It was a busy Saturday in boxing, so let's take a look around and see what went down.
Las Vegas, Nevada
- Juan Manuel Marquez TKO-9 Michael Katsidis ... Andre Berto TKO-1 Freddy Hernandez ... Jason Litzau SD-10 Celestino Caballero ... Walter Estrada SD-8 Nate Campbell ... Erislandy Lara TKO-1 Tim Connors.
- Quick Thoughts: Marquez and Katsidis put on a great fight as expected. Berto's fight was obscene. Litzau's upset was kind of inspirational. Nate Campbell is done.
- Full recap here.
Oakland, California
- Andre Ward UD-12 Sakio Bika.
- Quick Thoughts: Brick says that the fight was far closer than the scores (including one 120-108 shutout for Ward), but feels the right man won. That seems to be the consensus.
- Full recap here.
Helsinki, Finland
- Carl Froch UD-12 Arthur Abraham: Not even a remotely close fight. Abraham was awful, Froch brilliant. Full recap here.
- Robert Helenius TKO-2 Attila Levin: Helenius (14-0, 9 KO) floored Levin (34-4, 27 KO) in the second round, but then Levin, a big old fellow himself against the 6'6" Helenius, roared back with all he had. It didn't last much longer before the referee stopped it in Helenius' favor, but it was fun while it lasted. Helenius really isn't a contender yet, but the way things are going down in the heavyweight division, he might wind up in a fight he doesn't belong in next.
Tijuana, Mexico
- Giovani Segura RTD-7 Manuel Vargas: Segura (26-1-1, 22 KO) retains the junior flyweight championship of the world and presumably heads back into talks for a rematch with ex-champ Ivan Calderon. That fight has been rumored for April 23 in Puerto Rico.
- Miguel Vazquez UD-12 Ricardo Dominguez: I sincerely hope this is the last time that Dominguez gets put in with a top lightweight for a while. This wide loss (120-108, 118-110, 119-109) follows a wide loss to Humberto Soto in May, with a win over crummy Adailton de Jesus in between. Vazquez (27-3, 12 KO) retains the IBF lightweight title he won in August over Ji Hoon Kim. Vazquez's three losses are to Saul Alvarez (twice, including Vazquez's pro debut in 2006) and Timothy Bradley. Not bad. He's one to watch in 2011.
Civitavecchia, Italy
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Silvio Branco UD-12 Vincenzo Rossitto: At age 44 and a year removed from his most recent title shot, Branco took on Rossitto, a European level cruiserweight, and was able to come out victorious. He's looking for yet another title shot, and is hoping to win at least a fringe title in his fourth weight class.
Cebu City, Philippines
- Milan Melindo UD-10 Carlos Tamara: Since flyweight is fairly deep, Melindo (23-0, 7 KO) isn't quite in serious contention just yet, but this is a good win, coming on scores of 98-92, 98-92 and 97-93.
- Rocky Fuentes TKO-2 Inthanon Sithchamuang: Fuentes (28-6-2, 18 KO) is better than his record, and retains the OPBF flyweight belt. At 24, he learned on the job early in his career and hasn't lost since 2007.
- Florante Condes TKO-7 Kenichi Horikawa: Condes (25-5-1, 21 KO) gets his second win of 2010 after a 2009 loss to Nkosinathi Joyi.
- Randy Suico MD-8 Arnel Tinampay: Yes, Suico's still banging along, and now he's scoring tight decisions against guys with .500 records.