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Well, after a slow Friday, an eventful if not big time marquee Saturday, including a stunning upset Panama which shakes the hell out of the flyweight division.
Mexicali, Mexico (Full Recap)
- Giovani Segura KO-3 Ivan Calderon: This should just about do it for Calderon, or at least I sincerely hope that's the case. The "Iron Boy" has absolutely nothing more to prove at age 36, and as good a puncher as Segura is, this is Father Time telling him it's time to go as much as anything. As I said in the comments in Andrew Fruman's recap, I feel some sadness for Calderon because his great career is at its end. But I'm also very happy for Segura. He probably won't be sticking around at 108 for much longer, but that's OK. There are a lot of fish to fry at flyweight, and he's definitely got the thunder to move up. As for Calderon, there are probably a lot of fighters he can beat at 108 pounds still, but why? I really think if he fights on, he's going to struggle against the guys who have some pop. He's old, he's slowed down to a big degree, and he just can't avoid shots the way he used to. His style is not similar to the style of Roy Jones, but like Roy he's now to a point where he gets cracked clean far more often than he used to, and it makes a big difference in his fights. I wouldn't favor Ivan to last against anyone credible with a punch anymore. That's not a knock on him, it's just what time has taken from his game.
- Jorge Lacierva UD-12 Fernando Beltran Jr: Blowout scores of 119-109 (twice) and 118-109 in this featherweight fringe contender battle. Hey maybe if we're really lucky, later in the year we could see a twin bill of Juan Manuel Lopez-Matt Remillard and Yuriorkis Gamboa-Jorge Lacierva.
- Alonso Lopez UD-6 Jorge Guerrero: A build-up fight for Lopez (9-0-1, 3 KO), the son of the great Ricardo "Finito" Lopez. And apparently they just didn't have the other two fights that were billed for the televised card, so...now we move on.
Panama City, Panama
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Hernan Marquez TKO-11 Luis Concepcion: ...whoa. Just last week I was considering whether or not Concepcion (22-2, 17 KO) may have surpassed Pongsaklek Wonjongkam as the world's best flyweight, and here we are with a huge upset in Concepcion's hometown against an unheralded and at previous glance very raw fighter. Marquez (30-2, 23 KO) went down in the first, but so did Concepcion, who was also down in the 3rd and 10th rounds. The 22-year-old Mexican built up a soft record from 2005-09, then lost two in a row to Richie Mepranum and Nonito Donaire in 2010. He won a couple of bounce-back fights, then took this one, which was an assumed third loss for him. Not to be, and this is a big shakeup at 112. This was reportedly constant action, and the finish came when the ringside doctor stopped the fight due to Concepcion's badly swollen eyes. Concepcion had been on a tear, including a 90-second demolition of Denkaosan Kaovichit in his last fight. This is also being called a Fight of the Year candidate, so track it down. It was televised.
Halle, Germany (Full Recap)
- Marco Huck UD-12 Ran Nakash: A game and gritty performance from the untested Nakash, who definitely proved his toughness. And boy is that guy built like a tank or what?
- Robert Helenius KO-9 Samuel Peter: Things were going pretty well for ol' Sam until Helenius woke up.
- Dustin Dirks TKO-6 Robert Cocco
- Artur Hein D-12 Tony Averlant
- Sergej Rozvadovskij TKO-7 Thomas Ulrich
- Kali Meehan TKO-2 Valeri Semiskur
Bydgoszcz, Poland
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Krzysztof Wlodarczyk SD-12 Francisco Palacios: Wlodarczyk (45-2-1, 32 KO) has won his last two by the skin of his teeth, basically. I've seen this one called a robbery.
- Lukasz Janik KO-2 Cristian Dolzanelli
Mexico City, Mexico
- Edgar Sosa TKO-8 Kenichi Horikawa: Sosa (42-6, 25 KO) is right on the doorstep of a shot at Pongsaklek Wonjongkam thanks to his WBC connections, but the real news is that that's going to be a fight for the legit flyweight championship. And it's a pick-'em now. Pong hasn't fought real competition since beating Koki Kameda, and struggled in the one credible fight he did take. To make things worse for Horikawa (20-10-1, 4 KO), he reportedly had $15,000 stolen from his hotel room.
- Giovanni Caro TKO-3 Genaro Camargo
- Alberto Garza TKO-8 Robinson Castellanos
Le Cannet, France
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Hassan N'dam N'jikam UD-12 Giovanni Lorenzo: The expected result, with scores of 119-109, 119-110 and 116-110. Hopefully next is the fight between N'dam and Gennady Golovkin, which would be big at 160. N'dam was down in this one, which might not be the best sign.
London, England
- John Murray UD-10 Karim El Ouazghari: Murray improves to 31-0 (18 KO) with a closer win than would be expected on paper. El Ouazghari (11-2-2, 4 KO) is a relative unknown and there was little scouting could be done of him, so Murray's struggles in the fight can be forgiven. He still deserves that next step opportunity.
- Billy Joe Saunders RTD-2 Turgay Uzun: Saunders is now 8-0 (5 KO).
Other Results
- Bernalillo, New Mexico: Archie Ray Marquez UD-8 Johnny Frazier. This might be a red flag fight for Marquez believers. Fightnews.com's report says this was far tougher than expected, and when you're talking about a guy with Frazier's record (2-6-3, 2 KO), the late replacement thing gets a little more questionable. Lucky for me I'm not big on Marquez as a prospect anyway.
- Playa del Carmen, Mexico: Wilbert Uicab MD-12 Silvio Olteanu.
- Naha, Japan: Daiki Kameda KO-4 Jesus Martinez. Just an interim fight for flyweight titlist Kameda (20-2, 12 KO), as this one took place a bit north of bantamweight.
- Atlantic City, New Jersey: Alexander Johnson MD-10 Farah Ennis. A bit of an upset here, as Ennis (17-1, 11 KO) was a talked-about Philly prospect, while Johnson (11-0, 4 KO) has never been talked about.
- Liverpool, England: Derry Mathews TKO-1 Amir Unsworth.
- Jupiter, Florida: Jason Gavern TKO-7 Darnell "Ding-a-Ling Man" Wilson.
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Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina: Hector David Saldivia TKO-4 Nestor Faccio.