Worldwide Weekend Results - King Arthur Back on Track, Cunningham beats Licina

Westfalen, Germany

Steve Cunningham UD-12 Enad Licina - Cunningham defeated mandatory Licina close but clear in a fight where Licina seemed to be the crowd favorite, despite Cunningham now being based out of Germany.  Cunningham reportedly outboxed Licina for most of the fight, albeit by throwing a high volume of light, accurate punches, while Licina threw with significantly more conviction but had a lot more trouble actually connecting.   While it's great that the top cruisers are actually mostly fighting each other, hopefully we'll get to see a rematch between Cunningham and Troy Ross soon - the two have unfinished business, and based on his last few fights, it seems like Cunningham might already be past his peak.

Arthur Abraham TKO-2 Stjepan Bozic - After losing two in a row, including his last where he looked pretty poor in losing to Carl Froch, Arthur Abraham wanted to take a tune up fight before facing Andre Ward in the next round of the Super Six tournament.  Bozic is no scrub - he's solidly in the second tier of European super middleweights, having beaten guys like Lolenga Mock and Julio Cesar Vasquez, while losing to guys like Vitali Tsypko and Dmitri Sartison.  In a fight where Abraham reportedly started as quickly as he ever has, the two exchanged quite a bit in the first round, but the fight ended early when Bozic broke his hand on a punch blocked by Abraham's elbow.  While Abraham didn't get a lot of work in, this should be sufficient to build up some confidence for his next bout.

Yoan Pablo Hernandez KO-7 Steve Herelius - Hernandez wins an interim cruiserweight title, dropping Herelius twice on left hooks.  Hernandez has a lot of talent, but his chin is only so-so, and he's starting to develop a lot of the same bad habits as his stablemates in Ulli Wegner's gym.  Eventually, he'll either have to face Guillermo Jones for the full title, or he'll be gifted the title if Jones refuses to defend.  Jones has intimated that he's moving to heavyweight, so we'll see.  Eddy Gutknecht, Karo Murat, Dominik Britsch, and Francisco Pianeta (now recovered from a bout with cancer) were all also winners on the card.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Omar Narvaez UD-12 Victor Zaleta - Narvaez dominated the capable but still fairly mediocre Zaleta over 12 rounds to defend his super flyweight title.  Narvaez is now undefeated through 35 fights, including 19 title fights, but at 35 years old, he's already a case study in what could have been.  He's really only fought one top opponent in his career, Brahim Asloum, and has only beaten three other future or former titlists, all of whom were of the zero defense, weak titlist variety (Carlos Tamara, Luis Lazarte and Adonis Rivas). 

Sammy Gutierrez TKO-6 Renan Trongco - "Guti" defends his interim minimumweight title.  After getting knocked down in the first round, he focused on the body, eventually wearing down his inexperienced Pinoy opponent and stopping him in the sixth.

Jalisco, Mexico

Marco Antonio Barrera TKO-2 Jose Arias -  Nothing to see here folks.  Arias had a 15-1 record coming in, but he was a mid-40's Dominican clubfighter.  The Baby Faced Assassin dominated, but this is the kind of fight that proves nothing.  Barrera is angling for one more shot at a lightweight title, but the opposition he's been facing lately is a few steps worse than the opponents former rival Erik Morales has faced en route to a light welterweight title shot.

Martin Honorio TKO-3 Adrian Tellez - This one was basically a bounceback fight for Honorio after losing a close one to current super featherweight mandatory contender Argenis Mendez.  Honorio went on a nice run before his loss to Mendez, and he has a relatively exciting style (looking a little like a miniature version of Perro Angulo), so he'll probably be back on TV against decent opponents soon enough.

Liverpool, England

Anthony Crolla TKO-9 John Watson - Crolla claims the British lightweight title in an upset.  Crolla now holds the British title at both lightweight and super featherweight.  Despite being at a size disadvantage, Crolla reportedly both outboxed and outslugged the hyped Watson before knocking him out with a right hook.  Colin Lynes also beat Bradley Pryce on the undercard.

Kobe, Japan

Kazuto Ioka TKO-5 Oleydong Sithsamerchai - Ioka wins a minimumweight title in only his seventh pro bout.  Our full write-up of the card is here.  Ryo Miyazaki also won on the undercard.

Atlantic City, New Jersey

Eddie Chambers UD-12 Derric Rossy - This one has been reported as a title eliminator for the right to face Wladimir Klitschko, although it's questionable as to whether it actually served as one.  Rossy was the busier fighter early, but once Chambers started to sit on his punches, he was just the stronger man.  Chambers reportedly was disappointed by the fact he didn't score the knockout, as he did the first time he faced Rossy, as well as with the fact that he didn't put together punches well.  Rico Ramos, Donovan George and Ricardo Williams Jr. also won on the undercard.

Also winning this weekend: Peter Quillin, Tommy Karpency, Eromosele Albert, Jo Jo Dan, Antonin Decarie, Kevin Bizier, Ajose Olusegun, Edmund Gerber, Jozsef Matolsci (a 28-13 fighter who upset Mahir Oral), Hector Camacho Jr., Ameth Diaz, Alberto Mosquera, Vicente Mosquera, and Irving Berry.