Last week's Klitschko-Ibragimov stinker is already a thing of the past.
IBF featherweight champion Robert Guerrero dominated challenger Jason Litzau, and heavyweight Travis Walker got revenge on T.J. Wilson, both scoring convincing knockout victories on an action-packed edition of Shobox from Lemoore, California.
In the opener, Walker was able to easily avenge his ridiculous 15-second stoppage loss in October to Wilson, storming out of the gates and hammering Wilson until referee Dr. Lou Moret called a stop to the fight at 1:50 of the second round, as Wilson fell back against the ropes, his head and arms sagging and a vacant look on his face.
After the fight, Wilson could be seen on camera shouting, "I didn't go down!" It was only slightly preposterous. He looked every bit like a big, 33-year old fighter who came in with all of 13 professional fights to his credit. He couldn't keep pace with the determined, blitzing Walker, who improved to 27-1-1 with his 21st knockout. Walker is never going to be heavyweight champion, I don't expect, but he has all the tools to be a consistent TV feature.
In the main event, any hype about Jason Litzau was dispelled for good by Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero, who won every round on his way to an impressive eighth round knockout of the Minnesota challenger.
Guerrero, like Walker, was simply busier, smothered his opponent, and never let Litzau get into the fight. While Litzau attempted to box from a distance, it was playing entirely against his strengths, and Guerrero repeatedly made him pay, sticking the straight left in beautifully, bloodying Litzau's nose badly by the middle rounds.
Litzau showed real character and guts, though, and he deserves praise for that. With the fight out of hand, he fought back hard in the sixth and seventh rounds. I didn't think he won either, but he made an entertaining affair of it, fighting his heart out and leaving no energy in the reserve tanks. He fought hard until he could fight no more.
He went down on a left uppercut/straight left combination in the eighth, but recovered and fought on. A combination capped by a right hook from Guerrero ended it shortly after.
After the fight, Guerrero addressed his future, contemplating fighting the winner of Vazquez-Marquez III should that man want to move up to 126 pounds, or moving up to 130 if he could score a fight with Juan Manuel Marquez or Manny Pacquiao. I don't think either scenario is likely, and Guerrero should probably focus on fighting and beating the best featherweights, maybe Steven Luevano or Jorge Linares, both of which would be very tough matchups.
Shobox kicked the weekend off right for the sport. And now we turn the final page on the already legendary Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez rivalry. Be sure to join us tomorrow night at 9pm eastern for live coverage and round-by-round scoring of "The Tiebreaker."
Other Results from Friday night
IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute retained against William Joppy via TKO in the 10th round. It was Bute's first defense of the belt he won in October. Bute is now 22-0 (18), and the long-faded, 37-year old Joppy is 39-5-1 (30). It's somewhat worth noting that while the result was as expected, the only other guy to ever knock Joppy out is Tito Trinidad.
In Glasgow, Kevin McIntyre beat Kevin Anderson for the second straight time, winning a 12-round unanimous decision (115-114, 117-112, 117-112), retaining the British welterweight title.
On Friday Night Fights (which I missed because of Shobox), short notice replacement Michael Walker (substituting for Allan Green) went to a majority draw with hard-punching veteran Antwun Echols. Scores were 95-95, 95-95 and 98-92 for Echols. Walker is now 18-0-2 (12) and the 36-year old Echols is 31-7-4 (27). Echols has now drawn in three of his last four fights, the other one a lopsided loss to Fulgencio Zuniga. He hasn't won a fight since December 2, 2004, when he beat Jameel Wilson. In his follow-up to that fight, he lost to Kingsley Ikeke. It's been a while since Echols has had his hand raised.
Also on Friday Night Fights, Sechew Powell (23-1, 14 KO) knocked out previously unbeaten Kevin Finley at 2:23 of the first round. Powell's last two performances have been explosive after he struggled in a loss to Kassim Ouma and a boring decision win over Ishe Smith.