I'd like to thank everyone for their patience this week with the lack of updates from me, but I pretty much fried my brain with the Mayweather fight and the fallout, and I just couldn't get much boxing talk going for the last few days. Drawing blanks and the like. But now we get back into it with plenty of action today, including a couple cards with live coverage, the first being Cunningham vs Hernandez at 2 p.m. EDT, and then the HBO card tonight, and if it lines up, the Nishioka vs Marquez fight after that.
Santa Ynez, California
Results: Ajose Olusegun UD-12 Ali Chebah ... Darley Perez RTD-6 Oscar Meza.
Analysis: This was a flashy, attention-getting performance from Olusegun, who won on dominant scores of 120-106 and 119-107 (twice). Chebah went down twice in round three, but hung in there and fought his heart out trying to get into the fight. I'd seen Olusegun (30-0, 14 KO) a few times on Sky Sports, and he always came off as a good, tricky, crafty fighter, but he never had a performance quite like this one. Whenever Chebah (35-2, 28 KO) did well, Olusegun fired right back and took the momentum from him. It was a really great performance, and all due respect to Erik Morales, I don't think "El Terrible" could beat him if Olusegun really did get the title shot he earned with this win. I think Morales would give it a great try, but I just think Olusegun is too young, too fresh, too quick, too skilled for the overweight, aged Morales. Just not the right style matchup for Erik these days. Perez improved to 23-0 (18 KO) with the stoppage of Meza (22-5, 18 KO).
Photo by Tom Casino/SHOWTIME
Costa Mesa, California
Results: Luis Ramos Jr KO-5 David Rodela ... Ronny Rios UD-8 Roger Gonzalez.
Analysis: Ramos (20-0, 9 KO) looked very good in this one, and folded Rodela (15-5-3, 6 KO) on a wicked left to the body. Video is below, and Ramos is starting to look more and more like someone worth keeping tabs on. He had some struggles earlier in his career, but he handled business against pain in the ass Francisco Lorenzo in his last fight, and put away the scrappy Rodela in this one. Rios is now 16-0 (7 KO).
London, England
Results: Liam Walsh RTD-10 Paul Appleby ... Steve O'Meara KO-1 Ryan Toms.
Analysis: Walsh (12-0, 9 KO) retains the Commonwealth super featherweight title with a hard-fought win over former British featherweight champ Appleby (17-3, 11 KO). Walsh was down in the seventh, and Appleby admitted after the fight he thought he was done then, but he came back and finished Appleby three rounds later. In the co-feature, O'Meara improved to 14-2 (3 KO) by knocking out Toms (9-1, 4 KO) with a left hook at the end of the opening round. It's hard to take much from one round, but Toms didn't look good in there at all and was shaking his head when he was knocked down, and didn't really try to get up.