sebastian Zbik the "interim" belt, with JCC Jr. as "silver champion," and David Lemieux as "international" titleholder. Rubio himself holds the Latino belt! Nauseating.
- Cesar Soto KO-3 Jesus Gonzalez. 38-year-old Soto is still plugging away, notching the 63rd win of his 23-year career with this one. Soto (63-20-3, 43 KO) received a WBO bantamweight title shot back in 1991 against Duke McKenzie, which was one of those curious WBO title shots that wasn't really earned, but it was easy and on WBO turf, so... He did later win the WBC featherweight title in 1999, then lost it five months later unifying with Prince Naseem Hamed in Detroit, although he hung in for 12 with Hamed. That started a run (0-9-1) where he didn't win a fight until 2005. He's just a journeyman now, but it's been a colorful, long, interesting career.
- Marcos Reyes KO-3 Miguel Angel Tena. Reyes is now 16-1 (14 KO). Tena falls to 1-5-1 (1 KO) and hasn't won a fight since his pro debut, which was in 2005. Good matchmaking.